IPhone 5 Rumors: Next Phone To Be Faster, Released In September

Is Apple readying a faster, more powerful iPhone for the fall?
That's the gist of a new rumor from Bloomberg, which suggests that the next iPhone will debut in September and will have an A5 processor and an 8-megapixel camera. Additionally, the site's sources say that Apple is also testing an iPad with a higher resolution screen that is also more responsive.
An A5 chip will let the phone operate more speedily, and make it more attractive to developers looking to create more powerful games. The report of the new processor is consistent with previous rumors regarding the phone.
A new camera would also be in line with earlier speculation about the next generation phone. The iPhone 4 has a 5-megapixel screen right now. The new iPhone is also expected to run iOS 5, the new mobile operating system that was previewed at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference. Bloomberg's sources say that as Apple continues to update its mobile operating system, it may stop offering support for older generation phones like the iPhone 3G to run all iOS apps.
Contrary to rumors that suggest the iPhone 5 could have a majorly different design from its predecessors, Bloomberg's sources say that the new iPhone will look much like the iPhone 4. Other reports have indicated that a radical redesign of the iPhone won't be coming until spring 2012. Bloomberg notes that a cheaper iPhone for developing countries is also in the works, which would be smaller than the current versions.
Verizon's CFO has also said that Apple's next iPhone will be a world phone, using a new chip that supports both GSM and CDMA networks. Additionally, Apple recently began selling unlocked iPhones.
According to a new report by Needham & Co, Apple gained share in the smartphone market at Android's expense last quarter, and now holds 29.5 percent compared to Android's 49.5 percent. The analyst also said that the iPhone 5's launch had been delayed on purpose to avoid aggravating Verizon iPhone customers, and that the launch of the new model will result in a major uptick of iPhone buyers--to the detriment of Android.

Published in HuffPost Tech

3G vs. 4G: What You Should Know Before You Switch

Blazing. Lightning fast. Turbo charged.
Those are some of the ways Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint are describing 4G, as they push hard for smartphone users to convert to their new, upgraded networks.
But 4G won't fix dropped calls, or a myriad of other service problems that exist, though it could lead to new issues for users moving through areas that lack coverage. And experts warn faster wireless could lead to increased data consumption, meaning potentially bigger bills.
4G is the shorthand for fourth-generation wireless (3G is third-generation), though the version of 4G currently available in the United States could be more accurately be described as advanced 3G. A 4G network can be up to 10 times faster than 3G, letting consumers browse the web, download songs and stream movies more quickly -- and potentially -- more often. U.S. wireless companies also promise that building out their 4G networks will help bring broadband access to those rural areas that currently lack reliable high-speed Internet.
“As bandwidth increases, the content delivered will be richer and more diversified in terms of the type of content, providing incentive to use more services and consequently more bandwidth,” said Harry Wang of Parks Associates, a tech research and consulting firm. “We have seen that in each iteration of an upgrade on the network -- the data offered now is not going to be adequate, for sure.”

James Mangold nears deal to direct 'The Wolverine' with Jackman

James Mangold is, according to reports, in final negotiations to direct "The Wolverine" for 20th Century Fox from the screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie.

This is the same script that Darren Aronofsky was attached to for a while, and it will take Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, to Japan.  Fox has been looking at possible directors for a while now, since Aronofsky left the project, and with Mangold aboard, they can start to get serious about when they're going to make this.

There are some complications ahead, though.  Tom Hooper is finally bringing the musical version of "Les Miserables" to the bigscreen, and it appears that Jackman may end up playing Jean Valjean for him.  Great role, and Jackman's been itching to do a major movie musical for a while now.

More importantly, with "X-Men: First Class" in the loop and with the film getting better critical and fan response than either of the last two films in the "X-Men" franchise, Fox has a choice to make.  Do they really want to make another Wolverine-only movie, starring the single most expensive cast member in the franchise, or do they want to move forward and build on something that people seem to be enjoying tremendously?

Mozilla pushes out final Firefox 5 test build

Mozilla plans to release the next small-fry iteration of its Firefox browser next week.

Ahead of that, a release candidate version of Firefox 5 landed yesterday. The open-source browser-maker lists the following tweaks to the latest test build:

• Added support for CSS animations;
• The Do-Not-Track header preference has been moved to increase discoverability;
• Improved canvas, JavaScript, memory, and networking performance;
• Improved standards support for HTML5, XHR, MathML, SMIL and canvas;
• Improved spell-checking for some locales;
• Improved desktop environment integration for Linux users;
• WebGL content can no longer load cross-domain textures;
• Background tabs have setTimeout and setInterval clamped to 1000ms to improve performance; and
• The Firefox development channel switcher introduced in previous Firefox Beta updates has been removed.

Firefox 4 was released just three months ago, and versions 6 and 7 of the popular browser are expected before the year is out.

Mozilla recently rejigged its release schedule, in part to reflect Google's Chrome development cycle.

Big browser releases are now a thing of the past at Mozilla Towers. The org now prefers to iterate often with smaller changes between each new version.


