Mobile workstations are an exemplary study of engineering. They stuff the latest technology and mounds of features into a chassis not much larger than your “lowly” consumer PC. Often the chassis themselves are designed with more robust materials, great heat dissipation capacity, and of course room for the plethora of ports and expansion cards you’ll usually find in a workstation. HP, Dell, and Lenovo are the biggest players in the mobile workstation market and all are extremely competitive in both the 15-inch and 17-inch form factors.

Dell’s Precision M4600 is a stout contender, with its mil-spec resistance to the elements and aluminum-magnesium alloy chassis. Of course you have the latest Intel Sandy Bridge platform, with Core i5 processors coming standard. A standout spec that you won’t find in consumer notebooks is the inclusion of four DIMM slots, compared to the two one usually gets. This allows for a maximum of 32GB of DDR3 RAM, if you were to spring for the pricey 8GB modules that are now available.

Of course it wouldn’t be a true mobile workstation without some serious graphics horsepower, which is there AMD and NVIDIA come to the rescue. While an AMD FirePro M5950 Mobility Pro 1GB card is standard, right now Dell is offering a free upgrade to NVIDIA’s Quadro 1000M graphics card. Graphics drivers are of course ISV certified, for ultimate reliability and ensuring your rendering software doesn’t crash on hour 3 of 5 in a major render project. Dell also sees fit to offer a premium IPS display, with 100% Adobe color gamut support and 1080p resolution.

Perhaps the final cherry on top of this complicated beast is the standard 3 year onsite warranty Dell includes with all M4600 models. You can snag one with a Core i5 and the free NVIDIA upgrade starting at just $1199 or a well equipped Core i7 model rings up at $1999. These may seem like big numbers, but these machines would put most consumer notebooks to shame and effortlessly power through heavy workloads for years to come.

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Google’s Chromebooks are different from traditional laptops in a number of ways. For starters, they all run the company’s speedy, browser-centric Chrome OS. They’re also tightly integrated with Google’s numerous cloud services like Gmail and Google Docs — and that cloud focus is one reason Chromebooks include solid state drives with comparatively small capacities.

That shouldn’t be a problem, of course, if you’re storing files in the cloud the way Google thinks you should if you’re using a Chromebook. Still, with an in-built media player and photo viewer, there’s a decent chance that you might want to load a movie or two, some music, and some of your favorite photos onto your Samsung Series 5 or Acer AC700. If you do, you’d better make sure that you log into your Chromebook on a regular basis.

Why? Because a recent change in the Chrome OS file manager has introduced a warning that might be a little disconcerting. If your system is running low on free storage space, Chrome OS can automatically delete files to make room.

In the Chrome OS help files it states, “Your browsing data is automatically deleted if your Chromebook is running low on space.” That’s not such a big deal since those files would typically consist of locally cached web page elements like HTML, .JPG, .PNG, and Flash videos. However, Chrome OS will also delete non-owner profiles that have gone unused for three months if space is really tight — and that includes any downloaded files.

Now, chances are good that if you use a Chromebook enough to load files onto its hard drive that you’re probably going to use it more than once a quarter — and if your account is locked in as the owner, your files are safe, too. However, in a business setting this could definitely cause some headaches.

It’s safe to assume that in any enterprise setting where Chromebooks might be rolled out and shared among users, that files are supposed to be stored in the cloud. However, there’s always a user or two that stores something important locally, and those files could wind up getting purged silently during an update if a Chromebook has been shuffled to another user.

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While the market is already flush with 10-inch Android tablets, a new generation of scaled-down models have been looming for quite some time. Following in the footsteps of the BlackBerry PlayBook, these new Android tablets will arrive bearing 7 and 8-inch displays and Android 3.2, the Honeycomb update designed to make the tablet experience resolution-agnostic en route to Ice Cream Sandwich’s promised land of complete screen size independence. One of the first you’ll find on retail shelves in the U.S. is the brand new Acer Iconia Tab A100, a 7-incher sporting Android 3.2.

So what else has Acer packed inside the slightly smaller A100? Pretty well the same internals you’d find in a 10″ Android tablet: a dual-core NVidia Tegra 2 processor running at 1GHz, 1GB RAM, 8 or 16GB of internal storage, 5MP front-facing (with autofocus and an LED flash) and 2MP rear-facing cameras, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microSD expansion with support for cards up to 32GB, MicroHDMI and headphone output, digital compass, accelerometer, and a proprietary dock connector. The 7-inch display packs 1024×600 pixels and retail pricing for the A100 starts at around $329. Surprisingly, the 16GB version is listed at just $20 more — which looks like a mistake, noting what other Android tablet makers have been charging for boosted internal storage capacities.

Acer is also bundling some pre-installed apps, including Flash Player 10.3 and Acer’s own LumiReader (for eBooks) and Social Jogger (for Twitter and Facebook). The A100′s front-facing camera can record 720P video at 30FPS, and the tablet is also DLNA capable, making it easy to stream your recordings to other certified devices.

While the A100′s size and sub-one-pound weight make it a bit more portable, there’s a slight catch. It also sports a less capacious 1530mAh lithium polymer battery pack, rated for about 5 hours of use.

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The iPhone 5 is coming. Maybe it’ll land in September, maybe October, maybe some time after that, but sooner or later Apple is going to release a sequel to the wildly successful iPhone 4. That successor might have a larger screen, NFC, a slimmer design, or any number of other features… if the rumors are to be believed. Before every launch we hear all sorts of rumors/leaks and some of them inevitably end up being true, so while we take everything we hear with a healthy dose of skepticism, it’s still worthing pay attention.

With that in mind, and anticipation of the iPhone 5 building, let’s review the rumors we’ve heard over the past months.

New Design vs. Old design

Though most tech pundits believe the iPhone 5 will feature an updated design, there are still some who believe the phone will keep the same body as the iPhone 4. Prior to each iPhone launch, we’ve seen a slew of third-party case leaks showing the new, revolutionary design. Either Apple has done an exceptional job at making sure the third-party case manufacturers don’t spill the beans, or the phone will actually keep the same design as the current model.

