Exovolt stackable battery creates unlimited capacity

Billed as the first of its kind, Exovolt lets you build a tower of power for gadgets on the go. 

Exogear has created the Exovolt stackable batteries. Need more juice? Just add more Exovolt layers.(Credit: Exogear)

Don't have enough spare juice to charge all your iThings? The Exovolt Plus is a stackable battery pack with unlimited expandable capacity, according to maker Exogear.

The charger consists of a main 5,200 mAh lithium polymer battery and sub batteries that you can pile underneath it to create a battery stack. Each unit is 3.7 inches square and weighs about 5.5 ounces.

It comes with 30-pin and micro-USB connectors and can charge Apple iPhones, iPads, and iPods, as well as most smartphones and tabs.

The four LED lights on the units show how much power remains. An Auto-Safety Protection System ensures your tower won't overheat.

The main battery will sell for $89.95 and the sub batteries for $49.95. Unfortunately, they're sold separately.
If you don't mind the extra weight and do fancy playing Jenga with batteries, you won't have to wait too long. The Exogear site says the Exovolt Plus is "coming soon."

The Exovolt, alongside an iPad.(Credit: Exogear) (Via Dvice)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liked this? Then Please share this page on Twitter (by clicking on the “Tweet” button) and subscribe to get the top stories of the week, plus the most popular reviews delivered straight to your inbox.

And don’t forget to give us your suggestions in the comments!

View the original article here

New Angry Birds Space episode leads to Utopia

A new episode known as as Utopia has been added to Angry Birds Space, promising even more challenges.

Angry Birds Space blasts off to Utopia.

(Credit: Rovio)

Those Angry Birds in space are still making me angry, only now they've added a new episode to thwart me even further.

The latest update to Angry Birds Space for iOS launches a new episode into orbit, this one dubbed Utopia. Unfortunately, I haven't progressed past the initial Pig Pang, so Utopia and all the episodes leading up to it remain locked to me. (Anyone know a good unlock code?)

But Rovio describes Utopia as a delicious food planet with 10 new levels complete with popcorn, cookies, and candy apples to tempt the hungry pigs. Players can "bounce birds off jelly trampolines" and "pop corn to create delicious mayhem."

The latest update is free to Angry Birds Space users. It's also available only for iOS devices - the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. But Rovio promises that Utopia will lift off soon for Android and other platforms.


A look at Angry Birds Space: Utopia

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liked this? Then Please share this page on Twitter (by clicking on the “Tweet” button) and subscribe to get the top stories of the week, plus the most popular reviews delivered straight to your inbox.

And don’t forget to give us your suggestions in the comments!

View the original article here

Supposed iPad 3 display goes under the microscope again

The display that could belong to an iPad 3--or whatever it's going to be called--has received a closer examination.

A shot of an iPad 2 display next to what might be the iPad 3's display

(Credit: iFixit)

The display that may or may not belong to Apple's next iPad has been given a more thorough once-over.

MacRumors, which last week posted photos--including microscope-enlarged shots--of a panel it claimed to belong to an upcoming iPad, has run a follow-up today with that same panel. The difference this time is that the display has been handed over to iFixit, the site that's perhaps best known for posting detailed tear downs of gadgets and identifying where the individual components come from.

The site ran the panel under a USB microscope yet again, which resulted in a considerably better looking image of the higher pixel density panel than before, and confirming a 2048x1536 resolution, twice that on the previous two iPads. iFixit also went one step beyond the original report in setting it side by side with the identical component from an iPad 2 to show that the two bear resemblance to one another, while noting that this mystery display is .6 ounces lighter than the one from the iPad 2.

A crisper looking shot of the two displays under a microscope.

(Credit: iFixit)

The original hope in giving it to iFixit, MacRumors says, was to get the display working with an existing iPad--something that did not happen due to a difference in connectors. Nor did a microscopic inspection yield anything that would definitively tie it back with Apple as a manufacturer.

Speculation about Apple doubling the number of pixels in each direction of the screen has been long-running, with rumors of such a feature swirling even ahead of Apple's second-generation iPad model. In recent months, the technology has sounded closer to coming to fruition, with separate high-profile reports from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal touting it as a new addition.

Apple is expected to introduce the iPad 3 in the first week of March, around the same time the company took the wraps off the iPad 2 last year. Multiple reports have pegged that as the date, with other features hinted to include a quad-core processor and 4G LTE networking.

