Mar 31
This is Mozilla’s most far-reaching mobile move yet, and for the most part, the browser-maker does its Firefox brand proud.
Originally posted at Android Atlas
Mar 31
Samsung Starts Building 22-inch Translucent LCD Displays
Posted in: Displays, LCD, samsung, Today's Chili
Remember that video about how everything in the future would be covered with interactive glass? Samsung doesn’t seem to think it’s too off base: they’ve begun mass production of 22-inch translucent AMOLED LCD displays in both monochrome and color models. The new displays aren’t completely clear, but they’re translucent enough for a viewer to be able to make out objects and people on the other side of the display while there’s an image on the screen.
Samsung sees the technology as useful for shop windows, billboards, or show floors and showcases where companies want a way to demonstrate their product without obscuring the view past it, or that just want to show off.
The displays aren’t too bad by traditional LCD standards either: they offer 500:1 contrast ratios and run at a native resolution of 1680-pixels x 1050-pixels. Add this to the fact that it doesn’t use a backlight and you have an energy efficient, very futuristic LCD panel.
There’s no word on exactly how much the translucent LCDs will cost, or who will really buy them: it will almost definitely be a while before they make their way into homes and businesses. Still, it’s clear that they’re coming, at least for some applications. Check out a video of the new panels in action behind the jump.
Mar 31
Arguably one of the best fighting games ever made, and perhaps more definitively the most famous and long-lived fighting game franchise of all time, Street Fighter II turned 20 years old this month, having been released in arcades (remember those?) in March 1991. Street Fighter II wasn’t the first game in the lineage, but it was the first game in the Street Fighter II series, and the first game of the series that saw broad popularity around the world.
The game was actually the successor to a lesser known and even less played game “Street Fighter,” a 1987 title that had some of the elements of the game most people came to know and love later. In the original Street Fighter, you could only play as Ryu (except in the multiplayer mode, where one player took control or Ryu, and the other player controlled his rival, Ken) and fought your way through five countries and ten different opponents along the way.
Street Fighter II expanded on the premise, allowing you to choose from a roster of eight characters to control. It was the first game of its type to allow you to select the character you wanted to play, and tasked the player with learning the character’s strengths, techniques, and special abilities in order to defeat the other characters in the game.
Once you fought your way through the other playable characters, you were confronted with the four boss characters of the game. In the multiplayer, the second player could join at any time and select any of the other playable characters to challenge the first player with.
Street Fighter II spawned an entire industry. Theatrically released movies, animated features in the United States and Japan, toys and action figures, even a Saturday morning cartoon were all based on the game. The game’s success set the stage for five additional games bearing the Street Fighter II name, the Street Fighter Alpha series of games, the Street Fighter EX series, the Street Fighter III series, and finally, the 2008 release of Street Fighter IV, the current generation of the franchise.
Mar 31
J-Pop Ringtones for Relief
Posted in: Music, Today's ChiliPopular J-Pop band DREAMS COME TRUE is hoping to contribute to the earthquake relief efforts through their music and not “only” through cash.
Several prominent singers, bands and celebrities have already made sizable donations, and DREAMS COME TRUE likewise contributed 10 million yen (about $120,000) themselves. But there are artistic donations that will do something money can’t necessarily provide.
[Pics via Barks.jp and AiKoudo.com.]
The duo have just released a free chaku-uta ringtone of their 2005 hit “Nando demo” (”Time After Time”) in the hope that it will inspire and soothe the hearts of victims and relief workers when it plays on their mobile phones. Available for a full month, the song is a sentimental classic of contemporary J-Pop that originally sold over 200,000 copies. It’s now being re-released on a full truetone ringtone system, allowing you to download the entire song, not just a sample.
I’m not a particular fan of local pop music, it must be said, but that aside, if downloading a ringtone or song cheers people up and gets the country moving again, then I say let’s go for it.
Last year the multi-member female group AKB48 broke out of the Akihabara subculture and become mainstream bonafide stars (even if only about two of the members seem to ever be mentioned by name). Now they can put that success to good use and harness the wallet power of the otaku for raising yen to go up north. Having accumulated over 6 billion yen ($73.5 million!) so far, they will also be releasing a full ringtone download of their song “Dareka no tame” from April, with all proceeds going to relief causes.
And it’s not just Japanese musicians using ringtones and downloads to help the relief efforts. Taylor Swift is taking part too: if you download her new single “Speak Now” then she will donate a part of the sales to the Japanese Red Cross.
