If this 10 minute peek is any indication, 2KSports is putting together one of the best sports games, well, ever with its NBA 2K11 with Charlotte Bobcats owner Michael Jordan on the cover and in the game.
This clip is a recreation of the 92 NBA Finals between Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and the Portland Trail Blazers. It’s accurate even down to the shooting motions and Jordan’s one-handed leg kicking slam.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new line of iPods Wednesday, saying the company has sold 275 million iPods in its history.
Every iPod is being redesigned and will be available next week. Pre-orders will be taken today.
The new iPod Touch is now the most popular iPod, Jobs said. “A lot of people call it an iPhone without the phone,” Jobs said.
The new iPod Touch is even thinner than the old version, has the Retina Display in the new iPhone 4 and runs the Apple A4 chip, just like the iPhone 4. It has 3-axis Gyro plus a front facing camera with FaceTime over WiFi. A rear camera has also been added with HD video recording.
The new touch will have 40 hours of music playback. It’s $229 for 8 gigs, $299 for 32 gigs and $399 for the 64 gig version.
More than 1.5 billion games and entertainment titles have been downloaded to the Touch.
The new iPod Shuffle is smaller than last year and has buttons, voiceover and playlists. It’s smaller than the size of the palm of your hand. It’ll speak through your playlists, Genius mixes and the Voice over will tell you song and artist and even when the battery needs charging. The shuffle is good for 15 hours per charge, Jobs, and comes in five colors. Price is $49.
The new iPod Nano is 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter and loses its click wheel. It’s touch based and square shaped instead of rectangular. It uses the same multi-touch as iPhone. It’s very small and has a clip on it to tap onto your clothes. It’s got FM radio, the Nike pedometer and 24 hour audio battery life. This comes in six colors. Price is $149 for 8 gigs $179 for gigs.
Notes:
– Apple released its new operating system, iOS 4.1 that fixes promixity sensor bugs, bluetooth issues and a problem where the old 3G iPhone slowed down with the new operating system. Users will be able to upload HD video over WiFI, rent TV shows and Apple’s Game Center will debut. The new system debuts next week and is a free download via iTunes for iPod Touch and iPhone.
A new feature is High Dynamic Range Photos. Users tap a button and the camera takes three photos in rapid succession. One will be shot in normal exposure plus one that is underdeveloped and one over exposed. It then combines the three to produce an “HDR” photo. The normal and HDR photos are both kept in the camera roll.
GameCenter is used for multi-player games and allows you to challenge friends or auto-match you with players. Gamers can compare scores and see popular games.
– Jobs offered a sneak peek at iOS 4.2 for iPad that will come out November, as a free update for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. “It’s bringing everything to iPad,” Jobs said including folders, GameCenter, HDR photos and wireless printing, a much requested app.
A new feature, AirPlay, will also debut. It’ll allow users to stream audio, video and photo to other devices.
– Apple has shipped 120 million iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch products in four years, Jobs said. He said Apple is activating about 230,000 new iOS devices every day. That figure doesn’t include upgrades.
– There are 200 apps per second are being downloaded from Apple’s App Store, and more than six billion total in its history. There are more than 250,000 apps currently in the store, 25,000 are iPad exclusive.
– Jobs said Apple Stores draw more than one million visitors several days per month. He said more than half the people buying Mac computers are new users.
Link: Apple set to introduce new hardware Wednesday
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new line of iPods Wednesday and a new $99 Apple TV. He also introduced a new operating system for Apple’s mobile devices that will correct issues with iPhone 4 and with older iPhones running slowly when using the new operating system.
The new iPod Touch will add all the popular features on iPhone 4, including the “Retina” display and FaceTime video conferencing. Apple TV will let users rent movies and TV shows and stream content from Netflix and YouTube.
Also a new version of iTunes will be launched with a Facebook-like social intergration app.
A quick rundown of the day.
New iPods Launched
Jobs said the company has sold 275 million iPods in its history.
Every iPod is being redesigned and will be available next week. Pre-orders will be taken today.
The new iPod Touch is now the most popular iPod.
“A lot of people call it an iPhone without the phone,” Jobs said.
The new iPod Touch is even thinner than the old version, has the Retina Display and runs the Apple A4 chip, just like the iPhone 4. It has 3-axis Gyro plus a front facing camera with FaceTime over WiFi. A rear camera has also been added with HD video recording.
The new touch will have 40 hours of music playback. It’s $229 for 8 gigs, $299 for 32 gigs and $399 for the 64 gig version.
