While we know good and well it’s more about the full package than it is about any single specification on the device, it’s always interesting to compare one hero device to another. That’s why what we’re going to do here is to take Apple’s current best in class, the iPhone 4S running iOS 5, and compare it to the Lumia 800, the newest Nokia hero running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, also Microsoft’s newest mobile OS. Will this device that looks RATHER similar to what we’ve seen in the Nokia N9 MeeGo device be able to run Windows Phone successfully enough to take a cut into the iPhone’s mighty market share?
Both the Nokia Lumia 800 and the iPhone have rather unique looking casings going on. With the 800, you’ve got a solid piece of polycarbonite and a single piece of curve-edged glass up front on top of a 3.7-inch display and the three standard Windows Phone buttons. With the iPhone, you’ve got a 3.5-inch display covered with a single sheet of flat glass, glass on the back of the device as well, and an aluminum ring around the edges. The iPhone design as well as the design of the 800 have been called perfectly suited for the hand by Vincent Nguyen and Chris Davies, so where do we go from here?
We could note that the iPhone has an app store with several hundred thousand apps in it, each of them hand-approved by Apple, the Windows Phone device has a tiny market in comparison – again the apps are well curated, but the point is of course that the Apple device has an undeniable gigantic following of developers while Microsoft has yet to find even a fraction of the support for their own platform. On the other hand, with Nokia jumping in on the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango game, there might be hope yet.
If we can rely on the several casing colors of the Nokia N9 to move over to the Lumia 800, we’ve got a much larger array of choices for the actual physical phone’s look than the iPhone who currently still only comes in black or white. The iPhone is flat on all sides with curved corners while the Lumia is “pillowy.” Then of course the Nokia manufacturer stance on Windows Phone is that it’ll drive them through the next few years at least, this device one of the first TWO they’ve ever made with the software, while Apple has only ever had the iPhone.
Check out our hands-on with the Nokia Lumia 800 as well as our full review of the iPhone 4S if you want to compare specifications any closer than we’ve done here, and check out the videos below to see how these devices look in the hands and tap under the fingers. Are you deciding between the two?
Bonus point: the Nokia Lumia 800 will be rolling out in stores by November internationally, but this first release wont include the USA. That affect your decision any? It sure as heck does mine.
It’s time to take a look at both of the new Windows Phone enabled devices Nokia has announced today at Nokia World 2011, the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710. While both devices do run the newest version of Windows Phone, that being version 7.5 Mango, thats where the perfect consistency ends. Nokia has made two different devices here for two different crowds – see if you can tell which is aimed at who!
Nokia Lumia 800
The Nokia Lumia 800 is a device that should very much remind you of the recently reviewed by Chris Davies Nokia device by the name of Nokia N9. While that device ran MeeGo, this new one rolls out with Windows Phone and is therefor modified physically to meet the needs of the alternate mobile OS. You’ve got the three Microsoft designed buttons at the bottom of a 3.7-inch 480 x 800 pixel AMOLED display, inside you’ve got a 1450mAh battery for nearly 10 hours of talk time, and inside you’ve got the lovely 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor to back you up.
Inside you’ll find 16GB of built-in storage, 512 MB of RAM, and the ability to use the cool 8-megapixel camera on the back of the device, this camera capable of 720p HD 30fps video as well as HD photos. The single piece of bright colorful polycarbonate should have you agreeing with Nokia that the whole experience is “pillowy” and without a doubt this is a high contender for the top class of smartphone devices out there, being described by many as the “first true Windows Phone device” right out of the gate due to its unique design and top-tier specifications.
Nokia Lumia 710
The device that for one reason or another appears to be taking a second seat to news about the 800 is the Lumia 710, another Windows Phone 7.5 Mango device with a 3.7-inch display at 480 x 800 pixel resolution. This time the display is a TFT LCD and the 1300 mAh batter should be giving you nearly 8 hours of talk time. Inside you’ll find the same single-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, while the back of this device has a slightly smaller 5-megapixel camera still capable of 720p HD video at 30 fps.
Built-in storage is set at 8GB, while system memory is 512 MB and, just like the 800, this device has a candybar design. You’ll see right away though that these certainly don’t taste the same, and if they were made of candy, they wouldn’t both be chocolate, that’s for sure. While the 800 is 4.59 x 2.41 x 0.48 inches in size and weighs in at 142 g, the 710 rings in at 4.69 x 2.46 x 0.49 inches and weighs 126 g.
I suppose at this point you’re confused whether these two devices are nearly the same or completely different. Truth be told, they’re going to be held up by you in the store next to one another and it’s likely the price that’ll do the deciding for you. That or your ability to choose certain fantastic color cases for one and different sets of colors for the other. Whatever happens, happens!
Also feel free to check out another competition from this morning by the name of Lumia 800 vs iPhone 4S, then see how you’ll be getting some sweet app options with Nokia App Highlights curated store as outlined this morning as well.
The vast expanse that is Verizon’s USA-based 4G network is reportedly ahead of schedule, LTE taking the heads of 185 million American residents by the end of the year – and more. That 185 million customers goal was set by Verizon earlier this year, and they’re reporting this week that they’ve already well surpassed that goal. Verizon aims to open up a total of 13 more markets inside November as well, this bringing the number of markets with 4G LTE from Verizon to a fantastic 178.
The number of devices that can access Verizon’s LTE network are ever increasing as well, the group working now with not only smartphones, but mobile wireless modems as well. By the end of 2011, Verizon aims to have 15 LTE capable devices on their network, devices such as the LG VL600 USB modem and the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus. While it’s possible that devices other than modems and Android-enabled devices will be running on the network in the future, thus far groups such as Apple have decided to stick with the basically all-inclusive 3G network Verizon has deployed for the moment.
Verizon continues to report that LTE speeds are up to ten times faster then 3G speeds in supported areas of the country, and other carriers “4G” networks are said to be secondary in comparison. Meanwhile AT&T is creating its own LTE network if you did not know, starting with devices such as the HTC Jetstream to begin the branding incursion. Currently AT&T has plans to produce their LTE network first in cities such as San Antonio, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Chicago.
