IBLOG SPACE

Early-adopter shouldn’t mean beta-tester. The Jawbone UP saga is a great example of this: pushed out too soon, eagerly picked up by keen geeks, and now the subject of a huge refunds program that’s costly both financially for Jawbone and in terms of their all-important reputation. Yet do we bring some of this post-purchase misery upon ourselves – as consumers, enthusiasts, geeks – in prioritizing and praising so doggedly the very first to market? Manufacturers have learned we’ll gobble up what we’re given, rough edges and all. Jawbone made its refund offer, giving eager customers their 100 bucks back and not even insisting that they return the band itself. It scores itself a point for that. Unfortunately it waited more than a month to react properly, rather than freezing sales within days of the first problems emerging, and more to the point it pushed out a gadget that you’d think even the briefest of quality control would have shown flawed. It loses a hundred points for that. Software

This week the folks at liine have released an app version of their legendary multitouch MIDI/OSC controller Lemur for the iOS platform on the iPad and iPad 2. The physical version of the platform is used by such massive musical artists as Daft Punk, Nine Inch Nails, Deadmau5, and more, and with the iPad having been release just a BIT after the original Lemur’s 2004 introduction to the public, it’s time the whole world had the chance to use this fantastical interface for the creation of block rocking beats. Ten years of development on this project converted now to a single app for iPad – seem like a winning combination to you? This new Lemur app allows you to control DJ software, studio production software (DAWs), live electronic music software, stage lighting, and more – this is no everyday keyboard situation. Any software OR hardware that can otherwise be controlled by OSC/MINI is able to be controlled by this Lemur app. For those of you new to the platform, you’ll be able to access a

Despite Sony’s PS Vita not being available until February of 2012, GameStop has already posted pricing for the device and its various components back in November. However, gamers reactions to the high prices of the memory cards may have resulted in Sony’s recent claims that the GameStop pricing isn’t official yet and that gamers should stay tuned for more details. According to Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo, multiple Sony reps confirmed with him this week that the GameStop pricing is not final and that the proprietary PS Vita memory cards are not a hidden cost. GameStop listed the 4GB memory card at $29.99, but Sony reps say that it should be $24.99. The 8GB memory card is listed as $49.99 but it, too, should be corrected to $39.99. Sony revealed earlier this week that Gamers wanting to use multiple PSN accounts on one PS Vita device would have to use multiple memory cards. PSN accounts are tied to each card and therefore gamers wanting to switch accounts on a single card would have to do a c

There’s this fellow by the name of Slipstream, folks, and he’s created not on, not two, but three N64 handheld gaming devices, each of them able to play full-sized Nintendo 64 cartridges through a 4.3-inch LCD display – and you’ll never guess what the whole final package looks like. Behold the Electus 64, or as I like to call it, the Gameboy Massive. You’re about to see a fully functional custom-made setup that’ll play everything from GoldenEye 64 to StarFox, all of it from a candy apple red chassis you’re bound to have a heart attack over if you’ve got a mind for retro reborn. What you’re seeing here is a one-piece travel-ready console that can play full sized Nintendo 64 games complete with a set of controls you’d normally have on your classic N64 via a built in Retro 64 controller PLUS a set of menu buttons that are able to control bits of the display. Your 4.3-inch LCD display here has menu buttons to change color, contrast, sharpness, brightness, tiny, and switch between 4/3 and 1

Coby Electronics announced today that it is preparing to offer five new tablets running Google’s latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform in early 2012. The company promises to show the devices at CES in January, making it one of the first companies to have such an extensive lineup of Android 4.0 tablets. The Coby tablets will have a range in sizes, including a 7-inch (MID7042), 8-inch (MID8042), 9-inch (MID9042), 9.7-inch (MID9742), and 10-inch (MID1042) models. All the tablets will have capacitive touchscreens and be powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor with 1GB of RAM. They will also support WiFi, HDMI 1080p output, and expandable storage up to 32GB. The tablets are optimized for browsing the web, playing games, checking email, and watching videos. Although no prices have been announced yet, they will likely be in the lower-end range, since Coby is known for their budget-friendly devices. We’ll definitely keep an eye out for the Coby tablets at CES as well as other afford

