Vonage iPhone App Is Disappointing

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I was really excited at the earlier news about the availability of the Vonage iPhone VOIP App. I have been a Vonage customer for a long time and therefore was excited to try out Vonage on my iPhone.

I actually would have liked after the free download of the Vonage App to log in with my existing Vonage account, but this is not supported.
This means you need to register new even if you are already a Vonage customer. What is up with that?
Then I got completely stuck because the Vonage iPhone App requires a U.S. based iPhone phone number to register for an account.
I am located in Germany these days and I have a German iPhone number. Read more

Posted on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 10:44:36 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1GB in CrossFire Tested

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AMD unveiled the new ATI Radeon HD 5800 series earlier today. We already published a HD 5870 Review Round-Up.
Tweaktown tested the new ATI Radeon HD 5870 also in Crossfire setup.
Quote from the review: "We're not going to blabber on too much here, because we're sure you don't want to read about us having two HD 5870s. You just want to know what happens when we put those two HD 5870s into the one system and run our flurry of benchmarks. Read more

Posted on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:05:50 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sapphire HD 4770 CrossFireX Performance

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Benchmark Reviews looks at the Sapphire HD 4770 CrossFireX Performance.
Quote: "The Sapphire Radeon HD 4770 introduces the 40nm RV740 GPU paired to 512MB of DDR5 video frame buffer memory, and a double-height cooler allows the 100277L model video card to operate at 750MHz. As of May 2009, the Sapphire HD4770 sells for as low as $99, which allows gamers to create a very affordable CrossFireX array using this mainstream graphics accelerator. Read more

Posted on Sat, 9 May 2009 04:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Apple Q2 Earnings Call scheduled for Wednesday, no Disappointment expected

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The Apple Q2 2009 Earnings Conference call takes place Wednesday 5pm EDT/2pm PDT. Apple is providing a live QuickTime stream.

The Apple stock has done quite well despite the bad economy in the last months. According to Reuters, Wall Street analysts expect sales to rise by about 6% to $7.95 billion, while net profit is expected to slip around 6% to $1.09. Analysts expect a 33.1% gross margin, up slightly from a year ago. Read more

Posted on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:25:06 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Android disappointed at CES 2009, now also at MWC 2009

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After the absence of new Android smartphones at the CES 2009 the hopes where set on the Mobile World Congress 2009 for a big Android showing. Android fans are supposed to be happy with the new HTC Magic coming from Vodafone in Europe. What Android fans actually wanted to see is a high-end Android smartphone that can compete with the iPhone and the upcoming Palm Pre. A HTC Touch Pro2 running Android would have been enough for starters. Read more

Posted on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

3D Super Bowl Ads disappointing, next Chance Chuck

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The excitement and hunt for the 3D Super Bowl glasses to watch the first 3D Super Bowl ads was huge. Now that the Super Bowl 43 is over the 3D ads are not the most talked about commercials. The verdict around the web so far is that the 3D effect of Monsters vs. Aliens and the 3D SoBe ad was too weak.
The expectations have been to high I guess. As highlighted in our 3D Home theater report, the glasses are just a tease for currently available 3D technology at home and in cinemas.
There is better 3D technology for the living room already on the market with shutter glasses and of course the 3D experience in digital cinemas is way superior.
Still if the tease with the 3D Super Bowl glasses is not generating more interest in 3D, then we again do not get 3D content from the studios.
I think the real test of these new ColorCode 3D glasses is tonight when the full episode of Chuck airs. Read more

Posted on Mon, 2 Feb 2009 10:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Weekly Recap: CES Top 10 and CES Top 5 Disappointments

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CES 2009 is over and we have been publishing several reports this week about what we have learned from CES 2009. Shane who was at the show to report for I4U News came back disappointed and calls CES 2009 a Bust. There have not been that many highlights of CES 2009 but we still have been able to create our Top 10 CES 2009 Products list as well as the Top 5 Losers of CES 2009.

In other news this week Nintendo has hit record sales of the Wii and DS in 2008 and you can watch Youtube videos in full screen now on the PS3 and the Wii. Read more

Posted on Sun, 18 Jan 2009 09:54:49 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony PS3 Holiday Sales to be disapointing

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The first preliminary sales numbers of the Sony PS3 console for the Holiday shopping season paint a grim picture. Apparently PS3 sales are down, they fell 19% last month from a year earlier according to NPD Group. The analysts predict for this month flat or lower sales compared to 2007 according to WSJ.

It looks like all of Sony's bets for the PS3 did not come through:
1) PS3 Blu-ray bet: Blu-ray adoption actually happens now through low-cost players and not through the PS3 anymore. HD streaming of video is real and offered by Netflix.
2) Playstation Home: Playstation Home is not ready to appeal to the masses yet.
3) No Price cut: Keeping the price at the $399 was most likely the biggest mistake that led to the low sales of the PS3 this holiday season. The Xbox 360 and the Wii are basically almost selling for half of the price of a PS3. Read more

Posted on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:59:47 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Movies Disappear at iTunes and Netflix Thanks to TV

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CNET News reports that some iTunes and Netflix users have begun to notice that films they want to watch are disappearing from the services. Among movies that have disappeared are Charlie Wilson's War, Eastern Promises, and Michael Clayton. The culprit is that rather than being treated as a merchant like a DVD rental store, Internet streaming film services are treated as a broadcaster.

