The iPad is a tablet computer announced by Apple on January 27, 2010. It is 0.5-inches thick, weighs 1.5 pounds, and features a 9.7-inch IPS capacitive multitouch display. It is powered by a proprietary 1GHz processor, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and is available in 16, 32, or 64GB flash storage capacities. Additional specs include an accelerometer, compass, speaker, mic, 30-pin Apple dock connector, and 10-hour built-in battery.

Standard apps that come pre-loaded on the device include a mobile Safari web browser, an e-book reader app called iBooks, a calendar app, two-pane email app, contacts, notes, Google Maps, media player, photo viewer, iTunes store, and App Store to download third-party applications and games. Existing iPhone applications are centered on-screen at their original 480×320 resolution, or can be run in a magnified mode where the app is enlarged to fit the entire screen.

Apple will offer models with built-in unlocked 3G data capabilities. US customers can purchase an AT&T 250MB data plan for $14.99 per month or an unlimited data plan for $29.99 per month.

Wi-Fi only iPad models will be available by the beginning of April 2010:
$499 – 16GB
$599 – 32GB
$699 – 64GB

Wi-Fi + 3G iPad models will be available by the beginning of May 2010:
$629 – 16GB
$729 – 32GB
$829 – 64GB

And here’s Apple’s full press release:

Apple iPad

A Magical & Revolutionary Device at an Unbelievable Price

Apple® today introduced iPad, a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more. iPad’s responsive high-resolution Multi-Touch™ display lets users physically interact with applications and content. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds- thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, and will run almost all of the over 140,000 apps in the App Store. iPad will be available in late March starting at the breakthrough price of just $499.

“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

iPad features 12 next-generation Multi-Touch applications. Every app works in both portrait and landscape, automatically animating between views as the user rotates iPad in any direction. The precise Multi-Touch interface makes surfing the web on iPad an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. Reading and sending email is fun and easy on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard. Import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. Watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD or flip through pages of an e-book you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.

iPad runs almost all of the over 140,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. The iTunes® Store gives you access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 11 million songs, over 50,000 TV episodes and over 8,000 films including over 2,000 in stunning high definition video. Apple also announced the new iBooks app for iPad, which includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile device. The iBookstore will feature books from major and independent publishers.

Apple also introduced a new version of iWork® for iPad, the first desktop-class productivity suite designed specifically for Multi-Touch. With Pages®, Keynote® and Numbers® you can create beautifully formatted documents, stunning presentations with animations and transitions, and spreadsheets with charts, functions and formulas. The three apps will be available separately through the App Store for $9.99 each.

iPad syncs with iTunes just like the iPhone and iPod touch, using the standard Apple 30-pin to USB cable, so you can sync all of your contacts, photos, music, movies, TV shows, applications and more from your Mac or PC. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.

iPad’s brilliant 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display features IPS technology to deliver crisp, clear images and consistent color with an ultra-wide 178 degree viewing angle. The highly precise, capacitive Multi-Touch display is amazingly accurate and responsive whether scrolling web pages or playing games. The intelligent soft keyboard pioneered on iPhone takes advantage of iPad’s larger display to offer an almost full-size soft keyboard. iPad also connects to the new iPad Keyboard Dock with a full-size traditional keyboard.

iPad is powered by A4, Apple’s next-generation system-on-a-chip. Designed by Apple, the new A4 chip provides exceptional processor and graphics performance along with long battery life of up to 10 hours.* Apple’s advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology deliver up to 1,000 charge cycles without a significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five year lifespan.**

iPad comes in two versions-one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. iPad includes the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi, and the 3G versions support speeds up to 7.2 Mbps on HSDPA networks. Apple and AT&T announced breakthrough 3G pre-paid data plans for iPad with easy, on-device activation and management.

Continuing Apple’s dedication to designing and creating environmentally responsible products, each iPad enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy-efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. iPad contains no brominated flame retardants and is completely PVC-free.

Apple today released a new Software Development Kit (SDK) for iPad, so developers can create amazing new applications designed to take advantage of iPad’s capabilities. The SDK includes a simulator that lets developers test and debug their iPad apps on a Mac, and also lets developers create Universal Applications that run on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Pricing & Availability

iPad will be available in late March worldwide for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model, $699 (US) for the 64GB model. The Wi-Fi + 3G models of iPad will be available in April in the US and selected countries for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. International pricing and worldwide availability will be announced at a later date. iBookstore will be available in the US at launch.

Mozilla Labs Weave 1.0 RC is now released.

What’s changed since Beta 3?

• Faster startup times for Firefox and Fennec
• Make tabs available immediately when setting up another computer
• Automatically use the synced lightweight theme (Firefox 3.6+)
• A few more bug fixes related to changing passwords, mobile bookmarks, etc.

Release Notes

1. Upgrade all your clients to the latest version
   If you are using Weave Sync on multiple computers, you will need to update all of them to the latest version. Weave Sync requires that you use the same version of the addon on all your computers that you want to synchronize data to/from.
2. Hosting Your Own
   If you are hosting your own Weave server, you’ll need to add an apache alias line for the 1.0 URL – your old server will still handle the same API.

