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LG Optimus 7, Quantum, and Optimus 7Q welcome Windows Phone 7 to the fold
LG was naturally expected to show up for today's announcement seeing how the company has been a longtime "strategic" partner of Microsoft's -- and indeed, they're bringing two models into the fold. First up is the Quantum (known as the Optimus 7Q in markets outside the US, pictured right) that we broke as the C900 back in August, a landscape slider equipped with quadband EDGE and triband HSPA (850 / 1900 / 2100MHz), 16GB of storage, a 5 megapixel camera with 720p video capture, a 3.5-inch WVGA display, and an all-too-familiar 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon core; as you might have guessed from the 3G bands, this puppy will be coming to AT&T. Next, the Optimus 7 (pictured left) will be seeing a much wider international release on Telus in Canada, America Movil in Mexico, Movistar and Vodafone in Europe, and SingTel in Singapore. What is it, you ask? Well, it's exactly what you'd figured by now from the leaks -- a 3.8-inch WVGA slate at 11.5mm thick with specs that largely mirror the Quantum's otherwise: 1GHz Snapdragon and 5 megapixel cam, notably. Both models will support "Play To," the brand name for the DLNA features LG touted back at IFA, allowing users to fling media to DLNA-compatible TVs, set-top boxes, and the like. Expect both the Optimus 7 and 7Q to start rolling out on October 21, eventually deploying in over 35 countries; on AT&T, the Quantum will run $199.99 when it hits in the next few weeks. Follow the break for LG's full press release.
Body tracking Tetris game lights up the streets of Madrid (video)
Part public art project, part video game, Lummo Blocks has taken over the Plaza de Las Letras. Basically Tetris writ large, two players shuffle horizontally in front of the billboard-sized display: one controls the trajectory of the game piece, while the other rotates it into place. The goal of the designers, MediaLab Prado, is to "creat[e] an interaction between the passersby and the public space of the plaza." Works for us! Madrid: we are officially jealous. Video after the break.
The Path honored with awards in Spain, goes half price to celebrate
Surreal horror/exploration indie title The Path was one of the finalists at last year's Indiecade festival, and it's been honored again with two awards at Bilbao, Spain's hóPLAY International Video Game Festival. The game won Best Sound and Best Design, and its creator, Tale of Tales, picked up a tidy sum of €12,000 ($16,000) in prize money. To celebrate, the company is putting the game on sale, and you can pick up a digital copy right now for just $4.99, half of the usual price. Careful, though -- it's a creepy experience, combining a strange retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood tale with dynamically generated music and environments. Congratulations to Tale of Tales on the awards, which it says is the first actually won in its eight-year history. Always a finalist, finally a winner.
Samsung Mobile Spain pegs Galaxy S update for late October
Samsung's indicated in the past that all versions of its ubiquitous Galaxy S would be getting Froyo upgrades in harmony (more or less) -- and it had also indicated that those updates would be happening in September. Well, you know how these things tend to go: plans change, bugs crop up, engineers go on vacation at inopportune times, and delays happen. On that note, Samsung Mobile's Spanish division is now saying that the Galaxy S will be getting Froyo in "late October" through the Kies desktop app, though we don't know whether España speaks for the rest of the world -- it's entirely possible that this is a Spain-specific announcement. More on this one as we get it, but for now, we wouldn't count on many (if any) of these bad boys getting official updates in the next few days.
Kinect won't support voice recognition in some countries until 2011, putting on airs won't help
"If you see it, just say it," says Microsoft's Kinect, but only in the US, UK, Mexico and Japan to start -- those are the only four countries that will support Kinect voice control by the motion-sensing peripheral's November launch. So said Microsoft PR manager Lidia Pitzalis in an interview with Eurogamer Spain, adding that Germany, Italy, France and even Canada and Spain would have to wait for a Spring 2011 update for additional language support. Microsoft claims it's a matter of accents throwing off the voice recognition, as the company's already had to build separate software versions for US and UK English, but if you're an Italian who can fake a good Cockney, you're still out of luck, as Microsoft's reportedly disabling voice control entirely in said regions until it can formally support it. And game companies wonder why we try so hard to hack those DVD drives... Update: Canada will in fact have voice support, according to Microsoft. So long as you speak English and not French.
