Thursday, September 29, 2011

drag2share: Why The Kindle Fire Beat the iPad 2 (For Me) [Kindle]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5844712/why-the-kindle-fire-beat-the-ipad-2-for-me

Why The Kindle Fire Beat the iPad 2 (For Me)There are times when less is more in terms of technology. And frankly, at its $199 price point. That less is definitely more.

The iPad 2 is a great device. Hell, I bought my wife one. But I don't need a $500 tablet. The Fire gives me the features I want at a price point that's less than half of the iPad 2. I can check my email, browse the Internet, maybe play a few games, most importantly, I can read magazines in color on a Kindle.

I use the computer to work. While it's fair to say that the iPad can be used to create content, I really don't have time to tap away on a touchscreen when I have a perfectly good MacBook Air. The features that set the iPad above the Kindle Fire are wasted on me. I don't need those. I'll never edit a video on the iPad. I have Final Cut Pro for that. Taking pictures on a tablet is ludicrous, I have an iPhone for quick shots and a DSLR to make me feel like I'm talented. It comes down to features and price. It's too much, for too much.

The Kindle Fire fills that tiny tablet gap in my life. It only has the features I really care about at a price point that's reasonable. It's more than reasonable, it's pretty great. But more importantly, it's the color Kindle I've been waiting for. I don't care about built-in 3G. That's what Mi-Fis are for. The camera on our iPad was used the first week just to point out how horrible the pictures looked. The only downside to the Kindle Fire is the lack of are the lack of external speaker and Bluetooth. But this isn't a deal breaker in my book.

Amazon has already sucked me into its Kindle-library clutches. I find myself trolling the Kindle store for books while sitting on the couch. Amazon's Whispersync has made it easy to add those purchases to the Kindle app on my iPhone. Now that I can run borrow books from the local library on the Kindle, I'm sold. You win Amazon, here take my money.

Apple was the first company to realize that a tablet computer doesn't need to be a full-fledged "computer" to succeed. All a tablet needs are the features that people actually use. Amazon just took that idea and ran with it. It won't be long before other companies attempt the same thing at an even lower price point.

My wife loves her iPad 2 and I'm happy I bought it for her. But for me, the $199 Kindle Fire is the tablet I've been waiting for.

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drag2share: Toshiba prepping new 560Mbps TransferJet chip

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/toshiba-prepping-new-560mbps-transferjet-chip/

Toshiba TransferJet
So, TransferJet hasn't exactly taken off the way many had hoped, especially Sony which crammed the wireless tech into CyberShot cameras and Memory Sticks. But some, like Toshiba, are still holding on to the dream. By the end of January 2012 Tosh plans to ship samples of its new TC35420 TransferJet chip to manufacturers, which can move files at an impressive 560Mbps. The short-range, high-speed sharing protocol could make moving photos, videos and other media between your smartphones, tablets and laptops quick and easy... or it could just become another feature that lies dormant in a few select products collecting piles of virtual dust. It only started showing up in products last year, so we're not ready to put a nail in its coffin just yet -- we'll just have to see if the tech can finally live up to it promise of painless connectivity.

Toshiba prepping new 560Mbps TransferJet chip originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAkihabara News  | Email this | Comments

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drag2share: Disney launches two new Android smartphones, mouse ears not included

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/disney-launches-two-new-android-smartphones-mouse-ears-not-incl/

Mickey's ditching the steamboat and giving up Fantasia in pursuit of all things mobile as Disney launches the DM011SH and DM010SH -- joining the company's other Android offering. The 4-inch 3D capable DM010SH handset will be Walt's top-of-the-line variant with a 960 x 540 qHD touchscreen, 8MP camera and a 1GHz processor. Next in line is the DM011SH waterproof slider with a 3.4-inch touchscreen sporting 854 X 480 resolution and an identical processor and camera to its higher-end cousin. Both Android 2.3 phones come decorated with the signature insignia in tweentastic candy colors like pink and white, with a black version of the DM010SH available for more subdued Mouse House fans. Aside from the phones, Disney also outed the internet-enabled DM001Photo, a 9.4 x 5.6-inch digital picture frame for viewing pictures, videos and emails over 3G for ¥890 (or $11) a month. Although prices have yet to be finalized, the DM010SH is slated to hit the Japanese market in October, while the other two should appear on store shelves by December. Check out the full Japanese PR and product pages by hitting the source links after the break.

