Selectamobile - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Japan Is Docomo's Quickest Ever Selling Smartphone Tweet

The Xperia X10, which sells under the name Xperia in Japan has become the quickest selling smart phone in DoCoMo history since launched in April.

Figures from Barclays' Note posted on the internet show the phone selling 120,000 in less than three weeks beating the previous record of HTC Android which sold a measly 80,000 in 10 months - indicating unprecedented demand for Sony Ericsson's new phone.

From Barclays' Note:

"Last week we upgraded DoCoMo to Buy to reflect our increasing optimism that the company could be the big beneficiary of smart phone proliferation in Japan, given their high quality network and evolving philosophy.

'DoCoMo's new smart phone, Sony Ericsson Xperia, has sold about 120,000 units within its first three weeks on sale; Tsusaka's data shows that the initial 100,000 unit shipment to distributors sold out in 10 says, but another 50,000 units delivered in mid-April, and a third set of 30,000 units is apparently scheduled for late April.

'Stores which open on weekdays are mostly sold out. Sales of over 100,000 units make a positive contribution to the company's net increase in subscribers, so it looks very likely NTT DoCoMo will again have a top share of net add in April.

You can see that the Xperia handset is enjoying unprecedented demand compared to previous smart phones on DoCoMo's network:

Xperia sales versus DoCoMo's previous smart phones

Xperia 120,000 in 20 days
HTC Android 80,000 in 10 months
Blackberry Bold 60,000 in 14 months
Toshiba Windows Mobile 60,000 in 10 months'

The phone is the best selling on the network for April, even outselling formidable rivals such as the iPhone 32GB.

For Xperia deals please visit http://selectamobile.co.uk

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An employee stole a prototype of Nokia phones Tweet

Nokia's subcontractor's employee has stolen nearly a hundred mobile phones and many other electronics for mobile phone company Research in Helsinki Ruoholahti. Phones were of new phones, the model of prototypes.

Helsinki District Court sentenced a man aggravated theft, a suspended seven-month prison term. The man took the theft in March 2009 and February 2010, during which he worked as a subcontractor employed by Nokia Research Center in Ruoholahti.

The convicted person's work included the Nokia prototype phones and phone competitors trial.

Employee stole the 1998 mobile phone, of whom 55 were prototypes. He took possession of unauthorized access to, inter alia, 28 laptop, projector and 232 of the phone's battery.

Nokia rules, the prototypes are not allowed to leave the company premises.

He told me that the reason of professional activities of interest and the desire to find out, would there be non-functioning devices assembled functional.

Many a man stealing equipment were unserviceable. He kept the goods at home and not sold or passed them forward.

The Nokia refused to tell the Helsinki Sanomat, what and how the man of secret equipment stolen from the company's premises.

Man's wife told the court that he had trials of her husband's behalf as a competitor, and Nokia phone model. Spouse was not Nokia or its subcontractors employed.

Nokia has received the stolen goods back. According to the company the value of the stolen property had been vested with at least 27 500 euros.

Nokia law requiring a man, only one tenth of this amount. The district court ordered the man to pay the required amount.

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Unboxing the Nukia O1/Q1 (fake Nokia 7705) Tweet

Oh KIRF, how we love you :)

Chris Zeigler reminded me today of the Nukia O1/Q1, a fake Nokia 7705 (Twist) which I acquired several months ago...

I'll let my unboxing pictures and video to the talking - enjoy the quirky goodness (and some specs) after the break!

Pros:
- Nice form factor
- Good build quality
- Quad-band GSM (instead of CDMA)
- Dual SIM (unlocked)
- QVGA touchscreen
- QWERTY keyboard
- Accelerometer
- Bluetooth
- FM radio
- Micro-SD support (2 GB card included)
- Micro USB support (mass storage)
- Lots of accessories (2 batteries included)
- Super cheap

Cons:
- Crappy VGA camera (much worse than the Nokia 7705 camera)
- GPRS data only
- Proprietary micro-USB audio connector
- No Java support
- Poor software (but still better than the Nokia 7705 software)

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Samsung S5620 Monte review: Well connected Tweet

Gsmarena have posted a review of the Samsung S5620 Monte. Here are the phone's key features, main disadvantages and their final impression.

Key features:
* Quad-band GSM/EDGE, UMTS 900/2100, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
* 3" capacitive TFT touchscreen of WQVGA resolution, 256K colors
* TouchWiz 2.0 Plus user interface with multitasking support
* 200 MB onboard storage, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
* 3 megapixel camera with smile detection, QVGA video @ 15fps
* Secondary video-call camera
* Wi-Fi connectivity (b/g)
* GPS receiver with A-GPS; Free GPS navigation with NAVTEQ maps
* Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB v.2.0
* microUSB slot (with charging support)
* Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
* DNSe sound enhancements
* Find Music recognition service
* FM radio with RDS
* Office document viewer
* Smart unlock
* Social networking integration with direct file uploads
* Accelerometer for auto screen rotate, turn to mute

Main disadvantages:
* Free GPS navigation is for Czech Montes only
* No on-screen QWERTY keyboard
* Flash in browser eats too much RAM, can’t play YouTube videos
* No games preinstalled
* Task manager cannot be used for switching between apps

If you ask Samsung about the future of mobile phones, they’ll say smartphones. Their Bada OS is flying the “smartphone for everyone” flag.

