FreedomPop expanding free LTE service to tablets
Forbes is reporting that
FreedomPop, the gratis wireless broadband startup, is planning to release a 4G device designed specifically for tablets. The company's "LTE Clip" will attach to an iPad or Android tablet and transform WiFi-only devices into 4G-capable hotspots (so long as you're in an area with Sprint service). Weighing in at 2.5 ounces, the Clip will act as a mobile hotspot, supporting eight connected devices with up to six hours of battery life. Similar to its current model, FreedomPop will reportedly spot up to 500MB of data for free each month, with the ability to raise the cap via a paid add-on package or by using credits earned for inviting friends to join the service. We have yet to receive direct confirmation from the company, but
Forbes suggests that we'll see the LTE Clip in the latter half of 2013 -- until then, it may be worth checking out
the rest of the FreedomPop lineup.
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Source: Forbes
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Twitch goes premium with Turbo: no ads and priority support for $9 a month
Twitch has been a popular destination for video game-voyeurs for some time. Now, to boost its bottom line and please the more ardent ad-haters out there, the service is rolling out a premium tier of service dubbed Twitch Turbo. For $8.99 per-month customers not only get to avoid being bombarded with product pitches, they'll also enjoy an enhanced chat tool with custom emoticons, colors and a special badge identifying them as a paying subscriber. Not to mention priority customer support. Those who don't want to cough up a monthly fee can still watch all their favorite e-sport broadcasts for free, so don't get all panicky. The launch follows recent moves by the platform to expand support to
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and promises to support
OUYA when it starts shipping. Hit up the source link to sign up for yourself.
Filed under:
Gaming
Comments
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Twitch
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Rich notifications for Chrome OS, possible unified messaging app break cover
Developer François Beaufort
gave us a peek at a new notification center in
Mountain View's browser last week, and now he's given us a glimpse of what rich notifications could look like in Chrome OS. In the screenshot, a pop-up sprouts from the lower menu bar and packs a collection of notices regarding missed calls, new messages and notifications from Google+. Beaufort playfully says he doesn't know what the toolbar icon made up of four word bubbles is, but we wouldn't be surprised if it were a unified messaging app. Here's hoping Beaufort drops some more clues or Page and Co. confirm our suspicions soon.
Filed under:
Google
Comments
Via: The Verge
Source: François Beaufort (Google+)
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E3 College Game Competition to let student finalists shine on show floor
If you're a talented college student hoping to create the next
Halo or
Call of Duty, you could have a chance to show your chops at this year's
E3. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the group behind the annual video game conference, has just announced the E3 College Game Competition, where you and your school could be one of five finalists to have a spotlight on the show floor. Around 400 higher education institutions -- primarily those that offer video game courses -- can each submit one game to represent their school in the competition. Applicants can begin submitting the story and assets of a playable game starting March 15th, with a final deadline of April 19th. The finalists will be contacted on May 10th and the winner will be announced at the show itself. It's a rare opportunity to rub shoulders with video game VIPs, so we suggest aspiring creators convince their universities to get on board and contact the ESA for all the challenge's rules and requirements.
Filed under:
Gaming
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Source: E3,
Entertainment Software Association
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AT&T rebrands U-verse Live TV as Mobile TV, plans start at $10 per month
Earlier today
AT&T announced the rebranding of its
U-verse Live TV service, changing its name to Mobile TV. To go along with the name change, the carrier now offers direct account billing, enhanced picture quality over LTE and a slightly reduced price tag of $10 per month. In addition to Mobile TV's stock programming from ABC Mobile, Disney, ESPN Mobile and Fox News, customers can purchase one of three premium packages for an extra $5 per month. This trio of add-ons offers kid-friendly programming, content from BET or select Spanish-language networks. So, if it's your heart's desire to watch reruns of
Keeping up with the Kardashians on your smartphone, Android and iOS users can download AT&T's Mobile TV app from their respective marketplace, while Windows Phone devices ship with the software pre-loaded.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Home Entertainment,
Wireless,
HD,
Mobile,
AT&T
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Via: TNW
Source: AT&T
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Leaked T-Mobile doc pins BlackBerry Z10, Galaxy S III LTE for March 27th launch
Hankering for some fresh
T-Mobile devices with LTE connectivity? According to a leaked roadmap courtesy of
Mr. Blurrycam and
TmoNews, Magenta will satisfy that craving on March 27th with the BlackBerry Z10, Samsung Galaxy Exhibit (in both pre-paid and monthly plan varieties) and the
Sonic 2.0 LTE mobile hotspot. An LTE flavor of the Galaxy S III is also penciled in for March 27th, but the roadmap notes it could be available starting April 3rd instead. February's only just begun, but T-Mobile seems to have its springtime planned out pretty well ahead of time.
Filed under:
Mobile,
T-Mobile
Comments
Source: TmoNews
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HTC teases 'new sound and camera experience' coming in 2013
After publishing a self-promoting infographic that takes a look at the history of photography, it's pretty obvious that HTC has something up its sleeve concerning smartphone cameras. While the company didn't carve out clear cut details of what it has in store, the popular Taiwanese phone maker did give a vague idea of when things will transpire. The final entry in the company's little history lesson concludes in current times with an entry stating "HTC kicks off a new sound and camera experience in 2013." While we're really not into playing guessing games, we can't help but wonder if the firm's
exclusive relationship with Beats will have an impact on the audio portion of its plans. Hopefully HTC's
pre-MWC festivities will shed a bit of light on what the company has been working on.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Cameras,
Mobile,
HTC
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Source: HTC
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Microsoft launches 4Afrika initiative with Huawei W1 variant, TV white space broadband project
Following the lead of co-founder
Bill Gates Microsoft is taking more interest in Africa, announcing its 4Afrika Initiative with a stated aim of improving the continent's global competitiveness. There are several plans under way as a part of the project, with one of the first being a new Windows Phone 8 device from Microsoft and Huawei. Pictured above, the Huawei 4Afrika phone is a specially tailored version of the existing
Ascend W1 meant as an affordable option (no price announced yet) for first time smartphone buyers that also comes preloaded with apps created by African developers for African consumers, and a subsection of the existing Windows Phone Store that will continue to focus on "locally-relevant" apps and content. It will be available in blue, red, black and white when it launches later this month in Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa.
Another part of the push is a pilot project Microsoft is working on with the Kenyan government and Indigo Telecom which combines solar powered base stations using
TV white space technology to offer affordable wireless internet access. Meant to bring broadband to places that currently lack even electricity, the deployment is called Mawingu, connecting a healthcare clinic and several schools in its initial test. After
several years of pushing the tech, which takes advantage of unused TV broadcast spectrum, Microsoft hopes to convince other nations to make the legal/regulatory changes to start using it as well. There's a press release after the break with more details, as well as a video and more information available beyond the source links.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Wireless,
Mobile,
Microsoft
Comments
Source: 4Afrika,
Windows Phone Blog
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Silent Circle's encryption app could revolutionize mobile privacy, if Uncle Sam lets it
If CEO Mike Janke's boasts are to be believed, his company Silent Circle and its eponymous
encryption apps could stand to "revolutionize... privacy and security." And he's willing to push the tech forward at all costs, even if that means raising the ire of the federal government. While the feds have yet to officially weigh in on his startup's novel software -- and Janke's certain they will -- others who've tested the
peer-to-peer service's new Silent Text app claim its benefits for human rights activism worldwide far outweigh its potential use as a criminal aid.
This isn't the company's first crack at the mobile security space, though. A prior version of Silent Circle's subscription-based app was released last fall, granting Android and iOS users secure transmission of texts, as well as voice and video calls. But now, the controversial app in question has been beefed up, adding the ability to send encrypted files (up to 60MB) with a set "burn" (read: deletion) time. And since Silent Circle doesn't host the required encryption key on its servers, there's no way for the company to access users' data. What's more, the company's also pledged to
not cooperate with surveillance requests from law enforcement, nor will it compromise the service's integrity by introducing a "backdoor" for the FBI.
