It turns out that his hobby 9to5Mac.com blog was always his favorite and in 2011 he went full time adding his Fortune Google followers to 9to5Google.com and adding the style and commerce component 9to5Toys.com gear and deals site. In 2013, Weintraub bought one of the Tesla’s first Model S EVs off the assembly line and so began his love affair with the Electric Vehicle and green energy which in 2014 turned into electrek.co.
In 2018, DroneDJ was born to cover the burgeoning world of drones and UAV’s led by China’s DJI.
From 1997-2007, Weintraub was a Global IT director and Web Developer for a number of companies with stints at multimedia and branding agencies in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Madrid and London before becoming a publisher/blogger.
Seth received a bachelors degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California with a minor in Multimedia and Creative Technology in 1997. In 2004, he received a Masters from NYU’s Tisch School of the Art’s ITP program.
Hobbies: Weintraub is a licensed single engine private pilot, certified open water scuba diver and spent over a year traveling to 60 cities in 23 countries. Whatever free time exists is now guaranteed to his lovely wife and two amazing sons.
Logitech today offers a refurb Logitech Revue for $149.99. That’s half of retail and the lowest price yet offered. The Revue is the standalone Google TV unit with full sized keyboard and trackpad. It features an Intel processor, 1080P video with browser that can play Flash video, Pandora, Twitter and more.
TigerDirect offers the Sony 24″ 1080p LED-Backlit Widescreen LCD HD Television with Google TV, model no. NSX-24GT1, for $399.99. Coupon code “VKL35923″ drops it to $299.99. With free shipping, that’s $98 under yesterday’s mention and the lowest total price we’ve seen. (It’s a current price-low by $197.)
It also matches the price of the original Logitech GoogleTV Revue – so think of it as a GoogleTV with a free Sony 24″ 1080P TV thrown in for free.
Features include a 1920×1080 (1080p) native resolution, LED backlight, 2,500:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 8GB of built-in storage, wireless keypad remote control, 802.11n wireless, Gigabit Ethernet, USB connectivity, one HDMI input, and VGA, component, and other video inputs. It also features support for the Android-based Google TV service (which allows you to watch Internet content on your HDTV) as well as applications for Netflix, Twitter, Pandora, CNBC, NBA TV, and more. Coupon expires July 9. Expand Expanding Close
Sony has some Android tablets on the way and Notebook Italia got their hands on both of them. Not much in the way of new information but brush up on your Gadget Italian below:
The Android train keeps chugging along with the comScore showing a 5.1 point increase in total US Android use in the Feb-May Quarter putting the OS at 38.1% of the total US smartphone market. Apple also gained, though less spectaculary with 1 percentage point improvement, coming in at 26.6%. Android head Andy rubin said last month that Android activations had grown to over half a million a day worldwide.
For the other guys, it wasn’t a happy quarter. RIM continues its slide down to a under quarter of all US smartphone purchases, while Microsoft and webOS risk being bundled into the “other” category as their marketshare continues to erode into almost nothing.
Mashablehas learned that Google is planning to kill two of its biggest branded products and merge them into Google branded services in the next six weeks.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, Google intends to rename Picasa “Google Photos” and Blogger will become “Google Blogs.” Several other Google brands are likely to be affected, though our sources made it clear that YouTube would not be rebranded.
Mashable notes that the move isn’t without precedent – Grandcentral became Google Voice, Jotspot became Sites, etc. etc.
Blogger (co-founded by Evan Williams of Twitter) was acquired in 2003 and is one of the top 10 most visited websites in the world. Picasa is also a very popular service acquired in 2004.
Both services will likely be tied in with Google’s new Plus Social Network. It would be surprising to see Picnik survive as a separate product. ‘Google Photo Editor’ anyone?
Bloomberg, The New York Times and Dow Jonestoday report that Microsoft and China’s Baidu have entered a cooperation pact for former to provide English language results for the the latter’s queries.
“This is not good news for Google,” said Jake Li, who rates Baidu shares “accumulate” at Guotai Junan Securities in Shenzhen. Most Chinese Internet users currently prefer Google’s English-language search results over Baidu, whose service will be improved by the partnership with Microsoft, he said.
The terms of the deal weren’t made public but the deal will likely work similarly to the Bing-Yahoo deal last year where both companies share the revenues from advertisements. Baidu is the dominant search provider in China, one of the few places that Google doesn’t reign supreme. It had previously signed a mobile only deal with Microsoft but rumors of this deal first surfaced a month ago.
The Baidu-Bing service will go live later this year.
The Hillreports that Google will hire 12 different Lobbying firms to help “tell its story” to the FTC. The list reads:
Akin, Gump; Bingham; Capitol Legislative Strategies; Chesapeake Group; Crossroads Strategies; Gephardt Group; Holland & Knight; Normandy Group; Prime Policy; The First Group; The Madison Group; and the Raben Group.
Google faces a range of inquiries into its business practices.
