IBLOG SPACE

It looks like the end is near for Blockbuster, the company is shutting down even more of its retail locations that aren’t making money and now there will be even less Blockbuster exposure around the country. Redbox has agreed to purchase the Blockbuster Express kiosks that NCR operates around the country. NCR picked up those kiosks after Blockbuster filed bankruptcy. The purchase will land Redbox 10,000 more kiosk locations. The deal will cost $100 million and will take the kiosk operations away from NCR, more known for ATMs at banks than movie rentals. NCR had previously posted $13 million operating loss, but it’s not clear if that was directly related to losses on its movie rental kiosks or not. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 of 2012. This has some interesting ramifications in the movie rental industry. Redbox recently refused to sign an agreement with Warner Bros. that would have delayed the rental titles coming to the kiosk locations by 56 days rather than the current 2

Yesterday, I mentioned that over the weekend a customer survey had surfaced on the Best Buy website that asked customers questions about an Apple HDTV. We wondered at the time if Best Buy had some inside information, or if it was just fishing for answers on what customers thought about the rumored product. If you recall, that survey outlined an Apple HDTV with a 42-inch screen, iOS HDTV with full HD resolution selling for $1499. Wired got in touch with Best Buy and asked about the survey. The answer was that a research partner conducted the survey. The official response from Best Buy read: The customer survey was a routine offer effectiveness survey conducted by one of Best Buy’s research partners. Any brand reference was hypothetical. The survey is no longer available. It’s funny that Best Buy says the brand reference was hypothetical. Apple has been known to come down with an iron fist on partners who leak information about its products ahead of launch. I would bet someone at Best Bu

Nokia has begun pushing out Nokia Belle to existing Symbian handset owners, bringing phones like the N8, E7 and X7 up to speed with the far-improved upgrade to the OS. Distributed via Nokia Suite – it’s too large for an OTA release, Nokia says - the new platform version consists of aesthetic and functional changes, including a boost to six homescreens now with more flexible shortcuts and widgets, along with 30fps HD video recording. There’s also a much tweaked and enhanced browser, as we saw on the Nokia 700, with increased support for in-page streaming video. A pull-down notifications menu borrows some of Android’s style and throws in some quick-access shortcut toggles for things like wireless power, and the iconography is updated to the “squircle” style. Altogether, it’s the upgrade Symbian users have been waiting semi-patiently for, and something we wish Nokia had delivered two years ago. As it stands, although Nokia has been preloading Belle onto its recent Symbian devices for the

An e-mail exchange been posted to Pastebin that allegedly outlines an attempt by hackers to extort $50,000 out of Symantec. According to the e-mail exchange, a Symantec employee named Sam Thomas was to negotiate payment with hackers who infiltrated Symantec servers and stole the source code to the popular Symantec applications pcAnywhere and Norton antivirus. The hacker/hackers who were conducting the extortion negotiations go by the name Yamatough. In the e-mail, Thomas wrote that Symantec would pay $50,000 total the hackers to keep the source code from being posted publicly. The e-mails also show Thomas claimed Symantec wanted to use a payment system with $2500 a month for the first three months and the balance once it was convinced the source code was destroyed. Symantec has confirmed the extortion attempt to CNET and says that they were conducting an investigation in cooperation with authorities. Symantec also says that the investigation is ongoing, and it will not release the name

Nikon has confirmed pricing and availability for the new Nikon D800 DSLR, as well as revealing its D800E sibling that dumps the low-pass filter for higher-resolution shots. The D800 has a 36.3-megapixel sensor and Nikon’s new EXPEED 3 image-processing engine, and will present an interesting alternative to the D700 being slightly lighter – though in some dimensions larger – but targeting more of a video-shooting, studio or landscape style of image capture. As for the Nikon D800E, that addresses the optical low-pass filter debate with an entirely separate model. Deleting the low-pass filter comes with some compromises, Nikon warns – an increase in aliasing and moiré patterns, for instance, depending on shooting conditions and subject – though they should be relatively straightforward to tweak out in post-processing. However the benefit is higher resolution and clearer definition, ideal for landscape photographers among others. What remains to be seen is whether the D800 is quite small en

