It was inevitable: Nintendo's reporting a substantial loss as sales of its DS gaming handheld fell last quarter, leading the company to a quarterly net loss for the first time in two years.
Nintendo says it lost 25 billion yen ($2.2 billion) during the quarter, which runs from April to June, compared with a profit of 42 billion yen the prior year. According to PC World's Martyn Williams, the sharpest decline was in demand for the Nintendo DS itself, whose sales plummeted by nearly 50 percent to 3.15 million units.
Portable handheld sales were down dramatically in June, with the DS leading the decline: 33 percent, year-on-year, though the handheld was actually up about the same amount in handheld sales (511k) over the prior month (384k). Sony's PSP was off 26 percent, though at 121k units in June, it's monthly sales were a fraction of Nintendo's, a position the beleaguered PSP's been in for years.
If we stick to year-on-year numbers, conventional wisdom holds that revenue fell due to weakening demand for the DS, probably demographic saturation--the company now has three iterations of the DS in circulation--coupled with anticipation for the upcoming 3D version. The other reason is the stronger Japanese yen, which reduced the value of Nintendo's overseas earnings.
Another sales-sinker cited by Nintendo directly was the lack of new games for the DS. The company said the number of new games it launched during the April/June quarter dropped by one-third in Japan, and by a fifth in the Americas, year-on-year. The only notable DS titles released in the U.S. during that timeframe were Picross 3D and Again. The latter was well-received critically, but the latter was panned. Nintendo's Pokemon HeartGold and Soulsilver games, WarioWare D.I.Y., and Square Enix's Dragon Quest IX all shipped before or after the April/June period.
Nintendo has a decent DS lineup for 2010's remainder: Dawn of Heroes (8/17), Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar (8/24), Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (9/12), Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest (9/14), Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Lights (10/5), Super Scribblenauts (10/12), Rock Band 3 (10/26), and Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Miniland Mayhem (12/1) should help sustain handheld revenue through 2010.
But eyes are already on Nintendo's 3DS, a version of the DS shipping in early 2011 that'll allow 3D play without special glasses.
Follow me on Twitter (@game_on)
CYBERPOWER
DELL
DELL INC
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Kaboom?s Paratrooper lands on the iPhone
Kaboom?s Paratrooper is simple in theory ? tap the plane to drop the paratrooper, tilt your iPhone or iPod touch to direct them to the landing spot. And right there is where every casual gaming fan knows the addiction starts and the mayhem begins.
You want to hit the X. You need to hit that X. Things get more complicated quickly, of course. Obstacles build up. They?re paratroopers after all, not sky divers. So don?t be surprised when you start having to leap ? and land ? into the middle of a paper-art war zone. (Yeah, paper-art. Awesome.)
Kaboom?s Paratrooper originally gained its well-deserved fame on Palm webOS, and Palm has a great article up about the app and it?s transition beyond webOS. (Hard to imagine Apple doing likewise, so kudos there.) Hard hard was it to port?
?The process has been straightforward,? Rob Bredow says. ?We were able to re-use most of the code and just wrapped our webOS sprite library in a sprite library designed for the iPhone. All the logic stayed the same.?
Games have historically been among the most platform friendly of fare, with many being ported from iPhone to webOS or Android, so nice to see it can go both ways.
If you check out Kaboom?s Paratroopers for iPhone, let us know what you think.
[webOS: behind the apps, iTunes link]
SYBASE SYMANTEC SYNTEL
Kaboom?s Paratrooper lands on the iPhone
Kaboom?s Paratrooper is simple in theory ? tap the plane to drop the paratrooper, tilt your iPhone or iPod touch to direct them to the landing spot. And right there is where every casual gaming fan knows the addiction starts and the mayhem begins.
You want to hit the X. You need to hit that X. Things get more complicated quickly, of course. Obstacles build up. They?re paratroopers after all, not sky divers. So don?t be surprised when you start having to leap ? and land ? into the middle of a paper-art war zone. (Yeah, paper-art. Awesome.)
Kaboom?s Paratrooper originally gained its well-deserved fame on Palm webOS, and Palm has a great article up about the app and it?s transition beyond webOS. (Hard to imagine Apple doing likewise, so kudos there.) Hard hard was it to port?
?The process has been straightforward,? Rob Bredow says. ?We were able to re-use most of the code and just wrapped our webOS sprite library in a sprite library designed for the iPhone. All the logic stayed the same.?
Games have historically been among the most platform friendly of fare, with many being ported from iPhone to webOS or Android, so nice to see it can go both ways.
If you check out Kaboom?s Paratroopers for iPhone, let us know what you think.
[webOS: behind the apps, iTunes link]
COMPAQ COREL CORP CYBERPOWER
70-Gigapixel Photo of Budapest Offers a Great View
Supersized panoramic photos of cities are the flavor of the season. After Prague and Dubai, it?s the turn of Budapest to get a detailed online photo that you can zoom in and out of and play around with?almost like Google Earth.
The photo shot over four days has 70-gigapixels. If the finished picture is ever printed, it would make a a poster 156 meters (511 feet) long and 31 meters (101 feet) tall. The amount of paper it would take would cover two apartment blocks at least 10 floors tall.
To shoot the photo, two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras were fitted with a 400mm Minolta lens and 1.4 X teleconverters and placed on a robotic camera mount. 20,000 test images later, the file was processed to create a single interactive photo.
Check out the Budapest photo here. It?s a tad blurry and sometimes pixelated if you zoom in too much but still fun to play around with.
See Also:
Gigapan Robotic Camera Rig Goes Pro
World?s Largest Panoramic Photo Is the Size of 1200 Billboards ?
18-Gigapixel Panorama Offers Breathtaking View of Prague
Hands-On With the Gigapan Epic 100 Panorama Robot
Photo: 70 Billion Pixels Budapest
[via Engadget]
MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROSEMI
The photo shot over four days has 70-gigapixels. If the finished picture is ever printed, it would make a a poster 156 meters (511 feet) long and 31 meters (101 feet) tall. The amount of paper it would take would cover two apartment blocks at least 10 floors tall.
To shoot the photo, two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras were fitted with a 400mm Minolta lens and 1.4 X teleconverters and placed on a robotic camera mount. 20,000 test images later, the file was processed to create a single interactive photo.
Check out the Budapest photo here. It?s a tad blurry and sometimes pixelated if you zoom in too much but still fun to play around with.
See Also:
Gigapan Robotic Camera Rig Goes Pro
World?s Largest Panoramic Photo Is the Size of 1200 Billboards ?
18-Gigapixel Panorama Offers Breathtaking View of Prague
Hands-On With the Gigapan Epic 100 Panorama Robot
Photo: 70 Billion Pixels Budapest
[via Engadget]
MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROSEMI
Microsoft Offering Windows Phone 7 to Employees
July 22, 2010 12:31 PM
Microsoft employees will apparently be given free Windows Phone 7 smartphones, according to staffer Tweets escaping from Microsoft Global Exchange, the company's annual sales conference (Mary Jo Foley tweeted about it first). Gizmodo's also posted an internal e-mail purportedly from Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business, with additional details:"I am thrilled to announce that a new Windows Phone 7 will be made available to every Microsoft employee as we launch in each market around the world. The process will vary based on your market, your carrier and your launch date so stay tuned for more information closer to launch."This is exactly what you'd expect, no? Apple employees walk around campus with the iPhone, Google employees have a tendency to whip out their Android in meetings, so it stands to reason that Microsoft staffers would follow suit.I've expended a lot of digital ink on the question of whether Windows Phone 7 will succeed. But this week's earnings numbers from both Apple and Microsoft make the stakes of that success all too clear. On the strength of its mobile devices--the iPhone and the iPad in particular--Apple posted quarterly revenues of $15.7 billion... while analysts predict that Microsoft, with much of its energies still focused on the desktop, will post revenues of $15.27 billion (the earnings call takes place at 5:30 EST).Microsoft knows it needs to diversify into the cloud and mobile--its Worldwide Partner Conference last week devoted substantial amounts of time to both. If Windows Phone 7 succeeds beyond expectations, then Microsoft will have another robust vertical to supplement Windows 7 and the other flagship software that support its current revenue model. If it fails, then Microsoft will find itself trapped in its old paradigm, at least in the short- to medium term; while the company has a number of cloud initiatives, none have translated into awe-inspiring cash flow. (So many heads would roll in the event of a Phone 7 meltdown, it would make the recent restructuring in the Entertainment & Devices Division look like a haircut by comparison.)Being trapped in the old paradigm is, frankly, unacceptable. Microsoft knows this. Giving its 88,000+ employees a Windows Phone 7 is a no-brainer; the next step is seeing whether it can convince a few million outsiders to put down cash for the privilege.
QUALCOMM QUANTA COMPUTER QUANTUM
Microsoft employees will apparently be given free Windows Phone 7 smartphones, according to staffer Tweets escaping from Microsoft Global Exchange, the company's annual sales conference (Mary Jo Foley tweeted about it first). Gizmodo's also posted an internal e-mail purportedly from Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business, with additional details:"I am thrilled to announce that a new Windows Phone 7 will be made available to every Microsoft employee as we launch in each market around the world. The process will vary based on your market, your carrier and your launch date so stay tuned for more information closer to launch."This is exactly what you'd expect, no? Apple employees walk around campus with the iPhone, Google employees have a tendency to whip out their Android in meetings, so it stands to reason that Microsoft staffers would follow suit.I've expended a lot of digital ink on the question of whether Windows Phone 7 will succeed. But this week's earnings numbers from both Apple and Microsoft make the stakes of that success all too clear. On the strength of its mobile devices--the iPhone and the iPad in particular--Apple posted quarterly revenues of $15.7 billion... while analysts predict that Microsoft, with much of its energies still focused on the desktop, will post revenues of $15.27 billion (the earnings call takes place at 5:30 EST).Microsoft knows it needs to diversify into the cloud and mobile--its Worldwide Partner Conference last week devoted substantial amounts of time to both. If Windows Phone 7 succeeds beyond expectations, then Microsoft will have another robust vertical to supplement Windows 7 and the other flagship software that support its current revenue model. If it fails, then Microsoft will find itself trapped in its old paradigm, at least in the short- to medium term; while the company has a number of cloud initiatives, none have translated into awe-inspiring cash flow. (So many heads would roll in the event of a Phone 7 meltdown, it would make the recent restructuring in the Entertainment & Devices Division look like a haircut by comparison.)Being trapped in the old paradigm is, frankly, unacceptable. Microsoft knows this. Giving its 88,000+ employees a Windows Phone 7 is a no-brainer; the next step is seeing whether it can convince a few million outsiders to put down cash for the privilege.
QUALCOMM QUANTA COMPUTER QUANTUM
Friday, July 30, 2010
70-Gigapixel Photo of Budapest Offers a Great View
Supersized panoramic photos of cities are the flavor of the season. After Prague and Dubai, it?s the turn of Budapest to get a detailed online photo that you can zoom in and out of and play around with?almost like Google Earth.
The photo shot over four days has 70-gigapixels. If the finished picture is ever printed, it would make a a poster 156 meters (511 feet) long and 31 meters (101 feet) tall. The amount of paper it would take would cover two apartment blocks at least 10 floors tall.
To shoot the photo, two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras were fitted with a 400mm Minolta lens and 1.4 X teleconverters and placed on a robotic camera mount. 20,000 test images later, the file was processed to create a single interactive photo.
Check out the Budapest photo here. It?s a tad blurry and sometimes pixelated if you zoom in too much but still fun to play around with.
See Also:
Gigapan Robotic Camera Rig Goes Pro
World?s Largest Panoramic Photo Is the Size of 1200 Billboards ?
18-Gigapixel Panorama Offers Breathtaking View of Prague
Hands-On With the Gigapan Epic 100 Panorama Robot
Photo: 70 Billion Pixels Budapest
[via Engadget]
SILICON LABORATORIES SKYWAVE MOBILE SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS
The photo shot over four days has 70-gigapixels. If the finished picture is ever printed, it would make a a poster 156 meters (511 feet) long and 31 meters (101 feet) tall. The amount of paper it would take would cover two apartment blocks at least 10 floors tall.
To shoot the photo, two 25-megapixel Sony A900 cameras were fitted with a 400mm Minolta lens and 1.4 X teleconverters and placed on a robotic camera mount. 20,000 test images later, the file was processed to create a single interactive photo.
Check out the Budapest photo here. It?s a tad blurry and sometimes pixelated if you zoom in too much but still fun to play around with.
See Also:
Gigapan Robotic Camera Rig Goes Pro
World?s Largest Panoramic Photo Is the Size of 1200 Billboards ?
18-Gigapixel Panorama Offers Breathtaking View of Prague
Hands-On With the Gigapan Epic 100 Panorama Robot
Photo: 70 Billion Pixels Budapest
[via Engadget]
SILICON LABORATORIES SKYWAVE MOBILE SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS
Yahoo Japan's Google Deal Godzillas Microsoft
Yahoo Japan has apparently agreed to use Google for its back-end search and advertising system, according to online reports. For Microsoft, the news must be something of an unexpected blow, considering that its 10-year search-and-advertising agreement with Yahoo is currently in the midst of implementation; although Yahoo's U.S. corporate mother ship only owns about 35 percent of Yahoo Japan (says Bloomberg), you'd think that the sheer magnitude of the agreement would be enough to sway even the most recalcitrant franchise into preemptively jumping onboard the Bing wagon, right? Right?
Wrong, I guess.
"At the present time, we feel there are quite a few areas where Microsoft is not yet ready," Yahoo Japan Chief Executive Masahiro Inoue told the media during a news conference in Tokyo, according to The New York Times. "Google is one step ahead in Japanese-language services."
For its part, Microsoft seems furious.
"This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google's deal with Yahoo in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said in a statement currently drifting around the Web. "The 2008 deal would have locked up 90 percent of paid search advertising. This deal gives Google virtually 100 percent of all searches in Japan, both paid and unpaid."
Under the terms of the search-and-advertising agreement, Bing will power back-end search for Yahoo's online properties, while Yahoo takes over worldwide sales force duties for both companies' search advertisers. Microsoft's AdCenter platform will power search advertising for Yahoo, as well. Both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission cleared the agreement in February.
Microsoft likely hopes that the deal will result in Yahoo's search-engine market share porting over to Bing with relatively little attrition. But this brouhaha with Yahoo Japan suggests two things: a.) Yahoo's global presence is too fractured, with too many other players possibly owning their own little pieces, to make such a transition uniform, and b.) Microsoft may face a very steep uphill battle as it tries to increase Bing's market presence into new international markets.
Fear Godzilla's mighty roar!
MOBILE TELESYSTEMS MOTOROLA MOZILLA
Wrong, I guess.
"At the present time, we feel there are quite a few areas where Microsoft is not yet ready," Yahoo Japan Chief Executive Masahiro Inoue told the media during a news conference in Tokyo, according to The New York Times. "Google is one step ahead in Japanese-language services."
For its part, Microsoft seems furious.
"This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google's deal with Yahoo in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said in a statement currently drifting around the Web. "The 2008 deal would have locked up 90 percent of paid search advertising. This deal gives Google virtually 100 percent of all searches in Japan, both paid and unpaid."
Under the terms of the search-and-advertising agreement, Bing will power back-end search for Yahoo's online properties, while Yahoo takes over worldwide sales force duties for both companies' search advertisers. Microsoft's AdCenter platform will power search advertising for Yahoo, as well. Both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission cleared the agreement in February.
Microsoft likely hopes that the deal will result in Yahoo's search-engine market share porting over to Bing with relatively little attrition. But this brouhaha with Yahoo Japan suggests two things: a.) Yahoo's global presence is too fractured, with too many other players possibly owning their own little pieces, to make such a transition uniform, and b.) Microsoft may face a very steep uphill battle as it tries to increase Bing's market presence into new international markets.
Fear Godzilla's mighty roar!
MOBILE TELESYSTEMS MOTOROLA MOZILLA
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Windows Phone 7: DOA?
Microsoft didn't bother to send me one of the Windows Phone 7 prototypes they've been circulating to media over the past week--which is OK, because I had my hands full reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S--but I'm hoping they'll see the light over the next couple of days, if only so I can jump into the review fray.A lot of those reviews seem very polite. There's some praise for the Windows Phone 7 operating system, which attempts to aggregate Web content and applications into subject-specific Hubs, as opposed to arranging individual apps on a grid-like home screen. And then there's Galen Gruman, who basically went nuclear."Microsoft needs to kill Windows Phone 7 and avoid further embarrassing itself by shipping this throwback," Gruman wrote in a July 15 posting on InfoWorld's Mobile Edge blog. "It's not a question of whether Windows Phone 7 will fail--it will--but how long it will take Microsoft to admit the failure. For the company's sake, the earlier it fesses up, the better."According to Gruman, Windows Phone 7's sins include an "awkward and unsophisticated" UI that "recalls Microsoft's history of clunky design" and use of "inexcusably old technology" such as Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft, he says, has come up with "an imperfect copy of an old iPhone."Gruman predicts that Windows Phone 7 devices will find their way to the carriers' remainder bins by "in January 2011."I'm not so sure that's the case here. I haven't had the chance to dropkick a Windows Phone 7 device of my very own (you truly never know how well a smartphone can suit your needs until you test whether it can survive a stray boot), but I have seen it in action, in a very limited way. Based off that limited interaction, the user interface seemed intuitive, and certainly nothing like the iPhone circa 2007.The bigger question--and this will affect its rate of consumer adoption--is how versatile the UI proves in handling people's lives and apps. If it's a snap to add new apps, or update information for a particular Hub, then Windows Phone 7 could prove sticky in the marketplace. If it's a pain, then users will shy away.If anything's going to kill Windows Phone 7, it's the Windows Phone Marketplace. I've said this before: if third-party developers don't get onboard with their apps and games, then this platform will die--but that death will be gradual, certainly not the "$25 bin by President's Day" demise predicted by Gruman.At this point, the developer front seems a toss-up. On one hand, Microsoft is pushing very hard (and even offering cash, rumor has it) for developers to port their wares on Windows Phone 7. On the other, I've been hearing a lot of angry rumblings from Windows Mobile developers--who could be the natural core group for Phone 7 development--grumbling about how Microsoft's attempt at a smartphone "reset" has left them with a.) no easy upgrade path for their existing apps to the new platform, and b.) needing to adapt to the all-new requirements of building for Phone 7. And at least one of those developers is a pretty major-sized entity.So we shall see. If Microsoft mismanages the launch--I've listed some of the things they need to do to succeed, here--then they're in very big trouble. But I think they could have the platform to make it work, or at least halt their slide in smartphone market share.What do you all think?
TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS VEECO INSTRUMENTS VERISIGN
TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS VEECO INSTRUMENTS VERISIGN
Daily Crunch: Darth Refrigerator Edition
CrunchGear Week in Review: Watermelon Squid Edition
Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear:
Novelty motorcycle helmets will probably get you killed by laughing driversDriverless vehicles begin trek from Italy to ChinaTake perfect panoramas with a modified egg timerOne of the most amazing physics engines I?ve ever seenPortable watermelon cooler
DST SYSTEMS EARTHLINK EBAY
Novelty motorcycle helmets will probably get you killed by laughing driversDriverless vehicles begin trek from Italy to ChinaTake perfect panoramas with a modified egg timerOne of the most amazing physics engines I?ve ever seenPortable watermelon cooler
DST SYSTEMS EARTHLINK EBAY
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Review: SGP Steinheil Anti-Fingerprint for iPhone 4
Popular Sections on Daily iPhone Blog:
iPhone 4 Wallpapers
iPhone Wallpapers
iPad wallpapers
BROADCOM CANON CISCO SYSTEMS
Yahoo Japan's Google Deal Godzillas Microsoft
Yahoo Japan has apparently agreed to use Google for its back-end search and advertising system, according to online reports. For Microsoft, the news must be something of an unexpected blow, considering that its 10-year search-and-advertising agreement with Yahoo is currently in the midst of implementation; although Yahoo's U.S. corporate mother ship only owns about 35 percent of Yahoo Japan (says Bloomberg), you'd think that the sheer magnitude of the agreement would be enough to sway even the most recalcitrant franchise into preemptively jumping onboard the Bing wagon, right? Right?
Wrong, I guess.
"At the present time, we feel there are quite a few areas where Microsoft is not yet ready," Yahoo Japan Chief Executive Masahiro Inoue told the media during a news conference in Tokyo, according to The New York Times. "Google is one step ahead in Japanese-language services."
For its part, Microsoft seems furious.
"This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google's deal with Yahoo in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said in a statement currently drifting around the Web. "The 2008 deal would have locked up 90 percent of paid search advertising. This deal gives Google virtually 100 percent of all searches in Japan, both paid and unpaid."
Under the terms of the search-and-advertising agreement, Bing will power back-end search for Yahoo's online properties, while Yahoo takes over worldwide sales force duties for both companies' search advertisers. Microsoft's AdCenter platform will power search advertising for Yahoo, as well. Both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission cleared the agreement in February.
Microsoft likely hopes that the deal will result in Yahoo's search-engine market share porting over to Bing with relatively little attrition. But this brouhaha with Yahoo Japan suggests two things: a.) Yahoo's global presence is too fractured, with too many other players possibly owning their own little pieces, to make such a transition uniform, and b.) Microsoft may face a very steep uphill battle as it tries to increase Bing's market presence into new international markets.
Fear Godzilla's mighty roar!
D-LINK DST SYSTEMS EARTHLINK
Wrong, I guess.
"At the present time, we feel there are quite a few areas where Microsoft is not yet ready," Yahoo Japan Chief Executive Masahiro Inoue told the media during a news conference in Tokyo, according to The New York Times. "Google is one step ahead in Japanese-language services."
For its part, Microsoft seems furious.
"This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google's deal with Yahoo in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said in a statement currently drifting around the Web. "The 2008 deal would have locked up 90 percent of paid search advertising. This deal gives Google virtually 100 percent of all searches in Japan, both paid and unpaid."
Under the terms of the search-and-advertising agreement, Bing will power back-end search for Yahoo's online properties, while Yahoo takes over worldwide sales force duties for both companies' search advertisers. Microsoft's AdCenter platform will power search advertising for Yahoo, as well. Both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission cleared the agreement in February.
Microsoft likely hopes that the deal will result in Yahoo's search-engine market share porting over to Bing with relatively little attrition. But this brouhaha with Yahoo Japan suggests two things: a.) Yahoo's global presence is too fractured, with too many other players possibly owning their own little pieces, to make such a transition uniform, and b.) Microsoft may face a very steep uphill battle as it tries to increase Bing's market presence into new international markets.
Fear Godzilla's mighty roar!
D-LINK DST SYSTEMS EARTHLINK
Android Captivate and Vibrant get reviewed ? the competition
AT&T and T-Mobile bring the Android competition with the Samsung Galaxy S-class Captivate and Vibrant
Phil Nickinson, my counterpart over at sibling site Android Central has just posted his AT&T Android Captivate review and T-Mobile Android Vibrant review, the latest, greatest US GSM competition to our own iPhone 4. They?re both Galaxy S-class devices, but one of the strengths of Android is the ability for manufacturers like Samsung and carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile (and Verizon and Sprint when their versions launch) to modify and customize the hardware and software to make their devices distinct.
Ally already posted her thoughts on the AT&T Captivate vs. iPhone 4, so if you?re trying to decide between the two, or between them and the T-Mobile Vibrant, give Phil?s a read to and then come back here and let us know what you think.
XEROX XILINX YAHOO
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Apple brings multitouch to desktops with Magic Trackpad
The Apple Online Store is back up and with it comes the Magic Trackpad, bringing full on MacBook-style multitouch goodness to Apple?s desktop line.
It?s got click, scroll, swipe, and rotate, so if the Magic Mouse just wasn?t enough for you, here?s the escalation you?ve been waiting for. Oh, and there?s an Apple battery re-charger to go with it.
