Mobile Devices - Page 187

Yesterday I talked about the next-gen iPad was getting a higher resolution display, well there are now more rumors that are pointing toward this actually happening. MacRumors is now saying that this might actually happen.

eReaders are huge in the US today and they are popular around the world. Sony eReaders have been on the market much longer than popular devices like the Kindle and Nook have, but early on Sony eReaders didn't catch the eye of users in Japan. Back in 2007, both Sony and Panasonic pulled out of the eReader market in Japan. Despite the market not being enough for them in their home countries, Sony has been selling its eReaders in the US for a long time now.

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Sony is now set to go back to its home market with its eReaders. Sony will offer a 5-inch screen eReader in Japan starting on December 10 for 20,000 yen or $240. A 6-inch screen version of the reader will be offered for 25,000 yen. Reuters reports lack of content was the main reason the Sony readers failed originally. The popularity of eReader rivals and tablets like the iPad has to be another factor pushing Sony back to its home market.

Sony has big plans for its Japanese eReader re-launch too. It plans to sell 300,000 readers in the first year back on the market and grab up 50% of the Japanese market by 2012. Japan now has about 1.2 million titles in its Reader Store in America that presumably would be available in Japan along with Japanese language titles.

Very few of the people I know wear a watch any more. Most of us just use a mobile phone to tell what time it is when we need to. I do know a few folks that wear a wristwatch, but these guys are the fancy types that like fashion watches to show off. You have probably heard of E-Ink displays before, the tech is huge in the eReader market and other markets as well.

SquareTrade is a company that offers third-party warranty for consumer electronics that covers accidental damage, has released an analysis of damage rates, comparing Apple's iPhone 4 to the iPhone 3GS. The report stated damage reports by warranty holders, the GorillaGlass-clad iPhone 4 suffers from damaged or cracked screens - here is the surprising bit, twice as often as the iPhone 3GS.

If you are already a Verizon customer or are a customer on another network that is looking to migrate over to Verizon, the wireless provider has a new program you may find interesting. The company has unveiled a new program where you can trade in any mobile phone working or not and get money in the form of a gift card towards a Verizon purchase.

The tears of Microsoft fans in Australia were heard trickling down their cheeks - as once again, Australia gets a watered down release of a product.

Wacom has been making pen tablets and pen enabled displays for specialty industries for a long time. The company makes displays aimed at the professional designer and medical industries. The screens let artists draw directly on the screen and doctors can do things like make notations directly on digital x-rays.

Google's Android operating system edged out Apple's iPhone operating system for the No. 2 spot in the U.S. consumer smartphone market in the first quarter, research firm NPD Group reported Monday.

According to NPD, devices running Android accounted for 28 percent of the units sold to U.S. consumers in the first quarter of 2010. BlackBerry devices made by Research In Motion, which use RIM's homegrown operating system, took the top spot with 36 percent of the U.S. market. Apple's iPhone, which had been in the No. 2 spot previously, fell to third place with 21 percent of the market.

Whilst the first round of iPad availability in the WiFi-only version resulted in astonishing sales; over 300,000 in the U.S. alone during the first 24 hours, it seems a hell of a lot more people were keen to hold out for the 3G version.

So there has been a lot of news about Slate PCs, like phones and SSDs I swear that everyone is working on one. However we have found out something very interesting. It seems that the little NVIDIA Tegra SoC that we all loved in the Zune HD will be getting a serious upgrade in the form of the Terga 2. Now, that all by itself is not interesting at all. What is very interesting is the information that NV might be gearing the new Tegra 2 towards Google's Android over Microsoft Windows Phone 7.

This was found in some information relating to Google's plans for a slate and the fact that even internal information from NV does not seem to show any movement towards an OS from the gang up in Redmond. What is disappointing though is that a Tegra 2 based Windows Phone 7 would have been a serious threat to both HTC and Apple. Of course it would be serious if Microsoft knew how to market anything.

Still we are waiting to get more information as the time nears for these devices to see daylight. As of right now our little birdie is saying June...Just about the time someone else is planning a launch too.

Ah, remember yesterday evening when we told you that there was more to the delay of the Apple iPad than great sales? Well we have some new information to add to the fire here.

It seems that Israel has banned the new iPad due to it not being compatible with European wireless standards. They have even gone so far as to confiscate ones that were bought in the US and brought back.

They are more than a little miffed over this one; it seems that while Apple can do pretty much what they want in the US with wireless they are not going to get away with it overseas. The problem is that they iPad uses frequencies that are different than those typically used in the US and the broadcast power is also a little higher. Israel is concerned that an increase in iPad usage with these differences could cause a breakdown of services or at least serious interference.

"If you operate equipment in a frequency band which is different from the others that operate on that frequency band, then there will be interference," Nati Schubert, a senior deputy director for the Communications Ministry told AP. "We don't care where people buy their equipment ...but without regulation, you would have chaos"

So after hearing Apple claim that excellent sales in the US are going to force them to push back the release of the iPad to the rest of the world we now find out that there may be another issue altogether.

According to information we have gotten and an article by Joel Evans at ZDnet we find that the reason for the delay could be due to a large number of returns. These have not only been due to actual issues with the iPad but also due to buyer's remorse.

Evans has spoken with a few sources (as have we) and says that a significant number of iPads have been brought back for out pixels, overheating, and WiFi issues. But worse than that are the ones that are brought back after a person realizes how much they have paid and what they have actually received.

Although we do not have exact numbers we are also hearing that there have been a lot of returns as well as sales that were not what was expected.

Imation owned 'TDK Life on Record' has just release a new pair of high-fidelity wireless headphones and wired earphones to the North American market.

The new TDK WR700 wireless headphones have been graced with Kleer lossless audio technology, delivering 16-bit 44KHz digital audio at CD quality to its 34mm drivers. The WR700 is powered by four AAA sized batteries which is said to give up to 40 hours of playtime before replacement/recharging. A bundled wireless transmitter is of course included which simply connects to a 3.5mm port.

During our review of the iPad we began to hear rumors that the new product was already having trouble. We heard of overheating issues, WiFi issues and a few other problems. While we were testing the one we bought we did not experience any of the problems noted. Even on Dual Band routers. However it is very important that the information gets out.

It seems that the iPad has a very low thermal threshold. This is much like the problems with the 3G S. You can quickly overheat the iPad if you have the 32GB or 64GB models. It seems that the increased flash memory amount generates just enough extra heat to push it outside the operating range if you are outside in direct sunlight.

The WiFi issue seems to revolve around Apple's choice of 802.11n wireless chip. This chip has a problems when connecting to dual band wireless devices that are not inside its realm of compatibility.
So far we have not seen this on our TRENDNet or D-Link products but only time will tell if this will hold out.

Of course the issues may be related, wireless products are heat sensitive (as are all computer components) it is entirely possible that the overheating could be a large factor in the WiFi issues. We have seen overheating cause problems in more than one wireless access point and router. The question now is; will this heat/WiFi problem have an even greater impact in the 3G models? Time will tell on that one. But Apple had better hope not.

Creative's ZEN line-up of products has just been refreshed with a couple new media players dubbed the ZEN X-Fi Syle and ZEN Style portable.

Both units are good for music and video playback on the go with capacities ranging from 8GB to 32GB.

We already know Apple will be busy this Thursday holding a special event that will give a sneak peek on its next-gen iPhone OS 4 software. But this won't be the only thing that will take place.

In well timed fashion with the launch of Apple's iPad and other tablet tidbits popping up all over the web from other sources trying to detract from the Apple's latest wave, the ultimate alternative has risen with Engadget getting a hold of a highly impressive specs list on ICD's Gemini tablet.