Archive for July, 2010

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Sony bringing in foreign consumers with ‘Gamer Kits’

July 31st, 2010
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Recently, the fine folks at Sony Computer Entertainment America hosted their annual Destination PlayStation event with an outing in Cabo del Sol, Mexico this year for Latin America. Despite lagging sales of the now 10-year-old original PlayStation 2 home entertainment console, it is clear that Sony has no intent to pull the plug on the PS2. In fact, SCEA is looking to use their old to churn out gold gamers with their latest announcement for Central and South America.

Dubbed the “Gamer Kit”, Sony is using the PS2 and PSP systems to convert Latino Americans to the ‘PlayStation LifeStyle‘. Both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable “Gamer Kits” contain everything an aspiring gamer needs to get into the wonderful world of PlayStation. Who knows? Maybe the PS2 and PSP starter kits will serve as a gateway for adopters to dive into the PlayStation 3.

Launching next month in August, the PlayStation 2 gamer kit will come complete with a PS2 system, two DualShock 2 controllers, an 8MB Memory Card, and to top it all off, three of the best PS2 games available. Sticking true to its portable nature, the PSP on the other hand will come bundled with a PSP handheld device, travelers case, and a similarly chosen set of three titles. In any case, though, Sony is clearly focusing on getting the PlayStation attachment rate out there by granting more support in regions like Canada to even releasing the latest hardware in a more timely manner such as the PlayStation Move in India.

Source:http://playstationlifestyle.net/2010/07/30/sony-bringing-in-foreign-consumers-with-gamer-kits/

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Windows 7 tablets: just say no, Microsoft

July 31st, 2010
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Microsoft is busy at work on a new tablet computer design, a product that may arrive from one or more of its hardware partners in “not a heck of a long time,” CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts on Thursday.

With the early success of the Apple iPad–more than 3 million sales and counting–and a batch of Android tabletsscheduled to arrive by the end of the year, Microsoft is coming to the party late. True, Redmond has toyed with tablet PCs for years, including long-forgotten experiments such as the Toshiba Portege M205-S810 laptop/slate hybrid, but it’s still a no-show in the iPad era. This will soon change, however.

Desktop to Tablet

Unfortunately, Microsoft plans to retrofit Windows 7 to run on slates. While Win 7 is a fine operating system for conventional PCs, it was never designed for touch input, a shortcoming that makes it inherently clunky for the new breed of touchscreen tablets.

To be fair, Windows 7 does include Windows Touch, an interface overlay that allows you to use multitouch finger gestures–the flicks and taps familiar to smartphone users–on a Win 7 tablet. But touch input isn’t a particularly efficient way to navigate the Windows UI, which was designed for mice and keyboards.

The Windows Start button, desktop icons, and application menus were designed for the mouse and cursor, not the less-precise movements of the finger. I’m writing this blog post in Office 2007, and the ribbon interface above the text window is packed with feature options that are spaced too closely together for touch input, particularly on the relatively small (e.g. 10-inch) screens we’re likely to see on most Windows 7 tablets. Similarly, how well would touch work with a complex spreadsheet in Excel? Again, touch’s lack of precision isn’t a good match for much of today’s business software.

There’s always the option of an external keyboard for Windows 7 tablets, something akin to what iPad users have for iWork and other productivity apps. And Microsoft may very well introduce a modified version of Office exclusively for tablets.

But wouldn’t a mobile OS be a better fit for slates? Apple went that route with the iPad, which uses the iOS (iPhone OS)–built from the ground up for touch–rather than the Mac’s desktop-bound OS X. Google took a similar route: Android OS is designed especially for finger-friendly mobile devices.

There’s also the question of Windows 7’s power consumption on a tablet. Could a Windows tablet running a power-hungry desktop OS match the iPad’s 10-hour battery life? The verdict’s still out, but I suspect the answer isn’t pretty.