And while it?s not the iPhone or iPod touch ?Magic Trackpad? app I?ve been waiting for ? can you please get on that Apple? ? it does show Apple is continuing to leverage their technologies across their various platforms, devices, and machines, creating a virtuous cycle iOS is sure to benefit from as well.
(And no, there?s no info on whether or not it will work as a companion to the BT Keyboard for iPad ? we?ll have to try it when it arrives).
$69. Anyone besides me picking one up?
[Apple.com]
GATEWAY GERICOM GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY
Dell Streak Priced at $300 For AT&T
After months of teasing, Dell?s 5-inch tablet-phone hybrid called the Streak finally has a price tag. The Streak will cost $300 with a two-year contract on AT&T. An unlocked version of the device will cost $550.
Dell is yet to announce exactly when the Streak will hit retail stores in the U.S. but it is accepting pre-sale orders from customers on its site. The device will initially be available in black with a red color variant introduced later this year, says Dell.
Dell launched the Streak in U.K. last month. The Streak is targeted at smartphone users who crave a larger display but still need a device that?s portable and could potentially replace their phone. The Streak has a 5-inch display, a 5-megapixel camera, phone, browser and access to Android apps. But it doesn?t exactly succeed in trying to be bigger than the phone but smaller than the iPad. (Read Wired.com?s review of the Dell Streak.)
A major drawback of the Streak is that it uses version 1.6 of the Android operating system, while most smartphones today run Android 2.1. Google has already released Android 2.2 Froyo and some devices such as the Nexus One have gotten the Froyo update.
The Streak seems woefully behind the times but Dell says a Froyo update is coming ?later this year.?
In the U.S., AT&T haters won?t have a choice when it comes to choosing a wireless carrier for the device. Dell doesn?t plan to support T-Mobile?s 3G network or certify the Streak for operation on the T-Mobile network.
See Also:
Hands On: Dell ?Streak? Tablet Feels Like Supersized Phone ?
Dell Streak Tablet Official, Crippled by Android 1.6
Dell?s Tablet Aims to Stick It to Apple?s iPad
Dell Tablet To Debut on AT&T
Photo: Dell Streak (Jon Snyder/Wired.com)
TIBCO SOFTWARE TOSHIBA TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS
Dell is yet to announce exactly when the Streak will hit retail stores in the U.S. but it is accepting pre-sale orders from customers on its site. The device will initially be available in black with a red color variant introduced later this year, says Dell.
Dell launched the Streak in U.K. last month. The Streak is targeted at smartphone users who crave a larger display but still need a device that?s portable and could potentially replace their phone. The Streak has a 5-inch display, a 5-megapixel camera, phone, browser and access to Android apps. But it doesn?t exactly succeed in trying to be bigger than the phone but smaller than the iPad. (Read Wired.com?s review of the Dell Streak.)
A major drawback of the Streak is that it uses version 1.6 of the Android operating system, while most smartphones today run Android 2.1. Google has already released Android 2.2 Froyo and some devices such as the Nexus One have gotten the Froyo update.
The Streak seems woefully behind the times but Dell says a Froyo update is coming ?later this year.?
In the U.S., AT&T haters won?t have a choice when it comes to choosing a wireless carrier for the device. Dell doesn?t plan to support T-Mobile?s 3G network or certify the Streak for operation on the T-Mobile network.
See Also:
Hands On: Dell ?Streak? Tablet Feels Like Supersized Phone ?
Dell Streak Tablet Official, Crippled by Android 1.6
Dell?s Tablet Aims to Stick It to Apple?s iPad
Dell Tablet To Debut on AT&T
Photo: Dell Streak (Jon Snyder/Wired.com)
TIBCO SOFTWARE TOSHIBA TRIDENT MICROSYSTEMS
Library of Congress: Its not illegal to Jailbreak or rooting your phone
It looks like we will be able to legally unlock and jailbreak our devices according to library of congress! Check out the entire Press Release after the break!
Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.
Section 1201(a)(1) of the copyright law requires that every three years I am to determine whether there are any classes of works that will be subject to exemptions from the statute?s prohibition against circumvention of technology that effectively controls access to a copyrighted work. I make that determination at the conclusion of a rulemaking proceeding conducted by the Register of Copyrights, who makes a recommendation to me. Based on that proceeding and the Register?s recommendation, I am to determine whether the prohibition on circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works is causing or is likely to cause adverse effects on the ability of users of any particular classes of copyrighted works to make noninfringing uses of those works. The classes of works that I designated in the previous proceeding expire at the end of the current proceeding unless proponents of a class prove their case once again.
This is the fourth time that I have made such a determination. Today I have designated six classes of works. Persons who circumvent access controls in order to engage in noninfringing uses of works in these six classes will not be subject to the statutory prohibition against circumvention.
As I have noted at the conclusion of past proceedings, it is important to understand the purposes of this rulemaking, as stated in the law, and the role I have in it. This is not a broad evaluation of the successes or failures of the DMCA. The purpose of the proceeding is to determine whether current technologies that control access to copyrighted works are diminishing the ability of individuals to use works in lawful, noninfringing ways. The DMCA does not forbid the act of circumventing copy controls, and therefore this rulemaking proceeding is not about technologies that control copying. Nor is this rulemaking about the ability to make or distribute products or services used for purposes of circumventing access controls, which are governed by a different part of section 1201.
In this rulemaking, the Register of Copyrights received 19 initial submissions proposing 25 classes of works, many of them duplicative in subject matter, which the Register organized into 11 groups and published in a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comments on the proposed classes. Fifty-six comments were submitted. Thirty-seven witnesses appeared during the four days of public hearings in Washington and in Palo Alto, California. Transcripts of the hearings, copies of all of the comments, and copies of other information received by the Register have been posted on the Copyright Office?s website.
The six classes of works are:
(1) Motion pictures on DVDs that are lawfully made and acquired and that are protected by the Content Scrambling System when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment, and where the person engaging in circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use in the following instances:
(i) Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students;
(ii) Documentary filmmaking;
(iii) Noncommercial videos
(2) Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.
(3) Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network.
(4) Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing for, investigating, or correcting security flaws or vulnerabilities, if:
(i) The information derived from the security testing is used primarily to promote the security of the owner or operator of a computer, computer system, or computer network; and
(ii) The information derived from the security testing is used or maintained in a manner that does not facilitate copyright infringement or a violation of applicable law.
(5) Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace; and
(6) Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book?s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.
All of these classes of works find their origins in classes that I designated at the conclusion of the previous rulemaking proceeding, but some of the classes have changed due to differences in the facts and arguments presented in the current proceeding. For example, in the previous proceeding I designated a class that enable film and media studies professors to engage in the noninfringing activity of making compilations of film clips for classroom instruction. In the current proceeding, the record supported an expansion of that class to enable the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into documentary films and noncommercial videos for the purpose of criticism or comment, when the person engaging in circumvention reasonably believes that it is necessary to fulfill that purpose. I agree with the Register that the record demonstrates that it is sometimes necessary to circumvent access controls on DVDs in order to make these kinds of fair uses of short portions of motion pictures.
[Thx Radical]
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Monday, July 26, 2010
Shortages Prompt HTC to Swap Display Technologies
HTC on Monday announced it would use Super LCD (SLCD) display technology from Sony on its latest batch of mobile phones, replacing AMOLED screens supplied by Samsung. The move comes as shortages of HTC devices like the Droid Incredible on Verizon and the HTC Desire forced the company to find an alternative to replenish its stocks. HTC announced the decision in a press release published by the Website SlashGear.
The Taiwan-based manufacturer, which produces most phones running the Google Android OS, said it is experiencing high demand for many of its phones, specifically for handsets with 3.7-inch displays. The HTC Droid Incredible, the HTC Desire (mainly found in Europe), and the Google Nexus One are affected by the shortages.
HTC DesireHTC says the SLCD displays will offer a "comparable visual experience" to its current 3.7-inch displays, and increase battery life because they are five times less power-hungry than Samsung's AMOLED displays. Samsung is using its latest generation of displays in several variations of the Galaxy S series smartphones.
"HTC believes that both technologies offer exceptional user experiences, and we will employ both types of displays concurrently within our current product lineup," the company said in its statement. The first HTC phones with SLCD displays are due later this summer.
HTC did not say which phones will use SLCD screens. The company said it would introduce SLCDs "into a variety of HTC phones including the HTC Desire and global Nexus One." While Google killed off the Nexus One adventure, there are still widespread shortages of the HTC Incredible, which uses the 3.7-inch AMOLED screens.
VIRGIN MEDIA VODAFONE WESTERN DIGITAL
The Taiwan-based manufacturer, which produces most phones running the Google Android OS, said it is experiencing high demand for many of its phones, specifically for handsets with 3.7-inch displays. The HTC Droid Incredible, the HTC Desire (mainly found in Europe), and the Google Nexus One are affected by the shortages.
HTC DesireHTC says the SLCD displays will offer a "comparable visual experience" to its current 3.7-inch displays, and increase battery life because they are five times less power-hungry than Samsung's AMOLED displays. Samsung is using its latest generation of displays in several variations of the Galaxy S series smartphones.
"HTC believes that both technologies offer exceptional user experiences, and we will employ both types of displays concurrently within our current product lineup," the company said in its statement. The first HTC phones with SLCD displays are due later this summer.
HTC did not say which phones will use SLCD screens. The company said it would introduce SLCDs "into a variety of HTC phones including the HTC Desire and global Nexus One." While Google killed off the Nexus One adventure, there are still widespread shortages of the HTC Incredible, which uses the 3.7-inch AMOLED screens.
VIRGIN MEDIA VODAFONE WESTERN DIGITAL
Verizon to Microsoft: Here Are Your Kins
July 19, 2010 1:43 PM
If anyone's still in the market for a Kin phone, you're officially out of luck: Verizon Wireless will no longer carry the devices, 19 days after Microsoft decided to pull the plug due to anemic sales. Dustbin of history (or at least dead tech), here they come."Verizon Wireless will no longer sell the Kin One or Kin Two in our company-owned stores," Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney told the blog Phone Scoop on July 19. "Existing customers should not be impacted. There are no current plans to change any of the services associated with either the phone or the customers' services."Right before the end, Verizon had slashed the price of the stubby Kin One from $49.99 to $29.99 with a two-year plan; the more rectangular Kin Two was also given a price-tag haircut, from $99.99 to $49.99. But the carrier did nothing to lower the price of the devices' calling/data plan, which many pundits found excessive.The Kin devices had one cool feature, and that was their ability to seamlessly port users' photos and other content to a cloud repository--I'm testing a number of upcoming smartphones right now, for a set of reviews, and I sorely wish (with some of them) that it was easier to lift photos and video from the device and into the digital stratosphere. But everything else about Kin was pretty much half-baked, from the social-network updates to the conspicuous absence of games and third-party applications.Given the phones' narrow target demographic (teenagers and young adults), and lack of true smartphone functionality, I'm not sure there are many lessons that Microsoft can draw from this fiasco, except maybe don't try it again.
ASUSTEK COMPUTER AT&T ATARI INC
If anyone's still in the market for a Kin phone, you're officially out of luck: Verizon Wireless will no longer carry the devices, 19 days after Microsoft decided to pull the plug due to anemic sales. Dustbin of history (or at least dead tech), here they come."Verizon Wireless will no longer sell the Kin One or Kin Two in our company-owned stores," Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney told the blog Phone Scoop on July 19. "Existing customers should not be impacted. There are no current plans to change any of the services associated with either the phone or the customers' services."Right before the end, Verizon had slashed the price of the stubby Kin One from $49.99 to $29.99 with a two-year plan; the more rectangular Kin Two was also given a price-tag haircut, from $99.99 to $49.99. But the carrier did nothing to lower the price of the devices' calling/data plan, which many pundits found excessive.The Kin devices had one cool feature, and that was their ability to seamlessly port users' photos and other content to a cloud repository--I'm testing a number of upcoming smartphones right now, for a set of reviews, and I sorely wish (with some of them) that it was easier to lift photos and video from the device and into the digital stratosphere. But everything else about Kin was pretty much half-baked, from the social-network updates to the conspicuous absence of games and third-party applications.Given the phones' narrow target demographic (teenagers and young adults), and lack of true smartphone functionality, I'm not sure there are many lessons that Microsoft can draw from this fiasco, except maybe don't try it again.
ASUSTEK COMPUTER AT&T ATARI INC
iPhone 4: Teksure Carbon Fiber skin
The new Lucky Labs Teksure Carbon Fiber iPhone 4 skin is one of the coolest ways that you can protect the back of your new iPhone as well as give it an awesome new look. The Teksure Carbon Fiber is a heavy duty 3M product designed to simulate both the look and feel of carbon fiber. Most people won?t be able to tell that it?s not actually carbon fiber. Price 10$
[Via]
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Sunday, July 25, 2010
Apple Refunds Bumper Case Purchases, Launches Bumper App
Apple has started to refund buyers of the $30 rubber-band it calls the Bumper Case. The refund was promised to buyers after Apple offered free bumper cases to iPhone 4 owners to fix the signal-dropping death-grip.
With little fuss, Apple has been refunding customers? credit-cards for the $30 purchase price plus any tax or shipping. If you paid cash, lord knows how you?ll get your money back. A postal-order or a check, probably. Why not fax Apple to find out?
Some have looked at the bumper cases, which perfectly cover the troublesome exposed external antenna-band on the iPhone 4 and nothing else, and seen conspiracy. ?Apple knew about the problem all along,? they cry, ?the Bumper proves it!?
That Apple would realize the problem and, instead of fixing it just try to sell a case seems unlikely. I?m with Daring Fireball?s John Gruber on this one: I think that Apple just wanted a slice of the lucrative iPhone case market. After all, at Apple?s entry-level $30 accessory price-point, a rubber-strip costing a few cents will certainly generate a profit.
For those of you who sensibly held-off buying a $30 piece of stationery, you can now get one free. Apple has also launched its iPhone 4 Case Program. This is an actual application, available from the App Store. Download it, log in and order. The Bumper is in there but, as Steve Jobs promised at last Friday?s press event, there are a number of third-party cases too. These actually look pretty good, and come from respected manufacturers like Speck, Belkin and Griffin. All of the cases, from Apple or anyone else, will take 3-5 weeks to ship.
iPhone 4 Case Program [Apple]
Apple Automatically Refunding iPhone 4 Bumper Purchases [Mashable]
Photo: By Mr. T in DC/Flickr
See Also:
Fix iPhone 4 Reception Troubles for $1
Can Black Tape Double the Speed of Your iPhone 4?
Apple's Answer to Antennagate: Free iPhone 4 Cases
Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.
MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROSEMI MICROSOFT
With little fuss, Apple has been refunding customers? credit-cards for the $30 purchase price plus any tax or shipping. If you paid cash, lord knows how you?ll get your money back. A postal-order or a check, probably. Why not fax Apple to find out?
Some have looked at the bumper cases, which perfectly cover the troublesome exposed external antenna-band on the iPhone 4 and nothing else, and seen conspiracy. ?Apple knew about the problem all along,? they cry, ?the Bumper proves it!?
That Apple would realize the problem and, instead of fixing it just try to sell a case seems unlikely. I?m with Daring Fireball?s John Gruber on this one: I think that Apple just wanted a slice of the lucrative iPhone case market. After all, at Apple?s entry-level $30 accessory price-point, a rubber-strip costing a few cents will certainly generate a profit.
For those of you who sensibly held-off buying a $30 piece of stationery, you can now get one free. Apple has also launched its iPhone 4 Case Program. This is an actual application, available from the App Store. Download it, log in and order. The Bumper is in there but, as Steve Jobs promised at last Friday?s press event, there are a number of third-party cases too. These actually look pretty good, and come from respected manufacturers like Speck, Belkin and Griffin. All of the cases, from Apple or anyone else, will take 3-5 weeks to ship.
iPhone 4 Case Program [Apple]
Apple Automatically Refunding iPhone 4 Bumper Purchases [Mashable]
Photo: By Mr. T in DC/Flickr
See Also:
Fix iPhone 4 Reception Troubles for $1
Can Black Tape Double the Speed of Your iPhone 4?
Apple's Answer to Antennagate: Free iPhone 4 Cases
Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.
