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Samsung Galaxy Tab torn down, is indeed not full of stars
What's that, the greatest Android tablet of the moment caught without its pants on again? Oh, no, it's just another iFixit special, tearing down a Samsung Galaxy Tab into its requisite bits, bobs, and a slab of Gorilla Glass. The removal of that pane turned out to be the trickiest part, requiring a lot of heat and a little "nervous prying" before it yielded. But, yield it did, and you can see the piece-by-piece teardown on the other end of the source link below.
Gorilla goes hands-on with Nintendo DSi XL at the San Francisco Zoo
Looks like Nintendo's DSi XL has finally found its target audience. Video after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
iPhone 4 teardown: 512MB RAM confirmed (updated)
With nary hours since the reviews went live, the gang at iFixit -- no doubt blessed by the hands of early deliveries -- have procured an iPhone 4. And as is their modus operandi, they wasted no time tearing that sucker apart screw by screw. The teardown is still ongoing, but here's what we got so far: 512MB RAM (confirming earlier rumors), a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor (same as the Samsung Wave S8500, they say), and chemically-strengthened Gorilla Glass for a more torture-friendly front panel. Those two screws on the bottom of the phone can be removed to excise the real panel, but the site says the front glass "will likely be rather challenging [to remove]." The battery, looking rather large even in the pictures, is a whopping 1420mAh Li-Polymer -- comparatively, the Nexus One is 1400mAh and the HTC Droid Incredible is 1300mAh. There's no SIM eject tool with this phone, but a paper clip should work just fine. As for the much-ballyhooed side panel antennas, the phone apparently now "[utilizes] whichever network band is less congested or has the least interference for the best signal quality, regardless of actual signal strength" -- in other words, better call reliability (hopefully). Also helping with overall voice quality is a dual microphone setup for suppressing background noise. Peruse on over if you're interested in seeing a bare Apple device at its most beautiful. Update: The teardown is complete with a few more interesting bits of information. First, the battery is very easy to remove (and thus, replace) after removing the two screws. The LCD panel is not, however, as it's tighly glued to the glass and digitizer. So if you do manage to break the Gorilla Glass, you'll have to replace it, the digitizer, and the LCD as a single unit. The new AGD1 3-axis gyroscope is thought to be made by ST Micro and Broadcom provides both the BCM4750IUB8 single-chip GPS receiver and BCM4329FKUBG receiver giving the iPhone 4 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and an FM radio. %Gallery-96098%
Acer working on frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard?
Would you believe that Acer is working on a frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard? As far-fetched as the idea might be, it's certainly plausible, expected even. The idea, as rumored by DigiTimes, involves doing away with the display's frame by printing colors directly onto the back of the display's reinforced glass substrate from Corning (a la Gorilla Glass presumably). Coupled with a touchscreen keyboard, the rumored device should be impossibly thin by traditional laptop comparisons. Keep in mind that we've already seen this Frame Zero concept pictured above from Fujitsu and Acer's arch-rival ASUS has been showing off its dual-display laptop prototype with touchscreen keyboard for months. Even the OLPC XO-3 plans to eschew the clickity keyboard in favor of a touchscreen version. And anyone who has ever seen a scifi movie knows that tactile keyboards and display bezels have no role to play in our computing future anyway, so we might as well get things started now -- or in the second half of 2010 according to DigiTimes' sources.
Motorola Droid and Dell Adamo latest to get Gorilla glass
Corning's darn-near-impenetrable Gorilla glass certainly isn't new -- in fact, we spied it in a few of Motion Computing's tablets just a few months ago -- but it's still not commonplace on mainstream gizmos. Yet. SmartPlanet sat down with Dr. Donnell Walton, senior applications engineer at Corning, in order to discuss the merits of the display technology as well as its importance in the gadget space. The discussion also mentioned that both Motorola's Droid and Dell's Adamo (not to mention Cowon's S9 PMP) are sporting the glass, which acts to make displays "damage-resistant." Not surprisingly, the company is seeing huge demand in the smartphone arena, where touchscreen-centric phones are being shoved into pockets at random and then costing manufacturers big bucks as return rates creep up. It's a pretty interesting read if you're into that type of thing, and yes, we did just give you permission to try and split your Droid display wide open in a moment of frustration. Just don't count on Motorola to accept that as a valid excuse for your RMA. [Thanks, Jeff]
Warrior Epic MMO releases iPhone tie-in
This is an interesting trend: Warrior Epic, an MMO game by True Games, has announced that they've released an iPhone app [iTunes link] version for free, featuring "a small portion of the strategy, role-playing and battles found in the online MMORPG," kind of like a taster for the actual PC game. The game itself isn't a 3D action game like the full game, but rather a "stat game," much like many of the minigames being released on Facebook and other social platforms (in fact, Warrior Epic is releasing this game as a Facebook game as well). Unfortunately, the only real tie between the games seems to be having the same name and being set in the same universes -- we don't have any characters to test, but it doesn't seem that you can transfer your actual characters or items from the PC game across to the iPhone. But this will be a trend to watch -- two other major MMOs have started work on official iPhone apps, and of course the 800 lb. gorilla of the MMO world, Blizzard, maker of World of Warcraft, has shown a strong interest in the iPhone as a platform, even though they haven't quite released any games on it yet. In the future, you can probably expect to see platforms like the iPhone host access (if limited) to your favorite persistent online games even while you're away from your computer. Should be exciting.
