Isaiah's Tech

Amazon has just sent out invites for an event, which is happening this Wednesday. New York Times is telling everyone that it is the announcement of a new Kindle with an even larger screen. Could it be the rumours we heard about back in February? The rumours seem to be pointing directly towards it, so we'll just have to see on May 6. I'll have the news for you in 2 days about what exactly gets announced, but I'm sure everyone over 40 years old is excited.

[Gizmodo]

Apparently, that's what it looks like since the latest rumour mentions that there could be a Kindle with a larger screen by Christmas. I guess it would make a good Christmas present for those Kindle lovers out there. Up to now, I still don't know what the point of an Amazon Kindle is. Wouldn't it be better off to get a tablet PC or a netbook? You can always download books using torrents. Maybe that's just me and my devilish illegal ways. Yes, I downloaded the Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo book series, thanks to torrents. I read my first book when I was 17, it was the first Starcraft book. Sad, I know. I'm actually planning to read the 'Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels and Demons' this Summer along with the other books that that author made. We'll see how that works out.

[Gizmodo]

Kindle 2 was just released and now we head back to the new rumours. The Kindle 3 rumours, that is. Apparently, PVI (Prime View International, the makers of the Kindle's display) has mentioned that the next Kindle will have a larger display and will have "touch functions." The screen may be the size of a regular sheet of paper, which is 8.5 x 11-inches. This would make things more readable. The Kindle 3 is supposedly going to hit shelves by the end of this year. Maybe the next Kindle will have pinch and zoom? Multi-touch functionality? Hello Apple lawsuit.

Mozilla is still currently working on their mobile browser. It is called Mozilla Fennec and has already been released. Unfortunately, it's only in an alpha state right now. Well, the head-honchos over at Mozilla have finally decided to change the name Fennec to something more creative. They've decided to change the name to Firefox (told you it was creative). Yeah. Mozilla Fennec has changed its name to Mozilla Firefox, which is identical to their web browser. Very creative Mozilla. +1.

A new rumour has spawned from the LG camp this time. Apparently, LG may stop producing their own plasmas. They may be leaving the plasma business for good. They'll still be continuing their LCD line-up, but it looks like they may "give up" on plasma TVs. This isn't too surprising after seeing Pioneer and Vizio leave the plasma business earlier this year. I think LCDs are just superior to plasmas. TV makers should also be getting OLED TVs out there, even though it is quite expensive. OLED has more future than plasma does, in my opinion.

Kindle 3 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/27/kindle-3-rumor-with-touchscreen-8-5-x-11-inch-display-returns/
Mozilla Fennec Name Change (and picture): http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Mozilla_Fennec_to_be_Christened_Firefox/551-99456-643.html
LG Leaving The Plasma World (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5161359/lg-might-be-ready-to-give-up-on-plasma-tvs-altogether

The Kindle 2 was officially announced by Amazon today. The rumoured pricing and availability was correct. It will be released on February 24 for $359 USD. "The new model has a much more iPod-like aesthetic with an aluminum back, rounded curves and a much thinner design." Along with the new looks, the Kindle 2 has a 20% faster e-paper screen, 25% longer battery life and 2GB of storage. "It also has a new text-to-speech feature that reads books aloud through built-in stereo speakers." You will still be able to read your newspaper on this device for $6 USD - $15 USD a month and you can get blogs pre-formatted for your Kindle 2 for 99 cents each. Maybe my librarian will be able to purchase one this time around. People are also saying that the Kindle 3 should be an iPhone app. I don't this would be a good idea because not everyone wants an iPhone. Restricting the Kindle 3 to just iPhone users would be dumb. Kindle fans would also complain about how small the screen is.

Look at that sexy Blackberry 9300 Gemini. Barack Obama would sure love to get his hands on that. The Gemini looks like it will be one sexy Blackberry. Ever since the Bold came out, it has had the rights to that title. Anyways, this Blackberry will have a bigger screen, beefier processor, "a slightly more 'rounded' keyboard, and most importantly, quadband EDGE plus triband HSDPA." There is no word on the availability of this gem[ini], but i don't think that it will be available in the first half of this year.

If you use your laptop for dual-monitor purposes, this could be for you. These Lapfit monitors from Samsung will be beneficial to you. If you use your laptop as your primary monitor and a traditional LCD monitor for your secondary monitor, you may get frustrated, since your monitors don't line up exactly the way you want them too. You can use these Lapfit monitors to line up those dual-monitors together. These displays will sit at the same height as your laptop's display. The Lapfit monitors will come in 19 and 22 inch variations and will have a 10-30 degree tilt, a 1,360 x 768 resolution, 4ms response time and a 20,000:1 "dynamic contrast."

Samsung looks like it's a hungry contender for that top spot on the mobile list. Nokia has to watch out for Samsung this year because they've been stirring up all of the news lately. It looks like Samsung will start off by improving the TouchWiz UI to make it more "finger-friendly." This new TouchWiz UI was located on the S8300 slider, which i will talk much more about later. They will probably show the TouchWiz's latest version at MWC.

The M7600 and the i8910 will be what i talk about next. The DJ / rapper phone will come with Bang & Olufsen audio, which i know nothing about. Along with a microSD card slot, it will also include a: "2.8 inch AMOLED touchscreen, 3 megapixel snapper with LED flash, HSDPA, GPS capabilities as well as DivX support." Up next is the Acme i8910, also from Samsung. This will run on S60 5th Edition and will have 780p HD video recording. It has an 8MP camera (with only a disappointing LED flash), "GPS, Wi-Fi and DivX support." It also has an HDMI port somewhere. Look for them both at MWC.

