Personal technology

From Business Education: Gadgets January 28, 2013

Taking on the tablets

Microsoft recently opened a store near my home in the San Francisco Bay Area, marking the occasion with a concert in the car park by Kelly Clarkson, the first American Idol talent show winner, and an appearance by a famous American football player – Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers. I had not seen such a local commotion since another famous football player, George Best, opened a fish-and-chip shop in my home town near Manchester around 1970. All this fuss, just for piles of boxed copies of Windows, I thought.

From Personal Tech column January 24, 2013

Music players wired for fuller sound

While the iPod and iTunes dominate portable players, some users consider the music’s sound quality to be less than stellar. This has opened up a niche for rivals to offer higher-fidelity recordings on higher-end devices. This week, a look at one such player, also a PC appendage and an app audio upgrade.

Tags: iRiver
Posted in Audio, Personal technology | Permalink

CESsentials 2013 – iON Air Pro 2

January 12, 2013 3:37 am by Chris Nuttall

What it is: ION’s second-generation point-of-view action camera, the Air Pro 2

Key points: 14Mp sensor, 180-degree lens and the addition of a microphone in-jack are the main improvements to the Air Pro, which retains its basic design and features, such as vibrating when it is turned on and its body being watertight, obviating the need for an extra waterproof case. Read more

Tags: action cams, CES, Ion
Posted in CES 2013, Personal technology | Permalink

CESsentials 2013 – Canon PowerShot N

January 12, 2013 2:41 am by Chris Nuttall

What it is: The PowerShot N - a point-and-shoot camera from Canon with a radical new design.

Key points: Very compact and lightweight with an 8x optical zoom, 12.1Mp sensor, 28mm wide-angle lens, tilt-touch LCD panel and Full HD video capability. The unusual feature is two rings on the lens are used for operating the shutter and the zoom. The camera’s Creative Shot mode analyses a photo taken and offers you five different versions of it, using various filters, crops and focuses. A “mobile device connect” button activates Wi-Fi, turning it into a hotspot and allowing a mobile device such as a tablet or laptop to connect to it and download photos. An app is available. Read more

Tags: Canon, CES
Posted in CES 2013, Personal technology | Permalink

CESsentials 2013 – The Tê pod tea-maker

January 12, 2013 12:21 am by Chris Nuttall

What it is: Cambridge Consultants, the product development company that helped create the first round tea bag, has come up with a prototype pod-based tea maker called the Tê.

Key points: Hot water is drawn into a brewing chamber where a pod containing tea has been placed on a spindle and will begin to spin, pulling water in, mixing it with the tea leaves and then forcing it out through small holes in the side of the pod. (See video below) This dispenses an excellent cup of tea in just two minutes. Read more

Tags: CES
Posted in CES 2013, Consumer Electronics, Personal technology | Permalink

From FT.com January 11, 2013

CES 2013 – Dr Dre beats new paths in music

With millions of record sales under his belt and a glittering career producing albums for stars such as Eminem and 50 Cent, Dr Dre is lauded within the music industry as a hip-hop pioneer.

The consumer electronics industry has come to hold him in similar esteem, judging by the rash of imitators of Beats by Dre, the headphones company he co-founded, showcasing their wares at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Tags: Beats
Posted in CES 2013, Personal technology | Permalink

From ces 2013 January 11, 2013

CES 2013 – The future through a smartphone prism

When Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone six years ago this week, he did it not alongside the rest of the gadget world in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, but at the Macworld event in San Francisco.

By 2013, Microsoft, Amazon and Google have all joined Apple in shunning CES. Yet even without the market’s leaders, mobile technology dominated CES 2013.

Tags: Lenovo
Posted in CES 2013, Personal technology | Permalink

From PERSONAL TECH COLUMN January 10, 2013

CES 2013 – TV and phone displays scale up

International CES – the major annual show for the consumer electronics industry in Las Vegas – gave us the first sight this week of new televisions, smartphones, computers and a wealth of other products. As CES shows products often far in advance of launch, pricing and availability for many of them is still vague or unknown, but here’s the highlights of what to look out for in trends and gadgets in the coming year.

Huge TVs with prices to match, yet showing the smallest of details, were most-talked-about at CES and are likely to be least-seen about the living room for years to come. In a night of big numbers, I went up 64 floors to see Toshiba’s 84in L9300 UHD TV unveiled in a Las Vegas hotel’s rooftop restaurant, before crossing over to a lounge where Samsung showed its 85in S9 4K UHD TV . The head of Samsung TV told me they had a 110in one, but it would not fit in the elevator.

Tags: samsung, Toshiba
Posted in CES 2013, Personal technology | Permalink

From FT.com January 9, 2013

CES 2013 – Qualcomm takes centre stage

LAS VEGAS, NV - JANUARY 07: Qualcomm Inc., Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs speaks during a keynote address at the 2013 International CES at The Venetian on January 7, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs from January 8-11 and is expected to feature 3,100 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to about 150,000 attendees. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

Qualcomm’s “Born Mobile” sign towers over other billboards; its booth is one of the biggest and its chief executive delivered the main keynote speech, with appearances by music and film celebrities and even Sesame Street’s Big Bird.

For a company that has traditionally avoided the limelight and not emphasised its brand in its customers’ products, the world’s biggest maker of mobile chips by shipments appears to be using this year’s international Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as its coming-out party.

Tags: CES, qualcomm
Posted in CES 2013, Consumer Electronics, Mobile, Personal technology, Smartphones | Permalink

Samsung reports record profit

January 8, 2013 4:49 pm by Financial Times

Surging mobile sales drove earnings at Samsung Electronics to another record, despite competition from Apple’s iPhone 5. The FT’s Simon Mundy reports from Seoul on how Samsung beat analysts’ forecasts and how the company is positioned. Read more

Tags: apple, samsung
Posted in Asia, Personal technology, Smartphones | Permalink