Selasa, 26 April 2011

What's new on SlashGear.com

What's new on SlashGear.com

Qualcomm’s Next-Gen Snapdragon Chip Details Leaked

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 02:43 PM PDT

A Qualcomm presentation was leaked that reveals its plans for the next-generation Snapdragon processors. The company is quite ambitious, suggesting that it would not only beat existing ARM Cortex A9 chips currently used in devices such as the iPad 2 and the Motorola XOOM, but that it would also beat future Cortex A15 chips by the time its new chip architecture arrives later this year.

The MSM8270, MSM8930, MSM8960, and APQ8064 are all based on Qualcomm’s new CPU architecture called Krait. The new chip will be made on a 28 nanometer process and run at speeds up to 2.5GHz, with almost 23 percent more computing power than the Cortex A15 and using 47 percent less power for the same performance. The chip is expected to have speeds up to five times faster than its predecessor in raw CPU power and four times faster when it comes to graphics for “console quality gaming.” It will be able to support not only 1080p and 3D video, but also 7.1-channel Dolby Surround and up to a 20-megapixel camera.

The MSM8960 has built-in 3G and LTE-based 4G hardware and will ship out to companies for testing by end of Spring. The rest of the Snapdragon chips will be shipped by the end of the year, with actual products utilizing the chip depending on when the device manufacturers are ready. This means we could be seeing the chips in mobile devices by 2012.

[via Electronista]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Sony Issues Update: PlayStation Network Account Information Compromised

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 02:10 PM PDT

After many fits and starts, we finally have the real story of the the PlayStation Network outage. We had heard that there was an “external intrusion” into the network, we had heard that there had been rampant piracy, and we had been assured by Anonymous that they had nothing to do with it. Now Sony has issued a statement confirming that user account information has been compromised. See the full statement after the cut.


Sony stated that they discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised “in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network”. In other words, they were hacked, and hacked in a big way. Sony says it has engaged an outside security firm to investigate the hacking, and take steps to enhance security and strengthen their network.

So what information was stolen?

This is the list of what is confirmed to be compromised: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. Possibly also your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers. Also, if you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained.

Right now, they have not confirmed if credit card information was taken, but they have not ruled out the possibility. “If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.”

Pretty scary stuff. So if you were signed up on PSN, be on the alert for any phishing emails, and also keep a close eye on your credit card account.

Still no date given as to when PSN will be back up. Sony has obviously been targeted for a specific reason. The question is, what is it? Retaliation for their attack on GeoHot?

Here is the full statement from Sony:

Valued PlayStation Network/Qriocity Customer:
We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network. In response to this intrusion, we have:
Temporarily turned off PlayStation Network and Qriocity services;
Engaged an outside, recognized security firm to conduct a full and complete investigation into what happened; and

Quickly taken steps to enhance security and strengthen our network infrastructure by re-building our system to provide you with greater protection of your personal information.
We greatly appreciate your patience, understanding and goodwill as we do whatever it takes to resolve these issues as quickly and efficiently as practicable.

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone, and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. When the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services are fully restored, we strongly recommend that you log on and change your password. Additionally, if you use your PlayStation Network or Qriocity user name or password for other unrelated services or accounts, we strongly recommend that you change them, as well.

To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports. We are providing the following information for those who wish to consider it:
U.S. residents are entitled under U.S. law to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus. To order your free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll-free (877) 322-8228.

We have also provided names and contact information for the three major U.S. credit bureaus below. At no charge, U.S. residents can have these credit bureaus place a "fraud alert" on your file that alerts creditors to take additional steps to verify your identity prior to granting credit in your name. This service can make it more difficult for someone to get credit in your name. Note, however, that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect you, it also may delay your ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies your identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts on your file. Should you wish to place a fraud alert, or should you have any questions regarding your credit report, please contact any one of the agencies listed below.

Experian: 888-397-3742; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
You may wish to visit the web site of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or reach the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 or 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580 for further information about how to protect yourself from identity theft. Your state Attorney General may also have advice on preventing identity theft, and you should report instances of known or suspected identity theft to law enforcement, your State Attorney General, and the FTC. For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; telephone (877) 566-7226; or www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; telephone: (888) 743-0023; or www.oag.state.md.us.
We thank you for your patience as we complete our investigation of this incident, and we regret any inconvenience. Our teams are working around the clock on this, and services will be restored as soon as possible. Sony takes information protection very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that additional measures are taken to protect personally identifiable information. Providing quality and secure entertainment services to our customers is our utmost priority. Please contact us at 1-800-345-7669 should you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment

[via PlayStation.Blog]
Thanks, Ted for sending this in

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Incredible 2 unboxing and hands-on

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 02:04 PM PDT

There’s something mighty familiar about Verizon’s DROID Incredible 2 by HTC. True, it’s the follow-up to the original Incredible, but it also bears more than a passing resemblance to the European HTC Incredible S we reviewed last month. Back then we praised the smartphone’s distinctive industrial design, decent sized 4-inch Super-LCD WVGA display and all-day battery life, though weren’t too keen on the Android 2.2 OS. Question is, will Verizon’s CDMA version suffer the same fate?

Froyo is certainly all you’re getting right now; though with the original Incredible tipped to be getting Gingerbread soon we’re expecting something similar for the new version in the not-too-distant future. Still, with HTC Sense wrapping everything up, it’s hard to tell the difference, and the 1GHz processor keeps things moving reasonably briskly. We’re yet to see particularly dual-core CPU intensive apps hit the Android Market, though when that happens the single-core Snapdragon in the Incredible 2 may start to look underwhelming.

Next to Verizon’s other new arrival of today, the DROID Charge by Samsung, the LCD screen on the Incredible 2 seems underwhelming. Still, it’s also $100 less than the Super AMOLED Plus equipped Charge, though the more expensive handset also gets 4G LTE whereas the HTC makes do with 3G.

We’ll be putting the Verizon DROID Incredible 2 through its paces in time for the full SlashGear review, so until then enjoy the hands-on video!

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Does Nintendo Hate Money?

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 01:53 PM PDT

Many people would agree that Nintendo has some of the most recognizable software titles in the market. There was a time when proprietary software titles were necessary to differentiate a hardware gaming platform. Title drivers as we call them, were an important part of gaining interest in one companies console over another. The world is different now and I think Nintendo is missing out on a huge opportunity.


The Market Opportunity
There has and will always be a market for dedicated gaming consoles. The growth opportunity however is the larger audience to which a dedicated game console or a hardcore gaming experience is overkill. This is the shift of late that we have seen Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft embrace with their hardware in an attempt to attract a wider audience. The logic as they told me was so they could go after the larger crowd who is overwhelmed by a controller and all its buttons and won't sit on the couch for hours gaming. By adding additional value to the console hardware their hope is that it will appeal to a wider audience.

As I said there is still a market for that audience (of which I am a member) but I am constantly wondering what would happen if those proprietary software titles branched out and become available on other people's hardware. The fact of the matter is if you examine the bottom line of the gaming industry there is more money to be made in software than in hardware. The counter argument however is that the hardware market is not as crowded as the software market.

However, to the point of Nintendo, since they have some of the most recognized global gaming titles and franchises I think they have the best chance to succeed in making their software titles available on more devices.

Mario on Every Screen
So that brings me to the question at hand. Why doesn't Nintendo offer some if not all or at least part of their epic gaming franchises to all devices? Especially to the booming smart phone and tablet market. What if Mario Bros. and a slew other games were available on the iPhone, iPad, and Android Market? The expanded audience and potential reach with this strategy could be massive. There could be a gold mine to be harvested.

Part of the software strategy could be in the form of mini-games or scaled down versions of the full game experience only available on Nintendo hardware. My point is Nintendo has some amazing software titles and locking them only to their hardware, I feel, is missing out on a large opportunity. There are plenty of people who would pay anywhere between .99c and $10 for some of these titles and game experiences on their smart phones and tablets.

Perhaps part of my logic is selfish. I don't carry around a portable Nintendo gaming console for a myriad of reasons. I'd love to be able to play current and future versions of Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong on my smart phone and tablet. Nintendo's mobile strategy continues to be positioned by the industry as a strategy geared more toward younger kids. If Nintendo were to take a more liberal strategy with their software and create versions of those franchises for all mobile devices they could instantly more than double their total addressable market. Again, making loads of money, which apparently they are just not interested in.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Microsoft Also Collects Location Data Of Windows Phone Users

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 01:44 PM PDT

The Apple location tracking drama just keeps heating up, with a full on class-action lawsuit having just been filed. Apple continues to point fingers at Google, with Steve Jobs supposedly saying “We don’t track anyone” and that Android does. Either way, the tracking by both Apple and Google have folks concerned, and now we can add to that Microsoft.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 devices are said to also store location data of its users. They have not yet answered how frequent the location data is transmitted and how long the location histories are stored. However, they have said that the location data is not saved directly on the device.

This is different from Apple’s situation because researchers have found that the location data from an iPhone 4 is stored in an open file directly on the device. But other researchers do point out that the information is not being used by Apple to track its users, but rather being stored perhaps to track the performance of the phone and the network. The historical data should in fact be deleted as time goes on, and that such a process isn’t happening probably due to oversight.

This appears to be the case with Google’s Android devices, which only the last few dozen locations are recorded, where as on the Apple iPhone or iPad, more than a year’s worth of location data could be stored. And to make matters worse, it is said that Apple devices store location data even when location service apps are turned off.

[via CNET]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Airpiano: No Longer Just A Cool Concept, Available For Order Now

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 12:45 PM PDT

Over two years ago, an interesting instrument of sorts jumped on our radar called the Airpiano. At the time it was an interesting concept by Omer Yosher presented at the Berlin Design Festival that allowed you to play music just by moving your hands around in the air over a motion-sensing board. Now, the concept has finally become a commercial reality, with the first limited trial batch ready for order and newer video demos after the cut.

