IBLOG SPACE

There was a trailer full of goodies in the middle of a hall at CES 2012 with one gigantic gorilla man logo on the side, this being Outdoor Technologies, a group that’s about to explode onto the scene with such gems as their waterproof cases for iPhone and this, their wireless boombox “Turtle Shell.” This device is made for your hardcore activities such as biking, hiking, and camping as its both waterproof and fully mountable. Attach it to your bike, your rucksack, or even yourself! This device is still likely several months off from actual review units or a full release, but full waterproofing on a speaker that’ll connect to any of your bluetooth-enabled devices is fun to consider! It’s also got both a built-in mic so you can use this monster as a speakerphone whenever the situation calls for it. The speaker is also shock and dust-proof incase you drop it down the side of a short cliff – though I’m sure they don’t suggest whipping it into a canyon just for testing. The Turtle She

There’s one fair tech mind out there in the world, at least, and his name is Steve Wozniak – and this week his words are being twisted all to heck, either saying that he’s in love with iPhone or Android, depending on how you see it. Whilst speaking with the Daily Beast, Woz, (the co-founder of Apple, if you do not know,) said first that he’s had greater success with Android’s voice command system than he’s had with Apple’s Siri, but next that he uses the iPhone as his primary device anyway. He also notes how Android has slightly better navigation built-in, but that Apple is his preferred system with iOS. This fellow is notorious for allowing himself to be trying out a variety of systems, he himself being a lover of all technological bits across the board. Just a few weeks ago at the launch of the Galaxy Nexus, Woz made no secret of heading down to Google headquarters to pick his own special unit up. Now with both the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy Nexus well off the ground, both of them he

Slated for the Spring of 2012, TRAKTOR has today shown off a station that’ll take the last vestiges of advantage live performers had to place it in the hands of all peoples, the music expanding to the masses with no hinderances. What this station represents is a new tie between digital and analog mixing for the DJ on the run as well as professionals having worked in the field for generations. We’re in an exciting time for digital music, folks, no doubt about that. Check out how the DJ crafts a few beats here in this trailer and notice how the digital bits flying around in a transparent array, this telling you that while the connection is there, you’ll still be working in your native environment. This takes what mostly analog users had loved about their preferred work station and keeps it in the real world, taking with it the advantages of the digital world to make a wholly connected experience. Now we’ve only got the skills of the DJ at hand to blame for the idiotically insanely

Opponent of the Stop Online Piracy Act, California congressman Darrell Issa noted today that he’d been told by House majority leader Eric Cantor that there would be no vote on SOPA “unless there is consensus on the bill,” this essentially shelving the project until further notice. This move “effectively scuppers” SOPA, as the Guardian notes, and puts pressure on the next most notorious bill regarding these matters, the e-Parasite act, as it comes to a vote on January 24th. This is the victory we’ve been waiting for, folks, unless you’re a big media company that hoped to mis-use the bill, of course. Issa continued by noting that “While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House.” This is, again, a decisive victory for not only those opponents of the bill in Washington, but the masses of internet groups that came out to oppose the bill and its flawed bits allowing companies to shut down webpage

All the way over in Frankfurt there’s been an announcement that BMW has recalled some 235,000 vehicles in their Mini brand across the world, citing an electric water pump malfunction as the reason why. What happens with this water pumps is that when it’s supposed to be cooling the turbo charger, it can malfunction and cause the connected electronic circuit board to overheat. This malfunction can then cause the circuit board to smolder or outright catch fire. Mini drivers that this recall might affect should expect communication starting next month. This recall affects Mini and Mini Cooper vehicles, and those of you that wish to find out more instead of waiting on a call from your friendly BMW dealer should contact BMW directly though their customer relations line here in the USA at 1-800-831-1117 or email customerrelations@bmwusa.com. Those outside the USA should contact the dealers they purchased their vehicles from. A spokesperson from BMW has noted that there haven’t been any ac

