What's new on SlashGear.com

Verizon iPhone 4 Launches Tomorrow
HTC ThunderBolt Here “Sooner Than Expected”
Yanko Design Presents The Perfect Superphone
China Orders Mandatory Parental Monitoring Protocol For Online Games
Denmark Will Build Underwater Tunnel To Germany
Skin Gun Is Star Wars Level Medicine
The New X-Com Trailer: Better than my Childhood?
Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Bill Hits Congress Again
Android 3.0 Honeycomb hands-on [Motorola XOOM]
The Today Show Talks About New Fangled Contraption Called The “Internet” in 1994
Android Community App Demoed on Motorola XOOM Tablet
Cee-Lo No-Show at Honeycomb Intro
Want A Better Signal? Get A Cell Phone Tower In Your Front Yard
Android Marketplace Introduces In-App Purchases, Currency Settings, Additional Giant Apps
Android Marketplace Changes Detailed – Webstore Now Also Browser Based
Layar Player Now Available for iPhone – Makes Augmented Reality Your Reality
Chat Program / CNN app Detailed at Google Android Honeycomb Event
Render Script / 3D Applications Impress at Google Android Honeycomb Event
New HEX Sport Watch Band for iPod Nano, Nike Plus Compatible
Notification System, App Optimization Detailed at Google Android Honeycomb Event
Star Trek Mr. Potato Heads Coming Summer 2011
BlackBerry App World 2.1 goes live with in-app payments
Google Shopper Now Available on iPhone
Android Honeycomb Event : Full Pre-Game Review
The Daily debuts new iTunes Subscription agreement
Murdoch: “This year and maybe next year belong to Apple”
Apple: App subscription system announcement “soon”
SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up: February 2 2011
The Daily gets official: iPad app for “true news discovery”
LG teases Optimus 3D will “rewrite history” [Video]

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 03:17 PM PST

Verizon Wireless has just sent out a flurry of emails to their current customers. Tomorrow will mark the first day of subscriber-only sales for Big Red’s long-awaited iPhone. Sales start at 3 AM Eastern. Only a “Reserved quantity” will be available and everything is on a first-come, first-served basis. Get your coffee brewed now, folks.

When the time comes, you’ll be able to order from this link. Verizon will begin taking General Reservations on February 9. Sales will open to everyone on February 10 at 7 AM.

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HTC ThunderBolt Here “Sooner Than Expected”

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 03:06 PM PST

The HTC ThunderBolt will hit stores earlier than Verizon initially anticipated. The original launch date was set as February 24, but now Big Red has tweeted that, while many “waited for the Verizon iPhone”, the HTC ThunderBolt will be here sooner than expected. This could mean an early February launch, possibly during or before MWC 2011.

Recent rumors suggest that the ThunderBolt will launch with mobile hotspot functionality. Since some testers have drained the 5 GB monthly allowance in as little as 32 minutes, it won’t be hard to blow through the cap on a laptop or tablet.

The ThunderBolt will also be Verizon’s first phone to have functional simultaneous voice and data over 3G.

[Via Android Community]

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Yanko Design Presents The Perfect Superphone

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 02:38 PM PST

The Motorola Atrix packs the dual-core power of a computer into a slender handset package. Moto made much of the laptop and TV docks, but both of those (admittedly nifty) peripheral products merely underscore the sad truth. On its own, the Atrix is a caged lion.

The 4″ display candy-bar form-factor has its limitations. There’s only so much you can do with a device like that before adding in peripherals. This new concept phone from Yanko designer Lin Jian Feng may be able to squeeze a big shot of additional power into the handset.

It has a medium-sized plastic bezel/body that detaches from the screen and slides out to reveal two halves of a keyboard, complete with a rolling-ball mouse and a left/right/middle mouse button key. The display will also be able to fold up out of the body, using it as a base to allow for more comfortable extended viewing.

MIDs are supposed to be a dead platform, but I’d buy the hell out of any smartphone that was a freaking Transformer. Every other gadget nerd raised on cartoons would be compelled to do the same. Lin Jian Feng is a genius.

[Via Yanko Design]

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China Orders Mandatory Parental Monitoring Protocol For Online Games

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 02:11 PM PST

The Chinese government has just sent out a joint notice to gaming companies, demanding that they provide parents with a method of monitoring, limiting and- if necessary- cutting off their child’s access to the game. The Ministry of Public Security and seven other departments signed on to the notice, which has a deadline of March 1.

Gaming addiction is considered a serious social problem in China. They have 33 million teenage “Internet addicts”. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences suggests less than 2 hours per week of online gaming, and no more than 10 yuan ($1.50) per month in online gaming. I don’t know many kids who spend less than two hours per day gaming online over here.

If the loss of productivity and occasional violent fight in an Internet cafe aren’t enough of an issue, the popular response to the “internet addiction” epidemic has been terrifying. Children across China have been sent to “Internet Rehab” camps. Most of these are basically boot camps for children, with a healthy portion of torture thrown in for good measure.

Two instructors for these camps were sent to prison last year after they beat a 15-year-old to death in some sort of punch-based therapy gone awry. A different camp fell under a mutiny by 14 angry and abused “patients”.

Like this, but considerably more tragic.

[Via AFP]

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Denmark Will Build Underwater Tunnel To Germany

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 01:20 PM PST

One of the great architectural marvels of our time has just been approved by seven out of eight parliamentary factions in Denmark. The state-owned firm Femern A/S will build a tunnel from the German island of Fehmarn to the Danish island of Lolland. Both islands have connections to the mainland. The project’s budget has been set at 5.1 billion euros, or $7 billion. Construction will begin in 2014, after teams from Denmark and Germany produce environmental impact reports. The tunnel is expected to be ready for traffic in 2020.

Environmentalists in Germany have condemned the tunnel project for its potential damage to the habitats of whales and seals. Tunnel-advocates contend that this method is actually more “green” than the originally planned bridge. The 18-kilometer tunnel will allow motorists to drive from Copenhagen to Hamburg in just three hours.

Denmark plans to bear the brunt of the project’s expense, but the Germans will need to pay between 800 million and 1.7 billion euros to connect their infrastructure to the tunnel. Chump change, considering how much trade and tourist exchange the tunnel is expected to drive. Denmark expects to recoup costs via tolls in a mere 30 years.

They assume flying, auto-driven smart cars won’t be ubiquitous by then. Way to be a buzzkill, Sweden.

[Via DW-World.de]

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Skin Gun Is Star Wars Level Medicine

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 01:01 PM PST

Scientists have developed a skin gun that could radically change the recovery times of burn victims. Doctor Jörg C. Gerlach has developed a spray-on skin gun that operates much like how an airbrush works, only much larger and looking very sci-fi.

The procedure is still in experimental stages but has been successful in over a dozen burn victims. The process takes healthy stem cells from the victim's skin and combines it in a solution. It is then sprayed directly onto the victims wounds to begin healing. Creating and grafting skin is not new, but it used to take weeks and months to generate new skin and for it to heal. This new process takes about one and half hours to spray the solution according to Gerlach.

The solution is purple in the video and it only adds to the futuristic nature of the story. If the trials continue to be a success this could be a huge breakthrough for burn victims. Now we just need to work on bacta tanks and bionic limbs.

[Via NatGeo on Youtube]

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The New X-Com Trailer: Better than my Childhood?

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 12:53 PM PST

Huge swathes of my childhood were devoted to two things: X-Com, and the X-Files. And now both of those wonderful things are being poured into one mold, called “XCOM”. Unlike the original turn-based game, it is an FPS. Made by 2K Games, the same devious bastards who brought us BioShock. It looks to be set in the late-40s, early 50s, which place it much earlier in time than the original X-Com.

The new X-Com looks like a classic monster movie, focused around an X-Filesy black oil that jumps around and infests people. Weapons seen in the trailer range from old-style handguns and shotguns to crazy lightning guns cobbled together from alien technology. It appears you’ll be playing the role of a muscley g-man, blasting aliens and taking black-and-white photos of unexplained phenomena. Presumably for the lab techs back at Area 51.

I do have my worries about XCOM. Researching alien tech and designing new weapons and defenses was a big part of the original X-Com. The trailer hints at this, but I get the feeling their version of “research” will be heavily shotgun-based.

