The big talk about tablets began with the announcement of the Apple iPad in January. Since then tablets have gotten more and more popular with many new and not so new designs popping up with increasing frequency, the newest being the Samsung Galaxy Tab. According to analysts this is just the start of great things to come, tablets are expected to boom both in popularity and in numbers in the middle of next year.
Galaxy S i9000 beside it's tablet size big brother
The tablet in itself is a unique device with a unique niche where it will dominate for some time to come, but how useful is it? My ideal tablet would be one with a 7 inch screen, at least 16Gb of internal memory plus expandability and a wide range of connectivity options that should allow me to plug whatever I want to plug into it; from usb keyboards to my own personal USB wimax dongle. This is a geek’s wish and I don’t expect it to suite any and everyone but these are what I think the ideal properties are; anything more is an overkill and anything less is not good enough. A tablet’s philosophy is to provide the missing link to smartphones and mobile computers a niche that was thought to be held by an entrenched netbook category. The truth though is that netbooks are ideally smaller less functional laptops, not a new category per se but more of a slimming down of a line to gain a broader audience by the reduction of price. read more…
Both come with a list of new option and available features. Firstly BBM at a glance there is a new look to
BBM, RIM has changed the way user edit their status, add display pictures and showing user Barcodes.
RIM says bugs have been fixed to improve the overall user experience. One of the newest feature I
found was shift + del, this allows user to close conversation without pressing the BlackBerry button. All
in all what is see it just a visual overhaul of the already popular BBM app.
Facebook, it the Facebook app BlackBerry users should have always had it so much smoother the old
ones used to freeze. Updates are so smooth you don’t even notice them, the menu transition are so
much smoother than older versions. I don’t think the picture load any faster, but it’s not as painful as
on other versions. Liking, add comments and viewing comment of picture is just one click away. Overall
Facebook 1.8 is faster than the previous version. read more…
For a this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which theme was “A Passion for Inovation” which we were informed means that they would have been concentrating on products/technology of the future. The majority of what I saw on display was current technology, overall it pretty much seemed focused on technology available today and yesterday than anything else with a touch of real innovation here and there.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) wasn’t much of a CES but more like a Consumer Show due to its lack of real tech presence and tech variety but instead what it had to offer was a repetition of the same type of technologies and in an instance the same store all together. Why would I want to see two to three companies displaying relatively the same technology? read more…
This is the second part of a 2 part review of the recently launched Digicel Jamaica Wimax service. Part one of there review can be viewed by clicking here. Part one explained Wimax technology as well as giving an overview of the two types of modems that customers of the Digicel Wimax service will use to access the network including installation. In part two I will be covering the following areas:
- Subscribing and Account Management
- Speed and General Performance
- Pricing and Conclusion
Subscribing and Account Management
To start using the service you will need a modem which can be bought at select Digicel outlets as of this writing. Get the CPE modem if your are someone looking for a more fixed solution with the ability to connect multiple laptops and PCs to one connection, get the USB modem if you desire mobility and the ease of setting up. One thing to note however is that if you are living in far rural areas the CPE should be a clear choice because it has a larger antenna surface area which allows it to work in dead spots like where I am living. read more…
Digicel’s long anticipated WIMAX 4G has finally gone live after months of testing and fine tuning the network for optimum performance. The service is set to rival LIME’s broadband ADSL, mobile 3G connectivity being offered by Claro and LIME and the newcomer Dekal Wireless with their wireless broadband based on Wifi. As you can see WIMAX (World Interoperability for Microwave Access) has a lot of competitors offering increasingly better rates and speeds to consumers in Jamaica, so it has a lot of ground to make up in the first few months of it’s incarnation. How does Digicel’s WIMAX stand up to these rival services? In Part 1 of this Digicel Jamaica Wimax Review I will be covering 2 main areas.
- WIMAX: The Technology
- Hardware Overview
WIMAX: The Technology
Wimax is an IEEE standard for broadband distribution commonly referred to as 802.16. Wimax is sometimes confused with Wifi since they are both based on the same 802. Open standard, however they are different both in the way they operates and the hardware involved. The first technology officially branded Wimax was 802.16d-2004 which offered last mile broadband access in places where broadband cables are difficult to set up. Wimax was further improved with 802.16e-2005 which added improved security performance, greater bandwidth and improved latency and spectral efficiency. 802.16e was also the first Wimax iteration to gain true mobility with the decrease in antenna and chip size caused by the overall improvement of the standard. Wimax 802.16e has a maximum speed output of 75mbps under ideal conditions, this bandwidth is diced according to load or according to the ways in which it will be used. Mobile wimax 802.16e has enabled mobile phones, laptops and netbooks to have high speed broadband access on the go, a feat that the older standard could not match. read more…
Saudi Arabia has joined the United Arab Emirates as the second country in the space of a week to ban Research In Motion Ltd’s Blackberry devices. Apparently the encryption method used by RIM protect customer data is enough to get the intrusive Kingdom of Saudi Arabia very upset so they decided to ban the devices all together.
The announcement came hours after RIM executives hosted an event in New York to drum up fanfare for the Canadian company’s latest smartphone, the BlackBerry Torch 9800. This ban is a major setback for cellphone network operators in the Kingdom who recently reported record profits in a booming market. read more…
Comic-Con 2010 had a super surprise announcement when it was announced that Namco and Capcom would be teaming up to bring a fighting game featuring Street Fighter and Tekken characters together in one game!
As in Street Fighter IV, 2D gameplay will feature fully realized 3D character models battling for domination in both new and familiar highly detailed environments that are brought to life with engaging animations. In addition to modes such as Versus and Training that will feature new enhancements to make the fighting experience more in-depth and enjoyable, Street Fighter X Tekken will include Tag Team combat where players select two fighters to deliver knockout assist attacks and special combos. Teaser trailer embedded below. read more…
New Google Chrome Canary Builds are available for download and testing for early adopters running the Windows operating system. According to Google’s Huan Ren, the Canary development milestone of Chrome are nothing more than releases designed to be deployed and tested alongside other copies of the open source browser. Essentially, Google now permits users to install and run two Chrome Builds simultaneously.
“Install one of Google Chrome stable/beta/dev releases as usual. [Then] install Google Chrome canary build (Windows only for now) which will be installed to different path, get updated separately, and run side by side with existing stable/beta/dev installation. In usual situation, the canary build will be same as dev build,” Ren stated. read more…
The smartphone world in the last 3 years have seen more hype than ever before, three new operating systems came to life: iphone OS (rebranded iOS), android OS and webOS. With all the innovations and the attempts in innovations there were a few who failed, both technology-wise and in PR blunders. This is my top 5 list of smartphones and their technologies in the last 3 years that deserve a big failing grade.
5. Nokia N-gage 2.0
The N-gage 2.0 gaming platform was one of the most hyped and promising innovation of the time. The gaming service touted chatrooms, online gaming, scoreboards and an on-device storefront to purchase games-the first true appstore. Nokia carried out heavy marketing and touted the service as the future of mobile gaming, however what followed was one of the biggest fails in Nokia’s history. The first thing that crippled the service was the small amount of devices that were supported, many of which only supported the service in theory but never performed well with it. Only big name companies could build games for the service, the two man developer group had no chance and could not get a license, this could have been forgiven if those big companies churned out a lot of quality games, however a lot of games were of poor quality and had lackluster gameplay. Nokia crippled what could have been the best gaming service on a smartphone bar none and it will continue to haunt them in the foreseeable future. This deserves number 5 on this list. read more…
The Nintendo 3DS was expected to be officially revealed at E3 2010 after it was leaked a few weeks ago forcing Nintendo to announce that it existed. The 3DS is the successor to the the current Nintendo DS with its main feature being the ability to play handheld games in 3D without the need for special glasses.
The Nintendo 3DS weighs slightly more than the DS lite at 230 grams but the overall forfactor remains the same. Games for the 3DS will come on 2gb cardsbut will come with an extra lip to prevent the new cards which will be identical to those for the original DS being inserted in the wrong system. The 3DS will be backwards compatible with the DS. No concreate release date and pricing has been announced but Nintendo states that but will be available before March 2011. read more…
