Samsung’s MWC 2011 presentation is this Sunday, at 6PM Central European Time (midday for those on the American east coast). We already know it will feature a dual-core evolution to the Galaxy S smartphone and we know for a fact there’ll be at least one new tablet on show. Pocket-lint is today filling in some details about said Tab successor by identifying it as a 10.1-inch Android 3.0 device. That means Samsung is stepping right up to Motorola, whose Xoom still looks likely to be the first Honeycomb tablet to ship, and saying it can do better. It might just be able to do it, too, as the new and unnamed Tab is said to be physically smaller than Apple’s iPad in spite of having a slightly larger display. Somewhat less believable is the mention of a dual-core Qualcomm processor as the thing to power Samsung’s new tablet — can you really see Samsung undermining the future success of its Orion / Exynos chip by using a competitor’s hardware? Then again, weirder things have happened.
It’s happened. Former Microsoft exec and current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has married his future and his past in the holy matrimony of a “strategic alliance.” Windows Phone is becoming Nokia’s “principal smartphone strategy,” but there’s a lot more to this hookup — scope out the official press release just after the break. Microsoft’s Bing and adCenter will provide search and ad services across Nokia devices, while Nokia will look to innovate “on top of the platform” with things like its traditional strength in imaging. Ovi Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services and will be integrated with Bing, while Nokia’s content store will be integrated into (read: assimilated by) Microsoft’s Marketplace. Xbox Live and Office will also, as is to be expected, feature on these brave new Microkia handsets. An open letter on Nokia’s Conversations site, penned jointly by Stephen Elop and Steve Ballmer, sets out the foregoing details along with the following statement of intent:
“There are other mobile ecosystems. We will disrupt them. There will be challenges. We will overcome them. Success requires speed. We will be swift. Together, we see the opportunity, and we have the will, the resources and the drive to succeed.”
Bloomberg just sourced three people that said RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook will be able to have access to the Android Marketplace, which in turn means it will run Android apps. It’s not a new idea, having surfaced as a rumor back in September 2010, but it’s still a weird one. More »
Good news have arrived for SaskTel customers – they have updated their site to show the Apple iPhone 4 is coming soon. Unfortunately no other details are given. Hopefully it arrives before June when the iPhone 5 arrives. More here at SaskTel (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!) Related posts:microSIM cards coming to SaskTel […]
The internet is full of BitTorrent search engines, but what if you’re just trying to decide what your weekend movie should be? TorrentButler presents new releases in a visually attractive fasion, linking to standard and high definition torrents for each. More »
Technology titans Google and Facebook are kicking the tires on social media site Twitter and considering a bid for the company, a report in the Wall Street Journal said Thursday.
The Internet Explorer 9 beta pleasantly surprised us with Microsoft’s renewed competitiveness in the web browser wars, and the pinnable, hardware-accelerated experience is getting even better today — you can download the IE9 release candidate right now, which streamlines and beautifies the tabbed browsing layout considerably, adds those previously promised, fully customizable tracking protection lists for privacy and freely toggled ActiveX filters, as well as an updated Javascript engine, geolocation support via HTML5, the ability to pin web apps to the taskbar, and a host of assorted speed and functionality improvements. Find the files you need at our source link below, and let us know if the Beauty of the Web captivates you this time around.
Update: We spoke to Microsoft IE9 privacy guru Andy Ziegler, and learned to our dismay that tracking protection lists won’t actually be included in the browser per se; rather, the company’s created a feature where you can generate your own lists or download ready-made one from providers like TRUSTe. The thing is, IE9 won’t suggest one for you, or even curate a group of them when you install — you’ll need to put on your power user hat and do the legwork there yourself.
For many, your wedding day is one of the biggest, most momentous days of your life. The perfect dress, the right tuxedo, the proper shade of blue, the three-tier cake with chocolate fondant, and all of your closest family and friends—these are just a few of the many things you might think about for your special day. Although there’s much to consider and a lot of work to do, the payoff is great: it’s one of the happiest days of your life.
To help you plan this important day we’ve created wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and Picnik, and gathered tips and tricks for using these and other Google products at google.com/weddings. From wedding websites to save-the-date cards, these tools simplify wedding planning, letting you focus your time on the fun things—like tasting cakes!
We teamed up with renowned wedding planner Michelle Rago, who provided her insight and creativity to guide the designs you’ll find on this new site. Michelle also shared her experience to provide tips and advice to keep your guests comfortable and you sane.
We’re also hosting a wedding sweepstakes, so if you’re getting married in the next year you can enter for a chance to win $25,000 towards your dream wedding (see Official Rules). Plus, Michelle Rago and her team will advise the winning couple on location, flowers, food and other design elements to create a day that is uniquely their own.
Visit google.com/weddings to start planning, or share the site with your favorite betrothed couple and help them on their way to wedded bliss.
Posted by: Lisa Conquergood, Senior Product Marketing Manager
Google just launched two-step verification for all Google accounts, a system which makes your Google/Gmail account—the account possibly containing the lion's share of your private communication online—considerably more secure. In fact, we'd encourage everyone who uses Gmail (the @gmail version or your Google Apps version) as their primary email provider to start using this feature as soon as possible. Here's why, and then how. More »
Augmented reality (AR) company Metaio will show a demo at next week’s Mobile World Congress in which AR on your mobile phone shows you how to change a printer toner cartridge.
Augmented reality overlays digital information over your view of the physical world in a mobile device’s camera view
The printer demo is significant for a couple of reasons: the application of mobile AR to a service and maintenance scenario, and the sophisticated technology used.
Metaio has a division which works with industrial clients like the car company Volkswagen. For example, a 3D model of a new vehicle can be superimposed over a digital photo of the actual factory environment to help with plan the assembly room layout. This kind of application requires very precise 3D modeling and overlay of the AR image over the real-world image.
For the printer demo, Metaio’s software creates a virtual 3D point cloud (see the video) from the image of the printer in the mobile phone’s camera view. This point cloud defines the structure of the printer. The cloud is then compared to a markerless tracking reference (a sort of “signature” created from 3D CAD models of the printer) so the software can recognize the correct printer model. The software then renders AR objects over the camera view of the printer in real time and with the correct scale in order to instruct the user on how to change the cartridge.
Most mobile AR applications so far have been simple, sometimes gimmicky and according to some commentators not even real AR. Now that the initial novelty has worn off, Metaio is convinced that AR users are looking for more useful applications and, in areas like games and media, higher production values. Replacing the service manual certainly falls into the category of useful.
Improving AR graphics for applications like games is made difficult by the already high processing and battery power required by AR. Metaio worked with ST-Ericsson’s latest dual-core smartphone platform, the U8500, to optimize its AR software to run on that chip set (the printer demo can be seen in the in the ST-Ericsson partner zone at Mobile World Congress).
This increased the frames per second of the AR image rendering from about 18 frames/second on an off-the-shelf smartphone to 30 frames/second on ST Ericsson’s platform, resulting in a much smoother and more accurate AR experience.The company thinks that such partnerships between hardware and AR software vendors are essential to push mobile AR technology forward.
Although the functionality shown in the printer demo is not yet available in Metaio’s mobile AR browser Junaio, the company has been busy adding other interesting featureslike image recognition and visual search (similar to Google Goggles) including face recognition.
Metaio is based in Munich, Germany, was founded in 2003 and has around 65 employees. It is privately funded.
You might be wondering why we have a screenshot of what appears to be AVG Anti-Virus, but is in fact a fake anti-virus malware that holds your computer hostage until you pay them. Here’s a really simple tip to defeating these types of malware, and a quick review of other options.
Not sure what we’re talking about? Be sure to check out our previous articles on cleaning up fake antivirus infections.
So what’s the problem? Can’t you just run a anti-virus scan? Well… it’s not quite that simple. What actually happens is that these pieces of malware block you from running almost anything on your PC, and often prevent you from running apps from a Flash drive, with an error like this:
Once you encounter this error, there’s a couple things you can do. The first one is almost stupidly simple, and works some of the time
We heard some weird reports over the weekend that the 3G Motorola Xoom tablet couldn’t be sold unless you bought at least one month of wireless data. That, plus the groan-inducing $800 MSRP, is surely giving some potential buyers a wee bit of pause. This might help. Crossing the wires at the FCC is what appears to be a WiFi-only version of the Xoom, called a “wireless tablet with embedded WLAN.” It’s lacking a 3G radio so, unless Moto has another trick up its sleeves, this is probably that. Obviously any speculation on price would be highly… speculative, but here’s to hoping ditching that modem brings this thing down a Benjamin or so. Also spotted, this time in Dubai but also embedded below, was a silver version of the Xoom, sporting a two-tone back that will nicely complement your Casio Data Bank calculator watch. No word on whether we’ll get that on these shores, but we hope so. Variety is, dear readers, the spice of life.
Now this is what we’re talking about! Sure, we’ve been well aware of RIM’s plans to take the PlayBook to Sprint (and maybe even Verizon), but if this Office Depot listing is to be believed, a 16GB, WiFi version of the 7-inch tablet will also be heading to some retailers for the very competitive price of $499.99. It’s really the first solid PlayBook pricing we’ve seen, and we’ve got to admit, we’re happy to see that RIM followed through on its word to offer the touchscreen slab for under $500. (And hey, it sure beats the leaked Xoom pricing we saw earlier this week.) Unfortunately, the screenshot above doesn’t reveal much more, although it lists the QNX-powered slate as hitting Office Depot stores on “Week 17,” which is the last week in April according to our calendar. That’s a bit later than the March date we’ve heard before, but either way we’re waiting for spring to start and hoping Office Depot’s cut out its shady practices so we can snatch up one of these ASAP.
It may not have provided a live stream, but HP has at least quickly turned around a complete video of today’s nearly two hour-long “Think Beyond” event in San Francisco. Head on past the break to see the announcements of the TouchPad, Pre 3 and Veer as they happened, along with few other surprises. Unfortunately for those watching at home, it seems HP wasn’t able to think beyond 360p.
We’ve been hearing a fair bit of buzz about INQ and Facebook getting all cozy-like and creating a Facebook phone. Well, that’s only half right: INQ has made its first Android 2.2 device, really focused on Facebook integration, and seem to have really nailed it. The two devices are the INQ Cloud Touch (pictured above) and a QWERTY device with exactly the same specs — but, with a QWERTY keypad, of course — named the Cloud Q. Features include triband HSPA for the European folks, 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, all manner of mail support including Exchange, what appears to be legendary Facebook support, and Spotify onboard as the de facto music app with a dedicated key.
INQ’s two Cloud devices are apparently the first mobiles to use the Facebook Social Graph API, which will see all your most important Facebook content appear on your set’s homescreen. Another bonus in here is the keyboard tech — based on SwiftKey — which will not only predict what word you’re typing, but what words you may type based on some AI wizardry, science, and your writing tendencies. The Cloud Touch is set to launch in April at Carphone Warehouse and BestBuy in the UK with the Cloud Q landing sometime in Q3. We’re just about wheels-up for Barcelona to check out the haps at MWC next week, and you can be sure we’ll be all over these sets as soon as we land.
Augmented reality (AR) company 
