|  |  |  | | | | | Engadget | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | After having launched in January, Samsung's WiFi-enabled DV300F camera officially hit the market today, according to a fresh announcement from the Korean manufacturer. As the latest addition to the DualView line, this 16 megapixel shooter features a 25mm wide angle lens with 5x optical zoom, and boasts a three-inch main LCD, along with that 1.5-inch front-facing display. The latter is specifically designed to make self-shots a bit easier to manipulate, but it also features some extra kids games in "Children Mode," to help keep the little ones at bay. And of course, there's onboard WiFi connectivity, allowing users to instantly upload shots to Picasa and Facebook, and an extra "Smart Face Recognition" function. According to Samsung, the device is now available on a "global basis," for a price of ₩299,000, or about $266. For more details, check out the full, but choppily translated PR, after the break. Continue reading Samsung's WiFi-laced DV300F camera now available, priced at $260 Samsung's WiFi-laced DV300F camera now available, priced at $260 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Mar 2012 02:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling your luggage through the airport with your arms? There's got to be a better way! If you're a lucky fan of everyone's favorite console modder Ben Heck, you could win the freshly-built hands-free robotic luggage lovingly nicknamed "Doug." Or you can just catch the latest episode of Heck's show to figure out how to build an obedient wheeled suitcase of your very own -- and wink at all of the requisite R2-D2 references. Old Doug here will follow its master (whoever happens to be holding its transmitter) up to 20 feet away, speeding up when he or she is further away and stopping when within a foot. The 'bot's desire to follow is fully disabled when you pick it up off the ground. Click the source link, if this happens to be the luggage you're looking for. Ben Heck's wireless luggage will draw R2-D2 comparisons, stares from the TSA originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  Ben Heck | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | We wouldn't exactly be going out on a limb by suggesting that the new iPad is Apple's hottest tablet to date -- even before Tim Cook confirmed as much earlier today. But while Apple has plenty of reason to brag about the device's sales figures, it's slightly less motivated to be forthcoming about its tendencies to create more heat. 10 degrees more, in fact, according to infrared camera confirmation obtained by Tweakers.net. After five minutes of running GLBenchmark, the site used its infrared cam to confirm what many of you have already suggested: the new iPad runs a little hot. According to the site's measurements, Cupertino's flagship slab reached 33.6 degrees centigrade (92.5 Fahrenheit), compared to 28.3 centigrade (82.9 Fahrenheit) with the iPad 2. That's certainly not enough heat to cause a tablet to spontaneously combust, but if you happen to be one of those new iPad owners that noticed a difference, you can now rest assured that your internal thermometer hasn't missed a beat. Visualized: new iPad burns 10 degrees hotter than its predecessor originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Tweakers.net (translated) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | For as small as Jolicloud is, the company sure knows how to hang around. After renaming its cloud-based desktop operating system to Joli OS (and subsequently open-sourcing the thing), the outfit is taking a somewhat different approach with its latest offering. Jolicloud Me is a new type of cloud organizer -- think of it as a mashup between Pinterest and Dropbox, among other things. It's a high-level aggregation tool that pulls together cloud-based information and shares; things like music, images and video -- regardless of where they came from -- are grouped together. We've certainly seen social sharing aggregators before, but there's a certain level of elegance to this one. Beta invites are going out today (see the source link), with platform support for Android, iOS and the world wide web via HTML5. Something tells us we're just a few months out from yet another service that aggregates the aggregators. Jolicloud Me opens in beta, brings together shares in the cloud originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink  TechCrunch | Jolicloud (1), (2) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | What if one of the words in this post means absolutely nothing in the year 2094. It's possible, and more possible than ever before. That's according to recently published research from a group at the Institutions Markets Technologies' Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies in Italy, who have found that fewer new words are being added to languages today than in eras prior. Despite the proliferation of the internet and untold new ways to communicate, more and more words are being eliminated while fewer words replace them. It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason(s) why, but most gurus suggest that reliance on rigid spellcheck tools and the rise of short-form communication have made it less necessary to find new ways to say things. You can read more on the findings there in the source link, where we're sure master wordsmiths will be saddened by the lack of descriptive flair. Researchers find fewer words being added to languages, fewer ways to tell you precisely that originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Physorg | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | March Madness is in full swing and even if you're not a college hoops fan, that should extend to the rest of the TV schedule this week. After a surprisingly exciting season finale for The Walking Dead AMC is finally ready to bring back Mad Men. Also returning are favorites like Fringe and Mythbusters, although they're balanced out by Archer's third season coming to an end. HBO's Luck also airs its final episode this week and makes the most notorious exit of them all, alongside season finales from The River, Southland and Key & Peele. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.
Battle Royale
This cult favorite is finally getting a US Blu-ray release, offering the tale of Japanese teenagers trapped on an island and forced to fight each other in a game where only one will survive. It's kind of a bizarre story if you're not familiar with it, but well worth watching. Fans can nab either the first flick by itself or a pack including the sequel along with plenty of extras. Check out a preview trailer embedded after the break.
($31.99, March 20, Amazon)
Mad Men
After the longest of hiatuses, Mad Men is triumphantly returning to AMC. With its cast and director intact we don't expect the sordid tales of advertising execs and those who love them to have lost a step, but true fans have probably had this day marked on the calendar for a while.
(March 25, AMC, 9PM)
Fringe
Hey, everyone's favorite universe / time shifting sci-fi show is back. We've completely forgotten where Pacey is at this point but as usual, the team of agents and scientists will be investigating some weirdness like they always do.
(March 23, Fox, 9PM)Continue reading Must See HDTV (March 19th - 25th) Must See HDTV (March 19th - 25th) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Did the murmurings about a quad-core Galaxy S III this morning leave you feeling a bit... meh? We don't blame you. Sure, four cores and integrated LTE sounds great but (and this is a big "but"), Cortex-A9 is old hat. What we really want to hear about are those upcoming Cortex-A15 chips. Well, this should get your blood flowing -- a slide has leaked, allegedly loaded with detailed Exynos 5 specs. Looks like initial entrants will have a pair of A15 cores running at 2GHz, backed up by a quad-core Mali T-604 MP4 GPU. All of that will supposedly be built with Samsung's new 32nm High-K Metal Gate process. We've been unable to independently verify these details, but they are in line with what we've been led to expect. Still, until some Sammy PR comes down the pipeline we're taking everything with a grain of salt.
[Thanks, John]Alleged Exynos 5 specs leaked in slide show spyshot originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Land of Droid | SemiAccurate | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Last year, we saw Sharp bust out an array of 7-inch Android slates, including that NFC-packing RW-T107. Now, the Japanese company is adding a slightly larger member to the family, dubbed RW-T110. This 10.1-inch Gingerbread slab (sorry, Ice Creamers) is sporting a 1GHz TI OMAP processor alongside 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage, a 1280 x 800 display as well as an NFC chip. Additionally, the biz-oriented slate is powered by a 6,240mAh battery, which promises to get you up to nine hours of continuous video payback time. The RW-T110 will be hitting Japanese shelves on March 27th, and while there's no info on whether Sharp plans to launch it in other markets, we doubt you'll miss this run-of-the-mill "Big Pad." Sharp intros underwhelming RW-T110 Gingerbread tablet with NFC, not much else on board originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Akihabara News | Sharp (Translated) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Android has certainly taken heat for malware-related bits in the past. Now, a recent study by computer scientists at North Carolina State University reveals that over half of the 100,000 apps from the Android Market Google Play include so-called ad libraries, which are essentially handed out by Google or third-party devs to retrieve ads from servers and launch them on your phone. Of these, 297 were classified as "aggressive," as they're allowed to run code from a remote server. Furthermore, Dr. Jian along with his squad of researchers found that more than 48,000 of the apps put to the test could track location via GPS, while other accessed info could range from call logs, contact numbers, to the apps list on your device. It's unclear if this also applies to Android slates, though this particular study conducted only included handsets. Continue reading Android study finds privacy and security risks related to in-app advertising Android study finds privacy and security risks related to in-app advertising originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | NCSU News | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | There's nothing quite like under-promising and over-delivering, and it seems that we've got just that scenario in the case of this here rumor-turned-reality. After hearing that Seagate was planning to update the firmware on its GoFlex Satellite streaming hard drive, the company has indeed released version 1.3.5.015 today, a 51MB file that makes quite a few succulent changes. For one, it improves battery life (from five hours to seven), and it also "lifts the restriction on the number of devices that can connect to the drive at one time." Lastly (and perhaps most importantly), it provides a pass-through for internet access when connected to the drive. As you'd expect, the new bits and bytes are available gratis, and they can be downloaded there in the source link. Seagate releases GoFlex Satellite firmware update: improved battery life, WiFi passthrough originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Seagate | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | $22 -- seriously -- that's all Walmart wants for this 4GB PMP that sports a 1.8-inch color screen and a 5-megapixel camera. If the eSport Clip's relatively paltry internal memory doesn't get you excited, you can always add more thanks to the empty microSD slot. That shooter can do video as well as stills, and there is an included suite of effects. Those features alone would make for a more expensive device, if the brand on here was something more recognizable than Ematic. Amazingly, we're not quite done listing off the specs just yet. The supremely cheap player also has an FM radio on board and an eBook reader, though, we're not sure who would want to consume any text on a sub two-inch screen. Check out the gallery below for a few more pics.