So your car would like to be part of one the most famous auto-racing games in the history of the home arcade, yes? Sony today announces that opportunity. What the fine folks at Sony have done today is to announce that the ninth annual Gran Turismo Awards will be held right alongside the SEMA show (Specialty Equipment Market Association.) In this show, awards will be handed out to a variety of vehicles, the best of which will be chosen to be replicated for the next Gran Turismo video game.
The several categories Sony and SEMA have in mind are best SUV, best hot rod, best domestic car, best European import, and best Asian import. Amongst each of these there will only be one, one car to appear in the next installment of Gran Turismo series. Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi will be the one to select the car that will receive the Best in Show award and that car will be playable in the next game’s installment.
These awards, sadly, will not be open to the general public. If you’re going to get in, you’ll need to be a member of SEMA and able to head to Las Vegas on November 3rd, 2011, to compete with your high-class vehicle. Seem like a few requirements you’re ready to fulfill? Meanwhile we’ve still got Gran Turismo 5 to work with for now- get jammin!
When it comes to gadgets, its not often that one will catch your eye for its softness, but that’s just what designer Takaaki Oguchi has done with this one – it’s a light up pillow. Without a doubt the most comfortable bit of technology I’ve seen all week, Oguchi’s “inSoft” LED light pillow has the ability to light from within without making your ear go “ouch!” Through a combination of cool-burning LED lights and padding that’ll allow just so much light to travel through it surrounding the light module, Oguchi may well have created the nightlight every kid is staying awake at night screaming about.
This isn’t a completed project, kids, I’m sorry to say, but it is on its way to becoming one. This is what’s known as a conceptual industrial design, one made by the designer without as much regard for the final product as one further down the production line would have. It is through projects like these that the most innovative concepts are brought to life – and of course, to light. Soft enough of an idea for you?
Meanwhile this pillow object has already been making the rounds abroad. The inSoft pillow has won the prestigious Koizumi Lighting Award, this bringing it closer to the production floor once more. Now we’ve all just got to find someone with a load of cash to put under the pillow, as it were, so that we can all have one straight from the store. Light em up!
If there’s one thing I like about Halloween, it’s the ability of ordinary every-day inventors to create designs that not only work, they fit on their person. That’s what’s happened here with a dude named Tyler Card and his fully functional custom-made camera costume. Photos go in the front, photos get displayed on the back. Is this the ultimate all-time best-ever camera enthusiast costume? Or is it just super neato?
What we’ve got here is an LCD display from a Dell laptop computer connected to an actual Nikon D3 camera which is mounted on the inside of the barrel that makes up the camera costume’s front. Not only has Tyler created a video to show you how it works, he’s made a making-of video that also includes quite a few photos he’s already taken at a pre-Halloween Halloween party with the costume itself. First have a look at the costume in action here:
Also note that at the top of the camera costume, above Tyler’s head, are some Alienbees strobe lights which act as a flash, also controlled by a Paul C. Buff Cyber Commander controller. This costume open up your mind to the possibilities of the bust apart and rebuild culture before your eyes? While we’ve not yet heard any word from Nikon if they’ve got any plans to officially license this costume for the future, we’ve got our fingers crossed. Meanwhile we’ll just have to make our own!
Apple has begun offering a new ship-to-store or in-store pickup option for its online customers in the San Francisco area. The program allows customers to place an order online to have the item shipped to their local Apple retail store for pickup, saving shipping costs for customers. The program also provides pickup customers with Personal Setup service of any new Apple product.
When you go to checkout on Apple’s online store, you’ll see a new delivery option called “Pick up.” The program is only limited to the San Francisco area stores but will eventually be rolled out to other Apple Stores in the US. You can pick up products within an hour if they are listed as “Available now,” and you can designate someone else to pick up your order.
Additionally, Apple retail stores will also begin accepting returns for online orders. This saves customers from having to ship items back to Apple and cuts down on the return process. These new services should roll out to all stores in the US in time for the holidays.
The LG DoublePlay smartphone has gone on sale at T-Mobile about a week earlier than expected. The device sports a slide-out split QWERTY keyboard, but is most unique for its dual touchscreens. The second screen is smaller than the main display and sits between the split keyboard, making it easy for you to browse and chat at the same time.
The device features a 3.5-inch main display with a second 2.0-inch screen. It sports a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash and support for 720p HD video capture. Inside, it’s powered by a 1GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a customized LG interface on top that lets you use the two screens to display parts of the same app or two different apps at the same time.
Originally thought to go on sale in early November with a debut today at the National Texting Championship, the LG DoublePlay is instead available immediately at T-Mobile. The device is priced at $99 with a new two-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate.
D-Link’s Boxee Box has gotten an update to version 1.2 today for its iPad app, adding new playback controls. The set-top box has also recently integrated Spotify and has now updated the service to allow Premium Spotify users to be able to access the service from anywhere in the world. The app was previously only accessible from certain countries.
The Boxee Box for iPad update now shows a new remote control at the lower right hand corner of your screen that lets you control videos you send to your Boxee Box from your iPad. The process of sending media files to your Boxee Box will also now resume where you left off for any files you played through the Boxee Media Manager.
Additionally, the Boxee Box service now has an option to select video quality when you stream files. This is helpful for those with bandwidth issues and provides more consistent streaming when you’ve got a weak WiFi connection.
When technology giants like Samsung get it in their minds that they’ve got a mission to save the world, one might expect such epic wins as this Solar Powered Internet School to come to fruition. That’s just what’s happened this week as Samsung notes its first Solar Powered Internet School unit is currently undergoing pilot testing at the Samsung Electronics Engineering Academy in Boksberg and will be shipped out to other regions within months. Ship em all!
Samsung isn’t simply doing this out of the goodness of their own hearts, but it’s nice to see initiatives like this appear to be so close to real action in the world. This project is in place as a result of CSR requirements — Corporate Social Responsibility, that is, and thus far the project is set for greater Africa. For the betterment of Africa too, if I do say so myself. This project will yield units that are both easy to transport to remote areas and able to withstand inclement weather.
