Shooting Challenge: First Moments of Spring

It finally—finally—feels like spring. Time to get out there and enjoy it. For this week’s Shooting Challenge, shoot a photo of the best season of the year. More »

Nintendo Shows Wii U Speed Improvement After Installing April Update

Nintendo announced it would be releasing a system update this spring to help address some of the speed issues the system has been having. April is when Wii U owners can expect the update to be released, but just how fast will the console be after its update is released?

Nintendo released a video this morning answering that very question as they return to the Wii U Menu from a New Super Mario Bros. U game that is currently running. After the system update is installed, the Wii U will take a total of 8 seconds to load the Wii U Menu, based on the video Nintendo published. This is a huge improvement as we can see the Wii U that doesn’t have the spring update takes nearly 3x as long to load the Wii U Menu, which clocks in at around 23 seconds of an agonizing wait time. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain Announced With New Trailer, Temple Run Makes Its Long-Awaited Debut On Windows Phone,

NTT DoCoMo announces 12 new mobile devices for the spring, launches Smart Home initiative

NTT DoCoMo announces 12 new mobile devices for the spring, launches Smart Home initiative

Change of season? You can bet NTT DoCoMo has an armload of new devices to announce — it’s almost a tradition. This time around, the Japanese carrier has revealed 10 new smartphones, two tablets and a mobile WiFi hotspot. Large, 4.5 to 5-inch displays and quad-core processors pepper the entire spring smartphone line, but there are a few notable standouts, including the previously leaked LG Optimus G Pro, Huawei’s Ascend D2 and the NEC Medias W — a curious dual-screen smartphone we first saw at MWC 2012. DoCoMo fills its tablet quota with the Sony Xperia Tablet Z and a carrier branded device called the dtab, a 10.1-inch WiFi slab apparently built for DoCoMo’s Smart Home initiative. Don’t let the name run away with your imagination — the Japanese carrier is focusing on sharing music, video and digital content between smartphones and other home electronics, not automating your apartment.

The dtab is compatible with a handful of carrier exclusive services, such as the dmarket and DoCoMo cloud. It’s not technically part of the carrier’s mobile line, but DoCoMo had one more announcement for spring: an HDMI dongle. The SmartTV dstick gives HDTVs access to the carrier’s dvideo, danime store and dhits services, and can be controlled with via smartphone or a similarly named tablet. Spring hardware will start hitting Japan on January 25th with the Aquos Phone EX, and continue to roll out through March. Read on for the official press release.

Show full PR text

NTT DOCOMO Unveils 12 New Mobile Devices
– 5 Models to Link with Home Electronics and Play Full-HD under New Initiative –

Products & Services

TOKYO, JAPAN, January 22, 2013 — NTT DOCOMO, INC., announced today its 2013 spring lineup of 12 models that will launch in sequence beginning on January 25. The lineup includes 11 smartphones and tablets, plus one mobile Wi-Fi(R) router. For maximized ease of use, the models feature upgraded versions of numerous popular functions introduced in the 2012 winter lineup.

Some of the new and prominent features of the lineup include:
o.First DOCOMO smartphones capable of full-HD for superb high-definition video.
o.Compatible with DOCOMO’s Xi[TM] (“crossy”) LTE service for max. downlink of 112.5 Mbps (some areas), the fastest LTE connection in Japan as of January 21.
o.A large selection of models featuring quad-core CPUs for increased enjoyment of mobile games and videos.
o.Many models running on Android[TM] 4.1.
o.Large-capacity batteries (2,000mAh or more) for power-thirsty users.
o.Smartphone model with special safety and security features for preteens.

Also announced today was “docomo Smart Home,” an all-new initiative for sharing videos, music and other content between smartphones and home electronics, realizing a convenient new way to enjoy high-definition digital content both at home and on the move.

As part of this initiative, the new spring lineup offers the “dtab,” a Wi-Fi-dedicated tablet with special features for DOCOMO services such as the dmarket[TM] portal, and the “SmartTV dstick,” a small flash drive-like HDMI device for enjoying movies and animation from dmarket, etc. on large-screen televisions.

In addition, new functions have been added to the Twonky[TM] Beam app, which enables DOCOMO smartphones to play full-HD digital-terrestrial and broadcast-satellite programs that are stored on the user’s Blu-ray[TM] recording devices at home.

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Garmin does new in-dash navigation tricks, steers 2013 Dodge and Chrysler models

DNP Garmin will steer new Dodge and Chrysler models with indash navigation

You won’t be able to leap tall structures in one of Chrysler’s new cars with Garmin in-dash GPS hardware, but at least you’ll be able to see them. 3D buildings and terrain are among the fresh features in the navigators, along with a new UI, trip planner, improved junction view (by a factor of 25), and enhanced routing. The nav company is one of the cogs in Chrysler’s Uconnect service, which will roll out in four models next year: the Dodge Journey, Charger and Dart along with Chrysler’s 300. Other players in the service are SiriusXM, which provides weather info and entertainment; and Sprint, which shoulders the in-car data workload through its cellular service. Lest you think that all this infotainment will distract you right into the ditch, worry not — most of the controls are voice activated. If you want a beaming dealer to getcha into one of the new models, the PR is after the break.

Continue reading Garmin does new in-dash navigation tricks, steers 2013 Dodge and Chrysler models

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Garmin does new in-dash navigation tricks, steers 2013 Dodge and Chrysler models originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 01 Sep 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Strategy Analytics: iPad keeps riding high in Q2 tablet market share, Android doesn’t budge

Strategy Analytics iPad keeps riding high in Q2 tablet market share, Android stalls

The Apple iPad may as well be called the Teflon Tablet for now, since challengers can’t quite stick. Thanks to those 17 million iPads shipped in the second quarter, Strategy Analytics estimates that Apple held on to the 68 percent of tablet market share that IDC credited to the company in the previous season. That may not sound like a change in the status quo, but it’s a significant jump from the 62 percent Apple had a year ago — and not very good news for anyone else. Android is still holding on at 29.3 percent, although that’s slightly underwhelming given the surge of extra devices in that time frame. The real hurt was dished out to Windows 7 tablets and “others” like RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, both of whom were cut down to just 1.2 points of share each in the spring. We’ll see if the newer crowd moves the needle for Android in the summer, although the well-received Nexus 7’s current scarcity won’t help its chances — and both Microsoft as well as RIM are in holding patterns for the next several months.

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Strategy Analytics: iPad keeps riding high in Q2 tablet market share, Android doesn’t budge originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nielsen has Android near 52 percent of US smartphone share in Q2, iPhone ekes out gains

Nielsen has Android near 52 percent of US smartphone share in Q2, iPhone ekes out its own gains

If there was doubt as to whether or not Android would soon become the majority smartphone platform in the US, that’s just been erased by Nielsen. Google crossed the tipping point in the second quarter after getting close in the winter, with 51.8 percent of current smartphone users running some variant on the green robot’s OS. As we’ve seen in the past, though, the increase is coming mostly at the expenses of platforms already being squeezed to within an inch of their lives, such as the BlackBerry (8.1 percent) and Windows (4.3 percent combined). Apple still isn’t in a position to fret: it kept climbing to 34.3 percent and swung the attention of recent buyers just slightly back in its direction. The real question for many of us might center on what happens in a summer where Samsung has thrown a Galaxy S III-sized curveball at Americans and any new iPhone is likely still a few months away.

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Nielsen has Android near 52 percent of US smartphone share in Q2, iPhone ekes out gains originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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