IBLOG SPACE

Micro-SIMs like those found in the iPhone 4S, Nokia Lumia 800 and iPad 2 are still in the minority, but soon an even smaller Subscriber Identity Module might be worming its way inside our phones. SIM card manufacturerGiesecke & Devrient has revealed its plans for the Nano-SIM, a cellphone chip that’s a third smaller again than the Micro-SIM, along with being 15-percent thinner, and could open the door to even more compact smartphones or embedded SIM systems as Apple is believed to be chasing. The G&D Nano-SIM measures in at 12 x 9 mm (a Micro-SIM is 15 x 12 mm), making it almost 60-percent smaller than the Mini-SIM most GSM cellular devices use today. Nonetheless, it’s backward compatible with existing technologies, so when placed into a SIM tray adapter it would work in current phones with no problems. G&D has already seeded samples of the Nano-SIM among operators, and the company says it expects to have the standard finalized by the end of the year. That could, if all goe

HTC’s Rezound has hit the SlashGear test bench, the company’s first Beats Audio phone for the US market and one that packs LTE and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor for when bass just isn’t enough. Announced just last week, the 4.3-inch Rezound isn’t the first to deliver 720p resolution and 1080p HD video recording, but HTC’s straightforward Sense interface could make it a consumer favorite. Read on for our first impressions. The Rezound isn’t exactly a small phone, unsurprisingly, but its bulk is at least partly disguised by the tapering edges. Still, at 13.65mm thick it’s a noticeable addition to your pocket – just as Verizon’s $299.99 sticker price will significantly lighten your pocketbook – though the soft-touch battery cover is a nice change from glossy plastic. 720p HD resolution on 4.3-inches of HD Super LCD display makes for higher pixel density than the iPhone 4S, and the Rezound certainly has a brilliant screen. Icons and text are crisp, colors bright and saturated, and viewing a

Apple giveth, and Sprint taketh away. Just as official unlocked iPhone 4S sales kick off through Apple’s own webstore, news surfaces that Sprint will, from today, be locking the SIM slot of the iPhone 4S handsets it supplies. Until now, Sprintfeed reports, the CDMA carrier has been quietly supplying the fifth-gen Apple smartphone unlocked, meaning users could drop in their own choice of microSIM when abroad and bypass Sprint’s international roaming fees. However the carrier has now put a stop to that, with a leaked internal memo to staff suggesting that “all iPhone 4S devices will have the SIM locked” and that the “locking occurs during the activation process and is invisible to the customer.” Those wanting to use their handset abroad, on GSM networks, will be directed “to Sprint Worldwide for authentication” though it’s unclear if there will be a fee levied or other hoops to jump through. Instead, Sprint would prefer subscribers take advantage of their own roaming plans “on a pay-as-y

We mentioned this morning that today was the day for those of you lusting after that thin Motorola Razr to get your hands on the smartphone. Amazon Wireless has a very low price on the smartphone that adds up to about $188 off the normal price of the smartphone. The normal price of the Razr is $299.99. In celebration of the 11-11-11 launch date of the Razr you can order the smartphone with a new contract for$111.11. That price is only good on phones on new accounts. If you add the phone to an existing account, the price is $249.99. If you want the phone sans contract, it will cost you $749.99. In case you somehow have missed all the coverage on this smartphone, it’s the thinnest Android device around at 7.1mm thick until you get to the bump for the camera. The front camera is 1.3MP; the rear is 8MP and can record 1080p video. It has an OMAP 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. It also has a microSD card slot for expansion. If you want to know more about his smar

Amazon has announced that Hulu Plus will be joining Netflix on the Kindle Fire, as the retailer does its best to outplay the B&N NOOK Tablet when it comes to streaming media options. The Hulu Plus app, Amazon tells us, joins the roster of titles announced earlier this week, along with sports tracking software ESPN ScoreCenter. Hulu Plus offers access to recent and classic TV shows from ABC, Comedy Central, The CW, Fox, NBC, MTV, VH-1 and others, with a monthly subscription rate of $7.99. That still includes some “limited advertising” however. Shows currently on offer include Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Glee and Modern Family. As for ESPN ScoreCenter, that pulls in multiple game results and updates for a variety of leagues worldwide, including football, soccer, tennis, golf and more. While Hulu Plus and ESPN ScoreCenter are both already available in the Android Market, Kindle Fire owners will not be able to access Google’s official download store. Instead, they’ll be limited to the

Backup is, for many of us, a guilty topic. Even the geekiest of computer-addicts can find themselves blindsided by data loss, and while cloud services like Gmail and Spotify may be rescuing us from having to keep local backups of our mail and music, there’s still plenty of pain when a drive unexpectedly fails. Synology’s DiskStation DS411slim offers a somewhat unique take on the home and small office NAS market, using notebook-sized HDDs to pack quad-drive redundancy into an device with a smaller footprint than the average router. Can it save us from drive death disaster? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut.

Back in August we caught wind of a new Android smartphone that Verzo was launching called the Kinzo. At the time, we didn’t know exactly when that smartphone would land other than a vague September range. September came and went with no Kinzo available for luxury phone fans to pick up. If you like, the style of the Kinzo, the smartphone is now officially available. The smartphone is a custom skinned device running the aging Froyo Android operating system. The device is a 12.3mm thick handset that packs in a 4.3-inch screen with WVGA resolution. The hardware inside is rather mundane with a 1GHz TI OMAP 3630 processor, 512MB of RAM, and a 5MP camera with LED flash. The front camera on the smartphone is a VGA resolution unit. The radio inside makes the phone work with the AT&T network. The phone also has quad band GSM support. Other features include WiFi, Bluetooth, and various sensors we expect in a touchscreen phone today. The battery is a 1590mAh unit and it has a micro SD card slo

Apple US has begun offering the iPhone 4S unlocked and SIM-free, the first time the fifth-gen smartphone has been officially sold without a carrier agreement. Priced at $649 for the 16GB model, $749 for the 32GB model and $849 for the 64GB model, the unlocked iPhone 4S will support 3G HSPA+ data on AT&T but only 2G EDGE on T-Mobile USA. However, Apple is billing the device not as a way for T-Mobile customers to get some iPhone-shaped fun, but for frequent travelers to make calls and get online cheaply while abroad. Instead of relying on AT&T, Verizon or Sprint’s expensive roaming fees, those with the unlocked iPhone 4S will be able to slot in a local micro SIM and take advantage of generally more affordable pre-paid tariffs in their destination country. Unfortunately, the roaming support doesn’t extend to CDMA networks, so even though the unlocked iPhone 4S has a CDMA radio inside, users won’t be able to get online via Verizon or similar networks abroad. GSM is the standard of

Many of the Facebook users out there have been angry over changes to the privacy settings on the social network that leave their content open to more people than some want their stuff exposed to. Facebook has been working with the government to come to a settlement on charges the government brought against the social network. The charges alleged that Facebook misled users about its use of the personal data they enter on the social network. Fox News reports that people close to the talks are now claiming that Facebook is close to a settlement with the US government. According to the sources, the settlement will force Facebook to get the consent of all users before they can make changes that are retroactive to its privacy policy. The settlement hasn’t received the nod from the FTC as of now. The issue with the policy being retroactive is that it means in some instances data posted long ago was made public that was originally not public. Users complain that they weren’t given enough notic

Intel is finally tired of being second fiddle in the mobile CPU market for smartphones and tablets. The company is working on a line of processors for next year that are using the Medfield codename and will be aimed directly at handset applications. We first heard about the Medfield chipback in September when the roadmap leaked. At the time, the CPU was tipped for tablets as well. Apparently, Intel is getting away from that Medfield part in tablets a bit with word surfacing from sources that Intel is instead developing a new line of chips that will be exclusively for tablets. It’s not clear if the new line of chips will target CPUs with the Medfield being just for handsets or if the new line will just be a tablet exclusive while the Medfield still serves handset and tablet markets. DigiTimes also reports that Intel is working in power consumption for its smartphone and tablet PC chips. The goal at Intel is to lower the consumption to 10W in the next two years with chips getting upgrade

