Kindle so-so for students, UW study concludes

Researchers at the University of Washington are about to present a report on a pilot project that had computer science students use a Kindle DX for their course reading.

College textbooks are a holy grail for the electronic book industry, but apparently they still have a ways to go, based on the UW study, conducted during the 2009-2010 school year.

"There is noe-readerthat supports what we found these students doing,"first author Alex Thayer, a UW doctoral student in design and engineering, said in a release."It remains to be seen how to design one. It's a great space to get in to, there's a lot of opportunity."

Seven months into the study, more than 60 percent of the students had stopped using their Kindle regularly for academic reading - and these were computer science students, who are presumably more sympathetic to an electronic book.

Although the device has note-taking capabilities, some students still tucked paper into the Kindle case to write notes and others would read near a computer that they could use for reference and other tasks that weren't easy on the device.

The study used the DX, which is the largest Kindle, a $379 model with a 9.7-inch diagonal screen. It involved 39 first-year graduate students incomputer scienceand engineering, with ages ranging from 21 to 53.

Some conclusions, as listed in the release:

- Students did most of the reading in fixed locations: 47 percent of reading was at home, 25 percent at school, 17 percent on a bus and 11 percent in a coffee shop or office.

- The Kindle DX was more likely to replace students' paper-based reading than their computer-based reading.

- Of the students who continued to use the device, some read near a computer so they could look up references or do other tasks that were easier to do on a computer. Others tucked a sheet of paper into the case so they could write notes.

- With paper, three quarters of students marked up texts as they read. This included highlighting key passages, underlining, drawing pictures and writing notes in margins.

- A drawback of theKindleDX was the difficulty of switching between reading techniques, such as skimming an article's illustrations or references just before reading the complete text.Studentsfrequently made such switches as they read course material.

- The digital text also disrupted a technique called cognitive mapping, in which readers used physical cues, such as the location on the page and the position in the book to find a section of text or even to help retain and recall the information they had read.

The study will be presented at next week's Association for Computing Machinery conference on human factors in computing systems, taking place in Vancouver, B.C.

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Review: Eee Pad tablet transforms into laptop

(AP) -- The tablet computers that compete with the iPad have mostly been uninspiring. The Eee Pad Transformer stands out with a design that isn't just copied from the iPad: It's a tablet that turns into a laptop.

For $399, $100 less than the cheapest iPad, you get atablet computerwith a 10-inch screen and hardware that doesn't cut corners. It's fully usable on its own. For another $149, you can buy a keyboard that connects to the tablet. Together, they look and open like a small laptop.

The Transformer is made by Asustek Computer Inc., the Taiwanese company that started the brief"netbook"craze a few years ago by selling small, inexpensive laptops. With the keyboard attached, the Transformer is nearly indistinguishable from a netbook.

But before you get too excited about the prospect of a laptop-tablet hybrid that combines the best of both worlds, I have to tell you that you're not getting a Windows laptop in the bargain. The Transformer runsGoogleInc.'s Android software, originally designed for smartphones.

That means it doesn't run full-blown Windows programs or connect to peripherals such as scanners. This isn't all a bad thing, as Android comes with important advantages, such as a long battery life, programs designed for touch input and a computer that comes to life almost immediately when you open the lid.

The keyboard may sound a bit expensive for $149, but it does more than help with typing. It has atrack padwith"mouse buttons,"just as you'd find on a laptop. It also contains an extra battery that charges the tablet's battery, two USB ports for connecting peripherals and a slot for SD memory cards, used in most digital cameras.

I tested thebattery lifeby playing ahigh-definitionvideo over and over again, with the screen set to medium brightness. I got a respectable nine hours from the tablet alone and 13 hours with the keyboard attached. That compares with 10 hours for the iPad 2.

The screen uses the same technology as the iPad's, making it easy to read from any angle and in any orientation. It is slightly larger than the iPad's and has a slightly higher resolution.

The Transformer has two cameras, as we expect from this year's tablets. The picture quality is so-so but more than adequate for videoconferencing through Google Talk.

Of course, you could get an iPad and an accessory keyboard instead. There are good reasons for doing so - I'll talk more about the software below - but let's stick for the moment to discussing what's good about the Transformer.

The iPad doesn't make any particular accommodation for a keyboard. The accessory ones connect using short-range Bluetooth wireless technology, which can be a hassle to connect and troubleshoot. It also means the keyboards need separate batteries - Apple's own model uses two AAs. The battery in the Asus keyboard doesn't need to be charged for the keyboard to work, and in any case, it uses the same charger as the tablet.

Most iPad keyboards don't attach to the tablet itself, because there's nothing to hang on to. This is fine if you're at a table, but juggling an iPad and a separate keyboard on your lap can be difficult. Some iPad keyboards are built into a case, which covers the tablet and forms a laptop-like unit, though an inelegant one.

The Transformer has two slots for the keyboard to lock into, forming a sturdy whole that's easy to use on a lap or tummy, for those really lazy moments on the couch.

There's another nice thing about the Transformer keyboard: The keys are designed for the software. There are keys that bring you to the Home screen and Settings. Others control screen brightness, volume and media playback. There are buttons for the Back and Menu functions of Google's Android software.

This isn't the first time we've seen small laptops running Android, but it is the first time I've used one that runs Honeycomb, the first Android version specifically designed for tablets rather than smartphones. The update makes Android much better at taking advantage of a 10-inch screen.

But as tablet software, Android is still far behind Apple's iOS software for the iPad. The biggest problem is the low quality and poor selection of applications from outside companies. Many of my favoriteiPadapps, including Netflix and The Wall Street Journal are not available at all. Others, such as The New York Times, are available only in inferior versions, designed for thesmartphonescreen rather than the tablet.

I also had frequent crashes when using the applications. The Transformer is perhaps the bestAndroidtablet out there, especially considering the price, but the software is still a major weakness. Still, the beautifully integratedkeyboardshould tempt people who don't want to decide between a tablet and a laptop.

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NTT Docomo's new smartphone features wireless charger

(PhysOrg.com) -- Charging your cell phone can be a hassle, mostly because you have to find your cord, and if you are anything like most people, you don't have just one charging cord lying around your house. Wireless charging is an option for some devices but currently if you want to charge without the cord you are going to have to put out a second investment in your phone.

Buying a wirelesscharging stationand a special battery pack, such as the ones put out by Energizer can easily set you back more than an extra $100. When you consider that asmartphonecan run you up to $500 by itself you can see how that pair is a significant investment in your tech. One that may be too hefty for some.

NTT Docomo Inc is looking to change that. They have created a Smartphone that can be wirelessly charged, without buying extra hardware. The phone, which is expected to go on sale in July or August of 2011 in Japan, has been dubbed the Aquos Phone f SH-13C. The Aquos Phone f SH-13C is designed to be compliant with the Qi standard, which was developed by the Wireless Power Consortium, an industry organization for wireless charging systems.

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Image: Akihabara

The phone will be manufactured bySharp Corp, and will be waterproof. The phones battery will be made bySanyo ElectricCo Ltd. and it will come with a lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack containing a coil and an integrated circuit chip for wireless charging. This means that you could, in theory, charge the battery pack without the phone.

Two models of the charger; Wireless Charger 01 and the Pocket Charger 02 are expected to be released. Each will cost about¥4,000, or roughly US$49.46.

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Sony unveils 3D and color e-paper displays at this week's SID 2011

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sony unveiled a 13.3 inch flexible color e-paper device and two glass free 3D displays. The announcement was made at the 49th SID International Symposium, Seminar&Exhibition which is the world's largest academic conference on display technologies. The conference is being held this week in Los Angeles, CA (USA).

Sony’s 13.3 inch flexible colore-paperhas a thickness of 150 microns and weighs 20g and uses a plastic substrate. The e-paperdisplayhas a 13% color gamut (NTSC), a reflectance of 10% and a 100,000:1 contrast ratio.

