LG Ally official on Verizon – Ships May 20 for $100

May 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Verizon [VZ] today formally announced the LG Ally along with a release date and pricing. The LG Ally will be launched on May 20 and will cost $100 on contract.

The LG Ally is the first ever LG Android based phone to be launched in the US. The Ally comes installed with the Android 2.1 operating system along with a slightly tweaked UI by LG.

Technical spec wise it has 802.11n connectivity, GPS built in and a full QWERTY slide out keyboard. Live wallpapers can be used on this device.

Around the back a 3.2 megapixel camera can be found along with a flash. The camera can capture pictures and video although there are no HD resolutions on this smartphone. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Lego used to Recreate the “Most Useless Machine”

May 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

You might remember back a few months ago when we mentioned a machine that automatically switched it’s self off each time it was switched on, post found here. This device pictured above is the equivalent of that machine but built out of Lego rather than wood.

The principle behind the box is the same in that when a user flicks the switch to power it on, an arm jumps up and switches the unit back off.

‘The hardest part was probably getting the flap to operate easily and smoothly, and to open and close at the correct parts of the cycle. Careful design of the “pusher” allowed the hole to be fairly small in the later prototypes. There were probably around ten partial or complete prototypes before I found a reliable method and layout. I use the latest prototype(s) as a reference for the next, so I try to have enough bricks around to keep several on the go at once.’

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Crazy Gadgets

Eye-Fi 4GB Geo X2 WiFi SDHC Card Begins Shipping

May 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The Geo X2 Eye-Fi card has begun shipping in the US. For some reason, the Apple [AAPL] store has exclusive rights on selling the product and today, is now shipping it to those who have pre-ordered it.

The Eye-Fi Geo X2 has 4GB of storage space along with WiFi connectivity built in allowing the easy transfer of files whilst the card is in the camera. The Geo X2 is a Class 6 SDHC card allowing cameras and other gadgets to write up to 6MB/s to the card.

The wireless built in to the Geo X2 works on 802.11b/g/n networks. Auto-geotagging is also built in allowing all photos captured by a camera to be tagged with the location is was shot in. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

Apple iPhone 4G Could launch June 21

May 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Apple [AAPL] is more than likely going to announce the Apple iPhone 4G early next month. We are currently hearing that AT&T [T] are making changes to customer upgrades bringing the eligibility dates from November 21 2010 over to June 21 2010 knocking 5 months off the contract terms.

This is causing speculation that AT&T are going to allow customers of the iPhone 3GS to upgrade to the iPhone 4G on June 21.

Last year caused a number of headaches for AT&T with customers complaining that they couldn’t upgrade to the 3GS from the 3G unless buying themselves out of the contract they had signed. It seems like AT&T are backing down here by allowing 3GS users to upgrade to the latest iPhone. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Deal of the Day: Kodak Zx1 HD Camcorder £39.97

May 12, 2010 by 1 Comment

Amazon have a cracking deal on the Kodak Zx1 HD Camcorder at the moment bringing the price down from £149.99 all the way down to £39.97.

The camera is capable of capturing video in 720p HD and comes with 128MB of internal memory. Although this will only be good for a few minutes of video capture, you can purchase an additional SD or SDHC card for quite cheap at the moment which still makes the £110 saving a cracking deal.

The camera can be connected up to YouTube with it’s built in software and allows you to easily upload to the free service direct from the camera. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Camera Gadgets

ASUS EeeKeyboard Now Shipping

May 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Amazon are finally starting to ship the ASUS EeeKeyboard. This comes months from the initial announcement with some people thinking it would actually never happen.

Either way, you can now grab one from Amazon costing $599 with free super saver shipping.

The ASUS EeeKeyboard is a unique device that actually puts a computer in the keyboard. Powering the keyboard is an Intel Atom N270 processor. It has 1GB of DDR2 memory and it runs Windows XP Home.

A transmitter is included that can communicate with an external receiver allowing you to connect the keyboard up to a HDTV wirelessly. The keyboard also has wireless LAN that can connect up to 802.11b/g/n networks. Wired LAN is also included for 10/100/1000 connections. Bluetooth 2.1 is also included. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

Android 2.2 is 450% Faster than Android 2.1

May 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Some tests have been performed on a Google Nexus One running Android 2.2 (Froyo) vs a Nexus One running Android 2.1.

Early results indicated that in some cases Android 2.2 runs 450% faster than the previous 2.1 OS.

The speed tests were done using a tool called Linpack and the speed increase is believed to be because of JIT compliation in to the kernel. When using Linpack it tests how fast the phone can operate and provides results where you can then compare numbers.

The LINPACK Benchmarks are a measure of a system’s floating point computing power. Introduced by Jack Dongarra, they measure how fast a computer solves a dense N by N system of linear equations Ax = b, which is a common task in engineering. The solution is obtained by Gaussian elimination with partial pivoting, with 2/3*N3 + 2*N2 floating point operations. The result is reported in Millions of FLoating-point Operations Per Second (MFLOP/s, sometimes simply called FLOPS).

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Apple iPad UK Pre-Orders now Shipping June 7

May 12, 2010 by 1 Comment

If you were hoping to have Apple [AAPL] deliver your iPad in the UK on the launch date of May 28 then you have already left pre-ordering too late as the new shipping date for pre-orders has just been changed to June 7 for all models.

It isn’t clear exactly why the date has changed, but it is either because the UK was allocated a little amount of stock, or that the UK all love the iPad and have pre-ordered in to the hundreds of thousands. We suspect with shortages in the US that the first option is the reason in that Apple allocated lower amounts of stock internationally.

This doesn’t mean you wont be able to pick one up from an Apple store on launch day although keep an eye out the day before on queues as in some cases they may be rather large. [Read more…]

Filed Under: iPad

Apple iPhone 4G Spotted Again

May 12, 2010 by 5 Comments

After the huge leak over on Gizmodo about the Apple iPhone 4G, we are now seeing more pictures of what looks to be a slightly updated prototype model. When we say updated, we mean a couple of screws around the dock connector are not on this version captured by camera.

Other than that the phone appears to be a prototype due to the XXX stamp on the back although this model of the Apple iPhone 4G looks to have 16GB of storage.

The phone was captured on a Vietnamese website which we assume had close contacts with the factory where the iPhone 4G is being built for Apple [AAPL]. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Google Maps Navigation Android Update Brings Bike Routes and More

May 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Google [GOOG] has provided an update for Google Maps Navigation on Android that brings a few new features to the software.

The new features include biking directions, a navigation shortcut for the homescreen along with sharing and a few other bits. The new version of Google Maps is 4.2 that works on all Android devices running Android OS 1.6 and above.

The biking directions on Google Maps bring details of lanes and trails to your Android smartphone. When navigating you can select a new Bike icon that brings up details of bicycling routes in the US. By using layers the software can show various coloured routes with each indicating a different type of challenge.

The Google Navigation shortcut brings a small arrow to the home screen of the Android device. By clicking the navigation shortcut you are able to go right in to the Navigation features of Google Maps and get navigating right away. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones

Dell Latitude E4310 – Semi-rugged, Thin and Light Laptop

May 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Dell has launched a new laptop called the Dell Latitude E4310. The laptop is designed to be semi-rugged and comes in a thin form factor.

Inside an Intel Core i5-540M CPU can be found running at 2.53GHz. This can be switched out for a 520M running at 2.4GHz if a little less power is wanted. Memory wise, it can handle up to 4GB of DDR3 memory running at 1066MHz.

The graphics are provided by an integrated chipset which doesn’t make it a good contender where graphics are concerned. The screen measures 13.3 inches and is backlit by LED with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Laptops

FCC Make Plans to Tackle Bill Shock

May 11, 2010 by 1 Comment

Occasionally, mobile phone users get hit with a surprise bill. In some cases the bills are huge spreading in to the hundreds of pages to print them out. Of course it’s the user who really needs to keep tabs on usage and especially when roaming, but the FCC plan to step in to help tackle “Bill Shock”.

The FCC are putting plans in place that will require cell phone providers to let users know when charges are being exceeded and when users bills look like they are going to be very large.

Although it isn’t clear if and when all this will happen, perhaps later this year or next year we might get some friendly reminders when roaming and using excessive amounts of data and voice calls. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cell Phones