Mobile devices

Apple plots course for middle of mobile

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:23:57 PDT

Apple seems almost ready to bridge the gap between the iPhone and the Macbook with a new type of mobile computer.

Is the world finally ready for the mobile minitablet?

It's become quite clear over the last several months that Apple is ready to bridge the mobile computing gap, with plans to develop a device that fits somewhere in between the iPhone and the MacBook. A recent Wall Street Journal article proclaimed that during his medical leave, CEO Steve Jobs has been working on that midsized mobile device, bigger than an iPhone but smaller than a MacBook.

And just this week, BusinessWeek reported that Apple is developing a "media pad" that would let users watch videos on a larger screen than an iPod Touch or Amazon Kindle, but on a device that's more portable than notebooks and lacks a keyboard.

The personal computer industry has long tried to make such a device a reality, but apart from some early success for the Kindle, no one has managed to convince the public that the attempts released to date--such as the Ultra Mobile PC--are worth buying. Instead, PC companies looking for increased mobility are finding ways to shrink the notebook PC as opposed to a finding a new way to use computers.

As far back as 2000, Microsoft founder Bill Gates was evangelizing Tablet PCs, but a combination of price and uninspired software doomed that category to niche status. Intel and Microsoft then turned the hype machine to the UMPC (later rebranded MID, or Mobile Internet Device), which several years later aren't exactly flying off store shelves.

More recently, PC companies have embraced Netbooks, small inexpensive mininotebook computers that are designed for basic Web surfing and e-mail. Netbooks, however, are further depressing the PC industry's gross margins and attempt to cram a full-fledged notebook user interface into a small package, and it doesn't seem that Apple is all that crazy about this category.

But Apple has developed a few unique ideas for mobile computing over the past two years that have resonated with designers, developers and users; namely, the iPhone OS and the App Store. So, is the timing finally right for the tweener computer?

BusinessWeek reported that the iPad (name stolen from Silicon Alley Insider for its brevity) would be about the size of the Amazon Kindle, but with a screen that covers a greater portion of the surface. The Kindle is 7.5-inches long, but the screen is just 6 inches; by comparison, the iPhone sports a 3.5-inch display, while the smallest MacBook uses a 13.3-inch display.

Previous attempts at making keyboard-less devices with 7-inch or 8-inch screens--such as UMPCs and MIDs--haven't captured the public's imagination. Microsoft and Intel had high hopes for the concept in 2006, which was also known as Project Origami inside Microsoft. Samsung made perhaps the best-received UMPC, but that wasn't saying much, and interest in the category quickly faded after the launch of the iPhone.

The main issue with UMPCs was a lack of compelling software. They were designed to run Windows XP, which itself wasn't designed to run on a device with such a small screen and limited methods of input. And at launch, Windows Vista was actually a step backward in terms of its suitability for mobile devices.

Samsung's Q1 was perhaps one of the best UMPCs/MIDs, but it never amounted to much in the market.

(Credit: CNET)

Intel tried to shift MIDs to Linux to get around the resource problems of Windows Vista, but its partners have yet to gain any traction. And neither attempt was able to galvanize third-party developers into creating applications designed specifically for a mobile platform.

Apple's iPhone OS, however, was designed for a small-screen mobile environment. Installing the iPhone OS 3.0 on the iPad would allow Apple to preserve the user interface from the iPhone and iPod Touch and keep the device simple: a more complicated (and power-hungry) operating system isn't needed for a computer like this.

This would also allow Apple to take advantage of the App Store, giving the iPad thousands of applications at its disposal right from launch. One potential problem with that approach is that developers will have to rewrite their iPhone applications to adapt to the larger-size screen on this new device, said Craig Hockenberry of Iconfactory, creators of Twitterific.

Hockenberry, who is very confident that Apple has such a device in the works, doesn't think this will be a huge obstacle, but developers will have to gauge whether the extra development effort is worth their time. One thing Apple could do is set aside a separate section of the App Store for iPad-optimized applications, while finding a way to run older iPhone applications in some sort of compatibility mode.

"It wouldn't be hard for Apple to have a "Classic" environment on a tablet that provided a 320x480 window for running one or more iPhone applications," Hockenberry said in an e-mail. "It would be a smart thing for them to do: there are instantly tens of thousands of apps and users are presented with a familiar interface (something that looks a lot like Dashboard in Mac OS X.)"

The iPad could also be the first Apple product to surface with a chip designed by P.A. Semi, which Apple didn't buy on a lark. A custom chip could solve two problems for Apple--the need to keep software compatibility with the ARM-based chips used to run the iPhone while delivering more performance for HD video playback or more robust games that competitors might not be able to immediately match.

What might such a device cost? There are two schools of thought on price.

UMPCs, at around $700, were considered too expensive but because they didn't offer any value, not because of the sticker price itself. It would not be hard for Apple to argue that an iPad with an HD screen, thousands of applications, and a superior mobile browser is worth just slightly more than what people were willing to pay for the original iPhone.

A $699 iPad would slot nicely between the iPod Touch and MacBook in Apple's product lineup and preserve Apple's profit margins, while allowing the company to reduce the price over time if needed similar to the original iPhone.

But Apple could also hook up with a wireless carrier--we'll save the AT&T versus Verizon debate for another day--to subsidize the iPad. The company has reportedly been in talks about distributing MacBooks through wireless carrier friends like AT&T, which already sells 3G-equipped Netbooks with a data plan subscription.

A device such as this would be infinitely more attractive with wide-area wireless networking, as opposed to just Wi-Fi--especially if carrier subsidies bring the price down to around $499, just above the largest iPod Touch. It's hard to see something this big replacing a mobile phone--you're not going to hold one of these up to the side of your head--but there are certainly plenty of headsets available in the world.

This is the last frontier of the promised convergence between computers and communication devices: the midsized device. That shift has already happened to the smartphone, but it seems very reasonable that for many people, smartphone screens are too small for serious computing.

If Apple is indeed working on such a product, it will have to get the implementation right to avoid duplicating the failures of so many other mobile computing aspirants. But by having awakened the public to the promise of basic mobile computing, Apple could be best positioned to capitalize on the need for something more.

Samsung Instinct

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:46:36 PDT

Over the last year, the collective response from most cell phone manufacturers to the iPhone has been rather muted. But now Samsung is trying a different tactic. Its new Samsung Instinct (SPH-M800) for Sprint is the first cell phone we've seen that throws some direct competition Apple's way. We still dismiss the whole idea of an "iPhone killer" as ridiculous, but comparisons here are inevitable and Sprint is doing nothing to silence them.

Though the Instinct and the iPhone look about the same, and they rely heavily on touch screens with unique interfaces, there are some important feature distinctions. The Instinct offers its own brand of visual voice mail and it bests the first incarnation of the iPhone by offering 3G (EV-DO Rev. A) network compatibility, integrated GPS, and work e-mail support, just to name a few. The new iPhone 3G will be more evenly matched, but even the Instinct gets points for its multimedia messaging, voice dialing and video recording. In the important areas of usability and performance, however, the Instinct struggled on a few fronts. The Web browser wasn't quite as easy to use as we had hoped, the camera lacked editing features, and the Instinct's call and video quality were variable. However, even with those caveats, the Instinct remains a powerful, innovative cell phone with a loaded feature set and an appealing design. At the time of this writing, Sprint has not announced a price but the carrier has promised that the Instinct will cost less than $300.

Design
By all accounts, the Instinct has an eye-catching, though not unique, design. The predominately touch-screen device sports a thin candy-bar shape that measures a portable 4.57 inches by 2.17 inches by 0.49 inch. That makes it a bit taller and fatter than the iPhone but also thinner when measured across its front face. Samsung aficionados will also notice a resemblance to the Samsung SGH-F490, which is the GSM version of the Instinct. At 4.4 ounces, the Instinct has a sturdy feel in the hand and offers a solid construction. We also liked the simple color scheme of silver and basic black.

