Gadgets Blog » Apple

Today’s top gadget news story is a fairly surprising instance of two for the price of one. As other developers attempt to get products into the market inspired by the Apple iPad, Hewlett Packard seemed to be the best bet for consumers holding out for a PC-oriented tablet computer.

The HP Slate in particular was an impressive model, boasting Windows 7 and offering a series of features that could even make it a solid improvement on the iPad. I was surprised by the announcement that HP canceled the Slate, a serious blow to companies chasing down Apple.

This is the second tablet device that HP has dropped this year, meaning they’ve backed off from both a Windows 7-based model as well as an Android model. So the fact that the second half of our story was the announcement of an HP-copyrighted device known as the PalmPad makes things even more interesting.

With a name that sounds like some sort of mash-up between iPad and Palm Pilot, the device churned up Internet rumors that HP had decided to go with Palm’s Web OS as a tablet operating system instead. This news, undoubtedly, would be fantastic for Palm if it were true.

This week, Microsoft unveiled what has to be one of the more exciting gadget-related stories of the year. Boasting a full-fledged preview in Engadget, similar in scope and depth as their notorious iPhone preview, the computing giant unveiled its tentative models for what could be their most important gadget of 2010.

The Windows Phone 7 marks an important area where Microsoft has lost ground to competitors like Google and Apple. The company may still have a relative lock on desktop computers, but as things stand now, portables like smartphones and tablets lack a consistent Microsoft product that can compete. Perhaps then, this would be the gadget to bring Microsoft back?

To be fair, it is a bit too early to tell just how great these phones will be. One key difference between Microsoft and Apple products is their manufacturing process. Microsoft designs the software on their phones, but the actual phone design and manufacturing is left up to other companies like HTC and Samsung. Apple, on the other hand, makes both software and hardware, creating what some feel is a better-integrated system. Microsoft’s Windows 7 has been fully integrated for mobile phones, replacing Windows Mobile 6.5, a product that was plagued with some less-than-stellar features.

While Microsoft built its computing empire via agressive expansion tactics and developing products suited to consumer use, the computing giant seems to be lagging behind some of its competitors here in the 21st century. The relatively poor Windows Vista operating system damaged the company’s reputation, hurting their vice-grip on the personal computer market.

At the same time, rival companies like Apple and newcomer Google have managed to create computing empires based upon parts of the market where Microsoft was absent. Today’s news story seems to underscore this trend. Hot on the heels of Apple’s iPhone 4 and just before a slew of Android-equipped smartphones, Microsoft has abandoned its KIN smartphone.

This news, in some ways, was a while coming for the KIN. The device, which was different from other smartphones in several key ways, has been canceled for its European release later this summer.

Stop the presses! This week marks a new generation in smartphone-dom, as well as Apple fanboy-ism. The release of the iPhone 4G, despite some worries about the number of available devices on the market, triggered a mass-rush to pick up the hot item. Apple’s been on a roll the last few months, with the iPad only setting the tone for this week’s new gadget. With Steve Jobs and company poised to take over the world, and the tech news-media salivating over the company’s every move, it seemed like nothing could possibly go wrong. Right?

Unfortunately, there seems to have been a bit of rain on Apple’s parade. The much-anticipated next-gen iPhone was indeed released to thrilled crowds of gadget-lovers, but a second wave of reports began streaming in that seemed to point to some serious engineering failures on the part of Apple. Namely, the new iPhone has some issues with its WiFi and 3G reception caused by interference from the user’s hand. While any wireless device experiences a bit of this interference when in use, the iPhone’s issue is related to the lower left hand corner of the device, a common area to be covered while holding the phone in your hand.

Today’s news story comes as a surprise, but not because it’s unexpected or out of the ordinary. Rather, it’s surprising that it’s taken this long for Starbucks to implement free wireless Internet in all of their locations. The program, which begins on July 1st, will likely be met with many a satisfied customer enjoying a coffee beverage while comfortably surfing the Internet. The leading retailer and brand of specialty coffee made the announcement at the Wired Business Conference in New York City.

As of right now, it’s still possible to get Internet access in Starbucks, provided you meet a few criteria. If you’re an AT&T Internet subscriber, then there’s really nothing you have to do. You get free Internet in any Starbucks location. If you have a registered Starbucks card, then you were able to get up to two consecutive hours of free Internet access at any location, activated via a log-in type process. However, if you fall into neither of these categories, then you would have to shell out $3.99 for those same two hours of use. While the amount wasn’t anything terrible, it still was inconvenient for customers, especially if you didn’t plan on using all two hours.

Yesterday’s top story in the technology world generated a huge amount of buzz, which is perhaps to be predicted. First and foremost, it involved the Media’s Favorite Company, Apple. This in and of itself guaranteed that here would be a disproportionately large media coverage, but to make things even better, the story pitted Apple against Microsoft. Indeed, according to an article in Business Insider, there’s a new king of the computing world as Apple’s market capitalization finally overtook Microsoft’s.

Before we get into analysis, let’s take a look at the raw numbers. At the end of the day on May 26, Apple’s market capitalization was sitting at $222.12 billion. Microsoft’s was close by, but distinctly less at $219.18 billion. The companies are the second and third most valuable American corporations, behind only Exxon Mobile.

According to one calculation of enterprise value, Apple is worth $200 billion, with Microsoft worth $197 billion. Market capitalization is the value assigned to a company based off its equity. Equity, largely in part, is determined by stockholders. So the second numbers become more important, as other calculations take factors such as outstanding Assets and Liabilities into consideration. Still, Apple stands as the more valuable company.

While the iPad was the media darling of the technology world long before its actual release, consumers have perhaps been less willing to jump on board the Apple bandwagon than the company might have hoped. The iPad, for all its flaws, is certainly a unique gadget with the capability to really shake up the computing industry.

At the same time, it also presents consumers with a bit of a quandary: what are we supposed to do with something that walks and talks like an iPhone, but can’t make phone calls? Add in complaints regarding the tablet’s inability to multitask and the scenario seems ripe for competitors to step in.

On that note, Dell officially unveiled what could be a legitimate contender in not only the tablet market, but also the realm of smartphones. Unveiled yesterday and dubbed the “Streak,” Dell’s tablet is noticeably smaller than the iPad, and boasts several features that could make it an attractive alternative.

Yesterday we featured three excellent releases from Google that had incredible potential to lengthen the company’s lead in the world of cloud computing. Earlier this week we featured YouTube, the revolutionary video site owned by Google, as they celebrated their landmark fifth birthday. As if all of this Google-related news wasn’t enough to begin with, today (May 20), Google announced something capable of topping all prior announcements. Partnering with Sony, Logitech and Dish Network, Google is attempting to bring us a solid product where so many before have failed: our televisions.

Google TV, which was announced with one of the company’s trademark stylish videos, looks to synchronize all sorts of video media into one source for viewing on the television. The technology, at least in the video, looks fairly straightforward. With an Internet-connected television (or adapter box, for those of us without the brand new TV models), the user can search for media in a Google Chrome-esque bar. The video in question turns up from a variety of sources, including NetFlix, YouTube, and other online options. Sony and Logitech have plans to incorporate the system into televisions, while Dish Network will provide a small adapter box serving the same purpose.

While it’s an amiable goal on the part of Google, their success here could very much be a game-changer. For one, virtually every other company who have attempted such a thing have failed. AOL had AOL TV, which fell through. Microsoft’s Windows Media Player showed a lot of promise, but was brought down by difficulties in video formatting and relative difficulty of use. Even Apple has failed at this endeavor, with an Apple TV option that was closely related to your iTunes video library. While Apple’s incarnation was perhaps the best, it still suffered from limited video selection, primarily because videos had to be purchased from their official store.

If Google can manage to succeed in this endeavor, then they will be treading upon, not just other Internet companies, but also posing a threat to the entirety of television. While Internet-based TV may very well be the way of the future, there are some serious doubts for the time being. For one, high quality broadcasting would require a large amount of bandwidth, and YouTube videos could look grainy and poor on a high-resolution TV screen. Nonetheless, I suppose Google knows what they’re doing. Keep your eyes open for Google TV in the near future!

Oh, and did we mention that they’re all free?

As a first-time Mac owner, I’ve been slowly adapting to the difference between Mac OSX and Windows, and I must say that the transition hasn’t always been a smooth one. While both Mac OS and Windows come with their own suite of programs intended to give the user a solid base to work with, Windows benefits from having a better selection. The content-management system on a Mac is built around the program that are initially included, which is great for beginning computer users, but annoying for someone who knows what they’re doing. At any rate, today we’re looking at three great apps for Mac that will streamline your computing!

GIMP

Short for GNU Image Manipulation Program, GIMP is the Mac answer to Microsoft Paint. Except that it’s light years better. Gimp is used primarily for simple and straightforward image manipulation, including cropping and retouching pictures. This is an excellent addition to your Mac if you don’t want to shell out the big dollars for a more powerful program such as Adobe Photoshop. The user-interface is straightforward and intuitive and should be familiar to anyone with other image-manipulating experience. It can also combine multiple images into an animate GIF format, which is a great option to play around with.

With its swept-back wing design and (apparently) white color, the Phantom Ray has worked to eliminate one of the more troublesome aspects of jet warplanes: the pilot. That’s right, the Phantom Ray is one of the latest drone airplanes, the sort of device that has become more and more common in 21st century warfare. The folks over at Technewsdaily have worked to put together a great article outlining the specifics of the plane, which manage to make it sound incredible while delivering the raw potential of a warfighter of this magnitude:

The 36-foot-long aircraft, which will serve as a test bed for advanced technologies, was rolled out May 10 at the Boeing Defense, Space, and Security plant in St. Louis, Missouri. With its 614 mph (0.8 Mach) cruising speed, operating altitude of 40,000 feet and 50-foot wingspan, the 365,000-pound Phantom Ray advances the state of the art for unmanned aircraft. The bat-shaped flying wing has a combat radius of 1200 nautical miles. Power comes from a General Electric F404-102D engine.