A net-zero energy house concept could actually feed power into the grid using a bank of solar panels and innovative exterior insulation cladding, without sacrificing either style or geek-appeal. CHIP – or Compact Hyper-Insulated Prototype – is the handiwork of students from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech), wrapping a thick thermal envelop around a house controlled by an iPad and a Kinect sensor bar. The wedge-shaped structure consists of various stacked layers, with the more private areas of the house – such as bedrooms – shifted further back and away from public view. Modular and pull-out cabinets, seating and other furniture increases flexibility in use, while the bathroom is a wetroom with a sunken bathtub. Up to 45 solar panels can be mounted on the roof, providing three times the energy than the CHIP home actually requires. LED lighting and wireless switches mean less power, fewer bulbs and no compl

Apple has become the first technology company to join the Fair Labor Association as a Participating Company, obligating the Cupertino firm to open its chain of suppliers to regular investigation by the FLA’s auditors. The membership was announced as part of Apple’s annual responsibility report, which also included a breakdown of the top 95-percent of the company’s suppliers; never a firm to shirk from hyperbole, Apple commented that “it’s a level of transparency and independent oversight that is unmatched in our industry.” “Apple will also open its supply chain to the FLA’s independent auditing team, who will measure our suppliers’ performance against the FLA’s Workplace Code of Conduct and the results will appear on their website” Apple In addition to the checks, the FLA will also be working with Apple on its worker empowerment program and its Supplier Employee Education and Development (SEED) program. These teach workers their employment rights – including health & safety and

If you’ve ever looked at Apple’s iPad and thought “I measure my multitouch in feet, not inches” then the HP VantagePoint is for you, a wall-sized display intended for collaborative digital fondling. The VantagePoint system couples together six of HP’s LD4730G 47-inch Ultra-Micro Bezel displays with two PCs doing the heavy lifting, for an 11 foot by 7 foot screen. An HP Z800 workstation pumps out a 4098 x 1536 picture spread across all six screens, while a separate HP Pavilion Slimline desktop handles audio separately along with color processing. The displays are fronted by a layer of Gorilla Glass, in case you get too eager with your tapping. HP is positioning the VantagePoint as ideal for showrooms, educational environments and offices; however, you can also pump cable and satellite TV, as well as any streaming content from online or via a DVD, DVR or Blu-ray player through the screen. Software is Windows 7 with support for custom apps coded in JavaScript, Flash, C++, C# or Micr

T-Mobile USA’s Nokia Lumia 710 is now available free in the US, having already been something of a bargain at just $49.95 with a new agreement. Put on sale just last week, the 710 has already been discounted down to free-with-contract by Walmart, as carrier and retailers attempt to get as many sales in as they can before the AT&T Lumia 900 goes on sale. That deadline of sorts is expected to be in mid-March, with a Nokia Developers email newsletter tipping the end-of-Q1 date earlier this month. Officially unveiled last week, the Lumia 900 promises to be the most advanced Nokia Windows Phone we’ve seen, toting LTE connectivity along with a 4.3-inch ClearBlack display and 8-megapixel camera. More details in our full hands-on. It remains to be seen exactly how competitively AT&T – or resellers – will price the Lumia 900, though there’s an argument to be made for a similar sub-$100 or even free-on-contract deal to drive Nokia’s marketshare in the US. As for the Lumia 710, check

The big names in tablets were out in force at CES last week, but that didn’t stop smaller players like Coby bringing their cheap Ice Cream Sandwich slates to the show. Android Community grabbed some playtime with the Coby Kyros MID9742-8, the stand-out model from nine new tablets the company unveiled this month, with an iPad-alike screen and expected sub-$200 price tag. The 9.7-inch Android 4.0.1 slate runs at 1024 x 768, just like Apple’s tablet (and, for that matter, the HP TouchPad), with ICS running on a 1GHz single-core Cortex processor paired with 1GB of RAM. That’s obviously slower than many of the dual- and quad-core slates we’re seeing, but the amount of memory is healthy and the price should assuage too much spec-envy. 8GB of internal memory – with a card slot to add to it – along with WiFi b/g/n round out the main hardware, though Coby apparently hasn’t finalized the exact specifications; for instance, this particular Kyros could still grow a rear camera. The biggest iss

