Exclusive: Google to Crash Android Party

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Move over, Apple (AAPL Quote), Research In Motion (RIMM Quote) and Motorola (MOT Quote), Google (GOOG Quote) is jumping into the smartphone market with an Android phone of its own.

In what is likely to be seen as disruptive to the wireless status quo, Google is working with a smartphone manufacturer to have a Google-branded phone available this year through retailers and not through telcos, according to Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar, who has talked to Google’s design partners about the plan.

The move would fulfill Google’s pledge to bring a new generation of open-standard mobile Internet devices to consumers. By bypassing the carriers, who keep tight controls over the features and applications that are allowed on phones, Google will presumably offer a device that lets users determine the functions.

Both the Chrome netbook and the Android phone will use Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) chips, with the netbook running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform, says Kumar, who has discussed the plan with original design manufacturers working with Google.

If talk of the Google phone plan is true, the entrance of a unlocked, low-cost, Web-friendly touchscreen device will probably undercut other Android phone efforts by players like Motorola, Samsung and Dell (DELL Quote).

Motorola’s entire turnaround strategy is based on the Android operating system. The company is expected to announce a ultra-thin Droid phone at Verizon (VZ Quote) next month. Both Verizon and Motorola expect the Sholes/Droid phone to be a significant challenger to Apple’s iPhone.

 

Skeptics point out that Google might have a hard time getting the phone out in time for the holidays, since it typically takes a year or more to bring a phone from design to production.

Industry analysts also argue that the move would be an affront to the U.S. carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint (S Quote) and Deutsche Telekom’s (DT Quote) T-Mobile, outfits that have been supporting the Android effort by selling or planning to sell subsidized devices.

“It’s a bit of a departure from Google’s strategy, but I think the speculation is valid,” says Michael Cote of the Cote Collaborative. And as for getting the phone to the market quickly, Google “would probably use a partner they are familiar with.”

HTC, the first developer of an Android phone, is also a no stranger to Qualcomm chips and would be the most likely manufacturer able to give Google what it wanted fast.

If Google goes through with the plan, it would point to how eager the Internet ad giant is to get Android in as many hands as possible so it can extend its search business beyond desktop computers to mobile devices. Going around phone companies to reach consumers is a bold move, but Google no doubt sees the wireless Internet market as a land-grab race with Apple, Nokia (NOK Quote) and Microsoft (MSFT Quote).

Google also has plans with computer maker Quanta to build its own netbooks that will run on a Linux-based Google Chrome operating system and be available next summer, says Kumar.

Representatives for Google, HTC and Quanta were not immediately available for comment.

Google shares were down 0.8% to $547.78 in recent trading.

A look at what’s new in Windows 7

The BBC’s Jason Palmer gets his hands on Windows 7

The newest release of Microsoft’s flagship product Windows is to be released on Thursday.

Check out the video

There are a great many changes to the operating system, which has already been described by one analyst as “a polishing release of Windows Vista”.

Here, BBC News takes a quick run through the most noticeable changes.

Fresh start

From the very start, then: installation. Windows 7 is designed to be a markedly less bulky and resource-intensive OS, so the installation should be comparatively quick, and there’s a particularly lightweight version for netbooks.

The difficulties that plagued upgrades from XP to Vista are gone, because the architecture of Windows 7 rests on the changes made in Vista. Equally, however, that will make upgrading from XP difficult.

If you are aiming to upgrade directly from Windows XP to Windows 7, be aware that Microsoft doesn’t recommend it. Not only is it likely to take significantly longer, the directory structure is different between the two and many applications may not work if not run after a “fresh” installation.

The release offers many new personalisation options like desktops

If installing Windows 7 on an older machine, it’s probably best to check with the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor program to see whether your machine is compatible or if you are likely to see the improvements in speed that the OS can in principle offer.

For the most part, software that runs on Vista will run on Windows 7; many big-name software vendors of programs that don’t upgrade easily have free upgrades available on the web.

