By Cynthia Herbert :: 10:07 PM
Looking for the right gadget to get for that special gal in your life? If she like cellphones and the color pink, this might just be your year – the Motorola Droid RAZR M
This is no frilly pink princess phone, either. It’s a tough and ready gizmo,featuring a 4.3-inch screen with a high-resolution Super AMOLED Advanced display. Fashioned out of aircraft-grade aluminum with Corning’s Gorilla Glass on the front and Kevlar on the back, this phone will take some abuse.Not to mention the inside has a water-repellent nanocoating to fend off spilled coffee, rain and other damp situations.
Pretty in pink, this RAZR M has the same features that the black and white models do – a zippy 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 8 GB of storage under the hood, expandable with the microSD card port. The back camera is an 8MP shooter, capable of 1080p HD video. The  OS is Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean).
The pink Motorola Droid RAZR M will be available for the Verizon network, and will be sold online and in stores for $99 (after a $50 rebate).
In addition to the RAZR M, there’s another Valentine’s day option out there – Nokia has a red version of their Lumia 822
New phone not in your budget? You could just get her a pink or red case
By Paul Thomson :: 9:22 PM
The new movie about Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, “jOBS,” starring Ashton Kutcher as the namesake entrepreneur who revolutionized the computer and gadget industry and launched Apple into an international brand, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday.
Due to release in April, the Sundance appearance was the film’s first public screening. The film covers 30 years of Jobs life, from his youth through his time at the helm of Apple. It is the first of two feature films about him. Jobs died in October, 2011 at age 56.
Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak commented publicly about the movie, and complained that it misrepresented the personalities of both him and Jobs. Wozniak also thought the presentation of the early days of Apple was off base as well. His comments came after viewing only a portion of the movie, not the entire screening.
“The movie should be very popular and I hope it’s entertaining. It may be very correct, as well. This is only one clip,” he told the tech news blog Gizmodo.
The other movie about Steve Jobs currently in production is based on the official biography
“jOBS” is directed by Joshua Michael Stern, who directed “Swing Vote
[Photo: Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs in “jOBS.”]
By Paul Thomson :: 12:49 AM
Disney has confirmed the leak that got out yesterday – J.J. Abrams will indeed direct the next Star Wars film, due to hit screens in 2015. The company issued the following statement:
Yes, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII, the first of a new series of Star Wars films to come from Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy. Abrams will be directing and Academy Award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay.
Abrams will head up “Episode VII,” the next installment in the sci-fi franchise. Also, interestingly enough, this is where Star Wars and Star Trek will closely align – for the first time ever. Â He had directed the 2009 Star Trek movie, and will also direct its upcoming sequel. He had made remarks last fall that he wasn’t interested in taking on the Star Wars movie, but something has obviosuly changed his mind.
Bob Iger, CEO at Disney, has made Star Wars a priority for the company. In a message to company investors, he said the he is planning to release a new Star Wars movie every two years.
By Paul Thomson :: 10:37 PM
This week, many Instagram and Facebook users are getting surprising e-mails in their inboxes – the two online social networks are looking for proof that users are who they claim to be.
It started earlier this week with Instagram, and then a few days later, Facebook followed suit. No surprise there, since Instagram is now owned by Facebook. The e-mails ask users to scan and upload a government-issued ID card that lists their full name with a picture and a birth date visible. In some cases, that ID is not enough, and the companies send out another e-mail asking for additional proof.
The e-mails say, in part,
We’re sorry, but we can’t verify your claim based on the ID you provided. Please reply to this email with a different government-issued photo ID. This ID must include your full name and date of birth. If any of this information is located on the back of the document, be sure to include an image of this as well.
If you don’t have a government-issued photo ID, we need you to send us two things:
-A copy of a photo ID (ex: work or school ID)
-A copy of an official document verifying your name and age (ex: birth certificate)
Facebook’s spokesperson has told us that this is standard procedure for verifying accounts on the service, but would not go into detail on specific cases, or address why certain users were asked for this information and others were not.
Instagram made changes to its terms of service and privacy policy on January 19, changing some of the language, and adding language that gives it the power to suspend a user’s account at any time
“We reserve the right to modify or terminate the Service or your access to the Service for any reason, without notice, at any time, and without liability to you,†reads part of the new terms.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 9:52 PM
The long awaited tablet, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0, finally has some pictures out there to prove that it exists! French technology blog Frandroid got the scoop, and the pictures even show the new tablet right next to the Galaxy Note II so we can get some context and comparisons on the size.
The Galaxy Note 8.0 will be Samsung’s next foray into tablets, and is squarely set to be a competitor for the iPad Mini. In the image above, it easy to see the new tab takes design cues from the current Galaxy Note, and the S III.
When the tablet does hit store shelves, it also looks like it will be equipped with Samsung’s S-Pen stylus – a popular accessory for the Samsung devices that has done well in reviews. As far as technical specifications go, while nothing is definite yet, it is looking like the display will be 1280×800, the OS will be Android’s Jelly Bean, inside will feature a quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM, and the camera will likely be 5MP.
No release date yet, and not even a definite on appearing at Mobile World Congress next month, but it is a very strong possibility that we’ll see it there.
[Thanks to Frandroid for the pic.]