Pixel Qi transflective LCD trounces the iPad unit in broad daylight
Apple have long been the company to beat when you want to create the ultimate display on a mobile computer and for a very good reason. Their viewing angles, contrast and legibility when exposed to direct sunlight were always great. Yet after Samsung impressively outdid the iPhone LCD unit with its Super AMOLED screens, it now came time for the iPad unit to take its share of beating by the Pixel Qi transflective display.
The Pixel Qi transflective unit remains perfectly visible when exposed to sunlight, while the iPad turns into a mirror that is all but impossible to use. Check out the video and see for yourselves.
The iPhone does slightly better but it’s again no match for the near magical Pixel Qi screen.
Benchmark wars: Nokia N8 vs Nokia N97, guess who is ready to retire
The new Nokia N8 is much better than the elderly N97 but I guess you already knew that. Well, if there is still someone among you that needs a proof to believe those words, here it comes. And one more thing: the N97 should better start packing because it’s time seems to have passed.
The guys over at FinestFones.com have run a couple of benchmark tests on the N8 and compared them to previous tests made with the Nokia N97. For the first test they used is the Speedy Go! app.
As you can see, the N97 managed to get to 253. Its coeval, the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD made it to the impressive 506. To refresh your memory, the Omnia HD packs a dedicated graphics accelerator, while the N97 has none. However, due to the operating system it runs (Symbian OS v9.4 Series 60 rel. 5), the i8910 can’t take full advantage of its powerful hardware. Still, even if its GPU remains unnoticed by the Symbian, the device turned out twice better performer than the N97.
As for the Symbian^3, it allows the N8 to enjoy its GPU and reach the unbelievable 1019. By the way, even with its accelerator switched off the N8 managed to reach 954 which still is a nearly 4 times better result than Nokia N97′s.
Nokia N8 results: Speedy Go! (accelerator off / on) ? FPC Bench 3D
The other application used to compare the performance of Nokia’s current and next Symbian-powered flagships is the FPC Bench 3D. N8′s result is shown on the last screenshot above (60fps is this test’s top score) while the following video demonstrates the performance of the Nokia N97 along with the even older Nokia N95 8GB:
Before you head for the comments section to share your thoughts with us, let me remind you that the N8 used for the test was running a pre-release software (read: the market-ready N8 might turn out even greater�� or worse. We’ll see.).
Master Yoda in Tom Tom voice recording studio, left you must keep
You all probably hate those lifeless or overexuberant voices on your SatNav unit. Well, TomTom obviously puts a lot of effort in changing that – including their latest Star Wars voice pack. They’ve got Yoda, Darth Vader and C-3PO voices ready for download (at a price, of course) with Han Solo coming later this summer. But that’s not what this post is all about. Nope.
It’s about TomTom’s funny viral ads for these voice packs – you don’t want to miss those.
Master Yoda in Tom Tom’s studio is the latest edition in the series. Miss this one not, for so funny it is.
You may have already seen Darth Vader’s video but if you haven’t, hit that Play button hard and may the Force be with you.
In the hectic hustle and bustle of our everyday lives there isn’t much time left to spend on our wellness and fitness, which ultimately results in poor health and unneeded suffering. Sony Ericsson will try and change that by enabling a technology called ANT+ in it’s XPERIA X10, X8 and Arc devices.
As we reported couple of days ago, Sony Ericsson released an update to the XPERIA X10 and X8 family of devices. Amongst the announced bug fixes and new features included, the ANT+ capability was mentioned. The Sony Ericsson Arc was said to support ANT+ right out of the box too.
You may not know what ANT+ is, but if you are into sports, this should mean a lot to you. You know Nike+? I bet you do. It uses ANT+ connectivity too. That’s where the + comes from.
So join me as I explore what ANT+ is and what it can do for you.
What is Ant+?
First of all, let’s begin with what ANT+ actually is. This is a wireless signal technology, which has been integrated into numerous fitness and health-monitoring devices, allowing them to transmit their data wirelessly to any ANT+ enabled display or logging device. You can see where this is going, right?
Imagine that you were out there on the track and your smartphone was ANT+ capable, measuring and recording all your vital statistics and performance indicators.
And it ‘s not for running only. All fitness, sport and health-tracking products such as heart rate monitors, blood pressure monitors, spin bikes, foot pats, weight scales, and so on, can send your health data and statistics to an ANT+ enabled mobile device.
The technology is truly interoperable across a wide array of wellness devices, meaning that whichever ANT+ enabled device you purchase, it will be compatible with your ANT+ enabled phone, tablet, laptop or even wristwatch.
ANT+ enabled Garmin watch
Now ANT+ is not new to the mobile phones world. We had the Samsung Adidas F110 phone that even came bundled with the foot pods and the chest heart rate monitor. Not to mention the nice on-board application and the Adidas miCoach sports portal.
