Google may’ve delayed the Chinese launch of Android phones from Motorola and Samsung, but Sony Ericsson sees no problem with wading into the censorship row between the big G and big C. They’re launching their Android phone there in spring!
The X10 will be available worldwide around March/April time, for anyone who still hasn’t realized that most manufacturers make better handsets than Sony Ericsson does. [Reuters]
2010 looks like the year YouTube will leap back into headlines for non-Susan Boyle-related reasons. Thank god for that. After yesterday’s live cricket streaming deal was mentioned, their move into online movie rentals should make indie movie lovers happy.
Taking on Netflix, Apple TV, Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, YouTube’s new rental service will launch on the 22nd of January—as in, 22nd of January TOMORROW.
If you suddenly have grandiose plans of streaming the entire back catalog of John Hughes films, think again. There’ll be just five movies available at launch, titles which launched at the last two Sundance Film Festivals—The Cove, Bass Ackwards, One Too Many Mornings, Homewrecker and Children of Invention. Anyone? No, me neither.
Prices will be $3.99 for four of those films (the fifth price is unknown), and only those living in the US will be able to live-stream them. Over a 48-hour time slot.
This is all well and good, but if that dirty little rumor concerning iTunes.com being turned into a streaming service actually comes good, consider YouTube’s indie frolicking as being as good as dead. [BBC News]
We’re fans of the crazy other-wordly clocks from Jaeager-LeCoultre, and this latest model doesn’t fail in raising beads of sweat on my forehead. Seemingly powered by magic (or any change of temperature), there’s only 76 of the Atmos 566s available.
Designed by Marc Newson, it’s made from clear or blue Baccarat crystal and as well as telling the time it also displays a current sky map. Ranging in price between $2,600 – $70,600, the closest we’ll probably get to owning one is setting it as our desktop wallpaper. But we’re not that obsessed. [Jaeager-LeCoultre via Oh Gizmo via DVICE]
Censorship’s been an ongoing issue in China for decades, but in the last week Google’s really opened a can of worms. Now, the massive carrier China Mobile has been found snooping on people’s messages, looking for “illegal or unhealthy content.”
The Chinese government has supplied a list of keywords for China Mobile to search for, targeting those engaged in piracy, pornography and anything else they deem as being unsavory. Get this—if they find someone who’s using the specific keywords, they’ll lock the phones so that they’re no longer able to send text messages. Makes you feel a whole lot happier with your current network provider, doesn’t it. [NY Times]
Image Credit: Madhatrik
YouTube’s signed a deal with the Indian Premier League to broadcast all Twenty20 cricket matches around the world, for free. It’s not the most thrilling of news, but it’s a healthy step away from being associated with live-streaming U2 concerts.
Not only will viewers be able to watch all 60 matches live, but they’ll also be able to change camera positions, freeze and fast forward the slow bits (presumably if they’re not watching it live). All of the best HOWZAT! moments will be saved in archives for replaying later, and of course it will be ad-funded, with revenues shared between Google and the IPL.
I’m not a cricket fan, so am not sure if the Indian Premier League makes for particularly gripping television, but presumably with this new feather in their cap, YouTube will be able to use it as leverage for attracting even bigger sporting events—maybe next year’s Super Bowl? It’s certainly a trend which looks set to be grow even bigger, with the recent news that Xbox Live will live-stream ESPN sports on the game console. But hey, I hope these companies don’t forget about us non-sports people who don’t know a tennis racket from a soccer ball. [Telegraph]
Image Credit: SJ Jagadeesh
That ASUS EeePad we first heard about in December will be unveiled this June at Computex, if rumors reported by Digitimes are correct. In keeping with ASUS’ Eee name, the tablet will be under $500 in price. Another tablet?
Hey, if every man and his dog is working on a tablet now, then it figures ASUS wants in on the action, considering they redefined portable computing just a few years ago with the Eee PC.
The tablet will run on Nvidia’s Tegra chip, and will be made by Pegatron Technology, an offshoot of ASUS. [Digitimes]
This is one way to save your dull, desperately-in-need-of-a-paint-job walls from obscurity. Dress them up with decals that fold out of the wall, almost like origami.
While the gramophone and scent diffuser decals don’t do much, the lamp actually functions as a light. Marvelous! [Pega Design via DesignBoom]
So far he’s shown a good grasp of Twitter etiquette in his five tweets, replying to ‘slebs Ashton Kutcher and Ryan Seacrest; retweeting successfully twice, and even has a spiffy background wallpaper and profile pic.
But hey Bill, might I suggest you download a Twitter client for your WinMo phone though, and follow some of these decidedly good-looking avatars? [Bill Gates on Twitter]
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This bad-boy-in-a-shell could be used as inspiration for body armor, according to scientists. Meet the Crysomallon Squamiferum, or ‘scaly-foot gastropod.’ He could end up saving your life.
Hailing from the Central Indian Ridge, the snails can ward off attacks from crabs and other menaces thanks to what its hard shell is composed of. Inside hydrothermal vents iron sulphide particles are found, and combined with a spongy middle layer it means that when something strikes it—like a mean crab’s claw—it absorbs energy by allowing the shell to crack, or “microcrack” as the scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are calling it.
The shells also offer a form of attack, as well as defense. In a small way, at least. The iron sulphide will apparently make any attacking claws blunt, by grinding them down.
