Instagram Web profiles are here, and – surprise – they look a lot like Facebook

Your patience has been rewarded: Instagram has finally introduced Web profiles so the app is no longer just a mobile-only platform.

Kiss all those third-party Web apps you’ve been using to follow your friend’s Instagram activities goodbye! Instagram has just announced that Web profiles are officially here, and the site will begin rolling out the new feature over the next few days. 

The URL for your Web profile will be kept short and simple — Instagram.com/Username. (At this moment, attempting to log onto my personal profile links me to Instagram’s Web Profiles announcement page, but this should change shortly). Judging by the sample profiles Instagram provided, the design looks a lot like Facebook’s Timeline layout. Which isn’t terribly surprising, of course, since the social network bought Instagram for a whopping $1 billion earlier this year.

The new Instagram Web profiles will feature a rotating stream of photos where your “Cover Photo” would ordinarily be on Facebook. The “Wall” also orders your photos by months, and hovering over each photo gives you an exact upload date and the number of likes and comments. Clicking the photos bring up a lightbox of the selected picture, which looks just like what direct links to Instagram pictures were like if you had the obscure URL for them. If your photos are set as “Private,” only logged-in users with approved friend requests will be able to see them.

Web profiles have long been on Instagram users’ list of demands, since you were unable to obtain the direct URL of your photo without sharing it on Twitter, Facebook, email, or text. With Web profiles, Instagrammers can follow new users, explore trendy pictures, like, and comment straight from their browsers. This will undoubtedly make Instagram a bigger brand promotion platform than ever, allowing companies like Nike to monetize on sharing product photos and making an overall beautiful presentation of the brand.

However, there is one thing still missing from Web profiles: You won’t be able to upload a photo directly from your computer and apply the filters just yet, which would be a huge departure from the mobile-only (now, mobile-first) network. Still, something tells us that the development of a real, interactive website along with its Facebook acquisition may just bring the functionality to us in the very near future.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Apple to add movie ticket booking through Siri in iOS 6.1

Continuing the integration with important third-party applications, Apple is said to include another new feature in Siri in the upcoming iOS 6.1 update. While currently you can get movie ticket reviews and timings with iOS 6.1, in future you will also be able to purchase tickets through Siri.

This new feature comes courtesy of Fandango. You will see a button to purchase tickets in Siri when you search for show times or movie reviews. Moreover, you can also speak directly to Siri and ask to book the tickets for a particular movie.

Once you do that, the device will launch the Fandango app and your tickets will be booked. If you don’t have the app installed, you will get an option to download it from the App Store.

This feature will only available in the US for a while and won’t be compatible with all the theaters.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Stealth mode video app Vine acquired by Twitter for its rumored in-house video hosting service

Twitter has reportedly acquired Vine to develop a video sharing service in-house. It's the latest development in reports that Twitter will stop supporting third-party video sharing services.

After yesterday’s report about Twitter developing an in-house video client, there’s now some solid evidence that Twitter has invested in developing a video service. AllThingsD has reported that Twitter recently acquired three-person New York City-based video sharing startup Vine.

The same report indicates that the deal was motivated by the acquisition of the team rather than the product itself, although an update by AllThingsD suggests that Vine could remain a standalone service. We reached out to Twitter, but the company declined to comment on the matter.

If you take a look at Vine’s site, you’ll notice the service has yet to launched and is simply taking user signups. But the splash page currently describes it as, “the best way to capture and share video on your iPhone. No editing. No rendering. No post-production. Video has never been this fun.”

Vine could be in its beta testing stage with some early adopters — primarily investors and other entrepreneurs using the service — which gave us a look at how Vine works. It’s apparently focused on short form clips that last just a matter of seconds, but the platform stitches together these short clips into a longer video. It then loops back to the beginning of the clip automatically, kind of like a GIF but with sound.

We did a Google search for site: http://vine.co/v/, which appears to be the site’s root URL for user submissions, and found that vine videos were in fact being indexed by Google with approximately 104 results. We were able to check out the submissions from people like MG Siegler and Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann and David Lee, managing partner of SV Angel.

