CyberLink at CES 2012 introduced the latest version of their pouplar media player PowerDVD 12. We got a first time look at the software and we can tell you Cyberlink has gone into tremendous lengthens in making  this a worth while purchase. Some of the cool and new features you will see in our video walkthrough is the very impressive DLNA feature set, that allows you to not only share content from PC to tablet or phone with the Power DVD app. But all the ability to share content from all you device be it Android, iPhone, iPad and more via the app as well as PC. So you can load content from you iPad and Play on a Xoom tablet or PC and vice versa.

Also the up scale feature from 2D to 3D is solid and gives you full control to maximize the degree and depth of 3D content. This applies to Blu-ray movies as well as, photos and content recorded on your own camera. Also a good amount of social integration that allows you to easily download photos from Facebook in batch format and access YouTube content directly from the play.
CyberLink has successfully added a host of features that makes PowerDVD 12 look like a very inviting offering. Till we get time to fully review it  in the coming weeks. Please enjoy our walkthrough video.

Our favorite Swedish headphone manufacture have just announced the latest iPhone and iDevice speced headphones the t-JAYS Four. work with iPhones, iPads and iPods, offering up 10mm drivers, a 360 MEMS microphone and a three button controller The t-JAYS Four are available in black and will retail for $129 shipping in Nov.

Features

- Fully compatible with Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod; Answer / Hang up / Play / Pause / Skipping / Previous / Volume.
- Voice control.
- Ergonomic design with the ability to carry the cable
in two different directions.
- Microphonics-reducing cable clip.
- High-quality MEMS microphone.
- Dividable cables.
- Kevlar reinforced cables.
- 5 pairs of silicone sleeves in different sizes.
- Carrying case.

PRESS RELEASE

Jays pushes the boundaries with sophisticated t-JAYS Four for iPhone

Swedish Jays continues to develop the Mobile Music concept with the expansion of the t-JAYS series. The new model, called t-JAYS Four, features Jays proprietary and highly-praised sound quality, in a simple exterior casing complete with high quality microphone and remote control three-button keypad to ensure perfect compatibility with Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod. The launch of a-JAYS Four for iPhone earlier this year was a definite success, offering a clear upgrade in sound and function for users of Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod. With the launch of t-JAYS Four, Jays, once again, pushes the boundaries of sound quality and functionality. Perfectly matching the Apple suite of products, t-JAYS Four offers the user an ergonomic and musically authentic earphone, complete with the t-JAYS 10mm TCD driver, that delivers the best possible sound. The MEMS microphone delivers a 360-degree uptake with noise reduction. This unrivalled product spec has already made t-JAYS a musicians favourite that can be seen on stages worldwide.

“Equipping t-JAYS with a three-button control, as we did with the ground breaking a-JAYS Four iPhone, is a a natural step in our ambition to become the market leader in Mobile Music for the discerning user” comments product manager Peter Cedmer. “Once you realize the benefits of t-JAYS and how amazingly they work with Apple products there is no turning back. We launch t-JAYS Four for iPhone in black, provisionally in November 2011, or as we say, when it’s ready.”

- Fully compatible with Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod; Answer / Hang up / Play / Pause / Skipping / Previous / Volume.
- Voice control.
- Ergonomic design with the ability to carry the cable
in two different directions.
- Microphonics-reducing cable clip.
- High-quality MEMS microphone.
- Dividable cables.
- Kevlar reinforced cables.
- 5 pairs of silicone sleeves in different sizes.
- Carrying case.

Box is offering 50GBs of free storage inside its cloud for iOS users — just like it did for TouchPad owners back in June. Anyone who downloads the latest version of Box’s app for iPad and iPhone will receive their massive lot for data storage after registering a personal account (existing accounts can join in on the fun as well). Box will be bumping upload capacity from 25Mb to 100MB per file and adding airplay support.  It is a crazy good deal I  think all iOS user should jump on. The promotion starts 12am on OCt 14th and will run for 50 days.

Source Box

With the passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, a memorable figure in our society and culture today. You are bound to find many tributes about the tech pioneer. Here is one that does catch the eye is is highly creative.

19 year old Graphic design student from Hong Kong Jonathan Mak Long Create this simple but effective tribute to the late CEO of Apple.

The image, the Apple logo with the bite changed to a profile of Jobs, to his Tumblr blog. Known as Jonathan Mak, he initially received about 80 notes on the image. Then word came this past Wednesday that Jobs had died, after a long battle with cancer. Mak reposted the homage, which this time caught fire on the Web, attracting an almost immediate response of 10,000 likes and reblogs on his Tumblr site and surging to 180,000 — in one day.

Steven Sinofsky (President, Windows and Windows Live division, Microsoft), says “We’re gonna reimagine Windows. From the chipset, to the experience, Windows 8 reimagines what Windows can be.”

It all starts with the word “Metro”. A design language by Microsoft that puts YOU at the centre and works the way you want it. It’s your life – digitized. Your people, your content; everything is about YOU. Metro makes things work just the way they should. If you’ve used a Windows Phone 7 device, you know what I’m talking about. Metro is about bringing the stuff you care about closer to you; it’s about getting the technology out of your way just so that you can enjoy your digital life.