We’ll see more of the new X-Com at E3 2011 (this trailer is a slightly updated version of the one they had under wraps at E3 2010) – hopefully including some gameplay.

[Via IGN's YouTube Stream]

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Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Bill Hits Congress Again

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 12:13 PM PST

Egypt’s sudden removal and equally sudden return to the web has given open Internet advocates a stockpile of new ammunition. The first target of this arsenal will be S.3480, a new version of an old piece of (failed) legislation. The “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act” was first introduced in 2010. It didn’t work then, but Senators Lieberman (I-Conn), Collins (R-Maine) and Carper (D-Dela) think 2011 is the magic year.

This bill will hand control of privately owned computer networks over to the President during a “national cyber emergency”. There will be no court review needed for the executive branch to shut down any computers, networks and websites needed in order to “preserve the reliable operation of covered critical infastructure”.

Advocates have already scrambled to fight the bill. Freepress.net has mobilized to help angry users send letters condemning the bill off to their representatives.

In the event that S.3480 passes, the United States will join at least one other western government in holding terminal control over their citizen’s Internet access. Austria is currently developing a “kill switch” of their own, to lock Austria away from outside Internet / mobile networks in the event of a “Cyberwar”.

The demonstrations in Cairo couldn’t have come at a more pertinent time. 2011 will play host to some interesting debates about the exact nature of the Internet- and what, if any, responsibility our government has to keep it secure.

[Via CNET]

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Android 3.0 Honeycomb hands-on [Motorola XOOM]

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 11:54 AM PST

Google has just finished officially launching Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and we wasted no time in grabbing some hands-on experience with the tablet-centric OS on Motorola’s XOOM slate. Unveiled back at CES 2011 the XOOM has a 10.1-inch display, dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor and will debut on Verizon’s network imminently. Read on for our first impressions of Honeycomb.

We’ve already had a chance to look at the XOOM, albeit relatively briefly with Honeycomb in its pre-launch demo state, and we’ve gone in-depth with Android 3.0 in our Android Community Preview Guide. What neither of those could show is just how smooth the new OS runs on the Tegra 2 hardware.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb demo!

Where Froyo on the Galaxy Tab can feel labored at times, there’s none of that with Honeycomb. The “holographic” UI sandwiches applications between the narrow action bar at the top of the screen (with contextual menus and quick access to widgets) and the system bar at the bottom (with notifications and soft navigation buttons, since with Honeycomb Android no longer demands physic controls on the hardware).

The bigger display also works well with Honeycomb’s renewed focus on multitasking. Rather than the simple icon-driven app switcher of Android smartphones, a new Recent Apps option in system bar pulls up thumbnails of each program in the state you last left them. The notifications system also blurs the line between traditional pop-ups and widgets; for instance, social network updates like Twitter or Google Talk IMs include not only the text but the user icon, while music tracks have playback controls as well.

The Honeycomb Gmail app is particularly slick, a good example of Google’s new paneled UI or, as it’s being called, “application fragments.” Controls are pushed to the action bar at the top, and by splitting the display into multiple segments, each rendered individually, the UI can dynamically suit different scale devices whether tablets or phones. All of the transitions are impressively smooth, using Google’s new 3D engine and a “Render Script” graphics library

What Honeycomb – and the XOOM – shows is that Google wasn’t joking when they said previous versions of Android weren’t ready for tablet duty. 3.0 makes Froyo on the Galaxy Tab and other slates look half-baked. That existing Android apps should run well on the platform (assuming they were coded in keeping with Google’s guidelines) is another strong point in Honeycomb’s favor, and we had no problems loading up the Android Community app and having it scale perfectly on the XOOM. The new apps we’ve tried today, like Google Body and the new Google Talk video messaging, stand up well to what’s available on other slates like the iPad.

It’s early days for Android 3.0 Honeycomb, but this is certainly what’s necessary for Google to bring real competition to Apple’s iOS door.

Android Community App Demo on Android 3.0 Honeycomb XOOM device

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The Today Show Talks About New Fangled Contraption Called The “Internet” in 1994

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 11:51 AM PST

"That little mark with the "a" and the ring around it." Those were Bryan Gumbel's words as he tried to figure out the "@" symbol in e-mail addresses in 1994. His co-anchor Katie Couric, sporting an awesome 90's hair style, thought it meant "around or about".