The first version of this project’s units are 40-foot shipping containers equipped with rubber solar panels. These panels are able to power the classroom within for up to 9 hours each day and can retain power for up to 1 and a half days without any new sunlight. Inside the unit there are, of course, a whole slew of top of the line Samsung products such as the Galaxy Tab, a 50-inch electronic board, solar powered netbooks, and more.
Inside the first unit is a refrigerator, UPS, a router, Virus Doctor air-purification, Wi-fi enabled camera, and of course a file server. This file server works via a 3G connection and will house the entire South African school curriculum. Sounds like a pretty nice little unit, wouldn’t you say? Certainly seems nicer than the one-room schoolhouses of the generations before us, that’s for sure.
Ahead of the holidays, Sony has announced a new Special Edition of its popular game title LittleBigPlanet 2 with PlayStation Move support. It’s offering the Special Edition game on its own as well as in a bundle that includes the Move add-on and controllers. As announced back at E3 2011, we should be seeing many other popular titles get Move support as well.
The Special Edition version of the game will feature whole new adventures with five new levels plus seven mini levels. It is designed to take advantage of the capabilities of the Move controller and lets you create your own Move games, record fluid motions, paint stickers, and do all sorts of fun creative stuff in the game. Also included are five new levels and two mini levels along with other goodies for the Disney/Pixar Toy Story game titles as well as $35 worth of DLC content.
The PlayStation Move bundle includes all the good stuff from the Special Edition game plus the Motion Controller, the Navigation Controller, and the PlayStation Eye Camera. The Special Edition alone will cost $59.99 while the Move bundle costs $129.99. Both will be available starting November 15.
In one fell swoop, it appears the the folks at Madfinger and NVIDIA have crushed the rest of Android with a game that takes the platform to a whole new level of gaming intensity. We got to check this game out earlier this month in its pre-release state, and today’s the day the full version is released on the Android Market and through the official NVIDIA Tegra Zone. Is your Android rough and tough enough to bust a cap in a bunch of mutants, robots, and mutant robot hybrids? It all depends on if your processor is a Tegra! Ours is, right here on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and we’re going hands-on again now with the final build.
What you’ll notice about this game right out of the box is that while there’s only a few controls, the game is certainly not simple. You’ll be solving puzzles, doing mini-hacks, targeting your enemy from yards away, and making sure you’re not fragged along the way. Like any good shooter you’ve got weapons falling on the ground for you to pick up and toss back at the enemy full force, you’ve got blood spewing from your guts whenever you get a bullet in the belly, and the entire game, unlike most good shooters – and it appears in SPITE of them too, is entirely touch-based.
This game sits you behind your main hero with you at an over-the-shoulder perspective, just far enough away to see the guns flogging the enemy in full HD. Pieces of the environment may well be falling away while you crouch behind them, enemies may well be 10 times the size of your own character’s body, and you might well find this to be one of the more difficult games you’ve ever played on Android, especially if you’re used to only console controllers.
Look a whole lot different to you? What we know now is that this game is ready to become the next-level experience you’ve been waiting for on Android, and come late 2011, NVIDIA will only be bringing the fire again with their Quad-core chip the Tegra 3 – or is it Penta-core, or is it called Kal-El, or is it Superman?! We’ll just have to wait and see! Mobile computing to the rescue!
In one foul swoop, it appears the the folks at Madfinger and NVIDIA have crushed the rest of Android with a game that takes the platform to a whole new level of gaming intensity. We got to check this game out earlier this month in its pre-release state, and today’s the day the full version is released on the Android Market and through the official NVIDIA Tegra Zone. Is your Android rough and tough enough to bust a cap in a bunch of mutants, robots, and mutant robot hybrids? It all depends on if your processor is a Tegra! Ours is, right here on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, and we’re going hands-on again now with the final build.
What you’ll notice about this game right out of the box is that while there’s only a few controls, the game is certainly not simple. You’ll be solving puzzles, doing mini-hacks, targeting your enemy from yards away, and making sure you’re not fragged along the way. Like any good shooter you’ve got weapons falling on the ground for you to pick up and toss back at the enemy full force, you’ve got blood spewing from your guts whenever you get a bullet in the belly, and the entire game, unlike most good shooters – and it appears in SPITE of them too, is entirely touch-based.
This game sits you behind your main hero with you at an over-the-shoulder perspective, just far enough away to see the guns flogging the enemy in full HD. Pieces of the environment may well be falling away while you crouch behind them, enemies may well be 10 times the size of your own character’s body, and you might well find this to be one of the more difficult games you’ve ever played on Android, especially if you’re used to only console controllers.
Look a whole lot different to you? What we know now is that this game is ready to become the next-level experience you’ve been waiting for on Android, and come late 2011, NVIDIA will only be bringing the fire again with their Quad-core chip the Tegra 3 – or is it Penta-core, or is it called Kal-El, or is it Superman?! We’ll just have to wait and see! Mobile computing to the rescue!
Adidas has unveiled a new fitness tracker called the miCoach SPEED_CELL that can capture information from motion in every direction. This feature will make it useful for athletes in all types of sports, beyond just runners. At the moment, most fitness trackers such as Nike+, are geared towards running with one-directional metrics.
The miCoach SPEED_CELL is designed to help improve individual performance for athletes in a broad range of sports, including soccer, football, basketball, tennis, and running. It lets each user track their unique stats such as average speed, maximum speed, number of sprints, distance at high intensity levels, steps, and strides during play. Up to seven hours of data can be stored onboard the SPEED_CELL to be wirelessly transferred later to a smartphone, tablet, or PC.
The device fits in a specially designed cavity in the outsole of compatible Adidas footwear. The company intends to introduce a full range of compatible sneakers for basketball, football, and tennis starting later this year through 2012. The device itself will cost $69.99 and will launch with a series of apps, starting with miCoach Soccer and miCoach Running, on December 1.