More Information
For information about previous versions as well as the latest development snapshots, check out the changelog

Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 is the next generation of mobile browsing which runs on almost every phone.

Top new features

Tabbed browsing

Browse several Web sites at the same time, while easily jumping from one to another.

Speed Dial

Get to your favorite Web page with just one click, with a set of visual bookmarks when you open a new tab.

Opera Link

Synchronize your bookmarks and Speed Dial between your mobile phone and desktop computer.

Download manager

Manage downloads right from the browser. Pause and resume downloads to suit your needs.

Feature details

Innovative and easy-to-use

1Living up to our vision of providing the best Internet experience on any device, Opera Mini 5 boasts a powerful new user interface. Merging the best from our desktop browser together with new innovations for mobile phones, Opera Mini is advanced, yet highly intuitive to use.

Faster

Time is precious. Opera Mini compresses pages by up to 90% before being sent to your phone, meaning faster page-load times than in other mobile Web browsers.

Full Web in your palm

2When visiting a Web page, Opera Mini displays the overview of the page and suggests where to begin your reading before you zoom in. Opera Mini also detects when you are on a Web page designed for a mobile phone and displays it optimally.

2

Full Web in your palm

Page zoom

Control default text size on Web sites. Depending on your mobile phone screen size, often text can be too small or too large to be viewed easily. Control the default zoom level from 60% to 200% directly in Opera Mini 5.

Built for speed

The new Opera Mini lets you search for text within a Web page, so you can get to the information you need even more quickly than before.

1

Innovative and easy-to-use

Speed Dial

Get your favorite Web page with just one click. Speed Dial is a set of visual bookmarks you see when you open a new tab, like a dashboard for your online life. To add a new page, simply click an empty dial, and Opera will make suggestions based on your browsing history and bookmarks.

Mobile view

Fit content to your mobile phone. Mobile view intelligently reformats Web pages into a single column eliminating the need for horizontal panning. Changing to Mobile view is accessible though the Settings menu.

Password Manager

4There is no more hassle with those hard-to-enter usernames and passwords. Opera Mini 5 will remember your credentials, and you can log on to your favorite Web sites with just a single click. The passwords are stored on your phone for your convenience.

4

Password Manager

Tabbed browsing

Browse several Web sites at the same time. Check your e-mail in one window, Facebook in another and, Twitter in a third, all while being able to jump easily from one tab to another. With a touchscreen phone, you can enjoy even easier tab switching with visual tabs. On keypad-style phones easily mange desktop-style tabs in the Opera Mini user interface, above the address bar.

Power scrolling

Scroll at warp speed using your phone keypad or by dragging the page on a phone with a touchscreen.

Touch and keypad

3The user interface has been designed for both touchscreen- and keypad-style mobile phones. With a touchscreen, you can enjoy even easier navigation with our new zooming and kinetic scrolling.

3

Touch and keypad

Adaptive zoom

On a touchscreen phone panning has become even easier with adaptive zoom. When panning quickly around a zoomed-in page the panning momentum creates a more intuitive and easier to-navigate experience.

Landscape mode

Browse in the way that is most comfortable to you. Landscape mode allows you to view Opera Mini 5 on your phone in landscape.

Download Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 to your mobile phone

To try Opera Mini 5 beta 2 visit the address m.opera.com/next, using your phone’s default Web browser, or download it to your computer. It is completely free.

MSI‘s currently running a Holiday Giveway 2009 through MSI’s Facebook Fan Page.

Keep visiting the Facebook page for future chances to win.

AMD’s 40th Anniversary

May 1, 2009, marked AMD’s 40th anniversary.

Formed by Jerry Sanders and seven co-founders in 1969, AMD is a company with a rich and colorful history.

AMD’s 40th anniversary is a testimonial to our longevity, our employees, our customers and our unique business approach. AMD takes great pride in our role of igniting next-generation technology solutions, as well as our ability to see where customer and end-user needs are headed next and then collaborate with the industry accordingly. These values are captured in our Fusion business approach: a unique combination of integration, intimacy and impact.

Watch Video on YouTube – AMD’s 40th Anniversary

We get quite a few questions about the difference between Opera Mobile 10 and Opera Mini 5. This post will attempt to clarify.

NB! Unless you have a Windows Mobile or Symbian/S60 phone, Opera Mobile is not available for you to download to your phone. Enjoy Opera Mini!

First, here is what they have in common:

• Both are based on the same core technology, the Opera Presto browser engine (just like Opera for desktop).
• Both use the same cross-platform user interface, providing similar features and browsing experience.

And the difference:

• In Opera Mini, the Opera Presto browser engine is located on a server. In Opera Mobile, it is installed on your phone.

When you enter a Web address in Opera Mobile, the Web page is fetched directly from the Web server to your phone. However, the Opera Mini client sends a request to the Opera Mini server, which downloads the page from the Internet. The server then transcodes the page before it is forwarded to the client in a lightweight mark-up language designed specifically for this purpose.

