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The Dell XPS One will hit retail on November 19 according to
this teaser on Dell.com. Apparently no one told Dell that everyone and their grandmother has already seen what the XPS One looks like, both inside and out. Still, we’re with Engadget in pretending to be totally surprised. [Via
Engadget]Sony Ericsson’s much-anticipated announcement today turned out to be an utter disappointment. Only three phones were announced, all of which were leaked well before the announcement. You can read all the specs and details at
GSMArena although we don’t see anything “new” or “special” about these devices. SE is recycling designs and new phones within a product class carry identical feature sets. The only bright spot is the revelation that the W890i will come with version 3 of their Walkman software. Oh and the K660 and W890 actually come with both EDGE and 3G. Amazing!
In SE-related news that is interesting however, we’re hearing rumors about a successor to the P990i and P1i in the form of the P5i. For all we know, this device could be in the fantasies of those SE-fans on eSato but we’re hoping for the best!
If you’ve always wanted an email address ending with @live.com, then boy are you in luck. Microsoft has opened up registration for @live.com email IDs for good and you can snag yours at http://get.live.com [Via CNET News]
Apple updated Quicktime to version 7.3, fixing seven bugs in the process. Six of these bugs can allow hackers to gain access to a PC as they can bypass QT’s security layer altogether. Recommended update if you use Quicktime. [Via TG Daily]
Popularity: 44% [?]
- By Vivek on Nov 7, 2007
So, the stories from WSJ and the like have indeed been proven right. CEO Eric Schmidt made it clear during today’s announcement that there is no single Gphone. Android is a fully integrated mobile operating system and he sees thousands of Gphones in the future. Google, along with 33 other companies is part of the Open Hardware Alliance. Among others, the OHA includes industry biggies like Qualcomm, T-Mobile, HTC and Motorola, whose executives were also present at the conference.The OS will be released under a mobile open source license and is based on Linux. T-Mobile announced that their first device running Android should be coming sometime in 2008. HTC’s first device will become available in the 2nd half of 2008. Awww, seriously guys? Can’t you like release them tomorrow or something?
[Via Engadget Live Blog]
Google Press Release
OHA Website
Popularity: 27% [?]
- By Vivek on Nov 5, 2007
Another weekend is behind us folks and it barely made its presence felt. Not a lot happened over the weekend, as you might imagine. But we have a job to do, and we’re going to do it damnit!
New phones from Sony Ericsson could be unvelied on November 6, or so sayeth CellPassion. We’ve already seen leaked shots of the W890 and the W380 while the K660 was made official by SE. So really, the only thing to look forward to is the confirmation of the existence and specs on the W890 and W380. Maybe, just maybe, if we’re lucky, SE will unveil more than these three. [CellPassion via Boy Genius Report]
In more rumor-mongering, noises are being made about the Google Phone/OS/Whatever might finally be announced on November 5. It seems that the technology in development is a full-fledged mobile OS with tight integration of existing Google products. The OS will be open and distributed freely under an ad-supported revenue model. Whatever it is, we hope it’s good. This kind of hype is usually only reserved for Apple products. [Via The New York Times]
Firefox has released version 2.0.0.9 and we recommend you download it. The release contains bug-fixes for problems found in earlier versions. Download it here.
The Wall Street Journal now has over a million subscribers for its online edition. Quite a milestone, we must say. A lot of websites, including The New York Times have ditched their pay-for-access models and are now completely free in order to attract more visitors. In such a time, it’s a wonder that WSJ.com has managed to attract such a large subscriber base. [Via Yahoo! News]
Swedish glam-rock band Lamont has collaborated with, wait for it, The Pirate Bay, to freely distribute their music via P2P. Their new album is available in multiple file formats and over 100k users downloaded it on the first day. It’s a sign of musicians finally warming up to the idea of P2P distribution. Besides, a lot of music fans will go out and buy CDs of music that they like. [Via TorrentFreak]
Popularity: 34% [?]
- By Vivek on Nov 5, 2007
Seriously, do these people ever stop and think about how un-ergonomic their designs are? A brick-like mouse? Uhhh no thanks! I think I’ll stick with my dome-shaped one that allows me to wrap my palm around it. Call me old-fashioned.
And if you look at the picture carefully enough, you’ll notice that they forgot the scroll wheel. My guess is that they left it out because it would remind users of how uncomfortable to use scroll wheels are. They seem to think the same way about the overall mouse design too.
The plus points? Laser-tracking and wireless.
Joey Roth [Via Engadget]
Popularity: 22% [?]
- By Vivek on Nov 4, 2007
Looks like a lot of leaks are happening these days. Sometimes it’s music, sometimes it’s prototype cellphones, and now it’s Rock Band. The game is still a few days away but a Best Buy store in the US put up a demo unit for sale by accident. Someone bought it and is now selling it on eBay. Best Buy wants it back is offering a full refund plus a $100 gift card for it. [Via
Engadget]
In more news on lawsuits, a company called Wi-LAN has just sued 22 companies for patent infringement. Apparently the lawsuit has something to do with Wi-Fi and DSL products. Among the 22 companies are biggies Apple, Dell, Belkin, D-Link, HP, Sony, Texas Instruments, Intel, and Lenovo. We’re pretty sure this case will be thrown out pretty soon. [Via REUTERS]
So, get this. The Nokia N95 has an accelerometer. It is also sensitive and can do cool things when appropriate code is executed on the device. In a simple example, some guys put up this interesting video of a ball rolling around on the screen. Based on how you tilt and move the N95, the on-screen ball moves accordingly. Not very exciting, but think of the possibilities. If you doubt the power of an accelerometer, just think of the Wii and that should dispel any and all doubts. [Via thenokiablog]
ODF drops ODF. Confusing? We thought so. The OpenDocument Format group has dropped its OpenDocument Format and will now back an obscure format from W3c, called the Compound Document Format. We have no idea why they would pick a new format whose name itself sounds complex. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. [Via ArsTechnica]
Napster is losing less money now. The firm posted a lower quarterly loss compared to the same quarter last year. The loss was $5.1 million against $9 million last year. The narrowing of losses was attributed to revenue from new mobile-based and computer-based services. Hey, maybe next year they’ll only lose $1 million. [Via Yahoo! News]
Apple quietly updated its MacBooks today. They have been given a Santa Rosa boost with an Intel X3100 graphics chip compared with the GMA 950 in previous versions. Also, the MacBook Pro now gets a new configuration option in the form of a 2.66GHz processor. [Via Laptoping]
Popularity: 37% [?]
- By Vivek on Nov 2, 2007
Lucky number seven today! We haven’t been getting too many comments to our round-up posts but we’re eager to hear what you have to say. What you like, what you despise, suggestions, whatever. Bring it on folks. At least then I don’t have to keep cribbing about the lack of good news to summarize. Wait. Never mind. I’ll still be cribbing about that.
Eye-Fi SD cards are now shipping. In case you are not familiar with what’s so special about these cards, here’s a hint: what starts with Wi and ends with Fi? Give up? Wi-Fi! Yes, dear readers, these SD cards can turn any ordinary digital camera into one that can send pictures to your computer or any one of 17 online photo service wirelessly. The card costs $100 and is available in a 2GB capacity right now. They definitely to make one for mobile phones that come with browsers but lack Wi-Fi. Seriously. [Via Engadget]
In another highly successful Apple product launch, Leopard sold 2 million copies in its first weekend. It seems as though the $129 price is not stopping anyone with Tiger to grab Leopard as well. The press release mentions that Tiger had the best launch for any Apple OS until now.
Everyone’s favorite savior against the RIAA/MPAA/etc., The Pirate Bay, is developing a new P2P protocol of its own. It will use the .p2p (clever) extension and be backward-compatible with the .torrent extension. According to TPB, this move comes as response to certain new additions to the source code of BitTorrent being closed. TPB also claims that the protocol will be developed to deter spammers and anti-piracy organizations from the ground-up. [TorrentFreak]
Briefly Noted:
1. The 40GB PS3 features cooler, less power intensive 65nm chips.
2. Intel is having trouble meeting processor demand for laptops.
3. Panasonic unleashed a new, $500 Blu-ray with support for the latest BD-Video Final Standard Profile 1.1.
Popularity: 35% [?]
- By Vivek on Oct 31, 2007
Oh what a start to the week! Lots of good news stories came in today and we had a really hard time picking the ones we thought were most important for your consumption, dear readers! But we’ve come up with the following 5 that we thought were big. Enjoy.
Nvidia has upped the stakes in the graphics card game once again, this time by launching the mid-end 8800 GT card. It consumes 80W less power than it’s elder sibling, the 8800 GTX, and runs considerably cooler as a result. The card also sports a thinner profile and will be available for between $199 and $249. [Via DailyTech]In continuing good news for Intel, its new Penryn processors have been getting the thumbs up from reviewers all over the interwebs. The quad-core desktop processors have been described as the fastest processors out there for any task imaginable. The speed can be attributed to the blazingly fast 1333Mhz FSB and 45nm architecture. Pricing should be revealed very soon. [Via
I4U News]
On the other hand, in continuing bad news for Sony, the PS3 losses could climb as high as $1 billion this fiscal. While Sony has been selling a lot more PS3s since the price drop, demand is lower than the other systems. Sony hopes to reach the break-even point by the second half of this fiscal. We think that ain’t gonna happen. [Via GameDaily BIZ]
Samsung is now shipping a 16x dual-layer DVD burner, which it claims is the world’s fastest dual-layer burner. It can write at 20x on regular DVD media. It’s available for $80 and also features enhancements such as LightScribe. [Via TG Daily]
Lenovo’s first consumer-oriented notebook went on sale in the US today. The Lenovo L3000 Y410 (who comes up with Lenovo product numbers?) features a 14.1″ display, Core 2 Duo T5450, X3100 integrated graphics, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Vista and integrated 1.3MP webcam. The laptop starts at $699. [Via Laptoping]
Popularity: 36% [?]
- By Vivek on Oct 30, 2007
Did that weekend go by quick or what? Obviously, not a lot of tech news to report since weekends tend to be slow in terms of news. The biggest story from the weekend is multiple reports of Leopard crashing! Yes, the Mac OS X 10.5 is crashing. The problem seems to be with the Unsanity Application Launcher third-party app. Uninstalling it before updating Leopard seems to fix the problem for most people. Read more at Engadget
here.
It appears as though major US games-retailer GameStop has stopped offering a replacement warranty on all Xbox 360s sold through its brick-and-mortar stores. We wouldn’t blame them. The 360 is notorious for its high failure rates and with Microsoft extending the warranty to 3 years anyway, the GameStop warranty was kind of useless. [Via GamerReports]
We could soon be seeing terabyte-capacity flash-drives. If these researchers have their way. A team at the University of Arizona has come up with a new technology based on nanoscience that will open the doors to super-high capacity flash drives in the near future. We won’t bother you with the technical details which you can read over at Wired.
Finally, some music news to wrap up our first weekend update. Several indie bands are now inviting their fans to fund their new albums. With the help of websites such as Sellaband.com, these bands can ask for donations from fans. This money goes into securing a recording studio and the contributors get a copy of the album once it’s done. Some bands also interact with their donors via webcast during the recording of the album. All the money goes straight to the bands and they are not under the RIAA. How could this possibly be any more perfect? [Via Yahoo! News]
Popularity: 39% [?]
- By Vivek on Oct 29, 2007
Someone definitely lost their job in a hurry at Sony Ericsson. Apparently, someone in Poland was able to get hold of a prototype device and the good folks over at SE-Center promptly reviewed the unit. Unfortunately, the review is in Polish so we have no clue what the reviewers thought of the device, but there are some fine pictures to ogle at in this
Flickr gallery.
While we admit that this is a terrific-looking device, we can’t help but scratch our heads on how the prototype got into the wild. There’s a lot of illegal stuff involved here especially since the device was sold to someone. But to match the leak is the fugly connector for headphones. The W series is SE’s Walkman series and we are extremely surprised that it doesn’t come with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Maybe this will be fixed in the production version. Other than the looks, 3.2MP main camera, and 3G with video call, there doesn’t seem to be much going for this phone. But then again, we can’t read Polish.
Oh, and don’t worry about the missing daily news update over the weekend. Since weekends are usually dead as far as technology news goes, we’ll be doing a weekend update instead. It should show up on Sunday evening (EST)/early Monday morning IST.
SE-Center [Via IntoMobile]
Popularity: 32% [?]
- By Vivek on Oct 28, 2007
What is up with all these slow news days? No seriously, what happened to the news? Yeah sure, Leopard came out today and everyone is basically spooging all over it. Anyway, let’s get this short post over with. And don’t forget to check out our Recommended Reading link at the end!
It seems like Nokia is gearing up to announce some new phones on November 2. We know they’re having an event next week and some
spy shots of the rumored N82 phone were released today. It’s worth noting that Symbian-Guru leaked the N81 and N82 a few months back and the N81 was indeed for real. The spy shots coupled with the fact that an official event is coming indicate that the N82 does exist. It’s rumored to come with 5MP camera, GPS, QVGA display, Wifi, Bluetooth, and a Series 60 OS. [Via Mobile-Review]
Sticking with leaks, Video Games Blogger has what they’re calling the final setlist for Guitar Hero III. Ordered by difficulty. We don’t know about you, but European Invasion has some very awesome songs. The final tier is sure to bring a lot of pain on higher difficulty levels. The big surprise? DragonForce have been relegated to the bonus tracks! Read the full list here. [Via PC World]
With the DS and the Wii minting money for Nintendo, the company has said that the Wii will not be getting a price cut any time soon. And we don’t blame them. It’s already the top current gen console at $250. The profit margin for Nintendo is pretty sweet and so why would they cut prices? [Via Yahoo! News]
If you keep track of security-related news, you ought to have heard of the Storm worm. Well, it seems like the worm is making its way out. But worms don’t go away that easy, do they? The worm is mounting DDoS on researchers as it can use its botnet to retaliate against anyone trying to probe the worm. Don’t malware authors have nothing better to do? What kind of a loser do you have to be to gain sadistic pleasure from making other people’s lives miserable? [Via ArsTechnica]
Recommended Reading: Run Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) from a USB Flash Drive
Popularity: 40% [?]
- By Vivek on Oct 27, 2007
