Remember the Land Warrior program, which only took 15 years and half a billion dollars outfit our troops with high-tech battlefield uniforms? With DisOPS (“distributed operations”) Lockheed Martin is taking a different tack. Deployed to Special Forces in Afghanistan, the system is comprised of the Connect software which runs on ruggedized laptop computers, allowing squad leaders to plan missions on a map, and View PDAs that receive info over tactical radio, cellphone, or even WiFi networks. The PDAs provide “friendly force tracking of other team and squad leaders, land navigation tools, photo capture and transmission, and the ability to annotate and share maps in real time with other leaders.” In addition to all that, the handhelds include a sniper detection system for locating the origin of enemy fire and distributing it to other units in the area. Reportedly the system is working quite well — which means that, barring any further obstacles, DisOPS might see widespread use before 2030.
Google has already delivered its own mobile operating system Android to several smartphone manufacturers. But the search giant isn’t stopping there, says TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. The blogger claims with absolute confidence that Google is making its own smartphone hardware.
“Everything up until now has just been a warm up to the Google phone,” Arrington wrote in his blog post.
Arrington claims he has “absolutely confirmed” that Google is building a Google-branded phone to be sold through retailers sometime early 2010.
Really? Just two weeks ago Andy Rubin, head of Google’s Android development, made it crystal clear that Google is not making a phone.
“We’re not making hardware,” Rubin told CNET. “We’re enabling other people to build hardware.”
So who’s telling the truth? Arrington’s claim echoes a previous rumor report from TheStreet’s Scott Moritz, who has a notoriously spotty track record when it comes to tech rumors. (For example, in May, Moritz wrote a story titled “Tech Rumor of the Day: Apple,” which quoted an analyst who predicted AT&T would reduce prices for the iPhone’s monthly service plan. Not only did that not turn out to be true; it wasn’t a rumor at all — just a prediction from an analyst.)
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber brings up a valid point: If Google pulled off such a stunt, the search giant would likely infuriate telecom partners who have agreed to put Android on their smartphones. We agree with the assessment that a Google-branded phone would probably be an unwise move for Google.
The Microsoft Office 2010 beta was released today and though there aren’t many major changes from the Technical Preview in July, there are some new features and enhancements worthy of note. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10401016-12.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Download Blog/a/p
I’ve been wondering why there hasn’t been drooling, crazy-eyed hype for Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10, which sounds like a wet dream on paper: Android, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, awesome 8MP camera, massive 800×480 display and a very pretty interface. I know now.
Well, rather, I know that it’s definitely something about the phone itself. It’s missing that spark, the emotional drippings of OMG, that say, the Droid has. The X10 is perfectly fine. It’s just that everything outwardly belies the specialness of what’s going on inside. The all plastic-build feels just slightly better than cheap, the shape is kind of awkward unless you have gorilla hands, the design—it all just feels, well, incredibly ordinary.
What stood out in terms of hardware was the screen (at 4 inches, with a resolution of 854×480 it’s big), and the camera, which borders on amazing for a phone. The extra betaness of the software meant we couldn’t really get a grasp on how deadly the 1GHz Snapdragon processor is, since while things were quite speedy, the phones also froze a lot, apps crashed or wouldn’t start, etc.
Sony Ericsson‘s approach to customizing Android with its own Nexus interface is mercifully respectful of your boundaries. That is, if you don’t want to use their TimeScape or MediaScape UI for managing for your contacts and media (though you probably want to in the latter case), you don’t have to—the default Android contacts app, and everything else, is still there. The only thing you can’t escape is all the blue, which is skinned on pretty much everything, from messaging to contacts. If you take Windows Media Center and imagine it ported to a phone, that’s pretty much the Xperia X10. But with more “infinite buttons.”
MediaScape actually feels like Media Center, the way it arranges and presents your photos, music and videos. The concept behind TimeScape should be pretty familiar at this point. Everything from a contact, like Facebook, emails, Twitter, photos, text messages, calls, whatever are integrated into a single interface, so you can check their status updates or get a hold of them however you want from one screen. That infinite button is what coagulates all of the services into a cohesive contact, and shows you everything you have on your phone about that person.
