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- 32GB GSM Galaxy Nexus canceled, Google hopes you really like streaming
- iPhone address book issue prompts response from Apple, apps' access to contact data will require user permission
- NASA scales back Mars exploration, Marvin the Martian thinks it's just lovely
- Motorola outs Android 4.0 upgrade schedule, adds Atrix 4G, Photon 4G and others to the ICS party list
- CERN crew takes to Google+ for live Hangout
- AT&T Galaxy Note review
- NPR Music iPad app puts Tiny Desk Concerts a few swipes away
- BlackBerry Desktop Software for PCs makes debatable leap to version 7.0
- Comcast slows the flood of video customer losses in Q4 2011
- Nikon WT-5 WiFi dongle wins FCC approval, fires off a ring of D4s to celebrate
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 to debut at MWC? Definitely, maybe.
- Microsoft outlines new accessibility features for Windows 8 (video)
- LaCie 2big Thunderbolt series available now in 4TB and 6TB sizes
- SanDisk launches Extreme SSDs: $190 for 120GB, $400 for 240GB
- AMD releases Radeon HD 7750 and 7770 GPUs, reviewers like and don't like
- Apple wants to file patent lawsuit against Kodak, fully aware that Kodak's bankrupt
- HTC developing music streaming service, wireless boombox?
- LG's Tegra 3 phone specifications leak, benchmark tests cower in fear
- Acer Financials: meager 2011 Q4 profit, massive annual loss
- Gartner: Apple leads the way among smartphone vendors, Android sees slight decline
- Google Wallet gets prepaid security fix, but 'brute-force' issue still hangs in the air
- GE turns butterfly-inspired tech into cheap, accurate thermal sensors (video)
- Kinect for Media Center released, why not wave and shout at your HTPC?
- H2O Bolt promises unlimited 4G internet for $50, pretends it's never heard of Clear
- Limited edition Droid RAZR and RAZR Maxx appear, exclusive to Verizon employees?
- Dukane launches mobile charging carts for piles of iPads
- Samsung intros trifecta of Galaxy Duos in India, new Ace included
- FCC to dash LightSquared's bid for LTE glory
- Large Hadron Collider to increase beam energy: Higgs boson can run, not hide
- LibreOffice updates to version 3.5, brings grammar check, bigger Calc workbooks, and more
- Inkling Habitat interactive e-book publishing platform rolls out to select publishers
- Engadget HD Podcast 286 - 02.14.2012
- Time Warner Cable's TWC TV launches for PC, brings live TV streaming to the desktop
- Alcatel OT-915 with QWERTY keyboard, Gingerbread said to be launching at MWC
- Microsoft guide explains how to submit apps to the Windows Store (video)
- HP unveils Z1 all-in-one workstation: 27-inch IPS display, starts at $1,899
- Satellite web surfing at 40Mbps with ViaSat SurfBeam 2 Pro (video)
- Sony Z Series Walkman Player review
| 32GB GSM Galaxy Nexus canceled, Google hopes you really like streaming Posted: 15 Feb 2012 10:37 AM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 15 Feb 2012 10:11 AM PST  A week ago today, developer Arun Thampi detailed on his blog how the Path app for iOS accessed users' contact information and uploaded that data to Path's servers -- all without any explicit permission granted on the user's part. That sparked quite the firestorm, including investigations into which other apps behaved in a similar manner (quite a few, it turns out), and some responses from a number of other app makers -- Twitter, for one, has acknowledged that it does store users' contact data, but that it now plans to adjust its app to more clearly inform users of that behavior. Now, Apple itself has also responded, with spokesman Tom Neumayr telling AllThingsD that "apps that collect or transmit a user's contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines," but that it is "working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release." Still no word on when we can expect that software update, though. Incidentally, this news comes on the same day that Congressmen Henry Waxman and G.K. Butterfield sent a letter to Apple over the issue, asking that it respond to a number of privacy-related questions no later than February 29th. That letter can be found in full after the break. Ranking Members Waxman and Butterfield Want Answers from Apple on iPhone Address Book Privacy Concerns 02/15/12 WASHINGTON, DC - Today Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman and Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member G. K. Butterfield sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook regarding recent reports that the social networking app "Path" accessed and collected address book information from consumers without asking for consent. There have been claims that the practice of collecting consumers' address book contacts without their permission is common and accepted among iOS app developers. This raises questions of whether Apple's iOS app developer policies and practices adequately protect consumer privacy. The full text of the letter is below. February 15, 2012 Mr. Tim Cook Chief Executive Officer, Apple Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014 Dear Mr. Cook: Last week, independent iOS app developer Arun Thampi blogged about his discovery that the social networking app "Path" was accessing and collecting the contents of his iPhone address book without ever having asked for his consent.[1] The information taken without his permission – or that of the individual contacts who own that information – included full names, phone numbers, and email addresses.[2] Following media coverage of Mr. Thampi's discovery, Path's Co-Founder and CEO Dave Morin quickly apologized, promised to delete from Path's servers all data it had taken from its users' address books, and announced the release of a new version of Path that would prompt users to opt in to sharing their address book contacts.[3] This incident raises questions about whether Apple's iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts. The data management section of your iOS developer website states: "iOS has a comprehensive collection of tools and frameworks for storing, accessing, and sharing data. . . . iOS apps even have access to a device's global data such as contacts in the Address Book, and photos in the Photo Library."[4]The app store review guidelines section states: "We review every app on the App Store based on a set of technical, content, and design criteria. This review criteria is now available to you in the App Store Review Guidelines."[5] This same section indicates that the guidelines are available only to registered members of the iOS Developer Program.[6] However, tech blogs following the Path controversy indicate that the iOS App Guidelines require apps to get a user's permission before "transmit[ting] data about a user".[7] In spite of this guidance, claims have been made that "there's a quiet understanding among many iOS app developers that it is acceptable to send a user's entire address book, without their permission, to remote servers and then store it for future reference. It's common practice, and many companies likely have your address book stored in their database."[8] One blogger claims to have conducted a survey of developers of popular iOS apps and found that 13 of 15 had a "contacts database with millions of records" – with one claiming to have a database containing "Mark Zuckerberg's cell phone number, Larry Ellison's home phone number and Bill Gates' cell phone number."[9] The fact that the previous version of Path was able to gain approval for distribution through the Apple iTunes Store despite taking the contents of users' address books without their permission suggests that there could be some truth to these claims. To more fully understand and assess these claims, we are requesting that you respond to the following questions: Please describe all iOS App Guidelines that concern criteria related to the privacy and security of data that will be accessed or transmitted by an app. Please describe how you determine whether an app meets those criteria. What data do you consider to be "data about a user" that is subject to the requirement that the app obtain the user's consent before it is transmitted? To the extent not addressed in the response to question 2, please describe how you determine whether an app will transmit "data about a user" and whether the consent requirement has been met. How many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes Store transmit "data about a user"? Do you consider the contents of the address book to be "data about a user"? Do you consider the contents of the address book to be data of the contact? If not, please explain why not. Please explain how you protect the privacy and security interests of that contact in his or her information. How many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes Store transmit information from the address book? How many of those ask for the user's consent before transmitting their contacts' information? You have built into your devices the ability to turn off in one place the transmission of location information entirely or on an app-by-app basis. Please explain why you have not done the same for address book information. Please provide the information requested no later than February 29, 2012. If you have any questions regarding this request, you can contact Felipe Mendoza with the Energy and Commerce Committee Staff at 202-226-3400. Sincerely, Henry A. Waxman Ranking Member G.K. Butterfield Ranking Member Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade cc: Dave Morin Path, Co-Founder and CEO [1] Arun Thampi, Path Uploads Your Entire iPhone Address Book to Its Servers, mclov.in (Feb. 8, 2012) (available at http://mclov.in/2012/02/08/path-uploads-your-entire-address-book-to-their-servers.html). [2] Id. [3] Dave Morin, We Are Sorry, Path Blog (Feb. 8, 2012) (available at http://blog.path.com/post/17274932484/we-are-sorry). [4] iOS Data Management (available at https://developer.apple.com/technologies/ios/data-management.html). [5] App Store Review Guidelines (available at https://developer.apple.com/appstore/guidelines.html). [6] Id. [7] Andrew Couts, Path Privacy Debacle: Is Apple to Blame?, Digital Trends (Feb. 8, 2012) (available at http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/path-privacy-debacle-is-apple-to-blame/). [8] Dustin Curtis, Stealing Your Address Book, dcurtis (available at http://dcurt.is/stealing-your-address-book). See also Stuart Dredge, Path's Privacy Problem Poses Questions for all Social Apps, The Guardian (Feb. 9, 2012) (available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/feb/09/path-privacy-apps?newsfeed=true); Maryam Nabi, Story the Week: Path's Privacy Concerns, Financial Times (Feb. 11, 2012) (available at http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2012/02/story-the-week-paths-privacy-concerns/#axzz1mH3eQZ2U); Charlie Osborne, iOS Apps: Massive Invasion of User Privacy, ZDNet (Feb. 8, 2012) (available at http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/ios-apps-massive-invasion-of-user-privacy/15138). [9] Id. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NASA scales back Mars exploration, Marvin the Martian thinks it's just lovely Posted: 15 Feb 2012 09:32 AM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| CERN crew takes to Google+ for live Hangout Posted: 15 Feb 2012 08:43 AM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 15 Feb 2012 08:00 AM PST  So the Galaxy Note, Samsung's massive 5.3-inch "superphone," is critically flawed then, right? No. It is, in fact, one of the best phones to hit the market since another Samsung powerhouse -- the Galaxy Nexus. It's a device with a lot to love and is the kind of phone that would make almost every Android aficionado swoon. However, with its massive 5.3-inch display and generally understated styling, it isn't for everybody. We reviewed it before in European guise, but now read on to see if AT&T's $300 LTE version of this big brute is just right for you. HardwareLet's get this out there right away because it will surely be your first impression: the Galaxy Note is a big honkin' phone. While something this size that can make phone calls isn't exactly unprecedented (see: the Dell Streak 5), this is a footprint that has proven too large to fit into many consumers' lifestyles. That could definitely change here. What initially feels cumbersome and unwieldy quickly becomes natural and, just like 4.3-inch smartphones made 3.5-inchers seem petite, a few hours with the Note will leave those 4-inch devices seeming rather more compact than before. That size is thanks to the 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED panel up front, with a 1280 x 800 pixel count. We'll talk more about that shortly, but we can't resist spoiling ourselves by saying it's one of the nicest displays we've yet seen on a smartphone -- even if the dimensions here extend well beyond what's considered average. What's truly new is on the inside, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor. That's a step up in clock speed from the 1.4GHz Exynos processor in the original Note, but as we'll see in the performance section below, the speed of the device has not been similarly up-rated. (There we go spoiling things again...) That processor is paired with 1GB of RAM for short-term duties and 16GB of storage for archival purposes, though there is an empty microSD slot waiting should you need a little more room ahead of the fifth season of Mad Men. It offers 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0+ HS support and, for longer-range data communication, supports GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz), UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ (850, 1900, 2100MHz) and, of course, LTE (bands 4 and 17, if you're keeping track). The dimensions provided for the Note are the same as the international release -- 146.85 x 82.95 x 9.65mm (5.78 x 3.27 x 0.38 inches) -- so any fears that the new silicon inside might have resulted in even more to love on the outside can be safely put to rest now. It is, however, just a tick heavier, tipping over at 183 grams (6.45 ounces) compared to its predecessor's 178. Perhaps it indulged in an extra bag of peanuts on the long flight over.  The camera array hasn't changed: 8-megapixel sensor paired with an LED flash around the back, capable of capturing 1080p/30 fps footage, while a 2-megapixel shooter is peeking out at you from the somewhat generous bezel above the display on the front -- right next to the mirrored AT&T logo that now comes duely attached. On the bottom of the screen are the typical four capacitive buttons found on American Android devices -- Menu, Home, Back and Search. This marks a change from the international release, which had a single physical Home button flanked by Menu on the left and Back on the right. We prefer that layout to the capacitive arrangement we get here, but sadly it seems the carriers prefer the button-free look. Those capacitive inputs light up with the screen, which on the dark Carbon Blue Note makes them much easier to see. In direct light, though, the backlight on the Ceramic White Note actually makes the buttons harder to spot. Plus, with that hue there's an annoying glow around them where the backlight leaks through. On the top of the right side is the power/lock button, opposite that on the left side the volume rocker. Up top, slightly offset to the right is the 3.5mm headphone jack and, on the bottom, smack in the middle, is the micro-USB port for charging and MTP data exchange. But, there's something else tucked in down there: the S Pen. S Pen Though it may look like a stylus, and despite feeling like a stylus, and even if it gives you flashbacks to your Windows Mobile days we encourage you to remember that this is not a stylus. At least, it isn't if you listen to the Samsung party line. This is an S Pen. What's an S Pen, then? Well, it's a battery-free capacitive and pressure-sensitive plastic pointing stick that's built upon Wacom technology. Basically, it's a stylus. Yes, it's smaller than the wand you get with something like a Bamboo tablet, but the styling is at least reminiscent of the bigger ones. New on the US version of the S Pen is a gray button, which is slightly easier to find than the all-black version shipped internationally, but still almost impossible to locate by feel. The slightest little ridge or bump on the button would have been a welcome addition. (Those who spring for the white Note will, naturally, get a white S Pen with a gray button.) You can hold the button and do a long press on the screen to capture a screenshot, do two taps to bring up the S Memo application to make a note. You can also use it to perform gestures to replicate the Android buttons -- hold and swipe up for Menu, down for Home and left for Back. You'll be doing this a lot because the stylus annoyingly can't be used on the capacitive buttons at the bottom of the display. Prod or poke at them with the thing all you like, they won't respond.  Thankfully, the S Pen works with just about everything else. It can be used to just mimic finger taps on the screen with greater precision, which we found most enjoyable for gaming. Titles like Fruit Ninja were a little more fun with a real weapon to wield, while physics-based games like World of Goo were that much easier. Annoyingly, though, actually writing with the thing is a challenge. Ostensibly, this phone was designed to replace something like a Moleskine notebook that many journalists stuff in their back pockets, but writing legibly with the S Pen is a difficult proposition. You must write far larger than you would with a pen on paper, so what might have been a few lines of notes can take a few pages of an S Memo. Of course, with 16GB of storage you can have as many pages as you like, but collating them later proves a bit of a challenge. Writing is a bit easier with what Samsung is calling the S Pen Holder Kit -- basically a hollow pen into which you can slot an S Pen. It's roughly Sharpie-sized and makes the writing experience more pleasant, but for something of a steep cost: $50. That's for a pen that doesn't write on paper and has no means of actually attaching to the Note. It does, however, come with an extra S Pen, which go for $30 on their own. Yes, you'll be wanting to take extra care to make sure you don't lose yours. Display If this phone is too big it's only for the sake of making room for that display. It is, again, an HD Super AMOLED panel measuring 5.3 inches diagonally and sporting a resolution of 1280 x 800. Now, phone displays with 720p or greater resolutions aren't exactly unheard of these days (hello, Galaxy Nexus), and the 284ppi pixel density here won't set any records either (hello, iPhone 4S), but when it comes to the quality of a display you can't just look at numbers. This is a non-Plus display, meaning it uses RGBG sub-pixels. This PenTile arrangement was the subject of many lamentations when the Galaxy Nexus was announced, that presence of extra green sub-pixels causing some display purists to lose sleep, but we didn't find much to complain about here. Yes, we would certainly prefer a Plus display, and the color reproduction would surely be better if it were, but what's actually in the phone is beautiful. Because it's an AMOLED display the contrast is phenomenal -- true blacks and searingly bright whites. Viewing angles are very good, though we did notice a strong shift to blue at particularly extreme angles. And curiously, Samsung (or AT&T) opted to not include the "Screen mode" option found on the international Note that lets you select from three color settings on the display. So, you're stuck with the default. Call quality and speakerphone While we quickly got comfortable holding the 5.3-inch Note in our hands, even after living with one for some time we couldn't help feeling self-conscious holding it up to our head to make calls. Unless you've been blessed with a particularly large cranium the Note is going to look a little... large held up to an ear. That said, should you need to make a call here, the Note is a very willing partner. Quality is good and, with the phone never struggling for signal, we came through loud and clear to those on the other side of the device. Even on speakerphone we were heard without a problem, though we do have one complaint: the speaker's location. It's less than a half-inch away from the S Pen's little cubby and we constantly found grabbing at the opening for the speaker with our fingernail when trying to pull out the stylus. We'd have preferred one or the other placed on the opposite side. CameraThis is the same 8-megapixel sensor and lens getup that we saw back in our original Note review, and indeed the same as can be found in the Galaxy S II. Left on full-auto the camera does a good job of adjusting for color and brightness. As phone-sized camera sensors go this one fares well even when light is at a premium and will not leave you disappointed in most situations. That said, the experience is even better here thanks to the bigger screen. What you get is basically the world's biggest viewfinder this side of a tablet, making framing and eyeball adjustments for exposure easy. Yes, we've said our piece about how taking pictures with tablets is more of a chore than a joy, but the Note is just small enough to be manageable. Software  The Galaxy Note is running a TouchWiz'd version of Android Gingerbread -- 2.3.6, to be precise. As Android customizations go TouchWiz is among the lightest, and we didn't find ourselves minding it. In fact, the camera app here and the custom widgets and controls tend to make the phone a little nicer to use. We had no complaints there. However, the extra resolution and dimensions of the screen aren't always well-handled. When it's good it's good, like the home screen, which offers five columns of icons rather than the standard four. More icons is a plus when your phone is stuffed with apps, as most phones are these days. And, of course, mobile web surfing with this many pixels at your disposal will put you right off WVGA phones for good. Many apps, though, simply don't handle the resolution well. Signing in to Netflix, for example, gives you a giant sea of crimson with two tiny login boxes floating in space. Buttons in some apps, like the reply button in Gmail, are awfully tiny compared to other controls, like the comparatively giant Archive and Delete buttons at the bottom of the screen. This mish-mash of large and small graphical elements is hugely disjointing. The Gingerbread build here just doesn't feel comfortable -- stretched out in some places, squished down in others. It clearly wasn't meant to run on a display this size. This leaves us longing for that Ice Cream Sandwich build that we're told is coming soon. S Memo  The biggest piece of custom software here is S Memo. Hold the S Pen button and double-tap anywhere to create a new memo, or do a long single tap to capture a screenshot which you can doodle on. We could definitely see this being useful for grabbing a picture of something and then scribbling a note and sending it off to a co-worker -- say, making a comment on a home renovation or the design of a wedding dress. But, given how much trouble we had in writing legibly with the S Pen, best keep it short. You can also hop into S Memo directly and create things like picture collages. Images can be inserted from the Gallery or taken directly from the camera, moved and resized and then, of course, scribbled upon. However, it's worth noting that once you save and exit your note all those layers are compressed -- you can no longer resize individual images. That's slightly annoying, but they are at least easily shared as flat image files. We were, however, disappointed to find that the app doesn't really do much with the stylus button. We could see it working as a quick toggle to switch between drawing and erasing, for example, which would save going back up to the top menu all the time. As it is the button is really only good for initiating gestures. Performance and battery life We were a bit concerned when we learned that the AT&T Galaxy Note would not be rolling with Samsung's own 1.4GHz Exynos processor and would instead have a 1.5GHz Snapdragon chip inside. The clock speed may be higher but the performance is indeed lower. You can see the full results in the benchmarks table below, proving this phone measurably lags behind the international release that shipped first, too. Apps load quickly and things are generally responsive on the device, but the annoying stutters and random pauses that plague lesser phones are definitely noticeable here. It is still a quick device, though not nearly as responsive as the Galaxy Nexus or, indeed, the elder Note.
Sadly that decrease in performance doesn't come with an increase in battery life. A healthy 2,500mAh cell lies beneath the flimsy (and scratch-prone) battery cover here, far larger than your typical smartphone. (The most recent Galaxy S II, for example, has an 1,850mAh pack.) But, longevity just fell on the long side of average, with the phone managing eight hours and eight minutes on our standard rundown test in an HSPA+ area. That's with LTE enabled but not connected, as there's annoyingly no way of disabling it. (Even dialing *#*#4636#*#* doesn't work.) The previous Note managed a healthy 90 minutes longer. However, we can't argue with the network performance. AT&T's LTE network is still blissfully underutilized by the teeming masses, leaving plenty of bandwidth for those lucky few early adopters. Testing in and around New York City we saw download speeds as high as 34Mbps and uploads as high as 14Mbps. Average speeds were closer to 22 down and 12 up -- very healthy indeed. Again, overall signal strength with the Note is good and we had no problem grabbing and maintaining a strong signal. Wrap-up We've already spent quite a bit of time with the international version of this phone, but what was once a bit of a niche device -- would-be owners facing hefty import duties and confused looks from friends -- has now gone mainstream, with the Super Bowl commercial to match. That kind of exposure will have a lot more people wondering if this kind of thing can work for them and for many we think the answer is yes, it could work quite well indeed. The Note is big, but not unmanageably so. Those with small hands might find it a bit unwieldy at times, but even if your glover has you written down as XS you shouldn't rule this out completely. After a few hours with the Note you'll very quickly become accustomed to the size, and once you have you won't want to go back. With the decrease in performance and battery life here, the international release is still the better phone overall, and we can't help but be disappointed by that. Still, given the relative affordability of the US release of the Note ($300 on-contract) and its ease of availability, we certainly wouldn't blame you for heading to AT&T and ordering yourself an American Superphone. It's one of the best phones of any size on the market today, regardless of what market you're in. Myriam Joire contributed to this review. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NPR Music iPad app puts Tiny Desk Concerts a few swipes away Posted: 15 Feb 2012 07:41 AM PST  Feel like peeping a live performance from The Decemberists during your coffee shop work session? You can do just that via the new NPR Music app for your iPad. Once you download the free software onto your Apple slate, you're a few screen taps away from live performances, advance album listens and live streaming radio content. The app also enables offline listening through its visual playlist feature. If you're a fan of The Shins, an exclusive in-app concert streams live on March 7th. Itching to snag the app for your tablet? Hit the iTunes source link below. NPR MUSIC: TAP, SWIPE, LISTEN & WATCH WITH DYNAMIC NEW iPAD APP; AVAILABLE – ALWAYS FREE! – IN THE APP STORE NPR MUSIC PRESENTS THE SHINS LIVE IN-APP CONCERT, STREAMING EXCLUSIVELY IN iPAD APP MARCH 7 February 15, 2012 Continuing to establish public media as the premier home for music that matters, NPR Music amplifies its inventive and award-winning content for a new platform with the NPR Music iPad App, now available as a free download in the App store. The NPR Music iPad App presents an immersive audio and visual experience optimized for the tablet's capabilities. With just a tap and a swipe, audiences can navigate through exclusive public radio live performances, interviews, signature programs, original reporting and commentary, advance album listens, and live station streams. The App also features a groundbreaking visual playlist that can be saved for offline listening. On March 7, NPR Music will present an exclusive in-app concert with The Shins, who will perform songs from the anticipated new album Port of Morrow. The special invite-only event from (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City will stream live exclusively in the NPR Music iPad App, beginning that evening at 10PM (ET). The concert will replay on NPR.org beginning March 8. More details and a calendar reminder for the live event can be obtained in the App. Fans of The Shins in New York City should be on the lookout for an opportunity to attend this one-time concert. Built entirely in-house by NPR's digital media team, the iPad App uses animations to create a true multimedia music magazine – a robust merger of audio, text and video in one stunning app. The App's home screen opens to the latest NPR Music content and gives immediate access to NPR Music Radio and live streams from more than 100 public radio stations. Fans can dive right in or browse more selectively by filtering from content types (read Articles, watch Videos, listen to Programs) or genres (Rock, Jazz, Classical, Folk, Hip-Hop/R&B, World or Electronic/Dance). A persistent audio player allows for continuous discovery and a playlist can be easily built by dragging and dropping. The App also encourages engagement and exploration through a Related Stories section and also a special feature that suggests NPR Music stories based on artists already in an individual's iTunes library. All of NPR Music's programs are available in the iPad App, including the weekly music shows All Songs Considered and Alt.Latino; Tiny Desk Concerts, stripped-down performances recorded live at All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen's desk; the eclectic interview and performance show World Cafe from WXPN in Philadelphia; and "Live at the Village Vanguard" with WBGO in Newark, recorded at the famed jazz venue. NPR Music's special coverage and live concert streams from popular music festivals such as South by Southwest, Sasquatch! and the Newport Folk and Jazz festivals are also available through the App. Lexus is the exclusive launch sponsor of the NPR Music iPad App. The new Music App offers the same innovative sponsorship elements as the award-winning NPR News App, which garnered back-to-back Media Vanguard Awards from Ad Age in 2010 and 2011 for best broadcast-to-digital app suite. NPR Music celebrates great music in every genre and is an industry leader in music discovery. The Emmy Award-winning free, multimedia website at www.npr.org/music offers new features daily and an extensive archive, in collaboration with NPR's newsmagazines, public radio Member stations and the passionate NPR community. The NPR Music iPad App joins the ever-expanding suite of NPR Mobile, allowing anyone with a mobile device to enjoy NPR News, NPR Music and Member station content for free. Features http://www.npr.org/services/mobile/ipad-music.php Visually browse through the app to explore and filter content by - Media type (articles, music, videos) - Genres: Rock, Jazz & Blues, Classical, Hip-Hop/R&B, Folk, World, Electronic/Dance - Programs: First Listen Album Previews, All Songs Considered, Song of the Day, World Cafe, Alt.Latino, etc. Immerse yourself in NPR Music content with - Story pages that provide rich editorial content - The latest music news, interviews, reviews, and lists - A "Related Stories" feature that offers additional content you might like - Tools to share new discoveries and purchase featured music Stream your favorite music stations and discover new ones with - Live music streams from 100 public radio stations and NPR programs - The ability to browse by genre and editors' picks - The ability to set favorite radio stations - Handpicked music by public radio DJs Customize your experience with these playlist features - Groundbreaking visual layout for items added to your playlist - Ability to save your playlist for offline listening - Our "Recommended For You" section suggests other stories based on what's in your playlist - Opt-in feature suggests NPR Music stories based on artists in your iTunes Library Other features include: - Live video streaming of NPR Music concerts and showcases - AirPlay-enabled (requires your device to be on iOS 5+ and latest version of Apple TV software) Requires iOS 4.3.3 or later | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BlackBerry Desktop Software for PCs makes debatable leap to version 7.0 Posted: 15 Feb 2012 07:22 AM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Comcast slows the flood of video customer losses in Q4 2011 Posted: 15 Feb 2012 06:57 AM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nikon WT-5 WiFi dongle wins FCC approval, fires off a ring of D4s to celebrate Posted: 15 Feb 2012 06:28 AM PST   | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 to debut at MWC? Definitely, maybe. Posted: 15 Feb 2012 06:10 AM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft outlines new accessibility features for Windows 8 (video) Posted: 15 Feb 2012 05:36 AM PST  Microsoft's looking to ensure that developers will find it easier to include accessibility into their projects, including support for standards like HTML5 and XAML, as well as accessibility testing tools found within the Windows SDK. Stylistically, the new Metro UI allows for new high contrast viewing options alongside the ability to adjust element sizes. Microsoft promises that these are now simpler to apply and adjust within the OS. Touch-only Windows 8 devices will also benefit from redesigned tools like the magnifier, now transformed into a touch overlay around the border, while a preview view will show exactly where you've zoomed in. Catch the developers explaining it in their own words right after the break. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LaCie 2big Thunderbolt series available now in 4TB and 6TB sizes Posted: 15 Feb 2012 05:05 AM PST
The aluminum-encased 2big has arrived, with its (up to) 311 MB/s transfer rates scorching the ground behind it. With hot-swappable disks and dual Thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining, the Portal-esque 2big is on sale now from LaCie's online store with a three-year warranty. Prices start from $649 for 4TB, moving up to $799 for 6TB. Those looking for the king-size 8TB model should hold onto their wallets for now-- it's listed on Lacie's product page, but apparently not available just yet. 2big Thunderbolt Series Available for Purchase LaCie is excited to announce availability of the 2big Thunderbolt™ Series. With speeds up to 327MB/s, the Thunderbolt interface delivers speeds three times faster than FireWire 800. For data transfer gurus, that means 1TB of data – that's nearly 235,000 MP3's, 750 iTunes movies, or more than 450,000 photos* - can be transferred in less than an hour! Furthermore, you can daisy chain multiple 2big Thunderbolt devices to increase overall performance. For an illustrative perspective, check out the 2big Thunderbolt Series video: The LaCie 2big Thunderbolt™ Series The LaCie 2big Thunderbolt Series also features: • RAID flexibility: speed or security with Mac® OS • Hot-swappable drives for easy replacement • Aluminum heat sink design for efficient cooling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SanDisk launches Extreme SSDs: $190 for 120GB, $400 for 240GB Posted: 15 Feb 2012 04:40 AM PST  SanDisk is hauling its consumer SSD range into the SATAIII era, offering a pair of Extreme branded drives that deliver performance broadly on-par with other 6Gbps rivals. The 120GB and 240GB variants are available now priced at $190 and $400, while a 480GB version will ship "later this year" with a $750 asking price. Random reads / writes are claimed to reach 83,000 / 44,000 IOPS, with 550MB/s and 520MB/s sequential speeds. The PR after the break also mentions a new X100 OEM drive for PC manufacturers, just any of them happen to read it. SanDisk Launches High-Performance Extreme Solid State Drive Consumer Drive Delivers Faster, More Responsive Computing Experience and Extends the Life of Existing PCs MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced a high-performance solid state drive (SSD) for the retail channel. The SanDisk Extreme® SSD is up to 10 times faster than a 7,200 RPM hard disk drive1, enabling computer users to quickly boot and shut down their systems, launch applications faster and reduce wait times. The drive is also more durable and power efficient, delivering a reliable computing experience while maximizing battery life. Extreme Performance The SanDisk Extreme SSD can boot a PC in less than 16 seconds and quickly shut down the system, delivering a significantly improved user experience to desktop and notebook users. For gamers, the SanDisk Extreme SSD can launch applications in a fraction of the time and reduce in-game delays by generating environments faster during sequence transitions. This is particularly important during massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). "Computer wait times are becoming a thing of the past thanks to SSDs," said Kent Perry, director, product marketing, SanDisk. "Our SanDisk Extreme SSD delivers virtually instant boot and shutdown times along with faster application launches. It's a huge improvement to the computing experience." The SanDisk Extreme SSD delivers up to 83,000 maximum random write Input-Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) and up to 44,000 random read2 IOPS. High sequential read performance3 of up to 550 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) and up to 520MB/s sequential write speed deliver faster, more responsive computing. Extreme Reliability The SanDisk Extreme SSD is more reliable and durable than a hard disk drive and is backed by SanDisk's reputation for quality. The drive contains no moving parts, decreasing the risk of data loss due to shock and vibration, and its mean time between failure (MTBF)4 greatly exceeds that of hard disk drives, giving users peace of mind that it will retain their files for the long term. Additional Benefits The SanDisk Extreme SSD consumes 30 percent less power than a hard disk drive while generating less heat and noise, making it an ideal solution for notebook users who want to maximize their battery life while computing on the go. The drive provides cost savings for IT departments or DIY enthusiasts who want to extend the life of their existing PCs without buying an entirely new system. The drive is easy to install-simply plug it into a computer's SATA port. Pricing and Availability The SanDisk Extreme SSD is available worldwide now in 120 gigabyte (GB)5 and 240GB capacities carrying MSRPs of $189.99 and $399.99 respectively. A 480GB version of the drive will ship later this year with an MSRP of $749.99. SanDisk Solid State Drives SanDisk also announced today the SanDisk X100 SSD, featuring the utmost in performance and storage capacity for desktop and notebook PC manufacturers. SanDisk offers a full portfolio of products for the OEM, enterprise and retail channels that is supported more than 20 years of flash memory innovation and the benefits of vertical integration. The OEM products also include the U100 SSD for cost-effective performance and customizable form factors, and the SanDisk® iSSD™ for an embedded micro SSD SATA form factor. All models are available as standalone SSDs or dual drive caching solutions. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AMD releases Radeon HD 7750 and 7770 GPUs, reviewers like and don't like Posted: 15 Feb 2012 04:11 AM PST  Reviewers have mixed opinions, as befits a healthy blogosphere, but the low-power 7750 generally comes off slightly better, especially for those looking to build a budget or HTPC rig. AnandTech likes the power-to-performance ratio of both cards, but dislikes the price-to-performance of the 7770, noting that the older 6850 still offers more in this respect -- at least for gamers. HotHardware concludes that AMD might have "technically" priced both cards "just right," considering how they stack up against NVIDIA's GeForce GTX560 and 550, but in practice those NVIDIA cards deliver a lot more punch for just a few extra dollars. Feel free to glean further details for yourself via the PR and review links below. AMD Radeon™ Breaks GHz Barrier AMD further extends its dominance by launching the AMD Radeon™ HD 7700 Series Graphics Cards; delivers its fourth revolutionary 28nm graphics card in under three months SUNNYVALE, Calif. -2/15/2012 AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the arrival of its AMD Radeon™ HD 7770 GHz Edition and HD 7750 graphics cards. The AMD Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition is the first graphics card equipped with a reference engine clock that breaks the one gigahertz barrier – making it the world's first 1GHz GPU. When coupled with AMD's GCN Architecture, the AMD Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition offers incredible, best-in-class entertainment experiences that every gamer deserves. The AMD Radeon HD 7750 is a superior performance-level graphics card that doesn't require its own separate power connector and provides exceptional gaming experiences under 75 watts. "We were first to 40nm, first to 28nm and now we offer the world's first GPU at 1GHz; this is a milestone for the graphics industry," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, GPU Division, AMD. "AMD continues to deliver superior performance, rich features and world-class power efficiency – we never stop innovating." Like the award winning AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series, the AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series is armed and ready to follow its 28nm predecessors by capturing the hearts of gamers. It features AMD's new Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture for spectacular performance and efficiency, and comes equipped with leading-edge technology like PCI Express® 3.0, incredibly efficient AMD ZeroCore Power, PowerTune, AMD Eyefinity 2.0 and AMD App technologies. With top-notch features from the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series, the AMD Radeon HD 7700 series offer the world's most advanced graphics – for everyone. The graphics cards are available today via retailers and e-tailers worldwide, with select models of the AMD Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB starting at USD$159 SEP, and the AMD Radeon HD 7750 1GB starting at USD$109 SEP. The AMD Radeon™ HD 7700 series GPUs will be available worldwide from add-in-board partners including Sapphire, Powercolor, HIS, XFX, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apple wants to file patent lawsuit against Kodak, fully aware that Kodak's bankrupt Posted: 15 Feb 2012 03:53 AM PST  These two companies, of course, have been involved in an ongoing ITC battle over Kodak's image transfer technology, with the latest salvo coming last month, when the camera company launched a fresh batch of litigation against both Apple and HTC. If the bankruptcy court grants Apple's request, the company will head straight to court, in the hopes of obtaining a block against Kodak's allegedly infringing products. Kodak, meanwhile, could file a request to hold off the district level case until the ITC ruling comes through, though Apple said yesterday that it would press forward, regardless. The company was also quick to point out that it's not legally bound to request permission to sue a court-protected bankrupt company, but did so "out of an abundance of caution," which is really considerate, if you think about it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HTC developing music streaming service, wireless boombox? Posted: 15 Feb 2012 03:11 AM PST  After having already acquired a stake in Beats Audio, HTC is reportedly looking to expand its reach even further, with the help of a new music streaming service. That's according to a report from GigaOM, which cites unnamed sources "familiar with the company's plans." These plans apparently include a new line of tablets and handsets, along with the aforementioned streaming service, to be spearheaded by Jimmy Iovine -- Beats head and Chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M. Details, of course, remain scarce, but GigaOM's sources say that the service will be included as a default client in HTC's handsets and tablets, and that it could launch as early as this month, at Mobile World Congress. The idea, apparently, is to differentiate Peter Chow's company from its competitors, and it's one that's been in the works for quite some time. Insiders say the manufacturer is planning to launch a new tablet at this year's MWC, as well, and is reportedly working on a new, Bluetooth-controlled wireless boombox. We'll have to wait a bit longer to see whether any of this actually plays out, but we'll certainly be keeping close watch over it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LG's Tegra 3 phone specifications leak, benchmark tests cower in fear Posted: 15 Feb 2012 02:40 AM PST
LG's got a leak and it's revealing some intriguing details on another flagship smartphone -- even backing them up with some screenshots. According to MoDaCo's mole, it will brandish a 4.7 inch (720 x 1280) display, powered by LG's first Tegra 3 quad-core setup. Processor speeds for the LG X3 are pegged at around 1.5GHz on a single core, dropping to 1.4GHz during multi-core use. Hopefully, the 2,000mAh battery will withstand all that thinking power, while Ice Cream Sandwich should help push those multitasking chops to its limit. Camera-wise, you can expect an increasingly standard eight-megapixel sensor, with a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front. There also appears to be some NFC hardware inside, identified by that circular logo at the top of these tantalizing screengrabs -- something we saw on LG's Prada phone 3.0. We're hoping to get a full explanation (and a look at some hardware) at Mobile World Congress. There's just a few weeks to go. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Acer Financials: meager 2011 Q4 profit, massive annual loss Posted: 15 Feb 2012 01:33 AM PST  Acer was hoping for the gloom to lift after two bad quarters, but it can hardly call its latest financials stellar. It scraped a slender $2.4 million profit in the quarter, which wasn't enough to prevent the company posting an overall annual loss of $212 million. It blamed one off charges and operational and strategic adjustments (though no mention of the impending war with Lenovo over Gianfranco Lanci) for the bad year. The terse release (after the break) claims the business is becoming "more healthy and stable," which is a good way to paint a quarter-on-quarter drop of 98.4 percent turnover. Acer announces 2011 preliminary financial results - Q411 result above breakeven Taipei, Taiwan (February 15, 2012) – Acer Inc. announces the 2011 preliminary financial results, with the operating income of NT$0.1B (US$2.4M) in Q4, representing a turnaround from operating loss to profit in the last quarter. According to Acer's preliminary financial figures, the consolidated revenue for Q4 2011 was NT$127.7B (US$4.2B), up 8.3% quarter-on-quarter (QOQ), operating income was NT$0.1B (US$2.4M), profit after tax (PAT) was NT$0.1B (US$2.5M) and earnings per share (EPS) was NT$0.03. These numbers represent a turnaround to profit for Acer after back-to-back losses in Q2 and Q3 2011. In 2011, Acer's preliminary consolidated revenue was NT$475.5B (US$15.7B), declining 24.4% YOY. Mainly due to the one-time write-off in EMEA in Q2, Acer's annual operating loss reached NT$6.4B (US$212M), PAT was -NT$6.6B (-US$219M), and EPS was -NT$2.52. During Q4 2011, Acer's consolidated revenue declined 14.4% and operating income decreased 98.4%, in comparison to the same period of 2010. After the operational and strategic adjustments from Q2 2011, Acer's current financial and business operation is becoming more healthy and stable. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gartner: Apple leads the way among smartphone vendors, Android sees slight decline Posted: 15 Feb 2012 12:47 AM PST  Gartner's latest bundle of smartphone stats has just hit the wires, bringing with it some encouraging news for the folks in Cupertino. According to the firm's Q4 report, Apple finished 2011 as the world's top smartphone vendor by market share (19 percent), thanks to a Q4 that saw the company grab 23.8 percent of the market. During the quarter, Apple sold some 35.5 million handsets to end users, marking a mildly insane 121.4 percent increase from Q4 2010. This surge also helped Apple overtake LG to become the world's third largest seller of all mobile phones, with a 7.4 percent market share last quarter, trailing only Nokia (23.4 percent) and Samsung (19.4 percent). Nokia, in fact, saw some of its lead wither away during Q4, with sales dropping 8.7 percent over the year, to 111.7 million units. On the OS front, meanwhile, Android continues to dominate Q4 with 50.9 percent of the smartphone market, but that's slightly down from the previous quarter, when it grabbed a little less than 53 percent. Gartner attributes some of this to increased sales of the iPhone 4S, though it expects iOS' share to decline over the next "couple of quarters," as fewer users upgrade to the company's latest handset. For more insight and analysis, check out the full press release, after the break. Gartner Says Worldwide Smartphone Sales Soared in Fourth Quarter of 2011 Apple Became Top Smartphone Vendor in Fourth Quarter of 2011 and in 2011 as a Whole Egham, UK, February 15, 2012- Worldwide smartphone sales to end users soared to 149 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 47.3 per cent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Total smartphone sales in 2011 reached 472 million units and accounted for 31 percent of all mobile devices sales, up 58 percent from 2010. Smartphone volumes during the quarter rose due to record sales of Apple iPhones. As a result, Apple became the third-largest mobile phone vendor in the world, overtaking LG. Apple also became the world's top smartphone vendor, with a market share of 23.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, and the top smartphone vendor for 2011 as a whole, with a 19 percent market share. "Western Europe and North America led most of the smartphone growth for Apple during the fourth quarter of 2011," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. "In Western Europe the spike in iPhone sales in the fourth quarter saved the overall smartphone market after two consecutive quarters of slow sales." The quarter saw Samsung and Apple cement their positions further at the top of the market as their brands and new products clearly stood out. LG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Research In Motion (RIM) again recorded disappointing results as they struggled to improve volumes and profits significantly. These vendors were also exposed to a much stronger threat from the midrange and low end of the smartphone market as ZTE and Huawei continued to gain share during the quarter. Worldwide mobile device sales to end users totaled 476.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 5.4 percent increase from the same period in 2010 (see Table 1). In 2011 as a whole, end users bought 1.8 billion units, an 11.1 percent increase from 2010 (see Table 2). "Expectations for 2012 are for the overall market to grow by about 7 percent, while smartphone growth is expected to slow to around 39 percent," said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner. In the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia's mobile phone sales numbered 111.7 million units, an 8.7 percent decrease from last year. "Samsung closed the gap with Nokia in overall market share," said Ms. Cozza. "Samsung profited from strong smartphone sales of 34 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. The troubled economic environment in Europe and Nokia's weakened brand status posed challenges that were hard to overcome in just one quarter. However, Nokia proved its ability to execute and deliver on time with its new Lumia 710 and 800 handsets. Nokia will have to continue to offer aggressive prices to encourage communications service providers (CSPs) to add its products to portfolios currently dominated by Android-based devices." Apple had an exceptional fourth quarter, selling 35.5 million smartphones to end users, a 121.4 percent increase year on year. Apple's continued attention to channel management helped it take full advantage of the strong quarter to further close the gap with Samsung, which saw some inventory build up for its smartphone range. Apple's strong performance will continue into the first quarter of 2012 as availability of the iPhone 4S widens. However, since Apple will not benefit from delayed purchases as it did in the fourth quarter of 2011, Gartner analysts expect its sales to decline quarter-on-quarter. After Apple, ZTE and Huawei were the fastest-growing vendors in the fourth quarter of 2011. "These vendors expanded their market reach and kept on improving the user experience of their Android devices," said Ms. Cozza. In the fourth quarter of 2011, ZTE moved into fourth place in the global handset market. ZTE posted a strong smartphone sales increase of 71 percent sequentially. The company was able to extend its portfolio to three CSPs in its home market and benefited from consumers' interest in low-cost smartphones. Huawei moved ahead of LG in the Android marketplace to become a top-four Android manufacturer, thanks to strong smartphone growth in the quarter. Huawei has made significant progress in moving to its own-branded devices, and it has continued to expand its portfolio into higher tiers as its tries to build more iconic products. RIM dropped to the No. 7 spot in the fourth quarter of 2011, with a 10.7 percent decline. RIM's delay with its BlackBerry 10 platform will further impair its ability to retain users. However, RIM's biggest challenge is still to expand the developer base around its ecosystem and convince developers to work and innovate with BlackBerry 10. In the smartphone OS market (see Table 3), competition between Google and Apple intensified. Android's share declined slightly sequentially. This was due to strong iPhone sales, driven in particular by the iPhone 4S in mature markets and the weakness of key Android vendors as they struggled to create unique and differentiated devices. Samsung remained the main contributor to Android share gains in the second half of 2011. iOS's market share grew 8 percentage points year-on-year, but Gartner analysts expect Apple's share to drop in the next couple of quarters as the upgrade cycle to the iPhone 4S slows. Nokia's first Windows Phone smartphones, the Lumia 710 and 800, made their debut, but, as expected, sales were not enough to prevent a fall in Microsoft's smartphone market share. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google Wallet gets prepaid security fix, but 'brute-force' issue still hangs in the air Posted: 14 Feb 2012 11:55 PM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GE turns butterfly-inspired tech into cheap, accurate thermal sensors (video) Posted: 14 Feb 2012 10:52 PM PST  New Butterfly-inspired Design From GE To Enable More Advanced, Low Cost Thermal Imaging Devices Nanostructures on Morpho butterfly wings coated with carbon nanotubes can sense temperature changes down to 0.02 degrees Celsius, at a response rate of 1/40 of a second New bio-inspired design by GE scientists could enable more advanced applications for industrial inspection, medical diagnostics, and the military · Discovery reported in Nature Photonics NISKAYUNA, N.Y., February 13, 2012 – Taking heat detection to a new level of sensitivity and speed, a team of scientists at GE Global Research, the technology development arm for the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced new bio-inspired nanostructured systems that could outperform thermal imaging devices available today. This discovery adds to a growing list of new capabilities that GE researchers have developed through their studies of Morpho butterfly wings. To see a video demonstration of the discovered thermal response in butterfly scales, -click here-. GE scientists are exploring many potential thermal imaging and sensing applications with their new detection concept such as medical diagnostics, surveillance, non-destructive inspection and others, where visual heat maps of imaged areas serve as a valuable condition indicator. Some examples include: Thermal Imaging for advanced medical diagnosis - to better visualize inflammation in the body and understand changes in a patient's health earlier. Advanced thermal vision - to see things at night and during the day in much greater detail than what is possible today. Fire thermal Imaging – to aid firefighters with new handheld devices to enhance firefighter safety in operational situations Thermal security surveillance - to improve public safety and homeland protection Thermal characterization of wound infections – to facilitate early diagnosis. "The iridescence of Morpho butterflies has inspired our team for yet another technological opportunity. This time we see the potential to develop the next generation of thermal imaging sensors that deliver higher sensitivity and faster response times in a more simplified, cost-effective design," said Dr. Radislav Potyrailo, Principal Scientist at GE Global Research who leads GE's bio-inspired photonics programs. "This new class of thermal imaging sensors promises significant improvements over existing detectors in their image quality, speed, sensitivity, size, power requirements, and cost." Dr. Potyrailo added, "GE's bio-inspired design also promises exciting new thermal imaging applications such as in advanced medical diagnostics to detect changes in a person's health or in thermal vision goggles for the military to allow soldiers to see things during the day and at night with much greater specificity and detail." Thermal imaging is utilized in a variety of industrial, medical and military applications today, ranging from the non-invasive inspection of industrial components and medical diagnostics to military applications such as thermal vision goggles and others. GE's new bio-inspired nanostructured system could enable an even broader application of thermal imaging by improving the manufacturability, image resolution, sensitivity, and response time of new systems. These advances would enable the production of more advanced systems at much lower cost. Dr. Potyrailo assembled a research team that studied the origin and details of thermal response of Morpho butterfly wing scales. The team included Professor Helen Ghiradella from the Department of Biological Sciences, University at Albany; and Andrew Pris, Yogen Utturkar, Cheryl Surman, William Morris, Alexey Vert, Sergiy Zalyubovskiy, and Tao Deng from GE Global Research. This discovery is a result of extensive studies conducted at GE Global Research on the technological applications of photonic properties of Morpho butterfly wing scales led by Dr. Potyrailo. Dr. Potyrailo noted that his multi-organization teams are also working on the fabrication of photonic nanostructures inspired by Morpho butterfly wing scales for highly selective vapor sensing applications, with commercial applications that could reach the market within the next five years. About GE Global Research GE Global Research is the hub of technology development for all of GE's businesses. Our scientists and engineers redefine what's possible, drive growth for our businesses and find answers to some of the world's toughest problems. We innovate 24 hours a day, with sites in Niskayuna, New York; Bangalore, India; Shanghai, China; Munich, Germany; and fifth global research facility to open in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2012. Visit GE Global Research on the web at www.ge.com/research. Connect with our technologists at http://edisonsdesk.com and http://twitter.com/edisonsdesk. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kinect for Media Center released, why not wave and shout at your HTPC? Posted: 14 Feb 2012 09:34 PM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| H2O Bolt promises unlimited 4G internet for $50, pretends it's never heard of Clear Posted: 14 Feb 2012 08:20 PM PST  Introducing the First Ever True Prepaid 4G Unlimited Internet, H2O BOLT(SM) by H2O® Wireless Just Connect and Surf: USB and Hotspot Give Unlimited Access to High-Speed 4G Wireless Internet for Only $50/Month FORT LEE, N.J., Feb. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A leading provider of no-contract wireless services, H2O® Wireless today unveiled H2O BOLT(SM), offering unlimited prepaid 4G mobile internet on-the-go for just $50/month with a new USB dongle, H2O BOLT(SM) Flash and mobile hotspot, H2O BOLT(SM) Spider. Simply plug the H2O BOLT(SM) Flash to any laptop for instant 4G unlimited internet access. With H2O BOLT(SM) Spider, receive the same great internet and connect up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices. As with all H2O® Wireless plans and products, there is never any contract or hidden fees. "In today's mobile world, high-speed internet access is a must – whether at home or on-the-go," said Jack Woo, Vice President of H2O® Wireless. "With the new H2O BOLT(SM), we're able to connect users directly to the fastest 4G mobile broadband network available and can even replace their expensive home internet service by offering the convenience, affordability, and portability they expect from our no-contract plans." H2O BOLT(SM) Flash and H2O BOLT(SM) Spider are compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X operating systems. Buy it today at http://www.H2OBolt.com or visit any of authorized H2O BOLT(SM) retailers near you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Limited edition Droid RAZR and RAZR Maxx appear, exclusive to Verizon employees? Posted: 14 Feb 2012 07:02 PM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dukane launches mobile charging carts for piles of iPads Posted: 14 Feb 2012 06:14 PM PST  Companies and schools that have bought into the whole iPad thing need a place to store and charge their tablets without running miles of extension cords and power strips. Dukane clearly sees an untapped market here, and has launched the MCCD1 and MCC1. Both are caster-mounted, fire and drill resistent cabinets designed to dock and lock piles of iPads. The MCCD1 has space for up to 32 of the iOS tablets and can both charge and sync them while keeping them organized and safe. The MCC1 holds just 30 and can't sync the slates, but it will keep them juiced and locked down between uses. The MCCD1 is available starting at $2,250 while the MCC1 is a slightly more affordable $1,260. Looking for more info? Hit up the source to download PDF fact sheets. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Samsung intros trifecta of Galaxy Duos in India, new Ace included Posted: 14 Feb 2012 05:11 PM PST  Sammy isn't taking its foot off the handset-making accelerator anytime soon. The company announced it's bringing three of its galactic machines along for an Indian ride, and while we'd previously met the dual-SIM packin' pair, the Galaxy Ace Duos is seeing life for the first time in its double-threat form. Sporting the same 832MHz CPU as its siblings, as well as a 3.5-inch display, 1650mAh battery and GSM / CDMA capabilities, the newcomer isn't much more powerful, but at least offers more screen real estate and an extra pinch of juice to get you through the day. All members of the family are rockin' Gingerbread and will start off at around $212 for the Y Duos and its Pro variant. As for the Ace, a mere $324 will let you unleash its GSM / CDMA powers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FCC to dash LightSquared's bid for LTE glory Posted: 14 Feb 2012 04:37 PM PST  LightSquared Remains Committed to Finding Resolution RESTON, Va., February 14, 2012 – In response to the NTIA's recommendation to the FCC today regarding LightSquared's network, the company said it remains committed to finding a resolution with the federal government and the GPS industry to resolve all remaining concerns. LightSquared is confident that the parties will continue the on-going efforts to explore all engineering options and alternatives to find a solution to this difficult issue. The NTIA's recommendation relied on the flawed conclusions of the PNT ExCOM about LightSquared's potential impact on GPS. LightSquared profoundly disagrees with both the NTIA's and the PNT's recommendations, which disregard more than a decade of regulatory orders, and in doing so, jeopardize private enterprise, jobs and investment in America's future. NTIA relies on interference standards that have never been used in this context, and were forced by the GPS community in order to reach the conclusions presented today. This, together with a severely flawed testing process that relied on obsolete and niche devices, shows that the FCC should take the NTIA's recommendation with a generous helping of salt. Despite LightSquared's success in finding technical solutions and the acknowledgement by a senior government official that GPS receivers are specifically designed to rely on spectrum licensed to LightSquared, it is extremely disappointing that this recommendation was made today. LightSquared recognizes, however, that this is just one step in the process, and it remains committed to working toward a resolution. The final regulatory decision rests now with the FCC, which is the proper authority to resolve this issue. The company fully expects the agency to recognize LightSquared's legal rights to build its $14 billion, privately financed network. There is no question that an America where both the GPS industry and LightSquared's network can co-exist is a stronger one for any administration that believes in competitive markets and job growth. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Large Hadron Collider to increase beam energy: Higgs boson can run, not hide Posted: 14 Feb 2012 04:18 PM PST  LHC to run at 4 TeV per beam in 2012 Geneva, 13 February 2012. CERN1 today announced that the LHC will run with a beam energy of 4 TeV this year, 0.5 TeV higher than in 2010 and 2011. This decision was taken by CERN management following the annual performance workshop held in Chamonix last week and a report delivered today by the external CERN Machine Advisory Committee (CMAC). It is accompanied by a strategy to optimise LHC running to deliver the maximum possible amount of data in 2012 before the LHC goes into a long shutdown to prepare for higher energy running. The data target for 2012 is 15 inverse femtobarns for ATLAS and CMS, three times higher than in 2011. Bunch spacing in the LHC will remain at 50 nanoseconds. "When we started operating the LHC for physics in 2010, we chose the lowest safe beam energy consistent with the physics we wanted to do," said CERN's Director for Accelerators and Technology, Steve Myers. "Two good years of operational experience with beam and many additional measurements made during 2011 give us the confidence to safely move up a notch, and thereby extend the physics reach of the experiments before we go into the LHC's first long shutdown." The LHC's excellent performance in 2010 and 2011 has brought tantalising hints of new physics, notably narrowing the range of masses available to the Higgs particle to a window of just 16 GeV. Within this window, both the ATLAS and CMS experiments have seen hints that a Higgs might exist in the mass range 124-126 GeV. However, to turn those hints into a discovery, or to rule out the Standard Model Higgs particle altogether, requires one more year's worth of data. The LHC is scheduled to enter a long technical stop at the end of this year to prepare for running at its full design energy of around 7 TeV per beam. "By the time the LHC goes into its first long stop at the end of this year, we will either know that a Higgs particle exists or have ruled out the existence of a Standard Model Higgs," said CERN's Research Director, Sergio Bertolucci. "Either would be a major advance in our exploration of nature, bringing us closer to understanding how the fundamental particles acquire their mass, and marking the beginning of a new chapter in particle physics." The schedule announced today foresees beams back in the LHC next month, and running through to November. There will then be a long technical stop of around 20 months, with the LHC restarting close to its full design energy late in 2014 and operating for physics at the new high energy in early 2015. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LibreOffice updates to version 3.5, brings grammar check, bigger Calc workbooks, and more Posted: 14 Feb 2012 03:34 PM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Inkling Habitat interactive e-book publishing platform rolls out to select publishers Posted: 14 Feb 2012 02:53 PM PST  It's not another alternative for individual authors looking to self-publish (at least for now), but professional publishers looking to create and distribute interactive e-books now have a new option to consider in the form of Inkling Habitat. Initially available to select publishers in an early adopter program (a broader rollout is planned for later this year), the platform promises to make producing interactive e-books at scale more affordable, with the program itself completely free provided publishers agree to sell their books through Inkling's store. As mocoNews notes, however, Inkling isn't asking publishers for exclusive rights, so they'll also be able to sell them elsewhere if they choose -- the iPad is the initial target platform, with HTML5-based web publishing also planned. The system is also cloud-based, meaning that a group of folks in various locations will be able to collaborate on a single book, something that Inkling hopes will distinguish it further from Apple's own iBooks Author; its CEO even went as far as to use the analogy of Habitat being the Final Cut Pro to iBooks Author's iMovie. Inkling(R) Launches Inkling Habitat(TM), the First-Ever Digital Printing Press for Professionals Scalable cross-platform publishing environment brings the digital publishing transition to its next phase SAN FRANCISCO & NEW YORK, Feb 14, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Inkling(R), creators of the standard for interactive content experiences on iPad, today launched Inkling Habitat, a breakthrough software environment that represents the most significant advance in publishing technology since the advent of desktop publishing in the 1980s. Inkling Habitat gives professional publishers everything they need to create and publish media-rich interactive content for both iPad and the Web, without desktop software and without the constraints of the printed page. "To reinvent the book, we had to reinvent the printing press," said Matt MacInnis, CEO of Inkling, who unveiled Habitat for the first time today in a keynote at the Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York. "It's not about replicating the printed page on a screen. It's about making a first-class interactive experience on every device you target, and this is the first time publishers can do it reliably and at scale." Inkling Habitat allows publishers to deploy standards-based content that includes guided tours, 3-D exhibits, interactive quizzes, and high definition video, in addition to impeccable text content. Everything can be instantly published--and updated--with a single click. Habitat will be available immediately to select partners, with broad availability later this year. "When Inkling debuted its first textbooks two years ago, we set the bar for interactive content experiences on iPad," said MacInnis. "Now we're setting the bar for how interactive content is built, providing the entire industry with a means to scale interactive publishing into a viable business for the first time." Open, flexible, and engineered for industrial use, Inkling Habitat is the first integrated publishing environment built for professional publishers. -- Cross-platform with a click. Click "Publish", and Inkling Habitat pushes updates to every target platform at once, automatically customizing layouts for each device. -- Everything in the cloud. Teams of authors, editors and production partners can collaborate on projects seamlessly from anywhere in the world. Because everyone sees the same thing at the same time, it's easy to communicate, collaborate and coordinate from first edit to final publish. -- Object-oriented content structure. On the world's first strictly semantic publishing platform, content is treated like software, shifting the industry from a page-based model to a software-based model that benefits from decades of computer science advances. -- Automated error reporting. Every time new content is published, Habitat runs a set of tests to make sure everything works. Broken links, missing files, and even glossary problems are spotted automatically. -- Infinite revision management. Habitat automatically saves every version of the entire project, every time. That's a lot of data, but it means that nothing's ever lost. Anyone can roll back changes anytime, all the way back to the very beginning to see how the project has evolved. Over the last two years, Inkling has worked with experienced partners to build a labor force many hundreds-strong of skilled editors, designers and programmers who use Inkling Habitat daily. Having worked behind the scenes to build over 100 Inkling titles, the industry's leaders in digital content production services, Aptara and Innodata, are now ready to expand production on the Inkling platform. "As Inkling extends its game-changing approach to all types of books, Aptara is expanding our dedicated full-service Inkling Design & Production Center to all publishers," said Dev Ganesan, President and CEO of Aptara. "Our instructional and creative designers, content developers, and media specialists are working as an extension of publishers' in-house teams, using Inkling Habitat to increase the volume and speed at which print-bound books are transformed into engaging new interactive products." "Innodata's engineering and design teams have produced millions of e-books for a wide range of platforms," says Jim Lewis, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Innodata. "The release of Inkling Habitat opens up new opportunities to create uniquely rich multimedia content experiences for all types of publishers and corporate enterprises, and we're excited to work with a pioneering partner like Inkling." Open Air Publishing, a startup publisher of high-quality, digital-first books for the Inkling platform, has already launched three titles on Inkling using Habitat. Open Air Publishing's titles have won numerous accolades and are top sellers in their respective categories in the iTunes App Store. "Inkling Habitat has given our company the opportunity to build something big quickly," said Jon Feldman, CEO of Open Air Publishing. "Habitat not only let us produce the highly interactive experiences you see in every title, but it also gave us unprecedented speed to market in 2011. We launched three full products with a skeleton crew in just under 6 months." Open Air Publishing has an impressive pipeline of additional consumer titles forthcoming in 2012. Inkling Habitat is available immediately to select publishing partners. Interested organizations should register for the Early Adopter Program at www.inkling.com/habitat . The platform will be made more broadly available later this year. About Inkling: Inkling is reinventing publishing in the era of iPad, and we've started by redefining the book. Starting with the world's best textbooks from leading publishers, Inkling rebuilds each from the ground up into enhanced, engaging and interactive experiences. But it's about more than just books. Look between the lines, and you'll see a revolution in publishing: a new platform for creating, distributing and consuming media-rich, interactive content. Based in San Francisco, Inkling is backed by Sequoia Capital, and partners with the world's leading educational publishers. For more information, visit www.inkling.com . About Open Air Publishing: Open Air Publishing creates original, high-quality how-to books that are designed and built exclusively for the iPad. Open Air's groundbreaking digital books allow readers to touch, watch, listen and read as they master new skills and learn straight from the experts. Each publication is a beautiful and complete experience that combines the depth of a traditional book with stunning multimedia not possible on paper. More: openairpub.com About Innodata: Innodata INOD +13.27% is a leading provider of business process, technology and consulting services, as well as products and solutions, that help our valued clients create, manage, use and distribute digital information. Propelled by a culture of quality, service and innovation, we have developed a client base that includes many of the world's preeminent media, publishing and information services companies, as well as leading enterprises in information-intensive industries such as aerospace, defense, financial services, government, healthcare, high technology, insurance, intelligence, manufacturing and law. About Aptara: Aptara enriches content for capitalizing on all digital mediums. Providing full content lifecycle production--from content creation and design, to new media enhancements, content technology solutions, and production for all mobile devices and platforms--Aptara develops innovative digital products that deliver content how, when, and where recipients want it, while providing publishers renewed agility and revenue opportunities. Serving 9 of the 10 largest publishers in the world, Aptara is a US-based company founded in 1988 around its unique publishing technical expertise. Our over 5,000 professionals are deployed globally to help content providers create, enrich, publish, monetize, and manage their assets in the digital age. For more information: www.aptaracorp.com . SOURCE: Inkling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Engadget HD Podcast 286 - 02.14.2012 Posted: 14 Feb 2012 02:20 PM PST
LISTEN (MP3) LISTEN (AAC) This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Warner Cable's TWC TV launches for PC, brings live TV streaming to the desktop Posted: 14 Feb 2012 01:47 PM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alcatel OT-915 with QWERTY keyboard, Gingerbread said to be launching at MWC Posted: 14 Feb 2012 01:16 PM PST  How do you improve on the phone we described as "one of the cheesiest Android devices we've ever handled"? If you're Alcatel, you switch from a sliding to candybar form factor, ditch the large, candy-colored buttons and add a touchscreen. That about sums up the OT-915, a budget handset that's slated to make its official debut at Mobile World Congress later this month, but whose existence Electricpig claims to have confirmed weeks in advance. That press shot up there, if accurate, speaks for itself: what we have here is a full QWERTY device whose button layout and style borders on BlackBerry KIRF. Other specs include a 2.8-inch, 240 x 320 touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera, WiFI, FM radio, 11.9mm-thick profile and Android 2.3 as an OS. Electricpig, based in the UK, reports the phone is headed to Blighty at some unspecified date, though it's unclear what other (typically non-US) markets it'll reach. For now, we leave you with that one photo up there, but you know if we see this thing on the show floor at Barcelona we'll hit you back with more details and the requisite hands-on treatment. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft guide explains how to submit apps to the Windows Store (video) Posted: 14 Feb 2012 12:44 PM PST  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HP unveils Z1 all-in-one workstation: 27-inch IPS display, starts at $1,899 Posted: 14 Feb 2012 12:16 PM PST  If you fancy yourself a power user, HP's got a "world's first" trick up its sleeve that might lure you in. Earlier today, the Palo Alto outfit took the wraps off its newest all-in-one, the HP Z1. This workstation is a mere distant cousin to HP's consumer-focused Omni and TouchSmart lines -- not that that's a bad thing. The machine comes sporting a 27-inch, 2560 x 1440, IPS display, the back of which snaps open for easy access when making hardware tweaks and, if you wisely choose to take the premium road, you could be walking out with a quad-core Intel Xeon CPU and NVIDIA Quadro graphics, as well as your choice of a 160GB or 300GB SSD for storage. Needless to say, it all depends on how much dough you're willing to part with. HP says the Z1 is expected to ship around April, with the lowest-end model starting at $1,899. It'll be a while before you can get your hands on one, but in the meantime you can keep yourself entertained by checking out those glossy press shots below. LAS VEGAS, Feb. 14, 2012 - HP today unveiled the world's first all-in-one workstation with a 27-inch diagonal display. Designed like no other, the display of the new HP Z1 Workstation snaps open so users can easily swap out parts and make upgrades without any tools required. The HP Z1 combines a sleek industrial design with accelerated performance featuring Intel® Xeon® processors, NVIDIA Quadro graphics, support for more than 1 billion colors and HP's world-class reliability. Built for computer-aided design, digital media and entertainment professionals, the HP Z1 provides blazingly fast rendering and performance. It offers a full range of workstation-class graphics cards and processors, and is thoroughly tested and certified to work with today's leading industry applications. Whether it's an engineer creating 3-D components, an architect designing buildings or a videographer editing event footage, the HP Z1 gives creative professionals the power they need to bring ideas to life faster. Workstation Performance Without Compromise Workstation performance. Features professional NVIDIA Quadro graphics, ECC memory, quad-core Intel Xeon processors, independent software vendor solutions and whisper-quiet acoustics. Tool-less chassis. Users can easily add a hard drive, upgrade memory or access the graphics card by snapping open the chassis to swap out parts. Workstation-class storage. Users can choose from a variety of storage types, including 7.2K and 10K SATA, SSD, optional RAID configurations, removable drives (AMO), a multiformat media card reader and optical drives including a slot-load Blu-ray Writer. Professional display. The 27-inch white LED display supports more than 1 billion colors and features a wide, 178-degree viewing angle and an in-plane switching (IPS) panel. High-fidelity audio. Front-facing dual-cone speakers and SRS Premium Sound offer high-fidelity audio. HD Webcam. Have face-to-face meetings and see every detail right down to the twinkle of an eye. Also captures HD-quality video. HP Remote Graphics Software. Users can work remotely while still accessing the high-performance 2-D, 3-D, video and media-rich applications they count on. HP Performance Advisor. Reduces the time spent troubleshooting by providing a consolidated report of the workstation's hardware and software configuration that can be used to tune the workstation for specifically professional application workloads with just one click. Pricing and Availability The new HP Z1 Workstation is expected to be available worldwide in April. Pricing starts at $1899.00 in the United States. Additional information is available at www.hp.com/z1. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Satellite web surfing at 40Mbps with ViaSat SurfBeam 2 Pro (video) Posted: 14 Feb 2012 11:41 AM PST  The sample we saw at the company's Carlsbad, CA headquarters is also provisioned for faster service, delivering throughput in excess of 40Mbps down, letting you transfer files from the web at speeds you'd typically only be able to meet with a fiber connection. That may be a bit excessive for regular web use, but if you need to download software, movies or other large files in remote areas, that extra speed will likely be more than welcome. Join us past the break for a quick look a Exede, followed by a demo of the enterprise version and its 40Mbps downloads. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sony Z Series Walkman Player review Posted: 14 Feb 2012 11:00 AM PST  HardwareUnboxing the Walkman Z you won't find much included; there's a set of earbuds and a USB - WM-port cable for syncing and charging. Once you get the player in your hands, you'll quickly be taken aback by what a gorgeous piece of kit this is. Along the device's front, you'll find a glossy black finish that blends in with its 4.3-inch screen -- as a splashy touch, it extends over to the edges of the device. Although we love the accents, it turns out that the corners easily scuff thanks to the PMP's bold edges. Users with smaller hands may find that the device digs into their palms when held in the landscape orientation. Furthermore, the device could use some nipping and tucking. According to Sony, it measures in at just about 2.88 x 5.38 x .44 inches (70.9 x 134.4 x 11.1 mm when you factor in the bezel and folds). Although the chipped edges left us wanting more in the way of durability, the back of the Z has a slight contour, making it a dream to hold in the hands, especially in landscape mode. The design lends itself so well to gaming that we're disappointed it's not a PlayStation-certified device. We have to say, though, it's not particularly svelte, with a thickness of about 11mm at its pudgiest points. Surprisingly, that curvy shape didn't impede our holding the player in portrait, as we found ourselves planting our fingers on the sides instead. Taking a tour around the device, there's a power button up top, while the right side is home to the volume rocker, micro-HDMI socket and "W.Control" launcher. Considering this is a media player, we were disappointed with the feel of the rocker. On our unit, it was slightly slanted toward the up position, making it feel almost stuck in place compared to the throw of the volume down portion. The bottom of the Z is where you'll notice a looped area (wrist strap?), a proprietary WM-port for charging / syncing and a reinforced 3.5mm headphone jack. All of the ports lend themselves well to tight connections, ensuring our cables didn't easily shift out of place. The headphone jack does bulge out a few millimeters from the back and the bottom, but we were happy to have the extra thickness in the occasional times when we snagged our headphones' cable while walking.  Around back, you'll notice a smooth metallic purple finish and duo of small speakers, along with a recessed reset button. Overall, the hardware feels very well assembled, proving resistant to flexing and (to a degree) fingerprint smudges. Although it's made of plastic, in a blind test we'd swear that we had a metal slab in our hands. Noticeably absent, however, are any cameras -- a reminder that the Z is a media player at heart. We're not exactly saddened by the exclusion, but it's a puzzling omission, given that competing devices like the Samsung Galaxy Player and iPod touch include this and still manage to cost less. Lastly, you'll be able to use voice control and record memos thanks to a built-in microphone, which isn't visible from the outside of the device. Don't get too excited, though, as the sound quality there is mediocre at best Moving back to the front, Sony's paired the Z with an 800 x 480, LED-backlit TFT LCD. While it's not the best panel we've ever seen, we have little to complain about, thanks to the reasonably deep blacks and pleasing colors. Viewing angles are wide enough to appease two viewers at a time, and it can get extremely bright -- so much so that we found its lower settings adequate most of the time. Although there's nothing in the way of a physical home button near the bottom, you'll find a trio of capacitive buttons for back, home and launching menus. Each responded well to our every input, but sadly, Sony's opted to exclude any backlighting or haptic feedback. The design choice hampered our use of the Z anytime anytime we found ourselves in a dimly lit room. If you're familiar with Android devices, it shouldn't be a huge problem given the muscle memory you're likely to have built up, but even white paint in place of silver would have gone a long way in making them easier to make out in our peripheral vision. Another disappointment for many will be the lack of expandable storage. Following in the iPod touch's footsteps, the Z lacks any expandable storage options, which could be a big problem if you go with the lowest-end 8GB model we reviewed -- we had a paltry 4.58GB of usable space to store files Sure, there's always Sony's Music Unlimited service or even others like Google Music for streaming over WiFi, but if you like your files to be local, then we'd suggest opting for the larger 16 or 32GB variants. Performance and battery life Internally, the Z packs an accelerometer, a Tegra 2 SoC clocked at 1 GHz along with 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and 802.11 b/g/n WiFi. Sure, as far as mobile devices go, these specs are fairly humdrum, but they're enough for mostly fluid performance. You'll also have access to FM radio as long as you have headphones plugged in to act an antenna. Menus scroll smoothly, and even graphically intense games run free of hiccups. Occasionally, though, its performance was hampered by app error messages that tended to pop up. The few times that this occurred, every app on the device would simply fail to open, usually warranting a reboot to fix the issue. Even more than that, though, the most glaring issue we encountered were some incredibly slow load times when using the native Gingerbread browser -- in many instances it would take minutes to load simple webpages over WiFi, while our other mobile devices on the same network finished within seconds.
So, how well does it stack up to the bevy of other Android devices out there? Quadrant averaged out at 2,199, putting it right above the HTC Vivid. In contrast, Sammy's Galaxy Player 4.0 only mustered up a score of 1,651, even though its screen has the same resolution as the Walkman -- an important spec where Quadrant is concerned. Meanwhile, Single-threaded Linpack left us with a healthy score of 33.268 -- a healthy boost over the Galaxy Player, at least, though not flagship phones like the Rezound. Lastly, in Nenamark the Z landed a healthy average framerate of 54 fps, while in version two it managed roughly 28 fps. Of course, performance means less if your PMP needs charging throughout the day to keep up. Thankfully, that wasn't the case with this guy. WiFi on (not connected), looping a video at 50 percent brightness, the Z managed to stay strong for five hours and 29 minutes -- just six minutes more than the Galaxy Player 4.0 lasted in the same test. All told, Sony rates the Z at five hours for video playback and 20 hours for audio (14 with Bluetooth enabled). Still, Apple claims up to 40 hours of music playback / seven hours of video on its current iPod touch, so it's something to keep in mind. We were usually able to go for a few days without plugging in while using the Z as our secondary media player. Software As we mentioned, the Z chugs along on Gingerbread (version 2.3.4, to be exact). Thanks the openness of Android, it's many times a gamble when it comes to how much bloatware you'll find on your shiny new device. In the case of the Z, aside from a demo version of Riptide GP, a few pre-loaded tracks and included apps like Sony's WiFi checker, DLNA and media players (among others), we're happy to report that customization is light and relatively free of anything that can get in the way. As expected, you'll have access to Android Market, so loading the device up with whatever apps you desire shouldn't be a problem. Notably, if you happen to have a Bravia TV in your abode, you'll be able to "Throw" your media to it wirelessly from the PMP.  As far as the Walkman part goes, Sony's added some features that aim to keep you using its video and music apps within the device. While you'll be free to use any service you wish, like Google Music, those won't allow for full optimization. Within the home screens, you'll find a widget for basic playback control -- the so-called "W.Control" button on its side will also display a pop-up version of this that's accessible even when the player is locked. Sadly, however, the button cannot be reassigned for other tasks or apps. The pop-up can be navigated with taps, or Sony's W.control, which merely allows you to swipe forward and back to change songs. At best, W.control feels gimmicky to us, but it's still nice to have the option available. When the device is unlocked, you'll also have access to your full library of music. So, here's the big reason to use the included players: Sony's loaded the Z with a number of equalization options and proprietary DSPs to enhance your audio. Problem is, unless you want to use Sony's supplied goods, you won't have access to any of it -- if you're a big Google Music user like us, it hinders the reasoning for going with the Z in the first place. But alas, such is to be expected running Android, as your options for a music player are only limited by what you can manage to load into it. Specifically, the EQ is of the five-band variety (allowing for two custom presets), with Sony's "Clear Bass" as a sixth parameter. This is essentially a quick way to raise bass levels beyond what would normally cause distortion in cheaper cans, but it's not to say that bass heads won't love it in general. Past that, you'll notice a VPT virtual surround toggle, which can mimic the sound of different rooms like a stadium or lounge. The virtualization can also be set for a more natural front-facing stereo sound, if you're not fond of the side-by-side feel headphones tend to have. We can't say that we used VPT very often, but we're still glad the option was there. And that's not all. There's DSEE (a setting to enhance the treble in lower quality files), Clear Stereo (a basic stereo expander) and a Dynamic normalizer to even out the levels between songs. Lastly, there are two options for enhancing the built-in speakers: xLoud and Clear Phrase. The former allows the speakers to gain a boost in volume beyond their normal functionality, while the latter voices the audio for a fuller sound. Overall, xLoud and Clear Phrase proved most useful when we just wanted to pick up the device sans headphones -- still, it's worth noting that the built-in speakers won't be of much use in louder environments.  Speaking of the Sony supplied music app, you may be wondering "Well, is it any good?" The short answer is yes. It loads quickly and movement within it is snappy and free of lag -- swiping up from the bottom brings up a the basic playback controls similar to the home screen widget. You'll have a basic choice between list and grid view for your music, but if you want something more visual the Cover art view scatters your albums across the screen. From here you'll be able to flick the covers around, however, it feels like a jumbled mess regardless of how smooth it is. Lastly, Sony's loaded the player with SenseMe channels -- think iTunes Genius. Based on 12 tonalities, the feature can listen through your library and sort it under categories like "Emotional" and "Extreme." As smooth as Music Player was, we still found ourselves opting to use Google Music despite its lack of sound customization options. The reason is simple, too: Sony supplies MediaGo software for syncing music and media Windows PCs, but Mac users currently aren't receiving any of that love, leaving USB drag and drop as the only option. Thankfully, the PMP is smart enough to sort everything out on its own, but that doesn't make the process feel any less archaic. This is a big problem with the player, as it makes it less compelling for folks using Google Music or iTunes to switch over to device that makes basic syncing a real pain -- not everyone will want to use Music Unlimited or Walkman apps when the device is open for business with others. Sound |
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