Dell realises the XPS One 27 to take on Apple

May 30, 2012 by

Dell has just released the XPS One 27 to take on Apple’s iMac. This PC is considered the first serious competition to Apple’s iMac from any manufacturer. It has a great line up of top end features that will make most PC owners lust for it.

It comes with a larger 27 inch “Full Quad HD” screen with a resolution of 2560-by-1440, which provides an amazing viewing experience. The XPS One 27 also comes packed with Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors, which will provide a supper slick experience. The 2TB of storage it has will be enough for even the most demanding user. This PC also comes with a 16GB of RAM, that will provide you with a ultra smooth experience with no glitches, there is even a option to select discrete graphics card to further boost your multimedia experience.

This PC blows Apple’s iMac out of the water in a number of ways, firstly Apple comes with a slower Intel quad-core processor which is based on the chip maker’s older Sandy Bridge architecture. If you buy a XPS One 27 you get a larger screen 27 inch screen vs the 21 inch screen that you get with the iMac’s cheapest model.  Apple’s iMac also looses out on the price front too, it for example has a starting price of $1,699 vs $1,399 for the XPS One 27.

Its important to note that this battle does not ultimately come down to hardware, the choice between operating systems will have a large influence on the buyer too. When the XPS One 27 release is combined with the release of Windows 8, which is just around the corner it might just be enough to persuade many avid Apple users to come into the Windows fold. 

The XPS One 27 is out now in the US and some Asian countries. It is expected to be released in other countries around the world within a few weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Tablets & PCs Tagged With: , , , ,

The Pirate Bay opens up other ip addresses to avoid the ban

May 30, 2012 by

As the list of countries grow that include the Netherlands and the United Kingdom that are starting to block The Pirate Bays ip address.  TPB has responded to this by registering hundreds of IP addresses. This strategy will allow TPB make sure that access to its website is always open. A website called Torentfreak states that “If the new IP-address is blocked again, they will simply add a new one”. This action will lead to according to Torentfreak “an extended game of whac-a-mole.” with hundreds of IP addresses in its back pocket. 

TPB have proved once again that they are always one step ahead of the authorities. TPB  has been in an endless game of cat and mouse for years and there is no sign of it coming to an end any time in the near future.

 

 

Filed Under: Other tech news and developments Tagged With: , , ,

Scalado Photo beamer brings easy photo sharing to IOS

May 29, 2012 by

 

A new app has just been launched for IOS its called PhotoBeamer and its made by Scalado. It brings easy photo sharing to the platform with zero configuration. It enables you to share photos from the camera roll with any device and any type of connection.  All you need to do is just  point your browser to the Photobeamers homepage, where you will find a QR code, which provides your device with a camera with all the clever linkage you will ever need for transferring your photos.  It works as well as Apple’s own iCloud’s Photo Stream software, which allows simplistic photo sharing between Apple devices.  For more information about this app visit the Photobeamers website. 

Scalado the makers of the app have announced that they plan provide regular updates and enhancements and they also plan to further enhance the app in the future based on customer demands. This app  is available for $0.99 cents from the US app store and 0.69p from the UK store .

Filed Under: Apple, Apps Tagged With: ,

No Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Sony Xperia Play

May 28, 2012 by

Sony decides to cancel the Xperia Play Android 4.0 update. The reason for this seems to be down to stability issues.

They cited in blog post  ”In regards to Xperia Play, after extensive in house testing with our developer teams and working with our partners, we have concluded that a consistent and stable experience, particularly with gaming, cannot be guaranteed for this smart phone on Ice Cream Sandwich – therefore, we will not make the Android 4.0 upgrade available for Xperia Play.”

The developer community and game content providers are reporting the same issues with the beta ICS ROM that was released for the Xperia Play by Sony for developers and game content providers to test. 

This will come as blow for Sony Xperia Play owners, because the device is not even a year old.  This problem relates to the over fragmentation of Android. As Android grows and runs on more and more devices, the problem of software stability issues will grow even further.  Google needs to go down the IOS root more, by having a stricter policy on device uniformity. 

Filed Under: Android Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Facebook being sued by some investors over its stock flotation

May 24, 2012 by

Facebook is being sued by investors over its stock flotation, two lawsuits were filed on Wednesday.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants are accused of concealing Facebook’s revenue generation forecasts during the IPO investors roadshow, which showed “a severe and pronounced reduction” . This action allowed a few investors in the know to sell their Facebook shares before the price fell, while others who were not in the know saw their shares lose more than a third of its value within a few days.

“Some insiders and investors were preferred over others,” The Telegraph quoted Darren Robbins, a lawyer for one set of retail investors who have filed a suit in a New York court on Wednesday as saying .”Everyone made money in this process, but it was the ordinary main street investor who was left holding the bag.”

