BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 beta coming today or tomorrow

May 30th, 2012

Tablets

BlackBerry PlayBook

 

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook product manager, Michael Clewley, has confirmed through his Twitter page that the company is planning to release a beta version of its 2.1 Playbook OS by the “end of May.” After signing up as a BlackBerry developer, the update will be pushed to eligible devices once it is released. The company’s previous update brought native contacts, calendar and email to the tablet. Details surrounding the PlayBook OS 2.1 beta are not yet available.

New Apple patents reveal 3D Safari web browsing

Soon, you could be using Safari's 3D graphical user interface on your Mac

26 May 12

In a few years time, you could be browsing the web and more in 3D, according to Apple's new Safari patent applications spotted by Patently Apple on Thursday.

The new patent applications detail a 3D version of Safari, which will allow users to stack bookmarks, emails, documents and applications in a 3D manner.

The patent application describes that the invention relates to: "The presentation and management of Desktop GUIs and opening windows on the desktop GUIs."

The new technology could enable users to group multiple open windows together, which are then presented in a browsable stack. These stacks could be represented in 3D desktop environment. "Open windows displayed within a 2D desktop environment can be organised into one or more 3D browsable stacks in a 3D browsable stack, where each stack includes open windows associated with a common value for a grouping property," reads the patent's abstract.

"A graphical representation indicating the respective value of the grouping property associated with each 3D browsable stack can be displayed in proximity to the 3D browsable stack," the abstract continues. "As the user browses through the open windows in the browsable stack, one window is displayed in a frontal view at a time while the other windows are displayed in a side view. When the user selects an open window from the stack, the 3D desktop can be restored to the 2D desktop, showing the selected window as the current active window of the 2D desktop."

When Apple talks about the grouping of stacks, it means each 3D stack will represent a different type of application, such as emails, web browser windows or word processing documents.

The browsing items could be represented in a tilted 3D space, according to another of Apple's new patents. "In tilted viewing mode, groups of several consecutive levels of hierarchy can be represented in respective browsable parades shown in different depths into a viewable region of the tilted 3D space," reads Apples' patent abstract. "With the combination of browsing laterally across the parades presented in the viewable region of the tilted 3D space and browsing up and down the hierarchy along the depth dimension of the 3D space, the user can navigate the entirety of the hierarchy in the tilted 3D space."

Apple patent applications for a new stylus that uses haptic or optical technology were also spotted by Patently Apple on Thursday.

Will Apple's iCar ever see the road?

Published Sunday, May 27, 2012

iCar (Picture: SUPPLIED)

If you’re unhappy with your car’s design, you’re in august company.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs too was unhappy with modern car models, apparently to the extent that he wanted to design one of his own.

His dream – one of the few that went unfulfilled – was to launch a well-designed car, and he wanted to call it – you guessed it – the iCar.

Mickey Drexler, a board member at Apple Inc., recently revealed Jobs’ desire to add an automobile to the Cupertino-based technology company’s product lineup. He “Look at the car industry; it’s a tragedy in America. Who is designing the cars?” Drexler said. “Steve’s dream before he died was to design an iCar,” he added during an interview at the Fast Company Innovation Uncensored expo in New York.
Drexler said – and we agree – that had Jobs designed the iCar, it would have dominated the industry.
“It would’ve been probably 50 per cent of the market,” he has been quoted as saying. In fact, rumours were rife about five years ago when Steve Jobs met with Volkswagen Group head Martin Winterkorn in 2007, with the companies reportedly planning to team up to work on a car aimed at the youth market.
Rumours have it that Apple has been working on an iCar for years, but will the vehicle ever see the light of the day?

World's 'slimmest' notebook now in UAE

Acer unveiled Aspire S5 - the world's thinnest Ultrabook - that measures only 15mm at the maximal point and weighs less than 1.35kg. The ultra-slim device is built with a 13.3-inch LCD.
It features the unique Acer Green Instant-On technology for fast boot and resume, and Acer Always Connect, which lets users manage their multimedia and data on all their devices at anytime, anywhere.
"The Ultrabook is much more than just a product segment," said Jim Wong, president of Acer Inc. "It's a new trend that will become the mainstream for mobile PCs, and customers will see the unique features gradually extended across Acer's notebook family."

Ultra-fluid contours
Adorned with a delicately curved chassis in Onyx Black, the Aspire S5's cover rim wraps around the system body like a protective shell. A magnesium-aluminium alloy cover and palmrest provide a slimmer and sturdier form, while the metallic brushed detail presents subtle elegance.

Performance and eco-friendly features
The Aspire S5 features an Intel® Core™ processor, SSD storage for speed and increased shock resistance, professionally-tuned Dolby® Home Theater® v4, long battery life via the PowerSmart battery pack (with a 3X longer life cycle than traditional batteries), and is equipped with a chiclet keyboard.

Samsung Giving First 50 Galaxy S3 Owners Olympic Tickets

Galaxy S3

Last month, Samsung and UK retailer Phones 4u announced an offer that would see customers get free tickets to Olympic soccer matches with the purchase of a Galaxy device. Included in the offer were the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy S II, and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. However, it seems Samsung is keen to offer something similar to those buying its newest Galaxy device, the Galaxy S3.

Set to launch in the UK next week, we already know that the Galaxy SIII is in high demand. Today, Samsung today revealed that the first 50 people to get the phone will also get tickets to this summer's London games. The news follows last Wednesday's announcement that said customers who pre-ordered a Galaxy S III from the Samsung Brand Store at Westfield Stratford City would be able to collect their device the night before the official launch date of 30 May. The give-away for tickets to the Olympics will also be focused on the Westfield Stratford City store with Android Central reporting that the first 50 sold at the store will get tickets.

You'll be able to line up to buy your pre-ordered handset from 5 p.m. onwards, with pre-orders officially being available for purchase at 6 p.m.. If you didn't place a pre-order and plan to wait until the official launch, you'll be able to get the device on Wednesday, May 30. We wonder, will there be an unofficial, pre-line-up line for those that want to stake out their spot before 5pm?

Google Future Tech: 10 Coolest Google R&D Projects

Google, inc

I found this interesting Google technology information and I thought I would share it with my readers...

Just follow the link below...Enjoy.

One of the biggest difference between Google and Facebook is that Google is actually trying to make tangible products or software and Facebook, well, is just "face book." Nothing more. That's one of the reason why facebook share value is not what they expected it to be after a whole week of going public. Facebook is just full of users and lately people are finding out that a lot of their facebook friends they are linked to are fake or script generated. All it will take is a simple rumor or a hacker for facebook to fall on its face really quick. It would be like another dot come bubble burst.

Google_Future_Tech_10_Coolest_Google_R_D_Projects

Yahoo launches stand-alone mobile search app

The app can display search results and a selected Web page at once

Yahoo beefed up its search offerings on Wednesday when it launched Axis, an HTML5-based browser app that delivers search results as page previews rather than as links.

Axis shortens the time it takes a user to get from an initial query to the desired result, whether it's finding a fact or making a reservation, by about a third, according to Ethan Batraski, Yahoo's director of product management for special projects.

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Yahoo beefed up its search offerings on Wednesday when it launched Axis, an HTML5-based browser app that delivers search results as page previews rather than as links. 

Axis shortens the time it takes a user to get from an initial query to the desired result, whether it's finding a fact or making a reservation, by about a third, according to Ethan Batraski, Yahoo's director of product management for special projects. 

Batraski explained that most search interfaces require a three-step process -- query, results page and the selected result -- which Axis has tried to reduce to just two. 

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"That's an archaic experience. It's been the same for 12 to 15 years. We decided to get rid of the middle step, because nobody really likes the middleman," Batraski said. 

The app is a browser as well as a search engine, with browsing functions including navigational arrows, an address bar and bookmarking. A search query in Axis returns a set of visual page previews, rather than links with text summaries. Any structured content results, such as showtimes or sports scores, that would appear in a conventional Yahoo search also appear in Axis. Search results appear across the top of the screen, and the user can swipe left to display lower-ranking results without reloading. 

Even after a user selects a given result, by swiping downward, he or she can call the search results back up across the top of the screen without leaving the selected Web page. 

Users who log in with a Yahoo, Google or Facebook ID can save searches across their various devices. Axis also comes as a plug-in for most browsers so users can also run it on the desktop. A menu option allows for sharing through email, Pinterest or Twitter. Yahoo will roll out Facebook sharing in the future, Batraski said. 

Page previews could pose challenges of their own on the small screen of a smartphone. But Batraski indicated that the visual results mean fewer "back and forth" trips between the results listing and specific pages. When Batraski searched for "Adirondack chair plans," for example, he could quickly see which pages included actual plans. 

"I never have to look at a title-abstract URL again. I can see what's behind it," he said.
Axis' search functionality is built with HTML5 and runs off Yahoo's "Cocktails" platform, which blends elements of Javascript, SQL (structured query language) and HTML5. 

Cocktail provides "intelligent caching," which is what allows Axis to serve up so many images without significant delay, Batraski said. 

Yahoo entered into a search partnership with Microsoft in 2010 in which it outsourced the back end of its search system to Microsoft. Yahoo has continued to work on the front end of the search experience, although it has struggled to retain its 14 percent market share, according to comScore data. Axis will tweak the search algorithm based on which results prove most useful for its users.
Axis is debuting with keyword and image searches only. Search results do not yet include advertisements. The app is currently available for iPhone and iPad. An Android app will launch "soon," Batraski said.

Tips to use updated Google search app for iPhone, iPad

Google Search App

Google launched an updated version of its search app for iPhone and iPad on Wednesday. What? You're still launching Google searches from Safari?  Sure, you'll get the same search results because Google is the default search engine in Safari, but the stand-alone search app offers some pretty neat tricks.  

At launch, you have three ways to search — old-fashioned typing, using your voice or camera by using Google Goggles, which finds search results based on image matching. Goggles (Google's app, not its recently debuted high-tech eyewear ) is best used for identifying landmarks. You must turn on Voice Search and Google Goggles in your settings after signing into your Google account.

You can swipe back and forth between your search results and a single Web page. You can also use Google's preview for search results instead of the typical list view. Preview allows you to tap the side-by-side page icon in the upper right corner and get a series of large pages that you can swipe through. Finding text within a Web page is a snap as well — tap the magnifying glass on the bottom (iPhone) or top (iPad ) menu. Type in your term and each instance will be highlighted for you.  

Unfortunately, Google's redesigned search app missed an opportunity to bring real multitasking to iOS. Say you've launched Gmail from the App screen and now want to check Reader for news. When you open Reader, it replaces Gmail on the open tab — you have to use the forward and back arrows to navigate, loading the same tab each time. Opening more than one Web page from search results could also prove handy.