Google announced today via its YouTube blog that it has purchased New York-based startup RightsFlow to manage its music licensing efforts. This move could help boost YouTube as a hub for music videos, adding to the content that it already offers through its partnership with Vevo. This could also speed up licensing for Google’s own music store. RightsFlow, which already has a 30-million-song database, has been at the forefront in handling the complex licensing business to ensure proper copyrighting and payment to artists and labels. With this acquisition, Google will have a dedicated team to help accelerate the growth of its own licensing and premium content offerings. Google has had to fight copyright infringement claims in the past for unauthorized content distributed through YouTube and has also had difficulty securing licensing deals for its Google Music service, reportedly due to labels’ concerns over Google’s ability to control piracy. With RightsFlow in-house, momentum should be

According to the Wall Street Journal, the antitrust lawsuit against AT&T’s T-Mobile merger may be either postponed or withdrawn by the Department of Justice sometime next week. DOJ lawyer Joseph Wayland explained that the expedited court proceedings were no longer needed since AT&T had withdrawn its merger application from the FCC. But this isn’t necessarily good news for AT&T. AT&T’s been struggling to push through its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile since March of this year. But the company was sued by the DOJ in August and later hit with a request for a administrative hearing by the FCC. This culminated in AT&T withdrawing its FCC application on the basis that it needed to focus on completing the DOJ lawsuit. The quick completion of the case was essential to move the merger forward. But now, Wayland reveals that the DOJ could either postpone or completely withdraw its case since AT&T has withdrawn its FCC filing. He says that the DOJ case is real

Apple’s products have been much prized in the healthcare industry with a recent survey revealing that about 75 percent of US physicians owned an Apple device. But why are doctors so in love with Apple products and so mourn the passing of Steve Jobs? Well, MedPage blogger and an Emergency Medicine resident physician Litifat Husain gives the following three reasons. The first reason is the simplicity of Apple products. The medical field is complicated enough as it is with doctors having to keep on top of the developments in disease pathology, mechanisms of illness, and treatments. On top of that, most of the equipment they use in the hospital setting, such as an ultrasound machine, may be proficient at what they do, but have horrendous user interfaces, making doctors appreciate even more the simplicity and ease of Apple devices. Second reason is the solid build quality of Apple devices. Although some hospital equipment may have terrible user interfaces, when it comes to the hardware, esp

While the good news that webOS as a mobile operating system would now be Open Source did come down the chute with much rejoicing this early afternoon, HP’s stance on no future with HP hardware for the OS remains true. As it was announced earlier this summer right before The Great TouchPad Exodus of 2011, HP will no longer be producing hardware with webOS on it natively. This of course doesn’t mean that someone couldn’t hack a bit of the ol’ webOS onto an HP product in the future if they wanted to, but their current status with webOS is the same as the rest of the “other leading operating systems” at the moment. As you may well know, the announcement a few months ago that HP would get out of the business of working with webOS as a mobile operating system came as quite a shock to those hoping for a future on the Palm side of things here in the mobile environment of 2011. On the other hand, as HP employees continued to hold their Palm smartphones in their hands with great hope for an unan

This week HP announced that their mobile operating system webOS will be contributed to the open source community. While HP assures us that they will be active in the development and support of webOS in the future, they’re now offering the operating system up to the “development power” of the open source community where they’re sure both applications and web services will be developed en masse for the next generation of mobile devices. HP assures developers that webOS offers a number of benefits backed up by an easy to work with set of standard web technologies – in short, here you go world, have fun! With this move webOS is moving into Android territory, with availability of the code now open to the world to use on a wide variety of devices as well as developers hoping to get in on the relative ground level of what now appears to be a very viable option for mobile devices. This after having seen a near complete collapse after HP deciding they’d no longer produce webOS-based hardware an