Apple’s work on porting OS X to ARM processors has been revealed by an academic paper the company initially insisted on keeping secret, potentially paving the way to the much-rumored ARM-based MacBook Air. The handiwork of former intern turned CoreOS engineer Tristan Schaap, the project - ”Porting Darwin to the MV88F6281” – detailed how the underlying part of OS X was coaxed into running on a Marvell ARM chipset. Schaap managed to get OS X Snow Leopard “booting into a multi-user prompt” on the Marvell chipset, though there were lingering hardware issues that persisted. In the process, he needed to build a filesystem and kernelcache from the ground up, as well as work around old code in the existing ARMv5 branch of XNU. A proper release, he suggested, would first require significant reworking of elements of code, along with new drivers to “fully utilize the potential” of Apple’s hardware. Apps themselves would also need to be re-written – or ported from ARM-based platforms – as well. No

If you think back when the current consoles like the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 hit the market, Sony was left playing catch-up and tacked on a rarely used motion control feature of the PS3 to try and match what the Wii had. If the sketches that are included new Sony patent that surfaced are any indication, Sony isn’t ready to let the new Wii U rocking controllers with little LCD screens get the better of it this time around. The Sony patent art is very odd; it shows something that looks more like a tablet or even an eReader then a Wii U controller. Line art shows a tablet style controller that has some kind connectivity with a sensor on top of the TV. The set-top sensor connects to the console, which looks very much like the current Nintendo Wii in the artwork. Making things even odder, one of the pictures with the patent shows what appears to be the gamer turned into a robot with a laser gun in the tablet controller screen. The smart thing would be to use the PS Vita rather than some o

The fine folks over at Raspberry Pi have announced that they expect fans of their tiny little media streaming system will be able to purchase the device by the end of February. The company had apparently hoped the device would be ready to purchase before the end of the month, but ran into an issue in manufacturing. The manufacturing issue was with the quartz crystal package that the company had chosen. According to the company, the quartz crystal that the Raspberry Pi board was designed to use was readily available in UK, but over in China where the device is manufactured it was hard to find. The manufacturer is finally putting the boards together after getting a supply of the crystals. The first batch of boards is expected to be finished on February 20. After the boards are complete, they will be shipped over to the UK where they will be available for purchase shortly thereafter. Another interesting piece of news has been offered up as well. Broadcom has published a datasheet on the B

Samsung Electronics is considering bringing Samsung Mobile Display, the division responsible for the Super AMOLED panels that have distinguished many of the company’s recent smartphones and tablets, completely in-house, tightening the Samsung supply chain. ”We are considering merging the business to improve synergy, but a final decision has yet to be made” Samsung Electronics revealed in a filing to the South Korea stock exchange, Reuters reports, a move that could spell danger for the display business’ other customers. Currently, Samsung Mobile Display is jointly owned by Samsung Electroncs, with 64.4-percent, and Samsung SDI, holding the minority 35.6-percent. The joint-venture is unlisted on the stock exchange, but operates semi-independently, supplying not only Samsung Electronics but other companies with AMOLED displays. That could change, at least partly, if Samsung Electronics decides to bring the display business in-house. Such a move with give the company even more choice for

Nokia has prematurely revealed the Nokia Lumia 900 White, in what appears to be a Facebook photo gaffe, in the process apparently confirming that the 4.3-inch Windows Phone is launching internationally. Although Nokia apparently meant to talk about the white Lumia 800 we played with yesterday, its photo clearly shows the front-camera-toting Lumia 900 announced in AT&T LTE form back at CES. However, there’s no AT&T branding to be seen on this white Lumia 900, lending weight to speculation that Nokia will indeed be selling it – probably without LTE, however – outside of the US. That’s no bad thing, as the 4.3-inch phone has a great ClearBlack AMOLED display, 8-megapixel camera and a front-facing camera, along with a bigger, 1,830mAh battery than its Lumia 800 sibling. Exactly when the international Lumia 900 will be confirmed is unclear, though with Mobile World Congress fast approaching there’s plenty of reason to assume it may be brought out into the light in Barcelona at the e