The Airpiano has 8 infrared proximity sensors that create up to 24 virtual keys and 8 virtual faders. Plus, 40 LEDs are embedded for easy orientation and visual feedback. The overall body is built from walnut wood and the lights and sensors sit below a dark red acrylic glass. The Airpiano itself doesn’t actually produce any sounds. It must be used in conjunction with the accompanying software, which allows you to program each key to trigger any sound, fader, or preset arrangement. Hence, the instrument must be connected to a computer via USB.

Although, the Airpiano isn’t something you can simply plug in and start playing away at, it will certainly make for a neat artistic performance once you get it all programmed up. The first limited offering is available now via their online order page, but will cost you €1,099 (about $1,607) if you live in Europe, and €1,149 (about $1,680) if you live elsewhere. But it does make me wonder whether any Kinect hacks out there already do the same thing?

Jo Hamilton – Alive, Alive from Poseidon on Vimeo.

A New Instrument – how it works from Poseidon on Vimeo.

[via Airpiano]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

DROID Charge unboxing and hands-on

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 12:38 PM PDT

It’s pretty good timing for Verizon’s DROID Charge by Samsung to arrive today, just when our Samsung Galaxy S II review goes live. Both smartphones share a couple of important features, most notably the 4.3-inch WVGA Super AMOLED Plus display. Unlike the previous AMOLED and Super AMOLED technology, the new Super AMOLED Plus allows you to see the display much better out in sunlight thanks to 50-percent more sub-pixels (this means twelve sub-pixels instead of eight). Looking at the display makes us want to weep like a 12-year old boy on Christmas morning. The Droid Charge has LTE to differentiate it, the second 4G smartphone to Verizon’s line-up. Read on for our first-impressions.

Although the display may be the same as on the Galaxy S II, the DROID Charge is otherwise a more mainstream device. No sign of a dual-core processor, with the 1GHz chip we’re familiar with from the Galaxy S line making do instead. It’s running Android 2.2 Froyo with TouchWiz on top, and we’re disappointed to see the older OS in place. We’ll be judging how much that impacts the handset in the full SlashGear review.

Also like the Galaxy S is the shiny, plasticky chassis, though the angular shape is distinctive. It's super lightweight, which is one thing we love from Samsung's line of Galaxy Android phones. The four Android buttons are very low on the fascia, which can make hitting them while holding the phone in the same hand tricky, though you do get a dedicated search key unlike other recent Samsung's. On the back there’s an 8-megapixel camera with LED-flash while up front is a 1.3-megapixel camera.

Performance seems adequate if not hugely impressive like the Galaxy S II powered by a set of 1.2Ghz processor, and we’re beginning to wonder whether the DROID Charge’s $300 price tag is really worth it, or just exaggerated by what Verizon thinks it can get for its LTE connectivity. Our final opinion – along with performance, speed tests and battery results – will have to wait for the full SlashGear review, so until then enjoy the hands-on video!

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Belkin N150, N300, and N600 DB Routers Available Now, N450 and N750 DB Coming Soon

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 12:15 PM PDT

Belkin has just released a new line of high-performance routers, with Multi-Beam technology. The routers promise a larger coverage area, and some also feature an automatic data backup app. The N150, N300, and N600 DB routers are available in the US now, and start at $34.99 for 150 Mbps wireless speed. The higher end N+ router, N750 DB, will be available next month for $129.99, along with the N450 N+ router. The N750 DB and N600 DB are dual band devices, which “eliminate interference and optimize performance for bandwidth-intensive applications such as high-definition video streaming”. See all the details on these devices after the cut.


Before we get to the specs of these devices, we need to have the company quote that always comes with these product releases. Ready? Here it is.

"As people add more connected devices to their home network and the demand for streaming high-definition movies, downloading music, playing games, and sending emails continues to increase, a router that can manage these connections is essential to unlock the true potential of your electronic family," stated Mike Chen, Belkin's General Manager for Networking. "Belkin's newest routers are designed to give you the strongest Internet signal at the farthest distance in your home so your devices work where you live, not where your router lives."

Ok. Now here are the specs:

Belkin N150 Wireless Router – $34.99

· Wireless speeds of up to 150 Mbps
· Wireless coverage at twice the speed of G technology
· Easy Setup and preset security

Belkin N300 Wireless N Router – $49.99

· Wireless speeds of up to 300 Mbps
· Easy Setup and preset security
· Self-Healing App to detect network problems

Belkin N450 Wireless N+ Router – $69.99

· Wireless speeds of up to 450 Mbps
· Gigabit for ultra-fast file sharing
· Self-Healing App to detect network problems
· Easy Setup and preset security

Belkin N600 DB Wireless Dual Band N+ Router – $79.99
· Wireless speeds of up to 300Mbps (2.4 Ghz) + 300Mbps (5 Ghz)
· Simultaneous dual-band operating on 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz bands
· One USB port for wireless printing or storage
· Self-Healing App to automatically resolve potential network problems
· Video Mover App for wireless streaming of video content throughout the house
· Print Zone App allows you to print from anywhere in the home
· Memory Safe™ App automatically backs up files to your external hard drive
· Easy Setup and preset security

Belkin N750 DB Wireless Dual Band N+ Router – $129.99
· Wireless speeds of up to 300Mbps (2.4 Ghz) + 450Mbps (5 Ghz)
· Simultaneous dual-band operating on 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz bands
· Two USB ports for more media sharing or wireless printing
· Self-Healing App automatically resolves potential network problems
· Video mover App for wireless streaming of video content throughout the house
· Print Zone App allows you to print from anywhere in the home
· Memory Safe™ App automatically backs up files to your external hard drive
· Easy Setup and preset security

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

AT&T, Verizon Battle FCC Over 700MHz Interoperability For Smaller Carriers To Roam

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 12:08 PM PDT


Earlier this month, the FCC mandated that large carriers such as AT&T and Verizon had to share their data networks with smaller regional carriers—they are already required to share voice networks—such that roaming deals are priced reasonably. As part of this mandate, was a push for interoperability across different bands of the 700MHz network and their associated hardware so that smaller carriers can roam on the different networks of the larger carriers. AT&T and Verizon are not too pleased and cite expense and increased handset size as making this an unfavorable direction.

It’s something that smaller carriers, such as Cellular South, look forward to because it will make roaming more affordable. A handset that has a universal chip would work on all networks regardless of what band it’s running on in the 700MHz spectrum. There are currently three major bands of the 700MHz spectrum including Verizon’s C Block (class 13), AT&T’s C and B Blocks (class 17) and smaller carriers A, B, and C Block (class 12).

Qualcomm is planning on a chipset to support class 12 but says that their chips can only support up to two bands below 1GHz and three bands above 1GHz. According to the chip maker, it will be very difficult to support the right combination of bands to allow roaming between AT&T, Verizon, and the smaller carriers. In fact, it’s so complicated it could take years to develop. It’s not certain when and if the FCC will make a decision regarding this issue.

[via Phonescoop]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Black Diamond Interactive Ambience iPhone Dock Brings Magical Party Time

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 11:26 AM PDT

A Taiwanese duo has posted a nice little concept device at CKIE, a portal ideas/projects can be posted to seek funding. In their video, the two guys ask you to take a look at your drab room and then take a look at their’s. See the difference? Yes, your room is missing the “magical” colors of the Black Diamond iPhone dock. The black translucent multi-faceted orb functions not only as a charging station but also as mood lighting by diffusing in a unique way the colors and lights coming from an app while your iPhone is docked.

The design concept came from the idea of putting an iPhone with the flashlight app into a frosted jar, which creates a nice diffused glow. The duo took that idea further by creating a unique diamond-cut orb that your iPhone can be slotted into. The pattern of the cut and the translucency of the material creates an interesting and soothing ambient effect. The app that creates the display on the iPhone, which acts as the light source, can be tweaked to display a multitude of colors as well as be synced to music for party time.

The duo that invented the device have a working prototype and are asking for your help. They need funding to get the product launched. With a $45 donation, you get a discounted Black Diamond interactive ambiance iPhone charging dock, USB cable, plus free shipping! The team has 43 days left so far. However, if that doesn’t do it for you, don’t miss other interesting projects on CKIE that may need your help as well.

[via CKIE]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

A lack of funding disconnects SETI

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 10:55 AM PDT

What if you were all dressed up and no place to go? Sadly, that’s the quandary the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is facing. With a severe shortage of funds for daily operation, SETI has been forced to shut down it’s $50 million listening post near Mount Lassen in California. And the timing couldn’t be worse, since astronomers recently found over 1200 new planets nearby, many in the so-called “habitable zone” where conditions are ideal to support life.

“There is a huge irony,” said SETI Director Jill Tarter, “that a time when we discover so many planets to look at, we don’t have the operating funds to listen.”

A luck of funds is nothing new for the eavesdropping outpost. SETI was originally government funded back in the 90s. But Congress gutted the funds out of NASAs budget, calling it the “Great Martian Chase.” SETI received a reprieve thanks to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and others, who donated over $50 to build the mammoth 42 dish complex. Other funding from the National Science Foundation and even the State of California has dried up do to budget cuts and now SETI can’t keep the lights on. As such, the Allen Array has been put into hibernation.

There is some hope that the array can do some “tent making,” farming out their services to the US Air Force for satellite tracking duty. But funds are tight everywhere and budget hawks in Washington are looking to trim the Defense Department Budget. So, SETI is turning to the private sector once again. Users who share the mission can donate to SETI here. About $5 million is needed over the next two years.

“Honestly, if everybody contributed just 3 extra cents on their 1040 tax forms,” said SETI senior astronomer Seth Shostak, ” we could find out if we have cosmic company.”

Meanwhile, SETIs mission continues with programs like the SETI@Home project, and setiQuest Explorer, which allows citizen astronomers to use their computers to reexamine existing data for radio patterns which may have been missed with earlier, less sophisticated algorithms. But as of now, if ET phones home, nobody will be answering the call.