Is that chicken dipped in gold? No, but it sure looks like it is, and because it was sprayed that way with what The Deli Garage calls Food Finish, it’s completely safe to eat, too. Ever wanted the Midas touch, and not just with your household appliances, with all of your tasty treats as well? That time has come, ladies and gentlemen, and although you can’t quite buy this spray here in the USA yet due to some sort of shipping regulations, you can sit in wait while the spray gains popularity internationally.
This spray is amazing, comes in several lovely colors, and is both without odor and without taste. Food Finish is what it’s called, and it was developed by a group called The Deli Garage in collaboration with a small food factory that generally specializes in high-quality fine pastries with otherwise also-odd food colorings. And before you ask – yes, more than likely if you spray this stuff on a wall, it’ll wash off if you lick it. But don’t quote me on that. The Snozberries taste like Snozberries.
Right this minute there are four colors, each of them sort of chrome-like, red and blue, then the obvious gold and silver. Right this minute you can pick up a single can for approximately $34 USD plus whatever shipping ends up being. Of course, again, they’re only available in parts of Europe, and again, you can’t get them shipped to the USA. Also I’ve been told by a close associate of mine that we don’t know everything there is to know yet about regular food coloring and dyes, so I wouldn’t truly recommend using these sprays without taking them to the science labs first.
According to a report from Japanese publication Weekly Famitsu, the web browser on Sony’s next-generation portable gaming device, the PlayStation Vita, will not support Adobe Flash at launch. It will support cookies, JavaScript 1.7, and some HTML5, but Flash didn’t make the list. Also not supported are Game Archives that include classic PlayStation One games.
The lack of Flash support at launch isn’t too surprising since Sony’s PSP also did not support flash initially. But that device did not get an update to support Flash until over a year after it launched. With the current anti-Flash movement, the Vita’s Flash support may come just as slowly in the form of a firmware update, if at all.
The PS Vita was first unveiled at E3 2011 and features a 5-inch touchscreen display along with an additional touchpad control on the backside. The device sports dual cameras, dual analog sticks, GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi. It’s set to go on sale in Japan on December 17, launching with 26 game titles, and will be released in North America and Europe on February 22.
Here we have the smallest smartphone to carry the legendary EVO namesake, and with a 4-inch S-LCD display with qHD resolution and price tag of under $100 right out of the gate, we’ve got to wonder if this is the perfect package for petite palms. Android 2.3 Gingerbread is powered by a 1.2Ghz single-core processor from Qualcomm, all inside a smartphone that’s a scant 4.80 x 2.40 x 0.50 inches in size. It’s tall, it’s substantial, and it’s made to be your everyday hand-sized EVO at an inexpensive price.
First have a look at this device in-hand as it was given the hands-on treatment by yours truly a few days ago. Look how nicely it looks in the hand!
Hardware
First of all, the display on this device is sharp. It’s not just sharp, it’s qHD sharp – have a look back at our unboxing and hands-on with this device to see all the comparisons you could possibly want between the original EVO and this EVO Design – note that the amount of pixels are the same even thought the display size has been reduced in size. That means that the pixels are might tightly packed, resulting in some excellent sharpness.
The EVO Design has both soft plastic and metal along the back, the bottom being able to be popped off with a LOT of effort for you to be able to access the battery, the SIM card, and the microSD card slot which comes packed with an 8GB card right out of the box. You also get 4GB of built-in storage, 768 MB RAM, and on the front and back you’ve got cameras, one 1.3 megapixel camera and one 5 megapixel camera, the back with a single LED flash for all your dark dwelling subject matter.
This device, as I’ve mentioned above, is suited for either a petite hand seeking a smartphone that seems the same large size as every other Android device holding person in the world gets, or for the regular Android lover hoping for a feel similar to that of an iPhone, just sitting there perfectly shaped for the inner part of the palm. This device again is 4.80 x 2.40 x 0.50 inches while the iPhone 4S is 4.54 x 2.31 x 0.37 inches – rather comparable if I do say so myself.
Software
Though this device does not have the newest version of Sense, still working with Sense 3.0 yet appearing very much to have the majority of the features that make that most updated version of the HTC user interface great. There’s the ring-pull unlock screen, the complete customizability of aesthetics you should be used to from several versions of Sense, and that all-powerful clock and weather widget that makes HTC devices look so very professional and well made, right there front and center.
As far as its ability to please on a processor level, this device does outdo smartphones of generations past in benchmark tests, but can’t quite add up to the dual-core processor packing collection of superphones that are out today. That said, you won’t find this device skipping a beat for normal everyday tasks, and only the most power-hungry games and apps will be showing their want here with the single-core Qualcomm. The average user shouldn’t worry a bit.
Check out a couple of benchmarks here and know the truth.
Camera
The camera on the back of the device is a 5-megapixel rated single-LED flash having shooter that’s capable of capturing 720p HD video, while the front-facing camera is 1.3 megapixels and is really only good for video chat. Have a look below at a single photo example with several other photos in the gallery at the bottom of this post showing off the camera’s photo abilities. Also see a 720p video below the photo to see how the HD video turns out.
Battery
This device appears to be part of the next generation of battery saving miracle devices because even though the 1520 mAh battery is rated at 6 hours of use, standby on this device is fantastic. What you’re seeing in the image below is the device having not been used for much of anything for over 24 hours.
Looks good!
Wrap-up
This device isn’t going to be the next step for you if you’re looking to upgrade from the previous EVO or especially the EVO 3D since its processor takes the EVO Design to the cleaners, but without comparing to the rest of its close family, this device isn’y half bad. Like the rest of the HTC line, this device is extremely high quality and made not only to last but to function perfectly well through at least the 2-year contract period you’ll have to sign up for. Not only that, this device takes HTC’s design evolution and adds just a couple of unique cues that make this little monster look pretty neat – and it’s quite comfortable to use as well.
Have a look at the gallery below, the images above, and the video of the hands-on and unboxing to see what you think of this device. If there’s any questions you’ve got that I’ve not answered here, feel free to ask below and I’ll do my best to answer.
