Saturday, March 27, 2010

43 Apple ipads = 1 Apple Lisa

Voucher Codes in the UK decided to put together quite a cool infographic (if that’s the right word for it), that shows the real price of an Apple iPad and confirms if the $499 price tag is as “unbelievable” as they repeatedly have said.

First impressions of the iPad pricing is that we all expected it to cost $1000 or so, so when the lowest spec model came in at $499 it seemed like a good deal.

The infographic is based on old Apple products that have launched over the last 24 years and includes the likes of the Apple Lisa, Apple I, II and III right up to the iPhone, iMac and the Apple iPad.

The above image shows how much of a deal it really is. Of course it’s all a bit of fun and I don’t vouch for the accuracy of it as I haven’t given the numbers an indepth search, but here goes…

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Google TV Details















More details of a TV that Google [GOOG] are wanting to make have been revealed. The new TV sets will see Google teaming up with Sony and Intel to create a TV that runs the Google Android operating system. Sony will of course be responsible for the actual TV while Intel will create the chips that power the Android side of things and Google will of course provide the operating system that runs on the TV.

Over the last year we have seen a number of new TV’s feature extra software built in such as TVs offering YouTube and TVs running Skype. Bringing Android to a TV will certainly add a lot more flexibility and might actually provide a decent browser and user experience which occasionally lacks when the web and TV merge.

Google are not stopping at creating new TV’s with the Android OS built in though as they are also looking in to the possibility of creating a new set top box that will allow older TV’s to be able to experience Android and it’s flexibility as an OS.

Also we hear that Google have made quite a few plans regarding these TV’s and set top boxes and are also creating a developer tools that will allow devs to create unique applications.

What’s in it for Google? More revenue due to more ways to get their services in front of users. It will be interesting to see how integrated with “the cloud” all of this will be where you could log on to another TV to view emails, check your calendar and see your own Skype contacts.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Bluetooth 4.0 Arriving Soon



The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has said that the new version, Bluetooth 4.0, could be launching in the 4th quarter of this year with devices such as headsets, phones and PC’s all getting the technology.

The latest specification allows devices with smaller batteries to utilise Bluetooth. Previous versions of BT required that a device had at lease a AAA or larger capacity battery to function. The new 4.0 specifications allow for smaller devices that require coin-cell batteries to run.
As well as utilising less power, the device also has higher speed data transfer. Version 3.0 was launched last year although it kind of fell flat on it’s face due to the power requirements needed. Version 4.0 fixes those problems.
The new specification will carry the high-speed Wi-Fi feature introduced with Bluetooth 3.0. That allows devices to jump onto Wi-Fi 802.11 networks, where it can transfer data at up to 25Mbits per second.
Hopefully with the lower power requirements and the options to switch to 802.11 networks we should start seeing more devices using the Bluetooth specification.