Published in The Register

Stallone inducted into boxing Hall of Fame

Sylvester Stallone has been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The American actor - who is not a professional boxer - was honoured for the contribution to the sport his ‘Rocky’ films, which see him, play a small-time fighter who gets a shot at the world heavyweight championship, have made.
Sylvester told the New York ceremony: “I never pretended to be a boxer, but I have an understanding of what goes on outside the ring.” The 64-year-old actor has starred in six ‘Rocky’ movies - the first of which was released in 1976 and saw Sylvester pick up an Oscar for his performance - culminating in 2006 movie ‘Rocky Balboa’. Mike Tyson was also inducted into the New York-based hall of fame, which features boxing legends Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Sugar Ray Robinson. But Sylvester has recently moved away from the ring and has turned his hand to fashion designing. He is set to create his own men’s lifestyle brand entitled Sly Inc. - which will feature jeans, shirts, outwear and activewear, targeting men between 25 and 40 years old - due to be launched next year. –EPS

Clique's Page - Down For The Moment

For some reasons, Clique's page on Facebook is unable to make any sort of update. But we are not alone in this situation. Many other Admins of various pages are having the same trouble. It is expected that it might be some sort of a server-update by Facebook. Nothing concrete can be said about it, yet and there isn't any deadline nor notification from the Facebook PR, on it. We hope that this hitch will be over soon. Hangin There...!

My Top add-ons for Firefox 4

Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus allows you to regain control of the internet and view the web the way you want to. The add-on is supported by over forty filter subscriptions in dozens of languages which automatically configure it for purposes ranging from removing online advertising to blocking all known malware domains. Adblock Plus also allows you to customize your filters with the assistance of a variety of useful features, including a context option for images, a block tab for Flash and Java objects, and a list of blockable items to remove scripts and stylesheets.

DowThemAll!

Downthemall is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 4x and it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time.
Downthemall is fast, reliable and easy-to-use! It lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want! Be in full control over your downloads, dedicated speed and number of parallel connections at any time. Use Metalinks or add mirrors manually to download a file from different servers at the same time.

Scientists unveil new mobile app to identify trees

By BRETT ZONGKER, Associated Press – Wed Jun 8, 10:32 am ET

WASHINGTON – If you've ever wondered what type of tree was nearby but didn't have a guide book, a new smartphone app allows users with no formal training to satisfy their curiosity and contribute to science at the same time.

Scientists have developed the first mobile app to identify plants by simply photographing a leaf. The free iPhone and iPad app, called Leafsnap, instantly searches a growing library of leaf images amassed by the Smithsonian Institution. In seconds, it returns a likely species name, high-resolution photographs and information on the tree's flowers, fruit, seeds and bark.
Users make the final identification and share their findings with the app's growing database to help map the population of trees one mobile phone at a time.
Leafsnap debuted in May, covering all the trees in New York's Central park and Washington's Rock Creek Park. It has been downloaded more than 150,000 times in the first month, and its creators expect it to continue to grow as it expands to Android phones.
By this summer, it will include all the trees of the Northeast and eventually will cover all the trees of North America.
Smithsonian research botanist John Kress, who created the app with engineers from Columbia University and the University of Maryland, said it was originally conceived in 2003 as a high-tech aid for scientists to discover new species in unknown habitats. The project evolved, though, with the emergence of smartphones to become a new way for citizens to contribute to research.

'Salt 2' is in development: Could this be Angelina Jolie's next action franchise?

Last year’s Salt earned considerable press long before it hit theaters because of a curious bit of gender-bending recasting: The titular CIA agent on the run was originally going to be played by Tom Cruise, but when Angelina Jolie expressed interest, “Edwin Salt” became “Evelyn Salt.” Since Jolie is essentially the only female action movie star, it seemed like a positively progressive maneuver — an indication that summer blockbusters didn’t have to resemble a frat house. Unfortunately, Salt itself was far from perfect — EW’s Owen Gleiberman gave it a B — and although it grossed $300 million globally, it underperformed compared to Jolie’s earlier, less expensive action-fest Wanted. Nevertheless, EW has confirmed that Sony has hired Salt screenwriter Kurt Wimmer to draft a script for Salt 2. Can the sequel improve on the original?

I’m actually cautiously — very cautiously — optimistic about Salt‘s possibility as a franchise. Evelyn Salt isn’t so much a character as a unique vehicle for Jolie’s onscreen star power — similar, in a way, to the Ethan Hunt character from the Mission: Impossible movies. The thing I’ve always enjoyed about the Mission: Impossible series is that each film tells a very different story in a very different style, with a different director at the helm of each entry. So M:I 1 was a twisty espionage thriller that let Brian De Palma film everything from a bizarre angle; M:I 2 was basically a stealth Notorious remake shot in perpetual John Woo slow-motion; and M:I 3 was a Bourne-inflected caper shot with as many shaky close-ups as possible. (And who knows what Brad Bird is cooking up for Ghost Protocol?) You might not dig all the movies, but there’s something undeniably exciting about such a multi-flavored franchise.

