If you’ve seen Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus in action, then it should be clear that the menu button has no future in the Android ecosystem. In order to drive that point home, Google has posted over at the Android Developer blog urging app creators to “say goodbye to the menu button.” With the until now standard key getting the boot, big G wants devs to start designing interfaces that focus on the ActionBar introduced with Honeycomb. Of course, there’s only so much room on the screen, and that’s where the “action overflow” button comes in handy. Those vertical elipsis hide useful, but perhaps secondary options, that don’t fit in the action bar. It also pops up on the far right of the navigation bar as a replacement to the menu button… basically because it behaves the same as menu, just in a different location. If nothing else at least Google is pushing Android and its apps towards a more uniform design. Check out the source for more details.
Google tells Android devs to kick the menu button to the curb, seriously you guys originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Current Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg wasn’t leading the company back when Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, but he still has some opinions about how it should have reacted to the phone’s debut. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal today, Nordberg said, “it’s safe to say that Sony Ericsson should have taken the iPhone more seriously when it arrived in 2007.” He has nothing but praise for the company’s commitment to Android, however, saying that “our Android strategy has been successful and the best choice we could have made,” and that he “wouldn’t feel comfortable investing in a platform that isn’t as good as the one that we currently use.” That last bit was in response to a question about Windows Phone, and it may sound like a complete slam if not for the fact that he went on to admit he is “quite curious” it. Exactly what that means isn’t clear, but it sounds like the door still at least isn’t completely shut for the OS it once toyed around with. Hit the source link below for the full interview.
Sony Ericsson CEO says company ‘should have taken iPhone more seriously’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Last week the Apple-Samsung patent brawl took a serious turn after Apple won a preliminary injunction banning sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 throughout the European Union, excluding the Netherlands. As we noted, Samsung had no idea any of this was happening until after the injunction had been issued, as is standard procedure in the German court system. Had the South Korea-based company known, they probably would have mentioned that the evidence Apple used to get the import ban (pictured at left) was pretty seriously flawed.
According to Dutch IDG publication Webwereld.nl, the image used for a side-by-side comparison between the iPad 2 and the GalTab 10.1 is either wrong or manipulated. On page 28 of Apple’s filing, the image of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been cropped and the image ratio has been tampered with. Samsung’s tablet measures in at 10.1in x 6.9in x 0.34in, while the iPad 2 sports dimensions of 9.5in x 7.31in x .34in.
So if you were looking at the tablets side-by-side (both in portrait position), you’d notice that the iPad 2 is a bit wider from side to side, but shorter in length. Based on the specified dimensions, the aspect ratio of the GalTab would be 1.46. In Apple’s evidential image, the aspect ratio is 1.36 (8 percent wider than it should be), making the Galaxy Tab 10.1′s “overall appearance” look “practically identical” to the iPad 2 (which has an aspect ratio of 1.30). And that’s exactly the language Apple used in its complaint — also on page 28.
We’ve seen our fair share of lawyer screw-ups lately, but this fairly shady, no? The current import ban on the GalTab is entirely related to design, so the court is truly judging these books by their covers. Presenting evidence that falsely represents the appearance of a product — especially when the appearance of the product is the only thing in question — is incredibly suspect to say the least. Let’s add to that the fact that Apple had some serious alone time with the judge when presenting this evidence. Meanwhile, Samsung didn’t even have the opportunity to dispute the image.
Whether the deception was intentional or not, “complete and truthful” evidence is a requirement in the German court system. At a surface level, this doesn’t look good for Apple. It’s entirely possible that the picture they used of the GalTab was an outdated pre-release image. Even so, the fact that false evidence was submitted at all makes Apple look sneaky and weak. Snweaky. Plus, there’s a pretty good chance that this will swing the case in Samsung’s favor.
More on this as it develops.
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Kodachrome film is iconic enough that there have now been several ‘goodbye, Kodachrome’ news stories, and we just couldn’t resist one more. This time, our tale is of Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas (which we’ve had occasion to reference once before), a film processing store which has the distinction of being the final place to accept Kodachrome for development. The problem? The store has been flooded with packages of undeveloped film from all over the world as the window for its processing comes to an end. It turns out that having that distinction will get you hundreds of rolls of film a day, and Dwayne’s Photo said that it would not process any films that arrived after Thursday. Yes, that was yesterday, though the mail is undoubtedly still arriving.
Kodachrome film is seriously at the end of its life — again originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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…something that Skullcandy would make? Anyway, it's neat to see Razer move on to colors other than black.
Props to gdgt – new in gadgets
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Well, look at that. A Rocketfish tablet. Can’t say we saw this coming, but Best Buy’s CTO and Geek Squad founder, Robert Stephens, just tweeted two pics of the surprisingly polished-looking tablet. We’re currently digging for more details but from what we can tell from the pics, the tablet looks remarkable similar to early HP Slate pics. Every seem and port seems to be the same right down to the (docking?) port on the bottom. Even if it’s not built on the same platform, the screen sizes look about the same, placing the Rocketfish tablet in the 9-inch range.
Best Buy’s Rocketfish brand is full of re-branded items like this. There’s computer parts, A/V equipment, even GPS units. We have no idea what OS the Rocketfish tablet is running, but if HP is making this tablet (and we don’t know for sure), then the tablet could either use webOS or Windows 7. The company previously stated the Windows 7 HP Slate 500 is headed to the enterprise space, rather than the consumer market. Perhaps this is HP’s answer. If the product fails, it doesn’t go directly on HP as most consumers wouldn’t know who actually made it. If the experiment works, then they can shift the Slate 500 (or its successor) to also serve the consumer space.
However, Stephens tweeted in early July that the company was working on an Android 2.2 tablet. This could be it. It’s hard to say at this point seeing as we’ve seen companies switch OSs mid-stream as a market correction. Either way, it seems as if Best Buy itself will be a player in the still wide-open tablet market.
Of course we don’t have any hardware specs for the device just yet. Hopefully we’ll find that out shortly, but something tells us Best Buy isn’t going to say much. This has the distinct smell of a viral marketing campaign.
[Thanks for the tip, Ray!]
Props to CrunchGear
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Remember Panasonic’s DMP-B15? You know, that “world’s first portable Blu-ray player” that was introduced at CES and just started shipping last month? With an $800 price tag, there’s a good chance you never even let the thing enter your stream of consciousness, but we can only wish you the best of luck as you try to ignore this one. RCA has quietly started to ship its BRC3108 10-inch portable Blu-ray player, which is equipped with a rechargeable battery, integrated stereo speakers, a headphone jack, 1080p HDMI output and bundled car / AC adapters alongside a carrying bag with headrest attachment for in-car use. The mini player lists for $349.99 on Amazon, and it’s already starting to appear in select Target locations. You’ll notice that Amazon still shows the device as being available for pre-order, and even the Target model didn’t have a shelf tag yet. That said, we’re sure someone in the back can pull some strings if you wave your credit card around long enough.
Update: Looks like it’s listed at $299.99 at Target — image is after the break. Thanks, Thomas!
[Thanks, Scott]
Continue reading RCA BRC3108 portable Blu-ray ships to Target, seriously undercuts Panny’s DMP-B15
RCA BRC3108 portable Blu-ray ships to Target, seriously undercuts Panny’s DMP-B15 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Related Posts:Flash 10.1 Seriously Slows Down Google Nexus One in Speed Tests The infant version of Google ‘s Android mobile OS, 2.2 Froyo, is just rolling out to a single device (the Google Nexus One) now. You can check out more in-depth impressions here , but perhaps the most buzzed-about feature is the integration of Adobe Flash 10.1. Android can now do it, iPhone still can’t–that’s the refrain from the antiPhone crowd. But these speed tests, conducted by PocketNow …
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