Those looking to make a purchase direct with Verizon and save a few bucks as compared to the regular 9.99 purchase price of the Droid X can now opt to go pre-owned. Yup, Verizon is now offering (still with a two-year agreement), the Droid X for 9.99. Granted, as of now there are none in stock. Not bad, a savings sounds good. Me personally, I don’t mind going pre-owned, that is as long as I am buying from a reputable company. If nothing else, this method of purchase could get a Droid X in your hands sooner as the new model is now sporting a shipping date of September 15th.

Product [Verizon] Via [Droid-Life]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

It’s never been much of a secret, but now it’s finally official: Samsung has announced the Galaxy Tab, and has confirmed the final specs.  The announcement happened at IFA in Berlin, so we haven’t had a chance to actually touch it yet, but we at least have final specs.

The Galaxy Tab is officially a 7-inch Android tablet running Froyo with TouchWiz on top of it. It was announced for Europe as having HSUPA and HDSPA+ 3G, and not the Verizon-approved CDMA, but that could always come later.  It has two cameras, a 3 MP back-facing camera with LED flash as well as a 1.3 MP front-facing camera for video chat.  Inside there’s all the standard accelerometer, geo-magnetic sensor, light sensor, WiFi (802.11n included), Bluetooth 3.0, and Samsung even managed to add in a gyroscope just like the iPhone 4.  For storage, the Galaxy Tab comes in 16 and 32 GB models, both expandable with microSD cards.  It runs on a 1 GHz Core A8 processor, and Samsung says the battery will last for seven hours or video playback.  To top it all off, the 7-inch screen has a resolution of 1024×600, which gives it a higher pixel density than the iPad.

Reports out of Berlin seem to indicate that the Galaxy is finally the Android tablet we’ve been waiting for.  The screen size means its easy enough to hold with just one hand, and the display is certainly bright and seems to show colors well.  SlashGear has noted that while the phone is light, and solidly built, it it a bit plasticky.  Kat Hannaford at Gizmodo was apparently down on the device before she played with it, but said she came away impressed with the Galaxy Tab.  Finally, Engadget noted that Samsung “has set the gold standard for Android tablets.”  Is that’s true, we certainly have a lot to look forward to whenever Samsung gets around to announcing pricing and availability for the US.

Read [Samsung]

Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Android users can relax again, in the knowledge that the Android OS is just as safe today as ever; despite yesterday’s incorrect reports of a malicious app that was on millions of Android users devices!

Yesterday, the blogosphere was full of stories about an Android wallpaper app, which was reportedly collecting sensitive user data and sending it off to a server in China.  LookOut (the firm who reported this supposed security problem) has since issued a statement saying that in fact, the app was NOT showing any malicious behaviour.

The problem here is that those stories are all still out there, indexed and searchable – Just waiting for potential, new Android users to find them and be wrongly alarmed.

Unbelievably, Venturebeat, The Wall Street Journal, CNET, Yahoo News, Fast Company and scores of other BIG outlets carried this story, even though it was based on the findings of a single security company.  In fact, such was the traction generated by this story, that The Inquirer is still reporting it as news today!

Of course, anything related to Android is big news, so there was a rush to get that story out there.  As a result, the news went viral and the toothpaste was well and truly out of the tube, by the time it became obvious there was nothing malicious to report.

If I were Jackeey Wu (the app developer) or Google, I’d be REALLY pissed right now.

The Tech News Blog

Nvidia is announced today a new family of laptop graphics chips that will balance good 3D performance and battery life. The new Nvidia GeForce 400M series of graphics chips will be used in a number of new notebook computers coming from major computer makers including Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba.

Those computer makers will ship laptops with Nvidia’s Optimus technology, which is also known as “switchable graphics.” Many computers have dual capabilities when it comes to graphics. They have low-end graphics integrated into the chip set on a motherboard. Or they also have a discrete graphics chip that is more capable. Optimus enables a laptop to switch back and forth between the lesser graphics or the more powerful graphics, depending on the needs of the application. The switching happens seamlessly in the background.

Many of the computer makers will also ship stereoscopic 3D under the Nvidia 3D Vision brand in their new laptops. Altogether, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Nvidia is releasing seven new notebook graphics chips today. The GeForce GTX 470M and GTX 460M are for enthusiasts, while the rest are targeted at users who can get by with less performance. All of the GeForce 400M series chips support both Optimus and 3D Vision. Running cool games with graphics like the scene at the right are easy for machines with these chips.

The chips are all based on Nvidia’s Fermi architecture, which was released in desktop computers starting in March. The chips are 40 percent faster than previous GeForce 300M series chips. David Ragones, director of product marketing at Nvidia, said in an interview that the new chips will have lots of benefits for users: better game performance, faster web browsing, high-quality photos, and better high-definition video playback.

The chips will compete against integrated graphics chip sets from Intel. Nvidia says its chips are three times faster than Intel’s chips at doing tasks such as editing and sharing high-definition video. They are five times faster at retouching photos and 50 percent faster at browsing web photos. Games such as Starcraft II are unplayable on the Intel graphics, while they run fine on Nvidia Optimus-based notebooks.

New 3D Vision laptops coming this fall are the Asus G53Jw, with a GeForce GTX 460M graphics chip, and the Acer Aspire 5745DG with a GeForce GTX 425M chip. Some 425 games now support stereoscopic 3D on a PC. Asus is also launching its first all-in-one desktop computer with 3D Vision.The Asus ET2400XVT has a GeForce GTX 460M graphics chip.

Tags: 3D Vision, Optimus

Companies: advanced micro devices, Intel, Nvidia

People: David Ragones

VentureBeat

So, a legal and easy way to reliably jailbreak your devices and free them from the bullshit DRM that has driven users nuts for years – right?

Err, no, not exactly!

Jailbreaking your iPhone or iPad with jailbreakme 2.0

A new app called jailbreakme 2.0 has just been released, promising users of iOS4 devices the chance to easily jailbreak them.  Easily?  Yep, unlike previous jailbreak apps, which required you to hook your device up to a computer, jailbreakme runs from mobile Safari.  At the time of writing this, their servers are down due to high traffic, hardly surprising with all the coverage jailbreakme is getting right now.

The perfect way to jailbreak your iPhone?

Unfortunately, there are widespread media reports today, saying that users are reporting various faults after liberating their iPhones and iPads with jailbreakme.  FaceTime problems and faults to MMS services seem to be the most common issues.  That said, I would be extremely surprised if a fix was not in the mix very soon.

I fully expect we shall see a surge in apps like jailbreakme, over the coming weeks/months.  Maybe, just maybe, this will see enough users running non-DRM’ed iOS4 devices that Apple will reconsider their approach to DRM?

OK, OK – I only said MAYBE!

Photo: Myuibe

The Tech News Blog