Do you like bad rock-and-roll music? I thought not. Do you like the Motorola BACKFLIP? I thought you didn’t. Would you like to see a video of the Backflip rocking out in 3D? Sure you do! Move along now, the video is after the jump.
Motorola BACKFLIP gets into 3D rock-and-roll mode
New Rumor: Motorola BACKFLIP coming March 7th for $324?
As the headline up there says, this is a “New Rumor”, and it’s for the Motorola BACKFLIP. According to the fans at Phandroid, the “flippin’ brilliant” Motorola BACKFLIP will cost $324 ( supposedly unsubsidized) and will debut on March 7th. Oh, and just so that it gets to you again, Motorola came up with that “flippin’ brilliant BACKFLIP” tagline. Ouch, that hurt.
What’s In This Chart?
Do you know what it is? You don’t? Well, that’s the scale that measured the 7.0 magnitude Haitian earthquake, were 15 aftershocks above 5.0 magnitude hit the impoverished island. A relative bump according to a machine is a tragic disaster for millions of people. Quite interesting and out-of-this-world, no? There are 2 very good ways you can help:
- Donate to MSF/Doctors Without Borders
- Get your smartphone out of sleep mode and text “HAITI” to 90999, and a $10 donation will automatically be put on top of your phone bill, or you can do the same at The American Red Cross International Response Fund
[Via TheBigPicture]
Nexus One only sells 20,000 units in 1st week?
A slightly very disappointing report coming from Flurry, but the Nexus One is having a hard time in its first week of sales. as a comparison, the myTouch 3G sold 60,000 units in its first week, and the Verizon Droid sold 250,000. The iPhone? 1.6 million units in its first week, but keep in mind that all of the other Android phones in the shot above were debuted in only one country — the States, whereas the iPhone 3GS made its way to 8 countries at launch. Does this mean Android should spread its wings farther? Or is this bad for Google? Neither, really. But Android should be made more solid in order to compete with it’s main competitor in the future — the all-powerful iPhone OS.
Nintendo partners with Netflix to bring — Netflix on Wii
Soon this spring Nintendo Wii owners will have access to Netflix’s media streaming services. Start at a minimum plan of $8.99 a month, users will have the same privileges as Xbox 360 and PS3 owners. As with the PS3, Wii owners will have to obtain a free disc from Netflix’s website, and will have to load the disc to actually stream content. The disc ships this Spring, and you’ll need a broadband connection on your Wii. What I’m wondering though is that since the Wii cannot go past the 480p mark, there will be no HD. Would you still bite?
[Via Associated Press]
Why We Were Down For 4 Days…
The last 4 days LaptopMemo has been down due to a domain name issue. A hacker gained access to our administrative account and “stole” our domain name. We’ve gotten it back of course, and we have the hacker’s details, which we can easily expose to the world. This week we’ll have a new handset coming in as well as other little goodies, like the explanation of the “Did You Know?”, which is an amazing entrepreneurial adventure that will be brought to LaptopMemo as one of our main sections, besides the usual news and reviews. Now we should be back up and in perfect condition, so why not start the day with some news (even though it’s slow news day)?
Oh, and by the way, that photo up there is the very first Google server. Amazing, right?
[Thanks to all of our support agents over at GoDaddy! Way to go guys!]
Android 2.1 SDK Makes Its Debut
The Android 2.1 SDK aka “Eclair” is officially available to Android developers. New features in the SDK include the new live wallpapers feature found on the Nexus One, including a new SignalStrength class which contains phone signal strength data, and new methods to add geolocation, improved video handling and more goodies to the Android WebKit-based browser. And as for those of you who are waiting for 2.1 to make its way to your handset, most handsets (at least a solid amount) will be getting “Eclair” later this month.
[Via Android Developers]
iPhone beats Droid, Nexus One, and Droid Eris in touchscreen department
MOTO Development Group has plenty of fingers to go around to test today’s capacitive touchscreens. In a recent DIY and scientific-based test, the iPhone knocked out the Droid, Droid Eris, and Google Nexus One, but only by a slight margin (except the Droid, which is the worst). The lines above, show that the iPhone has sleek, precise lines that are drawn with a finger. The Motorola Droid has the lowest score, while the HTC Droid Eris is only slightly better. The Nexus One? Almost as good as the iPhone. According to MOTO:
The iPhone’s touch sensor showed the most linear tracking with the least amount of stair-stepping. The Droid Eris and Nexus One tied for second with only faint wiggling – but actually performed best at the edge of the screen. Last in the line-up was the Motorola Droid, which demonstrated significant wavy artifacts or “stair-stepping.”
A video demonstration is after the “Read More” link. [Via TechCrunch]
Nexus One hardware costs $174.15 to build, multitouch included
Way to go Google. Or sort of. According to iSuppli, the Nexus One costs $174.15 to build. The 2 -year contract makes the Nexus One price ring up to $179.99, and the unsubsidized? $529.99. Which makes me wonder: why the heck does the unsubsidized model costs so much? Not giving money every month to a carrier might be why, but come on? To break it all down, here’s exactly what Google spends money on to make each Nexus One:
- 1GHz Snapdragon ($30.50)
- AMOLED display ($23.50)
- Memory ($20.40) from Samsung
- Bluetooth and 802.11n WiFi transceiver costs $8.20
- $12.50 on a 5 megapixel camera
- Interestingly, Google has spent $17.50 on what’s described as “capacitive multitouch touchscreen assembly” from Synaptics.
So basically every person who buys a Nexus One pays for multitouch, but doesn’t get it? Google, I want my multitouch now.
People pay for it Google. Loosen up already.
[Via iSuppli]
Alienware M15x Rendered Unusable After BIOS Upgrade? Yup.
Just the time when Dell is going to send LaptopMemo an Alienware M15x (or M17X for that matter) for review, Dell issues a BIOS upgrade that renders users’ machines unusable. Multiple users report that the upgrade only allows you to get past the POST screen — then zip. Zero. Nothing. One user is actually saying that Dell will send him a new motherboard that he’ll install himself. Best tip of the week by the way: do not upgrade your M15x’s BIOS. ‘Kay? Thanks. In the meantime you can wonder what’s going on at the Dell QA forums.
[Via Notebook Review Forums]
