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Posted Apr 2nd 2008 12:12PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Storage
Confused by all the various permutations of Western Digital’s My Book line of external drives yet? No? Well, go ahead and add the My Book Studio Edition II to your stack of flashcards, Mr. Smart Face. Just like the previous 2TB My Book products, you’re getting two RAID 0 drives in a quad-interface external case, only this time it’s the updated My Book Studio design. WD’s also gone and upgraded the drives themselves to GreenPower units, which run cooler and use less power, and Mac users will be pleased to know that everything comes HFS+ formatted. Got that? Expect a quiz in the near future. Available now, we’re told, at $349 for 1TB and $599 for 2TB.

AT&T has announced that it will be the first to launch Microsoft’s Surface in its stores, beating out T-Mobile, Harrah’s, and Starwood Hotels, all of which announced their intention to roll them out in their establishments.

The Surface device will be available in select AT&T wireless stores (22 in all) April 17 and will initially work with eight of AT&T’s wireless phones. When a customer places one of these eight phones on the Surface, they will be able to interact with a coverage map, learn about calling plans, and even the features of the phone that’s placed on the Surface.

AT&T says that their intention with the Surface is to help salespeople, not replace them.

Read more at the AP.

Joel’s Opinion

The latest from AT&T is that the iphone is not included. Interesting that what is probably one of their hottest phones won’t be showcased with this device. Not surprising, since the Surface is from Microsoft, but still a strange situation.

I definitely had my doubts as to whether or not the Surface would ever “Surface”, forgive the pun. It’s a cool idea but I have to wonder how affective it will be at helping close the deal on a mobile phone sale. Then again, I know all I need to know before going to get a mobile, so I’m not the target market here.

The Surface, in this instance, still seems a bit gimmicky to me, but we’ll see how it works for AT&T. It’s definitely a differentiator and if the goal is to help the salespeople, it should drive more people into the store at least, leaving the sales people to try to close them on a new phone purchase.

New player VelocityMobile have been getting themselves some publicity from CTIA 2008 by announcing two new phones - the Velocity 103 and Velocity 111. Both phones are smartphones, but although they undoubtedly look good (particularly the 103), they’re not exactly innovative. You get the same features you’d expect on even mid-range phones these days, so I’m not sure how Velocity are defining ’smart’.

However, where they aim to differentiate themselves from the competition is through price. According to Velocity Mobile president, David Hayes, “Velocity Mobile was created …[to] bring leading-edge smartphones to the mass consumer market.”

Apparently they aim to do that by combining Western design philosophy with Eastern manufacturing efficiencies, although how they think they’re going to undercut someone like Nokia, whose size leads to economies of scale that even small countries couldn’t compete with, is anyone’s guess.

Mind you, they’re backed up by laptop manufacturer Inventec, who posted revenues of $8 billion in 2007, so they’re not short of a few bob. I still don’t see them taking on the likes of Nokia and Samsung, though, particularly in Europe where our network operators already subsidize our handsets heavily. The price of the phone is never the issue over here - it’s the price of the contract that we focus on, as nearly all handsets are virtually free anyway!

As for the phones, the Velocity 103 gives you the following:

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• GSM/EDGE
• UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA
• 2.8-inch touchscreen display with a 640×480 resolution
• 256MB ROM
• 126MB RAM
• Bluetooth
• 2.0-megapixel camera on the back with a 0.3-megapixel cam on the front
• TV/VGA output and microSD expansion slot.

That’s not a smartphone - that’s not even a mid-range phone any more!

The Velocity Mobile 111 gives you the same features plus a full QWERTY keyboard and 2.46-inch touchscreen display with a 320×240 resolution.

I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t expect to be hearing much more from Velocity Mobile!

[Source: Gadgetell, VelocityMobile]

Posted Apr 2nd 2008 12:31PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Wearables
Right on cue, Nike’s making things official with its oft-rumored (and still unpriced) Nike+ SportBand and even had the time to toss in details about Nike+ Coach, too. The band, which opens up features at the NikePlus website along with enabling runners to check out distance, pace, time and calories burned, is indeed marketed as a standalone device for those who’d prefer not to have a DAP flanking their arm when exercising. Moreover, the outfit’s online Nike+ Coach system will allow runners to have the information they need to appropriately train for long distance events or achieve customized goals. Get those kicks cleaned up prior to April 10th — after all, that’s the day you’ll be sprinting out to pick this thing up, right?