MICRON TECHNOLOGY MICROSEMI MICROSOFT
Windows Phone 7: DOA?
Microsoft didn't bother to send me one of the Windows Phone 7 prototypes they've been circulating to media over the past week--which is OK, because I had my hands full reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S--but I'm hoping they'll see the light over the next couple of days, if only so I can jump into the review fray.A lot of those reviews seem very polite. There's some praise for the Windows Phone 7 operating system, which attempts to aggregate Web content and applications into subject-specific Hubs, as opposed to arranging individual apps on a grid-like home screen. And then there's Galen Gruman, who basically went nuclear."Microsoft needs to kill Windows Phone 7 and avoid further embarrassing itself by shipping this throwback," Gruman wrote in a July 15 posting on InfoWorld's Mobile Edge blog. "It's not a question of whether Windows Phone 7 will fail--it will--but how long it will take Microsoft to admit the failure. For the company's sake, the earlier it fesses up, the better."According to Gruman, Windows Phone 7's sins include an "awkward and unsophisticated" UI that "recalls Microsoft's history of clunky design" and use of "inexcusably old technology" such as Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft, he says, has come up with "an imperfect copy of an old iPhone."Gruman predicts that Windows Phone 7 devices will find their way to the carriers' remainder bins by "in January 2011."I'm not so sure that's the case here. I haven't had the chance to dropkick a Windows Phone 7 device of my very own (you truly never know how well a smartphone can suit your needs until you test whether it can survive a stray boot), but I have seen it in action, in a very limited way. Based off that limited interaction, the user interface seemed intuitive, and certainly nothing like the iPhone circa 2007.The bigger question--and this will affect its rate of consumer adoption--is how versatile the UI proves in handling people's lives and apps. If it's a snap to add new apps, or update information for a particular Hub, then Windows Phone 7 could prove sticky in the marketplace. If it's a pain, then users will shy away.If anything's going to kill Windows Phone 7, it's the Windows Phone Marketplace. I've said this before: if third-party developers don't get onboard with their apps and games, then this platform will die--but that death will be gradual, certainly not the "$25 bin by President's Day" demise predicted by Gruman.At this point, the developer front seems a toss-up. On one hand, Microsoft is pushing very hard (and even offering cash, rumor has it) for developers to port their wares on Windows Phone 7. On the other, I've been hearing a lot of angry rumblings from Windows Mobile developers--who could be the natural core group for Phone 7 development--grumbling about how Microsoft's attempt at a smartphone "reset" has left them with a.) no easy upgrade path for their existing apps to the new platform, and b.) needing to adapt to the all-new requirements of building for Phone 7. And at least one of those developers is a pretty major-sized entity.So we shall see. If Microsoft mismanages the launch--I've listed some of the things they need to do to succeed, here--then they're in very big trouble. But I think they could have the platform to make it work, or at least halt their slide in smartphone market share.What do you all think?
BENQ BROADCOM CANON
BENQ BROADCOM CANON
Apple Refunds Bumper Case Purchases, Launches Bumper App
Apple has started to refund buyers of the $30 rubber-band it calls the Bumper Case. The refund was promised to buyers after Apple offered free bumper cases to iPhone 4 owners to fix the signal-dropping death-grip.
With little fuss, Apple has been refunding customers? credit-cards for the $30 purchase price plus any tax or shipping. If you paid cash, lord knows how you?ll get your money back. A postal-order or a check, probably. Why not fax Apple to find out?
Some have looked at the bumper cases, which perfectly cover the troublesome exposed external antenna-band on the iPhone 4 and nothing else, and seen conspiracy. ?Apple knew about the problem all along,? they cry, ?the Bumper proves it!?
That Apple would realize the problem and, instead of fixing it just try to sell a case seems unlikely. I?m with Daring Fireball?s John Gruber on this one: I think that Apple just wanted a slice of the lucrative iPhone case market. After all, at Apple?s entry-level $30 accessory price-point, a rubber-strip costing a few cents will certainly generate a profit.
For those of you who sensibly held-off buying a $30 piece of stationery, you can now get one free. Apple has also launched its iPhone 4 Case Program. This is an actual application, available from the App Store. Download it, log in and order. The Bumper is in there but, as Steve Jobs promised at last Friday?s press event, there are a number of third-party cases too. These actually look pretty good, and come from respected manufacturers like Speck, Belkin and Griffin. All of the cases, from Apple or anyone else, will take 3-5 weeks to ship.
iPhone 4 Case Program [Apple]
Apple Automatically Refunding iPhone 4 Bumper Purchases [Mashable]
Photo: By Mr. T in DC/Flickr
See Also:
Fix iPhone 4 Reception Troubles for $1
Can Black Tape Double the Speed of Your iPhone 4?
Apple's Answer to Antennagate: Free iPhone 4 Cases
Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.
TERADATA TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TIBCO SOFTWARE
With little fuss, Apple has been refunding customers? credit-cards for the $30 purchase price plus any tax or shipping. If you paid cash, lord knows how you?ll get your money back. A postal-order or a check, probably. Why not fax Apple to find out?
Some have looked at the bumper cases, which perfectly cover the troublesome exposed external antenna-band on the iPhone 4 and nothing else, and seen conspiracy. ?Apple knew about the problem all along,? they cry, ?the Bumper proves it!?
That Apple would realize the problem and, instead of fixing it just try to sell a case seems unlikely. I?m with Daring Fireball?s John Gruber on this one: I think that Apple just wanted a slice of the lucrative iPhone case market. After all, at Apple?s entry-level $30 accessory price-point, a rubber-strip costing a few cents will certainly generate a profit.
For those of you who sensibly held-off buying a $30 piece of stationery, you can now get one free. Apple has also launched its iPhone 4 Case Program. This is an actual application, available from the App Store. Download it, log in and order. The Bumper is in there but, as Steve Jobs promised at last Friday?s press event, there are a number of third-party cases too. These actually look pretty good, and come from respected manufacturers like Speck, Belkin and Griffin. All of the cases, from Apple or anyone else, will take 3-5 weeks to ship.
iPhone 4 Case Program [Apple]
Apple Automatically Refunding iPhone 4 Bumper Purchases [Mashable]
Photo: By Mr. T in DC/Flickr
See Also:
Fix iPhone 4 Reception Troubles for $1
Can Black Tape Double the Speed of Your iPhone 4?
Apple's Answer to Antennagate: Free iPhone 4 Cases
Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.
TERADATA TEXAS INSTRUMENTS TIBCO SOFTWARE
Friday, July 23, 2010
Daily Crunch: Desert Dessert Edition
QinetiQ?s solar-powered Zephyr aircraft attempting to stay aloft for 14 daysDesigny Danish headphones have a kink and a twirlPortable watermelon coolerWooden NES sculpture fails to sell on eBayFix Apple?s boo-boo with a Band-Aid
NETWORK APPLIANCE NIKON NINTENDO
NETWORK APPLIANCE NIKON NINTENDO
Microsoft Offering Windows Phone 7 to Employees
July 22, 2010 12:31 PM
Microsoft employees will apparently be given free Windows Phone 7 smartphones, according to staffer Tweets escaping from Microsoft Global Exchange, the company's annual sales conference (Mary Jo Foley tweeted about it first). Gizmodo's also posted an internal e-mail purportedly from Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business, with additional details:"I am thrilled to announce that a new Windows Phone 7 will be made available to every Microsoft employee as we launch in each market around the world. The process will vary based on your market, your carrier and your launch date so stay tuned for more information closer to launch."This is exactly what you'd expect, no? Apple employees walk around campus with the iPhone, Google employees have a tendency to whip out their Android in meetings, so it stands to reason that Microsoft staffers would follow suit.I've expended a lot of digital ink on the question of whether Windows Phone 7 will succeed. But this week's earnings numbers from both Apple and Microsoft make the stakes of that success all too clear. On the strength of its mobile devices--the iPhone and the iPad in particular--Apple posted quarterly revenues of $15.7 billion... while analysts predict that Microsoft, with much of its energies still focused on the desktop, will post revenues of $15.27 billion (the earnings call takes place at 5:30 EST).Microsoft knows it needs to diversify into the cloud and mobile--its Worldwide Partner Conference last week devoted substantial amounts of time to both. If Windows Phone 7 succeeds beyond expectations, then Microsoft will have another robust vertical to supplement Windows 7 and the other flagship software that support its current revenue model. If it fails, then Microsoft will find itself trapped in its old paradigm, at least in the short- to medium term; while the company has a number of cloud initiatives, none have translated into awe-inspiring cash flow. (So many heads would roll in the event of a Phone 7 meltdown, it would make the recent restructuring in the Entertainment & Devices Division look like a haircut by comparison.)Being trapped in the old paradigm is, frankly, unacceptable. Microsoft knows this. Giving its 88,000+ employees a Windows Phone 7 is a no-brainer; the next step is seeing whether it can convince a few million outsiders to put down cash for the privilege.