New Design: Tapered, bezel-free, metal back, and/or curved back

Suppose the iPhone 5 does have a new design–what will it feature? Some reports say that the iPhone will revert back to the a design similar to that of the iPhone 3G with a curved, ergonomic back that would eliminate the Death Grip that plagued the iPhone 4.

Other rumors suggest that the iPhone 5 will feature a tapered design, where the bottom would be thinner than the top part of the phone, angling the device when sits on a flat surface. This would be good for watching video, cut down on size, and give it an ID that matches the acclaimed MacBook Air.

The phone may have a metallic back, and not a black or white glass one like the iPhone 4. That noted, we ‘ve read rumors that Apple had also bought 300 glass cutting machines which suggests a curved glass panel for the iPhone 5.

Screen

An update that’s been talked about since early in the rumor spree is a larger screen. The current 3.5-inch screen is said to grow to 4 inches and also become edge-to-edge, eliminating the bezel. Some say the Retina Display’s resolution will stay the same and some say the resolution will be increased, but you can bet the iPhone will retain its high dpi count. It’ll be interesting to see if a larger display can maintain the same dpi levels though.

If an edge-to-edge display happens, it’s rumored that the Home button will be removed. And while that’s seems unlikely, there’s still a chance that we could see the physical Home button disappear.

The Components

The iPhone 5 is rumored to be getting a dual-LED flash and could accompany the also-rumored 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The iPhone 4 took a big step forward with its cameras and it’s possible Apple saw the significance and is following up on those changes.

Talk about the A5 chip going from the iPad 2 to the iPhone is old news–it’s one of the rumors that is most likely to be true. Still, it is a rumor, so we won’t accept it was fact until the iPhone 5 ships with that sweet dual-core SoC.

Sprint and T-Mobile?

Although we have yet to hear any talk about a T-Mobile iPhone, Sprint seems to be in the running as the next carrier after AT&T and Verizon to get an iPhone. It may not be the iPhone 5 though. Reports of an iPhone 4 being tested on Sprint were circling around in June which means maybe Sprint could be getting an iPhone… maybe the “S” in the rumored iPhone 4S stands for Sprint!

One Phone to Rule All

When Apple first released the Verizon version of the iPhone, it launched on the Verizon CDMA network as AT&T’s version works on a GSM network. Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer Francis Shammo said at the Reuters Tech Summit that when Apple does release the iPhone 5, there will only be one version. Shammo said Apple will be producing one world phone that will function on both networks.

NFC, 4G, and Bluetooth 4.0

The debate about whether Apple will include NFC technology is an ongoing one. So far, it’s not looking likely, as Apple may need more time to perfect the technology before releasing it in an Apple product. However, according to one Apple employee, the phone will have NFC.

As we mentioned back in April, Apple’s Tim Cook also made it clear that the iPhone 5 won’t be 4Gsince the LTE chipsets require a number of design compromises which Apple is apparently not willing to make since it would affect the guts of the iPhone too much.

As for Bluetooth 4.0, the iPhone 5 may be using that to completely bypass the need for an NFC chip. Bluetooth 4.0 would split Bluetooth communication in two Bluetooth high-speed and Bluetooth low energy. The high-speed version relies on Wi-Fi for its high data transfer rate, but more power. Apple obviously has an interest in using Bluetooth technology, which is an established and cheap secure communication solution that’s already installed in a lot of other devices.

iPhone 4S

It’s been rumored that Apple may be waiting a bit longer to release the iPhone 5 and in the meantime will release an iPhone 4S in September. It will have the same body as the iPhone 4, but with a few upgrades, such as an A5 processor and better cameras. But don’t get too upset… There’s also talk that the iPhone 4S would be released in additon to the iPhone 5 and will be marketed as the budget iPhone.

Release Date

If they were to put money on it, most people would say the iPhone release date will be sometime in September 2011. However, if you asked us to pick a day, most would be shooting blind. The crew over at CNET UK apparently spent 16 hours crunching numbers in order to determine what they think the exact date will be, and they think it will be September 7. Apple has generally chosen Wednesdays to make its product announcements and the 7th is indeed a Wednesday.

We’ve heard rumors that the phone could be announced in August. Reports sprung up back in July that Apple was looking to hire iPhone Sales Specialists for an “exciting project” to start August 16 and work through October 29. Knowing that Apple’s retail training is a five-day process, this gave some people cause to believe that the iPhones may be released on August 22. However, August 22 is not that far from September, so it’s possible that Apple was just looking for some time to get the new employees up to “Genius” status before launching in September. Some outlets have reported an October release date as well, which is looking more likely than August at this point.

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The two mobile OS juggernauts, Android and iOS, are not going anywhere anytime soon. They’ve both simply gotten too large to be “killed” by anything. Now, there are some pretty strong feelings shared amongst Android and iOS users towards the “other guys”. Typically negative, almost insulting at times, the platform war is a brutal one. Is this just brand or team loyalty, though, or is this really just a fundamental difference in personalities? A recent infographic suggests that Android users might be different from iPhone users in way more ways than just their choice of smartphone.
Bloomworlds, a company primed to soon launch a family-friendly app market for Android, sought to collect as much data as possible regarding the typical Android user. After all when you have a better understanding of your users, its much easier to see how many would benefit from specific services that you offer. They reveals some really interesting information about how and when Android users are on their phone, compared to iOS users. Apparently, while iOS users are more active during the day, possibly suggesting that they are “9-5 people”, Android users are more active in the evening, after 8PM. This obviously doesn’t account for everybody, but the rest of the conclusions Bloomworlds was able to draw paint an interesting picture of the Android user.
We’ve seen plenty of information in the past about the purchasing habits of users on these platforms as well, though in the past the conclusion drawn was more that it was a result of the platform, not the user. The notion that Android users spend less in the Market then iOS users do in the App Store may just have more to do with the type of person using the platform, not the platform itself. Anecdotal though this may be, I have met far more Android users who tell me they only use free apps then I have iOS users who would say the same. However, I can also say that I have never met someone who has chosen one platform over the other based purely on the cost of apps, which is likely why this infographic contains almost no information about buying habits and instead focuses on use and utilization.
The infographic also leaves us with some unfortunate figures about how many Android users are still running Android 2.2. We keep hearing that Ice Cream Sandwich is right around the corner, and how it will solve the fragmentation issues thanks to this collaboration Google has engineered with manufacturers and carriers, but more and more the evidence shows that even if this happens, it’s only going to apply to the next generation of devices, not the current phones. While only tangentally related, if 8% of Android users switched from an iPhone, what percent do you think would switch back when they find out that their phone didn’t “make the cut” on the new fragmentation agreement?
Data pools like this infographic give a lot of insight in places that aren’t normally thought of. There’s a definite correlation between the OS and the user in terms of usage and utilization that goes beyond a simple preference. Are we looking at a use case or a personality type? Is it that Android users behave a certain way, or that people who use Android behave a certain way?

