News Archive for 08/03/14

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Dell intros low-cost, high-color 2009W LCD

03/14, 8:15pm

Dell 2009W

Dell today quietly introduced the 2009W. This replacement LCD for the mid-grade 2007WFP is both less expensive while also more accurate: the 2009W can reproduce 102% of the NTSC color range and boosts the contrast ratio from 800:1 to 2,000:1 through dynamic adjustments. The panel is also much faster for games and fast-action movies with a 5ms average pixel response time.

Contour unveils iSee iPhone v3 clear case

03/14, 7:00pm

Contour iSee iPhone v3

Contour Design today unveiled the iSee iPhone v3, a new version to its iSee line of clear cases, advertising a sleeker design and additional protection. The iSee features a two-piece snap together polycarbonate chassis, which is 30-percent lighter and 20-oercent thinner than the previous model, while still offering full protection. The iSee iPhone v3 also features removable silicone port covers for the dock and headphone connectors. Contour Design is selling the case for $30.

Opinion: Why is Apple waiting on Blu-Ray?

03/14, 6:45pm

Why wait on Blu-Ray

When Blu-Ray and HD DVD were first discussed, Apple said it would commit to Blu-Ray, but was allegedly waiting for a winner to be proclaimed in the next-generation format war. Robert Cringely, a writer for PBS wonders what Apple is waiting for, since Toshiba recently announced that HD DVD was to be no more. Cringely theorizes that Apple could be waiting to add official Blu-Ray support into its professional apps, like Final Cut Studio 2.

Spring Up!, a realistic physics game

03/14, 6:05pm

Spring Up!

Frozax Games has announced the release of a new physics-based action game called 'Spring Up!' for Mac OS X. Using realistic physics, Spring Up! offers a unique game experience with bouncing balls and bricks. The player needs to clear levels by launching balls on color-matching elements. A player-controlled paddle at the bottom of the screen gives additional points when catching the items. The levels are made up of various dynamic and motorized blocks, as well as fans, bumpers or teleporters. It can guide or slow down the player in its efforts to complete the 72 levels. Using credits won making big plays and combos, the player can buy around 50 upgradable items for its own customizable garden, such as trees, statues, fountains, flowers and much more.

MacDraft 5.6.4 adds Mac OS technologies

03/14, 5:40pm

MacDraft 5.6.4 update

Microspot today unveiled MacDraft 5.6.4 in both Professional and Personal editions, its 2D drafting and technical illustration software, adding installers that take advantage of several Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard technologies. The new version features installers for both QuickLook and Spotlight, allowing users to quickly search for, and view, their documents. MacDraft 5.6.4 is a free update for existing users, while new users can buy MacDraft starting at $130.

Developers rejected from iPhone program

03/14, 5:35pm

iPhone devs rejected

Hundreds if not more of the developers who applied to Apple's iPhone Developer Program have been rejected for membership. The $100 program promised developer support, entry to the iPhone AppStore and other benefits. Part of a published portion of the rejection letter reads: "We have received your enrollment request. At this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand the program during the course of the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time." As pointed out by TUAW, however, "this is less about 'rejection' than it is about developers being unable to commit resources when Apple won't give a firm go-ahead. Feel free to think about it as a 'limbogram' rather than an outright rejection."

Auction may add two cell carriers in Canada

03/14, 5:15pm

Canada Cell Biz Expands

Canada's wireless industry was set to expand on Friday when Quebecor said it would participate in an upcoming wireless auction, hoping to claim newly available frequencies for future cellular business. The company is best known for its Videotron cable and Internet services in its namesake Quebec but has placed a $317 million deposit to put itself into the auction citing the rare opportunity to expand outside of its native province with a new service.

SubEthaEdit 3.1: easy remote connectivity features

03/14, 4:35pm

SubEthaEdit 3.1 update

TheCodingMonkeys today announced the release of SubEthaEdit 3.1, an update to its collaborative text editing software, adding a number of different features to make internet collaboration easier. The new version adds automatic port forwarding, allowing users to connect easily without manual setup. iChat invites allow users to drag and drop iChat contacts onto the software to invite users to a session. SubEthaEdit 3.1 is available for €29 (~$45).

