Monday, June 22, 2009

Nanometer wars heat up, Toshiba and Intel enter unofficial race

Nanometer wars heat up, Toshiba and Intel enter unofficial race

Think the megapixel race is bad? Now we've another to worry about, with both Toshiba and Intel hastily approaching 0.01nm technology in order to make chips faster, more nimble and smaller. According to undisclosed sources at Digitimes, Intel has actually canned production plans for its 45nm Havendale processors, which were originally slated to slip into machines later this year. The cause? It's heading straight to 32nm, reportedly hoping to ship its Clarkdale line in Q1 2010 with entry-level prices ranging from $60 to $190. In related news, Toshiba is joining the likes of IBM, Samsung and Globalfoundries in an effort to dish out chips based on 28nm process technology. Needless to say, the move is being made in an effort to "stay relevant in an area dominated by the likes of Intel Corp and Texas Instruments." Now, if only we could get one of these potent, low-power chips inside of a netbook, we'd be pleased as punch.

Read - Intel cans Havendale in move to 32nm
Read - Toshiba speeds to 28nm

Filed under: ,

N! anometer wars heat up, Toshiba and Intel enter unofficial race originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Kohjinsha SK3 convertible UMPC adds Windows 7 support, excitement, and danger

Kohjinsha SK3 convertible UMPC adds Windows 7 support, excitement, and danger


We know what you're thinking: sure, lime green netbooks are fun, but when is Kohjinsha going to revisit that dapper little SC3 convertible UMPC that won our hearts way back in the summer of '08? You're so predictable -- and you're in luck! According to the cats at a little UMPC portal we like to call UMPC Portal, the newly re-jiggered Kohjinsha SK3 sports subtle design differences (including a new WiFi module that brings 802.11n to the table), but otherwise the same ol' 1.3GHz Menlow processor, GPS, SD card slot, VGA out, and LAN of its predecessor. If that weren't enough, this device contains two cameras and Windows 7 support. No word yet on price or a release date on this beauty -- or whether or not it will sport a HDD or SSD drive. But we do have one more lovely promo shot for you after the break.

[Via SlashGear]

Continue reading Kohjinsha SK3 convertible UMPC adds Windows 7 support, excitement, and danger

Filed under:

Kohjinsha SK3 convertible UMPC adds Windows 7 support, excitement, and danger originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Seagate unleashes three new BlackArmor storage devices for small business, road warriors, mercenaries

Seagate unleashes three new BlackArmor storage devices for small business, road warriors, mercenaries


Looks like the storage freaks at Seagate are back on the scene with yet another array of BlackArmor devices for securing all that precious data of yours. First up: for the small business types, the NAS 220 storage server sports 4TB of shared storage capacity for up to 20 PCs. If that's not your cup of tea, the WS 110 is an external (USB 2.0 or eSATA) drive available in capacities up to 2TB. Lastly (but not leastly) the PS 110 is a 500GB portable drive perfect for road warriors and the like, sporting a thin form factor (12.5mm). All devices include automated full-system backup, SafetyDrill+, and AES 256-bit government-grade encryption. Both the BlackArmor WS 110 ($159.99 for 1TB or $309.99 for 2TB) and the BlackArmor PS 110 ($159.99 for 500GB) are available now. The BlackArmor NAS 220 will hit the shelves in late July ($449.99 for 2TB or $699.99 for 4TB). Full PR after the break.


Continue reading Seagate unleashes three new BlackArmor storage devices for small business, road warriors, mercenaries

Filed under:

Seagate unleashes three new BlackArmor storage devices for small business, road warriors, mercenaries originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

The Ads Won Awards for Crispin; But Did Nothing for Client BurgerKing's Sales/Marketshare - Whoa! Big Surprise - http://ping.fm/vw8TI

Read More...

Suction Consolidates Files and Folders into One [Downloads]

Suction Consolidates Files and Folders into One [Downloads]

Windows: You have a bunch of sub-directories that you'd like to consolidate into one but don't want to do the mouse work or write a batch script. Suction will help you condense your directories.

There are two ways to interact with Suction. You can launch the Suction executable as a portable application and use the drag and drop interface—the drop box is seen in the background of the screenshot here—and all dropped folders and their recursive folders and files will be transferred to the consolidation folder you have specified. Alternatively you can save Suction to a permanent location and add a right-click menu item for Suction, allowing you to highlight folders and right click to send them to the consolidation folder.

