Samsung Launches Possible iPad Killer The Samsung Galaxy Tab

Samsung has announced their new, and rather impressive looking iPad killer dubbed the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The Android powered tablet (MID device) features a 1Ghz Cortex A8 processor, 512MB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of storage, with an expansion MicroSD card slot for up to an additional 32GB of storage. The Galaxy Tab comes with a 1.3MP front-facing camera and a 3MP rear camera with LED flash, great for taking thpse late night pictures in the dark. The device also comes 3G data-ready, and has a 5Ghz dual-band 802.11n WiFi built-in card. The battery is a 4,000mAh battery, which Samsung says is good for up to 7 hours of battery life.

Other additions include a speaker on the bottom of the device for not just sound but speakerphone support. Built in Bluetooth 3.0 and a 30-pin dock connector that allows HDMI, USB and other accessories to be added onto the tablet. The Galaxy Tab has a screen that is a bit smaller than we'd have hoped featuring a rather small 7-inch TFT LCD screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 (WSVGA). Total overall measurements are 19 (7.5 in) centimeters by 12 (4.75 in) cm by 1.2 cm with an overall weight of 380 grams.

As far as application support goes the Tab runs a Samsung modified version of Android 2.2 Froyo customized by Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 GUI. The OS provides full feature support as with any other Android OS which also means it has Adobe Flash 10.1 support.

For media junkies users can watch movies in a number of different formats, including DivX, Xvid, WMV and MPEG-4 as well as all flash based movies from sites like Hulu and Joost.

Pricing has not officially been released nor has a carrier for 3g support been announced, however speculation suggests the Galaxy Tab will cost anywhere from $200-300 more than the iPad and further speculation puts Sprint at the front of the pack for carrier service. Again this is all speculation until Samsung makes an official announcement

My thoughts:

Specs wise, so far at least, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is one of the better tablet PCs we've seen on the market. Making it more likely to be competitive with the iPad. With little to no pricing information its really hard to say exactly how competitive Samsung can actually be. If the rumors are true and they are $200+ above the mark the iPad has set then I'm afraid they are already doomed to fail.

Personally I'd much rather have seen Samsung release a slightly larger devices. Something more comparable in size to the iPad. I'd rather trade better overall functionality to ultra-portability any day. Tablet/MID device makers are, in my opinion, trying to hard to breach the gap between a smartphone and a PC. I'd like to see a tablet in the 12-14" range that offers much great ease of use and full functionality.

Samsung press release

Win A MSI R5870 Lightning, MSI N460GTX Hawk or MSI R5770 Hawk GPU

MSI, along with popular hardware review site TechPowerUp, are teaming up to hold a hardware giveaway contest on GPU-Z from September 1st, 2010. Anyone who downloads the new GPU-Z v0.4.6 application and answers all 5 questions will have a chance to win a new MSI R5870 Lightning graphics card for free! There will be three lucky winners each month, and the contest will not expire until October 30th, 2010.

Contest page：
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/contest3.php

The details of GPU-Z hardware giveaway contest:

1. The giveaway starts September 01, 2010 and ends October 31, 2010 (2 months).
2. Prizes will be given away in the week of October 1st and the week of November 1st.
3. This contest is open to participants from all countries.
4. All platforms are welcome to submit their entry, including notebook and IGP.
5. All submissions have equal odds to win.
6. All cards are welcome and eligible to win, not only MSI.
7. Anyone, any age can enter where legal.
8. Winners will be chosen at random from all contest submissions since the beginning of the giveaway. You only have to submit once for the entire duration. 
9. Entry into to giveaway is only possible using GPU-Z on the tab "MSI Giveaway".
10. Only one entry per system per IP.
11. If a winner cannot be contacted after 5 days another winner will be chosen at random.
12. Information submitted in the contest questionnaire will be made available to MSI.
13. You will not receive any communication to your submitted E-Mail address other than a winning notification in case you win.
14. Winner will not be responsible for shipping fees.
15. TechPowerUp or MSI shall not accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by you or any other participant entering the Competition or as a result of accepting any prize. TechPowerUp or MSI are not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telecommunications network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, or providers, computer equipment, software failure of any email or entry to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet, telephone lines or at any web site, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to your or any other person's computer or mobile telephone related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the competition. TechPowerUp and MSI also reserve the right to change or amend the rules if necessary.

