IBLOG SPACE

Along with Apple’s release this morning of iOS 5, a major update to its mobile operating platform, the company has also released a new software version 4.4 for its Apple TV. The update brings several new features, including Photo Stream, AirPlay mirroring, NHL hockey games, and free Wall Street Journal Live new updates. Apple is introducing with iOS 5 the iCloud and a feature called Photo Stream, which lets users easily access and sync photos saved in their iCloud accounts across their mobile devices. With version 4.4, Apple TV users will also be able to access those photos from their Apple set-top boxes. Photos or any other content on your iPad 2 or iPhone 4S screens can also now be shared to your Apple TV through AirPlay Mirroring. Additionally, the update brings extra content with new access to National Hockey League games, which adds to other paid professional sports subscriptions such as baseball and basketball that are already accessible through Apple TV. There’s also now fre

Before today’s FCC appearance, it was back in February that we last glanced upon this device. We got our first hands-on look at the Acer Iconia Smart S300, a smartphone that, at the time, seemed too massive to be real. Now we know that, not only is it real, 4.8-inches isn’t the strangest thing in the world for future smartphone-like devices. What we get to see today is a set o insides of this massive honker of a smartphone device, Acer showing that it’s got nothing to hide but a lovely amalgamation of bits and pieces that together make up what might be the first real in-between device that’s not quite a tablet, not quite a smartphone. By all means we’ve enjoyed what Acer has brought to the word of Android thus far, let’s have the smartphone next! This device is set, if specs here and the international model can be trusted, to have a single-core single-core 1GHz MSM8255 SnapDragon processor, a display that is indeed 4.8-inches with 1024 x 480 pixel resolution, and the device will ha

There’s only one exception to the rule on this “all Verizon phones” sale for a penny, can you guess what it is? One might think that the servers here at AmazonWireless would be massacred if it was found that all models of the iPhone would be on sale for a penny, but alas for you iOS fans, AmazonWireless doesn’t carry the iPhone at all, so technically this is an “all Verizon phones that we have here in stock” sale. That said, you’ll be able to pick up such BRAND NEW devices as the DROID 3, the DROID BIONIC, HTC Rhyme, and the Pantech Breakout, amongst the 31 on sale today. What you should notice with each of these devices that are set to ship inside 24 hours (with only a few exceptions, of course,) is that you’ll need to start a brand new account to attain them. This sale also only lasts between 5PM PDT on October 11th through 11:59PM PDT on October 17th, 2011. Get in on this deal before you regret not having done so. That said, do you think that the timing on this offer has anything

It’s time to get a newly minted handle on everything electronic in your home, here provided by Verizon and Sigma Designs through Z-Wave Control technology. This system will be called “Verizon Home monitoring and Control” and is now available in the USA to all Verizon customers. You’ll be able to lock doors remotely, see your home via networked cameras, and adjust, set, and control your thermostats, appliances, and lights. All of this is done through a gateway device that will, over time, be enabled to work with Internet-based connections via iOS and Android. All you’ll need to do is pay a monthly charge of $9.99 after purchasing the devices you need to hook your whole house up, and connections you shall have! There are three different equipment packages you can choose from (listed below), and the monthly price appears at the moment to be the same regardless of your choice. You’ll be able to do all sorts of stuff like flipping on and off the lights in your kids rooms while you’re not

Though the 1.5 GHz Qualcomm dual-core processor may be the highest GHz dual-core processor in the land today, from what we’re seeing here, the Apple A5 chip in the iPhone 4S certainly seems to be holding its own when tossed into the out-of–box browser competition. What we’ve got here for you is a slightly unscientific set of tests, one that first shows the difference between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S, that is single-core compared to dual-core chips from Apple, then the iPhone 4S VS the Samsung Galaxy S II carried by T-Mobile, this version having a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm dual-core processor, all tests conducted simply by tapping a link and seeing how fast they can load a webpage. First on the set of iPhones you’ll find that the newer device basically blows away the older of the two. When you take a single-core processor made by one group and compare it to a dual-core processor made by the same group, the results SHOULD be that the dual-core processor outdoes the single-core by a margin

Apple’s iOS 5 has been released, with owners of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad and iPad 2, along with the third- and fourth-gen iPod touch all getting the latest version of the mobile platform as a free update. Available to download for existing devices via iTunes, iOS 5 will also be preloaded on the new iPhone 4S, Apple’s fifth-gen smartphone that goes on sale this Friday. Among the changes in iOS 5 are a new Notifications Center, which replaces the clunky pop-ups that Apple currently uses. Instead there’s a pull-down pane that shows, Android-style, all of the recent alerts and updates from your apps and services, along with shortcuts to the latest information from the iOS lock screen. iOS 5 also brings with it iCloud, Apple’s new synchronization and backup system that promises to deliver your music and documents across all devices, as well as replace iTunes on the desktop as the hub of the digital ecosystem. All iOS 5 users – as well as those running OS X Lion on their Macs – wil

I have heard of some crap concept products before, but this one is seriously crappy. The product is called the AshPuppie and it comes from a firm called Paulee CleanTec. I am sure this is a gag of some sort, but on the chance its real and the fact that it’s literally a product for dealing with turds I’m totally writing about it. We used to have a dog long ago and picking up the poo from in the yard was a job I loathed. I don’t care if there is a bag between your hand and the poo, it’s still disgusting to have to pick it up. The AshPuppie (if that is its name, the maker calls the thing AshPoopie at times) scoops the poo for you and then you press a button and turns into odorless ash. This has to be fake, it uses some sort of capsule to burn the poo according to the description. Granted this is a concept product so it may be far enough out there that it has a little nuclear reactor inside to burn the poo. The company says that it will come to market by Q1 2012.

Here we go, the furor over the iPhone 4S isn’t yet done and already the next round of Apple rumors are floating by. The latest rumor isn’t of the next iPhone, but of a future iPad that is supposedly coming to fight the Kindle Fire and its $199 price point. According to this rumor there is an iPad mini coming in 2012. The source is specific on the “mini” though. According to Brian white, an analyst with Ticonderoga securities who has been touring Chinese manufacturing faculties and talking with component suppliers there are rumblings of a cheaper, not smaller, iPad mini for 2012. White expects that the cheaper iPad will land during the first few months of 2012 and be followed later by a feature rich iPad 3. White has stated that the expectation is that the iPad mini would come in somewhere in the mid to high $200 range. We wonder if the iPad mini may be something like an iPad 2 with 8GB of storage with the iPad 3 coming for the high market. This is what Apple does with the iPhone 4

If you are looking forward to getting your hands on the Nintendo 3DS Expansion Slide Pad, the price and ship date have surfaced. This is the expansion that is specifically made for playing Monster Hunter Tri-G. The accessory is a bizarre looking attachment that makes the 3DS fatter and a bit longer with an extra D-pad. The Slide Pad will launch on December 10 in Japan and will carry a retail price of ¥1,500, which works out to about $19.50 here in the states. That is a lot cheaper than I expected the accessory to cost. The cradle also apparently adds some buttons to the back of the 3Ds too. The idea is that the Slide Pad will give the same playing experience that monster Hunter 3D fans will get on the Wii console. Obviously, it won’t be the exact same since the 3Ds screen is tiny. Is this an accessory that you would like to get for your 3DS? If it has another battery slot it might be worth it.

Chevrolet has announced that it intends to produce the all-electric Spark EV. The spark is a mini car and will be sold in limited quantities in select markets around the country starting in 2013. The Spark is an urban car, so I would expect it would be offered only in urban areas. Chevrolet isn’t offering a huge amount of detail on the car at this point. The car will use battery systems from A123. These battery systems are advanced nanophosphate lithium-ion battery packs. The full details on specific markets, range, quantities, and pricing will be announced at a later date. I would expect the car’s range to be somewhere close to what the Nissan Leaf offers. “The Spark EV offers customers living in urban areas who have predictable driving patterns or short commutes an all-electric option,” said Jim Federico, global vehicle chief engineer for electric vehicles at Chevrolet. “It complements Chevrolet’s growing range of electrified vehicles, including the Volt extended-range EV and the

Apple’s Find My Friends app – announced alongside iOS 5 last week – has arrived in the App Store, though you’ll need the new version of the platform in order to actually install it. The free app, which uses GPS to locate your friends and family and, if the privacy settings mash correctly, display them on a map in real-time, can be found here [iTunes link]. Like Google Latitude does on Android, Find My Friends will allow iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users to see their friends’ locations. Access to your position can be granted permanently, or groups set up to reveal location for a specific length of time: for instance, until the end of a day out to the beach or a theme park.

