Review Horizon

A new video appeared, describing the HP response (even if technically was shown before) to Apple’s iPad. Sporting a Windows 7 OS, multi-touch gestures and dual camera for both pictures and video conference, this device seems to be everything iPad is not, including USB and SD memory slots, and also Flash!

If HP (together with Microsoft) can implement the UI right and hide the Windows 7 innards under a layer of user friendliness, the only thing left to do is to somehow create a store to gather all the applications written specifically for the new interface under one roof. Anything less than that and the device will be limited to the techies (like myself) that are willing to hunt for compatible apps in various places scattered all over the internet (and even I am getting lazier and lazier – iPhone made me like that…).

Update: Engadget just published some new price/specs, apparently taken from a HP internal memo:

Price – $549 in basic configuration
Hardware:
Display: 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive multi-touch display
Processor: 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor
Graphic: UMA graphics with  1080p video playback
Memory: 32GB of flash storage and 1GB of non-upgradeable RAM.
Battery: five-hour battery
Peripherals: an SDHC slot, two cameras, a USB port, a SIM card slot for the optional 3D modem, and a dock connector for power, audio, and HDMI out, Pen/Digitizer support.

Check after the break for the video in all its HD glory.

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The first Blu-ray edition (out of several yet to come) of the most successful film in history is available on pre-order at Amazon today and it will start shipping on April 22. This is a somewhat limited edition including only the main movie, no extra footage and no features. Of course no 3D yet, so if you already have or plan to purchase a 3D set this year, you probably want to wait for the next version of this movie scheduled to release later in the year.

I have seen various reviewers around the web, ranging from ecstatic to pure hate, criticizing everything from the number of cultural cliches involved to the simplicity of characters. Regardless of your opinion on this matter, considering the explosion of theaters looking to convert to digital and 3D this year, I would put Avatar in the same category as other movies that helped to revolutionize one aspect of cinematography (The Wizard of Oz (1939) for the color revolution, the 1993 King Kong for the special effects revolution). And again, regardless of where the Oscars went, at least this movie already made history.

After just a few days of iPad’s big launch, Apple is working tirelessly to keep the news wheel hot. On April 8th at 10:00AM they will offer a look into what their next iPhone OS 4.0 will be. Of course, we can always hope that it will include support for front facing camera, 960×640 display, multi-tasking, but , at this point, the above mentioned features are just part of an ever-growing list of wishful thinking magic floating around the net. Only the time will tell, and the time is coming!

The event will take place at the Cupertino campus.

According to Wall Street Journal, Apple is busy building new iPhone models and Verizon might be lucky this time. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. whick produced the previous iPhones will manufacture one model, the other one (CDMA) will be made by Pegatron Technology Corp (subsidiary of ASUSTeK). The CDMA version destined for Verizon might be released in September.

Now, the only question remains:

Would you jump on a new iPhone or wait to see what Microsoft has in its sleeves with the new Windows Phone 7?

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AMD announces availability of a new server platform featuring the world’s first 8- and 12-core x86 processor for the high-volume 2P and value 4P server market. The AMD Opteron™ 6000 Series platform addresses the unmistakable needs of server customers today – workload-specific performance, power efficiency, and overall value – while delivering more cores and more memory for less money. Leading OEMs including HP, Dell, Acer Group, Cray, and SGI are introducing new systems based on this highly scalable and reliable platform.

“As AMD has done before, we are again redefining the server market based on current customer Read More…

Spintronics , also known as magneto-electronics, is an emerging technology that exploits the intrinsic spin of the electron and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices. The spin is encoded into electrons through the mechanism of ferromagnetism.

This enables ultra-low-power operation for nonvolatile devices, that remember their states even when switched off. Look at it as a flash memory, but with a much higher density and potentially much lower energy requirements.

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It is finally happening. Starting next month you will be able to have better reception inside your home using the new MicroCell device. What is MicroCell ? Well, nothing more than a wireless access point for cell phones that will provide 3G voice and data services routed through your internet connection. So you basically pay for the Internet and to AT&T for their MicroCell just so you can have the privilege of using your phone inside your house…where everybody knows – reception sucks! At least mine does, and I don’t think I am alone.

Let’s go into a bit of details:

Starting last September, AT&T started to test MicroCell service in collaboration with Cisco (which also manufactures the hardware). MicroCell is basically a box similar in size with your wireless router which, will re-route your 3G and calls and data from your cell phones through your phone network. The price will be $150 per device. One MicroCell supports a maximum of 10 lines and 4 people in the house can use it simultaneously.
This is all nice and fancy. The problem in my opinion though, is that AT&T is making you pay to improve their reception and to help reduce the usage of their spectrum. This strikes me as a bit unfair, but I am willing to bet that, if you call them and complain a lot about the reception quality inside your house, you can probably score one for free.

Today we got some interesting news from NetFlix. The first one is related to Wii. It seems that finally, the streaming discs that would enable NetFlix access on Wii are shipping, so expect to get them by tomorrow (if you requested them, of course). If you didn’t, you can do it right now here.

The second news is actually more a rumor. A Hacking NetFlix post mentions that HD content could be available on the PC this year, and that, the lack of availability now is due to content restrictions. We’ll wait and see how this one will turn out to be. A while ago, NetFlix also mentioned for this year the availability of 5.1 digital sound, so it might actually happen. The technology is here, in any case. I think the best NetFlix experience is via the Windows Media Center plug-in, so let us hope that HD content comes soon.

You can also request NetFlix PS3 streaming discs here. By the end of the year though, PS3 should have a native application that wouldn’t require a disc to stream NetFlix content.

Finally you can install more of your XBOX 360 games onto this big (although still not as big as we would like) 250GB Hard Drive. Amazon has it in stock for March 28th at 129.99 with free shipping.

I just noticed that Yahoo! Search is available in iPhone’s App Store (for free, of course). I installed and played with it for a little while. The search is fast and the results are nicely structured including some local results based on your position (you have to allow Y! Search to use your current location). For restaurants for example, it will return phone number, address, pictures if available and ratings as well.

The application also allows you to input voice queries. To delete the last query just shake your iPhone.