Monday, May 10, 2010

Zotac's ZBOX HD-ID11 starts shipping for $250

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/10/zotacs-zbox-hd-id11-starts-shipping-for-250/

You've seen the sneak peek, you've dug into the review, and now you're more ready than ever before to part with $249.99 in order to get your grubby mitts around one of the world's smallest Ion 2-based small form factor PCs. You've already dreamed up the perfect application for this pint-sized rig, and now it looks as if Newegg is shipping out the orders that it receives right now. Go on and head down to the source link if your mind's made up, but remember, we can't be held responsible for buyer's remorse effective March 13, 2004.

Zotac's ZBOX HD-ID11 starts shipping for $250 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 08:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS CrossHair IV Extreme mainboard supports mix-and-match GPU setups

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/10/asus-crosshair-iv-extreme-mainboard-supports-mix-and-match-gpu-s/

Scouting a new mainboard for that fancy new Phenom II X6 CPU you just picked up? You might want to hold off a minute, particularly if you're also planning on shopping for a few new GPUs as well. Hot Hardware has managed to get their paws around an upcoming motherboard from ASUS, the CrossHair IV Extreme. Much like the Maximus III Extreme that we spotted last November, this one also ships with the RoG Connect feature, enabling a secondary Bluetooth device (like a netbook or smartphone) to tweak overclocking settings from the sidelines. What really makes this one stand out, however, isn't the compatibility with all Socket AM3 Phenom and Athlon CPUs, nor the fancy new 890FX chipset. No -- it's the inclusion of Lucidlogix's nearly-forgotten Hydra solution, which allows users to mix-and-match GPUs (makes and models are no matter here) in order to create the most from whatever graphics cards you have sitting around. There's no mention of when this fellow will ship, but we'll be keeping an eye out at Computex just in case.

ASUS CrossHair IV Extreme mainboard supports mix-and-match GPU setups originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 09:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New HDD writing methods could boost platter densities by 5x or more

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/10/new-hdd-writing-methods-could-boost-platter-densities-by-5x-or-m/

New HDD writing methods could boost platter densities by 5x or moreJust when we think that platter-based storage is on its way out it keeps on coming back with a vengeance. A few years ago it was perpendicular recording boosting storage densities by a few orders of magnitude, now it's a pair of new techniques that could push things much further. Your average disk today can manage a couple-hundred GB per square inch while still delivering reliable writes, but if all goes to plan the write methods called bit-patterned recording (BPR) and thermally-assisted recording (TAR) could raise that to 1TB per inch initially and upwards of 10TB per inch down the road. BPR relies on segregating the disk sectors with lithographed "islands" while TAR relies on heating and cooling techniques that preserve the data in nearby sectors. When these Wonder Twins combine, disk sectors can be as small as 15nm in diameter and write speeds can hit 250Mb/sec. Yes, that's megabits, so while you'll be able to store a lot more data than on conventional platters, you won't be able to do so any more quickly than now.

New HDD writing methods could boost platter densities by 5x or more originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Five Best Personal Landing Pages [Hive Five]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5534456/five-best-personal-landing-pages

Five Best Personal Landing PagesNot everyone has the time or inclination to build and maintain a full-fledged web site. If you're just looking for a simple way to unify all your online profiles, these personal landing pages are a perfect fit.

Earlier this week, we asked you to share your favorite personal landing page. A personal landing page is a small-scale web site that directs visitors towards your other profiles on the web, a central page you can direct people to, instead of writing and linking a laundry list of your online presences—your Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm, and other profiles.

If you're looking to set up a personal landing page to unify your online presence without the work of setting up and maintaining your own web site, the following services can help. Read on to see the most popular personal landing pages.

Note: For the screenshots below, we took snapshots of real profiles from all of the services, as discovered by Google searches or provided as examples on the main site of each service. Since the services are customizable, don't assume that all personal landing pages from that particular service look exactly like the sample screenshot. Visit the service web site for more information and to see how you can customize your own site.

Unhub (Free)

Five Best Personal Landing Pages
The Unhub service isn't as much a personal landing page as a personal landing bar. When you give people your Unhub profile URL, what they see is an Unhub bar across the top of the browser pane and your featured site below it. Unlike most personal landing page services which limit you to well known social networks and services, Unhub lets you link to anything you want. If you want the bar to have your Amazon wish list, your YouTube profile, a link to your Wikipedia page, and then links to a couple virtual portfolios of various work you've done, you can do that. You select the site Unhub will bring the user's focus to and which sites will be displayed across the Unhub bar. Unhub includes a URL shortening tool and site analytics to help you see which links get clicked the most and which profiles interest your visitors. You always have to point Unhub at something, even if it's just your Facebook profile page. If you're looking for a service that serves as a one-stop information board for your visitors, you might consider some of the other personal landing pages in this week's Hive Five.