Gallery: Nike+ SportBand, Coach gets official

Publishing 10 million articles across 250 languages is not an easy task, but Wikipedia has managed to do exactly that. OK, maybe collectively millions of volunteer workers from around the world did the job for them, but still, this is an event that cannot go uncelebrated. And to think, a lot of other web sites are struggling with just hitting their 1-millionth article mark.

Wikipedia is happy that it has reached it’s 10-millionth article with a Nicholas Hilliard write-up, made by user Pataki Márta on the Hungarian Wikipedia web site. And while it’s nice to see Wikipedia steadily increase in popularity and volume of content, one can’t help but feel bad for them knowing that they are barely able to sustain their growing business from within. If you haven’t noticed, Wikipedia serves entirely advertising-free pages, which could’ve possibly raked them millions in ad revenue every single month. But remaining true to its noble causes, Wikipedia strays away from the prevalent digital media route, and instead asks users for donations and volunteer service (which, obviously would not be enough for a multi-million page view per day kind of Web site like Wikipedia).

Still, I hope Wikipedia reconsiders its position with regards to the possibility of online advertising being served on its pages, or at least comes up with a viable alternative. I have a feeling that if Wikipedia doesn’t adapt to best suit its needs, it will fail. Because when a company runs out of money and goes broke, no amount of inquisitive page views or number of eye balls can help it get back. Not 1 million, not 10 million. To survive in business, you need cash. And you won’t have any, Wikipedia, unless you let advertisers in on your site. You can quote me.

Read [Wikimedia Foundation] Via [Cyber Net News]

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The UV Card is perfect for all those who tend to scurry under the shade whenever the sun gets too strong for them, which isn’t a bad thing considering you have forgotten to put some sunblock on. Anyways, the more scientifically minded who love taking details of their environment will find the UV card to come in handy as it will be able to indicate the current UV intensity within three seconds, displaying it in three levels (1 to 3 indicates low, 4 to 6 is middle while 7 to 8 means staying indoors and wait till dusk). The UV Card retails for $11.50.

The new, stylish CDMA handset ‘Mako S4000′ from Kyocera was announced at the CTIA Wireless 2008. The phone supports cellular, PCS, and AWS frequencies and meant for those who prefer affordable style to multimedia features. It features a clamshell design offering a color external display and tempered edges that make it easy to flip open. A graduated keypad with a vibrant 1.8-inch display is packed in the inside. Specs include Bluetooth, a VGA camera with digital zoom, and color picture caller ID for quick identification of incoming calls.
[ Source ]

Posted Apr 2nd 2008 4:23AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Gaming, HDTVDigiTimes is feeling pretty confident about the rumors they started yesterday regarding the Xbox 360 with integrated Blu-ray. They are so confident that they’re predicting a price war as Microsoft takes on Sony’s PS3 at its own game. Their sources claim that the Blu-ray Disc drive will cost Microsoft between $95 and $100 — much higher than the $18 to $20 DVD drives already found in the Xbox 360. Microsoft is of course, expected to sell its new Blu-ray rig at a loss as is customary in the console market. Sony may then be forced to lower the cost of the PS3 and/or retaliate by increasing Lite-On’s cost for the Blu-ray components (like the BD-ROM pick-up heads) purchased from Sony. Whatever the result, the competition would be nothing but good news for consumers of HD media… you know, if the rumor is true.

Washington D.C.’s Council has just come to an agreement where cameras will be installed on street sweeping trucks. The whole idea behind this exercise is not to scrutinize what car each household has, but more to scan license plates and ticket illegally parked vehicles. No doubt these will be high resolution cameras, so make sure you park in the correct spot the next time you drop by Washington D.C.

Amazon.com aims to increase pressure on its brick-and-mortar competitors by introducing a new service which enables shopping to be done over the cell phone. Dubbed Amazon TextBuyIt, all you need to do is text the name of the item you want, its description or UPC/ISBN to 262966 (which spells “Amazon” on the keypad), and two results will return should Amazon actually stock the requested items. Texting back “1″ or “2″ will allow you to purchase one of the first two selections, while browsing for more items is done by texting “M”. Once you have made up your mind, you will have to enter your Amazon associated e-mail address and a shipping zip code, where Amazon’s service will then call you and help you through the checkout process via an automated voice system. Shopping anytime, anywhere? Husbands, beware the credit card bill at the end of the month.