The same day Samsung unveiled the pricing and availability of its new lineup of 3D TVs for the U.S., Sony revealed that its 3D sets will arrive June 10, at first in Japan and soon after in other regions. Rival Panasonic's first 3D TVs begin selling Wednesday in Best Buy stores in the U.S. LG's 3D lineup arrives in May, while Vizio's is set for August.
Sony's first model will have a 46-inch screen for 350,000 yen or $3,875. That's steep compared to the non-3D equivalent TV Sony already sells for $2,100, but it is new technology. Each set will come with two pairs of 3D glasses.
All three manufacturers have been trying to ride the hype and growing popularity of 3D movies in the theater. "Avatar 3D," the highest grossing movie ever, and the recently opened "Alice in Wonderland 3D," which had an impressive first-weekend box office take, show that people are interested in 3D movies. But the test will be if they want it in their homes. Besides the fact that the sets are relatively expensive, there are currently limited options for watching 3D content at home. More 3D movies are arriving, along with 3D-capable Blu-ray Disc players, but broadcast and cable content are still in transition to 3D. Earlier this year, Sony announced partnerships with Discovery for a 3D TV network, and ESPN has plans to add a channel of 3D content sometime this year.
At 4.01 inches long by 2.15 inches wide by 0.55 inch deep, the W002 is smaller than the iPhone and it adds extra physical controls, but it does its best to resemble its idol. You'll notice the black casing with silver trim, the dominant display, and the slit-shaped speaker at the top of the phone. It's also a bit lighter than the iPhone (4.23 ounces versus 4.7 ounces), but it has a solid feel in the hand.
The 2.8-inch display is too small for a touch-screen device (we consider 3 inches to be the bare minimum). What's more, the QVGA resolution and color support won't blow you away. Most graphics were rather splotchy and the screen disappears in direct light. The resistive display also is rather difficult to use. You're given a stylus in the box and you can adjust the calibration, but neither tool seems to help with the accuracy. When tapping, swiping, and scrolling through lists, you'll need to make firm, deliberate moves if you want the screen to register your touch. You can adjust the wallpaper, screensaver, backlight time, and brightness, and you can turn off the accelerometer. Needless to say, there's no multitouch.
the menu design is taken straight from the iPhone. A series of icons sit directly on the main standby screen, thus alleviating the need for any subfolders. But what about those icons! We were astounded at just how closely some of them resemble their Apple counterparts. The Contacts, Phone, Photos, Camera, Notes, Mail, and Clock icons are the worst offenders while the Calendar, Map, Text, and Calculator icons show only the tinniest differences. In fact, the only improvement over the iPhone is that the menu will show in landscape mode. The menu spans three pages, but swiping between them wasn't easy. We don't get the point of copying the icon designs. It's not the iPhone, so why bother to imitate it so closely?
With its rectangular touch controls and five shortcut icons (for favorite contacts, recent calls, full contact list, keypad, and voice mail access), the W002's phone dialer interface is another iPhone rip-off. The numbers on the touch controls are relatively large, but the letters are tiny. The QWERTY keyboard is much too small as well. You can't comfortably use your fingers so we had to resort to the stylus. Seriously, is this 2001? Alternatively, if you like a challenge you even can use the handwriting recognition feature.
Below the display are three controls: a home button (again similar to the iPhone), and Call and End controls. The latter two aren't completely necessary since you can place and end calls on the screen. Yet, we were glad to have them since they also double as soft keys for commands that appear in the bottom-left and bottom-right corners of the display.
As I remember back in the days i didn't care much about sophisticated phones. To me a phone was all about texting, video and camera. Then I remembered when Motorola came out with the RAZR phone and everyone wanted to have it but it was very expensive. To have a RAZR it meant that you were trendy or up to date with the latest technology. But as technology advanced and phones became a necessity in our lives, it seemed like people were carrying their whole life in a small gadget. People started getting interested in complicated phones such as, the blackberry and sidekick and I started getting interested in the RARZ. When the IPHONE arrived to the market I never paid much attention to it because I wasn't to fund of the whole touch screen. First of all, because I wasn't used to it and secondly, I had acrylic nails which made it hard to use the touch screen. Fortunately, one day I lost my RAZR and I had no choice of getting a new phone.
