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Thursday
Sep022010

"Underwhelming" Apple TV could be replaced by groundbreaker in 2011

DateThursday, September 2, 2010 at 03:56PM

More than a gateway device, experts project real Apple TV will integrate TV and Mac to revolutionize home entertainment

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Critics hoping for more from Apple Inc's Web-to-TV plans -- a device, say, that would revolutionize living room entertainment the way theiPad changed tablet computing -- may just need to wait a bit longer.

Shortly after Apple unveiled its latest Apple TV product on Wednesday, complaints surfaced from some circles that the company had failed to live up to its own high standards. The device is smaller and cheaper than the one it brought out in 2006, but it also has shortcomings.

Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu, for instance, called the Apple TV product "underwhelming" and said some innovative applications, such as those on the iPad, would have helped. "It seems it's strictly more of a rental machine."

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Thursday
Sep022010

Google's coming mobile music service seen as good for music industry

DateThursday, September 2, 2010 at 03:44PM

Apple and Google to clash in music space by Christmas


By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are as it steps up its rivalry with Apple Inc, according to people familiar with the matter.

Google's Andy Rubin, the brains behind Google's Android mobile operating system, has been leading conversations with the labels about what a new Google music service would look like, according to these sources.

Rubin, Google's vice president of engineering, hopes to have the service up and running by Christmas, two of these people said.

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Wednesday
Sep012010

Jobs unveils "biggest change ever" in iPod lineup

DateWednesday, September 1, 2010 at 04:38PM

Apple takes wraps off new lineup of iPods


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc unveiled a snazzier line of its iPod on Wednesday, with new designs for every model of the popular media device in hopes of kick-starting holiday sales.

"We've gone wild," Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said. "It's the biggest change in the iPod lineup ever."

At a presentation to reporters and investors, Jobs said that to date the company has sold 275 million iPods.

Still, while Apple's iPods dominate the music- and media-player market, sales growth has moderated in past years. Jobs has turned his attention toward the iPhone and more recently the iPad, which became an immediate success when it was launched in April.

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Wednesday
Sep012010

Arcade Fire uses HTML5, Google Maps to create Internet's first interactive music video

DateWednesday, September 1, 2010 at 02:44PM

Arcade Fire have released the first HTML 5 powered music video on the internet.

It uses the band's song We Used to Wait and asks the user for their childhood address to pull in shots of the street and aerial views of the neighbourhood.

The experiment, called The Wilderness Downtown, uses multiple video windows to create a tailormade trip down memory lane.

The animated flashbacks are synchronised with the music, and with core shots of a person running down a road and flocking birds.

Director and artist Chris Milk collaborated on the project.

The American has previously worked with the likes of Kanye West, Green Day and Gnarls Barkley.

During the video, the user also gets the chance to write a note to their childhood self in a special tree-like scrawl.

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Tuesday
Aug312010

Indian government checking RIM's security proposals

DateTuesday, August 31, 2010 at 02:18PM

BlackBerry maker wins reprieve on India shutdown


By Bappa Majumdar and Devidutta Tripathy

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Research In Motion will give India access to secure BlackBerry data beginning September 1, a government source said on Monday, leading New Delhi to put off a decision on whether to shut down the smartphone.

Concerned about militants using the BlackBerry or Internet to plan attacks, India is also pushing RIM, Google and Skype to set up local servers to allow full monitoring of their services.

Shares of Canadian-based RIM rose after the Indian Interior Ministry said the company had offered several ways to allow authorities to monitor BlackBerry communications. The government said it would check their feasibility over the next 60 days.

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Tuesday
Aug312010

IFA, Europe's largest consumer electronics trade fair, set to break attendance, sales records

DateTuesday, August 31, 2010 at 02:08PM

3D TVs and tablets beckon at Berlin's IFA trade fair

By Nicola Leske

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germans are not known to be a nation of spendthrifts but when it comes to consumer electronics they throw caution to the wind -- much to the delight of exhibitors at Berlin's IFA trade fair starting this week.

"Germans are currently in a downright buying frenzy," said Jeffry van Ede, board member of German tech industry body Bitkom.

Exhibitors at Europe's largest consumer electronics trade fair IFA are hoping that behavior will spill over into the rest of Europe as they negotiate contracts with retailers for the coming months and the year-end holiday shopping season.

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Monday
Aug302010

CRTC orders major IPs to offer smaller resellers the same Internet speeds 

DateMonday, August 30, 2010 at 05:15PM

The Canadian Radio-Television Communications Commission (CRTC) is sticking to its guns and ordering big phone network owners such as Bell and Telus to offer smaller wholesale companies higher internet speeds, despite previous disagreement from the government.

Network owners will be required to offer whatever internet speeds they themselves sell to retail customers to smaller companies that rent portions of their networks, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission affirmed Monday. The requirement is necessary to maintain competition and reasonable prices for broadband services, the regulator said.

"Access to broadband internet services is a key foundation for the digital economy," CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein stated. "The large telephone and cable companies are bringing their fibre networks closer to Canadian homes and businesses, which allows for faster internet connections. Requiring these companies to provide access to their networks will lead to more opportunities for competition in retail internet services and better serve consumers."

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Monday
Aug302010

Time Warner/Disney cable fee negotiations complicated by online TV 

DateMonday, August 30, 2010 at 11:04AM

Online video key to Disney, Time Warner Cable row

By Yinka Adegoke and Alex Dobuzinskis

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The growing availability of popular TV shows on the Web is at the heart of ongoing contentious programing fee negotiations between Walt Disney Co and Time Warner Cable Inc, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

If the agreements are not in place before midnight on Wednesday, millions of homes in major cities like New York and Los Angeles could see their local ABC broadcast, ESPN channels and some Disney channels go dark.

Both sides said in a statement early on Sunday they had made "significant progress" in their negotiations, but a deal is yet to be inked.

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Tuesday
Aug242010

George Lucas sues tech company over Jedi "mind trick" trademark violation

DateTuesday, August 24, 2010 at 12:40PM

Lucas sues to stop "Jedi Mind" wireless headset


By Eriq Gardner

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Star Wars" creator George Lucas has filed a $5 million trademark lawsuit against a company marketing a technology that allows users to control computer applications directly with their minds.

The defendant is Jedi Mind, Inc., which touts a wireless headset that detects brainwaves on both a conscious and non-conscious level and can even make it possible for users to play games or run software applications with thoughts alone.

The technology calls to mind the famous "Jedi Mind trick" as featured in the "Star Wars" films. According to Wikipedia's hilariously dry description, the mind trick refers to a "spectrum of force powers which influenced the thoughts of sentient creatures, most commonly used to coerce into agreement by suggestion through voice manipulation, or to cause one to reveal information. This allowed its practitioners to resolve matters in a non-violent way."

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Monday
Aug232010

Experiments use virtual reality to explore human behaviour

DateMonday, August 23, 2010 at 01:03PM

Virtual reality is allowing scientists to ask difficult questions about human behaviour that were previously not possible or were thought too unethical.

A Spanish team has designed a trial that allows men to step inside the body of a woman subjected to violence.

Meanwhile scientists in London are simulating a controversial experiment from the 1960s in which people were persuaded to inflict pain on others.

The original experiments were condemned as immoral and too traumatic.

At Barcelona University, male volunteers have experienced life as a virtual young girl and then separately, witnessed violence towards her.

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Monday
Aug232010

Multi-tasking: myth or reality?

DateMonday, August 23, 2010 at 11:38AM

Britons are increasingly overlapping their media habits - tapping out e-mails while watching TV, reading a paper while answering texts from friends. But, asks Hugh Wilson, does media multi-tasking mean instead of doing a few things well, we are just doing more things badly?

I was watching a documentary the other day about an educational issue that - as the father of a child about to start his first year at school - held more than a passing interest.

At the same time, I was actively participating in a three-way text message conversation about the coming weekend.

It's fair to say that, by the end of the evening, I had only a vague understanding of the message of the documentary and the weekend remained largely unplanned. I had multi tasked, but I hadn't done it particularly well.

Still, I was only doing what comes naturally, at least if the latest report from media regulator Ofcom is to be believed.

According to the Ofcom analysis, the average Briton spends seven hours a day watching or using media. But that figure rises to nearly nine hours when you squeeze in time many of us now spend using several devices at once.

So we watch telly while surfing the net, or continually check Facebook updates while writing a report, or send instant messages while talking on a mobile phone.

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Friday
Aug202010

Federal solution needed for growing problem of tech trash

DateFriday, August 20, 2010 at 05:13PM

Backers of electronics recycling seek unified laws


Hundreds of millions of gadgets like phones are produced and discarded each year 

 

By Alyson Zepeda and Carolina Madrid

(Reuters) - Julayna Smith has a problem. Over the years, she has accumulated eight cell phones in trying to keep up with the latest models. Her boyfriend has also started a small Blackberry pile of his own.

"I don't know the first place to look to recycle a phone, I just have no idea where I would start," she said.

Smith, 22, of Duluth, Minnesota, is not alone.

States, cities and consumer groups are increasingly looking for a federal solution to the growing problem of getting rid of more than 2 million tons of used electronic gadgets each year.

Hundreds of millions of them are produced annually to meet demand for the latest smartphones, laptops or TVs. The average U.S. household owns 25 electronics products, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. But recycling them is regulated mostly by local or state governments, and rules can change from one locale to the next leading to confusion for both consumers and companies that make and sell electronics.

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Thursday
Aug122010

Android Rockets Past iPhone on Path To No. 2 Globally

DateThursday, August 12, 2010 at 03:11PM

Global smartphone sales grew 50.5 percent year over year to 61.6 million in the second quarter, Gartner said Thursday. Moreover, sales of Android-based smartphones were robust, with Google's mobile operating system leaping past Apple's iOS to become the third most popular platform worldwide.

In the United States, Android overtook Research In Motion'sBlackBerry and led the smartphone OS market with a 34.1 percent share. By contrast, Android held a mere 3.9 percent share in the same period last year, noted Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi. "We are expecting Android to become the second-largest OS at a worldwide level before the end of the year," Milanesi said.

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Monday
Aug092010

Consumer Reports Indicates a Case Solves Reception Issues With iPhone

DateMonday, August 9, 2010 at 01:28PM

After giving a thumbs down to the iPhone 4, Consumer Reports indicated that the "bumper" phone from Apple — which Apple is currently offering at no charge (until September 30, 2010), does in fact solve the reception issue. View the Consumer Reports video review:

 

 

 

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Monday
Aug092010

Apple Data Shows No "Link" Problems With iPhone 4 with Only 0.55% Complaints

DateMonday, August 9, 2010 at 12:56PM

Apple's much viewed and anticipated press conference on July 16 presented a counter-pitch to "exaggerated" reports on the internet and from some media sources indicating reception loss on the new iPhone 4. In this video press conference Apple pointed out:

 

  • All smart phones have issues when held along the sides where the antennae's reside (demonstrated with Windows Smartphone, Blackberry and an Android phone)
  • Apple Care data: less than 0.55% of users complained about antennae or reception issues
  • ATT reports that, as compared to Apple's most successful model, the iPhone 4 had 1/3 of the returns (put another way, 3 times as many iPhone 3 users returned phones versus iPhone 4 users in early data)
  • ATT reported that less than 1 extra call was dropped per 100 calls versus the last iPhone model

 

 

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Friday
Aug062010

Dish Network to offer live streaming to iOS devices

DateFriday, August 6, 2010 at 07:11PM

Serenity Caldwell 

Something missing in Dish’s “Switch to Satellite” commercials that hasn’t gotten you quite hooked? Well then, how about the addition of free streaming of live satellite TV to your iOS devices?

On Thursday, Dish Network announced that—come September—the company would be offering subscribers the option of streaming their TV content to their mobile devices at no extra cost. To do this, subscribers will need Sling Media’s Slingbox ($180 to $300) or Dish’s HD-DVR with Slingbox technology built-in ($200 to $400). For those who don’t remember, Sling Media was acquired back in 2007 byEchoStar, which also owns Dish Network. Sling and Dish announced plans at the 2010 CES to integrate technologies in DVRs and more.

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Friday
Aug062010

IPad Knockoffs on Sale for $50 to $125

DateFriday, August 6, 2010 at 07:08PM

Agam Shah

Low-cost Android tablets resembling Apple's iconic iPad are on sale through retail sites like eBay for US$50 to $125, though observers say they could be a pain to own since they lack hardware and software support.

The inexpensive tablets come in different designs, with some resembling the iPad. The devices have 7-inch touchscreens, which are smaller than iPad's 9.7-inch screen, and run the older Android 1.7 OS.

The devices are being sold under names like Apad and ePad, mostly from vendors in China. One eBay seller, Goodstore-2010 is selling an iPad lookalike called ePad for US$99 with free shipping out of Hong Kong. The retailer has a reliability rating of 98.9 percent. The same retailer is selling Apads for $48, but is tacking on a heavy shipping fee of $46, bringing the total sale price to $94.

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Wednesday
Aug042010

Verizon, Moto working on Android-powered TV tablet?

DateWednesday, August 4, 2010 at 07:09PM

What would you say to an Android tablet with a 10-inch screen, dual cameras (with a front-facing lens for video chat), Flash support, mobile hotspot capabilities, and the ability to watch TV shows via Verizon’sFiOS network? You want?

Our tablet rumor du jour comes courtesy of the Financial Times, which claims (based on tips from the usual "people briefed on the plans") that Motorola and Verizon Wireless are working on an Android-powered slate that "will allow users to watch television on it."

The supposed tablet would boast a 10-inch display — slightly larger than the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen — and would be "thinner and lighter" than the iPad, the Financial Times says.

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Wednesday
Aug042010

Review: New Web music services offer tons of tunes

DateWednesday, August 4, 2010 at 07:05PM

By RACHEL METZ

SAN FRANCISCO – If you're itching to hear whatever you want, whenever you want, without breaking the bank on songs from Apple's iTunes store, your best bet is an online subscription music service.

Two new ones are hoping to capture your attention and dollars: Rdio, which was created by the founders of Internet phone service Skype, and MOG, from the music blog network of the same name. For $10 per month each, the two let you listen to an unlimited number of high-quality tunes on the Web and on your smart phone, download songs to your phone for offline listening (though you won't be able to listen to them if you cancel service) and connect with like-minded music lovers.

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Tuesday
Aug032010

RIM unveils touch-screen BlackBerry Torch

DateTuesday, August 3, 2010 at 01:49PM

Research In Motion unveiled a new touch-screen device with a slide-out keyboard, called the BlackBerry Torch, at a news event on Tuesday.

The phone will use a new operating system from Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM called BlackBerry 6, which has a redesigned web browser that features tabbed browsing for access to multiple web pages at the same time. The Torch will also have the pinch-to-zoom feature made popular on Apple's rival iPhone.

The slide-out keyboard, for typing, will complement a virtual keyboard on the 3.2-inch touch screen.

Details of the device were leaked before the news event by RIM's U.S. wireless partner, AT&T, on the company's website. In a press release, RIM said the Torch will be available from the carrier on Aug. 12.

The new operating system will also be available for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and 9650, as well as the BlackBerry Pearl 3G.

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