IBLOG SPACE

Apple has just released to developers iTunes 10.5 Beta 9, which is a required update for syncing with the beta version of the iTunes Match service that’s expected to launch with the upcoming iOS 5 and iCloud. This beta update includes several bug fixes, performance enhancements, and some iTunes Match interface tweaks all wrapped in a 103MB download size. Developers testing out the iTunes Match beta will have to keep backing up regularly and are advised not to delete songs from their computers after they’ve added to the iCloud because Apple may periodically delete all iCloud libraries. This will require developers to scan, match, upload songs all over again. The release notes also point out that some of the features and optimizations of iTunes Match may not be available in this beta. Some songs that are matched in the iTunes library may not be recognized and will have to uploaded still. And music can only be added from one computer at a time. The iTunes Match feature is optional and cos

Starting on the 3rd of October, those hoping for a lower price point for the Zune Pass unlimited music service will be jumping for joy as $14.99 turns into $9.99. With this price cut comes a few other cuts as well, including the option to download 10 songs per month that you can keep for your own forever. This price cut will take place on October 3rd, 2011, and will be available to Canadian Zune users as well. Will this cut finally convince you to jump in on the Zune revolution*? Of course you know the true state of both platforms, here the Zune offering a service for a lower price point with less options hoping for a wider audience by getting rid of a digit in their price point. What you got before, for those of you that don’t know, was essentially a purchase of 10 songs at $1 each and an unlimited streaming service for an extra $5 a month. What you’re getting now is a lower price point at $9.99 a month to start with, but you don’t get to keep any of the songs you get to hear each mon

Best Buy and HTC must have had a sit-down recently regarding the Flyer tablet that’s been out for some months, because come October 1st, the price of this tablet will be reduced by $200 from its original price of $499.99 to its lowest price ever, $299.99. It’s time to drop those tablet prices, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s not just because the Amazon Kindle Fire is scaring the cheese out of the competition (not verified, but quite possible). Low sales and the ever-deepening pool of tablets out there certainly has had an impact on the price of tablets across the board, as evidenced here in the Flyer and the now sold-out TouchPad from HP. If you’ll take a look here you’ll see that we reviewed this tablet all the way back at the start of May when it was only out in the UK and again at the end of May when it was formally released in the USA to Best Buy stores in the Wi-fi edition you see being price-slashed here. No word yet on if the third edition, the HTC EVO View 4G, will be slashed ac

It appears that our good friends in outer space have granted the USA a favor and are bringing the Samsung Galaxy Note to the states after all. Today the FCC is showing an AT&T-bands-toting Samsung Galaxy Note, HSPA+ that is, this allowing us to dream that the Galaxy Note will indeed be reaching the states in a lovely blue fashion – at least at first. The Galaxy Note is what Samsung is calling their new in-between product, bridging another gap between products, that being between smartphones and tablets, in this case. Will this be your ideal situation for carrier and device? You can see the FCC listing right now as it is a public document and should be shared for those interested – that said, there’s not just one whole heck of a lot of information in there for the layman. For those of you not just jumping for joy over radio specs, here’s our hands-on video with the first version of the Galaxy Note as we saw just weeks ago at IFA 2011 in Berlin, thanks to Samsung and their Unpacked s

Analysts and pundits are queuing up to point out the Kindle Fire‘s shortcomings, and how Amazon’s entrant to the tablet market is “not a true iPad competitor.” Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster went so far as to estimate Amazon was swallowing fifty bucks loss on each Kindle Fire sold, crossing its fingers that multimedia sales would make up for it, and highlighted the slate’s lacking storage, absent cameras and non-existent 3G option. The idea, it seems, is that because Amazon hasn’t photocopied Apple’s strategy – or, indeed, followed Android tablet manufacturers in trying to compete on specifications alone – and since the Kindle Fire’s price is thus less than half that of the iPad, they “target different segments” and the iPad is in the clear. That seems pretty short-sighted. Here’s the thing. One of the stronger arguments for why the iPad has succeeded where Android tablets have struggled is that Apple does an excellent job of putting its slate into context. Apple’s adverts are all about

Every once in a while there’s a product that comes out on the tech circuit about which a fellow like myself says wow, I am glad this thing exists, and I will certainly use it to the fullest. That time has come again, and it’s come at the advent of the AVIIQ Portable Charging Station. You’re going to see an iPad 2 and an iPod plugged into this device if you see the box on the shelf, but myself being an Android sort of person, you’ll be seeing a Galaxy S II, an HTC Sensation, and a Verizon LTE mobile hotspot plugged into this device instead. A multi-port mobile charging station is what it is, and having literally utilized it whilst traveling from Minnesota to Texas for a three day trip to HP, I can tell you that yes, it’s definitely pretty awesome. Hardware What you get in the box is a zipped-up portfolio case a little smaller than one of your old CD-holding portfolios from the past. The zipper is high quality and the only marking on the entire product is a single AVIIQ label sewn into t

