Daniel Ionescu

Nexus One Price Drops for Some T-Mobile Upgrades
Google and T-Mobile have changed the Nexus One pricing policy, slashing $100 off the price of the handset for certain existing customers. Eligible upgraders should now be able to get the Nexus One for $279 instead of $379, and Google will give refunds to those who paid the old price.

iPhone 4G Rumors Heat Up
It’s been less than a year since the iPhone 3GS launched, and the rumor mill is already churning out speculation about an upcoming iPhone 4G, expected as early as May.

Google Nexus One’s First Week of Sales Were Weak
Report: Poor First Week Sales for Google Nexus OneBig hype didn’t equal big sales for Google’s Nexus One. According to reports only 20,000 Google Nexus One phones were sold in its first week of sales, according to sales estimates from market research firm Flurry. In comparison to its Android sibling the numbers are 12 times lower than for the Motorola Droid and 80 times lower than for the iPhone 3GS.

Netflix Streaming Coming to the Wii
Nintendo Wii users will be able to stream Netflix movies and TV episodes on their consoles, Netflix announced on Wednesday. The feature will be enabled this spring, at no additional charge for Netflix subscribers.

Windows Mobile 7 Delayed Until 2011?
Google’s Android mobile operating system is stealing the spotlight from Windows Mobile 7, so much so that reports say Microsoft’s latest OS is delayed (again) due to Google’s success.

Google Nexus One Loses to iPhone In Touchscreen Accuracy Tests
The Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, and the iPhone have been put to the test to find out which smartphone has a better touchscreen. But despite overall more capable hardware, the iPhone still has a better display, it has been revealed in a recent test.

This year has started in force, with a great bunch of posts for PC World, some more controversial than others. Here’s a recap of the first ten days of 2010 (newest at the top).

Google Nexus Two Phone to Focus on Business
The Nexus One smartphone might be a delight for consumers, but Google plans to approach the business-minded customers as well in a future iteration of the product, says Google’s Andy Rubin, quoted by Reuters.

The new Pre Plus (left) and Pixi Plus (right) from Palm.

Palm On the Right Path With Pre Plus, Pixi Plus
Competition in the smartphone market continues to heat up, with Google’s Nexus One ready to take on Apple’s iPhone. But Palm is not sitting idly by. At the Consumer Electronics Show this week, Palm announced upgraded versions of its Pre and Pixi smartphones, and announced that its devices would be coming to more carriers.

Apple Puts Lala Music Service to Work
Apple has put to use its acquisition of the Lala service from late last year, now allowing 30-second song previews in the Web-based version of the iTunes Charts. The quietly-launched feature completes the experience of the iTunes Web preview, initially launched in November 2009.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer introducing the HP tablet with Windows 7.

Why the Microsoft-HP Tablet Is a Big Disappointment
Apple must be patting themselves on the back, as the Hewlett-Packard (HP) tablet unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Wednesday night failed to wow those expecting a true competitor to the mythical Apple tablet.

Microsoft Tablet to Beat Apple to the Punch?
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is ready to introduce on Wednesday night a slate form-factor computer to rival the yet-unannounced Apple Tablet, according to reports. It’s not the first time Microsoft has delved into tablets, but the Redmond company hopes it will be luckier the second time running.

Why the Nexus One Makes Other Android Phones Obsolete
The Google Nexus One, unveiled on Tuesday, has all the bells and whistles to challenge Apple’s ever-popular iPhone — thanks in large part to the slick new version of the Android OS that it runs. But if you use an earlier Google Android phone, don’t hold your breath waiting for the latest version of Android to make its way to your handset. It will likely be a while before you get to taste the entire Nexus bonanza.

An Affordable $199 Tablet for Everyone — And It’s Not From Apple
Just as the rumors of a pricey Apple tablet computer have reached a high-water mark, Freescale Semiconductor on Monday showcased reference designs of an affordable, lightweight tablet computer, set to hit the market later this year.

The week in tech with my posts in the Today@PC World section:

YouTube Goes High Definition with 1080p Videos
YouTube says it will start supporting 1080p high-definition video in full resolution starting next week. The Google-owned video-sharing site will add support for viewing videos in 720p or 1080p resolutions, depending on the resolution of the original source.

Microsoft Bans Up to One Million Users From Xbox Live
Microsoft has banned as many as one million users who hacked their Xbox 360 consoles to play pirated games from the company’s Xbox Live service in a bid to counter piracy. The move triggered an avalanche of cheap “chipped” Xbox 360 consoles for sale on Craigslist and a public outcry from users is expected.

Samsung Intros Bada Mobile OS: Do We Need It?
Samsung today introduced Bada, which the company calls a mobile platform for a new breed of its smartphones. But is there really a need for yet another mobile OS, next to the likes of Apple, Microsoft, or Google?

