Posted 03/11/10 at 02:30:40 PM by Bart Salisbury

See what you can accomplish if you whine about something enough? Even the mighty Apple, which lords it above consumers with it’s ‘my way or the highway’ software approach, will capitulate and give the customer what he wants: the iPhone is getting multitasking.

Not right away, mind you. And, if the sources AppleInsider uses are not as reliable as they claim, maybe not at all. But, should it come to fruition, it will be in version 4.0 of the iPhone OS, for which there is no projected release date.

Between now and then Apple has some issues to contend with, as adding multitasking to the iPhone (and by extension the iPad), will be both a simple and a complex task. Simple because version 3.x of the iPhone OS has fully preemptive multitasking. Apple, for security and technical reasons, blocks all but a select few applications from running in the background. None of these select few are among the thousands of third party apps that populate the iPhone App Store (and which help bolster the iPhone's popularity).

Complex because Apple has to tweak the user interface to make access to multiple applications intuitive and easy. As most applications are shut down when a user goes to the home screen, such interface needs didn’t have to be address. Since Apple is obsessive about such things, this could take a while. And, of course, there’s all those funky technical issues over resource allocation that have to be resolved, so running apps play nice with the OS and with each other.

Once multitasking is implemented, then iPhone users can start whining about slow performance and battery life, like the rest of smartphone users.

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Posted 03/09/10 at 04:52:03 PM by Bart Salisbury

It’s a challenge trying to parse what a company might be up to. It’s obvious, for example, that Amazon will need to respond to recent events in the tablet PC market to keep its Kindle competitive. But what exact path it might take for this endeavor isn’t necessarily obvious. Unless, of course, you happen to be a keen observer of the want ads.

Michael Calore, at webmonkey, thinks Amazon is working to improve the browser engine of the Kindle, which he likens to “taking a step backwards in time.” According to Calore, a job posting for a “browser engineer” at “Lab126” is a dead giveaway that an upgrade is in the works. Lab126 is the Amazon division that develops the Kindle, and it is on the hunt for a person to “develop “an innovative embedded web browser” for a consumer product.”

Calore suggests that once the iPad hits the market, allowing for a fuller web browsing experience (and the HP Slate not too far behind it), the Kindle will look pretty lame. Looking lame is no way to hang onto market share.

Amazon is also looking to broaden the Kindle experience with a recently launched beta program for third-party app developers. And there’s the persistent rumor that Amazon is jonesing for a color Kindle as well. From all this it would seem clear that, at the very least, Amazon is rising up to meet this new challenge.

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Posted 03/08/10 at 02:17:36 PM by Bart Salisbury

Like it or not, the next big rage in LCD TVs is going to be 3D--if we judge by the behavior of television manufacturers. For example, Panasonic, in partnership with Best Buy, is making a serious commitment to bring this new technology to us.

Panasonic’s campaign will start in 300 Best Buy stores in major U.S. cities (with 1,000 stores by the end of the year), where special 3D video sections will be constructed to show off Panasonic’s wares. Panasonic will also sweeten its deal with consumers by undercutting Japanese MSRP by 30% or so. A 50-inch 3D TV is expected to go for about $2,500. Unfortunately, these Panasonic models will lack the web access functions commonplace on their Japanese versions.

Panasonic reports a goal of selling one million 3D TVs globally during this fiscal year, with half of those being sold in the United States. Panasonic figures this will give it a 50% share of the global market for this new product niche.

Roll-out starts this Wednesday.

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Posted 03/04/10 at 04:25:43 PM by Bart Salisbury

External validation is a funny thing. Without it the events in our lives, no matter how significant, have less meaning, if they have meaning at all. The birthdays we remember aren’t those which were emotionally special, but the ones we can relive because they were captured on video. Now, it seems, we can’t even experience place without external validation. Sure, you’re ‘here,’ but you still have a need to validate your being ‘here’ before being ‘here’ becomes real.

Simple things like Google Earth, just for starters, cater to this need for external validation of place. Smartphones, such as Apple’s iPhone, allow triangulation for approximation of location. And AT&T has just widened the options for PC users with the introduction of the new USBConnect Velocity modem from Option--AT&T’s first to offer GPS. Plug it in; connect to AT&T’s 3G wireless network; and watch yourself wander about the map.

