On the heels of similar offers from Target and Radio Shack, chains Best Buy, Sam’s Club, and Sprint have succumbed to peer pressure. Best Buy and Sam’s Club have reduced the price of the iPhone 4 8GB model to $50 with a new two-year contract. As reported earlier, Sprint is offering “at least” $100 off a new contract on an iPhone 4S with the exchange of any prior iPhone.

Best Buy’s offer is not just in store — the Best Buy web store has a variety of new and refurbished iPhone 4 units from $50 and under. The Sam’s Club offer does not appear to be online. A spot check by phone of four Sam’s Club stores confirmed the $50 pricing in store.

Sprint’s trade-in offer commences on May 18. No details are available at this time if the $100 off is a fixed price, or what would qualify a buyer for more credit towards the purchase of the iPhone 4S.

via:electronista

The updated Sony Vaio S series ushers new Intel hardware into a body that’s constructed from premium materials giving you a slim and portable powerhouse.

The starting price sets it close to the asking price of the Sony Vaio T13 Ultrabook, but the S series offers a lot more potential for customisation and configuration. For starters there is a wide range of colour options and 15 and 13-inch screen sizes. We looked at a black 13-incher.

Rather than presenting the slick lines of the Vaio T13, the S Series models offer more connections and more buttons. That might only really amount to an additional USB (along with the optical drive, of course), but it also means you get things like a fingerprint scanner and a switch to change power modes.

Importantly you’ll be able to get up to an Intel Core i7 under the skin, along with an optical drive, a Blu-ray even, as well as the option of a higher resolution display and Nvidia graphics display if you pick the right model.

The finish is very good, with the backlit keyboard offering a nice action, even if there appears to be a fair amount of flex there. The wide trackpad makes it easy to get around the display and the palm rest feel luxurious when you get down to serious typing.

The display is bright and vibrant and offered great viewing angles from the time we spent peering at it.

Starting at about £600, there are 15 and 13-inch versions of the Sony Vaio S Series available, with a choice of processors, as well as plenty of other options to choose from.

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Travel apps are all the rage, especially when it comes to getting around in the Big Smoke. There are bus checkers and train finders coming out of our app store ears, but the most recent trend has been for getting about in the privacy of a car hired just for you. Yes, we all know about the executive car app for Addison Lee, we very recently met the Hackney Carriage end of the equation with GetTaxi, but today it’s all about minicabs.

ubiCabs

• Platform Android, iOS, browser
• Price Free
• Where iTunes/Play/web

If there’s one thing that ex-Googler Jay Patel and his co-founders at ubiCabs hate, it’s inefficiencies. Minicabs are stationed by a local controller and, when you hire one, it’s either going to pick you up from, or take you to, an area where it’s not going to be able to get another fare. Worse still, in cities like London, the transport agency forbids minicabs getting customers off the streets, so the drivers and the companies that dispatch them end up having to pay for the petrol of one leg of the journey on their own, ie, without a passenger in the car.

That’s where ubiCabs comes in, according to Patel. The service acts as a booking agent for as many minicab firms as it can get. The idea is that customers then request taxis through either an Android or iPhone app, or by using a web interface. The ubiCabs system will then instantly search and access all the minicab controller information to assign the nearest, available and – most importantly – the cheapest car for your needs.

The app itself is fairly familiar to the others we’ve seen. As with most of these systems, ubiCabs tracks your position by GPS or you can add your pick-up point manually. The selection of what kind of car, how much luggage you have and how many passengers is nicely handled, as well as the way you can track your cab’s journey to you on a live map. So, no more waiting around and wondering.

While the main idea behind it all is obviously to get taxis at your convenience without having to pay Black Cab prices. One would also hope that both the added petrol efficiency and the behind-the-scenes price bidding system might result in minicab costs going down. Sadly, this doesn’t yet seem to be the case with all the journeys we’ve been quoted so far being pretty much what we’d expect to pay normally.

Still, with the added convenience on top, it’s well worth a try. Sure, it’s not much different from picking up the phone if you’re looking to get from your home to a night out, but it’s just the answer for those tedious queues when you’re on your way back from the middle of town.

At the moment, ubiCabs covers just London within the M25 but, so long as it can stay ahead of the competition, expect to see the service rolling out to a town near you soon.

via:poketlint

Facebook has set its share price for its stock market launch on Friday, valuing the company at $104 billion.

The shares, priced at $38 (£24) a pop, will go on sale on the Nasdaq exchange, giving you a chance to own a piece of the social network.

The news means that Facebook will raise some $16bn to invest in making the site even better and makes it one of the biggest stock market launches in American history.

“Facebook today announced the pricing of its initial public offering [IPO] of 421,233,615 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $38 per share,” a company statement said.

“The shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on May 18, 2012, under the symbol ‘FB’.

“Facebook is offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling stockholders are offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on May 22, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.”

Many in the industry have voiced concerned over how the shares will perform on the opening day and how the company will perform in general in the future as it tries to make money from its 900 million users. Car manufacturer GM announced this week that it was pulling its $10m advertising spend from the site because it wasn’t very effective.

That’s unlikely to deter investors keen for a piece of “the facebook” who will no doubt charge the stock exchange tomorrow to snap up a piece of the internet giant that buys $1bn companies at the drop of a hat over a weekend business meeting (yes, we are talking Instagram).

Still a quick straw poll over almost 500 people (at time of writing) at facebookipodayclosingprice.com suggests those investors shouldn’t have anything to worry about. The general consensus there is that the share price will end the day at $54, meaning if you can get in quick you could stand to make quiet a lot of money if the prediction pans out.

Mark Zuckerberg is expected to make $18bn from the IPO.

Via: newsroom.fb.com & poketlint

Reports suggest more than 9 million customers have already pre-ordered the Samsung Galaxy S III before its official arrival on 30 May.

The Samsung Galaxy S III, which was unveiled at a glitzy soiree in London, has already received rave reviews from the tech industry and, if the reports are to be believed, it’s hit the right note with consumers too.

The Korea Economic Daily newspaper which published the figures has also been told by an unidentified Samsung official that the manufacturer’s smartphone factory in South Korea is producing units at a rate of 5 million a month.

Samsung propaganda? Maybe, but there’s no denying the Korean outfit is enjoying a boom period of late, having overtaken Nokia as the world’s largest mobile manufacturer and published impressive financial figures in April.

The Samsung Galaxy S III officially arrives in the UK on 30 May, though some retailers will have the phone available a day early to customers who pre-order the device.

On May 16, British mobile telecom carrier O2 announced that they are building out a DC-HSPA wireless network capable of 42Mbps wireless downloads in the UK’s largest cities. Samsung has jumped on board the effort by announcing yesterday that the Samsung Galaxy S III would connect to the DC-HSPA network. The Galaxy S III is expected to launch in the UK on May 29.

DC-HSPA, the fastest version of 3G available, has max download speeds of 42Mbps. The third-generation iPad, Nokia Lumia 900, and HTC One X also can connect to DC-HSPA networks. O2 has not detailed which of the “major UK cities” they are planning to outfit.

via:electronista.com

Recently MacNN had a chance to test out the Bamboo Stylus duo, a newer version of Wacom’s popular stylus for the iPad — and by extension, other capacitive touchscreen devices. The duo adds an ink pen into the mix, occupying the tip opposite a rubber one meant for touchscreens. This may make the stylus more practical for some people, since it means always having a pen handy for writing checks or quick notes, or at least one less pen sitting in your bag.

The quality of the pen is surprisingly high — it writes thin, smooth lines, much like the absurdly expensive pens you might find on an executive’s desk. As needed you can unscrew the stylus to replace the tip, although since Wacom itself doesn’t sell any replacements, it’s up to you to hunt them down. The addition of a pen doesn’t appear to have affected the stylus’ weight balance, which feels extremely comfortable.

The rest of the Bamboo is essentially unchanged. The rubber tip is smaller than other similar styluses, making it a little more precise in apps like Paper by FiftyThree, although users may still sometimes have to push down to get input to register. The only other possible complaints involve the price — $40, versus the regular Bamboo’s already high $30 — and the fact that there is only one cap between both tips, meaning that either the rubber or the pen is exposed at any given time.

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We flash custom ROMs to enjoy tweaked and enhanced ROMs on our Android phones. These custom ROMs let you enjoy a new Android experience that stock ROMs fail to offer. There are ROMs that offer the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) and some would offer the same stock ROM with even more features. But, a ROM that transforms your phone into a tablet is one that you must try out.

Recognized XDA Developers member starskyrob and a group of developers managed to create a CyanogenMod 9 ROM with a tablet UI for your Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989. Dubbed the FoxstarMOD TabletUI Hybrid ROM, flashing this ROM will turn your phone into a mini-tablet. Take note that this ROM is the final release yet and may still contain bugs that need resolving.

Read on to learn how to flash the FoxstartMOD TabletUI Hybrid ROM to your Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989.

Warning

• The instructions in this guide are intended for use with T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy S2, model number SGH-T989. Applying these instructions on another device or model may produce undesired outcomes.
• The information in this guide is provided for instructional and educational purposes only. There is no guarantee that these instructions will work under your specific and unique circumstances.
• Use these instructions at your own risk. We shall not hold any responsibility or liability for whatever happens to you or your device arising from your use of the info in this guide.
• Read and understand the whole guide first before actually performing the instructions.

Requirements

• A rooted T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989 with ClockworkMod Touch Recovery installed.
• See our guide on how to flash ClockworkMod Touch Recovery to your mobile phone.
• Download the FoxstarMOD TabletUI Hybrid ROM here (update.foxstarmod.05042011.zip, md5sum: b7117585c339676130bb5e190f7c7371).
• Make sure you are running the latest Android Ice Cream Sandwich radio firmware (T989UVLC8). Download the latest radio firmware here (Tmo_SHG-T989_LC8_radio.zip, 19.8 MB).
• Maintain a battery charge of 70% or more to make sure that you have sufficient power for the entire procedure.
• Backup all personal data on your phone to make sure you have a copy of your personal data (e.g., contacts, SMS, MMS, Internet settings, Wi-Fi passwords, and the like) in case the procedure in this guide erases such data.

Instructions

1. Download the FoxstarMOD TabletUI Hybrid ROM and the latest ICS radio firmware (if needed) to your computer.
2. Copy both files to the root of your phone’s SD card.
3. Switch off your Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989.
4. Reboot your Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989 into Recovery Mode. You can do that by pressing and holding down the Volume Up key, Volume Down key, and Power button simultaneously until recovery boots.
5. Go to Backup and Restore and select Backup on the next screen to create a backup of your current ROM.
6. Select Mounts and Storageand then the following:
   1. Select Format System.
   2. Select Format Data.
   3. Select Format Cache.
7. Go back to the main menu and perform a full wipe:
   • Select Wipe Data/Factory Reset and confirm the action on the next screen.
   • Select Wipe Cache Partition and confirm the action on the next screen.
   • Go to the main menu and select Advanced. From there, select Wipe Dalvik Cache and confirm the action on the next screen.
8. Return to the main menu and select Install ZIP From SD Card.
9. Select Choose ZIP From SD Card and locate the Tmo_SHG-T989_LC8_radio.zip. Confirm the action on the next screen to flash the radio to your phone.
   • NOTE: You can skip this step if you are already running the latest ICS radio.
10. Go back to the main menu and flash the update foxstarmod.05042011.zip in the same manner in steps 8 and 9.
11. Once installation is complete, go back to the main menu and select Reboot System Now to restart your mobile phone.
12. After the complete boot, go to Settings > System and adjust to your desired font size.

Congratulations! You have transformed your Samsung Galaxy S2 SGH-T989 into a  mini-tablet via the FoxstarMOD TabletUI Hybrid ROM based on CyanogenMod 9

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With summer just around the corner (allegedly) TDK has wasted no time in unveiling its range of portable audio products, great for annoying the neighbours with those outdoor BBQs you have.

TDK has introduced five products to its Life on Record range, all of which are compatible with the iPod, iPhone and any smartphone that sports a 3.5mm headphone jack.

TDK App-Enhanced Rechargeable Travel Speaker

With its folding design and svelte features, the App-Enhanced Rechargeable Travel Speaker can be tucked away in a picnic hamper for a day out while the built-in rechargeable battery should ensure you don’t run out of juice before sunset.

Take the device back home and using the various alarm clock apps you’ll able to select what dulcet tunes to wake up to.

Retailers will be selling the App-Enhanced Rechargeable Travel Speaker for £84.99.

TDK App-Enhanced Portable Stereo Speaker

The TAC App-Enhanced Portable Stereo Speaker is more suited for the home rather than lugging around in a bag. This is due partly to its delicate concave speakers, though it’s light enough to move from room to room with a hidden handle to assist you. There’s a built-in FM radio as well as an alarm clock.

The TDK App-Enhanced Portable Stereo Speaker will cost around £69.99.

TDK Ultra-Portable Travel Speaker

Slightly smaller than the App-Enhanced Rechargeable Travel Speakers, but with a smaller price too, the Ultra-Portable Travel Speaker can again be used as an alarm clock or as a boom box. With a universal line-in jack, devices with a 3.5mm headset jack can be hooked up to the device, as well as any iPod or iPhone.

The TDK Ultra-Portable Travel Speaker is available from selective retailers for around £59.99.

TDK Dual Charging Alarm clock

What’s the most important thing on an alarm clock? The snooze button of course. Well the TAC4221 Dual Charging Alarm clock has a snooze mode, sleep function and a dimmer. As for the alarm functionality, choose between the FM radio or any tunes you have stored on your iPhone and iPod.

With an additional USB port you can charge a second device as well as your iPhone or iPod.

Various retailers are selling the TDK Dual Charging Alarm Clock for around £69.99.

TDK Space Saving Alarm Clock

Smaller than the Dual Charging Alarm Clock, the Space Saving Alarm Clock offers the same functionality only with not as much vigour. That said, you can still wake up to a preset track on your smartphone, use the FM radio app or simply choose from a range of wake-up calls.

And yes that all important sleep mode’s there too. The TDK Space Saving Alarm Clock will set you back around £49.99.

All of TDK’s Life on Record range is available to buy now.

The Apple Store has begun selling a waterproof Mophie power pack that has enough juice to charge an iPhone three times over.

The Mophie Juice Pack Universal Powerstation Pro should go down a treat with festival-goers this summer as it means you won’t have to fight for that one electrical output.

With dual USB ports the Mophie Juice Pack Universal Powerstation Pro can charge up to two USB-compatible devices simultaneously, thanks to a 6000-mAh capacity, and will even be able to top up an iPad.

So long as the ports are closed, the powerstation is both water and dust resistant to a rating of IP65 – meaning it should be able to withstand that inevitable downpour, or worse. Its rugged shell made up of rubber, aluminium and steel should also be able to withstand various knocks and bumps.

The Mophie Juice Pack Universal Powerstation Pro is available now from the Apple Store for £79.95.

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