Gadgets News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Google's wearable Glass gadget: cool or creepy?

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:16:28 -0400

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google staged four discussions expounding on the finer points of its "Glass" wearable computer during this week's developer conference. Missing from the agenda, however, was a session on etiquette when using the recording-capable gadget, which some attendees faithfully wore everywhere - including to the crowded bathrooms. Google Glass, a cross between a mobile computer and eyeglasses that can both record video and surf the Internet, is now available to a select few but is already among the year's most buzz-worthy new gadgets. ...

BBM will reportedly not support iPad or Android tablets at launch

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:50:40 -0400

Earlier this week, BlackBerry announced the arrival of BlackBerry Messenger for Android and iOS. A new report suggests that the messaging service will have some limitations, however. According to TrustedReviews, BBM will not be available for the iPad or for Android tablets at launch. Vivek Bhardwaj, head of the BlackBerry software portfolio, reportedly told the website that BBM will be limited to iPhones running iOS 6 or higher and Android smartphones. “Smartphone is our real focus and again it comes back to what BBM is,” he explained. “If you look BBM and the engagement and the activity, it’s because it is mobile, because people are on the go.” While the executive didn’t rule out tablet support in the future, he

New LED display tech could revolutionize wearable devices like Google Glass

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:05:59 -0400

Google Glass might not be the next iPad, but future versions of wearable computing devices like Glass are widely expected to be the next major consumer electronics revolution. There are still several technology hurdles preventing the proliferation of wearables, such as awful battery life and relatively poor display visibility, but one Brooklyn-based startup is looking to kill two birds with one stone. Lumiode founder and CEO Vincent Lee recently spoke with MIT’s Technology Review blog about his company’s work in the field of LED displays. “Unlike most displays, which have a light-emitting backplane and use filters to make the individual color pixels that collectively form images, Lumiode’s technology uses the light-emitting diodes as the pixels,” wrote Technology Review’s Rachel Metz. “They are

Good news for Google Fiber: Broadcast TV audiences are cratering faster than ever

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:30:37 -0400

The early reviews of Google Fiber are in from Kansas City and one of the most attractive features of the service seems to be how it makes Netflix irresistible. The buffering annoyances that consumers take for granted vanish as Google Fiber feeds movies and shows instantly to eager Silicon Prairie dwellers. What’s more, the recently launched Google Fiber TV app offers video on demand for iPad. This direction is fascinating because of the hottest trend in US consumer behavior: broadcast television audience collapse. TV show audiences have been falling for a long time, but recently the decline has turned into a plunge. According to Goldman Sachs, ratings in the 18-49 year demo dropped by a hideous 17% last winter, the steepest drop ever.

iPhone cleared for U.S. military use, ready to take on BlackBerry, Samsung

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:05:19 -0400

The United States Department of Defense on Friday approved the use of Apple devices running iOS 6 on its networks, Bloomberg reported. The iPhone will compete with BlackBerry 10 and Samsung KNOX devices, which received approval earlier this month. The Pentagon has continued to test alternative platforms to give employees flexibility when choosing a work phone. The DoD even has plans to create a mobile app store that can handle as many as 8 million devices. There are currently more than 600,000 mobile devices in use at the agency, 470,000 of which are older BlackBerry smartphones. There are currently more than 40,000 iPhones and 8,700 Android devices in use, however most of them aren’t connected to military networks except for testing

BlackBerry comeback underway on home turf

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:40:23 -0400

On the global stage, BlackBerry is still hurting — for the first time ever, Microsoft’s Windows Phone market share topped BlackBerry in the first quarter this year to take the No.3 spot in the smartphone platform war. We’re still very early on in BlackBerry’s comeback attempt though, and progress is being made in some key markets. Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt points to BlackBerry’s home turf in Canada as one of the markets where the vendor has seen good early response to its new BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 smartphones, and BlackBerry’s progress thus far has been impressive according to his figures. In a recent research note, McCourt says that BlackBerry’s share of the smartphone market fell to an embarrassing 6% in Canada to close

Penitent Romanian hacker aims to protect world's ATMs

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:53:47 -0400

By Radu Marinas VASLUI, Romania (Reuters) - Valentin Boanta, sitting in his jail cell, proudly explains the device he has invented which, he says, could make the world's ATMs impregnable even to tech-savvy criminals like himself. Boanta, 33, is six months into a five-year sentence for supplying gadgets an organized crime gang used to conceal ATM skimmers, which can copy data from an unsuspecting ATM user's card so a clone can be created. He said he had started to make the devices for the sheer excitement of it and denies ever planning to use them himself, saying he only sold them to others. ...

