Acer W4 Windows Phone Mango handset eyes-on (video)

It’ll be a little while before Windows Phone 7 Mango phones pop up in the shops, but here at Computex, Acer decided to give us a little tease with a mockup of its upcoming W4 handset. Before you get all excited, though, the hardware specs are pretty yawn-inducing: there’s a 3.6-inch 800 x 480 display of unknown type, 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU, up to 8GB of storage, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera, and DLNA support. Hardly anything new here, which is a surprise given that we’re looking at a Mango device — a phone to be shipped with a major WP7 refresh.

Anyhow, you’ll also find the usual radios like 802.11 b/g/n plus Bluetooth 2.1 here, but interestingly enough, it looks like the W4 will be coming in two SKUs: one with HSPA 850 / 1900, and one with HSPA 900 / 2100 — obviously a potential problem for globetrotters. As for look and feel the W4′s well within the comfort zone of Acer’s smartphone ID, and the curved back felt nice and solid in our hands, but we shall save our final judgement for the real deal. When we hear a release date, you’ll know it as soon as we do.

ICE Computer shows off Trinity modular tablet concept, aims for Q1 2012 release (video)

First the ASUS Padfone, then the CMIT TransPhone, and now a third phone-docking tablet but with a little extra spice. Our latest contender comes from a Taiwan-based startup dubbed ICE Computer, who has just announced its partnership with ECS over its Trinity concept, a mobile display that lets you dock either a PC module or a smartphone (not necessarily an iPhone, let alone an iPhone 5 as reported by some sites; the dummy’s just for show and convenience). From our quick chat with ICE product manager Jaryson Wu, we learned that the company’s been working on this project for quite some time, though ike ASUS and CMIT, ICE also lacked a working prototype to show us.

So the idea is simple: slide in a PC module or phone of your choice, and you have yourself a fully functioning touchscreen tablet that has an upgradable core — that’s one tick for environmental friendliness, and another tick for potentially more powerful upgrades. But that’s not it, as ICE may also throw in USB 3.0 ports, additional internal storage, and even a fan inside the Trinity tablet, but that will depend on the clients’ needs. Jaryson indicated that there are no plans to launch products under the startup’s own brand, nor is it going to develop its own phone to go with the add-on any time soon — we’ll just have to wait and see what it’ll deliver in the first quarter of 2012. Video interview after the break.

Kies arriva finalmente in versione per Mac!

Finalmente dopo tante richieste Samsung si è avvicinata al mondo Apple. Non stiamo parlando di design dei prodotti, ma di una completa suite per Mac OS X che permette di gestire, aggiornare e sfruttare il proprio device Samsung dai PC Apple. Kies per Mac è disponibile al momento in versione beta e offre tutte le funzionalità che vengono proposte nella versione per PC. Attualmente è compatibile sono con Galaxy S, Galaxy S2 e Galaxy Tab 7 ma appena sarà in versione definitiva vanterà maggiori compatibilità.

Saranno sicuramente contenti tutti i possessori e neo acquirenti di Galaxy S2 sperando che presto arrivi anche il supporto per la famiglia Wave! Download Kies Beta per Mac!

La traduzione simultanea stile Star Trek presto una realtà (video)

Alla recente presentazione di Google I/O, tenutasi il mese scorso, sono state presentate moltissime novità tra cui il miglioramento di due servizi che google offre da tempo, il riconoscimento vocale e la traduzione in più lingue.

La mente ha subito vagato verso le puntate del famoso film di fantascienza Star Trek, in cui si può tranquillamente parlare in altre lingue grazie alla traduzione simultanea.

Certo, non siamo minimamente a quei livelli ma la strada intrapresa è pressoché spianata. Seguo gli sviluppi del riconoscimento vocale sin dalla sua nascita, il primo apparecchio acquistato si chiamava voice organizer e risale agli inizi degli anni novanta. Essendo passati 20 anni posso ora riflettere che, a quei tempi, era un apparecchio veramente futuristico, si potevano prendere appuntamenti ed organizzare le proprie attività solo con la propria voce.

I vari software di riconoscimento vocale per pc si sono evoluti passando da una dettatura lenta e scadenzata del Via Voice ad una naturale  e molto veloce del Dragon Naturally speaking dei giorni nostri.

Tutto questo può essere racchiuso oggi in un moderno smartphone ed NTT Docomo’s ha “lanciato la sfida” per la traduzione, quasi simultanea nella lingua desiserata. In pratica possiamo parlare in italiano nel nostro smartphone e, dall’altra parte, un nostro amico o amica, giapponese, inglese o di altra nazionalità ascolta ciò che stiamo dicendo nella sua lingua natale.

