One of the big new features in Apple's iPhone 4S is Siri, a "virtual personal assistant" that somewhat understands normal everyday language and will assist with setting reminders, firing off text messages, and other tasks. Android also supports voice recognition, just not to the extent of what Siri's capable of. Don't hold your breath waiting for an Android equivalent. [......]
![Which matters more to you, Android or iOS? [poll]](http://www.itleader.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/795bd45e7487.png)
Yesterday's Flurry blog post " iPad 2 and Verizon iPhone Take Some Wind Out of Android's Sail " sent the Apple Fanclub of bloggers and journalists into a tizzy. They're still blogging about this great news today. But is it really so great[......]
Adobe ’s big man upstairs Shantanu Narayen is betting on Google ’s Honeycomb platform rather than Apple ’s iOS in the current battle for tablet OS supremacy. Can anyone guess why? [......]
When lawyer Evan Stone worked as an in-house counsel for anime distributor FUNimation, the company tried all sorts of techniques to stop piracy. It sent takedown notices and DMCA complaints to anyone who would listen, like ISPs (which sometimes took action) and torrent sites (which rarely did). [......]
A report from the Association of American Publishers reveals that e-books sales experienced "powerful continuing growth" as they colorfully put it, and paper books of all types dipped, compared to the same period (January-February) from last year. This isn’t surprising news, mainly because it isn’t news — and even if it were , it’s just history repeating itself; we’ve seen the same thing happen to music. [......]
Short version: Beautifully styled, modern, and very loud, but USB issues take this from a cool and functional device to a questionable one. Features: Two 6-inch speakers plus 6-inch subwoofer FM/AM, USB (drive/iPod), 3.5mm, RCA, 1/4″ inputs Adjustable EQ 35 watts RMS MSRP: $499.95 Pros: Great, unique look Big, powerful sound It’s just cool Cons: USB port music doesn’t seem to play well Could use an SD slot/li> Displays could be bigger Twelve D batteries? Full review: The first thing that needs to be said is that this isn’t a question of value, exactly. [......]
European video game retailer, GAME, has been handing out memos asking their employees to engage in some questionable business practices. The instructions told employees to take money out of the register and buy Nintendo 3DS consoles from the nearest Tesco supermarket - which happens to sell the 3DS at a loss for $55 less[......]
Credit card company American Express on Monday launched Serve, a payment system that allows customers to make person-to-person payments online, via mobile phones, or at merchants who accept American Express credit cards. Serve launched just two weeks after Visa Inc[......]
According to a report in the U.K.'s Guardian, a 29-year-old British man will spend two years behind bars for hacking Zynga and stealing 400 billion virtual gaming chips. Ashley Mitchell made off with more than $11 million in chips by muscling his way into Zynga's mainframe and stealing the identity of two employees before transferring the chips to his own account. [......]
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne today delivered the UK's 2011 budget, which spelled good news for UK tech. [......]
Ageing rocker Jon Bon Jovi says Apple supremo Steve Jobs is "personally responsible for killing the music business" with the instant gratification offered by iTunes and the iPod. The Livin' on a Prayer superstar reckons that the lack of physical vinyl or CD album sleeves has damaged the youth of today's chance to truly experience the music of their idols. He told the Sunday Times Magazine : "Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album." He adds that rock and roll fans have missed "the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it." Bad Medicine Clearly JBJ thinks that downloading directly to an iPod, sampling tracks before you spend pocket money, while discovering new artists along the way is no Bed of Roses for today's easily satisfied youth. [......]
Maybe someone told MSI to put its money where its marketing mouth is at, because that's exactly what the hardware maker did . If you're at all familiar with MSI's graphics cards and motherboards, then you've undoubtedly seen MSI pimping supposed "Military Class" components, like highly-conductive polymerized capacitors (Hi-c CAP), Super Ferrite Choke (SFC), and other fancy terms. [......]
Do you have a difficult time trying to figure out what size power supply you'll need for your next build? With so many variables in play, it's no easy task, yet it's critical you get it right. Overshoot your power needs and you'll end up wasting money on a larger PSU than you need, potentially depriving funds from other parts of your build. [......]
And here we thought videogame cut-scenes were the most ridiculous thing Activision would ever suggest we'd spend money on. Turns out, that was just a warm-up. [......]
It's always refreshing to hear a company that 'gets it,' and Nintendo appears to be one of those outfits. During a recent investor call, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata was given the opportunity to blame piracy as the reason why Nintendo's hardware and software sales haven't met expectations, but he didn't do that . "Even with piracy, as long as we can create products which can attract attention from many consumers and which can greatly entertain them, that software can make it to the number one position of the hit software sales chart," Iwata explains . [......]
