Friday, June 12, 2009

Intel's Braidwood looks to take another stab at Turbo Memory

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/12/intels-braidwood-looks-to-take-another-stab-at-turbo-memory/

Intel's jumped into familiar waters this month at Computex when it showed off Braidwood, a flash memory-based accelerator that works by caching I/O from the processor, reportedly enabling applications to launch much faster. Though not directly stated, for all intents and purposes it looks like this is a spiritual successor to Intel's Robson / Turbo Memory, a similar initiative from the company's past that didn't quite meet the commercial or critical success it had hoped. Whether we see better results this time is gonna be a story we revisit in the more distant future: Braidwood's coming as an option with the Nehalem-based Clarkdale processor, which isn't ramping up production until late this year.

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Intel's Braidwood looks to take another stab at Turbo Memory originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Archos announces Archos 9 Windows 7 tablet Update: hands-on pics

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/11/archos-announces-archos9-windows-7-tablet/


Archos is currently having an event in France, and while we're still expecting some sort of Android announcement, the company's leading off with the Archos 9, a nine-inch Windows 7 tablet. It's basically a netbook in tablet form, with an Atom Z515 processor, 80GB disk, Bluetooth, and dual DVB-T antennas -- yep, Archos has brought back the UMPC. No word on pricing or availability yet, we'll let you know.

Update: Sounds like a 1.2GHz processor -- not exactly a rocket, but probably adequate for a stripped-down Windows 7 build. We're also hearing September / October availability, in line with Windows 7, and a €450 ($633) pricetag.

Update 2: So much for our hopes -- the event is now over and no Android announcements were made. Charbax from techvideoblog (who is at the event) says we'll see more info on September 15.

Update 3: As you'd expect, ArchosLounge is on the scene and they've nabbed some hands-on pics. Check a couple after the break -- we think it looks sort of gigantic, but maybe that's what the world's been waiting for.

[Via UMPC Portal]

Continue reading Archos announces Archos 9 Windows 7 tablet Update: hands-on pics

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Archos announces Archos 9 Windows 7 tablet Update: hands-on pics originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Scientists Discover Superconducting Material That's Just Two Atoms Thick [Future Tech]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-jvDoiuz-ag/scientists-discover-superconducting-material-thats-just-two-atoms-thick

University of Texas researchers stumbled upon a new superconducting metal that is the world's thinnest at a mere two atoms—slightly thicker than a marathon runner by comparison.

Superconducting material is valuable because it has zero electrical resistance and can maintain a current without a power source. So far, it's been used in a variety of high-tech equipment, including MRI machines, and the Large Hadron Collider.

Gizmag says this new metal opens up the possibility for new breakthroughs in these fields, as well as being able to use it to observe how superconductivity itself works. [University of Texas via Gizmag]




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Researchers ditch DLP, develop OLED panel-based mini projector

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/11/researchers-ditch-dlp-develop-oled-panel-based-mini-projector/

Looking for a way to differentiate among the ever-expanding niche of pocket projectors, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF) of Germany are working on an OLED panel-based mini projector, using static optical systems and not the usual reflective system à la DLP. Currently being shown at SID Display Week 2009, the decidedly green picture (seems to be the norm with OLED prototypes these days) forms via a 6-inch VGA screen from 30 to 50 centimeters away, and the machine itself takes up just about ten cubic centimeters of space. Despite all the faith, there's still the rather nasty problem of luminance, which the scientists estimate needs to be about four or five times as bright as current levels -- but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?

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Researchers ditch DLP, develop OLED panel-based mini projector originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Casio's EXILIM EX-H10 ultra-compact gets 12.1 megapixels 10x closer

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/11/casios-exilim-ex-h10-ultra-compact-gets-12-1-megapixels-10x-clo/

Casio's just pushed another 10x zoom compact camera into the market with its EXILIM EX-H10. Here we've got a 24-mm wide-angle lens stabilized by a 12.1 megapixel 1/2.3-inch CCD-shift sensor with up to ISO 3200 sensitivity, a 3-inch LCD, and the ability to grab Motion-JPEG video at 720/24p. EXILIM 4.0 image processing and a 10 frames per second burst mode for 1,280 x 960 pixel images too in a point-and-shoot measuring just 102.5 x 24.3 x 62-mm. Watch for it to hit Japanese retailers first starting next month for ¥40,000 (about $400). Pink rear-end after the break.