Josh Lowensohn grew up in a household full of technology. From a young age he was taking apart computers, snaking Cat 5 cable through walls, and reprogramming video games. Since then he's spent his time covering everything from Web apps to all of Microsoft's latest moves. For this blog, Josh is keeping a close eye on everything Apple.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liked this? Then Please share this page on Twitter (by clicking on the “Tweet” button) and subscribe to get the top stories of the week, plus the most popular reviews delivered straight to your inbox.

And don’t forget to give us your suggestions in the comments!

View the original article here

Former Siri board member: She's 'not a data hog'

Reports of Siri's bandwidth hogging ways have been greatly exaggerated, according to a former board member of the namesake company Apple bought in 2010.

In a guest post on Forbes this morning, former Siri and Nuance Communications board member Gary Morgenthaler suggests that the research report put out earlier this month by mobile network management company Arieso--the one that claimed the voice assistant feature led to about twice the amount of data use--is untrue.

"Siri's average data consumed per query is less than 63 kilobytes, according to Ars Technica; and it's a number I can confirm, having served as a Siri board member for years," Morgenthaler wrote. "63 kilobytes by the way, relative to iCloud, YouTube, Pandora and others, is de minimus," he added.

That Ars Technica mention is the investigation the outlet did shortly after the iPhone 4S was released, testing a bevy of queries on Siri to see how much data the feature used. The conclusion was that the average query slurped up 63 kilobytes of data, with some actions like visiting a Web page, or pulling up a map then adding data on top of that, since those are separate applications and have data needs of their own.                                                                                       Siri: Not such a data hog after all?
                                                                                                                   (Credit: Apple)

Arieso's study made waves this month when it suggested that iPhone 4S users were bigger data users than those on the iPhone 4 due to Siri, an iPhone 4S-specific feature that runs through Apple's servers and sends snippets of voice data for processing. Arieso's study took data from more than 1 million subscribers on a European cellular network shortly after the feature made its debut.

The study surfaced once again last week in a story in The Washington Post titled "How Siri is ruining your cellphone service." The report suggested that the influx of data hogs on each carrier's cellular network would eventually congest and deteriorate service, leading to dropped calls and slower data speeds.

Morgenthaler added some additional anecdotal evidence of his own to malign the Arieso report, saying the feature itself was not creating a noticeable influx of new traffic.

"I spoke with the CTO of a major European mobile telecommunications carrier who confirmed to me that, based on detailed analysis of mobile data traffic on their network, Siri's contribution to the increase was 'negligible,'" Morgenthaler said.

Apple, for its part, has kept its mouth shut on the claims by either party. The company did not respond to a request for comment on Morgenthaler's defense of the feature.

Josh Lowensohn grew up in a household full of technology. From a young age he was taking apart computers, snaking Cat 5 cable through walls, and reprogramming video games. Since then he's spent his time covering everything from Web apps to all of Microsoft's latest moves.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liked this? Then share this page and subscribe to get the top stories of the week, plus the most popular reviews delivered straight to your inbox.

And don’t forget to give us your suggestions in the comments!

View the original article here

Neil Young: Apple was working on super high-def music

Recording artist Neil Young today said that he was working with late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on a project that would push the quality of digital downloads to studio-quality levels.


In an interview with All Things Digital at the outlet's D: Dive Into Media conference today, Young discussed the quality of digital recordings, chiding MP3s for having just "5 percent of the data present in the original recording."

The answer to that other 95 percent would be "high-resolution" digital tracks that are of the same quality as the original studio recording, Young offered.

There are technical hurdles involved with making that happen though, including larger files. Young suggested that these high-resolution audio files be made readily available, and able to be downloaded at a speed of 30 minutes per song, with manufacturers offering a device that could offer size for 30-such albums, something like an iPod.

When asked if Young had approached Apple about the idea, Young said that he had, in fact, met with Jobs and was "working on it," but that "not much" ended up happening to the pursuit.
Of note, Young made mention that Jobs was a vinyl fan, despite having helmed the company that would spearhead the way people listened to and purchased digital music.

"Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music, and his legacy is tremendous," Young told the crowd. "But when he went home, he listened to vinyl. And you've got to believe that if he'd lived long enough, he would have done what I'm trying to do."

An Apple spokesman declined to comment on Young's statements.

A report from CNN last February suggested Apple and several of its competitors were in talks with record labels about selling 24-bit, high-fidelity audio recordings. Said recordings would come at a price premium, the report suggested, as well as requiring hardware manufacturers (including Apple) to make adjustments to future models to support the higher-quality files.

