Filed under: Consumer electronics

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RIM launches PlayBook, but fans don’t play along

Research In Motion’s PlayBook tablet computer launched in thousands of stores on Tuesday and mostly stayed there, a grim reminder of Apple’s lasting allure for tech-hungry consumers.

By mid-afternoon, two carriers and two electronic stores in one of downtown Toronto’s main shopping malls — where long lines greeted last month’s iPad 2 launch — had stock available. Each started the day with no more than 5 PlayBooks. Get the full story »

Electronic eyeglasses could mean end of bifocals

Electronic eyeglasses being charged. (PixelOptics)

If you’re reading these words through bifocals or progressive lenses, your life could change in June. That’s when a company called PixelOptics in Roanoke, Va., plans to release emPower, a line of electronic eyeglasses that let wearers toggle between two prescriptions, with settings for close-up and distance vision. Get the full story »

Best Buys plans smaller stores, more online sales

A Best Buy store in Alexandria, Va. (Reuters)

Best Buy Co. Inc. plans to boost its Web presence and open a greater number of small stores in the United States targeting mobile customers in an effort to win back market share from the likes of Amazon.com Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc .

The news came after many investors had raised concerns about the retailer’s huge overhead costs and oversized stores at a time when many shoppers go online to buy gadgets. Get the full story »

Planned Internet wireless network threatens GPS

A new, ultra-fast wireless Internet network is threatening to overpower GPS signals across the U.S. and interfere with everything from airplanes to police cars to consumer navigation devices.

The problem stems from a recent government decision to let a Virginia company called LightSquared build a nationwide broadband network using airwaves next to those used for GPS. Manufacturers of GPS equipment warn that strong signals from the planned network could jam existing navigation systems. Get the full story »

Texas Instruments buys National Semiconductor

Texas Instruments Inc. is buying National Semiconductor Corp. for about $6.5 billion in cash, paying a nearly 80 percent premium for the analog chipmaker. Get the full story »

Court dismisses challenges to ‘open’ Net rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismissed on Monday challenges to an “open” Internet order adopted by the Federal Communications Commission last year.

The court said the challenges filed by Verizon Communications Inc. and MetroPCS Communications Inc. were premature, knocking down the companies’ claims that the rules would modify wireless licenses they hold. Get the full story »

Google working on mobile payment technology

Google is joining Citigroup and Mastercard to set up a mobile payment system that will turn Android phones into a kind of electronic wallet, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Nintendo hopes high as 3DS hits U.S. market

A man tries out a Nintendo 3DS, which displays graphics in 3D without the use of 3D glasses, in Paris on March 24, 2011. (Elodie Le Maou/AFP/Getty Images)

Having watched its once-mighty handheld-gaming business come under attack by touch-screen smartphones sporting $1 game apps, Nintendo Co. is betting big that it can keep gamers paying for what it considers a premium experience.

This weekend, the Japanese videogame giant  will launch the 3DS as its latest entry into a fast-changing market. Modeled after its hugely popular DS console, the gizmo is the first gaming console dedicated to 3D games — without the need for special glasses. The device carries a price tag of $250, and games have been priced at $40 apiece. Get the full story »

Apple’s iPad 2 hits overseas stores after U.S. sellout

Hundreds of customers formed long lines outside Apple stores on Friday for the international launch of the iPad 2, which has flown off the shelves in the United States and left the company struggling to meet demand. Get the full story »

RIM shares fall after weaker-than-expected outlook

Research In Motion’s net profit jumped 32 percent in quarterly profit, but it issued a weaker-than-expected outlook as it pumped money into the launch of its PlayBook tablet computer. Get the full story »

Microsoft sues Barnes & Noble over Nook

A customer tries out a Nook electronic book reader at a Barnes and Noble. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Microsoft Corp. sued Barnes & Noble Inc. and the manufacturers of Barnes & Noble’s Nook electronic book device, escalating a series of patent battles over gadgets based on Google Inc.’s Android operating system.  Get the full story »

AT&T, T-Mobile deal may mean higher prices

AT&T’s surprise $39-billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc. could lead to more consolidation in the U.S wireless industry, leaving the market with just two dominant providers — and the prospect of higher rates and fewer choices for consumers.

If approved by regulators, the newly expanded AT&T Inc. would have 130 million subscribers, allowing it to leapfrog arch-rival Verizon Wireless and its 94 million customers to become by far the nation’s largest wireless carrier. Sprint Nextel Corp. would be a distant third.

Users complain iPhone clock bungles time change

From the Associated Press | Users of Apple’s iPhone peppered Twitter and blogs with complaints that their phones bungled the one-hour “spring forward” to daylight savings time that went into effect overnight Saturday.

Some users’ phones fell back one hour instead of springing forward, making the time displayed on the iPhone two hours off. This is just the latest clock woe for Apple’s chic iPhone. A clock glitch prevented alarms from sounding on New Year’s Day, causing slumbering revelers to oversleep. The devices also struggled to adjust to the end of daylight savings time back in November. Get the full story>>

Apple iPad 2 sells out in first weekend

(Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Apple Inc.’s new iPad 2 flew off of the shelves on its first weekend. The company’s stores in major U.S. cities had sold out of the updated tablet device within hours of its introduction at 5 p.m. local time Friday, according to surveys by analysts. On Sunday, Apple’s online store was showing a shipping delay of three to four weeks for all of the versions of the iPad 2.

Analysts put sales of the new iPad in the range of 400,000 to 600,000 units during its first three days on the market, about the same range as the original model sold its first week. Get the full story »

iFans line up again — this time for iPad 2

The iPad 2 line formed early outside the Apple Store on North Michigan Avenue. (Phil Velasquez/Tribune)

They could have placed an online order early Friday morning. They could have waited until next week.

But that is not the way of Apple fans. That’s why hundreds of them lined up outside the Michigan Avenue Apple Store Friday to buy the iPad 2, the company’s second-generation tablet computer. Get the full story »