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Showing posts from January 7, 2012

AT&T Galaxy Note leaker backtracks after accessories blunder

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Back-tracking this morning on the apparent confirmation of the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note by an accessories company yesterday, with Anymode’s third-party PR team now claiming the pre-announce info had not been approved by either AT&T, Samsung or indeed Anymode itself. The info – that Anymode was an OEM vendor of Galaxy Note accessories for the AT&T variant – “contained inaccurate information” and has been retracted. “The information was not provided by Anymode, AT&T or Samsung , nor did Anymode, AT&T or Samsung approve it … The issuing party apologizes for the publishing of the inaccurate information and any inconvenience it may have caused” Anymode’s original press release had promised covers, cases, skins, earphones, batteries and Bluetooth gadgets for the Galaxy Note. The AT&T variant is expected in the US in early 2012, the information continued, despite neither the carrier nor Samsung actually confirming it was ever in the pipeline in the first place. U

Toshiba tips “thinnest & lightest” 10.1-inch tablet plus OLED tab for CES 2012

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Toshiba has previewed its CES 2012 intentions, promising to demonstrate the world’s thinnest and lightest 10.1-inch tablet at the show next week, as well as 13.3-inch ultrabooks plus slates using OLED panel technology. Details are short and boasts are strong in the company’s Japanese press release, but “thinnest and lightest” is a common mantra: Toshiba is looking to corner the market in slimline notebooks and innovative portable tech. A high-brightness OLED tablet with a supposedly thin profile is particularly interesting, given so far we’ve only really seen OLED commercially applied to small scale devices like smartphones. We can’t say we’re upset at the idea of the vivid colors and huge viewing angles OLED generally delivers being offered on a slate, however. There’ll also be a waterproof wireless tablet and some new TV kit to demonstrate, including models with four times the usual Full HD resolution, and a 55-inch glasses-free 3D prototype. Finally, Toshiba wants to show off it

Vuzix Smart Glasses add AR display to ordinary-looking specs

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Vuzix is promising Terminator-style augmented reality head-up displays, without the geeky oversized specs usually associated with the tech, in its new streamlined Smart Glasses. Built around a pair of reasonably ordinary-looking sunglasses, Vuzix’s Smart Glasses use some licensed Nokia IP to fit a 1.4mm waveguide lens and a tiny display engine into frames that won’t leave you looking like an 70s throwback. The display engine itself promises high contrast and brightness, suitable for outdoor use, while the waveguide is similarly special. Vuzix says it uses “input and output hologram structures on the surface which squeezes the light down the waveguide and then two dimensionally expands the image back into the user’s eye, creating an image that is then mixed into the real world.” What that adds up to is the ability to pull data from your smartphone, laptop or another source up into your glasses, overlaying and integrating that information into your view of the real world. Both daytim

Nikon D4 official: $6k 16.2MP ISO 204,800 DSLR

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Nikon has unveiled the new D4 DSLR, a full-frame 16.2-megapixel camera with a brand new FX-format CMOS sensor, capable of 10fps continuous shooting and up to ISO 204,800. Finally replacing the Nikon D3S, the D4 captures 1080/30p Full HD video and has a speed-boosted 51-point AF System; in fact, speed is the order of the day all round, with Nikon boasting the D4 is ready to shoot in around 0.012 seconds. That carries over to image processing using the EXPEED 3 engine, too, topping out at 11fps with AF/AE locked. A new 91,000-pixel RGB 3D Color Matrix metering system monitors brightness and color and uses a huge on-board database of color and exposure settings, and there’s 16 face auto-detection even when using the optical viewfinder. Low-light performance is another area Nikon is particularly proud of, thanks to comparatively large 7.3µ pixels in the CMOS sensor, and that Hi-4 204,800 ISO is even supported during video recording. Video itself can be shot in H.264 or MPEG-4 AVC form

LG reveals first Google TV

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LG Electronics will showcase their new TVs powered by Google TV at CES in Las Vegas next week. Running on their own L9 chipset, the LG Smart TV is a brilliant mash up between Google’s Android OS and LG’s Smart TV technologies. The Google TV will feature ARM-based chipsets, allowing for a reduction in power consumption. The LG Google TV comes with the “Magic Remote Qwerty” and a user interface based on Android Honeycomb. The Magic Remote Qwerty is a combination of its voice-controlled Magic Remote with a QWERTY keyboard. With the LG Google TV users can expect an interface and main screen designed for convenient browsing. Those hoping to do a bit of multi-tasking, don’t fret. The search, social networking and TV functions can be run simultaneously. LG’s Google TV will come equipped with LG’s own CINEMA 3D technology.The built-in 2D to 3D conversion engine allows any 2D content to be viewable in 3D. CINEMA 3D glasses, which are battery-free and relatively affordable, will be required

