News Archive for 08/11/27

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Grubby Games launches My Tribe for Mac

11/27, 11:45pm

My Tribe for Mac

Grubby Games on Thursday launched My Tribe, an island simulation game where players control little tribespeople shipwrecked on a tropical island. Offering real-time gameplay the tribe will grow, learn new skills, and have children even while the computer is turned off. With billions of islands to explore, alter the landscape with up to 14 different buildings, flowers, and tall trees. My Tribe also offers designable clothing colors up to 18 styles, different hair styles and colors, over 40 different potion recipes, and eight levels of scientific advancement to research.

Speakal releases iPanda for iPod, MP3 and MP4

11/27, 11:20pm

Speakal releases iPanda

Speakal on Tuesday released iPanda, its newest audio system with a built-in iPod docking station. Similar to iPig, iPanda is a small five speaker stereo with an onboard Hi-Fi amplifier to produce 360 degrees of sound, dynamic airflow optimizer, interior dynamic cooling exchange and sound stabilization, all compacted into a tiny panda design. Compatible with all iPod models, the docking station allows users to charge the iPod while listening to music in 2.1 stereo. Also equipped is a 3.5mm standard input jack that allows iPanda to work with any MP3 and MP4, producing 25+ watts of sound.

Another iPhone ad banned in UK

11/27, 10:50pm

ASA bans iPhone ad

Advertising Standard Authority in the UK has banned another iPhone advertisement suggesting the handset is misleading in the speed at which it can browse the internet. Apparently 17 iPhone users called and complained that the "really fast" almost instant web browsing shown in the commercial was in no way the actual speed.

Black Friday Apple deals

11/27, 2:10pm

Black Friday Apple deals

A variety of great Black Friday deals on Apple products are currently being offered by a range of online merchants. Until 11/30/08 Newegg.com is offering the 4GB iPod nano -silver (model no. MA978LL/A) for $99.99, that's $49.01 off the original price of $149. Save an extra 10% on Apple computers at Gainsaver.com, prices start at $260. MacMall.com has reduced the price on the new 13.3-inch MacBook from $1229.99 to $1179.99. Until 11/30/08 Newegg.com is offering the 2.4GHz MacBook Pro (model no. MB133LL/A) for $1489. BestBuy.com is offering the first generation 32GB iPod touch for $349.99 which is $30 off the regular price of $379.99. Visit DealNN for more Black Friday deals.

New Star Games releases New Star Soccer Four

11/27, 1:55pm

New Star Soccer Four

New Star Games on Thursday announced the latest instalment to its sports based games, New Star Soccer four. Adding to its predecessor, NSS4 offers a wider variety of lifestyle options having players balance a career, girlfriend, family, and media obligations. With this enhancement every social decision has an impact on the characters career, resulting in greater or a poor performance on the field. Players also have access to a new casino feature containing blackjack, roulette, slot machines plus the ability to place bets on horse races or buy and train a horse of your own.

Firefox add-on allows photosharing via gmail account

11/27, 1:50pm

GPhotospace shipping

Private photosharing has been launched for Firefox through the new GPhotospace Add-on for Firefox. The Firefox extension allows Gmail users to store and share photos within their standard Gmail e-mail storage account. Users select their photos, upload them to their Gmail storage, select their recipients and send album viewing invitations via e-mail. For security, users' Gmail credentials are used to log-in, but these credentials are not sent or stored on any servers other than Gmail's servers, using an encrypted https connection.

Apple Australia deals hint at US Black Friday sales

11/27, 12:50pm

Apple Australia sales

Over on the other side of the world, down under in Australia, Apple has announced some of its one-day Thanksgiving holiday sales. The savings extend to many products and accessories offered via Apple's online store but the biggest are offered on the 13-inch MacBook, with Aussie buyers saving $161 AUD (about $104). The savings throughout fall at between 6 and 8 percent off regular prices and should be mirrored on the US website late tomorrow or early on Black Friday.

