Zipcar Releases Android App (Get It While It's Still Hot)

It's Still in Beta, Though...
Zipcar released an iPhone app for its car-sharing service a little while ago, but Android smartphone users were sadly left in the dark... Until now! Zipcar is released a public beta of an Android app that will make finding and reserving a Zipcar much easier. Read on for more details.

Hopefully the Honking Feature Can't Be Used Too Many Times in a Row...

Hot on the heels of a successful IPO, Zipcar seems to want to make its fleet of by-the-hour cars more attractive and convenient. The bike racks were a good start, and after doing a survey of members that revealed that "more than 90 percent of Zipsters use smartphones", it was a no-brainer to create this Android app. It seems to have all the required features:

"Zipcar's new Android application allows members to search for and reserve Zipcars by time, location and vehicle type. Members can use the application to view available Zipcars on a map, get directions to the vehicle location and extend or cancel a reservation. The application can also be used to honk the horn to locate a Zipcar, as well as lock and unlock the vehicle after scanning the Zipcard into the reservation. Non-members can download the app to search for vehicles and vehicle locations, learn more about Zipcar and initiate the membership application process."

Breakthrough in the Lab Could Mean Batteries that Charge in Minutes

Electrodes Made With Nanostructured Metal Foams
Battery technology is improving slowly but surely, and while progress might seem slow to many of us who are living in internet time, the improvements in energy density and charging rate are compounding nicely over time. One of the latest advances concerns the making of electrodes with "nanostructured metal foams", greatly improving how fast the battery can be charged. Read on for more details.

Researchers have been trying to use nanostructured materials to improve the process, but there's usually a trade-off between total energy storage capacity (which determines how long a battery can run before needing a recharge) and charge rates. "People solved half the problem," says Paul Braun, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Braun's group has made highly porous metal foams coated with a large amount of active battery materials. The metal provides high electrical conductivity, and even though it's porous, the structure holds enough active material to store a sufficient amount of energy. The pores allow for ions to move about unimpeded. (source)

The beauty is that this method for making fast-charging electrodes is applicable to different battery chemistries, like lithium-ion or nickel-metal-hydride.
Charging electric vehicles at home might never take only minutes because few houses are wired with fat enough 'pipes' to completely charge a battery pack that quickly, but it could make fast-charging stations more convenient (and long trip practical), and battery-swapping stations (like what Better Place is working on) unnecessary. We're not there yet, but we're getting closer with each new breakthrough.
The challenge will now be to get this technology out of the lab and into commercialapplications, and before that can happen, the manufacturing process has to be made economical. But the higher the price of oil goes, and the more our lives become digitized, the more pressure there will be for fast-charging batteries to be commercialized. At this point it's more a question of 'when' than 'if'.

Did Sony CEO Howard Stringer Spill The Beans About An 8MP iPhone 5 Camera?

We’re recently reported that very few new features appear to be solid for theiPhone 5. But a recent slip-up by the Sony CEO suggests that an 8-megapixel camera might be a definite upgrade for the next iPhone. read Charles Moore’s new article:

MacNN, Appleinsider,, CNET, and several other Apple-watcher sites reported over the weekend that Sony CEO Howard Stringer may have inadvertently revealed that Apple is gearing up to equip the iPhone 5 with an eight-megapixel camera.

9To5Mac’s Seth Weintraub, who attended the event, reports that Stringer, in a Talking Tech with Sony event interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York, commented that his company’s camera sensor plant at Sendai, Japan, is among 15 of the company’s facilities damaged by last month’s catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, and that the supply interruption will delay shipments of sensors to Apple. Since Sony sensors are not used in the iPhone versions 4 and 3GS, which employ 5-megapixel and 3.2 megapixel OmniVision camera sensors respectively, it’s not a major deductive leap to infer that the higher-resolution CMOS sensors sourced from Sony would most likely be destined for the next revision iPhone 5.

A PhoneArena blog from six weeks ago notes that OmniVision shares nosedived last summer when a rumor spread that due partly to complaints about a yellowish color shift in still photos shot with the OmniVision sensor camera, Apple might be moving to Sony for its next generation iPhone camera sensors — possibly Sony’s Exmor R sensor unit that is used in the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc and Xperia neo. That 8MP sensor is backlit to help it finesse low light conditions, similar to the way the iPhone 4′s 5MP OmniVision sensor does. Indeed, rumors of Apple dropping OmniVision in favor of Sony as its iPhone camera supplier are longstanding.

PhoneArena also reports that OmniVision has announced that it has an 8MP camera sensor of its own coming, the OV8820, which incorporates the same low-light performance enhancements, plus HD video at 60fps, and Full HD at 30fps, and which had been projected to begin mass production in March, but that production problems have occurred.

Not everyone agrees that Apple will use Sony CMOC camera sensors in the iPhone 5. Analyst Yair Reiner of Wall Street’s Oppenheimer & Co. is quoted by Appleinisider isaying he expects OmniVision to remain Apple’s camera supplier for the fifth-generation iPhone, corroborated by checks with contacts in Apple’s supply channels, dismissing the notion an Apple-Sony hook-up as “rather silly.”

Whatever, regardless of whether the iPhone 5‘s camera supplier is to be OmniVision or Sony, it looks like camera sensor supply problems may be a significant factor in Apple’s evidently postponing the iPhone 5 introduction from an anticipated Worldwide Developer’s Conference release until some time later in the year. With the iPad 2′s camera performance being that unit’s most unanimously panned feature in reviews, Apple will want to get the camera right in the iPhone 5, where it is arguably a much more important feature than it is with the tablet product.

Also, with Sony Ericsson rumored to be getting 12MP+ camera equipped phones ready for summer release, Apple will need at least the 8MP sensors to remain even ballpark competitive in that context.

//  Posted by CharlesMoore on Tuesday Apr 5, 2011 Unde

Nintendo 3DS Game Lineup Round-Up

The Nintendo 3DS is now on sale, and with it are 19 available games. That number will increase to dozens, and eventually hundreds as the months pass by, but until then the selection is sparse.

Nintendo itself has only released a handful of games for the 3DS, including "Nintendogs+Cats," "Pilotwings Resort," and "Steel Diver." With "Nintendogs+Cats," Nintendo's beloved virtual puppy game returns with improved 3D graphics and cats. Using the 3DS's pedometer, you can even take your Nintendog on a virtual walk with you, on your own two feet. This stands out as one of the best-developed and most attractive 3DS launch titles.

Many gamers are anticipating the future releases of "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," "Star Fox 64," and "Kid Icarus: Uprising," but they won't come out for a few months. The company is alsoplanning to launch a service where classic Game Boy, Game Gear, and Turbografix-16 games will be available for download, along with other Nintendo titles remade for 3D. Unfortunately, even that service will not be enabled until May.

The third-party side of the system, however, has some impressive titles, including Capcom's "Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition," Namco Bandai's "Ridge Racer 3D," EA's "The Sims 3," Ubisoft's "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars," and LucasArts' "Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars."

The latest chapter in the "Lego Star Wars" series uses Cartoon Network's The Clone Wars series as a backdrop. It's the same action-platforming goodness that's been around for years, but with a nice amount of 3D to make the various minifigs pop off the screen.

  

David Letterman's top 10 reasons to buy an iPad 2

The iPad 2 has been getting a lot of attention since it arrived in U.S. stores on March 11. The lines at Apple Stores around the country were top news on many local TV stations, and the sleek new device has been popping up on shows in the five days since the introduction.

Last night, Late Show host David Letterman used the iPad 2 as fodder for his nightly "Top 10 List." While some of the "Top 10 Reasons to Buy an iPad 2" fall flat, there are several that are actually pretty humorous, including #7 which describes the three cameras that come with every iPad 2.

I'm just hoping that Letterman decides to start using an iPad 2 to display his script so we don't have to keep looking at his bald spot when he bends over to peer at the Top 10 list...

Click the read more link to watch Dave in action.

Technology getting in the way of zzzzzz’s

Can't sleep? Almost all of us use some sort of technology -- be it, television, laptop or smartphone -- before going to bed, potentially disrupting our sleep for the night, a recent report said.

The National Sleep Foundation found that 95 percent of Americans said that they use technology within an hour before bed at least a few nights a week. The group said that using technology, particularly interactive ones such as video games, just before bed messes up our ability to go to sleep and stay asleep.

Six in ten said they use their laptops or computers before bed. Young Internet users -- about half of those in their 20s and younger -- report surfing the Internet every night or almost every night within the hour before sleep. About a third of young tech users play video games before bed.

About half of younger tech users also text message every night in the hour before going to bed, and one in 10 of the youngest cell phone users -- late teens and early 20s -- said that their cell phones wake them up after they've gone to sleep almost every night. (Via TechCrunch).

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iPad the 2nd Generation...

Its about that time. Time for rumors and guesses to start fying. According to MacNotes.de  the 2nd generation iPad will be released on either April 2nd or 9th – at least in the United States. Release outside of the US usually occurs weeks later, as I am sure this is part of Apple's marketing strategy.

What to expect with the iPad 2...

Cameras

Since Facetime is now on the Mac, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch, the iPad seems to be left out. This is most likely one of the major changes to be seen in the iPad's design. Facetime, of course, means a front-facing camera, however, some reports have also suggested that the device may also include a 5-megapixel camera on the rear. A camera and facetime would allow users to totally multitask with their iPads.Since many rical tablets have rear cameras it is highly likely we will see this.

Thinner and Lighter 

Analyst Brian Blair who predicts the rumor above also indicated that the next iPad will be thinner and made from one piece of metal, with a similar manufacturing process to that of the unibody aluminum MacBooks.

Now this one seems very likely. Apple always strives to improve upon its products, and often that means thinner, lighter, streamlined designs. Many critics already complain that the device is too heavy and too bulky, and I’m sure it’s safe to say Apple has been hard at work to make it the most desirable tablet on the market.

However, it’s unlikely that we’ll see an iPad with a smaller screen – Steve Jobs already quashed rumors of a 7-inch device  during a quarterly earnings conference call, saying, “The reason we [won't] make a 7-inch tablet isn’t because we don’t want to hit that price point, it’s because we think the screen is too small to express the software.”

GSM-CDMA Radio

A recent report from AppleInsider talks about the predictions of Wedge Partner analyst Brian Blair, who says that the next-gen iPad will be a “world mode” device with both GSM and CDMA radios. The chip would mean that one iPad model would be compatible with various wireless carriers using different wireless technology. The device has recently been made available through carriers AT&T and Verizon, however, because the 3G model isn’t compatible with Verizon’s CDMA network, a mobile hotspot device is needed to allow for a connection over Wi-Fi.I’d say a GSM-CDMA chip isn’t too unlikely – many would-be iPad users may be put off by the thought of having to carry around a mobile hotspot accessory to use data from the carrier of their choice.

Better Availability

When the current iPad was first released it sold out in many stores incredibly quickly, and countless users went home empty handed having to wait until more stock was available. With “iPad 2,” this may not be the case.

A report says that there will be several suppliers for the new iPad allowing Apple to “ramp up” shipments of the device upon its release. Three companies are rumored to have already received certification from Apple and will begin shipping parts for the device in December.

This one’s a no-brainer. The current iPad was a nightmare to get hold of for many when it was first released, especially for those of us in the U.K. Apple will surely work hard to ensure there are more of the 2nd-gen devices to go around next time.

Carbon Fibre Housing

One rumor suggests that the next iPad will not be made from aluminum, and that instead, the device will sport an ultra-strong carbon fibre housing. Cult of Mac recently reported on a new patent application for a “Reinforced Device Housing” filed by Apple that details “an outer casing for an electronic device composed of “layered fiber-in-matrix type material,” i.e. carbon fiber re-inforced polymer.”

It’s not clear whether the carbon fibre housing is indeed for the iPad, however, the illustration on the patent looks very much like the rear shell of Apple’s tablet.

A carbon fibre iPad certainly sounds very desirable, but I’m not sure it’s all that likely just yet – maybe later on down the line.

Retina Display

Now that many of us are used to the luxury of a Retina display in our iPhones and iPod Touches, we’re anticipating a nice large Retina display in the next iPad. Slash Gear reported back in October on the prospect of this one, and I’d like to think we can expect this with the new device next year.

As an iPhone 4 user, switching to the iPad can often be a little disappointing when I stare at its slightly ugly display – it’s just seems outdated now – and I for one am keeping my fingers crossed for a Retina display iPad next year.

Bigger Storage

Another typical Apple move for new devices is often increased storage, and many reports have claimed the iPad will be available with larger storage options next time around. The new MacBook Airs have also fueled this rumor, as they use the same flash storage chips found in their tablet siblings.

Apple is already using 128GB flash chips in its new MacBook Airs, so it wouldn’t be too much trouble to stick them in the iPad. This is another rumor that I’d say we can safely expect.

What Do You Want?

So there’s a few of the features that are rumored to be introduced in the second-generation iPad. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a Retina display and a thinner, lighter design – these are high up on my wish-list for iPad 2, and will be deciding factors when I’m thinking about whether or not to upgrade.

’I'd love to hear what you want from Apple’s next tablet device. Leave a comment and let me know!