Here are just a few examples that you can check out:

Davidlee

Parislemon

Kevin

CarterKev

Dom 

Whether Vine would continue to exist in its current form or have its technology use to support whatever video service Twitter has up its sleeve remains to be seen. Still, the acquisition absolutely points to the platform’s interest in bringing video in-house. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google enables Street view on mobile Google Maps site for iOS

The Maps issue on iOS is still a hot topic for some people and after Tim Cook himself suggested people try third-party solutions, there has been a lot of chest beating from established map makers. Now Google is putting its features where its mouth is and has enabled Street View in the mobile Google Maps site for iOS.

It’s a stopgap feature as a dedicated Google Maps app is still some way out, but it works well enough. You just search for an address where Street view is available (or drop a pin manually) and hit the peg man icon that’s synonymous with Street View (note: we had to switch to Satellite view for the peg man to appear, and we’re not sure if it’s a bug or not).

Street view running in Mobile Safari

You get the familiar 360-degree view that you can pan around with your finger, but there are a few features missing. For one, the awesome compass mode is not available (even though Safari for iOS supports both accelerometer and magnetometer access for JavaScript).

Also, you can’t zoom in to get a closer view of buildings. There are also no transition effects as you navigate the streets, but we’ll let this slide. At least, landscape mode is available.

Landscape mode

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

2012 Ford Fiesta review

With dynamic handling, exquisite exterior, and excellent fuel economy, does Ford manage to keep the party going with the 2012 Ford Fiesta?

Economy cars have been on cruise control for quite some time now. Traditionally, this hasn’t been the segment for frills or fun, and nine times out of 10 performance has taken a back seat to practicality. Until recently, this was the case with American cars and is one of the major reasons manufacturers like Toyota and Honda managed to garner such a large foothold of the market with cars like the Civic and Corolla in the 1980s and 1990s. But the times they are a changin’, and manufactures that have historically struggled in this space (namely Chevrolet and Ford) want a piece of the practical-car pie.

Enter the fun-loving 2012 Ford Fiesta. Now in its sophomore year, and after a 31 year absence, Ford’s Fiesta made its return to North American shores in 2011. Truthfully, it couldn’t have come a better time. With gas prices continuously in flux and American buyers looking to jump into more fuel efficient and economical cars, the compact and subcompact segment has really started to flourish – and not just with cheaper choices that will appeal to your wallet, but ones people actually wanted to drive.

Does the 2012 Fiesta manage to deliver a vehicle that neatly manages to be both fun and frugal? It’s sure looks that way.

Design

Let’s get this out of the way right now: The 2012 Ford Fiesta is one hot little hatch. There, we said it. Not only does it exhibit more than a hint of European styling appeal, but it’s not restricted to the old world any longer, with Ford finally bringing the popular car to North American shores. Indeed, one of the great things about modern subcompact cars is their ability to be just as easy on your eyes as they are on your wallet, and the Fiesta is no different.

At its face, the Fiesta sports a confident front fascia along with sharpened headlamps and sculpted wheel arches. Ford’s signature gaping maw found on many of its newer models makes an appearance too – albeit in smaller form. At the side, the Fiesta looks sleek, almost elegant. The arching roofline tapers out towards the rear where it is met by the Fiesta’s climbing taillights and dipping hatch.

Of course, if words were flowers manufacturer’s tendency to describe their cars with such language could plant a garden in your ears. Most of the time it’s overblown PR hype, while other times it actually rings true. Design-wise the Fiesta falls into the latter category: It isn’t eccentric, loud, or obnoxious; it’s just a good-looking car that you won’t be embarrassed to be seen in. And really, how many econo-boxes can you truthfully you say that about?

While the 2012 Fiesta is available in both four-door sedan and five-door hatchback varieties, we wholeheartedly feel that the hatchback represents not only the more practical choice, but the more stylish as well. Still, hatchbacks have routinely proven unpopular in the North American market.

