IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (HotHardware) 04/04/2010

Verizon Slashes Prices On WebOS Phones
Verizon Wireless recently slashed the prices on their Palm WebOS phones. After the price cuts, you can pick up not one, but two Pre Plus phones for $49 or two Pixi Plus phones for $29. Perhaps even more surprising is that Verizon is now offering the 3G Mobile Hotspot feature for free (the service previously cost $40 per month). Verizon's 3G Mobile Hotspot feature lets you share your smartphoneâ€™s 3G Internet connection with up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices such as notebooks, netbooks, MP3 players, cameras, PDAs,
Read More ...

Sharp Announces Glasses-Free 3D Panels For Cellphones
3D is going places that you never thought possible, and honestly, in more places than you probably ever imagined. Just a couple of years ago, 3D was seen as a has-been format that died out in the 80s. Today, it's the "next big thing." As if taking over the cinema and your living room weren't enough, 3D is also coming to handheld gaming consoles. And maybe, your next phone. Sharp has announced that it will start making "advanced 3D displays for cellphones and other mobile devices that don't require special viewing
Read More ...

Motorola's H17txt: The Bluetooth Headset That Talks Back
Bluetooth headsets are a dime a dozen these days, and honestly, they're becoming a little bit "last decade." We haven't seen nearly as many people walking around with them lately, despite the fact that Cellbow is at an all-time high. But Motorola's new H17txt might just change things for the sagging market, as it does something mighty special that most other BT headsets could only dream of: talk back to its owner. That's right. This headset, which will be available solely through Verizon Wireless starting this
Read More ...

Sprint Targets iPad Users With Overdrive
With the iPad launch getting closer and closer, Sprint wants to remind you that its Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot will be the perfect accessory for Apple's latest device. According to the wireless carrier, the Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot will give you speeds that are up to 10 times faster than 3G. In addition, the Overdrive can connect up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices, so you won't be limited to access on just the iPad. Currently, Sprint and Clearwire offer 4G service in 28 major markets. The companies plan
Read More ...

PAX East - Gamers and Geeks Gather 'Round The Tech
Last weekend gamers from all walks of life converged on Boston to strap in, lock-n-load, boot-up and get their frag on at the PAX East 2010 gamers conference. On hand were a number of large, big name hardware OEMs and game publishers, showing their wares to the game-crazed masses and members of the press that attended the show. From consoles to hand-helds and PC gaming, this show had just about something for everybody. Hailing from the northeast latitude ourselves, of course we decided to trot
Read More ...

Mobile Data Surpasses Voice Traffic For First Time
Total mobile data traffic topped mobile voice traffic in the United States last year, for the first time.In fact, globally, data traffic (that includes SMS text messaging) topped voice traffic on a monthly basis last year and the total traffic across the world exceeded an exabyte for the first time in 2009, according to a report just released by Chetan Sharma Consulting, a leading strategist in the mobile industry (clients include AT&T and China Mobile). Credit: Chetan Sharma ConsultingWhat's an exabyte?
Read More ...

Analyst: Apple Underestimated Initial iPad Demand
You didn't really think the iPad was going to flop, did you? If early reviews are any indication, Apple is getting off to a great start, a notion echoed by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. According to Munster, Apple will likely sell between 200,000 and 300,000 iPads this weekend, which is roughly on par with the original iPhone, which sold 270,000 at launch."When Apple began taking pre-orders customers could pro-order for home delivery on April 3 or in-store pickup on April 3," Munster explains. "A week
Read More ...

HP And Dell Rumored To Drop 10" Netbook Lines (UPDATE: Dell Says "No.")
Do you have a 10" netbook on your "must-buy" list? If you want one from Dell or HP, you might want to consider making that purchase sooner rather than later. According to a report from DigiTimes, both HP and Dell have "significantly reduced their investments in the 10" netbook segment, with HP reportedly even considering quitting the 10" netbook market and turning its focus to AMD-based 11.6" notebooks because profits from Intel Pine Trail-based netbooks have been lower than expected." This sounds sort of shocking
Read More ...

