Author: Serkadis

One recurring issue in the forums is a problem with the phone either not switching to 3G or switching back and forth between 3G and EDGE too frequently — it’s not clear if this is a significant issue or if the complaints are just a symptom of Google’s less-than-stellar customer support.

InfoWorld writes of the concerns:

Google appears to be only accepting e-mail customer queries, to which it pledges to reply in one to two days — far too long, say most people who are complaining online.
Fast: The Nexus One sports a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, and has on-chip graphical capabilities. This device is capable of some promising 3D potential. Future Android phones are likely to match or upgrade the speed to compete with HTC’s newest phone.

Pretty: OLED screens are quite pretty, and have incredible contrast ratios. The Nexus One is equipped with such a screen, running at a 480×800 resolution and 3.7 inches. That’s about 25% greater pixel density than Sony’s beautiful 11-inch 1080p OLED screen.

Fractured: The big problem facing Android is consistency. The Nexus One doesn’t have a keyboard. The Droid does. Upcoming Android phones will have keypads. Screen sizes vary. Internal speeds vary. This is a developer’s nightmare, and is particularly painful for game development.

Third partied: On the other hand, one of Android’s advantages, namely backgrounding apps, could come to the rescue. We’re starting to see hardware accessories for the iPhone go hand-in-hand with a software package on the device, but this only works when that app is open. On Android, we might see third-party accessories that hook into games via a backgrounding “connector” app. If a company like MadCatz made a slick controller that went along with an API to control games, and that became an industry standard, it could give Android gaming a major edge.

Ultimately, I think the direction Android is going will attract some great games. It’s a powerful platform, and the upcoming devices are, as Google coined, “superphones.” There’s a problem with the fractured versions of hardware and Android revisions, but if the market is fertile enough, developers will bite the bullet.

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One recurring issue in the forums is a problem with the phone either not switching to 3G or switching back and forth between 3G and EDGE too frequently — it’s not clear if this is a significant issue or if the complaints are just a symptom of Google’s less-than-stellar customer support.

InfoWorld writes of the concerns:

Google appears to be only accepting e-mail customer queries, to which it pledges to reply in one to two days — far too long, say most people who are complaining online.
Fast: The Nexus One sports a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, and has on-chip graphical capabilities. This device is capable of some promising 3D potential. Future Android phones are likely to match or upgrade the speed to compete with HTC’s newest phone.

Pretty: OLED screens are quite pretty, and have incredible contrast ratios. The Nexus One is equipped with such a screen, running at a 480×800 resolution and 3.7 inches. That’s about 25% greater pixel density than Sony’s beautiful 11-inch 1080p OLED screen.

Fractured: The big problem facing Android is consistency. The Nexus One doesn’t have a keyboard. The Droid does. Upcoming Android phones will have keypads. Screen sizes vary. Internal speeds vary. This is a developer’s nightmare, and is particularly painful for game development.

Third partied: On the other hand, one of Android’s advantages, namely backgrounding apps, could come to the rescue. We’re starting to see hardware accessories for the iPhone go hand-in-hand with a software package on the device, but this only works when that app is open. On Android, we might see third-party accessories that hook into games via a backgrounding “connector” app. If a company like MadCatz made a slick controller that went along with an API to control games, and that became an industry standard, it could give Android gaming a major edge.

Ultimately, I think the direction Android is going will attract some great games. It’s a powerful platform, and the upcoming devices are, as Google coined, “superphones.” There’s a problem with the fractured versions of hardware and Android revisions, but if the market is fertile enough, developers will bite the bullet.

Related posts:

1. Nexus One Problems, Nexus One Problems 2010 Information One recurring issue in the forums is a problem with…
2. Nexus One Accessories, Nexus One Accessories 2010 Information One recurring issue in the forums is a problem with…
3. Nexus One Verizon, Nexus One For Verizon 2010 “The Nexus One is where web meets phone,” says Google…

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One recurring issue in the forums is a problem with the phone either not switching to 3G or switching back and forth between 3G and EDGE too frequently — it’s not clear if this is a significant issue or if the complaints are just a symptom of Google’s less-than-stellar customer support.

InfoWorld writes of the concerns:

Google appears to be only accepting e-mail customer queries, to which it pledges to reply in one to two days — far too long, say most people who are complaining online.
Fast: The Nexus One sports a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, and has on-chip graphical capabilities. This device is capable of some promising 3D potential. Future Android phones are likely to match or upgrade the speed to compete with HTC’s newest phone.

