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(via -
Chris Pirillo )
I read it on 03/06/10 at 09:08 AM
Posted on 03/06/10 at 07:33 AM
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Windows Phone 7 is a post from Chris Pirillo
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First, if you have any questions for the Windows Phone 7 Series team, I'd be more than happy to ask on your behalf (as I do live around the corner from Redmond's campus and will be meeting with the team again at some point in the future). Post a comment and/or video response. I was invited to a behind the scenes look at elements of the Windows Phone 7 Series developer platform. At Mobile World Congress (covered earlier in this channel), Microsoft provided a first look at Windows Phone 7 Series and I'm pleased to offer you the opportunity to see a live demonstration up close. Yes, I got to play with the phone, too. It works as advertised even as a prototype. Unfortunately, we could not adjust the brightness settings in this particular device. The Metro interface is a bucket of win in my book. Charlie Kindel partner group program manager, Windows Phone App Platform & Developer Experience was hosting an intimate reception this evening in San Francisco. I wasn't able to make it, but Microsoft arranged a somewhat more private meeting with Greg Sullivan from the Windows Phone team a little closer to home. I met Greg a few years ago through the Longhorn Labs project (back when Microsoft Windows team leads worked actively with their most vocal community supporters). I'm not sure if I can reveal any more device details at this point, but suffice it to say I want one.
Tags: lt   gt li pirillo href
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(via -
Liliputing )
I read it on 03/02/10 at 09:32 AM
Posted on 03/02/10 at 02:13 PM
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It's been well over a year since Asus first showed off its Eee Keyboard concept, which packs a complete Windows computer into a keyboard that you can connect to a TV over a wireless HDMI connection. The idea is that you can surf the web, stream video over a home network, or do just about anything you can do with a PC on your TV. The keyboard also has a built in touchscreen panel for interacting with certain elements of the computer while you're watching a video or doing something else with the TV display.
Now, after a major redesign and a lot of waiting, Asus says it will finally get around to launching the Eee Keyboard in April. The question is more than a year later, are you still at all interested in this device?
Asus has also officially introduced the DR-900 eBook reader. It has a 9 inch display, WiFi, and optional 3G. Its battery is supposed to be good for up to 10,000 page turns.
While Asus hasn't made all the specs official yet, earlier this year specs were released for a mighty similar looking machine called the DR-950, which has a 1024 x 768 pixel display., 4GB of storage, headphone jack, and support for MP3, ePUB, PDF and TXT formats.
No word on a launch date or price yet.
Post from: Liliputing
Asus Eee Keyboard due out in April, eBook Reader coming soon
Tags: keyboard asus eee tv year
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(via -
jkOnTheRun )
I read it on 03/02/10 at 09:32 AM
Posted on 03/02/10 at 02:00 PM
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 AT&T is constantly getting bashed about its network coverage and how it gets around anticipated shortages. The network has been the iPhone network in the U.S., and perhaps its relationship with Apple played a role in AT&T waiting longer than other carriers to get into the Android game. That is set to be rectified with the carrier's introduction of the Motorola Backflip, an Android-based phone which will be the carrier's first. The first AT&T Backflips are hitting reviewer's hands, and a mind-boggling function of the Google phone has come to light. AT&T has removed Google search from this Android phone, and replaced it with Yahoo search.
Yahoo has replaced Google as the default search provider throughout the phone. It's crazy: the home screen widget, the browser, everything's been programmed to use Yahoo.
It is not unusual for carriers to work deals for specific software on its handsets. They take money wherever they can get it. But this deal is sure to confuse the customer, as Android phones are commonly called Google phones by many. Let's face it, Google makes Android, and one of its strengths is the tight integration with the company's online services. And search is certainly one of Google's big services, but not on the AT&T Backflip.
This is the equivalent of a Windows PC hitting the market that has Internet Explorer removed and Safari as the only browser. Some customers might be happy by that but most would be confused. Then to make matter worse, imagine that Internet Explorer couldn't be installed by the user to get around this major change. That seems to be the case with the AT&T Backflip, as early testers are reporting the inability to get Google search working in any of the Android programs.
There has been enough complaining about fragmentation in the Android space, so I won't rehash that topic. But there is something so fundamentally wrong when an Android phone has Google search removed. And replaced by Yahoo search? I guess this makes the Backflip the Yahoo Phone.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
As Windows Mobile Stumbles, Which Smartphone OS Will Seize the Lead?
      
Tags: google android phone search yahoo
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(via -
jkOnTheRun )
I read it on 03/02/10 at 10:54 AM
Posted on 03/02/10 at 02:00 PM
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AT&T is constantly getting bashed about its network coverage and how it gets around anticipated shortages. The carrier has been the iPhone network in the U.S., and perhaps its relationship with Apple played a role in AT&T waiting longer than other carriers to get into the Android game. That is set to be rectified with the carrier's introduction of the Motorola Backflip, an Android-based phone which will be the carrier's first. The first AT&T Backflips are hitting reviewer's hands, and a mind-boggling function of the Google phone has come to light. AT&T has removed Google search from this Android phone, and replaced it with Yahoo search. As noted by engadget:
Yahoo has replaced Google as the default search provider throughout the phone. It's crazy: the home screen widget, the browser, everything's been programmed to use Yahoo.
It is not unusual for carriers to work deals for specific software on its handsets. They take money wherever they can get it. But this deal is sure to confuse the customer, as Android phones are commonly called Google phones by many. Let's face it, Google makes Android, and one of its strengths is the tight integration with the company's online services. And search is certainly one of Google's big services, but not on the AT&T Backflip.
This is the equivalent of a Windows PC hitting the market that has Internet Explorer removed and Safari as the only browser. Some customers might be happy by that but most would be confused. Then to make matter worse, imagine that Internet Explorer couldn't be installed by the user to get around this major change. That seems to be the case with the AT&T Backflip, as early testers are reporting the inability to get Google search working in any of the Android programs.
There has been enough complaining about fragmentation in the Android space, so I won't rehash that topic. But there is something so fundamentally wrong when an Android phone has Google search removed. And replaced by Yahoo search? I guess this makes the Backflip the Yahoo Phone.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
As Windows Mobile Stumbles, Which Smartphone OS Will Seize the Lead?
Tags: google android phone search yahoo
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(via -
jkOnTheRun )
I read it on 03/02/10 at 10:58 AM
Posted on 03/02/10 at 02:00 PM
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AT&T is constantly getting bashed about its network coverage and how it gets around anticipated shortages. The carrier has been the iPhone network in the U.S., and perhaps its relationship with Apple played a role in AT&T waiting longer than other carriers to get into the Android game. That is set to be rectified with the carrier's introduction of the Motorola Backflip, an Android-based phone which will be the carrier's first. The first AT&T Backflips are hitting reviewer's hands, and a mind-boggling function of the Google phone has come to light. AT&T has removed Google search from this Android phone, and replaced it with Yahoo search. As noted by engadget:
Yahoo has replaced Google as the default search provider throughout the phone. It's crazy: the home screen widget, the browser, everything's been programmed to use Yahoo.
It is not unusual for carriers to work deals for specific software on its handsets. They take money wherever they can get it. But this deal is sure to confuse the customer, as Android phones are commonly called Google phones by many. Let's face it, Google makes Android, and one of its strengths is the tight integration with the company's online services. And search is certainly one of Google's big services, but not on the AT&T Backflip.
This is the equivalent of a Windows PC hitting the market that has Internet Explorer removed and Safari as the only browser. Some customers might be happy by that but most would be confused. Then to make matter worse, imagine that Internet Explorer couldn't be installed by the user to get around this major change. That seems to be the case with the AT&T Backflip, as early testers are reporting the inability to get Google search working in any of the Android programs.
There has been enough complaining about fragmentation in the Android space, so I won't rehash that topic. But there is something so fundamentally wrong when an Android phone has Google search removed. And replaced by Yahoo search? I guess this makes the Backflip the Yahoo Phone.
Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
As Windows Mobile Stumbles, Which Smartphone OS Will Seize the Lead?
Tags: android google phone search yahoo
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(via -
Tech News Daily RSS )
I read it on 03/02/10 at 09:32 AM
Posted on 02/27/10 at 09:23 AM
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Scientists have created a flat surface patterned after the body hair of spiders that refuses to get wet.
The surface also has the added benefit of being self-cleaning, since water does a pretty good job of picking up and carrying off dirt as it is being repelled.
This makes the material ideal for some food packaging, windows, or solar cellsthat must stay clean to gather sunlight, scientists say. Boat designers might someday coat hulls with it, making boats faster and more efficient.
But what makes the new surface really unique is that unlike other similar products out there, such as shoe wax and car windshield treatments, the new material doesn't rely on chemicals with water-repellent properties to stay dry. Instead, its surface blocks out water by mimicking the shape and patterns of a spider's body hair. In other words, physics, not chemistry, is what keeps it dry.
Spiders "have short hairs and longer hairs, and they vary a lot. And that is what we mimic, said Wolfgang Sigmund, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Florida.
It's been long known that spiders use their water-repelling hairs to stay dry or avoid drowning. Water spiders use their hairs to capture air bubbles and tote them underwater to breathe. But it was only five years ago that Sigmund began experimenting with microscopic fibers, turning to spiders for inspiration.
At first, Sigmund's natural tendency was to make all his fibers the same size and distance apart. But he later learned that the pattern of hairs on a spider's body consists of both long and short hairs that are both curved and straight. So he decided to mimic Nature and replicate this random pattern using plastic hairs varying in size but averaging about 600 microns, or millionths of a meter.
Most people that publish in this field always go for these perfect structures, and we are the first to show that the bad ones are the better ones, Sigmund said.
The technique, detailed in the science journal Langmuir, can be applied to keep even absorbent materials like sponges from getting wet. It may also be safer than other forms of water-proofing since the method doesn't involve the use of chemicals.
Sigmund says that he has even developed a variation of the surface that repels oil. However, he noted that the process is not reliable enough to continually create good working surfaces, and different techniques need to be developed to produce such surfaces in commercially available quantities and size.
We are at the very beginning, Sigmund said. But there is a lot of interest from industry, because our surface is the first one that relies only on surface features and can repel hot water, cold water, and if we change the chemistry both oil and water.
Tags: water surface hairs sigmund spiders
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(via -
Mashable! )
I read it on 02/16/10 at 08:18 AM
Posted on 02/16/10 at 10:47 AM
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   As expected, HTC has unleashed a slew of Android smartphones here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and I have to admit they're looking really good.
While not exactly groundbreaking, HTC Desire is the top notch phone that competes primarily with Google's Nexus One (also made by HTC), as it has similar looks and pretty much the same specifications. Here's a quick overview: it's an Android 2.1 phone with a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB or ROM and 576 MB of RAM memory, a 5 megapixel camera (with flash and autofocus), GPS, and the usual connectivity options: WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G. It also has a beautiful AMOLED 3.7 inch screen (multitouch is supported) with 480800 pixel resolution. What makes it different from the Nexus One is the lack of trackball, and HTC's Sense UI, so the choice between the two will be strictly matter of personal preference. I will update this post with some hands-on experiences as soon as I lay my hands on it. *Update: after trying out the HTC Desire I'm definitely a bit disappointed with the speed of the device. It's fast, but it's not exactly flying. This is not due to hardware, though; HTC's Sense UI is faster and more fluid on the new HTC HD Mini, which is based on 600 MHz CPU and Windows Mobile 6.5. However, as far as Androids go, HTC Desire is still on top of the food chain, partly due to HTC's Sense UI, which is getting better and more flexible with each new iteration. 
Tags: android, Desire, htc, Mobile 2.0, trending 
Tags: htc desire android ui sense
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(via -
Mashable! )
I read it on 02/16/10 at 12:00 PM
Posted on 02/16/10 at 10:47 AM
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| As expected, HTC has unleashed a slew of Android smartphones here at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and I have to admit they're looking really good. While not exactly groundbreaking, HTC Desire is the top-notch phone that competes primarily with Google's Nexus One (also made by HTC), as it has similar looks and pretty much the same specifications. Here's a quick overview: It's an Android 2.1 phone with a 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB or ROM and 576 MB of RAM memory, a 5 megapixel camera (with flash and autofocus), GPS, and the usual connectivity options: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G. It also has a beautiful AMOLED 3.7 inch screen (multi-touch is supported) with 480800 pixel resolution. What makes it different from the Nexus One is the lack of trackball, and HTC's Sense UI, so the choice between the two will be strictly a matter of personal preference. I will update this post with some hands-on experiences as soon as I lay my hands on it. *Update: After trying out the HTC Desire, I'm definitely a bit disappointed with the speed of the device. It's fast, but it's not exactly flying. This is not due to the hardware, though; HTC's Sense UI is faster and more fluid on the new HTC HD Mini, which is based on 600 MHz CPU and Windows Mobile 6.5. However, as far as Androids go, HTC Desire is still on top of the food chain, partly due to HTC's Sense UI, which is getting better and more flexible with each new iteration.
Tags: android, Desire, htc, Mobile 2.0, trending
Tags: htc desire mobile android ui
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(via -
Chris Pirillo )
I read it on 02/16/10 at 08:28 AM
Posted on 02/16/10 at 07:03 AM
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(via -
Lifehacker )
I read it on 02/15/10 at 11:24 PM
Posted on 02/16/10 at 12:00 AM
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