According to a source over at MuyComputer, Microsoft will be unveiling the Zune Phone, which will run on Windows 7 Mobile, at MWC later this month. While Microsoft has not come forth and confirmed this assertion, Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo says his source, Javier Pérez Cortijo, confirms this 100%, and Diaz believes him.
The Zune Phone is somewhat of a misnomer; it will not be a Zune with phone capabilities. Instead, it will be a Windows 7 Mobile phone featuring Zune software. Microsoft is expected to announce Windows 7 Mobile at the Mobile World Congress anyway, so it makes sense to announce a phone that will run it. The phone will run on a NVIDIA Tegra chip, and the screen is said to have a 480 x 272 resolution with HDMI out capability. I’m sure we will learn more in the coming days about the MWC and Zune Phone.
If you are a hard core gamer, then you probably already know having all of the high end peripherals are necessary, such as a good mouse and keyboard. Today, Microsoft announced the latest addition to their lineup of gaming keyboards, the SideWinder X4, which boasts anti-ghosting technology. Essentially, many keys can be pressed at once and all of them will register, allowing players to use complex combos.
The Applied Sciences Group is responsible for the new technology in Microsoft’s latest product. The keyboard can register up to 26 different keys being pressed at once, just to give you some perspective on how well the anti-ghosting technology works. Players can associate one key with a combination, called macro recording. If you keep pressing that single button, the combination saved will continue to occur. Similarly, automatic macro repetition will repeat the same macro as many times as you wish. In addition, users can switch between different profiles with ease, in case you switch between different games throughout the day. The backlighting is also customizable to your specific needs.
It is set to be available sometime in March 2010 for $59.95, it will be available on Amazon for pre-order sometime this week as well.
Slacker had originally announced that a webOS version was in the works, and some had even seen a demo during this past CES. Well, in a little bit of good news for those sporting a webOS handset—that app is now available.
The app, which became available earlier today is currently listed as a beta, and is at version 0.9.4. Users can find and download the Slacker app in the official App Catalog.
As always, there are two listening options available, either listen for free and listen to an ad every so often, or upgrade to the Slacker Plus account which costs $3.99 a month (billed annually).
One drawback is the lack of ability to cache music for offline listening, but aside from the BlackBerry app that is becoming the norm as the iPhone/iPod touch and Android app also lack the ability to cache. Annoying, but certainly not a reason to turn me away from Slacker.
I seem to take free airport Wi-Fi for granted, mainly because I live in the Tampa area and Tampa airport serves the Wi-Fi up for free. I do however understand that many are not quite as lucky and have to pay.
Anyway, Boingo Wireless is currently offering the Boingo Unlimited plan for just $9.95 a month, which according to GottaBeMobile is 50% off their normal price. Sounds like a good deal to me.
As far as what you will get for your 10 bucks a month, well unlimited Wi-Fi of course. But a little more specifically, you will be able to get online at any of the 125,000+ hotspots across the country.
Good marketing campaigns can do wonders for the product. Case in point with Google Chrome and Microsoft Windows 7, as they both became more popular in the month of January. According to Net Applications, Chrome managed to gain popularity in terms of web browsing by stealing popularity from Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. In January, Google Chrome had a 5.20% usage share, which increased from 4.64% in December. IE had 62.18% in January, decreasing from 62.69% in December, and Firefox had 24.41% in January decreasing from 24.61% in December.
I’m not sure if you noticed or not, but our Editor Robert Nelson certainly has, Google had been pushing an intensive campaign for Google Chrome all through late December and January. Interestingly enough, the most popular browser has become IE 8, which passed IE 6 with percentage usage of 22.31% and 20.07%, respectively.
Windows 7 increased to 7.51% in January from 5.71% in December, and in terms of global usage, it has reached 10%. Mac has only slightly increased from 5.11% in December to 5.13% in January. Linux practically stayed the same at 1.02%. It is worth noting Net Applications probably isn’t the most accurate representation of browser usage because it uses data from 40,000 monitored websites, featuring 160 million unique visitors, and bases it on country population to calculate the appropriate percentages.
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Basically, it looks like Southwest is planning to start by installing the equipment on 15 planes per month and later increase that to 25 per month. In the end though, they are estimating that “by early 2012” they will have Wi-Fi on more than 540 planes.
As far as the service itself, that will be provided by Row44, however pricing is still being worked out. According to Dave Ridley, who is Southwest’s senior vice-president for marketing and revenue management;
“We’ll have a decision on price in the second quarter of 2010, rest assured that, just like our fares, it will be a great value. You can count on it!”
Sounds good, but there are plenty of people that think the fares are high, so we will have to wait and see what the public thinks about the Wi-Fi pricing. And until then, there are other airlines already offering in-flight Wi-Fi.
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In an attempt to move away from flash-based video players, YouTube is currently having an opt-in beta for the upcoming HTML5-based video player. You can join the beta by clicking here. Only Google Chrome, Apple Safari (version 4+) and Microsoft Internet Explorer with Chrome Frame installed (Get Chrome Frame) are supported right now.
There are couple of limitations on this early version of the HTML5-based video player, though. Videos with ads embedded in them are not supported, but they will play on the flash-based player. Fullscreen viewing is not supported. Also, if you’ve opted in to other test tube experiments, you may not get the HTML5 player (Feather is supported, though). Here’s a demonstration of the new YouTube HTML5 video player. You can watch it if you don’t mind listening to German.
Basically, it seems as if Amazon has given in, and has decided to once again begin offering the Macmillan titles. Except to the disappointment of the customers, they are not going to return at the now customary price of $9.99. Instead they will return with prices ranging from $12.99 to $14.99.
Bottom line, it seems that Amazon has decided to leave it up to the customers and see if they are willing to pay the higher prices. Here is a copy of the announcement from the Amazon website…
Dear Customers:
Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.
We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.
Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!
Netflix is continuing to make forward progress in the streaming market, and this latest move will have Indie movie fans rejoicing.
According to the latest announcement, Netfix has partnered with “a number of leading distributors of independent” films which will result in them adding about 300 Indie films to the on-demand lineup.
The movies will come from distributors to include The Criterion Collection, Gravitas Ventures, Kino Lorber, Music Box Films, Oscilloscope Laboratories and Regent Releasing.
As for availability, this will vary with some being available immediately to as long as “early next year.”
OLED TVs have not been in active development for some time now, but LG has decided to pursue large screen production of OLED screens. In August 2009, LG announced a 15-inch OLED TV priced at 3 million wons (about $2565). Attempting to raise the bar in 2010, LG announced that it would volume-produce 20-inch class large-size OLED panels in 2010, and subsequently 30-inch class in 2011, and 40-inch class in 2012. Answering a question in everyone’s mind, Vice President Won Kim, in charge of OLED Sales & Marketing at the firm said: “They may be expensive, but it will be possible to buy a 40-inch class OLED TV in 2012.” He didn’t exactly use the word “cheap” or “reasonable”, which brings to mind how possible it is to buy one in 2012?
Dubbed the greenest DDR3 DRAM in the industry, Samsung’s newest 30nm DDR3 DRAM features a reduction in power consumption by up to 30% compared to 50nm DRAM modules. To illustrate the efficiency of these modules, the new 30nm modules can be used in a 4GB DDR3 module for a notebook, consuming only three watts per hour. This amounts to only 3% of the total power usage of a notebook, which means that you get more juice from your battery! By now, you must be thinking that with this kind of power efficiency, it must cost a bomb. Well, don’t worry as Samsung announced that the new 30nm production process is in fact more cost-efficient, by up to two times, than the 50nm and 60nm processes used previously.
NAVIGON announced the release of version 1.4.0 to it’s popular series of iPhone applications which include navigation for the Persian Gulf region. The introduction follows apps for Europe, US, Russia, Turkey, Australia, Brazil, and Southern Africa. MobileNavigator Gulf+Jordan is available in the app stores of the respective countries for $99.99.
The Gulf+Jordan application provides digital maps for United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman as well as Jordan. According to the release, NAVIGON builds on features that made the company unique such as “the intelligent name browser to search for street and building names, the programmable speed assistant, real road signs and the Lane Assistant Pro. Furthermore the App offers a number of innovative features1. As part of the recently introduced version 1.4.0, NAVIGON offers these features for the iPhone for the very first time. The new features complement the established configuration and thanks to their intuitive handling offer a great navigation experience on the iPhone, based on the best-in-class map view and perfectly timed voice advices.”
Of interest, Google Local Search is now incorporated into the program to assist users in finding places. The price is marked as a special introductory price though NAVIGON apps look to vary in price from $49.99 to $139.99.
Fresh from network problems yesterday with service from T-Mobile comes what appears to be a AT&T variant of the Android-powered Nexus One. According the FCC an almost identical device was presented for inspection, this one with AT&T capable radios. As with most FCC filings, much of the data that we’d find interesting is kept off the record.
Currently, the Nexus one is sold in two ways: subsidized with T-Mobile 2-year contract or “unlocked” for $529. Unfortunately, unlocked means little in this case as the radios only support T-Mobile 3G in the US. Slower 2G Edge service would be all an AT&T Nexus owner could hope for, unless they were in WiFi range.
It is not yet clear if AT&T will offer a subsidy, like T-Mobile, via the Google site. It is probably the case that AT&T won’t sell the device, as only Google offers the T-Mobile variant. No pricing, no release date. But for wanna-be Android lovers on AT&T, this could be your phone.
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Slacker had originally announced that a webOS version was in the works, and some had even seen a demo during this past CES. Well, in a little bit of good news for those sporting a webOS handset—that app is now available.
I seem to take free airport Wi-Fi for granted, mainly because I live in the Tampa area and Tampa airport serves the Wi-Fi up for free. I do however understand that many are not quite as lucky and have to pay.
Good marketing campaigns can do wonders for the product. Case in point with Google Chrome and Microsoft Windows 7, as they both became more popular in the month of January. According to Net Applications, Chrome managed to gain popularity in terms of web browsing by stealing popularity from Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. In January, Google Chrome had a 5.20% usage share, which increased from 4.64% in December. IE had 62.18% in January, decreasing from 62.69% in December, and Firefox had 24.41% in January decreasing from 24.61% in December. 
In an attempt to move away from flash-based video players, YouTube is currently having an opt-in beta for the upcoming HTML5-based video player. You can join the beta by 
The last we heard was that 
Netflix is continuing to make forward progress in the streaming market, and this latest move will have Indie movie fans rejoicing.
OLED TVs have not been in active development for some time now, but LG has decided to pursue large screen production of OLED screens. In August 2009, LG announced a 15-inch OLED TV priced at 3 million wons (about $2565). Attempting to raise the bar in 2010, LG announced that it would volume-produce 20-inch class large-size OLED panels in 2010, and subsequently 30-inch class in 2011, and 40-inch class in 2012. Answering a question in everyone’s mind, Vice President Won Kim, in charge of OLED Sales & Marketing at the firm said: “They may be expensive, but it will be possible to buy a 40-inch class OLED TV in 2012.” He didn’t exactly use the word “cheap” or “reasonable”, which brings to mind how possible it is to buy one in 2012?
Fresh from 
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