Pretty: OLED screens are quite pretty, and have incredible contrast ratios. The Nexus One is equipped with such a screen, running at a 480×800 resolution and 3.7 inches. That’s about 25% greater pixel density than Sony’s beautiful 11-inch 1080p OLED screen.

Fractured: The big problem facing Android is consistency. The Nexus One doesn’t have a keyboard. The Droid does. Upcoming Android phones will have keypads. Screen sizes vary. Internal speeds vary. This is a developer’s nightmare, and is particularly painful for game development.

Third partied: On the other hand, one of Android’s advantages, namely backgrounding apps, could come to the rescue. We’re starting to see hardware accessories for the iPhone go hand-in-hand with a software package on the device, but this only works when that app is open. On Android, we might see third-party accessories that hook into games via a backgrounding “connector” app. If a company like MadCatz made a slick controller that went along with an API to control games, and that became an industry standard, it could give Android gaming a major edge.

Ultimately, I think the direction Android is going will attract some great games. It’s a powerful platform, and the upcoming devices are, as Google coined, “superphones.” There’s a problem with the fractured versions of hardware and Android revisions, but if the market is fertile enough, developers will bite the bullet.

Related posts:

1. Nexus One Complaints, Nexus One Complaints 2010 Information One recurring issue in the forums is a problem with…
2. Nexus One Accessories, Nexus One Accessories 2010 Information One recurring issue in the forums is a problem with…
3. Nexus One Verizon, Nexus One For Verizon 2010 “The Nexus One is where web meets phone,” says Google…

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The French at Peugeot felt the need to reinvent and set new targets for the near future, so we’re about to witness serious changes. Their aim is quite serious: to move up 3 places in the world car market, to establish Peugeot as the benchmark for style and to become the leader for mobility services.

In its quest, Peugeot is counting on investing in cutting edge technology: electric propulsion in the i0n and E-Vivacity scooter from 2010, diesel hybrid in the 3008 from 2011, e-HDi (… (read more)

Movie and motorcycle legend Steve McQueen continues to be an inspiration for two-wheeled enthusiasts trough the GreenLight corporate, who recently announced a three-year partnership with Troy Lee Designs (TLD) to produce a limited edition helmet line.

The Steve McQueen limited edition helmet line will be unveiled to the public for the first time today at Angel Stadium, at this weekend’s Anaheim 1 race. The helmet will be worn by the Troy Lee Designs / Lucas Oil / Honda Racing Tea… (read more)

Google Nexus One Carries $174.15 Materials Cost, iSuppli Teardown Reveals El Segundo, Calif., January 8, 2010-With its new Nexus One, Google Inc. has taken many of the latest smart-phone innovations and combined them in a single product that manages to be both cutting edge and cost competitive, according to a teardown conducted by iSuppli Corp.

The Nexus One, sold with the Google brand name but manufactured by HTC Corp., carries a Bill Of Materials (BOM) of $174.15, based on a preliminary estimate from iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Team. This total comprises only hardware and component costs for the Nexus One itself and does not take into consideration other expenses such as manufacturing, software, box contents, accessories and royalties.

Google Nexus One Carries $174.15 Materials Cost, iSuppli Teardown Reveals

El Segundo, Calif., January 8, 2010-With its new Nexus One, Google Inc. has taken many of the latest smart-phone innovations and combined them in a single product that manages to be both cutting edge and cost competitive, according to a teardown conducted by iSuppli Corp.

The Nexus One, sold with the Google brand name but manufactured by HTC Corp., carries a Bill Of Materials (BOM) of $174.15, based on a preliminary estimate from iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Team. This total comprises only hardware and component costs for the Nexus One itself and does not take into consideration other expenses such as manufacturing, software, box contents, accessories and royalties.

Google is selling unlocked versions of the Nexus One at an unsubsidized price of $529, or at $179 with a two-year service contract from T-Mobile.

“With the Nexus One, Google has taken the most advanced features seen in recent smart phone designs and wrapped them up into a single sleek design,” said Kevin Keller, senior analyst, competitive analysis, for iSuppli. “Items like the durable unibody construction, the blazingly fast Snapdragon baseband processor and the bright and sharp Active-Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AM-OLED) display all have been seen in previous phones, but never before combined into a single design. This gives the Nexus One the most advanced features of any smart phone ever dissected by iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Service-a remarkable feat given the product’s BOM is similar to comparable products introduced during the past year.”

The attached table presents the preliminary results of iSuppli’s teardown analysis of the Nexus One. iSuppli will conduct a finalized and more detailed analysis later this month.

