Category Archives: iphone news

A dramatic image of the shuttle flying over the Washington Monument gets the Instagram treatment.

(Credit:
Ethan Klapper)

It wasn’t an everyday sight. Hitched to the back of a NASA 747 jumbo jet, the Shuttle Discovery today made its final flight, going from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to Dulles International Airport en route to its new home at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s nearby Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

NASA has released some amazing official shots of the historic happening, but we wanted to see how it looked to the thousands of space enthusiasts on the ground pointing their cameras and phones skyward in hopes of capturing the orbiter’s last airborne hurrah.

The results of their photographic efforts have been pouring in to Twitter all day (hashtag #SpotTheShuttle), and onto NASA’s Spot the Shuttle Flickr site. Together, they make for a stunning crowdsourced chronicle of a big day in the life of the shuttle program. Scroll throu… [Read more]

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Let’s say you’ve had your HDTV for a few years now. Let’s say you can’t stop reading new TV reviews. Let’s say you find excuses to stop at Best Buy to stare at the wall.

OK, you want a new TV. No problem. But do you need a new TV? Are the current models really that much better than what you have?

Let’s take a look.

Picture qualityWhether or not current HDTVs look better than yours is, as you’d expect, largely related to how old your TV is. There’s no set answer, but I can give you some tips and tricks to track down how much better (if at all) new TVs are. As a general rule, if you bought a decent TV in the last few years, the new models will only look a little better. More than 5 years, and it gets harder to say.

Your best bet is to compare, if possible, the contrast ratio of your current TV with a new model. This is not to say you should compare what the company claims. As I detailed in my contrast ratio (or how every TV manufacturer lies to you) article, all contrast ratio specs are 100 percent fabrications. So you may need to do a bit of digging. Some Web sites, like CNET, measure the black level of TVs. This is a good start, as generally a lower black level is the first step toward a better contrast ratio. Some other sites, like my other digital home Sound+Vision, and my forme… [Read more]

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Olympus OM-D E-M5

(Credit:
Lori Grunin/CNET)

Olympus invited a handful of reviewers out to Whistler, Canada to pick up our evaluation units of the OM-D E-M5 and get some shooting in at the Olympus-sponsored Telus World Ski and Snowboard festival. (CNET paid my way.) I previewed the E-M5 when it was first announced, and for the most part thus far the camera lives up to — and down to — my expectations.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 photo samples

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As I guessed, the camera is quite fast. It focuses and shoots quickly enough that I was comfortable foregoing prefocusing and took more impulse a… [Read more]

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Camera phone shootout: HTC Titan II versus Nokia Lumia 900

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A MacBook Pro-class design as thin as an Air?

(Credit:
Apple)

What’s in the next spin of the MacBook Pro? 0ne answer is obvious, others are guesswork.

The obvious? Intel’s newest Ivy Bridge chip. The guesswork? A thinner MBP made possible by ripping out the optical drive, a la the MacBook Air. And here’s some more wishful thinking:

Retina display: A Pro (or maybe a new Air at some point?) with a 2,560×1,600 resolution display? That’s the resolution that Intel’s Kirk Skaugen mentioned this week at an Intel conference in Beijing in connection with the upcoming Ivy Bridge chip. And he specifically used the word “Retina,” referencing Apple’s marketing term for a screen where the resolution is high enough that you cannot see the actual pixels. (Note that he said Sandy Bridge was also “Retina Display capable” so the part about support for Retina-class displays wasn’t exactly news.)

Sharp announced this week that it has started production of IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) LCDs with a resolution of 2,560×1,600. At the moment, however, Sharp is specifying 2,560×1,600 for 10-inch class displays, not a 15-inch size. Samsung has made noise about these displays too — not to mention the fact that it makes the new iPad’s Retina display.

Intel-only or Nvidia/AM… [Read more]

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Intel’s Ivy Bridge chip expected at the end of April

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(Credit:
Asus)

It looks as though we’ll have another new big-name tablet hitting stores in a little more than a week as a new Asus Transformer Pad 300 has started popping up for preorder at some online retailers.

The French tablet maker has apparently dropped the “Eee” from the name, and the new Transformer will join the Galaxy Tab 2 to make its debut on April 22, according to a report from PC World.

Like its predecessor, the Transformer Prime, the new tablet features a quad-core processor and snaps into a keyboard dock (sold separately) to become a full-fledged Android laptop, but at a lower starting price than the Prime.

Retailers including BJs and Office Depot show a price of $399.99 for the Transformer Pad 300 with 32GB of memory, 1GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor — once it comes into stock.

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(Credit:
Zero1)

Congratulations to Richard H. of Winston Salem, N.C., for winning the Samsung Galaxy S II, Epic 4G Touch (Sprint) in last week’s giveaway! We have another phone-related prize for you this week, and this one will help you organize all the gadgets around your house.

We are giving away the Zero1.tv’s VooMote One for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The accessory and complementary app turn your mobile device into a universal remote for your TV, DVD player, stereo, and other home electronics. The app offers a number of features, including the capability to organize devices by room and One View, which displays multiple remotes on one screen.

Normally, the VooMote One would cost you $99.99, but here’s your chance to get it for free. How? Well, there are a few rules, so please read carefully. There will be a test.

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the Join CNET link to start the registration process. If you’re already registered, there’s no need to register again.
• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it’s funny or insightful, it won’t help you win, but we’re trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
• Leave only one comment. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winn… [Read more]
  
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Premiere Pro CS6 strips away much of the widgetry that cluttered its predecessor's user interface. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Quick access to software features is nice, but there can be too much of a good thing. That’s what Adobe concluded when designing Premiere Pro CS6, the upcoming version of its video-editing software.

Adobe was pleased with the current CS5′s Mercury Playback Engine, which on computers with higher-end Nvidia graphics cards provides a major hardware acceleration boost for some tasks. But the user interface was too cluttered, said Premiere Pro Product Manager Al Mooney.

“The car on top of the beautiful, powerful engine was not as nice to drive as modern editors wanted it to be,” Mooney said. Adobe is revealing the features — but not pricing and availability — ahead of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting next week in Las Vegas.

Premiere Pro CS6 gets an overhauled project panel that shows variable-size thumbnails. Each thumbnail can be scrubbed with a mouse swipe, with video editors setting in points an… [Read more]

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Will the iPhone 5 resemble its predecessor, the iPhone 4?

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

After unveiling a marginally improved iPhone 4S in 2011 instead of a radically different iPhone 5, Apple has returned to its development labs to cook up (no pun intended) the next iteration of its popular phone. In 2012, we’re fairly certain that the real iPhone 5 will roll out of Apple’s gates and that the device should be a bigger leap forward than the 4S was.

That’s why after taking some time off at the end of last year, we’ve resurrected CNET’s iPhone 5 rumor roundup to cover the new tidbits from 2012. So join us again in watching the rumor mill churn. We’ll add to it until we get the real thing, and please let us know if we’ve left any gossip out.

April 9, 2012
Different chip, different body
Several iPhone rumors from varying media sources suggest that the iPhone will be more robust, both inside and out. Business Insider reported that it’ll have a 4-inch screen and have a unibody ca… [Read more]

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Touch and hold on drum sounds to hear the beat and adjust levels.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Figure (99 cents) lets you create a song with three tracks — drums, bass, and synth lead — through a series of taps on a beautifully designed touch interface. The easiest way to get started familiarizing yourself with Figure is simply by touching record, then holding drum sounds to lay down your first beat.

Once you’re satisfied with your beat, touch the red Bass tab at the top to add a bass track. You’ll see three circles at the top with Rhythm on the left (number of bass notes per eight bars) and Range in the middle (this adjusts what part of the scale your notes will come from). On the right side of the interface you’ll see a circle divided up into pie pieces illustrating the steps of the scale — the actual notes you are playing. Figure automatically makes sure you’re in tune, only using notes from the same key. Once you’ve filled out the loop, let go and listen to your drum and bass lines.

Touch and swipe left and right in the yellow area to play notes that fit to the beat.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Now that you have the basic components of the song, it’s time to add some lead synth. Just like the bass, … [Read more]

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HTC's One X Android smartphone is quad-core in Europe and dual-core in the U.S.

(Credit:
Photo by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

Smartphones Unlocked is a monthly column that dives deep into the inner workings of your trusty smartphone.

When HTC first announced that U.S. versions of the HTC One X wouldn’t bear Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor, my gut reaction was: that’s a darn shame.

I was looking at things the wrong way. If you’re HTC or Nvidia, losing the bragging rights of introducing the U.S. to its first quad-core phone months before anyone else is a bummer. (Of course, with no quad-core phone in our market, it’s still anyone’s game.) But if you’re the typical consumer, you might wonder how you pulled the short end of the stick. After all, the more processing cores, the better the phone, right?

If you’re going to use the number of cores on your phone as the single metric for performance, you’re doing it wrong. — Greg Sullivan, Senior Product Manager for Microsoft

Maybe not. A tremendous amount of detailed architecture and circuitry go into processor chips, which can make understanding their exact effects on performance a serious undertaking for most. (Note, if you… [Read more]

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The animation shows the Titanic splitting in two and plunging into the depths.

(Credit:
Video screenshot by Tim Hornyak/CNET)

Just in case his billion-dollar blockbuster wasn’t realistic enough for you, not to mention the new $18 million 3D version, James Cameron has created another film about the Titanic, which presents its final minutes in stunning detail.

“From iceberg to bottom, it’s never been animated so precisely and so dramatically,” the Canadian ubermensch and premier Titanic obsessive says in the trailer to “Titanic: The Final Word With James Cameron,” which premieres on the National Geographic Channel on April 8.

Having logged more than 30 dives to the Titanic wreck and a record for recently reaching the Challenger Deep alone, Cameron is uniquely suited to investigating the disaster. He’s often said he made the feature film just so he could dive the wreck itself.

Nonetheless, he assembled a team of eight experts for the documentary, which also features a 42-foot Titanic replica.

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The app that can't be filtered out of your life.

(Credit:
Instagram)

Instagram seems to be on a mission to add hipster photo filters to all your mobile devices this week. First, the long-awaited Android version of the popular iPhone app dropped and quickly racked up over a million downloads, and now an update opens up support to tablets and Wi-Fi devices in the Android universe.

The news is more salt in the wound of scorned iOS users who were apparently under the impression that their Vegas honeymoon with Instagram would live forever, but times are changing and it doesn’t make sense for many apps to be monogamous these days.

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The update also makes another key upgrade, allowing app install on an SD card, while also fixing so… [Read more]

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