Hasta La Gadget!

Zinio’s smartphone and tablet apps make it easy to bring a lifetime’s worth of magazine content with you on the go, but performance has been inconsistent, especially when navigating through pages or zooming into photos and text. The company’s latest app improves upon both critical elements, however, taking advantage of the Nvidia Tegra chip in your Mototola Xoom or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to smooth out page transitions and pinch-to-zoom. Nvidia posted a side-by-side comparison video demonstrating the improvements on a pair of Xooms, and there’s clearly a noticeable difference. You can try it out for yourself by downloading Zinio version 1.10.3641 from the Android Market, or jump past the break for the demo.

Continue reading Zinio brings Tegra hardware acceleration to Honeycomb tablets

Zinio brings Tegra hardware acceleration to Honeycomb tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Nvidia Blog  |  Android Market  | Email this | Comments

You sank my battleship! Oh those sweet, sweet words. We’ve been longing to hear them since we set up camp behind our iPad, and Electronic Arts has just answered our cries. That’s right, the Battleship HD app is now available for download on your iOS slab, featuring a multiple-player mode, which pits you against friends (and presumably foes) packing an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. It’s also got a single-player mode, available in three flavors: Classic, Salvo, and Super Weapons. Now go forth and drop bombs! The iPad app is now available at the source link for $3.

Battleship HD app lets you sink ships on your iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TUAW  |  iTunes  | Email this | Comments

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (aka Bluetooth SIG) has some fairly grand plans for the future of its wireless technology, and it’s now recruited some big players to help get it there. The group announced yesterday that it’s added both Apple and Nordic Semiconductor to its board of directors — companies that it says will help it “drive Bluetooth technology’s expansion into platform and sensor markets.” In particular, the group is setting its sights on wireless health sensors, which it hopes to finally gain a real foothold in thanks the lower power requirements of the Bluetooth 4.0 standard, and thanks to the experience of Nordic, which has a long history of working with such devices. Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Bluetooth SIG takes aim at sensor market, adds Apple and Nordic to board of directors

Bluetooth SIG takes aim at sensor market, adds Apple and Nordic to board of directors originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Jun 2011 05:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Bluetooth SIG  | Email this | Comments

Avid watchers of tech know that Apple is almost as good at requesting patents (though, its record of defending them is somewhat less impressive) as it is at actually creating compelling products. Three years after initially filing for the design of a “portable multifunction device” with a multitouch interface, the USPTO has awarded the Cupertino crew a rather broadly worded patent that’s sure to raise few eyebrows amongst its competitors. The language could easily be interpreted to cover practically any device with a multitouch screen, be it tablet or smartphone — which we’re sure Jobs and co. are excited to add to their growing stockpile of claims to gestures and capacitive displays. Whether or not Apple actually uses its recently granted patent to go lawsuit loony against its market rivals remains to be seen but, chances are, it’ll stay quiet for the time being — those battles with Sammy and Lodsys are already consuming plenty of precious resources.

Apple granted broad patent for ‘portable multifunction devices’ with multitouch screens originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Physorg  |  USPTO  | Email this | Comments

A grinning Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds the iPhone 4, at WWDC 2010. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Apple plans to launch a new iPhone in September that brings the handset up to speed with the iPad 2 tablet, according to reports.

The fifth-generation iPhone will include the faster A5 processor that debuted in the iPad 2 in April as well as an 8-megapixel camera, according to Bloomberg, who cites “two people familiar with the product.”

The rumor comes in line with previous reports that hinted a September debut for an iPhone 5 equipped with an A5 chip and 8-megapixel camera sensor.

Previous rumors added that the iPhone 5 will have a flat metal back as well as “curved” cover glass (possibly to improve comfort) and will become available on the T-Mobile and Sprint networks, in addition to AT&T and Verizon.

The iPhone is Apple’s best-selling product, accounting for the majority of the company’s overall revenues. Traditionally, Apple has released new iPhones every summer around June or July. However, the February release of the Verizon iPhone and the April release of the white iPhone 4 may have compelled Apple to wait until September to give the products a longer shelf life.

See Also:

• Apple Unveils High-Resolution, Videoconferencing iPhone 4
• Rumor Roundup: iPhone 5 to Include Curved Glass, Faster Processor …
• Report: No iPhone 5 at Apple’s Summer Conference
• Gadget Lab Notes: iPhone 5 Could Have a Flat Metal Back
• Apple Adding NFC Contact-Less Payment to iPhone 5, Consultants …