Technological Reckoning

Kyocera Zio set to be shipped by August 21st

2010-08-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

Well finally the Zio is here..Or at least about to be. Here is a screen shot of an email is was sent earlier today.

Cricket to Launch Blackberry Before Android?

2010-08-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

Its been a few weeks since I talked about Cricket and the new Android phone from Kyocera that will soon be launching. I should have mentioned that the name “Kyocera” will not be printed on the phone since it will be branded ‘Sanyo”. Kyocera has enlisted the company to produce their low budget introduction into the US smartphone market. However, at a hefty price tag of $300 bucks at launch I doubt anyone will call this phone low-budget. I hope this phone is more than meets the eye. Would have thought with a such a high price tag Cricket is placing on the device one would figure on better features than Kyocera has released about the phone. I for one do not like that fact that Android OS 1.6 will be on the phone at launch.Also, a 3.2 megapixel camera come on and get with Sanyo lets have at least 5.0 really!! As a side note you will be able to purchase this phone on another carrier later in the year or first part of 2011 for around $100 bucks, of course with 2-year contract and much higher monthly charges. Still yet Cricket offers a nearly unbeatable service. I have a Samsung Delve flashed to Cricket with a monthly charge of $48.11 that is with nationwide unlimited calling, texting and internet.I absolutely love the service I have had only one dropped call since getting the service nearly 6 months ago. My average bill with Alltel was 140 bucks a month that’s a 92 dollar a month savings and I have almost all the features as with Alltel, since the Delve was not created for the Cricket network not all the phones features work properly but, I can live with that.

I was told by a store manager that the Sanyo Zio would be available for online purchase on August 15th. I feel that this information is a little misleading as I believe that it will be available for pre-order on that date. Much like the Blackberry Curve has already appeared on the Cricket website for pre-order. Much to my agrin the Blackberry has surfaced first after my source assured me that the android phone would come first with atleast a month before the Blackberry, well as anyone can see the Black Berry did show up first and now I am being told that the Zio may not surface till late September!! Well only time will tell. See you guys soon.

Download Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta

2010-07-29T03:58:00.000-07:00

IT professionals can now download Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta through the TechNet Evaluation Center. This combined service pack includes changes to both Windows platforms. The beta release is not available to home users.

LINK: Download Windows 7 SP1 Beta

More to come as I get it....

Kyocera Zio will arrive at Cricket August 15th!!

2010-07-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

So I was at work toady doing my normal searching for Cricket and the new Android Zio phone that will be launching very soon, when I stumbled across a few pages that listed the www.mycricket.com/android as being a new page. Well I hate to break it to you but that page has been up for well over a month now and is no new information, however I have heard from a Cricket store manager that August 15th holds some significance. I have already posted all the specs for you guys earlier post but I will give the specs out again for anyone that missed them.

The Kyocera Zio Specs:

Android 1.6 operating system
600 MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor.
3.5-inch WVGA capacitive touch screen (480x800 pixels resolution),
3.2-megapixel camera
512 MB internal memory
MicroSD memory slot (supports up to 32GB microSD cards).
1x EV-DO Rev.A (800MHz, 1900 MHz),
Wi-Fi,
A-GPS/E-911 capable.
Media Player and all the other usual goodies (Google Maps, Full use of Android Marketplace etc.)

I know it has Android OS 1.6, and I know other bloggers have stated that Cricket most likely won’t ofer an upgrade but, Kyocera has stated that there will be a roll out of the 2.x OS to their mobile Android devices later this year and my “source” has confirmed that Cricket will be on board with the OS updates.

Now for the down side the price will be $299(according to my source) this is expected from Cricket as there are no contract and the monthly charges will be half of other carriers and I know first had of Alltel’s monthly charges for a Samsung Delve reaching into the 140’s per month every month for two years straight, since that is the phone that I carried over to Cricket a few months back after my contract with Alltel ended.(Which since on Cricket I have used my phone for approximately 2500 minutes per month for three months and my bill has been only $48.00 that’s right only $48 bucks a month and the service has been unbeatable, REALLY!!)Also, I have a friend that has the iPhone. Her bill exceeds $125.00 every month with out fail, we there is one thing that fails... calls the amount of dropped calls she says drives her crazy.

Also, I will tell you that my inside source states that the phone will be on a special plan that runs $55 per month! Also, be on the look out for the Blackberry Curve to make its debut on around the same time.

As stated above the price is rumored at $299 but look for a special launch promotion that could lower the price of the phone down to around $199 or less with free shipping!
Well I said it once and I will say it again I can't wait for this puppy to launch! Look for my review of this phone and lots of other stuff coming soon........

A Closer Look at the Wiki Leak Documents

2010-07-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

An analysis of the recent release by Wikileaks of 76,908 reports regarding U.S. operations in Afghanistan, dating from 2004 to 2010, tell little that wasn’t already known, but provide details on operations and statistics, which were previously unknown and unavailable.

Civilian casualties and corruption in the Afghan government have been among the largest topics surrounding the reports, yet the actual content is much different from the hype.

The Epoch Times sorted through the top 45 documents rated by severity.

When sorted by level of severity, the reports show that the overwhelming number of civilian casualties and injuries were caused by the Taliban and other insurgents. Also, all reports of contact with insurgent forces show what appear as large victories for U.S. troops, with limited civilian casualties.

Of these 45 documents, 20 covered insurgent bombings and terrorist attacks that killed 435 civilians and injured another 937. Most of the attacks appeared to specifically target civilians, as only eight friendly troops were killed, and five, wounded.

