Mobile Devices - Page 362

The gang over at Engadget got to play around with the new HTC Hero and so far they are loving it.

The new Hero does feaure Android but it is not a Google branded product. This means you are not going to get loaded down with the Google logo, but it also means that you won't be getting over the air updates also.

There are going to be a host of new features but one of the ones they liked the best was the Teflon outer coating.

Flash was also shown off with mixed results, they were able to get YouTube to work but not Yahoo, but this is in line with what Adobe showed off as well.


Is it just me or does that keyboard look familiar?

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If you are disappointed by the looks of your new iPhone 3G S well then ColorWare has a solution for you.

They have announced a simple process where you can send in your iPhone 3G S and have the back cover dyed to a different color. But the fun does not stop there.

You can have them change the normally chrome bezel, the home button, your headphones, and the SIM-Card holder. You do have to send the phone to them (if you are in the US) to get these exciting new colors added.

You might want to do this while you are waiting for AT&T to activate MSS and tethering or while you wait for a jailbreak from the devteam.

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It is time for an iPhone 3G S update; after all it is the Monday after the big release. Here is how it all stands

For sheer numbers Apple managed to push over one million of these out the door. The 3G S remains un-jailbroken and cannot be unlocked just yet (although 2G and 3G phones can be jailbroke and the 2G can be unlocked with redsn0w).

The iPhone 3G S has received mix reviews that range from perfection to claims of it not being worth it. With all that Apple still managed to get a ton of these out to the public, which means that Apple still has it where the iPhone marketing it concerned.

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Analysts are saying that this weekend Apple could sell half a million iPhone 3G S handsets. This is a rather large number and is significantly less than either the 3G bought in with its launches.

Although some are saying it is due to the limit on the number of countries that are getting the 3G S, after all 21 countries had the 3G at its launch while the 3G S will only be released in 8.

The low number could also be due to the relatively minor improvements made to the new 3G S; including a complete lack of any outside improvements to the appearance of the phone.

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In the race for OpenCL/Cuda performance it looks like ATi is not doing so hot. In a good read over at Anandtech we are told that ATi's stream processor is just not there in terms of GP-GPU computing.

To test this Anandtech used ATi's new CyberLink's Espresso and ran it on an ATi GPU, an Nvidia GPU and a CPU.

The results were interesting. The ATi card was not only slower than the nVidia GPU (and in a couple of cases slower than CPU only) it also produced very poor quality video compared to the CPU and nVidia GPU.

It seems that ATi is just not there yet in terms of utilizing GPU computing, this will affect them as nVidia moves farther and farther ahead in the GP-GPU world.

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The new iPhone OS has made its way to many a happy iPhone user. This is a good thing as it means that iPhone users can now finally join the ranks of other smart phone owners with such exciting features as Copy and Paste, Tethering and Voice control.

But with these come some interesting extras. Aparrently hidden in the new update are 45 patches that cover vulnerabilities in the old iPhone OS. This would seem to fly in the face of Apple's normal stance of "our hardware and software is completely secure".

Do not get me wrong, I think the inclusion of fixes and security patches is great and Apple is doing the right thing by making sure they get out to iPhone owners. I just wish they would knock off the BS that OSX and iPhone OS are more secure than other operating systems out.

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There is very good news for some people that pre-ordered the new iPhone 3G S (S is for silly). It looks like there are a few that will actually get delivered tomorrow on the 17th as opposed to the 19th when the rest of the world will fight for the new Apple toy.

Tomorrow is iPhone OS 3.0 day and will (if I am not wrong) be another day of down AT&T servers, iTunes activation servers and other fun for those wanting the new OS on the first day out. For those that are getting the phone tomorrow, I have a feeling that you won't be able to use it before the 19th anyway.

Read more here.

AT&T and Apple have detailed how the launch of the iPhone 3G S will work come June 19, and it looks like those who don't preorder the phone will be getting the shaft.

Apple will be opening their stores a little early at 8AM. This will all those who preorder the phone to come in early and grab their new overpriced paperweight.

In the world of hardware it is often hard to keep track of changing standards and practices. Usually this happens across different platforms and hardware. However when it happens to Apple on their own products it is sort of funny.

According to a very detailed breakdown of features between the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3G S one stands out. OpenGL ES support. In the iPhone 3G you have OpenGL ES 1.1 only. In the new iPhone 3G S you have OpenGL ES 2.0 and 1.1, this is thanks to the new PowerVR SGX graphics chip in the cover.

Application developers are now faced with the problem of designing applications that can take advantage of the newer standard or making them available to more iPhone users.

Read more here.

Of course the big news that everyone has been waiting for is the new iPhone. But is not being called the iPhone 3.0 but the iPhone 3G S (maybe the S is for Speed).

They have taken the base iPhone and thrown something new under the hood. Almost everything is faster, roughly twice as fast. Of course not all applications will enjoy this. Maybe there is some truth to the rumors that Apple is using OpenCL and a more powerful GPU to accelerate the iPhone.

Apple has dropped in a new camera 3MP to be exact with auto focus and tap to focus as well as macro. 7.2Mbps HSDPA, video recording (complete with built in editing), voice control (not only for dialing but for iTunes control, a compass application (should be great for hikers),hardware encryption and of course all of the new features of the iPhone OS 3.0.

Apple has worked on the batter quite a bit too; they have improved the 3G Talk time to 5 hours and the WiFi Internet time to 9 hours.

Granted most of this should have been on the 3G, but hey it is finally here. If you are just getting an iPhone (or are eligible for an upgrade) you can pick up the 3GS for $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB. If you are like me and are outside this you are looking at about $500 for the 16GB and 600-700 for the 32GB.

Availability should be in a little over a week and a half from today in the USA. And after that even more countries, over 80 countries will have it by August.

Get ready it is going to be a busy summer. Read more here.