AT&T; will be following in Verizon Wireless' footsteps by increasing the early termination fees for smartphones and other advanced devices. While Verizon increased its ETF to $350, AT&T; will increase its ETF to $325. That is nearly double the previous ETF of $175. As with Verizon, the smartphone ETF will decrease by $10 for each month of the contract.
The upside, however, is that AT&T; will be decreasing the ETFs of its feature phones and quick-messaging devices by $25 (previously $175, now $150). Feature phone ETFs will drop by $4 for each month.
Presumably, this means AT&T; is foreseeing an uptick in smartphone customers and a possible downtick in feature phone customers. UPDATE: An AT&T; spokesperson has said that they're actually enjoying quite a bit of growth in the quick messaging device market and expects that to continue.
These changes will only apply to new contracts from June 1 going forward, so you might want to get a phone before then. Funnily, the iPhone won't be announced until after that date, but AT&T; has insisted that the ETF increase is unrelated to that. We wonder if the FCC will come knocking on AT&T;'s door about this as well.
(Via Wall Street Journal)
With Google's announcement of the Google TV platform, there's a new potential light at the end of the tunnel for those looking for an easy way to get Web-based content on their living-room TVs. But for those of us who are fans of doing things the not-so-easy way, the concept of playing video files or surfing the Web via TV is nothing new, as we've been doing it through off-the-shelf or custom-built media center PCs for years.
Yet, as a longtime advocate of hooking a PC up to a big-screen television, I was more than a little surprised to find myself recently pulling the plug on my media center PC. There was nothing physically wrong with the home-built Shuttle small form factor system (actually the third media PC I had put together over the years), it was just that new technologies for consuming media content had made it largely superfluous.
With somewhere between seven and 10 devices hooked up to my plasma at any one time, any chance to simplify is welcome, especially as the media center PC was the only device in the mix not controlled by my Logitech Harmony universal remote.
For playing downloaded video files, we used to drag them to the media center PC's hard drive over our home network, and play them via VLC media player, using a Gyration gyroscopic mouse, which acted as a clever gesture-based media playback controller. The occasional ABC.com episode of Lost or CNET TV video was played in the same manner via Web browser.
But the media center PC was used most often as a Netflix streaming box; and once that technology came to the Xbox 360 (and later the PS3 and Wii), it lost a major reason for being.
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Super Mario Galaxy, the Wii's best-reviewed game, has sold 8.6 million copies to date since 2007. New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a modern riff on 2D Mario games of old that came out just six months ago, has sold more than 14 million. Super Mario Galaxy 2 represents the second 3D mind-bending platforming he's gotten himself into since Super Mario 64, a game that is already looking at its 15th birthday.
The Wii has been slow to release many games, but incredibly busy at churning out Mario titles. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is Nintendo's fourth on the system, not counting Karts, Parties, and other spin-offs (we count Super Paper Mario). Is it overkill? Well, not when the gameplay and platforming are this satisfying and addictive. In fact, it would be great if Nintendo turned around franchise sequels this quickly a little more often.
Jeff:
No matter how few triple-A titles come to the Wii, its games like Super Mario Galaxy 2 that make those droughts of quality software tolerable. Not only is Super Mario Galaxy 2 an absolute must-have for Wii owners, it's quite possibly Mario's best adventure yet.
Though there's a lot of what we loved in the original here, the game improves upon its predecessor most notably by introducing brand-new galaxies to explore and ramping up the difficulty. This time Mario also has his dino-companion Yoshi at his disposal, and with that comes new moves and controls. Also new is the World Map navigation that past Mario games have popularized.
Level design has to be the title's most impressive trait; it's something aspiring gamemakers should be forced to play early on in their careers. Galaxy 2 provides subtle moments of brilliance and overwhelming environments and boss battles. The clever use of gravity-based antics shine right from the get-go and come into play more than ever before.
There have been more Mario games on the Wii than any other franchise, and though that might seem overkill for any other franchise on any other platform, we'd be happy to see Nintendo continue to pop them out this regularly. Not only are these games high on production value and sheer entertainment, they are timeless and completely accessible, appealing to gamers of any age.
(Credit:
GameSpot)
Scott:
What's different from the universe-spanning, gravity-bending 3D puzzle-gaming in the first Galaxy? Not a whole lot, just more great levels and clever ideas. There is a subtle but clear shift, however, toward ideas that seem more like Mario games of old: the world map now looks like the classic Mario overhead maps, complete with boss castles. ... Read More
The App Store is home to numerous apps that let you connect to a desktop PC from afar. Granted, navigating Windows on a screen as comparatively tiny as the iPhone's is not a lot of fun, but it works better than you'd expect.
