What does this mean for the future of Beats headphones? And will this news give competing products such as Soul by Ludacris or SMS Audio (By 50 Cent) an edge in the market? Time will tell. Below is an excerpt of the original article from The Verge

Sources told Business Week that the split happened because of a disagreement over (what else?) money and credit, with each company believing it deserved more of both.

Monster, for its part, is going to move ahead and attempt to (re)build a headphone empire based on the Monster brand. That’s the short term plan. The long term plan isn’t clear but one fairly obvious move would be to merge with or buy out SOL Republic, a headphone company founded by Kevin Lee who happens to be son of Monster founder Noel Lee. Lee the younger, despite running his competing headphone brand, has said that he would be “honored’ to take over the leading role of Monster someday, adding “Cut me open, I’m a monster and will always be a monster.” Given Monster’s mixed brand image (especially amongst anybody who know about cables), a partnership with SOL Republic would make a lot of sense.

Beats also has a murky future. The company will surely continue to license its brand out, but who will make headphones is unclear. It just so happens to be majority owned by HTC and HTC just so happens to be a manufacturer of consumer electronics. Even if HTC and Beats don’t decide to go down that road, you can be sure that given the amount of money and marketshare that Beats has managed to snatch up, they’ll find a way to ensure that there are many many more Beats-branded headphones to come.

Who could Beats By Dre possibly partner with next?

The only downside here seems to be the hefty price tag, which starts at $299 for the entry level model Street by 50, and $399 for the more spec heavy one Sync by 50. Check out the video.

Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died, Apple said. Jobs was 56.

“We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” read a statement by Apple’s board of directors. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.”

In 2004, he beat back an unusual form of pancreatic cancer, and in 2009 he was forced to get a liver transplant. After several years of failing health, Jobs announced on Aug. 24, 2011 that he was stepping down as Apple’s chief executive.

“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know,” Jobs wrote in his letter of resignation. “Unfortunately, that day has come.”

One of the great minds of this time. Jobs truly revolutionized consumer technology as we know it. He will be missed.

source: abcnews.go.com

“The marriage of these two companies is very, very good. We are very good for each other,” says Jimmy Iovine, the chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records and co-founder of Beats By Dr. Dre with rapper/producer Dr. Dre. “With HTC’s innovation, technology and leadership, we feel we can really compete with anybody in this area.”

Meanwhile I’m still killing to get my hands on a pair of Beats for myself, either that or I’ll wait to see how Sleek by 50 turns out.

On May 4, 2011, Virgin Galactic (a branch of Virgin Group Limited) successfully launched and landed it’s own spaceship. The difference between this and what we often see from NASA is this vehicle is designed to take the average citizen into space and return them safely to earth… as long as they can afford the ticket.

According virginatlantic.com to the craft is 60′ long and has oversized windows for passengers to view space. It’s made of light weight materials that allow for increased maneuverability and load capacity. Named Spaceship 2 (aka VSS Enterprise), the most notable feature of the craft is its re-entry process. As the craft moves from space to the dense atmosphere of earth, portions of the ships wings begin to move upward and give the plane a folded shape. In this configuration, the rocket begins to float, very quickly, through the atmosphere, like a small feather falling to the ground. Virgin has dubbed this process feathered flight. An example of the VSS Enterprise in action during its first take off, re-entry, can be seen below.

Christine Easterfield and her husband Mark, paid $200,000 each for seats on a future VSS flight. She told Time magazine, “What’s great about Virgin is it’s not the classic astronaut in a space suit. The point is to make it simple so regular people can go into space.”

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Source via K!dult

Checkout the video below of the Galactic use:

It’s on to the next one for the co-founders of social networking giant Twitter. After building Twitter into a multi-billion dollar entity the three key developers — Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Jason Goldman — are leaving to launch a new venture.

“Our plan is to develop new projects and work on solving big problems aligned along a simple mission statement: The Obvious Corporation develops systems that help people work together to improve the world,” Stone wrote yesterday in his blog announcing their plans.

This is not the first time there has been a shake-up at the top of Twitter as execs decided to leave their daily duties at the company to explore different business opportunities. Last October Williams left his position as CEO to focus on product development. COO Dick Costolo took over for Williams.

After leaving the company to launch the start-up, Square, Jack Dorsey returned to help out in product development.

Stone, who is the most recognized member of the co-founders, is confident that the company will continue to grow despite their daily involvement.

“The Twitter crew and its leadership team have grown incredibly productive,” Stone wrote Tuesday in his blog post. “I’ve decided that the most effective use of my time is to get out of the way until I’m called upon to be of some specific use.”

Now the trio are putting their heads together for a new project that they have yet to offer details on.

“All three of us remain involved with Twitter and we are deeply invested in the company’s long term success,” the trio wrote on their website, at Obvious.com

Source via K!dult

“As reported, the license arrangement between my company, G-Unit, and Sleek Audio to produce headphones branded as ‘Sleek by 50? has been cancelled. Instead, I have established a new company that is developing a complete line of audio accessories, including wireless headphones, offering superior sound quality along with cutting edge technology for all music lovers to enjoy. As an artist, I am committed to bringing top-of-the-line audio products to my fans, and I am excited that I have the resources to achieve just that with this new venture.”

It’s a good look for 50 Cent to instead establish his own line of audio products. But at the same time it’s kind of a disadvantage that they spent so long marketing the Sleek by 50 product that is now never coming out. Either way I’m sure thinks will work out for both companies involved.

RR | AHH

Thinking back in the last couple of years of the Smartphone popularity contest you’d only pick two brands: BlackBerry or Apple iPhone. Any outside ‘imitation’ could not be taken seriously. Until you realize just how crap some of the phones BlackBerry provided (I’m looking at you STORM) and that the iPhone gets boring every once awhile, for Google/android to butt in with their design of the first Google ‘Nexus’, people turned their heads and question just how good every other brand company can really get with their Smartphones. This sort of paved the way for HTC make to arrive and deal their damage, establishing the use of Android Smartphones as a tough competitor against the two big names.

So whilst I still happily boast holding onto my iPhone 4, as well as many…MANY people, its strict laws may baffle and irritate some. Which is where Google Nexus S enters…

A Samsung-made phone, 4in screen and a lot faster than its original, this phone is pretty mighty. Thanks to the graphics hummingbird chip that is built into Samsung’s 1GHz processor, this phone provides lag-free accessibility, making any sorts of feature a smooth ride to view and enjoy. 5MP camera and a display which is bigger and brighter than the iPhone 4′s, photos come out nicely (though a negative is that iPhone’s insanely-sharp resolution defies the Nexus, and with a video recording of 720×480 pixels, NOT HD, the frustration of Google’s inability to capture quick-crispy clips still fails over Apple’s).

The bonus of this phone is that it works like a personal card of wonders; the Google Nexus S is the first smartphone to feature a near-field communication. This means it can read RFID (Radio-frequency identification) tags, thus also can be used as a cashless wallet and/or a travelcard. This is all once NFC (Near field communication) apps become available. Buying a packet of crisps could never feel easier.

A huge frustration again would be its storage capacity, though 16GB storage provided, it is once again split like every other Android phone unfortunately does to you, leaving you with just 1GB of storage for apps to download. But still this phone is probably the most fanciest and most powerful Android phone you will see right now – slim and well balanced, despite its plastic-like features, this is secretly a tiger of a phone ready to pounce at the lion of the iPhone. Is it better than the iPhone though? Possibly. Definitely more powerful, cheaper and nicer looking, capable to just punch blows to Apple’s reign at the top. The iPhone however has its mighty App Store, a decent battery life and an interface which is very hard to beat.

It’s eventually a tough choice to make if you’re starting to get into the smartphone world. Though always broaden your choices and never be too narrow-minded, this phone is worth a try being it Androids newest and best attempt to convert the public to join them.

How Epic Is This Gadget?: As epic as achieving a smooth double backflip whilst snowboarding.

Price: £430/$529
Alternatives: Apple iPhone 4 – huge App Store makes this product still a forefront by a considerable amount, with also a hi-res screen and HD recording (£510/$550) OR HTC Desire HD – HTC’s flagship Android phone which despite runs on 2.2 (Nexus S runs 2.3) shoots HD videos plus provides an expandable microSD for storage to its already 1.5GB internal (£470/$530)

Whilst I can boast holding a masterpiece DSLR camera myself (Nikon D5000 w/ 18-55mm lens), there’s no denying that Canon were born to make cameras more superior than anything out there, simply put the EOS 550D is a beast of a machine. Showing off 18 megapixels, with HD video recording of 1080p at 30fps this camera is likely to be the most perfect if you are looking to take DSLR shooting for a long time.

Regards to photos taken, the shots could never be sharper with the colours practically grabbing you into the image itself. One minor blow towards taking pictures with this is you may need to invest into a high-capacity SD card if taking photos on unprocessed RAW file formats – twenty-five shots of those files will take up atleast 1GB of your space. Otherwise just like the Nikon, taking pictures in its JPEG format will come out impressively clear and beautiful. Also just like the Nikon, Canon comes with a variety of additional lenses to test out with, and whilst the 18-55mm lens is a good place to start, the Canon EOS 550D can also be bought with its much more impressive 18-135mm lens (which online will be priced £800) which will extend the range of your shots more significantly.

