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Current news items regarding technology, tech companies, the Internet, the government, etc.

Google Video Chat on Android

Video Chat Coming to Android Phones

2 Comments / Gizmo of the Day, News, Phones / By /

Google Video Chat on AndroidI just got a call, a video call that is, from one of my Google friends with an Android smartphone. The call came in over my Google Talk client built into Gmail, and at first I thought it was just a regular voice call, but when I clicked Answer, there was my friend walking along and talking.

He had of course called to rub in the fact that he (already) had an Android phone with video chat 😉 I totally took it for granted how clear the video actually was. Keep in mind that he was walking, and I could see the sky and trees behind him, yet the video was not jumpy and there were no dropouts. Color me impressed.
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Sony S2 Android Tablet

Sony Shows Off 2 New Android Tables

Computers, News, Portable / By /

Sony S1 Android Tablet

Last but not least, Sony is now in the Android tablet game, joining existing entrants Samsung, Motorola, et al. Well at least their announcment is on the books as the tablets won’t be released until later this Fall.

Sony showed off 2 models at their press conference: the S1 and S2, which is a dual-screen clamshell. Both S1 and S2 will run Android’s 3.0 version (Honeycomb) which is what the Xoom also runs.
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AT&T Finally Comes Clean – Their Network Can’t Hack It

News, Phones / By /

The truth always eventually comes out, doesn’t it? Or at least finally admitted even when everyone else knows it? Specifically, in this case, it’s AT&T saying that the reason they want to buy T-Mobile is due to the simple fact that their network isn’t ready or capable of handling the crushing wave of new tablet and smartphones.

They also admit to having not been ready for the introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Yup, like we didn’t know that!

So pretty much, they’re begging the FCC/DoJ to allow the merger on the grounds that they’re more severely hamstrung than other carriers when it comes to their network capacity.

Here’s the 2-page filing if you’d like to read it.

iPad apps

Rep Jesse Jackson Jr Says iPads Kill Jobs

News, Op-Ed, Portable / By /

If you can get past how ridiculous this sounds, you just have to laugh. Illinois representative Jesse Jackson Jr. says that the iPad is killing jobs in America. Of course, while he railed about the iPad (and I assume other devices/computing in general) destroying the traditional publishing world, he then went on to talk about how the iPad was produced in China and how it’s killing jobs locally as well.

So should we stop producing iPads in China or stop producing them period? The ball is in your court Rep. Jackson. You may notice that while he seemed incensed at this ‘great injustice’, he didn’t actually put forward any solutions. Watch the video: …

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Wired Magazine iPad App

Wired Magazine’s iPad App Issues are now Free

1 Comment / Gizmo of the Day, News, Portable, Software / By /

Wired Magazine iPad AppGood news! Wired’s iPad app just got free! Well, technically, the issues going forward are free. The older issues (April 2011 and older) still run about $3.99 each.

These issues are not small though – May’s issue is 380MB, so don’t forget to delete when you’re done with them. You’ll also know why your syncing with iTunes is taking so long.

But on the bright side, you get a full multimedia experience for a magazine, from the opening video to even interactive ads. It’s quite obvious that this took work, time and money above and beyond what it takes to put together a print zine, so hopefully their gamble to make it free pays off. I certainly hope so.

Kindle 3rd gen WiFi

Wi-Fi Only Kindle with Ads Will Be $25 Cheaper

Books, Music and Movies, News / By /

Kindle 3rd gen WiFiAmazon.com has just announced that they will begin selling a slightly cheaper version of the Wi-Fi only Kindle that will include special offers (aka advertisements) and sponsored screensavers.

The new version which goes on sale May 3, 2011 will cost $114. The regular, non-ad version is $139.

I can see the trade-off of paying less in exchange for having to see/watch ads, but at a mere difference of $25 (about an 18% discount), it doesn’t seem worth it. And we don’t even know how intrusive the ads would be.
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SPDY and HTTP packet loss graph

Google Aims to Speed Up the Web with SPDY Protocol

Computers, Networking & Internet, News / By /

SPDY and HTTP packet loss graph
Image courtesy of Chromium Projects
Google has been quietly working on a new protocol for Web traffic that would augment and speed up HTTP, a protocol that is now over 20 years old. Called SPDY — not an acronym, but short for “speedy” — it is currently part of the Chromium umbrella of open-source projects and its main aim is to reduce the load time of web pages.
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Energizer Inductive Charger Only Requires Near Contact

Gizmo of the Day, News, Portable / By /

Energizer has released their inductive-charging alternative to the Powermat – they call it the Energizer IC2B-US Qi-Enabled 3 Position Inductive Charger. We’ll call it the Energizer Inductive Charger for short.

The gizmo is compatible with all devices that use Qi technologies for charging. At the moment this appears to consist of covers for the iPhone 3G/3GS/4 and Blackberry Curve 8900 but Energizer have announced the Inductive Charging mat as a forward-looking product so we should see more accessories available with it too.

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