AT&T Aims To Improve Network As iPad Nears Launch
Another day, another story about AT&T's network. It seems that the iPhone's network is almost as big a story as the iPhone itself, simply because in America you can't have one without the other, at least not without a jailbreak, a T-Mobile SIM card and a willingness to live without 3G. There have always been rumors that AT&T fears the eventual loss of the iPhone's exclusivity, and it's beginning to look more and more like Verizon Wireless will be picking up the Apple smartphone soon and providing lots
Read More ...

Verizon Slashes Prices On WebOS Phones

Verizon Wireless recently slashed the prices on their Palm WebOS phones. After the price cuts, you can pick up not one, but two Pre Plus phones for $49 or two Pixi Plus phones for $29. Perhaps even more surprising is that Verizon is now offering the 3G Mobile Hotspot feature for free (the service previously cost $40 per month).

Verizon's 3G Mobile Hotspot feature lets you share your smartphoneâ€™s 3G Internet connection with up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices such as notebooks, netbooks, MP3 players, cameras, PDAs, and portable gaming system.

With the price cuts, the Palm WebOS phones are definitely the best buy at Verizon right now. Thanks to the 3G Mobile Hotspot feature, the phones also offer a cheap way for users to get Internet access for their laptop rather than using a dedicated USB modem. However, keep in mind that you'll be limited to 5GB per month when using the 3G Mobile Hotspot connection. Assuming you can keep to that limit, using the Pixi Plus or Pre Plus is definitely cheaper than paying the $60 fee for USB modem access.

There's no word on how long these deals will last or how long Verizon plans to continue offering 3G Mobile Hotspot for free, so if you're interested, now is the time to act.

Look what I found!

Looks like some very interesting technology and it's just plain cool IMHO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89OoXyuxTLM&feature=topvideos

Sharp Announces Glasses-Free 3D Panels For Cellphones

3D is going places that you never thought possible, and honestly, inmore places than you probably ever imagined. Just a couple of yearsago, 3D was seen as a has-been format that died out in the 80s. Today,it's the "next big thing." As if taking over the cinema and your livingroom weren't enough, 3D is also coming to handheld gaming consoles. Andmaybe, your next phone.

Sharp has announced that it will start making "advanced 3D displays for cellphones andother mobile devices that don't require specialviewing glasses," so it's very likely that 3D versions of devices youalready own will start popping up soon. The great news here is that noextra glasses are required, which is a big deviation from whatcurrently exists on the market. We get the impression that glasses-free3D is difficult with large screens, but maybe not when sized down tosomething as small as a phone or portable media player. We also knowfrom experience that the 3D effect is far less when viewing a smallpanel, so we're guessing that these won't be nearly as amazing to lookat as Avatar in a 3D cinema.

But still, it's added depth, and it's a way to improve upon a devicewithout dramatically innovating. A new panel is certainly innovative,but it's not like we haven't seen this kind of change before. We'vegone from CCFL to LED backlights, from LCDs to OLEDs, and now, from 2Dto 3D. There's no sales target (and thus, no price and solid releasedate) for the 3D panels, but with Nintendo already announcing a 3D DSi,we would not be surprised in the least to hear that Sony was thinkingabout a 3D version of the PlayStation Portable. And can you imagine thehype that would surround a 3D iPhone or iPad? On second thought, we'dprobably rather not.

Notebook cant finde Wlan-Networks

I just went through the very painful process of disassembling and putting my laptop together again for about 8 hours straight. I fixed all the problems I caused by my carelessness, except one:

My Laptop does not find any Wlan networks.

I checked, it recognizes the Wlan-card. It found my Home-Network before I went on my "upgrade and cleaning mission".

I connected an USB Wlan adapter, using this it finds all networks perfectly.

Could anyone give me a tip what might have gone wrong. I checked all cables and I cant find a loos connection.

HP And Dell Rumored To Drop 10" Netbook Lines (UPDATE: Dell Says "No.")