Did malware cause the crash of Spanair Flight JK 5022? (update)
The inquiry into the August 2008 crash of Spanair Flight JK 5022 at Barajas Airport in Madrid took a bizarre turn recently when Spanish daily El Pais reported that the server that the airline used to track technical problems on aircraft contained malware. Although the flaps and slats were not in the proper position for takeoff, the crew was never alerted -- causing the flight to go down moments after takeoff, killing all but 18 of the 172 on board. That's not to say that human error wasn't a factor: as well as causing an audible alarm, the problem should have been spotted by the mechanic or airport maintenance chief, both of whom are under investigation. Space stations, power grids, and now airline safety systems? Please, people -- keep your antivirus software up to date. Update: Of the many possibilities that could have brought down JK 5022, it turns out malware was pretty low on the list -- ZDNet's Ed Bott reports that it was a maintenance computer at the airline's HQ that was infected, and the plane itself (an MD-82) uses a takeoff warning system that predates airplane computerization, and was thus not susceptible to viruses.
Samsung Galaxy S coming in white?
It looks like Samsung might be getting ready to do something that Apple's having an awful time with: produce a white version of its latest, greatest smartphone. GSMArena happened across a tiny, blurry image of a particularly pale Galaxy S on the website of Spain's The Phone House -- a Carphone Warehouse company -- where it's identified as an exclusive. In our experience, full-touch handsets almost always look dashing in white, and we'd expect no different of the Super AMOLED-equipped Galaxy; unfortunately, there's no indication (yet, anyway) that this'll launch anywhere else. Anyone care to fly to Spain with €500 in hand? [Thanks, Blazeitup123]
Toshiba reneges on promise of free laptops and TVs if Spain win World Cup
Buy a Core i5 laptop or a Toshiba TV, and if your country wins the World Cup Final, we'll refund your money. Simple and to the point, don't you think? Toshiba ran this advertising campaign in Germany, England, Portugal, Italy and Spain in the run-up to the global football tournament, but now that one of those nations has actually gone and scooped the silverware, refunds seem remarkably hard to come by. As it turns out, the small print on that ad included instructions to see Toshiba's site for further details, which elucidated a requirement that all claimants must register their product by the 17th of June. Naturally, that's now led to a whole heap of peeved Spaniards feeling cheated, and big time consumer association Facua arguing that such a major condition to recovering your cash shouldn't have been hidden away online. In the absence of it being clearly marked on the promotional materials, it argues, Toshiba should honor everyone's receipts irrespective of registration. We're inclined to agree -- maybe the Japanese company can recover any losses from the wages of its cheeky advertising staff.
More photography with the iPhone
The above video shows a fashion photo shoot taken completely with an iPhone, and it isn't even the iPhone 4! The photographer uses only an iPhone 3GS. I think there might be a little cheating involved; the lighting is overdone and the photos were sent off to a retoucher, so it's not that surprising that they look as good as they do. Then again, considering that all fashion shoots probably have that kind of lighting and retouching applied to them, the fact that the iPhone can even compete is pretty impressive. If you like iPhone photography, you might want to check out the eyephoneography blog; it's a site that features some great photographs that are taken strictly with mobile phones (including the iPhone). They just announced an exhibit that will take place next September in Madrid, Spain, and they're also working with another blog called iPhoneography to spotlight and show off some of the best iPhone 4-based photography on the Web. It's pretty cool stuff. The iPhone's mobility and interface have always made it a pretty good camera, but with the arrival of HD on the iPhone 4, it's turned into an even better tool for photographers.
Telefonica gets behind MeeGo, says 'smartphones, netbooks, tablets, and internet connected TVs' are possibilities
Virtually all of the MeeGo buzz since Intel and Nokia's tie-up back in February has been focused on high-end smartphones, tablets, and netbooks, but Telefonica reminds us that there's another potential target for the platform, too -- connected TVs. The Spanish wireless, fixed internet, and cable operator has thrown its weight behind MeeGo this week (which is a pretty big deal considering that the company has global reach across 25 countries and about a quarter billion subscribers), hinting that "services could potentially include content and applications that can be accessed from devices such as smartphones, netbooks, tablets, and internet connected TVs for Telefonica's wireline and wireless operations." We've yet to see any set-top box announcements in the MeeGo space, but with Google trying to light fires under the connected TV market, we imagine some competitors are bound to emerge -- and it's probably a good sign that they've got the backing of a cable company.
iPad international availability set for May 28
already had to wait quite a bit longer than they expected, as US demand forced Apple to push back the worldwide product launch date. Pricing details were not included in the announcement. were included in the individual country releases, but not in the domestic release. Canadian pricing is $50 more than US pricing (in CAD). UK pricing with VAT: £429 for 16GB, £499 for 32GB, £599 for 64GB for Wi-Fi models; £529 for 16GB, £599 for 32GB and £699 for 64GB for Wi-Fi + 3G models. Australian pricing, all including GST: AUS$629 for 16GB, AUS$759 for 32GB, AUS$879 for 64GB for Wi-Fi models; AUS$799 for 16GB, AUS$928 for 32GB and AUS$1049 for 64GB for Wi-Fi + 3G. The second round of iPad international distribution (including Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore) is on track for July.
Palm Pixi Plus hits Vodafone Spain on May 10, Pre Plus conspicuously missing
Wherever the Pre goes, the Pixi typically likes to follow, which makes it pretty interesting to see that Vodafone Spain will be launching Palm's new GSM flavor of the Pixi Plus on the 10th of this month without any sign of its Pre Plus sibling. That's a marked departure from the line Vodafone and O2 have both been taking in other markets, so it makes you wonder: does Vodafone think that the Pre Plus won't sell well here (it already offers the Pre), is there some firmware issue holding back the localized version, or is there some other mysterious conspiracy brewing altogether? At any rate, follow the break for Palm's press release.
iPad will have 'dedicated tariffs' on O2 UK, Orange and Vodafone also doing Western Europe and Australia
A bevy of identically worded UK carrier announcements has emerged in the wake of Apple's statement about the iPad's delayed international release. The good news is that you'll be able to take your pick from O2, Orange or Vodafone, though the bad news, by the sound of their robotic PR, is that there probably won't be too much price differentiation in their eventual offerings. Naturally, we'll have to keep waiting until at least the May 10th pre-order date to find out how much an iPad will set us back with either of them. Concurrent with its UK announcement, Orange has revealed it'll also offer iPad plans in Switzerland, France and Spain, while Vodafone adds Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia. We've also heard from an insider at O2 that the network operator will not itself stock the iPad, with only Apple's retail, web and "authorised dealers" offering the device for purchase. [Thanks, Rob and anonymous O2 tipster]
Santander Visitors Center infested by swarms of helpful robots (video)
Santander's Group City in Madrid is a big place; nine buildings sheltering 5,500 employees of one of the largest banks in the world. Guiding visitors around such a massive complex is a challenge, and what's the best way to solve any challenge? Robots, of course. Santander turned to YDreams, who we've seen before playing with augmented reality, but in this case produced something more tangible: a fleet of little red guys called "Interactive Guest Assistants" that use swarm interactions to guide fat cat bankers to their next conference -- and maybe to face off against the evil Maximilian in a harrowing battle at the end of the movie. There's also a giant virtual wall full of boring financial information presented in fancy ways, even an augmented reality map of the complex, all shown in a video after the break. It's the bots we like the best, so we'll be ordering a gaggle to guide our own visitors -- to their doom.
Vodafone Spain replacing microSD cards on 3,000 virus-infected handsets
It looks like the virus-strewn HTC Magic that was recently purchased from Vodafone UK is only the tip of the iceberg. According to Vodafone Spain, some 3,000 users in all may have been exposed to Mariposa malware -- which used the handset's storage to make its way to customer's PCs via USB, leading the company to replace the microSD cards for infected customers. The company also says that the incident is "isolated and local," but with the number of infections rising from one in the UK to 3,000 in Spain in just over a week we wouldn't be surprised this story was just heating up.
HTC Desire shows up in slinky silver (video)
Here's another thing the Desire has that the Nexus One doesn't: a second color option. We're told our Dutch buddies will soon be able to skip the default gunmetal paintjob that's shared by HTC's twin brothers and opt into the silvery casing you see above. The pictures are captioned with a note saying the silver Desire will be exclusive to BelCompany in the Netherlands, but we've found a few other retailers claiming their own exclusief. Either way, we still don't know how things will shake out elsewhere, but at least there won't be too long to wait. We've got video of the very slightly altered handset after the break. [Thanks, Miguel]%Gallery-88435%
Rising Star crowdsources Spanish localization of Fragile Dreams
Rising Star Games has taken an unusual, cost-effective step to get Fragile Dreams into Spanish-speaking homes. In collaboration with fansite DSWii.es, Rising Star is helping a group of 50 fans produce their own translation of the game's 35,000-word script. The translated text will be made available from DSWii and Rising Star's site following the European release of the game on March 19. This is a clever approach to localization for a couple of reasons. First, fifty motivated kids will be able to get the job done in a fraction of the time a professional localization team would take. Additionally, it'll be much easier for Rising Star to laugh off the inevitable errors than it would with a 'real' localization.
ESA estimates 'over 9.78 million' pirated game downloads in December
[Joriel Jiminez] So, okay, seriously, there are a lot of people out there stealing games. Like, lots. "Over 9.78 million" in just December of 2009, more specifically, according to a recent study conducted by the International Intellectual Property Alliance and the Entertainment Software Association. Scouring "the most popular peer-to-peer platforms" for a group of 200 titles, the study found that the worst offenders (by country) were Spain (12.5 percent), France (7.5 percent), Brazil (6 percent) and China (5.7 percent) -- the ESA also points out that these stats "demonstrate a strong correlation between countries that lack sufficient protections for technological protection measures and countries where online piracy levels for entertainment software are high." Worse yet, the figures are repeatedly noted as being an under-representation of actual piracy numbers. "While they account for illegal downloads that occur over select P2P platforms, they do not account for the downloads that occur from 'cyberlockers' and 'one-click' hosting sites, which continue to account for high volumes of infringing downloads," the ESA echoes. The IIPA has since submitted the findings to the United States Trade Representative who could potentially impose sanctions on certain countries based on the recommendations.
Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 gets its Vodafone spotlight at long last
There'd been some drama not long ago on news that Vodafone was scrubbing its exclusive launch of Sony Ericsson's troubled Xperia X2, but it turns out they still wanted a crack at the thing after all -- just not in the UK, apparently, where it had originally been listed as "coming soon." Instead, it's Voda's Spanish outpost that's taking a crack at the phone, which features WinMo 6.5 (you might recall that this thing was announced way back around the time of 6.5's release) alongside a WVGA AMOLED display, 8.1 megapixel camera, and full QWERTY keyboard -- not bad on paper. Of course, at the €700 ($957) they're charging sans contract, you're probably going to want to sign your name on the dotted line if you plan on picking it up.
Weekend Apple Store news
The weekend's almost here, thank goodness. Here's some Apple Store news to get you in a recreational mood. First, the new Frankfurt Apple Store is set to open this weekend after a brief delay. Originally slated for December, the grand opening was canceled just two days before the scheduled date. The reason given was (and I'm relying on Google translate here because I don't speak German) that "it still wasn't completely perfect for an opening," so we assume that construction delays or other finishing touches took longer than expected. The event was re-scheduled for January 2010 without a specific date. That mystery date turned out to be this Saturday, January 23rd at 11:00 AM. You'll find full travel directions here. Let us know if you attend the opening! Additionally, ifoapplestore reports that Spain's first Apple Store will appear in Valencia. According to ABC.es, the store will occupy a part of the beautiful and historic building at Calle de Cristóbal Colón 25, designed by architect Lucas Garcia Cardona in 1889. The city is keen to ensure that changes made to the structure by Apple will not violate the "...the special protections afforded the (historic) building." If you're in Valencia and notice any construction or other obvious signs of large-scale work on this building, let us know.
