Strategy Analytics has estimated that Android based devices will grow 900 percent in 2009. The growth will be much faster than the iPhone that will grow at 79 percent to about 23.8 million units this year. Strategy Analytics director Neil Mawstow said, “Android is now in a good position to become a top-tier player in smartphones over the next two to three years.” Read More
Amazon is now offering 50 percent or more discount on various top brand earphones / headphones. Most headphones have more than 50 percent discount like JBuds J2 for $29.95. Read More
Intel’s desktop and laptop processor lineup has been kicking AMD’s butt for past two to three years, but on the server-side AMD has been holding it own against the Xeon processors from Intel. However, Intel recently introduced their new Nehalem based Xeon processors claiming that the slowest new Xeon processor is faster than the fastest AMD Opteron processor. AMD on the other hand says that it still has better performance-per-dollar value. AMD also claimed that they have the world’s most power efficient server chips. So is AMD still a good option for servers? Read More
Apple ranks highest in customer satisfaction, according to the JD Power 2009 Wireless Consumer Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study. The Study measures customer satisfaction with smartphones across several key factors including ease of operation (30%), operating system (22%), features (21%), physical design (18%), and battery function (9%). Read More
Last month, Apple updated the mini desktop lineup. The update brought latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, DDR3 memory and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics. The lower end $599 Mac mini model now comes with 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM and 120GB hard drive, whereas the higher end model get 2GB RAM and 320GB hard drive for additional $200. According to Apple, the update makes the new Mac mini faster and greener. Below are the six best reviews for Mac mini: Read More
It is a known fact that Apple hasn’t announced or shown all the new features that will come in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. However, beta versions of Snow Leopard that Apple has released for developers to test have revealed few of those features. The new QuickTime X Player in Snow Leopard will receive many new features – including screen recording and YouTube support. Read More
Last week, Apple announced that more than 1 billion applications have been downloaded from the App Store, the largest mobile applications store in the world. It took Apple just 9 months to reach the one billion mark selling on average 110 million applications each month or 3.7 million each day. Read More
Microsoft has announced that the Windows 7 Release Candidate is on track for April 30th for download by MSDN and TechNet subscribers. The company plans for a broader public release starting May 5th. Microsoft said, after beta release of Windows 7 in January, the company has been receiving and analyzing large number of feedbacks provided by beta testers. Based on those feedbacks Microsoft has made various bug fixes and improvement to overall user experience in Windows 7 Release Candidate. Read More
9to5mac has posted information provided by their source about upcoming minor MacBook updates that Apple will announce at WWDC. The update will bring minor speed bumps and possible built-in 3G-network support to the MacBook lineup. The source also said that we would see updated Pro Apps like Final Cut Pro, Aperture, Logic and Shake. Read More
Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 second quarter ended March 28, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Read More
iTunes and Amazon MP3 are the two biggest online music retailers in the market today and both the stores introduced variable pricing structure for individual songs about two weeks ago. After introduction of variable pricing I noticed that same songs were priced differently on the services. For example, “Boom Boom Pow” by Black Eyed Peas is priced $1.29 on iTunes but it is just $0.99 on Amazon. Similarly, “You Found Me” by The Fray is priced $0.99 on iTunes but it is $1.29 on Amazon. which one of the two music retailers is costlier on average. Read More
Today morning, we said that rise of notebook market will come to a halt, if innovative products are not released. Well Sharp has announced their upcoming netbook Mebius PC-NJ70A that features a touchscreen in place of regular trackpad. The 4-inch touchscreen has 854 x 480 resolution, and can function both as a regular trackpad and as a secondary sub-display. Read More and Watch Video
Sources have revealed to Ars Technica evidence of various new voice control features that will be coming in iPhone 3.0. The codename for the new voice technology is “Jibbler” and the application is actually extension of SpringBoard (iPhone Finder) application, which can result in deeper voice control features throughout iPhone OS 3.0. Read More
LG today launched the new LG Viewty Smart that follows the heritage of the first LG Viewty camera phone. The Viewty Smart has higher megapixel (8-mega) camera sensor, sensitivity up to ISO 1600, LED flash and multi-face detection. The camera features new Intelligent Shot Mode that automatically select one of the seven pre-programmed scenarios based on subject, background and lighting condition to take perfect picture every time. Read More
Chinese language newspaper Commercial Times is reporting that Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is in running to land orders for a netbook from Apple. According to sources from the component supply chain, Apple’s netbook will become Foxconn’s major notebook shipment growth contributor in the second quarter. Read More
DigiTimes has posted a list of chip and key component suppliers for next generation iPhone. The list (added below) contains almost all the components used in iPhone except the CPU. Though the list gives lot of information about the next gen iPhone, but the most important/interesting component – CPU is missing from the list. There has been lot of speculation about the CPU that Apple will use in next gen iPhone. Read More
BGR has posted screenshots on iPhone 3.0 beta firmware showing previously unknown features. The first image shows video recording and viewing capabilities. The text in the image says “No Videos” and “You can take videos using the camera”. This feature is only available if you change the system preference files for camera in iPhone 3.0 and is not directly accessible. Read More
Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc said recent data from NPD shows that Windows share of the US netbook market has grown from less than 10 percent in first quarter of 2008 to 96 percent in February 2009. Brandon claims that this sudden growth in netbook market is driven by consumers’ desire for a netbook computing environment that mirrors their full size PC. Read More
Fusion-io says that it has achieved extremely high data transfer speeds in solid-state drives on HP servers. Fusion-io and HP built a system using five 320GB ioDrive Duos and six 160GB ioDrives in a single HP ProLiant DL785 G5 server, running with four quad-core Opteron processor. The System was able to achieve 1 million input/output operations per second (IOPS). Read More
After seeing slight drop in February, Apple’s web browser and OS market share continued to increase in March 2009. According to latest statistics from Net Applications, Apple’s Mac OS X market share reached 9.77 percent, whereas iPhone OS reached 0.49 percent and iPod touch OS reached 0.11 percent. Windows market share continued to fall and it dropped from 88.41 percent in February to 88.14 percent in March. Read More
AppleInsider has revealed that iPhone 3.0 beta firmware contains information about wireless radio that next gen iPhone will use. The firmware shows that Apple will be using Broadcom BCM4329 wireless chipset in place of BCM4325 that brought WiFi and Bluetooth support in present generation iPhone. The new wireless chipset adds 802.11n support along with FM receiver and transmitter to previous generation chipset. Read More
Microsoft has released another ad in their Laptop Hunters series. This time it is a recent college grad Giampaolo, who claims that he is technically savvy and wants a computer that he can customize. He is looking for a laptop that is portable, has great battery life and is powerful for under $1,500. Like the previous Laptop Hunters ad featuring a girl named Lauren, Giampaolo also first looks for a Mac. He looks at a MacBook calls it “So Sexy” and then adds “Macs are more about aesthetics than computing power.” After looking at few other laptops he finally decides to buy HP HDX 16t that weighs 7.06 pounds, has around 2 hour battery life and comes with 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T6400 processor. Is this a portable system with great battery life and powerful processor? Actually, a $999 MacBook has better processor and is lighter with way better battery life. And as an added bonus it looks way sexier than the HP laptop.
AT&T is rushing to rollout updated 3G network as the company expects tenfold increase in traffic from new iPhone hardware that Apple is expected to release in June 2009. AT&T will be making most of its 3G network 7.2Mbps capable by May end with aim to further increase network speed to up to 21Mbps within a couple of years. Read More
DigiTimes is reporting that OmniVision has received orders for 3.2-megapixel CMOS image sensor from Apple for next generation iPhone. The company has also received orders for 5-megapixel sensor for another unknown Apple product that will be launched later this year. According to DigiTimes, STMicroelectronics and Aptina were the other two contenders for Apple’s camera orders but they lost the deal to OmniVision. Read More
Precentral has posted 3rd party app video walkthrough for upcoming Palm Pre. The video above shows applications like Fandango, SprintTV, Nascar, updated Google Maps and PalmOS emulator Classic. The apps on Pre are looking good and switching between applications is also fast. Read More and Watch Video
NVIDIA demoed their new all-in-one Tegra chipset that integrates CPU, GPU, Northbridge, Southbridge, memory and input/output connections on a single chip. According to NVIDIA, this ARM based component will be capable of 1080p video output on a mobile phone and powerful enough to run netbooks. However, the biggest achievement of the Tegra chipset will be that it will do all this while sipping just half watt of power. To achieve higher power efficiency NVIDIA utilized efficient processors and optimized the resource allocation. Read More
NPD groups is reporting that iPod shuffle sales grew 51 percent in the week of March 21st, the first full week the third generation player was on sale. Next week iPod shuffle sales added another 10 percent rise and continued gaining momentum till beginning of April. Read More
Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg has posted first impressions of the new BlackBerry App Store that was launched today morning. According to Mossberg, RIM’s store is clumsier to use than Apple’s, but it works. The selection at launch is decent, but with some surprising omissions. App Worlds selection is broad and on first day, it offers 166 games, 99 productivity and utility apps and 69 reference and book apps. Read More
Nokia has introduced a new innovative Point & Find service that will enable people to access relevant information and services on the Internet by simply pointing their mobile phone camera at real life objects. The service is in beta version, focusing on movies and is available now to Nokia phone owners in UK and US. Read More
Lazard Capital Markets Analyst Daniel Amir wrote in his research note “Our checks confirm that two versions of iPhones will be introduced this year. Production of the new phones should start at beginning of April and will ramp in May.” He further added that both models would likely be introduced in June 2009. Read More
RIM today launched its answer to Apple’s App Store – BlackBerry App World. The on-device and online application store for BlackBerry smartphones brings together a broad mix of personal and business applications for users. BlackBerry users can download the BlackBerry App World application to their smartphone by visiting BlackBerry’s App World website via the web browser on the their handsets. Read More
The much awaited application Skype for iPhone is finally available from download on iTunes App Store. The Application is free and weighs in at 2.7MB. The system requirement for Skype is iPhone or iPod touch with iPhone OS 2.1 installed. Skype will definitely add more functionality to the iPhone, but it is the iPod touch that will benefit more, as it will give iPod touch owners phone functionality whenever they are near WiFi network. Read More
AT&T has announced six new phones with focus on texting and emailing. The lineup includes Nokia E71x, Samsung Propel Pro, Samsung Impression, Samsung Magnet, LG Xenon and LG Neon. All the phones announced for spring season will be arriving in AT&T stores and online at wireless.att.com in the coming weeks. Read More
RBC analyst Mike Abramsky claims that Apple will unveil a new and improved version of iPhone in June, he calls the new model iPhone 3G Pro and it will include a number of improvements:
Faster 3G, using the HSUPA standard, versions the current HSDPA
Amazon is offering the Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth Earpiece for just $49.99 with free shipping. The suggest retail price of the 925 Bluetooth earpiece is $149.95. The main features of Discovery 925 earpiece are distinctive VFrame design, case with integrated battery for recharging earpiece, AudioIQ adaptive noise cancellation, Multipoint technology to connect 2 Bluetooth phones at the same time and 5 hours of talk time. The sexy Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth is only available today for $49.99 on Amazon.
Intel’s Tom Forsyth, a software and hardware architect working on the upcoming Larrabee Graphics Chip, discussed the design details and inner working of Larrabee at GDC. Intel has been working on Larrabee chips for past few years and expects to announce a working chip by end of 2009. Intel is also consulting various developers on design of the Larrabee chip. Read More
Amazon released their new Kindle 2 e-book reader last month. The Kindle 2 is thinner with longer battery life, faster page turns, over seven times more storage, shaper images and a new read-to-me feature. The Kindle 2 is just 0.36-inch thick and weighs 10 ounces. The updated 6-inch electronic paper display now has 600 x 800 resolution and 16 shades of gray versus 4 shades in original kindle. We have added links to eight best reviews of Amazon Kindle 2 below: Read More
Earlier this week, Apple released iMovie 8.0.1 update with release note that said, “Improves overall application stability as well as addressing minor issues related to usability.” But Jeff Carlson of TidBits has found that the update bring more than just bug fixes. He has discovered four new features/improvements that Apple has added to iMovie 8.0.1 update. The new features added to iMovie are: Read More
Ars Technica has posted results of JavaScript performance test done on Safari web browser in iPhone OS 3.0 beta, which was released to developers for testing earlier this month. Ars has posted two sets of JavaScript benchmarks and in both the tests Safari on iPhone OS 3.0 outperformed previous version by more than 300 percent. Read More
We normally don’t cover cars on our blog, but this one is special, it is the first four-door sedan from Tesla – the company pioneering all electric vehicles. Tesla had announced last year that they would launch a relatively affordable all electric car in 2009. They kept their promise and officially unveiled Model S sedan for just under $50,000 - $49,900 after $7,500 tax break. Read More
MIT researchers claim that a new material called graphene that was discovered in 2004 could be used to develop computer chips with clock speed as high as 1,000GHz. Graphene is a type of pure carbon that’s only one-atom thick and has been already used by engineers to make prototype transistors and other simple devices. MIT researchers have taken one step further in their latest effort and developed a prototype frequency multiplier that can take the clock speed of a computer chip and produce an output signal that is a multiple of that frequency. Read More
Apple has submitted an 11-page patent application detailing a safe touchscreen navigation system. Apple says that use of present navigation systems can force drivers to take their eyes off the road, resulting in a potentially hazardous condition. Apple further adds that most navigation systems don’t do much to stop this risky behavior of using navigation while driving. Read More
Two images of Windows Mobile 7 user interface have been leaked. The first image shows the home screen of the OS and the second image shows Maps application for Windows Mobile 7. Microsoft has previously said that they are developing Windows Mobile 7 and it should come to the market sometime in 2010. Microsoft hasn’t released any other information the OS yet. Read More
China Unicom today confirmed that it would start selling Apple’s iPhone in China on May 17th. China Unicom is the second largest cellphone carrier in China with about 150 million subscribers. The company will also be rolling out its new 3G network on the same day in 55 Chinese cities to support iPhone 3G. Unicom started advertising the iPhone on its website yesterday and some of the features mention on the website are not available in present generation iPhone. Read More
AppleInsider is reporting that the pre-release build of Mac OS X Snow Leopard given to the developers has been stripped of several features including a major UI overhaul. According to their sources next developer build of the software will see some major changes to the upcoming Mac OS X 10.6, include a striking overhaul to Mac OS X user interface. The platinum theme of the UI will be replaced by a new interface codenamed “marble”. Read More
WiFi has been the backbone of home networking revolution, but even the latest 802.11n standard can’t reach 100Mbps speed in real life tests. With increase in number of devices using WiFi standard to transfer data (HD video, music, photos) in a household, 802.11n will very soon reach its limits in most household. However, Intel has come to the rescue, as its researchers have developed a new digital conversion technique, which will allow development of cheaper and smaller radios that are capable of transferring multi-gigabits of data per second. Read More
Canon today announced the new Digital Rebel T1i (aka EOS 500D) compact DSLR camera. The most important feature added to the new Rebel camera is Full HD 1080p video recording at 20fps or 720p at 30fps. The camera features a 15.1-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor that offers high ISO sensitivity up to 3200, which is expandable to 12800 for shooting in near dark conditions. The DIGIC 4 image processor on Rebel T1i gives it continuous shooting speeds of up to 3.4 fps in bursts of up to 170 JPEG images. Read More
Dell’s CEO Michael Dell said in Taipei that the company is developing new smartphone lineup and is on schedule to release devices in line with its internal roadmap. It was believed that Dell was working on more than one smartphone models and the statement by Michael confirms it. Michael Dell didn’t provide any information about the devices or when devices are scheduled for release. Read More
After introducing cheap netbooks, companies like Asus, Acer and now Samsung are adding premium netbooks to their lineup to increase profit margins. Samsung today added N310 a premium notebook that weigh 2.71 pounds and features a 10.1-inch LCD screen. Read More
Remi Pedersen, graphics product manager at ARM said today that the company has developed higher-end Mali-200 and Mali-400 processors. ARM claims that the new processors will have graphics capabilities comparable to Xbox 360. The Mali graphics processor lineup will have 4x Anti-Aliasing and it would be able to push up to 16x without much decrease in battery life. Read More
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