My biggest gripe with the iPhone thus far has been the inability to run apps in the background. It’s something I’ve become accustomed to after having been a loyal Sidekick user and now BlackBerry user. Sure, Apple’s argument against it makes perfect sense, but it’s a necessity for power users like you and me. It was revealed at WWDC that Apple would soon push out a service that allows for applications to run in the background, but in a different manner than what we’re used to with other smart phones. The Push Notification Service doesn’t run in the same manner as Windows Mobile task manager, though. The PNS connects to a server that watches the threads through a persistent IP connection that would push out notifications, so you can close out AIM, for instance, and go about your business until someone IMs you.
Of course, you know all about this having paid close attention to our live WWDC coverage. The new news here is that the API has been doled out to a handful of developers and will surely be pushed out when iPhone OS 2.1 rolls out.
Sony’s virtual world, Playstation Home, has been delayed multiple times since it was first announced in July of 2007. But an outreach for beta testers in Japan should give Sony PS3 owners a glimmer of hope here in the US. It’s unclear why the beta testing is being limited to Japan, but hopefuls can apply starting today until August 11. Sony plans to offer 10,000 gamers access to the virtual world in the latter half of August. An open beta test is expected to roll out later this year for other markets. Beta testers will be privy to a suite of Bandai Namco games that include Pac Man.
We’ll see if this actually happens. There has to be something wrong for Sony to have suspended the testing for over a year, right?
Because looking both ways before crossing the street is harder than following laws, Illinois has introduced a bill that would ban texting in intersections.
Ken Dunkin, the representative who introduced the bill, says texting in the street is no laughing matter:
“This legislation is not laughable. On the surface it’s like, ‘Oh wow, what is this?’ But it’s becoming more and more of a common problem with people haplessly crossing an intersection and almost killing themselves.”
He also sited two pedestrian deaths in New York city that might have been related to texting-while-walking. If New York wants to pick up the bill I hope they also ban staring-up-at-tall-buildings-while-walking and stopping-at-the-top-of-the-subway-stairs-to-look-around.
And in case you still wanted to laugh at the thought of the dangers of walking, I mean texting, the American College of Emergency Physicians issued a warning this week about the how its possible to hurt yourself when you’re not paying attention to where you are walking. And an ER doctor in Texas reported that she’s treated people who injured themselves texting while riding Segways. Oh wow, Segways!
photo care of GeekSugar
Yesterday Yamaha Motor unveiled [JP] their PAS Brace, a new electric bike with an assistance system that adopts to the gear position and the driver’s running speed. The 8-gear bike will be available in black, red or white for an MSRP of $1,150.
Yamaha says the bike’s so-called S.P.E.C.8 mechanism is the main selling point. The system automatically recognizes when a driver shifts gears or changes the speed and adjusts the level of electric assistance accordingly.
If the bike runs faster than 15km/h, the auxiliary power unit starts to reduce its output, depending on which gear is currently put on. If the bike reaches a speed of 24km/h or faster, electric assistance will be stopped. Owners can choose between 3 modes: automatic, “power” and “auto-eco plus”.
The Yamaha bike is powered by a 4.0Ah lithium-ion battery with a rated voltage of 25.9V. With one charge, the assisted travel range can reach up to 39km when riding in automatic mode (power mode: 23km, auto-eco plus mode: 61km). The PAS Brace is sized at 1,760×530×820-1,000mm and weighs 22.2kg.
Yamaha has set a sales target of 2,500 units for its bike, which hits Japan August 8. Panasonic presented their own high-end model earlier this month but both companies don’t seem to have plans to export their bikes.
Like a shot in the eye from squirt gun filled with horseradish juice, here comes the Verizon Blitz. Gah! I’m guessing that early photos don’t do the device justice but, then again, it’s going to be offered as a pre-paid INpulse phone so maybe looks aren’t as important as features.
And features, it does (sorta) have: VCAST, microSD expansion up to 4GB, stereo Bluetooth, VZ Navigator, and a 1.3-megapixel camera. The phone was originally floated as the UTStarcom TXT8010 back in April, so you may remember it if you’re into various FCC filings and other exciting endeavors like that.
