May 31st, 2011

The Toshiba WT310 Is A 11.6-inch Oak Trail Windows 7 Tablet

Toshiba may have delayed its Honeycomb tab, but the just-announced WT310 shows the company hasn’t delayed all products in this form factor. The Windows 7 slate runs on an Oak Trail Atom Z670 and 2GB while packing a 64GB SSD, 802.11b/g/n chipset, Bluetooth 3.0, 2MP front & 3MP rear camera along with USB 2.0, HDMI, and a SDHX card slot. Sounds great, right? Well, at least for a Windows 7 tablet, that is. There’s a bit of bad news though. Only the Japanese release was detailed and it seems that Toshiba has bypassed the consumer market and is releasing this one only to the enterprise crowd sometime next month for a yet-to-be announced price. → Read More

May 31st, 2011

Apple's Cloud Product Officially Official And It's Called iCloud

Pop over to iCloud.com today and you’ll see a doomed web page. The domain, which redirects to Xcerion’s CloudMe software, is sitting on some prime real estate, namely Apple’s new iCloud service.

In a short release, Apple confirmed the existence and name:

Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

→ Read More

May 31st, 2011

Official: iOS 5, OS X Lion, and iCloud To Be Announced Next Week At WWDC

There goes all the fun rumors and wild speculation. Apple just released a press release detailing what’s coming next week at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. I’ll let that sink in for a moment. Apple pre-announced something — iOS 5 and OS X Lion to be exact. Oh, and something called iCloud, too.

It was already generally accepted that the two operating system were going to debut next week, but it’s rather strange that Apple would take to the wires with a pre-announcement. Please correct me if I’m wrong, save a teaser image showcasing a roman numeral and a large feline, the company hasn’t done this in recent history. The presser is after the break but it’s more of an advert for the developer’s conference. This pre-announcement either means Apple doesn’t have that much to show, or, hopefully, there’s so much that the company had to announce some ahead of time to make room in Steve’s keynote. → Read More

May 31st, 2011

Japan Gets Exclusive Tales of Xillia PS3 Bundle

It’s been a while since the last one, but Sony announced a new PS3 package for the Japanese market over the weekend. Buyers will get a special 160GB HDD model bundled with Tales Of Xillia, an RPG made by Namco Bandai (and the newest addition to their hit “Tales Of” RPG series that kicked off in 1995). → Read More

May 31st, 2011

Intel Pitches New Category Of Thin And Light Laptops: "Ultrabooks"

Intel is using the yearly Computex Taipei exhibition in Taiwan as a platform to pitch a new category of laptops. Dubbed Ultrabooks, these devices are supposed to have three distinct features: they are thinner (less than 20mm/0.8 inches) and lighter than most existing laptops, and they should be priced below $1,000 in order to become mainstream. → Read More

May 30th, 2011

NVIDIA Releases $99 3D Vision Wired Glasses For Your Friend

If you have a 3D gaming rig, the biggest problem you have is showing it off. You can either run the game wear the glasses and then say “I swear, it’s 3D!” or you give your friend the glasses and show him or her what to do and then you can’t share in the joy. This either ends in violence or sobbing. Your choice. Now, however, your friend can wear these super cheap $99 glasses with a USB cable. All you have to do is plug them in and you can both watch things in 3D at the same time. Bang. No sobbing. You do still require a full 3D Vision set-up including IR dongle. The glasses are available in June. Product Page → Read More

May 30th, 2011

Tutima's Fashionable Aviator: The Grand Classic Power Reserve Watch

It is a good time to be Tutima. The recent announcement of their new movement manufacture launched with the Hommage Minute Repeater watch signals a bright future for the German brand. A brand that already has a reputation for making quality timepieces and finely regulating the movements contained within them, Tutima watches tend to fall in three categories at this time. First are their more formal watches, their military and dive watches, and then their classic pilot watch range. Of course these categories blend a bit with the Grand Classic Power Reserve being a fine example. → Read More

May 30th, 2011

Samsung Readies 4G LTE Galaxy Tab, Galaxy S III Prematurely

As Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs 8.9 and 10.1 wait to launch onto the market, Samsung mobile boss J.K. Shin is already filling us in on forthcoming tablets from the South-Korea based company. In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Shin spilled that the company plans to release a 4G LTE-capable version of the Galaxy Tab later this year. In other words, you’re yet-to-be purchased Galaxy Tab 8.9 or 10.1 will be old news later this year, so patience will certainly be a virtue when it comes to slate shopping. → Read More

May 30th, 2011

Another Memorial Day, Another History Channel Pawn Stars Marathon

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May 30th, 2011

Padfone: Asus Officially Announces Its Android Tablet/Phone Combo (Videos)

Today, on the first day of the yearly Computex Taipei exhibition in Taiwan, Asus took the wraps off the Android tablet/phone combo it teased last week. Dubbed Padfone, Asus is relatively mum on details (specs, pricing, availability) at this point. → Read More

May 29th, 2011

Paul Picot C-Type Yachtman Watches For 2011

Paul Picot offers these new C-Type Yachtman watches for 2011. The naming schemas confuse me. The C-Type I know, but I am not sure whether these are C-Type and Yachtman watches, or C-Type Yachtman watches!? Screw it, I’m just going to use the Yachtman name for now. Yachtman 3 to be exact – which sounds like an awful movie name. The watches are still cool looking, though, and this year they make equal jabs at Rolex and IWC wanting to be something like a Submariner or Aquatimer. → Read More

May 28th, 2011

Odd Rumor: The iPhone 4S Will Come In 16/32GB Configurations

I didn’t even want to dignify NoWhereElse’s “find” with a post, but Steve’s a good guy and maybe… and this is a big maybe… he found a case for the upcoming “iPhone 4S” at “Claire’s.” The best part is when Google translates his article the last line comes up as “So authentic dumpling or simple typo in your opinion? …” which is how I’m going to end all of my posts from now on.

