RIM shows off PlayBook’s browser chops, SDK in latest round of teaser vids

It looks like RIM’s really sticking to this “you don’t need an app for the web” mantra for its hotly anticipated PlayBook — at least according to the latest crop of videos the company has outed. In what is no doubt an attempt to drum up some buzz before a swarm of other tablets descends on CES, the company has chosen to highlight its latest browser improvements to prove just how “real” the web is on the PlayBook. HTML5 video playback looks super smooth, as does Flash video in the desktop YouTube site. Impressively, the entire Facebook experience works exactly like it does on the desktop — even supporting Facebook chat, which the iPad’s browser can’t handle. They demonstrate Flash games working without a hitch, so you can breathe a sigh of relief, Farmville-addicts. The second video explores the SDK — no doubt in an attempt to reiterate the ease of programming for the PlayBook — and while there’s a good bit of technical jargon, we have to say that the Fantasy Football app shown off looks pretty sweet. Why RIM can’t somehow manage to bring these improvements to its already-shipping BlackBerry line, we still can’t quite comprehend, but we’ll be visiting the RIM booth as soon as the show opens to see the latest improvements for ourselves. In the meantime, peep the videos after the break.

Continue reading RIM shows off PlayBook’s browser chops, SDK in latest round of teaser vids

RIM shows off PlayBook’s browser chops, SDK in latest round of teaser vids originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chrome closes out the year with ten percent browser share, gains at expense of IE

It may not exactly look like a huge shift in the chart above, but 2010 did represent something of a milestone year for Google’s Chrome web browser. It started out 2010 with a market share of just over five percent, and managed to double that over the course of the year to close things out at a nice, even ten percent, according to stats from Net Applications. Those gains, as you might expect, came largely at the expense of Internet Explorer, which is continuing its slow, slow decline, but still hangs onto a commanding 57 percent market share. As for the rest of the major players, both Firefox and Opera slipped ever so slightly over the course of the year, while Apple’s Safari gained just over one percent to end the year at 5.9 percent.

Chrome closes out the year with ten percent browser share, gains at expense of IE originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook Now Worth $50 Billion, Apparently

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Yeesh. What manner of ungodly sum is Facebook worth these days? $5 Billion, thanks to a new investment from the deep pockets at Goldman Sachs, who plunked down $500 million for the social networking site.

Remember how shocked everyone was when AOL bought Time Warner back in 2000–and not the other way around? Well, you might want to sit down for this–the new valuation puts Facebook’s valuation at more than Time Warner, Yahoo, and eBay.

A number of folks are speculating that such a valuation might end up convincing the company to go public with its stocks earlier than planned. At present, however, it doesn’t appear that Zuckerberg’s company has any plans to do so at least until 2012.

The How-To Geek Guide to Audio Editing: The Basics

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Ever get the urge to edit some audio but you’re not sure where to start? Settle in with this HTG guide to the free audio editor Audacity that’s written for beginners but caters to geeks of all levels.

Note: this is the first article in a multi-part series that we’ll be covering over the next few weeks

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Hotmail’s Mysterious Disappearing E-Mails Returning to Users’ Inboxes

windows live hotmail Many Hotmail users across the world reported over the weekend that their e-mails had been mysteriously deleted. Over the past couple of days, Microsoft’s official forums were filled with complaints from users claiming that their inboxes and all of their folders had been emptied, with some suspecting that their accounts had been hacked. Microsoft’s Hotmail technical team has acknowledged that it’s aware of the issue, and that it’s working to restore access for those affected. A Microsoft spokeswoman, however, told the BBC that the problem was not widespread. Check out DownloadSquad for more.

Continue reading Hotmail’s Mysterious Disappearing E-Mails Returning to Users’ Inboxes

Hotmail’s Mysterious Disappearing E-Mails Returning to Users’ Inboxes originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Considering a "Digital Newsstand" for Android [Rumors]

Because the read-things-on-devices market isn’t crowded enough, the Wall Street Journal claims Google is looking into a “digital newsstand” to deliver major print media outlets onto Android-powered devices. A subscription-based news model would put Google in direct competition with similar efforts by Amazon and Apple, none of which have been overwhelmingly successful, but competition in the field and the likely lower resulting prices couldn’t hurt news outlets’ chances at gaining wider acceptance. Do you want your news delivered to your Android, app-style? [Wall Street Journal via CNET] More »







Samsung reaches goal: 10 million Galaxy S phones sold worldwide

Can’t say we’re surprised — after all, last time we checked in the tally was hovering around 9.3 million — but now Samsung has officially met its goal of 10 million Galaxy S phones sold around the globe. That’s less than seven months since the device first hit the market, which by Sammy’s fuzzy math averages to about one unit for every two seconds it’s been on sale. According to Samsung Tomorrow, North America contributed the most with 4 million in sales, followed by Europe at 2.5 million. Let there be cake, and once that’s over, let there be progress on those Froyo updates.

Samsung reaches goal: 10 million Galaxy S phones sold worldwide originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 05:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink OLED-Display.net  |  sourceSamsung Tomorrow (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

Toshiba announces unnamed Tegra 2-powered Android tablet, waits only for Honeycomb

Let the Tegra 2-powered, Android Honeycomb tablet announcements begin! Apparently (and understandably) staying away from a Folio 2 moniker, Toshiba is kicking off CES with its new unnamed 10.1-inch Android tablet, and we have to say from our brief look at a non-working unit a few weeks ago, it may just have what it takes to stick out from the rest.. at least on the spec and manufacturing quality front. The tablet has a capacitive, high 1280 x 800-resolution display along with an accelerometer and ambient light sensor (or what Toshiba has dubbed as Adaptive Display technology). It also has a 5 megapixel rear camera as well as a 2 megapixel front-facing one. Yep, this one is well stocked and just a quick look at the pictures below will show that the slab has got full sized USB and HDMI jacks, a single mini-USB socket, and an SD card slot.

While we couldn’t turn on the dual-core Tegra 2-powered tablet, which will eventually run “the next version of Android designed for tablets” aka Honeycomb, we have to say the EasyGrip, spill-resistant, rubberized back felt really solid in hand and the 1.7-pound, .6-inch thick tablet felt comparable to the iPad in terms of portability. Oh, and did we mention that the aforementioned rear cover is swappable, so not only can you change its color but you can replace the battery? We told you it had some of the ingredients to make it go far, but we’re obviously lacking quite a bit of information here to make any further decisions. Toshiba’s maintaining that the tablet will be released in the first half of 2011 (it obviously has to wait until Honeycomb has been made official) and the pricing will be competitive, but we’ll be digging for more when we get to Vegas and hopefully reporting back with some impressions of a working unit.

Toshiba announces unnamed Tegra 2-powered Android tablet, waits only for Honeycomb originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 03:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Strong quake rattles Chile

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake has struck central Chile, sending tens of thousands of people near coastal communities for higher ground over concerns it would generate a tsunami.