Not anymore: a Hackintosh Dell Mini from Gizmodo.

Apple’s Snow Leopard Update Zaps Bugs, Kills Hackintosh Netbooks
On Monday Apple released an update to its Snow Leopard operating system (10.6.2 ) that fixes flaws, including one that wipes out a users’ personal data. But along with fixes, Apple’s update also kills support for Intel Atom processors, in a bid to stop users from hacking their netbooks and creating “hackintosh” systems.

iPhone ‘Rickroll’ Worm Is No Threat To Most Users
The first worm to infect the iPhone will not affect most users of Apple’s smartphone, despite worrying reports. The ikee worm only affects jailbroken iPhones, representing a minority percentage of iPhones on the market.

Verizon’s Motorola Droid kept on making headlines this week, but Apple might just have found a way to maintain the iPhone’s lead. Here are my stories this week on Today@PCWorld:

iPhone as an eBook Reader Threatens Kindle, Says Report
Apple’s iPhone is quickly becoming the ebook reader of choice for many, and could steal market share from Amazon’s Kindle, according to a report from market research firm Flurry.

Best Buy, CinemaNow Partner on Movie Download Service
Best Buy will partner with Sonic Solutions’ Roxio CinemaNow to offer a movie download service that will pipe movies to a range of electronic gear from televisions, DVD players, computers and phones sold at the retail giant’s stores. The move is seen as a sign of the times for the leading retail seller of DVD movies, Best Buy, who is seeing its retail sales of DVD discs shrink as more people opt to rent movies via digital distribution.

Beatles Due Soon on USB — But Not From Apple
EMI will release next month a collection of remastered Beatles albums on a special edition USB drive, to the joy of fans and geeks alike. The apple-shaped 16GB USB drive will be loaded with the remastered audio tracks from the Beatles’ 14 albums, and will set you back a cool $330 (£200).

Motorola Droid Steals BlackBerry’s Limelight
Motorola’s upcoming Droid smartphone is grabbing plenty of attention — so much attention, in fact, that news of two new BlackBerry devices is getting lost in the shuffle. In recent weeks, Research In Motion announced two new smartphones, the revamped BlackBerry Storm 2, and the Bold 9700. Both are impressive phones in their own right, but neither is garnering the buzz that surrounds the Motorola Droid.

A $99 8GB iPhone 3GS to Kill the Motorola Droid?
AT&T and Apple are preparing a cheaper iPhone 3GS just in time for the holidays to distract from the popularity of the Motorola Droid, according to sources quoted by a BoyGenius report. A cheaper version of the iPhone 3GS would come with only 8GB of storage and $100 off the original price tag, replacing the current $99 8GB iPhone 3G.

Is Motorola back in the game? Looking at the upcoming Droid smartphone (above), one might say it is. I’m just not convinced whether it is really the Droid creating all the hype or the 2.0 version of the Google Android mobile operating system powering it. Best wishes go to Research In Motion, whose BlackBerry Storm 2 launch got overshadowed this week by the Droid — here are my PC World posts for this week.

Palm Lost the iTunes Sync Battle (Again)
The release of the iTunes 9.0.2 update on Thursday yet again disables Palm’s workaround to sync with Apple’s popular jukebox software. Perhaps it’s high time Palm moved on and created its own software.

Twitter Warns of New Phishing Scam
Twitter is warning users of a new phishing scam spreading through direct messages on the network, which redirect users to a fake log-in page to steal their passwords.

Apple Set to Pass 100K Available iPhone Apps Milestone
Apple has approved more than 100,000 applications in its App Store, according to latest figures from App Shopper, an industry tracking firm. That number of approved apps dwarfs the number of apps offered by mobile app store competitors Android Marketplace, Windows Mobile Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, and Nokia’s Ovi Store. Apple’s next closest competitor, Google’s Android Marketplace, offers a relative pittance of 10,000 mobile apps. BlackBerry App World hosts 3040 apps.

Verizon Unveils Motorola’s Droid, Sets High Hopes For Android
Verizon will start selling the Motorola Droid, its first Google Android handset, on November 6, the carrier announced on Wednesday. The Motorola Droid will cost $200 with a two-year contract with Verizon, after a $100 mail-in rebate. The Motorola Droid sets high hopes for the future of the Google Android OS, and features powerful hardware: 3.7-inch high-resolution capacitive touchscreen display, 5-megapixel camera, and WiFi and Bluetooth, among other features.

BlackBerry Storm 2 Arrives
Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Storm 2, the long-anticipated follow-up to the original BlackBerry Storm, will arrive on Verizon’s network tomorrow. The Storm 2 will go on sale on Wednesday, October 28 for $280 when you sign a two-year service contract with Verizon Wireless. Verizon is offering a $100 mail-in rebate, which knocks the price down to $180, but that rebate comes in the form of a Visa debit card, not an actual check.

Netflix Movie Streaming Comes To PlayStation 3
Starting November, you will be able to stream Netflix movies and TV shows on to your PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console. The deal, announced on Monday, will put Sony’s console in line with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which had this functionality for over a year now.

The Evolution of the MP3 Player
My special slideshow this week, featuring the new PCW slides layout, which is pretty cool. Portable digital music players have evolved through the years, from hulking $800 devices to tiny $60 iPod Shuffles. Here’s a look at how MP3 players have changed over the past decade.

Quite a few big announcements this week, such as the Nook e-reader, new Macs, a cool Google Android phone from Motorola and Windows 7 launch jazz. Here are my articles from the Today@PCWorld section this week.

Shot from Apple's new 'PC News' ad, mocking the switch to Windows 7.

Apple slams Windows 7 in ads
Not only Microsoft is celebrating the launch of Windows 7 with some new ads, but Apple is also taking a stab at the introduction of the new OS, in its usual deprecating manner.

Windows 7: what the reviews say
Microsoft unleashed Windows 7 to the masses on Thursday, and momentum for the new operating system has even put it ahead of Harry Potter pre-orders on Amazon UK this week, set to break retail records.

Google to launch ‘Google Audio’ music service and phone
Is Google gunning to become the next Apple? Google is reportedly set to unveil its own music service and is also working with a smartphone manufacturer on an own-brand Android phone.

Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader pricing and specs leaked
The dual screen (e-ink + capacitive touchscreen) reader from Barnes and Noble that runs on Android and can lend books for up to two weeks.

Can Verizon’s Motorola ‘Droid’ live up to the hype?
Verizon cranked up its hype machine, preparing the launch of the Droid, Motorola’s Android-powered competitor to the iPhone. But will it be good enough to trump the iPhone?

Apologies for not updating my blog in a couple of months. It has been a very busy time, and among the highlights I need to note The Linc’s nomination for the best student website at the Guardian Student Media Awards 09.

I have been also continuing my work over at PC World, but I’m going to spare you a 40+ articles list accumulated over the weeks and below I listed only my posts for this week:

• ‘Free’ iPhone Apps May Now Come with a Price
• An iPhone With FM Radio? Yes, Please!
• Apple Working On Fix for Snow Leopard Bug
• Microsoft Red-Faced After Massive Sidekick Data Loss

As I won’t have the time to update this blog daily with my PCW posts, I will have a digest of my articles every weekend.

Twitter gets even better with the introduction of a new opt-in geolocation feature that will allow you to identify where you are tweeting from. Attaching your location to a tweet is nothing new to smartphone owners, but having the location-aware feature baked into Twitter opens the floodgates to hosts of cool new Twitter tricks.

Twitters geolocation feature works by embedding geographic metadata to tweets. Developers get to play around with this feature first, and presumably geolaction will follow for average Twitter users.

I have some reservations to the service I’ve outlined here. But I like to keep an open mind and in doing so offer some potential cool uses of Twitter’s geolocation feature.

Twitter’s upcoming geolocation feature is a nifty idea — but mainly in theory. A quick look at the applications of Twitter geolocation could give those close to you, and not only those people, some ideas of taking advantage of the service to your detriment.

Soon arriving at a Twitter client near you (and online), Twitter geolocation can attach information about your current location to each tweet you send to the world. Whether you are out and about or just at home, the whole Twitter community can see your approximate position.

Twitter geolocation, though, is not the first service of its kind. Google’s Latitude works in a similar way as well. However, when Twitter geolocation is launched, the feature will be disabled by default. So here are three reasons why I won’t press the “enable” button.v

A majority of college-bound students gearing up for school will not consider buying a Mac laptop, a study reveals. Instead, students are gravitating toward affordable netbooks from a variety of manufacturers, according to Retrevo, a consumer electronics website, that conducted the study.

Retrevo says Macs are at the bottom of student wish lists this year. While 49 percent of students will buy full-sized Windows laptops, 34 percent will purchase netbooks. Bringing up the rear is Mac with only 17 percent of students saying they intend to buy one, the study shows. [Read article]

Research In Motion is set to bring full Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight support to the company’s BlackBerry phones. The BoyGenius Report blog claims RIM will introduce the new functionality sometime next summer, together with more powerful handsets.

The BlackBerry Web browser is not particularly famous for its capability to display pages properly, but RIM is working on a major overhaul of the software. The crown jewel of the new BlackBerry browser though, would be full Flash and Silverlight support, according to the BoyGenius report. [Read article]

An Apple tablet concept, as envisioned by Chris Messina (CC)

What’s better than a rumor about one Apple tablet? A rumor about two. That’s right: not one, but two Apple tablets could come either this year or early next year. Market researcher Richard Doherty told BusinessWeek that Apple has developed two tablet computers prototypes: a 6-inch oversized-iPod version and another with a bigger display.

According to Doherty, the 6-inch Apple tablet, which we have been hearing about for the past month, will be aimed mainly at watching videos, playing games, and reading e-books. The second model will have a larger screen and will be able to run all Mac applications, including audio/video editing and graphic animation, he said. [Read article]

TomTom released Monday its turn-by-turn navigation application for iPhone. The app costs $100 and uses the iPhone’s built-in GPS chip to provide users with real-time navigation directions.

The iPhone TomTom software offers most of the features found on stand-alone devices from the company. The iPhone app features both landscape and portrait views, points of interest, 3D and 2D maps, and night/day views. [Read article]

Micro-blogging service Twitter says it is working on a new tool to help you “retweet.” Retweeting is jargon for re-posting something posted (or tweeted) by another user. Retweeting typically gives credit to the original poster. In offering this feature Twitter is just playing catch-up to what 3rd party apps already do.

Reposting or retweeting a mesage you like on Twitter.com can only be done via cutting and pasting the tweet and then adding attribution (such as RT: @username) at the beginning or the end of the post. But now Twitter is working on a new method to repost tweets on its online interface that will show in your friend’s timeline only the original message you retweeted. [Read article]

Apple’s upcoming operating system, Mac OSX Snow Leopard, could arrive earlier than the expected September launch date. Multiple sources are reporting that Snow Leopard has now been designated “Gold Master” status, which means the OS is ready to ship to users. [Read article]

We are just over a month away from the launch of Microsoft’s contender to the iPod Touch, the Zune HD. Microsoft has put all its creative forces behind the upcoming Zune HD portable media player, and by the looks of it, the iPod Touch is up for some serious competition.

From April onwards, we have seen plenty of leaked information about the Zune HD, from marketing pictures to specifications, pricing and availability. So there is enough info out there to make a healthy comparison between the Apple iPod Touch and its upcoming rival, the Zune HD. [Continue reading]

The chart puts head-to-head some of the concrete information we have on the Zune HD so far and the latest (2nd generation) Apple iPod Touch.

Microsoft is expected to launch a mobile version of its Office suite software for select Nokia phones today, a person with knowledge of the agreement told The New York Times.

Microsoft and Nokia have been cryptic about their announcement due later today, but it appears both firms are taking a steps to face emerging competition from free Web-based solutions from Google.

UPDATE: Indeed, Nokia and Microsoft partnered to “deliver a groundbreaking, enterprise-grade solution for mobile productivity,” the two companies announced earlier today in a press release. [Read article]

Merely hours after acquiring FriendFeed, Facebook is now rolling out an improved real-time search product for all of the social network’s users. The new Facebook search will deliver results from your friends’ status updates, photos, link and videos.

Facebook has been testing its improved search enginesince June on a limited number of users. And as of today, real-time search is available to all of the social network’s 250+ million users, the company announced on its blog. [Read article]

Motorola’s upcoming Android phones | Left: The elegant Moto Sholes for Verizon from MotoFan.ru; Right: Moto Morrison for T-Mobile from Mini-Suit.

Motorola’s not messing around with its debut of two Android smartphones expected to launch this fall. The phones, code name Morrison and a the second Sholes, pack some serious specifications, according to reports at the site Android and Me. If these specs are the real deal Apple’s iPhone may have some serious competition.

We have been hearing about Motorola’s plans to launch two Android phones this year for a while now. First, pictures of the Motorola Morrison showed up on speciality blogs and shortly after, a sleeker-looking Motorola Sholes teased our imagination.

Here’s what to expect from Motorola’s first two Google Android phones:

After throwing your laptop, charger, and spare battery into your travel bag as you head out the door, suddenly you don’t feel so mobile anymore. One solution is to rely more on your iPhone for basic business tasks, such as grabbing data from your company’s computer systems, managing a Web site, and even viewing, editing, and storing Word and Excel files.

For road warriors, the iPhone isn’t just about games–it can be a powerful business tool. With Apple’s release of the iPhone 3GS, the handset gains better security and improved real-time e-mail delivery, both appealing features for business users and their companies’ IT departments.

Need to keep track of invoices, manage your eBay storefront, or log your mileage? “Yep, there’s an app for that!” After consulting with mobile business experts, we collected the best business apps that the iPhone has to offer.

Who knows–maybe on your next business trip you’ll be able to leave that hulking ultraportable laptop behind.

[Check out the top 10 essential business apps for iPhone]