BlackBerry PlayBook Review

The tablet war is definitely hotting up now, and it isn’t just a case of choosing a tablet that looks nice. RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, is the latest company wanting a slice of Apple’s pie with its 7-inch screen pad, the PlayBook.

It’s a handsome piece of kit that looks great and feels good in the hand. It has a very wide bezel, but there’s a reason for that. The bezel is partly touch-sensitive, so you wake the screen, for example, by swiping your finger from one edge to another; there’s no Home button as there is on the iPad.

You can also wake it with the power button mounted on the top edge, but the swiping action is a lot more fun!

And you use the same swiping-from-the-bezel movement to switch from one app to another. One stroke from bottom to top shrinks the active window to a smaller image which sits alongside other active apps. This works well and if you were watching a video or playing a game when doing this, the powerful dual-core processor has no trouble continuing to play it in the reduced window until you flip to another program.

This is multi-tasking simply and effectively executed, courtesy of the new operating system RIM is using for its tablet. When you want to close a program or app, you simply flick it offscreen (a similar process used on HP’s upcoming TouchPad, with a lot of ideas taken from the former Palm webOS interface)

It’s a deeply satisfying way of controlling things. Stroke downwards from the top and a full menu drops down. Neat.

The screen is high-resolution and super-sharp, so games and video look very impressive and high-definition. However, it can be a little tricky to see the display (even on full brightness) in the great outdoors on one of the few days where we’re privileged enough to enjoy bright sunlight.

The BlackBerry Desktop software makes it easy to synchronise your music and video collection with your PlayBook, or at least it does if you’re a Windows user. Mac compatibility is coming later, but for now you can connect it by using a micro-USB cable and drag-and-drop content instead.

Next to the USB connector is a mini HDMI-out socket. With this you can mirror the content of the PlayBook on the big screen. This is great for playing your movies back, gaming and it’s equally useful for playing a presentation. After all, the PlayBook isn’t just about playing.

RIM is known mostly as a business company, so it’s no surprise there are strong enterprise capabilities alongside its multimedia skills. And as it’s also a BlackBerry, you would expect exceptionally tight security to play a part in the software design.

So concerned is RIM about ensuring sensitive business data contained in emails is not lost if a PlayBook is left on a plane, say, that it has developed a system called BlackBerry Bridge. This connects the tablet to your BlackBerry phone, via Bluetooth, and lets the PlayBook see and edit (and delete) the emails on your Blackberry. Break the connection and the data disappears from the tablet.

This means that to make the most of the PlayBook, for now, you need a BlackBerry phone as well. For those without one, RIM will release a native email client for the PlayBook in the next few months, along with BlackBerry Messenger, Contacts and Calendar apps that can run independently.

It’s also rather vital to point out that the PlayBook only has a Wi-Fi connection. There’s no SIM card slot, so you’ll either need to tether it with your BlackBerry, or carry another smartphone that can share data via Wi-Fi.

iPhone 5: 20 most-wanted features

I originally posted this column the day after the iPhone 4 launched, which is why you see a lot of comments dating back to June of last year. At the time, I apologized for talking about the next-generation iPhone within hours of the 4's release, but I knew that a lot of iPhone 3 and 3GS owners (like me) were planning on skipping the iPhone 4 and were already looking ahead.

Back in January, we got the iPhone 4 from Verizon. Except for some small design changes, including some tweaks to the antenna design, it really wasn't different from the AT&T version and wasn't considered an incremental upgrade or iPhone 4.5.

Now the iPhone 5 rumors are flying fast and furious, with June, the typical launch window for next-generation iPhones, quickly approaching. Will the iPhone 5 have a completely new design or just be a slightly modified version of the iPhone 4 with enhanced parts and various tweaks? Will the launch be delayed until fall, as several reports are now suggesting? Will there be a smaller, lower-cost iPhone?

All is unknown. But that hasn't stopped me from updating this list of most-wanted features with information gleaned from the arrival of the iPad 2, as well as other new products and services.

As a reminder, the 20 items in the list are ordered from least to most important in a reverse countdown. I've also included what I think are the odds of Apple actually implementing each request. As always, feel free to agree or disagree with me and make your own suggestions (and to post your own ordered wish list). Perhaps Apple's listening.

