Apple has just released iOS 4.0.2 for the iPhone and 3.2.2 for the iPad, both available for a download via iTunes, right away. So what’s the difference, you may ask? Nothing much, besides the fact the new version will close the PDF exploit that JailbreakMe app was technically using to hack your phones. So don’t upgrade to this one if you’re using it, eh?
[Apple]
Asus is really getting us confused. It wasn’t so long ago when we wrote a post, reporting about the new EEE tablets lineup the company is expected to launch shortly, with new models like 12-inch Eee Pad EP121 and the 10-inch Eee Pad EP101TC. So far so good, right? Wrong! Because the guys at jkkmobile have just spotted (in Computex 2010) yet another model which suspiciously looks pretty similar to the EP101TC, this time carrying an “EPad” title written on a placard, up front. Now, whether it’s the same tablet or not, this “new” revelation houses a 10-inch capacitive display, running Windows 7 for the OS and probably, just probably NVIDIA Tegra 2 under the coat. The CPU is clearly from Intel, however we can’t be sure what other internal parts this bad boy will boast. For the meantime, make sure you check out the hands-on video after the jump.
It’s not the first time we get to see a slick and not so slimy dual-screen device emerging from the shadows, MSI has already released one a few months back and Microsoft is also rumored to have at least one on the prep – but today, boys and girls, it’s all about Kno and its neat dual 14.1-inch capacitive screens tablet (1440 x 900 screen resolution), that is said to be powered by a Linux operating system, running sort of a Webkit UI on top. In general, this 5.5 pounds giant comes equipped with e-book reader capabilities, and packs a 7 hours battery, along 16GB of storage and a Tegra 2 chip for the graphics (impressive!). It’s suppose to target worldwide students with passion to gadgets and technology and expected to be priced “under $1000″ range. Availability, is yet to be determined, though. Vids and PR after the break.
[via engadget]
Details scarce at the moment, but this is definitely an exciting time to join the tablets parade, and LG is one of the many companies that currently seek to do so. Need a proof? Check out its latest LG UX10, which undoubtedly belong to this burgeoning category, with that 10.1-inch LED capacitive touchscreen (not very responsive at the moment), featuring an Intel Atom Z530 processor under the lid, tucked with 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, an SD card slot, a micro-HDMI output, 1.3mp camera and Windows 7 Home Premium for the OS – yes, it runs a Microsoft platform inside. Price and availability are yet to be determined, but a short hands-on video is right after the break.
[via engadget]
Steve Jobs has just posted a defying letter on Apple’s website, where he explicitly explains the reasons why his company has eventually decided to ditch Flash and not to support it on Cupertino devices, such as iPad, iPhone and the iPod Touch. In general, what Steve Jobs says in here is that the use of Adobe’s most favorable Flash platform is considered in his point of view obsolete and literally belongs to the past. In his words “Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice.” and more about that from Jobs: “the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.”
But that’s just the bottom of the line of Steve Jobs thoughts. If you break them down to very small pieces, they might fall through the grid of pure rational argumentation. In a nutshell, the father of the iPhone claims that Flash technology is not open. In other words, Adobe’s Flash products, even if widely available, are still controlled by Adobe itself and not by any other entities – meaning, Flash is a closed system. As for the lack of “full web” experience allegations in Apple products, says Jobs that the new web is adjusting itself to Apple’s latest standards and for that matter big websites like Youtube, Netflix, Facebook et al already supporting the cause. As for “Reliability, security and performance” Steve thinks that Flash is the main reason for Mac crash and argues that Adobe has never been able to provide good Flash plug-in/add-on for Apple mobile phones. Steve Jobs also refers to the problem of fast battery drain and the pesky multi-tasking issues that Flash can actually cause.
And then there’s “the most important reason” why Apple has given up on Flash. Apparently, Apple doesn’t want letting “a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform”, or in our words, Apple wants to give more freedom and direct access to its unrelenting developers, and willing to do so over Adobe’s personal expenses. So there you go guys, a thorough and sincere letter, containing Steve Jobs thoughts. Jump straight after the break, read it, and then decide which side to support.
Hewlett-Packard has just announced that it would buy Palm for a staggering price of $1.2 billion dollars, roughly about $5.70 per share of common stock. The merge and acquisition, which are planned to close by July 31, can give the Palo Alto computer giant a great opportunity to get a bigger slice from the hot and trendy smartphones market, valued at $100bn alone and with annual rapid growth of 20% . HP executive vice president Todd Bradley said that “Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices” and also added that “Between smartphones, slates, and potentially netbooks, there are a lot of opportunities here.” And he’s right, just think about the endless potential possibilities of having Palm’s stunning WebOS integrated in HP’s future multi-touch devices, whether these are mobile phones, tablets or other portable machines – it’s HUGE and HP, in our opinion, has clearly taken a few significant steps in the right direction, especially now when strident voices, complaining about a sluggish HP Slate performance, start floating around – WebOS can definitely improve speed reaction dramatically - and someone at the HP headquarters has probably figured this one pretty well. Brian Humphries, HP’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development quoted saying “our intent is to double down on WebOS”. That’s very important, considering the months of speculations where Palm was desperately looking for a buyer. And given the fact that HP is getting over 1500 patents that Palm currently owns (that probably has considerable value as well, isn’t it?), along with a very good team of young talented engineers and one relentless chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, who is expected to remain with the company another few years long, this very complex deal that few months back, could easily have seemed impossible, can all of a sudden turn into a nice and promising bargain. PR announcement after the break.
Update: Digitimes says that HP Taiwan VP, Monty Wong has officially confirmed a webOS tablet to go live somewhere around October of this year. Stay tuned for more to come.
Apple has just announced the official dates for 2010 “Worldwide Developers Conference“, which will kick off on June 7th at the Moscone West conference hall in San Francisco, CA. Those of you willing to pay $1600 for a ticket will get the chance to hear Steve Jobs et al talking about various issues, including iPad development tools and methods, the use of “HTML5 Local Data Storage”, a possible new OS X announcement, gaming integrations, OS 4 implementations and hopefully…HOPEFULLY what we all have been waiting for – Apple’s next-gen iPhone 4G revelation. Full PR after the break.
[Apple]
Twitter has just launched its latest Anywhere platform which lets developers start developing their own Twitter apps and install them on their websites right away. First introduced at SXSWi, by Twitter’s founder @EV, the new package provides embedding tools and new integration methods, delivered by Twitter itself, that aims to increase its massively growing traffic with more engagement and more users to take part in the service, sign-in, connect, and share their feeds. It’s literally paralleled to Facebook connect, if you still try to figure out what it means – the more you connect, the more active you are the more buzz created and more publishers are getting happy out of this thing.
You get four features in Twitter’s Anywhere package: Hovercards, Connect, Sign-In, and the Tweetbox, with no special need to open new accounts or sign for a different service – simply use your very own Twitter username and password to log. This way, you will help Twitter to increase interaction between websites and tweet messages in a way that eventually would make the service even stronger.
Twitter says that popular websites such as AdAge, Amazon, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, Disqus, eBay, Foursquare, Gawker, Google, Gowalla, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Hunch, Mashable, Meebo, MSNBC.com, The New York Times, Salesforce.com, WSJ.com, Yahoo!, and YouTube have already pledged to the new service and about to install its tools onboard.
We’ve already installed the HoverCards feature into our website. Just move your mouse over the following names and see how it works (feel free to follow as well): @niron, @EV, @Scobleizer, @Biz, @Anywhere.
The iPhone OS 4.0 event we’ve all been anxiously awaiting, just ended with Apple delivering some striking news to the world. But before getting to those shocking news we just heard, here’s some other details that might be worth considering: As of today Apple sold about 450,000 iPads throughout the States (along 50M iPhone devices), while users have downloaded about 600,000 books and over 3.5 million apps, thus far. The iPhone OS 4 which suppose to get official release this summer, is said to provide more than 1500 new APIs for developers, who can now actually download the fourth SDK Beta package from the iPhone Dev Center, and start shaping their magical crafts.
Moving the focus point over the main buffet, it’s all about the multitasking (Finally!). Yes, you’ve heard that right folks, Apple’s OS 4 is said to include multitasking (…and I’ll repeat myself again: ‘multitasking’). Of course it will work if you have an iPhone 3GS in your bag. Earlier devices, according to Jobs, amongst you’ll find “The iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2nd generation will run “many things”, but they will not get multitasking”. In that note, Apple says it’d actually provide seven multitasking services including: background audio streaming like Pandora playing music all day long without the need to be stopped, Voice over IP apps like Skype taking calls even when you browse, background GPS and location apps, push and local notifications, task completion like Flickr image uploaded i background, and last but not least, fast app switching – all to be safely activated without the worry of battery draining.
Next in line is the new form of Folders, which aims to organize, and make sense out of the dispersed field of applications. With iPhone OS 4, users are said to be able to drag and drop apps onto one another to create folders, that from now on can hold up to 2160 apps instead of 180 apps you used to see over 11 pages.
Cupertino is also pushing forward today the Unified Inbox function, which gathers multiple email accounts (like MobileMe, Yahoo, Gmail, etc) into one single box, and thus eliminates the need to jump from one window to another. Apple has also enabled in this session the possibility of getting third-party email attachments straight into your phones – Yay, attachments are on!
iBooks gets to the iPhone OS 4 as well, with Apple taking advantage of recent iPad e-book galore.
Gaming Center. Another big news, especially for the gamer geeks between us. With Apple, building a social iPhone gaming network, which basically allows you to challenge your friends, compare achievements, leaderboards, match making and more. In other words, it’s like the Xbox Live, but for the iPhones.
iAds. Suddenly everything that starts with the letter “i” is an Apple related product, eh? But seriously now, it was Steve Jobs who was quoted saying that free apps “Developers need to find a way to start making their money”… so far so good, but how? Apparently, Apple will sell interactive in-apps mobile ads, that everyone can create, not only ad agencies but also iPhone app developers that will split revenues with Apple (60/40) in exchange for selling and hosting their ads. Apple is said to use HTML 5 format to create those ads – interesting!
More coming up features to include: Home screen wallpaper installation, Bluetooth keyboard support, 5x digital zoom, Spell check like in iPads, Playlist creation, Map overlays, Video playback and capture, and more.
So this is it guys, it’s huge and in some parts very surprising. A short multi-tasking OS 4 hands-on video is just after the break and you can also watch the full iPhone OS 4 keynote event on video on Apple’s website right here.
Update: Full PR announcement after the break.
Thought the iPad is the only thing you’re going to hear from Apple about in next couple of weeks? Think twice, because the restless company from Cupertino California has just announced it will hold an iPhone OS 4 event for developers on April 8th (10AM PT), where it will presumably unveil a “sneak peek of the next generation of iPhone OS software” – huzzah! Looks like someone wants to prove something to the world, if this event takes place so close to Apple’s iPad launch, isn’t it?
Whether you do agree with Steve Jobs saying his new tablet machine – The iPad – is “magical” and “revolutionary” or whether you don’t, one thing’s for sure, you can’t argue with numbers – and the numbers, according to Apple itself, are pretty impressive. Apparently, over 300,000 iPads were sold in the US on launch day alone, on April 3rd that is, including both retail sales (Best Buy and Apple Stores) and pre-ordered deliveries to customers across the States – that’s 30,000 more, compared to iPhone’s 270,000 pieces that Cupertino sold (in first 30 hours). In addition, Apple says that iPad users already downloaded over a million apps from its App Store and over 250,000 e-books were downloaded as well from Apple’s iBook store during first day of launch – that’s an average of…”more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad”, says Jobs himself. Can they hold up with those numbers? Time would tell.
Meanwhile, make sure you check out our long list of Free Cool iPad Games.
Update: Now we learn that Apple has sold one million ipads over the past 28 days of existence, with 1.5 million ebooks already been downloaded, joining the 12 million apps that users have snagged. Full PR after the break.
Well, what do you know guys, it’s been like what – one day since Apple has officially launched the iPad in the US? And while many tech users already complained this new Apple tablet comes too closed, too restricted for them to buy, someone called MuscleNerd, who apparently belongs to the almighty freedom defenders, iPhone Dev-Team, decided to prove different – in other words, he’s managed to hack Steve Jobs’ dearest toy and film the entire process on a video. How did he do that? By creating a root-access on the iPad, thanks to a port of Comex’s ‘Spirit’ iPhone OS 3.1.3 jailbreak that exploits a bug which will hopefully allow us to install on Cupertino’s slate anything we’d literally like. Checkout the video after the break.
[via iHackintosh]
Details scarce at this point, but a company called Hanvon just rolled out two impressive tablet machines, BC10C and BA10E, both under the suspiciously familiar brand – ‘TouchPad’ (you hear that Apple?!?). And while these two share this nice 10.1-inch capacitive multitouch display and Windows 7 Home Premium on top, there are some slight differences between them that worth to be mentioned and note. Starting with the BA10E model, it runs a 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor inside, paired with 1GB of RAM, 120GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1.3mp camera and a mediocre Intel GMA 500 graphics card. Mind you that specs clearly indicate a Windows XP system while in demo itself the tablet was operating under a touch-friendly Windows 7 OS. The second, BC10C has a 1.3GHz Intel Celeron ULV743 CPU, tucked with 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, and 2mp camera - which make it more strong. The company says that prices should be somewhere between 500 – 600 Euros, but we still don’t have any confirmation about release dates or any official pre-orders call. Hands-on video after the break.
Update1: The the BC10C launches in China March 25th, for $877, but ’till then, Jkkmobile has just released their Hanvon’s hands-on video, and they seemed very impressed with the results, so check it out as well, after the break.
Update2: We’ve just added another hands-on video from Jkkmobile, this time a lot more intrusive and comprehensive than previous. Hit the jump to watch it now.
Update3: According to jkkmobile, Hanvon’s TouchPad B10 release has been rescheduled again, this time towards the end of May, if you’re a Chinese buyer, and somewhere around June for the rest of the Western world. Prices remain with no change though, standing at $877.
[via engadget]
We’ve already seen a glimpse from Archos’ 7-inch Android-powered tablet one month ago, but now things turn to be official at CeBIT 2010, with the French debuting their 600MHz ARM 9 Home Tablet machine, aiming the low cost market with attractive and very affordable prices – €149 in Europe and only $179 Stateside. And despite that unconvincing HD friendly resistive touchscreen, we can find a lot of reason for you to buy it. First and foremost, it’s cheap, second, it comes with WiFi so you can easily surf the net without the need for other device, third, it looks great at 12mm thin and weighs only 350g and fourth, it has 2GB of storage capacity inside and a microSD card extension slot. No, it doesn’t include an integrated accelerometer inside so you won;t be able to see your photos in landscape mode or read your favorite eBook vertically, but still, for that pricing level it sure worth a try, especially when it comes to the battery that delivers seven hours of video or 44 hours of audio playback. Checkout the hands-on video right after the break.
Update1: And just when things are getting busy within the tablet realm, the Android-powered Archos 7 8GB tablet device appears online in couple of places, available for a pre-order (and as an iPad alternative) for merely €200 ($270) on the German Amazon or at €180 ($240) on Redcoon’s website.
Update2: Looks like the Archos 7 Home Tablet is now finally available to order on Amazon for $199.99, with an official release date – yet to be determined (probably towards the end of April).
Update3: Unfortunately, the Archos 7 won’t be available in the market until early June of this year. That said, according to the French corp, those who pre-ordered the 7-inch, Android 1.6 tablet may get their piece of craft somewhere towards the end of May. Full PR after the break.
[via UMPC Portal]
Asus has already proved it can go hand-to-hand with tech pace and bring up-to-date laptops that match the latest criteria one by one. And that is probably the reason the company has just released the Eee PC 1201PN, a Pine Trail netbook powered by Nvidia’s ION 2 graphics that suppose to replace the 6 months old 1201N which had the same looks, only with ION’s first chipset edition and a previous Atom N330 CPU version. The new one, which was spotted at the Taiwanese booth in CeBIT, packs a 12.1-inch 1366×768 LED display, along that Atom N450 Pine Trail processor, and NVIDIA’s Ion 2 for the graphics tone. Other than that, the 1201PN offers basic specs like 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi connection, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and 6 cell battery with working hours “TBD”. Stay tuned for more to come, meanwhile checkout Joanna’s hands-on video after the break.
Update: And looks like the 12.1-inch ASUS Eee PC 1201PN, powered by ION 2 chipset, is now available on Amazon for a starting price of $484, which seems pretty impressive if we take into consideration that really amazing lineup, which includes a Intel Atom N450 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce 201M for the graphics.
[via engadget]
Top-notch navigating systems with 3D maps and live traffic reports are probably some of the things that come to your minds when hearing the name Mio. And while GPS systems have turned to be part of our day-to-day usage, one can argue it would just be enough to satisfy today’s self indulgent clients. I mean, lets be series for a moment, don’t you want the all-in-one package instead of carrying so many gadgets around? Well, someone in MIO has already figured that out, otherwise we’d probably seen yet another nav box hitting our headlines, no? And getting into details, we speak about the company’s latest Moov V780 MID – Entertaining machine that has recently popped out with a 7-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen and should officially see first lights at CeBIT 2010. It has a strong 600MHz processor tucked with an HDMI output, DVB-T digital TV support, a built-in WiFi and optional WiMAX connection. Furthermore, it’s claimed to include the new Mio Spirit navigation software, but OS wise, you won’t be seeing anything but Windows CE running inside, not to mention an Android 2.0. Price and availability are still to be unveiled, hopefully this coming week, at the Hannover show.
Update: The good guys at jkkmobile have managed to put their hands on MIO’s new V780 MID while at CeBIT, and we’re lucky to have their video up and ready to be watched, right after the break. As you can see, the V780 will presumably offer an optional cradle where users will be able to place the V780 in and do their stuff with a real QUERTY keyboard attached – something we have seen in Lenovo’s U1 Hybrid machine, remember?
[Mio]
The Pine Trail procession seems to go even further, with LG to join the marchers by uncovering two Atom N450 netbooks, X140 and X200, both to run Windows 7 Starter onboard. The X140 is claimed to include basic specs like 1GB of RAM, a 10.1 1024×600 display, a 160GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, optional 3G modem and a 6 cell battery, while the more advanced version, X200 will presumably house a more updated components such as Intel’s GMA 3150 graphics, 2GB RAM, a 250GB hard drive, Bluetooth, 802.11n Wi-Fi and a 10.1-inch display, this time with 1366 x 768 HD resolution support. Availability and prices are still undetermined, but suppose to surface at the CeBIT show, next week.
Update: We’ve added a CES 2010 X200 hands-on video, courtesy of NetbookNews. Check it out after the break.
[via Electronista]
CES 2010 is over, but that as a fact doesn’t mean release frequency of Pineview-based netbooks has necessarily slowed down. On the contrary, it probably grown even more lately. And one that already made its way out, with no a price tag mentioned, is FIC’s Atom N450 SVE00, a 10.1-inch netbook which sports Windows 7 OS, running Intel’s latest 1.66GHz Atom CPU, together with 1GB of RAM, either 500GB HDD or 32GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, HSDPA connectivity, and last but not least, WiMax support. Impressive lineup, isn’t it?
[via Akihabara News]
It’s up to you to decide how to call MSI’s new dual-screen device, whether it’s a netbook, a smartbook, an E-Reader, a tablet, a MID, a courier, you name it, it’s your call – but one thing’s for sure – you want it and so do we! It’s still a prototype and no one can really tell when or where it would get a “Go”. It packs dual 10-inch displays (one on each side), both include capacitive multitouch screens, with pretty fast respond. There’s no official name for this one at the moment, but it runs a Windows 7 Home Premium platform with all the pomp and innards involved, like a virtual keyboard control, an ebook reader, 1.86 GHz Atom Z540 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB SSD storage and finally, two USB ports. You will hear about it a lot more, but until then, hit the break and watch the show.
[via pocket-lint]
