LG.Philips develops 2.4-inch a-Si LCD with 1mm bezel
[Via AkihabaraNews]
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
[Via AkihabaraNews]
Featured Windows Download: Export Hardware Drivers with DriverMax
Windows only: Want to format your hard drive and reinstall Windows but you're not sure you have all the hardware driver disks to get everything working again? Free utility DriverMax analyzes XP or Vista systems for installed hardware drivers and exports them to a folder or external drive. Install DriverMax on a newly built system and import those drivers to get everything from your video card to TV tuner working again. I didn't have the chance to test DriverMax's import function on a clean system, so do image your hard drive just in case. DriverMax isn't the most modern-looking application and you have to hand over an email address to get a free registration code (Boo!). DriverMax is a free download for Windows XP and Vista.
DriverMax [via How-To Geek]
Cars: Man Drives From NY to LA in 31 hours and 4 minutes (Gadgets Helped)
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Alex Roy was just recognized as the record holder for driving from NY to Santa Monica pier in 31 hours and 4 minutes, besting the time set by "David Diem and Doug Turner clocked in a Ferrari 308 during the 1983 US Express run" of 32 hours and seven minutes. That's 89MPH for over 31 hours. What's made me especially proud is that Alex wrote about automotive laser jammers and radio scanners for Gizmodo under a previous regime. The seven time world rally champ avoided cops and found his way with a dash full of gadgets, including multiple scanners, jammers, detectors, and other mods on his BMW M5. Equipment is documented in the video above, but one thing not emphasized is that the guy had a plane spotting police activity en route. 
The actual time was verified by gas station timestamps on credit card receipts and by Jalopnik editors who witnessed the start and finishes, but Guinness won't have anything to do with verifying illegal acts. The actual race happened a little over a year ago, but Alex couldn't tell anyone of his exploits until the statute of limitations was up in all states he drove through. Congrats to Alex for his spectacular performance. For all the details, there's more at Jalopnik [Departure, Finish, the Record and Gear]
PS Ray Wert, editor at Jalopnik ends the coverage on a sober note, wondering how many more times this record can be beaten before people start dying.
PMP: Oppo Super Five PMP Can Handle a Ton of Formats
Nokia's S60 Touch Interface demonstrated
Continue reading Nokia's S60 Touch Interface demonstrated
Apple lowering DRM-free tracks to $0.99 -- embracing Indies?
[Via MacRumors]
Monday, October 15, 2007
Verizon Wireless: Verizon Shares Your Call Data Unless You Opt-Out
In the Lab: Cleaner Stoves to Stop a Silent Killer
Here's betting you've never heard of one of the world's top ten killers: indoor air pollution. Every day roughly 3 billion people around the world cook and heat their homes by burning biomass such as wood, crop waste, and dung without proper ventilation, and, according to the World Health Organization, the resulting toxic air accounts for a staggering 1.6 million deaths a year — one death every 20 seconds. Indoor air pollution is five times more lethal than outdoor pollution, and its effects range from pneumonia (especially in children) to lung cancer and tuberculosis.
The solution is clean-burning stoves, and a sustainable business plan to get them where they're needed. Enter the Shell Foundation, an independent UK-based charity established by Shell Group (RDS) in 2000. The foundation is partnering with Envirofit, a four-year-old nonprofit with ties to Colorado State University's Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory, to develop, market and distribute new clean-burning stove technology.
Envirofit's market plan does not rely on donating or subsidies; rather, it relies on consumer-focused market mechanisms to drive demand. The Shell Foundation, itself business-focused, has committed $25 million over five years to bring 10 million clean-burning stoves to the market, with an initial focus on India.
NEC intros diminutive US110 thin-client PC
Filed under: Desktops
[Via AkihabaraNews]
Hitachi breakthrough: 4TB disks by 2011
When Hitachi -- the first disk manufacturer to go perpendicular and subsequently break the 1TB consumer disk drive barrier -- speaks about advances in hard disk technology, you'd be wise to listen. Today they're touting the world's smallest read-head technology for HDDs. The bold claim? 4TB desktop (3.5-inch) and 1TB laptop (2.5-inch) drives within the next 4 years. The new recording heads are more than 2x smaller than existing gear or about 2,000 times smaller than a human hair. Hmmm, Samsung may have to update their SSD vs. HDD graph after this, eh?
Nokia's N95 8GB released with a Spider-Man 3 surprise
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio , Portable Video
Read -- N95 8GB says "Ship Me!"
Read -- Spiderman 3 bundle
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Supply Side Economics Fail Music Industry Again
The latest brainwave from the besieged music industry is the proposal to offer free music to end users via the Total Music brand. Spawned by Universal Music, Total Music looks likely to sign the big four record labels and a range of smaller firms as well, with Sony BMG on board and Warner Music looking as it will be as well.
Free is the ultimate selling point in market side economics, because ultimately you can't beat the opportunity cost of zero. But here's the catch: Total Music may market itself as offering free unlimited music, but it's not really free, the cost is just hidden. That cost: $90 per device for access to Total Music, based on $5 per month over 18 months (the figures Universal are using). In our above example Microsoft has decided not to absorb the $90 Total Music charge but has instead added it to the price on the 4gb Zune, taking the total price to $239. Which would you buy?
In the Zune example Microsoft may embrace the Total Music model and subsidize the subscription costs. Say that Microsoft split the difference and the Zune went from $149 to only $194, it's a better figure but it's still $45 more that the iPod. Could Microsoft absorb the whole price? Unlikely; after all why would it willfully hand over $90 of a $149 product, which we presume would certainly destroy Microsoft's product margin on the Zune, and could even make each sale a loss.
I've used Microsoft as an example but it could be any company with a music player that isn't Apple. Universal is looking at targeting anything that plays music, so aside from MP3 players you could be seeing this hidden cost built into mobile phones, media streaming devices and perhaps even computers.
I should note that some people like their music legal and will pay a premium, but given a $90 price difference this is unlikely to be a majority of buyers, particularly when the iPod offers legal options as well, options that are a choice and not an imposed upfront cost to the buyer.
The music industry may talk about free music, but all it is doing with Total Music is shifting the point in which the consumer pays to one that isn't nearly as transparent as iTunes.
More details at CrunchGear.
Email: Verify an Email Address
If, for whatever reason, you need to verify someone's email address, try Verify-Email.org, a free email address verifier. Just enter in the email addy, click "verify",and go. The format, domain, and user are all checked by actually connecting to the mail server to see if everything is kopasetic. Somewhat disconcerting, but sure to come in handy in some way.
Information: Explore Medical Terms Visually with Curehunter
CureHunter [via Research Buzz ]
Small Lovin: Fit-PC Sips on 5W of Power, Is Super Tiny
At 5" long and only 1.5" thick, the Fit-PC will fit anywhere. And at $285, we think we're in eco-love. But what did ExtremeTech have to say about the function?
We fired up Firefox and spent some time browsing the web. Some Flash-intensive web sites rendered slowly, but most web browsing seemed no worse than running on an older laptop with integrated graphics. We also loaded up OpenOffice apps to check them out. After we had six windows (and six apps) running, the system definitely became sluggish...So as expected, the Fit-PC is no powerhouse. But it's a really neat little piece of tech. [extremetech via slashdot]While you can build a PC that's nearly as inexpensive, or buy a used laptop for not much more, the fit-PC's unique form factor gives it an edge in any environment where space is at a premium.
Also, its extremely low power usage means you can keep the system running all the time. In any application that requires always-on usage and a light duty applications mix, the fit-PC may indeed be an ideal fit.
[product]
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