Five Things Apple iPad 2 Needs to Keep Its Edge

If Apple had any doubt when it launched the iPad, it seems clear by this point that competition in the tablet arena will be fierce. Apple will not enjoy the same two year head start it had in smartphones with the iPhone, as upcoming tablets are already raising the bar on the standard set by the iPad.

I don't expect that Apple is necessarily watching what competing tablets are doing and altering its development efforts based on that. For one thing, I assume that Apple already had a vision for the iPad 2 when it launched the original iPad and that development on the next-generation tablet has been chugging along since then. Besides, Apple strikes me as too confident--or arrogant--to consider rival tablets a threat or change its strategy based on what competitors are doing.
That said, competing tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the BlackBerry PlayBook have the kinds of features that many had hoped would be in the original iPad, and will offer formidable competition for the iPad once they hit the street. In order for the iPad 2 to maintain its edge, or even just remain relevant, here are some key elements it should have.

1. Camera(s). Arguably the most anticipated non-feature of the original iPad was a camera...or two. Not that tablet users want to replace their Nikon DSLR, or even their Sony pocket point-and-shoot with an iPad, but cameras have a variety of useful functions for the tablet. Cameras are a de facto feature of other tablets--both front and rear facing, so Apple needs to add them just to keep up.
2. FaceTime. Video chat is perhaps finally maturing into what it was expected to be 15 years ago. The main problem with video chat now is that there is no standard. One person may use Skype, while the next is using Windows Live Messenger, and another is connected to Google video chat. FaceTime is already present on iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4 devices, and Apple has set it up as an open standard so that other platforms might use it as well. Adding the millions of iPads to the FaceTime family is an imperative.
3. Processor. ARM recently announced that it has developed a 2.5GHz quad core processor. That isn't expected to be available in mobile devices until 2012, but it definitely signals that single core is yesterday's technology. The BlackBerry PlayBook uses a dual-core processor, and Apple should at least match the processing horsepower of the RIM tablet.
4. Memory. The iPad seems to function quite well on its 256Mb of RAM, but even the iPhone 4 has 512Mb. The iPad has quickly been eclipsed by competing devices with the Galaxy Tab having 512Mb or RAM, and the BlackBerry Playbook raising the bar to 1Gb. Again, Apple's goal should be to set the bar and keep its edge, but it essentially needs to have 1Gb of RAM at this point just to keep up.
5. Weight. With a 9.7-inch display and weighing in at a pound and a half, the iPad is a behemoth compared with the svelte 7-inch competitors coming to market. There are rumors of a possible 7-inch iPad, but hopefully that will be in addition to--rather than in place of--the larger model. Competing tablets use plastic casing rather than metal to shave weight. I don't think Apple should sacrifice construction quality, but it would be nice to shave off a few ounces and come in around a pound.
Those are the must-haves just for the iPad to keep up with where the bar has been set by tablet competitors. Since the pricing details of rival tablets are not yet known, these elements alone might be enough for the iPad to maintain an edge among consumers.
As for the business arena, though, Apple needs to be watching RIM, or maybe even Cisco. While the iPad is very useful as a mobile business computing tool, it's still a little like fitting a square peg into the round hole. RIM has the backend infrastructure for IT admins to manage and protect BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablets, and functions like being able to tether the tablet as a larger display for the smartphone are innovative and useful.
Apple managed to use its leverage as a consumer smartphone to infiltrate the business market with the iPhone, but with tablets it may be the platform that wins the business battle that eventually becomes the default consumer tablet similar to PCs. Users are not going to spend money to buy an iPad if their employer has already given them a PlayBook.

AOL Buys TechCrunch: Will The Scandals Continue?

The technology industry is still reeling from news that AOL purchased TechCrunch, the popular blog focused on technology start-ups, for a reported $25 million to $40 million. TechCrunch will join gadget blog Engadget in AOL's stable of technology-focused sites. Once a major provider of dial-up Internet service, AOL has focused in recent years on its Web content business, enhancing its offerings for news, maps, online games, and streaming television episodes connected through its main portal, AOL.com.

