Archivio mensile:giugno 2012
Modbook Pro, The Worlds Largest And Fastest OS X Tablet
Fancy transforming your brand new Apple MacBook Pro laptop into the “the world’s most powerful and largest-screen tablet computer.” running Mountain Lion OS X? If you do then Modbook can help you with the conversion process, which uses the Apple laptop for and transforms it into a tablet.
Which can be equipped with a number of different configuration options such as a 2.5GHz dual core Intel Core i5 processor or 2.9 GHz dual core Intel Core i7 processor, supported by up to 16GB of RAM.
Storage can be provided by Modbook as a 2.5–inch SATA drive up to 1TB HDD or up to 960GB SSD, together with an 8X SuperDrive DVD burner. Graphics are handled by Intel HD Graphics 4000 chipset, and connectivity is supplied via 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. However you will lose the MacBook Pro’s FaceTime camera during the conversion process.
“Modbook Pro has a state-of the-art digitizer from the industry leader in pen tablet technology, Wacom, offering 512 levels of pen pressure sensitivity — more than any other tablet computer on the market. And the Modbook Pro’s pen interface features tough and scratch-resistant ForceGlass, providing an etched, paper-emulating drawing and writing surface… Included with the Modbook Pro is a best-inclass digitizer pen with two programmable side buttons and digital eraser. The pen is securely stowed in the built-in, magnetic catch-equipped pen garage.”
Unfortunately no information on pricing or worldwide availability has been released as yet, but as soon as information comes to light we will keep you updated as always, as they are expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Source: 9to5 Mac
Shuttle takes quiet nettops down the Cedar Trail, intros XS35V3 and XS35GTA V3
Nettops have slipped a bit out of vogue, but Shuttle is keeping the flame alive for those who like their desktops tiny and hushed. The XS35V3 and XS35GTA V3 have moved on to more contemporary Cedar Trail-era, 2.13GHz Atom D2700 processors that keep the power draw to a fanless 27W, even when everything is churning at full bore. That limit might get tested with the GTA variant, which brings in Radeon HD 7410M graphics for a lift to 3D performance, but neither mini desktop will exactly make the power company beg for mercy. Either is a barebones kit with the laptop-sized hard drive, optical drive and OS left to the buyer — if you don’t get them at the same time, you’ll have only the HDMI, VGA, USB and card reader to keep you company. Europeans are currently the only ones getting a crack, where it costs €172 pre-tax ($214) for the XS35V3 and €233 ($290) to get its faster GTA cousin.
Chrome 20 browser released: exclusive 64-bit Linux Flash, fewer MacBook crashes
If your new MacBook is having kernel panics, or you’re forced to run a 32-bit browser in Linux because you need Flash, Google’s brought relief with version 20 of Chrome. While acting sheepish about “yet another release,” the Chrome Blog said “hundreds of bugs” were fixed, including a MacBook resource leak issue which was temporarily patched by disabling some GPU features. Also, Linux users will finally get full 64-bit support for Flash with Adobe’s PPAPI “Pepper” version, but since it was made exclusively for Chrome, Penguin users will be stuck with that browser if they want the feature. To get it, check the source after the br… oh, right, background update. Nevermind.
Adobe confirms it won’t support Flash on Android 4.1, stops new Flash installs from Google Play on August 15th
Adobe was very public about dropping mobile Flash last fall. In case that wasn’t clear enough, the developer just drew a line in the sand: Android 4.1 doesn’t, and won’t ever, get certification for Flash. The company is stopping short of saying that Flash won’t run, but it’s evident that Adobe won’t help you if the web browser plugin doesn’t install (or breaks in spectacular fashion) on that Nexus 7. Just to underscore the point, the firm is also halting new installations of Flash from Google Play as of August 15th. Security updates and other vital patches will continue on for existing users. Any fresh downloads after that fateful day, however, will have to come from Adobe’s mausoleum for old versions. The company had already said that HTML5 was the way forward on phones and tablets — now we know just how quickly it’s backing up that claim.