More than 1.5 billion games and entertainment titles have been downloaded to the Touch.
– The new iPod Shuffle is smaller than last year and has buttons, voiceover and playlists. It’s about the size of the palm of your hand. It’ll speak through your playlists, Genius mixes and the Voice over will tell you song and artist and even let you know when the battery needs charging. The shuffle is good for 15 hours per charge, Jobs said, and comes in five colors. Price is $49.
The new iPod Nano is 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter and loses its click wheel. It’s square shaped instead of rectangular. It uses the same multi-touch as iPhone. It has a clip on it to attach to your clothes. It’s got FM radio, the Nike pedometer and 24 hour audio battery life. This comes in six colors. Price is $149 for 8 gigs; $179 for gigs.
NEW ITUNES RELEASED
Jobs said 11.7 billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes, more than 100 million movies, 450 million TV episodes and 35 million books.
Jobs announced iTunes 10, the latest version, Wednesday with a new logo. It launches today.
What’s new?
The interface has changed and Apple has added “Ping” to iTunes, a social network for music. Ping is available on computer, iPhone and iPod Touch.
“It’s sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes,” Jobs said. “It’s a social network all about music and its’ built right into iTunes.”
Users can follow favorite artists and friends and find out what’s popular. Simply click the Ping link in iTunes. A top 10 chart of songs and albums is customized for each user based on what their friends and favorites are downloading.
NEW APPLE TV LAUNCHES
The old Apple TV was $229. The new one is $99. It’ll launch in four weeks with pre-ordering starting today.
Introduced in September 2006, Jobs said Apple has not sold a lot of its Apple TV hardware, but the users who use them tell Apple they love them. Jobs said users said they wanted Hollywood movies and TV shows.
“They don’t want amateur hour,” Jobs said. “And they want everything in HD.”
Jobs said consumers don’t want a computer attached to the TV or to have to manage storage. “Your hard disc starts to fill up, what are you gonna do?” Jobs said.
The new Apple TV is about 1/4th the size of the current Apple TV. You can hold it in your hand. It’s a small black box. It has a power cord, HDMI, and an ethernet cable. WiFi is built-in. It comes with a remote.
Users will rent all their content and not purchase anything. The device will stream content from your computer with no synching required.
First run movies will cost $4.99, on the day and date they are released on DVD. Renting HD TV shows will be 99 cents. These shows will be commercial free. Only ABC and Fox are on board first. Jobs said he expected the other major studios to come on board soon.
Netflix subscribers can stream content on Apple TV, Flickr, mobileme or YouTube.
NOTES:
– Apple released its new operating system, iOS 4.1 that fixes promixity sensor bugs, bluetooth issues and a problem where the old 3G iPhone slowed down with the new operating system. Users will be able to upload HD video over WiFI, rent TV shows and Apple’s Game Center will debut. The new system debuts next week and is a free download via iTunes for iPod Touch and iPhone.
A new feature is High Dynamic Range Photos. Users tap a button and the camera takes three photos in rapid succession. One will be shot in normal exposure plus one that is underdeveloped and one over exposed. It then combines the three to produce an “HDR” photo. The normal and HDR photos are both kept in the camera roll.
GameCenter is used for multi-player games and allows you to challenge friends or auto-match you with players. Gamers can compare scores and see popular games.
– Jobs offered a sneak peek at iOS 4.2 for iPad that will come out November, as a free update for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. “It’s bringing everything to iPad,” Jobs said including folders, GameCenter, HDR photos and wireless printing, a much requested app.
A new feature, AirPlay, will also debut. It’ll allow users to stream audio, video and photo to other devices. Users with an iPad or iPhone can stream content to Apple TV.
You can watch a movie or look at photos on iPhone or iPad and watch the rest on your flatscreen via Apple TV.
– Apple has shipped 120 million iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch products in four years, Jobs said. He said Apple is activating about 230,000 new iOS devices every day. That figure doesn’t include upgrades.
– There are 200 apps per second are being downloaded from Apple’s App Store, and more than six billion total in its history. There are more than 250,000 apps currently in the store, 25,000 are iPad exclusive.
– Jobs said Apple Stores draw more than one million visitors several days per month. He said more than half the people buying Mac computers are new users.
Link: Apple set to introduce new hardware Wednesday
Major Nelson has confirmed that from Nov. 1, Microsoft will raise the Xbox Live U.S. price of a 1-month subscription to $9.99 (from $7.99), a 3-month subscription to $24.99 (from $19.99) and a 12-months subscription to $59.99 (from $49.99).
