Hasta La Gadget!

You’d think that with Skype firmly under Microsoft’s control, the service would roll out new features to Windows first. Bizarrely, though, that’s not the case. Skype’s video voicemail feature, which previously soft launched on Android, iOS and OS X, is now coming to Windows 7 and up (a Windows 8 version should be forthcoming), hitting the company’s end of April promise. The feature, still labeled a preview, works exactly as advertised, letting users record short video clips that can be sent to and viewed by any contact regardless of their OS. There’s one caveat though: you’ll need to install Skype 6.5 beta for Windows desktop and Flash to test it out. It’s just a risk your vainglorious self will have to take for modernity.

Filed under: Desktops, Microsoft

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Source: Skype

Ever since its official introduction two years ago, MightyText has seemed to expand its laundry list of features on an annual basis. Today is no exception, as the company is now adding “iCloud-like” syncing to its web app. As a refresher, MightyText acts as a client that syncs information between your computer and your Android device, giving you the ability to read and send SMS / MMS, look at your contacts, view your call logs and more from any browser. Now, photos and videos — along with an indicator and notifications regarding your phone’s battery life — are getting thrown into the mix as well. You can auto-upload (over WiFi and data, though you can opt out of the latter) your multimedia as you capture them, and once it arrives on the web app, it’s easily downloadable or shareable, depending on what you want to do.

While the feature is in beta, there’s also no limit to how much storage space you use up, and there’s no auto-delete function after any amount of time, so feel free to upload to your heart’s content. The only setback is that the images are compressed to ease the burden on your bandwidth (and data plan), so you’ll want to seek out other services if you need the full enchiladas. MightyText’s official statement on the new features is below the break, as is a link to check out their web app.

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Software, Mobile

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ARM has had a great quarter — again. This time it’s seen pre-tax profits soar 44 percent, while revenues are up 26 percent (to $209.4 million) since the same period last year. The company’s thanking the continued adoption of its low-power chip designs, encompassing smartphones, mobile computing and even digital TVs and wearable tech. The advanced tech within its ARMv8, Mali and big.LITTLE ranges has meant the company can command higher royalties per chip.

In total, 2.6 billion ARM-based chips have made their way into the gadgets this quarter, an increase of 35 percent year-on-year, with embedded hardware up a hefty 50 percent since Q1 2012. It’s seen even better performance from its Mali graphics processor shipments, which are up five times since the same period last year. As outgoing CEO Warren East notes: “Even low cost smart devices can contain multiple ARM-based chips and be based on ARM’s advanced Cortex-A series technology and Mali graphics processors.” With new friends on board for the near-future, the good times are likely to continue.

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops

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Source: ARM

Micheal Dell’s battle to take back his namesake firm may have just become a little easier: Blackstone seems to have lost interest. According to the Wall Street Journal, the group has backed out of the bidding war for the computer maker, declining to comment on the matter. Bloomberg sources claim that Blackstone lost interest after peeking at the company’s financials and were reportedly disappointed by the revenue outlook. This leaves the company’s founder to contend with only Carl Icahn, giving his original $24.4 billion bid a better shot at acceptance. The jury’s still out on who Dell’s next owner will be, but at least it’s a little less complicated now, right?

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Dell

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Source: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg

You’ll forgive us for frontloading this informational post about Doodle3D — a simple sketching software tool, complete with hardware dongle, that’s being Kickstarted — with superlatives like “totally rad,” but it’s difficult to feel otherwise. The software is very accessible, enabling 2D drawings done on a computer, tablet, or smartphone to be wirelessly sent to a hardware dongle attached to a variety of 3D printers. Just like that, drawings are magically turned from crude 2D images into physical 3D objects; this principle is demonstrated in the group’s Kickstarter video (below the break), which features a variety of non-techie folks using the application to thrilling results. More importantly? Not a single companion cube!

If you’d like to contribute, several tiered options are available. The early bird special affords 100 lucky folks a Doodle3D WiFi box for just $88, but that’s quickly running out. The box will otherwise run you (at least) $99, and the team is expecting to ship them sometime in September — should the project reach its $50,000 goal, that is. With 35 days to go and just over one fifth of that goal already funded, it’s looking like that won’t be an issue.

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Handhelds, Household, Peripherals, Tablets, Wireless, Software

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Via: Twitter – @tha_rami

Source: Kickstarter