Continue reading Casio's EXILIM EX-H10 ultra-compact gets 12.1 megapixels 10x closer

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Casio's EXILIM EX-H10 ultra-compact gets 12.1 megapixels 10x closer originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Epson's WUXGA HTPS-TFT Panel hints at ultra-bright, high-contrast PowerLite projectors in September

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/11/epsons-wuxga-htps-tft-panel-hints-at-ultra-bright-high-contras/


As a leader in home cinema systems, it's always a good idea to keep tabs on Epson's core technologies as a preview of what's coming up in next generation home theater projectors. Today Seiko-Epson announced the start of volume production for its 0.94-inch HTPS-TFT LCD capable of a WUXGA (1920 x 1200 pixel) resolution for 3LCD projectors pushing 1080p. The panel supports a brightness of 5000 lumens (or more!) using Epson's D7 process technology while achieving "higher than ever contrast" through its C2 Fine inorganic alignment layer tech. What this means is simple: expect to see a new brightness and contrast champion PowerLite Home Cinema projector announced at the end of Summer, as CEDIA tradition dictates, with product shipping by end of the year.

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Epson's WUXGA HTPS-TFT Panel hints at ultra-bright, high-contrast PowerLite projectors in September originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Samsung's 12 megapixel WB1000 rocks analog gauges, 3-inch OLED

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/11/video-samsungs-12-megapixel-wb1000-rocks-analog-gauges-3-inch/

While it's not the first name you think of in digital cameras, Samsung makes a decent piece of kit and its SL820 took the top prize in our recent summer shootout. So we figured you'd want to know that its WB1000 compact with those smokin' analog battery and capacity gauges is now on sale for KRW548,000 or about $418 closer to home. The 12.2 megapixel WB1000 features a 24-mm wide-angle 5x zoom Schneider-KREUZNACH lens and 1/2.33-inch CCD with 720p video record mode in H.264 format, max ISO 3200 sensitivity (at 3 megapixel resolution), and Samsung's Dual IS optical and digital image stabilization to compensate for hand jitter. The viewer won't disappoint either with a full 3-inch 480x260 AMOLED display rocking the backside. Why should you care? Check the video after the break to see how AMOLED compares to the TFT-LCD found on the Canon SD990 IS under different lighting and viewing angles. The winner is clear, no?

Continue reading Video: Samsung's 12 megapixel WB1000 rocks analog gauges, 3-inch OLED

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Video: Samsung's 12 megapixel WB1000 rocks analog gauges, 3-inch OLED originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Compal tries harder with Intel-based KAX15 MID

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/11/compal-tries-harder-with-intel-based-kax15-mid/


We're not so sure that being the "world's smallest Windows-based MID" is really a benefit for those who appreciate keys that are large enough to mash and screens that are large enough to see, but whatever the case, Compal seems pretty proud of its accomplishments here. Shown off along with scores of other me-too MIDs at Computex, the KAX15 is based around Intel's existing Menlow platform and sports the polarizing tilt-and-slide mechanism for unmasking the QWERTY keyboard. As for specs, we're told that it packs an 800 x 480 display and an 800MHz processor, but further details have yet to flow. There's a hands-on vid just past the break if you're somehow intrigued with shoving Windows in your left cargo pocket.

Continue reading Compal tries harder with Intel-based KAX15 MID

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Compal tries harder with Intel-based KAX15 MID originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ClickZ: "When site visitors don't think of ads as advertising" by George John - http://ping.fm/q7Idz

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Walmart Drops Blu-ray Player Price to New Low of $128 [Dealzmodo]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cHdSodgGL_4/walmart-drops-blu+ray-player-price-to-new-low-of-128

At what may soon become the norm price for entry-level Blu-ray players, Walmart is selling Magnavox's NB500MGX Blu-ray disc player/DVD upconverter for $128—but not online.

The Blu-ray player doesn't have Ethernet (so it's just Profile 1.1), but it'll play all the Blu-ray movies in full 1080p.

For Father's Day, Walmart is also featuring 2-for-$20 Blu-ray movie bundles and a Garmin nuvi 250—with a 3.5'' touch screen and voice guidance—for $128 too. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, these deals are not available online and can only be found in Walmart stores. [Thanks to Checkoutblog]

Note: Walmart refers to the player as both NB500MGX and NB530MGX. We are assured that this is a sales-reference difference, and not a spec or appearance difference.




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I Love Trackpads! [Trackpads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/RlqYcOA_WIs/i-love-trackpads

Somewhere, as I transitioned from being a proud desktop user with parts scattered around my room, to the being a dedicated laptop user, I forgot how to use a mouse. And today, I embrace the swiftness of the trackpad.

Is it a matter of preference and practice? Yes, but no.

