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Posts Tagged ‘ipad’

The Obama presidential campaign is again pushing the bounds of technology in politics by using Square mobile payments in its fundraising efforts. Square’s mobile payment device is a secure magnetic stripe credit card reader that can be attached to the headphone jack of iPhones, iPads, and Android devices to accept payments.

The company is obviously thrilled to have the publicity, and has sanctioned a special app for the campaign to use for donations. Currently, only staff have access to the Obama Square app, but it will be released to the general public soon. This is similar to the way Square … [Read More...]

The jury is still out on Windows 7 tablets — and, at this point, it looks like it may never come in — but with the Series 7 Slate, Samsung at least gives this difficult niche the old college try.

Our last encounter with a Windows tablet dates back to March’s Viewsonic ViewPad 10, which disastrously attempted to combine Windows and Android in one device, dramatically failing at both. Here, Samsung is at least wise enough to pick … [Read More...]

Space heaters have always struck me as inherently — how shall I put it? — low-echelon devices. They seem best suited to college dorm rooms, along with Simpsons VHS tapes and a Costco-sized box of ramen noodles. Relying on one is maybe one small step above warming your cold-water flat with the gas oven.

In other words, the thought of a “Cadillac of space heaters” seems a bit of an oxymoron.

But the Dyson of space heaters?

Having tackled vacuum cleaners, hand dryers and artificial summer breezes, Dyson is once again taking a mundane home appliance to task.

Meet the … [Read More...]

We may call the glorious series of tubes the World Wide Web, but that doesn’t mean you can view every website’s content all around the globe.  Many of the big name content providers – like Steam, Netflix, Pandora and BBC – employ region locks to limit their services to specific countries. But this is the Internet we’re talking about, so naturally, there are ways around the roadblocks.

A few notes before we begin: the solutions offered below aren’t perfect. Surfing speeds are usually slow, content providers sometimes restrict access from certain proxies and VPNs, and you often have to pay … [Read More...]

NVidia’s founder and president Jen-Hsun Huang was on hand at this years AsiaD conference, and as usual, he put on quite the show. In addition to reconfirming the companies future plans for the Tegra platform, he offered up sage advice for Microsoft on how to manage Intel during the transition to arm, how much his company is spending on R&D, and even openly fantasized about getting his chips in future versions of the iPad. 

When asked about his feelings towards Windows on ARM, Huang was quite specific, don’t call it a PC.

“It’s important for [Microsoft] not to position these … [Read More...]

It’s not as if Maximum PC readers need any more convincing that the whole ‘post PC era’ theory is a bunch of hogwash, but just in case there remains any lingering doubt, Intel just reported yet another record quarter, for the sixth time in a row, as a matter of fact. Intel set new records for microprocessor units shipped, EPS, earnings, and revenue, which the chip maker reports was up 28 percent year-over-year.

“Intel delivered record-setting results again in Q3, surpassing $14 billion in revenue for the first time, driven largely by double-digit unit growth in notebook PCs,” said Paul … [Read More...]

The battle over the mainstream tablet market all but over, smart competitors are turning to a familiar tactic to attempt to compete with the iPad juggernaut: Slashing prices.

Bargain tablets are set to hit the market in droves — expect CES 2012 to be flooded with the things — as manufacturers race to hit that magic price point that drives so many consumer electronics devices, $200.

Velocity Micro — a brand better known for its ultra-pricey, high-end gaming rigs — is getting there. Its first tablet product, the 7-inch Cruz T301, was met with general disdain, and VM went back … [Read More...]

With the advent of E-readers like the Kindle, the publishing industry has been blown wide open. Before, getting your book in front of somebody meant flying to New York and scaling the granite walls of giant publishing houses. Failing that, you could always go to some shady vanity publishing company, but their primary concern was separating you from your hard-earned money.

The e-book Gerda and Kai displayed on a Motorola Xoom.

Nowadays it’s much easier to get your work into the hands of your eager audience. Whether you’re looking to publish the next great American novel or just want to … [Read More...]

A leaked user guide has outed Comcast’s upcoming AnyPlay service, which will let customers stream live TV to assorted mobile devices. On initial offering will be iPad support, but other tablets are expected to be added as well. The service will rely on in-home Wi-Fi, and users will have to get a special Motorola cable box from the cable provider.

Comcast plans to make most channels available to the user for streaming, but some content will be missing. For instance, on-demand and pay-per-view content won’t be available through the AnyPlay service. Comcast’s document did not make mention of any additional … [Read More...]