Apart from its search practices, Google has drawn criticism from lawmakers on copyright enforcement, with some stakeholders accusing the search giant of profiting off ads placed on sites that host pirated content. Google’s Android smartphone platform has also been the target of accusations that the phones track and store user location data. Google has denied those accusations and testified that its phones do not track users.
Google has refused to make Eric Schmidt or Larry Page available to lawmakers who seek to question the executives, instead offering up Chief Council David C. Drummond. The next move by Congress could be a subpoena for the Google bosses to testify.
At this point, it seems pretty obvious that Google means business with the Google Plus platform. Besides all of the other areas Plus has engulfed, it looks like Google is heading into the gaming realm. The following code snippet was found in the web page code
“have sent you invites and more from Google+ Games”
It ain’t Honeycomb, and it might not be a good idea to ever expect it, but the original Android Tablet, the Galaxy Tab by Samsung is getting its Gingerbread on next week, just after some barbecuing and some fireworks.
Now, how about some Netflix and some Hulu to go along with it? Expand Expanding Close
I see these things from time to time on 9to5Toys and wonder how the heck they can make any type of tablet with a 7-inch screen $90.
The one review it does get on Amazon sums it up pretty well:
While the unit does work. It’s slow, and sometimes the touchscreen is unresponsive to touch commands. I basically have to press really hard on the screen for it to take commands.
It does a poor job streaming video from youtube.
My Samsung Captivate, cell phone is faster than this unit.
Overall:
Pros: Works, great for web surfing low media content sites, great to use as a picture frame,
Cons: Slow, Touch screen not accurate/responsive.
So, it would appear that you are pretty much buying a photoframe with a battery and a resistive touch screen (enclosed stylus). Still, for $90…
One of the big hurdles to get over when considering Cloud computers is the “What if I am offline” argument –and the number one place people have traditionally been unable to get online is on an airplane.
Gogo Wireless a few years ago started putting that to rest and it is almost unthinkable to take a domestic flight these days without wireless Internet onboard.
But Google, who want to reinforce the belief that the Internet is everywhere, has teamed up with Virgin and Gogo to give consumers a taste of what its like to operate a computer off with data 35,000 feet below. The plan will have ChromeOS reps at Virgin gates handing out and instructing passengers on how to use the Chromebooks (we see Samsung’s beautiful Series 5 12-inch devices above – which should fit really well in cramped spaces vs. clunky Windows laptops). Customers must put down a credit card as a deposit to make sure the Chromebooks make it back, but the transaction is otherwise free. Virgin and Google are also working on a Chrome web App that will help travelers get ready for their flight.
This is an incredibly smart idea and a great way to make the public aware of these devices…so long as the wireless bandwidth can handle it. (It also might get a few more people signed up with Google)
As far as AT&T is concerned, the Atrix is about the best Android Smartphone you’ll find (no disrespect to the monsters Infuse and Inspire). In my February Fortune Review I called it the new”King of the Androids” for its qHD display and dual core processor while still being smaller than a Galaxy S. A lot has happened since then
With activation of a new 2-year contract, Amazon Wireless offers the Motorola Atrix 4G Smartphone for AT&T Wireless for 1 cent with free shipping. That’s $50 under our April mention and the lowest total price we’ve seen for this phone. (It’s also a current price low by $100.) Sales tax is added where applicable. Features include a 4″ 960×540 color touchscreen, 1GHz dual-core processor, 5-megapixel camera, 720p video capture, microSD card slot, 16GB internal memory, 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, Adobe Flash 10, USB 2.0 connectivity, and Android 2.2 OS (FroYo). A $36 activation fee applies.
Amazon Affiliate members in California got a rude awakening this morning when they received and email from Amazon telling them that all Affiliate programs would be terminated by September 30th. This is in reaction to a proposed CA law that would tax Amazon purchases because Affiliate Account holders (workers) live and work in the State.
The whole thing is up for debate but we found the last sentence in the letter (whole thing pasted below the fold):
We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.
Our invites came in and we’re up and running. Here’s the initial reactions:
The first annoying thing is that Google hasn’t allowed Apps for Domains in yet. They are “working on it”. If you are like me and have your life in a Google Domain account this is a major pain. I’m going to have to reconnect to everyone and they are going to have to put me in their circles all over again. Bad start.
Once signed in, the interface is very “Facebook feeling” Google has found a lot of people who know me or are in my contacts so adding them to circles is easy. Unfortunately my gmail.com account has a lot of people from school (when I used it last) and not a lot of the people I deal with on a day to day basis.
Friends seem to be coming in from way back in history – very Facebook like.
It will be interesting to see how Google keeps people coming in and more importantly coming back.
Because I can’t stay logged into this and my normal Apps Google account at the same time, it won’t get used very much. I imagine there are a lot of power users in this exact same boat. I wonder what Google’s plan for this is. I’m hoping there is going to be a merge button at some point in the future.
