ABI Research Says 100,000 Femtocells to Ship in 2008

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ABI Research says that only about 100,000 femtocells are expected to ship in 2008 across the world. The femtocell will allow cellular phone users to have a sort of mini tower inside their home or office to reduce dead spot. At the same time the femtocell will reduce costs for providers by routing calls across the customer’s broadband connection.

ABI says that 2009 will have more units shipping worldwide, but that 2010 is the year when we will see wide spread femtocell adaption by consumers around the world. In 2010 ABI says that shipments of femtocells will reach the double digit millions. Read more

Posted on Tue, 6 May 2008 08:55:16 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Windows XP SP3 download Availability

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A week ago we reported that Microsoft will publish Windows XP SP3 today. The plans have changed a bit as it seems.

MSDN subscribers have already been able to download Windows XP SP3 for a couple of days. A download to none MSDN members could be expected next week, if I interpret this post from Microsoft's Chris Keroack correctly. Read more

Posted on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

ABI Research Says High Speed Bluetooth is a Winner

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ABI Research released a report that says high speed Bluetooth will be a winner with mobile users who transfer large files. High speed Bluetooth uses both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to improve over normal Bluetooth transmission rates.

"Bluetooth penetration in cellular handsets is at an all-time high," says senior analyst Douglas McEuen. "But it has a short range and fairly low data transfer capabilities. Users' growing desire to share pictures, audio, and video makes demands on Bluetooth that it was never designed to handle." So the Bluetooth Special Interest Group has announced a technology - "High Speed Bluetooth" - that hands off transmissions of large data files (such as multimedia) to the faster 802.11 radios that are increasingly found in the same Bluetooth-equipped devices. When that extra throughput is no longer needed, Bluetooth automatically takes over again, resulting in power savings. Read more

Posted on Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:45:04 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

ABI Research Says 2-way Communications will be Big for Navigation Devices

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ABI Research says that by 2013 34% of all portable navigation devices will feature real-time two-way connectivity. ABI says that the two-way technology will be based on cellular technology or Wi-Fi. This connectivity will reportedly allow navigation vendors to offer enhanced navigational experiences through local search, dynamic POIs and real time traffic data as well as online updates and satellite images.

"What's at stake," says ABI Research principal analyst Dominique Bonte, "is the generation of new recurring revenue streams in an increasingly competitive PND market characterized by spectacular price erosion. In order to be successful, connected PND vendors will have to design seamless solutions and compelling services, and adopt the right business model. They will have to embrace open development platforms to stimulate the design of third-party applications." Read more

Posted on Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:23:34 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

ABI Research Says Mobile Browser Market will Grow Significantly

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According to a study from ABI Research the market for mobile browsers will grow significantly over the next several years. ABI says that the Internet browser segments for mobile phone users will grow to 1.5 billion units by 2013.

"The focus today for mobile browser developers is to take advantage of the latest web standards while also developing solutions tailored towards the unique experience of using a browser on a mobile phone," says research director Michael Wolf. "The most recent commercial solutions from Opera, Openwave and ACCESS, as well as those using open source solutions such as Webkit, are targeted towards allowing consumers to access content on the web without limitations due to browser constraints." Read more

Posted on Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:20:40 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

ABI Research says 25 Million Home Theater PCs installed by 2013

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According to ABI Research the number of home theater PCs in the living room or homes is set to boom over the coming years. ABI says that by 2013 there will be 25 million home theater PCs installed worldwide.

ABI says that Microsoft and Windows Vista will help solidify the market. ABI also says that there will be a small market of home theater PC enthusiasts who will buy custom designed home theater PCs resembling consumer AV equipment. All in one systems are bulky today, but will shrink in size as time goes by. Read more

Posted on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:14:23 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

QNAP TS-409 Pro 4-Drive SATA Gigabit NAS Review

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Benchmark Reviews tested the QNAP TS-409 Pro 4-Drive SATA Gigabit NAS.

Quote from the review: "Times are a little tough right now for many small business owners, so any product that offers to save them money while still performing every function they require is sure to interest many of them. The task of providing an affordable product, that cuts overhead yet still performs up to par is not any easy undertaking. Most small businesses today have at least some level of data storage needs. Read more

Posted on Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

ABI Research Says US TV Viewers Habits are Baffling

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ABI Research says it conducted an online survey of 1,002 US consumers in December of 2007 to discover how service providers were viewed, what programming was used and price sensitivity toward service options.

ABI called the viewing habits of US consumers baffling. ABI says, “Americans do a lot of time-shifting with PVRs, and a lot of gaming, and plenty of people have installed home theaters," reports ABI Research vice president Scan Schatt. "They are likely to consume a lot more video over the next several years.” Read more

Posted on Fri, 7 Mar 2008 07:57:08 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Guitar Hero Carabiner Game

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Basic Fun launched a new Guitar Hero Carabiner portable game at the Toy fair this week. The game is called a playable and portable version of the original smash hit Guitar Hero.

The carabiner is small measuring in at 7 ¾-inches x 3-inches and only costs $14.99. The small portable game has all electronics needed inside including a LCD screen in the body of the little guitar game. Read more

Posted on Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:24:37 CST | by Shane McGlaun

ABI Research Says FCC Auctions Going Better than Expected

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ABI Research says that the 700MHz auction bids continue to go up and are exceeding expectations. The FCC was reported to expect about $10 to $15 billion in bids and the current bids exceed $18.9 billion.

