6/08/2010 12:23:00 PM
kenmouse
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We've just gotten some face time (ha ha!) with the new iPhone 4, and let's just say this: it's incredibly sexy. We'll hand it to Apple, the phone is so thin it's kind of mind-boggling. The 3GS by comparison looks bloated. Feast your eyes on the pics below, and check out the FaceTime video demo after the break! Oh, and special thanks to hand models Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg.
Some takeaways about the device:
* As we said, it's shockingly thin.
* The screen is truly outrageous -- you basically cannot see pixels on it. We're not being hyperbolic when we say it's easily the best looking mobile phone screen we've ever laid eyes on.
* The build quality is really solid. The home button feels much snappier, and on the whole it just feels like a tightly-packed device, but it's not heavy.
* The side buttons are really nice and clicky.
* iOS 4 is very familiar -- there's not a lot added to fit and finish.
* The general speed of the whole OS is way snappier. The camera app in particular is noticeably faster -- shots get snapped in an instant.
We know how the iPhone 4 sizes up against the aging 3GS -- but how does it fare against its fiercest competitors from all the major platforms? We wish we had some production Windows Phone 7 kit to check out here, but in the meantime, take a look at the results against the gruesome foursome of the EVO 4G, N8, Pre Plus, and HD2. You might be surprised by some of the results -- and sorry, RIM, you don't get to play until you bring some fresh, media-heavy hardware to the table. Nothing personal!
6/08/2010 12:19:00 PM
kenmouse
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Hot on the heels of a three-way UK celebration, Deutche Telekom's reportedly managed to continue its coup -- if the company's Twitter account is to be believed, German exclusivity of the iPhone 4 will go to T-Mobile this June. Meanwhile, the English (and French) speaking world is still rolling out iPhone launch dates, as Canada's Rogers, Telus and Bell Mobility have all quietly announced the new superphone will be available "in the coming weeks" or "coming soon." Americans at Engadget HQ are supremely jealous of your choices, Canada... and rest assured that we feel Germany's pain, too.
6/08/2010 01:35:00 AM
kenmouse
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Apple has unveiled its new iPhone 4 after a couple wild, unprecedented months of leaks. Sure, it looks exactly like we expected it to (Steve compares it to an old Leica camera), with a glass front and back, but it's what's on the inside that counts, kids. The stainless steel band that goes around the phone is an antenna system, while also providing the main structure of the phone, though it's plugged into the same old GSM / UMTS radio you all know and love -- there's a reason they didn't call it the iPhone 4G. There's also of course that front facing camera we were all anticipating, a rear camera with LED flash, and a new high resolution display that doubles the pixels in each direction (960 x 640) for a 4X overall pixel count increase -- Apple calls it a "Retina Display." It's rated at 326ppi, which Apple claims is beyond the human eye's limit of distinction. Check out an example of the new screen up against the iPhone 3G after the break. Similar to the iPad, it's an IPS display, offering 800:1 contrast. Naturally, it's still the same old 3.5-inch size. Under the hood is the A4 processor that runs the iPad. Despite the new engine (and the 25% thinner chassis), Apple managed to make the battery slightly larger, and the new handset is rated at 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, and 40 hours of music. Oh, and that WiFi? It's 802.11n now. The camera has been bumped to 5 megapixels, with 5X digital zoom and a "backside illuminated sensor," which now can also record HD video at 720p / 30fps.
6/08/2010 01:33:00 AM
kenmouse
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If you're a developer following our coverage of Windows Phone 7 and want to get on that gravy train as early as possible, you'll be happy to know that development hardware will be arriving "very soon." This apparently according to an unnamed Microsoft representative at a Norwegian Dutch developer event, where it was also made known that, upon the retail release of hardware, developers will be allowed to unlock five devices for their testing, although Microsoft will continue to make available pre-unlocked dev handsets after launch. Exactly what the unlocking procedure will look like remains to be seen, as does nature of these early developer-only handsets. MobileTechWorld speculates that LG's GW910 will be that handset, and since that company did provide us with the world's first official device running Windows Phone 7, we'd say that money is probably a safe bet.
Motorola has just outed a Europe-bound Milestone XT720, a handset intended to grab the attention of camera lovers with an 8 megapixel sensor, 720p / 24fps video and -- a first for Android handsets -- a xenon flash. Speaking of Android, this will come loaded up with version 2.1 when it launches later this month. Plans for 2.2 upgrades are, as usual, not yet formalized and not under discussion. Other specs include a 3.7-inch, 480 x 854 screen, a 550MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU, and a promised 9 hours of talk time and 320 hours of standby time. It looks very much like Moto's selection of Droid-esque handsets that have been prowling the Chinese market, and it seems the company has enjoyed success with the keyboard-less form factor and is pushing it out to Europe. US release plans are also not being discussed -- it might happen and it might not, seems to us like it'll depend on the Euros' reaction. We're just getting to grips with the handset right now, and will furnish you with video of it as soon as we can.
P.S. We're told this handset is closer to the Motoroi than anything else, Motorola describes them as sister devices. We also spotted a network update from Orange on the demo handset, implicating it as a possible carrier for the XT720 in the UK.
