IBLOG SPACE

With the future of the iPad sitting pretty with an improved quad-core graphics A5X chip and a Retina quality display up front, what have game developers done to bring us up to speed with this magnificent machine? Apple has been working with developers, very few developers in person, but all the same, to create masterpieces that’ll showcase the abilities of the iPad 3 (or The new iPad, if you insist). The first of these is, as it was for the iPad 2, Infinity Blade – this game coming in a whole new form factor and graphics quality with their third game Infinity Blade: Dungeons. Infinity Blade: Dungeons What you’re going to see with Infinity Blade’s newest installment Dungeons is not only a much higher demand for graphics power, but a whole new set of gameplay elements as well. This version of Infinity Blade is set to follow a path not unlike Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo series, with you, a barbarian-like character, wielding a massive hammer of the gods to destroy hoards of enemies fro

There are now two Portal games out there in the wild, both of them created with Valve ultimately simple concept of a factory testing technology on you, the player – but that’s not all the writers on the team had in mind at one point or another. As all games begin with an idea, so too did Portal 2 begin with a notion that even though Portal could exist as a one-off game, it certainly didn’t need to. Speaking up this week at an event in San Francisco, Valve writers Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw spoke on how iterations of the game Portal 2 existed in which there were no portals, no character Chell, and no GLaDOS factory at all – a maddening set of realities indeed! Faliszek and Wolpaw spoke on how taking out GLaDOS was only a momentary possibility, with play-testers essentially having a heart attack over the idea that their beloved love-to-hate robot was not present in the game. As it turns out, it was the developers of the game that wanted GLaDOS out, simply because working with that sam

Less than 24 hours after the first siren sound coming from blogs across the mobile bloggersphere (including SlashGear) that the Galaxy S II would be getting an Android upgrade this week, Samsung has redacted. Not so much saying they’ve had a change of heart as noting that the source of the information – Samsung’s own update schedule – was just a bit mis-informed. It’s a lovely update from none other than Samsung’s Korea-based Twitter account that tells of a mistake made by Filipino Samsung, letting us know that when they’ve got more information, they’ll share it. So we’re back at square Alpha for the Galaxy S II with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – or a bit further than that if you’re in the mood for some hacking. Users have been at work hacking their Galaxy S II units with Ice Cream Sandwich for months now, certainly having an advanced build for you if you look hard enough for it – but remember, that’s not the official way of the manufacturer, and you’ll get no help from them if you’

This week the folks at Gaikai.com, a site known for their streaming of full-fledged game demos normally only available in video form, have announced their intent to bring massively multiplayer online role-playing games to the streaming world. Using their own technology allowing direct streaming from the cloud – no downloads, no physical disks required, Gaikai has already begun showing off Lord of the Rings Online and will soon be releasing Dungeons & Dragons Online as well. All of this comes with a simple Java allowance and simple one-step sign-in process for gamers – welcome to next level online technology! Lord of the Rings Online is a game that’s not gotten an extremely large amount of press from non-gaming-centric sites thus far, but with the ability to play such a game with minimal effort like this, there’s no knowing what games might gain traction. It’s surprising that LOTR hasn’t come across even our radar here at SlashGear more than a few times, with a group such as Gaikai

ZTE have announced a new budget Android smartphone offering for the United States, the ZTE Fury. The device will cost just $19.99 and be available March 11th. The device is targeting at families and children due to its mobile usage controls, as well as a family locator. The specs aren’t bad either. The ZTE Fury has a 3.5-inch capactive touchscreen with a 480×320 resolution. Inside you’ll find a Snapdragon S2 MSM8655 1Ghz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a 1,500mAh battery, as well as a five megapixel rear camera. There’s also a microSD slot for cards up to 32GB, and there’s a 2GB card included in the box. The phone will ship with Android 2.3, Gingerbread, and there’s no word if it will see an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade, although we suggest you don’t hold your breath. You’ll be able to pick this device up on March 11th for $19.99 on a two-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Apple have committed to investing $304 million in the state of Texas, hoping to expand its customer service operations and create more than 3,600 jobs. The investment will help Apple create a new campus there, and more than doubles Apple’s workforce in Texas over the next decade. Not coincidentally, Texas is also where one of Apple’s most important components is believed to come from: the A5/A5X chipsets at the heart of recent iOS devices. Governor Rick Perry welcomed the move, saying: Apple is known for its bold innovation and game-changing designs, and the expansion of their Austin facility adds to the growing list of visionary high-tech companies that have found that Texas’ economic climate is a perfect fit for their future, thanks to our low taxes, reasonable and predictable regulations, fair legal system and skilled workforce. Investments like this further Texas’ potential to become the nation’s next high-tech hub. Created jobs will include customer service, sales, and accounting