Canon 7D 2.0.X firmware update scheduled for August, brings plenty of free fixins
It’s hard to believe, but the last the last time we covered a major firmware update for Canon’s 7D DLSR the iPhone 4 was still fresh in our minds. Now, nearly two years later, Canon is offering up a bevy of new features for the camera with its soon to be released — and free — 2.0.X update. To start, folks who shoot RAW will be pleased to know that they can shoot up to 25 continuous frames (17 in RAW + JPEG) in burst mode — that’s up from just 15 previously. You’ll also be able to edit images captured in the format straight from the camera, as well as set a maximum limit of 6400 (up from 3200) for its Auto ISO mode. If that wasn’t enough, Geotaggers should know that Canon is also going to make its GP-E2 GPS module (originally introduced with the 5D Mark III) 7D-compatible. Lastly, videographers are getting a nice bump in the audio and multi-camera shooting departments; you’ll be able to manually control the mic-input with a choice of 64 volume levels (like the Mark II) and an updated sub-menu interface will allow the first four characters of your videos’ file names to be changed. The update won’t be available until early August, but you’ll find full details and a video demo at the source link below.
Apple Senior VP of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield to retire, be replaced by Dan Riccio
Apple has announced that its Senior VP of Hardware Engineering, Bob Mansfield, will retire and over the course of the next few months transfer his role to Dan Riccio. Mansfield is credited with leading the Mac engineering team since 2005 and took on a more visible role as an exec during the reshuffling in 2008. He’s also mentioned as leading iPhone and iPod engineering since 2010 (when he took over the role from Mark Papermaster in a move curiously timed around those antenna troubles) and the iPad since it began. He’d been with Apple since 1999 when it acquired his previous employer, Raycer Graphics, and most recently popped up on our radar earlier this year while integrating another acquisition, flash memory maker Anobit. If you’d like to get familiar with his replacement, Dan Riccio is currently vice president of iPad hardware engineering. Check the press release after the break for a few more details on both individuals, there’s no word on Mansfield’s post-retirement plans.
Google Chrome for iPhone hands-on
Today’s Google I/O keynote was, as expected, all about the Chrome. Easily one of the biggest among the company’s laundry list of announcements surrounding the browser-turned-operating-system has to be its arrival on iOS, bringing the functionality that an ever-growing number of users have come to know and love to the iPhone and iPad. The list includes, perhaps most notably, its cross-device syncing, ensuring that you can pick up where you left off on the desktop version of the program, taking your pages and tabs with you on the go. So, is Google’s fancy mobile browser enough to get us off mobile Safari altogether? Check out some impressions of the iPhone version of the app after the break.
Run Android Apps On OS X With BlueStacks Android App Player
BlueStacks has launched a Mac version of their Android App Player which enables Mac users to now load and use Android applications on their OS X systems.
The BlueStacks Android App Player has been available for Windows since March, but has now made the jump to Mac systems offering the chance to load and use 400,000 Android Apps.
Within the initial release BlueStacks have included a number of apps from their developer partners, such as HandyGames, Creative Mobile and Pulse. BlueStacks CEO Rosen Sharma explained:
“Our PC version took off a lot faster than we had planned for. People are spending a lot of time on their smartphones and want the same experience on all devices.”-” By bringing Android Apps to Mac we are breaking open the Apple ecosystem, which has traditionally been closed. Also, Android is struggling because of a lack of tablet applications. Developers now have an incentive to build hi-‐res apps to work on the resolutions like retina displays on the new mac for example.”
The new BlueStacks Android App Player for Mac OS X systems is now available to download from the BlueStacks website.
