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It’s not hard to see that Americans love their mobile apps , and Nielsen can now tell us by how much. The average US smartphone owner circa mid-2012 now brandishes 41 apps, a pretty hefty 28 percent increase from a year earlier. They’re preferring native apps to the web, as well: they’re more likely to spend time with that direct port of Cut the Rope than the HTML5 version .
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Nielsen: Americans have 28 percent more mobile apps in 2012, look down on the web with disdain
The unique lineup of Translucent Mirror cameras from Sony just got a little bigger, as the company unveiled a brand new model: the Sony Alpha SLT-A37 (and we’ve just posted our hands-on preview!) Closely-related to the existing SLT-A35 model, the Sony A37 has a subtly restyled body that’s exactly the same size, but just a little heavier.
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Announced, previewed: Sony SLT-A37, the newest Translucent Mirror camera (with samples)
At the end of last week, Sigma Corp. of America announced firmware updates for both variants of its flagship digital SLR, the Sigma SD1 .
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Sigma updates SD1 firmware
Rugged, lifestyle cameras have really taken off over the last few years, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Olympus, an early pioneer in the field of lifeproof digital cameras. Even with camera phones gobbling up compact camera market share, these solidly-built fixed-lens cameras still offer a clear advantage over your smartphone: the ability to shoot in pretty-much any conditions where you as the photographer might dare to venture
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Olympus TG-1: Can a rugged compact offer SLR image quality?
One of the pleasures of photography is the solitude it offers. When I’m shooting on the street, I am enclosed in my own Henri Cartier-Bresson photo bubble space. Yet that space is too quiet.
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The Silence of the Cams: Why Don’t They Make Cameras with Built-In Music Players?
Looks like Canada just scored another mobile credit card payment system within its borders. It was back at CES when Intuit revealed its updated GoPayment dongle for our neighbors up north, and now the company’s announced that the service has officially launched in the region. Once you’re application is approved, you’ll get the card reader for free without any contract — and best of all, GoPayment works on a “pay-as-you-go” basis (3.3 percent if you enter the digits, 2.7 percent with a swipe)
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Intuit GoPayment goes live in Canada, more rectangular than Square
We’re afraid we’ve got some bad news. Transformer Prime users outside of America and Taiwan won’t receive a GPS dongle to address their tablet’s lackluster mapping performance . The company confirmed on its Italian Facebook page that while it was advertised in the US and Taiwan as having “Full GPS,” once issues were found, the European advertising was changed to read “GPS Locator” — in short: it’s not its problem, go away.
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ASUS won’t release Transformer Prime GPS dongle outside of America, Taiwan
Sony may be readying the Xperia Ion for US shores, but we haven’t heard any news yet on whether the phone-maker’s NXT family of phones will ever visit all those states. That’s where Brightstar comes in.
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Sony Xperia S, P and U to visit America, Brightstar to buy the tickets
Platypus’ GravityWorks Filter product counts on nature’s primal pull (gravity) to coax water through a filter, no pumping required. We gave it a test last month on California’s Lost Coast Trail
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Gravity Filter: Water Seeps Through Purifier to be ‘Cleaned’
While the main thing that would make Raspberry Pi’s diminutive $25 / $35 Linux setups better would be if we could get our hands on them faster , the team behind it is already working on improvements like this prototype camera seen above.
If you found yourself longing for the minor tweaks Samsung made to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany earlier this year, you may be in luck: Apple’s filed for a preliminary injunction against the slate stateside.
Let’s face it, whether you’re down at the laundromat or feeding the meter on a busy street, you can never find enough quarters when you need’em. Know what effectively sidesteps that lack of foresight? NFC , that’s what
We here at Engadget tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol’ Federal Communications Commission’s site. Since we couldn’t possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there individually, we’ve gathered up an exhaustive listing of every phone and / or tablet getting the stamp of approval over the last week. Enjoy! Continue reading FCC Fridays: May 18, 2012 FCC Fridays: May 18, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 23:52:00 EDT
Ready for your latest tour through the dense and meandering wording of patent applications ? Well, dig in, because it’s Microsoft’s turn to confuse lawyers the world over with this latest USPTO doc, submitted in November of 2010. The filing describes a computer-based program that would, essentially, analyze a primary device’s installed applications, cross-reference it with a different device and then either migrate that software batch or suggest similar apps to download on a secondary unit
Having spent a little time with it, we’re impressed with how much capability the engineers managed to pack into the Canon SX150 , at such an affordable price. As you’d expect given the bargain-basement ~$179 street, it’s not without its limitations, but considering what you get, it’s pretty amazing: A capable, well-built 14-megapixel digital camera with an optically stabilized 12x zoom lens and a good assortment of features
There’s been hints of it coming as early as February , but we now have a smoking gun at the FCC: the Galaxy S III is coming to T-Mobile. A Samsung SGH-T999 has popped up at the agency sporting newly added 1,700MHz AWS support that’s the telltale sign of a T-Mobile device, along with the T999 name itself (the T989 is the network’s Galaxy S II ). It also totes 850MHz and 1,900MHz WCDMA bands being used for HSPA+ data rather than just voice, a clue that the phone is ready for refarmed GSM spectrum
Sony must stay on top of Android updates for its tablets to remain relevant to consumers. (Credit: Sony) One must wonder why Sony cannot get out of the habit of playing a fragmented and behind-the-curve Android release schedule for its devices.
(Credit: CNET) Everyone who uses Instagram , EyeEm , or other photo-sharing apps knows how easy it can be to add effects to photos and make them look even better than the original.
It’s safe to say that anticipation is high for the upcoming Windows 8 Release Preview , which will become available in the first week of June.
Curious about the swim-bike-run sport of triathlon?