Items tagged with smart
It may seem a little odd, but the smart lock might be the next big competition ground. With August launching last week, Goji has introduced this week the Goji Smart Lock. It's the first electronic deadbolt to provide a new level of home-access control and information-including picture alerts-via smart phones so that homeowners feel more confident and secure about who is coming and going from their homes. The Goji Smart Lock is the only lock that has a built-in camera to send homeowners real-time picture alerts via text and email to give them visual confirmation of who is activating their lock. It's just another step in home automation becoming more mainstream. The Goji Smart Lock works with Bluetooth...
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Smart cars are amongst the hottest out there. They're tiny, they're green and they get amazing gas mileage. They're hard to get of here in the United States, but if your order has come in, here's something to accessorize it. Daimler has announced that a new app for the iPhone will launch in Q2 2010, making the Smart Drive solution one of the most advanced available for any car. This is not the first time that an iPhone app has been attached to a car, but this is easily one of the more functional ones. Users would be able to dock their iPhone near the dash, dial up the application and enable the Smart driver to make hands-free calls, access and play back music, tune into an Internet radio station...
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We’re starting to see more and more smartphones with built-in GPS capabilities these days. Now, thanks to Pharos, we have two more options. But new phones aren’t the only new thing from Pharos: The company recently introduced its new Smart Navigator software in addition to two new unlocked GPS smartphones running Windows Mobile. The new Pharos Traveler 117 and 127 are the first phones from Pharos to incorporate Pharos Smart Navigator, a new hybrid navigational product that was designed specifically for Microsoft Windows Mobile devices. Smart Navigator combines navigation software with real-time location services for traffic, maps, incremental map updates, dynamic POI (points of interest)...
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Kudos to the folks over at the independent product warranty company, SquareTrade, for not just offering warranties beyond that of merchants and manufacturers, but for also actually analyzing the failure rate data from over 15,000 new cell phones they covered. Their recent analysis, which is available as a PDF report here, compares the failure rates of iPhone, Blackberry, and Treo handsets, and found that the iPhone was the hardiest one of them all. Within the first 12 months of ownership, SquareTrade saw a 5.6-percent malfunction rate with iPhones. Blackberry handsets saw more than twice as many malfunctions at 11.9 percent; and Treos saw the highest frequency of malfunctions at 16.2 percent....
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HP recently released its TouchSmart Application Developer Guidelines to third party developers. In doing so, the company is allowing anyone to create touch-friendly applications that will run within the TouchSmart Software suite on popular HP TouchSmart PCs. As a means of distributing guidelines to developers and providing a way for TouchSmart developers to interact with one another, HP has gotten behind the TouchSmart Community. On the TouchSmart Community, you’ll find a download hub that allows developers to upload and share their creations with TouchSmart owners from a central location. To jump start the new development initiative, the TouchSmart Community is running a contest that will give...
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It’s hard to avoid making comparisons to Apple’s iPhone when you mention the HTC Touch Diamond. Although they are very different phones running on different operating systems, the Touch Diamond is arguably one of the closest competitors in the U.S. market today to the popular iPhone in terms of unique touch controls, an attractive looking user interface, power and versatility. Even though the phones compete in some areas, it’s important to understand that there’s a big difference between the Touch Diamond and the iPhone in terms of their intended users. You see, HTC designed the Touch Diamond as a Windows Mobile, business-friendly device. Click the link below and take a look... Sprint HTC Touch...
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AT&T and Samsung recently released the Samsung Epix, a new smartphone with a 2.5-inch touch screen and an optical mouse. This new smartphone, powered by Windows Mobile 6.1, boasts of the first-ever optical mouse on a phone sold in the U.S. The optical mouse is located between the right and left soft keys, where you’d typically find a four-way navigation key. Coincidentally, the optical mouse can also serve double-duty as a four-way navigational key if you prefer.Additional features of the Epix include: 802.11 b/g aGPS AT&T Video Share support tri-band HSDPA (850/1900/2100) quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900) simultaneous voice and data capabilities 2.0MP camera with video-capture full...
