News

Active noise cancelling technology is not a new thing. The concept is simple, take incoming sound waves and play them back shifted in phase so that the peaks and valleys cancel each other out. What has changed is the price of entry and at $50, wireless active noise cancelling can be yours.Next Page »

While the mobile market has grown, there are still places with spotty cell coverage and then you have to worry about your data plan while on vacation. Most hotels come with some sort of internet connectivity, but it is limited to a device or two. What happens when you travel with lots of devices and need to connect them all? D-Link has a solution for you in the DIR-510L portable router and charger with storage capabilities.Next Page »

We are fans of security products. We are even bigger fans of security products that don't require custom software solutions or have limited operating system support. The Kingston DataTraveler 2000 is a secure flash drive that requires no software on the host computer. All of the security is built into the drive and it works with anything that supports USB mass storage.Next Page »

We still accept that devices run out of storage. Our mobile phones and tablets can have lots of storage for cheap (flash prices are cheap), but the market still accepts devices with 16GB of storage as the norm. Without having expandable storage, that space runs out quickly. Kingston steps in with the Mobilelite Wireless G3 to solve that need.Next Page »

While Huawei may not be a name you're familiar with in the US, they make some very nice devices. Take the Nexus 6P, it's from Huawei. The P8 lite is a smaller sibling and it combines a smaller form factor with Huawei's Emotion UI Android skin. This unlocked phone offers dual SIM support and a host of other features at a reasonable price.Next Page »

In a world filled with various cables and connections, it's nice to know there are some companies that care about your connection. The ChargerLeash wants to make sure you never leave your cable behind. It presents an audible alarm when you unplug a device from it to remind you not to leave it behind. Does it work? Yes.Next Page »

You're sitting with a slightly older laptop or other type of computer that lacks a SD card reader built in and you think to yourself... "I should get a card reader for this thing." Two things to make sure of are the portability and that it can read the most common sizes of cards along with the current formats. Thankfully, the Kingston Mobilelite G4 reads SDXC cards in both full and micro sizes and is $10 to boot.Next Page »

Smartphones come in many shapes and sizes and Meizu is an international brand that makes some compelling hardware for their target markets. While they were at CES showing off the MX3, we were given a chance to review it for a possible US market push. What we found was that not everything is where it needs to be.Next Page »

What if we told you that your kitchen table can be a speaker? The Bass Egg Verb is a Bluetooth speaker that uses a transducer instead of a speaker to pump sound through flat surfaces. We're impressed with the sound quality and the range of different types of sounds you get from different materials. It is a quality product.Next Page »

Interesting in what the Occulus Rift has to offer but don't want to worry about the cost and other factors? The Dive from Durovis may fit the inexpensive, dual 3D, bite.



The full review is coming in a few weeks.

We strip down the Acer C720 retail packaging. It is a $200 Intel Haswell Chromebook meaning that it has the potential to be much useful than a normal Chromebook.Next Page »

Welcome to the first unboxing article at ASE Publishing. We'll be featuring most of the products that come in with these types of short articles to get your taste buds all ready for the real review. Check out what's in the MX3 box as we open it.Next Page »

There's a trend in mobile devices. More and more of them are removing the external storage option. What was once a big feature has now been pushed aside for unified internal storage. Sure, it makes it more streamlined in the user experience, but you lose the ability to expand your storage. Worse, you lose the ability to backup data directly. Enter Kingston with the Mobilelite Wireless to fix this problem.Next Page »

Quick, you have an extended power outage and your cell phone is running out. Do you have a plan to keep in contact with your friends and family or to get help if something happens? If you answered no, it's time to think about getting a USB solar charging solution. EnerPlex's Kickr IV paired with the Jumpr allows you to not only charge your devices, but to capture the sun's power while you're using the device.Next Page »

Nothing beats a vacation. Well, except when you bring your mobile device with you and can't decide on what videos or music you should load since you don't have enough storage space. That part isn't so good, but why should you have to make that choice? Enter the Kingston Wi-Drive to mitigate your extra storage needs. It works with Android and iOS devices and is a portable NAS for your mobile devices.Next Page »

It has been about three years since the MobileLite G2 was released. After that time, USB3 was released in force as was the new SDXC card format. It was time that Kingston stepped up and had a refreshed of its very mobile card reader and the MobileLite G3 was born.Next Page »

The article sites the inspiration from it's tablet email interface, but I notice that it looks a lot like Outlook, Thunderbird, or just about any other desktop email client. I happen to like the feature and have already turned it on.

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Preview Pane, which is now available in Gmail Labs, allows users to simultaneously preview parts of an email while reading or replying to others. Users of Gmail for iPad or Android will instantly recognize the interface — its design is directly inspired by the email service’s mobile web apps.

http://mashable.com/2011/08/04/gmail-preview-pane/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29

I haven't had a chance to go hands on with a Touchpad, but from the videos they seem like good tablets. If you're lucky enough to have one, you should be able to get the OTA update. It looks like the update provides increased functionality in addition to increased stability. Enjoy...

