Hasta La Gadget!

The Optimus Maximus keyboard from Art Lebedev was cool, but it was way too expensive for most people, especially since keyboards are used so often and can break over time. I can only imagine what repetitive typing would do to all of those expensive little OLED displays. The E-inkey concept keyboard uses more cost-effective E-ink displays instead.

This changeable electrostatic keyboard is the brainchild of designers Maxim Mezentsev and Aleksander Suhih. The keycaps could contextually adapt their display depending on what you are doing, and which application you are using. The tiny energy efficient displays on the keycaps could possibly be made without ending up with a keyboard that costs as much as a computer.

Admittedly, if you’re a touch typist, the added displays wouldn’t be that useful, but it would look plenty good. Again, like many cool things, the E-inkey keyboard is still just a concept. Hopefully, somebody will put it into production in the not-too-distant future.

[via Yanko Design]

And the saga continues. Just a year after Bloomberg News was reportedly targeted by Chinese hackers, both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have independently published reports suggesting that they too are being probed. Both organizations seem to think that it’s all part of a larger scheme, with Chinese hackers sifting through newsgathering systems of outlets that are reporting on touchy subjects. As the Times puts it: “The attacks appear to be part of a broader computer espionage campaign against American news media companies that have reported on Chinese leaders and corporations.”

When asked about such a possibility, China’s Ministry of National Defense (unsurprisingly) denied the allegations, noting that “to accuse the Chinese military of launching cyberattacks without solid proof is unprofessional and baseless.” As it stands, the FBI is already looking into various attacks of this nature, but strangely, the hacking attempts aren’t being universally viewed as malicious. Paula Keve, chief spokeswoman for Dow Jones & Co., stated: “Evidence shows that infiltration efforts target the monitoring of the Journal’s coverage of China, and are not an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information.” As you’d expect, both outfits are stepping up security in a major way in hopes of fending off any future attempts.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times

Nobody can accuse Google of being lax with its recently-booming social network or Play Music Android player, as updates seem to be arriving at healthy intervals. Another one just dropped for each that fixes a Galaxy SIII freezing issue in Music, while adding instant mixes beyond 25 songs, the ability to shuffle by album, artist or playlist, new default album art and others for that app. Meanwhile, Google+ has added linking to new posts, a revised notification tray and more community moderation features. Those will make an automatic appearance on your device if your settings are in order — if not, check the source for more info.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Google

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Via: Fone Arena, Phone Arena

Source: Google Play (1), (2)

Though Apple’s iPad lineup remains undeniably dominant in tablet PCs globally with a beastly 43.6% market share, IDC is showing that this Q4 2012 both Samsung and ASUS have bashed their previous records for sales to bits. Samsung’s Q4 shipments hit 7.9 million units in 2012 while one year before their quarter only hit 2.2 million – that’s a 263% jump in unit sales. ASUS also had a mighty jump with 402% more units sold this quarter compared to one year ago, with 3.1 million compared to just 600,000 in Q4 2011.

The IDC study showing worldwide tablet shipments show that the tablet industry in general is growing by leaps and bounds, with Amazon coming in at 6 million units sold and third on the list and Barnes & Noble being the only company in the top 5 to have had less of an impact on the market than it did Q4 one year ago. Taking all vendors into account, 52.5 million tablets were shown as shipped in Q4 2012, this showing a healthy 75.3% growth year over year.

It’s worth noting that the results the IDC shows are not exact, with some estimates coming before financial earnings reports are released officially. The data being distributed today is what the group calls “preliminary data” and is part of the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker for January 31, 2013. Another bit of information that may not be clear right out of the barrel is the fact that tablet sales include not just mobile operating systems like iOS and Android, but Windows RT and Windows 8 as well.

Barnes & Noble’s unit sales went down this quarter compared to one year ago, but their market share increased. ASUS’ market share went down through the number of tablets it sold went up over 400%. Wacky things are happening in this market right this minute, that’s for certain. Now we go about tracking how the tablet market is swallowing up the PC market and we really see some strange ideas.

According to d Tom Mainelli, research director, Tablets, at IDC, the PC market “saw shipments decline during the quarter for the first time in more than five years.” In contrast, as you can see above, tablets are very much on the rise with no end in sight (so to speak). Keep your eye to the analytics, folks, things are getting flatter by the quarter.

[via IDC]

IDC shows ASUS and Samsung skyrocketing in tablet sales is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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