Do the New

Samsung GALAXY Note Review

2011-12-20T20:48:00.000-08:00

Introduction:

Have you ever wondered how big could phone screens get? Judging by recent trends, manufacturers seem to be constantly raising the norm as they continue to produce bigger and bigger handsets. We've already seen many such offerings, sporting 4+” screens, like the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola DROID X2, but one product easily overshadows them all, in terms of size.

Of course, we're talking about the Samsung Galaxy Note. This beast of a phone actually carries a 5.3” display – the biggest you can find on a device, marketed as a “phone”. We can already see the debate over whether the Galaxy Note should be considered a giant phone or a mini-tablet, however, we'd prefer to stay away from this, and rather focus on the unique capabilities of the handset, in order to see if it has a chance in this cruel world. After all, not many smartphones today come with a special stylus of their own, designed to ease the process of note-taking. Unfortunately though, none of the U.S. carriers has announced plans to carry the Galaxy Note yet.

Anyway, let's see if Samsung's Galaxy Note has the potential to become the next big thing in wireless!

The box includes:

Samsung Galaxy Note
Wall charger with detachable microUSB cable
Handsfree headset with three pairs of eartips
Some papers

Design:

So, um... what should we say? The Samsung Galaxy Note is one monster of a phone! It is gigantic, and it doesn't feel like anything you've used before. And if you're the type of person who'd say that the Galaxy S II is just too big, then wait until you see this guy. Don't think you'll be able to use it just like you use your typical smartphone – you can't fit the Galaxy Note comfortably in your pocket. Well, you can carry it in your pocket, but don't try to sit while it's in there. It's by no means heavy, but it is too cumbersome to handle normally. This “phone” is designed for the biggest of hands, but we don't believe that it will fit well even in such hands.


The Samsung GALAXY Note is gigantic and designed for the biggest of hands

The Samsung Galaxy Note is made of plastics, but it doesn't feel cheap at all. The device is solid, and even the capacitive stylus stays very firmly in its spot, and requires a bit of force to be removed. No wiggle whatsoever.

Now, let's turn our attention to the gargantuan 5.3” display of the Galaxy Note. It is, of course, of the capacitive type and utilizes the Super AMOLED technology, which translates into rich colors, deep contrast levels wide viewing angles and... a bluish tint on top, mostly visible when displaying white. Having so much real estate however, means that screen resolution should also be abundant, in order to keep a respectful pixel density. This is one area where the Galaxy Note performs admirably, having an 800x1280 pixel res, which translates into 285 ppi. We're happy to say that everything on the screen is very clear and easily readable.


The Samsung GALAXY Note uses a gargantuan 5.3” display


Apple iPhone 4 (left, top), Samsung GALAXY Note (center, bottom), Samsung Galaxy S II (right, middle)

All the keys around the device are comfortable to press, while the special capacitive stylus is positioned at the bottom of the device. As we said, it requires a bit of force to have it removed, but that's fine, as it wouldn't have been better if it was wiggling. The stylus itself is long enough, and more importantly – isn't too thin, so overall we are happy with its design.


The special capacitive stylus is positioned at the bottom of the device


Volume rocker (left)	Power key (right)	microUSB jack (bottom)	3.5 mm jack (top)


Back	Camera	Battery compartment

Interface and Functionality:

The Samsung Galaxy Note runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is of course disguised with the custom TouchWiz user interface. It is nice that TouchWiz has been tweaked for the Note in a number of ways, so that it better fits the 5.3” realities. For example, the icon grid now allows for five, instead of four icons on a row.


The Samsung Galaxy Note runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread

In addition to all the standard Android and TouchWiz stuff, however, Samsung has cooked some apps especially for the Galaxy Note and its stylus. This is to be expected with a device, centered around the experience of note-taking via a digital pen. S Memo is the special notes app, which will allow you to leverage the possibilities of the included stylus. It features some nice options such as brush type, thickness and color. You can also insert text using the on-screen QWERTY keyboard. The app is pretty decent, and it isn't hard to use. Writing with the S Pen takes a little getting used to, but ultimately we found the experience to be satisfying. Note, however, that you should set from the Settings app if your dominant hand is the left or right one, because this seriously affects the performance of the stylus. You can also take screenshot notes by pressing the key that is on the stylus and holding it on the screen for a couple of seconds.


The S Memo app

Another new app is S Planner, which is here to substitute your typical calendar app. Basically, S Planner is just a facelifted calendar, having a more professional feel.


S Planner

Don't be fooled by the presence of the S Choice app – it's just a renamed Samsung Apps. Still, you do get the Photo Editor app, which allows you to tweak your photos and images, and also draw with the stylus on top of them. It's not much, but at least it comes for free.


The Photo Editor app

There have been no changes made to the Contacts and Messaging apps to differentiate the Galaxy Note from other TouchWiz devices. Speaking of messaging, it's interesting to comment on the typing experience of the Note. First off, the portrait QWERTY is a nightmare. You can't hold the handset comfortably between your hands and type normally on that keyboard. Switching to landscape takes care of the problem for the most part, although there's still just a little bit of that feeling of inconvenience when reaching for the letters in the center.


The Contacts app


Virtual keyboard

Internet and Connectivity:

So, browsing on a 5.3” screen with a resolution of 800x1280 should be pretty cool, right? Well, it is, but it's just marginally better than browsing on a 4.3” screen. We weren't blown away by any means. Samsung says that the Galaxy Note minimizes the need of scrolling, but rest assured, there's nothing big in this – you'll still have to scroll, and more importantly, you'll still have to zoom in, in order to make the text comfortably readable. Flash Player support is, of course, available, and works flawlessly. One thing we don't like about Samsung's Android browser is that it doesn't enable the pan function while doing pinch-to-zoom.


Web browsing with the Samsung Galaxy Note

The Samsung Galaxy Note supports 4G HSPA+ at up to 21 Mbit/s on the downlink. Unfortunately, as of this writing, Samsung has not yet unveiled plans to bring the Galaxy Note Stateside.

The built-in GPS receiver works very well and manages to fix our locations very quickly. This being an Android 2.3.5 device, it supports Google Maps Navigation – the free turn-by-turn navigation service by Google, but of course, it requires you to be connected to the internet.

Camera and Multimedia:

There's an 8MP camera employed by the Samsung Galaxy Note, coupled with a single LED flash. The camera interface is the standard one for TouchWiz 4.0, which is a good thing because it works pretty fast. It also offers some nice goodies such as Anti-Shake function, different Scene modes, etc.

Camera interface

Outdoor images taken with the Samsung Galaxy Note turn out OK. We're not fascinated by the stills from the 8MP camera, but they are passable. The camera tends to easily overexpose brighter areas, and while the images aren't exactly short on fine details, those aren't in abundance either. Colors get properly reproduced, delivering an overall natural-looking picture.



Outdoor images taken with the Samsung Galaxy Note

The Galaxy Note does well when it comes to indoor photography. While this will certainly depend a lot on the situation, we liked what we saw on our test shots. Of course, things do get somewhat noisy in darker conditions, but it's relatively tolerable. The LED flash will get the job done if you're shooting at a relatively close range, but don't expect anything spectacular. It isn't strong enough to illuminate bigger rooms.


Strong	Medium	Low light	Darkness
Indoor samples

Video can be recorded at up to 1080p, and we've got to say that it does look pretty good. The image is rich on colors and details, although there's some distortion observed if you move the camera too quickly. If you aren't in a hurry though, you should end up with some pretty nice footage.

Samsung GALAXY Note Sample Video:

Samsung GALAXY Note Indoor Sample Video:

As you might guess, one area where the Galaxy Note is very strong is multimedia consumption. Naturally, watching movies on the big 5.3” Super AMOLED screen is much better than doing it on a 4” one, for example. Samsung Galaxy Note managed to play all kinds of codecs we threw at it, including MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid and H.264, at resolutions of up to 1080p. Actually, there were just a few skipped frames in the beginning of the H.264 video, but everything went smoothly after that.


Music player	Video player

The Galaxy Note is also a great smartphone for game-playing – due to its sheer size, all images are larger, and so there's less strain on your eyes.

Performance:

Believe it or not, the Samsung Galaxy Note is also meant to be used as a phone. Taking this thing and putting it next to your head is certainly not beautiful, but it's possible. Unfortunately, the earpiece is disastrous, as it fails to emit tones with decent loudness, plus it makes voices coming through it sound muffled. The microphone isn't very strong, but it does pick up your voice well, so at least the person on the other end of the line won't have that much trouble while conversing with you.

With such a huge display, it's only natural for us to be a bit worried about the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy Note. Thankfully though, the manufacturer has managed to fit a pretty decent 2500mAh battery inside, which should be able to provide 13 hours of talk-time and about 24 days of stand-by – a remarkable achievement indeed.

Conclusion:

It should be clear that the Samsung Galaxy Note is a niche product. It's not a phone designed to take over the mass market. Why is that? The big dimensions of the Note make it much more uncomfortable to handle and use than any other smartphone. Some people with extraordinarily large hands may have a chance of finding it okay, but those cases will be extremely rare. Just to give you an example, the device's size means that it's absolutely impossible to use it with one hand only. As a matter of fact, it also makes some normal everyday stuff like typing out messages and emails too much of a hassle.

Of course, the bigger screen has its benefits. Important areas such as internet browsing and multimedia consumption have gained the most, though this doesn't mean that the experience is light-years ahead from that of a normal 4.3" smartphone like the Galaxy S II, for example. If you are a mobile gamer, the Galaxy Note will be a very suitable solution as well. However, where this handset shines is in the process of note-taking, which has been made more intuitive thanks to the ability to write with the special stylus. If you're looking for just this kind of handwriting experience, then the Galaxy Note is sure to appeal to you.

Leaving the enormous screen and dimensions aside, the Samsung Galaxy Note is a pretty decent smartphone, equipped with powerful hardware, delivering zippy performance with all tasks. It's very well feature-packed, although some of its aspects haven't been executed in the best possible way. For example, call quality is very poor, while the camera is fine, but nothing industry-leading.