What do you think of a computer? What first thought do you get when you hear about using a computer? It’s probably sitting on a chair in front of a monitor typing with a keyboard and using a mouse. It’s been like that for ages! Sure there are laptops, but they are pretty much the same. Sure there are Windows slates but they’re not that good at what they do. Sure there are iPads and Android tabs but they are essentially just oversized smartphones. They just can’t do what a desktop OS can do like full video editing, smooth full featured web experiences etc. You get the point.

When Windows 7 was designed, the shifts that were happening then were around high performance notebooks. People wanted thinner and lighter notebooks; notebooks that would resume from sleep immediately, with batteries that last longer and mobility features like that and Windows 7 did successfully fulfill all those needs and wants.

· About 450 million copies of Windows 7 have been sold!

· Windows 7 consumer usage greater than Windows XP.

· 1502 seamless non-security product changes delivered

· Internet Explorer 9 is the fastest growing Windows 7 browser

· 542 million people signing into Windows Live services.

These are very successful statistics.

Changing World of Computing

But, the shifts that are happening now have changed. Today there are trends around immersive internet computing, ultraportable devices that have touchscreens. Windows 8 is the reimagining of Windows for trends we’re seeing today. The web is driving a lot of this. The web is affecting the way we work, the way we play, the way we connect with other people and it’s only getting more immersive, more personal and more significant in our lives.

· Form factors and user interaction models create new scenarios and opportunities

· Mobility means devices you use while carrying, not just devices you carry then use

· App developers want rich connectivity and sharing capabilities, connection to customers

· Services are intrinsic in all software

Windows 8 – How does it look?

Windows 8 features a Windows Phone 7 like lockscreen which is very personal. It has a beautiful background of your picture. It shows you the time, date, your next appointment and your notifications.

Windows 8 features the “Start Screen” inspired by Windows Phone 7. The Start Screen is your personal mosaic of tiles; the apps on your system are represented by Tiles. Tiles are better than icons for a couple of reasons – they have a lot more space for the apps to show it’s personality and information. For example, you can see stuff like Weather status, stock status, status updates, notifications, news headlines etc. without having to open any app. The information is surfaced to you. That’s the start screen.

Windows 8 experience

· Fast and fluid user experience – Responsive, alive and beautiful with animations and Metro style

· Immersive and full-screen – Focuses attention on your apps

· Touch-first with full keyboard and mouse – Enables choice of interaction

· Web of apps working together – Apps are connected to each other and the cloud

· Experience for all PC devices and architectures – No compromise across new form factors, desktops and laptops

What about the apps? Windows 8 features a new app platform based on standard web technologies like HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. These languages form the backbone of the web. So, on day 1 when Windows 8 ships, hundreds of thousands of developers will already know how to build great apps for Windows 8. HTML5 is doing a freaking good job at building interactive and immersive web apps. Apps using this technology would be pretty rich and engaging for the end users. These apps are called “Metro Apps” (Of course) and these apps will be available through the Windows App Store, a one stop shop for your Windows 8 app demands. The revenue will be the 70/30 split for the developers/Microsoft apparently. Though, it’s not confirmed yet.

The great thing about Windows 8 is – these apps aren’t silos. These apps can talk to other apps. For example, you can tweet a photo stored in your friend’s Facebook album without saving anything to the desktop or someplace in the sky. You can imagine being able to search for anything on the web, twitter, music, games, apps through a single vie. That’s a pretty slick feature that nobody has done before and developers and consumers alike are going to appreciate a lot.

Features

Windows 8 is entirely gesture based; although you can use buttons too. To go to the start screen using a tablet, you swipe from the right. That’s the place for you to tinker around with the setting and to access more options. Windows 8 features real multitasking. You swipe from the left to switch between apps. Windows 8 also includes a great feature – Snap. The ability to dock two apps side by side which none other touch operating system supports.

IE10 is the best hardware accelerated browser out there. You can run hardware accelerated flash, ActiveX, do in private browsing and experience HTML5 content and other stuff that most other touch operating systems don’t support.

Another really important factor is speed. Windows 8’s UI is blazing fast. That’s because it is hardware accelerated. All the transitions, graphics, animations, effects and even the Metro style apps everything is hardware accelerated to the core which means the power of your GPU is used to make everything slick and smooth.

Microsoft has also redesigned the Windows Explorer with the Ribbon interface familiar to Office 2007 and Office 2010 users.

Windows 8 also features an improved task manager and a better multiple monitor support.

Windows 8 will also include Xbox LIVE functionality.

Windows 8 includes support for all the latest and greatest technologies like TPM, UEFI, Compass, Gyro, Accelerometer, Magnetometer, Near Field Communication, Ambient Light, LCD TSP, SSD, WLAN, GPS, Cameras, Touch, Ink, 3G/4G.

Also, buzz is that Windows 8 will include Phone capabilities. That would be a real nice addition I guess.

Windows 8 PCs with UEFI and SSDs will be able to boot in just about 8 seconds!

