IBLOG SPACE

Following Steve Jobs’ resignation yesterday, new CEO Tim Cook has sent out a company-wide email this morning to reassure Apple employees that nothing will change. Cook expresses his optimism for Apple’s bright future and his confidence that the “best years lie ahead.” Cook also wrote that the opportunity to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years has been the “privilege of a lifetime.” He reminds everyone that Jobs will remain with Apple as Chairman and will continue to give guidance and inspiration. The full text from the email is below: Team: I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I’ve ever made and it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve’s optimism for Apple’s bright future. Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking

LG has shown off a new mouse prototype that will come to market eventually called the LSM-100. The cool part about this mouse is that it can do more than one thing. The little mouse can also be used as a scanner and a pointing device. The laser sensor inside the mouse used to move the cursor around is also able to be used as a scanner sensor to scan pages up to A3 size. Generally, a scanner has a sensor as wide as a page, how exactly you would use the mouse in this system is unknown. It appears that the user would have to swipe the mouse around the page on their own manually. The mouse has been tweaked to allow for faster pass rates too. The scanner can grab color images and saves the scans as photos. It can also save the scans as PDF and other text document files. The mouse has optical character recognition tech inside. The prototype of this mouse was shown off at CES this year. The mouse will launch in Europe at the end of August for about $150. A global launch is expected as well.

RIM’s rumored BlackBerry music streaming service has officially launched. The details are much like we suspected last week, when insiders revealed that RIM was near signing all four major record label companies. The service offers an odd twist on music sharing and discovery that could either help spread usage or make it a huge flop. The music service utilizes RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger to help spread the word and to create shared music networks. You can build a personal music profile with 50 of your favorite songs and then invite your BBM friends to join your music network. Each additional user can contribute up to 50 of their favorite songs to the shared pool of music and thereby increase the amount of music accessible to everyone on the network. In this way, the music experiencing becomes truly social, as the more friends you have the more songs you have access to. You can comment on your friends’ songs and playlists and you can create multiple playlists from music in your own profil

Both of my kids have bikes that they ride regularly. The problem is if either of them goes a day or so without riding the bikes the tires are flat. For some reason the bike pump is a very elusive item at my house so getting tires filled up is a pain for me. A new design concept is up to get funding on Kickstarter looking to bring new tires for bikes to market called the PumpTire. These tires will never need to be pumped according to the designers. The PumpTire would come in two styles called the City Cruiser and the City Pro. The City Cruiser is a tire made for bike commuters and the City Pro is a performance-oriented tire for riders. The design of the PumpTire allows air to pass from the tire to the inner tube. The valve stem is special and would allow the rider to set the pressure they want to the tires at and riding would keep them inflated. The valve assembly screws in or out to keep the pressure at the level desired. The stems can also be preset at a specific pressure as well and

I have seen some photos before of the inside of military armored personnel vehicles that are used to keep the people inside safe while in transit. They are generally dark and have nothing more than a web of straps for seats. The Chinese on the other hand have an APC that is used for things like riot control by the police that looks downright inviting compared to the military versions. The vehicle is made by Polytech and is called the YLGA01. It has four wheels on each side and includes some nice features on the inside that will make long missions more comfortable, the vehicle has air conditioning and a water cooler. It looks like that water cooler may have hot water too making it perfect for cooking up noodles. The vehicle is aimed at police use and has carpeting inside and the seats even appear to be comfortable. If the people are supposed to stay inside for long periods it seems they would need a place to sleep and a bathroom. Maybe they are supposed to use bottles for bathrooms.

For a long time now, the Russians have been using an unmanned resupply vehicle called Progress to resupply the ISS. This week the Progress was launched to head to the ISS with supplies for the astronauts working on the station. The vessel was apparently loaded with three tons of supplies. The rocket used to shoot the Progress M-12M vessel into orbit had a failure the resulted in the Progress not making it to orbit. According to reports 320 seconds into the flight the third stage of the propulsion rocket shut down early resulting in the Progress not being inserted correctly into orbit. This caused the supply vessel to plummet back to Earth. Officials are reporting that the Progress crashed on land near the Altai province in Russia and there were reports in the area of a loud explosion and some windows were reportedly blown out. The ISS has enough supplies so there is no danger to the astronauts on the station at this time. The crash site for the Progress is 1,500km northeast of the laun