Many are wondering what will become of TechCrunch and its controversial founder, Michael Arrington, now that AOL is in charge. Will TechCrunch continue to make news with rabble rousing stories such as the recent charge that angel investors were engaged in price fixing; Scamville, a critical look at the advertising practices of social gaming companies; the Twitter hacked documents scandal; and the ongoing CrunchPad saga?

 
Here's what people are saying about AOL's purchase of TechCrunch.
No Muzzle
TechCrunch will maintain its editorial independence, according to AOL's statement announcing the sale. That's an easy declaration to make now, but what happens the next time TechCrunch unearths a potentially scandalous story and runs with it based on one or two sources? "Arrington becomes a part of the story when he publicly jousts with PR folks as well as executives, which may become a liability for AOL, a large, publicly traded company," AdAge points out.

Not going anywhere

Before the sale was announced, Arrington had forwarded on several occasions the idea of selling TechCrunch and getting out of the tech blogging business altogether. In January 2009, Arrington took a leave of absence after being spat on at a conference in Germany. As recently as June, the blog TechFlash reported that Arrington said he was ready to sell. Despite previous statements about being burnt out and exhausted, Arrington now says he's going to stick around for a "very, very long time."

Vengeance Shall Be Mine

Not everyone was happy for Arrington and the TechCrunch team when news of the sale broke. Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo, and Arrington's former business partner for the annual TechCrunch 50 conference let his feelings known via Twitter. "It is now complete: @arrington stole @techcrunch50 from me, sold to AOL & laughed in my face. I will have my revenge," Calacanis said.

Arrington announced in May that he and Calacanis had parted ways, and that the TechCrunch 50 would be replaced by the Disrupt series. At the time, Calacanis said there were "no hard feelings" over the break up, according to the LA Times. Apparently, Calacanis has had a change of heart since then.

TechCrunch may have a new owner, but it looks like revenge, scandal and Michael Arrington will remain a part of the tech blog, at least for the near future.

How to Get Cheap or Free In-Flight Wi-Fi

Want to stay connected above 10,000 feet but don't want to pay the premium? Here's how to get in-flight Wi-Fi at a discount or even completely free.
Home and technology blog Unplggd offers a few tips on grabbing in-flight Wi-Fi on the cheap. The obvious suggestions are Googling coupon codes (or checking RetailMeNot) and buying in packages (you can cut out up to 35% this way), but it turns out you can grab a free Wi-Fi pass pretty easily through promotions. If you're renting a car, booking a travel package, or just getting a parking spot near the airport, there are often promotions to get a free in-flight Wi-Fi pass. Just call and ask.
Here's a bonus, semi-evil tip for getting a discount without any codes: identify your laptop's browser user agent as a mobile phone (Firefox/Chrome). When you fly, Wi-Fi for mobile phones is usually a few dollars cheaper than it is for bigger devices like a laptop or even a tablet. If you identify your web browser as a mobile phone when you sign up, you'll pay the lower price. Once the sign up is complete, you can switch back and browse normally.

FaceNow Initiates FaceTime Calls Without the Hassle or the Phone Call

iOS: Much like the FaceTime app on the iPod touch, FaceNow's purpose is to make it easier and faster to make FaceTime video calls from your iPhone without the hassle of menu navigation or making a real, voice call first.
FaceNow is a very simple app. You open it up, add a contact from your address book, and you're ready to go. When you want to make a FaceTime video call, just click their name and the app will bypass all the usual steps and take you straight to the video connection.
FaceNow is available right now and is completely free.

FaceNow [iTunes App Store]

The Early Apple TV Reviews Are In

The new Apple TV is small — hockey-puck small. That's impressive, but we all know size doesn't matter, whereas speed does. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it connected to the iTunes library on my desktop computer. The Apple TV does this noticeably faster than its ancestor using a 'home sharing' option, which connects with any iTunes account in your household — Mac or PC.
The biggest new thing about the Apple TV is the feature my mom will like the most: If you're a Netflix subscriber you can watch movies instantly on it. Every web-enabled TV component can do that these days, including game consoles like the Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 and dedicated boxes from Roku and Boxee, so it's an expected feature. But on the new Apple TV it's fast, easy to set up, and easier for consumers like my mom to appreciate.
[...]
The new Apple TV is very promising, but it won't amount to hill of beans if Apple markets it the same way they did the last one — basically not at all. Apple can jokingly call it a 'hobby,' but if the company wants it to be a successful hobby they need to educate consumers the same way they did with the iPad.

