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Steve Jobs’ first TV appearance: video
US Update: Dell’s 10-inch tablet, first Honeycomb smartphone, Asus iPad 2 competitor
Asus prepping “secret weapon” to battle iPad 2
Google Translate for iOS released, translates 50 languages
Nikon Coolpix cameras: clutch of new compacts, super zooms and touchscreen snappers
LTE to dominate WiMax in 4G race by 2014?
Motorola Bee concept: the world’s first Honeycomb smartphone
Dell unveils 10-inch Windows 7 tablet and 38 other new products
Teatime Tech: BBC iPlayer apps, LG Optimus 3D phone glimpsed and Nokia’s big announcement
BBC iPlayer Android app, iPad app out this week

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 10:45 PM PST

Was Steve Jobs always the polished performer? No. Was he always cool, calm and confident in front of the cameras? From this warm-up footage prior to what’s claimed to be his first appearance on TV, it seems so. Read on, gawp at Steve Jobs sans Reality Distortion Field, and wonder: Is this perplexed twentysomething somehow more endearing than the polished media-friendly persona we often see today?

Click play, watch Steve’s first on-camera performance in full, and tell what you think in the comments below. For bonus points, tell us how you think it compares to Apple’s slightly odd way of communicating its message to customers lately: using fictitious Twitter drones.

US Update: Dell’s 10-inch tablet, first Honeycomb smartphone, Asus iPad 2 competitor

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 07:00 PM PST

Two days into the week and our inbox is lighting up like a Christmas tree with breaking tech news. In today's US Update we take a look at Dell's new 10-inch Windows 7 tablet, the Motorola Bee concept phone, LTE forecasts for 2014 and more.

At the Dell Means Business event in San Francisco this morning, Dell unveiled a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet and 38 other new products. Talk about a tech bonanza, read on for the full scoop.

The Motorola Bee concept phone looks to be the world's first Honeycomb smartphone. With all the talk about Honeycomb tablets, it's nice to see some focus back on Honeycomb smartphones. The only question is whether Motorola and Google will take notice.

New data from IHS iSuppli research suggests that LTE worldwide subscribers will reach over 300 million by 2014, nearly nine times the 33 million WiMax subscribers forecast. iOS users, it's time to head to iTunes and download your free copy of Google Translate. The new native app offers speech translation of 15 languages and over 50 written languages.

Last up this fine morning is news on a "secret weapon" coming from Asus which the company believes will battle the iPad 2. What could Asus possibly have up its sleeve that we didn't see at CES?

That wraps things up from my side of the pond. As always I'm Nick Marshall and this was your daily dose of tech. Until tomorrow, over and out.

Asus prepping “secret weapon” to battle iPad 2

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:00 PM PST

Asus head hancho, Jonney Shih, has big plans for 2011. After unveiling four new tablets at CES 2011 last month, Shih has vowed to unveil a "secret weapon" to battle the iPad 2 later this year. Will Asus release a revolutionary tablet or will they look to exploit a new class of devices, similar to how they revolutionized laptops with their Eee PC line of netbooks?

Anyway you slice it, Asus has experienced great success with the netbook. Steve Jobs might not consider the netbook worthy of Apple branding, but there's certainly no shortage of netbooks being used today. While the netbook will continue to exist, at least in the short term, Asus demonstrated their focus on tablets at CES.

The four new tablets, powered by Nvidia Tegra 2 processors, certainly pose a threat to the current generation iPad. Shih believes that, "to really compete it will take [Apple] some time. You know, [Nvidia] is well known for graphics". He went on to say, "also, we will try to provide a “secret weapon,” something we have not shown at this time but closer to the launch time we will show".

When asked directly if the "secret weapon" was a component or a new tablet, Shih replied, "I think it’s best not to say now. You will have to wait until the launch". A deeper look into the ComputerWorld interview with Jonney Shih could possibly provide hints at this "secret weapon".

Shih believes that 2011 will be a booming time for personal cloud computing and there were be a "few OSes", likely iOS, Android and Windows. The best user experience is "what is the best balance between personal computing and cloud computing". Shih mentioned Chrome OS and that he found some of the features good, but there needs to be a lot of work in UI, 2D and 3D graphics.

