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Apple rumor roundup: improbable removable battery edition
Now that CES is officially over, it’s apparently time for the vague Apple rumor factory to start churning out sketchy reports about tablets, next-gen iPhones, and “vanishing” domain names. Yeah, it’s getting silly out there, but judging by our tip box you all can’t get enough, so let’s do this thing rapid-fire style.

The rumor: The Korea Times, citing unnamed sources at Korea Telecom, says the carrier is planning for a 4G iPhone featuring an OLED display, a front-facing video camera, a fast new dual-core CPU, and a removable battery. General launch is expected in June, but corporate clients will be doing a “litmus test” in April.
Our take: We will eat our hats if Apple puts a removable battery in the iPhone. Plus, Apple doesn’t do focus group testing, least of all with enterprise customers. This just seems like wishful thinking — we could have made up a more convincing rumor while eating a hat.

The rumor: 10.1 OLED and LCD display panels are no longer available anywhere, because Apple has “pre-ordered them all” to secure volume discounts and keep the tablet’s price down.
Our take: We certainly saw plenty of new 10.1-inch netbooks and slates at CES, including some multitouch LCD units, and no one was complaining. Also, we saw several larger OLED displays at CES, but they were all too expensive and impractical for shipping products, so that’s gotta be one hell of a discount.

The rumor: Apple has mysteriously shut down the FingerWorks website, which means something tablet-related because… well, it must mean something, right?
Our take: Apple bought FingerWorks years ago — we’re surprised this hadn’t happened sooner. We bet the hosting contract just ran out. Alternatively, Steve Jobs is trying to send us a message by yanking an obscure touch-related domain just weeks before a highly-anticipated product launch, because he is the master of extremely minor hints about nothing.

All in all, a pretty lame set of rumors — there’s barely anything here for pundits and the mass media to conflate and distort into something bigger. At least give us a poorly-translated French telecom executive speaking off the cuff, you know? Have some dignity.

Continue reading Apple rumor roundup: improbable removable battery edition

Apple rumor roundup: improbable removable battery edition originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SiBEAM says big TV maker Vizio supports wireless networking

The largest U.S. TV maker, Vizio, will use SiBEAM’s wireless networking technology in its flat-panel televisions to transfer video within the home.

This is a big endorsement — on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas — for the fledgling technology, since Vizio will build the wireless networking modules into its XVT Pro liquid crystal display TVs shipping in the summer.

The Vizio deal is important because it cracks SiBEAM’s chicken and egg problem. To be useful, the wireless modules have to be connected to both TVs and the source devices such as game consoles, Blu-ray players and other equipment. The TV makers have waited for the source companies to add the modules, and visa versa. It will still be some time before any wireless networking technology becomes a true standard, but SiBEAM’s news shows it is making progress.

SiBEAM has been shipping the technology since 2007 and it is one of several contenders to create high-speed wireless networking in the home. The wireless networking is faster than Wi-Fi, though it has a shorter range, and is able to replace wires that carry high-definition video from one device to another.

Best Buy, LG, Panasonic and Sony have been shipping products with SiBEAM’s 60-gigahertz wireless transfer chips. The chips can transfer data wirelessly at 10 gigabits per second, or many times faster than Wi-Fi. But the technology has a range of about 10 meters and doesn’t really go through walls.

SiBEAM leads a WirelessHD consortium trying to establish the technology as a standard. It competes with the WiGig Alliance, which is fusing Wi-Fi and 60-gigahertz technology, and WHDI, a standard supported by Amimon that uses 5-gigahertz technology. John Lemoncheck, chief executive of SiBEAM, acknowledges the different standards may be confusing for consumers.

“The WirelessHD standard is becoming a reality in the market,” said Lemoncheck.

Lemoncheck says four more consumer electronics makers will join Vizio in 2010, with products shipping in 2011 and 2012.

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Google’s Chrome OS revealed! (with video!)

Google had a low-key event today to preview Chrome OS, its new operating system based on Linux and the Chrome browser. Things are still pretty early — it’s not even in beta yet, let alone on shipping products — but that’s the first official screen shot right there, and the big features are all roughed out. The entire system is web-based and runs in the Chrome browser — right down to USB drive contents, which show up in a browser tab, and the notepad, which actually creates a Google Docs document. Web apps are launched from a persistent apps panel, which includes Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and Hulu, among others, and background apps like Google Talk can be minimized to “panels” that dock to the bottom of the screen. Since everything is synced in the cloud

As far as launch, Google’s not talking about specifics until next year, but Chrome OS won’t run on just anything — there’ll be specific reference hardware. That means you can’t just download Chrome OS and go, you’ll have to buy a Chrome OS device approved by Google. Interesting move, for sure. Check Google’s intro video after the break..

Continue reading Google’s Chrome OS revealed! (with video!)

Google’s Chrome OS revealed! (with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony and Toshiba demo TransferJet short-range sharing at CEATEC (video)

TransferJet is still solidly in the “fledgling” stage, but it looks as if a few big time industry players have faith that consumers have a desire — nay, a need — for short-range, high-speed sharing. Here at CEATEC in Japan, both Sony and Toshiba were on hand with independent TransferJet demonstrations, and while the actual protocol has been in place for awhile now, it’s the supporting cast (read: hardware) that has remained elusive. Toshiba was utilizing a snazzy TG01 and Qosmio laptop in order to showcase just how quickly the two could share information over the air, while Sony had us believing that pretty much everything it’ll make for the rest of eternity could support device-to-device sharing. Head on past the break for a peek at the demos, but try not to get your hopes up for seeing this stuff in shipping products anytime in the immediate future, okay?

Continue reading Sony and Toshiba demo TransferJet short-range sharing at CEATEC (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Sony and Toshiba demo TransferJet short-range sharing at CEATEC (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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