Motorola Droid

Motorola's Droid phone will sport new software from Google Inc that threatens navigation devices by Garmin and TomTom and could help win back market share lost to the iPhone.

One of the newest features of the Droid is Google Maps Navigation, which offers real-time, turn-by-turn walking or driving directions.

The news helped push TomTom shares down 21 per cent as the navigation device maker also warned of more price declines. Garmin shares fell 16 per cent.




The Droid will go on sale on November 6 and cost $199 for people, who commit to a two-year service contract - a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc - Verizon Wireless said.

Verizon has exclusive US rights to the phone, the first to use Google's Android 2.0 software.

The leading US mobile provider said it will promote the device with its biggest marketing campaign ever - giving Motorola a good chance to improve its sales, analysts said.

Verizon Wireless' Chief Marketing Officer John Stratton said the Droid would hold its own against iPhone even as he conceded that Apple had revolutionised the mobile industry.

"We have to demystify the notion that (iPhone's) untouchable," Stratton said at the launch event in New York. "This product can stand up and compete."

Stratton said the Droid is the first in a range of Motorola Android phones from Verizon Wireless, as it looks to regain ground lost to AT&T Inc, the US iPhone provider.



The Droid is a massive bet for Motorola, which after losing market share to rivals for more than two years has reorganised its entire mobile business around developing Android phones.

"In terms of the rejuvenation of mobile devices, this is an important next step," Motorola Chief Executive Sanjay Jha said. "We are ready to produce very large volumes."

Motorola said the Droid is the thinnest phone to feature a slide-out Qwerty keypad. It sports a five-megapixel camera, a high-resolution screen, fast chips from ARM Holdings and Texas Instruments, and a day's battery life.

Android 2.0 works with Microsoft's Outlook, making it more attractive for business users. Google said it expects other phone makers to support the new Android version soon.

Ad Campaign

Verizon's marketing weight will "make a huge, huge difference" in helping Droid sales, analyst for market research firm Interpret, Michael Gartenberg said.

Verizon spent $2.4 billion on advertising in 2008, according to TNS Media. The company recently started showing Droid video ads highlighting its advantages over iPhone.

"We are everywhere with this," Stratton said, declining to disclose the exact marketing spend for Droid. "You won't be able to avoid it."

Stratton said the phone's relatively large size might appeal more to men than women.

Gartenberg expects pent-up demand because it is the first time Motorola customers would be able to use an Android device on the Verizon network.

"As long as it is not buggy, it will do quite well," Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said. "I don't think this will single-handedly save Motorola but it is a crucial step", Greengart added.

Greengart said that while the navigation feature will not stop consumers from buying dedicated GPS devices, it could put pressure on companies like TomTom and Garmin to cut prices.

The navigation service will respond to voice commands and displays Google's online street photo archive. Users can choose "layers" to add to maps, including traffic conditions, or data about local stores or points of interest.

TomTom shares finished down 21 per cent at 8.11 euros, while Garmin shares closed down 16 per cent at $31.59. Motorola shares rose 0.8 per cent to $7.96, Verizon shares rose 2.6 per cent to $29.95, while Google shares fell 1.5 per cent to $540.30.

Google Wave

About Google Wave

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Google Wave: Live collaborative editing



Google Wave: Natural Language Processing




What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.



VIA - Wave.Google.com

Augmented Google Earth animated with real time human and vehicular traffic

Researchers from Georgia Tech have devised methods to take real-time, real-world information and layer it onto Google Earth, adding dynamic information to the previously sterile Googlescape.

They use live video feeds (sometimes from many angles) to find the position and motion of various objects, which they then combine with behavioral simulations to produce real-time animations for Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

They use motion capture data to help their animated humans move realistically, and were able to extrapolate cars' motion throughout an entire stretch of road from just a few spotty camera angles.

From their video of an augmented virtual Earth, you can see if the pickup soccer game in the park is short a player, how traffic is on the highway, and how fast the wind is blowing the clouds across the sky.

Up next, they say they want to add weather, birds, and motion in rivers.



VIA - POPSCI.COM

Samsung's New 12MP camera phone

Just yesterday we were talking about Samsung’s latest 12MP camera phone the SCH-W880 that’s been fitted with a 3X optical zoom lens. More news today says that it’s going to be around the South Korean market for awhile in a CDMA state.



The handset features -

* 3.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen display (capacitive)
* 3G capabilities
* Wi-Fi
* GPS
* Bluetooth, USB (micro)
* 4GB internal memory with microSD card support

The camera is of course the central feature of this handset. It also allows for HD video recording (720p at 30fps). The camera will come with variable aperture settings a Xenon as well as an LED flash. Aside form this being the first ever 12MP camera phone with optical zoom functionality the fact that it records video at the resolution it does is also a first. It seems like it's even designed to look and feel like a digicam with a dial selector for various modes placed on one side.




The European version of the same handset with maybe a few adjustments here and there to suit the crowd will be called the M8920. No word on availability yet.

Samsung Corby Hits India

Samsung has just announced the launch of the Corby (S3653) in India. It’s set to be one of India’s cheapest touchscreen mobile handsets with a price tag of just Rs. 9,600. It comes with bold color options such as Jamaican Yellow, Cupid Pink, Minimal White, and Festival Orange so that users can choose their favorite color.

“As a Company that leads in innovation, Samsung Corby is another example of the Company’s commitment to developing new products and technologies
designed for specific audiences in keeping with their needs,” states B D Park, Director-Telecom , Samsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd.