Canon has gushed its latest torrent of point-and-shoot cameras, a ten-strong update to its PowerShot line that includes weatherproof options, lengthy zooms and the choice of touchscreen control. Most interesting are the new PowerShot ELPH 530 HS and ELPH 320 HS, which each get WiFi and a 12x and 5x optical zoom respectively. The 530 HS has a 10-megapixel sensor and is 0.78-inches thick, while the 320 HS has a 16.1-megapixel sensor. Both have a 3.2-inch touchscreen and shoot Full HD 1080p video. The 530 HS will ship in April for $349.99, while the 320 HS will ship in March for $279.99. PowerShot SX260 HS – 12.1-megapixel CMOS and 20x optical zoom with optical image stabilization. 1.29-inches thick. Supports 1080p Full HD video recording and GPS phototagging. 10.3fps burst mode. Ships March 2012 for $349.99. PowerShot D20 – 12.1-megapixel CMOS and 5x optical zoom in waterproof, shock-proof and freeze-proof body. Full HD video recording and GPS integration for location tagging. 3-inch pr

If you’re like any good RPG fan, you’ve been playing the latest Elder Scrolls title, the fifth installment known simply as “Skyrim,” for months on end. And you’re probably also not even close to being done with it. The magic and wonder of the ever-vast role-playing masterpiece is about to get even more interesting, as Besthesda is making user-generated content easy to make, find, and download. This is one of the last big reasons to remain a PC gamer. For obvious reasons, the new Skyrim Workshop and Creation Kit are available exclusively on the PC version of Skyrim. The former, the Workshop, is a digital storefront where users can browse mods that other users have created. There is also a rating and feedback system in place so users can find the best and most popular mods in an instant. The best part – they’re all free. And for those who would rather be the ones on the creation side of things, the Creation Kit for Skyrim makes the process much easier. Previously, it was possible to make

A new study from research group StatCounter has found that 8.5% of the world’s Internet usage comes from a mobile device. And when StatCounter says “mobile” device, they’re talking about the purest form – cell phones only. Tablets were not included in the data. So the question is – is this a big number or should it be bigger? The answer is pretty obvious when you look at how the stats have changed over the last couple years. Some headlines regarding the new report claim that “only” 8.5% of Internet downloads and uploads come from smartphones. From our perspective, though, the word “only” is a complete misnomer. Just look back one year – StatCounter’s version of this same study one year ago found that 4.3% of Internet usage came from mobile, and in 2009 the number was 1.6%. So in the span of just two years, mobile Internet usage has increased more than five-fold. That’s pretty impressive if you ask us. As for who is responsible for that usage, Nokia remains the leader in mobile Internet

Video streaming service Hulu teamed up with advertising group Ad Age to create an online portal that featured Super Bowl ads from this year and years past. Immediately after the big game, while much of the country was busy cheering and reveling, there were some dedicated commercial fans who voted on Hulu to choose their favorite ad of the night. The winner of the unofficial contest was actually just a teaser of one of the commercials that went live before the game – Volkswagen’s “The Bark Side” ad preview. Honda’s “Matthew’s Day Off” commercial was the most-liked among full Super Bowl commercials for its ode to Ferris Bueller. Sitting right behind that was Volkswagen’s complete version of its “The Dog Strikes Back” ad. The Skechers commercial titled “GOrun Mr. Quiggly” and “Dannon Oikos: The Tease” rounded out the top five, respectively. Here is the complete list of the top 10 user-rated ads on Hulu: 1. Volkswagen: The Bark Side Teaser 2. Honda: Matthew’s Day Off – Extended 3. Volkswag

Final Fantasy X is regarded as one of the most pivotal entries in the storied Final Fantasy franchise, and it will be making a return on the PS3 and the PlayStation Vita in a graphically enhanced, HD re-release. Until now, though, there remained some confusion on whether or not it might be a remake with new or expanded content. Those questions have been put to rest, though, as Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto has confirmed that it will only be an “HD remaster.” This is what most gamers had expected. After all, there is decreasing hope of a full-fledged remake of any recent Final Fantasy title after Square Enix has continously refused to reinvision the penultimate Final Fantasy VII on a modern-generation platform. There does remain one question, though – will the Final Fantasy X re-release be based on the American version of the game, or Final Fantasy X International, which included an “Expert” gameplay mode and increased the customization and flexibility of play. This special vers

We already know that Samsung won’t be showing off its newest Galaxy S-numbered phone at the hyped Mobile World Congress (MWC) later this month. The MWC, which takes place in Spain, will play host to a number of other Samsung announcements, but the company wanted to make the Galaxy S III something that was reserved for a more exclusive event. Now, it looks like that even will also be held in Europe and will happen on March 22. Samsung normally holds its big exclusive mobile product announcements in New York City, but it has sent out an invite to media in France for the event. As a result, it is perhaps not a slam dunk that this is a Galaxy S III event. But knowing that’s the only Samsung thing that anyone has on his or her mind right now, it certainly is a popular assumption. The device is expected to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, contain a Super AMOLED HD display, and include a massive quad-core processor, 12-megapixel camera, and more. When it confirmed that Galaxy S III would b

Yesterday, as all Super Bowls are, was a massive celebration of American tradition and an event that brought millions of people together. So you know what that means – it’s time to analyze all the different possible social media channels that were impacted. We already know it was a record-setting day on Twitter, and now here’s a look at where people checked in all around the country to various Super Bowl events. Around 350,000 people around the country remembered to log into their Foursquare account while they were still sober and check in to a Super Bowl event. Nearly 3,000 Foursquare users checked in from the stadium in Indianapolis itself. Aside from that, as can be expected, there was an enormous cluster all along the northeast coast, stretching from well below New York all the way up through New England. But even areas that didn’t have a dog in the fight still reveled in the partying atmosphere that the Super Bowl always brings. Oh, and here’s a surprising stat – according to Four

It might not be that much longer until you can fly the friendly skies with the comfort of knowing the pilot isn’t relying on technology that’s several decades old. The US Senate has just passed a bill that will incite the Federal Aviation Administration to swith from antiquated raday systems to advanced GPS infrastructure within four years. The bill authorizes the spending of $63.4 billion to get this done. The notion of switching to GPS technology is something that has been discussed for years, but bureaucratic red tape always slowed down the process. In addition, the US commercial airspace industry is massive and converting such a wide-sweeping system into something completely new is a daunting process to say the least. Nevertheless, the new bill, once set into law, will give the FAA a firm deadline of June 2015 to implement the new system at 35 of the busiest airports. Currently, pilots and air traffic controllers rely on information that is updated every 6 to 12 seconds regarding o

A woman is recovering today after having a cancerous tumor removed from the back of her throat. Actually, there is probably more than one woman in that situation, but not many of them are waking up today without an incision scar somewhere on her head. She’s the first successful patient to undergo robotic surgery for throat cancer, and her doctors are optimistic about her prognosis. The robot, named da Vinci, was employed at the San Anotonio Methodist Hospital. Dr. Nathan Hales performed the surgery, which involves inserting the tiny robot into the patient’s mouth and then remotely controlling it with a sophisticated computer terminal. He said instead of being admitted to the hospital for 7-10 days, the patient will likely be ready to leave in as little as three days. In addition, she was able to eat and drink almost as normal within the next day. Patients of traditional throat cancer surgeries have to wait for up to a week before that’s possible. “As a head and neck surgeon, having one

There is a growing amount of speculation that the next generation of Xbox consoles will know if a game is pre-owned and will prevent it from being played. This is causing a lot of anger from the gaming community at large, as you might imagine. But for the people who make games, it is seen as a boon to the industry, especially one Jameson Durall. Durall, who was a designer on Red Faction: Armageddon, was quoted as saying, “There’s another big rumor about the next Xbox console that could really start to shake things up… it won’t play used games at all. Personally I think this would be a fantastic change for our business.” The way such a system would work would be for every Xbox 720 game to require registration from the console, and at that point there would be a one-to-one relationship between game and system. If you popped it into another Xbox 720, the registration would fail. Obviously this has a huge cascade of effects, including preventing someone from playing a game at a friend’s ho

According to Bloomberg, staff of the US International Trade Commission believe that Barnes & Noble should win the patent-infringement case alleged by Microsoft. The suit claims that the bookseller’s Nook e-reader infringes on five of the software giant’s patents and seeks to ban import of the e-reader. Microsoft later changed the claim to only three patents. Before preliminary rulings, the ITC staff attorney assigned to a case makes a recommendation to the ITC judge. In this case, staff attorney Jeff Hsu revealed in an interview today that he will be recommending to judge Theodore Essex that there has been no violation by Barnes & Noble on the Microsoft patents in question. However, the judge is not required to follow the recommendation and if Essex rules in favor of Microsoft, the Nook e-reader could face an import ban. The patent suit is part of Microsoft’s strategy against Android device makers, which has already successfully secured patent royalties from several manufacture

