The PS Vita is finally here…. Well the Wi-Fi edition is finally made its way to stores today for those who decided to wait a bit longer and not get the First Edition Wi-Fi + 3G bundle that came out. This is Sony’s revamp into the handheld gaming market looking to take a bite out of the market that Nintendo has dominated for so long.  For $250 the Wi-Fi edition PS vita comes with a 5. inch OLED touch screen display, quad-core gaming processor, SIXAXIS front and rear facing cameras, rear multi-touch pad, GPS, Bluetooth and standard PlayStation controller layout.  You won’t find any onboard storage you will need to go and buy the storage cards that are proprietary and pricey at the moment.  There is also tight integration with the PlayStation 3 with being able to play only on the PlayStation Vita against a PS3 user with the same game.  Sony could possible have a winner here and really take on the Nintendo 3DS and DS Lin and may even slow down the threat of Apple in this market against the iPod Touch. Check out our unboxing and first impressions video below.

Full Specs:

CPU- ARM^® Cortex™- A9 core (4 core)

GPU- SGX543MP4+

External Dimensions

Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth)
(tentative, excludes largest projection)

Screen (Touch Screen)

5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED
Multi touch screen (capacitive type)

Rear Touch Pad

Multi touch pad (capacitive type)

Cameras

Front camera, Rear camera

Sound

Built-in stereo speakers
Built-in microphone

Sensors

Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope,
three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass

Location

Built-in GPS
Wi-Fi location service support

Keys / Switches

PS button
Power button
Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)
Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)
Shoulder buttons (Right/Left)
Right stick, Left stick
START button, SELECT button
Volume buttons (+/-)

Wireless Communications

Mobile network connectivity (3G)
IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1)(Wi-Fi)(Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode)
Bluetooth^® 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP

Samsung and T-Mobile announced the Galaxy S Blaze 4G. The phone features a 3.97 Super AMOLED display, 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 5 megapixel rear facing camera with 720p HD video capture, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for video chat, HSPA+ 42 Mbps and Android 2.3 Gingerbread.  The Galaxy Blaze 4G will retail for $149.99 after at $50 mail-in-rebate.

Press Release:

T-Mobile Announces March Availability for Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G

The latest addition to T-Mobile’s fastest 4G device lineup, the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G keeps consumers entertained and connected

 

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Feb. 22, 2012 — T-Mobile USA, Inc. and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S.,¹ today confirmed the upcoming March availability of the Samsung Galaxy S^® Blaze^™ 4G, exclusively from T-Mobile^®. The Galaxy S Blaze 4G is the latest addition to the successful Galaxy S line of products, and T-Mobile’s newest fast 4G smartphone to take advantage of 4G (HSPA+42) technology, providing customers with the ability to browse the Web faster than the average home Internet² connection while on the go.

 

Consumers are increasingly demanding more from their smartphones — keeping them entertained, staying connected with loved ones and enabling them to complete more tasks using a single device. A recent T-Mobile survey³ found 79 percent of smartphone users are less likely to carry other technology devices, such as cameras, laptops and GPS devices, when they have their smartphone.

 

T-Mobile’s newest 4G smartphone offers a variety of features and applications to help consumers be entertained and have access to the information they need when they need it. The Galaxy S Blaze 4G entertainment offerings make it easy for T-Mobile customers to stream their favorite movies on Netflix^®, enjoy live or on-demand TV programs on T-Mobile^® TV in mobile HD⁴ or download a popular movie or TV show using Samsung Media Hub. Additionally, the smartphone features TeleNav GPS Navigator, which provides hands-free, voice-guided turn-by-turn driving directions, real-time traffic alerts, full-color 3-D moving maps and local alerts, helping customers get to where they need to go. The Galaxy S Blaze 4G also comes preloaded with a customized version of the Yelp mobile application, featuring the ability to save profiles so users can keep preferences the same with one touch in any city, making it easy to find and read reviews for local places to eat, shop, drink and play.

 

Also pre-loaded on the device, the T-Mobile 4GPro App Pack offers an aggregation of key business applications, such as DropBox, Evernote, Square, TripIt, Camscanner and LinkedIn, helping busy consumers be even more productive while balancing their professional and personal lives.

