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  • A bigger screen for less money: use a 4K TV instead of a monitor


    A 4K TV could be your best chance of getting great and efficient monitor service without spending an extra coin. According to Brian Hauer who wrote a piece on Tiamat, programmers will be happy to discover the $500 Seiki 39” 4K TV which works very well as a high-output display. Anybody else who works with many windows open will appreciate the productivity enhancement that the TV will add to your work considering other good and affordable 27” or 30” monitors will cost you $400 – $650..

    Just like the other imperfect HD-TVs in the market, the Seiki 4K TV has its set of set – backs according to Hauer.

    One of the most notable draw – back with the TV is that at the 3840 x 2160 resolution, only 30Hx can be supported by the HDMI 1.4 ports. The 30Hz limitation also applies with the Lower end GPUs at the same signature resolution. A GPU belonging to an old desktop PC does not have the capacity to support 3840 x 2160 so if that is what you are using, you will need to stick with it for a while.

    Trouble with the 30 Hz is mainly experienced in screen mouse movements and that is not a big enough issue for most of the users out to exploit its good resolution. The Seiki might not also be the best screen to use for gaming but many other functions perform great with the screen.

    Either way, the Seiki 39” 4K TV is much better than the regular monitor because of the larger number of pixels that the TV offers.

    At this point I think it would be safe to say that 4K TV is definitely built for programmers.

  • Mobile World Congress 2014: Oppo Making a Big Splash


    A relatively obscure Chinese company, Oppo has just launched its N1 mobile phone, to complement its Find 5 device. With 2 GB of RAM and a Quad Core Snapdragon, it packs some serious punch. It features a custom Android version named Color OS. It felt as one of the fastest phones at this year's Mobile World Congress. You can see a video below.

  • Sony Xperia acro S – Water and Scratch Resistant Smartphone

    Sony Xperia acro S joins the Xperia line of smartphones, coming with a high quality screen and a camera of high performance, housed in a casing that provides protection in using conditions adverse for the conventional electronic equipments.

    Xperia acro S is equipped with a 4.3-inch full HD Reality screen that supports a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Protected by a shield made of mineral glass resistant to scratch and chipping, the screen equipped with wet finger tracking technology allows the use of the touch interface even with wet fingers – like its “little brother” Sony Ericsson Xperia Active.

    The casing is built according to the IP57 and IP55 specifications, meeting strict requirements regarding the protection provided against dust and moisture. Thus, Sony Xperia acro S can be sunk in water up to 1 meter, where it will resist up to 30 minutes without risking permanent damages.

    In hardware, Xperia acro S is based on a 1.5 GHz dual-core chipset powered by Snapdragon, backed up by 1GB RAM. Its internal memory totals 16GB, of which about 11GB are available for the user. The specs list also includes a GLONASS-compatible GPS, NFC for electronic payments and an HDMI output.

    In terms of multimedia, Sony Xperia acro S has to offer a 12-megapixel camera with Exmor R sensor and lens with F2.4 aperture. Apart from taking photos, the camera supports shootings at 1080p. For video calls and for the Face Unlock feature, we also have a 1.3-megapixel frontal camera, which supports video capture at 720p.

    Sony Xperia acro S will run Google’s Android Gingerbread OS and it seems to be the equivalent of Xperia HD – already launched in Japan. The smartphone is being offered in pink, black and white. Unfortunately, the purchase price has not been revealed yet.

  • Lenovo to Invest $800 Million in Mobile Devices

    Lenovo has big ambitions for mobile devices and puts on the line not less than $800 million to be invested in a new facility whose purpose is research and development in mobile phones, tablets and other gadgets.

    The new facility located in Whuan, China, in the coming years will produce tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices addressed to local and global markets. Lenovo’s ambitions aim to achieve a sales figure of $ 1.59 billion by 2014 and five times more in the next five years.

    In other words, Lenovo intends to secure its place among the major mobile devices manufacturers and in order to achieve this, the company’s leaders are willing to invest significant amounts, designed to accelerate the company’s ascent.

    Lenovo products that will come up from the new factory will be built on the foundations of some very promising models such as the laptop IdeaPad Yoga, the ThinkPad range of laptops and the IdeaPad tablets or LePhone S2 – an interesting Android smartphone.