Disney launches two new Android smartphones, mouse ears not included originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Dat acider, Land of Droid  |  sourceDisney Mobile (Japanese), Disney Mobile (PDF Japanese)  | Email this | Comments

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drag2share: OWC updates its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G SSD lineup, offers 30GBs for just $68

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/29/owc-updates-its-mercury-extreme-pro-3g-ssd-lineup-offers-30gbs/

Say hello to Other World Computing's latest 2.5-inch SSD, the 30GB variant of its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G series (3Gb/s, of course). This SandForce-driven SSD may not have loads of storage, but priced at a wallet-friendly 68 bucks, it's certainly tempting if your optical drive's been gathering dust. Whether you're running an ungodly amount of Firefox tabs on a Mac or Windows machine, you'll be covered with "sustained data rates of over 275MB/s," keeping your tasks speedy. Ready to ditch the beach balls and hourglasses? It's available now from OWC and you'll find more info in the PR past the break.

Continue reading OWC updates its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G SSD lineup, offers 30GBs for just $68

OWC updates its Mercury Extreme Pro 3G SSD lineup, offers 30GBs for just $68 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceOther World Computing  | Email th! is&n bsp;| Comments

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drag2share: RIM details Android compatibility, apps written with NDK see Canadian visas declined

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/29/rim-details-android-compatibility-apps-written-with-ndk-see-can/

While you're undoubtedly aware that the PlayBook will gain the ability to run Android apps at some point, RIM's come clean with specifics as to which ones will run on the biggest BlackBerry. According to Thinq, engineers from the Canuck company confirmed that the upcoming compatibility layer will not support apps written with the NDK -- you know, wares written in C instead of the typical one-two Java / Dalvik punch. Also on the chopping block are those that incorporate Google Maps, in-app billing or Mountain View's text-to-speech engine. Similarly, live wallpaper and applications that use VoIP or have more than one activity linked to the launcher are also on the outs. It's been decreed then: don't expect a fantastical bevy of apps to make the jump sans elbow grease, which if we're honest, is about right given the other news out of Waterloo.

RIM details Android compatibility, apps written with NDK see Canadian visas declined originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 02:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MobileBurn  |  sourceThinq  | Email this | Comments

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drag2share: Flickr unveils Android app, introduces real-time Photo Session feature (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/29/flickr-unveils-android-app-introduces-real-time-photo-session-f/

The Android community may be awaiting its very own Instagram app, but at least Flickr has now stepped up to fill the void. Yesterday, the photo-sharing service unveiled its very first Android app, along with a new social feature known as Photo Session. Available for free on the Android Market, the app allows users to snap, filter and upload their photos directly to Facebook, Twitter or Flickr, all from the comfort of their own handset. It also features an array of camera functions like flash, ratio selection, and shutter focus, along with ten high-quality filters. Photo Session, meanwhile, allows you to browse through images with your friends in real-time. All you have to do is round up your online comrades, start a session and begin flipping through a photostream. Every time you move on to the next image, your friends will, too, effectively turning any browsing affair into a collective, Don Draper-like slide show. For more details, check out the source links below, or trot past the break for a video run-down of Photo Session.

Continue reading Flickr unveils Android app, introduces real-time Photo Session feature (video)

Flickr unveils Android app, introduces real-time Photo Session feature (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 03:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: HTC Explorer now official, we go hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/29/htc-explorer-now-official-we-go-hands-on/

This little soldier carries the big responsibility of extending HTC's dominance to the budget end of the Android spectrum, and it must achieve this mission with only a bare minimum of weaponry: a 3.2-inch HVGA (480 x 320) capacitive display, 600MHz processor, 3MP camera and 512MB of expandable memory. You'll just have to believe us when we say we had a play with a pre-release device at an HTC event recently, even though the manufacturer's reps refused to let us take any photos or video to prove it. You'll find publicity shots in the gallery below plus a full press release, some educated guesswork about price and availability and our initial impressions of the handset right after the break.

