UPDATED 14:00 EDT / FEBRUARY 20 2013

SocialANGLE News Round-up: New Developments for Sony, Apple, Google and More

 

It’s an exciting week in consumer electronics, with plenty of rumors, details and announcements coming forward this week.

First and foremost, Google glasses are back and asking for “bold, creative individuals” to “be a part of shaping the future of Glass.”  As long as you’re 18 and live in the United States, all you need to do to apply is Tweet or Google+ what you would do with Glass in 50 words or less, and add the hashtag “if I had Glass.”

Apple’s iPhone5 took the lead against Samsung’s Galaxy S3 as the top-selling smartphone worldwide, making 1 in 5 of every smartphones ordered during the 4th quarter last year an Apple device.  The dip in sales from first to third quarters for the Galaxy S3 is largely attributed to rumors of the much-anticipated Galaxy S4’s release, set for early spring this year.

Release dates for Sony’s successor to the PS3 have leaked.  The Playstation 4 is pegged to be released in November this year with a price tag ranging from $429-529, but sources have indicated that the rumored price is subject to change.  In addition to a release date, sources have also released some details regarding the devices capabilities, including the ability to remotely control the device using a smartphone or tablet.  Additionally, Sony will be replacing their online feature, PlayStation Plus, with something more like Xbox Live, called PlayStation World, which will, in addition to allowing users to watch their friends play games live, provide users with a marketplace to both buy and download games to their PS4’s hard drive.

HTC is reportedly distancing themselves from Android with the new HTC One smartphone.  Not unlike their competitors at Samsung, HTC wants to promote their new flagship device as a sub-brand that people will choose to purchase for their proprietary apps and services, allowing HTC to distinguish themselves from the rest of the Android market.

On last week’s NewsDesk we discussed exploits found in Apple’s recent version of iOS and it’s Exchange compatibility. Apple was quick to aid announcing today that it has a fix available for download. While the fix is much appreciated and fast delivered, Apple still hasn’t fixed the actual problem that was gaining headline attention as the Passcode vulnerabilities are still present in the update. iPhone users have no choice but to wait for that fix but you can now sync your phone with iTunes in order to download the update to Exchange for now.

“Sunrise,” the new iPhone calendar app from the creators of Foursquare has launched. The app takes your calendars social, following the trend of apps like Evernote, Spotify and others – taking your life scheduling to the cloud. It takes your Facebook account, Google calendar and even LinkedIn profile and combines them in order to show your life scheduled according to your social life.

Polytron Technologies is developing a fully transparent conceptual smartphone.  Polytron’s see-through smart-glass gizmo is still in the development stages and the current version can’t make calls just yet. Due to Polytron’s Switchable Glass technology (based on Polyvision), the entire phone may appear opaque when not in use, and clear when powered on.

Nvidia announced Tuesday its first Tegra processor with an integrated LTE chip. The 2.3GHz quad-core Tegra 4i, aims to bring the company in closer competition with Qualcomm and its line of Snapdragon CPUs.  The Nvidia Tegre LTE processor is equipped with 60 custom GPU cores, a fifth processing core for battery conservation and an integrated NVIDIA i500 LTE modem. It also includes NVIDIA’s Chimera camera technology, capable of capturing HDR panorama shots without requiring a single-direction sweep. The company is calling the new processor the most efficient, highest performance CPU core on the market. 

Finally, a new product has emerged to take the trend more mainstream.   Yesterday WobbleWorks launched a project on Kickstarter called The 3Doodler is a small pen-style device that its creators call both a “world’s first” and “the most affordable way to 3D print.” The 3Doodler won’t be able to print pre-rolled objects but instead it allows users to draw their very own designs into existence by moving the pen through the air.  Right now you can order your 3Doodler for $75 and the first orders of the 3-D printing pen are scheduled to ship as soon as September. 

See the entire segment with Kristin Feledy on the Morning NewsDesk Show.

 photo credit: andysternberg via photopin cc

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