Return of the Snapdragon

At the heart of the Nexus One is Qualcomm Inc.’s Snapdragon baseband processor that sports a blistering 1GHz clock speed.

“The Snapdragon was first noted in a previous smart phone torn down by iSuppli-the Toshiba Corp. TGO1-which is based on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile operating system,” Keller said. “However, the Android 2.1 operating system used in the Nexus One better capitalizes on the Snapdragon’s fast performance, making the user interface and applications run very quickly.

This processing muscle also gives the Nexus One some advanced capabilities, most notably high-definition 720p video playback.”

iSuppli estimates the cost of the Snapdragon at $30.50, making it the most expensive single component in the Nexus One. With the inclusion of the Snapdragon and the associated power-management and Radio Frequency (RF) transceiver chips, Qualcomm commands 20.4 percent of the Nexus One’s BOM, giving it the biggest dollar share of any component supplier in the design.

AM-OLED display

One of the Nexus One’s signature features is its 3.7-inch AM-OLED display, which is superior to the conventional LCDs used in most smart phone designs in a variety of ways. Compared to LCDs, AM-OLEDs deliver a larger color gamut, a faster response time, a thinner form factor and reduced power consumption.

Prior to the Nexus One, AM-OLED technology appeared in another smart phone, Samsung’s I7500, which features a 3.2-inch display. However, the Nexus One uses a larger display, marking the first use of a 3.7-inch OLED that iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Service has seen.

“The 3.7-inch AM-OLED display on the Nexus One delivers a stunning picture,” Keller said.

With an estimated cost of $23.70, the AM-OLED display is supplied by Samsung Mobile Display Co Ltd.

Heavenly unibody

The Nexus One also sports a unibody design, which means that the smart phone’s enclosure comprises a single part. Such a design approach provides greater structural rigidity, providing more protection to the internal electronics in case the phone is dropped. On the other hand, a unibody tends to drive up manufacturing costs.

Besides Apple Inc.’s iPhone, this marks the first unibody smart-phone design that iSuppli’s teardown analysis team has noted.

With the Nexus One, HTC has taken a major cue from Apple in the enclosure design, making it the most “Apple-like” product yet seen from any in the competition, and others are likely to follow suit.

Noises off

The Nexus One also features a dual microphone design used for cancellation of background noise. This feature also was noted in Motorola’s Droid, another Android-based smart phone. To implement the noise cancellation function, the Nexus One employs a specialized audio voice processor chip from Audience Semiconductor, the first time iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis service has observed a part from this manufacturer in any electronic product.

Lost memories

The Nexus One includes a large quantity of DRAM, employing 4Gbit (512MByte) of Samsung Semiconductor’s Double Data Rate (DDR) DRAM. This compares to 1Gbit or 2Gbit for comparable smart phones. The large quantity of DRAM is required to store executable code to support the fast performance of the Snapdragon processor, and allows for better application performance.

While the Nexus One features 4Gbit of internal NAND flash memory, the same amount as the Droid and the Toshiba TG01, it is bundled with a comparatively small MicroSD card of 4Gbyte. NAND flash is used for storage of user content and media on the smart phone. The Droid and TG01 are supplied with 16Gbyte and 8Gbyte, respectively. This allows Google to keep its overall BOM costs down, yet still allows the user to upgrade as needed. And while the 4Gbyte of internal flash pales against the iPhone’s whopping 16Gbyte, it has the advantage of expandability afforded by the MicroSD card slot where the iPhone has no external storage facility.

Samsung Semiconductor is the supplier of all the memory in the Nexus One, giving it $20.40, or 11.7 percent, of the product’s total BOM.

Synaptics gets in touch

Other notable design winners in the Nexus One include Synaptics Inc., which supplies the phone’s capacitive touch-screen assembly. iSuppli estimates the cost of the assembly at $17.50, or 10 percent of the total BOM. While the module and the Android operating system support multitouch input, the capability is deactivated on the Nexus One.

General Motors recently confirmed that it will start winding down Saab and revealed the name of the company that will supervise the entire process. AlixPartners will be in charge of Saab’s closing, a process which, according to GM, is expected to take up to several months.

GM today confirmed it has selected AlixPartners to supervise the orderly wind down of Saab, and has requested approval of the selection by the appropriate authority in Sweden. The use of a wind down supervisor … (read more)

Clear might be busy bringing WiMAX to as many places as it can, but it looks like that won’t include smartphones — like that just-rumored HTC device for Sprint — anytime soon. That word comes from Phone Scoop, who reportedly confirmed directly with Clear that it doesn’t expect to see any WiMAX-equipped smartphones until at least the end of 2010. The company did say that it expects to see more WiMAX phones available in 2011, however, and that any “phone-type device” that uses WiMAX would use either VoIP or Sprint’s CDMA network for voice calls. Not surprisingly, Clear didn’t drop any hints about exactly who those WiMAX phones might come from.

