Crunch Tech News

2016-10-18T01:28:00.002-07:00

Latest technology: KFA2 GTX 460 WHDI – world’s first wireless graphics card Read more: Latest technology: KFA2 GTX 460 WHDI – world’s first wireless

2011-01-16T22:04:00.000-08:00

As the technology develops, we’re seeing more and more wireless devices, and if you’re into wireless devices we have a special treat for you – you’re looking at the world’s first wireless graphics card!

That’s right, KFA2 GTX 460 WHDI is the first wireless graphic card in the world that comes with no display outputs. Instead, this card houses five WiFi antennas, and it comes with a special receiver. In order to use this card, you just have to connect the receiver to your desired display and you’re good to go. Using these five antennas, this latest invention is capable of delivers high quality HD video for any type of displays. We should also mention that this card has a range of 30 meters and that WHDI standard supports HDCP 2.0, so it can route protected content with no package loss.

Google Changes Its Rank Algorithm In Response To DecorMyEyes Story

2010-12-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

photo © 2007 Yahoo! Blog | more info(via: Wylio)Over Thanksgiving weekend a New York Times story, “A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web” clued a lot of people in to some of the drawbacks of Google PageRank. Negative attention online and complaint links from customer service sites like Get Satisfaction can actually be a benefit to business as in the problematic case of online retailer DecorMyEyes.

The Times piece followed DecorMyEyes customer Clarabelle Rodriguez as she suffered online and offline harassment from DecorMyEyes founder Vitaly Borker, all in the name of improving his Google search rankings. While I saw that DecorMyEyes had dropped in the Google rankings for eyewear related searches like “La Font”directly after the piece went out, it was only a matter of time before Google did something official.

From the Google blog:

“We were horrified to read about Ms. Rodriguez’s dreadful experience. Even though our initial analysis pointed to this being an edge case and not a widespread problem in our search results, we immediately convened a team that looked carefully at the issue. That team developed an initial algorithmic solution, implemented it, and the solution is already live. I am here to tell you that being bad is, and hopefully will always be, bad for business in Google’s search results.”

The Google post then goes on to outline the different ways the search engine could have solved the “Bad to customers = Good for PageRank” problem, by either blocking or using sentiment analysis to pull sites with a lot of negative comments down in the rankings. Using sentiment analysis in search rank is tricky however, because it would also pull down sites about unpopular politicians and controversial issues like abortion.

Instead of using either of those two solutions to account for cases like the one described in the New York Times article, Google instead compiled a list of hundreds of merchants (including DecorMyEyes) that provided “bad user experience” and algorithmically forced them lower.

This is obviously not a foolproof method and Google admits that people might be able to find a another loophole in ranking algorithms sometime in the future. But for now customers who use Google search for shopping, and Google’s public image, are just a little bit safer

The Good Old Days

2010-11-28T20:56:00.000-08:00

Stream of consciousness you say? Trying to find something on what used to be called the Internet is now officially a full time job. It’s not so much that various media strategies and hardware devices have carved things up into a tangle. It’s that what passes for interesting has been shorn of a reliable index in the move toward social filtering. We’re not there yet, the message seems to be. Is there a there there we are going to get to? Not clear.

Navigating Apple TV and its various peeks into the presumed future has been a valuable waste of time. For $100 plus an HDMI cable I get to sample various media dead ends including NetFlix, iTunes rental, buy, and streaming options, YouTube, and other stuff I can’t remember right now. In the past, I would have spent more time testing the work arounds for adding podcasts and ripped music to broaden the choices, but something about the device suggests we’re in such a rapid shakeout it might be easier to wait.

But for what? Google TV seems caught in little brother mode behind the next loser tablet wave. What ultimate value is there in trading Apple’s dead ends for another set of second rate dead ends? The idea that we can replace the aggregate value of the Hollywood studio system with some loose coalition of rag tag revolutionary product ignores the tendency for the avant-garde to go mainstream. At some point, having everything work from one device is the best way of killing any possible interest in what’s available.

We’re getting to the same place in the social software sweepstakes too, and I have Rackmouth to thank for it. In a recent update, Facebook messages are now randomly popping up with messages (I think) from everyone who I’ve “friended” since the dawn of time. Sometimes these chicklets or toasters or requestors as they used to be called or badges as they might now be called come 30 at a time, staying onscreen just long enough for me to miss any one of them as I scan. It’s like a dream where I keep trying to figure something out and keep getting distracted by another thing I never quite figure out before….

The new Twitter clients perpetuate this feeling of never quite catching up, of clicking from one random comment to a full stream of comments by some random person. The metadata and inferences surrounding each identity are becoming the way we know each other. If you want to know who this person is like, follow these people and see what they are interested in. Good luck ever finding your way back to the original comment or person, however. It’s probably better to wait until they pop up again randomly.

Switching media helps a little. While watching conventional TV last night, I saw an ad for Kindle books that pointed out you could continue reading a purchase you bought on the iPhone over on an Android phone or a Blackberry or whatever. When we have twenty loser tablets to also choose from, we’ll be that much happier. In other words, they’re selling against the pain of Apple TV, Roku, Google TV, etc., promising you the respite of universal access to a good old book.

This is where the mainstream is going, selling escape from the business of hunting down content across overlapping silos. And it’s going to work too. Like the enterprise players understand, it’s the maintenance contract that will provide the most durable relationship. It’s almost as though these guys are in league together, making it so difficult to own anything that you’ll be grateful for a smaller menu of choices that are streamed at you no matter what device you’re on. This is the new shelf space, the guaranteed mediocrity of the new common denominator.

Eventually, after waiting a while to hear from that interesting new friend who had something ephemerally clever to say, after surviving the NetFlix window or the network boycott of whichever device I have already collected, I will go back to my various bookshelves or @mentions or aging bookmarks and find something interesting to do. Even though I know the stream is littered with the as yet undiscovered time waster of tomorrow, I’m confident a careful sort of yesterday’s rejects will turn up something. It’s only in retrospect we realize these are the good old days.

Want An iPod Nano Watch? So Does Everyone. Idea Poised To Be New Kickstarter King

2010-11-24T23:45:00.000-08:00

We’ve talked a lot about Diaspora, the open-source Facebook-alternative, in recent months. One of the reasons for that is the massive success they had raising money on the crowdsourced fund-raising site, Kickstarter. The project raised over $200,000 from nearly 6,500 backers in just 39 days. Now a new project has already blown that tally out of the water: an iPod nano-based multi-touch wristwatch.

Scott Wilson, the founder of Chicago-based product and design studio, MINIMAL, set out with an idea: to create two watch enclosures for Apple’s latest iPod nano. He wanted the TikTok to be a low-end model ($35) and the LunaTik to be high-end ($70). So he put his project on Kickstarter with a goal of raising $15,000. So how is he doing?

Well, he’s raised $341,895. And he still has 22 days to go.

Wow.

Wilson’s project has not only blown past the high-profile Diaspora one, it’s poised to demolish the all-time funding leader, the Save Blue Like Jazz movie. That project raised $345,992 when it closed on October 25. Wilson’s project should pass it tomorrow, if not tonight after I publish this post.

And with good reason. While the idea is a simple one (Apple CEO Steve Jobs even joked about such an idea on stage to highlight how small the nano is), but it’s something a lot of people clearly want. The project has 4,636 backers so far. And the video Wilson made to accompany the project (below) looks quite a bit like an Apple-produced video.

Wilson had a goal of shipping the TikTok by late December and the LunaTik by mid January. At first, money was the issue. Now it seems as if demand may be the bigger problem. (To be clear, given the prices he’s selling these for, the iPod nano is not included.)

Again, the project still has 22 days to go on its funding run. I have to imagine it’s going to shoot well past $500,000, putting it far atop the Kickstarter Hall of Fame.

News: Apple iOS 4.2 now available

2010-11-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

One major update that many Apple fans have been looking forward to – iOS version 4.2 update is now available for download via iTunes. Not only does it give a number of new notable features to the Apple iPad, the new iOS 4.2 is also available for iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4.

My favourite feature of all in the new update will of course be multitasking for the iPad, others worth mentioning include AirPrint, AirPlay, Game Center, Unified Inbox and folders.

If you’re not quite familiar with AirPlay, its a feature that will allow those of you who have the Apple TV to directly and wirelessly stream from your iPhone / iPod Touch to the tele. Check out the full press release below…

Apple’s iOS 4.2 Available Today for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch
Major Software Update Brings Multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay & AirPrint to iPad
CUPERTINO, California—November 22, 2010—Apple today announced that iOS 4.2, the latest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, is available today for download for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. iOS 4.2 brings over 100 new features from iOS 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 to iPad including Multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay and AirPrint.
“iOS 4.2 makes the iPad a completely new product, just in time for the holiday season,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Once again, the iPad with iOS 4.2 will define the target that other tablets will aspire to, but very few, if any, will ever be able to hit.”
iPad users can now run their favourite apps and switch between them instantly, while preserving iPad’s legendary battery life. Users can organise their apps with drag-and-drop simplicity using Folders, and Mail now features a Unified Inbox, fast inbox switching and a threaded message view.
Game Center allows iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users to challenge and play friends or be matched automatically with new opponents, showcase their scores and achievements, and discover new games their friends are playing.
AirPlay is a new feature for streaming music, video and photos wirelessly from iPad, iPhone and iPod touch to Apple TV, transforming Apple TV into a great accessory for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. iOS users also will be able to use AirPort Express and AirPlay to stream wirelessly to any stereo or powered speakers, or directly to AirPlay-enabled speakers coming to market in the months ahead.
AirPrint is a next-generation Wi-Fi print architecture that dramatically simplifies printing by completely eliminating printer drivers. A selection of AirPrint enabled printers including the HP Photosmart, HP LaserJet Pro and HP Officejet will be the first to support printing direct from iOS devices. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to any printer that supports AirPrint.
The Find My iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) feature is now free to use without a MobileMe subscription and helps you locate your missing device.* The Find My iPhone app is a free download on the App Store and lets users easily locate a missing device on a map and have it display a message or play a sound. Users can even remotely lock or wipe data from a lost device to protect privacy.
Other new features that iOS 4.2 brings to the iPad include: the ability to rent TV episodes** directly to iPad using the iTunes App with a 30 day viewing window and a 48 hour session window once playback is started; the ability to easily find and highlight specific words and phrases on web pages in Safari; enhanced enterprise support so businesses can take advantage of stronger security features, new device management capabilities and improved enterprise integration; industry-leading accessibility enhancements; and support for 25 additional languages, including Korean, Portuguese and Traditional Chinese.
The revolutionary iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. You can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, using the innovative Multi-Touch userinterface. iPad weighs just 1.5 pounds, making it easy to carry and use anywhere.
Today, customers have downloaded more than seven billion apps from the groundbreaking App Store and more than 300,000 apps are available to consumers in 90 countries, with more than 40,000 native iPad apps. Over 125 million iOS users around the world can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.
Availability
The iOS 4.2 update is available today to download to iPad, iPhone and iPod touch by syncing the device with iTunes 10.1. iOS 4.2 is compatible with iPad, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, second and third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB) and new iPod touch. Some features may not be available on all products. For example, Multitasking requires iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB) or later.
*The free Find My iPhone feature is available for iPhone 4, iPad or new iPod touch (4th generation).
** iTunes TV show rentals are only available in the US.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Apple’s Next Big Strategic Opportunity Could Be Mobile Payments

2010-11-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

When an analyst asked Steve Jobs during Apple’slast earnings call what he plans to do with Apple’s $50 billion in cash, he replied that he wants to keep Apple’s “powder dry” in case “one or more strategic opportunities . . . come along.” Speculation started immediately about who Apple could buy with all that cash: Facebook, Sony, Adobe?

But Apple never makes huge acquisitions. It tends to make smaller talent and technology acquisitions instead.

Apple’s rumored interest in mobile payments startup BOKU would fall into that pattern. The fact that it is in M&A discussions with BOKU doesn’t mean a deal is going to happen, but it does mean that Apple is very interested in mobile payments.

Whether it builds or buys, or does a little bit of both, mobile payments could be a huge opportunity for Apple within the next few years.

Imagine if your iPhone became your wallet? The dream of turning mobile phones into wallets has been pursued for a long time by many companies, but Apple is in a unique position to make mobile payments more mainstream. Apple already handles payments very well through iTunes, which boasts 160 million active credit card accounts. PayPal only has 90 million.

Payments will start with digital goods—songs, movies, apps and in-app purchases. Apple already does all of this today through iTunes, which is one of the best micro-transaction aggregation systems around. What if you could charge those micro-transactions to your phone bill just as easily as you could to your credit card?

Then, it would be even easier for Apple to sell apps, songs, and movies through iTunes, especially to younger customers or those in developing countries who may not have a credit card. (BOKU’s strength is those carrier relationships).

Over time, those payments could spread from digital and virtual goods to real-world purchases. Apple is not thinking about adding a near-field communications (NFC) chip into the next iPhone for nothing. The more people use their iPhones to actually purchase goods, the more indispensable it will become.

