Motorola Droid Comes To Verison

For all of the Verison customers out there, you will finally have a good smartphone available to you. The Droid is the first Android powered device that will be available for Verison. It will boast a 5 mp camera, Android OS 2.0, wifi, bluetooth, rumored multiple apps running at once, gps, and many other features. Boy Genius got it's hand on it and wrote a nice review of it. But since a smartphone that is reported almost as decent as the iPhone (and with a heck of a better camera) is going to be on Verison, their customers who have been stuck with only Blackberries and WinMo devices will actually have a decent phone to invest in now. Droid, we hope you fulfill the high expectations you bring.

The official Verison Droid site: press here (can anyone figure out the countdown?)

Window 7 releases and Apple updates

Today is the day. The release of Windows 7. Geeks everywhere rejoice! Windows 7 has had a successful launch (so far) with the downloads of the OS and the sending of DVDs that were pre-ordered. Along with such a release, a plethora of laptops were released from many companies as well. For those that still haven't jumped on the bandwagon, win741 is still selling 7 for only $30, and if you have multiple computers (and are not a student), the Windows 7 Family Pack is the deal for you. For only $149 it has the ability to install Windows 7 Home Premium on up to 3 machines (for an average of $50 a machine). Beats having to pay the $119 for Home Premium by itself. So get on the bandwagon and upgrade (trust us, it is WELL worth the upgrade from Vista).

Also, Apple released a couple of new updates to their PC's this week. Some of the main upgrades included the newly designed iMac that has a screen up to 27 in, and the new bluetooth keyboard and Magic Mouse. The other releases were (as mentioned) the Magic Mouse that has multi-touch gestures, the unibody Macbook, and an upgraded Mac Mini (along with the new Mac Mini Server that replaces the disk-drive with another 500gb drive giving it 1tb of memory). With these releases, we were disappointed that the Macbook wasn't lowered in price to compete with most of the laptops sold these days, but the rest of the upgrades were a needed refresh.

Windows 7 releasing in T-minus two...

Windows 7 is being released to the public two days from this post. All the public that has free upgrades to 7 is itching to upgrade. Now for the readers of this post, here is out question. Are you upgrading to Windows 7? And why are you upgrading? Is it the new features that is inspiring you to upgrade, the performance upgrades, or do you just want to off of XP, Vista or whatever other OS you are running?

Our answer here at The Latest of Tech is it is a very good OS. Many of the UI features are very helpful and the performance is amazing. Many of the faults we found with Vista have been fixed, and it is a smoother OS in general.

We will be doing a full overview of 7 later on, (for now you can look at our "First Looks" post giving a brief description of some of our first impressions of 7) so be sure to keep an eye out for that.

Also, here are some of our other Windows 7 posts you might want to read (especially students who want to upgrade)
Windows 7 $30 for students (including free Windows 7 Pro upgrade)
TLOT Windows 7 Party Blog

Gadget Thursday: Nikon D3s and Blackberry Storm 2

So, a selection of new gadgets have been announced and are close to release. To start Gadget Thursday, the release of the Nikon D3S is coming soon. It is the first of the D3 line to have video recording. With video of 720p with 24 fps, it is a moderate video-camera. Of course this is not the main selling point of the D3 (heck, if you are paying $5400 for a video camera only capable of shooting 720p at 24 fps, then your messed up), but the main upgrade from the D3 is the new ISO range. Capable of doing 200 to 12,800 (which can be upped to 102,400!) the upgrade will surely be noticed. But for the people hoping for a upgrade to the megapixel sensor, sorry, your out of luck. The D3S will have the same 12.1 MP as the D3.

Our second gadget is the Blackberry Storm 2. Hopefully for all of the people who originally just threw out the Blackberry for laggy OS, annoyance of the clicking, and all the other complaints, will take a second look. Gizmodo has a leak on some of the specs. So far it sounds like the laggy OS was re-designed and some much needed improvements were added. Hopefully it will give all the Version users out there another solution to the lack of (good) smartphones?...But the key word in that is hopefully...

