Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank in Japan is introducing ATMs to the market that authenticate a user with a hand-scan, birth date and PIN instead of a card. That way you can’t use the excuse, “I forgot my bank card” when you don’t have cash for dinner. Me? I always sneak out through the kitchen and pocket some dinner rolls on the way.
On top of being convenient, the machines are also a necessary response to the large number of ATM cards and personal IDs lost in last year’s devastating earthquake.
No word how much Japanese police expect severed limb related crimes to increase, but my guess is significantly considering the country’s abundance of ninja swords.
Palm-Scanning ATMs of the Day [geeks.thedailywh.at]
Thanks to Mark, who doesn’t have a bank account, just a shit-ton of buried jars and a really crappy map.
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When we reviewed Dell’s XPS 13 ultrabook last week, only three things held it back: an iffy display, a lightweight battery and a sluggish, buggy trackpad. Well, the last of those problems may soon be no more, as Dell’s got a fix on the way, and we can personally vouch that the new drivers are far more satisfactory. Presently, the XPS 13′s Cypress touchpad drivers are at v2.3.6.25, and that’s what you’ll find on Dell’s site, but we found v2.3.6.33 far faster to respond to user input and (after a quick run of a Dell-provided calibration tool) also a bit more precise. Perhaps most importantly, though, v2.3.6.33 automatically disables the trackpad after you begin typing, which keeps your palms from making the cursor jump when they brush the…
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I’ve gotten to review a few pico projectors, but haven’t had the opportunity to test one from AAXA. This new one, the P4, looks like it could stand up to my favorite so far, the 3M MP160. As 3M did with that device, AAXA sacrifices smallness for brightness, and ends up beating the competition by some margin.
At 80 lumens, the P4 is more than twice as bright as the MP160. That’s still nothing compared to normal stationary projectors, which can produce thousands of lumens, but 80 is more than enough for a nice big screen in a reasonably dim room.
Battery life is a reasonable 75 minutes, which is enough for a presentation or a TV show or two, but no good if you want to watch a movie with your sweetheart out in the woods (or something, I don’t know). The resolution is 1280×800, though, which is better than any other pico projector I know of, and the 750MHz processor should chew through most SD video files, though I doubt it can handle highly compressed 720p; you should probably use an external source for that.
Interestingly, it runs Windows CE apps, not that those are especially common, but it may make a laptop unnecessary if you’re just showing a few graphs or slides.
Hopefully we’ll get our hands on one of these to review. At $ 399 (on sale for $ 339 at the moment) it’s not quite an impulse buy, but it is probably the best one of these devices, spec-wise, on the market right now.
[via SlashGear]
The Kindle Fire announcement set the interwebs ablaze as Amazon burst into the tablet scene. But the retailer-turned-CE player might be looking to go a different way in the future. Amazon has been named as Palm’s current top suitor among “a handful of contenders” as HP looks to rid itself from the TouchPad/webOS disaster.
It’s unclear from VentureBeat’s leaks why Amazon is interested in Palm. Ditching Android for webOS after building an ecosystem around Android seems foolish and shortsighted. This move, if it’s really happening, could be more about hardware development and patents than reviving a dead operating system. Sorry, fanboys.
Amazon launched the Kindle Fire earlier this week, which brings nearly all of Amazon’s cloud services into one device. Even Amazon’s massive cloud servers, Amazon EC2, are used in the clever Silk browser and the Amazon Appstore finally has flagship device in the Fire. Amazon rebuilt its Kindle syncing platform, Whispersync, to enable resuming of TV shows and movies purchased or streamed using its Prime Instant Vidoes Android app. The Fire is the compilation of a lot of Amazon’s work — and it’s all built around Android.
Adding a second tablet to Amazon’s offering seems to go against the Kindle brand’s mantra of keeping it simple. The Fire isn’t about Android or specs. It’s a tablet built around the same principles as the iPad. By bringing webOS into the fold, Amazon turns the attention to the platform, capabilities and differences rather than the form and function. A webOS Kindle doesn’t make sense.
Instead, if Amazon is indeed looking to acquire Palm from HP, the company could be looking to acquire a proper hardware design team. Amazon reportedly outsourced the Fire’s development to Quanta, who, as Ryan Block puts it, “helped them shortcut the development process by using the PlayBook as their hardware template.” Amazon is clearly going all-in on tablets and will need the right principles in place for future products. However, Palm, and even HP, have never been known to make killer hardware so even this motive is a bit questionable.
The notion of Amazon buying Palm seems a bit untimely at this point. Amazon is fully vested in the Android ecosystem with a host of apps and services. Plus, the Android-powered Fire is seemingly a hit. The install base of webOS, even after the $ 99 TouchPad fire sale, isn’t large enough to compensate the upfront cost and effort resurrecting a dead platform. Palm off-loaded most pre-webOS patents before HP acquired the company in 2010 so Amazon would only be purchasing whatever patents were left over or granted within the last few years.