Interior

Sadly, the party doesn’t continue to the Fiesta’s interior. Here it seems Ford was more focused on creating an edgy and vibrant cabin with little regard to the practicality of everyday driving. While we can’t complain about material quality employed inside (we liked the fun and sleek metallic brushwork throughout), we’re not so thrilled with the placement of the Fiesta’s steering wheel and console controls. Rather than go for a simpler, more effective scheme, the console’s “butterfly” layout and rigid knobs are a chore at best, and much too distracting at worst. We also took umbrage with the lack of volume control on the steering wheel button set. Ironically, this is where Ford decided to keep the button layout simple and limited to two clusters on each spoke.

For its part though, the Fiesta’s interior is welcoming enough. It might not be the most comfortable, or even the roomiest, but we never truly felt like we were riding in an economy car. The layout might be questionable, but to Ford’s credit they have designed a rather upbeat cabin. Perhaps that party moniker is appropriate after all.

Still, if you favor function over form you’d do well to consider your alternatives. Other cars in the segment afford you more carrying capacity and better rear-seat real-estate — the Nissan Versa, Kia Soul, and Honda Fit all spring to mind. Throw (or lovingly place) the kids in the back seats and you should be fine though, but don’t be surprised if full-sized adults stage a road-side coup after prolonged trips.

Tech

Travelin’ techies will be happy to learn that the Fiesta sports a rather robust amount of cabin tech for a vehicle of its stature. Our SE review model, which sits between the bare-bones S Hatch and top-of-the-line SES trim, came equipped with cruise control, upgraded 80-watt six-speaker sound system, and a CD player with USB audio input and small monochrome LCD display atop the dash’s summit. Rather conveniently, Ford lets you mix and match various features found on some higher trims, so even though push-button ignition isn’t standard on our Fiesta, you can always option it if you so desire.

Naturally, the biggest draw comes from Microsoft’s Sync system. Drivers can connect a thumbdrive, MP3 player, or iPhone via the USB port conveniently located below the shifter. Sync will then take your music library and index it, allowing you to search by album, artist, and genre. From here you have two options for navigating the menus: use the physical buttons or voice commands. As we mentioned, the physical buttons are awkward and unresponsive. You have to tug on the knob and push it in, despite it seeming more intuitive to simply let it function as a dial. Pushing in the control knob also requires an unusual amount of force, making it a hassle and not something we recommend fiddling with while driving. Another gripe stems from the monochrome display itself, which is only capable of displaying one item line at a time.

Fortunately, voice commands are better. Accessing your music library whether it’s on a USB drive or dedicated MP3 player is relatively easy. Simply activate the voice command hidden away on the turn signal handle and you can sift through your tracks by album or artist name. Pairing the phone via Bluetooth is easy too, placing calls via the voice commands required a little more legwork, but once we figured out that we could simply say the name of the person we wished to call it wasn’t an issue.

The same cannot be said for streaming music or using Ford’s AppLink feature. For those not familiar with Applink, this nifty interface allows you to control a growing number of apps hands-free on a supported smartphone. At the moment these are all audio-based, so that means apps like Pandora and Slacker for music, NPR and Sticher for news, and MLB.com At Bat for… well, you get the picture. Sync will even read your Twitter feed out loud for those of you with Blackberrys (all 50 of you).

Where problems arise, however, is with how poorly implemented this particular feature felt, especially with an iPhone. Streaming music requires your application be running and plugged into the USB port, and what’s more, in the Fiesta, we couldn’t switch apps while driving without the Sync system causing the service to, well…go out of sync. It got so bad that after a while the Sync system stopped recognizing our phone altogether, requiring us to shut off the engine entirely before it would recognize our phone again. We’re not sure if this was just an isolated incident, or maybe some odd problem with iOS 5, perhaps iOS 6 will be better, but it effectively sullied the entire Sync experience

Powertrain

Powering the little party on wheels is a 1.6-liter inline four that produces 120 horsepower and 112 pound-feet of torque. The 2012 Fiesta comes standard with a five-speed manual or an optional six-speed automatic. EPA fuel economy stands at 29 mpg in the city, 38 mpg on the highway, and 33 combined when mated to the manual. For the automatic, everything stays the same, save for highway mpg which rises slightly to 39.

Overall, the 2012 Fiesta exhibits the type of spirited performance consumers in the segment will appreciate. It’s not without its quirks though and can be a pest when demanding a modicum of torque at low speeds. Awkwardly, the Fiesta manages to be both lively and lazy, with the automatic transmission behaving erratically at times for no apparent reason. This is mainly when tackling greater inclines and hills, but we noticed it during spells in the city as well.

Handling/Ride Dynamics

More than anything else, where we derived the most joy during our time with the Fiesta was with its excellent handling. From nimble to sprightly, dynamic to energetic, throw whatever descriptor you like and the Fiesta manages to encompass it. In addition to its design, this is where the Fiesta manages to reveal its European roots the most, exhibiting the type of capable handling, road characteristics, and tightly-tuned suspension we rarely see (or get) on these shores.

Without a doubt the 2012 Ford Fiesta is a pleasure to drive, and offers one of the most rewarding drive experiences in its class and beyond. It might be priced a little excessively; our review unit came in at $18,255 including destination, and it’s 1.6-liter may be a little too lackadaisical for our tastes, but we’re hard-pressed to think of another vehicle in this segment that has yet to illicit such joy while on the road.

Finish Line

As a subcompact car, the 2012 Fiesta knows how to party… it’s just not the perfect party and many won’t mind not being invited. There are real issues here that keep the Fiesta from being that all-night rager most of us can barely remember, but it still possesses enough quality to warrant serious consideration. Let’s not forget that this is a segment with plenty of cheaper alternatives, and because Ford has chosen to be just as aggressive with its pricing as it has with its excellent design, we’re not sure consumers will be willing to spring for the Fiesta when other viable alternatives exist in the Honda Fit, Chevy Spark, Nissan Versa, and Kia Rio.

That being said, for those that can look beyond its relatively cramped quarters, quirky design layout, and finicky Ford Sync system, there is a truly rambunctious car at heart, one that can equally appeal to your fuel-sipping frugality and need for good ol’ fashioned fun.

Highs

• Excellent handling and fun to drive
• Exterior design is sleek and sporty
• Admirable list of tech features
• Great fuel economy

Lows

• Erratic drivetrain
• Interior layout can be too quirky and unintuitive
• Not as spacious as some of its competitors
• Tech suite (Sync) feels poorly implemented, especially with the iPhone

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Thousands turn up to party in tiny Dutch town after Facebook invite goes viral, ends in riot

Oh no, not again. A girl in the Netherlands had been hoping to have a small party with close friends to celebrate her 16th birthday. Using Facebook to invite guests, she forgot to set the event as private. Perhaps you can guess what happened next.

When a Dutch teen living in the tiny town of Haren used Facebook to invite friends to her 16th birthday party, little did she know the chaos that would ensue.

Merthe Weusthuis had been hoping for a small celebration with just a few friends, but failing to make the Facebook event private destroyed any hopes of a quiet gathering.

To Merthe’s dismay, the invitation soon went viral, going out to an estimated 30,000 people. A number of websites were set up highlighting the party, some of which referenced Project X, a movie about a suburban birthday party that spins out of control. But the mischief makers didn’t leave it at that. A Twitter account and YouTube video also hit the Web, inviting party-goers to “be there.”

Fearing the worst, Merthe fled her hometown. And judging by what happened Friday night, she was wise to do so.

An estimated 3,000 party revelers descended on Haren, population just 18,000. As things got out of control, police moved in to disperse the crowd, but in the process were reportedly pelted with stones and bottles. The situation deteriorated further, with stores vandalized and looted and a car set on fire. Road signs and street lights were also said to have been wrecked.

Police, who had been expecting large crowds to turn up, reportedly made 20 arrests.

“[Merthe] posted the invitation on Facebook and sent it to friends, who then sent it to other friends and soon it spread like wildfire across the Internet,” police spokeswoman Melanie Zwama told AFP before Friday night.

Similar incidents

An incident of this nature isn’t the first, and is unlikely to be the last. In 2011 a girl in Australia was forced to cancel her 16th birthday party after her invitation sent using Facebook went viral, with more than 200,000 people indicating they would be attending the event, scheduled to take place in the girl’s house.

A girl in Germany also saw her Facebook invitation fall into the hands of thousands of people, resulting in some 1,500 revelers turning up to her birthday party. Fortunately, in that incident, there were no reports of trouble.

Perhaps users of the social networking site need to be a little more careful when using it to send out party invitations, unless, of course, their home is able to accommodate hundreds of thousands of guests, in which case it should be just fine.

[Source: Sky] [Image: Yuri Arcurs / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Windows Phone 8 camera interface to support pinch zooming and third-party addons

Adding pinch-zooming to the camera interface is nothing to shout home about, but the addition of third-party plugins certainly is. All smartphone users have their favorite photo apps, but imagine having them all inside the main camera interface. That’s what the new camera lenses feature on Windows Phone 8 promises.

As Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore demoed today, when you install a new camera-centric app from the Marketplace, it integrates as a sort of a lens, an add-on inside your main camera app. So when you start the camera, you have all the special effects, panoramas and image manipulation tricks, in one place.

I love using all sorts of camera apps on my iPhone. Of course, I have several favorites, and I use them interchangeably. They all do the job of taking pictures just fine, but each comes with its own set of nice little features or filters so I just can’t pick a single all-time favorite. Of those, the standard vanilla camera app on the iPhone is the least feature-rich, but unfortunately, it’s the quickest to launch of all, thanks to the always present lockscreen shortcut.

So Microsoft has achieved something I’ve long thought is quite overdue both on iOS and Android – the capability of enhancing the stock camera app with new features via plugins. Some examples shown on the stage by Joe Belfiore include Bing Vision, CNN’s iReport plugin, a regular Panorama plugin, a Photosynth plugin, which lets you take 360-degree panoramas, or even a plugin, called Blink, which lets snaps multiple portrait shots and automatically suggests the one with best facial expression.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Internet freedom, cybersecurity land in 2012 Democratic National Platform

Democrats have included Internet freedom and cybersecurity as important issues in the 2012 Democratic National Platform.

As expected, the Democrats have included “Internet freedom” as one of the party’s many primary provisions in the 2012 Democratic National Platform. “Cybersecurity” is also included in the platform, released late Monday ahead of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, which kicks off in Charlotte, North Carolina, today.

Inclusion of Internet freedom in the Democrats’ platform was first revealed by President Barack Obama during his “Ask Me Anything” public interview on Reddit last week. Obama’s revelation came soon after the GOP released its own stance on Internet freedom in the 2012 Republican Party Platform.

While the Republicans focused on how they plan to address open Internet issues in the future — through opposition to the Federal Communications Commission’s Net neutrality rules, opposition to changes in the Internet governance model through the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and support for civil liberties and personal privacy on the Web — the Democrats instead vaguely outline what the Obama administration has already done to preserve the open Internet, along with further promises to oppose “the extension of intergovernmental controls” of the Internet through the ITU.

Here is the Democrats’ Internet freedom position, in full:

The Obama administration has led the world to recognize and defend Internet freedom — the freedom of expression, assembly, and association online for people everywhere — through coalitions of countries and by empowering individuals with innovative technologies. The administration has built partnerships to support an Internet that is secure and reliable and that is respectful of U.S. intellectual property, free flow of information, and privacy. To preserve the Internet as a platform for commerce, debate, learning, and innovation in the 21st century, we successfully negotiated international Internet policymaking principles, support the current multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance, and oppose the extension of intergovernmental controls over the Internet.