Would Apple ever take the next logical step and become payments processor itself? If it did that, it would be able to cut out the carriers from the mobile payments equation. Swap the carrier bill with iTunes, and those fees the carriers charge to process micro-payments go away. Apple can start charging those fees instead or pass the savings along to their iPhone-toting consumers, who will then be able to spend more on stuff in the iTunes store and elsewhere. Your iPhone could be your wallet: Never leave home without it.

Twitter Added 30 Million Users In The Past Two Months

2010-10-31T22:50:00.000-07:00

In a New York Times profile on Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, the company revealed a few interesting stats showing the growth trajectory of the network. Twitter now has 175 million registered users, which is up from 145 million users in September. That means the startup added around 30 million users in just under two months. And Twitter has added 70 million users since April.

This is impressive growth considering that Twitter had a total of 58 million users in 2009 (and 503,000 users three years ago). That’s a 200 percent increase from 2009 to 2010 in terms of users. And the year isn’t over—it’s conceivable that at the rate Twitter is growing, the company could be ringing in the New Year with 200 million users. So what’s contributing to this massive growth?

The new Twitter.com experience, which the company announced in mid-September, probably accounted for a surge in users. And new initiatives like allowing users to watch and TweetPresident Obama’s recent town hall meeting from Twitter.com have surely drawn more attention to the platform.

In September, Williams said that traffic to Twitter.com has grown about 100% this year and on average 370,000 ne

No more Windows XP to be preinstalled on new computers? Read more: No more Windows XP to be preinstalled on new computers?

2010-10-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

It seems that Microsoft is trying to put an end to Windows XP with Windows 7, and October 22 is an important date for all PC manufacturers and XP users all over the world. According to Microsoft, starting from October 22, no PC manufacturers will be able to preinstallWindows XP on their new machines. Microsoft really wants to put an end on Windows XP and enforce Windows 7 as the dominant operating system.

In fact, Microsoft announced that October 22, 2010 would be the date when all notebook manufacturers will abandon the shipment of new notebooks with Windows XP preinstalled. Instead, they’ll have to release new models with Windows 7 or have Windows Vista preinstalled. If you’ve always been a fan of Windows XP and you don’t want to switch to Windows 7, you’ll be pleased to hear that you’ll be able to downgrade to Windows XP until 2015.

Windows XP was one of the best operating systems from Microsoft, but with the popularity of Windows 7, its not surprising that the nine-year-old OS is now finally replaced by Windows 7.

Yep, Apple Killed The CD Today

2010-10-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

Stop. Take a deep breath. Before my headline gets you all worked up, consider what I’m saying here. The CD and other optical discs, like DVDs and Blu-rays, are obviously going to live on for a while as a way to transport media. But make no mistake that today, with two unveilings, Apple has effectively sealed the fate of the optical disc in the computer industry. Soon, it will go the way of the floppy disk.

Last week, I wrote a post laying out what I hoped Apple would bring with a revamped MacBook Air. I came to the realization that I had never once used the optical drive in my current MacBook Pro, and it was simply taking up a lot of space and was making my computer unnecessarily bulky. I wanted to replace it with a MacBook Air. And now I can. And I’m not going to be the only one that does.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: but the MacBook Air has been around for a couple of years and it hasn’t killed off the optical disc yet. That’s true, but a couple key ingredients were missing the last time around.

First of all, the first-generation Airs were a bad combination of underpowered and overpriced. That is no longer the case. Second, they required some convoluted desktop computer CD syncing system to be able to install something from an optical disc to the Air (or an optional USB add-on). That is also no longer the case (though both still exists).

When you get your MacBook Air and you open the box, you will find exactly zero optical discs inside. Normally, Apple includes at least one back-up DVD to reinstall OS X and other software if your computer fails. But now, that has been replaced with a super-slim USB stick. This stick, packed in with your manual, is all you need to reinstall your system now.

This makes a lot of sense. CDs were replaced by DVDs because they offered a lot more storage. But flash memory cards, such as the one Apple includes with the Air, are already blowing DVDs out of the water when it comes to storage. They may still be more expensive to produce, but Apple has clearly figured out a way to make it work. I suspect we may see more drives like this one (which use much less plastic than typical USB flash drives — and appear to even use less plastic than optical discs).

But that’s only one half of the future.

The other half is a potentially much bigger announcement Apple made today: the Mac App Store. While Apple didn’t give a ton of details yet, it appears that this store will work pretty much just as their App Store does on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. There will be free and paid apps. There will be one-click downloads. There will be automatic updates. All that.

What there won’t be are any optical discs.

Up until now, the vast majority of software (at least the legal variety) has been distributed by way of CD or DVD. The Mac App Store could very well change that. Every app found on that store, undoubtedly including the big ones we all know and love and use on our computers today, will be distributed over the Internet. This is long overdue.

Plenty of companies have tried Internet distribution for a long time. Some have success, and some don’t. But none have the type of central repository that Apple is offering here. This is going to be huge.

If it sounds similar to what Google is working on with the Chrome Web Store, or what Mozilla is proposing with their Open Web Ecosystem, remember that those are only web apps. We’re talking native applications for the Mac App Store. We’re talking apps that run on your computer, just like you have now, they’re just distributed in a way that makes a lot more sense.

They’re distributed in a way that makes the CD, DVD, and every other optical disc obsolete. And that’s good, since soon the optical drives will start to fade out of existence as well.

With the launch of the iTunes Music Store seven and a half years ago, Apple put the wheels in motion to kill the CD. Today, they kicked off their final assault. There will be no survivors.

More: Free As A Bird: Initial Thoughts After A Day With The New MacBook Air

[image: flickr/stuartpilbrow]

Free As A Bird: Initial Thoughts After A Day With The New MacBook Air

2010-10-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

I’ve done it. I’ve worn the battery completely down on one of the new MacBook Airs. As such, I thought I’d post some initial thoughts about the machine. This isn’t a huge all-encompassing review — I haven’t even used it outside of my apartment yet — but rather my initial thoughts for those of you thinking about rushing out to buy one.

All day, I’ve been testing out the 13.3-inch model. After playing around with the 11.6-inch model in the demo area after Apple’s event today, I decided that while it is freakishly, insanely small, I’d rather carry the extra .5 pounds and get the extra 2 hours of battery life that the slightly larger model offers. And I think that was the right choice, I’ve been using it all day and the battery just wore out.

The iPad has spoiled me. I often look at my 5.6 pound MacBook Pro with dread now. It’s simply too bulky. And considering I have never used the optical drive on the thing, I can’t figure out why I need some of that bulk. This new MacBook Air eliminates it.

Bottom line: so far, I love this thing.

