T-Mobile G1 bites the dust
The first ever Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 by HTC, has finally been removed from T-Mobile’s online and brick-and-mortar stores, marking the end of an era.
Android’s first smartphone launched in September, 2008.
Frankly, it was only a matter of time before T-Mobile decided to drop the device as its 528 MHz processor, 3.2 inch display, and Android 1.6 OS are obsolete. The phone is also bulky.
While you can root your G1 to have Android 2.1 Eclair, it never ran as fast as you would hope, as the device was not made to handle the new software updates.
The G1’s likely replacement is the HTC G1 Blaze, which has an expected September 9th release date. The phone will have a 1GHz processor and a 3.7-inch screen, along with a full QWERTY keypad.
Author becomes first in “Kindle Million Club”
Amazon has said today that deceased author Stieg Larsson has become the first in the Kindle Million Club, an honor bestowed to authors that have produced over one million Kindle e-book sales.
The Club is only for paid books, not counting the 1.8 million books available for free via the Kindle Store.
Larsson died in 2004 of a heart attack, and was best known for his “Millennium Trilogy” mystery crime novels. All three books, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” are top ten all-time best sellers for Kindle.
Four other authors; Charlaine Harris, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts have each sold over 500,000 Kindle books.
E-books, while increasing daily in sales, still have a way to go before catching up to their print brothers. In the United States, e-books account for 8.48 percent of all book sales, according to the Association of American Publishers.
The Kindle e-reader recently dropped in price from $250 to $190, and Amazon also released an updated Kindle DX for $379, a steep price drop off the first-generation device which sold for $489.
Dell Streak mini-tablet priced at $300 with AT&T
AT&T has finally priced the Dell Streak mini-tablet, selling the 5-inch tablet/phone for $300 with two-year contract and $550 without.
It is still unclear when the Streak will hit retail stores, but Dell and AT&T are already accepting pre-orders on the device.
The first colorway available will be black with red.
Dell launched the tablet/phone in the UK in June, to mixed reviews.
The device has a 5-inch display, phone capabilities, browsing capability, runs the Android OS and has a 5MP camera.
Unfortunately, the device uses Android 1.6, the now obsolete software which has been replaced on most new Android devices by 2.1 Eclair. An update to Froyo 2.2 is promised for later in the year, however.
Apple makes Magic Trackpad official
After months of speculation, Apple has finally, officially introduced their Magic Trackpad desktop companion.
The Trackpad allows desktop users to enjoy multitouch gestures, just like notebook users have enjoyed for years.
Apple’s latest device connects to a Mac via Bluetooth, and will work from up to 33 feet away. The Magic Trackpad promises “months” of battery life.
The company says supported gestures are “two-finger scrolling, pinching to zoom, rotating with your fingertips, three-finger swiping, and activating Exposé or switching between applications with four fingers.”
Apple’s Magic Trackpad is priced at $69.
Yahoo Japan will now use Google search engine
Yahoo Japan, the biggest portal in the nation, has said today it will use Google’s search engine to power its search instead of following Yahoo Inc.’s decision to use Microsoft’s Bing for search.
By teaming up with Google, the venture will control almost 100 percent of the search market in the world’s second largest economy.
Yahoo went with Microsoft after U.S. regulators blocked a deal with Google under anti-monopoly laws. Yahoo Inc. owns about 30 percent of Yahoo Japan.
Additionally, Yahoo Japan will “also adopt Google’s search-linked advertisement delivery system and feed its data to Google sites,” says Reuters.
Yahoo Japan President Masahiro Inoue said they thoroughly looked into both Microsoft’s and Google’s search technology and they found Microsoft’s “not strong” enough for its needs. A main example cited was Japanese language search capabilities.
Video Daily: Android Market gets PSX emulator
Developer ZodTTD has added the first ever PS1 (PSX) emulator for the Android Market today, charging $6 for the app that will allow gamers to relive memories of the classic console.