Prizes：

1. MSI R5870 Lightning x 2 (one every month)
2. N460GTX Hawk x 2 (one every month)
3. MSI R5770 Hawk x 2 (one every month)

Oracle Giving Students Free Passes to JavaOne Conference

JavaOne and Oracle Develop are offering free Discover Passes to all qualifying students offering those students complimentary admission to the upcoming JavaOne and Oracle Develop conferences.

What Students Get: Admission to any session in the Java Frontier track for students, JavaOne, Oracle Develop and OpenWorld keynotes, three Exhibition Halls and the Mason street tent. Space permitting, you can also attend any JavaOne and Oracle Develop technical sessions, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions (BOFs), and Hands-on-Lab (HOL) sessions.

On top of the benefits that the free Discover Pass to qualifying students offers we have organized a special Java Frontier track for students. These sessions are designed for those with some or no programming experience. Students with no programming experience will discover tools and projects related to programming. Students with programming experience will learn tricks and tips for programming complex logic and deepen their knowledge of projects like Open Source.

To qualify for the free passes you must be enrolled in an accredited nonprofit institutions of learning during the Fall semester/quarter of 2010, taking a minimum of six (6) units, and you must be at least 18 years old.

JavaOne and Oracle Develop are being held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco September 19 - 23, 2010

To Register: Call the JavaOne and Oracle Develop help desk Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time) at 1.866.382.7151 (U.S. and Canada) or +1.650.226.0820 (international).

or

Create a PDF copy of your current Student ID and your 2010 Fall schedule of classes and either e-mail to javaoneinfo@eventreg.com or Fax to +1.650.226.0840. Your credentials will be reviewed, and if you qualify, you will be sent a confirmation e-mail with event registration details.

More details:

• Calling All Student Developers: Get into JavaOne and Oracle Develop for FREE!
• JavaOne and Oracle Develop Registration
• JavaOne Track Descriptions
• Oracle OpenWorld 2010

eBay Tightens PayPal's Monopoly Officially Bans Third Party Online Checkout Options

Most eBay sellers that are familiar with the eBay seller agreement know that eBay holds a tight reign on the services sellers can use to collect payments and while Google Checkout and several other third party services have never explicitly been disallowed the company has never listed most of them as accepted payment services.

According to a recent post by Todd Lutwak, eBay’s vice president of the seller experience, the company is instituting a new policy that will disallow collections of payments from not only Google Checkout but any and all third party online payment services.

Once the new policy takes affect PayPal will stand as the only online payment method available to users. The company claims the move is intended “to give eBay buyers a consistent, speedy checkout experience and to ensure support for fast-growing sales via mobile platforms...,”

Clearly this has more to do with eBay owning PayPal than the user experience. Users have for years complained about the monopolistic approach eBay has taken towards PayPal. This seems to me nothing more than eBay looking to further double dip on their sellers!

Read more via eBay:

• Special Seller Update: eBay Checkout
• Third party phase-out

Apple's Press Event In A Nutshell

Personally I hate sitting through press events, even if I could do it from the comfort of my own home as with today's streaming event from Apple. There is something about hearing company clonies dragging on and on about their latest greatest product and how much I need it in my life that kind of bores me. So I wait for the condensed version, dissect it, and draw from it the information I want or need.

Well for those of you that share my disdain for the ramblings of cooperate heads here is the condensed version of Apple big event:

Apple Introduces New iPod touch

Apple announced the new iPod touch, packed with new features including Apple’s Retina display featuring 960 x 640 pixels—four times as many pixels than before, FaceTime video calling, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 chip, 3-axis gyro, iOS 4.1 and Game Center—all combined in a new thinner and lighter iPod. The new iPod touch features up to 40 hours of music playback and seven hours of video playback on a single battery charge.