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If you follow the laptop industry closely, you’ve probably noticed that 2009-2010 saw a surprising number of higher end, luxury-esque machines hit the market. Prior efforts like the ThinkPad X300, (original) MacBook Air, and Dell’s Adamo did teach the companies a lot about what kinds of high end PCs sell and how to build one that would sell more volume with a better margin. HP joined this game more recently with their Envy lineup, launched in 2009 from the scraps of boutique PC company Voodoo that the firm swallowed up in 2006.
All Envy models share the same basic DNA: solid metal chassis, thin design, and high end features. I reviewed an Envy 17 once upon a time and the machine oozes quality in your hands. The chassis is robust and precise in every way, while the backlit island-style keyboard looks like an art sculpture in the middle of the magnesium-alloy chassis. The newest versions feature Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, but our hot deal model has last generation’s quad-core Core i7-720QM processor, which will still handily propel your computer experience.
This Envy 17 also comes fully loaded in all regards, starting with its Ultra BrightView 1080p display. The beefy processor is backed up by ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB graphics and 6GB of DDR3 RAM. Storage comes in at 750GB and a slot-loading Blu-ray drive will serve of high-def content to the gorgeous display. As you can imagine, a slim laptop with a quad-core processor and high end graphics won’t last long on the battery, but at least you’ll get up to 3.75 hours out of the 9-cell and 2.5 hours out of the 6-cell, both of which are included with this model.
BuyDig.com is already taking $402 off this high end machine, but we’ve also got an exclusive $100 coupon that will get you this fully loaded Envy 17-1181NR for $1009.95 shipped. You might be able to pick up a quad-core Sandy Bridge laptop for that money, but it won’t have near the quality, attention to detail, and extras as this Envy 17.

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A number of set-top boxes allow for all sorts of wonderful things on a television. Games and applications abound, but typically not for the Apple TV, at least not until now. Games are indeed possible on Apple’s oft-forgotten device, but not through the App Store.
The game that proves this is blackjack, and much to Jobs’ delight, it is HTML5-based. Given the breadth of Apple’s App Store, it is strange that the first game for Apple TV comes to the general public through a jailbroken device. Granted, it’s only one game, if a relatively simple one, but it shows the potential of Cupertino’s set-top box.
HTML5 is the latest generation of HTML, hypertext markup language in long form. It introduces a range of features that make creating games without the need for a plug-in like Adobe Flash a reality. It’s already being taken advantage of with Biolab Disaster being a great example of what’s possible in game form, and browser developers are trying to take full advantage of it with every new release.
Cupertino has acknowledged that Apple TV is simply a hobby. It receives nowhere near as much press as the iDevices: the iPad and iPhone among them. Apple TV, it seems, is an untapped resource. The potential is there, but Apple is too busy in other departments to really devote any time to it.
There are, however, rumored updates for Apple TV which suggests that it isn’t dead yet. There might even be an Apple HDTV in the pipeline. How Apple will move forward with it isn’t yet clear as a great deal of time has been devoted to OS X Lion, iCloud, and iOS 5. With iCloud on the horizon, Apple TV could see a spike in popularity.

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Of the many things HTC announced this year better support for the developer community was one of the most interesting. This would come in the form of web portal, complete with all the resources needed to work with their devices. This promise came alongside their agreement to offer users tools to unlock their bootloaders, an issue that caused significant controversy within the modder community. Today, that promise has come true with the website HTCDev.com. HTC touts the website as being a “central, online location to host content while also serving as an outlet for developer engagement and growth”, so we decided to take a quick look at their initial offerings.HTCDev.com is, at first glance, everything you could ever want from HTC if you are a developer, modder, hacker, or just mobile geek. The very first things you see on the website are the three big items the community has been clamoring for: great big buttons for Open Sense SDK, Unlock Bootloader, and Kernel Source code. The homepage also has links to upcoming developer events, as well as quick access to site resources and a link to HTCPro, the service offered by HTC for enterprise solutions management, app development, and educational tools for developers participating in the enterprise arena. HTC had some pretty large targets to hit based on the promises made earlier in the year, and the homepage of HTCDev.com seems to address each of them pretty clearly.