As far as alternatives go, we would recommend that you consider the HTC Sensation XL, which offers a 4.7" screen, as well as all variants of the Samsung Galaxy S II. If you are in the States, Sprint's Epic 4G Touchand T-Mobile's Galaxy S II come with 4.52" displays, while AT&T will soon join the party with its 4.5" Galaxy S II Skyrocket. And, if you can wait a little longer, we believe that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus and its 4.65" screen will also prove to be a pretty decent solution. By the way, if the enhanced experience of taking notes is what you're after, you should also check out Sprint's EVO View 4G (or Europe's HTC Flyer), which is a 7" Gingerbread-powered tablet by HTC, having the very same idea as the Galaxy Note, complete with the stylus.

Software version of the reviewed unit: Android 2.3.5, Build: GINGERBREAD.XXKJ4

Samsung GALAXY Note Video Review:

PROS

Extremely large screen
Great multimedia device
Snappy performance

CONS

Poor call quality
The large screen only brings marginal improvement in certain areas
Camera could be better

Motorola DROID XYBOARD 10.1 Review

2011-12-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

When it comes to tablet warfare, Motorola seemed to get out in the open with a weapon of mass excellence with the XOOM pretty early, it being the first to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the first Android made specifically for the tablet form factor – now they’ve come back with the XOOM 2 aka the DROID XYBOARD and we’re not so sure it’s the same ground-breaking situation. What we’ve got here instead is certainly a solid package, this XYBOARD 10.1 making some improvements over the original XOOM, especially in form if you were one of the many people who said the XOOM was a hunk of metal with no style, (note: I was not one of those people, I still think the XOOM looks pretty awesome for the workhorse that it is,) and with LTE right out of the box, the XYBOARD provides the promise that the original XOOM took much MUCH to long to deliver on: 4G LTE connectivity. But is it enough for Motorola enthusiasts to want to upgrade from their first 10.1-inch love?

Hardware

Before we begin, note that we’re having a look at this 10.1-inch model XYBOARD first here in this post, then the 8.2-inch version later this week! Now here in the DROID XYBOARD you’ve got Motorola’s second and most third most confortable to use tablet on the market, the 10.1-inch version only trumped by the surprisingly lightweight 8.2-inch version we’ll be reviewing later on also here on SlashGear. The 10.1-inch tablet here has a relatively bright LCD display at a standard 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. It’s covered up by a layer of reinforced Gorilla Glass, while the innards of this device share the same splash-resistant coating that the DROID RAZR does. You’ve got a microSIM card slot here, but no microSD slot like the XOOM does, the rest of your ports consisting of the standard headphones jack on top and a standardized Motorola setup of microUSB aside microHDMI ports next to one another on the bottom. This means you’ll be able to use the full rundown of Motorola devices in this current season, even though most of them are basically meant for handsets.

This tablet is only .02 inches than the thinnest tablet on the market right now, and at 599g it beats out the 730g of its predecessor, the original XOOM, by a healthy margin. In other words, you can tell the difference even without having both in your hands. You’ll have a much easier time gripping this tablet than most other tablets on the market today (if you have any trouble with any of them, that is), and the sharp-curve of the corners makes for a nice differentiation point from the rest of the world’s slates.

Software

You’ll be running Android 3.2 Honeycomb out of the box with some very BASIC additions by Motorola to make it their own. You’ll have the same Honeycomb Vanilla gallery, same camera, same interface on the whole, it’s just the icons a handful of applications that are coming from the manufacturer and Verizon. Most prominent is the MotoCast app sitting right there on your main home screen just begging you to get into Motorola’s extended world of devices via their rather nicely crafted software ecosystem – check out the DROID RAZR and the Motorola MOTOACTV reviews we’ve got to get a better idea of what it means to be part of this bigger family Motorola is promoting here.

Then it’s all about the built-in games like Madden 2012 which is, admittedly, the first sports game I’ve enjoyed on the mobile platform thus far, and that “Let’s Golf” game we’ve seen on essentially every Android device since early this year — someone did some GOOD promotion deals, I’ll tell you that much. You’ve also got Evernote which works just fine with your included sylus pen for hand-written digital notes, GoToMeeting for group chatting, and Quickoffice HD which you’ll find works more than good enough for editing your Office documents on the go. Slingbox, Skitch, VideoSurf, Dijit, and even Netflix begin to look like the devil word: “bloatware” when they’re all stacked up on two screens of unremovable apps that come with this talbet straight from the store, but they’re certainly not the worst quality apps when it comes down to it for someone looking to avoid the Android Market entirely.

You’ll find that the dual-core processor from Texas Instruments is the 1.2 GHz OMAP4 you’ve been seeing on a lot of devices with Android under the hood lately, it appearing in title to out-do the most common dual-core processor of 2011 the NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz, but having a look at our Quadarant Advanced benchmarks here you’ll see the increase isn’t the most fantastic in the world, but is certainly something to have a look at – pay attention to the individual numbers for a wild bit of difference:

You’ll notice one big difference: I/O has had the doors blown off between the two of these machines. You’ll not notice the difference in real life usage unless you’re REALLY attuned to the functions of the device – the ladies and gentlemen in the audience won’t be able to tell the difference. Have a peek at the device in action here in the hands-on video and know the truth:

Camera / Battery

Just like the original XOOM and the rest of the greater Android tablet family, the XYBOARD 10.1′s up time is several days strong if you’re not using it for heavy activities like streaming video. If you ARE streaming video non-stop, you’ll probably be plugged into the wall anyway, but just supposing your not: you’ve got something like 6-8 hours streaming via LTE. For those heavy users playing nothing but HD games and playing music via Google Music at the same time, you’ve got just about the same amount of uptime ahead of you.

