Samsung SpinPoint M6 500GB laptop drive finally on sale… in France May 6, 2008
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Switched On: The Linux ultraportable opportunity
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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.
The US smartphone market may continue to be dominated by mobile platforms from Apple, Microsoft, and RIM, but Linux has been creeping into ever more mobile devices in the last few years. Some Motorola RAZR 2 models have donned a Tux, Palm is looking to Linux to drive its next-generation consumer smartphones, and Android's backers hope to spread it to an even wider array of handsets. Linux is also driving many avant garde connected consumer electronics devices such as the Chumby, Nokia N810, Amazon Kindle, Dash Express, and whatever the fertile minds tinkering with Bug Labs' modules are envisioning,. Even the remote control that houses the user interface of Logitech's Squeezebox Duet is a Linux computer.
However, none of these products are intended for as flexible a range of uses as a notebook PC, where Linux is being tested as a tool to achieve lower price points on a new generation of low-cost but style-conscious ultaportables. ASUS set the pace with Xandros on the Eee PC, and HP has tapped Novel SuSE Linux for the 2133 Mini-Note, but whereas the Eee's positioning has been somewhat of a loose hybrid between an adult OLPC and the Nintendo Wii's culture of global inclusion, the HP Mini-Note has been strongly focused on reckless, immature students while acknowledging potential for senior executives that have been known to share their temperament.
Continue reading Switched On: The Linux ultraportable opportunity
Permalink | Email this | CommentsSamsung LN46A550 LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment This all-around excellent TV is easy to use and a delight to the eyes.Toshiba 46XF550U LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment This underpowered, overpriced HDTV does not stand up well to the competition.Toshiba 46XF550U LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment This underpowered, overpriced HDTV does not stand up well to the competition.Samsung LN46A550 LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment This all-around excellent TV is easy to use and a delight to the eyes.BT said to be prepping a “BlackBerry-style” hybrid handset
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Britain's top fixed-line carrier is apparently aiming to get back in the handset game, as Times Online is reporting that said company will reveal a "BlackBerry-styled" device that does everything your typical smartphone can along with one extra inclusion. According to the writeup, the forthcoming device will "switch from BT's wireless Home Hub indoors to Vodafone's network on the move," and it's expected to be sold with a broadband package. Of course, those familiar with BT will recall that this isn't the outfit's first foray in the sector, but it's hoping the new handset will fare a good bit better than the poorly received BT Fusion. So, how's about a picture of this thing?[Via Pocket-lint]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sprint, Clearwire set to announce $12B WiMAX deal with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Intel, and Google?
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Solar-powered hearing aids improve life in developing nations
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Truthiness Challenge, Google Bombing Earn Colbert Top Webby Accolade
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The winners of the 12th Annual Webby Awards were announced Tuesday. Taking home top honors was comedian Stephen Colbert as the Internet's "Person of the Year." Other big name honorees include Will.i.am for "Artist of the Year" and Michael Gondry, who won "Film & Video Person of the Year." Colbert received the award for his innovative use of the Internet to interact with fans of "The Colbert Report." That includes Google bombing to make him the top search result for "greatest living American" to challenging the "truthiness" of Wikipedia, the organization said.
Intel brings DirectX 10 to integrated graphics, NVIDIA says not so fast
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Intel has been boasting of DirectX 10 support for its various integrated graphics options for some time now, but it's only just recently gotten around to actually releasing a Vista driver that brings its GM965 and G35 Express chipsets up to speed. Of course, NVIDIA just couldn't help itself from getting a few (more) digs in at Intel's expense, and it's now kindly provided a few benchmarks to show just how badly Intel's integrated DirectX 10 solution stacks up against the bleeding-edge DirectX 10-ready games it now ostensibly supports. They couldn't find a single game that was able to crank out more than 5 fps, even at a lowly 1280 x 1024 resolution and with the usual graphics intensive settings turned off. Then again, 4.4 fps in Crysis is pretty much par for the course.Read - Crave, "Intel updates graphics with multimedia capabilities"
Read - Hardware Secrets, "Are Intel chipsets really capable of running DirectX 10 games?"Permalink | Email this | Comments
Intel brings DirectX 10 to integrated graphics, NVIDIA says not so fast
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Intel has been boasting of DirectX 10 support for its various integrated graphics options for some time now, but it's only just recently gotten around to actually releasing a Vista driver that brings its GM965 and G35 Express chipsets up to speed. Of course, NVIDIA just couldn't help itself from getting a few (more) digs in at Intel's expense, and it's now kindly provided a few benchmarks to show just how badly Intel's integrated DirectX 10 solution stacks up against the bleeding-edge DirectX 10-ready games it now ostensibly supports. They couldn't find a single game that was able to crank out more than 5 fps, even at a lowly 1280 x 1024 resolution and with the usual graphics intensive settings turned off. Then again, 4.4 fps in Crysis is pretty much par for the course.Read - Crave, "Intel updates graphics with multimedia capabilities"
Read - Hardware Secrets, "Are Intel chipsets really capable of running DirectX 10 games?"Permalink | Email this | Comments
MovieBeam to have one last go at it?
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MovieBeam to have one last go at it?
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BlackBerry Curve now available on Verizon
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P.S.- Sorry, Sprint subscribers, we still don't know when you're getting this one, apart from "mid-May."
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BlackBerry Curve now available on Verizon
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P.S.- Sorry, Sprint subscribers, we still don't know when you're getting this one, apart from "mid-May."
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Windows XP SP3 hits Windows Update, Vista SP1 makes a comeback
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At last the moment you've been waiting for. Microsoft wants to hit your version of Windows with an update, and this time you don't have to go rummaging around the internet to find it: just fire up Windows Update and let Microsoft do all the work. After a few false starts XP users get the much-anticipated SP3 update, which promises speed boosts and some of the fancy security features found in Vista. If you're a Vista user you're also in luck, since Microsoft has restarted its Vista SP1 distribution after some compatibility problems with Microsoft Dynamics RMS. Sounds like a party.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Permalink | Email this | Comments
Semi Heavies Push Fabs to Upsize Wafers
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A trio of semiconductor companies have banded together in a joint effort to push the industry into transitioning to a larger, 450mm-sized wafer by 2012. Led by Intel, Samsung and TSMC, the idea is to line up the industry so that all of the required components and manufacturing needs are developed in time to benefit from the larger design. The intended benefit: Lowering the production cost of a computer chip. Basically, a wafer is a slice of semiconductor material that's formed in a consistent crystalline process that provides the basis for microprocessors.
Motorola’s cellphone business needs a new leader: okay, I’m in.
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Yesterday Motorola CEO Greg Brown told board members and shareholders that, among a lot of other bad news, the company is no closer to finding someone to lead the company's rotting cellphone business (which Moto is in the middle of spinning off as its "Mobile Devices" unit). One shareholder remarked, "You're not doing your job that you're paid for. Either put up or get out." That investor, like the rest of us, has witnessed the slow-mo train wreck that's been that handset business in the days since the RAZR peaked; the things brought to light in the insider letter I published on Engadget just reinforces the fact that it's time for a change at the top. Some even suggested that I take over Motorola's handset business. I thought it over -- okay, I'll bite if Greg does.
The problem with so many American technology companies today -- especially in the mobile space -- is that while they have no dearth of business acumen at the top of the pyramid, they're typically dry on vision and foresight. They spend brief periods of time innovating, and then milk a technology, brand, patent, or some combination therein for as long as they can get away with it (or in Moto's case, way longer). They play it safe and go for the easy money. Motorola's handset business has come to define this in the gadget world.
Continue reading Motorola's cellphone business needs a new leader: okay, I'm in.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsZune Gives Marketplace a Makeover
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Microsoft's challenger in the digital media player market, the Zune, received a major update Tuesday. New features will bring a host of TV shows and other changes to the Zune online store and its music-sharing community, Zune Social, according to Microsoft. The update will give depth to the Zune's video offerings and also deepen the social components of its music sharing community. Zune users can now head to the Zune online store for more than just music.
Zune Gives Marketplace a Makeover
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Microsoft's challenger in the digital media player market, the Zune, received a major update Tuesday. New features will bring a host of TV shows and other changes to the Zune online store and its music-sharing community, Zune Social, according to Microsoft. The update will give depth to the Zune's video offerings and also deepen the social components of its music sharing community. Zune users can now head to the Zune online store for more than just music.
Dell boils “hip” down to $699 Mike Ming Inspiron 1525 laptops
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Continue reading Dell boils "hip" down to $699 Mike Ming Inspiron 1525 laptops
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsMicrosoft, Yahoo Game Going Into Extra Innings?
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The collapse of this weekend's negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo looked like game over. When the news first broke that Microsoft was walking away from its $44 billion bid, it seemed as though Redmond was the loser: It had tried a high-stakes, high-profile acquisition gambit and failed. Its defeat may have seemed the result of poor strategizing. It may have seemed that CEO Steve Ballmer just didn't have enough moxie to pull off a win.
Panasonic’s DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player gets US release
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Acer rolls out Business, Value series monitors aplenty
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Never one to skimp on a product launch, Acer has once again gone all out with its latest batch of monitors, with this one consisting of no less than eleven new LCDs that fall into two different product lines. On the lower-end of the lot, you can look forward to 17- and 19-inch 4:3 displays (model numbers V173 and V193), and 19-, 22-, and 24-inch 16:10 displays (V193W, V223W, and V243W) in the company's Value series line, each of which apparently boast 5 ms response times, 2,000:1 or 3,000:1 contrast ratios, VGA and DVI (with HDCP) ports, and presumably all the usual resolutions for their respective sizes. Moving on up a bit, the Business series models add a "stylish and elegant black bezel and base," and again come in 17- and 19-inch 4:3 models (B173 and B193), as well as 19-, 20-, 22-, and 24-inch models (B193W, B203W, B223W, and B243W), with each apparently otherwise boasting the same specs as the Value series models. From the looks of it, you can get your hands on any one of 'em right now, with prices ranging from a mere $185 (list price) to $399 for the top-end Business series model.
Acer rolls out Business, Value series monitors aplenty
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Never one to skimp on a product launch, Acer has once again gone all out with its latest batch of monitors, with this one consisting of no less than eleven new LCDs that fall into two different product lines. On the lower-end of the lot, you can look forward to 17- and 19-inch 4:3 displays (model numbers V173 and V193), and 19-, 22-, and 24-inch 16:10 displays (V193W, V223W, and V243W) in the company's Value series line, each of which apparently boast 5 ms response times, 2,000:1 or 3,000:1 contrast ratios, VGA and DVI (with HDCP) ports, and presumably all the usual resolutions for their respective sizes. Moving on up a bit, the Business series models add a "stylish and elegant black bezel and base," and again come in 17- and 19-inch 4:3 models (B173 and B193), as well as 19-, 20-, 22-, and 24-inch models (B193W, B203W, B223W, and B243W), with each apparently otherwise boasting the same specs as the Value series models. From the looks of it, you can get your hands on any one of 'em right now, with prices ranging from a mere $185 (list price) to $399 for the top-end Business series model.
Logitech G15 Keyboard (Revision 2)
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Logitech's revised version of its already distinctive G15 gaming keyboard adds polish and trims some of the fat. Throw in the now-mature user community that churns out lots of homebrew apps for the built-in LCD screen, and we'd recommend this keyboard to any PC gamer as a unique, useful, and customizable input device.Researchers develop copper nanowires for field-emission displays
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It's been a little while since we've heard of any significant progress in field-emission displays, but a group of researchers at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign now seem to be shaking things up a bit, with them touting new copper nanowires that could one day be used for ultra-thin FED screens. Specifically, the copper nanowires developed by Kyekyoon Kim and Hyungsoo Choi are between 70 nanometers and 250 nanometers wide, and can be "grown" on various surfaces including silicon, glass, metal, and plastic. As Technology Review reports, in the case of field-emission displays, the nanowires would be used to fire electrons at phosphor particles on a screen to light them up. That process would result in displays that are not only thinner than traditional flat-panel displays, but brighter and more energy-efficient as well -- assuming they ever find their way out of the lab, that is.
Syntax-Brillian Olevia 747i LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Badly designed set has a very good picture to compensate for its shortcomings.Westinghouse TX-47F450S LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment A decent but unspectacular TV at a very good price makes for a good bargain buy.Westinghouse TX-47F450S LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment A decent but unspectacular TV at a very good price makes for a good bargain buy.Syntax-Brillian Olevia 747i LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Badly designed set has a very good picture to compensate for its shortcomings.Vizio VO47LF LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Great image quality and a fantastic price make this HDTV impossible to overlook.Vizio VO47LF LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Great image quality and a fantastic price make this HDTV impossible to overlook.Sony DVP-FX820 (black)
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Despite a few drawbacks, the combination of a stunning high-resolution screen, long battery life, and impressive design make the Sony DVP-FX820 a winning portable DVD player.Sony DVP-FX820 (white)
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Despite a few drawbacks, the combination of a stunning high-resolution screen, long battery life, and impressive design make the Sony DVP-FX820 a winning portable DVD player.Sony DVP-FX820 (red)
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Despite a few drawbacks, the combination of a stunning high-resolution screen, long battery life, and impressive design make the Sony DVP-FX820 a winning portable DVD player.Sony DVP-FX820 (blue)
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Despite a few drawbacks, the combination of a stunning high-resolution screen, long battery life, and impressive design make the Sony DVP-FX820 a winning portable DVD player.Sony DVP-FX820 (pink)
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment Despite a few drawbacks, the combination of a stunning high-resolution screen, long battery life, and impressive design make the Sony DVP-FX820 a winning portable DVD player.Blackberry 9000 to come in EV-DO and EDGE versions codenamed Javelin and Niagara
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Mitsubishi LT-46244 LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment An okay TV at an exorbitant price makes for a losing combination.Soyo SYXRT4791AB LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment A very appealing price and good speakers aren't enough to offset this TV's poor picture quality.Soyo SYXRT4791AB LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment A very appealing price and good speakers aren't enough to offset this TV's poor picture quality.Mitsubishi LT-46244 LCD HDTV
Posted by admin in : Tech Reviews , add a comment An okay TV at an exorbitant price makes for a losing combination.Leaked AT&T memo points to 3G iPhone release in late June?
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