Intel has ditched plans to push its processors into TVs, tasking engineers in the Digital Home Group to instead focus on tablets, smartphones and ultrabooks like the new ASUS Zenbook UX21. Although Intel will continue to supply chips to set-top box manufacturers such as Comcast and Pace, Bloomberg reports, it will trim its investment into digital TV SoCs. “This is a business decision where we’re taking those resources and applying them to corporate priorities” Intel spokesperson Claudine Mangano explained of the shift in focus. The company is yet to detail exactly what will be lost as the Digital Home Group folds, but no job losses are expected, only staff being shifted between divisions. Intel’s CE4100 SoC had found a place in the Boxee Box, while the company had already revealed its CE4200 successor. The SoC was also found in Logitech’s Google TV implementation, as well as in smart TVs from Sony. However, Google TV OEMs were apparently pushing for cheaper, lower-power ARM chipset

The Space Shuttle Endeavour was one of the last of the shuttle fleet to fly a mission into space. Endeavour is also one of the first of the retired shuttles to be decommissioned and given away with an official ceremony. The Endeavour will spend the reminder of its life on display at the California Science Center. NASA had a ceremony this week where it transferred the Endeavour’s title over to the center. There were a number of politicians on hand at the event along with NASA administrators and the crew of Endeavour mission STS-134 who took the shuttle on its final mission. It will be a while before the Endeavour actually makes its way to the center. NASA is currently working on removing hazardous items from the shuttle and making it ready for public display. The shuttle will be ready to head to its final home in the latter half of 2012. It will be attached to the top of a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and flown to LAX where it will then be put on a truck and driven through the

Two of the biggest firms in the traditional HDD storage market are Western Digital and Seagate. WD has announced that its production of HDDs for external storage and internal notebook and desktop storage has been impacted in Thailand by flooding. The flooding may cause shortages of parts and HDDs that are needed for computers and other products to be offered on the market. WD says that it is working with its suppliers to maximize its current throughput and parts availability to meet the demands of customers. WD notes that in the quarter that ended on July 1 2011 it shipped 54 million HDDs from facilities located in Thailand and Malaysia. The facilities in Thailand were responsible for 60% of that amount. WD reports that the flooding is affecting the regions infrastructure including transportation and utilities and this has resulted in the inundation of some facilities and employee homes. The company does note that 37,000 of its workers in that area have been deemed safe. The facili

RIM it is still uncertain what is causing the BlackBerry server fault that has left many users without BBM, email or web access for a third day running, the company’s software and services chief has admitted today. Rory O’Neill, VP of the affected systems at the Canadian company, told paidContent that – while RIM’s official statement yesterday suggested engineers had a grip on the situation – in fact they’re still trying to figure out exactly what is happening. Meanwhile, similar BlackBerry outages have now been reported in the US and Canada. According to paidContent’s Ingrid Lunden, RIM isn’t ruling out potential hacking as a cause of the outage. Right now, though, all O’Neill would say is that “the fundamental cause as far as we know is the issue with the core switch and a failing in the component architecture” and that “it has to do with how our networks speak to each other, and we are trying to fix that while preserving all messages.” The company blamed “a core switch failure w

