Archives for April 2010

Nokia E71 and E66 get free Navigation with Ovi Maps

Nokia [NOK] have announced that a couple more of their phones are now capable of running Ovi Maps that provides free satellite navigation around the world. Phones now compatible with the service are the Nokia E71 and the Nokia E66.

The Ovi Maps application has worked on several other phones since January which included the E72, N97 Mini and X6, and due to the amount of people requesting it function on the E71 and E66, they decided to listen and created a compatible version.

When used with the Ovi Suite, the latest country maps can be downloaded on to the device allowing users to use the service off-line making it quite an attractive application. When compared to other free mapping services such as Google Maps (only in the US), they use on-line maps meaning that when you loose signal you are unable to navigate. Nokia doesn’t suffer with this problem if maps are synchronised. [Read more…]

Skype for iPhone gets an update – Still no 3G Calling

The latest version of Skype for the Apple iPhone has been released. The new version is numbered 1.3.1 and unfortunately does not add 3G calling to the VoIP software.

Skype first announced that it would open up for 3G calling back in February, so it was expected with the 1.3.1 update that this would happen, unfortunately it didn’t.

The update that was launched today instead just fixed a number of bugs in the software that had been reported. [Read more…]

Microsoft could launch “Pink” Smartphone Series on April 12

Both Apple [AAPL] and Microsoft [MSFT] announced press events yesterday. The Apple event is to showcase their new iPhone OS 4 that looks to be launching later this year. The Microsoft event is a little more hush in that we are not sure as of yet what they will be launching.

The invites from Microsoft had a message on them saying “It’s time to share” which was included along side an invitation to a mystery event.

Rumours have indicated that the Microsoft Courier might be introduced at this event although it is believed that MS will be unveiling the new MS smartphone platform called “Pink” – well, that’s the code name at least. [Read more…]

ICD Gemini Android Based Tablet – Tegra 2 Based

ICD have introduced a new Android OS based tablet computer. ICD were first seen back in Las Vegas at CES 2010 where a couple of Tegra 2 based devices were on display (the Vega and Ultra). They are now launching the ICD Gemini that also uses the next generation 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra Chipset.

Features included in the ICD Gemini include an 11.2 inch touchscreen. Two screens will be available which include a capacitive and a resistive touchscreen, both of which are multitouch capable.

As previously mentioned, the operating system running on the Gemini will be provided by Google [GOOG], ie, the Android OS although it isn’t clear right now which version. We hope for at least 2.0 or even 2.1, but have seen some devices still running 1.6, so we’ll update when we find that information out. [Read more…]

HP Slate Promotional Video Launched

After a successful launch of the Apple iPad, it seems like Microsoft [MSFT] and other companies involved in the tablet race need to get moving in the right direction. A few months back the HP Slate was first revealed which showed potential, but news about the Slate has been quite thin on the ground.

We have just spotted a video launched by HP to show of their new HP Slate that gives a quick glimpse as to what we can expect from the device.

From what we see in the video it has a camera on the back and front as video and pictures are captured as well as a Skype Video call being made with the Slate. Cameras are something that the iPad lack. A USB port can be seen in the video allowing you to connect it up to a computer (the iPad does offer this through it’s 30 pin dock connector to USB as standard) but the Slate might get some additional functionality here. [Read more…]

Android OS based TVs Built by People of Lava

People of Lava is a Swedish based company who are creating a range of new TV’s. The new TVs are called Scandinavia and the variants of this model can be found.

The HDTVs come in three sizes of 42 inches, 47 inches and 55 inches and are each full HDTV sets that are capable of running full HD in 1080p. Other features include an ARM Cortex A8 processor that runs at 833MHz, HDMI port, USB 2.0 port and a DVB-T digital TV tuner built in. [Read more…]

JooJoo Reviewed

Engadget managed to get hold of a JooJoo for review. They actually received it just before the Apple iPad launched, but due to various reasons they chose not to give a full review of the JooJoo till after Saturday. Well, the review is now live showing in depth what the JooJoo can do.

My own impressions of the device are that it does look good. It has a large screen with capacitive touch and looks sleek, however, after seeing Engadget with a hands on JooJoo review, I’m having second thoughts now and will be keeping away from the tablet for the time being.

Main problems that I spotted in the video are that it just doesn’t seem finished. The UI is laggy, video is laggy and often inputs are misinterpreted.

When rotating the JooJoo the browser flips around as can be expected on many devices these days, but for some reason the JooJoo doesn’t resize a website to suit the screen orientation making it too wide to browse in landscape and too thin to browse in portrait. [Read more…]

Apple A4 Teardown

iFixit have taken a very deep look in to what the Apple A4 processor looks like and have also confirmed how it works. The company iFixit worked with are called Chipworks who decided to X-Ray the A4 and other various components to see exactly what was in there.

The A4 has a couple of layers of Samsung RAM along with the microprocessor it’s self. It is described as being a package-on-package system that allows not only Samsung RAM to be used, but any other RAM that Apple [AAPL] want to purchase.

iFixit believe that the processor is in fact an ARM Cortex A8 due to it being a single core processor. [Read more…]

Apple iPad – Will it Blend?

It’s probably not the first question on your mind, but it’s always the first question on Blendtec’s mind… will it Blend? This time they are referring to the Apple iPad.

The video demonstration shows Tom Dickinson folding an iPad in half to make it fit in a blender ready to be smashed in to bits of dust. Take a look after the break to see how powerful the blender is. [Read more…]

Nintendo 3DS Concept Fan-Made Rendering

If you are wondering what the new Nintendo 3DS will look like then perhaps this fan-made rendering might give you some idea. The concept drawing uses a similar format to the traditional DS whereby the screen flips open. The top screen is 3D and the bottom screen looks to be regular 2D.

The controls for the 3DS have been moved to the outside of the device in that they don’t get covered up when the top screen closes down. The left houses the D-Pad and an analogue stick while the right has the SNES style YXBA 4 button setup. [Read more…]

Over 300,000 Apple iPads sold on Saturday

This Saturday just gone official numbers show that more than 300,000 models of the Apple iPad were sold.

The 300,000+ includes pre-ordered iPads, sales at retail stores as well as all those that shipped to Best Buy. Other numbers from Apple [AAPL] indicate that over 1 Million iPad apps were sold that first day along with an impressive 250,000 eBooks from the iBookstore.

Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster had originally predicted Apple would sell between 200,000 and 300,000 iPads on the first day, though he upped his estimate to 600,00 to 700,000 over the weekend.

[Read more…]

Apple iPad gets Jailbreak on day 2

In just hours of going on sale, the Apple iPad has been jailbroke. The iPad Jailbreak was accomplished by key people on the Dev Team who made the jailbreak happen from some earlier work on a solution called Spirit.

Although jailbreaking the device in just a few hours might seem like a quick task, the team had already prepared on the iPhone and iPod touch that run the same iPhone OS as the iPad, so it was expected that the jailbreak would happen same day.

With the Apple [AAPL] device now being jailbroke, it shouldn’t be too long before a stable build of the software is created allowing for others to jailbreak their devices. No official date has been given yet though and perhaps, the team will be inclined to wait for the launch of the iPad Wi-Fi+3G model later this month. [Read more…]