Items tagged with device
Since 2007, smartphones have largely looked the same. Form factors have grown slimmer, and displays are denser, but the overall motif really hasn't evolved much. So, what's truly "next" for smartphones? Perhaps it's intelligence. With Siri, Google Now, and Cortana taking the stage as personal assistants, Microsoft is hoping to take that notion another direction with 3D Touch features. The rumored addition could ship in Lumia handsets "later this year." As of now, a codenamed "McLaren" product has integrated Kinect-like features that put focus on gestures and motion, and require less tapping and swiping. 3D Touch (or Real Motion) would be the feature that Microsoft touts as its version of Samsung's...
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"Wait just a moment, will you?" That's a question being posed by Barnes & Noble, which has come out swinging to address prior rumors that the Nook hardware business was being phased out completely. The bookseller has been mired in difficulties over the past few years, as the digital age weighs heavy on its traditional paper business. But the Nook has seemingly been a bright spot in the lineup, and despite competition from Amazon and tablet makers the world over, it appears that the Nook business has life left in it. The company's latest financial report makes clear that "new Nook products are planned," and it is "confirming" its commitment to Nook: both the device and content sides of the...
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Seagate Unveils Latest Storage Solution for Small Business - New Central Axis(TM) Business Edition Dual-Drive Network Storage Server Delivers 'Hassle Free' Network Storage with Secure Remote Access SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Seagate (NASDAQ:STX), the world leader in storage solutions, today introduced the Maxtor(R) Central Axis(TM) Business Edition dual-drive network storage server, a storage solution designed to satisfy the long-term business continuity needs and growing storage requirements of small businesses. The Central Axis Business Edition network storage server takes the guesswork out of network storage management by providing simple, automatic backup with...
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Soon, your GPS device might be useful for much more than just getting directions and finding the nearest coffee shop. NAVTEQ will become one of the first GPS services to provide flight status information to GPS users. The company is also adding fuel price information to its dynamic content portfolio. Both features are currently available in beta testing and are expected to be commercially available in the first quarter of next year. NAVTEQ already delivers camera alert data and real-time traffic to navigation systems. The new Air Travel Status feature will provide GPS users with flight arrival and departure information for thousands of U.S. flights. It will also include information about security...
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We recently reported on a teenager who is using GPS technology to try to get out of a speeding ticket. Website, Njection wants you to avoid getting speeding tickets in the first place by using your GPS navigation device. Njection features a tool it calls a "Speedtrap Mashup." The tool uses map data from Microsoft Virtual Earth and overlays onto that data with known speed traps and red light cameras. How are the trap and camera locations known? Because Njection users enter the information into the site, which then gets added into the site's growing database. Visitors to the site can search for speed traps and red light cameras in the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe, and see where the traps and...
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Super Talent Ships Tiny Gold 8GB Storage Device24K Gold Plated 8GB Pico USB Drive is World’s Smallest San Jose, California – July 15, 2008 -- Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today announced the PICO-C Gold, a 24-carat gold plated, water resistant USB drive that weighs less than a nickel (~4.7 grams), is smaller than an SD card, and can store over 2,000 MP3 songs.Super Talent uses chip-on-board (COB) technology to squeeze 8GB of Flash into an impressively small 31.3mm x 12.4mm x 3.4mm gold plated steel case. The Pico-C Gold is shock resistant, water resistant, and has up to 200X (30MB/sec) transfer speeds. The Pico-C Gold includes...
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Have you heard of DMP? Microsoft is applying for a patent to equip devices with a "Digital Manners Policy," a polite euphemism for a kill switch or jammer in your electronic equipment. It doesn't stop at stopping things like using a flash camera in a museum, either; OnStar is implementing the same sort of device to shut off your car remotely. If you've ever become peeved when someone sitting next to you starts yammering on their cellphone in the movie theater, you've probably wished there was some sort of method to make it impossible. Be careful what you wish for, says Bruce Schneier at Wired; who will decide who's allowed to do what, where, and with what is a very important question. Once we...
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Results from a study just released by global consulting company, Accenture, find that only about five percent of all consumer electronics product returns are due to actual failures or defects. The rest of the returns can be categorized as "no trouble found" (68 percent) or "buyer's remorse" (27 percent). The study also finds that "the average return rate for [consumer electronics] devices ranges from 11 to 20 percent." This amounts to approximately $13.8 billion being spent by "US consumer electronics manufacturers, communication carriers and electronics retailers" for "assessing, repairing, reboxing, restocking and reselling returned merchandise." This adds up to as much as six percent of manufacturers'...
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For months there has been wild speculation about Google getting into the mobile phone business or getting into the OS game, strangely enough both rumors are actually true. Even stranger is that they're actually the same rumor: Google and partners are developing a completely new mobile device platform: Android.So what have Google and their partners managed to come up with? A completely open OS with a lot of promise:“Android holds the promise of unprecedented benefits for consumers, developers and manufacturers of mobile services and devices. Handset manufacturers and wireless operators will be free to customize Android in order to bring to market innovative new products faster and...
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Finnish phone giant Nokia is shipping their eagerly anticipated N95 handheld computer. It got a 2.8" display, and a nifty two way slide to expose a keypad for entering text if you slide it out one way, or controls for the media functions if you slide it out the other direction. Nifty. Boasting up to eight gigabytes of built-in memory, the Nokia N95 8GB has all the key features of its predecessor, including a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, built-in A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA and an innovative 2-way slide. The sleek black N95 8GB also boasts a luminous 2.8" (240 x 320) QVGA display, so watching videos, browsing the Internet or viewing maps is a real pleasure. With its expanded memory, the N95...
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A group of Australian researchers have reportedly developed a device that allows people to manipulate their TVs, DVD players, and other electronics with a simple wave of the hand. The controller box has a built-in camera that can identify seven simple hand gestures and can be used with up to 8 different devices. The development is led by Australian engineers Dr. Prashan Premaratne and Quang Nguyen, who expect the gadget to hit the market within three years. “Dr Premaratne, of the University of Wollongong, said the device is designed to sit on a shelf or table which has a clear line of sight to the television and the owner. Its software recognises simple, deliberate hand gestures and then sends...
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Perhaps some of us remember that at around the same time a year ago, we heard about Google’s scheme to use a computer’s built-in microphone to listen-in on the TV shows that we happen to be watching and to use such information to connect us to websites of interest. Although the details were unclear at the time, a recent patent application has clarified a few things. "Imagine that you are watching the latest episode of Friends on television and discover that the character Monica is pregnant. You want to chat, comment or read other viewers' responses to the scene in real-time.""By eavesdropping, Google says it could offer you relevant websites automatically, perhaps even generating them on the...
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ASUS Announces World's First Hardware Based Real-time Overclocking Device Unparalleled Overclocking with EN8600GT OC GEAR/HTDP/256M Taipei, Taiwan, July 3, 2007 – ASUS today introduced the new OC gear as the world´s first hardware based real-time overclocking device for graphics cards. The ASUS OC gear will be bundled with the ASUS EN8600GT OC GEAR/HTDP/256M which is upgraded with -1 memory modules. With such a configuration, users can expect up to 30% enhanced overclocking performance and gaming experiences. Full support for Microsoft DirectX 10 will also allow users to experience stunning and complex special effects for their applications...
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No it can't read minds in the literal sense, but it's probably still better than a polygraph machine. They say that only a small fraction of human communication comes from words; about 60% is body language and about 30% is tone. The irony is that most of us are probably not able to pick up on these subliminal messages very well. That might be why Rana El Kaliouby, an MIT grad student, decided to develop the special software used in the Emotional Social Intelligence Prosthetic, which is a device that helps people interpret body language and facial expressions. The device, upon detecting boredom/inattention in the listener, will vibrate to alert the user. "This software interprets emotions based...
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