As an artist, I’ve always wanted some sort of one-to-one input when working in Photoshop or zBrush. I’ve used several of the traditional input tablets, but I’ve never been fully satisfied. I still ended up drawing on paper and scanning the results. It’s just more natural.

Input tablets have been constantly improving in the decades they’ve been around. But the technology remains imperfect. The pressure-sensitive pad sits on the desk, separate from the screen, which takes away some of that natural feel you get from drawing with a pen, especially when trying to add tiny details to your work.

So … [Read More...]

Apple and Microsoft have been at each other’s throats in the computer realm for years now, culminating in those super annoying “I’m a Mac” commercials. Now comes word of Apple’s newest ploy; the company will recycle your PC for free. Heck, it’ll even pay for the shipping and packaging and give you an Apple gift card if the computer’s still worth anything. Are they being generous and environmentally conscious, or do Steve Jobs and Justin Long just plan on high-fiving and laughing maniacally while bulldozing giant stacks of Dells?

We’re not sure, but one thing is for certain; it’s a … [Read More...]

My head started hurting after the first hour of using Mac OS X Lion. Two words: inverted scrolling.

That’s correct — Lion’s default scrolling behavior is to scroll down when you swipe up on your multitouch mouse, and to scroll up when you swipe down, just like you would on an iPad.

This modification in scrolling clearly illustrates Apple’s ambition with Mac OS X Lion, which was to make the Mac operating system more like the mega-popular iOS software powering not just … [Read More...]

Pretty impressive—if you don’t like email, apps, or games

For the record, the Maximum PC Lab keeps both feet planted squarely in the present tense. We don’t believe anyone should buy hardware based solely on its future potential. So what then to make of RIM’s nascent and decidedly half-baked Blackberry Playbook? Unless you’re 1) a Blackberry owner, 2) don’t care about apps or games, or 3) a devoted BB fanboy, the answer is: not much.

By the time you read this, it’s possible that the Playbook might be more complete via OS updates. The release version, however, omitts some basic … [Read More...]

With one market research study after the other pointing towards the cannibalization of netbooks and other PCs by the iPad and other media tablets, Intel has a reason to be alarmed. After all, it has yet to gain any traction in the tablet market.

But Intel is trying to turn things around. Even as it makes a play for a foothold in the tablet market with its Oak Trail chips, the company has decided to do something on the PC front too. The chip maker is now counting on a new class of laptops called “Ultrabooks” to turn things around for … [Read More...]

There’s a really famous road — maybe you know it. It’s paved with good intentions. And by now you should know all too well where it leads.

It must have been aggravating for ViewSonic — which has made Windows-based tablet PCs since 2001 — to see its market destroyed by the Apple iPad in 2010. So the company did what it (and everyone else has) had to do: embrace Android.

The result is the ViewSonic ViewPad 10, a 10-inch, dual-booting Windows-Android tablet with a lot of heart and lofty goals, and an utter disaster on nearly every front.

To be … [Read More...]

Does the world need another iPod dock? Probably not. Still, the Soundfreaq’s inaugural SFQ-01 “sound platform” (hint: it streams music too) is not only nice to ogle, it also delivers surprisingly good sound at super reasonable price.

The entire front side of the Soundfreaq — or ‘the Freaq’ as I’ve grown fond of calling it — is dominated by one grill. Tucked behind this sonic drapery are two balanced, Kevlar-reinforced drivers that provide ample oomph for a small-to-medium sized space — think bedroom or office, not living room. That space will also look a hell of a lot better thanks … [Read More...]

Boy, are my Instagram friends going to be jealous. Now, when I share a photo using my favorite Lomo-Twitter mobile app, my photos are going to look sharper, crisper and better than everyone else’s.

Why? Because I’m not using the crappy camera on my phone. I’m using a nice prosumer camera with an Eye-Fi Mobile X2 card in it. Every time I press the shutter, my photo transfers wirelessly and directly to the phone in my pocket. From there, I can add whatever fancy, appy goodness I want, and share it on the internet.

Eye-Fi has been making waves for … [Read More...]

Skullcandy is known for making headphones that put fashion first and sound quality second.

You’ve probably seen its krazy-kool neon and graffiti-splattered cans stacked up for sale in mall kiosks, or clamped to the dome of some young’n on a skateboard as he whisks by and spills your latte all over your Haggar slacks.

The company’s demo skews young, and we all know the kids don’t necessarily care if their music sounds good, as long as it’s loud. Needless to say, Skullcandy’s headphones haven’t ever scored high marks among audiophiles. Being one of these snobbish elites, my expectations were not … [Read More...]