And then there’s speculation that last week’s agreement between Microsoft and chipmaker ARM may mean that Redmond still intends to build a tablet OS based on its Windows Phone 7 mobile software, a seemingly logical move that would mimic Apple’s and Google’s approach to slates.

Could that be Microsoft’s ultimate goal? Is Windows 7 an interim tablet OS, soon to be replaced by Windows Phone 7? I suspect that’s the case. After all, the desktop version of Windows has failed before in the tablet market. It’s likely to fail again.

Source:http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/202277/windows_7_tablets_just_say_no_microsoft.html?tk=hp_blg

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Apple magic trackpad: The beginning of the end for Mac OS X

July 30th, 2010
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The $69 Apple Magic Trackpad is nothing new. The Wacom Bamboo Touch has offered the same multi-touch functionality for almost a year. Its true relevance is in what it heralds: The end of Mac OS X as we know it.

Madness, some will scream. But it’s just the next logical step of the evolution. But before explaining why this is the beginning of the end of Apple’s desktop operating system as we know it, here’s the review:

The Apple Magic Trackpad review

The Apple Magic Trackpad is nice. It’s not magical, and it won’t convince laptop users looking for a desktop trackpad. But it will work as a mouse replacement for desktop users who are looking for a more comfortable alternative with multitouch support.

Installation is easy. After running the software—which you will have to download fromApple’s support servers—and turning it on, the aluminum slab comes alive, a green light blinking through its metal surface as it connects to your computer via Bluetooth. All in a few seconds.

It’s also easy to use and learn. In fact, if you have used a MacBook Pro or any laptop with a trackpad before this, there are not many secrets to discover. It’s just a larger trackpad—5.11 x 4.33 inches vs the 4 x 3 inches of the latest MacBook Pro 15—that supports multitouch, with two, three and four finger gestures. That means that you can, for example, move two fingers to pan around a large picture or web page. Or drag four fingers down to bring up Exposé, my favorite gesture.

Also like the MacBook, it “clicks” when you click—an effect achieved thanks to its little bottom feet—and the gesture behaviors can be customized using the trackpad preference panel:

The Magic Trackpad is comfortable, but not if you are looking for the laptop experience. Comfort is perhaps its most important advantage in relation to the mouse. It felt better and more natural after a day of intense use. This is caused by two factors: One, you can put it in any position you want next to the keyboard; two, the surface is at a small angle in relation to the table.

However, that’s its Achilles’ Heel for people who wanted to place it below the keyboard, like in a notebook computer. There’s a big advantage on this position: In a laptop, the trackpad is extremely easy and fast to access, requiring to sightly move the thumb or the hand. But this is not possible with the Magic Trackpad: If you try to put it below the keyboard, its height makes typing impossibly uncomfortable. Perhaps this may be possible with taller keyboards, but not with the low profile Apple keyboard.

But if you use on the side of the keyboard, the Apple Magic Trackpad feels natural and precise. It has quickly replaced my mouse with almost zero learning curve. For $69, however, its price may be too high to replace your current mouse. If you were looking to buy an expensive mouse—and you are not a gamer—it is certainly a possibility. Or perhaps you want to get the $49 Wacom Bamboo Touch instead, which is a little bit smaller (4.92 x 3.35 inches) and connects via USB, but supports the same multitouch gestures and includes some programmable side buttons (and for $30 more, Wacom has a pressure pen andmultitouch Bamboo).

Verdict

If you don’t mind the Apple’s styling price premium over Wacom’s plastic black slate, and don’t care about where your trackpad is located, you will be happy with this one. But if you are looking for the laptop experience on your desktop computer, pass.
Precise and comfortable for use on the side

Good aesthetic design

Not useful for fast laptop-style use

Expensive

The beginning of the metamorphosis

So if Apple’s Magic Trackpad is not really that good, why would does it mean the beginning of the end of Mac OS X as we know it? Because this is Steve and Co. way of telling us that the future is multitouch, and the mouse is death.

