Apple and several other app developers are the target of a class action lawsuit filed late last week in the Northern District of California. The lawsuit alleges that some apps are collecting so much analytic information that users can be personally identified, while Apple remains complacent in allowing apps to collect the information despite a privacy policy that ostensibly forbids it.
3-D was a hot topic at the start of the year, partly because of the 3-D blockbuster movie Avatar, which came out last December. Many predicted that 3-D technology would move quickly from the movie theater into the home, and major electronics companies including Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Sony, Philips, and Toshiba announced plans to release 3-D televisions and Blu-ray players (Home 3-D: Here, or Hype? and Here Come the High-Definition 3-D TVs). But obstacles—particularly the need to wear 3-D glasses costing upwards of $100 per pair and the limited amount of 3-D content available to watch (a handful of DVDs and few TV transmissions)—have prevented 3-D TVs from becoming wildly popular, at least for now (Will 3-D Make the Jump from Theater to Living Room?).
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Samsung added some more advance news in the run-up to CES today with news of two new upgraded cameras. The WB700 is its centerpiece and is designed with video in mind. Although it can zoom out to a true 18X (24-432mm) in a compact body during HD movie making, it can capture footage silently through a new noise cancellation routine that counteracts lens noise.
Smartphone integration with car-bound OSes is going to be a hot thing next year, and of course Ford’s Sync system is among the major players. Just a week ago they showed off AppLink, which allows a driver to control certain apps (Pandora, a news stream app, and a Twitter app) from the in-car touchscreen. And now you’ve got stuff going the other way: the Sync Destinations app lets you set up a route or destination while waiting for your coffee, then have it load automatically when you get in the car.
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Seriously, how long will it take before we have Robot Jox happening for real? Except in real life the robots will be tele-operated by guys with Kinects. Seriously. This will happen. Watch this video and tell me it won’t.
I’m not making light of this, I’m actually quite upset and disappointed. Another gamer, this one in South Korea, has gone for a marathon 12 hour gaming session, and then collapsed and died. Wake up people! No game is worth playing that long.
Russian-based design house Gresso, which specializes in making ultra-exclusive and expensive versions of popular consumer electronics, has now unveiled its latest creation. Apple’s iPad has received the company’s treatment, which includes 200-year-old African Blackwood for its case and an 18K gold Apple logo. No other details about the Gresso iPad are known, including what model has been selected.
France may soon approve extending a levy that could charge extra for the iPad and most other high-end tablets, a local trade publication warned late on Monday. The country would expand an anti-piracy levy already covering smaller devices to charge as much as 12 euros ($16) extra for any tablet running a non-desktop OS and with more than 40GB of storage. Only Windows tablets would be completely exempted, although the Galaxy Tab’s 32GB cap would keep it exempt in its current form as well.
Japan’s Sanwa this week revealed an HDMI adapter that will let iPhone 4 and iPad users output 720p videos to external displays. Photos and presentations can also be sent, the latter over Keynote, while any GoodReader file is compatible as well. The adapter isn’t compatible with earlier devices and wouldn’t have much effect, as they’re limited to standard definition.
