4 | Intel Reveals "Canoe Lake" Ultrathin Netbook Platform, "Oak Trail" For Tablets Ray Willington June 02, 2010 |
It just wouldn't be a proper Computex show without Intel, and now that the event is celebrating its 30th year, Intel is celebrating alongside of it with a bunch of new details surrounding their future product pipelines. The company took the wraps off of a few new chips, with highlights including a revised Atom family that comprises dual-core Pine Trail CPUs as well as "Oak Trail" processors that are optimized for tablets and sleek netbook form factors. But even Intel knows that while Tablet PCs are hot, they aren't everything. The notebook sector as a whole is continuing to boom, but one thing is clear: consumers want more power in less space, with style and design becoming more important than ever before. To address these issues, Intel has revealed their "Canoe Lake" platform, which is highlighted by a "futuristic dual-core netbook measuring in at 14 millimeters thick – the world's thinnest netbook." | 5 | The Fastest Mobile Networks 2010 Sascha Segan 06.03.2010 | It's a boom time for 3G. Where Americans were once happy with hotspots, now they're demanding to be connected anywhere—whether it's with their smartphones, iPads, or laptops. And 3G is beginning to turn into 4G, as wireless carriers start to install faster technologies that can match or beat many home Internet connections. There's more mobile data competition than ever before, and more people are surfing the Internet on the move. So PCMag.com decided to take a snapshot of America's mobile networks and see who's doing the best in 18 cities. Using more than a dozen staffers and freelancers with software of our own design, we cruised streets from Boise to Miami checking AT&T, Cricket, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint 3G, and Sprint 4G against each other. | 6 | 10 Things Android Does Better iPhone Paul Escallier 06/03/10 | When Android first debuted on the HTC Dream (also known as the G1) back in October of 2008, it was deemed an "iPhone Killer." While it didn't quite slay Apple's handset, it was the first step in a revolution against the tyrannous iPhone. The initial Android platform bested the iPhone OS on several levels, but lacked some key functionalities that the iPhone could provide. Since then, Android has grown - not only meeting all of the functionalities of the iPhone, but besting it in nearly all aspects from an extensive list of devices to a growing Android Marketplace. Here is our list of the top 10 things Android does better than the iPhone. 1: Android can Run Multiple Apps at the Same Time 2: Android Keeps Information Visible on Your Home Screen | 7 | Are Cameras the New Guns? Wendy McElroy Jun 2, 2010 | In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists. | 8 | Dual-Screen Tablet Maker Hopes to Reinvent the Textbook Priya Ganapati June 4, 2010 |
A new dual-screen tablet from California startup Kno aims to make electronic textbooks into a viable business. It’ll need some luck: Tech giants like Amazon and Apple haven’t yet cracked the e-textbook market, despite multiple attempts. "If you look at why e-textbooks have failed in the last ten years, the biggest problem is the size of the screen," says Osman Rashid, co-founder and CEO of Kno. "Textbooks won’t fit into a 10-inch or 12-inch screen so you have to scroll up and down and right and left." | 9 | iPhone 4: Now with Price Gouging! (Courtesy of AT&T) Josh Levy June 8, 2010 | Karl Bode and Stacey Higginbotham describe how AT&T made its change in pricing precisely because of the new iPhone's use of more data; users think twice before downloading a video, but get charged an arm and a leg once they do. Yay, the iPhone 4 is here. But today, instead of thinking about the latest version of the game-changing smartphone, I'm mourning the end of the era of the unlimited data plan. Last week AT&T announced a new tiered pricing model for data services for Apple's iPhone and iPad devices, which charges users $15 for 200 MB of data and $25 for 2 GB, plus an additional charge for tethering (more on that in a bit). While some think the new model will ultimately be good for consumers, others disagree. David Pogue, while having issues about the tethering, thinks the scheme is a "very delicate balancing act that benefits almost everyone, customers and AT&T alike." | 10 | Upgrade Exhaustion: Is The TV Industry Ripping Consumers Off? Ethan Siegel June 9, 2010 |
I am really excited to have the opportunity to write a column for Digital Trends. I love technology, with particular interest in home audio and video, and can write about it all day. I work for Orb Audio, an online speaker company, and while I do think Orb is awesome, I will save self-promotion for another day. For now, there is something I need to get off my chest. I think my industry has gone crazy! Absolutely off the cliff crazy. All of this talk about 3D TVs with Internet capabilities is exciting, but it overlooks the fact that consumers are being asked to replace not just TVs, but also receivers, HDMI cables and even DVD and Blu-ray players. Yes, the new specification for TV and HDMI is so different from the last one, that you can’t use a single thing in your current system, down to even the cables, if you want 3D and Internet capabilities. | |