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Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Fujifilm has released its 27 new models in addition to their DSLR-style X-S1. Fujifilm removed their pre-CES cameras and rolled out a mixture of bridge cameras, point-and-shoots, and super zooms. Some of these cameras are weather-proof while others include a built-in GPS. There are also cameras with 30x optical zooms and a video recording in Full HD 1080p. With these choices, Fujifilm hopes that every customer will find the camera of their choice.

F750EXR and FinePixF770EXR are 16-megapixel cameras with optical zoom reaching 20 times. Its ISO ranges from 100-1280.  It displays on a 3-inch 460k dot LCD and supports raw file and integrated GPS.

They also released 14.4 megapixel waterproof cameras called FinePix XP150 and FinePixXP100. Apart from being waterproof, it is also freezeproof, sandproof, and shockproof. The camera also has an electric compass and may be used as a tracking device. It may also record a video underwater. The same features exist in FinePix XP50 but only displays images in 14 megapixel.

Fine Pix Z100EXR may be a good choice for those techie with smartphones. The 16 megapixel camera can transfer images to iOS and Android devices with no cable requirement. It also has a free app which supports social networking upload.  For more information on these cameras, one can check Fujifilm’s website.

On the other hand, for entry-level photographers, they can take hold of Sony’s new 16-megapixel SLT-a35 which is part of the company’s second generation Single Lens Transluscent (SLT). It uses the Transluscent Mirror Technology of its DSLR line.

Vizio Inc. is planning to implement rock-bottom prices to their personal-computer market. The television maker used the same tactics to drive higher-cost rivals out of the television industry.

The company will unveil their new additions to their computer business. Matt McRae, chief technology officer of Vizio Inc. said that there will be three notebooks and two desktop PCs to be revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show to be held in Las Vegas.

The said machines will be out for sale by June.  While the laptop specifications were not revealed, Mr. McRae said the Windows-based machines will be out at a price which seems impossible.

The push from the company will probably put pressure on PC makers like Hewlett-Packard Co. which have experienced narrow profit margins.

Vizio has already put the squeeze in the TV market on Royal Philips Electronics NV and Pioneer Corp. The two companies were veterans on consumer-electronics.

Further, McRae is firm to do the same in the computer business. “We want to get in there and disrupt it,” he said.

Meanwhile,  PC maker Lenovo announced their new ThinkPad X1 Hybrid laptop powered by a second processor and operating system. The laptop comes in a thin display with higher light and performance benefits. Compared to its predecessor, X1, its battery life is doubled and can last up to 10 hours when set in an Instant Media Mode.

The company also declared a new Ultrabook named ThinkPad T43ou which is their first business Ultrabook especially made for professionals with a new light design and thin display. Lenovo is certain that they have successfully created the Ultrabook without forgoing quality performance and productivity.

The share of Google in the enterprise email market presently swings around at 1% which Gartner, a technology research company, predicts to reach 10% within the next few years.

Gartner says Google is getting ground with enterprises which contain more than 5,000 seats. Gartner also named several users in public and in private sectors with 10,000 or more Gmail seats.

Huge companies that utilized Gmail include the US General Services Administration having 17,000 users, Motorola Mobility with 22,000 users, Jaguar Land Rover having 15,000 users, the Los Angeles City Government with 17,000 and the Intercontinental Hotel chain with 10,000.

Gartner analyst Matthew Cain says this is the start of a major escalation amidst the email war.  According to the research firm, cloud-based email systems make up for roughly 4 % of the overall enterprise email market.

In 2010, a cloud-based exchange service was released by Microsoft. This year, a more expensive cloud was offered named Office 365.

In the meantime, more improvements are being made in Google’s platform at an intense pace. In fact, substantial changes in the platform have reached more than a dozen for the past 12 months.

The upgrades include advances in manageability and in security. Security features improvements add in the ability to reset the users sign-on cookies. Manageability improvements include the faculty to manage policy by user groups.

Turntable.fm has launched its music site online as an iPhone application. It hit everybody by storm when it was made available to the public last January. In fact, popular tech insiders like Mark Zuckerberg and other celebrities were found hooked up to site streaming music service 24/7.

This means users spend time in virtual rooms, represented by their own avatar and lets them spin their music or just listen to virtual DJs play their songs.