Whether we’ll see it on the next stab-proof vests is anyone’s guess, but at least we now know to avoid these scaly-foot gastropods. I’m certainly not going to eat any when I’m next in France, anyway. [New Scientist]
If you’ve got nothing better to do between now and the 27th of January, head over to AdWeek where all 66 TV adverts starring John Hodgman and Justin Long have been saved for posterity’s sake. [AdWeek]
Remember those Thermochromatic t-shirts from the early ’90s? Unsurprisingly, American Apparel started selling them last year. Now there’s a sofa version from NunoErin, which is coated in a thermo-sensitive finish that changes color where your body touches it.
It’s the “Love Handles” chair, and for obvious reasons—each oversized thigh will be imprinted on the chair for minutes later. If ever there was a chair that encouraged you to diet, it’s this. [NunoErin via DesignBoom]
Whoa, the dispute between China and Google just got even more messy, with Google being forced to delay the launch of two Android phones from Motorola and Samsung on the China Unicom carrier.
The launch was initially slated for tomorrow, but with Google announcing last week they’d no longer be censoring search results in China—and then being attacked by Chinese hackers—it’s not at all surprising. There’s no word on what exactly will make Google go ahead with the launch as planned, but I’m willing to bet my last dollar that the main stipulation is for China to allow Google to continue with its plight against censorship. [AFP]
It’s been so snowy in both the UK and US in recent weeks, making this Zamboni ice resurfacer truck vacuum the perfect desk accompaniment for sucking up all the crisp crumbs. On sale soon. [UrbanTrendHK]
We’ve got some more details on Sony’s beefed-up VAIO Z series of laptops which were announced at CES, namely the addition of Quad SSD drives, Intel Core i7-620M processors and NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M chips.
We already knew the two models would have a 13.1-inch LED backlit screen, an optical Blu-ray drive and HDMI-out, but new information is always appreciated. Made from carbon fibre and aluminum, the laptops weigh less than 1.45kg.
Going back to those Quad SSD drives, you’ll be capable of writing data in parallel on up to four SSDs at 6.2 times faster speeds than usual.
Two models are available for pre-ordering now, the VAIO VPCZ11Z9E and VAIO VPCZ11X9E. The main differences between the two are that the Z9E has a 2.66GHz chip but can handle an upgrade to 3.33GHz, has 6GB of DDR3 SDRAM and the Quad SSD has 256GB of storage. The 13.1-inch display is 1920 x 1080 and it weighs 1.43kg.
The X9E has a 2.4GHz chip with upgrades to 2.93GHz, and 4GB DDR3 SDRAM with 128GB Quad SSD. The 13.1-inch screen isn’t quite full HD, at 1600 x 900. It weighs a shade less than the Z9E, at 1.41kg.
Both VAIO Z models will be on sale at the end of March, with prices starting at around $1,000.
That lumpy Android MOTOROI phone from Motorola that was only supposed to launch in Korea WILL actually be released worldwide, according to executives. And very soon too, we hear, with March being the proposed month. [Korea Herald – Thanks Cliff_Dangers!]
Measuring 6cm x 6cm, VIA’s EPIA-T700 is the first chip launched in the new Mobile-ITX series which is actually the smallest computer-on-module available, even 50 per cent smaller than VIA’s small-sounding Pico-ITX. That sounds, err, small.
VP of VIA Embedded Platform Division, Daniel Wu, claims:
“The VIA EPIA-T700 takes advantage of the modular design principles inherent in our Mobile-ITX form factor specification, making it easier than ever before to create astonishingly compact x86 devices that don’t compromise on features”
The EPIA-T700 will primarily be used in medical, miltary and in-vehicle devices. Carrier boards are joined up with 3mm connectors, and is powwered by a 1GHz VIA Eden ULV processor and VIA VX820 MSP. There’s 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a Chrome9 DX9 graphics core, Chromotion video engine that supports MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9 and VC1video format. It also supports eight HD audio channels with the VIA Vinyl HD Audio technology. It can be connected to TTL LCD and CRT monitors thanks to the multi-configuration transmitter, and also compatible with PCI Express and Ultra DMA.
Over in Europe, the most downloaded iPhone app is the music-detecting Shazam. In the US, it’s the Facebook app. And those soggy Brits…?
In the UK, the Carling branded iPint has snagged the crown of most downloaded app, according to ComScore’s Alistair Hill’s presentation at the Mobile Games Forum in London. Hic! [Mobile-Ent]
Image Credit: Robinbyles
The HZ35W is a rare compact camera with 15x optical zoom. The wide-angle 24mm Schneider lenses are coupled with 12mp sensors, and the HZ35W has a 3-inch AMOLED screen along with GPS for geo-tagging.
The HZ30W on the other hand has a 3.0-inch TFT LCD, so won’t offer a battery life quite as long as its bigger brother. Video recording is done at 720p and 30fps. These two go on sale in March also.
As expected, Apple is holding a “special event” on Jan. 27 to “come see our latest creation,” with invitations being sent out JUST SECONDS AGO. 10am PST, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco.
Let’s take a closer look at the invite, which is, again, to “come see our latest creation.” Using the word “creation” is telling in both its vagueness and its specificity: It says it’s something new. Apple likes playing with words, too—remember the “something’s in the air” tagline for the event they introduced the MacBook Air, their latest truly new product?
At the same time, it’s interestingly far less weighty than the tagline for the Macworld where Apple introduced the iPhone, which indicated that it would be the beginning of something huge: “The first 30 years were just the beginning.” It’s a light and fluffy blurb, not the one you might expect for something that some people think could be the beginning of a brand new kind kind of personal computing, previously only depicted in movies.
It’s also splattered with paint. Maybe they’re being playful. Maybe there’s a (finger)painting application. Maybe we’re reading too much into a jpeg. Either way, we’ll be there, live.
