MWC 2013 - We have some hands-on time with HP's Slate 7 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and if you haven't already read about it, HP's Slate 7 tablet is the company's first Android-powered device.
We have Johannes Knapp at the event, who grabbed one of the Slate 7's to take a look at it, above. He notes the 1.6GHz dual-core processor, 7-inch 1024x600 display, VGA front-facing camera and a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera. The soft-touch back feels nice, and there's some HP and Beats Audio logos on the rear. Looking around the Slate 7 itself, on the bottom we find two speakers and a microUSB port for charging and syncing, on the right side we find the volume rocker, on top we have the power button and microSD card slot as well as a 3.5-inch headphone/speaker jack and on the left - nothing.
The build quality feels nice, the Slate 7 runs Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean out of the box which is nice - there you have it! Keep checking back for some more MWC content.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has described the fourth season of Arrested Development as a "one-off" that would likely be "non-repeatable" due to the circumstances surrounding the actors and series. A company spokesperson added that it would be "extremely difficult to get the cast together" for additional seasons.
The actors in the series are busy doing other movies and shows that are a higher priority than Arrested Development, which is a disappointment for fans of the show who would like more seasons produced. We likely won't see the actors back together until Arrested Development hits the movie screen.
Sony has confirmed that all PlayStation 4 games will be available as digital downloads. This is part of Sony's push to the cloud and will reduce the costs to game manufacturers as they don't have to produce CDs. Shuhei Yoshida, Worldwide Studios President at Sony, confirmed the details.
We're shifting our platform more and more to the digital side - PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc.
It's very possible that this cloud push could result in smaller titles not being available in physical form in countries where broadband internet is widely available. We'll know more once the console actually launches around holiday 2013.
Music-tagging app Shazam has announced that they have passed the 300 million user mark, an impressive feat for any app to achieve. The app is celebrating this massive achievement by releasing newly redesigned apps for Android and iOS tablets. The updates should be coming in the following weeks.
The new design will feature ways to discover what songs are being tagged in cities around the world and what songs are being tagged most often. Free users will also be getting more features as well. Songs will be tagged faster and lyrics will be displayed after a song is tagged.
Shazam hasn't announced when the new apps will be released, other than they will be available in the coming weeks.
If you happened to miss ASUS' press conference at Mobile World Congress, ASUS has posted up highlights of the event online so you can check it out for yourself. You can check out the video below:
What do you think of the event? A little bit crazy, right? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Continue reading 'Check out highlights from ASUS' press conference in which they reveal the PadFone Infinity and FonePad' (full post)
More and more bugs continue to be found in Apple's iOS 6.1 update. The latest to be found is another bug that allows people to bypass the lockscreen of a device secured with a pin. This exploit allows direct access to a device's contacts, pictures, videos, and more simply by executing a few easy steps.
The steps are similar to the previous lockscreen bug that was discovered and involves the same process of making a call to an emergency number. The process relies heavily on the earlier exploit, though this one allows hackers to pull data from the device directly through a USB cable, useful if you want to transfer large amounts of data (read: numerous pictures).
Apple has a fix for the first passcode bug already included in the iOS 6.1.3 beta 2 update, though it's not clear if that patch will fix this latest bug to be discovered.
Continue reading 'Another iOS 6.1 lockscreen vulnerability discovered, allows full access to contacts, pictures, and more' (full post)
According to one of the developers of the Evasi0n jailbreak, the new iOS 6.1.3 beta 2 update that was seeded to developers last week fixes one of the exploits used by the jailbreak. This means that the jailbreak will no longer work, so it is imperative that users do not update to the latest version when it releases.
"If one of the vulnerabilities doesn't work, evasi0n doesn't work," David Wang says. "We could replace that part with a different vulnerability, but [Apple] will probably fix most if not all of the bugs we've used when 6.1.3 comes out."
Wang adds that the team behind the Evasi0n jailbreak, evad3rs, has found numerous more bugs that could be used in a future jailbreak tool. It's not clear whether or not Apple will patch some or all of these bugs. "If they patch most of the bugs, then we're starting from scratch."
Starting your work week off with a rumor is always a good thing, right? Book retailing giant Barnes & Nobel is reportedly refocusing resources from its Nook hardware development and diverting them to licensing its content to other device makers. To further complicate things, B&N founder Leonard Riggio has expressed interest in buying the companies retail and online business.
In a war similar to the MP3 player hardware races of the early 2000's, the E-Reader game is beginning to see casualties. Barnes & Nobel's Nook saw less than stellar holiday sales, while competitors reported record sales. Now we are hearing that the company might be looking to part off its Nook Hardware division all together.