6/08/2010 01:31:00 AM
kenmouse
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Of all the surprises we expected to hear about in the WWDC keynote, a multitouch trackpad peripheral didn't exactly pop into our brains. But -- whoomp -- here it is. What we appear to be looking at is a brand new input device that Apple has dreamed up which connects to desktops (and laptops, if you like) via Bluetooth, much like the Apple Keyboard. If you take what you see in the photos at face value, it would seem that the folks in Cupertino are making a play for finger-based input in a big way -- taking the work they've done on Mac laptops and the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and translating it to the desktop realm. This weirdly lines up perfectly with rumors from earlier in the year, emanating from both John Gruber (of Daring Fireball fame), and MacRumors -- the former reporting that Apple was set to release a "Mentioned-Nowhere-Else-But-in-This-Very-Headline Multi-Touch Trackpad Gadget for Desktop Macs," and the latter taking notice of an Apple trademark application for the "Magic Trackpad." It certainly all makes sense given that the company has made not-so-subtle moves away from standard input devices to finger-friendly options in many, many of its recent products. Whatever the case may be, we're potentially just hours away from the truth, so feast your eyes on the photos, and get ready for the big reveal.
6/08/2010 01:30:00 AM
kenmouse
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In the left corner, the 4-inch Samsung Galaxy S smartphone. In the right, the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab. Not pictured: the tablets that will dwarf both. According to a South Korean newspaper, the Galaxy Tab is only one of three touchscreen tablet devices Sammy's got planned: while the 7-inch model is slated for August, 8-inch and 10-inch varieties are rumored to appear in November and December respectively. Though the "high-ranking industry official" who informed the publication sadly failed to mention a price, he or she did add that the devices will launch with SK Telecom -- the second time we've heard that -- meaning if any of this is true, they've almost certainly got cellular modems inside. All we need now is some official confirmation, and perhaps a nice, binding promise of OTA Froyo.
6/08/2010 01:30:00 AM
kenmouse
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Jaechunsu
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JaeJoong
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Junsu
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TVXQ
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Yoochun
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Despite the turmoil going on with TVXQ / DBSK / Tohoshinki the group is still very popular in Japan evidenced by the fact of nearly 50,000 fans coming out to see JaeChunSu (Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu) for their THANKSGIVING LIVE concert / fanmeet held at the Kyocera Dome Osaka. During the festivities, the trio shared their personal feelings about the issues. Here’s a translation courtesy of ttvxqhwaiting @ OneTVXQ.com:
On the 5th ~ 6th of this month, at the fanmeet which was held in Osaka, Japan, the TVXQ trio Xiah Junsu, Hero Jaejoong and Micky Yoochun said, “The year of 2009 was a painful one, reaching the point where we wanted to give up everything.” It’s the first time that they mentioned about their feelings on the dispute with SM Entertainment about their contract.
Micky Yoochun, who was at Osaka’s Kyocera Dome to meet with the Japanese fans, said, “In 2009 I was always bored at home, not keeping in contact with anyone. Really felt like wanting to give up everything.” “It is all thanks to the encouragement from the members and the fans support that I can once again challenge myself. I will work harder in the future.”
Pair join action comedy 'Most Wanted' at Universal
How humiliated is Kendra Wilkinson over the release of her sex tape?
GUESS what poses the greatest challenge to Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou?
By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard about all the big features of both iPhone 4 and iOS 4 (the artist formerly known as iPhone OS 4, which we heard about previously). But something that Apple didn’t address too much today was a feature I’m most looking forward to: background tasks. I was pretty sure that being able to run apps like Pandora in the background while I do other things on the iPhone was going to be awesome. And I confirmed that today.
Would you watch World’s Got Talent? We hear music mogul and acid-tongued pundit Simon Cowell has another talent show trick up his sleeve: The mastermind behind Britain’s Got Talent and its American counterpart is reportedly plotting a World’s Got Talent reality competition show, which would feature acts from over 80 countries competing for a $1 million prize.
Jerry Yan recently visited Japan to promote the DVD release of his drama Starlit and his photo album 9314 Man & Boy. Over 8000 fans attended a promotional event to meet the star in his “mustache-look”. Jerry started things off by introducing himself in Japanese, and didn’t turn down any fans that wanted to hug him. When asked why he appeared with a more mature look, Jerry answered with a smile, “Lots of work-related things happened recently. My mood is actually not that great, but seeing everyone’s support, I will work even harder.” Jerry became tearful and many fangirls cried along with him...
But it downplays importance of the service pack
ORLANDO Bloom only agreed to appear in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies because it meant he got to work with Johnny Depp.
Speed has been one of the oft-talked about points of the upcoming 3DS, but according to "several developers" who spoke to IGN, it'll have processing speeds similar to that of the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Wanting to buy whatever iPhone goodness Steve Jobs unveils later on today, but currently languishing in the grip of an existing AT&T contract? According to MacRumors, multiple customers of the carrier are finding that, when they log into http://wireless.att.com and check their account status, they’re all of a sudden eligible for an upgrade where previously they were not. No official word from the carrier as yet, but one obvious explanation is that they’re preparing for an influx of requests from existing iPhone owners wanting to switch to the new iPhone HD.
After 3 sessions of " Red Black Evangelism Emperor 2010", yesterday at the last session, the artistes that came to support were Ivana Wong, MC Jin, Hiromi, Steven Cheung, Roy Chow, and Ada Choi took turns to go on stage to sing gospel songs. Roy Chow's wife who is pregnant also supported her husband behind the stage.
