Minggu, 06 Maret 2011

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What's new on SlashGear.com

SlashGear Weekly Roundup Video: March 6, 2011

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 01:49 PM PST

It’s time for our SlashGear Weekly Roundup Video again. Thank you all for the feedback on our very first video last Sunday. We are still working on improvements and we’d appreciate any comments or suggestions. The past week was a big one for Apple with their iPad 2 announcement and new 2011 MacBook Pro release. Check out the video and the full top ten list of last weeks tech news after the jump.

10. Microsoft shutting down T-Mobile Sidekick servers on May 31; T-Mobile likely to replace with Android-based Sidekick 4G.

9. Nintendo 3DS to get Netflix streaming this Summer, plus AT&T hotspot access

8. Sony NGP “Dead on Arrival” says smartphone games developer

7. ASUS CEO confirms quadcore (likely NVIDIA Kal-El) 3D tablet in 2011

6. BlackBerry PlayBook release believed to be April 10.

5. Multiple problems with Samsung Windows Phone update.

4. Samsung admits iPad 2 makes them feel inadequate about Galaxy Tab 10.1.

3. MacBook Pro 15 early-2011 Review.

2. iOS 4.3 coming March 11 featuring faster web-browsing, an updated version of iTunes Home Sharing, and music streaming from desktop iTunes to iOS device.

1. Apple iPad 2 announcement and hands-on.

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Apple Doesn’t Understand the Living Room

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 01:35 PM PST

For Apple, the mobile market is a cash cow. The company's iPhone and iPad are proving to be the top mobile companions for people around the globe. Apple has sold over 100 million iPhones. Its iPad sales have hit 15 million. The company understands the mobile market and it knows how to capitalize on it.

But what about the living room? It has the Apple TV, sure, and the Mac mini is often times connected to an HDTV, but what else has Apple done to push the envelope in the living room? It still hasn't launched the long-rumored television we keep hearing about, and it seems that offering a game console — a hope for many Apple fans over the past few years — won't happen.

I fully realize that Apple can't be everything to every customer. It delivers computers, smartphones, tablets, personal media players, two operating systems, wireless routers, and much more. But I also realize that Apple is an entertainment company. It's about trying to give people more opportunity to enjoy their lives through technology. And it would only make sense if it doubled down on the living room.

Let's turn our attention to the Apple TV for a minute.

Prior to its announcement in September, rumors were running rampant over what the former "hobby" would offer. Folks thought it would deliver gaming, interface with DVRs, include Apple's App Store, and much more. They thought it would be a sizable update over its predecessor.

Instead, Apple offered a stripped-down alternative.

The second-generation Apple TV comes with the ability for users to stream Netflix content. It has Flickr and Internet radio. And it allows users to stream their music over their home network to their televisions. It offers movies and television shows, as well, but most would agree that it's slim pickings for now.

At that event in September, Steve Jobs said that Apple's research showed customers didn't want everything a company could pile into a device. They simply want the ability to consume the content they enjoy without the fuss that might come along with something like Google TV-based devices.

But by delivering the bare minimum, Apple did itself no favors. The company took the easy way out and pretended like it no longer views the living room as a hobby. The only issue is, the Apple TV is still a hobby. It's a device that lacks all the functionality we've come to expect from Apple — a company that typically prides itself on offering the best value for the cash. And at least so far, it leaves me wanting more.

So, what am I looking for? I want to see Apple improve the Apple TV by bringing its App Store to the platform. I'd also like to see some kind of gaming component come to the device, either through the App Store or as part of a more-capable platform.

And perhaps most importantly, I'd like to see Apple think beyond its set-top box and deliver products that try something new. I'm not sold on the possibility of Apple offering a groundbreaking television, but if it can surprise me, I'm all for it.

Simply put, I'm looking for Apple to be Apple. Right now, it's just like every other company in the living room; it's content to have a presence but not dominate.

That needs to end.

No single company can stake claim to the living room right now. Steve Jobs just needs to take advantage of that void and do something special.

But first, he needs to take the living room — and its revenue potential — seriously.