Card.ly (Free)

Five Best Personal Landing Pages
Card.ly, as the name would imply, is a business-card-styled personal landing page. You can tweak your Card.ly profile with all sorts of customizations, scaling it from a simple set of social network icons people can click to a full-fledged mini-portal, with a profile, personal quotes, and additional information about you. Card.ly has a demo account, available here, where you can play around with the themes and settings to get a feel for the service before you sign up.

Flavors.me (Free)

Five Best Personal Landing Pages
Flavors.me is a personal landing page that emphasizes style and presentation over an abundance of widgets. The Flavors.me layout is designed to showcase a photograph or piece of artwork with a small bio and a set of links layered over it. Although the design is simple, the creative variations user come up with are quite interesting. You can browse through a directory of profiles here to get ideas. Simple and punchy design aside, Flavors.me sports a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface that makes it quick to get a site up and running. You can check out our review of Flavors.me here.

Chi.mp (Free)

Five Best Personal Landing Pages
Compared to other contenders in this week's Hive Five, Chi.mp takes customization to another level. Instead of merely allowing you to swap out pictures or select which links you want to include, Chi.mp lets you build multiple profiles and highlight what's important to you. You can make a professional profile to share with colleagues, a personal profile to share with friends, and as many variations as you need for different situations or projects. In addition, you can emphasize some of the content you share over other content. Say you want to emphasize, for example, your Twitter feed over other shared content like your Flickr photos, Chi.mp lets you promote the Twitter feed to appear more prominently.

ClaimID (Free)

Five Best Personal Landing Pages
ClaimID has the least splashy personal landing page offering in this week's Hive Five. The emphasis at Claim ID isn't about expressing your artistic side, or wildly differentiating yourself from the crowd, but instead on showcasing the services that are important to you. Customization is limited, but it's easy enough to create a long list of all the services and web sites you want to share. ClaimID is tied into the OpenID service, so if it's important to you to show people that you've actually been verified as the person you're claiming to be, and that your links actually point to the real profiles of John Q. Smith, then you may want to consider ClaimID's personal landing page, despite the lack of eye candy.


Now that you've had a chance to look over the top five contenders for best personal landing page it's time to cast your vote in the poll below:



Which Personal Landing Page Is Best?survey software

Have a favorite personal landing page that wasn't featured? Let's hear about it in the comments. Have a tip or trick for making the most of a personal landing page? We want to hear about that too. If you have an idea for a future Hive Five send us an email at tips@lifehacker.com with Hive Five in the subject line.

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The Computer Cabinet Office Rebooted [Featured Workspace]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5534527/the-computer-cabinet-office-rebooted

The Computer Cabinet Office RebootedLast year we featured the Computer Cabinet Office and now we're back to highlight the updated version with a tighter configuration of monitors and a brand new desk.

The issues Steve Price was dealing with last year—inability to find a desk that fit his needs, lots of computer noise and heat—that led to him building a custom computer desk were again factored into his most recent build. His new desk drops a few monitors, angles them more effectively, and includes a under-desk shelf to keep the power strips and cables off the ground and tucked out of site. Check out the gallery before for a closer look.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

The Computer Cabinet Office Rebooted [Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool]

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DocTranslator Translates Office Documents with Google and Keeps Formatting [Translation]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5535005/doctranslator-translates-office-documents-with-google-and-keeps-formatting

DocTranslator Translates Office Documents with Google and Keeps FormattingGoogle's webapps can translate uploaded Microsoft Office documents, but with many caveats involving file sizes and HTML formatting. DocTranslator, a Java-powered webapp, runs your Office and text documents through Google Translate and sends them back with the same formatting.

DocTranslator runs entirely in your browser, and uses Java mainly to accept file uploads and send back downloads, so it's not quite as heavy as your cynical experience might indicate. It accepts Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in both the standard formats and the 2007 variations (.docx, .xlsx, etc.), along with text documents. After picking your file, DocTranslator guesses at the language, then offers more than 50 languages to translate the document to. The languages and services come from Google Translate, so the offerings are likely to grow in the future. That's about all there is to the app—no file size limits, no sign-up or download needed, and it works as well as Google does, which is about the best free option around right now.

If you know of another, better free document translator, though, we're open to suggestions in the comments.

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Grab Free Vector Art Images at Love Vector Free [Design]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5535149/grab-free-vector-art-images-at-love-vector-free

Grab Free Vector Art Images at Love Vector FreeNext time you're hunting for icons, buttons, or other images to mock up or finish off a design, give Love Vector Free a look. It's a decent collection of free images that scale to whatever size image you're working with.

