Palm Pre Being Assembled in Taiwan

Palm, Inc. designed its next smartphone, the Palm Pre, itself, but this company outsources all its device production. The OEM that will be manufacturing the first webOS-based smartphone is Chi Mei Communication Systems (CMCS).

Chi Mei isn’t as well-known as some of the other Taiwan-based smartphone makers, like HTC, Compal, and Inventec. It is best known for producing handsets for Motorola.

As mentioned earlier, the Palm Pre will be the first device to use Palm’s just-announced webOS. This will be a multi-tasking operating system able to wirelessly synchronize a wide variety of data with online services like Google and Facebook.

The Pre itself will feature a sliding keyboard as well as a multi-touch-capable 3.1-inch display. This device will also be equipped with 8 GB of on-board storage, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 3.0 megapixel camera with LED flash.

In the U.S. the Pre will be available first from Sprint, who will add its mobile broadband service EV-DO Rev. A. The GSM version for Europe and Latin America will have the 3G standard HSDPA. Palm has promised to release this device in the first half of this year, but has declined to be any more specific.

source [brighthand]

AT&T bringin’ sexy back, offering iPhone 3G at no-commitment price, no activation

Time to clear out some inventory, boys! AT&T, starting March 26th, is going to start offering the 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3Gs at a no-commitment price. These prices are $599 and $699 respectively. The good news is that you do not need to perform an activation/unbrick at the point of purchase, so you can buy the devices for your grandma, your best friend, or for half of China before you head back home.

There’s a limit of “one per line” which makes us think you’ll need an active AT&T line to purchase an iPhone (AT&T stores typically don’t sell you no-contract phones unless you provide them with an active line of yours), but the presentation also says that they basically have no way of tracking this. Still, at $599 and $699, are these going to move? Time will tell. Hit the jump for some more shots of the presentation we got a hold of!

source[boygeniusreport]

Apple Nehalem-based Mac Pro in-depth impressions

Engadget has just released their in-depth impressions of the Mac Pro:

“All in all, we’ve come to realize that this is a pro-level machine for a reason. It’s just marginally faster than much cheaper consumer-level rigs at doing consumer-level things, and it’s downright lousy at gaming. In fact, we had to force the resolution to 1,600 x 1,200 and turn anti-aliasing off entirely to get Call of Duty 4 to become playable. The newest Mac Pro has proven once again that it serves a clearly defined niche, and unless you’ll be firing up Aperture, Final Cut Pro or similar on a regular basis, you should probably pass. ‘Course, you could also slap that ATI card in here along with four 2TB HDDs to create a powerhouse that can’t be replicated in any other current Mac form, but we’d propose that it’s just not worth the cost. If you’re looking to game, there are far cheaper ways to do it. If you’re looking to handle web surfing and typical Office tasks, the same is true here. If you’re a pro looking to cut down those render times and give yourself lots of room for expansion, this might be your machine. We’d stop by an Apple store to give it a whirl first, though.”

For the complete read, hit the link below.

source[engadget]

Apple Mac Pro MB535LL/A Desktop

Video Stream of Apple's iPhone 3.0 Media Event

A QuickTime stream of Apple’s iPhone 3.0 media event has been posted. The event revealed a massive list of new features for developers and end-users.

The iPhone 3.0 software will be available to existing iPhone and iPod Touch users in the summer. Meanwhile, a beta version of the software is available to registered developers starting today.

TWC finally has my Tuning Adapter - My TiVo Celebrates

I got a letter today from Time Warner Cable, which gives a phone number that I should call within 60 days of receiving the letter. I guess if you forget and don’t call in the allotted time, your shit out of luck.

So I call and talk to someone who will remain nameless. He tells me the people who handle SDV tuning adapters are out to lunch:) and will call me back. I give him my number and they actually called me back 3 hours later. They said I was pretty high on the list of people getting this device sooner than later, and said they would call me within 2 days to set up a time to pick one up.

For those that don’t know what this tuning adapter is, I wrote about it back in February. The problem with my TiVo is that it uses CableCards that are not compatible with the new Switched Digital Video (“SDV”) which is something that TWC is turning to so they can cram more bandwidth down the pipe.

There are dozens of HD channels that they have switched over, so I’m unable to tune them in until I plug in this new tuning adapter.

Update on Monday, March 30, 2009 at 9:16PM by Jon Arnason

After a couple of visits by TWC technicians, my TA seems to be behaving itself.  It could be that the first one had a bad USB port on it, which kept telling my TiVo that a tuning adapter was just installed.  This would happen during show viewings, and that was getting quite bothersome.  So far so good today.

iPhone 3.0 adds Copy & Paste, MMS, global Spotlight search

source[appleinsider]

At the preview of the new iPhone 3.0 platform, Apple announced new features for users that include the ability to select text for copy and paste between applications, MMS, and scores of other new features.

New text editing features

Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president of iPhone software, demonstrated a new text selection feature that will allow users to select text by double tapping on a word. That action brings up a popup of copy, cut, and paste buttons, along with selection markers that users can drag to expand their text selection.

Once the selection is made, the buttons allow for usual copy, cut or paste features. The new feature works across any application, and adds undo support. Apple also demonstrated pasting multiple photos into Mail.

Apple is also adding a landscape, wide keyboard mode to other apps outside of Safari.