Continue reading HTC Explorer now official, we go hands-on

HTC Explorer now official, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 04:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

drag2share: What Is Amazon Silk? [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5844663/what-is-amazon-silk/gallery/1

What Is Amazon Silk?As part of the Kindle Fire, Amazon introduced a new web browser called Silk that uses some of Amazon's best technologies to help make mobile browsing even better. What is Amazon Silk? Well, from the looks of things, it's awesome.

Amazon Silk is the Kindle Fire's new web browser...

Amazon Silk is a web browser optimized for the Amazon Kindle Fire hardware, which runs Android Gingerbread. The main focus of Silk is to take the processing load off of the Kindle Fire CPU/GPU.

...that taps into Amazon's EC2 cloud to handle heavy processing...

Silk is referred to as a Split browser. It knows what web processing tasks the tablet can handle well, and which ones it cant. The lighter processing will be handled by the tablet hardware, while the heavier code crunching (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.) will be sent to Amazon's cloud servers which have more muscle in the areas of RAM and CPU power.

...speed up page load times...

Loading a single website requires initiating multiple connections to multiple servers. For less powerful devices, this process takes more time than it would for a more powerful machine. Better equipped to handle this process with its powerful optical network, the EC2 backend will take websites and optimize them for the Kindle Fire's screensize/resolution so that the device has an easier time digesting those pages.

...minimize the amount of storage used on your Kindle Fire...

Optimized pages means smaller file sizes. But Silk will also cache sites you've visted on the EC2 servers, thus keeping more of your storage free for cooler shit.

...and pre-load the all the pages you visit the most.

Visit Gizmodo multiple times a day? Or maybe you prefer the more intellectual musings of Hipster Runoff? Either way, Silk will learn your browsing behavior and pre-load the pages you visit the most when an internet connection is present. I don't know about you, but this sounds like the future of mobile browsing.

P.S. Check out all the cool stuff Amazon announced today right here.

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drag2share: Daily Desired: The Toughest Backyard Grill In the World [Desired]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5844729/daily-desired-the-toughest-backyard-grill-in-the-world

Daily Desired: The Toughest Backyard Grill In the WorldA Weber grill is just a glorified hunk of cheap metal. Don't believe me? Heat the grates up to 1000 degrees and watch the thing fall apart. This grill is for people who want to cook for real.

The Engelbrecht 1000 Series Braten Grill is a tank from top to bottom. Other grills look hardcore, but how many have cast iron wheels? A thousand degrees is nothing for the welded, heavy-gauge steel body. The designers paid meticulous attention to every detail down to the stainless steel caster mounts. This thing will survive a bomb blast. Oh yeah, and the grill is a serious cook's dream. That huge steel body? Also great for heat absorption and transfer. Maybe a $1900 weapons-grade grill isn't for you, but there's a six-week waiting list of people who want one real bad. [Engelbrecht Grills and Cookers]

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drag2share: Flickr's New App Might Be Android's Instagram [Android Apps]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5844898/flickrs-android-app-lets-you-take-filtered-pictures

Flickr's New App Might Be Android's InstagramFlickr, who should have jumped on the Instagram filter train earlier, has finally put out an Android app and along with letting you scan photostreams, upload pictures, share photos to other social networks, you can also take filterized pictures. Woot!

The app looks like a better version of the iPhone app (it's Flickr on your phone but with the added dimension of using an in-app camera) but might be too little too late for Android users. I've been waiting for a Flickr app on Android for so long that I eventually made the move to Picasa, er Google Photos. I'd imagine some Android user have faced the same dilemma?

I hope not though, Flickr has always been the apple of my eye and I'd definitely like it to regain some traction. With a filtered camera option that automatically uploads to Flickr and gives you options for other social networks, maybe it can find new life. [Android Market]

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drag2share: Skype update for iOS adds anti-shake, Bluetooth connectivity and ads for freeloaders

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/skype-update-for-ios-adds-anti-shake-bluetooth-connectivity-and/

Skype's latest app upgrade brings a few substantial features, some good, one not so. Alongside a new anti-shake video call function (limited to the iPhone's back-facing camera), you can now pair Bluetooth headsets with the VoIP calling service, something apparently "long requested" from Skype fans. However, users have to fork out for credit to avoid seeing advertising that's also baked into the new version. The update's now up for grabs on both the iPhone and iPad, though there are reports of a few teething troubles, including missing credit and account details. We've also been experiencing issues, with the app unwilling to play nice with our Bluetooth headsets, though oddly, we can still hear the Skype call ring through. Hopefully we'll see another update that sorts this out soon -- till then, tap the link below for more details, or ogle a bit of smoothed out anti-shake action after the break.