Windows 8 fast boot up -

Windows 8 will also have Microsoft SmartScreen technology and Microsoft Security Essentials built right into the OS. A Metro version of Microsoft Office is in the works according to some rumors.

At the BUILD Conference, about 5000 Developers were given a Samsung Windows 8 developer slate.

This isn’t all. Microsoft says there are hundreds other features that aren’t shown yet. I think we’ll know about them till Windows 8 reaches Beta.

Check out Windows 8 in action:

Will Windows 8 be able to take on the iPad? Decide for yourself!

iLuv showcased their iPad Bluetooth Keyboard & Case, what unique about this devices is the detachable Bluetooth Keyboard with a  standby battery of 30days and a full battery life of 5hrs with use. The case comes with a kickstand that to allows your iPad to be viewed in laptop mode, the keyboard interacts via Bluetooth for seamless interaction, with dedicated iPad keys  and a scissor like keyboard. The Keyboard charges via USB for and easy charge, and if you don’t really need the keyboard that day you can detach it off it Velcro strip and use it as a secure carrying case

Featured



Yesterday saw Apple unveil iOS5, the next update for the iPhone and iPad, and as usual there was much anticipation surrounding the event. I remember last year, before the iOS4 update, thinking that Apple would either announce things that would have the OS catch up to the competition – widgets, navigation, multitasking etc – or it would continue in its own fashion, so I was disappointed but not surprised to see that very little really changed in the software, especially regarding widgets and the ‘we don’t trust the user to close things and we don’t want them to realise the battery is terrible’ multitasking. This year brought more than disappointment, though, for it saw Apple continue with its special brand of advertising – copy the competition and claim it as unique.

Firstly, let’s look at those numbers they proudly mentioned.

“To date we have sold over 200 million iOS devices.”

Okay, good starting point. Nothing wrong with that figure at all.

“That makes iOS the number one mobile operating system, with more than 44% of the market.”

Surely not. 200 million iOS devices? Nokia sell over double that each and every year. Odds are the marketshare mentioned is US-specific, because worldwide Nokia is number one as a handset market with 24%, while Apple has 18%, and of the 400+ million handsets sold from Nokia the majority are running Symbian, which has a world marketshare of 25%, compared to iOS’s 18%. So no, iOS isn’t the number one mobile operating system unless you look at a very specific demographic. The problem with this is that the USA makes up a very small percentage of worldwide mobile phone usage, which is precisely why Nokia has small impact there but is the world’s largest handset manufacturer. By focusing only on the USA for the keynote, Apple demonstrated a false opinion that the American market is larger or more important than the rest of the world, even though the cellular market, in terms of data speed and carrier relations/tower sharing, is much behind that of a lot of Europe.

“We’ve created a whole new category of device with the iPad.”

No, the iPad is an internet tablet, which Nokia invented with the 770 in 2005 – which, incidentally, also supported Flash. The iPad is a massive iPhone, rather than something specifically designed for the internet in the way the 770, N800 and N810 were, and the N900 continued.

With that cleared up let’s look at the, ahem, “new” features.

Notifications. These had to change, anyone who has used an iPhone will be more than happy to state how annoying and obtrusive the current notifications are when watching a video or playing a game, so a new method was expected. What wasn’t quite so expected though was the blatant Android rip-off that has been implemented in iOS5 – the pull-down status bar with a list of what you missed. Yes it’s nice and easy, but WP7 has a nice and easy version too, as do Maemo 5 and Symbian, both of which can also be bolstered with a widget. What makes it worse is Apple’s typical noise: “We have built something that solves some of the current problems.” – No Apple, you have stolen something that solves the issue, you haven’t really “built” anything.

Notifications are also visible from the lock screen (like Symbian and Android) and you can access them from the lock screen (like Android and Symbian with the Bubbles app). There is one distinguishing feature here, though: iOS doesn’t let you clear all the notifications, so you need to manually close them. In other words, Apple stole the usefulness of Android’s design and then removed one of the most important and convenient parts. Way to go Apple…

Twitter integration. This is good, sort of. You sign in through Settings and then the details are saved, even to apps that want to use it with permission. This allows you to tweet links, map locations, photos and the like from the OS. Sounds great, and it is, although it’s odd that Facebook isn’t given the same treatment. And while this is a nice inclusion, Twitter isn’t as integrated as WP7 will make it in the Mango update. Oh and Twitter contacts in your address book can be updated, like they can in Android and Symbian, but it doesn’t actually take advantage of you having Twitter friends like WP7 does.

Another bold statement follows:

“Safari is the best mobile web browser out there.”

I’ve used Safari on the iPhone. To put it bluntly, it’s pretty crud. I won’t talk about the lack of Flash, the actual usability lacks in my opinion. Put this up next to the N900’s MicroB and Safari gets a good kicking – MicroB plays Flash, it lets you copy text and images, it renders pages like your desktop computer, and it’s much easier to navigate. Safari on the iPhone feels like a baby browser, MicroB is the real deal. Going back to Flash for just a second, how can anything be deemed the “best” when it doesn’t let you access the whole web?