The bidding on the most in demand block, the c block, has surpassed the FCC requirements of $4.6 billion and has a provisional winning bid in the amount of $4.7 billion. According to ABI new participants in the bidding include Google, Vulcan Spectrum LLC, Tower Stream, and Cox along with Verizon and AT&T. Read more

Posted on Wed, 6 Feb 2008 11:59:05 CST | by Shane McGlaun

ABI Research Says Streaming Online Rentals to Lead Online Video Growth

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ABI Research says that online rentals will lead the online video pay market in the years to come. According to ABI Research pay video streams online will grow from 215 million in 2008 to over 2.4 billion in 2012 with online video rentals accounting for half of these numbers.

ABI says a number of challenges remain for the online streaming rental market with poor rental terms that studios dictate to all distributors. Other competition will continue to come from VOD services offer by cable companies as well. Read more

Posted on Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:13:34 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Kobie and Rabie are Korea's first emotional Robots

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Korean research institute ETRI demonstrates two emotional robots they developed.

Kobie looks like a plush Koala bear. The robot is able to recognize human faces, make eye contact, and express emotions through sounds.

The scary looking Rabie is based on a reasoning engine dubbed Bossam. Rabie is able to play word guessing games in English. Read more

Posted on Fri, 9 Nov 2007 01:55:37 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

IAA 2007: New Trabi

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German company Herpa plans to build a new Trabi, based on the legendary East German plastic car.

At the IAA 2007 next week in Frankfurt, Herpa will unveil the concept. The new Trabi would be based on the BMW 1 series, but feature an all plastic body painted in the signature sky blue color. Read more

Posted on Sat, 8 Sep 2007 04:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Usability Test finds typing on iPhone 2x slower than on QWERTY Phones

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Chicago-based usability consultancy User Centric, Inc. compared texting on the iPhone with phones sporting a QWERTY keyboard.

It took QWERTY users almost twice as long to create the same message on the iPhone as it did on their QWERTY phone. Read more

Posted on Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:52:56 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony officially announces 80GB PS3 Availability

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Retailers like Gamestop already started to ship the new 80GB Sony PS3 over the weekend. Now Sony officially announces the availability of the new PS3 console edition. Amazon.com updated its shipping date target and also ships now immediately.

Besides the a bit larger hard-drive the 80GB PS3 comes bundled with the online-enabled MotorStorm game. The price is $599.99.
If you do not like MotorStorm, the $499.99 60GB Sony PS3 (Amazon.com) is the better deal. Read more

Posted on Tue, 7 Aug 2007 05:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router Review

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Benchmark Reviews published a review of the D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router. The D-Link DIR-655 starts at $115 on these stores.

Quote from the review: "Draft N is all the buzz around the WiFi circles, and manufacturers are pushing their early products onto store shelves despite the constant technical changes to the new unapproved draft. Read more

Posted on Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

abit Launches a PCI-e 1X Wi-Fi Card

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Finally we have a card to put into those 1x PCI Express slots that many mainboards come equipped with. abit is launching a Wi-Fi card called the AirPace Wi-Fi that fits into the 1X slots, or any other available PCI-E slot for that matter.

The card is 802.11b/g compatible and can hit speeds of up to 54 Mbps. An external antenna helps to ensure quality signal strength. The card also has enhanced wireless security and a software AP mode. Read more

Posted on Tue, 12 Dec 2006 10:43:56 CST | by Shane McGlaun

abit AW9D-Max Intel Core 2 Mainboard Review

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If you are in the market for a top end mainboard for your shiny new Intel Core 2 CPU, abit has one of the best you will find in the abit AW9D-Max. This board is built from the ground up with overclocking in mind and is a top performer.

In addition to the mainboard itself abit also includes just about every accessory you could need with the board including a Toslink cable and seven SATA cables. Full featured is an understatement with this board. Read more

Posted on Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:04:25 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Abit iDome Speaker Review from I4U

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PC speakers might not be high on your list of computer components and peripherals to upgrade to improve your in game experience. However, a good set of speakers can greatly improve the quality of your game play by allowing better sound and immersion in game. Up for review today, I take a look at a good set of fully digital speakers from Abit called the iDome. Read more

Posted on Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:02:33 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Sharp Adds New Karabiner MP3 Players MP-S700 and MP-S800

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Sharp adds new music player in the mountain climber karabiner shape to its line-up.

The new Karabiner style players have an updated design featuring a large button on the front. The Sharp MP-S700 comes with 512MB flash memory (why are they still even offering a player below 1GB is beyond me) and the MP-S800 features 1GB of storage.
Features include FM Transmitter, direct encoding, automatic synchronization with bundled music software, WMA (DRM) and MP3 file support and USB 2.0. Read more

Posted on Wed, 9 Aug 2006 13:21:43 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sharp Carabiner MP3 Player MP-S300 and MP-S200 on Sale

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Sharp introduced the mountain climber carabiner inspired mp3 players MP-S300 and MP-S200 last November in Japan.

Now, Japanese gadget exporter AudioCubes offers both Sharp MP3 players for international shipping.

The 1GB Sharp MP-S300 sells for $219 and the 512MB Sharp MP-S200 sells for $179.
Both models come in Silver, Red, Black or Blue. Read more

Posted on Sat, 13 May 2006 01:48:38 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr