The Daily tech news: April 29th 2010

SlashGear

The Daily tech news: April 29th 2010 April 30, 2010 at 12:04 AM Today, f0r aII intents and purposes, was the big day. Maybe not as big as yesterday, but it’s pretty close. Especially if you consider the two cancellations, with the HP Slate getting tossed to the side, along with Microsoft’s Courier digital journal. A sad day for the tablet market, indeed. But, we move on, forward unto . . . W3ll, whatever it is you’re heading into. Either way, welcome to the Thursday edition of the Daily Slash. In the Best of R3, we’ve got the LG Aloha getting a name change, iAd takes a steep turn in the price bracket, and Palm may be ready to face a class-action lawsuit. And then in the Dredge ‘Net, looks like Valve finally hit a release date for Steam on the Mac, the app thing gets ! out of hand, and Verizon gets a new netbook. The Best of R3 Media The LG Aloha H1ts Verizon in May as th3 LG Ally: At least, that’s what the rumors are saying. Which is good news for Verizon Wireless customers, considering it’s got a physical slide out full QWERTY keyboard, and an impressive 1GHz Snapdragon processor under the hood. Now, if we could just talk about the name, then we’d probably get somewhere nice. We liked Aloha, Verizon. Really. [via Android Community] Apple’s iAd Asks Marketers for $10 Million: Mobile advertisers are accustomed to paying to get their ads on things. And now that the mobile market is booming, and you’ve got Apple putting together iAd, why wouldn’t you want to jump on board? Maybe, just maybe, because Apple doesn’t want you to pay $100,000 to $200,000 to jump on board. Oh, no. How about $10 million? You’ll be part of a handful of marketers, which, isn’t surprising. Any takers? [via Everything iPad] Palm Could Face Class-Action Lawsuit: Seems incorrect, right? Well, according to a law firm on behalf of some investors, it seems that they believe they’ve been short-changed due to this whole deal with HP. You know the one, where HP buys Palm? The deal equaled somewhere near $1.2 billion, or about $5.70 per share, and the investors believe that all of this should have gone down last year, when shares were at $17.20, apparently. There’s no word on how close the lawsuit is to being started, or if they’d win, but this should get interesting soon. [via SlashPhone] The Dredget Net Steam for Mac is Coming in May: Sure, they may have said that April would be the month of months, but Steam knows how to handle pushed released dates. You could almost call them professionals with it. And sure enough, Steam for Mac got pushed back. But, apparently, they’ve conceded that it’s now coming on May 12th, so, not too far away. Patience, it works out. We promise. [via Joystiq] TomTom Wants an App Store: Okay, this app thing may be getting out of hand. When a dedicated GPS company wants to get into the app game, it’s a certain fact. And, according to TomTom’s CEO, Harold Goddijn, that’s exactly what he wants for his units. By the end of this year, in fact. He wants something for both the consumer, as well as the automotive market, and he hopes that the WebKit-based Operating System will make it easy for developers who choose to come on board to create their apps. [via Pocket-Lint] Samsung N150 Joins Other Verizon Wireless Netbooks: Short and sweet here: the Samsung N150 has been officially unveiled for Verizon Wireless, with embedded 3G. It’s black, and red, and that shouldn’t surprise you in the slightest. You’re looking at your standard 10.1-inch netbook here, so unless you’re in the market for one, you probably won’t be blown away. [via Netbooked] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Xbox 360 USB storage update arrives today The Daily Slash: April 7th 2010 The Daily Slash: April 8th 2010 Apple Buys Up Intrinsity, Doesn’t Clear up A4 Processo! r Speculation The Daily Slash: March 29th 2010 HP Windows 7 Tablet G3ts Canceled, We Hope for webOS Tablet Instead April 29, 2010 at 11:16 PM Apparently tonight is not a good night for tablet devices. Though, if you were to ask a few people, it may still continue to be a very good couple of days for Hewlett-Packard. After the announcement that HP had bought Palm, suggestions of an HP Slate with webOS started coming left and right. It doesn’t help when HP is telling the world that tablets are definitely on the agenda. And now, word is that HP has killed the Windows 7 tablet project, better known as the HP Slate (which debuted at CES this year). Coincidence? According to a report coming out of TechCrunch tonight, a source that’s been briefed with the matter says that HP has canceled the entire project. The source also mentions that HP as a whole isn’t happy with Windows 7, at least not when it’s on a tablet device. And, considering an early review, that may be far more accurate than anyone could have guessed. However, this also may mean that HP is abandoning Intel-based tablets, due to their power-mongering ways. Again, this would rule out Windows 7 as a tablet OS. Yes, we want a webOS tablet. We’re not going to be shy about that, or even dance around the subject. And, we know that HP wants a tablet with their newly purchased mobile OS, or at least they’re definitely going to try for it. Does this mark the beginning of that transition, from Windows-based tablets to the shiny new purchase? Let’s hope so. Then again, this could all turn out to be mis-lead source info, and here shortly we could hear something completely different. So, stay tuned. [via TechCrunch] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Palm: Can you say “webOS acceleration”? Rumor – Asus is working on Apple’s Mac Tablet New Gateway Tablet packs some power Windows Vista Pen Computing in action 10-inch EROS tablet demoed, navigating through Windows 7 by touch [Video] Shanghai Corporate Pavilion’s Lights Are Controlled by th3 People Inside April 29, 2010 at 5:22 PM How do you make the huge pavilion awesome? You create the building out of recycled CD cases. So, what can you do to make that better? You attach a huge LED array onto the outside of that said pavilion, and you make it just about as bright as is probably necessary. But of course, you have to do more than that, because then that’s just a building with some lights on it. That happens all the time at Christmas. Thankfully for us, the designers of the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion have, indeed, made it better. When we say that the building is covered by an LED array, we mean the entire thing. The entire facade of the building is covered in these lights, making it look ridiculously impressive at night, as you can see from the images. Additionally, the lights can change, including greens, blues, pinks, and yellows, and this is where the real surprise comes in. There isn’t a computer controlling when to change the colors. It’s actually the people inside the building. According to the designers, people that go into the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion are lined up in a queue, and it’s there that they are told that their actions have a consequence on how the colors are illuminated on the outside of the building. A collective response from the group, whether that means waving their arms, or clapping their hands, instigates a transition of colors on the outside of the building. On the inside, there’s a series of interactive exhibits, before they finally reach the “Dream Cube Control Room,” which apparently has another surprise in store for participants, and will also “make them think.” ESI Design, based out of the United States, worked in conjunction with architect Yung Ho Chang to create the entire interactive design, from inside and out, to create one of the most spellbinding buildings on the planet. On top of all the nice little tech treats in store for those who get to make it, the building itself is eco-friendly in many different ways, including solar panels, and a roof that actually collects rain water for future use. Unfortunately, the building is only being used for Expo 2010, and after the expo, the building will be recycled. So, if you’re in the neighborhood, you definitely need to check this out. [via Inhabitat] Relevant Entries on SlashGear AMD Shanghai Opteron 45nm quad-cores announced; desktop in Q1 2009 Remote Controlled Switch Socket – makes life a bit simpler The Psychedelic CD box Lazy Man Holiday Lights help decorate all year round Spa Lights take over your bathroom Microsoft Courier Not Heading Into Production April 29, 2010 at 4:59 PM Here’s some remarkably bad news. It seems that the Microsoft Courier, the dual-screen digital journal with Tegra 2 inside, has been scrapped. According to the report from Gizmodo, it seems that Microsoft executives informed the internal team working on the Courier that the project was no longer supported by Microsoft, and that it’s been removed from future production. Of course, Microsoft had never officially come forward and publicly announced the Courier, but we know it existed. The Courier first broke cover at the end of last year, and since then it’s caught the love of tablet fans all over the place. The second time we got a real good look at the concept of the tablet, our interest was piqued considerably. It made it all worse when rumors broke that the dual-screen digital journal would be using Tegra 2 under the hood. Simply put, the Courier was one of the best conceptual ideas to come out of Redmond in a long time, and we’re sad to see it go. According to Corporate VP of Communications Frank Shaw, Microsoft is always testing devices, building them up from concepts, and that’s exactly what the Courier was. Just a design, and at this time, Microsoft has no plans to build the Courier for a market release any time soon. Now, one would have to wonder if this has anything to do with the iPad at all, let alone the very idea of a webOS tablet. Is the competition just too much for Microsoft, that they figure staying out of the market is just a better idea? Or, is the Courier something that Microsoft built to make something better we haven’t seen yet? [via Gizmodo] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Microsoft to unveil HP-made slate PC (Courier?) on Wednesday? Microsoft planning mid-2010 launch for Courier: perfect note-taking tablet Microsoft Courier tipped in innovation JobsBlog article Microsoft Courier UI details leak: perfect pen/finger balance? Microsoft Courier leaks again: your “infinite journal” [Video] Adobe CEO Responds to Steve Jobs About Flash April 29, 2010 at 4:44 PM Considering the scathing nature of Steve Job’s open letter about Flash Player and Adobe, we’re not surprised to hear that Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen, has made some official comments in reply. Courtesy of an interview the man just had with The Wall Street Journal, we’ve got some pretty interesting remarks as to what Jobs said earlier this morning. In the end though, it’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but that doesn’t make it any less obvious that the two companies are indeed butting heads. When it comes to the open letter itself, Narayen suggests that it’s nothing more than a “smokescreen,” apparently designed to confuse the industry about what’s really happening here. And no, Narayen doesn’t do anything to clear up the situation on his end, either. He openly rebuttals the idea that Flash isn’t open, calling his platform an “open specification.” Perhaps a bit more straight forward though, Adobe’s CEO said that Job’s claims about Flash negatively affecting battery life are “patently false,” and actually suggested that, actually, it’s more of an OS X issue, rather than a Flash-based problem. Near the end, Narayen pointed out that Adobe is a system for devs to create multiplatform tools, easier. And, yes, that’s the core argument here. These two companies can argue the differences between system performance until their blue in the face, and we imagine that everyone will want to join in, but the real issue here is the development process. Ultimately, will Flash make an impact with Froyo, the next version of Android? Or will Flash on mobile devices still just be a pain, rather than something we look forward to? That’s the only way for Adobe to argue the points listed by Jobs. [via The Wall Street Journal] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch Responds to Apple’s Latest iPhone SDK Flash Coming to iPhone one way or another, says Adobe Flash on the iPhone – What Adobe should have said, was nothing Fake Steve’s secret identity has been revealed Adobe’s New Flash Lite to Support More Phones Bungie Buddies Up With Activision for 10-Year Deal April 29, 2010 at 4:25 PM Even more out of left-field than HP buying Palm, Activision and Bungie come out of nowhere and announce that the two companies have just agreed to a multiple-year, worldwide exclusive agreement. Before you jump the gun, though, that doesn’t mean that Halo Reach will be coming to more consoles than Microsoft’s Xbox 360, but it does mean that their future titles will be doing just that. In an official announcement today, Activision and Bungie have come clean on a 10-year, exclusive agreement to work together as publisher and developer, respectively. Bungie, as you’re probably well aware, is the house that created the mega-hit Halo, along with a few other titles like Marathon and Myth, have notoriously been Microsoft bedfellows. For all intents and purposes, many consider Halo to be the game that truly built up Microsoft’s home console. As for Activision, they’re famous for several published titles, but most notably the Call of Duty franchise. The whole deal is designed to significantly increase Bungie’s exposure to the console war, which up until now, has been segregated to the Xbox 360. The agreement means that Activision has the sole, exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute Bungie’s next titles, as many as they can release in the 10-year mark. Which is a good move on both the company’s parts, as this means that it’s not an exclusive right to a particular series, but means that Bungie will be able to get their titles to all of the major consoles, no matter what the game is. There’s no word on what title is coming next from Bungie, but we can imagine that it’s going to be a First Person Shooter (FPS). Full press release below. BUNGIE AND ACTIVISION ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE, WORLDWIDE PARTNERSHIP 10-Year Alliance Expands Global Reach for Leading Game Developer Across Multiple Platforms Kirkland, WA and Santa Monica, CA – April 29, 2010 — Bungie, the developer of blockbuster game franchises including Halo, Myth and Marathon, and Activision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the #1 online games publisher (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that they have entered into an exclusive 10-year partnership to bring Bungie’s next big action game universe to market. Under the terms of the agreement, Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices. Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The groundbreaking alliance will provide Bungie its first such partnership since splitting off from Microsoft in 2007, significantly broadening its global reach by providing the resources and support to develop, distribute and release games worldwide on multiple platforms and devices. Activision will broaden its portfolio with a new franchise from one of the industry’s most creative, successful and proven studios, whose games have sold more than 25 million units worldwide. To date, Bungie’s Halo games have generated approximately $1.5 billion in revenues, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and GfK. Activision expects this agreement to be accretive to its operating margins as of the release of the first game. “We chose to partner with Activision on our next IP because of their global reach, multi-platform experience and marketing expertise,” said Harold Ryan, President of Bungie. “From working together over the past nine months on this agreement, it is clear that Activision supports our commitment to giving our fans the best possible gaming experiences.” “Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade,” stated Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard. “Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry’s best creative talent. Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities.” Relevant Entries on SlashGear Rumor: Bungie leaving Microsoft Official: Bungie and Microsoft splitting, sort of Speaker Buddies concept is just plain creepy Bungie Might Not Be Fin! ished With Halo, or They Might Be Free Halo 3 from Bungie Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Release Candidate Ready for Download April 29, 2010 at 4:01 PM Ubuntu seems to have a nice road map for their updates schedule, and sure enough, here’s another one. Ubuntu 10.04 “Lucid Lynx” has just hit the market, available for download right now. There’s plenty of changes to be had, along with the standard fixes and adjustments to the OS, there’s plenty of surprises to be had by the latest edition of Ubuntu. Plus, “Lucid Lynx” is almost as cool as “Karmic Koala,” so that’s worth it. First and foremost, the new OS promises that the system is noticeably quicker on any machine it runs on, especially those that feature SSDs. What’s better though, are the wide range of features that they’ve thrown in: a social networking “Me Menu,” and Ubuntu’s Software Centre 2.0, which provides you an easy access portal for acquiring new software. There’s cloud-based services like Ubuntu One music store, thrown in for good measure. There’s also Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition, which promotes faster boot speeds (even faster than what you’re already getting), along with a few other optimizations for the smaller form factor. The LTS Release Candidate is available right now for your downloading pleasure, and one look at the screenshot above, and we can understand why you’d want it, if the features don’t speak for themselves. If you do download it, let us know what you think! [via Slashdot] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Dell picks Ubuntu as its Linux distro for consumer PC Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate is finally available Acer Aspire 5710Z features Ubuntu preinstalled Dell getting gutsy like Gibbon and putting Ubuntu on XPS m1330 iTunes 8.0 Leaked on accident Targus Premium Laptop Charger Makes Wish We Liked Wires April 29, 2010 at 3:46 PM There’s something about a product that just looks shiny, sleek, and sexy. The three S’s if there ever were three S’s to explain something. And, we’ll admit, the Targus Premium Laptop Charger fits the bill. Plus, it’s actually useful. With the ability to charge two gadgets of yours at the same time, plus a few extras thrown in for good measure, Targus knows how to get your money. Having dead batteries, especially having more than one at a time, can be a real pain. So, thankfully, the Targus Premium Laptop Charger makes it possible to charge two things at once. For example, your BlackBerry and iPod Touch. Or your iPhone and laptop, the possibilities seem to be almost endless. Additionally, the charger’s got a little trick up its sleeve: it can rotate 180 degrees vertically, so that if you’ve got it plugged into a power strip, it doesn’t get in the way of any other cords you might have plugged into it. Also in the package, there’s 9 laptop tips, an iPhone/iPod tip, and a miniUSB tip. Basically, you should be pretty much set. Of course, you’ll probably have something that won’t work, but don’t blame Targus. They obviously tried. But, here’s the kicker: it’s $139.99, which means it’s expensive. And, it’s a charger that costs $139.99, so, that’s something to think about. [via Gearlog] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Chic women’s laptop bags from Targus Targus DEFCON 1 – does not control nuclear weapons Messless charger is easy way to charge multiple devices Targus creates high-speed solution for new MacBooks lacking a FireWire port PowerV Quad Charger for Nintendo Wii Uses Inductive Charging Sony PS3 Firmware v3.21 Update Leads to Class-Action Lawsuit April 29, 2010 at 3:16 PM When it comes to the PlayStation 3, the updates are part of a legacy. Whether that legacy is a good or bad thing, well, that’s for you to decide. Though, we imagine that this little addition to that torrid affair is going to weigh your decision for the “bad.” According to a recent report, while some people are thanking Geohot right now thank to Sony’s recent v3.21 update, others are taking a far more legal approach to alleviate their woes. After all, Amazon can’t give everyone their money back. For one individual, he seems to believe that taking Sony to court over the whole “no other OS” situation is the right thing to do. Anthony Venture has already gone forward and started the process, and the lawsuit covers every Sony PS3 model purchased from November 17th, 2006 to March 27th, 2010. So, a hefty amount of consoles. What does Venture want? Compensation for damages, restitution, injuctive relief, and for all the legal fees to be paid by Sony. So how much does that equal? Well, it’s been rumored that somewhere in the ballpark of $5 million has been mentioned a few times. As you know, Sony believes that the PS3 is “first and foremost a games console,” so removing the ability to load up Linux on the console is something that they believe is not something that needs to be included. Therefore, by them removing it, you’re not entitled to anything. What do you think? Does Venture have any ground? [via Ubergizmo] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Sony releases 2.41 update for the PS3 Sony Alpha A700 gets a Firmware Update to 3.0 Sony releases PS3 firmware version 2.0 PS3 firmware v2.42 causing issues with some! consoles PSP 2.71 Firmware Cracked iPad WiFi + 3G preorders already being delivered? April 29, 2010 at 12:48 PM Preorders of Apple’s iPad WiFi + 3G aren’t expected to be delivered until tomorrow, April 30th, but it sounds like some people have got lucky. BoingBoing reader Mike Ryan has apparently already received his 3G-enabled iPad, proving it with this close-up shot of the microSIM card slot. What’s surprising is that Apple managed to keep their initial WiFi-only iPad deliveries to schedule, and we didn’t hear of any early recipients a few weeks back. BoingBoing seem to imply that they’ve heard from more than 0ne person whose 3G model has arrived today, however, so keep an eye on your mailbox. Full deliveries are expected to take place tomorrow, while Apple Stores will have the iPad WiFi + 3G in stock from 5pm. Pricing is $629 for the 16GB iPad – a $130 premium over the non-3G – while 32GB and 64GB units will be $729 and $829. 3G service itself is provide by AT&T in the US, with 250MB for $14.99 and unlimited data for $29.99 per month. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Apple iPad pre-orders from February 25th? Boingo WiFi will support iPad from day one WiFi + 3G iPad ships May 7th iPad WiFi + 3G preorders now shipping Apple iPad preorders now shipping Skyfire 2.0 for Android makes mobile Flash work [Video] April 29, 2010 at 12:15 PM You can be sure that the irony of Skyfire launching their Skyfire 2.0 Flash-happy browser for Android within hours of Steve Jobs taking Adobe to task over Flash being unsuitable for mobile devices will be well noted, but don’t let that distract you from just what’s on offer here. The big news is the new “SkyBar”, which throws in automatic Flash video streaming for otherwise broken video links, together with social networking integration. Video demo after the cut The browser doesn’t actually play Flash videos as such – it uses a remote server to convert them, on the fly, to HTML5 and other formats that mobile devices are happier streaming. So, if you come across a YouTube link, for instance, you can hit the video button and choose Skyfire’s version instead, watching it in the browser rather than having to use a standalone YouTube app or wait until you’re on your desktop. There’s also the usual multitouch gestures and tabbed browsing, and there’s simple integration with Twitter, Facebook, Buzz and other social networking services. You can download Skyfire 2.0 for Android by visiting bit.ly/skyfireandroid. Press Release: Skyfire Launches the First Flash Video Enabled Mobile Browser for Android The first ‘mobile browser for the Social Media generation’ eliminates broken links from your Facebook stream, tracks Twitter buzz, and makes sharing easy Mountain View, CA – April 29, 2010– Skyfire, maker of the award-winning web-browser for mobile devices, today launches Skyfire 2.0 for Android, making the mobile internet experience faster, Flash-enabled and fun, with media recommendations and social features. Skyfire is one of the fastest growing mobile browsers in the world, ranking in the top 10 all-time apps in the Nokia Ovi Store and Windows Marketplace. Skyfire 2.0 for Android is built upon many of the popular features of Skyfire’s 1.0 browser, and uses cloud computing to give a “booster engine” to mobile phones so they can handle rich media like video. And now, Skyfire 2.0 for Android takes mobile browsing to a new level with the addition of the SkyBarTM, a new toolbar that lets users enjoy millions of videos previously unviewable on mobile, and also discover the latest buzz on any topic they browse. What is the SkyBarTM? The SkyBar brings the best of the internet to a mobile user’s fingertips, without any additional searching. By activating the SkyBar with a single touch, users are given access to Flash videos on a web page that otherwise would not play, related content recommendations, and easier sharing with their social networks. · Video –The “Video” icon enables users to play millions of Flash videos around the web that otherwise do not play on mobile. This unlocks content trapped behind those error messages with question marks and blue Legos. Behind the scenes, videos are translated into a format easier for the phone to play, like html5 video. · Related Content – The “Explore” icon brings the most relevant content on the internet to a user’s fingertips based on what they are viewing at the time. The Explore button pulls video, buzz, news, images and other sites from the web based on what is on the current page. · Sharing – The “Share” icon lets users share any article or video easily to their friends on Facebook, Twitter, or by email and SMS messaging, adding a comment, and all with a single click. The first mobile browser for the social media generation: “Skyfire 2.0 was built for the way people use social media and the web today. People are now starting their web experience by scanning their Facebook and Twitter news feeds,” explains Jeff Glueck, CEO of Skyfire. “Our new browser allows you to open those links and view the videos that your friends have shared. To make that work, people need a browser that can handle the full internet.” The Power of Cloud Computing: Skyfire on Android uses cloud-computing technology to enable this web video; the benefits for consumers include faster and smoother video playback, and extended battery life by offloading more of the work to cloud servers. At the same time, since Skyfire 2.0 is built on a webkit core, users get all the functionality they know on the default Android browser, such as pinch to zoom, copy and paste, find text on the page, open up to eight browser tabs, and more. Skyfire is one of the fastest growing downloadable browsers with usage increasing 500% year over year, and currently streaming over 25 million minutes of Flash video every month, more than any other mobile browser worldwide. Skyfire 2.0 for Android is available for download worldwide free at bit.ly/skyfireandroid About Skyfire Skyfire is the creator of the Skyfire mobile browser, and has a mission to enable the “full internet” including rich media on mobile phones. The browser won the Best Mobile Application-People’s Voice at the 2009 Webby Awards and was named a Top App of 2009 by the New York Times’ Gadgetwise. Skyfire is based in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. For more information, visit www.skyfire.com, or follow Skyfire on Twitter attwitter.com/skyfire. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Upcoming Flash Player 10.1 for Nexus One Flash 10.1 may not kill Android battery life [Video] T-Mobile myTouch 3G video unboxing Nokia N810 running Android OS – could be better than OS2008 for the N810 Adobe: No Flash 10.1 until Windows Phone 7 Motorola MOTONAV TN765t PND gets reviewed: beauty not brains April 29, 2010 at 12:03 PM At first glance, the Motorola MOTONAV TN765t PND should be perfect. Huge, 5.1-inch touchscreen, voice recognition, Bluetooth, text-to-speech and lane guidance, along with a lifetime traffic subscription and the ability to access Bing searches and other online content via your cellphone. Unfortunately, as GPS Tracklog’s review reveals, it seems Motorola may have spent too much time on the slick UI and not enough getting the basics right. Video demo after the cut Despite the huge screen, Motorola don’t seem to allow you to have all the usual information displayed at once: you can only see ETA or current speed, for instance, not both. Motorola have also used a two-panel layout, with mapping on the right and different contextual panes on the left, and navigating through the latter is apparently trickier than it ought to be. Throw in the fact that voice-searches are sluggish to respond and you’re looking at a PND that’s not quite everything it should be. There are some strengths: decent Bluetooth handsfree performance, for instance, and speedy power-on times, but you’re making some sacrifices for $280. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Radio Shack to get exclusive MOTONAV TN20 and TN30 Motorola MILESTONE official: DROID for Europe Motorola MILESTONE Expansys preorder confirms December 7th ship date The Dr. Who Webcam is technologically challenged The My Little Eye baby camera monitor CoPilot Live HD offers turn-by-turn navigation for iPad 3G April 29, 2010 at 12:01 PM With the iPad WiFi + 3G already en route to preorder customers’ homes, it seems somehow appropriate to hear about a PND app for the Apple tablet. CoPilot Live HD is expected to navigate its way onto the 3G-equipped iPad – which also has a GPS receiver – sometime in early May, offering turn-by-turn navigation, 3D and 3D mapping, and in-app access to iPod music controls. Frustratingly for early-adopters who couldn’t wait and opted for the WiFi-only iPad, the 3G connection isn’t actually necessary: mapping data is all locally stored, and CoPilot Live HD only needs the GPS chip that’s not present in the normal iPad. As well as navigation there’s in-app local search and real-time weather information. ALK Technologies have submitted CoPilot Live HD to Apple for App Store approval, so until it shows up in iTunes you’ll have to sate yourself with this huge gallery of screenshots. When it’s finally available it will be priced the same as the regular iPhone version, with no ongoing subscription fees. Press Release: CoPilot® Live HD™ navigates to the iPad 3G Hi-resolution edition of the award-winning CoPilot Live sat nav app brings the ultimate in-car navigation experience to the Apple iPad 3G April 29th 2010 – London, UK – ALK Technologies today announced that it has submitted CoPilot Live HD to the app store, a turn-by-turn satellite navigation and trip planning app designed specifically for 3G models of Apple’s iPad. With street maps stored on the device, CoPilot Live HD takes full advantage of the iPad 3G’s in-built GPS receiver and high resolution touch screen to provide the ultimate large-screen voice-guided navigation experience. CoPilot Live HD makes it easy to find the way in-car or to plan a trip in advance with beautiful hi-resolution maps and graphics. A new split screen driving view combines uncluttered 3D or 2D map displays with clear, non-distracting turn instructions. As with CoPilot Live for iPhone, the HD edition auto-switches between portrait and landscape, uses pinch-zoom functionality and offers access to iPod music controls from within the app. Initially launched in North America to coincide with the U.S. release of GPS-enabled iPad 3G models, detailed street-level maps are stored directly on the iPad. Customers do not need to download maps for each trip or worry about being left stranded without maps in mobile dead spots. Apps for additional regions will be launched as the iPad 3G becomes available worldwide in coming months. More than just turn-by-turn navigation, CoPilot Live HD’s powerful offline trip planning and route preview features allow travellers to plan door-to-door itineraries on their iPad before they hit the road. Users can enter multiple stops for a single journey and optimise to calculate the most efficient route. Advanced features include integral access to local search, real-time weather information, and the ability to create customised routing profiles that best suit personal preferences. “CoPilot Live HD provides an absolutely sensational GPS navigation and planning experience on iPad 3G,” said Michael Kornhauser, Managing Director at ALK Technologies. “Developing for iPad was a natural step following the tremendous popularity of our CoPilot Live iPhone app. It’s a really fantastic platform for navigation that allows us to fully exploit the many years of expertise we have gained from supporting tablet computers with our CoPilot Live Laptop products.” CoPilot Live HD North America has been submitted to the appstore for approval, and is expected to be available to buy for iPad 3G in early May. Pricing will be the same as for the CoPilot Live iPhone app with no ongoing fees or subscriptions. Relevant Entries on SlashGear CoPilot Live PND app for iPhone released in UK: one-off charge, no subscriptions Google Maps Navigation hack blocked outside of US GSM Motorola MILESTONE lacks turn-by-turn in Android 2.0 Maps [Update: Confirmed] Google Denies Navigation to iPhone Owners Google Maps Navigation hacked again: partial functionality restored Apple invisible button patent promises secret controls April 29, 2010 at 10:48 AM A newly published Apple patent suggests that the company is looking to rid themselves of one more of the few hardware controls they allow onto their mobile devices. ”Disappearing Button or Slider” describes a system whereby rather than a physical button – such as the home key on the iPad, iPhone or iPad touch, or the power key on a MacBook Pro – could be replaced with a capacitive touch sensor that responds to fingertips but has no visible markings. That, the patent goes on to describe, might be fashioned from invisible perforations drilled into the