Grain of salt, people. Remember: there will be no hardware at WWDC this year. → Read More

May 27th, 2011

LusionBloom: A Magnetic Vase For Your Next Weird Cocktail Party

In the old days, pole-shaping meant something completely different. However, now it is a technique for attaching multiple arms to each other at odd angles that allows them to remain upright with a load without falling. The LusionBloom is a nice example of pole shaping and, more important, is a freaking vase that tilts to the side while keeping flowers and water upright. Perfect for Mother’s Day at Quatto’s house.

The LusionBloom curiously remains upright, even while leaning. It appears as though the LusionBloom defies gravity. Filled with flowers and water, the LusionBloom still doesn’t topple. In addition, steel vases can be attached to one another. How does this happen? A unique arrangement of ferrous material and neodymium magnets (and a technique called “pole shaping”) make this possible and keep your friends guessing as to the method by which the LusionBloom remains upright.

→ Read More

May 27th, 2011

Welcome To The Future: Polymer Vision Demos SVGA Rollable Screen

This 6-inch screen displays black and white e-ink text and images at 800×600 pixels and can roll around a tube the circumference of a dime. If this isn’t the future of print, I don’t know what is.

Designed and manufactured by Polymer Vision, the screen can be rolled and unrolled 25,000 times. The question, obviously, is why would you need a rollable display? Well, as ereaders become ubiquitous the need for them to be almost indestructible. I could see a day when kids get their own ereaders for the nursery a la the Diamond Age. Interestingly, Polymer Vision isn’t the company of note when you think of e-ink displays so either they will license this technology or they could start taking more and more market shares from leaders like Eink. → Read More

May 27th, 2011

A Bit More On WWDC, The Mythical iPhone "4S", and iOS 5

With WWDC quickly approaching, the rumor mills are heating up with what we should expect at Apple’s annual conference known for big announcements. We’ve learned a little bit more that speaks to what to expect — including a couple of big, widely-requested things.

First of all, a lot of sites seem to be working themselves into a tizzy about the so-called “iPhone 4S”. While it has already been widely reported that there will not be any major hardware announcements at WWDC this year, people seem to be letting their imaginations get the best of them anyway. This site, for example, notes that Apple is pushing for British journalists to fly out for WWDC. And today, there’s a report about Australian journalists getting the same message. Both conclude this must be for the “iPhone 4S”. → Read More

May 27th, 2011

Ballmer: Piracy Kills Chinese Market Earnings By 95%

Despite the fact the number of PCs in China and the U.S. are pretty similar, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed on Wednesday that the company sees 95 percent less revenue coming from China than the States. Why, you ask? Piracy, of course. Other tech companies have had the same problem in China, which could indicate that the Chinese government hasn’t done enough to stop the acquisition of costly products for free. → Read More

May 27th, 2011

Some Things Never Change: TI vs. Calculator Hobbyists Version 3.0.2

The battle between Texas Instruments and calculator hobbyists rages on, as TI seeks to keep its OS locked away from third-party developers. After the calculator hacking community discovered the independent tool Ndless (which allows for third-party development on TI’s platform), TI has spent the last year updating its OS to prevent downgrading to version 1.1, which is necessary to run Ndless. Version 2.1’s anti-downgrade protection was hacked last summer, and just a month ago, calculator hobbyists broke into OS 3.0.1. → Read More

May 27th, 2011

Asus Teases Possible Tablet/Phone Combo

If you were a fan of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, get excited, because the company seems almost as excited to tease its upcoming products as we are to get a peak at them, which will happen next week during Computex in Taipei. Asus has already slated a June launch for its Eee Pad MeMo, and pencilled in a reminder for us on its Facebook page. But one picture promises “A Tablet That Jumps Out At You,” which leads us to believe that Asus has a 3D-capable device headed our way, as well. → Read More

May 27th, 2011

Can You Pull Off Wearing The RSW Nazca Sport Watch?

I love how a design like that of the RSW (Rama Swiss Watch) Nazca is bound to be so polarizing. I think that RSW themselves gets a kick out of that. I mean, from a purely business-oriented motive you’d want to make timepieces that appealed to more people, not less people right? Yet despite this RSW continues to tread forth in the design of timepieces that appeal to just some people, but certainly not all people. So what about you? What are you feelings on the Nazca collection? → Read More

May 27th, 2011

Apple's iCloud Needs To Be More Than Just An Online Locker To "Transform Music"

As we’ve suspected for a long time, Apple is very close to launching an online music service which may go by the name iCloud. The basic idea is that it will mirror your iTunes collection online so that it is available on any device without clunky cable syncing.

While getting rid of those cables will be a big step forward, if iCloud is nothing more than a music locker service it won’t go far towards transforming digital music, as BusinessWeek proclaims. Apple’s iCloud will be iTunes online, with a few features that make it slightly better than Google’s Music Beta—namely, I won’t have to spend hours uploading my music collection and I will get better quality audio files for some songs. That’s all great, but I am not sure it is enough for me to pay a monthly subscription. If it’s bundled with MobileMe, it certainly would make that service more appealing, but I wouldn’t pay for iCloud as a standalone service if that is all there is to it. And certainly, this could turn out to be only one part of a revamped MobileMe service. Depending on what else will be added, iCloud could help push more MobileMe subscriptions overall. → Read More

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