There is a possibility that the "secret weapon" will feature 3D technology. Shih mentioned 3D as one of the trends he expects to fail this year, "people actually talk a lot about 3D with the glasses, for TV, and I don't think that will prevail… Maybe it is possible in smaller devices and without wearing glasses".

As the Motorola Xoom, iPad 2, T-mobile G-Slate and the dozens of other tablets launch in 2011, we'll be keeping an eye out for Asus. This "secret weapon" is certainly a bold claim, but judging by the four tablets announced at CES 2011, we wouldn't count them out of the tablet war just yet. Anyone have any ideas on what the "secret weapon" may be?

via ComputerWorld

Google Translate for iOS released, translates 50 languages

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 05:20 PM PST

A native Google Translate app for iOS devices is now available, free in the App Store. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPads running iOS 3.0 or later, the native app translates words and phrases between more than 50 languages — for 15 languages you can even speak for translation.

Just last week Google updated Google Translate for Android, adding conversation mode and several other improvements. Today, iOS users finally land their own native Google Translate app. Although it lacks the experimental conversation mode capability, the new app still allows you to speak your phrases and hear translations in 15 languages.

There's plenty of other cool features included in Google Translate for iOS such as the ability to enlarged translated text to full-screen sized. If you have an iOS device, this is a must download.

Out Now | iTunes | Free

Nikon Coolpix cameras: clutch of new compacts, super zooms and touchscreen snappers

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 05:00 PM PST

Nikon has unveiled a raft of new Coolpix cameras today, including some impressive super zooms, a bridge, and a touchscreen compact, along with some candy-coloured compacts and AA battery powered budget snappers. Read on for more info, and click through for a full gallery of the new Nikon Coolpix range.

Nikon Coolpix S9100
The Coolpix S9100 is the most feature-rich compact to come out of Nikon’s unveiling today. It has a whopping great 18x zoom packed in its compact body, that comes in bright cherry red or black. The Nikon Coolpix S9100 also has a wide angle lens and HD video capabilities, ISO up to 3200, scene modes and special effects, and a 3″ LCD screen. It has a 12.1MP sensor, and size wise clocks in at 104.8 x 62.0 x 34.6 mm, weighing 214g including battery and a memory card.
Out 17 March 2011 | £300

Nikon Coolpix P300
The Nikon Coolpix P300 can push to an f/1.8 aperture, and it has an ultra-wide 24mm lens, with 4.2x zoom. It has a 3-inch LCD screen, 12.2MP sensor, and has HD video at up to 120fps. The P300 is meant to give you some extra controls over your standard compact, with manual controls offering four exposure modes: programmed auto, shutter-priority, aperture-priority and manual. It can shoot up to seven continuous shots at eight frames per second too.
Out 17 March 2011 | £300

Nikon Coolpix P500
The Nikon Coolpix P500 is a bridge camera, with a 12MP sensor, 36x zoom, and a tiltable LCD monitor, which flips out, but cannot rotate. It has 1080p HD movie recording, and there’s a side lever on the barrel to control zooming while you’re shooting stills and also while recording video. ISO pushes to 3200and there’s a built-in HDMI connector.
Out 3 March 2011 | £400

Nikon Coolpix S2500
The S2500 has a 4x optical zoom on its wide angle lens, plus a 12MP sensor. It comes packing Nikon’s “Smart Portrait” system, which means it has features like smile timer, blink proof and skin softening – the ea being that your mates won’t be desperately clicking ‘remove tag’ when you upload them to Facebook. The monitor is a 2.7-inch LCD, and there’s a bunch of automatic functions too.
Out 24 Feb 2011 | £100

Nikon Coolpix S3100
The Nikon Coolpix S3100 comes in seven colours, has a 14MP sensor, and can capture HD movies in one click. The S3100 packs 5x optical zoom, plus the standard collection of basic portrait and scene modes like smile timer, blink proof and skin softening.
Out 17 March 2011 | £130