Scientists stop the clock, making an event unseen

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We’ve all seen the crazy antics in movies that would be nigh impossible to pull off in any other situation than a movie set. Tom Cruise’s character in the latest Mission Impossible, Ethan Hunt, strolled into the Moskow Kremlin, set up a faux-transparency screen in a guarded hallway that concealed him and his partner. Now, imagine that sans the special screen used by Cruise’s character; an entire event going unseen. Scientists at Cornell University have, albeit on a much smaller scale, allowed for just that. Their unseen event lasts an incredibly tiny of a second. The event was hidden for a mere 40 picoseconds (trillionths of a second), according to a study the journal Nature. We see events by the light that hits them returning to our eyes. This usually happens in a continuous flow of light. However, the scientists were able to disrupt the flow, even if it was just for a short period of time. Whereas previous scientists disrupted where the light was distributed, which allowed for in

Mogees contact microphone brings out the musician in you

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Contact microphones turn vibrations into electrical signals, and can then be transcoded into sound waves. This is precisely what the Mogees project does, and it does it well. The gadget can stick to any surface and turn it into your musical playground. There are multiple settings to help produce one’s desired sound, but the real key resides in the gestures. Using gestures is where the more unique sounds are discovered, and from the clip below they work flawlessly. Sliding, scratching, tapping and countless other gestures make this little device desirable for anyone. And to be honest, it would make quite an impression in public. If you were hoping to slip one of these gadgets under your teacher’s desk at school, then you might want to think up another prank – because the Mogees project isn’t commercially available. Though, I know a number of people that would pay good money for a little device like this, so we could see a similar product on the market in due time. Until then, you’

Too many memory chips, too few buyers

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In an already wounded market, those in the business for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chips are experiencing more downfalls after research done by IHS iSupply. According to the research, DRAM chips, which are used in products such as personal computers and video game systems, is in a state of oversupply. This has put memory suppliers in a bad state. It’s a buyers market right now if you’re looking into RAM upgrades. IHS iSupply uses a “DRAM Inventory Index” to measure the inventory value at the end of a quarter against the sales for the quarter. The index is used to determine the DRAM inventory held by memory suppliers by recording the number of weeks of inventory the market has. At the end of the third quarter of 2011 inventory stood at 12.8 weeks, a 31% increase from 9.8 weeks in the second quarter. This is also extremely higher than the quarterly average of 9.2 weeks. For buyers of RAM this means you can upgrade for cheaper since suppliers are suffering and are forced to low

ZiiLabs unveils their 100-core ZMS-40 chip for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)

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Do you remember when owning a dual-core device actually meant something? Well that time is approaching its end, because ZiiLabs recently unveiled a processor with – get this – 100 cores. Yeah, the ASUS Transformer Prime touts a quad-core Kal-El processor, but ZiiLabs is really changing the game. It’s set up much like a quad-core chip, but the ZMS-40 adds 96 “StemCell Media Processing” cores that help out the four included ARM Cortex A9 cores. It is not only supposed to reduce battery consumption by half, ZiiLabs claim it will also manage “twice the peak media performance”. When I play graphic intensive games or watch movies on my tablet, the battery drains faster than I can keep up. If the ZMS-40 can remedy that apparent problem – then I hope it makes its way into devices soon. We may actually see a few tablets with the ZMS-40 chip incorporated at CES next week. If so, we’ll be the first to let you know how it stacks up to the rest. But until then, we’ll leave you with the official

Quanta Suing AMD for faulty laptop chips

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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) ended 2011 on a high note. AMD stayed competitive against companies like Nvidia and saw sustained sales. It saw a bright year ahead for 2012 with its December launch of the AMD Radeon HD 7970. However, a sticky situation is brewing for AMD to start off the new year. If you have an Acer, Dell, or HP laptop then you have been in indirect contact with a company that is not happy with AMD. The company in question is Quanta Computer, a Taiwanese company that manufactures laptops for the previously mentioned companies. According to Quanta, AMD is in breach of contract after AMD chips used in laptops were defective. The laptops in question were made for Japanese computer maker NEC Corp. Quanta stated the chips are suffering from from heat tolerance issues in a particular laptop line. However, no specific model numbers have been mentioned. Quanta is suing for breach of warranty, negligent misrepresentation, civil faud, and interference with a contract, cl

House of the Dead 3 & 4 Releasing for the PS3

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Sega’s classic arcade shooter House of the Dead will be making another appearance in the land of console gaming this year. House of the Dead: Overkill Extended Cut, once Wii exclusive, was released for the PlayStatoin 3 last year. Soon that won’t be the only House of the Dead title available to PS3 users. Today Sega announced that House of the Dead 3 and House of the Dead 4 will be available as downloadable titles via the PlayStation Network. Just like their predecessor, House of the Dead: Overkill Extended Cut, House of the Dead 3 and House of the Dead 4 will have Move support. With Move support players can still get that arcade-style experience while playing in their living room. Sega also stated the games were updated with HD graphics and trophies. House of the Dead 3 was originally released in 2002 but only came to the original XBOX in 2003 and the Wii in 2008. House of the Dead 4, which hit North America in 2006, never left arcades. House of the Dead 3 will be available from t