Archives for July 2010

Microsoft Xbox 360 Best Seller in June

NPD Group is reporting that the Xbox 360 was the best selling console in June this year. The console sold 29,200 or so more units than the Nintendo Wii which stands in second place.

The results do not include portable consoles such as the Nintendo DS that actually was the top-selling system of the month. But for home consoles, it’s a decent lead to have above the Wii.

A significant increases in sales has been seen when comparing the sales numbers from June 2010 to June 2009 which indicate a 35 percent increase in console sales thanks to more interest in the 360 and PS3. [Read more…]

Sharp 100GB BDXL Discs Launch This Month

Sharp has announced that they have created the worlds first available 100GB Blu-ray Disc. The new disc is capable of storing 100GB of data on three layers on a single disc.

The disc is called the VR-100BR1 and is a “write-once” disc that conforms to the BDXL format specifications. The new discs will be available at the end of this month over in Japan.

What the new triple-layer 100GB Blu-ray discs allow users to do is store 12 hours of terrestrial digital TV. [Read more…]

HTC Desire HD Could Launch October

The HTC Ace was first spotted on a roadmap leak of UK phone launched a few weeks back. We now hear that the HTC Ace could be called the HTC Desire HD and include some decent specifications. We also hear that the HTC Desire HD could launch in October this year.

The specs of the new HTC Desire HD (if true of course) show that it has a 4.3 inch WVGA touchscreen. An 8 megapixel camera, 1GHz Qualcomm (Snapdragon?) processor, Android 2.2 Froyo, HD 720p video capture and 4GB of internal memory. [Read more…]

iPhone 4 Internal Bumper Could Fix Antennae

The iPhone 4 antenna is expected to be discussed at today’s press event. What we and many others are expecting to hear is that Apple [AAPL] has found a problem with the antenna and that somehow they will keep the few million iPhone 4 users happy by offering a fix in terms of a case, or some sort of hardware recall.

The problem is that the iPhone 4 sold well and estimates indicate that a hardware recall could cost them in the region of $1.8 billion. The way that Apple decide to move ahead with this will hopefully be revealed later on today.

We are hearing from one analyst, Ashok Kumar, that Apple has created a design fix for the iPhone 4 that insulates the transceiver. According to the analyst (remember analysts are often way out, so take this with a pinch of salt), the iPhone 4 production process has been changed to include an internal component to insulate the antenna connection. This part has been described as an internal bumper. [Read more…]

Android Market has 70,000 Apps – Not 100,000

Androidlib collects data about the Android Marketplace and recently indicated that the total number of available apps was to reach 100,000 this month. This number is actually an overestimate as Google [GOOG] has officially announced in their Q2 earnings call that the number is actually 70,000.

Although the estimates were 30,000 over the actual 70K is still quite an achievement and puts the numbers just a month or two behind if the growth rate shown on Androidlib is correct.

70,000 apps is still quite a way behind the 225,000 apps that Apple [AAPL] has in the app store. [Read more…]

Apple iPad iOS 3.2.1 Update

As well as pushing out the iOS 4.0.1 update to iPhone users yesterday, Apple [AAPL] also pushed out an update to iPad owners which fixes a few things and makes a few changes to the iPad. The update is minor but does promise to improve Wi-Fi connectivity for those who struggle with wireless issues.

The full iOS 3.2.1 update includes the following…

* Improved Wi-Fi connectivity
* Fixed an issue that could prevent copy and paste of single-page PDF attachments in Mail
* Addressed an issue that could cause video playback to freeze
* Improved reliability of video-out when using iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter
* Added Bing as an option for Safari’s search field [Read more…]

iOS 4.0.1 Update for iPhone Arrives

Yesterday Apple [AAPL] pushed out a new update for iPhone owners that takes iOS 4 to iOS 4.0.1. The small update includes the fix for the formula to show the correct amount of bars which were previously misrepresented.

This is the only update listed in the update text which reads…

Improves the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display

It is important to note here that the update does not fix the antenna issues and if you lost signal before by holding your iPhone 4, you’ll still lose it now. [Read more…]

FaceTime Coming to iPod touch and iPad

FaceTime is currently only available on the iPhone 4 and only can be used when calling another iPhone 4 device.

Apple [AAPL] is bringing FaceTime to other devices though. The main question is based around how it will work though with iPod touch devices not having a phone number. BGR managed to get the details which show that your Apple ID will be registered with your device and when someone wants to connect with FaceTime to you, they simply use your email address.

By using push notifications it will allow incoming FaceTime requests to pop up on the iPod touch and other iDevices allowing calls to be initiated. [Read more…]

iPhone 4 Signal/Antenna Problem Prompts US Senator Letter to Jobs

The iPhone 4 antenna problem is expected to be addressed tomorrow at the Apple [AAPL] press meeting tomorrow. This hasn’t stopped a US senator from sending a letter to Steve Jobs asking for more transparency with the issue as well as a free fix rather than putting the emphasis on the users to hold the phone different or buy an iPhone 4 case.

The full letter is below and according to Gizmodo who posted it, it has been verified as real and should be publicly made available shortly. [Read more…]

Samsung Galaxy S Road SMS App

Road SMS is an app built for the Samsung Galaxy S that has an augmented reality feel to make you a little safer whilst texting on the move.

The application makes use of the rear facing camera and feeds live video to the screen and superimposes a keyboard on the top of that. The result is an application that you can use to walk and text at the same time without fear of bumping in to someone.

The Road SMS app is available through the Samsung Apps download store on the Galaxy S. [Read more…]

Vlingo SuperDialer for Android

Vlingo is launching a new app for Android based devices. The new app is called SuperDialer which is being described as an infinite address book in the cloud.

The SuperDialer is voice activated. When enabled you simply say what you want to find and Vlingo finds it for you and displays the contact details you need. The service is location based meaning that you can just say to it “Pizza” for example and it will list all the pizza places near your location. [Read more…]

Top Apple Engineer Warned of Antenna Problems

Bloomberg is reporting that a top engineer at Apple [AAPL] warned of potential antenna problems early on in the iPhone 4 development phase.

The top engineer called Ruben Caballero is an antenna expert who informed management at Apple about the design’s potential to cause issues.

As well as Ruben raising the voice of warning to Apple management it is also believe at least one carrier partner also raised concerns about the new design before the June 24 release date.

Although we’ll never know for sure if Ruben mentioned this or not, it’s certainly difficult to imagine that Apple didn’t spot the problem whilst testing the device. It is also surprising that their press release about a few weeks back also didn’t accept there was an issue. [Read more…]