[via Mercury News]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Evernote for Mac 2.1 Updates Include Note Sharing and Recording

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 10:52 AM PDT

Sometimes it is tough to organize all of the information we collect every day, and things can get lost. Where did I see that great article? Where was that recipe I saw that I wanted to make? Where is that paper that I used to write down the idea I had? Evernote, a personal and business organizational tool that lets you collect ideas, scan in handwritten notes, and save links, photos, and files, has a great solution to help. They have both a free and premium version of their app. Today, Evernote has released several updates today for their Mac app. The updates include sharing on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere, recording audio notes, and faster search.


The new updates for version 2.1 for Mac include expanding sharing capabilities. When we wrote about Evernote’s update in December, they had just added the capability to share notebooks and access notebooks that others have shared with you. With this update, you will be able to share an individual note on Facebook, Twitter, email, and most anywhere else you’d like.

Also added is the capability to record notes, and also add text or attach a file while you are recording. That would come in handy if you need to record a meeting or a speech and add your own notes as well. Also, you can add an audio note within an existing note, if you think of something later that you want to add. Users of the free version of the app can record up to 25MB (about 2 hours), and Premium users can record up to 50MB (about 4 hours) per note.

Since we tend to collect so much information, it can get a bit overwhelming, so being able to search quickly is important. If search is too slow, frustration sets in, and things can get broken. So it’s a good thing that Evernote has been able to improve search speeds for sorting through all the crap we store.

Evernote has also let us know that they have fixed a whole lot of bugs in the app so it will run more smoothly. If you already have Evernote, and downloaded it through the Mac App Store, it will update automatically. You can also download it directly from Evernote.

Have you tried Evernote? What do you think?

[via Evernote]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Apple Using Sharp’s Next-Gen LCD Displays For iPhone 6 In Spring 2012?

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 10:48 AM PDT

With the white iPhone 4 possibly just one day away and the iPhone 5 still months away in September, it’s surprising we are already on the topic of the iPhone 6. But, indeed, news on the 6th-gen iPhone has already started now with reports that Apple selected Sharp to supply the LCD displays. According to Japanese newspaper, Nikkan, Sharp will begin manufacturing the displays in Spring of 2012.

The LCD displays made by Sharp will feature a low-temperature poly-silicon technology, which will allow for a lighter and thinner display that will also consume less energy. These p-Si LCDs have thin film transistors (TFT) made of polycristalline silicon. Through this method, display drivers are mounted directly onto the glass substrate, thus reducing the TFT layer and making a thinner display. The p-Si display also has a higher aperture ratio that produces more vivid images, enhances durability, and reduces the amount of connecting pins.

This report is interesting because it suggests that Apple is not considering the organic LED displays such as the ones used by Samsung with their Super AMOLED technology. This news also comes just after Apple and Samsung’s legal battle began between their competing smartphone and tablet devices. Perhaps Apple is trying to shift away from Samsung as a main components suppler?

[via AppleInsider]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up, April 26th 2011

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 10:07 AM PDT

It’s been a busy morning already, with phones aplenty announced on Sprint and Verizon, and more Sony PlayStation Network news. Also, a review by the estimable Chris Davies of the Samsung Galaxy S II, the new phone is light and thin, with an extra-large 4.3 inch screen. More Apple news as well, with an Apple developer’s white iPhone showing up on eBay and selling for a pretty penny. But will Apple allow it? Also, developers have more love for iOS than Android, but consumers have no love for their iPhones tracking them. In other Apple news, TweetDeck now has an iPhone app.

The ASUS Eee Transformer tab is already selling out, even before release in the US, and ASUS is working quickly to update software for the new tab. See all these stories after the cut.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

iBUYPOWER gaming PCs arrive at Walmart

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 09:33 AM PDT

Walmart may not be the first place you think of stopping by when you need a new gaming PC, but iBUYPOWER is hoping to change that. The manufacturer has made a name for itself for high-powered, generally overclocked desktops, and now those computers are also available through Walmart’s online store.

Systems can be configured with a choice of AMD Athlon X6 645, AMD Phenom II X4 840 or X6 1075T, Intel Core i5-2500K or Intel Core i7-2600K processors, along with various AMD or NVIDIA graphics cards. RAM is up to 8GB while storage is up to 2TB, and there are various optical drives and cases to pick between.

Unfortunately this doesn’t mean you can head down to your local bricks & mortar Walmart and sign up for an iBUYPOWER PC, but perhaps if online sales are strong enough then it’s something they’ll consider branching out to. The Walmart iBUYPOWER gaming PC range kicks off at $578.

Press Release:

iBUYPOWER Partners With Wal-Mart to Launch Custom Configurator on Walmart.com – Build Your Own Gaming Desktop Bundle
26 Apr 2011

With many components to choose from Wal-Mart customers can configure hundreds of different iBUYPOWER gaming systems

El Monte, CA – April 26, 2011 – iBUYPOWER, a leading innovator in gaming PCs, is excited to announce it has partnered with Wal-Mart to launch the retailer's first custom configurator on Walmart.com – Build Your Own Gaming Desktop Bundle Wal-Mart customers will now be able to configure a desktop to meet their specific gaming needs.

"There are few brands in the world that are as recognizable as Wal-Mart," said Darren Su, Vice President of iBUYPOWER. "It is an honor to be chosen to join forces with them to offer custom built PCs, and will introduce the iBUYPOWER brand to an entirely new segment of gamers."

Wal-Mart customers will have 5 cases to choose from, both AMD and Intel "K" processor options, 3 different memory options, 3 hard drive sizes to choose from and both AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards options, 3 different optical drives to choose from and three versions of the Windows 7 operating system. The result is over 10,000 different possible hardware configurations (see complete component list below).

The new customizable iBUYPOWER systems from Wal-Mart start at $599 All iBUYPOWER systems come standard with 1 year limited warranty and lifetime technical support.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Samsung Galaxy S II Review

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 08:13 AM PDT

Samsung has a lot riding on the Galaxy S II. When your displays, chips and memory are found in the flagship devices of OEMs around the world, you have to expect consumers will demand more from the hardware that bears your brand. The Galaxy S II (aka Galaxy S 2 or GSII) has even more to live up to: the original Galaxy S spawned several carrier variants that helped it become the best-selling Android smartphone in the US last year, and positioned Samsung as one of the key names to beat in the segment. So, with dual-core – and freshly overclocked – processor at the ready and a huge, Super AMOLED Plus display providing some eye-catching glitz, the Galaxy S II wades into the crowded smartphone market. New Android king or pretender to the throne? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

Hardware

The original Galaxy S wasn’t a small phone, with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display to accommodate. With the Galaxy S II, Samsung boosts the screen to 4.3-inches and the technology to Super AMOLED Plus, the latest high-end evolution of its OLED panels. Thanks to some judicious dieting they’ve ended up with a broad, long, slimline handset – 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.49mm and 116g – that’s actually leading the pack in terms of thinness. In the hand it’s a mixture of textured plastics and a full Gorilla Glass front panel, that feels surprisingly lightweight and creak-free.

Super AMOLED Plus may have a name that sounds pure marketing speak, but its performance is anything but. As before, the picture seems to sit practically on top of the phone, a bright, vividly colorful splash of eye-pleasure. Viewing angles are so broad you could mistake it for a mocked-up store dummy, and the touchscreen is responsive and swift. Our only complaint is the resolution: while WVGA 800 x 480 is pretty much par for the course in mid- to high-end smartphones, the HTC Sensation will bring along an identically-sized qHD 960 x 540 panel later in 2011. Without a Sensation on-hand to properly compare, it’s tough to say whether the Galaxy S II’s brilliant panel technology will be preferable to the HTC’s extra Super-LCD pixels. As it stands, even stretching WVGA over 4.3-inches, the Samsung doesn’t show any pixelation or graininess, and even in direct sunlight proved easily readable.

Samsung Galaxy S II Extreme Unboxing:

Under the display is a central physical home button flanked by a touch-sensitive menu key on the left and a back key on the right. Holding down the menu button calls up search. A narrow volume rocker lives on the left edge while the power/lock button is on the right; some people are used to that from the Galaxy S and Nexus S, but we still wish Samsung would put the key on the top, next to the 3.5mm headphone socket, as is more common.

On the base of the phone is a microUSB port which also supports the MHL standard for HDMI connectivity, assuming you have the correct adapter cable. That’s handy, since the Galaxy S II is capable of shooting Full HD 1080p video at 30fps, still something of a rarity in the market. The camera has autofocus and an LED flash, and is set in a textured battery panel underneath which you’ll find the SIM slot and microSD card slot. In a somewhat unusual flip, the SIM can be removed without taking out the battery – though it takes a power-cycle to recognize a different card – whereas a microSD card cannot.

Up front is a 2-megapixel camera for video calling and vanity shots, sharing bezel space with the earpiece, proximity sensor and light sensor. They’re joined by the usual accelerometer, g-sensor, GPS/A-GPS and digital compass. With the right adapter you can plug USB devices such as memory sticks into the Galaxy S II, too, thanks to USB On The Go support.

Keeping things running is a 1.2GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor paired with 1GB of RAM and 2GB of ROM. Two Galaxy S II SKUs will be offered, one with 16GB of internal storage – of which just over 11GB is available to the user – and another with 32GB. Each can handle up to a 32GB microSDHC memory card. Connectivity includes quadband GSM and quadband HSPA (850/900/1900/2100), Bluetooth 3.0+HS and WiFi a/b/g/n, making the Galaxy S II one of the more complete wireless powerhouses we’ve seen; only Nokia’s pentaband HSPA smartphones go the extra step.

Samsung Galaxy S II overview:

In short, there’s a whole lot going on in the Galaxy S II, and it’s a continuous surprise that Samsung has managed to keep it so light and thin. The broad fascia is mitigated by a slimline build that makes it easy to drop the phone into a front trouser or inside jacket pocket, and the Gorilla Glass front leaves us a little more confident that doing so won’t see you snap the Samsung in two.