Though earlier today the word was that the online and pre-order sales for the newest Motorola tablet by the name of XYBOARD were the only thing starting today, with in-store sales starting Monday (the 12th), we’ve now come to find that in some stores across the USA the slates are already in stores ready for sales right this minute! This tablet line comes in two sizes, 8.2-inches and 10.1-inches, the latter providing a next generation for the original Honeycomb tablet in the Motorola XOOOM. These tablets are priced at $429.99 for the 8.2 and $529.99 for the 10.1 both on contract, with various other prices in place for different memory and contractual agreements. For the XYBOARD 8.2, you have the choice of also picking one up with a 32GB built-in memory card for the upgraded price of $529.99, with this price and its 16GB version (listed above) bumping up to $599.99 and $699.99 at full retail price and activation required. For the 10.1-inch version of the tablet, there are three different

When you’re in the business of developing software and producing awesome bits of hardware, especially in this modern “what’s next” consumer market of ours, you often toss a loss aside in favor of producing something much better in a second generation – this appears to be what RIM is doing with the BlackBerry PlayBook’s next release. What’s been found today at N4BB courtesy of intrepid code-sniffer Lucky45 is a couple of clues regarding RIM’s next play for tablets (or very strange smartphones.) Both 4G and 4G LTE icons have been found in the guts of PlayBook OS 2.0 aside screen resolutions of 1280×768 pixels. In the past we’ve heard that there’s certainly going to be another PlayBook, namely one that rang true with whatever 4G network the carrier it would be carried on would be working with. Of course that “certainly” turned out to be bunk when the WiMax toting carrier turned down the project earlier this year, but from what we’re seeing here in this very new code, the dream remains ali

When you hear the word “bulletproof” in regards to automobiles, one of the last applications that should ring true to you is “roadster” – yet that’s what the folks at Dartz are thinking with this brand new Jo-Mojo electric roadster, designed for the mean streets of Cote d’Azur. These Estonian vehicle makers seem to think that a lightly armored open-top electric low-rider will be a hit for those who, as my coworker Michael says, “make for a good screen door on a battleship type situation.” Of course there is one factor that keeps this open design closed and possibly sensible: a slide-over cover for parking between trips. This is the second design collaboration between Dartz and Eduard Gray of Gray Design, here yielding no less than an 80 horse-power electric motor with 90 lb-ft (122 Nm) in a mass of metal of many colors. In the photos and video you’re about to see, many different color combinations can be seen, this leading us to believe that custom orders will be filled when the time c

Ford has been forced to recall almost 129,000 vehicles, after discovering that the wheels on certain 2010-2011 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan cars could fall off. The issue, Ford told [pdf link] the Nation Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was spotted when lug-nut tightening was found to cause fracturing; if the drivers ignored the subsequent vibration warning signs, the wheels themselves could potentially detach from car. According to Ford, the problem only affects Fusion and Milan cars with 17-inch steel wheels, not those with alloy wheels. Nonetheless, that’s 128,616 vehicles in all, along with a further 3,000 steel wheel sets distributed to Ford dealers. “Owners will be notified by mail and instructed to take their vehicles to a Ford or Lincoln dealer to have the lug nuts replaced on all four wheels” Ford told the agency, “and to have the rear brake discs inspected for wheel mounting surface flatness and replaced, if required.” A comprehensive investigation into the problem has

Zite has launched an iPhone version of its personalized newsreader app, bringing the software over from the iPad with a new UI to suit the 3.5-inch smartphone’s screen. Available as a free download [iTunes link], the app uses a rating system to bring forward more content it thinks readers will be interested in, learning from their consumption habits to refine its selections. The app – bought by CNN back in August – is navigated by swipes and gestures. Upward and downward swipes move through the stories in a section, while left and right swipes move between sections themselves. There’s also a wheel at the top to spin through categories more quickly. New users can set up an account in the iPhone app itself and start choosing topics of interest, while those already using Zite on the iPad can log into their existing accounts and see all their usual feeds synchronized across. As you’d expect, there’s social networking integration with various iPhone sharing options, including email, Twitter

I can only imagine how violent it was to live in ancient times where the giant dinosaurs and sea creatures roamed the Earth’s oceans and landmasses. One of the creepiest of the sea creatures I have seen is this big creature called an Anomalocarids that had gigantic pear shaped eyes. Apparently, scientist could only guess at what the eyes of the animal looked like until recently when a very well preserved fossil of the eyes was found. The fossil was of just the animal’s eyes and was so well preserved that not only could the shape of the eyes be determined, but also microscopic examination revealed much more about how well the animal could see. The super close up image of the eyes revealed that the predator had 16,000 individual lenses. The fossil that shed light on the subject of the Anomalocarids’ eyes are about 515-million years old and were discovered in Australia. The team also noted very clear similarities in the visual system of the Anomalocarids and modern arthropods that suggest

Qualcomm has announced to new parts that are slipping into its S4 Snapdragon range. The new parts are the MSM8625 and the MSM8225. Both of the chipsets are dual-core units that operate at up to 1GHz and use the Adreno 203 GPU. The also both pack a 3G modem inside. They are designed to be software compatible with the MSM7x27A and MSM7x25A. The new parts are also using the third generation of the Qualcomm Reference Design or QRD ecosystem program. The new parts add more capability for these device makers to expand smartphone lines and 3G possibilities. The QRD program is intended to let the device makers develop smartphones that can be sold in high volumes at lower costs. The new parts are to give device makers an upgrade path for taking their snapdragon S1 designs to dual-core S4 mobile processors under the hood. The new chipsets will be available in the first half of 2012 in the QRD platform and will be available as standalone chips too.

If you are looking forward to getting your mitts on a new Asus Transformer Prime tablet and live in the UK, you can get your pre-order in right now. The Transformer Prime is up for pre-order on Clove in the UK. We reviewedthe Transformer Prime not long ago and it is a very nice tablet and will be one of the best Android tablets to hit the market. Clove has two version of the tablet up for pre-order. You can get the 32GB version with the keyboard accessory or the 64GB version with no keyboard accessory. Both of the devices sell for the same price at £459 (£550.80 with the massive honking VAT). The kit with the keyboard is the more appealing to me, that keyboard accessory greatly increases the battery life of the tablet. The tablet with that keyboard dock is good for 18 hours of battery life, without the dock it still gets 12 hours. The rear camera is an 8MP unit and it can record 1080p video. It has WiFi and runs the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor. The screen is a 10.1-inch unit with capaciti

With every bit of the moon rock and soil samples on Earth having been brought back by NASA missions to the moon they are all considered government property. Like many things that are government owned the samples have been loaned out over the years from the stash of 842 pounds of materials that the Apollo moon missions brought back to Earth over the Apollo years. A recent survey by the NASA inspector general found that more than 500 different samples are missing or stolen at this point. The audit suggesting more are missing based on a survey of scientists and researchers that have been loaned samples over the years. Apparently, out of the 59 scholars that were loaned samples that bothered to respond, 19% of them could not find their samples. The audit also found that over the years as researchers that were loaned samples died, retired, or moved, many of the samples were never returned. Only about 70% of those loaned samples responded to the audit request. The audit comes not long after

Motorola Mobility has won a wireless patent case against Apple in Germany this morning, meaning – unless Apple can secure a stay until an appeal can be heard – the iPhone and iPad could be blocked from sale in the country. A Germany court ruled that Apple’s cellularly-enabled devices infringe European Patent 1010336, detailing a “method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system” FOSS Patents reports, and deemed an essential component of the GPRS data standard. Motorola will have to cough up a €100m bond if it wants to chase a sales injunction, however. That bond – which is designed to cover Apple’s losses should the patent case be subsequently overturned while an injunction was imposed – is considerably less than the €2bn the Cupertino company’s legal team demanded. If Motorola Mobility pushes ahead, Apple is almost certain to request a stay on the injunction while it files an appeal. The original iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iP

