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Akai Turns an iPad Into a Full-Sized Music Keyboard: Akai SynthStation49

Well, the new Akai SynthStation49 adds a full keyboard, though it obviously loses that portability. Regardless, the SynthStation49 packs nine MPC-style pads, dedicated pitch and mod wheels, and transport controls. The internal audio boasts 1/4-inch outputs, and the hardware is MIDI supporting, so you can use the keyboard as a MIDI input device. This one is currently awaiting certification from Apple, so we can't say when it'll be released, nor do we have pricing. Hit up the source link for more details.

[Engadget] [Create Digital Music]

This Week's Best-Selling iPhone Game Was Developed By An Eighth Grader

An eighth-grader named Robert Nay knocked Angry Birds out of the top spot on iTunes this week with an app called Bubble Ball.

According to The New York Observer, Nay built his first web site in the third grade.

ABC News estimates that, if only Nay had charged a dollar for every download of Bubble Ball, he'd be $2,000,000 in the black.

Details of HP’s webOS Tablet Strategy Emerge

We’ve been expecting HP to show off at least one webOS-based tablet at a February 9 event. Now it looks like Engadget has gotten some leaked renders and marketing materials that show off some of the company’s tablet strategy.

When HP acquired Palm last year, it was clear that the company saw plans for webOS beyond just the smartphone. The company affirmed its plans to enter the tablet space in July.

Now Engadget is publishing information from a “trusted tipster” that sheds some light on HP’s plans.

The tipster reveals that HP is planning not one, but two tablets: a 9-inch model codenamed Topaz and a 7-inch model called Opal.

The rendered images Engadget obtained show off the Topaz, and the unit looks like a cross between an iPad and a Palm Pre. From the renders, it looks like the device will not have any physical buttons (capacitive perhaps) and will include a front-facing camera.

The render also shows off what looks like webOS on the device itself. Perhaps more than any other mobile OS, we expect webOS to have the easiest transition to larger-sized devices, so this makes sense.

While specifics like price and specifications weren’t revealed, Engadget did get a hold of what looks like an internal slide with a tentative release date slated for this September. This slide was for the Opal, so perhaps HP will be releasing the Topaz tablet more quickly.

Our only concern for HP is that announcing a device more than six months in advance, especially given the competition from — well, everyone — could wind up putting the company at a disadvantage.

Although webOS is better designed to scale to multiple device sizes than many of its competitors are, the lack of brand recognition in the smartphone market — when compared to iOS, Android and even BlackBerry — may limit some of the initial customer base.

We still think the potential for a webOS tablet is immense and we look forward to seeing what HP unveils next month.

Make Sweet Music With Piano iPad Dock

You know that stereotype that the keyboardist is the geekiest member of the band? Well, this doesn’t diffuse it, but it certainly makes us want to embrace our inner geek and start killing the keys. Behold: the Concert Piano from ION, a digital music-maker that is also an iPad dock.

This 88-key, beautiful beast — which cradles your iPad oh-so-sweetly in a sea of “stylish wood grain” — even comes with a music-learning app, making it wholly practical, you guys.

Someone should buy this thing and call up Atomic Tom and Rana June and form a band post haste.

Apple Sells 7 Million iPads in Record-Breaking Quarter

One day after announcing that Steve Jobs was taking a leave of absence from the company, Apple has reported record-breaking earnings, with revenue of more than $26 billion for its fiscal first quarter, which includes holiday sales.

During the quarter, Apple sold 7.3 million iPads, 16.2 million iPhones, 4.1 million Macs and 19 million iPods. That brings the total number of iPads sold to nearly 15 million since the device was released last April.

The success of iPad doesn’t appear to be coming at the expense of Mac sales though, as some analysts had projected. Mac sales were up 23% year-over-year, setting a new record for the company.

iPhone sales were up 86% from the same quarter last year, with Apple remaining bullish on its prospects thanks to its impending launch on Verizon. “We’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on,” Jobs said in a statement.

Shares of Apple — which opened down about 5% this morning in the wake of the Jobs news — continued to rebound after hours following the initial release of the earnings report.

Apple is holding a conference call at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT to discuss the results in-depth and undoubtedly face questions from analysts about Jobs’s health and the company’s plans for a successor. Stay tuned to Mashable throughout the afternoon for additional coverage.