OQO ORACLE ORACLE CORP
Microsoft employees will apparently be given free Windows Phone 7 smartphones, according to staffer Tweets escaping from Microsoft Global Exchange, the company's annual sales conference (Mary Jo Foley tweeted about it first). Gizmodo's also posted an internal e-mail purportedly from Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business, with additional details:"I am thrilled to announce that a new Windows Phone 7 will be made available to every Microsoft employee as we launch in each market around the world. The process will vary based on your market, your carrier and your launch date so stay tuned for more information closer to launch."This is exactly what you'd expect, no? Apple employees walk around campus with the iPhone, Google employees have a tendency to whip out their Android in meetings, so it stands to reason that Microsoft staffers would follow suit.I've expended a lot of digital ink on the question of whether Windows Phone 7 will succeed. But this week's earnings numbers from both Apple and Microsoft make the stakes of that success all too clear. On the strength of its mobile devices--the iPhone and the iPad in particular--Apple posted quarterly revenues of $15.7 billion... while analysts predict that Microsoft, with much of its energies still focused on the desktop, will post revenues of $15.27 billion (the earnings call takes place at 5:30 EST).Microsoft knows it needs to diversify into the cloud and mobile--its Worldwide Partner Conference last week devoted substantial amounts of time to both. If Windows Phone 7 succeeds beyond expectations, then Microsoft will have another robust vertical to supplement Windows 7 and the other flagship software that support its current revenue model. If it fails, then Microsoft will find itself trapped in its old paradigm, at least in the short- to medium term; while the company has a number of cloud initiatives, none have translated into awe-inspiring cash flow. (So many heads would roll in the event of a Phone 7 meltdown, it would make the recent restructuring in the Entertainment & Devices Division look like a haircut by comparison.)Being trapped in the old paradigm is, frankly, unacceptable. Microsoft knows this. Giving its 88,000+ employees a Windows Phone 7 is a no-brainer; the next step is seeing whether it can convince a few million outsiders to put down cash for the privilege.
OQO ORACLE ORACLE CORP
Robot Learns to Flip Pancakes
A robot learning to flip pancakes from Sylvain Calinon on Vimeo.
Flipping a pancake� seems like one of those things you can do when you are just barely awake and still to get your morning caffeine.
Not so, if you are a robot. Then learning how to flip a pancake is quite a task and it can take 50 tries to get it right.
Two researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology?Petar Kormushev and Sylvain Calinon?taught a robot the� technique. The robot needs to hold its hand stiff to throw the pancake in the air and then flex the hand so it can catch the pancake without having it bounced off the pan. Initially, one of the researchers holds the robot?s arm to show it how it is done, after which the robot tries it.
For the demonstration, the researchers used an artificial pancake that?s solid and, as you can see in the video above, clunks every time it hits the pan or elsewhere.
The robot itself is from Barrett Technology, a company that makes an advanced robotic arm called WAM. The WAM arm has near zero backflash or friction so it makes very smooth movements. It can have up to seven degrees of freedom so it offers a range of motions that?s similar to what a human arm can do.
The researchers hope to present the learning from the robot?s efforts at a conference in October. And if you are wondering, what exactly this experiment has achieved, the answer involves the application of algorithms that help learn by imitation and reinforcement.
Video credits: Petar Kormushev and Sylvain Calinon/Italian Institute of Technology
See Also:
Anybots Robot Will Go to the Office for You
Dance Dance Revolution: 20 Robots Think They Can Dance
Towel-Folding Robot Could Fix Laundry Woes
Butler Robot Can Fetch Drinks, Snacks
Willow Garage Holds a ?Graduation Party? for Its Robots
Androids Dance, Slide and Fight at Robo-One Competition
COGNOS COMCAST COMMSCOPE
Flipping a pancake� seems like one of those things you can do when you are just barely awake and still to get your morning caffeine.
Not so, if you are a robot. Then learning how to flip a pancake is quite a task and it can take 50 tries to get it right.
Two researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology?Petar Kormushev and Sylvain Calinon?taught a robot the� technique. The robot needs to hold its hand stiff to throw the pancake in the air and then flex the hand so it can catch the pancake without having it bounced off the pan. Initially, one of the researchers holds the robot?s arm to show it how it is done, after which the robot tries it.
For the demonstration, the researchers used an artificial pancake that?s solid and, as you can see in the video above, clunks every time it hits the pan or elsewhere.
The robot itself is from Barrett Technology, a company that makes an advanced robotic arm called WAM. The WAM arm has near zero backflash or friction so it makes very smooth movements. It can have up to seven degrees of freedom so it offers a range of motions that?s similar to what a human arm can do.
The researchers hope to present the learning from the robot?s efforts at a conference in October. And if you are wondering, what exactly this experiment has achieved, the answer involves the application of algorithms that help learn by imitation and reinforcement.
Video credits: Petar Kormushev and Sylvain Calinon/Italian Institute of Technology
See Also:
Anybots Robot Will Go to the Office for You
Dance Dance Revolution: 20 Robots Think They Can Dance
Towel-Folding Robot Could Fix Laundry Woes
Butler Robot Can Fetch Drinks, Snacks
Willow Garage Holds a ?Graduation Party? for Its Robots
Androids Dance, Slide and Fight at Robo-One Competition
COGNOS COMCAST COMMSCOPE
Verizon to Microsoft: Here Are Your Kins
July 19, 2010 1:43 PM
If anyone's still in the market for a Kin phone, you're officially out of luck: Verizon Wireless will no longer carry the devices, 19 days after Microsoft decided to pull the plug due to anemic sales. Dustbin of history (or at least dead tech), here they come."Verizon Wireless will no longer sell the Kin One or Kin Two in our company-owned stores," Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney told the blog Phone Scoop on July 19. "Existing customers should not be impacted. There are no current plans to change any of the services associated with either the phone or the customers' services."Right before the end, Verizon had slashed the price of the stubby Kin One from $49.99 to $29.99 with a two-year plan; the more rectangular Kin Two was also given a price-tag haircut, from $99.99 to $49.99. But the carrier did nothing to lower the price of the devices' calling/data plan, which many pundits found excessive.The Kin devices had one cool feature, and that was their ability to seamlessly port users' photos and other content to a cloud repository--I'm testing a number of upcoming smartphones right now, for a set of reviews, and I sorely wish (with some of them) that it was easier to lift photos and video from the device and into the digital stratosphere. But everything else about Kin was pretty much half-baked, from the social-network updates to the conspicuous absence of games and third-party applications.Given the phones' narrow target demographic (teenagers and young adults), and lack of true smartphone functionality, I'm not sure there are many lessons that Microsoft can draw from this fiasco, except maybe don't try it again.
