I was somewhat surprised and very annoyed when the latest digital issue of TIME magazine’s cover started talking to me without asking to speak when I opened up the first of its issues delivered via Apple’s Newsstand on my iPad.
I was more pleasantly surprised to learn that this TIME issue (dated June 25, 2012) featured bonus content and a number of audio and video clips in its digital covers.
Surprisingly, however, Entertainment Weekly’s digital issue (which is published by TIME Inc. also moved to the Newsstand this past week) does not have any multimedia content. You would think it would be a prime candidate for audio and video clips of songs, TV shows, movies, and interviews. Go figure…
Archos is a funny company. I remember seeing a number of mobile multimedia devices from them years ago. But, I’ve never seen any of the many Android tablet models they announce year after year. Here’s another one I’ll probably never see. At $130 it may be the least expensive Ice Cream Sandwich based tablet available. And, you get an Alvin and the Chipmunks theme too.
The first Windows Phone devices released in the fall of 2010 had hardware limitations imposed by Microsoft. Thus, the entire first generation of devices lacked components that were common even back then. Among the hardware missing from the reference design and the devices based on it is a gyroscope. This component has become increasingly important in games and motion based activities. Microsoft’s design shortsightedness has come back to bite it less than two years after the first Windows Phone devices were released. Its own recently released PhotoSynth panoramic camera app for Windows Phone (first released for the iPhone) won’t work correctly with the entire first generation of Windows Phone devices.