Source: Mashable

10 Intriguing Apple Patents the iBike, Wand Remote iKey and more

Apple was granted 563 patents in 2010, some of which will show up in future products and might well change the consumer technology landscape just like the iPod, iPhone, App Store and now the iPad have.

Apple patent expert Jack Purcher of Patently Apple has been monitoring the company’s patents since 2006. We asked him why he thought Apple is such an innovative company.

“Many have asked me why I think that Apple is more innovative than others. I usually answer that question the same way each time,” says Purcher. “I’m not sure that they are on a technical level. The difference is that Apple has an inspired leader and CEO who, for decades, has had a real vision of where technology should go.”

We’ve taken a look at some of Apple’s recent patent applications to see what exciting developments might be in store for the future — as any one of these patents could be the next step in Steve Jobs’s master plan or vision. As Purcher puts it:

“Jobs’s vision for the digital lifestyle a decade ago is still on a roll. It’s innovation at its finest. But it began with a vision — and that’s the difference.”

What do you think of these Apple patents? Any you’d like to see realized? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

1. iBike

Apple's smart bike concept is like the Nike+ running system, but for those om two wheels. In addition to seeing pertinent data from you (heart rate, etc) and the bike (speed, distance, etc.) on your iPodor iPhone, the system could be used as tool for group communicationwhen biking with others.


2. Wand Remote

Is gesture control the next big thing to follow touch? It seems Aplle might think so with this patent for the Aplle TV that sees the home entertainment gadget shiooed with a Winmote-like motion controler. Besides managing the on-screen cursor via movement, the "remote wand" could be used to browse through and control media.


3. Solar Powered iPhone

Apple has come up with a way -- in theory anyway -- of adding solar tech to it's portable devices without spoiling the all-important aesthetics. By integrating the photocells into the touch screen, future iPods, iPads, and iPhones could soak up the power of the sunvia their displays, making for greener gadgetry.


4. Touchscreen iMac

This clever concept gives the desktop PC iPad-esque functionality. While the monitor is upright. it's a common iMac running Apple's full operating system controlled with a mouse, but flip it horizontallt and switches to the iOS and the touch controls take over.


5. iKey

Chances are your iPhone has already replaced your compact camera, MP3 player and handheld gaming console, but Apple could take the convergence a step further and replace your keys. The Cupertino company has patented the idea that iPhone could unlock your car and home with a proximity-based PIN code system.


6. iHeadset

This is one patent we could definitely see coming to market. Aplle has designed a Bluetooth headset with stand alone media playback functionality. This could well be a future version of the iPod Shuffle -- small wearable and, thanks to the Bluetooth features, multitasking.


7. Shareable Apps

How would you like to be able to beam your latest App Store download to a buddy? Apple has come up with the idea of an "application seed" system whereby developers could choose to make their apps shareable via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It's a fantastic concept for content providers who are looking to spread the word as far and wide as possible. Additionaly, trial version options could be great word-of-mouth money maker.


8. Video Games Comic Book

If you want to relieve that last level of Mass Effect that you aced, Apple might offer a way to do so in the future. This unusual patent allows you to describe your progress through a video game, record it, and then turn into a book or e-book in comic style.


9. MAgnetic Lenses

iPhotography is hot, and it's potential is limited only by hardware restrictions. Although Apple has steadily improved the iPhone's camera, it's still just a point-and-shooter. This patent describes a way of enhancing a portable device's camera funtionality with a magnetic zoom or macro lens attachment.


10. MacBooks with built in Projectors

This exciting idea could see future Apple laptops coming with built-in projectors. Just think how handy it would be to be able to share what's on your laptop screen -- wether that's a movie or presentation -- with a group of others at the click of a mouse.

Apple Chief Steve Jobs to Take Leave

Steve Jobs, who has battled pancreatic cancer and received a liver transplant, is taking another unexpected leave from running Apple Inc., raising uncertainty over his health and the future of the world's most valuable technology company

In a Monday morning email to Apple employees on a federal holiday, Mr. Jobs wrote that the company's board of directors "has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health."

Apple's 55-year-old chief executive and co-founder didn't specify what health issue was causing him to take the time off or when he might return. Instead, Mr. Jobs said he hoped to be back as soon as possible and his family would "deeply appreciate respect for our privacy."

The leave marks the third time in the past decade Mr. Jobs has been forced to step back from his role at Apple, which he has built into a $65 billion consumer electronics giant with products such as the iPhone and iPad. He took a leave in 2004 when he had surgery to remove a tumor in his pancreas and then again in the first half of 2009 for the liver transplant

In his six-sentence email, which Apple released publicly, Mr. Jobs said he will continue as CEO and "be involved in major strategic decisions for the company." In his absence, day-to-day operations will be run by Tim Cook, his longtime lieutenant and chief operating officer. Mr. Cook, 50 years old, led Apple during Mr. Jobs's previous leave and won praise for his ability to make Apple's sprawling operations move on time.

Mr. Jobs's email came a day before the Cupertino, Calif., company is slated to report its latest quarterly results. It also was released on a day U.S. stock markets were closed to commemorate Martin Luther King's birthday. In Frankfurt trading, Apple shares fell 8% to €239.50 ($317.96).

he CEO's leave raises anew questions about the company's succession plans and product road map, since Mr. Jobs is so closely identified with Apple's gadgets and strategy. It also revives debate about Apple's disclosure practices, given the limited information the company has revealed about a CEO who is seen as so central to its success.

Mr. Jobs's Monday statement to Apple employees "leaves a lot to the imagination—and that was the problem the last time," said Charles Elson, head of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware's business school. "It does leave a lot for investors to worry about."

With many questions unanswered about Steve Jobs' medical leave of absence, Wall Street Journal 'ROI' columnist Brett Arends says the news is ominous for investors.

Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs told employees in an email Monday that he will be taking a medical leave of absence but will remain CEO. WSJ's Marcelo Prince talks to Lauren Goode about what it means for the company and its shareholders.

The Securities and Exchange Commission opened an informal inquiry into Apple's disclosure about Mr. Jobs's health in January 2009, but didn't pursue an investigation. The agency is unlikely to open a fresh inquiry, as the company has publicly disclosed Mr Jobs's latest medical leave at its outset, people familiar with the matter said.

Mr. Jobs didn't respond to an email for comment or a call to his home. Apple's six other directors declined to comment or couldn't immediately be reached.

Asked if the company or board planned to disclose further details, Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton responded: "We've said all we're going to say."

The news about Mr. Jobs, who was last seen in public in October at an Apple Macintosh event, surprised many in Silicon Valley. A former Apple employee said none of his former colleagues had noted any recent concerns with Mr. Jobs's health.

Mr. Jobs didn't appear last week at a Verizon Wireless event announcing the iPhone would soon be available through the carrier; Mr. Cook was there instead. Mr. Jobs was expected to announce with News Corp. a new digital publication for the iPad this week, but the event was postponed.

Concerns about Mr. Jobs's health have swirled since he appeared thin at a conference for developers in June 2008, before his liver transplant.

As Apple CEO Steve Jobs goes on medical leave, COO Tim Cook is set to run day-to-day operations at the company. Journal reporter Nick Wingfield talks to Lauren Goode about about Cook's management style and background.

People familiar with the situation said shortly after the transplant that Mr. Jobs was having trouble gaining weight. At his most recent appearance in October, the CEO continued to look thin.

Mr. Jobs was diagnosed in 2004 with a rare type of pancreatic cancer called islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, which could be cured if surgery removed it promptly. But in 2008 he began exhibiting weight loss, and questions intensified when he said he would skip the Macworld trade show in early 2009. The CEO initially blamed a hormone imbalance for his weight loss in January 2009 but a week later went on medical leave blaming a "more complex" condition he didn't disclose.

Apple didn't explain Mr. Jobs's 2009 medical leave, but a physician expert at the time said the type of cancer Mr. Jobs had commonly metastasizes in another organ, usually the liver, during a patient's lifetime. A Tennessee hospital later disclosed Mr. Jobs had received a liver transplant there.

Over the past year and a half, Mr. Jobs has again taken center stage in public events, making it clear that he was providing the direction of the company.

People familiar with the situation have said Mr. Jobs had come back to work with full energy and was like the "old Steve." During his 2009 leave, Mr. Jobs kept close management ties with Apple.

Kim Caughey Forrest, an analyst for the Fort Pitt Capital fund, which previously owned Apple stock, said there are concerns about succession at Apple.

"I'm not sure that the company, and the board of directors in particular, have answered the question on succession planning," she said. "We had this issue in 2008, and the board was supposed to learn from it, but they haven't."

Despite concerns about Mr. Jobs's health, Apple's business has flourished. Over Apple's past two fiscal years ended in September, the company's sales have more than doubled to $65.2 billion and its profit has nearly tripled to $14 billion.

Last year, Apple passed Microsoft Corp. in market capitalization to become the world's most valuable technology company. The stock hit its latest high of $348.48 on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday, more than four times where it stood two years ago.

Next iPhone and iPad Will Have a Dual-Core Graphics Chip [RUMOR]

The next generation of the iPhone and iPad will sport a new version of Apple’s A4 chip with a dual-core graphics processing unit that should enable even higher resolutions on these devices, as well as support for HD (1080p) video playback, AppleInsider reports citing sources familiar with the matter.

More precisely, the chip in question should be a dual-core SGX543 GPU from Imagination Technologies. The rumor goes hand in hand with another rumor that claims the iPad 2 will have a much higher resolution screen than its predecessor, although the jury is still out on the exact number of pixels it’ll have.

The SGX543 graphics chip will most probably be paired up with a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, which should make the iPad 2 a very powerful machine, more than capable of playing HD video.

As far as the iPhone 5 goes, the most recent rumor has it that it will also sport a multi-core CPU, and that it will be completely redesigned compared to iPhone 4

Apple's Mac App Store sparks another software gold rush

(CNN) -- With the launch of an App Store for the Mac last week, Apple has proved that its all-in-one digital marketplace model -- so successful for the iPhone, iPod and iPad -- can flourish on old-fashioned laptop and desktop computers as well.

Developers with software ready for the store's January 6 opening were met with throngs of click-happy customers.

Mac users have appeared eager to spend money on apps, even for software that was previously available on the Web and in brick-and-mortar stores. Downloads on the first day exceeded 1 million -- out of a pool of about 1,000 apps, Apple said.

Distributed evenly, that works out to 1,000 downloads for each app, although name recognition and how Apple allocates promotion tend to skew results. But some development houses did gangbuster business.

Scott Forstall, Apple's vice president for iPhone software, said last year that the company's iPad would spark "a whole new gold rush for app developers," a prediction that must now apply to the Mac store as well.

App Store winners

One big winner from the Mac App Store launch has been Evernote. The free note-taking app catalogs text and multimedia files; synchronizes them over the internet to be accessed from phones, a website or desktop software; and lets you search through them.

Evernote was downloaded 90,000 times on the App Store's opening day. That's about a 10th of all apps purchased that day. It's been consistently listed in the section of most popular apps.

"Having a well-formed app store is the most important part in getting attention," Evernote CEO Phil Libin said. "We were on the iPhone App Store since that launched as well. We've kind of been through this once before, so we had pretty high expectations of what being in an app store means for getting attention."

The Mac App Store launch, Libin said, "exceeded our expectations."

Being in the Mac App Store helped expose Evernote to 40,000 people who had never used it, he said.

Evernote has also benefited from Apple's promotional efforts in the store. It sometimes gets top billing in a rotating list of featured apps, similar to the top section of the iTunes Store. Apple spokeswoman Jacqueline Roy also listed Evernote among the top five "must-have" apps, which is determined by consistent top performers in downloads and ratings.

Another Mac App Store hit is SketchBook Express, No. 7 on the must-have list. Autodesk, the maker of that free drawing program, says the store "effectively doubled" the number of people using the professional version of SketchBook on opening day. The company declined to provide exact figures.

SketchBook Pro costs $30 on the Mac App Store, versus almost $70 on Amazon.com. It's now among Apple's highest-grossing apps.

A lucrative business model

Apple takes a 30% cut of app sales, which makes its app stores a lucrative business for the company as well as developers. Because of this success, the stores are facing increased competition from Google's popular Android Market, a forthcoming Amazon.com app store and other rivals. This week, Microsoft contested Apple's trademark request for the term "app store."

Free applications benefit from the app store exposure too, even though they don't help Apple's business as directly. For example, Twitter is also on the Apple must-have list. The social networking company launched on the store with its first official desktop client, based on work by the engineer who made the iPhone app.

A Twitter spokeswoman said the company is "pleased" with the results but declined to say how many times the free app had been downloaded.

The App Store program is included as part of a software update for Mac computers running the newest version of the operating system, called Snow Leopard. Further enhancements to the app model will come as part of OS X Lion, which is scheduled to go on sale this summer.

Previously, Mac software could be found on vendors' websites or in stores (in cardboard boxes, no less; how quaint).

For developers, submitting an application to Apple for sale in the Mac App Store can be easier than getting their software on a retailer's shelf, which can require complex business deals. It is also easier to sell through an established app store than through a developer's own website, which can require building payment mechanisms and systems for licensing customers' copies.

Mac owners like the store because it makes software easier to find, manages what's been downloaded, makes it easy to move apps between computers and provides alerts when a new version is available.

Some software makers complain that Apple's rules about what it will accept are too stringent and that the company takes too big a cut of revenue. But Apple doesn't bar developers from distributing their wares in other locations on the Web.

Pros and cons

But are these early success stories sustainable?

Caffeine, a simple utility that helps prevent the computer from automatically going into sleep mode (get it?), did exceedingly well early on. The app has been downloaded more than 135,000 times. About one-third of those sales came on launch day; as for other apps, they have tapered somewhat since.

While daily downloads are decreasing steadily for Caffeine at a pace of about 30% per day, the app continues to attract new customers at a rate several times greater than anytime since it came out four years ago.

"The App Store opens up the opportunity to sell 99-cent apps, which was previously not really feasible, and I think that could bring a lot of new smaller apps," Caffeine developer Tomas Franzen said. "It's a lot easier when they handle hosting and payment for you.

"I'd say I'm a believer" in the app-store model, he wrote. "The App Store makes downloaded software easy for regular people, and it turns out there are a lot of regular people out there!"

However, not every company has the Midas touch for launching app stores. Google, which produced a hit with its Android Market, has drummed up minimal interest in its Chrome Web Store.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales isn't sold on the app-store concept. At an event in England, Wales spoke out against the idea of app stores, calling them "a threat to a diverse and open ecosystem," according to blog reports.

A magic formula?

But many developers seem convinced that Apple has hit on the right formula.

Scott Gilbert had been planning to build a weather-report app for the iPad or iPhone. The product manager for Swackett immediately changed course when he heard Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveil plans for the Mac App Store in October.

"There's so much competition in the regular App Store," Gilbert said of Apple's mobile software store and its 300,000 apps. "I thought if we could be there on day one in the Mac App Store, we could rise above the noise."

And they did. Swackett was on track to get 100,000 downloads in its first week. The developers are making money from ads, which had been shown 2 million times in six days.

"We would not have come out with a Mac app first if not for the (Mac) App Store," Gilbert said.

And for the 61-person team at Evernote, the App Store is something of a blessing.

"We don't have experts here that think about logistics or channels or distribution or advertising," said Libin, the Evernote CEO.

Evernote had the distribution method in place on its site, but that was created out of necessity, said Libin, who was happy to let Apple take the reins on managing server infrastructure and promotion.

"Before, you used to make a great product, but no one would ever get it or use it or be able to buy it," he said. "The app stores have made the software business more of a meritocracy than it's ever been, which really favors geeks like us."

iPad reading could cut into TV's time

The iPad is changing how folks read stuff online -- no surprise if you think how different a gizmo it is to a PC.

But a new study shows it's moving online reading into primetime TV hours, which is big news. Is evening reading coming back, just in a digital style?

The study comes from internal data acquired by ReadItLater, a web service that lets users bookmark web content for perusal at a different time. Though you may think this slightly colors the dataset, the way this service works gives the company unique access to time-coded data on how iPad users (and traditional computer users) read content online.

By looking at how traffic moves through their servers, normalized for global time differences, the ReadItLater team worked out how traditional PC users spread their online reading out during the day.

As you may expect, given how deeply into our everyday lives the computer has penetrated, the curve of content consumption is pretty stable -- not much happens in the wee small hours of the day, then as people wake and go to work there's more traffic, with a small peak spread out around traditional lunch hours and another around 8 p.m. after the evening meal.

When you look at iPhone and iPad user traffic, distinct from "normal" PCs, everything is suddenly very different.

iPhone users have distinct peaks in their reading habits, timed to correspond with the morning routine of breakfast, then a commute to work, the end of the work day and homeward journey, and then last thing in the evening.

This matches the iPhone's status as a handy, portable, always-on Net browser that's good for quick content consumption.

But it's with the iPad that the statistics get very odd indeed: With minor usage spikes first thing in the morning, at lunchtime and then dinner time, the main bulk of iPad text content consumption is from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m..