In my initial view, the MacBook Air is a killer product both literally and figuratively. The optical disc is now all but dead at its hands for the reasons I laid out here. But the Air is also a killer product because I think it’s the type of computer that a lot of people are looking for. Namely, an ultra-portable Mac that’s affordable.

Some people will point to the fact that the original Air wasn’t a huge success as a reason why this won’t be either. But while they may look similar, the two are really two different machines. The original MacBook Air was underpowered and overpriced. This new MacBook Air definitely has enough power for most consumers and with prices starting at $999, it is priced to move (this model costs $1,299).

After using it pretty much non-stop for the past 7 hours or so, I’m happy to report that I couldn’t find one task in my regular routine that the Air wasn’t able to handle with ease. I did some work, I did some regular browsing, I edited some pictures, I played some videos, etc.

To be honest, it makes me feel a little silly. Why on Earth have I been lugging around a machine that’s twice as heavy if I didn’t need it? I’m not sure. The lure of the 2.8 GHz i7 chip, 8GB of RAM, and dual graphics cards got to me, I guess. But I really don’t need that. And I’m sure most people don’t either.

Of course some people will. And that’s why Apple sells the various MacBook Pro models. But at this point, I’m thinking Apple should just replace the standard MacBook with the Air. It’s better in pretty much every way. Unless you’re an optical disc aficionado, I’m not sure what the reason is to buy one.

The 13-inch Air’s 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo with the standard 2 GB of RAM and single NVIDIA 320M graphics chip seems to hum along. I keep thinking I should look into the model that has been upgraded to the 2.13 GHz chip with 4 GB of RAM, but again, all day this configuration has been just fine.

In fact, the only thing that ever seemed to stress the system out a little bit was, what else, Flash. But that only meant that a few times when I had a couple YouTube windows open, the machine started to heat up a bit. When I closed those windows, it cooled right back down. Humorously, Apple doesn’t include Flash in its pre-installed software on the Air, so you’ll have to download it on your own if you want to use it (or download Chrome, like I did, which has it built-in).

Speaking of heating issues, Flash heat-ups aside, the Air sits noticeably cooler in the lap than the MacBook Pro does. And the thing runs absolutely silently. Even when I had Flash blaring, there was just heat, no noise.

As promised, the boot up time of the machine is awesome. I find that from power-on to computing takes about 10 to 15 seconds — significantly faster than any of my other Macs, by far. This, of course, is due to the machine’s new flash (not to be confused with Flash) memory. This also allows the device to go to sleep and wake up instantly as advertised. In fact, the only thing you have to wait for is for your WiFi to reconnect.

The keyboard and trackpad are both rock solid. If I didn’t happen to be sitting here with 2.5 pounds less of machine on my lap, it would seem just as if I’m typing on my MacBook Pro.

And the most surprising thing about the 13-inch Air may be the screen. At 1440-by-900, the screen basically matches the one on a standard 15-inch MacBook Pro. I even opted for the higher-resolution screen on my MacBook Pro, and this smaller screen still seems to suit me just fine. I was pretty surprised by that. I thought I’d miss the extra real estate, but I barely notice it’s gone.

One thing I will say is that because there is no glass in front of the screen as there is on other MacBooks, the Air does feel slightly cheaper if you touch the screen. Of course, that lack of glass also helps keep the weight down and eliminates a lot with the glare problems that the other MacBooks with glossy screens have.

The 13-inch Air also comes with an SD card reader built in to the side. This is a nice perk over the 11-inch and I’ve used it a few times already — that’s how I pulled in the images for this post.

Basically, after one day, this new MacBook Air seems to be the exact laptop I was looking for. At least in my daily workflow, it’s just like using my MacBook Pro, but much, much lighter. It’s hard to exaggerate just how light it really is. I already can’t see myself going back to the MacBook Pro.

We’ll see how I feel in a week. Maybe I’ll feel cramped by then. Maybe I’ll feel the need for more horsepower. Maybe I’ll really want a way to play that old Gin Blossoms CD. But I doubt it.

Battle of the Boxes: Apple TV vs. Western Digital and Seagate

2010-10-20T00:04:00.000-07:00

Getting content from your computer to your television is hardly a new idea, but now that Apple has taken up the cause, everyone seems to want to get into the game.

The idea here is simple: Add a tiny box to your home-theater setup that can stream movies, music and photos across the network from PC to TV—and, for good measure, access Netflix, YouTube, Pandora and other cloud-based entertainment streaming services, too. Many of these devices include USB ports for hooking up a hard drive or thumb drive, so you can play less permanently stored video on an ad hoc basis.

We looked at three such offerings—including Apple’s latest—and found that, much to our chagrin, none of these were very compelling solutions for getting movies off your home network or for streaming media from the web. And yet, each is different in its own special, useless way.

Apple TV

The good news is that the Apple TV was the best product in this roundup. The bad news is we still wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Cupertinophile who can’t live without at least one of every gadget Apple makes.

There’s no complaining about the hardware. In true Apple fashion it’s a sleek and sexy hockey puck of a device, and setup is a breeze. Of course, in keeping with Apple’s other electronics, the Apple TV is useless without iTunes on your computer unless you simply want to access media directly from the iTunes Store. And Apple would really love it if you did: The Apple TV interface is overwhelmingly dedicated to selling you content, presented as a cacophony of clickable posters in no discernible order.

If you push past the come-ons to browse your PC library, the interface works well enough, although the ridiculous remote tries its best to thwart such efforts. Movies look good and audio is crisp and clear — provided, that is, that you’ve connected to your network via Ethernet. We had nothing but trouble when using the Apple TV’s wireless connection, to the point where it frequently dropped out in the middle of streaming a song and eventually lost track of our PC’s media library altogether. You’re best advised pretending Wi-Fi isn’t even an option (which it actually isn’t on the other two devices we reviewed) and simply plugging into your router.

With a maximum resolution of 720p, movies won’t look as good — in theory — on the Apple TV as they will on other streamers (both WD and Seagate support 1080p), but the reality is that heavy compression and stutter are far bigger problems than how many pixels you’re getting. We had generally good success with Netflix and YouTube streams, but searching for content with that gum-stick remote is a nightmare.

Bottom line: This is passable technology, but hardly Apple’s finest hour.

Nokia C5-03: Latest touchscreen phone from C5 series Read more: Nokia C5-03: Latest touchscreen phone from C5 series | GadgetLite - Latest gadgets an

2010-10-19T23:48:00.000-07:00

We’ve already seen Nokia phones from the C5 series, and it seems that the Finnish phonemaker is working on a new phone for the C5 series that will be named C5-03.