Sanyo's Gorilla Lite PND packs 4GB in an incredibly thin frame
Sanyo, a company best known among mid-80s McKean Elementary school students for the portable cassette recorder Henry Hutchinson used to incessantly play "Mr. Telephone Man" by New Edition (true story), seems to be going from strength to strength with its Gorilla line of handheld PNDs. The NV-LB50DT Gorilla Lite packs a 5-inch touchscreen, LED backlight, and 4GB SSD in a package a mere 18.8mm thin. The device also features a 1Seg digital TV tuner, an accelerometer for switching between landscape and portrait mode, support for MP4, JPEG, MP3, and WMA playback, and Sanyo ECO mode (which tells you if your driving style is good or bad for the environment). Sure, this isn't the DVD playing, CD-ripping powerhorse that we last saw from the company, but you probably knew that as soon as you saw the word "Lite" in the name. Available soon for a price to be determined. [Via Akihabara News]
The Daily Quest: Ain't no silverback girl
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Fel Fire looks at Patch 3.2 from the perspective of a guild leader. DeathKnight.info continues exploring every corner of the Isle of Conquest on the PTR. This time we see the glory of the human catapault. I hope you like slamming face first into stone walls a few dozen times! Mystic Chicanery explains why she thinks the Caverns of Time are the most logical dungeons in WoW. Lorecrafted gives his take on patch 3.2's Tauren Druid revelations. Slow Wolf's next installment of their Creature Feature series is up, this time featuring the Gorilla. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
Sanyo intros two new flash-based in-dash navigation systems
Sanyo was among the first to cram solid state storage into navigation systems when it did so back in May of last year. Nearly 12 months to the day after said introduction, the company is delivering its newest duo, which ups the ante by including "SSDs" (which is likely just a fancy title for flash storage) that are four times as capacious. The NVA-GS1409DT and NVA-GS1609FT systems, which are both in the AV Gorilla family, each boast a QVGA (480 x 240) display, 3D maps, an integrated DVD player, CD ripping functionality and even a digital TV tuner for catching OTA shows whilst parked in Tokyo traffic. There's also a 16GB slab of flash memory, half of which is already claimed by maps and POIs; still, that leaves 8GB of super-speedy storage for hosting your favorite playlists. Unfortunately, such a sweet solution demands quite the premium, with prices on the June-bound units starting at ¥135,000 ($1,423).[Via Impress]
Champions Online's Dr. Silverback profiled
Don't believe everything you've learned from Planet of the Apes movies. Dr. Silverback is easily one of the most intelligent creatures around, and he's very much a gorilla, too. You can read all about him in the latest hero profiles on Champions Online's official website.But what we really love about Dr. Silverback is that he fights not with his strength, but his mind by building powerful gadgets. And because he attended schools of higher learning in England -- where he was also made an official citizen -- he possess an incredibly charming accent to compliment his intellect. This has, of course, made him quite popular with the media and general populace.So what we have here is a "gentleman" of a gorilla with enough brainpower to light up a large metropolis, who builds cool gadgets and helps the Champions solve scientific conundrums. Could you ask for a more interesting leader? Possibly, if you got really lucky, but we'd follow a crazy-smart gorilla's plans any day of the week.
Gorilla: Sanyo's acceleration tracking, camera packing, hominid-themed PND
It's been a while since we heard anything from Sanyo on the Gorilla tip, but according to the company the venerable PND will see three new models hit the scene on April 24. These bad boys will feature two gyro (velocity) sensors and an acceleration sensor, allowing the device to keep an accurate account of your location -- even when GPS reception poor. If that isn't enough for you, the new Gorillas sport an 8GB SSD (twice that of their predecessors) and an optional rear view camera for your vehicle. Prices have yet to be set in stone, but it's believed that the NV-SD730DT, featuring a 7-inch LCD display will fetch ¥90,000 ($899), while the NV-SB540DT (5.2-inch display, plus tuner for real-time traffic updates) and NV-SB530DT (the 5.2-inch model, sans tuner) will run for ¥70,000 ($700) and ¥65,000 ($650) respectively. No word yet on a Stateside release.
Hunter pet tanks Heroic Sapphiron
Remember Durante of Hydraxis, who briefly became a hero among Hunter for tanking Gruul with his pet? Well, he's at it again with Bubbles the Gorilla still at his side. This time around his stalwart monkey took on Sapphiron, deep in the bowels of Naxxramas.In order to get the job done this time around, Durante mentions in his thread on the official forums that he had to do some pretty significant Stamina stacking, and his DPS was quite nearly nonexistant with the spec and equipment that allowed this to happen. He did just over 900 DPS over the course of the encounter. The raid didn't seem to need to stack any extra healers for this, but the five that were there had to be on top of their game. One attempt was cut short when Bubbles ate a pretty hefty crit, and pets can't be crit immune. Threat was a little dicey at first, Durante says, DPS really needed to hold back for awhile. They managed it though, and that's really all that counts.I wouldn't say that this is a sign of Hunter pets taking over as Tanks or anything like that, but it was probably incredibly fun for Durante and his guild. I have no idea where his guild (which is recruiting Healers, apparently) sits on the meter between "Casual" and "Hardcore" but even the most hardcore guilds need to have a little fun sometimes and I think this qualifies.
Gorilla Thunderstomp ability given to all tenacity pets
If you've been reading WoW Insider for a while, you probably remember Big Red Kitty's meditations on the Gorilladin. With judicious use of the Gorilla Hunter pet's Thunderstomp skill, you could grind multiple mobs at once and bring Hunter leveling and farming to a whole new level -- enough that Blizzard's had Gorillas under the microscope for a while. Now the word has come down: No more monkey business in 3.1. Gorillas are losing Thunderstomp as a unique pet family ability. That doesn't mean, however, that Thunderstomp is going away. Rather, it means that all tenacity pets are getting it.
The Queue: Death Knights in the arena and other things
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.Hey, welcome back! How was your Thanksgiving, my American pals? Did you sit around and laugh at Europeans like I did? You did? Great! High five! No, I'm just kidding, I love all of you equally. My Thanksgiving was pretty good! Well, as good as Thanksgiving can be when nobody feels like cooking so you buy a pound of sliced turkey and drop it in a pot of warm canned gravy, toss some of it on bread, and have a can of jellied cranberry sauce on the side. It's not good unless you can still see the can ripples in it. Mmm. Can ripples. Delicious.Right, right, the Q&A! Let's start with Rasman's question...I was just thinking about Death Knights and PvP and realized, Casters are really going to be hurting in the areas now if they match up agianst a DK. Death Knights don't care about your casting bar because they can just yank you in or go Vader on you because you forgot his cookies, and choke you for the Silence. Matter of fact, if they get you close, they really have 3 or 4 ways to interupt those casts, if you include the stun from an Unholy DK's Ghoul, that is. Am I just stammering on and not knowing what I'm talking about, or are Death Knights going to make this upcoming Arena season VERY Melee heavy?
BigRedKitty: Covert-ops Gorilladin movie
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary. Bugged quests can be loads of fun, especially when hunter-pets are involved. We once captured a screenshot of Baby Rhino flying by himself, but this time we were able to make an entire movie of our pet doing stuff he really shouldn't. You are invited to download the YouTube version (26MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (37MB) here.As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time! From his video guides to Karazhan For Hunter Dummies, nobody covers raid Hunters like BRK. Looking for more Hunter goodness? Check out our non-raid Hunter column, Scattered Shots or the WoW Insider Directory of Hunter Guides.