This means consumers will be paying 20 – 25% more for the subscriptions, depending on the length. Here are few reasons, why the cost is increasing:
A Microsoft spokesman justified the price increases by pointing to new content and services the company has added to Xbox Live over the past few years, including Facebook, Twitter, the Last.fm radio service and, in the fall, live and recorded sports events from ESPN.
RIM averted a ban by Indian government
by providing an interim solution that India authorities will test for another 60 days before making any further decision. Earlier India Government had warned RIM of possible shutdown if they don’t provide access to encrypted email and instant messages. Not much has been disclosed about the possible solution to intercept messages. There are even reports of installing servers locally in India for Indian Authorities to have easy access. Some are skeptical about the whole fiasco and even call this as a farce between RIM and Indian Authorities .
So with the interim solution from RIM, it looks like a face saving deal for both RIM and Indian government. With a partial victory over RIM, Indian authorities are targeting Skype and Google to open up their end-to-end secure communication for lawful intercept. Now this is where it gets interesting. Iam not sure how Skype is going to support Lawful intercept of their calls and messages. One of the reasons being that Skype is a P2P protocol and there are no servers involved between users for communication. Iam not even sure if Skype supports Lawful intercept standards. They have been having problems with law enforcement agencies for years now and don’t think there is a solution. Indian government is pushing these companies to install local servers for authorities to have easy access. Nokia plans to setup servers in India by November for its enterprise email services.
For RIM, building its own Blackberry data center within the country would cost tens of millions of dollars. Not sure if this is something RIM will consider in future given that the Mobile Smartphone market in India is gone explode. Currently RIM has roughly around 1 million blackberry users and that might change in future. Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts predicts that Indian Smartphone market will grow to 40 million by the end of 2015.
It would be interesting to hear what Skype has to say now that their IPO is imminent. Will they Comply like others Or not give a rat’s ass to Indian Authorities?
Apple, Inc, will hold its annual fall media conference Wednesday at 10 a.m., and Steve Jobs is expected to announce a revamped Apple TV set-top box as well as introduce a new iPod Touch that will rival iPhone in screen resolution and other features.
The event will be streamed at apple.com and requires a Mac computer running the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system and the Safari web browser, an iPod Touch or iPhone running the iOS 3.0 operating system or higher or an iPad.
Businessweek has reported that Jobs will introduce a new $99 Apple TV product that will stream movies and other content from Netflix. The current Apple TV costs more than twice that and is basically a movie and TV rental service that allows users to get content from iTunes and watch on their TV.
Other published reports have speculated that the new Apple TV will also allow users to download TV series for 99 cents per episode shortly after they air.
I think we can expect to see a new iPod Touch that will look a lot like the squarish iPhone 4. I think the new Touch will feature Apple’s “Retina” display, front and back cameras and include FaceTime video chat. It will be interesting to see if Apple allows 3G over the device, which may include a microphone and would then allow users to make calls via services like Skype.
A new smaller iPod nano with a touch screen is also expected to debut.
Speculation is running wild about Apple TV and a new iPad 4.0 operating system that will bring features like folders to iPad. Apple may also debut a new iLife suite, which includes Apple’s photo software (iPhoto), website creation tool (iWeb) and DVD creator (iDVD).
The wildest rumors claim we’ll hear about the white iPhone 4 and the Verizon iPhone at the conference. Meanwhile, a Mexican carrier is claiming that we’ll see a new iPhone 4 released at the end of September that has been redesigned to thwart the antenna issue that has caused some users to lose signal.
We’ll have a full report tomorrow on what Apple does — and does not — do. As usual, the guys in Cupertino sure do know how to get the tech masses into a lather.
Apple, Inc, will hold its annual fall media conference Wednesday at 10 a.m., and Steve Jobs is expected to announce a revamped Apple TV set-top box as well as introduce a new iPod Touch that will rival iPhone in screen resolution and other features.
The event will be streamed at apple.com and requires a Mac computer running the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system and the Safari web browser, an iPod Touch or iPhone running the iOS 3.0 operating system or higher or an iPad.
Businessweek has reported that Jobs will introduce a new $99 Apple TV product that will stream movies and other content from Netflix. The current Apple TV costs more than twice that and is basically a movie and TV rental service that allows users to get content from iTunes and watch on their TV.
Other published reports have speculated that the new Apple TV will also allow users to download TV series for 99 cents per episode shortly after they air.
I think we can expect to see a new iPod Touch that will look a lot like the squarish iPhone 4. I think the new Touch will feature Apple’s “Retina” display, front and back cameras and include FaceTime video chat. It will be interesting to see if Apple allows 3G over the device, which may include a microphone and would then allow users to make calls via services like Skype.