The camera on this device is not especially good. It’s a 5-megapixel shooter, but don’t expect much better than what you got with the original XOOM. This tablet is certainly not made to be the master of the 5 megapixel shooters that the Galaxy Nexus is, nor is it ready to take on the big guns in tablet photography that the HTC Jetstream and the ASUS Transformer PRIME are, the both of them. Have a peek at some examples here and in the gallery below.

Wrap-Up

The question that’ll be popping up on most XOOM owners minds at one point or another now is this: should I upgrade? With a tablet that’s got such a similar processor and a display that’s not especially improved over the original XOOM, it’s essentially only the chassis and the fact that you can no longer use a microSD card that should sway you in one direction or the other – not to mention the money you’ll have to drop to move from one model to the next. If you’ve already got a tablet, I’ll say, this probably isn’t going to seem like much of an improvement over the model you’ve already got.

If on the other hand you’ve never used an Android tablet before, this is as good a place to start as any, as believe it or not, most Android tablets aren’t all the different from one another, regardless of their manufacturer. The biggest difference between Android tablets at the moment can be found in the ASUS Transformer Prime — therein lies the next generation of Android tablets, complete with keyboard dock that turns the thing into a laptop and a quad-core processor that beats down the whole rest of the Android world with ease. But if you’re not quite into that world yet and would like to remain in this fully connected LTE world (the Prime has no carrier affiliation as of yet), then by all means try out the XYBOARD 10.1 and Motorola your way to victory. Feel free to ask any additional questions below and I’ll do my best to answer, and another reminder: we’re reviewing the 8.2-inch version of this tablet here on SlashGear as well, soon!

Motorola DROID XYBOARD 8.2 Review

2011-12-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

This week we’ve seen two Motorola tablets, both of them with essentially the same name DROID XYBOARD, this the smaller of the two at 8.2-inches in screen size. While the 10.1-inch display sized iteration costs a bit more and does afford you a bit more screen real-estate, what you’re about to see is an account that’ll let you know how little you’re missing when you go with the slightly more convenient sized 8.2. That and we’ve got a couple of accessories to peek at as well. Also note that if you’re looking for the 10.1-inch version, you’ve only to check out the timeline after the second paragraph to head on down the rabbit hole.

This is the next step in the Motorola like of devices, and not just in the tablet lineup, in the dual-core and above lineup as well. Starting with the Motorola Atrix at the start of 2011, the dual-core processor-toting handset craze began, and with it Motorola started their lineup of dual-port-toting smart devices that continues to this day. The XYBOARD is the latest Motorola tablet to fit into this puzzle.

The Atrix and the Motorola XOOM were the first to have a microUSB and a microHDMI port at the bottom of them, and starting with this most recent wave of Motorola devices including the Photon, Atrix 2, Droid RAZR, Droid 3, and the XYBOARD tablets, the ports are equally spaced, allowing you to use basically any Motorola accessory with any Motorola Android device. Without getting too in-depth on that wavelength, this is a device that Motorola considers part of its own evolving family, one that does not necessarily need to compete with the rest of the Android world.

Hardware

This again is the smaller of two XYBOARD tablets, and in its international form is called the “XOOM 2 Media Edition” because it’s got an improved speaker setup and is supposedly better for listening to music and watching videos than the larger tablet. I’ve not personally found the experience to be all that different between the two in that regard – the difference, instead, in an everyday sense, is that these two tablets are different sizes physically. The DROID XYBOARD 8.2 at first seemed to me to be overpriced and under-improved when compared to the original XOOM, and I still do feel that way about the 10.1 version to a degree, but here in the 8.2 you’re going to find a rather nice package for a tablet, and one sized and shaped in a way that puts it up in the top 5 Android tablets on my list currently.

At this very moment, no tablet comes near the ASUS Transformer Prime for quality, price, or power in any way at all. What you’ve got here in the XYBOARD 8.2 is one of the three nicest tablets carried by Verizon right this moment, and the best 4G LTE tablet for what you’d find me needing one for in my line of work. I should remind you that I have no need for a tablet, and that’s the truth, but for the time that’d I like to have one around – like on an airplane ride to the next Motorola product release, for example, I’d bring this perfectly sized unit along.

For the full specifications on this tablet, head to our listing over at DEVICE.AC’s Motorola DROID XYBOARD 8.2, and note again the alternate XOOM 2 title. This tablet is extremely light, very well made, and amongst the thinnest tablets in the world.

Software

Inside you’ll find a very basic build of Android 3.2 Honeycomb, complete with Motorola-made app icons you’ll recognize from everything starting at the Droid 3 forward. The apps themselves aren’t as changed as you’ll find them on a recent Motorola smartphone – for instance the gallery for photos and video isn’t the slightly less than appealing media center you’ve got on the DROID RAZR, it’s the lovely stock Honeycomb (or something close) gallery we know and appreciate. Use this tablet on its own or connect it to your HDTV to watch some high definition movies without a skip – or even play some Sonic CD on that gigantic television with pixels large as life.