The display’s 800 x 1200 pixel array consists of red, green, blue, and white sub-pixels. The sub-pixel measures 169 microns x 169 microns and the resolution and gradation of the screen are 75ppi and 16, respectively.

The e-paper display is manufactured by applying adhesive to the glass substrate and attaching a plastic substrate. Amorphous TFTs are then formed on it with a180°C or lower temperature process. The plastic substrate is then finally removed from the glass substrate.

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Sony's 13.3 inch flexible color e-paper.

Sony’s 3D displays come in a 10 inch and 23 inch size and can deliver a 3D image without the use of any special glasses. The method uses a backlight for 3D images positioned between an LCD panel and a backlight for normal 2D images. Switching between 2D and 3D is accomplished by lighting one of the two backlights.

The backlight for the 3D images are LED’s placed on the light guide plate and its edges. On the light guide plate scatter patterns are produced at even intervals in the horizontal direction to direct light to the outside.

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Sony’s 3D 10 inch and 23 inch displays deliver 3D images without the use of any special glasses.

The 3D effect is produced by the LED light sources being reflected on the scatter patterns to go to the back side of the panel as if lights are partially controlled by using"parallax barriers."The result shows different images to the right and left eye.

Sony’s 24-inch 3D LCD display has six viewpoints, and its pixel count is 960 x 360, and its brightness is 86.1cd/m². 3D images are best viewed between distances of 80 to 160cm. The 2D mode, the pixel count of the display becomes 1,920 x 1,080 and has a brightness of 192cd/m².

Sony states that the new method can be applied to displays between 4 to 30 inches and hopes to commercialize it within a few years.

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Acer's Iconia laptop skips keys in favor of double touch screens

In this world of virtual this and virtual that, there comes a product that offers something really different than everybody else. The Iconia from Acer America is not a laptop nor is it a notebook. Acer is calling it a"touchbook"because it has no keyboard. The Iconia is a portable computer that open up like a clamshell-style notebook with a screen on the upper portion, but it also has another screen where the keyboard should be. That's right: It's a dual screen notebook.

The screen on the bottom portion can be used as a second display but in order to control the computer to do anything, the Iconia displays avirtual keyboardon its multi-touch screen. Directly beneath thekeyboardis a virtualtouch pad. So you have a touch pad on a touch screen. It may seem a bit confusing, but when you see it, you'll get it.

With a virtual keyboard, you can do things that would be almost impossible on a physical keyboard. To begin, just placing both of your palms on the screen as if you are going to type will cause the Iconia to display the keyboard without doing anything else. Nice. This is a full size QWERTY keyboard. And since it's virtual, you can cause it to do many things you really couldn't do with a real one. For example, it supports many different languages so when you select one, the virtual keys will reflect any character differences for that language. It also has predictive text input for natural speed typing while avoiding mistakes. And since it is completely software-driven, future enhancements are planned, including displaying a font's character style on the keys themselves.

TheAcerRing takes full advantage of the multi-touch screen. Just place all five fingers on the screen to evoke the Ring. Making a grabbing gesture lets you rotate the ring in either direction. Now you can easily scroll through applications and features with a single motion.

The Iconia also includes a Gesture Editor. It's a really easy way for you to personalize the Iconia by setting customized gestures to do a variety of functions. The editor lets you first define the gesture and then assign a function to it. It couldn't be more simple. For example, you can launch applications, open websites, view your desktop and more. With the browser, just swipe from left to right to page forward and right to left to page back. You can even use a gesture to lock your computer.

The included SocialJogger puts all of your social media in one place. You can check for updates from your Facebook, YouTube and Flickr contacts at one glance. You can have three different windows showing the different features while the top screen displays the results from any of them.

Of course, since the Iconia has two screens, you can use the bottom screen to display two different sets of information or one big one. The Iconia itself opens to an almost flat position, making it possible to display one large virtual screen. This is ideal for displaying a Web page's content for less up-and-down scrolling. Of course you can display any open window to fill up both screens to see a word processing document, spreadsheet and virtually anything else. It's really up to you. Check the Acer website for availability and pricing information.

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Pioneer shows off its 52-inch WWS-DT101 multitouch table

(PhysOrg.com) -- Pioneer has announced the creation of its new WWS-DT101, it is a touch screen table PC that has an area of 52". The screen, which gratefully can support multitouch input, is based on a Full HDTV, and runs of proprietary software that Pioneer has developed in house, though the systems PC component is based on the Windows 7 64Bit operating system. This makes it not too far off the mark of the similar table developed by Microsoft itself earlier this year.

The WWS-DT101 multitouch table is able to share data with mobile devices, such as theiPhoneoriPad, with the help of any standardWi-Ficonnection. The table PC is also able to use TransferJet technology for sharing with enabled devices. If a large amount of data needs to be shared, or the device in question is not Wi-Fi enabled, then sharing can be done with the use of USB ports built into the table.

The Pioneer multitouch WWS-DT101 will be powered by an Intel Core i7 CPU that is being supported by 6GB of RAM. More details on the rest of the hardware have not been released at this time.

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Sadly, the same can be said about both the date when this system is expected to be released and the price point at this moment. So, if you were ready to buy, you are going to have to wait a while, or choose a different option in the growing table PC world. Though, for now they are likely to be cost prohibitive for the majority of home users.

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RIM recalling 1,000 PlayBook tablets

Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) said Monday it is recalling around 1,000 PlayBook tablet computers because of an operating system issue.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company said most of the affected devices were still in the distribution channel and had not reached customers.

RIMsaid the affected PlayBooks may not be able to properly load software upon initial set-up.

"RIM is working to replace the affected devices,"it said in a statement.

"In the small number of cases where a customer received a PlayBook that is unable to properly load software upon initial set-up, they can contact RIM for assistance,"the company added.

According to technology blog Engadget, the faulty PlayBooks were shipped to US office supply giant Staples.

RIM shares were down 1.30 percent at $42.68 in pre-market trading.

RIM released the PlayBook in April to mixed reviews. The device is RIM's answer to Apple's hot-selling iPad and its first foray outside the mobile phone realm.

RIM is offering three models of the PlayBook. A version with 16 gigabytes of storage for $499, a 32GB model for $599 and one with 64GB for $699. The prices are the same as for comparable models of the iPad.

RIM describes the PlayBook as the first"professional-grade"tablet and has stressed its integration with its BlackBerry smartphone, a favorite among business users.

The PlayBook has a seven-inch (17.8-centimeter) touchscreen, smaller than the iPad's 9.7 inches (24.7-cm) and at less than a pound (425 grams), the PlayBook is lighter than theiPad2's 1.3 pounds (590 grams).

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Seagate portable storage goes wireless (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Seagate's GoFlex Satellite is the first portable hard drive, with integrated Wi-Fi and battery pack, that lets you stream 500 GB directly to any mobile or Wi-Fi equipped device without using any cables.

Seagate’s 500 GB drive isn't much physically larger than some of their other portable storage devices however the lithium-ionbatteryprovides portable power that last up to 5 hours of continues video streaming and 25 hours of standby.

Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite is able to create its own wireless hotspot to stream media to any device equipped with a Wi-Fi connection. The device is capable of making three separate connections simultaneously, and can stream an HD movie over each one of those connections up to 150 feet away with no picture freeze ups.

Seagate has also developed an app for the new iPad and iPhone specifically designed for the drive. The app can buffer an entire movie in less than seven minutes, minimizing the time that the drive is actually in use and conserving the battery. Video can also be streamed to anyWi-Fienabled device using a web browser.

Video below is a review of Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite HD performed by Engadget.

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite is available immediately for preorders from Seagate.com and will be available later this summer. No specific date has been released.

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RIM's new PlayBook tablet falls short of Apple iPad

More than a year after Apple Inc. released the iPad, the search for a credible challenger to the market-changing tablet computer is still on.