    We must not forget about the agreement reached with Intel, according to which Lenovo can use Intel’s Medfield-core Atom processors for the future range of smartphones.

    As for the company’s current presence in the smartphone market, Lenovo occupies an important position on the Chinese market, but it’s a name almost anonymously in Europe or North America. The situation could change dramatically in the near future if the company’s engineers manage to prove imagination and vision in designing new models of smartphones and tablets.

  • Official: Motorola Mobility To Be Bought by Google for $ 12.5 Billion

    It's official! Motorola Mobility shareholders have approved the transaction by which the company will be acquired by Google for $ 12.5 billion, but the ball is now in the competition authorities' field, which have already opened an investigation after which they will also have to give their consent for this transaction.

    Motorola expects the deal will be completed at the beginning of 2012. In mid-August Google announced that it would buy Motorola Mobility in what is the biggest transaction in the history of web giant.

    Motorola shareholders approved unanimously the transaction, the company being convinced that competition authorities will also give their consent. U.S authorities have also opened an investigation in September in order to see if a so big transaction has or not a negative impact over the market competition.

    Motorola estimates that all approvals will be obtained before the beginning of 2012, and the transaction will be initiated at that time.

    Motorola Mobility separated earlier this year by Motorola Group, which five years ago started to have serious difficulties in mobile segment, but also because they didn’t react quickly enough to come up with competitive touchscreen devices.

    Motorola recorded in 2009 losses of $ 1.2 billion and last year earned operational profit of $ 76 million.

    Explaining why Motorola, the company in Mountain View mentioned in the press release of announcing this important transaction that this company has 80 years of history, invented the mobile phone three decades ago and in 2008 decided to use Android OS on the entire range of smartphones, being among the first large companies that have adopted this operating system.

    Google made a stock of Android adoption and says that over 150 million terminals were activated since 2007 and so far, and 550.000 are added daily.

    Android handsets are sold in 123 countries under the logos of 30 smartphones manufacturers.

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  • Sofialys and MARMARA Strengthen Their Mobile Marketing Collaboration

    Sofialys, France-based mobile advertising and marketing specialist has announced that it is renewing its mobile marketing collaboration with one of the TUI group’s French brands, Marmara. The two companies have been working together for 2 years in order to develop a "highly effective mobile marketing strategy and innovative operations."

    Sofialys therefore initiated an end2end mobile strategy for the brand with the aim of driving customer acquisition and brand awareness. This took the form of developing mobile push campaigns, a loyalty programme, mobile display campaigns, the creation of a mobile site, online buzz marketing and now, the new Marmara iPhone application.

    Olivier Roche, E-commerce director at MARMARA commented: “It is crucial for a brand such as ours to leverage the potential of any new media capable of boosting brand awareness and acquisition and using mobile media is an extension of our online activities. However, we needed to rely on a partner with strong expertise and the Sofialys team continuously demonstrates not only its ability to be creative but also reliable when it comes to delivering results.”

    The companies said they are now working on new forms and formats of mobile marketing messages and leveraging new opportunities, such as those offered by the iPad and other mobile platforms.

    According to Mokhtar Bouchelaghem, CEO of Sofialys, “Our continuing collaboration with Marmara demonstrates the strength of our relationship and their level of satisfaction with our execution of their mobile strategies. We are very excited to have recently developed and launched their iPhone application and look forward to providing Marmara with our cutting-edge mobile marketing solutions for a long time to come.”

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  • Brother Launches An iPhone App

    Brother UK has launched the iPhone app that allows users to scan to and print from their mobile phones.

    The company’s iPrint&Scan is free to download and allows customers to wirelessly print from and scan to their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad – with a compatible printer from Brother’s latest inkjet multifunction printer range.

    Brother also informed that they are developing similar versions of the app for other types of smart phone including Google-based Android 1.6 handsets and above.

    According to the company, all of Brother’s latest inkjet multifunction printers introduced from 2009 onwards that have a wireless interface will be fully compatible with the application. Models with network interface are also compatible when connecting to a wireless network.

    Phil Jones, sales and marketing director at Brother UK, said: “Smart phones are becoming an essential modern day business tool and we are pleased to be able to offer even more convenient features for our customers.”

    “iPhone users have been waiting for an app like this for quite some time. We’re really pleased to be at the forefront of innovative printing technology, providing businesses with the means to succeed,” he added.

