Tag: rumour
RUMOUR: Samsung cameraphone hits 12 megapixels
In a couple of weeks, Mobile World Congress will hit, and we’ll have more mobile phone news than you can shake a stick at. Until then, we’ve just got all the rumours of the stuff that phone companies will release – continuing with this one. Samsung may be unveiling a 12-megapixel cameraphone at MWC.
What’s startling is their urgency to get this on the market. Sources suggest that it’ll hit production lines this month, arriving in Europe shortly after. I can’t help but think, however, that this is more of a marketing move than a technological one, and the image quality won’t be fantastic.
(via Engadget)
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Amazon's Kindle 2 takes shape, due on Feb 9?
Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, despite its low specs, has proved a hit with consumers, particularly after Oprah Winfrey featured it on her show in November. Since then, it’s been consistently sold out, and Amazon’s product page, for a long time, has shown a wait of 11-13 weeks for the device.
Well, last night that was changed to show 4-6 weeks, and Amazon has invited journalists to an event in New York on February 9th with the Founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, present. Leaked photos suggest that the old angular look is gone, and the new Kindle will be more rounded. It’ll also feature a much-updated e-ink display with a faster screen refresh time. If it replicates the success of the original, then we might even see it this side of the Atlantic. We can only hope.
Kindle Product Page (via NY Times, image via BGR)
Related posts: Amazon with more Kindles in the pipeline – definitely smaller, hopefully cheaper | Amazon Kindle spotted in the wild, being read by The Onion editor of all people!
Rumours of Google planning an incredible unlimited cloud storage service
Whispers around the intertubes would have you believe that Google has something very special planned for this year – unlimited cloud storage. It would mean that if you’ve got a fast enough broadband connection, then you’d no longer need more than a tiny hard drive – everything else could be stored online.
For the record, I don’t think Google’s quite there yet. Even their email product is officially limited, when its competitors’ products aren’t. There’s every chance that we’ll see some sort of limited storage product released by the Goog in 2009 but, well, the ‘unlimited’ label – I just don’t think it can happen yet.
(via ShinyShiny)
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RUMOUR: Sky launching its music subscription service in April
Many have tried to make the all-you-can-eat subscription model work for music, but it’s never taken off due to incompatibilities between different portable music players and the lack of any big companies really getting behind it. Well, we’re hearing a rumour that Sky will finally launch its previously-announced subscription service in April.
Last we heard, we were promised a mix of both streaming and downloadable tracks. Over Christmas, pricing was allegedly leaked – unlimited free streams, plus a set number of MP3 downloads each month. £5.99 for 5 downloads, £7.99 for 10 and £9.99 for 15.
I’ve asked Sky for more details, and I’m waiting to hear back. I, for one, am convinced that it’s not only possible for a subscription service to work, but it’s actually the future of mass-market music consumption. There’s too many people who don’t care about anything beyond the top 40 for that not to be the case.
Related posts: NOISE GATE: Why music subscription services will eventually work | Sky and Universal Music partner to launch subscription music streaming and download service
Dell to release smartphone, bored analysts suggest
Let’s face it, it’s all a bit quiet in the technology world after the shock of running around Macworld and CES so soon after the festive overeating, so it’s not surprising that a few new speculations are surfacing.
Take the possibility of Dell making its own smartphone. That notion’s been around since almost the same time last year and has now resurfaced.
An analyst with Kaufman Brothers, Shaw Wu, says sources indicate that a Dell smartphone “is closer to reality than before”…
RUMOUR: Canon planning new Ixus compact camera with CMOS chip
In fact, at the moment there’s only one compact on the market that has a CMOS sensor – Canon’s own PowerShot SX1 IS, which retails for a whopping £530. Our tipster reckons that a whole rash of CMOS compacts will be unveiled at the forthcoming PMA ’09 in March. He also proposes this as a possible CMOS Ixus spec.
- 10-megapixel CMOS sensor (most likely 1/2.33 or 1/2.5 inch in size)
- HD Movie Mode
- 5x Zoom (28mm wide)
- 3″ LCD
- Li-Ion battery
- ISO 50-3200
- RRP of £250-£280, on the shop floor at £220 or so
It’s that massive ISO range which is the most promising. If this new Ixus exists, can cope with low light as promised, and doesn’t cost the earth, then this could bring the tools for some fantastic photography into the hands of amateurs. Or, at very least, your photos of ‘Debbie an the gals dahn at the club’ will look sublime.
Related posts: REVIEW: Canon IXUS 870 IS | Canon engineers held back by marketing department’s “megapixel race”
G2 (and G3!) rumours surface, debate over release date
It’s no secret that, badass as the T-Mobile G1 is, it’s not a perfect device. The keyboard’s a little clunky, the GPS is a bit iffy from time to time, and there’s a fair bit of functionality missing out of the gate. That said, it’s the closest competitor we’ve had to the iPhone’s dominance, so many people are praying for a decent second iteration of the device.
I have little doubt that the rumours that surfaced over the weekend owe more to that yearning than any factual reality. First off, a site called CellPhone Signal posted a specs list for a “G2” that seems plausible, but tacked on a deeply unrealistic release date of January 26th.
Dell to launch 'Adamo' MacBook Air competitor?
Mac fanboys aside, most of us realised that the Macbook Air was a crystallisation of everything that Apple does – it was an archetypal Apple product. The ridiculous price, the underperforming components, and lack of features, but OH SO PRETTY! That’s why I’m a little nervous that Dell are trying to emulate the machine.
The New York Times, after noticing a few ‘Adamo’ trademark filings, did some digging on Google and eventually confronted Dell’s vice president in charge of consumer sales and marketing, Michael Tatelman, asking him if there was an Air-like product in store. His response? Click over the jump to find out.
New Macbook Pro pics surface
A few more pictures have surfaced overnight of a next-generation MacBook Pro, complete with shiny glassy screen and a black bezel. Also notable is that the trackpad completely lacks any kind of buttons at all. As someone who always turns off the tap-to-click feature of trackpads, that doesn’t bode well for me. While PCs steadfastly add more and more buttons to mice, Apple is removing its one button…
RUMOUR: Apple to launch networked HDTV
As is always the way before any Apple announcement day, you can’t move for rumours at the moment. The latest one comes from founder of Mahalo, Jason Calcanis. He reckons that Apple is going to launch a networked HDTV, much like a normal TV with an AppleTV box, but without the need for the box…