After the success of the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad, Apple has realized that theconsumer market is ready for a new user interface paradigm, centered around multitouch and the idea of fully database-driven modal operating system. The death of the desktop metaphor—that overcomplicated and stinking mass of hurt made out of a zillion folders and files—as we know it. It was good when the world ran on floppies and small hard drives, but it’s time to move on.

Apple wants to move everything to multitouch, iMacs, MacBooks, and Mac Pros. The problem is that they can’t do it like they did with the iPad. Perhaps the MacBook will see a hybrid touchscreen/keyboard design, but on the desktop this would be impossible.

The problem is the hardware. It’s too tiring to move your hands across a 24-inch or 27-inch display. The idea of a good swiveling stand that will allow the user to easily move the display down to a very low angle, so she can use it similarly to a Microsoft Surface, sounds good in a sci-fi kind of way. But at the end of a work day, your neck and arms will hurt. The angle will also limit readability and, in any case, you will obscure part of the screen with your arms.

One solution to this problem was proposed by the inventors of the 10/GUI operating system concept: A new desktop operating system that, while being fully multitouch based, doesn’t require you to touch the screen. In 10/GUI, a large, flat, multitouch trackpad replaces the cursor/mouse. This video explains the cons and the pros of each system:

It certainly won’t be like this, but I can see Apple implementing a similar input solution. It makes sense, and lines up with their current iOS strategy. There will be keyboards in the near future, and Apple’s Magic Trackpad will merge with it, perhaps like this:

How will it happen?

But not only the keyboard and the trackpad will merge. Mac OS X and iOS—which is a customized subset of Apple’s desktop operating system—will merge.

That doesn’t mean that your iMac will run like today’s iPad, but its interface will change completely. It will be a lot simpler, and multitouch based. Gone will be the Finder, gone will be the windows. The traditional computer desktop will be replaced into something streamlined, but not less powerful. Perhaps for some pro users, there will be a mosaic view to watch several apps at the same time, but eventually Apple will move everyone to a modal-based interface.

On the desktop, apps won’t lose its power: A professional user will be able to run Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and Final Cut Pro. Like today, they will run at full screen, and users will switch using Exposé—which has been a success for power users and many consumers alike (and, I have no doubt, will come to the iPad version of iOS 4). Side by side, the desktop computers will also run the lightweight apps available for the iPhone and iPad (of course, no Photoshop on the iPad, but perhaps Photoshop Lite in iPad 3).

This won’t happen in a day. It’s a multistep process and the magic trackpad is the first step. Here’s my prediction from now on:

• In a few months they will announce the Magic Trackpad as standard in the next iMac generation (optionally, people would be able to get the mouse).

• With multitouch everywhere, Apple will make possible to run iOS applications in Mac OS X 10.7. Developers will recompile for the x86, either creating fat binary apps that can be deployed in the iPhone, iPad and iMacs, or just have three versions like some do now for iPad and iPhone. This is easy for developers to do, since iOS is really a subset of Mac OS X and apps are completely isolated from hardware. The apps that depend on special features—like accelerator—will be adapted. And those Apple users with Magic Trackpads will run to buy them.

• In a couple of years, after iPad 3 and iPhone 6 start to take over MacBook sales in the consumer space, Apple will make the jump, making Mac OS X 10.8 fully multitouch driven, and selling this

with every computer.
I can’t wait for this future, which is already happening with the iPad at the low end. The desktop metaphor has had its run.

It’s time for change, and that’s why I welcome the Apple Magic Trackpad despite its failures.

Source:http://gizmodo.com/5598828/apple-magic-trackpad-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-mac-os-x?skyline=true&s=i

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New Apple MacBook pro is on sale! next generation laptop!

