Archive for May, 2008
Standard maps are boring and limited, so why not go beyond the map with the Schmap City Guides and Schmap Local Search manages to come to life on the Apple iPhone with this unique Rotate ‘n Map feature, all you need to do is turn your iPhone sideway to see places on a map, as well as scroll through a list and the map will dynamically update. With City Guides you can choose from 100 worldwide cities, as well as browse reviews and photos of the sites and attractions they you are interested in, from bars, galleries, hotels, parks, museums, theatres and much more. Maps are just a turn away with their unique Rotate ‘n Map feature.
The there is also local search, where you are able to search locally for places such as banks, coffee shops, dentists, florists, golf courses, hair-dressers, restaurants and much more. You are then able to scroll through the results that come up, you can then call them with just one click, or you can also turn the Apple iPhone sideways to see these places on a map.
Just try out Schmap City Guides and Schmap Local Search, if you thought that your Apple iPhone and iPod Touch were great now, this new feature improves your best loved gadget better than a host of other apps.
Do you want to be the best at Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii? Well you have got to check out the latest revolutionary homemade training wheel. We have a video below of the homemade training wheel in action but let me chat about it for a little bit. The Wii Wheel is pretty hard to handle and obviously this person in the video thought so as well and that is why the Wii Wheel housing was made.
Nintendo Wii Fanboy’s Revolutionary columnist Mike Sylvester is the one behind this revolutionary do-it-yourself training wheel and we think he might have hit the jackpot, hey get it into shops quick. He just wanted to make racing games much easier to handle, he says that when he was writing for GlovePIE script for MotoGP 2 he wanted to be able to twist the Nintendo Wii Remote for throttle whilst tilting it to steer and this is when he found a simple way to do it.
For all the details on the revolutionary homemade training wheel please visit here, you can watch the video of the homemade training wheel in action with the Mario Kart Wii. I really do like this idea because it in simple, cheap and easy to build, yes ok it is ugly but hey who cares as long as it works.
It seems that NVIDA have been making some big noise of late about slimming down their product line of graphics cards, and are also going after Intel and some of their business. With that kind of announcement, you would have thought that the new summer line-up from NVIDIA would be something special, but I am afraid to say that it is much the same as what they already have. NVIDIA have two new graphics cards coming in their summer line-up, the GeForce GTX 260 and the GeForce GTX 280, both of which are next-gen cards.
Both will use the D10U graphics core; however the GTX 280 is the full fat version of the processor which uses all of the 240 unified stream processors. The GTX 260 will only use 192, so is a watered down version. Both the 260 and 280 GPU’s support three-way SLI, NVIDIA are also planning to incorporate PhysX support however; as yet there are no details on this, we will just have to wait until the June 18 launch.
As we mentioned above, both cards will use the D10U processor, these are said to be 50% better than the shaders which were used on the older D9 GPU’s. One thing that you need to know about the D10U chipset though, it does not offer support for DirectX extensions above 10.0. It does seem to me that with the launch of both the GeForce GTX 280 / 260 next-gen cards, NVIDIA are not doing enough to go after Intel.
When you’re looking at getting a new CPU cooler, its great to read a detailed comparison of some of the best and worst designs. This is Sunbeamtech’s Core-Contact Freezer and its been compared to AMD, Intel and other models in a hands-on by Tweak Town. They found that the Core-Contact Freezer has a brilliant design that leads to great performance, and the retail and e-tail availability are holding this product back, so hopefully Sunbeamtech will make this product available before you sacrifice it for another cooler.
In the hands-on review, they said this in their final thoughts “By now, you want a Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer and I don’t blame you. If not, well I have no idea why because it is a great cooler that performs with some of the best coolers on the market. Getting one is another story. I spent another hour today looking to actually purchase the cooler and came up empty handed.
Lack of availability might lead to the coolers downfall. If you can’t actually purchase the product, you can’t use it. I am sure that in time Sunbeamtech will get the coolers out to the masses. Sunbeamtech has many retailers that carry their products so it won’t be long before the world is swimming in Core-Contact goodness.
An availability problem aside, the construction quality is spot on. I would have liked to receive a sample that was not damaged during shipping. What that really means is that someone needs to work on a better way to protect the cooler during shipping. Since nearly 90% or more of the coolers I have tested over the last ten years came with similar packaging, it is difficult to hit Sunbeamtech with a deduction in score, that is, until it actually happens, like this case.
Brilliant design leads to great performance and the Sunbeamtech Core-Contact Freezer has both. Retail and etail availability are holding this product back so hopefully Sunbeamtech makes this product available before you sacrifice for an available cooler.”
Read the seven page review.
A report pegs the much-awaited announcement of the 3G version of Apple’s iPhone for June 9. According to technology blog Gizmodo, a source “very, very close” to the launch has confirmed that the second-generation iPhone will be announced during the keynote address of the Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco on that date.