Music label EMI has apparently been split up and sold off in chunks to Universal Music and Sony Music, insiders claim, in a $4.1bn deal that will likely be announced by the end of the weekend. Universal will grab EMI’s recorded-music group, spending $1.9bn in the process, the WSJ‘s sources reveal, while Sony will take the EMI music publishing group for a further $2.2bn. Assuming the deal does not fall through, Citigroup, current owners of EMI Group, is likely to exceed market estimates for the sale. Analysts had expected EMI to fetch less than $4bn – Citigroup’s asking price – in an attempt to get the label off its hands. Similarly unexpected are the two apparent winners: neither Universal nor Sony were seen as being the frontrunners to take the deal. Even assuming things go through, however, Citigroup isn’t expecting a quick resolution. Both buyers will have to do some logistical shuffling to satisfy regulators, with Universal Music expected to sell up to €500m ($682m) in assets – a p

The launch of the PS Vita is getting close for Japan even though it won’t hit the US until next year. Gamers that plan to purchase the Vita that have a big library of UMD games from their previous PSP will be able to sign up for the UMD Passport program. Before you get too excited, this isn’t a way to port UMD games over to the PS Vita. The UMD Passport requires the user to use the Registration UMD app that will be offered for free. This app allows the user to insert the UMS and link to a PSN Account to register the UMD account. After you register, the title there will be an offer made to buy a digital version of the game from the digital store at a reduced price. This would be better if since you own the games already Sony just allowed you to get digital versions to keep playing on the new console. There is no word on what the reduced rate will be. What do you think, should it be free to port games you already own to the PS Vita from UMD?

If you are a fan of the tiny little iPod nano or shuffle models you will like the panted app that has surfaced from Apple. The patent app shows a way to put a little speaker on the iPod nano clip so that the user can hear their tunes without having to resort to headphones. The illustration with the patent app, that was filed for last year, shows the speaker bump on the underside of the clip on the nano. It looks like the clip on the iPods may need a bit of milling to create a recesses area of the speaker dome. The recessed are might also have an effect on the sound generated by the speaker. The app shows a design with one using a piezoelectric speaker that is coupled to the housing by wires and such that are flexible to allow the clip to move normally. One of the segments of the patent app also takes about using a thin layer of a material known as Kapton Film. This film is stable over a wide temperature range and is interesting in that it was used as the outside layer of space suits in

pple’s iOS 5.0.1 update looks to have been a smooth first test of the company’s new OTA distribution system, but feedback on whether it has addressed widespread battery problems is less positive. Apple Support Forumsare awash with owners complaining that the issue – where an iPhone running iOS 5 sees faster than expected battery drain – remains or, in some cases, has apparently been made worse with the new patch. The company has not specified exactly what iOS 5.0.1 does to fix the power problems – the release notes merely say it “Fixes bugs affecting battery life” – and was slow to even acknowledge the issue in the first place. “A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices” an Apple representative admitted earlier this month. “We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.” Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case for all users. Some are reporting battery drain

Like a lot of geeks out there, I had high hopes for the Logitech Revue box when I first heard about it. Those hopes quickly faded as many realized that the expensive set-top box had little to offer in the way of programming that couldn’t be found elsewhere for much less. Who knows, had the box been able to access the free version of Hulu and other content perhaps things would have been different. Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca was talking at an analysts and investors day this week and pulled no punches when talking about the pure fail that the Revue box turned out to be. The CEO called the entire Christmas 2010 launch “a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature.” De Luca went on to say that Logitech would be letting inventory of the Revue run out this quarter. The price of the Revue was previously reduced to $99. I wonder if prices will go even lower. After that stock of devices is gone, Logitech will not be making a replacement box. Interestingly de Luca called the software beta

Philips announced its Fidelio Android speaker-docks back in September, and we grabbed some hands-on playtime at the official UK launch this morning. The three-strong range promises Android smartphone owners what so-far predominantly iPhone and iPod users have been treated to: a way of both charging your device and playing back music stored on it.

