Gumbercules!! writes “While many smartphone users are still on 3G and are waiting for 4G to be available, Samsung is now testing 5G networks, capable of getting speeds up to 1gbps. Obviously, we’re years away from seeing these in the wild (the company is shooting for 2020) but it’s still an amazing improvement over what many people are experiencing now.”
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We’ve heard talk of a GDR2 update coming to Windows Phone 8, including more recent claims of restored FM radio support and a double-tap-to-wake feature, but it’s been unclear when the mid-cycle refresh would show up. Telstra may have just given us a better clue: the Australian carrier tells customers on its support forums that Nokia should deliver its version of GDR2 for testing sometime in mid-May. That suggests the upgrade is relatively close, although we wouldn’t make too many assumptions beyond that — Telstra is just one of many networks that needs to sign off on GDR2, and it’s likely neither the first nor the last. Nonetheless, it’s apparent that Microsoft is relatively close to delivering a big tune-up.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia
Via: WMPoweruser
Source: Telstra
Researchers from Samsung’s Emerging Technology Lab are working together with the University of Texas, Dallas, to develop mobile devices that can be controlled using your mind. Innovation is a huge aspect of the tech world and Samsung is looking to jump miles ahead of its competition. This technological advancement will be beneficial to people who
There are a plethora of options for mobile app crash testing, like Crashlytics, Crittercism and Bugsense. But what about before the day of the big launch? A startup out of India’s GSF Accelerator called Little Eye Labs is looking to handle crash testing before developers go into post-production. They just launched an app and crash testing service within the last few weeks. “We want to catch the bugs before the app reaches the app store,” said co-founder Kumar Rangarajan. The company has built a way for developers to monitor an app’s performance on a single or a handful of devices for how it consumes memory, power and wireless data during a test-run. Basically you either plug the phone into your computer and watch how it performs, or you can disconnect it, and observe how the app performs for a 30-minute run on these metrics through their software. Other competing products like Crashlytics instead look at crash reporting for when a developer’s app is already released, out in the wild and being used on perhaps thousands or millions of devices simultaneously. Little Eye records what’s happening live on the screen as it monitors other less visible stats like data and memory usage. Once the test run is over, it shows charts and a side-by-side video recording that can tell developer what happened while an app was running. “When doing app testing, you need a lot of context around what a user was doing at certain points,” he said. “You can actually deploy this in your lab, run multiple apps on a series of devices. Our main value proposition is that context; it’s the whole video aspect of it.” Rangarajan said the closest comparable service out there is Android’s Dalvik Debug Monitor Server, which comes as a tool for developers using the platform. “It’s very rudimentary, but what we do is more visual, advanced and easy-to-use,” Rangarajan said. Rangarajan and his co-founders previously worked on developer tools at Rational Software, which is a company that IBM acquired for $ 2.1 billion back in 2003. They have a freemium model, naturally. A full annual subscription is about $ 500 per developer, and the monthly costs are roughly $ 50 per developer.
TechCrunch
Facebook has started displaying targeted ads in some users' desktop News Feeds in a test of Facebook Exchange ad delivery system.
Computerworld News
An anonymous reader writes “In a what seems like a surreal mixture of life imitating art, the Golf Channel has taken the wraps of a new camera drone. The hover camera appears to have 8 independent rotors supporting what looks like a gyro-stabilized HD camera. Though it is far from silent, the new drone will be on the course this week at the PGA Tour event taking place at Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Florida. No word on whether or not Lord Vader will be using these to monitor rebel activity on Hoth.”
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McDonalds is launching a new wireless charging service at a select amount of its restaurants in Europe. The fast food chain will equip its tables with PowerKiss wireless technology that’s based off of Qi’s wireless technology. Every surface of McDonald’s tables will be capable of wirelessly charging devices. You’ll be able to enjoy your Big
Google certainly has pockets deep enough to trick out self-driving cars with any kind of pricey gear, but researchers at the University of Oxford have begun testing a solution that aims to keep things affordable. Currently, the system leverages an array of low-profile stereo cameras and lasers that rings up at about £5,000 (approximately $ 7,750), but the next goal is to knock the price down to £500, and eventually to a cool £100 (roughly $ 150). “Really, we do need to solve the engineering challenges of not relying on expensive sensors, but relying on cheap sensors,” Professor Paul Newman told the Telegraph. “But doing some really smart things with those cheap sensor feeds.”
Rather than a vehicle that acts as a chauffeur at all times, Newman’s vision for the modified Nissan Leaf, dubbed RobotCar, is for it to take control on select occasions. While drivers go about their commute, the system composes a 3D map of the car’s environs and commits it to memory. When the auto identifies a familiar setting and feels confident about its ability to take the reigns, it could let the driver know it’s ready to assume control. Right now, the automobile’s been tested on private roads, but the team behind it is working with the UK’s Department of Transportation to roll it onto public streets. Head past the jump for a glimpse of RobotCar in action.