Video wise you can’t really complain – 1080p is practically Hollywood-crisp. It can be recorded in either 24, 25 or 30fps, or switch it to a lower 720p resolution and you can record at 50fps instead. In that case however video clips will take a chunk out of your SD card again, being capped at 4GB. What makes it more nifty is its HDMI connectivity feature which allows you to plug your camera straight onto any HDTV to playback any footage’s recorded. There is also the optional ‘movie crop’, which allows you to record VGA movies with an impressive optical zoom of 7x. In Canon’s own words: “Movie crop uses only the centre part of the sensor and allows long distance shooting without having to change lenses.” It also has a mic port too, which is always fun.

So before I say this is one perfect yet possibly over-powerful camera you could ever grasp your hands onto, there are the few minor cons to the camera. It’s 3in screen is insanely impressive and sharp with its million-strong pixel count, but due to its lazy auto-focus you are likely to be taking photos through the viewfinder more than you are to view, admire and cry with joy taking photos through the screen itself. Also to many it may feel plastic when holding on to it, but for a DSLR its surprisingly light and proves to be nicely balanced when it comes to weight and chunkiness, making the Canon EOS 550D generally a comfortable product in your hands.

So with that said, the Canon EOS 550D IS one perfect DSLR camera to own, yet in some cases could prove pricey in other areas other than itself, making it possibly an overly-powerful camera to actually own unless you are dedicated enough to tame it along with your talents (or incredibily rich). I love it, it is an absolute monster of a camera which for beginners will suit perfectly.

How Epic Is This Gadget?: As epic as watching Gemma Arterton jiggle in an Earthquake.

Price: £570/$650 (Body Only)
Alternatives: Nikon D5000 – amazing + additional low-light shots with HD video and more affordable (£400/$630 Body Only) OR Sony A55 – auto focus with stereo sound in video mode, small and skilled (£575/$700 Body Only).

Amazon is aiming to get its foot in the door in the digital subscription service game.

According to the Associated Press, the Seattle-based Internet giant is talking with major media companies about offering unlimited views of older TV shows and movies online. The talks are at an early stage and focus on offering TV shows and movies that have already been available on home video.

The plan would be to link the service to its Amazon Prime membership, a $79 per year plan that gives customers discounted shipping costs, and would compete with Apple’s iTunes and Netflix.

Apple has also been talking with several media companies and is nearing a deal to offer recently aired TV shows from ABC and Fox for 99 cents. The shows could be downloaded but would expire 48 hours after purchase.

Source via K!dult

Sounds kinda…pointless in all honesty. Amazon are already giants, but it sounds like a similar route as to what Blockbusters took when they tried new things that was not needed, only to now provide a subscription of renting out games and movies, which is what they should have done from the start. Still, I might be wrong and that people are getting a great and competitive deal out of this. All in all, this does not seem to affect the UK too much.

Let us know what you think in the comments below…

This brings me to the first downside of Ping. Sure the iTunes store has become one of the main platforms for music lovers to purchase their music digitally, but there are many out there who have iTunes libraries full of music that was not purchased through the iTunes store. It’s just a shame that there is no way for you to showcase or display the music in your library that was obtained outside of the iTunes store. Of course many people obtain their music illegally any way, but I am sure there wouldn’t be any way to expose or penalize those illegal downloader’s.

The interface of Ping is very clean, ensuring that it’s easy to use. Those who are used to using the iTunes store will feel at home using Ping, it is every bit as accessible as the store. Upon signing up/into Ping for the first time you will be asked to complete your profile; which is basically uploading a picture and filling in an “About Me” text box. After that you will be presented with a selection of featured music artists, which you then have the option to follow. I’m not sure if Ping uses some kind of logic to tell which artists you like, but as soon as I signed up 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo we’re right there, and I got the feeling that Ping was suggesting them for me based on the music I have purchased previously through the iTunes store.

As Ping is fairly new, there isn’t that much activity going on right now but I am sure the whole experience will be just as live as Twitter and Facebook soon enough. Because Ping is all about the music I see much more point to it than certain other social networks, so I feel that once it catches on it will be a very interesting experience. Whilst browsing Ping to get a feel of what it’s all about, I saw an update from Lloyd Banks telling the fans to check out his new leaked single “See Me Bright”. You are able to leave comments on these updates, so I left one responding to another fan who asked when Lloyd Bank’s album would be released.

The whole thing works very quickly with hardly any loading at all, leaving me impressed. I can definitely see the artist interaction with Ping being the entity that brings more people over to the network. Artists will naturally jump on board with Ping because of iTunes being a top platform for buying music, meaning they can literally point the fans in the direction of where to buy their music and get a sale within two clicks.