Software and Performance

Samsung has sensibly started with Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread from the off, and Google’s latest version for smartphones flies on the dual-core Exynos chip. What will polarize is the presence of TouchWiz, Samsung’s custom software reskin. It’s an acquired taste, certainly, though has become somewhat more palatable over the course of its various iterations.

The iconography is still somewhat cartoonish, and we still can’t figure why Samsung decided to make the left-most homescreen pane the default; we prefer the native center-bias of untampered Android. Samsung’s widgets – for news, weather, calendar, bookmarks, various clocks, social networking and a task manager, among others – are also more colorful than, say, those HTC uses in Sense, but there’s a good range on offer and we prefer Samsung’s system for choosing from them.

Long-press on the homescreen and the current view shrinks to fit a pane of options along the bottom, including shortcuts, widgets and other content; you can then sweep between homescreens to drop them in. A similar system is on offer in the main app menu, including the ability to add new pages as well as drop icons on top of each other to make folders. Simple tooltip pages show up along the way to help smooth the process for new users.

Something we wish Samsung had left well alone was the standard Gingerbread keyboard. The replacement is frustrating in various minor ways: we had problems with it recognizing faster text-entry, particularly missing spacebar taps, while the auto-prediction and auto-correction aren’t as accurate as Android’s native system. Auto-capitalization is inconsistent – sometimes “i” doesn’t get automatically changed to “I” – as is apostrophe entry, so you end up with “im” rather than “I’m” most of the time. Swype is preinstalled, though not the default, and of course there are multiple alternative keyboards to choose from in the Android Market, so it’s certainly not a dealbreaker.

Samsung’s other main change is under the “Motion” heading in the settings page, using the Galaxy S II’s accelerometer to control various functionality. You can have the phone mute incoming calls and sounds by turning it face down, or zoom in and out of webpages or images by touching two fingers to the screen and tilting the whole thing back or forward. We had mixed results with the latter, with our movements sometimes not being recognized. It’s also very linear: you can’t angle the phone as you tilt it, to shift the portion of the screen which you zoom in on.

There are various preloaded apps, and some of the native Android software bears evidence of Samsung’s inability not to tinker. The Calendar has had a generally successful redesign – we like the different agenda, month and today widgets – while the Mail app is also tweaked; we generally used the excellent Google Gmail app, however. Samsung’s media player software is much preferable to the native Android version, and adds album art and music controls to the drop-down notification menu. That also has shortcuts for toggling WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, sound and auto-rotation, though not the handy app switcher HTC Sense offers; still, you can long-press the home button to see the six most recent apps as well as jump straight into Samsung’s task manager.

The other apps include preloaded photo and video editing software – more on which later – along with Samsung Apps, the company’s own download store, Polaris Office, an IM client (supporting Windows Live, Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger), FM radio, News & Weather and a Memo app. There’s also Mini Diary, Samsung’s attempt to get us all penning frequent journal updates (complete with snapshots and as much angst as the average Android owner can manage) along with the My Files manager that, frustratingly, couldn’t actually open an .apk side-loaded file (which a third-party file manager handled with no issues).

Then there’s the wireless stuff, Samsung AllShare and Kies air. AllShare is Samsung’s DLNA client, allowing you topush content from the phone to your HDTV or pull content from a NAS or other device. Kies air, meanwhile, adds wireless access to the entire phone: rather than using Samsung’s Kies desktop management app – currently for PC only – over a USB connection, you run Kies air on the Galaxy S II and punch the IP address it gives you into your PC or Mac browser. That then allows you to browse multimedia on the phone, bookmarks, call logs, contacts and messages, stream music saved on it and copy across content via WiFi.

It’s all limited to computers on the same WiFi network as the phone – not over 3G, like HTCSense.com – but it works surprisingly well, if a little sluggish when dealing with larger files. We’d like to see some media sharing and social network integration there, though: it would be useful to be able to upload photos and video direct to only galleries at Flickr and Facebook, for instance. Samsung has also given the Galaxy S II WiFi Direct support, the new point-to-point file transfer standard that wants to replace Bluetooth (though of course the S II also has Bluetooth 3.0).

Finally, there are the various Samsung Hubs: Social, Music, Readers and Gaming. They work roughly as you’d expect from the names, so the Social Hub pulls in email, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and IM messages into a single timeline. The Music Hub is an on-device download store for individual tracks – priced at around £0.99 in the UK – or albums, and powered by 7digital. The Readers Hub does roughly the same thing, for digital newspapers, ebooks and magazines (from PressDisplay, Kobo and Zinio respectively). Finally, the Game Hub offers a range of Gameloft titles and other “social” mini games, though frankly the selection is better in the regular Android Market.

Performance is consistently strong: apps load swiftly, the gallery thumbnails populate instantaneously, and pinch-zooming is lag-free. Google Maps loads and locates you faster than on any other device we’ve seen, and the mapping renders as quickly as you can scroll. Raw benchmarks only tell part of the story, but the Galaxy S II scored 2939 in Quadrant Standard and 3540 in Quadrant Advanced, 46.939 MFLOPS in Linpack Pro, while the SunSpider test for browser performance came in at 3584.3ms (lower is better). We’ve a feeling that custom ROMs on this particular handset will simply fly.

Camera and Multimedia

With its Super AMOLED Plus display and high-resolution cameras, the Galaxy S II obviously has plenty of multimedia potential. The main camera, at 8-megapixels, is a welcome step up from the 5-megapixel example in the original Galaxy S; the front-facing camera is, at 2-megapixels, at the top end for what we’ve seen studding the bezels of recent smartphones. In contrast, the iPhone 4 and HTC’s recent line-up offer mere VGA resolution. Still, it’s good enough for voice calling and the occasional vanity snap, but not really anything more thanks to the fixed-focus lens.

Happily the same can’t be said for the main camera, which is capable of some very impressive, natural looking shots. Colors are accurate and Samsung’s camera software thankfully doesn’t over-sharpen or introduce unnecessary artifacts. The pictures may not exactly “pop” like the somewhat exaggerated shots the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc produces, but we’d rather have more manual control over post-processing than the Arc allows. Lower light shots aren’t quite as successful, not unusual for a phone camera, with a tendency to lose detail in darker areas. Still, the LED flash helps some.

Settings include exposure, various effects, white balance, a choice between auto-focus, macro or face-detection, ISO, metering (centre-weighted, spot or matrix), blink detection, GPS geotagging and anti-shake. There’s also an outdoor visibility mode for the camera app, which tweaks the UI color scheme for easier use in direct sunlight; however, we found the Super AMOLED Plus display was admirably visible in bright conditions.

Video, meanwhile, can be recorded in anything from MMS-friendly 176 x 144 up through 720p and finally 1080p Full HD. There are settings for exposure, white balance, video quality and various effects, and you can record footage with the front-facing camera as well, though only at a fixed VGA resolution. Whether Full HD or 720p, the Galaxy S II’s video is impressive. Footage is smooth and colors accurate, though the auto-focus system can hunt a little in faster moving scenes. Still, there’s little in the way of glitches or blurring, and playbook looks brilliant on the handset’s display.

Samsung Galaxy S II 1080p sample:

Unfortunately, not everything is up to speed with the Galaxy S II’s 1080p HD. Samsung preloads its “Video Maker” app, which offers clip combination, themes, trimming and various other editing options, but it can only handle 720p HD at most. Meanwhile the HDMI output is not via a regular micro HDMI port but by a combination USB/MHL port: that means you need a special adapter, which Samsung doesn’t include in the box. Unfortunately we did not have access to the correct cable, and so couldn’t test direct HDMI connectivity; we’ll update as soon as we can.

Multimedia playback, meanwhile, sees Samsung’s solid codec support win it points. Audio can be in MP3, OGG, AAC, AAC , eAAC , AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WMA, WAV, MID, AC3, IMY, FLAC or XMF format, while video can be in MPEG4, H.264, H.263, WMV, DivX, Xvid or VC-1, and with up to 1080p Full HD playback support. There’s 5.1-channel pseudo-surround when you’re using headphones, while the speaker is sufficient for some personal use (and there’s Bluetooth A2DP for wirelessly connecting to bigger speakers or headphones if you’d prefer).

Phone and Battery

Big, bright screen, dual-core processor, lots of wireless: you’d be forgiven for assuming the Galaxy S II would gulp down juice like a long distance runner after a race. In actual fact, it’s something of a minor miracle. The standard 1,650 mAh battery took us through two days of use – from off the charger at 7am, through a full day with push email active, the display at maximum backlight while outdoors, lots of photography and some video recording, a couple of YouTube clips, GPS with Google Maps, browsing and some calls, then through the night (again, with push email switched on) and through the next day, only expiring that evening.

That’s ridiculously impressive, and we’ll be watching closely to see if it was a fresh-battery phenomenon or a sign that the Galaxy S II really is in the top tier of current smartphones. Even if you really hammer it with your usage, we’re confident you should get a full day out of a single charge.

Phone performance, meanwhile, was good, with the Galaxy S II clinging tenaciously to a signal. Voice calls are strong, and the speakerphone – though certainly not the loudest we’ve ever heard – is good enough for impromptu conference calls.

Pricing and Value

As Samsung’s new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S II’s relatively high price is understandable. SIM-free and unlocked, in 16GB form it’s coming in at around £500 ($826); if you want an agreement then it looks like a £35 ($58) per month plan – with a two-year commitment – will get you a “free” phone.

In contrast you’re looking at £45 ($74) per month or more if you want a “free” iPhone 4 16GB, while an HTC Desire HD comes “free” on £25 ($41) per month agreements. No word yet on pricing for the HTC Sensation, but we’re guessing it’ll be in line with the Galaxy S II.

Samsung has a range of official accessories incoming for the smartphone, though so far none have been available for us to review. However, eventually there will be a desk charger (with room to charge a spare battery), an extended battery pack which gives the Galaxy S II a total of 2950 mAh to play with, car chargers and a vehicle dock (Samsung also offers a car interface app in its own app store, which automatically boots when the phone is placed into the vehicle dock), and various cases. There’s also a Sound Station dock, which works as an external amp for the Galaxy S II, and of course the MHL HDMI adapter cable.

Wrap-Up

Make no mistake, the Samsung Galaxy S II could very well be the best Android smartphone on the market today. Several iPhone users we showed it to said it was the first Android device that could turn their heads from Apple’s range, though the iPhone 5, expected to debut in the latter half of this year, should make for a strong incentive for existing owners to stick with iOS.

The HTC Sensation will bring the main Android competition when it arrives later in 2011, with its qHD display a key differentiator from the Samsung. However, it will have to prove itself against the Galaxy S II’s battery life, screen quality and camera, and that’s no easy challenge.

Is it perfect? No, of course not. While we like some of Samsung’s tweaks – the Kies air app is surprisingly useful, for instance – we’d prefer to see a clean Gingerbread install rather than TouchWiz. How much of a delay that UI modification will force on future Android OS updates remains to be seen, and some changes – such as the keyboard – are frankly backward steps. There are also some annoying teething pains, such as the Video Maker app being unable to handle the Galaxy S II’s 1080p footage.

They pale in comparison to the Samsung’s strengths, however. The display belies its WVGA resolution with Super AMOLED Plus technology that manages to be both frugal and visible outdoors, while the dual-core 1.2GHz processor does a similar balancing act with power use and performance. Together they add up to a smartphone with brilliant battery life and the most future-proof hardware we’ve seen to-date. Layer on top of that a great camera, fulsome multimedia support, broad connectivity and a wafer-thin design, and we’re running out of reasons not to buy the Galaxy S II. Samsung has upped not only its game but the benchmark for smartphones in general.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Verizon Casio G’zOne Commando brings the rugged April 28

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 07:28 AM PDT

Verizon‘s latest ruggedized Android smartphone has made its debut, and rather than simply wearing a bright yellow casing, the Casio G’zOne Commando actually offers some unique functionality. As well as meeting Military Standards 810G for Immersion, Rain, Shock and Dust Resistant, Vibration, Salt Fog, Humidity, Solar Radiation, Altitude, Low and High Temperature Storage, the G’zOne Commando also operates in eight different outdoor-centric modes: Earth Compass, Walking Counter, Adventure Training, Trip Memory, Tides, Thermometer, Sun/Moon and Star Gazer.

Whether any of those hold any appeal will probably depend on how much of an outdoors person you are; if so, you’ll likely get a kick out of the Commando’s thermometer, accelerometer, A-GPS and other sensors. More mundane are the 5-megapixel camera, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth and Android 2.2 Froyo OS.

Verizon is expecting the G’zOne Commando to go down well with industry buyers and enterprise, as well as those who find themselves in warehouses and similar. It will go on sale April 28, priced at $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement.

Press Release:

Verizon Wireless And Casio Introduce The CASIO G'zOne Commando

First Ruggedized Android Smartphone for Verizon Wireless

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Verizon Wireless and Casio today announced a new addition to the rugged wireless category and a new Android-powered smartphone in the marketplace, the CASIO G'zOne Commando™. Deployment ready, the Commando is a mobile office with high security features for secure corporate email; Wi-Fi for high-speed Web access; XT9 and T9 trace input for efficient typing; and snap-out menu for customized access to high-use applications.

Designed to withstand the most extreme conditions, the CASIO G'zOne Commando easily transitions from work to play with advanced G'zGEAR software. As the ultimate outdoor tool in a mobile device, G'zGEAR operates in eight modes to enhance the active, adventure-driven lifestyle. With the help of its Triple Sensor technology utilizing direction, acceleration and temperature, G'zGEAR enables adventurers to perform at their peak.

The Casio Commando is ideal for the business environment, especially for fields such as construction, transportation, manufacturing, utilities and healthcare. Workers in hazardous environments, such as construction sites, warehouses and factory floors, need a smartphone that has the capability to download blueprints, files and pictures; update project plans; access field force management, inventory access and corporate applications; and capture signatures.

Key features:

Android™ 2.2
Meets Military Standards 810G for Immersion, Rain, Shock and Dust Resistant, Vibration, Salt Fog, Humidity, Solar Radiation, Altitude, Low and High Temperature Storage
5-megapixel camera with auto-focus, still photo, video capture, LED light
High-security encryption for corporate email
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity
Stereo Bluetooth™
VZ Navigator® for GPS and audible turn-by-turn directions
Mobile Hotspot capable-share 3G connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices
Lifestyle features:

G'zGear operates in eight modes
Earth Compass – Functions as a standard compass, the GPS shows the distance and direction to several domestic and international landmarks, including Yosemite National Park and Mt. Everest.
Walking Counter – Measures steps, distance and energy consumption, and total steps for the day, week or month. It also provides virtual treks for famous North American trails and roads including Mt. Kilimanjaro, Annapurna Circuit, Torres Del Paine Circuit, John Muir Trail and Transcontinental.
Adventure Training – Takes training to a new level by allowing users to run with virtual opponents, like world-record holders, wild animals, or their own best personal performance stored in the training history.
Trip Memory – Plots and records outdoor activities along with location information to share with friends and family on Twitter™ and Facebook®.
Tides – Showcases the tidal graph for the day; time of tide ebb and flow; and current, past and future sea tide levels. GPS displays the nearest location map.
Thermometer – Displays current temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit with numeric and graphic thermometer readings and compares the current temperature across multiple locations.
Sun / Moon – Checks the time of the next sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset, and tracks the moon phases for your current location.
Star Gazer – Utilizes GPS to display the stars and constellation names based on the current season and time.
Pricing and availability:

The CASIO G'zOne Commando will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com on April 28 for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement. CASIO G'zOne Commando customers will need to subscribe to a data plan. Unlimited data plans are available to customers starting at $29.99 monthly access.
Business customers who want to purchase the device can contact their Business Sales Representatives at 1-800-VZW-4BIZ.
For more information on the CASIO G'zOne Commando or for other Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com. Customers can visit www.CasioGzOne.com to experience the CASIO G'zOne Commando.

 

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Sprint Nexus S 4G confirmed for May 8

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 07:05 AM PDT

Sprint has confirmed that the Nexus S 4G will go on sale come May 8, with the WiMAX-toting smartphone priced at $199.99. The CDMA version of the Nexus S – which runs unmodified Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread on a 1GHz single-core processor with a 4-inch curved Super AMOLED display – requires the usual two-year agreement and data plan.

There’s also native support for Google Voice, which Sprint announced was incoming alongside the Nexus S 4G and for which early invites started being issued late last week. Otherwise it’s the same Nexus S we know and love, only with an extra turn of 4G speed.

That means a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash, a front-facing camera for video calls, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth and GPS. There’s also NFC and 16GB of internal storage.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Sony pulled PlayStation Network over rampant piracy?

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 06:44 AM PDT

A new explanation for the ongoing Sony PlayStation Network downtime has been suggested, with claims that Sony has taken the service offline so as to close a loophole that had been responsible for “extreme piracy of PSN content.” PSX-Scene‘s “Chesh” took to Reddit to outline how a new PlayStation 3 custom firmware called Rebug was used by hackers to gain access to the PSN’s developer networks. From there, it was possible to input fake credit card information and buy content without ever paying for it.

The security glitch, it’s suggested, is because Sony was not validating credit card information since the users were on its trusted private developer network. Sony allegedly responded by pulling the plug on the network completely; the “additional security” Sony representatives have admitted is being installed is apparently to combat this sort of hacking.

Chesh admits that the explanation is speculation pieced together from information throughout the PlayStation hacking community, however sources with access to the SCE devnet servers have apparently confirmed that Sony is telling developers that, moving forward, only 3.60+ debug firmware will be allowed onto the network. If developers want to retain their access then they not only need to upgrade, it’s claimed, but contact Sony too.

Rebug’s developers are not responsible for the credit card hack, though whether Sony will look kindly on them anyway remains to be seen. However, user credit card information is believed to be secure still.

[via TorrentFreak]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

iPhone app totals groceries and hints at self-service future

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 06:09 AM PDT

I know that one of the things that everyone can relate too is the dread that standing in line waiting to pay for your groceries brings. I always stand there worrying that my ice cream and frozen stuff will melt before the cashier gets everything in the carts ahead of me totaled up and the person gets done paying. I have long wished that RFID tags would come along and make checking out as easy as walking up the register and swiping your card.

A new iPhone app has turned up that is by a company called Modiv Media and the app is being implemented in 375 Stop & Shop supermarkets in the eastern US. The awesome app allows the user to scan the bar codes on their purchases and totals them all up on the phone. The app is called Scan It and it is very easy to use. The user scans their loyalty card and then takes the iPhone in the store. The user scans the items with the phone and bags them as they shop.

The stores say that on occasion a clerk may check the bags to be sure that the shopper scanned everything, but it’s mostly an honor system. The clerk gets the total from the iPhone and then the user pays. It sounds like a very cool system and I for one hope that it rolls out to stores all around the country. This is a great glimpse into the future of shopping and if nothing else, you can use the app to be sure you stick to your budget as you shop since it totals your purchases.

[via Technology Review]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Verizon’s DROID Incredible 2 by HTC coming April 28

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 05:57 AM PDT

Verizon Wireless has confirmed pricing and availability for the DROID Incredible 2 by HTC, the CDMA version of the Incredible S we reviewed last month. The DROID Incredible 2 will drop on April 28, priced at $199.99 with a new, two-year agreement and mandatory data plan.