Devices running Microsoft's Windows haven't found much interest. Nor, surprisingly, have gadgets running Google'sAndroidsoftware, even though that operating system now leads the smartphone market. And Hewlett-Packard'sTouchPadhas yet to hit store shelves.

NowBlackBerrymakerResearch In MotionLtd. is throwing its hat in the ring in the form of a 7-inch tablet called thePlayBook.

The PlayBook represents a major departure for RIM. The device is one of the first produced by the company that's not a handset. What's more, the PlayBook'suser interfaceand operating system are completely different from those running on its BlackBerrys. And, at least right now, the PlayBook can't run any of the apps designed for those devices.

These changes are largely positive ones. The BlackBerry operating system feels like yesteryear's technology compared with Android and Apple's iOS. It was designed for devices with keyboards running text-centric applications such as email and messaging, not for touch-screen devices running video or the multimedia apps that many consumers use on smartphones these days.

In contrast, the PlayBookoperating systemfeels much sleeker. It's made for atouch-screendevice, allowing users to easily scroll Web pages, launch apps and switch between applications with the swipe of a finger.

The PlayBook's flat, rectangular shape and plastic back won't win any design awards. But the design is utilitarian, slender and largely functional, making the device much more compelling than most recent BlackBerrys.

But its power button is so tiny it's hard to depress with normal-size fingers.

The PlayBook has a beautiful, high-resolution screen that contains almost as many pixels as the iPad's, even though it's more than 2 inches shorter on the diagonal. Videos looked great on it.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has argued that a 7-inch screen is ill suited for tablets. After using theiPadand contrasting it with 7-inch devices such as Samsung's Galaxy Tab, I tended to agree with him.

But the PlayBook has made me reconsider. It's easier to carry around than the iPad. And thanks to its widescreen format, the Playbook's display has more than enough room when held in landscape mode to display two pages of an e-book or to display the list of messages from your inbox and an individual message at the same time.

Web surfing, though, isn't as pleasurable. I frequently had to zoom in on the text of the pages for words to be legible, something I haven't had to do on the larger iPad screen.

One thing I loved about the PlayBook was how it switches between applications. If you swipe up from the area below its screen, your current application will shrink to something like a thumbnail and will appear beside thumbnails of other open applications. To change apps, you simply swipe left or right to the one you want and tap on it. To close apps, you can flick them off screen or tap a small"x."

But for all its strengths, the PlayBook has some significant drawbacks and feels like a product that was rushed to market.

Most notably, the device doesn't have built-in email, calendar or address book applications. To access such features, users either have to go through a Web browser or beam the applications over to the PlayBook from a BlackBerry device using software called BlackBerry Bridge.

The BlackBerry Bridge software allows users to access email and check their calendars as if those applications were running on the PlayBook itself. But because the Bridge software requires the PlayBook and BlackBerry to connect over Bluetooth, it can drain the battery life of both devices. And if you don't have a BlackBerry, you're out of luck.

Even if you have a BlackBerry, you may not be able to use BlackBerry Bridge. Right now, AT&T doesn't support the software, which means RIM isn't allowing AT&T BlackBerry users to download it. Users can find copies of the software floating around the Net, but they may not be the latest version.

The PlayBook has other shortcomings. There are few apps available for it, including many of the most popular ones. Right now, you won't find Pandora Internet radio, Amazon's Kindle app or"Angry Birds."

The only version of the PlayBook now available is one running Wi-Fi. You can't yet get one with a built-in 3G or 4G antenna. So if you want to access the Internet outside of a hotspot, you have to tether it to a BlackBerry using the Bridge software

Also, there's no"universal search"feature on the device, so finding a particular app or file can involve a lot of scrolling through lists of them. And with prices that are the same as comparable iPads, the PlayBook, with its much smaller screen, is just too expensive.

RIM has said it plans to address many of these issues. PlayBooks with 3G and 4G antennas are in the works and the company plans to add native calendar and email apps in an upcoming - but as yet unscheduled - software update. Meanwhile, the company plans on supporting a wide range of software, from apps developed for Android to those developed for older BlackBerry devices, in an effort to boost the number of apps the PlayBook can run.

Those fixes will help make the PlayBook a more worthy challenger to the iPad. But without them, it's not in the same ring.

RESEARCH IN MOTION PLAYBOOK TABLET:

-Troy's rating: 6.5 (out of 10)

-Likes: Beautiful high-resolution screen, sleek user interface, compact size

-Dislikes: Pricey for its size; lacks native email, calendar and address book applications;"Bridge"software providing such apps only works on BlackBerrys and not those on AT&T's network; overall few available apps; tiny power button

-Specs: 1GHz dual-core processor; 7-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel screen; 3-megapixel front facing and 5-megapixel rear-facing cameras.

-Price: $500 for 16-gigabyte model, $600 for 32-gigabyte model and $700 for 64-gigabyte model

-Web: blackberry.com

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Tablets leave netbooks in the dust as even laptops lag

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EyeLock brings biometric security to your websites

(PhysOrg.com) -- Biometric security is always a field of interest for those people who need to keep your data secure. Currently, it is used in a wide variety of high security applications, mostly by large companies with large amounts of customer data to protect. But, in the future you may be able to use a retinal scan to sign into your favorite social networking sites such as Facebook, and your email.

The company behind this idea is the Hoyos Group which is a New York-based company that was founded in 2005. They have created a new product, called EyeLock, which was first unveiled at the Finovate conference in San Francisco. The device, which is a portable iris-scanner about the size of a business card, is also a USB drive. This allows it to work with a variety of machines.

Once the user has installed a special program they can choose which applications to EyeLock. You can give the system software your log in information for those sites. The next time you want to sign into your favorite site all you have to do is hold the scanner in front of your eye. The tool will then automatically log you into your site. Users who wear glasses will be happy to find out that they do not have to remove them in order to complete the scan.

This will be the first time that irisscanning technologywill be an option for users on the consumer market. Since it will allow for the tracking of multiple log on the devices will no doubt be convenient. Though it may make signing onto your favorite sites more secure users should be aware that if they lose the device they will have a lot of different passwords to change since no device is un-hackable and the passwords are stored on it.

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Review: For smartphones, what's too big or small?

(AP) -- With scores of smartphones available, one obvious way for them to stand out is with size. Two new phones take that to extremes: HP's tiny Veer 4G and Samsung's massive Infuse 4G.

Both have the foundations of good smartphones, including great operating software and the ability to run on AT&T's high-speed"4G"network. But their sizes present some major weaknesses, too.

Spending some time testing these phones made it clear that size does matter. Picking a phone that's too large or too small can make the experience dismal.

I started on the smaller end of the spectrum with the pint-sized Veer, which comes in black or white and is cuter than a cache of cat videos on YouTube.

Styled like a mini version of its bigger sibling, the Pre, the Veer is about the size of a stack of credit cards with a bright 2.6-inch screen on top. The screen slides up to reveal a small keyboard. Its battery is rated for a not-so-generous maximum of five hours of talk time, and it includes 8 gigabytes of storage. It costs $99 with a two-year service contract with AT&T.

The Veer is so tiny that it doesn't even have a built-in headphone jack, a standard smartphone feature that must have seemed too big to cram into its little package.

Instead, its magnetic charging port doubles as a connector for a headphone adapter, which is included. I kept worrying that I'd lose the adapter - until I realized I could just stick it on the fridge.

The Veer uses the webOSoperating software, which was developed by Palm before Hewlett-Packard Co. bought it last year. The webOS is clean, intuitive and smartly designed. You can see open applications as little"cards"that you can slide across the screen, tap to enlarge or flick to dismiss. There's also a search feature for quickly searching data stored on the phone and on the Internet.

The Veer's tiny screen, however, made my hands feel enormous, which they aren't for someone who is barely 5'3". I also felt clumsy holding the phone, especially with the keyboard closed, as it felt too small for my hand. Like a slippery bar of soap, it almost flew out of my hands several times as I tried to slide open the keyboard. Calls sounded OK, but it was weird holding such a tiny nugget of a phone up to my ear.