Open Sense SDK
As pretty as HTC’s SenseUI is, and clearly the favorite of all the Android UI “enhancements”, developers have been routinely frustrated with trying to interact with it. While workarounds have been discovered, recent popular devices like the HTC Flyer and the HTC EVO 3D use some pretty custom hardware compared to your run-of-the-mill phone or tablet.
The Flyer has been widely hailed as one of the best Android tablets, but significantly hindered by the fact that no one can include support for the impressive Scribe pen in their apps. The same goes for the EVO 3D–what good is a cool 3D phone if you can’t make 3D apps to support it? The Open Sense SDK has been made to fix this, by providing support for these proprietary pieces of hardware in an open source software developers kit. Also included in this SDK is the “common controls API”, allowing developers make the menus in their apps look and feel like the rest of the phone.
Unlock Bootloader
This little bit comes at less of a surprise to those who have been following HTC’s Facebook page. While not yet active, HTC plans to make this button deliver a web tool that will grant your device the ability to unlock the bootloader. This is a vital part of the process of installing custom OS’ on your phone, but if you use HTC’s tool, there’s a catch. Unlocking your bootloader the HTC way will probably be quick, but the second you hit submit your sub $600-800 smartphone no longer has a manufacturers warranty. On top of that, you’re required to log some personal information, such as an email address and your name, in order to have access to the tool.
This tool hasn’t been met with the roaring applause that HTC was hoping for when they first announced that “they were listening”, but at this point all parties involved seem to have agreed to move on. Personally, I find that HTC acknowledged, responded, and took action is stunning evidence of just how large and how loud the Android modder community is, and what they are capable of.
Kernel Source Code
It seems like this is a repository of every HTC device running Android since the HTC Dream (G1) with download links for the kernel code of each of these devices, up to and including their brand new HTC ChaCha (Status on AT&T). Much of this had already been available, just buried in a difficult to navigate and graphically unsatisfying webpage at HTC. HTC assures us that this page will be kept up to date at all times, and new Source will arrive on this page as per GPL requirements. There’s s simple download link for each of the devices, and clicking the link presents you with either a Liscense Agreement in the case of the HTC Desire manual update, or just begins the download of a tar.gz file. These Kernels are incomplete, meaning they can’t compile in their current state, as they are missing the HTC proprietary bits.
Access and Final Notes
All of this is just what you can access by just travelling to the website. If you have registered on the website and login, you are presented with a whole different world that HTC has assembled for the developer community. Rather, that’s what I expected when I filled out the registration form and created an account. Once I logged in, though, the site looked exactly the same, and I didn’t have any additional access to forums or anything like that, which I kind of expected since HTC described the site as being “an outlet for developer engagement and growth”, but its possible those are simply features that will be “coming soon”.

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If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on the HP TouchPad 4G, you might not have to wait for much longer. The TouchPad 4G has been spotted for pre-order on Amazon for $699.99. That’s roughly $100 more than the WiFi-only version available already.
The 32GB TouchPad 4G offers a 9.7-inch LED multi-touch display. The tablet uses HP’s webOS 3.0, and runs on a fast 1.5 GHz processor, which is a step up from the 1.2GHz processor of the WiFi version. It also has integrated GPS and built-in AT&T wireless mobile broadband capabilities. The 4G tablet is HSPA+ (AT&T), not LTE, so don’t get too excited. And, unlike the iPad, the TouchPad offers Adobe Flash support.

If $700 sounds like a lot to be spending on a tablet, you may want to wait a month or two. As we’ve seen recently, HP has been discounting the TouchPad like crazy. Last Friday we saw it for $380 at Woot, and Staples was offering it for $299.99 over the weekend through a $100 rebate coupon. We can’t promise it will be cut in price soon, but if you’re looking to save a few bucks, you may want to consider waiting a bit.
HP also announced a promotion over the weekend for anyone in the U.S. who buys a TouchPad between July 1 and August 4. Purchasing the tablet will get you $50 worth of credit to use in the App Catalog.
Reports of a 64GB model release were also floating around back in July. They came at the same time as the TouchPad 4G rumors, so it’s likely that we may see a 64GB version when the 4G version is finally released.
You can preorder the HP TouchPad 4G at Amazon now, but there’s no release date listed as of yet.

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Due to the cost and space considerations, it’s unusual to see a tablet with more than 128GB of on-board storage. 16 or 32GB are more common, with anything above that being a premium option at a premium price. You can also argue that a tablet really doesn’t need storage beyond those levels.
Archos disagrees though, and will be offering its G9 Android tablet with the option of a 250GB hybrid hard drive. It’s a hybrid because Archos wanted more than the performance of a standard hard drive, so they added a 4GB flash memory chip to speeds things up a little. This is a technique some hard drive manufacturers have experimented with in their standard drives, with Seagate even going so far as to say 80% of hard drives will by hybrids by 2015. 
As you’d expect, the inclusion of a hard drive makes the tablet a little heaveir (599g or 755g) and thicker (14.7mm or 15.6mm), but the use of a Seagate Momentus 7mm 2.5″ drive means it still remains a very portable unit.

The 250GB option will be available on both the 8-inch and 10-inch models of the G9, which cost $369.99 and $469.99 respectively. If you consider that getting 64GB of storage in an iPad 2 costs $699, the G9 could be considered a bit of a bargain. Alternatively you can opt for a 16GB flash-only G9 model if you really don’t want or need the additional storage.
As for other features of note, you get Android 3.2 running on an ARM Cortex A9 OMAP4 1.5GHz, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a camera capable of recording 720p.
The question is, does any want 250GB of storage in a tablet? It would certainly come in handy for a long holiday where watching movies is your best form of entertainment and there’s no internet connection for streaming. As a media center it sounds ideal.

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Still not sure exactly what happened at Google this week? It’s like someone accidentally delivered espresso for the decaf pots. Meanwhile, over in Redmond, Microsoft’s legal team discovered how to use Twitter, but not any of the complimentary services that allow you to put a single coherent thought into an extended tweet.
If you haven’t been following the recent uproar following the acquisition of the Novell Patents, let’s catch you up. What started as a blog post from Googler David Drummond addressing why Google didn’t spend the money on the Novell patents. To say the the conversations have broken down into a schoolyard fashion is putting it mildly, but we remain ever vigilant in following the situation in the event that something actually worth noting comes from either party.
Drummond’s blog did not go unnoticed, and Microsoft’s legal team felt obligated to go reply. When Microsoft communications lead Frank Shaw decided his dinner last night would be best paired with an email snippet that seriously looked like Googler Kurt Weller was deploying the weakest cop out of all time to cover his backside for not joining in with Microsoft on buying up the Novell patents.  Microsoft had apparently reached out to Google in order to get the patents. These are the same patents that Google bid Pi on, by the way, so it was clear early on that Google caught on to what was happening with Microsoft and decided on an alternate strategy.
Still, The tech community roused as Google was called out on Twitter by Shaw, and needed to respond. So, respond they did, by updating the original post made addressing the Novell patents. The update includes some promising information that had been previously unreleased about the patent purchase. The update is worth reading in full, but some choice phrases include…

… it’s obvious why we turned down Microsoft’s offer… A joint acquisition of the Novell patents that gave all parties a license would have eliminated any protection these patents could offer to Android against attacks from Microsoft and its bidding partners…
Ultimately, the U.S. Department of Justice intervened, forcing Microsoft to sell the patents it bought and demanding that the winning group (Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, EMC) give a license to the open-source community…

So, if we follow the chain of events right now, Google engaged in a bid war with Microsoft and crew for the Novell patents. When Google realized the fight was either unwinnable or expensive, they drove the bid up in the hopes that Google could encourage the government to take action.  As a result, the DoJ moved in and demanded that a licences be given to the Open Source communities. Shaw fired back, moments later, with a series of tweets that sounded vaguely like an excerpt from Iron Man 2. Google wanted to purchase these patents to use as a shield against the companies they insist are “coming after Android”, where Shaw insists it was to be used as a sword.

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It seems that a whole mess of Motolora Droid Bionic images just turned up on the internet. Android blog Droid-Life has posted a number of shots of what looks to be the upcoming Verizon 4G superphone, including one very interesting one. That shot, pictured above, puts the Bionic next to the Samsung Droid Charge, a handset we know to have a 4.3-inch display. The Bionic’s screen is clearly larger, so unless there was some digital imaging trickery then the old information we have heard–which said the Bionic would also have a 4.3-inch screen–is incorrect.
The images are available here and here. We can see some nice shots of the front and back of the Droid Bionic hardware, but no major reveals aside from display size. It’s worth noting that this guy says he got a picture from someone who had their hands on the device and noted that it has a 4.3-inch display. (Of course his own hands weren’t on it, so he might have just been making an assumption.)
With its square body the Bionic looks a whole lot like the Droid 3 and much less like the Bionic of January 2011. People will be buying the phone for what’s inside it–namely that OMAP chip and 4G radio–but a more distinguished design would have been nice. If it does in fact have the larger display that will be an added selling point, putting it in the same league as the monstrous Samsung Infuse… and making the Bionic larger than the Samsung Galaxy S II.
So another day, another Droid Bionic rumor. Based on the comments floating around the web a number of diehard Android fans who have been eagerly looking forward to the Bionic seem to be getting tired of the wait and are ready to move on to another device, generally the Galaxy S II. The waiting game is getting to be a bit much–the phone was first announced back in January for an April release, but has since been completely redesigned. We’ve been told it will come out some time in September (but I’ll believe it when I see it).

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Upstart mobile payment processing company Square has its sights set on shaking up the industry. Its iPhone-friendly card reader has been blessed with retail space in Apple stores, and it’s had no trouble securing funding for its efforts, either. Recently Square locked up more than $100 million in investment and scored a valuation of more than $1 billion.
But there have been a couple of bumps in the road for Square. A few months back, Verifone (one of its key competitors) revealed that it was able to skim credit card data using the Square reader. Verifone noted that Square’s reader didn’t bother to encrypt data it transmitted to the app itself, an oversight that Verifone said meant any reasonably skilled coder could whip up a skimming application to harvest swiped card details. Ultimately, the threat might not be anymore serious that letting someone hold your card long enough to jot down the information on a Post-It or snap pictures of its front and back.
Nevertheless, Square founder Jack Dorsey responded with news that the company would soon begin offering encrypted readers. Those have yet to come to market, however, and it’s a flaw that has now allowed Aperture Labs (yes, that’s really their name) researchers to capture card information and use it to produce fraudulent cloned cards. Aperture Labs didn’t stop there, however.
A second exploit discovered by its researchers doesn’t require physical possession of the card or the Square reader. With little more than a U.S. bank account and 100 lines of code, the team was able to siphon money from a Visa gift card. Unlike traditional skimming apps, Aperture Labs’ version takes the magnetic stripe data and converts it to a sound file — which can then be played back into the Square reader via a stereo cable. The ensuing beeps are enough to trick the device into processing a charge, and Aperture’s Adam Laurie says that the process requires virtually no skill and very minimal hardware.
Aperture Labs revealed the vulnerability to Square back in February, but the company felt that there were other more obvious ways of committing credit card fraud to worry about — and believed that the federal regulations and anti-fraud systems already in place in modern credit cards provide sufficient defense.

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Browser add-ons are, in general, a very good thing. They allow us to personalize our web experiences in hundreds of different ways with just a few simple clicks. There are, however, some cases where browser add-ons can be unwelcome, frustrating, and just plain bad. Add-ons that silently get bolted onto your browser by third-party software installers, for example, are rarely (if ever) a good thing.
Mozilla has finally said enough is enough and has put together a plan to begin policing external add-on installs that attempt to modify your Firefox setup. Starting in Firefox 8, the add-on manager will display an in-browser alert whenever a program other than Firefox itself attempts to install an extension.  It’s a change that Mozilla has been looking to implement for quite some time, and it’s quite surprising that a company with such a strong privacy and security record would just be getting around to fixing now.
So, why block these add-ons? There are two main reasons. First, it’s a privacy and control thing. Your Firefox install should look and function the way you want it to. Some software (hello, Skype!) likes to inject its own add-ons and toolbars into your browser without giving you the opportunity to opt out of their installation. That kind of crapware potentially puts Firefox users at risk, and Mozilla wants you to be as secure as possible.
Second, there’s Mozilla’s long-standing beef with folks like Microsoft — who have been singled-out on multiple occasions for sneaking add-ons into Firefox. Most recently it was the company’s .Net Framework Assistant, which was pushed to Windows computers via Windows Update. You might not have wanted the add-on installed — you might not even know what the Assistant is for — but you got it anyway.
Firefox 8 will finally give you full control over your add-on installs, and that’s a very good thing.
You’ve also got to love that Mozilla’s team took the time to take a parting shot at apps that sneak in add-ons. Listed as a non-goal is adding a feature to their browser that allows the removal of other applications on the system from within Firefox. Touché, Mr. Dotzler!

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Deal-seeking geeks are surely aware of the deal-a-day site Woot.com. The site lists deeply discounted products that are sometimes too good of a deal to pass up. Today’s offer is the 16GB HP TouchPad, which we saw on sale earlier this week for $419.99. We thought that was a good deal, but today’s Woot deal is even better.
Friday only, and while supplies last, you can get the tablet for just $379.99. The TouchPad features a 9.7-inch IPS display with 1024×768 pixels, similar to the iPad 2. It has a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor with 1GB of RAM. The tablet also has a nice 1.3-megapixel camera, as well as the standard features of Bluetooth, accelerometer, and 802.11n WiFi.
It’s nice that the tablet is offered at a discount today, but is the TouchPad’s appearance on Woot a sign of desperation on HP’s part? Woot is a great site for finding deals, but the electronics it sells are usually not exactly top-of-the-line. You may see an iPod on there, but it’ll be a refurbished model, and the only tech products I’ve ever bought from the site have been a pair of mediocre headphones for $10. Could it be that the TouchPad hasn’t been selling enough in stores, so HP is getting rid of some of the excess tablets via Woot?
If you’ve been interested in WebOS and were on the fence about buying the TouchPad, this is the cheapest we’ve seen it, so you better grab this deal fast.
If you don’t make today’s deal, HP is offering $100 off the normal price for this weekend only. You can get the 16GB model for $399.99 or the 32GB model for $499.99.

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If you’ve been on the fence about buying a new phone, perhaps today’s deal will persuade you. Best Buy is offering the Nexus S phone for free today only. Of course, the store isn’t just throwing free phones to any passersby; there’s a two-year contract that goes with the free phone. If you want just the phone without a contract, you’ll still have to pay at least $529.99.
The good news is that you can choose between Sprint, T-Mobile, or AT&T as your service provider… sorry Verizon. Without today’s deal, the phone normally costs $99 or $199, depending on the carrier.

The Nexus runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and is so far the only phone that works directly with Google Wallet and NFC. If you were hoping to see that sort of integration in the next iPhone, the future doesn’t look good for an NFC-enabled iPhone 5, so that’s just another reason to consider the Samsung-manufacturered Nexus S.
The phone also has a 1Ghz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, 16GB of internal flash memory, a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera and a VGA front-facing camera, and a Super AMOLED 4-inch WVGA display (800 x 480).
The offer ends at 11:59 p.m. CST, so hurry. You can buy it both online and at your local Best Buy store.

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Android seems to be just about everywhere these days. Devices big and small, fat and thin, with a variety of intended uses. At CES this year there was even a microwave running Android. So, when I discovered that HP was planning to make a printer running the mobile OS, I wasn’t so much shocked as curious. After all, thanks to HP’s Android app,  any of HP’s newer printers can be controlled using an app on your phone.
So, what functionality does having Android bring to the printing experience? Well, for starters, HP didn’t just make a printer running Android. They made a printer that serves as a dock for an Android tablet that has complete control of the printer even when it is not docked. Curious? So were we!
The Photosmart eStation C510a could well just be used as a printer with a gigantic 7-inch screen on it. With its SD card slot you can easily stick a card in from a camera and take a look at your photos on a nice big screen before sending them to print. Since the Printer is connected to the web, you could even go grab that picture from Facebook or your email without ever needing to touch a computer. Maybe you are interested in printing out recipes from your favorite website, or maybe you wanted to print out any of HP’s pre-loaded crafts for kids? All of the above is possible with this printer.
What’s more is that if you don’t feel like doing any of this from your office, or wherever you have the printer, you can just pull that 7-inch screen out and walk away with it as a full-fledged Android tablet.
Setup
Truly using their resources to the fullest potential, the C510a’s setup is unique and incredibly easy. Thanks to the tablet mounted on the front of the printer, you are greeted with a video walkthrough of setting up the printer as soon as you connect the printer to the tablet. A brief but helpful video tutorial explaining how you go about adding ink, connecting the duplicator, and inserting the paper trays is infinitely better than the step-by-step poster that has traditionally come with HP’s printers.
Once you have everything connected, the C510a will run a calibration, attempt to connect to the Internet, and is then ready to walk you through connecting to your computer. Wireless connectivity or a USB connection make this very easy, and the setup disk that comes with the device will detect the printer and you are ready to go. In my opinion, HP should strive to make all of their printers this easy to setup, the overall experience was very simple and I was finished in about 15 minutes.

HP and Android? The Zeen Tablet
WebOS might be HP’s baby now, but the Android 2.2 powered Zeen tablet on the C510a was here first. The Zeen does not connect to the Android Market, so despite being Android 2.2 there is no access to Adobe Flash, making the browser somewhat less functional in comparison to existing tablets. However, the tablet does come with a third party app store and the ability to side-load apps, so the sky is the limit as far as how you decide to use your Android Tablet. The Zeem effectively makes the C510a a printer, and ebook reader, a photo editor, and a web browser all in one chunky 7-inch tablet. The Zeen is a heavy tablet compared to standalone devices, but still something you can carry around the house to read on or surf the web with.The real power on this device comes from working with the printer. HP’s software pre-loaded on the tablet allows you to control the printer, scanner, copier, and fax from the tablet, and allows you to control each of these funtions from anywhere, even outside the home with HP’s online services. You could take the Zeem with you, receive a  document via email and either print it out remotely or fax it to its intended recipient from your Tablet. Now, in the home, unless you are running back and forth to put paper in or move paper around, the copy function is somewhat less enjoyable remotely, but still allows you to scan an image or a document, crop and edit the photo, and either print it, post it to Facebook, or anything else you can think of.

 

The Zeen gets roughly 6 hours of constant use if you’re reading or playing a game. Placing it on the dock immediately begins to change the device, a process which takes just about 2 hours to complete, but allowing you to continue to control your printer the whole time. HP’s onboard software is a lot more versatile than the app that HP released for Android and iOS, but there are plenty of ways in which the tablet can be useful besides the printer cooperation. Would I purchase a Zeen to use without a printer? No. As far as comparable devices go, the Zeen is a little sluggish for daily use aside from reading a book or surfing the web, but attached to the printer it becomes a pretty powerful device.
Printer quality
Oh right, this is also a printer. The C510a was released with a line of printers, including the HP Touchsmart Web which offers many of the same features. The C510a uses individual color ink cartridges like all of HP’s photo printers, but also includes a secondary larger black ink well for printing normal text. There were not functional differences in printer quality between the C510a and the TouchSmart web when color and quality print tests were done, so not only is this a good office device, but a great photo printer as well. The C510a includes a separate adjustable paper tray for a variety of photo sizes, and if you use HP’s photosmart paper the printer heads will automatically adjust based on the size of the paper that is read form the data strip on the back.
The C510a also includes ePrint, a service which allows you to send an email with a document or photo straigh to the printer and have it print immediately, making the C510a great for offices full of road warriors or someone who wants to have a reminder waiting for them on the printer when they get home. ePrint combined with the ability to share the printer with any computer on your network makes this printer incredibly diverse for both a home or small business.
Conclusion
Hp has delivered a unique combination of home devices and packed it with enough functionality that anybody could find a use for it, but also made it simple enough to use that anyone can find a use for it. Available from HP direct for $329, this printer would be the closest thing to future-proof you can get in a printer, and everything from the paper trays down to the tablet all feel very sturdy.

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On their developer site, developer.motorola.com, Motorola briefly posted what seem to be the specifications of the upcoming Droid Bionic. Supposing these are accurate they would be confirmation–straight from Motorola–of what the upcoming 4G dual-core handset will be running. Along with an official release date this is exactly what potential buyers have been wanting, though we already have compiled a pretty good idea of what to expect from the Bionic. Since the listing was discovered it has since been removed from the site, but screenshots were captured.
Readers who have examined the image above, and who have been closely following that saga that has become the Droid Bionic release, will have noticed that the old model number was used. (The original Bionic design was XT865, while the new one is XT875.) This might cause some to doubt the accuracy of the specs, but the processor is listed as the 1GHz OMAP4430, which means this is the new model (the old one ran the Tegra 2).
The other specifications include:

• Android 2.3.4
• 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen at qHD (960×540, 240 dpi)
• Webtop compatibility
• 1GB RAM
• 8MP camera with 1080p video, VGA front camera
• HDMI 1.4
• Verizon 4G LTE

As you can see above the Droid Bionic listing did not use a real shot of the handset, where the Droid 3 and Photo 4G did. Both of those phones and their specifications are still viewable on the developer site.
These findings pretty much confirm everything we had previously heard about the Droid Bionic (XT875 that is) and reiterate that this is looking like a standout device for Verizon. It is still slated to be the first dual-core 4G handset, though a release date has yet to be confirmed. Last we heard the Bionic was said to be landing some time in September, according to Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha.

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Internet Explorer users may have been a little hurt when a number of news organizations reported on a study that claimed IE users have a lower IQ than people who use other web browsers. Some IE users thought the data was pure poppycock, but users of other browsers obviously rejoiced at the news. Well, it turns out the whole thing was an sophisticated hoax.
The study was reported by the BBC, Forbes, Mashable, CNN, and the Daily Mail, to name a few. However, many readers were skeptical of the whole thing after finding out that the company who put out the press release, AptiQuant, had only set up its website a month ago. The AptiQuant website says the Canadian company has been around since 2006, so it’s odd that it would have just recently set up a website.
It was also discovered that the photos of AptiQuant’s employees were actually the same as French research company Central Test, but with different names. Central Test was contacted and confirmed that they had no idea what AptiQuant was and had never heard of the research company.
The study, titled “Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage” supposedly compiled the IQ test scores of 101,326 people above the age of 16. Mashable called the results “fascinating,” which they are, if they were real.
The research showed that IE 6 users have an average IQ score of just under 80, whereas Firefox and Chrome users average about 110. Opera and Camino users, however, were said to have an average IQ of more than 120.
The results of the study inferred that IE users are less likely to change or upgrade their browsers, and that people with higher IQs are more likely to experiment and chose a different browser or listen to suggestions and security advice.
AptiQuant’s website is still up and active, and you can still take a look at the PDF containing the study. The BBC talked to Graham Cluley, senior security consultant at Sophos, who said the PDF file did not appear to contain any malware.
Perhaps the IE users skeptical of the study are actually smarter than the Opera users who boasted about being superior in the comments of various blogs. If we’ve learned anything from this hoax, it’s to always question everything we read on the Internet.

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When the Chrome web browser appeared from Google it was notable for two reasons: the rate of development and the speed of the browser. Chrome continues to see regular releases that push forward with new/better functionality as well as continuing to get faster. It is one of, if not the fastest browser available at the moment.
However, when you start to scale that performance Chrome apparently falls flat on its face. What we are talking about here is having multiple tabs open, which is a very common practice today due to the amount of content we like to look at. It’s not uncommon to have a tab open for your email, another for your social network, and another loading a YouTube video or showing your Twitter stream. The list goes on.
Chrome is great for general usage up to a certain point, but when you start opening a lot of tabs it can’t cope. It’s closest rival–Firefox, can though, and in fact excels at coping with hundreds of tabs.
Gregor Wagner, a PhD student at the University of California, is a part-time contributor to the Firefox browser. He decided to do some performance tests on Chrome compared to Firefox with particular focus on having lots of tabs open and how that is handled in memory.
To do this he used a script that opens 150 of the most popular websites in a browser instance automatically. One page is opened in a new tab every 1.5 seconds. On the latest Firefox nightly build that process takes roughly 6 minutes and 14 seconds. On Chrome, it’s a totally different story with the time escalating to 28 minutes and 55 seconds. That’s well over 4x slower than Firefox.
Here’s his actual results:

In fact, Wagner found that once you get past 70 tabs Chrome really starts to struggle. The reason seems to be down to the different way in which each browser handles data and tabs. Chrome uses a multi-process model where a new process is started on a per tab basis. Firefox takes a different route and has a single process running that handles all tab data.
It seems that either through a bug or design issue Chrome doesn’t end up handling every new tab as a new process. Instead some processes can end up having to cope with multiple tabs and it’s also handled unevenly e.g. one process has 2 sites where as another has 20 sites.
At 150 tabs open this leads Chrome to stop responding and max out memory use at 5GB. Firefox on the other hand only used 2GB of memory and continued to work under the same conditions.
Whatever the reason for this happening in Chrome, if you are someone who always has a lot of tabs open–a researcher or tech blogger, for example, then you are better off using Firefox until Google have this issue fixed. However, up to a certain point, and probably for the majority of users, you aren’t going to experience this problem.

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Today, RIM has announced 5 new BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry 7 OS. The line-up includes the BlackBerry Bold 9990 and 9930, the BlackBerry Torch 9810, and the BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860.
RIM is shipping all 5 handsets with a 1.2GHz processor and dedicated GPU, the ability to record 720p HD video with a 5-megapixel camera, and augmeneted reality capabilities built-in. All will ship with the latest BlackBerry 7 operating system which RIM boasts offers 40% faster web browsing and optimized HTML5 performance. The premium version of Documents To Go is included for free, you get BlackBerry Protect for backups, and BlackBerry Balance for use of one handset as a work and leisure phone. Finally there’s a feature referred to as Liquid Graphics which takes advantage of the CPU/GPU for smoother visuals regardless of what you are using the phones for.
As for the handsets, let’s start with the Bold 9900 and 9930, which RIM is pushing as the thinnest smartphones they have ever made at 10.5mm. It ships with a 2.8-inch touchscreen coupled with the typical BlackBerry Qwerty keyboard and 8GB of on-board storage. The Bold also offers up NFC for the first time in a Blackberry phone. If you’re wondering how the two models are different it’s simply a case of the 9930 being for CDMA networks. The Torch 9810 on the other hand offers up a larger touchscreen display than the Bold at 3.2-inches, and hides the Qwerty keyboard behind a slider allowing for a smaller handset overall.
Finally we have the 9850 and 9860 which drop the keyboard completely. Instead there’s a 3.7-inch display with an on-screen Qwerty keyboard instead. On-board storage drops to 4GB and RIM is clearly aiming these handsets at consumers rather than business users with a focus on the web, photos, videos, and games. As for the model differences, the 9850 is for the U.S. and the 9860 is an international version.
RIM has stated that all new smartphones will be available globally soon with 225 carriers and distributors signed up to ensure you can get one wherever you are in the world.
Read more at RIM

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In April news broke, to many iPhone owners’ dismay, that the phone was tracking the their location. The data, which is stored both on the iPhone and on any computer the phone was synced to, included a list of the locations you’ve been to, complete with time stamps. A lawsuit was filed by two plaintiffs in a Florida U.S. District Court less than a week after the discovery. A few months later, another lawsuit is in the works over in South Korea, although this one has 27,800 Koreans filing suit against Apple Korea, instead of just two people like the Florida case.
The suit will be filed in the middle of August and alleges that Apple Korea violated domestic laws on privacy. According to the Korea Herald, 3 million people own iPhones in South Korea, and about 1 percent of them have contributed to the filing of the suit. The plaintiffs are claiming that Apple has to pay damages for inflicting emotional distress on them through the iPhone tracking.
The class action suit was initially created by Kim Hyeong-seok, a lawyer working for Mirae Law who had recently settled his own location-tracking lawsuit with Apple for 1 million won ($954 USD). After winning his lawsuit, Kim created a website called SueApple.co.kr for people to sign up and become part of the class action suit. Mirae Law will get $1 million won for each person in the suit, totaling about 27 billion won ($25.5 million USD). Apple can potentially lose a lot of money here, but the law firm may send some of its lawyers to Cupertino to work out some sort of settlement.
If Korea is able to successfully get $25.5 million from Apple, people in the U.S. and other countries may begin to file class action suits against the company as well. Apple may not have more cash in the bank than the U.S. Treasury for very much longer with all the damages it’ll have to pay concerning the location-tracking iPhones. And that’s not even taking into account whether Apple comes out on top over Samsung in the intellectual property lawsuit currently being battled. Apple’s lawyers definitely have a lot on their plates right now.

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The “connected” TV trend is booming. Every manufacturer out there is trying to get you to trade in your busted old HDTV for a new connected TV that will put web apps and media streaming at your fingertips. In such a competitive world, companies have to find a way to distinguish themselves, and Insignia, Best Buy’s in-house brand, figured out a way to do just that by teaming up with TiVo.
Best Buy is releasing a new line of Insignia Connected TVs that aren’t necessarily anything special on the hardware end of things, but the software is where the TVs really shines. The TV’s interface appears to be extremely intuitive and user friendly thanks to TiVo’s software. There’s no TiVo subscription necessary with this TV, but there’s also no built-in DVR–you still have to pay extra for that. Again, although it has the TiVo-branded name attached to it, it’s just the TiVo interface that you’re getting here.
The interface is clean and the TV offers easy navigation through services like Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, Pandora, and Napster. Social media apps from the chumby content network, like Facebook, Twitter, and Photobucket, Accuweather, Reuters News, and traffic are also easily accessible.
For many people who are finally getting rid of that old tube TV they’ve had for the past 15 years, a “smart” TV can be somewhat intimidating. The Insignia Connected TV is being marketed as the easiest TV to use and to connect to broadcast and online entertainment.
As for the hardware, it’s pretty standard: 1080p, 120Hz, LED backlighting, and Audyssey/SRS sound processing. Models will be available in a 32-inch for $500 and a 42-inch for $700.

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