The keynote will made by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and other company executives.
Piper Jaffray Report
The report also says the device will be available immediately following the announcement. One example predicted is that the grand opening of the Telefonica megastore in Madrid on June 18 will feature the 3G iPhone for sale, with nationwide availability in Spain immediately or by the next day.
In terms of pricing, the source also indicates that the device will not be pegged at a fixed price in some countries, but will be discounted in carrier-based packages.
French researchers said on Wednesday they had invented a hydrogen fuel cell as a backup power source for mobile phones, thus easing dependence on an electricity supply to charge the gadget.
The miniature fuel cell uses a hydrogen-filled cartridge about the size of a small cigarette lighter, according to the press presentation made by the researchers at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEW).
The gadget, designed to be carried in a belt pouch, has been in gestation since 2005 with a semi-conductor group, STMicroelectronics.
The cartridges are being developed by the company Bic, which makes pens, lighters and razors.
The product is designed to be part of a “hybrid” system in which the phone first draws on the conventional battery for its power and then taps into the fuel cell if needed.
Each cartridge gives the equivalent of three to five recharges of the traditional battery.
It is due to reach the market in early 2010, according to STMicroelectronics executive Igor Bimbaud, who declined to give its price.
AT&T extended free access to its Wi-Fi Home package of U.S. hotspots to monthly, unmetered subscribers to its LaptopConnect mobile broadband service with Windows installed. These customers, who pay $60 per month with a two-year commitment for up to 5 GB of combined upstream and downstream data each month, will receive no-cost access to about 17,000 domestic hotspots, comprising mostly McDonald’s stores (9,500) and Starbucks outlets (7,000). A few airports run by AT&T are also included, as well as Barnes & Noble stores.
Previously, AT&T had extended free Wi-Fi to its DSL customers with 1.5 Mbps or faster connections, all its fiber-optic U-Verse subscribers, and business remote access users. AT&T has a higher tier of Wi-Fi, Premier, which includes another 53,000 international hotspots, full US airport roaming, and some hotels excluded from the Basic package. The Wi-Fi Home service is available only to AT&T customers; Premier is $20 per month for everyone else.The business case for AT&T is clear: moving data from its expensive 3G network, limited by both the constraints of its spectrum licenses and its cellular tower backhaul, to its much-cheaper-to-operate aggregated hotspot network provides faster and more consistent connections in many cases, especially indoors, while improving 3G service for everyone outside. This is especially true for customers who may routinely get 3G speeds while traveling, but have patchier or no 3G coverage where their office or home is located. AT&T is expanding its 3G mobile broadband network from 270 to all 350 of the top metropolitan markets in the US this year, as well as increasing upload speeds. This still leaves out quite a large area of the country, although only a percentage of the population. (AT&T operates Starbucks itself through a managed services provider, Wayport, that has a separate contract with McDonald’s; Wayport resells McDonald’s access to AT&T.) This announcement doesn’t address smartphones. AT&T keeps accidentally slipping the kimono on its iPhone plans, enabling free access at Starbucks, then turning it off; changing their service plan details to list free access at hotspots, then removing it. (I blogged about this back on May 8.) Word on thes street is that smartphone free Wi-Fi will be added later in 2008. Timing it with the launch of the 3G iPhone, expected for June 9 at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference would be wise, no?The free offer requires the use of AT&T Communication Manager, which works only with Windows; AT&T, unlike Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless, have no unified connection manager for Mac OS X, although they do support that operating system.
The iPhone’s reach is expanding. Orange, France Telecom’s flagship brand, announced that it will sell Apple’s phone in additional countries in Europe, as well as the Middle East and Africa.
Orange said it will sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and the African countries of Ivory Coast, Jordan, Cameroon, Botswana, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, Mauritius and R?union.
The deal expands the list of countries where Apple has agreed to operate on a nonexclusive basis. Of the countries announced in this deal, Orange will have exclusives only in Belgium and Romania.
Numerous Deals
Earlier this month, Vodafone announced it had signed a deal to provide the iPhone in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.
Days ago, Swisscom announced it had won the right to sell the iPhone in Switzerland. “The iPhone will be available later this year,” a statement on the company’s Web site simply said. The fact that the firm won’t sell the phone until later in the year suggests that it will sell a yet-to-be-announced 3G version.
The Swiss newspaper Le Matin reported that the Swisscom deal is for a 3G iPhone that would offer two-way chats, mobile TV and GPS navigation. The plan also calls for Swisscom to offer “attractive” incentives and a high-end plan to include mobile video and other carrier-provided services, Le Matin said.
Sea Change for Apple
And on Monday, Singapore-based SingTel released a one-line statement announcing it signed an agreement with Apple to sell the phone in Singapore, India, the Philippines and Australia.
