Pantech Vega Xpress comes with DDR2 memory, extravagant performance claims

My previous PC had an Intel 400 MHz processor and 128MB of DDR RAM. How far has technology come since than! With 1GHz Dual core smartphones and now DDR2 RAM for smartphones. Pantech's bringing a new wrinkle to the mobile hardware space with its newly announced Vega Xpress handset. This 4-inch Android 2.2 robot will come equipped with an unspecified amount of DDR2 RAM -- yes, the stuff that usually goes into x86 laptop and desktop computers -- which Pantech will have you believe is going to blow the competition out of the proverbial water. The company claims the new phone doubles 3D graphics performance relative to its previous best, while power efficiency is also said to be two to three times better. Other specs include a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, 802.11n WiFi, an 800 x 480 resolution, and a 1500mAh battery.Hit read more for more pictures.

CADILLAC READYING SRX-BASED PLUG-IN HYBRID

Fresh on the heels of General Motors’ release of the Volt range-extended hybrid, a new report suggests that the automaker is looking to continue its range of hybrid-based offerings by creating a plug-in variant of the SRX crossover. Hit read more for details.

HTC Wildfire gets official Froyo update

Happy holidays, Wildfire owners -- here's your gift! Seems HTC has started pushing over-the-air Android 2.2 updates to its low-end Wildfire on networks around the globe in the past few days, giving you a final build number of 2.22.405.1 by the time everything is said and done. All the usual Froyo features apply, presumably.

Photos : 2015 LOTUS ELISE

Hit read more for more pictures.

THE NEW VOICE OF CADILLAC: LAURENCE FISHBURNE

Forgive me for side stepping a little from out regular tech news but this is for all the tech enthusiasts out there who are also absolute The Matrix fans. Celebrity spokespeople are nothing new, but the industry certain has seen a rash of new “official voice of…” announcements recently. The latest? Laurence Fishburne, perhaps best known for playing the distinctive role of Morpheus in the Matrix trilogy, will now serve as the official voice of Cadillac. Hit read more for details.

Video : Android sneaks into iPad App Advertisement

Watch the video carefully and look for an Android hiding in the mob!

NISSAN’S NEW SUNNY SEDAN DEBUTS

The rugged four-door sedan is set to go on sale next month in China before it will eventually reach 170 markets under various different nameplates. In some markets, it will replace an outgoing Sunny or Versa sedan, while other markets will see it complement the older model as a more premium offering. Hit read more for details and a photo gallery.

AT&T, Verizon, RIM get serious about security for mobile devices

As commonplace as smartphones have become, it's about time that carriers and manufacturers start getting serious about mobile security. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Verizon is currently working with Lookout, a San Francisco-based company known for remote backup and geolocation apps for BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Mobile devices, while RIM has recently announced a little something called BlackBerry Protect, which promises to lock or even wipe a misplaced phone, pinpoint the thing on a map, and make regularly-scheduled wireless backups. Hit read more for details.

Samsung sells 9.3 million Galaxy S devices, within reaching distance of its lofty goal

With just over a week left in the calendar year, the Korean giant has racked up 9.3 million sales of its Android superphone globally and actually expects to sneak past the mythical 10 million mark just before the champagne glasses start clinking. The Galaxy S has also scored a win in its home market of South Korea, where its two million units sold so far leads the 1.8 million iPhones sold since the series debuted in November 2009.

Gmail's free voice calls will be available through all of 2011, still only in the US

While the rest of the world has yet to taste the sweet elixir of free voice calls from its email supplier, US-based Gmailers are having their fun extended for a whole new year. Back in August, Google made it possible to dial up voice numbers in the US and Canada for free from anywhere in the world, and now, in the true holiday spirit of keeping users happy and advertising dollars flowing, Google promises to keep that service free through all of 2011. 

Nexus S gets its first update over the air

We don't know what it fixes yet, but we've gotten some tips -- and we're now seeing it on xda-developers -- that Nexus S handsets in the field are getting blessed with their first software update, build GRH78 (up from GRH55) with an official version of 2.3.1. Not everyone has it yet (we don't on ours), so as usual, this would seem to be getting sent out on a rolling basis. 

Update: The full text of the update is "This system update from Google contains important bug fixes plus the latest version of Maps." It's 1.9MB -- so yeah, don't expect much!

Update 2: By the way, it appears that the "checkin" trick is actually working to force this update (it usually doesn't). Just dial *#*#checkin#*#* from the dialer and you should get the update notification. Have fun!

TOYOTA UNVEILS REVISED VITZ (YARIS) 2011 (Photo gallery)

Toyota has unveiled a revised version of its Vitz hatchback. Better known as the Yaris in North America, it is likely that we will see the updated car on our shores in the near future. hit read more for details.

