Roku gets Hulu Plus; sticks out tongue at Apple TV

The little box that could gets another weapon in it's fight against the Apple TV, Hulu Plus. The $10 a month Hulu service gives you access to all episodes of the current season of popular shows from ABC, FOX, and NBC, and also has a decent back catalog of shows as well. If you only watch certain shows, and they happen to be on Hulu Plus, this probably makes cutting the cable cord that much easier.

[Engadget]

iOS 4.2 beta 2 ready for developers

iPad users should get a little excited about hearing this news, as it brings you one step closer to that sweet multitasking goodness iPhone users have been rubbing in your faces all this time. iOS 4.2 beta 2 has been posted by Apple for download by developers, and word is it's running pretty smooth right now. This update adds all sorts of goodies to the iPad, including a unified inbox, Game Center, plus the holy grail of multitasking, but it will also add some goodies like AirPrint and AirPlay for iPad and iPhone users. We're waiting with bated breath for this puppy to be available for the common man. 

Samsung Galaxy Tab coming to all four major US carriers

Just like with it's Galaxy S smartphones, Samsung has gotten all four major US carriers to give the green light to it's Galaxy Tab. No word on exact release, but Samsung did say this holiday, so an October or November launch is most likely. Also no word on pricing, Samsung said they are leaving that announcement to the carriers. There is a Wi-Fi-only model coming later, but of course there's no release date set for that either. Either way, we're pretty excited about an honest-to-goodness Android tablet available on all four carriers, we just hope they get the pricing right.

[Engadget]

HTC intros new Sense

HTC and Sense have always gone hand in hand, and it's been a good way for HTC to differentiate their products, now HTC is making Sense a little more valuable by adding some new features. The new Sense will boot up faster, will have DLNA support, and maps will cache data to make rendering faster. Perhaps the best new feature is the launch of htcsense.com, which will be a website that will allow you to bakcup and view text messages, locate your phone and wipe the device if it's lost or stolen, similar to what Apple offers with MobileMe. Look for HTC to plaster the new Sense on everything they sell in the near future.

[Boy Genius Report]

Rumor: Two Window 7 phones headed to T-Mobile

TMO news has gotten ahold of an internal accessory list document, and it's got some pretty interesting tidbits about quite a few phones. Besides an updated Blackberry and some Dell phones, two standouts are the HD7 and the LG Optimus T, which are both Windows Phone 7 devices. No word on release date or pricing, but it looks like they'll be out in time for the holidays. Looks to be a pretty exciting holiday for our friends from Germany.

[TMO News]

Dynamics unveils credit card on steroids

Dynamics, a startup company focusing on card technology, has introduced a novel solution to the problems of card security and having too many cards. They have come up with what they call Card 2.0, basically it's a card that can reprogram the magnetic strip on the card on the fly. For instance, you could have all your accounts listed on on card, then when you go to pay just pick the account you want to pay with.

Another great idea is the hidden card, which hides the last four numbers of the card until you type in a password on the card itself. This means that even if someone steals your card, they can't use it without the passcode. Pretty nifty. Since the cards are electronic, they do run on a battery, but it's said to last three years on a full charge, so that shouldn't be an issue. This seems like a winner to us, and cold tide us over until we can make payments from our cell phones.

[Businesswire]

myTouch HD to have dual-core processor, front-facing camera

According to this document supposedly leaked by a T-Mobile insider, T-Mobile is readying it's second HSPA+ phone, the myTouch HD. The specs include a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 3.7" screen, a front-facing camera, and an updated Genius button. The front-facing camera is rumored to enable video chatting over Wi-Fi, HSPA+, and 3G. Nice. The Genius button also will have a new driving mode, that will speak texts to you and allow you to speak your response instead of typing. No word on release date or pricing yet, but it looks like T-Mobile is really beefing up it's smartphone lineup.

[TMO News]

YouTube testing live streaming platform

YouTube's done the live streaming thing a few times before, but YouTube is now testing live streaming with four different partners, Howcast, Next New Networks, Rocketboom, and Young Hollywood. The testing started at 8 a.m. PDT today and will go until 8 p.m. tomorrow night. The schedule includes varied programming, ranging from a cooking show to a sports chat. Check out the schedule below.

[YouTube]

Rumor: Factime coming to iChat and Windows?

