Sony building VAIO laptop with Chrome OS and Hybrid PC’
Sony Insider is reporting today that Sony is creating a Chrome OS notebook, as well as a “VAIO Hybrid PC.”
The Chrome OS notebook will look similar to Google’s own Cr-48, but smaller with an 11.6-inch screen. The Cr-48 has a 12.1-inch screen.
Promising different specs than the Cr-48, the upcoming Sony laptop will have a Tegra 2, 1GB RAM and a 16GB SSD. The device will weigh 2.2 pounds and provide 8 hours of battery life, around an hour less than the Cr-48.
The Hybrid PC will feature a Core i7 processor, offer outstanding 15 hour battery life, include Intel Thunderbolt, and a large internal SSD.
Additionally, the hybrid will “plug into a dock of some sort that adds a Blu-ray burner and external graphics (by AMD) for gaming and multimedia,” says the site.
There are no pictures or word on pricing, but both devices sound interesting.
Pwn2Own: Chrome, Android, Firefox own; Safari, IE8, iOS, BB get pwned
Two days into the Pwn2Own hacking challenge, only a few still remain.
So far, hackers have not been able to exploit Mozilla Firefox 3.6, Google Chrome, and the mobile Android OS.
Victims of the contest include Internet Explorer 8, Apple Safari 5, iOS 4 and BlackBerry.
All the security researchers who manage to exploit the browsers or operating systems take home a cash prize of $15,000 and a laptop. If Chrome gets beaten, the researcher takes home $20,000.
Charlie Miller beat the iPhone 4 with iOS and has taken home the prize in 2007, 2009, 2010 and this year.
Firefox fixed 10 security flaws the day before the contest started, and Google fixed 9. Chrome has yet to be defeated since its launch in 2008, while Firefox was beaten in 2009 and 2010.
Security researchers from VUPEN beat Safari 5, rather easily: “We pwned Apple Safari on Mac OS X (x64) at Pwn2Own in 5 seconds.”
Rovio secures $42 million in funding
Rovio, the developer behind blockbuster sensation ‘Angry Birds,’ has raised $42 million during a round of funding led by venture capitalist firms.
One of the firms is Accel Partners, which has vested interests in Facebook, Groupon and AdMob, among other mobile or social companies.
Angry Birds currently has 40 million active players across Android, iOS and PC platforms, and downloads have topped 75 million.
Outside of game downloads, Angry Birds plush toy sales have surpassed 2 million, breaking into the mainstream retail channels.
The developer will use the money for “strategic expansions.”
Video Daily: Student sells her spot on iPad 2 line for $900
Amanda Foote, a student at Manhattan Community College spent 41 hours in line at the flagship Apple store on Fifth Avenue in New York City before selling her spot to an app developer for $900.
Foote began waiting on line at 5pm on Wednesday, and was there (through a huge downpour on Thursday) before giving up the spot to Hazem Sayed at 9am on Friday, hours before the 5pm launch.
Sayed said he was willing to pay the large premium for the spot because he wanted to take the tablet on a business trip for which he was leaving on Friday night.
After the sale, Foote says she will probably use the money to see Lady Gaga in concert.
Wi-Fi-only Xoom coming on March 27th?
Droid Life has posted a leaked ad from Staples which shows the Wi-Fi-only model of the Motorola Xoom coming on March 27th.
The tablet will have a retail price of $600.
At the leaked price, the Xoom will sell for $100 more than the cheapest iPad 2, which has half the onboard storage at 16GB.
The launch of the Wi-Fi model is most notable as buyers will not be locked down into an expensive Verizon contract if they want to try out the Honeycomb tablet.
March 27th has not been confirmed by Motorola, or anyone else.
Hulu Plus headed to ’select’ Android 2.2 devices
In January, Hulu announced that its premium Hulu Plus service was eventually headed to Android devices, although it was never disclosed when, or to what devices.
This weekend, the company has updated their devices page with a picture of the Nexus S and a note that says “Select Android OS 2.2 phones” and “Coming Soon.”
The Nexus runs on Gingerbread 2.3, so it seems like Hulu Plus will be available on 2.2 and higher devices.
There was no word on Android tablets.
It is unclear what “coming soon” implies, but it is at least good to see the company has not forgotten about its promise for Android phone support.
iPad 2 to be available earlier online
Apple has said today that it will begin selling the iPad 2 online at 4am EST tomorrow morning, give buyers a chance to purchase the tablet before it is available in stores.
Apple stores will begin selling the device at 5pm tomorrow.
All of the company’s retail partners, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target, will begin selling the tablet at 5pm, as well.
Carriers AT&T and Verizon will do the same.
The iPad 2 adds a dual-core A5 processor, is 33 percent thinner, adds two cameras, new magnetic covers, and some first-party apps like iMovie.
AOL laying off 20 percent of workforce
AOL is prepared to cut up to 20 percent of its global workforce, this week, with as many as 900 people losing there jobs.
The company will cut 400 jobs in India and 200 in the U.S., while outsourcing another 300 to other companies.
At its peak during the tech bubble, AOL had 20,000 employees. After this week, the company will have just over 4000.
Says CEO Tim Armstrong (via Reuters):
We want to go from taking arrows to catching arrows. Today is a difficult one for our company.
AOL will turn around.
AOL just completed its massive $315 million acquisition of The Huffington Post news site.
18 million tablets, 13 million e-readers shipped in 2010
IDC has posted their tablet and e-reader shipment figures for 2010, and it appears that 18 million media tablets were shipped for the year, and 12 million dedicated e-readers.
10 million of those tablets shipped in the Q4 alone.
Apple remained the dominate force, with a 73 percent share of the market, but that number fell substantially from the 93 percent share the company had at the end of the Q3.
Samsung took 17 percent share with their Galaxy Tab, while all other companies took the final 10 percent.
The e-reader market saw significant gains, as well, following the release of the refreshed Amazon Kindle and the Nook Color.
E-reader shipment growth grew 325 percent to 13 million, with the Kindle taking 48 percent share. B&N took second place, with their Nook and Nook Color devices. Pandigital was a close third, followed by Hanvon and Sony to round out the top 5.
IDC expects the media tablet market to hit 50 million shipped in 2011, thanks to the Motorola Xoom and other Android devices but mainly because of the new iPad 2 (pictured).
All HP computers will soon dual-boot Windows and webOS
Starting in 2012, new HP computers will all come with the ability to dual-boot Windows and webOS, the mobile operating system the company acquired with its purchase of Palm last year.
HP has done hardly anything with the popular operating system since its acquisition of Palm, although it did release version 2.0 earlier this year, and plans to release tablets with the OS later this year.
Palm was purchased for $1.2 billion and many wondered if HP overpaid. Palm had less than 9 months of cash left and was burning through money at a furious rate before it put itself up for sale. Sales of the Palm Pre and Pixi devices were slower than anticipated.
It is unclear what advantages users will have booting into WebOS over Windows 7.
HP has announced a number of new webOS smartphones, each of which were received with little fanfare.