Continue reading eSport Clip is an unbelievably cheap 4GB PMP with a 5MP camera eSport Clip is an unbelievably cheap 4GB PMP with a 5MP camera originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Google may have started out as a search engine, but the scope of its services has grown considerably in the 10-plus years since its origin. Of the many products in its grand stable, Google Translate has become a workhorse platform, lending its multi-lingual chops to Chrome, Google +, Android, iOS, Gmail, and even Google eBooks. Few of Google's other services can claim to serve the company's core mission "to organize the world's info and make it accessible" as well as the digital interpreter. Since many take Translate's prodigious powers for granted (guilty), we figured a quick history lesson was in order. So, join us after the break for a video interview with one of Translate's senior software engineers and let him hit you with some knowledge about its origins and operation. Continue reading Google gives us some insight on the inner workings of Google Translate Google gives us some insight on the inner workings of Google Translate originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Google may have started out as a search engine, but the scope of its services has grown considerably in the 20-plus years since its origin. Of the many products in its grand stable, Google Translate has become a workhorse platform, lending its multi-lingual chops to Chrome, Google +, Android, iOS, Gmail, and even Google eBooks. Few of Google's other services can claim to serve the company's core mission "to organize the world's info and make it accessible" as well as the digital interpreter. Since many take Translate's prodigious powers for granted (guilty), we figured a quick history lesson was in order. So, join us after the break for a video interview with one of Translate's senior software engineers and let him hit you with some knowledge about its origins and operation. Continue reading Google gives us some insight on the inner workings of Google Translate Google gives us some insight on the inner workings of Google Translate originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | January saw the release of the first ever Humble Bundle for Android, and now the organization is back with a first of another sort for the platform -- five of them, in fact. The second mobile-focused Humble Bundle sees five games making their Android debut, including iPhone favorite Canabalt (now with a two-player mode and Android-exclusive 3D option), plus Zen Bound 2, Cogs, Swords and Soldiers and Avadon: The Black Fortress HD (the latter specific to Android tablets). Along with those comes a beta version of Humble Bundle's own app (up from an alpha release before), which makes it a bit easier to download the games and check for updates since all of this handled outside of Google Play. As with all Humble Bundles, you can set your own price for the bundle, with an amount of your choosing going to the Child's Play charity and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and you'll also get desktop versions of all five games for Windows, Mac and Linux. A Steam key is also included with all purchases over $1 (although it doesn't yet include Canabalt), and they've even thrown in soundtracks for three of the games for good measure. Continue reading Humble Bundle brings Canabalt and more to Android Humble Bundle brings Canabalt and more to Android originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Humble Bundle | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | When Apple dropped the second developer preview of Mountain Lion on Friday it didn't see fit to include release notes, instead leaving it to us and the rest of the blogosphere to dig up the new features ourselves. The big ones are clearly Twitter alerts in the Notification Center and the introduction of tab syncing in Safari through iCloud. The latter of which should sooth iPhone fans that were jealous of Chrome for Android. Smaller enhancements were also turned on, including warnings when a program asks to access your contacts and location-based alarms in the Reminders app -- which can be shared with your iOS-based mobile device as well. We'll keep looking for more, but let us know you discover any new features in the comments. Mountain Lion Developer Preview 2's new features detailed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink The Verge, Cult of Mac | 9to5Mac 1, 2, Mac Rumors | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Apple's 'cash balance' conference call this morning was mostly uninteresting for folks not immediately involved with Wall Street (the actual thing and the Shia LaBeouf masterpiece, as it turns out), but CEO Tim Cook did let loose a few nuggets of interestingness for those hoping for insight into the future. For one, he stated that Apple's pipeline is "full of stuff," further impressing upon the masses the message he planted at the tail-end of the new iPad keynote on March 7th. He also stated: "I think our customers will be incredibly pleased with what they see coming out." Hardly a surprise, but Apple rarely hands out confirmation of boom times unless it truly has something significant in the labs.
