Apple on Tuesday released a second beta version of the iPhone 3.2 SDK to developers. The first beta was initially seeded last month following the iPad unveiling. Many of the new features are focused on the iPad, with tools geared for the larger screen resolution. Although the device has yet to be released, developers can view UI layouts and debug apps on an iPad simulator.
HTC may be in the earlier stages of developing an extremely high-end Android smartphone, says a code string reportedly leaked on Tuesday. Possibly to launch as the Scorpion, it would use the dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor teased at CES and would use Android 2.2, which is likely to be the final name for the update Google has so far codenamed Froyo. One line of code also makes reference to WiMAX and suggests it might head to Sprint's 4G network.
Following on the heels of the Aperture 3 introduction, Apple on Tuesday also released maintenance updates for RAW compatibility and a SlideShow bug. Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.0 extends RAW support for Aperture 3 and iPhoto 09 to include several additional cameras and formats such as Canon's PowerShot S90, sRAW, and mRAW; Leica's D-LUX 4; and Panasonic's Lumix DMC-G1, DMC-GH1 and DMC-LX3.
RealNetworks in a surprise move tonight broke off Rhapsody as a separate company. The move has the blessing of Real's partner in the venture, Viacom, and will transfer all the rights to Rhapsody so that its streaming and download music services remain intact. Real will also inject $18 million in cash and promises that Rhapsody will be independent, with no one else holding a majority stake.
Initial impressions of a prototype Adam tablet from Notion Ink, first announced late last year, show that the device has some significant advantages over competitors such as the iPad. Powered by the new NVIDIA Tegra chipset and using a low-power display from Pixel Qi, the pre-production Adam is said to last at least two to three times longer than the 10-hour battery life for the iPad when browsing the web using Wi-Fi or watching video, according to Notion Ink CEO Rohan Shravan.
Zevrix has launched PDF Checkpoint 1.2, updating its PDF preflight and conversion software. The app exports PDFs as images, and splits and reduces the size of PDF files. Hundreds of files can be handled at a time via drag-and-drop batch processing.
Belkin on Tuesday announced it has redesigned its Laptop Cooling Pad to now include a unique AirFlow Wing shape that is more efficient at taking heat away from the computer and a user's lap. At the same time, the design results in the notebook itself being quieter. The fan was repositioned compared to the previous pad and retains its USB power cable.
Siri has launched a public beta of its personal assistant software for the iPhone, Siri Assistant. The program is designed to help with everyday tasks such as booking a restaurant or contacting a taxi service. Its main feature is voice recognition technology, which operates in a question-and-answer style. Over time the app is designed to adapt, and become simpler to use.
Japan's Elecom has launched two new memory card readers with support for SDXC memory cards. The MR-A001BK is a USB thumb reader that can also read nine other types of memory cards, including SD Pro High speed cards. The MR-A002 reader is larger and attaches using a USB cable. It will be available in black or white and supports 32 different types of portable media cards.
Several analysts have expressed conflicting views on AT&T's iPhone exclusivity, and whether or not it will end in 2010 or be extended another year. Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research has raised his Verizon rating from Underperform to Neutral, in part because there may be little future for AT&T even if Verizon does not get the US iPhone. AT&T's growth will "sputter" without the iPhone as a guaranteed draw, says Moffett.
Best known for its work on the MP3 format, Fraunhofer this afternoon said it would use Mobile World Congress next week to formally roll out two new audio formats specially designed for mobile. MPEG Surround can produce as much as 7.2-channel surround sound but has no real effect on the bitrate versus a stereo mix. A smartphone or a networked media hub using MPEG Surround can get the full audio of a movie without needing more space or a faster network connection.
IDC as part of a wave of mobile market share updates has again given the crown to the BlackBerry Curve as the top selling smartphone in the US. Despite the line's relative age, it outsold both the second-place iPhone and third-place Motorola Droid during the fall and was joined in the top ten by four other models: the Pearl, Bold, Storm and Tour occupied the fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth place spots respectively. The iPhone 3G, Palm Pre and myTouch 3G filled out the fourth-, eighth- and tenth-place positions.
Apple has been granted a new patent, No. 7,660,749, that describes a system for "representing visitor activity in an online store." The background information suggests that online shopping offers a number of advantages over visiting brick-and-mortar locations, however the experience "can feel sterile and isolating" and lead to lower sales numbers.