You can also enable deletion of duplicate files and deletion of empty directories, although the duplicate file search appears to be based strictly on file names. If you need a more versatile duplicate search, check out previously reviewed Fast Duplicate File Finder to tidy up before you consolidate with Suction. Suction is portable freeware, Windows only.



Read More...

Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features [Lifehacker Top 10]

Top 10 Firefox 3.5 Features [Lifehacker Top 10]

Firefox 3.5 is a pretty substantial update to the popular open-source browser, and it's just around the corner. See what features, fixes, and clever new tools are worth getting excited about in the next big release.

UPDATE: A previous version of this list had Taskfox, an integrated version of Ubiquity, included as a Firefox 3.5 feature. It's still in the experimental phase, in fact, as readers pointed out, and we regret the confusion (and false optimism!). This new list includes an additional item, and the rankings have been shifted slightly.

10. Undo closed window

If you accidentally close a tab you'd meant to keep open, Firefox 3, at least through extensions like Tab Mix Plus, can bring it back. Update: To clarify, Firefox can resurrect closed tabs without Tab Mix Plus (just hit Ctrl+Shift+T, for example); the extension simply adds more fine-grained control. If you accidentally kill a separate window full of tabs, though, you've been pretty much out of luck. Firefox 3.5 implem! ents a r estore feature for both tabs and windows from the History menu, which would (hopefully) also restore any text you've typed into them.

9. Forget this site

Tools like Private Browsing Modes and history wipers are good for what they do, but sometimes it would be great to have just one site wiped off your history—either because it's hogging your quick address bar results, or because you'd rather your coworker be unaware of your workday LOLcat browsing. Firefox 3.5's history browser offers a convenient "Forget this site" option, erasing your browser's memory of particular domains. It doesn't cover subdomains, and your network traffic and Flash memory would still hold some details, but it's a handy tweak however you cut it.

8. Tab tearing


Google Chrome (Update: And Safari, as our readers note) somewhat stole the thunder out from under this feature, but it's still a nice one: Grab a tab and drag it out a bit to create a new browser window from it. Drag windows into tabs again, and open any tab in a new window from the right-click menu, if clicking and dragging isn't your style.

7. Keyword AwesomeBar filters

Firefox 3's AwesomeBar/address bar offers a speedy list of suggestions to complete whatever you're typing. That's great, but that list comes from your page history, bookmarks, and tags, and can be matched by URL or name, leaving some results almost uselessly cluttered. This gets fixed with special character filters in the next Firefox. Restrict a search by typing "life *" for just yo! ur bookm arks with the words "life" in them, or just your tagged "lh" items with "lh +". Anything that really makes getting back to importantly web destinations quickly is a welcome upgrade.

6. Smarter session restore

What good is it to bring back all the tabs you just lost to a crash if the tab that brought everything down comes back too? Firefox's developers took a cue from the users and turned the session restore feature into more of a crash recovery tool, allowing users to select which tabs should come back. If you don't know who's the culprit, here's a hint: It's probably the one with Flash on it.

5. Private browsing mode

The snarky types (i.e. my editor) can call it "Porn Mode," but this feature, already in a number of competing browsers, has uses beyond the prurient. Beyond obvious situations, like gift buying and sensitive research, logging onto a friend's browser for a quick email check or bill pay is made a lot more secure if you can get to the private mode. Likewise, anonymizing some of your searches and cookie collection on your own machine isn't a bad idea, and a private mode can do that too. You don't need it all the time, but you might be glad it's available.

4. Color profiles that pop

Different cameras, monitors, and capture devices grab and set colors in different ways. On the web, most colors look the! same, t hough, because they're filtered and optimized for quick viewing in every browser. Firefox 3.5 introduces dynamic color profiles for each picture, meaning that whatever the graphic designer or photographer saw when they were doing their work, you'll see it on their web page.

3. TraceMonkey JavaScript engine

Months ago, Mozilla said its still-in-development JavaScript engine, TraceMonkey, was "20 to 40 times" faster than the SpiderMonkey engine installed in Firefox 3. That hasn't shown up in our speed tests, which themselves rely on a Mozilla-assembled testing suite, but JavaScript testing suites are often like drag races—they don't really tell you what a browser runs like in a real daily sense, just pure timings. Even if TraceMonkey is ultimately outpaced by Chrome and/or Safari, its innovations push the whole browser market forward and give us all a bit less load time to complain about.