He also confirmed that Apple had "a record opening weekend" in regard to the new iPad launch, but stopped short of handing out actual figures. In fact, we could be talking about a record low -- we jest, we jest. At any rate, AT&T has stepped in to announce that on Friday, March 16th, the carrier "set a new single-day record for its iPad sales and activations." Again, no hard figures, but something tells us the number crunchers (and auditors) are hard at work to bring us precisely that. Ma Bell's laughably brief press release can be found in its entirety after the break -- all 45 cliffhanging words of it. Continue reading Apple's Tim Cook says 'pipeline is full of stuff,' AT&T affirms record sales of new iPad Apple's Tim Cook says 'pipeline is full of stuff,' AT&T affirms record sales of new iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Chris Blizzard, a man who has been with Mozilla since its founding in 1998, has left the group and his position as director of web platform to work with a startup. Who the company is and what it does Blizzard didn't specify when announcing his move. In a blog post he said only that the Palo Alto-based outfit was doing "great (and difficult!) work that deals with the intersection of systems, compilers, and web-scale problems." Blizzard's decision to leave the foundation comes a time of relative turmoil, including a number of high-profile personnel changes, a major shift in the development cycle and a landscape that is increasingly mobile minded and hostile to Firefox. Still, after more than a decade, the browser has proven its resilience and we wouldn't worry much about its future. We wish Mr. Blizzard the best of luck in his future endeavours.
[Image credit: Mozilla]Chris Blizzard bids farewell to Firefox, heads for unnamed startup originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink CNET | Christopher Blizzard | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | With so many patent trolls out and about, you'd be forgiven if the Indian government's censorship case against Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other web companies slipped under your radar. Indeed, not a whole lot has happened since then, but Microsoft, at least, is making an early exit from the proceedings. Delhi High Court has dropped the outfit from the list of companies accused of failing to rid their sites of offensive material -- specifically, perceived religious attacks, or anything else that might violate local laws against inciting communal tensions. (In particular, according to a three-months-old New York Times report, technology minister Kapil Sibal, pictured above, took note of comments criticizing Sonia Gandhi, widow of the assassinated former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi). For now, this leaves Google and Facebook to defend themselves, though the two internet giants are moving to have their cases dismissed as well. The High Court will hear those petitions on May 3, with the trial set to resume on May 23. Indian court drops censorship case against Microsoft, Google and Facebook still on the hook originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Wall Street Journal | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Judging by its quirky name, you'd think Digiboo is anything but an à la carte video service hoping to fight it out with the famed Redbox, or even Qwikster Netflix. The outfit's kiosks allow you to grab a two-day rental from a 700-plus film menu for $3.99, while $14.99 makes any title yours to own. Here's the interesting part -- rather than getting a DVD for your cash, though, you'll insert a flash drive to download your movie in as little as "30 seconds." Digiboo's setting up shop at airports in Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis-St. Paul to start, but mum's the word on its plans for expansion. Taking a trip over to P-Town anytime soon? Be sure to let us know your results if you happen to try it out. Digiboo kiosk video service launches, opts for USB drives instead of DVDs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink SlashGear | Investors.com, Digiboo | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  When current CEO Guerrino De Luca took over the reigns at Logitech following huge losses on Google TV and its business in the EMEA region, we knew it was only temporary and now Logitech has appointed a successor. Bracken P. Darrell is coming over from Whirlpool (where he lead its efforts in, you guessed it, Europe, Middle East and Africa) to be its new president effective April 9th. The plan is for him to take over for De Luca on January 1st, 2013 (who will return to his former role as Chairman), while leading an improved, slimmed down product roadmap -- the theme is said to be quality over quantity -- for the second half of the 2013 fiscal year. On the conference call De Luca indicated more would be revealed during an upcoming earnings announcement in April which, combined with a hint at a Harmony remote refresh during the last call in January, has us marking our calendars already. Continue reading Logitech selects Bracken Darrell as president right now, next CEO in 2013 Logitech selects Bracken Darrell as president right now, next CEO in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | If unnamed "internal sources" at Sprint are to be believed, then HTC's new flagship phone is set to become one of the Now Network's first LTE handsets as soon as June 10th. The only sticking point, beyond us having no notion of whether these sources are credible, is that they didn't use the right name for the phone -- calling it the "HTC Jet" instead of the One X. Despite this switched moniker, S4GRU reports