The Instinct's touch screen dominates its real estate. With support for 262,000 colors and a 432,240-pixel resolution, the display is positively gorgeous. Colors popped, graphics were vibrant, and text was crisp. Indeed, it's one of the better displays we've seen in a while. You're offered a fair number of personalization options; you can't change the menu or texting font, but you can adjust the brightness and the backlighting time. It's worth noting that when the display goes dark, it also locks automatically.

Yet, as rich as the display is, we had a minor complaint. At 4.25 inches, it's a quarter of an inch smaller than the iPhone's display. That may not sound like a huge difference, but the display can look rather cramped when you're browsing the Web or viewing videos. We suppose you'd get used to eventually, and we recognize that it's an improvement over the Samsung Glyde's smaller touch screen, but it's a point we couldn't let pass.

The Instinct's simple menu interface is easy to use and attractive. At the bottom of the display are icons for the four menus (Favs, Main, Fun, and Web). The four-page menu design is an interesting and effective arrangement. The Favs menu (aka Favorites) is user-programmable so you can stock it with your most preferred functions. The Main menu is reserved for messaging, organizer, and GPS features; the Fun menu holds games, multimedia options, and the camera; and the Web menu shows a selection of browser shortcuts. All menus feature bright icons to represent the various features, but only the Fun and Web menus allows for any customization. The secondary menus are intuitive as well. For example, we had no problems determining how to start a new text message or move items around in a list.

The Instinct menu interface is simple, attractive, and easy to use.

The Instinct's touch screen offers haptic tactile feedback. It's a nice feature as it lets you know for sure that you're choosing a menu option. You can turn the vibration off but you can't change its length or intensity. For the most part, the touch interface is intuitive and easy to use, but we had a couple of observations. Though some options in the settings menu can be turned on and off by sliding a bar back and forth with your finger, other options require you to tap each side of the bar. Certainly, we prefer the former option. Scrolling through long lists or messages was a pleasure, however. Similar to the iPhone, we just had to swipe our finger up and down.

On the other hand, the Instinct doesn't suffer from the usability drawbacks that we saw on the Glyde. We rarely had to tap menu selections twice to register our choice. Also, the display recognized our selections when we touched around its edges. You can adjust the display calibration and its touch sensitivity.

Below the display are three small touch controls. There's a back button, a home key, and a calling control. Unfortunately, these keys were a bit tricky to use. On a few occasions we had to press a control twice (the Back button especially) for it to register our choice. Also, the vibrating feedback here is barely noticeable. Pressing the Home control normally will take you automatically to the Favs menu, while selecting the calling control replaces the menu icons at the bottom of the display with shortcuts for the speed dialer, your contacts menu, the recent calls list, and the dialpad.

The latter choice opens a standard numeric keypad with a large green talk button. The individual numbers are large, and we like that there's a dedicated Save key for storing new phone numbers. The save key sits just below the dialpad, next to a Pause control and a shortcut for the visual voice-mail feature. Our only gripe was that the letters on the numeric keys are tiny; users with visual impairments should test this phone before buying.

After dialing your number, you have to press the green bar to place the call. That was a bit counterintuitive to us--we wanted to press the calling touch control below the display--but once we knew what to do, it wasn't a problem. When you're on a call, a secondary menu appears on the display with a few handy shortcuts for muting the sound, activating the speakerphone, accessing your contacts list or the main menu, and placing a three-way call. To end a call you have to slide the red bar to the right. It's a convenient arrangement as it minimizes the chance that you'll hang up on someone accidentally.

The Instinct's alphabetic keyboard is easy to use.

We were very glad to see that the Instinct's alphabetic keyboard defaults to landscape mode. As a result, we were able to hold the phone in two hands and type away with our thumbs. Onscreen controls include a return button, a space bar, dedicated period, comma, apostrophe keys, a back control, and a dedicated button for accessing a secondary keyboard with numbers and symbols. Overall, the keyboard is easy to use, but we had a few gripes. The individual buttons should be big enough for most people, but users with larger hands may find the arrangement cramped. Also, while you can magnify the text to see what you've written, you must minimize the keyboard to do so, which is rather counterproductive. The Instinct does not correct your spelling like the iPhone does.

Alternatively, you can enter text with a graffiti method. You will have to switch the display's orientation to portrait using the onscreen button--unlike the iPhone, the Instinct doesn't have an accelerometer. When using graffiti mode, the Instinct recognized most of our entries without any problem. The included stylus is a big help for writing in the small space allowed, but unfortunately the Instinct doesn't include a storage slot for the stylus for when you're on the go.

On the left side of the Instinct are a camera shutter, a voice activation control, and the microSD card slot. A power/display locking control and a 3.5mm headset jack (nice!) sit on the top of the phone, and the charger port and the volume rocker rest on the left spine. The camera lens and the self-portrait mirror sit on the back of the Instinct; it's a convenient spot for taking all types of photos.

The Instinct comes with a load of accessories.

The Instinct comes with a variety of accessories in the box. Besides the requisite charger and headset, you'll also find a USB cable, a software CD, and a carrying case. There's even an extra battery with a special case. You can power the extra battery with the same charger and keep it on hand when you need emergency power. That's a nice touch.

Features
The Instinct phone book holds 600 contacts with room in each entry for five phone numbers, an e-mail address, a URL, and notes. All in all, that's a fairly small set of options for such a high-end phone. On the other hand, you can save callers to groups and you can pair them with a photo and one of 27 polyphonic ringtones. That's fair assortment, and we like the design of the settings menu, which allowed us to test one or as many tones as we'd like. The Instinct also offers a vibrate mode for when you need to keep it quiet.

The Instinct steps up the plate in a big way by offering its own version of visual voice mail. Similar to the iPhone, each message is displayed on your screen in list format along with the message sender's ID, the time received, and the length. You then can listen to messages in the order you choose. As of this writing, Sprint hasn't activated the feature on our review phone but we hope to kick it around in the next few days.

Organizer features are plentiful and include text and multimedia messaging, a calendar, a notepad (you can use the keyboard or the graffiti method), a calculator, a unit converter, a tip calculator, an alarm clock, a timer, a stopwatch, and a world clock. Most of the organizer features are easy to use and we couldn't help but notice that the stopwatch and the timer look exactly as they do on the iPhone. On the downside, the calendar was a bit cramped and it doesn't offer a week view. Also, the world clock was rather buggy. Instead of typing in the city name, you have to select the exact location on the map and then touch your desired city in the highlighted area. It's a clunky and imprecise process; we kept getting Buenos Aires when we tried to touch the map near New York City. Also, you can only show four cities at one time.

Other features include full Bluetooth with a stereo profile, phone as modem supports, audible caller ID, a speakerphone, mobile syncing for stored contacts, and USB storage. The Instinct also offers an extensive voice-command feature that you can use to dial phone numbers or call contacts, address a text or multimedia message, and access information like traffic, sports, weather, or news. There's no speech-to-text support but the voice-command function does integrate with a nifty Microsoft Live Search. By speaking the name of a business or even the type of business (like "pizza"), it will use the phone's GPS connection to search your surrounding location for a match. You can then get a map and directions to the business, share it with a friend via a message, or call the location with one touch. In our tests it worked quite well. When we tried saying "Maya," we got not only a restaurant located a block away, but also a doctor in Palo Alto, Calif., with the name Maya. And when we tried saying "pizza," we got a long list of choices. This is one of the Instinct's better features.

Messaging options are plentiful and we were surprised at the clean and intuitive e-mail integration. Text messaging and multimedia messaging options are mostly standard but the Instinct goes a step further with its texting. Like the iPhone, it displays the full thread of a text conversation so you don't have to sort through individual messages. Instant messaging was not present, however. That's a disappointing omission on a phone of this caliber.

