However, Microsoft has also said that Verizon will continue to sell Kin phones in the USA for some time. Verizon sells two models of the phone in the USA as of now and their costs have been slashed as well. The Redmond based software giant is now keen on making a phone that runs on Windows 7 as Windows mobile Os has reached old age as a platform. The increasing competition from Apple and Google has pushed Microsoft to the corner in the cell phone OS market.

The Windows Phone 7 is something that the company is counting on but a section of the tech experts are saying that the company could have opted for a new model with reduced priced rather than withdrawing it. The Kin is selling well in the USA but the data plan of Verizon are not well suited for this particular device.

Reportedly, Sony has announced their decision to recall Vaio laptops owing to overheating complaints. Sony officials said that the recall shall include more than half a million F and C series laptops which were sold out in the market sold since the very onset of 2010. The American Consumer Product Safety Commission declared in its official statement “the computers can overheat, posing a burn hazard. However, Sony doesn’t want to put the “recall” tag for this affair. They also said that the problem is a minor one and could possibly be rectified by a software patch.

According to the official figures of Sony 260,000 laptops in the US, 103,000 in Europe, 120,000 in South East Asia and 52,000 in Japan are affected by over heating.Nick Sharples who happens to be European communications director for Sony’ said “It is possible to update the firmware online, which will rectify the problem”
That reminds, this is not the first time Sony has announced a recall for its product line. Way back in the year of 2006, the company recalled over 100,000 batteries following overheating and exploding reports.
As a matter of fact, Sony also recalled 400,000 Vaio laptops due to wiring faults in the year of 2008.

Charles S. Golvin who happens to be an analyst with Forrester Research told the media that Microsoft Kin is an “absolute failure”. Microsoft’s consumer products unit has always struggled to offer credible competitors to Apple’s iPod and the iPhone.Now that Google’s Android s ruling the roost of the domain, Microsoft is still hovering. Microsoft also recently called off a project to carve out a tablet computer which was speculated to throw stiff challenges in the way of Apple iPad.

Microsoft also declared that it shall shift all it’s employees who had worked on the Kin team to Windows Phone 7.
The Kin, came in two models and was aimed at the youth to rope them in the flavor of social networking with inbuilt applications like Facebook and Twitter. However, Microsoft and its carrier for KIN has refused to disclose the actual sales figures for the phone.
Verizon had even slashed the prices of the phones from $50 from $200 for the higher-end model of Kin and to $30 from $150 for Kins “stripped-down version”. Microsoft also announced that it shall call off the pending release of KIN in the European nations. Instead they have instructed Verizon to sell out old stocks of the phone.
Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney
said that Kin is “still an important part” of Verizon portfolio.

The creators of Terrafugia have convinced the FAA to allow their carrier to be slightly heavier than normal aircraft. This means that the plane will be classified now as a light sports aircraft that is 110 pounds heavier than the standard. The standard weight for a light sports is 1320 pounds. This means that the weight of the vehicle will be approximately 1440 pounds. It will include the weight of the airbags, crumple zones and structural cage. The classification of the aircraft as a light sports aircraft will also mean that there is much less documentation needed now to fly-drive the aircraft. Getting the license will be easier considering that only 20 hours of logged flying time is needed.

The flying car, Terrafuglia, made its first journey in March last year. the creators have said that the car can run at 65mph on road. After the wings come out, it can reach speeds of 115mph. The aircraft can fly for around 400 miles before needing another refill of regular unleaded fuel. The estimated price of the revolutionary vehicle is $200000 and assuming that it passes all the safety and other tests in the future it could be ready for deliveries from next year.

The iPad and iPhone owners can access the Hulu Plus service either by means of Wi Fi or 3G. Of course you will get the better performance through 3G network. If you won a PS3 you may have to wait for a few more weeks or months before support is declared for this console. Even the Xbox 36 owners will get access to it in 2011 as Hulu has declared.

Hulu Plus is an interesting service for the HDTV owners and Web TV service proponents. However, there are rival services like Netflix. It remains to be seen whether Hulu Plus can survive the competition or not.