There is no doubt that anything in the car that can be distracting can lead to accidents and death or serious injury to the driver and others. This is why many cities and states now have a ban on talking while driving without a hands free device. The side effect of the hands free device law in some instances has been an increase in the number of people texting and driving which is possibly more dangerous than driving and talking. It’s relatively easy for police to see someone talking on a mobile device while driving with no hands free device but if the person keeps the phone out of sight it can be hard to catch them texting. A new study has found that texting and driving has risen 50% and that two out of every ten drivers admit to it. The NHTSA apparently had people watching at intersections for people texting and found 1% of all drivers that came through an intersection were texting. That seems a small number, but at a busy intersection that 1% can be a lot of people. In the study, 18

Nokia has begun shipping the Lumia 710, the second of the company’s Windows Phone 7 devices, and the model it hopes will strike a chord among more price-conscious buyers. Announced alongside the Lumia 800 at Nokia World in October, the Lumia 710 is expected to be priced at around €270 pre-taxes and subsidies ($362) and offers a 3.7-inch WVGA ClearBlack display, 5-megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording, and a 1.4GHz single-core Snapdragon processor. There’s also 512MB of RAM and 8GB of user storage, though no way to augment that as Microsoft still prevents Windows Phone devices from having accessible memory card slots. Nokia will add to WP7.5 Mango with its own apps, Nokia Drive and Nokia Music, offering turn-by-turn directions and free streaming music respectively. Nokia – and Microsoft – is hoping that by leveraging its economy of scale and track-record in developing markets, the Lumia 710 will open up new countries to the Windows Phone experience. So far, relatively standardiz

The Nissan Leaf is a full EV that runs only on battery power that has been sold in a few markets around the US for a while now. The car has been one of the more popular full electric vehicles out there despite having had a few issues early on. Nissan has been operating a performance division for a long time that tricks out some Nissan cars for more performance called Nismo. Nismo has taken the Leaf and hopped it up with cool style in a new concept. The Nismo Leaf concept has style changes with a full body kit, lowered ride height, and LED front lighting. This is the second Nismo concept we have seen in a few months. The last was that awesome Juke with the drive train from the Nissan GTR underneath. The body kit is said to improve the aerodynamics of the Leaf and provide more down force. The car also gets 18-inch wheels. The drive train is untouched with the same performance and drive range as the standard Leaf. Nissan has also announced that it is taking orders for the normal Leaf in m

Carrier IQ has been in the headlines in a very bad way over recent weeks. The company makes software that tracks the usage of users on smartphones and logs keystrokes. The software is the center of wiretapping suitsand the FTC has been called on to investigate the company. Google’s Eric Schmidt was on hand at a conference on internet freedom that the search giant was hosting and spoke about condemning Carrier IQ. According to Schmidt, the open nature of Android is being taken advantage of by Carrier IQ. He states that when a platform is open people can make software that is not good for users. Schmidt said, “Android is an open platform which means people can makes software for it that’s not very good for you.” Schmidt also said that with the open nature of Android there was nothing Google could have done to prevent Carrier IQ from getting information from Android users. Schmidt was also very specific in that Google doesn’t work with Carrier IQ. He went so far as to call Carrier IQ an u

We have talked a lot about the Jawbone UP over the last few months since we first heard about it. The UP is a bracelet meant to be worn all the time to tracks all sorts of health related data on exercise, sleep, and eating habits in conjunction with an app. The UP was tipped to hit soon back in October and then in November theofficial price and launch date was offered. Since that official launch, there have been some issues with the UP wristband that have some owners complaining. Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman has posted up a letter to all users of the UP bracelet to apologize for the performance issues that are keeping many people from using the device as it was intended. According to Rahman, the issue with the UP devices has been pinpointed to a pair of capacitors inside the band for the power system that are failing. The issue with the band generally surfaces in the first 7-10 days of use according to the maker. Jawbone is taking it on the chin and is offering any UP buyer a full refund