It's nowhere near the scale of the previously mentioned repository Open Clip Art Library, but Love Vector Free is pitched more toward web designs, buttons, and other functional pieces that designers and dabblers might be looking to use or draw from. Got a favorite source for free vector art elsewhere on the web? Pitch in a link in the comments.

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South Korea First Country To Broadcast 3DTV On Terrestrial Channels [3dTv]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5534935/south-korea-first-country-to-broadcast-3dtv-on-terrestrial-channels

South Korea First Country To Broadcast 3DTV On Terrestrial ChannelsSouth Korea was first to market with a 3DTV, but on May 19th the country will begin the world's first terrestrial broadcasts in 3D.

The Korea Communications Commission made the announcement that all four of the channels, KBS, MBC, SBS and EBS will start trialing it in a little over a week, with the first thing to broadcast in 3D being the 2010 Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting, on the KBS channel. Following that, SBS will show the FIFA World Cup in June, with 25 of the matches being shown in 3D. [Korea Times via Akihabara News]

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Sunday, May 09, 2010

Word Finder Finds the Right Word When You Draw a Blank [Language]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5534168/word-finder-finds-the-right-word-when-you-draw-a-blank

Word Finder Finds the Right Word When You Draw a BlankEven serious crossword puzzle enthusiasts get stuck now and then—and if you've got nowhere else to go, free web tool Word Finder will help you figure out that missing word and save you hours of agonizing.

Word Finder is pretty handy for any situation in which you draw a blank and can't figure out a word—whether you're doing a word jumble, a crossword puzzle, or just can't put your finger on that word that you know is in your head but isn't coming to you. There are a few different search parameters, too; you can define the length of the word, what letters it starts with, ends with, or has somewhere inside it, and even unscramble them. You even get two dictionaries to choose from, one of which is the official Scrabble dictionary (though if you try to whip this out during Scrabble, that probably counts as cheating). Hit the link to check it out, and never wait for the next day's crossword answers again.

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Surprise! Your iPad Camera Connection Kit Supports External Hard Drives [Ipad]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5533668/surprise-your-ipad-camera-connection-kit-supports-external-hard-drives

The iPad Camera Connection Kit may be selling itself short with its name; turns out you can also use it to hook your iPad up to an external hard drive. Here's how it's done.

The video above, from Maxwell Shay, walks you through part of the process. It only works after you jailbreak your iPad, something we wholeheartedly recommend you do anyway. Once you've done that, download the iFile app and the Nano terminal text editor from Cydia. That's the easy part.

The hard part involves all kinds of SSH and PLIST file editing. For that, check out Max's written step by step tutorial here. And seriously, this is tricky stuff, so be careful.

It's a neat proof of concept—and of what all iPads should be able to do right out of the box, if only Apple would let it—but once you get through all the grunt work it's also a handy way to share and store files.

HOWEVER: if you're not an experienced jailbreaker, your best option is probably to hold off for now. It wouldn't be surprising to see a much more streamlined approach packaged into an extension or utility in Cydia in the coming weeks. Meaning you'd be able to install this hack directly from the jailbreak store, saving you from a whole mess of potential problems. [Time-More via Wired]

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Fujitsu breathes new life into color e-paper: brighter, faster, lovelier

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/07/fujitsu-breathes-new-life-into-color-e-paper-brighter-faster/

Fujitsu's been dabbling in the color e-paper market for years, showing off prototype readers during a time when the iPad was simply a twinkle in the eye of Steve-o. Now, the e-reader realm as a whole is having to reevaluate itself with the explosion of multifaceted tablets, but we're not giving up hope just yet -- Qualcomm's downright stunning color Mirasol display could turn the tables once more later this year, and Fujitsu's new and improved color e-paper might do the same later this month. Scheduled to debut at the Fujitsu Forum in Japan, this newly developed color electronic paper utilizes a redesigned panel structure and image re-write methods, and there's also an improved contrast ratio to boot. Unfortunately, there's no public commercialization plans just yet, but we're hoping it'll hit a few products sooner rather than later -- time's a wastin', Fujitsu!

Fujitsu breathes new life into color e-paper: brighter, faster, lovelier originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP TouchSmart tm2 getting Core i3 and i5 this summer?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/08/hp-touchsmart-tm2-getting-core-i3-and-i5-this-summer/

This is just a rumor at this point, but it's definitely one we'd file in the believable column. According to NewGadgets.de, HP's planning to update its 12.1-inch tm2 convertible tablet with Core i3 and i5 processors in June. Considering we've heard that Intel will be releasing its Core i5 ULV processors around then, this certainly makes sense --- after all, we'd expect HP to swap out the current Core 2 Duo ULV processors for something more powerful, yet power efficient. Time will tell if the new chips make it into the multitouch laptop, but it's good to know that HP's still working on at least some sort of Windows 7 tablet.