The Instinct does an excellent job with its e-mail features. It's not quite a smartphone, but it's far ahead of most other handsets on the market, including the first iPhone. You'll find integrated support for POP3 accounts for AOL, AIM, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail. We had only to enter our Yahoo account information and we were up and running in no time. You can keep multiple accounts open at once and the Instinct will let you know of new messages by showing a blue star on the Main menu icon. E-mail syncing was rather random. At times, new messages would show up in our in-box automatically, while other times we had to press the Refresh button. Either way, it's not a big deal. Just be aware that the Instinct e-mail application does limit you in a few ways. The Instinct's in-box can show a maximum of 100 messages, and you can't access individual folders inside your in-box. The latter quirk is particularly troublesome. Also, only messages sent from the phone will show in Instinct's sent box.

On the work side, you can connect directly to your e-mail if your company supports Outlook Web Access. We used this method, and again we had our e-mail in minutes. OWA mail is subject to the same limitations described above, but if you need work e-mail on the fly, it's a satisfying option. Fortunately, any e-mails sent from the phone will appear back on your office computer. If your company doesn't have OWA, you must use Sprint's Mobile Email client. Admittedly, that experience isn't as fluid as a smartphone with true Microsoft Exchange server support. You can read but not edit attachments many attachments including word documents and photos. What's more, you can send messages with attachments stored on your phone. The Instinct strips out any HTML in e-mails, but you can open Web pages by clicking on the links.

The Instinct's Web browser excited us, but we came away with mixed impressions. On the upside, it is a full HTML browser so it will display Web pages in almost their full glory. It lacks support for Flash, but that's common on devices likes this. Alternatively, we liked that you can choose to see stripped-down mobile versions of pages instead. That's a great option for times when you're away from a fast 3G connection. What's more, inputting new URLs via the onscreen keyboard was easy. Yet at the end of the day, the browser's interface was disappointing. The actual pages are squashed into a small area of an already small display. That left us feeling rather cramped and we had to do a lot of scrolling to see the whole pages. You can drag the page by moving your finger, but the screen responded slowly with jerky movements. We had the same experience on the LG Voyager; in other words, it's like the iPhone but not quite as elegant. Alternately, the Instinct offers a unique Web-panning method for moving around a page. Just hold down the camera shutter (that will be on the top of the Instinct since the Web browser defaults to landscape mode) and move the phone up and down and from left to right. The Web page will move correspondingly, which allows you to sweep throughout the page. It's a neat idea but the concept is better than the reality. Though the movement was fluid, we found it difficult to control the speed. Too often, we zipped past something we were hoping to land on. Also, we didn't like how when you reached either side of a page, the panning reversed direction automatically. But wait, the Instinct offers yet another way to move around a page. Clicking on the "full screen view" will display the page in its entirety. You then can move a blue square around the toggle to select the area of the page you'd like to see. It works fairly well except that you can't read any text when the Web page is in full screen view. Oops.

Fortunately, we had few problems selecting links on a Web page. There were times where we had to press a selection twice but that's not uncommon on touch-screen phones. Yet we did notice that selected links weren't always highlighted when we touched them. That could be an issue if you're a busy browser or you're surfing a crowded page. The Instinct does include a load of handy shortcut buttons surrounding the browser window. Among other things you can search the Web page, open your favorites list, return to your home page, review your surfing history, and zoom in on a page. The latter option is a nice idea but it's not terribly effective as it only zooms in one degree. Indeed, we admit we've been spoiled by the iPhone's multitouch interface.

The Instinct's lack of Wi-Fi is quite a blow on such an Internet-friendly phone. Sure, Sprint's EV-DO connection will do the job most of the time, but there are times where 3G coverage isn't available. Also, even though the Instinct requires an unlimited Internet plan, it would be nice to be able to use your home network if you preferred to do so. It's all about customer choice.

Besides the main browser, the Instinct offers dedicated channels for weather, sports, news, and movies. The weather options works much like the iPhone's; just punch in your list of cities and you can see the forecast for each. But as an added bonus you also can see a radar map of U.S. locations. In the movie channel you can get area show times by entering in your ZIP code.

As previously mentioned, the Instinct supports full GPS. You can use the feature to use Sprint Navigation for spoken driving and visual turn-by-turn directions. You also can search for neighboring businesses as you would with the Live Search. Traffic information is available as well, including a neat 3D map option. Using the touch screen to pan through maps was easier than on the Web browser. The finger motion is more fluid and the response time is quick. Read our for a full description.

As an EV-DO phone, the Instinct offers full support for Sprint's 3G services. You can connect to Sprint's Power Vision and Sprint TV, which include live and on-demand programming from a wide variety of channels such as CNN, E!, MTV Mobile, Discovery Mobile, ESPN, Logo Mobile, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon. You also can check out movie previews to help you select a flick. In all it's an exhaustive selection of programming with much of it exclusive to Sprint. You also can stream more than 150 channels from Sirius Radio and Sprint Radio. The touch-screen interface for the media player is intuitive and responsive. At first it was disconcerting to use the phone's Back button to navigate through the video menus. Since you're using the phone in horizontal mode, the Back button is facing down.

The Instinct's music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA formats) is relatively similar to that on Sprint's other music phones. You can access the Sprint Music Store for simultaneous downloads both to your PC and wirelessly to your phone. The music player interface is nothing fancy. Though you get album art, the features are limited to repeat and shuffle modes, and you can't use MP3s as ringtones. The airplane mode turns off the phone's calling functions for listening to music while in-flight. As we said earlier, the Instinct uses a 3.5mm jack, so you'll be able use the headset that came in the box. You can send the music player to the background while you're using other phone functions. When a call comes in, the music will pause automatically and will resume again after you hang up. The Instinct also supports the Sprint Media Manager for syncing the phone with your PC.

The Instinct offers a self-portrait mirror but no flash with its camera.

The Instinct has a 2.0-megapixel camera, but we were surprised by its lack of options. You can't adjust the resolution, quality, brightness, or any of the other settings you'd find on any basic camera phone. We're not sure what Samsung was going for here. Perhaps they're trying to make the Instinct easy to use, but we were disappointed at the lack of options. Sure, those options don't always make a big difference in photo quality, but it's still nice to have them. As we said earlier there is a self-portrait mirror but the Instinct doesn't have a flash. However, we did like the handy photometer and the "fuzzy picture" warning when you're about to take a bad photo. Photo quality was decent, though not spectacular. Objects were distinct and colors were natural but there was too much light in most cases.

The Instinct offers respectable photo quality, but most shots were washed out.

On the other hand, we liked the Instinct's photo-viewing feature. Similar to the iPhone, you can move between photos by swiping your finger across the screen. It makes for a fun experience and we like that fluid motion. Alternatively, you can view photos in a filmstrip mode. Shortcut options are plentiful as well. You can send your photos via Bluetooth, upload them to an online account, save them as a contact's photo ID, or zap them to a friend in a multimedia message. There's also a 2x digital zoom.

The camcorder lacks editing options but it takes clips with sound in two lengths. Clips meant for multimedia messages are capped at 30 seconds; otherwise, you can shoot according to the available memory. Camcorder lips were very sharp and we like that the video player can support files from your PC. Both photos and videos are saved directly to the microSD card for easy transfer off your phone. The Instinct can accommodate cards up to 8GB, which is a good thing since internal storage tops out at a paltry 32MB. More memory would a bonus.

You can personalize the Instinct with background images and alert tones. Additional options are available from Sprint via the wireless Web browser. Games and applications include demo versions of Bejeweled, Brain Challenge, Sudoku, Midnight Bowling, Million Dollar Poker, Nascar Sprint Cup, Scene It, and Pac-Man. You also get Sprint's NFL Mobile application. The full versions of games plus additional tiles are available for purchase. For further fun the Instinct offers direct access to MySpace Mobile and Photobucket.

Performance
We tested (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) the dual-band CDMA Samsung Instinct in San Francisco using Sprint's service. Call quality was fairly mixed, unfortunately. Though the volume level was fine, the clarity was not. Not only was the sound on our end rather harsh, but it could also be rather patchy at times. We wouldn't say it ruined our experience--far from it, in fact--but it was enough for us to take notice. We recognize that this is one of the first Instincts available, so it may take some time to get it a thorough shakedown. We'll continue to test call quality over the next few days.