But the market still has quite a way to go till we get there. Right now, feature phones like the Samsung S5620 Monte are advanced enough to blur the line between smart and feature phones.

The S5620 Monte can multitask (though task switching is problematic), it can view office documents, there’s a very good web browser and free navigation This pretty much covers most of what a smartphone will do for you.

The Samsung S5620 Monte offers a compelling package for its price, but it’s getting tough competition from higher end handsets as they’re moving down the ladder.

The LG KM900 Arena costs more, but it comes with 8GB of built-in storage, which levels off the price difference. And its screen has four times the number of screen pixels. Then, there’s the better camera – 5MP, LED flash, D1@30fps video, and goodies like DivX support.

You could probably get a good deal on LG KC910i Renoir or the non-i version too – they’re getting old now, but 8MP cameras are quite compelling.

As smartphones are getting older, they’re moving into this price range too. Take the Samsung I7500 Galaxy, for example – it’s got Android v1.5 (old but still), an AMOLED screen, a 5MP camera. It costs a bit more, but the 8GB storage offsets that again.

Another smartphone alternative is the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic – priced right, rich retail package (including an 8GB microSD card), 16:9 nHD screen and free voice-guided navigation available worldwide with no data connection required.

That sure is a lot of competition, but it’s mostly from handsets that are getting old, which has its downsides (like lower resale value, tendency to get fewer firmware updates, etc.). However, quite a few of the Samsung S5620 Monte attractive features are let down by software (Flash support that never works and poor app switching in the task manager).

So, catching up with smartphones is easier said than done. On a second thought, the S5620 Monte will get away with some faults exactly because it isn’t a smartphone. It’s obvious that it has enough to entice upgraders coming from the likes of Samsung Star or the Corby bunch. Cheap smartphones are a major threat though.

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Doubtful Gadget of the Day: Motorola MB511 (codenamed Ruth?) Tweet

I received an interesting email this afternoon: a complete lineup of releases from several manufacturers between April and July of a given operator, and one of the details was this tiny little cutie the photo above: Motorola MB511, code named "Ruth." For its part, Motorola says it "does not comment on speculation." We'll have to wait until June to see if it's true ...

The name "Ruth" is nothing new: there are rumors about this device for some time. But it is the first time he shows his face, and seems to have a five-row QWERTY keyboard and a screen very large, apparently higher than the Milestone (contradicting what the rumors said initial). It even has a microUSB port there, in what may be the bottom of the unit.

The email also had this slide, proving that he brings MotoBlur (which may indicate Android 1.5 in piece):

The MB511 "Ruth," according to the slide operator, is the fifth player to be launched by it between May and June (the list also appear X10 Sony Ericsson, the first to arrive, and X10 mini Sony Ericsson, LG GT 540 MB501 Quench and Motorola, all scheduled for June, along with the MB511).

The check, of course, if the device is real. As I said, Motorola does not comment on rumors own.

Update: The term "Ruth" is somewhat controversial: the FlipOut, Gizmodo said that this week, uses the same code name, but I seem to have a reduced format that MB511 which came to my email. And the term "slider" is somewhat generic and applies to both pro MB511 as pro Flipout, right?

source

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Completely useless' Windows 3.1 hits Google's Android Tweet

First, it was Windows Vista on the iPhone. Now, an even earlier Microsoft creation has been updated for the smartphone set.

Windows 3.1 has been ported to Google's Linux-based Android phone platform by developer Shawn McHenry using the DOSBox emulator.

DOSBox is usually used to run old MS-DOS games for Intel x86 PCs that can't run modern operating systems such as Window XP, Vista, Linux, or FreeBSD.

Windows 3.1 launched in 1992, bringing Windows to the mas market and paving the way for Windows as we know it today. Windows 3.1 added support for long file names, virtual memory, and the ability to share devices.
Windows 3.1 on Android

Windos 3.1 mounts Android

Why rehabilitate this Microsoft relic from the dawn of modern PC computing? According to McHenry, a self-confessed Android fiddler:

I realized, Hey, Windows can be installed VIA Dos. So I went on google & youtube and looked up "Windows on Android" and what do you know, No results. However, I saw a lot of videos about Windows 95, NT, 3.1, etc on a Nokia. So I thought, I want to try and put it on Android. It appears its never been done before. So I gave it a shot...

McHenry goes on to explain what he did here, but finishes succinctly: "It's completely useless, but really damn cool."

We can't help but wonder whether Windows 3.1 on Android is an omen of Android's future success. After all, the VistaPerfection 2.0 application - from another phone fiddler - gave the iPhone a Windows-Vista look, and the iPhone now has a quarter of the US smart-phone market sewn up.

Look out Windows Phone 7.

source

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Steve Jobs got involved in investigation over iPhone lost in Silicon Valley bar Tweet

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Brian Hogan's world closed in fast almost as soon as he sold the next-generation iPhone he found in a Silicon Valley bar to a popular technology website for a stack of $100 bills, according to court documents released Friday.