T-Mobile Sidekick FAIL: UPDATED

T-Mobile had a major fail this last week. During one of it's server upgrades, it failed causing an entire outage with the Cloud backup service available for the Sidekick phonse. During this time, all the back-up data on the T-Mobile servers were completely lost. T-Mobile quickly sent out an message to all the Sidekick users saying to keep the phone on as long as possible as they tried to recover data from the failed upgrade. All the users effected were given a free month of service, and a $100 gift card. But can that honestly cover countless hours of data and contact? Now the question that comes from this entire ordeal is: "Are the Cloud services as secure as we think them to be?" If this happens to data once, could it happen again with some BIGGER service? T-Mobile Sidekick customers will surely be thinking of this from now on...

Update: Microsoft has released a report saying that most of the data has been recovered. There still will be people effected by this upgrade problem, but it will be a very small minority.

Windows 7 Hands On (First looks)

We were able to get a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate (thanks to Houseparty.com...More about our Windows 7 House Party at tlotwin7.blogspot.com). So, here is a first look of Windows 7 and some of the features we like.
First off:
The taskbar was the one of the first noticed changes after the upgrade completed. It takes some getting used to, but the pinned programs list works VERY well. Having the ability to combine multiple screens into an easy to use interface really caught our attention.

Some of the visual features that proved to be handy is snap, aero shake, and aero peek. It was easy to implement, and we found that they become commonly used features after a while of use.

On the speed side of things, 7 has a dramatically increased speed jump. We are running 7 on the 64 bit version, and programs, startup, and related things has a face-lift with speed.

Now, this is just a very quick overview (we will post a in-depth one after we have more time messing around with it...It's our second day after installation we are posting this). But so far 7 is a win in every sense of the word.

Flash 10.1 bringing Flash to BlackBerrys

In Adobe's 10.1 Flash announcement, Adobe is working with RIM to bring Flash to the Blackberries. For all the other many phones, the Open Screen Project is a collaboration of businesses and developers working to bring Flash to other phones, and better functionality to computers. So, Hulu on your Blackberry anyone?

The Latest in Programs: Picasa 3.5 Review

Picasa, Google's free photo editor, has released it's 3.5 update. The new main feature is facial recognition. Tag one or two photos of yourself, friends, or family and it will automatically scan your entire library for other pictures of them. It is VERY accurate in suggestions for the people you tagged. Here at The Latest of Tech, in about 10,000 pictures, it only messed up on under 50 (and most of those were blurry group-shots). If you use Picasa, it is well worth the update. But to note, to scan entire libraries, it DOES take a time, so it's best to leave it running in the background. Download it at: Picasa.com. Some other facial recognition software that should be noted is iPhoto, and Windows Live Photo Gallery. But out of all three, Picasa's facial recognition is the best.

For all the students out there: Get Windows 7 for only $30

Microsoft has launched an initiative to help all the money-deprived college students. For everyone in college and has a .edu e-mail address, you can pick up Windows 7 for only $30 at win741.com. All you have to do is make a login with you .edu address, verify the account, and voila, instant Windows 7 for $30. Some of the other things you can get with your order is a back-up of your copy for Windows 7, and/or a CD/DVD of the OS (extra costs though). Also, a little easter egg, you can ALSO get Ultimate instead of the Home Premium (the default for the deal). Right before you checkout, go to the bottom of the page and press "join my school's network" and you can get a FREE instant upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate. Now win741.com, although the main deal IS Windows 7, it also has a very good deal on Office '07 Ultimate as well, but that runs $60 instead of the $30. Well, college students, this is the perfect chance to upgrade your PC's without having to put out too much.

Window 7 Party Blog

The Latest of Tech's Windows 7 Party it's hosting will be documented on a separate blog. Pictures, videos, and blog posts of the upcoming night will all be documented on the blog: tlotwin7.blogspot.com. Be sure to go by on October the 2 to see the updates as they stream in.