EA and sports car legend Carroll Shelby have teamed up to promote both the sweet looking EA game Need for Speed the Run and the Carroll Shelby Foundation. The event was held in Las Vegas and at the event fans of the NFS franchise and high performance cars were able to get into the drivers set for a special 2011 Shelby GT500 Super Snake Need for Speed edition. The special Super Snake GT500 on hand at the event was made up to look like the one on the cover of the latest NFS title called Need for Speed the Run. The event was held on September 27 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Shelby American facilities. Attendees were able to drive the NFS car and other Shelby American vehicles like the GT350 as well. The special car that was the star of the event was the one-of-a-kind Wimbledon White GT500 Super Snake with gray stripes with lots of special touches inside and out. The car has 750HP, an upgraded drive shaft, billet twin 75mm throttle body, and special badges. The car will be aucti

When it comes to traveling for the most of us just about any vehicle will do the trick. There are some environments on earth where the simple act of driving requires a substantially more robust vehicle that your average car or truck. One of those harsh environments is the Antarctic region where the climate is frigid and harsh. A company that makes custom trucks just for extreme environments called Arctic Trucks has landed a world record using its vehicles for traveling from Antarctica to the South Pole in record time. The journey covered 2308km from a station known as Novo to the South Pole. The record was set in December 2010 when two trucks made the journey in 108 hours, or 4.5 days. The trucks used were based on the Toyota Hilux platform and traveled at an average speed of 21.4km/h and used 2.2km/liter of fuel. The trip to the pole was certified by record keepers at Guinness World Records. The return trip was even faster, but unofficial at 3.5 days and averaging 27.5km/h. The tr

Sony has been making TVs and other things for a very long time. The Sony Bravia line of HD and 3D TVs are some of the most popular around the world including in Sony’s home country of Japan. Sony has made an announcement today that isn’t good for the hoards of Japanese HDTV owners that purchased the Bravia brand. Sony has been asked by the Japanese trade ministry to recall 1.6 million Bravia TVs that are on the Japanese market. The TVs covered in the recall were sold as far back as 2007. The reason for the recall is that a faulty component inside the sets poses a risk of fire. The sets in the recall are LCD units and the recall was forced after a September incident where an owner of an affected set had to call the fire department after a small fire happened in his TV. Bloomberg reports that so far 11 incidents of overheating have been reported in Japan concerning Bravia sets since 2008. There have been no injuries reported. The suspected component is a faulty part of the backlight

Back in March, the security firm RSA announced that its servers had been hacked. The irony of a security firm being hacked wasn’t lost on many. The issue the hack raised was that RSA issues the security tokens that are used to protect networks all around the country including some networks that have classified information on them relating to the military. The data stolen eventually helped facilitate and attack on military contractor Lockheed Martin. At the time the hack was made public RSA admitted that data had been extracted from their servers and that extracted data might be used to reduce the effectiveness of the SecurID tokens RSA produces. RSA has now announced that it believes that with the sophistication of the attacks that only a nation state could have been responsible for the hacks. Eyes have been on China for a long time as a possible source for the hacking attacks, but RSA hasn’t pointed the finger at China yet. RSA believes that two groups were involved in the attack

Samsung has been fighting Apple over a patent dispute around the world. In August, Apple filed a complained in Europe that three of the devices in Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones infringed on a number of patents Apple holds. Dutch courts ruled that Samsung didn’t infringe on any of the patents but one that has to do with viewing and navigating photos on a smartphone and issued an injunction on the devices. Samsung is ready to get its three high-end Galaxy devices back into Dutch stores and is now saying that upgraded devices are coming. What exactly the upgrades entail aren’t offered, but it will have something to do with a different method of looking at the photos on the smartphones. The three models to be upgraded are the Galaxy S, S II, and Ace. Samsung spokesman James Chung won’t say exactly when the upgraded devices will launch. You can bet Samsung wants them on the Dutch market (without facing a sales ban) yesterday so it will be as soon as possible. Chung said, “We’ve f

A geek going by [yergacheffe] got hands on the Google ADK board before the official launch and had some parts on hand for making things. Naturally, the geek decided to cobble some things together to see how easy the Google ADK for making hardware talk to each other was to use. The result was the Google ADK talking to a display and showing meta data from the Google Music Beta offering. The project used some left over LED matrices that act as the display itself. The matrices were put into a laser cut acrylic base. The base and casing has lights to make the music beta logo glow nicely when powered up. The maker says that using the Google ADK only a few lines of code were needed to make the ADK board talk to the display. The resulting product is a display that you can connect an Android device to and it will show the meta data about the song that is playing on the smartphone right now. You can check out the display in action in the video below. This is a cool little project, what do yo