Unlike previous models, C5-00 and C5-01, the new C5-03 won’t have a number pad, instead, it will be a full touchscreen phone and it will only have Call, Home and End Call buttons. Besides 3.2-inch touchscreen, this phone comes with five megapixel camera. The Nokia C5-03 comes with a humble internal storage space of only 40MB, but you can expand it up to 16GB with microSD/SDHC cards. This phone runs on Symbian^1, also known as S60 5th edition touch-edition. Nokia C5-03 comes with battery that provides 24-25 days of standby time. Besides that, the battery provides up to 11.5 hours for GSM use and 4.5 hours using 3G. Besides that, this phone has WiFi support as well.

As for the price and availability, Nokia C5-03 will be available in several colors and it will be available at the end of Q3 costing 170 Euro.

Stealth Android Enterprise Startup 3LM’s $1.5 Million Seed Round And 3 Laws Of Mobility

2010-10-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

Most of the apps being developed for Android phones are consumer apps. Yet enterprise apps could be much more lucrative. One startup focusing on enterprise apps for Android is 3LM, a company so stealth that it’s Website is nothing more than a Google Sites landing page with nothing on it but the words “Coming Soon.” The top search result for 3LM links to this question on Quora, which remained unanswered until now.

I’ve been digging around, and found out a little bit about 3LM. It raised a $1.5 million seed round in July from Accel Partners and other investors. The company was founded by Tom Moss and Gaurav Mathur, both ex-Googlers who used to work on the Android team. Moss was in charge of business development for Android, striking many of the deals with handset manufacturers and carriers. Guarav was on the Android engineering team.

It not clear exactly what kind of enterprise apps 3LM is working on, but there is a lot of opportunity there to make existing enterprise apps Android-compatible and then build out new apps as well. When it comes to the mobile enterprise apps, Blackberry is feeling the heat from both Android and the iPhone. Mobile workers increasingly are choosing those smartphones, and putting pressure on their corporate IT departments to support them. The low-hanging fruit seems to be some combination of contact-management, location, and CRM. Startups like NitroDesk are already pursuing that market.

Oh, and I was able to find out one more little detail about the company. 3LM stands for the Three Laws Of Mobility, which is a play on Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, except they are applied to mobile phones instead of robots. The Three Laws of Mobility are

Protect your user. A mobile device may not harm its user or, through inaction, allow its user to come to harm though malicious code or content.
Protect yourself. A mobile device must protect itself and the integrity of its data and secured communications.
Obey. A mobile device must let the user use the device freely, as long as such usage does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Those are laws all mobile apps could live by.

Steve Jobs: “The iPad Is Clearly Going To Affect Notebook Computers”

2010-10-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

There has been some debate in recent weeks whether or not the tablet industry has been or will be affecting the sales of notebook computers. Perhaps you recall Best Buy’s CEO saying this was happening recently — thensaying he didn’t mean to say that. Or something. Well, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was much more clear today on Apple’s Q4 earnings call. “The iPad is clearly going to affect notebook computers,” Jobs said.

Seeing as the iPad is practically the entire tablet industry right now, it shouldn’t be hugely surprising that Jobs is so bullish. But remember that Apple is still very much in the computer business — especially the notebook computer business. But this past quarter represented the first quarter in which iPad sales overtook Mac sales (4.19 million versus 3.89 million). And remember, this is only the second quarter the iPad has been on sale (and it actually almost beat the Mac in its first quarter). “I think the iPad proves it’s not a question of ‘if’ but a question of ‘when’,” Jobs continued.

Jobs went on to say that the ecosystem is going to continue to change over the next few years. He noted how surprised the company already is by the interest in the iPad among businesses. “It’s being grabbed out of our hands,” he said, despite Apple not making a big push in that area just yet.

“The more time that passes, the more I am convinced we have a tiger byt he tail here,” Jobs said. He credited the millions of people being trained on the iPhone with the quick transition to this new form of computing that is already starting to take place. We agree.

Of course, we’ll see what happens when a certain new type of notebook hits the stage in a few days.

Apple Q4: $20B Revenue, $4B Profits, 3.89M Macs, 14.1M iPhones, 4.19M iPads — All New Records

2010-10-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

You don’t need to look any further than Apple’sstock price over the past several months to know that they’re on a roll. A year ago, the stock price was at about $190 a share. Today, it closed at $317.93 a share — an all-time high. In fact, they’ve hit several all-time highs this month alone. Their market cap is quickly approach $300 billion. And now the company has just announced their Q4 earnings. And once again — boom. But a boom with a couple caveats.

Just as with last quarter, Apple easily beat the earnings estimates. The company posted $20.34 billion in revenue and $4.31 billion in profit — both new records for Apple. EPS was $4.64 (Wall Street consensus had been $4.06 and Apple’s guidance had been $3.44). A year ago, Apple posted revenue of $12.21 billion with a profit of $2.53 billion ($2.77 EPS). All that said, gross margin did drop a bit, to 36.9 percent down from 41.8 percent a year ago.

p style="line-height: 19px; margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">The key product numbers: 3.89 million Macs during the quarter, 14.1 million iPhones, 9.05 million iPods, and 4.19 million iPads. Aside from iPods, each of those is a new record for the company. The number of iPhones sold is probably the most amazing stat there. As CEO Steve Jobs very specifically notes in the PR, Apple sold 2 million more iPhones last quarter than RIM sold BlackBerry devices. He also notes that “we still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year” — *cough* Wednesday *cough*

Given how quickly the iPad sold out of the gate (3.27 million in the first quarter it was available), the 4.19 million may seem a little low. But that also means Apple sold more iPads than Macs for the first time — and again, it only took two quarters of existence to do that.

More:

The earnings call will be starting at 2 PM PT. We’ll take notes live below (paraphrased):

Peter Oppenheimer, CFO:

We’re extremely pleased to announced the conclusion of a great year for Apple. New all-time records for Mac, iPhone, iPad. Highest quarterly revenue and earnings ever.
3.9 million Macs — new record by over 400,000. 27 percent year over year growth.
Double digit growth in both portable and desktop. iMac and MacBook very strong.
3 -4 weeks of Mac channel inventory.
9.1 million iPods vs. 10.2 million a year ago. But we just announced new ones.
Over 70 percent market share still
iPod is still the top-selling MP3 player in most of the countries we track.
iTunes revenue over 1 billion dollars this quarter. iTunes 10 is out there now.
14.1 million iPhones versus 7.1 million a year ago. Huge growth.
166 carriers in 89 countries for iPhone now.
Asia, Europe, and Japan are very strong. And we’re in China now too.
Fortune 500 companies continue to get on board
3.3 million iPhones in channel inventory now. Have a sizable backlog now, but that wasn’t the case earlier
Almost 4.2 million iPads sold — now in 26 countries.
Good enterprise adoption rate
65% of Fortune 100 are deploying or trying out iPad
Revenue from iPad (and accessories) was $2.8 billion.
We have 3 to 4 weeks of channel inventory now.
Expanding to Walmart, Target, Verizon, and AT&T stores now.
iOS sales 125 million last month cumulative
In November iOS 4.2 is coming — AirPrint coming
200,000 registered iOS developers now.
65,000 games and entertainment titles — over 30,000 apps just for iPad
We’re pleased with iAds so far.
Apple retail stores 3.57 billion revenue — new record
Opened 24 stores last quarter — 16 outside the U.S. Our four China stores are the highest trafficked in the world
317 stores worldwide now. 84 outside of the U.S.
74.5 million people in stores last quarter
40 to 50 more stores in FY2011 we think. We’ll be replacing some stores in the U.S. too.
Cash now $51 billion. Increase in $5.2 billion this last quarter.
full year sales 40 million iPhones.
7.5 million iPads sold so far.
This year, Apple generated 5 times the revenue and 10 times profit we did 5 years earlier.
for Q1 2011: we expect revenue of about $23 billion and we expect earnings per share of about $4.80

Steve Jobs, CEO:

I don’t usually participate in these calls. But I just couldn’t help dropping by for our first 20 billion quarter.
iPhone sales have been huge — well ahead of expectations
Handily beat what RIM sold this past quarter. “I don’t see them catching us in the foreseeable future“
They’re in a tough space now. It’s going to be a challenge for them. They’re the third platfrom after
What about Google? Last week Schmidt reiterated 200,000 devices — they have 90,000 apps.
We activate 270,000 iOS devices a day for the last 30 days — nearing 300,000 now in a few of those days. 300,000 apps now.
they aren’t reporting how many Android phones shipped each quarter. “We await to see if Android or iPhone was the winner
“We find this a bit disingenuous” – re: open versus close.
When you hear open you think Windows — but Android is very fragmented.
HTC and Motorola install proprietary OS versions
“Twitter client TwitterDeck (TweetDeck — I assume)” – multiple hardware and software iterations provide a daunting challenge.
iPhone has two versions of the software to test again (current and past)
There will be at least four stores on Android. This confuses customers and makes it hard on developers.
“This is going to be a mess for both users and developers”
Even if Google were right and the issue is closed versus open — “open systems don’t always win“
Google flirted with this with the Nexus One phone.
But this is a smokescreen. “Fragmented versus Integrated” — Android is becoming more fragmented by the day.
We think Apple and not the users should be the sys admin.
“We believe integrated with trump fragmented every time.“
We are confident it will triumph over Google’s fragmented approach.
Now as for the upcoming tablets from competitors — there are a handful of them
Almost all use 7 inch screen — iPad nearly 10 inch screen.
Users have to sand down their fingers if they want to use these.
7-inch tablets are “tweeners” too big for a smartphone, too small for a tablet.
not enough apps. poor pricing, etc.
these tablets are going to be DOA — Dead on Arrival. Orphan products. “Sounds like lots of fun ahead“

Q&A

Q: How are constraints on iPad now?

Tim Cook, COO: We’re in good shape now. We have new partners and inventory for the upcoming holiday quarter.

Q: What are the headwinds on gross margins?

PO: We did say we thought there would be some — but we did better than we thought. iPhone sales were huge.

Q: Steve, talk about the iPad opportunity. What do you think of this business a year or two years down the road?

SJ: “The iPad is clearly going to affect notebook computers.” I think the iPad proves it’s not a question of “if” but a question of “when”. Things will continue to change over the next few years. It’s surprising how much interest there is in business. “It’s being grabbed out of our hands.” From board rooms to nurses and doctors and hospitals. “The more time that passes, the more I am convinced that we have a tiger by the tail here.” This is a new model of computing that we already have people trained on thanks to the iPhone.

Q: Will this be the second biggest business (behind iPhone)?

SJ: I can’t predict. We’re already shipping more of them than Macs though.

Q: Any updates on Flash?

SJ: Flash memory? We love flash memory (laughs).

Q: How is iPad supply/demand.

TC: It has been extraordinary, I can’t predict when we’ll be able to meet demand. iPhone 4 took iPhone demand to a whole new level too.

Q: You are the tablet market right now. Can Apple sustain share growth for tablets?

SJ: I have a hard time envisioning what competitors strategies are. They can’t match us in price. Flash hasn’t presented any problem at all. Most of the video on the web is now in HTML5. We’re out to win this one. And we’re not done yet.

Q: Are smartphones a zero-sum game?

SJ: Most phones in the world are still non-smartphones. Those will convert to smartphones. There will be room for a number of companies to be successful. Right now it’s a battle for developers. And the mindshare of customers. “Right now iPhone and Android are winning that battle.”

Q: Why are margins going down?

PO: It’s a higher than expected mix of new iPods and more iPad sales — pricing is very aggressive.

Q: How is your hobby doing? Apple TV.

SJ: We don’t talk about unannounced products, but I’m happy to talk about Apple TV. We have gone to a streaming model — it’s complete streaming. Soon to be streamed from your iPhone and iPad too with AirPlay. I can report in a short amount of time we’ve already sold a quarter million. Over 250,000. It’s a great product and its 99 price point is very enticing.

Q: What about the market share play for the iPhone?

SJ: Our goal is to make the best product — not to be the biggest. Nokia is the biggest. They’re good at that. We don’t want to be them, we want to be like us and make the best products. In our part of the market, Android is our biggest competitor. They out-shipped us in the June quarter while we were gearing up for iPhone 4. The numbers are out yet for last quarter, but we’ll see how we did. “We don’t know how to make a great smartphone for $50.”

Q: What about the tablet competition?

SJ: The reason we wouldn’t make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we wouldn’t want to hit a certain price point, we just think it’s too small for the software.

Q: With over $50 billion in cash now, what about returning money to shareholders?

SJ: We believe there are one or more strategic opportunities that may come along. And with the cash we have, we can do something. The money isn’t burning a hole in our pockets, we’ve been smart with it. We’d like to continue to keep our powder dry. There are one or more strategic opportunities in the future.

Q: What about other carriers for the iPhone? A lot of pressure there?

TC: The pressure is really only on the supply. Everyone we’re doing business with wants more supply. That’s the pressure I feel.

Q: Why do you think you have an advantage on the price point with the iPad?

SJ: Part of it is that we engineered so much of it ourselves. We did the A4 chip. And we learned a lot from the iPod and iPhones. Others have to buy things on the market with middlemen, who take a cut. We’re efficient. This is a product we’ve been training for for the past decade.