 

“The Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G is loaded with rich features and services to keep consumers entertained and connected virtually anywhere they want to go,” said Andrew Sherrard, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA. “Paired with T-Mobile’s fast 4G network and our unlimited data plans, we’re making it easy for consumers to enjoy the benefits of 4G experiences at a price they can afford.”

 

Featuring a sleek and stylish form factor, the smartphone comes in a carbon black color and runs onAndroid^™ 2.3 Gingerbread. The Galaxy S Blaze 4G also features a Snapdragon^™ S3 processor by Qualcomm^® with 1.5 GHz dual-core CPUs and a beautiful 3.97-inch Super AMOLED^™ touch screen providing consumers with a rich experience watching their favorite movie or TV show on the device.

 

The Galaxy S Blaze 4G also makes it easy to connect and share photos and video with loved ones. It features a720p HD video recorder, 5-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, flash and advanced shooting modes, as well as a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.

 

Availability

The Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G is expected to be available at T-Mobile retail stores, select dealers and retailers nationwide, and online at http://www.t-mobile.com starting late March. The Galaxy S Blaze 4G is expected to cost $149.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate card, with a two-year service agreement and qualifying Classic voice and data plan. For more information, visit http://galaxy-s.t-mobile.com/samsung-galaxy-blaze.

Is it a tablet or is it a phone? That’s the question we are going to ask in our review of the Samsung Galaxy Note.  It’s a smartphone tablet hybrid that looks to be the device that will be the solution for both. Does the Galaxy Note successfully accomplish this?

Great hardware and specs but does it fit in your pocket? Will it fit in a purse? Is it weird to take phone calls and talk on it?

One of the first things you will notice on the Samsung Galaxy Note is its large 5.3 inch HD Super AMOLED display and you’ll ask yourself “Can thing fit into my pocket, bag, purse etc.” the answer to that is yes. While it is a wide phone it’s still relatively thin device that should slide into your pockets just fine and fit into any bag or purse of the proper size. In the review video we show some examples of how “pocketable” the Galaxy Note it.  Also talking on it as a phone is a bit weird at first but you will get adjusted to it. You have to think of it as just a phone that is wider than the standard cell phone.

Now the Galaxy not isn’t just a device with a pretty screen it packs power to with  a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor  and 1 GB of RAM. The processor is different from the international version of the Galaxy Note due to the fact that this version uses AT&T 4G LTE for data. Some are worried about the performance because of this but there is no noticeable slow down and the overall experience is satisfying.  You also get a 2 megapixel front facing camera and a 8 megapixel rear facing camera with LED flash and 1080p HD video capture. The camera is exactly the same as the all the Samsung Galaxy S2 phones so you will get great photo quality that are sharp, clear with accurate colors and the video quality is solid with great audio. You can check out the same video and pictures at the bottom of the review.

With all that you have your standard connections with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, 2500 MAH battery, 16 GB of on-board storage that you can expand up to 32 GB via micro SD card slot. The only thing missing hardware wise is NFC support  but that doesn’t take too much away from the Galaxy Note hardware wise.

All Day Battery? Really?

Samsung claims with the 2500 MAH battery that you should get “All Day” battery life with the Galaxy Note. In my  test I setup 3 e-mail account, 2 Twitter accounts, Facebook and did some YouTube and Google Music streaming and did 6 phone calls that were about 10 minutes each and I was able to get a solid 13 hours of battery life before the phone just died. That’s more than enough battery like for a full day for most people and will be great for power users. So indeed Samsung is accurate on its claim of “all day” battery life.

The S-Pen. Don’t call it a Stylus, Call it Awesome!

The S-Pen is another key feature of the Galaxy Note giving you the ability to use the pen to do everything your finger can do. The technology is power by WACOM and doesn’t need charging.  The Note ships with Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread (Upgradable to Android 4.0 ICS) with Touch Wiz user experience.  Touch Wiz is the same as you’ve seen on other Galaxy S2 smartphones but scaled properly to take advantage of the screens HD 1280 x 720p resolution so you fit more icons the screen and you get more of the webpage when viewing. The software pre-installs is the same as you would expect with AT&T’s standard apps and Samsung’s but there is no video editor app which is usually only installed on Samsung devices that run the exynos processor. The  key software change here is the S-memo which is where you will see the true power of the S-Pen. The software lets you take handwritten notes, voice recordings and drawings. S-memo is a lot of Microsoft OneNote in the way it works. There is also a lite version which you can turn on anywhere you are in the phone by just holding the stylus button down and quickly double tapping the screen. You’ll get a quick memo screen and if you tap above the note as your writing you can see what’s behind the memo while your taking notes.

