Microsoft has released a lot of information about the new Xbox 360 UI and what features it will bring to the entertainment system as well as some juicy Windows Phone details. Check it all out inside!
Samsung manages to sneak a release of their newest tablet. Should be on the shelves within the next 6 weeks or so. Take a look at the specs inside and check out the pics!
A couple in Boston spends a little time, and even less money, making a few green living spaces in Boston, MA. Click to Read On.
Blogging is Dead would like to thank you, the readers for all of the support (and page views!) you've given us over the last couple month. It's time now that we open the doors to bigger opportunities.
We would like to introduce the new, paid site, TechCyb.org. This new site is available and live NOW and I would love for each and every one of you to check it out. This site will no longer be maintained and/or updated so make sure you check out TECHCYB.ORG to get the latest in tech news.
The HTC Radar 4G is finally making its way into T-Mobile stores. Pre-loaded with Mango, the HTC Radar 4G will come to T-Mobile on November 2 for $99.99 with a new 2 year contract.
The HTC Radar will be the first Windows Phone in the US to ship with Windows Mango installed. The deivce runs a 3.8-inch LCD touch screen on a 1-GHz Snapdragon processor. The rough dimensions are 4.7x2.4x0.4 inches and weighs about 4.8 ounces. It comes equipped with a 5-megapixel camera (with dedicated camera button) and 8GB of on-board storage. More thoughts after the break.
These specs may seem underwhelming, but it's clearly not supposed to blow people away. HTC's "Titan" will obviously be their flagship Windows Phone device this holiday. The Titan boasts a 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor and a 4.7-inch screen.
According to benchmarks on both phones, the Titan runs about 50% faster than the Radar, due to the 50% faster processor.
While T-Mobile's 4G isn't up to par with AT&T or Verizon it does offer the fastest HSPA+ 21 network. T-Mobile is still working with issues from the merger and is unable to launch true LTE 4G at this time.
At the Nokia World conference there was an interesting bit of technology being displayed. A new flexible prototype phone. The screen bends and twists which adds another layer to the control of the device. As with motion gestures, each bend and twist has a unique function, whether it be zooming, selecting, etc.
It is a new idea that has been toyed with but seeing a real life prototype makes it that much more appealing. There has been some mention of 2015 as some sort of hopeful deadline. We hope to see it sooner (and believe it can be done sooner).
Check out the hands on in the video below:
Feel free to leave your comments in the comment section below!
Here at Blogging Is Dead we strive to bring you the latest and greatest in tech news. That's why we will be staying up late tonight to make sure we bring you the latest from Nokia World 2011. Tune in to this blog post and make sure you refresh, updates will be streaming in starting at 3 am central and will be rolling for an hour or so. We will pick up again (on this same post!) tomorrow. All day. On the 27th we will come back with any updates we may have missed and make sure that every one of you stays up to date on the latest from Windows Phone and Nokia!
UPDATES::
- Things have kicked off here at Nokia World! Stay Tuned!
- Elop has stepped on stage, let the fun begin!
- Elop wants Nokia to be special, which brought about the Windows Phone connection.
- Nokia is the leader in open NFC.
- Nokia manufactures over 365 million phones a year and is going to be releasing four new phones now!
- Nokia Asha 200, Nokia Asha 201, Nokia Asha 300, Nokia Asha 303 have just been announced!
- Nokia is pushing to bring internet to the "next billion people"
- Asha 300 features a full QWERTY keyboard and 5MP Camera
- Asha 200 features dual SIM and full QWERTY keyboard w/ up to 32 GB of storage featuring the loudest speaker and longest battery life of its class
- Asha 201 also features a full QWERTY keybaord w/ up to 32 GB of storage featuring the loudest speaker and longest battery life of its class
- WhatsApp has been brought to these devices
- Nokia Asha 303 features a capacitative screen, full QWERTY keyboard, and Nokia Maps
- Series 40 phones (the 4 above) have partnered with Angry Birds
- All the above phones come with a Nokia cloud browser.
- The Nokia Lumia 800 has been announced!
- This phone is available in 3 colors
- Lumia is the "first real Windows phone"
- Apparently the Lumia 800 looks awesome. or else....
- The Lumia "defies convention"
- The Lumia 800 is a "uniquely Nokia experience", on the back is a Carl Zeiss camera, the front holds a curved, clear black, display.