At first, it was a peculiar concept for a music-sharing site. As you sign up, you get to have your own avatar, lets you enter a music venue, and become virtual DJs for their connections. A gaming element was added.  It has an “awesome” and “lame” button which users can click to vote for the DJ’s tune.

However, the strange concept was adapted very quickly and made investors throw money their way.

Forty percent (40%) of the 600,000 people who have signed up for the service are using it actively. Now, the site is streaming more than a million songs every day at Turntable.fm.

Seth Goldstein, co-founder at the TechCrunch Disrupt, says this new service has tapped into something really deep. This proves that people want to share the experience with each other.  Goldstein also announced a funding led by Union Square Ventures amounting to $7 million. Other non-traditional investors include the musician Questlove and Lady Gaga’s manager Troy Carter.

With this fund and response from users, Turntable.fm has offered the application on iPhone which gives people the opportunity to take Turntable even when they are on the road.

Five months since Asus have announced about their new creation- the Asus Padfone and there were only a few details which was revealed about this Android smartphone which can be turned into a tablet. However, the specifications were leaked through a mobile benchmarking tool. It says the hybrid combo device has a great possibility of bringing in a qHD screen resolution. The Padfone will also sport on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor.

Asus Padfone was spotted by Notebook Italia in the database of GLBenchmark. According  to the database, Asus has Qualcomm MSM8960 SoC processor which is part of the Snapdragon S4 platform.

With this, Padfone would be the first Snapdragon S4 smartphone to hit the market. Other specs which have been leaked suggest a qHD screen resolution. Its specified dimension is 960 pixels by 540 pixels, displaying on a 4.3-inch screen. The QuarterHigh Definition resolution is the same to other beautiful high-tech phones like the Samsung Galaxy SII, Motorola Droid Razr, and HTC sensation 4G.

When Android operating system was tested on the smartphone, it listed a 2.3.5 Gingerbread. But, when Padfone was presented last May, it apparently runs on a Honeycomb 3.0 which is only used for tablets.

Since Padfone is a combo of a smartphone and a tablet, it is safe to say that it may probably dock into the Ice Cream Sandwich when it’s ready to be sold. The device may be available as early as February 2012.

The newest and major version of Microsoft’s operating system Windows 8 has opened this week and has just made one the biggest changes in the platform history.

At a Microsoft’s conference, they have spent more than two hours to discuss in detail the next OS. The software is yet to be released and used by consumers next year. However, a clearer picture of Microsoft’s position to the industry, shifting their purchases from personal desktops to handy notebooks, and now, they’re open to more portable devices like smartphones and tablets.

In other words, Microsoft’s ace in broadening their landscape is Windows 8. It is a powerful product which works on almost all machines with a convenient interface which adapts along the way. With that vision, we can differentiate Microsoft’s purpose to that of Apple’s. Apple has created a different OS for their portable, and kept a different one for their Intel-based devices.

But then, the separation affected consumer’s views on operating systems, the frequency of updates, and introducing of features after years or months of purchase. If OS’ are separated, the maker can iterate quickly, and they could provide major releases every year while still continuing to offer updates on Mac OS X.

For Microsoft, they have been releasing new versions of Windows every few years. But users are more used to having frequent service updates. Apple and Android are proofs of providing users frequent software updates.

 The known brand, Archos, which has a wide range of Android tablets is updating their ICS. Archos’ G9 tablets users will surely love to hear the ICS update for their G9 line.

Since last year, people have been expecting the launch of the update come 2012. Fortunately, Archos will be launching the update early February. By the end of February, G9 tablets with ICS pre-installed on their unit will be available in the market.

The updated G9 tablet will have a 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU rather than the 1.2. The first to run with Ice Cream Sandwich operating system was ASUS Transformer Prime. But Archos G9 tablets will sure lead the ICS race. It comes with attractive specifications and a well-balanced price which will surely drive the market into buying one.

Meanwhile, Toshiba has revealed its newest tablet which they claim to be the thinnest and lightest among its class, the 10-inch Excite X10.

The tablet weighs 1.18 pounds, 0.75 inch thick, and is made of magnesium alloy. It will also incorporate the Corning Gorilla Glass to enhance its strength and rigidity  in its 10-finger multi-touch screen.

In comparison, the iPad 2 is 0.34 inches thick and is 1.33 pounds light.

The Excite X10’s screen is treated with a resistant coating which was shown during the International Consumer Electronics Show.

Even if the tablet comes in a very slim size, it still managed to retain the Micro USB 2.0 port, a Micro SD card slot, and a Micro HDMI port. It has a rear-facing camera in 5-megapixel with an LED flash and a front-facing camera in C2 megapixel.

Acer in the Consumer Electronics Show launched their new free cloud service for saving images and other documents online. They also unveiled an ultrabook showing the IO ports hidden in a pop-up section at the back.

The service which is called AcerCloud will enable people to upload their videos, photos, and documents over an online service hosted by Acer. These files can be accessed from any laptop, mobile, tablet, or PCs running in Android or Windows OS. These devices may not necessarily be an Acer device.

For all new consumers of Acer PCs, the service will be free of charge and will be available with unlimited storage. By second quarter of 2012, the service will be rolled out in Greater China and North America. It is expected to be out worldwide before the year ends.

It was a struggle for Acer starting this year due to declining sales in PC. But with their new service and emphasis on ultrabooks, the company hopes somehow this will reverse its fortune.  According to Acer, they believe that the AcerCloud will be spell the difference in the long run.

Other PC makers are also expected to do the same thing eventually.

Meanwhile, cloud service provider SingTel aims for cloud growth. As of now, SingTel’s service portfolio includes on-demand connectivity, computing resources, and managed services. The cloud service also added SaaS solutions which help in office productivity, accounting and finance, sales and marketing, supply management, and human resources.

SingTel Business head Alvin Kok said the provider has about 800 businesses and 150,000 business users who are subscribed in its services. The demand has accelerated for the last three year.  The company is still aiming for the CAGR to grow by 50-70% for the next three years.

Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, has conceded to what his critics have said about the company, it was overconfident in 2011. Hastings confirmed that it has moved fast in trying to get their customers stop buying DVD’s for online streaming.

In fact, this has got his company paying too much for its content.

Hastings said in an interview that their big obsession for the year was to not live and die with DVD’s.

Netflix has introduced a new pricing scheme earlier in 2011. It got away with its usual $9.99 plan which allowed subscribers to watch unlimited movies online and have one DVD movie rented at a time. With the new scheme, subscribers should now pay $15.98 every month. Half of the payment goes for Netflix Instant streaming while the other half is for receiving discs in the mail.

The new scheme seemed to discourage 800, 000 subscribers who have decided to cancel their service. As a result, Netflix’s market value dropped out in a huge billion-dollar basis.

Hastings admittedly said it turned out to be a little too fast.  Positively, he says what happened in 2011 will soon be forgotten by people as he believes streaming content will soon be a primary way on how people watch the movies. “Streaming is the future,” he added.

Meanwhile, it looks like someone is ready to challenge Netflix with their service. Verizon is set to roll out their video streaming service for movies and television shows by 2012. It will be available to as many as 85 million homes all over the United States. Full details are not yet released regarding the service. According to Reuters, the new service may start with limited content and might probably echo what is found on other online services like Starz Play and Epix.

Sony’s security in online service has everything in order.

With the new terms of service and privacy policy set by Playstation Network, they have prevented users from joining against the company. So for users, the next time you update your PSN, be sure to read the whole thing before clicking the “I agree” button.

If you are not a reader, well you might want to think twice and read the legal red tape through the official PDF document. The important stuff is right here so you may check those:

“Class Action Waiver. ANY DISPUTE RESOLUTION PROCEEDINGS, WHETHER IN ARBITRATION OR COURT, WILL BE CONDUCTED ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR AS A NAMED OR UNNAMED MEMBER IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTION, UNLESS BOTH YOU AND THE SONY ENTITY WITH WHICH YOU HAVE A DISPUTE SPECIFICALLY AGREE TO DO SO IN WRITING FOLLOWING INITIATION OF THE ARBITRATION.”

According to Chris Pereira of 1UP, the updated TOS do not entirely prevent a user from filing an action of lawsuit. He explains that a user only needs to mail a letter to Sony and wait for the legal counsel to get back to you.

A simpler way is to cancel your account in PSN then file a lawsuit. However, if one is already part of the lawsuit which was filed last August 2011, all information will not be processed.  Moreover, reports say Sony is rebranding from Sony Network Entertainment America to International. This is something interesting since Sony Corporation is a Japan-based entity.