Nikon Coolpix S4100
The Nikon Coolpix S4100 is similar to the S3100 in most ways – 14MP sensor, HD movie recording at one touch, 5x zoom – but also comes with a 3-inch LCD touchscreen, which you can use for navigation and as a shutter release. It comes in a handful of different colours too.
Out 24 Feb 2011 | £150

Nikon Coolpix S6100
The Nikon Coolpix S6100 is slightly more feature heavy than the S3100 and S4100. It has a 7x zoom, 16MP camera, 3-inch LCD touchscreen, and one touch HD movie recording. The S6100 also has four anti-blur functions, and comes in five colours.
Out 24 Feb 2011 | £200

Nikon Coolpix L120
The Nikon L120 has a 14MP sensor, super-zoom lens and 720p HD video recording. It has a wide angle lens with 21x zoom, and a control lever for zooming, which works while you’re recording movies. It has a 3-inch LCD, and is powered not by a rechargeable battery, but by AA batteries, meaning it’s a little heavy, but useful if you’re going somewhere a plug socket might be hard to find.
Out 24 Feb 2011 | £250

Nikon Coolpix L23
The Nikon Coolpix L23 has a 10.1MP sensor, 5x wide-angle zoom, plus a 2.7-inch LCD monitor. Similar to the L120, it’s also powered by AA batteries, meaning it’s a bit chunkier than your average compact, as it needs the space to accommodate the batteries, and also that it’s a bit heavier too. The L23 comes in five colours.
Out 24 Feb | £70

Which one of Nikon’s new compacts is top of your wishlist? Shout out in the comments!

LTE to dominate WiMax in 4G race by 2014?

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:30 PM PST

The end is near for WiMax in the 4G race. Well, not exactly, but according to new IHS iSuppli research, worldwide LTE subscribers will increase rapidly over the next two years, surpassing WiMax subscribers in 2012. Ready to see the 2014 forecast?

If IHS Suppli research proves accurate, in 2014 worldwide LTE subscribers will reach 303.1 million, compared to just 33.4 million for WiMax. With more than nine times the subscribers, LTE will be poised to dominate next-generation network deployments.

At CES 2011, we saw a huge showing of LTE devices by Verizon Wireless. Of the ten devices showcased, there were three tablets, four smartphones, two notebooks and one mobile hotspot. This didn't even include the existing LTE USB dongles released before the show.

Forecasts and predictions aside, WiMax currently enjoys a sizable lead in the 4G race, maintaining a dominant market share. In the US, At&t and Verizon Wireless chose LTE for their 4G networks. In Europe, Vodafone and TeliaSonera are also committed with current projections topping ten million subscribers.

In 2010 there were 6.8 million LTE subscribers worldwide. 2011 forecasts predict that number to jump to 14.9 million. This growth will be attributed to more than 30 new LTE operators launching service this year. Wimax, on the other hand, has a majority of operators in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Adding more operators in those regions will be critical to the technology's future.

Now it's time to tell us what you think. Do you agree with the 2012, 2013 and 2014 forecasts of 4G worldwide subscribers? Will LTE really see this level of growth so quickly? Sound off.

via Cellular-news

Motorola Bee concept: the world’s first Honeycomb smartphone

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:00 PM PST

As the Motorola Xoom release date rapidly approaches, the world is anxiously waiting for news on Android 3.0 Honeycomb smartphones. Look no further than the Motorola Bee concept, the world's first Honeycomb smartphone.

Designed by joyStudios, the Motorola Bee looks to be a sexy piece of hardware. Wrapped in all black trim with a very thin bezel and a textured backing, this Bee stings. According to the designers, the Motorola Bee will be compatible with a laptop dock, similar to the Motorola Atrix coming to At&t. This means a simple micro HDMI cable will have your smartphone outputting to your HDTV in no time.

The Motorola Bee supports 3G+ networks and features an eight megapixel camera with full HD video capture on the rear of the device and a five megapixel shooter up front. With four plus inch displays becoming standard, the Bee features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED multitouch display running at 1280 x 720 resolution. Inside, there's 32 or 64GB of memory, depending on your needs.