In addition to accessories made specifically for the HTC One X, the One S, and the One V, Clove has listed a set of general HTC One-compatible accessories for pre-order. The online store known as Clove is known for being on-time with their smartphones and accessories galore, and this is the first we’ve seen the accessories on sale for pre-order anywhere on earth. The One X and One S of course have the largest variety of accessories as they are the top two of three devices in HTC new hero line of smartphones coming soon, while the One V sits with a basic set of cases and chargers. This release shows HTC’s dedication not only to the HTC One line, but to keeping their 2012 line of devices well equipped as their strategy for this year is to keep it simple and strong with one ultra-powerful set of smartphones rather than the vast variety of yesteryear. For the HTC One V, Clove has listed a Car Cradle and Charger, a black Hard Shell protective case, a set of 2 Screen Protectors, and a simple

You know Apple are running a business, right? You don’t manage to shovel $100 billion into the bank without having good products and a healthy profit margin. Preliminary figures of the new iPad‘s component cost breakdown are hitting the interwebs today, with Apple reportedly taking a hit on their margin compared to the iPad 2. According to EETimes, a 16GB LTE model of the new iPad which Apple sell for $629 would cost around $310 in components, “only” netting them a 51% profit margin, down from the 56% margin on the old iPad 2 3G. Unsurprisingly, most of that cost seems to be coming from the new Retina display, apparently costing around $70, while the old 1024×768 display cost $49.50. Meanwhile, the LTE chipset would cost $21 compared to the $10 of the standard 3G chipset, and the A5X processor would ring in at $28 rather than the $22 for the old A5 chip. Of course, these are only rough estimates right now, with more precise costs to be determined once analysts get their hands on the ne

Google is exploring using Kinect-style motion tracking to add a new degree of gesture control to mobile devices, a new patent application suggests, adaptable to future Android phones but also wearables like Google Goggles. The submission, titled “Use camera to augment input for portable electronic device”, describes using the front-facing camera in a phone, tablet or other gadget to identify and track the user’s fingers in the space around it, recognizing “single tapping, double tapping, hovering, holding and swiping.” “Systems and methods are provided for controlling a portable electronic device. The device includes a built-in image capturing device. The system detects, through the image capturing device, motions of user finger over the image capturing device. The system determines a pattern of the detected motions using timing information related to the detected motions, and controls the portable electronic device based on the determined pattern. The system also receives inputs from

Right now you’ll find Thunderbolt lurking within the depths of Apple’s latest MacBook Pros and Airs, but accessories that take advantage of the high speed port aren’t exactly plentiful, or cheap. That doesn’t seem to faze Intel, who are hoping to increase Thunderbolt speeds even further thanks to the increased bandwidth afforded by PCI Express 3.0. According to PCWorld, Intel have already begun implementing PCI Express 3.0 support on the chipset level in its upcoming Ivy Bridge release. PCI Express 3.0 will have speeds of up to 8GT/s, compared to 5GT/s found with PCI Express 2.0. It’s great that Intel are keen on squeezing as much speed out of the tech as possible, but it doesn’t really matter without readily available accessories to take advantage of that. Right now USB 3.0 has a much larger edge in terms of installed devices, as well as affordable external hard drives and flash drives that you can buy right this very minute. Thunderbolt has a maximum theoretical speed of 10Gbit/s for

