Tag: features
More Zunes on the way in 2009
Despite its poor retail performance over Christmas, Microsoft remains firmly committed to its Zune MP3 player, and a good thing too. It’s one of the few players in the market that has relentlessly innovated, and still packs features that are lacking on others, like wireless syncing and device-to-device song sharing.
Well, the pace continues. Marketing Director for Zune, Adam Sohn, has revealed to Cnet that “there will be new Zunes before the 2009 holiday season” and they’ll be a “surprising step up” from what’s currently available. That almost certainly means a touchscreen, but that isn’t ‘surprising’ so I wonder what he could mean…
Whatever happens, it’s unlikely to displace the iPod, but given Microsoft’s track record of new features, I can’t wait to see what they’ve got to offer.
Zune (via Cnet)
Related posts: Cause of mystery Zune shutdown revealed | New Zunephone Rumours
Sony surveys fans on PSP2 features
Sony has been roundly beaten in the handheld and the… er… non-handheld markets by Nintendo (seriously, we need a better name for full size consoles than that – suggestions in the comments). What’s the best way for them to fight back? That’s the question that Sony is asking its fans, with a survey floating several new feature ideas for the PSP2 and asking people to rank them.
Some of the new features include GPS, bluetooth, internal storage, touchscreen, a content download service and a social network including home support. Personally speaking, I’d rate GPS and social network features high, if only to compete with the growing influence of mobile phones on the gaming-on-the-go market. Adding in Skype features could just make the fightback possible.
(via Kotaku)
Related posts: Sony planning to revise PSP again in 2009 – with proper “PSP2” to follow later | Sony strengthens firmware portfolio – PSP hits v5.00, PS3 now goes up to v2.50
HOW-TO: Tweak Chrome to get the newest features early
Odds-are, if you’re reading this, then you’re the sort of person who likes to call themselves an ‘early adopter’. It’s highly possible, then, that you might be using Google’s super-fast Chrome browser, and if you are, then you might be interested in finding out how to subscribe to Google’s ‘Beta’ channel for Chrome updates, or perhaps even the highly-unstable ‘Developer’ channel.
Basically, there are three channels – a ‘Stable’ one, for the general public. A ‘Beta’ one for interested parties, and a ‘Developer’ one, for those of you who like to be on the bleeding edge. It’s very easy to switch – just download a little program (found here) and click the appropriate box. You don’t even seem to need to restart the browser.
I’ve just subscribed to the ‘Beta’ channel. So far, it hasn’t crashed. Give it a try and let us know your experiences in the comments below.
Chrome Dev Channel (via Chromium)
Related posts: Happy Birthday, Google Chrome – 1.0 today | OPINION: Still searching for reasons to switch to Google Chrome
Porsche Design P'9522 mobile phone launches
This is the Porsche P’9522 – a mobile phone designed by Porsche. I can hear you already thinking ‘it’s got an expensive name on it – the features are going to be practically non-existent’. Well, tell your thoughts that they’re wrong, and should shut up – it’s actually surprisingly high-specced.
The phone case is milled from a single solid aluminum block and a single sheet of scratchproof glass! It’s got a 2.8″ touchscreen OLED display! It’s got built-in Wi-Fi and GPS! It’s got a fingerprint scanner! A fingerprint scanner, for god’s sake!
The bad news? You’re not going to get this in the Carphone Warehouse or Phones 4 U. It’s being sold in Porsche shops and ‘exclusive specialist stores’ only. There’s no price quoted, but we’ll have to assume it’s going to be more than its predecessor, the fliptastic P’9521, which costs €1200 (just over £1000).
Related posts: Porsche Design launches P’9521 high-end handset | Eton launches Porsche Design P’9123 radio with iPod/iPhone dock
GMail adds voice and video chat
Yet more new features for everyone’s favourite webmail client, Google Mail. This time, the team has enabled video and voice chatting on the service, which joins SMS, OpenID, Calendar and Doc gadgets and emoticon support on the feature list.
Google’s going to be rolling out the new functionality over the course of today, so if you can’t get it yet, then try again a little later. To get to it, you’ll need to install a small plugin, which you can pick up here, and then it’ll appear in the bottom of your chat windows.
Let us know in the comments how it performs on your broadband connection, and how you think it compares to similar services, like Skype.
Google Video Chat (via Official GMail Blog)
Related things Google has added to Gmail recently: SMS | OpenID | Calendar and Doc gadgets | Emoticon support
Intrepid Ibex – new version of Linux due out tomorrow
The Linux development team follow a much shorter release cycle than Microsoft or Apple do for their operating systems. Whereas the big players pump out a new OS every few years, there’s a new Linux release every six months or so. That means that the features are almost always cutting, but it also means that the releases lack polish somewhat…
YouTube adds deep video linking
YouTube’s just enabled a feature that users have been clamouring for for a while – deep linking within videos. By appending a short code to the end of the video url, you can link directly to a specific point in a video. Want an example? Here you go…
HDTVUK's Guide to the Ultimate High Definition Home Cinema Experience – Part One: High Definition TV
Our friends over at HDTV UK are doing a series to help you create the Ultimate High Definition Home Cinema Experience (er, in case the title of this post didn't give that away). The first part looks at the best way to start your HD experience – buying your first HDTV.
The iPhone features you'll actually use: texting, clock…
So yes, iPhone’s got loads of great features, but will you actually use any of them?
WWDC 2007: Apple reveal near-finished OS X Leopard
Many Apple Mac fans and developers were hoping for Steve’s keynote speech to include copious references to the next generation of Mac OS X — Leopard — and indeed there was plenty of demonstration of the system that’s now, apparently, nearly complete.
There’s still plenty of testing to do (developers at WWDC were able to pick up a beta copy of Leopard) so it’s unlikely to arrive before October – still plenty of time to drool over some serious features backed up by amazing eye candy.
Admittedly, most features shown off were more developed versions of what we saw last year, but it all looked very slick, and there were some surprises to be seen.
