After the first 10 minutes of playing Batman: Arkham Origins, my original cold attitude toward another Bat-title were doused. Hearing first of an early Batman story made me disinterested – why would I want to experience Batman before all the good villains entered Gotham City? As it turns out, there’s not only a lot more […]
The little Dash 7 fits easily into most pockets.
(Credit: Soundmatters)
Congrats to Cy N. of Palo Alto, Calif., for winning a 40-inch LCD TV from TCL in last week’s giveaway. And now, giveaway participants, a public-service announcement: Please make sure your CNET account is linked to a current e-mail address. We notify winners via e-mail, and if you’re not regularly checking the addy you’re registered with, your prize will go to someone else, which would be a big bummer for you.
OK, onward to this week’s freebie, which the winner will promptly get word of via his or her wonderfully current e-mail address, right? (Nudge, nudge.)
We’ve got a FoxL Dash 7, a newly released portable high-fidelity Bluetooth speaker from Soundmatters. At just three quarters of an inch high and less than half a pound, this little guy slides easily into most pockets and purses and under tablets and monitors but boasts big and pristine omnidirectional sound. Its onboard BassBattery system provides up to 12 hours of music playback while doubling as a woofer to enhance bass reproduction.
<... [Read more]
Related Links:
Get a Turtle Shell rugged Bluetooth speaker for $79.95 shipped
Crave Ep. 141: Steve Jobs action fig now with Apple 1 accessory
Crave Ep. 142: Electronic makeup gives new meaning to inter-‘face’
An inconvenient truth: Why music sounds bad
Bose SoundTouch throws down multiroom audio gauntlet to Sonos
     |
Whether one has a modest monthly mobile data plan or an unlimited plan with a cap on, for example, 4G speeds, the waste of precious MBs cuts into one’s usage and is unwanted. Users on Windows Phone have been experiencing such extraneous data usage lately, something that results from the integrated Twitter feature, Microsoft has […]
Ah, the Tizen OS. Much has been said about it, that sometime in the middle of this summer, it was reported that the mobile operating system was “almost dead”. Well, there were still some life signs left as Tizen 3.0 was spotted to run on a Samsung Galaxy S3 a couple of months after that. All in all, a simple conclusion can be made – that devices which run on Tizen are pretty difficult to come across, it is sort of going round and round trying to snag that legendary Pokemon.
Well, developers who happen to have a heart for the platform over in Japan will have an additional option, thanks to the Tizen build kit that hails from the good people over at Systena. This happens to be a package which will include developer tools, manuals and technical and consulting services, all of them from Systena. Of course, those are essentials, but the main attraction of the kit would be the 10.1-inch developer tablet.
This particular tablet would run on a quad-core 1.4GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, where it is accompanied by 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal memory. Coupled with that would be a 1,920 x 1,200 display, delivering a Tizen 2.1 experience that was specially built for app development and product demonstration. No public pricing details are available just yet, but those who are interested developers can place a request additional information via the company’s website.
First Tizen Tablet In Japan Launched For Developers original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
Despite absorbing MeeGo, learning to run Android apps and pushing through a significant UI overhaul, devices running Tizen are notoriously hard to come by. Developers eyeing the platform in Japan, however, just got one more option: the Tizen build kit, from Systena. It’s a package that includes …
Having people over is fun, finding sticky rings and water damage marks
on your furniture the next day is not. Fortunately, Umbra has come
up with a clever way for you to enforce coaster use without seeming like
an anal host.
The folks over at the FCC have been on the receiving end of a couple of tablets from HP, which means we could be looking at new Slates in the coming holiday season. For starters, there is the HP Slate 10 HD tablet that will run on a Marvell PXA986 processor, where it will be accompanied by a 1,280 x 800 pixel display. Hmmm, that does not sound quite right, especially when you have the “HD” bit in its name. In other words, the HP Slate 10 HD tablet is a 10” Android-powered tablet that will target the budget conscious, while sporting some HP extras such as Beats Audio. The HP Slate 10 HD is tipped for a November rollout.
As for the other tablet, it does seem to be the HP 10 1900, and that is about all we know about it other than the fact that it supports cellular data on GSM and WCDMA networks, alongside connectivity options such as 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0. Other specifications that we know about the HP Slate 10 HD is that it will arrive with a microSD card slot, front and rear cameras, and Wi-Fi-only or 4G models.
We do wonder just how these tablets will shape up by the time they hit the market, as their previous round of tablet releases did not exactly light up the industry.
Two HP Slate Tablets Hit The FCC original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
Earlier this year in July, we saw how Microsoft reduced the price of its Surface RT tablet (which is now simply known as Surface) by a whopping $150 in an effort to boost its flagging sales figures. That plans must have worked, or the statistics could have been massaged, but Microsoft was proud to announce that in the for the third quarter of 2013 (which happens to be July to September) sales of Surface tablets have actually more than doubled in comparison to the second quarter of this year.
According to Microsoft’s chief financial officer Amy Hood, that particular statement was made as part of the company’s quarterly financial conference call with analysts earlier this morning. Microsoft did make an announcement earlier on that revenues from the Surface device family amounted to some $400 million for the quarter, which is quite a large jump when you compare it to the $853 million in revenue that occurred from the tablet’s launch in late October 2012 all the way to the end of June 2013. Of course, we still do not know just how many Surface tablets were sold during the third quarter, so exact figures would always be better to give us a more accurate picture of the situation.
Microsoft Surface Sales Touted To Double In Previous Quarter original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
Samsung might not be on Santa’s nice list this year, but rather, run up a deficit as they end up on the naughty list. Why do we say so? Well, they have been caught for ‘stealing’ electricity – or rather, using a different tier in order to save money (but have been duly reprimanded and fined as we have reported earlier this morning). Not only that, we now have word that Samsung has been fined by the Taiwan government for coming up with fake Internet comments on message boards that promote their products while downplaying the devices of their rivals.
This particular fine, which was described by the Taiwan Fair Trade Association, happens to be in the region of NT$10 million, which is $341,037. Chump change really, for the South Korean conglomerate, but it does send a message to the masses that the Taiwanese government would not tolerate such behaviour known as “astroturfing” by companies, no matter how famous or big they are. Apparently, Samsung did hire a third party company known as OpenTide who paid a bunch of people to comment on message board forums which gave bouquets to Samsung products, while being critical of its competitors’ products. Just how widespread do you think such a practice is in the industry?
Taiwan Government Fines Samsung For Fake Internet Comments original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
