Section: Apple Today, as your probably know, Apple had a major announcement. Steve Jobs took the stage, along with others, to show off what the company has been working on recently. The announcements were expected, for the most part, though exciting nonetheless. The first major announcement from Apple comes in the form of the iPad. The iPad looks almost like a large iPod touch, with a 9.7-inch multitouch IPS display. It is the first device powered by Apple’s new 1 GHz A4 chip, and comes with WiFI (including 802.11n), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, accelerometer and compass. It’s just half an inch thick, comes in 16, 32 and 64 GB versions, and will run all current iPhone/iPod touch apps. It is meant as an answer to netbooks, ebook readers, and anything else you can think would work well with a large touchscreen. Some models will have 3G built in. Plans start at $14.99 a month for 250 MB of data, and $29.99 for unlimited usage. Both plans are on AT&T’s already slow network. There will be AT&T WiFi hotspots, and the plans are not on contract, so you can buy them for only the months you want to use them. International deals should hopefully be done by June or July, though all devices are unlocked with micro-SIMs. The iPad will start at $499 for the 16 GB model, $599 for 32, and $699 for 64. They will ship in 60 days. Accessories include a dock with a keyboard and a nice case with stand Apple also showed off the new version of it’s office suite, iWork. The first version shown sported a completely new UI, and was built specifically for the iPad. Each part of iWork for the iPad will be sold separately for $9.99. Presentations will be able to connect to a projector via a small cable. So that’s it. The iPad, and it looks fantastic. You can find more in-depth information over at Appletell. Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Video 
- 1994 - Development on the movie Avatar began with an 80-page script by James Cameron.
- December 19th, 1997 - James Cameron’s Titanic was released in theatres everywhere.
- 1998 - Titanic becomes the highest grossing film of all time with 1.83 billion dollars worldwide.
- 1999 - Filming was supposed to begin on Avatar but James Cameron decided the technology just wasn’t there yet.
- 2005 - Work on the language and race of the Na’vi began.
- 2006 - Work began on the final script and universe.
- December 18th, 2009 - The release date of James Cameron’s latest movie, Avatar.
- December 2009 - January 2010 - Avatar consecutively holds No.1 spot in the box office.
- January 25th, 2010 - Avatar takes Titanic’s place as the highest grossing film of all time.
In just four weeks, James Cameron’s Avatar managed to make enough worldwide to dethrone Titanic. On top of that, they made it look so simple; to do something movies have been trying to do for over a decade. But on Monday, Avatar grossed 1.84 billion dollars, surpassing Titanic’s 1.83 billion. The last movie to even threaten Titanic was the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight; but the masked avenger fell short. Titanic withstood the blows of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars for 13 years. But ironically, all it took was a giant blue mass to knock it over like it was a cheesy romance. The giant blue mass being the Na’vi that is. Honestly speaking, Avatar was a good movie. I had the fortune of seeing it in both 2D and 3D and liked it either way. Though personally, the 3D was the better of the two by miles. Now what does this have to say about James Cameron? He now holds the two highest grossing films ever. When no one else could topple his record, he did. But now there are even more pressing questions at hand. First off, will Avatar hold its spot after Titanic gets re-released in 3D in 2011? Or how many more days before Avatar becomes the highest domestic grossing move? Or more importantly, will we get to see a Na’vi invasion of Earth in either of the two sequels? Either way, if you haven’t seen Avatar, go. Now. And if you haven’t seen it in 3D, go. It isn’t anything like the cheesy 3D you’ve seen in all the other 3D movies; there is no blatant “here comes my hand!!!” scenes in this one. The 3D is there to make it seem more lifelike, not make you lean back in your seat. Read [IMBD] and [Wikipedia] Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Apple, Features As if you could forget, but just to give a friendly reminder, our sister site Appletell is doing live coverage of the Apple event which starts in just about 25 minutes. What are you waiting for, head on over to Appletell so you can find out what Apple has in store for us today. Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Video, HDTV Samsung has become the first manufacturer to move 3D LCD and LED panels to mass production. The company began producing 40”, 45” and 50” panels using Samsung’s 240MHz technology. 3D TVs are coming to the mainstream as manufacturers struggle to hold onto higher retail price points. Samsung’s 3D TVs will deliver full HD in 2D and full HD 3D at 240 frames per second. "Recently, 3D displays have captured the industry spotlight," said Wonkie Chang, president of the LCD Business at Samsung Electronics. "Samsung Electronics aims to lead the global 3D TV panel market in pioneering panel mass production for 3D LED and LCD TVs." The TV will still require glasses for the 3D experience. Using “3D Active Glasses”, these block the left then the right lens, causing a momentary lag while the image is shown to both eyes. Older 3D glasses were polarized and produced separate images for each eye - reducing the resolution. The newer glasses are said to produce more lifelike images. The 3D TV market is expected to expand to a $17 billion market by 2018. At CES there was a big push for 3D and while the demos were impressive, we can’t help feeling like 3D will have trouble losing its novelty status. What do you think? Are you itching to wear glasses for 3D at home? Press release: [BusinessWire] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Web  Cloud computing poses a host of complications in carrying out the law in a uniform fashion, prompting Microsoft’s top lawyer, Brad Smith to pose a suggestion to the EU. The existing European data retention law was passed in 2006, which did not really consider cloud computing implications back then. The data retention law requires the 27 E.U. member states to each set their own length of time for the retention of data (IP address and time of use of every e-mail, phone call and text message sent or received), between six and 24 months. Most of them have chosen widely varying retention times, the root of the cloud computing problem. With cloud computing, a user could reside in one country, while their data is stored in another. Both countries can have different retention periods, causing compliance by telecom and cloud services to be complicated. Smith suggested several solutions, such as a standardized retention period across countries, or a mutually agreed recognition principles so that the retention period applied is based on where the user’s data is stored.
Via [Yahoo! News] Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Web, Websites, Google Newspapers aren’t faring too well. We all know that. The options lately seem to be close the paper, hope ebook readers and/or the Apple Tablet can save the industry, or establish a pay wall. There are problems with all three, though now we have proof that pay walls don’t always work. The proof comes from the Newsday, the Long Island local paper. In October, Newsday instituted a pay wall of $5 a week, which would add up to $260 a year. Since putting up the pay wall, the paper has seen only 35 people willing to pay the cost to read the local paper. That number seems small, and it is, though it is worth noting that there are other ways to get to the content. Those who have a subscription to the paper (have it delivered to their houses), and those who have cable through Cablevision, the company that owns Newsday, can access the content for free. Those 35 subscribers, therefore, are those who live outside the area or who subscribe to Verizon FiOS and don’t get the paper. About 75 percent of those on Long Island have are able to get free access that way. The problem could also have to do with the quality of the paper. Local papers aren’t always known for being high quality, and the current incarnation of Newsday is no exception. It lost a lot of features when it was bought by Cablevision, which has upset readers and writers. Also, the website is not exactly a joy to navigate or look at. With the New York Times being the closest regional paper, there is really no comparison. It actually makes the fact that the paper was able to convince so many people to pay to access the content. Read [The New York Observer] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks Honestly, the MER-6T does not really have any redeeming features to fight in the all-out e-Readers war. It has a paper-like 6-inch 800 x 600 pixel anti-glare touch screen, built-in 2GB flash memory and it’s expandable via an SD card slot. It supports most popular formats such as PDF, (Free/DRM), ePub (Free/DRM), TXT, RTF, FB2, PRC,/MOBI and HTML. You can also play music in the background while reading on the ebook. A major disadvantage of it is the lack of wireless connectivity; it has neither 3G nor WiFi capabilities. You get all your ebooks transferred to the eReader via the SD card or USB connection, which makes it a very troublesome device to use. No pricing information has been released as of yet, but I wouldn’t think twice on spending much on this device. Product Page [Mustek] Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
 
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