Apple's digital music offerings currently top out at 256 kbps, a quality level introduced as part of its iTunes Plus program in 2007. It began on EMI and trickled out to the rest of the labels, and the entire iTunes Store in January 2009. Despite that, the company has its own "lossless" format, which went open-source near the end of last year. Unlike the studio recordings Young was talking about, that technology was designed to provide a lossless copy of tracks ripped from CDs.

Josh Lowensohn grew up in a household full of technology. From a young age he was taking apart computers, snaking Cat 5 cable through walls, and reprogramming video games. Since then he's spent his time covering everything from Web apps to all of Microsoft's latest moves.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liked this? Then share this page and subscribe to get the top stories of the week, plus the most popular reviews delivered straight to your inbox.

And don’t forget to give us your suggestions in the comments!

View the original article here

Trump to Apple: Make it here

Donald Trump jumped into the Apple-China manufacturing debate Tuesday, calling for Apple CEO Tim Cook to make Apple products in the U.S.

After a New York Times article described abject working conditions at China-based Foxconn, Apple has faced a growing firestorm of criticism. Foxconn is Apple's go-to contract manufacturer for iPads and iPhones.

Donald Trump: make it in the U.S.A. Ironically, Trump and President Obama are pretty much on the same page in this case.

(Credit: Trump International)

Speaking on Fox News, Trump said Cook should decree that its stuff be made in the U.S.
"Wouldn't it be a great thing if the new leader of Apple said we're going to start building plants in the United States," he said.

Trump continued. "Maybe the incentive's not there...but when 100 percent of Apple's products--or virtually 100 percent--are made outside of this country, it's pretty sad," he said.

One of the hurdles of making a product like the iPhone or iPad in the U.S. is that device manufacturing is extremely human-intensive and workers are not well paid. Contrast that with Intel, for example, whose U.S.-based plants are highly automated and employ workers that are relatively well compensated.

Trump thinks Apple should try anyway. "We can do great things in this country...wouldn't it be great if Apple actually made these products in the United States."

Ironically, Trump and President Obama are more or less on the same page. Obama has been pushing hard for in-sourcing--moving manufacturing and other operations back to the U.S., particularly from places like China.
"We have a huge opportunity to create more high-tech manufacturing jobs in the United States and bring back some of these jobs from overseas, but we're going to have to seize the moment," Obama said last week when visiting Intel's newest chip plant in Chandler, Ariz.

"Let's stop rewarding business that ship jobs overseas, let's reward companies that are investing and creating jobs right here in the United States of America," the President said.

Note: Trump's Apple-related comments start at the 4:15 mark.

Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liked this? Then share this page and subscribe to get the top stories of the week, plus the most popular reviews delivered straight to your inbox.

And don’t forget to give us your suggestions in the comments!

View the original article here

Zite inks Intel as first major sponsor

Zite, a leading news aggregator app for iPad and iPhone, says it has struck its first section sponsorship deal--with Intel.

According to Zite CEO Mark Johnson, the chipmaker will sponsor the aggregator's technology section. In addition to seeing an Intel logo in the section banner (on the iPad), Zite users will see occasional sponsored content from Intel's MyLifeScoop site interspersed with the app's standard selection of articles from a wide variety of publications. The sponsorship is expected to last three months.

A look at the technology section of the Zite iPad app. Starting this afternoon, that section will be sponsored by Intel, the first such deal inked by the leading iOS news aggregator app, and in addition to adding the sponsor's logo to the section banner, the section will also include sponsored posts.

(Credit: Zite)

Although Zite has an existing pact in which women's sports apparel maker Lululemon Athletica creates its own curated section, today's announcement marks the first time the aggregator has struck a sponsorship deal for an existing subject section.

"Users are used to seeing sponsored content (such as on Digg) and are used to seeing sponsorships," Johnson told CNET. "We've been careful to make sure that any sponsored content is germane to the section and [is] of high quality."

Johnson said Zite won't have any say over which Intel-sponsored articles get fed into the technology section but that "in this case, we've vetted the source, not individual pieces."

He also said that because Zite users are able to provide feedback on articles, "we'll have in-app signals, if [the sponsored] content isn't good."

Zite, which was acquired last summer by CNN, is always on the lookout for other sponsorship arrangements "with top brands creating high-quality content," Johnson said, and it has no "immediate plans" for general advertising. "I do think this is a much more attractive option than blanket advertising on Zite," he said.

Daniel Terdiman, uniquely positioned to take you into the middle of another side of technology, chronicles his explorations of the "fun beat," from cultural phenomena such as Burning Man to cutting-edge aircraft to game conventions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liked this? Then share this page and subscribe to get the top stories of the week, plus the most popular reviews delivered straight to your inbox.