That's a mighty strong stance to take against Uncle Sam, but Janke's not concerned. If the United States government does eventually prove an impediment, he's ready to move Silent Circle's shop to a locale that understands "...every [citizens'] right to communicate... without the fear of it being... used by criminals, stored by governments, and aggregated by companies that sell it." Based on that quote alone, we'd say Janke's what you might call a
freedom fighter. For now, the souped up app's set to launch on the App Store February 8th, with an Android release to follow soon after. When it lands, we'd advise you to get it while it's hot -- preferably, before Capitol Hill deems it
too hot to handle.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Tablets,
Wireless,
Software,
Mobile
Comments
Source: Slate
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Bloomberg: Facebook once more building a friend-tracking mobile app
Facebook
briefly dallied last year with the idea of letting us track our friends while on the road, only to be spooked off for reasons unknown. It might have developed enough nerve for another shot, according to
Bloomberg. The social network is purportedly building a smartphone app that would locate nearby contacts and, unlike last year's Find Friends Nearby, would run in the background where it's supported -- making it more useful, if not very comforting to privacy advocates. Not much else is mentioned besides features that would "help [Facebook] profit" from its
growing mobile base. The company itself certainly isn't saying anything official at this stage. If the app arrives in mid-March as claimed, however, Apple's
Find My Friends and Google's
Latitude won't have our attention (and location) to themselves.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Internet,
Facebook
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Source: Bloomberg
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Must See HDTV (February 4th - 10th)
It's finally over -- pro football is done for the year. In its absence we have a number of big returning shows to look forward to, including favorites like
Community and
The Walking Dead. Also of note, Syfy will air
Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome this weekend, a show that
already premiered months ago on YouTube (click
here to watch it now), while
Dead Space 3 arrives on your gaming system of choice. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.
Community
October 19th is Thursday night. Correct your calendars as necessary. (See video after the break if you require an explanation)
(February 7th/October 19th, NBC, 8PM
The Walking Dead
Season three of AMC's juggernaut has been rolling along well so far, we'll join our favorite group of zombie apocalypse survivors for the second half of the story Sunday night -- see the trailer after the break. Also worth remembering for fans is that the
Talking Dead recap show has been extended to an hour and will air immediately after the episode at 10PM.
(February 10th, AMC, 9PM)
Top Gear
The best part about season 19? BBC and BBC America have narrowed the window between when episodes air in the UK and the US, so we'll finally get to enjoy content while it's still fresh. Check out BBC America tonight for the season premiere.
(February 4th, BBC America, 9PM)
Filed under:
Home Entertainment,
HD
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The Daily Roundup for 02.04.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
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Lenovo delays ThinkPad Helix, eyes a spring release
If you were biding your time until late February to pick up a
ThinkPad Helix, we've got some bad news: Lenovo's revealed on Facebook that the convertible
Ultrabook has been pushed back to a March or April release. For a refresher, the Helix packs an 11.6-inch 1080p Gorilla Glass display and carries a $1,499 price tag in its base configuration. Mum's the word on what's forced the flexible hardware closer to spring, but we've reached out to Lenovo for confirmation and more details.
[Thanks, D]
Filed under:
Laptops,
Tablets,
Lenovo
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Source: Lenovo (Facebook)
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Dyson's latest AirBlade dries your freshly washed hands straight from the Tap
While it was never the most
original take on powerful commercial hand driers, the
Dyson AirBlade has nevertheless been an admirable piece of public restroom kit. Now seven years since its official debut, the company's refreshed the super-charged water dissipator to be 5.5-pounds lighter, dubbing it the AirBlade mk2. Taking things a step further, a new V-shaped model can output the same 420mph blower speed in a package that's roughly sixty-percent smaller.
