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29 Feb 2012 17:14

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Offbeat: Autocorrect mishap causes schools to go on lockdown

  • plan Over in Gainesville, Georgia, someone–unidentified in the report–accidentally sent a text message to the wrong number. The texter intended to write “gunna be at West Hall today.” Perfectly innocuous, right?
  • failThe phone’s overzealous autocorrect feature changed the text to “gunman be at West Hall today.” The recipient reported the text to police, and two West Hall schools were subsequently put on lockdown. source
  • » One question: Who uses “gunna” as shorthand for “going to?” We thought “gonna” was the standard abbreviation. But all jokes aside, we’re glad this was all just a technological snafu, and not an actual threat.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2011 00:53

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Tech: Clothing with a twist: Smartphones could gain a couple wearable friends

  • Years ago, researchers envisioned these tiny computers transmitting information to the Internet. It wasn’t what we envisioned, but it happened. It’s called the smartphone.
  • Yael Maguire, a visiting scientist at M.I.T. and Harvard • On the advancement of phone technologies in more wearable directions. Secret projects led by Google and Apple could allow users to carry around lightweight, connected devices that fit in with what you’re already wearing — think a bracelet-style iPod with the ability to talk to Siri whenever you want.  All of this is possible thanks to the invention of the smartphone, which is kind of a wearable computer already. We bet these toys will work perfectly with mock turtlenecks.  source
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Oct 2011 12:09

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Tech: Samsung ships more smartphones than Apple does these days

  • 27.8 million number of smartphone units Samsung shipped in the past quarter, way up from the prior quarter
  • 17.1 million number of smartphone units Apple sold in that quarter, down a bit from the prior quarter source
  • » A fast ramp-up for Samsung: Samsung entered the smartphone market in earnest just last year, and suddenly they’re bigger than Apple. How the heck did that happen? Well, Samsung gained a rep as having the best execution for mobile devices outside of Apple, and as a result, they were able to grow quickly. But it’s entirely possible that Apple could still top Samsung in the next quarter — part of the reason their sales are down is that they took longer than they usually do to iterate to a new iPhone. The iPhone 4S, it’s worth noting, is selling pretty well. (Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story claimed that both numbers reflected sales; as it turns out, Apple’s number reflects sales, while Samsung’s number reflects shipments, according to clarification MacWorld gathered from Apple and Strategy Analytics, the company that put out the report these numbers were based upon. We apologize for the confusion.)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Aug 2011 20:10

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Tech, World: A growing market: Kenyans buying $80 Android phones left and right

  • This isn’t the fastest Android phone you can buy. Nor does it have the largest screen — in fact, at 2.8 inches, it’s downright tiny. And battery life is reportedly so short that it can cause problems for those without nearby electrical sources. But the Huawei IDEOS has a major advantage for Kenyan consumers — it costs just $80 without a contract. The result? In a country where 4 in 10 people live on less than $2 per day, they’ve sold in the hundreds of thousands. The moral of the story? There is a huge market in the developing world for phones like these — region-specific apps, too. Other companies, including Apple, are rumored to be trying for this market. But can they hit an $80 price point with their phones? That’s the real question. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Jul 2011 14:59

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Tech: Patent lawsuits: HTC feeling the heat after Apple wins ruling

  • 2 Apple patents infringed upon by HTC, a trade commission says source
  • » The judge favors Apple in a key case: This decision might mean that every single Android device violates this patent — and may possibly prevent Android devices from being imported to the U.S. HTC says they can find a way around it, but it will be difficult — it’s not looking good. And, let’s face it — if Apple could get Android phones off the market, they totally freaking would.
Posted by Justin Jones • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Jul 2011 20:32

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Tech, World: Data roaming price caps in Europe don’t go far enough

  • €2.23 the average cost, per megabyte, of roaming data charges throughout Europe — $3.22 a meg!
  • €0.90 the price cap currently being proposed, also per meg, for data usage — starting in July 2012
  • €0.50 the price cap suggested after by 2014 … which is way lower only in context source
  • » To put this in perspective: If you hop on your iPhone and reload this page roughly 80 times, that’s about a megabyte. If you hop on Pandora and listen to half of a two-minute Ramones song, that’s about a megabyte. When AT&T implemented its capped data plan a year ago, many people were upset about the 2 gig data cap for $25 dollars. Doing the math, that plan is roughly 82 megabytes per dollar. If the half-Euro-per-megabyte roaming price cuts in Europe take hold, those 82 megabytes would cost around $59 U.S. dollars, considering current exchange rates. Now multiply that by 25. Exactly our point.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Jul 2011 14:29

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Tech: What combines alligator skin, titanium and Android innards?

  • If you said this ungodly-expensive phone, you’re right! Watch-maker Tag Heuer, known for its high-style time-telling machines a little more than its ability to make a phone you’d actually use, decided to make a phone that only Gordon Gecko would use. This $6,750 monstrosity of Swiss engineering, called the Tag Heuer Link, doesn’t even have decent specs for a smartphone — an outdated version of Android, just 256 megabytes of internal storage (most smartphones start at 16 gigs), an average camera and a fairly-standard screen. But hey, it’s expensive and stylish! And there’s not an similar iPhone 4 case available for purchase online! If we were Bud Fox, though, we’d probably just stick with a white iPhone 4. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

07 Apr 2011 23:18

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Offbeat: An April Fools’ Day prank so effective, we’re posting about it April 7th

  • If only all April Fools’ Day jokes were this successful. Our question: Who, seriously, would fall for such a thing? On April Fools’ Day, even? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Mar 2011 10:54

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Tech: HP’s making WebOS an option – for your laptop and desktop (Whoa!)

  • Need any more proof Windows will die someday? Well, here you go. Starting in 2012, HP will start offering WebOS on its PCs, allowing users to choose between Windows and the Web-oriented operating system. This is a huge step, because it means two major companies – Google and HP – are pushing away from the traditional Windows model. But HP’s corner-stoned on the model, so it’s even bigger than Google’s Chrome OS. This is huge. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Feb 2011 21:59

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Tech: Nokia, Microsoft forced to fight for smartphone scraps together

  • This photo, showing Microsoft and Nokia’s CEOs, basically explains the entire story on its own. Nokia’s Stephen Elop: Down with whatever random OS we were trying to make that won’t succeed on the market because we waited too long! Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer: Up with our in-just-before-the-wire Windows Phone 7! By the way, how sad is it that Nokia, which basically wrote the script on the modern cell phone, now has to hop in bed with Microsoft to even keep up? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
 
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