Tech Mania: Sony unveils New PS3 With Upgraded Hardware plus 4 more articles

Sony unveils New PS3 With Upgraded Hardware
Is Apple losing control with iPhone leaks
Office Mobile 2010 released, free upgrade for WinMo 6.5 users
Apple building Facebook into iPhone OS
Sprint selling HTC EVO 4G for $199 on June 4

Sony unveils New PS3 With Upgraded Hardware

Posted: 13 May 2010 03:08 PM PDT

Sony has devised a new strategy by using a new revision of the PlayStation 3 hardware in the latest consoles, one which is cheaper to produce and may even mean that individual PlayStation 3s can be sold at a profit.This revision was spotted by PlayStation University, the new hardware includes changes to the RSX graphics chip and tweaks to the RAM setup.

The new RSX chip has changed to a 45nm version which uses 15 percent less power and is less prone to overheating, hopefully minimising on cases of the ‘yellow light of death’. The Cell chip however remains unchanged.RAM-wise, the new PlayStation 3 consoles will use two 128MB XDR RAM sticks, rather than the four 64MB chips used in older consoles. There’s a new cooling assembly too, plus the power supply is a lot lighter.

sony playstation 3 ps3 120gb 265x300 Sony unveils New PS3 With Upgraded Hardware

Interestingly, the new console may enable Sony to start selling individual consoles at a profit given that the original PS3 Slim design was thought to be breaking even for Sony, says GI.biz.The new PS3 has been labelled as CECH-2100A and, like most minor hardware changes, has not been formally announced or promoted by Sony.

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By Blogsdna

Is Apple losing control with iPhone leaks

Posted: 13 May 2010 01:16 PM PDT

Recently one more authentic prototype of Apple’s next gen iPhone 4g/HD was leaked in Vietnam with the detailed video and teardown photos shows the ins and outs of hardware.That video follows an iPhone lost in March, and put on display by Gizmodo in April. And there may be a third iPhone prototype out there somewhere the one whose disappearance reportedly led a Chinese worker to commit suicide in 2009.This gives a point to think about that Apple has lost not one, but three prototype iPhones in the past year. That's a perplexing development for a company that is famously tight with security.

Three lost prototypes would be a big deal at any company, but they're especially unusual for Apple, which operates on a level of secrecy comparable to the CIA, taking extreme measures to prevent leaks. Former employees have said workers in product-testing rooms are required to cover up gadgets they're working on with black cloaks, and they must flip a red warning switch when prototypes are unmasked to tell everyone to be extra careful. The company is known to even spread disinformation to its own employees about product plans to track down leakers, according to The New York Times.

lostiphone 300x168 Is Apple losing control with iPhone leaks

With the case of the Gizmodo iPhone, the answer is obvious: An engineer field-testing the next-gen iPhone left his prototype in a bar. We're guessing that Apple's field-testing program has been severely curtailed since that happened. But the other two iPhones overseas point to a bigger problem for Apple: The bigger the company gets, the more partners it must work with, and the less Apple has control over the whole process.

More disconcerting is the rumor that the Vietnamese man may have bought the prototype for $4,000 from the black market. Gizmodo paid $5,000 for the lost iPhone in California. These transactions raise questions of whether Apple's partners or unscrupulous people with access to those partners — might create a business out of pilfering and leaking products.

Whatever the case may be, Apple is likely tracking down the people who ended up with the latest prototype to determine where it was sold, and ultimately, who sold it.

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By Blogsdna

Office Mobile 2010 released, free upgrade for WinMo 6.5 users

Posted: 13 May 2010 06:26 AM PDT

Last year Office Mobile 2010 went into and beta, now its passed RTm and is now available in conjunction with the retail release of the full desktop version of Office 2010, bringing comprehensive Word, Excel, and PowerPoint editing capabilities to the pocket on Windows Mobile 6.5. We agree that Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s biggest mobile news this year, but there’ll be a huge legacy base of 6.5 users out there for a long time to come, and they’re pretty much the core audience for the sorts of features that Office Mobile 2010 is offering like SharePoint integration for grabbing documents from the office, a nifty Bluetooth controller mode for PowerPoint presentations, and so on…

The download is available today from Windows Marketplace(4975 KB) for users of 6.5 devices with an older version of Office Mobile installed.It is available as free update for all Windows Mobile devices running WinMo 6.5.

office2010 mobile 300x242 Office Mobile 2010 released, free upgrade for WinMo 6.5 users

Office Mobile 2010 includes the applications like Word Mobile 2010,Excel Mobile 2010,PowerPoint Mobile 2010,OneNote Mobile 2010,SharePoint Workspace Mobile 2010.Unfortunately, Outlook Mobile is not including as part of the update on Office Mobile 2010, meaning there is no change to Outlook E-mail, Contacts, Messaging, Calendar, and Tasks apps on Windows Mobile 6.5 does not get any change.

