Friday, July 2, 2010

Microsoft announces InstaLoad battery technology: never insert a battery the wrong way again

6:10 AM Naresh sha J.R


Microsoft has certainly had some ups  and downs  with its products over the years, but we're pretty sure the company's new InstaLoad technology falls somewhere between a home run and the best thing it's ever done. It promises to do nothing short of redefine the way you insert batteries, and let you shove 'em into devices without any regard for positive or negative polarity. That's apparently possible thanks to a patented battery contact design, which Microsoft says "simply works," and is compatible with a whole range of battery sizes (both standard and rechargeable).
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Apple turns on iAds for iOS 4 devices in North America, right on schedule

5:52 AM Naresh sha J.R


Steve himself noted at WWDC that iAds  would go live for "all iOS 4 devices" on Canada Day, One eagle-eyed tipster has already found one within the 'Mirror: for iPod and iPhone' app, shown above. It's certainly quite a bit more visually soothing than some other ads we've seen, but we aren't here to judge.
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Motorola Quench (and CLIQ?) XT3 / XT5 get an FCC reveal

5:47 AM Naresh sha J.R


Remember that so-called XT502 "Greco" from Motorola that the Bluetooth SIG slipped a few details on last month? We can't blame you if you don't, so allow us to refresh your memory: it's supposedly a full-touch Android device with 850 / 1900 / 2100MHz 3G, and from the looks of the tiny, crappy image they'd posted, it'd probably be a midrange phone. Well, the FCC just passed a Motorola handset codenamed "Greco," conveniently, and a look at the test docs says that this phone will be known on the market as the Quench XT3 and XT5 (we're not sure what the difference will be between the two exactly). As you might recall, the current Quench is the international version of the CLIQ XT, which makes perfect sense -- the XT is a midrange full-touch Android phone, so as far as we can tell, we're looking at its successor here. No word on who will be getting it in the US, but the version that's been approved is for WCDMA bands II and V -- so AT&T (which already offers the Backflip) seems the likely candidate.
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HP / Palm buyout officially complete -- get ready for webOS printers

5:42 AM Naresh sha J.R


It's only been a couple short months since HP announced its intentions to buy Palm, but apparently all the investors are happy and the lawyers are rich, because the two companies have just announced that the $1.2b transaction is official and the buyout is complete -- Palm is now part of HP. Yes, it's the end of an era -- Palm's been a part of the tech landscape in one confounding way or another since 1992 -- but it's also the start of what could potentially be a webOS renaissance, as HP plans to use Palm's ideas and OS on everything from smartphones to tablets to even printers. We still don't know exactly how Palm's people and structure will be folded into HP, or what exact role CEO Jon Rubinstein will play, but Palm's already lost some  important  people, and managing that transition while still keeping the product roadmaps on course will be the next great challenge for these two companies. Here's to the best -- now how about some of that rumored new hardware?
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Samsung's 'tank-like,' AMOLED-screened TL500 compact camera reviewed

5:37 AM Naresh sha J.R


The TL500 (aka EX1) is a 10 megapixel shooter with a larger than usual 1/1.7-inch CCD backing up a 24 - 72mm 3x zoom lens that will take you all the way down to F1.8. A lack of 720p video recording is another bummer, but other than those two it's basically all positive, with the build quality and controls earning high marks, and the resulting images looking as good as you'd expect. The camera isn't particularly reasonable at $449,
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Did Nokia just confirm a MeeGo tablet?

5:29 AM Naresh sha J.R


We've heard the rumors, hell, we've even seen Intel reference designs (pictured) running the MeeGo OS. But now we seem to have confirmation that a proper MeeGo tablet built by Nokia is on the way.

Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's newly crowned chief of Mobile Solutions, said the following in an interview captured by the Wall Street Journal:
            Due to the spread of cloud computing and new advances in electronics and network technology, mobile devices will increasingly move beyond smartphones to include other computer-like gadgets such as tablets, and the MeeGo platform will be an important asset for Nokia.
[source]

Intel Classmate PC becomes Toshiba CM1 in Japan

5:13 AM Naresh sha J.R


Toshiba and Intel have announced that they're partnering up to deliver the latter's convertible Classmate PC to Japanese youths . Sporting a 1.66GHz Atom N450 and an overhauled design. It packs 160GB of storage room and 2GB of RAM under a nice 1,366 x 768 10.1-inch touchscreen. The latter flips around to facilitate pen input with an , while the whole package is protected by a well rubberized and ruggedized  case. Now if only it had some multitouch and one of those crazy 15-hour batteries,
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