Filed under: Transportation, Alt
Source: Telegraph, RobotCar UK
According to individuals familiar with the situation, Apple is testing designs for a “watch-like device,” something that sounds similar to the popular Pebble smartwatch. The company has already been in discussions about the device with Foxconn, which is reported as actively working on wearable device technology for multiple companies, says the sources. According to the
Apple’s much-rumored smart wristwatch may feature a curved glass display that will set it apart from competitors, reports The New York Times. [Read more]
CNET News
Rumor has it that Microsoft is testing a completed version of the email client Outlook for Windows RT, which currently only offers the ultra-basic Mail client. This information comes from the folks over at CNET, who say that three sources with knowledge of the situation have confirmed the existence of Outlook RT. The downside? According
The company is believed to have completed a version of Outlook for systems running Windows RT. But it’s not clear if or when this software ever will come to market. [Read more]
CNET News
Zothecula writes “NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have begun practicing satellite refueling in space on a test bed outside the International Space Station (ISS). In a series of tests that started on January 14 and are scheduled to continue until the 25th, the two space agencies are using the Robotic Refueling Module (RRM) and Canada’s Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, robot to carry out simulated refueling operations. The purpose of these tests is to develop refueling methods aimed at extending the life of satellites and reducing the amount of space debris orbiting the Earth.”
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TestObject, which offers a cloud-based service for the automated testing of Android apps, has raised funding from Frühphasenfonds Brandenburg, an initiative of the Investitionsbank Brandenburg, and S&S Media’s investment arm, West TechVentures. The amount is being disclosed simply as a ‘seven digit’ investment, though TechCrunch has learned that the size of the round is €1.1m (~$ 1.46m).
TechCrunch
judgecorp writes “Faced with the shortage of IPv4 addresses and the failure of IPv6 to take off, British ISP PlusNet is testing carrier-grade network address translation CG-NAT, where potentially all the ISP’s customers could be sharing one IP address, through a gateway. The move is controversial as it could make some Internet services fail, but PlusNet says it is inevitable, and only a test at this stage.” Regarding the failure of IPv6, these graphs imply otherwise.
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iComp writes with a story about how it will cost you $ 100 to message Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook. “Got something you’d like to say to Mark Zuckerberg? The Facebook CEO still maintains a profile on the social networking site he founded, but beginning on Friday, sending him a personal message could cost you. Mashable was the first to notice that some users who weren’t otherwise on the Behoodied One’s Friends list were being asked to pony up before they could send a message to his Inbox, to the tune of $ 100 a pop. As El Reg reported in December, Facebook has been conducting a limited test of a feature that requires users to pay a fee to send messages to people with whom they have no direct connection. The idea is that the type of users who like to send spam, hate speech, and otherwise frivolous messages typically aren’t willing to pay for the privilege. Impose a fee – however small – and they probably won’t bother.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Feeling that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 could use some more grunt? There’s a chance you’ll get your wish. An unannounced Galaxy Note GT-N5100 has popped up in benchmark scores with what looks to be a 1.6GHz Exynos 4412, better known as the Exynos 4 Quad variant that’s used in the speedy Galaxy Note II. We don’t know that it’s a small tablet, but the 1,280 x 800 resolution matches that of the Galaxy Note 10.1 — it’s not very likely that Samsung wants to duplicate its recent design efforts. Whatever the dimensions, the testing shows that the slate is using Android 4.1.2, and it may be a cellular-equipped model with that “kona3g” codename. If the GT-N5100 is more than just a set of benchmarks, the real question may be when we’ll see it; there’s no guarantee of a tinier Galaxy Note in Las Vegas.
Source: GLBenchmark
Rent.com is making a big step into the mobile world with the beta launch of its redesigned website, one that uses responsive web design to deliver an experience that’s usable on desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
Head of Product Amanda McConnell and Chief Technology Officer Alain Avakian gave me a preview of the redesign last week. It’s very clean, with big images and text, and if you’re looking at it on a smartphone, the page elements that won’t fit on the narrower screen just slide down, forming a more column-style layout.
TechCrunch
WSJ reports Apple to be in an early stage of testing with Foxconn and Sharp.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is collaborating with component suppliers to test TV set designs. Though rumors have long been sprouting about an Apple television set in the blogosphere, a Journal report has a different pedigree. As The Verge puts it, it’s “often the first sign that Apple is serious about a new product.” Still, one of the WSJ’s sources cautions: “It isn’t a formal project yet. It is still in the early stage of testing.”