aluminum chassis of a MacBook Pro, with light source refraction used to track user contact. The end result could be a hidden cluster of iPod controls in the palmrest of a notebook, or alternatively four virtual home keys for every orientation of the iPad, only one of which works – accelerometer dependent – at any one time. [via TechCrunch] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Apple patent shifts controls to rear of iPod Secret Service Invisible 2-Way Micro Headset from Brickhouse Security The invisible PC – ok, it’s not really invisible Microsoft patent D-pad microdisplay Apple dumps Scroll-Wheel, replaces with Scroll-Strips? Microsoft’s Kin and the emergence of featurephone data tiers April 29, 2010 at 10:35 AM As I was in the middle of writing this month’s column on Microsoft’s Kin, SlashGear editor Chris Davies sent me a draft of Michael Gartenberg’s column on… Microsoft’s Kin. I was relieved to see that there wasn’t too much overlap; Michael’s column is on the Kin’s target market, and I’m focusing on changing carrier pricing structures. I agree with Michael’s premise: there is pent up demand for a social network appliance, and the TwitterPeek ain’t it. My problem with the Kin is that we haven’t been given the critical piece of information that will determine whether it will be a success: data pricing. The U.S. cellular market is constantly evolving, but the majority of phones sold in this country today are still featurephones bought subsidized for $0 – $50 after rebate with a two year contract from a carrier store. In the past, phones like these were sold with voice plans. Carriers introduced in-network calling circles and family plans to reduce churn (i.e., make it less likely for customers to switch to another carrier) and when text messaging proved to be extremely popular, they jacked up rates on individual messages while introducing unlimited text plans, a combination that encouraged heavier messaging use and guaranteed a consistent monthly data component (text messaging counts as “data” as far as Wall Street is concerned, and investors love consistency). However, most consumers found little reason to buy a separate data plan; carriers offered a limited subset of the Internet (“walled gardens”) that provided a pretty lousy user experience, and the con! sumers who really valued email, web surfing, and apps gravitated to smartphones. Today, according to the CTIA, U.S. cellphone penetration is above 90%, which indicates that pretty much everyone who wants a phone has one. Some have two (otherwise, you can’t approach 100% as most children still don’t have their own phones. Yet). This also means that carriers are now in a zero sum game – to grow, they can’t just find new customers, they have to steal market share from each other. In a free market, this often leads to price competition, and we started seeing that a few years ago with declining voice rates. Carriers kept their monthly price tiers the same but added more minutes into each plan tier. That worked for a while, but recently the national carriers have had to respond to budget regional carriers s! uch as MetroPCS and Cricket who introduced budget unlimited plans. That forced the nationals to do likewise and offer their own unlimited voice plans, and then – gasp – actually cut the prices on those plans. Charging less money for more minutes is not a recipe for good earnings reports, so carriers are trying to make up for the loss of voice revenue by increasing data income. One way to do that is to flood the market with QWERTY messaging phones because carriers found that if it is easier for people to text, they do it more. Another method is to super-subsidize smartphones with rich email and web capabilities; even after the subsidies, a $30 per month data plan makes a smartphone customer a profitable customer. But the boldest move is to simply make data a mandatory component of featurephone plans in addition to optional text messaging plans. That has meant that some national carriers now offer three tiers of phones, each with a different amount of mandatory data. At the bottom level, there are still phones with no specific data plan requirements (and when those devices include a QWERTY keyboard, they are often the best selling devices in the store). In the middle are devices with $10 – 20 data plans, and at the top of the food chain, there are smartphones with $30 data plans. The problem is convincing consumers that there is a reason to step up to the middle tier of devices with a required data plan. One approach is to move all the QWERTY and touchscreen featurephones to that tier; consumers who cannot afford a full smartphone data plan can get something that looks like a smartphone with lower monthly payments than a smartphone requires. Another approach would be to provide a genuine need for a data plan, and this is where Microsoft’s Kin comes in: the social connectivity and continuous cloud backup it fe! atures obviously require some sort of data plan. Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two hands-on: But how much will the Kin cost? Hardware pricing is not the issue. The Kin One and Kin Two are essentially Zune HD units with a cellular radio, high resolution camera, slider mechanism, extra buttons, and less flash memory. After subsidies, the Kin One should be in the same pricing neighborhood as Samsung and LG’s featurephone line at Verizon Wireless (currently $79 – $99), and the Kin Two might be a bit more. The data plan will be key. If Verizon Wireless uses the Kin’s unique capabilities as a justification for stepping up to a $10/month data plan plus a mandatory $20/month text messaging plan, it will be a smash hit. The Kin’s target market already considers unlimited text messaging mandatory, and the Kin is far more capable than other mid-data-tier devices like Samsung’s Reality or LG’s enV touch. If the carrier requires a $20/month plan plus $20 for text messaging, the Kin will still have appeal, but only as a niche device, similar to T-Mobile’s Sidekick (which was often a more visible brand than sales champ). However, if Verizon Wireless requires a full $30/month data plan for the Kin, it will be a disaster. The Kin is a limited-function device in an era of smartphones, and for those willing to pay full smartphone data rates, there are already some Incredible choices available. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Comcast now offering 22Mbps and 50Mbps connection speeds Microsoft COFEE security key sucks criminal data from locked-down PCs Microsoft Surface Sphere demos early: no plans for release Microsoft to buy Yahoo? Microsoft Project Pink webcast sneaks in early Turtle sighting Verizon Droid Incredible by HTC on sale today April 29, 2010 at 10:34 AM Feel like shopping for a new Android smartphone today? Verizon Wireless’ eagerly anticipated Droid Incredible by HTC has finally gone on sale, but if you weren’t quick then you may have missed the first batch. According to Verizon’s site, “due to high demand” new orders for the Incredible will only ship by May 4th. However, there should also be retail stock in stores, so it may be worth calling your local Verizon retailer. The reason we think it’s worth it is that the Incredible is basically Google’s Nexus One made even slicker. As well as the same 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen and Android 2.1 OS, there’s HTC Sense, an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash, EVDO Rev.A and WiFi, along with GPS, Bluetooth and excellent Microsoft Exchange support. Sticker price is $199.99 with a new, two-year contract. If you’re undecided on the Verizon Droid Incredible by HTC, check out our full review together with analyst Michael Gartenberg’s opinion, plus the hands-on video below. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Droid Incredible by HTC gets official Verizon specs Verizon preorders for Droid Incredible by HTC begin Google Verizon Nexus One plans shelved in favor of Droid Incredible? Verizon confirm Droid Incredible by HTC preorders April 29th Verizon HTC Incredible launch in just two weeks time? Samsung BD-UP5000 firmware 1.5 update promises Avatar Blu-ray support April 29, 2010 at 10:24 AM Samsung’s BD-UP5000 Blu-ray player and its problems coping with the new Avatar disc showed that not all media – or firmware – are created equal, but true to their word the company have swung into action with a firmware update. Posted to the Samsung support site this week, all that’s mentioned in the firmware release notes is that v1.5 “improves playback compatibility in some movies.” Without a BD-UP5000 on hand, we can’t say whether it actually does address the Avatar issue, but we’re guessing Samsung have done their homework and testing it themselves. Of course, this particular player isn’t the only one to be causing headaches; we’ve heard from several SlashGear readers with other brands and models who have been having similar problems playing newer discs. [Thanks Toby!] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Samsung BD-UP5000 Avatar playback problem: new firmware apparently incoming Samsung BD-UP5000 – Tackles both Blu-ray and HD DVD IFA 2007 – Samsung’s dual-format BD-UP5000 Blu-ray and HD DVD pl! ayer on display Samsung BD-UP5000 Duo HD dual-mode DVD player to get US launch in December Samsung Blu-ray players to support Netflix in HD LG GW990 Moorestown smartphone won’t be released April 29, 2010 at 10:17 AM Standby for some disappointment. The LG GW990 smartphone – based on Intel’s upcoming Moorestown platform and running Moblin Linux – is apparently no longer headed to the market. According to phoneArena’s sources at LG, the GW990 was only ever intended as a concept, and as such won’t be launched in the second half of this year as previously believed. The GW990 was rolled out in January this year, and was used by Intel to demonstrate both their hardware and software plans. Moorestown will be the next generation of Atom processors, now frugal enough, the chip company reckons, to power a smartphone and still manage to get through the day. As for Moblin, that’s since been subsumed into the MeeGo collaboration with Nokia, and it’s unclear what exactly the first device running the open-source OS will be. The GW990 had a tempting 4.8-inch 1024 x 480 touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, WiFI and A-GPS, along with a digital compass and 3D gaming capabilities. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Aava Mobile Intel Moorestown MID hands-on LG Mobile device to feature Intel’s Mooretown Chips Apple reject Intel Moorestown as too power-hungry? Intel plans to have UMPCs that use 20 times less power by 2009 Intel Moorestown SoC demo: technically impressive but no eye-candy HP’s webOS tablet: why is it special? April 29, 2010 at 9:56 AM The ink on HP’s press release was hardly dry when speculation about a webOS tablet began; by the time of their investors call, it was inevitable that they’d be peppered with questions about the possibility of Palm’s elegant OS on more sizeable hardware. For their part, beyond a tidbit promising they were looking at smartphones, slates and potential netbooks, HP are playing things close to their chest. Still, we’ve not been shy before in putting forward our opinion that webOS would make for a mighty fine tablet platform, which raises the question: exactly what needs to be done before a webOS slate could come true? Ironically, while it’s iPhone OS that has swept up attention for its tablet implementation on the iPad, and Android that has cornered the market for OEM/ODM models with a generally tenuous chance of reaching retail, webOS is perhaps the closest to being tablet-ready in its current state. As Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein told us a few weeks ago, webOS was designed not as a pure smartphone platform but as a “mobile device OS”, suited to screen dimensions starting at cellphones and scaling up accordingly. It’s not hard to read between the lines and see that, while tablets might have been somewhere on the Palm roadmap, the company lacked the financial strength to take on a relatively nascent segment. Financial strength is not something HP lack, and the company has already promised to pump more money into Palm’s R&D. Part of webOS’ strength is in the elegance of its interface; in fact, its “live” cards system of multitasking seems to have been crying out for a larger display than what’s currently on offer in the Pre Plus. Those cards – each of which represent a running app or webpage – continue to run even when the app itself doesn’t have focus, something trickier to appreciate on a smartphone-sized device but perfect for flipping between programs on, say, a 7- to 10-inch tablet. webOS’ notifications system also runs rings around, say, that found on the iPad, and is arguably better than what’s default on Android. In the webOS world, new messages, alarms and other updates are discretely bubbled up at the bottom of the display, rather than immediately demanding your attention. You can tap on the notification to preview it – better than Android’s native alerts which, for instance, only tell you that you have x new email messages rather than who those messages are from – and then either leap from there to the relevant app itself, or flick the notification off the display and stay where you are. It works brilliantly on the smaller displays of the Pre and Pixi, and it would work equally as well on a larger panel. In fact, Palm could give the notification area a little extra room to play with: list multiple updates in a ticker-style bar, for instance, ideal for a mixture of tweets, Facebook IMs, emails and calendar reminders. A bigger display could also allow you to run two cards simultaneously, perhaps each having a custom UI for such a mode that would fall in-between what will fit on-screen on webOS smartphones and what could be accommodated in full-screen tablet view. Palm love gestures, and so why not take them to the next level? Say you have your browser card on-screen, and want to copy a block of text from a webpage to an email: you could tap and hold on the text, perhaps flick your finger up slightly to trigger the floating “copy” option that appears above the page, and then have the browser rescale and shift to one side of the screen. That would leave room for a grid of cards on the other side, letting you slide your finger across, drop the text onto the email app, and have a new message automatically created with the snipping pasted in. Gestures as a whole would need a little rethinking; currently many of them require dragging up from the so-called gesture bar underneath the Pre or Pixi’s display, which would be perhaps a far too expansive movement on the larger scale of a tablet. How about, instead, a touch-sensitive frame around the entirety of the screen, allowing you to pull up the shortcut menu or trigger a gesture no matter where your finger is near or what orientation you’re holding the tablet? The platform is also gaining momentum when it comes to gaming, and assuming HP make clever choices with tablet hardware there’s no reason to assume that couldn’t be continued to a larger device. Immersive 3D gaming (along with HD media playback) are not only fashionable buzzwords right now, they’re use cases consumers are familiar with – that makes positioning a new tablet within a context buyers understand all the easier. When you take Apple’s frustrating limitations on connectivity out of the picture, and give the webOS tablet an HDMI port for straightforward hook-ups to an HDTV, that’s big-screen gaming and multimedia sewn up. iPad games using iPhones as individual controllers are slowly gathering momentum; why can’t the same be the case for webOS? Of course, HP are no strangers to tablets themselves; they’ve a Windows 7 slate due to go on sale later this year, and they – or at least their Compaq acquisition – were responsible for what’s gone on to be one of the most iconic tablets so far, the tc1000 and its tc1100 successor. HP’s decision to axe the distinctive form-factor and instead move to more conventional convertible tablets was a disappointing one; we’re hoping that same blinkered vision doesn’t impact the potential for innovative devices running webOS. A good example is HP’s apparent reluctance to take on Apple with a sewn up multimedia and content ecosystem. Asked during the investor call whether they planned to move into the content platform side of business, HP would only say that their focus was “to provide connected devices that allow people to connect seamlessly to their information whether that be work or entertainment.” So far that’s been a strategy Palm have been unable to invest in heavily for financial reasons – instead they preload Amazon’s MP3 store, and attempted to piggy-back onto iTunes for media management – but with HP’s wallet there’s a new opportunity to give webOS users the sort of interconnected ecosystem they deserve. Pair that with HP’s existing mainstream computing line – less exciting than a shiny new MacBook Pro, perhaps, but with far higher sales figures – and you’ve got a huge market already sat in front of your! preloaded content apps and sync tools. HP are toeing the PR line, and either declining to comment on or claiming not to have made serious longer-term decisions about webOS and its future until the Palm deal is finalised. Still, you’d be mad to presume those questions haven’t been well turned over behind closed doors. With Apple’s iPad already on the market and Android-based competition from other big-name computing firms on the near horizon, one thing HP haven’t got is time. Luckily, the thing they do have is a well finessed mobile device platform. Let’s hope they make the most of it. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Palm: Can you say “webOS acceleration”? webOS 1.3.2 speeds up Palm Pixi; 1.3.5 imminent Palm’s webOS 1.4 surfaces with video recording [Video] Wacom Intuos3 Special Edition – Lots of extras included iPhone OS 3.0: Special Apple Event in Cupertino! Steve Jobs on Flash: Adobe should focus on the future, not criticize Apple April 29, 2010 at 9:46 AM In an open letter published to Apple’s site today, Steve Jobs has taken a hatchet to Adobe over Flash and their attitude toward Apple recently. Outlining the six reasons he believes Flash is not best suited to mobile devices, Jobs describes the technology as “created during the PC era – for PCs and mice,” and as falling short when it comes to “low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards.” Read the full letter after the cut Meanwhile the “avalanche” of streaming media using HTML5 – an avalanche Apple have pushed for with their continued refusal to countenance Flash on the iPhone and other devices – means, Jobs says, that “Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content.” He ends by suggesting that “perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.” The letter ironically coincides with a new beta release of Flash Player for Mac, which takes advantage of OS X’s new GPU hardware acceleration functionality for H.264 video decoding. In a blog post, one of the engineers responsible for the new beta describes how Adobe have been closely working with Apple engineers to improve performance; we can’t help but think that relations may be a little frosty after this letter. Thoughts on Flash Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests. I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain. First, there’s “Open”. Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system. Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member. Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers. Second, there’s the “full web”. Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video. Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world. Third, there’s reliability, security and performance. Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash. In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform? Fourth, there’s battery life. To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies. Arabic phrases, expressions and words in Arabic, conversation and idioms, Arabic greetings and survival phrases or simply if you want to know what to say when chatting. how to say arabic , Most of the sentences below are used for the everyday life conversations, so they might come handy if you memorize them, if you don't know how to say a word then check our alphabet in Arabic which can be found on the menu above to get some help. Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained. When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Fifth, there’s Touch. Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript? Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. Sixth, the most important reason. Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices. We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers. This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms. Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X. Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform. Conclusions. Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short. The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games. New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind. Steve Jobs April, 2010 Relevant Entries on SlashGear Flash Coming to iPhone one way or another, says Adobe Steve Jobs taking a leave of absence from Apple due to heath concerns Flash on the iPhone – What Adobe should have said, was nothing Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch Responds to Apple’s Latest iPhone SDK Steve Jobs sitting out Macworld due to hormone imbalance Ultra-low voltage Core i7 CPU coming April 29, 2010 at 9:29 AM Intel already has several ultra-low voltage or ULV processors on the market in different ranges. The ULV processor is an important part of the mobile computer world thanks to the power savings offered that allows for longer battery life. The downside to ULV processors is that they tend to offer less performance than normal counterparts do. Some have been disappointed with Intel ULV processors on the market right now. Intel is said to be getting a new ULV processor ready that should hit market this year. The new CPU will be a ULV Core i7 part with a 1.4GHz clock speed. The CPU is said to be the Core i7-680UM and it is expected to be a quad-core part with 4MB of cache. Pricing isn’t mentioned and we don’t know exactly when the CPU will land. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Intel ULV processors slimmed down for ultraportables Intel freeze CULV refresh over Calpella success? Intel ultra-thin notebook CPUs getting Q4 refresh Intel add new Dual-Core CPUs to CULV line-up Intel slash CULV CPU prices to tempt manufacturers Art. Lebedev offers battery display mug for your joe April 29, 2010 at 9:21 AM Most geeks are familiar with Art. Lebedev Studio. The company designs some cool gear and concepts from OLED keyboards to that interesting Segmentus clock I mentioned a while back. The design firm has turned its attention to a more mundane product — a new coffee mug. The mug is has the uninspiring name “Mug with a temperature sensor.” Typically products the company makes sound Roman, might I suggest Mugis. The mug is a normal looking black cup with a white battery outline on the front. When you put a hot liquid into the mug that is over 96.8F a green indicator inside the battery outline starts to show up. The fuller the mug, the more the gauge fills up. The green sensor comes on above 96.8F, but the thing apparently only shows the level in the cup. Once your coffee gets too cold the display will not work at all. This is basically a general temperature indicator and a level meter for your morning joe. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Optimus Upravlator is another OLED tease Art Lebedev Optimus Tactus keyboard concept Optimus Popularis 3D prototype shot released Art Lebedev remote – It may have over a hundred buttons, but there’s still nothing good on Optimus Mini goes Bluetooth wireless TomTom app store expected in 2010 April 29, 2010 at 9:10 AM Most of us are familiar with TomTom. The company is an international firm that is huge in the GPS and PND market around the world. The company is looking to follow other companies like Google and Apple into one of the most lucrative markets for portable devices — apps. Pocket-Lint reports that TomTom is set to launch an app store this year, but executives declined to say exactly when the app store would land. The move to apps will use the recently unveiled webkit platform and let TomTom offer its GPS expertise in places other than its GPS devices. One interesting possibility from the app store announcement is that TomTom might be working on an augmented reality app. However, company executives stated that augmented reality is not a major objective. How cool would it be for a GPS device to have its own internal camera to show the real world on the screen and augment that with common navigation themes. Relevant Entries on SlashGear TomTom Car Kit incompatible with iPod touch, first-gen iPhone TomTom iPhone Car Kit hits US Apple Store TomTom Car Kit for iPhone hits European stores today TomTom Ease announced for North America TomTom announced The One Navigation System in North America Zo Personal subwoofer promises 12-inch sub performance in an iPod nano-size package April 29, 2010 at 9:01 AM I think that most people who listen to music on their iPod, notebook, or netbook will agree that most devices lack seriously in the bass department. Notebooks and netbooks are often worse than the iPod and other MP3 players. DigiZoid has a new device called the zo personal subwoofer that promises to redefine personal music listening. The gadget is about the size of an iPod nano and promises to give the sort of bass you would normally get from a 12-inch subwoofer. That is a bit hard to believe. The gadget connects to your media player or other device using the headphone jack and a supplied mini-stereo cable. The user then plugs their headphones into the output on the zo for improved sound. The zo gets power from an internal rechargeable battery. If you are intrigued, you can get your own zo for $99 right now. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Rumor – New video-capable iPod nano on the way Second Red iPod Nano That scratched first gen iPod nano is worth $37.50 The iPod Classic – Is 160GB enough for you music! ? iPod Nano 2G – Just how much of an upgrade is it? Sony TVs with Intel tech and Google software coming next month April 29, 2010 at 8:53 AM Sony is one of the larger companies in the electronics world and it has close ties with other major tech firms like Intel and Google. These three firms are working together according to reports and the fruit of the labor will be thrust onto the market next month according to Bloomberg. Sony is said to have TVs hitting market next month that will have Intel chips inside and run Google software. The products will apparently come later in the month with a conference at Google HQ set for May 19 and 20 with the new sets expected to be talked about then. The sets will have internet connectivity to allow the user to surf the web and watch internet video right on their big screen. Logitech is also working with the firms for peripherals like keyboards for the new sets. Relevant Entries on SlashGear PS3s Not Doing Well On eBay New PS3 hardware coming, profits looming? Sony VAIO P Summer refresh tipped: faster Atom? Google TV Could be Samsung’s Next Big TV Feature Sony reveal WiMAX VAIO P and VAIO Z ultraportables Acer MID set for May April 29, 2010 at 8:46 AM Remember that patent app with the lovely line art that turned up back in January from Acer? You know, the one that shows the tablet looking MID and was only for the design, not for any new fangled tech inside the device. Well the thing is reportedly set to hit stores in May, that means any time in the next few days and weeks Acer could toss its own tablet MID onto the market. We still have no real details of the device. We can speculate that the thing will run Windows Mobile, but until the curtain falls, we can’t be sure. Acer could surprise us with an Android tablet offering, which honestly would be more interesting that WinMo to me. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Acer buying up companies left and right – they now own Gateway, eMachines, and Packard Bell Acer contemplates open source gaming console Acer shows of new Dolby Certified Gemstone notebook Acer d150 GPS Navigator Acer announces battery recall Time Warner Cable launches 4G service in select areas April 29, 2010 at 8:17 AM Last summer we mentioned that Time Warner Cable was going to be launching WiMax 4G mobile broadband in select markets. The company at the time said that WiMax would be coming last fall, but that never happened. Time Warner has now announced that it is launching 4G service in select markets in Texas, North Carolina, and Hawaii. The markets include Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi and Wichita Falls TX; Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro, NC; and Honolulu and Maui, HI. The service offers data speeds of up to 6Mbps when in the 4G coverage area and supports 3G service when out of the 4G area. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Time Warner is reselling Sprint/Clearwire service. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Verizon and Time Warner Set to Test Internet TV for Subscribers FON teams up with Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable mobile WiMAX on the way Time Warner Cable removes FEARnet from channel line-up My Cable Company offers to Cut Down the Service Cost, Voluntarily Sanyo PLV-Z4000 projector sports 65,000:1 contrast April 29, 2010 at 8:06 AM Home theater projectors are the way to go if you want a big image without having to cough up huge money for a LCD or plasma HDTV that has similar screen size. The only drawback is that you need a large room to get a big picture with a projector. Sanyo has unveiled a new projector for home theaters called the PLV-Z4000. The projector has some nice features for the home theater enthusiast like a 65000:1 contrast ratio and 1200 ANSI lumens of brightness. The projector has 3LCD technology with a 120Hz refresh rate and lots of connectivity options. Connectivity includes dual HDMI 1.3b ports, component RCA, D-Sub, S-video, and composite RCA ports. A 100-inch image requires the projector to be 10 to 20 feet from the projection surface. Sanyo will ship the PLV-Z4000 at the end of May for $2495. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Sanyo unveils blinding PLC-XF1000 projector with 12k lumens Sanyo announced PLC-XF71, an ultra bright dual-lamp LCD projector Sanyo 1080p PLV-Z700 LCD projector coming in October Sanyo’s new projector has bags of contrast Sanyo LP-Z2000 3LCD Projector: It Could Be Bulkier MSI offers new 16-inch GE600 gaming notebook April 29, 2010 at 7:56 AM MSI has pulled a new gaming notebook out of its bag of tricks called the GE600 that it says is the lightest 16-inch gaming rig it has ever offered. The machine is packed with some nice features that mobile gamers will like. The rig has graphics from an ATI Radeon 5730 graphics card that supports DirectX 11 and has 1GB of RAM. The CPU in the rig is an Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost. The glossy black chasiss is scratch resistant to keep it looking good for a long time. The specific processor is the Core i5-430M and the 16-inch screen has a 1366 x 768 resolution. Storage is to a 320GB HDD, 4GB of RAM is used, and the machine has WiFi along with Bluetooth built-in. the notebook weighs 5.9 pounds and has a 6-cell battery. Newegg has the GE600 for $899.99, while MSI lists the machine on its website at $999.99. Relevant Entries on SlashGear iBUYPOWER M865TU Gaming Notebook announced MSI GX630-028US Gaming Notebook announced for under $800 OCZ DIY Gaming Notebook – Bring your own components (BYOC) GX600 is the new gaming notebook from MSI iBUYPOWER Battalion 101 CZ-10 gaming notebook announced PadRacer iPad game with iPhone controllers already in App Store [Video] April 29, 2010 at 7:51 AM So, while we were heaping praise onto Chopper 2 yesterday, it turns out they won’t be the first racing game into the App Store using an iPad for the playing field and numerous iPhone or iPod touch handhelds for controllers. That’s because PadRacer [iTunes link] is already in there, using WiFi or Bluetooth connected touchscreen controllers to guide classic race cars around the track. Video demo after the cut Up to four people can race at once, using basic touchscreen controls. Gameplay doesn’t look too taxing – not that we’re complaining – and you can drift cars around corners in a suitably ridiculous way. Version two promises a child mode with easier controls and a “tag’ race. Now, PadRacer costs $4.99, but you’ll need to have an iPad and at least one iPhone or iPod touch in order to use it. According to the game’s developers, we should expect to see a firehose of titles like these hitting the App Store in the near future, with at least two more added in the next week or so. [Thanks Johnnie!] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Chopper 2 for iPad uses iPhone as controller, HDTV for display [Video] First shots of an iPad game detailed and revealed Apple iPad Now Accepting Applications for April 3rd Launch Intimate Controllers – lets you involve your partner in your video games Adobe talk iPad Flash alternatives Polaroid brings instant photo printing back with 300 Instant Camera April 29, 2010 at 7:46 AM When I was a kid, all my relatives had those big Polaroid cameras that shot normal size prints out the font as soon as you took the pic. We have photo albums stuffed with the pictures and my dad used his until the film stopped being made. Polaroid has unveiled a new version of that old-school Polaroid camera called the 300 Instant Camera. The 300 prints photos that are business card size, just like the PoGo printer Polaroid has been offering for a while. The camera sells for $89.99 and has integrated flash, four scene settings, and gets power from four AA batteries. A rechargeable battery is also included. I’m not sure why the camera ships with a rechargeable battery and disposable batteries too. The film that goes along with the camera is $9.99 for ten exposures and both the camera and film are available now. Relevant Entries on SlashGear CES : Polaroid Instant Photo went Inkless and Portable. Polaroid point-and-shoot coming in 2009; no shaking required Lomo LC-A Instant Back+ adds instant gratification Polaroid offers special pink PoGo printer Tomy Xiao TIP-521 digital camera offers Polaroid-like experience Flash Player 10 Gala gets OS X GPU H.264 acceleration April 29, 2010 at 7:03 AM Only the other day we were talking about Apple’s new video acceleration API in OS X 10.6.2 and what difference it might make to Adobe’s Flash technology; now we know. The company have pushed out a new beta version of Flash Player called “Gala” which supports GPU acceleration of H.264 content on Macs and MacBooks using NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M video chipsets. In the beta, you can tell whether the video you’re watching is being hardware decoded as a white box will appear in the top left corner. Apple’s own GPU management system decides whether or not to turn on hardware decoding, and according to Adobe’s engineers the system is only intended to deal with HD-quality video; it’s unlikely to activate when viewing standard definition footage. Current limitations include only two hardware decoding processes running simultaneously at any one time (further videos will use software decoding) and there are some resolutions that don’t work either. However, a polished version of Gala is expected to be rolled up into the official Flash 10.1 release later on. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Upcoming Flash Player 10.1 for Nexus One Apple open NVIDIA GPUs for H.264 decoding: faster Flash a possibility Creative ZN-Z32G-BK 32GB flash MP3 Player launched in Japan SanDisk Sansa e280 Player Confirmed Adobe’s New Flash Lite to Support More Phones Canon AE-1 Digital mod rejuvenates classic SLR [Video] April 29, 2010 at 6:50 AM As gorgeous camera mods go, this one will take some beating. An original Canon AE-1 film camera body has been given a new lease of life, after some careful modder injected the guts of a modern 9-megapixel digital camera into the classic chassis. Paired with a pancake 10mm f/1.4 lens and as many of the original controls left in place as possible, it’s a good reminder as to why camera manufacturers keep coming back to retro designs: it seems we just can’t get enough of them. The end result is a 9MP shooter with image stabilization and 4GB of storage, together with an internal USB port. There’s speculation that the donor guts were from a Canon Powershot SD870 and that the visible lens is just a disguise for that point-and-shoots own far smaller zoom barrel, but either way we’re loving it. [via CrunchGear] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Rumored Canon pro-digital camera in the works Canon EOS 400D SLR – Unboxing Video! Canon issues recall for PowerShot A650 IS Canon EOS 400D digital SLR unboxing Canon DW-100 DVD recorder HP Compaq Airlife 100 arrives in Spain for €230 April 29, 2010 at 6:29 AM We’ve been waiting for pricing details of the HP Compaq Airlife 100 smartbook since the 3G-enabled, Android based ultraportable was first announced back in February, and carrier Telefonica has just now delivered. According to Telecompaper the carrier’s Spanish arm, Movistar, has priced the Airlife 100 – which is based on a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and has a 10.1-inch touchscreen – at €230 ($304) presuming you’re willing to sign up to a €49 ($65) per month data plan. Alternatively, the Airlife 100 can be had for €300 ($397) with a cheaper, €39 per month plan ($52). Both plans seem to come with unlimited on-device data access, with the difference being the sorts of speeds you can expect: up to 10Mbps downlink on the €49 tariff, or up to 7Mbps on the €39 tariff. As for the smartbook itself, that comes with 16GB of SSD storage, WiFi and GPS, together with a webcam and a battery HP reckon will last up to 12hrs. For more, check out our hands-on preview. HP Compaq Airlife 100 demo: [via Carrypad] Relevant Entries on SlashGear HP Compaq Airlife 100 3G smartbook announced HP Compaq Airlife 100 smartbook US launch tipped by product page HP Compaq Airlife 100 smartbook video demo HP shows off new Compaq logo on their latest laptop Compaq Mini 700 netbook is HP Mini 1000 clone ASUS Eee PC 1218 all-aluminum notebook emerges April 29, 2010 at 6:09 AM News of a new ASUS Eee PC netbook has emerged, the ASUS Eee PC 1218, though so far specifications are currently unknown. Previewed in the company’s new ASUSDESIGN site, the Eee PC 1218 has apparently already won a reddot 2010 design award and is a 12-inch ultraportable with a full aluminum chassis. All of the ports are on the back panel of the notebook – apparently something ASUS only managed by “uniquely” rearranging the interior layout. By squinting at the relatively low resolution image we can make out audio in/out, VGA, three USB and ethernet, as well as what could be an HDMI port. Open her up, and the Eee PC 1218 has a one-piece aluminum palm-rest and keyboard surround, together with a sliding cover for the webcam that “assures privacy”. No word on when the notebook might go on sale, however. [via Blogeee - Thanks Pierre!] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Asus unveils UL80 and N61Vg notebooks Asus gets all thin and stuff with UL series notebooks Asus Eee PC – Delayed until early October ASUS eye Toshiba in bid to make top three notebook ranking Asus debuts ROG G73Jh gaming notebook at CES LG Innotek supplying iPhone HD 5MP camera as OmniVision shunned? April 29, 2010 at 5:53 AM While the leaked iPhone HD was partially dismantled before being returned to Apple, unfortunately that wasn’t enough to confirm who are supplying them with what’s expected to be a 5-megapixel camera chip. According to a new report this week, contrary to earlier predictions the next-gen iPhone will use an LG Innotek CMOS, rather than an OmniVision version. OmniVision are Apple’s current camera sensor suppliers for the iPhone 3GS, and a report in December last year suggested that they’d won the contract for the new, higher-resolution chip this time around. That was followed up with OmniVision executives apparently hinting earlier this month that a deal was in place. Whichever supplier is chosen, the 5-megapixel camera is expected to be paired with an LED flash, and have a second – lower resolution – counterpart on the front of the handset for video calls. We’re expecting Apple to announce the iPhone HD at the kick-off of WWDC 2010 on June 7th; SlashGear will! be there, liveblogging the whole event. [via Apple Insider] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Next generation iPhone and iPad likely to score OmniVision camera sensors 4th-gen iPhone to get 5MP camera; 7-inch Apple Tablet tipped for Jan 2010 OmniVision Takes a Step Toward High ! Definition Web and Mobile Phone Cameras iPhone to get 3.2MP camera; unknown 5MP device to follow? World’s Smallest VGA Camera Chip Sensor with Best-In-Class Sensitivity Nokia N8 gets second preview: far more positive April 29, 2010 at 5:41 AM After the Nokia N8’s first – pretty appalling – preview we’ve been hoping for a second opinion on whether the eye-catching megapixel-toting smartphone really does spectacularly miss the mark. Happily Tweakers have filled that niche; the Netherlands site have put together a multi-page preview of the N8, and their conclusion is a more positive one than we’ve heard before. They’re not 100-percent convinced by Symbian^3 – to be honest, we’d be suspicious if they were – but they give it kudos for being open-source. It’s still described as feeling “old fashioned”, though an improvement on what you’d find on the Nokia N97, but the hardware gets two thumbs-up. Build quality – on what we’re presuming is another pre-production prototype – is very high, and sound quality better than what other smartphones manage, particularly when it comes to bass. Screen responsiveness is another area of improvement over early Nokia devices, and though they reckon it’s not quite on a par with the iPhone or HTC Desire, it’s apparently better than the touchscreen on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10. Tweakers aren’t sure that the market is crying out for a high-resolution camera-phone, but based on the response we’re seeing on Twitter we’d disagree on that front. In fact, going by the photo samples and video samples, imaging looks to be the N8’s key strength. [via MyNokiaBlog] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Nokia N97 previewed Spotify Mobile for S60 released Nokia N900 previewed: “wholly different league” to Symbian Nokia N97 reviewed at PhoneMag Nokia 5530 XpressMusic US preorders kick off for $289.99 Nintendo black Wii US launch leak prompts GameStop threats April 29, 2010 at 5:23 AM The black version of the Nintendo Wii isn’t exactly a huge mystery – after all, it’s been on sale in Japan since last year – but its US arrival was meant to be. An announcement that the black version was seeing a US launch was expected at E3 2010, and promotional material leaking out of GameStop definitely confirms it’s on the way. Unfortunately, Nintendo aren’t at all pleased about their story being scooped, and have apparently threatened GameStop with a firm spanking; that’s prompted the retailer to castigate all employees for wanting to “seem cool” by sharing pre-announcement details with blogs. An internal email that was – ironically – leaked to Kotaku, outlines how “disappointed” an unnamed GameStop exec is that their employees could give in to gossiping about the upcoming console variant. Meanwhile, according to Kotaku’s sources, Nintendo threatened to pull all of its products from GameStop stores over their recent leakiness. All we need now is for someone to draw comparisons with this and the iPhone HD leak/theft and the circle of meme will be complete. Please, leave your speculation and outrage in the comments. “As you know, there is a lot of rumor and speculation about various new products and titles launching this year. One of these is the Black Wii. Various blogs and internet sites are raising awareness about this product. Gamestop stores and associates should not proliferate these rumors. Today, you received POP for your windows regarding the Black Wii. Somehow, a picture of this appeared on the internet. It may seem cool to be in the know and feel compelled to share something like this. Nothing can be further from the truth. All activity like this does is hurt our reputation with publishers and manufacturers and potentially hurts our company. Until Nintendo decides to announce THEIR product, there should be no discussion of it with customers, period. If they ask, “It’s not appropriate to comment on speculation and rumor” should be the answer. The POP should be secured in the back room and left there until further notice. ANY violation of ! these will be treated with the most aggressive consequences. I believe strongly in the field organization, but I am as disappointed as I have been in my tenure here in how we are handling this. I am trusting that your professionalism will result in no further issues.” Relevant Entries on SlashGear Black Nintendo Wii accessories coming to America Nintendo DS Lite Onyx has been discontinued? GameStop Taking Wii Preorders Today Game! stop will have Nintendo Wii on shelves for Black Friday Halo 3 launch – Didn’t preorder a copy? Good luck Kindle firmware 2.5 imminent: Twitter/Facebook integration, ebook Collections, more April 29, 2010 at 4:55 AM Amazon have announced a new firmware build for their Kindle ereader, currently in private beta, which adds social network sharing, improved ebook organisation tools and more. Kindle Version 2.5 will be released for both the Kindle and larger Kindle DX models in late May 2010; one of the headline features is the ability to share book passages on Facebook and Twitter directly from the Kindle itself. There’s also a new