On their end, callers had no trouble hearing us but they could tell we were using a cell phone. They also reported patchy sound quality and they said that the phone picked up some background noise. It didn't ruin their experience, either, but the Instinct's call quality wasn't the best we've heard from a Sprint device. Similarly, speakerphone calls were loud but we encountered noticeable static. We had to speak close to the phone to be heard, but that is not uncommon. Automated calling systems could understand us if we were speaking in a quiet location.

The signal reception for voice calls was marginally erratic, but the GPS and EV-DO connection remained strong even when we were in a building. And as is the case with most Sprint phones, we could get a strong signal underground.

As it is the first Sprint device to support EV-DO Rev. A from birth, we were excited to see how zippy the Instinct's Web browser would perform. However, during our initial testing we didn't notice much of a difference between other Sprint devices. In fact, busy Web pages such as CNET.com took quite a few seconds to load. Sprint assures us, however, that the delays are related to network enhancements and not the device itself. These enhancements should be completed by the Instinct's June 20 launch. The majority of the time, pages rendered correctly. On a couple of occasions, pages appeared incorrectly but this was fairly rare. Song downloads were quick, and it took about 30 seconds to download a 3.7MB track.

The phone's internal menus performed well. We moved between individual pages quickly with a delay of only a second on some pages. Overall, the navigation is a pleasant experience, and that's an improvement over the Voyager.

Multimedia performance was a mixed bag unfortunately. Music sounded fine for the most part. The single speaker has decent output but the sound is distorted at the highest levels. Video performance wasn't quite as good, however. The streaming videos take up only a small part of the Instinct's display and the quality is pixelated. Also, the sound was a bit off and the video couldn't support jerky movements. We have yet to test the live video, but we'll review it as soon as Sprint turns it on.

The Samsung Instinct SPH-M800 has a rated battery life of 5.75 hours talk time. And don't forget that a backup battery comes in the box. According to FCC radiation tests, the Instinct has a digital SAR rating of 1.46 watts per kilogram, which is on the high side.

http://reviews.cnet.com

Apple eyeing Nvidia's CUDA technology?

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:33:18 PDT

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is expected to cover the parallel tracks of Mac and iPhone software development, but the company may have another aspect of parallelism to discuss next week.

Nvidia's CUDA technology could make it easier to transcode home movies--or hits like Ratatouille--into a format suitable for an iPhone.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, in an interview earlier this week, suggested that Apple might have plans for Nvidia's CUDA technology as part of the WWDC festivities next week. CUDA is a programming technology that allows software developers to take advantage of the unique parallel processing characteristics of graphics processors such as Nvidia's GeForce 8600M, found in the MacBook Pro. Nvidia released a beta version of CUDA for Mac OS X back in February.

"Apple knows a lot about CUDA," Huang said, implying the company might be ready to formally embrace Nvidia's technology to make it easier to exploit graphics chips inside Macs. Apple's implementation "won't be called CUDA, but it will be called something else," Huang said in an interview here at Nvidia's headquarters on Wednesday.

Software developers are interested in the potential of graphics chips because of their ability to embrace parallelism, or the simultaneous execution of different types of problems. CPUs from Intel and AMD are designed as general-purpose processors, able to handle any kind of code a programmer can throw at the chip. But until multicore chips became all the rage, those CPUs were basically designed to tackle one problem, and then move onto the next problem: and software for those chips has been designed accordingly.

GPUs, on the other hand, break up a problem into much smaller bits and process it in parallel with other problems at a very high rate of speed. To this point, however, only specialized applications such as graphics software or high-performance computing applications have been able to take advantage of that raw horsepower. Nvidia, AMD, and Intel are all working on ways to allow everyday programmers to exploit the unique characteristics of graphics processors.

For example, during my visit on Wednesday, Nvidia engineers demonstrated how a CUDA-enabled version of a program similar to QuickTime running on a desktop or laptop could dramatically speed up the processor of transcoding a movie or television show into a format suitable for the iPhone.

The GeForce 8600M GT is one of the Nvidia graphics processors that are listed as CUDA-enabled on Nvidia's site. Huang declined to share specifics regarding Apple's intentions, but a conference of Mac developers would be a likely place to discuss any plans Apple might have for CUDA.

Nvidia, AMD vie with Intel over USB 3.0

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:02:28 PDT

UPDATE: AMD and Nvidia aim to wrest control of a crucial PC specification from Intel, arguing that the chip giant is trying to box them out as they move to a new era of faster peripherals.

Intel showed off a prototype USB 3.0 connector and an add-in card last year.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)

In play is the USB 3.0 specification, a next-generation high-speed connection standard due in 2009. It is significant not only because all future PCs and devices will use connectors based on the standard but because it will offer 10 times the speed of USB 2.0--used in virtually all PCs introduced in the last few years--or roughly 5 gigabits per second.

Intel formed the USB Implementers Forum in 1995 with other industry players, including Microsoft, "to support and accelerate adoption of USB-compliant peripherals," according to an overview of the specification on the chipmaker's Web site.

"The challenge is that Intel is not...giving the specification to anybody that competes with CPUs and chipsets," said a source close to AMD who is familiar with the dispute.

As a result, AMD, Nvidia, Via Technologies and others (not yet specified) could be driven to create their own USB 3.0 specification. "We are going to be forced to create a secondary specification" that would be introduced along with the Intel spec, the source close to AMD said. "To create a new open host controller standard for USB 3.0."

"We are starting development on it right now," the AMD source added. The first meeting of members of the alternate "open" specification is slated to take place next week, a source close to Nvidia said. "We fully intend to productize this spec."

Nvidia and AMD are offering no official comment.

Intel, meanwhile, says it's moving with all due speed.

"Just as with previous generations of USB, Intel is working hard to get the complete spec to the industry with as little delay as possible in order to drive the wide adoption of USB 3.0," the company said in a statement.

The USB 3.0 specification is hammered out in the USB 3.0 Promoters Group, in which Intel is a working fellow. Other members include Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC, and NXP Semiconductors.

A source close to Intel said AMD and Nvidia are being disingenuous about what they're actually seeking. In short, AMD and Nvidia are seeking technology--the "host controller" specification--that Intel says is beyond the USB 3.0 specification. "Think of it as a guide to building hardware for USB 3.0. This is the part that Intel invests dollars and engineering man hours in and then licenses to the industry (so far, for zero dollars). We will give this out as soon as it is finished (or close to finished)," the Intel source said.

Intel is slated to release the specifications later this year or the beginning of next year. The problem, as AMD and Nvidia see it, is that Intel would virtually own the USB 3.0 market--a powerful competitive advantage--for many months if they waited for Intel to release the so-called host controller layer specification. "Tack on six to nine months. Then we get USB 3.0," the AMD source said.

This person described USB 3.0 as "essentially PCI Express over a cable. And that intellectual property came from the PCI SIG"--the point being that Intel does not have a large intellectual property stake to defend. PCI Express is a data transfer specification for add-in card slots in desktop PCs today. The PCI SIG (Special Interest Group) promotes the Peripheral Component Interconnect specification, a standard used in all PCs today.

Intel doesn't see it this way. "We do the work--at this point it's not an industry effort anymore--and then (we) hand over the work for free without any licensing fees."

"Intel only gives it out once it's finished. And it's not finished." said the source. "If it was mature enough to release, it would be released." (AMD and Nvidia claim that Intel has working silicon and thus that the part of specification they are seeking is mature enough for release.)

"If you have an incomplete spec and give it out to people, these people will build their chipsets and you'll end up with chipsets that are incompatible with devices. That's what (Intel) is trying to avoid."

One possible reason for the frustration, the source said, is that Intel is "a little bit behind and that's what might be causing some of the resentment. You could take the opinion that Intel is giving stuff out for free and people are complaining because (Intel) isn't giving it out fast enough," the source close to Intel said.

"We're not doing anything differently now than we did with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1" he added.

AMD rejects this argument because people at the company were around when the earlier 1.0 USB specification came out and claim that Intel stonewalled back then too. Intel denies the assertion.