Dyson didn't stop there, though, as its Tap model brings the tech straight to the faucet. The stainless steel enclosure houses the same 1,400-watt DC brushless motor as the previous models, dispersing HEPA-filtered "sheets" of air through a single laser-cut slit in each of two wings that extend from the Tap's sides. The silenced, carbon fiber-enclosed motor is positioned away from the sink whether it's on a wall or a counter, leaving only the streamlined faucet in view. More interesting yet, we're told it reaches 92,000RPM in about 0.7 seconds! Of course, the system is totally automated, with infrared sensors for the water and dryer portions. Sure, over-engineered does come to mind, but we can't say we wouldn't be giddy to
get our mitts under one at some point.
As it stands, hand-washing connoisseurs can begin placing orders for the Tap come February 5th, and the others in May. For now, you can get your hands
dirty (clean?) by clicking past the break for the obligatory detailed press release and video demo.
Filed under:
Misc,
Household
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Samsung to put $1.1 billion toward new innovation center, business creation
You didn't think Samsung would rest on its
smartphone laurels, did you? The company has had a
profitable year, to say the least, and today it announced plans to put some $1.1 billion toward an effort to build a "global engine to accelerate innovation and to drive new business creation." A new Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC) with three offices worldwide will allow the company's own R&D departments to interface with entrepreneurs outside the company, in addition to providing mentorship for new businesses. According to Sammy, the SSIC will center on innovation in "mobility, cloud and the Internet of Things." Where exactly is that $1.1 billion going, you ask? A $100 million Samsung Catalyst Fund will focus on developing components, while $1 billion will go toward funding new technologies and business models. Later this year, the SamsungCreate Challenge will call for innovators to create technology that improves lives -- using the company's own device solutions architecture platform, of course.
Filed under:
Internet,
Software,
Samsung
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ASUS FonePad reaches certification, may meld an Atom tablet with Android
No, not
PadFone. FonePad. According to Indonesia's wireless regulator
Postel, ASUS is trying to certify a FonePad K004 tablet that would switch up device names, not to mention create its fair share of mix-ups. But what is it? Based on that K004 codename and a match with a Thai retailer's listing,
Notebook Italia believes it's none other than the recently leaked
ME371MG, an
Atom Z2420-based, 7-inch tablet that would run
Jelly Bean. It might also carry 3G and justify its name through built-in phone functionality. We're skeptical when the specs aren't confirmed, and don't entirely line up -- there's just 8GB of space in the retail entry versus the originally claimed 16GB, as an example. If there's any fuel to the fire, however, the new round of
MeMo Pads will eventually have some Intel-powered (if confusingly-named) company.
Filed under:
Tablets,
ASUS
Comments
Via: Notebook Italia,
Blog of Mobile
Source: Postel,
Digiland (cached)
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Engadget Expand speakers, Round Four: Boxee, Samsung, Formlabs and LUNAR, oh my!
Thanks for joining us as we continue our unveil of the speaker lineup for
Expand in San Francisco this March 16-17. We've got four more brilliant folks who will be gracing our stage to share with you:
- Idan Cohen: Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Boxee
- Dennis Miloseski: Head of Design Studio, Samsung Design America
- Maxim Lobovsky: Co-founder, Formlabs
- Gerard Furbershaw: Co-founder and COO, LUNAR
These smart speakers will be joining the action-packed roster we've announced so far:
- Chris Anderson: CEO, 3D Robotics and former editor-in-chief, Wired
- Yancey Strickler: Co-founder and Head of Community, Kickstarter
- Scott Croyle: Vice President of Design, HTC
- Tom Rivellini: Mars Science Laboratory Entry Descent and Landing Lead Mechanical Engineer at NASA/JPL
- Julie Uhrman: Founder and CEO, OUYA
- Ryan Block: Co-founder of gdgt
- Michael Laine: President, LiftPort Group
- Avi Reichental: President and CEO, 3D Systems
- Walter de Brouwer: CEO and Founder, Scanadu
- Veronica Belmont: Co-host, Tekzilla
- Gene Munster: Research Analyst - Devices & Internet, Piper Jaffray
- Steve Cousins: CEO, Willow Garage
So what are you waiting for?! Go on with your bad self and
get those tickets now!