Collections feature, which allows you to “organize your books and documents into one or more collections” and likely comes as a response to criticism that navigating page after page of on-device texts is a cumbersome way of managing content. It will also be possible to password protect the Kindle, together with seeing which passages in the current text you’re reading are being most highlighted by other Kindle users. Amazon are also boosting the number of fonts on offer, promising sharper clarity and two new larger sizes, along with adding the ability to “zoom into PDFs and pan around to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics.” The update is being rolled out to select testers currently, before its wider availability in the coming months. [via The Digital Reader] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Amazon’s Kindle arrives on Wednesday Amazon confirm International Kindle DX is coming Kindle 2 upgrade program tipped; Amazon eBooks coming to cellphones Kindle gets 85% wireless battery boost & PDF reader update Amazon Kindle DX shipping June 10th: first come, first served chumby One MiFi Easter Egg revealed; down to $100 in Costco April 29, 2010 at 4:44 AM Nothing like a hidden Easter Egg to brighten up a gadget, and with the news that the chumby One is now available at Costco – and, at $99.99 with free shipping, bizarrely $20 cheaper than chumby themselves are selling it – company founder “bunnie” has revealed that you can turn your touchscreen device into a 3G MiFi of sorts. Plug in a 3G USB modem into the back of the chumby One, and you can apparently use its WiFi chip to share that connection among multiple wireless clients. To be fair, the Easter Egg hasn’t exactly been hidden – it’s mentioned in the chumby wiki – but turning the One into a 3G router isn’t something the company have been shouting about either. It doesn’t just have to be a 3G connection, too; if you have a USB ethernet adapter then you can share that instead. Of course, unlike a true MiFi there’s no battery for standalone use, and you’ll need to be comfortable using ssh to connect and set up the sharing, but “bunnie” has been using it while staying in hotels (complete with the chumby One’s own internet radio and widgets working) and has found it works very well. Now we just have to hope a helpful developer comes up with a custom widget to make the whole thing a little more straightforward to the idiots (like us) in the audience. Relevant Entries on SlashGear Happy easter The Easter Egg Tumbler Speaker – doesn’t look a bit like Easter Rumor: $149 iPhone coming from Costco Chumby – your new bedside pal Chumby Hacks – now with larger LCD goodness Bookeen Cybook Opus Color not as exciting as name suggests April 29, 2010 at 4:32 AM When we’re waiting with no small amount of eager anticipation for the first color E Ink based ebook readers to arrive on shelves, Bookeen’s decision to call its new range the Cybook Opus Color seems destined to confuse. The “color” part of the title refers to the new flourish of case finishes for the 5-inch ereader, not any exciting upgrade to its display technology. The new version comes in seven different colors in comparison to the initial model’s white: a choice of silver, yellow, red, black, pink, blue or orange. Happily it’s not just a cosmetic upgrade, either, with Bookeen saying the new Cybook Opus Color has new reading software – apparently called “Boo” – and a new lick of speed. In fact, they reckon it’ll power on instantly, which should make the reading experience a little more like opening up a paperback. Unchanged are the 800 x 600 monochrome display, accelerometer for automatic page rotation, and support for ePUB and PDF ebook file formats. The Opus Color comes with 1GB of internal memory, together with a microSD card slot for augmenting that, and measures in at just 4.2 x 6 x 0.4 inches. Bookeen have also lowered the MRSP, with the new model landing at $199. [via E-Reader-Info] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Bookeen Cybook Opus eBook reader fits in your pocket Bookeen Cybook Opus compact ebook reader hits shelves Bookeen shows off new Cybook eBook reader Bookeen Cybook Opus ebook reader shows up in wild Bookeen Cybook E-Book Reader HP’s Palm buyout prompts shareholder legal investigations April 29, 2010 at 4:20 AM Elevation Partners have made a little money on the Palm deal, and Palm shareholders have seen a return rather than their favourite phone company sliding down the pan (and taking their shares with them), but that doesn’t stop the legal vultures from swooping in. Finkelstein Thompson LLP, a frequent player in shareholder actions, has announced it’s “investigating potential claims” that those invested in Palm have been short-changed by HP’s $1.2bn buy-out. Elevation Partners initially pumped $460m into Palm back in mid-2007, and went on to watch the company slump over the following eleven quarters. Now that HP have stepped in with their checkbook, the private-equity firm will take away $485m from the deal, a 5.4-percent profit. However, Finkelstein Thompson LLP reckon Palm’s board of directors were too quick to snatch HP’s money, and in doing so have left shareholders with less profit than they could have expected to make. The law firm is pointing to Palm’s share price in September 2009 – $17.46 – and a recent (though unnamed) analyst target price of $14 per share; in contrast, shareholders will take $5.70 in cash per share they hold in this HP deal. Of course, if you’re going to take that approach, other analysts have been predicting Palm will crash, burn and take all its shares with it, so maybe Finkelstein Thompson LLP should just offer to take whatever money the deal has made for people and flush it so as to enact that (probably more likely) outcome. [via Twitter] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Palm squares up to Apple over IP legal threats Palm 2009 financial results: “Save us Pre!” Palm threatening unlocked GSM Pre retailers with legal action EA calls in Morgan Stanley to help secure buyout of Take-Two Palm Banhammers a Pre Theme for Android T-Mobile G1 gets Android 2.1 custom ROM [Video] April 29, 2010 at 4:08 AM The T-Mobile G1 was the first Android device on the market, and it now looks like the ageing handset will be the next to get Android 2.1. Despite its age – and mediocre specs – Cyanogen has managed to get a new Android 2.1 ROM running for the G1, called CyanogenMod 5.0.7, and as kmobs‘ video shows (after the cut) it’s all working surprisingly smoothly. Video demo after the cut It’s not just the G1 that gets the love, either: the HTC Magic will also run the ROM. Cyanogen is having to shave off some of the more common functionality in his feature-packed custom ROMs to make it fit into the space available on both handsets – the G1 is proving particularly tricky – but, as the video demonstrates, the experience is pretty much what you’d expect coming from a Nexus One. Of course, unlike the Nexus One the G1 has a hardware QWERTY keyboard, so if you’ve been desperate for an HTC-made Android smartphone with a physical ‘board and the latest public OS release, now’s (almost) your chance. Right now the ROM is in private beta among Cyanogen’s group of Android testers, but there’s talk of an initial public beta being released sometime later on today. [Thanks "Me"!] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Spotify Mobile video demo: Internet radio with offline playback Pictures of the first Android phone, HTC Dream leaked T-Mobile myTouch 3G video unboxing T-Mobile G1 Android Phone Reviewed at Android Community Samsung may drop Windows Mobile for Android The Daily Slash: April 28th 2010 April 29, 2010 at 12:39 AM Middle of the week again, so we’ve got enough news to get you through the rest of your night, before you rest your eyes and hit the tail-end of the work week. We’re happy to have you here with us for another edition of the Daily Slash, and we hope we can keep you awake long enough to reach the end. First up, in the Best of R3, the HTC Desire’s been rooted, looks like a certain online publication is going on the offensive, and does Windows Phone 8 already exist? In the Dredge ‘Net, we’ve got a temperature-sensitive coffee cup, the BlackBerry Partners need Super Apps, and a touch-sensitive faucet that needs to be seen to be believed. The Best of R3 Media HTC Desire Gets Rooted: Promises being kept is always a good thing, and MoDaCo has kept its word. You can find the “official” instructions on how to root your HTC Desire at Android Community right now, so if you’re into that kind of thing, you should go take a quick glance. Actually, you should read it carefully, because there’s definitely some major steps to the procedure, and you don’t want to mess it up. After all, you want your device to work after you do it, right? Unless you need a paperweight or something. [via Android Community] Gizmodo May Sue Police After Raid: Looks like people aren’t necessarily happy with the San Mateo police department, and obviously the online publication Gizmodo are a few of those people. It’s being reported now that they will actually be suing the police department for their raid into one of their editor’s homes earlier in the week. This will take several more interesting turns, so stay with us as we bring you the latest. [via Everything iPad] Is Windows Phone 8 Already in the Works? There’s a job posting that is looking for a Customer Experience Engineer, looking to shape the next generation of Windows Mobile. Yep, that’s right. Sure, Windows Phone 7 isn’t even out yet, but that’s not stopping Microsoft from going ahead and looking into the future. Or, as we may actually tend to believe more, it looks like Microsoft is looking to fill the spot for the mobile Operating System that isn’t out yet. That’s just our thought. But, hey, forward thinking never hurt anyone, right? [via SlashPhone] The Dredge Net Temperature-Sensitive Battery Mug Rocks: Want to know how warm your coffee is after you’ve left it on the table for awhile? Then you need this mug. It’s a temperature-sensitive mug, with a battery indicator on the side. If your coffee is warm, the battery is full. As the temperature drops, so will the battery’s monitor. Pretty ingenius if you ask us. Then again, we get distracted easily. [via Unpluggd] BlackBerry Partners Fund Wants Super Apps: So, you want to build apps for the BlackBerry OS? Good. BlackBerry Partners, and the giant fund attached to it, wants to make sure that you’re happy with that decision. So happy, in fact, that they want you to create Super Apps, and they’ll reward you generously if you do so, as well. So, go check out the full details and get cracking. [via CrackBerry] Touch-Sensitive Faucet is Ridiculously Sexy: In the aim to make everything uniform, and create this sense of ridiculous wealth and technology, we would like to introduce you to this touch-sensitive faucet. Yes, as you can see from the image above, it really is that awesome. Sure, it might be glossy and attract fingerprints galore, but that’s what you get with things that you touch. So . . . Deal with it. Considering there’s a battery in this thing that gets charged with hot water, how could you not want this thing? Exactly. [via DVICE] Relevant Entries on SlashGear Xbox 360 USB storage update arrives today Palm Pre Plus & Pixi Plus O2 Germany launch on April 28th Apple Buys Up Intrinsity, Doesn’t Clear up A4 Processor Speculation AT&T Employees Blocked From Vacationing in June HTC EVO 4G Makes an Appearance in Sprint Inventory System

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