For comparison, here is the GOP’s Internet freedom stance:

The Internet has unleashed innovation, enabled growth, and inspired freedom more rapidly and extensively than any other technological advance in human history. Its independence is its power. The Internet offers a communications system uniquely free from government intervention. We will remove regulatory barriers that protect outdated technologies and business plans from innovation and competition, while preventing legacy regulation from interfering with new and disruptive technologies such as mobile delivery of voice video data as they become crucial components of the Internet ecosystem. We will resist any effort to shift control away from the successful multi-stakeholder approach of Internet governance and toward governance by international or other intergovernmental organizations. We will ensure that personal data receives full constitutional protection from government overreach and that individuals retain the right to control the use of their data by third parties; the only way to safeguard or improve these systems is through the private sector.

In addition to the issue of Internet freedom, the Democrats also outlined its efforts to establish robust cybersecurity measures, and reiterated it support for cybersecurity legislation put forth by Congress this year, but which has so far failed to pass through the full lawmaking process.

The Democrats’ plank on cybersecrity reads:

Cybersecurity threats represent one of the most serious potential national security, public safety, and economic challenges we face. The very technologies that empower use to lead and create also empower individual criminal hackers, organized criminal groups, terrorist networks, and other advanced nations to disrupt the critical infrastructure that is vital to our economy, commerce, public safety, and military. Defending against cyber threats requires networks that are secure, trustworthy, and resilient. The President and the administration have taken unprecedented steps to defend America from cyber attacks, including creating the first military command dedicated to cybersecurity and conducting a full review of the federal government’s efforts to protect our information and our infrastructure. We will continue to take steps to deter, prevent, detect, and defend against cyber intrusions, by investing in cutting-edge research and development, promoting cybersecurity awareness and digital literacy, and strengthening private sector and international partnerships. President Obama has supported comprehensive cybersecurity legislation that would help business and government protect against risks of cyber attacks while also safeguarding the privacy rights of our citizens. And, going forward, the President will continue to take executive action to strengthen and update our cyber defenses.

All in all, the Democrats’ positions on these pertinent topics is neither surprising nor particularly impressive, from a Web user’s point of view. In fact, my personal opinion is that the Democrats should have said far more about Internet freedom, and taken a much more pointed stance on protecting Web users privacy and personal liberty on the Internet. They hint at it, but we need more than just hints.

Image via Action Sports Photography/Shutterstock

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Intel cranks up the pressure, as ZTE and Motorola prepare to release Atom-powered Android smartphones

ZTE has announced the Grand X IN, an Intel Medfield-powered Android phone, while Motorola prepares to join the party in September.

Intel is continuing to push its way into the mobile processor market with its Medfield platform, ready to take on Nvidia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Although Medfield has been around since the beginning of 2012, it has yet to make much of an impact, but as more manufacturers explore its potential, this is beginning to change.

ZTE has announced it has joined Intel’s merry band with the unveiling of the new Grand X IN. Well, we say new, but we really mean an older phone with one very important tweak.

The Grand X has already done the rounds several times, having been revealed earlier this summer as an “advanced gaming phone,” and before that as the Mimosa X; but this new version ditches the Tegra 2 and replaces it with Intel’s Atom chip, hence the addition of “IN” at the end of the phone’s name.

ZTE’s Grand X IN uses Intel’s single-core Z2460 Atom processor, the same as that found in the Orange San Diego, a UK-only, network-branded re-badging of the original Intel reference device. Although ZTE doesn’t mention it, we presume it shares the same 1.6Ghz clock speed too.

The screen measures 4.3-inches and has a 960 x 540 pixel resolution, there is 16GB of internal memory, 1GB of RAM, GPS and support for HSPA+ networks. For what will be priced as a mid-range phone, it’s good to see features such as NFC, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Dolby Mobile and HD Voice make it onboard.

Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is the standard operating system, and the Grand X IN is the first Medfield phone to have this almost-new version installed from the factory, as previous Intel phones have used 2.3 Gingerbread.

Besides the processor change, ZTE has also swapped the ordinary 5-megapixel camera from the first Grand X out in favor of an 8-megapixel camera, which can also shoot 1080p video.

Motorola gets in on the Intel action

ZTE isn’t the only manufacturer backing Intel either, as none other than Motorola is almost certainly preparing to announce its own Atom-powered smartphone.

The Google-owned company has sent out invitations to a special event to be held in London on September 18, which bore both Motorola’s and Intel’s logos.

Motorola’s tagline for the event is “Let us take you to the edge,” and VentureBeat.com discovered a Twitter hashtag, #motoedge, linked to the forthcoming event, hinting that this could be the name of the new device. A supposed Intel-powered Motorola phone was leaked way back in February, but we’ve heard nothing since.

The partnership between Motorola and Intel was announced at the beginning of the year, and the cache of a true “big name” manufacturer is exactly what Intel needs to kickstart its assault on its competitors market share.

For now though, Intel fans have the ZTE Grand X IN to look forward to, and it should hit European store shelves in September. A price has yet to be confirmed, but if ZTE has any sense, it will keep the £190/$299 SIM-free cost of the existing Grand X in place.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

PlayStation 4 will support 4K playback, but Sony needs to be careful lest it repeat past mistakes

Sony is banking on 4K resolution televisions to boost its home entertainment business so the PlayStation 4 is joining the 4K party.

3D television? Feh. Smart TVs? Whatever. The new hotness in the increasingly desperate television business is 4K resolution, televisions with a horizontal resolution of 4000 pixels. The pixel density of 1080p HD televisions pales in comparison! 4K makes for enormous HD televisions with resolutions comparable to Apple’s iPhone 4 Retina Display. That’s why they call them “Ultra Definition.” These TVs are bananas. Take the LG 84-inch 4K: It is $22,000. Sony’s got one in the works too, the 80-inch XBR, which will cost around $30,000.

No one is going to be buying these things anytime soon. That isn’t stopping Sony from making the PlayStation 4 capable of outputting in 4K.

Boy Genius Report reported on Wednesday that a source indicated that the PlayStation 4, sometimes called Orbis, will support 4K playback.

Now luckily this won’t make the PlayStation 4 an astronomically expensive doodad out the gates like the PlayStation 3 was. Sony currently sells Blu-ray players capable of 4K playback for around $200.

Sony, and more specifically designer Ken Kutaragi, made the PlayStation 3 as a future-proofed catch all last decade. It had Blu-ray. It output in 1080p when the vast majority of games weren’t made for the resolution and most people hadn’t even upgraded to HD televisions. As a result, the console cost $500 when it first came out, a price that guaranteed Microsoft’s Xbox 360 a lasting head start in sales.

If 4K is a perk that doesn’t drive up the PS4’s price, then Sony should have at it. If however Sony thinks that a grand push with 4K across all of its entertainment devices is going to result in rejuvenating its television business, it should think again. Sony’s entertainment business has sagged in recent years because of the company’s insistence on technologies that consumers just aren’t interested in. 3D TV in particular has been an enormous failure for Sony.

It’s only been in the past two years that HD television adoption has finally picked up steam, and it’s still far from ubiquitous. Only 69 percent of US households have an HDTV according to Leichtman Research Group.

Sony CEO Kaz Hirai recently said that Sony needs to build its entertainment businesses—music, movies, video games, etc.—to succeed. He’s right. Sony’s hardware business meanwhile needs to take a page from Samsung’s playbook: Make it cheap.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

The Ridiculously Early Holiday Gift Guide!

The holiday shopping season will be here before you know it. The Giz Wiz, Dick DeBartolo (@TheGizWiz), stopped by to show off what will be the big holiday gifts of 2012.

Party Animals, about $25. Enjoy your favorite tunes with these soft plush Party Animals. Each one has a built-in speaker and will swivel, twist and gyrate to the beat of your favorite music. Just plug them into the headphone jack of your MP3, smart phone, radio, etc. and let them dance.

DJ Rock Dock, under $20.  This SmartLab Kit lets kids eight and up build a mini working speaker dock for an iPod, iTouch, or MP3 player. Pre-printed foldable paper housing and circuit board. No tools required. A unique kit to teach kids basic electronics while creating a usable gadget!

