Saturday, April 24, 2010

Dell Lightning Windows Phone 7 device Leak

The documents also include information and pictures about the "Thunder", an Android 2.1 device with a 4.1-inch WVGA screen. Dell's document also claims this has Flash 10.1 along with a mention of an "integrated web video Hulu app." The phone will be sold in AT&T and world-friendly HSDPA versions around Q4 of this year.

Dell's "Smoke" is running Android Froyo atop a 2.8-inch QVGA display. It has a QWERTY keyboard and it is powered by a Qualcomm's next-gen MSM7230 processor at 800MHz, has a 5 megapixel autofocus cam, 14.4Mbps HSPA, microSD expansion to 32GB, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and dual-mic noise canceling technology.

Engadget also posted information about Dell tablet/slate devices including the 7" and 10" varieties called Streak. The seven-inch one will be based on Nvidia's Tegra 2 platform and will run Android 2.1 OS.

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New ASUS ROG Crosshair IV Formula Motherboard to Support Dual Channel DDR3 2000MHz on AMD Platforms

The brand new Crosshair IV Formula from ASUS Republic of Gamers, or ROG, ups the ante for everyone with an interest in gaming.

Under the eye-catching design, the Crosshair IV Formula boasts ROG Connect for instant tweaking and monitoring of gaming rigs, user-friendly overclocking interface Turbo Key II and proprietary ASUS technologies Core Unlocker and GameFirst.

The Crosshair IV Formula deploys the latest chipset architecture from AMD. ROG Connect, a built-in overclocking engine, maximizes benchmark scores by tuning and monitoring from a remote PC via USB, like a notebook. This way users can overclock while benchmarking, so all resources remain available to better performance. ROG Connect also serves as a monitoring tool?gearheads can obtain readings to see the effects mods such as overvolting have on their system.

ASUS and Republic of Gamers also announced Core Unlocker. It's well known many CPUs come with multiple cores deactivated during fabrication, and Core Unlocker brings those back to life. Users simply have to press one button on the board and the AMD CPU placed in the socket goes through a physical scan in search of dormant cores. Dual core CPUs can become triple or quad in minutes, with obvious computing horsepower benefits.

The Crosshair IV Formula also comes with the latest version of Turbo Key II. Turbo Key II runs extensive overclocking automatically, detecting hardware tolerances and testing them to ensure stability. Users need to do is press the O.C button on the board and let the technology take it from there.

Multiplayer has become the norm, and gamers demand smooth connections to deliver uninterrupted action. The reality, however, is that many still don't enjoy optimized broadband, which is why ASUS has conjured GameFirst. This smart solution works with the board's networking pipeline to prioritize bandwidth, eliminate lag and lower latency.

Storage comes in the form of six SATA 6GB/s and three SATA 3GB/s. Also, the Crosshair IV Formula includes two USB 3.0 ports, which are much faster than USB 2.0 in every way. There's also HD audio from integrated SupremeFX X-Fi, fully EAX 4.0 compliant.

Sonic Launches RoxioNow

Sonic Solutions today introduced RoxioNow, a technology platform designed to simplify media access.

RoxioNow allows PC makers, consumer electronics companies, and retailers to participate in the "over-the-top" video market and provides consumers a way to access new Hollywood content, as well as their existing libraries of entertainment and personal media.

The RoxioNow platform involves Sonic?s complete range of Hollywood to Home products for creating, distributing, and enjoying digital content. This includes Sonic?s professional Scenarist authoring workstations used in the production of Hollywood titles, its digital supply chain and cloud-based storage technologies for digital movie delivery and its consumer software products and services.

The company said that RoxioNow would replace Roxio CinemaNow as the technology brand behind the services that Sonic currently runs for Best Buy, Blockbuster, Lionsgate and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. Sonic is introducing a new "Powered by RoxioNow" logo, which will appear on digital download stores and consumer electronic devices such as PCs, Blu-ray Disc players, mobile phones and HDTVs.

In the future, the RoxioNow platform and program will expand to offer consumers an easy way to access and share their personal content such as photos, videos, and multimedia creations. This part of the program will involve Sonic?s entire consumer software line such as its media editing applications Roxio Creator and Toast, as well as its online multimedia storytelling tool PhotoShow.

Adobe Quits Development Of Flash-to-iPhone App

Adobe will stop the development of a Flash-to-iPhone software tool introduced with its Creative Suite 5 last week.

The company says that plans to concentrate on developing for Google's Android mobile operating system, according to a blog post by Mike Chambers, Flash platform product manager for Adobe.

A little over a week ago Apple released a new draft of their iPhone developer program license which contained the following clause:

Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

"Essentially, this has the effect of restricting applications built with a number of technologies, including Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, and Flash CS5," Adobe's Mike Chambers wrote at its blog. "While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5. Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications (100+ on the store today) created with Flash CS5 from the iTunes store," he added.

Chambers said that Adobe would continue shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5. However, the company is not planning any additional investments in that feature.

"Fortunately, the iPhone isn?t the only game in town. Android based phones have been doing well behind the success of the Motorola Droid and Nexus One, and there are a number of Android based tablets slated to be released this year. We are working closely with Google to bring both Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2.0 to these devices, and thus far, the results have been very promising," Chambers added.

Apple doesn't sound terribly broken up about Adobe's announcement that it would stop developing its Flash-to-iPhone app building capabilities.

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told CNet:

"Someone has it backwards, it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe's Flash is closed and proprietary."

PlayStation 3 to Stream Pro Baseball

Sony is trying to make its Playstation 3
a digital hub for the home as the company is bringing baseball to America's living rooms on the video game console.

The new MLB.TV application for the PS3 that will be available from PlayStation Network, in both U.S. and Canada, later today. This app allows MLB.TV subscribers to watch every regular season game live in HD (local blackout restrictions do apply), with new interactive features designed exclusively for PSN.

Some of the unique interactive features that we show in the demo include:

- MLB Scoreboard ? See a schedule of today?s games (and set options to control whether or not you see the scores) - Home and Away Feeds ? Choose to watch either the home or away broadcast feed

- HD quality video and DVR functionality ? watch a live game in HD (with Live Game DVR functionality that lets you pause and rewind live games of fast-forward back to live game action)

- Season Archive ? Want to re-live a great moment? Go back and watch games you?ve missed from earlier in the season.

- Scrollable Linescore ? Go directly to any half-inning to watch only that portion of the game.

- Favorite Teams/Calendar Schedule ? Scroll through the entire 2010 Major League Baseball schedule in calendar format or designate your favorite team(s) to see the schedule for that team.

You can now download the app from the "Media" category on PlayStation Store, and launch it from the Video section of the XMB.

You must be an MLB.TV subscriber to fully utilize this app (some features, such as the calendar schedule, are available to everyone for free).

Sony offers two annual packages: MLB.TV is $99.95 and MLB.TV Premium is $119.95. If you aren?t already a MLB.TV subscriber.

Both Sony and Microsoft have been duking it out to control entertainment in the living room beyond games. They offer streaming movies through Netflix, and have been hunting for deals that can help transform their gaming consoles into one-stop-shops for content.

In Europe, Microsoft has struck deals with Vivendi unit Canal Plus and British pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB to provide content through the console, including soccer matches.

MLB.TV is also available on the Roku set-top box and through media provider Boxee.