Price? Not sure yet. Availability? Wal-Mart on August 8th and Best Buy on September 28th. I’m guessing it’ll be priced at around $100 or so. That’s just me, though.
Welcome to the exciting world of inexpensive headphones! JVC has a new contender in the “Gumy Air” line (they spelled “Gummy” wrong, ROFL!) that promises to “set a new standard for comfort in the ear bud category” thanks to its silicon rubber air-cushioned ear doodads. The headphones cost about $15 and appear to be aimed at those of you who have third-generation iPod Nanos and Shuffles, as they’re all available in the same seven colors as the aforementioned music players.
I’ll be honest. I’ve never met anyone in real life who subscribes to DISH Network, but I’m fairly convinced that the company does exist and probably turns a profit. If you happen to be a DISH subscriber and you have one of the HD packages, then you, my friend, are in for what appears to be some sort of treat.
Tomorrow, DISH will start rolling out a big, fat update to all of its MPEG-4 HD DVR boxes. The update will allow the boxes to display high definition content in glorious 1080p resolution. Says DISH, “By early August, all DISH Network customers with MPEG-4 HD DVR receivers will have the only set-top boxes in the nation enabled to display 1080p content, allowing them to maximize the full potential of their 1080p-compatible HDTV sets.” So if you’re really into HD, this might get you a little boner-y.
The update is set to dovetail with DISH’s TurboHD service, which is an “all-HD suite of programming packages” and the recent launch of the company’s Echo XI satellite. DISH currently offers 114 national HD channels and plans to have 150 by year’s end.
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So this guy, djmocap, has created a new interface for the Traktor DJ application. The video is only a proof of concept, so don’t expect how-to directions for a little while.
The song totally reminds me of Ridge Racer 4. You know, that last good Ridge Racer, for the original PlayStation.
It has been in development for quite some time now but Hitachi Global Storage Technologies finally announced they will start shipping the first CinemaStar 7K1000.B hard drives. The 3.5-inch devices feature a recording capacity of 1 terabyte, holding up to 247 hours of MPEG4 video in high definition.
Hitachi says their CinemaStar drives are particularly suited for video equipment. The HDD also boasts a low level of power consumption, sucking up just 5.2 watts in standby mode. The company promises their device also generates less noise and that it’s extra-resistant to impact (the magnetic heads automatically move outside the disc when it’s not moving).
Worldwide shipping begins next month. Hitachi also plans to roll out the CinemaStar 5K320, a 320 GB HDD, in September.
Full press release after the jump.
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The demo for Madden 09 is now—or will be in the next few hours—available on Xbox Live. (PS3 owners: a demo is salted to appear on PSN around the same time.) Go crazy, football fans, playing the same game you’ve been playing for the past 20 years.
That’s two NFL stories in as many days. Clearly something has gone wrong here.
By now you’ve probably heard and re-heard the rumor that Apple is considering dumping Intel’s chipset (not the processor, mind you) for its next line of laptops. Now there’s reasonable assertions out there that Apple may well go with an nVidia-developed chipset.
That’s Ryan Shrout’s (of PC Perspective fame) prediction, and it’s not as far-fetched when you spend a minute thinking about it.
Assuming Apple no longer wants to deal with Intel, it has two choices: it could go with a chipset developed by ATi (AMD), or one by nVidia. The problem with choosing an ATi chipset, says Shrout, is its lack of a “top-shelf chipset.” In less diplomatic terms, ATi’s chipsets stink on ice.
NVidia, on the other hand, with its MCP79 line, has quite the opposite. In fact, an nVidia executive called out Intel, saying it would open a can of “whoop ass” re: its (Intel’s) shoddy chipset performance. (Why are nVidia execs are using mid-90s catch phrases to attack the competition?)
Then there’s the obvious graphics performance improvements you can expect with the nVidia chipset. Anyone with a MacBook knows how lowly their gaming performance is, games like World of Warcraft notwithstanding.
via AppleInsider
Following robot cats, baby biddies and scary big dogs, Sega Toys now announced [JP, PDF] they will start selling a robotic hamster starting August 8th. The company plans to produce no less than 100,000 units yearly. Sega Toys says their main target group are not kids, but females between 20 and 40 years old (at least in Japan).
