Various reports indicate that Acer is planning to release a “notebook” built with Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor clocked at 1 GHz. The company also intends to release an ultrabook packed with an Intel processor and tablets sporting Google’s Android 3.2 “Honeycomb” OS.

The news arrives by way of company chairman and CEO J.T. Wang as he addressed concerns about the company dropping from the second world’s largest PC manufacturer to the fourth largest during the second quarter of 2011. He said that to regain its lost market share, the company plans to adopt a new strategy to create “more value instead of pursuing volume growth.”

Read more…

Read more…

Everyone’s highly anticipating the arrival of iOS 5, as Apple has already let loss off their Lion. Well, it seemed that the last hurrah for the beta iOS 5 has just arrived, in the form of the beta 4. As with the costume of every iOS release, be it beta or gold, we will be watching closely for the jailbreak of this.

A new beta of iTunes has also been included, though looking through the change log there’s nothing particularly amazing about this release. Among other minutia, the Twitter app will now prompt you if it’s unable to identify your location before you exit it, MobileMe local contacts are deleted instead of being merged, and iCloud file names are now case sensitive.

Interestingly, this is the first version of iOS5 that is said to be able to be applied OTA — though that particular option comes with the warning that all photos will be deleted should you give it a try. We’re guessing that “feature” will not be present in the final release candidate, but we could be wrong.

SOURCE via Apple

Thursday brought news via Facebook that Google’s new social service will throw open the doors to the entire public on July 31, 2011. At this point, the news is merely rumor, as this particular Facebook page isn’t officially sanctioned by Google. We also haven’t seen anything pop up from Google employees on Google+ itself.

“Google plus in beta reaches 18 million users,” the Facebook page reads. “At this rate, it will be around 100 million in 3 months. But the growth rate is expected to rise when the site goes public on 31st July.”

The Wall Street Journal spouts a different number than the unofficial Google+ Facebook page, reporting that the social site has already reeled in 20 million users… and it’s not even open to the public. The number stems from an estimate provided by web-traffic watcher comScore Inc. on Wednesday and includes the 5 million users planted in the United States.

Read more…

Google has announced that it will shutter Google Labs, the site that it uses to test new and experimental products. Speaking via the Google Blog, Bill Coughran, Senior VP for Research and Systems Infrastructure at Google, explained that the decision would allow Google to make the most of upcoming “extraordinary opportunities”.

“Last week we explained that we’re prioritizing our product efforts. As part of that process, we’ve decided to wind down Google Labs. While we’ve learned a huge amount by launching very early prototypes in Labs, we believe that greater focus is crucial if we’re to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities ahead.”

Larry Page last week mentioned that Google is trying to prioritize its focus with a ‘more wood behind fewer arrows’ approach and referenced the shutting down of Google Health and Google PowerMeter as an example of this. However, not all Labs projects will disappear. Google says that, while it will mean the end of many Labs projects, other Labs products and technologies will be incorporated into different product areas and many of the Labs products that are Android apps will continue to be available on Android Market. Read more…

Earlier this year, Victorinox, makers of the original ‘Swiss Army Knife’ announced their line of Swiss Army USB drives. Unfortunately you won’t be opening any bottles or slicing through any packaging with these, since there are no blades or other miscellaneous tools attached. Coming in a Slim and Slim Duo with sizes ranging from 4GB to 64GB, the Victorinox Swiss Army USB drive is finally shipping and can be purchased with a price range of $39.99 to $249.99 at the Swiss Knife Shop.

Although these drives aren’t much smaller than traditional flash drives, they are as resilient as the rest of Victorinox’s Swiss Army products. Completely waterproof, shock-resistant and even offering USB data encryption, the Swiss Army USB has much more to offer than awesome looks. Coming in various bright colors, they will also be easy to find, which is a good thing, considering they are fairly pricey.

SOURCE via Swiss Knife Shop

It hasn’t been too long since Apple launched its eighth major release of its operating system, the Mac OS X Lion, but the company is already seeing over one million purchases and downloads. Available through the Mac App Store for USD$29.99, the company says that this is the fastest selling Apple OS in its history.

It’s not that surprising anyway that Apple can manage to sell so many copies of its latest OS every time it’s released, as a sour Windows user who can’t afford to upgrade to a newer version of Windows because they’re so expensive, Apple’s operating systems are so affordable. The Lion comes with 250 new features for its Mac devices such as Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full-screen apps, Mission Control – an innovative view of everything running on your Mac, the Mac App Store, Launchpad, and a completely revamped Mail app.

“Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic. Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we ever made.” – Philip Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, Apple.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab line of tablets is already a success. With 7-, 10.1- and 8.9-inch iterations, the company has all its bases covered and caters to those looking for larger and smaller tablets, as well as somewhere in between. However, it seems seven inches is not small enough for Samsung, as the company is rumored to be launching a 5-inch Galaxy at IFA in September.

Yahoo! News Korea reports that Samsung will show off a 5.3-inch tablet at IFA 2011 in Berlin this September. Codenamed ‘Galaxy Q,’ the device is said to represent a ‘stepping stone’ between the smartphone and the tablet. Though it’s not immediately clear if the device will have phone capabilities, it’s said to be a cross between a tablet and a phone, so we’re assuming yes. Other details, such as CPU, storage, cameras, etc., are not yet known.

Samsung’s Galaxy S 2, announced back in April, measures in at 4.3 inches, which is already pretty big for a phone. Samsung’s 7-inch original Galaxy tab also had phone capabilities but was, for the most part, marketed as a tablet. Then again, with 5.3-inch, is that a tablet or a smartphone?

SOURCE via Yahoo!News