that all the leaked specs match up perfectly with the LTE variant of the One X, including a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm S4 processor (Tegra 3 being reserved for non-LTE version in other markets), 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 SLCD display, 1GB RAM, NFC, Gorilla Glass 2 and a polycarbonate unibody. As for the branding, 'Jet' would surely be a disposable codename, replacing the earlier Endeavor disguise, otherwise HTC's fresh start has already taken a hit. HTC One X could be coming to Sprint on June 10th, bearing LTE and 'Jet' codename originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink Electronista, Phandroid | S4GRU | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Surprise, surprise -- Apple just let the cat out of its own bag. In right around a half-hour, the company will officially unwrap plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year. 'Course, analysts have been clamoring for such an announcement for quite some time, and with a stock price near $600 and some $100 billion in the bank, the outfit can clearly afford it. More specifically, Apple plans to "initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012." Granted, that's all subject to the Board of Directors giving the ole a-okay, but we highly doubt the company would issue such knowledge without a practical guarantee that everyone is on board. Additionally, the Company's Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Apple's fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012; we're told that said program will be executed over three years, with the main goal being to "neutralize the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs."
As for CEO Tim Cook's thoughts on the matter?
"We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You'll see more of all of these in the future. Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program." Naturally, this all shows that Apple is supremely confident in its future, but it doesn't shed any light into potential acquisitions from a technology standpoint. Strangely enough, it was just a few days ago that Mr. Cook ended his new iPad keynote with a promise that 2012 would be chock full of unbelievable things from his company, but it sounds like the only folks celebrating this particular announcement are those with a hand in the stockpile. We don't expect to glean much more than what's given in the presser just past the break, but we'll be liveblogging the actual conference call starting at 9AM ET. Continue reading Apple announces dividend and share repurchase program for 2012, expects to spend $45 billion over three years Apple announces dividend and share repurchase program for 2012, expects to spend $45 billion over three years originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Apple | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Surprise, surprise -- Apple just let the cat out of it's own bag. In right around a half-hour, the company will officially unwrap plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year. 'Course, analysts have been clamoring for such an announcement for quite some time, and with a stock price near $600 and some $100 billion in the bank, the outfit can clearly afford it. More specifically, Apple plans to "initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012." Granted, that's all subject to the Board of Directors giving the ole a-okay, but we highly doubt the company would issue such knowledge without a practical guarantee that everyone is on board. Additionally, the Company's Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Apple's fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012; we're told that said program will be executed over three years, with the main goal being to "neutralize the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs."
Developing...Continue reading Apple announces dividend and share repurchase program for 2012, expects to spend $45 billion over three years Apple announces dividend and share repurchase program for 2012, expects to spend $45 billion over three years originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | An unnamed Samsung exec hinted to the Korea Times that its upcoming flagship, the Galaxy S III, will include a next-gen quad-core Exynos chip that will incorporate LTE and WCDMA radios. Of course, such a revelation shouldn't come as too much of a surprise since both its predecessors were built around home grown silicon... at least originally. According to the source, Sammy is trying to become more self reliant and distance itself from Qualcomm which has provided single-chip solutions for a number of the manufacturer's high-end handsets. The new AP appears to be the 32nm slab of silicon we heard about before MWC, which is sporting four A9 cores and not the more powerful A15. The executive said the development of the all-in-one chip is complete and its simply a matter of sticking them inside smartphones. Now, when exactly we can hope to see such a device hit the market is still a bit of a mystery. Unnamed Samsung exec says quad-core Exynos inside Galaxy S III, LTE on-chip originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Korea Times | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  Motorola has apparently bored itself with battery expansion and moved onto that other mobile upgrade chestnut; screen size. Posted on the Mfunz forums, we're apparently gazing upon a 4.6-inch high-definition display -- one that dwarfs the existing RAZR model on its right. We don't know much more just yet, although the apparent Verizon badging suggests this new phone is US-bound. This could be the first peak at the rumored