The phone includes access to HP's App Catalog, which has Foursquare, Facebook and some other popular apps you'd find on the iPhone or a phone running Google Inc.'s Android software. There are only about 6,000 apps in all, though, so the selection is much slimmer than iPhone's or Android's. You won't find an app for eBay or the"Words With Friends"game here.

The Veer seems most well-suited for"snacking."You'll be fine looking up a restaurant, checking email, updating Twitter or any other simple task.

But trying to use it extensively for a single task is difficult and not worth the trouble. Although Web pages looked sharp on the screen and videos streamed well over AT&T's"4G"network, I didn't really want to read full news articles or watch clips on such an itty-bitty screen. My fingers felt cramped on the tiny keyboard, so I didn't have the patience to send extensive messages.

While the Veer is too small, in some ways the Infuse is too big. This Frankenphone has a brilliant 4.5-inch display, more massive than nearly every other smartphone on the market. It made a great media player, but it felt awkward to make calls on since it is so wide and tall.

Typing on its large virtual keyboard was often error-free, though sometimes uncomfortable because the phone felt so large in my hands.

It's not big all over: The phone is a bit thicker than an iPhone, which seems pretty thin given its enormous display. And it's fairly light, too, at 4.9 ounces, which is just a fraction of an ounce bigger than Apple's device.

The phone is fast. It opened apps quickly and responded well to my taps on the screen. Over AT&T's 4G network, it was fine at streaming videos and loading webpages. The Infuse is rated for up to eight hours of talk time, so there should be plenty of juice for checking emails, updating Facebook and making calls (which sounded decent).

It's probably best at playing videos, which I really enjoyed doing on the Infuse because its screen is so sharp and big. More so than many smartphones, the display seems appropriate for watching TV episodes or even full-length films (which you can rent or buy from the built-inSamsungMedia Hub).

One cool perk: It includes an HDMI adapter, which fits into its charging port so you can connect the phone to your high-definition TV with an HDMI cable and watch videos on the larger screen. The adapter also has a charging port on it, so you can charge your phone simultaneously.

The Infuse's 8-megapixel camera is good, though I sometimes had trouble focusing it. It had a bright flash and a number of adjustable settings. You can always add a camera app from the Android Market if you want more options such as color filters. There's also a much lower-resolution camera on the front for taking photos or videos.

The Infuse has 16 GB of internal memory and 2 GB more on a microSD card. It costs $200 with a two-year AT&T contract. The phone runs version 2.2 of Google Inc.'s Android software, which is available on plenty of other devices but isn't the latest version for smartphones.

I'm a fan of compact electronics, and I'm a sucker for a big, bright touch screen. But these phones both felt too extreme for me.

When it comes tosmartphonesizes, I'll stick with a medium for now, though.

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Pioneer to sell augmented reality navigation system for cars

(PhysOrg.com) -- Virtual reality may take us to worlds that worlds that we have never been to before, but augmented reality can make the world that we already live in a better, or at least a more digital, place. It should be no surprise then that augmented reality technology is showing up everywhere, and being integrated with the technology we already use every day to make things easier or just more fun.

Pioneer has announced the creation of its new AVIC-VH09CS system. The AVIC-VH09CS is an in-dashnavigation systemthat makes use of augmented reality in order to not only get you to where you are going, but keep you abreast of what is going on when you are on the road.

The AVIC-VH09CS system has, in addition to the functions found in a standardGPS unit, has what is known as scouter mode. The scouter mode makes use of a windshield mounted camera to show you what is going on around the car, with a wider angle then you would get from drivers side view alone. The system then augments your view of the road by placing arrows on the lanes in order to help you follow directions.

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AVIC-ZH09CS

If you have ever been faced with a multiple road junction with seven turns at the light and the vague directions"Turn right in 200 yards", then you can see how this can quickly become a lifesaver. The system is also able to identify common locations of landmarks andtraffic lights, to make using the kind of directions you might get from a friend easier to follow.

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The Pioneer AVIC-VH09CS is expected to go on sale inJapanlater in May, It will retail for roughly $3,700.

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Samsung releases the D9500 3D 75-Inch LED TV

(PhysOrg.com) -- Samsung has officially announced the creation of the D9500 TV today. This very large screen TV, which comes it with 75 inches of screen, is not only bound to take up most of your wall space, but is able to give viewers one big 3D display.

Unlike some new 3D displays, found on screens as small as the Nintendo 3DS and as large as smaller flat screen TV's, this massive screen does require the use of a pair of active shutter 3D glasses if you want to be able to view the screen in 3D.

The screen can give a solid level ofimage quality, even if you do not have the3D glasseson, the screen has a resolution of1080p, which is high definition. When you pair this with a 240-Hz refresh rate, it is easy to see how the picture will still be good when it is not in 3D mode.

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The Samsung D9500 is a smart TV, which means that it has built-in Wi-Fi, that allows users to browse the web, have a really big chat inSkypeor play a super sized game of Farmville. Using the web does not require a keyboard, because that is built into the remote. The Samsung D9500 comes with a flip remote that has a full QWERTY touchscreen keyboard.

This jumbo-sized screen is going to be sold in Korea in the beginning, and its cost will keep away people who do not truly love their media. The D9500 is expected to retail for roughly $17,600.

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Samsung Infuse 4G Debuts May 15

AT&T and Samsung today announced the upcoming availability of the Samsung Infuse 4G.

TheSamsungInfuse 4G will be the thinnest 4G smartphone available in the U.S. and will feature the largest screen -- at 4.5 inches -- in AT&T’s smartphone lineup, and the largest touch screen on any Samsung phone. Powered by a 1.2 GHz application processor and running the Android 2.2 platform, the device delivers a brilliant display using Samsung’s next-generation Super AMOLED Plus technology which features 50 percent more sub-pixels for better contrast. The display also offers unmatched outdoor viewing quality, even in the brightest sunlight.

With the Infuse 4G, Samsung and AT&T are raising the stakes on pre-loaded content that is not available on any other device. In collaboration with Rovio, the Infuse 4G will feature a special edition of Angry Birds pre-loaded on the smartphone. Players can unlock a special“Golden Egg” level of the game, and once the special level is completed, users can register to win Samsung prizes exclusive to Infuse 4G users.

The smartphone also includes an 8-megapixel camera/camcorder with auto-focus and flash that shoots HD video with incredible detail. A front facing camera is perfect for self portraits or video chat. Customers can also watch hit movies and TV shows from preloaded apps like Samsung Media Hub, U-verse Mobile and U-verse Live TV.

The first 500,000 Infuse 4G units sold will include a $25 voucher for consumers to get started on downloading content from Media Hub. With Media Hub’s progressive downloading feature, users can start watching their content almost immediately as the rest of the file downloads to the Infuse 4G. Plus, all Media Hub content can be shared among five Media Hub-enabled devices on the same account. The Infuse 4G also comes with a 2GB microSD card with preloaded trailers for upcoming summer movies.

Compatible with the Infuse 4G and other devices on the Android 2.2 platform or better, AT&T has also launched a new, fun app called JustUs. The app combines both social media and text activity from five favorite contacts into an animated wallpaper, keeping users better connected with those that matter most. Customers can download the app for free in Android Market today.

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Fusion of work and play shapes Lenovo laptops

Chinese computer colossus Lenovo is infusing its leading business laptops with more fun features as Internet Age lifestyles blur lines between work and play.

Lenovo was at the San Francisco headquarters of Dolby Laboratories this week to show off theater quality sound, rich viewing and quick graphics handling in a ThinkPadlaptop computerline that has become a top choice for businesses.

"We are adding elements that are more relevant and interesting to consumers,"ThinkPad marketing director Tom Butler said while demonstrating new features that included audio enhanced with Dolby Home Theater 4.