After the fail of the HP tablet that ran webOS, many of us assumed that HP would take a hint and the OS was dead. Apparently, that isn’t the case with a spokesperson telling Pocket-lint that the firm would be putting webOS inside its printer line still. I just don’t see any OS inside a printer taking off and this idea seems as destined to fail as the tablet was. The statement was made to Pocket-lint in Dublin at the HP Impact event. There have also been rumors swirling around that Amazon was looking to buy WebOS from HP. That would seem to indicate that the aim for HP moving forward would be licensing for the OS. I would expect with webOS failing at every turn that the licensees would be few and far between. The HP source also said that webOS would appear next year. This isn’t the first item we have heard webOS was coming to printers, but it’s just as boring this time around. Do you think WebOS has any chance of succeeding in the printer world? There was no hint of webOS in other produ

One of the things that places a limit on how far a military patrol can roam is the amount of gear like food, water, and ammo they can carry with them. The military is working on getting some devices like robots into the field that will be able to carry packs and supplies for soldiers over any terrain. A company called Boston Dynamics has previously unveiled the Big Dog four-legged robot that was sufficiently creepy. The company has now unveiled a larger robot that can handle even larger loads described as the “Big Dog on Steroids” and called the Alpha Dog. The robot can carry up to four hundred pounds of gear over rough terrain. The robot has enough power to navigate the terrain carrying the gear for missions up to 20 miles lasting up to 24 hours. DARPA and the US Marines are planning to test the robot next year. The Alpha Dog has GPS navigation capability and computer vision so it can follow the squad automatically. The Alpha Dog is every bit as creepy as the original. I think a gun m

Kodak has announced a new and small handheld video camera today that is called the Playfull Waterproof Video Camera. As you can gather from the title, the thing will survive water. The camera is water resistant enough to be submerged for underwater recording. Kodak says the camera can survive at up to 10-feet deep. The camera is compact and records to SD/SDHC memory cards. The memory card slot holds up to 32GB cards and you can get the camera with a SD card or without. The camera has a small LCD on the rear and controls for settings, playing video, deleting files and changing from still photo to camcorder mode and vice versa. Power comes for an internal lithium polymer battery. The camera has 18MB of internal storage in addition to that SD card slot. The camera is also dust and drop proof. The battery is charged and the camera content can be transferred via an integrated USB connector to your computer. Still shots are only 1MP and it will record 720p HD at up to 30 fps. The rear LCD is

Nokia is reportedly readying a voice-control update for its mapping software, with the new PND app set to debut on the company’s first Windows Phone handset. According to WinRumors‘ tipster, a T-Mobile Germany product display – temporarily erected at the carrier’s headquarters – confirms the new 3D mapping system. However, there’s also talk that AT&T may have decided to bypass one of the first Nokia Windows Phones, the Searay, and instead hold out for the Nokia Sabre. Tipster JOE tells SlashGear that AT&T has decided against ranging the Searay, and will instead push the Sabre – among the upcoming Mango handsets leaked by Microsoft Canada – with a mid-2012 release in the US. Specifications are said to be midrange, though it’s notable that the T-Mobile Germany partial spec sheet suggests at least one Nokia handset will have a 3.7-inch AMOLED display. Considering we’re expecting the Searay to have a 3.9-inch AMOLED, just like the N9, that might indicate the Nokia Sabre has the sma

It’s time for an update to one of the most powerful third-party keyboards available for Android today, SwiftKey X. This version is 2.1 and includes an upgrade to both the smartphone version and the tablet version of the app. In addition to a slew of performance and memory usage improvements, there’s been layout and interface usability improvements, several language additions, and options to slide or tap rather than a single option to tap. Best of all, there’s a new set of insights and statistics that you can read as you improve your accuracy in your everyday typing. In the video here in this post you’ll get a quick glimpse of the tablet version of the keyboard and the smartphone version of the keyboard. You can download both updated versions of this app on the Android Market today:SwiftKey X by TouchType. To get a full look at what it means to use a SwiftKey keyboard, check out our original reviews of SwiftKey Tablet X and SwiftKey X – gotta catch em all! Now here’s the update, all ten

While we were at the Ford booth waiting for the unveiling of the 2012 SVT Raptor truck, I spied a 2012 Boss 302 Laguna Seca sitting in the back of the display. These cars have been around for a while but there are still so few of them on the street that most of us will never have the chance to get up close and personal with one. I probably know more about the car than any of you ever wanted to know and once I laid eyes on all that awesome, fan boy mode ensued. You can check out the video at the bottom of this post if you have a bit of time and see the walk around where I hit the high points on the car and point out a few key differences between the normal Boss 302 and the Laguna Seca version of the cars. Note that the brake cooling ducts cool the rotors, not the calipers. The Laguna Seca version has a 444 HP 5.0-liter V8 engine mated to a 6-speed transmission. It has sticky R-comp 19-inch tires all around and this particular car was in the black and red color scheme. Ford also produces

