Index
Electronista | Gadgets for GeeksElectronista is the leading source for news about Gadgets. It offers news, reviews, discussion, tips, troubleshooting, links, and reviews every day. The best place for Gadgets news Period.
Electronics technician Ken Shirriff has completed a teardown in minute detail of the Apple iPhone charger, revealing higher-quality manufacturing techniques and parts along with more attention to detail than is normally seen in smartphone chargers. The $29 charger and cable combo costs more to make than a typical AC USB charger, but remains a highly-profitable unit despite the extra care taken. Shirriff also did a teardown on a cheaper "clone" iPhone charger, and strongly recommends that under no circumstances should they be used, calling them "tiny, cheap, and dangerous."... |
Patrick Spence, 14-year veteran of Research in Motion (RIM) and its head of global sales, has departed the company. Spence "will be taking on a leadership position in a different industry," according to RIM spokeswoman Rebecca Freiburger. No comment has been made if the move is in response to the announcement of RIM's new Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer three weeks ago.... |
Researchers at the German institution Technische Universitat Darmstadt have published a paper demonstrating a technology that could eventually bring complex, physical object-based control to pico projectors. Were the technology, dubbed LightBeam, to be integrated with smartphones, it could engender a much wider array of interactions and methods of navigating data.... |
In a move that signals a greater commitment to hardware design and manufacture, Google has purchased industrial design firm Mike and Maaike. Mike and Maaike is a studio that worked on the first Google Nexus phone, and the purchase seems to indicate a greater focus for Google on hardware design in the wake of its acquisition of Motorola Mobility.... |
Dell has announced its fiscal-year 2013 first-quarter results on Tuesday, as the continuing skid in profits continues. Quarterly revenue was down four percent from a year ago to $14.4 billion. Profit continues to fall and dropped a staggering 33 percent to $635 million. The consumer division continues to weigh down the company, with a revenue of $3 billion, a 12 percent decline year-over-year.... |
At its annual investor meeting, Nvidia unveiled a new platform, known as Kai, which the company hopes will allow for the production of quad-core Android 4.0 tablets that are priced comparably to Amazon's Kindle Fire. The Kai project is both a reference tablet design, which could be turned into a consumer product, and a roadmap for the development of similar low-priced but powerful tablets.... |
Facebook is in the process of launching a system to allow advertisers to measure the impact of their advertising efforts on the social network. The company is also looking to allow external advertising agencies to buy premium ad slots in users' news feeds. As The Financial Times reports, the changes to the site's advertising policies come as Facebook attempts to instill confidence in its capacity to leverage its massive user base in the world of targeted advertising.... |
Apple is by far the largest buyer of all kinds of microprocessors, buying 50 percent more RAM, processor and other chips than any other company, with its appetite having tripled since 2009 due to the success of its iOS devices (and to a lesser extent its growing Mac business). At an industry conference, IHS iSuppli researcher Dale Ford said that the company will buy $27 billion worth of chips, up from $9B in 2009.... |
Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski, speaking during Boston's The Cable Show, has voiced support for data caps on Internet plans. The chief feels that tiered pricing will "increase consumer choice and competition" and result in "lower prices for people who consume less broadband," though he did not clarify what mechanism would drive prices down. Consumer advocates and public-interest groups immediately responded, decrying the comments and urging the FCC to more closely examine the effect of broadband data caps on the market, pricing, and innovation.... |
HP has reported its fiscal second-quarter financials, pointing to a slight slide in net revenues to $30.7 billion. Earnings per share fell to $0.80, slightly higher than the internal forecast of $0.68 to $0.71, however the company nonetheless confirmed plans to eliminate eight percent of its workforce.... |
The imbroglio over Facebook's initial public offering continued today with the announcement of a class-action lawsuit alleging wrongdoing on the part of Facebook and its underwriters. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, claims that Facebook, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, among others, misled investors and caused them to lose more than $2.5 billion in the wake of the IPO. As Bloomberg reports, the plaintiffs have yet to specify the amount sought for damages. The case comes in the wake of the revelation yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission will be... |
Microsoft is preparing to release tablet versions of its Office suite for both Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms, a source familiar with the software has told BGR. The company had been previously rumored to be bringing its Office suite to the iPad, and the new details, if true, will see the productivity suite arriving on tablets in November.... |
A jury at the US District Court of Northern California has determined that Google has not infringed on six claims contained in two Oracle patents. The unanimous decision is viewed as a partial win for the search giant, however the company still faces potential damages in an earlier verdict that focused on copyright violations for a number of Java APIs.... |
The FBI is reportedly forming a unit to develop new technologies for electronic surveillance, enabling the agency to expand monitoring capabilities for VoIP, wireless signals, and the Internet. According to Cnet, the Domestic Communications Assistance Center, located in Quantico, VA, will serve to intercept Skype conversations and analyze data received from a social network or carrier.... |
The Kyocera Hydro smartphone running Android Ice Cream Sandwich has been seen at the Federal Communications Commission for testing. Filings on the FCC website under model number C5170 show tests were conducted relating to its CDMA 1900MHz radio, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth support.... |
The Acer Iconia A510 Olympic tablet will be reaching the UK in June through Carphone Warehouse. The special-edition tablet shares the specs of the Iconia Tab A510, with the main differences being an engraving of the Olympic rings on the back and a pre-loaded trial of Eurosport Player, to watch the broadcaster's Olympic coverage.... |
AT&T has just introduced a new smartphone for its GoPhone pre-paid offering, the Samsung Galaxy Appeal. The first side-slider for GoPhone sports a hardware QWERTY keyboard and a 4.3-inch, 480x320 touchscreen. It's powered by an 800MHz Qualcomm processor and Android 2.3.... |
|
Google has released a major update of its Search app for iOS, v2.0.0. The iPhone side of the title has been overhauled, gaining "major" speed improvements and a redesigned interface. This includes auto fullscreen, which hides controls when scrolling down, and reveals them again when scrolling up. A special fullscreen mode is used during image search.... |
Storage drive makers Seagate and LaCie on Wednesday announced an agreement that will see the former buy a majority, 64.5-percent share in LaCie. The deal will see about $186 million change hands, and the product portfolios will be merged. The focus will also be on expanding the storage market in Europe and Japan.... |
Nokia has just revealed it will make some key changes to its annual Nokia World event. Apart from announcing earlier that it's moving to its home country of Finland, as revealed earlier this year, the event will now be broken up into a series of smaller ones. Nokia staff compare it more to SXSW rather than CES in terms of size and format.... |
Apple and Samsung have failed to reach any kind of settlement after court-ordered talks on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Korea Times. A Samsung official tells the publication that the companies could find "no clear agreement" on their patent dispute. The talks were extremely high-level, involving Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung.... |
Samsung and Sony, among the biggest and most popular TV makers, have began to enforce minimum selling prices of their products at retailers. The move is meant to maintain profits and keep large electronics retailers from competing on price online, according to a Wall Street Journal report. It would also help prevent shoppers from looking at a TV in a store before going on to buy it at an online-only retailer, whose lower overhead costs allows it to sell for less.... |
KurbKarma, an app that allows users to share parking spot availability in the San Francisco area, has been updated in the App Store. Users are rewarded with KarmaKredits whenever a spot they publish is taken by another user. These points can then be used to "buy" access to nearby available parking spots. During a parking exchange users are connected directly to the publisher allowing for the exchange of a more precise location without having to reveal a phone number.... |
Siri, the voice command system on the iPhone 4S, is being blocked on IBM's internal networks, the company's CIO has revealed. Jeanette Horan mentioned the fact in an interview with MIT's Technology Review this week. The core issue involves the way Siri translates speech; rather than performing the task on a phone, it uploads recordings to Apple servers, where the speech is deciphered before results are sent back. Accompanying this is user data, such as the names of people in Contacts, since the information is needed to interpret some requests.... |
Microsoft this week announced it now requires Windows Phone 7.5 software to be preloaded in order to access the official Marketplace app store. The move shouldn't come as a surprise, as it was communicated at the end of April. Both the web and mobile storefronts will require WP 7.5 to be on the handsets, and users won't be able to download, buy, update, or review Marketplace apps without it.... |
The forthcoming, and heavily re-engineered, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has had its case redesigned to accommodate the S Pen. Although the smaller Galaxy Note 5.3 has a slot for the S Pen, it took observers by surprise at Mobile World Congress in February when Samsung first revealed the device without an in-built location to stow it. Since its Barcelona unveiling, Samsung has completely revamped the Note 10.1 and has now also shoehorned the same 1.4GHz Exynos 4412 quad-core processor from the Galaxy S III into the device.... |
OmniVision has unveilled two high-resolution sensors for smartphones. The OV16820 and OV16825 sensors designed for smartphones offer 4K resolution video capabilities and 16-megapixel burst photography. OmniVision's history with Apple as a camera sensor supplier could lead to a future iPad or iPhone with 4K video recording capabilities.... |
Apple design guru Jonathan Ive has revealed to The Telegraph that Appleís current projects are ëthe most important and the best workí that his team at Apple has ever done. In the UK to formally receive his knighthood from the Queen, Ive said that it will likely be this work that will be his legacy. Iveís comments, while revealing nothing specific, are likely to set speculation alight ahead of expected revamps of key Apple products as well the rumored Apple TV.... |
The Facebook initial public offering (IPO) may have been hampered by the bank that brought the social network to Wall Street. The LA Times writes, Morgan Stanley was advising favored clients on reduced revenue estimates for Facebook, leading Wall Street insiders to avoid or drop shares. The US Securities and Exchange Commission will be looking into the Facebook IPO, with the Financial Industrial Regulatory Authority also expressing concern, particularly as this resulted in non-institutional investors with more shares than they had intended. With Facebook shares expected to be scarce, some inve... |
The Microsoft Xbox 360 S is to be banned from sale in the US following an International Trade Commission ruling. In a court document released on Monday, ITC Judge David Shaw recommended the sale of both 4GB and 250GB versions of the console be blocked. His recommendation related to a ruling made last month that Microsoft was infringing on four patents owned by Motorola relating to the H.264 video format.... |
The 5GB data plan for phones supplied by Sprint acting as mobile hotspots is no longer available. In it's place, comes a 2GB and a 6GB plan. Users on the existing 5GB plan won't be forced to take one of the newer, more expensive per-GB plans. The new tiers are in place effective May 18.... |
Following last week's compromise between Motorola, RIM, and Apple resulting in a nano-SIM design submission, Samsung has filed a complaint with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) complaining about the voting process on the final design. After an initial denial of Samsung's appeal, Samsung filed the letter with ETSI stating that Samsung believes the vote was advanced before enough time was allowed for discussion and "consensus building" within the organization. Regardless of Samsung's complaint, voting continues and is ex... |
In a trio of recent announcements from cable giant Comcast, the company announced Voice 2Go, adding a new assortment of features for the Xfinity Voice suite pulled from the smartphone feature set. Also at Boston's The Cable Show Comcast's new next-generation customizable user interface codenamed "Project Dayview" was demonstrated. Rounding out the trio of announcements, the X1 cloud-based IPTV service was also shown. All three services will be rolled out to select markets by the end of this year.... |
It is a terrible cliché when a writer begins a story by claiming that a series of real-life events "reads like a Hollywood movie script," but occasionally dramatic stories occur that are hard to distinguish from the intricate plottings of screenwriters or novelists. An unusual operation involving the US-based Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) hiring investigators to spy on a UK couple that ran a "links to streaming video" site has resulted in prosecution with the help of a US defendant.... |
Facebook's forthcoming App Center portal will feature a "Send to Mobile" option, allowing users to purchase apps on a desktop or tablet and have a notification delivered to their phones. The feature duplicates capabilities already found in Google and Apple's app stores, but uses Facebook's notification system. The Send to Mobile option is expected to be ready in time for the App Center's launch later this year.... |
Images of Samsung's forthcoming Chromebox desktop appeared briefly on the Internet today, as retailer TigerDirect posted a video featuring the device. The video has since been taken down, but it confirmed details Samsung had previously released when it revealed the device in January. The desktop computer, similar in its form factor to Apple's Mac mini, will be one of the first desktop PCs to run Google's Chrome operating system.... |
The latest release of the Amazon Appstore allows owners of selected Android smartphones to try out some apps for free before buying them. Users can interact with select apps as though they had been downloaded, running them through Amazon's store. Amazon is planning to roll out the new feature for a wider selection of phones in the coming months.... |
