Samsung STORY Station 3.0 External Drive Receives USB 3.0 Treatment
Samsung is the third hard drive manufacturer to jump onto the USB 3.0 bandwagon, following Seagate and Western Digital . The new STORY Station 3.0 is a follow-up to the last year’s minimalist 3.5″ external drive. The two shares the exact same distinct brushed aluminum chassis with the front of the drive sporting an old-school power knob that is nothing more than a switch. The same jog dial controls the LED brightness level which seems somewhat unnecessary.
BlackBerry Bold 9650 smartphone announced for CDMA, replacing the Tour
During the WES conference in Orlando, which our own Michael Oryl is attending, Research in Motion (RIM) announced its latest Bold device, the Bold 9650, a CDMA smartphone that is expected to launch in May. Read the full story here.
Nokia N8, first Symbian^3 handset, gets previewed and is deemed an embarrassment to Nokia
Eldar Murtazin, Editor in Chief of Mobile-Review, makes Gary Powell look like an amateur when it comes to leaking early prototypes. Eldar gets things weeks, even months before everyone else, and has been for years. How he does it … no one actually knows, and whether or not his opinions on preproduction unfinished hardware and software is good for the mobile industry is up for debate, but here he is, striking again, this time with the Nokia ( NYSE: NOK ) N8. This device was first leaked back in February of this year
Plustek SmartOffice PL1530 ADF USB Scanner, Perfect for Two-person SOHO
Plustek has a revealed a new scanner – SmartOffice PL1530 Scanner – with some new features that may appeal to a whole new group of people. The company includes the usual suspect in terms of scan quality and speed but builds on the standard home scanner with an ADF system. Able to load up to 50 pages in the auto document feeder system, scanning a 50 page document just should become much less of a chore. The other standouts are the pair of USB connections that allow for two users to be connected to the scanner at the same time. The SmartOffice PL1530 scanner features buttons for quick transfer to either machine in addition to quick scan to PDF or print.
Nokia E72 gets a major firmware update (version 31.023)
Nokia has released a new firmware update (version 31.023) for its E72 smartphone. Aside from fixing many of the known bugs, the new firmware also bring some new applications along with updates to existing apps. Here’s the recap: New pre-installed apps include Ovi Sync, Advance Communication Manager (which gives extra call functionality such as black lists), Smart Connect and Internet radio. Updated were Ovi Maps (free navigation and location sharing version included!), Web (now in version 7.2 – brings full support for Flash Lite 3.1 in the web environment), Ovi Store (v1.5.436), Share online (v4.3.10.02), My Nokia ( NYSE: NOK ) (1.4) and the Start up and Email wizards (v2.1 and v2.05, respectively). At the moment, the new firmware is only available via Nokia Software Updater, meaning you’ll have to connect your E72 to your PC to update it
Allie`s on a quest to find some breaking news in the Kingdom of Adamas, but must now choose between her friend`s well-being and true love! The bachelor Prince of Aristo is the most enchanting man she has ever met, but she must fend off his charming advances long enough to figure out what is going on. Help Allie find valuable clues in Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire, an exciting Hidden Object game. Please note: the included free Harlequin novel contains romantic themes. Romantic story Gorgeous graphics Discover the truth! Harlequin Presents ™: Hidden Object of Desire| 76.4 Mb | DOWNLOAD HERE
Recently, BenQ has announced to launch a versatile and well designed display with eco-friendly settings. BenQ launches the monitor from the V-series. The monitor has a slim-line design with a range of new technology. BenQ claims that it is the product of world class slimness. V2220 offers LED backlighting to improve energy efficiency and performance.
Bleeding Edge TV 345: Sprint 4G Case for iPad review
We give you a first look at the Sprint 4G Case for the iPad in this episode. Sprint, trying to capitalize on all the iPad buzz, and the fact that they are the first carrier in North America to offer 4G service, released this case as a method to push their Sprint Overdrive 4G mobile hotspot
Samsung may release a Symbian phone later this year
All you Symbian fans should be happy to hear that Samsung is reportedly planning to make a handset with that operating system by the end of the year. There have been some rumblings that the world’s second-biggest handset maker would ditch Symbian because it already supports Android, bada and Windows Phone 7 but that doesn’t seem to hold any merit. What type of phone can we expect? Well, its last Symbian device was the Omnia HD – which rocked – so we may see an update in that line. If it comes out this year, a Samsung handset will rock Symbian^3 because Symbian^4 has been delayed .
Nook 1.3 update boasts web browser, faster page turns, apps
Barnes & Noble has finally releases nook update 1.3, which brings a couple of welcome upgrades and features to the ereader. One notable change is the presence of a web browser, which in turn, makes Wi-Fi a bit more useful. How so? Well, if a Wi-Fi hotspot requires a login, you can now use the browser to do that and hop onto the network, whereas before, you were just out of luck with the nook. Pages will now turn faster, which is always nice, and they’ve also got some apps and games available for your enjoyment as well.
