Creative have been behind a little laterly. The ZEN looks on paper to be a great device, but many people have had little issues with the player, plus it doesn’t feature any nextgen features (Bluetooth, WiFi, touchscreen). That is hopefully where the Zen Share comes in, which is supposedly Creative’s answer to the Samsung P2 and iPod Touch.
The rumour goes that the Zen Share will be Solid State (flash drive, not hard drive), have WiFi (which will be magically different to the Zune and iPod), feature X-Fi audio and will have a touchscreen.
To me it sounds like an iPod Touch with better sound hardware, and I’m fine with that. If Creative are going to make a device similar to the Touch, but release us from iTunes, I would be interested. Better support for a larger range of video codecs and competitive price, and Creative will have a winner.
For more rumours, click over to epiZENter.
I was Digging as I usually do when I’m extremely bored, and I came across a front pager about why an assortment of technology companies dislike Asustek. Normally I wouldn’t waste my time pointing out articles that only focuses on drawing in traffic, but this time I have to. The article is a very ridiculous call from a person who is supposed to be informative, not misleading them.
The article can be found on Datamation, and is titled The Most Hated Company In The PC Industry. To sum it up the writer discusses how Asustek and Intel are now chums, owing to the success of the EEEPC. He also states that the new technology is negatively effecting companies like Microsoft, Apple, Palm and Dell.
Firstly i would like to say the EeePC will have a minimal effect on Microsoft. The EeePC supports Windows XP and has even been seen running Vista. Xandos is a very powerful OS, and is known to be user friendly and intuitivel, but it has been around for years and hasn’t affected Microsoft’s OS market share in the slightest. Also, if you didn’t already know, Microsoft and Xandos have a collaboration, meaning it would be to Microsofts advantage if Xandos was to take market share from other Linux distro’s.
In the article the writer compares the price of an Apple iPod Touch (16GB model) to the 8GB EeePC, and concludes that the EeePC is slightly cheaper ($US69). Considering the devices are completely different and designed for such different functions, comparing them is just crazy. To even debate the comparison is a waste of the readers time.
It is true that Dell and other PC manufactures, who have a series of flash drive based notebooks, could be affected by the EeePC. That is, if their notebooks had not been designed for a completely different market. Ultra Mobile Personal Computers are usually designed to be used without a desk or while standing. Wrap your hands around the EeePC and you will quickly discover it is merely a tiny laptop. Examples of true UMPC’s are the Samsung Q1, Sony UX Series and Gigabyte U60, which all feature a QWERTY keyboard, and are engineered to be used on the move.
To further elaborate on Apple’s position, consideration must be given to their pre-established advantages over Asus. Apple have this thing called MacOSX which doesn’t natively run on anything but an Apple computer. Apple also get very good deals on NAND memory due to the fact they use over a quarter of the NAND memory produced worldwide. Apple also have this little program called iTunes, and does that run on Linux natively? No unfortunately it doesn’t .
Palm had to cancel their Foleo, not because of the Asus EeePC (though it could have been part reason), but because the Foleo had no way of reaching the hype that Palm had created. Match that with their ageing Treo series of smart phones, and financial difficulties and you get a cancelled product. Palm should hate themselves if anyone, because for a long time they were the best at what they did.
To me it seems that none of the companies in the article will be threatened by the EeePC. If anything Asus should be thanked for discovering another niche market. No doubt by the middle of the year you will hear about EeePC competitors that are all similarly priced and spec’ed.
The companies who could hold a grudge against Asus are Nokia and OLPC. Nokia have their N810, which is probably the closest thing to an EeePC (when you consider features and price). The OLPC should also be envious as the EeePC does more for the same price or less (though the OLPC is more technically advanced).
Intel and Asus have had a relationship for a long time, but Asus also has relationships with many of Intel’s competitors. Also, Intel have nothing to lose, because all their competitors (with the exception of OLPC and Nokia) use Intel insides to do a very similar thing.
Mike Elgan, if you’re reading this, I would like you to know your other articles are fantastic and you are usually right on the mark with your conclusions. Had you done a little more research behind the scenes I am sure you would have come to the same conclusion I have.