According to Mac4Ever, which has been right on some previous Apple predictions, Apple will be making it's desktop IM client iChat FaceTime capable, as well as making FaceTime available on Windows. The move certainly makes sense to us, as it would certainly spur quicker adoption of the technology, and would give iOS users more options for making the calls. The Windows version seems a little odd to us, however iTunes and Safari are on Windows, so why not.

[Engadget]

Native Google Voice iOS app may be on the way

Yesterday, Apple posted official App Store review guidelines, which finally give developers a clearer understanding of what will and won't jive in the App Store. Some speculate that Apple did this to avoid a possible FCC probe after the Google Voice rejection fiasco last year. The good news is, there's really nothing in the guidelines that prohibits something like a Google Voice app, and according to Sean Kovacs, Apple has told him that he can resubmit his GV Mobile app and it will likely be approved. If you're a Google Voice user on an iOS device, you should be jumping up and down right now. We sure are. As of right now, there's no word from Google on an official Google Voice app.

Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition breaks cover

Some screens of the boot animation and live wallpapers for the Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition have leaked, and Star Wars fans should be pumped. The boot screens adds in a dash of R2-D2 himself, and the wallpapers look really cool. Check out videos of the screens in action below.





[Engadget]

T-Mobile gives some new details on the G2

T-Mobile spilled the beans on the G2 today, and it all lines up with what we've heard before. The G2 will feature a 3.7" touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, will ship with vanilla Android 2.2 which includes Flash support, and most importantly will be the carriers first HSPA+ phone. The processor is confirmed to be 800MHz, but it is Qualcomm's MSM7230, which puts some of the load on the GPU so it actually performs better graphically than some faster chips like a 1MHz Snapdragon.

No official word on pricing, but all signs point to $199 with a two-year contract and $499 with no contract. Current T-Mobile customers will be able to preorder the G2 later this month.

[T-Mobile]

Google rolls out Google Instant

These days you can find what you're looking for on Google pretty fast. But Google thinks it can be faster, so today they introduced what they call Google Instant. Instant will show search results as you type; no longer will you have to type an entire word then press enter to search, you can find what you're looking for before you finish. Google predicts it will save users 2-5 seconds per search. Suggestions are still there, so when searching Google you will now see predictions under the search bar then the normal search results page under that updating as you type. Google Instant is available right now for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE 8 for all users in the US, and will be available internationally shortly.

What will you do with all your newfound time? Google hopes you don't use it to check out Bing.



[Google Instant]

iOS 4.1 is live

Announced at Apple's event last week, iOS 4.1 is now ready for you to download and consume. It's got a few goodies, including Game Center, iPhone 3G performance fixes, a proximity sensor fix for the iPhone 4, TV show rentals in iTunes, HDR photos, and the ability to upload HD videos to YouTube over Wi-Fi, along with some bug fixes. So go ahead and plug in your iOS device, it'll thank you for it.

Microsoft shows first Windows Phone 7 Teaser

So it begins. At an event in London, Microsoft showed this teaser for Windows Phone 7, claiming that "the revolution is coming." Don't read too much into the phone that was shown, it looks like an unbranded generic phone, Microsoft is clearly focusing on the OS here. Check out the full video below.

[Engadget]

Verizon launching Samsung Fascinate on September 8

It should come as no surprise, but the last of the major US carriers is getting it's Galaxy S phone. Verizon announced today that the Fascinate would be available tomorrow for $199.99 after a mail-in rebate with a new two-year contract.

If you're not familiar with the Fascinate, it's one of four Galaxy S phones that are now on all four major US carriers. Each carrier has it's own version of the phone, but they all have the same 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 5MP camera, and 4" AMOLED screen. Welcome to the Galaxy S fold, Verizon customers.

[PR Newswire]

Happy Labor Day!

We're taking the day off to grill out and spend time with family (and our gadgets). Everyone have a great labor day!

Energizer working on wireless charging sleeve for iPhone and Blackberry

Now that a standard for wireless charging has been finalized, wireless charging is on the way, and it might even be here sooner than expected. The Wireless Power Consortium has stated that the Qi standard is ready to be built into hardware, and Energizer is working on a charging sleeve for the iPhone 3G and 3GS, plus the Blackberry 8900, with versions of the sleeves expected in the fall.