TeamViewer brings powerful remote-access features to your iPhone, yet it doesn't cost a dime.
Indeed, I've used remote-access (or "RA") software many times for simple tasks like e-mailing a file, peeking at a document, and even shutting down the PC (when I'm too lazy to walk down a flight of stairs).
My RA app of choice? LogMeIn Ignition, which works even better on the iPad than it does on the iPhone. Just one problem: it costs $29.99. (Ironically, the required desktop counterpart, LogMeIn Free, costs nothing.)
Thankfully, I've found a handful of free RA apps. (There are others, but I'm focusing on the three I know best.)
First up: RDM+ lite, a new, ad-supported version of the $9.99 full version. (For the same price you can buy the iPad version.) RDM+ is noteworthy for supporting both Mac and Windows systems--you just need to download the proper desktop client.
Next, there's JumiMouse, which in its early days merely turned your iPhone into a touch pad, but has evolved into a more complete remote-access app. The free version is a bit limited in that you can't interact with your PC when you zoom in at all (which is quite necessary for most functions). Thankfully, JumiMouse Plus costs just $1.99. Note that this one's Windows-only.
Finally, my favorite freebie: TeamViewer, a full-featured, Mac/Windows-compatible remote-access app. It has no ads and no limitations to speak of. Plus, it did a better job on my iPad than either of the other two apps--though pixel doubling is just no substitute for an HD version. You can read my full coverage of TeamViewer over at Business Hacks.
Well, those are my three freebies. Have you found another free remote-access app you like better? Or at least one that doesn't cost 30 bucks?
Samsung S2 Portable
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)Before you start furiously deleting precious music, photos, and movies from your computer, why not free up space and archive your library at the same time with an external hard drive?
Storage vendors like Seagate, Samsung, and LaCie are competing to offer the lowest cost-per-gigabyte on the market, which means generous cost savings for the end consumer.
And you don't just get a slab of hardware, either--most drives come preinstalled with automatic backup software that let you specify data profiles and exactly which folders on your system drive to sync with the external, so in the unfortunate event of a hard drive failure you'll always have your precious data backed up and ready to go. Check our the list below for our favorite external hard drives under $150.
See the products compared side by side, or click through the slideshow below to see the details.
Scientists think they've found the reason that overhearing cell phone conversations makes the average person's blood boil. It's because hearing half of a conversation takes more concentration and attention than hearing both sides of a talk, say Cornell University researchers.
(Credit:
CBS)
According to this Reuters story, hearing half of a story is more difficult to tune out than a whole story. So if you ever wondered why you're so irked that you're hearing some guy on the bus gripe about a bad date, it's probably because you're trying to fill in the gaps for yourself (and you're also guessing incorrectly).
With Americans spending more than 2 trillion minutes on cell phones last year, according to the wireless trade association CTIA, there are infinitely more chances to get caught up in half of a conversation that you wouldn't want to hear given the choice.
The Cornell scientists did research with students that involved concentration exercises. Students made more errors guessing how a conversation would go when they heard just one side.
This story originally appeared on CBSNews.com.
Palm's WebOS could be on an HP tablet by October.
(Credit: Palm)WebOS will be on a Hewlett-Packard tablet sometime in the next five months.
That's what Marty Wong, the head of HP's Personal Systems Group in Taiwan, said in an interview with Digitimes Friday.
"The HP Slate will hit the market before the end of the fiscal year ending in October, and consumers could see a wide range of software and application support at launch," Wong said.
WebOS is Palm's touch-screen operating system that now is only used in smartphones. In April, HP announced its intentions to purchase Palm for $1.2 billion. The Palm acquisition won't even close until the end of July, but HP now expects a WebOS tablet to be ready in time for fall, which is, not coincidentally, the beginning of holiday shopping for a lot of consumers.
What's still unclear is whether HP is still planning a Slate with Windows 7. HP has declined to comment Friday on the current status of the product. HP introduced the Windows 7 Slate on stage during Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote at CES in January, but since the news of the Palm acquisition hit the company has been mum on its future. HP also declined to comment on a recent report quoting unnamed sources that the company was killing the Windows 7 Slate.
Another interesting tidbit from the Digitimes interview concerns HP's approach to Netboooks. HP has already said it plans to put WebOS on tablets, smartphones, and Web-connected printers, but there was some speculation the OS could be loaded onto HP Netbooks too. However, according to Wong, "since Netbooks are more similar in functions with traditional computers, the company will not offer such WebOS-based devices."
Currently HP Netbooks run Windows 7, Windows XP, and a version of Linux.
If HP is able to ship a WebOS tablet by October, that gives Apple just a six-month head start with the iPad. There should be plenty of people in the market for a tablet bearing a different approach than Apple. HP is positioning itself right now to be the second mainstream gadget maker into this burgeoning market. The other potential competitor out there is Dell, which is working on a series of Android-based tablets, but offering up few details about when they'll hit store shelves.
Updated at 2:45 p.m. PDT with information about the Windows 7 Slate, and HP's response.
(Credit:
Kinki Knives Industries)
It may look like a joke, but a group of companies in Japan is serious about selling an electric car made of traditional materials such as bamboo and paper.
The three-wheeled Meguru (Japanese for "to move") is more of an auto rickshaw than a car, and it's designed for use as a taxi. A driver sits in front, and one or two passengers sit in back on a couch.
Developed mainly by metalworking firm Yodogawa and blade maker Kinki Knives Industries in Osaka, the prototype was given distinctly Japanese styling with the help of Kyoto craftspeople.
Its frame is steel painted with vermilion lacquer, and it evokes the torii gates of Shinto shrines. The flooring is bamboo, and the folding fan doors are crafted from Japanese washi paper. At night, the interior lights glow through the paper doors, giving it a lantern-like appearance.
The Meguru's lithium ion battery takes two hours to charge on a household power supply, and it can travel about 25 miles on a charge. It has a top speed of about 25 mph, and it is registered as a road vehicle in Japan.
The firms plan to mass-produce the Meguru and sell it for less than $10,000. They're touting it as an example of the strength of smaller manufacturers in the Osaka region, which has been hit hard by the economic slump.
The Meguru probably wouldn't look out of place in Japanese cities like Kyoto and Nara, which have traditional neighborhoods as well as old-school rickshaws in the streets. The zero-emission ride will please those who care about the environment, and the paper and bamboo give it an air of old-world craftsmanship.
Just don't drive it off-road into a forest full of pandas.
(Via CScout Japan)
It's certainly true that MP3 player numbers are dwindling. One need only to look at the paltry variety of portable media devices on the Best MP3 players list to see this fact. However, that doesn't mean all of us have given up our standalone audio players in favor of music phones, and there are still plenty of people wavering on the age-old iPod versus Zune debate. But which do you get? Sadly, I can't make up your mind for you, but the below might help in some cases.
Q: I have never owned an iPod nor any other similar device, but I am considering either the iPod Classic or the Zune HD player. My primary use would be for music. I'm not much into games or FM. A techie I am not, so I have been trying to find information on how the Zune would interact with my iTunes library. Would there be problems with downloading from iTunes and syncing to Zune? Are there any other concerns that I would have that would prohibit the Zune as a better buy since I am currently using iTunes? I would greatly appreciate any feedback. A couple hundred bucks is a hefty investment for me at this time. -- Ed, via e-mail
A: The short answer is: if you are already using iTunes for music management and are happy with it, the iPod is just going to be the simpler option. Both the Zune HD and the iPod Classic are great players if music is your chief concern. The Zune creates a more comprehensive visual experience around the music (artist photos, a scrolling screen saver, and so on), and the onscreen interface is more modern and fine-tuned to quick navigation. But really the main difference between the two is that the Zune uses touch-screen navigation whereas the iPod offers a more tactile experience with the scroll wheel. I'm personally not a huge fan of either, but it is something to consider when deciding between the two.
As to your specific question with syncing iTunes music to the Zune, it all depends on the types of files in iTunes. If they are older, copy-protected AAC tracks purchased from the store before it got rid of DRM, then getting those into the Zune Software would be a fairly significant hurdle. If you mostly have music that you ripped yourself from CD or purchased in iTunes as unprotected AAC tracks, then it's a really simple process. The Zune Software will take you through a set of prompts that will import all your music.
In fact, you don't even have to buy the Zune to test all this out. I recommend downloading the Zune Software and taking it for a spin. Not only can you decide ahead of time if the transferring process is smooth enough for you, but you can also get a feel for the software itself and see whether you like it.
You knew it had to happen some time. But now that the time has come, it's hard not to feel sad. According to MacRumors, and confirmed by a visit to the Apple site, the company has removed the "Get a Mac" ads from its site and now transfers visitors to a more prosaic "Why You'll Love a Mac" area.
Actor Justin Long had rather let the horse pull away from the cart last month, when he floated the idea that the "Get a Mac" campaign was done.
Still, the removal of the ads from the site does feel a little like the removal of a president's statues from an Eastern European city's main square in preparation for the introduction of a new regime.
As Google showed with such unusually biting vigor this week, it now considers Apple its Darth Vader, something that seems to consign the Apple/Microsoft contretemps to the level of a mere old-school video game.
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