Andreas' Blog

  Apple has just confirmed that the company’s brand new iPad will be available for in store purchase starting at 8:00 a.m. local time this Friday from Apple retail stores. AT&T and Verizon stores, in addition to authorized Apple retailers like Best Buy and Target (pronounced: tar-jay) will also be selling the iPad in the United States. Apple’s iPad will also make its way around the world in the company’s fastest product roll-out ever, touching down in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. CUPERTINO, California―March 14, 2012―Apple® today announced the new iPad®, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, will arrive at Apple’s retail stores and the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com) on Friday, March 16 at 8:00 a.m. local time in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the UK; along with Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The new iPad features ...

  Following the much delayed BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 update, the tablet finally has a native email client , other PIM apps and a larger selection of apps thanks to its Android player. Research in Motion is now looking to further boost interest in its debut slate, and it has announced the BlackBerry Mini Keyboard for those users looking for a physical keypad option on top of the virtual one. The accessory retails for a lofty $119.99 and is available for pre-order starting today, with shipments going out on March 23rd. The concept of the keyboard is similar to the competition. It includes a multitouch trackpad for browsing, a keyboard for easy input and a battery that last up to 30 days. Unlike the ASUS Transformer Prime, RIM’s accessory does not have a docking feature and is just a carrying case with an integrated Bluetooth keyboard. RIM’s video demonstation follows below. Read RIM reveals new $120 PlayBook keyboard case [video] Dan Graziano Wed, 14 Mar 2012 03:00:02 GMT

Encyclopaedia Britannica will stop publishing print editions and go digital-only — a huge step for the encyclopedia which has been in print since 1768. The sales of Britannica print editions has been on the decline since 1990, when 120,000 32-volume sets were sold. The early nineties were the start of a revolution: People started turning to the internet for information, and Britannica sales fell to 40,000 in 1996, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. President Jorge Cauz. However, Cauz insists that, while the print edition of the Britannica is no longer selling well, the digital editions are blooming. “This has nothing to do with Wikipedia or Google. This has to do with the fact that now Britannica sells its digital products to a large number of people,” said Cauz . Those interested in the final hardcover edition of Britannica can buy it at the company’s website for $1,395. Britannica currently sells several digital products, including a DVD version of the Enc...

  It’s long been known that Windows 8 would come with a great many more keyboard shortcuts than its predecessors.  These are necessary in no small part to help non-touchscreen users use and access features that would ordinarily be opened with a swipe or other gesture.  While some people may see the need for extra keyboard shortcuts to be a retrograde step in operating system development, nobody can deny that they’re certainly needed in Windows 8. Now Microsoft have released the full list of keyboard shortcuts in a blog post , and there certainly are a lot of them, more than people will be able to remember anyway.  However this isn’t really the point as there is more search syntax in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 than people can remember but people use what they know and need.  Thus there are certain shortcuts here which most people will use every day, such as Win+C to open the Charms menu, and there will be many others that select individuals will find very ...

New iPhone with 4G LTE launching later this year, report claims : Apple is reportedly preparing to launch a new iPhone later this year that will include an embedded 4G LTE radio. Citing unnamed sources within Taiwan-based smartphone manufacturers, DigiTimes on Monday reported that Apple’s next-generation iPhone is “very likely” to include integrated 4G LTE connectivity. The new smartphone, which the website says will launch in the second half of 2012, is expected to drive the number of LTE-equipped handsets sold in 2012 to between 45 million and 50 million units, up from earlier projections of between 25 million and 30 million handsets. Apple’s next-generation iPhone is expected to feature a faster processor and a larger display compared to the current-generation iPhone 4S. BGR exclusively reported late last year  that the new iPhone will also include a completely redesigned antenna system and case, possibly featuring unibody aluminum architecture, and that it would launch thi...

Intel Working to Boost Thunderbolt Speeds with Move to PCI-Express 3.0 : IDG News reports that Intel is currently working on shifting its Thunderbolt standard to the PCI-Express 3.0 protocol, a move that could allow the company to double data transfer speeds over existing implementations based on PCIe 2.0. Intel in the future will support the PCI-Express 3.0 protocol to shuttle data faster between host devices and peripherals, an Intel spokesman said in an email. Computers with Thunderbolt interconnect currently communicate with external devices using the older PCI-Express 2.0 technology. The company will incorporate PCI-Express 3.0 in Thunderbolt, but could not provide a time frame for when it will be accomplished. PCIe 3.0 offers a 60% boost in raw data transfer speed compared to PCIe 2.0, going from 5 gigatransfers per second (GT/s) to 8 GT/s. But significantly lower overheard requirements in PCIe 3.0 mean that the effective bandwidth can be doubled by moving to the lat...

Android tablet vendors may not survive an ‘iPad mini’ : Samsung, Asus and other Android tablet vendors are reportedly very concerned over rumors that Apple is working on a 7.85-inch version of its iPad tablet , currently referred to as the “iPad mini.” Apple sold more than 15 million post-PC slates in the December quarter last year , and Android tablet makers are said to be concerned that a smaller, cheaper version of Apple’s wildly popular tablet will make it extremely difficult to remain competitive in the space. Moreover, Google is said to be prepping an own-brand 7-inch Nexus tablet  to launch later this year, which will likely  make it even more difficult for Android partners to compete .  DigiTimes’s sources said “non-Apple” tablet vendors are fine for the time being thanks to the growing popularity of the 7-inch tablet space. If Apple and Google do release mid-sized tablets of their own, however, companies like Samsung and Asus “may soon have difficulty to sur...