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Besides performance and reliability enhancements, this new version also brings new features to core webOS apps such as Email, Calendar and Photos.

Among the highlights are improved image rendering and faster scrolling in Email, the ability to set your wallpaper from photos in the Photos app, new layout of the Calendar, reduced audio skipping in Music when using other apps, and improved speed and accuracy of autocorrections when typing.

http://mashable.com/2011/08/02/hp-touchpad-webos-3-0-2/

Does this really surprise anyone? More Android phones are activated every day than any other phone. That alone paints a huge bullseye on it for hackers. If you use an Android phone, you really need to be careful as to what applications you're installing...

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In the study, Dasient analyzed the live behavior of Android apps to determine their security posture. Of the 10,000 applications evaluated, more than 800 were found to be leaking personal data to an unauthorized server, Daswani says.

In addition, the researchers found that 11 of the applications were sending potentially unwanted SMS messages out to other smartphones--the mobile version of spam, Daswani says.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/231002162?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ALL

I haven't had a lot of time to post new news, but there's been some good stuff happening this week. So I figured I'd post a single news article with some interesting things that happened this week.

First, if you're a Netflix subscriber that has a plan using streaming and DVDs, you're probably pissed. Netflix split it's streaming and DVD plans into two separate billable items. Now, you'll have to pay $7.99 for each service totalling $15.98 for both at the base level. That's a significant hike from the $9.99 that was billed before. I'm in this group and I'm not thrilled with it, though I do understand that what Netlix has to pay more and more to license all of the selections. But I think they need a lot more selections to justify an increase this high. Everyone used social media to show just how pissed they were about the change. Hopefully, Netflix will reconsider. In the meantime, here's an article reviewing the alternative options:

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20079003-285/nine-netflix-alternatives/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

T-Mobile also launched their new caller ID feature. This would be awesome if it was free, but I don't think it's worth the $3.99/month they're asking for it. I think it's easier and cheaper to just let things to to voicemail and it it's important enough, they'll leave a message...

http://www.tmonews.com/2011/07/t-mobile-introduces-name-id-caller-id-for-everyone/

Google began testing the new Google + social media site. I haven't gotten an invite yet, so I guess I'll have to wait... Apparently, it's mostly dudes right now. That sucks. You'd figure since women are more social creatures by nature, that they would have jumped at the chance to try it. I suppose that if invites were given to a bunch of nerdy dudes, then there weren't going to be too many women that they knew who could get an invite.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20079285-71/google-its-a-man-thing/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

The Demo for "Catherine" became available on Xbox Live. I'm not one for puzzle games, but this was really an interesting game. It's certainly one of the most unique games I've seen in a long time. I'll likely get it when it comes down in price. I don't think I can justify $60 bucks on it.

http://majornelson.com/2011/07/12/demo-catherine/

So, there you have it. A weeks worth of news in one post. Hopefully, I'll get more time to keep up.

Great news came yesterday for Windows Phone owners. Angry Birds is now on Windows Phone! I haven't played it myself, but apparently it's one of the best games ever. Also, they've announced that custom ringtones will be made available in Mango! This is one of the things I've critisized them for in my coming Windows Phone article. I can appreciate that they've taken the time to use the Zune software to keep the ringtones you create out of the music collection in the phone. I've run into that issue with Android in the past.

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Custom ringtones are coming.

If there’s one request we’ve heard over and over since launching Windows Phone last year, it’s this: More ringtones, please! I’m the program manager for the “sound experience” on the phone—everything from ringtones and alarms to alerts and key clicks. Today I wanted to take a minute to tell you about the ringtone-related changes in store for Mango, the next version of Windows Phone arriving this fall.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2011/06/28/now-in-marketplace-angry-birds.aspx

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2011/06/28/ringing-in-mango.aspx

Hulu Plus is now available for six Android devices. Shouldn't applications that work on one Android device, work on another providing they are the same version? This kind of segmentation is one of the big things that suck with Android. This is awesome for Hulu users though. I'd love to have it for Windows phone. This should also add value for those who might be interested in aquiring Hulu.

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Launching in Google's Android Market yesterday, the new Hulu Plus app allows Android users who subscribe to the $7.99-per-month service to stream TV shows and movies directly to their mobile devices.

For now, the app supports just six Android phones--the Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X, and the Motorola Atrix. But Hulu is promising support for more Android phones as the year progresses.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-20073618-251/hulu-plus-app-launches-for-android/#ixzz1Q7Oc2CSy

This is Mozillas first release since they've adopted a six week release cycle. Hopefully, speed doesn't sacrifice quality.

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Mozilla delivered two things today: Firefox 5 for personal computers and Android phones, and the promise to deliver the browser just a few months after its predecessor.

The organization, once the leading challenger to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, faces new challenges--notably Google's Chrome, new versions of which arrive every 6 weeks. Adopting a similar philosophy, Firefox now revs on a three-month cycle, and today Mozilla met its first deadline.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20072903-264/mozilla-releases-firefox-5-first-rapid-release-version/#ixzz1PvRMjUGX

These things are what's keeping Blackberry alive. I'm still baffled as to why other manufacturer's haven't done anything like this. It seems that no one cares about the enterprise when it somes to mobile phones and the "bring your own" motto is taking over. This is of course pissing off IT departments, but CEOs are loving it.

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Research In Motion on Wednesday announced the availability of BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 (MVS 5). The latest update to MVS brings with it compatibility with more enterprise communications systems, including Avaya Aura 6.1, Avaya Communications Manager, Avaya CS1000 Communication Server, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, and Mitel Communications Director.

(Later)BlackBerry MVS 5 ties together enterprise PBX phone systems with BlackBerry smartphones, allowing employees to have a single number that rings both their desk phone and BlackBerry. Employees also can use what would otherwise be PBX-only features, such as extension dialing, hold, transfer, and ad-hoc conferencing.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/telecom/unified_communications/230700064?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ALL

Most Twitter clients have this built in, so I don't see how it will effect anything in the grand scheme of things. I guess if you're actually logging into the Twitter site to do your tweeting, this might be more important to you.

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Twitter has begun automatically shortening URLs pasted into tweets by its users, the microblogging site announced today.

When users compose a tweet and paste a link of any length into the Tweet box, Twitter will automatically abbreviate the link to 19 characters when users hit send. In testing for almost exactly a year, the service--called t.co--is being rolled out incrementally and will wrap and abbreviate all links shared on the site in the same way other URL-shortening services, such as Bitly, do.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20069864-93/twitter-launches-automatic-link-shortening/#ixzz1OiJQTgzi

Microsoft gives Windows Live users 25GB of Skydrive space for free. This data is essentially accessible from a Windows Phone and any computer with a browser. This data can then easily be shared with other users with Live accounts. It looks like SkyDrive is going to be more functional from Windows Phone after the Mango update. Uploading, sharing, and accessing your SkyDrive content is going to continue to get easier.... Check out the link for specific additions.

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icrosoft is committed to offering cloud services that deliver access to your information across devices and platforms. Hotmail provides sync of mail, calendar and contacts across devices, and SkyDrive gives you access to up to 25GB of documents, photos, and videos from anywhere in the world through the web. And of course these services are available today for free across your Windows PC, phone, and web.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/06/07/don-t-wait-for-your-cloud-use-hotmail-and-skydrive-today-on-your-pc-mac-or-phone.aspx

At E3 Sony announced their anticipated new mobile gaming gizmo called Vita. Here's some specs:

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•Multitouch five-inch OLED display
•Dual analog sticks
•Sixaxis motion detection
•Rear touchpad
•Enough hardware to run the amazing Uncharted software being shown live at the press conference
•3G and WiFi models
•Social tools

I'm not a big mobile gamer and never played with a PSP. I'm sure there were a lot of other folks that were excited. There's two models - one that uses AT&T + Wifi for data at $299 or a Wifi only model for $249.

The Playstation TV sounds interesting, though I really wouldn't want to have to wear glasses to use it. I never thought that TV glasses were a good idea. Here's the bundle pricing:

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Sony is offering a bundle that includes the 24" 3D TV, a pair of 3D glasses, a copy of Resistance 3, and a six foot HDMI cable for $499. Extra pairs of glasses cost $69.99 a pop.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/06/playstation-vita-unveiled-detailed-for-real.aspx

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/06/playstation-branded-3d-tv-bundle-announced.aspx

Nothing all that great to announce here, but Microsoft is adding some Xbox functionality to Windows Phone. The Beards and Beaks game sounds pretty good though....

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Coming later this year in Mango is more native support of Xbox LIVE features in the Games Hub like:

· See your played games and unlocked/locked Achievements

· Compare Achievements with other Xbox LIVE members

· Search your list of friends to see who is online and what they are doing

· See your Xbox LIVE messages and Send/Accept/Reject friend requests

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/windowsphone/archive/2011/06/06/fresh-from-e3-xbox-live-enhancements-and-new-games-for-windows-phone.aspx

There's no question that everything is moving in the way of touchscreen. Windows 8 is finally going to capitalize on it. Microsoft seems to really want to unify the OS on all devices. Something that Google hasn't done with Android and Apple has somewhat done with iOS. It appears to take a lot from Windows Phone 7.

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"The video does a good job of showing just how different the new system will be. Optimized for touch-screens, but still purported to be friendly to mouse and keyboard users, Windows 8 appears to abandon many of the legacy interface ideas that have been around for years."

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/06/04/see-windows-8-interface-in-action.aspx

Now that Twitter bought TweetDeck, it can hopefully release a respectable Twitter client. I don't understand how everyone else can develop some great Twitter clients, but Twitter. I've found that Twitter's own client on every platform is always one of the worst. Yikes.....

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Twitter has agreed to acquire TweetDeck, a Twitter desktop client preferred by many of the social-media service's most active users, for $40 million in cash and stock, according to a CNN report.

The deal has not been officially announced yet, but a purchase agreement was signed today, according to the report, which cited sources close to the deal.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20065533-93.html#ixzz1NHubHNSb