Technology news - CNNMoney.com

CNN.com - Technology

Discovery News - Tech News

Total Pageviews

Delicious

Search This Blog

Powered By Blogger

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Toyota Tries to Be More Entertaining - NYTimes.com

The new headquarters of the Toyota Motor Corpo...Image via WikipediaToyota Tries to Be More Entertaining - NYTimes.com

Toyota Tries to Be More Entertaining

The in-dash interface of Toyota’s Entune entertainment system.
While you want to keep your car’s wheels firmly in touch with the ground, if you drive a new Toyota later this year, you may find your entertainment system routed in the clouds.
As my colleague, Stephen Williams, wrote about last week, Toyota’s Entunesystem, to be introduced on select models this year, will use your smartphone to transmit information and entertainment held in the company’s servers into your vehicle.
After downloading the Entune app to compatible phones, the information will be transmitted via Bluetooth to the car’s screen. Toyota will offer Bing search, iheartradio, MovieTickets.com, OpenTable and Pandora; plus sports, weather, stocks and traffic information.
You can’t use the Bing app to go to Web sites; rather, Bing lets drivers search for various points of interest like restaurants, and then get driving directions if one also has a built-in GPS system. The other apps perform as expected, except that some functionality is restricted (for safety reasons) to only when the car is stopped. For example, when moving, you can use OpenTable to check on a previously made reservation. You’ll need to pull over to type in another one.
Because all the information resides in the cloud, Toyota can add new features in the future. New apps will be included at Toyota’s discretion; there’s no app store to allow consumers to bring in their own content.
The cloud-based nature of the content also brings its own limitations. The system uses your smartphone’s data plan to download information, so if you spend hours listening to Pandora, you could find your bill going up. Also, the system only works when you’ve got a signal to your phone. Enter a long tunnel or an area without cell coverage and Entune stops (there is no data buffer in the system).
Still, the fact that Toyota has opted to include this type of entertainment and information system in their vehicles shows that the company doesn’t expect outages to be much of a problem. And it also shows how truly ubiquitous smartphones have become.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Are We Running Out of Internet Addresses? : Discovery News

Vint Cerf, North American computer scientist w...Image via WikipediaAre We Running Out of Internet Addresses? : Discovery News

The world will run out of Internet addresses "within weeks", according to one of the founding fathers of the web, a report said Friday.
Vint Cerf, who helped create the web by connecting computers using Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, said it was his "fault" that the 4.3 billion addresses created were running out, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
"I thought it was an experiment and I thought that 4.3 billion would be enough to do an experiment," Cerf, who is Google's vice president and "Chief Internet Evangelist", was quoted as saying in an interview. "Who the hell knew how much address space we needed?"
In 1977, Cerf created the web protocol IPv4, which connects computers globally, as part of an experiment while working with the U.S. Department of Defense. He said he never expected his experiment "wouldn't end".
"It doesn't mean the network stops, it just means you can't build it very well," Cerf said.
IP addresses are the unique sequence of numbers assigned to each computer, website or other internet-connected devices. They are not the same as website domain names.
The overwhelming number of devices now accessing the internet means the addresses are running out fast.
To resolve the crisis, an updated protocol for the Internet, IPv6, currently being planned by the industry, will create trillions of addresses.
As Google vice president Cerf, who was in Australia to address a conference, said he thought the new chief executive of the California-based giant, Larry Page, was ready to lead the company into the future.
In a surprise move, Google announced on Thursday that co-founder Page would replace Eric Schmidt as chief executive in April.
Schmidt, 55, a former chief executive of Novell, will remain with Google as executive chairman, focusing on deals, partnerships, customers and government outreach, Google said.
He will also act as an adviser to Page, 37, who served as CEO previously, from 1998 to 2001.
Cerf said Schmidt had been chief executive for 10 years -- "a nice round number" -- and Page was ready to lead the company into the future.
"Larry and Sergey are 10 years older than they were when they thoughtfully hired Eric to be the CEO... so everybody's growing up," Cerf said.
Google has grown over the past decade from a start-up battling other Internet search engines into a technology giant with nearly 25,000 employees and annual revenue of nearly $30 billion.
The company meanwhile reported its fourth-quarter net profit increased to $2.54 billion from $1.97 billion a year ago, while revenue rose 26 percent to $8.44 billion.




Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, January 24, 2011

Microsoft Pri0 | CES 2011: Video of Motorola Atrix phone docking to a laptop | Seattle Times Newspaper

Microsoft Pri0 | CES 2011: Video of Motorola Atrix phone docking to a laptop | Seattle Times Newspaper

CES 2011: Video of Motorola Atrix phone docking to a laptop

Posted by Sharon Chan
LAS VEGAS -- A new smartphone from Motorola, the Atrix, is so powerful it can serve as the guts of a laptop. AT&T and Motorola showed off the phone at the show. It will start selling in the first quarter of this year.
Here is a video with Rick Hartwig, senior director marketing for Motorola, showing the phone from the CES floor. The phone has a dual-core processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM, comes with 16 GB of memory, has a fingerprint scanner built in and the battery can last 8 hours. It can dock to a dumb laptop with a keyboard and monitor and power the laptop. Motorola and AT&T have not announced pricing.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Motorola's Atrix Is a Phone and a Laptop - NYTimes.com

Motorola's Atrix Is a Phone and a Laptop - NYTimes.com

It’s a Phone, It’s a Laptop, It’s an Atrix

If there has been a muted response to what is arguably the most powerful mobile phone currently made – the Atrix – it may be due to its parentage. The phone comes from Motorola.
The once-mighty Motorola dominated the mobile phone market quarter after quarter with products like the reliable and stylish Razr, but was knocked off its pedestal by the iPhone.
Motorola went on to put out some lackluster phones, started to make headway with its chunky Droid phones, and now makes a bid for the spotlight with what it calls the first dual processor phone, incorporating two 1-gigahertz processors, compared with the single 1-gigahertz processor in some of the fastest current phones.
Hand it to Motorola. The Atrix is impressive.
It is fast and fancy. A fingerprint scanner built into the power button protects your privacy. When set, it requires a swipe of the owner’s digit to unlock the phone. But don’t worry, there is a pin-number backup in case you leave your phone at home and need someone else to unlock it and look something up.
The phone also comes with Motorblur, which funnels your social media to one screen, backs up to the cloud and lets you wipe your phone’s memory remotely if it’s stolen.
Its biggest trick, though, is that it plugs into a 11.6-inch screen and keyboard device to become a mini laptop that is just 14 millimeters thick — about the same as an iPhone with a bumper. The keyboard has its own power source so as not to sap the phone and is rated at up to eight hours use. The laptop has USB slots so you can use an external drive. You’ll want to; the phone has 16 gigabytes of internal storage and 32 gigabytes can be added through a MicroSD card.
The phone’s dual-processor runs the laptop and you can still make a call while using the computer. The Atrix has 1 gigabyte of RAM, again twice that of most current phones, so it should multitask smoothly. And downloads will be speedy if you are on the 4G network.
The phone also has a front-facing VGA camera and a rear-facing 5 megapixel still and video camera, which can shoot in high definition. The screen, which Motorola is calls “Quarter High Definition,” meaning 960 X 540 pixels, is easy to read but not startling.
The big question will be the battery life. The operating system is Android 2.2, which does a better job of managing battery power than earlier Android operating systems, but there are still two processors.
Motorola said that to conserve the battery the phone will use only one processor when only one is needed. But what happens if it uses less battery to have two processors working at half power than a single processor at full power?
I guess we’ll find out when we find out the price, which has not been announced. The Atrix will be out in the first quarter at AT&T, but there is no fear of a repeat of the iPhone’s exclusivity. A dual core phone, the Bionic, will go to Verizon.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Out of the Nealy 80 Tablets We Saw at This Year’s CES, Here’s Our Favorites… | Mobile Marketing Watch

Out of the Nealy 80 Tablets We Saw at This Year’s CES, Here’s Our Favorites… | Mobile Marketing Watch

RIM’s Blackberry Playbook
Mobile Marketing Out of the Nealy 80 Tablets We Saw at This Years CES, Heres Our Favorites...We know there’s been a lot of press regarding RIM’s highly-anticipated entrance into the world of tablets, but it’s for good reason. The Blackberry Playbook is an awesome device, and one I see making huge strides once it’s released in the near future. Sporting a 7-inch, HD display the device is beautiful. Like most tablets entering the market this year, it comes packed with a powerful dual-core processor that facilitates multi-tasking in a way that seems light-years ahead of the iPad — even effortlessly streaming two HD-quality videos at the same time without breaking a sweat. Other goodies include front and rear HD video cameras, micro USB and HDMI outputs and full 4G connectivity. I have to say I had my doubts about the Playbook, but after going hands-on with one at CES, I must admit that RIM has done a fabulous job with its first-gen tablet.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Velocity Micro Cruz Watch hands-on preview

Image representing Android as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBaseyo!

