A Quick Sneak Peak at Windows 8 (CES 2012)

Earlier today at the Consumer Electronics Show, Intel showed off its new Windows 8 operating system.  In addition to some new form factors, Intel showed some interesting new Windows 8 interface ideas. Keep in mind that these are proofs-of-concept rather than working devices, so they may or may not actually appear on the market.

The most interesting new UI demo was the Nikishki notebook, a clamshell with a big transparent trackpad below the keyboard. The trackpad works as a traditional trackpad and then “disables” when you press your palms on it to type. Then, when you close the laptop, some of the screen is visible and you are able to see and use the Windows 8 tiles available through the transparent portion.

Another concept was a Kinect-like gesture control for laptops that lets you make gestures in the air to control the system.

USB 3.0 Coming To Your Smartphone

Companies have been saying that by the end of 2012, USB 3.0 will be implemented in your smartphones and tablet PCs which will allow speedier data transfer than the current USB 2.0 standard.

USB 3.0 allows for data transfer rates of around 625 MB/s, which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0, whose maximum data transfer speed is 60 MB/s. The USB 3.0 transfer speed on mobile devices won’t be that fast, but it will be much faster than now.

Devices using USB 3.0 will also take a lot shorter of time to fully charge.

USB Implementers Forum also said it aims to reduce the size of USB 3.0 ports on laptops, as it’s becoming a limiting factor in laptop thinness.

New Asus Memo Pad Gets Leaked

Shortly after getting a sneak peek at the Eee PC Flare, new images of another leaked tablet are showing up.  Apparently, these images are showing the Asus Memo Pad.

The Memo Pad will be running on a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 16-64GB of internal storage, built in 3G and Wi-Fi.  The screen resolution will be 1280×800 making the screen 7 inches.  The version of Android that it will run on is not known yet but we can expect to see this product shown at CES this year.

Verizon Fixing 4G Network Problems

Verizon released a statement this evening saying that although there has been “hiccups” recently, they have seen 99% availability for its 4G LTE network for the year and the recent problems that have popped up have been unrelated to one another.

“Each incident has been different from a technical standpoint,” the company said. “Our engineers have successfully diagnosed those past triggering events, and they have not re-occurred. We also work diligently to rectify technical problems in the Network before they affect any customers.”

Verizon is still working on some key changes in the network in order to prevent these outages from happening in the future.

“Among the numerous measures we have taken or will take are: geographic segmentation, which enables us to isolate, contain and rectify network performance issues, and maintain service to the majority of customers when an issue does develop.”

Verizon also said that it’s rolling out “software fixes” that will boost performance and improve reliability.

“Being a pioneer comes with growing pains,” Verizon said. “The recent issues that affected our customers’ 4GLTE service were unforeseen despite careful, diligent planning, deployment and ongoing upgrade programs.”

Updates on Verizon issues.

Possible 3D Galaxy S III

According to Korean-website ETNews, Samsung will be announcing their new Galaxy S III device at Mobile World Congress this year.

The Galaxy S III has been said to be 3D glasses-free.  It will run on a powerful quad-core processor, with 2GB of RAM, and LTE.  Of course the phone will come preloaded with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich (One of the few devices with it) along with TouchWiz.

Although rumors say that the Galaxy S III will be 3D, other rumors say that Samsung will be releasing both a 3D as well as a non-3D model.

Not much is known yet about the device so we’ll just have to wait and see.

New App Wakes You Earlier If It Snowed Last Night

The almost new app, Winter Wake-Up, is a simple app available for purchase on both the Apple and Android market.  This app simply wakes you up earlier if it snowed in your area overnight.   The app lets you configure its settings to wake you up earlier than your scheduled alarm depending on weather conditions, with separate settings for both “Frost” and “Snow.”

Many people are asking the use of this app and the answer to that lies in the question, “Have you ever been late to work/school because of having to dig out your car or driveway?”.  If so, then yes, this app will become extremely helpful to you.

 

Verizon Data Outage for Third Time

It seems like Verizon is having a rough month as today, customers have experienced yet another data outage.  While reviewing customer complaints on the forums, it seems that this recent outage is affecting 4G devices in Georgia, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, California, Virginia, Washington, Texas, and Maryland.

This is frustrating for many and no comments have been made on when the network will come back on.  Click here for updates on the situation.

JXD Releases Android-Based Gaming Tablet

JXD has just recently released its S7100, an Android-powered gaming tablet which will be marketed towards playing old-school arcade games.  The device includes a D-pad, face buttons, and a 7 inch touch screen display.   It will be running on an ARM Cortex A9 CPU, Mali 400 GPU, 512MB of RAM, and includes 16GB of internal storage.

Besides all of this, the S7100 has a 0.3 megapixel front facing camera as well as a 2.0 megapixel rear facing camera with an HDMI out.  A video trailer shows the unit playing a variety of touchscreen games and classic ROMs including Metal Slug, Mario Kart 64, Angry Birds, Plants Vs. Zombies and Fruit Ninja HD. Not to be undone, the device also features the actual PlayStation button icons on its own buttons.

The price tag right now is set around $140.

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Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich To Galaxy S Devices After All

It appears that Samsung is rethinking its decision to not bring Android 4.0 to all Galaxy S devices (Phone and tablet).  The company started to rethink its decision right after announcing it due to “strong customer demand”.

When Samsung announced its list of devices that would receive Android 4 by March 2012, the popular Galaxy S smartphone and Galaxy Tab tablet were missing from the list.  Samsung stated that the Galaxy S devices did not have enough RAM and ROM for the company’s custom TouchWiz and the new OS.  By contrast, the Samsung Nexus S, which has the same hardware profile as the Galaxy S, can and will be upgraded to Android 4, since it doesn’t have to support the TouchWiz interface and other services like video calling or widgets.

A Korean news site quoted an industry official saying that the company is currently reviewing whether or not the Galaxy S devices can support Ice Cream Sandwich.

Click here for updates on this topic

Swype’s Holiday Season Present To You

Swype, the Android keyboard that lets you type (or swype, rather) faster than you ever thought possible, has a present for you this holiday season.  With the recent development of Siri, the voice controlled app, it seems that these voice controlled apps are becoming the future of smartphones.

That said, Swype is launching a new beta with Nuance’s Dragon dictation built right in (see video below). Chances are the actual transcription isn’t faster than your swypes, especially if you’re a veteran Swype user, but when your hands are tied up Dragon should really come in handy.

This new app will also allow you to download a number of different languages.  Unfortunatly, if your phone came pre-loaded with Swype, this beta will not work on your phone.  Instead, you will have to wait until the complete launch of the Swype update to start using it.

To get the new update, just visit Swype’s site from your phone and register with an email address. You will then be sent a download link and be ready to go.