2011年4月29日星期五

Army app store progress, tries to break, the red tape the defenses

By Terrence O'Brien posted 28th 2011 APR 12:18 PM Army Marketplacethe army market in bureaucratic muck can involve, but is the repository for mobile military applications not just stagnate somewhere in a pile of paperwork. Developers and commanders are still with the project move forward and hope for the best. There are according generated as part of the applications for the army have competition in the last year, and designer whipped up prototypes for the homepage (see above) and personalized user pages (after the break) where soldiers can already 17 applications for Android and 16 for iPhones, ideas for apps, Request features of devs, and write reports. The head of the army's mobile applications branch, Lieutenant Colonel of Gregory motes, hopes that the market will make his debut at the LandWarNet in August, although not approved it smartphones be access for several months after that. At least the military claim a victory, when it launches its app store have already more title as TegraZone.
My Marketplace

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Tweet_Fit tweets while you to the oldies (video sweat)

The shake weight it is not, but go as 21st century training solutions, Tweet_Fit certainly has the potential, the people talk - or at least, Twitter. Developed by UK design student that deals accessories attached gym at the end of a standard barbell and sends updates to your Twitter account when you start and stop of your training. Offline and it walks you through the perfect curl. Tweet_Fit's designer indicates that it provides a new way their customers for trainers on the track, and can be used to spur Wheelback healthy competition between friends. Given, it is bragging about how much you can every single bank, but, then, an invitation to the gun show tweeting is so impersonal. Tweet_Fit is still a prototype can, but you are a video of the Twitter-enabled dumbbell in action after the break.

[Thanks, Fraser]


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Researchers nightmares (video) build a robot inspired by caterpillars,


There is a long history of the robot modeled after the animals, and some researchers at Tufts University have now taken things in particularly creepy Creepy-Crawly direction. You have built a robot who is a way Caterpillar balls can imitate even up to bounce of predators. As you can see in the video above, during the robot (called GoQBot) quite a bit larger than the actual bug is, is a pretty good Caterpillar does imitation indeed. What could such a bot for use? Now, say the researchers, who are the so called could conduct "ballistic rolling" used to improve on some of the many existing robots are modeled after the worms or snakes-spin, for example, in a disaster area, could be, and then wiggle to support rescue operations to search and. Over at the break the bot in slow motion see on the head.

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iZettle's chip reading place competitors takes your money, there are no impacts required (video)


Everyone seems to on board with square iPhone credit card reader-Apple begins selling the device in your stores in the past week have and even visa has a financial interest in the company. However, due to the popularity of fraud-fighting chip-enabled smart cards on the other side of the pond offer not fits square throughout the Bill. iZettle has a similar solution for Europe, that contains the ever-so necessary smart card reader, starts the company in Sweden June of this year. Not only does it enable you accept payments by credit card by friends or customers, the app adds a social twist. Traders can a photo and input for the buyer, e-Mail, which can then share their latest prey on Facebook. Of course, if it starts to catch on, it might make explain that she received a new laptop, that much harder, if it appears on your significant other news-feed "awesome agreements".

[Thanks to David]


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Prague to host of the most powerful laser in the world

By Zach honey posted 28th Apr 2011 at 9:29 PM
We are Prague roast duck, potato dumplings and delicious always the Eastern capital of culture, cheap Pilsner. But the former Soviet bloc come 2015, city is also home to extreme light infrastructure project's most powerful laser in the world, as part of the European Union. According to the plans was published by the European Commission is the laser peak power in the area of Exawatt (equivalent to a billion megawatts) produce. So, for a very small fraction of a second, the bar one million times more power than the entire U.S. electricity generated. Whether you believe it or not, is, that take much time to the experiments that nuclear waste could reveal new cancer treatments and ways to handle. Breakthroughs in either category is incredibly for the project 700 million euro (about $1 billion), including future plans for the construction of two similar lasers, and a third is twice as powerful the Prague installation-about the same current draw as a HTC Thunderbolt.

[Image courtesy of Instructables]


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Motorola Xoom LTE update delayed until summer, same time as Bionic launch

By Tim Stevens posted 28th 2011 Apr 7:31 PM Motorola Xoom LTE update delayed until summer, same time as Bionic launchMotorola's just finished giving the messages and the numbers on the quarterly financial report, and it was a bit wickedness which we only had to parts: the Xoom LTE update has been moved. We are not there until summer according to Motorola CEO Sanjay JHA, see, which is also when we see the bionic, a delay, which we already about were pout. Justice and Home Affairs about what "Question that", that was, that the delay caused is only what is quality of care for both devices, is a little vague was and it could be easy, that is waiting for its LTE rollout, a little further along to get the company. Net result: a less g for Xoom owner until summer and no Bionic at all until then. Bummer.

The outnumbered: Motorola says, that it delivered over 250,000 Xooms in the first quarter of the year, and managed the net revenues of $3 billion. That is by 22 percent from this time last year the losses up to $. 27 per Aktie--much nicer than that brought $72 in Q1 2010. Mobile revenue increased by 30 percent and 9.1 million total mobile devices have been sold, of which smartphones are almost half (4.1 million).

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Nikon image authentication software checks Photoshop phonies

By Christopher trout posted Apr 29 2011 1: 16 AM it's hard to believe that the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Apple man Steve jobs would all get silly about a Granny Smith, and for good reason: that Apple is like this small iPhone phony. According to a Russian security firm, Nikon's image authentication software would say but otherwise. This rendering is used one of the few to an error in the camera manufacturers prove image software to the test. Programs such as Nikon's an encrypted signature for image files to currently apply they are recorded and override these signatures, if a file is changed, so to check the integrity of a photo. After ElcomSoft exposed to the company an error in the system of Nikon uses, as a similar program of Canon DSLR cameras, which allowed them, extract the signature from a same photo and contact on Phonies as the top employs. According to the outfit has neither company responds to its findings. Read for more funny works, including a shot of Mike Tyson rocking a tattoo angry birds the following source link.

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Brings NVIDIA SLI support for AMD 990FX, 990 X and 970 chip sets

By Donald Melanson posted 28th 2011 Apr 3:51 PM it is not so far go to support how AMD has with its CrossFireX multi-GPU technology, but NVIDIA has expand now at least a step in this direction. The company today announced that it finally SLI support AMD platforms-in particular upcoming motherboards based on AMD's 990FX, 990 brings x and 970 chip sets. Those are from ASUS, gigabyte, first with additional manufacturers to come on board "short.", Asus and MSI hit said offered up the source link below for NVIDIA's complete statement in the task-in which it also just so happens, to point out that 93 percent of all multi-GPU systems today SLI, Use steam statistics.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]


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NFL mobile apps bring the design to you today tonight live on iPhone, iPad and Android

By Richard Lawler posted 28th Apr 2011 6:21 PM the first round of the 2011 NFL draft begins at 8 pm in the Radio City Music Hall, but if you not racks collect one of the players on racks of cash (assuming there is a season of course 2011) receive applications for iOS and Android powered devices still live updates about the NFL. The NFL game Center have apps that are for iPhone/iPod touch and Android phones for the season 2011 in Lite (free) and premium ($1.99) have been updated, and should be able, you take users with live updates to the and information about each pick run. The couch companion planned iPad app (pictured above, this go round love no honeycomb) is the NFL draft debut and adds to the smaller format versions by including live NFL.com video-streams both out in the Auditorium, and from the Studio, video highlights and interactive features. Check out the screens for a better view of the user interface or click links on the source below, to the free app of your choice - you have to find the apps for tomorrow morning Royal Wedding on your own.web coverage

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Hulu plus on Xbox 360 starts tomorrow, all members receive a free week you beef jerky

Hulu plus on Xbox LIVE offers controller-free TV shows and movies; Jack link's sponsors free access for all Xbox 360 owners

With a growing entertainment experience in the middle of the House, Xbox 360 will soon thousands offer more HD TV shows and movies on Hulu plus. The Hulu Plus subscription service launches April 29 on Xbox 360 on Friday, immediately hit TV shows from ABC, Comedy Central, FOX, NBC, MTV, and much more, including the classic movies to US Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Hulu Plus subscribers at any time provide current season.

"We are proud to deliver the best entertainment content like no other device in the living room," said Pete Thompson, General Manager, Xbox LIVE. "Hulu plus is an important addition to the support of our continuous efforts to expand entertainment on Xbox LIVE." "And through the magic of Kinect add, we are really the kind, as people enjoy their favorite entertainment you transform."

A Hulu Plus subscription offers currently more popular TV shows and classic movies in HD, including the current season episodes of top shows such as "Modern family," "30 Rock", "The daily show with Jon Stewart" and many others. Consult the series including "Lost" complete back seasons, or explore hundreds of acclaimed movies of the criterion collection. A month of advertising limits everything for only $7.99.

With Kinect for the Xbox 360, you can easily use your voice as the remote control to control your Hulu plus entertainment off the couch. All video content you see commands gesture or voice, as well as select movies and TV shows play, pause, fast forward and rewind recommended for you of Hulu on the Kinect hub.

Jack link's and Xbox "unlock" Hulu plus, to all Xbox LIVE members

Launch only to the beginning. To celebrate the debut of Hulu plus on Xbox LIVE, Jack link's beef jerky Hulu plus on Xbox LIVE is from the April 29: 6 may unlock. Through this sponsorship, all Xbox LIVE members (free or gold) can enjoy Hulu plus on Xbox LIVE, not Hulu Plus subscription or Xbox LIVE Gold membership required for a whole week. Jack link's and Xbox LIVE are also together with an accompanying sweepstakes host the user downloaded the Hulu plus application all of a vacation for two to a beaches ? resort to a console Xbox 360 GB with Kinect can win.

For more information, click www.xbox.com/HuluPlusLaunch

Take your Xbox 360 with Xbox LIVE online and enjoy a growing catalog of entertainment from a number of partners, networks and studios all over the world, and interact with a growing community of 30 million active members. With the Community expenditure is more than one billion hours online enjoy month entertainment, Xbox 360 is the only place, controller free entertainment with thousands of movies and TV shows in the HD streaming to learn thousands of live and on-demand sports, and millions of songs - all on the biggest screen in your home together with the people, where they are most interested in you.

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Android 2.3.4 heading to nexus S over the air, brings video and voice chat to Gtalk

For an update with this humble name, this is actually quite a big step forward. To start delivery of Google's Android 2.3.4 nexus S devices in the wild and in all bug fixes and optimizations, users find the addition of video and voice chat to Google talk. You will be able all get it a Web connection whether by Wi-Fi, 3 g, 4 g or the power to do, and other gingerbread phones are expected to give the same improvements in time. Now, however, Google's own brand to device which enjoy only the very freshest gingerbread.

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Android 3.1 gets Namechecked of Adobe Flash Player 10.2, prompts, accelerated 720 p video enjoy

By Sean Hollister posted 28th 2011 Apr 7:48 PM remind you how Adobe Flash 10.2 was not life up to his full hardware accelerated potential on Combs has said? Well, it seems that the company is a solution called Android 3.1 is found. We been flooded tips (and have confirmed with Adobe), that it a sticky-sweet of new build of Android on the way of the recent crop of slate that OEMs and airlines are roll-out, and dass-- just like in the last painting-you this software to take advantage of all hardware rendering, and compositing, which can make your Tegra 2 Silicon. With a little luck, not 720 p playback of this time will burn our eyeballs. By the way, the Android market element above this morning has been updated to read "requires an upcoming release of Android 3" instead of "Android 3.1", but it is unclear whether the original number was inaccurate or if Adobe get in trouble.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Redbox $2 per day offer video game rentals nationwide in June

GAME ON! TALK BOX ANNOUNCES THEY VIDEO GAME RENTALS NATIONWIDE JUNE OF THIS YEAR WILL OFFER
28 April 2011-Redbox, America's movie rental destination, announced today it offers more than 21,000 Redbox video game rental sites nationwide beginning June 17, 2011. top video games come new release movies for only $2 per day DVD $1 and $1.50 Blu-ray ? supplements daily prices. The announcement of the video game rental in select U.S. markets, which began in August 2009 follows an examination.