Pros:
Compact design. Intuitive user interface. Streams video, music, and photos from your computer, iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. 99-cent TV-show rentals. Streams Netflix Watch Instantly content, YouTube, and content from iOS devices to Apple TV.
Cons:
No hard drive. Can't purchase content-streaming only. Can't rent a show on Apple TV and watch it on other devices or your computer. Limited rental content available. Connects via HDMI-not compatible with older televisions without purchasing adapter. Doesn't ship with an HDMI cable.
Bottom Line:
A lower price, a more compact design, and the ability to stream content from iOS devices and rent 99-cent TV shows makes Apple's latest Apple TV set-top box an excellent option for iTunes and Netflix users.

The Next Facebook: Scoop?

Imagine a social networking site geared specifically toward connecting college students with their on-campus academic and social communities. Sound familiar? Those are Facebook's roots -- before the site ballooned into a worldwide phenomenon with half a billion registered users. They're also the roots of Scoop, a forthcoming mobile social app.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt's personal venture capital investment vehicle, TomorrowVentures, has invested in the developers of Scoop, Trumpet Technologies, according to Venture Beat. (By the way, Trumpet Technologies has an awesome slogan: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." Its company mission is listed as "mobile local search," probably the most popular social network-related technology today.)
Trumpet Technologies put two college students in charge of developing the product: Nick Simmons and Michael Akilian. According to Simmons and Akilian, Scoop's ambition is to help people discover ad hoc campus events like impromptu basketball games and raging frat keggers. Simmons and Akilian want not only to list and promote events, they want to leverage users' social connections with a recommendation engine, actively engaging students in activities they'd enjoy.
"Imagine having a campus-wide conversation about what's going on. That information is not all in one place today," Simmons told Venture Beat.
The developers of Scoop realize they're cribbing from Facebook's playbook, and plan to even use that site to spread word about Scoop. "The existence of Facebook and its penetration through these campuses will be a great aid to distribution," Akilian said.
What's most interesting about Scoop is its distribution model. Though Scoop does have a Web site, it's uncertain as to how the service will use it, or if Scoop's main focus will be on a mobile app. Venture Beat notes that "Simmons says the choice of initial platform may change, at some point during the upcoming school year, at selected campuses."
Smartphone adoption has seen a dramatic rise over the past few years. According to the latest Nielsen data, smartphones have taken 25 percent of the U.S. mobile market in Q1 2010, up from 23 percent in the last quarter. By the end of 2011, Nielsen predicts smartphones to overtake feature phones in the U.S. market. Leveraging the popularity of smartphones and mobile apps (also a booming pastime) is a savvy business strategy, as mobile communication is quickly becoming the wave of the future.
Quiet startups such as Scoop and Diaspora are sneaking onto the social scene with philosophy disparate from the Big Dogs: if they can attract people who are tired of privacy scuffles and commercialization, perhaps there is a chance of reigniting the Internet revolution Facebook once personified and breathe new life into social networking.

