Friday, October 31, 2008

Ooohhhh: $200 Eee PCs Next Year? [NetBooks]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Jen9kLFmTVI/ooohhhh-200-eee-pcs-next-year

On a recent earnings call, Asus explained some of their plans going into 2009. The big one? The company expects to have a $200 entry level Eee PC—which we assume has no Windows. But that $200 announcement is even more interesting when coupled with another announcement—Asus intends to phase out all 7" and 8.9" models for 10" netbooks. So will the smaller systems go for $200, or will we see a $200 10" netbook in 2009? I guess we'll have to wait to find out. [Digitimes]


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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Intel's Moblin OS for netbooks and MIDs gets a boost from Taiwan

by Donald Melanson, posted Oct 30th 2008 at 3:46PM


Intel's Linux-based Moblin OS may have lost some considerable ground to Windows XP in the netbook space, but it looks like the company is far from ready to throw in the towel, and it's now getting a bit of a helping hand from the Taiwan government. Apparently, the government will be helping Intel open up a new development center in Taiwan, which will be tasked with furthering the development of the OS and, hopefully, attract the interest of local companies like ASUS and Acer. Any further specifics are expectedly a bit light at the moment, but the development center is apparently on the fast-track, with it reportedly set to open in December of this year.

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New in Labs: Calendar and Docs gadgets

Posted by Dan Pupius, Gmail engineer


Gmail Labs has been a really fun way to easily try out new ideas and get some of our pet feature requests implemented quickly. We wanted to take this to the next level and let you start adding your own stuff to Gmail. Today we're launching a few Labs experiments that let you add gadgets to the left-nav, next to Chat and Labels.

To get you started, we've worked with the engineers from the Calendar and Docs teams on two highly requested features: a simple way to see your Google Calendar agenda and get an alert when you have a meeting, and a gadget that shows a list of your recently accessed Google Docs and lets you search across all of your documents right from within Gmail.

There's a third Lab that allows you to add any gadget by pasting in the URL of its XML spec file (e.g. http://www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube_videos.xml). We realize this isn't very user friendly right now; it's a sandbox mainly aimed at developers who want to play around with gadgets in Gmail. We're not tied to the left-nav as a primary way to extend Gmail -- in fact we think it is relatively limited and doesn't offer scalable real estate. There are also some downsides to the iframe-style Gadgets we're using today -- they can sometimes slow down the page. We're fanatical about speed, so we'll be keeping a close eye on performance.

This is also a chance for us to test the developer infrastructure in! volved. We're using common gadget infrastructure, such as the Apache Shindig project, and working with other gadget containers to make gadgets more portable.

We're looking forward to your comments in the Labs forum, so send us your ideas, let us know how you like the Calendar and Docs gadgets, and if you've written a gadget that you think works well in Gmail, post it and let us and other users try it out.

A couple of notes:
(1) Try out Anatol's Navbar drag and drop Labs feature so you can easily re-order all the boxes on Gmail's left hand side.
(2) Not all gadgets are fully compatible with https, so if you're connecting to Gmail via https, you may see mixed content warnings caused by parts of the gadgets being served over http. We're working on fixing this where we can.

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Pixolu Finds Images by Similarity [Search Engines]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/agNrh_eNN3w/pixolu-finds-images-by-similarity


Web-based application Pixolu helps you find images by their similarity to each other. Enter a search term and Pixolu searches the image indexes of Google, Yahoo, and Flickr. Once Pixolu returns results, you can further refine them by dragging images to a holding area on the lower right corner of the interface. In my test run, I searched for pumpkins. I specifically wanted pictures of lots of pumpkins gathered together but not pictures of Jack o' Lanterns or pumpkin pie. By dragging and dropping pictures of multiple pumpkins from my initial search into the sidebar and refining the search, Pixolu narrowed down the remaining images into just those of tons of pumpkins clustered together.