The handset will feature –

* 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI and Haptics, one finger zoom, gesture control
* EDGE/GPRS connectivity
* Bluetooth with A2DP and USB
* Live feeds for Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter
* MicroSD card support
* 2 megapixel camera
* FM radio with RDS

“Samsung leads the market globally for full-screen touch phones and recognizes the importance of SNS in the modern mobile industry. Samsung has its target audiences at the heart of its business strategy and the design and functionality of Samsung Corby meets the needs of a highly connected and style-conscious youth audience." stated Park

VIA - Tech2

Coming soon to the small screen: TV in 3D

Osaka, (Japan): You've seen movies in 3D. Now, how about your favourite TV series? Panasonic Corp unveiled on Monday a 50 inch (127 cm) high-definition 3D plasma TV and glasses that make images appear like you can touch them.

At a demonstration at Panasonic's head office in Osaka, F1 race cars roared right by viewers and gymnasts barrelled down a runway, hitting vaulting horse and flipping towards the audience.

"We've introduced concrete plans to deliver the first 3D into people's homes. It won't disappoint," said Yoshiiku Miyata, Panasonic managing executive officer in charge of audio visual products.

He declined to comment on an exact release date or price tag, stating that the company hopes the new TVs will hit shelves sometime in 2010.

The technology works by tricking the brain into seeing 3D as high-speed shutters in the glasses work in sync with the TV to deliver a double layered image at twice the speed of normal TV.

"When the TV is showing the left image, the shutter closes the right eye so people can see only the left image," explained Keisuke Suetsugi, manager in charge of high quality AV development.

"And the next moment, when the TV is showing the right image, the shutter glass is covering the left." The company hopes the smaller, more living room friendly 50 inch model will become a popular choice for home theatres than a 103 inch big brother that debuted last October.

The new model will go on display to the public at the CEATEC Japan tech show on October 6-10.

Panasonic announced in August it will team up with Twentieth Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment in the making of Oscar-winning director James Cameron's new 3D film Avatar, set to open in theatres worldwide this December.

Chief rival electronics maker Sony Corp announced earlier this month it also plans to launch 3D TVs by 2010.

Sony to launch new PS3 game title in theatres

Video gaming will hit the big screen next month when Sony Corp unveils a new game title for its Playstation3 game console at movie theatres.

On October 5 and 6, four theatres in San Francisco and Thousand Oaks, California, Rosemont, Illinois and Bellevue, Washington, will give viewers a chance to play the upcoming action game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves title--on movie screens equipped with Sony digital-projection technology.

Those theatres will provide viewers with PS3s connected to Sony's 4K digital cinema technology, which is in about 500 theatres nationwide and which Sony says provides better image resolution than traditional projectors.

Mike Fidler, senior Vice President of Sony Electronics' Digital Cinema Solutions and Services Group, hopes events like this can eventually drive revenues for Sony, video game makers as well as theatre operators.

"This is the first time we're doing it in a theatre. We think it's a start of something for us, and hope we can build this into a standard element in the movie-going experience," he said. "Our goal in converting theatres to digital is to go beyond the traditional movie-going experience and focus on helping exhibitors find ways to fill seats."

"Gaming will be an important part of that equation." The first night will be a private invitation-only event, while the second event will be open to the public, to be publicized through radio and social networking sites.

Theatre chains have struggled to sustain revenue growth as home entertainment and the recession entices some moviegoers to stay home. And Sony, like other game console makers, is hoping for a hit title this holiday season to drive platform sales as the industry grapples with a protracted decline.

Both Sony and Microsoft Corp, the maker of the rival XBox 360, have recently slashed prices on their consoles. Sales of video game equipment and software in the United States fell 16 percent in August to $908.7 million, the industry's sixth consecutive monthly decline, research group NPD reported.

Uncharted 2 is due to be released on October 13.

Firefox: Google Chrome Frame poses a security risk to users

Firefox backer Mozilla has joined Microsoft in criticising Google's Chrome Frame.

Chrome Frame is a plug-in that puts Google's browser engine under the hood of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and Google argues it can modernise IE versions 6, 7, and 8 with faster page loading and JavaScript performance. It kicks in only on web pages that web developers have labelled with a specific tag.

After Google announced it, Microsoft criticised it as creating a potentially increased risk to browsing security.

Mike Shaver, vice president of engineering for Mozilla, published a different concern in a blog post Monday night.

"I certainly share that longing for a web in which the vast majority of web users enjoy the performance and capabilities we see in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera. Unfortunately, I don't think that Chrome Frame gets us closer to that web," Shaver said.

Google Chrome Frame

Firefox says Chrome Frame is not the answer (photo credit: Google)

Specifically, Shaver said Chrome Frame can disable IE features and confuse users' understanding of web security matters. And users of the IE 6 browser, he added, often won't be able to run Chrome Frame anyway because their computer is locked down to prohibit changes or lacks sufficient power in the first place.

"As a side effect, the user's understanding of the web's security model and the behaviour of their browser is seriously hindered by delegating the choice of software to the developers of individual sites they visit. It is a problem that we have seen repeatedly with other stack plug-ins like Flash, Silverlight and Java, and not one that I think we need to see replayed again under the banner of HTML5," he said.

Shaver's advice is to rely on the age-old technique: an upgrade suggestion on the website.

"It would be better for the web if developers who want to use the Chrome Frame snippet simply told users that their site worked better in Chrome and instructed them on how to install it," Shaver said. "The user would be educated about the benefits of an alternate browser, would understand better the choice they were making, and the kudos for Chrome's performance would accrue to Google rather than to Microsoft."

VIA - CNET