A new smaller iPod nano with a touch screen is also expected to debut.
Speculation is running wild about Apple TV and a new iPad 4.0 operating system that will bring features like folders to iPad. Apple may also debut a new iLife suite, which includes Apple’s photo software (iPhoto), website creation tool (iWeb) and DVD creator (iDVD).
The wildest rumors claim we’ll hear about the white iPhone 4 and the Verizon iPhone at the conference. Meanwhile, a Mexican carrier is claiming that we’ll see a new iPhone 4 released at the end of September that has been redesigned to thwart the antenna issue that has caused some users to lose signal.
We’ll have a full report tomorrow on what Apple does — and does not — do. As usual, the guys in Cupertino sure do know how to get the tech masses into a lather.
Time Warner Cable, trying to answer improvements from competing services, has launched “SignatureHome,” a new bundle that delivers some pretty powerful features.
For $179.99 per month (plus tax) for the first 12 months, customers will get unlimited nationwide calling and voice mail, cable TV services plus a whole house DVR. The DVR will allow customers to record or watch a show in one room and finish in another. The base plan includes two HD DVRs, each one allowing you to store a massive 150 hours of HD content. You can record four HD shows at once using the two supplied HD DVRs. Add more and your recording options — and storage capacity — grow.
Of course, if you have more than two TVs, those extra boxes are $7.34 per box. More good news? The boxes appear to be higher quality than the standard issue TWC DVRs that have caused customers fits.
There’s even a feature that allows customers to go backwards on the guide for up to three days to see shows you missed. I had to read that one twice, and then I had to call.
But it’s true.
If it’s Thursday and you missed American Idol on Tuesday and forgot to tape it, well, just click back a few days on the guide, and boom, you’ve got Ryan Seacrest.
But the best feature here is TWC’s new “Wideband” internet that provides download speeds up to 50 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 5 megabits per second. That’s more than five times as fast as TWC’s current speed king, Road Runner With Turbo Boost. A quick check of the local website shows 10 megabits download and 5 kbps up for that.
With so many new products and services being introduced that will use the internet, this kind of speed would be amazing.
Of course, the entry price goes up to $266 per month after 12 months, but the nice salesperson I talked to said you could sign up for another 12 months and get the original price.
Of course, real world pricing, by the time you added some extra boxes and movie services would probably top $200, but how many of you are paying that now for cable, phone and internet and not getting this much? Time Warner also promises priority customer services for Signature Home customers, including a two-hour technician window and 24/7 phone service.
TWC may have a winner here.
Google’s getting pretty serious about Voice business and is moving aggressively in this direction. Today they unveiled a new feature for Gmail using which users can call any phone number in USA and Canada free of charge. Yes u heard it right, its free. However the free calls will last only until end of this year. This new service will put Google into direct competition with Skype, the most popular internet telephony company. In fact they have some good pricing for international calling. According to some sources, Google is using the money they make from international calling to provide free calls to USA and Canada.
The service doesn’t need you to install a new desktop client. All you need to do is install a voice and video plug-in to the browser and voila u can make and receive calls for free. Google says the new service would work well for people in a spot with poor cell phone reception or for those making a quick call from their desk. 
Another interesting news to share is the Google Voice Phone booths that Google plans to install in Airports and Universities. Now this gets interesting and has not been tried by any of the other internet telephony folks. With so much cash in bank, this might not be a big deal for Google. Also this pushes the Google Voice feature to more audience and serves as a marketing tool. Apparently Google wants more user to try out the Google Voice feature and its quality. If the call is free, iam sure there will be tones of folks who would love to use this booth.
As Om points out, launching this feature with Gmail has such a huge impact for various different reasons. So it’s a sort of one place for all communication. I think this is on of the features Facebook should be thinking off to support in future. From a user standpoint, It makes so much sense to have all communication (IM, Voice, Video, SMS, Chat, Calender, Mail etc) happening in one place instead of opening multiple apps/windows/browser etc.
So looks like Skype has got a serious competitor in Google Voice. Its not only Skype that should be worried about Google Voice, even the Telco operators should take this threat from Google Voice seriously. So until it lasts, just enjoy the free calls.
His models, including the World Trade Center, the Gateway Arch, Fallingwater and others are on display in the National Building Museum until September 5, 2011, in the exhibit, “LEGO Architecture: Towering Ambition” in Washington, D.C.
Want to see those, go and catch.
