Next iPhone to have no home button?

When Apple release iOS beta, we usually check the new features. But for some, they dive their nose into it and have a look around. It makes them feel more like home. Well, here we have again, rumours for Apple’s next iPhone. In the iOS codes, you’ll see ‘iPhone 3, 1’ which is the iPhone 4 that we all have right now, and there’s also the ‘iPhone 3, 2’ which is Verizon’s CDMA iPhone. But then there’s another ‘iPhone 3,3’ which means there’s another yet-to-be-revealed iPhone 4? This might be the white iPhone 4 that will never see the day of light.

In the codes there’s also two new-generation iPhones (4,1 and 4,2) and three new iPads (2,1; 2,2; and 2,3), which matches previous rumours of the 3 versions of iPad 2, which are GSM, CDMA, and WiFi-only models. There’s not much to know from here, besides a missing iPhone 4, three new models of iPad 2, and new iPhones using iOS 4.3.

However, BGR is claiming it’s heard from sources that the next iPhone / iPad models will eschew the physical home button altogether in lieu of the new multi-finger gestures and that employees at Cupertino are already testing such devices. Cool, at least in the future we don’t have to worry about iPhones with damaged home buttons.

[BGR via Engadget]

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BlackBerry Dakota to save the day of RIM?

RIM has been in a pinch lately. Their Playbook might be awesome but it’s not out yet. What’s more their smartphone market is dying fast being drowned by swarms of Android phones and mighty iPhones. Now the company is trying hard to revive its smartphone market, and that’s where the Dakota comes in. BlackBerry might be going touchscreen too this time around if this BGR report is true. Yes, it’s awkward to have QWERTY keyboard as well as a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen on the same phone but that’s probably what RIM is doing right now. Spec wise, there is quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device with tri-band UMTS. It also packs a 5 megapixel cam with HD video recording, 4GB of storage, plus 768MB of RAM. The phone will also have WiFi and be 3G hotspot-enabled, and it’ll run BlackBerry OS 6.1. There’s no mention when this will come out though, despite the phone looking rather neat.

SOURCE via BGR

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Freecom Mobile Drive Mg Portable HDD For Mac

When you’re selling a product that’s going to be related to Apple, chances are that your product won’t sell well if it’s not as aesthetic as Apple’s product. You’ve gotta have the show and the go. Luckily, Freecom Technologies are heading the correct way. Their latest portable hard drive designed specifically for mac users, called the Mobile Drive MG does indeed look very Mac to put up with your lucrative white Mac machine. It’s thin, like 10mm thin, and also features a lightweight magnesium enclosure which will be good news for MacBook users. Plastic is definitely a no-no over here at the Mac World. Great news is that it’s using a USB 3.0 connection with speed of up to 130MB/s, though bad news is that your Mac most probably doesn’t have USB 3.0 port, so you’ll still probably stuck at USB 2.0 speed.

The Mobile Drive Mg is currently available in three different versions including a 320GB capacity (w/ USB 3.0 interface) for 79.95 Euro (about $104), a 750GB capacity (w/ USB 3.0 interface) for 119.95 Euro (about $156) and a 750GB capacity (w/ USB 3.0 and FireWire 800 interfaces) for 129.95 Euro (about $169). P/S: That pen is not included.

SOURCE via Freecom

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Thrustmaster T500RS steering wheel unveiled, going for $599

Well, this is the thing that you need to buy if you want the nearest and most accurate experience of a real car racing circuits on GT5 feels, at least that’s what they want you to think. Thrustmaster has officially announced the full specs and price for its T500RS steering wheel and pedal set, otherwise known as the official driving simulator for Gran Turismo 5. Too bad Logitech, but you’re still awesome back then.

Anyway, the company says that the T500RS purportedly lets “users truly feel the emotions experienced by drivers on real racing circuits.” A contactless magnetic sensor system known as ‘HallEffect AccuRate Technology’ gives gamers sixteen-bit precision input that represents a significant upgrade over the twelve-bit version in the Ferrari Wireless GT Cockpit 430 Scuderia Edition.

Other features are like 1080 degree wheel rotation gives drivers a half-turn more than Logitech’s Driving Force GT though I’m not sure if that’s overdoing thing, and the system comes with fully adjustable pedals configurable for floor mounted (F1-style) and suspended (GT-style) positions.

Slated for a late December or mid-January release, depending on your location, the T500RS has a hefty list price of $599.99 MSRP, but that’s still a bargain if you want to know how a Bugatti Veyron and Zondas and Ferraris feels like in the ‘ring’, virtually of course.

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USD$920 for a Charger that Doubles as a Pair of Pants

Fancy a very bling pair of pants that also act has a mobile charger? I for one will immediately think of getting electrocuted by the pants, but that sounds quite kinky too. Fancy technology, especially those that are environmentally friendly always comes with a hefty price, and so does this charger. Usually we buy a charger for about MYR10 (USD 3), but what if you’re required to fork out USD 920 (MYR 2,850)?

The thing is a convenient and environmentally friendly solar powered charger. But it also doubles as a pair of pants. ? Made with Untrasuede material, the Urban Cargo Pant is ultra-soft, and easy to wash and dry. It comes with solar panel attached on the two side pockets of the pants, each with its own independent functioning power supply. Frankly speaking, although the pants may be made using some professional material and printed in the company’s exclusive Go graphic “cell” print, it just look like a pair of very shiny pajamas pants that you’ll wear out shopping, making you look rather ridiculous. But these days fashion is all about being ridiculous, so I guess there’s no harm in wearing this out. Hopefully you’re out in the sun long enough to charge something.

SOURCE via silvrlining

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Samsung to show off 4-inch Galaxy Player at CES?

The Galaxy S is there to have a fight with Apple’s iPhone though barely, and Samsung has their Galaxy Tab to take on Apple’s iPad, though the size is quite mismatched. Now the Korean electronics giant Samsung is ready to whip up an iPod Touch killer called the Galaxy Player (unconfirmed yet). The Android 2.2 PMP will be demoed at CES early next month, and features a 4-inch Super Clear LCD display with 800 x 480 resolution, Android 2.2 as the operating system (replete with Samsung’s own TouchWiz layer), a 1GHz CPU, 3.2 megapixel imager on the back plus a front-facing camera, and a 1200mAh battery. Android Market access is also in the cards.

SOURCE via Samsung

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Nvidia GTX560 coming in January

Nvidia’s GTX580 and GTX570 are already out in the market, so there’s no surprise that the next in line will be the GTX560. The GTX460 released back then was a key product for Nvidia, as it gives the green company an edge in fighting AMD. Power efficiency combined with excellent performance, which really gave AMD a hard time. Now we’ll be seeing the successor to this great product.

The GPU-Z screenshot here shows that the upcoming GTX560 will be based on the GF114 and will have 384 CUDA cores. It’ll be coming sometime in January. If you notice, GTX580 and GTX570 are based on the refined GF110 which is from the GF100. This GTX560 however will be based on the GF114 which is probably a follow-up of the GF104, which back then was a retuned GF110, so we should expect some slight difference in performance and design of the core.

The GTX560 will have 384 Stream Processor (SM) running at 820MHz for the GPU. That’s the full 16 SMs like the other GeForce 5-series products. There’s 1640MHz for the shaders and 4000MHz for the 1024MB GDDR5 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface. The GTX 560 name isn’t carved in stone and although partners are internally referred to it as the GTX 560, Nvidia didn’t officially announce the name and the card could easily become the GTX 570 SE for that matter.

Of course, these specs are what partners got from Nvidia. Unfortunately, the card is scheduled for January next year so we’ll have to wait a while before we can talk about concrete information. This will be a very exciting product, especially for FAM users. Will we see a 15,000PPD card here?

SOURCE via expreview

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Probably the most expensive customized Christmas tree out there.

This will only be appealing for those photography enthusiasts, and definitely the ‘coolest’ to them. This tree reminds me of the photo that we took at a photography session at a zoo, where all the lenses are placed on a table.

• Top: 8 D3/D3s/D3x camera bodies with 24-70 f/2.8 lenses
• Middle: 8 Canon 5D Mark II camera bodies with 70-200 f/2.8 L IS II and 300 f/2.8 L lenses, and 580 EX II speedlights
• Bottom: Two Canon 600 f/4 super-tele and three Nikon 200-400 f/4 Super-teles.
• Lighting: Arri Locaster LED lighting kit, Litepanels LEDs
• Ornaments: Gary Fong Lightsphere Diffuser
• By The Seventh Movement.

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LG to bring hugeass 72-inch 3D LCD HDTV to CES

LG announced that it’ll be bumping its smart TV lineup to kick-start 2011, and here we go with the 72-inch LZ9700, which the company calls it world’s largest commercial LED-backlit 3D LCD HDTV, and its bringing it over to Vegas next week.

The LZ9700 is capable of handling both 2D and 3D content and offering TruMotion 400Hz to smooth out Cam Newton’s faster-than-fast evasion techniques. As you’d expect, this set is also outfitted with the company’s Smart TV functions, giving owners access to TV apps, games, language classes, etc. The company’s also talking up its Magic Motion Remote Control, which probably wants to have a fight with Samsung’s RMC30C1 remote control.

SOURCE via Engadget German

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1,000 core processor plausible?

A team of researchers at the University of Glasgow led by Dr. Wim Vanderbauwhede announced that they have “effectively” developed a 1,000 core processor based on the technology field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). To do that, the researchers divvied up the millions of transistors in the FPGA into 1,000 mini-circuits that are each able to course their own instructions — which, while still a proof of concept, has already proven to be about twenty times faster than “modern computers” in some early tests.

Now what does Intel, the mighty chip mammoth has to say about this. Apparently the company says that the idea of a 1,000 core processor is “feasible”, as Intel’s Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC) is already able to pack a whopping 48 cores, and could “theoretically” scale up to 1,000.

He does note, however, that there are a number of other complicating factors that could limit the number of cores that are actually useful — namely, Amdahl’s law — but he says that Intel is “looking very hard at a range of applications that may indeed require that many cores.”

SOURCE via Dailymail

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