Ever since first coming to the market, Parrot’s AR.Drone has found a wide variety of uses thanks to its agile nature combined with a camera able to pipe video directly to your smartphone. Controlling the drone and seeing video on such small screens hasn’t always been ideal, though. Thomas Sohmers, tech geek and inventor, has come up with an alternate method of controlling the drone while keeping an eye on the feed. The Epson Moverio BT-100 was designed as a pair of video glasses running Android, with two small LCD screens that sit close to your eyes, emulating a big screen experience. While they’re designed as a portable movie and TV watching solution, Sohmers has taken advantage of the see-through display and controller in order to watch the video fed coming from the AR.Drone while also making basic adjustments such as thrust and rotation. Because the Moverio is running Android, it can run the AR.Drone application naively. The drone also creates an ad-hoc WiFi network, allowing the Mo

Apple unveiled the new iPad on Wednesday, bringing with it the much anticipated “Retina” display with a resolution of 2048×1536. Along with the highest PPI value found on a tablet of 264, saturation has also been increased to get the most out of images and video. While that gorgeous display was the star of the show, manufacturing it couldn’t have been easy. Analysts are now claiming that yields aren’t as high as Apple would like, which could lead to display shortages and delays. NPD DisplaySearch say that the new display is manufactured by Sharp, Samsung, and LG, and that Sharp are having the most trouble producing the display on such a large scale. Sharp’s panel differs from Samsung and LG’s in that they use IGZO TFTs: IGZO allows for smaller TFTs, allowing more light to come through the back of the display. That can then lead to either a display with higher brightness over traditional panels, or a reduced number of LEDs in the backlight, which keeps costs down. Yields of IGZO panels

JVC has unveiled the first of four new camcorders that offer Wi-Fi for e-mailing or transferring digital files. The first of the camcorders to surface is the GZ-EX250. This camcorder supports full HD resolution using AVCHD format. It promises high-quality recording with UXP mode and 24 Mbps sampling rate. The camera also has an HDMI output for direct connectivity to TVs. The camera has 16 GB of integrated memory, and offers advanced image stabilization to remove shake from videos and still images. The camera has a 40 times optical zoom lens and sports super LoLux recording with a 1.5 M back-illuminated CMOS sensor. The camera has a 3-inch touch panel LCD and multiple intelligent auto modes. Those modes include smile shot, face detection, and high-speed video recording modes for slow-motion playback, and time-lapse recording. The camera also features an integrated zoom mic and has a memory card slot that supports SD cards. Availability and pricing on the camera are unannounced at this t

Google has denied penalizing developers for using third-party payment services, contesting claims that it told Android app makers they risked marketplace rejection for using PayPal or others instead of Google Wallet. Despite reports earlier this week that Google had contacted developers using PayPal, Zong, Boku or other payment providers, and threatened to suspend their listings in the freshly-renamed Google Play marketplace, the search company says its policy on payments is unchanged. Reuters was first to blow the whistle, based on developer feedback including one supposedly threatening email sent to the coders behind social gaming app Papaya. “They told people that if they used other payment services they would be breaking the terms of use,” Si Shen, founder and chief executive of Papaya, said. “Whether it’s right or wrong, we have to follow the rules.” Google’s warning, so it was claimed, was that Papaya needed to ditch PayPal and Zong and instead adopt Play In-app Billing, giving t

Intel were keen to push their Medfield platform at MWC 2012, announcing various partners, and even a product that would make it to retail, the Orange Santa Clara. The Atom Z2460 single-core processor is clocked at 1.6Ghz, with the phone being able to perform such feats as taking ten photos in under a second, as long as 1080p playback and Intel Wireless Display. But how does the performance really stack up against other phones with only a single core? Caschys Blog managed to run some benchmarks on the phone to give us all a better idea exactly what the phone is capable of. First, the Rightware Browsermark benchmark was run, which tests the phone’s ability to render Javascript and HTML. Currently the Samsung Galaxy Nexus holds the crown, scoring 98,272 points, while the iPhone 4S scores 87,801. Both of those are dual-core devices, so how did Intel’s single-core stack up? It managed 89,180, actually coming in ahead of the iPhone 4S. The second benchmark was Vellamo, created by Qualcomm an

