News Archive for 07/12/20
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| MacUpdate Weekend Sale | :This weekend MacUpdate has slashed prices on Painter 12 and Painter Lite. Painter 12 retails for $429, but has been reduced by 54% to $199. Painter Lite has seen a 58% price cut from $69 to $29. Hurry, because these deals are only available until May 19th 2013. |
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Research in Motion reported third quarter results for the three months ended December 1, 2007. Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 was $1.67 billion, up 22% from $1.37 billion in the previous quarter and up 100% from $835.1 million in the same quarter of last year. Approximately 1.65 million BlackBerry subscriber accounts were added in the quarter and over 3.9 million devices were shipped. The total BlackBerry subscriber account base at the end of the third quarter was approximately 12 million. The company expects to add 1.82 million accounts in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the iPhone has managed to outperform long-term competitors in the smartphone market, says a new study in the January 2008 issue of Consumer Reports.
One of the key reasons Radiohead has refrained from signing on to digital music is licensing rights, the band's lead singer Thom Yorke says in an interview with Wired. The musician observes that the group's previous, multi-album contract with music label EMI contained virtually no clauses for digital music rights as it was struck years before digital music stores were available. Radiohead's release of In Rainbows in October with flexible pricing was the first real opportunity the group had to earn money on a digital offering.
Sharp criticism is being directed at ZDNet's George Ou for a piece suggesting that Macs are more vulnerable than Windows PCs. Ou compiled a list of Secunia notices from 2007, and noted that while Windows XP and Vista had a total of 44 security warnings issued, Mac OS X had 243, all but two of which were deemed "highly critical." One problem with this, say observers, is that Secunia itself includes a warning on its website, advising people not to use its statistics to compare products against each other.
RIM's upcoming touchscreen BlackBerry may disappoint users expecting a perfect device, according to updated information provided by BGR. Although earlier claims have alluded to a 3G Internet linkup, the initial version of the device known as the BlackBerry 9100 will be limited to slower 2.5G EDGE for wide-area data. In return, the handset will support 802.11a WiFi networks popular with some workplaces as an alternative to 802.11g, according to the tip.
Claiming to beat the Alienware m15x and other upcoming systems in the video performance race, Widow PC today rolled out its Sting 517D2. The gaming PC house says it is the first to install NVIDIA's new GeForce 8800M GTX mobile graphics chipset in a shipping notebook and uses it to provide desktop-class 3D games in a 17-inch portable. The extra performance and 512MB of video memory are also useful for driving full-resolution Blu-ray or HD DVD movies without taxing the main processor, Widow explains.
Air France has become the world's first airline to equip an international flight with a form of regular cellular technology, says the Associated Press. One of the company's Airbus A318s now lets users send e-mail and text messages through an onboard GSM antenna, which connects to a satellite that in turn transmits to the ground. The main obstacle for the service, at the moment, is infrequency; aside from only being a part of a six-month test, not all flights on the A318 will have access. To this end a "No Mobile" light has been installed in the plane.
Samsung significantly expanded its Aura line of notebooks today with the advent of the R700. An international version of the Sens Q70, the 17-inch is aimed at desktop replacement users who still want a thin, stylized system. It measures just 1.17 inches thick but includes a baseline GeForce 8400M GS graphics chipset to drive HD playback; an HDMI output is standard for relaying video to a TV. A 1.3-megapixel webcam and a full-size keypad also separate the glossy black system from some other large notebooks.
Sony Japan on Thursday unveiled what it says is a solution to the current problems of multi-touch displays. By using a low-temperature polysilicon LCD, the company has successfully interwoven optical sensors into the display surface, creating an exceptionally thin surface that can still respond to visual cues for control, including inorganic devices such as a stylus. This represents a major improvement over current hardware, Sony says. Other multi-touch screens currently require a multi-layer technique that increases the thickness of the display and leaves the input open to quality deterioration if the layers become loose.
New information has surfaced about Research in Motion's first touchscreen phone as well as a major upgrade to the BlackBerry Pearl, claims a new research note from the financial group GMP Securities. Referred to as "Touchscreen 1.0" in the note but known in online circles as the BlackBerry 9100, the device is shown in a patent schematic that appears to confirm a slide-out QWERTY keyboard underneath a large touchscreen display, letting the phone live up to the company's reputation for messaging while offering a more intuitive interface than the trackball found on 2007 phones.
A Spanish-language website claims to acquired photos and specifications on three new, unannounced AMD video cards. Of these the most notable may actually be the slowest of the group, the Radeon HD 3450; while it only has a 525MHz core and 256MB of 800MHz memory, it is the only one of the three known to have a DisplayPort connection, the second from the company after the previously-revealed RV635 XT. DisplayPort is intended to eventually replace DVI and VGA ports, and it may subsume HDMI as well, since companies do not have to pay for its use.
Avaya has announced plans to ship its Avaya one-X Mobile software for iPhone in the first quarter of next year. Avaya one-X Mobile builds on the functionality of Extension to Cellular by providing a family of mobile clients designed to further enhance the productivity of enterprise mobile workers, according to the company. The family of Avaya one-X Mobile clients provides quick access to office phone functionality via an intuitive graphical user interface, and supports a broad array of devices ranging from high-end smart phones to less expensive consumer-oriented phones.
The US government's Federal Trade Commission has approved Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, the Associated Press reports. The two signed a deal in April worth $3.1 billion, but the purchase has since undergone much scrutiny, primarily due to worries that Google might develop a monopoly in online advertising. This opinion was voiced especially strongly by Microsoft and AT&T, despite the former of the two having bought the ad firm aQuantive. Microsoft is pushing heavily into areas currently ruled by Google, such as web search and mapping.
Nokia's long-awaited sequel to the N95 smartphone may have been spotted, according to a leak posted in Mobile-Review's forums. Named simply the N96, the slider includes the extra gaming and media controls of the N81 but also the large LCD and two-way slider of the N95 8GB; it will also have the higher-resolution, 5-megapixel camera of the N95 series complete with Carl Zeiss optics. Unlike the recent N82, however, flash lighting will come from two LEDs rather than a single Xenon bulb.
Samsung's high-end G800 slider phone should be available in the US, according to a newly posted set of FCC filings discovered by Electronista. The company will bring over a variant known as the G808E that should retain the 5-megapixel camera, 3X optical zoom, and face recognition found in the original but will be tailored to the American market; while the current model is limited to only European and southeast Asian radio bands, the new document reveals support for the 850MHz and 1900MHz bands needed to work in the US.
Offering a preview of its first camera for 2008, JVC today unveiled the Everio GR-D850. The widescreen DV camera is designed primarily for those with small hands or newcomers turned away by the large grips of other camcorders; compared to the outgoing D750, the new model is more compact overall and 0.8 inches shorter, JVC says. Pressing an Auto button also hands over nearly all control over shooting to the camera, adjusting the picture quality and other picture settings on the fly. Its 2.7-inch wide LCD also auto-dims in low light.
BenQ today provided the surprise of a completely new entry in its Joybook portable line. The Q41 is the first notebook from the company to offer an external display for Windows Vista's SideShow feature: a 2.5-inch LCD on the outer lid lets users access e-mail, media, and simple games from the system even while turned off. Completely unique to BenQ, however, is the SideShow display's VoIP feature: owners can place Internet phone calls without having to boot up the main system and start conventional software, the company boasts.
Computer maker ASUS on Thursday began quietly seeding online retailers with the Eee PC 2G Surf, the current lowest-cost version of its 7-inch ultraportable notebook. Both J&R and online-only reseller NewEgg are carrying the new version, which significantly reduces the price of the system by halving the onboard flash storage to 2GB and stripping out the webcam. In exchange, the system gains several pastel color choices for its outer shell, including Lush Green and Sky Blue.
Sony is bowing out of the rear-projection TV business, the company has confirmed. The Japanese electronics firm has effectively halted production and will allow stock of both its 3LCD and SXRD sets to run dry over the course of the next few months. The decision is the result of several months of research which showed a clearly waning interest in such units, which are typically less expensive than direct-view LCD or plasma TVs at the same size but are often bulkier and have narrower viewable angles. LCDs are considerably more popular and better justify the company's focus, a Sony spokesman observes.
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