ClipSYNC, under $20. Great stocking stuffer. It comes with a full-sized charge and Sync Cable small enough to clip onto your belt or keychain. Available in both iPod/iPhone and Micro & Mini USB models. This new models are made from rugged aluminum to withstand wear and tear on the run better.

Log Pillow Price, under $19. Now anyone can sleep like a log – on a log! This micro bead cushion – looks exactly like a chunk of log! The pillow is super light weight so you can even pop it into the car for traveling.

Belkin @TV Plus, under $170. Watch video from your home DVR/cable box on your tablet, smart phone, or laptop over Wi-Fi or via a 3G/4G cellular connection. (Yep, like the old Slingbox, but at a much lower price). It can also record directly to a mobile device. Watch @ABC anywhere you go!

Pivothead, under $350. Expensive but maybe the whole family can chip in and give someone Pivothead. They look like ordinary eyeglasses, but they shoot 1080p HD video! They’re also available as trendy sunglasses.

Boost, under $40. Lay your smart phone on Boost and it magically amplifies the sound. No wires. No Bluetooth. No synching. No problem. An auxiliary line-in jack is provided for devices without external speakers.

RC Heated Insoles, under $100. Sure the country is suffering from a heat wave right now, but come the holidays, anyone who goes outside will suffer from cold feet. These insoles are wireless and rechargeable, and operate via remote control! They off up to five hours of warm comfort!

More info:  www.gizwiz.biz

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Twitter reforms API rules, makes it more difficult to be a third party client developer

It has been rumored for a while that Twitter may be looking to shut down third party Twitter clients completely and only allow the use of its own official clients, available on nearly every platform right now. And while that hasn’t happened yet, the latest announcement from the company’s developers blog does make it more difficult to be a third party Twitter client developer.

Twitter announced that it will be releasing v1.1 of its API, which is what applications that access Twitter have to use. This new API comes with a ton of new changes and restrictions, which further drives home the point that Twitter does not like third-party clients that mimics the site’s functionality.

For starters, Twitter clients that accesses basic Twitter features such as home timeline, account settings or direct messaging (which is almost all of them) will have a limit of 100,000 user tokens. If an application requires more tokens, the developer will have to take permission from Twitter, at which point it will be at Twitter’s discretion if they would allow more user tokens or cap them at 100,000.

Apps that are already using more than 100,000 user tokens can continue doing so until they reach double the tokens of what they are using right now, regardless of the number, but once they reach that point they will have to ask for Twitter’s permission.

Twitter is also going to crack down harder on apps that don’t meet Twitter’s design guidelines. Also, what were originally guidelines are now requirements and any app not meeting them could have its application key revoked.

There is a new API call limit as well. Initially, applications could make 350 API calls per minute regardless of its functionality, which was primarily responsible for spam on Twitter. The new API will introduce per-endpoint rate limiting, so now you have various API call limits depending upon the function the client is requesting. Most individual API endpoints will be limited to 60 per minute but some apps could request high-volume endpoints to get up to 720 API calls per minute.

Finally, each and every application that uses the Twitter API v1.1 will need to be authenticated, which includes applications provided built-into devices. If an application using the API is not authenticated, Twitter will revoke its application key.

The new API will be released soon and developers will have six months to migrate from 1.0 to 1.1.

Some of the aforementioned changes are definitely going to make it difficult to be a third party Twitter client developer. The drop in user tokens, the limited API call limit and the requirement to strictly adhere to design guidelines means fewer people will want to create an app. Existing developers will also have to talk with Twitter at some point as they hit one of the new limits, at which point there is no guarantee that Twitter will comply with them.

It’s sad to see Twitter restrict third party clients so severely, many of which provide a better experience than any of Twitter’s official apps ever did. This is mostly being done to limit users to Twitter’s own apps, which lets Twitter show ads in the form of promoted tweets. It will only push users towards upcoming competing services such as App.net, which are already promising a better experience. Hopefully, Twitter will see the light and be more open towards applications that only aim to enhance the experience that they created.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com