Jul 09

MobileBeat 2012 – July 10-11 – San Francisco

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Now in it’s fifth year, MobileBeat remains rooted in the in-depth exploration of the future of mobile. This year, design is dominating the mobile ecosystem.

So we’re gathering industry leaders and UI/UX experts to debate where the biggest opportunities lie, the pitfalls to avoid, and how to leverage smartdesign to get your business ahead. Check out the agenda here.

Register here with code “VB-Uber” and save 20%! Hurry though. There’s only a small batch of tickets remaining.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: SF FASHION+TECH, a Bastille Day Celebration of French Tech and Fashion, Get your discount tickets for Venture Shift here!,

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Jul 05

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean: New features and apps

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Google’s latest version of the Android operating system is known as Jelly Bean, where the version number stands at 4.1. This is the latest version that will be built on top of Ice Cream Sandwich, and was first introduced officially to the masses when Google I/O kicked off. Basically, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean delivered a faster and more fluid user interface, a voice search experience that many would say pummels Apple’s Siri (to each his or her own), as well as improved search capability.

The SDK is already available since last week as a developer preview from developer.android.com. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will arrive in mid-July onwards on select devices.

Android Platform Development Kit (PDK) is meant for hardware developers and  it will be available to Android device partners 2 to 3 months before the release date of future Android versions. A beta version of the Jelly Bean PDK has already been made available to everyone on an ongoing basis.

Editor’s note: We already published this list of new features as part of our Nexus 7 review, but we thought that it would be useful to have it as a stand alone article.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Jellybean statue can’t take the heat, Jelly Bean statue gets installed at Googleplex Lawn,

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Jul 05

Parrot Zik launching in August for $399, free app included for iOS and Android

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Parrot Zik launching globally in July with iOS app, Android to follow in August

Remember those cool-looking Parrot Zik wireless headphones we saw back at CES? Well, now we have a date and a price for you Philippe Starck fans out there. Announced at the Hong Kong launch event earlier today, these NFC-enabled, active noise cancelling Bluetooth cans will be available globally in August, with the US getting a price tag of $399 before tax (and for those who care, you’ll be able to nab one in Hong Kong for HK$3,399 or US$440). During our brief ears-on, we certainly enjoyed the Zik’s great audio quality, noise isolation and the intuitiveness of its swipe gesture input. While the battery is swappable, note that this expensive package only comes with one cell (accessible under the magnetic cover on the left can) that typically lasts for around five hours, so road warriors will need to chip in about $30 for a spare one. Alternatively, product manager Theodore Sean (whom we had the pleasure to interview at CES) pointed out a unique and handy feature that sort of bypasses this problem: you can still use the Zik as a pair of passive headphones using the included 3.5mm audio cable, but without any battery juice left, you obviously won’t be able to enjoy the noise cancellation function (on a plane, for instance) or even make phone calls.

Gallery: Parrot Zik launching globally in July with iOS app, Android to follow in August

Continue reading Parrot Zik launching in August for $399, free app included for iOS and Android

Parrot Zik launching in August for $399, free app included for iOS and Android originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 08:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 05

Nintendo CEO claims Wii U graphics “capabilities” are “close” to PS4 and Xbox 8. Here’s Why

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When the Wii U titles were unveiled at E3, we finally get a chance to look at what it was capable of in terms of graphics. Of course, this is only the first generation of Wii U titles, so you can expect some improvements over its life time. However, we were wondering how the Wii U would compare to Sony and Microsoft’s next-generation consoles. Typically, the leap between generations is quite high, so there are lofty expectations out there for Microsoft’s and Sony’s next hardware.

The Nintendo CEO knows that people may hold out on the Nintendo Wii U if they believe that something “radical” is around the corner, so he came out in defense of his product and said “we can at least assure you that the Wii U will not have such a big difference as the Wii had in comparison to how, on other platforms, developers could expect very different graphic capabilities of generating HD-applicable high-resolution graphics”. I have underlined “capabilities” because wording is important here. Many people assume that Mr Iwata is talking about graphics performance, but he is not. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nintendo Wii U expected to launch late 2012, Wii U Online will not charge fees to gamers, says Nintendo,

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Jul 03

SF FASHION+TECH, a Bastille Day Celebration of French Tech and Fashion

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Fashionably 1st Wednesdays (F1W), an industry mixer series dedicated to the intersection of fashion and technology, today announced it has secured some of the Bay Area’s leading companies to demo technology in fashion for its French Technique: from Geek to Chic, at Temple NightClub on Thursday, July 12, 2012. The event is sponsored by Rebellion Lab.

The event will feature French music, a $100 gift card giveaway from ModeWalk to the first 300 attendees, a fashion show by Amour Vert, and demos by leading French tech companies, such as PariSoma. More to be announced soon.

Tickets are available through SF FASHION+TECH at https://f1wfrenchtechnique.eventbrite.com until sold out.  Tickets are $15 for early bird registration and $25 for general admission online, two for $40, and $30 at the door. Each ticket includes one drink.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Get your discount tickets for Venture Shift here!, DevCon5 Returns to New York City, July 23-24,

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Jul 02

PlayStation Cloud : how Gaikai may change Sony Computer Entertainment forever

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PSN logoAs you may have seen yesterday, Sony has acquired online gaming company Gaikai, which is specialized in executing games on powerful remote servers and streaming them to any types of clients, from thin set top boxes to tablets or computers. In the short term, this won’t do much more than making PC games accessible from a PS3, this acquisition will open a new world of possibilities for Sony.

For example, you can imagine that Sony will make PlayStation games available to more people. The same technology can also be used to stream movies (+music) and build a service such as Vudu, which can be easily deployed on any TV and devices because most of the user-interface code is executed on remote servers. This is Sony’s best acquisition in a long time. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: PlayStation Network to become Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network to be back up by May 31,

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Jun 30

Nexus 7 Review

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Google has made it official: the search giant launched the Nexus 7, a powerful and affordable 7-inch tablet running the new Android Jelly Bean 4.1 operating system, powered by NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC (system-on-chip) and made by ASUS.

The highly rumored device lived up to our expectations, for a starting price of $199 (8 GB version) the quality is awesome. The 1280×800 IPS display enhanced by the new ASUS TruVivid engine delivers a great viewing experience, with well contrasted colors. Additionally, the quad-core 1.3 GHz Tegra 3 processor with a 12-core GPU brings serious power to the mix, enabling an enjoyable entertainment experience.

To keep the price down, the elegant device has been stripped from anything unnecessary, connectivity-wise, you’ll get only a Micro USB port and an audio jack, it seems that 3G will not be supported and there is no rear camera.

The 8GB version will be priced at $199 while the 16GB model will cost $249, both devices
come with preloaded entertainment such as the Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon movie and the Bourne Dominion book. Lucky Nexus 7 owners will also get $25 credit to spend in Google Play.  It is available for pre-order via play.google.com and is expected to begin shipping in mid-July.

We got a unit on the first day of Google I/O and we spend the next day to test it for you.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Droid Xyboard 10.1 Review, HP TouchPad Review – With Our Deepest Condolences,

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