Apple has publicly said that it has no plans to support Java or Flash on the iPhone. But that is not stopping Sun, “We’ve expressed our intent to do this and our desire, really, to work with Apple to build a JVM (Java Virtual Machine) for the iPhone and we’re sort of moving forward with that” said Eric Klein, vice president of Java marketing. Sun is also working with Innaworks to develop alcheMo for iPhone, it can be used to port Java ME mobile games to iPhone and iPod touch. The alcheMo has optimizing translator that converts Java ME application source code to equivalent source code for iPhone. So why is Sun so hell-bent on bringing JVM to iPhone even though its not getting much support from Apple. The simple reason is even though there are many smartphones that can surf web, but none have been as successful as the iPhone in bringing mobile Internet to the forefront. Today in US more the 60% of mobile Internet usage is through iPhone even though it has around 5% to 7% of overall mobile phone market and 28% of smartphone market. I think the reason why Apple is not supporting Java and Flash on the iPhone is that these applications are very resource hungry and would decrease iPhone’s battery life and overall performance.

[Via Digital Arts]

Wacom today announced a new touchscreen technology called Reversing Ramped Field Capacitive touch (RRFC) that uses low-power circuitry and reversing ramped electro-static fields to offer precise performance. The surface used for this technology is tougher than glass and will be able to recognize softer touches. "Our new proprietary RRFC touch technology is exciting on a couple of fronts," said Shawn Gray, Wacom's director of touchscreen Operations. "New controller processing methods and system design provide extremely accurate pointing at much lower power consumption levels and without increased cost. These factors and others, such as ease of integration and stability, position Wacom RRFC touch as a natural alternative to resistive, surface acoustic wave and infrared touch technologies. "
[Via Eletronista]

Today has been iPhone rumors day, analyst have predicted the release date, rumors have been flying around about the 8GB iPhone reaching end-of-life in UK and now Engadget has details about the upcoming iPhone 3G. Below is the as is list of what Engadget has heard from its trusted source:

The phone would ship in July and testing has already begun according to Engadget. The three things that I know for sure about the 3G iPhone are that the iPhone will have a brighter and higher resolution screen, the battery life for calls will almost remain same and their will be a 16GB version for sure. We will come to know everything about the 3G iPhone in one month and 14 days.

Samsung’s hardware design for its PMP line-up has been very good, but the software has been it Achilles’ heel. Samsung wants to change that and has been providing regular firmware updates for its PMP line-up to add new feature and remove bugs. Samsung has posted the latest firmware update Blue Wave 3 also known as version 4.13 on its website. The update brings many new improvements including new GUI themes, fullscreen playback mode, a calculator, additional brightness and speed controls for video playback among other features and bug fixes. The next update the Blue Wave 4 will add customizable skins, Bluetooth based games, subway maps and voice recording to the list of new features. The next update will be released in second half of 2008. You can get the latest Blue Wave 3 update on the Samsungs website.

In a research note Citi analysts Richard Gardner and Yeechang Lee wrote, “The 3G iPhone will be announced June 9, the likely date of Apple CEO Steve Jobs keynote at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference.” They further added, “ The 3G iPhone will be the ‘first of an impressive wave of new products’ from Apple.” American Technology Research’s Shaw Wu also wrote in his report that Apple will release the 3G iPhone in early June and the 2.5G models could have a minor casing change and see a price drop to between $299 and $349, compared to the current $399. All the indications are pointing towards an early June release of the new 3G iPhone. 9th June is just one month and 14 days way…

OLED displays are the talk of the town, first Sony announced their super slim 0.3mm OLED display, then Samsung said large scale production should start by 2009 and now LG says that they will bring 32” OLED TV to market by 2011. LG announced about its OLED production plans while releasing details about their new LCD manufacturing unit that will start production in March 2009. Every major display manufacture is betting on OLED, as the future of display technology, but no one has been able to make OLED displays larger than 27” for mass production.

Geeksugar correctly reported about the upcoming Macbook and Macbook Pro updates last time and now they are reporting that iMac update will be released on coming Tuesday. According to Geeksugar the iMac will receive processor update and bigger hard drive. There will be no change in casing or accessories that come with the iMac. iMac’s price point will also remain same. The rumors that the iMacs will be updated have been around since the Macbook and Macbook Pro were updated. It is about time for Apple to update the iMac.

If the diminutive UMPC D4 intrigued you and you want to have one for your self. You can pre-order it now on GeekStuff4U for $1526.33 and it will ship on June 20th. The D4 comes with Centrino Atom Z520 1.33GHz processor, 40GB HDD, 1Gb RAM, 5” touchscreen (1024 X 600), integrated video, 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth, 1 USB mini, microSD slot and slide out keyboard. The D4 will have full version of Windows Vista Home Premium on it and I am not very sure that a 1.33GHz processor and only 768MB RAM (254MB is used by VRAM) will be able to run Vista efficiently. Anyway the D4 is one of the smallest full-fledged Vista computer and that alone will compel many to buy one.

