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Showing posts from October 31, 2011

"Subha Hone Na De: Desi Boyz" Feat. Akshay Kumar, John Abraham

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Enjoy the latest track " Subha Hone Na De" from bollywood upcoming movie Desi Boyz.. It has Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone & Chitrangada singh in lead roles. This song is sung by Mika Singh and Shefali Alvaris.

Fiat 500 Abarth coming to US, to debut at LA Auto Show

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Back when I went to the Texas Auto Show, I got my first up close look at the little Fiat 500 cars and thought they looked pretty cool. Our resident Brit, Chris Davies, pointed out at the time that if I thought the normal Fiat 500 was a cool car, I should see the hopped up enthusiast grade Abarth version of the 500. That Fiat 500 Abarth version will indeed be coming to the US. The car will be officially unveiled at the LA Auto Show in November. At this point Chrysler hasn’t offered the full details of the Abarth version of the car so we don’t have all the specs and pricing on the car. What the maker has confirmed is that the Abarth will use the turbo charged 1.4L MultiAir engine under the hood. In Europe, the base Abarth version makes 135hp and 152 lb-ft of torque. That certainly isn’t a lot of power by American muscle car standards, but the Fiat 500 is a lightweight and small platform to start. I would bet this car will match up well against the Mini Cooper S. Also available in Eur

Edelkrone Pocket Rig helps to stabilize your DSLR for better photos and video

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When I am shooting photos with my DSLR I never use the longer exposure the camera is capable of unless I have a tripod with me because I can’t hold still long enough to take a shot that isn’t blurry unless the exposure is short and quick. I can only imagine shooting video using your camera would be even more difficult. If you are after more stability for your video and photo shooting, the Pocket Rig is aimed at you. This little device comes from a company called Edelkrone and the Pocket Rig connects to the bottom of your camera using the tripod attachment. It’s specifically intended to help stabilize the camera when you are shooting video with your DSLR. The Pocket Rig is no larger than a battery grip and is made from machined aluminum and stainless steel. The weight of the device is 1.25 pounds. The Pocket Rig has a pair of industry standard 15mm RODS that fold inside. In two seconds they can be deployed and ready to use with follow focus, matte box, and handles for ease of use. C

Sony eyes an exit from S-LCD joint venture with Samsung

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Sony and Samsung have been operating an LCD joint venture since 2004 called S-LCD. At this point Samsung holds 51% of the joint venture with Sony having 49% of S-LCD. Sony has not been doing well in the TV realm of late with loses in the segment that continue to increase. As a result of the mounting losses, Sony is said to be considering pulling out of the joint venture. Sources are saying that if Sony does give up on the S-LCD venture that it would benefit the other large makers of LCD panels including CMI and AUO. Sources claim that Sony and Samsung are in talks about Sony stepping out of the venture and that the agreement for Sony’s exit will be complete by the end of 2011. Sony’s losses total $6 billion since the S-LCD venture was started. Sony is in the third spot globally in the TV market behind Samsung in first place and LG in third. Sony is particularly hit hard in its home country of Japan where the TV market is shrinking much more rapidly than expected. Japanese TV shipme

Microsoft to offer SDK for Kinect commercial apps for businesses

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Microsoft has announced today that it has new plans for its Kinect control system that has nothing to do with gaming. Microsoft will be providing a SDK that is designed to allow the development of Kinect for commercial applications. The Kinect for Windows SDK has been around for a while, but that was aimed at allowing the use of the Kinect motion controller for research and geeky tinkering. One of the things that Microsoft is working on to expand the reach of the Kinect is to bring the price down. Xbox CFO Dennis Durkin says that once that price is reduced enough a lot of new developer opportunities open up. One company that has already developed an interesting use for Kinect is Toyota. The carmaker has a virtual showroom for its vehicles that users can browse with the Kinect control system. The Kinect has been selling very well and many of the controllers didn’t get purchased for gaming but for other uses. Winrumors reports that Microsoft sold 10 million of the Kinect controllers

NASA engineer crafts Halloween costume with two iPads

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I think the craftiest day for geeks may be Halloween. People go all out with the tech costumes that are so much cooler than being a zombie again. Take this costume made by Mark Rober using two iPads to make it look like he has a hole through his torso. He has an iPad on the front and backside of his body. The red stuff is some sort of sauce he squirts on the shirt. The link for video on the iPad’s is nothing more than a Facetime chat between the two iPads. Naturally, that means your party needs to have a WiFi connection for the costume to function. Rober suggests that you put a WiFi hot spot in your pocket just in case. I wonder how long the costume will last before the iPads go dead though. My biggest worry would be the iPads coming loose and slipping out of the shirt to meet a shattering end. I would also worry the red sauce would find its way to one of the iPads. This is the coolest geek Halloween costume I have seen this year. Check out the video of the costume below.