Running Google Chrome in Internet Explorer

Google has released something to help all the people stuck on IE. In these current times, a lot of people are stuck with having to use Internet Explorer because of business compatibility. A lot of companies have integrated internal systems to work in IE only. Google has fixed the problem with the release of Google Frame. Google Frame basically "guts" the internals of IE and replaces it with the snappy engines that run Google Chrome. What that means for the consumer is faster speeds, better reliability, and easier to run pages. Now you don't have to be stuck with IE. Download Google Frame with this link: Google Frame

Windows 7 Party!

The Latest of Tech is having a Windows 7 Party! We will be having in on Oct. 2 so, tune in for pictures and videos from it!

The Latest in Devices: HD Release/Breakdown and 4.0 Pictures/Review

The Zune HD's big release was today. Microsoft's first touch-screen media device has a lot of promise. With the NVIDIA TENGRA chip in it, it is one of the first touch-screen devices to support full 720p (with video-out for sharing on external monitors/televisions. With an OLED screen, it also lowers the amount of energy so on the user side of things, that means a better battery-life. The big features in the HD are the HD capability, HD radio, internet web-browser, and support for apps/games. It currently comes in 4 colors (Only the 32g. The colors are: red blue green, and silver. The 16g only comes in black) and is able for custom engraving/Zune Originals (from the Zune.com store only). Also, Microsoft promises Xbox 360 integration to come soon. A breakdown of the Zune HD can be found at iFixit.com

The Zune software had a face-lift as well. With 4.0, some very well needed changed came with it. First-off 4.0 has complete compatibility with Windows 7, so for all you Zune users who were worrying about compatibility issues, be assured. Microsoft is one step ahead of you. Some of the new features to the software itself is a mini-player, smart DJ, pinning, and a taskbar player. For all that enjoyed the Windows Media Player mini-player and toolbar, it will be easy to figure out the new mini-player and toolbar as it is almost identical. Having the toolbar is useful when using other applications without always having to switch pages. The new opening screen hosts a few new features.

With the "Smart DJ" (Microsoft's counter to Apple's "Genius" feature) boxes for up to 5 smart DJ mixes, makes it easy to play entire playlists without having to go all the way into the software (now Smart DJ can have as many mixes as you want directly in the software, it's just boxes for 5 in the home-screen though). They also re-did the "background" page for when you are playing music. But that's just a small cosmetic change. On the marketplace side of things, the release of movies came finally. With a big catalog (and growing all the more), you can find your favorite movies now.

Finally an "app-store" is now built into the marketplace. With a VERY limited amount of apps, don't think this app-store will be the Apple app-store killer yet... It still has a LONG way to go before that. Hopefully Microsoft will come up with a way to submit apps for the store soon so third-party apps can start to be in development.
In summary, the 4.0 software is a really well-designed update. Some of the features were well needed. It's very easy to use, and visual friendly. As compared to the dull design of iTunes, the Zune software does have a lot of eye-candy. It will be interesting to see what Microsoft's future for Zune will be.

The Latest in Devices: Zune Preps for HD and 4.0 Release Tomorrow

The Zune.com and Zune.net are currently down this evening. This is because Microsoft is getting ready to release the Zune HD and it's 4.0 software. Rumors of what the 4.0 software contains is a big update to the video library (is the Zune marketplace going to FINALLY host movies now?) and updates to the marketplace. The software itself is going to go through an overhaul. What it will contain can only be guessed. Microsoft has a weird sense to add things that are unexpected (for instance the "music trivia game" on the Zune.com social website was a pretty unique and unexpected release). But for all you Zune users out there, be patient. 4.0 will be out soon enough and hopefully Microsoft will keep to it's word about keeping all legacy devices updated. Be expecting that nifty new firmware update in the morning! Until then, all Zunians await eagerly...

The Latest in Apps: Photogene App Review

Photogene is a iPhone picture editing program. It is one of those really handy apps to have if you enjoy taking a lot of pictures. Its very easy to use, and is a good, basic picture editor. Some of the features it the ability to crop, sharpen, exposures and color balance, add text bubbles, filters, and frames. All the features in the app are very clean, smooth, and work very well with the multi-touch. If you have an iPhone, or even a iPod Touch, this is a must have app. With all the picture craze these days, being able to edit any picture on the fly is very handy. And this app gives you all the editing power you need and more. Get it from the iTunes store by following this link: Photogene

The Latest in Apps: iPhone "Robot Head"

We saw this and thought this was worth posting on TLOT. Especially with all you iPhone users. A good home-project to work on. Note: iPod Touch users needs the headset with the microphone for this project.

