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Popularity: 2% [?]
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Meizu M8 iClone Finally Coming in August? [Cellphones]Posted by: admin in Tech News Today
Popularity: 2% [?] Network Glitches, Delays Mar iPhone 3G’s Debut
It was a nightmare to chill the heart of any debutante: Delays, missed connections, angry suitors telling the press how badly you’d screwed up. “They’ve murdered the experience,” said Dale Larson, who had been waiting on the street for 36 hours in order to be the first customer to buy an iPhone 3G at the San Francisco Apple store. Larson left the store empty-handed to strike the tent he’d been camping in since Wednesday night. After a day and a half on the street and an hour in the Apple store, he still hadn’t been able to buy an iPhone. In reality, the glitches plaguing the launch of Apple’s iPhone 3G were not earthshattering. AT&T’s servers were unreachable for about 30-40 minutes immediately after the iPhone 3G went on sale on the West Coast, meaning the very first customers (such as Larson) had difficulty even beginning the in-store activation process. After that, the deluge of traffic to Apple’s servers prevented most customers from completing the second step of the activation process. But phones are available, and customers are able to buy them. The result: The first few customers left the downtown San Francisco Apple store holding their new iPhones triumphantly in the air — but those phones will be unusable until they’re able to complete the activation via iTunes (either at home, or by returning to the store later). In San Francisco, Apple employees are letting 15-20 people into the store at a time, with a 20-30 minute delay between each group. People who got in line at 6 a.m. this day were just getting to the front of the line at 11 a.m. The experience this year stands in stark contrast to last year. When the first-generation iPhone debuted in June 2007, customers bought the phone in an Apple or AT&T store, and could then activate the phone at home, via iTunes. This year, AT&T was able to negotiate a stronger hand in its contract with Apple. Now — presumably to forestall piracy, phone unlocking, and black market resales — iPhones must be activated in an Apple store or in an AT&T store. Top photo: Apple employees confer about activating a customer’s iPhone 3G, in the Apple store in downtown San Francisco. Pic by Jonathan Snyder / Wired.com.
Photo: Dominic Sagolla, organizer of iPhoneDevCamp, holds his iPhone. Sagolla was the first customer to emerge from the Apple store in San Francisco with an iPhone in hand. Pic by Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com. It’s a two-step activation process, which starts with a “hard” activation that must be performed in the store. The second part, a “soft” activation, can be done via iTunes, either in the Apple store or at home. It’s this second part that’s currently not working, as heavy demand appears to have swamped Apple’s servers.
If you’re transferring an existing phone number to your new iPhone, Apple employees told us, the first step of the activation is when that transfer happens. But because the phone can’t be used until the second step completes, that means some customers will be without phones until the Apple servers are able to complete the activation. (The iPhone can still be used to make emergency, 9-1-1 calls, without completing activation.) Adding injury to insult, we’ve heard reports that some stores are already running low on iPhone inventory. Thinking you might be able to bypass the long lines at your local Apple store by heading over to an AT&T store instead? Better call ahead, since the AT&T stores appear to have fewer phones in stock. In San Francisco, AT&T employees were telling people further back in the line that they’d be unable to purchase an iPhone, starting as early as 10 a.m.
Photo: Dale Larson, flanked by world wide web celebrity Robert Scoble, vents his disappointment to a crowd of reporters. Pic by Jonathan Snyder / Wired.com. As for the Gadget Lab? We did get an iPhone, thanks to the efforts of Wired editors Joe Brown (who camped out on the street since the wee hours of the morning) and Danny Dumas, videographers Annaliza Savage and Niall McKay, and photographer Jon Snyder. But as of this writing, we still haven’t been able to complete the activation on our new, 16GB iPhone. (And we’re furious, furious, we tells ya!) We’ll keep you posted.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Jul
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2008
Nintendo Announces Wii Music: Look Out, Beamz! [Wii]Posted by: admin in Tech News TodayNintendo Announces Wii Music: Look Out, Beamz! [Wii]
Different people can play different instruments, and you have the option of playing a wide number of them, from guitar and drums to the saxophone and violin. You’ll be able to create music videos of the music you create, too. There will also be an orchestra conducting game included. It’ll record your performance, but it won’t rate or grade you. We don’t want another story like the Wii Fit calling kids fat, now do we? You’re all brilliant, children! It’ll be coming out this holiday season. [Gizmodo’s Nintendo E3 Liveblog]
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Popularity: 2% [?]
Jul
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How the Wii MotionPlus Makes the Wiimote More Accurate [Nintendo]Posted by: admin in Tech News TodayHow the Wii MotionPlus Makes the Wiimote More Accurate [Nintendo]
Combining readings from it, the sensor bar and the Wiimote’s accelerometer, the Wii can track the remote a lot more precisely, so it can read more complicated gestures, like for throwing a frisbee. Supposedly InvenSense’s silicon-based MEMS rate gyroscope use a lot less power than a standard MEMS one, but you can bet your batteries are going to die even faster now.
Popularity: 2% [?] |
Meizu will finally release the iPhone-wannabe M8 in August, according to a cryptic message board post by CEO Jack Wong. The first version will have 128MB RAM and an unspecified amount of storage, and a second version should ship in October with 256MB RAM and 8GB on-board flash. The funniest part? The M8 will cost around $320, or $120 more than the AT&T subsidized 8GB iPhone 3G here in the US of A. Luckily for them (and us) this probably won’t see its way outside of China. [
Nintendo just announced Wii Music, a new music game that lets you use the Wiimote, Nunchuk and Balance Board to create music. Unlike Rock Band or Guitar Hero, this one isn’t based on precise timing. Rather, it lets you basically hit buttons and swing the remote around to create original tunes. The Wii interprets your motions and button presses to make music for you. Essentially, this is like 
If you’re a fan of both Lego and renewable energy, you’re gonna love the new Vestas Windmill set from Lego. It stands at over two feet tall, has a motor that rotates the windmill around on its own, and is pretty awesome looking. Unfortunately, there’s no way to rig a bunch of these together in your yard to help power your house, and they’ll actually suck up energy rather than create it like real windmills, but what are you complaining about? It’s a two-foot-tall Lego windmill! It’s awesome! [
When Nintendo revealed the 
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