Source: BlueStacks
Google Drive SDK version 2 supports Android and iOS apps, common file tasks
Virtually every corner of the Google universe is being touched at Google I/O, and that now includes Google Drive. A version 2 update to the Drive SDK gives Android and iOS developers the option of building the cloud storage into their mobile apps, whether it’s downloads, uploads or on-the-spot edits. The programming interface has likewise been expanded as a whole to handle everyday file duties, such as conversions, copying and revision handling. Web-only users are taken care of with support for embedded shares and opening Google documents in any given software that will take the exportable formats. The updated Drive SDK is ready to go, with a flood of apps either coming or already here — if you want to hop on the bandwagon, just take a peek at the source link.
Editorial: Engadget on Jelly Bean, Nexus Q, Nexus 7 and Project Glass
Phew! On the heels of big events from Apple and Microsoft, Sergey and co. got their time to shine at the Google I/O event this week in San Francisco. The show kicked off with a a keynote that featured insight into Android Jelly Bean, the unveiling of the Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q media streaming device, plus some seriously amazing demos of Project Glass, among others. Was the two-hour-and-change press conference enough to push Google out in front of the competition? Check out our thoughts after the break.
YouTube for Android 4.0 ends buffering on your favorite videos with precaching, adds remote
As Google I/O 2012 rolls along, the YouTube team is updating its Android app to v4.0 with a load of new features, but you’ll need Android 4.0+ to take advantage of them (at least for now, see below). Available in 47 countries, the new app brings a brand new UI with support for channels that reflects the redesign rolled out on the website last year (not the circle-centric look that it is testing with a select few), and it can precache videos from your favorite channels for viewing later. All you have to do is select “preload” in the setting menu and it will pull down videos from your subscriptions and Watch Later queue when plugged in and on WiFi. To actually view them later you will still need to be online, but they’ll load instantly from the device’s storage instead of streaming.
Another new feature is integrated remote functionality to control playback on connected TVs and other devices. This apparently extends to more than just Google TV, as we’re told to “expect more updates later” on how this feature will become broadly available. If you’re not rocking the latest Android software don’t freak out yet, as the team indicates these features will come to more devices later. Developers should be excited too as there’s a slew of new YouTube APIs available, hit the source links below to check them out or download the app yourself.
Visualized: photos of the glass block you get when you pre-order Project Glass
$1,500? That’s a lot for some highfalutin’ glasses, but we just couldn’t resist. After wrapping up with the keynote, both myself and Darren Murph hopped in line and signed up for our very own pairs of Project Glass Explorer Edition devices. After completing a not-particularly-thorough sign-up process — which, by the way, does not ask for a credit card — those who agree to the terms of service receive an actual piece of glass with their number floating in the middle. This will match the serial number of the Project Glass device that will be shipped sometime next year. When will lucky numbers 782 and 788 be rolled? You can be sure you’ll be first to know.
Vizio XVT CinemaWide TV goes on sale, 21:9 movie purists celebrate the end of black bars
It’s been a long, long wait for Vizio’s ultrawidescreen LCD TV to show its face: the company was promising such sets starting around this time last year that ultimately missed the October and subsequent March targets. Vizio is one to eventually make good on a promise, though, and has just started shipping the first XVT series CinemaWide set. The lone 58-inch model’s focus remains on that 2560 x 1080p screen, whose stretchy 21:9 aspect ratio fits what you often see at the movie theater without having to crop or adjust like you would with a typical 16:9 set. Whether or not you have a chronic aversion to black bars, the CinemaWide is still a respectable set in its own right, with edge-based LED backlighting, a 120Hz refresh rate, a Bluetooth remote and the common host of Vizio internet apps. The TV maker must be doing a form of penance for taking its time on the 21:9 display: the $2,800 regular price is a lot lower than the originally quoted $3,500, and you can pick up the CinemaWide TV for $2,500 if you act quickly.
Nexus Q social streaming device hands-on
What is the Q? Well, it’s a ball… a ball that plays music. And videos. And it also lights up. It’s what Google is calling it a “social streaming device” but what’s most important is that this is finally the realization of the Android@Home standard that was unveiled last year. While the styling is what’ll immediately grab you, it’s the functionality that Google thinks will rock your living room. Join us after the break for our first impressions of this category-defying device.
