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AfterDawn: News

Sony unveils North American PS Vita launch titles, pricing

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Dec 2011 1:14

Sony unveils North American PS Vita launch titles, pricing Sony has revealed all of the PS Vita's launch titles for when it hits Canada and the U.S. on February 22nd.

The games will cost $10 to $50 although the company has not put specific price tags on each game, yet. PSN downloads are expected to be on the lower range, while games like uncharted are expected to be the very high end.

Sony's own titles include:

Escape Plan (PSN Only)
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational
Hustle Kings (PSN Only)
Little Deviants
ModNation Racers: Road Trip
Super StarDust Delta (PSN Only)
Uncharted: Golden Abyss
wipEout 2048


Titles from third-party developers:

Army Corps of Hell
Asphalt Injection
Ben 10 Galactic Racing
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend
Dungeon Hunter Alliance
Dynasty Warriors Next
F1 2011
EA Sports FIFA Soccer
Lumines Electronic Symphony
Michael Jackson: The Experience
Plants vs. Zombies (PSN Only)
Rayman Origins
Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen
Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs (PSN Only)
Touch My Katamari
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition

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AfterDawn: News

120 companies and groups come out in favor of SOPA

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Dec 2011 12:32

120 companies and groups come out in favor of SOPA The judiciary committee and its chairman Lamar Smith have revealed the 120 formal supporters of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), the draconian bill that will mark the end of free Internet, putting the U.S. in the illustrious group that includes North Korea, Iran and China.

SOPA was proposed earlier this year. SOPA is the first of two bills being considered by Congress. The second is E-PARASITE/Protect-IP. The bills are created to prevent piracy, copyright infringement, and block access to "rogue foreign sites." The bills have been generally panned by the public and the major tech companies due to the fact that companies can get domains and websites shut down if they "engage in, enable or facilitate infringement" or are even accused of it. By creating this blacklist, governments and companies can choose to get sites cut off from search engines and from accepting payments for ads. SOPA only gives accused websites 5 days to file an appeal before they get shut down. If a user posts pirated material in the comments or forum section, the entire site can be shut down for good.

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AfterDawn: News

The Samsung Galaxy S line will not be getting Ice Cream Sandwich

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Dec 2011 12:08

The Samsung Galaxy S line will not be getting Ice Cream Sandwich Samsung has decided to play the Grinch this year for the holidays.

The company has announced this week that its Galaxy S line of phones- including the GS, the GS 4G, the Captivate and the Vibrant, will not be getting the much anticipated Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, ever.

Samsung says the phones do not have enough RAM or ROM to run ICS along with the TouchWiz UI overlay layer. The phones are over a year old and there are over 20 million owners of the line. The newer Galaxy S II line of devices will be getting the update, added Samsung.

The excuse seems strange as LG has recently announced that their far less powerful Optimus phones will be getting the update. It seems as though Samsung is pushing users towards its newer phones.




AfterDawn: News

Apple to file another suit against Samsung in Australia

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 23 Dec 2011 6:32

Apple to file another suit against Samsung in Australia Having lost their bid to ban sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia earlier this month, Apple is preparing to file a new lawsuit against Samsung over their tablet and smartphone case designs.

After a contentious hearing before an Australian judge during which Apple lawyers attempted to delay a hearing in Samsung's lawsuit over 3G patents, Apple's new infringement claims were revealed.

They say Samsung's smartphone and tablet cases infringe on at least 10 Apple patents and registered designs. Apple's earlier suit against Samsung, which will go to trial next year, is over touchscreen patents.

Meanwhile, a hearing on Samsung's claims of 3G patent infringement will take place in March of next year, which is sooner than Apple lawyers wanted. Apple attorney Stephen Burley said the March date would be, "unfair to Apple."




AfterDawn: News

Archos announces a 7 inch Honeycomb tablet for $199

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 23 Dec 2011 5:59

Archos announces a 7 inch Honeycomb tablet for $199 The selection of budget 7" Android tablets will be expanding again soon when the $199 Archos 70b is released.