This is when the moment of truth hit me! With the encouragement of my brother who had the IPHONE since it first came out I decided to "PLAY WITH THE BIG BOYS" and purchase an IPHONE. Let me tell you, it was a the best decision. I am so in love with my Iphone. I even gave up my every acrylic nails so I could be able to use the touch screen which it was new to me. I have everything I need on my phone. My emails, music, social networks, GPS, full Internet access, and applications that I love to use. For instance, I love to listen to relaxation music to fall asleep at night. For the past year, when I go to sleep at night I put on my relaxation music and wake up in the morning refreshed. I now see my Iphone, not only as a great technology but as a tool to embrace my daily routine.
There was a time when cameras weren’t even permitted in a delivery room during birth. Now, capturing the birth experience is the norm, while posting it online for all to see may be the next one. As I can remember, mothers would give birth and finally fathers were permitted to film the birth experience and after they would get together with their loved ones and share their video of their new born baby. Now in days, with the advance technology of cell phones or cameras and the use of social media, as soon as a mother gives birth she wants to share her baby with the world and post pictures or videos of their new born in the Internet
Last friday I received a text from one of my good friend that her water broke and she was on her way to the hospital. Two hours later she sent me a picture text with her new born baby boy. Later, she text the picture to friends and family and if that wasn't enough she uploaded the picture on Facebook to share it with her Facebook buddies. In my friend's case she didn't post a video on Youtube of her giving birth. However, Youtube has many childbirth videos that anyone can have access to. Some mothers post their videos to share with the "world" because they are very proud and other mothers, such as, first time mothers like to see these videos to have an idea and be ready when its their turn. In my opinion, it is reasonable that parents want to share this exciting moment with friends and family but posting a video in Youtube of them in the delivery room is very irresponsible.
It's amazing how technology has become important in our lives. For example,now you can go have a baby and if your friends and family can't make it to the delivery room, just upload a picture or a video from your phone or camera to the Internet so they can see it at work, school or anywhere in the world.
Facebook may pull in an excess of $1 billion in revenues, according to estimates and poking around on behalf of industry blog Inside Facebook. That's an increase from the same publication's estimate of $700 million last year.
Facebook board member Marc Andreessen said last year that he projected the company would break $500 million revenue in 2009, and that it had the potential to be a billion-dollar company already, but that it was acting conservatively.
(Naturally, Facebook says that as a privately held company it doesn't disclose its financials.)
What can Facebook credit this big jump in revenue to? It's all about the Social Ads program. Facebook ditched banner ads altogether earlier this year when its longstanding ad partnership with Microsoft ran out and has chosen to focus on its edgier "engagement ads" program instead--and often these are sold by encouraging brands to promote their presence on Facebook with ad space.
However accurate these new estimates from Inside Facebook are, Facebook is certainly making money--and it's making money because the Facebook "fan page" and complementary ad space to promote it are the hottest ticket in brand marketing right now. They won't always be, and Facebook will have to maintain that front-runner status in plenty of advertising innovations down the road as the industry evolves faster than ever.
Plus, it's well-known that some of the biggest buyers of Facebook advertisements are social-gaming companies looking to pull in more players: how long can they, in turn, keep up their place in the sun? Critics have long since pointed out the number of third-party companies that are effectively dependent on Facebook for traction and revenue, but the reverse is likely true as well.
Facebook has a potentially lucrative new revenue stream emerging when its virtual currency system, Facebook Credits, launches in full--Facebook takes a 30 percent cut of all proceeds. But the developer world isn't totally sold, and the product has grown far more niche from the days when it was rumored to be a "PayPal killer." As Inside Facebook points out, advertising is still the core of the company's business model. And here, it has to stay ahead of the pack more than ever.
When I was looking for articles to post on my blog, I came across this one which I found quite interesting. After the extraordinary film Avatar trusted 3D technology to a whole new level, industries in Hollywood are following to bring the third dimension to the home. Even the adult entertainment industry has been influenced as was revealed during the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. They introduced, Bad Girls, an online 3D porn library and entertainment system. According to the article, users navigate to the company's website using the remote, and can access movies that are currently available.
The system is priced at $4,000 and a subscription to their online video library is priced at $20 per month. The firm's package consists of a 60-inch Panasonic 3D TV; a compact computer server, and glasses that syncs with the screen to trick the audience’s eyes into viewing in 3D. This system can do more than provide a few minutes of entertainment on their website. It's a standard TV set, which can play regular HD content and Blu-ray movies and eventually 3-D.
Honestly, I think it's great that different types of film industries want to jump on the whole 3D technology concept. However, this particular entertainment system seems too expensive which I don't think that people will run to go purchase one. Then again, I'm not a "fan" of this type of film industry...maybe there are other people who would like to own one in their home!