Con l’evolversi dei tablet e smartphone che montano cpu sempre più veloci la traduzione simultanea diventerà molto presto realtà, come potete vedere dal video a seguire.

Potholes… Photography by Claudia Ficca & Davide Luciano

Most of the time, we try to avoid potholes. If we do end up driving over them, we get angry. Instead of being frustrated about the whole experience, Montreal-based Claudia Ficca and Davide Luciano decided to give us a reason to laugh at the annoying holes in the streets.

The husband and wife duo asked their friends to get involved, and together, they started coming up with some amazingly creative scenes. They have since taken the Pothole series to different cities around the world, including Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles.

Svelato Call of Duty Elite (video)

Call of Duty Elite non sarà un free-to-play per PC come ipotizzato in passato, bensì un servizio online offerto da Activision che sicuramente farà discutere. A rivelarlo è l’autorevole Wall Street Journal: il servizio debutterà a novembre con l’uscita di Modern Warfare 3 e, oltre ad interfacciarsi con il nuovo e con i prossimi capitoli della saga Call of Duty, sarà integrato anche a Black Ops.

Come dicevamo, farà discutere perchè il servizio non sarà gratuito o non del tutto: alcuni elementi di Call of Duty Elite, come ad esempio la possibilità di interagire in un social network in stile Facebook per potersi incontrare e conoscere prima o dopo una partita, creare clan e quant’altro saranno disponibili per tutti, mentre pagando un canone mensile che Activision ancora non quantifica, ma che dovrebbe aggirarsi intorno ai 7,99$, si avrà accesso ad una serie di contenuti extra non presenti nell’edizione standard del gioco, come ad esempio pacchetti aggiuntivi con nuove mappe per le modalità multiplayer e armi speciali.

Quindi, oltre a pagare già tanto un gioco e a sottoscrivere un abbonamento per l’online (sempre a pagamento nel caso degli utenti Xbox), bisogna sborsare altri soldi per essere competitivi nel multiplayer perchè così facendo, chi potrà permettersi di pagare anche l’Elite sarà sicuramente avvantaggiato dalle nuove armi.

Acer Iconia M500 runs MeeGo on an Intel Atom CPU, coming at the end of this year

Acer’s David Lee just hijacked Intel’s netbooks and tablets Computex keynote to unveil a brand new 10-inch tablet: the Iconia M500. It’s the first in the company’s new M Series and runs MeeGo atop an Atom (Moorestown) processor. Its appearance and dimensions are strikingly similar to the company’s Android tablet, the A500, and that similarity extends to the resolution of the screen as well: 1280 x 800. The MeeGo interface is a custom Acer skin offering what was described as a “snackable UI.” The point seems to be to offer instant access to the things you care about, and the brief demo we saw featured a set of live widgets organized around an “Acer circle.” Mr. Lee tells us this 10-incher’s coming at (not by, sadly) the end of this year.

Intel ships 100 million Atoms, celebrates third birthday of netbook CPU

Intel’s Atom processor and the rise of the netbook have gone hand in hand, which has to this date resulted in a tally of one hundred million CPUs shipped by Intel. And though netboks are not quite the new hotness they once were, Intel is today celebrating the third birthday of its low-power processor and promising to keep it going for many years yet. That’ll happen thanks to a category Intel is calling companion devices, which includes clamshells of the old netbook ilk and tablets of all sizes and varieties. As if to prove that point, the company showed off a tablet that could boot into MeeGo, Android and Windows — choice is what it’s all about, according to Intel.

MSI X370 to be upgraded to AMD E-450 Fusion APU, we go hands-on

AMD is presently detailing a rather extensive overhaul of its Fusion APU line here at Computex, including the promise of Llano-based computers becoming available in the next few weeks. One of the devices that’s set to get the upgrade treatment is MSI’s skinny X370 laptop, a 13-incher with 1366 x 768 resolution and the current-gen 1.6GHz E-350 Zacate processor inside. The intel about its future upgrade to a 1.65GHz E-450 chip came from Notebook Italia and was confirmed for us by folks at both AMD and MSI’s booths here at the show. We don’t yet have the full details on what the next E-450 processor will be like exactly, but we gathered together a gallery of pictures of the X370, which recently started shipping for $579. We were told to expect the refreshed model in either the third or fourth quarter of this year. If your interest has been piqued, jump past the break for some hands-on impressions.

