By Cynthia Herbert :: 6:18 PM
We’re less than 24 hours from the official Samsung announcement of their next generation flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4.
The event kicks off in New York City at 6 PM on Thursday, and so far, here are the rumors that have stayed consistent over the last several weeks:
- A 5-inch 1080×1920 display
- Options include: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB
- 13-megapixel camera with 1080p video capability
- 2GB of RAM
Under the hood, more recent rumors point to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 processor, clocked at 1.9GHz.
Developing news stories are also pointing to eye-tracking capabilities in the S4. The eye-tracking functionality uses the phone’s forward facing camera to lock onto the motion of a user’s eyes, and follows them when they move. By doing this, the phone can figure out where the user is looking, and software and applications can respond to a set of predetermined behaviors, like scrolling a web page, or blinking to make a click.
This emerging technology, which has long been researched for desktop computers, but this would be one of the first commercial applications for mobile technology.
To what extent the S4 will employ this new ere-tracking capability is yet to be seen. Earlier today, Bloomberg news said that some sources familiar with Samsung claim that eye scrolling won’t happen with the Galaxy S4, but more simple interactions, like the ability to pause videos when the user’s eyes move away from the screen, might be possible.
[Image above – Samsung’s Galaxy Experience store at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference.]
By Katherine McClosky :: 4:23 PM
Amazon today announced that it will be dropping the price on its 8.9″ Kindle Fire HD
The prices will be reduced from $299 for Wi-Fi and $499 for 4G to $269 and $399 respectively.
The company has been successful in increasing production volumes of the popular tablet, and has been able to reduce its costs as the device has shown up in European and Japanese marketplaces.
“We’re thrilled with customer reaction to Kindle Fire HD 8.9″. Customers tell us they love our large-screen version of Kindle Fire HD for web browsing, email, gaming, watching TV shows, reading magazines, and more,” said Dave Limp, Amazon’s vice president for the Kindle line, in a statement. “As we expand Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ to Europe and Japan, we’ve been able to increase our production volumes and decrease our costs. Across our business at Amazon, whenever we are able to create cost efficiencies like this, we want to pass the savings along to our customers.”
The 8.9-in. Kindle Fire HD has a display with a 1920 x 1200 resolution, with 254 PPI, the highest resolution of any of the Kindle Fires. The $269 price applies to the 16GB Wi-Fi version, the 32GB Wi-Fi version will retail for $299. The $399 4G version has 32GB of storage as well as Wi-Fi.
By Paul Thomson :: 3:42 PM
The newly named leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis I, will Tweet under the same handles as the previous Pope, and has issued his first Tweet: “HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM” – meaning, “we have a Pope, Francis”.
Pope Francis I is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church from Argentina. He was named earlier today after a conclave of cardinals elected him to the position. He will Tweet on the @pontifex Twitter account in nine different languages.
By Paul Thomson :: 2:21 PM
White smoke billowing from the Vatican chimney this evening signals the fact that the 115 cardinals meeting to elect the next pope have reached a decision in their voting.
Black smoke was sent up from the chimney earlier in the day after two rounds of voting proved inconclusive.
For a time during the afternoon, a seagull took to perching on the top of the chimney, much to the delight of Vatican TV watchers and people on social media. See picture above.
Although a decision has been made, the name of the new leader of the Catholic Church has not yet been released.
Update – 3:14 PM: The new Pope is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires – he will be Pope Francis I.
By Gilbert Falso :: 8:50 AM
So you want to get into the highly sought-after Google technology conference for developers, Google I/O? You’ll need to be up early today if you’re on the west coast, and have your Google Wallet ready to go.
The conference is planned for May 15 – 17 in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Tickets go on sale at 7:00 AM Pacific Time this morning, 10:00 AM on the east coast. You must have a Google+ account and a Google Wallet account to purchase admission tickets.
Because tickets sell out fast – last year in just 30 minutes – make sure your payment information in Google Wallet is updated and accurate. Don’t know if you have a Google Wallet account? If you’ve bought something out of the Google Play marketplace, then you already do.
When you begin the registation process, Google will put you in an electronic queue for a ticket. You could be on that page for up to six minutes. Google advises not to open multiple browser tabs to the registration page, as that will reset your wait time, and you will lose your place in line.
The cost to attend Google I/O is $900, or $300 if you belong to Google’s academic community. To qualify for academic community registration, you must be able to provide proof of enrollment or employment at an academic institution , and Google is limiting the sale of academic tickets.