Apple 13.3" MacBook Notebook

Here is the some Apple 13.3" Macbook notebook

Strengths: Solid construction, battery life, excellent (illuminated) keyboard, easy to upgrade memory/hdd, Magsafe charger awesome, speakers surprisingly robust for a machine this size.

Weaknesses: No firewire, Leopard seems to take up a lot of hard disk space, Mini-Display Port adapters not included. PriceGrabber review bonus seems to be gone.

Apple and Verizon may work together to Bring Non-iPhone

Apple and Verizon Wireless may have found a sneaky way to work together without violating Apple's exclusivity contract with AT&T, which runs at least through 2010. As we reported in 2007, AT&T's contract with Apple covers "all models" of the iPhone. But it only covers iPhones. So if Apple builds something that isn't an iPhone, well, all bets are off. If BusinessWeek is to be believed, Apple is working on a "media pad that would let users listen to music, view photos, and watch high-definition videos," and which would "place calls over a Wi-Fi connection." If the device doesn't make cellular voice calls, it may be able to avoid the iPhone's AT&T exclusivity.


According to BusinessWeek, Apple has been talking to Verizon Wireless about the device, as well as about another "iPhone-like" device which may be the "iPhone Mini" I wrote about a few weeks ago. Verizon has already been experimenting in the VOIP media pad space with the Verizon Hub, a home-based media pad that makes Wi-Fi calls. Apple's product would hopefully work better than the Hub, though. Getting an iPhone Mini onto Verizon before 2010 may prove much more difficult than launching a media pad, because of the iPhone exclusivity contract with AT&T. In any case, no deal has yet been sealed, BusinessWeek said. Yesterday, USA Today reported that Verizon and Apple are talking about possibly introducing an iPhone on Verizon's network in 2010.



Comments from Verizon's CEO Ivan Seidenberg and Apple's COO Tim Cook have led us to believe that device would run on Verizon's upcoming LTE network, not the carrier's current CDMA network, as USA Today reported. Source: pcmag.com

Nikon D40 Digital Camera with 18-55mm lens

Great pictures used to require complicated and cumbersome equipment along with years of experience. Not any more. The D40 is compact, lightweight and designed specifically for ease of use, yet contains top-quality, high-performance technologies that you expect from a Nikon digital SLR. And with world-famous Nikkor lenses, you know you have a sharp and reliable optical performance. All in a camera light enough to carry with you everywhere. Beautiful photography has never been easier.

YouTube boosts full-length movies, TV show

Google Inc.'s YouTube said Thursday it is vastly expanding its library of full-length movies and TV shows it offers online, while also launching a new advertising service and adding about a dozen new content partners. The long-form videos will be housed on a unique page at http://www.youtube.com/shows and get a "Shows" tab on the main YouTube site. The offering, which went live late Thursday, marks a further departure from the fuzzy homemade clips that made the Web site popular and is the latest move in YouTube's attempt to boost sales and profits. Last week, YouTube announced it was teaming up with Universal Music Group to create an online music video venture. "It's a first step in a long commitment," said Shiva Rajaraman, a YouTube senior product manager, in a conference call with reporters. The company hopes to add to its movie and show content over time. The titles available at launch are mostly older fare that are already available elsewhere on the Web. It will offer for free hundreds of TV show titles including "Beverly Hillbillies" and "Married With Children," and hundreds of movies, including "Casino Royale" and "Cliffhanger." The service expands on YouTube's existing partnership with several studios, whose parents include Sony Corp., Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., CBS Corp., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and Liberty Media Corp. On Thursday it also announced new partnerships with 13 smaller companies such as Discovery Communications Inc., National Geographic and SnagFilms LLC. Advertising revenue will be shared with the content providers. The news came on the same day Mountain View-based Google said it earned $1.42 billion, or $4.49 per share, in the first quarter, up 9 percent from a year ago. Google bought YouTube for $1.76 billion in late 2006 but it hasn't emerged as a major marketing vehicle and the company does not disclose its revenue figures. Analysts have estimated its revenue in 2008 at around $200 million. On Thursday, YouTube spokesman Chris Dale simply said a recent analyst estimate that said the site lost $500 million a year was "factually incorrect" and said its performance was better. As a way to bolster its ad revenue, YouTube also announced it is launching Google TV Ads Online, which will help advertisers target viewers of online content with video ads. Single video ads are planned to be inserted in scheduled breaks in shows and movies, Rajaraman said. Sometimes the ads will be sold by Google and sometimes by the content providers.