Inside is Qualcomm’s 1GHz single-core processor, driving Android 2.2 Froyo with HTC Sense on top. There’s also a 4-inch WVGA touchscreen, an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash on the back, and a 1.3-megapixel fixed-focus camera on the front for video calls.

720p HD video recording, Adobe Flash Player support, SRS WOWHD audio and integrated noise-cancelation round out the main specs, though you also get 3G mobile hotspot sharing and all the usual Android apps. We rather liked the Incredible S’ balance of power and battery life, so have high hopes for this CDMA version.

Press Release:

DROID Incredible 2 by HTC Available Beginning April 28

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Verizon Wireless and HTC today announced that DROID Incredible 2 by HTC, exclusively from Verizon Wireless, will be available beginning April 28 in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.

DROID Incredible 2 by HTC follows in the footsteps of the popular DROID Incredible by HTC and features the Android™ 2.2 platform, a crisp 4-inch super LCD display, next-generation 1 GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon® processor and 3G Mobile Hotspot that can connect up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Equipped with the hallmark HTC Sense™ experience, DROID Incredible 2 by HTC offers advanced personalization options, consolidated email capability and unique camera effects and filters. With its sleek, all-black design, DROID Incredible 2 by HTC combines functionality and speed into one stylish package. DROID Incredible 2 by HTC is a global-ready Android smartphone, allowing customers to enjoy wireless voice and data service in more than 200 countries, with more than 125 with 3G speeds.
Additional features include:
· 8.0-megapixel main camera with dual LED flash
· 1.3-megapixel front facing camera
· 720p HD video capture plus DLNA® to share multimedia content with a compatible TV
· Adobe® Flash® Player
· SRS WOWHD™ surround sound
· Automatic face detection for more accurate pictures
· Integrated noise-cancellation technology

Verizon Wireless customers that purchase DROID Incredible 2 by HTC will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan and a smartphone data package. Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 for monthly access and an unlimited smartphone data plan is $29.99 for monthly access. Verizon Wireless customers traveling outside of the United States should contact Verizon Wireless' global customer support team at 1-800-922-0204 before embarking on their trip to ensure their phones have the right features for global usage.
For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

 

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

YouTube movie on demand service to launch soon

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 05:56 AM PDT

We already know that Google has been eyeing a movie streaming on-demand service for YouTube for a while now. This is all a part of the plan for YouTube to get profitable with the huge amount of traffic the video sharing site has. YouTube has long wanted more quality content that would lure in new advertisers and get them to spend money to run ads along with the video content. Many advertisers are weary of placing ads on user-generated content that is of low quality and may have content that the advertiser doesn’t want to be associated with.

After all the long running rumors and the questions about when the movie streaming service would launch TheWrap is reporting that it has learned the launch is “imminent” for the movie service. The push into streaming Hollywood films would put YouTube in direct competition with Apple iTunes and Netflix among others and help land those all-important new advertisers for YouTube. It is worth noting that YouTube has had some films on its service for about a year now.

The new push will bring titles for the major Hollywood studios. However, YouTube declined to comment on the new push according to TheWrap. One exec at a studio in Hollywood reportedly said the service would start with streaming and then move on to sell-through later. The pricing on the streaming films and what movies the secretive will have to start with are unknown at this time.

[via TheWrap]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Design concept combines Leica camera with iPhone

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 05:30 AM PDT

We have seen all manner of Leica cameras over the years and they all have a few things in common. These things include great photo quality, cool retro style, and a massive price tag. A new design concept that combines the cool Leica camera design with the high-tech iPhone smartphone has been unveiled. I will admit that the design is a bit weird. I’m not sure why you would want to combine an iPhone with the little digital camera myself.

The concept is called the Leica i9 concept and it is from designers Black Design Associates LLC. The company points out that it is in no way affiliated with either Apple or Leica. That would mean this is no official design concept and the product will never come to market. Combing the iPhone with the little camera is weird to me, but I guess with all the apps to help you take better photos by measuring light and other things perhaps this would be useful.

The designers say that the concept has 12.1MP resolution. Strange as it may be, the design certainly looks cool. The retro style of the Leica line is my favorite things about the cameras. The big downside to Leica for many of us is that the cameras are very expensive. Leica was rumored to be moving into the Micro Four Thirds market earlier this year and then the company came back and said the M9 was as small as Leica cameras would get.

[via Black Design]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

White iPhone 4 prototype hits eBay

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 05:15 AM PDT

With the white iPhone 4 expected to go on sale later this week, now’s obviously the time to throw any prototypes you might have access to up on eBay. That’s just what seems to have happened here, with one hapless developer’s white handset going up on the auction site, and promising plenty of trouble for the individual responsible for it.

It’s not clear whether this is someone trying to sell a lost iPhone 4 prototype or trying to make some money on a device they were trusted with. Unfortunately, thanks to the fact that the employee ID is clearly visible on the handset (we’ve blanked it out, along with the handset’s serial number), we imagine Apple will be moving swiftly to get to the bottom of it.

Bidding is up to $2,838 at time of writing, with half a day left to run, but we’d be wary of throwing your hat into this particular ring. If you really have to have a white iPhone 4, wait until later on in the week when there’ll likely be cheap, legitimate versions to pick up instead.

[via @chronic]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Purdue Solar Racing team’s entry gets 2,200mpg

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 05:11 AM PDT

Solar power is an awesome thing. If we can harness all the free energy that comes from the sun efficiently, we will have an unlimited supply of free energy that can be used for all sorts of things from powering our gadgets to running the AC system in our homes. Even Google is getting into the solar power business. One of the more interesting things that solar power is being used for is to power experimental cars. The Purdue Solar Racing team has unveiled its special racing car and the thing is very impressive.

The Purdue team car can achieve nearly 2,200mpg and competed in the 2011 Shell EcoMarathon that was held this week in Houston. The vehicle prototype the team fielded was called The Celeritas prototype. The car is small, but it is designed to hold a full-size driver (as opposed to the miniature version) behind the wheel in an upright position. The car also has headlights, taillights, a trunk and lots more things that your average car has.

The vehicle uses energy regenerative braking and has a suspension that can handle potholes. The prototype racer was able to generate so much power from the solar cells on its body that it was in danger of overloading the onboard batteries. The team says that in the future models of the car might have an AC system onboard to make the vehicle more comfortable. The car is street legal and the team has applied for a VIN number and a license plate. The prototype took a year to design and $90,000.

[via Purdue]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Evercool unveils Dr. Cool router cooler

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 04:46 AM PDT

I have talked about the cooling company called Evercool before. The last product that I mentioned from the company was the Battle Hero cooler for your gaming notebook. There are lots of notebook coolers on the market today so that product wasn’t particularly new or exciting. The company is back with another new cooling solution and this one is unique. The new device is called the Dr. Cool and it claims to the be the world’s first patented router cooler.

I have never really thought about how hot my router gets or why I should worry about my router getting hot. It looks like some sort of shape charge that a Navy Seal would use to blow a door open. It has two padded bars on top that you can set your hardware on for cooling. It will work with anything you can set on the top from portable hard drives to tablets and anything else. I guess you could even set your notebook up there to keep it cool.

When you use it on your router, the side clamps can clip onto your router to keep the Dr. Cool in place and allow you to keep that router nice and frosty. The Dr. Cool is a white device and Evercool claims that it will extend the life of your router by keeping it cooler. The device is powered by a USB port or a DC power transformer. Pricing is unknown and you can see it in action on the video below.


Relevant Entries on SlashGear

LG licenses ARM processor technology for home and mobile market push

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 04:31 AM PDT


When it comes to the mobile market for tablets and smartphones, ARM is the biggest name on the block for mobile processors and GPUs. ARM has some competition from NVIDIA with the Tegra line, but ARM is certainly the more popular of the two. Intel has no significant presence in the Tablet and smartphone market thanks to the fact that its line of processors tend to consume too much power for lightweight portable devices.

LG has announced that it is stepping up and licensing some of ARMs newest and most popular tech to help drive its strategy in the home and mobile product family. This is a big deal because the licensing of the tech means that LG is set to make a bigger push, bring more competition into the smartphone, and tablet market. LG will use the ARM hardware in its digital TV, set top boxes, mobile phone, tablet, and smart grid lines. The licensing of the tech will let LG create its own processors rather than relying on Tegra and hardware from other providers.

“LG's relationship with ARM over a number of years has provided significant value to our overall business. In addition, the ARM ecosystem has provided LG with partners to help differentiate our product offering,” said Boik Sohn, VP and Head of System IC Center, LG Electronics. “The scalability of ARM processing solutions combined with the software ecosystem will enable smart, open platform systems, and drive connectivity and web enabled interactions. This new licensing agreement will provide LG with the next generation processor technology that will allow us to maintain leadership in display enabled connected devices, such as smart digital TV's and smart phones, and drive our platform strategy.” LG has licensed ARM hardware since 1995. The new license is for the ARM Cortex processor and ARM Mali GPU families.

[via ARM]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

New TweetDeck for iPhone app lands

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 04:13 AM PDT

Twitter is one of the most widely used means to communicate with friends and other followers online today. With the raging popularity of the service it’s no surprise that there are all sorts of third party clients that are used by hoards of Twitter fanatics every day rather than using Twitter directly. In fact, the use of third party Twitter clients is so widespread that Twitter decided to try and stop the proliferation of them not too long ago and claimed that the majority of users used the official Twitter app even with evidence to the contrary.

One of the most popular third party Twitter clients is TweetDeck and the app is on both the iPhone and Android platforms. TweetDeck has announced that with has a new version of the app that is available for the iPhone. The app is called TweetDeck v2.0 and it can be downloaded right now. TweetDeck says that the team took the original app and distilled it down to all of the things that made it so popular and then crated a brand new app from scratch to use all the newest and latest tech.

A few of the new features in the latest version include swiping between columns and navigation through user profiles. The new app also has improved navigation though user profiles and a new easy to use Add Column flow and pull to update animations. The app also has a cool follow/unfollow slider too. The app also offers the ability to access options with gestures like pinch. Pinch the screen and the app gives you access to options to add feeds into a column.