Video : Google Sends The Nexus S On A Mission To Space - Literally

Google obviously has some grand ambitions for Android, its mobile OS that is now being activated on 300,000 devices per day and has a forthcoming release called Honeycomb that will take on the iPad. But even that isn’t enough — now Google wants to bring the green robot to an entirely new market: the final frontier (read outer space). Hit read more for details and videos taken from the phones from above the planet.

Pakistani IT firm's Smartphone App ranks number one in the world!

Khaleej times reports that Photo editing software developed by a Pakistan technology firm Five Rivers became the best selling paid-for application for the Blackberry, the firm said on Wednesday.

Lahore-based Five Rivers said its Photo Editor Suite had hit the top spot across all sectors on Blackberry’s AppWorld store.

Hit Read more for details.

Apple looking to patent sharable apps, considers calling them 'seeds'

The fine folks at Patently Apple recently unearthed an Apple patent app that describes a way to transfer apps over peer-to-peer Bluetooth or shiny, star-filled WiFi. The idea goes that if a company wants to spread a program by word of mouth, it might as well make it shareable too, and so the owner of an app could transfer an "application seed" to friends and associates with a similar device. You'd pick from a menu of apps to beam over, where only those greenlit by their developer would be available to send, and your recipient would receive a trial version -- or somewhat less excitingly, a link to the App Store -- over the air. Hit read more for details.

Net Neutrality - What is this controversy all about?

One debate that in developed economies is quickly gaining pace and is getting increasingly important for the rest of the world is the debate on net neutrality. This topic will be heard increasingly over technology blogs and will spill over into the mainstream news as the end users start getting affected. The decisions made by the big internet providers of the world and the regulators will in turn effect all the internet users of the world  whether they reside in developed or underdeveloped economies (like ours) because if this ends up wrong, it has the potential to create essentially two different sides completely separate from one another. Hit read more for the complete article.

Word Lens augmented reality app instantly translates whatever you point it at

Augmented reality and optical character recognition have just come into their own, beautifully intertwined into an instant translation app for the iPhone. Download Word Lens, pay $4.99 for a language pack, then point it at a sign and watch as it replaces every word with one in your native tongue. It's a little bit like Pleco, but without the whole language learning stuff. We just gave it a spin, and while it's not quite as accurate as this video claims, it's still breathtaking to behold -- especially as it doesn't require an internet connection to do any lookup. Sadly, it only translates to and from English and Spanish for now.

Another Key Feature Of Google +1: Massive-Scale Social Video Conferencing

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been able to dig up a bunch of details about Google’s secret forthcoming social service. The service, previously codenamed “Emerald Sea” but currently being called “+1“, essentially seems to be a toolbar that exists along the top of Google’s various properties to allow for easy sharing. 

But there’s also quite a bit more to it, based on what we’ve been hearing. For one thing, we’ve been hearing a bit of talk about specific mobile applications, which may or may not be called “Loop” — after one of the key features of +1 (think: groups). But another feature of +1 is apparently large-scale video conferencing. Hit read more for details.

Google Takes Another Big Step to Retain Employees: Autonomous Business Units

There’s a lie that companies and entrepreneurs tell themselves in order to commit to an acquisition.

Oh, we’re not going to change anything! We’re just going to give you more resources to do what you’ve been doing even better!

Yeah! They bought us for a reason, why would they ruin things?

It usually works for a little while, but big company bureaucracy– whether it’s HR, politics or just endless meetings– almost always creeps in. It’s a law of nature: Big companies just need certain processes to run and entrepreneurs hate those processes because they stifle nimble innovation.

Google has a new policy to fight it, according to several sources close to the company. Hit read more for details.

Nokia To Adopt Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 !?

Hold on to your seats everyone. According to well known Nokia prognosticator/troll Eldar Murtazin from mobile-review.com, Nokia is in talks with Microsoft to bring WP7 to their handsets, ending the long, worldwide Symbian nightmare. The translated post on Mobile-Review doesn’t say much, but generally it notes that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has been talking to Microsoft for the past few months about launching a WP7 handset. This would, in short, meld Nokia’s excellent skills as a handset manufacturer with Microsoft’s excellent skills as a 7000 pound gorilla. Hit read more for the exact words!

Nicely done Motorola! - 'Tablet Evolution' video teases some Honeycomb at CES

It's on, suckers. Just like 2010 was the year you saw Android take over the world (so to speak) 2011 - excitingly enough - is turning out to be the year for tablets! Motorola just sent us this "Tablet Evolution" teaser video for their CES 2011 announcements, and it doesn't mince any words -- it calls the iPad a "giant iPhone" and says the Samsung Galaxy Tab is running Android "for a phone" before closing out with a buzzing bee over that new red Motorola logo. That certainly suggests some Honeycomb action to us -- and it fits perfectly with Andy Rubin demonstrating the next-gen version of Android on a Motorola tablet back at D: Dive Into Mobile. You know, the tablet that's since leaked out with a Verizon logo on it. Yeah, we're ready for this to go down -- and you know we'll keep you updated!