Motorola has been offering Lapdocks for some of it smartphones for a while now. These things look like notebooks, but are docks for smartphones that take some of the stuff you see on the screen of the smartphone and put it on a larger notebook size display. The keyboard of the Lapdock makes it easier to work, email, and text from your smartphone when using one of the docks. The catch with the Motorola Lapdocks so far has been that they typically work with only one smartphone and they aren’t exactly cheap. If you buy one and then upgrade your smartphone, you have to get a new Lapdock. A new dock from Motorola has cleared the FCC for its approvals on its way to retail stores called the Lapdock 500. In the pics here that is the Droid Razr along for the ride. The 500 is made to run the Motorola Webtop apps like Firefox, Facebook, and others. It can also run a bunch of game apps. It has a webcam integrated and extends the battery life of the smartphone using the dock. It has a pair of USB p

Sony is working on its own revolution in the TV market, with engineers rushing to develop the company’s “four screen” strategy before Apple can release its own television set. “There’s a tremendous amount of R&D going into a different kind of TV set” CEO Howard Stringer told the WSJ, referring to the “four screen” potential once Sony controls not only its own TV, computer and tablet businesses, but Sony Ericsson after buying out its partner. No matter how that strategy pans out, what Apple and Sony agree on is that the traditional TV paradigm must evolve if the segment is to become profitable again. A new model is “what we’re all looking for,” Stringer confirmed, suggesting that “we can’t continue selling TV sets [the way we have been]. Every TV set we all make loses money.” Losing money is something Sony is painfully familiar with at present. The company announced dire LCD TV sales in its recent financial sales results, warning of a $1.15bn year loss though cautioning that part of

It’s 11.11.11, which means the Motorola DROID RAZR is up for grabs on Verizon Wireless. Priced at $299.99 with a new, two year agreement, the DROID RAZR is – for the moment, anyway – the skinniest Android smartphone around, just 7.1mm for the majority of its chassis, and fronted by a 4.3-inch 960 x 540 qHD Super AMOLED Advanced touchscreen. There’s also 4G support for Verizon’s LTE network, an 8-megapixel main camera with autofocus, an LED flash and 1080p Full HD video recording, and a 1.3-megapixel front camera for up to 720p HD video calls. Inside is TI’s OMAP4430 1.2GHz dual-core with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage; Motorola also preloads a 16GB microSD card, bringing the total to 32GB. We praised the DROID RAZR’s build quality – though the broad, super-skinny design won’t be for everyone – but had some issues with battery life, particularly when LTE was in use. For more on the DROID RAZR check outour full review. Motorola has thrown together a dramatic advert for the new RAZR, whic

What’s been seen in the “I’m a WP7!” logs this week is a seemingly brand new Nokia device that will, believe it or not, run Windows Phone Tango, and is, quite possibly, the street incarnation of what we’ve seen previously as the Lumia 900 or the Nokia ACE. Get your decks of cards out, ladies and gentlemen, because here’s a name you’ll likely be hearing again in the future: Nokia Champagne. You’ll have seen the rest of the names on the I’m a WP7 device list found this week so it’s not worth peeking at, but we can dream starting NOW on what the tastiest of Nokia future devices hold – mmmm Champagne. What else you can see in the log files right this moment if you head to your app on your Windows Phone by the name of …I’m a WP7! is no less than a new entry which is indeed the Nokia Champagne. This device, mind you, is shown to be running Windows Phone build 7.10.8711, this meaning that you’ll be seeing Tango in the mix when its released, and we’ve got a couple of guesses on what it could p