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Ubuntu 8.10 Released, Includes Bootable USB Maker [Featured Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/OZeQky9dXfI/ubuntu-810-released-includes-bootable-usb-maker

Ubuntu 8.10, the "Intrepid Ibex" release of the free, open-source Linux distribution, is officially out and available for download. This release doesn't bring much huge or startlingly new to Ubuntu, but does smooth out some rough edges and improves the Wi-Fi, 3G, and portability experience. Check out our full screenshot tour of Intrepid Ibex to see what's inside, and if your ISO downloads or upgrades are going slow today, read up on upgrading using BitTorrent or grabbing updates and ISOs from a mirror server. There's also one or two new tools we didn't catch earlier this month in the final release, which we'll peek at below. Ubuntu 8.10 is a free download; it can run as a live CD or install on most Intel-based systems.

Ubuntu 8.10 includes a simple, working tool that puts a bootable Ubuntu system on a memory stick and lets you use persistent space on it to store settings and documents—in other words, keep a real Home folder there. I really wish, however, that you didn't have to download an Ubuntu ISO to make the disk, or that it could at least point you to a list of mirrors to find one on. In a perfect world, it would just create your USB disk from your current system, removing any specific hardware references and the like. As it is, though, it's a pretty handy tool for any spare thumb drives you've got.

Also new in the release candidate and final version! s of 8.1 0 is a "System Cleaner" applet. I couldn't dirty my brand-new desktop quick enough to give a good screenshot, but the Cleaner will apparently show any unneeded and abandoned software packages hanging around your system, and will also alert you to bad or leftover lines in your /etc/fstab (drive configuration), /etc/X11/xorg.conf (display and device manager), and all the other files you want to back up before messing with. If it works as promised, it's a pretty good step toward that "for humans" slogan the distro touts.

Tell us your impressions of the final Intrepid Ibex in the comments.


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Samsung Shows Off Giant 40-inch OLED HDTV [Televisions]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/DR2tShstxX8/samsung-shows-off-giant-40+inch-oled-hdtv

Way back in 2005, Samsung technically showed off a 40-inch OLED screen. We didn't want to be rude and say anything at the time, but it wasn't sporting HD resolution and the contrast ratio was a measly 5,000:1. Now Samsung is showing off their new 40-inch OLED (that's a mere 8.9mm thick), and needless to say, its specs are more than a little worth our attention.

The prototype runs at a full 1080p resolution and features an overkill contrast of 1,000,000:1. (Most scientists will tell you that the eye cannot distinguish such contrast, but marketers will disagree.)

Its color gamut is 107% of the NTSC standard and it features a luminance of 200cd/m2 (peaking at 600cd/m2).

Unfortunately, Samsung is quick to explain that their main assembly lines are not equipped to produce OLED screens beyond 31 inches (earlier roadmaps slated 40 inchers for 2010). Nevertheless, our home theater system is suddenly feeling extremely inadequate. [NYT and Tech-On]


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Cara Lamp is Crystal-Like LED and Silver Circuit-Board Beauty [Lighting]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/q0t0ROSLAXc/cara-lamp-is-crystal+like-led-and-silver-circuit+board-beauty

Those little interlaced blades of ice you sometimes get on the edge of ultra-cold things in wet air: that's the image that popped into my head on seeing the Cara lamp. It's by designer Andreas Ostwald and that fragile crystal-like shape is composed of interlocked flat white circuit boards with silver tracks, sprinkled with 70 white LEDs. How lighting should be to my mind: simple, elegant and stunning. Though presumably it's designer status gives it a price premium that'll place it beyond my lustful reach. [Contemporist via LuxuryLaunches]


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HP Wants To Sell You a Carrier-Subsidized Netbook For Cheap With 3G Data [NetBooks]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/00kZDSgHRng/hp-wants-to-sell-you-a-carrier+subsidized-netbook-for-cheap-with-3g-data

We've seen netbooks bundled with a cellular data service contract popping up in other parts of the world, but a report today by the WSJ finds HP considering the same tactic here in the US, where it hasn't been done effectively yet. This would let you buy a Mini 1000 or any other HP netbook at a steep (hopefully), smartphone-esque discount on carriers that may include AT&T and Verizon.