July 30th, 2010
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The new MacBook Pro features a precision unibody enclosure created from a single chunk of aluminum – a thin and lightweight mobile computing workhorse and a true engineering achievement The new MacBook Pro is less than 1 inch thin and just weighs 4.5 pounds, and it is highly durable. It includes a 13.3-inch, LED-backlit glass display (instead of an LCD panel), plus a glass trackpad that doesn’t include a button (for larger tracking area) that features Apple’s Multi-Touch technology.

Visually, the Macbook Pro 15 is not that much bigger than the Macbook Pro 13 but, you will *perceive* the 15.4″ Macbook as being significantly bigger than the 13.3″ on your lap. This is something to consider when choosing between both.

Apple has combined advanced NVIDIA integrated graphics technology with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. As a result, the 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro is faster than ever. MacBook Pro will keep you working longer without the power cords with a longer battery life of up to 10 hours.

MacbBook Pro is the most powerful 13-inch MacBook, with 4 GB of memory and a 250 GB hard drive now standard. It also comes pre-loaded with Apple’s Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system. THis operating system is custom-designed for the advanced technology inside (and it also comes with the iLife ‘09 suite of applications, including iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, and iTunes).

A New Standard for Performance and Portability

With the 1066 MHz frontside bus and 3 MB of shared L2 cache of the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, all your applications will run faster and more efficiently than you thought possible. The 13-inch MacBook Pro also features the new NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics processor with 48 processing cores–three times as many as before. This results in a huge difference when using 3D games and graphics-intensive applications. And when you’re not, you’ll benefit from a new energy-efficient architecture that uses up to 40 percent less power for everyday tasks like writing email and surfing the web.

The new MacBook Pro features advanced NVIDIA integrated graphics technology along with a quicker Intel Core 2 Duo processor. That makes for the ultimate combination of performance, portability, and battery life up to 10 hours – without adding an ounce to the slimmest, lightest MacBook Pro.

Unibody Design

Most of you are probably familiar with the Apple unibody design, which is carved from a solid bloc of aluminum. However, if you have not held a Macbook Pro in your hand, you might not know how ultra-rigid the unibody frame is. I tried the magnesium and carbon-fiber casing, and I can tell you that this feels much more solid. It gives a very reassuring feel when holding it.

Traditionally, laptops are made from multiple parts. With the MacBook Pro all of those parts with just one part-the breakthrough unibody enclosure. Every MacBook Pro starts its life as a single block of aluminum, which is precisely machined into the basic unibody design. Another pass and the unibody takes shape. Another, and the integrated keyboard emerges. When you pick up a new MacBook Pro, you immediately notice the entire enclosure is thinner and lighter. It feels strong and durable – perfect for life inside (and outside) your briefcase or backpack.

Battery up to 10 hours

The new energy-efficient architecture in every MacBook Pro, along with automatic graphics switching, gives you dramatically longer battery life. On a single charge, the battery in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro lasts up to 10 hours. You will get up to 1,000 full charge and discharge cycles – that’s nearly three times the lifespan of typical laptop batteries. Advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging allow the battery to maintain charging capabilities longer and determine the optimal way to charge the battery’s cells. Because the battery lasts up to five years, MacBook Pro uses just one battery in the same time a typical laptop uses three. That makes for less waste. And that, in turn, makes for one environmentally friendly battery.

Because Apple makes both the hardware and the software for the MacBook, they’re designed to work together to produce a smarter product that uses less electricity. The display is designed to dim when you enter a darkened room. To reduce energy consumption, the hard drive spins down automatically when inactive. MacBook also decides which processor–CPU or GPU–is best suited to efficiently perform a task.

LED-Backlit Display

LCD displays typically use cold cathode fluorescent lamps, or CCFLs, to create light and project a picture onto a screen, and this creates two problems–the lamps require more space and they take more time to warm up to full brightness. The MacBook Pro uses LED backlight technology to create the same amount of brightness in less space. Unlike fluorescent lamps, an LED backlight reaches maximum brightness instantly. Finally, a new, smaller iSight camera is concealed behind the display for quick access to video chats and snapping pics for uploading to social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter.