HP TouchSmart tm2 getting Core i3 and i5 this summer? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 May 2010 07:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo LePhone unboxed, exhaustively reviewed ahead of launch in China

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/08/lenovo-lephone-unboxed-exhaustively-reviewed-ahead-of-launch-in/

We're not sure how we missed this one, but it's better late than never -- turns out some lucky jerks in China were given a Lenovo LePhone to play with back in mid-April, and the guys at Sooyuu have just finished the fifth and final part of their lengthy review, just in time for the May launch. We weren't expecting any changes since our last encounter at CES, but apparently the 3.7-inch screen's now been upgraded from LCD to AMOLED, and like the Palm Pre, the LePhone also sports a gesture area below the screen. Of course, there's also the never-before-seen packaging that we totally dig, not to mention the bundled goodies such as a leather case, a noise-isolation handsfree kit (but sans music and volume control), plus a magnetic dock adapter. As for software, the reviewer praises Lenovo's snappy, heavily customized Android with its vast Chinese social networking service integration, music store, video apps, and an impressive Chinese turn-by-turn navigation suite. We almost want to adopt this baby, only to be let down by its 3.2-megapixel camera's mediocre quality, lack of flash, and inability to autofocus. Anyhow, you can be the final judge -- head over to Sooyuu for plenty more pictures.

Lenovo LePhone unboxed, exhaustively reviewed ahead of launch in China originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 May 2010 17:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceSooyuu (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)  | Email this | Comments

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Friday, May 07, 2010

What Sites Future Employers Are Checking When Looking at You [Job Search]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5532404/what-sites-future-employers-are-checking-when-looking-at-you

What Sites Future Employers Are Checking When Looking at YouAs part of a Data Privacy Day report, Microsoft commissioned a study of over 1,200 hiring and recruitment managers. In one segment, they asked what kinds of sites they considered in researching applicants online. The short answer: almost everything.

As PC World put it—and as Jason detailed in his online identity primer—having a decent-looking personal web site, with blog-like material showing your grasp of topics and general up-to-date skills, is the best defense against anything and everything else a potential employer or contractor might find about you online.

Then again, take a look at how many online realms hiring managers peek into when peeking at you. It's reassuring, if you've put time into cleaning up your online image, and perhaps a wake-up call if you've still got LOLcats littering your photo service pages.

Have you hired someone, or turned someone down, based on their online presence? Been on the receiving end of that kind of judgment? Gripe or brag, as the case may be, in the comments.

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Google Goggles Can Now Translate Foreign Text from a Picture [Android]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5532703/google-goggles-can-now-translate-foreign-text-from-a-picture

Google Goggles Can Now Translate Foreign Text from a PictureAndroid: Google's Goggles app for Android can now translate foreign text that you capture (and crop) with your phone's camera, potentially helping with signage, papers, and other text found while traveling. In a quick test, the results were, well, interesting.

In the update for Android's Goggles app, already in the Market, Goggles gets both new language translation skills and a crop function that makes Goggles a lot easier to use when pinning down something in particular. I lack for foreign-language documents around the house, so I loaded up the web site of Der Spiegel, the one German newspaper I know from memory, and started snapping and cropping.

Google Goggles Can Now Translate Foreign Text from a PictureThe lead article in the Der Spiegel news magazine was, of course, about the Greek debt crisis. Using the screenshot I uploaded with Goggles, Google knew the text was in German, and offered a "translate" bar on the results page. It came back with some still-German text, then "A main road in the Plette." By actually typing the line I'd captured into Google, though, I found the actual translation of the cover line, done by humans: "A continent on the way into bankruptcy."

A picture of a laptop screen isn't, in fact, quite the best test case, and slightly metaphorical news cover lines aren't necessarily the best use of a literal translation tool like Google's. So assume that your mileage will vary, but that if you need to know whether a sign says a restaurant is open or closed, you're probably good to go.

Google says at this point that a few languages are covered both ways, and more can be translated to from there:

The first Goggles translation prototype was unveiled earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and could only recognize German text. Today Goggles can read English, French, Italian, German and Spanish and can translate to many more languages. We are hard at work extending our recognition capabilities to other Latin-based languages. Our goal is to eventually read non-Latin languages (such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic) as well.

The Goggles update is available for Android phones running at least Android 1.6. Tell us what you think of Goggle's new image-based translation tool in the comments.

Translate the real world with Google Goggles [Official Google Mobile Blog]

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