There is a video clip of the Today Show from 1994 discussing the hot topic called the "internet". Its pretty funny looking back at how clueless most people were as to what the internet was, especially because the internet has become such an integral part of people's lives today. Imagine not having the internet for a whole week.

While it's funny to look back and see them call the internet "computer billboard" and not reading the "dot" in e-mail addresses, the clip really shows what most people knew about the internet at the time. So watch the clip and think back to a time when floppy disks CD-ROMs were new and floppy disks were 8-inch squares that were actually floppy.

[Via Hot Hardware]

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Android Community App Demoed on Motorola XOOM Tablet

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 11:51 AM PST

We’re at the Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb event here at Google headquarters and the first thing our head man Vince does is download the Android Community application from the Android Marketplace on a Motorola XOOM. If you’ll take a look at the video below, you’ll see that not only does it work excellent, it looks fantastic as well. You’ll grab an extra fun look at the new Android Market as well as the new Honeycomb keyboard.

You’ll also note the Menu Bar below the screen able to pop up tasks that are laying in wait, you’ll see the absolute smoothness of the entire system, and you’ll see how visually spectacular even the most mundane actions are. The Motorola XOOM and Android 3.0 Honeycomb appear to be nothing but the best.

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Cee-Lo No-Show at Honeycomb Intro

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 11:04 AM PST

In a surprise appearance during the Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb event at the Googleplex today, the folks on stage got a call from none other than CeeLo Green, aka the Soul Machine, known most recently for his hit single “Forget You.” This appearance was supposed to be more of a surprise early on in the program, but apparently Cee-Lo was unavailable when they called.

This call was a video call made from (and probably to) a Motorola XOOM tablet running a full version of Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Cee-Lo’s new album is called “The Lady Killer” and so was his screenname on the list the Google folks were calling him from. Hello, he said, and then it was over.

Best guest appearance ever.

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Want A Better Signal? Get A Cell Phone Tower In Your Front Yard

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:56 AM PST

One family in Brookhaven, Long Island may not have to worry about power signal strength, but they now have a three-story high eyesore to deal with. The cell phone tower was erected on their front lawn less than a week ago.

"The company is trying to get an advantage. They want to plop something on my property and I lose complete value of my house," said Michael Di Marco. The tower definitely sticks out as its taller than the trees, light posts, and there are not utility poles around. The Di Marcos said they were lied to from the start. "They told me it was an extra light the town required," said Michael Di Marco.

The Di Marco family and town officials discovered that NextG Networks, a California based company, was responsible for the tower. The company is being accused of putting up the tower without permits, plans, and the necessary bonds to erect a cell phone tower near the town's roads.

"We've called it construction by ambush. This thing just showed up one morning," said Brookhaven Superintendent of Highways John Rouse.

Lori Di Marco said she spoke with NextG and found their response ridiculous. "They said FCC…granted them the right to do so and provide communication service, it was a public necessity."

[Via MSNBC]

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Android Marketplace Introduces In-App Purchases, Currency Settings, Additional Giant Apps

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:55 AM PST

In addition to the rest of the changes made to the Android Marketplace today, Google went on to introduce two giant changes to the way things are run in the Android Marketplace. One of them being the ability for each developer to set their own prices in each currency available. Before, this was automatic, the price being automatically converted for whichever currency the purchaser was using. The other fat change was that developers will now be able to make in-app sales. This is big news when you consider what’s going on with Kongregate on Android and the Apple App store stopping some book services from selling in-app.

Radio Disney, Jelly Car, and Tap Tap Revenge are apps coming to the tablet version of Android, each of these having seen some action before in either iOS or a desktop OS. Tap Tap Revenge is the game that’s very similar to Dance Dance Revolution or Rock Band except where you’d click and pick and dance in one, you tap your fingers here in the other. In-app purchasing in this game is very similar to that which the iOS version already has set up for the game’s songs, each of them appearing to cost right around $1. Jelly Car is a game that’s based on the physical movement of the tablet it’s being run on — honestly we’re not sure why it was introduced here. Radio Disney is an interactive panel between a kid and their favorite Disney-based radio station, giving them options like Hannah Montana and the Beebs. Disney Mobile is releasing all three of these (hopefully this means that Disney Mobile is back in the USA and will release their fabulous Galapagos-based phone here – fancy!

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Android Marketplace Changes Detailed – Webstore Now Also Browser Based

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:46 AM PST

Today Chris Yerga showed the world the Android Market Webstore. This is a browser based Android Marketplace as shown here: Your Entire Music Library in The Cloud, Streamed to Your Android Device, Announced Today. This new market is reminiscent of what Apple has set up in the App Store, but apps here are download from the browser directly to your device. High resolution banners, giant icons, and fuller descriptions of apps now appear for developers to better show off their apps.

Screenshots are still here, more space is allotted for information from the developers, and there’s now a buy button that pops up, asking for permissions and the device you’d like to download the app to. Upon purchasing the app, only two clicks later (or one if an app is free), the app is downloading to your device.

YouTube videos are another form of promotion you can now insert into your app listing, as is a Tweet button that’s added up in the right hand corner of your app listing. Links from Twitter here link you to the right page on your browser, or if you’re on your phone, leads directly to the handheld version of the Android Marketplace. This marketplace is live right now, and you can access it directly by clicking here: http://market.android.com/.

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Layar Player Now Available for iPhone – Makes Augmented Reality Your Reality

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:46 AM PST

Dutch company Layar has released their Layar Player on iTunes, giving the users the opportunity to experience AR (augmented reality) within their iPhone apps. The tool allows developers to incorporate AR into their apps easily.

"One of the main great features of the Layar Player is that you can launch the power of AR from within the context of your app," says Gerben Klop, product manager of Layar Player. Augmented reality uses your phone's camera, GPS, accelerometer, and gyroscope to "augment" your "reality", place your real world surroundings onto the app itself. The feature allows the app to know where you are, orientation of your phone and your surroundings.

Along with the release of their player, three Layar Player enabled iPhone apps were launched as well – Bing sponsored "Snowboard Hero", the popular game now has a AR feature; "Layar Trade" that allows viewers see recent projects and work from local builders; and third neighborhood improvement app that allows residents post issues, recommendations, and ideas for public spaces on the map.

The Layar Player requires a iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0 or higher.

[Via Layar]

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Chat Program / CNN app Detailed at Google Android Honeycomb Event

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:32 AM PST

With a single click, they thusly were connected through video chat. After a short bout with attempting to find a user by the name of “Lady Killer,” later revealed to be Cee-Lo Green, the user on stage and his friendly other-screen ally were able to connect visually. It’s revealed that, in the classic manner, the user’s image is tiny in the lower right of the screen while the person they’re talking to takes up the entire remainder. This functionality appears to work instantly and smoothly. The video quality isn’t perfect, but the video works so well and functions so fast, we’re willing to forgive, for now. After the video chat demo, a CNN rep steps on stage to show his and their wares. The Vice President of Mobile for CNN speaks up and out of a CNN app that will be launching for the Honeycomb tablet in the near future. This is a giant gallery-aesthetic app that appears to work very smooth, flicking back and forth between stories, showing live coverage of news via the tablet.

Head stories as well as breaking news are shown instantly via Honeycomb in this CNN app. A CNN rep by the name of Lila shows iReport – a portion of the CNN app that allows people to share videos and photos from wherever they happen to be in the world. This piece of CNN’s master Android plan will also soon be available as an app on the Honeycomb-based tablet. How they’ll avoid all sorts of inappropriate images and videos, we don’t know. This is where CNN gets all of their “on the spot” coverage, like the skit on SNL. They hope that with the combination of all of the different elements they’ll be collecting and spreading with these apps, a new form of news will grow.

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Render Script / 3D Applications Impress at Google Android Honeycomb Event

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:23 AM PST

Flowing through items like the Music app, YouTube, and Google’s book store are shown to be working miraculously well, looking amazing sliding back and forth, up and down. All of this done with Render Script, an element on the developer side of things designed to give devs the ability to create new and amazing graphics and user interface features never before possible. Another app shown to feature the capabilities of this new Honeycomb 3D rendering environment was Google’s body app, showing all the parts of the body, taking away or adding layers as you wish, moving smoothly to show you what’s going on in your body, and which bone you’d like to describe as broken to your doctor.

A group of game designers step on stage and show the fabulous looking hack-and-slash game Monster Madness. This game is an app made specifically for the tablet and Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and it appears to flow perfectly smooth. This is a game with a gigantic amount of bits that appear to be at PlayStation levels – think of Zelda with monsters coming from all directions. Next there’s a game made to use 100% of the two cores whichever it’s being used on: Great Battles, a knight game that again shows a massive amount of avatars, fighting, and moving bits that’ll surely make good use of whichever powerful device it’s run on. Lots of impressive 3D going on here, lots of action that until now was not even close to being possible on an Android device.

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New HEX Sport Watch Band for iPod Nano, Nike Plus Compatible

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:16 AM PST

For workout enthusiasts that need their iPods attached at all times, a new fashionable tech accessory may be your next must-have. Hex has just announced its latest HEX Sport Watch Band designed for the iPod Nano Generation 6. The sport watch band protects and stores the iPod Nano and features a Nike Plus port for added functionality. Available in April 2011.

Press Release:

HEX Announces Sport Watch Band Compatible with NIKE Plus®

Oxnard, CA – February 2, 2011 – HEX, the leading designer and manufacturer of fashionable tech accessories, is excited to announce its newest high quality iPod nano® Gen 6 watch band – HEX Sport Watch Band. The HEX Sport Watch Band protects and stores the iPod nano® during intense workouts and features a NIKE Plus® port for added functionality.

As with other HEX Watch Bands, the Sport Band features a "Pop in, Pop out" design for easy insertion of the iPod nano®. The watch band gives full access to all iPod nano® controls via its integrated control buttons. The fashionable and functional watch band is made of perforated premium silicone for added breathability and comfort during athletic activities.

The HEX Sport Watch Band will be available in April 2011.

For more information, follow HEX on Facebook and Twitter.

About HEX:

Founded in 2010, HEX is a division of August Accessories, a 21-year old company known for its design, development and execution of innovative products. HEX connects technology with style by pairing new gadgets with unique and fashionable solutions. Using high quality materials and the latest style trends, HEX provides accessories to meet its customers' demand for tech-compatible products that are equal parts form and function. More information on HEX can be found on www.shopHEX.com, Facebook and Twitter.

[Via HEX]

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Notification System, App Optimization Detailed at Google Android Honeycomb Event

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:16 AM PST

The presentation begins with the basics of the Honeycomb UI – Back Button, Home Button, and Multitasking Button are on the lower left. In the lower right, notifications and the clock. The rest is dedicated to working, gaming, and widgeting. Widget systems are now backed by collections of data, and are much more versatile than ever before. While flipping back and forth between screens, it’s revealed that two widgets with scrollable content can be flipped through at the same time, such is the power of multitouch in this new system. Next – the Notification System

This is one of the bigger items in Honeycomb, this Notification System, as it can occur in front of or behind apps, now helping you have a much more rich experience than you were able in any previous form of Android. One example is getting an instant message, it sneaking up out of the bottom of the screen. The other example is your music player controller popping up when another task presents itself.

Several simple buttons are also able to pop up in the lower right hand corner including airplane mode, power, and the like. Fruit Ninja is the first game that’s presented on stage, a simple slash and chop game you play by swiping your fingers across the screen. This version is a completely unmodified state, yet works perfectly well without any change, but Google wants you to modify your apps to work especially well with this new tablet form.

Fragments and picking up, dragging, and dropping are also featured in this new world for apps, as well as well as the Application Bar which can appear over your apps at the top of your screen if you wish (if you’re a developer). This Application Bar can do many things, or can be nothing at all, if you’ve got no user for it (again, as a developer.)