A stretched Samsung chases rival Apple's suppliers

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:36:53 -0400

By Miyoung Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - Overtaking Apple Inc as the world's leading maker of smartphones has stretched Samsung Electronics Co's in-house supply lines, and the South Korean firm is now courting some of its rival's main parts suppliers. After costly courtroom battles over technology patents, the two gadget giants are now going head-to-head over securing the best supply of parts as they jostle to rule the $253 billion smartphone market. The two took 100 percent of the industry's profit in January-March, Canaccord Genuity data show. ...

Your next horror movie franchise isn't a movie - it's an app

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:52:35 -0400

By Lucas Shaw NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - The iPad 2 changed Neal Edelstein's life. Edelstein had been working as a producer for more than a decade, making such movies as David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive," "The Ring" and "The Ring Two." When Edelstein got the tablet in his hands, he felt he was holding the future of entertainment. He's spent the past two years creating what may be a game-changing Apple-only app, the horror franchise "Haunting Melissa. ...

Google’s new Hangouts app will soon support SMS

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:15:06 -0400

Google on Wednesday announced a new application, known as Hangouts, during its annual I/O Developers Conference that looks to unify the company’s existing chat and video services. The application was released for Gmail, Android, iOS and Chrome, and it supports Google Talk, Google+ Hangouts and Google Messenger. Dori Storbeck, community manager of Google+ Hangouts and Chat, confirmed on Thursday that SMS integration is also “coming soon,” noting that is it one of the company’s “most requested features.” Adding the ability to send and receive SMS messages will help Google further compete with Apple’s iMessage service and BlackBerry’s upcoming cross-platform BBM app.

Google’s new Hangouts app will soon support SMS [updated]

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:15:06 -0400

Samsung advertising barrage said to ‘mentally enslave’ Indian consumers

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:20:33 -0400

Samsung’s marketing Death Star isn’t just hovering over the United States — it has designs on conquering the entire world. Per Barron’s, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry thinks that Apple may have a tougher time in India than other markets because BlackBerry and especially Samsung have already blanketed the country with ads touting their smartphones as elite products that consumers simply see as less expensive versions of the iPhone. Because of this, he says that the companies have created ”an environment where they tend to mentally enslave the consumer to buy their products.” Chowdhry says this is particularly true of Samsung, which he says airs TV ads once every 15 minutes in India.

Amazon tablets soar in mobile content consumption

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:40:08 -0400

Millenial Media, a leading mobile advertising platform, is out with another Mobile Mix report. It shows Amazon’s tablets gaining share in the mobile content market at a fairly dizzying clip. The Mobile Mix report is based on billions of monthly ad impressions and it offers an interesting glimpse of emerging trends in mobile content consumption. Perhaps the biggest bombshell is that Amazon is now hogging 28% of ad impressions served to Android tablets; just marginally behind Samsung’s tablets that get a 35% share. No other Android vendor has achieved double digits. The cheapo Kindle tablet strategy has helped Amazon to already vault to the top tier of the U.S. tablet market when it comes to content consumption. Android tablets get 45%

Windows Phone’s big problem: Most OEMs see it as an afterthought

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:35:25 -0400

The latest numbers from IDC show that Windows Phone is still having a tough time gaining traction, as the operating system was found on just 3.2% of all smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2013. And things could look even worse for Microsoft in the second quarter since Windows Phone devices will have to go toe-to-toe with heavyweight flagships being rolled out by both Samsung and HTC, as well as the low-cost BlackBerry Q5 that BlackBerry is aggressively pushing into emerging markets. In fact, the only company that’s really devoting a lot of resources toward manufacturing and publicizing Windows Phone devices is Nokia, which really has no choice since it has chosen Windows Phone as its exclusive operating system. Let’s

Microsoft reportedly prepping 7.9-inch Surface for June launch, Samsung to supply displays

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:55:41 -0400

Microsoft is building a smaller Surface tablet according to multiple reports, and a new rumor on Thursday suggests it will feature a 7.9-inch display when it launches in late-June. Digitimes reports that Microsoft’s smaller Surface slate will make use of 7.9-inch display panels supplied by none other than Samsung Display, the one-time Apple supplier now in search of new clientele. The report also notes that despite the rising popularity of 8-inch tablets following the launch of Apple’s iPad mini, suppliers aren’t expecting much from the new Surface considering its predecessors’ sales performance.

Android shipments explode in Q1 as iPhone stalls; Windows Phone tops BlackBerry

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:20:26 -0400

Microsoft and BlackBerry are fighting to become viable alternatives in the mobile market, and while Android and iOS accounted for a majority of smartphone shipments in the first quarter, Windows Phone made some significant moves that propelled it ahead of BlackBerry. Research firm IDC found that Windows Phone shipped 7 million smartphones, accounting for 3.2% of all shipments in the first quarter of 2013, more than double the year-ago quarter. Microsoft was able to overtake BlackBerry, which despite its new BlackBerry 10 operating system, saw smartphone shipments decline from 9.7 million units to 6.3 million units, accounting for 2.9% of global channel sales. “Windows Phone claiming the third spot is a first and helps validate the direction taken by Microsoft

Smartphone survey shows the ‘Apple/Samsung duopoly has strengthened’

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:50:53 -0400

Is the mobile industry headed for a duopoly where Apple and Samsung are the only two companies that matter? Breakdowns of smartphone industry profits sure make it look that way and now Barron’s points us to a new survey conducted by MKM Partners showing that the two companies’ grip on the smartphone market has only strengthened over the past several months. The survey, which measures smartphone buying intentions for just over 1,000 American consumers, found that 30% of likely smartphone buyers planned to buy an iPhone while 28% said they planned to buy a Samsung device for their next smartphone. For comparison, just 6% of likely smartphone buyers said they would go with a BlackBerry device and just 2% said they

Google boosts photo offerings to rival Facebook

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:24:09 -0400

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is digging deeper into its technology toolkit to turn its social networking service into a more formidable threat to Facebook, sprucing up its photo features at a time when sharing snapshots online and on mobile gadgets is growing more popular.

Dr. Dre, Iovine donate $70M for new USC center

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:15:46 -0400

The new Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy at the University of Southern California will offer a curriculum aimed to help young innovators create the next iPod or Facebook. The hip-hop mogul best known ...

Retina iPad mini leak points to upgraded processor and cameras

Wed, 15 May 2013 15:40:54 -0400

Apple is expected to debut a new iPhone, iPad and iPad mini tablet later this year. Earlier rumors have suggested that the company’s popular 7.9-inch tablet would see a variety of improvements over the previous model. According to MobiLeaks, the second-generation iPad mini will be equipped with an improved Retina display with 2048 x 1536 resolution that works out to 324 pixels per inch, and it will feature Apple’s dual-core A6X processor as well. The device’s camera will reportedly be upgraded with an 8-megapixel sensor on the back and a 2-megapixel sensor on the front. The thickness of the next iPad mini is also said to be increasing from 7.2mm to 7.5mm, likely to make room for a larger battery. Apple

Google Maps updated for Android and iOS, launches this summer

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:31:29 -0400

With its I/O Developers Conference in full swing on Wednesday, Google took the wraps off its redesign of Google Maps for mobile devices. As revealed in an earlier leak, Google Maps has been updated with a brand new layout, new search features and new ways to highlight the “things that matter most.” The latest version of Google Maps for mobile devices is fully integrated with Zagat restaurant ratings, Google Offers and includes enhanced navigation with real-time updates for accidents. The update will hit the iPhone, iPad and Android devices this summer. Google also redesigned the Maps user interface on the Web to better match up with the company’s mobile offering. Google’s I/O keynote is streaming live and the video feed is available on this

RIM unveils cheaper BlackBerry

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:24:30 -0400

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled a lower-cost BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets, stepping up its efforts to regain market share lost to Apple's iPhone and Android devices powered by Google's software.

CA-BUSINESS Summary

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:33:50 -0400

TSX up on energy and industrials; BlackBerry falls TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index rose on Tuesday, as energy and industrial stocks rose in tandem with gains in U.S. stocks, more than offsetting pullbacks in key stocks such as BlackBerry and Bombardier Inc . Energy stocks, which suffered steep losses in April, rose 0.67 percent despite a retreat in the price of oil, helped by the continued momentum in U.S. stock indexes. ...

BlackBerry World now home to 120,000 apps

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:30:19 -0400

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins announced on Tuesday at the BlackBerry Live event in Orlando, Florida that the company’s BlackBerry World storefront is now home to 120,000 applications, including both native BlackBerry 10 apps and ported Android apps. The platform continues to see steady growth, having recently added 20,000 applications in less than two months. BlackBerry 10 still suffers when it comes to the quality of apps, however. Earlier reports claimed that ported Android apps made up more than 20% of BlackBerry World’s offerings, while others were found to be low quality web apps. Popular apps such as Instagram and Netflix are still nowhere to be found. In fact, BlackBerry 10 only offers 34% of the most popular apps found on Android and iOS.

TSX up on energy and industrials; BlackBerry falls

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:08:46 -0400

By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index rose on Tuesday, as energy and industrial stocks rose in tandem with gains in U.S. stocks, more than offsetting pullbacks in key stocks such as BlackBerry and Bombardier Inc . Energy stocks, which suffered steep losses in April, rose 0.67 percent despite a retreat in the price of oil, helped by the continued momentum in U.S. stock indexes. Husky Energy gained 2.2 percent to C$30.60, while sector heavy weight Suncor Energy rose 1.2 percent to C$32.42. The smaller industrials subgroup charged ahead 1. ...

Square expands its hardware push with new cash register

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:02:00 -0400

By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Square Inc, a closely watched payment-processing company, made a significant push into the hardware business on Tuesday, unveiling a new credit-card reader that it claimed could be the centerpiece of the next-generation checkout counter. At a press event in a sunlit San Francisco cafe, Chief Executive Jack Dorsey introduced the "Square Stand," a white, molded-plastic iPad holder that lets businesses accept credit cards with a mounted iPad and an integrated card reader. ...

Hit or miss, BlackBerry is buying time with Q10

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:15:25 -0400

We have seen mixed reports regarding BlackBerry’s performance with the BlackBerry Q10, its first QWERTY toting BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Most industry watchers seems to think early Q10 sales have been strong, though a few analysts have strayed from the pack. RBC Capital Markets’ Mark Sue is in the first camp, though he noted in a new research note on Monday Q10 sales might not blow us away. Regardless, however, the analyst says BlackBerry has already succeeded in one respect: The Q10 is buying BlackBerry some time to turn things around. “BlackBerry is filling depleted channels, with the company on pace to meet our May-qtr estimates,” Sue wrote in a note to clients sent Monday. “Competition remains fierce and Samsung’s GS4 is

BlackBerry opens up messaging, unveils mid-tier smartphone

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:02:15 -0400

By Euan Rocha ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - BlackBerry announced plans on Tuesday to offer its popular instant messaging system on rival devices and introduced a new mid-tier smartphone targeted at countries where its faded brand remains strong. Tapping into its still robust popularity outside North America, BlackBerry said the new Q5 smartphone would be available starting in July in selected markets in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The Q5 includes the tiny qwerty keyboard that still sets BlackBerry apart from most rivals. ...

The Boy Genius Report: What is BlackBerry thinking?

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:50:52 -0400

At the company’s BlackBerry Live conference on Tuesday, BlackBerry announced what could be interpreted as zero positive news for the company. First, there’s the BlackBerry Q5 mid-range QWERTY handset that runs BlackBerry 10. Pricing was conveniently not announced. Industry watchers are chiming in saying that BlackBerry really needs to hit a $250 price point at full retail in order to compete in Asia and other similar markets. Let me spoil it for you. There is no chance BlackBerry is selling the BlackBerry Q5 for $250 full retail. I would be shocked, completely blown away, if that phone came in under $350 before subsidies. And let’s be honest here — in a day and age where consumers who can only afford a $200

Freedom: BlackBerry's BBM Is Coming to the iPhone

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:29:56 -0400

Considering there's a large swath of people who hate iMessage for its frequent downtime and unreliability, you would think BlackBerry would be smart enough to launch its long-popular BlackBerry Messenger app for the iPhone. Oh, they're doing that now? And for Android, too? Good. Finally. Now here's how they're going to make money off you.

BlackBerry offers BBM to rival devices

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:47:06 -0400

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — BlackBerry maker Research In Motion says it will offer its once-popular BlackBerry Messenger service on competing devices.

BlackBerry CEO unveils 'slim, sleek' new version

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:30:33 -0400

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled a lower-cost BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets, stepping up its efforts to regain market share lost to Apple's iPhone and Android devices powered by Google's software.