Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: GPS, Wearables

To be fair, we haven’t really noticed a GPS watch that wasn’t at least somewhat unsightly, but the Sport Genius Watch Tracker does a phenomenal job at exemplifying ugly. Reportedly, the conglomerate not only tells time, but the built-in GSM / GPS modules enable it to make and receive calls, track your movements and beam out your current location via SMS in case you find yourself in a pickle. It also provides the means for logging runs and points of interest, and you can supposedly upload the data to mapping software to get a visual on what you accomplished. Word on the street has it that this particular wristwatch should be available on the streets of China right now, but there’s no telling how many yuan you’ll be asked to fork over in order to publicly humiliate yourself.

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Original post by Darren Murph

According to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal, pesky Research In Motion (RIM) plans to introduce a touch-screen version of its BlackBerry to thwart the challenge posed by the popularity of Apple’s iPhone. (And no wonder we are seeing so many RIM TV ads …)

Apparently dubbed the Thunder, the new BlackBerry is among RIM’s strongest moves so far to appeal to the increasing number of consumers jumping for multimedia phones, a market that is increasingly turning to touch-screen devices for their ease of use (and cool factor). Easy integration with iTunes and the iPhone’s sophisticated touch-screen were key features that made the iPhone such a big hit.

Slated for introduction in the third quarter, the Thunder will be sold exclusively through Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and Vodafone in Europe. Verizon Wireless’s main rival, AT&T, is the iPhone’s exclusive distributor (sadly) in the U.S.

(Thanks to The Boy Genius Report for the photo!)

Tags: Apple, AT&T, BlackBerry, iPhone, iTunes, multimedia phones, Research in Motion, The Boy Genius Report, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, Wall Street Journal

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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Following a new round of partnership announcements back in February, LiMo Foundation today added 8 new members, bringing the grand total to 40 — and perhaps most notably, Verizon Wireless becomes the first American carrier to team up with the group and the Foundation’s final board member (in other words, they seem to be taking this initiative pretty seriously). Other new players include South Korea’s SK Telecom, France’s SFR, Sagem, chipmaker Infineon, and Mozilla, suggesting that there’ll be plenty of mobile Firefox support for LiMo’s nascent platform. LiMo represents the largest Linux-based threat to Android’s plans for world domination, having announced its initiative some time before Google while collecting a veritable who’s-who of world players from NTT DoCoMo to manufacturers like LG and Motorola — and with the depth of Verizon’s commitment to this, evident by its nabbing of an actual board seat, we wouldn’t be surprised to see LiMo-based products actually go beyond its Any Apps, Any Device initiative and get real on the carrier’s official lineup.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

The Samsung Glyde was one of the most hyped phones on an American carrier in recent memory leading up to its launch, and there’s one small problem with that: it’s hard to live up to the fanfare, no matter how good (or bad) the phone might be. A common early complaint coming out of the gate seems to be the lack of support for Verizon’s MediaFLO-based VCAST TV service, a service that the Glyde’s main competition, the Voyager, supports. The UI’s also getting panned for being a little more confusing that it needs to be; compounding matters is the fact that Phone Scoop describes it as a “push UI” on account of a fiddly touchscreen. For what it’s worth, it seems that the keyboard is at least quite good — so if you can put up with the negatives, the Glyde might still have a place in your pocket. Otherwise, the Voyager’s still looking awfully good, isn’t it?

Read - LAPTOP Magazine (2.5 / 5 stars, “…limited by a poor UI and unreliable performance”)
Read - Phone Scoop (”The Glyde pairs a few of the best things from the physical and touch worlds”)
Read - PHONE Magazine (”The Verizon Glyde isn’t a bad cellphone, but it’s outshone by its rivals”)

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Cellphones

One of the worst-kept secrets in Verizon’s stable is finally getting official today; that’s right, ladies and gentlemen, meet the Glyde from Samsung. Wearing CDMA guts underneath its F700 clothing, the fashion-friendly QWERTY slider offers a 2 megapixel cam with flash and autofocus, GPS, the full range of Bluetooth profiles, microSD slot, and a true HTML browser. Unlike its crosstown competition — the LG Voyager — the Glyde doesn’t offer support for Verizon’s VCAST TV service, but we imagine most folks will consider that a minor (read: nonexistent) inconvenience. Look for the phone to start circulating into retail channels this week for a princely $249.99 on contract after $50 rebate. Have a quick gander over on Engadget Mobile for a few shots of the Glyde doing what the Glyde does best — posing for press photography, that is.