Microsoft promises that its Windows Easy Transfer will smooth the process of moving your files from an older machine to your new Windows 7 computer.

However, be aware that many simple programs for handling things like instant messaging are missing from Windows 7 on install; instead, the idea is that users will begin to use the cloud-based services that form Windows Live.

First look

With Windows 7 installed, the first thing to note is that it doesn’t look – or, on startup, sound – all that different from Vista.

One quickly noticeable difference is that the desktop widgets, or Gadgets, can now be placed wherever you like on the desktop.

The taskbar along the bottom of the screen has had a few new features added to it: hover over the Internet Explorer bar, for example, and up pop small previews of all the open Explorer windows, even if they’re running live video at the time.

Thumbnail previews of open windows

Hover over the previews, and just that window will pop up in full size, with all other windows minimised.

The taskbar also harks back to earlier Windows releases with the return of the “quick launch” menu: put your favourite programs there and they can be run straight from the taskbar.

Continuing in the theme of simplifying your workspace, the stylistic “Aero” features first shown off in Vista have been explored, leading to new features.

Too many windows open? Grab the bar at the top of a window, give it a shake with the mouse, and all other windows minimise. Repeat the process to re-maximise the other windows.

Aero Peek isn’t really a feature per se – a little patch of the right of the taskbar performs the function of the prior “show desktop” icon – but it simply makes the windows transparent, leaving behind their outlines.

Networking opportunity

Microsoft has added a few new bells and whistles for home networking, as well. Each computer that is running Windows 7 on a network can dictate what kinds of files will be shared – documents, videos, or music – and which will remain private.

The release allows detailed control of files shared on a home network

Also, there is new functionality in the “Play To” menu for media: users can play a multimedia out to other computers in the network or even an XBox.

Microsoft has also refined the search function that was wholly revamped for Vista. As before, it searches across all hard drives, and keeps a running tally so that results are displayed more or less instantly, as you type – reminiscent of Apple Mac’s search.

In Windows 7, the search results are broken down into sub-lists by type, such as documents, multimedia, programs, and so on.

Users can also create “libraries” of certain types of files – not unlike Mac OS’s “smart folders”: a sort of virtual directory that contains for instance all of your image files, regardless of the folders where they actually reside.

Lastly, Windows incorporates some familiar tricks having to do with “multitouch” functions, either on a mousepad or a touchscreen device, should you have one.

However, these multitouch features work with all applications.

Holding one finger down on an icon while tapping with another functions like a right-click and two fingers can be used to zoom in and out of images or webpages, or rotate them.

Flash Apps We’d Like to See on the iPhone

Adobe is finally bringing Flash to the iPhone. Now’s your chance to tell us what you think programmers should use this awesome power for.

Adobe has been working long and hard to finagle Apple into imbuing the iPhone with a full Flash experience. The solution unveiled Monday was a compromise at best: Adobe announced its new development kit would convert software written in Flash into standalone iPhone apps. Though this is a lesser Flash experience, Adobe claims there are over 1 million Flash developers worldwide, so expect a flood of new Flash iPhone apps and games to land in the App Store in the near future. Compare that to the 100,000 iPhone developers that Apple says are already out there, and you’ll get an idea of how this might start to change the landscape for iPhone apps.

That gets us in the mood for wishing. There are plenty of Flash-based games, apps and streaming-video sites we’d love to see turned into iPhone apps. Some examples include the Hulu TV-streaming service, the Straw Hat Samurai fighting game, or maybe even a mobile version of the Aviary multimedia suite.

Read on for our wish list of iPhone-ported Flash apps we’d like to see in the App Store. And after you’re done, feel more than welcome to suggest the Flash apps you want to see, in the Reddit-powered list below. If Flash developers see enough demand for their apps and games, they might feel compelled to deliver their wares to the iPhone.

One note: Before submitting your suggestions, make sure to check out Adobe’s limitations for converting Flash into iPhone apps. But keeping that in mind, let your imagination run wild. Ours have already.