2. Geo-location

If you type post office into a maps site, you probably don't want the headquarters of the U.S. Post Office, or post office listings from two towns over. Integrated geo-location, powered by Google's Wi-Fi triangulation and simple IP address information, looks to know roughly where you are and help you when you're looking for something local. You can disable it if you'd like, but, realistically, signing on from any IP address reveals a bit about where you are anyways. If! a good number of sites pick it up, geo-location could bring to the browser what a lot of people are already enjoying on their phone.

1. Video superpowers with HTML 5


If you're viewing a page coded in HTML 5 with video in an open-source format like Ogg Vorbis or Theora, Firefox 3.5 treats that video like it's just part of the page, not a separate little island of Flash content. That means instant commenting on videos. It could also mean offering links from inside a tutorial video that offer more details on what's being shown—soldering tips on an iPhone repair guide would be keen. In general, it's just a promising step forward into a seamless melding of video and text on a future web.


Many thanks to the Mozilla Links blog, which covers Firefox news and updates like a glove.

Now that we've thrown out the 10 features that are getting us jazzed for a final 3.5 release, let's hear what you're most looking forward to, and what remains unrequited among your Firefox desires, in the comments.



Read More...

Make Natural Insect Repellent with Essential Oils [Outdoors]

Make Natural Insect Repellent with Essential Oils [Outdoors]

If you live in a climate without many summer pests, well, lucky you. For the rest of us, these essential oil repellents will make patio life less insect-filled. Photo by mccun934.

How-to-guide repository wikiHow explains the crafting of simple pest-banishing pots for your home and garden. You take a small rag or sponge, soak it with a diluted concentration of essential oils, then leave it in a small container like a glass jar. When you want to drive away mosquitoes, horse flies, and other annoying summer pests, you simply open the jar and place it near you to keep them away.

If you don't have any small jars on hand, this is also a great project for the versatile Altoids tin. For details on the project, including which oils to use—mosquitoes hate peppermint apparently—check out the guide at the link below. If you find that a dose of peppermint isn't driving away the mosquitoes as quickly as you'd like, lure them away from you with a DIY mosquito trap.



Read More...

Fotografix Sports Big Editing Power in a Tiny Footprint [Downloads]

Fotografix Sports Big Editing Power in a Tiny Footprint [Downloads]


Windows only: Portable software usually has to suffer a few through a few compromises to be compact and flash-drive friendly. If they compromised with Fotografix, you certainly won't notice.

The interface will be familiar to users of bigger graphics packages like Adobe Photoshop and GIMP. If you've never used either one, it won't take much to pick it up. Fotografix is astoundingly tiny—a mere 680k when unpacked—for offering features usually only found in bulkier and more advanced editors like image layer, custom brushes, and advanced color and image correction tools.

The advanced features of Fotografix cover enough ground that for anything short of having to deep massage an image in Photoshop, you'll likely not have to fire it up any time soon. Fotografix makes an excellent and ultra-lightweight addition to your portable software package. If you have your own portable software that accomplishes a ton with a tiny footprint, let's hear about it in the comments below. Fotografix is freeware, Windows only.



Read More...

Bookmash Searches All Your Multimedia Sources [Adobe AIR]

Bookmash Searches All Your Multimedia Sources [Adobe AIR]

Adobe Air: Bookmash is an Adobe Air application combining over a dozen search tools covering video, music, photos, news, and social networks you can search at once for new media material.

Bookmash has a Cover-Flow-like interface, similar in functionality to previously mentioned PicLens (renamed to Cooliris). You can search wide open, covering sites like YouTube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, Lastfm, Seeqpod, Flickr, and more, or you can narrow your search based on the type of content you're looking for.

You can also add RSS feeds to Bookmash and media and articles from your feeds will become part of your searches. All the media you find can be easily bookmarked, downloaded, or shared with your friends via the simple menu available when you look at your search results in the detailed view.

Have a favorite search mashup of your own? Sound off in the comments below and let us know about how you scour the web for your media fix. Bookmash is freeware and works wherever Adobe Air does.



Read More...

Google Maps Adds Local Attractions with "What's Here?" Link [Google Maps]

Google Maps Adds Local Attractions with "What's Here?" Link [Google Maps]

Google Maps is a fantastic tool for getting directions and finding destinations. With its most recent update, it's a lot better at answering the question "What is here?" around any given point.

Click on a Google Map and choose from the context menu, as seen above, "What's here?" The left-hand panel is populated with information about that place on the map. Photos if available, information about buildings and businesses located there, landmarks and user created maps related to the area will appear if available.