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Remember when we caught wind that Verizon was prepping a worldband version Samsung’s i760 Windows Mobile piece? That rumor’s suddenly gained a lot more credence now that we’ve seen a so-called SCH-i770 pass through the FCC’s hallowed halls, especially considering the device outline’s uncanny resemblance to that of the aforementioned i760. We’d previously heard that there might be some HSDPA on board, and while we’re not seeing any evidence of that from the FCC’s test reports, we can confirm that it’ll feature EV-DO, WiFi, and Bluetooth in addition to all the GSM you’ll need to get by while roaming through mysterious foreign lands. No word on when we might actually see an announcement about this one, but we imagine Verizon doesn’t want to wait that much longer — the i760 design isn’t getting any younger, y’know.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays

We kid you not. Panasonic is working on a new low-voltage (1.5v) plasma technology which it says will rival OLED displays in brightness, thinness, and contrast. Better yet, Panasonic claims that its plasmas can be manufactured for “much less money” than OLEDs. Panny already has plans to include their new plasma displays in cellphones for use with AT&T’s Mobile TV service, gas pumps, ATMs, and on HP printers under a new exclusive two-year deal. Color us impressed if the new displays look anything like the 3.5-inch, 854 x 480 pixel Viera phone instead of that anemic looking phone pictured above which accompanied the press release.

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Lev Grossman writes to tell us that Neal Stephenson, author of greats like Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, has another novel due for release in September. The catalogue copy gives us a small glimpse at what may be in store: “Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a 3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians–sealed off from the illiterate, irrational, unpredictable ’saecular’ world that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, world wars and climate change. Until the day that a higher power, driven by fear, decides that only these cloistered scholars have the abilities to avert an impending catastrophe. And, one by one, Raz and his cohorts are summoned forth without warning into the Unknown.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by ScuttleMonkey

tblake writes “Back in 1968, Modern Mechanix mused what life would be like in 40 years. Some things they came pretty close on: ‘Money has all but disappeared. Employers deposit salary checks directly into their employees’ accounts. Credit cards are used for paying all bills. Each time you buy something, the card’s number is fed into the store’s computer station. A master computer then deducts the charge from your bank balance.’ Some things are way off: ‘The car accelerates to 150 mph in the city’s suburbs, then hits 250 mph in less built-up areas, gliding over the smooth plastic road. You whiz past a string of cities, many of them covered by the new domes that keep them evenly climatized year round.’ And some things are sorta right: ‘TV screens cover an entire wall in most homes and show most subjects other than straight text matter in color and three dimensions. In addition to programmed TV and the multiplicity of commercial fare, you can see top Broadway shows, hit movies and current nightclub acts for a nominal charge.’”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

Many readers are sending in word that Arthur C. Clarke has died in Sri Lanka. He wrote over 100 books including 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous With Rama, and popularized the ideas of geosynchronous communications satellites and space elevators.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

museumpeace writes “In the NYTimes book review blog, David Itzkoff takes a look at a new book devoted to predicting which ’science fiction’ technologies may really fly some day. The author is Michio Kaku, one of the inventors of string theory, so he bears a hearing. His picks include light sabers, invisibility and force fields.” Which sci-fi tech do you think needs to get invented over the weekend?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by Zonk

DeviceGuru writes “MIT’s Technology Review magazine has just published its annual list of the top ten emerging technologies. Dubbed the TR10, these revolutionary innovations are poised to have a dramatic impact on computing, medicine, nanotechnology, our energy infrastructure, and more, say the magazine’s editors. The TR10 technologies this time around are: cellulolytic enzymes, reality mining, connectomics, offline web apps, graphene transistors, atomic magnetometers, wireless power, nanoradio, probabilistic chips, modeling surprise. More details on the TR10 appear in the March/April edition of Technology Review.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by Zonk

XaN-ASMoDi writes “Yesterday saw the 30th anniversary of the very first broadcast of Douglas Adam’s seminal work, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, to mark this, Mark Vernon has written an article for the BBC News Magazine on the the answer to The Question. ‘It’s 30 years since Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy made its debut on BBC radio, but its most famous mystery is still waiting to be resolved…’”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

Filed under: Laptops

Just in case you feared that Walt Mossberg was out on some sort of limb when he proclaimed that the X300 would satisfy road warriors everywhere, we’ve sourced some other reviews from across the intarwebz to ease your mind. Lenovo’s über-stealthy ultraportable, which officially went on sale today, managed to impress one critic after another, with the biggest complaints coming from the high starting price tag, omission of a DVI port and somewhat sluggish performance — which are pretty much expected given the form factor. Outside of that, everyone was practically in love, with praises addressing the delightful keyboard, integrated WWAN and overall usability of such a minuscule machine. But hey, don’t take our word for it — check out the reviews below in full before you cough up your $2,500 (or more), cool?

Read - PCPro (5 out of 6 shiny stars)
Read - CNET (8.5 out of 10 golden trinkets)
Read - Notebook Review (”big thumbs up”)

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Laptops

Granted, you knew full well today would be the day that Lenovo unleashed its MacBook Air opponent on the world, but just in case you feared some sort of catastrophic eleventh-hour delay, we’re here to inform you that all is well. The 2.9-pound, LED-backlit X300 is indeed available today for those who’ve been drooling for weeks through “Lenovo’s business partners,” but of course, it’ll take at least $2,799 to gain admission to this slim ‘n trim party.

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Original post by Darren Murph