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HTC Puccini press photos leaked: 10-inches of greatness incoming!
Microsoft unveils new Xbox 360 headset and media remote
Apple iOS 4.3.5 released and jailbroken in one breath
What’s wrong with Amazon’s cosmo black Nintendo 3DS?
HTC Omega specs surface: say hello to HTC’s first Mango smartphone
iPhone 5G concept mixes Sony Ericsson Satio style with six color choices
Samsung Galaxy S II slider photographed, benchmarked and ready for prime time
The Firefox Phone and Mozilla OS: 7 ways it could beat Android
There’s an awful lot of BlackBerry Monza 9860 accessories on Amazon right now
Apple reveals key-free touch-sensitive future keyboard

HTC Puccini press photos leaked: 10-inches of greatness incoming!

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 10:14 AM PDT

HTC's 10-inch super tablet, codenamed Puccini, is all but official. Thanks to the team at BGR, we now have the first two press shots of the upcoming slate. But wait, that's not all. We've also tracked down the preliminary specs and let's just say this is definitely not just a larger HTC Flyer.

In the spirit of unannounced, unreleased gadgets, it's safe to assume that the following specs are rumors. On the back of the HTC Puccini is an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash. By smartphone standards that might seem average, but that's leaps and bounds above current tablets. Like the Flyer, the Puccini features stereo speakers, a microphone and stylus.

Under the hood is a 1.5 GHz processor and 4G LTE radio. The slate will ship with Android Honeycomb and the HTC Sense UI, securing a long stay in the tablet game. You'll also notice on the top right is an AT&T logo, so expect GSM launches elsewhere in the world. HTC has failed to comment on the photos, but we suspect a release date is not too far off.

If the Puccini looks and feels as good in person as the press photos suggest, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 might be looking at the new king in Honeycomb tablet design.

Coming Soon | HTC | TBD

Microsoft unveils new Xbox 360 headset and media remote

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 09:47 AM PDT

Regardless of whether you're a part of team Xbox or team PS3, I think we can agree that Sony's console offers a more stylish design. Today, Microsoft is reinventing its accessory line with the launch of a new Xbox 360 bluetooth headset and media remote. You can officially lay your white media remotes to rest this November.

The Xbox 360 bluetooth headset, like all bluetooth headsets, is not limited to your console. You can pair it up with your mobile phone or PC just as easily. According to Microsoft's Major Nelson, the headset will connect to the Xbox 360 through the console's standard radio frequencies. The headset will launch this November for $59.99 (£36.60).

The Xbox 360 media remote is the real gem of today's announcements. The remote features play/pause, skip forward, fast forward, skip back, fast back, and display to control DVD, CD, or streamed media. More importantly, it adds a new Live TV button for the upcoming Xbox Live TV service scheduled to debut later this year The Xbox 360 media remote will also be available this November, but will be priced at $19.99 (£12.20).

As an IPTV subscriber who uses the Xbox 360 as both a gaming console and TV set-top box, the new media remote is a must-have accessory. The glossy black finish and slender design will pair nicely with the XBox 360 slim. At long last, my white media remote can be retired.

via Winrumors

Apple iOS 4.3.5 released and jailbroken in one breath

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 09:22 AM PDT

Within minutes of Apple's release of iOS 4.3.5 for iPods, iPads and iPhones, a tethered jailbreak was achieved via Redsn0w. Though not as painless as the PDF exploit used by the jailbreakme.com website for iOS 4.3.3, today's method is still a walk in the park compared to the early days. There's only one catch — the iPad 2 is not included in the list of supported devices.

Until Apple deploys over-the-air (OTA) updates with iOS 5, expect smooth sailing for the jailbreaking community. By using either Redsn0w 0.9.8b4 for Windows or Mac, anyone with an original iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS or iPod touch can jailbreak their device with this simple guide.

So what about iPad 2 owners? Well, if you're still using iOS 4.3.3 then jailbreakme.com is the way to go. Otherwise you'll need to hang tight for iOS 5 to launch in September since there's no way to downgrade the baseband of the second-gen slate.

via RedmondPie

What’s wrong with Amazon’s cosmo black Nintendo 3DS?

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 08:52 AM PDT

Yesterday Amazon temporarily suspended sales of the cosmo black Nintendo 3DS. The console was later reinstated, but not before the mainstream media ran wild with the story. Today, we lay out the facts and uncover what exactly went wrong at Amazon. Spoiler alert: there's nothing wrong with the cosmo black Nintendo 3DS.

Even an online retail giant like Amazon.com has its good days and its bad days. Yesterday was a case of the latter. Due to an internal shipping issue, a brief hold on Nintendo 3DS orders was triggered. Until the issue could be reviewed by a pair of human eyes, sales of the cosmos black Nintendo 3DS remained suspended.

Amazon provided additional insight, stating that sales are often suspended "because customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item, the way we are shipping it, or the way it's described here." In addition to Amazon's statement, Nintendo has taken the bull by the horns and released its own response:

“An internal Amazon.com shipping issue triggered a brief hold on orders of Nintendo 3DS systems while the situation was reviewed, as is common in such matters,” said the company in a statement. “Amazon.com resolved the issue, and Nintendo 3DS orders have resumed. There are no issues with Nintendo 3DS inventory or quality. For additional information about this incident, please contact Amazon.com.”

There you have it folks, there's nothing wrong with the cosmo black Nintendo 3DS or any of the 3DS models for that matter. This was a minor hiccup in the Amazon.com inventory system that has since been resolved.

via GiantBomb

HTC Omega specs surface: say hello to HTC’s first Mango smartphone

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 08:31 AM PDT

HTC is prepping its first Windows Phone 7 smartphone to ship with the much anticipated Mango update. That device will be the HTC Omega — a stylish slate with a 3.8-inch Super LCD touchscreen running at WVGA resolution (800×480 pixels). Here's the complete scoop on the company's first Mango flagship.

Under the hood you'll find Qualcomm's single-core MSM 8255 processor clocked at a blistering 1.5 GHz. The chip will be accompanied by 512MB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash and auto-focus. The standard array of connectivity options are also onboard: GPS, 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Release date and pricing information is unknown at this point, but seeing as the HTC Omega ships with Windows Phone Mango, we image the release date depends on Microsoft as much as HTC. Can we have a show of hands for anyone awaiting the Windows Phone Mango update?

via Geeky-Gadgets

iPhone 5G concept mixes Sony Ericsson Satio style with six color choices

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 08:06 AM PDT

One look at the Apple iPhone 5G and three devices come to mind: the Sony Ericsson Satio, Nokia N9 and Nokia N8. By merging together these three smartphones, Antoine Brieux from Nak Phone Design has managed to re-invent Apple's flagship. Which of these six colors would you like Apple to use on its sixth generation iPhone?

The iPhone 5G concept pays homage to the iMac G3 days when Apple offered five colored, translucent plastic cases. Outside of its iPod line, Apple has relied on brush aluminum for its Macs and two colors for its iPhones. Jumping from two to six colors is serious business for Cupertino — a move that would outpace the three colors of the N9 and five colors of the N8.

Inside the iPhone 5G concept, not much will change compared to the current iPhone 4S/5 rumors. There's an 8-megapixel camera with HD capture, LED notifications panel, and A5 dual-core processor. The real change over previous generation iPhones (and even Macs) is that the iPhone 5G will use a magnesium body. This will help Apple achieve its lightest and thinnest design to date.

What do you think of the iPhone 5G concept? I think I'll stick with the traditional color choices, but the design and materials sound promising. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

via Concept-Phones

Samsung Galaxy S II slider photographed, benchmarked and ready for prime time

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 07:28 AM PDT

A fresh new version of the Samsung Galaxy S II has been spotted with a slide-out keyboard in tow. Destined for a release on AT&T in the states, this Galaxy S II variant touts the model number SGH-I927 and runs the latest build of Android Gingerbread. The chicklet style keys look like they could do some serious damage in the text and email department, but when will we see this QWERTY slider hit the UK?

Across the pond the unnamed Galaxy S II slider has a launch with AT&T's network sometime in August. Pricing and an official release date remain a mystery since Samsung has yet to confirm the device's existence. For now here's what we have to go by:

The Samsung SGH-I927 runs Android Gingerbread 2.3.4 and features the same dual-core processor as its Galaxy S II sibling. There's an 8-megapixel camera on the rear of the phone with a LED flash and 1080p video chops. Using Linpack, the slider managed a score 58.544 MFLOPS which outpaces the 47.606 MFLOPS of our unlocked Samsung Galaxy S II.

The improved benchmark (18.6 percent) leads us to believe the clock speed of the unnamed slider might be bumped from 1.2 GHz to 1.4 GHz. As far as a UK release, the launch of the device on AT&T in the states certainly increases the odds. A simple change in the radio frequencies and any number of carriers could pick up this powerful smartphone with ease.

Whether a UK carrier picks up the unnamed Galaxy S II slider largely depends on demand. Are you interested in a faster Galaxy S II with a hardware slide-out keyboard? Hardware keyboards on Android smartphones are hard to come by these days so we'll give the mystery device a nod.

via BGR

The Firefox Phone and Mozilla OS: 7 ways it could beat Android

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 04:55 AM PDT

Firefox is planning a mobile operating system, according to the Mozilla Developer Group, and it's looking like it could be even more open source than Android. That's right, more customisation, and more power to you.

