Jun 21

Digital City 131: NY Post vs. the iPad, plus NYC’s Apple cube gets a makeover

Posted in: Today's Chili

Ep. 131: Newspapers take on the iPad, plus NYC’s Apple cube is getting a makeover

This week: David Carnoy sits in for Scott, and we discuss the New York Post’s plan to block iPad traffic, the fate of NYC’s Apple Cube store, and play another round of brain-draining tech trivia.

Bonus: Download the show’s jaunty theme song as a free MP3 here.

Related links

•
NY Post bans iPad traffic

•

Apple begins $6.6M overhaul on NYC ‘cube’ store

•
ICANN looking at new TLDs

Show links

• Watch Digital City live every Monday at 3 p.m. ET on CNET Live!

• Subscribe to Digital City on iTunes

• Follow the show on Twitter. Also check out Dan on Twitter, and Scott!

• Join the Digital City Facebook fan page


• And check out Dan’s Facebook page, too!


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Originally posted at Digital City Podcast

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Jun 21

Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, kindle, Today's Chili

Our big, bad digital era’s been caught red-handed overturning media industry business models before, so it comes as no surprise that publishing houses have a new headache on-hand. Straight outta sunny Seattle comes word that Amazon has welcomed its first self-published author to the “Kindle Million Club.” John Locke (so this is where he wound up after going to that quasi-‘heaven’) is the lucky dude who gets to claim the prize, and that’s not all — Mr. independent-author-from-Kentucky now shares bold-face status with the likes of Stieg Larsson and Nora Roberts. By churning out action / adventure novels on the $0.99 cheap and making heavy use of some leggy lady models, Locke easily blew past the one million mark, and even has a book to tell you how he did it. Take that evil publishing overlords. Hit the break for Amazon’s official PR spiel.

Continue reading Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it

Self-published Kindle author breaks one million in sales, legs might have something to do with it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 21

Nokia’s new N9 MeeGo phone (hands-on)

Posted in: Today's Chili

Crave Asia got its hands on the new Nokia N9 MeeGo smartphone at CommunicAsia in Singapore. Here are some early impressions (and lots of photos) of this sleek-looking mobile.

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Jun 21

Vizio Tablet gets detailed, we go hands-on (video)

Posted in: hands-on, slate, tablet, Today's Chili, video, vizio
Way back in January at CES, we managed to sneak in a little bit of hands-on time with the Vizio tablet, the TV manufacturer’s straightforwardly-named foray into the ever-popular space. The tablet runs Gingerbread at present, though Vizio has said that it’s willing to make the leap over to the tablet-optimized Honeycomb, as soon as that operating system is deemed sufficiently stable by the company. The 1024 x 768 device is multimedia-minded, with an IR controller on the top that lets the whole thing double as a remote for your living room entertainment devices like TVs and VCRs. The tablet also features HDMI out and speakers on the top and side, so you can maintain stereo listening even when you switch its orientation.

Blake Griffin’s favorite touchscreen device will be hitting store shelves next month for a fairly reasonable $349 — we wouldn’t have expected anything less than an affordable price point from a company like Vizio. And we have to say, it’s a pretty solid feeling piece of hardware for that price. The software doesn’t seem quite perfect at the moment, but we’re happy to hold off judgment until we get some hands-on time with the final version in the near future. Check out a video tour of the tablet below.

Gallery: Hands-on with the Vizio tablet

Hands-on with the Vizio tablet

Continue reading Vizio Tablet gets detailed, we go hands-on (video)

Vizio Tablet gets detailed, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 21

BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.6 update brings Flash 10.3 and AIR 2.7 to PlayBook

Posted in: adobe, BlackBerry, blackberry playbook, BlackberryPlaybook, flash, playbook, RIM, Software, software update, SoftwareUpdate, tablet, Today's Chili, update

Nah, it ain’t the update that’ll bring a standalone email client to your BlackBerry PlayBook, but at least it’s some positive news in an otherwise gloomy arena surrounding RIM. Version 1.0.6 of the BlackBerry Tablet OS was just cut loose today, bringing support for Adobe’s Flash 10.3 and AIR 2.7 software. In other words, users should see improved Flash performance, and they’ll also be able to tap into a new array of apps crafted with AIR 2.7. Oh, and for the security mavens? There’s a few built-in updates to safeguard you and yours. It’s available over-the-air right now, and if you don’t see an update just yet, be patient — it’s en route, we swear.

BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.6 update brings Flash 10.3 and AIR 2.7 to PlayBook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 21

AMD resigns from BAPCo consortium, denounces SYSmark 2012 benchmark

Posted in: AMD, benchmark, Today's Chili


It’s not uncommon for a company to make a public endorsement from time to time, but AMD today drafted a press release to announce that it’s not endorsing a product — BAPCo’s SYSmark 2012 benchmark — going so far as to drop out of the non-profit org to drive its point home. AMD claims that it attempted to work with BAPCo to focus testing on real-world usage, rather than traditional benchmarks that don’t necessarily represent how we use computers today. Nigel Dessau, AMD’s CMO, explains the decision on AMD’s blog:

“Unfortunately, our good intentions were met with an outcome that we believe does a disservice to the industry and our customers. We weren’t able to effect positive change within BAPCo, and the resulting benchmark continues to distort workload performance and offers even less transparency to end users. Once again, BAPCo chose to ignore the opportunity to promote openness and transparency.”

The biggest issue appears to be that SYSmark highlights processor speed while ignoring GPU power — a significant flaw, considering GPUs now play a large role in overall system performance.

Continue reading AMD resigns from BAPCo consortium, denounces SYSmark 2012 benchmark

AMD resigns from BAPCo consortium, denounces SYSmark 2012 benchmark originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 21

FakeTV: Fool burglars into thinking you’re at home

Posted in: Today's Chili

Most burglars are aiming for unoccupied houses. Trick them into thinking you’re at home with the FakeTV, a small gadget that flickers and changes colors to mimic a real television set.

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Jun 21

2D Glasses: 3D’s Reign of Terror Ends Now

Posted in: Movies, Today's Chili, top

There were better movies playing Sunday afternoon. Super 8, X-Men: First Class. Midnight in Paris. But I bustled past all of those. I headed to theater 7, foul den of Green Lantern 3D. Armed with a superpower of my own. More »

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Jun 21

Nexus S hacked and tweaked to slaughter benchmarks, reality be damned

Posted in: benchmark, hack, hacked, nexus s, NexusS, Today's Chili
Nexus S Benchmark

It’s always a good idea to take benchmarks with a grain of salt — their synthetic tests don’t always match up with real-world performance. But, we wouldn’t blame you if you wrote them off completely after spying these results from Android Community forum member Simms22. Simms took his Nexus S, blessed it with a little Cyanogen Mod 7 pixie dust, overclocked it to 1.544GHz, and made a few other tweaks for good measure. The results? An absolutely unbelievable score of 10,082 in Smartbench2011. To put that in perspective, the 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos powering the Galaxy S II hit only 3,053 — and remember, the Nexus S is working with a one core handicap. The creator of Smartbench has acknowledged there are bugs to be worked out (did besting the Xoom by 400 percent give it away?) but we’re not quite ready to dismiss the numbers game completely — then what excuse would we have for publishing copious amounts of bar charts?

Update: The creator of Smartbench2011 confirms he’s working on a new version, 1.2.1, which should fix the bugs.

Nexus S hacked and tweaked to slaughter benchmarks, reality be damned originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jun 21

Researchers getting closer to ‘everlasting battery’

Posted in: Today's Chili

Imagine a world where the battery on your favorite device doesn’t get low anymore. Researchers in Australia may have finally found the key to an everlasting battery.

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