It’s interesting that director James Cameron made the film Titanic, which turned out to be one of the highest grossing films of all times and is himself going into the ocean depths soon as we mentioned earlier. At the same time, researchers have announced that they have pieced together what they believed to be the first comprehensive map of the entire Titanic debris field ever made. The massive debris field from the 100-year-old shipwreck is 3 x 5 miles. Photos of portions of the shipwreck have been taken in previous expeditions; the complete map of the massive debris field has never been made. According to the researchers, the muddy ocean bottom suggests that the stern of the ship rotated like a helicopter blade as it sank. The team used sonar imaging and over 100,000 photos shot using underwater robots to create a comprehensive map. The map shows the exact positions of hundreds of objects and parts from the ship. Explorers of the shipwreck site have known for decades exactly where th

The United States Air Force has been testing two X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles for a while now. The second of the small space shuttle style vehicles is celebrating an interesting anniversary today. That second Orbital Test Vehicles launched March 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The craft launched aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. This week marked the one-year anniversary of the spacecraft orbiting the planet performing a still secret mission. So far, the USAF has only said that the craft is performing top-secret experiments. We have no indication of when the X-37B might return to earth. X-37B number one spent 224 days orbiting the planet before landing on December 3, 2010 at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Amateur astronomers have noted that the second X-37B is in an orbit that is very similar to US spy satellites. Some think the USAF may be using the spacecraft to keep certain countries under close scrutiny. “We are very pleased with the results of ongoing X-37B experiments

Qualcomm have so far avoided chasing cores, saying that Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core chip is “overkill”. Instead the company is hoping that the latest version of its Snapdragon chip, the S4 “Krait”, will provide enough performance with just two cores. While development platforms have gone out to various publications and developers for testing, the 28nm chip could be facing production delays, which would have a knock-on effect on phones like the HTC One X and One S. Semi Accurate reports that TSMC, who handle 28nm chip manufacturing, totally shut down production three weeks ago to make changes to the creation process. Apparently the halt was very sudden, with no given explanation for exactly what is being changed, and yields are apparently not an issue. TSMC aren’t giving up any details, publicly or privately, but do say production will resume in the coming weeks. All of this could lead to delays for Qualcomm, as well as OEMs and carriers. So far the HTC One X and One S have been announce

Facebook is always making changes, and more often than not any changes made causes some users to weep uncontrollably. Facebook has added a new feature called Interest Lists that allows people to keep track of the topics they’re interested in. Your account may or may not have the ability to add interests right now. Facebook says that over the coming weeks users will see the Add Interests icon appear on the left-hand sidebar of the newsfeed. There’ll also be a Create Lists icon on the interests page. Facebook says that the goal of interests is to allow the user to turn their Facebook page into their own personalized newspaper packed with personalized content based on their interests. The interest can include pages for public figures or pages related to a particular topic. Facebook notes that there will be sections for traditional things like business and sports as well as specialized sections for technology news specific sports players, and more. The content from your interests will be i

Last week the $35 Raspberry Pi computer went on sale, seeing strong demand and a total buyout of stock in under two hours. Those hoping to see the Linux machine hitting their doorsteps in the near future could be in for some disappointment: the Raspberry Pi foundation announced that it has suffered a production setback. The Ethernet jacks being used in production models were the wrong type. Unfortunately, the ones being used did not include integrated magnetics, which help filter out noise and provides DC isolation. The incorrect jacks have already been soldered to boards, so each and every one will have to be removed and replaced with the correct jack before the boards can be shipped to users. While the foundation says the jacks are relatively easy to replace, sourcing the correct ones could prove tricky. What were thought to be the correct jacks are now faulty, which means the team has to hunt down and order a large quantity new jacks as fast as possible. An apology has been issue

