Tuesday, September 01, 2009

ASUS EeeBox EB1012 teases home theaters with dual-core Atom and Ion graphics

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/asus-eeebox-eb1012-teases-home-theaters-with-dual-core-atom-and/

Looks like our dreams of a discrete, low cost home theater PC are about to be realized. ASUS has a new EeeBox PC EB1012 touting a dual-core Atom N330 (just as rumored), NVIDIA MCP7A ION graphics, a 250GB SATA hard disk, 2GB of DDR2-800 memory expandable to 4GB, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, S/PDIF 5.1 audio jack, and HDMI out. As such, this little 222 x 178 x 26.9mm box should handle your hardware accelerated 1080p content just as readily as it does full-screen Flash video from Hulu and beyond -- a place where single-core Atom-based Ion nettops fail. It also features an eSATA jack, 4x USB ports, and an SDHC card reader for plugging in more media. No word on price or ship date but we'll keep an eye out.

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

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ASUS EeeBox EB1012 teases home theaters with dual-core Atom and Ion graphics originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BenQ endows S35 and S43 Joybooks with CULV, kicks 'em out the door

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/benq-endows-s35-and-s43-joybooks-with-culv-kicks-em-out-the-do/

It's not quite on the scale of the netbook revolution, but the CULV ultraportable uprising does seem to be gathering steam. Latest on the scene is BenQ, with its 13.3-inch S35 and 14-inch S43 Joybooks, sporting a choice between a single core SU3500, dual core SU7300, or some old and busted Celeron 723 / 743 chips. From what Acer's Timeline series has shown, the 1.4GHz SU3500 is a major step up from Atom machines, while making for ridiculous battery longevity. BenQ claim you'll be able to squeeze more than five hours of juice from the default batteries and there's an eight cell option on the S35 that is rated for 11+ hours. Hard drives clock in at 500GB, Bluetooth, WiFi and the like are all present, and the S43 also gets an ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330 GPU option to make it stand out. The announcement is for Asia only so far, but we see no reason why these laptops shouldn't make it to more familiar shores as well.

[Via Engadget Chinese]

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BenQ endows S35 and S43 Joybooks with CULV, kicks 'em out the door originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Black Wii remote bundle coming to North America, no matching console in sight

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/black-wii-remote-bundle-coming-to-north-america-no-matching-con/

Oh Nintendo, you tease. You still won't give us that jet black Wii console bound for Japan, but you've got no problem giving us in North America a taste of the dark side with a black Wiimote and Motion Plus bundle, coming this holiday along with a black nunchuk sold separately. With any luck this is just the sign of things to come, and should the Wii's sales momentum drop, we're sure quite a few new colors will start shipping their way over here (light blue, anyone?). On the more portable side of things, the DSi will be adding pink and white to its repertoire on September 13th. Unless the House that Mario Built is feeling particularly nasty, prices should be the same as their pre-existing color counterparts -- you wouldn't put a premium on a palette swap, right Nintendo?

[Via Joystiq]

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Black Wii remote bundle coming to North America, no matching console in sight originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WD ships 7200RPM 2TB desktop hard drives: Caviar Black and RE4

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/wd-ships-7200rpm-2tb-desktop-hard-drives-caviar-black-and-re4/

Surely you recall Western Digital's earlier 2TB effort, the Caviar Green -- right? While said drive was just perfect for the casual storage junkie, performance gurus know that it left something to be desired on the speed front. Thankfully, WD is looking out for that crowd too with a new pair of 7200RPM 2TB drives: the Caviar Black (shown left) and RE4 (shown right). Both four-platter drives boast 64MB of cache, a dual stage actuator, 3Gbps SATA interface and an integrated dual processor. The latter also promises 1.2 million hours MTBF, Active Power Save, a multi-axis shock sensor and a few other high-end advancements designed for enterprise users seeking long-term reliability. The pain? Try $299 for the now-available 2TB Caviar Black, while the RE4 awaits an MSRP as it's "being qualified by OEMs." Check the full release just past the break.

Continue reading WD ships 7200RPM 2TB desktop hard drives: Caviar Black and RE4

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WD ships 7200RPM 2TB desktop hard drives: Caviar Black and RE4 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's WB5000 24x camera shoots RAW, gets real

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/samsungs-wb5000-24x-camera-shoots-raw-gets-real/

Samsung's WB5000 24x camera shoots RAW, gets real
Hey, remember that squat WB5000 superzoomer that got spotted over the weekend? Samsung has seen fit to make it official, with specs that line up perfectly with the earlier report, including a 12.5 megapixel sensor, a 24x optical zoom lens (26mm - 624mm equivalent), and the ability to shoot 720p video recorded in H.264. It also includes a suite of intelligent modes for detecting faces, smiles, dimples, beards, and genetic abnormalities (just kidding about those last three) and can capture them all to JPEG or RAW files. Samsung hasn't officially announced availability details, but word on the street is this one will ship later this month (yes, it's September already) at a price of around $550.

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Samsung's WB5000 24x camera shoots RAW, gets real originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung X420, X520 CULV laptops outed

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/samsung-x420-x520-culv-laptops-outed/

Now, details are slightly thin here (as well as machine translated), but we're getting word of two new Samsung laptops on the horizon -- the 14-inch X420 and the 15.6-inch X520. The X420 will supposedly boast a 1.3GHz Intel Pentium dual-core SU2700, Intel GMA X4500M graphics, 3GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive, with not an optical drive in sight. Similarly the X520 will also feature the ultra-low power consumption SU2700 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 320GB HDD. The X520 will weigh in at 2.09 kg with its 6-cell battery, while the X420 will supposedly weigh 1.7 kg. We're hearing these bad boys are coming to European soil in mid-October, and while we don't have any solid pricing information -- both have been estimated to run somewhere in the €700 range (around $1,000).

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Samsung X420, X520 CULV laptops outed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Netgear ships ultra-speedy WNDR3700 dual-band router

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/netgear-ships-ultra-speedy-wndr3700-dual-band-router/


If you've grown increasingly incensed by those annoying dropouts caused by your 80s-era wireless router, it looks like Netgear has your cure. Though, we must say, there's at least a decent chance you don't have the coinage to procure said medicine. At $190, the RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WNDR3700) is one of the pricier WLAN routers on the market, though the amenities list is pretty impressive. The ReadyShare feature enables any USB hard drive to be viewed on the network, while the DLNA support and "real-world" throughput of 350Mbps shines up an already glistening device. There's even a broadband usage meter for those unfortunately dealing with Comcast caps, and if you actually use this as a remote media server, you'll definitely want to keep an eye on that.

[Via HotHardware]

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Netgear ships ultra-speedy WNDR3700 dual-band router originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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e-Detail's dual-screen Prezenter gets Atom upgrade, becomes Averatec PT1400

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/e-details-dual-screen-prezenter-gets-atom-upgrade-becomes-aver/

Last we saw e-Detail's dual-screen Prezenter tablet it packed an underpowered AMD Geode processor, a hefty $1,800 price tag, and no US release date to speak of. While it's been well over a year now, it looks like most of those have now changed for the better, with the device apparently finding a new distributor and a few new upgrades. Now branded as the Averatec PT-1400 "Prezenter," the device packs the same dual 14-inch and 7-inch touchscreens as before, but gets a more powerful Atom Z520 processor (upgradeable to a Z540), along with an 80GB hard drive (or optional SSD), 1GB of RAM, and 802.11n WiFi, among other standard specs. Unfortunately, there's no word on a price just yet, but it will apparently go on sale in North America, Japan and Korea sometime this month, and be available in your choice of black or white. A slightly smaller 12-inch version is also apparently set to follow at a later, unspecified date.

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e-Detail's dual-screen Prezenter gets Atom upgrade, becomes Averatec PT1400 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android-based Archos gets pictured, briefly priced by B&H

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/android-based-archos-gets-pictured-briefly-priced-by-bandh/

We still gotta wait until September 15th for the whole scoop, but B&H has gone ahead and spoiled some of the mystery of Archos' Android-based Archos 5, giving the internet tablet its own listing in a number of different storage capacity options, pictures in tow, as well as a $130 DVR station. Prices are currently listed as TBA, but fortunately it looks like the fine fellows at ArchosFans managed to capture the page when there were more concrete dollar signs on each model, to the tune of $294 for 16GB SSD, $370 for 32GB SSD, $320 for 160GB HDD, and $420 for a 500GB HDD. In the DVR station pic we spotted "HD" listed in the video names, which gives us hope that even more of those February leaks are coming to fruition. Screenshot of the with-price listings after the break.

