The official Skype app will be in the Apple App Store Tomorrow, March 31st, and Blackberry users can expect to see one around May of this year.Â
The iPhone’s Skype feature set includes free Skype to Skype calls, SkypeOut support, a pretty interface that is keeping with the iPhone interface, and instant messaging. You can also take a picture from within the app, and accept conference calls. Â The app will also work on 2G Â iPod Touches that have the external mic.Â
Caveats are: Â only being able to use on a wi-fi connection, as there is a ban on any VoIP on a 3G network, no text messaging, file transfer, or access to your Skype voicemails.Â
I’ve been using the Fring app for a while now, and it’s a great multi-protocol client that supports talk, chat, and Skype already….jus sayin.
BOSTON – (Photoshop World Booth No. 615) – Mar. 25, 2009 – WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today expanded its My Book® family of external hard drives to include a 2 TB capacity, the largest available capacity in a single-drive system. With its wide variety of models, WD offers a solution for every type of user, whether they’re a creative power user on a Mac® or a home user on a PC. The new 2 TB My Book family includes: My Book Studio Editionâ„¢, My Book Mac Edition, My Book Home Editionâ„¢ and My Book Essential Editionâ„¢ models.
“The popularity among consumers of high-definition video cameras, digital photography and digital music downloads means that users are filling up their computers with massive amounts of digital content as fast as they can click ‘save.’ As the volume and value of users digital content grows, backing up data on multiple CDs or DVDs becomes time consuming and inconvenient. At the same time, consumers are realizing the monetary and emotional value of content and need to back up their most important files. The My Book family, with its massive 2 TB capacity allows users to backup all their data in one easy step and keep it in one easily accessible place,” said Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups.
My Book Studio Edition & My Book Mac Edition
Formatted1 for Mac computers, these drives are an ideal solution for creative professionals and video editors. The My Book Studio Edition is equipped with high speed FireWire® 400/800 and eSATA interfaces as well as the popular USB 2.0 interface and a 5-year limited warranty. My Book Mac Edition external drives feature a USB 2.0 interface and a 1-year limited warranty.
My Book Home Edition
Equipped with continuous backup software and high-speed eSATA and Firewire 400 as well as USB 2.0 interfaces, My Book Home Edition carries a 3-year limited warranty. My Book Home Edition is designed for PC users that need an effortless way to preserve digital pictures.
My Book Essential Edition
My Book Essential Edition offers an easy way to add storage capacity to home or office computers. The drives are equipped with a USB 2.0 interface that provides convenience and compatibility among multiple computers.
The entire family of My Book external hard drives features:
New 2 TB capacities allowing users to store and backup all their data in one central location;
Elegant, small footprint design;
Capacity gauge to see at a glance how much capacity is available on the drive (not available on the My Book Essential Edition drive);
Environmentally friendly design that saves power by going into standby mode after 10 minutes of inactivity;
SmartPowerâ„¢ features that turns the drive on and off with the computer and Safe Shutdownâ„¢ that prevents the drive from being powered down until all the data has been written2;
Kensington® Security Slot that allows users to secure drive to their desk with the separate purchase of a Kensington lock kit; and,
1-year limited warranty.
Availability and Pricing
The My Book Studio Edition, My Book Home Edition and My Book Essential Edition 2 TB external hard drives are available now at select retail stores and online retailers. My Book Mac Edition 2 TB external drives will be available next month. Estimated pricing ranges from $329.99 USD to $379.99 USD, depending on drive model and capacity.
The SAMSUNG N110 gives you the power to accomplish more wherever you are. The 6-cell lithium battery lasts for up to 9.5 hours! You’ll have more time to shop online, surf the web and chat with friends. Plus, a larger touch pad makes it so easy to use. The new design is also sleeker, curvier and comes with a glossy screen. Weighing only 2.8 lbs., the N110-12PBK mini notebook is an affordable mobile solution ideal for all your online needs.
Dell has been busy trying to break into the smartphone sector, and submitted two prototypes to the carriers for review. The results? Denied. Apparently Dell’s smartphone offerings, one which would have run Android, and the other WinMo, were too “Dell-like” and did not stand out when compared to the major players like LG, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, etc.
The bar is high to make VIP Smartphone status these days. Palm reinvented themselves and made a big splash, HTC is pumping out at least 3 more Android handsets this year, and of course, no one has come close in popularity to the iPhone. According to Kaufman Bros. analyst, Shaw Wu, Dell will still be plugging away at their attempt and will go back to redesigning their smartphone.
And what we all knew is now official. “Dell-like” = boring and nondescript.
The first of these interactive multimedia magazines is all about home entertainment, and includes all new content like a guide to building the best movie room, a guide to home automation, and even a DIY coffee table projector how-to. For a discount price check out http://www.PopSci.com/GeniusGuide I had a chance to look at it thanks to Bo. I enjoyed it because it included a fully interactive magazine with videos and audio. I also like this because it is hosted by a company called zino which host you magazine collections.
Rumors, leaks and fuzzy pictures have been floating around about the upcoming Samsung handset to be running Android. The handset might pop it’s head up in Q3 of this year. It’s being compared to the HTC Magic, which leads us to believe that it will have a virtual keyboard, and use the 3.5 Qualcomm chipset.
The HTC Magic is expected to drop into the European market in Q2, and HTC has also committed to two more Android based devices for 2009. Motorola is also said to be gearing up for an Android range of handsets too, and we may see these as early as Q2 of this year.
I want to see more Android action. I will be keeping a close eye on these rumors.
It may have been St. Patty’s day but in the tech world, it was iPhone OS 3.0 day. Coming on the last day of South By Southwest’s Interactive week, Apple announced what would be included in their next iPhone update. The hype machine was in full effect in the days preceding this announcement. We knew that there would be some good stuff coming – we talked about MMS and tethering in the latest Money Shot, my homie Chris Pirillo wanted a search function, and Kevin Rose of Diggnation predicted cut n paste.
When it was all said and done, Apple touted over 100 features to be included in the update.
Here’s the Deets:
Cut Copy and Paste. W00t! Apple may have taken it’s time, but they definitely did it well – it works across all apps, and, in cute Apple fashion: you shake it to undo. Hee.
MMS! W00t W00t! Finally, you can send peeps pics via SMS. I guess I owe a lot of peeps pictures now. No more teasing them about phone cam pics I’d send them if they could get them. Also you can send contacts, audio and locations.
SMS services: now you can forward and delete your text messages.
Push Technology – get alerted by text, a little badge or by voice.
Spotlight: search. Just like on their computers, across all apps and even mail that’s still on the server.
Typing in landscape – across apps. Very Nice.
Bluetooth connectivity is beefed up. More functionality to connect to more hardware. Johnson and Johnson demoed LifeScan – a diabetes monitor and meal planner app. This is very interesting, and opens up the possibilities of the iPhone being utlized more in the medical field.
iphones will also be able to communicate to each other via peer-to-peer Bluetooth technology.
Maps and GPS – more support for turn-by-turn GPS when devs supply their own maps.
CalDAV- subscribe and share your calendar. Let everyone know what you are up to.
Stocks app – beefed up and can subscribe to news feeds.
Live video streaming from the web. ESPN did a dope demo streaming some March Madness games.
Shake to shuffle your songs.
Wi-Fi auto login.
Proxy support.
Parental Controls.
LDAP support.
Whew. That’s a lot of stuff. In sum, it’s a lot of stuff that frankly, most phones already do. Only Apple can create such fervor of gratitude for stuff that their products should have had in the first place. My favorite tweet from the coverage: @engadget “Applause for a feature that every other device in the world has. Odd.” haha. I found that quite the amusing.
Some fun things were also demoed – LiveFire – a First Person shooter, and Smule, creators of the Ocarina app brings on Dr. Ge Wang up from Stanford — he directed the Stanford laptop orchestra, to demo the new Trombone Leaf app. Will the iPhone be the next new musical instrument? Will it make being in the high school band cool? Marching Bluetooth Band.
Now you want it. Yes you do. When can you get it? Summer. Yes, now you have to wait. It’s free for the iPhone, and $10 for the ipod Touch. But if you are a dev, SDK is out and available now. Go Play. Let us know what you think!!
For some live blogging action from the announcement, hit up gdgt.com
Kevin Rose predicts that the iPhone update 3.0 WILL include cut and paste ability? The actual announcement of the OS update is not until tomorrow, but there have been some pretty juicy deets that have been circulating, and this is the latest. Peep the vid here.
CUPERTINO, California—March 11, 2009—Apple® today introduced the all-new iPod® shuffle, the world’s smallest music player at nearly half of the size of the previous model, and the first music player that talks to you. The revolutionary new VoiceOver feature enables iPod shuffle to speak your song titles, artists and playlist names. The third generation iPod shuffle is significantly smaller than a AA battery, holds up to 1,000 songs and is easier to use with all of the controls conveniently located on the earphone cord. With the press of a button, you can play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist. iPod shuffle features a gorgeous new aluminum design with a built-in stainless steel clip that makes it ultra-wearable.
“Imagine your music player talking to you, telling you your song titles, artists and playlist names,†said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod and iPhoneâ„¢ Product Marketing. “The amazingly small new iPod shuffle takes a revolutionary approach to how you listen to your music by talking to you, also making it the first iPod shuffle with playlists.â€
iPod shuffle is based on Apple’s incredibly popular shuffle feature, which randomly selects songs from your music library. And now, when you can’t remember the name of a song or an artist playing, with the press of a button iPod shuffle tells you the name of the song and artist. iPod shuffle can even tell you status information, such as battery life. With the ability to hold up to 1,000 songs and the VoiceOver feature, you can now easily switch between multiple playlists on your iPod shuffle. iPod shuffle can speak 14 languages including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
The new iPod shuffle comes in silver or black and features a sleek and ultra-wearable design with a built-in stainless steel clip. iPod shuffle is the smallest music player in the world and is incredibly easy to clip to almost anything and take with you everywhere you go. iPod shuffle features up to 10 hours of battery life.*
Pricing & Availability
The third generation 4GB iPod shuffle is now shipping and comes in silver or black for a suggested price of $79 (US) through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod shuffle comes with the Apple Earphones with Remote and the iPod shuffle USB cable. iPod shuffle requires a Mac® with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS® X v10.4.11 or later and iTunes® 8.1 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista, Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 8.1.
*Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. Song capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; in 256-Kbps AAC format, song capacity is up to 500 songs; actual capacity varies by encoding method and bit rate.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
 The official Skype app will be in the Apple App Store Tomorrow, March 31st, and Blackberry users can expect to see one around May of this year. 
Press Release:
