Hasta La Gadget!

There are some markets in the world where one particular product might do better in compared to other places. There could be a variety of reasons, such as price, design, culture, religion, and so on, and Sony’s SRF-39FP MP3 player is a prime example. For those who might not have heard of this player before, don’t blame yourselves because we expect that you might have probably passed on it in favor of something more fancy, like an iPod. However it seems that over in the prisons in the US, the SRF-39FP is actually the MP3 player of choice, according to a very interesting and highly entertaining article from The New Yorker.

Well for starters in case it wasn’t obvious enough, the reason it is favored by prisons is due to its transparent body and the fact that it manages to get by on a single AA battery (estimated forty hours of listening time, longer than the iPod Classic). The transparent body is great because it prevents inmates from hiding contraband in them, and the single AA battery also means that prisoners will not have to spend as much money on battery. Federal prisoners are reportedly only allowed to spend up to $320 a month on commissary goods, so less money spent on AA batteries means more to spend on snacks, stationery, and so on. Who would have thought?

Sony’s SRF-39FP Is The MP3 Player Of Choice In US Prisons original content from Ubergizmo.

Back in 2013, ZTE officially unveiled the ZTE Geek Android smartphone. Unlike most Android smartphones, the ZTE Geek would not be powered by a processor based on the ARM architecture, but would be powered by an Intel processor instead. Well it looks like ZTE could be looking to give the Geek a revival this year at MWC because according to a report published in Greece, ZTE is set to unveil a new ZTE Geek, but instead of running on Android, the new Geek will be powered by the Tizen platform instead. Expected to debut at MWC 2014 this year, the handset is said to be shown off at the Tizen Association booth where there will reportedly be an app challenge taking place, presumably to lure developers to create apps for the Tizen platform.

For those unfamiliar, Tizen is a smartphone platform that was developed in part by Samsung. The platform is said to be an alternative to iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone. In fact, Samsung who has depended greatly on Android is said to be developing a Tizen handset of their own, although the handset has yet to be officially announced. While we can’t speak for the quality of Tizen and its performance, the fact that Android and iOS are so incredibly established and with a wealth of apps that their disposal, budding platforms will most likely discover it’s an uphill battle if they hope to displace the leaders of the smartphone market.

ZTE Geek Running On Tizen Rumored To Be Shown Off At MWC 2014 original content from Ubergizmo.

This article was written on April 10, 2007 by CyberNet.

There’s no doubt that Google has a focus on making their presence known around the Globe. Their latest move of investing money into the Maxthon Web Browser could be part of this effort, and really comes as no surprise.

Earlier today, TechCrunch reported that the Maxthon Browser has sold a stake to Google worth $1 million dollars.  They’re also reporting that it’s a smaller part to the bigger picture between them. 

We’ve covered Maxthon before – it’s a web browser based upon the Internet Explorer platform that has tabbed browsing and lots of customization. It’s a cross between Firefox and Internet Explorer.Their developers are based in Beijing, as well as a good portion of their users.

Half of all Maxthon users at this point are Chinese, and in fact, 17% of the Chinese web population uses the browser for web search.

Read/Write Web points out how Firefox may feel some jealousy towards this deal.  Afterall, they’ve been Google’s #1 side kick in terms of web browsers go.  However, I don’t think Firefox really has much reason to worry.  If anything, Google is getting involved with Maxthon in hopes of making a bigger presence in China.

Another possible motive behind this is that Baidu is currently the default search for the Maxthon browser in China, and Yahoo is the default search engine elsewhere.  With this deal, one would probably expect that those default searches would change to Google all around. Smart move Google.

Maxthon (Stable Version 1.5.9) – download

Maxthon Beta 2 – download

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

From what we heard back in 2013, the Sony A77’s successor had been rumored for a release in 2014. Considering that the camera had been released in 2011 and that we’re now in 2014, we guess it’s about time that Sony announce an upgrade to the A77 especially in light of the competition who has released newer and better cameras lately. Now the good news is that according to new rumors from Sony Alpha Rumors, it seems that we can look forward to the A77’s successor come June 2014. The website is reporting that their trusted source has revealed that the camera will be released in June 2014, although we’re not sure if the camera will be announced at an earlier date.

Their source has also stated that the A77’s successor will not be a camera with incremental upgrades, but will instead feature some new hardware. This also seems to be in line with Sony’s new direction in which incremental upgrades are passed on in favor of more exciting and innovative features. Unfortunately their source did not reveal any of the specs of the A77’s successor, so we guess we will just have to wait for Sony to make their official announcement, which has been speculated for April. Take it with a grain of salt for now, but check back with us at a later date for the details!

Sony A77 Successor Rumored For June Release original content from Ubergizmo.

Earlier we had reported that thanks to a sighting in the Japanese newspaper, Fujifilm appeared to have teased an upcoming camera in the form of the Fujifilm X-T1. Well for those who remained a bit skeptical over the somewhat blurry and pixelated image, it seems that Fujifilm has decided to make things a little more “official” by announcing a teaser on its website where the image above was posted, essentially the same image as the one from before and also confirming that the company would have something to announce on the 28th of January 2014, which before that was also one of the rumored dates of the X-T1’s launch.

Fujifilm has yet to confirm the specs of the camera, but based on what we know and what the rumors are saying, the X-T1 is expected to sport a retro-ish design as you can see pictured above. The rumors also claim that it will sport a 16MP APS-C X-Trans sensor II, 8fps with AF tracking shooting, an interchangeable X-mount lens, and will also come with a weather sealed body that would make the camera a pretty handy tool for photographers who typically shoot outdoors. No telling how much it will cost or when it will be released, but hopefully those are details that Fujifilm will share with us on the 28th of January, so be sure to check back with us then for the details.

Fujifilm Officially Teases The X-T1 original content from Ubergizmo.