CrunchGear |  |
- Boom Headshot! Sony Sold 1.2M Vitas Worldwide Since Its Launch Two Months
- The Doro PhoneEasy 740: Finally, An Android Phone For Your Grandparents
- Daily Crunch: Cheap 3D
- Sonastand Is A Stunning Aluminum iPhone 4 Amplifier Dock You’ll Actually Want
- iPad 3 Rumor Roundup
- Is The $300 3D Printer Finally Here? Makible Thinks So
- It’s Official: Apple Sends Out Invites For March 7th iPad 3 Event… In San Francisco
- CNBC: Apple To Announce Quad-Core, 4G LTE iPad Next Week… In NYC! (Update: Nope)
- TC@MWC: The Huawei Ascend D Quad Is One Of The Nicest Phones You’ll Never Buy
- LTE-Packing Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Hits VZW Shelves On March 1
- HBO GO Finally Lands On Xbox 360 On April 1 (And No, It’s Not A Joke)
| Boom Headshot! Sony Sold 1.2M Vitas Worldwide Since Its Launch Two Months Posted: 29 Feb 2012 04:39 AM PST  Apparently there are still dedicated gamers out there. Sony stated on Tuesday that the Vita is exceeding its expectations and over 1.2 million units have sold worldwide. The Vita hit the U.S. and European market last week after launching in Japan in the middle of December 2011. Sony announced in early January at CES that only 500k Vitas sold in its home market. Many pundits and outlet stated the Vita was dead on arrival, citing casual gaming on smartphones and tablets as the killer. But don’t count the Vita out yet. It’s alive and kicking. We found the Vita to be a satisfying device. The screen is wonderful and the possibilities nearly endless with dual analog sticks, a navigation pad, shoulder buttons, motion controls and dual touchscreens including one on the Vita’s backside. It’s impressive — at least in theory. But it still feels like the last of its kind. The launch titles consist of a good deal of ports of smartphone games. The apps are limited, the 3G limited to AT&T, and the battery life sucks. However, the Vita is only fighting the Nintendo 3DS in the dedicated gaming space, a fight Sony no doubt feels the Vita can.
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| The Doro PhoneEasy 740: Finally, An Android Phone For Your Grandparents Posted: 29 Feb 2012 03:26 AM PST  Accessibility has become quite the theme here at Mobile World Congress: Nokia and ZTE have announced new low-cost devices to bring push Windows Phone into developing markets, and Google chairman Eric Schmidt highlighted the importance of connecting all people. Sweden-based Doro is trying to help in their own way — the company has recently pulled back the curtain on the PhoneEasy 740, an Android-powered smartphone meant to help the older folks in your life stay connected. It feels like slider phones like this are harder to come by in general these days, but an Android portrait slider? Seems like a odd choice, but Doro seems to make the form factor work for their needs. The 740 has a thick, plastic body that doesn’t feel like the most solid thing in the world but could take its fair share of drops on tile. The keys were large but shallow; don’t get me wrong, they’re totally usable, but they lacked the satisfying feel a good button should impart when pressed. In addition to the usual nine-key layout on the front, the 740 also features a customizable button on the device’s rear. Think of it as an emergency button. By default, holding it down for a few seconds prompts the phone to continually call and message 5 preset people in case something nasty happens. The screen was passable — given the device’s target market, it doesn’t make much sense to pick nits with with screen technology here — it was bright, and was great for displaying the UI’s large text That UI, called Doro Experience, runs on top of (and obscures) Android completely — there are no homescreens, no widgets, and perhaps most importantly, no ways to access the Android Market. Doro has plans to open their own app portal featuring apps developed in-house. The first will be a medicine dose reminder, and a Facebook application is in the works, though they hope to build partnerships with third-party app developers to help bolster their lineup. Doro is also bullish on what they call the Doro Experience Manager, which allows 740 users to allows for remote access to their apps and media by trusted friends and family. The Doro 740 is set to debut this Spring, and could enjoy a fling in the States — Consumer Cellular, a MVNO geared toward the mature audience carries a few of Doro’s wares, so the 740 may soon be spotted at your local drug store.