Behind the scenes of the Google pumpkin doodle for Halloween

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The grossest part of Halloween for me is the pumpkin carving. It’s fun for sure, but scooping all the guts out of the pumpkin isn’t fun for me. It also seems that each year our pumpkins last only about a day once carved before they are a collapsed gooey mess on the front porch. Google is infamous for its doodles that replace the logo on anything remotely resembling a holiday or special occasion and it has one up for Halloween today. The team used gigantic pumpkins sitting on pallets with hay bales. The largest of those pumpkins weigh well over 1000 pounds. I would assume that is the reason for the hay and the pallets, these fat beasts would have needed a forklift for delivery. It took eight hours for the team you see in the video to carve the pumpkins. The first video at the bottom is a time lapse of the eight-hour process. If you look closely, you can see glimpse of some of the Google folks strutting by in costumes. The finished pumpkins have faces cut to look like the letters in

HTC Q3 2011: 13.2m devices ship for $625m profit

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HTC handset shipments almost doubled year-on-year in the last quarter, according to the company’s Q3 2011 financial results, climbing a whopping 93-percent to 13.2m units. Quarterly revenue reached NT$135.82bn (US$4.54bn) for profits of NT$18.68bn (US$625m) thanks to rising average selling prices of handsets (up 0.6-percent to US$344) and strong overall demand. Compared to Q2 2011, HTC’s handset shipments rose 9-percent. As for Q4 2011 predictions, the company expects to move 12-13m units, roughly a third increase year-on-year. That would see revenue climb between 20- and 30-percent, year-on-year, to as much as NT$135bn, the company claims, roughly on a par with Q3′s showing. What HTC doesn’t disclose is which products, exactly, it sold the most of , nor the split between Android-based devices and those running Windows Phone. The company has pushed out more Android phones during the three month period than it did Windows Phones, although we did see two new handsets – the HTC Titan

Amazon and Netflix spar over streaming with Disney-ABC deal

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Netflix and Amazon have each bolstered their streaming media catalogs, as the two rivals continue to spar over which has the fullest offering of TV shows and movies. Netflix announced an extension of its Disney-ABC deal that will see new and back-catalog titles including Alias and Switched At Birth added to the roster, while Amazon has revealed a Disney-ABC deal of its own that will see many of the same shows available to Amazon Prime customers and Kindle Fire users. Netflix already had an agreement in place with Disney-ABC, which saw the company offering streaming access to shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Ugly Betty and Hannah Montana. This new deal extends that back-catalog access, as well as adding new Disney and ABC shows to the line-up. These will include Private Practice, Brothers and Sisters, Switched at Birth, Secret Lives of the American Teenager, Make It or Break It, Phineas and Ferb, Shake It Up, Pair of Kings and Kick Buttowski. Amazon’s new contract, meanwhile, will a

New iPhone 4S adverts highlight iCloud and Camera

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Apple’s first iPhone 4S commercial focused on Siri, the company’s digital personal assistant; now, with Siri firmly lodged into users’ minds, Apple is hitting each of the other update points of the 4S and iOS 5 with its next three ads. Siri gets another showing, while the iPhone 4S’ 8-megapixel f2.2 camera and the new iCloud mobile sync/stream service also get their chance to shine. Check out the videos after the cut. Plenty is made of the 4S’ camera flexibility, such as being able to edit and tweak images directly on the iPhone itself including adjusting the angle and removing red-eye. As for iCloud, Apple sensibly avoids trying to explain iTunes Match and other more complex services, instead focusing on the cross-device sync of downloads, documents and photos. “Now, the things you do on your phone are everywhere you want them, automatically” Apple concludes. Apple is yet to announce sales figures for the iPhone 4S beyond the initial 4m units in the opening weekend, but online ord

MacBook Pro tipped for Air-style update by holidays

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Apple’s official MacBook Pro refresh may have taken place early last week, but the company is reportedly readying a more significant update to the notebook that will borrow design and spec directions for the MacBook Air. Both TUAW and Mac Rumors have been tipped on incoming 15-inch and 17-inch notebooks believed to be Apple’s oft-discussed significant MacBook Pro overhaul, with integrated SSD memory and no optical drives along with sleeker chassis. Exact specifications for each model are unknown, but they are likely to include backlit keyboards, ThunderBolt high-speed ports, an SD card reader, USB, audio and ethernet, just like the existing MacBook Pro models. Apple’s update last week boosted processor speed as well as making some graphics chip changes on select models, though the company is yet to shift the Pros wholesale from traditional HDD to SSD storage. It’s also unclear what might happen to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which until a few refresh cycles ago was the unibody MacBook

iPhone 4S battery issue points to Setting Time Zone switch

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If you’re one of the masses of iPhone users that’ve upgraded to the iPhone 4S in the past few weeks, you may well have been experiencing some battery issues – today we may well have the answer as to why. As we’ve seen this past week, quite a few people have had what they’ve described as less than stellar battery life with their iPhone 4S, and this weekend we’ve not only been handed a possible solution, we’ve tested it for ourselves, and what do you know, it appears very much to work: just switch your Setting Time Zone switch to off! Inside your System Services in your Settings on your iPhone 4S, you’ve only to look down the list until you find “Setting Time Zone” and the switch beside it – flip it to OFF. What we’ve found thus far after making this switch is that standby time has gone up significantly. Inside three hours, the iPhone 4S has only used 5% of its total battery life. Sixty hours of standby, is that you? We’ll see! The tip to make this happen to increase battery life com

Siri iPhone 4 hack gets Apple server support

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Apple disappointed many iPhone 4 owners with the news that Siri, the digital personal assistant technology, would only be available on the new iPhone 4S, and efforts quickly began to hack Siri onto the older smartphone. Developer Steve Troughton-Smith got the local app running with no problems, but faced Apple’s servers refusing to play ball with anything but the newest iPhone. Now, with the judicious application of some validation tokens from an iPhone 4S, it’s possible to get Siri on the iPhone 4 and iPod touch up and running, even without official support from Apple itself. “It does require files from an iPhone 4S which aren’t ours to distribute, and it also requires a validation token from the iPhone 4S that has to be pulled live from a jailbroken iPhone 4S, and it’s about a 20-step process right now” Steve Troughton-Smith, developer Still, you shouldn’t expect to see a public release of this particular Siri hack any time soon, at least from its original developer. Troughton-Sm

Apple acquires C3 Technologies for next-generation 3D mapping

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This week its been revealed that Apple’s newest investment into its in-house-built Google Maps application is 3D mapping firm C3 Technologies. This is the second business Apple has purchased in the same vein, the first being Poly9 – C3 having been purchased and shut down by its buyer this summer, that buyer now confirmed by 9to5mac to be Apple. C3 is in the business of creating photo-realistic models of our modern city environments using declassified missile targeting methods previously part of aerospace and defense company Saab AB. Thusly this situation is about to get hardcore. Have a look through the images and video bits in this post and feast your eyes, ladies and gentlemen, because we’re likely not that far away from seeing our world as 3D as we’d see it in real life, but virtually controlled from your handheld device – your iPhone, in this case. Have a look at C3 Technology’s official company description to see its potential power: C3 Technologies is the leading provider of

Panasonic Lumix GX1 with X-series lens appears in leaked photos

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The next in one of SlashGears camera series of choice has appeared in a couple of photos straight out of Taiwan – this is the DMC-GX1, and depending on how awesome it ends up being, we might have to switch up our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide – you never know! Of course it would be from previous Panasonic models to this new one, note that – what we’ve got here is a Lumix GX1, a Micro Four Thirds shooter that’s sporting one of those fabulous X-series lenses we saw in August of this year. Is this our next every-event device? These photos of the GX1 come from the forum by the name of Mobile01 based in Taiwan and don’t reveal one whole heck of a lot of information about the next-generation photo and video collection device. What we can see is that the camera is still quite compact, contains its own built-in flash, and will, quite obviously, be able to work with the X-series of Lumix lenses. Inside you’ll find stereo microphones, full HD video recording, and what’s said to be a complete lack of

Will An Apple Television Hurt Google TV?