Now, the new update brings Safari Reader, which is located in the status bar and if you tap it it removes everything but the story text. Pretty neat, but let’s not ignore the fact that if you double-tap text in a browser already it focuses only on the text, so nothing exactly revolutionary. It’s then said that you can email not just the link but the contents of the page – now, this is good news but MicroB let users do this back in 2009. The only real difference is when you are reading a multi-page article, Reader will put it into one streamline view, which is a nice touch. The other thing added is a Read It Later function, so you can save a page to read later – much like, say, bookmarks on every other browser, or Read It Later on Firefox which can be used on Maemo 5 and Android and then picked up on the computer.

Then comes tabbed browsing. About time, Opera started doing this how long ago? Firefox was released on Maemo 5 in 2009 and that came with tabbed browsing too. Welcome to the past Apple, we missed you.

iOS5 also brings reminders. Yes, every other OS also has reminders. The only difference really seems to be you can set a location reminder, so when you leave a certain place you’ll be reminded to do something. A nice touch, not sure how often people will use that and it seems pretty minor, but Apple are masters of that. It also syncs across devices, much like pretty much every other OS, which let you sync your Google Calendar across devices and computers.

The camera has also got an update. This should be interesting, given how outrageously limited the camera currently is with no settings to speak of. What’s new? There’s a camera icon on the lockscreen, and you can use the volume key to take a photo, but only in the camera app itself. Compare this to WP7 where the dedicated camera button will wake the device so you can take a photo at a moment’s notice, or Nokia’s having long had dedicated camera buttons while the volume buttons zoom in and out, much more intuitive and akin to a real camera, whereas the iPhone has the user fumbling, trying to keep it steady with one hand while the other pokes the screen. In the update, if you tap and hold a certain part of the image it will automatically adjust the settings to maximise that section, and you can edit photos from the device – so the iPhone still lacks massively in the camera department, with anaemic settings options and no option to set different modes manually. There are just 6 letters and 1 number to consider here: Nokia N8. And every other device that lets you edit photos on the device itself.

Mail got an update, you can now search the contents of a message. Once again, the N900 was offering this in 2009, and you can flag messages, which other phones already let you do. And there’s a dictionary built in too, like Windows Phone 7 except Apple’s actually lets you hit ‘define’ to get a definition. Apparently people use words they don’t know the meaning of – is that an insight into the average iPhone user?

The new keyboard is pretty neat, just grab it and drag up and it splits in half, with each half on either side of the screen for easy thumb typing. This is a nice addition, but once again Android already had it. It’s really only useful on tablets though, as it’s not difficult to type with your thumbs on a phone already.

Next is “PC-free”, for people who don’t have computers. Before you get too excited, this is what the rest of us simply call “wireless”, and is anyone else troubled by the announcement that now you can use your phone without a computer? I don’t know about you guys, but I have yet to own a phone that needed to be connected to a computer to set up. There are also now over the air (OTA) software updates. This is new to Apple, but Maemo 5, Symbian and Android already offer it.

Game Center is then introduced, basically explaining how many games the iPhone has (100,000) and how many users (50 million) and how it’s more social now, as well as letting you play turn-based games.

Then there’s iMessage, which is Apple’s take on BlackBerry Messenger. Basically iPad and iPod users will get the same messaging service, and messages will be synced across all your devices. iMessage will know when someone is eligible for iMessaging.  This seems to be a carbon copy of Skype’s IM, if you have Skype open on your phone and computer both get notifications, just as if you’re logged onto MSN in multiple locations. So this again isn’t something new, it’s just Apple’s foray into IM. What is much more appealing is WP7’s new feature of noticing who you are talking to regardless of how – Facebook, Skype, SMS etc, and putting it all in one conversation thread. The “new” messaging service also offers delivery and read receipts, like my Nokia 3210 was doing almost a decade ago.

Part of the PC-free deal also means you can wirelessly sync your iTunes – just like WP7 syncs to Zune and Android wirelessly syncs too. Another ground-breaking initiative from Apple.

That’s the keynote talk about iOS5 in a nutshell, and what it really shows is Apple’s lack of creativity in the mobile market. In 2007 it changed the phone game with the design of the phone, but it has never been ahead software-wise. The first iPhone did less features than the Nokia N95, and it still lacks some of those basic but important features. It took 3 years just to allow folders and wallpapers. Video calling has been around for many years, so Apple gave it a new name and limited how it could be used and sold it as something new and revolutionary in FaceTime. While other phones were allowing widgets, Apple refused (and still hasn’t budged on this). While Symbian allows live multitasking and retains the crown as the battery king, Apple still doesn’t really allow multitasking (app pausing isn’t the same thing) and still has terrible battery life. Other systems allow eBooks to be read, so Apple gave it a new name and a fancier interface and once again called it something new.