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The Different People I’ve Been

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 10:30 AM PST

When I was 14 my parents bought me an account on the Prodigy network. This was back in 1989, before I had a clue the Internet existed, and four years before the first graphical Web browser would be introduced. I did all the things on Prodigy that you did when you first discovered the Internet. I had email conversations and grew addicted to the chiming sound when I fired up the 2400 baud modem and discovered I had new mail. I posted messages on bulletin boards and got into long-winded arguments with people for no good reason. I did research for school projects, played games and read news, and generally poked around the seemingly limitless world the growing network offered. I also pretended to be someone else.

On Prodigy, and then on the Internet for a few confusing years, user accounts were not assigned normal names. I was not philipberne@prodigy.com. There was no @ yet, nor did Prodigy use domains like .com. Instead, I had a number. MVTK33A. That was my address. Actually, the last letter could be anything from A-F. I had six separate accounts to play with, just as AOL would later offer a family of accounts for each subscriber. If you wanted to write to me, you had to remember MVTK33A. A few years later, I would be assigned my first real email address by my university. My first email address was ST931341. That’s what happens when you leave network engineers in charge of social negotiations.

On Prodigy, I started posting poetry on a teen literature bulletin board. I had never written poetry before, and to be honest, at 15 I thought it was a bit effeminate. I was worried about being teased for being a sensitive male writer. I had a few real-life friends on Prodigy, and I didn’t want them to find out. So, I started using a different name. While MVTK33A-E were assigned to me and my parents and family, MVTK33F was my pseudonym. MVTK33F was Damion Frost.

Tell me that name isn’t awesome. It’s so badass. Part spawn of Satan, part literary. Even then, it struck me as so completely ridiculous that I was sure I would be called on it, but I never was. People simply accepted that Damion Frost was my real name. There are some people with whom I was friends on Prodigy who never found out that was a pseudonym. Others, like the girl I met and took to my High School Junior Prom, I was honest with, eventually.

Recently, through clues left in a leaked manuscript, it was discovered that Sarah Palin had a fake Facebook. I can totally relate. Sure, liberal bloggers could pick through and criticize the Likes and comments left by “Lou Sarah” on the pages of Sarah Palin’s kids, or glean a secret political stance from her alleged online actions, but personally I have no problem with Sarah Palin, or anyone, really, maintaining a separate, secretive identity online.

If I did have a problem, I’d be a huge hypocrite. Because I’ve had a fake Facebook profile for years.

(For the record, I certainly did not use the name Damion Frost to create my fake profile. A quick search reveals there is a guy named Damion Frost on Facebook and Twitter. It’s just a coincidence, that’s not me.)

At first, I tried to add only friends to my Facebook profile. I’ve always been conscientious about my privacy settings, so I was able to block posts and messages that might be inappropriate for co-workers, or former students, or my father’s first cousins. Eventually, though, I had to relent. My desire to keep in touch with family and friends overcame my desire to post far-left leaning political ramblings and off-color jokes. Not racist or bigoted jokes, mind you, but perhaps comments of a scatological nature.

So, I created a new profile just for people who would get the joke. My humor can be quite extreme. My jokes tend to rest on the basic assumption that you know me, and you know I’m not a horrible person, so if I say something that sounds truly awful, it’s funny because I’m making light of the extremes. It’s funny because I’m portraying someone so far out of character from myself. To that end, nothing is off limits. But you really have to know me to get the joke. If you don’t, I can’t imagine the assumptions you might make.

Yes, I get yelled at a lot for making inappropriate jokes around my wife’s friends. When they don’t laugh, she feels the need to explain I’m only kidding. They get the joke, of course, they just don’t think I’m very funny. Oh, well…

So I created a new identity and invited friends with a similar sense of humor. Most of them are friends with both of us, me and my alter ego. Some of them don’t care about pictures of my toddler or missives from my business trips, so they are only friends with the Bad Boy.

Now I can cut loose, to an extent. When I’m at a trade show and I see a fun slide at the Android booth, or a beautiful cathedral off in the distance, those pictures get posted to my real Facebook page. When I’m at a promotional party and they have models getting their bodies painted, or when I see a booth worker with his hind cleavage sticking out from his too-tight jeans, those pictures go on the secret identity page.

Apparently, this violates Facebook’s terms of service. I’ve gone to some lengths to cover my tracks, including setting up a fake email account to link to this account, changing names and photos, etc. Personally, I’m not worried about making Facebook angry. After all, they have violated my privacy numerous times, by accident or as part of their worldview. The only way I can comfortably exist on Facebook and truly express myself is to divide my personality in two, and give each half its own Facebook account.

One last caveat, if you’re thinking of making your own fake Facebook page. Your friends will mess up. You will mess up. You won’t remember which account you’re signed onto, and you will post messages on someone’s wall under the wrong name. Even worse, your friends might post something to your wall, forgetting which account they should use. An old friend recently posted comments about a party we had attended together, comments that should have remained private. But there they were, posted to the wrong account, for everyone I know to see. I caught them quickly, laid the smack down and my friend deleted his post.

I also cut that friend off. He’s no longer friends with Philip Berne. That’s probably for the best. Philip is kind of dull, anyway.

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SlashGear Week in Review – Week 10 2011

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 06:53 AM PST

Welcome to the latest edition of the SlashGear Week in Review! There were big goings on this week in the tech world with a new tablet and lots more so let’s get to it. The Kinect was hacked into a 3D scanner for turning the person it scans into a 3D foam bust. The pieces it makes are like foam puzzle pieces.

An ad agency in New Zealand created a new board for park benches that presses an ad into the legs of the people that sit down. When those ad pressed folks start to walk around people behind them can read the ads. Fujitsu unveiled a really cool 22-inch screen that has no cords at all. The display uses inductive power and wireless data links for a very clean look.

TazTag announced that it would be showing off a new tablet at CeBIT 2011 called the TazPad. The little tablet is pretty slick with NFC, ZigBee and the Android OS onboard. Intel outted a new SSD early in the week called the 510 Series that uses the SATA 6Gbps port. The cool part about that is that the SSD has blazing fast 500Mb/s read speeds.

Tractor beams are a sci-fi staple when it comes to capturing enemy ships trying to escape. Chinese physicists think that they tech might actually be possible by using laser beams to turn photons in to tractor beams. LG has won an injunction against Sony and customs in Europe has seized PS3 shipments. LG has also filed for an injunction against Sony in the US but so far that hasn’t been granted.

The price on the WiFi only Xoom tablet by Motorola was confirmed Tuesday. The tablet will sell in the UK for £449.99 ($734). The cool and geeky InPulse smartwatch has been updated with Facebook Places check-in capability. The feature allows the user to check in with one button press.

A company called Tobii unveiled an interesting laptop this week that is controlled using the eyes. All the user needs to do is look at an icon to launch it. Microsoft is launching the next version of IE on March 24. The new browser would be IE 9 and 36 million copies of the beta are in use.

We reviewed the new 15-inch MacBook Pro notebook computer early last week. The new notebook is dramatically faster than the one it replaced thanks to Sandy Bridge. Some shots of what was supposed to be the iPad 2 leaked early in the week ahead of the official unveil by Apple. The images showed the back of the tablet.

Olympus Tough TG-810 “crushproof” digital camera surfaced this week and it has GPS and should be strong enough for some harsh climates outdoors. The camera has a 14MP sensor and 5x optical zoom among other things. Olympus also unveiled another new standard digital camera called the SZ-30MR. The camera has a 16MP sensor and can shoot 1080p HD video and still shots at the same time.

At the iPad 2 event, mid-week Steve Jobs took a chance to bash the Android Market and the number of apps for Android 3.0. A nice little graphic noted that there were 100 Android 3.0 apps and 65,000 iOS apps. The Apple iPad 2 went official on Wednesday and we were at the event to see it firsthand. The new iPad 2 has a dual-core processor, front and rear cameras, and lots more making it a worthy update to the original.

We spent some hands on time with the new iPad and put it on film for you to look at. The video shows off the features of the iPad 2. Mid-week we also spent some time comparing the iPad 2 to the original iPad. This is the story to read if you are trying to decide if you should upgrade from your original iPad.

We learned that some of the new Samsung Galaxy S II smartphones will have NVIDIA Tegra 2 inside and some will have the Samsung Exynos SoC inside. The catch is buyers will have no idea what version they are getting. Sprint has teased that it may have a new LTE network in place across the US as early as late-2013. The final decision on to LTE or not will be made later this year.

The new dock for the much thinner iPad 2 surfaced this week with a new design. The new dock will cost $29 and has a 3.5mm headphone port for connecting external speakers. RIM is apparently getting version of its BlackBerry Messenger app ready for both Android and iOS devices. This is expected sometime in late 2011 according to source and will let the different devices chat on the BlackBerry platform.

The Apple Digital AV Adapter surfaced this week that will work on the new iPad 2 as well as the iPhone 4, latest touch, and the iPad. The adapter will shoot video in HD resolution out to the TV via HDMI. A wind-powered mobile phone charger concept surfaced at Yanko Design late in the week. It looks like the wind turbines that are used offshore to generate power and in this case, it sends power to a charge pad that needs no wires to charge your device.

If you purchased an iPad in the last two weeks and were mad when you saw the new iPad 2 launch and the price of remaining iPads get cut you can get a refund. Apple is offering people that bought in the two weeks before the new iPad landed a $100 refund. A Samsung exec has noted that the company is looking at the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and will improve parts of it that are inadequate. The changes could include a new lower price.

The first 3D film in the Star Wars franchise has a release date. Episode I The Phantom Menace will land on 2-10-2012 in theaters around the country in 3D. Microsoft started to let owners of Samsung WinPo 7 devices get the download that was previously pulled after some smartphones were bricked. As it turns out the “fixed” updatehad issues as well.

Angry Birds now has its own official page on Facebook. A version of Angry Birds will be coming to Facebook soon. Asus has tipped that its will have a 3D quad-core tablet this year and might have a Windows Phone in 2012. The devices will use a quad-core chip and that chip is thought to the NVIDIA Kal-El. Thanks for reading, see you next time!

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BlackBerry Roadmap Leaked [Feb 2011 Through Dec 2012] [Software] [BB OS 7.0!]

Posted: 05 Mar 2011 06:30 PM PST

Well would you take a look at that! What we’ve got here is nothing less than a full roadmap of the more important software updates planned by RIM for their BlackBerry platform. Inside you’ll see several versions of Facebook, Social Feeds, Flickr, Twitter, and even the next big fat version of BlackBerry OS: QNX, more than likely OS 7.0! In addition to the roadmap you see directly below this paragraph, we’ve got a few more one-sheets including a “BlackBerry News,” one for Ticketmaster v2.0, and another for Social Feeds. All of these items come courtesy of our friends at n4bb.

Inside 2011 if these maps and documents are true, we’ll be seeing BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) 4.0 around March or April and BIS 4.1 starting in August or September. Next, take a peek at how BlackBerry fans can look forward to Facebook 2.0 beta 1 and beta 2 coming as soon as February, and Twitter 1.1 between March and June, and an End of Life (EOL) for Viigo in August and Flickr in February — note, this has already happened. App World for BlackBerry PlayBook will be released in March, BlackBerry Protect 1.1 and 1.2 will be updated in March and May, Identity Service v1.2 in March, and Social Feeds 2.0 for OS 6.1 in late April.

After that you’ll see integration of BlackBerry OS 7.0 starting near the end of November 2011. At the moment we have basically no idea whether 7.0 will be an update of 6.1 or if it’ll only be rolled out on brand new devices near the end of the year with updates to older devices coming throughout 2012. The word “Integration” is included in the update block – does this point toward the OS still being in a developmental state at that block’s time, or does Integration mean working the OS into already released devices?

Take a look in the gallery below for a slightly larger-sized version of the map as well as a few sheets on other similar topics.

[via n4bb]

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