Griffin releases component/composite iPod cables

11/27, 12:45pm

Griffin iPod cables

Griffin Technology on Wednesday released Component and Composite video cables for connecting iPods to televisions, computer monitors and home entertainment systems. Each six-foot cable attaches to the 30-pin dock connector, while a second USB cord and A/C adapter are also included with each package, which allows the devices to be charged while in use.

VIA dual-core Nano CPU for netbooks out by 2010

11/27, 12:10pm

VIA dual-core Nano by 2010

Chip and computer hardware parts maker VIA unveiled its roadmap for future Nano chips at the Embedded Technology 2008 show in Japan held last week, according to a Wednesday report. The roadmap revealed VIA won't be releasing a dual-core Nano CPU for netbooks until an estimated date of June of 2010, leaving the market wide open for competitor Intel and its dual-core Atom CPU. The Taiwanese company also revealed it will release a Nano E-series chip in the spring of 2009, which will bump up the front system bus speeds from the current 800MHz to 1,333MHz and use a 65nm process.

Motorola launches green D10 and D11 home phones

11/27, 11:50am

Motorola intros D10, D11

Motorola on Thursday has announced the latest additions to its digital cordless home phones, the D10 and D11. The handsets are optimized to use as little energy as possible and are made with at least 20 percent of recycled materials. An eco mode will automatically adjust the wireless reception strength and therefore draw less power based on how far a phone is from its base station

LG set to bring 3D TVs to some markets in 2009

11/27, 11:35am

LG to intro 3D TVs in 2009

Korea's LG will launch 3D TVs next year, says the Vice President Director of Digital TV Research Lab Choon Lee in a Wednesday report. Not much specific information about the launch details was given, other than that one or two unspecified markets will see the launch of the technology. As for the tech itself, Lee said it would involve a slight change to existing Blu-ray technology and use the media to keep costs to buyers down.

Elpida develops 50nm low-power DDR3 memory

11/27, 11:30am

Elpida 50nm DDR3 RAM

Elpida says it has expanded its lineup of DDR3 RAM with what it says is the most energy-efficient memory of the type. A new format based on a 50 nanometer manufacturing process helps both reduce the size of each chip to 40mm (1.6in) square and also reduces the amount of power necessary to drive the memory. Where most DDR3 needs 1.5 volts, the new memory can scale back to 1.35V or even 1.2V in notebooks, servers and other low-profile computers that may not run at full power.

iRiver launches E100 Season 2 players

11/27, 10:50am

iRiver E100 Season 2

iRiver on Thursday introduced a low-key update to its basic media player lineup through the E100 Season 2. The new players are primarily a visual change and switch from the monotone colors of the original to orange-on-silver, silver-on-orange and white-and-orange color schemes. The Korea-made player is otherwise similar but shares the same uncommon features, including a rear set of stereo speakers and a microSD card slot for loading up extra music beyond the internal flash.

Nokia intros Home Control Center platform

11/27, 10:10am

Nokia Home Control Center

World's-largest cellphone maker Nokia on Thursday announced it is developing the Nokia Home Control Center, a platform that will allow users to control their home electronics, security systems and energy management systems via a mobile device. It's an open platform that will allow third parties to write their own smart home solutions for use in mobile devices or PCs and control all compatible devices in their home either locally or remotely.

Samsung outs large touchscreen displays

11/27, 9:55am

Samsung Large Touchscreens

Samsung today introduced five large touchscreen displays meant for public use, such as presentations and terminals at mass transit. Using similar sizes and resolutions to HDTVs, the 32-inch 320TSn, 40-inch 400TSn, 46-inch 460TSn, 70-inch 700Tsn and 82-inch 820TSn all work in either portrait or landscape mode and also support a unique MagicInfo feature that lets the owner manage several displays at once, such as when they play a multi-screen video.

uTorrent Mac beta gets official launch

11/27, 9:30am

uTorrent Mac Beta official

The long-awaited uTorrent beta for Macs is out as of Wednesday, offering users of Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or newer the same low-memory footprint Windows users have enjoyed to date. Compared to the Windows version, however, the newly-released version is missing certain features, including an RSS downloader. Rumors of a Mac uTorrent release first surfaced in June of 2007, with an alpha version leaked back in September.