[via TweetDeck]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Eee Pad Transformer launches and short supply is almost gone already

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 03:53 AM PDT

Asus created a lot of buzz with its cool Android tablet called the Eee Pad Transformer when the tablet was unveiled a few months back. Asus had previously warned that the tablet would have low supply at launch and that it would be prioritizing the UK for the launch. The launch day was reported to be April 26 a few days ago and that day is here. Asus has the official launch page up on its website with links to all of the sellers that are carrying the Transformer at launch.

If you are looking for the Transformer on launch day, you need to start looking early. Apparently, many of the sellers of the tablet are already out of stock. The good news is that there are 24 different companies offering the tablet with some of them being big names and some being smaller firms. Among the big names are Walmart.com, Target.com, Amazon, buy.com, Fry’s, Newegg, Sears, Staples, and a lot more.

If you find a site with stock let us know in the comments. The transformer is an Android 3.0 tablet that has an optional docking station with a keyboard and extended battery. When docked the keyboard turns the Transformer into a little netbook. With the keyboard attached, the tablet is good for 16 hours of run time and the tablet alone is good for 9.5 hours. The Transformer runs a Tegra 2 processor.

[via Android Community]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Facebook Deals is a Groupon rival

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 03:24 AM PDT

It seems that in the tech world once a company has a good idea their is a rush of other companies that try to cash in on the same idea with a small twist. Groupon is a deals service that sends out coupons and other deals to users that they can use to save some money on the things they like to purchase. Once Groupon started getting headlines other competing services started to launch with some of them being from huge firms like Google’s Google Offers service.

Google isn’t the only popular site looking to get on the Groupon rival bandwagon, Facebook is too. Facebook has announced the launch of a new online deals feature called simply Facebook Deals. The service was announced officially late yesterday and the five test cities are supposed to go live today. The test cities include Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco. Facebook hopes that its huge number of friends and other users that are linked on the site will help the Deals to be easy for users to share and spread around.

The deals will be sent to the user via email, but Facebook figures that a deal that is appropriate for you will show up in your news feed at some point in the day. Facebook’s Emily White said, “You can receive Facebook deals via e-mail. But if there is a deal that is good for you, it will likely show up in your news feed at some point in the day.” Deals will be very tightly woven into the site according to White and users that want to get in on the Deals service will need to “like” the page.

[via Facebook]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Class action suit filed against Apple for iPhone location tracking

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 03:08 AM PDT

I use an iPhone and I will be the first to say that the thought of my iPhone tracking my movements is irritating. There is really no need for my iPhone to be storing where I go throughout my day. I also have to wonder if this extra tracking that is unneeded was turned off if my iPhone would run longer on a charge. I guess with all the press of the iPhone tracking and storing user movements, it was inevitable that a class action suit would be filed against Apple.

Apparently the iPhone even tracks the users location when location services are off. Such a suit has now happened. Apparently, two iPad/iPhone users have filed a lawsuit against Apple seeking class action that accuses Apple of invasion of privacy and computer fraud. The suit also alleges that Apple “secretly recorded the movements of iPhone and iPad users.” The suits were field by an iPhone user in Florida named Vikram Ajjampur and William Devito, an iPad user from New York. The suits were filed in a court in Tampa, Florida.

The suit is seeking a court order to bar Apple for collecting the location information and cited a report last week from a couple programmers that claimed iOS 4.0 logs latitude and longitude coordinates along with the time the spot was visited. Apparently, the programmers think the iPhone and iPad store about a year’s worth of data. The case is Ajjampur v. Apple Inc., 11-cv-00895, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida (Tampa). I would bet that the suit is also seeking damages of some sort, but that isn’t specified at this time.

[via BoingBoing]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

LG unveils new 3D LCDs for computer users with no flicker

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 02:54 AM PDT

If you sit in front of a computer screen all day and at the end of the day you find that your eyes are tired it could be because of screen flicker. Computer screens flicker faster than you can really tell with your eyes, but that flicker is enough to make your eyes tired after as while. If you have ever seen a computer or TV on video with the flickering they do you know what I mean. LG has new computer screens that support 3D and are certified flicker free.

Both of the new screens fall into the LG Cinema 3D Monitor line and are the D41P and the D42P. The flicker free certification was awarded to the monitors by TÜV and Intertek, which are two of Europe’s top safety certification agencies. The screens also have HDMI 1.4 ports, convert 2D to 3D and use the LG cinema 3D glasses that have no moving parts making them lighter and more comfortable to wear for long periods of time.

The difference between the two screen mores is nothing but size. The 41P is a 23-inch wide unit and the 42p is a 21.5-inch unit. Both have 250-nits brightness in 2D mode and 100nits in 3D mode and 5ms response times. The native resolution on both panels is 1920 x 1080. The two screens use the LG FPR or Film Patterned Retarder 3D technology that allows for the bright image and no flicker. LG rival Samsung is also offering lots of 3D products with a $15 million investment into 3D tech recently.

[via LG]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

iOS keeps developer hearts as tablet concerns douse Android enthusiasm

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 02:52 AM PDT

Developer enthusiasm has shifted back to Apple’s iOS amid concerns over Android fragmentation and patchy tablet reception, according to a new survey by Appcelerator and IDC. Their Q2 mobile developer report suggests that, while Android was believed to be fast catching up with iOS earlier this year, that momentum has “recently plateaued”: 91-percent and 86-percent of the 2,676 developers surveyed said they were “very interested” in coding for iPhone and iPad respectively, while only 85-percent and 71-percent said the same thing about Android phones and tablets, respectively.

The first batch of Android tablets hasn’t really helped matters, either. Only 44-percent of developers are very interested in Motorola’s XOOM, while just 31-percent are looking forward to the imminent launch of the HTC Flyer. Weak initial traction in tablets is cited by 30-percent of respondents as the biggest risk to Android, taking second place behind that ongoing bogeyman, device fragmentation.

However, the patchy enthusiasm doesn’t necessarily open a door to Windows Phone or BlackBerry OS, with developers unconvinced that rival platforms to iOS or Android stand a chance at catching up. 62-percent said it would be impossible, while 46-percent said they were were simply too busy with Android and/or iOS to think about a different platform. In fact, Windows Phone and BlackBerry developer interest dropped seven and eleven points respectively.

Google will attempt to reinvigorate developer zeal at Google I/O next month, which the search giant will be streaming online for those unable to get tickets.

[via Android Community]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

MacBook Pro design overhaul tipped for next refresh

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 02:05 AM PDT

Apple’s gradual refinement of its MacBook Pro design has left the unibody aluminum notebooks little changed externally since late 2008, but according to fresh rumors there’s a big shake-up coming. MacRumors‘ sources apparently confirm that a new case design will debut at the next MacBook Pro revision, though the exact changes in aesthetic are still mysterious.

Apple refreshed its flagship notebooks earlier this year, but with the exception of adding a Thunderbolt port the outward design remained the same. Instead, Intel’s 2011-series Sandy Bridge processors were slotted inside, making the new models the fastest yet. Some have suggested the next-gen machines will look more similar to the MacBook Air, a shift that could see them less amenable to user-upgrading.

Alternatively, we could see further refinements in screen technology, such as the use of LG Display’s “Shuriken” LCD panels which are thinner and have narrower bezels and thus allow for larger screens in smaller notebooks. Acer is already believed to be working on a Shuriken-based notebook for release in May.

Yesterday, leaks claimed Apple was readying an iMac refresh for the first week in May, complete with Thunderbolt connectivity and Sandy Bridge processors.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Amazon demands App Store trademark trash, says Steve Jobs made it generic

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 01:45 AM PDT

Amazon has joined Microsoft in calling for Apple’s App Store trademark to be rejected, arguing that “because ‘app store’ is a generic term, and Amazon’s use of the term causes no likelihood of confusion, dilution, 19 or unfair competition” the Apple legal case against them should be dropped. Like Microsoft, Amazon’s argument is that Apple’s own CEO, Steve Jobs, referred to generic “app stores” in the company’s financial results call back in October 2010.

Then, Jobs described the Apple App Store as “the easiest-to-use, largest app store in the world, preloaded on every iPhone.” Amazon reckon that’s tacit agreement that the term is generic, and point to linguistic research that says the same:

“Based on their common meaning, the words “app store” together denote a store for apps, such as the app stores operated by Amazon and Apple. The American Dialect Society, a leading group of U.S. linguists, recently voted “app” as the “Word of the Year” for 2010, noting that although the word “has been around for ages,” it “really exploded in the last 12 months” with the “arrival of ‘app stores’ for a wide spectrum of operating systems for phones and computers.” Indeed, the words “app store” are commonly used among many businesses competing in the app store market.” Amazon counter-suit.

Previously, Apple had attempted to give Microsoft a legal spanking by arguing that “Windows” was just as generic, and pointing to the company’s own history of trademark infringement suits filed to prevent rivals from using it. Whether the Cupertino company will make similar comments about rainforests remains to be seen.

You can download the filing here [pdf link].

[via GeekWire]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Forget XOOM, sue your rivals instead analyst advises Motorola

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 01:18 AM PDT

Since you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em – that’s the advice from one analyst to Motorola Mobility, who calls the Motorola XOOM a failure, Honeycomb “dead on arrival” and the Android Market “a disaster.” Global Equities’ Trip Chowdry throws out a hugely-ranging estimate for the number of XOOM tablets sold – between 15,000 and 120,000, he reckons – and suggests that, Fortune reports, rather than attempt to compete with Apple and RIM, Motorola should aim to pick off its Android OEM counterparts with patent lawsuits.

In fact, Chowdry even puts together a handy chart – shown above – suggesting which of its rivals Motorola should target with a “full attack.” HTC, Lenovo, Acer, Archos and ASUS are among those particularly weak, the analyst suggests, since they have a far lower number of mobile patents than Samsung, LG and Motorola’s other rivals. “Selectively attacking with patents other Android phone OEM’s is a better strategy” he advises, rather than the current “competitive fixation” on Apple.