Curious as to what’s happening at the top of Mount Everest? Tune in to the world’s highest webcam and you could find out for yourself, without having to strap on heavy-duty boots and goggles. The Mobotix M12 camera was installed by Italy’s Ev-K2-CNR scientific committee as part of a Nepalese government project, running on solar power at the top of the 5,675m high Kala Patthar summit. According to Mobotix, the camera is having to cope with minus 30-degree Centigrade temperatures, and is only operational between 6am and 6pm Nepalese time because of the sunlight requirement. Footage is transmitted wirelessly to the nearby laboratory and observatory, before being shuttled off to Italian research labs to be analyzed. While giving the lazy an easy way of checking out Everest’s West Ridge, as well as the north and southwest faces of the mountain, the webcam has more scientific ambitions too. Researchers hope to use it to track evidence of climate change and global warming, pairing it with tem

I think one of the coolest things that Chevy had in its display at the Texas State Fair auto show was this little matte colored version of the new small car called the Sonic. The first time I saw it sitting there, I thought it was a clay reproduction of the Sonic used for the design process. Then it started whirring and lifted into the air. It turned out that it was a full-scale model of the new Sonic that was controlled and is controlled by a big RC controller like an RC airplane. I asked one of the people on the team that was controlling the fling Sonic about the car and he told me it was made from specialized and very lightweight foam and was sealed to keep the helium inside the car from leaking out. The car held somewhere in the area of 5-6 cubic meters of helium according to the source. The car appeared to be neutrally buoyant and the only thing that would make the car move other than the little electric engines on each side was the stiff breeze from the massive AC system inside t

Thrustmaster has been pushing Ferrari-themed peripherals for gamers for a while now, but the company’s latest F1 wheel is the most convincing yet. A full-size replica of the Formula 1 Ferrari 2011 racing wheel designed to work with the company’s T500 RS system, the eye-catching accessory includes brushed-metal paddle shifters, all the rotary knobs and buttons from the authentic car, and an easy swap system for switching between it and the original GT wheel. In fact, there are two rotary encoder knobs, for mid-race settings tweaks, eight dual-detent buttons, three tri-position switches with wheel re-centering and two 8-directional D-pads, set in a reinforced metal face-plate. The wheel itself is clad in textured rubber. Two modes are supported, either the “normal” setup that works with PS3 and PC and activates 13 of the buttons and the three D-pads, or the “advanced” setup that enables all of the controls but is only compatible with PC titles. Impressive stuff, but it comes as a price:

Microsoft has inadvertently leaked product names for unannounced Windows Phone handsets, including the Nokia Sabre, as well as specifications of a new 1.5GHz Samsung device. Buried in the terms and conditions of aMicrosoft Canada app promotion – since amended, but not before WPCentral grabbed some screenshots – were Windows Phone 7.5 Mango devices the Samsung Yukon, Samsung Wembley, Nokia Searay and Nokia Sabre. The Searay, of course, we’ve already heard and seen. Clad in the same CNC’d polycarbonate chassis as theNokia N9, company CEO Stephen Elop even demonstrated the smartphone in a nudge-nudge-wink-wink-don’t-leak-this-please showcase earlier in the year. As for the Sabre, that’s more mysterious, though Nokia is known to be readying different versions of Windows Phone to broaden the market across various price points. Samsung’s two devices, meanwhile, are also little known, though a spec list linked with the Wembley name suggests the handset will have a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED WVGA d

In Texas, trucks are a big deal. Texans buy about 1-in-5 out of every truck that Ford sells. When you combine Dallas and a few other major Texas cities, the individual cities alone sell more trucks than many states do in their entirety. This is why when a new truck is being unveiled, Texas is the place that Ford comes to. At the 2011 Texas State Fair yesterday Ford pulled the covers off the new 2012 SVT Raptor off-road pickup. The truck has some interesting updates for this year that will make Raptor fans happy. One of the key updates to the car comes in a new Torsen differential in the front. The official press release on the truck doesn’t mention the ratio in the front differential, but I believe it was said to be a 4.10 ratio in the front. The Torsen differential is the same type of diff used at the rear of the 2012 Boss 302. What the Torsen differential brings is a better ability to put the power down in instances where one tire has more traction than the other tire does. On the ou

Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, a 7-inch dual-core Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet set to go on sale by the end of October. Slightly smaller – though thicker – than the Galaxy Tab 7.7, the new Tab 7.0 Plus has an unspecified 1.2GHz dual-core processor, HSPA+ for up to 21Mbps downloads and 5.76Mbps uploads, and twin cameras: 3-megapixels with autofocus and an LED flash on the back, and 2-megapixels up front. The 193.65 x 122.37 x 9.96 mm tablet tips the scales at 345g with its 4,000 mAh Li-Ion battery, and will be available with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage; a microSD card slot will accept up to 32GB cards. In addition to triband (900/1900/2100) HSPA+ there’s WiFi a/b/g/n with 2.4GHz and 5GHz support, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.0 (including Host support) and both WiFi Channel Bonding and WiFi Direct. Samsung’s usual TouchWiz interface – as seen on the Galaxy Tab 8.9 we unboxed earlier this week - makes an appearance, complete with the various hubs for ereadin

What you’ve got here is a couple of commercials straight off the cutting room floor at Verizon, both of them supporting the DROID BIONIC, aka the world’s first dual-core smartphone that also supports their 4G LTE network. The first of these uses NFL player Clay Matthews and an NFL Mobile app and the second uses television personality Simon Cowell and his failing talent judgement show X Factor. Do these ads titillate you into wanting the BIONIC, or was it the Natalie Portman lookalike with the epic Lance Henriksen doing the background voice? First let’s take a look at the football ad. This one shows off an app wich which you can watch NFL games and such, here played on the DROID BIONIC by several disparate individuals. Look at that DROID BIONIC shine! Popout Next there’s that rude reality show judge Simon Cowell, a fellow whom you’d be lucky to never encounter in real life, tossing competitor devices off a pier. You’ll probably not be identifying any of these phones as they’ve been disg

Samsung has reportedly presented Apple with a mysterious olive branch in Australia today, a proposal intended to end the legal wrangling over Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales down under. Details of the proposed settlement have not been revealed, Bloomberg reports, but Apple lawyer Steven Burley told the Australian courts that the Cupertino company would “need time to consider it.” Currently, Samsung has frozen plans to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia pending a preliminary injunction court decision, previously expected to be given next week. That expectation may be delayed, however, both by Samsung’s suggestion for settlement and by both sides proving unable to conclude their arguments before the court by the end of session today. Instead, that will take place on Tuesday, October 4 – Monday being a public holiday in New South Wales, Australia – coincidentally the same day that Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 5. What, exactly, Samsung thinks will sway Apple is unclear, with the com

Earlier this month I mentioned the new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that had just gone official. The car sounds very cool on paper with a new 6.2L LSA V8 that has an Eaton supercharger strapped to it. The engine produces 580 HP and 556 lb-fit of torque. The engine is all aluminum for weight savings and the car is aimed at being very streetable, yet ready for the owner to take to the racetrack at any time. The car also has the cool Magnetic Ride Control and Performance Traction Management system inside. Other features that make the car ready for the track include a high-performance fuel system along with engine and transmission differential coolers. You can check out the original story we did on the car here and the official Chevrolet press release is online here . Yesterday I spent some time at the Texas State Fair auto show press days where Chevrolet had the first near-production Camaro ZL1 in the country on display. I spent a bit of time with Brian from Chevrolet and he walked us through a g

Ereader manufacturer Kobo‘s alternative to the Kindle Fire, the Kobo Vox, has been prematurely revealed, an Android-based tablet expected to retail at under CA$250. Spotted on a hurriedly-yanked product page at Canadian retailer Future Shop (still visible in Google’s cache), the 7-inch Vox runs at 1024 x 600 resolution with WiFi b/g/n and will supposedly hit shelves on October 17. According to the product description – which may well not be final, according to some reports – the Vox will also include Android Market access. That would imply it was running Honeycomb (since it would not qualify for the Market if it ran a smartphone version of Android but lacked a cellular radio among other specs) though the dedicated buttons for back, menu and home would seem to contradict that. Otherwise there’s 8GB of internal storage plus a microSD card slot, a speaker and headphone jack, USB connectivity – presumably for charging and sideloading content – and support for ebooks using Adobe DRM, in ePu

Amazon’s 10.1-inch Kindle Fire tablet is expected to hit production before the end of the year, with shipments potentially in time for the 2011 holiday sales season, according to the latest rumors. Although the larger Kindle tablet was initially tipped for release in early 2012, DigiTimes‘ sources reckon Amazon is pushing ahead with a more aggressive timescale for the Foxconn-produced 10-incher. Foxconn already produces the Amazon Kindle ereaders for the retailer, though reportedly passed up on the Kindle Fire production contract as it was already stretched manufacturing Apple’s iPad. Instead, Amazon supposedly worked with Quanta on designing and producing the 7-inch Kindle Fire, basing the tablet, in part, on the existing legwork Quanta had done on the BlackBerry PlayBook. Previous rumors have suggested that it’s the larger tablet that Amazon is most proud of, with the model announced on Wednesday being something of a rush-job to get to the market in time. It’s not expected to ship un