Archive for: featured
According to the NY Times, Google, Intel and Sony are developing a new product called Google TV. It appears that Google wants to develop a new tv platform and roll it out in a set top box. Apparently, Boxee, Roku, Vudu, etc. etc. are all lonely because Google is working on a Google Web TV platform that will be rolled into televisions and, you guessed it, yet another set-top box. Logitech has also been tapped for its expertise in remote controls and accessories. Last week, the WSJ reported that Google was privately testing a set-top box with Dish Network.
Google intends to use the same open approach to Web TV that it has to Android and hopes that TV apps will see the same type of enthusiasm from the developer community as cell phone apps, thereby expanding the Web-on-TV concept exponentially. Google plans to get the development tool kit out within a couple of months.
The hardware will use Intel Atom chips. For its part, Sony will likely launch some of the first TVs and other devices with the Google TV tech built in. The technology will be based on Android and will use Google Chrome for browsing.
The project is still being kept tightly under wraps and spokespersons for all companies except for Sony declined to comment for the NY Times piece. Sony’s spokesperson stated that he hadn’t heard of the project.
JooJoo tablet has a been a very talked about product in the past 6 months.
Formerly known as the Crunchpad, the JooJoo has fascinated me since Fusion Garage decided to strike out on its own with the device, leaving its partnership with TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington and an ocean of bad blood between them.
The JooJoo interface has been completely overhauled and as you can see from the picture above it has a few featured icons over a high-resolution wallpaper.
Regarding other changes, Engadget’s Nilay Patel writes that “Fusion Garage has also ditched the confusing pinch-to-go-back gesture and replaced it with a vertical swipe that brings down a status bar containing the home button, status indicators, browser navigation controls, and a combination address bar/search field.”
And for some reason, the JooJoo’s case will now be champagne-colored instead of black.
I’m still unconvinced that the $500 JooJoo will be able to compete very well against Apple’s iPad (which retails at the same price), or lower priced Android tablets that will likely pop up throughout the year. It also isn’t helping that the device is launching little more than a week before the iPad.
Check out more pictures of the JooJoo’s new interface over at Engadget.
Google’s Nexus One smartphone is already being sold in different locations around the world, but so far not in India. It has now been reported that Google is planning a launch of a ’scaled down’ version of the Nexus One for the Indian market.
Currently details havent been release, but im sure the price would hopefully reflect the market and also the specs. There is a very big mobile phone market in India which is dominated by Nokia and Blackberry.
The original Nexus One features 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash, 3.7 inch AMOLED touch screen, 512MB Flash along with a 4GB microSD slot, video recording at 20 frames per second and numerous Google services such as Gmail, Google Search etc.
For all that’s in the air for now, a report suggests that the new Nexus One for India will have a 3.7 inch AMOLED touch screen and Snapdragon processor but with a downgraded memory and Camera. Now, let’s wait and watch if Google really makes a hit on this one.
PlanetSolar is the world’s largest solar powered boat. The boat itself is a catamaran that measures 101ft long, 49ft wide and is designed to reach a top speed of 15 knots (17 mph). It is also supposed to be able to carry 50 passengers.
Power wise the PlanetSolar gets all its running power from 5,381 sq ft of photovoltaic solar cells which will be used in a planned trip around the world in 2011. Until then here’s a few images to give you an idea of the size of this beast.
The National Football League and Verizon Wireless has partnered with a mobile distribution deal that will bring live NFL games onto phones at the start of next season.
The paid service will work on BlackBerrys and Android phones. Verizon hasn’t set prices for service, but an announcement is expected in weeks.
More from the WSJ: The deal marks a significant shift in strategy for the NFL, which has never before allowed mobile access to its games on Sunday afternoons. Doing so was long considered by broadcasters to be a threat to the NFL’s golden goose—its Sunday afternoon broadcasts that generate some $1.4 billion in license fees from News Corp.’s Fox and CBS Corp’s. CBS, whose executives have said they will keep a close eye on the impact of mobile distribution on their ratings.
Verizon’s four-year deal, which they took over from Sprint, is reportedly worth about $720 million.
Read more at the WSJ—>
It has been reported over at Techcrunch that Bill Gates’ new site The Gates Notes, was running on a Linux-powered server. This would be ironic since Gates is of course the founder of Microsoft, which is Linux’s biggest competitor in the server market. It would be the equivalent of catching Gates or CEO Steve Ballmer being caught using (and not just signing) a MacBook at a conference.
A quick search on Netcraft shows that thegatesreport.com sure enough
looks to be running on the Linux OS. But wait. The results also say that web server is Microsoft-IIS/7.0. That doesn’t sound right, so what gives? Well, it turns out that because Gates is using Akamai to mirror his sites’ content in the event of massive traffic (or more specifically, something like a DDoS attack), this data is being filtered through there. Akamai uses Linux for its servers, so that’s what OS is being passed back to Netcraft. But at the same time, to make things more confusing, the Akamai servers are still passing back the correct server header for Gates’ site: Microsoft-IIS/7.0.
How do I know this? Because the same thing happened in 2003 when it was humorously, but erroneously reported that Microsoft was using Linux servers to run microsoft.com. In fact, the same thing was going on: Microsoft was routing its traffic through Akamai, which again, runs Linux boxes. Microsoft has since apparently changed to its own servers since then so that they now correctly return Windows Server 2003 as their OS. That is likely what The Gates Report is running on as well given the Microsoft-IIS/7.0 web servers.
So, you all seen it, Apple released their hot product for this year: iPad Tablet. I bet you’ve seen the video, the Steve Jobs keynote but it seems like a bit hard to remember all of the facts.
Here are some of the facts that you should know, including reviewing some cons that we’ve seen so far. :
Look-n-feel
- 9,7” LCD touch screen.
- The screen won’t be OLED as some people speculated earlier.
- Weight: 680 grs for the WiFi model and 730 grs for the 3G model.
Hardware
- Apple A4 processor. 1GHz.
- Different models with wireless and 3G technology. The iPad will be unlocked, with no company associated.
- The screen is designed with In-Plan switching technology to improve viewing angle.
- 802.11n wireless.
- Bluetooth 2.1.
- Speaker and microphone.
- Accelerometer.
- Compass.
- 10 hour battery.
Applications
- Any iPhone application will work on iPad.
- An SDK for developers will be released. Meaning that accessing new apps every time should be a fact.
- iPad apps will be published in the App Store.
- There are already several apps that are designed: NY Times, iBooks, EA Sports, MLB.com.
Pricing (US)
- 16GB WiFi only: $499
- 32GB WiFI only: $599
- 64GB WiFi only: $699
- 16GB WiFi & 3G: $629
- 32GB WiFi & 3G: $729
- 64GB WiFi & 3G: $829
Cons
- There’s no support for HDMI or HD videos.
- No widescreen.
- No USB connectors. You need adapters for everything.
- No multi-tasking support.
- No webcam.
- No Flash support.
- There are no big surprises with the release; it looks like a bigger iPhone version.
There are some other facts that we’ve found, can you name another relevant? What’s your take about the iPad?
Skype has seen its share of international calling minutes jump to 12% in 2009 according to TeleGeography. According to teh TeleGeography report there were a total of 406 billion international minutes in 2009, and Skype accounted for a staggering 54 billion by Skype-to-Skype calls.
TeleGeography says international call volume from telephones has grown at an annual rate of 15 percent over the past 25 years, but that growth has been slowing for the past few years. In the past two years, specifically, international telephone traffic annual growth has reportedly slowed to a mere 8 percent, growing from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes last year.
TeleGeography analyst Stephan Beckert refers to Skype’s estimated volume of traffic as “tremendous” and goes on to say that Skype is now by far the largest provider of cross-border communications in the world.
The Flip camcorder has been very popular in the last few years, mainly because it so easy to shoot videos. However, watching HDTV has been very difficult when checking out your Flip footage. Flip (owned by Cisco) has created FlipShare TV, a three-piece media bridge to wirelessly transmit your footage from your PC or Mac to your HDTV – without a home network.
FlipShare TV jacks straight into your HDTV and then you just need to plugin your USB key which is pre-configured to connect wirelessly, creating a private Flip network. Once you’ve saved your Flip footage to your PC or Mac, you use the remote to access and watch it on your HDTV.
Currently costing $150 FlipShare TV it seems to be quite affordable and it solves a problem that a lot of Flip users all over the world already have.
Here is the list of the top 10 technology stories for 2009 according to tech news aggregation service Techmeme.
1.
The Official Google Blog:
Google’s announcement that it was creating a cloud-based operating system raised eyebrows and confirmed that Silicon Valley’s once-scrappy do-gooder had shifted focus from web search to total device domination. Chrome was an arrow aimed directly at Microsoft’s heart — its Windows operating system — and a flag-planting arrival of Google onto the desktop. Now if only it were actually released…
2.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington decided last year to put his pundit opinions to good use and try his hand at creating a dirt-cheap web tablet. His November admittance of defeat, and the soap-opera backstory between TechCrunch and gadget maker Fusion Garage made great fodder for the Cassandras of tech journalism.
3.
Apple:
When not speculating on possible products, the tech press speculated on the possible problems of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. His early January admission that he was suffering from a “hormonal imbalance” struck some as less-than-forthright. The skeptics were later validated when a dead-of-night June Wall Street Journal article revealed his liver transplant.
4.
Apple:
Google CEO Eric Schmidt started 2009 as a member of Apple’s Board of Directors, but the Mountain View company’s creeping incursion onto Apple territory made his departure inevitable.
5.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
TechCrunch’s seemingly speculative post on Google’s move to create its own gadget was dismissed by a few naysayers. When Google handed out shiny new Nexus One’s to employees, the secret got out. Unboxings and TwitVid sneak peeks followed.
6.
Apple:
When people complained that VoIP service Google Voice wasn’t available as an app on the iPhone, Apple initially pointed the fingers at hapless carrier AT&T. When the FCC came calling, though, they changed their tune.
7.
New York Times:
Online auction house eBay finally unraveled their disastrous deal with Skype, selling it to a group including new VC firm Andreessen Horowitz.
8.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Apple successfully destabilized the music industry, so it seems like the broadcast market is the next worthy target. This tasty November rumor is just that – for now – but one we’d be delighted to see.
9.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google used a splashy October presentation to announce partnerships with LaLa and iLike, allowing you to use the power of their search engine to find that tune you have stuck in your head.
10.
Bret Taylor / FriendFeed Blog:
Friendfeed, the little startup that could, decided in August that they, well, couldn’t, and went from being Facebook’s unofficial R&D office to a little more formal agreement.
GrooveMaker is a new Electro and Drum and Bass app that helps musicians to create their own music. The interface itself is pretty impressive and looks much like your portable DJ Box, with 8 stereo loop tracks and a huge library of numerous drum beats, effects and lines to make your remix ever more groovy. This application seems great for the average person who wants to have a little fun and make some cool beats, but this app just isnt professional enough to actually be used as a commercial tool.
Renault have yet another crazy concept car. This time its the new Renault Zoe Z.E, which seems more like a luxury driving option than a real car.
Its reported that the engineering focus is on the car’s climate control system, which has an electric diffuser built right in, capable of spreading specialty oils around the cabin.
Renault’s Zoe may not be just a concept, either, as the company is hinting that the electric car could see production as early as 2012.