Find out more about these subjects in our full Honeycomb Guides:
Android 3.0 Honeycomb Full Preview Guide [DEVELOPER FEATURES]
Android 3.0 Honeycomb Full Preview Guide [USER FEATURES]

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Star Trek Mr. Potato Heads Coming Summer 2011

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 09:57 AM PST

Mr. Potato Head is going trekkie this summer. The first set of the Star Trek Potato Head series will feature Captain Kirk and his Klingon nemesis–Kor. The set should be perfect for play or display as it will include a variety of components to mix and match and should be well designed and detailed.

Some potato trekkie fun does come at a price. The collectible sets will each cost $30 and will be available by August 2011. Preorders are now being accepted over at PPW Toys.

[Via PPW Toys]

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BlackBerry App World 2.1 goes live with in-app payments

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 09:40 AM PST

BlackBerry App World 2.1 has gone live, with the updated download store rolling out to BlackBerry devices throughout today. In v2.1, RIM has added in-app payment support, which – as on iOS and, soon, Android – will allow for extra gaming levels, digital content and other add-ons.

The functionality was previewed back in September 2010, as part of a RIM refresh of its approach to applications and third-party developers. The BlackBerry Payment Service – which will be used for in-app payments – comes with a new SDK but can supposedly be added easily into existing software rather than demanding a full rewrite.

For developers, there’ll be the BlackBerry App World Vendor Portal, which once they’ve registered will be used to manage virtual goods. A reporting feature will track purchases/payments for goods. More information here.

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Google Shopper Now Available on iPhone

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 09:31 AM PST

If shopping is a daunting task for you with all the selections to forage through and price comparisons to undertake and not to mention finding a parking space, then the Google Shopper is a must have app in your arsenal. Already incredibly popular and exclusively available on Android phones, the Google Shopper has just now become available on the iPhone.

According to Google, millions of Android users have downloaded the Google Shopper since last November. It is essentially like a shopping assistant that allows you to compare pricing on the fly between online and local stores, read product reviews, as well as save and share product information for later use.

You can type in a product to search or say it using Google's Voice Search. Or, you can simply scan a product's barcode while you're at the store to quickly get more information on the product such as reviews and price comparisons to online and local stores.

The app is free to download from the App Store and is available for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 with iOS 4.0+ in English only for the United States and the UK.

[Via Google Mobile Blog]

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Android Honeycomb Event : Full Pre-Game Review

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 09:27 AM PST

We are officially in the doors of Google’s Android Honeycomb Event, and it’s time for some review. This event will be primarily Android 3.0 Honeycomb related, so lets get started with some guides: Android 3.0 Honeycomb Full Preview Guide [DEVELOPER FEATURES] and then Android 3.0 Honeycomb Full Preview Guide [USER FEATURES]. After that, take a look at the places Honeycomb has already shown up in the wild – Honeycomb Port for NOOKcolor Updated, Honeycomb Music Player, and Honeycomb, Galaxy Tab & the 7-inch stumble.

After reading those articles and columns, it’s on to Android 3.0 Honeycomb for more than tablets says UI head Duarte. Then another opinion/fact splash in Honeycomb will Make Android King of Enterprise, So Says Aaron Levie. Get some knowledge dropped on you in the column What Honeycomb Means for Tablets. And finally grab some ideas on what might be here outside of Honeycomb – Your Entire Music Library in The Cloud, Streamed to Your Android Device, Announced Today?

Get your claws out, they’re about to be dug into your kneecaps!

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The Daily debuts new iTunes Subscription agreement

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 09:19 AM PST

In a new move, iPad digital newspaper The Daily has its own Application License Agreement in the App Store [iTunes link], with a new section on subscriptions. Further in, there’s also confirmation that Apple “may ask for your permission to provide the name, email address and ZIP code listed in your Account to the Licensor.”

“Subscriptions. Purchases of subscriptions to access the services available through the licensed application are controlled, handled and processed by Apple and all payment and other matters regarding such purchases (including any information you submit or that may be collected in connection with such purchases) are subject to be governed by the applicable Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of Apple. Accordingly, we encourage that you review Apple’s policies prior to making any purchase.” The Daily license agreement

The move appears to be a push by Apple to accomodate greater access to user data, which is valuable when selling advertising for digital content. The Daily, for instance, will have video adverts and other multimedia embedded, and requests permissions for Push Notifications and Location Services when first run.

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Rabu, 02 Februari 2011

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