Social media can rule your life

Being perpetually connected through social media can increase stress, weaken personal relationships, and even cause sleep loss, according to a U.S. university.
After imposing a week-long blackout in the use of Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging and other media, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in central Pennsylvania found that the pervasive technology had hidden pitfalls.
"Students realized that social media, especially Facebook and instant messaging, if not managed properly, can take over their lives," said Eric Darr, the college provost.
The 800-student college called for the ban to see how the technology affects the lives of students and faculty.
Most students complied with the week-long experiment earlier this month and some discovered that the technology could rule their lives.
Darr cited one student who felt compelled to check Facebook 21 hours a day and blocked posts between 2 and 5 in the morning to get some sleep.
"It sounds like an addiction to me," said Darr, who initiated the blackout, which was implemented by blocking social media access to the college's IP address.
Darr acknowledged that students or faculty who felt forced to feed their social media addiction could do so via smartphones, but he said most complied, and some were pleasantly surprised by what they found.
"The majority of students behaved much like smokers who sneak cigarettes after class," he said. "They would sneak off to check things on their smart phones."
But some discovered that they were less stressed because they were not able to constantly check their friends' Facebook status and found more time to do other things.
Other students found themselves more likely to have face-to-face meetings with students or faculty who normally communicate exclusively by social media.
Student Amanda Zuck said she isn't a heavy user of Facebook but was "a little irritated" at first by being unable to use the site.
Zuck wrote in an email that she didn't see much advantage in the project for herself but she added that it had probably helped a friend whom she said is addicted to Facebook.
"She decided to call it quits for a few weeks while she catches up on school, and I think this blackout helped her stick with it," Zuck wrote.
The project allowed all members of the college community to reflect on how social media tools affect their lives.

Dell shows off new 7-inch tablet

Dell Inc Chief Executive Michael Dell showed off a new seven-inch tablet and said the computer maker is on track to bring in more than $60 billion in revenue this year.
Dell appeared on stage at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco on Wednesday with the new tablet, which appeared to run on Google's Android software. But he declined to provide any details about the device.
The company released the Streak, a five-inch tablet, last month. Dell said the Streak, which is currently only available through the company's online store, will be available at Best Buy stores next month.
Dell also said the company's revenue has grown about 20 percent over the past two quarters, and "it looks like we'll probably do that again this quarter as well."
Analysts expect Dell to report revenue of $15.8 billion in its fiscal third quarter, which ends in October, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. That would be 22 percent higher than a year ago.
Wall Street expects Dell to post revenue of $62.4 billion for the current fiscal year, which ends in January.
TABLET PUSH
Dell executives have previously said the company planned to launch tablets in larger screen sizes.
The Streak, which runs on Android and doubles as a smartphone, costs $549.99, or $299.99 with a two-year contract from AT&T.
Dell is the world's No. 2 PC maker, according to industry tracker IDC, but has been expanding its product portfolio, with an emphasis on mobile devices. Apple's iPad has set the standard for tablet computers.
A slew of tablets has hit the market or is expected to in the coming months, including offerings from Samsung, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba.
BMO Capital Markets expects tablet sales to top 40 million units in 2011 and hurt notebook and netbook sales.
Dell's shares fell 1.8 percent to close at $12.38 on the Nasdaq.

BlackBerry PlayBook Professional Tablet, BlackBerry PlayBook Announced

Research In Motion (RIM) has officially unveiled its professional grade tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook. BlackBerry PlayBook is powered by 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and runs on Blackberry Tablet OS that is based on the QNX Neutrino microkernel architecture.

BlackBerry PlayBook tablet features a 7 inch capacitive touchscreen LCD display with 1024 x 600 pixels resolutions (WSVGA), full multitouch support, dual HD camera 3 megapixel front facing and 5 megapixel rear, 1080p HD video recording and 1 GB RAM.

BlackBerry PlayBook also supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1, WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Mobile AIR, Java and features audio player, video player, HDMI out, Wi-Fi 802.11n, and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. It measures 130 x 193 x 10 mm and weighs 400 grams. RIM will also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

Blackberry PlayBook Price

The Blackberry PlayBook will be available in the United States in early 2011 and globally it will launch in Q2 2011. Blackberry PlayBook price is still to be revealed.

Nokia C3-01 Price, Nokia C3-01 Touch and Type Price in India

Nokia is all set to launch Nokia C3-01 touch and type phone in India. Nokia C3-01 touch and type runs Symbian Series 40 operating system. Nokia C3-01 has both the touchscreen and 12 button phone keypad.

Nokia C3-01 touch and type features a 2.4 inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 240x 320 pixels, 5 MP camera, 30MB internal memory and 32GB expandable memory card slot, music player, FM radio, video player and 3.5mm audio jack.