Long popular with big corporations, Lenovo recently launched ThinkPad models aimed at small businesses whose operators tend to shop for gear at retail shops and whose employees increasingly make work computers part of home lives.

"We see a clear merger of consumer and business in the small business space,"Butler said.

"At the same time workers are using systems 24 hours a day, seven days a week,"he continued."They are taking them home and checking personal email, searching the Web, playing music videos and other multi-media."

Dolby software added to freshly released ThinkPadlaptopmodels dramatically ramps up the quality of any audio from film soundtracks or music to Internet conference calls.

"Even though you are listening overstereo speakerswe are able to create a virtual surround-sound experience,"said Kevin Brennan of Dolby.

"We are trying to re-create the immersive, cinematic experience that you enjoy at the movies, but on your personal computer,"he continued.

Lenovo is the first to put Dolby Home Theater 4 on a business computer, according to Brennan.

"Lenovo is walking the walk and talking the talk by incorporating new features,"he said.

Digital lifestyle enhancements included game-speed graphics, vivid screens, and HDMI ports for routing films or other data-rich digital content tohigh-definition televisionscreens or muscular speakers.

ThinkPad laptops had keys devoted to quickly launching multimedia and slot-loading for DVDs.

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An arcade docking station featuring a Lenovo IdeaPad. Chinese computer colossus Lenovo is infusing its leading business laptops with more fun features as Internet Age lifestyles blur lines between work and play.

"There is going to be a coolness factor to Lenovo's brand,"said Lenovo 'ambassador' Stephen Miller.

"Like houses and phones, a computer says something about who you are,"he continued."We understand there has to be this consumerization feel."

Lenovo is the world's top seller of business laptops and the fourth largest computer company overall, according to Miller.

Lenovo's Bill Dominici provided an early look at an Edge 91Z all-in-one desktop computer hitting the market.

All the computing hardware was built into a sleek 2.5-inch (6.4 centimeter) thick black monitor with a 21.5-inch (54.6 centimeter) screen boasting high-definition imagery.

The starting price will be $699 with a"rich configuration"to be sold for $1,100.

"It competes quite nicely against an Apple (computer),"Dominici said while showing a 91Z to AFP.

"The business employee is really starting to drive the decision around what they are going to have on their desktop or what notebook they are going to carry, whereas IT managers used to rule the roost,"he added.

TheLenovoteam was mum about any plans to field a tablet computer in a market dominated by Apple's coveted iPads. Butler said his company was tuned into the trend of tablets being woven into home and work life.

"The tablet is absolutely going to be part of the experience and the market,"Butler said.

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Long queues for iPad 2 in China

Apple fans queued up for hours Friday in China to snap up the iPad 2 as the updated version of the popular tablet computer went on sale in the world's biggest Internet market.

Apple's four stores in Beijing and Shanghai began offering theWi-Fimodel of the lighter, thinner, camera-equipped touchscreen device, which went on sale in the US on March 11 and in countries across Asia last week to great fanfare.

"It's convenient and it's great fun. I've been looking forward to getting one for more than a month, since I learned that Apple was going to launch it inChina,"22-year-old Liu Yan, who runs a magic shop, told AFP.

Liu purchased the most expensive model -- the 64-gigabyte version selling for 5,288 yuan ($815). The cheapest 16-gigabyte version sells for 3,688 yuan. Both black and white models were on offer.

Apple employees told AFP that hundreds had queued overnight outside the store in a trendy upscale shopping mall in the city centre. Hired security guards maintained order throughout the day.

By 5:00 pm, queues had waned, but the glassfront store was still jammed with customers including 22-year-old Flora Wang, who said she wanted to buy an iPad but was still deciding whether to buy the original model or the updated one.

"The screen is so big,"said Wang, as she played a game and browsed the online app of Spanish fashion brand Zara.

The iPad was also on sale at authorised dealers in China, such as electronics chain stores, but was not available late Friday on Apple's online store for China.

China has a booming grey market for Apple products to satisfy pent-up demand -- perhaps prompting the California-based high-tech giant to gradually shorten the lag time between the US and China launches of its coveted gadgets.

TheiPhoneofficially went on sale in China in October 2009 -- more than two years after its US launch. The original iPad, which debuted in the United States in April 2010, hit store shelves in China in September.

Apple plans to have 25 new stores in China by the end of this year.

With the world's top Internet population at more than 457 million users, China is a key market for tablet computer makers -- research firm Analysys International estimates tablet sales will reach 4.5 million units here in 2011.

"It is not surprising to see people lining up for the iPad 2, but I don't think there will be a supply crunch due to heavy demand,"Sun Peilin, an analyst at Beijing-based Analysys, told AFP.

"Sales will normalise and then pick up in the second quarter,"Sun said, adding that iPad prices on thegrey markethad dropped off on Friday as the official launch went into full swing.

Apple sold 15 million iPads last year, generating $10 billion in revenue and establishing the multi-tasking device as a"must-have"consumer item for many.

It quickly dominated the tablet computer market and was swiftly followed by offerings from the tech industry's main players, from Samsung and Dell to BlackBerry maker RIM and Toshiba. Sony unveiled its tablet models last week.

In March, Chinese computer giant Lenovo launched its owntablet computer-- the LePad, powered by Google's Android software -- at home as it tries to compete for a share of an increasingly crowded market dominated by theiPad.

It is due to go on sale outside China by June.

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LG Electronics' Optimus 3D phone boasts 3-D screen

(AP) -- LG Electronics is showing off the first phone with a color 3-D screen and a 3-D camera.

The South Korean electronics company's Optimus 3D drew large crowds eager to give it a test run on Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The screen produces the illusion of depth without the need for special glasses, and includes a pair of five-megapixel lenses for taking 3D photos and video.

The phone must be held at the proper distance and angle in order for the viewer to perceive depth. It runs on Google Inc.'sAndroid2.2operating system.

LG ElectronicsInc. said the 3D phone will be sold in the spring, but it didn't announce a deal with a U.S. carrier.

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Fujitsu released first MeeGo netbook

Fujitsu has released a new netbook, called the LifeBook MH330 netbook, which is based on the<a href="http://meego.com/">MeeGo</a>platform.

While the company is adding one more device to an already crowded market, with Windows, Linux, and Jolicloud already in the consumer fray, the LifeBook MH330 hopes to have a fighting chance because of its target demographic, the machine has a focus on streaming video content and social networking site use, thanks to its Myzone panel.

Other apps, beside the basics that come with the setup, are available as downloadables which are free of charge for the time being. The machine also boasts a fast boot time, but for the average professional the system specs might be a turn off.

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The official specs for the LifeBook MH330 read as such:

* Intel Atom N455 @ 1.66GHz
* 1GB RAM
* 10.1-inch LED-backlit display (1024×600)
* 250GB HDD
*Intelgraphics solution

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Not exactly impressive hardware, but most of the netbooks on the market do not support large memories or high-level processors. The unit is priced at $488, which is on the higher end ofnetbookprices. This number is surprisingly high when you consider that there is no real operating system to speak of, only theMeegoplatform, in this device.

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MeeGo 1.0 was the first version that came from merging Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo.

The system is run by the series of downloadable apps available to users. Each of these apps creates its own panel on the system. On the bright side, this system ensures that everything downloaded will run smoothly. On the down side, it does limit the ways that you can use the LifeBook MH330 netbook. On the whole this is a device made with a very specific market in mind, and it is definitely not for the professional set.

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HTC unveils tablet, phones with Facebook button

(AP) -- Smart-phone maker HTC Corp. on Tuesday showed off a tablet computer that can be used either with a finger or with a battery-powered"pen"for drawing and note-taking, in yet another way manufacturers are trying to make their upcoming tablets distinguish themselves from Apple Inc.'s iPad.