By April 19, Hogan's roommate had tipped off investigators that he was at the center of the drama, Apple's top lawyers were meeting with police to press for criminal charges and Steve Jobs himself was personally demanding the iPhone's return.

The ordeal has set off ethic debates in journalism and law enforcement circles while Hogan and a website editor are now at the center of a criminal investigation that has been rife with speculation but devoid of many facts — until now.

On Friday, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Clifford Cretan ordered unsealed a 10-page sworn statement with details written by San Mateo Sheriff's Detective Matthew Broad to obtain a warrant to search the car and home of Jason Chen, a Gizmodo.com editor. Broad's statement was used to obtain a search warrant for Chen's home and car.

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According to the statement, the saga began March 25, when Apple engineer Robert "Gray" Powell left the iPhone prototype in the bar area of Redwood City's Gourmet Haus Staud restaurant.

It said Gizmodo paid Hogan $5,000 for the device, cracked it open and posted images of it on April 20 despite a phone call from Jobs the day before demanding website editors return the gadget. Gizmodo promised Hogan an additional $3,500 bonus if Apple formally unveiled the device by July, according to Broad.

Now, Chen is under investigation for theft, receiving stolen property and damaging property, according to the affidavit. The affidavit also suggests Hogan and a third roommate, Thomas Warner, also may face criminal charges, and alleges the two panicked and attempted to hide evidence when they caught wind of the criminal investigation.

Nobody, including Chen, has been charged with any crime,

"The events have taken on a life of their own," said Jeff Bornstein, Hogan's attorney. "He thought it was dumb luck that he stumbled on to something valuable and he regrets not doing more to return it."

Bornstein said Hogan always intended to return the phone and didn't believe he was breaking the law in dealing with Gizmodo.

Bornstein also denied the affidavit's suggestion that Hogan was trying to get rid of evidence on April 21. That's when, shortly before midnight, Hogan's roommate Katherine Martinson called investigators and told them that Hogan and Warner were removing evidence from their apartment, the document said.

Investigators found Hogan at his father's Redwood City house and he directed them to nearby Sequoia Christian Church, where they recovered Hogan's computer and monitor.

Bornstein said that Hogan was in the process of moving out of the apartment and that Warner ended up with Hogan's computer, panicked and dropped them off at the church.

The investigation has prompted debate over whether he should be shielded from prosecution by California's so-called shield law, which protects journalists from having to turn over to police unpublished notes and the names of anonymous sources. But the shield law doesn't immunize journalists from breaking the law.

The investigators themselves have come under fire as well for apparently launching the investigation at Apple's behest. Detective Broad belongs to a special high technology task force called the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, which is comprised of investigators from several jurisdictions and investigates crimes against technology companies.

According to Broad, task force investigators met with two high-ranking Apple executives and outside lawyer George Riley on April 20, the day Gizmodo published the images. Riley told the task force that Gizmodo's action were "immensely damaging to Apple," because consumers would hold off buying iPhones until the new version was released. Riley didn't estimate a dollar figure, but said losses were "huge," according to the affidavit.

Apple is a member of the technology crime task force's board, but the company said it didn't use its influence to pressure law enforcement to investigate.

"We reported what we believe was a crime, and the D.A. of San Mateo county is taking it from there," said Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton.

San Mateo County prosecutors had argued to keep the affidavit under seal to protect the identities of witnesses and the ongoing investigation. But The Associated Press and several other media companies convinced a San Mateo County superior court judge to make the document public, arguing disclosure was necessary to ensure that the raid of a journalist's home was proper.

source

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Jobs made phone call seeking return of lost iPhone Tweet

SAN FRANCISCO -- Brian Hogan's world closed in fast almost as soon as he sold the next-generation iPhone he found in a Silicon Valley bar to a popular technology website for a stack of $100 bills, according to court documents released Friday.

By April 19, Hogan's roommate had tipped off investigators that he was at the center of the drama, Apple's top lawyers were meeting with police to press for criminal charges and Steve Jobs himself was personally demanding the iPhone's return.

The ordeal has set off ethic debates in journalism and law enforcement circles while Hogan and a website editor are now at the center of a criminal investigation that has been rife with speculation but devoid of many facts - until now.

On Friday, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Clifford Cretan ordered unsealed a 10-page sworn statement with details written by San Mateo Sheriff's Detective Matthew Broad to obtain a warrant to search the car and home of Jason Chen, a Gizmodo.com editor. Broad's statement was used to obtain a search warrant for Chen's home and car.

According to the statement, the saga began March 25, when Apple engineer Robert "Gray" Powell left the iPhone prototype in the bar area of Redwood City's Gourmet Haus Staud restaurant.

It said Gizmodo paid Hogan $5,000 for the device, cracked it open and posted images of it on April 20 despite a phone call from Jobs the day before demanding website editors return the gadget. Gizmodo promised Hogan an additional $3,500 bonus if Apple formally unveiled the device by July, according to Broad.