Word on the street has Google confirming that they are developing a free navigation App for the iPhone which has been available for the Android system for some time now. This was confirmed at a press conference in the UK. So while Google does not host the maps on the device, they, like others, pre-cache the entire navigation route on the phone ahead of the trip.
Facebook And StumbleUpon – The Most Traffic Generating Social Sites
Twitter generates nearly 10 percent of social media global hits to websites, according to new research from StatCounter . The report found that Facebook is still the main source of traffic to global websites with almost half ( 48% ) of social media hits followed by StumbleUpon with 25 percent . The data for March is based on 13 billion page views across the StatCounter network of member sites. The analytics firm just recently added social media to the categories its tracks
While the iPad launched on April 3, it took Apple a couple of weeks to get the iPad Keyboard Dock into stores and into the hands of iPad owners, many of whom complained about not having a comfortable method of inputting text into the device. Of course, you can also use a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad, or you can use the on-screen keyboard in landscape mode—in fact, we typed our entire iPad review on the iPad digital keyboard. However, for those that wanted the keyboard dock, which can even charge the iPad while you are using it, it’s finally available.
Earth Day Deal: Planet Earth and Life on Blu-ray for $50
Earth Day 2010 is here, and the Discovery Channel Store has an amazing deal that we had to let you in on to celebrate the occasion—you can get both the Planet Earth series and the Life series as a Blu-ray set for $50 . Shipping is $4, so for $54 total, you get both documentary series on Blu-ray, which would normally cost $169.90 in total. It’s basically a steal, the visuals are jaw-dropping, and it’s a bit more Earth Day-ish than Avatar. Tags: blu-ray , blue planet , deals , discovery , discovery channel , earth day , earth day 2010 , life , planet earth , shopping , Earth Day Deal: Planet Earth and Life on Blu-ray for $50 originally appeared on Gear Live on Thu, April 22, 2010 – 1:00:07
At Finetech Japan 2010 in Tokyo, Newslight demonstrated a series of 3D naked-eye displays. Yes, this technology allows you to see in 3D without wearing glasses. The displays included a 70-inch model which the company claims is the largest in the world. According to DigiTimes , Newsight’s parallax barrier technology “subdivides the LCD image into complex repeating segments that, when viewed and then integrated by human binocular vision, presents 3D views.” Post from: The Gadget Blog
Update: Check out our Sprint 4G Case video review as well! A few days ago, we applauded Sprint for the way they were promoting their 4G service in conjunction with the launch of the iPad with their Sprint 4G Case . Obviously marketed towards the iPad buyers to get them to choose using a Sprint Overdrive 4G device rather than AT&T’s 3G plan, Sprint teamed up with Best Buy to give these cases away for free to anyone who’d purchase an Overdrive mobile hotspot at a participating Best Buy location
As many of you might have already heard, Microsoft has plans for the current version of Windows Mobile (6.5) beyond the launch of Windows Phone 7. Microsoft is bringing Windows Mobile operating system under the control of the Windows Embedded Business (“WEB”) group. This group has previously been responsible for the Windows CE business and works closely with OEMs focused on specialized hardware for business. Microsoft is fully committed to the Windows Mobile operating system as well as the associated application development tools for the long term, which is great news for enterprises that are heavily invested in Windows Mobile hardware; “Great news” at least on the surface
Peeking into an employee’s Web mail accessed on a company computer during work hours can be illegal–at least in New Jersey, according to that state’s Supreme Court. In a 7-0 decision, the judicial panel upheld a lower court ruling that sanctioned a company for collecting email messages between an employee and her attorney stored on the employee’s company computer. “Finding that the policies undergirding the attorney-client privilege substantially outweigh the employer’s interest in enforcement of its unilaterally imposed regulation, we reject the employer’s claimed right to rummage through and retain the employee’s emails to her attorney,” the appellate court ruled in its decision upheld by the state’s high court.
For you Facebook users out there… BostonPocketPC now has a Facebook page ! In addition to the content you would find here, our Facebook page also includes an event calendar for upcoming Boston/New England Windows Phone User and Developer group events as well as Windows Phone events in the Greater Boston area. The BostonPocketPC Facebook page also hosts Discussion Threads for members
Google has in the last few days released a few updates for their Google Maps software. Android users in the UK and Ireland running 1.6 and above and Blackberry users too will be happy to find out that they now have free Navigation in addition to the Voice Search which has also been added to Symbian & Windows Mobile versions.
Mobile Web and Mobile Apps Monetization Strategies
Faced with a prevailing culture where consumers expect web services and digital content to be free, mobile app and mobile web developers need to adopt the right strategy in order to monetize their efforts. The Freemium model is a classic marketing tool available to mobile app developers to maintain the perception of a free service, while attempting to lock-in customers into some type of charging mechanism. (And I recommend reading Chris Anderson’s ‘Free: The Future of a Radical Price’ book for further insights into this). But many of the decisions around charging will stem from a look at the value that the mobile consumer perceives he/she is getting from the app in question. Apps with a low perceived value will struggle to charge anything at all, no matter the charging mechanism