And don’t forget to give us your suggestions in the comments!

View the original article here

Apple gives devs third iOS 5.1 beta, adds 3G toggle

While most of the electronics world has its eyes peeled on the happenings at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Apple quietly released another version of iOS 5.1 to developers.

(Credit: CNET)

The software, which is the third such beta of iOS 5.1, hit Apple's developer site earlier today.

Among the changes is the addition of the 3G toggle for iPhone 4S users, a feature spotted by Macrumors, which was not present when the phone shipped. This meant users did not have the option to turn off the faster data tier to conserve battery life. While Apple never explained why this was the case, the Siri voice assistant was considered the culprit since it required 3G or Wi-Fi, and would not work on Edge.

The release suggests Apple is one step closer to bringing the software to customers, who are expecting the company to improve battery life in this update. Reports from users with earlier versions of the software reported having mixed results. Eyes are also on 5.1 to see if features like panoramic photos and the autocorrect menus found by developers end up as readily accessible features.


Josh Lowensohn grew up in a household full of technology. From a young age he was taking apart computers, snaking Cat 5 cable through walls, and reprogramming video games. Josh covered breaking video game news and wrote game reviews. Since then he's spent his time covering everything from Web apps to all of Microsoft's latest moves. For this blog, Josh is keeping a close eye on everything Apple.

View the original article here

Apple confirms Anobit acquisition

Apple today confirmed earlier reports it has acquired Israel-based flash memory startup Anobit.
Apple's acquisition of the company, which makes flash memory technology found in the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air, was first reported in December by Israel's Calcalist business news site. The deal was reported to be worth $400 million to $500 million.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling confirmed the acquisition to Bloomberg but declined to discuss the purchase price or the company's plans for the startup.

If the deal happened in the price range previously reported, it would rank as one of Apple's largest to date, if not its largest. Apple acquired NeXT in 1997 for $404 million. More recently, the company acquired PA Semi in 2008 for $278 million and Quattro Wireless in 2010 for $275 million.

In addition to flash memory, the company also sells enterprise storage solutions. Apple's decision to acquire Anobit may allow it to get its memory at cost, rather than be forced to pay a premium to a third party The deal potentially would also enable Apple to ultimately cut off Samsung--an Anobit customer and one of Apple's chief competitors.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liked this? Then share this page and subscribe to get the top stories of the week, plus the most popular reviews delivered straight to your inbox.

And don’t forget to give us your suggestions in the comments!

View the original article here

Pegatron has iPad 3 order for March, iPad 4 in October, report says

Pegatron Technology, one of the major manufacturers of Apple's iPad, has already begun filling an order of iPad 3 units to be released in March, according to a report from industry Web site Digi Times.

(Credit: Apple)

The report also states that Pegatron will be producing between 7 million and 10 million iPad 4 units set to be released in October. And, according the DigiTimes' "sources from the upstream supply chain," Apple will be changing its manufacturing strategy, which will shift the manufacturing load of iPads to Pegatron (with iPhones as an auxiliary product) from Foxconn Electronics, which will focus on iPhone production (with iPads as an auxiliary product).

Two iPad models this year sounds great, huh? Well, there are couple of things we should decipher from all this before we get too excited.

First, if there are going to be two iPads, it is unlikely that we will see a limited run of an iPad 3 with a looming iPad 4 in the fall. The more likely scenario (if two iPads are to appear in 2012) is that the March iPad will be an iPad 2S, featuring an upgraded processor, more storage capacity, and perhaps more RAM.
It may also include a better camera package (a la the iPhone 4S) and perhaps Siri integration, but other than that, I don't think Apple would add too many extras. The iPad 4 (or as it would follow the 2S, the iPad 3), to be released in the fall, would then likely be a redesign of sorts and include further hardware advances.

Now, I expect something a little more subtle. I think Apple likes having a spring release of the newest iPad model and a late-summer/early fall iPhone event. So, we'll probably be getting the iPad 3, in all its glory, this spring. It will have the Retina Display, the A6, Siri, more storage, and more RAM. We might get a bit of a redesign to accommodate some of the upgraded insides, but it'll probably be hard to tell the difference from an iPad 2 at any sort of distance.

DigiTimes has already published several iPad rumors that include everything from tech specs to the possibility of a smaller, 7-inch model iPad, and everything in between. What do you think Apple's strategy should be for releasing iPads and iPhones? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Liked this? Then share this page and subscribe to get the top stories of the week, plus the most popular reviews delivered straight to your inbox.

And don’t forget to give us your suggestions in the comments!

View the original article here