I tip my hat to Apple for trying to do something more social with iTunes, because they have millions of users so it definitely made sense to give them something more to do than just buying music. Also Ping should prove as a good marketing tool for artists, as they can directly interact with the fans buying their music, and because the store is already integrated within the interface I am sure artist interactions will boost their own sales in a big way.

Overall I have to say that Ping is a great idea on Apple’s behalf, and they should have done this sooner. I can definitely see it catching on real quick as Apple is already a huge brand. I can see people interacting with the Ping social network whether it’s on their iPhone, iPod, Mac or PC. If you are an active iTunes user then I suggest you get involved as soon as possible, because the platform is sure to grow at a rapid rate. Also the fact that there is a feature to sign in with your Facebook account ensures involvement from a wide range of people, whether they buy music through iTunes or not.

According to a NASA release, data about a sun-like star, Kepler-9, taken from the Kepler spacecraft has reveled transit signatures of 2 planets. The planets have been called Kepler-9b and 9c.

Planets are so far away from Earth that scientists cannot simply look into a telescope and see 1 directly. 1 way that scientists can find planets is through the action of transiting. When a planet passes in front of a star — or transits — it causes the light from the star to dim. Scientists measure these dips in light, and the frequency of these dips, to determine the mass of the planet and how far away it is from its Sun.

“Using transit-timing variations, astronomers have a new tool for confirming some planetary systems much more efficiently than before,” University of Florida astronomer Eric Ford, a member of the team reporting the results, told the Christian Monitor.

Kepler uses a precise camera to measure these dips. Data collected from the first 43 days identified over 700 possible planets, according to the NASA release.

“Kepler’s high quality data and round-the-clock coverage of transiting objects enable a whole host of unique measurements to be made of the parent stars and their planetary systems,” Doug Hudgins, the Kepler program scientist, said in the NASA release.

The mass of the 2 planets can be determined from Kepler’s data, but scientist have also improved on the measurement by using observations from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Both of the planets are determined to have similar masses, with Kepler-9b being the bigger of the 2. Kepler-9b is closer to the star, so it orbits their Sun much faster than Kepler-9c. Kepler-9b’s orbit takes about 19 days, while Kepler-9c’s takes 38.

A 3rd planet, 1.5 times the size of Earth, may also be orbiting Kepler-9.

Source via K!dult

Kepler-9, swear that was in Mass Effect…

The UAE, which is home to the Gulf business capital Dubai and the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi, is at risk of damaging its business-friendly reputation. Some companies may have some concerns about conducting business in an anti-BlackBerry state.

”They’ll think now they’ve banned the BlackBerry, maybe next time it’ll be the Internet,” said Shakir Mahmood, a Dubai-based debt collector and BlackBerry user originally from Iraq.

Government censorship in both Muslim conservative countries already block access to certain websites on the Internet. The oil-rich UAE has been at odds with BlackBerry previously. According to The Associated Press, a year ago, the smartphone maker accused the UAE of encouraging users of its state-owned mobile operator, Etisalat, to download spyware disguised as software described as an “upgrade … required for service enhancements.” The spy software would allow outsiders to access private information stored on the phones.

”The authorities have used a variety of arguments, like it can be used by terrorists” to justify the crackdown, said Christopher Davidson, a professor at the University of Durham in Britain, who has written extensively about the region. ”Yes that’s true, but it can also be used by civil society campaigners and activists.”

Officials in neither country would confirm whether the bans would affect foreign BlackBerry users visiting the region.

Source via Kidult

Just get an iPhone…oh wait…

If you thought the iPhone craze wouldn’t last then you were wrong. On June 24, Apple introduced the iPhone 4 in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Japan. It sold more than 1.7 million units in the first 3 days, the most successful product launch in Apple’s history.

The iPhone 4 is a newer and more high-tech design of the last 3GS mobile device. It was immediately a huge hit because, compared to the old version, the new device is 24% thinner, features an entire flat backing, a stainless-steel edge, and longer battery life. It also includes an easy to use camera on the front that can take high-definition videos at 30 frames per second and allows free video conferencing with other iPhone 4 owners.

The consumer demand for the product was so unexpectedly high that it caused rowdy crowds and lines of hundreds of determined customers in front of Apple retail stores. Unfortunately, the supply for the iPhone 4 was low and Apple wasn’t able to collect enough parts for more versions of the device.

Though the black colored version of the iPhone 4 came out on Thursday, the white colored one was also expected to come out but will instead be released at the end of the month. Both models, priced at $199 for the 16GB and $299 for the 32GB, are selling out quickly.

Source via K!dult