Hands-on with BBM Channels: BlackBerry’s trojan horse social platform

“It’s more like Tumblr.” That’s how one BlackBerry rep described BBM Channels to us, the company’s new social networking service announced this past week at BlackBerry Live in Orlando. While Channels, alone, may initially seem like nothing new — it’s an iteration of a social communication model we’ve seem countless times before — the service actually speaks more to BlackBerry’s forward-facing strategy for BBM as a device-agnostic mobile solution. And, certainly, with the BBM messaging service heading to Android and iOS later this summer, BlackBerry only stands to gain from making its platform more robust, more engaging and more attractive to the big name brands, personalities and publications that draw followers.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Software, Mobile, Blackberry

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BlackBerry Q5 hands-on: an affordable BB10 device in a QWERTY shell (update: video)

It’s not the most exciting hardware launch to come from the newly reinvigorated (and rebranded) BlackBerry, but the Q5 is a device with a mission. Announced formally this morning by CEO Thorsten Heins on stage at BlackBerry Live, the Q5 is in some ways a more approachable successor to the Q10. Combining a 3.1-inch, 720 x 720 touchscreen display with BlackBerry’s well-loved physical QWERTY, the Q5 is being squarely positioned at users in the developing world. And its less-than-premium build quality is a testament to that affordability. We spent some brief time getting to know this newest BB10 device, so skip past the break for our initial thoughts.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Blackberry

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Nokia Lumia 928 for Verizon hands-on

The Lumia 928 isn’t the first of Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 handsets to hit Verizon — that distinction goes to the 822 — but for all intents and purposes, it’s the first true flagship Lumia to bear Big Red’s branding. From the jump, you’ll note that Nokia’s bent somewhat to Verizon’s heavy hand, customizing the 928 in a way that shucks the smooth polycarbonate unibody of the 920 for something more hard-edged and angular, yet still plastic. So, what’s so new about this Lumia? Apart from its Xenon flash, nothing at all really. It bears the same 4.5-inch, 1,280 x 768 PureMotion HD+ display (now, OLED), 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor with 1GB RAM, 2,000 mAh battery, integrated wireless charging, NFC and 1.2-megapixel front-facing / 8.7-megapixel rear camera setup as the Lumia 920. Naturally, the 928′s made to run on Verizon’s network, so you’ll find support for LTE / CDMA, but there are also radios for HSPA+ making it “global ready.” We’ll have a review for this deviant Lumia coming shortly, but in the meantime follow along for our first impressions.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Nokia, Verizon

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US Navy’s Ion Tiger drone leans on liquid hydrogen for longer-lasting spy flight

The US Navy’s quieter way to spy, the Ion Tiger, just bested its own 2009 flight record with a key assist from liquid hydrogen. The unmanned aerial vehicle had previously relied on 5000-psi compressed hydrogen for fuel, but for its latest flight test the Naval Research team swapped that out for a new cryogenic tank and delivery system that relies on the liquid stuff; a choice made for the element’s increased density. With that one significant change in place, the craft was able to outperform its last endurance run of 26 hours and two minutes by almost double, lasting 48 hours and one minute in a flight made mid-April. Spying: it’s not only good for the government, it’s good for the environment, too.

Filed under: Robots

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Source: US Naval Research Laboratory

Lockheed Martin’s ADAM laser blasts enemy rockets with its HEL beam

Enemy rockets go up. ADAM makes’em go down… safely and in a grand explosion of fire. That’s the name of Lockheed Martin’s Area Defense Anti-Munitions system, or badass laser for short (to us, anyway), created to intercept and “negate” airborne rockets and drones. The aerospace company’s been testing its portable, prototype system — built with off-the-shelf parts — since last summer, successfully proving ADAM’s capability in detecting aerial threats at a distance of 5km or more and then obliterating those targets with its finely trained laser, or HEL beam (no, really), once they’re within a 2km range. But why waste time with words when the the company’s own slo-mo video paints a more vivid, shock and awe-some picture. Check it out after the break.

Filed under: Robots

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Source: Lockheed Martin

LG Optimus G Pro for AT&T: what’s different?

Two Galaxy Notes and two Optimus Vus later, LG’s ready to tackle the giant-sized smartphone niche, this time without the category’s defining accessory: a stylus. The Optimus G Pro, part of the company’s performance line, was a surprise when we first laid eyes and hands on it: it’s a 5.5-inch embodiment of lessons learned, not just from LG’s past endeavors, but also from Samsung’s. That the device would ever make it out of South Korea and into the US was an uncertainty. And by entering the market now, the G Pro risks coming off as a stopgap between the Note II and III, as well as LG’s own flagship G line.

Yet, LG found a way. It paired with AT&T to bring the G Pro, with its Snapdragon 600 processor and 1080p display, to the States as an exclusive. For $199 on a two-year plan, subscribers get an attractive package: LTE, NFC, 32GB of storage (expandable by up to 64GB via microSDXC), a gargantuan 3,140mAh battery and dual 2.1MP / 13MP cameras with the option for dual-recording. So, aided by some competitive pricing and top-shelf specifications, the G Pro reads on paper like a boss. But the window for that dominance is short. So while we wait for Samsung to attempt a three-peat in the category it created (a Note III could debut by summer’s end), let’s examine the G Pro and its 15 minutes of fame.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, AT&T, LG

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LG Optimus G Pro for AT&T hands-on (video)

Earlier today, AT&T made the Optimus G Pro official as an exclusive on its network, giving subs an alternative to that other 5.5-inch handset, the Galaxy Note II. To LG and AT&T’s credit, the G Pro’s remained mostly unchanged in its transition to the US market, retaining the same 1080p HD IPS display, 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor, 2GB RAM, 2.1-megapixel / 13-megapixel rear camera setup and 3,140mAh battery of the Korean-only model. The only major changes to the handset’s internals are in its LTE bands, made to now run on AT&T’s network, and inbuilt wireless charging. Oh and it still doesn’t feature a stylus, but you’ll hardly miss it.

Fans of the glossy white G Pro we reviewed back in March will be disappointed to know that the AT&T variant will only ship in black — at the carrier’s specific request. That restrictive color choice and the carrier’s familiar globe on back thankfully appear to be the only two intrusions AT&T’s made to the G Pro. It still evokes a sense of solid craftsmanship, despite the overall use of plastics. And, given that it’s just slightly more compact width-wise than the GNote II, the G Pro actually feels better in the hand and doesn’t confer a sense of instability or slipperiness so often encountered with Samsung’s same-sized smartphone.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Google, AT&T, LG

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E-Reading Rainbow: Hachette to bring entire e-book catalog to public libraries

If you’re still balking at the cost of download-to-own e-books, and would rather stick to the tried-and-true library lending system, then this Hachette news is for you. Come next Wednesday, the entirety of Hachette’s ebook catalog — over 5,000 titles — will be made available to nonprofit libraries throughout the US. The announcement and finalized pricing model follows two years worth of pilot testing, during which the publisher examined ebook consumption and lending habits at select libraries. Under the currently set terms of sale, e-books that bow in tandem with print editions will run three times the price of their physical counterparts for “single-user-at-a-time circulations, ” with prices falling to just one and a half that of the hard copy one year later. By Hachette’s own admission, this pricing scheme is not entirely set in stone — the company plans to continually reevaluate the model on a per-year basis. So, there’s hope yet the publisher will gouge libraries a bit less for the perks of e-borrowing.

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Gigabit internet finds a new home in Omaha, Nebraska

When it comes to gigabit internet, the headline buzz usually involves Google and some mid or south western American locale. But not today. No, today, the ridiculously high-speed internet spotlight falls on Omaha, Nebraska where local provider CenturyLink is poised to launch a pilot service. Starting Monday, the telco’s Lightspeed Broadband package ($150 a month for standalone service or $80 a month as a bundle) will go live for nearly 10,000 subscribers and continue to rollout to a footprint just shy of 50,000 residential and enterprise subs by October. Further expansion plans for the greater metro area all hinge upon whether CenturyLink can turn a profit on the service, but the company will continue to sign-up enterprise subs outside of this pilot zone for the next two years. The path forward — at least, to us — is pretty clear, Omahans: vote with your wallet if you want to preserve the gigabit bragging rights.

Filed under: Internet

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Source: Omaha

Eavesdropping 2.0: Samsung, Intel and Telefonica invest in voice recognition tech that anticipates your every need

Human-machine interaction — the term sounds so clinical, yet it’s the most important relationship we need to foster in the 21st century. Which is why the venture arms of Samsung, Intel and Spanish telco Telefonica have sunk considerable funding into Expect Labs’ voice recognition software, an investment the trio announced earlier today. The startup’s prescient tech, known as the Anticipatory Computing Engine (or ACE, zing!), aims to guesstimate a user’s actions or information needs by listening in on and analyzing real-time conversations. It’s understandable if the prospect creeps you out — it should — but the end goal isn’t to invade a user’s privacy (though the data mined would be significant), it’s to anticipate and assist.

That three major corporations with stakes in computing, mobile and home electronics would want to proactively invest in Expect Labs’ tech is a no-brainer. Apple, Samsung and Google all already offer voice navigation services (to varying degrees of success) on smartphones and the potential for current smart TVs (defined by their internet connectedness) to get smarter and change channels or record programs independently would do well by their slack-jawed worshippers. What’s more, practical applications for ACE aren’t some far-off prospect; the tech could easily make its way into Samsung’s next Galaxy S flagship. And then every other machine in your life not long after…

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Home Entertainment, Software, Samsung, Intel

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Expect Labs