    The application has been initially launched in English, with plans to introduce French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch versions by the end of 2010.

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  • Apple Releases Find My iPhone App

    If you lose your iPhone or iPad while on the go, simply install the Find My iPhone app on any other iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to find it. Apple has just announced that the Find My iPhone app is now available as a free download from the App Store.

    In case you lost your device, sign in with your member name and password to locate your missing device on a map and have it display a message or play a sound.

    There is even an option to remotely lock the missing device to protect your privacy, or to wipe it to permanently delete all of your data if you think that it won’t be returned. The app will automatically sign you out after 15 minutes of inactivity or you can manually sign out at any time.

    In addition to the new app, the Find My iPhone web application on me.com now displays the device location on a full-screen map.

    Unfortunately, Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe are not available in all countries.

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  • Google Brings Web to TV, Announces Google TV

    At the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, leading industry players announced the development of Google TV – an open platform that adds the power of the web to the television viewing experience, ushering in a new category of devices for the living room. Intel, Sony, and Logitech, together with Best Buy, DISH Network and Adobe, joined Google on stage to announce their support for Google TV.

    Over the past decade, the internet has created unprecedented opportunity for innovation and development across the world, but so far the web has largely been absent from living rooms. With Google TV, consumers will now be able to search and watch an expanded universe of content available from a variety of sources including TV providers, the web, their personal content libraries, and mobile applications.

    Search across TV, Web, and Apps

    Google TV is based on the Android platform and runs the Google Chrome web browser. Users can access all of their usual TV channels as well as a world of Internet and cloud-based information and applications, including rich Adobe® Flash based content – all from the comfort of their own living room and with the same simplicity as browsing the web. When coupled with the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100, Intel’s latest system-on-a-chip designed specifically for consumer electronics, the new platform will offer home theatre quality A/V performance. Sony and Logitech said they would be delivering products based on the new Intel Atom processor and running Google TV later this year. While Google TV is designed to work with any TV operator, at launch the user experience will be fully optimized when paired with DISH Network.

    Google TV expands video choice from the hundreds of channels available today through a pay TV provider to the vast storehouse of video content available through the web and streaming videos. The Google TV experience is complemented by the ability to watch streaming video from leading content platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and YouTube. Google TV will also have the capability to run apps from the Android Market.

    To navigate the array of content that will now be available through a single device and on a single screen, Google TV introduces an integrated search experience to help viewers easily find relevant content across over-the-air and pay-TV channel listings, DVR, and the Internet, as well as a picture-in-picture layout to access multiple windows simultaneously. Google TV also features an innovative home screen to help viewers quickly organize their favorite content and personalize their TV viewing experience. Some of these features are only available with advanced integration from DISH Network.

    Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman and CEO said, “We are very proud to be working with this distinguished set of partners, all of whom have decades of experience in hardware, design and retail.”

    Sony announced plans to introduce “Sony Internet TV,” the World’s first TV lineup incorporating the Google TV platform. The first models are planned to be introduced in the U.S. market in the Fall of 2010 with the lineup featuring both a standalone TV model and set top box-type unit incorporating a Blu-ray Disc drive.

    Howard Stringer, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Corporation said, “I am delighted to announce the unique alignment of Google’s rapidly growing, open source Android platform with Sony’s unparalleled expertise in the field of TV design and technology. The addition of ‘Sony Internet TV’ will further bolster Sony’s comprehensive TV lineup and will fuse new levels of enjoyment and interactivity into the TV experience.”

    Logitech will introduce a companion box that brings Google TV to existing HDTV home entertainment systems, easily integrating with any brand of HDTV and set-top box. The companion box will incorporate Logitech’s Harmony® remote control technology, and will include a controller that combines keyboard and remote control capabilities. The company also has plans to introduce an HDTV camera and video chat for Google TV, along with additional choices for navigation and control, including apps to turn a smart phone into an advanced controller for Google TV and home-entertainment systems.

    Gerald Quindlen, President and CEO, Logitech said, “We committed to Google TV early on because it aligns with our strategy to support open platforms that enable new immersive experiences in the digital living room. While Google TV enables seamless discovery of all your content, Logitech enables seamless control over how you experience that content. We look forward to continued collaboration with Google and the developer community to create new Google TV experiences that have yet to be imagined.”