Of the 45 most severe reports, 22 were on contact with insurgent forces. A total of 1,536 insurgents were killed, and another 114 were wounded; of the friendly troops engaged, 11 were killed and 31 wounded. In all, 10 civilians were killed, and 11 were wounded.

One other document was on a riot in Jalalabad City in 2005 which left 37 civilians dead and 10 wounded. According to the report, more than 250 people took to the streets, throwing stones, setting tires on fire, and vandalizing buildings. Gunshots were reported, and exits to city streets were blocked by fires. It is not reported how the civilians were killed, or injured.

The last two documents, rated by severity, were natural disasters. An avalanche or mudslide in 2007 killed 67 civilians, and an earthquake in 2009 killed 19, and injured 51.

A collection of 2,271 reports, filed under escalation of force, includes smaller incidents. According to the first 50 reports, 11 civilians were killed, and 28 were injured. Also, three insurgents were killed, and two were injured. Another 30 of the 50 reports had no cases of any killings or injuries.

Troops involved in the incidents were not limited to those from the United States, and included the ISAF, Afghan police, SAF, and others. The majority of incidents involved civilians charging with vehicles at patrols, or through checkpoints. The most severe case of the 50 took place when Afghan police fired on civilians who were throwing rocks, injuring eight and killing one.

One of the issues noted in the Wikileaks reports was on the Afghan police force charging tolls; another involved issues of extortion. There were only five documents in this category, of which one involved only a small group of Afghan police, and dated back to 2007. Included in the other cases were men posing as government employees, and a Taliban member demanding payment for safe passage.

Among the other reports, documents filed under the assassinations, kidnappings, muggings, and murders categories were acts perpetrated by insurgents, or were regular crimes.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a July 26 briefing, “Based on what we've seen, I don't think that what is being reported hasn’t in many ways been publicly discussed either by you all or by representatives of the U.S. government for quite some time. We have certainly known about safe havens in Pakistan; we have been concerned about civilian casualties for quite some time—and on both of those aspects we've taken steps to make improvements.”

iPhone coming to a carrier near you!

2010-07-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday The Library of Congress made several rulings that will enhance the right of those that “tinker” with hardware and software. “Home Brew” creators if you will.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, known as digital civil liberty advocates, requested the hearing that generated rulings which has defined “exceptions” to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, allows companies to lock or block digital content, Android OS, or the iPhone’s software, so that it can’t be altered by end users.

Most notably the iPhone is no longer protect by such laws, and now a user can effectively “jailbreak” their iPhone which would allow for unsigned code to installed and run on the device. This would allow the device to be used on a competing cell phone network, run software not written by Apple etc. Also, a ruling was made that will now allow a sampling(track) of music to extracted from a CD or DVD, legally, for use in remixes.

Ok, so as long as the basics of an idea can’t be stolen from you then I am ok with these few rulings. The use of music to create a “remix” seems ok in my book most of the time the artist “stealing” the beat, or track is not making any money from it anyhow. And, as far as the iPhone is concerned I think that once you bought it you can do whatever you want with it, so long as you don’t use it to interfere with someone else’s civil liberties. I for one am glad to see the relaxing of the laws surrounding copyright protection, just so long as they don’t go overboard.

HP Slate Knocked-Off Before Its Even Released

2010-07-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

Check out photo of a Chinese knock-off of the yet to be released HP Slate.
This comes on the heels of the Slate’s leaked spec’s.

Which are as follows:

Display: 8.9-inch WSVGA 1,024 x 600 widescreen display
Multitouch support, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, pen/digitizer support
Processor: 1.6GHz Intel Atom Menlow Z530 CPU
Graphics: Intel UMA with full HD 1080p playback support Storage: 32/64GB flash, upgradeable via SD card reader
RAM: 1GB DDR2 non-upgradeable
Connectivity: 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, 3G (optional)
WWAN, GPS,
Ports: SD/SDHC/SDXC, up to 128GB, 3.5mm headphone jack, 1 USB 2.0 port, dock connector (HDMI out and conventional SIM card support)
Software: Windows 7 Home Premium with HP touch-optimize UI
Dimensions: 9.21 x 5.70 x 0.57 inch and 1.49 pounds
Battery: 2-cell 30WHr polymer capable of more than 5 hours of life
Camera: front-facing VGA and 3-megapixel webcam

And will cost just under $600 bucks! It is clear to me in the image below that HP is gunning for the ipad. I believe that the Slate has the advantage since it will be running Windows 7 and not a Cell Phone OS and therefore will offer more diversity in the applications you will be able to use the slate for. Tell me what you think of the HP Slate or ipad.

Tell me what you think? What is all the fuss about PalmPad find out on an up and coming post soon!

Zio.. Here Zio... Cricket Customers Still Waiting on Android.

2010-07-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

Well it has been nearly five months since we heard that Cricket would be releasing the new Zio Smart Phone from Kyrocera. Now July and still not a peep out of the low budget cellphone carrier. I for one can't wait to get my hands on that little device. I know what most people say about Cricket, that the service is limited but, this little carrier has purchased air time on the big three's network so in effect they have access to every cell phone tower around therefore coverage is Great and that is from personal experience I travel I-95 from SC to GA everyday and never drop calls. I also, have a Nextel that will rarely carry more that one bar during my daily travels. So to be getting a touch android based smart phone on a $49 dollar a month unlimited everything plan is a dream come true! I'll be back with more once the phone is released.

LINK: http://www.mycricket.com/android