IBLOG SPACE

There are several credit card swiping apps and hardware accessories on the market today. Most of them are made to work with the iPhone, though some will work with the iPad too. A company called ERPY has launched a new credit card reader that works with its processing app that is just for the iPad users. The hardware is slick too and appears to plug into the charge and sync port. The device is called the iPad swiper and it is available now for $50. You have to have an ERPLY account to use the swiper though with prices starting at $70 monthly and going up to $1000 monthly depending on the size. The service price depends on the users, number of locations, and the items in inventory. A free account is offered for sellers with a single user, store, and 1,000 or less items in inventory. The fee for running charges on the system starts at 1.9% and it will work with most major merchant processing solutions. The app also has integrated inventory management, dashboards, and the POS portion works

When my son was an infant, he had the world’s worst colic. The only time he would sleep when he was having a bad bout was in this little chair that vibrated when you wound it up. When the vibration would stop, he cried so we were up winding the seat a lot. Any new parent with a fussy baby knows that you will try anything to calm them down. Many parents find that a drive in the car gets them quieted down. The bad part is that parents aren’t always up for a drive. Ben Heck has come to the rescue with a motion simulator he has built that goes onto a car seat to help the fussy baby get to sleep. Heck used the Google Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK) in the build to create a car seat from a viewer request that simulates the motion of a car seat in the car. The cool part is that the simulator actually captures the feel of the movement of the user’s car and plays it back using simulation. The motion is added to the car seat using test servos. I would have loved to have something li

When I was a kid, all we had were the fat TVs that were stuffed with cathode ray tubes. I can recall my grandmother having a really old TV that you had to turn on and wait until the cathode tubes heated up before you could get the grainy black and white image. With TVs going flat there isn’t much use left for the old cathode ray tube, other than some awesome geekery like Xellers over on Instructables got up to. This dude didn’t just find an old TV and rip a cathode ray tube out, he made his own. He used an old wine bottle and some other parts in the build and offered you the instructions needed to make your own. I wouldn’t call this an easy project by any means, but the process claims to need no specialized tools in the build. I’m not sure what you can do with the finished cathode ray tube when you are done other than look at it. Grab all the steps to make your own along with a parts list on Instructables. The parts that can be purchased at a Home Depot and an AC supply store. Check ou

We all know that support for USB 3.0 on Windows computers today isn’t nearly as wide spread as most of us would like. The main reason for this is that there is still no chipsets with USB 3.0 controllers onboard. The maker of the mainboard has to use a third party chipset to enable USB 3.0 support. Microsoft is now promising that Windows 8 will have robust USB 3.0 support. Microsoft is also showing off the data transfer speeds in a demonstration to tease how much faster file transfers will be. It’s very impressive to see the claimed 10x speed difference between USB 2.0 and 3.0 in the real world. Once Windows 8 rolls around there should be native support for USB 3.0 in chipsets too. To show off the gains for USB 3.0 Microsoft built a new test tool called Microsoft USB Test Tool or MUTT with 1,000 different USB devices on a single flash drive. Check out the video at the end of the post to see some of the USB 3.0 demonstrations from Microsoft in action. Microsoft’s Windows chief Steven Sin

Microsoft has filed a patent infringement suit against Motorola Mobility for infringing on Microsoft patents that cover Android. The purchase of Motorola Mobility by Google was only recently announced and part of the reason that Google bought Motorola Mobility was to keep Microsoft from getting hands on 18 of the key Android patentsthat Motorola Mobility owns. Microsoft claims that Motorola Mobility is infringing on seven patents that it holds relating to Android. Microsoft wants to ban the import to the US of seven Motorola Android smartphones including the Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq XT, Devour, Backflip and Charm. Microsoft’s deputy general counsel David Howard said that it has a responsibility to safeguard its IP. As patent cases generally go, Motorola has said that it filed its own patent infringement case against Microsoft in the US and Europe to address the “large-scale infringement” of Microsoft onto Motorola Mobility patents. Microsoft is alleging in part that Motorola is infringin

According to Reuters, the Asian suppliers to Apple are gearing up to begin production of a new and cheaper iPhone 4 smartphone. The new smartphone can reportedly be sold for less money because it will use 8GB of storage. That storage chip is supposedly being made by a Korean firm. While flash storage and Korea immediately brings Samsung to mind, neither Apple nor Samsung have commented. Currently the flash storage in the iPhone comes from Samsung and Toshiba. Right now, the 16GB iPhone 4 is the smallest version of the device. Along with the tips about the cheaper iPhone 4 also comes more talk about the iPhone 5 launching in September. The iPhone 5 reportedly has a larger screen, 8MP camera and a better antenna according to the sources. The iPhone 5 is reportedly being made by Hon Hai and Pegatron with 45 million units expected to be produced between the two. Some think that even an 8GB iPhone 4 will not be able to be sold at a low enough price to work in the emerging markets around the

The Samsung N100 netbook has been known about for while now. The netbook is a little offering that will run the Meego OS rather than Windows. Those that were interested in the N100 for a hardware standpoint, but didn’t like the idea of Meego will want to check out the Samsung N102. This tablet is a clone of the N100 with the key difference that the N102 runs Windows 7 starter. Both of the machines run the same Atom N435 processor and sport 10.1-inch displays. The price for the N100 has been reported at about $200 here in the US by Russian and Indian websites. The official price for Europe or the US hasn’t been offered. The N435 processor operates at 1.33GHz. The screen for the machines is a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 resolution offering. It has anti-glare coating, which is a very nice thing to have if you work in a room with lights on or outdoors. Graphics for both machines is via Intel GMA integrated. Storage is to a 250GB 5400 rpm HDD. Other features include a 3-cell battery, 1GB of RAM, a

We have talked on a few occasions about the Fossil Meta Watch and it was expected to ship back in May. The watch never shipped and now the Meta Watch has been hit with another delay. Fossil has announced that the watch has had a “few production related hiccups.” The watch is going to come in a full digital version and a version with analog and digital elements. Fossil has at least offered up details on what is holding the watch up. It claims that there was an issue with the watch programming chip that caused intermittent issues with USB connections. The programming clip is the part that connected the USB cable to the back of the case. The issue with the clip was severe enough that Fossil notes it had to take all the clips apart, re-flash them, test, and then reassemble. The analog watch also had an issue with the quality on the black plating on the steel. Fossil reports that the watch was set to ship to Hong Kong on August 31 and those will now be shipped on September 2. An exact shi

If you have an Acer Iconia Tab A500 or A501 tablet that launched with Android 3.0 Honeycomb onboard an update should be landing soon that will take the tablet to the latest version of Android. The update brings the A500 or A501 to Android 3.2. The update is supposedly rolling out as we speak in Poland. If you have one of these tablets in the US or other countries and have been able to download the update let us know. The update is supposed to be rolling out OTA. The new update adds the same features to the A500 that Android 3.2 will bring to other devices with the ability to scale apps made for smaller screens to take up the entire 10.1-inch screen of the A500. The zoom feature uses pixel scaling. The app will also speed the tablet overall and allow the synchronizing of media from the SD card. Sister site Android Community reviewed the Iconia Tab A500 back in April and liked it well enough. The tablet has a 10.1-inch screen, uses the NVIDIA Tegra 250 Cortex A9 processor, and has front

Many of the car companies in the US have been selling 2012 models for half a year already despite the fact that we still have a quarter to go in 2011. Mercedes is offering at least one of its 2012 models in the proper calendar year with the sweet new Mercedes SLK55 AMG two-seater not showing up in the US until early 2012. The little AMG has impressive performance and looks good too. The SLK55 AMG has a 5.5-liter V8 engine that has cylinder shut off tech to improve fuel economy. The engine is rated for 415 hp and has 398 lb-ft of torque. The car also gets a special AMG suspension to help the car handle better and a high-performance brake system to help the car stop. Mercedes clams that the car can hit 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and has an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph. The cylinder shut off system will turn the two, three, five, and eight cylinders under partial load to lower fuel use. Mercedes says that this same sort of tech is used in its formula one engines. The engine also

