Techie Xplorer

Amazon unveils new Kindle WiFi, 3G

sylv3rblade — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:06:06 +0000

The widely successful Kindle ebook reader receives a hardware update and an unexpected but very welcome price drop. The new Kindle is now available in WiFi-only and WiFi+3G models.

The new Kindle is 21 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter than the previous model, has a 20 percent faster refresh rate on its E Ink screen, and will now come in two colors (graphite and white).

Aside from the incremental changes, the WiFi-only Kindle is priced at just $139 while the WiFi + 3G model will sell for $189. The new Kindle is set to be released on August 27th.

You can preorder here.

Amazon has just announced the latest model of their 6-inch Kindle eBook Reader. It has now been divided into two — a WiFi-only and the WiFi+3G models.

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Post tags: Amazon, Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle Wifi

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Apple introduces the Magic Trackpad

sylv3rblade — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:47:40 +0000

Apple introduces their desktops to multitouch and gestures with the all new Magic Trackpad.

It’s basically a larger version of the trackpad that is on Apple’s own MacBook Pro’s.

The Magic Trackpad sports 80% more surface area with full support for all the gestures that MacBook Pro users have long since been enjoying: two-finger scrolling, pinch to zoom, fingertip rotation, and three- and four-finger swipes.

The whole surface of the Magic Trackpad acts as a mouse button, but if you need the right click capability, you can easily enable it via System Preference (MacBook and MacBook Pro owners are should be familiar with this). If you need to double click, just do a double tap. It sounds convoluted but it’s actually pretty simple to use.

If you’re worried about aesthetics, the Magic Trackpad has you covered as it features the same design and angles as Apple’s wireless keyboard. With how good these two look together, you might wonder why in the world hasn’t Apple done this before.

The Magic Trackpad uses bluetooth to connect to your PC and Apple claims that you’ll be able to enjoy a stable bluetooth connection of up to 33 feet away. The downside of course is that it uses batteries for power, just like the Apple Mighty Mouse so battery life might be an issue.

In tandem with the release of Apple’s second battery powered gadget, the company has also released an Apple branded battery charger. Surprising? Not really since it’s a good marketing strategy.

The Magic Trackpad goes on sale for $69. Batteries and the charger are sold separately.

Any takers?

source Apple

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Post tags: Apple, Bluetooth, Magic Trackpad

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AMD-based Dell Inspiron M101z netbook

sylv3rblade — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:02:17 +0000

Dell has revealed a new AMD-based 11.6-inch ultraportable notebook to replace it’s earlier Inspiron 11z. It will come in two models, a base unit powered with a single core Athlon II Neo K125 and an upgraded model powered by a dual-core Athlon II Neo K325.

Full specifications of both models are listed after the jump.

Dell Inspiron M101z Base Model Specifications

11.6″ 1366×768 LED-backlit display
Athlon II Neo K125 single-core CPU
ATI RS880M integrated graphics
2GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM
a 250GB 5400RPM HDD

Dell Inspiron M101z Dual Core Model Specifications

11.6″ 1366×768 LED-backlit display
Athlon II Neo K325 dual-core CPU
ATI RS880M integrated graphics
4GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM
a 320GB 5400RPM HDD

Common specifications include:

3x USB 2.0 ports
10/100 Ethernet
802.11a/b/g/n
optional Bluetooth 3.0
HDMI and VGA-out
3-in-1 card reader
1.3MP webcam
6-cell battery offering up to 6.5 hours of life.
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

The Inspiron M101z is under an inch thick at its thinnest point and weighs 3.44lbs (1.56kg) at its lightest configuration.

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Post tags: AMD, Dell, Inspiron, Netbooks

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Windows 7 reaches 175 million licenses

sylv3rblade — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:34:18 +0000

Just after a month of topping 150 million in licenses, Microsoft and no doubt Steve Ballmer, is happy to report once again that Windows 7 is selling quite well, adding another 25 million in sales. That’s 175 million copies of their currently flagship OS.

“This continues our record breaking pace of more than 7 copies sold per second. And as of today – Windows 7 is now running on more than 16% of all PCs worldwide,” Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft community manager, blogged. “It’s exciting to see this kind of response from customers who have helped make Windows 7 the fastest selling operating system in history.”

Part of the reason for Microsoft’s continuous growth with regards to 7 is that they’ve been dropping support for their “legacy” operating systems. Sure a lot of us folks wouldn’t mind not getting support for our installation of XP Service Pack 2 but those in the corporate field, it’s a matter of life and death.

On that note, have you upgraded to Windows 7 yet?

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Firefox unveils a new way of tabbing

sylv3rblade — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:26:45 +0000

With Firefox 4 still in Alpha testing, Mozilla is looking to introduce a new feature called Tab Candy. Mozilla’s Aza Raskin says that it’s still early in testing mode but you can get it with the latest nightly build of Firefox 4.

The embedded video gives a full overview of Tab Candy:

Tab Candy gives Firefox something like Apple’s Expose feature mixed with their Spaces feature. For those who don’t use a Mac, it’s the OS’s feature that allows you to zoom out and get a bird’s-eye-view of all your windows (in Tab Candy’s case it’s tabs) that are open which you can interact with by clicking, dragging, etc.

While Tab Candy is an interesting feature, one has to wonder how much resources this will require for the final build. Still, it’s an interesting take on tabbing. One that I hope won’t be killed by an errant lawsuit.

You can get Firefox 4 with Tab Candy from a very early nightly right here.

Important: This is still in alpha so expect bugs, resource hogging, unstability, etc.

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Post tags: Firefox, Firefox Beta, Tab Candy

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Youtube reveals new embed code

sylv3rblade — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:01:35 +0000

Youtube (and subsequently Google) is pushing their HTML5 support by rolling out a new embed code that will come with an Adobe Flash wrapper or in a HTML5 player (the best of both worlds?).

If you’re on a mobile device, the obvious advantage is that you’ll now be able to view videos on the browser you’re using instead of the built-in player.

Anyone viewing a site using the new embed code can watch them using Flash or an HTML5 player, depending on their viewing environment and preferences. A notable warning though is in instances when HTML5 isn’t supported (e.g. using the HTML5 player for videos with ads), the default Flash player is used.

The new code looks something like below:

<iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width=""600" height="361"
src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID" frameborder="0">
</iframe>

The result?

Do note that if you try this with your wordpress blog, the Rich Tech Editor will eat up your code so try it with the HTML editor.

source Youtube API

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Samsung: Free Galaxy S for Unhappy iPhone 4 users

sylv3rblade — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 02:55:52 +0000

Seems like a reasonable deal.

Samsung UK is giving away a free Galaxy S, complete with Android 2.1, a 4-inch (480×800) AMOLED display, a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU, a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and swype to iPhone 4 users that were not happy with their purchases.

Samsung says it only has a few left to give away but a quick look at their Twitter feed and you’ll note that they’ve given away quite a few already. With the internet still a buzz with the antenna problems of the iPhone 4, It seems like the perfect opportunity for Samsung to market their top of the line phone.

Unethical? Maybe. Effective? Most likely, yes.

The company has issued the following statement:

“Recently there has been a real increase in online activity from consumers dissatisfied with some of our competitors’ products. We decided to contact a cross section of individuals to offer them a free Samsung Galaxy S as a replacement, as we’re confident that once people have the phone in their hands, they’ll see how impressive it is for themselves.”

source Samsung UK twitter

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Post tags: Apple, Galaxy S, iPhone 4, Samsung

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Google discontinues Nexus One

sylv3rblade — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:19:28 +0000

It’s sad day for Android fans as Google has decided to pull the plug on it’s very own smartphone, the Nexus One. Reports indicate that the last batch of these once mighty superphones for U.S. consumers have arrived at Google HQ. After these are gone, android fans in the U.S. will have to look elsewhere.

And to think that the Nexus just got some Froyo action of the past few weeks. *sigh*

The bright side at least is that the Nexus One will still be available to Vodafone in Europe and some Asian carriers as well as developers the world over. For the mean time however, it looks like it’s up to the current line up of Android super phones to carry Google’s mobile operating system mantle.

The Nexus One is the second phone to earn the Google Phone monicker. The very first Google Phone was Tmobile’s G1.

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Post tags: Android, Google, Nexus One

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Sharp unveils 100GB Blu-ray Disc

sylv3rblade — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:21:42 +0000

Still popping DVDs? How about a 100GB BluRay disc to replace all that? Sharp has recently announced that it will be the first Blu-Ray disc maker to launch a recordable triple layer Blu-ray format with 100GB of storage capacity. Thats twice the capacity of current Blu-ray discs in the market.

Sharp’s new beefy disk, the VR-100BR1 will be available in Japan on July 30 and will be using the new BDXL format specifications introduced by the Blu-ray Disc Association in April. The BDXL format allows for a maximum 128GB of write-once capability for Blu-ray discs and can support up to 100GB of Blu-ray data in rewritable disc format.

BXDL’s secret lies in the addition of more recordable layers and allows for three to four recordable layers, while current 50GB Blu-ray discs have just two recordable layers.

By the numbers, Sharp’s VR-100BR1 can store up to 12 hours of regular digital TV broadcasts or nearly nine hours of digital satellite broadcasts. No word on pricing or a US release date but you can bet that upon seeing that number a lot of folks have had their curiousity piqued.

source PC World

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Post tags: BluRay, Sharp, VR-100BR1

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Free Bumpers to iPhone 4 Owners

sylv3rblade — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:34:48 +0000

To address the iPhone 4 antenna issues, Steve Jobs announces free bumpers to all iPhone 4 owners during a statement today at the Apple Press Conference. This is in light of the iOS 4.0.1 fixing the signal bar computation on iOS 4 phones.

In most cases, encasing the iPhone 4 in a bumper will shield the antennas from human contact and preventing signal loss. Although the iPhone 4 will still suffer some interference when you hold it a certain way, Apple clearly believes the free bumpers will address the issue for a large majority of users.

Steve Jobs during the conference, made certain to point out that the iPhone 4 isn’t the only phone having signal issues, showing videos to the press of numerous phones from other manufacturers dropping in signal when held in a certain way.

That’s probably the closest admission to the hardware problem that Apple will give.

Wondering if you’re viable for the free bumper? Here’s Apple’s guidelines:

If you have an iPhone 4, you can get a free bumper from Apple.
If you want another case—or Apple’s bumpers are out of stock—you can pick another one from some options.
If you already bought another case an Apple bumper, you get a refund on that.
The offer applies until September 30. At that time, they will “examine” the situation again, and decide to extend the free bumpers or offer a different solution (hmmm, does that mean an updated iPhone then?).

While this fixes the antenna problem that the iPhone 4 is experiencing, it’s a silent admission from Apple that their shiny new product is indeed flawed.

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Post tags: Apple, iPhone, iPhone 4 antenna

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