Today, during the unveiling of the iPad, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that you’ll be able to get an iPad that has both Wi-Fi and 3G access, meaning you can download new content from nearly anywhere. That’s great news. The not-so-good? It’s powered by AT&T, which has been absolutely notorious for already being unable to cope with the 3G data usage of the iPhone. This sure isn’t going to help things.
However, there are some upsides. For one, this internet access will not be based on a contract — you’ll sign up for the 3G access directly from the device, paying on a monthly basis. You’ll have two options for dataplans: a not-too-impressive 250 Megabytes for $15.00, or Unlimited downloads for $29.99 (though that will almost certainly have an unwritten cap as well). → Read More
Even the Daily Show is fair and balanced! Jon Stewart interview Bill Gates last night and it was pretty interesting. When Gates isn’t trying to sell his company anymore he’s very mild-mannered and delightfully polite. Plus he dances like Pauly-D. → Read More
Steve Jobs revealed the Apple iPad today, its much-awaited tablet computer (see our live notes). Jobs positions it as a third computing device between a laptop and a smartphone geared towards the “key tasks” of Web browsing, email, sharing photos, watching videos, playing games, and reading digital books. All current iPhone apps will run on the device, as well as new games and digital books designed specifically for it. An enhanced iPhone SDK released today will support both the iPhone and the iPad.
Some specs: The device has a 9.7 inch display, weighs 1.5 pounds, and is half-an-inch thick. It is powered by new chip made by Apple itself, a 1 GHz A4 and will come with 16Gb to 64 GB of storage. It supports WiFi, has an accelerometer, compass, and built-in speaker and microphone, just like the iPhone. The screen is a full capacitive multi-touch screen. Battery life is supposed to be 10 hours. In addition to WiFi, it will have a 3G option from AT&T. The Wifi-only version, with 16GB of memory, will cost $499. A 32GB version will be $599, 64 GB will be $699, and with 3G from AT&T it will cost $829.
On-stage, Apple highlighted the iPad’s use as a digital reader. The iPad comes with a new app called iBooks → Read More
http://cdn.livestream.com/events/crunchgear/new/index.html This is where all of our live content for today’s Apple event will live. To make things perfectly clear, Apple won’t let us film inside the event. However, CrunchGear and a special surprise guest will offer a full play by play. Feel free to turn on your headphones at work and listen to the news as it happens or watch us live complete with coverage from San Francisco before and after the event. We will start streaming live at 12:30pm EST/9:30am PST and the event begins at 1pm EST/10am PST. Tweet us live at @crunchgear with the hashtag “#applelive.” You can read our previous tablet coverage right here. Want the traditional live blog? Rock out below at about 12:30pm EST. There is no need to refresh your screen as this system will update automatically. Let the games begin. → Read More
Yesterday we heard that Colorware was doing up the Nook with its custom paint jobs. Now, it’s the Nexus One. You can either buy an unlocked one directly from the company for a cool $800, or send in your own for $175. Either way, it will take about three weeks. But just think, when you get it back, oh how your friends will be jelous of your CrunchGear-themed Nexus One. → Read More
We’re in the middle of Apple’s special event, where Steve Jobs is showing off the much-anticipated iPad for the first time (yes, that name is now official). And judging by one photo captured during the presentation, it looks like the device won’t support Flash. As Jobs showed off the iPad’s browsing capabilities, Engadget captured a photo of the tell-tale blue missing plugin icon that shows up when you try viewing a Flash element without the plugin installed.
Whether or not the Tablet would support has been a topic of extensive debate. The iPhone has never supported Flash, and Apple has never done anything to indicate that it would be coming out any time in the near future (in fact, their strategy appears to involve moving away from the ubiquitous plugin). With that in mind, the iPad’s lack of Flash support comes as no surprise. But the device features browsing as a key element, and there are going to be plenty of people trying to access their casual Flash games and Flash-based video sites, only to be met with that frustrating icon. → Read More
Archos has tablets too, you guys. Let’s not forget about Archos. Whether or not the company purposely let details of the 7-inch “ARCHOS 7 Android” tablet slip out on a product page of an online retailer in the UK (that page has now been removed), you’ve got to admit that the timing is interesting. → Read More
Hmmm, unannounced digital cameras. Got to love the Internet. Anyway, LetsGoDigital dug up details about four tasty FujiFilm FinePix cameras. These aren’t just Wal-Mart specials, either. Oh no, take notice, these boys are nice, especially the S2500HD with an 18x optical zoom and 720p recording mode. Hit the jump for pics and details. → Read More
http://www.hulu.com/embed/ytMwE-DPK9PbDaEub_3uSQ/762/889 Wait in line, buddy. → Read More
We’re here in San Francisco for Apple’s event today where they’re expected to unveil their new tablet computer which may or may not be known as the iPad, iSlate, iBook, iTablet, the Apple Tablet or some other variation. The event starts at 10 AM PT. Be sure to check back in. → Read More
Local business search startup Localeze just announced that they will power some of Microsoft Bing’s local business listings. Microsoft will use Localeze’s 14 million listings for Bing Local and Bing 411.