S-Memo also supports handwriting recognition to text and can be used  for text messaging and e-mails although it’s not as accurate as you would like it to be.  The pen comes in handy for games that require pinpoint accuracy like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja which these games and more run great on the Galaxy Note. There is also a software SDK for it so that developers that want to can create apps around the S-Pen technology.

A Phone with a HD Display big enough to really enjoy.

We’re getting a lot of phones with HD resolution but the screen size doesn’t always gives you that experience you expect. The Note’s 5.3 inch display makes those 720p movies and videos look amazing and enjoyable to watch for longer than just a few minutes. Also reading books on the screen is good and should attract the readers out there.  Web browsing is also great with more screen space to see more of the page for less scrolling and using Samsung E-mail app you have more space to use its “Microsoft Outlook” style interface.

How is it as a phone?

Well you can’t call this a smartphone without the phone part and call quality is good as both sides of the call had clear audio. The speakerphone distorts when turned up all the way but its adequate when put at the right level for conference calls. The 4G LTE from AT&T is fast and stays connected. I didn’t experience any dropped cover in areas that have 4G LTE. Our speeds were at its highs 14 Mbps download and 4 Mbps for upload. Its fast but not the speeds we’ve seen other markets.

Conclusions: Is this phone worth the buy?

The Samsung Galaxy Note succeeds at what they were trying to accomplish. They brought in the best features of a smartphone and added those elements you would normally see in a tablet and implemented them well into the phone. I love the S-Pen and really want to see more apps developed for it. While it is upgradable to Android 4.0 it is disappointing that it didn’t ship and launch with it. Google’s latest OS is all about merging the phone and tablet features of Android into one and this is the perfect device for it. At least we do know its going to get the upgrade. With great battery life, solid features and overall great experience the Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T is one of the top android devices available for AT&T and is worth buying if you’re in the market for a smartphone and a tablet  but do not want to carry both and size isn’t an issue.

With the speed of Verizon 4G LTE retails business can take advantage creating POS systems away from main storefront using Verizon 4G LTE In this video you’ll see how you can set up a virtual store front a distance away from your main store and create a digital shopping experience with full inventory and even on-demand assistant from a live sales person right there either located in the store or across the country. Check the full video to see what it’s all about.

Guest author for this editorial Claudia Somerfield

Compact, slim and lightweight: these are the three major implements seen today in technology, be it cellular phones or laptops. Thus this innovation led to the birth of “Ultrabook”. This was Intel’s brainchild. Intel’s main lead was to sponsor the production of these aesthetically pleasing lightweight computers to gain over 40 percent of the laptop market shares by the end of 2012. Intel wanted to have a well designed product to compete against the growth of tablets.

Intel had made official specifications which had to be met by the companies to produce the Ultrabook. These are as follows:

1. Low voltage Intel core processor should be inclusive (obvious);

2. Notebooks having screen size lesser than 14 inches must have a thickness lesser than 18 millimetres and those with a screen size greater than 14 inches should have a thickness which must not exceed 21 inches,

3. Wake up time from hibernation to active mode must not take more than 7 seconds

4. They should have a battery life of least 5 hours as measured by MobileMark 2007.

Surprisingly a major flaw in the mentioned specifications by Intel was the failure to mention any weight standard. Despite of promising a lightweight portable device, no weight specifications were mentioned. This was a serious lax in the guidance provided by Intel.

The first unit of the Ultrabook was launched in May 2011. Although Intel had mentioned that the product be designed in a range of $1000 or less, no such clause is mentioned in the official fact sheet.

The HP Envy 14 Spectre, for instance, although aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, weighs 3.79 pounds and its dimensions are 20mm thick. This clearly is in excess by a good two millimeter than what is specified by Intel.

To worsen matters, Intel recognizes Lenovo U410 laptop as an Ultrabook. The feature of this laptop is blunt and does not satisfy the real criteria. Rather the failure to mention a weight clause has left a loophole in this system as well. It weighs a shoulder drooping 1.9kgs and is .82 inches thick.