Nokia C3-01 touch and type also features 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 ADP connectivity, Adobe FlashLite support, and IM messaging, support to major social networking application like Facebook, Twitter and access to Nokia’s Ovi Store for third-party applications. The main disadvantage of the phone is that it does not has GPS.

Nokia C3-01 Price

Nokia C3-01 touch and type is expected to be available in India by mid-October 2010 at price of Rs. 9000.

HP TouchSmart310 PC introduced to the masses

 

Touchscreens have gotten more and more popular by the day, and we are not surprised at all. The Apple iPhone really kicked things off where multitouch is concerned, and never had the world really considered touchscreens as a mode of input on a mass scale prior to Apple showing the way that it is not only possible, but perhaps, better than a QWERTY keyboard. The HP TouchSmart310 PC, being the latest model from the world’s largest computer manufacturer, will naturally come pre-loaded with the most advanced version of the company’s exclusive TouchSmart software to date. It not only offers a basic computing solution to homes, it will also double up as an anchor of one’s digital lifestyle. The HP TouchSmart310 PC will also come with the HP TouchSmart Apps Center which delivers one-touch access to free and subscription-based applications.

Let us take a look at the latest version of HP TouchSmart software. It will go about transforming the desktop into a “Magic Canvas” which allows one to freely drag applications, music, photos, videos and web content straight onto the desktop as “Magnets”. The inclusion of multilayered wallpapers will add further depth and perspective to the screen, while both new “Carousel” and “Magic Menu” options enable users to easily locate applications and content using not a mouse, but through your finger – now how about that? Of course, we believe parents who get this for their kids would have a strict “no food” policy when using the computer, since it goes without saying a greasy display is not entirely nice to look at. Either way, it would be wise to have some cleaning cloths lying around to get rid of fingerprints each time someone wants to drop by your home.
The HP TouchSmart310 desktop PC is tipped to hit the market on the 22nd of this month for $699.99, and the price will naturally rise upwards if you decide to tweak with what it comes with underneath the hood.

Binatone Brings Android Touch Tablet to India At Rs. 9,000

Binatone is launching a Touch Tablet at Rs. 9,000. The Home Surf Touch tablet, which is almost as slim as the iPad, runs Android 1.6, has:

• an 8 inch resistive screen
• Wi-Fi, 2 GB onboard storage
• 128 MB RAM
• powered by an ARM 11 667 MHz processor

How and Why Chrome Is Overtaking Firefox Among Power Users

Firefox has long been the go-to web browser among power users for its impressive feature set, extensibility, and openness. But Google's nimble, light, also extensible and open browser, Chrome, has won over Firefox's core user base. Here's why:

Solving Unnoticed Problems

Chrome has fixed problems and made improvements to the browser experience many of us didn't recognize until Chrome fixed them. You can install and start using Chrome extensions without restarting your browser; Chrome isolates tabs into separate processes so if one tab crashes, your browser stays up; or one of the smallest of my favorites: When I close a tab, the remaining tabs don't resize until my mouse leaves the tab bar, meaning I don't have to worry about hitting moving targets. (Try it; it's pretty smart.)
Chrome's bringing a lot of creative new solutions to browsers from a user interface perspective (consolidating the search box and address bar seems so obvious), and they're good enough that Firefox somehow feels like it's playing catch-up on a lot of fronts, and switching between the two, Firefox can start to feel downright clunky. That's not to say Firefox isn't still innovating—for example, a clever new tabbed-browsing interface, called Firefox Panorama, is on its way in the upcoming Firefox 4 release. But Firefox's innovation can feel stale (and slow—see next point) when compared to Chrome.

Frequent, Incremental Updates

As of July, Chrome has accelerated their release cycle so that a shiny new version of Chrome's stable release is available every six weeks. The benefit to the user? Instead of waiting for a massive release to consolidate a laundry list of updates, new features end up in your browser as soon as they're ready, a few at a time. From a user-experience perspective, this is great. Your browser gets incrementally better, and rather than learning to use a laundry list of new features each time there's a major release, you can familiarize yourself with one or two new features at a time.
The upshot: You don't have to run the bleeding edge beta or developer releases to get new features shortly after they're developed.