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Here's a quick quiz for you: Which smartphone in the U.S. accesses the mobile Internet the most? If you guessed the iPhone, you're wrong. According to metrics published by the mobile Internet ad-serving company, AdMob, More RIM BlackBerry 8100 smartphones accessed the Internet in the U.S. in August than any other smartphone--although the Palm Centro was right behind the 8100. The Apple iPhone was actually the fourth most-used smartphone in August in the U.S. for mobile Internet access (the RIM Blackberry 8300 took the number three spot).Based on traffic to the mobile Internet sites that AdMob's serves ads to, AdMob reports that smartphones account for 23.7 percent of U.S. mobile Internet traffic....
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Korea's MIU is out with a new UMPC, which they call a "HDPC," for Hybrid Dual Portable Computer. It's so very, very hybrid -- it looks like a hunchbacked fax machine mated with a tricorder. Equipped with a dual OS -- Windows XP or a Linux distro -- it tries to do everything. Qwerty keyboard, 800x480 resolution on a 4 inch display, and they take a run at wireless internet, navigation, mobile phone, media player, electronic dictionary, VoIP, PSP type gameplay, camera... it would be shorter to list what it can't do: Look good. It's hideous. You'd think the battery life would suffer running all that, plus its Via processor (500MHz or 1GHz), but the reported life is 7 hours at "high power" or an impressive...
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Adobe is today releasing their new AIR software development system, which will allow end users to achieve their own personal information cloud that straddles their digital journey across the desktop, the Internet, and various smart devices like phones. Adobe sees AIR as a major advance that builds on its Flash multimedia software. Flash is the engine behind Web animations, e-commerce sites and many streaming videos. It is, the company says, the most ubiquitous software on earth, residing on almost all Internet-connected personal computers.But most people may never know AIR is there. Applications will look and run the same whether the user is at his desk or his portable computer, and soon...
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We just got our hands on some hot news regarding Asus and a brand new smartphone they’ve just introduced. What you see pictured here is the new Asus M930 Windows Mobile 6-based smartphone. As the pictures show, the M930 has a clamshell design, and features dual screens, a QWERTY keyboard, and a built in camera / webcam. According to our information, the Asus M930 sports a 450MHz TI OMAP 2431 processor with 256MB of Flash memory and 64MB of SDRAM. The unit also supports Micro-SD expansion cards and SDHC, however, for further expandability. Standby time is reportedly 150 - 200 hours with 2 - 3 hours of talk time using 3G or 4 - 5 hours using 2G. The external 2.0” screen...
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Nvidia is a very successful graphics chip maker. Two years ago they purchased PortalPlayer, who make chips for Apple's iPod, for $357 million dollars. Many in the industry wondered where Nvidia was going with the acquisition. Wonder no more. They've introduced their APX 2500, a computing chip designed for today's multimedia-ready/web-browsing mobile phones. The chip is based on the ARM11 core, and can run at up to 750MHz. It can encode and decode 720p high-definition video, meaning you could use a phone based on the APX 2500 as both a high-definition player and camcorder. Nvidia also added some of its GeForce graphics technology that was designed for low-power devices, which allows...
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Promises, promises. Can it deliver?The technical trick of Skyfire is that it's a proxy browser. The Skyfire app itself isn't a full browser. Instead, big Skyfire servers elsewhere process Web pages, including all the media and browser formats -- like Flash, Java, and Ajax -- that a normal desktop browser would handle but that most phones can't. Then it streams data to phones, which the mobile half of Skyfire displays. To the end user, it looks like a browser, but the mobile app is just one part of the product.This means that Skyfire can do things on mobile phones that mobile browsers, including Safari and Opera, cannot, at least not without bogging down the phone. The danger is that the...
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The stereotype is that geeks can't dress themselves, or rather, that they can't dress stylishly. Technology is here to help them get past that minor obstacle.If you've ever stood in front of your closet trying to figure out what to wear for an important meeting, a new high-tech wardrobe invention might be just the thing for you.The "smart wardrobe" keeps track of when you wore an item, where you wore it, and can even tell you when your clothes need to be dry-cleaned.If you're not sure what tie matches your suit, if your skirt is too tame for your new animal print pumps, or whether you should go business casual or dressy for a weekend dinner with the boss, researchers say the smart wardrobe...
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Asus is quickly making inroads here in the US with their line of highly integrated smart-phones. A little birdie let this gem slip out to us today and it certainly looks sexy-sleek. The P527 is a tri-band phone with integrated GPS and WiFi functionality, in addition to a new Asus feature dubbed "Travelog". "Capture and Share Exciting Journeys with Travelog The P527 can record and share users’ traveling pictures, routes, Points of Interests (POIs) and memo with the handy built-in Travelog feature. This handy function supports the Google Earth satellite maps format – allowing users to create a diary of events during their travels. With Travelog, users will be able to put together snapshots...
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The Sectera Edge was developed under the NSA Secure Mobile Environment/Portable Electronic Device program (SME PED) and will eventually be supplied to the DOD and Homeland Security. It will be able to switch between the government's Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet) and Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet). I'll bet you think I'm making those up, don't you? The National Security Agency has authorized military and government personnel to order up a bunch of General Dynamics' Sectera Edge secure, wireless smartphones, which will not only allow them to make secure calls but also to email and Web-browse in either classified or unclassified mode....
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Some assert that the iPhone is not a smartphone, and iSuppli actually agrees with them, categorizing it as a "crossover phone" - one with both smartphone and feature phone attributes. No matter what category it's in, it's a hot seller. In a report issued today, iSuppli said the iPhone outpaced all other smartphones in July, its first full month of sales, and matched the sales of the best-selling feature phone. During its first full month of sales, Apple's highly anticipated smart phone grabbed 1.8 percent of the U.S. consumer mobile-handset market, according to iSuppli. The research firm's survey of more than 2 million U.S. consumers indicated sales of 220,000 iPhones in July. In its...
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With all of the recent hype surrounding Apple's iPhone, it seems more and more people are ditching, or at least thinking about ditching, their basic, 'mono-tasker' mobile phones in favor of multifunction SmartPhones. And although Apple has clearly been getting the lion's share of press coverage lately, there are a ton of other popular SmartPhones out there ranging from inexpensive Treos to the ultra expensive Nokia N95. So, what we want to know is this. If you were buying a new SmartPhone today, which one would it be? There's a new poll posted in the upper-right corner of the site. Vote there and if there's a product we missed, or you'd just like to give your thoughts on the models we have...
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Automobiles are becoming more and more advanced thanks to the development of various sensory and wireless technologies. Indeed, car manufacturers are quite enthusiastic about tomorrow’s car, stating that drivers of the future can enjoy a safer ride as the vehicles they drive will be able to communicate with each other and with the road itself. But with such a large volume of information moving around, you need a computer giant like IBM to pick up the ball. IBM has recently initiated a project to create a system that can supply drivers with the right information at the right time, namely information on congestion, accidents, and weather via roadway sensors. “IBM calls the research initiative...
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Intel is making some noise this week at their Intel Develeoper Forum in Beijing. The most interesting new product announcement might be the 45nm low-power microprocessor they've called Silverthorne. It's perfect for powering Ultra Mobile Personal Computers and Mobile Internet Devices, and with multiple communications connections, they'll make high-end smart phones obsolete. If anyone will buy one. "When you look at the high end of the smart phone market, that will largely get replaced by (UMPCs and MIDs)," Chandrasekher said after his keynote. The idea would be that these devices would have multiple radios for connecting to both cellular and Wimax wireless networks, and voice...
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Jimmy Wales, founder of the immensely popular Wikipedia, has decided to build a rival search engine to compete with Google. He calls his new search engine Wikiasari. Like Wikipedia, the new search engine will rely on the support of a volunteer community of users. The idea is that Web surfers and programmers will be able to bring their collective intelligence to bear, to fine-tune search results and make the experience more effective for everyone. "If you search in Google, a lot of the results are very, very good and a lot of the results are very, very bad," says Wales. What that shows, Wales says, is that mathematical formulas alone do not produce...
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People type all sorts of bizarre things into their search engines. Not all of them involve someone naked. But what exactly does Google know? Rather a lot, really, and not exactly what you might expect. Informit has a fabulous fifteen things Google knows, and it's fascinating. Here's one: Google Knows Mathematical Constants In addition to performing calculations, Google also knows a variety of mathematical and scientific constants, such as pi, Avogadro's Number, and Planck's Constant. It also knows the radius of the Earth, the mass of the sun, the speed of light, the gravitational constant, and a lot more. For example, if you're not sure what the value of pi is, just enter pi into the...
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