    The Intel Atom CE4100 processor will power both the Logitech and Sony devices. Paul Otellini, Intel President and CEO praised the collaborative effort and said TV as we know it was being “reinvented.” "Today marks the next step in the evolution of TV to Smart TV. TV’s are becoming smarter as a result of the microprocessor and the Internet. Traditional TV programming will be merged seamlessly with the infinite amount of content on the Internet to enable every viewer to determine what they want to watch, when they want it. This is Moore’s Law transforming television, powered by the performance of Intel microprocessors."

    DISH Network has been a key partner with Google on advanced integration development for Google TV. The two partners began a joint trial over a year ago with more than 400 DISH Network and Google beta users. Based on the continuous feedback from the trial, Google and DISH Network have built the optimized Google TV experience that seamlessly integrates traditional TV, DVR and web content.

    Charlie Ergen, Chairman, President and CEO of DISH Network, said, “Google TV marks the next evolution in television, and we are excited to be the first to partner with Google to bring this experience to our customers. Only DISH Network Google TV customers will be able to enjoy a unified search across TV, DVR and web; easily find related content; and manage their entire TV viewing experience. Additionally, the advanced integration will allow developers to create new and exciting applications to enrich the TV viewing experience.”

    Best Buy     will bring their retail experience and consumer expertise to the project, with Google TV devices being sold at Best Buy locations nationwide later this year. “Every day, our 180,000 Blue Shirt store employees and Geek Squad Agents work with our customers to get them the best home theater experience possible”, said Brian Dunn, CEO Best Buy, “We are thrilled about the new and exciting experiences smart TVs, like Google TV, provide to our customers – and we are looking forward to showcasing those experiences in our store and ensuring customers get connected to all the products and services that bring those experiences to life.”

    Finally, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 will be integrated directly into the Google Chrome browser on Google TV, enabling viewers to experience tens of millions of web pages with rich Flash content including games, animations, applications, videos, audio and more. Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO, Adobe said, “An open web ecosystem offers endless opportunities for creativity and innovation. Flash Player 10.1 extends the advantages of full web browsing and consistent, rich experiences to smartphones, tablets, netbooks and Internet-connected TVs. We’re thrilled to be part of the Google TV initiative with other industry leaders who share a common vision of enabling access to the best web experiences possible.”

    Google also plans to open source the Google TV platform to help spur innovation in the industry and so that other developers can benefit from the project. The long term goal is to collaborate with the entire developer community to help drive entertainment in the living room forward and to introduce the next generation of TV-watching experience.

  • Firefox Goes Mobile

    Mozilla announced that Firefox is now available for Nokia’s Maemo platform. The browser is intended and optimized for use on the Nokia N900. It can also be run on the Nokia N810 and N800 Internet Tablets, but Mozilla don’t recommend using its product on these devices because they are "significantly less powerful.”

    Firefox for Maemo is built on the same engine as Firefox 3.6 for desktop (Gecko 1.9.2) with some extensive under the hood work to optimize for mobile. It includes the new “TraceMonkey” JavaScript engine, an advanced JIT (“just in time”) compiler using tracing technology.

    New Mozilla’s mobile browser comes with Weave Sync that enables to sync tabs, history, bookmarks and passwords with desktop Firefox, Location-Aware Browsing, which gives you maps and information relevant to your location, offline browsing and one-touch bookmarking.

    It’s the first mobile browser with add-ons support. There are currently more than 40 Firefox add-ons available for mobile, like popular AdBlock Plus, URL Fixer, TwitterBar, language translators, and geo guides, to name a few.

    Initially, Firefox for N900 does not support browser plug-ins. “Due to performance problems using Adobe Flash within Firefox on many websites, especially those with multiple plug-ins on them, we have disabled plugins for Firefox for Maemo 1.0.,” states Mozilla.

    “We plan to provide a browser add-on that will enable you to selectively enable plugins on certain sites, because some sites, like YouTube, work well.”

    Mozilla is also working on a mobile version of its browser for other platforms. Firefox for the Windows Mobile is in Alpha (yet optimized for Samsung Omnia II, AT&T Touch Fuze, HTC Touch Pro), the company is currently investigating development for Android.

    They do not have plans to build Firefox for iPhone – due to “constraints with the OS environment and distribution”, Blackberry – due to “its Java-based operating system and the inability to build native components”, and Symbian.

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