HP is mum on exactly which carriers they're talking to, but those two were mentioned as possible candidates. HP hopes to quadruple their netbook sales to 40 million by 2012 with this plan, so hopefully the subsidy will knock enough off the price to make it worthwhile. Netbooks are mass-market now, but the overlap with people who already pay for a 3G data plan on their phone and want to just tether it will be one issue to surmount. [WSJ]


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Dreamoc 3D Display Turns Any Phone Into Hologram Machine [Clips]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cIRbYsxQL9I/dreamoc-3d-display-turns-any-phone-into-hologram-machine

We don't know the last time that a demo kiosk has actually caused us to look twice, but if a place like Best Buy or Fry's were filled with Dreamoc 3D displays, we'd probably be more interested in the sales pitch than the product. Because not only can the system display 3D video—it can display 3D video that mixes with real world objects. In other words, the Dreamoc can make it look like your phone has holograms shooting out of the screen:

Sure, the Dreamoc is a tease, but we're pretty sure that's entirely the point. [via Engadget]


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BlackBerrys Get Free AT&T Wi-Fi Too [At&t]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/pZDf-XWTIq4/blackberrys-get-free-att-wi+fi-too

AT&T apparently realized it was elitist to only let the iPhone get free Wi-Fi at its hotspots, so they're opening it up to BlackBerry handsets too. The Bold is getting it first, though all of their other Wi-Fi-havin' BlackBerrys will pick it up later this year. So, um, what about Windows Mobile guys? Smells like elitism to me.

AT&T BLACKBERRY CUSTOMERS TO RECEIVE FREE ACCESS

TO NATION'S LARGEST WI-FI NETWORK

DALLAS, Oct. 30, 2008 —There are now 17,000 more reasons for smart shoppers to buy a smartphone from AT&T. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced it will begin offering free AT&T Wi-FiSM service to current and new customers of select smartphones, including the new BlackBerry® BoldTM, available Nov. 4. AT&T has the nation's largest Wi-Fi network, with more than 17,000 hot spots including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and thousands of other locations.

AT&T is offering the free Wi-Fi service to customers with unlimited data plans. In addition to the BlackBerry Bold, the BlackBerry® PearlTM 8120 and the BlackBerry® 8820 will follow later this year, and AT&T plans to make the offer available to more mobile devices in the future. Additional details, including instructions on how to access the hot spots, are available at www.attwifi.com.

"AT&T is committed to providing its customers with the best connectivity at the best value," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer of AT&T's mobility business unit. "We have the industry's leading lineup of smartphones, along with the nation's largest Wi-Fi network. It only makes sense for us to bring these unique capabilities together for our customers."

Free Wi-Fi access is also available with all AT&T small business broadband plans, AT&T
High Speed Internet plans ! and with qualified AT&T LaptopConnect plans. For customers without an AT&T broadband or smartphone plan, Wi-Fi subscriptions are available for $19.99 a month, providing worldwide access to both AT&T and partner locations.

AT&T iPHONE CUSTOMERS TO RECEIVE FREE ACCESS

TO NATION'S LARGEST WI-FI NETWORK

DALLAS, Oct. 30, 2008 —There are now 17,000 more reasons for smart shoppers to buy a smartphone from AT&T. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) today announced it will begin offering free AT&T Wi-FiSM service to current and new iPhone 3G and iPhone customers. AT&T has the nation's largest Wi-Fi network, with more than 17,000 hot spots including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and thousands of other locations.

AT&T plans to make the offer available to more mobile devices in the future. Additional details, including instructions on how to access the hot spots, are available at www.attwifi.com.

"AT&T is committed to providing its customers with the best connectivity at the best value," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer of AT&T's mobility business unit. "We have the industry's leading lineup of smartphones, along with the nation's largest Wi-Fi network. It only makes sense for us to bring these unique capabilities together for our customers."

Free Wi-Fi access is also available with all AT&T small business broadband plans, AT&T
High Speed Internet plans and with qualified AT&T LaptopConnect plans. For customers without an AT&T broadband or smartphone plan, Wi-Fi subscriptions are available for $19.99 a month, providing worldwide access to both AT&T and partner locations.

[AT&T]


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