On the first of this month it was reported that scientists were about to complete a 30 year drilling expedition to hit a 20-million-year-old lake: this week they’ve reached the surface. This body of water called Vostok is Antarctica’s largest subglacial lake and is believed by scientists to be “the only giant super-clean water system on the planet.” This body of water could contain life and give us Earth-shattering information on our past, excuse the pun, or it could contain an environment unlike anything we’ve experienced before. If either result turns out to be true, we’ll gain insight on “alien” lakes like those we’ve found already on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Thirty years of drilling and the research portion of the expedition can begin! This program started in the 1970′s where it currently still resides at Voxtok Station, it being a simple drilling mission until 1996 when these Russian specialists along with their British counterparts discovered the lake. With sonar and satellite imag

The recent controversy over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) legislation efforts have prompted an open letter beseeching Congress to halt its intellectual property lawmaking. The letter is signed by a coalition of 75 groups that includes not only internet companies such as Reddit and Mozilla but also human rights groups, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and other communities. Although SOPA and PIPA appear to be shelved for the time being, the letter highlights concerns that Congress will continue to push similar measures. It asks Congress to take a new approach to the issues, saying that the concerns cannot be addressed by simply revising the bills or negotiated behind closed doors with a small set of stakeholders. The letter further accuses Congress of taking a narrow, single-industry perspective on the intellectual property issues, siding with a small group of rights holders, such as the RIAA and MPAA, that believe the current laws are too weak. It i

This week Nikon is bringing their newest DSLR to the market, the Nikon D800 being a major update over their previous installment to this series, the Nikon 700. This D800 camera is one made for professionals needing only the highest resolution, it having its manufacturer’s own largest full-frame sensor at 32 Megapixels strong. This camera does not have the same speed or low-light capabilities as the Nikon D4, that camera also just having a 16.2 MP sensor, it positioned instead to compete with the Canon 5D Mark II as well as the older Nikon D3x instead. This monster is set to cost $3,999 MSRP and will be worth every single penny with a 35.9 x 24mm sensor at 36.3 MP FX, 4.8µ pixel size, this therefor capable of 7360 x 4912 pixel resolution photos. This device has a native ISO sensitivity of 100-6,400, a Boost Low ISO sensitivity of down to 50 and a Boost High ISO sensitivity of a massive 12,800-25,600. The entire body of this device is made of magnesium alloy, it’s got weather sealing and

Dell’s Alienware X51 desktop promises to be the compact desktop powerhouse to flesh out the company’s mainstream range, just as much at home churning through fps in the latest FPS as it is crunching HD video as your HTPC. We caught up with Dell at the Alienware X51′s London launch event, to see whether this is really the compact desktop of your gaming and multimedia dreams, or just an over-illuminated, excessively styled and expensive alternative to the Xbox 360. The Xbox comparisons are hard to avoid. Just like Microsoft’s console, the X51 delivers a combination of slick matte- and gloss-finish plastic along with a decidedly stylized aesthetic that some will find appealing and others may consider simply over the top. Alienware goes the whole hog with illumination, too, slapping LEDs behind the fascia logo and the side grilles. These can be set to custom colors, or to change according to the current Windows app or even depending on the current gameplay. If you want the lighting to glow

A Heads Up Display equipped set of Smart Glasses Google may or may not be developing behind the scenes for the past few months have been tipped as real once again, this time compared directly to a pair of Oakley Thumps. This pair of glasses is known for its great eye protection and ability to play music, while Google’s pair will be aimed more at the mobile market, having fully integrated Android and a front-facing camera for information collection. These glasses have been tipped to also have a flash, perhaps for photos or perhaps for night-vision. The camera on these glasses is said to be small, likely no bigger than a couple of megapixels strong, and and the HUD part of this equation is not transparent as previously tipped. This iteration of the glasses has a tiny display to the side of one eye and shows what you need to know to navigate your way through an interface. The interface will have head tilting that’ll allow you to scroll and select items, and the tipster has noted that the

Google announced that it will begin laying fiber today in Kansas City as part of its plans to build out a new high-speed broadband network that aims to bring speeds 100 times faster than what Americans have today. Kansas City was picked out of more than 1,100 companies bidding to receive Google’s fiber network. The project will initially involve building a solid fiber backbone. Once this infrastructure is completed, then Google Fiber can connect into homes across Kansas City. It will involve laying down thousands of miles of cables across Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. The cables contain many glass fibers about the width of a human hair and can deliver data at 1Gbps speeds. The network will be tested for supporting gaming applications and intensive graphics programs.

