News Archive for 09/04/14
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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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LaCie on Tuesday expanded its Rugged series of hard drives with the Rugged XL, a larger variant that doubles the storage capacity to 1TB. The device features an aluminum casing and rubber sleeve for protection. Internally, the drive is also supported using a bumper to help absorb shock and prevent damage from an accidental drop.
The U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) has rejected several claims included in a patent held by Alcatel-Lucent, following a request by Microsoft and Dell to have the patent re-examined in May of 2007, according to IDG. The interim decision is the latest chapter in a lengthy dispute, potentially leading to a successful appeal of a federal court ruling that asked Microsoft to pay $358 million in compensation to the telecommunications company.
Intel on Tuesday reported its first-quarter financial information, showing a 55-percent drop in income while revenue slid 26-percent to $7.1 billion year-over-year. The company also experienced a drop in gross margin from 53 percent last year to 45.6 percent this year, explained by higher factory-underutilization charges and startup costs.
Packard Bell is unveiling the 13.4-inch Butterfly EasyNote S notebook for European markets. Its LCD widescreen is LED backlit, which helps to attain the rated battery life of 8 hours, also thanks in part to an Intel Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) processor and Energy Star 5.0 certification. The one-inch thick netbook will also have a switchable graphics mode feature that switches from the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4300 graphics chipset to integrated graphics to save power in those models that have the two visual cores.
The upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band game that was confirmed back in October will be offered as part of a Limited Edition Premium Bundle and will also include a Höfner Bass controller, Ludwig-branded Rock Band drums with classic pearl finish, a metal kick pedal and a vintage replica drumhead. The bundle will also include a microphone with stand and other unspecified "additional special content," as per an e-mail from GameStop.
MetroPCS is the latest wireless provider to offer the Motorola QA30 Hint, with its signature vertical QWERTY slider form factor, in its range of cellphones. The phone has a 2.5-inch display with 320x240 resolution, and opens up to allow the 2-megapixel camera to capture photos and videos that are stored on the integrated 140MB of memory or installed microSD memory card.
Portable digital audio player and other personal electronics maker iRiver has teamed up with Speedo to create an underwater digital audio player, the LZR Racer Aquabeat. The same device is available in Japan, albeit with 2GB of internal memory versus the North American version's 1GB. Either device is IPX5/IPX7 certified, allowing it to operate safely while submerged in up to 10 feet of water. There is no display, only basic controls that include play/pause, volume, and track skipping.
Microsoft is taking bids for an ad campaign that would center around Zune-influenced phones within the next several months, sources speaking to AdWeek say. Ad agencies Crispin Porter + Bogusky, JWT and McCann Erickson are all reportedly fighting for promotion rights for "Pink," which is referred to only as a "mobile application" in the rumor but is believed to be a codename for reference Zune phones that should include the music services as well as certain design guidelines.
Toshiba had its long-term smartphone plans revealed today through a leak by Greek site Techblog and is now known to be focusing very heavily on full touchscreen devices. After the TG01 launches this summer, the TG02 will appear at the end of the year with an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5 as well as a water-resistant shell. It should have the same 4.1-inch touchscreen, 3G, GPS and likely Wi-Fi.
Taking advantage of Apple's royalty-free Mini DisplayPort spec, Collins America has launched a set of LCDs under the CinemaView label that it says are the first to use the format outside of Apple. The designs all shadow the aluminum, black and glass look of Apple's LED Cinema Display but use less costly panels while keeping most of the functionality through an all-in-one cable. Collins keeps the display and USB links but replaces the MagSafe connector with a direct audio minijack connection for the display's speakers.
Pioneer on Tuesday announced the release of its latest Blu-ray, DVD and CD writer, the BDR-2203. The SATA-attached burner can write to dual-layer Blu-ray discs at up to 8x speeds. This translates to filling up a single-layer 25GB Blu-ray disc in just 15 minutes, and about 30 minutes to completely fill up a dual-layer disc's 50GB of data capacity. DVD recordable discs can be written at up to 16x speeds, with maximum speeds for dual-layer DVDs topping out at half of that. CD-Rs can be recorded at 32x speeds, with maximum speeds for rewritable CDs rated at 24x.