Additionally, conventional CCFL displays use mercury to create a backlight and arsenic to prevent irregularities in the glass. The LED-backlit display on the MacBook Pro, on the other hand, is both mercury- and arsenic-free. LED backlight technology also conserves energy: This display requires up to 30 percent less power than a CCFL display.

Apple MacBook Pro meets the stringent low power requirements set by the EPA, giving it ENERGY STAR qualification. ENERGY STAR 5.0 sets significantly higher efficiency limits for power supplies and aggressive limits for the computer’s typical annual power consumption.

Pre-Loaded with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and iLife ‘09
MacBook Pro gives you more options for high-performance graphics, starting with the new NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics processor in the 13-inch model. It’s up to 80 percent faster than the previous generation and is even more energy-efficient for everyday tasks like writing email and surfing the web.

The new energy-efficient architecture in the MacBook Pro, gives you dramatically longer battery life. On a single charge, the battery in the new 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro lasts up to 10 hours, and you will get up to 1,000 full charge and discharge cycles — that is nearly three times the lifespan of typical laptop batteries.

Apple MacBook Pro has an immaculate LED-backlit display with wide-angle viewing and a color gamut usually seen only on a desktop display. Whether you aree watching a movie or making one, you’ve got the perfect canvas. The ultrathin seamless glass enclosure makes the display strong and durable. And because it’s power efficient and free of mercury and arsenic, this display is greener than ever. Apple MacBook Pro has advanced Intel Core 2 Duo processors. It also comes standard with a large hard drive offering up to 250 or 320GB of storage capacity, so there’s plenty of room for your photo libraries, video projects, and files. And of course all MacBook Pros come standard with Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard Operating System and iLife.

Multi-Touch Trackpad
With no button on the durable glass trackpad, there’s more room to track and click. Without a separate button, the spacious trackpad gives your hands plenty of room to move on the large, silky glass surface. It also incorporates Multi-Touch gestures–including swipe, pinch, rotate, and four-finger swipe–and even more natural inertial scrolling–an intuitive way to scroll through large photo libraries, lengthy documents and long web sites. If you’re coming from a right-click world, you can right-click with two fingers or configure a right-click area on the trackpad.

The trackpads on the Macbook Pro line of product have to be the biggest trackpads out there. The best thing about them is that they use a glass surface, while most laptops have a plastic surface. The glass trackpad is very smooth and your fingers basically slide much more easily and comfortably than on a plastic pad. Also, Apple made it really big because there are many multi-touch gestures available – some on Windows too. There are no apparent buttons, but the whole surface can be clicked on (it is a real mechanical clic), and you can also set zones (like lower-right = right click). To conclude on the trackpad, Apple has implemented multi-touch, but also an inertial scrolling that makes the Macbook behave like an iPhone when scrolling up and down.

Technical Details of Apple MacBook Pro

• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

• 250 GB Hard Drive, 8x DVD/CD SuperDrive, 4GB DDR3 RAM

• 13.3 inch LED-backlit display, 1280-by-800 resolution

• NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256 MB of shared memory

• Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard Operating System

• Item Weight: 8.9 pounds

• Shipping Weight: 8.6 pounds

• ASIN: B003GSLU3E

• Item model number: MC374LL/A

• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2 in Computer & Accessories on Amazon.com

• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 13, 2010

• 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with edge-to-edge, uninterrupted glass (1280 x 800-pixel resolution).

• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo dual-core processor with 3 MB shared L2 cache for excellent multitasking

• NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256 MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory.