I've saved you the best phone for last. Samsung's 'flagship' phone. Behold the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH. Besides being uber for having caps in its name, the S8300 has features that will disappoint only a few. The S8300 has a 2.8-inch OLED touchscreen, 80MB of storage with a 2GB card supplied (expandable to 16GB, thanks to microSD), an 8MP camera with dual LED flash (I was looking forward to xenon), GPS, Bluetooth, the latest TouchWiz UI and an accelerometer. There is no claims of this phone having Wi-Fi on GSM Arena, but it must have it somewhere. Oh man. Wait for the big news about this at MWC and then i'll have a real story for you. This phone may be competing with the N97, but i still think it would lose.

Kindle 2 Officially Announced (and picture): http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/02/09/amazon.kindle.2/
Blackberry 9300 Gemini (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/rumored-blackberry-9300-gemini-appears-bold-gulps/
Samsung Lapfit Monitors (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/samsung-introduces-lapfit-monitors-in-a-fit-of-insanity/
Samsung TouchWiz UI (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/samsungs-touchwiz-ui-getting-a-mwc-makeover/
Samsung M7600 and i8910 (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_m7600_appears_i8910_conifrms_hd_video-news-781.php
Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_s8300_ultratouch-review-314.php

These are only United States statistics. After passing Myspace in December 2008, Facebook is now an estimated 20% larger than Myspace. Facebook now earns 10 million more visitors a month than Myspace does. Another notable is Twitter, which is the thin green line at the bottom of the graph. You can only see it when you enlarge the graph. They're growth is expanding and it should hit the 10 million mark soon. The chances of it catching up to Facebook anytime soon (or ever) is unlikely.

You can now attach files or pictures to your Google Calendar events. This includes files from Google Documents and pictures from Picasa. The next subject that should be brought up is Google Eye-Tracking. Somehow Google's team is able to tell exactly where you are looking at on your monitor screen. Is that scary or what? All of this news about Google lately is really starting to scare me. First Google Health, now Google Eye-Tracking. I still love Google, but this is kind of weird. This information could be useful in a way, by detecting what people read and how they read it, stuff like that. Let's move along.

A couple of photos have leaked of a Samsung M7600. It has a design very similar to the Helio Ocean and will, reportedly, have a DJ scratching app. Yes, a DJ scratching app. It has a 3MP camera and a 2.8 inch AMOLED touchscreen. I'll dub it the DJ / rapper phone. Original, am i right?

Just hours after my post about the Kindle 2, the price and availability were leaked to the web. These aren't from the Amazon camp, so there is a possibility that this may not be true. Anyways, the Kindle 2 has a 'rumoured' price of $359 USD and will be available on February 24. The Kindle 2 looks much thinner and sleeker than the first Kindle.

Facebook 20% Bigger Than Myspace (and chart): http://mashable.com/2009/02/06/facebook-myspace-twitter-traffic/
Attaching Files to Google Calendar: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/02/attach-files-to-google-calendar-events.html
Google Eye-Tracking: http://www.pcworld.com/article/159117/google_eye_tracking.html?tk=rss_news
Samsung M7600 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/leaked-samsung-m7600-phone-sports-bang-and-olufsen-sound-helio-lo/
Kindle 2 Information (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5148568/kindle-2-official-images-and-price-leak-359-on-february-24

The Samsung Acme i8910 is going to be an amazing phone, even a possible rival to the Nokia N97. It's not going to run on WinMo 6.1. It's not going to run on WinMo 6.5 (Yes, my WinMo guesses were wrong). And it also won't run on Android. Instead, it will be running on S60 5th Edition. The S60 5th Edition is the same OS that the Nokia N97 will have. Both the Acme and the N97 have their advantages over the other and we'll just have to see who wins when they go head-to-head. Talk about exciting stuff.

Do you remember the Toshiba TG01?. If you remember correctly, it will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile device platform. There are rumours of HTC, Samsung and LG also wanting to use Snapdragon for some of their future phones. We may be seeing more beefed up WinMo phones, but we could also see beefed up Android phones. Snapdragon supports Windows Mobile and also the Android OS. So, imagine this: HTC + Android + Snapdragon + Google = T-Mobile G3? You never know. Tech is crazy nowadays.

Sony's new touchscreen Walkman NWZ-X1000 PMP has been rare to find. But, a French site (Le Journal du Geek) recently got their hands on it. This PMP has an extra-bright OLED screen, so that's always good. The UI is not entirely done, but its touchscreen has an "impressive response" that is "perhaps even better than the iPod Touch." That's an impressive feat, since we all know how good the iPod Touch is. The browser looks to be its weakest point, but overall, Le Journal du Geek says that it's part of their "top five."

Just in case you're anticipating the release of the Kindle 2, more news is on the way. The first Kindle was very successful and fans are awaiting the release of the next model. Amazon is having a press conference on Monday and the Kindle 2 will probably be mentioned. I don't know how much money you should save for it, but it should be around the same cost of the current Kindle.

Samsung Acme i8910 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/samsung-acme-i8910-gets-caught-flashing-its-s60-5th-edition/
Qualcomm Snapdragon: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/htc-samsung-lg-looking-to-snapdragon-for-future-handsets/
Sony NWZ-X1000 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/sonys-nwz-x1000-gets-handled-in-french/
Kindle 2 Release Date (and picture): http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/06/reminder-monday-is-kindle-day/