All these nonexclusive deals mark a clear sea change for Apple, which until recently has insisted on exclusive deals with carriers. The iPhone launched with an exclusive deal with AT&T in the U.S., followed by similar deals with O2 in the United Kingdom, Orange in France and Deutsche Telekom in Germany.
So does this rash of nonexclusives mean the days are numbered for AT&T and the other carriers with exclusive deals in the West? No, said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies. Apple is “locked into a long-term agreement with AT&T in the U.S. and others in Europe, but in some of these new countries they clearly have latitude to do things differently,” Bajarin said.
Redefining Mobile Internet
How will the iPhone be received in the developing world? “The iPhone is still an up-market smartphone, but it will appeal to certain individuals in any country and those who can afford it,” Bajarin said.
But what many consumers in the U.S. and other countries may not yet realize is that the iPhone is more than a phone. “The big thing will be its impact on all countries in the way it impacts how they view mobile computing,” Bajarin said. “In the past, mobile computing meant laptops. With the iPhone delivering PC-like functionality in the power of a handheld, it is set to redefine what the mobile Internet will be around the world.”
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco in June is where it is widely expected that CEO Steve Jobs will unveil a 3G iPhone. Luigi Licciardi, chief executive of Telecom Italia Mobile, apparently confirmed those rumors earlier this week when he told Electronics Weekly, “We will be selling an iPhone with 3G capability next month.”
Sybase Inc (SY.N) plans to soon start selling software that lets businesses securely distribute e-mail to the iPhone, which could help the popular device gain use among business clients.
The program for Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone will be released before the end of this year, John Chen said on Monday at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York. When asked to be more specific, he said, “It will be soon.”
The new program lets workers use the iPhone to access their e-mail with the same security safeguards that are currently available in products for use on Treo smartphones from Palm Inc (PALM.O) and Research in Motion’s (RIM.TO) BlackBerry, Chen said.
He said that Sybase is also working on similar software for Android, a new smartphone platform that Google Inc (GOOG.O) is developing with dozens of other companies.
The new Sybase software programs will allow businesses to deliver e-mail to several different types of phones, depending on which device a user carries, Chen said.
“It will be secure enterprise grade,” Chen said. “It will let the IT guys manage it.”
The business software maker already sells software that companies can use to send e-mail using the BlackBerry, Treo and smartphones running on the Symbian operating system as well as one for mobile devices from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O).
Former One Laptop Per Child President of software and content Walter Bender has launched Sugar Labs, an organization that will promote the development of the open-source user interface originally developed for the XO laptop.
Sugar Labs Foundation will refine the development of Sugar, a UI (user interface) for the Linux OS that provides educational tools for kids. The foundation aims to create distributions of Sugar for multiple hardware and open-source platforms beyond the XO laptop.
“By being independent of any specific hardware platform and by remaining dedicated to the principles of free and open-source software, Sugar Labs ensures that others can develop diverse interfaces and applications from which governments and schools can choose,” the nonprofit said.
GNU/Linux will remain the platform of choice for the development and distribution of Sugar, Bender said in an interview. However, Sugar Labs is not promoting operating systems; it intends use open source as a tool to promote a learning model, he said.
The give and take of the open-source development model embodies the culture of learning and education. “A transfer of this culture could greatly enhance the education industry and its ability to engage teachers and students,” he said.
Whether the nonprofit helps port the Sugar UI to Windows is yet to be determined, Bender said. “It is hard to imagine that a Windows port would be done without the cooperation and participation of the core Sugar developers,” he said.
The organization has its own roadmap for developing the Sugar UI and it hopes to work with OLPC.
“For the moment at least, OLPC is continuing to fund the development, so we anticipate a productive partnership, regardless of the fact that OLPC will be offering Windows XP as an option,” Bender said.
Sugar Labs, of which Bender is one of the founders, was announced the same day OLPC announced it would start selling Windows XP on the XO laptop, an ultraportable computer designed as a learning tool for kids in developing countries.
Bender resigned last month from OLPC as the group seemed to move toward loading Windows XP on XO. His resignation earned him applause from the open-source community.
After Bender quit, OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte questioned the development process of Sugar, calling it a “weakness” due to unrealistic development goals and practices. He urged the developer community to stop bickering, unite and to help port the Sugar UI to Windows to make XO laptops more appealing to users.
Sugar needs to be separated from the Linux OS core and made platform agnostic, Negroponte wrote. “To do that, we need to hire more developers, work more together and spend less time arguing,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Developers in the open-source community expressed outrage at Negroponte’s comments, calling his appeal vague and demoralizing for Sugar’s future development. The comments spawned a debate on the merit of OLPC’s move to the Windows OS.
Earlier this month, Kim Quirk, director of the technical team at OLPC, tried to reassure developers that OLPC was committed to Sugar as an open-source project, as it provides a great opportunity for learners as well as contributors, she wrote in an e-mail.