Tested by the boys at Phandroid, it appears the emulator will run best on new Android devices, especially those using 1Ghz processors, as it lags on older devices.
“[Well], it’s not the smoothest on all devices - you’re definitely going to need a recent high-end handset to make the most out of the experience - but it’s definitely more than we could [have] imagined at this point,” says the site.
“[Still], I can’t help but [think] this won’t be the most elegant experience on a mobile phone: there are just not enough physical buttons on a phone to emulate the original analog stick-equipped DualShock, and the screen real-estate needed to implement a software-based solution might not be the best for everyone.”
Dubbed Psx4droid, the emulator’s features include:
Support for WiiMote.
Multiple save states.
Support for various file types.
Trackball used as d-pad.
And remember folks, you’ll need a PS BIOS file and ROMs in order to use the emulator.
Video Daily: Droid X suffers from antenna issues, as well?
Apple, in an effort to move some of the negative publicity away from their iPhone 4 “antennagate” onto other phone makers, has released a video testing the new Motorola Droid X, which appears to have the same issues when held in the “death grip.”
Posting the video on YouTube and their own site, Apple shows off the Droid X being held in two different grips, with the cell signal bars magnified in the corner.
When barely held, the phone has two bars. When held in the “death grip,” the bars slowly but surely fall to zero.
While Apple may insist that every other smartphone has the same issues as their iPhone 4, has anyone heard complaints from a real user?
iPhone jailbreaking and Android rooting get DMCA exemption
New DMCA exemptions announced by the Librarian Of Congress make it legal, at least in the US, to jailbreak mobile phones. The new exemption also allows the rooting of Android devices.
The Librarian Of Congress found that jailbreaking is generally done to enable fair use under US copyright law and that the objections of mobile phone providers and vendors were based on business model concerns rather than copyright protection. The exemption for unlocking phones for use on different mobile phone providers’ networks was also renewed.
The exemption, which was proposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and strenuously opposed by Apple, could open the floodgates for iPhone apps from major software vendors which would never have been available otherwise.
In addition to the EFF, the jailbreaking exemption was backed by such big names as Mozilla Corporation and Skype.
Thanks to Apple’s use of encrypted code during the boot process it was previously a DMCA violation to reverse engineer the iOS. This has allowed them, through the App Store approval process and SDK Terms Of Service, to tightly control what apps were available for the iPhone and even what tools could be used to create them.
The new rules could result in Adobe either releasing Flash for jailbroken iPhones or placing new emphasis on the Adobe AIR Packager for iPhone, introduced in the recently released Flash Professional CS5. Changes in the iPhone SDK TOS earlier this year prompted Adobe to halt future development of the tool.
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iPhone 4 shipping to 17 more countries this week
Apple has noted today that the iPhone 4 will be made available in 17 more nations starting on July 30th.
Beginning on Friday, the device will be available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The smartphone will be available at Apple Stores in the nations or through carriers and other authorized resellers.
Apple’s latest device is currently only available in France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US.
It retails for $199 (16GB model) or $299 (32GB model) in the U.S. with contract.
Apple will announce “many more countries later this year,” for iPhone 4 availability.
Netflix adds ’search’ for all PS3 users
While some lucky users have had the ability for months, Netflix has updated their PS3-based Watch Instantly service to include a Search function for all users.
Until this week, the search function for the PS3 was an assigned random beta.
A search function was easily the most-wanted feature for the service, eliminating the need to find and queue movies on your computer or smartphone before using the service.
The company has said it will add similar functionality to the Xbox 360 (and possibly Wii?) in November.
Additionally, CEO Reed Hastings noted that PS3 users may be able to soon ditch the streaming Blu-ray disc that must stay in their drives to use the service, as a disc-free version of Watch Instantly software for the PS3 could be available in October.
Says Hastings: “We expect to be launching a major new version of our Sony PS3 user interface which doesn’t require a disc, and is dynamically updated continuously with the latest Netflix UI improvements.”