Clear says not to expect any WiMAX smartphones before end of 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ottawa takes hard look at biofuel productionHamilton Spectator"Experiences in the US and Brazil now suggest that existing biofuels production facilities are responsible for the generation of a range of new air- and …

Despite some of its flaws, Google seems determined to turn Fast Flip, the experimental news-reading app, into a success. It is still not polished enough to leave Google Labs, but it has gotten a lot more exposure, as it is now featured on the Google News homepage albeit at the very bottom. The change isn’t entirely unexpected, as the project got a lot … (read more)

Beyonce is on the cover of the newest issue of Allure Magazine. If anyone has the magazine, feel free to send us the scans.

Continue reading Altec Lansing debuts new range of portable, not-so-portable audio products

Altec Lansing debuts new range of portable, not-so-portable audio products originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s the final instalment in the BMW 5-Series GT production videos, where we see the 5-Series desert testing and high-speed driving before its official debut. To see the previous production videos, including the original design and initial testing, see the first instalment of the 5-Series GT production.

Article Tags: Ross Kaminsky

After the climate hoaxers and extortionists quietly slunk home after their utter failure in Copenhagen, one might have expected a barrage of “the end is nigh” press releases by Al Gore and friends, explaining how the refusal of governments to kneecap their economies will lead to us all being slowly convection baked to death in a never-ending trend of man-made global warming.

But apparently the alarmists have gone into hibernation…perhaps because world-wide record breaking cold would expose errors so great that even the “mainstream” news would have to call them out as full of (much needed) hot air.

As often seems to happen around big “global warming events”, Copenhagen was hit with extremely cold weather during the “climate conference,” including a blizzard on December 17…in a country which hasn’t had a white Christmas since 1995. In a bit of “God must have a sense of humor” irony, the cold weather followed President Obama home, dumping record snowfalls in and around Washington, D.C. two days later.

Source: humanevents.com

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Article Tags: Gerald Warner, Met Office, UK Winter Forecast 2009/10

Fasten your seat-belt before you read this one. It’s a corker. It is a quote from Susan Watts, BBC Science Editor, on Newsnight, as she attempted to explain why the abysmal failure of climate “scientists” to predict current weather conditions does not in any way reduce their credibility in predicting global warming. Watts said: “In fact that seasonal forecast predicting a mild winter wasn’t actually wrong, but it left people with the wrong impression.”

If you think I am making this up, I cannot honestly blame you. I can only invite you to go to BBC iPlayer and view Newsnight for 7 January, in order to hear this garbage for yourself. So, the prediction of a mild winter “wasn’t actually wrong”. Does the term “in denial” have any more graphic illustration than that? If you look out the window you might get the impression of Arctic conditions. But please remember, that is only an impression – a wrong impression. In scientific terms, it is baking hot.

In Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited there is an entertaining passage in which Rex Mottram, an adventurer, is taking instruction in the Catholic faith, in order to marry an heiress. Devoid of belief, he is anxious to conform. Asked by the priest, if the Pope predicted rain would it be bound to happen, he says yes. And if it didn’t rain, persists the priest? “I suppose it would be sort of raining spiritually, only we were too sinful to see it.”

Source: blogs.telegraph.co.uk

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Live is hard and specailly for the nerds and geeks like us so we could use some extra lives and now we can with this awsome T-shirt with 1up.

Show of this cool shirt with 1up and the cool old fashion font to make it even better.

Go check this special extra lives T-shirt.

Continue reading Sony VAIO Z demo video is fully rendered, somewhat dizzying, still worth watching

Sony VAIO Z demo video is fully rendered, somewhat dizzying, still worth watching originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FaceVsion announces TouchCam N1 Skype HD webcam originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audi of America just announced it will be advertising during the Super Bowl XLIV for the third consecutive year. The spot will air in the 4th quarter of the game and will be focusing on the A3 TDI with an environmental theme commercial. The car in question has recently been named the 2010 Green Car of the Year by Green Car Journal.

The soundtrack for the spot will feature 70’s rock icons Cheap Trick reinterpreting one of their classic songs. In 2008 Audi had a Super Bowl spot sho… (read more)