Sony has announced that its PlayStation Network will be renamed Sony Entertainment Network starting tomorrow, February 7. The rebranding is only a name change and does not affect usernames and passwords. However, current PlayStation Network account users are encouraged to look over the new Terms of Service and User Agreement. The rebranding to Sony Entertainment Network will be applied to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in upcoming software updates, but it will not affect the PSP at this time. This change is part of Sony’s efforts to associate the service with the company’s broader entertainment services, including Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited. The discontinued use of the PlayStation Network name may help sweep away the bad memories of last year’s security breach and month-long outage. The company reported a massive loss and recently appointed new CEO Kaz Hirai. Unifying its services appears to be part of the company’s strategy to turn things around.

Amongst the many different brands of protectors of the displays of the Apple iPhone line there is one, just one, that provides an entire extra layer of real tempered glass – Spigen. In the Spigen GLAS.t and the Ultimate Class Screen Protector you’ll find two of their solutions made entirely of glass and an ultra-thin impossible to see adhesive. Once you see how perfectly natural these bits of glass are working with the iPhone 4S, you’ll wonder why you’d not tried it on before yourself. What you’re going to see here is the application process for both iterations of Spigen’s glass-based screen protector solution, one thick, one not quite as thick, both powerful in their protection and overall excellence. The Ultimate Class uses a kind of material called GP73 which allows it to be twice as thick as your favorite screen protector and will fit perfectly on your iPhone 4 or 4S display. This pane has a hole for the speaker, the home button, and the front-facing camera on your iPhone. The GLAS

RIM may be facing another blow in the enterprise arena that it once dominated. According to a leaked memo obtained by AppleInsider, Haliburton, the world’s largest energy service company, is reportedly planning to transition its employees away from BlackBerry devices to iPhones. The transition is expected to roll out in phases over the next two years. “Over the next year, we will begin expanding the use of our mobile technology by transitioning from the BlackBerry (RIM) platform that we currently use to smartphone technology via the iPhone,” said the company in an internal newsletter distributed to employees this month. The company’s decision comes after “significant research” in comparing Google’s Android against Apple’s iOS platform. Ultimately, it was determined that Apple’s platform would provide the best controls, capabilities, and application development security.

As Samsung’s series of Apple-crushing advertisements came to a conclusion (or so they say) at the SuperBowl, Twitter filleted the finale as a terrible final note. This advertisement for many was their first look at the Galaxy Note, a device which has been out overseas for several months not, it having a gigantic display, the power of the Galaxy S II, and a stylus. The commercials made by Samsung in this same vein up until now were praised for their ability to capture the viewer and make simple sense to both Android and iPhone users – according to Twitter users, Samsung threw that winning formula out the window completely for the final installment. The advertisement starts off with the same set of actors standing in a line waiting for whatever Apple product is set to be released next. They’ve already gone through all the winning points: that they hate standing there, that they’re bored of their devices, that they’re secretly wishing for something outside their religion. Then they see so

Samsung has officially dropped details on its upcoming 2012 upgrade to the Smart TV world with its Samsung Smart Touch Control, complete with touchpad, Edge, and voice control. This controller will work with Samsung’s entire 2012 range of Smart TV units including the ES8000 which will be the first to be working with this remote’s voice recognition engine. Other than that, Samsung TVs, set-top box, and Blu-ray players will all function well with this magic stick. Touchpad Control The first and most apparent feature you’re going to experience here is the touchpad, it taking up the top 2/5 of the device and allowing you to move forward with the touch controls you’ve gotten so used to in this forward-thinking mobile environment. You’ll be able to change channels and adjust the volume on your set with a simple swipe of the touchpad, and on-screen browsing will be much easier as the touchpad works as a mouse. Your finger is now the mouse pointer rather than the rather evil point to move we’v

The tablet known as Lenovo ThinkPad has been officially tipped by its manufacturer to be getting Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich inside Spring 2012. This means there could be a few more weeks in your path – or four weeks if you’re listening to the groundhog. When the update does come down, you’re in for a few awesome treats, including the Face Unlock feature that we did not see some through with the ICS upgrade for the almighty Transformer Prime, believe it or not. This upgrade will begin in May, so says Lenovo, and three giant upgrades will come through as featured bits aside from the Ice Cream Sandwich features you should know well from our review of the tablet-based ICS a few weeks ago. This version comes first and foremost with a new and improved web browser. This new browser is said by Lenovo to allow you to jump to your favorite content a whole heck of a lot faster and save pages for offline browsing easier than ever. Next there’s Voice Input for onscreen dictation. While you spea

Reports show that both analysts and those claiming to be in inner Facebook circles are stating mobile advertisements are on the way. This move would pinpoint a time between when the group has announced its Initial Public Offering and the moment it goes live. With the Facebook IPO announcement having come just last week and the actual sale of stocks looking to be somewhere around May, this mobile ads project, should it prove true, would be a power move by Facebook to attain hype and interest by the time that stock drops. And everyone knows that Facebook needs more hype, right? For a company that’s already worth billions, it’s hard to imagine any move on their part creating more hype than their mere existence already does – but here it is. Facebook’s mobile ads will likely take the form of an in-feed set of images and text. That means below the gallery of your friends’ cats and above your own status update of “I just ate a scone.” Analyst Zeus Kerravala of ZK Research noted the following

The newest Electronic Arts game to bring epic gaming to the forefront, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, promises to do so with a trio of story and development heroes not to be missed. With designer Ken Rolston at the helm and author RA Salvatore and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane behind the innards of the path gamers will follow, there’s no doubt this game will bring the magic. This game will be coming out in Europe for starters on the 10th of February on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, and you’ll be getting your game on here in the United States soon as well. In this game created by some of the most notable names in gaming and comic book fantasy you’ll be not only diving into a story so thick it’d take you days and days upon days to read the entire text included in the game without even playing. Inside you’ll find yourself so deep in the world of Amalur that you’ll often forget that the objective includes some of the most action-packed sequences since Skyrim. And let’s face it: this game

Up in Canada folks across the nation will be getting one whole heck of a lot faster with Rogers upgraded LTE speeds via a couple of fancy new pieces of hardware. First you’ll find the Sierra Wireless 4G LTE Rocket stick, then the mobile hotspot as well will keep you well on your toes in the very near future. These devices will be the first in the Canadian wilderness to be running on both 1700/2100MHz and the 2600MHz LTE spectrum bands. Both the hotspot and the dongle being detailed here will upgrade Rogers up until now fastest speeds of 12 to 25 Mbps all the way up to 40 Mbps. That’s quite a jump for those of you out there only cruising at such a speed whist watching your streams of Terrance and Phillip all day long. These devices will also be amongst the first to be connecting to the 2600MHz band, a band that’s not been used by LTE devices thus far. Both of these devices will be able to run on Rogers HSPA+ network as well, all of these coming in at right around $22.93 Canadian a month

There’s some heavy changes going on out there in the world of content sharing, and StumbleUpon is feeling the sting of taking a gamble on keeping customers. What the content sharing site has done in its most recent update pushed sites to the background while it sticks its own menu bar in the foreground, this effectively taking away the element of freedom that StumbleUpon users had for so long been able to tout over similar sites. What StumbleUpon leaders had hoped to accomplish with this change is a click-retention ratio that would drive their own site into the record books – instead its cutting down their support from all sides. What you’ve got here instead of a link in StumbleUpon that, like most other sites, leads out out to the 3rd party site as it should, is a inward link. This link shows you a window of the content you’re supposed to be seeing without actually bringing you to the link. To actually get to the link, you’d have to cut and paste the end of the StumbleUpon URL like a

Tamron, budget alternative to the more expensive official lenses from the likes of Canon and Nikon, has a new baby they’re showing off today. The 24-70mm F/2.8 zoom lens will compete with similar models from the official camera manufacturers, with one crucial distinction: it includes image stabilization technology, which no other manufacturer is offering at this size at present. Tamron’s low-noise motor is also packed in under their “Ultrasonic Silent Drive” label. There’s no word on pricing or availability for the “SP 24-70mm F/2.8 Di VC USD”, but expect it to come in mounts for all the popular Digital SLRs out there. The 24-70mm zoom lens is a popular size, though not a cheap one if you go with first-party glass. Neither the Canon L-series F/2.8 lens ($1300 street) or Nikkor F/2.8 ($1900 street) comes with anti-vibration technology, which the two companies have focused on longer telephoto lenses thus far. Considering that Tamron’s budget competitor Sigma sells their copy of the 24-70