The Taiwanese company demonstrated the HTC Flyer tablet at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona. It said the tablet will go on sale in the second quarter, but didn't announce a price.

Tablets that work with pens have been around for years, but the recent crop, inspired by Apple Inc.'s iPad, are designed to be controlled by fingers alone.

The Flyer will have a 7-inch screen (1024 x 600 resolution), making it half the size of theiPad, a 1.5 GHz single-core CPU, 1 GB of RAM and 32 GB of flash storage.

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In another distinguishing feature, the Flyer will have access to OnLive Inc.'s gaming service. That service"runs"the games on distant computers and sends a video stream to the user's device. In theory, that means that games that require the power of a full PC can run on a tablet that's scarcely more powerful than a smart phone.

HTC also said itwill sell two smart phones, the Salsa and ChaCha, that feature a"Facebook button"that will let users upload photos, share Web pages or their location with one push. The button will pulse with light when there's an opportunity for sharing, HTC said.

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In a recorded video statement, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that"HTC is one of the first companies to build devices with deep social integration and we are very happy with them."

The phones will be sold globally starting in the second quarter, and will be carried by AT&T Inc. in the U.S. later in the year, HTC said.

CEO Peter Chou saidHTCsold 25 million handsets in 2010, more than double from the year before.

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Xoom tablet debuts Feb. 24 with $800 price

US telecom titan Verizon on Thursday will begin selling Motorola Mobility's hotly awaited"Xoom"tablet computer at a price close to that of a top-of-the-line iPad.

Xoom will be the first tablet on the market powered by"Honeycomb"software crafted specifically for such devices by Internet powerhouseGoogleand has been heralded as a viable challenger for Apple's market-ruling iPad.

Xoom will be sold for $800, but the price will be trimmed to $600 for those who opt for two-year service contracts with Verizon.

Wireless 3Gplans will begin at $20 monthly for a gigabyte of data.

The six iPad models range in price from $500 to $830 with the three higher-priced models having3G mobiletelecom connection capabilities while the three less costly tablets only link to the Internet using Wi-Fi at hot spots.

With a 10.1-inch (25.6-centimeter) screen, the Xoom is about the same size as Apple's iPad, which hit stores in April and has other leading technology companies around the world scrambling to catch up.

Xoom also features a front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video chats and a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera that captures video.

The Xoomtablet computerwas crowned the best gadget at the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last month.

"This is really the next generation of tablets,"MotorolaMobility device team head Alain Mutricy said as he held aXoomin one hand at the awards ceremony.

"Our partnership with Google has been very intense and has enabled some great technology."

The CES accolades came just four days after Illinois-based Motorola split into two companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions.

Motorola Mobility will focus on mobility, the Internet and computing markets while Motorola Solutions will target next-generation communications solutions to government, public safety and enterprise customers.

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Hi, I'm iPad. May I take your order?

The first time most folks visit this restaurant, it won't likely be for the food, wine or beer. It'll be for the iPads.

When the new chain Stacked: Food Well Built opens its first of three Southern California units in May - this one in Torrance - sitting atop each of the fast-casual chain's 60 tables will be an iPad that folks will use to design and order their meals.

The two co-founders - who founded the BJ's Restaurant chain - plan to place 100 iPads in each restaurant. Diners will use them to look at meal options; design their own burgers, pizzas and salads and, if they want, use the iPads to pay for the meals.

But, says co-founder Paul Motenko,"We're not going to market it as an iPad restaurant."When Stacked founders first considered a concept with guests creating their own meals and ordering them on tabletop devices, the iPad didn't yet exist. IPads were the breakthrough, Motenko says.

The future of restaurant ordering and design may be digital."The printing of menus will fade as iPads - and other devices - replace them,"says consultant Dennis Lombardi.

Young people, in particular, want to see more technology in restaurants, says Hudson Riehle, research chief at the National Restaurant Association. In a recent survey, two of three 18- to 34-year-olds said they'd favor restaurants with high-tech gear.

That also explains why the chain's upcoming locations - Torrance, San Diego and Cerritos - are situated near movie complexes in very active malls. That's where young folks congregate.

But, Riehle warns,"I want to see industrial-strength iPads. It can be a jungle on the tabletop."

The iPads at Stacked will be in metal frames that sit about 3 inches off the tabletops. Folks wanting to order burgers will select the type of bun, meat and toppings on the iPad by clicking and dragging icons. The burger stacks visually on theiPadscreen. Ditto for pizzas and salads.

The iPads will have alarms that sound if they're carried out the door.

Others have tried iPads. Restaurants by Delta Air Lines gates at New York's John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia Airport installed iPads at tables that let guests custom-order meals. Bone'sRestaurantin Atlanta uses iPads for its wine list. Co-owner Richard Lewis says wine sales jumped 20 percent since the iPads were added six months ago

Someday, they'll be at all restaurants, Lewis says."It's the future."

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Samsung upsizes iPad rival, the Galaxy Tab (Update)

Samsung has upsized its Galaxy Tab, unveiling a 10.1-inch (25.7-cm) version aimed at muscling its way deeper into the territory of Apple's iPad.

Samsung Electronics, the South Korean giant, showed off a bigger version of its original seven-inch (17.8-cm) display at the mobile industry's annual congress in Barcelona.

The new screen, unveiled on Sunday four months after the launch of the first Galaxy Tab, just eclipses iPad's 9.7-inch display.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is powered by Honeycomb, the new version of Google's Android operating system designed specifically for tablet computers.

Google's free, open-source Honeycomb is expected to quickly be built into an array of touchscreen tablets in a booming market currently dominated by the iPad launched by Apple last year.

In a sign that Google is intent on wooing the developers behind the"apps"fueling the popularity of smartphones and tablets, executives here stressed that Honeycomb is built as a platform for software innovation.

Google also announced the launch of an Android Market webstore at market.android.com, where people can get work or play applications for devices running on the mobile operating software.

The new Samsung tablet weighs 599 grams (1 pound, five ounces) and is just 10.9 millimetres (0.43 inches) thick.

Patrick Chomet, Vodafone group director of terminals, said his customers in more than 20 markets worldwide would get the first chance to buy the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the next few months.

The tablet has dual surround-sound speakers, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

It includes a 1GHz dual core application processor.

Apple reportedly already has a new version of the iPad in production, however.

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A woman tries out Samsung's tablet device the"Galaxy tab"at the 50th edition of the"IFA"in Berlin 2010. Samsung has upsized its Galaxy Tab, unveiling a 10.1-inch (25.7-cm) version aimed at muscling its way deeper into the territory of Apple's iPad.

According to a Wall Street Journal report last week, Apple is producing a thinner, more powerful version of the iPad tablet.

The second-generation iPad will have more memory and a front-facing camera for capabilities such as a Face Time video-conferencing feature on Apple iPhone 4 smartphones, according to the Journal.

Apple said in its latest earnings release that it sold nearly 15 million iPads in the eight months after they were introduced in April last year.

Samsung also unveiled what it touted as the world's slimmest smartphone -- the 8.49-millimetre thick Galaxy S II.

The new phone, based on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, is equipped with voice recognition that allows users to dictate text messages instead of tapping on the screen.

It also includes NFC or Near Field Communication technology which allows users to make secure transactions by swiping their phone near a reader, such as in payments for riding on public transport.

"In 2011, we will take Samsung's leadership in speed, screen and content to a whole new level,"Samsung's mobile communications business chief, JK Shin, said.

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Samsung sees big jump in 3-D TV sales in 2011

(AP) -- Samsung Electronics said Thursday it expects to sell up to 10 million 3-D TVs this year and vigorously defended the technology behind its lineup amid intensifying competition with rivals including LG Electronics.

Samsung and LG are expecting sales of 3-D sets to jump this year, with both rolling out new models and touting technologies they say enhance the 3-D experience.

Suwon, South Korea-basedSamsung ElectronicsCo. is the world's largest manufacturer of flat screen TVs. LG Electronics Inc., headquartered in Seoul, ranks No. 2. They also compete with Japanese companies such as Sony Corp.

