Hasta La Gadget!

The WSJ reports that Apple is putting together an all-star chip design team, starting with the former CTO of AMD, to work on in-house units for mobile devices. Old habits die hard.

Apple is prone to occasional fits of vertical integration, and has never been terribly reluctant to run counter to the prevailing hardware winds, but this doesn’t sound like some Jobsian act of contrarianism. The report indicates that it’s the iPhone’s unique power and performance demands that are driving this move, at least ostensibly:

Apple could use the internally developed chips to sharply reduce the power consumption of its hit iPhone and iPod touch devices, and possibly add graphics circuitry to help its hardware play realistic game software and high-definition videos, people familiar with its plans say.

Apple already works with Samsung, the manufacturer of the ARM-based processors used in the iPhone and iPod Touch, to design chips suited to their specific needs, and Apple is a large enough company that it doesn’t have trouble coaxing tailor-made hardware out of its suppliers. But totally in-house chip design boasts the huge advantage of secrecy; removing Samsung from the equation ensures that any power-saving, graphics-boosting chip features Apple manages to conjure for their next iWhatever don’t eventually find their way into units available to other industry giants like HTC or RIM.

So don’t confuse Apple’s latest move with an effort to spur innovation—from here, this looks like technology-hoarding, pure and simple; a bid to further insulate their mobile devices from competition by locking down their hardware as hard as they do their software. [WSJ]

This article was written on September 28, 2006 by CyberNet.

The number of people who use Internet calling services such as Skype are increasing, and along with it, the accessories are too.  For example,  Logitech now has an “Easy Call Desktop” cordless keyboard and mouse option which was designed for those who use the Internet to place phone calls.  The EasyCall Desktop makes it just a bit easier to use services such as Skype because it has an integrated speakerphone, and a headset included to give the convenient hands-free conversation.

The Logitech version will cost around $129.99 and has all of the standard features including the programmable hot buttons.  Along with supporting Skype, it also supports AIM and Yahoo Messenger services with voice (it appears they’re working on the Windows Live Messenger support).

Even Skype has a section on their website dedicated to purchasing products to enhance Skype such as phones, headphones, even a mobile wi-fi phone that would work on any wi-fi network (this product not available yet, only pre-order).

Skype is certainly changing the way that people communicate over the Internet.  You can bet we’ll continue to see the accessories designed to cater to the  online communication business. 

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This article was written on April 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

An official press release from Microsoft puts to rest concern that Microsoft Surface is really just vaporware. Starting on April 17th, select AT&T stores will receive the Microsoft Surface computers to change the way that consumers purchase mobile devices. Instead of just looking, they will be “exploring their mobile worlds using touch and device recognition technology.” The first stores to receive the computers will be in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco, and more stores around the United States will be receiving them throughout the year. Despite the fact that the press release is dated April 1st, this really is no joke.

Each Microsoft Surface Computer is a table that measures about 30 inches. We first wrote about the Surface Computer back in May last year. There were several videos we attached to the article titled “Microsoft’s Surface Computer has the WOW Factor” that are worth taking a look at if you’re unfamiliar with what Surface is all about.  At the time, “The Slasher” commented that he thought “the wow needs to be reserved ’til it’s in the real-world and actually deemed useful.” Amazingly enough, in less than two weeks it will be in the real-world and then we can determine if it’s really useful in a retail setting. Our guess is that customers will be blown away with the experience they’ll have when picking out a new mobile phone and it will in fact be useful…

Here’s how it will work.  Customers visiting AT&T locations that have a Surface Computer will be able to place mobile phones on the “screen” of the computer and then they’ll be able to learn all about the phone, its features, accessories, even rate plans. Multiple phones will be able to be placed on the computer at the same time for easy comparison. If they’re wanting to determine whether their area has good coverage from the carrier, they can view the coverage map on the table and navigate it using their hands.

As SeattlePI reports, AT&T wasn’t even one of the original customers announced by Microsoft so it’s interesting that they’re the first to actually start using them. Additionally, at this point, the full potential of the computers will not be used.  Some of the videos Microsoft released last year showed customers completing transactions by placing their credit cards on the table. AT&T customers will not be able to actually buy a phone with the computer in such a manner, they’ll just be able to explore and learn more about phones that they are interested in (for now). Eventually AT&T hopes to bring the Surface Computers to all of their 2,200 retail locations.

This sounds like a very practical use for Microsoft’s Surface Computer in a retail setting, doesn’t it? Now our only question is how/if/when Microsoft will market these computers for consumers…

Thanks for the tip Omar!

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This article was written on June 16, 2006 by CyberNet.

It looks like HP has finally invented a feature that is unique only to them. The HP R927 digital camera has added a feature that will make people look thinner.

It doesn’t look like there is much science behind it other than vertically compressing the image. By doing this the camera hopes to shave 5-15 pounds off of the object. Remember, this doesn’t just affect the person in the picture it also affects that background.

The camera will also save the original image just in case you get home and don’t like the results. It is a very interesting feature but I don’t know how many people will be running to the stores asking for the camera that has the “slimming” feature.

You’ll have to dig deep to pull out enough cash for the $400 price tag on this 8.2MP camera. For the quality of the images the price is actually reasonable. If you shop around on the Internet you can knock about $50 to $70 off.

Now all you have to do is take a picture of the picture and you could drop almost 30 pounds!

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Not that there should be any shock surrounding the formal introduction of boxee’s App Box and API — after all, both were teased sufficiently during last month’s bleeding edge alpha release — but we’re still thrilled to see things moving along nicely. This week, the open source media platform launched both an API and an application portal, both of which will act to bring all manners of third-party gems to the media browsing world. boxee doesn’t plan on being any sort of gatekeeper (at least for now), which hopefully will spur innovation and get more developers interested. In related news, ArsTechnica has also found that boxee is currently in talks with a few big players in the hardware space, essentially hoping to get its 1s and 0s onto game consoles, Blu-ray players and other set-top-boxes. There’s no clue as to the whens and wheres, but we suspect this means there will be no dedicated STB in the near future — for better or worse.

[Via ArsTechnica]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

boxee’s App Box and API go live, could come to other hardware soon originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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