A filing this morning with the SEC read:
"On February 25, 2013, Mr. Riggio notified the Board of Directors of the Company (the "Board") he plans to propose to purchase all of the assets of the retail business of the Company. The retail business would include, among other things, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Inc. and barnesandnoble.com; and would exclude NOOK Media LLC.
On the heels of HP's announcement that its upcoming Slate 7 will be running Android, the company has decided to dump its once popular WebOS. Reports are coming in that LG is in the process of acquiring WebOS for use in its future Smart TV products.
When Palm first debuted WebOS for its mobile devices, we were all amazed at its use of HTML and JavaScript to bring us such a rich mobile experience. Things went down-hill for WebOS after HP acquired Palm, with the OS seeing an end to supporting hardware and then being Open Sourced shortly after.
Now, HP is selling the entire WebOS conglomerate to LG, including the source code, documentation, engineers and websites. LG has announced in the past its intentions to use the OS as the controlling operating system for its Smart TVs, and this move to buy the technology affirms that statement.
MWC 2013 - A few hours ago ASUS got done making its announcements for Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona.
The biggest announcement of the event was probably the company's new 5-inch full HD PadFone Infinity. This baby comes packed with a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz. It's basically the same as the previous PadFone, except with the new 1080p Full HD resolution, and a few other changes.
The device uses an aluminum unibody case with a rounded back, and Johannes Knapp who is at MWC 2013 for us, commented that it feels good, and it's not too big to hold comfortably. As far as the camera goes, it comes with an impressive 13MP rear-facing camera and a 2MP front-facing camera. We're told that the device should expect up to 27 hours of battery life for basic usage and 19 hours battery life for more intensive use, with the use of the PadFone station.
Continue reading 'ASUS PadFone Infinity smartphone video hands-on from MWC 2013' (full post)
With Nokia's Lumia line of Windows phones gaining more market share every week, T-Mobile may have just hit a home-run. The company has revealed that it will be the exclusive carrier of Nokia's just announced Lumia 521 smartphone.
The Nokia Lumia 521 is a variant of the 520 that was announced today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The 521 features a 4-inch ClearBlack, SuperSensitive Touch 800x480 display, wireless charging, 8GB storage (expandable via MicroSD), 1430mAh battery and 1GHz dual-core CPU.
The Lumia 521 will hit shelves at around $200 and could prove to be a decent mid-range device for those looking to test the waters of the Windows Phone 8 sea. Nokia also announced a $20 USD Nokia 105 feature phone with a 1.5-inch screen. It is designed to run up to 35 days on a single charge and is geared towards the millions of people who have no access to the power grid. It also features a flashlight and an FM radio.
Spotify, everyone's favorite music streaming service, has finally made it's way into Ford vehicles with out the aid of pesky wires. The new in-car app will allow users to control Spotify through the car's dashboard using simple voice commands.
To take advantage of this new service, users must first be subscribers to Spotify Premium on their smartphone, and have a compatible Ford vehicle. Voice commands can be used to adjust the volume and access things like top playlists, your music library, similar music, starred songs and radio stations.
Since the music is actually streamed from your phone, you might want to take advantage of the offline playlist feature if driving in tunnels, or remote locations where cellular service is hard to acquire. Furthermore, the adoption of an unlimited data plan may be beneficial as well, as constant streaming of music chews through data rations.
MWC 2013 - Intel had a fairly big announcement this morning at the 2013 Mobile World Congress. The company has teased us with a promise of its third-generation 22nm Atom System-on-Chip processor by mid 2014.
The announcement came as Intel debuted it's new Atom Z2580, Z2560 and Z2520 SoC's which are built on dual 32nm processing cores running at 2GHz, 1.6GHz and 1.2GHz respectively. The new Atom chips support Hyper-Threading which brings the total simultaneous processes count up to four, allowing it to compete with recent ARM processors.
Codenamed Merrifield, the next-generation 22nm Atom's will feature tri-gate transistors, and a big decrease in power consumption. All of this sounds like exciting news, but with issues like Android Apps refusing to install on Atom based devices still plaguing Intel, we do not see the mobile market jumping on the Atom bandwagon just yet. No official release date has been set, but we should see 22nm based devices on shelves by Q2 2014.
Opera seems to be making headlines on a weekly basis in 2013, A couple of weeks ago I reported on the companies adoption of Webkit, then a few days later, covered the layoff of over 90 employees. Now Opera is announcing the formation of an entirely new subsidiary.
Over the last few months Opera has made a few strategic acquisitions with the intention of bolstering it's mobile advertising business. The company has spent in excess of $100 million snatching up companies like AdMarvel, 4th Screen Advertising and Mobile Theory and has announced today the formation of Opera Mediaworks.