Home automation needn’t be difficult if there’s just one or two things you want to turn on and off remotely, with the ZMote Smart Cord packing Bluetooth into a regular power cable. A three foot extension cord with a regular US three-prong plug and outlet, a compact box partway along contains a Bluetooth chip that can be used to turn the power on or off from your iPhone, iPad, other smartphone, tablet or laptop. The Bluetooth box itself actually uses an A2DP connection – with up to 30 foot range – for control, with straightforward installation too. If you’re somewhat nifty with electrics, you can opt for the Smart Switch instead, which comes ready to be wired into the electric cord of any appliance. An override button lets you turn it off even if you don’t have your phone or tablet to hand. ZMote has an outdoor version of the Smart Cord in the pipeline too, which is weatherproof, and a Smart Switch with Dimming that allows you to adjust the lighting level. A set of table and upright

Nokia has taken 450 of the patents that it holds and sold them off to another firm called Sisvel. The patents that were sold have to do with wireless and video technology. Sisvel is an Italian patent licensing firm. It’s more than a little interesting that at a time when many other tech firms are buying patents, Nokia is selling. The patents in the sale cover things like GSM, 3G and LTE mobile devices. The video patents have to do with encoding optimization. Nokia gets to keep the license to use the tech as part of the sale. The 450 patents sold off are only 1/60th of its patent portfolio of pending and granted patents. Out of those 450 patents, 350 of them are considered essential and are assumed to be used by other firms. This raises the question of why sell the patents. The easy guess is that Nokia is hard up for money in the face of very hard competition and sagging sales of its devices globally. Sisvel is using the patents to deepen its pool of patents for LTE technology.

Apple’s iPhone is undergoing some unofficial surgery to make it more palatable to military users, with carriers in Singapore reportedly removing the camera from the smartphone so that it can be used in secretive workplaces. The warranty-busting modification was first tipped by a hastily-pulled product page from carrier M1, the Jakarta Globe reports, which listed the tweaked iPhone 4S at more than $900 with a new agreement. M1 subsequently said that the link “has been removed as we are making some adjustments to this service” and declined to comment further on the changes it was implementing. Fellow Singaporean carriers StarHub and SingTel both confirmed they were in negotiations with the country’s Defense Ministry regarding non-camera models, but would not say if the iPhone was on the list of potential devices. As is the case with many secure workplace environments, such as R&D labs, Singapore’s military bases refuse to allow photographic-capable devices on-site. The Defense Mi

UK fans of Lovefilm that have subscribed will get some new programs from the US to enjoy. Lovefilm has landed the rights to stream past episodes of some of the most popular shows on ABC in the UK. The new programming will be available at no more cost to subscribers on the DVD and streaming plan and the streaming alone plans. As it is now the service is fighting Netflix on the UK, and has priced itself at £1 under Netflix prices. The new streaming ABC content from the US will help to round out the catalog and make Lovefilm more appealing. Oddly, while PaidContent reports that lower price was announced last week, it’s still not available to purchase on the Lovefilm site. The new ABC shows will include the entire series of Lost along with older episodes of Castle, Grey’s Anatomy, and Ghost Whisperer. The first run episodes of all these shows will still be offered on free or pay TV in the UK. Netflix is expected to grab its own rights to the shows for the UK since it’s not an exclusive

Zappos isn’t the only site to suffer an embarrassing hack to its customer databases; discount affiliate 6pm has also been affected by the data theft. Just as with the main site, 6pm has contacted registered users to warn them that their personal details – including delivery and billing addresses, phone numbers, partial credit card details and more – have been extracted from a Kentucky data center. 6pm.com was hewn off and run separately from Zappos back in 2008, focusing on the discount end of the market. The retail site has proved a hit with bargain shoppers, offering up to 75-percent cuts on RRP, though unlike Zappos does not include free two-way shipping, and products have a reduced, 30-day warranty period. As is the case for Zappos customers, 6pm users’ credit card details have not been leaked. Instead, only the final four digits of registered cards – commonly used to identify the stored card to the shopper on the checkout page – are among the hacked data. 6pm users can reset

