IBLOG SPACE

They don’t seem quite as mad as RIM’s co-CEOs were, but Samsung certainly aren’t willing to let Apple have the final say when it comes to antenna testing. Responding to Steve Jobs’ demonstration of an attenuatedOmnia II during the iPhone 4 press conference on Friday, Samsung told the Korea Herald that “reception problems have not happened so far” with their devices, because “our design keeps the [sic] distance between a hand and an antenna.” “The antenna is located at the bottom of the Omnia 2 phone , while iPhone’s antenna is on the lower left side of the device. Our design keeps the distance between a hand and an antenna. We have fully conducted field tests before the rollout of smartphones. Reception problems have not happened so far, and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future” Samsung Jobs alleged that rather than being an iPhone 4 specific problem, the reception issues that have prompted broad criticism of the new fourth-generation smartphone were in fact indi

Sony has confirmed that 3D gaming on the PS3 will be limited to 720p HD, rather than full 1080p HD, by virtue of the nature of the 3D system the company is using. Speaking at the Develop conference, Sony’s Simon Benson said that while 1080p 3D movies would play on the PS3, the need for high framerates – in the region of 60fps – for 3D gaming meant that resolution would have to suffer if gameplay wasn’t to be jerky. Of course, we’d expected something along these lines for some time now, after Sony discussed their 3D systems back in April. Then, they explained how they had retrofitted previous 2D games for 3D use, by either halving the 1080p HD quality – in the case of Wipeout, going roughly from 2D 1080p 60fps to 3D 720p 30fps – or by artificially adding in fake depth information as is done in some 3D films. While those alternative methods that preserve 1080p HD resolution are possible, by making 720p HD a standard in their official guidelines Sony has basically shut the door on high

Not all SSDs are created equal, and ADATA reckon their new S596 Turbo pulls ahead of the crowd by virtue of it being the first to use the JMicron JMF616 controller. That, they reckon, is good for faster data transfer speeds and improved reliability: up to 260MB/s read rates and up to 210MB/s write rates. Four capacities will be available initially – 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB – with each supporting the Windows 7 TRIM command, for reduced boot times, and, at the controller level, static wear-leveling technology. Connectivity includes both SATA II and mini-USB, making the ADATA S596 Turbo suitable for both internal and external use (the former using a 3.5-inch drive bay converter), with a brushed aluminum chassis. No word on pricing at this stage.

Augen ’s oddly named “The Book” ereader has gone on sale, eschewing E Ink in favor of a color LCD display in a Kindle-style casing. Available at kmart in limited numbers for just $89, the ereader runs Linux 2.6.4 on a 400MHz ARM CPU – which means no Android, unlike thePandigital Novel – complete with WiFi b/g, 2GB of flash memory and an SD slot content with cards up to 8GB in size. There’s also apparently a web-browser, text-to-speech engine and a media player for images, audio and video. Augen have been pretty ambitious in their ebook spec support, too; The Book will apparently display TXT, PDF, HTML, CHM, RTF, FB2, EPUB, PRC and MOBI files. Update: The Ebook Reader picked up Augen’s The Book from their local kmart and has already reviewed it; more details after the cut. We’re not expecting great things from the hardware or software, but for the price – down, apparently, from an MRSP of $99.99 – it could be something of a bargain. No sign of the Augen The Book on the kmart site, h

Augen ’s oddly named “The Book” ereader has gone on sale, eschewing E Ink in favor of a color LCD display in a Kindle-style casing. Available at kmart in limited numbers for just $89, the ereader runs Linux 2.6.4 on a 400MHz ARM CPU – which means no Android, unlike thePandigital Novel – complete with WiFi b/g, 2GB of flash memory and an SD slot content with cards up to 8GB in size. There’s also apparently a web-browser, text-to-speech engine and a media player for images, audio and video. Augen have been pretty ambitious in their ebook spec support, too; The Book will apparently display TXT, PDF, HTML, CHM, RTF, FB2, EPUB, PRC and MOBI files. Update: The Ebook Reader picked up Augen’s The Book from their local kmart and has already reviewed it; more details after the cut. We’re not expecting great things from the hardware or software, but for the price – down, apparently, from an MRSP of $99.99 – it could be something of a bargain. No sign of the Augen The Book on the kmart site, h

The six-core Intel Core i7-970 processor we’ve been waiting to hit the Mac Pro has shown up for sale at Newegg, priced at a not-inconsiderable $899.99. That gets you six 3.2GHz cores complete with 12MB of L3 cache, 130W TDP and both a heatsink and fan. Of course, it also supports Intel’s Turbo Boost overclocking technology like its faster – and more expensive – Core i7-980X sibling. Newegg are limiting sales to 10 per customer – do you have $9k lying around to spend on CPUs? – and beyond this we’re not expecting new Core i7 hexacores until sometime in 2011.

ASUS‘ latest 3D-capable display, the ASUS VG236H , has arrived, and it certainly ticks all the right spec sheet boxes. A 23-inch LCD panel supporting Full HD 1080p resolution, the VG236H has a 120Hz refresh speed, 2ms gray-to-gray response time and 400 nits brightness. As for the 3D, the VG236H supports NVIDIA’s 3D Vision system. 3D Vision uses a pair of active shutter glasses and alternate-frame sequencing, and takes advantage of the ASUS monitor’s high refresh rate to avoid dropped frames or jerky images. Connectivity includes dual-link DVI, HDMI and analog component video, and the 3D Vision kit is thrown in the box too. As for the display itself, that has an anti-reflection coating, five preset color modes – gaming, theater, night view, scenery and standard – and both height and swivel adjustment. No word on pricing at this stage. Update: ASUS tell us the VG236H is retailing for £380.36 ($582) in the UK, complete with 3D Vision glasses

Livescribe has outed their latest digital pen, the Livescribe Echo Smartpen , and as well as slimming down from its Pulse predecessor it also has more memory and the addition of social networking support for its recorded notes. Meanwhile, a promised update for this coming fall will bring Paper Tablet, a new feature that turns the Echo into a Wacom-style digital tablet with just a microUSB cable. 4GB and 8GB versions of the Echo are on offer, and as before the stylus records both audio and handwritten notes, linking the two together for easier later recall. The two units can record up to 400 or 800 minutes of audio respectively. A 3.5mm headphone jack adds private review capabilities, while the Livescribe Desktop companion app has also been tweaked. It now gets optional password protection for notes, the ability to name your Smartpen and have that shown on the integrated OLED display, custom notebooks and pencast support. The latter basically involve real-time playback of audio/han

Man’s best friend (and woman’s, too, for that matter) is now their cellphone – dogs are so awfully 20th century – and designer Jeremy Innes-Hopkins‘ Nokia Kinetic concept can even sit up and beg. Intended to make non-audible alerts more noticeable, the Kinetic concept has a curved base and, when the phone rings or a new message comes in, can gradually sit upright to notify you. Innes-Hopkins envisages being able to tap the phone gently to dismiss the incoming call, with the Kinetic then lying back down again. Since it’s a concept there’s obviously no great hardware detail, but he suggests the use of some sort of electromagnet in the base section that we’re guessing could be used to shift the Kinetic’s balance around. It would certainly be a lot easier to spot than a tiny blinking light, and we like the idea of the phone standing up of its own accord for media playback or video calls. Still, with the fashion still for ultra-slim devices, we can’t see the Kinetic’s lumpy bottom fitti

When the iPhone 4 was announced, there were two version: the black model, and the white one. Of course, right at the start people had already made up their minds about which handset they’d be getting their hands on. For many, the white model was the one to own. But, what Apple forgot to mention (or perhaps it hadn’t been known at the time), was that the white version wasn’t actually going to be available at the time of launch. So, people had to wait — not that that made sales suffer, or anything, considering that Steve Jobs today announced the iPhone 4 has launched more than 3 million handsets in just three weeks. And that’s counting the (only) 1.7 percent of devices returned. But, the white version is still coming. It’s not a Unicorn, folks. It’s still coming, and it’s coming at the end of July. Unfortunately, Jobs wasn’t able to give us an exact date, and it’s longer than that “mid-July” launch we had heard before — but at least it’s coming. We’re sure there’s plenty of you out ther

There’s only 20 minutes to go until Apple’s iPhone 4 press conference , and the SlashGear liveblog engine is warmed up and raring to go. Join us at http://live.slashgear.com/ for all the details from Cupertino as they happen. Will Apple give out free Bumper iPhone 4 cases to all current owners, or is there an even more expensive recall planned? Will the white iPhone 4 make its sales debut today? And has Apple quietly beenworking on an internal fix? Find out as we do over at http://live.slashgear.com/!

