Monday, February 21, 2011

Motorola Xoom Launching Flash-Less?

Engadget reports that the Motorola Xoom will be launching on February 24th without flash. The Verizon launch page for the device says in small text that flash for the device will be given as a software update in "Spring 2011" and not be available on release day. It is believed that they are waiting for Flash 10.2 for mobile devices which is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/techbloggerjohn, and please bookmark and share using the buttons below!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Prices, Prices, Prices

Okay, today is the first day I'm making a post from my phone using the Blogger for android app! To start off, Droid-Life is reporting that the HTC Thunderbolt has been speculated to have a $299.99 price tag. They are hoping that this is without the instant discount, but this seems to be way too overpriced considering that the Atrix was leaked at 149.99, featuring a dual-core processor to boot. This whole HTC Thunderbolt fiasco is starting to look like a big mess to me, now with rumours that Skype with video will not be launching with this guy, and will be coming with a software update after the launch. The Samsung Galaxy S 4G is going to be launching on T-Mobile soon with a $199.99 price tag, $50 bucks more than previously thought. The device is basically a bigger Samsung Vibrant with HSPA+ connectivity. The device will launch with Android 2.2 Froyo which is important because Samsung is only rolling out the OTA updates for their Galaxy S devices now. In other news, the Motorola Xoom Android tablet launch page is now live on Bestbuy's site. The page says that the Xoom will be priced at $799.99 and not the $1200 we saw the other day; must have just been a placeholder. Be sure to follow me on www.twitter.com/techbloggerjohn, and please bookmark and share!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Apple App Revenue Shrinking Fast, So is CEO

Apple has still maintained their lead in the mobile app market revenue, but it's lead is shrinking. Their app store currently holds 82% of the market share in revenue, far ahead of any other company. Why the worry you ask? 82% is 10%  less then what it was in 2009. If this rate increases, Apple is headed for trouble. In other news, the ENQUIRER is reporting that Steve Jobs supposedly has only 6 weeks to live. They photographed who they believe to be as Jobs, looking much thinner than his already frail frame. He was apparently walking in to the Stanford Cancer Center, suffering from cancer in his buttocks. Yeah, the ENQUIRER isn't the most reliable source, and we will be sure to keep an eye on this. Jobs has had previous battles with cancer, beating a slow form of pancreatic cancer in 2004, and having a live transplant in 2009. This photo is courtesy of Omnitechnews.net, where they happened to get a hold of an image of the future issue of the ENQUIRER. See you guys later!

Original Story: Omnitechnews.net

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

HP Products Announced

Image from Engadget
HP has announced a slew of new WebOS devices, including the Pre 3, the Touchpad and the Veer. I'm not going to go that in depth with them but will tell you that the Pre 3 runs WebOS 3.0, has a high-resolution 3.6 inch touchscreen, a 5-megapixel camera that shoots 720p HD, and this is the real kicker, a 1.4 Ghz processor. This device seems to be a real step up from any previous announced WebOS phones. The Touchpad slate has a 9.7-inch touchscreen at a resolution of 1024*768, and has a front facing camera, and a 1.2 Ghz dual-core Snapdragon processor, the kind Qualcomm has been hard at work developing. The Touchpad, will be a good challenge to the Playbook, Xoom, and IPad 2. Hopefully HP can get the marketing right so they can sell more products than in previous attempts.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Dual-Screen Phone, OMAP 5 and More!

Hey guys! Got a new post today wrapping up Sprints "Industry First" mobile event that took place just a few hours ago. The announced the Kyocera Echo, a dual-touchscreen smartphone that features 2 high-resolution 3.5 inch touchscreens. The phone slides out on a unique liquid-metal hinge design to show both screens at the same time. The people over at Sprint and Kyocera say this device can "simultask" as they call it, capable of running 2 different applications, one on each screen. Under the hood, the device runs Android 2.2 Froyo powered by a 1GHZ second-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, has a 5-megapixel camera capable of shooting 720p, and is going to be priced at $199 on a two-year contract. The device is not capable of connecting to WIMAX 4G, which seems sad since Sprint was calling it an "industry first" and I assumed this of all phones would come with all the bells and whistles a good phone should have. The device itself looks extremely thick and will definitely bulge out of the pocket, and the dual screen UI seems extremely un-polished and inconvenient, but this is a good concept and one that we could build on and make work. Only if Microsoft hadn't killed their Courier idea. In other news, Texas Instruments has announced their OMAP 5 series, and if this chip ran a phone, it would officially replace your computer. Built off the ARM A15 platform, this chip has 4 cores running at speeds up to 2GHZ each core, a multicore PowerVR SGX544 GPU, which is supposed to have up to 5x the performance of the incredible GPUs in the Samsung Galaxy series phones, which is unbelievable. This also supports Kinect-like gestures, multiple operating systems, up to 8GB of RAM, 24 megapixel images and 1080p HD 3D video capture a 60 fps. Whoa. These chips will be sent out to vendors at the end of this year, with devices featuring it estimated to be available during the second-half of 2012. On a much less amazing note, be sure to make a stop at your local T-Mobile store this weekend as all phones are free for Valentine's day. Be sure to share & bookmark, and please follow me on Twitter if you liked this article! 

Thursday, February 3, 2011

A Quick Update

Hey guys. Just a quick update on the lack of blog posts I've had here. I've been on 3 basketball teams for the past 2 months ant the last 2 weeks has really been busy for me. All of these teams are ending next month, so expect the normal every other day or every day posts that we all used to get. Be sure to follow me on Twitter for more updates: http://twitter.com/TechBloggerJohn, and I'll  see you all soon.