BBC: Apple has given a preview of some of the 100 features that will be included in a new iPhone operating system to be launched later this year.

Apple founder Steve Jobs showcased seven of the features, including multi-tasking which will let users run more than one programme at a time.

The feature is already included in many other smartphones.

A mobile advertising platform is to be launched to allow the device to run ads on applications made by third parties.

iAd marks Apple’s first foray into a potentially lucrative new market, and pits it directly against Google’s search engine advertising model.

Apple will allow external developers to pocket 60% of ad revenue from iAd.

The Apple boss said the iPhone OS 4.0 update will be released first for the iPhone and iPod touch, and then the iPad, later this year.

Apple boss Steve Jobs gave a demonstration of the multi-tasking feature showed the online radio station Pandora running in the background playing music while a user could either read news online or deal with email.

“We weren’t the first to this party but we’re going to be the best,” he said.

Some of the other features unveiled at the presentation at Apple’s headquarters in California include being able to create specific folders to store third party applications downloaded from iTunes, homescreen wallpapers, enhanced mail which will gather email from multiple accounts into one “unified” inbox and providing iBooks which is already on the iPad.

Mr Jobs said mobile users spend more time inside applications than searching the internet.

Therefore it made sense to have adverts within the applications – or apps as they are commonly termed.

“It’s very clear that [Mr] Jobs believes that ads in the context of apps makes more sense than generic mobile search,” said Tim Bajarin at consulting company Creative Strategies.

Apple’s move into mobile advertising was widely expected after it bought Quattro Wireless mobile advertising network for almost $300m (£196m) in January.

Analysts say revenue from mobile advertising will jump dramatically this year.

Some analysts believe this will shift the paradigm in the mobile world.

“It has huge potential to really change mobile commerce,” said Van Baker, Vice president of research at Garnter.

“The evidence so far is that very few transactions really happen in this space. Mobile is used to compare prices, find restaurants, movie times and the like but very little in the way of commerce.”

Apple bought mobile ad company Quattro after failing to buy the market leader AdMob which was purchased by Google.

In a slight to the search giant, Mr Jobs said “Google came in and snatched them (AdMob) because they didn’t want us to have them”.

In 2009, mobile ads represented 12% of revenue but that number is expected to grow to 28% by 2012.

iPad demand

During the packed press event, Mr Jobs revealed that to date Apple has sold 50m iPhones. That number rises to 85m when the iPod touch is included.

Mr Jobs also gave an update on the iPad which went on sale in the US only at the weekend. It is expected in stores in the UK and part of Europe, as well as Canada and Australia at the end of the month.

Apple said it had sold 450,000 iPads as of Thursday. Mr Jobs added that 600,000 electronic books and 3.5m applications had been downloaded for the iPad in the last five days.

“We’re making them as fast as we can,” Mr Jobs said. “Evidently we can’t make enough of them yet so we are going to have to try harder.”

The update webOS of Palm was released today to bring the software version 1.3.3 for Sprint an Bell network. This updated version will allow users to sync their contacts and calendar to Yahoo. One can also view a video from Youtube using of course the player of Palm.

Here is the complete list of changes in the existing applications:

Backup

• Backup now includes browser cookies, so that after a restart, for example, if you stored your username and password on a web-based email site, you can continue to access the site without needing to log in.
• Backup no longer saves online account passwords. If you perform a partial or full erase or buy a replacement phone, after signing in to your Palm profile, you are prompted to enter the password for each of your online accounts. If you choose to skip this step, to continuing synchronizing this account, you must open an app that syncs with the account (Calendar, Contacts, Email) >application menu > Preferences & Accounts > tap the account name > enter your username and password.

Calendar

• Yahoo! now appears as a Calendar synchronization account. You can synchronize Yahoo! calendar events by opening Calendar > application menu > Preferences & Accounts > Add An Account >Yahoo!
• An event’s location now appears with the same formatting in Day view and in the event notification.
• Calendar notifications no longer reappear after being dismissed.
• All-day events that span more than one day now appear correctly in all Calendar views.
• If you create a Google calendar event on the phone and the event location contains an apostrophe, the event now correctly synchronizes with Google online.

Camera

• After taking a picture, if you tap the picture thumbnail in the lower-left corner of the camera screen, the picture now opens in full-screen view, not Thumbnails view. Making the back gesture returns you to the camera.

Contacts

• Yahoo! now appears as a Contacts synchronization account. You can download contacts from Yahoo! online to the phone by opening Contacts > application menu > Preferences & Accounts> Add An Account > Yahoo!
• Automatic contact linking based on name matches occurs only if the first and last name fields are populated with the same names. If either field is blank, the Contacts app no longer links the contacts. In addition, the Contacts app no longer automatically links contacts with the same name but with different suffixes (such as Jr. and Sr.)
• Contact phone numbers in an Exchange account display the same label that is used for the number in Outlook.
• If you set up Contacts to synchronize with a Google account, the account synchronizes only entries in Google’s My Contacts, not all contacts.
• If a contact entry includes a linked Google instant message that contains a special character (such as an apostrophe or ampersand), the special character now displays correctly.