The Droid X is going to be released in July and as expected Motorola has tied up with Verizon Wireless, the arch rival of AT &T which offers iPhone in the USA. It is difficult to say which one will rule the roost as both the phones have their strengths and weaknesses. The Apple Fanatics may go gaga over the retina display in the new iPhone but the Droid X has a larger screen and quite capable of dealing with HD content. It edge ahead of the rival as it has a HDMI out port. The Droid X also comes with a better battery.

From the user’s perspective, the better network coverage of Verizon Wireless is more meaningful. No matter how great the iPhone 4 looks, its potential will be bottlenecked by the shoddy 3G coverage of AT&T. Verizon also offers more user friendly rental plans nowadays.

The Kinect system can control the Xbox live media features. The Zune library can be controlled by it easily. Using hand gestures one can control video file playback and it is actually funny. The novice users may take some time getting used to it but once they get the hang of it there is no stopping them. The voice command works almost perfectly. It is nice to observe that the device can detect voice commands in loud room without calibration.

Not all the apps made for Kinect are ready to be used and one can try out the ESPN app as of now. Among the Kinect games that deserve mention Kinectimals is an interesting example. You get to play with virtual pets in it. You can user your body language to control various types of animals. The great part of the system is that it works really well in dimly lit rooms. However, before more complex games come up there would not be many takers for the device.

Apple has introduced many new features in the iPhone 4 and the OS has also been upgraded. Despite the looming threat from the Android based Smartphone brigade the popularity of the iPhone continues to grow across the globe. In the UK, Apple has made an offer through which the buyers can buy it sans a contract. Sadly in the USA the only option is AT&T which is known for its inferior network coverage. The rush for the iPhone can be bad news for other handsets makers like Nokia which is losing its share in smart phones every month.

The O2 had the right to sell iPhone last year in the UK but this year it is a close competition between Orange, Vodafone and O2. The pre order in the UK is yet to begin. The early reviews that the iPhone 4 has got are largely positive and it is a killer device in terms of specs. The sales will be affected somewhat by the bundled data plans offered by the carriers.

The power and eject buttons have been made touch sensitive which is a nice addition. It is smaller to its predecessor. To keep the noise at bay Microsoft has used a big fan in place of two smaller fans inside the casing. Actually the single fan performs better than the earlier couple. It comes with a 250 GB hard drive and 5 USB ports for connecting all the peripherals you have. They are located both at its back and front. A special interface is there for accessories like the new Xbox 360 Kinect. There is a HDMI port so that you can hook it up to a large LCD screen and enjoy FPS games.

The inclusion of faster Wi-Fi 802.11n is a prudent choice on part of Microsoft. The new Xbox has been made available for sale in the USA and will land in other countries soon. The critics have given it a thumb up and it is also expected that a few new games for Xbox will also be released this year.

From what some tech sites suggest the successor to the original Droid will soon be released. The video that has been leaked on some tech sites gives a glimpse into the upcoming device. However, the final Droid 2 may look different from the one that is being shown in the web. The phone at a glance may look similar to the Droid but the keyboard has been given a revamp. The first Droid model drew flak for its slide keyboard. The buttons in the so called Droid 2 are slightly raised.

The imaging and display have been left untouched. However, the CPU under the hood has got a boost. The first Droid was powered by a 550 MHz CPU while the successor has got a beefy 750MHz processor. The new handset is good for those media buffs who always look for more storage space. If the available information is to be believed, the phone has a whopping 8GB inbuilt memory and also comes with 8GB external memory card. It is difficult to say whether the upcoming Droid 2 will match up well against the current market favorites like HTC EVO 4G and Nexus One.

As expected the new Droid comes with Android 2.1 and also with MotoBlur interface. So that is good news for the Twitter and Orkut addicts. It is hard to predict how the Droid 2 will fare since the number of new smart phones with beefed up specifications is quite high. The HTC Evo for example is the hot favorite with the smart phone buyers. The craze around the iPhone 4 is also gathering momentum.

Motorola has recovered to an extent after the Droid and some other Android models though it has to go a long way to reclaim its earlier position. Its latest offerings have also gone down well with the users. Depending on the pricing and carrier it chooses for launching the Droid 2 will play a role behind its success. The inclusion of Android 2.1 is a step in the right direction and the users will like the fact that they will get access to ever increasing Android apps.