Yesterday Twitter rolled out a new update to the service that brought along with it some new features and aredesign that looks really cool to my eyes. Along with that redesign also comes new brand pages that show Twitter is trying to take it to Google+ and Facebook directly to grab some action from big brand pages. Twitter should be able to gain serious traction too considering it has a giant user base of folks and the retweets that posts generate can be further reaching than the original tweet alone. The down side to the Twitter brand pages is that they are seemingly harder to program than the competition since they won’t handle big blocks of HTML code according to CNET. The cooler parts of the people looking to brand their products on Twitter is that they do have full control over the colors on the page so it can match the corporate color, the pages look really good too as you can see in the Pepsi example here. The brand pages allow interaction of fans with Follow and @Reply buttons

In November, we heard that a meeting to decide the fate of WebOS was happening within two weeks. HP is set for an all hands on deck meeting today to decide the fate of WebOS. The word of the meeting surfaced yesterday and it is set for this morning. Precentral reports that HP CEO Meg Whitman has looked at all the options and made a decision on the fate of the OS. The meeting is reportedly set for 10:30 PST. There is no indication of what will happen to WebOS at this point after it has failed at every turned to generate a user following or a high degree of developer interest. The last use of WebOS was for the TouchPad that hit the market and was cancelled after barely a month thanks to very poor sales of the slate. The tablet had some surprising popularity when it went on sale for $99 but ultimately it was a failure. The fate of WebOS has been cloudy with rumors pointing to HP looking to sell the OS to the highest bidder and take the lumps that will surely come in the form of a massive

ASUS is readying a convertible touchscreen ultrabook for launch in September 2012, sources in Taipei have revealed, in an attempt to leverage Windows 8 to take on both the iPad and the MacBook Air in a single model. The notebook is expected to debut alongside Microsoft’s new OS, so DigiTimes‘ tipsters tell them, running IntelIvy Bridge processors. ASUS is no stranger to convertible notebooks, having experimented with several netbook-style touchscreen models in 2009 and 2010. Most recent was the Eee PC T101MT, back in mid-2010, preceded by a smaller version, the T91, in 2009, mounting a touchscreen LCD panel on a swiveling, rotating hinge so that it could be used as a regular netbook but also, when folded flat, as a chunky slate. Those early attempts relied on low-powered Intel Atom processors, however, and lacked the raw grunt to compete with the true tablets of the day. Then, of course, Apple launched the iPad in early 2010, and the consumer tablet market took off, with products makin

Spotify has relaunched Spotify Radio, offering unlimited playback with a free account along with as many track-skips as you like. The updated streaming music service allows listeners to pick any initial artist and then creates a custom radio station of similar tracks, with no subscription account required. If you don’t love the current track, you can skip it as many times as you choose. Similarly, listeners can also create as many artist radio stations as they like, with no demands to pay. Songs can be saved to playlists for later listening, and of course shared using Spotify’s usual social networking integration such as posting an update about the track to your Facebook wall. Beginning a new radio station is as straightforward as clicking “Start Artist Radio” in the artist’s profile, or alternatively dragging a seed track to the “Radio” option in the sidebar. After that, Spotify’s algorithms do the rest. The updated Spotify Radio service is part of the company’s recent push to be more

Compact car manufacturer smart has revealed its latest concept, the smart for-us, an Earth-friendly electric pick-up that’s just 3.5m long. Set to debut at the Detroit Motor Show, the for-us is powered by a 55 kW magneto-electric motor fueled by a 17.6 kWh li-ion battery, good for up to 120kph (75mph) though smart is yet to confirm range. There’s no shortage of other tech, either, including replacing the rear-view mirror with a smartphone and a video camera. Meanwhile the two seats are like bright yellow hammocks, split in the middle for extra comfort, and the dashboard is suitably swoopy for a concept, with a combination of mother-of-pearl white and brushed aluminum. The tailgate is electrically operated, and when all the motorized parts have finished shuffling out of the way, reveals a 90cm-long load area. That’s not going to compete with a dual-cab pick-up truck, but it’s not bad for a vehicle that measures 3.547 x 1.506 x 1.701 meters; smart expects it to be put to use with a pair