Samsung's 3-D sales target, if achieved, would mark a fivefold jump from the 2 million sets sold last year. LG says it expects to sell 5 million 3-D TVs in 2011, though is not releasing its results for last year.

Yoon Boo-geun, president of Samsung's visual display business, told reporters that the company expects to rack up 3-D sales of between 9-10 million in 2011 and hailed the so-called active shutter glass technology it uses.

"The market will judge,"he said."We'll see at the end of this year."

Yoon responded to persistent questioning from reporters about the merits of differing technologies a day after LG touted its new Cinema 3-D TV, which utilizes lighter glasses without batteries that match up images optimized for each eye to result in what it says is a smoother picture.

The new LG TV utilizes so-called film patterned retarder, or FPR, technology, which LG and other companies in the LG conglomerate developed for the Cinema 3-D TV, though the foundation of it has been around for decades, a point Yoon emphasized.

"There is no technical advantage to the technology,"he said of FPR, calling instead for the active shutter glass technology his company uses to be further developed.

Though manufacturers have been aggressively marketing 3-D TVs, sales have been weak. Drawbacks include the need for heavier, battery-powered glasses. The lack of content for 3-D TVs as well as consumer complaints about eyestrain, headaches and even queasiness have also been seen as damping sales.

Samsung shares rose 1 percent to close Thursday at 954,000 won ($854). LG's stock price, meanwhile, declined 3.3 percent to 118,500 won.

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New mobile can check pulse, send ambulance

A new phone developed in Singapore takes your pulse when you press your fingers on a receptor, and sends the results to a 24-hour medical call centre.

The new EPI Life mobile phone comes complete with minielectrocardiogram.

"We think it's a revolution. It has clinical significance,"EPI medical chief Dr. Chow U-Jin said at the mobile industry's annual conference in Barcelona.

"Anywhere in the world you can use it as a phone but you are also able to transfer anECGand get a reply,"Chow said.

"If you get a normal reply it will just be an SMS,"he added.

"If it's severe, you get a call: 'Sir, an ambulance is on the way'."

EPI Life has three hospitals in Singapore, all of which carry the phone users' history.

EPI Life costs $700 (516 euros), the price of a top range smartphone, and 2,000 of them have been on the market since 2010.

"The most obvious targets are people withheart disease,"Chow said.

Depending on your health or nervous disposition you can choose from three packages offering 10, 30 or 100 tests a month.

There is now a mini $99 version with a smaller receptor that links via Bluetooth connection to your smartphone, which is due for launch soon in Spain and France.

The EPI Life is one of a series ofmobile healthinitiatives unveiled in Barcelona.

Many of the services rely on SMS or MMS messages that even older mobiles can receive.

Health Company, which covers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, sends medical information about sexuality, obesity, children's health etc. to about 430,000 customers in Arab and English.

"You could also send a consultation through SMS,"said company vice president Fahad S. Al-Orifi.

"This SMS will go to our website where our doctor answers you to your mobile."

Mobile health is developing in poorer countries where it can play a crucial role, said Kazi Islam, chief executive of Grameenphone in Bangladesh.

In his country there are 156 million people and fewer than 3,000 hospitals but 66 million people have access to a mobile phone.

"Most women don't have access to information of health. Seventy-five percent of women from 15 to 24 have never heard of STIs (sexually transmitted infections),"he said.

"With a simple SMS we are sending information to expectant mothers. This is a necessary help".

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New mobiles have gadgets for the elderly

As the mobile world booms with complex technological smartphones and tablets, two rival firms are carving up a growing but largely ignored market for the elderly.

Their priority is not so much to zip their users from the Internet to Facebook or from MP3 songs to photos and videos.

Instead, the gadgets they pack into their phones include a night torch that also flashes when the phone rings, or a pull-out pad for writing down notes with an actual, real pen.

"In Spain, France, Britain or Italy, there are 10 to 15 million people aged 60 or more,"said Christophe Yerolymos, head of Austrian group Emporia's French subsidiary.

"Of these 15 million, about half don't use mobile phones,"he added.

Even among the half that do, nearly two-thirds had devices that were not appropriate for their needs, he said at his stand in the mobile industry's annual congress in Barcelona.

Emporia, celebrating its 20th anniversary, and the Swedish group Doro, which launched mobiles for seniors in 2007, share a market which is otherwise mostly ignored.

Their phones have the same size and styling of other mobiles but with more readable screens, larger buttons and compatibility withhearing aids.

The market is not exactly overcrowded with only two companies, said Yerolymos, although Britain'sVodafonemade an attempt with mixed success in the mid-2000s with its Vodafone Simply.

Emporia's customers are dynamic people who surf the Internet but mostly from home, Yerolymos said.

The Austrian business, which offers mobiles for 50 to 100 euros ($70-140), expects to move one million devices between 2010 and 2011, and twice that in the following year.

Doro boasts of 1.2 million sales since 2007.

Focussed more on health, Doro offers two models -- the Easy, which is a lot like the simple-to-use Emporia phones; and the Plus, which has four buttons, A, B, C, and D with memorized numbers along with an SOS button.

Ryan Trendell, head of Doro's British business said the Plus was"very specialised, very, very easy to use. Maybe for someone who is 80, 90, maybe someone suffering with dementia or loss of memory."

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Review: Motorola Atrix a powerful smart phone

(AP) -- As smart phones get an increasing array of features, they need faster processors. The Motorola Atrix 4G, billed as"the world's most powerful smart phone,"arrives with 2 gigahertz of processing power- the kind you're more likely to find on a laptop than a phone.

That's notable because there's an optional laptop dock, which makes the phone function as, well, a laptop.

The Atrix is available now for pre-order from AT&T Inc. and will begin selling March 6. It costs $200 with a two-year contract. But if you buy it with the dock, it will cost $500 after rebate, and you'll have to get a more expensive data plan.

On its own, the Atrix is a speedy phone, though not necessarily eye-catching. With the skinny, light dock, the Atrix is a Web surfing and e-mailing champ, which could make it a good travel buddy. For heavy-duty computing, though, I'd still stick with my full-featured laptop.

The Atrix's black slab exterior makes it look like other smart phones, but start poking around and the difference is clear: This is a fast handset. With tasks that don't require a wireless network, such as taking photos or playing games, the Atrix opened menus and applications without hesitation. The camera seemed to start up faster than those on other smart phones I've used, and I could scroll through applications and contacts on its 4-inch screen with ease.

Considering itsprocessing power, I was miffed to see the Atrix is currently running version 2.2 of Google Inc.'s Android operating system, Froyo, rather than the newer Gingerbread version, whose faster performance and better on-screen keyboard would match well with the Atrix.

The Atrix works on AT&T's upgraded 3G network, HSPA+, so to try it out I walked to AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants play. There, the phone streamed videos as flawlessly as if I were on my home Wi-Fi network. At my office or home I wouldn't even attempt to stream content over AT&T's network as service is unreliable.

Not surprisingly, call quality at AT&T Park was also excellent. My mom, a frequent target of my test calls and sharper critic of sound quality than I am, even said that the Atrix sounded"pretty good for a cell phone."But in my office, where AT&T's reception is spotty, I had to try several times to get a call to go through. When I finally did, a friend sounded muffled on the other end (he said I did, too).

The phone's display is clear and bright, with good viewing angles that would make it useful for sharing video clips with a friend. When streaming YouTube content, such as Nicki Minaj's"Moment 4 Life"music video, I didn't feel as if the colors were as warm as they could have been, though. Like a growing number of phones, the Atrix can play Flash videos - something the iPhone can't do.

The 5-megapixel camera on the Atrix's back wasn't impressive. Photos were crisp, but colors didn't really pop. And there are only a handful of settings and color effects, so if you want to get creative you'll need to download a camera app (free ones include Camera 360 Lite and Retro Camera).

