Archive for the ‘Electronics’ Category

What Are The Things We Can’t Live Without

In spite of the recession, Americans have clung dearly to a few surprising necessities. This only shows that people also require a bit of entertainment and a tasty beverage or two. Companionship is important even if it’s not human. And you can’t even look for a job these days if you don’t have internet access.

Aside from the food, clothing and shelter, what are the other things that we can’t live without? The following are the 10 new most essentials for people:

  • Coffee: Though Americans cut back on the $5 daily latter, they’re compensating by brewing more of their own coffee. 86% of coffee drinkers make their own at home and if a lot of people are drinking more booze at home, it makes sense that they’d be dosing themselves with more coffee, too.
  • Beer and Wine: Their sales have inched up over the last few years. More people are drinking at home while watching their favorite TV programs. (more…)

Best Technology Against Best Bargain

Here is the list of the gold standard and their best but less expensive alternatives. You will not only see the high-value alternatives to pricey tools from Apple but also the worth of ESPN and the Food Channel for you.

Whether you want to spend more or less of your money, you can’t go wrong with the following best and bargain picks.

Smartphones:

  • Best: You can have the unmatched Apple’s iPhone for $200 plus a two-year AT&T contract.
  • Bargain: You may want the HTC Droid Eris as your alternative. Its touch-screen talker has a crisp, colorful display, a 5-megapixel camera, a GPS receiver and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 which you can buy for an online price of $80 after $100 discount. It also comes with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract.
  • Note: Though Eris doesn’t quite match the iPhone’s features, fit and finish but it’s more closer compared to the other smartphone models. (more…)

How User-Friendly the Apple iPad is?

They are so funny and cute!

Apple co founder and CEO Steve Jobs said that iPad is a magical and revolutionary product. That is why one cat owner aimed to find it out.

Iggy the cat will try how user-friendly his owner’s iPad. Watch the video below.

Meanwhile, Chloe the dog also want to experience using the tablet device. (more…)

International Debut of iPad Overseas Delays

Sad news for the overseas techies who wants to have their own Apple’s iPad because they have to wait for another month to have the new table on their hands. The reason behind the delay is the “surprisingly strong U.S. demand“.

Apple claims it’s “delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week” of U.S. sales and that “demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks.” They also noted that it’s already received “a large number of pre-orders” for the 3G-embedded version of the iPad, still due by “late April.”

Steve Jobs said that they have sold 450,000 iPads.

“Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.” Apple explained. (more…)

Apple’s MacBook Pro line gets new Intel processors, price tweaks

Originally Posted by Ben Patterson in Yahoo! News

At last, the long-rumored revamp of Apple’s MacBook Pro notebooks has arrived, with the 15- and 17-inch models getting bleeding-edge Intel Core i5 and i7 processors while the 13-inch version sees graphics and battery-life improvements. Also new: a $100 price hike for one of the MacBook Pro configurations, plus $100 and $200 price cuts for two others.

The biggest news, of course, is the replacement of the older Intel Core 2 Duo processors on the 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro models (starting at $1,799 for the 15-incher — a $100 price hike over last year’s model — and $2,299 for the 17-inch MBP, a $200 price drop) with Intel’s next-generation Core i5 and i7 processors, good for a performance boost of “up to 50 percent” over last year’s lineup, Apple claims.

Of the new MacBook Pros, only the high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro configuration gets the i7 processor. The other two 15-inch configurations and the single 17-inch MBP model must settle for the i5 processor. [Update: Oops — turns out you can get a Core i7 processor for the 17-inch MacBook Pro as a $200 built-to-order option. Sorry about that (and thanks, Carl!).] (more…)

Microsoft Introduces New “Kin” Phone for Social Generation

A new Window-based phone was introduced by Microsoft and it’s called the “Kin” and was made possible through partnerships with Verizon, Vodafone and Sharp. It is designed specifically for people who are “actively navigating” their social lives. It features new “breakthrough” experiences such as the Loop, Spot and Studio.

  • Kin Loop is always up to date and always on. It shows all the things that are happening in someone’s social world. It gets its feeds from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
  • Spot allows Kin users to focus on the “people and stuff” they would like to share such as videos, photos, text messages, Web pages, location and status updates. Just simply drag them to Spot.
  • Studio automatically backs up texts, call history, photos, videos and contacts while simultaneously populating a personalized digital journal. (more…)

Palm is for Sale

Bloomberg said that Palm is looking for a buyer this week. It has been speculated after having a poor performance over the last few months with 4.3% of the US smartphone market. WebOS Pre and Pixi phones sales are very low, the WebOS operating system has been widely criticized and its Sprint pricing was too high.

Palm is now working with Goldman Sachs and Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners to find buyers. Taiwan’s HTC, China’s Lenovo, Dell, Nokia, Microsoft, Motorola and Nintendo are the potential buyers. Palm’s market value is $870.8 million, its stock price is over $18 last year but lately been hanging around the $4 mark.

On the other hand, Lenovo is considered to be a good fit for Palm due to its success after buying ThinkPad brand from IBM while HTC might have a bit of conflict of interest since the company is committed to Google’s Android OS.

DirectTV 3D with 4 Channels Arrives in June

using-3dtv3D TV sets are available in the market, however, there are very few shows, movies and games are ready to be watched and played in 3D. But, with DirectTV 3D, you can now enjoy your new 3D TV set and your trendy 3D glasses. Starting in June, Direct TV will carry the ESPN 3D, a sport channel, a new network called N3D, an all-3D pay-per-view station and an on-demand channel.

Subscribers of ESPN will get the new 3D channel for free while the rest come included with a normal Direct TV plan. ESPN will be available on June 11 having 85 events by the end of the year, starting with the World Cup. On the other hand, N3D will be a sort of catch-all 3D channel including Fox, NBC, MTV, CBS, HDNet and Turner Broadcasting.

Despite of the success of 3D films, most companies are not ready to invest in 3DTV after Director James Cameron, an evangelist for 3D film, had announced that neither of his two home “Avatar” releases will come with a 3D option.

How To Keep Your Device’s Battery Last Longer

battery_lifeHave you notice that the more you use your phone, the shorter its battery lasts? An ordinary and  standard cellphone’s charge can go 3 days or more but a smartphone could require you to charge it every 24 hours or more often.

Is there a way to reduce the energy consumption of your device while you can still use its functions and applications? Yes, you can tweak your laptop or smartphone’s battery to get the most out of it. Here’s how: (more…)

3DTV for 3D Lovers

Samsung-3DTV

“Can you really imagine sitting around with a bunch of mates, drinking beer and watching the footy, all wearing clunky 3D headsets or glasses? Let alone sitting on a couch with a partner, leaning in for the clichéd kiss, and locking headsets instead of lips!,” Ruslan Kogan, founder of Kogan Technologies, an online retailer of low-cost Kogan-branded TVs.

By next month, all TV makers will launch their 3D TV sets in Australia. This can be good for all 3D lovers but this will cost you a fortune.

TV sets alone will cost several hundred of dollars, you also required to have a new 3D-ready Blu-ray player unless you have a PlayStation 3, and a new HDMI cable and pairs of 3D glasses which is worth (more…)