LG enV2 spotted in press shots

03/14, 4:35pm

LG enV2 Spotted

LG's direct sequel to the enV messaging phone has been officially uncovered and suppled with more details, says a leak from Engadget. Previously known just as the VX9100, the sequel is likely to be called just the enV2 in public and will have a simpler look than the original (known as the VX9900) with only a small external LCD. The new version should also switch to a smaller, standardized USB connection for charging and synchronizing instead of a custom connector.

YouTube gets third of all video hits in January

03/14, 4:15pm

google gets third vid hit

Google-owned YouTube accounted for the majority of the more than one-third of all 9.8 billion videos watched online in January, as measured by comScore Video Metrix service and reported on Friday. More accurately, the 3.36 billion video views amounted to 34.3 percent of the total, far outpacing the next-highest, Fox Interactive Media’s MySpace, at 6.0 percent. This marks a 1.7 percent improvement over December 2007 results, where a record 10.1 billion videos were viewed.

Miglia intros pocket HD tuner for US

03/14, 3:25pm

Miglia TVMini HD Express

Miglia today catered just to Mac users with the TVMini HD Express. The aluminum USB tuner is designed to be as simple as possible and is small enough to be easily carried along with a notebook. It also focuses solely on US HDTV broadcasts and incorporates an ATSC tuner to catch signals up to 720p or 1080i, including both antenna and unprotected cable feeds. The device ships with The Tube software that helps record shows in MPEG-2 and also permits watching captured shows away from the host using any Mac with a broadband connection.

Toon Boom releases Storyboard 1.5

03/14, 3:00pm

Storyboard 1.5

Toon Boom Animation has announced the release of both Storyboard and Storyboard Pro 1.5 today. In addition to several performance improvements and the support of Mac OS X 10.5 that apply to both products, version 1.5 also brings new features in the Pro version only. In this latest release, Storyboard Pro adds support of Final Draft, Acrobat and Photoshop file format and improved editing capabilities in the timeline as well as enhanced drawings tools.

HTC patenting unique dual-mode slider

03/14, 2:20pm

HTC Dual Mode Slider

HTC has developed a technology for slider phones that could make them both more useful and more elegant, according to a new US patent filing. Rather than rely on either dual sliders (as with the Helio Ocean) or other complicated designs, the prototype would include a unique keyboard plate and slider track that would allow users to shift the LCD from calling to text modes without significantly impacting the size of the phone.

16GB iPhone seeing shortages worldwide

03/14, 1:00pm

16GB iPhone Shortages

The recently introduced 16GB iPhone is seeing shortages that are restricting Apple's ability to serve both foreign markets and even its own, according to checks by iFUN. In the US, the online Apple Store lists the high-end handset as shipping in 5-7 days, while T-Mobile Germany's iPhone page makes no mention of the device, listing only the 8GB version. Austria and France also continue to display the 8GB model alone.

India to avoid BlackBerry ban

03/14, 12:25pm

India not banning RIM

RIM’s BlackBerry smartphone will not to be banned in India, said the country’s telecommunications secretary in an interview Friday. Earlier reports of blocking the BlackBerry from the country involved the government’s concern over national security as RIM’s proprietary encoded transmissions could not be monitored. Indian telecommunications companies are willing to co-operate with the government and keep logs of messages sent to or from BlackBerry phones for a certain period of time, if that would appease government security agencies’ concerns.

iPod Update 1.3 for 5th generation released

03/14, 12:05pm

iPod Update 1.3

Apple has released update 1.3 for fifth-generation iPods through iTunes. The new release contains "bug fixes," supersedes all previous versions and weighs in at about 6.3MB. You can install the new update by connecting your iPod to your computer and running iTunes.

