Visit a Starbucks and you can now forget about cash or cards: Just flash your phone to pay.
Starting today, iPhone, iPod Touch and Blackberry users will be able to pay for coffee and coffee-themed products in 6,800 of Starbucks’ own stores and in 1,000 Starbucks in Target stores. The scheme has been tested since last year in a handful of stores, and is now available nationwide. Read More…
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on January 19, 2011
Looks like buttonless is in this season.
No, not on this spring’s selection of evening wear. We’re talking about renderings of HP’s rumored webOS-powered tablet published this week on Engadget. It’s a sleek, all-black rendition of what we may be seeing from HP soon, and like the soon to be debuted Motorola Xoom, the tablet has got a button-free face. Read More…
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on January 19, 2011
Until now, the iPad has faced almost no competition. Soon, though, the Android and WebOS tablets will start to ship in bulk, and things may change. Amongst the first will be Velocity Micro’s Cruz lineup, which brings a wide-screen (16:9) tablet running Google’s Android OS for just $300.
The touch-screen tablet is flanked by an e-reader and a “kid-friendly” (read: drop-resistant) model, which come in at $200 and $150 respectively.
The Cruz tablet really is a cut-down iPad. It has 802.11n Wi-Fi, 800×480 pixels on the little 7-inch screen, 4GB storage (expandable via SD-card, with an 8GB card in the box), an accelerometer, a seven-hour battery-life and (oh Lord, can it be true?) a USB port.
The Cruz is essentially a slab of screen, which is just what a tablet should be. As such, it will succeed or fail on software, which is Apple’s big advantage, and also on battery life (will you really get seven hours?) The seven-inch screen seems like a great idea for some, the iPad is too big but the 16:9 ratio is a little odd for a device that can be used in portrait orientation.
Velocity Micro confuses the customer with the other options. For $100 less ($200), you can opt for the 4:3 “e-reader” which is essentially the same tablet with less memory (none built-in, 2GB card in the box), slower Wi-Fi (802.11g) and a 800×600 display (yes, more pixels, but not capacitive, demoed above).
The tablets all ship September 1st, just six weeks away. Lets see how they shape up to the iPad.
Cruz Tablets [Cruz Reader via Richmond Times Dispatch]
Press release [Engadget]
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Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on July 14, 2010
Now that HP has sealed its acquisition of Palm, the PC maker is working hard to get Palm’s webOS mobile operating system onto HP products.
Palm’s webOS will power HP upcoming tablet, says HP CTO Phil McKinney. The tablet known as HP Slate had earlier been designed using Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. HP also plans to put webOS on printers, says McKinney.
“There’s a gap for devices that are larger than a smartphone but smaller than a netbook,” he told attendees at the ongoing Mobile Beat conference in San Francisco. “Slates could fit in that category.”
Unlike rival Dell, which chose the Google-designed open source Android OS to create its cellphone and tablet, HP spent $1.2 billion to buy Palm. The transaction closed earlier this month.
HP wants to control all pieces of the mobile ecosystem, says McKinney.
“If you look at success in the market, they are those companies who can control the end user experience and the entire experience stack,” he says.
That sounds more like Apple and less like Google. But it is clearly the direction that HP wants to go. In March, HP seemed poised to launch its Slate tablet offering sneak peeks of the device through carefully edited videos. Leaks of the company’s plans for the Slate pegged the price of the device at $550.
But in a surprise move in April, HP announced its buying Palm and with that it sent the Slate back to the drawing board. McKinney says HP is not yet ready to announce a launch date for the Slate.
“I am not going to pre-announce products but I will say that we are investing money into research & development and marketing at Palm.”
Photo:HP
Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on July 12, 2010