Now, Chen is under investigation for theft, receiving stolen property and damaging property, according to the affidavit. The affidavit also suggests Hogan and a third roommate, Thomas Warner, also may face criminal charges, and alleges the two panicked and attempted to hide evidence when they caught wind of the criminal investigation.

Nobody, including Chen, has been charged with any crime,

"The events have taken on a life of their own," said Jeff Bornstein, Hogan's attorney. "He thought it was dumb luck that he stumbled on to something valuable and he regrets not doing more to return it."
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Bornstein said Hogan always intended to return the phone and didn't believe he was breaking the law in dealing with Gizmodo.

Bornstein also denied the affidavit's suggestion that Hogan was trying to get rid of evidence on April 21. That's when, shortly before midnight, Hogan's roommate Katherine Martinson called investigators and told them that Hogan and Warner were removing evidence from their apartment, the document said.

Investigators found Hogan at his father's Redwood City house and he directed them to nearby Sequoia Christian Church, where they recovered Hogan's computer and monitor.

Click to read the rest of the article

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Lost iPhone sparks debate over ethics Tweet

SAN FRANCISCO — Brian Hogan's world closed in fast almost as soon as he sold the next-generation iPhone he found in a Silicon Valley bar to a popular technology website for a stack of $100 bills, according to court documents released Friday.

By April 19, Hogan's roommate had tipped off investigators that he was at the center of the drama, Apple's top lawyers were meeting with police to press for criminal charges and Steve Jobs was demanding the iPhone's return.

The ordeal has set off ethics debates in journalism and law enforcement circles while Hogan and a website editor are now at the center of a criminal investigation that has been rife with speculation but devoid of many facts — until now.

On Friday, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Clifford Cretan ordered unsealed a 10-page sworn statement with details written by San Mateo Sheriff's Detective Matthew Broad to obtain a warrant to search the car and home of Jason Chen, a Gizmodo.com editor. Broad's statement was used to obtain a search warrant for Chen's home and car.

According to the statement, the saga began March 25, when Apple engineer Robert "Gray" Powell left the iPhone prototype in the bar area of Redwood City's Gourmet Haus Staud restaurant.

It said Gizmodo paid Hogan $5,000 for the device, cracked it open and posted images of it on April 20 despite a phone call from Jobs the day before demanding website editors return the gadget. Gizmodo promised Hogan an additional $3,500 bonus if Apple formally unveiled the device by July, according to Broad.

Chen is under investigation for theft, receiving stolen property and damaging property, according to the affidavit. The affidavit also suggests Hogan and a third roommate, Thomas Warner, also may face criminal charges, and alleges the two panicked and attempted to hide evidence when they caught wind of the criminal investigation.

Nobody has been charged with any crime,

"The events have taken on a life of their own," said Jeff Bornstein, Hogan's attorney. "He thought it was dumb luck that he stumbled on to something valuable, and he regrets not doing more to return it."

Click to read the rest of the article

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Samsung Acclaim R880 Android phone breaks cover Tweet

Picture of Samsung's latest Android handset is leaked.

The phone will be launched with the US Cellular network, America's seventh biggest mobile operator, as its second Android phone after the HTC Desire.

Samsung's Acclaim has a 3.2 HGVA touchscreen with a full slider QWERTY keyboard. The handset runs Android 2.1 and also features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Google Mobile Services, 3MP camera, MicroSD card slot.

From the picture, which appeared on Engadget, it looks like a sleek number with an attractive front, although the keyboard doesn't look the sturdiest. No word from Samsung on whether or when the phone will be available this side of the pond.

source

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Sprint Nextel CFO Bob Brust and President of Sprint Nextel's Prepaid Group Dan Schulman to Speak May 17 at JP Morgan TMT Conference 2010 Tweet

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. --Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) Chief Financial Officer Bob Brust will participate in the JP Morgan TMT Conference 2010 on May 17 at 2:30 p.m. EDT. The conference takes place at the Westin Boston Waterfront. Following brief remarks by Mr. Brust, Dan Schulman, President of Sprint Nextel's Prepaid Group, will join Mr. Brust for a fireside chat.

A live audio webcast of this session may be accessed via Sprint's website on May 17 at www.sprint.com/investors. The replay of the presentation will be available shortly after the actual presentation time.

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Ovi Maps directs an elephant, a robot, a Vespa and a Rocket Roadster Tweet

ONDON, England – Free walk and drive navigation needn’t mean that you only use Ovi Maps in your car or on foot. To create new promo video, the marketing folks have traipsed the globe to discover the most bizarre, the most outrageous and the most ridiculous modes of transport people have been using to get around. Their quest took to them to Atlanta in the USA, Jaipur in India, Shanghai in China, Rimini in Italy and London, in England. Direct your eyes southwards to find out how people have been getting around across the world.

Ovi Maps free walk and drive navigation has been a tour de force in recent months with over 10 million downloads since it launched. This ‘making of’ video showcases the breadth of transport Ovi Maps can be used with.

It’s a fantastic voyage of discovery that takes the team from a rocket roadster made by hand in Atlanta, to an elephant parade in Jaipur and a rickshaw-pulling robot in Shangai. It’s well worth a watch just to find out the amazing ways people have of getting around. Ready to travel around the world in five minutes using five different vehicles? Watch the video. Once you’re done have you got any crazy tales of travel? Been from A to B in a modified motor? Let us know in the comments below.

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“One Hot Night” Earns Runner-up Spot on NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Most Memorable List Tweet

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – As NASCAR Sprint All-Star Week approaches, Sprint (NYSE:S) is counting down the top-five “Most Memorable NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Events,” as chosen by members of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA).

No. 2 on the list is the race dubbed “One Hot Night” by then-Charlotte Motor Speedway track president H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler and his staff. Chosen to promote the 1992 event as the first NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race held at night under the track’s new lighting system, the catchphrase proved prophetic to fans who witnessed the thrilling finish.

Davey Allison dominated the previous year’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and Coca-Cola 600 at the 1.5-mile track in a No. 28 Ford that team owner Robert Yates nicknamed ‘007.’ Yates decided to bring the beloved car to the 1992 event in the hopes of again sweeping both races. After winning the pole position for the event and the race’s first 30-lap segment, Allison set himself up for a second consecutive All-Star win.

In the final 10-lap segment, Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt battled for the lead while Allison bided his time in third. On the last lap, Earnhardt and Petty made contact in Turn 3, causing Earnhardt to lose control of his No. 3 Chevy. Allison avoided Earnhardt and took the inside line as he and Petty battled side-by-side coming off the final turn. Allison edged Petty by just a few feet at the finish line, but there would be no Victory Lane celebration for the young driver.

As they took the checkered flag, Petty and Allison’s cars made contact, causing Allison’s Thunderbird to slam into the outside retaining wall in a shower of sparks. Allison had to be cut from the car and airlifted to a local Charlotte hospital, where he was treated for a concussion and bruises. He claimed $300,000 in prize money for the victory.

No. 2 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Moment

“I’m not saying this as somebody who played a role in it, but I don’t know how that race didn’t end up being number one (on the “Most Memorable” list),” said Larry McReynolds, then crew chief of Allison’s No. 28 Ford. “Everything about that night was special. There was a full moon, a huge crowd, and a lot of electricity in the air. Leading up to that race, it had been an up and down season for us. We were either winning or wrecking. That night, we figured out how to do both.”

“That was the first time racing under the lights, which made it really exciting,” said Petty. “It was one of the most defining moments of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. That night we were racing hard. When you look back at races that come down to the last lap, the last 100 yards, those are the races that you remember as the special ones and it certainly is a special race memory for me.”

The top vote recipient for the “Most Memorable NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race” will be revealed next week, leading up to the 26th running of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.

Tune in at 7 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 22, to SPEED for coverage of this year’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. Sprint customers can also enjoy race coverage on their Sprint phones via NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile. To download the new NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile, which is free with any data plan, Sprint customers should text “NASCAR” to 7777 (Standard text messaging and data rates apply). Tickets for the event start at $39 and are available at www.charlottemotorspeedway.com or by calling 800-455-FANS.

Most Memorable Moments in NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race History

Rank


Moment


Year

No. 2


“One Hot Night” - Allison Edges Petty at Finish Line


1992

No. 3


“The Tide Slide”- R. Wallace Wins, D. Waltrip Spins


1989

No. 4


Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Rookie-Season Win


2000

No. 5


Jeff Gordon’s Third NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race Win


2001

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FCC CONSIDERS PREVENTIONS FOR CELL PHONE “BILL SHOCK” Tweet

U.S. Cellular only major carrier that already protects its customers with free text message alerts.

CHICAGO – Citing hundreds of complaints from wireless customers about the shocking totals on their bills from going over their monthly limits on voice minutes, text messages and data usage, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering a proposal that would require carriers to notify customers before they run up excessive charges. Last year U.S. Cellular was the first to offer a free service to all of its customers that alerts them when they’re approaching their limits.

“We believe that customers shouldn’t be surprised when their bill arrives,” said Alan D. Ferber, executive vice president of operations for U.S. Cellular. “Our customers told us that unexpected charges were one of their biggest concerns, especially those on a tight budget, so we created Overage Protection. Customers deserve to have a wireless carrier that is looking out for them.”

Almost 25 percent of U.S. Cellular’s customers have signed up for Overage Protection since it launched in November. Customers receive a text message when they reach 75 percent of their allotted minutes or text messages, and again when they reach 100 percent.

U.S. Cellular recommends that customers who consistently go over their monthly totals should consider switching to a different plan, such as one with unlimited voice, texts or data. U.S. Cellular customers can switch their monthly plans at any time without extending their contract.

U.S. Cellular has created other industry-leading programs that put the needs of its customers first. With Battery Swap, customers can come into any U.S. Cellular store and exchange a dead or dying battery with a fully-charged one for free. Its My Contacts Backup application, free to all customers, stores their cell phones contacts on a secure Web site in case the phone is lost or damaged.

“Wireless customers shouldn’t have to rely on the government to fix the flaws in our industry,” Ferber added. “We’ve always believed that customers should expect more from their carriers.”

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Freescale Qt Seminar Tweet

Quickly build your next product with Advanced Graphical Interfaces using Freescale i.MX Processors and Qt®, the Cross-Platform Application and UI Framework from Nokia

Presented by Future Electronics, Nokia’s Qt Development Frameworks and Integrated Computer Solutions (ICS), a Qt-certified training and consulting partner.

Students Must Bring

* • Your own laptop (none will be provided)
* • Serial port or USB-serial coverter needed on laptop
* • i.MX23 board (or one will be provided for use during the course)

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Asus EEE PC 1215N – top choice with dual core Atom, Ion and Optimus Tweet

These days, Asus has tens of different netbooks on the market. And even in the 12 inch class you get quite a couple of them (your fingers are just barely enough to get them all, but shouldn’t be for long). However, there are two versions emerging from the crowd. One is this one we’re going to talk about in here, the Asus EEE PC 1215N and the other is the stylish Asus EEE PC 1218 we wrote about earlier.

Now, the Asus 1215N wasn’t officially launched. In fact, it was not even officially launched either, but that should happen pretty soon,probably on may 13th. Rumors about it surfaced a couple of days ago, when people start grumbling about the fact that the much awaited Asus 1201PN had no Optimus. Thus, Asus quickly launched some details about this other model, the 1215N, which has very good chances for the king title in the 12 inch netbooks class.

It is expected to have a new dual core Atom on board, but a new generation one built on the PineTrail platform, one that has yet to be officially launched by Intel either, but should run at 1.5 GHz and should be available from June. This CPU will be paired with the 16 cores new generation Nvidia ION for extensive graphic capabilities (will run 1080p content easily and even some modern games).

Plus, it will get Optimus, a system specially designed by Nvidia to intelligently and seamlessly change between the two graphic options present on the device (integrated GMA 3150 on the CPU And dedicated Nvidia G218 used by the ION Chip). This translates in more efficient battery usage and in the end, better autonomy.

That’s about all we know for now. The device should be available from July and will probably cost around 550-600 bucks. So stay tuned, we’ll post more info on it in the following days.

source

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NVIDIA Parallel Nsight for GPU Computing Development Tweet

NVIDIA® Parallel Nsight™ software is the industry's first development environment for massively parallel computing integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio, the world's most popular development environment. Parallel Nsight is a powerful plug-in that allows programmers to develop for both GPUs and CPUs within Microsoft Visual Studio.

NVIDIA Parallel Nsight Power of GPU Computing Simplicity of Visual Studio
Massively Parallel Computing

NVIDIA's Parallel Nsight allows you to leverage the CPU for course grained parallelism and the GPU for massively parallel computing

What could you do with your application running 5 - 50X faster? Earlier detection of breast cancer? Real-time financial options pricing? Discover hidden oil reserves? Award winning game physics? Or process HD video to allow your customers to meet deadlines? Our partners have done all of the above

The power of GPU Computing already is delivering game changing performance increases to the Medical, Finance, Energy, Consumer and Research fields. For a view of 1,000 more customer stories visit www.nvidia.com/cuda

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Dual-core Atom is N550 1.5GHz Tweet

Comes in Q3 2010.

We have already told you that Intel plans to release a dual Atom for netbooks and now we have a few more details. The brand name that should surface in Q3 2010 is Atom N550 and the 500 series branding denotes a dual-core.


The distinction is obvious as N400 series will remain single-cores, while N500 series are dual-core. The dual core Atom for netbooks is clocked at 1.5GHz, it has 1MB total L2 cache, 2x512KB per core and two cores with four hyperthreads.

The TPD for this CPU is 8.5W which is two watts more than single-core 1.83GHz clocked N475. Remember, 8.5W is not that bad as this CPU has a Intel Graphics Media acceleration 3150 based core, integrated 200MHz graphics core and the big parts of northbridge.

The other day, Intel's VP Mooly Eden said that some multitasking operating systems might need a dual core CPU, something that might be quite good for the future tablet CPU.

If you simply go a few weeks back, you will that what we posted here, matches the article we just posted and double-confirmed.

source

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Vodacom announces low cost web-focused computer Tweet

Vodacom is pleased to announce the unprecedented arrival of Linkbook - a low-cost compact computer designed specifically to provide users with simple and affordable Internet access.

The Linkbook's operating system is geared primarily towards a user-friendly web experience; from email to social networking and browsing, as well as basic Open Office - everything a business entrepreneur, student or first-time PC user could need in a computer.

Everything works off the desktop - including shortcuts to popular local online content and e-commerce websites - making it the most intuitive, simple to operate device of its kind available anywhere in the world.

"Linkbook is the first handheld computer of its kind available globally and aims to broaden web and computer access in emerging markets, tackling the digital divide and enhancing Vodacom's strategy to make the Internet more accessible to all South Africans," says Shameel Joosub, Managing Director of Vodacom South Africa.

"South Africa is a market eager for more ways to get online. We expect that Linkbook will be particularly successful locally due to low PC penetration and we hope that by introducing a low-cost user-friendly Internet-focused computer bundled with 300 MB of data per month, this initiative will help to kick start local economies by encouraging entrepreneurs to create a range of locally-inspired business models and services."

