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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

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HTC Amaze 4G, Samsung Galaxy S II sign-up pages go live on T-Mobile, 42Mbps speeds within reach

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 11:33 AM PDT

You can buy it on Sprint, snag in on October 2nd at AT&T, or just sit tight and wait for Magenta to get its Galaxy S II release ball rolling. Hot on the heels of yesterday's Mobilize announcement, T-Mobile's thrown up a product page for its particular variant of Samsung's uber-hyped handset, in addition to a landing page for the recently unveiled HTC Amaze 4G (a rebranded Sensation XE for the states). The operator hasn't set an official launch date for either of its 42Mbps HSPA+ smartphones, but we do have concrete pricing that pegs HTC's amazing device at $260, and Sammy's TouchWiz-inflected beast at $230 -- both after a $50 rebate on a new two-year contract. If you're as jazzed about these closer to 4G fine, faux-G phones as we are, be sure to hit up the source link below to sign-up for an early order notification.

DVBLogic's Boxee app brings live TV streaming to the Box

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 11:14 AM PDT

If online video streams and locally stored media aren't providing enough functionality for your Boxee Box, now you can watch regular TV on it too. The Digital Lifestyle mentions DVBLogic has released a new version of its DVBLink client for the device that lets you browse the program guide and watch live TV, provided you also have a home server set up with its software and a tuner. If you're not familiar with the software, it lets you turn most any UPnP-compatible device into an extender capable of caching live streams, with clients available for iPad / iPhone already, plus Android and WP7 on the way. You'll need the latest release candidate version of DVBLink Connect! server software to make it all go, then point your Boxee Box browser to the company's repository to download the client software and let us know how it all works out.

HTC Radar 4G headed to T-Mobile in time for the holidays, chock-full of Mango

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 10:59 AM PDT

Looks like the HTC Radar 4G is the real deal, after all. T-Mobile outed the Windows Phone Mango-sporting handset today, talking up the device's 3.8-inch screen, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, five-megapixel camera (with a devoted camera button) and, of course, the titular 4G speed. No precise date on the thing yet, but the magenta carrier says it should be out in the States before the holidays.
Show full PR text
T-Mobile Announces Upcoming Availability of the HTC Radar 4G

Today, T-Mobile announced the upcoming availability of the HTC Radar™ 4G, our first Windows® Phone capable of 4G speeds on America's Largest 4G Network®. The completely customizable smartphone pairs rich mobile entertainment features with the top-notch communications experience delivered by the latest version of Windows Phone, code-named Mango. This intuitive new operating system update will keep HTC Radar 4G customers connected and entertained just about wherever life takes them with its new and innovative communication features centered on people, along with preloaded entertainment applications and the ability to multitask between apps.

The HTC Radar 4G is elegantly crafted with an aluminum unibody design for a sleek and stylish appearance. Sporting a large 3.8-inch LCD touch screen display with a virtual QWERTY keyboard and powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon™ processor, the HTC Radar 4G delivers an efficient mobile communications experience at 4G speeds. The smartphone provides a comprehensive productivity experience with fully integrated Microsoft® Exchange and calendar as well as Microsoft Office Hub and Internet Explorer® 9 for a fast, beautiful Web experience. Additionally, the new smartphone is equipped with dedicated camera button for easy access to the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash so you never miss a photo opportunity, even if the phone is locked.

Windows Phone 7.5 Mango review

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 10:27 AM PDT

Let's face it: Windows Phone, as we know it, has an enormous amount of potential, but it's a first-generation operating system. For the first eleven months of its existence, it's lacked many of the common features we've come to enjoy (and take for granted) on Android and iOS, but then again, even those platforms have taken their turn getting the major wrinkles ironed out. So it comes as no surprise that Microsoft's mobile darling -- the innovative rebirth of a weak and faltering Windows Mobile platform that was quickly falling into obscurity -- would need to go through a similar process.

It's finally time for Steve Ballmer & Co. to unleash its major annual update (not counting NoDo here), codenamed Mango, to a litany of devices both old and new. Also known as Windows Phone 7.5, the latest build delivers an onslaught of features -- no less than 500, according to Microsoft -- many of them we've been missing dearly. Three months ago we were given the opportunity to preview the new revamp and ogle over its smattering of new capabilities (see the full list of features here), and it's only proper for us to offer a follow-up with the update's final build. So how does the completely polished version hold up against the mobile juggernauts, not to mention its own first-gen offering? Follow us below to get the full scoop.

What's new

Our purpose in this review is not to go over every minor feature or change brought to WP7.5 -- head over to our in-depth Mango preview for all of the finer details -- rather, our goal is to highlight what Mango brings to the table and how it does so. The update adds over 500 features to Windows Phone, and unless you're a hardcore fan, you won't have any interest in roughly 470 of them. Sure, they're all nice to have, but the sheer majority of them won't do much to affect your experience on the OS.

The features that do make an impact on your everyday smartphone experience, however, do so in a major way. Microsoft's finally incorporating multitasking, social network integration, plenty of much-needed improvements to email and Exchange, new voice dictation features, and plenty more that we'll get into later. In short, Mango is precisely what we wish Windows Phone would've been from the beginning -- a platform that's capable of handling all of our needs, no matter how crazy they may be.

Hardware requirements

You may have noticed that almost every Windows Phone launched over the last year has been eerily similar in hardware specs, and most lack any significant customization. Microsoft exerts a lot of control over what equipment runs its star mobile OS (unlike, say, Google), and you're typically hard-pressed to find any large deviance between devices -- with the exception of handsets with physical QWERTY keyboards. None of that has changed with Mango, as Ballmer's Boys require a specific set of components.

All Windows Phone 7.5 devices will include a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU (new devices will use 8x55 or 7x30, though existing ones that use an 8x50 CPU will be supported as well), DirectX graphics hardware support with hardware acceleration for Direct3D, a minimum of 384MB of RAM, at least 4GB of flash memory, WVGA (800 x 480) display resolution, a 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB 2.0, WiFi 802.11 b / g support (n is optional), FM radio, Bluetooth and at least four required sensors (with more optional).

Upon reaching out to Microsoft as to why dual-core CPUs aren't supported by Mango, we were told that the performance gains weren't enough to justify the battery efficiency concerns and additional cost. It's looking into ways to incorporate the newer processors eventually, but it's still a work in progress and integrating them into Windows Phone will likely have to wait until Tango or Apollo at the earliest.

User Interface


One of Mango's more impressive feats is the fact that even with its myriad new features and functionality, it's nearly indistinguishable from its predecessor if you don't know exactly what to look for. This is because Microsoft's managed to preserve the signature Windows Phone look -- also known as Metro UI -- complete with two columns of tiles on the Start screen and the full alphabetical listing of apps after a quick swipe to the left. While the size and placement of these tiles haven't changed, the content displayed within them has; many of the native tiles contain more viewable information, and even third-party apps are able to turn their small bit of real estate into a live tile capable of being updated dynamically.

Live tiles are nothing new in Mango, but they've definitely been given more freedoms. Before, apps from the Marketplace were "live," though they didn't have the ability to add much dynamic content. Now, more stuff can be pinned to the Start screen, including multiple tiles from the same single app (as an example, you could have five different eBay bid tiles featured on Start, or the weather from two separate cities); these tiles can all deep link to the app's content. Previously, only native tiles could flip over or offer dynamically updated information, whereas all third-party apps will now be able to take advantage of the same functionality. The tiles can also receive push notifications more frequently than before. All in all, the Start screen is much more alive with Mango, which only serves to enhance the Windows Phone mantra of "glance and go." As Microsoft sees it, the faster and easier it is to view vital info, the sooner you can get back to your life and get other important things done.

Once enough apps are installed on the phone, you'll notice letters popping up in the app menu, similar to the way they show up in the People Hub. The idea is that it's much easier to jump to the app you're looking for, instead of taking ages to scroll all the way down to find it.

If you haven't been a fan of Metro UI before, the chances of you adopting a newfound fondness for Windows Phone with the newest update are pretty slim. When the platform launched last year, we enjoyed how fresh and innovative the design was, but the user experience just couldn't match up to what you can find on Android or iOS; Mango, however, has done an effective job of transforming Metro, turning it more into the "glance and go" device Microsoft has wanted it to become.

Email and messaging
Windows Phone Mango Social and Email

Finally, one of the greatest weaknesses of the platform previously -- email and messaging -- is now a strength, as Microsoft shows it can play ball with the big boys. In with Mango is a linked email inbox, which lets you combine multiple email accounts into one consolidated tile. The concept of a universal inbox is one that's been done on most mobile operating systems at this point, but Windows Phone added a twist: instead of forcing all of your email accounts into the same box, you can pick and choose exactly which ones you'd like together. Prior to Mango, the system was inefficient and inconvenient -- it used up a tile for each individual account, taking up extra space and wasting our time by making us flip through separate boxes (although if tiles are your thing, you can pin specific email folders to the Start screen so you can go directly to that folder). Needless to say, this is a mammoth improvement and one of our favorite features in Mango.

But wait, there's more where that came from: conversations are now threaded. It's hard to believe that in 2011, millions of WP7 users were wandering around not only with separate inboxes, but unthreaded emails as well. Allow us to explain -- in previous versions of Windows Phone, each email was treated as its own entity, regardless of if it's part of a full-length conversation. With Mango, you can have a long argument with Jerry Smith about TPS reports via email, and the full correspondence is grouped together so you don't have to hunt through hundreds upon hundreds of other messages to find each segment of the conversation. Groundbreaking, we know, but it's an absolute must-have feature in this day and age, and it works seamlessly in the update.

The messaging app also gets a +1 in effectiveness, going from a regular ol' SMS / MMS depository to a consolidated place where all your texts, Facebook chats and Windows Live IMs live in one threaded conversation. You're chatting with Susie Charleston on Facebook, but she needs to log off, so when you continue talking to her via text you can still see her Facebook responses in the same conversation thread. We love the idea -- Android and iOS haven't come up with anything like this yet -- but we need more options. Not everyone uses these services to chat with friends, so we'd like to see an API available to developers designed to allow more IM methods to be included in these threads.

We were incredibly happy to see the difference between NoDo and Mango when it comes to our ability to communicate; not only does it now match up with most mobile OS platforms currently available, it surpasses them in terms of its integration with social networking and IM.

Social Network integration


If we had to pick and choose talking points for the Mango update, its ability to integrate social network content with many of the platform's other key features would be near the top of the list. In essence, your phone is now littered with plenty of ways to interact with your friends and family via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

We weren't able to test out Twitter integration in our preview build -- unfortunate since it's also the service we use the most -- so it goes without saying that we were pretty eager to see how well it played nice with Mango in relation to Facebook. In the new update, bits and pieces of Twitter are woven into several native apps such as the Me Hub, People Hub and camera app (more on that later).

The Me Hub doesn't look a heckuva lot different than it did on the Mango unit we played with three months ago, because there's absolutely nothing new to add to the foundation. It doesn't matter that an extra social network has been added to the mix here; the notifications and what's new pivot screens still fit with the extra service perfectly. Tweets that mention your name are dropped into notifications, and you're given the option of replying to it; direct messages, to our dismay, don't show up here. Interestingly, the What's New pivot now loads your own tweets -- and even more curiously, gives you an option to reply... to yourself.

Twitter also got custom-fitted in the People Hub as well. Here's the magical place where you can view your entire stream, but, much like TweetDeck and other programs, it's blended in with your Facebook news feed as well. If you're looking for a truly pure Twitter stream without the "contamination," you'll need to either de-integrate Facebook from your Windows Phone or just download a dedicated Twitter app that'll do the job just as easily. (Update: Turns out that by pressing the top of the screen on the "What's New" panel within the People Hub allows you to filter the stream.) Again, it's all about Glance and Go here, and sometimes you're only able to take a few seconds out of your busy day to check out what's going on in your social circle.

There are other ways to tie our mobile needs into social networks, such as sharing an interesting article we read through Internet Explorer; all it takes is a click of the options menu at the bottom right, and you'll be able to tweet out whatever you're currently viewing. It's also found gratuitously mingling with our contacts and groups -- any Facebook or Twitter updates associated with them will be proudly displayed on their respective pages. This is where the integration really shines: it's easy enough for anyone to access their feeds through a dedicated app, but it's nice to easily check our friends' Facebook status for icebreakers immediately before we call.

If you haven't had the chance to read our preview of Windows Phone 7.5, Facebook integrates in much the same manner as Twitter does. In fact, it's as if Microsoft treats the two networks as one and the same, and tries to combine them in every way possible. If you want to separate the two in an organized manner, tough luck. It's like social networking teamwork -- Facebook and Twitter joining forces with Microsoft to help enhance our ever-busy social lives, just in case you're in need of a little improvement in that area. The integration, while a wonderful concept, is nothing new, but at least Windows Phone throws the capability into its phones with relatively few hiccups.

Multitasking
Windows Phone Mango Multitasking and Maps

Another area that was half-baked when we first played with it was multitasking, the oh-so-sweet word that penetrated the hearts and souls of phone geeks everywhere when it was first announced for Mango. Its convenience is undeniable: it's immensely frustrating when we can't save our spot in a game when a phone call comes in and go directly back to that same place after the conversation is done. We get flustered when streaming internet radio and aren't able to keep the music going as we surf the web or perform other tasks on our phones. We also like to quickly switch apps without needing to go back home.

In Mango, all of these frustrations are getting rectified -- albeit slowly. The functionality is all built in so a simple long-press of the back button pulls up your most recently opened apps in a webOS-style card view (each card being a thumbnail of that particular app, which puzzles us as to why we can't actually take our own screenshots on the phone). So far, we've been able to easily switch back and forth between apps this way, but unfortunately our experience multitasking hasn't greatly improved otherwise yet. This is primarily because few third-party apps are compatible with the update yet, though this incompatibility will be a concern of the past soon enough, as devs work to get their apps ready. We did try out a few Mango apps, however, and they all paused as advertised; our only issue here was the extra time it took to resume them. In some instances, we waited roughly 10 seconds before we were back into the same place on the app. As a curious aside, native Microsoft apps didn't have the same problem.

We're not ready to give up on Mango's multitasking talent -- after all, it's still heaps better than having nothing at all. We loved the app switching feature, but it's hard to give an accurate judgement on how third-party apps interact with the functionality, since it'll be a matter of time before the vast majority of apps support Mango's capabilities. For now we're unimpressed by the laggy app switching, though we look forward to seeing how future apps will work.

Groups

We touched upon the idea of groups earlier, but want to add a dash of focus on exactly what it brings to the table. It's a novel concept that's been overlooked by competing mobile platforms, and so simple we can't help but wonder why it hasn't been implemented before. Mango gives you the ability to organize Groups within your People Hub -- whether it be family, co-workers, or particular cliques that you hang out with -- and interact with them all at the same time as if you were all meeting together in the same room. When a group is created, it shows up as its very own Hub, complete with three pivot screens that show live tiles for each individual member, notifications and pictures; here, you have the chance to email or text the entire group, or even pull up and comment / like their latest Facebook or Twitter updates without being distracted by other random statuses. You can also pin the group Hub to the Start screen, and the dynamic live tiles will bring up the latest notifications as well as pictures of each person.

This is one of our favorite enhancements in Mango because we tend to communicate with our co-workers, friends and family more than random contacts or old high school buddies on Facebook. And since we're constantly keeping in touch with them, it's even more important to find out what's going on in their lives and interact with them more than anyone else. Windows Phone has incorporated it seamlessly into the user experience, making the process quick and simple to set up and easy to enjoy.

Calendar

If you use tasks or to-do lists like we do, the calendar may prove to be worth its weight in gold with Mango. There's a lot of stuff going on in our busy lives, and it just makes sense to embed our tasks within the calendar itself. To-dos, included as its own pivot screen inside the app, are fully integrated with your agenda, making each deadline appear as its own event. For the corporate kiddos, this can all be synced with your Exchange account.

However, we still have the same concerns as we did three months ago: tasks still don't show up on the calendar's live tile or the lock screen, and they're still unable to sync with third party task programs such as Google Tasks or Remember the Milk. As much as Microsoft would like us to do everything in Windows Live, it's simply not practical. The service is useful as it currently stands, but it'd be infinitely more effective if we were given more interoperability. For a platform that emphasizes integration with Facebook and Twitter, we're not sure why we haven't seen APIs to encourage similar integration with other third parties. So we're torn here -- on one hand, this use of the tasks feature stands out above the crowd already, but it's a little impractical for us to solely rely on it when we use other task-oriented services.

Speaking of Exchange, Mango finally supports the use of multiple calendars from a single account. Additionally, if you're what we'd call a heavy user of Facebook, you'll appreciate the built-in integration of Facebook events into the calendar as well. If you're so popular that a few people are sending you unsolicited invites to events through Facebook, you can change the settings to filter in only those events you personally responded to.

Marketplace

Windows Phone Mango Multimedia and Bing Vision

Marketplace -- as it appears on the phone -- has remained mostly unchanged since the preview build; podcasts can be downloaded directly from the device, the drop-down menu appears as you type in a Marketplace search, and the app can be accessed from the web. The Web Marketplace, as it's being called, behaves in a much similar way to the Android online Market: pick out an app or song that interests you and it will automatically install on your device. You can also witness your purchase history and reinstall any apps you may have accidentally lost or purposely deleted.

There is, however, another feature that we didn't see previously: hidden apps. When a company wants to dole out an app to its employees for internal use, it naturally doesn't want the average Joe to find and download it. The company can therefore "hide" an app so it doesn't show up on the public catalog, and is only accessible through a "deep link" URL that can be distributed to only those who need to download it.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to test out the Web Marketplace or the hidden apps, but we appreciate that these options are going to be available in Mango. Ultimately, these are just a couple extra layers of customization for the Marketplace, which is turning out to be a theme for the whole OS in general -- every single app and Hub within the platform is bigger, better, and more flexible for our individual interests.

Camera

As mentioned before, every program in Windows Phone has been enhanced to be more customizable and increase the user's experience -- and the camera app is no different. It was already supremely easy to access, as it was designed to get you to the camera as quick as possible whenever an important capture-worthy moment's taking place. But the app was still dreadfully basic, so a few improvements were thrown in to give it a little more pizazz.

Earlier versions of Windows Phone would lose your settings upon exiting the camera app. This was a source of frustration, especially for video recording, where the camera would always revert back from 720p to VGA resolution. Mango remedies this by including a "Save settings" option in the camera menu. There's also the option to restore the default settings, should you get carried away tweaking things. We're also big fans of the two-stage camera button required on all Windows Phone handsets, but sometimes it's better to avoid the potential motion blur associated with pressing a physical key. To this end, Mango introduces an on-screen shutter button -- just tap anywhere in the viewfinder to take a picture. Sadly, there's no touch-to-focus support, and the camera only focuses on what's in the middle of the screen.

Mentioned in our preview, Auto-fix is a feature similar to what we've seen on other phones before -- auto-fix enhances your existing shots by adjusting brightness, contrast, color balance, shadows and highlights with simple tap. Sometimes it makes a difference, but most of the time we'd rather have manual controls, something that's missing. In fact, Windows Phone still lacks any kind of basic image editing functionality, like cropping and rotation.

On some phones, Mango adds a wide dynamic range toggle to the camera settings. Unlike a true HDR mode that takes 3 pictures at different exposure levels, it appears to change the shadows and highlights when shooting a subject with a lot of backlight or when there's a large difference between the bright and dark areas in a scene. It's usually possible to achieve the same results using auto-fix after the fact.

Earlier, we mentioned several different methods by which you can integrate your mobile content with social networks. The same thing can be done with your images, and you have some options here: there are two ways to upload pictures to Twitter and Facebook: from within the photo gallery or via the respective dedicated applications. While it makes no difference which way you upload shots to Facebook, it's another story when sharing images on Twitter. The dedicated app lets you upload pictures full size using your choice of service (TwitPic, TweetPhoto or yFrog), while the photo gallery insists on scaling down your shots, storing them on SkyDrive and publishing a clumsy unshortened URL to Twitter -- even though it appears shortened in the Me Hub, interestingly enough. This immediately makes Windows Phone's image sharing functionality a lot less compelling. When the time comes to upload movies, Facebook is supported, but there's no way to share videos on YouTube. To further complicate matters, Mango still lacks USB mass-storage support for quick and easy content transfer to a computer; Zune will continue to be your preferred syncing method, whether it's done via USB or WiFi.

Mango lets you tag people in pictures by tapping on their face and picking a contact from a list, or by typing someone's name directly. However, unlike the Facebook app, there's no way to fine-tune the position of the tag.

Maps and Local Scout

Free voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation? Yes, please. Sure, Android already has the same feature offered for free, but this not only matches Mango up with its fierce rival; it's also favorable for anyone who prefers Bing Maps over Google. It also ties in nicely with Local Scout, a new service that looks in the vicinity of your current position and finds nearby businesses that may help you find something you want to eat, or perhaps you're looking for some good shopping or entertainment (although many would argue the last two categories are one and the same). It's also simple enough to go into each individual business to view its assigned Quick Card, which offers contact information and customer reviews. The Local Scout isn't anything new to the mobile world, but we like the crisp minimalistic design that just gives the feature a look of elegance and, at the same time, makes it easy to find what we're searching for.

Bing Search

A quick press of the dedicated Search button on the bottom right of every Windows Phone will take you into Bing Search, and Mango has added several enhancements to this area in a handy little toolbar at the bottom. The first is the aforementioned Local Scout, followed by Bing Music Search and Bing Vision. Bing Music is essentially Shazam: press the button, allow it 10 seconds or so to listen to the music, and boom -- you're shown results that list artist, song title and cover art. You can even proceed to the Marketplace if you love the tune so much you want to buy it.

That leaves Bing Vision. In our preview, we called it Google Goggles for Bing, and that's still the case. Just as the other Bing search features, nothing changed cosmetically in this area over the last three months. It's Windows Phone's built-in reader which recognizes barcodes, tags and QR codes; it also can scan foreign text and translate it to your preferred language, with 30 to choose from (up from 26 in the test build). We didn't experience any lags or buggy firmware when scanning code, though the text scan could stand to benefit from a little more work; Vision typically picked up roughly 75 percent of the print we threw at it, and only another 50 percent of that was transcribed properly. Obviously it's not perfect, but it can definitely help in a pinch when you're in need of translating a sign or letter.

Office and Exchange
Windows Phone Mango Office, Games, Etc.

For some mysterious reason, Office and Exchange were two areas that weren't given the time of day in the first version of WP7. Sure, Office was there, but there was very little Exchange and Skydrive support (you could access OneNote docs on SkyDrive, but nothing else), and it felt more like a basic doc creator that had a difficult time keeping up with third-party apps like Quickoffice and Docs to Go.

SkyDrive plays a much more important role in the Office now, as you can now easily sync every type of document -- Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote -- between your phone and the cloud. Same goes with any folders that have been shared with you. All of this, in addition to Office 365 and SharePoint docs, can be found in the brand new Locations panel within the Office app.

Word and Excel together offer nine new document templates to help create your docs faster. Word now supports copy / paste and the ability to add comments to specific words or phrases, while Excel offers quick formulas such as sum, max, min and average. But what about PowerPoint? There's not much in the way of improvements here, aside from smoother transitions between slides and better text rendering.

Speaking of Microsoft Office 365, you can also sync your account -- including your corporate email, calendar, contacts and tasks -- with Outlook Mobile. Once you've set up the account, you'll be able to download Lync from the Marketplace, which gives you a lot more interaction with your company (such as multi-person chat, employee searches and the opportunity to join conference calls directly from a meeting in your calendar).

Support for Information Rights Management, which is geared to help protect confidential docs, has also been added to Mango. That comes along with other Exchange features such as the ability to set up Out of Office messages, sync tasks, use alpha-numeric PIN codes and search your Exchange server for older emails and attachments that normally wouldn't still be in the phone. Oh, and lest we forget -- you can now set up multiple Exchange accounts, a blessing for anyone that works for more than one company or has more than one Gmail account set up as its own Exchange server.

The Exchange and Office support was an absolutely crucial area to improve on in order to win back disenchanted corporate customers that used Windows Mobile until the bitter end.

Miscellaneous improvements

Custom ringtones

We admit -- sometimes it's the little things that drive us completely batty, and WP7's lack of quality ringtone options were the epitome of this. Any person who used an iPhone for the first couple years can relate to the frustration of only having a few ringtones to choose from, most of them either way too soft or just plain annoying.

Fortunately, custom tones made the list of 500 features, but there's a twist: you can only get these custom tones by loading an MP3 or WMA clip no longer than 40 seconds into Zune, placing it into one of your music folders, right-clicking the tune in order to edit it and changing the song's Genre to "ringtone." Then simply sync to the phone, select the song in your device's settings and viola! Nothing to it, right? Easy peasy, if you have software that can crop your favorite music into 40-second segments. Otherwise, get used to the awesomely bad MIDI-style beats found in your phone's ringtone catalog. Don't get us wrong -- we're glad to have the opportunity to throw in our own songs now, but there has to be an easier way.

Internet Sharing

How's this for another bittersweet feature addition? Internet sharing, another way of describing the mobile hotspot feature, is now included in all new Mango devices. Let's rewind: that's right, we said all new devices, which means all existing phones -- including our very own Samsung Focus test unit -- will remain devoid of said awesome hotspot.

Now, we'll play the realist card here. Microsoft was mum on even mentioning this feature at all when we tested the preview build -- it was only confirmed last month -- which tells us the mobile hotspot feature was inches away from not being included in Mango at all. Looking at the bright side, this could just mean that it may take extra time to get the kinks ironed out for existing devices and might come out in a future update, but the folks at Redmond weren't able to give us a firm commitment on it. So, for the time being, current Windows Phones will have a disadvantage here.

Video chat

Technically, video chat isn't one of the 500 promised features -- it's an API that developers can take advantage of. But the inclusion of front-facing cameras in many new Mango devices gives us a feeling that we won't have to worry about a shortage of possible apps in this department. In fact, Tango video calling is ever-present in the HTC Titan and Radar, the first Windows Phone 7.5 devices announced by the Taiwanese company. Sure, video chat isn't guaranteed to be supported by the handset you choose, but just do a little research before you purchase the phone to be absolutely positive you'll find a client that works.

Connect to hidden WiFi networks

This feature, as small and insignificant as it may seem, could be considered one of the most important additions to Windows Phone, because of the affect it's previously had on corporations who purposely keep their WiFi networks hidden for privacy. For a corporation like Microsoft that takes so much pride in its collaboration with businesses, it seemed like such an odd thing to leave out in the initial version of the OS. However, it's ready for Primetime now, so perhaps all can be forgiven.

Battery saver

Battery getting low and you're waiting for that all-important phone call to come in? At this point, you may not care so much about getting your email or having apps run in the background. Enter Battery Saver, a Mango feature that, with your permission, will turn on automatically once your phone is low enough on juice. You can also set it to turn on anytime your device isn't hooked up to a charger, which is roughly 99 percent of the time we don't actually need to charge it.

Internet Explorer 9

With Mango comes Internet Explorer 9, which is greatly improved over its numero ocho because of its full support of HTML5, CSS3, SV, XHTML, DOM and others. Not only that, it throws in a faster JavaScript engine and hardware-accelerated graphics that use the phone's built-in GPU when rendering HTML5 animation or video. It also streamlines the toolbars to open up more screen space for each site, offers improved security, and runs each tab in a separate process so one site can't be responsible for crashing the entire browser.

Wrap-up

Steve Ballmer said it himself -- Windows Phones sales haven't exactly been stellar. And it's not exactly the biggest surprise, considering the type of rebuilding phase Microsoft's mobile OS has gone through over the last few years. Swapping a platform used by millions with something more "youthful and fresh" isn't going to earn customers and praise overnight, especially when it's a brand new ecosystem that has no dev support or track record (besides Redmond's already laughable reputation). We've said before that Mango is the OS that should've come out last year to give Windows Phone relevance in the market, and it's true -- but it's understandable that the company was nowhere near ready to push such a sophisticated platform out. There just wasn't enough time. But it's a much different landscape now for Windows Phone, and Mango is a better fit than its predecessor. The major update took less than a year to make it out, an impressive feat for the overhaul that was involved. Additionally, the Marketplace now supports 30,000 apps and is growing at an explosive pace which will likely speed up as the platform becomes more popular and developer-friendly.

While Windows Phone still needs a glass of water to get rid of a few hiccups -- and let's face it, every mobile OS has plenty of their own -- it ironed out a lot of the wrinkles from earlier versions and made it a much more feature-laden, user-friendly experience. With Mango, WP7 has caught up with Android and iOS in nearly every way, and in some areas it's even surpassed the other two in functionality. Despite a grim first year, the bright future of Windows Phone is forcing Ballmer to wear shades.

Myriam Joire contributed to this review.

Windows Phone 7.5 'Mango' update begins rolling out today

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 10:00 AM PDT

It's raining Mango, Hallelujah! Windows Phone 7.5 is now officially ready to get pushed to existing devices, and in a big way. Taking lessons Microsoft learned from the update debacle that was NoDo, the company's eager to do a much more efficient (and quick) job of rolling out its latest revamp. While Redmond didn't offer any exact details on which phones would be the lucky recipients right away, it'll be keeping the masses posted through its "where's my phone update" page. If your handset is listed, hook it up to your computer, load the Zune client and there should be a lovely message waiting for you. As always, don't feel too discouraged if your device isn't available right away, since these rollouts have a habit of taking a bit of time to get to everyone.

In addition to the rollout, the Web Marketplace will also make its debut, giving Windows Phone users the opportunity to do what Android users already enjoy -- the ability to surf for apps online and have them downloaded directly on the phone with no sideloading required. There's one bit of sad news to relay to anyone that already has a Windows Phone, however: Microsoft confirmed to us that Internet Sharing -- the long-awaited mobile hotspot functionality -- will not be available for existing devices. There's no word on if this will be offered through a future update or if it's a permanent deal, but at least it's only a single thorn in an entire rose garden of good news.

Early Mango users can upgrade directly to RTM build, won't have to roll back to NoDo

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 09:47 AM PDT

Over the weekend, the folks over at Windows Phone New Zealand discovered the "Mango Friends and Family Bundle: Pre-Cleanup" -- the first in a series of two refreshes that promise to clear away any beta updates ahead of Mango's long-awaited rollout. At the time, it seemed like this tool would allow developers to upgrade to the RTM build of the OS, without rolling back to NoDo and losing all of their text messages or app data. Now, Redmond's own Brandon Watson has confirmed via Twitter that this is indeed the case, adding that the update (available in Zune) only offers support to devs who used the Windows Phone beta program. Still, that's pretty reassuring news for all those who jumped on the Mango train a little bit early.

Xiaomi Phone review

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 09:00 AM PDT

Any seasoned Android enthusiast would have no doubt come across Xiaomi Corporation's MIUI at some point. For those who haven't, here's a quick intro: MIUI is a heavily customizable Android ROM based on the works of CyanogenMod (at least on the driver level, so we've been told), and currently the Chinese startup is officially offering its free software for 12 well-known Android handsets, including the HTC Desire, Samsung Captivate and Motorola Droid. Of course, we'll also have the Xiaomi Phone on the list when it launches in China next month.

Using Foxconn's tooling and Inventec's manufacturing resources, the aptly named Xiaomi Phone is the company's first attempt at developing its own hardware, and boy, it's done one helluva job here with the specs: a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8260 SoC (note that this isn't just an overclocked 1.2GHz chip), 1GB RAM, 4GB ROM, eight megapixel camera and the usual wireless bundle including WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS (plus the rare GLONASS). By now you must be thinking: surely there must be a tradeoff somewhere for that tempting price of ¥1,999 ($310)? Read on to find out if this is the case.
Xiaomi Phone review

Hardware


When we first received our review unit, it was actually the packaging that caught our attention. Unlike most other phones, the Xiaomi Phone comes in a thick, pale brown box that's both eco-friendly and exceptionally rigid (you may recall a photo from the launch event showing a person standing on one such box), and the box art focuses on the phone's internal components (you can tell that Xiaomi's emphasis is on the specs rather than the appearance here, but more on that later). Some of you might be disappointed to learn that there aren't that many accessories within the box: you'll only find a USB cable and a power adapter (for China, of course). To be honest, we don't see this as an issue for phone nerds -- the lack of headset, for instance, is likely because Xiaomi assumes its users will pick their own headphones anyway. Also, this keeps the cost down as well. There's no point in wasting money on making mediocre headsets that come with many phones these days, right?

It's time to get to the meat. While Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun famously said his phone has adopted the "no design" design, we couldn't help but think of a similar-looking device -- no, not an iPhone, but the LG Optimus Black. The 149g phone isn't particularly slim, but the body width and rounded edges give us a nice grip. There are only three touch buttons below the display: menu, home and back. Wait, no search button? Thankfully, there's a fix if you wish to do so -- it's actually the two-stage camera button on the right hand side, towards the bottom of the phone. Xiaomi calls this the MI button, and it can be customised to perform other tasks such as prompting the search tool, take a screenshot, launch an app, toggle WiFi, et cetera. As a camera button, we dig the feeling when it's pressed half way for focusing, but the full press could use a more apparent click feedback.


The only remaining buttons are the power button at the top right and the volume rocker on the right hand side -- all are within an easy reach with our fingers. Flip to the back and you'll see there's not much going on across the cover (which consists of graphite for better heat dissipation) except for the openings for the camera module and a little secondary mic for noise cancellation. We'd say the overall build quality matches those from other leading brands, which is a surprise for this price point. Our only complaint here is that sometimes it's hard to determine whether the cover is snapped into place when putting it back in, so hopefully Xiaomi can give this a tweak for the retail version.

Interface and settings

We've already mentioned earlier that the Xiaomi Phone is powered by the company's self-developed MIUI Android (2.3.5) system. Glancing at the home screen alone, it would appear that MIUI has merged some of iOS' features into Android; in other words, there's no app tray, so all the apps are spread across the home screens. In some ways this is more convenient, but for those who aren't familiar with this layout it may become cumbersome. For instance, while rearranging the icons, we forgot that there was no app tray and had therefore managed to accidentally deleted some apps. Of course, those who transition from iOS to MIUI wouldn't have the same issue.

In terms of homescreen customization, the Xiaomi Phone uses a similar method for editing widgets as seen on the Galaxy S II: each are displayed in the form of icons at the bottom, and when dragged around the home screen the amount of space required is highlighted; or you can just look at the dots displayed under each icon for an idea on how much grid space is needed. Moving on to the notification tray, MIUI offers two layouts: one is much like HTC Sense's where the general notifications and the quick settings are split into two tabs. The other mode merges the two together, with the quick setting buttons aligned along the bottom scrollable bar. If you're often frustrated by the lack of certain shortcut keys for, say, changing the screen brightness or toggling WiFi tethering, then you'll definitely love these highly customizable trays.


Going back to the homescreen, externally MIUI offers many options -- not only can you download themes, but when applying them, you can also pick just some of the features from each theme, thus minimizing the chances of having the same skin as other users. Depending on the theme, you may also be able to toggle the dialing pad or texting app directly from the lock screen -- the default themes has two extra draggable tabs to enable this, very convenient, though Meizu's M9 also has this feature.

The fun doesn't end there. If you head over to settings, there's a stash of homescreen transition effects (cube, fade, roll, et cetera) for you to choose from, all of which ran smoothly on our Xiaomi Phone. Additionally, you can see that MIUI has added some of its own elements there, the most interesting one being the battery settings -- here you can set your own level for low battery warning, as well as customizing the battery icon. If you're into RPG games, there's even one that looks like an HP status bar for giggles.


Last but not least, let's not forget a nifty feature that's not visible to most people: the dual-partition update system. This is made with Android enthusiasts in mind, as it allows users who want first dip into MIUI beta builds (updates released every Friday; stable builds monthly) to proceed without losing the existing build and user data. Speaking of which, the vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich build will be made available in January, so that's also something for Xiaomi fans to look forward to.

Another benefit of this dual-partition system is that rather than having to boot into some sort of recovery mode, the user can instead continue using the phone while the other partition (about 150MB on each side) is being updated, and then all that's required is a reboot into the second partition. If something does go wrong with the new build, simply revert back to the other partition.

Alas, due to the way both partitions share the same database, this setup doesn't allow an MIUI ROM and a vanilla Android ROM co-exist on the same device, nor does it support a major version jump (like 2.x to 3.x or even 4.x) between the two partitions -- both would require a full wipe. Similarly, this dual-partition system is currently exclusive to the Xiaomi Phone, as it's up to the manufacturers to implement this low-level modification.

Bundled apps


In addition to the tweaks in the OS, MIUI's also fiddled with some of the bundled apps as well as throwing in some handy tools. Let's look at the bundled apps first: the dialing pad does smart dialing and also supports quick dialing for your favorite buddies; whereas in texting the conversations are displayed in threads with customizable themes. For those who care, another special feature lies in the calendar app where you can also see the lunar calendar. Hey, it is a Chinese phone, after all.

Now, we don't normally pay attention to file management apps in Android, but we totally dig MIUI's offering: here the files can be browsed by file type (music, videos, pics, docs, etc.), and it even supports FTP! Another noteworthy tool is the call blocker app, which lets you set a white list, black list and SMS text filter, all of which can also be toggled automatically at a set time as well.

For those having to keep an eye on data usage, the Xiaomi Phone comes with its own monitoring app that can alert you when you hit a set limit, and you can even configure it to just cut off the data connection to save your piggy bank. Oh, and there's also a firewall for you to fiddle with while you're at it.
Xiaomi Phone review (bundled apps)

Multimedia and browsing

Compared to most other native Android music players, MIUI's own take offers a bit more oomph: you can stream music from an online chart (presumably only available within China), edit ID tags while playing tracks, and download lyrics plus album art. Speaking of which, we were surprised that even though iTunes had already set the album art for some of the tracks, the Xiaomi Phone failed to recognize them and needed us to download new ones.

As for picture browsing, the gallery app's image loading time isn't bad at all thanks to the speedy processor, and pinch-to-zoom is likewise very slick. Most importantly though is the screen: the Xiaomi Phone features a vibrant 4-inch 850 x 480 transflective LCD, and while it's not exactly a brand new display technology (remember the PDA days?), its outdoor performance fares significantly better than AMOLED panels and other common LCDs. Truth be told, we had a little "wow" moment during our first outing with the Xiaomi Phone under strong sunlight, as we were accustomed to not using our Galaxy S II when the sun's out. Now, it'd be even better if MIUI lets us switch off the backlight entirely to save some battery -- after all, we were able to do this on PDAs. Good times.


So how about the eight megapixel camera, then? Well, there's certainly a heavy taste of iOS in the app but with plenty more functionality, including anti-shake, continuous shooting, self-timer, filters (such as black and white, sepia and negative), scenes (night, theater, beach, snow and many more), skin enhancement and many more. The overall focus speed (both auto and manual) didn't disappoint, and likewise with the picture quality -- fine detail, nice colors without over-saturation; though sometimes the white balance was a bit off and needed manual adjustment.
Xiaomi Phone review (camera)

As for video recording, the Xiaomi Phone currently only supports up to 720p MPEG-4 format, with a video bit rate of up to around 6,260kbps. In a well-lit environment we obtained some nice footage, but at night, the frame rate dropped dramatically to make up for the exposure -- this is the same bug that's seen on many HTC phones, which is a real shame. Anyhow, below is one of our sample video clips:


Last but not least, we want to quickly talk about the internet browsing experience: the Xiaomi Phone's native browser supports tabbed browsing as well as full-screen browsing, and it even predicts the URLs as you type. Needless to say, Flash is supported and it loaded quickly for us, but we noticed that while scrolling up and down, the Flash content would overlap the browser's interface. This should be easily rectified in a future software update anyway.

Performance


Being one of the few devices sporting a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8260 SoC, we'd be silly to not do any benchmarking with the Xiaomi Phone. Accompanied by an Adreno 220 graphics processor, 1GB RAM and 4GB ROM, a slick performance is a given -- after all, Xiaomi did start off as a third-party ROM developer, so system optimization should be a piece of cake for it. From the scores we obtained, we'd say the Xiaomi Phone is on par with the Galaxy S II despite the higher clock speed: on Quadrant the former got 3,040, which is only a bit behind the Galaxy S II's 3,396. However, the graphical performance showed mixed outcomes:

Benchmark Xiaomi Phone Galaxy S II
Quadrant (higher is better) 3,040 3,396
Linpack (higher is better) 86 85
NenaMark1 (higher is better) 48.9 59.8
NenaMark2 (higher is better) 31.4 45
Neocore (higher is better) 61.4 59.8
Sunspider (lower is better) 4,040 4,280

While the scores aren't that exciting when compared side by side, the Xiaomi Phone does have one more trick up its sleeve: the massive 1,930mAh battery. From our normal usage (internet browsing, gaming, taking photos for half an hour each) plus the usual phone calls and texting, our phone easily made it over 12 hours; and even with a bit more web usage (like jumping on Facebook and Whatsapp) we still got at least 10 hours of juice. For a dual-core phone this isn't bad at all.
Xiaomi Phone review (multimedia and browsing)

Wrap-up


Having used the Xiaomi Phone for over a week, it's definitely left us a great impression: nice build quality and top notch specs for a $310 device. Our new favorite phone from the Far East also differentiates itself from other Android devices with nifty and unique features, though the enthusiasts are more than welcome to flash other ROMs as well. However, good luck with finding this phone -- Xiaomi is only selling its baby online and doesn't plan on distributing it outside China (even though it'll play well with AT&T's 850MHz 3G); though given that 300,000 units have already been pre-ordered, we wouldn't be surprised if a few of them slip through the Great Wall.

More notably, we're surprised by how far a Chinese startup can get to these days -- our tour around Meizu's headquarters had already dazzled us, but Xiaomi's ambition took it to the next level, attempting to prove that powerful phones can be a lot more affordable and a lot more intuitive. It'll sure be interesting to see how the market will react to Meizu's much anticipated but more expensive dual-core and quad-core MX smartphones towards the end of the year.

Engadget Chinese Mobile Editor Danny Mak contributed to this review.

Sprint's LTE build out already underway, new 4G network to launch first half 2012?

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 08:39 AM PDT

At this point, it's pretty much an open secret that Sprint needs to hitch its ride to LTE to stay in the wireless game. CNET caught wind of the operator's intended 4G plans ahead of its scheduled October strategy announcement -- an event at which many in the industry expect Sprint to lay out its LTE cards. According to the report, the Hesse-led network's been hard at work installing the necessary infrastructure to convert to its towers to FD-LTE, which is the same flavor of LTE as Verizon and future partner LightSquared. Using the iDEN spectrum it acquired from its Nextel purchase, Sprint reportedly plans to set up 4G shop on those radio waves, and make use of current WiMAX provider Clearwire's proposed switch to TD-LTE by incorporating chipsets in future phones that accommodate both frequencies. The network changeover, rumored to cost Sprint somewhere in the range of $4 - $5 billion, should get carried out over the next five years, laying the groundwork for a true three-way 4G race.

Apple wants to 'talk iPhone' on October 4th

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 08:22 AM PDT

Well, it's about freaking time! Apple has finally begun sending out invites for its upcoming press conference, and the company's being none too subtle with the hints, offering up some familiar app icons in the artwork and the tagline "Let's talk iPhone." As to whether it'll be an iPhone 5, 4S or some other new formation, we'll all have to wait until the event to find out -- and you'd better believe we'll be there at Apple's Cupertino headquarters to find out.

Nokia Siemens gets into the dongle and router racket, hitches a ride on TD-LTE

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 07:54 AM PDT

Nokia Siemens USB-lte 7210At PT/Expo Comm Nokia Siemens officially decided to dip its toes in the 4G dongle and router waters, unleashing the USB-lte 7210, the CPEi-lte 7212 and the CPEo-lte 7210 on the public. The three different devices all use TD-LTE to hit speeds of 102Mbps down and 51Mbps up. The USB-lte (pictured on the right) is, obviously, a plug-and-play USB modem for getting your laptop (or desktop, we suppose) online using a cellular network. The CPEi and CPEo are 4G routers, with WiFi radios and Ethernet jacks that allow you to spread the 4G wealth. The difference being the CPEi is designed for in-home use, while the "o" in CPEo stands for "outside." Pricing and availability are still a mystery but, since no carriers here use the time division-duplex flavor of LTE, don't except to see them land on American shores. Check out the PR after the break.



Show full PR text
Nokia Siemens Networks introduces three TD-LTE devices at PT Expo Comm

Beijing, China – September 27, 2011

4G plug-and-play USB dongle, indoor, outdoor wireless routers deliver broadband access

Nokia Siemens Networks has launched three new 4G devices* at PT Expo Comm in Beijing, China. The devices allow consumers to enjoy broadband access at up to 102 Mbps (Megabits per second) downlink and 51 Mbps uplink to support data-intensive services on TD-LTE (time division-duplex, long term evolution) networks. The devices address broadband access requirements that range from basic connectivity in under-served regions, to high-speed mobile broadband in dense metro areas. All are now available to customers.

A plug-and-play USB dongle, the Nokia Siemens Networks USB-lte 7210 offers mobile broadband to laptops and compatible tablets whilst on the move. Nokia Siemens Networks CPEi-lte 7212 is a wireless router built for indoor use that provides fixed wireless connectivity to TD-LTE services via WiFi or Ethernet. A further wireless router, Nokia Siemens Networks CPEo-lte 7210, built to withstand the weather and be mounted outdoors, can also provide broadband access. The devices are commercially available to support 4G services using the TD-LTE standard in the 2.3 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands allocated for wireless broadband in many parts of the globe.

"The availability of compatible devices in the market can be a significant factor in the uptake of a new wireless technology. By providing devices directly, we allow our customers to offer complete broadband packages to consumers, which in turn would speed up the adoption of new 4G services," said Ken Riordan, head of devices at Nokia Siemens Networks.

The devices use techniques such as Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) **, transmit diversity, and receiver sensitivity, exceeding 3GPP standards to improve performance and reduce costs. These features allow operators to offer increased throughput, and better indoor coverage using fewer cell sites. In addition, consumers benefit from minimal orientation loss with the devices, using the device optimally in any position or orientation.

Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services. With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services. It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland.
www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Talk about Nokia Siemens Networks' news at http://blogs.nokiasiemensnetworks.com and find out if your country is exploiting the full potential of connectivity at www.connectivityscorecard.org

SWYP concept printer combines good looks with touchscreen editing

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 07:32 AM PDT

A concept printer from Seattle-based designers Artefact wants to bring those touchscreen editing skills learnt from smartphones and tablets to the not-so-electrifying world of printers. The streamlined SWYP (See What You Print) has a pretty striking design -- for a printer. The paper tray even folds away flush on top of the touchscreen in a very (very!) familar way. That contraption shown above would be able to connect directly to your camera or phone, foregoing the PC step with editing and collating all done on-screen; there's even an augmented reality interface that visualizes ink levels and those inevitable printer woes. At present, these guys aren't gunning to take out the only thing HP hasn't flubbed lately, but hopefully the glossy concept vid after the break will tide you over till commercialization (prayerfully) hits.

[Thanks, Gene]

Disney Appmates 'Cars' toys mean parents may never see their iPads again (video)

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 07:10 AM PDT

If you're a parent with an iPad, there's a good chance your tablet already disappears for long stretches, only to come back covered in tiny fingerprints. Today's Appmates announcement from Disney will likely have plenty of parents seriously considering the purchase of a second tablet for the home. The Cars toys are meant to be driven across the top of an iPad, interacting with a downloadable Cars 2 Appmates app, which lets kids drive around courses, race and complete missions. The app will be offered up as a free download through iTunes, and the cars will run $20 for a two-pack -- the different toys unlock different features, according to Disney. The toys will be made available in October through Apple and Disney Stores and various retailers. Press info and a video after the break.

Show full PR text
Disney Introduces Appmates Mobile Application Toys -- First Toy to Allow Kids to Use Apple iPad(R) as Virtual Play Mat

In an industry first, Disney introduced today Disney AppMATes(TM) Mobile Application Toys, a new toy line that comes to life digitally when used with an Apple iPad by allowing kids to use the tablet's screen as a virtual play mat. Developed in collaboration between Disney Consumer Products (DCP) and Disney Mobile and featuring patent-pending technology, the Appmates toy line features miniature Disney*Pixar Cars 2 vehicles with sensors on the base of each toy that are recognized as a unique footprint by an app with no cable or Bluetooth connection required. Simply download the free Cars 2 Appmates app from the iTunes app store, place your favorite Appmates toy character on the screen and play.

(Editor's note: Product images available at http://bit.ly/AppmatesImages , demo video available at http://bit.ly/Appmates-Demo )

"We have cracked the technology code in changing the way kids play with their toys," said Sunny Lauridsen, director of digital toys for DCP. "Kids will always use toys to play out their favorite Disney stories, but Disney Appmates now allows them to include technology which has become a way of life for them through a beautifully rich app."

The magic begins when kids place their vehicle on the iPad and begin to explore the world of Cars. Available for download in early to mid-October, Cars 2 Appmates app is a free app created by Disney exclusively for use with Appmates toys. By guiding the Appmates vehicle on the screen, the iPad becomes a virtual play mat where kids can experience the world of Radiator Springs.

"We believe iPad is becoming a critical canvas for the next generation of storytelling, and with Appmates we're bringing Disney characters to life in a way never previously imagined," said Bart Decrem, general manager of Disney Mobile.

Cars 2 Appmates features include:

-- Exploration -- Drive around the world of Radiator Springs to discover landscapes and hidden secrets by simply placing the Cars toy character on the screen and turning it in any direction. Drive through mud and up ramps, visit friends at Flo's V8 Cafe or check out your Car's reflection, showing off your latest gear and gadgets.

-- Directed Game Play -- Perform missions unique to each character. Completed missions -- like helping bring a tow hook back to Mater -- gain hubcaps, the virtual currency. Collect enough hubcaps to personalize each car with special features like a unique horn sound, customized tire tracks, and cool gear like a rocket launcher or spy vision goggles.

-- Racing -- Rev up the action by racing against World Grand Prix opponents and your Radiator Springs friends. Five racetracks are available at launch. Race around Willy's Butte, jump off Carburetor Mesa and roar through downtown Radiator Springs earning hubcaps in day or night races.

Each toy unlocks different features and content within the app specific to the character, allowing kids to come back over and over to enjoy an imaginative, open-ended play experience using the Appmates toys. Fans can download and test the app by simply using their fingers to drive a virtual car through the world, but the play experience is optimized to come to life with the Appmates toy vehicles.

Created in collaboration with Spin Master, Disney Appmates toys are available starting Oct. 1 at national retailers, Apple Store, Apple Store online, Disney Store and DisneyStore.com with vehicle two-packs (SRP $19.99) featuring four characters including Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, Finn McMissile, and Holley Shiftwell. Two additional characters -- Francesco Bernoulli and Shu Todoroki -- will launch in November and be available exclusively through Apple Store and Apple Store online.

Reminder: We'll be live tomorrow at Amazon's tablet event in NYC!

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 07:00 AM PDT

Please join us as we join Amazon for an Amazon.com press conference. We don't know for sure what the company will be showing us -- it could be a new kindle -- but with all the tablet talk lately we have to figure there'll be something slate-like on display. Join us tomorrow as we find out.

Set your bookmarks at this location right here, and tune in at the times listed below:

04:00AM - Hawaii
07:00AM - Pacific
08:00AM - Mountain
09:00AM - Central
10:00AM - Eastern
03:00PM - London
04:00PM - Paris
06:00PM - Moscow
07:30PM - Mumbai
11:00PM - Tokyo
12:00AM - Sydney (Sept 29th)

Telstra's 4G LTE network goes live in Australia, new HTC handset coming next year

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 06:43 AM PDT

Telstra customers woke up to a sun shower of good news this morning, when their provider's new 4G LTE network went live in Australia -- or within parts of it, at least. After months of development and a soft launch in late August, Telstra finally flipped the switch on its broadband network today, bringing LTE coverage to capital cities, airports and other select areas. According to the company, its new infrastructure offers download speeds between two and 40 Mbps (a 25 percent increase over what its 3G network supported at launch), with upstream rates ranging from one to ten Mbps. For now, Telstra has upgraded its base stations in all eight capital cities and some 30 regional centers, though it plans to expand its coverage to 80 sites by the end of this year. Subscribers can hook up to the network with a new USB dongle from Sierra Wireless (pictured above), as long as they're within a five kilometer radius from a capital city's station, or within three kilometers of a regional center. Before long, however, Australians may not even need a dongle to bathe in LTE goodness, as Telstra is planning to launch a new 4G-enabled HTC handset by the first half of next year. At this point, details about the Android-based device (codenamed "HTC 4G") remain fuzzy, though the carrier says it will boast a 4.5-inch screen, eight megapixel camera and dual-core processor. For more details, head past the break for a pair of press releases.
Show full PR text
A new era of telecommunications – Telstra lights up 4G mobile services in Australia

Australians will enter a new era of mobile telecommunications today with Telstra launching the nation's first superfast 4G LTE mobile network in capital city CBDs and more than 30 regional and metropolitan centres.

Telstra CEO David Thodey said Australians could now access one of the world's most advanced mobile networks delivering some of the fastest mobile download and upload speeds available anywhere.

"Today marks a new high-speed chapter in Australian mobile telecommunications. Telstra's 4G network delivers mobile speeds scarcely imagined a decade ago, making it easier for people to connect with the things they need and love when on the move," Mr Thodey said.

"The superfast speeds mean consumers can download songs faster, get TV shows in minutes and do more things simultaneously.

"This is just the beginning. Telstra 4G will allow our mobile devices to perform even more advanced tasks and open the door to a host of innovative high-speed services that have yet to be conceived.

"Customers trialling Telstra 4G have told us it is already changing how they connect and work. For example, a sports photographer in Melbourne is now sending his high-resolution footy images direct to newspapers from the boundary line faster than ever. In Sydney, video producers are handling larger video files on the go and saving time in the process. In regional Australia, a skin cancer doctor has increased the quality of his medical images thanks to the increased bandwidth available over 4G," Mr Thodey said.

Using the Telstra USB 4G mobile broadband modem, which goes on sale today, customers in 4G coverage areas can enjoy typical download speeds ranging from 2Mbps to 40Mbps – up to ten times faster than 3G speeds currently claimed by other Australian telecommunications companies. Customers can also experience typical upload speeds of 1Mbps to 10Mbps – three times faster than previous generations of mobile broadband in Australia.

"We know there is a huge appetite for 4G-powered smartphones and tablets and Telstra is working with some of the world's leading manufacturers to bring some of these devices to customers in the first half of 2012," Mr Thodey said.

As well as supporting faster mobile speeds, Telstra 4G provides a more responsive internet connection. Network latency (the time it takes for data to travel from a PC to the internet and back) is around half that experienced on current 3G networks meaning real-time applications like video conferencing, internet gaming and cloud-hosted streaming services work better with less buffering and fewer interruptions.

Telstra also announced that it would launch 4G services in more than 50 additional locations by year's end.

Today's national launch follows Telstra's switch-on of the first 4G base stations using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in May and a commercial pilot of 4G services for business customers last month.

4G Plans and Pricing

The BigPond USB 4G can be purchased by consumer customers for $0 (after rebate) on a range of new 24 month plans – including on a $59.95 per month plan with 8GB of data included each month over 24 months (min cost $1,438.80).

The Telstra USB 4G can be purchased by business customers on a range of plans including $0 upfront on the $39 Telstra Mobile Broadband Standard Plan over 24 months (min total cost $936) with 4GB included data.

For more information on Telstra 4G visit www.telstra.com/4gfun. Business customers can visit: www.telstra.com/business/4G.

*Speeds vary due to factors such as distance from base station, local conditions, user numbers, hardware and software configuration.

Show full PR text

Telstra and HTC to bring 4G smartphone to Australia

Australians will soon get their hands on the next generation of mobile phone technology with Telstra joining with HTC to launch its first 4G LTE smartphone in the first half of 2012.

Codenamed 'HTC 4G', the smartphone will feature lightning-fast 4G mobile internet speeds, a large 4.5 inch screen and will be powered by Android™.

Telstra CEO David Thodey said Telstra 4G promised to supercharge the smartphone web experience by providing some of the fastest handset download and upload speeds available.

"4G smartphones will bring the rich internet content Australians love on their home PCs to their hands and pockets," Mr Thodey said.

"In a matter of months, our customers will be able to stream their video and music collections over the mobile internet faster than before, access cloud-hosted applications and play fast-paced internet games direct from their smartphone screen. We're delighted to be working with HTC on the first of many 4G handheld devices that are set to launch now the new Telstra 4G network is live in Australia.

HTC CEO Peter Chou said HTC and Telstra are leading the world in LTE development.

"By partnering to deliver Telstra's first 4G smartphone we are ushering in a new generation smartphone experience in Australia. Superfast network speeds in a device built with HTC's focus on design, screen quality and delivery of the best customer experience is something that we are extremely excited about making available to Australian customers."

Earlier today, Telstra launched Australia's first superfast 4G LTE mobile network in capital city CBDs and more than 30 regional and metropolitan centres.

The HTC 4G will be powered by a fast dual-core processor and will feature a high-quality 8 mega-pixel camera.

Further details, pricing and availability for the HTC 4G will be announced in the coming months.

Customers can pre-register their interest from today by visiting www.telstra.com.au/htc4g.

HTC announces its next party, Beats Audio and 'surprise headliner' in attendance

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 06:25 AM PDT

HTC's Facebook page is inviting fans to a gathering on October 6th at the rock 'n roll Roundhouse in London, ostensibly to celebrate the Beats Audio technology we've been listening to with the Sensation XE. Call us over-excited, but the manufacturer's last party bore plenty of exotic fruit so we reckon those Dre-approved headphones in the flyer might be connected to yet another new handset -- unless the mystery guest happens to be the aging hip-hop star himself. In any case, we'll be there and we won't hit a single canapé or rap pose until we've brought you the news.

Steinberg CMC modular USB controllers, stack 'em how you want 'em (video)

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 06:04 AM PDT

The mere mention of the word modular is usually enough to get any self-respecting music geek hot under the collar, so when Steinberg announced its latest stackable collection of dedicated USB music production controllers, hardware fans will have felt a collective twitch of excitement. Specifically built for its much loved Cubase and Nuendo programs, each of the six units has its own speciality, and has been designed to let you get your tactile funk on, be it mixing melodies or mashing in beats. Plonk up to nine of these sleek, luminous lovelies on your desk for the music control surface of your dreams, but with no mention of price just yet, you might want to keep the plastic wrapped up until they hit the stores in October. Ogle the video after the break for the full company promo.



Show full PR text
Steinberg CMC series press release

Steinberg is proud to present a new range of USB controllers that can be individually combined to form a custom-made Cubase control system. Comprising six slim yet powerful units, the CMC series has all the control options you're looking for - whether you are recording, editing and mixing music, creating beats or performing live. Each of the six slim-sized controllers is unique in its own way and features a dedicated set of rotary encoders, touch faders or pads designed to take hands-on control of a specific section in Cubase.
CMC models at a glance:

* CMC-CH is the hardware equivalent of the eminently powerful Cubase channel section and brings hands-on access to all channel-related functions.
* CMC-FD carries four newly developed, high resolution touch faders that provide precision control over four Cubase channels at the same time, including solo/mute and metering.
* CMC-TP provides instant access to the Cubase transport section, featuring dedicated buttons and an innovative, multi-purpose touch slider for convenient DAW control.
* CMC-PD houses a MPC-style 4x4 pad matrix, which makes it the ultimate controller for creating dynamic grooves and natural percussion patterns.
* CMC-QC brings the powerful Cubase Quick Controls to your fingertips and provides precise tactile control over the Cubase Channel EQ and external MIDI devices.
* CMC-AI features Steinberg's groundbreaking AI Knob and is a truly versatile and time-saving addition to any Cubase system.

Best of all, with the included joint plate, up to nine CMC units can be combined to design a personal controller system. For even more flexibility, you can use the PD, FD or any other CMC model together with Steinberg's CC121 Advanced Integration controller. And the optionally available, beautifully crafted frames provide a convenient way to safely mount your units.

Perfect ergonomics, instant plug-and-play compatibility with Cubase and user-assignable functions make the CMC series the ultimate choice for any serious Cubase user - so get in touch, take control and stay flexible.*

Big publishers to provide fuel for Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet?

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 05:45 AM PDT

So, word on the street is that Amazon's got an Android-based tablet in the works that looks like a PlayBook and will probably be called the Kindle Fire. But, until now, we didn't know what kind of content would be available on this new Kindle with a color screen. According to All Things D, Bezos' baby has been blessed by Hearst, Conde Nast and Meredith publishers in time for the slate's unveiling later this week -- giving users access to magazines ranging from GQ and Cosmopolitan to Car and Driver and Wired. Evidently, Amazon's taking around a 30 percent cut (not unlike the competition in Cupertino) of slate-based subscriptions, with small variations depending upon the magazine. With these latest leaked tidbits, we're beginning to wonder what details are left for Amazon to reveal on Wednesday -- a little mystery adds to the anticipation, after all.

China readies its own space station module for launch

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 05:24 AM PDT

Presumably feeling a little left out after being turned down from the global love-in that is the International Space Station, China's decided to go it alone. The ever-expanding nation will be ready to launch the first module of it's very own space station, the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace), by the end of this month. The initial launch will be unmanned, delivering an 8.5-ton module ready for docking practise and other interactions with three more spacecraft that are planned to join it later this year. Pegged for completion by 2020 and with a complete weight of over 60 tons, the Tiangong will look positively petite compared to the hulking 419-ton ISS, but is also said to be significantly cheaper. Meanwhile, we still await China's take on the Robonaut.

Sony Video Unlimited-preview brings Gracenote metadata to SEN

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 05:00 AM PDT

Despite one of its execs pegging this spring's lengthy PSN outage as a "great experience" the folks at Sony have been pounding the pavement to drum up consumer morale. Back at IFA, the outfit unveiled its new all-in-one Sony Entertainment Network, and its already giving the VOD wing, Video Unlimited, a facelift. Starting today, PS3 owners holding a PlayStation Plus subscription can download the creatively titled "Video Unlimited-preview" app from the PlayStation Store. According to Sony, the new user interface is all about giving the people what they want, and in this case that means a streamlined UI, with big bright graphics and understated, glowing blue text. It also means Gracenote integration, opening up the possibility of endless rabbit-holes of related content searches. We had a few minutes with the new setup, and found ourselves searching content related to Danny McBride's Your Highness under categories like "Bumbling Buffoons" and "Mythical Beasts," although we could just as easily have called up titles featuring the film's director or any of its stars.

If that's not enough of a departure from the conventional video on demand arrangement, the new UI also features "tumbler search technology," which abandons regular keyboard-style input for PS3 controls -- click the right button to select a letter as you scroll vertically through the alphabet. This "patented technology" also autocompletes your query and similarly takes advantage of Gracenote's database, allowing you to search by title, actor, director or tag. The new UI is specific to the company's video service and is currently only available via the PS3, but we're told it will roll out to the entire network and supported devices sometime in the future. All PlayStation Network users will be able to download the preview app starting October 11th, check out a video preview embedded after the break.
Sony Video Unlimited

Buffalo adds super secure DriveStation Axis Velocity and rugged MiniStation Extreme USB 3.0 storage lineup

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 04:27 AM PDT

Buffalo DriveStation Axis Velocity and MiniStation Extreme
The MiniStation Extreme and DriveStation Axis Velocity aren't exactly ground-breaking products, but they're certainly nice additions to Buffalo's lineup of USB 3.0-packing storage solutions. The Axis Velocity is a pretty standard external drive for a desktop, with platters inside it spinning at 7,200 RPM. What sets it apart from a good chunk of the crowd is the 256-bit AES hardware encryption, which is tough enough to meet even the government's stringent security standards. The MiniStation Extreme goes truly portable and rugged -- for those who have a tendency to drop things or hit them with a hammer. The MiniStation ships in 500GB and 1TB capacities for $95 and $130 respectively, while the Axis Velocity starts at $95 for the 1TB model and goes up to $135 for 2TB and $180 for three. Check out the gallery below and the complete PR after the break.
Buffalo DriveStation Axis Velocity and MiniStation Extreme
Show full PR text
Buffalo Expands Its USB 3.0 Portfolio

Buffalo's Latest Storage Solutions Couple High Performance USB 3.0 with Government-Grade Protection

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Buffalo Technology, a global leader in the design, development and manufacturing of wired and wireless networking and network and direct attached storage solutions, today announced the new MiniStation™ Extreme and DriveStation™ Axis Velocity storage solutions. These latest additions to Buffalo's portfolio of innovative and performance-driven USB 3.0 storage solutions provide consumers with a fast and reliable way to store, back up and transport their content safely and securely.

Because data protection is a priority, the new MiniStation Extreme offers a feature-rich portable storage solution in a rugged, lightweight package, designed to keep your files secure. Its attractive design and high-quality finish equipped with a unique wrap-around USB cable, a rubberized base, sophisticated shock protection elements and hardware encryption blend form and function to deliver uncompromising data protection and mobility. With USB 3.0 support and backward compatibility with USB 2.0, it works with nearly any PC or Mac® and provides interface speeds up to 5 Gbps. MiniStation Extreme features US Military Standard shock protection with a ruggedized chassis and specialized bumpers designed to absorb and transfer shock away from the hard disk due to accidental bumps and drops from up to 2 meters. Its convenient wrap-around cable hugs the body to ensure you're always ready to connect while on the go. Simply plug it into any available USB port on your computer and instantly add capacity or store files to take on the road; with 256-bit AES hardware encryption, you can rest assured your data is safe, wherever you go.

The new DriveStation Axis Velocity is an easy to use external hard drive designed for simple and secure storage and backup. Equipped with a high speed 7200 RPM hard drive and USB 3.0 support, DriveStation Axis Velocity boasts extremely fast file transfers and is backward compatible with USB 2.0 for use with nearly any PC or Mac®. Optional 256-bit AES hardware encryption offers government-grade protection without the need for additional software, keeping your data safe from theft and unauthorized access. Its unique chassis design can stand upright or lay flat allowing for placement just about anywhere; sit it on your desk for use with your computer or place it below your TV to stream slideshows and your favorite movies and music. DriveStation Axis Velocity is the perfect solution for fast and easy data storage and backup.

Both the MiniStation Extreme and DriveStation Axis Velocity ship complete with Buffalo Tools, a multipurpose utility suite designed to enhance Windows® PC performance and the overall user experience; greatly increase file transfer rates with TurboPC EX, set up a back up schedule and protect your data with Backup Utility and conserve energy by reducing power consumption with eco Manager. Buffalo's MiniStation Extreme and DriveStation Axis Velocity are reliable solutions to instantly expand storage and back up your data.

Pricing and Availability

Buffalo's MiniStation Extreme is backed by a three-year limited warranty and DriveStation Axis Velocity is backed by a two-year limited warranty including toll-free 24/7 US based technical support. Both models will be available October 2011.

MiniStation Extreme is available at an estimated street price of $94.99 for the 500GB (HD-PZ500U3) and $129.99 for the 1 TB (HD-PNT1.0U3).
DriveStation Axis Velocity is available at an estimated street price of $94.99 for the 1 TB (HD-LX1.0TU3), $134.99 for the 2 TB (HD-LX2.0TU3) and $179.99 for the 3 TB (HD-LX3.0TU3).


Buffalo products can be purchased through distribution, online resellers and Buffalo's ecommerce website. For more information about Buffalo Technology and its products, please visit the company's website at www.buffalotech.com.

About Buffalo Technology

Buffalo Technology (USA), Inc., based in Austin, Texas, is a leading global provider of award-winning networking, storage and multimedia solutions for the home and small business environments as well as for system builders and integrators. With almost three decades of networking and computer peripheral experience, Buffalo has proven its commitment to delivering innovative, best-of-breed solutions that have put the company at the forefront of infrastructure technology. For more information about Buffalo Technology and its products, please visit www.buffalotech.com.

Buffalo, Inc. trademark statements. Buffalo is a trademark of Buffalo, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Nokia N9 begins shipping at not inexpensive prices

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 03:43 AM PDT

After months of rumors and pre-orders, the Nokia N9 has finally begun shipping. Today, the Finnish manufacturer announced that its Meego-drenched handsets are now available for consumption, in both 16GB and 64GB variants. Of course, those of us in the US are out of luck, as are those in Germany and the UK (barring any back-door wizardry), but everyone else can grab a 16GB model for the not-so-small price of €480 (about $650), or the 64GB version for the similarly steep price of €560 (roughly $757). Pricing and availability, of course, will vary by region, but you can find more details in the full press release after the break, or at the source link, below.
Show full PR text
Nokia N9 begins shipping

Espoo, Finland - The Nokia N9, designed for people who appreciate exceptional design and craftsmanship as well as the latest smartphone technology, has begun shipping to customers and stores.

"Since we announced the Nokia N9 in June this year, the feedback that it has gotten from discerning and avid smartphone users across the world has been nothing short of fantastic," said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President of Marketing, Nokia. "With the innovations in industrial design, user interface, and the Qt developer experience, the Nokia N9 sets the bar for how natural technology can feel, and represents the first in a number of products from Nokia that will be brought to life in similar fashion."

The beautifully designed Nokia N9 features an intuitive user interface that's controlled with a simple swipe. With no home key, there's more room for apps to shine. Three home views - Applications, Events and Live Applications - enable people to navigate through the smartphone easily and get to their favourite content faster. Other features include:

· 3.9-inch AMOLED screenmade from scratch-resistant curved glass

· Easy single-tap pairing with NFC-enabled accessories such as the Nokia Play 360 wireless speaker and sharing of content through NFC technology

· An 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor and wide-angle lens for HD-quality video and photo capture, and large lens aperture for great camera performance even in low-lighting conditions; easy capture and share of images and videos with social networks

· Mobile Internet radio*, with a great range of music out-of-the-box and no fees or account creation necessary, available for the first time as part of the Nokia Music offering; just press play. And the music sounds even better on the first smartphone to come with Dolby Digital Plus decoding and Dolby Headphone post-processing technology.

· Free turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation with voice-guided maps for more than 100 countries and in more than 50 languages

· Top social networking, communication, entertainment and gaming apps preloaded for a hassle-free out-of-the-box experience

· Global and local apps available through Nokia store for further personalization and new discovery opportunities

The Nokia N9 is available in three colours - black, cyan and magenta with 16GB and 64GB storage options to accommodate plenty of content and will be on sale in countries around the world.

The estimated retail price of the Nokia N9 16GB and 64GB is approximately EUR 480 and EUR 560 before applicable taxes or subsidies, with pricing and availability varying from region to region and operator to operator.

ZTE T98 tablet with next-gen NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor spotted in Beijing

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 02:54 AM PDT

Until now we'd only come across NVIDIA's Tegra 3 (aka Kal-El) in reference tablets and demos, but here we are finally looking at an actual product revealed at PT/Expo Comm China. It's a 7-inch slate from ZTE called the T98, apparently running the quad-core 1.5GHz processor slightly underclocked at 1.3GHz, beneath Android 3.2, a 1280x800 display, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, a 5MP rear camera and 2MP front-facer. The 11.5mm-thick body also houses a 3G modem and a 4000mAh battery, which won't see many easy days powering this beast. No definitive word on price or release date yet, but click past the break for a reverse shot.



LG Optimus EX gets official in Korea, sporting 1.2GHz Tegra 2 chip, 700 nits of brightness

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 02:11 AM PDT

So, about that LG Optimus EX we saw last week -- it's now gone official in South Korea and it's looking slightly more alluring. Announced yesterday, this Gingerbread-coated handset is the first to ship with NVIDIA's revamped 1.2GHz Tegra 2 processor, which means it'll support 1080p video, much like the Galaxy S II. It also boasts a four-inch LCD with 480 × 800 resolution and a full 700 nits of brightness, along with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage, a five megapixel camera and front-facing VGA shooter. Available in either black and silver or white and gold color schemes, the EX is slated to launch on Korea's SK Telecom at an unspecified price, though plans for an international release remain unclear. As soon as we find out, however, we'll be sure to let you know.

Scientists prove that active exploration isn't required to create memories, +1 for 2D learning

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 01:19 AM PDT

In a small victory for gamers and TV junkies everywhere, scientists found that viewing 2D images helped create long-term memories, meaning that visual media can help your learn. To form lasting memories, nerve cells normally experience "long-term potentiation" and "long-term depression" -- both essential for learning. Researchers found that long-term depression was achieved when they let rats actively wander around a new environment. When they replaced the explorable area with a computer screen, the same memory-making phenomenon still occurred. The study's conclusion? Video games and TV shows can help us learn, similarly to traditional non-electronic methods. Of course, there are concerns that visual media overload could lead to shorter attention spans, interfere with lessons taught at school and... oh look! A cat! Check out the full findings by hitting the source link below.

Sprint's unlimited data plans aren't going anywhere, CTO confirms

Posted: 27 Sep 2011 12:25 AM PDT

Sprint may have plenty of changes in store for its upcoming "strategy update," but it looks like one crucial policy will remain in place -- unlimited data plans. Speaking to reporters at Mobilize in San Francisco yesterday, company CTO Stephen Bye confirmed that even though competitors like Verizon and AT&T are phasing out their unlimited plans, Sprint remains committed to providing its customers with infinite data. Doing so won't come without costs, since, as Bye explained, not all unlimited subscribers eat up the same amount of data. But the exec pointed out that these efforts are counterbalanced by the relative simplicity of managing unlimited schemes, and don't seem quite as prohibitive when compared with the hidden customer support costs involved with more complex, tiered plans. Yet despite all this optimism, Sprint seems fully aware that some major expenses are on the horizon, especially with a revamped 4G LTE network in the pipeline and, perhaps, with the iPhone 5 on the way. "Is there pressure? Yeah," Bye acknowledged. "There's a challenge for all engineers to work on how we get the cost structure down." Bye went on to reiterate, however, that although a new data network may attract new investors, it's ultimately Sprint's unique data plans that will keep its customer base intact.

Boeing officially delivers 787 Dreamliner to ANA, future of air travel finally arrives

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 11:25 PM PDT

It's the plane so nice, they unveiled it twice. Boeing once again presented its long-awaited and much-delayed 787 Dreamliner to client All Nippon Airways, but this time the goods were officially delivered. After taking the wraps off the airliner early this August, the aerospace company managed to get a flight-ready unit over to its Everett, Washington production plant for a celebratory hand-off. Despite a fit of stops and starts for the line's rollout, Boeing expects to meet ANA's order of its future 55-strong fleet, producing an additional 20 craft for the Japanese airline by 2013's end. If you want to be among the select few to call "First!," you might want to consider booking that Japan-bound vacation now.

Samsung's Galaxy S II for T-Mobile proves that unicorns do exist (hands-on video)

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 10:21 PM PDT

After eluding our grubby little paws at its launch in New York and again this morning at Mobilize 2011, we're happy to report that we've finally caught up with T-Mobile's Galaxy S II. To recap, the carrier's permutation rocks the same WVGA 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display as Sprint's Epic 4G Touch, but replaces Samsung's in-house 1.2GHz Exynos CPU with Qualcomm's dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S3 processor. T-Mobile tells us the brain swap was necessary as it wanted its variant to support 42Mbps HSPA+ on the network's AWS band (just like its cousin the Amaze 4G). Oh, and like AT&T's variant it comes with a little NFC glitter sprinkled on top. So is it the same delectable Galaxy S II as its European and Sprint counterparts? From our brief time with the handset, the transplant doesn't appear to have impacted performance at all -- it's just as snappy as ever. In terms of appearance, the phone sports a soft-touch matte black finish in back and its bezel is a lighter shade of chrome than used on its siblings. Check out our gallery below, and peek after the break for our hands-on video.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
T-Mobile Galaxy S II hands-on

Hands-on with HTC's Amaze 4G for T-Mobile (video)

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 09:37 PM PDT

So how does HTC's Amaze 4G stack up to its European counterpart, the Sensation XE? Pretty well actually. The 4.3-inch qHD smartphone also features Qualcomm's 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU, but bumps the RAM from 768MB to 1GB. It's also HTC's first NFC toting device and joins T-Mobile's Galaxy S II as the other 42Mbps HSPA+ -capable handset on Magenta's network. More noteworthy is its trick eight megapixel shooter, which features the same backside-illuminated sensor, f2.2 wide-angle optics and 1080p video recording capability as the myTouch 4G Slide. Similarly, the Amaze 4G hangs on to quite a bit of that phone's camera software, including a new composite mode that automagically creates one stellar image out of five less than fabulous snapshots. We also liked the addition of two physical camera buttons, one for stills and the other for video. First impressions of the Sense-laden, Gingerbread smartphone? It's very much like a Sensation on steroids, with a definite T-Mobile flavor. Take a look at our gallery and hit the break for our hands-on video from Mobilize 2011.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
HTC Amaze 4G hands-on

Nuance adds WP7 support, gives devs better service with NDEV Mobile developer program

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 09:00 PM PDT

You know Nuance right? They're the folks who make Dragon speech recognition software for Macs, iThings, Blackberrys, Androids and cars. Earlier this year, the company released its Dragon Mobile SDK to provide the tools needed to get folks talking to their phones, instead of with them. Now, Nuance has added support for Windows Phone 7 (no Mango support... yet) and upgraded its developer program to provide devs with more support so it's easier to make voice-enabled applications. Additionally, it's added eight new languages to its repertoire -- Canadian French, Americas Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Korean, Taiwanese Mandarin, and Cantonese -- with more to come.

We got to speak with Nuance about its new program, now called NDEV Mobile, and were told it's broken into three tiers: Silver, Gold, and Emerald. NDEV Silver is the base level that gives devs free access to Nuance's text-to-speech and voice recognition technology. Gold service provides SSL data encryption and access to cloud-based speech recognition and TTS servers over the web (rather than using a client-side API) through per-user or per-transaction pricing models. At the top end, the Emerald level rolls out the red carpet with integrated custom vocabulary and grammar -- for creating apps that recognize industry jargon -- and dedicated account management. The company sees the Emerald tier appealing most to enterprise customers, but it's available to any dev willing to pony up for the extra Nuance TLC. So, intrepid app-makers, now that you've got the tools to make our phones understand us better than ever, how will you use them?
Show full PR text
Nuance Unveils New NDEV Mobile Developer Program, Complete With Free Access to Renowned Dragon Mobile Voice Technology

NDEV Mobile More Flexible Than Ever, Supporting New Platforms, Business Models, and Languages to Meet the Diverse Needs of the Global Mobile Ecosystem

Burlington, Mass. – September 27, 2011 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that its Nuance Mobile Developer Program, now NDEV Mobile, features new services that make it easier than ever for developers to voice-enable apps with Nuance's industry leading speech technology. NDEV Mobile now features three new service tiers – Silver, Gold, and Emerald – that give developers more choice and flexibility in how they bring Dragon-powered innovations to market. The Dragon Mobile SDK made available through the NDEV Mobile program now also supports Windows Phone 7 in addition to Android and iOS, as well as an HTTP web services interface, and, brings developers eight new languages for voice recognition.

NDEV Mobile has already experienced great success since its launch in January, 2011, with more than 4,000 iOS and Android developers signing on to access the Dragon Mobile SDK across the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. This success has led to demand for even more flexibility and support in bringing voice-enabled applications to market. As such, NDEV Mobile now features three new tiers of service to better meet the diverse needs of the broader mobile developer community:

NDEV Silver: NDEV Silver Services provide Android, Windows Phone 7 and iOS app developers with the ability to deploy their apps for free with the accuracy and reliability that only Nuance can provide. Developers will also have free access to Nuance's connected text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities in over 30 languages, bringing natural sounding read back of text in the cloud. Further, NDEV Silver members get access to Bluetooth use cases and hands-free voice applications.

NDEV Silver Services members have access to the world's highest quality speech
recognition technology for both general dictation and search. Additionally, the Dragon
Mobile Developer Center provides a centralized resource for speech information and
expertise including on-line forums, code samples, and full documentation.


NDEV Gold: NDEV Gold Services offer access to SSL data encryption, more deployment flexibility and enhanced support. In addition to iOS, Android, and Windows Phone 7, Gold Services members can take advantage of Nuance's HTTP web service interface, which extends the power of Dragon to any mobile device while giving developers greater control over the user interface.

NDEV Gold Services members' applications can take advantage of SSL for encrypted data transmission, as well as open access to analytics tools that will help them maximize the impact and effectiveness of the voice experience their app delivers. Further, Gold Services members have access to one-on-one Nuance assistance in addition to the NDEV Mobile online community resources.

NDEV Emerald: NDEV Emerald Services are designed to meet the unique needs of NDEV Mobile community members looking for a truly differentiated speech experience on their apps. NDEV Emerald members have an array of customization and service options that bring Nuance's extensive speech expertise and service capabilities to a diverse developer base – ranging from start-ups to wireless carriers, OEMs, and large enterprises. Emerald Services include custom vocabularies and grammars, user experience consulting, speech integration, advanced text-to-speech, high-availability deployment, and unmatched Nuance support – pre and post deployment, including dedicated account management resources.

Available to all NDEV Silver, Gold, and Emerald members, are eight new speech-to-text languages supported by the Dragon Mobile SDK – Canadian French, Americas Spanish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Korean, Taiwan Mandarin, and Cantonese – in addition to already supporting US, Australian and UK English, European Spanish, European French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese for dictation and search. Additional languages will continue to be added through the end of the year, offering developers broader geographic expansion and availability of their innovative voice-enabled apps across the globe.

"The success of our NDEV Mobile developer program has proven that our market-leading voice capabilities drive incredible value for developers across a variety of markets," said Michael Thompson, senior vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile. "Our new multi-tiered services options deliver developers the options and services they've been asking for. It's never been easier to deliver the power of voice-enabled apps to the market, tailored and customized to meet the needs of each app's unique consumer base."

NDEV Mobile has voice-enabled some of the market's most popular apps, including Siri, Price Check by Amazon, Ask for iPhone, Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com, RemoteLink from OnStar, SpeechTrans, Yellow Pages and AirYell from Avantar, iTranslate, Taskmind, SayHi Translate, Vocre, Bon'App, and many others.

Availability

The Dragon Mobile SDK is available for iOS 4.0 (iPhone/iPad/iPod touch), Android 2.1 and higher, Windows Phone 7.1 and via an HTTP web services interface. For more information about the NDEV Silver, Gold, and Emerald Services, please visit the NDEV Mobile developer portal at dragonmobile.nuancemobiledeveloper.com

Dragon has long been a leading speech recognition application on the desktop, used by millions of people around the world. Nuance has launched an array of Dragon applications across a variety of mobile platforms including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, and more.

To learn more, visit www.nuancemobilelife.com.


About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Crapgadget: 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' edition

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 07:55 PM PDT

We're sure that most inventors out there are genuinely looking to make the world a better place, but the best intentions don't always produce the best inventions, and while the following gadgets will all likely appeal to someone, somewhere, we can't exactly recommend, say, an ear-shaped iPhone case or a $300 toothpaste squeezer. But as the saying goes, "one man's crapgadget is another man's treasure."

Read - It's like a beanbag chair for your iPad! For your lap!
Read - At $300, this toothpaste tube squeezer should pay for itself exactly one day before the sun burns out.
Read - How is this iPhone case different than all other iPhone cases? Simple: it makes it look like you've contracted some sort of engorged ear disease. Never get bothered during important phone calls again!
Read - It's a battery charger! For the ladies!

Crapgadget: who is king crapgadget?

Android powered 56 percent of smartphones sold in the last three months

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 06:40 PM PDT

Nielsen survey
When last we checked in with Nielsen (which was earlier this month) Google's mobile OS had a sizable lead, powering just under 42-percent of smartphones sold, while Apple had cornered a more than respectable 28-percent of the market. In the few short weeks since, Android has seen its share grow to 43-percent. More interestingly, of the over 25,500 surveyed who had purchased a smartphone in the last three months, a whopping 56-percent chose to go with the Goog. Apple held a steady 28-percent across the board. Big G's gains came at the expense of RIM (only 9-percent of phones sold in the last three months were BlackBerries) and the ambiguous "other" (Symbian, Windows Phone 7, Bada, MeeGo, etc... accounted for 6-percent of sales). More important than choice of platform though, is that smartphone sales in general are climbing -- accounting for 58-percent of all handsets sold in August and driving smartphone penetration to 43-percent.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 WiFi hits the FCC in tabtastic glory

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 05:10 PM PDT

It may have gone MIA at IFA 2011 earlier this month due to an ongoing legal battle, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 is certainly no figment of our imagination. Far from it: the device, dubbed the GT-P6810, just got put through its paces in the hallowed halls of the Federal Communications Commission, and came out unscathed and with some decent diagrams that actually show off the tablet in a somewhat flattering manner. The version seen going through the FCC is most likely a 16GB WiFi-only version, as no mention of wireless bands could be found. Whether or not it'll hit US shores is an uncertainty, as passage through the government doesn't guarantee it'll actually be sold here, but the Galaxy Tab series has already had plenty of time to pick up a popularity point or two.

ASUS Ultrabooks to arrive in New York City on October 11

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 04:46 PM PDT

The Ultrabooks are coming, and it looks like ASUS' first foray into thin and light computing will officially arrive on October 11th in New York. According to a UX series landing page, we need only wait 15 more days before getting our hands the ASUS UX21 and its larger, but still svelte sibling, the UX31, once again. Frankly, we can hardly wait for their arrival, but patience is a virtue, right?

The Deleted City visualizes GeoCities as it was, today

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 04:12 PM PDT

GeoCities may be no more, but, unlike some other bits of internet past, its entire contents were thoroughly archived before the site was completely shut down in 2009. That opened up some interesting possibilities for anyone interested in playing around with the 650 gigabyte archive, and this so-called "Deleted City" project may well be the most interesting yet. Described as a "digital archaeology of the world wide web as it exploded into the 21st century," the project appropriately visualized GeoCities as one large city, which can be dived into and explored at will (complete with a soundtrack supplied by "nearby" MIDI files). Unfortunately, it's not clear when or if folks will actually be able to try it out for themselves, but you can at least take a guided tour in the video after the break.

Samsung announces latest Unpacked event, set to kick-off at CTIA

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 03:47 PM PDT

Remember those Samsung Unpacked events from earlier this month and way back in February? Well Sammy is apparently readying something else for the upcoming CTIA, and we've tentatively circled October 11th in our diaries. There's nothing concrete yet on precisely what the Korean manufacturer will be offering up to the masses, though we've seen previous events cover smartphones, cameras and even tablets all in one fell swoop. Might the next Google phone -- heavily rumored to be a Samsung baby-- be "primed" for launch?


[Thanks Oguz]

Galaxy Tab 8.9 hits pre-order, ships October 2nd in US; Galaxy Player 5.0 and 4.0 shipping October 16th

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 03:15 PM PDT

Hot on the heels of a UK release, Samsung has just announced that its long-awaited (and long-delayed) Galaxy Player 4.0 ($229) and 5.0 ($269) will be available for pre-order starting September 27th, with US availability pegged for October 16th. Oddly enough, Samsung gave no reason behind the once-spring, now-autumn pushback, but at least we can finally stop wondering and instead start enjoying the spoils of an (almost) Galaxy Note-sans-phone. (Not like we haven't heard a similar tune before). All that aside, the Player 5.0 and 4.0 weigh in at 6.4 and 4.2 ounces, respectively, and both are powered by Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread); other specs include 802.11b/g/n, WVGA Super Clear LCDs (800 x 480), Bluetooth 3.0, 8GB of onboard storage, a microSD expansion slot, 3.5mm headphone jack, voice recorder, mini-USB connectivity, front and rear cameras and support for Sammy's Media Hub content service. The big fellow gets a 2,500mAh battery, whereas its little(r) brother is equipped with a 1,200mAh cell. (Psst... you can catch our hands-on with these here and here.)

Meanwhile, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is available for pre-sale right now, with shipments to hit retail on October 2nd. You'll be laying down $469 for the 16GB model, while a doubling of capacity will run you $100 more. Need a refresher on this one, too? How's about a WXGA (1,280 x 800) touchpanel, dual-core T250S processor, 6,100mAh battery, sub-one pound weight, DLNA compatibility, a 3 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front-facing camera, integrated Swype / Polaris Office and even a few amenities for those in the enterprise -- things like full support for Exchange ActiveSync (v14), on-device encryption, Cisco VPN, Sybase MDM and WebEx support. Best of all, the inbuilt FindMyMobile service allows users to track their lost / stolen Tab 8.9 down on a map as it moves, remotely lock the device to prevent unauthorized access and delete personal information stored on the device. Head on past the break for the full release.

Show full PR text
Samsung Mobile Announces New Expansion of Galaxy Family with Addition of Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 8.9 and Samsung Galaxy Player™ 5.0 and 4.0

Ultra-thin & powerful Galaxy Tab 8.9 available for pre-order right now; available in stores nationwide on October 2

Galaxy Player™ 5.0 and Galaxy Player™ 4.0 available for pre-order starting September 27; available nationwide starting October 16

DALLAS – September 26, 2011 - Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S.1, and Samsung Electronics America today announced the immediate availability of the Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 8.9, along with the upcoming availability of the Galaxy Player™ 5.0 and 4.0.

The Galaxy Tab™ 8.9 joins the Galaxy Tab™ 10.1 as the thinnest mobile tablets currently available in the U.S. market, measuring at 8.6 millimeters. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 shares many other features and services with the Tab 10.1 including Samsung's TouchWiz® UX. This unique user interface was created to integrate with Android™ 3.1, Honeycomb, to deliver a truly customized and interactive tablet experience. The TouchWiz UX includes:

Live Panel: Magazine-like widget view for immediate access to weather, social updates, email, news, photo gallery, all on the home screen

Mini Mode Tray: One-touch overlay access to commonly used applications-Task Manager, Calendar, World Clock, Pen Memo, Calculator and Music Player
Clipboard: Advanced copy & paste functionality allows Galaxy Tab 10.1 users to store photos, Web pages, YouTube links, etc., for easy sharing via email and social network sites
Indicator Quick Panel: Quickly toggle on/off connectivity, notifications, sound, brightness and settings in lower right-hand corner of the display.
Photo Editor: Rotate, crop and adjust colors on high quality digital images

The Galaxy Player™ 5.0 and 4.0 offer a premium entertainment experience without the need for cell service, in a choice of form factors that are extremely pocketable. The large 5-inch and 4-inch touchscreens are an excellent option for enjoying games, music, videos, e-books and social media while on the move. The Galaxy Player 5.0 and 4.0 weigh just 6.4 and 4.2 ounces respectively, delivering powerful entertainment, communication and information without the bulk of portable DVD players or laptops. The Galaxy Players are powered by Android™ 2.3.5, Gingerbread, complete with a new, streamlined user interface and are enabled with Wi-Fi™ (802.11 b/g/n) connectivity for quick and easy access to online services and Web search. In addition, the two devices are designed with front and rear cameras for video chat and photography. Both Galaxy Players will support Samsung's Media Hub content service in the future through a software update.

"These three additions to the Galaxy family of products are impressive examples of our commitment to offering consumers an unrivaled array of choices for entertainment and information on-the-go," said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Mobile. "People want their mobile device to fit their lifestyle and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Players offer unparalleled power and portability to meet the widest consumer needs."

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 is built with a dual-core T250S processor, WXGA TFT display (1280x800 resolution) fortified by Gorilla® Glass. The portable tablet includes a 6,100 mAh battery for hours of entertainment without needing a recharge. This premium hardware is packaged in a sleek, portable design weighing less than one pound (447 grams).

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 is packed with entertainment, productivity and content sharing services to make the device a true focal core of the user's consumer electronics ecosystem. The list of powerful services includes:

· Samsung Media Hub: Choose from more than 5,000 popular and acclaimed movie and TV titles to download for rent or purchase. Upcoming new release additions to the Media Hub library include "Fast Five," "Horrible Bosses" and "Green Lantern." The added service, Media Hub Show, uses an HD Extender to playback content on TV through an HDMI cable from the Galaxy Tab 8.9 dock or adaptor.

· Samsung Music Hub: Choose from more than 13 million songs to download into an intuitive playback system. Music Hub also provides extensive background information, with access to all artist bios, discographies and reviews.

· Samsung Readers Hub: The lightweight design and large display make the Galaxy Tab 8.9 an ideal device to access the Readers Hub robust library of more than 2.2 million books, 2,000 newspapers and 2,300 magazines.

· Social Hub: Users can aggregate email, instant messaging, contacts, calendar and social network connections into a single interface through the service's "Feeds" and "Messages" files.

· Google™ Mobile Services: A suite of Google Mobile Services is preloaded on the Galaxy Tab 8.9 including access to more than 250,000 applications on Android Market™, Gmail™, Google Search™, Google Maps™ 5.0 with 3D maps and Google Talk™ with video and voice chat.

· AllShare™ service: Provides seamless content transfer between the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and other DLNA-enabled devices such as HDTV's, monitors and digital cameras.

· Rear and Front-facing cameras: The rear-facing 3-megapixel camera and front-facing 2-megapixel camera including flash and autofocus, 1080p video playback and full support of video chat and digital imaging

· Polaris™ Office: Instant access to documents, spreadsheets and presentations to view and edit while on the move

· Swype: Re-size the keyboard, move the virtual keyboard anywhere on the screen and type faster by swyping

· Mobile Printing: Print documents and pictures wirelessly from the Galaxy Tab 8.9 to any compatible printer.

Additional features of the Galaxy Tab 8.9 include:

Enterprise Solutions and Services:

Full support for Exchange ActiveSync version 14
On device encryption
Cisco VPN (Virtual Private Network)
Sybase® MDM (Mobile Device Management)
Cisco WebEx™ mobile conference solution for meetings on the go

FindMyMobile:

· If the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is lost or stolen, the user can locate the device on a map, and track it live as it moves, remotely lock the device to prevent unauthorized access and delete personal information stored on the device.

Spotify on forcing Facebook upon users: 'it seemed logical'

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 03:03 PM PDT

Spotify wants to be the next big thing in music, but a change to its service has created quite the uproar online: users can only get their Spotify on if they have a Facebook account. Of course, we knew this was in the works from the time it opened its doors to all Americans, but netizens were sufficiently vocal in their disdain for the change so as to elicit a response from the company. According to Spotify, most of its users are already on the Social Network -- plus the service uses Facebook on the backend for its social features -- so it made sense to integrate the logins. Rest assured, you don't have to connect your account to Facebook unless you want to, and users still control what they share and don't share in their Timelines. We understand why the move doesn't thrill everyone out there, but we're okay having one less username and password to remember. Change can be a good thing, ya know.

Samsung Focus S snapped in the wild sipping on micro-USB juice

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 02:41 PM PDT

Can't say that we're caught off guard with this one. Only two weeks ago, AT&T announced the first three members of its Windows Phone Mango lineup, charting out an Autumn debut for the handsets, but only giving us a glimpse of the Titan. So, it should come as no shock to see Samsung's update to its popular WP device, the Focus S, getting its charge on in the wild. The leaked shot over on PocketNow, gives us a tilted preview of the 4.3-inch phone, the usual offering of three capacitive buttons and its sleek, rounded edges. There's not much in the way of gadget porn here considering the lone, off-center image, however, we do officially know that that currently unlit screen boasts a Super AMOLED Plus display and, lurking beneath it, is a 1.4GHz processor. An official street date has yet to be set for this 4G phone (the company didn't specify if this would be LTE-ready), but expect to see it hit the orange-colored carrier sometime very soon.

Must See HDTV (September 26th - October 2nd)

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 02:32 PM PDT

After last week's slew of premieres there's still a few new shows popping up this week, as well as season premieres of old favorites (Dexter, Mythbusters). Transformers: Dark of the Moon makes its Blu-ray debut on Friday but with no 3D or special features it'll have to wait to top our list. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.

Luther
The second season of this British detective show already finished airing in the UK but its four episode run is just getting started this week on BBC America. The Wire's Idris Elba stars as DCI John Luther, an investigator who is as troubles as he is effective in tracking down killers, rapists and other unsavory characters. There's a dozen crime procedurals to choose from, but this is one of the few that rises above the rest of the pack -- check out the season 2 trailer after the break. If you can't get enough of accents and tea, check out the season finale of Dr. Who and series premiere of Bedlam Saturday night.
(September 28th, BBC America, 10PM)

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection
While the original release of Ico predates this site, its followup Shadow of the Colossus had us excited even when it was only in 480p. This week, both return in HD (and 3D) on the PS3, coming back for the first time on hardware that can actually handle creator Fumito Ueda's vision. The two adventure games are some of the more unique gaming experiences you'll find, whether or not you gave them a chance on the PS2 they're definitely worth checking out this time around, check for a couple trailers after the break.
($39.99 on Amazon, September 27th)

Happy Endings
This comedy joined ABC's lineup last year as a midseason replacement and quickly snagged a spot in our DVR queue with a hilarious ensemble of characters. While the show's premise wasn't a standout (bride leaves groom at the altar, we follow the group as they try to stay friends afterwards) the writing is spot on and gained enough a following to come back for season two, starting this week.
(September 28th, ABC, 9:30PM)





Blu-ray & Games
Monday
  • Terra Nova (series premiere), Fox, 8PM
  • Gossip Girl (season premiere), CW, 8PM
  • Heart of Dixie (series premiere), CW, 9PM
  • Mike & Molly (season premiere), CBS, 9:30PM
  • Top Gear UK (season finale), BBC America, 9PM
  • Alphas (season finale), Syfy, 10PM
  • Weeds (season finale), Showtime, 10PM
  • The Big C, Showtime (season finale), 10:30PM
  • Washington/Cowboys Monday Night Football, ESPN, 8:30PM
  • How I Met Your Mother, CBS, 8PM
  • Dancing With The Stars, ABC, 8PM
  • 2 Broke Girls, CBS, 8:30PM
  • Two And A Half Men, CBS, 9PM
  • WWE Raw, USA, 9PM
  • Hawaii Five-0, CBS, 10PM
  • Castle, ABC, 10PM
  • American Underworld, Discovery, 10PM
  • The Playboy Club, NBC, 10PM
  • The Lying Game, ABC Family, 8PM
  • Warehouse 13, Syfy, 9PM
  • American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior, 9PM
  • Death Valley, MTV, 10:30PM
Tuesday
  • Awkward (season finale), MTV, 11PM
  • Catching Hell, ESPN, 8PM
  • New Girl, Fox, 9PM
  • Glee, Fox, 8PM
  • 90210, CW, 8PM
  • NCIS, CBS, 8PM
  • Raising Hope, Fox, 9:30PM
  • Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
  • Body of Proof, ABC, 10PM
  • Unforgettable, CBS, 10PM
  • Ringer, CW, 9PM
  • Parenthood, NBC, 10PM
  • Sons of Anarchy, FX, 10PM
  • Top Shot, History, 10 PM
  • Workaholics, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
Wednesday
  • Suburgatory (series premiere), ABC, 8:30PM
  • Rocket City Rednecks (series premiere), National Geographic, 9 & 9:30PM
  • Mad Scientists (series premiere), National Geographic, 10 & 10:30PM
  • Happy Endings (season premiere), ABC, 9:30PM
  • Mythbusters (season premiere), Discovery, 9PM
  • Luther (season premiere), BBCA, 10PM
  • The Real World (season premiere), MTV, 10PM
  • The X Factor, Fox, 8PM
  • The Middle, ABC, 8PM
  • Survivor, CBS, 8PM
  • Up All Night, NBC, 8PM
  • Free Agents, NBC, 8:30PM
  • Inside The NFL, Showtime, 9PM
  • Law & Order: UK, BBC America, 9PM
  • Modern Family, ABC, 9PM
  • Criminal Minds, CBS, 9PM
  • Harry's Law, NBC, 9PM
  • The Ultimate Fighter, Spike, 9PM
  • The Stoned Ages, History, 9PM
  • CSI, CBS, 10PM
  • Revenge, ABC, 10PM
  • Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 10PM
  • Inside NASCAR, Showtime, 10 PM
Thursday
  • How To Be A Gentleman (series premiere), CBS, 8:30PM
  • Private Practice (season premiere), ABC, 10PM
  • Archer (fall season finale), FX, 10:30PM
  • USF/PITT college football, ESPN & ESPN 3D, 8PM
  • Charlie's Angels, ABC, 8PM
  • The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8PM
  • Community, NBC, 8PM
  • Parks & Recreation, NBC, 8:30PM
  • The Vampire Diaries, CW, 8PM
  • The Secret Circle, CW, 9PM
  • Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 9PM
  • The Office, NBC, 9PM
  • Person of Interest, CBS, 9PM
  • Whitney, NBC, 9:30PM
  • The Mentalist, CBS, 10PM
  • Prime Suspect, NBC, 10PM
  • It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, FX, 10PM
  • Archer, FX, 10:30PM
  • Extreme Drug Smuggling, Discovery, 9PM
Friday
  • Haven (season finale), Syfy, 10PM
  • A Gifted Man, CBS, 8PM
  • Nikita, CW, 8PM
  • CSI: NY, CBS, 9PM
  • Fringe, Fox, 9PM
  • WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM
  • Supernatural, CW, 9PM
  • Blue Bloods, CBS, 10PM
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Cartoon Network, 8PM
  • Strike Back, Cinemax, 10PM
  • Iron Man Anime, G4, 11PM
  • Wolverine Anime, G4, 11:30PM
Saturday
  • Saturday Night Live with Melissa McCarthy/Lady Antebellum, NBC, 11:30PM
  • Doctor Who (season finale), BBC America, 9PM
  • Bedlam (series premiere), BBC America, 10PM
Sunday
  • Dexter (season premiere), Showtime, 9PM
  • Homeland (series premiere), Showtime, 10PM
  • Around The World In 80 Ways (series premiere), History, 10PM
  • Hung (season premiere), HBO, 10PM
  • How To Make It America (season premiere), HBO, 10:30PM
  • South Park Documentary, Comedy Central, 10PM
  • WNBA Finals Game 1, ESPN2, 4:30PM
  • 60 Minutes, CBS, 7PM
  • Jets/Ravens football, NBC, 8:15PM
  • Curiosity, Discovery, 8PM
  • The Simpsons, Fox, 8PM
  • The Cleveland Show, Fox, 8:30PM
  • Family Guy, Fox, 9PM
  • Desperate Housewives, ABC, 9PM
  • The Good Wife, CBS, 9PM
  • Boardwalk Empire, HBO, 9PM
  • American Dad, Fox, 9:30PM
  • CSI: Miami, CBS, 10PM
  • Pan Am, ABC, 10PM
  • Breaking Bad, AMC, 10 PM
  • Bar Rescue, Spike, 10PM

Kindle Fire tablet purportedly on tap for Wednesday, set to ship in November

Posted: 26 Sep 2011 02:02 PM PDT

"Kindle Fire." Can't say that's the name we would've thrown together if given five minutes to dwell and assured that we'd take on absolutely no risk at all for it failing, but hey -- who are we to question Jeff Bezos? TechCrunch is keeping the Kindle tablet rumors fresh with a new helping of intel, hitting the wires just two days prior to the outfit's September 28th press event. According to the publication, "Fire" (mocked up above) was chosen in order to differentiate it from the e-ink siblings that'll sell alongside of it, and we're told to expect a mind-numbing amount of content deals to make it ever more attractive in a realm that iOS currently dominates. Moreover, a dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP chip is now being tipped, and if all goes well, the sub-$300 device should ship in November. Meanwhile, B&N engineers are reportedly toiling away on the Nook Color 2, and we wouldn't be shocked in the least to see it hurry into an announcement just to phunk with Amazon's flow. We'll be there live on Wednesday to break it all down -- water sprinklers in tow, naturally.

Update: gdgt is suggesting that there's a reason the Kindle Fire will look a lot like the PlayBook -- it's a good read, and it can be found here.
at 11:55 AM

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