Toshiba announces Oak Trail-based WT310/C Windows tablet for Japan

We’d heard some rumors that Toshiba might be ditching its Windows 7 tablet plans to focus on Honeycomb, but it looks like that’s not the case — at least, not in Japan (and not for enterprise customers). The company has just officially announced its new Oak Trail-based WT310/C tablet for the country, which packs an 11.6-inch 1,366 x 768 display and runs Windows 7 Professional. In addition to that Atom Z670 processor, you can expect to get 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, an SD card slot for expansion, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera and a 3 megapixel ’round back, and an optional cradle that adds some extra ports. Still no word on a price, unfortunately, but this one should be available in Japan sometime next month.

Nokia's online stores go offline in France and Spain

Nokia’s “around breakeven” outlook announced earlier today is discouraging at best, and now it looks like the company has begun shuttering online stores in response to growing competition from resellers, which offer lower prices on the same hardware. So far, online stores in France and Spain have been replaced with a closure notice, so customers in those countries will need to turn to third-party vendors to get their smartphone fix. European online stores in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, and the UK remain open for business, but low online sales figures (and the inevitable death of Symbian) mean we may see more countries falling offline in the near future. “Prices are too subsidized by the carriers and sales were low, so they will keep providing support,” a representative from Nokia Spain told us today, so as expected, the shutdown only affects sales operations — of course, you’ll still be able to turn to your local Nokia site for support.

Acer says Microsoft is too 'controlling' of Windows tablets, restrictions 'troublesome'

A web of rumor and suggestion has been spun in recent weeks about a new tablet-oriented version of Windows. But when major players like Acer start moanin’ and complainin’ about how they’re going to make hardware to run the new OS, that’s when you know something has to be afoot. According to Bloomberg, Acer CEO J. T. Wang spoke up at Computex to berate Microsoft for being too restrictive in what processors it will permit to carry its new baby, saying it is “really controlling the whole thing, the whole process.” And he wasn’t just speaking for Acer either, because he added that chip suppliers and PC makers “all feel it’s very troublesome.” It begs the question, if Steve Ballmer is borrowing Apple’s approach and becoming a control freak, why doesn’t he just go whole hog and build a Microsoft Tablet from start to finish?

Pentagon says cyber attacks are acts of war: send us a worm, get a missle in return?

Well, the Pentagon is finally fed up with hackers picking on its buddies and foreign intelligence taking shots at its computer systems, and has decided that such cyber attacks can constitute an act of war. Of course, the powers that be won’t be bombing you for simply sending them some spyware, but attempts to sabotage US infrastructure (power grids, public transit, and the like) may be met with heavy artillery. It’s unclear how our government will identify the origin of an attack or decide when it’s serious enough to start shooting, but Uncle Sam is looking to its allies to help create a consensus answer for those questions. The retaliatory revelation is a part of the Pentagon’s new cyber strategy that’ll be made public in June — so saboteurs beware, your next internet incursion might get you an ICBM in your backyard.

ViewSonic ViewPad 10Pro and ViewPad 7x hands-on redux (video)

We’ve already fiddled with ViewSonic’s two new tablets at Computex’s pre-show event, but we decided to hit the booth earlier today to get a closer look at the ViewPad 10Pro’s BlueStacks Android virtualization on Windows 7, as well as the ViewPad 7x’s funky UI. Starting off with the bigger slate, you’ll see in the above video that the Android implementation isn’t as good as it sounds — ViewSonic says it wants to offer an Android experience “similar” to that of actual Android devices, but alas, we beg to differ with the virtual Android’s laggy performance plus its odd bugs. The reps assured us that the final product will be much smoother, but then we were further let down by the fact that Android Market is absent. The reason? It’s simply because from ViewSonic’s point of view the 10Pro’s focus is on Windows 7, so the company decided that it wasn’t worth all the hassle to obtain a Google Mobile Services license. To sum it up, this whole Android “feature” is very much just a gimmick, and it doesn’t look like running native Android on Oak Trail soon will do much good, either.

On a brighter note, the dual-core ViewPad 7x fared way better than its bloated brother. This world’s first 7-inch Honeycomb tablet ran surprisingly smooth, and we were glad to see SPB’s contribution here with its Shell 3D Android launcher (which we reviewed with much praise a little while back). We managed to get ViewSonic director Max Liu to give us a brief demo of the 7x after the break, and to be frank, the more we look at it, the more we want it. Here’s hoping that this tablet will be priced right.

Oh, and did we mention that ViewSonic had a few real Gouldian finches on the show floor? Check out them birds after the break.

Cellphones are dangerous/not dangerous: the WHO changes its mind

To say that experts generally don’t agree about whether cellphone radiation can fry your brain is an understatement of massive proportions, but amazingly enough, the World Health Organization has come to a pseudo-conclusion. A group of 31 scientists from 14 countries working in the org’s International Agency for Research on Cancer says that — based on a survey of the literature — those electromagnetic fields are as likely to be potentially carcinogenic as 266 other worrisome substances, including DDT pesticide and the exhaust from your automobile. Mind you, the WHO isn’t saying that cellphones cause cancer, as today’s decision is merely the latest call for more research, but the fact that respected scientists even claim that a correlation should be considered will probably be enough to stir the pot.

Quantum effect transistor is the world's smallest, hopes to make a big impact

What’s better than billions of transistors? Billions of miniature two-nanometer ones, leaving room for billions more. A team of researchers accomplished just that, using the quantum effect to shrink these semiconductors — and set a new size record in the process — while also managing to keep them operating at room temperature (note: that photo above is from a different team’s study). The team of South Korean, Japanese, and British researchers at Chungbuk National University expect them to “enhance the capabilities of mobile electronic devices” — a mighty vague claim if ever there was one. Not one for modesty, lead researcher Choi Jung-bum proclaims that it “effectively changes the paradigm of such devices.” With no word on mass production, though, we’ll just have to wait and see for ourselves how big of an impact these lilliputian circuits will have.

Apple brings iWork to iPhone and iPod touch

It’s been available on the iPad since that device launched, and now Apple has finally brought its iWork suite of productivity apps to the iPhone and iPod touch. That, of course, includes Keynote, Pages and Numbers, which are all now universal apps that run the same $9.99 apiece as their iPad-only predecessors — current users can simply upgrade for free, thankfully. Head on past the break for the complete press release.

DIY iPad music breakout gives pro-grade stage presence, mixes circuitry with art (video)

If you’re thinking this iPad audio breakout dock looks remarkably good considering its DIY origins, then you should know it wasn’t put together by any old screwball with a soldering iron. Nope, this was made by Qubais “Reed” Ghazala, a very particular old screwball who’s been blurring the lines between circuitry, music and art since the Summer of Love (that’s 1967 on a normal calendar). His latest invention is all about getting pro-grade sound connections into and out of an iPad 2 — much like an Alesis dock or Akai SynthStation, but with that special “I made this” charm and minimal price tag. Key ingredients include a Macally aluminium iPad stand and a 30-pin PodBreakout board. Hit the video after the break to get further instructions and hear Ghazala’s “bottomless well of chance music” — both come at your own risk.

Acer TravelMate 8481 series laptop shown off with super thin bezel, or so you think (Video)

Remember the rumor about an upcoming Acer laptop housing a super thin LG Shuriken display? Well, here it is at Computex. Thanks to the crazy thin bezel, we noticed this TravelMate 8481 series laptop quietly chilling out in a corner at Acer’s booth, though upon closer inspection it turned out that the bezel is slightly deceptive. What’s really happening here is that while the screen module (which includes the 1.3 megapixel webcam) really is eating away the bezel, the actual LCD (14.1 inches at 1,366 x 768) isn’t really touching the edge. Still, it’s one helluva slim display thanks to LG’s display technology and Acer’s carbon fiber chassis.

Other highlights include Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GT520M, up to 320GB of hard drive space, up to 13 hours of battery life, USB 3.0 with power-off charging, fingerprint reader, HDMI, and Bluetooth 3.0. Oh, and like some of the ThinkPads, the mouse buttons use the same mechanism as the keyboard keys for better clicking experience, though it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. No prices announced just yet, but keep an eye out for a global launch around mid-June. Video after the break.

Samsung Galaxy Player priced on Best Buy mobile app, dares you to rate it

Look at what one curious tipster stumbled upon while thumbing through Best Buy’s mobile app — it’s the five-inch version of Samsung’s soon to be released Galaxy Player. The PMP is, for most intents and purposes, the Galaxy S handset devoid of that pesky 3G and calling functionality — in fact, it’s still known as the Galaxy S WiFielsewhere in the world. Priced at $270, according to the app, the 8GB touchscreen player has two cameras (a VGA on the front and and 3.0 megapixel on the rear), a microSD slot, and an FM tuner. Back in March, we heard that the music player would be hitting our shores this spring, between this and its FCC appearance a couple of months back, we’ve got our fingers crossed that it will still make it in under the wire.