We’ve all been there. An all-night session of Team Fortress 2 or Borderlands. An epic raid in World of Warcraft. A no-holds-barred, winner take all showdown in Yu-Gi-Oh Online. If you’re in the bad habit of spilling your over-caffinated gaming fuel all over your expensive inputs, then AZiO’s Levetron Mech4 keyboard might just be for you. Its spill-proof drainage design is a lot like high-end Lenovo Thinkpads, allowing you to power though a Level 4 Sprite disaster and keep racking up the headshots.
A resistance to all things liquid isn’t the only brights spot for the Mech4. Its mechanical Cherry MX Black keys give that satisfying click-clack that gamers are so eager for these days, and a modular design allows you to configure the number pad and a removable 6-key macro board to your liking. Lefties will appreciate the either-or style, and the sliding rail on the top of the function row matches the Picatinny mounting system on your favorite Battlefield 3 rifle. The keyboard doesn’t just look tough – AZiO is claiming a 50 million keystroke lifecycle for each switch.
Naturally the key macros and functions are customizable, with a two-function switch next to the Escape key. Since no l33t gamer setup is complete without a little bling, the volume controls and left macros feature LED lighting. AZiO has set the price at a reasonable $109.99 (for a mechanical gaming keyboard, anyway) and you can pick one up at online retailers CyberPowerPC or NCIX.
Here’s some strange bedfellows: Mozilla and Microsoft. The developers of the open-source favorite have released “Firefox with Bing“, a modified version of Firefox 7 that features Microsoft’s branded search engine integrated into its services and interface. Current Firefox users who want to “upgrade” their experience can download a Bing add-on that does the same thing.
Long-time Firefox users may feel a little strange using the different version. The browser’s “Awesome Bar” and search bar has defaulted to Google for years. Mozilla’s contract with Google, which pays the open-source developer a minute amount for every search that originates from the search bar, is up for renewal next month – maybe they’re looking for a little leverage. For Microsoft’s part, they seem thrilled to offer their services: “We are excited to make it even easier for members of the Mozilla Firefox community to use Bing,” said employee Tor Steiner.
If you’re at the intersection of the Bing/Firefox Venn diagram, you’ll be happy to know that Firefox with Bing works with all current themes and add-ons. You can even – gasp! – add Google or other search engines to Firefox with Bing, if you’d like to try your best to destroy the Internet from the comfort of your laptop. Or you could, you know, just use Internet Explorer. Version 9 is actually pretty okay.
We got a glimpse at the upcoming Dell Latitude ST earlier this week, and now the company has outed the juicy hardware details for all. Like the rest of the Latitude line, the ST tablet is aimed at business users, even if a 10.1-inch tablet is something we’re not entirely used to in that space. The slate runs a full version of Windows 7 with enterprise-class customizations and some targeted accessories, detailed in the official pics below.
Resolution is a roomy 1366 x 768 on the small screen, and the tablet runs on a1.5GHz Atom Z670: economical, if not particularly brawny. 2GB of DDR2 RAM is about the minimum needed to run Windows 7 effectively, but an SSD that maxes out at 128 gigabytes should make for some speedy boot-ups and load times. WiFi comes standard, and Dell says that they’ll release a 3G version at some point. Dell is claiming 8 hours of battery life, and the tablet has dual front and rear cameras. Dock and keyboard accessories will launch with the tablet, and expandability comes in the form of USB, SD and HDMI ports. An upgrade to the tablet-friendly Windows 8 isn’t currently in the cards, though the company says that it will release Windows 8 tablets at some point.
Business users are the target market here, and while the ST will be made available to consumers, it comes pre-loaded with software to put a twinkle in the eye of your friendly neighborhood IT manager. Compatibility with VMware and Citrix virtualization is included, as is remote management software. The Latitude ST goes on sale November 1st. Dell didn’t mention a price, but considering HP’s Slate 500 tablet competes in the same (small) market, expect an MSRP below $1000.
For an official look at the ST in action, check out Dell’s video below:
Sony has bought out Ericsson’s stake in Sony Ericsson, giving the Japanese company sole control over the smartphone manufacturer. The deal, worth €1.05bn ($1.47bn) in cash to Ericsson, will see Sony bring the smartphone business in under its networked consumer electronics umbrella, a shift which the company describes as “a logical strategic step that takes into account the nature of [the mobile market] evolution and its impact on the marketplace.”
Sony’s intention had been leaked earlier this month, with the deal then tipped to be worth between $1.3bn and $1.7bn for Ericsson. The two companies will continue to work together, planning to set up a joint initiative designed to promote wireless connectivity. However, Ericsson’s overall “focus is on the global wireless market as a whole” Sony says.
“The transaction gives Sony an opportunity to rapidly integrate smartphones into its broad array of network-connected consumer electronics devices – including tablets, televisions and personal computers – for the benefit of consumers and the growth of its business. The transaction also provides Sony with a broad intellectual property (IP) cross-licensing agreement covering all products and services of Sony as well as ownership of five essential patent families relating to wireless handset technology” Sony
Meanwhile, the buy-out gives Sony a valuable haul of patents, handy things to have when the smartphone and tablet market is embroiled in legal sparring over which company invented what. Although the exact patents involved aren’t detailed, Sony describes it as “a broad IP cross-licensing agreement and ownership of five essential patent families.”
“With a vibrant smartphone business and by gaining access to important strategic IP, notably a broad cross-license agreement, our four-screen strategy is in place. We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment. This includes Sony's own acclaimed network services, like the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network” Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, Sony
The acquisition is expected to close in January 2012, subject to relevant approvals. Sony Ericsson had previously announced that its 2012 focus is to be smartphones.
Apple is a company that has been so successful in the technology realm that it’s hard to believe just how well the company has done over the years. One of the most successful products that Apple has produced in a very long time is the iconic iPad. The iPad is by far the most popular tablet in the world today and according to the biography of the late Steve Jobs, he first wanted Intel to power the iPad.