A separate specification--though designed to be compatible with the Intel USB 3.0 spec--has the potential to create incompatibilities, the source close to AMD said. "This is not good for users. But we have no choice."

news.cnet.com

AMD's Puma ready to pounce

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:54:48 PDT

This time around, AMD is ready with a major product launch on schedule, and is enjoying a bit of good fortune as well.

Notebook makers of all stripes are getting ready to launch systems based on AMD's Puma notebook technology, which consists of a new processor, a mobile chipset, and wireless chips from AMD's partners. The official announcement is expected to come later Wednesday at the Computex trade show in Taiwan, and notebooks with the chips will be arriving over the next several weeks from companies like Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Toshiba, said Bahr Mahony, director of AMD's mobile business.

Assuming those notebooks ship without incident, Puma arrives in far better shape than Barcelona, the quad-core server processor that was a year late after running into major technical glitches. Puma also arrives at a time when Intel has suffered a rare--at least over the last two years--gaffe inside its notebook group: the company's Montevina notebook platform will be delayed several weeks with chipset problems, which could affect Intel's performance during the important back-to-school shopping season.

AMD's new Turion X2 Ultra processor is the first designed-for-mobile processor that AMD has ever produced; the earlier versions of its Turion processor were essentially the same design as its Opteron design with a more power-friendly implementation. But the PC market is shifting dramatically in favor of the notebook over the desktop as mobility becomes all the rage, and Intel has enjoyed a strong position in this market with its Centrino notebook products and ad campaigns.

This time around, AMD has changed the way it supplies power to the processor, as well as how the processor's memory controller talks to the rest of the system. It's taking advantage of the split power-plane design unveiled with Barcelona that allows the processor cores to run at variable speeds, Mahony said. The memory controller, which handles the vital link between the processor and memory, has also been tweaked for a mobile environment.

But Griffin is not the wholesale redesign of AMD's chip blueprint that Barcelona was, meaning AMD could avoid many of the technical glitches that arose as the company overhauled parts of its Opteron design to produce Barcelona.

Instead, it's the chipset that will likely be the centerpiece of AMD's pitch to notebook makers and their customers. The company is looking to cash in on its purchase of ATI Technologies' graphics business in 2006 by beefing up the performance of the integrated graphics that ship with the Puma platform.

The vast majority of notebooks sold to the general public use integrated graphics, which are graphics transistors that are welded onto the chipset, rather than coming in separate, powerful cards from companies like ATI and Nvidia. To this point, those graphics from both Intel and AMD could be aptly described as "good enough graphics," meaning they can easily handle simple Web surfing tasks but probably feel the strain when it comes to things like high-definition video.

AMD thinks it has dramatically improved the graphics performance of its basic chipsets without killing their power consumption, and that it has an edge over Intel's graphics division, which has struggled in recent years. AMD is also bringing the hybrid graphics technology from its desktop products to the notebook. This allows PC makers to ship notebooks with both the integrated graphics and a discrete graphics card in their systems, giving users the option of tweaking their graphics performance based on their needs.

For example, if you're playing a game at home with the laptop plugged in, go ahead and turn on the discrete graphics card. But if you're on the road in the airport with the same system and just need to check your e-mail with the last remaining bit of your battery, turn the discrete card off to extend battery life.

It's refreshing to see AMD deliver on a product release after the horrible year the company endured in 2007. The delay in Intel's Montevina platform might also give it a chance to squeeze a few more orders out of PC makers looking to get their system configurations locked down for the July, which is quite the reversal of fortune for a company that had no answer when Intel's server division snapped up design wins that were supposed to belong to Barcelona.

AMD is still in a tenuous position, with Barcelona revenue just starting to inflate its coffers. But if Puma can be rolled out without incident to AMD's partners, the company will have gone a long way to refurbishing its image inside the PC industry.

Netbooks pose tough questions for Intel and its customers

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:50:32 PDT

The proliferation at Computex of ultra-small, inexpensive netbooks poses this pesky question: why are traditional ultra-compact laptops so expensive?

The Asus Eee PC 1000 debuted this week with a 10-inch screen, 40GB solid state drive, and Windows XP. Pricing has been rumored at between $600 and $700.

Features and size threaten to push the Eee PC 1000 netbook into a category traditionally referred to as subnotebooks--with one glaring difference: price.

Subnotebooks like the 11-inch Lenovo IdeaPad or Sony Vaio TZ series typically start at above $1,500 and go up from there, ranging up to $3,000.

HP mini-note and traditional ultra-portable notebooks: both ultra-compact designs, but big price gap

But as netbooks inevitably add more features, analysts and industry insiders are beginning to wonder what will happen to the traditional laptop category. "(If) you add more (gigabytes) of storage and a bigger screen, I don't know what makes this any different than a normal laptop," said Avi Cohen, a managing partner at Avian Securities.

Cohen said the obvious downside is a slower Atom processor--compared with a mainstream Core 2 chip--but on the upside Atom has better battery life. "Arguably there's a category of consumers that don't need such high processing power. Or, at least, a different kind of processing power," Cohen said.

Maybe many more than computer makers realize. Industry sources familiar with Intel's netbook strategy also see a potential clash of categories eventually. "Of course, it's always been a concern, as (netbooks) gets more and more traction," said one source familiar with Intel's thinking on this topic.

And as netbooks add more features and creep up in price, Intel has to worry about the market confusion that may ensue. "Is a $700 laptop, even running Atom, a netbook?"--the source asked. That may be the question that laptop vendors and Intel will have to grapple with as the netbook category grows.

(An Intel company blog back in March described the netbook as a small laptop "designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet. And they cost about $250, making Netbooks a potentially disruptive and high volume market segment.")

Of course, subnotebooks like the HP 2510p, Lenovo IdeaPad, and Sony Vaio TZ offer more features than today's netbooks: faster processors, more memory, bigger hard disk drives, and usually larger screens than a netbook like the HP Mini-Note.

But two forces may be working against this purported advantage: One, all of these features may be overkill for a lot of consumers who use traditional, pricey subnotebooks for only email and simple Web browsing. And, two, netbook makers may continue to expand their offerings to push them closer to subnotebooks while keeping the price low.

This is something that Glenn Henry, CEO of Centaur, the Via Technologies subsidiary that designed the Isaiah processor, has said. "The one gigahertz (Isaiah) is plenty powerful enough to do lots of things," Henry said. Via is also targeting the low-cost netbook category--and has been for some time. Its C7 processor is currently used in the HP Mini-Note 2133.

"If this category continues like it is, at the end of the year you may have mega hard drive-based netbooks," said the source familiar with Intel's strategy. "Let's say someone comes out with a really nifty (design), it's got some extra features, a bigger screen, and a few extra bells and whistles. I don't think that's a netbook even if it's running an Atom processor."

What is it then? That's the $64,000 question.

Google Health: Great idea, but scary as all get out

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:31:21 PDT

Google has launched its personal health portal, Google Health. It's a clear and straightforward hub where users can store their medical information, and look up information on conditions and medications relevant to them. See the video for the pitch from product manager Roni Zeiger, a physician who left his practice to run this project (although he still keeps his hand in, as it were, by doing urgent care medicine on weekends).

Google Health is an important initiative, if only because it shows users how completely broken medical record-keeping is right now. But this product comes with a warning label.

The good

If you want to track all the drugs you've been prescribed (and the ones you self-prescribe), all the medical diagnoses you've received, all the lab results done on you, it's a clean place to record that information. It does smart things with the data, too: if you look up drug that has a dangerous interaction with one that's already in your profile, Google Health will alert you.

Hardly anyone, of course, actually has all their medical records at hand, nor the time or expertise to enter in everything in their file accurately. The idea with Google Health is that you get the data from your medical providers--your doctors, your pharmacy, and your lab. Google has a few relationships with diagnostic (lab) companies, some pharmacies, and a few medical centers. But at the moment, chances are that your family physician is not in the system.