I have been on DirecTV for years now because my neighborhood has the worst cable company on Earth. I have had DVRs the entire time I have been on the service and I have always liked the DVRs with a few quibbles. DirecTV has been talking about launching TiVo DVRs for years, but that has never happened. The launch day is now close though so DirecTV fans that want TiVo will be able to get one possibly as soon as next month. Originally, the TiVo HD DVR for DirecTV was expected in 2009, but it never came to be. Sadly, the DVR that is coming next month sounds like it is packing tech from 2009. The DVR will reportedly be using the older DirecTV HR22-100 hardware and will use the old TiVo interface as well. The real deal killer for DVR fans on DirecTV is that the TiVo DVR will not be able to be used in the whole home DVR system. The TiVo box is said to be unable to stream programming to other DirecTV DVRs on the same network. The existing DirecTV DVRs will also not be able to stream to the TiV

Vacuuming really sucks. It’s no fun and I think if most of us could find a way to get out of vacuuming the floors at home we would. There are a few robot vacuums on the market already with Roomba being the most common. Toshiba has announced a new robot vacuum for Japan called the Smarbo and it’s aimed at home users. The robot has some interesting features and one of the coolest is that it has two CPUs. There are no details on those processors right now. The Smarbo for Japan also has a camera and 38 different sensors. The sensors include a gyro, accelerometer, and range detection. The bot is able to clean floors in a 100 square meter section in about 90 minutes. All the sensors allow the Smarbo to avoid all the obstacles in its path and find the charge station when it’s done. The vacuum also has a spot mode that when activated has the bot cleaning in a 1.5m square circle. The vacuum includes a remote control for operating it for across the room. Smarbo measures 355x355x93mm and weighs 3

Former Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson has suggested that the Pakistan Cricket Board should replace the outgoing coach Waqar Younis with a foreigner, free from the influence of Pakistan's domestic politics. "I said it when I left as well, Pakistan need a foreign coach," Lawson, who was sacked as Pakistan coach in 2008, told the  Express Tribune  from Australia. "Whether you come from Karachi or Lahore, the pressure on you from external sources doesn't let you do the work properly. "A foreign coach won't have that excess baggage. He won't worry about politics but will just concentrate on making the best team he can. In my time, language wasn't a problem. The common language was cricket and that's all they had to understand." Lawson, who currently coaches the Kochi franchise in the IPL, stressed that the language barrier wouldn't be a problem for a foreign coach. "In my Kochi team, some players don't speak Hindi so they communica

Sri Lanka's attack has been given a major overhaul ahead of the first Test against Australia, with the uncapped Shaminda Eranga and Seekkuge Prasannaamong those vying for a position. The Sri Lankans have named a 16-man squad for the Test series, which begins in Galle next Wednesday, and there was no room for Thisara Perera. Also missing from the group that toured England was Dilhara Fernando, Farveez Maharoof and the batsman Dinesh Chandimal, who is playing for the Sri Lanka Board XI in the ongoing tour match in Colombo. Angelo Mathews is back in the Test squad, while there was also a spot for the opener Lahiru Thirimanne, who replaced the injured captain Tillakaratne Dilshan in the third Test in England. The Australians are pleased Lasith Malinga no longer plays Test cricket, but they know they will have to respect the new fast man Eranga, who showed great promise in the limited-overs series. The nippy Eranga, 25, debuted in the third game in Hambantota and can already claim Rick

Ricky Ponting has said that he encouraged Rahul Dravid to fight through his struggles and continue playing when their sides met in the two-Test series in India last October. Dravid was going through a lean patch at the time - his only century in 2010 up till then had been against Bangladesh and he managed just one half-century during the series against Australia - but Ponting said he urged Dravid to ignore critics who wrote him off. "I remember after our last series in India there was a lot of talk and speculation about Dravid being finished," Ponting told  ESPNcricinfo . "I actually went and found him at the end of the series and said 'don't you even think about retiring' because I just saw some stuff in a few of his innings that suggested he was still a very, very good player. I just said 'don't let them wear you down, don't let them get you down'. I received a similar text message before and after the Ashes from him as well." After th