The new iPod touch will be available next week for a suggested price of $229 for the 8GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Apple Announces New iPod nano With Multi-Touch Interface and iPod Shuffle

Apple today unveiled a completely redesigned iPod nano featuring Apple’s Multi-Touch interface that lets users navigate their music collection by simply tapping or swiping a finger on the display. Nearly half the size and weight of the previous generation, the new iPod nano features a polished aluminum and glass enclosure with a built-in clip.

The new wearable iPod shuffle has an all-aluminum enclosure with a built-in clip and comes in five brilliant colors—silver, blue, green, orange and pink. The new new iPod shuffle will sale for just $49 while the new iPod nano with Multi-Touch will have a starting price of $149 and should be on-sale in time for the holiday season.

Apple Introduces iTunes 10 With Ping Social Music Discovery

One of the more exciting announcement was the announcement of the newest version of iTunes, iTunes 10 with Ping, a new music-oriented social network for following your favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to and downloading. iTunes Ping lets you post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes, plus view concert listings and tell your friends which concerts you plan to attend.

iTunes 10 will also allow users to rent their favorite HD TV shows commercial free from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America and watch them at home or on the go for just 99 cents an episode. Apple promises that thousands of episodes are going to be available, many the day after broadcast, to watch on your Mac or PC, iPhone, iPod touch and the all-new Apple TV, and you have 30 days from the moment you rent an episode to start watching it, and 48 hours after that to finish it.

iTunes 10 is available immediately as a free download at www.itunes.com.

Apple Premieres a New Smaller Apple TV

Apple's new entry into the set-top market is the new $99 Apple TV box. The new Apple TV box features streaming content from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America for just 99 cents and first run movies for $4.99. Users will also have the option to stream content from Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe, as well as music, photos and videos from PCs and Macs to directly to their HD TVs.

Apple TV will be available late this month for a suggested retail price of $99 (US) and can be pre-ordered beginning today on Apple’s online store (www.apple.com).

Virgin Mobile Now Offering $40 Unlimited Mobile Broadband2Go Plan

Starting last week Virgin Mobile updated the companies mobile Broadband2Go service with two new price tiers a new $40 unlimited mobile broadband plan and an inexpensive $10 option for 100 MB, good for 10 days from purchase.

“Many unlimited broadband offerings require a contract or are on networks with limited range, so they don’t meet the need for flexibility or true mobility,” said Neil Lindsay, chief marketing officer, Virgin Mobile USA.  “The introduction of Virgin Mobile’s prepaid unlimited broadband for $40 a month will provide the access you need on a nationwide network without a contract.”

New Broadband2Go Plans
Signing up for the new unlimited plan also means customers no longer need to monitor data usage – and try to figure out how much they need --

Price        Expires    MBs/GBs    Web Browsing        Video        Emails
$40        1 month        Unlimited    Unlimited        Unlimited    Unlimited

$10        10 Days        100 MB        5 HRS            25 MIN        10,000

To use Virgin Mobile's new mobile broadband plans, you must also purchase the carrier's MiFi 2200 mobile hotspot for $150 or the Ovation MC760 USB device for $80. Devices are available at Best Buy, RadioShack , Sprint Stores, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile stores, Walmart and online at BestBuy.com, Target.com, Walmart.com and VirginMobileUSA.com.

Source: Virgin Mobile Press Release

Microsoft Makes Arc Touch Mouse Official

After weeks of the Microsoft Hardware team teasing about a new device on Twitter the company has made the device official with the announcement of the new Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse.

The new mouse features Microsoft’s first capacitive sensing touch scroll strip for easy navigation — just move a finger slowly for controlled scrolling or flick for hyperfast scrolling. The strip also has three tap “buttons” for added functionality: page up, page down and the middle click area, which is reprogrammable for whatever mouse function the user needs most. Switching from a scroll wheel to a touch strip is made easier with haptics, a vibration technology that simulates the bumps users would feel while using a traditional scroll wheel.