If you're someone who navigates more by visual markers than by cardinal direction, knowing what things are on your route can be extremely helpful. You won't just be looking for 5700 West Avenue, but the Macy's next to the Coney Island. The information scales as you zoom in and out, giving you the most appropriate answers to "What's here?" based on your view, from the Rocky Mountains to the Rocky Mountain Oyster Bar.



Read More...

T-Mobile myTouch 3G Gets Official, Preorders Start July 8 [MyTouch 3G]

T-Mobile myTouch 3G Gets Official, Preorders Start July 8 [MyTouch 3G]

T-Mobile's second Android phone, the myTouch 3G (previously known as the HTC Magic which we reviewed here), has finally been announced in an official capacity for $200. Its official official name is the "T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google".

It's basically the same specs as we've seen in other incarnations, and it'll work with T-Mobile's 3G frequencies. We'll take a look at what customizations T-Mobile has put on the phone, but for a general idea of what to expect of this one over the original T-Mobile G1, take a look at our review of the Google Ion.




Read More...

T-Mobile myTouch 3G announced, starts shipping late July

T-Mobile myTouch 3G announced, starts shipping late July


The good news is that T-Mobile USA has finally gotten around to announce its second Android handset, the myTouch 3G; the bad news, though, is that you can't have it just yet. The carrier-customized version of the HTC Magic that has already shipped in parts of Europe, Asia, and Canada features a 3.2-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen, AWS 3G for use on T-Mobile's high-speed network paired with quadband EDGE for global roaming, WiFi, a 3.2 megapixel camera, Exchange support, and -- of course -- Android 1.5 with all the virtual keyboardin' you can handle. Better than the G1? Other than the larger internal memory common to all Magics, that's strictly a matter of personal taste -- but don't worry, you'll have a while to sort it out, because T-Mobile won't even start taking preorders from current customers until July 8 for $199.99 on a two-year contract. Those orders will start shipping in late July, with full national availability following on in early August in your choice of black, white, or "merlot."

Filed under: ,

T-Mobile myTouch 3G announced, starts shipping late July originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

CATSeye Mk2 tracking device takes the smaller, more waterproof route

CATSeye Mk2 tracking device takes the smaller, more waterproof route

Okay, so if you thought the CATSeye matchbox-sized tracking device was a bit too big or cumbersome, the gang is back with something decidedly smaller and more discrete. Introducing the CATS.i, also known as CATSeye Mk2. It's got all the same functionality as its predecessor -- GPS, GSM/GPRS, RF, internet / SMS controls, etc. -- but is now only eight millimeters thick (or twelve if you chose the thinner "folded over" arrangement) and completely waterproof. Power options include a Li-ion battery, solar power, or any number of other ways you can think to run juice. Have an urge to keep track of all your family members and loved ones even more secretly than before? The new devices ship next month.

[Via NaviGadget]

Filed under: , ,

CATSeye Mk2 tracking device takes the smaller, more waterproof route originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Samsung's P410M pocket projector is just a little bit better

Samsung's P410M pocket projector is just a little bit better

Samsung's looking to update its original P400 pocket imager with the P410m. Other than pumping out 170 lumens off a 30,000 hour LED to the P400's 151 lumens, the P410M looks like the same 800 x 600 pixel DLP beamer with 1,000:1 contrast first spotted at CES back in January 2008. But hey, brighter is better especially in this milquetoast-class of ultra-portable projectors.

[Via Slashgear]

Filed under:

Samsung's P410M pocket projector is just a little bit better originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Sunday, June 21, 2009

iPhone 3G S and Pre head-to-head benchmarks: iPhone wins

iPhone 3G S and Pre head-to-head benchmarks: iPhone wins


Now that we know the iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre share extremely similar 65nm ARM Cortex A8-based internals, it's time to break out the stopwatches and see how these blood brothers stack up. Anandtech has the first head-to-head tests we've seen, and it seems like the 3G S has the slight edge, loading a series of web pages 11 percent faster and a whopping 54 percent faster than the iPhone 3G. Not too shabby, but not exactly a thorough drubbing either -- especially when you consider webOS is still 1.0 and there's likely some optimizations to come. Full results at the read link.

Update:
Anandtech had some uncharacteristically bad math going on -- the 3G S is actually 21 percent faster than the Pre, which is quite notable considering the similar hardware and WebKit-based browsers.

Filed under:

iPhone 3G S and Pre head-to-head benchmarks: iPhone wins originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...