And don't forget...
- You have until this Friday, February 8 to submit your project for a chance to win $20,000 in our Insert Coin competition!
- If you're a company that would like to work with us on an exhibition or sponsorship level, please drop us a line at sponsors at engadget dot com (DIYers and small startups, please ask us about our new Indie Corner option!)
- If you're interested in speaking at the event, please contact expand at engadget dot com to inquire
- If you're a member of the media interested in covering Expand, please contact engadget at shiftcomm.com for more information.
Filed under:
Announcements,
Meta
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Droid RAZR M 'blue steel edition' now available at Best Buy
What's black and white and pink all over? Well, not too long ago, the answer to that was the
Droid RAZR M. As of today, however,
Motorola's nearly bezel-less Jelly Bean handset will also be pretty in
platinum. Available as a special edition for Best Buy, the Verizon-locked device has been given a steely makeover, but that's not to say the M's been scrubbed of all its flair. Turn the phone on its side and you'll note its hardware keys now pop with a blue hue. Apart from the cosmetic overhaul, not much else on the 4.3-inch device has changed. So, if you're still game for a solid Android mid-ranger, you can snag this freshly embellished phone for $50 on a two-year contract at the source below.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Wireless,
Mobile,
Verizon
Comments
Via: Droid-Life
Source: Best Buy
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Amazon discounts 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD models as part of Valentine's Day promo
Amazon clearly doesn't have a problem with slashing the prices of its 8.9-inch
Kindle Fire HD from
time to
time. As such, don't color us surprised after the mega online retailer announced that it's kicking off
Valentine's Day festivities by offering up to a $50 discount on the 8.9-inch Fire HDs. For starters, the WiFi-only slate is set to be up for grabs starting at a decent $269 for the 16GB model, while the higher-end,
LTE-equipped Kindle will be tagged at a pricier $449 (with 32GB of built-in storage), which isn't too bad an offer when compared to the usual entry prices of $299 and $499, respectively. The Amazon deals run from today through February 8th, so there's still a little time to find out if your significant other would enjoy one of these -- or, if all else fails, perhaps you could just add some Fire to your personal gadget collection.
Filed under:
Tablets,
Amazon
Comments
Source: Amazon
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UK Ministry of Defence puts Black Hornet spy copter in Afghani skies
It's been a few years since news of
Prox Dynamics' Black Hornet mini-copter has swung our way. But now it appears the wee reconnaissance
drones have moved out of the prototype phase and into the war zone. As part of the
British government's £20 million contract with the Norway-based outfit and defense contractor Marlborough Communications, 160 of these camera-equipped spy copters have been commissioned, with a portion of those units employed by troops stationed in Afghanistan. That might seem like a huge sum to pay for a fleet of remote-controllable war toys, but these 4 x 1-inch copters do present a definite advantage: they can deliver full video and stills, ably maneuver in high winds and help navigate troops past "insurgent firing points" and open terrain. All of which has the Ministry of Defence quite pleased, even prompting one Minister to call the fleet of Black Hornets a "key component" of the MoD's current budget. That's not surprising really, considering the governmental arm's plans to pump nearly £20 billion into the development of similar tech for its ISS (Information Systems and Services) and ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) programs. So, as of today, we have mini copters with cameras. But, tomorrow always brings the promise of lasers...
Comments
Via: Associated Press
Source: Ministry of Defence
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Microsoft Blink Windows Phone Lens app gives users perfect photographical timing (update)
It's no secret that Microsoft and Nokia are aiming to make Windows Phone the OS of choice when it comes to mobile photography, whether through
optical image stabilization or the
Lens app lineup. The latest camera augmentation code to come down the pike is Blink, an app built by
Microsoft Research that brings a special burst mode to WP8 devices. Blink works by snapping a series of 16 shots each time you take a photo, and lets you choose which picture's worth keeping. It's an an excellent tool for those looking to take action photos, but there's a catch -- the pictures taken by Blink are of less-than-impressive quality, with a max resolution of 800 x 488. That said, if such an imaging safety net sounds good to you, there's a video showing it off in action after the break, and you can grab the app at the source below.
