Archive for the ‘rumors’ Category

Canon Ambiguous On Mirrorless Camera Plans

Last year, we heard Canon was vaguely planning on getting into the M4/3 camera market. More recently Canon Europe’s head of consumer imaging, Rainer Fuehres, said that Canon has no need to enter the mirrorless compact system (CSC) segment.

Canon Europe head of consumer imaging Rainer Fuehres says “The idea of the compact system camera is nothing to do with whether the camera has a mirror or not, but about creating a small and more portable system. If Canon does take part I hope we won’t introduce just a me-too product, but we’ll use the opportunity to do something different. For Canon it would be about connectivity and providing high image quality in a small form.”

It hasn’t been ruled out that Canon will introduce a CSC. Fuehres indicated that if it were to happen it would only be because Canon could do it in a different manner.

[via electronista]

Gadget Lab Podcast: Motorola Xoom, iPad 2, Intel’s Thunderbolt

This week’s Gadget Lab podcast zooms in on the Motorola Xoom tablet, the upcoming iPad 2 and Intel’s new Thunderbolt connectivity standard.

The Motorola Xoom is a neat piece of hardware. It’s got a 10.1-inch screen (slightly bigger than the 9.7-inch iPad), front- and rear-facing cameras, 32 GB of storage and a 3G wireless connection. Oddly, the audio speakers are on the back, which makes the sound rather poor.

That’s a solid feature set, but the cheapest Xoom costs $800 — which is a pretty disappointing starting price compared to the iPad’s $500 sweet spot that nobody can seem to match. To be fair, the most-comparable iPad is the 32-GB model with 3G, which costs $720. But I argue the starting price will be the most important factor for new adopters who are still figuring out why they need a tablet in the first place, and $800 is way too high.

Nonetheless, the Xoom’s feature set puts Motorola’s tablet ahead of the iPad, so we’re interested to see what Apple has in store for us at next Wednesday’s iPad 2 event. We’re expecting an iPad with two cameras, more memory and a faster processor.

Speaking of Apple, the company introduced a major upgrade for its MacBook Pro family this week, adding the newest Intel processors and a brand-new connectivity port dubbed Thunderbolt. What’s Thunderbolt? Dylan explains it’s a versatile connectivity port that will eventually enable you to plug in just about any type of peripheral, potentially eliminating the need for desktop towers in the future. When was the last time you heard of a connectivity port this cool?

We close the podcast with a quick look at the iPhone game Tiny Wings (sorry, I called it Little Wings thanks to an on-camera brain fart), which soared to the No. 1 spot in the App Store’s bestsellers this week. It’s a cute game that perfectly executes the Angry Birds formula, so no wonder it’s a hit.

—

Like the show? You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds

Or listen to the audio here:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #105

http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/gadgetlabaudio/GadgetLabAudio0105.mp3

PSP2 To Be Announced At E3, According To Publishers [Gaming]

Word on the street is that Sony will be announcing a proper sequel to the PSP in just a couple of weeks at E3. That’s right—we’re not talking something slimmer, more slidy-outy, or colorful. A true PSP2. More »










Video Games – Games – Fan Pages – Wallet – Sequel

Rumor: Apple in Talks to Buy Streaming Music Service Lala

Apple could be knocking on the door of Lala, an online music service, with plans to buy out the Palo Alto-based startup.

Two anonymous sources told Bloomberg they could not be identified because talks are still in progress. The terms of the deal are unknown. However, if the rumor is true, it suggests Apple is thinking about its next competitive move in digital music, with the emergence of cloud-based audio services such as Pandora and Last.fm.

Lala allows customers to listen to songs on their site once for free. Then, customers have two options: to pay 10 cents to listen to songs from Lala’s online servers, or to pay 79 cents to download a song onto their computer hard drive.

On a similar subject, Cult of Mac in August reported that Apple was building a 500,000-square-foot data center in North Carolina. Rich Miller, editor of Data Center Knowledge, speculates that given its enormity, Apple’s data center would most likely focus on cloud computing — hosting services or data over the web. If the acquisition pans out, perhaps Lala’s service would be integrated into this new data center to support Apple’s gigantic iTunes customer base.

Wired.com’s Eliot Van Buskirk speculates a Lala acquisition could lead to deep discounts for iTunes customers. See his report at Wired.com’s Epicenter.

See Also:

• Apple Buyout of Mapping Firm Hints at Future Breakup With Google …
• Apple Quietly Recruits Chip Designers for In-House Tech
• Apple Is Ready to Take a Bite of Silicon Valley

Photo: Manny Hernandez/Flickr

Mystery Nvidia Tablet Identified: 2010 Arrival and Android Rumored [Nvidia]

An update on that sleek, but unknown Nvidia Tablet we showed you yesterday. As widely expected, it’s actually a prototype Tegra-based device built by an ODM for Nvidia to shop around to wireless carriers worldwide. Here’s what we may know:

Engadget says a credible tipster suggests it currently runs Windows CE and has a resistive touchscreen, but Android and capacitive upgrades (and different screen sizes) are likely. A March 2010 arrival is rumored, as is T-Mobile’s involvement. Interesting, but definitely still an undercooked rumor at this point. We’ll let you know when we hear more. [Engadget]

Search for the Amazon Headshrinkers Sunday 9P e/p They say that shrinking heads is no longer practiced. We’re going to ask the experts. Premieres Sunday at 9P e/p on Nat Geo. Learn more at www.natgeotv.com/expeditionweek

Ads by Pheedo

« Older Entries