Motorola took a gamble with the XOOM, pushing the tablet out onto the market when the hardware and software weren’t quite ready, on the basis that it was best to be first on shelves. The company is yet to confirm any official sales figures, though Verizon has said that it is “satisfied” with demand for the slate.

Still, it’s worth remembering that this is the same Trip Chowdry that predicted Steve Ballmer would make an appearance at the WWDC 2010 keynote, something that unsurprisingly failed to take place.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

AI runs Android, Chrome OS, Ubuntu & more on Beagleboard simultaneously [Video]

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 01:00 AM PDT

Last we heard of Always Innovating, the company was talking about its Smart Book hybrid, a combination tablet and netbook, similar in concept to the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer. Now they’re talking Beagleboard, and more specifically their custom environment, Super-Jumbo, to run Android 2.3, Ubuntu Maverick 10.10, Chrome OS and AI’s own AIOS simultaneously on the OMAP3-based ‘board.

Each can be set to load by default, and once you’re inside AIOS you can choose any of the other platforms to switch to. Since Android, Ubuntu and Chrome OS lack that menu option, a double-press of the button on the Beagleboard opens up an OS switcher. AI is suggesting that each other platform has its own unique benefits: Android has the most polished browsing experience, Ubuntu has the most apps, and Chrome OS is unique as it’s apparently the first time the platform is running on OMAP3/4 hardware.

That latter point may well be particularly important as we see Texas Instruments’ OMAP4 chipsets arrive on the market; as we saw at MWC 2011, the new platform is capable of camera-based gesture recognition, multiple HD video streams and more, functionality which would be particularly interesting in a Chrome OS notebook. You can download AI’s Super-Jumbo here, and pick up a Beagleboard here for $149.

[Thanks Ali!]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Gtalk video calling for Android phones tipped for Google I/O

Posted: 26 Apr 2011 12:40 AM PDT

The front-facing camera on Android handsets like the Nexus S and Desire S haven’t seen much official use yet; third-party video calling apps like Fring can use them, but video functionality in Google’s own Gtalk has so far been limited to Android 3.0 Honeycomb on tablets. That may well change at Google I/O next month, however, with claims that a test build of Android 2.3.4 with video-capable Gtalk has been doing the rounds.

Twitter user MAFiA303, who has claimed to have done work with Samsung, says he’s tested the two-way video chat functionality on a Nexus S, the Samsung-made Google phone. He reckons it was “impressive quality” and predicts it will arrive at the Google developers’ event next month.

Considering the increasing number of suitably camera-equipped handsets reaching the market these days, it seems sensible for Google to extend Gtalk video support to smartphones. That would also better challenge Apple’s FaceTime app, which already offers simple video calling between the iPhone and iPad.

[via Android Community]

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

Sony Enters Tablet Market with Two Honeycomb Devices

Posted: 25 Apr 2011 09:57 PM PDT

Sony has announced at a press conference this morning that they plan to bring to market two Honeycomb tablets this year. The two tablets are called the S1 and the S2, both of which are still codenames according to Sony. We wrote about the S1 and Sony’s CEO alerting us that they will be entering the market with a tablet earlier in the month. It turns out today is the day we get more details on those plans.

Inside both devices pack the Tegra 2 dual-core processor. The S1 appears to be geared more toward a media tablet as its design has a slight curve to it and is packed with front and rear facing cameras. The S1 can apparently be used as a remote for other Sony gear and is also PlayStation certified meaning that certain PlayStation titles and other PlayStation network content will be accessible.

The second device the S2 is a bit more creative of a design for tablet as it sports two screens in a clam shell form factor. Both screens size in at 5.5 inch’s and have a resolution of 1024 x 480. This device appears to be more of a pocketable form factor. Both the S1 and S2 are WiFi and 3G/4G “compatible” according to Sony and will be available globally this fall

Check out the video teaser below which will sure to be circulating the web in the hours to come.

[via Engadget]

Press Release:

Sony Announces Optimally Designed "Sony Tablet" with Android 3.0 that Complements Network Services for an Immersive Entertainment Experience

～Also strengthening VAIO in expanding PC markets～

Sony Corporation ("Sony"), announces "Sony Tablet" that delivers the perfect combination of hardware, content and network with seamless usability for a high-quality, engaging entertainment experience. Based on decades of engineering heritage, Sony is developing two tablets with unprecedented design, including S1 (codename) which is optimized for rich media entertainment and S2 (codename) which is ideal for mobile communication and entertainment. "Sony Tablet" will become available in the global market starting in fall 2011.

"Sony Tablet" is equipped with the latest Android 3.0 which is designed for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. Both tablets are WiFi and WAN (3G/4G) compatible and users can not only browse the internet or check e-mail but they can also smoothly access digital content including videos, games and books through Sony's premium network services and more, on-the-go at any time.

S1 has a 9.4-inch display for enjoying the web and rich content on a large screen. Its off-center of gravity design realizes stability and ease of grip as well as a sense of stability and lightness, offering comfortable use for hours.

S2 has two 5.5-inch displays that can be folded for easy portability. In contrast to existing tablets, its unprecedented dual screen presentation and usability allows its displays to be combined and used as a large screen or for different functions such as playing video on one screen while showing control buttons on the other.

"'Sony Tablet' delivers an entertainment experience where users can enjoy cloud-based services on-the-go at any time. We're aiming to create a new lifestyle by integrating consumer hardware, including 'Sony Tablet' with content and network," said Kunimasa Suzuki, Corporate Executive, SVP, and Deputy President of Consumer Products & Services Group.

"Android 3.0 is a new version of the Android platform with a new holographic user interface that is designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. I’m excited about "Sony Tablet" as it will further spur the development of applications and network offerings which users are looking for." said Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President, Mobile, Google Inc.

Also, in the mobile computing category, the market for PCs which realize high productivity is expected to steadily grow, particularly in emerging markets. Therefore, Sony will also remain committed to strengthening its VAIO brand and introduce increasingly compelling products which offer new value propositions to the market.

"Sony Tablet" features.

■Designed for portability and intuitive gripping
With its off-center of gravity form factor, the 9.4-inch S1 offers stability and a sense of lightness, offering comfortable use for hours.
The dual screen S2 comes with two 5.5-inch displays which can be used together as one large screen to browse websites and more. They can also be used for different functions as users can watch a video on one screen and input commands on the other, or check email on one screen and use the other as a soft keyboard.

■Seamless Usability and Performance
Through Sony's knowhow for combining hardware and software, "Sony Tablet" realizes optimal usability and performance. Because of Sony's rapid response technologies, users can perform smooth, quick touch-screen operations and enjoy fast and efficient website loading. The keyboard arrangement is also optimized for the large screen, making email and SNS communication a breeze.

■Rich entertainment experiences through various network services
Through Qriocity1 music and video services, users can enjoy rich video and music content. Also, through PlayStation®Suite, users can immerse themselves in high quality first generation PlayStation® titles. Additionally, users can easily download ebook content from Reader™Store2 and use both tablets as digital reading devices. The integration with various services allows users to take their entertainment experiences on-the-go. Furthermore, "Sony Tablet" is equipped with functionality that organizes content for easy access.

■Remote access functionality with AV devices
Through "Sony Tablet", users can control home entertainment devices as well as enjoy content in new ways. S1 uses infrared technology and works as universal remote controls for a variety of AV devices starting with . Users can perform functions like turning on their TVs, changing the channel and adjusting the volume. Also, through DLNA functionality on "Sony Tablet", users can "throw" personal content to large screen televisions or music to wireless speakers.

In 2010, Sony launched a network platform called "Qriocity" which connects many of Sony's network-enabled devices, and has been expanding its services into global markets. Also, Sony Computer Entertainment has been providing various contents and services for PlayStation users through PlayStation®Network, which now has over 75 million registered accounts (as of March 20, 2011) worldwide.

Simultaneously, Sony will continue to announce various devices which leverage these services. Starting in early 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment announced the next-generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP) while Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications brought "Xperia™PLAY" to the market. Sony is introducing "Sony Tablet" to deliver an entertainment experience which integrates hardware with network services that deliver rich content.

With the establishment of Consumer Products and Services Group in April 2011, Sony will focus on accelerating the development of innovative next generation products and aim to deliver a new lifestyle by strengthening the integration of hardware and network services.

1 In markets where service is available
2 In markets where service is available

"Sony Tablet", "Qriocity" and "Reader" are trademarks of Sony Corporation
VAIO and are registered trademarks of Sony Corporation
PlayStation is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Xperia is a trademark of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB.
Android is a trademark of Google Inc.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear

SlashGear’s Gigantic XOOM Giveaway WINNER #2

Posted: 25 Apr 2011 05:08 PM PDT

Welcome to the second and last giveaway winner post – as long as the winner gets in contact with us in under 24 hours (give or take a few hours, to be fair,) if not, we’ll be picking again! As you know from our original post, we've got a total of 5 tablets – 2 for SlashGear, another 3 for Android Community – we've got another winner announcement over there if you care to take a look, feel free to join both contests! Meanwhile, our second winner goes by the name Scott Lebsack!


The original post is back over here. If your name is not Scott Lebsack and you didn’t win this time, go over to Android Community, because there is still one more chance to win there.

The winner, Scott Lebsack, will be given the opportunity to submit a review of their XOOM and have it posted on the front page of SlashGear.com!
*Reviews may be edited or modified before publication and are considered works for hire under the 1976 Copyright Act. Submissions will be ineligible for payment or remuneration.

This contest is now over, but stay tuned! We will have more contests and giveaways coming up soon to keep the good times rollin’.

Relevant Entries on SlashGear
Diposting oleh di

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar

Langganan: Posting Komentar (Atom)