New Google commercial for Nexus 7 takes a 'Life Aquatic' turn

Advertisements don't always make for compelling viewing, but when Google makes one, sometimes they're worth watching. After all, ads are only truly bad if they're for things we're not interested in, right? 

So, props to Google for this, their latest effort at advertising the Nexus 7. Anyone who has ever seen the Bill Murray movie, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" will feel right at home. Those who haven't -- firstly, check the link below to the movie in the Play Store -- maybe not so, but it's still worth a watch.  With Google refreshing the Nexus 7 line up as part of their recent Nexus-fest of announcements, we're sure to see a big push on marketing as we enter the holiday season.

[Source: Android Central]

Apple now allowing Personal Pickup for iPad Mini, schedule between 10PM – 4AM

As it did for the iPhone 5, Apple has begun its Personal Pickup program for the iPad Mini. Personal Pickup allows customers to buy a device on Apple’s website or mobile app between 10PM and 4AM and pick it up in store the next day (or whenever inventory is available). There are a number of stores across the country sold out of the iPad Mini, so Personal Pickup may be your best bet to getting the 7.9-inch tablet ASAP.

[Source: 9to5Mac]

Apple to bring movie ticket purchasing to Siri with upcoming iOS 6.1 update

Apple’s upcoming release of iOS 6.1 will include a new feature for Siri: the ability to get movie tickets. The feature, according to developers who are beta testing the new iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch operating system, works via Fandango. To purchase movie tickets, a user simply needs to ask their iOS device to buy tickets for a certain movie.

[Source: 9to5Mac - Click here to read the full story]

NASA releases web app to help you spot ISS, celebrates 12 years of continuous crew occupation

The International Space Station just celebrated its 12th anniversary of having a crew continuously onboard, and to mark the occasion, NASA's unveiled a new service to help folks catch the station in the night sky. Dubbed Spot the Station, the web app texts or emails the time that the ISS will pass over a user's location to their phone. The calculations are done for more than 4,600 places across the globe by NASA's Johnson Space Center, which determines when the ISS will be high enough in the sky to be seen above obstacles such as trees and buildings. Since the station is the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon, it'll appear to the naked eye as if it were a star moving at a steady clip. To get pinged with sighting alerts by NASA, hit the second source link below.

[Source: Engadget]

AMD unveils Opteron 6300, hopes to put servers in a Piledriver

AMD's advantage these days most often rests in datacenters that thrive on the chip designer's love of many-core processors, so it was almost surprising that the company brought its Piledriver architecture to the mainstream before turning to the server room. It's closing that gap now that the Opteron 6300 is here. The sequel to the 6200 fits into the same sockets and consumes the same energy as its ancestor, but speeds ahead through Piledriver's newer layout and instructions -- if you believe AMD, as much as 24 percent faster in one performance test, 40 percent in performance per watt and (naturally) a better deal for the money than Intel's Xeon. Whether that's true or just marketing bluster, there's a wide spread of chips that range from a quad-core, 3.5GHz example to a 16-core, 2.8GHz beast for massively parallel tasks. Cray, Dell, HP and others plan to boost their servers before long, although the surest proof of the 6300's success from our perspective may be that everything in the bacrkoom runs just as smoothly as it did yesterday.

[Source: Engadget - Click here to read more]

Panasonic launches tweaked AG-AF105A MFT pro camcorder with 10-bit HD video

Panasonic has just launched the AG-AF105A pro camcorder, an updated version of the AG-AF105 model, and for lovers of fine color gamut, there's good news. You can now output 10-bit HD video through the live view SDI port to an external recorder, boosting the color range to a billion hues and 1024 shades of grey. That addresses one of the main gripes with the previous $6k, 8-bit camcorder: it had to live in a world of Red Scarlets and Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera MFTs, which already have deep color. The revised model also brings a new PS recording mode with 25Mbps data rate, full HD progressive modes (1080/60p, 1080/50p), higher fidelity 16 bit LPCM audio and enlarged focus assist. It'll hit shelves on November 15th in Japan (there's no mention of an international date yet) with pricing up to the dealer, so sharpen up those haggling skills if you want one.

[Source: Engadget]

Skype launches prepaid cards in UK: Available in over 1,400 stores, credit starts from £10

Skype has unveiled a series of prepaid cards for the UK, offering users without a credit card the ability to top-up their accounts starting from £10. A second £20 card will also be available in UK retailers including Asda, Currys, PC World, Sainsburys and bookseller WHSmith, with both denominations redeemable globally through the Microsoft company's online portal. While Mexico got there first, we've been told that more countries can expect their own currency-specific cards later this year. You'll be able to use the prepaid credit to pay for Skype subscriptions, including unlimited world calling bundles starting from £8.49 per month -- all in time for that incoming Windows Phone 8 app.

[Source: Engadget]

iPad Mini Display Under The Microscope: Not As Good As iPad 4th Gen, But Much Better Than iPad 2

The iPad mini may have a display that’s being singled out in most reviews as being below Apple’s recent standards, but a look under the microscope by Repair Labs affirms what I’ve been noticing in person: while the mini definitely doesn’t offer the same kind of quality as an iPad with Retina Display (3rd or 4th gen), its screen is a big step up from the 2nd-generation iPad. In fact, the iPad mini’s individual pixels are only two-thirds the size of those on the 4th-generation iPad, where the iPad 2′s pixels are approximately half the size of those in the latest model.

So what’s the upshot for users? Repair Labs says that the pixels of the 4th-gen iPad are 16 percent larger relative to the iPad mini than the iPad 2, making the difference between the two screens less noticeable, and in fact, “to the naked eye, it’s negligible,” the gadget repair site says. While I can personally attest to the fact that it takes some adjusting to go back to a non-Retina mini from a Retina iPad or even a Retina MacBook Pro, I definitely agree that it’s a lot better than jumping all the way back to an iPad 2. And over time, going between the mini and the latest full-sized iPad only gets easier.

[Source: TechCrunch - Click here to read more]

Microsoft explains the origins of Windows Phone 8's home and lock screens

We've delved into just what we think of Windows Phone 8's interface, but not what led Microsoft to the final layout. The company isn't content to let us wonder -- a pair of new company blog posts explain some (though not all) of what was involved in that birthing process. Ignore the marketing spin and you'll learn that the wider, more densely packed home screen was chosen as much for balance as to stuff in more home tiles, and that it caused a momentary crisis for the app list as a result. The Redmond team goes on to justify choices behind the lock screen, such as why notifications are as customizable as they are, why the music controls fade and why there's a failsafe for PIN attempts. Don't expect to come out of the explanations suddenly craving a Lumia 920; just expect to make more sense of the OS inside.

[Source: Engadget]

Bell gearing up for November 15th HTC 8X release

Windows Phone fans in the Great White North shouldn't have to wait long to get their hands on HTC's latest piece of kit -- a internal Bell document obtained by MobileSyrup pegs the 8X for a November 15th launch. The reported Canadian launch date trails T-Mobile's availability by a mere day, noting that pre-ordered devices could ship out as early as November 9th. Not too surprising, considering the phone just skipped through the FCC with support for the entire north American continent. No word on pricing, but the page's listed specs nicely match the brightly colored 4.3-inch, 1.5GHz dual-core slab we reviewed. Not a Bell customer? Don't worry -- MobileSyrup is hearing murmurs that the same date applies to Rogers, as well.

[Source: Engadget]

Microsoft posts Build 2012 session videos for eager Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 coders

Not every developer had the luxury of putting a flight to Redmond on the corporate tab so that they could attend Microsoft's Build 2012 conference in person. Much to their delight, they won't have to. The company has posted streaming video for every session addressing Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and beyond, ranging from the two keynotes through to nuts-and-bolts framework talks. Be warned: most programmers will want to know Visual Studio and similar tools like the back of their hand before tackling some of these sessions. If they emerge unscathed, though, they'll be well-equipped to live in Microsoft's Windows Store world.

[Source: Engadget]

iPad minis sell out at 5th Ave Apple Store, moderate lines elsewhere

Unfazed by the still-lingering effects of Hurricane Sandy, near-record crowds descended upon the flagship Fifth Avenue Apple Store in Manhattan today, snapping up all of the white iPad minis on hand by 11:15 AM EDT and the last of the black models by 12:10 PM.

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White reported that all three models of the white iPad mini were gone in just over an hour, with the 16 GB and 64 GB white minis selling out in about 30 minutes. For the black models, 16 and 32 GB versions sold out by by 11:40 AM, with the last of the 64 GB iPad minis heading out the door at about 12:10 PM.

[Source: TUAW - Click here to read more]