• 250 GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 RPM)

• 4 GB installed RAM (1066 MHz DDR3; supports up to 8 GB)

• 8x slot-loading SuperDrive with double-layer DVD support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

• Built-in iSight camera for video chatting

• Wi-Fi wireless networking (based on 802.11n specification; 802.11a/b/g compatible)

• Gigabit Ethernet wired networking (10/100/1000)

• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) for connecting with peripherals such as keyboards, mice and cell phones, including

iphones

• Two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port

• SD card slot

• Mini DisplayPort video output with optional adapters for DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI, and HDMI output

• Multi-Touch trackpad for precise cursor control with support for inertial scrolling, pinch, rotate, swipe, three-finger swipe,

four-finger swipe, tap, double-tap, and drag capabilities

• Full-size backlit keyboard

• Stereo speakers with subwoofers

• Dimensions: 12.78 x 8.94 x 0.95 inches (WxDxH)

• Up to 10 hours of battery life

• Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard

• Meets Energy Star 5.0 requirements

Source:http://www.taunews.com/new-apple-macbook-pro-is-on-sale-next-generation-laptop/551449/

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The latest buzz: a RIM tablet

July 30th, 2010
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Research In Motion  is working on a tablet computer – a device once thought to be mainly a vehicle for consumer entertainment, but is now of serious interest to the corporate world.

The Waterloo, Ont., smart-phone maker is planning to introduce a tablet in November, according to Bloomberg News. The device would be roughly the same size as the Apple iPad and would come with Wi-Fi capability, the news agency said, citing sources familiar with the company.

Deloitte technology analyst Duncan Stewart said in an interview on Friday that he has heard from several people close to the company that RIM is working on a tablet.

Industry speculation about a RIM tablet increased recently after online technology blogs reported the company had purchased the domain name “blackpad.com.” Previously, the buzz was that RIM would opt for an “in-between” device, larger than a traditional smart phone but smaller than the iPad.

RIM’s foray into the tablet market – where it would have to compete not only with Apple but also with software manufacturers such as Google and hardware manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard – comes at a time when views and expectations about such mobile devices are changing.

Mr. Stewart said that he initially believed next-generation tablets such as the iPad would sell in sizable numbers, but mainly in the consumer segment. At first, Apple positioned its iPad as a consumer device, with a secondary emphasis on its usefulness as a business productivity tool. But in the company’s most recent quarterly earnings conference call, Apple executives noted that half the Fortune 100 companies are currently either using or testing iPads.

“We are hearing about hospitals looking at [the iPad], universities looking at it, companies using it in their retail kiosks,” Mr. Stewart noted.

“Our view now is that in three or four years, the tablet market will be 30- to 40-per-cent enterprise.”

If that prediction proves true, RIM may be able to leverage its significant advantage in the enterprise smart-phone market to make a tablet product work.

For example, consumers might not be overly interested in how secure their tablet communications are, but hospitals would be. Thus, RIM may be able to lure customers with the network architecture that makes its BlackBerry phones such secure devices, especially when coupled with RIM’s proprietary “push” technology that delivers messages from one device to another much faster than many competitors.

“[A RIM tablet] will almost certainly support [Adobe’s Flash technology for multimedia], it will almost certainly support multitasking,” Mr. Stewart said. “If you look at the four things that drive people nuts about the iPad, it addresses those four things.”

If RIM introduces a tablet in the fall, the rest of 2010 would mark perhaps the most important product-development years in the company’s history. Next Tuesday, the company is widely expected to unveil its newest BlackBerry and the latest version of its mobile operating system. Both have been reworked to appeal to the consumer market.

The new products come as RIM posts significant growth in its traditional phone business. A research report released Thursday by International Data Corp. showed RIM’s phone shipments growing 40 per cent in the second quarter of 2010, compared with the same period a year earlier – the biggest year-over-year percentage growth of the world’s top-five mobile phone-makers.

Whether RIM can maintain that growth in the smart-phone market while simultaneously competing in a new category of mobile devices remains to be seen.

“Apple will almost certainly have a large share [of the tablet market] by 2014, but it is unlikely to have more than half, which leaves a lot of a big market for everyone else,” Mr. Stewart noted.

“From the hardware manufacturers’ side, RIM stands as decent a shot as anyone else.”

RIM (RIM)

Close: $59.15, up $1.47

Source:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/the-latest-buzz-a-rim-tablet/article1658008/

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Dell reduces roughly 30 employees in nebraska office

July 30th, 2010
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Computer-maker Dell has laid off 28 employees in its Lincoln, Nebraska office, according to a news report by The Lincoln Journal Star. Dell would not confirm the number of employees, but Dell employees contacted by the Journal Star confirmed the number at 28 on July 27.

The layoffs appear to be part of workforce reduction effort as Dell assumes the assets and businesses owned by Perot Systems, an IT services company Dell purchased in 2009 for $4 billion. The interesting issue here is whether Dell, a traditional consumer play in pc hardware, can be a good services company with its Perot acquisition. It certainly opens up more in the enterprise space to sell servers, but can it be a competitive consulting and professional services company? Can it play ball with the big boys of EDS/HP, Microsoft and IBM? Time will tell.

One thing is for sure: The company is not letting go of its consumer focus yet. In April, word got out that Dell was going deeper in to the smartphone device market and some think it’s a smart play. I’m kind of feeling the market is crowded, but you can’t blame a company like Dell for going after an emerging space. If you want to be able to bundle hardware and services together in the enterprise, it will not hurt to get users accustomed to a Dell smartphone sooner rather than later.

In June, the company delved in to some of the details of that device play.

But as far as Lincoln office, here’s the skinny (from the Journal Star):

As recently as February, the company said it had 900 people working in Lincoln and was hiring 150 engineers and network technicians to complete outfitting of its operations in Lincoln.
Those positions were supposed to be paid an average salary of $50,000.

“The recent addition of Dell Services’ Infrastructure Solutions division to our Lincoln team created an overall increase of our workforce in Lincoln,” Dekelbaum said in the e-mail. “Lincoln remains a key component of Dell Services’ global operations.”

Maybe those second quarter earnings due next month will look better with some shaved off headcount from the IT services division? Probably.

Source:http://blogs.eweek.com/careers/content001/firing/dell_reduces_roughly_30_employees_in_nebraska_office.html

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Samsung galaxy tab android OS tablet appears in another leaked image

July 30th, 2010
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Another image of Samsung’s upcoming Android OS-based tablet has leaked out, giving a better sense of the scale of this device.
Unconfirmed reports say the Galaxy S Tab is going to have a 7-inch display, making it smaller than some of its rivals. The Apple iPad, for instance, has a 10-inch touchscreen.

This diminutive size is clearly shown in the picture of this device that was posted on Twitter.

An earlier leaked image gives a better look at the details of this tablet’s hardware.

Preliminary Overview of the Samsung Galaxy S Tab

A high-level Samsung executive has confirmed in June that his company is working on a tablet computer running Google’s operating system.

This 7-inch device is scheduled to be on the marker by the end of September.

In addition to these official remarks, other details on it have been leaking out through unofficial channels for months.

The Samsung Galaxy S Tab will supposedly have a Super AMOLED display, the same screen technology used in this company’s Galaxy S line of smartphones. Samsung claims Super AMOLED is brighter and less reflective than other display technologies, reducing the sunshine glare effect that plagues LCDs.

Unconfirmed reports say that it is going to debut running Android OS 2.2. This version of Google’s operating system will make WVGA (800 x 680) its maximum screen resolution.

The Galaxy S Tab will allegedly be based on a 1.2GHz A8 processor, and have 16GB of internal memory, with total storage expandable to 48GB through a microSD slot.

It will supposedly weigh in at 13 oz. (370g), with a noticeable percentage of this weight coming from a 4,000 mAh battery.

Source:http://www.tabletpcreview.com/default.asp?newsID=1549 news=Google+Android+OS+Samsung+Galaxy+S+Tab+Tablet+Slate

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