Steve Ballmer proudly proclaimed that Android isn’t free and his company is constantly signing new Android licensing agreements. In fact Microsoft reportedly makes more money from Android than its own Windows Phone 7. Amazon’s only play, and this is a stretch given the company’s Android investment, would be to buy webOS upfront to avoid any potential deals with Microsoft down the road. Some companies are fighting Microsoft’s patents but others, including Samsung, HTC and Acer, have already signed on the dotted line.
From this vantage point outside of Amazon’s boardrooms, it doesn’t seem like Amazon needs Palm or webOS. The company did a fine job retooling Android into a consumer-friendly offering and is the only company outside of Apple to supplement hardware with a rich set of services and media, properly setting up the Fire for success. But if the price is right and Amazon foresees a legal battle with Microsoft, it’s completely plausible Amazon will be the next owner of the company that first innovated and advanced touchscreen tablets.
Crunchbase
- PALM
- KINDLE FIRE
Palm, Inc. was a leading mobile products company, creating instinctive yet powerful mobile products that enabled people to better manage their lives on the go. The company’s products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses included Palm® Treo™ and Centro™ smartphones and Palm handheld computers, as well as software, services and accessories.
In July 2010, Palm was acquired by HP. The Palm brand was subsequently discontinued upon the introduction of webOS products under the HP brand.
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Product: Kindle Fire Website: Company Amazon
Kindle Fire brings you Movies, apps, games, music, reading and more, plus Amazon’s cloud-accelerated web browser
Product features:
18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books Amazon Appstore – thousands of popular apps and games Ultra-fast web browsing – Amazon Silk Free cloud storage for all your Amazon content Vibrant color touchscreen with extra-wide viewing angle Fast, powerful dual-core processor Amazon Prime members enjoy unlimited, instant streaming of over 10,000 popular movies and TV shows
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Question by kαч ♪ ∂уиαмιтє ωιтн α ℓαzєя вєαм: HTC Hero vs Palm Pre vs Blackberry Tour? I’m baffled as to which phone to get, I’m 16, and I work and need access to the internet while at work for homework.
I was thinking anyone of these phones would be great, they would alow me to connect to the internet, and type word documents, etc.
I know that the hero is an “android” phone. The sprint version looks like the mytouch from t-mobile rather than the GSM unlocked version.
The palm pre has the multitasking capabilites, and the blackberry tour is just amazing.
Which phone should I get, and why?
Best answer:
Answer by Adios Mother FI have an android G1 phone and love it. HTC usually makes excellent phones. The Tour was released not to long ago & seems like an awesome phone.I have heard of mostly positive reviews on the device. It’s between the Hero and Tour. I think I would go for the Tour instead.
What do you think? Answer below!
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Curious to find out the possible thinking behind HP’s recent actions, we began to look at the parallels in past behavior by tech giant HP. The most interesting example comes from VoodooPC, one of the first high-end gaming PCs for the mass market. Led by Rahul Sood, HP bought VoodooPC in 2006 and the last product to come out of that branch was launched in 2009.
In short, we wanted to know if HP really was where good ideas go to die.
Mr. Sood was kind enough to answer a few questions.
TC: We at TC have been talking about how great VoodooPC was. We all loved the hardware and I remember unpacking the boxes and hearing the drums. It was consumer done right. I also think there are a lot of parallels between Voodoo and Palm in this case. Do you agree?
Rahul Sood: I appreciate the kind words, and I know my friends at HP will also appreciate them as well. Let’s just say if you’re going to make a strategic acquisition, no matter how large, you need to have patience to blend cultures and allow the companies to mutually flourish.
It’s been less than a year since I left HP – and about 1 year since the Palm acquisition was announced. One year goes quickly in a large organization. It takes the average person 8 months to “on board” themselves into a new organization.
I think these acquisitions should be protected by people who can effectively blend cultures and who can curate a vision that people can rally around. …and did I mention patience? If you don’t have patience you risk blowing up the strategy.
Yes there are plenty of parallels between Palm and Voodoo that could be drawn. If future Rahul could go back to 2006 Rahul I would have some good advice for him — but believe it or not I still would have gone through with the deal, but I would have managed it differently.
TC: What could have HP done to save the TouchPad? Anything?
RS: I find it interesting that the TouchPad went from a total failure to selling out just by changing the price. It proves that there is a market, somewhere between $ 100-$ 300 for this product. It also brings up some fundamental business rules that go back to the days of Sun Tzu;
“When strong, avoid them. If of high morale, depress them. Seem humble to fill them with conceit. If at ease, exhaust them. If united, separate them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.”
In the case of the Touchpad HP tried to go head to head with Apple, probably not the right approach, especially since they launched it when it wasn’t fully baked. Either way, you should not go head to head with Apple, there’s no need to.
They could disrupt the market at a lower price to gain significant adoption of webOS, and then work to build some back-end recurring revenue via applications, partnerships, search, shopping, etc.
They could eventually turn up the heat and scale the business by open sourcing webOS and building a solid app model that caters to their enterprise customers.
There’s plenty of ways the TouchPad could have become a success – but it takes time, patience and vision to figure it out.
TC: Where is HP headed? Do you have any idea? Will they go the IBM route?
RS: By “IBM route” I assume you’re comparing HP PSG to Lenovo (or what once was IBM’s PC business). I disagree with this widely quoted comparison. HP PSG is a giant with an insanely large footprint. Their biggest strength is the number of “ports” they have in the market The world needs hardware to make money on software. There is no bigger hardware company than HP. If only they could better leverage their footprint in a meaningful way they’d be almost unstoppable.
So if they choose to go “the IBM route” HP risks missing the winning formula of IBM and they could end up forgetting about the consumer and focusing on the enterprise. In my opinion catering to the “enterprise” is such an old school way of thinking.
Companies should cater to people, and the enterprise will follow, because real people run the enterprise. RIM is having a tough time because the competitor that displaced them is catering to real people.. not Wall Street… not the enterprise.
I also find it telling that an officer of the company was quoted on CNBC yesterday saying, “HP’s board of directors will make the final decision in the best interest of our shareholders”. I believe if you build beautiful products that excite your customers then shareholders will ultimately benefit. I believe if you cater to shareholders then customers will suffer.
So if you ask me where HP is heading, I would tell you listen to what the leaders are saying and try to make sense of it. I think they have giant problems to solve, lots of complex internal issues, and when you’re under stress you sometimes overlook things.
TC: It’s amazingly frustrating to see good products give up the ghost. How did you feel about Voodoo? Do you miss the brand?
RS: I still have a Voodoo tatt on my leg. I have Voodoo branding throughout my home. Voodoo will always be a part of me, it was once a huge part of HP’s strategy and I can’t help but feel bad about it. Yeah I miss the brand, the people, the culture. …but I made the right decision to move on, I was too emotionally attached to it. I love Microsoft’s entertainment business, it’s such a fun place to work. It reminds me of Voodoo in many ways.
TC: What does a company need to be successful in branding and consumer sales?
RS: A company needs to know who they are and where they came from. They need leaders who dream about their products and experiences creating the vision with people who dream about rows and columns supporting them. They need to establish a clear vision and strategy that people understand and can rally around.
They should live, eat, breath, sleep the brand – and they naturally become evangelists for it. The successful brands establish a soul, the brand becomes a living breathing entity within the DNA of the organization.
They also need great people. The best of the best… Finding and retaining these people is difficult — especially when you are in the Valley. Never has there ever been a better time for cool start-ups to get their juice. The acceleration for growth on tech start-ups is so slick that we’re seeing companies go from 0 to hundreds of millions or billions in valuation in less than 5 years. It’s unbelievable.
So the talent pool for great “Tech DNA” is getting smaller and smaller – and the Valley is easily the most competitive area on earth for attracting and retaining great talent. Think about it, you’ve got Facebook, Google, Apple, Zynga, then you’ve got companies who haven’t upgraded their facility in decades. As a college grad you can go to Facebook or Google and work in a beautiful inspirational environment — it’s hard to compete.
As companies mature, people start to look elsewhere to expand their horizons. HR and Recruiting could be one of the most important strategic functions of any business in the tech space….and yet in some cases they are probably the area that get the least investment because they are setup with the wrong charter.
This is why I find Microsoft fascinating. Microsoft is the oldest, most established tech company, they have done a great job of keeping up with the times. You should check out our facility in Seattle… It’s pretty sick…
TC: Can you buy Palm and run it for all of us? You have that kind of cash, right?
RS: I think HP should open source webOS. I think the vision of breaking up HP is cloudy at best. I did ask HP many times to sell Voodoo back to me, even came up with a couple of proposals. If they open sourced webOS and gave me back Voodoo then we might have something. Maybe Arrington can pull some strings and we can go into business together?
I would like to end by saying that HP treated me with the utmost respect. I was super stoked when we were building cool products like Voodoo ENVY and HP Blackbird and helping to shape HP’s overall strategy. I was sad to leave the company, but I was left with little choice. I’m very happy where I am now. Microsoft’s entertainment business is such a cool place to work — I mean really cool.
I would encourage your readers to check my latest post on HP, I’m going to write a series of them in the next week or so.
Hands on review of Palm’s Pre smartphone, unveiled at CES 2009, with 8 reasons why it could be better than the Apple iPhone… on paper at least! The Pre is available in the first half of the year on Sprint in the US, with a 3G version arriving in Europe later in the year. Video Rating: 4 / 5
Related Posts:Question by Suprdud: Lg Dare vs. Palm Treo 700w? My friend has a Palm Treo 700w, and i was playin around with it for a little. Like 10 minutes or something. Anyways, he says “oh yeah, you wanna buy it?” So i look at my phone, which is a LG Dare and I say “well what if we trade phones?” So he says sure, so i told him i would have to decide.
So should i do it? What are the specs of the Treo? i know it’s slightly older than the dare, but it has wi-fi and Windows Mobile. But how do they compare?
Btw, there both on verizon.
Best answer:
Answer by roadrules15i think you should stick with your dare. i dont like windows mobile because its slow and starts to get on your nerves after awhile. i think you have a perfectly good phone right now and i dont think they even sell the treo 700w anymore because its not slightly older its alot older and sprint has a 750 something and has had it for a couple years. stick with your phone right now
What do you think? Answer below!
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