Have a peek at the HD Dock being released with this and the other XYBOARD here in a hands-on video to see how well the software works as a team with its holder. All it really does is stand the device upright and keep it plugged in to power and your HDMI port if you like, but because it’s adjustable and lets you use the tablet essentially like a control panel, it’s worth it. And it’s adjustable for use with the rest of the recent Motorola Android devices as well.

Battery and Camera

While the 4G LTE does have a bit of an effect on the battery, you’ll find that you’ve got at least a full day’s use on this tablet of basic functions like email, web browsing, and the like. If you’re doing nothing but playing high-demand games and streaming video, you’ve got closer to 6-8 hours on your hands. Very comparable to handsets not being drained by the strain of the connection speed.

The camera is so-so. No worse than the original Motorola XOOM, but certainly no better than the rest of the 2011 lineup of Android tablets what with their similar 5-megapixel cameras, the lot of them. Have a peek at some examples in both photos and video here and in the gallery below:

Wrap-Up

This tablet is nice, and if you rule out the facts that it’ll cost you an arm and a leg to first purchase it then pay each month for 4G LTE connectivity, you’ve got a nice tablet on your hands. I find myself very skeptical that there’s a real need for data-connected tablets on today’s market outside those people who’ve got specific use-cases in mind, so if you’re just an average lady or man out there thinking of picking up a tablet for fun, I still suggest you look into a wifi-only tablet instead. That said, if you do have a need for mobile data on a tablet, this is certainly one of your better choices.

I’d rate this tablet slightly higher than the Samsung choice on LTE simply because I like to have HDMI connectivity right out of the box, but lower than the iPad 2 also available on Verizon simply because the iPad 2 STILL seems like a more complete package. For those of you looking for the best Android tablet overall, go for the ASUS Transformer Prime. For those of you looking for an Android tablet specifically on the Verizon LTE network, don’t rule the XYBOARD 8.2 out.

Video: Apple's founding document fetches $1.35 million at Sotheby's

2011-12-13T20:22:00.000-08:00

Steve Jobs was having trouble getting his friend Steve Wozniak to agree to commercialize his new circuit board, so Jobs invited an Atari draftsman he had befriended help change Wozniak's mind, write up some incorporation papers, and provide a tie-breaking vote should disagreements between the two Steves arise.

Wozniak was persuaded, and with a flourish of legalese, Ron Wayne drafted the three-page document that founded Apple Computer (AAPL) on April Fools Day, 1976.

Jobs and Wozniak each got 45% of the new company, and Wayne got 10%.

Eleven days later, Wayne got cold feet. He came back with a two-page document formally withdrawing from the partnership. Ten percent of the company today would be worth $36 billion.

At a sparsely attended Sotheby's auction Tuesday bidding for the documents started at $70,000 and ended 9 minutes later at $1.35 million. The unidentified buyer, who followed the action by telephone, will pay a total of $1,594,500, once Sotheby's "buyer's premium" is factored in.

UPDATE: According to Bloomberg, the documents went to Eduardo Cisneros, chief executive officer of Cisneros Corp. The Cisneros family, according to a 2006 Forbes listing, is the second wealthiest in South America.

Below: The last minute of bidding via YouTube.

New operating system for space: High-tech tycoons

2011-12-13T20:14:00.000-08:00

AP) SEATTLE — The tycoons of cyberspace are looking to bankroll America's resurgence in outer space, reviving "Star Trek" dreams that first interested them in science.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen made the latest step Tuesday, unveiling plans for a new commercial spaceship that, instead of blasting off a launch pad, would be carried high into the atmosphere by the widest plane ever built before it fires its rockets.

He joins Silicon Valley powerhouses Elon Musk of PayPal and Jeff Bezos of Amazon in a new private space race that attempts to fill the gap left when the U.S. government ended the space shuttle program.

Musk, whose Space Exploration Technologies will send its Dragon capsule to dock with the International Space Station in February, will provide the capsule and booster rocket for Allen's venture, which is called Stratolaunch. Bezos is building a rival private spaceship.

Allen is working with aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan, who collaborated with the tycoon in 2004 to win a $10 million prize for the first flight of a private spaceship that went into space but not orbit.

Allen says his enormous airplane and spaceship system will go to "the next big step: a private orbital space platform business."

The new system is "a radical change" in how people can get to space, and it will "keep America at the forefront of space exploration," Allen said.

Their plane will have a 380-foot wingspan — longer than a football field and wider than the biggest aircraft ever, Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose.

It will launch a space capsule equipped with a booster rocket, which will send the spacecraft into orbit. This method saves money by not using rocket fuel to get off the ground. The spaceship may hold as many as six people.

"When I was growing up, America's space program was the symbol of aspiration," said Allen, who mentioned his love of science fiction and early human spaceflights. "For me, the fascination with space never ended. I never stopped dreaming what might be possible."

Allen is not alone in having such dreams, and the money to gamble on making them come true.

Bezos set up the secretive private space company Blue Origin, which has received $3.7 million in NASA start-up funds to develop a rocket to carry astronauts. Its August flight test ended in failure.