- A little introduction on the basics of Windows Phone. Many people's first Windows Phone will be a Nokia. I could live with that!
- The Lumia 800 features a F2.2 Aperture Lens, "great" low light flash, works great under "normal" circumstances (no real specs on the camera!?)
- Some unique things that Nokia has brought to the Lumia 800:
-- Nokia Drive which will be free on the phone. The only Windows Phone with full turn by turn voice guidance.
-- Nokia Music (new service) and Mix Radio. Easy to use, music discovery app. Mix Radio is a locally relevant set of mixes that are pre set with full length tracks for free. No registering or logins. You can create your own mixes as well. You can fully download one of the mixes to your phone for offline play and pin them to your start screen.
-- Nokia is bringing an app with ESPN. The app brings all things ESPN to Windows Phone. This will only be available for Nokia phones.
- The announcement of the Nokia Lumia 800 was very... empty? Cool software additions, but what are the specs!?
- Nokia Lumia 710 just dropped, lower price point, available in multiple colors. 3.7" clear black display and still includes all of the additional software. Comes in black, white and can ship with more colors for the battery cover.
Lumia 800 (left) and Lumia 710 (right)
- Nokia announces public transportation app and an augmented reality app (perhaps similar to Google Goggles?)
- Nokia is the global leader in locally relevant content.
- Nokia partnered with Monster to release new headphones
- Nokia is aiming towards the 25 year old market. That's not surprising.
- The first launch of the 30 second television ad. "Experience the amazing everyday" That's the slogan that is going to sell these devices.
- Nokia dropped some new videos on YouTube (unrelated to the conference) Will be posting them soon!
- Here's the other advertisement that dropped.
- Nokia Lumia 710 and 800 are shipping out right now! These devices are coming to France, German, Italy, UK and a few other European countries in November. Hong Kong, India, Russia, Taiwan and others before the end of the year. 710 will be shipped to Asia before the end of the year. Both will be coming to the US in early 2012. LTE products will be delivered. 800 is about 420 Euros (about $585) and the 710 is about 200 Euros (about $280).
- Lumia 800 = 1.4Ghz processor with a dedicated GPU, 16GB of storage, and a class-leading Carl Zeiss camera, all capped off with a 3.7” “ClearBlack” display that offers beautiful colors and razor sharp picture. - Lumia 710 =It has the same processor and storage as the Nokia Lumia 800, and will be available in white and black with a number of different colored backs, including black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow.
Make sure you follow us on twitter to get the updates even faster!
Most of you know that Nokia World isn't being held until tomorrow but what we have here might be a bit more information than they were hoping to leak pre-conference. Thanks to WinRumors we have some pics and info on phones that will be released tomorrow. Make what you will out of the pics below, but don't jump to conclusions. This is still just a rumor and could very well be fake. Being released tomorrow should be the Nokia "Sea Ray" or Lumia 800 and the "Sabre" or Lumia 710. Both will run Windows Phone and both will more than likely be released in Europe first, where Nokia's foot hold is strongest. Many rumors point to an early 2012 release in the US but we still cross our fingers that tomorrow will bring different news.
Check out the additional pics of the devices below and let us know what you think in the comments!
On October 26 Nokia will be holding it's Nokia World conference in London. It's the moment a lot of Windows Phone fans have been waiting for as this could mean the release of several new Windows Phones made by Nokia.
Attending the conference will be several big names. Obviously Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, will be speaking alongside many other higher ups in Nokia's team. Aside from Nokia, Windows will have several big names from their Windows Phone team including Corporate Vice President, Joe Belfiore. Several other companies will have their upper level staff present as well, one of these companies being EA games.
This day is sure to bring us some much wanted information. We are looking at the release of what could be about 3 phones for the Windows Phone platform, the Nokia 800 or "SeaRay", a smaller version called "Sabre" and there's even chance that a more business focused device will be launched under the name "Ace".
Shots of the Nokia "Sea Ray" when it was shown by Stephen Elop.
Some news states that Windows Phones on Nokia hardware will not be available until 2012 but the conference should verify or deny this rumor.
