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Author Archive for Chris Davies

webOS 1.3.2 speeds up Palm Pixi; 1.3.5 imminent

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Dec 2nd 2009 No Comments

palm pixi webos 1 3 2 A sprinkling of webOS news this morning, as both a new update gets pushed out to Palm Pixi owners and a future update is tipped. Palm Pixi owners are reporting that webOS 1.3.2 is being pushed to their handsets, though there’s still no sign on Palm’s Pixi software page, and while we’re lacking an official changelog the new firmware is tipped to speed up how the smartphone handles multiple open applications.

As for the rumored future update, that’s believed to be webOS 1.3.5 and expected to arrive in mid-December. The news was revealed by a loose-lipped O2 Germany rep, apparently, who explained that one of 1.3.5’s tweaks will be to fix an SMS bug that roughly halves the character limit after a special letter is entered.

Entourage eDGe dual-screen Android ebook reader gets video hands-on

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Dec 2nd 2009 1 Comment

The Barnes & Noble nook will – when it finally starts shipping – be the first dual-display ebook reader that we’re aware of, but over in Taipei Entourage have been showing off their own version of a dual-display machine, the eDGe. Their form-factor is strikingly different from the nook – it looks like a particularly chunky book – with two similarly sized displays, e-ink on the left, a color touchscreen on the right, and NetbookNews grabbed some hands-on time with the working prototype recently.

Entourage eDGe video demo

Video demo after the cut

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mbed microcontroller gets first baseboard: connectivity-packed LPCXpresso

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Dec 2nd 2009 No Comments

Remember the Twitter-reading robot fish from back in September? At its core was an mbed microcontroller, a $60 alternative to the Arduino intended for rapid prototyping, and we’re now seeing the first of the optional baseboards for the mbed filter through. Embedded Artists’ have come up with the LPCXpresso, a ‘board positively bristling with connectivity and inputs that includes an OLED display, accelerometer and light sensors, joystick and wireless.

embedded artists lpcxpresso base board

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Square mobile payments system launches on iPhone

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Dec 2nd 2009 No Comments

We first caught sight of the Square iPhone-based mobile payments system back in July, and the company has now officially launched. Currently based around the iPhone and iPod touch – though with support for other mobile devices promised – the Square system attempts to bring cashless payment to the masses, using a compact card reader dongle that plugs into a standard 3.5mm headphone socket and electronic receipts.

Square 2

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Nokia N87 12MP tipped to replace N86 [Video]

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Dec 2nd 2009 No Comments

We’d suggest shoring yourself up with salt right now, given how tenuous this mysterious video claiming to have knowledge of an upcoming Nokia smartphone is. Tipped to be the Nokia N87 12MP, the follow-up to the hugely popular Nokia N86 8MP, the handset is said to have a 12.1-megapixel camera along with a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen.

Nokia N87 12MP leaked document 1

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FlipShare TV gets official: reasonably straightforward streaming

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Dec 2nd 2009 No Comments

Having been prematurely outed by the FCC a little over a month ago, Cisco and Flip Video have officially launched the FlipShare TV, their new media streamer system. Consisting of a USB transmitter for your PC/Mac, a set-top box and a remote control, the FlipShare TV uses a proprietary wireless standard and accompanying software – which is preloaded onto the USB transmitter itself – to beam content to your big-screen TV.

flip video flipshare tv 540x345

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Acer Google Chrome OS netbook in works for latter-2010 release

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Dec 2nd 2009 1 Comment

acer aspire one Acer have thrown their hat into the ring as one of the first netbook manufacturers to commit to using Google Chrome OS. According to DigiTimes’ usual unnamed sources, the company have been working on the netbook – which will only run webapps, and make heavy use of cloud-based storage – since midway through 2009; it’s expected to launch in the second half of 2010.

Normally we’d nod and smile at this point, and remain moderately sceptical, but Acer chairman JT Wang has already publicly suggested that his company will be putting out a Chrome OS machine. No specifications for the Acer netbook have been given, but Google’s recent launch event for the platform did outline that typical Chrome OS netbooks would have SSD or flash memory storage, be either x86 or ARM based, and have the usual USB ports for peripherals.

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Harmon Kardon GLA-55 glass computer speakers are horrendously expensive

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Dec 2nd 2009 1 Comment

Harmon Kardon have been known for putting out some unusually shaped speakers in the past, but we can’t help but think that the company have gone slightly too far with their GLA-55 system. A two-piece setup intended to look like chunks of ice, the Harmon Kardon GLA-55 pairs the company’s Atlas woofers and CMMD tweeters for what they claim is the best sound out of 2.0 speakers.

GLA-55 (no reflection)_1

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Zune HD purple and magenta versions arrive

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Dec 2nd 2009 No Comments

Zune Originals promised us more color choices for Microsoft’s Zune HD PMP, and as expected the catalog has been updated with new magenta and purple versions. The colors – which join the original black, silver, blue, red and green models – are part of Microsoft’s Zune HD holiday promotion, and the company is also offering free message engraving.

zune hd purple magenta 540x303

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Android 2.1 plus HTC Sense ROM leaks

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Dec 1st 2009 No Comments

Remember the leaked screenshots of Android 2.1 complete with HTC Sense running on the esteemed Hero? Well now you could recreate that yourself, thanks to a leaked Hero 2.1 Eclair ROM over at xda-developers. The software is classed as alpha, which means you probably don’t want to necessarily trust your everyday Android handset with it; for instance, there’s no Google synchronization support right now.

htc hero android 2 1 sense 1 540x403