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Google TV 2.0 has launched with support for applications, an improved interface, and a host of other features that most of wished we could have seen in the first version of the software. But at least we have it now. And for those of us who love to be entertained in the living room, it’s something we’ll at least try out. In addition to announcing Google TV 2.0, the search giant said that new hardware running the software will launch early next year. Customers who want to use the software now will need to buy either the Logitech or Sony devices already on store shelves. But given the recent rumors surrounding the Apple television, I can’t help but wonder if even the prospect of that device launching could have a negative impact on Google TV and the set-top boxes running it. According to the latest rumors, Apple’s television will feature a unique interface that will allow users to seamlessly check for content across several different platforms, including Netflix and their cable serv

Best Buy offers new HP TouchPad bundle deal

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Best Buy announced today that it will be offering a new deal on the HP TouchPad starting on November 1. The tablet was originally priced $599 at launch and went for $99 during a short fire sale period at HP and select retailers, but has since gone back to an average price under $300. Starting next month, Best Buy will price the 32GB TouchPad for $149.99 when purchased with an HP or Compaq laptop, desktop, or all-in-one computer. The HP TouchPad tablet sold out quickly during the fire sale following the announcement that it would be discontinued back in August. The $99 fire sale TouchPad tablets proved so popular that HP scheduled another production run of the tablets to fulfill backorders. It’s hard to say if this new Best Buy deal, pricing them at $149.99 with the requirement of an additional computer purchase, would prove to be as hot an item, but we also didn’t expect it the first time around. When HP first announced discontinuing WebOS hardware, including the Veer, Pre3, and To

Samsung Focus S and Flash WP7 Mango phones headed to AT&T on November 6

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AT&T will be launching Samsung’s upcoming Windows Phone 7.5 Mango handsets, the Focus S and the Focus Flash, on November 6. The carrier made the announcement today via its Facebook page, revealing that the Samsung Focus Flash will be priced at a very budget-friendly $49.99 while the Samsung Focus S will be priced at $199.99. And of course that’s each with a new two-year service agreement plus a $15 minimum data plan. The Samsung Focus S features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 1.4GHz processor, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and will support AT&T’s 4G HSPA+ network. The Samsung Focus Flash features a smaller 3.7-inch Super AMOLED display, 1.4GHz processor, a VGA front-facing camera, and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera as well as support for AT&T’s 4G HSPA+ network. The timing just about lines up with Microsoft’s planned Windows Phone events that are set to take place in five major US cities starting November 7 through Dece

Facebook Messenger replaces Beluga starting November 11

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When the slick group messaging app Beluga was acquired by Facebook back in March, we knew it was only a matter of time before the service would get assimilated and shutdown. Now, we have the official deadline for when still loyal Beluga users will have to make the transition to something else. And that will most likely be Facebook’s version of the service, a standalone app launched back in August called Facebook Messenger. Beluga will stop working starting November 11, but users will still be able to access chat archives. Users have until December 15 to download their archives and pods before the service is completely shutdown. The news comes at the same time that the Facebook Messenger app gets updated with support for 22 languages on iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. The announcement comes from a post by Beluga’s founders, three ex-Googlers Lucy Zhang, Ben Davenport, and Jon Perlow. The service launched back in December 2010 and was purchased only a few months later by Facebook to be

GameStop now selling game-packed Android tablets from Samsung, Acer, and ASUS

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Starting today it appears that GameStop is taking their mobile initiative through a whole new door, not just offering one single tablet (the iPad), but four, the other three being special edition Android tablets from Acer, ASUS, and Samsung. While each of the tablets will be essentially the same sticker price they would be at competing retailers, each comes with a set of seven free games including Dead Space and Madden 12. These tablets are not brand new models, but the game deal certainly is. While before we’d heard that GameStop was testing a tablet before it would release said tablet in 2012, it now seems that they’ve opted for tablets already on the market to push a new deal. The tablets are set to be costing between $400 and $500 as they normally would be elsewhere, but GameStop hopes that the added benefit of a games pack will bring people in to the stores. At first just 200 stores will be offering the tablets with the pack, which also includes a push to use GameStop’s Kongrega

Intel’s Xeon E5 specs and pricing released

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Intel is expected to launch two new Xeon E5 subfamilies of processors in early 2012 with the E5-1600 and the E5-2600, the latter of which already has its specs and pricing leaked. CPU-World published a list showing the details on every E5-2600 model, revealing what specs we might expect to find with upcoming systems, such as Apple’s early 2012 Mac Pros. Starting form the bottom of the series is a quad-core 1.8Ghz Xeon with 10MB of level 3 cache and no Hyperthreading at a $202 bulk price point. At the high-end, it offers 1.8GHz to 3.1GHz eight-core processors with Hyperthreading, and 20MB of cache, 70W to 150W power use for a price ranging from $1,106 to $2,057. This series has only one dual-core chip with the E5-2643 that’s clocked at 3.3GHz and sports 5MB of level 3 cache, Hyperthreading, and 80W power usage, but is priced at $884. This new lineup could boost the number of cores on systems across the board, especially on Apple’s next-gen Mac Pros, which are expected to get refresh

Apple contacting customers regarding iPhone 4S battery issues

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Apple engineers have been contacting customers directly in an attempt to diagnose and resolve the battery issues that have been plaguing many new iPhone 4S owners. Apple Support Communities forum has a growing thread of users experiencing shorter battery life than expected on the iPhone 4S. The thread has now reached over 100,000 views and more than 1,300 replies all recounting similar experiences with the new Apple device. Speaking with the Guardian, one user revealed that a senior engineer at Apple had contacted him directly and asked him to install a monitoring program to help diagnose the battery issue. The program monitors for a 24-hour period, after which he had to extract the data file for sending back to the engineer. “He was incredibly helpful and apologetic in the typical Apple way!,” wrote the user, but he also noted that the rep admitted that the company is far from finding a fix. There have been other users in the Apple Support Communities thread that have also recount

HP may completely shutdown WebOS after all

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According to the Guardian, internal HP sources have revealed that the company will be shutting down WebOS. HP had just confirmed yesterday that it will be keeping its PC business, reversing plans to spin-off the PSG division, and although it had insisted back in August that it would continue to support the WebOS software, a complete shutdown of the division looks to be imminent. There are currently about 500 employees working in the WebOS unit, but several top-level staff have recently left, which is a telling sign. It’s believed that some WebOS staff will be moved to a different division within HP, while others will be laid off. “There’s a 95% chance we all get laid off between now and November, and I for one am thinking it’s for the best,” said one WebOS employee. WebOS was acquired by HP back in 2010 through the acquisition of Palm for $1.2 billion. HP-branded WebOS devices, such as the HP TouchPad, were first announced back in February and launched for only a few months before

The Business self defense kit is card-sized weaponization

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You come to SlashGear on the daily to get a dose of gadgets that will improve your life, but you and I know good and well that every once in a while you want to see something that can give you a black eye- that’s why this post is about The Business self defense kit. This is a conceptual design made by Hoang and Ahn Nguyen (no relation to Vincent Nguyen) for CreativeSession, and at a business-card size and made to sit nicely aside your business casual attire, you’ll have no problem working overtime and going home after dark. What you get in this hypothetical kit is no less than four self-defense tools, three of which could potentially do some heavy damage to your opponent. I mean, not opponent, your ATTACKER, of course. There’s a brass knuckle, a unit of pepper spray, a whistle, and a pocket knife. And what’s best? The size, of course, each of them shorter than a ball-point pen and fairly thin as well. Pack them in your wallet, if you wish, but keep them in your back pocket for quick

Assassin’s Creed to hit iPhone and iPad this holiday

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Ubisoft has announced that it will be bringing its popular Assassin’s Creed game to the iPhone and iPad. But, it’s not quite what you’d expect. The iOS reincarnation, called Assassin’s Creed Recollection, will be in the form of a real-time strategy board game instead of the open world format we’re used to seeing on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game is being described as a board game that features “political battle” style gameplay with key characters and locations from the the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The characters will include those from Assassin’s Creed 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, but not the characters from this year’s Revelations title. It will also support multiplayer gameplay. The Assassin’s Creed Recollection board game is said to pack an 8 to 10 hour campaign, quite lengthy for an iOS game, along with the short film Assassin’s Creed Embers. Ubisoft revealed little else about the game besides that it’s scheduled to arrive sometime in November. Although the

Ultima Online creator runs his studio remotely with a robot named Mini-Me

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If there was one day this month that I would call the oddest for news, it would be today, ladies and gentlemen, and the show goes on with a robot that takes the place of Ultima creator Richard Garriot at his downtown Austin game development company Portalarium. If you’ve seen the show Big Bang Theory or are familiar with the Qbo open-source robot (with Android) you know that the idea for having a robot surrogate doing all your daily activities for you isn’t a brand new idea. Indeed it wasn’t even Garriot who made the robot in question here, he’s simply using it. Instead its the combination of the fact that the creator of one of the most famous online multiplayer games has a robot doing his bidding and the fact that he once had it represent his mother at his own wedding. Before we continue, there’s no way on earth you’re going to continue to read this post without knowing how a robot represented this man’s mother. When it came time to have Garriot’s wedding, his mother would not have