Alex Curylo of Under the Bridge blog has posted “Salesforce.com is giving Macs to all employees. Yup, all 4000 of us; we are going to be one of the largest enterprise software Mac shops around. As the leases come up for the Dells, IT is replacing with Macs.” His source told “and why, you ask, Security! The resources it takes to defend against all the stuff the baddies throw at a PC, it’s just cheaper/easier to pay a few bucks more for a Mac and not have any of those issues. With the Google Apps integration, and moving to the Mac, we will be free of the clutches of the Redmond Beast!” If this is true it’s a big win for Apple as Salesforce is a software company and will influence many of its customers to increase Mac support. This is also a big step towards increasing acceptance of Mac in enterprises where Windows has ruled for more then a decade.

LG today announced the global launch of its third LG Black Label Series Handset, the LG Secret (KF750). The Secret follows in footsteps of LG Chocolate and LG Shine. It is the slimmest 5-megapixel camera phone in the world at just 11.8mm thick. The other feature that differentiates the phone is that it can record video in DivX format at 120fps. The phone’s casing is made with carbon fiber and the screen is protected by tempered glass giving the phone very rich look and also making it very durable. The other features on the phone are 2.4” haptic feedback touchscreen, Bluetooth, microSD card slot, HSDPA, EDGE and Quad-band GSM. On the software side the Slider will have support for Microsoft office documents, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube videos and Multimedia software to playback music, photos, videos, games and FM radio. The phone will be first launched in Europe then in Asia and South America, followed by rest of the world. The worldwide launch will be completed before end of 2008.
[Via Photography Blog]

AMD launched three new Phenom X3 chips 8750, 8650 and 8450, that have clock speed of 2.4GHz, 2.3GHz and 2.1GHz respectively. The chips have a TDP of 95 W, 1.5MB Level 2 cache and 2MB level 3 cache. The price will range between $195 and $145 for the three processors. AMD released their first tri-core processor in March and positioned the processor between the standard dual-core and high-end quad-core machines. Desktops based on the new processors should start appearing in market in May.

[Via eWeek]

Sony unveiled Z780 and G502, two new mid-range handsets for Europe. The Z780 is a clamshell phone that supports Quad-band GSM and UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100). The aGPS on the phone uses Google Maps to guide you around town. The phone will have 2.2” screen with 320 x 240 resolution, M2 memory card slot, Bluetooth and 2-megapixel camera. The second phone G520 supports tri-band GSM and UMTS/HSDPA (2100MHz). It will have almost the same features except it will lack aGPS found on Z780. Both the phone will be released in Q2 of 2008.

Forbes reported that Apple has agreed to purchase P.A. Semi a low-power chipmaker for $278 million. The interesting thing about this deal is that P.A. Semi designs chips based on Power architecture, the same architecture that Apple used in its computers before they moved to Intel chips based on X86 architecture. According to Forbes Apple is planning to put the P.A. chips in the iPhone. iPhone presently uses an ARM processor and if Apple was unhappy with ARM processor it could have used chips designed by Intel. Going out a buying a Chip company and making their own chips for iPhone can be a very costly solution. I don’t think Apple bought this company to put their on chip in next generation iPhone, although having low-power chip expert could help Apple design more power efficient handheld devices. We might get some answers about this purchase in today's financial report.

Onkyo introduced three new home theater systems, two of which will be 5.1 channel systems and one will be 7.1 channel system. The top of the line HT-S5100 comes with HT-R560 receiver that supports 7.1 channel surround sound and full 1080p video processing. The HT-S5100 has advanced Dolby and DTS surround sound processing capabilities, 130 watts per channel output, seven speakers and 290-watt subwoofer. The system comes with iPod dock and has Music Optimizer technology to enhance MP3 and AAC files. The HT-S5100 has three HDMI input and one output. The HT-S4100 is 5.1 channel system similar to the HT-S5100, but comes with five speakers and a 200-watt Subwoofer. The second 5.1 channel system, HT-S3100 has a receiver-powered subwoofer and no iPod dock is included. The Onkyo HT-S5100, HT-S4100 and HT-S3100 will be available by April end with suggested retail prices of $579, $479, and $379 each, respectively.
[Via Onkyo]

Michael Dell spoke at the Fortune’s Brainstorm: Green Conference and revealed a small bamboo encased eco-PC concept. The PC will be smallest PC ever made by Dell, it is 81% smaller than typical Dell desktop and consumes 70% less power. Michael Dell said that the machine is due later this year and would cost between $500 and $700. He didn’t gave any details about the configuration, but the price range indicates that it will compete with Mac mini, so it should at least get a Core 2 Duo processor, more than 1GB RAM and minimum 120GB hard drive.

Nokia today revealed two new XpressMusic handsets 5220 and 5320. Nokia announced that both US and European versions would ship in Q3 2008. Both the handsets have 2-megapixel camera, 240 X 320 pixel display, microSDHC card slot, 3.5 mm headphone jack, FM radio and Bluetooth A2DP. The $400 (€250) 5320 XpressMusic phone will come with S60 OS, quad-band GSM and support 3G on 850/2100 MHz HSPDA for US or 900/2100 MHz HSDPA for Europe. The $250 (€160) 5220 XpressMusic will have S40 OS and support either 850/1800/1900 MHz or 900/1800/1900 MHz tri-band GSM depending on the country it’s been sold.

