Nexus S 4G launches May 8 on Sprint for $199

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Smartphones, Handhelds,

The Samsung Nexus S 4G will be available from Sprint starting May 8, the carrier announced this morning.

Users can snap up the Android-based smartphone for $199.99 with a two-year contract in Sprint retails store, online, and at Best Buy.

Sprint and Samsung first announced plans for the Nexus S 4G in late March; it's Sprint's first pure-Google Android phone and the first stock Android phone with WiMAX.

The phone will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread and a 1-GHz processor. It features a 4-inch Super AMOLED 480-by-800 touch-screen display, a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera with camcorder and flash, and a front-facing VGA camera. The Nexus S 4G is Bluetooth-enabled, has stereo speakers, and a media player with 3.5mm stereo headset jack.

Sprint said the phone features a curved design that provides "a more comfortable look and feel," as well as a screen that "produces less glare than on other smartphone displays when outdoors, so videos, pictures and games look their best and the sun won't wash them out."

Click to continue reading Nexus S 4G launches May 8 on Sprint for $199

Deal of the Day: $40 off new iPod nano

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Hot Deals, Portable Audio / Video,

For the next one hour, eBay has a great deal where you get 27% off the 6th gen iPod nano. This specifically pertains to the silver model, which usually sells forr $149, so this deal brings it down to $109, saving you $40. Even better? Shipping is free. They've got limited stock, and again, this only lasts for an hour. If you're interested, head on over:

Save $40 on iPod nano

Don’t forget, if you’re looking for other deals, be sure to check out our Newegg Promo Code thread. Oh, and if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow @TechPromos for the latest deals.

Read More | iPod nano sale

Nook Color will allow authors to autograph e-books with a stylus

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds,

Famous authors won't lose the ability to autograph their books in the digital age if Barnes & Noble has anything to say about it. With a firmware upgrade, the Nook Color will reportedly allow authors to sign their books with a stylus. The first "e-book signing" is scheduled for next week.

Authors will need to put their Sharpies down, and instead use a stylus to sign a book directly on the Nook Color's touchscreen, and the e-reader will store the signature on that digital copy of the book. Presumably, the signature would be visible to anyone who reads it, even friends who borrow the book on the Nook platform, essentially converting bragging rights to digital form.

Yesterday the Nook Color received a major software upgrade—adding apps, an email client, and Adobe Flash compatibility—but the new autograph feature appears to be separate from that. A company called Autography has patented software for writing autographs on e-books, but it's not known whether the Nook feature uses that technique or something different.

Click to continue reading Nook Color will allow authors to autograph e-books with a stylus

The typewriter is dead as the last factory closes its doors (Updated)

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Misc. Tech,

Update: Contrary to the original reports, it seems there are still typewriters being made in China, Japan, and Indonesia. So rather than being the death of the typewriter, this is just another nail in the coffin.

You might want to be sitting down for this. It's time to say your goodbyes, because the world's last remaining typewriter factory, Godrej & Boyce in Mumbai, India, is closing its doors.

Although typewriters have long been obsolete in the West, they remained popular in India for a long time. However, Godrej & Boyce stopped production in 2009, and now its inventory has dwindled to just 500 machines, most of which are Arabic-language models, and no more will be made. It's a different tune than the company was singing back in the '90s, when it produced 50,000 typewriters a year, a third of India's total output of 150,000 units, India's Business Standard reports.

"From the early 2000s onward, computers started dominating," Godrej & Boyce's general manager of operations Milind Dukle told the Business Standard. "All the manufacturers of office typewriters stopped production, except us. [Until] 2009, we used to produce 10,000 to 12,000 machines a year."

When Godrej & Boyce opened in the 1950s, the Business Standard says the typewriter was a "symbol of independent and industrialized India." More than half a century later, one of the company's plants in Shirwal that closed in 2009 was morphed into a refrigerator factory.

Click to continue reading The typewriter is dead as the last factory closes its doors (Updated)

Prototype white iPhone 4 now on eBay

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Hot Deals,

While the white iPhone 4 has continued to elude the public thus far, eBay has been full of them for some time now. However, a one-of-a-kind model showed up today. This prototype white iPhone 4 started bidding at $2,000. It's got a model number of 995-6364LL, and also has the indentifer DF3039 engraved on the front panel. You definitely won't find that anywhere else. 

Read More | Prototype white iPhone 4 auction

Law & Order: Spider-Man Musical

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Television, Marvel Comics,

You didn’t think Law & Order producer Dick Wolf and his writers would let this one get away, did you?

Famous for taking criminal cases from the news and twisting them in new, dramatic ways, the gang at Law & Order: Criminal Intent have tickets to the new Spider-Man on Broadway musical debacle.

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark is the long-troubled show that has been criticized by the usual theater crowd, theater critics and fans that have seen it. The play has been plagued by problems: injuries to the cast, effects that don't work, a story that makes no sense and bears little resemblance to the classic source material, and delays that have pushed the official opening farther and farther away.

According to press reports, the Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark-inspired episode is about a “high-flying, fast-crashing show called Icarus” (see what they did there?) where an actor is killed during the production, the director is a high-strung born-again drunk and the composer is a bi-sexual rock star.

Click to continue reading Law & Order: Spider-Man Musical

Deal of the Day: 43% off Viewsonic 24-inch LCD monitor

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Displays, Hot Deals, Peripherals,

For the next two and a half hours, eBay has a great deal where you get 43% off the Viewsonic VA2431wm 24-inch LCD monitor. The display usually sells for $255, so this deal brings it down to $145, saving you $109. Even better? Shipping is free. They've got limited stock, so if you're interested, head on over:

Save 43% on Viewsonic VA2431wm monitor

Don’t forget, if you’re looking for other deals, be sure to check out our Newegg Promo Code thread. Oh, and if you're on Twitter, be sure to follow @TechPromos for the latest deals.

Read More | Viewsonic VA2431wm deal

Microsoft says Windows Phones don’t store location history

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, GPS, Microsoft,

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows Phones don't store location history in a manner similar to the iPhone, which records the location data in an unencrypted file. The news that some iOS devices keep location data came to light last week, although Apple warns users of the practice (if not the precise methods) in the fine print of the phone's terms of service.

Microsoft told us unequivocally that phones running Windows Phone 7 do not store location history. Like most other phones, the platform offers plenty of location-based apps, and those apps require user consent before they begin tracking. Windows Phones also offer the common feature of a "global switch" that lets the user disable all location services, and Microsoft says its "Find My Phone" service keeps only the phone's most recent location.

We also contacted Nokia, RIM, Google, and HP about how the companies' mobile platforms store location data, and none, save Microsoft, have responded. It's been confirmed independently that Google Android also tracks and stores location data.

Click to continue reading Microsoft says Windows Phones don’t store location history

Will the iPhone 5 look like this?

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Rumors,

You've seen rumors about when the fifth-generation iPhone is coming out, now check out a visualization (pictured) of what it will look like, based on the imagination and alleged sources of former Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky.

In his interim blog This Is My Next, Topolsky says the next iPhone will look "radically" different from the iPhone 4. For one, it'll be even thinner than the iPhone 4, which isn't unfathomable thanks to a recent patent Apple obtained, and boast a "teardrop" shaped profile similar to the Macbook Air.

The home button area will expand to act as a gesture area to support gesturing features in a future iOS update, Topolsky writes. The display could go up to 3.7 inches (thus making the bezel almost disappear) without decreasing much in resolution, so Apple can still claim it uses Retina Display technology.

Topolsky also says he saw in a drawing that the iPhone will come with cable-free, touch charging, though his sources wouldn't confirm that.

Click to continue reading Will the iPhone 5 look like this?

Nintendo confirms Wii successor to be shown at E3 in June

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: E3, Hardware, Nintendo, Rumors,

Time to start your wrist exercises: IGN has gotten its hands on new details about Nintendo's upcoming Wii 2 console, codenamed "Project Café," and the system's specs look pretty beefy on paper. But we should preface this all by saying that Wii 2 is just a nickname for Nintendo's Wii successor. According to IGN, Nintendo is floating around alternate names for the platform, including "Stream." This morning Nintendo confirmed that they'd be showing the console at E3 this June:

Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011.

 

We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.

 

Sales of this new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012.

That name is itself interesting, as the Wii successor will finally have the power to be able to output high-definition video–1080p content–but it's still not expected to have a physical way to read HD content like Blu-ray discs.

The 1080p compatibility will be partially thanks to the custom-built tri-core IBM PowerPC chipset that'll serve as the Wii 2's brains. It's going to be the same kind of setup that you'll find on Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. Only, Nintendo will allegedly up the clock speeds to beat out the three 64-bit, 3.2-Ghz cores of Microsoft's competing device, among other enhancements.

Click to continue reading Nintendo confirms Wii successor to be shown at E3 in June