"Redbox access of consumers to the video game rent is increased using our incredible technology and business model, prices for the consumer, to keep low," said Mitch Lowe, President, Redbox. "With more than 21,000 Redbox locations planned, to feature video game rentals in addition to movies of June of this year, Redbox be the one-stop shop for entertainment."

Redbox, a brand of Coinstar Inc., has video game rentals in addition to movies to 5,000 Redbox locations tested. "Redbox more than one million video games has rented in less than two years at these locations, underscores the popularity of video game in America," added Lowe.

Today have almost 64 percent * of the people in the United States a video game console.
At the start, Redbox will feature games of the three major console platforms: PlayStation ? 3, Nintendo Wii ? and Xbox 360 ?. Titles range from top releases to popular family and children songs video game.

"Redbox is as easy as a trip to the local grocery store, convenience or drug store to discover the latest games," says Joel Resnik, Vice President, games said Redbox.

About Redbox
Redbox Automated retail, LLC, a subsidiary of Coinstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR), offers new release DVD and Blu-ray disc rentals on your network by, self service kiosks. Redbox has rented more than one billion movies and available under more than 27,000 sites nationwide, including select McDonald's restaurants, leading grocery, drug and convenience stores, select Wal-Mart locations and Walgreens in selected markets. For more information, visit www.redbox.com.

* Source: Interpret them new media measure, Q4 2010

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Sprint begins selling the Motorola Xoom WiFi (not WiMAX) may 8th for $600


First tablet on Android 3.0, Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi, available with Sprint on 8 may for $599.99 built

Written by SeanD. on Apr 28, 2010 4: 07:05 PM

Android software specifically for use on a Tablet have first device,
provides a powerful multi-tasking experience, so that it quickly and easily on the Web surfing, watch videos and play games with a PC-like experience

As the first device to feature Android ? 3.0 (honeycomb), as well as a 10 1-inch HD widescreen display and 1 GHz dual-core processor, Motorola XOOM ? Wi-Fi are for $599.99 Sprint early Sunday, on 8 may, available. Android 3.0 is the version of Android innovations in text widgets, multi-tasking-, Web-browsing, notifications and adjustment for the tablets and features.

1 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB RAM and HD 10, 1-inch widescreen display, Motorola XOOM delivers exceptionally fast Web browsing performance and a beta of Adobe ? Flash ? Player 10.2 downloadable from Android market ?, supports enables the deployment of Flash based Web-content, including videos, casual games and rich Internet applications.

Motorola XOOM offers two cameras, a rear-facing 5 megapixel camera with Flash, which can record HD video and a 2-megapixel to front facing camera for Google talk ? with video chat. Motorola XOOM can also content on any HDMI HDTV ?-equipped device (HDMI cable sold separately) map.

With a large touch screen display, Motorola XOOM facilitates corporate e-Mail to stay connected from anywhere with personal and Exchange. It also provides access to more than 3 million Google eBooks and apps from Android market, making it an ideal e-reader.

Motorola XOOM features also the latest Google ? mobile services including Google maps ? 5.0 with 3D interaction.

Other key features include:
Android market for access to more useful as 150,000 applications, widgets and games for download available to customize the experience
Google mobile services including Google search ?, Gmail ?, Google maps ? with navigation, Google Calendar, voice actions and YouTube ?
Corporate e-Mail (Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync ?), staff (POP & IMAP) e-Mail and instant messaging
Bluetooth ? 2.1 + EDR
Integrated GPS
1 GB internal RAM memory and 32 GB of on-board user memory
Dimensions: 9.8 cm x 6.6 cm x 0.5 inch (249.1 x 167,8 x 12.7 mm)
Weight: 25.74 ounces (730 grams)
3250 mAh lithium-ion battery

Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi are by Sprint direct ship sales channels, including memory, Web sales (www.sprint.com), telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) and Sprint business sales Sprint, Sunday, 8 may, for $599.99 from.

Certain features, services, and applications are network dependent and may not be available in all areas; additional terms, conditions and/or fees apply. All features, functions, and other product specifications are subject to change without prior notice or obligation.


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US Supreme Court says that companies can force arbitration on a class-looking consumer

Before today were California consumers hidden in the fine print of each service AT & T contract because State law they gewissenlos-- had declared arbitration clause ignore the class-looking consumers the courthouse doors open held. However, the highest court in the country in a ruling that no doubt his ilk like AT & T and others, their makes the States so arbitration to avoid mobility LLC v. Concepcion deprived of its judgment in AT & T has. Said in an opinion penned by Justice Scalia (in the image), the Supremes, Federal Arbitration Act was fast and easy to promote dispute resolution arbitration's, and she could not have California (or of another State) contrary to the will of Congress by lengthy group litigation if parties agreed upon already private arbitration. This means that companies are free to force customers, their claims individually instead of link along with file $class actions, no matter what state laws say to convey. Guess this large-scale litigation lawyers have is elsewhere, the means for their next to Ferrari.

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Samsung Galaxy S II GPS-it works, it really works! (Video)

The biggest problem facing humanity? No, not really. But when the alien robot of sentinels eventually increase to our puny green planet, you will be happy to know that your Smartphone Galaxy S a GPS lock can get reliable and accurate II. Samsung's new flagship phone fixed not surprisingly what whatever the original Galaxy S in the satellite communications department was missing, and we have the proof for you, just after the break. Click on your clicking device to the clickable bit to see.

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Motorola Xoom software update brings SSL and Widevine DRM, not LTE quite yet (update: pulled)

By Sean Hollister posted 28th 2011 APR 17: 41 much comfortable touring the Internet seems like Verizon, Motorola and Google on a bit of a security bent are the latest update for the Motorola Xoom can take walled gardens. There is a fix of WPA-PSK security so the choice users in your mobile hotspot, SSL for secure Web browser, Google Widevine DRM to display blocked online video content and HDCP for pipe-laying it on your TV. Of course, there is no mention of Xoom function, which we really wait, but we will happily take our Bluetooth mouse support and POP3 e-Mail now. Droid-life reports that this HMJ07B update starts beat Xooms later today, but Verizon's still got a month make good the LTE of promise of.

