New Mobile Internet Devices

Hello everyone... the last month has been full of surprises with the newest computing portable devices.

Of course the most obvious and famous one is the iPod Touch 4. It comes with many features of the iPhone 4 making it, how Steve Jobs said it, "an iPhone without a phone". It comes with a "retina display" resolution of 960x60 pixels, a capacitive touch screen, Facetime, HD video camera, front and back cameras, 256MB of RAM, an A4 CPU with speed of 1GHz, and some other things like a gyroscope. Prices are $229 for the 8GB version, $299 for the 32GB version, and $399 for the 64GB version. Or at least those are the official prices, of course you can get them cheaper on Amazon, here's the link: Apple iPod touch 32 GB (4th Generation) It has already been jailbroken with the limera1n and the greenpois0n tools.

The next set of devices were those released by Archos. Archos released the pocketables Archos 28, Archos 32, and Archos 43. All of these devices come with media playback capabilities and internet cabilities. The cheapest one, the Archos 28, is as cheap as $99. The Archos 43 is the perfect competitor for the iPod Touch 4 as it also features an HD video camera, a high resolution resistive touch screen of 854x480, a G-sensor, 256MB of RAM, and a 1GHz CPU. Also, for $199 the 16GB version is even cheaper than the 8GB version iPod Touch. Archos also released some bigger devices for competing with devices like the iPad, those are the Archos 70 and the Archos 101. All of these devices use the Android OS.

The chinese gadgets haven't stayed behind. Smart Devices released the SmartQ V3. It's pretty much the same as the SmartQ V5 but without bluetooth and without Windows CE. Those removals made it possible to come at a great price of $109. It comes with Linux and Android and features an SD memory card reader, an HDMI output, a high resolution resistive touch screen of 800x480, 256 MB of RAM, and a 600 MHz CPU.

As for other iPad competitors, RIM introduced the new Blackberry PlayBook.

I'm pretty sure I'll be getting the iPod Touch now that my first generation broke. But still those cheap prices and good specs of the other devices make me doubt it. What do you think of these devices?

¡Viva México!

Today is Mexico's independende bicentenary. We're having a big party here in the country and also with every mexican around the world. Congratulations to all mexicans for their 200th anniversary. We're also celebrating the 100th anniversary of the mexican revolution this year. The main show in Mexico City was amazing and emotional.

Google even made a Google Doodle to commemorate it. It was available (to my surprise) in their international Google site:

Jailbreakme.com

A new iPhone jailbreak has arrived, jailbreakme.com by Comex. It is the first iPhone 4 jailbreak and it works for all iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch on firmwares from 3.1.2 to 4.0.1. It is a very simple to use tool, just visit http://jailbreakme.com on your device and you'll see the "Slide to jailbreak" message. Just slide and wait for the device to do its work. At the end you'll have Cydia showing up in your springboard. According to the Dev-Team the iPhone 4 unlock is coming in the next days while the other iPhones can still use ultrasn0w from Cydia. Note, jailbreakme.com gave problems to MMS and Facetime, it has been fixed now but if you used the jailbreak before it was fixed, be sure to check Cydia and install the updates available and you'll be fine.

Updates

Sorry for the late post, I was enjoying my vacations but now it's time to come back to reality, my classes practically start tomorrow. Anyways, many things have happened since my last post. Apple released the iPhone 4, received complaints about the reception when holding the phone, and gave away free cases to make those consumers happier; Spain won the FIFA World Cup in a violent match against the Netherlands; Google stopped selling the Nexus One (too bad, I was planning on getting one); Mexico was first in the medal table of the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games; and the OpenPandora project has grown a lot with many units already sent and more to come and with some great apps and emulators. That's all that I can remember for now, condensed in a quick summary. Thanks for reading.

FIFA World Cup

Today the FIFA World Cup started in South Africa. The biggest soccer tournament started this year with a nice opening followed by two matches, both which ended in a tie. South Africa and Mexico finished with 1 goal each while France vs Uruguay stayed with no goals. This will be an exciting event which will last a month when the final takes place. Of course I am cheering for Mexico as I live and was born there so ¡Vamos Méxicoo! Which team are you cheering for?

iPhone 4

Yesterday Apple unveiled their latest iPhone, the iPhone 4 at the World Wide Developers Conference 2010 (WWDC 2010). It turned out to be really as the prototypes leaked some weeks ago.

Its slogan is “This phone changes everything. Again.” I agree with what they say about this being a big leap over the last iPhone but it isn't anything so outstanding as it just introduces features which some other phones such as some which the Google Nexus One already had. Apple is just reaching out for the current specs possible. Read on to see the unique features of this iPhone compared to other iDevices.

FaceTime

FaceTime is video calling. You can video call someone from the address book or when already in a normal call with a contact. You can use the front or the back camera in FaceTime and you can easily change between them.

Retina Display

Apple did a big upgrade in regards to their screen resolution.The resolution of the iPhone 4 is 960x460 in the same space used for the 420x320 screen of older models. This means it now has 326 ppi instead of 163 ppi making it clearer and more readable. According to Apple, the iPhone 4 has the sharpest, most vibrant, and highest screen resolution in the smartphone market. I think this is true as the Google Nexus One has a screen of 800x480 and 252 ppi and it was the best display I had heard of for a smartphone.

