IBLOG SPACE

If you’ve been paying attention to the mobile market over the last several months, you know that Apple and Samsung are at each other’s throats over alleged patent infringement. And with lawsuits flying worldwide, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the war between the firms will spill over into next year. The issue is that both Samsung and Apple are excelling at providing high-quality mobile products to customers. Apple’s iPhone and iPad are nearly universally beloved by users, and Samsung’s smartphone line and tablets are among the most celebrated in their respective markets. Simply put, Apple and Samsung are probably the two most impressive mobile device providers in the business. But I don’t think those battles will end at the mobile market. In fact, I think next year, Apple and Samsung will be waging a new war in a new market: TVs. According to the latest rumors, Apple is planning to launch a new television next year that would integrate iCloud and apps, and aim at eliminating th

I have a friend who is not on Facebook, and never has been. One friend. Let’s call him Marley, like the puppy (don’t spoil the ending, I’m still reading). He didn’t leave Facebook. He’s never been a member. He knows about it. All of his friends are on Facebook. Marley’s wife is on Facebook, and she’s my friend there (and in real life). Marley’s brother is on Facebook, where he also promotes a band and local tour dates. But Marley flatly refuses to join. Recently, Marley threatened to join Facebook. I owed him some money for concert tickets he bought over the summer. For no good reason, my own sheer laziness, I was very late paying him back. He threatened to join Facebook just to shame me into paying him back. I told him that for $150, it would be worth it to me to get him on board. But I paid him anyway, because I knew there was no enticement that would get him on the site. I’m not sure I can make a judgment about why he is or is not a member. I think we’re past that point. I don’t jus

Every year SlashGear puts together a gift guide that covers all the usual big ticket gadgets that people want for the holidays. It’s a great guide. However, what if you you’re looking for something a bit different or trying to find something for someone a bit harder to shop for? That’s what this guide is for.

Ah, the irony: over the past few weeks even RIM has admitted that the BlackBerry PlayBook is so unloved it can’t even give it away, and now $1.7m-worth of the 7-inch slates have actually been stolen. A truck transporting 22 pallets of the PlayBook to Ontario, Canada, was parked up for the driver to take a rest break, The Herald Bulletin reports, when it was stolen by person or persons unknown. The daring PlayBook getaway took place at the Pilot Travel Center off State Road 67, west of Interstate 69, in Chesterfield, Indiana. The driver had been away for an hour, returning to the lot to discover that the semi was gone, complete with RIM’s tablets and his own belongings. Our guess is that the thieves didn’t know it was a QNX tablet they were getting  - as far as we know, RIM doesn’t brand its haulage with “BlackBerry On Board” – and the theft was relatively blind. Considering muggers are nowrefusing to steal anything but Apple hardware in some areas, we can only imagine the disappointmen

This week we’ve seen two Motorola tablets, both of them with essentially the same name DROID XYBOARD, this the smaller of the two at 8.2-inches in screen size. While the 10.1-inch display sized iteration costs a bit more and does afford you a bit more screen real-estate, what you’re about to see is an account that’ll let you know how little you’re missing when you go with the slightly more convenient sized 8.2. That and we’ve got a couple of accessories to peek at as well. Also note that if you’re looking for the 10.1-inch version, you’ve only to check out the timeline after the second paragraph to head on down the rabbit hole. This is the next step in the Motorola like of devices, and not just in the tablet lineup, in the dual-core and above lineup as well. Starting with the Motorola Atrix at the start of 2011, the dual-core processor-toting handset craze began, and with it Motorola started their lineup of dual-port-toting smart devices that continues to this day. The XYBOARD is the l

This week the coolest team of space explorers on the planet at NASA have announced their next raging action and adventure television episode called “Space Harpoons!” – or that’s what you might think if you’d not read too deeply into their press release which details not only “The Comet Nucleus Sample Return Mission,” but both the fantastically powerful metal ballista and space harpoon they’re currently testing out for it. Scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. are currently in early stages of testing a harpoon of epic proportions, able to collect samples of materials from the surface layers of a comet. What they’re currently testing out is how hard their six foot tall crossbow will have to fire a harpoon with its 1/2 inch thick bow string to blast through enough layers of rock on the surface of the space bodies it intends to study.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 has just passed through the FCC, but this time around it’s packing support for Verizon’s 4G LTE network. We first saw the device back at IFA 2011, where it was yanked from the show due to Apple’s legal claims. Despite being missing since, it has recently re-emerged and hopefully goes on sale soon. The tablet is dubbed with the model number SCH-i815 and sports CDMA 800/1900 and LTE radios, indicating that it’s heading to Verizon. The WiFi-only and HSPA+ versions of the tablet have already passed through FCC testing before and with this model finally getting approval, we’re hoping to see the device on store shelves soon. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 features a 7.7-inch Super AMOLED display, which has a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. It also rocks a powerful 1.4GHz dual-core processor and measures in under 8mm thin. For more details on the slate, make sure to check out our hands-on with the tablet at IFA as well as our comparison of the device with the Galaxy Note and Galax

Last week, I talked about Verizon’s reported desire to acquire Netflix, and why such a maneuver would be a bad one for the company. And although I still feel that way, it’s quickly becoming clear that in a year, Netflix won’t be Netflix. The streaming company will be part of a much larger firm that will use it as a key component in a move to expand a home-entertainment empire. Some might be surprised to hear that Netflix might be acquired. They might say that the company will turn things around next year, and as its stock price starts to rise, any potential suitor will back off for fear of paying too much for the service. But I see things differently. I think Netflix’s ill-fated decision earlier this year to spin off its DVD business into a new company, called Qwikster, was designed to make its streaming service more attractive to buyers. And although Qwikster didn’t work out, I think Reed Hastings and his executive team are still trying to find a way to sell off the streaming b

Microsoft today revealed more details on its picture password sign-in feature that will be native to Windows 8. The feature is more geared towards the tablet interface as it requires touchscreen functionality. It’s been available in the Windows 8 Developer Preview and now we get a more in-depth look at how secure it is and how it was built. The picture password feature has two main steps to logging in. First, you must select a picture of your own instead of a stock image provided by Microsoft and then you will indicate a set of gestures in relation to points on the image that you would repeat to sign in. These gestures will take into account the shape, the start and end points, as well as the directionality. However, the shapes and gestures are limited to tapping and tracing a line or circle. Microsoft found that limiting the gestures improved the speed of sign-ins by three times compared to allowing freeform methods. Incorrect gestures will always deny a login, but there is some toler

When the original $250 USD version of the Nintendo 3DS was released, not just one whole heck of a lot of people purchased it – but those of you who did were promised 20 free downloadable games, 10 of them NES games that have now been available to play since September 2011, the rest being Game Boy Advance games and announced this week as being available for your downloading delight. This was all part of what Nintendo called an “Ambassador” program for those mad about grabbing the 3DS before the great price drop also known as “woops we didnt realize you didnt want to pay that much” early in the device’s life – now the joke is yours! These games include such greats as Wario Land 4 and Mario vs. Donkey Kong – what treats! Those of you hoping to download the rest of the Game Boy Advance library of utterly classic games such as the Pikachu edition of Pokemon will have to wait, as no such ability is being announced as being in the works. Those of you in the Ambassador program, the full list o

Google has announced via Twitter that it will be rolling out Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to the Nexus Sstarting today. The GSM models of the device will be the first to receive the update, which will roll out in batches. The Nexus S was Google’s premiere Android 2.3 Gingerbread device that launched last November. The update will be issued over-the-air and proceed to roll out to devices in waves over the next month. This means that some users of the Nexus S GSM version could be getting the update as early as today, while others may have a month to wait. Nexus S 4G users on the WiMAX network will have to be more patient. And if you’re waiting for the update, you might as well check out Google’s tips for Android 2.3 Nexus S usersupgrading to Android 4.0. Some functions and features such as changing wallpaper, adding a widget to the Home screen, and scrolling through apps are slightly different on the new interface.

For the longest time, the world of entertainment has been so renowned because of the influence that every artist makes. Every once in a while, when one asks a child what they want to be when they grow up, it is not impossible that one of their answers would include being a singer, dancer, actress, rapper and all sorts of entertainers. People look up to famous actors and actresses like Elvis Presley, Michael Douglas, George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julia Roberts and so many more. In the music industry, many personalities and singers have been added throughout the years which made the entertainment world more fascinating and ostentatiously magnificent including Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Adele, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Rihanna and thousands more and still coming. Also, breakthroughs have arisen and the entertainment world has never been this great most especially when the era of reality shows entered the scene. Year by year, a list of reality shows pops out into ou