Think about it. The distance it takes to move your hand from the QWERTY to the trackpad, usually below the spacebar, is much closer than the distance it takes to drop your hand on a mouse, reorientate your arm/wrist and fingers into place. And a trackpad's control scheme uses a finger, which has a lot more dexterity than an arm/wrist you use when handling a mouse. Also, the future is multitouch trackpads. No other control scheme can match the potential of pinching/scrolling with multiple fingers, zooming, etc.

The touchpad is also a really natural movement, practiced by everyone since childhood days of drawing in the sand on the beach, or fingerpainting. The only more natural movement is to trace movement on an actual screen, but any screen we use in a non mobile environment is too big and vertical to do this easily on, for extended periods of time. Besides, the touchpad itself would work great with a secondary LCD display under it, making it essentially, a touchpad.

So, here's to a future where the trackpad is everywhere. I look forward to it.

[SanwaNexus404, AdessoNexus404, Adesso2Nexus404, DinovoGiz, KeysonicKustomPC, SandbergTechhook, Adesso3Pcrush, MCEallproducts, McsaiteGeekalaert, TruFormProKeyboardco, ToshibaOverclockers, iKeyGadgetadvisor, iKey2Geekwithlaptop, FentexMiniGeekwithlaptop, EeeKeyboardDeviceDaily, LogitechHomeTheaterDialectical, special thanks to Quinton Ma for researching the models in this gallery.]




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Bing Tips & Tricks

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/bing-tips/8931/

Now that Bing is available for use outside Microsoft, here are some quick tips and tricks that will help you do more with Bing.com.

1. Use the full version of Bing

If you are using Bing outside North America, chances are that you seeing a localized version of Bing that may be missing some features. For instance, the Indian version of Bing.com doesn’t have search history and the image on the Bing home page here is not interactive as in the US version.

To explore the full version of Bing, go to this page and set English - US as your default region. You can now enjoy all the Bing features from anywhere.

2. Track Companies from the IE Favorites Bar

If you search for a company stock (e.g. GOOG or MSFT), Bing will automatically create a web slice for that company which you may then add to IE 8 and track the performance directly from the favorites bar. You need Internet Explorer 8 to try this feature.

stock-slices

3. Watch Preview of Hulu Videos outside US

Hulu hosts some popular popular TV shows but the problem is that you can only watch these videos if your computer has US based IP address.

However, Bing lets you watch shot previews of Hulu video even outside US. Just search for any TV show episode on Bing Videos (see example) and hover the mouse over any of the video thumbnail to watch a short clip.

4. Save and Email search results

With Bing, you can save your search history on to a local folder inside Bing or to your Windows Skydrive account. Alternatively, you may send your search queries to a friend via email or publish them on your Facebook wall via Bing. You’ll need Silverlight to share queries in Bing.

save search in bing

5. RSS Feeds of Search Results

Unlike Google or Yahoo, Bing offers RSS feeds for their web search results that you can subscribe to inside any feed reader. Your browser should be able to auto-detect the RSS feed of Bing pages or you can append &format=rss to any Bing search URL and convert it into a feed.

This RSS feature is not available for Image or Video search in Bing.

6. Find Pages That Link to MP3 Files or Documents

Bing (and Live Search) supports a unique "contains" search operator that lets you find web pages that contain links to particular file types.

For instance, a search like susan boyle contains:mp3 will show pages that are about the British singer and that also link to MP3 files. Replace mp3 with doc to search pages that contain links to Word Documents.

For more tips on software and web apps, check our popular how-to guides.

Bing Tips & Tricks - Published at Digital Inspiration (RSS)

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How to Publish Screenshot Images on Twitter

Source: http://www.labnol.org/software/publish-screenshots-on-twitter/8991/

twitter guideWhether you need help with an error message or just want to show off your new desktop wallpaper, Twitter can be a good place to share all those screenshot images with the world.

Now capturing screenshots of anything on your desktop screen is easy but let’s explore a couple of ways that will enable you publish these screenshot images on to your Twitter account as a tweet quickly and effortlessly.

TechSmith Jing (Mac & Windows)

jing for screenshots

With TechSmith Jing, you can quickly grab a screenshot, add some text notes or annotate your image with arrows and basic shapes. Once you are done editing, the image gets uploaded to your free screencast.com account and the URL is automatically copied to the clipboard so you can easily paste that in your tweets.

That’s one way of doing things but let me share another Jing trick here.

Other than Screencast.com, Jing can also upload screenshot images to your Flickr account. Open Twittergram and associate your Flickr account with Twitter using the tag TechSmithJing. Now anything you upload on Flickr through Jing will automatically get pushed to your Twitter stream without you having to tweet about it. How cool.

Kwout (Web Based)

webpage screenshots

If you need to screen capture a web page for publishing on to Twitter, check out Kwout. You can either copy-paste the web page address that you want to screen capture or use a bookmarklet.