A two-judge bench of India's Supreme Court has asked former BCCI president AC Muthiah to approach the Chief Justice of India over his petition to stop the board's president-elect N Srinivasan from officially taking over as president at next month's annual general meeting. According to  PTI , Muthiah's petition is based on the grounds that in April, a two-judge bench returned a split verdict on whether there was a conflict of interest concerning Srinivasan's ownership of the Chennai Super Kings while being an office bearer of the board. The verdict meant the case had to be referred to a larger bench, and Muthiah contended that since it was yet to come up for hearing, it would be inappropriate to continue allowing Srinivasan to discharge his duties as an office bearer. "This Hon'ble Court may be pleased to grant an order of interim injunction restraining the second respondent [Srinivasan] from functioning as the Secretary of the first respondent BCCI or assu

Keith Bradshaw, the former Tasmania cricketer who became the first Australian secretary and chief executive of MCC, has announced he will be returning home for personal reasons after almost five years in the job. Bradshaw, who became the club's 14th secretary when he joined in October 2006, played a key role in transforming the reputation of MCC, and on his watch the club has become one of the most progressive voices in world cricket. Key initiatives have included the promotion of floodlit first-class cricket, through the development of a revolutionary pink ball that can be sighted against the night sky. The traditional curtain-raiser to the English season, MCC v Champion County, was in 2010 moved from Lord's to Abu Dhabi to help test the concept in a competitive environment. In addition, the MCC Spirit of Cricket message has been widely promoted around the world - through a partnership with the Indian Premier League, as well as MCC's first sponsorship of international cri

There are two Anglo-Irish sporting fixtures in Dublin over the next few days and it's safe to say the rugby clash at the weekend will have the nation more hooked than the cricket match at Clontarf on Thursday. However, that shouldn't diminish the significance of the latter contest, given the recent history between the two teams, the growth in popularity of cricket in Ireland and the added twist that both sides will be captained by Irishmen. Eoin Morgan, who is making his England captaincy debut against the country he represented 23 times at ODI level, has known William Porterfield since the pair were ten but the friendship, which remains strong, will be pushed to one side from the moment the coin is tossed (at 10.15am, because England fly out the same evening). Both players, unsurprisingly, played down the significance of the event but it adds another level of spice to an occasion that is already developing the lively history that typifies sporting contests between the two cou

Back during CES in January Parrot unveiled a new car radio that was powered by Android and had the ability to connect to the web and run apps. The radio was called the Parrot Asteroid and at the time it debuted, some of the details like when you could buy and what it would cost were unknown. Parrot has now announced that the Asteroid will be landing in October and the single DIN car stereo will set you back a bit under $350. The price is not as bad as I though it would be honestly. The car radio will connect to the internet using WiFi from a hotspot, your mobile phone, or a USB dongle plugged into the back of the radio. With that web connectivity the Asteroid will allow apps made for the system to access mapping data and a lot more. The radio also has a FM tuner inside and will play music from apps too. The screen on the device is 3.2-inches and you can see album art on it, maps, and all sorts of other stuff. The Asteroid will land with six apps for navigation, music, and reading and c

Today the folks at NVIDIA have announced officially their web-based version of NVIDIA Tegra Zone, a Tegra 2 dual-core tablet and super phone processor specific portal for apps, news, and news about apps. The apps you’re going to be seeing here, as shown in our full review of mobile app version of the market, are on the whole available for NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor toting devices exclusively, and with this web-based addition to this ecosystem, the Tegra Zone becomes just as versatile as the Android Marketplace itself – or certainly close to it. It’s like a guide for ultimate dual-core wins.

Sony Ericsson has made a couple important announcements today. The first of the announcements is the unveiling of a new smartphone that will be coming in Q4 of 2011 to select markets. What those select markets are isn’t known. The smartphone is called the Xperia neo V and it has some nice features like Android 2.3.4 out of the box and a 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8255 processor. The rear camera of the device is 5MP with autofocus, 720p recording and more. The camera will also have a 3D sweep panorama feature and will have 16x digital zoom and geotagging along with lots more automated features. A front facing camera for video chats is integrated and the phone has HDMI output too. The screen is a 3.7-inch TFT Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine. Sony Ericsson’s other announcement is that the Android 2.3.4 update will be coming to its entire 2011 smartphone range. The update is set to land in October for certain markets. The update will add the 3D sweep panorama mode, Facebook Inside Xperia

Logitech is huge in the peripheral and accessory market for computers and tablets among the things. The company unveiled a new speaker specifically designed for the iPad not long ago called the Tablet Speaker. Logitech is back with another new accessory specifically for the iPad 2. The new accessory is called theLogitech Fold-Up Keyboard and it also has a case to protect your tablet and props the tablet up for easier viewing. The coolest part about the new case is that the keyboard isn’t limited in size to the relatively little space available directly under the iPad 2. The keyboard is a full size offering that folds up to hide under the tablet. That allows the Fold-Up keyboard to be no larger than the iPad 2 when not needed and then be big enough for easy typing. The keyboard connects to the iPad 2 via Bluetooth and runs on an internal battery. The keyboard automatically wakes when it is unfolded making it ready to use automatically. When you fold the keyboard, it turns off and chargi

There are a several applications on the iPad and iPhone that allow the user to draw on images and to create original drawings using the touchscreen devices. Ten One design has offered a case with an attached iPad capacitive stylus before. The company is now back with a new capacitive stylus that is designed to be like a paintbrush for artists that like to draw digitally. The stylus is called the Pogo Sketch Pro. Where the original capacitive stylus for the iPad and iPhone were small and made for portability, the Sketch Pro is a longer fully sized stylus with a broader tip that looks like a paintbrush. The stylus has a ergonomic grip that tapers and has a unibody aluminum handle. The tip is the stylus is designed for sensitivity and precision. The lower end of the stylus near the tip is rubberized for grip and control. The Pogo Sketch Pro is also weighted for long-term comfortable use. The Sketch Pro will ship in October for $24.95. The stylus will also have replaceable tips allowing it

Over the last month or so there have been a slew of domain name registrations by Amazon using a proxy service that hint at the possible names for future products in the Kindle family. The first of the domains to be registered was KindleAir.com hinting at a thin and light eReader from Amazon. That domain was registered back in early August. The next domain to be registered was KindleWave.com. Now reports are coming in that Amazon has registered other domain names that relate to elements. Fusible did some searching around and has reportedly discovered that the next line of Kindles will be named after elements like Earth, Air, and Water. The publication’s searches found that the domain names KindleEarth.com and KindleWater.com were registered on July 6. Both of those domains were registered via Go Daddy and hidden behind the Domains by Proxy service. However, the publication was able to reveal that Amazon owns the domains by tricking the Go Daddy public account retrieval system. The fooli

Hercules has a bunch of different computer accessories and other gear. It has been a while since we talked about the company and the last time we did was back when the firm unveiled the eCafe EC-1000W netbook. This time Hercules is talking up the new line of speakers that it has for notebooks and netbooks for the fall and winter. In all, there are five new sets of speakers coming to market from Hercules. The first is the XPS 2.0 10 and 2.1 20 Arc White speakers. These are made in an arching style and the only difference between the two sets is that the 2.1 has a subwoofer included. The 2.1 set will cost $34.99 and the 2.0 set will sell for $29.99. The Hercules XPS Sound Bar is a speaker that uses the USB port for connectivity and is made to clip onto the screen of a netbook or notebook. It will ship soon for $49.99. The final set of speakers is the XPS 2.0 40 and 2.1 40 Slim. These are thin speakers offered in 2.0 and 2.1 kits with a black and white finish. The speakers look very nice

If you have a home audio system that you want to stream the music from your computer to, playGo has a new offering that will let you do that with no software in only a few minutes. The playGo USB kit includes a sender and a receiver unit. The sender plugs into the computer via a USB port and the receiver connects to just about any audio gear. That includes connecting to stereos, powered speakers, or headphones. The playGo USB receiver will connect to any audio gear using optical or RCA connectivity. The case of the playGo USB is machined out of a block of Corian, which is a material that is used to make countertops. The company says that the industrial looking design of the playGo USB can’t be duplicated with cheap plastic. The device will work with PC or Mac computers. All the user needs to do to play music from the device is plug it in and hit play. The audio is output digitally and the wireless range for the music is 75-feet. The playGo USB was designed, manufactured, and hand assem

My kids love to use my gadgets. That means that my iPad typically has some sort of smear, sticky fingerprints, or other stuff on the screen. I have several cleaning kits around here to get the gunk off the screen but they often involve spraying a liquid on the screen to get the goo off. I have never liked the idea of spraying the screen since I fear the liquid getting inside the iPad and ruining things. Qmadix has a new product for cleaning your gadgets and screens that is a foam spray that will not run into the cracks of your gadget. You apply the foam and then use a microfiber towel include with the kit to rub the foam in and remove the smears and smudges on the screen. The microfiber cloth is treated with DuraBan to prevent bacteria from growing. The foam is static free and dust resistant to help your screen stay clean longer. The can the foam sprays out of uses no CFCs and the foam has a fresh scent to it. The can is 1.9 ounces and sized to allow you to carry it onto an airplane. T

Wednesday afternoon Apple’s long-time CEO and founder Steve Jobs sent a letter out to the company’s Board of Directors and the greater Apple Community announcing his resignation as CEO of Apple. His letter requests and the board has agreed that now former Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook would become the new Apple CEO while Jobs himself would become Chairman of the Board, director, and, as he put it, “Apple employee.” As we find confidence in the fact that Jobs will continue to be a large member of the Apple family, we of course look to Tim Cook to fill the role that Jobs has defined for several decades. Is Tim Cook up to the task? Tim Cook is a name you really should recognize. He’s already served as interim CEO for Apple several times, each of them while Jobs took health-related leaves. These periods of Cook as Apple CEO took place in 2004, in the first half of 2009, and since Jobs took a leave of absence this past January, a period where Cook has handled day-to-day CEO duties daily.

Shocking news has just hit the wires out of Cupertino, Apple’s own CEO Steve Jobs has just officially announced in an open letter that he will resign as CEO. The time has come for him to step down and he has named Tim Cook as his replacement for CEO. This is shocking and sad news to say the least. Apple has already confirmed that Jobs will stay on as Chairman moving forward. Without getting into all the details here is the full open letter below. To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community: I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come. I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee. As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple. I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative da

An “amateur” filmmaker by the name of Dan Trachtenberg has created a short movie by the name of “Portal: No Escape”, the entirety of which you can watch in under 6 minutes, the enjoyment out of which you’ll be glad you harvested. This movie is available for viewing below and takes the ultra-popular cult-classic game series Portal and turns it into a fan film of sorts for the enjoyment of all. Portal game addicts as well as everyday science fiction and action lovers will be glad they took 7 minutes out of their day to take a peek. As you may already be well aware, fans of Portal (and the more recent release of the game Portal 2) are crazy people . They like to do all sorts of things to show how much they love the game, a simple task for many due to the versatility and heavy marketability of the game’s contents. Build your own reality is indeed the credo here for the fanbase of the game, and Trachtenberg and his crew have decided to take things up a notch. Have a look at the full vide

Not even a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that three of the big four USA mobile carriers would be getting the next version of the iPhone, we’ve got a tip that the fourth, T-Mobile that is, will be getting a taste of the iOS goodness as well. This information comes from a contact within T-Mobile who, speaking with MacTrast, let the world know that the next iPhone (perhaps the iPhone 5, as it were,) would be releasing on the T-Mobile network sometime in early to mid October, 2011. This source decided to speak with the media on condition that he/she remain anonymous, and since this is third-party information we’ve got to double-warn you to beware of falsehoods. Beyond the idea that the next-generation device would be released on all four carriers, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile at once, this source noted that they expected the move to generate a whole big bag of cash for big pink: We expect the addition of the iPhone, and the iPhone 5′s ability to run on our 3G networ

In addition to the four new cameras announced this morning, Sony has also introduced a new Handycam full HD camcorder called the NEX-VG20. Its predecessor, the NEX-VG10, was Sony’s first consumer model to offer interchangeable lenses. This latest version adds several improvements including more comprehensive manual controls, enhanced ergonomics, better imaging quality, and upgraded sound. The NEX-VG20 can shoot full HD video in the AVCHD format at progressive frame rate speeds of both 24p and 60p. Footage shot at 24p can be enhanced with Cinema Tone Gamma and Cinema Tone Color for a richer and more cinematic look. Still images can now be taken at a resolution of 16.1 megapixels with RAW format support. The ergonomics have been refined with more manual controls that are situated conveniently for smooth operation. A 3-inch LCD Xtra Fine LCD display with TruBlack technology provides clea, high contrast images and rotates up to a 270-degree range for easy viewing. The camcorder now offers