It's known as Boot to Gecko, or B2G. So how's it better than Android? We can think of a few ways…

1 Pure web-based

Like Google's Chrome OS, Boot to Gecko will be purely web-based, meaning lightning start-up times and minimal storage on the physical device. Instead, everything will be cloud-based, so you'll never lose anything because of a crash, and you'll be able to access all your toys from wherever you are.

It's the first purely web-based mobile OS to be mentioned, though launch is still a way off.

2 Android +

It'll be partially based on Android, just using the kernel and the drivers to make sure it'll boot, so it seems Mozilla is recognising the strength of Android, that it works on many different platforms, while combining it with the web-based operatability of Chrome OS. So expect the same slick performance and customisation, but bursting with cool new features.

3 A new world of apps

Now this is where it gets really interesting. B2G aims to take the main functions of your phone (calls, texts, camera, USB, Bluetooth, NFC, etc) and create web APIs to handle them. Then, and this seems a way off yet but still is pretty exciting, there'll be a way for web pages and applications to access those components as and when.

4 And cross-platform apps

From here, the developers hope to make apps that run straight on the web rather than just on certain devices, so you can say goodbye to iPhone or Android apps, and hello to a proper technological free for all.

5 A new birth of mobiles

The possibilities are pretty endless for this. Zuckerberg and co. could get on board and make a true Facebook phone, or any company could come up with effectively their own take on the OS.

6 Incremental development

Instead of just releasing the final product, Mozilla will publish source code as it's developed, allowing people to chip in and help develop it, making it far more open than Android. So if you've got any suggestions, and you know your programming, you can chip in and let them know. Now that’s open source.

7 All for the fans

Boot to Gecko will use Firefox's Gecko engine, which is the second most popular layout engine on the web, one above WebKit (used by Safari and Google Chrome), and it's usable on various operating systems including Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. So it's already massive, and making it even more open source will only swell its popularity.

There’s an awful lot of BlackBerry Monza 9860 accessories on Amazon right now

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 04:37 AM PDT

Which is a bit odd considering the BlackBerry Monza 9860 isn’t on sale yet. But the leaks are gathering into a perfect storm – press pics, hands on pics and even a hint from RIM itself that the touchscreen only phone is set to be launched later today.

We’ve been scouring the UK networks sites’ for mentions of the phone (It’s happened before) but not dug anything up just yet: we have however found a delightful range of accessories on Amazon for the BlackBerry Monza 9860, and even backplates for it straight out of RIM’s factories. Surprise!

It’s unclear whether the BlackBerry Monza 9860 will be branded as the Storm 3, or as the numbering suggests, come under RIM’s newer Torch brand. One thing’s for sure, without a BlackBerry’s best bit (the buttons) it’s got its work cut out to better the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S 2, and dare we say it, even the ageing iPhone 4.

Still, thee accessories have their own charm. Our favourite? This diamante skull and cross bones. Vajazzly.

Apple reveals key-free touch-sensitive future keyboard

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 03:45 AM PDT

Not content with going gesture-crazy and turning mouse scrolling upside down in Mac OS X Lion, Apple has been pondering ways of tossing the traditional keyboard in the dustbin. A new Apple patent application has surfaced revealing Cupertino’s take on an entirely flat, touch-sensitive keyboard that come to future MacBooks.

We’ve already seen similar touchscreen keyboards on real world products including the Acer Iconia 6102 and the Toshiba Libretto W100 but Apple’s design takes the concept a little bit further…

The Apple patent application details several ways of building the flat surface keyboard. One suggests it could be constructed from a solid material such as metal or plastic with keys machined, stamped or micro-perforated onto it to allow the user to press or tap a flat key.

The more radical approach though would be to use a piece of glass with the interface provided as graphics on a display screen beneath the surface. Apple’s plan suggests a haptic feedback mechanism would be included to let you know you’d actually hit a key and that the keyboard would have LED backlighting for lowlight situations.

Apple explains that the flat keyboard would detect inputs using a combination of piezo-electric sensors and capactive sensors. It also describes versions of the design with seisometers and accelerometers added into the mix to better detect the way the user is interacting with the surface.

As interesting as the patent application is, we’re pretty sure it won’t pop up on as a fully-formed feature in a future Apple product. That said, some of the ideas that it is toying with in this application almost certainly will. While we don’t really think the physical feedback offer by a traditional keyboard is about to be ditched, Mac OS X Lion shows Apple is serious about making touch a much bigger deal for laptops.

Can you ever imagine yourself tapping away at a laptop with a totally touchscreen keyboard? Or is the prospect of ditching traditional tapping a nightmare vision?

Out TBC | £TBC | Apple (via Patently Apple)

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Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

Electricpig.co.uk - tech news fast!

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