Many people have been asking why Nokia is so significant to Windows Phone. Most everyone knows about their partnership to create new Windows Phones on Nokia's top of the line hardware, but many people are unaware of what kind of leverage this gives Nokia. Nokia now has the power to tinker with hardware and even software in the Windows Mobile devices they launch. Because they have a special partnership with Microsoft, Nokia has the ability to add their own software suites as well as create phones that don't exactly fall within the minimum specs that Microsoft has given to other OEMs. Nokia will be the only company that will be allowed to make these changes, thus giving them a lot of leverage when you're comparing a Nokia versus any other manufacturer.
All these rumors have us excited and should make you excited too if you plan on your next phone being a Windows Phone... phone.
It's no doubt that Steve Jobs was an inspiration to the tech community in every way. Many people may not realize it, or care to, but I (and I'm sure many others) would like to explain to you a little something.
Without Steve Jobs, advancement would have slowed, who else would take the risks? Without him, we wouldn't see the absolutely stunning mobile technology we have today, again, who would have taken the risks?
Steve Jobs was famous for being the risk taker, the one willing to fail if it meant taking another step further. At this time I feel that no matter what company you may stand behind, whether you like Apple's products or not, you must realize how much this man gave us.
One last note, Steve Jobs is/was the CEO of Pixar, inc. Many people were not aware of this and I feel it's important that this man represented art in many forms. Not just future technology.
You will be missed, Steve Jobs, be at peace.
You can read Apple's statement (and submit your own) HERE.
You can also see a little bit about what Bill Gates had to say HERE.
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)
Have you been looking at your Netflix and Hulu+ subscriptions wondering why nothing ever gets better? Why the selection of instant streaming is so few?
Well, according to Microsoft you may be getting exactly what you asked for (finally, right?).
Microsoft released a good bit of information today revealing how they intend to change the way we watch tv in a radical way. This could mean a lot for their stance in the current tech market, especially the phone market. They announced, today, that "nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO, Syfy, and Verizon FiOS" will begin providing live TV and video-on-demand services via the Xbox 360 in the next couple months.
This new experience will also be complimented by the new user interface that is being brought to the Xbox 360. This UI is called "Light UI" (Coming Spring 2012) and is heavily based on their Metro UI (found in Windows 8 and Windows Phones). They also strive to completely incorporate the Kinect system wide, which, with the UI changes, should make for a very sleek experience. Along with complete Kinect integration comes complete Windows Phone integration.
Kinect integration will bring system wide motion and voice control. The usual commands appear to apply, but it also looks like Bing will be used to search for content which can be done with a controller, keyboard, or your voice.
With the phone integration, you'll get far more control than you did in the previous Xbox applications. This application will be called the "Xbox Companion App" and serves as a multipurpose media remote for your 360. You can use the phone to find the content you wish to view on your 360. You'll have access to the same, full catalog that the Xbox 360 does. After finding the content you wish to view or download to your Xbox you can find more details about that content. As an example, if it's a movie, you'll get links for the actors that lead to more movies by that actor and so on and so forth. After you have selected what you would like to view you simply hit play and the content is displayed directly on your Xbox 360. The Windows Phone then turns into a media remote with video playback controls.
Xbox Companion App will be a free download for all existing Windows Phone owners and seems like it will be baked into new models. Some of the features can be seen about a minute into the above posted video.
Those who own a Windows Phone should be incredibly happy at this point because it looks like Microsoft has opened the door to their latest update a little bit more. Microsoft has stated that over half of all Windows Phone users will have their update available with everyone else receiving theirs after some more testing and feedback.
Redmond appears to be just as blown away as everyone at how smoothly the update has rolled out. Earlier this year the smaller NoDo update rolled out incredibly smooth but even that left something to be desired compared the ease this update has had out of the gates.
Like anything else tech related, users have figured out how to "cut in line" and get their update ahead of schedule. I won't go into it here but a quick Google search should yield some quick and painless methods that are completely safe.
Interestingly enough, Samsung managed to sneak in a release of a new tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. This tab will be available in 16GB and 32GB sizes. It uses a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU to run Android 3.2 Honeycomb. It also features a 7" LCD screen with a 1024x600 resolution. It does include a front and rear facing camera at 2 and 3 megapixels respectively and is able to shoot 720p video with the rear camera. It goes without saying that this will ship with Samsung's TouchWiz UI built right in to the tablet along with 1GB of RAM. It has all the usual connection options from WiFi, Bluetooth, EDGE, and 3G. It looks like the tab will release in Austria and Indonesia at the end of October with international releases being shortly after.