For the most part, I think the Nexus interface works (even as crashy as it was today on these pre-production phones). It’s easy enough to navigate, it stands out against the other custom Android interfaces with lots of bright colors and transparencies and it’s not bad too look at. More than that, you only use it as much as you want. (Some people might want a more complete Android UI overhaul, and that Nexus doesn’t quite deliver.) I don’t see how Sony Ericsson is going to get developers to put out apps just for Nexus, though I’m not sure how much that matters. It’s an example of Android’s potential in the hands of phonemakers who actually know how to design interfaces.
Sony Ericsson’s always had trouble getting their smartphones to crack the US, since they haven’t had carriers footing the bill for phones to make them actually affordable. It seems like they’re trying to make that change with the X10, saying it’s “our desire to have a carrier relationship for this product.” So you might actually get to use one. It still doesn’t set my pants on fire like the Droid did, at least not yet, so I’m not sure how much you actually want to. But maybe it just needs more time.
California’s Energy Commission voted unanimously today to set limits on the energy consumption of televisions.
The new TV efficiency standards, which go into effect on Jan. 1, 2011, limit power draw to a certain number of watts based on the total screen area. The bigger the screen, the more power it is allowed to consume. An even tighter standard will go into effect Jan. 1, 2013.
The standards apply only to new televisions sold within California. What’s more, they only apply to TV sets with 1,400 or fewer square inches (equivalent to a 58-inch diagonal screen). In other words, if you still want to buy that 1,700-watt, 150-inch plasma, go right ahead, Mr. Rich Dude! It’ll go very nicely with the polar bear rug in your den.
According to proponents, the standards will not significantly increase the sales price of TVs, and will save the average household $30 per year per TV set, for statewide savings of $8.1 billion per year. Yes, California apparently is home to 27 million TVs.
Despite that, some consumer electronics groups opposed the ban, saying it would increase costs and reduce selection.
As with emissions regulations for cars, the TV standards set by California should have a wide-ranging impact, because the state is such a big market that manufacturers are likely to make all of their products (at least the ones intended for a U.S. market) comply with the California regulations.
Photo: Panasonic’s 150-inch plasma HDTV, shown at CES 2008. By Dylan Tweney/Wired.com
Microsoft’s been pretty cagey with the future of Windows Mobile so far, but apparently the Office Mobile 2010 team just doesn’t care — in addition to leaking a new interface in that confidential slide deck last month, they’ve now included this screen shot on the Office Mobile 2010 beta website. Here’s what’s wild: this design language completely matches the first set of Windows Mobile 7 leaks we saw nearly two years ago, so either Microsoft hasn’t made any changes in that time, or what we’re seeing here is something else entirely. Combine that with rumors that WinMo 7 isn’t due to hit until the end of next year, and we’re starting to think there’s something bigger afoot here — the only other alternative is that Microsoft has waited nearly three years to launch what’s little more than a refresh of its current interface, and even Redmond can’t be that slow to execute… can it?
MSI is on a roll with its Wind Top line of all-in-one machines, the AE2220 being the latest and, for the moment at least, the greatest. Its 21.5-inch screen (curiously .1” smaller than when originally announced) supports multitouch, backed by Windows 7 Home Premium to ensure you’ll never have a completely smudge-free image coming from the ION chipset. 4GB of DDR2 memory is included along with either a 2.2GHz T6600 or 2.1GHz T4300 Intel processor, while storage is now provided by a 500GB drive. Dual PCIe expansion slots gives it some hope of being upgradeable in the future, and VESA wall mount compatibility means you won’t even have to clean up your desk. It hasn’t shown up at retailers just yet, but Amazon is still listing a pre-order page at $699, $50 under MSRP and what we’d consider to be a very fair price indeed.
OCZ Technology has been trumpeting its Colossus SSD desktop solution since June, but due to some strange issues with the housing that have been troubling engineers for the past few months, the company has been forced to quietly push back the expected release date. At any rate, the company has informed us that the drives — which will arrive in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB flavors and tout maximum read / writes rates of 260MB/s — will begin shipping to retailers “next week.” If you’re lucky, you might catch one or two e-tailers selling their stock early, but first you’ll need to figure out where exactly that $300, $650, $1,200 or $2,200 (in order of mention) is going to come from.
We look at the performance and features of the MapQuest Navigator and Gokivo Navigator applications for GPS iPhones. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10399780-233.html” class=”origPostedBlog”iPhone Atlas/a/p
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