Hulu

We have a feeling consumers wouldn’t have created such a fuss over the lack of Flash on the iPhone if a Hulu app were available. Imagine how great that would be. Missed the first episode of Flash Forward? On your bus ride home, launch the Hulu app, punch Flash Forward into a search and stream the episode over a 3G connection — all free, with the brief interruption of a few ads. We estimate this will make commuters’ lives 40 times less miserable. (If a Hulu app ever appears, AT&T and Apple might cripple it to work Wi-Fi only, but hey — this is a wishlist, so we can dream.)

Straw Hat Samurai

Samurai warriors are rad (almost as awesome as ninjas). Imagine how fun this game Straw Hat Samurai would be on an iPhone. The game involves using your mouse to draw lines onto the areas you’d like to slash your enemies to death. It’s charmingly simple, and with an iPhone it would be even better, using our fingers to swipe across the touchscreen to swing the sword. We think kids with an iPod Touch would especially love this game. Try it out at Kongregate if you haven’t already.

Dolphin Olympics 2

Yeah, that’s right — we like this dolphin game. Got a problem with that? It’s fun. You take on the role of a dolphin, and the goal is to do as many tricks as you can in two minutes. Sounds like a stupid time waster, we know, but that’s what all games are, right? See if you can make the dolphin fly into space, and then tell us this game isn’t entertaining.

Aviary

Aviary is a pretty impressive multimedia suite coded in Flash. In your desktop browser you can apply effects and make basic edits to images, and there’s even a vector-editing tool. We wouldn’t expect this to translate smoothly into an iPhone app, but it’d be great to see a lighter version modified for iPhone owners. We’re a pretty multimedia-savvy bunch, aren’t we?

Sony Develops Wireless Power

Sony develops wireless power prototype system that can transmit electric power of 60W to a TV located 50cm away.

Sony Corp developed a wireless power feeding system for TVs and other electronic devices. The prototyped system can transmit electric power of 60W to a TV located 50cm away. The new wireless power feeding system can transmit power of about 60W when the distance between the transmission device and the reception device is 50cm.

Though Sony has not yet determined when it will be able to commercialize the technology, the company plans to apply it to a wide variety of consumer products. More details via TechOn.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 leaked info + HD trailer

Below is the rumoured list of details for Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

They were apparently slapped up on IW’s twitter page by a play tester, who’s now banned and deleted – which could say alot about their legitimacy.

There’s loads in there, from guns you’ll be seeing again to new multiplayer game modes. It looks quite credible, if you ask us.

Check out Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Infamy trailer HD
The game’s supposedly due out this November, according to the ‘leak’.

Check it out below:

• Vehicles will be in MW2
  
• M16 will return, using stopping power will only be OHK at head, neck, and torso (abdomen, limbs, and hands/feet will not)
  
• Ak47 and M4 will return, unknown if there are any changes
  
• M40 will return, ACOG damage boost will be fixed
  
• Scorpion, P90, M21, R700, G3, G360 will not return
  
• There are more unknown weapons that will not return
  
• New sniper rifle: SR25M (United states forces)
  
• New Assault rifle: Diemeco C8 (Canadian forces M4 equivelant)
  
• New Assault rifle: L85A2 (United Kingdom forces)
  
• Total weapons in multiplayer are said to be around 35
  
• Favourite Modern warfare 1 maps will return
  
• Helicopters, air strikes, UAV will return
  
• Red dot sightings will come in different shapes for multiplayer (circular, square, original)
  
• Snipers will have special grass camouflage (As seen in Modern warfare 1’s campaign)
  
• All perks will return from MW except eavesdrop and others will be altered
  
• All gametypes will return from MW and all will have hardcore versions
  
• New gametype: Secure (Call of duty version of capture the flag, however you capture the enemy’s Intel)
  
• New gametype unconfirmed name, similar to search and destroy, however instead of trying to plant a bomb, you try to kill a specified enemy
  
• Solider customization for each class (and each country)
  
• Sniper with silencers will NOT be in multiplayer
  
• There are NO bots in local multiplayer
  
• Similar version to Nazi Zombies, however details are unknown
  
• NO guest players online, 1 player per console
  
• Killcam save feature
  
• There is blood and gore
  
• Offline/Online Co-op
  
• Story takes place in the Middle East
  
• Role as US marines return
  
• Ken Lally voice work in campaign
  
• Release is set for sometime in November
  
• New army tags will be available to add different elements in campaign (similar to halo skulls)
  
• Campaign-only weapons

Diablo 3 Review + HD gameplay

Diablo III is more. More action, more death, more skills, more color, more history, more beauty, more top-down, click-hungry, loot-happy, quick on – the cover, randomly-generated, killing the fantasy-horror. Beneath the waves of enthusiasm generated by its return in the form of twenty minutes of impressive amount of the game, there is the slightest undertow of anti-climax.

Judge for yourself . Check out this HD gameplay video of the Monk class & many more!!

The game takes place in the sanctuary, a world of dark fantasy. Unknown to most of its inhabitants, Sanctuary was saved some twenty years ago of the demonic forces of the world by some earthly heroes that were brave and powerful. Most of those warriors who directly faced the armies of fiery hell were lucky enough to survive; went mad from their experiences. And most of the others have buried their memories and have frequently pushed the horrors from their thoughts. In Diablo III, the players will return to the sanctuary to confront evil in its many forms once again.
The same exciting look continues on to the real game play. The characters were great and rich detail but climbed pleasant environments. The characters are great, but can still be easily dwarfed by some of the largest creatures in the game. While at first thought that this was a boss, due to its rugged package and the complexity of their attacks, was later confirmed this was hardly a crowd crushed the likes of which you expect to see on a fairly regular basis. The enemies during the game will also demonstrate a variety of behaviors.

In Diablo III, potions still play a part in the action, but downplayed by its importance. Health globes, falling off defeated enemies and will boost the health of your character and those around you if you are playing cooperatively. So developers put it, the idea of enemies dropping health is one that will keep the player moving the game forward in comparison to try to avoid combat. In addition, a new toolbar on the skill, similar in location to the old potion belt in Diablo II, will make your skills that much more accessible, allowing you to easily switch between the skills in place. You can even share the skills quickly using the mouse roller for further ease of use. The result is a game you can probably play almost entirely with your mouse, no more hunting skills for using the F key on your keyboard. Here is most important addition with respect to a cooperative game: When a character picks up a health globe, any surrounding allies also benefit from the world of health, which looks like it will encourage players to stick together when cutting and slashing your way through the game. To your ears, it also sounds like almost any kind, but will have to see how it is done while the game comes.

Diablo III will use a new system by hand, but that is currently in development. The only thing which is known for sure is that it does not involve anything as filler items in a Horadric cube. Other mysterious detail, or lack of it, is included in the game’s story and the identity of the new threat as the first three evils were overcome.

Four questions about the Microsoft-Nokia alliance

The Microsoft-Nokia alliance turned out to be a lot more interesting than the pre-announcement rumors made it out to be. Rather than just a bundling deal for mobile Office, the press release says they’ll also be co-developing “a range of new user experiences” for Nokia phones, aimed at enterprises. Those will include mobile Office, enterprise IM and conferencing, access to portals built on SharePoint, and device management.

Of those items, the IM and conferencing ideas sound the most promising to me. Office, as I explained in my last post, is not much of a purchase-driver on mobile phones. And I think Microsoft would have needed to provide Nokia compatibility in its mobile portal and device management products anyway.

I understand the logic behind the alliance. Nokia has never been able to get much traction for its e-series business phones, and Microsoft hasn’t been able to kick RIM out of enterprise. So if they get together, maybe they can make progress. But it’s easy to make a sweeping corporate alliance announcement, and very hard to make it actually work, especially when the partners are as big and high-ego as Microsoft and Nokia. This alliance will live or die based on execution, and on a lot of details that we don’t know about yet.

Here are four questions I’d love to see answered:

What specifically are those “new user experiences”?

If Nokia and Microsoft can come up with some truly useful functionality that RIM can’t copy, they might be able to win share. But the emphasis in the press release on enterprise mobility worries me. The core users for RIM are communication-hungry professionals. If you want to eat away at RIM’s base, you need to excite those communicator users, and I’m not sure if either company has the right ideas to do that. As Microsoft has already proven, pleasing IT managers won’t drive a ton of mobile phone purchases.

Will Microsoft really follow through?

Microsoft has been hinting for the last decade that it was were willing to decouple mobile Office from the operating system, but they never had the courage to follow through. Now they have announced something that sounds pretty definitive, but the real test will be whether they put their best engineers on the Nokia products. If Microsoft assigns its C players to the alliance, or tries to make its Nokia products inferior to their Windows Mobile versions, the alliance won’t go anywhere interesting.

What does this do to Microsoft’s relationships with other handset companies?

Imagine for a moment that you are the CEO of Samsung. Actually, imagine that for several moments. You aren’t exclusive with Microsoft, but you’ve done a lot of phones with Windows Mobile on them. Now all of a sudden Microsoft makes a deal with a company that you think of as the Antichrist.

How do you feel about that?

I can tell you that Samsung is not the most trusting and nurturing company to do business with even in the best of times. So I think you make two phone calls. The first is to Steve Ballmer, asking very pointedly if you can get the same software as Nokia, on the same terms, at the same time. If you don’t like the answer to that question, your next call is to Google, regarding increasing your range of Android phones.

Maybe the reality is that Microsoft has given up on Windows Mobile and doesn’t care what Samsung does. But that itself would be interesting news.

I would love to know how those phone calls went today.

What does RIM do about this?

It has been putting a lot of effort into Apple-competitive features like multimedia and a software store. Does it have enough bandwidth to also fight Nokia-Microsoft? What happens to its core business if Microsoft and Nokia do come up with some cool functions that RIM doesn’t have? Are there any partners that could be a counterweight to Microsoft and Nokia? If I’m working at RIM, I start to think about alliances with companies like Oracle and SAP. And I wonder if Google is interested in doing some enterprise work together.

Transformers made REAL with the OmniZero.9 robot

What you see here is a video from the Robo-One humanoid robot competition in Japan, with a real-life transformer.  The Omnizero.9, designed by Takeshi Maeda at Vstone, is a 3.5 foot tall, 55 pound . As you can see from the above video, it can transform into a rolling vehicle, and can even hold a person’s weight on their shoulders.  We’ve got another video of the robot after the jump, where you can watch it beat down another robot. 3.5 foot tall, 55 pound robot beating up another robot. That’s one bad Deceptacon.

Talk about a breakthrough! This type 1 transformer is definitely the start of a new era, where robots won’t just roam around and help us, they will also be a form of transportation and delivery, taking any shape of a moving (or even flying) vehicle.

AI, I sure would like to meet you in 5 years

Microsoft’s Secret Tablet Revealed

This beautifully designed tablet features dual 7-inch screens and a multi-touch interface. Sounds like a dream list of the long rumored Apple Tablet, but it’s not. These are just some of the features of the Courier, Microsoft’s new secret tablet.

The most stunning feature is the dual 7-inch screens, making this more a Booklet than a Tablet. They are multi-touch, designed for writing, drawing, and flicking with a finger or a stylus. They are connected with a single home button. The Courier also features a camera on the back and may be charged with an inductive pad, like the Pre with its Touchstone.

Microsoft has always done well dreaming up prototypes and producing beautiful renders, but when they are finally released they seem to be mediocre realizations. The Courier is described as being in a “late prototype stage,” so there is reason to be hopeful.

What do you think of the Courier? Will it ever come to see the light or will Apple release something that will stun and amaze everyone?

iTunes 9 breaks Palm Pre syncing

In a move that should surprise no one, iTunes 9, released yesterday, prevents the Palm Pre from syncing music. This is an ongoing battle between Palm and Apple: Palm released the Pre smartphone with the ability to be recognized by iTunes, allowing users to transfer their (non-DRMed) music. Apple countered by breaking this functionality, and not long after, Pre came out with their own “bug fix,” which restored it.

Palm initially worked its way by having the Pre identify itself as a mass storage device, then by having the device identify itself (via it’s USB connection) as a device created by Apple. Perhaps anticipating a complaint by Apple to the group that oversees the use of the Universal Serial Bus, Palm filed a complaint saying it was Apple who was misusing USB, and restricting other companies unfairly.

No word yet on how Apple has plugged what they see as a hole, but I imagine that the Palm engineers are coding away, looking for another workaround.

Palm Pre Review

Reviewed by: Emily Anderson – Sep 06, 2009

Introduction

The buzz surrounding the Palm Pre has shaken the smartphone world. On the verge of bankruptcy, Palm poached Jon Rubinstein, the project manager of Apple’s iPod, to head its research and development. A year later, the result was the Palm Pre.

Palm Pre

Your Price: $199.99 with service

Many have compared the Pre to the popular iPhone. Both have touch screens, robust operating systems, a wide range of applications, Internet, GPS, etc. — but the Pre adds on a QWERTY keypad and a 3.2-megapixel camera in a smaller design package.

Its specialty is integration. Running on Palm’s new WebOS software, the Pre has a feature called “Synergy” that combines information from multiple sources, so calendar items, emails, text and photo messages, email messages and contacts are integrated into a single list.

Calendars from a user’s desktop, online email and Internet be viewed together, and conversations with each contact are combined into a single chat-style window.

Plus, more than one application can stay open at once, so there’s no need to close emails for a call, end a call for an instant message, end instant messaging to play a song and so on.

It’s not a perfect phone, though. There’s no camcorder, flash support, on-screen keypad or slot for a memory card. Microsoft Office items can be read but not edited on the phone. And applications, although handy, don’t go quite as far as those on the iPhone.

The Palm Pre can keep a person connected and organized. It can also keep a person entertained. But the applications menu doesn’t have a large enough buffet to serve every interest.

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Design

The Pre’s completely black shell has two effects. The good effect is that it makes the screen pop even more than it already does, considering its color capacity and high resolution. The not so good effect is that it makes some keys hard to find, especially the keys on the edges of the phone.

It slides open to reveal a full QWERTY keypad. Designed at a slight angle, the Pre fits in the hand easier than the rigid iPhone, with a screen that is easier to see while typing. Its smooth raised keypad is simple to use and easy to read — though they’re not very large — and backlit for typing at night. More room between keys and a longer space bar would make typing easier since typing errors occasionally happen.

The right side has a slot to plug in the phone’s charger or micro USB chord, the left side has volume keys, and the top of the phone has a headset jack, a ringer switch to turn sounds off and on, and the power key.

The Palm Pre weighs 135 grams, is 3.9 inches tall, 2.3 inches across and two-thirds of an inch thick.

The Pre has a vibrant screen and an uncluttered keypad, but the keys — sometimes hard to find on the phone’s jet-black shell — could be larger.

Its sleek design, smaller size and slight curve when it slides open make it easier to hold than the larger, stick-straight iPhone. The QWERTY keyboard is also a nice addition compared to the iPhone’s on-screen keypad, but the keys are unfortunately small on the Pre. But having a smaller screen, even with good resolution, still means a littler view of videos and other screens.

Out of the box, the Palm Pre comes with a Lithium Ion battery, AC phone charger, stereo headset, micro-USB sync cable, carry pouch, recycling envelope, terms and conditions of services booklet and guides for getting started and features in English and Spanish.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 Soon!!

Official Website !

www.marvelultimatealliance.marvel.com/

Official HD Trailer !

Character Reviews & Previews

http://comics.ign.com/articles/101/1018503p1.html