Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Frogger writes to tell us that NVIDIA has released what they are calling the most powerful graphics card in history. With 4GB of graphics memory and 240 CUDA-programmable parallel cores this monster sure packs a punch, although with a $3,500 price tag it certainly should. Big-spenders can rejoice at a new shiny, and the rest of us can be happy with the inevitable price shift in the more reasonable models.

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

fons writes “Dutch Python hacker/artist Stani took part in a contest organised by the Dutch Ministry Of Finance to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. And he won, using only free software: ‘The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian. I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that.’”

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Original post by timothy

Filed under: Cellphones

So, you’ve gone and updated to that new “big fix” firmware 2.1 — but is the Kool Aid as delicious as you’ve been promised? On our end, we’re certainly seeing noticeable improvements on lagging keyboards, app switching / opening (particularly with contacts and text messages), moving through menus / scrolling, application installation and iTunes syncing, but has Apple solved the big issue? The software update page boasts of a “decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls,” and while that might make you think you’ll see the proverbial “more bars in more places″ (and you probably do), it’s likely related to another change in this update, namely, “improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display.” We know that a lot of you are seeing apparent improvements in signal strength, but is that a matter of updated icons, or a reflection of some crazy voodoo Apple performed on the phone′s radio? We′re leaning towards the former, but we′d like to hear what you have to say. So what’s the deal? Is the iPhone 3G seeing actual reception improvements, or is it just cosmetic? Let us know in the poll below.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Apple_s_iPhone_2_1_update_is_finally_out′; You made it. Three full battery charges and three full days of buggy 2.0.2 firmware later and the 2.1 software is now available for download. Remember, this “big update” comes with Steve’s personal promise of “fewer call drops… significantly improved battery life for most customers… fixed a lot of bugs where if you have a lot of apps on the phone you’re not going to get some of the crashes we’ve seen… backing up to iTunes is dramatically faster.” We’ll see.

P.S. Not that we’re expecting any, but if you spot copy and paste or any other unannounced features be sure to let us know.

Update: We’re updating right now and we’ll let you know if we see anything amazing. Keep us posted in the comments too — how is it going for you?

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Putting two iPhone / iPod docks in an alarm clock is a simple and clever idea that’s so far only shown up in the JVC-PN7 (which we have and love), but it looks like iLuv’s getting in the game as well with the new iMM137. Apart from the two shielded iPhone 3G-compatible docks up top, it’s the usual iLuv kit with 5 watt jAura sound, an aux input, and dual alarms — not a bad deal for an MSRP of $129 that’ll almost certainly be lower at retail when this hits in September.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Portable Audio

Quite a bit of time has elapsed since we last saw fit to mention MusicGremlin on these pages, but the long-lost outfit has found itself relevant again thanks to SanDisk. Announced today, the latter firm has acquired the former, and we’re told that the acquisition will (expectedly) fall under the Sansa audio / video business unit. According to Daniel Schreiber, general manager and senior VP of the aforesaid unit, MusicGremlin’s “digital distribution platform and capabilities will provide SanDisk with adaptive and innovative technology that will play a key role in the development of future Sansa products for consumers,” though he didn’t elaborate much beyond that. To be frank, we have some serious respect for the Sansa line as-is, so we’re quite interested to see what impact (if any) this will eventually have on the crew we’ve come to know so well.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Just like that obscure Burt Bacharach album, some DAPs just need a little time to grow on you. Now that SanDisk’s comparatively inexpensive Sansa Fuze has been out and about for a couple of months, we’re imploring you dear readers to cast out your opinions on the minuscule device. Are you satisfied with the interface? Have you been disappointed by the sound quality? Was this thing just one feature away from being perfect? ‘Tis a shame SanDisk didn′t phone you up before mashing the green button and sending these on their way, but here’s your shot to tell all who will listen what could be done better in revision two.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

Although the iPhone Dev Team totally punked us on April Fool’s Day, they were still nice enough to give us an early hands-on (in person!) with a pre-release version of their new Pwnage tool. Pwnage lets you load in any firmware you want, including patched firmwares not signed by Apple — which could lead to everything from custom software distributions to totally new OSs ported over (like, say, Android or Linux). We did what most people are probably going to do, however: we took a brand new 8GB iPhone, unlocked it, and upgraded to the 2.0 firmware, while keeping it active on T-Mobile. It’s not exactly a one-click process, but it’s not all that hard either — although we kind of cheated and had Dev Team members talking us through it. Peep the vid after the break, and check the read links in few hours to get your hands on Windows and Mac versions of the tool.

P.S. -Apologies for the blurry video for the first couple minutes, we didn’t notice that our camera had gotten knocked out of macro mode. You’re not missing much, trust us. Oh, and the only cuts are during loading bars and when we accidentally flashed a phone number and the iPhone’s serial number — we figured you didn’t really want 20 minutes of listening to people sniffle during progress bars.

