Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Apparently in their spare time, Microsoft employees still work on techie projects. These projects are called “Community prototypes.” The first such prototype, from Office Labs, is called Speed Launch. This program allows users to download the program and utilize it to work as a quick-start activation program.

It works with any file, website or program.  Users simply drag what they want to add to the program to the Speed Launch “Bull’s Eye” to create a shortcut, and name it. Then, whenever they want to access a shortcut, simply press Windows-C and type the shortcut name...and voila!  There you go.  You are also able to use the program to open multiple items with the same name. Simply give the items the same name in the “naming stage” of the process, and when prompted to replace or merge the files, select merge.  That way, when you select that file name from the bull’s eye, any files given that name will open for you.

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Here we are at the launch and Apple’s glass box store in the big Apple says “there is a good number of folks still outside.” As many still wait outside for their chance to plunk down some cabbage for the latest iteration of the Jesus Phone, Apple is certain they have enough of the wonder gadget to satisfy demand.

Reports around the tubes say Apple was extremely careful not to repeat last years sell out this time around.  With a lower price, a lot more not-early adapters ready to get in on the iPhone fashion fun, that is a lot of phones on the block.

But just how long will you encounter delays in getting in and out?  “I am not exactly sure,” says one Apple rep.  Those wishing to get in and out on, say a lunch break might be out of luck.  AT&T employees peg the registration process at about 25 minutes.  Apple says they will be very patient in walking people through the process.  Too bad the home activation was canned.

Will you wait?  If you’ve braved the line, let us know how long you wait in the comments…

In an apparent attempt to boost it’s rather floundering search presence on the Net, Microsoft announced its plan to purchase the relatively unknown company Powerset.  This startup company has developed semantic search technology based upon natural language processing.

What this type of software does is use specific linguistic algorithms to determine what certain queries submitted to the engine mean, and then formulates answers based on data existing in a knowledge repository. Wikipedia is the repository used by Powerset. Personally, I don’t know...this could be a good or bad thing considering Joe Schmoe public writes Wikipedia. Founded by CEO Barney Pell, COO Steve Newcomb and Product Architect Lorenzo Thione, Powerset is a Silicon Valley company that was first launched in 2006.

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Although the date has been speculated for a while, Gizmodo is claiming that they have confirmed the launch of the 3G iPhone during the WWDC Keynote on June 9. This latest development comes from “sources close to the 3G iPhone launch” and puts the 3G enabled iPhone with worldwide availability without any delay, meaning that you will be able to plunk down your hard earned money without any further waiting.

So now, as this has not been confirmed by Apple we have to remember that it just may well still change, or its always possible that it is entirely untrue to begin with. The real question here is not when it will be released, but whether or not current iPhone users will feel the need to run out and upgrade. It sounds nice to me, but I am not sure if the 3G support alone would be enough to win me over.

Via [Gizmodo]

AT&T officially announced their mobile TV, MediaFLO service just a few weeks ago with an original expectation to have the service go live sometime in May. Well it turns out that that timeframe will hold true, and the service is now expected rumored to launch on May 4, it will also officially be called AT&T Mobile TV.

Initially there will be three options available to subscribe to, a Limited, Basic and Plus Plan that will cost either $13, $15 or $30 a month respectively.

The Limited Plan will include Fox Mobile, CBS Mobile, NBC, and NBC News, the Basic Plan will include the same as the Limited Plan with the addition of Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, CNN Mobile and ESPN and the Plus Plan will include all of the previously mentioned channels along with an exclusive channel from Sony Pictures.

With the plans priced as they are lets just hope that the exclusive Sony Pictures channel is really worth that extra $15.

Via [Boy Genius Report]

With CTIA beginning on April 1 this year, its becoming difficult to judge whether we are seeing some April Fools jokes or good information. However in the case of the Motorola Z9 and the complete lack of secrecy up till this point I tend to believe when they say it will be launched on April 1.

So far we have seen a leaked pic, then the Z9 showed up with the FCC, some white papers were leaked, then a scanned ad showing the price, and finally the last piece of the puzzle—the release date.

In addition to the release date, which according to the BGR, it will indeed be launched with AT&T on April 1, the Z9 will also include AT&T Navigator support. The Navigator, which will be the new name for TeleNav is a GPS solution, but its still unclear if the Z9 will feature an A-GPS solution or true GPS support. Based on all the leaks up till this point it seems the next time we mention the Z9 should hopefully be the official announcement from AT&T.

Via [Boy Genius Report]

Sprint has a few new models coming up in the future, both the Samsung Ace and also a green version of the LG Rumor are expected to be available shortly.

The Samsung Ace is expected to be available on February 17 and carry a $449 price tag. The newly colored green LG Rumor is expected to be launched in March for $279.99 although a specific date has not been mentioned yet.

Other notable releases include the Sierra Wireless AirCard 597E on February 17 for $329 and the Alcatel-Lucent AL3500 for $499.99 is expected in March.

The pricing listed seems to be on the high side, which would indicate these are retail prices and you should expect much lower prices when signing an agreement.

Via [IntoMobile]

Finally (!), Nintendo has announced that the Wii’s News Channel will go live on January 27, 2007, featuring news from Associated Press (AP). The News Channel has appeared on the Wii’s main menu for quite some time, providing the equivalent of a “Coming Soon” link.

Nintendo also announced that Mario Kart 64 will be available next week for download on the Wii’s Shop Channel. The Wii Shop Channel, aka Virtual Console, currently has 42 downloadable games available for purchase, with a few new games available each Monday. The most recent addition to the Channel was Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Super NES, 1 player, 800 Wii Points):.

There are only 34 Wii console games currently available, with the following to be available in stores during the next couple months:

• Wii Play with Wii Remote (Feb. 14, Nintendo)


• Disney’s Meet the Robinsons (March 27, Buena Vista)


• Bust-A-Move Bash (March, Majesco)


• Prince of Persia Rival Swords (March, Ubisoft)


• TMNT (aka Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, March , Ubisoft)


• Bionicle Heroes (March, Eidos)


• Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII (March, Ubisoft)


• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Q1, EA)


• SSX Blur (Q1, EA)


• The Godfather Blackhand Edition (Q1, EA)


• Medal of Honor Vanguard (Q1, EA)


• Sonic and the Secret Rings (Q1, Sega)

Site [Nintendo Wii]

Sony announced at CES 2007 that they shipped 1 million PlayStation 3 game consoles to North America by the end of 2006. They further explained that the PS3 reached the 1 million mark faster than either the original PlayStation or PS2, though some reports indicated only 800,000 units sold. Also, 1 million is only half of Sony’s original, promised goal of 2 million shipped by last year’s end.

The announcement was not a big consolation to gamers who still don’t have the pricey system or who paid a small fortune to get one close to the initial release. The Xbox site naturally claims PS3s are just sitting on shelves while the Wii is consistently selling out. The good news is that Sony is committed to each of their products for 10 years, so you’re likely to get a semi-affordable PS3 before then. Oh, and the European launch is still on track for March 2007. (Whoopie for that.)

See Gadgetell’s Sony Press Conference recap for more PS3 and PSP details.

Read [Home Media] Read [Blogging Stocks] Read [TeamXbox] Read [TechSpot] Read [PSU] Review [PS3]

Swedish company Polar Rose has announced that it will launch an industry first visual search engine for web based image searches.  With its successful $5.1 million Series A funding from Nordic Venture Partners last month, Polar Rose could make image searching a lot easier and more accurate through facial recognition and 3D imaging.  Polar will launch a beta version of its software in February next year.

They are also currently working on a plugin for Firefox and IE users. It will show a small photo symbol when the browser is opened - and when clicked, will use the Polar Rose service to look for matching photos in its database and tag them Flickr style.

The technology behind Polar Rose creates a virtual 3D image of a person, factoring out lighting and other conditions that can affect recognition. That 3D image is then used to try to guess when a person appears in a photo. The plugin, for example, will provide a link to try to find other images on the Internet of the person being tagged. At first, this data will be very thin. But if and when users adopt the Polar Rose plugin, the search feature could become a useful tool for finding additional pictures of people.

Read [Polar Rose] Via [Tech Crunch]