Mar 31
Sprint dropping Galaxy Tab to $200 on contract starting April 3rd
Posted in: Android, exclusive, GalaxyTab, price, pricing, samsung, slate, Sprint, tablet, tablet pc, TabletPc, Today's Chili
An early prank this isn’t. Based on our sources (and the pictorial evidence above), Sprint’s fixing to whack a full Benjamin from the current $299.99 asking price on its Samsung Galaxy Tab starting on Sunday, making it one of the more affordable ways to get your hands on a 3G-enabled tablet of any kind — let alone a Froyo-based slate that’s received its fair share of compliments. Granted, the original Tab is aging at this point, and we still aren’t sure we’d be down for selling our cellular soul for two years just to get a spiffy up-front discount, but hey — at least you know the option awaits you. Oh, and if spending $429.99 sounds a lot better than $199.99 in addition to 24 months of obligation, that’ll apparently also be possible.
[Thanks, Anonymous]
Continue reading Sprint dropping Galaxy Tab to $200 on contract starting April 3rd
Sprint dropping Galaxy Tab to $200 on contract starting April 3rd originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar 31
Google Pulls PlayStation Emulator From Android Market
Posted in: Android, android market, apps, Google, Phones, playstation, sony, Today's Chili
Google has pulled an app that ran PlayStation games. The app's creator blames the release of the upcoming Xperia Play phone (above), which plays PlayStation games.
By Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica
Google has yanked a PlayStation Emulator from the Android Market and the developer is claiming his program is being targeted due to the upcoming release of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. After all, why would someone pay for official copies of PlayStation games when they can download and play pirated, or legal backups, for free?
“PSX4DROID v2 was pulled by Google due to ‘Content Policy violation’ as noted here. Trying to determine what can be done,” the emulator’s developer wrote via Twitter. “Sony’s Xperia Play must be coming soon.”
The developer also complained that he was working on an update for the program, and is looking for ways to allow those who have already downloaded the program to access the improved version of the emulator. He thinks this is a larger issue, however. “This isn’t about emulators. This is about Google letting Sony rule their ‘open’; marketplace,” he continued. What’s odd about this argument is that, as of this writing, the FPSE emulator is still available.
Here are the reasons Google may remove your application from the Market:
- Illegal content
- Invasions of personal privacy or violations of the right of publicity
- Content that interferes with the functioning of any services of other parties
- Promotions of hate or incitement of violence
- Violations of intellectual property rights, including patent, copyright (see DMCA policy), trademark, trade secret, or other proprietary right of any party
- Any material not suitable for persons under 18
- Pornography, obscenity, nudity, or sexual activity
- Emulators themselves don’t run afoul of any of these policies, and they’re certainly not illegal. It’s a different story if you include copies of games with your for-pay application, but as long as the program is “bare” and it’s left to the user to find and play legally copied titles, the application should be acceptable.
We’ve contacted Google for comment, and will update this post if there is a clarification. This could be a misunderstanding, but the charges that Google is manipulating the Market in order to create a better environment for Sony’s for-pay games are serious and troubling.
See Also:
- Google pulls PlayStation emulator PSX4Droid from Android Market (pocketgamer.co.uk)
Mar 31
The carrier’s Mobile Protection Pack bundles three service for $9.99 per month: insurance, enhanced customer support, and locating and locking a lost phone.
Originally posted at Dialed In
Mar 31
Kia debuts EV concept Naimo
Posted in: Today's ChiliKia debuted its electric car concept Naimo (pronounced “Neh-mo”) at the 2011 Seoul Motor Show. Named for its square shape, the Naimo looks a little like a miniaturized Pontiac Aztek without B-pillars.
Originally posted at The Car Tech blog
Mar 31
Google working on a face recognition app that leads to your personal info? (update: Google says ‘no’)
Posted in: app, application, Google, privacy, research, Today's Chili
Before we all get in a huff about this, Google has been very eager to point out that the facial recognition app it’s developing will work on a strictly opt-in basis. That means if you don’t want it to scan all of Facebook, Flickr and the rest of Google’s vast hoards of internet knowledge to find you, identify you, and collate your name, phone number and email address into a handy data sheet, it won’t. Okay? So relax now, everything’s fine. Seriously though, Google’s latest research venture sounds like a dashing stride into a minefield of privacy concerns as it aims to use people’s faces to instantly identify them and provide any salient info about them. Project leader Hartmut Neven, whose company Neven Vision was gobbled up by Google in 2006, says the team is being very cautious in how it addresses people’s rather apt apprehension, but he insists there’s actually great value in having a face-recognizing and data-mining app. Great value for the app’s user, perhaps, but we’d rather just stick to business cards, if you ask us.
Update: Google has reached out to clarify that there are no plans to introduce functionality of this sort yet, not without “a strong privacy model in place.” More importantly, however, the linking of facial recognition to personal data is described as “inventions of the reporter” rather than something the company’s actively pursuing.
Google working on a face recognition app that leads to your personal info? (update: Google says ‘no’) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Mar 31
Disputing a report on CNN, Google says it’s not developing facial-recognition technology for cell phones that would be able to identify who’s in a photo.
Originally posted at Webware
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