Fast Company: iPad 2 rumor round-up

This is prime-time TV's slot, and it seems that as well as settling back on the sofa to watch TV, people are taking their iPad with them too. The data doesn't reveal if folk are multitasking (spending some time ogling their favorite shows, some looking data up on the Web) or are ignoring the TV altogether--but the data will still be of concern to TV execs who expect uninterrupted attention from TV watchers, in order to maximize ad revenues.

Plus it's something of a return to a traditional leisure hour image: People settling down on the couch after the evening meal to read the paper or a book, possibly to listen to the radio at the same time.

Remembering a study last year that showed how much time users devote to reading magazines on an iPad, we have to wonder is the iPad causing a renaissance in reading -- just digitally, and with Web content as well as digital books content?

Fast Company: More technology coverage

If this is true, then Rupert Murdoch's Daily iPad newspaper is arriving with pinpoint timing. And the hordes of Android tablets that have just arrived should accentuate the effect.

This is thus something that PR and advertising executives need to pay careful attention to, because the attention focus of the average consumer may be switching away from the TV to their other (newer) powerful glowing screen--in their laps.

Comparison: Verizon iPhone 4 and Two Hot New Android Smartphones [INFOGRAPHIC]

Thinking of picking up one of those new Verizon iPhones? Take a look at this infographic first.

Here’s a comparison of two Verizon-bound smartphones recently introduced at CES 2011, with Verizon’s iPhone 4 rolled out last week sandwiched in between. Created by one of Skatter Tech‘s student reporters, it’s remarkably comprehensive.

When you compare the Motorola Droid Bionic and HTC Thunderbolt to the iPhone 4, the iPhone starts to look like last year’s model. Well, that’s because it is.

However, the iPhone 4′s screen resolution is still higher than the other two, and then there’s that iTunes App Store with 300,000 choices for the iPhone, as opposed to the Android Market’s 200,000 apps (and counting fast) for the other two phones (sorry, kid, but you got that number wrong in your infographic).

What we really wanted to see in this comparison was the darling of CES, the Motorola Atrix 4G, that R2-D2-like smartphone that’s powerful enough to be the brains of a laptop, plugging in to its back for an instant large screen and keyboard.

Too bad there’s no 4G capability yet on the iPhone, the lack of which will make those who pick up the Verizon version next month feel like they’re holding onto an antique long before their contracts run out.

Peruse this infographic, and see if the features that are important to you are eclipsed by a model that’s not your favorite:

Portable Speaker Creates Big Sound on Any Flat Surface [PICS & VIDEO]

This pocket-sized rechargeable speaker attempts audio alchemy, trying to create a big sound with a package about the size of a deck of cards. Does it work?

WOWee ONE Slim is a rechargeable speaker, the company’s second product that attempts this trick, and it’s even smaller than the original WOWee ONE Power Bass Speaker released early last year. The idea is to stick this smartphone-sized device against a flat surface, and it’s supposed to deliver “room filling sound.” Because it costs $90, our expectations were high.

It’s extremely easy to use. I plugged it into my iPhone4′s earphone jack, and its blue power indicator immediately lit. There is an onboard speaker that handles the midrange and highs, and as soon as I placed the device on a glass door here in the office, there was a noticeable increase in bass response. While it sounds much better than the iPhone speaker, I wouldn’t call it “room-filling.”

As you can see the video below, the speaker’s weakness is its inability to stay attached to any vertical surfaces. Its gel backing wasn’t strong enough to hold its weight, so you’ll have to set it on a table if you want to listen to it for more than a few seconds. I tried attaching it to glass and wood vertical surfaces, without much luck. I will say one thing, the device is not the least bit fragile. It survived a couple of hard drops to a wood floor and was no worse for wear.



An interesting characteristic is the different sounds the speaker produces when pressed against various surfaces. I found it sounded best and warmest with wood, but large glass surfaces spread its sound out more for a equally pleasant effect. When pushed against drywall surfaces, its bass was more boomy.

The WOWee ONE Slim rechargeable speaker is fun to play with, and if you like to take your tunes on the road and travel light, it’ll let you listen to music with a better fidelity than you’ll get from your smartphone’s speaker.

Or, you could save yourself $90 and use earphones.

Here's Why The Playbook Will Do Better Than Everybody Expects

The upcoming Playbook tablet from Research In Motion is going to be a much stronger contender than people expect, says a former employee.

The reason: Flash applications running on the device itself -- not just in the Web browser, as they do on Android tablets -- could finally let RIM match the huge number of apps for the iPad and Android tablets.

James Schauer is a partner at Octave Partners, but he worked at RIM until about a year ago, and oversaw the business plan for BlackBerry App World.

Here's why he thinks Flash is so important.

Flash is easy to develop for.

Especially compared with the Objective-C development language used for Apple's iOS. It's also got a huge number of developers.

Flash apps will be first-class citizens.

Although Flash owner Adobe has tried to get developers to create desktop Flash apps -- that's what AIR is about -- the most common place for Flash is the Web, particularly Web video. With the Playbook (and future BlackBerry phones), Flash app will have access to core functions like email, contacts, location, and IM. This will make Flash apps more like first-class citizens -- equivalent to iPhone or iPad apps -- and get developers excited to build more of them.

Consumers know Flash.

Apple's lack of support will eventually turn into a liability for the iPad.


Schauer also noted that RIM does much more than Apple to help carriers, and points to data compression as an example. The iPhone is a huge "bandwidth hog," says Schauer, but AT&T has been afraid to criticize Apple for fear that it might lose favor. By working more closely with carriers, RIM will have a better chance of getting them to promote and resell its products.

Lastly, Schauer says that RIM is aiming at corporate IT before consumers because that's where it's got the strongest sales channel, and where it faces the greatest threat from the iPad.

This seems like a risky strategy to us, as consumers tend to drive technology decisions much more than they did a few years ago.

But given that RIM is coming into the tablet market a year behind Apple, it may be the best approach available

A Paintbrush Stylus for iPad [VIDEO]

This week, I had a chance to review the Nomad Brush, a beautiful, handcrafted stylus designed for painting and sketching on the iPad.

The stylus feels and looks like an actual paintbrush, complete with a 5.5-inch wooden handle and a mix of natural and synthetic fibers selected for their conductive properties. When I first came across this demo video of the stylus last week, I was skeptical that the iPad‘s touchscreen surface would be able to pick up the stylus’s soft bristles, but I’m happy to report that the iPad easily responds to the touch. It allows for free-flowing brush strokes much like a real paintbrush, and an elegance of line I was previously unable to achieve using my fingers or a regular stylus.

Since we’ve only used the brush for a day, we can neither guarantee that it will work a year or even a month from now with heavy use, nor whether the bristles will hold their shape. (As a side note, we’re still looking for a way to keep those bristles intact while traveling; I plan to use my standard canvas brush holder in the meantime.) Given how much we plan to use the thing, we should have a pretty good idea of how it holds up by the time the brush goes on sale in early February.

The Nomad Brush was conceived by Don Lee, a 39-year-old architect based in New York. After 14 years as an architect, Lee decided to take a year-long break from his profession “to rejuvenate [his] creative side,” he explains.

As part of the rejuvenation process, Lee took up sketching on the iPad. “The finger is by far the most efficient way to navigate the iPad, but when it came to sketching, I just couldn’t get used to it,” Lee says. “As a problem solver by nature, I started to tinker and found a solution, and that’s how the Nomad Brush came about.”

At launch, only a black version with a 5.5-inch handle will be available for purchase, followed by a version with a white handle. In the future, Lee plans to create additional versions with varying brush head sizes and handle lengths. Pricing has not yet been disclosed, though given that each stylus is hand made, we expect it will be a bit pricier than the typical stylus.

In the meantime, check out our hands-on video below

This Is the E-Ink Watch of the Future

It might look like a far-fetched timepiece from a sci-fi flick, but this design concept by Jonathan Frey uses E-Ink technology that’s becoming commonplace today. Not only is E-Ink breaking sales records inside Amazon Kindles and other e-readers — it’s making its debut in watches as well.

This two-display beauty uses E-Ink on both screens. The bottom screen shows its striped numerals over a sinister black background, while the top display’s day and date peek through a grid of shiny black metal. Everything is controlled with buttons on the side.

I’ve worn and reviewed an E-Ink watch, and it proved itself to be more energy efficient than conventional watches with LCD displays. An E-Ink watch drains its battery the most when it’s changing its numerals; the rest of the time it simply keeps time while it displays the results of the electronically charged rearrangement of its particles.

Another advantage: Designers love it. E-Ink displays can be configured in radically different ways from their LCD forebears, including curved surfaces that really do look like something you might see on the wrist of Captain Picard on the deck of the USS Enterprise. And later this year, color E-Ink displays will become available.

There’s no telling when this watch might see the light of day, but given the rapid expansion of E-Ink technology, watches like this can’t be too far off.

Sony Handycam HDR-TD10 3D Camcorder

Sony Handycam HDR-TD10 3D Camcorder ($1,500). Touting the ability to shoot full 1080p 3D video, the TD10 also sports an integrated dual Sony G lens system, two Exmor R CMOS sensors, two BIONZ image processors, 64GB of internal flash memory, Optical SteadyShot image stabilization, 10x optical zoom, and a glasses-free 3.5-inch 3D LCD touchscreen.

Product Features

• Double Full HD 3D consumer camcorder
• 3.5" Xtra Fine LCD™ 3D display (1229K) w/TruBlack™ technology
• 3D viewing directly on 3.5" LCD, no need for 3D glasses
• Full HD 2D playback from 3D recordings
• 1920x1080 Full HD 60p/24p10 recording with 7MP still image capture

 

[Uncrate] 

Nokia N9 - Chinese copy of Nokia N8

As with the N8, so with the N9. Nokia's first MeeGo device is widely expected to be dubbed the N9 and sport a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but its elongated time to market has given Chinese KIRF artists the chance to beat Finland with their own device. Parsing together leaked pictures and perhaps some insider info we're not privy to, some crafty folks have put together the above 14mm-thin slider, outfitting it with a 3-inch screen, front- and rear-facing cameras, Bluetooth, WiFi, FM radio, microSD card slot, dual SIM capabilities, and an almost entirely metallic construction. The OS is some sort of Symbian lookalike, while the price is an eminently affordable 700 yuan ($106). You'll just need to find the right market stall in Shenzhen to get yours.

[engagdget]

Human's loose to IBM's Watson supercomputer in Jeopardy

So, in February IBM's Watson will be in an official Jeopardy tournament-style competition with titans of trivia Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. That competition will be taped starting tomorrow, but hopefully we'll get to know if a computer really can take down the greatest Jeopardy players of all time in "real time" as the show airs. It will be a historic event on par with Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov, and we'll absolutely be glued to our seats. Today IBM and Jeopardy offered a quick teaser of that match, with the three contestants knocking out three categories at lightning speed. Not a single question was answered wrongly, and at the end of the match Watson, who answers questions with a cold computer voice, telegraphing his certainty with simple color changes on his "avatar," was ahead with $4,400, Ken had $3,400, and Brad had $1,200. 

Alright, a "win" for silicon for now, but without any Double Jeopardy or Final Jeopardy it's hard to tell how well Watson will do in a real match. What's clear is that he isn't dumb, and it seems like the best chance the humans will have will be buzzing in before Watson can run through his roughly three second decision process and activate his buzzer mechanically. An extra plus for the audience is a graphic that shows the three answers Watson has rated as most likely to be correct, and how certain he is of the answer he selects -- we don't know if that will make it into the actual TV version, but we certainly hope so. It's always nice to know the thought processes of your destroyer. Stand by for video of the match, along with an interview with David Gondek, an engineer on the project.

[engagdget]

PSP2 Will Match the PS3's Power

A report on trade site MCV reckons Sony has been telling "licensees" — ie the people making games for it — that the PSP2 "‘is as powerful as the PlayStation 3".It's part of a clear strategy Sony has for the upcoming (and still not yet officially unveiled) handheld, which is that it's "specifically requesting richer, more in-depth content to differentiate its device from app-centric Apple and Android devices."

Like its own PlayStation Phone, for example.This all collaborates what Kotaku previously reported — that the PSP2 may rival consoles in horsepower. EA honcho John Riccitiello also told Kotaku, "Having something as powerful as a PlayStation 3 in your pocket is a pretty compelling idea."

The same report claims that while downloads will play a big part in the system's game library, the PSP2 will also use physical media so that its games can be sold in retail stores. It also states the handheld will be out in Q4 2011, possibly as early as October.There's even word it may include some kind of phone (remember, the current PSP can be used as a Skype device), though "not as a primary function".

Before you spit internet coffee all over yourself, remember the PSP2 probably won't actually be as powerful as a PS3. But on a smaller screen, it should manage — just like the PSP did with the PS2 — to appear as though it's pretty close.

pics by Techeblog

[Kotaku]