Kwout will help you capture as well host the screenshot image and you can post the link on Twitter directly from Kwout’s site. The very interesting part is that all hyperlinks in the screenshot remain clickable (see example) because Kwout uses an imagemap for screenshots.

ScreenTweetr (Mac, Windows, Linux)

screenshot adobe air

ScreenTweetr is another interesting Adobe AIR app developed by James Ford.

The app stays minimized in the system tray but automatically wakes up as soon you do a screen capture on Mac (Shift-Control-Command-3) or a Windows PC (Print Screen) . It will upload the screenshot image (or the contents of your clipboard) on to Twitpic from where you can tweet it.

Skitch (Email to Twitter)

skitch for twitter

Like Jing, Skitch is both a screen capture software and a screenshot hosting service. If you have a Mac, you can capture and upload screenshots to Skitch from the desktop itself but Windows users will have to send their screenshots to a secret email address for posting them on to Skitch (see example).

Skitch also provides an "email to twitter" option so you can send in screenshots from iPhone, BlackBerry or your mobile phone to Skitch and the images will then auto-appear in your Twitter timeline.

Related: List of Screen Capture + Hosting services

How to Publish Screenshot Images on Twitter - Published at Digital Inspiration (RSS)

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Find Public Domain Content via Creative Commons

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/find-public-domain-content-with-creative-commons/8996/

cc0 public domainCC Zero is a new Creative Commons license to help content creators distribute their work on the Internet copyright-free. They can publish presentations, photographs, songs, web pages, screencast videos or any other form of content in the public domain via CC0.

When you apply a Creative Commons Zero (or "no rights reserved") license to your work, it means saying something like this to the world:

Here’s an article that I wrote for my blog but since I am distributing my content under Creative Commons Zero, feel free to copy this article or use it for any other purpose without asking for permission or attribution.

Almost all content (including blogs, images, etc.) will enter the public domain some day but with CC0, the author gets to push his work into the public domain during his lifetime.

As things stand, US copyright law prohibits reuse without explicit permission for creative works until they enter the public domain - 70 years after the death of the author or 120 years after publication date if the date of death of the author is unknown. These lengthy periods leave the public domain pretty anemic. CC Zero will let content creators uninterested in copyright claims push their work into the public domain immediately - ReadWriteWeb

How to find public domain content on the Internet (via Creative Commons Zero)

Yahoo, Flickr and Google do help you search for Creative Commons content on the web but the problem is that none of these search engines offer an option to restrict search results to content that’s available under "Creative Common Zero" or under "public domain".

creative commons search

There’s however an easy workaround.

When sites publish their content under Creative Commons, they are required to add some text (or a graphic image) in web pages so that human visitors can easily know the license under which that content has been made available on the Internet.

See the footer of Digg.com or Lifehacker.com to check their respective CC licenses - Digg uses a public domain CC0 license while Gawker Blogs allow non-commercial use of their content with attribution.

digg cc0

Now the trick. Yahoo! supports a linkdomain: command to help you discover other sites that are linking to a particular domain. For instance, linkdoman:cnn.com will show other domains on the web that link to the CNN website.

Since sites that are distributing content in public domain under Creative Commons will always link to CreativeCommons.org, you can easily find about some of these sites through the linkdomain command as in this example:

linkdomain:creativecommons.org "dedicated to the public domain" [your query here]

For instance, the query linkdomain:cc.org .. picasso will show pages related to Pablo Picasso that are in the public domains while the query linkdomain.. clipart will return sites that provide clipart images that are also in the public domain.

Give this a shot. You are free to use, share, or modify these works even for commercial reasons.

Related: Dummies Guide to Creative Commons

Find Public Domain Content via Creative Commons - Published at Digital Inspiration (RSS)

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Google Map Captures the Mood of People from Around the World

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/google-map-of-world-feelings/9013/

If you curious to know how are people feeling around the world, check out World of Emotions - it’s an interesting mashup that plots the global mood on a Google Map through smileys.

world map of feelings

The idea is pretty simple. You log on to the World of Emotions website and select an emoticon that best represents your current mood - it can be positive (feeling happy), negative (feeling sad) or neutral (meaning you are feeling just fine).

When you click on the smiley icon, the application automatically detects your physical location using the IP address of your computer and then plots your mood on the Google map.

You can then check this log or view an aggregated map to see the emotions of people by country. Of course, this may not be a true indicator of global mood but if enough people start using the app, it can get a bit close. Hat tip Keir Clarke.

Google Map Captures the Mood of People from Around the World - Published at Digital Inspiration (RSS)

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