The idea is that your friends and family can use their Android devices (because everyone has one, right?) to build up a playlist of music or videos. While it’s hard to imagine that being totally commonplace usage, this does at least make for an easy way to get your tunes throughout the house. You can connect to multiple Nexus Q devices simultaneously and send separate media to each of them individually, so this could be easy whole-home streaming.
But, each Q will have to have its own way to connect to the internet, since the content isn’t actually pushed from your device, it’s pulled from the cloud. Say you’ve loaded up your new Nexus 7 with the entire Transformers series of movies, as one might be prone to do, all available offline to save your precious data cap. The Q is going to have to download them all again, which could be a problem if you’re on a bad connection. But, it will at least sound good, with a 25 watt amplifier built in for those who want to go analog, perfect for those Triad speakers.
You can get digital, though, with HDMI and Toslink outputs on the back of its spherical surface. The top is split, by the way, and can be used like a volume knob. The space separating the two halves meanwhile is punctuated with LEDs that dance and glow during playback. Only slightly distracting.
And then there’s the cost. A $299 box ball that, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t do a whole lot more than the $99 Apple TV is a tough sell, but we think it’s important to point out that this has been designed and manufactured in the USA, which is something of a rarity these days. Will people be willing to pay such a premium for something that looks cooler and is made locally? We’ll find out when it ships next month.
More Google Glass details: experimenting with connectivity options, control possible via voice
While Vic Gundotra wasn’t willing to talk Glass in our run-in here at Google I/O, a few others were. In speaking with folks from Google, we learned a few new details about the project, while confirming some whispers that we’d heard floated in the past. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Engineers are currently ‘experimenting’ with connectivity options. Existing prototypes — including those worn in the skydiving stunt this morning — do not have any sort of built-in WWAN connectivity.
- While it’s possible that a 3G / 4G module could end up in production devices, the general idea is that latching onto nearby WiFi hotspots or relying on a wireless tether with your smartphone will be the primary way that Glass gets its data to the web.
- Controlling Glass will eventually rely on a mixture of inputs: it’ll recognize voice commands, while also taking cues from the right sidebar. There’s a touch-sensitive pad on there that’ll understand gestures.
- It’s entirely probable that Glass will also be able to be controlled via one’s smartphone, but physical inputs will be the preferred ones.
- Glass has an accelerometer and a gyroscope, enabling wearers to tell Glass what to do by nodding, shaking one’s head, etc. (For what it’s worth, we’ve seen similar demoed by NTT DoCoMo.)
- The internal battery sits just behind the ear on the right side; the capacity and longevity weren’t confirmed, though.
- Glass will be able to record locally, but the idea is to have ‘most everything’ streamed live to the web; it’s the “live, right now!” nature of Glass that Google intends to push as one of its differentiating factors.
- In an area where wireless data isn’t available (like a remote National Park or a hospital room that forbids phone usage), storing video locally would be possible for uploading later.
We also confirmed that the team is playing around with various colors, with orange, white, black and blue editions being sported here at I/O. Whether or not all of those hues make it to market remains to be seen, of course, but we’re adequately jazzed about the possibilities.
Google Earth 7.0 for Android brings new, super-detailed 3D maps for some cities (update: video)
Here’s a bit of a surprise that slipped under the radar during the Google I/O keynote: Google Earth for Android has been updated to 7.0 to take advantage of the new 3D map technology it unveiled at another special event just a few weeks ago. As a refresher, the visuals are automatically created from 45-degree aerial imagery and can pick up 3D elements as subtle as trees. Before you go racing to your hometown to see how it looks in 3D, be aware that just a handful of cities and regions exploit that dimension. Besides San Francisco Bay, the full coverage extends to Boulder, Boston, Charlotte, Lawrence, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego, Santa Cruz and Tampa in the US, with Rome being the lone international hotspot. If that’s too few places to visit, there’s always the addition of guided tours. Android users can head over Google Play to get the update today; iOS users shouldn’t fret, as they’ll get the new maps soon.