As part of the deal, Bing will use Localeze’s premium business content, including more than 500,000 business-verified and managed listings, which have been edited directly by local businesses. In addition to name/address and contact info, Localeze’s listings also include hours of operation, products and services offered, credit cards accepted and more. All of this information will appear on Bing’s local business profiles. Any local search results on Bing utilizing Localeze content will be attributed to Localeze. → Read More
Ginipic has partnered with Picitup to launch SpiderPic. That’s a lot of pics, and it will undoubtedly be not much of a surprise if I tell you the product has something to do with pictures. Stock photography, to be more specifpic specific.
SpiderPic is essentially a meta-search tool for stock photos that aggregates relevant shots from a host of third-party providers and lists results in one crisp interface, pricing from all (eight) suppliers included. → Read More
http://ui.mevio.com/widgets/mwm/MevioWM.swf?r=35629 Please! Friend! Enjoy a new Hourtime episode before the madness that is the tablet launch. → Read More
Today only, Amazon has lopped $100 off the price of the Klipsch Image X5 noise isolating earbuds, bringing the sale price to $150 with free shipping. → Read More
Sanyo just released it’s latest camcorder in the the long-running XACTI line. This model keeps with the familiar design but features 1080p video recording and 14.4MP stills that can both record to a SDHC/SDXC card or the internal 16GB memory. That’s a lot of camera. → Read More
Ever wonder where inventors and companies find the technical materials needed to manufacture their products? Traditionally, inventors could find materials at trade shows or could order the products via trade magazines. Unfortunately, both channels have many drawbacks, including travel, connectivity and accessibility. Chicago-based Inventables has entered the scene has an online marketplace for materials where vendors can advertise their products and engineers and designers can easily find these materials. And the site has just closed a $2 million funding round from True Ventures.
Inventables allows vendors to create online profiles for their products in order to generate sales leads. Customers, ranging from mega companies such as Procter and Gamble to individual inventors, who are looking to source new materials and technologies can browse through these profiles and submit inquiries about products they are interested in. Each vendor profile includes exact details on composition, makeup and use of the material, commercial uses for the material, similar materials and more. Products range from electroluminescent fabric to concentrated cheese flavor powder. The site currently lists over 1500 different materials and technologies. → Read More
The Motorola CLIQ is a nice phone. That’s point one. Point two is that it can actually play radio. Using a non-standard ROM, a user named Eugene found an FM radio binary and tried to run it on the CLIQ. After a little futzing, he was able to fire up the radio and listen to it right on the CLIQ. Who knew?
Rest assured it’s not available to the public right now. Watch AndroidGuys for further instruction. → Read More
Open source content management system Drupal is increasingly being used by organizations, corporations and governments to power their websites and communities.
To name but a few entities who rely on Drupal for their websites: The White House, AT&T, Intel, BBC Magazines, Forbes, Stanford University, Reuters and Procter & Gamble (and plenty more where that came from).
But up until now, there was no other way to set up a website or blog with Drupal than having to download and run code from a server. Acquia, a commercial company that provides Drupal-based products, services and technical support, is today bringing change to that situation with the private beta launch of Drupal Gardens. → Read More
Good Technology, which markets a number of mobility solutions primarily geared towards businesses, has acquired CloudSync, a mobile device management company for an undisclosed sum. Good says the acquisition will help enable more device choice for businesses by providing management features for a board range of devices including laptops, tablets, and all smartphone platforms.
CloudSync, similar to Good, offers a cloud-based service offering that allows enterprises to manage devices being used in their business through a web-based management system. CloudSync’s product line includes a device management console, a remote help desk application, access control, and a CloudLocate GPS-based location application, which gives IT managers a real-time view of all the mobile devices in a fleet including their location. CloudSync supports all Microsoft Windows mobile devices, Windows laptops, and RIM BlackBerry devices, and combined with Good, will extend its support to iPhone, Android, Symbian, and webOS devices in the coming months. → Read More
Here’s a new device that can help those who still sit on precious VHS cassettes that never made it onto discs. JVC announced [JP] the SR-HV250 for the Japanese market today, a Blu-ray/DVD recorder, VHS recorder and 250GB hard disc drive all rolled into one.
The device supports MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and AVREC. You also get a USB port, an SD/SDHC slot, LAN connectivity, an HDMI interface, and an S-Video. The device lets you record video on BD-R/RE and DVD-R/RE discs. → Read More