According to the book in the early days of the Intel partnership that saw Intel’s chips land in Apple notebooks and desktops, Jobs had planned for the Atom processor to power the iPad. Jobs was apparently set for a time on the Atom processor for the tablet even though Apple exec Tony Fadell thought that Apple should go with an ARM chip for its tablet. ARM chips power most smartphones and tablets today thanks in part to their power sipping nature whereas the Atom chips are still not as power efficient.
Eventually Fadell’s ARM point of view won Jobs over. Jobs according to the biography had a number of complaints about Intel. One of the big complaints Jobs made was that Intel was a “steamship” and Apple was used to going fast. Jobs also complained that Intel was “not very flexible” and their “graphics suck” according to the book. It seems that what might be the biggest reason that Apple didn't team with Intel is the fact that Jobs feared they would teach Intel “everything” and then Intel would go and sell to their competitors. Ultimately, Apple purchased its own chip companies and made the A4 and A5 processors that are inside the iOS devices today.
YouTube is one of the most heavily visited video streaming channels on the internet. For a long time YouTube has been working hard to get more professional content on its site to help attract more advertisers. One of the ways it has done this so far is by getting streaming movie and music video deals in place with movie and music makers.
YouTube is also looking to make video channels on its site and according to people familiar with the matter; the video streaming site is “close” to announcing the video channels. The source claims that the video channels could be announced as early as next week and that several partnerships for content on the channels are in place with media outlets and well-known personalities.
The WSJ reports that some of the partners that are expected to be supplying content for the channels include IAC/InterActiveCorp Electus, FreemantleMedia Ltd, and ShineRevellie. Other personalities said to be supplying the channel include Tony Hawk, Anthony Zuiker (the creator of CSI) and more. Google is reportedly spending $100 million in advances to get the content for the channels into production. Once the content is in place, the YouTube site is expected to be reorganized into a channel centric layout.
Like many geeks today, we have a soft spot for tablets. Not just any tablet mind you, only tablets that are cool. The new Asus Transformer Prime tablet is certainly cool and the tablet has turned up in some new pictures. The new pics show the tablet with a new keyboard dock. We don't have all the details on the Transformer Prime at this point, but we do have a bunch of rumors about what the tablet will have inside.
The Prime is expected to sport a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip inside and run the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS. The tablet has an aluminum frame and the big feature is the keyboard dock that turns the tablet into a notebook so you can type faster and more comfortably. The keyboard the dock uses appears to be your standard Asus fare with chicklet keys and an irritatingly small right shift key.
Other things about the tablet include a 10-inch screen, audio ports, micro-HDMI output and a microSD card slot. The official announcement and full specs of the machine are expected on November 9. I hope the tablet lives up to the rumors and doesn't cost a fortune, it looks pretty cool.
Nokia has reconfirmed that it has no plans to launch either the Lumia 800 or Lumia 710 in the US, despite the new low-end Windows Phone making an appearance on the company’s US site. Speaking to SlashGear on day two of Nokia World 2011 today, Nokia execs reiterated that the company plans an entirely distinct line-up of Windows Phones for the US market, expected to launch in Q1 2012.
Speculation about the company’s handset intentions in North America had begun after the Lumia 710 made an appearance on the Nokia USA site, complete with the tagline “Designed for you.” However, rather than being a teaser for a surprise launch of the mid-range Windows Phone, Nokia described the site change as an “error”: it had intended to post product pages of both Lumia devices, though only to give US consumers “an idea of what they could expect,” and indeed the Lumia 800 product page should go live on the US site sometime today.
Instead, US would-be Nokia supporters will have to hold out for the new year, though there’s the possibility of LTE to keep them keen. CEO Stephen Elop confirmed that the firm was looking at including high-speed 4G connectivity specifically to cater to US carriers.
Unfortunately, early-adopters hoping to import a Lumia 710 or 800 will be disappointed if they expect the pentaband radio support that has been common on Nokia’s recent Symbian devices. Instead, the two new Windows Phones support triband UMTS/WCDMA only. More on the two devices in our Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 hands-on coverage.
One of the coolest Android phones to surface in the last few months is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. If you are wanting to get your hands on one as soon as you can you need to hop over to Verizon and hit the Galaxy Nexus sign up page. Once registered Samsung will send you emails about the smartphone telling you when the phone will be available.
Verizon is going to be the exclusive provider for the Galaxy Nexus smartphone. One interesting fact about the Galaxy Nexus is that this will be the first of the Samsung Nexus smartphones to be offered on Verizon. There have been some details leaked about the new phone already and one of them points to a price of $299 with a new contract. That will make it one of the more expensive smartphones out there.
The device will be the first to pack Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich inside. Hardware features include a 4.65-inch 720p Super AMOLED screen, a 1.2GHz processor with dual-cores, and support for 4G LTE networks. That 4G LTE support was confirmed last week. We have been hands on with the Galaxy Nexus already so check that out if you want more details.
Netflix may be losing subscribers and trying to decide on renting games to its customers, but the service still consumes a ton of bandwidth on the internet. A new report that was published recently called the 2011 Sandvine Internet Phenomena Report found that the streaming video service gobbles up a full 32% of the peak internet bandwidth. That is a lot of bandwidth despite losing 800,000 subscribers.
Other than Netflix, the top four largest internet services in North America combined account for 64.4% of all network traffic online. Those services include Netflix, HTTP, YouTube, and BitTorrent. VentureBeat reports that the video streaming service portion of Netflix alone consumes 28% of all bandwidth used across the US.
Along with some details on the bandwidth consumed by Netflix also comes the note that internet traffic is rapidly shifting from desktop devices like PCs to web connected devices like the set top box, game consoles, smartphones, and tablets. Today only 45% of internet traffic is delivered via fix networks to notebooks and desktops. The rest of the traffic is from mobile devices over wireless networks.
Google’s Street View section of Google Maps has landed the search giant in hot water on more than one occasion. Not only have some taken offense to what they deem privacy issues with putting the photos online, the Street View fleet was also grabbing unsecured WiFi data in some areas. Google has added a new service to Street View in some areas.
The new service allows the users of Street View to trek down the streets as usual and some businesses along the way have had their interiors photographed. This allows the user to go from the street directly into the inside of the business and look around. Google isn’t just sending its photographers into random stores to take photos though.