Alibaba, a Chinese-owned e-commerce giant, has bought half of Yahoo's stake in the company through a buyback deal. The previously speculated arrangement, announced on Sunday, sees Alibaba receive half of the 40 percent stake Yahoo has in the company in exchange for $6.3 billion in cash, and around $800 million in new Alibaba preferred shares. Yahoo will also receive preferential treatment if Alibaba conducts an initial public offering, with either Alibaba buying or Yahoo selling 25 percent of the remaining stake.... |
INRIX, an app-enabled traffic data collector, has introduced a new version of its iOS app to assist drivers in daily commutes. INRIX Traffic 4.0 features four new features. The new version of the application adds real-time traffic tracking features to the iPhone such as those found in high-end automobiles from Audi, Ford, and Toyota. INRIX Traffic 4.0 can work Google Maps with a $25 in-app purchase to visually show the fastest routes to home and work, analyzes traffic to give drivers recommended departure with accurate travel times, easy sharing of INRIX arrival times to any contact, and perso... |
MSI and Asus have announced and detailed their first Thunderbolt-equipped motherboards. The companies have released specifications for their Ivy Bridge boards, both using Apple's Mini DisplayPort implementation of Thunderbolt, rather than Sony's custom Light Peak adaptation. Neither company has announced pricing and availability. Both boards are expected to make their debuts at the Taipei Computex show in two weeks.... |
HTC has upgraded its Android FAQ page to lay out the timeline over which a number of its handsets will receive upgrades to Android 4.0. Over the next few months, the Droid Incredible 2, Amaze, Desire, Desire HD, Evo 3D, Evo 4G+, and a number of other models are slated to receive an update to the latest version of Android.... |
Nuance, maker of the technology that partially powers Apple's Siri digital assistant, has announced that it is bringing its natural language technology to cars. Dragon Drive will allow drivers to compose text messages, get directions, and find traffic information by speaking to their cars. Nuance's voice-command technology is already featured in Ford's Sync application, but the company looks to bring the capability to a wider range of manufacturers with Dragon Drive.... |
Apple has maintained its lead over other companies in the Millward Brown 2012 Brandz study. This marks the second year at the top for Apple, increasing their brand value from $153 billion to $182 billion, while previous branding leader Google slips behind IBM to third place. The study covers brand value as a perceptual worth independent from any financial undertakings, instead of market capitalization as typically used by financial analysts.... |
Apple has maintained its lead over other companies in the Millward Brown 2012 Brandz study. This marks the second year at the top for Apple, increasing their brand value from $153 billion to $182 billion, while previous branding leader Google slips behind IBM to third place. The study covers brand value as a perceptual worth independent from any financial undertakings, instead of market capitalization as typically used by financial analysts.... |
Sonos has introduced the Sub, a wireless subwoofer designed to work alongside the company's amplified systems with wireless support. The resin cabinet integrates a pair of acoustic ports and speaker cones, each facing inward in a configuration that is claimed to eliminate buzz or rattle, while dual Class D amplifiers provides the power.... |
Dell is set to update its Latitude series, including an Ivy Bridge-equipped notebook, according to a rumor. Sources of Tweakers.net suggest the Latitude 6430u will be thinner than its predecessor, while bringing a choice between Intel's Core i3, i5, or i7 Ivy Bridge processors.... |
Meta Watch has officially released a new smartwatch development system with Bluetooth 4.0, capable of integrating with both iOS and Android devices. A previous beta was limited to Android only. In iOS, an app pushes basic notifications to the watch for things like calls and messages. Developers have access to an API, though, which will let their own apps push virtually any information.... |
New numbers out from market research company NPD Group suggest the average mobile device holds 12 apps targeted at kids. The payoff from the popularity of kid-friendly apps is uncertain, though, as NPD estimates that nearly nine out of 10 of those apps are acquired for free. In news that could prove troubling for traditional game-console makers Nintendo and Sony, the report finds that gaming on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, is a particularly popular activity among children.... |
Aggregator and reading service Readability has rolled out a new feature for its platform, one that allows users to share their own reading lists with others in a variety of ways. The new Readlist feature works as a sort of mixtape for reading, bundling content that users save from the web into a package deliverable to Kindles, iPads, and smartphones.... |