The WSJ reports this morning that Apple is testing out Apple TV set (as opposed to set-top box) designs, though that testing remains “early stage.” Apple is specifically working on high-res TVs according to the reports, trialling a few different designs, working with a variety of suppliers including Hon Hai (Foxconn) and Sharp on the new TV designs. But a TV being tested by Apple shouldn’t shock anyone.
TechCrunch
Even though T-Mobile plans to go completely prepaid in 2013 and get rid of subsidies altogether, it’s been confirmed that the carrier is launching a separate prepaid brand called GoSmart Mobile, which is currently be tested in “select market”, and could launch sometime next year if the company is happy with the results of the
Although leaked details of the new Redbox Instant service suggested a launch date within the next couple of weeks, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam (Verizon’s is Redbox’s partner in “Project Zoetrope”) told investors today that it would launch commercially in Q1 2013. The Hollywood Reporter and Variety indicated his comments came during the UBS Global Media and Communications conference, where he indicated the beta testing we’d heard would start this month, will actually open up in early January. Word of a $ 6 per month unlimited streaming subscription plan that could be upgraded to include four kiosk DVD rentals for just $ 2 more, with apps for Android, iOS, Samsung and Xbox 360 had us more interested than ever in this competitor for Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video, but it looks like it will be just a little longer before we get to try it out for ourselves.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Verizon
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety
There are literally hundreds of devices to choose from when you’re considering a new desktop computer, laptop or mobile device. We’re overwhelmed by all of the choices we have, but choice is good. When it comes to computing, as far as operating systems, there’s three huge players: Microsoft, Apple and Google. Yes, Google.
A curious thing happened during Chrome browser’s rise to being the number one used browser, an operating system was born. Perhaps that was the plan all along, one can never truly know with Google. What I do know is that when you’re on the go, especially with a laptop, the primary piece of software that everyone uses is the web browser — so why not build an operating system on top of it?
TechCrunch
This uranium-based reactor would use nuclear fission energy to power small spacecraft and possibly installations on Mars. [Read more]
CNET News
Freshly Exhumed writes “Dr. Clive Boddy believes that increasingly fluid corporate career paths have helped psychopaths conceal their disruptive workplace behavior and ascend to previously unattainable levels of authority. Boddy points out psychopaths are primarily attracted to money, status and power, currently found in unparalleled abundance in the global banking sector. As if to prove the point, many of the world’s money traders self identify as the “masters of the universe.” Solution? Screening with psychological tests. Who would pay for it? The insurance industry.” The tech world has plenty of company heads who’ve been called psychopaths, too — but would you want to actually change that?
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Amazon’s trial periods must be as quick as its shipping — just days after we first learned that it was testing monthly subscriptions for Amazon Prime, the online retailer has already put a halt to the program. A spokesperson says only that the company has “completed” its testing and has stopped taking sign-ups. We haven’t been told whether or not the test was successful, although it’s not hard to see the math working against Amazon’s experiment when a $ 79 yearly Prime subscription is unquestionably the better deal. Chalk up the rapid-fire testing to the competitive heat in the streaming video world.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Amazon stops testing monthly Prime subscriptions, leaves the results a mystery originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 21:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If you’ve spent any decent amount of time on Facebook, you’ve no doubt noticed the inefficient means by which people are forced to carry on conversations in the comments section. Namely, if there are more than a handful of comments, users are forced to respond by tagging the user’s name, or using the clunky “@Name”
Facebook is a crowded place any more, with statuses from what is often hundreds of friends and pages vying for the limited space within your daily news feed. Because there is more info than can be reasonably displayed, users often miss out on certain statuses and updates. To help de-clutter things a bit, Facebook is
First it built the Surface, and now Microsoft is said to be working on another new hardware product, this time a smartphone. That’s according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, which says that Microsoft is currently working with Asian component suppliers on its own handset design, though it isn’t yet clear whether or not the device will ever go into mass production.
Until very recently, Microsoft wasn’t known for making hardware. Sure, it put out the occasional Zune, but most of the tech running Redmond’s desktop and mobile operating systems traditionally comes from its partners — the Surface being the exception, of course. According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft might consider making that exception a rule: some of the firm’s part suppliers say that the company is experimenting with a smartphone design of its very own. Folks familiar with the matter say the device in question is between four and five inches, putting it in a sweet-spot that’s larger than the iPhone 5, but not quite as daunting as a Samsung Galaxy Note II. Don’t get too excited, however, sources aren’t sure the if the device will go into mass production, and Microsoft is expectantly tight-lipped about the rumor. Still, we wouldn’t scoff at a smartphone with a build quality to match the Surface — though it might rub some of Redmond’s hardware partners the wrong way.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft
WSJ: Microsoft testing homegrown handset designs with suppliers, may not see mass production originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 01:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dell has built a prototype server based on a 64-bit ARM processor from Applied Micro Circuits, which showed the system at a conference in Silicon Valley on Thursday.