Update: We are not quite sure what happened, but droid life discovered that Verizon has update details of PDF has been pulled, so it is probably better, don't expect that an OTA later this upgrade afternoon.

Thanks to [K]


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Shocker! Numerically superior free Android apps to free iPhone apps


Good news for Android users that not to pay for stuff: the according to new figures from Netherlands-based mobile Analytics Group Distimo, there are now more free apps for Google mobile OS as the iPhone, in 134,342 to 121,845. There are a few things to note here: first, if one adds a free iPad-only apps, increased the total number of free roller apps on a more competitive 132,239. And then it isn't Apple's sometimes strict review process, which probably played had a role in their numeric slippage - finally in this report you mark things such as legality, dedicated to repetition or the total number of the apps farting noises. Auch Apple has to much more premium apps, so that the entire lead in 333,124 206,143 - but between Android's rapid growth and what the report terms iOS of relative stagnation, Distimo Google expected to the top spot in five months, very iPhone and iPad apps kombiniert-- a rough scenario for Cupertino, Stomach, no doubt, but at least the companies still have Windows phone, to connect a while longer. [Source link requires registration]

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Toyota and WiTricity team up for OTA car charge

One day, everything will you drahtlos-- compute, phones, cars, graphic calculators, all with the same basic technology. This is the sort of utopian vision that had Toyota in the sense, as it founded the battery charging WiTricity wireless Alliance. The young Massachusetts-based company "Resonance" pushes the charges electro-electronics technology, and is supposedly more efficient than induction-based collecting-a category that contains the popular Qi standard. This new partnership while sitting the ante, adding electric vehicles to the list of fee-based devices, a vision of the future where Prius batteries wireless, can be filled, in entrances and parking garages-ups. Exxon's engineers are no doubt working to perfect the hose free transfer of gasoline as we speak. PR after the break.

[Thanks, Paul]

TMC and WiTricity Wireless charging form Alliance

Toyota city, Japan, April 27, 2011-Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is a technological cooperation agreement with Massachusetts, United States based WiTricity Corporation on the practical application of the automotive wireless charging systems and promotion of the wide spread. TMC plans to participate in a capital increase of WiTricity.

WiTricity uses resonance, which allows you to upload technology without direct contact and is more efficient than Electromagnetic induction, charging the another wireless technology but a contact required is, which begins, age come in mobile phone and other chargers. TMC believes that wireless charge resonance for automobiles and aims on your early practical use is appropriate.

The cooperation is aimed to accelerate the development and eventual implementation of wireless charging for automobiles. The collection of plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle could so easily and conveniently such as parking near a charger embedded a home or in a parking facility.

TMC expressed in the Toyota global vision in March its commitment announced, mobility through the integration of automobiles, houses, and information technology leads the way in the future. Wireless charging is only one of the many technologies, the TMC is looking to develop for the future.

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Sprint, Google voice integration is live (hands-on)

By Richard Lawler posted 28th 2011 Apr 3:02 PM the new integration, the Sprint users their accounts with Google voice even tighter bind - make your Sprint number work through Google voice without it about porting or simply provide your Google voice number show on outgoing calls or tests of your telephone-seems to be to live, judging by reports of tipsters and our own account shown above. While it has a limited rollout and beta tests go on already, as soon as we on Google voice now logged in we were by the way, our eligibility for Sprint integration check teased. In the screenshot shown seems like above with option number one to be a one-way trip, which will lead to the possible deletion of your Google voice number, so make sure, that is, what you want, before you click. Option two can later vice versa, so feel free to switch at will (given a delay of approximately 15 minutes). Still not sure how it all works? Look up our video demo from CTIA embedded after the break.

[Thanks, Jason, Victor]

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Logitech's "disappointing" Q4 results not just helpful poor Revue sales; is cut price to $249

There was not much good news for Logitech investors as the company its results for the financial fourth quarter, as it fell far below targets for sales and revenue. Most of the blame on poor performance in Europe, Middle East and Africa was, but it also suffered TV-powered Revue and its accessories, significantly less than expected sales of Google's accounting for only $5 million in sales, down from $22 million in the quarter before and after that his estimate of $18 million. CEO Gerald Quindlen is also overseas resolve its problems, nor a future in the Internet connected TV follow a similar path of smartphones and cited the next generation of Google TV as a great opportunity. From may, the company is cutting the price of the Revue, $249 (which at least $50 is too high) and plans to "marketing"in time"-probably sometime after Google i/O and the addition of the Android market re-accelerate". As for the current hardware, the Revue and the Sony Google TV products received unspecified "Security updates" today, although Qriocity and music unlimited access to our Sony Internet TV device was offline. Let us therefore do the postmortem and guess, what contributed more to low sales: high prices, a half baked product or with a hairy legs TV and Kevin Bacon map?

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Samsung Galaxy S review II

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Samsung Galaxy S II reviewBy Vlad Savov posted Apr 28th 2011 12:44PM If you don't already know all about the Samsung Galaxy S II, where have you been the past two months? The successor to one of the most popular Android handsets to date carries a burden of expectation almost as sizable as its 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen. It promises to be thinner, lighter, and faster than the Galaxy S that preceded it, while garnishing Android 2.3.3 with a set of TouchWiz customizations that might actually enhance, rather than hinder, the user experience. As such, the Galaxy S II earns Samsung full marks for ambition, but does this slinky new smartphone live up to its interstellar hype? The answer, as always, can be found after the break.