Device Info

• If you copy a music file to the phone and then delete it, Device Info now shows the correct amount of available memory after the deletion.

Email

• Forwarded and replied-to messages include improved formatting, such as the original sender’s email address in forwarded messages and correct inline image display in replies.
• The list of mail types available in manual setup now includes Google Apps (Hosted Google Domains) and Yahoo! Small Business Domain email accounts. Selecting one of these types automatically enters the correct settings for these accounts.
• If you have multiple Exchange accounts, doing a Global Address List (GAL) contact lookup searches all the accounts.
• When you set up more than one email account from the same provider-for example, two Gmail or two Yahoo! accounts-in Account List view, the account names display the associated email address so that you can distinguish them.
• A new Select All menu item selects message body text so that you can cut or copy it. A new Copy All menu item copies the entire message contents-sender, date, recipient, subject, and body text-so that you can paste it elsewhere. These menu items appear only when a message is open.
• If you turn the All Inboxes preference off, email notifications now show how many new messages are in each of your email accounts.
• Performing a message search in the All Flagged folder returns flagged messages only.
• If an Exchange 2003 implementation requires a password, you can select an alphanumeric (strong) password even if the server does not require a strong password.
• If an Exchange implementation allows use of a simple PIN (numbers only), the phone supports entry of a PIN that is longer than four characters.
• If a notification appears for an incoming email message whose subject line contains an ampersand, the ampersand appears correctly in the notification.

Messaging

• Yahoo! IM is available as an instant messaging account.
• You can select a unique ringtone for new message alerts: Open Messaging > application menu >Preferences & Accounts > Sound > Ringtone.
• You can forward a text or multimedia message by tapping the message > Forward.
• You can copy the text of a text or multimedia message by tapping the message > Copy Text.
• If you receive a message from an email address, the sender’s name (if in Contacts) or email address (if not) shows up correctly on the new message notification and on the open message in Messaging.
• If you copy a conversation using the Copy All menu item and then pastes the conversation text, the pasted text now appears correctly as plain text, without any HTML tags.
• Messaging notifications now show the number of senders and the number of conversations.
• If you enter a message and start it with a standalone letter-for example, “R” or “r” for “are”-when the auto-correct feature expands the letter to a word, the word is correctly capitalized (”Are”).

Music

• While listening to a song with album art displayed, you can tap the screen below the art to display a playback slider. Dragging the slider jumps forward or backward in the song.

Phone

• If the you are on a call, calendar notifications no longer partially cover the End Call icon.

Screen & Lock

• A new Secure Unlock preference allows you to set the time interval the phone is idle before the phone locks, requiring you to enter the PIN/password to unlock the phone. This can be the same as or different from the interval after which the screen turns off. To set the preference: OpenScreen & Lock > Lock After.
• If you select the Simple PIN Secure Unlock option, you can now enter a numeric PIN of more than four digits.
• If you press power to turn off the screen, the screen locks at the same time. Previously, there was a gap of a few seconds before the screen locked.

Sounds & Ringtones

• If you select a new ringtone and throw the card off the screen, the phone saves the new ringtone selection.
• If you set the Ringer Switch Off setting to Mute and turn the ringer switch off at any time, the ringer is muted and the phone does not vibrate, regardless of any other Sounds & Ringtones settings.

System

• The application information dialog box (accessed by pressing and holding the orange key/Optionand tapping an app icon) displays the total (uncompressed) size of the app, including the amount of storage the app requires. For apps you installed, this number represents the amount of memory you free up on the phone by deleting the app.
• If you change the apps in Quick Launch, after a backup and partial erase, the new apps still appear in Quick Launch. Previously, Quick Launch reverted to the default apps.
• You can access USB Drive mode by pressing and holding the orange key/Option + Sym + U after connecting the phone to the computer. This enables you to access USB drive mode if the screen is broken or stops responding to taps.
• A new option is available for restarting the phone: press and hold power > Power > Restart. The prior restart method (Device Info > Reset Options > Restart) is still available.
• You have two options for shutting down the phone completely: 1) press and hold power > Power> Shut Down/Swap Battery > Shut Down; 2) open Device Info > Reset Options > Shut Down >Shut Down.

Tasks

• If a task notification shows a single task, tapping the notification now opens the details screen for that task, not the task list screen.

Videos

• Widescreen videos now display in widescreen mode on the phone by default, instead of being cropped.

Web

• Backup now includes browser cookies, so that after a restart, for example, if you stored your username and password on a web-based email site, you can continue to access the site without needing to log in.
• If you tap to play a YouTube video embedded on a web page, the YouTube application launches and the video plays in the app.

YouTube

• Widescreen videos now display in widescreen mode on the phone by default, instead of being cropped.
• If you tap to play a YouTube video embedded on a web page, the YouTube application launches and the video plays in the app.

Security

This release addresses several security issues with Palm webOS software.

Yesterday I was with my sister to window shop the most sought after TV set in the market today. I am still planning to buy TV set and so I decided to go to a Samsung Showroom, here I saw a new view of what entertainment is, right now entertainment is Samsung LED TV. As I have known the brand Samsung has dipped into creating new line up of TV from Plasma, LCD’s and now the LED. Not being biased, but Samsung indeed is the forefront of TV technology redefining clarity as well as color. As I was watching the movie being shown in the LED I find it so realistic. According to the staff the one I am looking at is the Samsung B8000 LED TV, she said it boasts a powerful motion technology as its 240 Hz refresh rate allows faster image rendering with perfect quality. The LED range has features like Mega Contrast Ratio and Wide Colour Enhancer Pro with Gamut, thereby delivering most vibrant details and colors.

For specifications please do visit a Samsung store now.

Gateway has unveiled the One ZX series, which consists on the ZX4800 and ZX6810 multi-touch computers that will feature the Windows 7 so it can use the zoom and editing of images features of the OS.

The ZX4800 is a 20-inch computer with a resolution of 1600×900, and a Pentium dual-core processor running at 2.1GHz. It has a GMA 4500 integrated graphics card, and 4GB of RAM plus a hard-drive with a capacity of 720GB.

As for the ZX6810, it boasts a bigger 23-inch 1080p display screen, and an Intel Core 2 Quad processor at 2.33GHz. It comes with a dedicated graphics card codenamed Mobility Radeon HD 4670, and instead of a normal hard-drive, it goes for the 64GB Solid State Drive. Other goodies include a hybrid analog/digital TV tuner. Both computers will become available near November, after the launch of Windows 7.

via mobilewhack

In these series you have the T115, which has the small 11.6-inch display screen with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels, and an option to pick the processor: a 1.3GHz Celeron, or a Dual-Core 1.3GHz Pentium. The bigger T135 has a 133-inch screen and the same processors, with the main difference being the inclusion of bluetooth on the T135. Other details include WiFi, a webcam, Windows / Home Premium, and probably a 250GB hard-drive.

While the T115 will cost $450, the T135 will have a price tag of

Acer Aspire 1810T (Aspire 1410 in US) is a Acer Aspire 751H netbook on steroids. It has a more powerful CULV processor and GPU packed into small, lightweight package.
Cusem at aspironeforum bought himself an Acer Aspire 1810T and he seems to be pretty impressed with it. According to his review, here is what is cool about it:

• Powerful than the Intel Atom processor equipped netbooks
• The 6-cell battery does not protrude out the way it does in Acer Aspire D250/D150/A150 models. It sits completely flushed with the casing.
• Some key flex when using the keyboard
• Feels more like a notebook due to its high resolution rather than a netbook bearing low-resolution screen
• 1366×768 pixel resolution
• Even after upgrading it to 2GB, it felt slow with the Vista. Install Windows 7 instead
• Phenomenal battery life (7-8h+)

This is SendStation’s latest iPod dock entitled the PocketDock Line Out Mini USB. As you can see, this thing isn’t much bigger than a penny but includes a few highly sought after features.

First and foremost, it features a mini USB port for use with charging so you can do away with the Apple’s proprietary charging cable. Additionally, the dock has a 3.5mm headphone jack that reportedly makes for better quality sound when used with an amplified device.

SendStation’s PocketDock Line Out Mini USB iPod dock is available now for $29.95.

Slated for an October 2009 release, the Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 and Number Pad will retail for US $89.95 and $44.95 respectively, and come with a worldwide 3-year limited warranty. A Bluetooth transceiver is not included as far as we know, because, well, one of the requirements is that your laptop should already have integrated Bluetooth. Two AAA batteries for the keyboard and one AAA battery for the number pad are included.

The decision marks a big change for the electronics firm which was the prime mover of the rival HD-DVD format. Blu-ray and HD-DVD went head-to-head to see who could dominate the burgeoning market for movies produced in the high definition format. The format war was effectively won in early 2008 when the Blu-ray camp won the backing of all four of the biggest movie studios. Blu-ray was largely developed by Sony. Its efforts to dominate the HD market were also helped by sales of the PlayStation 3 which has a Blu-ray player built-in. Toshiba said it would begin production of stand alone Blu-ray players as well as drives for PCs and laptops. Its first products are likely to be ready for the end of 2009. The Japanese firm also said it would join the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) – the industry body which oversees development of the high-definition format.

“In light of recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers alike, Toshiba has decided to join the BDA,” the Japanese firm said in a statement.

Via BBC

Samsung and Toshiba Electronics have churned out 640GB hard disk drives for the laptops/netbooks. Toshiba will be shipping these mammoth size HDDs to the OEMs by the end of this month.

With an areal density of 817.9 Mbit/mm2 (528.5 Gbit/in2), the new drive delivers performance improvements from Toshiba’s previous generation of 5,400RPM drives, and raises energy consumption efficiency by 28%.