News & Features

Intel and Visa Look to Make Cash a Thing of the Past

Intel is talking NFC here in Barcelona, and it looks more and more like 2012 will see the breakout of mobile pay via smartphones. In fact, Visa also took to the stage with Intel’s Paul Otellini to discuss a multi-year alliance that will result in Visa PayWave contact-less payment system being part of a variety of Intel powered phones. We’ve discussed whether or not we would want our smartphones to serve as our wallets on the site, but it is looking more and more like this is inevitable. And, thanks to Intel’s work with Visa it looks like it will…

News & Features

The Southern Foodie is a Must-Read Kindle Book

My parents were born and raised in New York. I was born in Summit, New Jersey. I grew up in a little place called Berkeley Heights, NJ. In other words, I am a North Easterner through and through. (Some would use the word “Yankee” to describe me.) Yes, I’m a northerner through and through and am happy to be back living in the Garden State. There was, however, a time when this Yankee lived in the South. Yes, I went to college in North Carolina and I even joined a southern fraternity that was founded on “December 21, 1865, at…

News & Features

A New Way to Watch Star Wars: Machete Order!

I got an email a while ago pointing me to an article from late last year about a new way to watch the Star Wars movies … and was reminded of it when I saw a post at Neatorama. It is quite intriguing and a new way to look at things – though not without flaws of its own. Here is the core premise: Next time you want to introduce someone to Star Wars for the first time, watch the films with them in this order: IV, V, II, III, VI Notice something? Yeah, Episode I is gone. Episodes II…

News & Features, Vehicles & Gear

Disney Unveils The Lion King & Tangled Interactive Apps for iOS!

If you or your kids are fans of the classic Disney movie The Lion King or the recent retelling of Rapunzel called Tangled, you will definitely be interested in checking out these new apps. These interactive apps include original scenes from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ The Lion King (1994) and Tangled (2010), as well as new animation and interactive surprises, and allow kids and adults to experience these stories on their mobile devices, in a whole new way. Here are some details: Disney Publishing Worldwide today unveils two new storybook apps featuring original scenes from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ feature…

Events, News & Features

Intel Goes Mobile at MWC in Barcelona

While the focus has been on Intel’s partnership with various companies on the creation of the new Ultrabook category of laptops here at MWC they are talking about a very different kind of partnership. This time, they are talking about new partnerships that will grow their presence in the exploding worldwide smartphone market. Just one example of this is the Intel/Orange partnership that will see the release of an Intel phone in France and the UK this summer. ZTE will use processors in their smartphones and, India’s Lava will release the XOLO X900 in partnership with Intel as well. Let’s…

Events, News & Features

Pictures and Video from the Sony Press Conference on the Xperia Line of Smartphones

Sony had three phones in their Xperia line to show off yesterday. We posted on them at the time and you can get details here. Today we’ve got loads more pictures AND a video from the Sony Press Conference. Let’s start with the Press Conferences video and then you can check out all the pictures in the gallery. Check out the entire gallery of pictures from the Sony Press Conference.

Gear Bits, News & Features

Adobe Brings a Better-Than-Ever Photoshop Touch to the iPad 2

Like many techies, I have been using my iPad for almost 2 years, and if you ask me ‘what do you use it for?’ … I would reply ‘just about everything’. And as of today that is getting enhanced as Adobe is bringing Photoshop Touch to the iPad 2! From their press release: Adobe Photoshop Touch offers core Photoshop features, as well as new capabilities for creating and sharing in an app custom-built for tablets. The app is a central component of Adobe Touch Apps, a family of six intuitive touch screen applications, inspired by Adobe Creative Suite software. iPad…

News & Features

HTC One Line of Smartphones Hands-On in NYC

Yesterday we brought word of HTC’s new line of Android smartphones, the HTC One. There are three phones in the line and each has its own unique screen size and feel. What is particularly unique however is the fact that the phones are NOT UNIQUE. No, the enhanced camera, sound and build-quality is the SAME across the line. As one of the HTC reps put it, “The great thing this time out is that you only need to make the choice with regard to the size and feel you want, the camera, sound etc is the same across the line…

News & Features

Pretty Much Everything You Need to Know from the Oscars Show

There are a number things that really sum up the evening, some that require a bit of explanation and others we can list out. Oh, and I am not going to a full award-winner run-down … you can get that here. Let’s do the bullet points first: They could have subtitled the show ‘We give out more awards in the first half-hour than the Grammys do all night!’. And it would be accurate. The Grammys are about showing you why you should buy the crap the labels are pushing … the Oscars are about rewarding accomplishments. The awards were pretty…

Events, News & Features

T-Mobile to be Premier Launch Partner in the U.S. for the HTC One S

We have a bit more news on HTC’s new HTC One line coming out of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It seems T-Mobile will be the premier launch partner in the U.S. for the HTC One S. The HTC One S will be T-Mobile’s next smartphone to take advantage of the company’s speedy 4G (HSPA+42) network. Measuring just 7.95 mm thick, the phone has a unibody aluminum design and will be T-Mobile’s first device to ship with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Here’s a quick rundown on some of the features that make this device stand out.