Droid Fighter -- a name that's bounced around the web recently on supposedly leaked Verizon documents with a mid-April release date in tow. We're not sure what else to expect from this device, aside from what looks likely to be software-based buttons like those found on the Galaxy Nexus. We wouldn't refuse a Moto device with Ice Cream Sandwich from launch -- it'll beat waiting (and waiting) on those OTA updates. New Motorola phone elbows RAZR aside with bigger screen, gets caught on blurrycam originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink PhoneHK | Mfunz (translated) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The only thing worse than the Terrible 10,000 Feet is the underlying sense that it's all so unnecessary. Why should using an iPad, Kindle or bag-holding alarm clock be banned during take-off and landing, even with all wireless comms switched off? Nick Bilton from the New York Times has been hounding the Federal Aviation Administration over this issue for a while, but he's suddenly received a reply other than "Just turn it off, sir". A senior official told him that the agency as decided to take a "fresh look" at the rules, not for cell phones, but for the myriad of other gadgets that can make a flight so much more peaceful and productive. Currently, airlines complain that they have to test each model of device individually, on every single plane in the fleet, and with a separate empty flight used for each test, before they're allowed to relax the rules for that model. That's why personal electronic devices remain so closely restricted, but also why there's so much room for a smarter solution -- even if there are still reams of red-tape to overcome before anything changes. FAA to take 'fresh look' at gadget restrictions on flights originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink TheVerge | NYTimes | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Remember NetZero? Today the company announced that it's launching NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband, a wireless service rolling out in 80 US cities and offering value-priced monthly data plans without activation fees, contracts, commitments or overage charges. Customers can chose between two levels of service -- Lightspeed (up to 1Mbps down / 384Kbps up) to conserve data and Warpspeed (up to 10Mbps down / 1.5Mbps up) for maximum performance -- and can switch back and forth by simply logging into NetZero's website (this can take up to 15 minutes). Five monthly data plans are available:
- Free, $0, 200MB (limited to Lighspeed and limited to one year)
- Basic, $9.95, 500MB (limited to Lighspeed)
- Plus, $19.95, 1GB
- Pro, $34.95, 2GB
- Platinum, $49.95, 4GB
Two devices are offered -- the NetZero 4G Stick ($49.95 + shipping) is a Windows and OS X-compatible USB modem and the NetZero 4G Hotspot ($99.95 + shipping) is an eight device-capable WiFi hotspot with an LCD and a 2200mAh battery.
So far, so good -- NetZero is becoming an MVNO. Yet strangely, there's no mention in any of the PR as to which network the company is using. We test drove NetZero's new wireless service over the weekend using the WiFi hotspot and figured out that it's using Clearwire's WiMAX network. In fact NetZero's 4G Stick is identical to the Clear 4G Mobile USB modem (manufactured by Ubee), and its 4G Hotspot is the same as the Clear Spot Apollo (a rather bulky unit made by Gemtek)-- see the FCC links below and read on for our impressions after the break.
Continue reading NetZero launches '4G' wireless service, we go hands-on NetZero launches '4G' wireless service, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  China is getting even closer to its first taste of Nokia Windows Phone and it might include a new phone entirely. While we're still two weeks away from Mr. Elop's proposed March 28th launch, the leaked shot above is purported to be the Lumia 719c -- a previously unseen Windows Phone that could arrive in time for Nokia's latest smartphone push. It has that familiar curved shape and plastic build, but there's some slight design riffs to set it apart from both the Lumia 710 and 610 -- one of which it'll likely replace in Chinese stores. We only have Mr. Blurrycam's one-shot portrait to go on so far, but expect to see some price-constrained specs like those seen on Nokia's other entry-level smartphone when (or if) it gets an official reveal. Is this the Nokia Lumia 719c? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 06:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink My Nokia Blog | Tieba.baidu.com (translated) | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The latest refresh of the Linux kernel, 3.3, is now available, and the second release of 2012 brings with it the long-awaited merging of code from Google's little side project. While that is particularly interesting to developers looking to boot Android or run apps on the stock Linux kernel (FYI: optimized power management and other infrastructure that didn't make it this time will arrive in the next release, 3.4) and represents a resolution to the issues that kept the two apart for so long it's not the only new feature included. There are improvements to file systems like Btrfs, memory management, networking, security and much, much more. Hit the source link below for the full changelog or grab the code and from the usual locations and get your compile on directly. Linux kernel 3.3 released with merged Android code and more originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink @AndroidDev (Twitter), DeWitt Clinton (Google+) | Kernel Newbies, LKML.org | Email this | Comments | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | |  | |  |
