Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, October 01, 2010

The New Google Chrome Beta Has Google Instant Baked In and Tab Expose [Google Chrome]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5652966/the-new-google-chrome-beta-has-google-instant-baked-in-and-tab-expose

If you're not on the Google beta channel, here's another couple of reasons to make the switch: The latest version has Google Instant search baked in for Windows users, and in the Mac version, an Expose-like tab management feature (swipe with three fingers, and all your tabs arrange themselves accordingly, like Expose). To enable them, go to about:Labs. [Cnet]

Latest smartphone displays pitted in no-holds-barred deathmatch

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/30/latest-smartphone-displays-pitted-in-no-holds-barred-deathmatch/

If you're a numbers geek, you're trying to be scientific about your next smartphone purchase, or you just like pretty colors, you might appreciate DisplayMate's latest report rounding up examples of all (well, most) of the latest and greatest display technologies out there: IPS LCD, Super AMOLED, AMOLED, and TFT, represented by the iPhone 4 and Droid, the Galaxy S, the Nexus One, and the iPhone 3GS, respectively. Noticeably missing is SLCD, the technology HTC has been using to make up for lost ground on its AMOLED shortage from component supplier Samsung, but we've got a hunch DisplayMate's hard at work at adding that into the mix.

Anyhow, considering the sheer number of variables the firm takes into consideration -- everything from color depth, to brightness, to reflectance, to color gamut -- there's no clear-cut winner, but the Droid and iPhone 4 are obviously a cut above the rest with generally higher scores and better performance across the board. The Galaxy S' Super AMOLED turns in a decent performance, too, but takes a little hit for its 16-bit color depth and blown-out colors. Of course, if you consider any of these -- even the crappy TFT on the 3GS -- to a phone from five years ago, it still looks like science fiction... so you really can't go wrong, can you?

Latest smartphone displays pitted in no-holds-barred deathmatch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N8 vs. iPhone 4: camera showdown

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/30/nokia-n8-vs-iphone-4-camera-showdown/

What's the first thing you should do when you get the N8? Considering it packs the biggest image sensor embedded in a phone yet, Carl Zeiss optics, and an eight-digit pixel count, it seemed obvious to us that the answer was to take it on a picture- and video-taking stroll around London. On our way out we saw our iPhone 4 looking all sad and lonely, so we went ahead and brought it along as well. Below you shall find one gallery of pure, unadulterated N8 sample shots, another interspersed with the iPhone's results for comparison's sake, and a final one with side-by-side 100 percent crops from each image taker. Once you've digested all of those, we suggest hopping past the break and tucking into some tasty video comparisons for dessert.

Naturally, all the images are entirely unretouched (but for our masterly watermarking) and the iPhone 4's HDR hocus pocus has been left off. We've also provided a zip file containing all the full-res imagery shot with the N8 in a link below.

A quick note is also merited about the N8's resolution. The sensor's display ratio is 4:3, which means that full 12 megapixel shots are only available in those dimensions. The camera software, however, defaults to shooting 9 megapixel snaps at the increasingly popular 16:9 ratio -- this is done simply by cropping away the "excess" bars at the top and bottom of the image, meaning that the 9 megapixel images are giving us identical performance as the 12 megapixel ones, they're just chopped down (from 4000 x 3000 to 4000 x 2248) for the sake of convenience. Now, on with the show!

Gallery: Nokia N8 sample photos

Gallery: Nokia N8 vs. iPhone 4: cameraphone fight!

Gallery: Nokia N8 vs. iPhone 4: full resolution crops

Continue reading Nokia N8 vs. iPhone 4: camera showdown

Nokia N8 vs. iPhone 4: camera showdown originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic teases a 13.2MP 'Lumix phone' for October 5 unveiling

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/01/panasonic-teases-a-13-2mp-lumix-phone-for-october-5-unveiling/

Looks like we'll soon have another heavyweight to throw into the renewed cameraphone wars, as Panasonic has put up a teaser site for its first Lumix-branded phone. Lumix is of course Panasonic's camera label, which counts among its luminary membership the likes of the GF1 and the newly refreshed LX5. The new phone shooter promises to beat both in terms of pure resolution with its 13.2 megapixel CMOS sensor, which is accompanied by a 3.3-inch LCD atop a 146-gram body. Much like Nokia's N8 and its protruding sensor compartment, this Lumix handset will have to make room for its expanded imaging equipment, which is why it'll offer a comparatively chubby 17.7mm thickness, to go along with a 116mm height and 52mm width. We'll know more next week when CEATEC 2010 gets rolling over in Tokyo.

[Thanks, Anton]

P.S. -- It's also noteworthy that Panasonic's press release indicates a folding mechanism for this handset, which, given current trends in Japan, makes it most likely to be a clamshell device. It's also got some DLNA voodoo inside and is coming out by the end of this fiscal year (April 2011).

Panasonic teases a 13.2MP 'Lumix phone' for October 5 unveiling originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 05:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wireless USB reaches revision 1.1, makes for smarter and more efficient toys

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/01/wireless-usb-reaches-revision-1-1-makes-for-smarter-and-more-ef/

Wireless USB 1.1 is here, whether you like it or not, and we're betting you're going to like it if manufacturers make it work. The USB-IF's new spec, finalized this week, is still capped at the same 480Mbps of its wired cousin USB 2.0, but it reportedly brings with it reduced power consumption and near-field communication for proximity-based pairing. And if the idea of, say, touching your smartphone and a wireless Pixel Qi panel together to automatically connect the twain doesn't make you jump for joy, we're not really sure what would. Perhaps you're still waiting for the one-gigabit-per-second Intel's Jeff Ravencraft promised three years ago this month? Download the full spec at our more coverage link to see what's what.

Continue reading Wireless USB reaches revision 1.1, makes for smarter and more efficient toys

Wireless USB reaches revision 1.1, makes for smarter and more efficient toys originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 06:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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