Latest Technology News

Verizon Wireless has a ton of pull in terms of a mobile device's presence in the US market. After all, look what it has done for Android. It wasn't until the Droid was revealed that a real explosion for Google's mobile OS took place.

Palm today announced its signature WebOS devices, as the Pre and the Pixi have been upgraded and dropped onto Verizon's network. The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus feature twice as much storage as their predecessors, Wi-Fi, out of the box support for Touchstone inductive charging, and of course, EV-DO rev. A 3G on Verizon's network.

Continue reading →

Microsoft's big theme coming out of 2009 was "Three Screens and a Cloud." Thanks to a few power outages punctuating yesterday evening's keynote, there were often more clouds than there were screens. But when the smoke and the steam cleared, it turned out there was one less screen than people were expecting -- in some respects, the biggest screen of all: the small screen.

I discussed the lack of progress on the Windows Mobile front earlier this afternoon with Contributing Analyst Carmi Levy.

Continue reading →

Consumers have displayed a preference for versatile smartphone platforms, and their growth in the last two years has been significant. Some experts subscribe to the belief that the mobile device market will eventually be made up of two things: Smartphones and Pay-as-you-go Voice/SMS burners.

Featurephones, in short, are going extinct.

Continue reading →

Amazon, Sony, and Barnes & Noble are now getting some intense new rivalry in the e-reader ring. With an entire section of the CES show floor devoted this year to e-readers, vendors demoing new entries in the category range from Samsung and Fujitsu to start-ups like Spring Design. Shiny new bells and whistles are on the way, too, including color LCD screens.

At Pepcom's Digital Experience press event last night, Samsung showed off new e-readers equipped with handwriting capabilities. As CES opens its doors to the public today, attendees visiting Samsung's booth will be able to try out Samsung's six-inch E-6 e-reader, priced at $399, and 10-inch E-100, priced at $699.

Continue reading →

Three things were missing from Microsoft's Consumer Electronics Show 2010 opening keynote: Vision. Vision. Vision. OK, that's one thing times three, but o-o-oh was it missing. What wasn't missing: Microsoft's investment in the past.

The keynote, featuring CEO Steve Ballmer and accompanied by Entertainment & Devices president Robbie Bach, trumpeted what Microsoft long ago called "better together" -- a term that may be as much relic at the company as the strategy should be. Who knows what term Microsoft now uses for the strategy, which is about making Product A better by connecting it to Product B, or C. Better together is a sensible marketing strategy, but from a product development perspective worked -- ah, better -- for Microsoft when it was a growth company.

Continue reading →

In mid-2009, Novatel launched its MiFi portable 3G hotspot on both Verizon and Sprint, but last night Sprint upped the ante with a dual-mode 3G/WiMAX portable hotspot from Sierra Wireless called the Overdrive.

The pocketable hotspot will cost $100 with a two-year, $60 per month Sprint contract. It is similar to the Novatel MiFi in function, but features a monochrome LCD operating panel, a micro-USB port, and a microSD slot which looks to be a promising bonus, as the device can act as a modem, router, and baby fileserver.

Continue reading →

Motorola is fully committed to the Android platform, so that means with an increased number of devices on the platform, there are bound to be some experimental and outlandish ones coming from Motorola in the near future.

One of those is going to be called the Motorola Backflip, which on first glance resembles the Cliq in overall size, shape, and UI. But the similarities end there. Without a doubt the most unusual Android handset to date: the Backflip is hinged like an inside-out clamshell, features a full QWERTY keyboard on the outside of the chassis, and has a touchscreen which features a trackpad on its back side.

Continue reading →

Its similarity to the Barnes & Noble Nook may have spurred a lawsuit, but that isn't stopping Spring Design from releasing its dual-screen e-reader to the public next month. The Android-based e-reader bears a remarkable resemblance to the Nook, but has a larger bottom screen with full Web browsing and virtual keyboard capabilities. Alex also features a variety of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, 3G GSM and EVDO/CDMA. But the device's $399 price point is $150 higher than its competitors, leading us to wonder how much traction it'll gain in the marketplace.

Alex goes on sale February 22 from Spring Design's Web site.

Continue reading →

A Hewlett-Packard spokesperson would only confirm to Betanews this morning that the unnamed 'slate' PC demonstrated by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during his keynote address to CES 2010 yesterday evening, was not a current entry in the TouchSmart series being demonstrated to consumers by HP at the show this week. Rather, it's a completely new product that will likely have a new brand and a special campaign, and its availability is only being slated for "this year."

With a number of other PCs being unveiled yesterday for near-immediate availability, including the convertible TouchSmart tm2 tablet/notebook (available January 17 at $949 MSRP), it would appear the earliest product cycle that the HP "slate" would make is the back-to-school timeframe. That would peg a product announcement for around August. Expect the price point to be premium.

Continue reading →

If you believe the forecast, there does not appear to be much hint of Windows Mobile in the air tonight at CES -- this even though Samsung was among the smartphone manufacturers demonstrating new commitments to WM6. Whether or not Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talks about it tonight, the topic on many people's minds when he's through will be Windows Mobile. Where's the momentum? Is there any momentum? "Wait until March" will be as good an answer as "No."

8:11pm PT: "When something like Project Natal comes along, it rips up your rulebook and throws it away."

Continue reading →

This spring, Cisco will launch trials with Verizon and France Telecom around HDTV-enabled videoconferencing, with commercial applications in health care, "family-to-family," and musical entertainment likely to follow starting in the second half of 2010, said Cisco CEO John Chambers, in a press conference at CES in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

In a series of demos, Chambers showed how Cisco's emerging TelePresence system can be used in both health care and remote communications between family members.

Continue reading →

February 17 had been the deadline for the US Federal Communications Commission to deliver a report to Congress specifying the details of its national broadband plan -- a proposal that would require new federal regulations, and potentially new legislation. But a spokesperson for FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell told Betanews Wednesday evening that Chairman Julius Genachowski had personally informed him the report would not make the deadline.

"I am disappointed that the FCC's broadband team is unable to deliver a national broadband plan to Congress by the statutorily mandated deadline," reads Comm. McDowell's statement this evening. "At the same time, I appreciate that Chairman Genachowski shared the news of his decision with me Tuesday afternoon. Once we receive a draft plan, I hope the document will reflect the benefit of the additional time being prepared to prepare it."

Continue reading →

In public policy, there's a concept known as the "Statue of Liberty ploy" (not to be confused with the Statue of Liberty play): Faced with any sort of budget cuts in a given area, officials say sorrowfully that they will be forced to shut down the Statue of Liberty, counting on the huge public outcry that ensues to restore funding.

We're seeing that now from AT&T, in its efforts to influence public policy.
First was its performance with the FCC at the end of the year, saying that in order to provide broadband access to everyone in the US, it would be forced to shut down the landline telephone network, regardless of the fact that millions of people still use it. We saw something similar in early December, where AT&T said that, due to its pesky iPhone users being so greedy, it would be forced to implement usage-based pricing if they didn't pace themselves.

Continue reading →

We've seen prototype wireless HDTV at both CES 2008 and CES 2009, but this year's upped the ante: It uses wireless power as well.

Haier America Digital Products Group demonstrated what it said was the first completely wireless television: a 32-inch LCD powered wirelessly from up to six or seven feet (according to the NBC Today Show's Al Roker, who got a demo of the device on this morning's program), and which received content via a wireless link from a Haier prototype Blu-ray player.

Continue reading →

Could Samsung be the next manufacturer with a Droid-quality smartphone on Android 2.1? And what are Samsung's plans to include Internet connectivity -- including a possible PC -- in its newest line of HDTVs? Betanews' Tim Conneally is on the scene with Samsung's press conference at CES 2010.

2:59pm PT: That concludes Samsung's presentation...and now it's off to Panasonic for us.

Continue reading →