The Apple iPad 3 will launch in February 2012, analysts have predicted, complete with the double resolution “Retina Display” that has been well rumored over the past few months. Citi analyst Richard Gardner suggested the date in a note to investors this week, Business Insider reports, quoting “several sources” that say not only is a mid-Q1 2012 reveal on the roadmap, but that “there do not appear to be any significant technical hurdles remaining” to delay a launch. A February debut isn’t too great a stretch, at least when you take into account Apple’s track record in tablets. Both the first- and second-gen models were revealed in Q1 – the original iPad in January 2010, the iPad 2 in March 2011 – and a yearly refresh cycle is something Apple often aims for. However, that refresh cycle target has shown itself to be dependent on the technical elements of Apple’s products keeping up with the ambitions of its designers. The iPhone 4S kept would-be upgraders waiting with a post-summer releas

Verizon has thrown the DROID XYBOARD 10.1 and 8.2 tablets up for sale, offering Android Honeycomb on a 1.2GHz dual-core in a choice of sizes, though there are questions around whether the carrier has again overpriced its slates. Announced earlier this week as the 4G LTE versions of the Motorola XOOM 2, and rumored not to hit shelves until next week, the two DROID XYBOARD models are priced from $429.99 for the 8.2-inch model and $529.99 for the 10.1-inch model, both demanding a two-year data agreement. There are three versions of the larger slate – in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities – while the smaller model, known as the “Media Edition” outside the US, only offers either 16GB or 32GB. Both have front and rear facing cameras, WiFi a/b/g/n and a 1280 x 800 IPS display, together with HDMI connectivity and an infrared port, which – thanks to the preloaded Dijit app turns the XYBOARDs into universal remote controls. Nonetheless, with data plans at a minimum of $30 per month, even the cheapes

Panasonic has revealed the first model of its European smartphone assault, a 4.3-inch Android device with a qHD 960 x 540 OLED display, NFC and a slimline “D-shaped” cross-section. Currently unnamed, the new device will be the first of Panasonic’s new line-up in Europe, arriving in March 2012 and bringing some of the tidbits Japanese Panasonic device buyers have been enjoying for some time. That will include being both waterproof and dustproof, something many Japanese handsets offer but only rare “ruggedized” variants – usually lacking in specs and functionality – do in North America and Europe. The ultra-slim model shown here will be the reference design on which Panasonic bases a number of new models, targeting 1.5m European sales in 2012 alone. That will be followed by a growing international release, spreading across Asia and into North America, with the eventual goal being 9m sales in 2016 across Europe, Asia, China, and the United States. The smartphone market – and particularly

San Francisco AT&T users are reporting that the carrier’s 4G LTE network is now active in the city by the bay (at least in the downtown area), now with speeds being reported just under 20 Mbps on the download stream. Upload speeds weren’t unimpressive either, with speeds approaching just under 10 Mbps. There hasn’t been word on whether it’s a unofficial launch, or just some pre-deployment testing done by AT&T, but AT&T users probably aren’t complaining in San Francisco. Telecom rival Verizon Wireless has already launched its LTE network to not only cover major cities, like San Francisco, but also provides lightning-fast LTE coverage to adjacent cities in major metropolitan areas, such as eastwards to Oakland, and southward to San Jose and Silicon Valley. So AT&T’s LTE network isn’t the first in the area, although its speeds are up to par to what I’ve seen with LTE. What do other Verizon LTE bay area users think? What download and upload bandwidth speeds are you getting?