Nokia 5800 sees limited shipping

11/27, 9:05am

Nokia 5800 Ships

Nokia today said it has started the first wave of shipments of the 5800 XpressMusic, its first touchscreen phone. The Symbian S60 device is already on sale or should be soon for the few regions receiving it before the end of the year, including Nokia's home country of Finland as well as Hong Kong, India, Russia, Spain and the Taiwan area. The company positions it as a near-smartphone with support for full apps, 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi but also a media-centric interface with an always-present media bar for navigating tracks, a 3.2-megapixel camera with video capture and a particularly sharp 640x360, 3.2-inch display.

Cowon's iPod touch rival due in US for December

11/27, 8:25am

Cowon S9 for US in Dec

Cowon today revealed that it will bring its S9 Curve media player to the US in December. The device is the Korean company's most direct answer to the iPod touch and centers on a rare, 3.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen that both produces more vivid colors than LCDs and also boosts the battery life to 40 hours of music. It also includes an accelerometer to rotate the image into landscape, Bluetooth for wireless audio, and is unusually fast for its category through a dual-core processor.

ATSC greenlights new mobile TV standard

11/27, 8:00am

ATSC Approves Mobile DTV

The ATSC TV standards company today said it has approved a candidate version of the Mobile DTV standard. The technology will give American cellphones, notebooks, portable media players and other devices a more universal way of watching over-the-air mobile digital TV provided by regular broadcasters rather than through proprietary, subscription-only services such as the MediaFLO network used by AT&T and Verizon.

Family-themed iWeb templates launched

11/27, 1:55am

iWeb templates ship

iWeb Template has released family-based iWeb themes for building web pages with a family orientation. The collection has seven iWeb themes to choose from, including Baby, Boy, Girl, Tree, Old Album, Wall and White Album. Each theme includes multiple page layouts as starting points, like a Welcome page, About Me, Photos, My Albums, Movie, Podcast, Blog, and Blank pages.

Sonic Motion releases WavearsLE 3D-sound software

11/27, 1:45am

WavearsLE 3D sound app

Sonic Motion has launched a beta version of its WavearsLE software that simulates a 3D sound environment. With the program running in the background, media-player applications can function normally, while the sound output is processed to replicate a virtual 5.1-channel surround-sound speaker configuration, the company claims. The system is designed to work best when music is played through headphones.

ZOS launches Zhiing 1.1 for iPhone

11/27, 1:35am

Zhiing update

ZOS communications on Tuesday launched Zhiing 1.1, the latest update to its location-based messaging application for the iPhone. Users can now send one message to multiple people. Recipients will also receive names instead of numbers, while the general speed and stability have been enhanced. The program combines browser plug-ins with SMS, allowing users to send directions from the browser to a mobile phone, or from one mobile device to another. Users click the Zhiing icon and enter a number, which sends a map and turn-by-turn directions to their location.

Apple adds iPhone 3G Gift Card to web store

11/27, 1:20am

Apple adds new gift card

Apple is offering a special holiday gift card for potential iPhone users, with the iPhone 3G Gift Card, available from Apple's online store. The card allows customers to load any value between $25 and $2500, accompanied by a personalized message, towards the purchase of an iPhone 3G. After the card is received, it can be redeemed at either an Apple retail store, or through an online process, where the user can set up their account and visit the store later.

PSP2 may feature PowerVR chipset for graphics

11/27, 1:00am

PSP2 may have PowerVR chip

Sony is allegedly looking to achieve a slice of Apple's gaming pie – praise of the iPod touch and iPhone's graphics hardware have come from industry giants John Carmack and Sega – as it has apparently signed a license agreement for the PowerVR SGX chipset. EE Times writes that an anonymous deal was signed Monday, with little details readily available, which sources say is to outfit the PSP2 with the SGX55x chipset.