Source: tech.yahoo.com

Robot - and gardener: MIT droids tend plants

A class of undergraduates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created a set of robots that can water, harvest and pollinate cherry tomato plants. The small, $3,000 robots, which move through the garden on a base similar to a Roomba vacuum, are networked to the plants. When the plants indicate they need water, the robots can sprinkle them from a water pump. When the plants have a ripe tomato, the machines use their arms to pluck the fruit. Even though robots have made few inroads into agriculture, these robots' creators hope their technology eventually could be used by farmers to reduce the natural resources and the difficult labor needed to tend crops. Last spring, Daniela Rus, a professor who runs the Distributed Robotics Lab at MIT, began a two-part course. In the first semester, the students learned the basics of creating and using robots. By the fall, the students were ready to have robots tackle a real-world problem. Rus and Nikolaus Correll, a postdoctoral assistant in Rus' lab, challenged the students to create a "distributed robotic garden" by the end of the semester. The 12 students broke into groups, each tasked with solving a different problem, such as creating the mechanical arm needed to harvest the tomatoes or perfecting the network that let the plants and robots share information. By the end of the fall term, the "garden" inside Rus' lab was green and growing. Now there are four cherry tomato plants nestled into a plywood base covered in fake grass. Next to each pot is a gray docking station for the robots.

AT&T Offer $50 Netbooks....!!!!!!

AT&T will begin selling netbooks with integrated wireless Internet cards, selling them for as low as $50 — with a data plan contract, of course. The rollout will begin in Atlanta and Philadelphia. AT&T is also looking to enter the e-book market, according a company exec quoted by Bloomberg at the recent trade show in Las Vegas hosted by industry organization CTIA Wireless: The Kindle, which lets users download books over Sprint Nextel Corp.'s network, has done a "phenomenal job," and AT&T wants to be part of that market, Glenn Lurie, head of emerging devices at AT&T, said today. — Bloomberg.com Verizon has also expressed interest in entering the e-reader fray, saying it had been approached by five (undisclosed) companies interested in a wireless connection like that of the Kindle. The takeaway: AT&T's netbook announcement, along with an earlier one from Verizon, suggests these tiny laptops are increasingly being positioned as much as an additional mobile network-connected device as a supplemental computer. It's unclear if the AT&T exec's remarks on e-readers are anything more than an off-the-cuff response to the success of the Kindle. But the notion of another carrier joining Sprint — the carrier the Kindle uses — in the e-book business is intriguing.



Wireless access to content is one of the most compelling aspects of the Kindle, giving it the edge over competitors like the Sony Reader (which we've covered in the past). The other is access to the huge library of e-content — Amazon's 250,000 Kindle titles in the case of the Kindle. And to offer a compelling option to the Kindle, AT&T, Verizon, or any other carrier, will need to find a content partner with a competitive library. It isn't immediately clear who might be able to offer that (perhaps other than Sony, with its Reader library.)

Audi S8 - 2009

The 2009 Audi S8 offers a good bundle of driver aids, including adaptive cruise control and blind spot detection. It has a good iPod interface, an excellent Bluetooth cell phone system, and an exceptional stereo--with the right kind of music. Its Quattro all-wheel-drive and air suspension deliver good control. The navigation system is badly in need of an update and offers no advanced features. Fuel economy is abysmal. The 2009 Audi S8 is a very powerful big sedan with some excellent handling features, but it doesn't offer all of the latest in-dash gizmos, and you trade a luxury ride for performance. Specifications: Body style: Sedan ; Trim levels: S8 ; Available Engine: Gas

Samsung (T-Mobile) SGH-T639

Product summary The good: The Samsung SGH-T639 has decent call quality and a solid feature set including Bluetooth, a speakerphone, and a music player. The bad: The Samsung SGH-T639 has flat controls and a sensitive audio sweet spot. Also, it lacks voice commands, and its 3G services are not yet operable.



The bottom line: Though it's not 3G quite yet, the Samsung SGH-T639 is a satisfying midrange phone in the meantime. Specifications: Band / mode: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) ; Talk time: Up to 240 min ; Combined with: With digital camera / digital player ;

HTC Mogul PPC-6800 (Sprint)....

Product summary The good: The Sprint Mogul by HTC runs the latest Windows Mobile 6, has more memory included, and has a thinner design. It also boasts Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and EV-DO support as well as a 2-megapixel camera. Sprint will also offer an over-the-air update post-launch that gives you access to the Sprint Music Store.