The Samsung Galaxy S II is 8.49mm (0.33 inches) thick. We whipped out a ruler and checked, it's true. Admittedly, that measurement expands a little at the handset's bottom, where a curvy bump houses its loudspeaker, and around the camera compartment, which protrudes ever so slightly from the rest of the body, but even at its thickest point, this phone doesn't allow itself to go beyond the 1cm mark. Given the veritable spec sheet overload that Samsung has included within the Galaxy S II, we consider its thin profile a stunning feat of engineering. In terms of the pursuit of the absolute slimmest device, NEC's MEDIAS N-04C is still the champ at 7.7mm, but global audiences should feel comfortable in replacing the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, which measures 8.7mm at its thinnest point, with the Galaxy S II for their benchmark slim device.

More importantly, Samsung's new 4.3-inch handset feels better in the hand than the Arc, thanks to its intelligently curved sides that provide a comfortable and assured grip. The textured rear cover also feels good to the touch, and should withstand nicks and scratches a lot better than the original Galaxy S' backplate, though don't expect its featherlight construction to contribute much to the phone's overall rigidity. That will be provided by the still-mostly-plastic frame surrounding the phone's screen. We found little cause to doubt the Galaxy S II's durability, though we certainly wouldn't go recommending it as the phone for the builder in your life. There's a minuscule crevice between the handset's frame and screen that looks prone to gathering dust if exposed to dirty environments, and in spite of the generally reassuring build quality, the Galaxy S II is still made out of plastic rather than something more robust like HTC or Nokia's all-aluminum cases.
Returning to the screen, it's fronted by one continuous sheet of glass, which protects a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display along with a batch of sensors and a front-facing camera at the top, and two capacitive Android keys at the bottom. The earpiece and Home button are the only disruptions to the sleek glass surface. Whatever coating Samsung has applied to the Galaxy S II's screen works very well, as it resists smudges and fingerprint marks much better than the average smartphone. A volume rocker and a power / lock key each take up one side of the GSII, with a 3.5mm headphone jack adorning its top and a micro-USB charging / data port at the bottom. That's it, no frills, no extras, and -- to the dismay of some -- no dedicated camera shutter button. At least the controls you do get all work very well. The side-mounted buttons do their job without fuss and touchscreen responsiveness is impeccable. The Menu and Back keys are purely capacitive, whereas the Home button is, well, an actual button -- it requires you to physically depress it in order to register input. That distinction may feel a bit awkward at first, but we rather enjoyed it. It meant accidental key taps were all but impossible to achieve and gave a more definitive nature to punching the Home key, which somehow felt appropriate given the fact it yanks you out of whatever you're doing and back to the homescreen.
The Galaxy S II's screen is nothing short of spectacular. Blacks are impenetrable, colors pop out at you, and viewing angles are supreme. This would usually be the part where we'd point out that qHD (960 x 540) resolution is fast becoming the norm among top-tier smartphones and that the GSII's 800 x 480 is therefore a bit behind the curve, but frankly, we don't care. With a screen as beautiful as this, such things pale into insignificance. And we use that verb advisedly -- whereas the majority of LCDs quickly lose their luster when you tilt them away from center, color saturation and vibrancy on the Galaxy S II remain undiminished. It is only at extreme angles that you'll notice some discoloration, but that's only if you're looking for it and takes nothing away from the awe-inspiring experience of simply using this device.

Whether you're pushing it to its limits with movie watching or just tamely browsing the web, the Super AMOLED Plus panel inside the Galaxy S II never fails to remind you that it's simply better than almost everything else that's out there. For an instructive example of the contrast on offer here, take a look at our recent post regarding the LG Optimus Big's upcoming launch in Korea. The pattern on that handset's white back was so subtle on our desktop monitor that we completely missed it, whereas when we looked at the same image on the GSII, it looked clear as day. Maybe that doesn't speak too highly of the monitors we're working with, but it underlines the supremacy of the display Samsung has squeezed into the Galaxy S II.

We'd even go so far as to say it's better than the iPhone 4's screen, purely because, at 4.3 inches, it gives us so much more room to work with. It's almost impossible to split the two up in terms of quality of output, they're both top notch. Notably, however, that was also true of Samsung's original Super AMOLED display, the one that graced the 4-inch Galaxy S, and by now you must be wondering if there's actually anything significant enough in the new S-AMOLED technology to justify appending that "Plus" to its name. The short answer is yes, and it's all in the pixels.

The one major downside to the original Super AMOLED panel was to be found in its PenTile matrix subpixel arrangement. It employed an RGBG pattern, wherein you got two green subpixels for every pair of red and blue ones, but the overall resolution was counted on the basis of green subpixels. Ergo, a PenTile 800 x 480 resolution wasn't as rich at the subpixel level as your standard RGB screen (768,000 versus 1,152,000), which resulted in slightly grainier images than would otherwise have been the case. Well, that "otherwise" scenario is now with us, because Samsung has switched to a Real-Stripe RGB array in the 4.3-inch Galaxy S II, which means it packs the full 1.152 megasubpixel count and, as we've already noted, the display looks delectable for it. A lesser criticism of the original Galaxy S was that its colors were a little blown out and oversaturated, but that's once again rendered moot on the successor device -- a software setting called Background effect allows you to tweak saturation, so if you're feeling a little melancholy, you can tone down the intensity of your handset's colors to match your ennui. Basically, if we haven't made it clear already, this is everything that Super AMOLED was, minus the bad parts and plus an extra .3 inches in real estate. A triumph.

Okay, there is one mildly irritating aspect about the Galaxy S II's screen and that's the auto-brightness -- it tends to hunt around for the correct setting and occasionally makes jarring jumps between darker and brighter values. Whether that's down to the ambient light sensor or the software reading data from it isn't all that important, what's relevant is that we found ourselves more comfortable with a human helming the brightness controls.


The story of the Galaxy S II's battery life cannot be told without returning to its luscious screen. Being an OLED panel, the 4.3-inch display here doesn't use one single backlight as LCD screens do, and instead only illuminates the pixels that are needed to actively display content. This is the reason why it can generate truer blacks than any backlit panel, but it also permits the user to optimize battery life by doing such things as switching to a darker wallpaper or reading ebooks against a black background. We didn't actually bother with such tweaks, we were too busy exploring every one of the myriad features on this phone, but the option's there as an extra dimension of obsessive control if you care for it. As to the Galaxy S II's actual endurance, we found it highly competitive with the latest batch of Android phones. After 20 hours, half of which were filled with the above tinkering and exploration, we managed to drag the Galaxy S II down to 15 percent of its original charge. This was with our usual push notification suppliers, Gmail and Twitter, running in the background and while constantly connected to our WiFi network.