Sanyo trots out a few new Gorilla navigators
Sanyo's gone a few months now without popping out a new Gorilla navigator, but as of this week, you'll be forced to live with slightly antiquated jungle-themed GPS units no more. For starters, the outfit introduced a pair of SSD-based in-car units, the NVA-GS1580FT and NVA-GS1480DT; both of these feature a 400MHz CPU, while the former adds a 1seg TV tuner. Moving on, we've got the NV-SD750FT and NV-SB510DT, both of which are meant for aftermarket installation on your dash / windshield. The former includes a spacious 7-inch LCD, while the latter touts a still-respectable 5.2-inch panel. 'Course, we don't expect any of the new beasts to gallop, swim or fly over to US soil anytime soon, but those in Japan can sink their teeth in next month for between ¥75,000 ($759) and ¥155,000 ($1,569).%Gallery-36151%[Via Navigadget]Read - Sanyo NVA-GS1580FT and NVA-GS1480DTRead - Sanyo NV-SD750FT and NV-SB510DT
Scattered Shots: Autocast bugs and other animal handling issues in 3.0.2
Welcome to Scattered Shots, where Daniel Whitcomb loves his Hunter Judgement, but wishes he got the cool looking shoulders too. So between 3.0.2, the Scourge Invasion, and Hallow's End, my Hunter's seen a lot of play as I've been going after the title and the undead armor and playing with all the new changes on a live server and all, and in that time, I've had some chance to see how stuff works out when it's thrown into the crucible of live server playing. Most of my observations have ended up focusing around pets, which is probably to be expected. After all, they've changed quite a bit. Here's what's I've learned from 3.0.2 in the last few weeks about managing your pet:
Gorilla gets Sky+ HD service in its enclosure, wouldn't return to the wild if he could
There's spoiled, and then there's Nico. The 47-year old Silverback Western Lowland Gorilla, which is currently being held at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire, England, grew quite fond of television during a six-month UK quarantine period spent indoors. Now, officials have upgraded the animal's living quarters to include a Sky+ HD box and an HDTV. According to Nico's head keeper, "television has proved a great environmental enrichment tool for Nico over the years," and now, Nico can sit back [and] enjoy the greater picture detail of HD and the surround sound experience." Before you get too jealous, you should know that the creature's viewing hours are limited -- you know, so it doesn't morph into an "archetypal couch potato."
BigRedKitty: Gorilladin 101
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary. We are concerned. One the one hand, we've received truckloads of emails asking for help with Gorilla-pets. And we can understand that, as the Gorilladin (Gorilladin = Gorilla + Paladin AoE attack) version of this pet deviates from the standard hunter-pet model of single-target destruction. This guy is an AoE-tank and the way to properly utilize him is different than every other hunter-pet. Thunderstomp and Volley are your friends with a Gorilla, foshizzle.But on the other hand, the hunter-community has had to "endure" two of our movies about the Gorilla already, and doing another seems to be a little overboard. Can one have too much Gorilla? We really don't want a backlash.We decided to do one more Gorilladin movie, but this is the last one. We're going to try to cover, in fine detail, a successful way to train and utilize a Gorilladin for use with farming multiple mobs. We chose Talbuks because we love leather, but the methods herein work with any non-caster mob: humanoids, beast, demons, etc.The two macros we discuss in this movie are:The Simple Pet-Misdirection Macro/cast [target=your_pet's_name] MisdirectionThe Pet-Attack Macro/cast Hunter's Mark/petattackThere are many variations of these, but we're aiming for simplicity here. This is a 101 class, not graduate studies.And because we're sure someone will ask, we're using Perl Classic Unit Frames, Bartender4, ButtonFacade, Chatter, OmniCC, and FuBar3.5 addons. You are invited to download the YouTube version (95MB) of this movie here, and the full-sized version (154MB) here.As always, a great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time! From his video guides to Karazhan For Hunter Dummies, nobody covers raid Hunters like BRK. Looking for more Hunter goodness? Check out our non-raid Hunter column, Scattered Shots or the WoW Insider Directory of Hunter Guides.
Breakfast Topic: So what sorta pet are you gonna get?
This question is mostly for hunters, but if you are not a hunter, please feel free to pretend you are a hunter and answer accordingly.As you already know, patch 3.02, also known as "Echoes of Doom Doom do Doom Doom", will bring with it all those nifty changes to hunter pets' abilities and talents, in addition to doom. Beast Mastery hunters are even getting especially special pets in the form of Exotic Pets through their 51-talent point, called Beast Mastery. Some Beast Mastery hunters will not be getting the Beast Mastery talent, however, because they feel like the coolness of the pet plus a few extra pet talent points do not a worthy 51-talent point make. Other Beast Mastery hunters are just like, "WHOA! Did you see that friggin Core Hound?!" Still other Beast Mastery hunters find the booming sound of Exotic Pet footfalls far too loud, or for other reasons simply prefer normal pets: "Dude, I'm gonna get me a Gorilladin!" or "I've always seen myself as a Pink Flamingo Hunter, and now my hour of destiny has arrived at last!" So what sorta pet are you gonna get? And why? I'm still undecided myself. I've always enjoyed my Owl most of all, but I'm not tremendously impressed with its new disarm skill in Wrath, since its usefulness seems too limited for my taste. The exotic pets are sometimes really nice looking (like the Spirit Beasts), but sometimes have too much of that "grumpy stompy" look (like Core Hounds) -- though I admit some of those abilities they have are very tempting. I might get used to them, or I might end up going with a Beast Mastery talent build without the Beast Mastery talent, in order to have a wider selection of pets to choose from (in addition to scatter shot). In fact, while writing this post, I just realized how utterly clueless I am about which pets I'll like best. I really have to try them out. Do you have some better idea of what you'll prefer?