Dubbed Yume Hamusutaa (Dream Hamster), the robot will start moving when you take it into the palm of your hand. And it looks cute – very. Three versions of the thing will be available: a Golden hamster, a so-called Roborovski hamster and the Winter White Russian Dwarf hamster (which really exists).
The 3.5-inch hamster will cost $11 each and is Japan-only at this point.
Remember the great Blu-ray versus HD DVD debate of 2008? When Blu-ray finally won, some claimed that it didn’t really matter, as streaming and/or downloadable online video would soon be the reining champion of the HD movie marketplace.
Whatever your opinion, it appears that LG is attempting to head things off at the pass with the introduction of the LG BD300 Blu-ray player with built-in Netflix streaming. Excelsior! It’ll be available this fall, will play Blu-ray discs and up-convert standard DVDs to 1080p, and stream 12,000+ Netflix titles straight to the box via the magic of the interconnected network of computers (In-ter-net).
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Intel’s Classmate PC, the company’s answer to the XO Laptop, will soon be in the hands of Portugal’s schoolchildren. Some 500,000 laptops will be given to the country’s six-to-10-year-olds as part of a government initiative to improve education. Laptops for educations? Sounds familiar.
While the Classmate will no doubt help the youngsters, Portuguese teachers recognize that a laptop isn’t the be all, end all to improve education, saying that the laptops are part of a “holistic” approach to education.
Who didn’t learn how to ford a river (and more!) by playing Oregon Trail in their school’s computer lab?
At right is Portugal’s greatest export, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Windows Vista gets a lot of stink for being too resource demanding, something this video here tries to dispel. This 12-minute video shows a Willcom D4 (1.33GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM) running Vista, going through various processes in order to put the tablet to the sword, so to speak.
As you might imagine, the tablet seems to hold up pretty well, certainly useable.
That we’re still discussing “is Vista right for you,” 19 months after it first came out, must annoy Microsoft quite a bit.
From TmoNews:
“This poster, taped (poorly we might add) on the wall outside a meeting is our glass slipper, our unwavering proof of a date that will live in T-mobile infamy. Mark your calenders folks, October 1. Wake up, walk outside and breathe that 3G air.”
“Hey Bob – we’ve finally set the date for when we’ll be launching 3G services in 27 launch markets. Should we write a press release?”
“Write a press release? Pah! We’ve got paper and tape!”
Sure, the story is a bit weird, but the guys over at TmoNews tend to be pretty spot on. If they’re saying 3G is coming October 1st, we’ll believe it.
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No, it doesn’t play records. No, there doesn’t seem to be any moving parts. No, it doesn’t plug in to anything. Yes, it is a credit card sized polypropylene scratch pad.
Dubbed Plastinkuzz, this portable annoyance-maker was designed by Anton Schnaider. The little piece of plastic could be good for many non-dj-ing activities. For example, you could drive the cats crazy. Or perhaps scare birds like in this video. They all seem to be having fun with it, so why not you too?
Over 40 variations available. Collect them all!
You hear that rumbling noise, folks? That’s the OS X 10.5.5 train, and it’s a comin’. That’s right – and it’s packed with features. What kind of features, you ask?
Hell if we know. To be honest, it’s quite possibly just a bunch of bug fixes and security updates. AppleInsider predicts that it’ll include support for the rumored new Mac notebooks.
As usual, Apple Developer Connection members and various super important developers (read: not me) will be getting it first, purportedly as early as next week. Once they’ve got it, it’ll be a few weeks to around a month before the rest of us get our hands on it.
Anyone out there have a white iPhone? Is it cracking? We got a tip from a reader named Steve, who has a post about the cracking white iPhones on his site here (in French) which pertains to a thread in the MacRumors forums found here.
There are about six pages and a handful of photos with complaints about barely noticeable to quite noticeable cracks. Anyone else experiencing similar phenomena?
UPDATE – John just noticed his cracking today. He’ll post a picture tomorrow.