That’s a wrap.

MacBook Air Apparent: I Have Never Used My Computer’s Optical Drive

2010-10-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

There’s this weird slit in the side of my MacBook Pro. It almost seems like a credit card swipe, or a receipt dispenser, or an air vent, or something. Oh wait. That’s an optical drive. You’ll forgive me if I wasn’t sure. You see, I’ve never used the thing.

This dawned on me the other day. I’ve owned this computer for months now and I have never had the need to insert a compact disc or DVD into this computer to do something. Not once. And going forward, I can’t imagine a time where I ever will. Okay, maybe if my computer dies. But even then, I would probably just take it into an Apple Store and let them deal with it.

So this drive is a huge waste of space. Without it, this great machine could certainly be much more svelte. What I want, of course, is a MacBook Air. But Apple seems to have been neglecting those recently. If the latest rumors are true, come Wednesday, that could change.

The most recent rumors have Apple releasing a new, smaller MacBook Air that would have an 11.6-inch screen (versus the current 13.3-inch one). The thing may weigh in around 2 pounds (versus the current 3 pounds). And it may even have a new sort of solid state memory system that would allow it to be even thinner than normal, and faster to boot.

This is exactly the type of system I want.

I’ve been spoiled in recent months. I bought my current 15-inch MacBook Pro a little bit before the launch of the iPad. It’s a fantastic machine, but the iPad has changed the way I view it now. The thought of carrying around a 5.6 pound machine when I could just carry around a 1.5 pound iPad makes me groan inside a bit. 2 pounds? I can do that.

Why not just carry around the iPad? Because as great as it is, it’s still not nearly good enough to use professionally on a daily basis. Even if I were to carry around the keyboard accessory, it’s lacking some of the intensive multitasking properties I require to write about important things likeiPhone subway bands.

That said, I also definitely don’t need all the power this dual graphics cards i7 MacBook Pro offers. I need something in-between the two. Again, this new MacBook Air sounds ideal.

A couple days ago, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that the original MacBook Air missed the mark because Apple underestimated how many people wanted an optical drive on their machine. I don’t know. To me, the MacBook Air was always interesting but it seemed far too underpowered for its relatively high price. Apple eventually cut the price, but it was still probably too much money. Rumors for the new version suggest a much cheaper price. That could be very interesting.

A lot of people bitched and moaned when Apple first unveiled with Air with only an optional optical drive add-on. But the fact remains that this is the right move, and Apple is simply a little ahead of the curve (as they were with floppy drives, etc). These drives take up way too much room and are increasingly seldom used. Backups are done via USB or Firewire (or the Internet). Software installs can now be done over the Internet or via USB. Movies and music? Same thing. The optical drive is dying. And fast.

Going forward, I suspect the majority of my computing will be done on the following devices: iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air (and perhaps a ChromeBook, or whatever Google will call their Chrome OS notebooks). It’s becoming all about ultra-portability. As Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously saidrecently, PCs will become like trucks. Desktop computers and these larger laptops will still be around for utilitarian purposes — but I don’t want to have to sit behind one all day. Or worse, have to carry one around.

I want a system that instantly boots. One that’s always connected to the Internet (that could be another interesting play for the new MacBook Air — 3G built-in). One that lasts for a very, very long time. And one that I don’t think twice about carrying around.

Even this relatively new MacBook Pro that I use is starting to feel like one of those old camcorders that required you to carry around a VCR in a bag in order to record something. It’s time to cut out the VCR — in this case, the optical drive. It’s time to continue the march towards portable computing. It’s time to lighten the load.

Puma Phone gets reviewed

2010-10-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

A good few months ago, we learnt the news that Puma had teamed up with Sagem to design a fashion logo branded phone which would not only be simply baring a brand on the surface but in fact have unique, useful and practical functionality within.

Many brands, most notable Prada (the first brand that comes to my mind) and D&G have been successful at picking gadget fans’ pockets by labelling existing phones with their badge yet underneath the expensive pricetag, the glamorous phone bares nothing more than what you would see in any old phone.

With the new Puma Phone, its abit different, to start off with Puma isn’t ridiculously pricing their phone, at £300. You get a fair amount of practical bits in return too. A front facing camera, a 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash, a 2.8-inch touchscreen with 240 × 320 resolution, GPS tracker, a pedometer and a sailing compass. You’ll also find that the back of the phone is completely made of a solar panel. Unfortunately, the Puma Phone does not run a mainstream OS, by that we mean Android (or Windows Phone 7), instead its one which in a dull way is themed by the brand’s tangy colour and powered by Dylan the cat (or Puma) and won’t support the installation of apps.

When you buy a new expensive handbag for your girlfriend, at least you get a new design that at least lasts for a season or two. Has Puma pulled it off for you by putting some effort into a somewhat sporty smartphone? We would recommend you read the recent review by the folks over at Engadget, check out the link below.

Will OS X 10.7 “Lion” Be The King Of The Apple Jungle, The Last Of Its Kind, Or Both?

2010-10-13T23:32:00.000-07:00

As you’re well aware by now, this morning, Apple sent out invites to an event taking place in one week at their headquarters in Cupertino, CA. The invite reads, “Back to the Mac.” and asks those invited to “Come see what’s new for the Mac on October 20, including a sneak peek of the next major version of Mac OS X.” But the most interesting thing about the invite has to be the picture. It’s an Apple logo cut out a sheet of metal that has been slightly turned to reveal what’s behind the sheet: a lion.

Apple began using big cat nicknames with initial release of OS X. 10.0 was “Cheetah”, 10.1 was “Puma”, 10.2 was “Jaguar”, 10.3 was “Panther”, 10.4 was “Tiger”, 10.5 was “Leopard”, and the current version, 10.6, is “Snow Leopard”. Initially, these were internal code names at Apple, but they eventually became a part of the marketing for the OS. And it certainly looks like OS X 10.7 is going to be dubbed “Lion”.

On the surface, that nickname could easily be discounted as just a random big cat Apple hasn’t used yet. But this is Apple, they don’t do “random”. There are a few big cats left that Apple could have chosen from — Lynx, Cougar (har har), and even Clouded Leopard come to mind — but they’re going with Lion, the kind of the jungle. To me, this means they intend this version of OS X to be big.

You might think that’s obvious, but consider OS X 10.6, which they named “Snow Leopard” — an extension of 10.5 “Leopard” — rather than giving it it’s own completely new big cat name. (Technically, snow leopards are from a different genus than leopards, but most people don’t realize that.) And in fact, Snow Leopard wasn’t all that different from Leopard other than it was faster and had a much smaller footprint. And Apple wasn’t afraid to say as much when theyunveiled the OS in June 2009.

But OS X 10.7 Lion could be a completely revamped OS X, including a long-awaited interface change. The computing world is shifting into the age of mobile, and iOS is now seen as Apple’s major operating system. Perhaps OS X Lion will represent the beginning of a unification between OS X and iOS. And if Apple is giving it the Lion moniker, which they won’t be able to top, perhaps they mean this to be last version of OS X? (Though they do say “next” version of Mac OS X and not “last”.)

As we noted back in June, the footprint of OS X 10.7 is already out there. We see it everyday in the TechCrunch logs, undoubtedly from Apple’s HQ where it’s being worked on. In the past few months, the number of visits by machines running OS X 10.7 has continued to increase.

A Lion approaches.

Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7 won’t quite give you the same gaming experience

2010-10-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

You love your Xbox 360. You love to score and break records on your Xbox 360. And, you love to be a Microsoft guy throughout. For Xbox fans, the amalgamation of Xbox Live with Windows Phone 7 is something that you should put your hands together for, however do be informed that Xbox live for Windows Phone 7 will stand no where close to the real Xbox 360 experience.

As pointed out earlier one will surely feel a disconnection between the phone based scores and the real time Xbox achievements. Though the format of gaming and the style of scoring is same on both units yet the Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7 will fail to touch the feel and excitement of Xbox while using this setup.

Keeping the downsides to one side this setup will make Microsoft at a lot better position than any other mobile gaming platforms as it brings to its users the perfect match of gaming and connectivity (from Windows Phone 7). Just to help you forget the real time Xbox experience Microsoft is all set to launch plenty of games for their newly coupled setup which will surely excite Microsoft fans. But overall, this is a notable step forward for bringing proper gaming onto mobile devices, one which Sony have so far had limited success with.

Cherrypal launches new CherryPad America Android 2.1 tablet

2010-10-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

If you’re looking for a tablet, you’ll be pleased to hear that Cherrypal has announced a new tablet named CherryPad America, another to add to your list of potential selections. According to the manufacturer, CherryPad America uses a Samsung ARM11 800MHz processor ((CPU + GPU + DSP, OpenGL 2.0) and it will feature a seven inch display with 800×480 pixel resolution.

Besides a seven-inch touchscreen display, CherryPad America has built-in gravity sensors and support for WiFi. This tablet comes equipped with 2GB NAND flash memory, but if you need more storage space, you can pop in a microSD card.

Memory of this device is 256 MB DDR2 RAM and combined with Samsung ARM11 800MHz processor this tablet should provide decent performances and it will run most of your Android apps smoothly. CherryPad America comes with a USB port, 3.5mm audio jack, built-in speakers and microphone. It can provide up to eight working hours thanks to the Polymer 3200 MAH battery. The CherryPad America is relatively affordable and currently priced at $188.

Firefox 4 beta released for Android and Nokia N900 Read more: Firefox 4 beta released for Android and Nokia N900 | GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and te

2010-10-13T02:51:00.001-07:00

If you’re a Firefox user on your PC or Mac, and you have an Android phone, you’ll no doubt have felt left out as its so far been unavailable on Android devices. But now, Mozilla have released beta version of their Firefox 4 browser for both Android and Maemo and it looks decent. Personally, features that I use most frequently are included, such as Pinch and zoom (not available for the Nokia unfortunately), tabs, location awareness and password manager.

Pinch-to-zoom (Android), double-tap, or use the volume rocker (Nokia N900) to zoom in and out
Tabbed browsing in thumbnail view lets you easily see and open the site you want
Location-Aware Browsing gives you content and info relevant to your location
Find in Page in the Site Menu lets you quickly find text on the webpage
Share Page in the Site Menu lets you send content to email, Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader
Forget Password in the Site Menu tells a website you no longer trust to forget your private data
Add Search Engine in the Site Menu lets you quickly add a new search engine to your Awesome Screen
Context Menu lets you Open in New Tab and Share by long tapping and holding a link
Smart Tapping lets you tap on links, widgets and other Web content with accuracy
Password Manager lets you choose to remember site password to avoid typing

Firefox 4 beta also includes Firefox Sync, which encrypts and stores individual Firefox data on servers for later retrieval. To download the latest Firefox 4 beta release for your mobile device, just click – firefox.com/m/beta

Hacked version of Skype app for Android OS enables 3G for US users Read more: Hacked version of Skype app for Android OS enables 3G for US users | Ga

2010-10-13T02:49:00.000-07:00

As you know, you’re be able to send IMs, call mobile phones and landline phones with this app via WiFi and 3G. The downside is that you can use those features only via WiFi in USA while other countries have full WiFi and 3G support. Luckily for all US users, custom .apk version of this app is available and it removes the 3G block in the USA. This custom app is developed by xeudoxus and it is now available for download here.

It remains a mystery why Skype app didn’t have 3G support in US, and if you feel irritated by this limitation, make sure that you check out the tweaked version of Skype app.

Yahoo Messenger app for iPhone hits version 2.0 Read more: Yahoo Messenger app for iPhone hits version 2.0 | GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technolo

2010-10-13T02:47:00.000-07:00

One of the new features that Yahoo Messenger 2.0 for iPhone has to offer is voice and video calling to other Yahoo Messenger account worldwide for free. This means that you can make video calls from iPhone to iPhone or even iPhone to Mac or PC over 3G. Of course, you can make calls from your computer to any other iPhone as well. Besides that, you’ll get the chance to perform landline and mobile calls at low costs. Yahoo Messenger 2.0 for iPhone has full multitasking support, on iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 with iOS 4.1, as well as instant notifications and free SMS.

Yahoo Messenger 2.0 for iPhone has a lot to offer so make sure that you check it out and download it from App Store.

10 Windows Phone 7 handsets for 30 countries Read more: 10 Windows Phone 7 handsets for 30 countries | GadgetLite - Latest gadgets and technology ne

2010-10-13T02:46:00.001-07:00

“We have a beautiful lineup in this first wave of Windows Phone 7 handsets,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience – one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format.”

On average, around 60 cellphone operators will have the chance to wet their hands with a Windows Phone 7 smartphone in around 30 countries in 2010 itself. The first wave of operators will include Telstra, SingTel, SFR, Orange, O2, Movistar, Deutsche Telekom AG, América Móvil, TELUS, Vodafone, T-Mobile USA and AT&T of course.

We are not sure exactly what kind of marketing will Microsoft be following to stand out of the already crowded smartphone market but we are rest assured that Microsoft will have to go for killer marketing to make space for themselves and their Windows Phone 7.