Tech News Updates

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has only just finally, officially been revealed, but it looks like the company is already doing at least a bit of talking about its next tablet (and the future of the Galaxy Tab). According to Tech Radar , Samsung’s head of product planning, WP Hong, has said that “moving forward, with Honeycomb, that will be used in the next generation tablet, as it is specifically optimized for different type of tablet, and will be used on another product only.” Not only is that the most official word we’ve had so far of a Galaxy Tab followup (curiously described as a “different type of tablet”), but it’s also seemingly the first time that an ODM has publicly referred to a future Android version as “Honeycomb” — a name that Tech Radar had previously heard from “multiple sources.” It seems that Honeycomb won’t be making it to the current Galaxy Tab, however, but Hong did say that “depending on our international partners, we’ll be working to upgrade from Froyo to Gingerbread.” Samsung exec says next tablet will use Android ‘Honeycomb,’ Galaxy Tab getting Gingerbread originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

We’re not quite sure when the Federal Communications Commission got into the habit of tearing devices limb from limb after testing their wireless radiation levels, but we have to say we’re loving the trend — and there’s quite nothing like peering into the juicy innards of a new Apple device. Here, the FCC got its greasy paws on the new Retina Display-packing iPod touch , aka “Apple A1367,” and in the gallery below you can see exactly where Cupertino keeps that A4 processor, 3.44 watt-hour battery, internal antenna, and 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz WiFi. Gallery: Apple iPod touch (2010) – FCC teardown FCC tears apart the new iPod touch, while iFixit wistfully looks on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

We’re not quite sure when the Federal Communications Commission got into the habit of tearing devices limb from limb after testing their wireless radiation levels, but we have to say we’re loving the trend — and there’s quite nothing like peering into the juicy innards of a new Apple device. Here, the FCC got its greasy paws on the new Retina Display-packing iPod touch , aka “Apple A1367,” and in the gallery below you can see exactly where Cupertino keeps that A4 processor, 3.44 watt-hour battery, internal antenna, and 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz WiFi. Gallery: Apple iPod touch (2010) – FCC teardown FCC tears apart the new iPod touch, while iFixit wistfully looks on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Last summer, the lone undersea cable linking West Africa to the rest of the world was damaged, forcing Nigeria to fall back on slower and expensive satellite connections, and knocking several other countries completely offline until the cable was repaired. While that has been a relatively common occurrence to date, the chances of it happening again in the future are now considerably less likely. That’s because a second undersea cable project was just completed this summer, which is the first of two more cables planned, and just the beginning of a new round of investment in the region that the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union says will vastly increase the bandwidth available by mid-2012. As the AP reports, that additional investment in the region promises to not only increase reliability, but significantly reduce the cost of internet access as well, which currently costs nearly 500 times as much as it does in the U.S. on a wholesale level. Exactly how much cheaper it’ll get remains to be seen, however, and there’s also still the issue of expanding internet access further inland, where infrastructure remains spread thin and in the hands of only a few companies that tightly control access. New fiber optic cables promise to bring better, cheaper internet access to West Africa originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

A Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV strayed into restricted airspace above Washington DC after departing Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland on August 2, the result of a software logic flaw that caused the operator to momentarily lose contact with the drone. Programmed to circle when communications are severed, the chopper failed to follow its failure protocol, instead heading twenty-three miles on a north/northwest trajectory — which could have had serious consequences had it been equipped with 70mm Hydra rocket pods or Hellfire tankbuster missiles. Although this type of incident is rare, it is not unheard of: last September the Air Force had to take down an MQ-9 Reaper in Afghanistan when it failed to adhere to failure protocols after dropping communications with the ground. At least, that’s what we’d like to believe… the alternative scenario is too frightening to consider. MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV resists its human opressors, joyrides over Washington DC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Thought controlled devices are pretty primitive at this point. Sure, everyone from Honda to the U.S. Army (of course) is conducting research, but at this point we don’t have much to show for it all besides an evening of experimental music in Prague . If the kids at Intel have their way, computers will soon be able to look at a person’s brain activity and determine actual words that they’re thinking. The idea here is that the activity generated in the average person by individual words can be mapped and stored in a database, to be matched against that of someone using the though control interface. So far, results have been promising — an early prototype exists that can differentiate between words like screwdriver, house, and barn, by using a magnetic resonance scanner that measures something like 20,000 points in the brain. Anything more effective than that, such as dictating letters or searching Google with your mind alone is probably years in the future — though when it does come to pass we expect to see a marked increase in expletive-filled liveblogs . Intel’s mind reading computer could bring thought controlled interfaces to a whole new, frightening level originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Alright, so this isn’t quite like seeing Duke Nukem Forever popping up on Walmart shelves, but the Cowon X7 has been a long time in the making. Rumored since 2007 , the Korean company’s portable media player has now finally sauntered up to America’s Communications Commission to dot some Is and cross some Ts. We’re let into the knowledge that it’ll come with a Bluetooth radio and a HDD of some kind, which GenerationMP3 speculates will be a 1.8-inch unit. Really now, a spinny thing in our PMP feels better suited to good old ‘07, but then if Cowon can combine some capacious storage with a large screen, it could still have a winner on its hands. Particularly if the rumblings of Android as the OS turn out to be true. Cowon X7 materializes from the ether into a real life FCC applicant originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

It ain’t the first time this chef-d’oeuvre has been spotted in the wild, but it’s the first time that we’re confident in believing the YP-MB2 is legitimate. The smoke that leads to fire is getting harder to duck under, and for all intents and purposes, this here device is a Galaxy S sans cellular connectivity. We’re told that a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3 megapixel camera and Android OS will be featured, and it sure feels like it’ll be released first in South Korea. Apple may be planning a Fall event for the next big iPod announcement, but at least this go ’round some presumably worthwhile competition will be breathing down its neck. Now, if only we knew a price… Samsung’s YP-MB2 Android PMP spotted again in the wild, inches ever closer to release originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Don’t look now, but things may be getting real on the pay-with-your-cell-phone front, as Cupertino’s hired a man with years of experience in enabling just that to finally get ‘er done. According to his LinkedIn profile, Benjamin Vigier is Apple’s new Product Manager of Mobile Commerce, immediately following his handiwork on PayPal Mobile, Sprint MyMoneyManager and the iPhone-based Starbucks Card. Before that, he spent two years heading SanDisk’s mobile commerce and near-field communication efforts and over a year doing NFC for Bouygues Telecom, so it’s not much of a stretch to imagine the futuristic concert tickets depicted in Apple’s recent patent applications might become reality before long. Either that, or he’ll wind up on a completely unrelated project , only to leave under mysterious circumstances later on. Apple hires NFC expert to manage mobile commerce, prepare to pay with your iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

The first prototype of a Nao robot that can develop emotions as it interacts with a human caregiver has been completed. A team across Europe was led by Dr. Lola Ca