After speculation earlier this week that the eFuse technology used in their Android handsets could lead to bricked phones, Motorola has spoken out to clarify the purpose – and behavior – of the system. eFuse, the company says, “is not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning, but rather ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and tested versions of software.” To that end, if a third-party ROM is installed the phone will only boot into recovery mode, but original functionality can be restored by replacing it with “approved software”. “Motorola’s primary focus is the security of our end users and protection of their data, while also meeting carrier, partner and legal requirements. The Droid X and a majority of Android consumer devices on the market today have a secured bootloader. In reference specifically to eFuse, the technology is not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning, but rather ensuring for

A solid four months after first seeing thing plastered across half of Las Vegas, Motorola's i1 finally has a date with Sprint. The planet's first Android-equipped smartphone with Nextel Direct Connect will go nationwide on July 25th (via telesales and websites; all other Sprint channels will see it on August 8th), bringing military spec ruggedness, push-to-talk capabilities and a certain ability to withstand all sorts of death grips. Unfortunately, Android 1.5 is a bit of a dinosaur at this point, but it's still a heck of a lot better than that G'zOne Rock you're currently toting. Get ready -- you've got just under a week to scrounge up $149.99 and the nerve to sign another two-year contract.

Shocking as this might sound, there are no only a few games in which iPhone and Android users can go at each other in live multiplayer mode. Exploiting this vast void is Social Gaming Network, whose Skies of Glory aerial dogfighting title has been ported to Android (2.0 and above) while retaining the ability to communicate with iOS devices over WiFi, 3G or Bluetooth connections. Frankly, we can't think of a better game to get the cross-platform multiplayer movement going: fAndroids and iPhoneys gunning each other down while talking smack to themselves should prove therapeutic for both parties. On a more serious note, given the tireless growth that both platforms are showing, this kind of thing should hopefully tend toward being the rule rather than the exception. Update: Our readers have sagely reminded us that Raging Thunder 2 and Homerun Battle 3D have done the cross-platform dance already.

It's been a long road, hasn't it? Well, in some respects, it hasn't -- in fact, it's only been about two years since development of Windows Phone 7 as we know it today kicked off -- but when you consider that this product will be replacing Windows Mobile 6.5, that puts things in proper perspective. In fact, even the very latest maintenance releases of good ol' WinMo are based on the same rickety underpinnings as version 5.0 was way back in 2005, at a time when WVGA smartphone displays were science fiction, 4G networks were a good two Gs beyond the average American's comprehension, and Engadget looked like this. Nowadays, it's a very different game; eight year-olds have access to mobile email, your phone understands German, and "Yelp" is a verb (okay, actually Yelp is a verb). Indeed, mobile devices are the new PCs -- and companies like Apple and Google are dominating an industry that had once been practically handed to Microsoft on a silver platte

Not that Verizon really cared much for it anyway, but according to WMExperts , the carrier is preparing to cease sales of the Microsoft's Kin altogether. As for the fate of the remaining stock, it's apparently being sent back to, well, somewhere. While a few retail stores we called disavowed any knowledge of such a thing, PhoneArena has a supposed internal screenshot that suggests they may soon change their tone. Either way, Verizon's not selling Kin online anymore, that's for sure -- quoth the raven, 404.

Astute reader Dominic was just minding his business, hunting for hints in the Droid Does website source code, when what should he allegedly discover but an entire Droid 2 spread inside a Shockwave Flash file. To our knowledge these may be the first official images of the Motorola A955, though of course we've already seen it anumber of times before. We just need Verizon to leak an official announcement with price and release date now -- we're hearing August 23rd -- and perhaps a nice Hollywood trailer to round things out.

This almost goes without saying, but it's truly been a wild ride for the iPhone 4 over the last three weeks. While most of us will just happily open our hands to Stevie J's freebies, there's one question that's still bugging us: what's actually holding back the white iPhone 4 ? Sure, Apple's now promised us an "end of July" delivery for its latest iTemptation, but it has yet to specify what the manufacturing difficulty is. According to Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald , the problem stems from a little-known Chinese factory by the name of Lens Technology, which is apparently responsible for transforming fine raw glass into the majority of iPhone glass panels out there (and contrary to previous reports, there's no mention of Corning here). Read on to find out what's causing our invisible hero to stall.

We just got some alleged (but very convincing) internal documents on Verizon's 4G plans, and it's mostly stuff we've already heard -- 5-12Mbps down, aircards before smartphones, and plans to roll out in 30 cities in 2010. That said, documents dated this week show the company's still on track to serve up 100 million connections by the end of the year, and a pair of independent tipsters have just sent us pics of Verizon computers ready and waiting for those precious LTE SIM cards. Furthermore, the docs also claim that the planned LTE isn't just fast, it's got a lag-destroying 30ms latency too, and fans of wider wireless computing can expect 4G tablets of some sort in 2011 as well.

If the above picture is to be believed, it looks like Microsoft's Zune Pass is gearing up to make its UK debut. An across-the-pond tipster via LiveSide apparently stumbled upon (and was able to successfully score the 14-day trial) a Subscription page with pricing tiers. In addition to the tryout period, there were also options for a £8.99 (about $13.74) one-month pass and £26.97 / $41.23 for three. Further details are just barely hinted at in the sidebar, but if it's anything like the US progenitor, we're looking at an all-you-can download music service and ten DRM-free MP3s each month, playable on Windows, Xbox 360 (soon), Zune devices (still not available outside US), and Windows Phone 7. We know Microsoft is planning to move its "challenging" music service into every country its phones will venture, but that little tidbit doesn't absolve this image of scrutiny. Try as we might, our UK editors are unable to find this screen anywhere. According to the origi

Sure, the Samsung Vibrant came out three days earlier, but you don't care if T-Mobile customers beat you to the Galaxy S punch -- you're on AT&T, and it's about time you had (another) high-end Android smartphone to call your own. Our recent hands-on showed it was a bit sluggish, so you might want to wait for our full review, but if your heart's set on that 4-inch Super AMOLED screen and 1GHz Hummingbird core, you're only two clicks away from adding the Android 2.1 handset to your virtual shopping cart

Verizon told CNET the company had "done everything possible" to ensure adequate supply of the Droid X , but there's apparently no anticipating the demand for a top-tier smartphone -- like the Droid Incredible before it, the giant 1GHz Motorola handset is already out of stock, both online (today's orders suffer a ten-day delay) and in many brick and mortar stores. Verizon confirmed the shortages in a communique to Android Central , saying the company was pleased with initial sales, and that though they were "successful at keeping up with early demand" supplies are presently "low or out." Tomorrow's just not going to work out, our anti-gravitational friend -- can we take a July 27th raincheck?

Apple's Friday press conference may have left a bad taste in some rival handset manufacturer's mouths, but not all of them are taking Cupertino's derision of their devices seriously -- HTC's Droid Eris was arguably the most affected by the grip of doom, its bars dropping to zilch when held, but the Taiwanese company's keeping any controversial opinions to itself for now. Instead, it's sharing a simple percentage to help clear the air. Whereas Apple claimed over 0.55 percent of customers called AppleCare with reception-related complaints, HTC's Eric Lin told Pocket-lint the Droid Eris technical support rate was 0.016 percent, nearly thirty-four times lower -- though even with a seven-month head start, we have to wonder if the Eris sold close to three million by the time Verizonbrought the axe down.

Everything you know about awkwardly attaching SLR lenses to iPhones is wrong. This is how you do it. What started out as a quick and less-than-perfect mod of OWLE's Bubo iPhone DSLR mount by one Jeremy Salvador (pictured above) has turned into a collaboration between production company Vid-Atlantic and OWLE itself on a more finely tuned, iPhone 4-friendly prototype that delivers some truly impressive results. Sadly, the actual iPhone 4 version of the rig won't be available for a while yet, but you can get an idea of what will be possible with it after the break.

The next member of the Droid family, the Droid X, will be hitting Verizon Wireless stores on Thursday. The Droid X is Motorola’s latest Google Android device, featuring a 4.3-inch screen, 8-megapixel camera, HDMI out put and more (check out our hands-on look at the Droid X video and photocapabilities). The Droid X looks like it will be shipping with Android 2.1, but both Android 2.2 — or Froyo as it is affectionately called — and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 will be available via an over-the-air update later this summer. The original Droid was a huge hit for Verizon and has been the most successful Android device to-date. Since its release last November, many high-end Android-based smartphones have hit the market, including the Nexus One, HTC Incredible, HTC EVO 4G and the Dell Streak. The Droid X will be available for $199 after a $100 mail-in-rebate and a new, two-year contract.