Samsung has hijacked Apple’s iPhone 4S launch day hype, with a pop-up store in Sydney, Australia offering $2 Galaxy S II handsets just meters away from the official Apple Store. Queues longer than those outside Apple have built up for the limited number of super-cheap smartphones, the Muswellbrook Chronicle reports, with Samsung offering patient shoppers just 10 devices each day. The Korean company rented the retail unit on a short-term let within the last three weeks, and apparently has “no plans” to continue using it beyond this Friday. As in the US and Europe, the iPhone 4S will not go on sale in Australia until 8am on Friday morning. iPhone 4S vs Galaxy S II: As for those waiting in the respective queues, there’s some friendly rivalry going on. Would-be iPhone 4S buyers are keen to dismiss the Galaxy S II, saying the Apple phone is “so much simpler, it’s better, it’s classier, it’s sexier”; meanwhile those in the Samsung line argue that, even if they want an iPhone 4S eventua

Seagate has launched its latest home entertainment storage center, the Seagate GoFlex Cinema multimedia drive, packing up to 3TB of internal storage and the ability to extend that by docking the company’s GoFlex removable drives. Capable of connecting directly to your HDTV or projector via a choice of HDMI or composite video outputs, and with a bundled remote control for sofa-friendly use, the GoFlex Cinema supports up to 1080p Full HD video playback. Other ports include stereo audio output, an S/PDIF digital optical audio output and a USB 2.0 connection which allows you to treat the GoFlex Cinema as an external drive and dump media straight onto it. Meanwhile the drive can also be used standalone with digital cameras and camcorders, pulling your content straight across ready for playback. Format support includes Xvid HD; AVI; MPEG-2 (VOB/ISO); MPEG-1; MPEG-4 (Xvid); AVC HD; H.264; TS/TP/M2T; MOV; M2TS; MKV; FLV; VC-1; and WMV9 video, along with ASF; MP3; WAV; AAC; FLAC; WMA; LPCM;

BlackBerry network services remain offline this morning, the third day of issues affecting BlackBerry Messenger, email and web services on the popular smartphone platform. In a statement issued yesterday, RIM apologized for the further downtime and blamed a malfunctioning failover system, explaining that “as a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible.” A quick check of Twitter however, and it seems users are still feeling the pain. There’s still no update from RIM on the ongoing outage, though some carriers are stepping up already and promising compensation when the issues are finally fixed. At least one UAE carrier has confirmed postpaid subscribers will get three days worth of free service automatically adjusted into their next bill. The prolonged delay in service restoration means that BBM could well remain down as iOS 5 officially launches today, bringing with it Apple’s iMessage

The two men involved in the lost iPhone 4 prototype saga from 2010 have been sentenced to a year of probation each, 40 hours of public service and to each pay Apple $250 for their part in the missing “priceless” smartphone. Sentenced in San Mateo County District Court yesterday, CNET reports, the men – Brian Hogan, who claims to have found the pre-release iPhone 4 in a bar, and Sage Wallower, who allegedly helped Hogan pitch the handset to tech sites as a potential scoop – entered no-contest pleas rather than contesting the charges. “We asked for some jail time. The judge considered that Wallower had served in the armed forces and Hogan was enrolled in San Jose State, and neither had any criminal record, and decided that jail time wasn’t required. Someone from my office called Apple’s general counsel. This is a fairly routine theft case. This was a couple of youthful people who should have known better” Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County District Attorney However, while Apple will g