In the past six months or more Intel and its OEM counters have ruined the situation for Ultrabook to make a statement as compared to Apple’s products. However the great news is that now Sandy Bridge platform is used to build the Ultrabooks and they will soon be updated to use Ivy Bridge chips that include inbuilt support for USB 3.0 and PCI Express 3.0. So as well as a promised low price these factors encourage the buyers to wait for the second generation Ultrabooks.

So far the Intel Ultrabook has not been much of a success. The various manufacturers including Acer, Asus and Toshiba have cut to lower prices. A $100 subsidy is being provided by Intel as well to cut down the costs. Lenovo and Dell are also in the competition to release their Ultrabooks sponsored by Intel. Market analysts say that the price needs to be further reduced to get Ultrabook to make a good start in the laptop industry.

Ultrabooks are heading towards standard PC-fication. Similar to the Centrino transformation— Intel’s Ultrabook is also set to follow a path of economical commoditization. Unless the masses can afford to invest more than $1000 on a laptop, the situation would barely improve for Ultrabook.

About the author – Claudia is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on luxury and technology. She recently read an article on music stands that attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on wireless Usb adapter.

It’s unboxing time! We haven’t done one in a while so the Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T came around just in time for us to give you one. This cross between a tablet and a cell phone dubbed “Super Phone” by Samsung comes with a large 5.3” HD Super AMOLED display, 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB or RAM, 16 GB of storage, 2500 mAH battery, 8 megapixel rear facing camera with 1080p video capture plus LED flash, 2 megapixel front facing camera and Samsung’s S-Pen. The S-Pen is more than just a stylus. You can cut, copy, paste, swipe, write and more with the S-Pen. For software it runs Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread with Touch Wiz software and is upgradable to Android 4.0 ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) but no word on when that upgrade will be available.  Check out our unboxing and first impression below and keep up to date with us for our full review and more. The Samsung Galaxy Note retails for $299.99 on a two-year contract and will be available February 19th.

Cirago was on hand at CES 2012 to display some of their latest products to improve your digital lifestyle.

First we have the Cirago Bluetooth iPad 2 Keyboard Case that works as both a protective case and a full QWERTY keyboard with proper shortcut keys for iOS.

Also for your iPad is the NuView Dock Charger that lets you use the iPad in landscape without holding it but you can also use it in portrait mode and will charge at the same time.

Also for your iPhone, iPad or iPod is a charging cable that will also charge micro USB devices. Its double the size of the original cable at 6 feet.

Finally there is the USB 3.0 Dual HDD Cloning Dock station that lets you transfer files from your PC via USB and also lets you clone one drive to another within the dock with just 1 button.

In the video battler we put the Kindle Fire into battle with the iPod Touch. Now at first when you look at both of these devices you wouldn’t think there is any real way to compare them since they are designed different and meant for two totally different markets. But at the their respective price points of $200 its cause many to compare them to see which is best for them money. The iPod Touch is well-known and proven and the Kindle Fire is the new guy in the market looking make waves.

The Kindle Fire is aimed at being a more consumer friendly media consumption tablet. There isn’t much you can do for content creation. Its goal is to make it easy and simple to read books, play games, watch moves and TV shows and buy them from the Amazon store along with other products. It comes with a 7 inch screen to make sure you can experience this content well in a portable but not pocketable device.  Its using Android with a heavily customized user experience on top of it which is design for anyone to pick up and use.

The iPod Touch is for the MP3 Player and PMP (Portable Media Player) market. It’s all about taking your content on the go from music, movies, TV shows and games.  This portable and pocketable device gives you the ability to enjoy your content anywhere. Similar to the Kindle fire is all about consuming content and not so much creating and the screen can become small when trying to read books, watch movies and TV shows.

As you can see the both come with similar functions in a different hardware body for the same price. In our video you will see us comparing these similarities and breaking down the differences between both of them to give you all the information you need to make the best decision on which one to get.

Today Google released Chrome For Android beta finally bringing their popular desktop browser to the mobile arena. Currently is only available for Android 4.0 ICS devices so not many will be able to run it now but that will change soon with more Android 4.0 devices coming out and older devices being updated. Google will also be separately developing Chrome For Android separate from the standard Android browser but I’m sure it won’t be too long before these two merge together into one.

Since it’s a beta we won’t give it a full official review but I’ll point out some of the key features from the beta that I like.