Multimedia Messaging

The current SMS app is also being updated into the Messaging app, with support for individual deletion of messages (rather than just clearing the entire conversation log), and support for MMS picture messaging, which is very popular in the UK and Europe. Users will also be able to text other mobile users their contact vCards, audio clips, geographic locations.

MMS is part of the 3G mobile networking specification and therefore will only work on the iPhone 3G, and only when it has 3G service. MMS also incurs additional messaging fees. Apple designed the original iPhone to use standard internet email for sending pictures, and has been awfully quiet about MMS while reviewers demanded it be added.

Apple will also be including a new application called Voice Memos, which uses the built in mic or mic-integrated headphones to record audio clips that can be edited and then sent to other users via MMS.

CalDAV Calender

The iPhone’s Calendar app is being updated to support the emerging CalDAV specification used by Apple’s iCal Server and the open source Darwin Calendar Server, as well as other third party calendaring products.

That will enable third parties an open mechanism for supporting mobile calendar features. The new Calendar also now works with subscribed .ics iCalendar feeds, which populate calendar events based on an RSS feed.

The 3.0 update will also add support for Note sync.

Spotlight search

The new Spotlight search feature can be used to quickly find and launch an app, or to search content. Mail includes search features for messages.

Other application features
The iPod app now supports “shake to shuffle” during playback, iTunes account creation. Apps in general get access to the iPod library, new audio video tags, live streaming of audio and video, and A2DP stereo Bluetooth headphone support.

YouTube gains support for subscriptions, accounts, and ratings. Safari gains support for encrypted profiles, anti-phishing flagging of suspect sites, and auto-fill forms.

The Stock app gains support for company new headlines and high and low tracking.
Phone gets call log support and OTA profiles. VPN on demand features have also been added.

The new iPhone 3.0 software will be available this summer, free to all iPhone users and $9.95 for iPod touch users. Certain features, including MMS, GPS, and A2DP Stereo Bluetooth, will only work on the iPhone 3G due to hardware features lacking on the original iPhone or iPod touch. The original iPod touch also lacks a built in mic input. A Developer Beta is available today, and Apple said it wants developers to get started with the new platform immediately.

Canon PowerShot SX200 IS Review

Digital Camera Resource just completed a thorough review of the new camera:

“The Canon PowerShot SX200 IS is a very capable and compact ultra zoom camera. It offers very good photo quality, a 28 - 336 mm lens, a nice combination of automatic and manual controls, a large LCD, and a HD movie mode. It’s not perfect though; it has a weak, slow-to-charge flash, battery life is below average, and you can’t zoom while recording a movie mode. Despite that, the PowerShot SX200 is a good choice for a travel camera, and it earns my recommendation.

It’s pretty obvious from the design of the PowerShot SX200 what camera it’s going after: the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5. The SX200 has a compact body (by ultra zoom standards, at least), made almost entirely of metal. The camera is a bit unusual in that its flash pops up automatically when the camera is turned on, not closing until it’s powered off. Thankfully, Canon designed the SX200 in such a way that the flash doesn’t block your fingers, so it’s easy to hold the camera. The flash is quite weak, however. Canon didn’t go overboard with controls, either — you can figure out the SX200 without having to read the manual first. The highlight of the camera is probably its F3.4-5.3, 12X optical zoom lens. The range of the lens is 28 - 336 mm, which should cover nearly any shooting situation that may come up in your travels. The SX200 has Canon’s optical image stabilization system, which effectively reduces blur in still photos, and “shake” in your videos. On the back of the camera is a sharp 3-inch LCD display, with very good outdoor and low light visibility. Like all of the compact ultra zooms, the SX200 does not have an optical or electronic viewfinder.”

For the complete review, hit the source link below.

source[dcresource]

Blu-ray releases for March 17, 2009

 Some of the titles coming out are:

• Bolt (Three-Disc Edition w/ Standard DVD + Digital Copy)
• The Princess Bride
• Punisher: War Zone
• Hit Man: David Foster And Friends (Amazon Exclusive)

The complete list on Amazon can be found here.

iPhone OS 3.0 preview event on Tuesday

Apple may be adding some of the iPhone’s most heavily requested software features — including multitasking the ability to copy and paste text — with the unveiling of the 3.0 update this week.

In a live episode of Diggnation recorded at Austin’s South by Southwest festival, Digg founder and show co-host Kevin Rose claimed to have “confirmation” that the feature would be a centerpiece of the new iPhone OS to be unveiled on Tuesday.

To select text, he said, users would double-tap on a word to bring up the iPhone’s magnifying glass and then extend the “quotes” to cover the necessary text and perform the relevant action, though it’s not known whether this would be limited to copying and pasting or would include cutting text outright.

source[appleinsider]

Updated Apple Mac Pro Benchmarks

Since more of the new Mac Pros have been delivered, it seems some of the early benchmarks underestimated the 2.26GHz Mac Pro’s performance in single threaded tasks. The latest numbers show that the new 2.26GHz 8-Core machines appear to have both single-threaded and multi-threaded performance equal to or better than the previous generation 2.8GHz 8-Core machines. Another set of benchmarks are also compiled in this graph by Tesselator.

Meanwhile, Engadget posted a nice video showing the internals of the Mac Pro including the new CPU and Memory drawer which can easily slide out of the chassis.

source[macrumors]