Nexus 7 tablet hands-on (video)
We had a pretty good idea that this little guy was going to be making an appearance at Google I/O this morning and, sure enough, it’s here. Not only is it here, it’s in our hands. Meet the Google Nexus 7, an ASUS-designed device with minimal branding and a clean version of the latest flavor of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Join us after the break for a rundown of what this $199 Fire-fighter feels like to use.
Jelly Bean, Android 4.1 revealed by Google, rolling out in mid-July
It’s seems like only yesterday we were all crowded around our laptops, watching a live stream and getting amped for Ice Cream Sandwich. Truth is, that was six months ago now and, while most of the Android running public still hasn’t been blessed with 4.0, it’s already time to make the leap to 4.1. Today Google officially took the wraps off Jelly Bean, the next evolution of its mobile platform and while it’s not quite the revolutionary shift that was Gingerbread to ICS, it still marks an important improvement for the ecosystem. One of the biggest features is Project Butter, a deep-diving effort to improve performance and response time. The whole system hums along at 60fps now, and while the difference of a few milliseconds might sound like small potatoes, it becomes glaringly apparent the moment you run Jelly Bean next to an ICS device. Animations are smoother and quicker. The CPU immediately ramps up the moment a touch is detected to ensure speedy response.
The home screen has also been tweaked, adding some nice features like dynamically resizing widgets, so you no longer have to place it, resize it then move it to where you want if there isn’t enough room. If there is room, but your app icons are merely in the way, the widget will automatically push them to the side. And, in a nice, slick touch, apps and widgets can be removed by flicking them off the screen. Another extremely welcome touch is the addition of offline voice input. Now you can tap the microphone and dictate a message even with the phone in airplane mode.
The camera app, which was already a highlight of ICS, has gotten even better in 4.1. Now, the gallery is slickly integrated, allowing you to quickly pull up the photo you just took with a swipe to the left. You can keep swiping through your images or even pinch to zoom out and view all your images in a filmstrip view. Deleting images is as simple as swiping a pic off the screen and, if you’ve manage to accidentally remove one, a quick tap of the undo button restores it. And, speaking of images, you can now share them and video using Google Beam, and Android now supports pairing with Bluetooth devices with the assistance of NFC.
Dell XPS 14 And 15 Ivy Bridge, SSD Equipped Laptops Launched (video)
Dell has today launched a couple of new high powered laptop additions to its range, in the form of the Dell XPS 14 and XPS 15. Which are both equipped with Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors and can be fitted with solid state disks if desired. Watch the video after the jump to see it in action.
The Dell XPS laptops are available to purchase from $1099, with upgrade options offering Core i7 processors, supported by up to 8GB of RAM and storage provided by a 512GB SSD. XPS 15 has a starting price of $1299.
The difference between the XPS 14 and XPS 15 being the size of the screen 14 and 15 inch respectively with a 1600 x 900 (XPS 14) and 1920 x 1080 (XPS 15) resolution.
Other available options include a NVIDIA GeForce GT 630m graphics card with 1GB of video memory for the XPS 14 and NVIDIA GeForce GT 640m graphics card with 2GB of video memory on the larger XPS 15.
Source: ZDNet
Instagram adds Photo Page to web: new colors, user comments, not much else
giu 29
Pubblicato da haroldsax5
Instagram’s been moving along briskly with its Android and iOS apps, but the hipster-tinter-photo-sharing-Facebook acquisition’s web presence has been lagging behind in comparison. But there’s good news now if you’re desk-bound thanks to the new “Photo Page,” which lets you log in, change your profile and add comments or likes to images. The other tweak is a fresh look for the site, matching the app with a blue, dare we say, Facebook-esque theme and larger images, no doubt to show off those mega-megapixel smartphone cameras. It’s likely a first step in unifying its web offering and apps, and with a name like Photo Page, no one can accuse it of wasting that Facebook booty on marketing whizzes.
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