Latest Gadgets, Tablets and Smartphones
The 8 inch KYROS MID8020 internet tablet was on show this year at CES. The tablet has a 800MHz CPU, a 4:3 aspect screen that is multitouch (800 x 600) and it has 1080p playback via HDMI.
For connectivity, it has WiFi built in. It runs the Android 2.1 operating system although the Android Market doesn’t look to be available. Instead, it will run the AppsLib marketplace which allows you to download the apps you need. [Read more…]
Today, it is expected that Verizon will announce the iPhone coming to its network. Rumors have been around for months about Verizon getting the smartphone and finally, we expect it will all happen later on today.
The event is starting at 11AM EST (4PM here in the UK), so keep an eye on the news and expect that the iPhone will finally arrive on another network in the US. [Read more…]
Yesterday, Skype hit a record in the number of people who were simultaneously using the service. During peak hours, 27 million users were logged in to the service which is up 2 million from the previous record.
The reasons that an extra couple of million people might have been logged on is due to some recent changes such as the iOS version of the app allowing video calls to be made. [Read more…]
Rovio Mobile Ltd. has launched a new version of Angry Birds for the iPhone. The new version is called Angry Birds Free and is an ad supported version of the game that has 12 levels.
The 12 levels are unique to the free version of the game so probably wont be seen elsewhere on other versions. As well as providing 12 new levels, Angry Birds Free also has 4 mini episodes for you to work through. Game Center support is built in as well as leaderboards and achievements. [Read more…]
Reports today indicate that the next version of Android for smartphones will be launching in the summer of this year. The new version will be Android 2.4 and will be codenamed Ice Cream. Expect it to be officially announced in May.
Google uses the alphabet to give the devices code names which starts with the 2.x versions as Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread and Honeycomb. Honeycomb is actually version 3.0 and departs from the 2.x numbering due to Honeycomb being for tablets only. Ice Cream which is the next smartphone version jumps back to the 2.x numbering system. [Read more…]
One thing that gave the original Nintendo DS a boost was the fact that it could get up to 14 hours on a single charge. When the DS Lite launched, that further jumped to a healthy 19 hours of gaming between charges. What we are hearing now is that the new Nintendo 3DS will get just 3 to 8 hours per charge with the 8 hours been reserved for those older DS games.
For those playing newer 3D games, this is when battery life drops to just 3 to 5 hours per charge. This is now around what the original Sony PSP got per charge which isn’t particularly good at all. [Read more…]
Tomorrow is being reported as the day that Apple will be dropping restocking fees in its Apple stores. The current procedure requires that you pay 10% if you return an item within 14 days that has been taken out of its box. Now that the restocking fee will be gone, you’ll be able to return a product or exchange it without incurring any extra fees. [Read more…]
Verizon [VZ] is holding a press event tomorrow where it is believed that the Verizon iPhone will finally be announced.
Rumors about an iPhone on Verizon have been around for a couple of years now, but have accelerated over the last 6 to 12 months with many people hinting that the AT&T exclusivity will be coming to an end. [Read more…]
Kevin Rose from Digg has suggested that the iPad 2 could be announced within the next 3 to 4 weeks, possibly on February 1st. As well as providing the announcement date for the next generation Apple Tablet, he also suggests that it won’t have a Retina display. The lack of Retina display falls in line with what we have seen before around the web.
Although the iPad 2 is expected to be announced in the next few weeks, we still believe it will be launching towards the end of March or early in April to follow on a year from when the original iPad was announced. Kevin’s words add to various other iPad 2 rumors. [Read more…]
Earlier this week, some rumors went around about Android 3.0 Honeycomb for Tablets having a minimum processor requirement to run. That minimum was said at the time to be a dual-core processor.
Dan Morrill from Google tweeted this week that closes out that rumor…
“Random note: there’s no hard minimum processor requirement for Honeycomb,”
“Trust me, if there were I’d know.”
Within the first few hours of launch, the Mac App Store has already been hacked although the hack is not yet available.
To hack the Mac App Store you’ll simply need to install some software called Kickback that is being made available sometime in February this year.
We don’t want to release kickback as soon as the [Mac App] Store gets released. I have a few reasons for that.
Most of the applications that go on the Mac App Store [in the first instance] will be decent, they’ll be pretty good. Apple isn’t going to put crap on the App Store as soon as it gets released. It’ll probably take months for the App Store to actually have a bunch of crappy applications and when we feel that it has a lot of crap in it, we’ll probably release Kickback.
So we’re not going to release Kickback until well after the store’s been established, well after developers have gotten their applications up. We don’t want to devalue applications and frustrate developers.
Motorola has introduced details of its first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet at CES 2011. The new tablet will be called the Motorola XOOM and will have a 10.1 inch screen.
The device detailed was first spotted a month or so back when Andy Rubin gave a very brief demonstration on stage although not much was seen at the time as to what OS it was running. As for technical specs, the 10.1 inch screen has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and can playback 16:9 content. [Read more…]
