CrunchGear

Sony To Challenge MacBook Air With A Couple Of Ultralight VAIOs?
Complete Integration Of Google Voice And 50 Million Sprint Customers, Plus 4G Nexus S
CrunchGear Interview: “Gadget-Talk” With Cody Votolato From The Band TELEKINESIS
Fast Break: As Of Last Week, Many At Sprint Thought They Were Merging With T-Mobile
Hacker Gets Kinect Working On – Wait For It – The Playstation 3
Fly or Die: The Nintendo 3DS, Rockmelt, And Mobile Wallets
In The Race For More Spectrum, AT&T Is Acquiring T-Mobile For $39 Billion
Laco Squad 1,000 Meter Dive Watch

Sony To Challenge MacBook Air With A Couple Of Ultralight VAIOs?

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 05:16 AM PDT

One existing as an ultralight laptop with the ability to dock to a larger station for desktop replacement peripherals and the other as an 11.6 inch netbook running Chrome—rumors are out that Sony is planning to unleash these two ultra-portable VAIOs on the market in the near future.

The former, known as the "Hybrid PC", has specs like: a Core i7, an SSD, HDMI 1.4, WiDi and weighs less than 2.5 pounds. When docked, it has access to a Radeon HD 6700M (Whistler-XT), a Blu-ray burner, Ethernet, VGA, and a custom USB/AC connector. The system is also rumored to support Thunderbolt I/O in some way.

The latter would be an 11.6 inch, Chrome Netbook using an NVIDIA Tegra 2 and sporting 8 hours of battery life. 3G or 4G connectivity would be built into the netbook.

You can get more info on the supposed specs from Sony Insider.

All of this points to Sony's efforts to build a direct competitor to the Apple MacBook Air and revamp their approach to building ultraportable laptops, which have historically been more like regular laptops.

I have to say, as long as it's built well, the docking concept is intriguing. We'll see if these come to market this summer as rumored.

[Via Electronista]

Complete Integration Of Google Voice And 50 Million Sprint Customers, Plus 4G Nexus S

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 05:09 AM PDT

This is the biggest news about Google Voice since the company behind it, previously called Grand Central, was acquired by Google in 2007. They’ve integrated with Sprint. What that means is you are one of Sprint’s 50 million U.S. customers, your Sprint phone number is now also a Google Voice number. And If you’re already a Google Voice subscriber, you can use that number on your Sprint phone without the need for any software. Details are at google.com/voice/sprint.

Here’s how it works. If you are currently a Sprint customer, you can opt in to make that Sprint phone number your Google Voice phone number. This isn’t number porting, Sprint retains control of your number. They simply tell Google when you make or receive calls, and forward that call to other phones if you’ve chosen those options. Google also takes over the voicemail for the phone, and long distance calls are completed by Google at Google’s very low international rates.

In other words, if you have a Sprint phone you can choose to make that a Google Voice phone as well. And get all the benefits of Google Voice, like having it ring to any phone you control, initiating and receiving calls from Gmail, hilarious voicemail transcriptions, etc.
Read more…

CrunchGear Interview: “Gadget-Talk” With Cody Votolato From The Band TELEKINESIS

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 05:47 PM PDT

While the SXSW Interactive Conference concluded days ago and is likely only a faint, buzzed memory in the minds of its tech-savvy attendees, the Music side of SXSW just closed shop today. I made it almost all the way through the epic music showcase, leaving within a few hours of the brutal, bitter end but not before speaking with several musicians about the ways that mobile devices have affected them. I spoke first with Cody Votolato, the guitarist for the indie rockband TELEKINESIS.

A super nice guy, Cody lent some insight into passing the time in a tour bus playing Angry Birds and staying connected to contacts, family and friends. Video below.

Fast Break: As Of Last Week, Many At Sprint Thought They Were Merging With T-Mobile

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 05:33 PM PDT

This morning’s bombshell news that AT&T would be buying T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion has left a lot of questions. T-Mobile customers want to know what it means for them? AT&T customers want to know what it means for them? Would-be iPhone buyers want to know what it means for them? T-Mobile and AT&T have started addressing those already. One thing not addressed yet: what does this mean for Sprint, the nation’s third-largest carrier?

And it’s an especially poignant question for Sprint because as of last week, many at that company believed they would be merging with T-Mobile, we’ve heard.

Hacker Gets Kinect Working On – Wait For It – The Playstation 3

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 12:39 PM PDT

This is really more of a “just ‘cuz” Kinect hack than one of those practical ones we see occasionally. Yes, hacker Shantanu Goel has rigged up his Kinect to work with its greatest enemy, the PS3. Where is your Move now?!

It’s kind of a Rube Goldberg machine of hack tools: The Kinect is connected to his laptop, which is running PrimeSense’s drivers for the Kinect, which are then converted into raw tracking data and reconverted into PS3-compliant data via DIYPS3Controller, used (naturally) to control your PS3 via your PC. This is sent to the PS3 in the form of normal controller movements (analog stick pressure, buttons and all that), resulting in… a slightly janky Kinect-for-PS3 experience!

As you can see in the video above, it’s still in a really early state. But this just goes to show that anything’s possible when you take control of your own hardware. We’ll post again when there’s better video. I wonder if any games on the PS3 will really even be playable with the Kinect?

For more details, tools, and so on, head over to Shantanu’s page for this hack.

Fly or Die: The Nintendo 3DS, Rockmelt, And Mobile Wallets

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 11:50 AM PDT

s the new Nintendo 3DS all that? Does Rockmelt have a chance? Will mobile wallets ever be adopted by real people in real stores? CrunchGear editor John Biggs and I tackle these questions in this week’s edition of Fly or Die. Watch the video to find out who our surprise guest is this time after we give our verdicts on his company’s product.

The Nintendo 3DS uses simple stereoscopic 3D graphics that really pop out and combined with a gyroscope effect creates an incredibly immersive experience. You might look like an idiot playing it because you move your whole body around unnecessarily, but it is very addictive. Biggs wrote up his initial impressions here.

Remember Rockmelt, the Chromium-based browser startup backed by Marc Andreessen?