Hasta La Gadget!

HP CEO Meg Whitman has already said that the company plans to release their own smartphone at some point, but details were pretty scarce. We even spotted a possible HP smartphone in some benchmark details that same day. So, it’s not too surprising that the company is reported to have said that they plan on getting back into the smartphone and tablet business.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said that he thinks HP will “aggressively attack” the smartphone and tablet markets in a research note to investors yesterday. Misek noted that it would be a risky investment for HP, though, which isn’t too surprising since the company only has a brief history of maintaining a smartphone and tablet lineup, thanks to their acquisition of Palm.

Misek noted that “to date almost all PC OEMs have failed to gain significant traction in consumer tablets/smartphones,” with exception to a few obvious companies of course. Then again, HP will most likely have to make a move like this at some point. With the world slowly moving toward a post-PC era, HP will eventually have to hop on the train and get going.

Whitman even said herself that the company will need to offer a smartphone and tablet, which can only point to signs that we’ll definitely see more mobile products from HP soon. And it’ll be interesting to see what the company comes with. Will they model their new devices after their previous webOS-based models, or will they completely start from the ground up?

[via ZDNet]

HP rumored to dive into smartphone and tablet market again is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I live in an area where everyone is on a bike. I see them all day long with their spandex on, water bottles strapped to their bike frames and earbuds in their ears. Now I’m sure they’re listing to very motivational music, I mean, I know I’d need motivational music (or a rabid pit bull behind me) to keep going. What they are NOT listening to however, is me honking my horn. I honestly don’t mind one bit, but it just doesn’t seem safe.

So for those of you that are athletically inclined (or love someone who is) you may want to check out NYNE’s NB-200 Bluetooth speaker. Small enough to fit in your pocketbook, the NB-200 comes with custom clips that allow you to attach device to your handlebars and enjoy incredible sound quality, while still being able to hear the important sounds of the road around you.

Listen to streaming music from your Bluetooth connected device, fast forward, or adjust volume from the speaker’s controls located right at your fingertips. Answer calls through the NB-200′s speaker by simply pressing the answer button and chatting away, or wait till your grueling uphill battle has been won, and call back the last number that called you, again, right from your speaker.

The NB-200, is light, powerful and very compact, charges via micro USB, has a microphone with noise cancellation capabilities and is easy to pair with your iDevice. Its rechargeable lithium ion battery is good for about 5 hours of continuous play time. 5 hours? on a bike? I’m tired just thinking about it. The NB-200 is available at amazon.com for around 129 bucks and if I had a bike, or participated in any form of physical exercise whatsoever, I’d want one.

[ NYNE Bluetooth Speaker – Take it with You when You Go. copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

You’re going to wait three to four weeks for your iPhone 5 if you order it online. But Sharp—one of Apple’s touch panel suppliers—says it’s not to blame for the hold up. More »

Singer-songwriter-rocker Neil Young has been talking about problems with modern audio codecs for decades. He was angry at CDs back in the 1990s and most recently he lashed out against MP3s and digital audio compression at a popular tech conference, saying “My goal is to try to rescue the art form that I’ve been practicing for the past 50 years. We live in the digital age and, unfortunately, it’s degrading our music, not improving it … It’s not that digital is bad or inferior, it’s that the way it’s being used isn’t doing justice to the art. The MP3 only has 5 percent of the data present in the original recording. … The convenience of the digital age has forced people to choose between quality and convenience, but they shouldn’t have to make that choice.”

Luckily old Bernard Shakey knows a few people with some tech chops and is launching a service tentatively called Pono that will allow folks to convert, download, and play high quality music on a player designed specifically for the service. He showed off his little player – a prismatic device that looks like a cross between a Shanzhai PMP and a box of Toberlone – on Letterman last night and he’s aiming to sell 192kHz/24-bit audio files to purists who demand to hear every aural nook and cranny.

Young is working with labels to transfer the original master tapes from each artist including a number of albums from Bob Dylan and other greats. Young says the “audio doesn’t get dummied down” when played on the Pono.

While seemingly Quixotic, I think it’s charming that Young is maintaining this effort even in the face of an onslaught of low bit-rate monstrosities. High quality music has long been the provenance of the rich and/or aged and, although I suspect this will appeal more to the older listener, at least Young is tackling one of the roadblocks to dulcet, high quality tracks.

via TheVerge

Apple has been under some extreme fire lately with their new Maps app on iOS 6. A lot of users have been reporting that the new maps are inaccurate and extremely buggy, especially the new 3D flyover feature where melting architecture was the bane on user experience. Apple CEO Tim Cook has brought up the problems and issued a public apology on the matter.

Cook posted up an open letter on Apple’s website mentioning how the new iOS 6 maps app “fell short” of the company’s high standard. Surprisingly, a good portion of Cook’s letter discusses different third-party suggestions for iOS 6 users to use instead. He suggests using maps from Bing, Mapquest, and Waze, as well as web apps from Nokia and Google. Cook says to use these alternatives while Apple works to improve their maps app in the meantime.

Tim Cook’s full apology letter is below:

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook

Apple’s CEO

It’s certainly surprising to see Cook suggest other maps apps over their in-house option. That’s definitely something you don’t see everyday, but it shows that Apple realizes it screwed up a bit and that they’re being the bigger man by telling users to take advantage of other strong map solutions while they work on improving theirs. It shows that they want their users to have the best user experience possible whether or not that involves using Apple’s own app catalog.

[via Phone Scoop]

Apple CEO Tim Cook apologizes for Apple Maps fiasco is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.