Using the Android System Info app (available for free on the Android Market), we found confirmation that the Galaxy S II is indeed running a 1.2GHz ARMv7 dual-core processor, but more importantly, we also dug up a breakdown of how often the SOC was reaching that max speed. Only 9.2 percent of our use harnessed the full 1.2GHz, with Samsung wisely downclocking its chip to as low as 200MHz when the phone's idling (that accounted for 46 percent of the Galaxy S II's uptime). What's impressive about this is that we never hit upon any performance bumps to indicate that we were running at slower speeds. Clearly, Samsung's power management system is doing its job well. In summary, we expect you'll be able to get a decent couple of days' regular use out of the Galaxy S II -- our experience with it mirrored what we got out of HTC's Incredible S and Desire S that recently crossed our review bench -- though processor-intensive activities like HD video playback will eat into that, as will the variability of 3G coverage. What we can say with absolute certainty is that the Galaxy S II is no slouch when put against its contemporaries, and it also marks a definite improvement in longevity over the original Galaxy S.


The loudspeaker is surprisingly passable, hell, it's more than passable. We're probably being swayed by the gorgeous screen on this phone, but playing back video without relying on headphones feels just fine, unlike the usual grinding chore that it is on most current phones. That being said, Tinie Tempah's Pass Out -- a song that starts out dominated by deep bass -- sounds like a hilarious remix of the original on the GSII owing to the speaker's inability to dip down low enough to sound out the track's bassline. Bass deprivation is a typical shortcoming of smartphones, which isn't looking likely to find a fix any time soon. You still won't be forced to abandon your dubstep addiction while on the move, however, as Samsung bundles a solid pair of in-ear headphones that do a very respectable job of both isolating external noise and delivering audio to your cranium. Including an in-line mic that doubles as a music play / pause button is no bad thing either. We'd be remiss not to point out that the Galaxy S II's loudspeaker is positioned rather poorly -- it and the two slits cut into the phone's rump for its output face the rear. Laying the handset down on a flat surface immediately alters the sound and a stray finger - a single fleshy finger -- can mute almost everything.

The earpiece performed as close to the middle of the road as you can get. Calls sounded good on our end and equally so on the other side. We had a couple of garbled moments during one conversation, but that's more likely due to network performance than some fault on the Galaxy S II. As to the network itself, the GSII exhibited no reception issues or aberrant behavior, though we weren't able to check out its rated 21.1Mbps HSPA+ speeds on our UK carrier.


Samsung eschews the default Gingerbread camera app for its own effort, which comes with a neat slice of customization. The left menu column gives you three shortcut slots for the functions you consider most relevant to your photographic exploits. By default, two of them are populated with a button to flip between the rear-facing 8 megapixel and front-facing 2 megapixel camera and another one for controlling the flash, but you can do whatever you fancy. Resolution, ISO, scene and shooting modes, or adjustments like white balance, contrast, metering, and after-effects can all be included in there. And if you consider different things important when in video mode, that's no problem, because that retains its own set of shortcuts separate from the stills mode. It's a fully realized suite of options, even if most users will neglect the left side and just keep bashing the capture key on the right.
When they do so, they'll be treated to some excellent results. The camera compartment on the back of the Galaxy S II justifies its size (it's still tiny, it just happens to protrude a little bit from the ultrathin GSII body) with the collection of great detail in nearly every shot. What most impressed us about this sensor is that images remained relatively sharp at full resolution -- such as the one you see above, it's a 100 percent crop from an 8 megapixel capture -- with Samsung feeling confident enough in the quality of its hardware to apply almost no noise-reducing blur under default settings. That does permit for graininess to sneak into some images, but on the whole, we're looking at one of the finest smartphone camera sensors around. Closeup shots are handled very well too, in spite of the lack of a dedicated macro mode. The flash is a typically overpowered LED unit, though we were impressed to see the Galaxy S II use it while focusing on a nearby object but not while shooting -- had it been used in the shot, the flash would've whitewashed the entire composition, so it's good to see the software showing a timely bit of restraint.

The only real issue we encountered was that that the GSII's sensor has a predictably narrow dynamic range, meaning that photographs with high contrast between dark and well-lit areas end up with either deep shadows or blown out highlights, depending on which you opt to focus on. Then again, that can lead to some highly artistic / moody shots, so we're not too sure this is a major downer. A limitation, sure, but not something that will seriously impact your enjoyment of snapping pics with this phone.


As to video, it too looks crisp and sharp, though the ever-present rolling shutter effect is very much in evidence when there's rapid motion on screen (see the bus passing by in the sample below). Provided you don't insist on panning around too quickly or recording hound races from the sidelines, that shouldn't pose much of a problem. There's little in the way of image stabilization too, but again, so long as your ambitions stretch no further than casual HD video, the Galaxy S II should prove more than sufficient.
Even when pushed to record at 1080p, the Galaxy S II showed no sign of slowdown or even any processing lag. Speed of operation, both in stills and video, is as fast as we've seen yet. The time taken to enter the camera app, process one image and be ready for the next, and to switch between camera and camcorder modes was in all cases supreme. We consider that a big part of a successful camera's mechanics -- being able and ready to respond to the user immediately instead of making him -- so the Galaxy S II scores another big tick from us. Samsung also provides a Photo editor app that lets you tweak, crop and stylize your imagery. It covers all the basics and throws in a few fun extras for those who like to experiment.
General responsiveness is absolutely exemplary. If you've read what we had to say about the G2x and the way it simply flies through homescreens, menus and applications, you'll know that we have a high bar for Android performance already set, but the Galaxy S II beats it anyway. There's simply never been an Android handset this smooth and this fluid in its operation. Nothing phases the GSII, and the only time we got it to show any performance dropoff was in enacting a pinching gesture on the home screen to bring up an Exposé-like overview of all seven homescreens. That's seven fully loaded-out homescreens with information updating live (multiple clocks plus news and weather feeds) and the only thing that recipe for memory overload produced was a slight stutter in animating the zooming effect. There's just no getting around the extravagant amounts of power this device has and we can't wait to see Samsung jam one of these Exynos chips inside a future tablet or two.