For the original article, click over to the Datamation Website.
iPhone gets the ability to teleport people forward and back in time will probably be the next headline. This one though, is that you can emulate Playstation (the first one) games on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Titled psx4all, developed by guy who also created gpSPhone, can play around 75% of games, still in development and uses software and hardware buttons to play games. If you had donated to the gpSPhone project you are probably already playing around with this, but otherwise there is no current public release of the software. Who wants to play PS1 games on a freaking touch screen, really people this is getting out of hand!
For more info, jump over to the ZODTTD Website.
That’s right, a 13 year old kid cracked this little baby open. Now with this tool called iJailbreak, you can install a bunch of 3rd party applications and tools. Gizmodo even had a chance to talk to the kid, Arix, and have got a complete install instruction for the people who are willing to break their very expensive toy. Good luck and good night.
For the whole shibang, click over to the Gizmodo Blog.
The genius’s have got around the latest firmware upgrade limitations of the firmware upgrade Apple pushed out on to all the new iPhones and iPods. You are now capable of running the springboard again, which is a 3rd party application launcher. It was done using the TIFF exploit in Safari, which was used in the original iPhone hacks. How long till we see these babies unlocked and Apple releasing firmware 1.1.3?
For more info, hack over to the Engadget Blog.
Unlike the firmware for the iPhone that only made things worse, it seems the new Apple iPod Nano and Classic firmware might fix a few things you can use. The new 1.0.2 firmware upgrades the way you use the Cover Flow feature as well as improved handling of video-out and bug fixes to Calendar and Contacts synchronization. Nothing ground breaking, but every little thing counts right?
For more explanation, visit your local Gizmodo Blog.
By now I’m sure you have all read all the iPhone news thats come out. It isn’t even the latest device anymore with the whole new iPod lineup (for another whinge). You have heard that it can be hacked, unlocked and a slew of other unpleasant things (for Apple that is). The thing is I didn’t get a chance to bag it!
What can I say about the iPhone? Well I am from Australia, so no official release here as yet (apparently some time in 2008). I didn’t order an unlocked one online. It just doesn’t excite me at all, mainly because I have a device that can do more and is a year older then the iPhone.
I can’t bad mouth the iPhone. Apple have been genius with this device, selling over a million pieces in under 75 days. They aren’t a cheap disposable device that is the end all of mobile use and even have less features then some current mobile phones (such as 3G derr). The big selling part of the iPhone is how Apple have packaged it. From even outside the box it is a sexy looking device. The difference between the iPhone and anyone else who make smartphones (such as HTC) is arrange all the parts slightly differently.
Lets make a little more sense out of this. The device features a 3.5-inch display which acts as a touch screen (human touch, not a stylus), 2 megapixel camera, wireless B/G, Edge support for data (around 230kbit/s), bluetooth 2.x+EDR and 4-8GB flash memory. There are a couple of unique components which are probably overlooked by most people, and they are the proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and 3-axis accelerometer, which all help with the user experience and to save battery life.
Everything but those last 3 features have been on smartphones for the last few years (the memory could have been added via slot). Strip away those 3 features and you have a product Apple could have released years ago. The difference though is the OS, the operating system and user interface that Apple always seem to get on the head.
Every mobile company has something to learn from all this. If you can make a user interface that people can actually use, especially one handed or in awkward situations, then you will have a winner.
Microsoft and Symbian have had the supreme smartphone OS for many years now, and have released some great devices. Still I have to say that their OS’s are lacking in many areas. Simply try and write a SMS with fat fingers on any of there devices, and where is the support for the extra cool little things that Apple have included, such as the proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and 3-axis accelerometer?
The iPhone OS isn’t without its faults though. It doesn’t have a true SDK (software development kit), meaning making any meaty applications aren’t going to happen. It requires iTunes to sync with a PC. It also costs you a bit of cash to buy ringtones, which most companies give you the ability to add yourself for free.
To finish I have to say that I am a little underwhelmed in whole by this device. It can do a lot of things, but not much more then a lot of devices before it. It is only a small step forward for what a mobile device is capable of, but if you are going to see a company make the next move, you can be very sure it will be Apple.
For more info, tap on over to the Wikipedia iPhone Page.