The advantage is that the Opera Mini client can be much smaller and work on more basic phones than the full Opera Mobile browser.

On the other hand, Opera Mini depends on a server while Opera Mobile does not. (Opera Turbo is an optional service for Opera Mobile that compresses Web pages and makes it cheaper to browse, but it is not required).

In practical terms, here is what that means for you:

• Opera Mobile will render Web pages just like a desktop browser. In Opera Mini, there may be slight differences, and very complex Web pages may not work optimally.
• Opera Mini will generally be faster. It downloads less content and requires less CPU to render pages.
• Opera Mini works on almost any phone. Opera Mobile is only available for Windows Mobile and Symbian/S60 phones.

Which product is best for you depends on your personal preferences and the sites you browse. Many advanced users will have both browsers installed and alternate depending on the situation. For example, they will use Opera Mobile when on Wi-Fi, Opera Mini when on a cellular network.

Another reason why Opera Software has both products in the portfolio is that many of our operator and handset manufacturer customers have very specific requirements. The differences between the products may be extremely important to them. For example, Opera Mobile is generally preferred by handset manufacturers for preinstallation on mobile phones.

Few years ago a little-known feature called Virtual Wi-Fi was crafted by Microsoft‘s research group as a way to “virtualize” one wireless card as several separate adapters in Windows. The project was discontinued in 2006, but some of the code apparently made its way into Windows 7, and now at least one company is taking advantage of it with a new application that can turn any laptop into a wireless access point.

Developed by military consulting firm Nomadio, Connectify lets a laptop “tether” other wireless devices to a single internet connection by effectively turning it into a software-based wireless router. Windows 7 is required on the notebook acting as a wireless hotspot, but any wireless-equipped device, including handhelds and other notebooks running whatever operating system can jump online without any additional software. The program even encrypts traffic to and from the software hotspot using WPA2-Personal (AES) encryption.

While the Connectify beta is free to download, Nomadio expects to charge users once the complete version is released in about six weeks. A free, ad-supported version might also be released down the road.

Jamie Wells of MSFT just made a blog post about Microsoft’s Marketplaces for Mobile.

Here is the brief of that post:

Earlier in the month we rolled out “Microsoft Mobile Marketplaces,” a new mobile ad product that illustrates the performance advantage gained by combining the power of mobile search and display.

We launched the Marketplace to a select group of advertisers during the critical holiday shopping season, when consumers often are on the go and pressed for time. So far, we’ve launched Marketplaces for Ringtones, and additional Microsoft Mobile Marketplaces are already in the works, including Holiday Shopping, Mobile Games and Wallpapers slated for release in the coming days.

Here’s how Marketplaces work: A user browsing a Microsoft mobile media property, such as Mobile MSN, Hotmail, Messenger, CNBC or FOX Sports, is presented with a display ad promoting a specific consumer product vertical, such as “Last Minute Holiday Deals” or “Hot Ringtones.” When the user clicks on a mobile display banner they are then re-directed to a mobile landing page that contains a list of sponsored links from Bing for Mobile that are based on the specific theme or set of keywords associated with that Marketplace.

In effect, the Mobile Marketplace acts as a transformational mobile ad product, converting a generally reactive medium like mobile display into a more intent-based mobile search product. Benefits to the advertiser are many, but two of note are cost savings and ease of implementation.  Advertisers are able to increase their ROI by extending their mobile search campaign across key Microsoft Mobile display properties, and it’s simple to implement – advertisers can participate in the Marketplace simply by setting up a typical Bing for Mobile ad campaign and bidding on just one keyword.

The early results are in and we’re off to a great start. Average Marketplace campaign click-through rates (CTR) are currently running in excess of 20 percent, which is over five times more than the average CTR for a mobile search campaign.

Stay tuned as we launch additional Microsoft Mobile Marketplaces over the next few months.  In the meantime, please contact our Mobile Sales Specialists at mobads@microsoft.com if you are interested in participating.  Also, leave a comment below if you have any thoughts on specific Mobile Marketplaces you’d like to see brought to life, or if you have any additional thoughts you’d like to share on this new product. ]]> http://scooopy.com/microsoft-rolls-out-marketplaces-for-mobiles/feed/ 1 http://scooopy.com/opera-mobile-10-beta-released-for-windows-mobile-phones/ http://scooopy.com/opera-mobile-10-beta-released-for-windows-mobile-phones/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:32:02 +0000 Scooopy http://scooopy.com/?p=54

Nokia owners just got a load of win delivered with the release of Opera Mobile 10 beta. Opera Mobile’s facelift hits harder than office linebacker Terry Tate – Yes, the beta actually merges the best from your favorite desktop experience into a traditional sleek minimal Mobile interface!

Read more and get to know all the techy details on opera’s mobile pages. If you don’t care about that, simply download for your Nokia, Samsung or Sony Ericsson S60 device.