We know you like your benchmarks, so we might as well hit you with those all-important numbers. Do take heed, however, that graphical tests such as those in Quadrant and Neocore perform at the phone's native resolution, which will bias results in favor of lower-res screens -- so don't take what you see as a conclusive performance comparison, use it just as an indicator. With that out of the way, here are the scores: Quadrant gave us results in the 3,000 to 3,400 range, Linpack produced an average of 47 MFLOPS, and Nenamark and Neocore both brought in a 59.8fps average that was limited by a 60fps software cap on the phone (a suspicion that was further confirmed by running Fps2D and seeing the same behavior). It's a shame that we weren't able to properly quantify the true maximum capability of the Exynos dual-core chip and Mali-400 graphics within, but that Quadrant score can be taken as highly representative of the chasm that exists between the Galaxy S II and smartphones that have come before it. It really is that much better. Put simply, this is the most powerful mobile handset we've yet tested.
Browser performance is superb in terms of speed but a little troubled when it comes to rendering. In our use of the Galaxy S II, we were consistently met with pronounced aliasing when viewing webpages from a more distant, zoomed-out view. There were no issues in terms of the structure of the page, all sites organized themselves exactly as their makers designed them, but pulling out for an overview brought out the jaggy lines and generally looked unattractive. That's not, however, a functional flaw, it's just a superficial scratch on a muscly brawler. In terms of actually navigating webpages, the Galaxy S II is outstanding. Page scrolling is so smooth it borders on slippery, pinch-to-zoom is flawless, and re-orienting the screen from portrait to landscape and back is done in a flash.

Oh, did we say Flash? One entirely aberrant aspect of our review handset was that we couldn't get it to play back any in-browser Flash content. Instead, it encouraged us to upgrade our Flash Player. We did so, downloading and installing Flash Player 10.2, but still had no joy. This seems like an unhappy fluke and we'll see how Samsung responds to our queries on the matter.

Update: Thanks to our reader David, we've now figured out the root of this little problemo. Turns out the browser required us to tick an "enable plugins" box to get Flash running. We did so and, sure enough, in-browser Flash was a go. Frame rates have been consistently high across multiple websites and videos, which is in keeping with the rest of the Galaxy S II's performance.


Android should already be a familiar friend (sometimes foe) to most of you, so we'll just go ahead and dive right into what Samsung has built atop the Android 2.3.3 base on the Galaxy S II with its latest set of OS customizations, dubbed TouchWiz 4.0. For a deeper exploration of what's new and improved in the Gingerbread iteration of Google's operating system, check out our Nexus S review.

We start at the inevitable beginning, namely the lock screen. The Galaxy S II's lock screen won't offer the same hotbed of activity that you might find in HTC's new Sense 3.0, but it does come with some pretty awesome functionality of its own. Missed calls and unread messages become little tabs on the side of your locked GSII, which you may swipe into view and thereby unlock the phone straight into the message or call that needs your attention. It's slick, as fast as everything else on this speedster of a phone, and it adds real utility to your day-to-day use. Speaking of calls, your options when receiving one are to to pick up, hang up, or reject with a text message -- with a slide-up menu offering you the most common apologetic missives to send out. When the shoe's on the other foot and you're seeking to reach out to your nearest and dearest, swiping right on their name in the Contacts list will initiate a call, while swiping left will start the composition of a text. Each contact card also comes with a history of communications between you and the other party, providing gentle reminders of when you last checked in with your neglected friends. The Galaxy S could do some of this fancy stuff too, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that we're looking at genuinely useful additions that enhance the Android user experience.

Long-pressing the Home button brings you to an app switcher exhibiting six of your most recently active apps, with a Task Manager loitering with malicious intent beneath them. Entering that Manager lets you view active tasks along with their RAM and CPU cycle consumption, with an option to kill them if you feel it necessary, and to then flush from the phone's memory any remnants of their operation. Not that you'll really need to be micromanaging either of those things with 1GB of RAM and oodles of processing power, but still, it's a useful feature to have. Also available is a Program Monitor widget for your homescreen that shows the number of active applications at any given time and links you into the same Task Manager menu. Looking at its fluctuating count, we could see the phone was selectively deactivating some apps as we increased the number of open programs. That never led to us losing data or having to restart apps, so whatever resource management is kicking in looks to be doing its job judiciously and with precision.


Samsung also throws a trifecta of motion sensor-assisted functions into the Galaxy S II. The first is something you might be familiar from HTC's Sense: flipping the phone to face the floor mutes all sounds, whether they be incoming calls or media playing on the device. Unlike HTC's implementation, however -- which had an unfortunate tendency to be hit and miss in its recognition -- Samsung's "Turn over" feature works without hitch each and every time. We're big fans of this seemingly benign option because it combines the physical gesture of turning the sound source away from you with the software response of switching all audio off. It feels natural and can be seen as a representation of where phones may and ought to be headed, to a place where they predict and judge your intent using a higher level of intelligence than the usual impassive expectation of conventional input.

The other two motion controls are truly novel and, we suspect, will be quite neat party tricks for Galaxy S II users to show off. Tilt-zoom gives you a new way to zoom within the browser and picture gallery app, whereby you tilt the phone up to enlarge an image or down to shrink it. This is activated by placing two fingers on the screen simultaneously and comes with a sensitivity adjustment for users to tailor it to their whims. We don't know if we'd ever come to use tilt-zoom over the tried and tested pinch-to-zoom functionality -- which is naturally also present here -- but the Galaxy S II makes zooming of any kind a pleasure to behold. As already outlined above, this phone just executes zooms and animations exactly as they were meant to be done. Having dealt with tilting, Samsung also gives us a panning motion function, which comes in handy when reorganizing your homescreens. There are seven of them in total and any grizzled Android user will know the chore of having to transition through multiple screens to get an icon positioned just right. Samsung's bright idea here has been to use the accelerometer to recognize the phone's lateral motion and react to it by moving you through the homescreens. This motion-aided panning is only accessible when you're rearranging your widgets or shortcuts, but once you understand that a 90-degree turn will jump you three homescreens in a given direction, navigation can be made delightfully quick.

The Galaxy S II's onscreen keyboard is terrific, allowing us to get up to a fast typing speed within almost no time at all. Samsung needn't feel too smug about it, though, as this is an almost identical recreation of the default Gingerbread button pad. The Korean company has opted to include a dedicated button for voice input in the place of the comma, which is now relegated to hanging out with the rest of the punctuation crew in the secondary keyboard mode for symbol / numerical input. We're not thrilled by this change, as we use commas a hell of a lot more than voice input, but we recognize the reason why Samsung did it -- two of its pre-launch ads for the Galaxy S II were focused on the use of its Voice Talk feature to perform effortless handsfree communication. Only problem is that the reality of using the Vlingo-powered Voice Talk is more an exercise in frustration than anything else. It's also been given priority by dedicating a double-tap of the Home button to it (from wherever you are on the phone), but once you actually get into the app itself, you clash with slow (purely because of the software) operation, a consistent failure to properly recognize common words, and a generally unrewarding user experience. It's a gimmick, pure and simple. Whatever value you extract from using it will be be the result of sheer stubbornness on your part rather than good software design.

Alas, we can't say anything much more positive about Samsung's set of Hubs on the phone. There are Game, Music, Readers, and Social Hubs, however we found everything other than the ebook reader a waste of time. The Game Hub doesn't yet offer anything that differentiates it from simply searching out games on the Android Market, the Music Hub tries to sell you stuff without providing a compelling reason to jump into yet another online music store, and the Social Hub tries to convince you that you need it to organize all your social feeds, messages, and email. Such centralized control might have been handy earlier on in Android's development, but the native Gmail and Gtalk apps have evolved to provide trouble-free use, while the Twitter client for the platform is now more than mature enough to handle itself. What we're looking at, then, is redundant functionality. The Readers Hub, as we say, is the one that we can see ourselves actually using, mostly owing to the inclusion of the Kobo e-reader software, though it too seems geared more toward selling you stuff than actually serving users' needs.

We'll finish off with a quick run through the rest of Samsung's additions to the Android experience. Sharing over DLNA is made stupidly simple with the AllShare app, and if you're on a Windows PC, you can just browse through the device's stored music, video and pictures and access content on the fly. The whole process is as seamless as it is wireless. The persistent "dock" at the bottom of the homescreen is not customizable (as it is on Sony Ericsson's latest batch of Android phones, for example). It gives you access to your Phone, Contacts, Messaging, and Apps list, and hopes you'll like them, because if you don't... tough! The Applications menu isn't the best we've ever seen either. Don't get us wrong, its navigation exhibits the same stupendous speed and responsiveness as the rest of the phone, but automated reorganization into alphabetical or date order isn't available. You can only switch to a list view or manually rejig the way the apps are listed on each page. Screenshots of whatever the Galaxy S II is displaying can be taken by pressing the Home and power buttons simultaneously. It's not yet a common feature among Android devices, but we'd like it to become one. We're also happy to see Samsung maintain its long-held tradition of providing some of the weirdest ringtones around, the vast majority of which seem wholly unsuitable for anyone but the most obnoxious of users. Nevertheless, we did manage to unearth a rare gem in the Cassiopeia tone, which sounds like a slowed-down version of the Metal Gear Solid codec chime.



For a handset with such a broad range of standout features and specs, the Galaxy S II is remarkably easy to summarize. It's the best Android smartphone yet, but more importantly, it might well be the best smartphone, period. Of course, a 4.3-inch screen size won't suit everyone, no matter how stupendously thin the device that carries it may be, and we also can't say for sure that the Galaxy S II would justify a long-term iOS user foresaking his investment into one ecosystem and making the leap to another. Nonetheless, if you're asking us what smartphone to buy today, unconstrained by such externalities, the Galaxy S II would be the clear choice. Sometimes it's just as simple as that.

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Visualized: growing up in arcades

By Joseph L. Flatley posted 28th 2011 Apr 3:26 PM
If you something like uns-- and you are - you can quite nostalgic (and often downright tears in my eyes) If your geek past to look at. Why we know you will just love our latest favorite Flickr pool, growing up in arcades has: 1979-1989. We would like to stay and chat, but there are well over a hundred images with stonewashed jeans, cheesy mustaches and coin-op console games, we die to check out. Joining us feel like? Press the source link.

[Photo credit: Dave's portfolio]


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Ubuntu 11.04 ' natty narwhal ' new unit brings controversy to the desktop UI,

By Terrence O'Brien posted 28th 2011 Apr 4:18 PM Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhalit is April, the fourth month of the year, and this means, it's time for a new version of Ubuntu. (Also true in the tenth month of the year-which keep canonical folks how busy.) Ubuntu 11.04, or natty demand narwhal, such as the children, is here and packaging to some significant changes from previous editions of the Linux distribution. The most obvious is the arrival of the unity desktop environment, earlier Netbooks descent. It has integrated search, a combination of launcher and taskbar and app menu, at the top of the screen à la OS X-were moved basically has harvested the best ideas from Apple and Microsoft, and a pretty coat of paint on it splashed eggplant. The new user interface is not without its critics and reportedly has some stability issues, but you can always "Ubuntu classic" GNOME-stick with. The update also makes Firefox 4 browser and replaced the Rhythmbox Music Manager by the leaner and functional Banshee. Hit up the source link to download the 700 MB ISO-it's free and you can use it without installing, so what is there to lose?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]


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