AT&T today reported their first quarter earning for 2008. The company added 1.3 million new wireless customers resulting in a jump of 22% in overall earnings. The profit rose to $3.46 billion (57 cents per share) from $2.85 billion (45 cents per share) in Q1 2006. The revenue increased 6.1% to 30.74 billion compared to $28.97 billion posted for the same period last year. Christopher King, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. said, “the iPhone continues to do fairly well, What we’re hearing is that since AT&T and Apple cut the price, every single week they’ve been taking market share from Verizon.” Neither AT&T nor Apple has released any official Q1 sales figures for the iPhone yet. Apple will release their earning report for the quarter tomorrow lets see if they provide any information about iPhones sales.

German site Eee PC News has posted CrystalMark 2004R3 benchmarks of Via C7, Celeron-M, VIA Isaiah and Intel Atom. The benchmark shows that VIA Isaiah tops Intel Atom by a margin of 30% in ALU functions and by 4% in FPU functions. On the other hand Intel Atom beats Via C7 by a factor of 2 in both the tests. The benchmarks definitely show that VIA Isaiah has better performance than Atom, but the two processors falls in different processor categories. Isaiah is aimed for laptops where as the atom is designed for handheld devices and has 8 times less TDP rating of 2W compared to 17W of VIA Isaiah processors. VIA Isaiah should be compared to the upcoming Core 2 Duo SL9400 that will also have 17W TDP and is aimed at small form factor laptops. Intel Atom should be compared to VIA C7 that is ultra low voltage processor designed for handheld and Atom beats C7 by a factor of 2. Here also the 1.6GHz C7 has almost 4 times the TDP at 7.5W as compared to 2W TDP of Intel Atom. VIA and AMD should act fast otherwise Intel will capture the UMPC/handheld market also.

According to a patent application filed by Apple titled “Enhancing Online Shopping Atmosphere”, Apple is looking for methods to improving online shopping experience. Apple says in the filing that online shopping experience today is sterile and isolating, this can be changed by delivering a more interactive shopping experience. Where customers can virtually explore Apple products and interact with Mac specialists like online characters (avatars) interact in second life. This will result in more positive shopping experience and ultimately the user will spend more money doing online window-shopping. I think friendlier and interactive online store is the way to go, as the number of people shopping online is increasing every year.
[Via Macnn]

MacWireless has launched its new Powerline Network Adaptor for ultra fast power-line networking that will allow users to use existing electrical lines of their home or office for a network offering speeds up to 200Mbps. The device converts data from any computer or networking device (like router) into a signal that can be transmitted over standard AC wires. The converted data doesn’t interfere with the ordinary current and the network created can support up to 16 devices. The adapter support Mac OS 9, Mac OS X and Windows without the need of any driver installation. The adapter is available now for $99.98.

The much-desired Eee PC 900 that has already been released in Europe and Asia will come to US on 12th May. The Laptop will come in Linux and Windows XP flavors with a price tag of $549. The system configuration will be same for US market. I will again suggest anyone planning to buy Eee PC to wait till July, as the Eee PC lineup will be updated to upcoming Intel Atom processors, resulting in better performance.

The next major update for AMD’s processors is the 45nm based Shanghai processors. Shanghai will use HyperTransport (HT) 3.0 for inter CPU communications. The first processor based on Shanghai will be a Six-core processor codenamed Istanbul. The processor is targeted at Intel’s six-core Dunnington processor that will be released in Q3. The Shanghai line will get twin-die per package treatment to achieve 12 cores in a single package in 2009. Shanghai and its derivatives will be backwards compatible with existing Socket 1207 motherboards. The inter CPU communications on 1207 motherboards will be downgraded to lower HyperTransport 2.0 standard. The new 1207+ motherboards will support the HyperTransport 3.0 standard. AMD has already started testing Shanghai based processors, we should see the processors based on this technology in second half of 2008.

Sony showed their new electroluminescent (EL) OLED display at the Display2008 conference in Tokyo. OLED displays are very thin, as they don’t use backlights. The Electroluminescent layer contains a polymer substance that itself emits light when activated by an electric current. The display shown by Sony is literally paper-thin, a premium quality paper is in between 0.25mm to 0.35mm thick and the display is just 0.3mm thick. The display is 10 times thinner than its predecessor used in Sony XEL-1 TV, which was 3mm thick. The Sony XEL-1 TV has 11” screen with 960 x 540 resolution and is priced around $2000. Even though the new display is 10 times thinner it will have higher contrast ratio and faster response time than its predecessor, which is already way better than the LCD and Plasma TVs. Price and Size are the two problems stopping OLED TV from becoming the king of display technology. The largest available screen size is 11” for OLED TV and you will pay $2000. You can easily buy a very good 46” LCD or Plasma TV for that price.