You'll also need to snag an app such as Qik if you want to video chat with a friend: The Atrix has a front-facing camera, but it doesn't include video chat software.

I expected long battery life, especially with AT&T claiming that you can watch two full-length movies in a row on a single charge. The phone is rated for up to nine hours of talk time, and in a day that included much multitasking and streaming a full-length animated movie from YouTube over Wi-Fi, the battery held up well.

I also expected a lot from the dock, especially becauseMotorolaMobility Inc. isn't the first to come up with the idea of combining a phone with a laptop-like dock: One high-profile example came from Palm, now owned by Hewlett-Packard Co., which in 2007 announced and subsequently shelved a laptop-like device called Foleo. It would have acted as a companion to users' Palm Treosmart phones.

Once I plugged the Atrix into the laptop dock, I entered a combination phone-netbook experience, which gave me more functionality than with the handset alone but not as much as I'd have with a dedicated laptop.

The dock has a bright, crisp screen that measures 11.6 inches diagonally, a full-but-slightly-cramped keyboard and a large touchpad. There are two USB ports and a standard headphone jack. Because the dock has its own battery, it can charge the Atrix while they are attached. Oddly, the dock doesn't have a front-facing camera, so you can't use it for video chats.

With the Atrix attached to the dock, a small"mobile view"on the dock's screen shows you what's on your phone's screen - you can use this to access phone functions like making or answering calls or sending text messages, which is neat.

The dock's main appeal is that it includes the Firefox Web browser, allowing you to surf the Web uninhibited by the limitations imposed by the phone's smaller display. The dock is great for checking e-mails and visiting websites, and you could use it for some work, too.

Still, it's not a computer. Without the Atrix plugged in, the dock does nothing. It's expensive, and you'll have to add on a $20 per month for AT&T's mobile hotspot feature (on the plus side, this will enable you to connect four more gadgets to the Internet through your Atrix).

If you're hankering for a speedy phone, the Atrix is a good bet. I'd hold out on the dock, though. It could be a useful accessory in the future, but for now its price doesn't match up to its limited functionality.

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Orange launches low-cost branded tablet

Mobile operator Orange launched Tuesday a tablet computer under its own brand in four European countries as a cheaper alternative to Apple's iPad.

Boasting a seven-inch (16.8 centimetres) screen and running Google'sAndroidoperating system with 3G mobile connectivity, the"Orange Tablet offers portable, touch screen computing at a competitive price,"the company said.

The number three Europeanmobile operator, owned by France Telecom, announced the launch at the mobile phone industry's annual gathering in Barcelona, with the Orange Tablet going on sale in Spain, Romania, Poland and Slovakia.

Manufactured by the Chinese company Huawei, the Orange Tablet will be offered as an entry-level model compared to the more expensiveAppleiPadand Samsung Galaxy Tab, which the operator also offers customers.

"Tablet computing is an extremely popular and growing segment of the consumer technology market and we want to offer our customers the best possible choice of device to suit all budgets and requirements,"said Yves Maitre, Orange's senior vice president for mobile devices and multimedia.

Each of the four markets has specific tariffs and bundles for the Orange Tablet, with the acquisition cost subsidised to as low as one euro depending on the duration of the service contract.

The four countries were chosen as their lower consumer purchasing power was slowing the adoption of iPads and Galaxy Tabs, said Anne Bouverot, director of mobile services and devices at France Telecom Orange.

Orange said it is considering introducing the Orange Tablet in other markets as well.

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Acer announces the Iconia Tab A500 with Android 3.0 Honeycomb

(PhysOrg.com) -- Acer is making a new move into the world of tablets. They showed off their new Iconia Tab A500. The device features the Google's Android 3.0 Honeycomb software and an interesting set of hardware specs. The Iconia Tab A500 has a 10.1-inch display, with a a wide viewing angle and a screen that allows for a high degree of color contrast. This, of course, put the new tablet on par with the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, at least for screen size.

The screen also supports HD video formats, with a built-in HDMI port that will allow users to stream video from the tablet in 1080p HD. Which is good news if you love movies, but is not of much use to you if videophile is not on your social resume.

The case is laser-engraved and made out of aluminum. The whole device is set to be 13.3mm thick. The Iconia Tab A500 also has a decent processor, it features a dual-coreNvidiaTegra 2 processor and an Nvidia GeForce GPU in order to handle next-generation graphics.

The Iconia Tab A500 will come with choice of Wi-Fi or 3G for the Internet connection, which is a fairly standard set of choices in the tablet world. It also features a dual set of cameras. The one in the rear is a 5-megapixel and the front camera is what anhigh definitionfront cam for video calls, thought you may not always want to see your chat partners in HD. The camera also has the ability to be used as a barcode reader.

The tablet does not have a release date announced or a cost listed currently.

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Verizon to sell Sony Ericsson's PlayStation phone

(AP) -- Sony Ericsson says the first"PlayStation phone"is coming to Verizon Wireless in April, marking a change in strategy for Sony and a coup for Sony Ericsson, which has been trying to get back into the U.S. market.

The Xperia Play phone will feature a big touch screen and a pad that slides out to reveal control buttons similar to those on a Sony PlayStation Portable. It's the first time Sony has allowed itsPlayStationgames to run on hardware not made by Sony.

Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg demonstrated the phone Sunday in Barcelona, a day ahead of the opening of the Mobile World Congress trade show there.Sony Ericssonis a joint venture of Sony and LM Ericsson of Sweden.

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BlackBerry PlayBook could be running Android apps in the future

(PhysOrg.com) -- Research In Motion, the company that is best known as the makers of the BlackBerry line of mobile products, is developing software that will allow its soon-to-be-released BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to run Android-based applications.

The BlackBerry PlayBook runs on the BlackBerry Tablet OS, anoperating systemthat was developed by QNXSoftware, a company that Research In Motion bought during 2010.

While nothing official has been released, several unnamed sources stated that Research In Motion had originally tried to use third-party software in order to run Android-based applications on the tablet, but none of the them were found to be worth using. The new software is being developed in-house in hopes of creating a better user experience.

Not that Research In Motion is promising anything at all. Despite this development project the company has yet to give any indication that they plan to bring Android apps to its platform in the near future. So, this may be a development project for future versions of the BlackBerry Tablet OS or simply a project that fizzles out. In either case the PlayBook will not be reliant upon the Android-based applications to get apps out to the users.

Research In Motionoffered details about its own developer program, which would let developers create native apps that run on the tablets operating system, at the event where theBlackBerryPlayBook was announced, in September of last year. The platform also supports applications that have been developed in a variety of languages including: HTML5, Adobe AIR, Flash, and Java.

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Hitachi Maxell to join the wireless charging market

(PhysOrg.com) -- Wireless charging, the last bastion of the truly lazy, has gotten a new competitor in the marketplace. Hitachi Maxell has joined the ranks of companies such as Energizer in the wireless charging arena. The Hitachi Maxell unit which is named Qi, you would go with a“chee” sound if you said the name aloud, and it comes in two different models.

The first one is a larger charging station which allows you two slots for the charging of two separate devices at the same time.

The second option is a smaller and cheaper unit that will charge only a single device.

As with the Energizer model you cannot simply drop your phone as is onto the pad, each of the devices must be placed into its sleeve to get the charge. Unlike the Energizer model this one does not have USB ports for devices that lack sleeves.

Both of the devices run on the same wireless standard, which has been adopted by 72 companies and every large-scale hardware maker, with the notable exception of Apple.

That is not to say that you will not be able to charge your iPhone. The Qi setup does have a sleeve for iPhone 4 users that will allow them to charge without the cord. As a matter of fact, this device was designed with iPhone users in mind.

HitachiMaxell has not announced the price for either the double- or single- unit charger at this time. US customers do not have a release date, but the devices are expected to be out in Japan during the month of April.

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