The Qi standard is limited to 5W at the moment, which limits it to charging cell phones and MP3 players, but the Wireless Power Consortium is working on a more powerful version that could also charge notebooks and other larger devices. We can't wait!

[Electronista]

First Airplay speakers teased by iHome

iHome, makers of iPod and iPhone docks, have teased the Airplay, the first iTunes Airplay compatible speakers. Airplay, a feature introduced in iTunes 10 that will stream music to external speakers over Wi-Fi. This technology will make it easy to set up a multi-room audio system on the cheap, and you can mix-and-match speakers for cheaper than current options like the Sonos system.

The new speaker is called the Airplay, and it'll run on a rechargeable battery and be available this holiday, but that's all we know at the moment. Here's hoping the speakers are priced at an impulse buy price, around $99.

[iHome]

A review of iTunes Ping

Having played around with Ping for a while, we're ready to make a judgement. Bottom line; it's a good idea, it needs a lot of work. It almost feels like a beta and not a finished product. We like the idea of a mix of Twitter and Facebook for music, but it's lacking in navigation and search options.

At Apple's press conference they touted the ability to connect Ping with Facebook to make searching for friends easier. For whatever reason, the capability is not in Ping, which severely cripples the experience. Trying to find friends on the service is a crapshoot, as you're limited to searching manually by name. That's the biggest drawback to Ping right now, it's too hard to be social.

Another thing we don't like is the navigation. When an artist posts a video or a picture, you have to scroll down through a list of all their updates to get to what you want, there's no option to see all their pictures and videos in one central location. Plus, the navigation buttons at the top are actually navigation buttons for the iTunes store. We feel there needs to be dedicated buttons for Ping while you're in Ping.

What we do like about the service is mainly the idea of the service right now. Ping makes it easy to follow what your favorite artists are doing, and also creates an easy way to see music recommendations and concerts. As time goes on and Apple improves navigation and people search, we're sure the service will take off, but at the moment it just feels like a half-baked idea.

New iPod touches FaceTime capable; get Retina display

Just as predicted, Apple added cameras to make the new iPod touch FaceTime capable. It also gets the same Retina display as the iPhone 4, the same A4 processor, and it can also record HD video. To sum it up, it's very much like an iPhone 4 without 3G connectivity. One thing we did notice is that there's no flash on the back camera, so don't expect to take great pictures in low light. One added feature gamers will love is the gyroscope from the iPhone 4, so now iPod touch users can enjoy Eliminate: GunRange with the same accuracy as their iPhone 4 friends.

The new iPod touch comes in three capacities, 8GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB, which will retail for $229, $299, and $399, respectively. All of them will start shipping next week.

Apple intros new iPod Nano

Although it took no one by surprise, Apple updated the iPod Nano today, finally ditching the clickwheel in favor of a (very) small multitouch screen. Fans of the Nano's fatboy form factor will likely be pleased, as the new Nano basically looks like the fatboy chopped in half. It does gain a clip in the back, which will no doubt make people that are more active than me happy.

As for the new interface, it's very similar to iOS devices, with different homescreens you can swipe between with room for four apps on each screen. You can also drag apps to rearrange them. It does not have access to the App Store, so you'll be stuck with it's built in apps, but it does still have the FM radio, genius playlists, and VoiceOver. It does, however lose the video camera from the last generation, which is on the iPod touch instead.

The new Nano comes in two capacities, 8GB and 16GB, with 8 costing $149 and 16GB costing $179, and they'll be shipping in one week.

iPod Classic lives to see another day

Despite naysayers, Apple's trusty workhorse is still alive, in spite of newer, flashier products. The Classic stands as Apple's last Hard drive-based iPod, and still has the most capacity of any iPods. Having owned an older iPod, I'm rooting for the Classic to stay alive as long as it can, if for nothing else but nostalgia. Sure, the new iPod touch can make FaceTime calls, but can it hold as much information as a laptop could five years ago? I don't think so.

Notes from today's Apple keynote

Well the big day has finally arrived, and Apple didn't disappoint, revamping many of it's products and confirming many rumors that have been floating around the internets lately. If you've recently gotten a credit card and were looking for an excuse to use it, Apple looks to be more than happy to oblige you. Here are some highlights from the day.