Nine Inch Nails' online sales net $1.6m

03/14, 12:00pm

NIN Online Sales 1.6m

Nine Inch Nails' experiment with selling a new album almost exclusively by itself has netted more than $1.6 million over just the space of a week, the band said late Thursday. The group managed the figure for its instrumental album Ghosts I-IV through 800,000 individual downloads and orders. While some of these were free downloads of the first quarter of the album, a large but undisclosed number of these were either $5 paid downloads for the full offering or else preorders for physical copies that include the download, which range from $10 for the album alone to $300 for a collectors' edition that has already sold out.

OWC launches new 1.0TB FireWire+USB drives

03/14, 11:10am

OWC FireWire+USB drives

Other World Computing (OWC) on Friday announced new OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro FireWire+USB 2.0 Combo storage drives featuring SATA technology. Starting at just over $100, the new drives feature capacities up to 1.0TB and offer the latest Oxford 934 performance chipset, two FireWire 400 1394A six-pin ports, and a single USB 2.0 port. The company says that the drives may be stacked or can stand vertically (using an included stand); they measure only 9.3" (length) x 1.4" (height) x 5.6" (width).

Analyst: Apple DVR by gen 3, Blu-ray soon

03/14, 11:05am

Apple TV DVR Gen 3 Soon

Apple may incorporate the technology from its digital video recording patent filing into the Apple TV as early as the media hub's third generation, according to a new investment note by Shaw Wu of American Technology Research. The analyst believes that the live capture functionality and iPhone/iPod remote control functionality could be used either in the third or fourth generation of the product to turn the device into a "real business" as opposed to the "hobby" it has represented for the California firm so far.

Notebooks to dominate 300m PC market in 2008

03/14, 10:30am

PC Shipments to Top 300m

Computer shipments will still crest above 300 million in 2008 despite an economic slump triggered by the American housing market, according to a new study by IDC. The growth in notebooks is predicted to drive roughly 12.8 percent growth over the course of the year to reach roughly 302 million; of those, just over 45 percent (136.3 million) will account for portables, the research group says. Most of this comes from users either switching to a notebook or buying a computer for the first time because of the form factor and reduced prices, both of which render them more useful to newcomers than desktops.

Verizon optimzes P2P, sees 60% speed boost

03/14, 9:30am

Verizon P4P

Verizon today revealed that it has found a way to at once improve the speed of peer-to-peer Internet sharing services while simultaneously lightening the load on its own network. Nicknamed "P4P," the technique has the software look primarily for download sources from the user's own Internet provider rather than just performing a search. By prioritizing nearby connections, the optimization speeds up connections by about 60 percent; it also eliminates a major bottleneck for the provider itself. As Verizon or other companies can often keep this P2P traffic to its local network, it can avoid paying for the extra bandwidth needed to reach an Internet backbone.

Frontier promises rugged MacBook Air rival

03/14, 8:30am

Frontier FRLN

Frontier today put out an aggressive challenge to Apple by claiming a system which is both lighter and tougher than the MacBook Air. The FRLN is thicker than its American counterpart but occupies less space through a smaller 12-inch, LED-backlit screen and weighs just 2.75 pounds, all the while being more resilient against everyday use. The chassis of the FRLN can withstand up to 265 pounds of pressure and survive drops from up to 2.5 feet; it also comes with a water-resistant keyboard that guards against rain or spills.

iPhone debuts in Austria, Ireland

03/14, 7:55am

iPhone Austria Ireland

Apple on Friday introduced the iPhone to Austria and Ireland, the first countries to receive the handset since 2007. Already confirmed via its website, T-Mobile will be the exclusive carrier in Austria and is both announcing and launching the iPhone today. The European provider will offer just two service plans for the phone. A €39 Classic plan offers 1,000 minutes of calling to any network, Visual Voicemail, up to 3GB of data transfer per month, and SMS text messages at 25 Euro cents each; a €55 Supreme plan offers both unlimited calling and text messages with the same data cap. A two-year contract is required.