This means that when a TV network pays for exclusive airing rights for a certain movie on broadcast TV, the movie studios force iTunes and Netflix to pull the film from their online catalogs. If the two streaming rental stores were treated as merchants this would not be an issue. Read more

Posted on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Pimp your Home with a Disappearing Pool Table

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A Pool Table needs a lot of space, that is why most guys who would want one at home do not own one. BallerHouse found a custom pool table that disappears into the floor.
The trap door installation of this Pool Table is right out of a James Bond movie. To install a Pool Table in a floor requires some serious remodeling. I guess for most of us that means we will just continue to go to a bar to play.
See a video of Disappearing Pool Table below.
Read more

Posted on Thu, 9 Oct 2008 07:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sapphire Radeon HD 4550 Review

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Tweaktown published a review of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4550 Graphics Card.
Quote from the review: "The low to mid-range market has been heating up over the past few months; NVIDIA released the 9500 GT which I personally felt was a massive disappointment due to the price to performance ratio when compared to the 9600 GSO. Read more

Posted on Mon, 6 Oct 2008 14:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 Review

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AMD announced the new mainstream video card series HD 4600 today. Hexus has published a review of the Sapphire HD 4670.
Quote from the review: "ATI fits in practically more of everything with this card: more shading, texturing, and antialiasing performance. Harnessed together, the underlying technologies for Radeon HD 4670 GDDR3 make it the fastest graphics card in its pricing sector, and the 2D multimedia feature-set isn't bad. Read more

Posted on Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Weekly Top 10: PSP 3000, Toshiba XD-E500, Tribot and Femisapien

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This week we launched our 100 day countdown to the Thanksgiving Sales. Every day since August 19th we feature one Tech-Gift Tip until retailers will blast out their Thanksgiving Sale offers.
This week the Leipzig Game Convention started and on the hardware side Sony made three announcements: Sony PSP-3000, 160GB PS3, and wireless keypad for PS3.

See also our latest Tech Video Reports.
Read more

Posted on Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Femisapien Robot is shipping

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The WowWee Femisapien has started shipping from Amazon.com like the WowWee Tribot. If you like a little female friend, the Femisapien is for you. In Japan Sega is selling the Femisapien as E.M.A.
The Femisapien features fluid movements and speaks her own form of Femmish and responds to user gestures, touch, and sounds with her own.
The Femisapien can even interact with and control other Wowwee robots. If you tilt her head you can access her three main function modes: Attentive Mode with interactive wandering, seeing and hearing functions, Responsive Mode for walking and scripted actions, and Learning Mode where she remembers exactly how you move her. Read more

Posted on Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:56:44 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sapphire PURE CrossfireX 790FX Motherboard Review

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Club Overclocker published a Sapphire PURE CrossfireX 790FX Motherboard review.
Quote from the review: "I hate to admit it but I haven't been in the AMD game for a long time. The last AMD I owned was a Barton 2500. Don't get me wrong, this isn't going to be an Intel Fanboy writing an AMD motherboard review. I've been a long time fan of AMD dating back to the K5 series. But the truth is outside of some exceptional video cards, AMD hasn't given us a whole lot to get excited about lately. Read more

Posted on Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 in Crossfire Review

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Tweaktown published a review of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 in Crossfire.
Quote from the review: "It’s hard to turn around and say that the HD 4870 X2 is one of the most anticipated cards of recent times, due to the plain fact that there have been so many cards released over the last three months. While some had thought that the new HD 4870 would become the fastest single card solution on the market, the price AMD launched the card at gave indication that the chances were going to be pretty slim. Read more

Posted on Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB Review

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Hexus published a review of the Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB video card based on the new ATI HD 4870 X2 AMD announced today.
Quote from the review: "Our performance evaluation shows that the HD 4870 X2 only comes into its own when the resolution is cranked up to 2,560x1,600, along with serious image quality; anything lower and it's sat there, twiddling bemused transistors. Read more

Posted on Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:07:29 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Definitive Technology Disappearing In-Wall Speakers

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The problem with putting speakers in your home is that they tend to look bad and ruin the décor. The best way to add speakers, without having to look at them or the wires they need is to put speakers in your walls. Definitive Technology announced a new line of Disappearing In-Wall speakers that has six round and two square speakers to choose from.

The speakers all use a low profile micro-perf grill, hidden flange and small diameters. The design of the speakers means that you don’t have to have custom sheetrock or spackle skills to install them. The speakers come in 3.5”, 4.5”, 5.25”, 6.5” and 8” diameters in 2-way designs along with a 6.5” single speaker and a pair of 5.12” and 6” square designs. Prices for the speakers run $179 to $379 each. Read more

Posted on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:48:20 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 Review

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Benchmark Reviews has published a Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 review.

Quote from the review: "Sapphire has always offered the most influential ATI graphics products available, and the new Radeon HD 4850 is no different. Although it still uses GDDR3 clocked at 993 (1986 MHz DDR), unlike the 4870 version that is decked out with GDDR5, the Sapphire 100242L model offers 24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) on its 625 MHz 800-core RV770 GPU. Read more

Posted on Sun, 6 Jul 2008 12:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 in Crossfire Review

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Tweaktown published a review of the Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 in Crossfire.

Quote from the review: "Given the level of excitement the HD 4850 left, not only with us, but also gamers and enthusiasts all over the world, the HD 4870 quickly became extremely anticipated by people. Will it beat the GTX 260? - How much faster than the HD 4850 is it? - Can it out-perform the GTX 280? - How does Crossfire scale? Read more

Posted on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sapphire PURE Hybrid Crossfire 780G Review

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Hi-Tech Reviews tested the Sapphire PURE Hybrid Crossfire 780G motherboard.

Quote from the review: "This new motherboard from Sapphire has all the features that any person could ask for when they are building a new or replacement HTPC. Read more

Posted on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr