| Posted by admin on May 3
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May 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Laptops
While some of the benefits of SSDs may be in question these days, it looks like those still itching to take the plunge on an SSD-equipped Macbook Air can now at least save a few bucks, as the premium add-on has just received a much needed price cut. At $599 for the upgrade option on the 1.6GHz model and $2,598 for the pre-configured 1.8GHz model, however, it still isn’t exactly a no-brainer, especially considering some of the prices we’re seeing now for larger drives. Slightly more palatable though, is the 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo upgrade option on the base model, which is now $100 cheaper at just $200.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
July 4 was the date, but hey, what’s the harm in opening up the floodgates just a handful of hours early? Get past the lack of 3G, EDGE, camera, and a rock-solid set of tested, commercialized apps, and open-source phoning nirvana can now be yours for $399 on the plastic.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Ever walk through Times Square and wonder how much electricity all those flashy billboards are soaking up? No? Well, Ricoh has, and now they’re doing something about it. Ricoh Company Ltd. of Tokyo is erecting a 47 x 126-foot billboard at Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street that will be completely powered by the sun and wind. Fueled by 45 solar panels and four wind turbines, the billboard won’t even need a backup electric generator. On days that the sun and wind aren’t enough to power it, it will simply go dark. In the end, the billboard is said to reduce carbon dioxide usage by 18 tons a year. The billboard will go live in December, or just in time for the sun to go dark.
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
While it’s not nearly exciting as their Space Cycle (but really, what is?), the National Space Biomedical Research Institute’s new brain scanner here looks to fill in a niche of its own nonetheless and, if the institute has its way, it could actually find its way into space. Described as a “brain breathalyzer,” the device promises to monitor astronauts for signs of brain injury, depression and mental fatigue, which could allow mission control to determine if they’re capable of carrying out a mission or not. That’s done with the use of an optical scanner that sends weak pulses of near-infrared light into the brain, which gets reflected back to determine the amount of oxygen in the blood. While NASA isn’t fully sold on the idea just yet, it apparently is interested enough to shell out $400,000 to further the development of the scanner, which it hopes will also eventually be able to monitor other vital signs like blood pressure and heart rate.
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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CNET - A fresh look at Yahoo’s search results Thursday by Hitwise Intelligence raises the question of whether Yahoo could survive just fine without its search engine.
See the original post here:
Yahoo’s top U.S. sites get traffic help from Google search
(CNET)
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Reuters - The deteriorating U.S. economy and
slumping stock prices will frame discussions among top media
and technology executives at the 26th annual Allen & Co confab
in Sun Valley, Idaho, next week.
See the rest here:
Economy casts pall on Sun Valley media fest
(Reuters)
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Cellphones
Fired up to capitalize on some of the hype Sprint has managed to drum up for the Instinct down in the States, Samsung’s taking its iPhone fighter north of the border for a promised intro later this summer. Bell Mobility is the lucky partner (seriously, Telus, you probably should’ve hustled Samsung a little harder for this one), launching at price points ranging from $149.95 up to $449.95 for a three-year contract all the way down to zero commitment. Features and software look like they’re all carrying over from their stateside cousin, although the UI’s looking just a little bit less Sprint-ified (read: no yellow tinge). Nice.
[Via MobileSyrup]
Update: There are rumors that Telus is slated to pick it up, too, but we haven’t seen anything solid just yet. We’ll let you know.
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/software/Apple_accidentally_ships_MobileMe_to_Mac_customers’; Apparently someone at Apple HQ got a little trigger happy on shipments of MobileMe. According to reports, the company mistakenly mailed boxes of the all-syncing, ever-loving software to at least a couple of current .Mac users ahead of schedule. When Apple was alerted to the gaffe, the user was told that a courier would be by to pick it up the next day. One question: why would you tell Apple?
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Reuters - If “American Idol” and a modern
fairy tale combined to create a video game, you’d get “Boogie
SuperStar” — Electronic Art’s latest game for the Nintendo Wii
system.
Read the rest here:
Game makers eye young girls with “Boogie SuperStar”
(Reuters)
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Storage
Nanowires being used for memory is hardly a new idea, but a group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania seem confident that they’ve found a way to leapfrog the competition, and shake up storage devices as we know them. Unlike other nanowire-based memory methods, their system employs a non-binary form of nanowire memory, which makes it possible to store three bit values (0, 1, and 2) instead of the usual two (0 and 1) — crazy talk, we know. That, the researchers say, allows for a “huge increase” in memory density, with fewer nanowires needed to store the same amount of information as a binary nanowire-based memory system, which’d also make the actual devices smaller. Of course, that’s assuming any of this stuff actually gets out of the lab, which seems to be a long ways off at best.
[Thanks, Dwight]
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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NewsFactor - I first met our solution provider, Ray Tetlow, the founder of Skyytek, on the Oracle Small Business (OSB from now on) user forum. At the time we were struggling with version 7 of OSB. It was really incomplete and badly tested software. Not only was it painfully slow, but also a lot of the features on which we based our purchasing decision just did not work.
More:
Blogger Opinion: Why We Left NetSuite
(NewsFactor)
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Cellphones
It’s been a long, long time since we’ve heard from Germany’s “Future Store” — the ultra-futuristic German grocery store that might have sprung directly from the Sprawl trilogy — but they’ve got a new feature we thought you might be interested in. Shoppers in the store can now use camera-equipped cellphones (i.e., cellphones) to snap pictures of item barcodes, and then download the information at the checkout when they’re finished shopping. The system totals all of your purchases into one big, nasty barcode which you then scan and pony up cash (or cards, or fingerprints, or magical rainbow juice) for. It’s unclear how to store handles shoppers who don’t scan everything they’ve got in their cart, but if it’s anything like our favorite books, it’s not pretty.
[Via PHONE Magazine]
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Storage
If you were shaken to your very core at the recent report that SSDs may not be as power-friendly as you’d been led to believe, drive-maker STEC wants to talk you down from the ledge. According to the company’s Patrick Wilkison, the Tom’s Hardware article which benchmarked (and gave failing grades) to power-consumption of the non-mechanical drives was flawed because, “They are using legacy drives, none of which will be used by any major PC OEM.” According to Patrick (whose job, you might note, is to sell SSDs), new versions of the drives will / do have intelligent power management which circumvents the issues that report shed light on. Wilison goes on to say that, “Drives will need to have very intelligent power management systems. Some of these SSDs will have them, and those (that) do not have such power intelligence will not be used (by PC makers).” So it’s sort of like saying a car you buy in the future will get better gas mileage than the one you own now, provided the automaker cares about fuel efficiency. Small solace, we’d say.
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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NewsFactor - Sony is feeling some gaming-division woes this week with a double PlayStation 3 whammy. First, Sony’s PlayStation Web site fell victim to SQL-injection attacks. Now Sony’s PS3 firmware update is turning some consoles into bricks.
See the rest here:
Sony PS3 Update Locks Consoles, Web Site Attacked
(NewsFactor)
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Gaming
According to a report in the Economic Times, Sony will be introducing a slimmer (well, “slimer” if you want the direct quote), sleeker, and “more suave” version of the PS2 in Indian and European markets come Fall. If you believe what you read, the new system will include a built-in power supply, will make its debut by Diwali (which falls on October 28th), and will keep the current sticker price of Rs 6,990 (or about $162). The article also claims that Sony will bring its PlayStation Network to India by the end of the year, which should make a lot of competition hungry gamers very happy. Sony reps say that the move is driven by the belief that, “Console gaming is in its nascent stage in India,” adding, “We have no plans to phase out PS2 anytime soon.” The PS2: you just can’t kill it!
[Via Joystiq]
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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AP - A baby boy removed from his parents’ custody after they offered to sell him on eBay for just a euro
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Using the search term “smileys”, Google churns out 28,200,000 results; Yahoo with 94,000,000. The figures indicate the increasing popularity of cool smileys and emoticons with the way people communicate on the internet today. No wonder, smiley and emoticon providers have proliferated like mushrooms on the internet; each claiming their bunch of cool smileys is the best.
Read more here:
4 Things That Make Cool Smileys Really Cool Software
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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AP - The Bee Gees’ Robin Gibb and other European music composers warned Thursday that standardizing music royalties across Europe could hurt musicians and the songs they write.
Read the original post:
EU musicians oppose Europe-wide online licensing
(AP)
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Filed under: Storage
Just when solid-state drives were about to catch up to the spinners, Hitachi has gone and announced that it is working on a 5TB hard drive. It says the drive should be available by 2010 in a 3.5-inch format and will use perpendicular CPP-GMR tech to achieve some serious density. Just to show off, Hitachi’s Yoshiro Shiroishi pointed out that the human brain has been estimated at (only?) around 10TB. So there we have it — we’re halfway to intellectual obsolescence. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
[Via TechDigest]
Jul 3
| Posted by on Jul 3
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Reuters - The world’s top cellphone maker Nokia
said on Thursday it had signed a cooperation agreement with
Norwegian telcom group Telenor for its “Ovi” Internet services
platform.
View post:
Nokia and Telenor sign Internet services deal
(Reuters)
Jul 3