Home entertainment can be difficult: do you invite dozens of speakers into your living room in the quest for perfect sound, or opt for a one- or two-box setup and maybe sacrifice some quality for simplicity? UK firmOrbitsound claims to have the compromise, with its T12v3 soundbar using a clever, patented system to create stereo sound with room-wide sweet spot. It’s the holy grail of home entertainment, but does it really work? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut. Hardware

It’s time for a very brief history lesson since this story affords us a brief look at a politically charged situation we generally otherwise wouldn’t be taking a look at here on a tech and gadget oriented publication. The situation is the Libyan rebels are advancing on Libya’s 40 year leader Muammar Gaddafi. This fellow took power back in 1969 with a group that staged a bloodless coup during which Tripoli, Libya’s largest city and capitol, had it’s most famous square, constructed by Italian colonial rulers and called “Independence Square” during the post-WWII Libyan monarchy. Soon after Gadaffi took power, he and his regime renamed the area “Green Square” and it’s been that way for just about 42 years – until today.

While Blu-ray has been out for quite a while now, we’re still seeing businesses across the board continue to release videos on both the newest high quality medium AND the slightly older and lower quality plain ol’ DVD format. Believe it or not, there are quite a few people on the planet still having yet to switch over to the Blu-ray world for more than a couple of reasons – the continued production of DVDs being one of them. What Pioneer is doing here today is making quite a grand swipe at making us want to switch over with four, count them, FOUR new 5.1 Blu-ray home cinema systems. Each of these systems is different but the same, if you get my drift, each one prepared for a different cinema experience seeker. There’s two slightly more expensive flagship systems called BCS-717 and BCS-414. These systems consist of four large and tall speakers with a separate center speaker as well as a slim subwoofer. The other two systems are slightly less expensive, called BCS-313 and BCS-212 they us

We got our first official glimpse of the Sony VAIO Z Series back on June 28th, a look that revealed this to be Sony’s lightest and most portable effort to date. This 13.1-inch 1600 x 900 notebook runs up to a Core i7-2620M 2.7GHz and weighs just under 1.2kg, all of this available for around $2,286 on pre-order, this magnificent laptop will be hitting doorsteps starting this week! What Sony has for us now is no less than a VAIO Z series laptop torn down and put back together before our eyes by an official Sony engineer! What you’re about to see is Sony engineer Shinji Oguchi’s teardown of the laptop he certainly helped create. Sony lets us know that this is also Oguchi’s first visit to the United States as well as the SGNL by Sony studio. In addition to both the teardown and the put back together videos Sony is giving away a free upgrade to full HD display on models ordered now through 3/31/2011 – all you’ve got to do is select “13.1 LED backlit Full HD display (1920×1080)” while you’re

The HP Pre 3 launched early last week in Europe as HP’s first major webOS flagship phone, but it was received with very little fanfare. And before it even had a chance to arrive stateside, plans for the device in the US are now axed following Thursday’s surprising announcement that HP will be discontinuing all webOS hardware. The Pre 3 was to be one of two webOS smartphones from HP, the other being the pint-sized Veer. It sports a form factor similar to its Palm Pre and Pre 2 predecessors with a vertical slide-out QWERTY keyboard that’s also the largest of the Pre series. It has a 3.6-inch 480×800 display, a 5-megapixel camera, front-facing VGA camera, and a 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor. In Europe it’s currently retailing for 349 euros ($505) in France and 299 pounds ($490) in the UK. But much like the fire sale for the HP TouchPad, the Pre 3 is set to get a tremendous discount. The unlocked version will go on sale for $75 unlocked, although exactly when the sale will kick off has not yet

We’ve certainly seen this device before a few times: in a video, with a couple of battery grip photos, and in sometiny preview images. Today we get our best look yet at Sony’s brand new 24-megapixel with two-way swivel display on the back and that big bright red “a” staring you down in the front. It’s lovely, it’s beautiful, it’s ready for action, and we’ve got the most updated specs right here, right now.

You would think that HP’s announcement of discontinuing webOS hardware would spawn a mob of angry early adopters requesting refunds, but it’s been quite the contrary. HP’s TouchPad tablet has now soared to the number one spot on top of Amazon’s bestselling list, where the tablet is on sale at a price after the recent $100 cut. After HP’s announcement last Thursday, a fire sale ensued with HP practically giving away the 16GB TouchPad at a price of only $99 and the 32GB model at $149. Those prices make the tablet cheaper than even e-readers. Retailers that followed suit included Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, and Walmart. But that sale ended over the weekend and Amazon did not partake in it. Instead, Amazon is listing the 16GB HP TouchPad at its regular $399 price and the 32GB model at $495.99. Third-party vendors on Amazon, however, are offering better prices, as low as $193.99 for the 16GB model. Still, it’s interesting how sudden the tablet has hit the top spot, being only its first

Ford and Toyota have jointly announced a new collaboration effort to develop a hybrid system for rear-wheel-drive light trucks and SUVs. The two companies also intend on establishing next-generation standards for in-car telematics, which is the fusing of telecommunications and information technologies in vehicles. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been signed by the two companies with a formal agreement expected next year. The joint development is aimed at delivering greater fuel efficiency while still providing customers the performance they need. The companies believe that by working together, they can bring these hybrid technologies to customers more quickly and affordably than they would separately. Additionally, Ford and Toyota will establish standards and technologies required for a safer and more convenient in-car experience. However, the collaboration is only on the standards and technologies as the two companies will develop their own in-car products and features separat

Straight from the horses mouth – the one that lives in Japan and isn’t exactly officially connected with Apple in any way, thusly a whole different breed, as it were, comes word that Apple will be releasing a Mac that’s “absolutely different from current products.” The source for this information is a group that also successfully predicted the March release of the iPad 2. What we’re expecting is that IF a whole new product is released, it could be a touch-central desktop computer to make use of the newest Mac OS Lion’s ability to push and pull in all directions for gesture-based action all day long. The report here suggests that this new product to be released before the end of 2011 will be so very different from products of the past that it’ll be given a whole new name. Will there be an “i” in it? Will it be a Mac? Perhaps it’ll be an inductive charging tower better than any we’ve seen in the past, ready and willing to work with the iPhone 5! Maybe it’s something that’ll allow all fut

Verizon has been rapidly expanding its 4G LTE network coverage with the next major roll-out scheduled for September 15, less than a month after its August 18 expansion. The carrier plans to cover its entire 3G network with 4G by 2013 with at least 175 markets by year-end. This next batch of markets cover mostly the northern and midwestern US regions. The new markets will include: San Luis Obispo county with areas like downtown San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, Paso Robles, Templeton, Atascadero, and Grover Beach, California; Santa Barbara county with areas like downtown Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Orcutt, Los Alamos, Buelton, Solvang, Goleta, Summerland, and Carpentaria; Bloomington/Normal, Champain/Urbana, Rockford, Springfield, Moline, and Rock Island in Illinois; Iowa City, Davenport, and Bettendorf in Iowa City; Shreveport, Benton, Wallace Lake, Greenwood, and Eastwood in Louisiana; Moorhead in Minneapolis; Reno, Carson City, and Virginia City in Nevada; Fargo in North Dakota; Canton, L

The folks at HP have certainly picked up a whole lotta press over the past few days, and not always for the most positive reasons mostly due to the unsure future of the mobile and/or PC pieces of HP, but one thing remains clear: the HP PCs that are already made right this moment are popular for a reason, that reason being thatthey’re awesome. What HP is presenting today is the HP Compaq 8200 Elite All-in-One PC, an Intel® 2nd generation Core vPro processor toting space-saving Windows 7 machine made for the full home computing experience. This PC features a brand new Blu-ray / DVD Writer Drive and a 6-in-1 Media Card Reader for plugging in your camera’s contents. You’ll be able to expand your memory with the latest DDR3 SDRAM up to 8 GB, work with Intel vPro technology with HP 802.11 a/b/g/n Wireless LAN connectivity, and HP Keyed Cable Lock support for security right alongside an on board TPM 1.2 embedded security chip – lock it up tight! You’ll be rolling out with a 23-inch diagonal L

The people at Sharp have announced a brand new 7-inch Android tablet that will be launched in Japan complete with an NFC interface for commercial interactions. This Android tablet will only support Japanese FeliCa cards at the start, but we can expect additional card support in the near future. This Sharp RW-T107 unit will be able to be used in stores to read membership cards, IDs, loyalty cards, and more – get some coupons to grab some awesome cheap food and such! As far as I can tell, and correct me if I’m wrong, but this may well be the first NFC-enabled tablet anywhere in the world. Likely this is because bringing a tablet into a store with you isn’t nearly as convenient as bringing in a smartphone, and likely if you’ve got a tablet you’ve got a smartphone in your pocket and if you’re in Japan, likely your smartphone has NFC capabilities built in as well. Sharp has released several Android tablets before this, not being a group that waits for updates to OS versions, all of them run

Symbian fans rejoice as it looks like the next iteration dubbed Symbian Belle is only two days away from an official unveiling. Nokia has posted a teaser to its Facebook page in the form of a countdown. As of this writing, there is about 43 more hours left until it’s time to try “something new on Symbian,” pegging the special day to be August 24. Symbian Belle follows the Anna update that was released on the X7 and the E6 just a few months ago. Anna has also just been rolled out this month for the N8, C7, E7, and C6-01. It’s successor Belle already has its own roster of rumored devices including the Nokia 700 Zeta and several female-named handsets. Belle is expected to have features that bring it closer to Android and iOS 5 in terms of notifications and app switching. Back in July, it was rumored that Belle could take on a MeeGo-Harmattan style swipe interface as recently revealed on the N9 handset. Some of the services still branded under Ovi may also be switched to more direct names

Sony Ericsson has unveiled a new Android smartphone with Walkman branding that touts unique music-centric features. Dubbed the Live with Walkman, the handset will feature a dedicated Walkman button for quick access to your music. But, it’s different from previous Walkman-branded devices in that it also features deep Facebook integration for music sharing and discovering. The Live with Walkman will sport a 3.2-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen display powered by a single-core 1GHz processor with 380MB of RAM. It will have a front-facing VGA camera for Skype video calling, a 5-megapixel rear-facing auto-focus camera capable of 720p HD video recording, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, DLNA, and Sony’s xLOUD system for enhanced audio output. Additionally, the handset will have deep integration with Sony’s Qriocity for music content. However, it’s interesting to note that the press image above shows the device playing music through Spotify, which makes us wonder whether the music service would also come prel

According to research firm NPD, Android maintains the lead for Q2 2011 with a US smartphone market share of 52 percent. It’s not surprising since the platform has been on top for the past several months with plenty of manufacturer support from Samsung, LG, HTC, and Motorola. Back in July, it was even reported that Google activates on average 550,000 new Android devices daily. Apple’s iOS trails behind in second place with a 29 percent market share after a slight quarterly gain, while RIM’s BlackBerry OS share fell to 11 percent. Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile, and the now defunct webOS remained steady at less than 5 percent market share each. Although Android momentum is going strong, fragmentation issues continue to plague the platform as its device makers are in heated competition to differentiate. Motorola, which has perhaps been around the longest in the mobile space, has now become the weakest of the bunch, having seen an overall mobile phone market share drop to 9 percent. Its s