Apparently, a new molecule has been discovered floating around in the atmosphere that has the ability to possibly fight global warming. Researchers from the University of Manchester Bristol and Sandia National Laboratories in the US have detected the new molecule that has been dubbed Criegee biradicals. The new molecule could oxidize sulfur dioxide according to the researchers. That sulfur dioxide eventually turns into sulphuric acid and that compound is known to cause a cooling effect. One thing that the researchers can’t figure out at this point is how many of the new molecules would need to be formed to have any effect on the temperature around the world. The molecules and the impact on the safety of the world would have to be investigated further. It would not be a good thing to generate a bunch of these molecules and then find they are harmful in some way. This reminds me a lot of the scene in The Matrix where they show the burned sky that humans caused fighting the machines.

Nissan may not be a name you traditionally associate with iPhone 4S cases, but the company’s Scratch Shield model promises self-healing magic to keep your iOS smartphone scrape free. Using the same clever scratch-healing paint as used on Nissan and Infiniti cars, the Nissan Scratch Shield iPhone case can actually repair any blemishes, the gel-like flexible finish changing back to its original form. Nissan says the average scratch should be “healed” in around an hour, but more serious grazes could take anything up to a week to be fixed. Still, compared to smashing the glass back panel of your iPhone 4S or iPhone 4 – either of which generally aren’t fixed until you throw money or insurance at them – it’s a lot more preferable. The magic is Nissan’s polyrotaxane-based paint, which is layered over an ABS plastic shell. A side-benefit is that it feels more tactile and grippy than a regular paint finish, which should hopefully help you avoid dropping it in the first place. Nissan has alr

Windows 8 is shaping up to be the best OS Microsoft has had in years, but limitations around ARM-based tablets and concerns over x86-based model pricing could sour the platform’s launch later this year. Microsoft has mandated that ARM Windows 8 machines – expected to be the bulk of low-cost Windows 8 tablets – must have their Secure Boot system locked down, ComputerWorld reports, or in order words users must not be allowed to load non-Windows platforms onto ARM hardware. According to a document titled Windows Hardware Certification Requirements, which Microsoft released last month, the company confirms that it is up to manufacturers as to whether Secure Boot is locked down or not. For x86-powered PCs, notebooks and tablets, OEMs are free to decide which way to leave the settings; however there is no choice for ARM-powered models: “MANDATORY: Enable/Disable Secure Boot. On non-ARM systems, it is required to implement the ability to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup. A physicall

If you have been following the drama surrounding Russia’s failed attempt to send a probe dubbed Phobos-Grunt to the moon, the saga is now over. The probe failed to reach an orbit that would allow the massive scientific tool to start its trip to the Red Planet. The probe instead started to fall back to Earth. With so many factors contributing to where something falling back to Earth from Space might land, no one knew exactly where Phobos-Grunt would hit. What we did know was that some pieces of the probe would survive reentry and posed some risk to several major cities around the country. With most of our planet covered in water, the chance was that the ocean would be where the probe chunks landed and that held true. The probe apparently broke up as expected in the atmosphere and hit the Pacific Ocean around 12:45 p.m. Easter time. This was the second Mars probe to fail to make it to the planet that Russia has launched. Some in Russia have hinted that some sort of anti-satellite wea

I will admit to being a bit excited at the thought of LightSquared coming to market. Anyone who lives in an area with only one broadband provider offering only slow speeds at a high price would appreciate competition. One of the services that I was hoping would provide that competition is LightSquared. The company is on the ropes though. The initial plans for the wireless broadband service were shot down due to interference with many GPS devices on the market right now. LightSquared came back with an alternative plan with a lower powered service that it said would not interfere as badly. Even those plans are being frowned on by the FCC, and it appears that LightSquared may be dead before it starts. A letter from the FAA has been published that used tests by a panel of nine experts in different government agencies and departments. The conclusion was that LightSquared posed a risk of dangerous interference with GPS devices. LightSquared has argued in the past that GPS has no right to

Mass Effect is one of my personal favorite video game franchises out there. I player the first game through several times choosing different characters to see what it was like from other perspectives, and I liked the second installment as well. Mass Effect 3 is in the works, and the game should be another fantastic installment for the franchise. The thrid installment is going more Hollywood it seems. The developers are talking a bit about the game and what they are saying bodes well for the fans. They are treating the new game like a movie and will be delving deeper into the story and the character development in the next installment. The devs do note that people that haven’t played the first two games will be able to jump in with the third in the franchise and understand what is going on. Particularly, Commander Shepard will get more emotion. That will be interesting considering he has been mostly of the no emotion type in the other games. I can’t wait for this new game to hit sto

Nissan has revealed its latest concept, the March Nismo, the company’s third sports-focused premium compact. Making liberal use of the Nismo tuning parts bin, the new concept is based on Nissan’s altogether more sedate March compact, giving it the necessary oomph to wow at the Tokyo Auto Salon 2012. So, the humble March sees its body clad in Nismo aeroparts that – rather than just looking aggressive – actually improve efficiency, along with a modified front grille being grafted on and an aerodynamically-tweaking rear lip spoiler. Even the door mirrors have been fettled to improve airflow. The March Nismo concept sits on chunky, lightweight wheels and has high-performance suspension, with the driver ensconced in custom seats with a new steering wheel design. Unfortunately Nissan hasn’t released interior shots, so we’ll just have to imagine them ourselves. Like the Juke Nismo Concept and the Leaf Nismo Concept before it, this March madness won’t actually go on sale. Instead, Nissan

UK Windows Phone 7 fans will get their chance to own a new smartphone from Nokia in February. The Lumia 710 will hit the UK in February according to Nokia UK. We spent hands-on time with the Lumia 710 in the past, and it’s not a bad smartphone at all. The device has been in the US for sale already and with the UK getting it now the global rollout is starting. The smartphone comes in six different colors and uses Windows Mobile 7.5. It has a 3.7-inch screen and a 5MP rear camera. Storage is 8GB and it packs in 512MB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth, and uses a 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor. That rear camera can shoot still photos and 720p HD video. There are still some important questions to be answered about the smartphone. It’s not clear what carriers will be selling the device in UK. Presumably, it will come to multiple carriers. Most importantly, we still don’t know how much the phone will cost. With carriers in the UK offering many smartphones free on certain plains, odds are you will be ab

It looks like the video card wars are set to get hot again as AMD is rolling out its latest GPU by the end of the month called the HD 7950 reports DigiTimes. The new GPU uses 28nm process tech. It looks like for at least a few months; AMD will be the only major GPU firm offering 28nm process chips. DigiTimes sources claim that NVIDIA is holding out on offering 28nm parts until April. The sources claim that NVIDIA is looking at holding off until the power consumption and manufacturing process of the new chips is perfected. If NVIDIA actually sticks to that April launch, it will put the new GPU on the market at roughly the same time as the 22nm Intel Ivy Bridge processors. There will reportedly be several GPUs that come from NVIDIA using the 28nm process. Sources are claiming there will be a GK104 to replace the current GTX 560Ti GPU, a GK107 for the entry-level market, and a GK106 for the mid-range to entry-level shoppers. The GK110 will pack in a pair of the GK104 GPUs and the high

Not only is a Windows Phone Skype app incoming, but Microsoft will “further integrate” the VoIP service into future versions of its smartphone OS, according to Skype CEO Tony Bates. Details on the nature of the deeper integration are still unclear, though the assumption is that – just as Android allows outgoing and incoming calls to be routed over either traditional mobile networks or via VoIP – Windows Phone will give users the option to choose the cheapest route for their calls, as well as presumably sync Skype contacts with the handset’s address book and show presence status. Microsoft acquired Skype back in October, at the time promising a “ubiquity of the Skype experience” and reassuring users that “communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus.” At the time, that was seen as a commitment to maintaining versions of Skype for Mac, Android, iOS and other platforms. However, Skype could also be a significant draw for future iterations of Windo

Video streaming sites started out as places where fans of TV shows could go to catch up on past seasons and episodes that they might have missed on TV. Hulu was mostly a catch up site when it launched. It then added movies to compete with Netflix. As Netflix is evolving into the next logical step with its own original programming, Hulu is looking to do the same. Hulu is reportedly seeking funding to allow it to produce and distribute its own shows. The first original show for Hulu will be one called Battleground, a fake documentary series about a political candidate. The program is scripted, and it will air on February 14. Hulu doesn’t foresee any issues raising the money needed for new shows. Hulu was entertaining offers to sell earlier this year, which never materialized.

Notion Ink has been playing things quiet since its all-singing, all-dancing CES 2012 reveal, but the company isn’t holding back with Android updates: now users have a new Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3 alpha to try out on their slates. Released this weekend, the updated ROM sees WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS functioning, as well as hardware video acceleration, though there are still some blips to iron out. Meanwhile, there are whispers of new Notion Ink hardware on the horizon. Audio, the various buttons, SD card use and HDMI video all work too, though HDMI audio, the camera, USB port, light sensor and YouTube HQ hardware video acceleration are still on the to-do list. There’s also a sleep bug still affecting the tablet, though there’s a workaround to address it. As for the new hardware, Notion Ink says to expect an announcement next week about its next-gen products. Last we heard, the company had been envisaging a December reveal, but that deadline came and went without a peep. Various closed

ASUS still has no plans for a 3G-enabled Transformer Prime the company has insisted, despite roadmap information from earlier this month to the contrary. “No such product exists on [the] current roadmap” an ASUS statement to Focus Taiwan claims, though 3G versions of other “high-end products in the Transformer family” are likely in the future. Exactly which products ASUS has in mind is unclear. The Transformer series currently consists of three models, the original Transformer - of which a 3G version already exists – and the Transformer Prime launched late last year, along with the new Transformer Prime 700 series with a 1080p-capable display and redesigned back cover for improved wireless performance, announced at CES last week. However, with the success of both Transformer and Transformer Prime, more products in the series seems likely. ASUS also revealed the Eee Pad MeMo at CES, though it is not part of the Transformer series and, so far, there’s no sign of a 3G-enabled version.

Online shoes and clothing retailer Zappos has warned customers of a security breach that exposed partial credit card details, billing and shipping addresses and other personal information, in a hack effecting 24m users. Detailed in a blog post last night, the Zappos attack was apparently though a Kentucky data center, though the servers responsible for storing full credit card and payment details was not impacted. Zappos is now mandating a change of password for all customers to restore security. “We are cooperating with law enforcement to undergo an exhaustive investigation. Because of the nature of the investigation, the information in this email is being sent a bit more formally, and unfortunately we are not able to provide any more details about specifics of the attack beyond what is in this email and the link at the end of this email, but we can say that THE DATABASE THAT STORES OUR CUSTOMERS’ CRITICAL CREDIT CARD AND OTHER PAYMENT DATA WAS NOT AFFECTED OR ACCESSED. The most i

Outspoken News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch has launched a renewed attack on Google, calling it the “piracy leader” of the internet and accusing it apposing SOPA as it makes money off adverts shown around illegal content. Murdoch turned to Twitter for his rant, seemingly triggered by the Obama Administration’s comments this weekend that it had concerns over the controls implicit in the Stop Online Piracy Act. “Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery” Murdoch fumed, before illustrating his complaint with Google by searching for movie Mission Impossible. “Wow, several sites offering free links” he concluded, “I rest my case.” Murdoch’s SOPA-supporting tirade was derailed somewhat by fellow tweeters commenting on his stance, and complaining about theater prices. “Agree about cinema prices which out [sic] of our control” Murdoch conceded, “but even more offensive are prices for popcorn and sodas.” Google

Samsung has announced plans to merge its homegrown bada smartphone platform with open-source Tizen, a collaborative OS integrating Nokia-reject MeeGo, with the first Samsung Tizen devices tipped for release this year. ”We have an effort that will merge bada and Tizen” Tae-Jin Kang, Senior Vice President of Samsung’s Contents Planning Team told Forbes at CES 2012 last week. Tizen will show up on “at least one to two” Samsung phones in 2012, Kang confirmed; earlier this month, details leaked on the Samsung I9500, believed to run the new platform. Although Samsung’s integration work is still underway, with no timescale expressed for its completion, when finished it should bring Tizen and bada developers and apps together. Tizen devices will be able to run software created using the bada SDK, Kang said, with existing apps requiring no modification; meanwhile both bada and Tizen developers will use the same SDK and APIs moving forward. The Linux core of the two platforms will also be harm

A surprising amount of fabulous devices were shown this past week by Lenovo to the hordes of press looking to snap shots and take video of the latest and the greatest from the manufacturer as they ran Android for mobile and Windows for both mobile and laptop stations – what the Lenovo S2 represents is the Android world. What Lenovo’s got here is another chance for you to take advantage of their unique user interface not unlike what we’ve also just seen on the world’s first Android running an Intel Medfield chip, the Racer-A, aka the K800. This device here, the L2, represents a budget smartphone running that same Android user interface. This device has another name, that being the LePhone S2, this harkening back to all of our memories of the LePhone as the smartphone world developed over the past few years, Lenovo along with it. The S2 has a 3.8-inch display at WVGA resolution, runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and has an 8-megapixel camera on the back. That’s no joke for a device that al

We’ve seen this device before, it having been on display early last year at Mobile World Congress 2011, but it being here at Pepcom during CES 2012 is more than a little telling for a device that was supposed to be a hit with Windows users throughout most of last year. When it comes to convertible tablets, your humble narrator’s favorite device is the Transformer Prime, not least of all because it’s able to fold down and be a laptop whenever you decide you want to transport it in such a way, not to mention the fact that it’s got a fully functional trackpad to make it a high-class convertible in every aspect of the word – so why is it selling off the shelves while the Iconia Tab W500 remains one of the loneliest tablets in Acer’s line of otherwise amazing hardware? Several odd bits hold this device back from any kind of potential winning it was going to do in this market: first of all, it was launched much, much before Windows 8 came around. With Windows 8 touch-friendly interface rig

At Pepcom during CES 2012 we got the opportunity to hop into a vehicle containing a 7-inch display that would, when connected with Telenav’s technology, be able to run all the navigation and service-finding awesomeness we’ve come to expect from the GPS navigation group. What we got to see what just that, an Android device not only mirroring itself to the display, but displaying a whole different interface made specifically for the 7-inch form factor, it showing maps, favorite places, traffic information, information about the current status of your car, and more. Have a peek as the demonstration speeds its way through downtown Las Vegas. This system has just been launched this past week with real-time local information as well as integration with your contacts, music, and all of it from the one “My Dashboard” page. You’ll be able to connect with iPhone as well, it having an initial offer of Scout.me integration, the site offering you the ability to plan with friends via Facebook and

The big guns at Toshiba have decided to tie their mobile sector and their brand new smart TVs together with a push for full integration via an app by the name of Toshiba MediaGuide. This application allows you to control your cable box or satellite receiver of one of either of the Toshiba L6200 or L7200 Cinema Series Smart TVs, and can be run on essentially any Android device, including the one we’re seeing here – the Toshiba Excite X10 10-inch tablet. We also got a slightly closer look at the Toshiba L7200 Cinema Series LES Smart 3D TV if you’d like to take a peek at that, this post concentrating on the application itself. This application works with data from Rovi, it providing users with an extensive, descriptive set of megadata on the shows they’ve got access to. Inside is more than 2.5 million program descriptions, shows as they pop up, and searchable data on TV series and celebrities that goes back to 1960, and more! Have a peek at how this app will work on your tablet, for exa