ePathChina News:New iPod Touch more like iPhone 4

Steve Jobs noted during last week's unveiling of freshly designed iPods that the iPod Touch has been called "an iPhone without the phone," and an "iPhone without a contract." Now that it's even more like the iPhone 4, it's sure to remain the most popular iPod.
Touch is the standout among the trio of new iPods. The squished and square iPod Nano — $149 for 8 gigabytes and $179 for 16 GB — is awfully cute. But Apple (AAPL) has given and taken away. In: a multitouch display and a clip for attaching Nano to a sleeve or bag. Out: the click-wheel and video camera.

On the new postage-stamp-size Shuffle ($49, 2 GB), Apple brought back the click-wheel and physical buttons to complement the VoiceOver feature that announces names of songs and playlists.

If there was a disappointment in the new stuff Jobs introduced, it comes with Ping, the music social network inside iTunes 10 software. Ping isn't a complete bust. It just feels incomplete. A closer look at Touch and Ping:

•iPod Touch. The Touch arrives this week with features that bring it even closer to the iPhone 4 it is modeled on. For starters, there are front and rear cameras that let you make FaceTime video calls over a Wi-Fi connection.

Moreover, there's a sweet high-resolution 3.5-inch Retina display that nearly matches the screen on the iPhone 4 accessories. Touch doesn't quite have the wide viewing angle of the iPhone 4, which the latter achieves through technology called "in-plane switching." Side by side, the Touch appeared slightly dimmer than the iPhone.

Still, even teeny-tiny text on the Touch is supersharp and readable. And Touch has the same snappy A4 processor that powers iPhone 4. The power-friendly chip will help push battery life for audio up to 40 hours, Apple says.

Touch is thinner than the iPhone and a tad shorter. It is also more than an ounce lighter. But it feels substantial and is, well, comfortable to touch. With rows of familiar icons, if you didn't know any better, you'd think you were peering at the iPhone screen. And, of course, you have access to hundreds of thousands of apps at Apple's App Store.

But Touch lacks GPS Navigation, so I couldn't get turn-by-turn directions using a TomTom app that I had preloaded on the device or get as precise a fix on my location using the built-in Maps app. (Touch can determine location through Wi-Fi.)

You can record HD video (up to 720p), but there's no flash, and the rear camera isn't as good as on the iPhone 4. It won't be able to exploit a new photo feature included in the iOS 4.1 software upgrade coming this week that will let the iPhone 4 camera automatically combine multiple exposures into a single spruced-up image.

I doubt anyone will rely on Touch as a full-time cellphone substitute. Still, you can make Internet calls with apps such as Skype or Toktumi's Line2. And then there's FaceTime.

For now, you can make video calls only with another person who has an iPod Touch or an iPhone 4 upgraded with iOS 4.1. With a strong Wi-Fi signal, the video call quality in my tests was quite good. You can tap the screen to switch cameras. As on the iPhone, FaceTime is fun, cool and a boon for long-distance grandparents who want to see the newborn.

It's easy to make or answer a FaceTime call. Initially, you enter your Apple ID or e-mail address. After tapping a FaceTime icon, you can tap a Contacts or Favorites name or tap a listing under Recents. On the iPhone 4, some FaceTime calls start out as AT&T calls that are then handed off to a Wi-Fi network. There's no AT&T on the Touch, of course.

The absence of iOS 4.1 meant I couldn't test the social Game Center feature that's coming soon. Gamers will otherwise appreciate the gyroscope added to complement the accelerometer sensor.

•Ping. It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. And Ping ain't got that swing yet. It's still a work in progress.

The general idea behind Ping is appealing if not original (think Microsoft's Zune Social). You can follow friends or favorite artists to get the lowdown on what they're listening to, recommending and buying, with charts revealing the most downloaded works among your circle.

I like that you can click in a Ping listing to sample a song a friend or artist is pushing. It's cool that artists post pictures, concert listings and videos as Bono did before taking the stage in Istanbul. The list of artists is slowly growing. Among others I'm following: Dave Matthews, Yo-Yo Ma, Coldplay and Lady Gaga. You can alert friends if you're planning to attend a concert.

In creating your own Ping profile, you can choose up to three musical genres you like — but why only three?

You can display all the music you like, rate, review or purchase, or manually pick the music to display. Through privacy settings, you can choose to let people follow you, or not, or require permission whenever a new person wants to do so. I wish you could more finely tune settings to let some people see some songs you've downloaded while keeping such info off-limits to others. As it is, friends will see only songs you bought from iTunes (or commented on), not anything you ripped from a CD or bought, say, through Amazon.

You can invite friends by e-mail to join, but connecting with them isn't nearly as easy as finding Facebook buddies. Integration with the world's most popular social network appeared to be in the cards but then fell apart. Too bad, because it'd be really useful to know which of your Facebook buddies are also Pinging.

In the first few days Ping went live, it seemed to be a magnet for spam, but Apple is apparently cleaning this up.

You can also access Ping on the iPhone or iPod Touch, but you can't search for new friends to follow. Apple says 160 million iTunes users around the world can sign up for Ping. Big number. But Ping isn't yet social enough.
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News from: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2010-09-08-baig08_ST_N.htm

ePathChina News: iPhone 4 Selling At Crazy Price In Hong Kong

iPhone 4 is available in Hong Kong right now. The gray market is selling it at a much higher price than we thought. It costs $11000-12000 HKD (about $1480) for 16GB version, and $13000 HKD (about $1670) for 32GB. No kidding, some Apple fanboys are still willing to pay at this ridiculous price…

These are contract free prices, and there are locked or unlocked models to choose from. Unlocked models are imported from UK while locked models are from the United States. The gray market received the iPhone 4 this morning (GMT+08:00), and starts to put the phones on shelves in stores. Sadly, these new iPhones are reserved for pre-ordered customers, and they are distributed completely by the end of the day. So, you can’t get it even though you are willing to pay in cash or at a higher price. More stocks will arrive for the next coming days and customers can buy it if they have prepared the money.

Actually, the first batch was all 32GB unlocked models from UK pricing at $14800 HKD (about $1900), only 10 sets available, and all has been reserved by those early birds, no chance for any walk-in customers. We need to remind you that the man you seeing in the front picture we posted, he’s the guy who sold hundreds of iPads in the gray market and made a big fortune out of those crazy marked-up price tags. Without any surprises, he’s also the first guy to sell iPhone 4 today. So, just look for him when you are in the gray market of Hong Kong, located at Mong Kok, the Sin Tak Arcade.

Wholesale iPhone 4 Accessories from ePathChina.com

Dell New tablet PC: Dell Streak tablet, smaller than an iPad

The iPad has energized the market for tablet computers, paving the way for an expected onslaught of slate-type devices.
The Dell Streak that I've been testing for a few days is a tablet, too. And that's pretty much where comparisons with the iPad cease.

Oh, sure, folks will ask the same basic question of the Streak that they asked before the iPad appeared: Is there room for a slate that's larger than a smartphone but smaller than a typical laptop? But where the iPad has a near-10-inch screen and a form that brings it into the ballpark of some notebooks, the Streak is at the other end of the spectrum. With its 5-inch, multitouch-screen, Streak resembles a smartphone that went on an eating binge, like an old-fashioned PDA. And Streak, unlike an iPad, will fit in your pants pocket, albeit with a bulge, or jut out of a shirt pocket by an inch or so.


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Streak actually doubles as an Android-based smartphone. But phoning is not its strength nor the reason to consider buying one. I couldn't hang up on a call when the dial pad was on the screen covering the "End Call" button. And while the Streak is petite for a tablet, it is gargantuan by modern standards for a phone — like a handset that belongs to the past century. It weighs in at 7.8 ounces. Streak isattractive and thin, though better suited for tablet duties.

Alas, I didn't love the virtual keyboard. And Dell is a generation behind when it comes to Android. It runs Android version 1.6, making it a tad listless. Dell has added its own tweaks to Google's operating system and says an over-the-air update to version 2.2, or Froyo, is in the cards.

Here's a closer look:

Availability. Dell won't say but indicates the Streak is coming very soon. This week Dell started soliciting pre-orders for Streak on its website, offering folks first crack at the device when it does go on sale, and a chance to buy a Plantronics Bluetooth headset for 99 cents.

•Price. That's also a Dell secret for now, as is the identity of Streak's official U.S. wireless carrier. All signs point to AT&T, though. Michael Dell has mentioned AT&T as a Streak partner in the past, and AT&T will be bringing out the Dell Aero smart phones in the not-too-distant future. I was able to test Streak with an AT&T sim card. (In geek terms, Streak is compatible with UMTS, GSM/Edge and HSDPA and HSUPA networks. The device is already on sale in the United Kingdom via the wireless carrier known as O2.)

Meanwhile, at the recent D technology conference, Dell executive Ron Garriques suggested that an "unlocked" Streak would cost about $500 in the U.S. If so, I'm betting on about a $300 price if you ink a two-year contract with a carrier.

Size matters. The Streak is of a size that's just not going to appeal to everybody. Whether Streak is too big or small depends on your expectations and whether you plan on mainly using it as a phone or tablet. As a tablet you'll appreciate the 5-inch screen for watching video, browsing the Web, reading e-books — I fetched the free Kindle for Android app — and viewing maps. The largest screen sizes I've come across on more traditional smartphones are the 4.3-inch displays on devices such as the Droid X and Evo 4G.

Streak's screen is about the right size for a decent portable navigation device. I used free audible turn-by-turn directions inside Google Maps. You'll probably want to use an optional car kit that mounts the device on the dash and lets you plug it into a power source. I didn't have one for testing.

Torture resistance. The device feels sturdy and durable. I mostly used it with two hands in horizontal mode, except when held up to my ear as a phone. The screen is covered by Corning's torture-resistant Gorilla Glass. I stabbed the display with a pen without causing damage.

•Memory. Streak comes with 2 gigabytes of internal memory, which should give you ample storage for apps you download from the Android Market. My test unit also was supplied with a 16-GB microSD card, expandable to 32 GB. Inside is a 1-gigahertz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that may feel zippier with a later version of Android.

•Visuals. Streak has a 5-megapixel camera on the rear that took OK pictures and videos, plus a lower-quality VGA front-facing camera you can use for video chats, as on the iPhone 4. Using Wi-Fi, I tested video chat on the Streak using the free Fring app I downloaded from Android Market. Both the audio and video quality on test calls with Fring were poor. And a separate call to a person who was using a 3G network (while I was on Wi-Fi) was unwatchable, with lousy sound to match. (To be fair, Apple's FaceTime app requires Wi-Fi.)

Streak has a removable battery. With power-saving measures turned off, the battery pooped out late in my workday. Most people should find battery life sufficient under normal conditions.

Computers near this size have never really caught on in a big way. I suspect Dell may have a hard time turning its tablet into a winning Streak.

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