Some of Amerca’s biggest banks and investment houses such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are accused of not letting potential investors know that the banks had lowered their revenue estimates for the Social Networking site, in  advance of the share flotation.

A few Investors have claimed to have lost as much as $2.5bn (£1.6bn) from buying Facebook shares.

Filed Under: Other tech news and developments Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Windows 8 to be a rebirth of the OS

May 24, 2012 by

The boss of Microsoft Steve Ballmer speaking at the Seoul Digital Forum, has said: “It’s really, in some senses, a dawning of the rebirth of MS Windows. It’s certainly the most important piece of work we’ve done.”

Windows 8 is expected to be launched in October. Microsoft has been steadily loosing ground over the last few years, while the competition such as Apple have been gaining in popularity.

Windows 8 will be more of a radical departure from previous versions in an  attempt to capture peoples imagination. It will get a app store and it will be integrated with Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud computing service, which will be similar to Apple’s cloud based backup service.

Steve Ballmer goes on to state that next year Windows 8 could have up to 500 million users, which will give incentives for device makers and app builders to move over to the OS.

Whether his predictions will happen remains to be seen.

 

Filed Under: Microsoft Tagged With: , , ,

Sony’s Music Unlimited service is now available for iOS

May 23, 2012 by

The cloud based Music Unlimited service from Sony is now available for ios devices in the USA. It has came to ios in order to try and capture some of Spotify’s share of the market. This service was previously available on only specific devices such as the Sony Ericsson Xperia range of smartphones,PlayStation 3 console,  Bravia televisions, Sony’s Tablet S and Tablet P Android slates.

 The app will be free to download but it will require a monthly subscription which will be priced around $3.99 (£2.50) a month. Its premium service will cost $10 (£6.30) per month, which will allow users to gain access to offline playback and a few other extras.

According to Mcvuk this service is being relased on May 25 in the UK.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps Tagged With: , , ,

Apple has taken control of a domain called iphone5.com

May 22, 2012 by

Apple has taken control of a domain called the iphone5.com, which was a site that focused on providing the latest iphone 5 rumours.  A few weeks ago Apple filed a complaint to the world Intellectual Property Organization, claiming that this website has stolen Apples intellectual property. According to The Next Web  the world Intellectual Property Organization has now made its judgement by siding with Apple.  Now the  website has been taken over and transferred to a Corporation Service Company, this is a company that specialises in brand protection and is apparently in the employ of Apple.

 This type of action taken by Apple is not new, the company has taken action to protect its brand names in the past on a number of occasions. The domain  iPods.com was a classic example of this move by Apple. But Apple have not always opposed certain domain names that carry its trademarks. 

 

Filed Under: Apple Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Do Android tablets have a future

May 20, 2012 by

The is a question doing the rounds lately that is asking the question do Android tablets have a future. 

The sales of the Android tablets seem to be decreasing, the first quarter numbers from IDC showed that Android tablet shipments declined in Q1-12 from Q4-11.  While the competition from Apples ipad and the Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon seems to be growing. 

The reason for Androids poor results seems to come down to Googles strategy of competing directly against the iPad with many of its high end models such as the Moto Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tablet.  

The reasons why Google cannot effectively compete with Apple’s ipad, range from poorer hardware performances in certain models, poorer availability of decent quality apps and also poorer out of the box user experiences. 

The best strategy is for Google to focus more on the lower end of the market more and compete more against Amazon’s Kindle Fire table which has successfully created a whole new market with the Kindle fire tablet, which is has been characterised by simpler hardware specifications and software, which is set at the $200 price point.

Android could even be further hammered when Windows releases its Arm based tablets later on in the year. Google  needs to resolve these issues or act to produce a new strategy soon to stop the rot before its too late. 

 

 

Filed Under: Tablets & PCs Tagged With: , , , , ,

Samsung Galaxy S3 has received over 9 million pre-orders

May 20, 2012 by

Samsung’s latest version of its flagship phone has received over 9 million pre-orders for Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone from more than 100 global carriers in just a week after it was announced according to the  Korea Economic Daily.

These sales are quite staggering, the Samsung Galaxy S3 took around six months to sell 10 million phones and 11 months to sell 20 million,” according to the MailOnline., This looks like it could be a match for the iphone 5 which is likely to be released in a few months time. Apple at the moment are predicting poor Q3 results, due to people waiting until the iphone 5 get released.

The phone will first go on sale on May 29 in Europe and then it will be slowly released  to other countries around the world. The US is set to receive it on June 1 and it will be available on all carriers.

Filed Under: Android Tagged With: , , , ,