If anything, iOS5 shows that Apple is running out of steam and ideas for software. Borrowing so heavily from Android and other systems is a stark message to consumers that it doesn’t really know how to differentiate itself, that the success in 2007 was because the package was pretty and that’s all the iPhone has ever really had going for it. At no point has an iPhone user managed to demonstrate what that phone can do that various others can do, including much older devices. When you break iOS down, as a software system it is little more than an app launcher. Peter Skillman, Nokia’s new smartphone design chief, was quoted in in September 2010 saying “If a user wants to walk from the kitchen to the dining room in her house, she simply walks through.  It does not work like that in mobile–you have to go through the front door to get to the kitchen.  iPhone has a home button which works like a go-back-to-front-door button.  This is not a model that human beings are used to.  People are spatial.” Microsoft have worked to utilise a new model (even outright stealing the ‘front door’ analogy in the Mango conference), but Apple has done nothing. The home screen remains as static and boring as it ever did, widgets remain elusive, and it’s still a case of closing one, opening another.

I don’t expect iPhone sales will dwindle from this, if anything the user experience will be better than it has been on the iPhone to date, but I hear quite regularly people saying the iPhone is boring, hasn’t changed enough, isn’t matching the competition, that Apple takes existing features and give them a new name. The latter hasn’t really been done much this year (excluding iMessaging and PC-free), which in itself just goes to show how little has really been implemented. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see consumers getting more frustrated with Apple – the company that changed how we use mobile phones in 2007 but, despite good sales and a pretty package, has seemingly let go of the pulse since then, just making existing things a bit prettier than they are elsewhere – and thus spending their money on other operating systems, notably the ones that actually are advancing mobile technology. Apple today made noise about OTA updates but hasn’t even introduced turn by turn navigation, the former being something that should have been implemented at least 18 months ago and the latter is something that is increasingly important and offered elsewhere.

I was never really convinced Apple belonged in the mobile market – the adverts are all great, but picking up a device and trying to do something (‘hey, where are the camera settings?’ or ‘no sorry I can’t Bluetooth this photo’) didn’t match the hype. With iOS5 continuing this trail of disappointment, I’m now firmly convinced Apple have entered a market they don’t know what to do with. And before the fanboys chime in with sales figures – that’s not the point, if it were, you’d all be using Android and Symbian, considering they’re the top worldwide operating systems, or using Windows PCs because that’s the most popular. While iOS5 was supposed to make a mockery of Windows Phone’s Mango update, it’s actually ended up with Apple borrowing a number of features. What the other companies need to learn from this is that marketing really pays off – if, for instance, Nokia made fun adverts about how much more Symbian does than other systems, it would probably get more sales. Rather, Apple is stamping out in commercials how the iPhone does this and that, so consumers think that the other companies don’t, else they’d mention them.

This article has deliberately not mentioned the iCloud unveiling because it is a separate entity to iOS, however what I will say is that while Jobs and co. made a great effort to talk up iCloud and how it syncs everywhere at once, they neglected to mention that this is precisely what a cloud service is – Google does it, Dropbox does it, SkyDrive does it. However, iCloud only syncs the last 1,000 photos, to save battery apparently, while SkyDrive uploads everything and DropBox will take what you throw at it within the space you have. Perhaps when the rose-tinted sheen has worn off, people will look back at iOS keynotes from 2008 and realise them for what they are: taking existing things, giving them a fancy name and shiny design and claiming them as revolutionary.

Slacker Premium radio services is the next step in music entertainment on-demand.  Priced at $9.99, Slack Premium gives you all the features of the $3.99 radio plus; unlimited skips, no ads, ability to cache stations, news radio & song lyrics. The user on Slacker Premium services now has unlimited access to 8 million songs on demand, the ability to skip back, and the ability to create your own playlist of any song or artist.  So our aim here is to see how effective Slacker Premium is, can we create an unlimited playlist of my favorite songs and cache that to my Smartphone for a flight to Brazil? Lets see what happens in the review

Verdict: They are many aspect to Slacker’s On-demand service that have evolved they way we listen to music. The combination of radio and & MP3 player present with Slacker’s new offering. From the ability to create listen and customize your own playlist. To the vast amount of song available at your finger tip, it hard not to see how well Slacker’s Premium On-demand services bring a change to the already slate arena on internet radio.

If I have one complaint , it would be the instability of the app build, I have noticed some crashes and hang-ups. Which should be resolved in an update.  So far Slacker as created a service that provides you with the music you love at your finger tips, as you discover new music on the go. Besides if also free to try out for a month

Slacker  radio is trying to change they way we consumer music, by keeping the cloud in your pocket. The launch of Slack Premium with On-Demand Priced at $9.99, gives you all the features of the $3.99 radio plus user, plus unlimited access to 8 million songs. Allowing user to listen to they songs you want, when you want  and how you want.  Putting the power in the user’s hands to create their Personal Playlist and make it into a radio station. Hit the Jump for the Press release and we will have a review of the app soon and Slacker’s

PRESS RELEASE

 

Slacker Radio Launches Slacker Premium with On-Demand Access to Slacker Music Library

SAN DIEGO – May, 17 2011 – Slacker, Inc. today launched Slacker Premium Radio,
a new tier of service that provides music lovers with on-demand access to the Slacker music library including individual songs, albums, top charts, station playlists, single- artist radio stations and more. Slacker Premium takes the power, functionality and music discovery that Slacker Radio provides and combines it with the flexibility of integrated on-demand access for a new tier of service that provides the best of all worlds. Slacker Premium is available today on the web, and as new applications for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android and BlackBerry smartphones. The new applications deliver features for all listeners, including free listeners, subscribers to Slacker Radio Plus and now subscribers to Slacker Premium Radio.

With the launch of Slacker Premium Radio, Slacker becomes the first music service to deliver three complementary tiers. From the entirely free Slacker Basic Radio service, to the ad-free and feature-rich Slacker Radio Plus and now on-demand access with Slacker Premium Radio, Slacker meets the needs of all music fans. Whether listeners prefer a superior free personal radio experience or the power of a fully-loaded music subscription service, Slacker is the only offering to provide the full suite of options.

Slacker Premium Radio enables listeners to search, play and replay specific songs and entire albums from the Slacker library, which features over 8 million songs, as well as easy access to top songs and artists from each of the 150+ expert-programmed Slacker genre stations. Listeners also have the ability to create specific playlists both on mobile and on the web, and even experience off-line playback through the ability to cache stations, playlists and entire albums.

A new Slacker station creator provides all listeners the ability to quickly and easily create multi-artist stations, with custom fine-tuning features for the perfect radio experience. All Slacker listeners also have the ability to create a radio experience ranging from stations based on a single artist to stations created by entering hundreds of hand-picked artists. In addition, Slacker Premium listeners can create and enjoy stations that will only play songs from a single chosen artist or band.

In addition to the ability to search the entire Slacker catalog, the new Slacker Premium Radio service gives listeners more ways to browse stations than ever before, allowing an even deeper music discovery experience. Listeners can now browse expert hand- programmed genre stations to search and play top artists, view and play top songs and albums, allowing behind the scenes access to the “Top 50″ charts for every station. The Slacker Premium Radio interface also includes all-new artist pages, featuring the artist biography, all songs by the artist, discography and related artists in addition to displaying on which Slacker stations each artist is programmed, for the ultimate artist access.

“Up until this point there has been an array of ‘Internet radio’ and ‘on-demand’
services with much debate about which is better from a content, experience and
technology perspective,” said Jonathan Sasse, senior vice president of marketing
at Slacker. “Slacker Premium Radio provides music lovers with the best of both. We
believe the combination of a world class radio service providing music discovery up front with on-demand access to any song and entire albums is the winning combo.”

Slacker Radio offers a fully customizable and personal online radio experience that
includes the most varied and compelling range of content offered by any Internet radio service. The Slacker Radio experience includes over 150 expert-programmed music stations, ABC news, comedy, custom artist-hosted showcase stations and leading music festival stations along with personalized ESPN Sports content integration coming soon. With a music catalog that is over ten times larger than the leading radio competitor, Slacker Radio gives listeners the ultimate music discovery resource.

Slacker Premium Radio:
• Search, play and replay specific songs or entire albums
• Create specific playlists on mobile and on the web
• Off-line playback of stations, playlists and albums on the iPad, iPhone and iPod
touch, Android and BlackBerry smartphones
• Replay specific songs on programmed and custom stations
• Browse and play “Favorite” songs, now collected in one location
• Unlimited song skipping
• Ad-free listening
• Complete song lyrics†
• Browse Top Charts on all Slacker genre stations
• “Peek Ahead” artist, album and song preview
• Ability to skip forward and backward

The iPad 2 has been out for about a week now, and we though it was time to see how it fairs against its older brother the original iPad.

iPad vs iPad 2 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So the iPad 2 is out and finally the hype is here in the flesh. So lets get down to it, how does the iPad 2  stacks up to the hype.

Hardware, the iPad 2 is thinner (33% to be exact), slicker design, a front facing camera and two color variants, check out more from our first impressions.

iPad 2 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Camera

The front facing camera on the iPad 2 serves its purpose for video chatting but  the VGA resolution has its limitation. The rear camera shoots at 720p and does a good job when in good lighting

iPad 2 Camera Pictures VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Pros

• Much lighter
• Front and Rear cameras
• long battery life

Cons

• Front camera is VGA
• No difference in operating system from iPad 1
• not much in upgrade features from the first iPad

Size and Weight¹

• Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm)
• Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm)
• Depth: 0.34 inch (8.8 mm)
• Weight: 1.33 pounds (601 g)

• Height: 9.50 inches (241.2 mm)
• Width: 7.31 inches (185.7 mm)
• Depth: 0.34 inch (8.8 mm)
• Weight: 1.35 pounds (613 g)
• Weight: 1.34 pounds (607 g) (Verizon)

Storage²

16GB

32GB

64GB

16GB

32GB

64GB

Wireless and Cellular

• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

• Wi-Fi + 3G model: UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• Wi-Fi + 3G for Verizon model: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)
• Data only³
• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Learn more about Wi-Fi + 3G

Carriers

Display

• 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
• 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Chip

• 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

Cameras, Photos, and Video Recording

• Back camera: Video recording, HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio; still camera with 5x digital zoom
• Front camera: Video recording, VGA up to 30 frames per second with audio; VGA-quality still camera
• Tap to control exposure for video or stills
• Photo and video geotagging over Wi-Fi

Power and Battery⁴

• Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
• Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
• Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

• Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
• Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
• Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network
• Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

Input/Output

• 30-pin dock connector port
• 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
• Built-in speaker
• Microphone

• 30-pin dock connector port
• 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
• Built-in speaker
• Micro-SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
• Microphone

Sensors

• Three-axis gyro
• Accelerometer
• Ambient light sensor

Location

• Wi-Fi
• Digital compass

• Wi-Fi
• Digital compass
• Assisted GPS
• Cellular

Audio Playback

• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Audio formats supported: HE-AAC (V1 and V2), AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
• User-configurable maximum volume limit
• Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through with Apple Digital AV Adapter (sold separately)

TV and Video

• Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 1080p with Apple Digital AV Adapter or Apple VGA Adapter (cables sold separately)
• Video out support at 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable
• Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

Mail Attachment Support

Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)

Languages

• Language support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Catalan, and Vietnamese
• Keyboard support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France), French (Canadian), French (Switzerland), German, Traditional Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin, Zhuyin, Cangjie, Wubihua), Simplified Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin, Wubihua), Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese (Romaji, Ten Key), Japanese (Kana), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Estonian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Flemish, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian (Cyrillic/Latin), Catalan, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Macedonian, and Cherokee
• Dictionary support (enables predictive text and autocorrect) for English (U.S.), English (UK), French, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese (Romaji), Japanese (Kana), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Flemish, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Catalan, Vietnamese, and Cherokee

Accessibility

• Support for playback of closed-captioned content
• VoiceOver screen reader
• Full-screen zoom magnification
• White on black display
• Mono audio

Environmental Requirements

• Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)
• Nonoperating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C)
• Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
• Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

Mac System Requirements

• Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
• Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later
• iTunes 10.2 or later recommended
  (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
• iTunes Store account
• Internet access

Windows System Requirements

• PC with USB 2.0 port
• Windows 7; Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later
• iTunes 10.2 or later recommended
  (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
• iTunes Store account
• Internet access

In the Box

• iPad
• Dock Connector to USB Cable
• 10W USB Power Adapter
• Documentation

Environmental Status Report

iPad embodies Apple’s continuing environmental progress. It is designed with the following features to reduce environmental impact:

• Arsenic-free display glass
• BFR-free
• Mercury-free LED-backlit display
• PVC-free
• Recyclable aluminum and glass enclosure

ipad 2 running the A5 dual chip

Up to 9 times faster. Same low power as A4. This will be the first dual core tablet to ship in volume. Has HDMI out with proprietary apple cable

Coming to At&T & Verizon

Pricing

Ships March 11th in the USA and March 25th world wide

HDMI Cable $39

iPad2 Smart Covers Poly cases are $39, leather $69

Via Engadget live blog

Press release

The World’s Best Sounding Pocket-Sized Stereo Speaker

Patented “Twoofer/BassBattery” Technology, Ultra-wide 80Hz – 20kHz Audio Range

iPad’s Perfect Travel Companion — Great Father’s Day Gift

Reno, NV, February 15, 2011 – Soundmatters www.soundmatters.com, the leader in high-quality, portable speakers founded by former NASA engineer/audio legend Dr. Godehard Guenther, announced today it is delivering foxL^TMv2 Bluetooth for iPad, the ultimate wireless portable speaker for the iPad.  The perfect iPad travel companion, foxL Bluetooth is the first pocket-sized wireless speaker that audio purists will love, with a range of unique sound features, such as foxL’s patented“Twoofers,” “BassBattery,” and other technologies that provide a smoother deeper bass and an “open & airy” listening experience that provide iPads and other products with the superior sound quality they so desperately need to let you enjoy your portable movie and music experience to the fullest.

Great Father’s Day Gift – Amazingly Good HiFi Bluetooth Music Streaming in a Tiny Package

A great gift for Father’s Day, dad will love bringing the highly portable battery-operated foxL Bluetooth hi-fi audio speaker wherever he brings his iPad, on the road, at work for presentations, to play music at parties, watch movies in the living room, tailgate at football games, and much more.  Priced at only $199 and incredibly small at 5.6” wide x 2.2” high x 1.4” deep with 8 hours of rechargeable battery-time, foxL Bluetooth features a full range of audio output from 80Hz – 20kHz with real bass for amazingly good Bluetooth music streaming in a tiny package that fits with your portable lifestyle.  With the latest v2 of foxL Bluetooth, all iPad and other Bluetooth devices (including iPhone, iPod touch, laptops, portable gaming, and Bluetooth/music phones) will experience longer battery life and improved Bluetooth due to the updated 2.2 circuitry.

foxLv2 Bluetooth for iPad Features:

· Patented Audio Technology: provides more audio output for louder, distortion-free sound.

o Features patented Dual 1-inch Linear Magnetic Drive^TM “Twoofers” more likely found in large expensive hi-fi speakers for remarkable clarity and range.

o Patented “BassBattery^TM” Technology turns the battery into a woofer for smoother

deeper bass.

o “DomeForward^TM”driver alignment and high-transparency acoustic grill provide an “open and airy” listening experience, typical of good home speakers.

· Built-in Noise-canceling Mic: for “business quality” wireless speaker phone/conferencing.

· Bluetooth Music Streaming: provides surprisingly high-quality Bluetooth stereo with auto pairing and even shows up in the iPad’s AirPlay menu.

· Plays & Charges Anywhere: Along with its patented re-chargeable built-in woofer/battery (for up to 8 hours of play), it plays and charges with the included universal AC charger (with four international adapters) and included USB cable.

foxL and iPad – Match Made in Heaven

“foxL and iPad is a match made in heaven.  foxL augments the iPad with its shockingly good sound quality, portability, excellent battery life and simple, intuitive operation,” said Lee Adams, Vice President, Soundmatters International, Inc.  “Ultra-compact, with a sleek industrial design, foxL brings musical clarity and the full impact of your movie’s soundtrack to your iPad experience…anywhere.”

Pricing & Availability

The foxLv2 Bluetooth for iPad and other Bluetooth devices is priced at $199, available immediately through major online retailers, including Hammacher Schlemmer, Sharper Image, Music Direct, Amazon.com and more, as well as through the Soundmatters site at:  www.soundmatters.com. foxLv2 Bluetooth for iPad comes with the portable speaker, re-chargeable built-in woofer/battery, universal AC power charger, four international charger adapters (for US, Japan, Europe/China, UK/HK, and AU/NZ), USB computer charging cable, stereo 3.5mm audio cable, wrist strap, travel pouch, anti-slip mat,  and manual.  In addition, Soundmatters provides a wired version of foxLv2, priced at $169. 

Award-Winning foxL Line of Portable Speakers

The foxL line of portable speakers has won numerous industry awards and accolades, including Time Magazine’s “Top 10 Gadgets of the Year.”  Sound & Vision said it is “the absolute best gift ever for the audiophile…fundamentally changes how and where we can enjoy great sound…it’s that good!” And CNN said, “So, travelers of all stripes, or any of you looking for a small system for your room or office that can fit in your pocket and go for a good long time on a full charge, this is ultimate gear.”

For more information, see the Soundmatters site at: www.soundmatters.com.

About Soundmatters

Soundmatters International, Inc. www.soundmatters.com was founded in 1998 by physicist, former NASA engineer, and audio design legend Dr. Godehard Guenther.  A world-renowned pioneer in the field of audio, Dr. Guenther introduced many firsts to the audio market, including the world’s first in-wall speaker; in-wall subwoofer; component loudspeaker for car hi–fi; switching power supply for car hi–fi; multi–channel car amplifier; hi–fi television monitor; and first complete digital time-delay system for surround sound.  Through Soundmatters, Dr. Guenther is dedicated to developing exceptional performance audio products that enhance, rather than complicate consumer’s lifestyles.

No you can get your tech we

TAKE YOUR iPAD TO THE BEACH?

ONLY WITH THE DRYCASE TABLET

DryCASE is the ONLY Waterproof Case that

Actually Vacuum Seals Portable Electronics

Wilmington, NC (February 2011)—Did you get an iPad, Galaxy, Kindle, or other state-of-the-art tablet this holiday season? Do you like going to the beach? If you answered yes to both of these seemingly unrelated questions, then you need the new DryCASE Tablet.

The DryCASE Tablet is the only vacuum-sealed, fully-enclosed waterproof case that will protect your iPad/Kindle from water damage. It is also the only protective case that allows for full touch-screen functionality. Perhaps you want to watch a movie by the pool or use your favorite app in the bathtub. Now you can.

“Without a vacuum seal, there’s no way to guarantee complete air and water impermeability,” says Dr. Roy Archambault, CEO of Dry Corp. “Plus, since the DryCASE is sealed against your portable electronic device, you can still use your touch screen and keyboard.”

The DryCASE Tablet also features a 3-way headphone / microphone jack. Match up the DryCase with another DryCorp accessory, DryBUDS waterproof headphones, and listen to music or watch a movie at the beach or pool! Use Bluetooth and Skype a video conversation from your hotel pool. You can also hear and talk through the DryCASE as long as a tiny bit of air remains inside.

The DryCASE also features a buoyant neoprene armband that can be used to attach the product to your arm or to the console of a boat or anything else. A new buoyant waist band has just been added by many requests by stand up paddle surfers and kayak enthusiasts.

The new, patented DryCASE Tablet is state-of –the-art protection for your state-of-the-art technology.You can go anyplace with DryCASE!

The DryCASE Tablet is 9” wide and 13.5 inches long and will fit almost any tablet-sized portable electronics. A smaller DryCASE for phones, cameras or MP3 players is also available. The DryCASE Tablet is competitively priced starting below $60 and includes all the above features, including the unique vacuum seal technology. Most other products are more expensive and/or have fewer features or are product specific.

For more information and to find a retailer, please visit www.DryCASE.com or call 1-888-6000-DRY.