Mother’s Day gift giving can be fraught with peril, especially when it comes to the consumer electronics industry. Here’s a look at some products to avoid.
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Gadgets
Tiny $25 Computer for Kids Who Want to Learn Real Computing
Ask any British coder of a certain age what it was that got them into the technology business in the first place, and the chances are high that they’ll say it was a childhood encounter with a Sinclair Spectrum, a BBC Micro, or an Acorn computer.
Back in the 1980s, these three UK-designed computers were a massive success story. They …
Acer: Netbooks Will Survive! Tablets: LOL!
Well this is kind of awkward. In an interview published on Forbes’ blog yesterday, Eric Ackerson, a senior product marketing and brand manager at Acer, said that “the death of netbooks is overstated,” in regard to the proliferation of tablets like the iPad. His reasoning is simple: tablets are expensive, netbooks are not.
The article …
10-inch BlackBerry PlayBook? No Thank You
In a rare case where I hope the rumor proves false, Research in Motion may be planning a 10-inch BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
According to Boy Genius Report, the 10-inch PlayBook would debut this holiday season. The original PlayBook, a 7-inch tablet, launched last month.
Here’s the problem: The existing 7-inch PlayBook needs a lot …
Over-the-Air: Future iPhone, iPad Updates May Not Require iTunes
As Apple gets set to reveal details of the next major overhaul to the iOS software used on the iPhone and iPad, there’s been some speculation that future incremental updates to the operating system may be pushed out directly to devices instead of having to be downloaded into iTunes first.
That’d be a relatively trivial feature to add, …
New iPhone Update Addresses Location Tracking Issues
Apple’s latest iPhone update (iOS 4.3.3) addresses the concerns raised by security experts regarding the automatically generated databases of user locations being saved to Apple devices and backed up via iTunes.
The new update now reduces the size of the location database—early reports had indicated that it may have held a year or …
Sprint Delays BlackBerry’s PlayBook Again
He said, she said. In an internal document from Sprint, it would seem BlackBerry’s PlayBook is getting delayed again… indefinitely.
The CDMA variant of BlackBerry’s PlayBook was supposed to launch over the summer. Previous release dates had the PlayBook to debut on April 19th, and the latest one says that it will come in a few …
Ford Turns Your Car Into a Wifi Hotspot On Wheels
If you’re one of those people who starts getting all twitchy the moment you’re out of range of a wifi hotspot, we have good news for you: soon, you’ll be connected anywhere you can take a car.
Ford is updating its in-car SYNC with MyFord Touch technology to add a rolling wifi hotspot for passengers to connect to.
It will support up …
Analyst: Apple May Be the Biggest, but Will Get Even Bigger
Apple may have recently become the more valuable tech company in the world, but one analyst believes that’s not enough for the corporate giant. James Altucher, investor with Formula Capital, is forecasting that Apple will grow from its current value of around $320 billion to somewhere in the region of $1-3 trillion.
What makes …
Wireless Carriers Reportedly Kill ‘Isis’ Pay-by-Phone Partnership
It seems that Visa, MasterCard and American Express are safe… FOR NOW!
Back in November, a fresh-faced youngster (yours truly) brought you news of a joint venture between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon known as “Isis.”
The idea was that these three mobile companies would offer pay-by-phone features using near-field communication …
Intel Trades Over 50 Years of Chip Design for ‘3D’ Processors
From Avatar‘s tawny-eyed, blue-skinned aliens to high-def Blu-ray movies to Nintendo’s totable 3DS, everyone’s hip to 3D, and the latest company to hop onboard looks to be–wait a second, Intel?
Yep, Intel, as in Intel 3D microprocessors. No, you won’t need dorky glasses to run your next computer, but using sophisticated 3D …
HP Veer, Smartphones’ Runt, Goes to AT&T on May 15
If you’re not a fan of the oversized smartphone craze, seek solace in HP’s Veer 4G, a diminutive smartphone that’s coming to AT&T for $99 on May 15.
By hiding a slide-out QWERTY keyboard behind a 2.6-inch, 320-by-400 resolution display, the HP Veer manages to be puny. Length and width are roughly equal to a credit card, and thickness …