HD Video Recording and 5 Megapixel Photo Camera

You can now shoot HD video up to 720p and even edit it with the upcoming iMovie app which will be available for $4.99 USD. You can share that video then. Also the 5 megapixel back camera lets you take clear pictures and the front facing VGA camera lets you take self portraits without messing the photo. The back camera has a LED Flash for taking pictures in the dark.

iPhone 4 Release Date

The iPhone 4 will be released on June 24. Pre-orders for iPhone 4 start on April 15. iPhone 4 will be available in 16 GB ($199 with 2-year contract) and 32 GB ($299 with 2-year contract).*

*Prices for the US in USD.

Pac-Man Google Doodle

Tomorrow is Pac-Man's 30th anniversary and Google has decided to celebrate it with a playable logo on their main page. Google doodles are event and holiday specific logos that Google sometimes use in their homepage. This time they have gone further by not just making an image logo. They've made it playable. Below you can see the logo:

You can actually play with this logo as an actual Pac-Man game which includes 255 levels and it even includes a 256th level "kill screen" just like the original coin-op. To control the Pac-Man use the arrow keys.

I have to say this has been my favorite Google doodle so far, it looks creative and best of it, it's fun. I have played with it for a while and I've become addicted. You guys should try it out.

If you like Pac-Man you can still enjoy it in newer consoles or portables like the iPhone from its App Store or with NDS's Namco Museum or Pac Man World 3.

EDIT: Hey guys, i just found out an interesting thing you can do. You can play with 2-player mode. Instead of the "I'm feeling lucky" button you'll usually find in Google's main page, there's now an "Insert coin" button. If you click it while already playing, "Ms. Pac-Man" will appear as a second player. Ms. Pac-Man is controlled with the "WASD" keys.

Spirit Jailbreak released

Sorry for the late news. Yesterday Comex (an iPhone hacker) released his Spirit. But with his Spirit I mean his new jailbreak tool. This tool is now able to jailbreak iPads making it the first iPad jailbreak. Not only that, it's also an untethered jailbreak for all devices, taking away all that worries for people who had no choice but to have it tethered. It works for all devices with firmwares 3.1.2 to 3.2 (all the models of iPods, iPhones, and iPads). It works on both Mac and Windows. It does not activate devices though, and unfortunately it is a userland based jailbreak which makes it very easy to patch by Apple, so please enjoy while supplies last (well, while you can actually). Spirit is also NOT a carrier unlock so watch out with that.

You can get this jailbreak from the official site.

Archos Generation 8 Android Internet Tablets

The Archos Generation 8 Android Internet Tablets are coming. In the slide they used to announce them in Chine, it appears there'll be 2x Archos 3, 1x Archos 5, 2x Archos 7, and 1x Archos 10. This is the slide they used:

The prices will vary from $100 to $300 and will most probably be cheaper if smaller. The slide also mentions multi-touch which probably means they will have capacitive touch screens. This is a great thing that was missing from the previous Archos Android Internet Tablet. Let's don't make more speculations at this moment and let's wait for more detailed specs to be announced or better yet, for them to be  released. :)

iPhone OS 4.0 Announced

Today, Apple announced the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0 the new big release of the popular mobile operating system. It's new features mainly come from jailbroken features like Stacks, Backgrounder, and Winterboard.

Here's the list of some of the new features:

-Multitasking
-Home screen wallpaper
-Folders for apps
-Game Center (the new official social gaming center)
-iBooks (the eBook app and store from the iPad)
-iAds (a new way of inserting ads in apps and getting 60% of the income from them)
-Unified Inbox in Mail
-5x digital zoom in the camera
-Bluetooth keyboard support
-In-app SMS

Unfotunately (for some people including me) this release won't be compatible with the first generation iPhone or iPod Touch. Also, multitasking won't work for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch second generation. The devices that will have all of those features will only be the iPhone, the iPod Touch third generation, the iPad, and probably the upcoming devices that are yet to be announced.

The OS is scheduled to be released in summer for iPhone and iPod Touch and in fall for the iPad.

iPad is Out!

Hello readers,

This is the first post of this blog relating to technology but mainly about mobile devices. Today, when I decided to start this blog, we have the announcement of the iPad release.

The iPad is an mobile device made by Apple which is mainly referred to as a "Big iPod Touch". I have to admit that was my perspective at the beginning but after seeing some updated videos about it, I have to disagree. It seems like a respectable device which can be of great value for any person as in students, housewifes, business people, etc. It has the ability to run Apple's office suite "iWork" and have a VGA-display connected to it which makes it a great laptop replacement. Unfortunately it doesn't have a full desktop operating system or even multitasking. It is also a bit overpriced when having other "better" (with full desktop operating systems) and cheaper options in the market, for example any netbook or the Archos 9 PCtablet. It also has a competitor, which seems like a good option and is also a lot cheaper, the Archos 7 Home Tablet. And this without taking into consideration the smaller-form-factor devices.

If someone of you guys gets one of these devices, you're welcome to tell us about it.