Written by NEWS on Friday, December 5th, 2008 in News.
FROM APPLETELL - The Joost streaming video app for iPhone/iPod touch crashes a lot and features a terrible user interface, but it also has porn. MORE »
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Written by Naveen on Friday, December 5th, 2008 in News.
If your current phone just can’t handle the extreme conditions such as dust, shock, vibration, temperature extremes, low pressure and solar radiation, all you need is a rugged phone. Are you on the hunt for a phone that could take a beating? Here we present the 10 best rugged mobile phones of all time. Check the out after the jump…
Written by Natesh Sood on Friday, December 5th, 2008 in News.
Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, HDTV, Computers, Desktops, Laptops, Gadgets / Other, Gaming, Console
Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us, it’s time we enjoy those gadgets that we bought, whether it be a brand new HDTV, gaming system, MP3 player, or computer. Of course for us techie people, we like to see how this year compares with previous years in terms of money spent. With the economy in a slump, experts predicted this shopping season to be down, but Cyber Monday managed to persuade many consumers to open their wallets, punch in their credit card number, and eagerly await their arrival of their new gadget(s).
Statistically speaking, last year on Cyber Monday had bought in $733 million in revenue, and this year bought in a 15% increase - an astonishing $846 million spent, stated ComScore in a report. This came as a relief to many retail stores because sales had dropped by 2% or $12 billion from November 1 to Cyber Monday of this year as compared to last year.
Gian Fulgoni, Chairman of ComScore, had this to say about why Cyber Monday prospered:
“With Cyber Monday promotions beginning in earnest over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumers have finally begun to open their wallets, setting off a streak of four consecutive days of extremely strong growth. This is an extremely encouraging development for retailers, and we can but hope that their aggressive discounting has still left room for profits.“
A bit of bad news - when retails formally announce their profits, it is expected to overall be down from last year, even though Black Friday and Cyber Monday both did exceptionally well In addition, it could be the overall worst holiday season in terms of profit in decades. I noticed, and you might have as well, there are many more commercials and advertisements with deals in effort to promote the holiday season. Also, holiday music that usually starts after Thanksgiving, I was hearing it on the radio a week before Thanksgiving, probably in efforts to make people spend more.
Cyber Monday has become especially big in the last few years because Americans are finding they can get as good as and in some cases better deals than on Black Friday. All they have to do is click a buttons buttons, type in a few numbers, and let the website and its employees do the rest.
Now, the big question that remains is how well will retailers do in the coming weeks. Of course, it was nice to see this big shopping spree from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, but I don’t think customers are ready to splurge yet with the state of this economy.
Read [Los Angeles Times]
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Written by Conner Flynn on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 in News.
The Huawei U121 is a brand new entry-level handset from Huawei Technologies. It features some high-quality materials like stainless steel casing. Despite being entry level, the phone comes with a 1.3MP camera that supports video calls, an integrated FM radio, microSD memory card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Audio and video playback, miniUSB port and 3G connectivity. The Huawei U121 is currently only available only in Russia.
Written by Vincent Nguyen on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 in News.
We’re live in Milan today, covering Sony’s latest announcement. In fact, Sony showed off a brand new marketing campaign today that’s intended to demonstrate their latest technology behind their BRAVIA televisions. The tech is called Motionflow 240Hz and in order to show off what the latest in motion picture technology is capable of, Sony resorted to the oldest method of creating motion pictures: the zoetrope.
A zoetrope is a device that uses static images but when spun at high speeds, create the illusion of movement. The Sony BRAVIA-drome feeds off of this 19th century technology to make for a device that is 10 meters across and spins at over 40 kph.
The subject of BRAVIA-drome is soccer, and this acts as the perfect way to show off how Motionflow works. In actually gets rid of jerkiness and shows the ball traveling in the air smoothly. This reproduces the feeling of being there live at the game. The new ‘drome is the subject of a commercial that will be used worldwide. Filmed in Venaria, which is near Turin, Italy, it shows a soccer star within the images in the BRAVIA-drome.
The commercial itself shows the faces of those in the audience standing in awe of this massive device. And it’s no wonder people were impressed. The BRAVIA-drome is capable of reaching speeds of over 50kph, requires two 40-foot trucks to transport it and weighs in at ten tons. It’s believed to be the largest zoetrope ever built!
The Motionflow 240Hz technology helps smooth out the jumpiness experienced on a normal television set. This works by significantly boosting the number of images, thus the frame rate. A “transitional picture” is placed between images in fast-moving parts of video, providing for smooth picture that is more pleasing to the eye.
This transitional picture is actually created by this Motionflow tech. It works by examining the images that precede and follow a particular image–especially during fast moving parts of a sports event or during an action sequence in a movie. All of the quick cuts and fast movements can cause a problem with how the sequence is subsequently viewed. By examining the prior and following image, Motionflow then adds an image in between that can make that car chase–or the movement of a soccer ball, in the case of the new ad campaign–look natural without any noticeable gaps in movement.
It’s really rather impressive and the whole BRAVIA-drome effort shows Sony is serious about promoting their newest technology. Check out our video from the press event below:
Click here to view the embedded video.
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Written by Brenda Stokes on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 in News.
It seems you will soon be able to enjoy vastly improved Bluetooth speeds by the middle of next year. According the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the 10x and 100x Bluetooth standards will be released by mid-2009.
The 10x standard is intended for WLAN. This will allow for much improved transfer rates for data up to 30Mbps. On the other hand, 100x, will boost Bluetooth to USB level speeds, which clock in at around 300Mbps.
Bluetooth 2.0 right now is only capable of 3Mbps. So, these new standards would be a vast improvement. What do they mean, exactly? Well, Bluetooth speeds such as these should make video streaming wirelessly and printing from mobile devices a breeze. It is believed that the 10x standard will appear first in handsets that currently have Wi-Fi modules. However, the 100x standard will not be able to be used until more handsets feature UWB radios.
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Written by Christian Milsom on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 in News.
Piracy is a massive problem in the music industry as it is getting easier and easier to get your music free off the Internet. Obviously the music industry is trying to keep up, and the people at Bopaboo (what a weird name!) think they have come up with a solution: second hand music. But not any old music, oh no, you can now buy used digital music. “How on earth does this work?“ I hear you cry, and that is exactly what I thought, but let me first explain the idea behind this and what is supposed to happen.
The theory is that people will go onto the website and tell people that they have digital music to sell, and Bopaboo puts a price on it. Then someone comes along who wants that music cheap and buys the second hand digital music off them and the seller gets 80% of the profits with Bopaboo stashing the other 20% for themselves.
This is (in theory) a great idea, if you buy music digitally which is awful/boring you can sell it to someone who wants it: you sell it legally and they get cheap music. It is a way to get people out of the habit of downloading illegally, you get money for your old music and everyone gets a good deal without feeling bad. However as I am sure you have noticed right from the start there are some massive problems with this, and ones that will probably make this completely flawed.
Here is a small quote from the terms and conditions:
“You will delete any remaining copies of the Used Published Item that may exist in your possession, custody or control” and goes on to say that “...you agree to indemnify and defend bopaboo against any and all claims arising out of any transaction in which you are the seller”.
To be honest this is ridiculous, firstly they are expecting people to be honest and secondly they are using the general public as a legal backup: I don’t think that will hold up in court. Firstly, they will have an overload of music for sale as people copy illegal music again and again so they can upload more and thus get more money, and noone is really going to delete any remaining copies, are they? You will find a lot of people buying off it: it is a good idea for cheap music, but the idea that people will sell it is one that just won’t work.
All in all if 50% of users aren’t downloading illegally it is progress, but it is by no means the miracle that it promises to be. Unfortunately I cannot see a day where music will be safe from pirates, but at least this is a step, however small, in the right direction.
Full Story » | Written by Christian Milsom for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Written by Mike on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 in News.
Written by Daniel Lim on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 in News.
Live TV on iphone! Where I can sign up? It’s around the corner accordingly, the Livestation on Iphone will be coolest Iphone apps, future of mobile TV once it gets out of beta mode. For now, get a load of the demo where LiveStation chief executive Matteo Berlucci introduces the app in this video interview (starts at 1:54).
Livestation is a web service offers free live streaming International news to your desktops with contents from providers such as BBC, CNN, Al Jazerra, World News and France 24. An IPhone client echoes the web service is still in development according to the company but it will also support Ipod ITouch.
The shortcoming; which is somewhat concerning and a deal breaker, is lacks of 3G network support. According to the developer, 3G version is not on the plan and will not be supported. The apps once approved by Apple will be only available on WI-Fi network. Bummer!
[via Livestation]
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