Latest Gadgets, Tablets and Smartphones
Google [GOOG] could be getting in to the Pay-Per-View movie rental game by transforming in to one of the major players by as early as this year.
The Financial Times is reporting that Google is speaking with Hollywood Studios to launch a service this year that will see movies streamed to users.
Google say that a mixture of the Google Search Engine and the busy YouTube service could see the service pushed out to a huge number of people. [Read more…]
Toshiba are launching a new tablet. Toshiba have called it a Smart Pad for reasons we don’t know of as it appears to have specs just like a tablet.
The name of it will be the Toshiba Folio 100 if rumours are to be believed although no release date is known at the moment.
Technical specs show that it runs Android 2.2, runs an NVIDIA Tegra 2 and has a 10.1 inch screen that has a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. [Read more…]
Most cases are designed for the sole purpose of protecting a smartphone from getting scratched. This latest case for the iPhone 4 has a second function. That is to provide an area to hold a pair of SIM cards allowing the iPhone 4 to be used with dual SIM cards rather than a single SIM card.
To get the dual SIM cards connected to the iPhone 4 a ribbon cable is provided that you insert in to the microSIM slot. This then folds around the back of the iPhone 4 to a place where the case holds them in to position. [Read more…]
If you have a T-Mobile G1 then some good news is ahead. The latest CyanogenMod 6.0 brings Android 2.2 to your old T-Mobile G1 smartphone.
To install the update you need to head on over to Cyanogen’s website for the details. As always, we recommend that you read all the step by step instructions and realise that you might brick your phone if you do not follow everything exactly. [Read more…]
It seems like Apple [AAPL] have finally managed to catch up with demand for the Apple iPad. All six versions of the iPad are now listed on the Apple site as shipping within 24 hours. Previously it had been around a 2 – 3 week shipping date from what we remember.
Prices have stayed exactly the same and probably will for a few more months, if not till the launch of the iPad 2 next year. [Read more…]
Google [GOOG] added the ability to call contacts direct from Gmail a few days ago. The service is only available for those in the US at the moment. The good news for Google here is that over 1 million calls were made in the first 24 hours of the service opening according to a tweet made by Google which reads…
Over 1,000,000 calls placed from Gmail in just 24 hours! Thanks to everyone using this new feature
Google [GOOG] is expanding the Real Time search features of it’s search engine by launching Google.com/realtime.
The service isn’t fully live yet, but when live will work in a similar way to how the twitter results are embedded in various search query results.
The service will be updated to include updates from Google Buzz, Facebook, MySpace to name a few social networking sites so that when you search for a query that is surging at a current time, such as an earth quake, film release, disaster, mobile phone news etc… you’ll be able to see results of what everybody is talking about online. [Read more…]
Back in June this year, Sony Ericsson announced the Xperia X8. After a few months of waiting we finally are seeing some more details about it. Engadget also managed to get a hands-on with the smartphone to see what it’s all about.
First impressions reveal that the X8 is a little chunky, rather than slim. It has a 3 inch screen, a 600MHz CPU and a 3.2 megapixel camera.
The downside of the X8 is that it also runs Android 1.6 along with a very deep custom skin. An update to Android 2.1 is expected in the 4th quarter of this year although there was no mention of Android 2.2 or perhaps 3.0 which most people will be looking out for at that time. [Read more…]
If you want the technical specs of any Android OS based hardware that has launched in the last couple of years then check out this spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet is public and lets you browse around a number of specifications and details which reveal the processors, amounts of RAM/ROM and any other details about Android based hardware you might want to know. [Read more…]
The new Amazon Kindle has arrived and along with it, a new and clearer screen technology that provides a 50% better contrast than any other eReader on the market.
Crunch Gear put together a video showing a hands on with the Amazon Kindle to show how it looks in direct sunlight. According to Crunch Gear, the light was very bright and it didn’t effect reading at all on the device. [Read more…]
RIM (Research in Motion) could be working on an external antenna design according to details found by BBLeaks.
One of BBLeaks sources sent in a picture showing a BlackBerry Pearl 9100 with an external antenna and also indicated that a lot of these devices with external antennas could be found at RIM’s headquarters in Canada.
The iPhone 4 launched back in June this year and also had an external antenna design that had a number of issues reported by the media and users of the phone. It isn’t clear why RIM would go down this path other than perhaps trying to get a more stable version of what Apple [AAPL] came up with. [Read more…]
MIT researches have created a device that potentially (when working a large swarm) could clear up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The technology is a prototype at the moment and uses technology that can separate water and oil. The researches behind it have calculated that 5000 of these autonomous robot cleaners would take just one month to clean up the surface oil on the water.
The technology is based on the use of robots, 16ft long and including a 7ft wide solar-powered conveyor belt that is made of an oil-slurping nanowire mesh. The material is capable of isolating and absorbing up to 20 times its weight in oil. The robots will use the principles of swarm robotics, where thousands of such devices will be interacting and coordinating with each other using GPS and wireless technology.
The devices can either burn the oil they collect to keep them working uninterrupted or can break away from their teams occasionally to deposit their oil in large, GPS-tagged floating reservoirs. A large tanker could come and collect oil from these reservoirs.
