Hasta La Gadget!

Curious timing, no? Just last month, Google’s own Eric Schmidt revealed that the Nexus S (manufactured by none other than Samsung) would have “NFC features,” and he even went on to proclaim that this kind of technology would eventually supplant the tried-and-true credit card. Today, Sammy itself has revealed a new near field communications (NFC) chip with embedded flash memory, and we’re told that this guy remains active for mobile payment even without battery power. Of course, we’re still waiting for a confirmed price and release date for the aforesaid smartphone, but could Samsung’s NFC mass production date of Q1 2011 be the clue we’ve been yearning for? Fingers and toes crossed, okay everyone?

Continue reading Samsung cooks up its own NFC module, destined for the Nexus S?

Samsung cooks up its own NFC module, destined for the Nexus S? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bieber fever is about to strike the film world. Never Say Never, a 3D new movie from the teenage Canadian pop star will be hitting theaters early next year. Paramount will be previewing the film in limited theaters on February 9th.

The studio offered up 100,000 tickets to the preview, along with a pair of 3D glasses, a glow stick, and a “souvenir lanyard.” More than 26,000 tickets were sold in the space of 12 hours.

Why so much enthusiasm? Well, Bieber is a performer on-par with Michael Jackson and Elvis, of course. At least that’s the story from his manager Scooter Braun, who told The Hollywood Reporter, “Like a Michael, an Elvis, an Usher, a Timberlake, Justin has a tremendous amount of talent. And as long as he’s able to maintain a good personal life, you can’t deny talent and you can’t deny good music. And hopefully he grows up to be a pretty good-looking dude and the girls can keep going crazy.”

2012 may the year of the apocalypse, but it’s also the year of the recyclable subway car. In two years the country, with help from partners Siemens and BMW, is planning to introduce a new type of subway car that is 97.5 percent recyclable.

Called the Inspiro, the train features an aluminum chassis designed to be much lighter than traditional subways, and also much more spacious to accommodate better passenger flow. It also features a demand-controlled air conditioning system and electrodynamic braking, which, when coupled with the lightweight design means that the Inspiro requires less energy to run, and could potentially reduce energy consumption by up to 30 percent for the Polish subway system.

By the end of 2013 it’s expected that 35 of the trains will be in service, with nearly 40 percent of the manufacturing materials being sourced locally.

Via Treehugger

The most desired smartphone operating system amongst US consumers? It’s still the iPhone, apparently. According to new numbers from Neilsen, 35 percent of people in the US who plan to get a new smartphone prefer the iPhone. Android is number two on the list at 28 percent. RIM’s Blackberry is in third with 13 percent, followed by Windows Mobile’s six percent.

According to Nielsen’s numbers, Apple’s iOS currently dominates the US smartphone market at 27.9 percent, followed closely by RIM’s 27.4 percent. Android, the newest of the three, isn’t too far behind at 22.7 percent, thanks no doubt to the sheer number of companies producing handsets for the OS.

Windows currently has 14 percent of the market–a number that will perhaps jump in the next year, given the fact that Microsoft has finally introduced another viable mobile operating system for the first time in a while. Symbian, Linux, and Palm all trail those numbers, at 3.4-, 3.3-, and 1.3-percent of the total market, respectively.

At present, smartphones are still in the minority, comprising 29.7 percent of the total US market.

We’re nearing the end of the year, which can only mean one thing in the tech world: lists! So, so many lists! This is the point where search engines celebrate the past year by issuing the top trends from the past 12 months.

Ask.com does things a little differently, of course. Given the nature of the site’s queries, it marks the occasion by issuing the top questions–and answers–of the year. What was the biggest question of the year? Something to do with the Oil Spill? The World Cup? And number of terrifying political crises?

Nope. Coffee. Cheap Coffee.

The top question of 2010 was: “What is the best coffee under $10?” The top answer: Dunkin Donuts. The number two question: “Are the new mini net books any good?” The answer: buy an iPad.

Justin Bieber topped the celebrity questions, with two of the top three. (“How old is Justin Bieber?” and “Does Justin Bieber have a girlfriend?”) Curious users also wanted to know whether Lady Gaga is a guy, Beyonce is pregnant, and what Slash’s real name is.

Thanks Ask.com.