Events, News & Features, Travel

The World’s First Ice Cream Sandwich Dual-SIM Smartphone Announced at MWC

UPDATED with Judie’s pictures from MWC ViewSonic not only announced some great new tablets at MWC but they are also announcing a host of new smartphones. Among them is the first Ice Cream Sandwich Dual-SIM Smartphone. Why dual-SIM? Dual-SIM phones are expected to see an 80% growth rate in the next two years and, according to market research group Strategy Analytics, 206 million dual-SIM handsets will be sold worldwide in 2014. That compares to compared with 41 million in 2010. As the ViewSonic Press Release notes, Dual-SIM phones are expected to grow as users prefer to carry one handset for…

Events, News & Features

Next Generation 7” and 10” ViewPads from ViewSonic Announced

UPDATED with pictures from MWC ViewSonic just announced new 7″ and 10″ ViewPad tablets during Mobile World Congress. The ViewSonic tablets are “designed to fit into today’s mobile lifestyle. They are the perfect options for consumers to surf the web and interact with friends or for the mobile worker to enhance productivity whilst on the go.”

Music Diary, News & Features, Reviews

Music Diary Notes: My ‘Baker’s Dozen’ Best New Jazz Albums of 2011

For as long as I can recall something about music has been dying – I remember hearing ‘Long Live Rock’ as a kid on the radio when rock was more vibrant than ever; lived through the death of disco and the crash & burn of punk, new wave, new age, retro-50’s, retro-60’s, retro-70’s and now retro-80’s, grunge, glam-rock, hair-metal, screamo, and on and on and on. Yet music never really dies – listening to Skrillex I hear so many of the traditions of techno and dance music from well before Sonny Moore was born reflected through his creations. The same…

News & Features

Always … No, Never Forget To Make Sure That THE CABLE IS PLUGGED IN!

I make my living as a statistician and also have a background in optical physics, so I have been on both sides of the experimental design and analysis table. I have also been on both sides of debates about the quality and reliability of data from an experiment. So where am I going with this? Do you remember last fall when we heard about the discovery and subsequent ‘proof’ of faster-than-light neutrinos? Here are some details: New high-precision tests carried out by the OPERA collaboration in Italy broadly confirm its claim, made in September, to have detected neutrinos travelling at…

News & Features

Dyslexie, the Font Designed to Help Dyslexic People Read Better

The NIH estimates that as many as 15 – 20% of Americans have some degree of dyslexia, which can make reading and comprehension difficult. It often results in sufferers transposing or rotating letters or numbers, as well as having difficulty differentiating similar looking letters such as i and j. They might also see the letters and numbers floating and moving as they try to read … which can cause issues with reading speed and comprehension. When I was young kids with these sorts of issues were simply labeled ‘slow’ (or worse), but now the condition can be recognized and diagnosed,…

Music Diary, News & Features

The RIAA Shows Music Single Sales for the Past 35 Years

If you are a child of the 70’s like me, you fondly remember your collection of 45s and the mysteriously vanishing spindle adapters used to allow the discs with large holes to play on 33-1/3 RPM turntables. But as the 70s gave way to the 80s and the AOR (‘album oriented rock’ or ‘always on radio’ depending on who you ask) of Styx, Foreigner, The Police and more dominated the airwaves the ‘single’ slowly became less and less popular. Then CDs arrived in the mid-80s without a real equivalent to the 45. Sure there were CD singles, but the record…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Flowchart Helps You Decide If You Should Send That Email (Hint: No)

Across the last two companies I have worked for the past 20 years, I have taken about 10 email etiquette courses and refreshers. There are loads of rules about whether or not to send, who to include, what to say and how to say it, and when to just step away from the computer and make human contact. Now we have a flow chart that will help any home or business user make that decision. And not surprisingly for anyone who has taken one of these corporate email classes … in most cases the answer is ‘NO’! Here is the…

News & Features

Vibe Flex-Gel Cover for iPhone 4S Qmadix iPhone Case Roundup

Qmadix was kind enough to send three of their new iPhone cases for review. I thought we might take a quick look at each one. In Part 1 we’ll look at the Vibe Flex-Gel Cover for Apple iPhone 4S. If you like a soft colorful case and enjoy seeing the Apple logo on the back of your iPhone this just might be the case for you.

Music Diary, News & Features

The Beatles Allow Us to Once Again Pay Full Song Prices for Ringtones on iTunes!

I have frequently said that it feels like after Apple showed the potential for a new path in which the carrier worried about signal and the device maker worried about the phone, Android has ushered us back to the ‘bad old days’ in terms of carrier bloatware, handset makers skinning away the performance of their hardware to ‘differentiate’, no two handsets alike that kills accessories (thank goodness for the EU and required micro-USB chargers!), and so on. Apparently Apple felt left out and decided to bring us back to over-priced ringtones! While not as egregious as the ‘$12 5-pack bundle’…

Editorials, News & Features

Microsoft Pokes Fun at Google Apps with New ‘Googlighting’ Spot

Last year Microsoft created the ‘GMail Man’ spoof commercial (I’ve included it at the bottom), that cast things that are completely true — that Google has programs that ‘read’ your email and target you with advertisements based on keywords found in your messages — in a completely creepy way by personalizing the scanner. The intent was obvious – show personal and especially business users that their sensitive personal data and intellectual property was anything but safe in GMail.

News & Features

iFrogz Boost Near Field Audio Amplifying Speaker, One of Dan’s CES Faves, Is Available Now!

When we were at CES, Dan couldn’t wait to show me the pre-release iFrogz Boost Near Field Audio Amplifying Speaker that he had scored, and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. This little box didn’t need to connect to a mobile phone to produce a much bigger sound; you could simply place any phone on the box, and it would pump up the volume so that it could actually be enjoyed! See what I mean in this video Dan shot … The iFrogz Boost speaker allows users to amplify their device’s sound by simply placing their smartphone, or other…

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