Word of Nokia’s Meltemi featurephone OS has resurfaced this week, with insiders again suggesting it will replace S40 as the Finnish company attempts to make low-cost handsets more appealing. The Linux-based platform is still a work-in-progress, sources tell Reuters, with the promise of smartphone-style functionality in budget minded devices. Exact details on Meltemi are in short supply, however. Back when the platform was first rumored, it was said to use the same UI as Maemo, but with a different underlying kernel, and be the handiwork of a subset of Nokia’s original Maemo team. That team is likely to include expertise from the people behind Smarterphone OS, the low-cost smartphone platform Nokia acquired midway through last year. Nokia’s smart devices chief Ilari Nurmi confirmed to SlashGear at Mobile World Congress last week that it had no plans to release devices running Smarterphone, and that the acquisition was more of a talent-grab. Nurmi also conceded that Nokia needs to make i

Earlier this week, AntiSec, part of Anonymous, hacked and defaced Panda Security’s PandaLabs website after the FBI arrested five members of LulzSec. AntiSec have struck again, this time hacking New York Ironworks website, a company dealing in law enforcement supplies. They also posted a message taunting the FBI. Proclaiming themselves the “knights of the lulz”, AntiSec posted the following on the hacked website, directly aimed at the FBI: TO FBI AND OTHER S**TS YOU HAVE OUR LOGS, WE HAVE ALL THOSE PMs AND PRIVATE CHATs U DONT WANT TO MAKE PUBLIC YOU REALLY F**KED IT UP TRYING TO TRAP PEOPLE Earlier in the week AntiSec confirmed that Panda Security were activity participating in DoS attacks in an attempt to infiltrate the group, and this latest taunt at the FBI indicates that perhaps that organization was also engaging in illegal activities in order to get closer to those involved in AntiSec and Anonymous. At the end of their message, AntiSec also released hundreds of usernames and pass

Director James Cameron has made some of the coolest movies out there for science fiction fans with hits such as Avatar and The Terminator. Cameron is sent to take a real world life risking adventure that will break records if successful. Cameron will squeeze into a submarine called Deepsea Challenger and plunge to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, which is the single deepest point of the Marianas Trench. Only two people in history have made it to the bottom of Challenger Deep and that was 50 years ago. Cameron will be the first to make the trek solo. In fact, he’s already set a record for the deepest solo dive in testing. Naturally, Cameron will record the mission using 3-D cameras and can spend multiple hours on the ocean bottom recording video. It’s hard to imagine exactly how far down Cameron will be in his submarine. At 36,070 feet, the bottom of the Challenger Deep is lower than the common cruise altitude of commercial airliners is high. The peak of Mount Everest is only 29,035 f

We have talked about the eye tracking technology developed by Tobii in the past. Previously, the company has shown off technology that can add tracking to your monitor and an arcade game that used its eye tracking technology. The tech was even crammed inside a notebook at CeBIT 2011. At CeBIT 2012, the company showed off a new improved version of its eye tracking technology called IS-2 Eye Tracker Module. The new eye tracker module is designed to be more responsive and to fit into a wider range of hardware, including gaming machines. The new sensor uses a pair of infrared protectors to illuminate the pupils of the user’s eyes along with small cameras to record the pupil position as the eyes move. That data is then shot to an onboard processor that handles all that data and relates the position of the user’s eyes, pupil size, and gaze position to control the action on-screen. ZDNet spent some time using a demo model at CeBIT 2012 and found it was very easy to use and says it worked well

New iPad preorder customers in the UK will likely have to wait until the end of March to receive their third-gen tablet, after launch-day supplies for the coveted slate were snapped up and estimated shipments stretch to 2-3 weeks. New orders via Apple’s online store have quickly gone from promising March 16 delivery to several weeks after in-store sales will open. It’s not the first frustration for would-be iPad owners in the UK. Although Apple put up pre-orders shortly after the launch keynote ended in most of the ten countries getting the first wave of units, sales in the UK didn’t begin until midnight local time, several hours after other locations. Apple hasn’t said how much stock of the third-gen iPad it has in each country, though it did say that the multi-country launch is its most ambitious of any new iOS product so far. In addition to the US and UK, the new iPad will drop in Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Most European countrie