To download Office Mobile 2010, click on the Marketplace icon on WinMob 6.5 Phone device, then sign in to Marketplace (typically with Windows Live ID). Then search for Office Mobile 2010.Users can also visit Office Mobile 2010 webpage on marketplace.windowsphone.com to "purchase" the app for free. Anyway, Windows Mobile phone users will still need to go Marketplace app to go to My Apps and select "Ready for Download" to initiate the upgrade of Office Mobile 6.1 to Office Mobile 2010.

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By Blogsdna

Apple building Facebook into iPhone OS

Posted: 13 May 2010 04:44 AM PDT

News is brooding that Apple is building Facebook features into the latest version of its iPhone software.These features could be announced during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on June 7, when Apple is expected to reveal iPhone 4G.Sources close to BusinessInsider say that Apple is at least going to build Facebook contact syncing directly into the iPhone software, so you can pull Facebook contacts into your iPhone’s phonebook. This is a no-brainer, and is already a feature that some of Apple’s competition offers, so it makes sense to include on the iPhone.

If you remember Facebook built a feature for its app that syncs your contacts’ Facebook photos with your iPhone, so you can see their Facebook profile picture when they’re calling. Perhaps Apple’s new hooks into Facebook will make this sync process part of the phone’s operating system and not just a feature of the Facebook app.The companies have already worked together on features for Apple’s iPhoto app. And Apple’s iTunes has been a long-time marketer on Facebook.

We also hear that Apple could be integrating Facebook Connect directly into its software developers kit so programmers can more easily add Facebook “social” features to their apps.Some 34.2 million people were “active users” of the Facebook iPhone app in the last month, according to Facebook. That’s about a little more than a third of all the iPhone OS devices — iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad — out there. And it’s almost 10% of Facebook’s 400 million users.

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By Blogsdna

Sprint selling HTC EVO 4G for $199 on June 4

Posted: 13 May 2010 01:25 AM PDT

For all those phone enthusiasts waiting for the WiMAX-powered Android device aka HTC EVO 4G don’t need to wait much longer any more as Sprint has provided more info on the price and date when it would be out for sale in front of the local Sprint store, $199 in hand (assuming you’re signing up for a new contract, of course — according to the fine print, the full cost is $450 before all discounts)

Interestingly, Sprint has specifically called out that you’ll be able to video chat (thanks to the EVO 4G having a front-facing cam) over both 3G and 4G using Qik not a bad choice considering the company’s well-established expertise with streaming live video out of handsets.If you think this was good news there is some bad news too.

htc evo 4g 300x204 Sprint selling HTC EVO 4G for $199 on June 4

Customers will be paying a mandatory (confirmed) $10 per month “Premium Data add-on” on top of their plan — mainly for the privilege of enjoying WiMAX when they’re in a Sprint 4G market — and the 8-device WiFi hotspot feature runs an extra $29.99 a month, which Sprint is quick to point out is half what you’d pay for a dedicated mobile broadband account. This phone is the first to offer on-phone YouTube high quality video, a feature that automatically kicks in when you’re in the sweet confines of a WiMAX tower.

Sprint was hesitant to commit to offering simultaneous voice and data before, but HTC must’ve worked out the kinks, you’ll be able to yap and browse on 4G at the same time.According to Phone Scoop, that $10 premium add-on has the benefit of no data cap for either WiMAX or 3G connections.Starting today, Best Buy is accepting pre-orders for the device, and per usual, they won’t require you to wait for the mail-in rebate — it’s just $199.99 straight-up on contract.

Engadget also captured demos of Qik video conferencing, YouTube HQ (output brilliantly over HDMI), simultaneous data and voice usage, and even a straight-up speed test (4Mbps down, 1Mbps up, the latter of which is a hard cap). This phone performed brilliantly in each scenario, but of course that’s to be expected when you have a 4G tower in the building.Check out the videos below

Via Engadget

Source Sprint

Click here to view the embedded video.