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| Posted: 29 Feb 2012 01:00 AM PST  Here are some recent Gadgets posts: TC@MWC: The Huawei Ascend D Quad Is One Of The Nicest Phones You'll Never Buy LTE-Packing Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Hits VZW Shelves On March 1 HBO GO Finally Lands On Xbox 360 On April 1 (And No, It's Not A Joke)
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| Sonastand Is A Stunning Aluminum iPhone 4 Amplifier Dock You’ll Actually Want Posted: 28 Feb 2012 08:36 PM PST  Kickstarter is seemingly a place where people go to make iDevice accessories. Some are hits, most are not. The Sonastand is clearly the former. Apple’s Johnny Ives would probably even approve of this one. The story goes that the Sonastand’s creators are, as one of them puts it on Reddit, two normal nerdy dudes trying to do their thing. To be honest their creation is not very novel but it’s still rad as hell. All the Sonastand does is prop up the iPhone 4 in a way that connects the dock’s passive speaker horn to the phone’s tiny speaker. But it’s not just empty claims compensated by sexy looks. The creators tested the Sonastand and found its passive horn significantly boost mid and high-end frequencies. TWiT will never sound the same.
The pair, Colin and Bob, turned to Kickstarter to fund their little project and are halfway to their goal. The two apparently purchased a CNC milling machine last year with the hope to produce items like the Sonastand (which they say is just the first of many products). They’re looking for $20,000 in funding to produce two different versions of the Sonastand. Right now they’re just over $10,000 with 51 days left on Kickstarter’s ticker. Pledges of $39 or more will net the backer one Sonastand delivered to their door when production begins. Feeling generous? Those that pledge $200 or more will receive a pre-production special polished and engraved Sonastand in their choice of size and color. Admittedly, these things have been around for a while now, but none are as cool as the Sonastand.
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| Posted: 28 Feb 2012 04:20 PM PST  Unless Apple is conning the world, the iPad 3 should be announced next week. It, like its forbears, is the subject of many a rumor, some more likely than others. We’ve collected most of them here in this post with arguments for and against, for your convenience and flaming pleasure. Of course, we’ll be there to cover the event live, and will (if past events are any indication) get a nice hands-on as well. Retina screenArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: This was a long shot last year, but it looks like a sure thing this year. Apple’s high-res screen should be 2048×1536, exactly twice the dimensions of the original iPad. This will allow for smooth upscaling of old content while enabling the same nearly pixel-less UI already seen on the iPhone 4, among other things. Others are creeping up, though: Asus just showed off a 10.1″ tablet at 1920×1200. Capacitive bezelArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: While the powerful gestures of the Playbook and webOS’s non-display gesture areas (i.e. hot bezels) are clear, it’s not at all clear whether Apple is ready to include those things in their UX vocabulary. Simplicity and usability is the word with the iPad, and Apple’s focus has always been on the on-screen interface (especially with a screen-centered device). It doesn’t seem likely to us, but a smaller aspect such as stroking the side instead of a volume button could possibly be in our future. And it doesn’t seem likely that Apple would spoil the surprise of a feature like “no buttons” on the invitation like that. Quad-core CPUArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: Four cores just doesn’t seem right. Apple rarely competes on specs, and some of their most popular products have been conspicuously less powerful than the competition. Their style of chip design is more about specialization, not general-purpose firehose-style CPUs like on PCs. We don’t expect this to happen next week, though later in the year could be another story. More likely is the A5X already spotted, with GPU improvements and other things specific to Apple’s requirements. iPhone 4S-style cameraArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: The chances are good for this one. The improved camera stack is likely just the new standard Apple is bringing to its device line; the more it can put out there, the fewer regular cameras people are buying, and the more they rely on Apple devices for the whole media creation process. And the 4S has already had itself a nice lead time to sell as the premium camera device. Time to spread the love. It may not be the same exact unit but it will probably share at least some of the improvements (back side illumination, better lens). Thicker caseArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: Apple is up against a few physical laws here, and those are notoriously difficult to violate: battery energy density, the strength of a certain width of aluminum, the depth of PCBs and chips. A really serious change in size is out of the question, but a small enough one that it’s more or less imperceptible? The report has it coming it at under a centimeter thick, which was probably the magic number they wanted to stay under. Anything over that would be uncivilized. It’s not going to be the thinnest tablet in the world (the market is too diverse now to claim that title for long anyway) so they’ll focus on their being under a centimeter with better battery life and a better screen than anyone else (for as long as that can be