Opera Mediaworks is a fully-owned subsidiary, which is being touted as the world's largest mobile ad platform. The new arm of Opera includes ad mediation and exchange services AdMarvel and Opera Mediaworks, mobile advertising networks Mobile Theory and 4th Screen Advertising, and the Opera Mobile Store and Opera Payment Exchange to monetize ad solutions.
When digital camera's came onto the mainstream scene, the film camera industry was all but wiped out overnight, and we may be on the verge of a similar event now. Aptina, maker of most of the image sensors in high-end mobile phones has just released two next-generation image sensors that could change everything.
At the Mobile World Congress, Aptina has announced it's newest 12MP and 13MP mobile image sensors, that are aimed at use in flagship smartphones. The 12MP AR1230 is a 1.1-micron pixel device, with 4k video at 30fps support as well as 1080p at 96fps. The 13MP AR1330 sports image stabilization at 1080P and includes 4K UHD and 4K Cinema formats at 30fps.
Aptina also released a new image sensor designed for use in the tablet PC / TV segment of the market. The AR0261 is a 1080p sensor that features 1.4-micron pixels, and is reported to be able to handle 60fps at 720p, can work with apps that utilize gesture recognition and 3D video capture.
MWC 2013 - ASUS have also just unveiled another product, the Fonepad. What is the Fonepad you ask? Well, we're looking at the infusion of the phone and the tablet, as you might have expected, but what sets this apart from the rest?
The Fonepad features a streamlined metallic finish, microSD and SIM cards discretely hidden, diamond cut camera ring, dual microphones for noise suppression and echo cancelation. 3G is only at play - no mention of of LTE here. 3-megapixel rear-facing camera has auto focus and 720p, 7-inch IPS panel, 1280x800 pixels.
Inside we have Intel's Atom Z2420, perfect for low power consumption - ASUS are talking about 9-10 hour battery life. The price? Well, a 7-inch smartphone from ASUS is going to set you back just $249. Wow, ASUS have definitely struck gold here with the Fonepad at just $249. Incredible pricing - but what about availability? Next month, that's what. Depending on where you purchase, there will be a Euro-based model that will come without the rear camera, so keep that in mind.
MWC 2013 - ASUS have just unveiled their latest smartphone during their conference at Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain - enter the Padfone Infinity. Sporting a 5-inch 1080p display, we have the ability to dock the Padfone Infinity with a 10.1-inch 1920x1200-capable tablet.
You should be used to this by now with the previous Padfone, but this new Padfone Infinity bumps the specs up as well as offering a "sleek aluminum body", and inside we find Qualcomm's 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 - which is quite an amazing piece of kit.
ASUS chairman Jonney Shih took the stage, unveiling the Padfone Infinity itself. Something ASUS are calling "Customer Happiness 2.0" is the central part of the Padfone Infinity's design - touch, responsiveness, uniquity and more. A whole new design is behind the Padfone Infinity using aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, unibody frame and brushed metal finish, twice-anodized diamond cut edge glass display.
Continue reading 'ASUS unveil the Padfone Infinity' (full post)
I don't even know where to begin with this one, so I'll ask that you watch ASUS' video below and then we'll get into talking about it, ok?
Yes - you just saw that. I have no idea what ASUS are playing at here, but I really hope they use a couple of billion dollars to unveil their next phone being dropped off by aliens because that would be pretty damn awesome. It looks like they're ready to unleash the "next mobile transformation", so I'm expecting to see a new Transformer tablet. ASUS also asks us to join them to 'embrace the metallic miracle', which leads me to believe it definitely will be another Transformer.
Continue reading 'ASUS using one hell of a tease for MWC 2013' (full post)
LG wants life to be good throughout 2013, as the company plans to sell 40 million smartphones this year. The South Korean company wants to depart from the usual entry-level handsets and shift into higher gears - this comes from the Head of LG's Mobile Communications Division, Park Jong Seok.
LG shipped 26.3 million smartphones last year, so if they want to meet their 40 million smartphone goal they'll need to nearly double their efforts this year. From what MWC 2013 has shown so far, this might not be as hard as you think. LG have some great devices coming out, and I think we're going to see them meet their 2013 goals.
One of the original Xbox launch titles was Project Gotham Racing, something I thoroughly enjoyed alongside the original Halo, but Microsoft have put it in the pit stops permanently, until now it seems. Just weeks before we expect the next-generation Xbox to be unveiled, Microsoft have renewed their trademark for Project Gotham Racing.
Trademarkia is the source, and the trademark covers "computer programs, namely, game software for use on computers and video game players" and was registered back in 2001 before the first game launched. This is just business, the renewing of trademarks, but weeks before the next-gen Xbox unveiling has rumors circling that we could expect a next-gen PGR from Lucid Games, now wouldn't that be exciting?