If you’re still rocking the Windows Mobile OS smartphone, Microsoft is giving you one more reason to move to Windows Phone or another smartphone later this year. Microsoft has announced that the Windows Mobile Marketplace will be discontinued as of May 9, 2012. Windows Mobile Marketplace has been around for over two years now allowing users of the smartphone OS to download apps and software. Windows Phone Marketplace will live on providing apps and software to users of Microsoft’s newer operating system. This move shouldn’t come as a surprise to Windows Mobile users. Microsoft announced in June of 2011 that users of that operating system wouldn’t be able to download any apps from the marketplace website directly foreshadowing the end of operations. Stopping users from downloading from the website didn’t end the ability to download apps directly via their device. However, the end of things on May 9 will kill that ability. If you can’t bring yourself to ditch your Windows Mobile smart ph

Google’s Chrome web browser has been one of the only browsers to make it out of the annual Pwn2Own contest without being cracked. That record changed this year after Google offered up a total prize package of $1 million to be given out to the developers who could exploit vulnerabilities in Chrome. A Russian student was able toexploit a vulnerability in Chrome, which won the hacker $60,000 courtesy of Google. Once the vulnerability was exposed and Google understood how it was executed, developers at Google went to work fixing the security vulnerability. It took Google developers less than 24 hours to patch the vulnerability and send it out as an automatic update. That means Chrome users were protected about as quickly as possible. It often takes Microsoft months to patch similar security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. Google is withholding technical details of the exploit until the majority of users have installed the fix and are protected. Google describes the vulnerability as a

Digital game distributor Valve has denied plans to create an Xbox 360 and PS3 rivaling games console or, indeed, to push its own PC reference design, claiming hardware that may have fueled such rumors are merely test boxes for its own use. “We’re prepping the Steam Big Picture Mode UI and getting ready to ship that” Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi told Kotaku, going on to suggest that the company is “building boxes to test that on” but “it’s a long way from Valve shipping any sort of hardware.” Speculation about a Valve-led console project flourished last week, with reports from insiders that the company was working with PC manufacturers and games developers to bring some of the stability and predictability of the console spec cycle to the PC market. The Alienware X51 was tipped as an example of minimum-spec Valve-compliant hardware – at least in Core i7 form – with other must-haves including a certain level of NVIDIA graphics and 8GB of RAM. Biometric feedback – using gamers’ p

Clearwire has announced a new 4G USB dongle that offers instant 4G connectivity without having to install any software. The dongle is called the Clear Stick Atlas and plugs into a USB port. The 4G data is sent over the Clearwire WiMAX network. The new 4G stick can be used with the unlimited contract plans. The new modem will work with almost any device that has a standard USB port. No software means it does not have to have a connection manager to function, and all the user has to do is plug in and go. The Atlas is small and lightweight with a weight of 1.1 ounces so travelers won’t even know it’s there. It measures 1.2 inches wide by 3.25 inches high by 0.65 inches in diameter. It comes in charcoal gray with a matte finish and has a connectivity LED that shows signal strength in the connection status. It supports Windows 7, Vista, XP, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, and Chrome. The most interesting part of this device to me is that if you own an Android tablet with a USB port, you can easil

If you’re the owner an Archos G9 Android tablet, you may have noticed a change yesterday. Archos announced the latest update for the tablet was starting to roll out OTA as of yesterday. The update started rolling out globally and according to Archos, all A9 users need to do is look for the notification “A” in the lower right-hand corner of the device and click it to download the new Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The update brings Android on the G9 to version 4.0.3. According to Archos, the update brings faster web browsing, multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets, and enhanced social media integration. The update also brings improved text input and spell checking along with a better voice input engine and better imaging capabilities. There is also a redesigned Gallery app with a photo editor and Archos is adding some unique touches to the ICS update for G9 users. Those updates include 1080p support for most video codecs, movies and TV shows