The Linkbook, which has an embedded SIM card, as well as two USB ports, will be available on a 24-month contract at a subscription fee of R199 per month, including a monthly 300 MB data bundle, from participating Vodacom outlets, nationwide.

As part of the launch, Linkbook is exclusive to Vodacom and is touted as the perfect entry-level computer. Bundled with data packages useful to everyone from students, entrepreneurs, small business owners and others who want to be connected, the attractively designed Linkbook has an embedded HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) module for totally wireless internet connectivity.

"Linkbook is an idea whose time has come," says Mark Levy, co-founder of Linkbook. "It's compact and highly intuitive and will bring easy-to-use wireless internet to millions.

The cost of the actual computer to the consumer over the two-year contract period comes in at R40.00 per month. It is a massive step in the direction of the $100 computer."

"Customised for South Africa including links to the country's top online sites, it's a global first. No other laptop in the world does this, so it's something we as a country should be extremely proud of. It also runs on a Linux operating system called Ubuntu."

While first-time computer users are often scared off by the technicality of complex computing, a key attraction of the Vodacom offering - besides price - is the sheer simplicity of use. "The market for first-time computer buyers is huge," says Levy, "and more exciting for us is the fact that we are able to finally bring to market a system that starts to erode the massive digital divide in South Africa, enabling almost everyone to make use of the phenomenon of internet communication."

Levy says that users shouldn't be mislead by the low cost of the Linkbook. "Development doesn't stop with the hardware. We are working with a number of partners to create exciting applications and dynamic content that will further enhance our customers' experience of the web."

For further information call Vodacom's 24-hour Customer Care Centre on 111, free from a Vodacom cellphone or 082 111 from any other cellphone, or go to http://www.vodacom.co.za/services/blackberry/overview.jsp.

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Tesla M2050 / M2070 GPU Computing Module Tweet

NVIDIA partner solutions, powered by the NVIDIA® Tesla™ M2050/M2070 GPU Computing Module deliver supercomputing power at 1/20th the power consumption and 1/10th the cost, and provide the world’s highest compute density for departmental clusters and data center deployments.

Based on the next-generation CUDA™ architecture codenamed “Fermi”, the Tesla M2050 and M2070 Computing Modules enable seamless integration of GPU computing with host systems for high-performance computing and large data center, scale-out deployments. The 20-series Tesla GPUs are the first to deliver greater than 10X the double-precision horsepower of a quad-core x86 CPU and the first to deliver ECC memory. The Tesla M2050 and M2070 modules deliver all of the standard benefits of GPU computing while enabling maximum reliability and tight integration with system monitoring and management tools. This gives data center IT staff much greater choice in how they deploy GPUs, with a wide variety of rack-mount and blade systems and with the remote monitoring and remote management capabilities they need.

Compared to CPU-only systems, servers with Tesla 20-series GPU Computing Modules deliver supercomputing power at 1/10th the cost and 1/20th the power consumption while providing the highest compute density.

Find out more details from participating OEM resellers.

Features
GPUs powered by Fermi-generation CUDA architecture Delivers cluster performance at 1/10th the cost and 1/20th the power of CPU-only systems based on the latest quad-core CPUs.
448 CUDA Cores Delivers up to 515 Gigaflops of double-precision peak performance in each GPU, enabling servers from leading OEMs to deliver a Teraflop or more of double-precision performance per 1 RU of space. Single precision peak performance is over one Teraflop per GPU.
ECC Memory Meets a critical requirement for computing accuracy and reliability for datacenters and supercomputing centers. Offers protection of data in memory to enhance data integrity and reliability for applications. Register files, L1/L2 caches, shared memory, and DRAM all are ECC protected.
Up to 6GB of GDDR5 memory per GPU Maximizes performance and reduces data transfers by keeping larger data sets in local memory that is attached directly to the GPU.
System Monitoring Features Integrates the GPU subsystem with the host system's monitoring and management capabilities. This means IT staff can manage all of the critical components of the computing system through a common management interface such as IPMI or OEM-proprietary tools.
Designed for Maximum Reliability Passive heatsink design eliminates moving parts and cables.
NVIDIA Parallel DataCache™ Accelerates algorithms such as physics solvers, ray-tracing, and sparse matrix multiplication where data addresses are not known beforehand. This includes a configurable L1 cache per Streaming Multiprocessor block and a unified L2 cache for all of the processor cores.
NVIDIA GigaThread™ Engine Maximizes the throughput by faster context switching that is 10X faster than previous architecture, concurrent kernel execution, and improved thread block scheduling.
Asynchronous Transfer Turbocharges system performance by transferring data over the PCIe bus while the computing cores are crunching other data. Even applications with heavy data-transfer requirements, such as seismic processing, can maximize the computing efficiency by transferring data to local memory before it is needed.
CUDA programming environment with broad support of programming languages and APIs Choose C, C++, OpenCL, DirectCompute, or Fortran to express application parallelism and take advantage of the innovative “Fermi” architecture.
High Speed , PCIe Gen 2.0 Data Transfer Maximizes bandwidth between the host system and the Tesla processors. Enables Tesla systems to work with virtually any PCIe-compliant host system with an open PCIe slot (x8 or x16).