The business has to sign up to have the inside of their store photographed. Google also asks the store to warn customers that photos will be taken on that day. Google also notes that it will blur faces or just not put the photos up if people are in them. Some fear that the photos will make it easier for criminals to “case” a business before a robbery. I don't think that is a big risk for most businesses.
Back early in October we mentioned that Microsoft was leaning on HTC and Samsung to dig deep into the marketing budget to promote their Windows Phone smartphones. It doesn’t seem that Microsoft had to do much leaning at all to get Nokia to dig deep to market its new Windows Phone packing Lumina 800 and other devices in the series. Nokia plans to kick off a marketing blitz that will make it hard for consumers to not know about its smartphones.
Nokia has unveiled the interesting Lumina 800 smartphone this week and the device looks really good. It will launch next month in Europe, but it will be early 2012 before the smartphone hits the US. Elop has said already that Nokia plans to spend big on marketing. According to Elop, Nokia will spend three times as much marketing the Lumina series launch than it has spent on other launches.
CCS Insight London analyst Ben Wood has said that consumers won’t be able to “turn a corner, look at a TV or surf the web” without seeing an ad for Nokia. It makes sense that Nokia would spend big, if its tie up with Microsoft and Mango fails this could be the end of Nokia. Nokia has been hard hit with share in the vital high-end smartphone market plummeting under pressure from Android and the iPhone.
Earlier this month the network behind the popular Blackberry messaging service was out for days leaving users of Blackberry smartphones with no access to email, IM, and web surfing. RIM admitted at the time it had no idea what was causing the outage, but hacking was not the cause. After the service came back, RIM tried to soothe angry customers with free apps.
Free apps may have made some users feel better about the long outage, but for others free apps weren’t the answer. Reuters reports that RIM has now been hit with a class action suit over the extended outage. The suit was filed Wednesday against RIM in a court in Santa Ana, California. The suit was filed on behalf of all Blackberry users in the US that had a service agreement for BBM services during the outage.
The suit alleges that RIM breached contract and claims negligence and unjust enrichment. A similar suit was filed in Canada on behalf of all Canadian Blackberry users. I suspect that we will see similar suits filed in other countries as well. The main plaintiff in the US suit is a man named Eric Mitchell from California. The suit claims the man had an implied contract with Blackberry even though the fees for the service were paid through Sprint.
The smart TV realm is growing with lots of consumers opting for TVs that can access the web to get content from channels like YouTube, Netflix and lots more. Hisense and eyeSight have announced a partnership that will see the two firms bring the first Android smart TV to market that has integrated gesture recognition tech inside.
The agreement will result in three Hisense TVs hitting the market with gesture control capability right out of the box. The eyeSight SDK has been integrated into the TVs and presumably. I wonder if apps to support the gesture control can be designed by devs for these TVs. The first model that will come to market is the Series XT710.
This TV landed in China on October 1. The TV has a 2D camera inside and the gestures can be made directly in front of the camera for control. Gestures for basic TV functions are included and the goal is to allow the viewer the ability to control the set without having to search for a remote. There is no word right now on availability in other countries.
Nokia is particularly proud of the photographic abilities of its smartphones, and so when they said we could borrow of Lumia 800 here at Nokia World to test out the 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, we thought we’d take it for a spin. Since we also had an iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy S II weighing down our pockets, it only seemed fair to shoot a few comparison shots as well. Check out how they hold up, plus a 720p HD video sample from the Lumia 800, after the cut.
There’s plenty to like about photos from the Lumia 800. Colors are accurate and images are bright and crisp. Focusing is crisp: you can either touch to focus, which also captures the frame, or press and hold the camera shortcut button (unfortunately not a two-stage key) and have the Lumia center-focus. All the shots in the gallery below are unedited, straight from the camera, and some have counterpart shots taken on the Apple and Samsung phones.
Nokia Lumia 800 sample photos:
Apple iPhone 4S sample photos:
Samsung Galaxy S II sample photos:
Video, meanwhile, is solid. We were filming in tricky conditions for a phone sensor, with generally low illumination and some odd blue LED lighting that could easily trick up a lesser camera. The Lumia 800 managed to handle that reasonably well, without resorting to using the dual-LED flash as a video light. There’s quite a bit of noise and speckling, especially when we dip into the paint spinner toward the end of the clip, but it doesn’t descend into murkiness and shades of grey. Audio capture is impressive, picking up both operator and subject voices. Don’t forget to choose 720p in the video below to see it at full quality.
Sprint is taking a beating in the third spot behind AT&T and Verizon in the US. As the third place carrier bleeds subscribers in droves it opted to pay heavily to Apple to and the iPhone 4S in hopes the smartphone would win customers back. The carrier promised unlimited data with its iPhone to woo customers tired of throttling and overage charges to its network.
Apparently, the massive investment that Sprint made in the iPhone has left it in a bad spot financially. Reuters reports that Sprint has said it needs $7 billion in new financing over the next “few years” to shore up operations after the heavy iPhone 4S investment and for network upgrade plans. That big network upgrade would be the updating of its 4G networks to LTE rather than WiMax.
Reuters also reports that Sprint has promised to pay Apple $15.5 billion over the next four years for the iPhone. I have to wonder if the carrier might go broke while selling the iPhone and gaining customers. It doesn’t plan for the money made from the iPhone to exceed its costs of getting the device until 2015. As of now the Sprint market cap is $7 billion.
Day two of Nokia World 2011, and Nokia loaned us a new Lumia 800 to get to grips with at the show. We couldn’t help but pit the Lumia 800 against two of its key rivals – Apple’s iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy S II – to see how the browser holds up. With many smartphone users spending a huge amount of their mobile time on the web, that’s a key element of the owner experience. Read on for our comparison videos and more.
