SlashGear Week In Review - Week 31 2010
Sunday is here again and it's time for another Week in Review. You might remember that cool robot that GM and NASA developed dubbed Robonaut 2. R2 is set to head to the ISS aboard one of the final Shuttle mission and good ol' R2 will be Tweeting his trip.
New market analysis surfaced early last week that showed Android has grown 886% YoY while the growth of Apple and RIM is trailing. The research came from a firm called Canalys. WowWee has tossed a new toy robot onto the market called the Roboscooper and the device is available for Pre-Order. The robot looks like it is half dump truck and reminds me a bit of Wall-E.
The Android 2.2 Froyo update went live on Tuesday for the Evo 4G from HTC. The update was for the OS and the Sense UI. We reviewed the HP Envy 14 notebook early in the week. The little notebook is crazy thin and offers good performance with lots of style.
CBS' CEO confirmed last week that CBS and Hulu were in fact holding talks that might bring CBS shows to Hulu Plus. CBS has apparently been waiting for a paid offering that will make it some green. A handy map showed up last week that had the data rates that people around the world pay for 1GB of data on the iPad. The chart has the US in 6th place at $12.50 per gigabyte.
Vodafone went official with the UK launch of the new Blackberry Torch last week. The Torch is the handset that RIM is hoping will help turn around its steady loss to Apple and Android devices. RIM went official with the unveiling of the Blackberry Torch and Blackberry 6 Java SDK early in the week. The smartphone will land on AT&T here in the US on August 12 with a 3.2-inch touchscreen and lots more.
AT&T didn't waste any time after the official introduction of the Torch my RIM the wireless carrier trotted out its branded Torch. The device is interesting with its sliding QWERTY keyboard, but I don't see many people leaving their iPhone to get the Torch. The iPhone 4 unlock tool ultrasn0w was finally released mid-week. The unlock lets you take your iPhone with you to any other compatible network.
We went hands on with the Blackberry Torch smartphone and came away thinking if the smartphone had launched a year ago it would have been a winner. As it is, the Torch isn't really a match for the high-end smartphones on the market today. Barnes & Noble has put itself on the market and is looking for a buyer. Whoever buys the bookseller will also get the Nook eReader.
Apple has stated that a fix for the iOS PDF exploit is in the pipeline. This is the exploit used to unlock the iPhone remotely. HP unveiled a new netbook this week called the Mini 5103 with an optional touchscreen and an SSD. The machine can also be fitted with a 320GB HDD if desired and can get a HD resolution screen.
Clearwire has announced that it is testing the use of WiMax and LTE networks at the same time. The tests being conducted are to see if the two 4G standards can be used together. A new Acer Aspire One netbook has been tipped that has Windows and Android OS'. The little dual boot rig will cost around $375.
Friday we saw some images turn up online that are supposed to be the screen of a coming iPod touch 4. The screen shows a cut out for a front facing camera hinting that FaceTime might be coming. Apple has added some new features to the App Store including Try Before You Buy and iPad Genius recommendations. That Try Before You Buy section isn't what we all hoped for though, it only points to free versions of apps.
That new Blackberry Torch was torn down on video late in the week. The smartphone slider mechanism also got its own video glory. Saudi Arabia and Blackberry made up with the bans imposed earlier in the week on some Blackberry functions being lifted. Exactly what the deal was that saw the ban lifted is unknown.
Rumors have surfaced that pint to a mid-August press event from Apple to unveil a new iPod touch and new version of iOS. That new iPod has seen several of its parts get leaked recently. A tablet was spied late in the week sporting the Rocketfish logo. Rocketfish is the Best Buy store brand and the images appear to signal a coming jump into the tablet market for the retailer. Thanks for reading this week's edition!