An unofficial report has Intel releasing a new ultra-low voltage Core i7 CPU this summer, the 660UM. The dual-core chip would produce a 1.33GHz clock speed but ramp up to 2.4GHz speeds when overclocked in Turbo Boost. When it arrives, it should supercede the 1.2GHz Core i7 640UM, support the same 800MHz DDR3 memory and consume the same 18W of total power as the slower model.
Google at its event today gave its users a new real-time status update system. Google Buzz aggregates live updates from a user's Google contacts and shows not just direct messages but updates from Twitter, Google Reader updates, and media posts from Flickr, Picasa and YouTube. Photos and videos are given special treatment and include special media browsers to view content without having to leave the existing environment.
Germany's Graebert has formally announced ARES, a new CAD tool. The software is touted mainly as cross-platform, able to run natively on Windows, Mac and Linux systems. Mobile versions are planned for Android, Windows Mobile and the iPad.
Apple is facing the rare incident of an advance sellout this week as a number of Norwegian resellers have had to stop their pre-order programs for the iPad. Eplehuset (Apple House) has told its customers that "crazy interest" has led it to stop sales in advance. Fellow Apple reseller Humac has also quietly pulled the iPad, as it still has a category but no longer has active product pages.
Apple has recognized and is now probing a critical problem affecting the Mac Pro, sources claim. Some Nehalem-based systems have experienced massive increases in CPU power consumption while playing audio, which are worsened by leaps in heat levels, and performance drops as high as 20 percent. In spite of these changes, the CPU usage does not register in Activity Monitor, and fans fail to kick in at proper levels.
Texas Instruments this morning brought out the WiLink 7, a design it says is the first to include four types of wireless on a single chip. It combines Bluetooth, an FM transceiver, GPS and 802.11n Wi-Fi into a single design and lets phone designers cut down on the size and energy needed. The creator estimates that it takes up half as much space as a normal multi-chip approach but also 30 percent less power.
NAVIGON has released MobileNavigator 1.5.0, described as a "significant" update to the company's turn-by-turn app for the iPhone. The principal upgrade is the addition of MyRoutes, which creates custom path choices for a destination. Up to three options are presented, with accompanying distance and ETA information. The routes are calculated based on driving habits, as well as day and time.
Warner Music Group during its fiscal results call today acknowledged that its digital music sales have slowed since it helped push for variable pricing on iTunes last year. In the fall, the company's digital sales equivalent to whole albums grew about 5 percent compared to late 2008 where it grew 10 percent over this past summer and 11 percent in the spring. Absolute digital revenue followed a similar pattern as the income grew 8 percent year-over-year in late 2009, but less than half the 20 percent from the end of 2008.
A new Apple job listing strongly indicates that cameras are coming to future iPads. The company's Cupertino headquarters is hiring a QA engineer for its iPad Media division, with the specific intent of testing still and video camera capture, as well as playback. The first-generation iPad, which has yet to ship, lacks any form of camera.
Seagate said on Tuesday it is now shipping its Savvio 10K.4 enterprise-grade hard drives. The series is the first to feature a model with 600GB of capacity and a 10,000RPM speed in a 2.5-inch form factor. The drives are said to offer twice the capacity of their competitors and are the first to carry a 2 million hour Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF).
Google has quietly put up its first phone support option for the Nexus One. It's currently limited to dealing with sales and shipping but is the first direct, live option for the Android phone. The company had previously limited its own help to e-mail and had redirected all live support to either T-Mobile, for carrier issues, or directly to hardware creator HTC.
NVIDIA today formally unwrapped Optimus, a hybrid graphics technology that it promises will solve many of the problems of performance and battery life on notebooks. It can switch from integrated to dedicated graphics and back while the system is still active and logged in, providing a completely transparent experience for power saving; users can run on Intel's integrated graphics to save power but turn on the dedicated graphics in as little as 300ms. It can even turn on the dedicated GPU per app and accelerate certain tasks, such as 3D or a YouTube video, only when the hardware is necessary.
Apple has released Aperture 3, a major update of the company's photo workflow software. The program is now 64-bit only, and has also been upgraded with several new features, most notably Brushes and Adjustment Presets. The former allow people to "paint" edits onto a photo, making them more precise without having to open a secondary app like Photoshop. There are 15 default Quick Brushes, such as Dodge, Burn, Blur and Polarize.
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