[Via ArchosFans; thanks, Steve and Axel]

Read - 500GB HDD listing
Read - 16GB SSD listing
Read - 32GB SSD listing
Read - DVR Station

Continue reading Android-based Archos gets pictured, briefly priced by B&H

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Android-based Archos gets pictured, briefly priced by B&H originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UC Berkeley researchers tout world's smallest semiconductor laser

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/uc-berkeley-researchers-tout-worlds-smallest-semiconductor-lase/

Scientists at the Norfolk State University may laid claim to a "world's smallest laser" title just a few short weeks ago with the aid of some newfangled "spasers," but it looks like the folks at UC Berkeley at hot on their heels with some tiny lasers of their own, and they've now announced what they claim to be the worlds smallest semiconductor laser. Unlike Norfolk State's solution, the Berkeley researchers apparently relied primarily on standard semiconductor materials and fabrication technologies commonly used today, but devised a new means to squeeze the visible light into a 5 nanometer gap (about the size of a single protein molecule), while also using some newly-engineered "hybrid surface plasmons" to keep the light from dissipating as it moves along. That, the researchers say, represents nothing short of a "new milestone in laser physics," and could pave the way for everything from new nanolasers that can probe, manipulate and characterize DNA molecules to new breakthroughs in computing that could see light replacing electronic circuitry "with a corresponding leap in speed and processing power."

[Via DailyTech]

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UC Berkeley researchers tout world's smallest semiconductor laser originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Switched On: Sony plays both ends against the Kindle

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/switched-on-sony-plays-both-ends-against-the-kindle/

Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Last week, Sony introduced Reader Daily Edition, the latest and most advanced Reader in its 2009 lineup, and attempted to recapture the excitement around the category that it had at the launch of the original Reader but then gave up to Amazon. By adding 3G connectivity to the Daily Edition, Sony's answered the biggest perceived feature gap between its products and Amazon's e-reader.

However, far from playing me-too, the Daily Edition tells quite a different distribution story than the Kindle, from purchasing devices to the content. The $400 Daily Edition (a term that warmly evokes printed books and newspapers without being corny) will join the $300 Touch Edition and the $200 Pocket Edition. Of these, the Pocket Edition has the most near-term potential for success due to its greater portability and low price, particularly in these grim economic times.

Speaking of which, Sony seems to have picked up more positive buzz about its library integration for free book lending than it has for adding wireless to the line. For all the struggles of subscription services, consumers don't have any problems with renting content as long as it's free.

Continue reading Switched On: Sony plays both ends against the Kindle

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Switched On: Sony plays both ends against the Kindle originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony to debut 3D BRAVIA TVs by end of 2010, also eyeing 3D VAIOs, Blu-ray films, and PS3 games?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/01/sony-to-debut-3d-bravia-tvs-by-end-of-2010-also-eyeing-3d-vaios/

The Financial Times has it on good word what the major unveil in Sony chief Sir Howard Stringer's keynote tomorrow at IFA 2009 will, so much so that it's quoting him with phrases he hasn't even said yet. According to the report, the company is making a huge push into the third dimension, with 3D BRAVIA HDTVs hitting the retail channels by the end of 2010. Also on the menu is 3D-compatible PlayStation 3 titles (which we've kind of heard before), VAIO laptops, and Blu-ray movies, but it's unclear from the article if they shares the same 2010 timeline. Polarized glasses will be required for use, but hey, just consider it a fashion statement. We're now very anxious to see how close Sir Stringer sticks to this purported script for tomorrow's big event.

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Sony to debut 3D BRAVIA TVs by end of 2010, also eyeing 3D VAIOs, Blu-ray films, and PS3 games? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RT @jhagel So the much vaunted targeted advertising produces only this? Shameful. http://ping.fm/IffLH

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Who still uses "reach and frequency" as a success metric (and is willing to admit it publicly)? - http://bit.ly/pJRNP

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Monday, August 31, 2009

VapURL Creates Self-Terminating Temporary URLs [URL Hacking]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/yULbu9KSeQc/vapurl-creates-self+terminating-temporary-urls

Need to create a URL that disappears into thin air? VapURL creates a shortened URL with a shelf life.

Whatever your motivation for doing so, if you need to create a URL that has a fixed lifespan you can do so with VapURL. You plug a URL into the VapURL site or use the VapURL bookmarklet and specify the parameters of expiration. You can have a VapURL expire after a set number of visits, a set amount of time, or a combination of both variables.

Have a novel URL-tweaking service to share? Sound off in the comments.



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