AT&T has announced that it is now carrying the Propel Pro, a Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone from Samsung. The device features a slide-out, vertically-arranged QWERTY keyboard, and is mainly intended for e-mail and text messaging. Also present is Wi-Fi and 3.6Mbps 3G access however, along with assistive GPS, the last of which can be employed in turn-by-turn navigation software.
The largest wireless provider in South Korea, SK Telecom, announced at a gathering of over 1,000 industry professionals and software developers on Monday that it will launch an application store in trial stages this June, with a full-fledged debut coming in September. The store will differ from originator Apple's App Store as it will cater to four cell phone operating systems, including Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android and Linux. As well, all cellphone users will be able to access the store, regardless of their carrier or type of phone they own.
Sanyo Electric in Japan has shown off a prototype projector on Tuesday that is capable of throwing up 1080p, 16:9 images sized at 100 inches from just 23.6 inches away, translating to a throw ratio of just 0.28 and making it possible to place the projector nearly anywhere in a typical room. Move it 37 inches away from the screen, and the projected image grows to 150 inches. The RGB laser light source is sent out via a three-panel DLP system embedded in the TV stand-like enclosure. Brightness is rated at 7,000 lumens, touted as the world's highest.
A Microsoft job listing for a Lead Software Development Engineer hint that the company is planning to greatly simplify updates for Windows Mobile devices. Proposing a new service known as Device Update, Microsoft envisions owners receiving patches and feature updates through a single, simple utility, as with Windows Update. It would also have rare remote features, such as pushing updates to family members' phones.
UMPC developer OQO may be close to shuttering if it can't find a buyer, investigations show. A post at fan forum OQOTALK cites multiple sources who say that the company is trying to sell itself and that cutbacks have been put into place to keep OQO running, including reduced hours. Doubts exist that the company's Model 02+ handheld will successfully ship.
Sony on Tuesday announced the Japanese pricing and release dates for its two Walkman NX-X1000 series media players first introduced at the start of the year at CES. The NW-X1050, which has 16GB of built-in flash memory, will cost the equivalent of about $403, while the 32GB NW-X1060 will cost $503. Either will be available in red or black when they are released on April 25th.
Microsoft on Tuesday dipped into entry gaming mice through the Sidewinder X3. The mouse sits at just $40 but has a 2,000DPI laser sensor that can step down to 800DPI or 400DPI for subtler movements. It additionally has eight buttons in an ambidextrous layout, a textured scroll wheel and special feet to provide smooth motions.
Microsoft today quietly acknowledged ongoing problems with the Xbox 360 and posted a warranty extension for consoles affected by failures accompanied by the E74 error message. The game system producer now considers these the same as the 3-red-light issue (commonly known as the "red ring of death") and will fix or replace systems affected by E74 under the same 3-year warranty extension, which triples the normal repair period. Those who have already paid for a fix before the extension will also get an automatic refund.
Nintendo today set a date for its MotionPlus add-on for the Wii. The device by itself will ship on June 8th for $20 and will let any supporting game get much more precise movement tracking through 3D space, including rotation, by adding the peripheral to an existing Wii remote. Its signature launch game, Wii Sports Resort, will ship on July 26th and will come bundled with a MotionPlus adapter for $50.
The companies responsible for manufacturing parts in the next major iPhone release have potentially been named by industry contacts of DigiTimes that also predict ship dates and numbers. The Taiwan-area site reinforces its previous claim that OmniVision is making a 3.2-megapixel sensor for the Apple handset's camera and now says that Largan Precision is making the rest of the imaging unit. Infineon is continuing to provide the cellular baseband (likely upgraded to 7.2Mbps 3G) as well as the GPS chipset.
Logitech's high-end earphone label Ultimate Ears this morning launched a higher-end set of personal in-canal models. The Ultimate Ears 700s have dual drivers like more complex earbuds, separating higher and lower frequencies, but are most notable for their frequency range. Sounds range from a low 10Hz up through to 16.5kHz.
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