"Space was the inspiration that got people into high-tech ... at least individuals in their 40s and 50s," said Peter Diamandis, who created the space prize Allen won earlier and is a high-tech mogul-turned space business leader himself. "Now they're coming full circle."

Diamandis helped found a company that sends tourists to space for at least $25 million a ride, and seven of the eight rides involved high-tech executives living out their space dreams. One is a former Microsoft colleague of Allen's, Charles Simonyi, who paid at least $20 million apiece for two rides into orbit and attended Allen's Tuesday news conference, saying he wouldn't mind a third flight.

"Space has a draw for humanity," not just high-tech billionaires, Simonyi said, but he acknowledged that most people don't have the cash to take that trip.

Space experts welcome the burst of high-tech interest in a technology that 50 years ago spurred the development of computers.

"Space travel the way we used to do it has a '50s and '60s ring to it," said retired George Washington University space policy professor John Logsdon. "These guys have a vision of revitalizing a sector that makes it 21st century."

But Logsdon said the size of the capsule and rocket going to space seemed kind of small to him, only carrying 13,000 pounds. It didn't seem like a game-changer, he said.

Stratolaunch's air-launch method is already used by an older rocket company, Orbital Sciences Corp., to launch satellites. It's also the same method used by the first plane to break the sound barrier more than 50 years ago.

Stratolaunch, to be based in Huntsville, Ala., bills its method of getting to space as "any orbit, any time." Rutan will build the carrier aircraft, which will use six 747 engines. The first unmanned test flight is tentatively scheduled for 2016.

NASA, in a statement, welcomed Allen to the space business, saying his plan "has the potential to make future access to low-Earth orbit more competitive, timely, and less expensive."

Unlike its competitors, Allen's company isn't relying on start-up money from NASA, which is encouraging private companies to take the load of hauling cargo and astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station. The space agency, which retired the space shuttle fleet earlier this year, plans to leave that more routine work to private companies and concentrate on deep space human exploration of an asteroid, the moon and even Mars.

Allen's company is looking at making money from tourists and launching small communications satellites, as well as from NASA and the Defense Department, said former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, a Stratolaunch board member who spoke at a Tuesday news conference.

Just three months ago, Griffin was testifying before Congress that he thought the Obama administration's reliance on private companies for space travel "does not withstand a conventional business case analysis."

This is different because it's private money, with no help or dependence on government dollars, said Griffin, who served under President George W. Bush.

Allen and Rutan collaborated on 2004's SpaceShipOne, which was also launched in the air from a special aircraft in back-to-back flights. Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic licensed the technology and is developing SpaceShipTwo to carry tourists to space. But Allen's first efforts were more a hobby, while this would be more a business, Logsdon said.

Google Celebrates 10 Billion Android Market Downloads With App Sale

2011-12-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

Google's Android Market has delivered its 10 billionth application download, and is in the midst of celebrating with 10 days of special promotions during which selected apps will be offered for 10 cents.

The milestone comes just five months after the 6 billionth download, and Google estimates that current Android Market transactions total over 1 billion a month.

"This past weekend, thanks to Android users around the world, Android Market exceeded 10 billion app downloads, with a growth rate of one billion app downloads per month," said Eric Chu, Android developer ecosystem director, in a blog post. "We can't wait to see where this accelerating growth takes us in 2012."

Android Market was launched in 2008 and is the official channel for obtaining applications for the Google platform. The service has been hailed as an open marketplace and an alternative to Apple's App Store, but has drawn criticism for being susceptible to malware.

Google's Android Market successes are slightly behind the pace set by Apple, which celebrated its 10 billionth App Store download in January

Windows Phone Mango: 10 New Apps You Must Check Out

2011-12-11T20:03:00.001-08:00

Rdio launched its Windows Phone 7 app last November, and now it's revamped the app with Metro (Windows Phone's signature user interface) and other Mango-specific features. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

It’s never easy being a third-party app developer. Besides needing a great app idea, you must master your platform’s SDK, and then work hard to make sure your app has visibility in whatever platform ecosystem you’ve chosen to infiltrate. Enter Microsoft’s BizSpark program, which helps software devs bring their apps to market.

One of the program’s major initiatives is Mobile Acceleration Week, a multi-city road show that’s designed to give guidance and support to Windows Phone Mango developers. Last week, the event was held in San Francisco, so we dropped by to hunt for the latest, greatest Windows Phone apps coming down the pike. Here are 10 of the most promising. Just be aware that not all are currently available in Marketplace.

News360
A self-proclaimed “next-generation news and aggregation service,”News360 looks at the content you visit on Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader and Evernote, and uses it to construct an “interest graph” that surfaces the news topics that should resonate with you the most. The app then uses all this data to create narrowly focused feeds that cater to your personal interests.

News360 was already available for all the major software platforms, including Windows Phone 7, and while the new app looks pretty similar to the WP7 version, it adds a number of Mango-specific features. In Mango, for example, users can pin not just an app, but a specific section of an app, as a live tile to their home screen. News360 adds this feature to its Mango iteration, allowing you to pin a category like “Breaking News” to the main screen of your Windows Phone. Other new News360 features include push notifications, and the ability to hook into global search.

Stitcher
Stitcher is a free talk radio app that lets you listen to your favorite programs on demand. You can choose from more than 7,000 shows, and the app is available on all major phone platforms — including Windows Phone for the first time.

“We decided that the time was right to create a Windows Phone Mango app now that Windows Phone is definitely becoming the third member of the space,” said Collin Billings, Stitcher’s director of user experience.

Stitcher aggregates popular content by source (for example, NPR, BBC and CNN) and by topic (for example, food and motorcycles). Content is wirelessly synced, so if you start listening to a program on your Windows Phone, you can pick up where you left off on an Internet-connected radio or on your PC.

The app’s name is derived from the practice of “stitching” together multiple stations and podcasts to create a personalized talk radio playlist. If you’re not quite sure what to listen to, or are looking to branch out to new sources, you can see what other listeners of the same show also liked.

Rdio
Rdio launched its Windows Phone 7 app last November, and now it’s revamped the app with Metro (Windows Phone’s signature user-interface style) and other Mango-specific features.

Rdio is a social music subscription service — and for some, a favorite alternative to Spotify, which just debuted on the Windows Phone platform. In its big update for Mango, Rdio provides for offline support and background streaming on Windows Phone devices (something that couldn’t be done prior to the 7.5 update). Rdio’s Windows Phone app now also includes Heavy Rotation (a feature that shows most popular tracks), a recent activity feed, and artist artwork in the background of the Now Playing screen (when available).

To anyone familiar with the iOS version of the app, Rdio’s Windows Phone offering lacks a few features — the Recommended page, for example. But fear not, the developer plans to make all features available for all platforms, and the New Releases and Top Charts features should be added in the next version of the app.

SKEDi
Skedi is a tool specifically designed for families. Its founder, John Buyer, had problems coordinating his schedule with his wife’s — she uses Exchange, he uses Google. Skedi addresses this disconnect by providing a unified calendar that combines all family members’ schedules in the cloud — and it does so regardless of whether everyone actually has the app on his or her mobile device.

Once you sign up with SKEDI, you can send family members an invite to join your network. Each family member can choose his or her favorite calendar, and then that’s it. You can use the app to create an event, and if a scheduling conflict emerges (say, your wife can’t pick up little Timmy from soccer practice), the service sends you an e-mail and push notification so you’re aware of the change.

Unlike Facebook events and other event schedulers, when you receive an invite, you can’t choose “maybe,” you can only accept or decline. Nonetheless, in addition to schedule management, the app is also helpful with resource management — for example, easing the confusion of sharing a family car.

SKEDi recently made its debut in Apple’s App Store, and this week it launches as a Windows Phone app, too.

Shared Roll
Shared Roll, from start-up Chute, provides a straightforward way to collect and share photos from a particular event. You can create a “roll” of photos shot at a party, wedding or similar shindig, then share it via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter. Others can then contribute their photos to the roll to make it more fun and festive. Each roll has its own web page so it can easily be shared.

The app initially launched on iOS, but will be coming to Android this week, and will be launching on Windows Phone very soon.

“Working with our developers to build our initial prototype required a new lens on the world — different from the paradigms we’re used to on iOS and Android,” Shared Roll’s co-founder and user experience designer Greg Narain says.

The Chute team used Mango’s Panorama View for landscape content, as well as a feature called Jump List that sorts rolls alphabetically so a user can quickly jump to the right spot. Shared Roll also uses Live Tiles, so notifications and new photos can be pushed to a tile on the home screen, as well as secondary tiles, so you can pin a favorite roll to your home screen, too.

News Republic
News Republic is a news aggregation platform for the globally minded. It sources more than 250 publications worldwide, curating content for your personal tastes, and drilling deep through websites for the keywords that matter the most. Unlike other news aggregators, News Republic doesn’t pull articles from RSS Feeds. Instead, it goes straight to the sources themselves (parsing through photos and videos, where applicable).

The app’s developers are based in Bordeaux, France, and the app is truly global insomuch you can read content, and get content, in a number of different languages.

When you open the app, you’re presented with a few different screens to swipe through, such as a list of macro subjects and an aggregated list of Top News. If you have a particular area you’re interested in, such as “Windows tablet,” for example, you could search for that phrase and then pin the search term to your subject screen to always receive articles relating to that specific topic. And if you really love that topic, you can also pin it to your home screen as a live tile.

Google Wallet demo; 10-cent apps; free voice calls over data

2011-12-11T20:01:00.000-08:00

Google rolled out its Wallet software earlier this year, but few people have been able to try the mobile payment service. Sprint is the main Google Wallet partner and the applications requires both the Wallet Android app and a near-field communications (NFC) chip in a phone. The Google Nexus S that launched last December meets both of these requirements, but new Galaxy Nexus only meets one.

My newest smartphone has the NFC chip, but Google didn’t pre-install the Wallet software, so I decided to do that myself. It meant that my Nexus had to be rooted first, and since Google doesn’t offer the Wallet software in the Android Market — very few handsets can use it — I turned to the XDA-Developers site. There I found the Wallet software and installed it on my Galaxy Nexus.