But assuming they get there, once you pull in your data, you'll be able to annotate or add to it as you wish. (But not modify it.) When you head off to another doctor or hospital, you can then give them your complete online record, saving time, money (in duplicated lab tests), and potentially your life (if there's data in there about prior conditions, allergies, etc.). This is exactly what a medical record is supposed to do for you already, but the portability of medical data has never been very good; Google is trying to fix that.

You'll also be able to push your medical data to services that analyze it for you. For example, there's a heart attack risk calculator from the American Heart Association, and pill-taking reminder service.

The platform is somewhat open: there's an API that developers can write to use the medical data that users open up to them. Zeiger joked with me that the "When am I going to die?" button will be added within days.

So what's not to love?

The worry

In a word: privacy. Google VP Marissa Mayer told a crowd of reporters that the health data is stored on new super-hardened servers. That's all well and good, but access to Google Health is via your standard Gmail/Google login, and plenty of people (like me until an hour ago) have old or weak passwords on their accounts. User security on this product is the weak link.

User-input data on conditions like allergies is good, but what you really want is to read in your physician's records.

More importantly is the relationship of online medical records to the elephant in the room: the insurance industry. Your insurance carrier likely holds more medical data about you than your doctor (whether it's accurate is another story). I do not expect that the carriers will open up their databases to consumers, since that would enable a level of scrutiny on bills that the companies so far have been able to brush off. It's telling that no insurance companies or HMOs are partners with Google on this project.

My bigger concern is that insurance carriers will begin to give financial benefits to patients and client companies if they allow data to go the other way: if patients grant carriers access to their online medical records. In the guise of keeping patients safe, that makes sense. But giving insurance companies access to detailed health profiles on all their clients also lets them mine the data, carve out small insurance groups, and selectively apply elevated rates to people who, through no fault of their own, are at greater risk of requiring insurance company payouts. I would not be surprised to see rate premiums lowered for people or groups who gave the carriers access to their data. But heed my warning on this: it's a trap.

Yes, I sound paranoid. But I think it's fair to say that consumers and health insurance companies have long been locked in an adversarial relationship in the U.S., and that the carriers will find a way to use the Google Health data to increase their profitability foremost. We can hold out hope that in doing so they also increase the level of patient care, but I wouldn't count on it.

Unproven results

I'm in favor of any product that helps patients understand health care in general and their own situation in particular, and Google Health is a great step in that direction. But due to the divisive economics of health care in our country, I can see this remedy having some nasty side effects.

Analysts: Microsoft Likely Eyeing Yahoo Search Assets

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Mon, 19 May 2008 01:10:26 PDT

Although Microsoft provided no details Sunday about what deal it might cut with Yahoo, it seems highly likely that search advertising would be a major piece.Search advertising continues to be the largest segment of online advertising and is the fuel that has propelled Google's revenue and profits to levels that have made Microsoft green with envy. "There's got to be some search component to the deal," said industry analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.What shape the tie-up might take is anyone's guess. It could be some sort of joint venture in which the companies pool assets and create a larger ad network, Sterling said. Or it could be an agreement for Yahoo to outsource part of its search advertising business to Microsoft, along the lines of what Yahoo has reportedly been negotiating for weeks with Google, he said.What's clear is that since Microsoft withdrew its offer to buy Yahoo for $33 per share on May 3, Yahoo's management and board have been bombarded with complaints from shareholders.Last week, billionaire investor Carl Icahn turned up the heat even more when he put forth a slate of 10 candidates and announced his intention to launch a proxy fight to oust Yahoo's board at the company's shareholders meeting in July, and strike an acquisition deal with Microsoft."Yahoo is under pressure to show shareholders some deal, probably with Google but maybe not just with Google, to give them some assurance of value on the immediate term," he said.Of course, it's not great news for Yahoo shareholders that Microsoft is now only interested in doing a limited, narrow deal with Yahoo, said Brian Bolan, research director at Jackson Securities.To Bolan, it seems evident that Microsoft has rethought its plan to buy all of Yahoo. "The clear indication of this is that Microsoft has looked through this soup-to-nuts and it has realized there's only a couple of parts of Yahoo that they really want. They don't want to duplicate services and features much in the way Yahoo has done over the years within its own properties," Bolan said.One thing Microsoft does want and need is better search technology and better search monetization, so it's likely that Microsoft is eyeing Yahoo's assets in this specific area. But whatever form the deal takes, it will not be worth anywhere near what Microsoft had been ready to pay to acquire Yahoo, he said.Consequently, Bolan expects Yahoo's stock to take a significant hit on Monday, as disappointed investors react to Microsoft's statement that it's not currently interested in a full-blown acquisition. "That's going to take a lot of the M&A [merger and acquisition] premium out of the stock," Bolan said."The stock has been running up on the idea of a bunch of people buying shares to try to force this [Microsoft acquisition] deal, to try to make this happen," he added.A limited deal with Microsoft means that Icahn will likely push ahead with his proxy fight, so that with control of the board, he can carve out an acquisition deal, which at that point will likely be for somewhere at or a bit above the mid-$20 per share range, Bolan said.And if no acquisition deal materializes for Yahoo, its stock will likely fall apart, said Bolan, who currently has a "sell" recommendation and a $17 price target on the stock.Microsoft announced its $44.6 billion cash-and-stock bid for Yahoo on Feb. 1, but abandoned its three-month courtship on May 3, saying that Yahoo had rejected a revised offer for $33 per share, an increase of about $5 billion. Yahoo formally rejected Microsoft's original offer on Feb. 11, saying it undervalued the company.Yahoo's stock closed at $19.18 per share on the day before the initial Microsoft offer, which boosted it to almost $30. However, on Monday, May 5, the first day of trading after Microsoft's offer withdrawal, Yahoo's stock closed down 15 percent at $24.37, after dropping as low as $22.97 during the day.Not surprisingly, various large Yahoo shareholders have expressed their displeasure with Yahoo's board and management for, in their view, not negotiating in good faith with Microsoft and causing the talks to collapse.Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang and other top Yahoo executives have since then tried to shift the blame to Microsoft, alleging that the $33-per-share offer was never put in writing and that Microsoft unexpectedly walked away at a time when Yahoo was still open to negotiating.At the same time, Yang has failed to seal a deal in which Yahoo would outsource part of its search advertising business to Google, a move that could give Yahoo a significant revenue boost. Those negotiations with Google were cited by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as a major reason to withdraw the offer because, in Ballmer's view, outsourcing search ads to Google would weaken Yahoo's competitive position in online advertising.After Microsoft withdrew its offer, its top officials have repeatedly said that the company is no longer interested in acquiring Yahoo, arguing that Microsoft can strengthen its Internet business via internal efforts. On Sunday, Microsoft reiterated that it "is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo at this time." However, Microsoft did add that it "reserves the right to reconsider that alternative."

www.pcworld.com

EA's acquisition bid for Take-Two expires

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Sun, 18 May 2008 00:14:39 PDT

Electronic Arts' hostile bid for Grand Theft Auto producer Take-Two Interactive appears to have ended quietly this week.

Shortly after EA failed to make an attractive-enough offer, Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto IV shattered all-time launch sales records, lending support to Chairman Zelnick's argument that the bid undervalued the company.

(Credit: Rockstar Games)

The game maker, whose reduced acquisition bid of $25.74 a share was rejected as inadequate last month, had set Friday as the extended deadline for it to buy up Take-Two's shares. The day came and went without action regarding the takeover from either company.

The updated offer, rejected by Take-Two on April 18, continued to be inadequate and undesirable, according to Chairman Strauss Zelnick at the time. "It undervalued the company at $26 per share, and it certainly undervalues Take-Two at $25.74."

Since then, the record-breaking launch of Grand Theft Auto IV has likely proven Zelnick correct, with first-week sales of $500 million. The game sold 3.6 million copies its first day on the market, shattering the previous all-time launch sales record held by Microsoft's Halo 3.

Take-Two shares were priced slightly above $27 in after-hours trading Saturday morning.

"There is nothing going on right now," Take-Two spokeswoman Meg Maise told AFP on Friday afternoon. "It is in (EA's) court."

Zune review from CNET editors

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:58:00 PDT

We admit the first-generation Zune certainly wasn't the coolest-looking MP3 player on the block, but its features were fairly advanced. With subscription music support, wide-screen video playback, Wi-Fi music sharing, high-quality photo viewer, RBDS-enabled FM radio, and composite video output, the original Zune looked like a serious iPod challenger on paper. The 80GB Zune maintains all of the original Zune's compelling features and ups the ante with tightly integrated audio and video podcast support, as well as the unique ability to automatically sync content over a home wireless network.

Last November, Microsoft released the first-generation Zune to a predominantly iPod-toting nation. While the first-generation Zune is not without its devotees, the device came to epitomize Microsoft's awkwardness at marketing itself as hip. Having survived its freshman hazing, the Zune is back for its sophomore revenge, and the iPod has every reason to be frightened. With a new design, higher capacity, wireless sync capability, larger screen, and integrated support for audio and video podcasts, the new 80GB Zune ($249) is finally giving everyone a true alternative to the iPod.

Design
The 80GB Zune cuts a much slimmer figure than its bricklike older brother. Measuring 4.3 inches high by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch deep, Microsoft shaved some considerable bulk off the Zune's thickness, while nearly tripling its capacity. Beyond its more pocket-worthy form, the two major improvements to the Zune's hardware design are its screen and its navigation pad.

With a diagonal measurement of 3.2 inches, the 80GB Zune's luxuriously large LCD screen leaves the 2.5-inch screen of the iPod Classic in the dust. The screen size may seem like a marginal improvement from the first-generation Zune's 3-inch screen, but the 80GB Zune's use of an optical glass screen shield (instead of plastic) further distinguishes it from its older sibling, as well as the competition. The Zune's new glass screen not only affords the device a sophisticated feel, but it also provides a more scratch-resistant surface with less optical distortion than the ubiquitous plastic variety.

The second major improvement engineered into the new fleet of Zune MP3 players is a completely unique navigation control that Microsoft dubs the Zune Pad. You can think of the Zune Pad as a cross between a standard four-direction navigation pad and a laptop's touch pad. With the Zune Pad, users can navigate menus by either pressing or sliding their finger in four directions, and select items by clicking on the middle of the pad. We we're initially skeptical about the Zune Pad's usability compared with the tried-and-true click pad of the first-generation Zune, but after just a few minutes, we found the Zune's old interface to be positively archaic. Navigating lengthy song lists is a breeze, especially with an accelerated scroll kicking in when the pad is held down. The new Zune Pad interface also lets you skip through songs, photos, and radio stations with just a light brush of the finger. Buttons for play/pause and menu still flank each side of the Zune's control pad and behave exactly as they did in the first-generation Zune.

LG and Samsung join forces to develop and promote mobile digital TV standard

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:32:12 PDT

Seoul, Korea -- Samsung and LG held a signing ceremony at Seoul Plaza Hotel in Seoul, Korea, on May 14, 2008. Executives from the two companies attended the event, including Woo Paik, LG's President and CTO, and JongWoo Park, President of Samsung Digital Media Business.At the ceremony, the two companies agreed to cooperate in order to assure rapid adoption by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) of a single common in-band mobile DTV standard.Technology for the jointly proposed system will reflect the findings of the IDOV (Independent Demonstration of Viability) conducted by the Association of Maximum Service Television (MSTV) on behalf of the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC). A report on IDOV will be submitted by the OMVC to the ATSC.The jointly promoted mobile DTV solution uses the existing terrestrial digital TV broadcast bandwidth, with no impact on existing digital TV and with minimum broadcasting equipment investment."LG and Samsung are already world-class in digital TV and mobile communications, said LG President and Chief Technology Officer Woo Paik. "Through this collaboration, we also have an opportunity to lead the North American mobile DTV market." Added JongWoo Park, President of Samsung Digital Media Business: "Our collaboration on North American mobile DTV standardization will help accelerate the ATSC standardization of mobile TV technology, which will benefit both consumers and broadcasters."ATSC is expected to adopt the mobile/handheld DTV standard for the North American market in early 2009 following trials of the technology by the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), a group of leading U.S. broadcasters who are vigorously promoting the development and early deployment of mobile DTV.According to a study commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), with the adoption of a single ATSC mobile/handheld DTV standard, the U.S. market for mobile DTV phones will reach 130 million units by the end of 2012, with the market for portable media device mobile DTV receivers growing to include an additional 25 million units. (Source: "Study of the Impact of Multiple Systems for Mobile/Handheld Digital Television," BIA Financial Network, January 14, 2008.)LG Electronics (LG) and Samsung Electronics (Samsung), which together lead the global digital TV market, announced today that they will propose their jointly developed technology as the North American technology standard for mobile DTV.

Sony BMG releases more DRM-free music

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:28:19 PDT

Sony BMG, one of the top four recording companies, is releasing more DRM-free songs through a partnership with Dada USA, a mobile-entertainment company based in Italy.

Songs from Sony BMG artists such as the Foo Fighters, Kelly Clarkson, and The Strokes, will be offered through a new music service, Dada Entertainment, where users can pay $9.99 to obtain 15 tokens. Each token can be redeemed for a music download or ringtone or other content such as games or wallpaper.

The unprotected MP3 files can be transferred to an iPod, mobile phone, or any other digital music-playing device, the companies said Tuesday. Over-the-air downloads aren't ready yet, but Dada said in a statement that it expects to launch that in coming months.

The problems are obvious with this one. Music subscription services such as Napster offer unlimited music for about $13 a month. And the subscription services don't restrict users to a song library exclusively of Sony BMG songs (a Dada representative said the company is trying to cut licensing deals with other labels).

The good news is the music found at Napster is laden with DRM. The songs from this jointly operated service aren't. They are also cheaper than the downloads at iTunes and most other online music stores.

Perhaps most importantly, this is another example of a major label experimenting with songs stripped of copy-protection software.

Posted by Greg Sandoval

Grand Theft Auto IV' nets Guinness record

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:24:36 PDT

If worldwide headlines about the record-setting first-day and first-week sales of Grand Theft Auto IV weren't enough, the game's publisher and its developer, Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games, now have a Guinness world record to boot.

On Tuesday morning, Guinness issued a press release certifying the game's insanely profitable launch as the entertainment industry's best ever for one day ($310 million) and one week ($500 million).

Interestingly, in stories I've written about this previously, I wrote that GTA IV had broken the single-day record of $170 million previously held by Bungie Studio's Xbox 360 game, Halo 3. In many stories, by both me and others, it has been exhaustively pointed out that the best video game launches had far outdone those by the best films.

According to the Guinness release, however, the previous record was actually not a video game at all. Rather, it was J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, the final book in that cash-cow series, which when it launched last July, earned $220 million in its first 24 hours.

If this is true, then Microsoft--which owned Bungie at the time--was wrong when it touted the first-day sales of Halo 3 as the then-best entertainment-industry launch.

Funny that despite the incredible sales of the last Harry Potter, no one, myself included, had thought to include books on the list of best launches.

Well, no matter. Now, even that record has fallen to the might of the GTA IV machine.

Humorously, as part of its release, Guinness is hawking its new Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008, obviously trying to tie the GTA IV record to the new book. It's a natural link to make, of course, although the book was published before the new record.

I have the book, and it's kind of fun. There's a lot of interesting video game trivia, obscure records, and much more.

But, alas, no mention of the GTA IV record.

On June 10, Geek Gestalt hits the highways for Road Trip 2008. I'll start in Orlando, Fla., and visit many of the South's most interesting destinations. Stay tuned, and be sure to keep up, both now and during the trip, with what I'm doing on Twitter.

Apple to highlight iPhone platform development at WWDC

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:22:13 PDT

Apple plans to debut an iPhone platform development track at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference next month, as the computer company seeks to become the Johnny Appleseed of iPhone features.

The iPhone platform will be one of two development platforms set to take center stage at Apple's developers conference next month. Mac OS X Leopard will be the other showcase platform.

The event will run June 9-13 in San Francisco.

Under the iPhone track, developers can work with Apple engineers to design applications that focus on the device's multitouch user screen, animation technology and APIs.

iPhone sessions will also be held to cover the OS X iPhone 2.0 software, including iPhone SDK and the App Store. These sessions are designed to show developers how to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod users.

The Mac track will focus on development techniques for OS X Leopard applications, ranging from interface design to application frameworks, security, localization, and networking.

Other sessions during the five-day event will include Cocoa Touch, Interface Builder, and Xcode. Developers will be allowed to bring code to the labs, where they can work with Apple engineers.

Posted by Dawn Kawamoto

Samsung Glyde SCH-U940

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:23:09 PDT

Click PLAY please

Released for Verizon Wireless, the Samsung Glyde integrates a 2.8-inch touch-screen with tactile response and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It comes equipped with Verizon Wireless' services such as VCAST Music and Video. With VCAST Music, users can access more than 3 million songs that can be purchased and downloaded to the Glyde. VCAST Video gives customers access to news, sports and entertainment. Other features include a 2.0-megapixel camera with flash, microSD card slot, which supports up to 8 GB of external memory, and Bluetooth stereo headset support.

Full high-resolution touch screen that reacts in a tactile way in response to the touch of a finger
Built-in QWERTY keyboard to type messages with ease
Surf the web using the full HTML browser, even bookmarking favorite sites
Take pictures or video with the auto-focus 2.0-megapixel camera and camcorder
VCAST Video service to download and view video on this multimedia capable phone, and VCAST Music capable to download and play music, ringtones and more
Supports the following Bluetooth profiles for handsfree functionality: mono headset, stereo headset, handsfree, serial port, dial-up networking, object push for vCard only and more
MicroSD external memory port to store pictures, videos, sounds and music (Up to 8 GB)
Optional Location Based Services such as VZ Navigator.

Concept Mobile Phones

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Sat, 10 May 2008 06:53:38 PDT

Concept Phones are great, as they give you an idea about what designers can do when they don’t have to be concerned about the mundane stuff. I have compiled a list of concept mobile phones that might or might not meet realism.
1. Bracelet Phone with Built-in MP3 Player

When this Bracelet phone receives any message, it starts vibrating and making or receiving a phone call is just too easy. To read the message, take the bracelet out of your wrist and press the diamond-like keystroke. The bracelet phone comes with a built-in MP3 player. With this phone on your wrist, you are definitely going to rock the party and make others green-eyed.

2. BenQSiemens Snake phone

The looks are cool and captivating but I doubt the ease with which we will be operating this crazy snaky concept phone.

3. Dark Label Retroxis Phone

The Black Label Retroxis phone by designer Lim Sze Tat reflects a retroapproach towards design with clean aesthetics, optimum controls and functions.

4. Onyx Concept Phone

First keyless touch-screen mobile phone utilizing Synaptics’ Clearpad transparent touch-sensitive capacitive sensor.

5. Black Box Concept Phone

The looks of this concept phone from BenQ-Seimens are alluring enough to turn your head. The Black Box changes the control layout according to the functions you use.

6. NEC Tag concept phone

The concept phone has been made up of flexible material and has been named “Tag”. The flexible material used will allow this phone to change its shape according to the mode.

7. Nokia Aeon concept phone

8. Sony Ericsson Concept Phone

9.BYB Balance Concept Mobile Phone Steadies your Mind

BYB Balance Concept is definitely balanced well. We love concept mobile phone devices and we guess you do as well, so take a look at this beauty. There is a new kind of luxury in our mist and whether it becomes reality or not is not known, cannot see it, but then in this day and age who knows. This stunning luxury and top class BYB Balance concept phone will definitely be favoured if it went on the market.The BYB Balance mobile phone has one of the best sliding mechanism we have ever seen of which this sliding system protects both touch screens that it has, it will slide up and down, flip over to turn the BYB concept Balance into a digital photo frame or clock. The main key features on this phone has to be the 5.1 megapixel camera with auto focus and 2x optical zoom, GPS navigation, Bluetooth 2.0, 512MB internal memory plus microSD memory card slot and then there are the 3G/HSDPA connectivity and WiFi. Awesome totally stunning and first class.

Asus Aura: iphone clone plus

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Sat, 10 May 2008 06:30:25 PDT

Asus Aura: iphone clone plus

This cool phone from Asus channels many of its good looks from Apple’s iPhone. The Asus Aura has a 3.9-inch touchscreen LCD, a 2 megapixel digital camera and a slim 6.9mm thick case design.

The Aura does one up the iPhone in a few significant ways by offering UMTS and HSDPA (3G) high-speed connectivity, expandable storage via an SD slot and a slide-out keyboard. The bad news? The Aura is just a concept design, and isn’t expected to be produced any time soon.
Don’t be surprised if more and more manufacturers start to clone the iPhone’s full-size touchscreen display and other design touches. But like Mac OS X vs. Vista and TiVo vs. other DVRs, the difference still lies in the quality of the user interface and underlying operating system.

Mini mobile phone

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Sat, 10 May 2008 06:17:35 PDT

New CECT MINI MP3 MP4 MOBILE PHONE, WITH DIGITAL CAMERA.

The Mini is packed with all the features you want out of a phone with the added benefit of a full Mp3 and Mp4 player.This Phone also has a high quality 1.3MP Camera Built in

Specification
• 260K color TFT Screen
• Bands: GSM900/1800mhz
• MP3 player: 64 chord polyphonic ring tones
• USB/U disk fuction
• MPEG4 video player T-flash card (inc 256M)
• Support TF card expand
• Support GPR，WAP
• Long talking time: 120-180 minutes
• Long standby time:100-150 hours

Audi Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Sat, 10 May 2008 05:40:43 PDT

First BMW integrated the iPhone into the vehicle lineup. Then Audi followed suit with their iPhone-integration announcement. If you're a fan of German cars (we sure are), it doesn't get much better than that. Or, does it?
Audi, apparently not satisfied with integrating Apple's iconic iPhone into their vehicles, has a new concept on their hands. The Audi metroproject concept, dubbed the "Audi Mobile Device," is an iPhone-like mobile phone that also controls the vehicle's functions. Keyless entry, heating/cooling, navigation input, audio/video - they're all controlled from the Audi Mobile Device's touchscreen. And, once you get inside your car, the 3G and WiFi packin' device slots right into the dashboard - slick.
But it doesn't end there. The Audi Mobile Device is wirelessly linked with your vehicle at all times, and will not only notify you of a break-in but also snap a pic of the intruder with your Audi's on-board camera and wirelessly beam it to you. Then, if said intruder actually makes off with the car, the system will activate its tracking function (think LoJack) - leading you and the cops to the robber's hideout.
Cars are becoming increasingly more wired these days, so it just makes sense for mobile phone convergence to cross over into the automotive world. Soon your mobile phone will also be your car key, will also be your audio/video player, will also be your vehicle's anti-theft system, and will also be your car's remote control. We're not sure if the Audi metroproject concept will actually make it into production, but we're crossing our fingers.
More pics of the Audi Mobile Device's interface.

BlackBerry comes to Phones 4U

noreply@blogger.com (DelMar) — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:02:30 PDT

BlackBerry Curve and Pearl devices to be available through retailer for first time .Phones 4U has begun to sell a range of Blackberrys through Orange.The BlackBerry Curve 8320, Pearl 8110 and 8120 will come with a music accessory bundle promotion for the month of May.The bundle includes a 4GB memory card, BlackBerry headphones and a hands-free B-Tube sound system. This will also coincide with the launch of Orange's BlackBerry Internet Service unlimited data tariff, allowing users unlimited web browsing, emails and texts every month. Phones 4U will stock the devices across all its 443 stores. A Phones 4U spokesperson said: "The demand for the BlackBerry solution is phenomenal. "Selling BlackBerry smartphones creates an exciting opportunity for us and meets the desires of our young, fashion conscious audience."The promotions that we are running in our UK stores make up an impressive bundle for our customers and really highlight the impressive music and multimedia features of the devices."
www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk