News Archive for 08/06/27
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Rogers Wireless is justified in its limited data plans as many other iPhone-carrying nations are doing the same or are more restrictive, a company spokeswoman tells Electronista. The Canadian company argues that a "majority" of international iPhone carriers have capped data and believes its plan to be better than these, citing as example Orange France plans that include a 500MB 'reasonable use' limit versus the 2GB maximum on Rogers' best iPhone plan. The company also tries to justify the caps by claiming that unlimited use would require customers pay for more than they need.
At an employee event held today, Bill Gates said farewell to the company he co-founded back in 1975. Gates will move from one giant to another, as he will turn his focus on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the world's largest charity. Reports say Gates and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer delivered speeches to the assembled employees and press, each choking back tears as they spoke.
MSI has again delayed getting its Wind UMPC into the hands of buyers. In a letter sent to customers recently, apologetic MSI says the delay stems from an industry-wide notebook battery shortage that took place in March. In an attempt to make up for the delay, MSI will give buyers free overnight shipping when the Wind does arrive on July 7. The last promised ship date for the long-awaited UMPC was June 16th, but US customers are still to receive their mini notebooks.
Despite tough overall economic conditions, the market for personal computers remained strong in the first quarter of 2008 according to iSuppli. Global PC unit shipments rose to 69.9 million units in the first quarter, up 12.1 percent from 62.4 million in the first quarter of 2007. Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Acer Inc. retained the top-three rankings with no change from the previous quarter. HP boosted first-quarter global PC shipments by 23 percent over the same quarter in 2007, to reach 13.2 million units. Dell in the first quarter of 2008 expanded its market share position by half a percentage point compared to the fourth quarter of 2007, at 15.4 percent, with worldwide shipments of 10.8 million units.
Panasonic will not bring a 37-inch OLED TV to market by 2011 as reported on Tuesday, according to the company. Panasonic executives are instead hinting its OLED TVs will be sold to consumers closer to 2015, although they are officially keeping tight-lipped about specific timelines, saying only that research and development is ongoing in Japan.
Taiwan's VIA Technologies today announced its slimmest Pico-ITX motherboard to date with the EPIA P700 Pico-ITX. To save space, it features an integrated power supply and is meant for use in ultra-compact systems. The P700 also sports in-line I/O pin-headers, Gigabit LAN support and a SATA II interface. The board comes with VIA's VX700 IGP chipset and a choice of a 1GHz C7 or fanless 500MHz Eden ULV processor.
Sony today prepped its PlayStation 3 audience with official details of its official Bluetooth headset. To be packed in with the retail copy of SOCOM Confrontation, the earpiece works with any game or software that supports voice chat on the console and includes extras that aren't always standard with most headsets for cellphones, including a mute button to prevent unintentional noise outside of normal use and a USB charging cradle to power the headset either from the PS3 or a computer.
Sony Ericsson today warned that its income and shipments will have shrunk this quarter over expectations. The cellphone producer now expects its pre-tax income to only "break-even" when reported in mid-July and says it will ship fewer cellphones over the three-month period than it did a year ago, with about 24 million phones shipped worldwide. The company also expects the average selling price to drop further still from the last quarter, dropping from roughly $192 at the start of the year to about $181, earning the company less for each device.
The BBC is planning to build its own set-top box for iPlayer users, a report reveals. iPlayer is a free web service which allows TV license payers to stream the past week of BBC programming for free; it is typically accessed via computers however, with the exception of devices like the iPhone and the Nintendo Wii. The new set-top will hook up directly to a TV, and feed data from a broadband connection to effectively create an IPTV link.
The PlayStation 3 is already using some 65nm manufacturing, says Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai. The technology has actually been used in the PS3's Cell processor since the last holiday season, Hirai confirms, and the full switch from 90 to 65nm should be complete by the fall, when the RSX graphics processor will make the leap. Manufacturing of new RSX chips has already begun, but the company is waiting until later this year to install them.
Estimates that the iPhone will become a widely accepted device are evidence of a bias from those who expect Apple to succeed, Verizon chief Ivan Seidenberg tells the Financial Times in an interview. The executive behind the carrier rebuffs notions that iPhone 3G's up-front price cut to $200 will translate to much larger sales and claims Apple's currently small total marketshare as evidence. Apple is a newcomer that has to prove itself, according to the Verizon head, who also suggests that Verizon itself can be disruptive in a shift to mobile devices from computers.
Virgin Mobile today shook up the American wireless business with news that it would acquire Helio for $39 million in share equity, merging the latter into Virgin's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business. The deal also has Virgin absorbing some of Helio's debt and also gives the carrier Helio's 170,000 customers in the US, with the latter ending its brand in the US. The deal should be completed during the summer pending US government approval, according to the two companies.
Microsoft is poised to lead off E3 by cutting the price on its Xbox 360 Pro console, according to a flyer spotted by a forum user. A Kmart ad for the week of July 6th claims the 20GB console will sell for $300, or $50 less than its current asking price; the drop doesn't indicate a sale or any other form of temporary discount. The feature set appears to remain the same as for the existing console.
Canadian cell provider Rogers Wireless and its sub-brand Fido today listed their iPhone 3G plans, revealing the strategy for carrying the device in the country. All plans will need both voice and data and have finite data limits; unlike previous rumors, there will be no option for unlimited access with either service, though all will include Visual Voicemail as well as unlimited weekend and evening calling; incoming SMS messages are also unlimited, as is access to Rogers- and Fido-owned Wi-Fi hotspots.
Sony's PlayStation 3 video service (now part of Life on PlayStation) may not have extra support from other studios and will rely tightly on integration with Sony's own formats, according to sources speaking to Variety editor Ben Fritz. The console maker has allegedly talked to major studios about offering their movies through the PS3 and PlayStation Network but so far hasn't negotiated any deals, leaving the current offering only to Sony Pictures titles.
Brother finished the week with news of an update to its MFC series all-in-one color inkjet printers with the MFC-6490CW. The device is billed as one of the first at its $300 price to build color printing, faxing, and scanning into one printer while also adding extra-large printing. The tabletop printer is large enough to capture and produce 11-by-17 inch ledger prints, and can potentially save an expensive run to a custom printing location, Brother claims. The extra size similarly allows books and other texts larger than letter size to be scanned in.
DXG is expanding its still-new HD video camera lineup with the DXG-567V. The pocketable camcorder is capable of the same full-speed, 720p recording in H.264 as the earlier 569V but switches from the larger, swivel-display format of the earlier camera to a smaller LCD on the back of the camera, allowing it to fit in more places. DXG still gives the device a built-in web upload feature that, with Windows software, streamlines getting video to YouTube or other video hosting sites when the 567V is connected to a computer through USB.
Nokia chose to make an unusual Friday announcement with the launch of its Supernova cellphone line. The entire series is targeted at style-aware users with both swappable front and back color faceplates as well as a Theme Colorizer app that lets users snap a photo to sample a color for their phone's wallpaper; they all also focus much more on photography than some models. The 7610 Supernova slider is Nokia's flagship with a 3.2-megapixel camera, dual LEDs for flash, FM radio, and microSD that holds both photos and music. The phone is limited to EDGE for data but supports US frequencies and will be available in the summer for 225 Euros ($355) before carrier discounts.
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