Read - iphone-dev.org (Pwnage tool creators)
Read - The iPhone Project (hosting the Pwnage tool)

Continue reading Video: The iPhone Dev Team’s Pwnage tool in action

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Portable Audio

The subscription-based iTunes rumor has been around for what feels like eons, and apparently, it’s rearing its always intriguing head once more. According to a report over at Financial Times, the suits in Cupertino are currently “in discussions″ with major music outfits about a new model that could essentially “give customers free access to the entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices.” Reportedly, a distribution model similar to Nokia’s “Comes with Music” could be used on both iPhones and iPods, while traditional subscriptions would be reserved for the iPhone — a device which has a monthly billing relationship already attached to it. As it stands, we′re hearing that the major holdup is Apple’s hesitation to pay big bucks in order to access the labels’ libraries, but here’s to hoping the iTunes buffet opens for business sooner rather than later. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Portable Video

Disney announced that it sold 4 million movies and between 40 to 50 million videos on iTunes since 2006. That’s huge, right? Not really. In fact, analysts expect those numbers to amount to just $123 million ($1.44 earned per video, $14.50 per movie); pennies in comparison to Disney’s $35 billion in annual sales. In fact, it’s less than 10% of the $1 billion in digital revenue Disney hopes to achieve this year. A clear reminder, dear readers, of just how Type-A we really are. The typical Wal-mart noob still doesn’t download their video and music — hell, they can’t even figure out Linux.

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Another day, another furious litigant claiming that an Apple product infringes on one of their patents. Today we’ve got ZapMedia, who’s having some fun with a patent granted Tuesday by claiming that it covers tech used in both the iPod and iTunes. The patent describes a central media server and a “plurality of media player devices” that access the server over various networks — but it was filed for on September 20th, 2005, which, you′ll note, is after the 2003 launch of the iTunes Store. Hmm, not to worry, ZapMedia also says it has an almost identical 2006 patent filed for in 2000 — but that patent, as far as a quick USPTO search shows, hasn′t been assigned to ZapMedia, instead remaining with Kenneth Liscomb and several other individuals also listed on the new patent. What’s more, ZapMedia has apparently been shopping the earlier patent for over a year now to no avail — doesn′t seem like anyone’s interested, now does it?

Disclaimer: Nilay’s a lawyer, but he’s not your lawyer, and none of this, particularly the quick USPTO searching part, is legal advice or analysis.

Read - ZapMedia lawsuit article
Read - ZapMedia patent issued yesterday (”System and method for distributing media assets to user devices and managing user rights of the media assets”)
Read - ZapMedia patent issued in 2006 (”System and method for distributing media assets to user devices via a portal synchronized by said user devices″)

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Portable Audio

Word on the street (and by street, we mean mostly British tabloids) is that Paul McCartney’s deal to sell the Beatles back-catalog is done, and the Greatest Works of Musical Art Ever Recorded will be appearing on the iTunes store “within months.” Of course, we’ve been hearing whispers about this for what seems like a million years, and since both Apple Corps and Apple are delivering “no comment” and “rumor and speculation” responses on the topic, we won’t get too excited. Still, there does seem to be some serious movement on this front, with everyone and their mother saying the lot is to be sold any day now for around $400 million — which is no small sum. We will, of course, keep you abreast of any developments which will lead to you stocking your music players with the Fab Four’s work.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

 

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones

Knowing how rampant the Apple rumor community can get, we try not to stir the pot too feverishly, but iLounge has made a bizarre little discovery that we thought you might like to see. Apparently, it’s already possible for iPhone / iPod touch developers to create pages in iTunes offering content to limited groups of users. While perusing these pages, they apparently stumbled upon the Education First Educational Tours page, where international travel tour registrants can download TourCast audio and video content. Strangely, an odd, almost Zune-like device can be seen in the corner of the graphic for this page bearing the Apple logo. Could this be some wild slip? Is what we’re looking at a rendering of a new iPhone or touch device, or is this some random mockup meant to suggest a “general” Apple product? We’re strongly, strongly leaning towards the latter, though maybe Jobs let one slide through the cracks this time. See the full view after the break.

[Thanks, Christian]

Continue reading New iPhone design leaked on iTunes? Highly unlikely.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

We just got a call from our friendly local Nokia flagship store, and lo, it seems the mythical ỗ 8GB with HSDPA 850 / 1900 is now in stock. The all-black monster of Nokia’s current Nseries lineup will run you a stiff $799 — so get your credit card out, get your 3G on, and find out exactly what 8GB of music you want to carry with you.

 

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Peripherals

Sure, we’ve seen input peripherals stretch the core meaning of the word “mouse,” but few have done it better than Simtrix. First up in the Swiftpoint series is the TriPed (on left), which was designed to be held much like a pen if needed and is aimed primarily at tablet PC / tabletop computer users; according to the firm, it “provides seamless transitioning between mouse, pen, and text entry.” Moving on, we’ve got the equally zany Slider, which looks to grab more attention by being able to operate when sliding over a keyboard. Granted, folks with ergonomic / split boards are probably out of luck there, but that’s not to say your thumb still wouldn’t love this critter on a traditional mouse pad. Mum’s the word on pricing and availability at the moment, but we’ll keep an ear to the ground for whispers of either.

[Thanks, Dave]

 

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Original post by Darren Murph