Velocity Micro Cruz Watch hands-on preview

January 12th, 2011
We’ve always liked the idea of having a Bluetooth watch streaming feeds from our phones, because deep down inside, we all want to act like special agents in public. Sadly, there aren’t many of these wearables to choose from in the present market. In fact, with the inPulse smartwatch for BlackBerry seemingly stuck in limbo, what we have left is the Europe-only Sony Ericsson LiveView for Android, and maybesomething nice from Fossil as well if its concept design gets picked up. To seize this opportunity, Velocity Micro is now working on its own connected Android watch — currently known as the Cruz Watch — that’s destined for the sub-$200 market in mid-Q2 2011.
Here’s what we learned about this cool-looking prototype during our exclusive hands-on at CES: in many ways, it’s conceptually identical to the LiveView — it’s a watch, it’s a Facebook feeds reader, it’s a multimedia remote control (for Android’s music app and Android-powered TVs), and it can show you incoming caller IDs. While the Cruz Watch may be a bit of a lightweight when it comes to apps, its hardware certainly bests SE’s offering in several ways: for starters, it has a full touchscreen that takes swipe and tap gesture inputs (instead of using navigation touch controls on the bezel), and it sports a 1.8-inch LCD instead of a 1.3-inch OLED display. There are also a few software features that we dig, especially with the interchangeable clock face: two analog, two digital; and the incoming call notifier pulls the caller’s profile photo from your contact list, which is something that the LiveView can’t do. We’re told that since this watch is powered by Android 2.0 (and possibly something different on retail units), Velocity Micro might be able to implement app installation in the near future, so we shall see. Video walkthrough after the break.

Continue reading Velocity Micro Cruz Watch hands-on preview
Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

TechSpot PC Buying Guide: 2011 Kick Off
  • Posted 3 hours ago by Julio Franco | Filed in TechSpot, Hardware Breaking News
  • About a year ago we revamped our long-standing guide for PC builders and prospective buyers, setting it to be updated on an ongoing basis. Throughout 2010 we kept to our word, making near immediate changes when major product launches took place, and giving the guide biweekly passes to make sure the best component recommendations were live at any given moment with its respective pricing information and analysis.
    The TechSpot PC Buying Guide offers an in-depth list of today's best hardware, spanning four unique, yet typical budgets. Whether you are a first time builder seeking guidance or a seasoned enthusiast, we've got you covered.

Tuesday tech deals: Refurbed Logitech X-530 for $39.99

Tuesday tech deals: Refurbed Logitech X-530 for $39.99
  • Posted 13 hours ago by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Tech Deals
  • Today only, MidnightBox.com offers the refurbished Logitech X-530 5.1-Channel PC Multimedia Speaker System for $39.95 plus $3.99 for shipping. That's $68 under the lowest total price we could find for a new unit...

NZXT Bunker locks down your PC peripherals

NZXT Bunker locks down your PC peripherals
  • Posted 13 hours ago by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Hardware
  • We're not sure how common peripheral theft is, but if you lose sleep over the thought of someone swiping your pricey gaming mouse, NZXT has a solution. The company has launched a new contraption called the "Bunker" that secures external…

Mobile broadband subscriptions to pass 1 billion mark in 2011

  • Posted 14 hours ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in Mobile Computing
  • Ericsson has announced that last year, the number of mobile broadband subscriptions surpassed the 500 million mark globally. The company, which provides telecommunication and data communication systems to operators around the globe, predicts this number will double before the end…

Google to drop support for H.264 in Chrome

Google to drop support for H.264 in Chrome
  • Posted 14 hours ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in Software, The Web
  • Google just made a bold move in the HTML5 video tag battle: even though H.264 is widely used and WebM is not, the search giant has announced it will drop support for the former in Chrome. The company has not…

Facebook starts rolling out new profile to all

  • Posted 15 hours ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in The Web
  • Facebook has rolled out a new profile to all of its users. Last month, the social network introduced the new format, and gave its users the option to upgrade to it early. Hundreds of millions apparently chose to do so,…

It's official, Verizon to sell iPhone 4 on February 10

  • Posted 15 hours ago by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Mobile Computing
  • After seeing more rumors than we care to count, we can finally lay this one to rest: the iPhone is officially coming to Verizon. The popular handset line has only been available through AT&T in the US since its initial…

Rumor: Android 2.4 to ship this summer

Rumor: Android 2.4 to ship this summer
  • Posted 15 hours ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in Software
  • I scream, you scream, we all scream for... Android 2.4. The latest rumor tells us that Android 2.4 is codenamed Ice Cream, and will be released this summer, according to "multiple sources familiar with the matter" cited by Pocket-lint.

Skype sets new record: 27 million concurrent users

  • Posted 16 hours ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in Software
  • Skype set a new record yesterday: 27 million simultaneous active users. The news was announced via Twitter: "New record: 27 million people online on Skype right now!"

MySpace slashes 47% of its staff

  • Posted 17 hours ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in The Web
  • Just like the rumors said would happen, MySpace has announced massive layoffs again. Parent company News Corp is exploring all options for the website, including a sale, and a restructuring could make it look more appealing. The social networking company…

Best Buy launches Buy Back Program

Best Buy launches Buy Back Program
  • Posted 19 hours ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in Electronics
  • Best Buy has launched a Buy Back Program for customers who want to stay current with their gear but who are concerned about obsolescence. The Buy Back Program means the retailer "buys back" your past purchases and gives you your…

OCZ accelerates DRAM market exit to focus on SSDs

OCZ accelerates DRAM market exit to focus on SSDs
  • Posted 20 hours ago by Jose Vilches | Filed in Industry News, Hardware
  • OCZ Technology is a US-based manufacturer of computer hardware known for targeting its products primarily at the enthusiast market, first producing performance DDR RAM, USB drives and various cooling products. But in recent years the company has expanded its product portfolio,…

Roccat intros Kova[+] gaming mouse

Roccat intros Kova[+] gaming mouse
  • Posted 21 hours ago by Jose Vilches | Filed in Gaming, Hardware
  • Roccat has announced the successor to its no-frills, true plug-and-play "Kova" gaming mouse – which we featured in our extensive 12-way mouse round up last year. Much like the original model, the Roccat Kova features that an ambidextrous design that…

Rumor: Microsoft working on FaceTime competitor for WP7

  • Posted 22 hours ago by Jose Vilches | Filed in Mobile Computing, Microsoft
  • Microsoft is working on a competitor to Apple’s FaceTime mobile video chat feature, according to Neowin. The site claims to have gotten tip from a key Windows Phone 7 employee in an “off comment fashion,” but digging into the mobile…
Kingston SSDNow V+180 64GB SSD Review
  • Posted 1 day ago by Steven Walton | Filed in TechSpot, Hardware
  • Kingston has expanded their SSD range with a portable 1.8" line called SSDNow V+180 designed for ultra-mobile devices, such as ultra-thin notebooks, netbooks and tablet PCs. This new series is a spin-off of the original SSDNow V+, which has provided impressive performance in past reviews.

    Because it features the same Toshiba T6UG1XBG controller, the same sequential read/write throughput of 230MB/s and 180MB/s still applies, and it comes in the same 64GB, 128GB or 256GB capacities.

AMD CEO Dirk Meyer resigns, company seeks new leader

AMD CEO Dirk Meyer resigns, company seeks new leader
  • Posted 2 days ago by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Industry News Breaking News
  • Well, we didn't see this one coming. AMD has just announced that (now former) CEO Dirk Meyer has resigned from the company. There's no official reason behind Meyer's departure, except that he reached a "mutual agreement" with the company's board.…

Alienware M18x with dual AMD or Nvidia GPUs coming soon

Alienware M18x with dual AMD or Nvidia GPUs coming soon
  • Posted 2 days ago by Matthew DeCarlo | Filed in Hardware, Mobile Computing
  • Along with the revamped XPS 17 and M17x, Dell is preparing to unleash a massive Alienware notebook with two graphics chips. Unsurprisingly, the upcoming gaming system will use Intel's freshly introduced Sandy Bridge processors and it packs an 18.4-inch 1920x1080…

Intel to pay Nvidia $1.5 billion in licensing fees

  • Posted 2 days ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in Hardware Breaking News
  • Nvidia has announced that it has signed a new six-year cross-licensing agreement with Intel. Beginning on January 18, 2011, Intel will pay Nvidia an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees for the future use of Nvidia's technology. The new…

Motorola Xoom wins CES 2011 Best in Show award

Motorola Xoom wins CES 2011 Best in Show award
  • Posted 2 days ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in Hardware With Video
  • CES 2011 was unsurprisingly full of various tablets, but one of them stood out in particular: the Motorola Xoom. The device won the Best in Show Award at CES 2011.

Google, RIM, and Nokia beat Apple's App Store growth

  • Posted 2 days ago by Emil Protalinski | Filed in Software
  • In 2010, Google's Android Market, Research In Motion's BlackBerry App World, and Nokia's Ovi Store added apps faster than Apple's App Store, according to the latest report from research company Distimo. Apple grew the most in 2010 in terms of…
Enhanced by Zemanta