With that in mind, I’d want Salt 2 to take a step forward from the first film’s machine-like precision. The end of Salt (SPOILER ALERT) implied that Jolie’s character was planning to begin a renegade manhunt of her fellow Russian-trained double agents. Wouldn’t it be nifty if the search took her on a globe-hopping adventure, as she slowly hunts down all her marks? It’d be a little bit like Kill Bill, with Salt slowly checking off a list of of ever-more-dangerous double agents? A director like Matthew Vaughn — whose X-Men: First Class felt like a backdoor audition for the James Bond franchise — could give a global storyline like that some serious atmosphere. Conversely, since the first Salt slowly morphed into an incredibly cartoonish actioner, why not take things even more over-the-top and hire Fast Five‘s Justin Lin to direct? I envision some sort of chase where a train goes off an exploding bridge and then crashes into a boat, which then goes over Niagara Falls and crashes into a plane.

Published in Entertainment Weekly

The Gigahertz Race, Refueled: AMD To Break 4 GHz Barrier

Ethan McKinney in Products on June 07 

Until 2005, AMD and Intel were caught up in what we generally referred to as the gigahertz race. We are going to see both CPU manufacturers picking up clock speeds again and surpass the magic 4 GHz limit before the end of the year.

AMD today reanimated its desktop processor enthusiast brand FX, which died several years ago – pretty much with the disastrous dual-socket Quad FX platform that consisted of two Athlon 64 FX processors and brought bunsen burner heat to desktop PCs. AMD will be releasing socket AM3+ FX processors code-named Zambezi in the third quarter of the year and will be challenging Intel in the higher-end mainstream processor segment.


AMD will be offering Zambezi as quad-core (FX-4000 series), hexa-core (FX-6000) as well as native octo-core (FX-8000) processors. There has been no specific announcement of processors so far, but AMD confirmed to us that it will be hitting base processor speeds in the “mid 3s” with turbo speeds reaching “about 1 GHz higher”. The Internet rumor mill currently lists the FX-8150P as the proposed top model with a base speed of 4 GHz and a turbo mode at 4.4 GHz, while even the base octo-core 8100 will scale from 3.5 GHz to 3.9 GHz. The power envelope will remain at 95 W to 125 W.
So, how much performance can you expect from such processors? AMD told us that it will be “competitive”, but declined to mention specifics. The company confirmed that it will be pricing these processors “very aggressively” and it appeared that the target is Intel’s upper i7 range, which would include the hexa-core (12 threads) i7-970 (3.2 GHz) and the quad-core (8 threads) i7-2600K (3.4 GHz) – which are tray-priced at $583 and $317, respectively. We would expect the FX series to top out in the mid- to high 300s.
We were told that there will be no $1000 AMD desktop processor and a spokesman noted that it is “laughable” that Intel still believes that there is a market for such CPUs. What kept us wondering is the fact that AMD is anticipating a 1 GHz turbo improvement over the base processor speed. If the unconfirmed 4 GHz chip will, in fact, be marketed from the start, there is a slight chance that AMD will be approaching 5 GHz next year.
Do we care? Sure. The desktop processor has been commoditized, confusing sequence numbers have diluted previous excitement for these processors. Even if more gigahertz do not necessarily make a better processor, we believe that it can be a marketing tool again to build enthusiasm for desktop processors again – in a time when mobile computing is threatening to push the desktop PC into a niche. AMD will still be marketing FX as a platform deal, which includes its chipsets and graphics solutions. The FX Scorpius platform will be rolled out with 9-series chipset motherboards as well as Radeon HD6000 graphics cards.

publish in ConceivablyTech

The Glowing Lantern

1024*768 

Fan-made art work for "The Green Lantern".

Windows 8: Microsoft Is Back!

We have been very harsh lately with Microsoft here at ConceivablyTech. Microsoft often seems to be an old dinosaur that is held back in the convenience of its own weight. However, Windows 8 appears to be one gutsy move that may not sit well with every user, but at least we see Microsoft taking risks again. Our take: Windows 8 will reshape the way we are using computers – more than Windows 95 did.
 

Dramatic changes never please all. Windows 8 will be no exception. We will have to get used to a user interface that takes strong cues from Windows Phone 7 and is built on top of Microsoft’s tile idea.

Museum of Me turns your Facebook profile into an art gallery

Is your life worthy of being hung in the hallowed halls of an art gallery? What about your life as depicted through your Facebook account? While you might not feel that your profile is particularly artful, an interactive experimental ad from Intel gives you a tour of your own Facebook existence as though you were strolling through an art gallery.

After visiting the website for Intel's Museum of Me, you'll be prompted to give Intel access to your Facebook account. Assuming you're okay with that, you'll then be treated to a sweeping tour of your own existence, culled directly from your Facebook profile (and the profiles of your unsuspecting friends, of course). Your memories appear on room after virtual room, and the museum of you is even stocked with onlookers admiring — or are they critiquing? — your life as told through Facebook.
The effect is definitely a bit unsettling, but it's impressive enough to be more than worth it if you're curious. The Museum of Me experience is actually an ad for Intel's Core i5 processor, and a clever, very sharable one at that.

Courtesy Yahoo News