APPLE COMPUTER APPLE INC ASUS
If anyone's still in the market for a Kin phone, you're officially out of luck: Verizon Wireless will no longer carry the devices, 19 days after Microsoft decided to pull the plug due to anemic sales. Dustbin of history (or at least dead tech), here they come."Verizon Wireless will no longer sell the Kin One or Kin Two in our company-owned stores," Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney told the blog Phone Scoop on July 19. "Existing customers should not be impacted. There are no current plans to change any of the services associated with either the phone or the customers' services."Right before the end, Verizon had slashed the price of the stubby Kin One from $49.99 to $29.99 with a two-year plan; the more rectangular Kin Two was also given a price-tag haircut, from $99.99 to $49.99. But the carrier did nothing to lower the price of the devices' calling/data plan, which many pundits found excessive.The Kin devices had one cool feature, and that was their ability to seamlessly port users' photos and other content to a cloud repository--I'm testing a number of upcoming smartphones right now, for a set of reviews, and I sorely wish (with some of them) that it was easier to lift photos and video from the device and into the digital stratosphere. But everything else about Kin was pretty much half-baked, from the social-network updates to the conspicuous absence of games and third-party applications.Given the phones' narrow target demographic (teenagers and young adults), and lack of true smartphone functionality, I'm not sure there are many lessons that Microsoft can draw from this fiasco, except maybe don't try it again.
APPLE COMPUTER APPLE INC ASUS
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Here come the Apple bumper case refunds?
Looks like Apple has begun the process of refunding Apple Online Store bumper case orders. *MacRumors says:
Existing back-ordered bumper cases have also been processed for refund. We expect the process will continue over the next few days. Apple is also expected to provide a method for in-store purchasers to also receive a refund but has provided no details yet.
As part of their iPhone 4 ?antennagate? press conference, Steve Jobs announced Apple would be giving away free cases, including Apple Bumpers, to every iPhone 4 customer as a way to make them happy and alleviate any concerns about reception issues.
Anyone else get their refund notice yet?
[MacRumors]
EEE PC ELECTRONIC ARTS ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS
Apple Plans to Open a Retail Store in Hong Kong
Apple intends to open a retail store in Hong Kong as part of wider expansion plans in China.In all, Apple plans to open up to 25 stores in China and Hong Kong by the end of 2011, said Jill Tan, an Apple spokeswoman. She did not offer specific dates for when the new Apple stores would open in China or where they would be located, except for Hong Kong.To meet its goal of opening 25 new shops, Apple will have to open more than one new store in China every month for the next year and a half.Apple opened its second store in China over the weekend, with employees handing out free t-shirts to the first 5,000 people who visited the shop. Located in Shanghai, the store is one of Apple's largest anywhere and joins the company's first Chinese retail outlet, which opened in Beijing in 2008.The aggressive retail expansion plan reflects the growing importance that Apple is putting on China, which has traditionally been a much smaller market for the company compared to other markets, such as the U.S., Europe and Japan.There are currently 295 Apple retail stores, including the two shops in China, Tan said.KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY
LENOVO
LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL
Ballmer at WPC: Rich Clients Are Perfect for Cloud
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer used his keynote speech, during the opening day of the company's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington, D.C., to insist that the rich client is here to stay.A "rich client" isn't a deep-pocketed celebrity in desperate need of an expensive lawyer; it's a PC with a fatter processor and more robust functionality apart from a centralized server. A thin client, on the other hand, is a PC that needs the mother-like nurturing of a server (or another PC) in order to execute basic tasks."Many people, especially in corporate IT, they say we're only going to use thin clients," Ballmer told the audience at the Verizon Center, where Microsoft is hosting the WPC keynotes. "I don't believe that at all. I don't believe the cloud is a place where thin clients will take over. Again and again, we see the advantage of rich clients."A rich-client device, Ballmer added, "can be higher performance; the rich device can do more on behalf of the user without network latency; the rich device saves bandwidth."The thin client has been a continuous target for Ballmer. Way back in the summer of 2009, during Microsoft's annual Financial Analyst Meeting, he took aim at thin clients as a Trojan Horse for browser-based operating systems, specifically Google's Chrome OS."We have competitors who say they believe in thin clients," he told the assembled analysts. "What they are really saying is they believe in the browser operating system... But don't think there is some magic technology, [a] revolutionary thing that they believe in differently."At the time, Ballmer also fired a shot at netbooks, insisting that customers wanted bigger screens. He suggested that a new line of ultrathin PCs would debut before 2010, providing lightweight computing at a presumably higher cost--and which would presumably run versions of Windows 7 that offered the company higher margins.
"We want people to be able to get the advantages of lightweight performance and be able to spend more money with us," Ballmer told the analysts.By running a higher-priced version of Windows 7, along with other software like Office 2010, rich clients offer Microsoft the chance to make more money. Despite Ballmer's insistence, however, I think thinner clients are here to stay: not only netbooks, which remain a staple of Microsoft's manufacturing partners' lineups, but also tablet PCs and more esoteric phone/tablet/PDAs like the Dell Streak.Microsoft's already taken baby steps toward embracing the thin-client mentality--look at its Office Web Apps, which allow document viewing and (lightweight) editing via the browser. And its cloud initiatives are dominating this year's WPC.But maintaining a market position in areas such as tablet PCs may demand a more radical step: stripping Windows 7 (and succeeding versions) into a lightweight, streamlined OS optimized for tablets and the like. If the recent Windows 8 rumors are true, they're already considering the idea; what's left is to take the step off the proverbial cliff. The alternative is to stay with the robust rich-client mentality, which may not jibe with an increasingly mobile future.
DELL XPS D-LINK DST SYSTEMS
"We want people to be able to get the advantages of lightweight performance and be able to spend more money with us," Ballmer told the analysts.By running a higher-priced version of Windows 7, along with other software like Office 2010, rich clients offer Microsoft the chance to make more money. Despite Ballmer's insistence, however, I think thinner clients are here to stay: not only netbooks, which remain a staple of Microsoft's manufacturing partners' lineups, but also tablet PCs and more esoteric phone/tablet/PDAs like the Dell Streak.Microsoft's already taken baby steps toward embracing the thin-client mentality--look at its Office Web Apps, which allow document viewing and (lightweight) editing via the browser. And its cloud initiatives are dominating this year's WPC.But maintaining a market position in areas such as tablet PCs may demand a more radical step: stripping Windows 7 (and succeeding versions) into a lightweight, streamlined OS optimized for tablets and the like. If the recent Windows 8 rumors are true, they're already considering the idea; what's left is to take the step off the proverbial cliff. The alternative is to stay with the robust rich-client mentality, which may not jibe with an increasingly mobile future.
DELL XPS D-LINK DST SYSTEMS
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
iPhone is 3% of handset unit volume, 2x profit of RIM, Nokia, Sony combined. iPad next?
While iPhone accounts for only 3% of handset market share by unit volume, Finacial Times reveals some Goldman?s numbers that show it?s set to capture a stunning 2X the profit share of Nokia, RIM, and Sony ? combined.
And Goldman only showed those numbers by way of saying how enthusiastic they are about iPad doing the same thing to the PC industry. That sounds crazy, but iPad almost equalled Mac sales numbers this quarter and while its margins are less than the Mac?s, they?re higher than the razor-thin netbook and bargain basement PC industry where much of the volume rests.
TiPb?s been saying for a while Apple only cared about market share as much as it meant increased profit share. Looks like that?s working out for them.
[Financial Times via Business Insider Daring Fireball]
FEI COMPANY FAIRCHILD SEMICONDUCTOR INTERNATIONAL FAIR ISAAC
Survey: Facebook Lovers Hate Facebook
A survey that went out this morning called the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), garnered a lot of attention around the blogosphere. While this survey is nothing new, this year, they included a few "social media" sites for the first time. And the results were interesting. Or, at least, the results basically said Facebook sucks. And that's interesting.
But here's the thing. I've read this survey over a few times, and I'm still getting nothing out of it. Sure, the company behind the results, ForeSeeResults, wants me to know that Facebook and MySpace rate behind 95% of the other companies they survey (and even 90% of government agencies) according to their index. But what does that mean? That people don't like these social networks? Okay, so what does that mean? I'm just not convinced that any of this means anything at all.COGNIZANT TECH. SOLUTIONS COMCAST COMMSCOPE
But here's the thing. I've read this survey over a few times, and I'm still getting nothing out of it. Sure, the company behind the results, ForeSeeResults, wants me to know that Facebook and MySpace rate behind 95% of the other companies they survey (and even 90% of government agencies) according to their index. But what does that mean? That people don't like these social networks? Okay, so what does that mean? I'm just not convinced that any of this means anything at all.COGNIZANT TECH. SOLUTIONS COMCAST COMMSCOPE
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