Continue reading Skype update for iOS adds anti-shake, Bluetooth connectivity and ads for freeloaders

Skype update for iOS adds anti-shake, Bluetooth connectivity and ads for freeloaders originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Arena &n bsp;|  sourceSkype, iTunes App Store  | Email this | Comments

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drag2share: Motorola Xoom 4G LTE upgrade process begins tomorrow, new tablets on sale October 13th

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/motorola-xoom-4g-lte-upgrade-process-begins-tomorrow-new-tablet/

Verizon's dangled a 4G LTE upgrade carrot in the noses of the Xoom-adopting hordes from the start. Now, it appears the carrier's ready to make good on that promise. Starting tomorrow, current owners of Motorola's Honeycomb tab can visit a dedicated VZW site for a step-by-step guide through the upgrade process. If you were amongst the eager few who signed up for alerts, the company's going to prioritize you and send out a notification via email. The entire swap-out should take up to six business days, returning a freshly enhanced LTE-enabled slate free-of-charge. As for the rest of you Xoom-less onlookers, Big Red's going to be offering up the updated tablets this October 13th for $499 on a new two-year service contract. Jump past the break to parse through the official presser.

Continue reading Motorola Xoom 4G LTE upgrade process begins tomorrow, new tablets on sale October 13th

Motorola Xoom 4G LTE upgrade process begins tomorrow, new tablets on sale October 13th originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: a-JAYS One+ earbuds bring in-line remote, Swedish flair to your smartphone experience

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/a-jays-one-brings-in-line-remote-swedish-flair-to-your-smartph/

JAYS has been dishing out slick looking audio gear for years, but before now it only offered models with inline remotes compatible with iDevices. Good thing the new a-JAYS One+ has arrived to bring some fashion forward 'phones to a bevy of handsets and give Klipsch some competition. The One+ still has tangle-free flat cables, sleek looks, and the matte-black finish you know and love, but it can now control devices from HTC, Samsung, BlackBerry and LG with its one-button inline remote. This is truly an egalitarian set of earbuds, as it works whether your phone's running iOS, Windows Mobile, or Android. Plus, there's a free JAYS Headset Control Android app that brings voice, volume and track controls to your little green bot. It'll be available sometime in Q4 of this year for $50, so peep the PR and the source below to ready yourself for its arrival.

Continue reading a-JAYS One+ earbuds bring in-line remote, Swedish flair to your smartphone experience

a-JAYS One+ earbuds bring in-line remote, Swedish flair to your smartphone experience originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:03:00 EDT. Please ! see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: CHART OF THE DAY: The Incredible Growth Of Amazon's Kindle Book Sales (AMZN)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-amazon-kindle-book-sales-2011-9

During Jeff Bezos' presentation of the new Kindles, he flashed the slide below which shows the phenomenal growth of Amazon's Kindle eBook sales in comparison to physical book sales.

kindle sales

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drag2share: Zeo Mobile turns phones into a sleep clinic, aids in advanced Power Rangers dreaming

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/28/zeo-mobile-turns-phones-into-a-sleep-clinic-aids-in-advanced-po/

Much like hope, love and Coconut M&Ms, sleep is one of those things that is both hard to live with and impossible to live without. But unlike the first three, it's evidently possible to throw math into the whole "shut-eye" thing. Like it's bedside-based older brother, the newly-announced Zeo Mobile includes a SoftWave wireless headband that wraps around your grey matter as you sleep, reporting on how well your brain is shutting down. Instead of the custom base-station, the data is sent straight to your iOS or Android device and syncs up with the Zeo site to give you the inside skinny on your dreaming. Best of all, the device can wake you at the peak of a sleep cycle, rather than halfway through that dream about Björk and the melting clock. Of course, if you didn't already know that mainlining Red Bull until 3am isn't healthy, then perhaps you're beyond redemption.

Zeo Mobile turns phones into a sleep clinic, aids in advanced Power Rangers dreaming originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CNET  |  sourceZeo Mobile  | Email this | Comments

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