The bad: Some elements of the Mogul's hardware as well as speakerphone volume and quality is sub-par. A slower processor and limited program memory can sometimes slow down performance.



The bottom line: The Sprint Mogul by HTC brings some needed design and feature updates to its predecessor, and refreshes the carrier's staid lineup of smartphones. It has some performance issues, but is worth the upgrade. Specifications: OS provided: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional ; Installed RAM: 64 MB ; Processor: QUALCOMM 400 MHzMSM7500

Virgin Mobile joins prepaid price war........

Virgin Mobile USA Inc. is set to announce Thursday that it is slashing the price of its unlimited calling plan to $50 from $80 per month, a result of fierce competition and price-cutting among second-tier cellular carriers. The drastic price cut at Virgin, which has 5.4 million subscribers, is a sign of the continuing disruption caused by MetroPCS Communications Inc. and Leap Wireless International Inc., which both provide unlimited prepaid service for $35 to $50 per month in limited areas. MetroPCS has been expanding recently into big markets in the Northeast, like Boston and New York. In January, national carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. introduced a $50 unlimited plan under its own prepaid brand, Boost Mobile, to counter that threat.



Virgin Mobile spokeswoman Jayne Wallace said its price cut is "definitely a response to the marketplace." The company uses Sprint's network to provide service and recently renegotiated its rates, enabling it to lower prices while getting a chance to improve its financial performance, she said. The new plan becomes available on April 15. Current customers with the $80 plan will have to contact the company to switch over to the $50 plan, Wallace said. As at Boost, MetroPCS and Leap, Virgin Mobile's monthly plans have many of the features of plans at major carriers but don't require contracts

French lawmakers reject Internet piracy bill..

French lawmakers unexpectedly rejected a bill Thursday that would have cut off the Internet connections of people who repeatedly download music or films illegally.

AT&T try to sell wireless broadband laptops

AT&T Inc. is going to go beyond cell phones and test selling laptops in its stores in Atlanta and Philadelphia.
The move, announced Wednesday at a trade show in Las Vegas, comes as the cell phone market is starting to saturate, and wireless carriers are looking for ways to expand into other gadgets.
Just as it does with cell phones, the phone company will subsidize the price of laptops when the customer signs a two-year contract.

In Atlanta, customers will be able to buy a small "netbook"-type laptop for $50 if they sign up for home and wireless broadband service for $60 per month.
That offer is also new for AT&T: it normally charges $60 per month for wireless access alone. It is being tested only in Atlanta.
AT&T stores in both Atlanta and Philadelphia will be selling more expensive laptops as well, ranging up to a Lenovo X200 for $850 when bought with wireless broadband. Lenovo Group Ltd. sells it for $1,120.

Dallas-based AT&T started subsidizing netbooks sold at RadioShack Corp. stores late last year, bringing the price to $100, down from $500, for buyers who signed up for wireless broadband.

BlackBerry maker launches add-on applications

Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of BlackBerry phones, launched its awaited one-stop shop for add-on applications on Wednesday.
While third-party programs have long been available for BlackBerry phones from many sources, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company is now following in Apple Inc.'s footsteps by creating and operating a central store. Every other major company in the "smart" phone industry is doing the same.
BlackBerry App World is available as a free download from RIM's Web site, with 1,000 applications. Users need an account with eBay Inc.'s PayPal payment service and a BlackBerry with a trackball or touch screen.

RIM Co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said the company is looking to strike deals with wireless carriers so that shoppers can charge their purchases to their phone bill instead of using PayPal. App World will share revenue with the carriers and allow them set up their own stores within the store.
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced that carrier stores and billing will be part of its Windows Marketplace for Mobile, an applications store that will launch with new phones toward the end of the year.
Nokia Corp., the world's largest maker of cell phones, has several application stores but said earlier this year that it would combine them into one. Google Inc. runs an Android Marketplace of programs for the T-Mobile G1 phone, which will be joined by other phones running Google's Android software this year.
The launch of App World coincides with a speech by RIM's other co-CEO, Mike Lazaridis, at a cell phone trade show opening Wednesday in Las Vegas. He plans to profile the BlackBerry as a music-playing device, an important capability now that RIM is taking it from a business-oriented e-mail gadget to a mainstream smart phone competing with the iPhone.
But Balsillie said RIM has no plans to launch a music store of its own, like Apple and Nokia have.