SlashGear Week In Review: Week 43 2010
Welcome to this week's edition of the SlashGear Week in Review and Happy Halloween! Monday a Verizon Android smartphone for the coming LTE network was spotted. The device has no name yet, is said to support HD video capturing, and appears to have a front camera for video calls. A Dutch subsidiary of Microsoft let slip this week that Windows 8 is under construction. The next OS from Microsoft is about two years away, though no one will be surprised if that launch date slips.
We reviewed the Lenovo ThinkCentre M75e notebook this week. The computer is a workstation for business types and has a lot of performance for a good price. The Wi-Fi Alliance unveiled Wi-Fi Direct this week which allows devices to directly connect to each other using a WiFi connection. The connection will allow for the sharing of files and connecting to the web among other things.
Japanese scientists are working on a printer that is able to print out scents bringing new lifeg to the scratch and sniff stickers of my youth. The scientists apparently have a working model so this isn't as wild as it sounds. An exploit has been discovered in the iPhone lockout screen that allows the screen to be bypassed. Once bypassed the user can access contacts and more on the device.
NASA has announced that Robonaut 2 is ready for tits trip to the ISS early next week. It's interesting that the first robot to be sent to the ISS goes up on the last shuttle mission. Workers in the iPhone factory that Foxconn operates are claiming that they were poisioned by the fumes produced by chemicals used for the screen in production of the iPhone. The fumes reportedly came from chemicals used to treat the screens and left some workers in the hospital
We made our own unboxing video for the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet this week. We think this thing has a better chance than Steve Jobs is giving it and all 7-inch tablets. Barnes & Noble's new Nook Color hit this week and it was felt up on film around the web. The thing runs Android and has a color screen making it one of the more interesting eReaders on the market.
Oakley showed off the sweet Tron: Legacy 3D glasses in cool Tron printed Gascan frames. The glasses wrap around for a comfortable fit and will work with any 3D movie at the theater. HP is set to ship its Slate 500 tablet computer on November 17. The device has an 8.9-inch screen and runs an Atom processor.
Acer let fly this week that it would be shipping its line of tablet computers in November. The line will include tablets with 7" to 10" screens in the $299 to $699 price range. We spied a really cool concept device mid-week called the Google Magnify. The thing is like a portable Google Translator for any text.
A rumor surfaced this week that the iPhone 4 in white may have secretly been cancelled. The scuttlebutt is that we will see another delay on the white iPhone 4 in March 2011 that will get us through until the iPhone 5 surfaces next summer. The oft rumored Sony PlayStation phone surfaced again mid-week and Sony denied the rumor flat out as "definitely fake." Sony then supposedly went back and asked that they be quoted with the more benign "we don't comment on rumors" bit.
We spent hands on time with the myTouch 4G smartphone this week. The device is a strong 4G contender on the T-Mobile network, but it is still limited by 4G's scant availability. More Verizon iPhone rumors surfaced late in the week with Pegatron said to be scaling to produce 10 million iPhone 4 smartphones in 2011 for CDMA networks. Verizon also installed iTunes for iPad.
China got the world record holding supercomputer called Tianhe-1A using NVIDIA GPUs. The machine set the world record in LINPACK at 2.507 petaflops, 50% faster than the previous record. Gucci unveiled a new set of old school looking 3D glasses for folks that don't want to wear theater glasses. They look like old aviator sunglasses and are shaped like the glasses my theater already uses.
WE showed off a video of the ViewPad 10 tablet launch from Viewsonic Thursday. The tablet has a 10.1-inch screen, runs Android, and uses an Atom processor. Panasonic announced that it was ending production of the Technics analog turntables. The reason given for ending the production of the turntable, an analog mixer, and a couple sets of headphones was poor demand in the marketplace.
We got word on Friday that Microsoft will give every one of its 89,000 employees a Windows 7 smartphone. That is one way to get rid of the iPhones in your midst. We published our review of the HTC HD7 smartphone Friday. We peg the smartphone as a solid Windows 7 offering with a good OS and a nice screen.
New stats came in Friday that show Apple is the 4th largest mobile phone vendor in the world. That puts Apple ahead of RIM and behind LG, Samsung, and Nokia. Thanks for reading this week's edition. Have a safe Halloween!