Like Amazon with the Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble with the Nook Tablet, Archos made some compromises to keep the price down on the 70b. Most notably, it only features a single core processor, 512MB of RAM, and 8GB of internal storage.

However, the processor is a 1.2GHz model, storage can be upgraded via a micro SD slot, and it runs Android 3.2 (Honeycomb). This version of Android was the first to be optimized for tablets, making it superior to Android 2.3, featured on the other two tablets.

It also has some other advantages, including built-in access to the Android Market, something Amazon and Barnes & Noble go to great lengths to avoid. It also includes Archos' own media player app - something the company is known for - and a HDMI port to connect it to a HDTV.

Unfortunately for Archos, this tablet will be released some time after the Christmas shopping season ends. Between that and Archos' relatively low name recognition in the US, it's unlikely this tablet will see the same kind of sales numbers as the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet.

In a way, with its single core processor, it probably shouldn't be compared to either of those anyway. A more fitting comparison would be to Barnes & Noble's Nook Color. If you were considering that tablet, but weren't planning to buy before Christmas, the Archos 70b might be a good alternative.




AfterDawn: News

Microsoft and Nokia accused of questionable tactics to defend Lumia 800 online

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 23 Dec 2011 5:16

Microsoft and Nokia accused of questionable tactics to defend Lumia 800 online As Android and the iPhone continue to dominate the worldwide smartphone market, Windows Phone has yet to gain enough market share to be a serious competitor for either.

As more time passes with no signs that will change any time soon, Microsoft and their chief smartphone partner Nokia have appeared desperate to convince the world everything is going according to plan.

In September Nokia CEO Stephen Elop described Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility as a blow to Android. Later in the month Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked up the importance of Nokia's dedication to Windows Phone to the exclusion of other platforms, particularly Android.

Despite all their optimistic talk, a few days layer a report from the NPD Group pointed out nearly half of all consumers didn't know enough about the Windows Phone platform to even consider buying in.

Apparently agreeing with that assessment, Microsoft anted up $44 million in October to promote their phones. Later that month he went on the offensive against Android, suggesting it is too confusing for the average person.

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AfterDawn: News

iPhone 4S flying off the shelves in the US and UK while Android reigns supreme in Germany

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 23 Dec 2011 4:04

iPhone 4S flying off the shelves in the US and UK while Android reigns supreme in Germany When Apple pushed back their annual iPhone launch from June to October, the obvious question was what effect it might have on sales.

While many people, particularly those who upgrade to the latest and greatest iPhone every year or every other year, were unlikely to even consider jumping on the Android bandwagon, the smartphone market is still growing and competition from Android vendors, particularly Samsung, was stronger than ever.

We may be getting a glimpse of the answer to that question now, and it appears to vary by country. According to Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, iPhone sales in the US, UK, and Australia over the last 12 weeks have made up for lower than normal gains earlier in the year. This seems to follow the expected pattern of existing iPhone customers upgrading.

However, in Germany and France the iPhone isn't doing nearly as well. Not surprisingly this appears to be closely related to the success of Samsung's Galaxy S II. In fact, in Germany the Galaxy S II was the top selling smartphone during the same period.

Keep in mind, the Galaxy S II was available throughout Europe months before it arrived in the US. In fact, most US carriers didn't get it until around the time of the iPhone 4S launch.

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AfterDawn: News

Barnes & Noble follows Amazon's lead - kills root and sideloading on the Nook Tablet

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 23 Dec 2011 3:00

Barnes & Noble follows Amazon's lead - kills root and sideloading on the Nook Tablet Barnes & Noble has pushed out an update for their Nook Tablet which breaks root access to the device and disables app sideloading.

This is similar to Amazon's recent Kindle Fire update, which also disabled root access. In the case of the Nook Tablet, the changes in the update arguably make more significant changes, but at the same time they are easier to get around for the average user.

In addition to killing root access, the Nook Table update turns off sideloading support, a notable advantage it had over the Kindle Fire out of the box. However, if you have installed third party apps prior to the update, they will continue to work.

You can also reportedly downgrade to the original ROM by flashing the factory image your Nook Tablet came with. That means if you need to install or update a third party app it's possible to do by downgrading, installing all your third party apps, and then upgrading again.

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AfterDawn: News

Monster Sony Ericsson smartphone to be unveiled at CES with 13MP camera

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Dec 2011 2:28

Monster Sony Ericsson smartphone to be unveiled at CES with 13MP camera Thanks to a Bluetooth End Product List, Sony Ericsson's upcoming monster Android phone has been leaked.

The device will run on a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, have a 4.55-inch Reality display with 1280x720 resolution, LTE support and most notably, a 13MP back-illuminated camera sensor with LED flash.

On the front side, the SE LT28at will have a 720p camera for video chatting.

The device is expected to be unveiled at CES for AT&T.

Xperiablog has posted pictures taken with the camera, and they are, as expected, outstanding, especially when compressed down for the web. Here are the pictures:

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AfterDawn: News

Swype update adds Dragon dictation tech

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Dec 2011 1:34

Swype update adds Dragon dictation tech Swype for Android has received its largest update yet, adding the popular Dragon dictation technology.

The tech comes via Nuance, which Swype purchased earlier this year. The company says English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish are supported with more languages coming next year.

Dragon is a voice-to-text tech that will replace Google's built-in voice recognition when using the keyboard.

Additionally, the update brings "advanced language modeling" and easier language downloads.

Reads the press release:

Dragon Dictation
You've mastered text-entry using your finger, now get ready to use the best voice-to-text directly from within Swype. Dragon Dictation is now integrated directly into the Swype keyboard! Just press the Dragon Flame key and speak. This version of Swype + Dragon Dictation currently supports English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, but will be expanded to support additional languages in 2012.

Advanced Language Modeling
Swype now features an improved language modeling algorithm, designed to increase the accuracy of the suggestions we offer (such as knowing that you mean "mosh pit" instead of "mosh pot"). By analyzing the text you've already entered, Swype will offer more accurate predictions that make sense in the context of the sentence
Up to a 40% increase in prediction accuracy when a language profile is present
Learns over time as you use it, building up a personal language profile for you.
Enabled only for English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Other languages coming soon!
Language Downloads
A long time coming, Swype now allows you to download any of the 50+ additional languages we support directly from within Swype's Settings window. For a list of supported languages, please see our language support info page.

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AfterDawn: News

Louis CK's Live At The Beacon passes $1 million in sales

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 22 Dec 2011 5:08

Louis CK's Live At The Beacon passes $1 million in sales When comedian Louis CK decided to finance and sell his video, Live At The Beacon, himself, he didn't have any idea how successful it would be. Now he knows the answer is more than $1 million in sales in less than two weeks.

He announced the milestone last night while being interviewed by Jimmy Fallon. "Yesterday we hit a million bucks," he said, "that was ten days on sale."

One of the hallmarks of this experience for him has been honesty about the financial side of things. Not just how much he has made, but also his expenses. He took that a step further last night by talking about what he is doing with the money he has made so far:

I felt uncomfortable about having that much money, so I kind of broke it in four pieces. Two fifty went back to pay for the special, like I replenished my company. Another two fifty went to people that work for me, that work really hard. I gave them all bonuses. And then I took another 280 thousand and donated it to a bunch of charities.


Today he posted an update on his website saying:

I never viewed money as being "my money" I always saw it as "The money" It's a resource. if it pools up around me then it needs to be flushed back out into the system.

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AfterDawn: News

Megaupload founder says Universal is scared of their new music locker service

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 22 Dec 2011 3:57

Megaupload founder says Universal is scared of their new music locker service Megaupload, the file locker service the entertainment industry has identified as one of the biggest threats to their future, has launched a new service (in beta) called Megabox.

Megabox is mostly just an extension of the Megaupload service. You can even login with your normal Megaupload username and password. At the same time, it is focused on music. And not just storing and retrieving music, but also promoting and selling it.

Megabox offers services similar to what you find in offerings from Apple, Amazon, and Google. You can look up information about artists, albums, and songs and upload your own MP3s to your locker.

You can also buy songs through Megabox. For the moment they are relying on partnerships with Amazon and 7digital to sell music. Certainly the major labels aren't about to enter into licensing agreements with them.

But of course that's nothing revolutionary. You can already get a music locker and buy songs online. The more interesting part is what's planned for the future.

In a guest post for TorrentFreak, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom explained that they will be partnering with artists to sell music directly - with 90% of the proceeds going directly to the artist. He even promises a system to pay artists for free downloads.

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AfterDawn: News

Anonymous insider says new BlackBerrys aren't just delayed - they're unfinished

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 22 Dec 2011 2:08

Anonymous insider says new BlackBerrys aren't just delayed - they're unfinished Just a few years ago RIM (Research In Motion) was one of two companies dominating the world smartphone market.

While Nokia's Symbian phones reigned supreme throughout most of the world, RIM's BlackBerry with it's integrated email services, was the unquestioned leader in the US.

Fast forward to the present day and you see both companies struggling. But where Nokia decided to ditch Symbian in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, RIM has continued down a very different path, which currently looks like a road to nowhere.

To say this year has been a disaster for RIM would be an understatement. BlackBerry began the year as the number one smartphone platform in the US, but was passed twice - first by Android and then by the iPhone.

Their much hyped PlayBook tablet appeared to be a minor hit with the market, but less than a month ago they were forced to write off nearly $500 million in unsold inventory.

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AfterDawn: News

Could the next gen Atom processor break ARM's stranglehold on mobile devices?

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 22 Dec 2011 12:20

Could the next gen Atom processor break ARM's stranglehold on mobile devices? Co-founded by Robert Noyce, one of two men credited with inventing the integrated circuit, and Gordon Moore of Moore's Law fame, Intel developed much of the technology at the heart of modern computers.

But in recent years the increasing importance of mobile devices, and the accompanying focus on low power consumption rather than raw horsepower, has put their future as an industry leader in question. While their low power Atom processors proved popular for netbooks, due primarily to compatibility with existing x86 code, the competing ARM architecture has become the unquestioned king of the smartphone and tablet market.

Recently Intel has focused significant attention on becoming relevant in the mobile world, and they hope the next generation of Atom processors, codenamed Medfield, will do just that. Set to be released next year, Medfield promises significant power efficiency improvements over previous Atom generations by eliminating the requirement for an external support chip.

MIT's Technology Review got their hands on a pair of prototype Android devices, a smartphone and a tablet, powered by the new Atom processors. In a review of the devices, which perform similarly to current generation ARM hardware, they mention that Intel has optimized them specifically for Android.

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AfterDawn: News

Latest Apple patent covers in-call multitasking - get ready for the lawsuits

Written by Rich Fiscus @ 22 Dec 2011 9:37

Latest Apple patent covers in-call multitasking - get ready for the lawsuits Apple has just been granted another smartphone patent which may be a new low for the iPhone maker.

Their latest US patent, 8,082,523, is for multitasking while using a handset's phone app. Technically there are some additional details, such as using a touch gesture and displaying an icon for switching to another application, but that's really just specifying that it applies to a standard mobile device touch interface.

Here's the abstract from the USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office):

A portable electronic device displays, on a touch screen display, a user interface for a phone application during a phone call. In response to detecting activation of a menu icon or menu button, the UI for the phone application is replaced with a menu of application icons, while maintaining the phone call. In response to detecting a finger gesture on a non-telephone service application icon, displaying a user interface for the non-telephone service application while continuing to maintain the phone call, the UI for the non-telephone service application including a switch application icon that is not displayed in the UI when there is no ongoing phone call. In response to detecting a finger gesture on the switch application icon, replacing display of the UI for the non-telephone service application with a respective UI for the phone application while continuing to maintain the phone call.

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