Update: It seems that the images Blink produced on our
Samsung ATIV Odyssey are not representative of the app's true capabilities. One of the app's creators reached out to tell us that Blink is set to output images that are 1280 x 720, and the glitch we unwittingly discovered is being investigated.
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Software,
Mobile,
Microsoft
Comments
Via: All About Windows Phone
Source: Windows Phone Store
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Samsung President BK Yoon: 'Three Samsung TVs are sold every second'
With every second that ticks by,
Samsung sells three TVs. Find that claim a bit dubious? You shouldn't, especially when you consider the source: company prez BK Yoon. Speaking at a press conference in Monte Carlo focused on the multinational's home appliance division,
TechRadar reports that Yoon tossed out that figure in reference to the company's living room dominance. Yoon also went on to highlight the $184 billion in sales Samsung raked in last year, though, according to its
2013 earnings report, TV sales were flat year-over-year. Still, that demand must be sufficient enough to have those sets selling like hotcakes. And with the growing popularity of Galaxy-branded phones, tablets and, yes, even
cameras, it seems Samsung's bottom line may continue to see even further padding.
Filed under:
Home Entertainment,
HD,
Samsung
Comments
Source: TechRadar
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Chrome and Firefox now talking to each other through WebRTC chats (video)
The dream for
WebRTC is to offer truly software-independent video and voice chat, but it hasn't worked out that way given limited support. Google and Mozilla have just showed us that it's at last possible to reach across the aisle, provided both sides are running the newest browsers. Should one user run
Chrome 25 beta and the other run a nightly build of
Firefox, a flag switch will let the two sides hold a video conversation solely through a web app. This doesn't mean we're about to toss out Google Talk or Skype, mind you: even when finished versions of the browsers appear, we'll need both a completed WebRTC standard and the web developer support to see broader usage. Nonetheless, it's clear that cross-browser chat is at least on the horizon.
Filed under:
Internet,
Software,
Google
Comments
Source: Chromium Blog,
Mozilla
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Slickdeals' best in tech for February 4th: 55-inch Panasonic Viera 3D HDTV and Lumix DMC-GF3X
Looking to save some coin on your tech purchases? Of course you are! In this round-up, we'll run down a list of the freshest frugal buys, hand-picked with the help of the folks at Slickdeals. You'll want to act fast, though, as many of these offerings won't stick around long.
Too busy relaxing and
football watching to do any gadget shopping this weekend? Fret not! We've got a handful of tech deals to help you part with those hard-earned funds. The biggest discounts this time around slash the prices of a 55-inch
Panasonic Viera 3D HDTV and Panasonic Lumix
DMC-GF3X. Of course, there's more than just that duo to consider, so make the jump beyond the break for further inspection of all the goods.
Filed under:
Cameras,
GPS,
Home Entertainment,
Storage
Comments
Source: Slickdeals
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Tweetbot for iOS adds in-line Flickr and Vine viewing
Whatever the platform, Tapbots'
Tweetbot is known for supporting in-line content viewing that doesn't always appear in other Twitter clients -- it's a survivor of the
Instagram-Twitter fallout, for example. With the launch of version 2.7 updates for iOS, the app may have microblog media well and truly covered. The upgrade adds easy
Flickr viewing, to accommodate
Instagram exiles, as well as quick peeks at
Vine's 6-second video loops. Third-party app integration likewise expands its boundaries: links can now open in either 1Password or
Chrome, instead of Safari. Both the iPad and iPhone releases are live today, so hit the relevant links to see the imagery you might have been missing.
[In-photo image credit: Steve Kovach,
Vine]
Filed under:
Cellphones,
Tablets,
Mobile
Comments
Via: Tweetbot (Twitter)
Source: App Store (iPhone),
(iPad)
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