If there’s one bit of news that’s been blowing up and spewing bits all over the internet this past week, one king of hits, it’s the HP TouchPad situation. The HP webOS situation as well as the PC spinoff situation have basically faded away in the wake of the $99 tablet, one that NOW we’re having trouble locating even though a week ago noone wanted anything to do with. Here’s something that hasn’t been covered just a whole heck of a lot: what happens to all the accessories made for the tablet? Right alongside the fire sale for the HP TouchPad is a fire sale for one of the sweetest bits of protection on the market – did you know StealthArmor made a full protection kit for the TouchPad? Of course you didn’t! You didn’t buy a TouchPad in the first place! They did though, they made a whole stack of protection kits and they want to sell them to you right this second. This fire sale makes use of the coupon code HPFIRESALE which you’ve just got to enter into the coupon code section on the Stea

Just a couple of days ago, the folks at Amazon took it upon themselves to scoop up the domain name KindleScribe.com – this of course fueling speculation that the upcoming Kindle e-reader would at last be named. This and KindleScribes.com were registered on August 20 2011, and along with their last registration of a domain, KindleAir.com, all point toward a future tablet name OR some defensively purchased names just in case someone wanted to capitalize on the fact that Air, Scribe, and Wave are associated very closely at the moment with tablet computers. What Amazon registered today was KindleWave.com, this further fueling notions of another new Amazon service if not a full blown device. What we’ve got here is a bunch of speculation of course, though a couple of indicators point toward simple legal defense instead of early purchasing for the sake of future naming. KindleScribe.com and KindleWave.com both recently expired and were released from their former owners: Scribe registered to a

GameStop has ordered its employees to open up new boxes of the Deus Ex: Human Revolution game title to remove the included OnLive coupon. The offer gives customers, who purchase the regular PC version of the game, a free OnLive version, encouraging them to try the OnLive cloud gaming platform. This didn’t sit well with GameStop, as cloud gaming is certainly competition for video gaming dollars. In an email from GameStop Field Operations Manager Josh Ivanoff, employees were asked to “Please immediately remove and discard the On Live coupon from all Regular PC versions of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Our desire is to not have this coupon go to any customers after this announcement.” GameStop has officially confirmed that it is pulling these coupons, stating that Square Enix, the game publisher of Deus Ex: Human Revoltuion, pre-packaged the coupons without first informing GameStop. When asked by VentureBeat, a GameStop spokesperson said: “We pulled the coupons because, like all retailers, w

While this might not seem like QUITE as big a deal to those of you not in the business of working online exclusively, Facebook has just reached a landmark number of page views, or “pageviews” as they’re called in the online advertising world, just this past month. In the month of June, 2011, Facebook had over 1 TRILLION pageviews. Of those pageviews, 870 MILLION unique users logged on during the single month. This is beyond massive by any standard – think Google+ is going to catch up soon? The ad network DoubleClick provides this information, DoubleClick being a subsidiary of Google and a source we’re therefor willing to trust. What’s interesting about the 870 million unique visitors number is that this number exceeds the amount of actual registered users on Facebook by about 120 million. Either this means a lot of people aren’t signing in when they visit the site, that the site is picking up these people before they sign in for the day, or lots and lots of visits are coming in from se

The much rumored Android smartphone for women, called the HTC Bliss, has finally showed up in a snapshot that isn’t blurry. Not only is this new image crisp but it’s also way more flattering. The first leaked rendering of the phone in its matching dock looked quite hideous while the more recently leaked blurry shots didn’t add any appeal either. Some early details on the handset were first revealed back in May, when it was rumored that the device would sport a soothing green chassis, female-oriented apps and wallpapers, matching accessories, and a unique charm that lights up with notifications. This last feature is perhaps what stands out most as it could be useful even to the non-female members of the smartphone toting population. The features were reportedly developed with the help of focus groups made up of women aged in the 20s and 30s and is HTC’s attempt to push Android devices beyond what has so far been a predominantly male demographic. If a leaked Verizon roadmap is correct, t

