Research In Motion is done. They’ll be bought in the next year or so, their products will roll into whoever buys them – Microsoft, most probably – and they’ll go the way of Nokia, Danger, and countless other mobile platforms. They’ll exist independently for a while and then be subsumed. It’s over. Here’s why. Read More
NEC and a researcher from Japan’s Tohoku University , Professor Hideo Ohno, are working on a power chip that solves a pretty big problem: completely eliminating electricity consumption of electronic devices that are in standby mode. The key piece of technology here is CAM, the world’s first content addressable memory. This non-volatile memory will be built into the control circuits of TVs, computers and other devices and stores data even when the power is turned off. In other words, constant standby power to maintain data will not be needed anymore (the English press release goes into more technical detail). The picture above shows a prototype power chip. NEC plans to showcase the tech at a symposium in Kyoto this Friday. The company said it expects it will take up to five years until we can see the technology put to practical use.
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. We’ve been hearing about the potential cloud services for months now and it seems the stars have finally aligned. The MobileMe service recently received some considerable upgrades to improve performance and stability and there has been oodles of talk about a potential music service in the cloud similar to Rdio or Spotify. That we now know it’s called iCloud, officially, is just icing on the cake. What will iCloud include? It will probably be a considerable revamp of the Me.com services including calendar and email syncing. As TUAW notes, many parts of MobileMe will probably be available for free leaving us to wonder what the rest of the service will include. We’ve also discovered that Apple is signing partners to offer what amounts to a mirrored version of your iTunes database, a service that will be considerably improved over current “locker”models used by Amazon and Google. However, there are currently plenty of those cloud-based sharing services on offer, which suggests Apple may have a trick or two up its sleeve. This would probably also replace the nearly useless iDisk offering currently available with MobileMe. With competitors like Dropbox, the old ways just won’t cut it. We’ll be there live on Monday June 6 but until then get out your prophesying hats and start prophesying in comments!
We’re here at Google’s massive HQ in New York City (they own an entire block) for what Google was calling a “partner event” but everyone knew was really an “NFC event” . Sure enough, Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s VP of Commerce, has taken the stage to announce Google Wallet and Google Offers. Right off the bat, Tilenius wanted to make it clear that this would be an open platform. She invited “payment networks, carriers, banks, join us in creating tomorrow’s shopping experience”. And some of those partners are already on board. Citi, Mastercard, FirstData, and Sprint are the initial partners. Read More
Here it is, ladies and nerds: the Pioneer AppRadio. As the name implies it’s centered around applications in a smartphone-ish sort of way. All the big boys are here: RDIO, Pandora, and Google Maps along with the driver-centric apps of INRIX and MotionX-GPS Drive. This is possible through the Pioneer AppRadio iOS app that serves up data and app access to the head-unit from a connected iPhone or iPod touch. It lacks the native iOS support we had incorrectly heard it has , but features enough compelling features to earn a good deal of respect. The aftermarket audio scene has been somewhat stagnant over the last decade. The biggest innovation was navigation and perhaps the addition of a USB host, but GUIs and even prices have stayed about the same. Pioneer has a real chance with the AppRadio to push the rest of the industry into embracing connected data and, in a way, learn to take a back seat to the smartphone by servering a more companion role — as it should be. A WVGA (800 x 480) 6.1-inch capacitive multitouch serves up all the action. But there’s nothing behind it. The screen doesn’t flip down to reveal a fancy iPhone dock or even an optical drive. iPhones and iPod touches connect to the unit through a Dock Connector cable that hooks into the rear of the radio so it’s up to the installer to hide this wire. Updates and more apps come by way of a Pioneer iOS app. When an iDevice is connected it unlocks all the wonders of Google Maps including search, routing, directions and even drop pins bookmarks. The iDevice serves up reformated apps to the AppRadio and Pioneer wrangled several popular apps to hit the device at launch and custom versions of RDIO and Pandora are currently available. This iDevice dependency comes at a price, though. While the AppRadio can certainly stand on its own without a connected device, it loses most of its appeal. Also, Android owners need not apply. Pioneer isn’t servering their kind as Bluetooth connectivity seems only for phone functions and not for streaming content or data connectivity sharing. The AppRadio doesn’t have an optical drive and I worry about the capacitive screen handling direct sunlight. Still, the AppRadio is a welcomed addition to the car audio aftermarket scene. Pioneer hasn’t announced the price or exact release date yet, but the press announcement states that the “AppRadio will be available in late June with a suggested retail price below $500.” Side note: big props to our graphic guy Bryce for making a nearly accurate hardware rendering based on blurry FCC pics and several emails from a tester. The OS is clearly wrong, but he nailed the button design.
Barnes & Noble just unveiled the latest and greatest Nook ereading device at a special NYC event . It’s a simple device, really. In fact B&N stated that this revamped Nook is the easiest to use ereading device on the market. The touchscreen enabled Nook, sorry Kobo , is said not to feature any page turning latency and a battery that last up to two months, which is double the current Kindle’s battery life. A 6-inch Pearl E Ink screen is front and center on the sleek device. It’s rather small at 7.5 ounces in a casing that’s just 5 x 6.5-inches. It’s tiny. Barnes & Noble is understandably proud of its latest creation and proudly stated on stage that the new Nook features 37 less buttons than the latest Kindle. (Not having a QWERTY keyboard would do that) The new Nook hits at a very Kindle-like $139 price. The unit ships June 10 with pre-orders starting later today.
This is sort of silly but still worthwhile. Of course prices of developing technologies drop over time, but the infograph from Wired is still fun if for nothing else than a bit of nostalgic reminiscing. I can recall the first two plasmas we got while I worked at Circuit City: a Panasonic for $10k and a Pioneer for $12k. Of course that was back in the wild and crazy times of 2002 when credit was available to anyone with a pulse and a social security number.