Best Buy is offering a free iPhone 3GS if you sign-up for a new 2-year contract with AT&T. The deal is only good for the 8GB model and is available for today through Best Buy retail stores or Best Buy Mobile. If you have to equip your teens with mobile phones but they’re pining for an iPhone, now may be the best time. The iPhone 3GS is listed on Best Buy as having a regular retail price of $499.99, but that price has long been knocked down. Typically the handset retails for $49.99 on contract. A $50 savings still isn’t too shabby and this deal is certainly meant to clear up space for the upcoming iPhone 5 running iOS 5. The iPhone 3GS will be the oldest Apple handset to still support iOS 5. In preparation for the iPhone 5, the iPhone 4 has also seen price cuts in recent weeks at various retail outlets, including RadioShack and Target. The iPhone 5, originally speculated for a September release, is now believed to arrive sometime in the first two weeks of October with pre-orders pos

AMD announced today that it’s releasing updated versions of its award-winning C and E series APUs (Accelerated Processing Units). These APUs are advanced hybrids of CPUs and GPUs that packs in plenty of graphics and processing power into an efficient and space-saving chip to power mobile computing devices such as laptops and netbooks. The updated C and E series APUs will deliver enhanced HD graphics capabilities, performance boosts with enhanced memory, DisplayPort++ support for connecting to any HDMI or DisplayPort-enabled monitor or TV, and an extended battery life. The C series now has a resting battery life of up to 12 hours, while the E series is now up to 10.5 hours. The updated E series will also feature DDR3 1333 support for enhanced memory bandwidth as well as faster performance and video playback. Additionally, it will support HDMI 1.4a connections, which allows for viewing 3D pictures and home video on 3D-enabled TVs and displays. Notebooks, netbooks, and other small form fa

Google has openly accused rivals, such as Microsoft, of launching an unfair patent war against the Android platform and its partners. Hence, Google’s $12.5 billion bid for Motorola Mobility is seen as a defensive maneuver to secure the phone maker’s 17,000 patents and an additional 7,500 patents pending. But of that massive portfolio, only about 18 will be key to Google defending the Android platform, according to patent lawyer David Mixon, who spoke with Bloomberg. Mixon, a patent lawyer at Bradley Arant Bout Cummings in Huntsville, Alabama, says that Motorola has 18 key patents that cover technology essential to the mobile device industry. They include antenna designs, email transmissions, location services, software-application management, 3G wireless, and touchscreen motions. “Any patent owner, before they consider litigation is going to carefully evaluate their patents to withstand an attack. You don’t want to hold any back. You want to pick your strongest patents,” said Mixon in

For the first time, Apple’s sales in greater China have surpassed that of Lenovo, which has been a reigning heavyweight in the region and has also been hailed the fastest growing company in the PC industry for the past seven quarters. Although analysts have been suspecting that Apple’s sales would overtake Lenovo in China, it wasn’t until Q2 2011 reports were confirmed for both companies that revealed this to indeed be the case. Lenovo continued its fast-paced growth, experiencing a year-over-year growth of 23.4% in China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, with sales totaling $2.8 billion in Q2. However, Apple’s growth was even more tremendous with a sixfold increase since the previous quarter last year reaching a total sales of $3.8 billion. Strong demand of iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers boosted Apple’s Q2 sales as Lenovo’s Android-based LePad tablet and smartphone lineup didn’t perform as well. The iPad 2 was reportedly sold out in China in less than four hours—pictured above is th

Amazon has just registered a new domain name over the weekend that has spawned new speculation of interesting developments ahead for its Kindle e-reader. The KindleScribe.com domain was registered by Amazon.com Holdings on August 20 along with KindleScribes.com for good measure. Both domains have yet to resolve to a landing page that could provide any hints, but the name does bring some excitement. There are already plenty of rumors surrounding Amazon’s next Kindle successor with Amazon’s last domain registration for KindleAir.com. But this new domain registration is more telling and could be a sign of a neat new feature. Perhaps, the next Kindle will be paired with a stylus to incorporate note-taking capabilities on its e-ink display. This could come in especially handy for students if, for instance, the feature lets users markup pages in a digital textbook. Pictured above is the NoteSlate concept tablet we saw earlier this year and it’d be awesome if the next-gen Kindle went a simila