Yesterday Motorola announced its first Android-powered phone, the CLIQ. CLIQ has the many of the usual smartphone features, including a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 3.1 inch 320×480 187 PPI capacitive touch-screen display, 5 megapixel camera with video recording and playback, A-GPS and 3G capability. Cliq runs on Android 1.5 (Cupcake), a well-regarded verion of Android. Specs are here.
The Cliq’s main claim to fame however is Motoblur, which the company says integrates and syncs various social feeds including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Gmail, e-mail and Photobucket and Picasa into one customizable home screen. Motorola describes the Cliq as “the First Phone with Social Skills”, thanks to this silo-breaking feature. On an iPhone, for example, one would be required to access each of those apps individually.
Here is Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha introducing the Cliq at a recent conference…
Also at the Apple ‘Special Event’ held on 9/9/09, a new third generation iPod touch was shown. There’s not much to report, aside from an increase in max capacity to 64 GB, plus a faster processor. (For a view of the new iPod touch, just take a look at your current iPod touch). The entry level 8GB model drops in price by 13% to $199. 64GB for $399.
Some have wondered about the continuing lack of a camera on the iPod touch. Apple CEO Steve Jobs addressed that question in an interview with the New York Times, wherein he suggests that the touch is a ”great game machine” and that the addition of a camera would have caused Apple to miss its $199 price point. Lurking in the white spaces of that interview are likely to be fears by Apple about consumer spending during the continuing recession, as well as some concerns over competition from the spiffy Tegra-powered, OLED-screened, Hi-Def, web-browsing, also-camera-less, $10-cheaper (for the 32GB model) Zune HD from Microsoft due in the fall. Or perhaps it’s just a matter of poor quality cameras causing the launch to be delayed, as reported by others.
Duracell has released a new line of rechargeable pocket chargers, which can refill any USB compatible device. This little gadget is a life-saver! It’s so small and compact; you can carry it everywhere in your pocket. It can recharge your iPhone, your digital camera, e-reader and pretty much everything with a USB connection.
Duracell’s Instant charger is so simple, it has only one button to turn it on/off and one little light indicates it’s charging or finished charging. It is not as powerful as its older brother Powerhouse Charger, but it recharges your iPhone about halfway (180 minutes of 3G talk). However the Powerhouse Charger has enough power to charge an iPhone 1.2 times. It’s a pretty good idea to have an Instant Charger and keep it in your bag for emergencies. Although it is cheap, it comes with a 3 year warranty. If you interested I’ve prepared a little chart for you.
RUN TIMES*
iPod
35 Hours
Cell Phone
(Talk Time)
295 Minutes
(Standby Time)
350 Hours
Smart Phone
(Talk Time)
250 Minutes
(Standby Time)
230 Hours
Handheld Game
8 Hours
PDA
4 Hours
*Run time may vary depending upon the specific device and the mode of operation.
James E. Somers provides step-by-step instructions on how to go about creating a 15-16 GB offline version of Wikipedia that is usable, well…anywhere. Takes about 5-6 hours.
Well it’s show time again. The Festival International de la Plaisance de Cannes aka the Cannes Boat Show, starts tomorrow and runs Sept 9-14, 2009. After which the yachts all move down the coast a bit to the Monaco Yacht Show which is 23-26 September.
While the world’s most beautiful yacht, arguably the 377 ft Pelorus (shown above), won’t be there, the venue should be very nice anyway:
The 73 ft Predator 72 Splash (shown below), will be on offer in Cannes, current asking price $2.3M. In view of declining yacht prices, the vendor should be very flexible.
In an unfortunate move, Sony selects make.believe as its corporate brand message. The phrase Make Believe of course implies things like pretense and fiction and fantasy.
In view of Sony’s continuing malaise, its poor performance relative to Samsung, and our belief in truth in advertising, and despite outselling iPod in Japan, we respectfully suggest the following slogan instead…
Your tax dollars at work…researchers at the University of the Obvious, er, Wisconsin, played soothing music to a group of cotton-top tamarins and observed that they appeared to be calm and relaxed, and that jarring music seemed to have the opposite effect.
They conclude by saying that ‘further studies are necessary’. You can listen to their monkey music here.
According to Bloomberg, the Apple store on Fifth Ave in New York City generates about $35,000 of sales per square foot annually. This bests anyone else on the fabled shopping street including second place Tiffany & Co. who comes in at $18,000 per ft2.
Bloomberg attributes this to gadgetmaniacs who would rather ’skimp on housing’. It helps that the store never closes.
Sony will introduce 3D-capable products for home entertainment in 2010. Such items will include a 1080p LCD TV in the Bravia line, and will extend to personal computers, Sony’s PlayStation gaming console and Blu-ray proucts. A demonstration 3D-capable Bravia LCD TV was exhibited at IFA2009 as shown above.
The stereoscopic illusion will require that the viewer wear special ‘active shutter’ glasses that open and close in unison with the display, so as to transmit the correct image to the correct eye. This requires that the glasses be powered and have wireless connectivity to the TV or monitor. By contrast, most movie theater 3D is achieved via the much simpler polarization.
Sony has also produced an apparently unintentionally humorous documentary illutrating the many benefits and uses of being entertained in all three dimensions, following…
RT @davecoleman: note: any publishers out there that want me to write a book on mobile strategy for publishers I am open to taking deals ;)
about 10 hours ago
from TweetDeck