Every few months, we pit the latest and greatest versions of the most popular web browsers against each other in a series of performance tests, and almost every time, Chrome comes out on top. Firefox has made leaps and bounds in speed over the past few years, and despite coming out on top in memory use in the last round of tests, Firefox has one very big problem: Firefox users think Firefox is growing progressively slower and more bloated, and at the end of the day, user perception is always more important than all the speed tests in the world.
I can attest to this: When I use Chrome, it feels faster, and that's all that matters. I'd attribute that feeling to more than just interface design (though I wouldn't be surprised if Chrome's sleeker design does color my perception, too). At the end of the day, I want the browser that's going to deliver web sites and information quickly and pain-free. The extensions and other niceties are just jelly; the browser needs to be fast and serviceable before the other stuff really matters. For users who want speed, functionality, and extensibility, Chrome is turning a lot of eyes from Firefox.

Browser Sync

Power users love things that sync. Synchronization means you can work from any computer and expect the same basic environment. Chrome started integrating sync into the browser about a year ago (not long after its first birthday), and as of June of this year, it had conquered the final frontier of browser syncing—extension syncing.
Yes, Mozilla has their own browser-syncing tool that they plan on integrating in future releases of Firefox, but it still doesn't do extension syncing, and word of its integration came some seven months after Chrome had started built-in sync.
(It's worth noting that a new Firefox extension, called Siphon, can sync extensions across Firefox installs. Also, other third-party tools offer better syncing functionality than either Chrome or Firefox—see Xmarks for bookmark sync and LastPass for password sync—but Chrome's still leading on these in-browser features while remaining lightweight.)

Integration with Google Services

If you're a big Google fan, Chrome has a lot to offer. First, it can sync all your browser data (see more below), and tie it all together with your Google account. If you're a Gmail user, Chrome got first access to drag-and-drop attachment uploads, drag and drop picture insertion, and drag and drop attachment downloads. If you're an Android user, the new Chrome to Phone app-plus-extension lets you instantly beam stuff from your browser to your Android device. Android2Cloud (not an official Google tool) pushes stuff from your phone back to your computer.
When Chrome OS comes out with a stable release, you'll be able to sync your full computing experience by just logging in with your Google account. It's not there yet, but it's all part of where Chrome is going.

Shazam...

Many of us are prone to using the Shazam music-identification service whenever we encounter unfamiliar songs. After all, it's just so easy to whip out our phones, open an app, and know everything about a mystery song in seconds. But how does Shazam gives us all this information so quickly?
There is a cool service called Shazam, which take a short sample of music, and identifies the song.  There are couple ways to use it, but one of the more convenient is to install their free app onto an iPhone.  Just hit the "tag now" button, hold the phone's mic up to a speaker, and it will usually identify the song and provide artist information, as well as a link to purchase the album.
What is so remarkable about the service, is that it works on very obscure songs and will do so even with extraneous background noise.  I've gotten it to work sitting down in a crowded coffee shop and pizzeria.
So I was curious how it worked, and luckily there is a paper written by one of the developers explaining just that.  Of course they leave out some of the details, but the basic idea is exactly what you would expect:  it relies on fingerprinting music based on the spectrogram.
Here are the basic steps:
1. Beforehand, Shazam fingerprints a comprehensive catalog of music, and stores the fingerprints in a database.
2. A user "tags" a song they hear, which fingerprints a 10 second sample of audio.
3. The Shazam app uploads the fingerprint to Shazam's service, which runs a search for a matching fingerprint in their database.
4. If a match is found, the song info is returned to the user, otherwise an error is returned.

If a specific song is hit multiple times (based on examples in the paper I think it needs about 1 frequency hit per second), it then checks to see if these frequencies correspond in time.  They actually have a clever way of doing this  They create a 2d plot of frequency hits, on one axis is the time from the beginning of the track those frequencies appear in the song, on the other axis is the time those frequencies appear in the sample.  If there is a temporal relation between the sets of points, then the points will align along a diagonal.  They use another signal processing method to find this line, and if it exists with some certainty, then they label the song a match.