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WiFi data collection: An update Tweet

Nine days ago the data protection authority (DPA) in Hamburg, Germany asked to audit the WiFi data that our Street View cars collect for use in location-based products like Google Maps for mobile, which enables people to find local restaurants or get directions. His request prompted us to re-examine everything we have been collecting, and during our review we discovered that a statement made in a blog post on April 27 was incorrect.

In that blog post, and in a technical note sent to data protection authorities the same day, we said that while Google did collect publicly broadcast SSID information (the WiFi network name) and MAC addresses (the unique number given to a device like a WiFi router) using Street View cars, we did not collect payload data (information sent over the network). But it’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products.

However, we will typically have collected only fragments of payload data because: our cars are on the move; someone would need to be using the network as a car passed by; and our in-car WiFi equipment automatically changes channels roughly five times a second. In addition, we did not collect information traveling over secure, password-protected WiFi networks.

So how did this happen? Quite simply, it was a mistake. In 2006 an engineer working on an experimental WiFi project wrote a piece of code that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast WiFi data. A year later, when our mobile team started a project to collect basic WiFi network data like SSID information and MAC addresses using Google’s Street View cars, they included that code in their software—although the project leaders did not want, and had no intention of using, payload data.

As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible. We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it.

Maintaining people’s trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short. So we will be:

* Asking a third party to review the software at issue, how it worked and what data it gathered, as well as to confirm that we deleted the data appropriately; and
* Internally reviewing our procedures to ensure that our controls are sufficiently robust to address these kinds of problems in the future.

In addition, given the concerns raised, we have decided that it’s best to stop our Street View cars collecting WiFi network data entirely.

This incident highlights just how publicly accessible open, non-password-protected WiFi networks are today. Earlier this year, we encrypted Gmail for all our users, and next week we will start offering an encrypted version of Google Search. For other services users can check that pages are encrypted by looking to see whether the URL begins with “https”, rather than just “http”; browsers will generally show a lock icon when the connection is secure. For more information about how to password-protect your network, read this.

The engineering team at Google works hard to earn your trust—and we are acutely aware that we failed badly here. We are profoundly sorry for this error and are determined to learn all the lessons we can from our mistake.

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This week in search 5/14/10 Tweet

This week, we announced a number of new search enhancements.

Google Translate learns and speaks new languages
This week, we launched 5 new "alpha" languages on Google Translate — Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Georgian and Urdu. We also extended our support for spoken translations to 29 more languages. With these launches, you can now translate text, webpages and documents between 57 languages, and hear translations spoken in 36 languages. For many search queries where you want to translate a word or a phrase, we offer a translation powered by Google Translate directly in our search results. We also recently added romanization to this feature — when translating to or from a foreign language, you can now see the translation written phonetically in roman characters.

Example searches: [translate how are you? to chinese] or [translate обезьяна]

Twenty more languages in Google search get virtual keyboard
Recently, we announced that we've integrated virtual keyboards into Google Search homepages in 35 languages. Virtual keyboard lets you type directly in your local language script in an easy and consistent manner, no matter where you are or what computer you’re using. Feedback is always important to us, and we were excited to get more than three thousand votes for other languages you felt the keyboard should be launched in. Today, we're happy to announce that we are adding Virtual Keyboard to another 20 languages — making it now available in 55 languages.

For those of you who speak a language we don't yet support, we're hard at work adding the virtual keyboard into more languages listed in Google Language Tools page. You can also vote for the languages you'd like us to add next. We always appreciate your feedback as we continue our efforts to help you input text in your desired languages as easily as possible.

Example languages we added this week:

* Amharic
* Bengali
* Danish
* Estonian
* Gujarati
* Kannada
* Lithuanian
* Latvian
* Maltese
* Marathi
* Nepali
* Norwegian
* Oriya
* Punjabi
* Brazilian Portuguese
* Romanian
* Sanskrit
* Tamil
* Telugu
* Tigrinya

Finding short answers
This week, we introduced a new feature that brings the technology of Google Squared right to your search results. Squared makes it easier to highlight answers for fact-based queries, so you can get more accurate answers, faster. Now, you'll see these answers right at the top of your search results, brought to you from across the web. And, we've also made sure this feature works great on mobile browsers.

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HD Video Surveillance IP Camera Reference Designs Tweet

Texas Instruments offers multiple highly optimized reference designs based on the TMS320DM3xx and DMVA1 DaVinci™ video processors for the IP camera market to enable developers to speed through the design process as well as reducing overall bill of materials costs. These reference designs

These reference designs:

* Reduce development time by 90%
* Deliver higher quality, full HD images
* Decrease electronic bill of materials
* Empower customers to bring $150 HD IP cameras to market

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Barranco Tweet

This video provides an overview of the 3D model of Barranco, Lima, Peru. This is one of five finalists in the 2010 Google Model Your Town Competition.

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Samsung Galaxy S hands on videos Tweet

Samsung Galaxy S hands on videos

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Samsung Galaxy S HD video camera sample Tweet

An HD video camera sample shot with the latest Samsung Galaxy S smartphone.

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