The Arc Touch Mouse is equipped with BlueTrack Technology, letting consumers track on virtually any surface, and a tiny magnetic snap-in Nano transceiver stores conveniently on the bottom of the mouse. Two AAA batteries give the Arc Touch Mouse more than six months of battery life, and the two-color battery life indicators let people know when the power is running low.

The Arc Touch Mouse will be available for the estimated retail price of $69.95 (U.S.). It is available now for presale on Amazon.com, BestBuy.com and Buy.com, and it will ship in early December.

Apple Will be Streaming Tomorrow’s Big Apple Event Live

For all you Apple Fanboy and girls out there that are interested in what Apple has hidden up it's sleeve you will get your chance to watch live with the rest of us.

Apple has just announced that anyone owning either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad will be able to watch the big press event live at Apple.com, starting at 10AM Pacific.

Sorry none Apple owners you are going to have to wait for the follow-up video, or you'll have to catch a your favorite bloggers live blogging the event. For those running Firefox there may be a few workarounds, namely the User Agent Switcher add-on. Using the add-on you can make Firefox appear to sites as an iPhone, iPad or other Mac OS device.

Here's a list of Firefox User Agent Strings that can be used to replace the current MS string and of course you'll need to know which settings to change. For that I suggest checking out one of these tutorials

• a) LifeHacker.com - How to Use Gmail's Attractive New Tablet-Friendly Interface on Your Regular Old Computer
• b) GroovyPost.com - Surf The Web iPad Style From Your PC and Firefox [How-To]

iFixit Now Offers Gaming Console Repair Guides, Tools and Parts

Those geeks over at iFixit may be best known for their teardowns and guides for smartphones and other mobile devices but that is about to change. iFixit has decided to push into a relatively untapped market: gamers who want fully detailed guides on how to open their systems, work on the innards, replace parts and keep them alive. The site will be offering a combination of information and products, mixing how-to manuals with specialized tools and replacement parts.

Right now there are repair guides for 24 gaming consoles, including 206 repairs and upgrades. Some of these fixes deal with major issues, such as the infamous Red Ring of Death from the Xbox 360, but others are simpler. For instance, right now there is no easy way to clean out the fans inside your console, something that any geek knows should be fairly routine maintenance. With an iFixit teardown guide you can now d-i-y it.

Some of the other guides go through more complicated procedures, some of which will take a little know how, like learning how to replace broken LCD screens on your portables or replace the motherboard on your PlayStation 3.

iFixit's repair guides are great. They are very well written and easy to follow, chocked full of pics so you know exactly what you are doing and they offer user interaction by way of editing similar to a iki. There is also forum style question section so you can ask those hard to answer questions.

Say So Long To ATI, AMD Kills Off The ATI Brand

AMD has decided to dissolved the ATI brand completely, and consolidated ATI brands, such as Radeon and FirePro under the AMD main brand. AMD which purchsed ATI back in 2006 for $5.4 billion point to recent research which the company says indicates that people prefer the AMD name to the ATI name. Under the new branding scheme, all of AMD's new graphics products (such as the upcoming Radeon HD 6000 series), will do away with "ATI" completely from the logo, marketing material, and so on, and the market will, as it already has been doing since the AMD-ATI merger, albeit informally, refer to Radeon/FirePro products as "AMD Radeon" and "AMD FirePro".

THis move really comes as no big surprise. Most of us know the ATI name doesn’t mean a whole bunch these days, in fact most of us interchange the AMD/ATI names when referring to GPU's anyways. For me it’s more of a nostalgia thing. “Oh man, they’re phasing out the ATI name that has been here for ages!" I recently took part of in an AMD insight study where they showed off several new logo designs, some of which were for the new AMD Radeon logos some were new ATI designs. Looking back at the study it doesn’t surprise me that their research pointed to more people liking the new AMD Radeon logos over the new ATI logos they had. Those things were funky and IMO ugly.