Samsung, you win this battle against Apple down under. The Australian court has just officially denied theappeal filed by Apple on their propose sales ban on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. As of now, Samsung is finally cleared to put the Galaxy Tab 10.1 back on the Australian market late next week, just in time for Australian shoppers to check off the tablet on their holiday list during the busy Christmas shopping season (and for Samsung, a naturally higher position on the sales chart, although probably not high enough to stave off Apple). Australian court judges stated that Apple won the original ban by a hair. Furthermore. Apple has being requested to cover all of Samsung’s legal costs for overturning the the nearly two-month ban. This return to the market doesn’t exactly absolve Samsung’s faults, though, it does change the perspective to one where Samsung’s very manifestation onto market wasn’t so detrimental that it would fatally inflict damage on Apple’s tablet business. With the final lif

I’m shocked that anyone wants to buy the Wii. But I’m even more shocked that so many people are doing it. Earlier this week, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter reported, based on his checks, that a little over 1 million Wii units were sold last month, putting the device slightly behind the Xbox 360 in overall sales during the period. When I saw that statistic, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Is this really the same Wii console that has been on store shelves for five years now? Is it really the same Wii console that has watched its annual sales figures dwindle? Is it really the same Wii that will be replaced in about a year with a new console from Nintendo? Yep. It’s that last question on the Wii being replaced soon that makes the console’s strong showing last month so vexing. In as much as a year, the Wii is going to be obsolete; a device that few will want to play, since it’ll be replaced with the latest and greatest technology Nintendo has to offer. Furthermore, over the next sev

AT&T has reportedly started throttling its heaviest data users (to be exact, the top 5% of its data users) to, well, 2G speeds. 

According to CultofMac, AT&T has been alerting customers of their data throttling move by way of a particularly terse text message, which says “Your data usage is among the top 5 percent of users. Data speeds for the rest of your current bill cycle may be reduced.” And is punishing those top 5 percent of users with a woefully plodding, snail-moving 2G speed. “Your data usage is among the top 5 percent of users. Data speeds for the rest of your current bill cycle may be reduced.” Unfortunately for AT&T carrier subscribers, it’s pretty unclear just precisely how much data a user must use up to be a part of the top 5% (make your #Occupy jokes here, please). However, AT&T claims that usually these typical users will consume roughly a dozen times more data than the average data user. That’s quite a bit of data, actually, although users tend to tak

Rumor has it that Samsung has plans to take on Apple’s upcoming iPad 3 tablet with its own 11.6-inch tablet, which may sport an incredibly dense, Retina display-shaming resolution. The new tablet will also have Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and will be most likely to debut at this year’s Mobile World Congress this February. Though the tablet will have a larger display than Samsung’s current Galaxy Tab 10.1, the tablet will be “barely larger”, since the panel will have a thinner bezel with a stunnning 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution, 11.6-inch screen, and a 16:10 aspect ratio. Apple’s rumored iPad 3 Retina display should gear up for some competition. Equally impressive, it’s rumored that the 2.0 GHz Exynos 5250 processor will be on board to power the larger screen and higher pixel-density panel. Alhough still only dual-core, the ARM Cortex-A15 chip and the more accelerated graphics should lead to much faster performance overall, to match the 2560×1600 resolution. If the rumors are true

This week the folks at Twitter have updated their many different platforms to bring about a new age in Twittering, one where the hashtag keywords and suggestions for the following of people who might be talking about what you want to hear are the heroes. There’s a whole presentation video that goes with this update, and Twitter is making no small deal about how this update is meant to bring a lot of users back into the fold. So here’s the mobile version on Android – have a peek at how this is the nicest version of the smartphone-based Twitter in the history of said platform. You’ll be able to see all your friends uploaded content, including photos hosted right there in the app, as well as big pushes for celebrity and featured Tweeters of all kinds. Real-time search shows breaking Twitter-based news, trending topics show what’s popular in the hashtag world, and see what other people are talking about in regards to you with the Connect tab. With this goes a new aesthetic, blue, gray and