Engadget Zune HD Video Review

iPod Announcements Today

Apple has released it's newest versions of the iPods today.

The release includes:

New prices on iPod Touches

64g iPod touch

New Nano with video/ recording capabilities, and built in speakers

New Nano colors

New Shuffles

New Shuffle colors

Adaptor for Shuffles to use any headphone

iTunes 9.0

iPhone/iPod touch 3.1 OS update

Code This: Using WML to Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

So, you have this GREAT site that your running, yet you want to make it mobile friendly. Well this is where WML comes in. Wireless Markup Langauage is a great way to convert that site your running into a great mobile site.

How it works: WML condeses the page you want into any window frame you want. It's great for mobile, because if you just, lets say, just want to have a homescreen that will say the basics of your website it is a great way to do that. Now, some of the problems that occur with WML is that if you are just using raw HTML as your coding you will come into the problem of hard-to read text. But that can easily be fixed by changing the font size.

Different ways of design: There are different ways to use WML. It is compatible with almost all HTML tags so, you can embed flash (considering the device is flash-compatible), add images, etc... One good way to apply it is make an image with all the information (this is going back to a basic home-screen), and just have that for your "site". It's a great way to expand that growing website of yours to be seen in many different markets. For the advertisers, Google Adsense has an option to post ads in a WML enabled page. So why not earn a few dollars for that simple home-screen?

Codes and examples: The code for WML is simple. All it really is, is: To start WML <.wml>(remove the dot), and of course, at the END of the page close it with <./wml>(remove the dot)

So, here is an example of a VERY basic page:


<wml> <title>your website's title</title> <body><br />text, tables, code here <img src="add images here if you want" /> </body> </wml>

As stated above, WML has to be the beginning and closing of the page, but other then that, feel free to ad whatever content you feel like adding.

For a live test, follow this link to view our parent website's simple, mobile homescreen: Homescreen Page

As you might have noticed, it expands to fill your computer's moniter. WML scales the page to whatever screen you are viewing on.

WML is a great markup langage to play around with. And hopefully after reading this, you can go out and have fun making webpages for mobile devices. With everything going mobile these days, it's a great way to transition.

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If you liked this this website, feel free to see all of our other websites we run at Mezowebsites.com

Review: Nikon D5000

The Nikon D5000 is the follow-up to the ever-popular Nikon D90. More affordible, it is a very versatile camera. With fast shooting speeds (tested up to a fastest of 4 frames per second), it quite good for capturing motion. It has 12.3 megapixels so the pictures will be able to capture whatever you are trying to capture. Some of the nicer features that is limited to the D5000 and big brother D90 is that both cameras have the ability for live-view and up to 720p HD video. The main problem with the D5000 is the fact that the mike picks up quite a bit of white-noise.

One of the big features of the D5000 compared to the D90 is the fact the screen is able to flip around. It is very useful when shooting pictures and videos in awkward angles.

All in all, a very good camera for it's price. Dispite some of it's minor flaws, it is well worth the investment. With the body with lens kit running about $900, it will set your wallet behind a bit, but is well worth the investment.

New authors

The Latest of tech now has two more authors on board! Will and Eric will now be posting, so be sure to see what they have to say about the latest in tech!

Download of the day: Gtalk client

Ever wanted to talk to your friends and get gmail notifications directly on your computer? Well, with Google's gtalk client, you now can. Originally combined with gmail, Google created a seperate client for it's popular gtalk app in gmail. 

Download it at:

http://www.google.com/talk

Download of the day: Rocketdock

TLOT's download of the day is the app. Rocket Dock. It adds a dockbar similar to the Mac dockbar anywhere on the screen. It is easily customizable and a really cool feature. So go ahead. Make your PC look like a Mac!

Where to get:
From Rocket Dock's website
From Download.com