This week Valve Corporation head Gabe Newell has announced that the gaming hub Steam has suffered an attack on their forums which may well have put credit card numbers and other users personal information at risk. The attack apparently went down this Sunday and Valve is currently letting everyone who had any personal info listed at Steam to watch their credit card activity in the near future for possible fraudulent activity. Here after the attack the Steam Forums are closed and will remain closed for the time being while Steam itself will remain operating as normal. Note that the attack itself was not necessarily aimed at the credit card information and other personal bits of users at Steam, but that the larger attack did have the potential to access said information. A note from Newell read something to the effect of don’t be scared, but also keep your guard up. Have a look at a couple bits of that statement here: “We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personal

Iomega today announced a new eGo Mac Edition Portable Hard Drive that rounds out its 2011 Mac-oriented hard drive lineup. The device is sleek with an industrial look and minimlist styling that will complement your other Apple products. It’s also very compact for easy traveling and is built tough enough to withstand a drop up to seven feet off the ground. The portable HDD comes in 500GB and 1TB capacities. The eGo Mac Edition features secure 256-bit AES encryption and comes with Iomega’s Protection Suite to ensure your data stays safe. It has two FireWire 800 ports and one USB 2.0 port and even comes with three cables, one for each port, giving you fast and versatile connections. The device also doesn’t require an external power supply. In addition to the eGo, Iomega will be offering the Helium Portable Hard Drive that will also come in 500GB and 1TB capacities, but features one USB 2.0 port and is housed in an aluminum case. A desktop hard drive alternative would be Iomega’s Mac Compan

Even before Google+ was revealed, it was clear that whatever Circles would end up being, the’d have something to do with contacts – now that we know all about Circles and how they’re made to hold all of our friends, family, and cohorts, we’ve been wishing for a way to have this done in a little less manual way – that’s where Katango, the group Google just acquired, comes in. It was Katango that today announced that they’d been picked up by Google, noting that of course they’re excited to join the team and that they’d be working specifically with Google+. Given their work with Facebook and automatic sorting of Friends into categories with which iOS userscould then share with, we’ve got a pretty big clue as to what the team will be doing with the ol’ G+. Circles as they exist today are made up of the contacts you’ve got on Google+ that you want to share certain content with specifically. What we must assume that the Katango group will be doing is giving users the option of sorting people

Microsoft began rolling out its new Xbox 360 dashboard preview to beta testers today. The company startedaccepting beta testers last month for the dashboard preview, which is expected to bring several new features and an overall face lift. The new look will be reminiscent of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Metro UI and Live Tiles interface. The new Xbox 360 dashboard will bring more integrated Kinect voice and gesture controls, Facebook storage, cloud storage for Game Saves and Xbox LIVE Profiles, as well as a new social broadcasting feature called Beacons. YouTube and Bing will be included with Bing users being able to search for movies, music, and other content on their consoles using Kinect’s voice recognition. Microsoft will also be introducing an app market for the Xbox 360 and allow for future integration of Windows Phones. Several new Xbox LIVE TV services will also be added with the update, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, and Syfy. According to a leak, the dashboard is expected t

Nvidia reported its fiscal third quarter earnings results today for the period ending October 30. The company beat expectations with a revenue of $1.07 billion, which is up about 25 percent from $843.9 million during the same period last year. Net income was reported at $178.3 million , or 29 cents per share, which is more than double the $84.8 million and 15 cents per share figures from last year. Nvidia is the world’s largest independent maker of graphics chips for PCs and its mobile processors have also been popular in the exploding Android mobile device market. Its Tegra processors are used on eleven smartphones and 23 tablets. The company is also positioned well into next year with its new Tegra 3 quad-core processor that recently began shipping. However, competition is strong from rivals such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Google has placed new preference on TI chips for future Ice Cream Sandwich devices, which could greatly affect the balance of market share for next year.