Apple was keen to point out the speed of its browser technology with the iOS 5 upgrade at the launch of the iPhone 4S, and we were seriously impressed by how quickly it rendered and loaded pages in our iPhone 4S review. Side-by-side with the Lumia 800, that optimization is clear. With the cache cleared and each on the same WiFi connection, the iPhone 4S led the way to the mobile version of the SlashGear homepage, the Nokia a few seconds behind. It was the same loading the full version of SlashGear, with Apple’s handset pulling ahead of the Nokia. It looks as though Internet Explorer on the Lumia 800 does some of its rendering in the background, before showing the results on-screen, and so we were often able to begin reading first on the iPhone before each page finished loading.
Nokia Lumia 800 vs iPhone 4S browser load speed test
Moving to the Galaxy S II, Samsung’s smartphone certainly brought the most power to the table (sorry – Chris says 1GHz in the video, but the dual-core Exynos in the GSII runs at 1.2GHz). We first tested with the Samsung browser set to load Flash on-demand (neither Windows Phone nor iOS support Flash, unlike Android). Head-to-head, the Galaxy S II brought up both SlashGear and Android Community slightly faster than the Lumia. Surprisingly, pages loaded slightly slower on the Galaxy S II when plug-ins like Flash were set not to run.
Nokia Lumia 800 vs Galaxy SII browser load speed test
All three browsers have pinch-zoom, which worked smoothly, as well as text reflowing. Once loaded, page navigation was smooth across the board. The differences in rendering will, of course, be very much dependent on the connection you have at the time – if you’re on EDGE or 3G, for instance – and so this side-by-side performance shouldn’t be seen as the final word on how the Lumia 800 handles browsing. Still, we’d like to see Nokia and Microsoft polish up the web experience on Windows Phone some.
Be sure to check out the rest of SlashGear’s coverage of Nokia World 2011 here.
When you have a giant server farm that handles tons of traffic like the ones Facebook operates, the cost of keeping all that hardware cool is massive. Facebook has plans to build its latest massive server farm a mere 62 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The giant server farm will reportedly be installed in a facility located in Lulea in northern Sweden.
The reason the chilly location was chosen is one of cooling and money. The cold climate will allow Facebook to chill its servers using nothing but forced air. The average temperature in the city is 35.6F and hasn't gone over 86F for more than 24 hours since 1961. The Facebook server farm will be gigantic.
Telegraph.co.uk reports that the massive facility will be built in three buildings covering an entire area the size of three football fields. I would assume that since Telegraph is a UK site, they mean soccer fields as far as Americans are concerned. The cold air in the city will help keep costs down, but the costs of running the facility for power alone will be gigantic. The cost for power alone is estimated to be £45M yearly. You have to love the resolve of the person in the photo driving the Mustang in ice and snow.
The Blackberry PlayBook has been a sales disappointment for RIM since it was launched. Consumers simply didn't buy the tablet and those that did aren’t happy that the Playbook lacks the basic features that you expect in a tablet like email and others. RIM recently confirmed that the Playbook OS 2.0 wouldn’t come until February 2012 bringing email and Android app support to the tablet.
To help spur the purchase of the Playbook by consumers retail partners have been hacking significant amounts off the price to lure buyers away from other tablets. The Register reports that in the US, prices had as much as $200 chopped off and sellers in the UK are offering £150 discounts. Despite the significant discounts, RIM still hasn’t been able to get consumers to purchase the Playbook.
The discounts did spur a slight uplift in sales, but overall sales are still disappointing. Perhaps sales of the Playbook will pick up early next year when the 2.0 OS lands and the tablet gets some of the basic features it is lacking without connecting to a Blackberry Smartphone. RIM has so far denied any plans to discontinue the Playbook, but if OS 2.0 fails to lure new buyers, the tablet can't continue as it is now for much longer.
Google has offered the numbers it paid for two of its more recent purchases in a regulatory filing this week. The two purchases are the buy of Zagat Survey LLC and Daily Deals GmbH. According to the filing, the purchase of Zagat cost Google $151 million. That is a lot of money for a restaurant review service. Google plans to integrate the data into its Google Maps results.
With the Zagat details, the user of Google Maps can find places to eat while traveling and see the Zagat reviews right along with the map details. Google has also purchased Daly Deals, which was previously a privately held company. There are only two of the purchases Google has made in 2011. So far, the company has spent $1.44 billion on acquisitions in 2011.
Bloomberg reports that Google has made 57 acquisitions and purchases of other assets so far in 2011. The biggest purchase so far was the ITA Software buy for $676 million in cash. The purchase of Motorola Mobility will dwarf that amount thought when it completes with a cost of $12.5 billion. The purchases seem to be fine by investors too; the stock price went up $3.15 cents today to $586.31 per share. The stock has fallen 1.3% this year.
I don’t know about you, but I had no idea that every moon rock in the country was considered to be government property. I can recall as a kid the local planetarium selling what they claimed to be moon rocks for $5 each. One elderly woman apparently tried to sell a chunk of moon rock her husband left her when he died and ended up the target of a NASA and law enforcement sting.
The sting was made in a southern California restaurant. The 73-year-old woman was the target of a sting with the goal of catching the woman selling government property. The woman is Joann Davis who was trying to sell the stone to leave an inheritance for her kids and help her sick son. The tiny piece of moon rock was said to be smaller than a grain of rice and encased in what appeared to be a paperweight.
Davis says that Neil Armstrong gave the tiny piece of rock to her husband, who was an engineer for North American Rockwell in the 60′s. She maintains that the rock was her legal property though NASA says that all of the lunar rocks were gathered by the Apollo missions and are therefore government property. Apparently, Davis had said in the past that she would sell the rock for big money on the underground market, seemingly acknowledging she could not sell the rock on the open market. Davis has claimed she was so scared that she lost control of her bladder and was left with bruises from the law enforcement officer’s rough handling of her.
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Apple is a company that has been so successful in the technology realm that it’s hard to believe just how well the company has done over the years. One of the most successful products that Apple has produced in a very long time is the iconic iPad. The iPad is by far the most popular tablet in the world today and according to the biography of the late Steve Jobs, he first wanted Intel to power the iPad.
Once famous as the Galaxy Mini Android smartphone Samsung's low-end, Samsung is now trying to release a low-end smartphone that ca...
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