Overall, I have to say that the product feels very good…like if all of my Facebook Friends came in, I’d probably leave Facebook immediately. But how do I use both at the same time?
Microvision via Ebay Daily Deals offers the 32GB Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for $529.99. That’s $70 off and the first such discount we’ve seen on Galaxy Tab 10.1s. This wireless-only Android tablet (no 3G connectivity) features a 10.1″ 1280×800 touchscreen LCD, 32GB memory, 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth 3.0, built-in GPS, 2-megapixel front camera, 3-megapixel rear camera, Android 3.1 OS (Honeycomb), and more.
We got a chance to take a look at the new MyTouch Slide last week and came away both impressed and yet slightly let down.
On one hand this is a rocket fast phone with a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor that is in both the Sensation and the EVO 3D but in a much smaller package. The screen size and resolution have also been pared down to more traditional standards (3.7-inch and 480×800 pixels) but it is still a great display with great angles. Being a ‘Slide’, it has a slide-out keyboard which is very nice to the touch – but only 4 rows. The phone is awfully thin for a slider and perhaps the thinnest slide keyboard device out there.
The show stopper however is the shooter. The Slide has the “most advanced” 8-Megapixel camera on the market with its hard (0 lag) shutter, f/2.2 lens, backside-illuminated CMOS sensor which can record 1080P video. It also has three new technologies:
• SweepShot™: for capturing panoramic shots by sweeping across an entire scene in a single
motion
• ClearShot™ HDR: for capturing objects in bright settings so your photos are not affected by
high-contrast lighting
• BurstShot™: for capturing multiple photos in a quick burst so you don’t miss the perfect
photo
This phone is on par with a mid-range point and shoot camera, yet it has all of the GPS/social/internet features fo a smartphone. Both video and still were as good as any phone I’ve seen. While pictures and movies look amazing on the little 3.7-inch screen, it will be interesting to see how those pictures translate to the bigger screen (TVs) and paper.
If your smartphone wishlist starts with best camera out there, this is your phone.
Sony Style offers its Sony 24″ 1080p LED-Backlit Widescreen LCD HD Television with Google TV, model no. NSX-24GT1, for $400 with free shipping. That’s $49 under our April mention and the lowest total price we could find by $97. Sales tax is added where applicable. Features include a 1920×1080 (1080p) native resolution, LED backlight, 2,500:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 8GB of built-in storage, wireless keypad remote control, 802.11n wireless, Gigabit Ethernet, USB connectivity, one HDMI input, and VGA, component, and other video inputs. It also features support for the Android-based Google TV service (which allows you to watch Internet content on your HDTV) as well as applications for Netflix, Twitter, Pandora, CNBC, NBA TV, and more.
Perhaps most interestingly, they say there won’t just be 1 device at launch, multiple halo devices will come from multiple carriers:
Imagine flagship releases from Motorola, HTC, and LG with Ice Cream Sandwich available on AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint all at practically the same time… in addition to a Google Nexus handset from Samsung.
How about devices with Qualcomm Gobi/LTE Chips that work on all four carriers in the US and across the globe? Expand Expanding Close
Google I/O attendees can now cllaim their Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks. Interestingly, Google and Samsung are giving out the 3G models which retail for $500. Also interesting, they come via Amazon – you get a promo code to redeem at the end. Start here once you get your code.
Yes, ours is on the way, you have a week to claim them!
Richard DeVaul, a PhD. scientist from MIT with a focus on building wearable technologies, was snared from Apple this month by Google. At Apple he was rumored to be working with SVP of Industrial Design, Jonny Ive in Apple’s secret labs building the next big thing.
Besides his having knowledge of the inter-workings of Apple, it is also interesting that DeVaul is a hardware person who has focused on building wearable products for the past decade. Google has been a software company for all of its existence, but more and more it appears that it will enter the hardware business…but probably in smart accessories rather than phones.
There is a lot on the line with Sprint’s new EVO 3D launch today. The EVO brand has now become the flagship Sprint Android device moniker and for more than a year, the EVO has been just about the most burly Android device you could get on the WiMAX 4G network.
Background:
The original EVO was a milestone in Smartphone development. When it was released, the Nexus One and Droid were the top of the Android heap and Apple was still selling the iPhone 3GS. The EVO was the first Android device with front camera, 8MP back camera, 4.3-inch display, 4G network access and a kickstand! Even the Apple guys’ heads were turning. I got an EVO 4G at Google I/O last year and have used it off and on since. Among other things, it has one of the best GPSes of any phone I’ve used, it is always first or one of the first carrier phones to get an Android OS update and it pioneered (sorry HD2) HTC’s line of 4.3 inch devices which are now on every carrier in the US in multiple forms (Incredible 2 and Thunderbolt on Verizon, Inspire 4G on AT&T, Sensation on T-Mobile).
So how does the EVO 3D stack up to the original as well as the top of the other flagship phones out there? Read on to find out:
From 9to5toys.com:
