Honeycomb on Google's Lawn

Google continues their tradition of having desert statues placed in front of their lawn to represent every generation of android. Along side to join Gingerbread, Cupcake, Donut, Éclair and Froyo comes it's new member Honeycomb!

Motorola Xoom Overclocked to 1504MHZ!

As some of you may know the new Motorola Xoom uses the new dual-core tegra 2 processor, clocked at 1ghz factory setting. SetCPU has now updated SetCPU to support some dual core devices, and demos his Motorola Xoom running amazing bench marks. He uses Quadrant which achieves a bench mark of 3105! He also does a bench mark using Linkpack producing a score of 47MFLOPS. The results, show that he acheived only 36 MFLOPS from the factory frequencies, that's a 11MFLOPS difference. While the overclock was done for benchmarking purposes, it is almost sure that we don't consider in the battery life, and whether someone would use Motorola Xoom set to that clock speed daily. This is just the beginning for dual core devices, and what they plan to achieve this year.

iPad 2 keynote?

Hopefully, most of us are excited about the iPad2, and that apple will resolve most of the complaints from the first generation iPad's. An iPad 2 event is rumored to be on March 2nd in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs won't be making his famous keynotes wearing his turtle neck sweaters due to his medical leave. In his place will be with either be Phil Schiller or Tim Cook.

So I just thought I would mention a couple of rumors that seem plausible for features that will most likely be on the iPad 2. Like the iPhone 4, the iPad 2 is rumored to feature a 7inch retina display. This is a pretty big change because the iPad 2 will be in the same category as the Motorola Xoom, and Rim's Playbook. In addition, the iPad 2 will feature wifi and a GSM/CDMA model. This will allow Verizon user's to purchase and use this device. One big complaint from people was no camera on the first generation iPad's. Well, Apple looks to be adding a front facing camera for facetime, and a camera in the back for stills and video. This rumor arose from iOS 4.3 which featured the facetime app, and from developing iPad 2 cases that support that claim. Furthermore, Apple may finally remove the home button. In iOS4.3 people have found gestures to be incorporated. These gestures allow people to close apps, switch between apps without the use of the home button. Only time will tell, and hopefully that time will be March 2nd.

Humans Vs Computer

Computers built by the brightest people have been able to challenge the best at their own game. Take for example chess. IBM has developed Deep Blue, one of the pioneering chess super computers that beat raining chess champion Garry Kasparov. Now IBM has developed Watson, a super computer designed to answer questions in natural language. IBM tested Watson's abilities against the best on the popular game show Jeopardy, and won. Watson was not connected to the internet, but was built together with 90 IBM power 750 servers. An avatar was used on the game show, but the actual computers were in a different room in IBM's research facilities. It is amazing how far technology has come and looking into the future how this will help many people. For example, doctors who need to diagnose a patient. When faced with so much data in the world today, how can we store all that in our heads and recall it fast enough. This brings me to wonder with the increased amount of data in the world, will we be able to house it all and differentiate the useful data from the data that will mislead our judgment

On Cloud 9

So what's next? EVERYONE has had a time where they were afraid to lose that ONE important document, file or picture. Why does it seem more ok if we lost it now than before? Maybe because you've uploaded it to dropbox or the picture is on facebook. Our data today has shifted beyond personal computers whether people notice it or not. I can store a file over the web and retrieve anywhere in the world. Does everyone one still need a full OS? Half of us used web-based services and don't even realize it, example, Google docs, twitter, You-Tube, Facebook. What's best is knowing that it works with any device with a web browser, whether it be on a MAC, or a PC, Linux WHATEVER. Who really even cares where the file is located anymore, in-reality if it works people don't take notice where it came from, as long as it worked.

This topic seems to be more and more integrated with reality now as companies are already giving us a taste of the future. Google has developed the CR-48, which is a bare bone laptop that basically has nothing but a browser. Apple is rumored to create ipods with songs that will never be stored actually on the ipod. Something for everyone to think about because the future is here and most of us don't even notice it.

HTC Facebook Phones?

For those who can't seem to stay off facebook, HTC and Facebook are designing new lower-end devices dedicated to Facebook widgets. These phones will contain an F button which allows users to always stay on top of news feeds, and upload pictures quicker. Two phones are rumored, but no specifications have been officially put out. One phone will feature a QWERTY keyboard with a smaller screen and the other feature no keyboard, but a bigger screen. These phones will allow users completly immerse themselves into social networking, and with them being lower-end devices we will sure see more android users. The question is, has social networking reached its peak? What's next?

The Benchmark for Dual Core Phones

When you ask people, "What do you think of tablets?" They'd most likely refer to Apples iPad. The iPad has set the tone for tablets, and companies are competing to develop a better product. Like the iPad set the tone tone for tablets the Motorola sets the tone of having the first dual core mobile processor. Although the phone has not be released yet, it's sure building some hype. The suspected release date is set for March 6.

Some nice features about the phone besides the 1ghz dual core mobile processor is it supports all bands of HSDPA (850, 900, 1900,2100). It has a 4.0 inch screen along with the first phone with qHD technology making it easier to read indoors and outdoors. In addition, it has one 1gb of ram, making multi-tasking effortless. It features a front and read facing cameras to support video chat and the ability to record and output in HD. The Atrix also has a finger print reader for those who want a more secure phone, but will also be intertwined with its accessories.

As said before, this phone outputs HD up to 720p from a mobile dock connected to the tv that can act as a media server. It also makes it easier for users to showcase photos and video they have taken and would like to show relatives. The thing that excites me the most is the laptop attachment. The ability to have your cell phone have the equivalent power to a net book is astonishing. The laptop accessory cannot be used standalone so all the processing power is from the phone, which runs on android 2.3 (gingerbread). Well see in the next few months when people start reviewing the phone, and other companies try to raise the bar.