Rather than resort to the standard Android Honeycomb UI, joyStudios has rendered a customized interface. The blue, textured wallpaper delivers a refreshing take on the typically dark Android backgrounds. Overall, the combination of a polished user interface and an impressive feature set make the Motorola Bee concept phone, an Android lovers dream.

If Motorola and Google decided to produce the Motorola Bee, who else would join me in a pre-order?

Dell unveils 10-inch Windows 7 tablet and 38 other new products

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 03:35 PM PST

At the Dell Means Business event in San Francisco this morning, the company unloaded 39 new products including a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet. Whether you're in the market for a laptop, desktop, workstation, convertible tablet, or a laptop/tablet hybrid, Dell has you covered.

Dell's new 10-inch Windows 7 tablet will also come an Android flavor, dubbed the "10-inch Android tablet". Unlike the current line of tablets, the new 10-inch varieties will not bear the Streak banner. In typical Dell fashion, neither release date or pricing information was disclosed at the event.

Beyond the 10-inch tablets, the other highlight to today's event was the Latitude XT3, a follow-up to the laptop-tablet hybrid XT2. Latitude E-series laptops also received a refresh as Dell unveiled the new E5300 series which starts at $859 and comes in 12, 13 and 14-inch models using Intel Sandy Bridge processors.

With a focus on enterprise users, the new E-series laptop have hard drive accelerometers and remote IT features, including remote data deletion. The Optiplex desktops received a refresh with three new models and a small new form factor all-in-one design. The new Optiplex desktops start at $650 and include the new Intel vPro processors and tool-free access to system components.

The remaining products consisted of refreshes to Dell's existing product line. To help guide the company into 2011, Dell interviewed over 7,000 Gen-Y customers, IT manager and other business segment customers. For now the Latitude XT3 and the 10-inch Windows 7 tablet caught our eye. Anyone else interested in a 10-inch Windows 7-based tablet?

Teatime Tech: BBC iPlayer apps, LG Optimus 3D phone glimpsed and Nokia’s big announcement

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 10:03 AM PST

End of the day! Hooray! Not only is it going home time, it’s time to check out all the afternoon’s top stories, here in your teatime tech.

Let’s talk mobile: Auntie’s caused quite a stir by confirming plans not just for a native BBC iPlayer iPad app, but one for Android too – and they’re both out this week.

Over on the Symbian side of things meanwhile, we heard that a 32GB version of the Nokia N8 might be on the way, while we asked the experts what they think Nokia will announce on Friday – Windows Phone 7 anyone?

Finally, we got a good glimpse at the LG Optimus 3D for the first time in a new teaser video. See it here for yourself!

Still want more news? Bounce on over to the homepage and help yourself to it all as it breaks!

BBC iPlayer Android app, iPad app out this week

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 08:53 AM PST

A BBC iPlayer Android app will hit the Android Market this week, alongside the BBC iPlayer iPad app expected to launch on Thursday. Read on for the details.

Writing on the BBC Internet Blog, general manager for BBC Future Media and Technology Daniel Danker confirmed that both BBC iPlayer iPad and Android apps would be available by the end of the week. We’d already heard the native iPad app would be arriving, but the BBC iPlayer Android app is something of surprise, and not necessarily for the right reasons.

Both version will allow you to watch live TV and listen to live radio stations, with personalised favourites and full sene day catch up. That certainly beats the current web app on the iPad, but on Android, you’ll still need an Android 2.2 phone with support for Adobe 10.1 Flash, and it’ll only work over Wi-Fi. That’s a little disappointing given that these phones can already stream BBC iPlayer already in the browser – we’d have loved to see a solution that brought streaming video to older Android phones too (SlingPlayer for instance works on Android 1.6 and up).

The best Android apps of all time: Top 100

However, Denker says that “this is about getting the basics right, simple apps that makes best use of the portable touch-screen experience. We’ll be looking to build in more features throughout the year,” so fingers crossed we’ll see more features – like downloads for offline watching – appear soon.

We’ll keep our eyes on the app stores and let you know when both hit.

Out this week | £free | BBC