Computerworld News
While there’s still a lot we don’t know about BlackBerry 10 (like its release date), RIM CEO Thorsten Heins delivered some very encouraging news today. In a new statement, RIM’s head honcho said that the new mobile operating system and some of the devices it runs on have entered testing with a number of the
During Microsoft’s official launch event for Windows 8 in New York City today, Steven Sinofsky, the president of the company’s Windows and Windows Live division, said that the company’s new operating system went through 1,240,000,000 hours of testing in public in 190 countries. “No product anywhere receives this kind of testing anywhere in the world,” he said.
TechCrunch
Remember when Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook’s HTML5 Android app was a mistake? Well, one of our tipsters, embedded deep inside the Social Network, has let us know that the native version for Google’s mobile OS has entered final testing. As such, it won’t be long before the software is ready for consumption by the public at large, give or take an angry Winklevii or two.
[Thanks, @Gam3sFan]
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Facebook
Native Facebook app for Android is in the final phases of internal testing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 08:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Engadget
Illumina wants a greater part of the reproductive-health market, says CEO Jay Flatley.
DNA analytics company Illumina announced today that it has acquired BlueGnome, a diagnostics company based in Cambridge, U.K., that specializes in chromosomal screening for reproductive health and cancer. The news comes after a flurry of announcements from Illumina in the last two weeks, many of which emphasize the company’s expansion from the world of basic research into medicine.
sfcrazy writes “The first ISO (alpha) images of Gnome Shell edition of Ubuntu is now available for download and testing. The Gnome edition of Ubuntu will bring back a lot of hard-core Gnome Shell fans who were looking elsewhere to get the pure Gnome Shell experience. Both Fedora and openSUSE are doing a great job at offering Gnome 3 Shell experience and the arrival of Ubuntu GNOME Remix will give the project the audience it needed.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New Zealand was the first country to get Facebook’s new-look Timeline last December. Now it looks like it may be putting in another special appearance, as Facebook’s push for more advertising (and revenue) leads the social network into new pastures on the display front.
A reader in New Zealand has sent us some screenshots (embedded below) that appear to show Facebook placing ads in two new areas on his page: a skyscraper on the left side (not the right) and an enlarged, display ad directly into a users’ timeline.
Hugh Pickens writes “As the media reports that seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong says he will no longer fight doping charges from the US Anti-Doping Agency, which will strip him of his titles and ban him from competitive cycling for life, Tracee Hamilton writes that the Lance Armstrong vs. USADA fight is a tough one in which to take a side, because to believe USADA means suspending belief in the science of drug testing. ‘If you take personalities out of the equation, you’re left with pee in a cup and blood in a syringe,’ writes Hamilton. ‘Armstrong never failed a drug test. He was tested in competition, out of competition. He was tested at the Olympics, at the Tour de France, at dozens if not hundreds of other events. And he never failed a test.’ Instead Travis Tygart, chief executive officer of the USADA, gathered a group of people who swear they saw Armstrong doping. ‘If the results can be discarded in favor of testimony, then let’s go right to the testimony phase and quit horsing around with blood and urine.’ There has been no trial, no due process, but in the minds of many, that testimony outweighs the results of hundreds of drug tests. ‘I don’t know if Armstrong did the things he’s accused of doing, and neither do you,’ concludes Hamilton adding that it can’t work both ways. ‘Either a drug test is the standard, or it isn’t.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Remember Airtime, the Facebook-integrated video calling / media sharing service with a Chatroulette flavor? Well if not, we don’t blame you — usage stats suggest it hasn’t quite taken off, but maybe the new features it’s testing will secure a few more fans. No longer is the service restricted to the here and now, as the major change is all about video posts. Use Airtime to record a message and you can post it to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or via a traditional email to get the conversation started. Friends can then reply to your message through Airtime with a video post of their own, and so on. Its buddy list has also been given a little love, so now it shows friends as online, idle or offline, and details your interaction timeline. Whether the features are enough to inspire wider uptake is questionable, but for the few that actively use Airtime, the updates are out in the wild now on a “limited public release.”
Filed under: Internet
Airtime testing new video post features, improved buddy list originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Facebook testing new ranked comments format
Last week, we reported that Facebook was testing nested comments with select users, a long-awaited feature that helps keep comments organized and easier to follow. Apparently the social network isn’t stopping there, with Mashable reporting that the company is also testing ranked comments, moving more engaging comments higher up in the stream. The new format
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