BMW uses bright lights, "SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES" to sell motorcycles (video)

The BMW S1000R is fast enough and sexy enough to sell itself, and you'd think a commercial showing World Superbike rider Ruben Xaus flogging one around the track would be quite enough to get people inclined to buy the things. Not enough for BMW. The company used the optical illusion of afterimage to temporarily imprint "BMW" onto the retinas of theater-goers. Behind the screen was a giant cut-out backed by an even bigger light (a Profoto Pro-7B, we're told). It flashed for an instant during the commercial and, while all the spectators noticed was a quick pop, when they were asked to close their eyes they saw the logo hovering in their vision. Subliminal? Possibly. Illegal? Maybe. Ingenious? Absolutely. 

Regio Smart Toilet is self-cleaning, music playing, and definitely overkill

So, this is what the future looks like: the Regio Smart Toilet by INAX combines a bidet and a self-cleaning toilet with such features as automatic flushing and deodorizing, an automatic seat and lid, and dual flush modes, with a throne-side media player that supports an SD card reader for custom audio playlists. We just hope that this comes pre-loaded with "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" by The Gap Band. Available in black or white at Crescent Supply in Lawrenceville and select retailers worldwide -- hit the source link to get one for yourself. Hit read more for a video!

YouTube moves solidly into the future by supporting 4K content

You didn't expect the High definition video spectrum to come to a halt after 1080p, did you? Say hello to 4k! Hit read more for details.

Nokia to revamp Symbian UI, ship dual-core phones in 2011

We don't have any hard details yet, but Computerworld reports that Nokia's planning a busy 2011, with four to five updates to the Symbian UI on tap, as well as dual-core phones. Hit read more for details about Nokia's 2011 plans.

Android Founder Andy Rubin's full D: Dive Into Mobile interview video posted

This is a really interesting interview of Andy Rubin the father of Android! He mentions how it would be impossible for him to keep Android running if Google hadn't bought his company. He also mentions the future direction of Android and shows some prototype devices! When you have time do check it out! Hit the source link to find the full video!

LG Optimus 2X: first dual-core smartphone launches with Android, 4-inch display, 1080p video recording

That's right, it's official.  At the phone's heart beats a dual-core Tegra 2 processor running at 1GHz, the first such configuration to be officially announced by any smartphone manufacturer (though we're expecting others any day now). In case you're wondering how such power might be used, well, for starters, you've got both full 1080p TV-out via HDMI and video capture through an 8 megapixel primary camera paired with a 1.3 megapixel cam up front for face-to-face calling. Hit read more for details.

Oxygen Audio debuts O'Car, O'Dock iPhone car docking accessories

Looking for a bit more integration than your usual iPhone car dock or FM transmitter can provide? Then you might want to consider Oxygen Audio's new O'Car head unit, which packs a swiveling iPhone dock that's considerably discreet than some other similar units out there. It's also, of course, a full-fledged car radio, and it packs a 4x55W amp that Oxygen says delivers "perfect quality sound" to your car's speakers. If that's all a bit too much for you, however, Oxygen has also announced the decidedly more standard-looking O'Dock unit that simply mounts on your dash or windshield -- check it out after the break. Unfortunately, there's still no word on pricing or availability for either unit, but we're assuming those details will be made available at CES next month.

JEEP UNVEILS GRAND CHEROKEE INSPIRED 2011 COMPASS

Jeep has officially unveiled its revised 2011 Compass model. As expected, the new Compass sports styling borrowed from the larger Grand Cherokee and the line’s first ‘Trail Rated’ model. Hit read more for details and more pictures.

MURCIELAGO-REPLACING LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR

According to the latest info, the car was described simply as the LP700-4, following the naming structure of the Gallardo and Murcielago lines. The car was initially rumored to be called Jota, but the latest information suggests the “Aventador” name will be used for production.

Whatever the name, the new model will come equipped with Lamborghini’s new 6.5L V12 backed by an Independent Shifting Rod transmission. The new twelve-cylinder develops 700 horsepower and 508 lb-ft of torque, which should be good for a 0-60 time of 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 219mph. Hit read more for details and videos.

Google Unveils Chrome for a cause!

Google is clearly not aware of how many tabs we have open right now. 

Check the source link for an extension that will allow you to donate to a charity of your choice based on how many tabs you open each day. Every tab you open this December 15 through 19 will serve a good cause.


Source : Chrome For a Cause


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Preview : 2012 Honda Civic!

Honda announced on Monday that a concept version of its 2012 Civic will be making an appearance at next month’s Detroit Auto Show. Although technically a concept, the show car will indicating the styling of the next-generation compact. Hit read more for details.

Google Parent Tech Support!

How Google can find ways to make everyday problems vanish is anyone's guess. Here's another rabbit it's pulled out of its hat that will definitely be a blessing to many!