Do you have a 10" netbook on your "must-buy" list? If you want one fromDell or HP, you might want to consider making that purchase soonerrather than later. According to a report from DigiTimes, both HP andDell have "significantly reduced their investments in the 10" netbooksegment,with HP reportedly even considering quitting the 10" netbook marketand turning its focus to AMD-based 11.6" notebooks because profitsfrom Intel Pine Trail-based netbooks have been lower than expected."

This sounds sort of shocking at first. Could two of the world's biggest10" netbook makers (Mini 10, etc.) be leaving the market entirely?Maybe. If you'll recall, Asus and the rest were very high on producing7" and 9" netbooks. For awhile, at the beginning of the netbook craze,those two sizes were far and away the most popular. Netbook makerssimply had to use panels that small in order to produce machines attheir desired price points, but things have obviously changed.

Today's netbook lineup almost exclusively consists of 10" and 11.6"machines, with a 12" and 13" thrown in every so often. But it makessense to think that 10" units will fade out in favor of those largerunits as LCD prices continue to slide down, mostly because people tendto see computers with panels under 10" as something more like a MID orUMPC. But even if HP and Dell ditch the 10" netbook, we doubt everyoneelse (Samsung, Acer, Asus, etc.) will join their bandwagon right away,mostly because they can probably continue to produce and sell them forless and less. So, if we end up with higher-end 11.6" netbooks fromDell and HP along with sub-$150 netbooks in the 10" level from therest, it's a win-win for everyone. C'mon rumor, be true!

UPDATE: Dell has replied directly to Hot Hardware, noting that these rumors are simply false (speaking about their own 10" netbook line, of course). Here's the exact quote on the matter:

The Mini 10 netbook remains an important member of our mobile platform portfolio and is a great secondary companion device as people appreciate the compact size and the ability to stay connected on the go, whether they are traveling across town or across the country. Also just an FYI, wireless carriers around the world increasingly are offering netbooks with built in Mobile Broadband.Â For example last week at CTIA, T-Mobile announced its first netbook offering will be the Dell Mini 10, available through T-Mobiles online and select stores. Clear also announced that will carry the Mini 10 with Built-in WiMax support for the Clear network. Dell is committed to offering a variety of products so people have a choice of devices to meet their computing needs.

Analyst: Apple Underestimated Initial iPad Demand

You didn't really think the iPad was going to flop, did you? If early reviews are any indication, Apple is getting off to a great start, a notion echoed by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. According to Munster, Apple will likely sell between 200,000 and 300,000 iPads this weekend, which is roughly on par with the original iPhone, which sold 270,000 at launch.

"When Apple began taking pre-orders customers could pro-order for home delivery on April 3 or in-store pickup on April 3," Munster explains. "A week before the launch (on March 27) the company pushed back the shipping date to April 12 and ended the in-store reservation program for the launch. And in preparation for the launch, on March 31 Apple retail stores began calling those with iPad pickup reservations to confirm the reservation."

Munster believes it all adds up to stronger initial demand than what Apple was expecting or fully prepared for. He also believes that his initial estimates of 900,000 iPads sold in the June quarter and 2.7 million this calendar year are probably a bit conservative.

"Ultimately, both strong demand and somewhat constrained supply appear to be resulting in the fact that Apple is selling every iPad it can build."

Anyone surprised by the initial demand? Still think the iPad will flop? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.

Motorola's H17txt: The Bluetooth Headset That Talks Back

Bluetooth headsets are a dime a dozen these days, and honestly, they'rebecoming a little bit "last decade." We haven't seen nearly as manypeople walking around with them lately, despite the fact that Cellbowis at an all-time high. But Motorola's new H17txt might just changethings for the sagging market, as it does something mighty special thatmost other BT headsets could only dream of: talk back to its owner.

That's right. This headset, which will be available solely throughVerizon Wireless starting this month, has the ability to speak textmessages to the owner, enabling a full handsfree experience that cannotbe matched by units that lack text-to-speech. Also, it gives users theability to "customize an automated response and automatically enabletext-to-speech when the headset is powered on."

Customers can download the text-to-speech application to theirsmartphone from multiple application stores by search for MotoSpeak,and when used on their cellphone (and paired with this device), userscan automatically hear their text messages through their headset. Wewere never fans of having a bug on our ear, but this might just changeour minds now that texting and driving is unlawful in so many places.Just kidding, we never did that before. Safety first, right kids?

Mobile Data Surpasses Voice Traffic For First Time

Total mobile data traffic topped mobile voice traffic in the United States last year, for the first time.

In fact, globally, data traffic (that includes SMS text messaging) topped voice traffic on a monthly basis last year and the total traffic across the world exceeded an exabyte for the first time in 2009, according to a report just released by Chetan Sharma Consulting, a leading strategist in the mobile industry (clients include AT&T and China Mobile).

Credit:Â Chetan Sharma Consulting

What's an exabyte? One quintillion bytes, or one billion gigabytes. Yes, billion with a "b." And Sharma says North America and Western Europe's mobile data markets are growing so rapidly they each should exceed an exabyte in 2010.

Overall telecom revenues stayed flat, according to the report, mainly due to the worldwide recession. But they did not decline - unlike most other industries.

Interestingly, the nations with the largest data usage overall and the nations with the largest data service revenues were almost identical, just arranged in a different order. The top 10 by overall revenues were: U.S., China, Japan, France, Italy, UK, Germany, Brazil, Spain and India. By data revenues alone, they were: U.S. Japan, China, U.K., Italy, Germany, France, Australia, Spain and Korea. Though India fell off the list when it came to data revenues, it's one of the two top countries - the other being China - growing fastest in new mobile subscribers. The top 10 nations in terms of the number of mobile subscriptions looks still different yet: China, India, U.S., Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, Pakistan and Italy.

Credit:Â Chetan Sharma Consulting

The only mobile companies worldwide that are bringing in $50 million or more in revenues are China Mobile, Vodafone, AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless. But many more companies have 100 million-plus subscribers. In fact, the top nine companies in terms of subscribers looks a bit different than the revenue list: China Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica, America Movil, Telenor, T-Mobile, China Unicom, TeliaSonera and Orange.

Sharma said he expected 2010 to be the first year that mobile broadband connections would exceed fixed broadband connections globally.

Credit:Â Chetan Sharma Consulting

And internationally, the total number of app downloads hit $7 billion; bringing in $4.1 billion in revenues. Asia had the largest percentage of downloads, but North Americans accounted for more than 50 percent of the app revenue.

While text messaging still accounts for the majority of data traffic, its supremacy is being chipped away at by music, television and video streaming, voice navigation, games, web surfing and other things. And Apple, RIM and Google are duking it out internationally when it comes to market share of phones, though Nokia still has the largest percentage - which is shrinking.

When it comes to providers, the market is contracting, too. There were many aquisitions and mergers between telecom companies last year and that trend is expected to accelerate, Sharma said.

He also warned that though everyone's talking about 4G networks, it is still unclear exactly what that means and when implementation may begin. So don't hold your breath just yet.

AT&T Aims To Improve Network As iPad Nears Launch

Another day, another story about AT&T's network. It seems that theiPhone's network is almost as big a story as the iPhone itself, simplybecause in America you can't have one without the other, at least notwithout a jailbreak, a T-Mobile SIM card and a willingness to livewithout 3G. There have always been rumors that AT&T fears theeventual loss of the iPhone's exclusivity, and it's beginning to lookmore and more like Verizon Wireless will be picking up the Applesmartphone soon and providing lots of users with a good reason toswitch.

And now, the iPad is coming too. In around a month, the AT&T 3Gversion of the iPad will launch, putting even more users on the networkwith a reason to consume massive amounts of data. In order to make surethat the network isn't continually overwhelmed, the company isreportedly looking to beef up their network. According to reports,AT&T execs set up a meeting [UPDATE: we've learned these meetings happen on a regular basis, and are not necessarily a reaction to speculation involving the iPhone on Verizon] in December of 2009 that laid out a100-day plan to "dramatically improve the company's network indensely-populated cities," and since then, they have added "new networkspectrum to better handle traffic, repositioned antennas toimprove reception in office towers and wired more neighborhood celltowers with faster connections."

But one has to wonder: is it too little, too late? AT&T's networkhas taken a beating in recent years, and many people already view itvery negatively. Many won't join AT&T simply because of "whatthey've heard." Even AT&T's commercials don't give you a sense ofimprovement; they simply say that AT&T "covers" 97% of America, butat no point does it speak of reliability of improvements in callquality. With the Verizon iPhone likely coming in 6-12 months, doesAT&T even have enough time to improve their network *and* convincepeople that they have put in the legwork needed to keep existing iPhoneowners as customers? We kind of doubt it, but we'll never doubt themagic of marketing.

PAX East - Gamers and Geeks Gather 'Round The Tech

Last weekend gamers from all walks of life converged on Boston to strap in, lock-n-load, boot-up and get their frag on at the PAX East 2010 gamers conference.Â On hand were a number of large, big name hardware OEMs and game publishers, showing their wares to the game-crazed masses and members of the press that attended the show.Â From consoles to hand-helds and PC gaming, this show had just about something for everybody.Â Hailing from the northeast latitude ourselves, of course we decided to trot on down to Beantown to catch the buzz and see the sights. Sensory overload would have been an understatement, and though we didn't stick around for the all-night frag fests taking place at Boston's Hynes Convention Center (we had killer seats at the afternoon Bruins game, sorry...), we did get a chance to grab some footage of some of the more interesting tech demos on display at PAX.

Rather than rattle our gums to much on the subject, we'll let pictures and video tell the story for the most part, though we'll butt in as required of course...

Be sure to catch the Easter Egg from AMD right around the 5 minute mark in this video...

To be honest we were sort of stumped that Mark from AMD was so forthcoming with details as he demo'ed the new 6-core, yes six-core, Phenom II X6 processor.Â After all, we're on NDA as you're reading this, so hopefully this isn't one of those, "if I told ya, I'd have to kill ya" moments.Â If it is, unfortunately, you're all dead and so are we... and maybe Mark too.

AMD ATI Eyefinity 6 and The Forthcoming 6-Core Phenom II?

EVGA's GeForce GTX 480, Graphics Tuning Software and Dual Socket Xeon 5600 Goodness

EVGA had a few nice surprises up their collective sleeves as well.Â Here you can see a nicely pimped-out Maingear SHIFT PC with its vertically mounted motherboard orientation and dual EVGA GeForce GTX 480 cards running in SLI.Â Water-cooled and wired tight, this EVGA-equipped killer gaming rig, also was infused with EVGA's Graphics Tuning software for pushing the boundaries (or your luck?) with the GeForce GTX 480.Â Of course, if you're running the water-cooled EVGA GeForce GTX 480 FTW card (bottom row), you wouldn't have to worry nearly as much.Â Our buddy Joe from EVGA tells us their water-cooled GTX 480 runs around 50ÂºC under load; a far cry from the 95ÂºC temps we've seen in live action with stock cards.Â Finally, if you simply just need more cores, Scotty, there's the upcoming James T. Kirk enterprise-class EVGA Classified SR-2 motherboard to consider.Â Yep, that's dual-sockets with Xeon 5600s--12 cores, 24 threads--it's a spaceship of a motherboard indeed.

Mobile Gaming with Origin's EON and The Alienware M11x

And of course, mostly-mobile to ultra-portable gaming notebooks of various and sundry flavors were on hand. We're specifically fond of the tasty morsel now known as the Alienware M11x (right) and we're lining up our evaluation of that little bad boy in the next few days actually. Finally, Origin PC has been bending our ear so much lately about their new line of gamer-targeted notebooks, that we had to get up close an personal with their new EON.Â This is the bodacious EON18 but there's an EON15 on tap too and we plan to put that through its paces as well at some point.

Patriot's 256GB Sandforce-based Inferno and Zotac's Z-Box

Finally, we wound things down with our buds from Patriot memory and Zotac.Â Patriot was of course pimping their new line of Disco Inferno SSDs (ok, we made the Disco part up), that are weighing in at a stout 256GB capacity and driven by the ever-snappy line of Sandforce SSD controllers.Â We'll see what we can do about lining that up in the days ahead as well.Â And last but not least Zotac was showing the kind of gaming capability that can be had in their svelte, NVIDIA-Ion enabled Z-Box.Â Home theater PC?Â Sure, drop in a USB DVD drive and you're there; or better yet, just stream it.

That's it for our nickle tour of PAX East!Â Thanks to the fellas over at Penny Arcade for letting us in and allowing us to cut the line waiting at the entrance on Saturday.Â We didn't have enough eight-sided dice on hand to muster that kind of queue for very long, though we're glad we took the time to grab our press credentials and check out this very well organized gaming geek extravaganza.Â

One-Heck-Of-A SUPER HOT DEAL!

Hey everybody, Fry's has a superb CPU/mobo deal HERE that you might want to check-out! The CPU is the top-dawg Phenom ll X4 965 Black Edition, and the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA785-GMT-UD2. The price for this combo deal is only $164.99, and then there is a mail-in rebate (dammit) to get another $15 off of that price. If you're wondering how good of a deal this really is, consider that NewEgg wants $189 for the retail CPU and $90 for the mobo. I don't know if the Fry's CPU is the 140 watt or the 125 watt version, and I'm sure that you'll need to purchase an aftermarket heatsink/fan. It's a heck of a deal!

*EDIT* - This deal looks to be available only at the store level.

New member, wanted to say hi
hello all Just wanted to say hi, and thanks

Disney Targets iPad Users With New Apps

Disney is jumping on the iPad bandwagon with a slew of new apps and content. First up is the ABC Player app which lets you watch your favorite ABC shows over a Wi-Fi connection or purchase episodes through iTunes. Next up are two new interactive Toy Story read-along apps as well as a custom version of Disney.com. The new Marvel Comics App includes over 500 of Marvelâ€™s greatest comic books. There are a number of other apps as well including Fairies Fly on iPad, ESPN ScoreCenter XL, and FamilyFun Craft Finder on iPad.

DISNEY, ABC, ESPN AND MARVEL TO OFFER NEW APPLICATIONS AND CONTENT FOR APPLEâ€™S IPAD

New ABC Player App Enables Users to Watch Full Episodes of ABC Programming

Disney to Launch New Interactive Books Exclusively for the iPad and a
Custom Version of Disney.com Featuring Exclusive Video Content

ESPN ScoreCenter XL to Provide New Premium Features Exclusively for the iPad

Marvel Comics App to Debut on iPad

Access to over 500 of Marvelâ€™s Greatest Titles including Iron Man,
Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man and Hulk

As part of its ongoing strategy to provide original creative content where and how consumers want it, Disney will offer applications from all of its businesses on the new Apple iPad.

The ABC Player app extends the reach of ABC.comâ€™s full episode player onto the iPad. iPad users will have the ability to watch free, ad-supported episodes from approximately 20 popular ABC series through a Wi-Fi connection. The application will also allow iPad users to purchase downloads of episodes via the iTunes store. The ABC iPad app brings the full experience of ABC.comâ€™s Emmy Award-winning full episode player to a touch-screen, handheld device for the first time. Additionally, the ABC.com site is now optimized for the iPad, complete with full-functionality for all its features, including short-form video.

Disney Publishing Worldwide has built two original â€œToy Storyâ€ read-along apps for the iPad, both combining Disney stories and unique activities with cutting edge technology. Each â€œToy Storyâ€ read-along is an immersive multimedia experience â€“ the books feature video from the feature films, karaoke and voice record features, the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, songs from the movies, original games, and even an interactive coloring feature that lets kids finger-paint with up to 10 fingers on the screen. The â€œToy Storyâ€ app is free and the â€œToy Story 2â€ app is $8.99 and comes with a one month free subscription to disneydigitalbooks.com. In addition, new â€œDisney Princess,â€ â€œPhineas & Ferb,â€ â€œWinnie the Poohâ€ and â€œToy Story 3â€ apps will go live on the iPad later this spring.

Disney Online has built a custom iPad version of its flagship website, Disney.com, which focuses on exclusive video content. iPad videos featured at launch include new scenes from highly-anticipated Disney films â€œThe Sorcererâ€™s Apprenticeâ€ and â€œPrince of Persia: The Sands of Time,â€ full-episodes of popular Disney Channel and Disney XD series â€œHannah Montana,â€ â€œWizards of Waverly Place,â€ â€œSuite Life on Deckâ€ and â€œPhineas & Ferb,â€ and a new Muppets music video, â€œStand by Me.â€

Marvel Comics App includes over 500 of Marvelâ€™s greatest comic books, from classic stories to modern tales, featuring Iron Man, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor and more of the worldâ€™s most popular Super Heroes. The Marvel Comics App offers the option to preview three pages from each available comic before purchasing and a cutting edge recommendation engine for every fan to find a comic theyâ€™re sure to love. The app also arms fans with a handy comic shop locator, allowing them to find their local retailerâ€™s address and phone number and then journey even further into the Marvel Universe. To further enhance the mobile reading experience on the iPad, the Marvel Comics App features multiple viewing modes, taking readers panel-by-panel through the comic book in a smooth, action-packed progression using just the swipe of a finger.

â€œThe iPad provides a very compelling consumer experience, and we are pleased to have new forms of original, interactive content on this great device,â€ said Bob Iger, President and CEO, The Walt Disney Company.

In addition to the ABC player and â€œToy Storyâ€ read-along apps, Disney, ABC and ESPN will launch the following applications:

Fairies Fly on iPad -- Fly with the Fairies and discover a world of adventure and fun like never before! Enhanced with visually stunning graphics and new art just for the iPad, this magical game captures the excitement of the changing seasons in a place called Pixie Hollow.
JellyCar 2 on iPad -- The sequel to one of last yearâ€™s top games, JellyCar 2 comes fully loaded with more than 30 levels, power-ups, new Two-Player Modes: Tether and Race. Jelly Car is the hit driving platform game developed by Walaber. The game is about driving a squishy car through squishy worlds to reach the exit.
Phineas and Ferb Arcade on iPad -- Inspired by Disney Channel and DXDâ€™s #1 animated program for kids 6-11 comes Phineas and Ferb Arcade. Play with your favorite characters in three simple, silly mini games: win the surfing trophy in Cowabunga Candance, test your secret agent skills in Agent Pâ€™s Hideout, and build a mountain in Sâ€™no Problem!
ESPN Pinball on iPad -- ESPN Pinball offers a new twist on classic arcade gameplay. ESPN Pinball is packed with features including minigames, unique basketball sound effects and play by play voiceover by ESPN SportsCenter host Jay Harris.
ESPN ScoreCenter XL -- ESPN introduces ScoreCenter XL, the ultimate game companion experience for the iPad. The original, award-winning ESPN ScoreCenter app for iPhone and iPod touch devices -- downloaded more than 5 million times since it first launched in June -- has been optimized for the iPadâ€™s interface and enhanced with new, premium features. These include live play-by-play, video highlights, game summaries and statistics, box scores and standings. In addition, ESPN ScoreCenter XL offers personalized news and video on â€œmyTeams,â€ and the leading headlines and highlights of the day available through â€œTop Events.â€
FamilyFun Craft Finder on iPad -- The Disney FamilyFun Craft Finder App provides instant access to FamilyFun's library of great craft ideas for the whole family. The iPad version features includes more crafts and full-size pictures. Whether youâ€™re looking to make a Carryall Castle or a Pipe Cleaner Penguins, you'll find ideas for any occasion or season.

For more details and to see a demo of the ABC Player on the iPad, go to www.abc.com/ipad.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

IT News HeadLines (HotHardware) 04/04/2010

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