AT&T says the Velocity “opens the door to location-based applications making it easier than ever for customers to get to their desired destination.” In addition, enterprise customers can add TeleNav Track LITE and Xora GPS Locator for tracking and location awareness. The Velocity also has a microSD card slot, letting it perform double-duty.

The Velocity, along with the USBConnect Turbo from LG, will be available at AT&T stores nationwide on March 7. The Velocity will be cost $29.99, after mail-in rebate and a new two-year DataConnect contract of at least $35 a month.

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Posted 03/04/10 at 03:15:18 PM by Bart Salisbury

Time to think pink again. Gizmodo has it’s hands on some leaked marketing materials which it claims spills the beans on Microsoft’s Project Pink. It looks to be headed for a debut in the very near future, and the initial provider of choice will be Verizon.

Gizomodo Gizmodo says the documents in hand only contain promotional plans--no information about the smartphone’s hardware or software specifications. It appears that Windows Phone 7 isn’t part of the pink plan, and that social networking will be the phone’s forte.

Gizomodo Gizmodo, relying on additional inside information, says that two phones will be introduced, and that the end of April is the most likely launch time.

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Posted 03/01/10 at 04:48:56 PM by Bart Salisbury

The direction of robotics is something of a puzzle. On the one hand, the most successful robots are those designed for a single, repetitive function. On the other, there’s this insistence to create a human replicant: something “more human than human,” in the words of the Tyrell Corporation, despite the distinct limitations for success.

Take for example Engineered Arts’ RoboThespian. It has an impressive range of expression ability, all of which is controlled through a touch screen interface programmed in Adobe Flash AS3. It’s presently employed in science exhibits, as a teaching aid--where the repetitive strain can take a toll on a regular human.  (And where it’s multi-lingual ability is a plus.) As a bonus, it has a better acting range than some from Hollywood that come to mind.

But will anthropomorphic robots every break away from their puppet-like qualities? They are cute, in their own way, but fundamentally limited in ability, and decidedly non-human in their comportment. If RoboThespian is the current state-of-the-art, then it may be a while before they acquire Asimovian characteristics--which is when they become really interesting.

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Posted 03/01/10 at 04:05:16 PM by Bart Salisbury

The e-Reader market has taken a turn, headed toward more expensive multi-purpose devices (e.g., Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s expected full-color multi-touch Kindle). This puts existing single-function e-Readers, which are priced relatively high, in some jeopardy. To keep the ‘pure’ e-Reader market alive and healthy, something cheaper and faster is going to be needed, and Freescale has obliged with a new chip, the i.MX508.

The i.MX508 strips all pretenses about function and focuses exclusively on e-reading. According to Freescale the i.MX508 “is the first system-on-chip (SoC) designed specifically for eReaders that incorporates a high performance 800MHz ARM Cortex™-A8 processor and an integrated E Ink® display controller, certified by E Ink to drive the newest and next generation Vizplex™ panels.”

Freescale says its new chip will decode a PDF file five-times faster than the ARM9 chip, and three times faster than the ARM11. Page turns are down to half a second. It supports low power DDR2 memory. And it is more energy efficient.

The i.MX508 also costs less then existing chips, about $30 less per unit. Ian King of Bloomberg.com figures this reduction in cost could lead to e-Readers in the $150 price range, perhaps by the end of this year.

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Posted 03/01/10 at 03:12:49 PM by Bart Salisbury

Microsoft, for the time being, is being a bit of a stickler over the hardware requirements for Windows Phone 7. If a smartphone doesn’t meet the minimum requirements, it won’t be getting Microsoft's new mobile platform OS.

Case in point is HTC’s highly regarded HD2 touchscreen smartphone. A nice little device with a 1GHz Qualcomm processor, a high resolution capacitive touch display, and a five megapixel camera. But, the HD2 has five buttons--Windows Phone 7 says three and no more. No Windows Phone 7 for the HD2!

It is suspected, perhaps, that the HD2 fails in some other ways as well. It’s hard to say, exactly, because the Microsoft hasn’t made public the hardware requirements for Windows Phone 7. That’s expected to happen this month at the MIX developer conference in Las Vegas. Whatever the case, any legacy hardware that doesn’t meet these requirements is going to be left behind.

What little solace Windows Mobile 6.5 users have is that Microsoft says it won’t abandon them. An upgrade, to version 6.5.3, is expected before rebranding to Windows Phone Classic. And Windows Phone Classic will stick around for the “budget-minded smartphone buyer”.

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