• Familiar Interface – If you have used Chrome before then Chrome For Android will look very familiar to you. The colors and the main page layout look very similar to what you see on the desktop version of Chrome.
• Fast Page Loading and Rendering – Pages load fast and accurately. I didn’t see many checkerboard waiting for the page to load up.
• Smooth scrolling and smooth pinch & zoom – Two key features of any mobile browser is how smooth is scrolling and pinch & zoom. This is best I’ve seen and android based browser do with both. I didn’t t see any lag or stuttering.
• Chrome Desktop & Mobile Syncing – This is great feature as you are able to sync all of your bookmarks between both your desktop and phone. there is also a separate section for mobile bookmarks as well. The best part of it is tab syncing which will let you see a list of tabs that are open on your desktop and let you access these tabs on the so you can take that cool webpage you just found with you on the go. Hopefully the syncing will include to extensions as well.
• Tabbed Browsing – While this is nothing new to mobile browsers I do like the way Chrome for Android does it. When you hit the tab icon you will see each open tab with an image of the contents within that tab. You can control how  far the tabs stack on top of each other and there is a really cool animation for when you close a tab fully.

There are many other features that we didn’t list here as I wanted to focus on the ones I felt were key.  For a beta this is solid and I would recommend every users with an Android 4.0 device to download and give it a try.  Google did very well with their first web browser so there isn’t any reason not to expect them to excel in the mobile web browser space too.

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The 4th installment in the DROID keyboard series is coming on February 10h for $199. The DROID 4 is touted as the thinnest QWERTY keyboard phone in the market and comes with a 4 inch qHD display, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, 8 megapixel rear facing camera with LED flash + 1080p HD video capture. The DROID 4 is touted as the “thinnest 4G LTE slider phone” with a 5 row backlit QWERTY keyboard. It’s going to ship with Android 2.3.5 gingerbread with Motorola’s user experiences on top of it and is upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Check out the hands on video from CES 2012.

Press Release:

DROID 4 By Motorola Ready To Work And Play On The Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Network

Power, Speed and Reliability Get the Job Done

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — The award winning DROID 4 by Motorola will be available to handle even the most demanding lifestyles starting Feb. 10 in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online at www.verizonwireless.com. Introduced at this year’s Consumer Electronic Show (CES), the DROID 4 is the thinnest and most powerful 4G QWERTY smartphone measuring at less than half an inch thin. DROID 4 not only features a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, but also a five-row QWERTY keyboard with a PC-like layout and edge-lit keys for fast, precise typing, even in the dark. Powered by America’s fastest, most reliable 4G network, DROID 4 customers will have access to 4G LTE coverage in 195 markets covering more than 200 million people.

Additional features

• Verizon Wireless 4G LTE – Customers can expect fast download speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G LTE Mobile Broadband coverage areas
• Android™ 2.3.5 Gingerbread, to be upgraded to Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 4.0-inch qHD display with scratch and scrape resistant glass
• Government-grade encryption (FIPS 140-2) for email, calendar and contacts; preloaded with Citrix® Receiver™ for Android (available in webtop) for desktop virtualization and access
• 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture
• Front-facing camera for video chat
• 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot supporting up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices

Business Ready

DROID 4 is designed to help customers get more done. Business professionals can impress their audience by presenting to a conference room full of potential customers in a snap by plugging the DROID 4 into an HDTV and presenting directly from the phone. Professionals can also combine the DROID 4 with the Lapdock 500 and its 14-inch display to create a full-featured mobile office. They can download documents, make edits using Lapdock’s full keyboard and email the updated documents to colleagues or customers. The Lapdock even features a built-in webcam so customers can attend virtual meetings and manage their business face-to-face.

The Smart Actions app on the DROID 4 helps automate everyday tasks and optimizes battery efficiency by letting customers create rules, such as automatically setting the phone to vibrate during work hours or dimming the display at a specific battery level.

Business professionals can leave their laptops behind and use the MotoCast™ app to remotely stream documents, videos, music and pictures from their work or home computers to their handset. The remote access of MotoCast eliminates the need to store documents on the handset as everything is stored on their office laptop.

Pricing and availability

• DROID 4 by Motorola will be available on Feb. 10 in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online atwww.verizonwireless.com for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.
• The Lapdock 500 is available in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and online for $299.97.
• Customers that purchase a DROID 4 will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk plan beginning at $39.99 monthly access and a smartphone data package starting at $30 monthly access for 2 GB of data.