Microsoft is warning partners that the next-gen Xbox will not include an optical drive, it’s reported, with downloads and an unspecified “interchangeable solid-state card storage” the only way to access games on the console. The decision comes with apparent confirmation of a 2013 launch of the console unofficially dubbed the “Xbox 720″, amid what sources tell MCV have been “the strictest NDA” encountered from the Xbox team. If true, the news does shed new light on the tipped removal of pre-owned game support, something what had been interpreted as blocking used games repurchased by new players. However, if the new Xbox doesn’t have a drive to even handle Xbox 360 titles, that would be a pretty comprehensive way of cutting the legs from under the second-hand market. The decision to drop an optical drive would be a significant one, leaving gamers with the new Xbox forced to rely on fat broadband pipes or the tipped card-based storage system. We’ve seen mobile gaming platforms, like thePS

Google and ASUS have been collaborating on a co-branded 7-inch Android tablet, with a launch as early as May, according to sources, challenging low-cost rivals and the iPad with a $199-249 price tag. The fruits of the partnership, whispered to the runes readers at DigiTimes by industry sources, will take on the NOOK Tablet and the Kindle Fire, with ASUS selected for its willingness to flex to Google’s requirements. Google began looking for a Taiwanese partner to construct the tablet at the tail end of last year, according to the insiders, but encountered some stumbling blocks with the usual Android players. HTC, it’s said, demanded more control of the development of the slate, and refused to consider a low-cost model for the potential for damage to its brand image. Acer, meanwhile, lacked in-house research & design abilities. ASUS, though, has ODM capabilities and “good product quality” according to the sources, and presumably were more than willing to let Google take the reins. Th

Let’s face it. If you’ve actually paid for somethiing using software and hardware that’s built into your phone, you’re in the significantly vast minority. That is, at least, assuming you live in the US. But in just a few years, if it’s not part of your daily routine you may look as outdated as someone who doesn’t have a smartphone today. This trend is going to grow, and it’s gonna grow quickly. Juniper research expects that mobile payments initiated by near field communication (NFC) will skyrocket to $74 billion by 2015. In very much the same way that credit cards eliminated the need to carry around wads of cash, NFC aims to eliminate the need to carry around a credit card. All you need is your phone, which you’ll assumedly have with you at all times. Google Wallet has been the pioneer in this field, but in order to take advantage of that platform you need to be a Sprint customer, own a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, and have a Citi credit card (Citibank debit cards don’t count) or applic

The contraption that will take a skydiver higher than any skydiver has ever gone before is all set and ready to go. The capsule, which measures 8 feet in diameter, is built to withstand temperatures as extreme as -70 degrees Farenheit, and is fully pressurized for taking a human being safely into the stratosphere. It still takes some major courage to be that kind of guinea pig, though The man who will inhabit it is named Felix Baumgartner, and he’ll be breaking the world record that was set by one Joe Kittinger all the way back in 1960. Yes, in more than 50 years no one has been able to (or been courageous enough) to free-fall from higher than 102,800 feet. Baumgartner, though, will shatter it if all goes according to plan. He’ll go all the way up 120,000 feet into the sky, a task that will take nearly three hours to complete. He, along with his capsule, will then dive quickly back to the Earth’s surface. The capsule is, of course, equipped with a parachute. Not only will Baumgartner s

Several days after Netflix said it liked the idea of potentially partnering with cable and satellite providers to make Netflix an integrated part of their services, the largest cable operator has come forward to say, “Thanks but no thanks.” The company apparently feels it’s good enough on its own, and doesn’t like the idea of partnering with a service that many people see as a direct competitor. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Netflix and Comcast are definitely competing for viewers. But Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is trying to spin that narrative and say that both his company and companies like Comcast have a common enemy – HBO. And the old saying goes the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That’s not a good enough statement for Comcast, though. Company spokesperson Alana Davis was quoted by industry publication Fierce Cable as saying, “We have no plans to offer access to Netflix to our customers through our Xfinity TV service, no matter what device.” Cable companies