Samsung F110 Adidas phone and accessories review shots
You can even get your iPhone connected to ANT+ using an appropriate dongle or other accessories.
How ANT+ works and how it can be useful to you?
The technology relies on a 2.4 Ghz wireless network protocol and could be simultaneously connected to multiple devices. Connection and pairing between devices is a matter of push of a button or just holding the devices near one another for a couple of seconds. Now that’s seamless.
Once connected, your foot pod will constantly transmit information to the corresponding application on your smartphone, thus feeding it with raw data about your speed, steps and whatnot.
From then on the possibilities are endless. The application could calculate the distance you’ve ran, how many calories you’ve burned, and what speed you have achieved. Imagine if you had a heart rate monitor on you as well. After a couple of training practices you will get your performance profile like a real pro athlete.
Suunto heart rate monitoring chest belt
But vitals tracking has been around for ages. What’s all the fuzz about?
I know what you may be thinking. You think that there are tons of apps that do just that. Track your calories, how much distance you’ve walked for the day, and so on. Yes, there are a crap loads of those, but they usually rely on a timer, GPS data (not available indoors) or the information from the usually untrustworthy accelerometer.
There are dedicated sports devices too, but why buy these when your smartphone is probably 10x times smarter and capable than those. You just need to get the the proper gear to feed it the live data wirelessly and let the phone do the rest.
Adidas, Nike, Garmin and many other fitness and gadgets manufacturers are already on the ANT+ bandwagon, so I think it’s worth a go.
Now the ball is in the field of the developers really. An app built around your vital statistics could have unlimited use – from diagnostics to actual treatment in case of health-related problems. Imagine how your doctor or close ones could get an alarm sent automatically from your smartphone before you even sense there’s something wrong with you. Yeah, it’s as scary as it is useful.
And to wrap up, here’s a video of Sony Ericsson representative Marcus Hansson, explaining a little bit about Sony Ericsson’s step to include ANT+ support.
Oh, and I’d love to read your feedback on the subject. Do you use ANT+ accessories and would you start using the new technology if you had a phone that supports it. And do you think it has any future at all?
13.3-inch Sony VAIO S Series with Core i7, 2x 512GB SSD in RAID 0 is a lot of bang for a lot of buck
Sony announced drool-worthy S Series 13.3” VAIO laptops that boast impressive performance and battery life (up to 16 hours for some configurations). The laptops weigh around 1.7kg and pack more processing power than your average desktop computers, depending on how you customize it.
Prices range from a little under $1000 to you’d-better-not-ask.
The Sony VAIO S Series start with Core i5 @ 2.3GHz (2.9GHz Turbo Boost), but you can pick a Core i7 dual-core CPU @ 2.7GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) as well. Then there’s the AMD Radeon 6470M with 512MB VRAM (for the i5 CPUs) or the Radeon 6630M with 1GB VRAM (for the i7).
And if you’ve got the cash, you can skip over the lowly HDDs and go for the ultimate, bank-breaking 1TB SSD storage in the form of 2x512GB SSDs in RAID 0 configuration. The kind of performance you’ll get out of that makes my mouth water and my office PC weep. My wallet too – the 1TB SSD option costs more than anything else in the laptop itself put together.
The 13.3-inch screen is either 1366×768 (for the cheaper S Series options) or 1600×900 for the higher end models.
The S Series laptops are under 2.5 cm thick and boast magnesium and aluminum materials. The weight is a very respectable 1.72kg.
Using an optional sheet battery (costs $150) will push battery life to 16 hours if you get an SSD configuration. The extra battery can be charged separately and can be ingeniously plugged into the laptop without having to shut it down first.
Nokia Lumia 800 gets frozen in a block of ice, lives to tell the story [VIDEO]
The extra mile Nokia is going to promote their fresh out of the factory Lumia phones is simply amazing. Their latest attempt to promote their Windows Phone 7 running Lumia smartphones includes some bizarre ingredients.
A Nokia Lumia 800? Check. A massive, solid, heavy block of ice? Check. A twist? Check. Let the fun begin. As you may have figured it out by now, Nokia Germany has put a Lumia 800 device into a solid block of ice as part of their Amazing Everyday campaign. Then they’ve put it on the street and let the surprising sight gather the crowds.
But you see, there’s a twist. Whoever manages to fight their way through the ice and sets the Lumia 800 free wins it for themselves. And here’s a video of people’s attempts.
So, what do you think of it? Would you welcome more marketing stunts like this?
Google has pushed out a new update for their Google+ app on iOS and Android. One of the key new features in the iOS version is support for the iPhone 5 and iOS 6. Another new feature is Google+ page owners now being able to view, post and comment from the mobile app.
Lastly, you can also edit your posts, save photos to camera roll and search for people and posts on the iPad.
The Android version also gets the ability to let page owners view, post and comment and along with that there is also a new ‘Find People’ option to discover people and topics more easily. There’s also a new homescreen widget.
You can download the apps from the respective links below.