According to a new quarterly report from McAfee, Android has now soared to the top as the most targeted platform for malware. In only three months time, Android has gone from third most attacked platform to the first. Another recent report from Lookout claimed a similar upward climb in Android malware infected apps. The McAfee report breaks down the percentage of new mobile malware found in Q2 by platform, showing Android to take the majority of the pie, followed by Java ME, Symbian, BlackBerry, MSIL, Python, and VBS. Malware incidences on Apple’s iOS have been so negligible that it has not made the list. McAfee warns that malware is often times hidden in apps that appear legitimate. Hackers can clone an existing app, infect it with malware, and then upload it to the Android Market or another app store. Some of the most common malware files include Jmsonez, Smsmecap.A, DroidKungFu, and DrdDreamLite. If you come across these files on your device, you should remove them immediately. Most

Samsung announced today a new batch of smartphones that are set to get an official unveiling at the upcoming IFA 2011. The major consumers electronics show in Europe will take place in Berlin, Germany from September 2 to 7. Along with these new handsets, Samsung has also introduced a new naming scheme to bring some order to its large variety of offerings. The top-tier series is still the Galaxy S, but it is now followed by the Galaxy R, Galaxy W, Galaxy M, Galaxy Y, and Galaxy Y Pro, all of which will come running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. This structure simplifies Samsung’s lineup by organizing its handsets into 5 categories that are identified by a single alphabetical letter. This letter is then followed by another identifier to specify any unique functionality. The Galaxy S stands for Super Smart and will only be used for Samsung’s flagship devices. The Galaxy R stands for Royal or Refined, which will also be a premium lineup. The Galaxy W stands for Wonder and features high quality

Time Warner Cable is planning to offer free SlingBox Pro-HD set-top boxes to its customers starting in September. Customers that sign up for Time Warner Cable’s $99 per month Wide Internet service will get a $300 rebate for the total cost of the device. A SlingBox set-top box lets users watch their home TV programming from anywhere that they can connect to the internet. The promotion is seen as a move by Time Warner Cable to spite Viacom in the ongoing legal stalemate between the two companies over Time Warner Cable’s TV-streaming iPad app. The cable company launched the iPad app back in March as a way for its cable customers to stream TV programs to their iPads to use the devices like another TV screen. And although it only allowed customers to use the app while in their homes and connected to their Time Warner Cable network, program providers, especially Viacom were adamantly opposed to the service. Viacom sued Time Warner Cable claiming that the company did not have the rights under

RIM’s future BlackBerry smartphones with the new QNX platform may be able to run Android apps. According to Bloomberg, three people familiar with the situation, divulged this plan as RIM’s strategy to boost sales for the QNX BlackBerry devices scheduled for early 2012. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet already runs on the QNX platform and has been announced in the past to support Android apps using a special Android app player. At the time, RIM did not confirm whether this functionality would extend to its smartphones as well. Now, it’s believed that this same Android app player will be used in the QNX BlackBerry smartphones, but will be tweaked to fit the smaller screen size. RIM plans to preload the QNX phones with the Android app player so that Android app compatibility will be enabled on launch to avoid criticism of slow updates. The PlayBook has been criticized for many lacking features since its debut and has since been slow to incorporate the missing features through updates. The p

Acer is the second largest PC manufacturer in the world with a record winning streak of quarterly earnings only to be dashed with a worse-than-expected quarterly loss reported today. The company has seen its netbook sales eaten away by the popularity of tablets while the company has struggled with internal strategy transitions in the first half of the year. For Q2 2011, the Acer reports a loss of 6.8 billion New Taiwan Dollars (NT$) or about $236 million, which is far more than the anticipated shortfall of NT$3.3 billion or $114.7 million and a drastic difference from its NT$1.19 billion or $43 million profit posted in the previous quarter. The company expects to continue operating in the red for the rest of this year, saying that it would be impossible to break even for the full year. However, Acer Chairman J.T. Wang insists that tablets are only a fad and that he expects the “fever” for tablets to recede. The year before, Wang had predicted that the iPad’s market share would fall to