Sony has revealed details on a new security issue, with hackers supposedly testing a 93,000-strong list of leaked usernames and passwords to see if they’ll grant access to the PlayStation Network and other services. “The overwhelming majority” of the attacks, Sony’s Chief Information Security Officer Philip Reitinger confirmed on the company’s PlayStation blog, have failed, leading the company to suspect that the inaccurate list has come from a third-party source rather than Sony’s own servers. As well as the PSN, the Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment networks were targeted. “Less than one tenth of one percent (0.1%) of our PSN, SEN and SOE audience may have been affected. There were approximately 93,000 accounts globally (PSN/SEN: approximately 60,000 accounts; SOE: approximately 33,000) where the attempts succeeded in verifying those accounts’ valid sign-in IDs and passwords, and we have temporarily locked these accounts. Only a small fraction of these 93,000

Today AMD has launched the AMD FX family of CPUs for sale today, this including the very first eight-core desktop CPU, one that last month set the Guinness World Record for “Highest Frequency of a Computer Processor.” Retail availability starts here for processors that use AMD’s newest multi-core architecture known as “Bulldozer”, this included in AMD’s upcoming server CPU known as “Interlagos” and the next generation of AMD Accelerated Processing Units. The top-end eight-core AMD FX CPU will be selling for $245 USA Suggested Retail Price, and we’ve got the lowdown! As you may or may not know, all AMD FX CPUs come with completely unlocked processor clock multipliers for you overclocking enthusiasts out there. Don’t burn down the house with all that power though, you’ll want to use your Guinness World Record holder CPU to keep on giving you what you need at least through the rest of this description. All of these processors also use AMD Turbo Core Technology that “dynamically optimize

It’s time again to reduce the price of a tablet PC, ladies and gentlemen, and today it’s the BlackBerry PlayBook at RadioShack. Starting immediately and running through November 5th, 2011, RadioShack will be offering the PlayBook for $279.99, though watch out, there’s two different deals going on! Details below! Meanwhile remember that this is one of the relatively few tablets on the market to be running the 1GHz Dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP4430 processor, and RIM is backing it all the way through the future. This tablet is not exactly known for its successes, but it’s certainly inspired the community to create better tablets. With the BlackBerry name on the hood and Texas Instruments powering the engine, is it enough for you to drop a couple of Benjamins to sign in? Isn’t this supposed to be the next step in the evolution of RIM and their BlackBerry mobile OS? Perhaps, but with stories such as the BlackBerry service outage and the fact that BlackBerry is no longer the top mobi

iPhone 4S sales should be strong suggests Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who projects that a good portion of sales will come from iPhone 3GS users upgrading to the latest Apple smartphone. He predicts that 18.8 million iPhone 3GS users will upgrade to the iPhone 4S within the next year, which will account for 18 percent of sales. Munster estimates that there are 27.6 million iPhone 3GS users that are ready to upgrade with 25 percent of those users upgrading early to the iPhone 4, and 15 percent switching to Android, leaving 18.8 million left to buy the iPhone 4S. He claims that these numbers are based on several conservative assumptions. In a previous survey of 216 mobile users, Munster found that 94 percent of iPhone customers expect to replace their current device with a new iPhone, while only 47 percent of the Android users polled expected to upgrade to another Android device. And among the Android users, about 42 percent wanted to switch to an iPhone.

Release Date: 28 October 2011 Genre: Adventure | Drama Cast: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Aaron Eckhart Directors: Bruce Robinson Writer: Bruce Robinson, Hunter S. Thompson Studio: E1 Entertainment Plot: Paul Kemp is a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self-destruction.

Release Date: 28 October 2011 Genre: Drama Cast: Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, David Thewlis Directors: Roland Emmerich Writer: John Orloff Studio: Sony Pictures Plot: A political thriller about who actually wrote the plays of William Shakespeare-- Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford-- set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her.

Release Date: 23 November 2011 Genre: Animation Cast: Bill Nighy, James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Miggie Donahoe Director: Barry Cook, Sarah Smith Writer: Peter Baynham, Sarah Smith MPAA: N/A Studio: Sony Pictures Plot: How does Santa deliver all those presents in one night? The answer: Santa's high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But at the center of Arthur Christmas is a story about a family in a state of comic dysfunction and an unlikely hero, Arthur, with an urgent mission that must be completed before Christmas morning dawns.