News Archive for 12/09/11
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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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Opening the 15th Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, Intel Chief Product Officer Dadi Perlmutter unveiled the new "Haswell" processor family. The keynote speech demonstrated test systems running the fourth-generation Core processor, based on the same 22nm process used in the third-generation Ivy Bridge family of processors.
A team of roboticists from MIT, Israel's IDC, and Georgia Tech calling themselves Tovbot have developed the Shimi -- an iPhone-connectible "musically intelligent robotic speaker dock." The Shimi is currently in the beginning of its Kickstarter campaign for funding, and sits just over 10 percent funded in just a few days, with four weeks remaining.
Blizzard has reportedly been caught watermarking screenshots generated by one of its games. Sendatsu, a user of the OwnedCore forums, claims to have noticed what appears to be artifacts in a screenshot that, after examining multiple images going as far back as 2008, was apparently found to contain details about the user, items not initially viewable from looking at the screenshot subjectively.
The ongoing privacy battle between Twitter and New York's courts took another turn today, as New York State Supreme Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. ordered the microblogging site to turn over information on an Occupy Wall Street protestor's posts or suffer a fine. In announcing the ruling today, Sciarrino noted that a contempt charge was the only way the court had of bending Twitter to the court's ruling, noting that he could not "put Twitter or the little blue bird in jail." Bloomberg reports that Twitter has asked for more time, claiming that it has not had enough time to appeal the court's initial ruling -- from June 30 of this year -- that it must turn over the user's records.
Apple is seeking US International Trade Commission court sanctions against HTC based on the testimony of one of its expert witnesses. HTC's witness Michael J. Geile repeatedly deferred to HTC's lawyers when pressed about his "inventions" with parent company ADC Telecommunications and is essentially saying nothing of substance to the judge when questioned, despite his obligation to do so before the court.
FireCore, a company that specializes in jailbreak and media server software for various models of Apple TV has released version 2.0 of its aTV Flash (black) program, which is specifically aimed at jailbroken second- and third-generation Apple TVs (the small black model that sells for $99). The new update is not yet working for the latest, 1080p-supporting black Apple TV, but brings a new Library View, integrated search, trakt.tv and Last.fm scrobbling, Recently Added displays and more to second-gen Apple TV units.
Acer announced today that it will be releasing a new smartphone powered by Alibaba's Aliyun operating system. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the Taiwanese manufacturer will be rolling out the CloudMobile A800 smartphone to the Chinese market on Friday. The model will be Acer's highest-priced model on sale in China, and Alibaba hopes it will spur greater adoption of its cloud-based mobile operating system among other manufacturers.
Rather than confirming the alleged hack by an Anonymous member, GoDaddy blamed serious technical problems for a six-hour service disruption that affected nearly all of its customers on Monday. The outages were caused by "a series of internal network events" that disrupted the DNS service on the company's equipment, GoDaddy's CEO Scott Wagner confessed in a statement.
Xcom Global, the Internet access rental service used by people travelling internationally to any of 195 countries, is making the move to include LTE connections in its plans. A deal between Xcom and Emobile will allow visitors to Japan to rent a Huawei GL01P hotspot and use the prevalent 75Mbps LTE connections in the country, with future plans to expand the option further afield.
While the Google Glass wearable computing project is still in development, Google has begun showing off some of the interface that will drive the Glass experience. The Wall Street Journal got some hands-on time with Google's face-mounted computer, and its reporter came away with a finer understanding of the way the technology will work. While some of the voice commands that will eventually drive Google Glass' interface are functional, it appears to still be very much a work in progress.
One of the engineers who co-founded Siri and former vice president of engineering of the company has reportedly left Apple. Adam Cheyer departed recently after working in Apple's mobile software division, making it the second founding team member to leave Apple after former Chief Executive Officer Dag Kittlaus departed after Apple purchased the company.
Apple could sell as many as 10 million iPhone 5s during the device's launch weekend, according to analysts. The peak figure comes from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who estimates that sales will reach at least 6 million. "There is no question iPhone 5 will be the largest consumer electronics launch in history," he claims. "Given the hardware redesign it will likely crush previous iPhone launch sales."
Alibaba, the largest e-commerce company in China, is planning to increase investment in its in-house mobile OS to the tune of around $150 million per year. The company spoke with The Wall Street Journal, saying that it is seeing stronger demand for its Aliyun OS, as a number of Chinese manufacturers are dissatisfied with Google's Android, while Apple's pricing for its iOS devices may leave an opening for lower-priced competitors. With the Chinese mobile market among the world's largest, Alibaba hopes to carve out a niche offering affordable phones that rely on its cloud services.
Sony has named a date and price for its Personal 3D Viewer in Japan. The HMZ-T2, announced at the end of last month and replacing the HMZ-T1, will reach Japanese retailers by October 13th for 70,000 yen ($900) and will be shown off to members of the public visiting the Tokyo Game Show later this year.
Preorders for the iPhone 5 will open up on the morning of September 14, MacRumors claims to have learned. Some parts of the Apple online sales support team are said to be "significantly" increasing staffing beginning at 6AM Eastern on Friday, with a "major surge" planned for the initial shift, followed by generally high levels for the remainder of the day if not longer. It isn't known whether preorders are set to start at 6AM or shortly thereafter.
Just under two weeks ago, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note II, the follow-up to last year's surprise hit phablet. Samsung is hoping to repeat the success of the original Galaxy Note, beefing up the internals of the newest version and giving it a bigger screen even as it sports improved battery life. Samsung invited Electronista up to New York for a sneak peek at the international version of the Note II, and we've got hands-on pics and impressions.
The new iPod touch should have a 1136x640 display like the iPhone 5, and is currently using an N78 codename, reports say. Developer Will Strafach -- better known as Chronic -- is claiming that the device will get an S5L8942X processor instead of an S5L8950X, which should finally upgrade the Touch to an A5-level chip, but still leave it behind the iPhone 5 in terms of performance. 9to5Mac sources say that Apple intends to keep the same base price point for the media player, on or around $200.
China may be getting 4G LTE considerably earlier than previously suggested by the government. The Minister for Information and IT, Miao Wei, had previously told regional carriers that 4G permits would not be issued until 2014, however a report by Chinese state press Xinhua claims he is instead preparing to issue 4G permits next year.
T-Mobile just revealed it will sell the recently introduced Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G at its online and physical stores starting on September 19. The phone has a 4-inch touchscreen and a horizontally-sliding hardware QWERTY keyboard. It will ship with Android 4.0 onboard and is powered by a dual-core, 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor.
A Chinese site, DGtle, has posted photos depicting a mockup version of the iPad mini, notes Nowhereelse.fr. The model may have been built from leaked specifications for a third-party accessory maker hoping to test cases. If based on legitimate data, the mockup could be the first glimpse of a complete iPad mini will look like.
UK combo carrier Everything Everywhere, which just launched a 4G network, has also announced via Twitter that it will be the only place in the country to get the newly announced Nokia Lumia 920 LTE handset. EE itself will launch a 4G network in four UK cities soon, having received regulatory approval to do so on Tuesday. Engineers are currently testing the 4G network.
The UK's first 4G service has officially been announced. Everything Everywhere, formed by the combination of carriers Orange and T-Mobile, has named the new network EE, turning the network on today. The service stands to offer not only 4G LTE services to customers, but also a fibre broadband service that will reach 11 million homes and businesses by the end of the year.
Pentax this week introduced three new cameras with the Q10, K-5 II and K-5 IIs. The Q10 sports a 12.4-megapixel sensor and claims to be the smallest and lightest interchangeable lens system. Compared to the original Q, the Q10 sports a new grip but carries over the bokeh control dial.
Netgear has released a free update for its ReadyNAS line of network attached storage. The new version OS 5.3.6 adds several key features, including remote backup capability for Apple's Time Machine, ReadyDROP cloud-based storage implementation, mobile clients for ReadyDLNA media streaming, and more.
Sony is said to be mulling the possibility of introducing Xperia devices powered by Windows Phone 8. While Sony has offered Windows Mobile devices in the past, it opted to steer clear of Windows Phone 7 while it sought to gain a foothold in the Android space currently dominated by Samsung. It currently has an Android smartphone portfolio exceeding 20 devices, however a European Sony Mobile boss has indicated that the Japanese company is in talks with Microsoft.
Viewsonic has announced its new Smart Display today. The VSD220 Smart Display couples a 1920x1080 full-HD resolution touchscreen monitor with a dual-core OMAP 4 Texas Instruments processor, running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), providing full Internet capability even when the display is not hooked up to a computer.
T-Mobile’s support for unlocked iPhones has now been officially detailed, reports tmonews. Although the carrier does not sell new iPhones to customers, it has been keen to cash in on iPhone users with unlocked devices, or who off contract with their original carrier. From September 12, T-Mobile retail staff will be give in-house training on how to set up iPhones for customers wanting to take up one of its Unlimited Plans for unlocked iPhones.
YouTube has released an all-new standalone app (Free, iTunes) ahead of the expected launch of iOS 6 over the coming week. The new app has been specifically designed for the iPhone and iPod touch, with a version for the iPad said to be on the way. At the time of writing, user reviews are largely very positive, with praise for the revamped interface and additional features -- though the new version also comes with advertisements, which were absent in the Apple-approved version.
Apple filed a motion late Monday to extend the preliminary sales injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the US while that particular aspect of the case is being appealed, a move designed to head off any attempt US District Court Judge Lucy Koh may make to dissolve the injunction based on the findings of the jury. In the recently-concluded trial, one of the jury's few nods to Samsung was a finding that the tablet, which has been banned in several countries due to its violation of design patents, infringed on three software patents but did not infringe on Apple's design patents.
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