Mozilla Speeds Up Firefox

Firefox 3.0 is dramatically faster than its predecessor and rivals, benchmark tests claim -- the result of hundreds of performance improvements designed to make the open-source browser the best at running complex Web 2.0 applications, Mozilla Corp.'s chief developer said Wednesday.

"We've been working on performance for a long time," said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president of engineering. "Each beta of Firefox 3.0 got better. Beta 1 was better than Firefox 2.0, Beta 2 was better than Beta 1 and so on. Some of the big architectural changes [we've made] had begun paying off. Now we're at the point where we can turn the knob to get it to perform well."

Firefox 3.0 Beta 4, which Mozilla released late Monday, has been put through its paces by users and bloggers, some of whom have published the results of head-to-head benchmark tests between Firefox, Opera, Apple Inc.'s Safari and Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer. According to Percy Cabello, who posted his results on the Mozilla Links blog, Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 is 53% faster than Opera 9.5 beta, twice as fast as Apple Inc.'s Safari and three times faster than Microsoft Corp.'s IE7 on the SunSpider benchmark, which tests JavaScript performance.

Schroepfer, however, refused to be drawn into a conversation about benchmarks. Instead, he talked about what the open-source project is looking to do.

"There are lots of ways to 'game' the system [in benchmarks], but what we're trying to do is speed up the things that enable people to run the really heavy-duty applications on the Web."

Saying that a browser is a browser is a browser when rendering basic Web pages, Schroepfer added that the challenge Mozilla took on was how to build a browser that performs well when asked to run much more complex Web 2.0-esque applications, such as Yahoo's Zimbra, the online collaboration and document suite.

"Web apps today are magnitudes more complex than those from five years ago," said Schroepfer. "When Yahoo started out, it wasn't anything more than a bullet list. Now it has widgets and word processing. It's important for us to make it possible for Web designers to create complex applications. They can be confident building [big Web applications] knowing that Firefox can handle them."

Firefox's developers have dealt with more than 400 performance-related bugs and changes, Schroepfer said. "There are a bunch of things that have to come together to get these kind of results," he said, as he ticked off several. "We optimized JPG encoding, developers took advantage of more and newer compiler options and we found a way on Mac OS X to keep it from throttling page rendering."

Larger-scale modifications included new graphics- and text-rendering architectures in Gecko, Firefox's engine, and a completely revamped JavaScript engine.
Mobile Use

Boosting Firefox's performance is also important, Schroepfer said, for the mobile market, which Mozilla has begun exploring. "The performance gains carry over into mobile, where underpowered devices are the rule," he said. "It should really help us there."

Mozilla is at the end of the line in the mobile space. There, Opera Software ASA's Opera leads all others in popularity on handsets. IE, found on Windows Mobile-powered smart phones, and Safari on the iPhone trail Opera in installations, but are ahead of Firefox by miles.

"I think better performance goes back to the mission of Mozilla," concluded Schroepfer. "That mission is to move the Web as a platform forward." That's happening, he argued, with Firefox leading the way.

"I'm happy to see that other browsers are working on performance now, too."

Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in 36 languages from Mozilla's site.

Via- [http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143386-c,browsers/article.html]

Compressed Air Knife Patent

You would think that knife blade technology had reached its pinnacle a long time ago, but there are still inventors out there bound and determined to re-invent the wheel. Imagine if Crocodile Dundee whipped out a knife that was not only huge, but could also blast compressed air into an open wound—causing massive organ and tissue damage in the process. Now THAT would be a knife.

The truth is, inventor Gregory Rondinone has patented this very idea, saying that it would be particularly useful in underwater situations.

The weapon as Rondione envisions it would be best utilized by divers to protect them from aggressive undersea creatures. The device would kill quickly (and spectacularly) plus, the compressed gas would make the carcass more buoyant, so it would most likely float to the surface. The problem is that we all know where this thing would end up if it were ever produced—like the backpack of some kid in a high school.

Via- [http://gizmodo.com/367115/compressed-air-knife-patent-cranks-up-the-killing-power]

SmartSleep- Add Better Sleep to Your MacBook

Freeware application SmartSleep adds a preference pane to your Mac laptop's system preferences to enhance the usefulness of your Mac's sleep states. It does so by dynamically adjusting the type of sleep state your MacBook will use based on your battery life.

For example, as long as your Mac's battery has more than a 20% charge or 20 minutes remaining, SmartSleep will tell your Mac to sleep but not hibernate. This will sleep your laptop very quickly, but it will also keep your data in your RAM, which means your battery will still be draining slightly while you're sleeping. Below 20% will switch to sleep and hibernate mode, which saves your system state to the hard drive, thereby preserving more battery. Last, if you're at under 5%, SmartSleep will hibernate only. SmartSleep is freeware, Mac OS X only.

Via- [http://lifehacker.com/361489/add-better-sleep-to-your-macbook-with-smartsleep]

Eidos 20 BD- World's Most Overpriced Blu-Ray Player at $16,900

Goldmund has just announced the Eidos 20 BD, a device that they claim is the first Blu-ray player from a high-end AV manufacturer. So, naturally, that makes alright to slap a $16,000 price tag on it. Apparently, that premium price will score you an AC-Curator power supply circuit for improved picture and sound, a Mechanical Grounding construction that eliminates vibrations that can blur video and a Magnetic Damper that lowers reading errors.

Goldmund introduces first high-end Blu-Ray playerpriced at $16,900. The Eidos 20 BD Embodies Goldmund's Signature High-Tech Refinement Los Angeles, February 25, 2008: Goldmund, makers of the world's most extravagant and technologically advanced systems for audio-video purists, introduced today the company's first Blu-ray player, the Eidos 20 BD. With the announcement of the Eidos 20 BD, Goldmund becomes the first high-end audio/video manufacturer to issue a Blu-ray player. The Eidos 20 BD embodies the Goldmund high-tech refinement that has made the Swiss-based company a leader in the audiophile community for the last 30 years. Goldmund signature features found on the Eidos 20 BD include the "AC-Curator" power supply circuit which dramatically improves picture and sound stability and dynamics, and the "Mechanical Grounding" construction which removes from the player mechanism spurious vibrations blurring the video signal and increasing jitter. In addition, the new Eidos 20 BD uses the Goldmund "Magnetic Damper," a device lowering the reading errors, a feature that previously was exclusive to Goldmund's highest end devices. "As a result of last week's news in regards to the format wars, Goldmund decided to launch the Eidos 20 BD earlier than we had originally planned to capture the attention of the industry that believes in the superior technological merits of the Blu-ray format," said Michel Reverchon, president of Goldmund. "The Blu-ray player is the perfect addition to our Goldmund Media Room, which requires high-definition playback and is the pinnacle of technological excellence." Goldmund will begin taking orders for the Eidos 20 DB, which is priced at $16,900.

Via- [Gizmodo]

PlayStation Store Update- Check Out

Outside of the PixelJunk Monsters demo, PlayStation 3 owners may have some difficulty mustering up too much excitement about this week's PlayStation Store additions. There's only one other playable, an original PlayStation title, but maybe you'll find this week's light dusting of gameplay trailers enough to keep you busy between F5ing the site. There is that Bionic Commando: Rearmed trailer available, the kind of thing you may want to watch and rewatch and rewatch. And rewatch.

Continue for the full list of new goodies coming your way courtesy of the PlayStation Network.

Games and Demos
PixelJunk Monsters demo (free)
Jet Moto 3 for PSone ($5.99)

Add-ons and Expansions
Rock Band tracks ($1.99 each) - "El Scorcho" by Weezer, "Why Do You Love Me" by Garbage, and "Sex Type Thing" by Stone Temple Pilots

Game Videos
Bionic Commando: Rearmed Trailer
Conflict: Denied Ops Developer Diary 4
MLB 08 The Show Stolen Base Video
MLB 08 The Show Replay Vault Tutorial
MLB 08 The Show Pitcher/Batter Analysis Tutorial

Movie and Television Trailers
We Own The Night (Blu-ray)
Kung Fu Panda

Wallpapers and Themes
Lair "Asylian" theme

Via- [kotaku]