claimed). LTEArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: This is tricky because the iPad 3 will be on the market for a year at least, and LTE is an evolving product, becoming more common and desired. Right now you would have to explain to many iPad buyers what LTE is and why it’s better than 3G. Apple would hate to roll out something that’s slow compared to mobile phones, but at the same time an LTE debut would almost certainly be a mess, with the bandwidth and coverage problems AT&T had for every iPhone. A stepped release could happen: Wi-Fi only until, say, June. Or the chip supporting LTE could ship but not be activated until AT&T and Verizon says it’s okay. Unlikely Apple would ship an incomplete product because of the carriers’ problems, though. This is a wild card. iPad MiniArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: We talked about this a little while back. As much as we might enjoy an iPad Mini, it doesn’t look like it’s in the cards. Apple has committed to the iPad as it is, they are launching a strong new version at that size, with a high-resolution screen. To release a smaller, low-res version would be like saying that maybe the iPad as it is isn’t for everyone. That’s a bad message to send. (To some extent, this applies to a lower-priced iPad 2 as well) Mountain Lion featuresArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: Seems pretty likely that the cloud, syncing, and some 4S features will make it to the iPad, likely in the form of iOS 5.1. This will probably be announced but shipped later, since Mountain Lion and 5.1 for other devices are both still in development. No more 30-pin connectorArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: The 30-pin connector is in all likelihood going to stick around for this device. If it gets dumped anywhere, it will probably be on the iPhone 5. Right now Thunderbolt isn’t ubiquitous enough and not enough people are comfortable relying on cloud and wireless syncing. Tweaking the cable to partially support Thunderbolt is another option, but it’s kind of an awkward one. It would deprecate old cables and accessories while not supporting all the cool Thunderbolt features they’d want to highlight. For now things might just have to remain the same, with iOS and OS X gently pushing the user toward the future solution. SiriArgument:
Objection:
Judgment: There’s a good chance that Siri will be announced as one of the software updates coming to the iPad 3 down the line. Waiting until a later launch date (a la 5.1) could lessen the burden of scaling to accommodate so many new users, and an updated Siri (beta 2 or version 1.0) could be a nice debut item for the device as well. That’s all we have for now. Did we miss some? Do you have some personal theories? Talk amongst yourselves.
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| Is The $300 3D Printer Finally Here? Makible Thinks So Posted: 28 Feb 2012 10:11 AM PST MakiBox is a riff on the open source RepRap 3D printer that fits a print head and motor inside a box about the length and width (but not the thickness, silly) of a sheet of paper. The MakiBox kit will start at $350 while an assembled kit will cost $550. The project is being built by Jon Buford, a well known hardware guy in Hong Kong whose last claim to fame was this teeny tiny Android headphone extender. He runs a hacker space in China and works closely with prototyping houses on the mainland. He also runs, Makible.com, a hardware project funding site akin to Kickstarter. The project is fully funded so you’ll be supporting a sure thing and considering this is based on the RepRap you’ll be working with known hardware and software. The question remains, however: do we need 3D printers on our desks? If not now, when?
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| It’s Official: Apple Sends Out Invites For March 7th iPad 3 Event… In San Francisco Posted: 28 Feb 2012 09:16 AM PST  Looks like CNBC was wrong. Apple just sent out invites for a March 7th event where they promise to have something we really want to see and touch. The event will be held next Wednesday at 10AM PST at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco where they will no doubt unveil the next iPad. This confirms previous reports, besides CNBC’s recent tweet, that Apple was launching the next iPad in the first week of March. No doubt the next iPad will be powered by a new CPU and rock LTE data connectivity. But will Apple maintain the same price? What will happen to the iPad 2? Will MG faint when it’s announced? These and others are the questions that we cannot wait to find out.
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| CNBC: Apple To Announce Quad-Core, 4G LTE iPad Next Week… In NYC! (Update: Nope) Posted: 28 Feb 2012 08:44 AM PST  CNBC just tweeted that Apple is set to announce the next iPad next week. Like previous unconfirmed reports, the next iPad will rock a quad-core CPU and 4G LTE data connectivity. But unlike every other leak, CNBC is stating that the unveiling will happen in New York City. Apple is reportedly thinking different in the post-Steve Jobs era. The company actually held intimate briefings with media outlets regarding Mountain Lion rather than holding an overblown dog and pony show. But launching the next iPad on the East Coast is thinking completely outside the box — but not that us East Coasters are complaining. This report is of course unconfirmed but it’s slightly strange that Apple hasn’t sent out invites for the unveiling yet. Nearly every so-called leak over the last month has placed the iPad launch event in the first week of March. That’s next week. Update: CNBC was wrong. See here.
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| TC@MWC: The Huawei Ascend D Quad Is One Of The Nicest Phones You’ll Never Buy Posted: 28 Feb 2012 08:15 AM PST  After hearing that Huawei had revealed “the world’s fastest smartphone” in the form of the Ascend D Quad, we knew we had to seek it out. Well, we finally managed to score a little hands-on time with the Chinese company’s newest device, and we didn’t come away disappointed. The D Quad is a handsome, understated device, and it feels great too: the device’s back is covered in a slick, soft-touch plastic, and it fits nicely in my hand despite its 4.5-inch 720p display. It’s not even close to being the most ostentatious phone I’ve seen in my days in Barcelona, but Huawei’s design team livened things up a smidge with some red highlights along the device’s rear. It’s clear that in their push for U.S. and global relevance, they’re making sure that the fit and finish of their devices is up to snuff — good on them. To my pleasure, the Ascend D Quad was running stock Ice Cream Sandwich — not a single modification was made from what I could tell, and when combined with Huawei’s seemingly formidable 1.5 GHz K3V2 processor, swiping across homescreens, app pages, and websites was no big thing. What’s more, the D Quad also performed admirably when it came to games like Riptide GP, although I’m sure Huawei knew that would be the case when they preloaded it on their devices. Still, horsepower is horsepower, and the D Quad seems to be doing just fine on that front. And it’s a good thing, too. With Huawei preparing to enter the U.S. market shortly, the D Quad is exactly the sort of device they should have at the ready. And in fact, that’s exactly what’s going to happen — the device will be released in North America as well as all the other usual markets in Q2 of this year. The big question is if anyone will actually buy one. While the company has recently doubled their market share in China, Huawei has little (if any) brand power in the United States — in order to really make the dent in the market they hope for, it’ll take gobs of money, manpower, and marketing to push past (or even just run alongside) more prevalent brands like LG or Samsung. It’s going to be an uphill battle for Huawei — they’ll have to fight to break out of the low-price, low-end handset niche they’ve managed to carve for themselves. Having only seen Huawei handsets occupying the lowest possible rung at my local big box electronics store, getting the chance to play with a seriously respectable Huawei phone was something of an eye-opener. I get the feeling it would be for more than a few consumers too, provided Huawei could get their hardware in front of people’s eyes. Still, I get the impression that transforming their brand isn’t exactly the only thing Huawei has to worry about. Now that people are more aware of how smartphones are produced, I can’t help but wonder what sort of effect Huawei’s Chinese roots will have on their U.S. market push. Even the name could be problematic: I’ve met more than a few people who couldn’t wrap their tongue around the name, with “Wowie!” being one of the most common pronunciations I’ve heard. We’ll soon see how Huawei’s latest and greatest fares here in the States, but hopefully the device will at least get a fair shake.
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| LTE-Packing Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Hits VZW Shelves On March 1 Posted: 28 Feb 2012 07:58 AM PST  For those of you who feel that the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is too big and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is too small, the LTE-packing Galaxy Tab 7.7 should feel just right. And according to Verizon, the little 7-incher should be available March 1 on the big red network, just as we expected. The GalTab 7.7 was announced way back in September alongside the international Galaxy Note, and as my controversial review proves, we’re already playing around with the Note here in the States. That said, a little memory refresh seems to be in order. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 sports a 1280×800 resolution Super AMOLED Plus display at (obviously) 7.7-inches. A 1.4GHz dual-core processor can be found under the hood, and both the front and back of the tablet are equipped with cameras, 2-megapixels and 3.2-megapixels respectively. The rear camera can shoot video in 720p. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 won’t ship with ICS so hopefully you’re a fan of Honeycomb. Even more unfortunately, the GalTab 7.7 wears a $499 on-contract price tag. This means it’s going up against the likes of a 10-inch iPad, or priced way more expensively than the $200 Kindle Fire. The good news is that you have two whole days (thanks, leap year) to mull over these options. Good hunting.
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| HBO GO Finally Lands On Xbox 360 On April 1 (And No, It’s Not A Joke) Posted: 28 Feb 2012 05:30 AM PST  I remember back when HBO GO first launched, and it was only available to Verizon Fios subscribers. All that True Blood, and so very few viewers to enjoy it. But in the past year, HBO GO has extended itself to the far reaches of our Internet-connected universe, and according to a report out of Engadget, it’ll stretch even further. HBO co-president Eric Kessler said at an HBO event last night that HBO GO would come to the Xbox 360 on April 1. Unfortunately, we have no way of deciding whether or not this is legit or a very calculated April Fools joke that is already in pre-production. I’m leaning toward its validity, though. According to a video released by Microsoft, the Xbox 360 has seen over 66 million sales. If even half of those people get on board with HBO GO, it’ll put the service on an entirely new level.
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