Once I configured Google Wallet with a PIN for security and a linked credit card, it was off to the local gas station. The transaction worked as smoothly as a regular credit card purchase, although you may have to trust me because the video demo turned out poorly. This is mainly because I was juggling two phones and trying to hide personal information. Regardless, you can see that simply by holding up my phone to the gas pump, the transaction occurred.

With Google Wallet working so well, I’ll probably be spending more money. Luckily, there’s an Android app sale going this week: To celebrate 10 billion Android app downloads, Google is offering 10 apps a day for $0.10 each. The 10-day promotion started this past Wednesday and continues through this coming Friday. A new set of low-priced apps appear every day in the Android Market, so be sure to check daily during the promotion; it’s a cheap way to load up on some solid Android apps.

Another cost-cutting idea hit me this week when I realized that Android has built-in support for SIP, a protocol used to transmit voice and video over a data connection. I originally thought that Android 4.0 added this feature, but later found out it’s available in Android 2.3. However, carriers have been stripping this feature out, presumably to ensure you purchase a voice plan with your Android phone.

I have a data-only plan and SIM card with T-Mobile for my Galaxy Tab, so I popped that SIM in the Galaxy Nexus. With support for both AT&T and T-Mobile’s networks, the phone works just fine with a SIM from either carrier. But this particular SIM has no voice plan associated with it, so trying to make a call over the network simply doesn’t work. But voice over IP calls do.

There are many ways to make this work because there are many VoIP apps and SIP providers, so if you go this route, do some research. I ended up getting a phone number from Callcentric for $2.50 and a free VoIP plan that offers no-cost calls to other VoIP users and no charge for any incoming calls. Outgoing calls are under $0.02 per minute and I don’t make many of those. Once my Callcentric credentials were input in the Google Android Phone app, I was good to go for voice calling over a data network; both 3G or Wi-Fi.

I also included Google Voice in this solution, since most people have that phone number to reach me. I set up Google Voice forwarding to my Callcentric number so I don’t miss any phone calls. Again, there are many ways to do this, so look around.

Microsoft Launches Xbox Live App for iPhone, iPad

2011-12-11T19:59:00.000-08:00

My Xbox Live brings a little Microsoft flavor to iOS. Images: Microsoft

Microsoft released an Xbox Live app for iOS devices on Wednesday, bringing features of Microsoft’s gaming service to Apple devices for the first time.

My Xbox Live lets users edit their 3-D avatars, chat with Xbox Live friends and revel in their achievements. You can also check out more information about the newest apps and games on Xbox, as well as gaming tips and breaking news.

Windows Phone users have had Xbox Live services packaged into their mobile experience for a while now, but now iOS users can get a piece of the action. And whether they like it or not, iOS users who download the app are also getting a screen similar to a Windows Phone-style user interface.

The iPhone app features the horizontal bar across the bottom of the screen that houses the same sort of circular icons you’d find in a Windows Phone 7 app. Also included: a clever browser-based demo that lets you virtually explore the UI of a Windows Phone from your Android or iPhone handset. While you may already be on a phone of a different OS, it has potential to lure potential defectors over to Microsoft’s mobile platform.

It’s been a good week for Microsoft. On Tuesday, the company unveiled the details of its upcomingWindows Store for Windows 8, the newest version of the world’s most popular desktop platform. And on Monday, the company announced that the Xbox was getting a user interface refresh, with dozens of new content channels and the addition of a Windows Phone app you can use to control your Xbox. Microsoft’s iOS apps are now icing on top of the cake.

Now when are we going to get those Microsoft Office apps on the iPad?

My Xbox Live is available free for download on the iPhone and iPad in the App Store.

My Xbox Live on iPad. Image: Microsoft

Nokia N9 Review

2011-12-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

Nokia’s N9 MeeGo smartphone

Check out the full Nokia N9 review for more details

OnLive Officially Announced and Now Available For Android – Brings Full Console Gaming To Android Devices

2011-12-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

It feels like it’s been ages since we’ve last seen OnLive and their promises to deliver cloud-based gaming to Android tablets. I almost thought it was never going to happen having focused on more “old school methods” like playing games downloaded to a device. Well, the future is finally here and OnLive has announced that their gaming service will finally be available starting tomorrow from their app in the Android Market. The company showed off their service on a variety of devices ranging from the HTC Flyer, Motorola Xoom, Kindle Fire and HTC Rezound Most games will have to be reworked for full compatibility with all touch-screen controls with only a handful of titles currently available for touch-only and a few heavy hitters like L.A. Noire already in the works.

In typical OnLive fashion, you will need a solid WiFi connection if you want to do some gaming on your Android devices and if you’re looking to take the gaming on the road — Verizon’s LTE should more than do the trick. The “true” way to play games on your OnLive enabled Android device of course is their new universal controller with dual-analogs, d-pad and retailing for $50 from the OnLive store. The controllers even come with a USB dongle for some multiplayer fun on their “microconsole” or PC — current Android devices will hook in using Bluetooth. The only problem is you can’t actually buy a universal controller just yet with OnLive saying they will be available “soon” but no solid release date given.

The app will be available for “most” devices with some handsets and tablets needing a little more testing before they’re officially supported. The best part? There is also a Google TV version in the works making the Honeycomb rollout that much sweeter. Full console gaming, anywhere and everywhere.

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