Friday, November 14, 2008

HTC Touch HD Reviews Pour In (Verdict: Best Win-Mo Phone Yet, But Still Win-Mo) [Htc Touch Hd]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/tFxe1DiS1Mo/htc-touch-hd-reviews-pour-in-verdict-best-win+mo-phone-yet-but-still-win+mo

HTC is not releasing the Touch HD in the United States. Which still seems a little crazy to me, because few other phones have received such a favorable and envious reaction online recently. Despite the fact that you probably won't ever want to import one (no US 3G pretty much seals the deal), the Touch HD is still a useful indicator of where HTC, one of the biggest mobile players there is, is going. Now that the phone is available in the UK and Europe, the reviews are starting to hit, and while pretty much everyone continues to be wowed by the hardware, there's that pesky little Windows Mobile thing that keeps coming up.

Hardware wise, there is of course the 480 x 800 screen which is the centerpiece—everyone says what the pictures and videos have been telling us since the beginning: it's beautiful. Less fantastic, though, is the resistive touch screen (which is cheaper and less-responsive than a capacitative touchscreen like the iPhone 3G's). HTC goes with resistive on almost all of its phones to ensure they'll be accepted by the Asian market, in which recognition of complex characters written with a stylus is key (styli are the only thing that doesn't work quite as well on a capacitive screen).

TouchFLO, HTC's custom Win-Mo GUI has a ton of room to be awesome on this screen, and makes Windows Mobile look as good as any other phone out there now. But there's one huge problem: unless you stick with making calls, taking photos and using a few of the built-in widgets like weather and stocks, you'll often find yourself dropping back into Win-Mo 6.1's default interf! ace, whi ch looks MUCH less pretty on the HD's beautiful screen. That means getting your media on the phone and accessing it is still just as painful as on any other Win-Mo piece. Ahem, HTC? Android? Think it's about time.

So yeah, given that this phone is useless on all of the US 3G networks, the import market will be next to 'nil. But here's hoping the Touch HD is merely a prelude to a similar device running Android, complete with luscious US 3G bands, sometime soon.

[Mobile Tech Addicts, CNET UK, Slash Gear, Phone Arena]


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American Airlines Brings Cellphone Boarding Passes to O'Hare [Cellphones]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Vyq8Gmzd3ZE/american-airlines-brings-cellphone-boarding-passes-to-ohare

Chicago's O'Hare airport, the second busiest in the world, is set to join several other airports serviced by Delta and Continental in offering passengers the option to use their cellphones as boarding passes. The service will be available to passengers departing from Los Angeles International and John Wayne Orange County airports starting on Nov. 17. [Chicago Tribune]


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Astronomers Take First Ever Pics of Other Planetary Systems [The Truth Is Out There]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ey6bglxcdPc/astronomers-take-first-ever-pics-of-other-planetary-systems

Huge astronomy news! For the first time EVER, galaxy researchers have taken pictures of planets orbiting a sun-star, much like our own. The first, taken by the much beloved Hubble Telescope, shows a planet orbiting the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis. The second picture, snapped by upstaging Hawaiian observatories Gemini and Keck, shows two young planets orbiting a completely different star located 130 light-years from us! Take that Hubble! But I warn you—like the ultrasounds your friends show you of their three-month old fetus—these pictures wow mostly because of what they are, not because of what they look like.

This is what the Hubble Telescope saw, conveniently labeled by our friends at NASA. Where is the planet, you ask? Do you see that little underlined part to the right? That's the unimaginatively named Fomalhaut b! To get the image, Hubble's camera needed to block out the brightest part of the star, which shines millions of times brighter than the planet itself.

And here's the picture taken by the Gemini and Keck observatories of the bodies orbiting Star HR8799. HR8799 is about 1.5 times more massive than our sun, and five times more luminous. Like the Hubble's image, this star needed to have its light blocked too in order for us to see the planets. These two, despite being an even greater distance away, were slightly easier to find since they're young. Being only about 6! 0 millio n years old, they're still glowing from leftover heat from their formation, making them brighter than Fomalhaut B, which only glows when reflecting light from Fomalhaut.

Here's an artistic rendering of Star HR8799 and it's planets. The third planet hasn't been imaged yet, but thanks to mathematical calculations, we know it's there!

So in case you were doubting it—yes, other star systems exist. And as our galactical camera technology gets better, the pictures will start looking more like actual planets, rather than fetal specks on a giant Eye of Sauron. [Bad Astronomy]

Image credits: NASA and the Gemini Observatory


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AMD's Upcoming Conesus Netbook Chip Won't Stoop to MID Levels [Amd]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/2OePd0cw3M4/amds-upcoming-conesus-netbook-chip-wont-stoop-to-mid-levels

In case you were wondering what somewhat troubled chip maker AMD was going to do in the next few years, the company's now revealed its completely updated roadmap that addresses everything from high end all-in-one desktops to netbooks and UMPCs. Especially interesting is it's treatment of its "Atom-killer"... which it says "won't be going to the bottom where Atom is going."

Basically, AMD's designed two chips targeted at the netbook market on its "Yukon" platform, due in first half of 2009. Consumers are getting "Caspian" and "Conesus," both 45-nm dual-cores with integrated DDR-2 controllers. Caspian is designed for ultraportables and will contain 2 Mbytes of cache. Conesus, made smaller to fit into the tiny little bodies of netbooks, will only contain 1 Mbyte. But Senior VP Randy Allen hedged that the chips weren't specifically designed for netbooks, and that Yukon was focused on customers who don't want a "compromised PC experience." Translation: AMD's saying no to Mobile Internet Devices.

It's 2009 desktop plans were less murky. High-end lines will get "Deneb", a quadcore chip with 8Mbytes of cache and options for both DDR-2 or DDR-3. Mainstream desktops can look forward to "Propos"—also quadcore but with 2 Mbytes of cache.


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Cycle Life Watch Concept Charts Your Life Draining Away In Daily Drudgery [Timepieces]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VqsMi-bLjRc/cycle-life-watch-concept-charts-your-life-draining-away-in-daily-drudgery

Here's a bit of tech that'll cast a wonderful air of doom and gloom over your morning breakfast cereal: The Cycle Life watch charts your progress through the boring average day's drudgery. It begins cheerfully with "wake up!" but then the rest of your productive, vividly personal, exciting daily life is reduced to displays for "Car, PC, Car, TV, Go to Sleep!" Totally reminds me of a French slang saying about daily tediousness "Metro, bulo, dodo, Metro bulo..." travel, work, home, travel, work... At least the watch also has a real time display so you can see exactly how much closer to death you're getting. A concept, but a darkly delicious one. [Yanko]


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Sony announces new CMOS sensors, 12+ megapixel cameraphones coming soon

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/13/sony-announces-new-cmos-sensors-12-megapixel-cameraphones-comi/

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Sony announces new CMOS sensors, 12+ megapixel cameraphones coming soon
If you've enjoyed the point-and-shoot megapixel race, which has pushed sensor resolutions in your average 3X zoom compact cam well into the teens -- leaving a sad trail of dark and noisy holiday pictures in its wake -- you're going to just love the mobile phone megapixel race. Samsung's 10 megapixel SCH-B600 currently holds the lead, but Sony's got a ringer chomping at the bit with the Exmor IMX060PQ CMOS sensor, which, paired with its matching auto-focus lens module, will turn some lucky handset into a 12.25 megapixel shooter when it enters the race in March. Sony has also announced 5.15 and 8.11 megapixel sensors, but really, anything not in double digits is so last year.

[Via Akihabara News]

Continue reading Sony announces new CMOS sensors, 12+ megapixel cameraphones coming soon

Sony announces new CMOS sensors, 12+ megapixel cameraphones coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mojo Mobility's induction charging tech: best thing to happen to discs since Tron

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/13/mojo-mobilitys-induction-charging-tech-best-thing-to-happen-to/

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Mojo Mobility's induction charging tech: we haven't been this excited about discs since TronWe are absolutely, completely ready for wireless induction charging to make it big. Have you seen our gadget charging station? It's like some Lovecraftian nightmare; our latest intern went over to plug in his BlackBerry two days ago and we haven't seen him since. For years we've been getting teased with limited, proprietary solutions (mostly for sweaty videogame controllers) but we seem to be firmly and disappointingly locked in the competing standards phase. While we hate to see yet another contestant enter the fray, Mojo Mobility Inc. might just have a winner with its Near Field Power technique, relying on thin, inexpensive coiled discs to both send and receive up to 4 watts of power with 70 percent efficiency. Unlike the competition no exposed contacts are required, and while it looks like you'll still need to place the device onto a charging pad, with multiple transmission discs that pad could charge all your gadgets at once. Mojo plans to supply the receiving discs to battery and device manufacturers in the near future, and to that we can only say hurry up. Think of the interns!

Mojo Mobility's induction charging tech: best thing to happen to discs since Tron originally appeare! d on Engadget on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T officially welcomes Symbian S60 back with Nokia 6650

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/13/atandt-officially-welcomes-symbian-s60-back-with-nokia-6650/

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For AT&T users craving a little Symbian S60 on contract, do we have some stellar news for you. After discovering that the carrier would be bringing the S60-based Nokia 6650 into its lineup in short order, we've since seen all the proof we need to keep our hearts fluttering. Now, AT&T is doing us all a favor by making things official: the 3G-capable 6650 will land in red and silver tomorrow for anyone who covets, and with it will come a 2-megapixel camera, 2.2-inch QVGA display, AT&T Navigator / Video Share / Mobile Music and a 1.36-inch external display to boot. The pain? $69.99 with a 2-year agreement.

[Via phonescoop]

AT&T officially welcomes Symbian S60 back with Nokia 6650 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aequitas iGala Wireless Digital Picture Frame is touchscreen photo-browsing perfection

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/13/aequitas-igala-wireless-digital-picture-frame-is-touchscreen-pho/

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We know, you started yawning at the sight of the headline, your ears will pop with relief by the middle of this paragraph, and you'll finish up somewhere around the Read link. We get it. But there's something kinda special about the brand new iGala Wireless Digital Picture Frame from Aequitas, we'll call it "common sense." The photo frame sports an 8-inch, 800 x 600 touchscreen, 1GB of internal storage, WiFi and the traditional complement of card readers. What's new here is that iGala really puts that WiFi connection to use, featuring Gmail integration (for sending photos), an alarm clock and integration with Microsoft's FrameIt service for news, traffic and weather info. The frame also hooks up to Flickr directly, which is such a no-brainer these days that we're surprised we see still so many "connected" frames lacking the feature. A full touchscreen makes all of this stuff actually possible to use, and the $239 pricetag doesn't mean you have to get soaked for the convenience. iGala is available now from Aequitas' entirely sketchy online store -- we guess you can't win 'em all.

[Via Digital Picture Frame Review]

Aequitas iGala Wireless Digital Picture Frame is touchscreen photo-browsing perfection originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alienware stoops lower with $1,049 Area-51 750i gaming desktop

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/13/alienware-stoops-lower-with-1-049-area-51-750i-gaming-desktop/

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Remember when the average Alienware was like four large? Ah, those were the days. As the used-to-be-boutique gaming PC company looks to attract a wider range of customers and fight off the effects of this economic quandary we're involved in, it has introduced the (relatively) affordable Area-51 750i. Predictably based on the NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI motherboard, this rig can be outfitted with a Core 2 Extreme QX9650, twin ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards (or dueling GeForce GTX 280s, if you prefer), 8GB of DDR2 RAM, Windows Vista 64-bit, more hard drive space than you'll ever have use for, an optional Blu-ray burner and the usual complement of ports. We needn't remind you that the $1,049 baseline rig doesn't have a specs list nearly that impressive, but if it's all about that glowing case, you can get in the game quite cheaply right now.

Alienware stoops lower with $1,049 Area-51 750i gaming desktop originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD announces Conesus netbook platform, ATI Stream brand, Fusion processor delay

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/13/amd-announces-conesus-netbook-platform-ati-stream-brand-fusion/

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We already got word of AMD's new 45nm Shanghai Opterons this morning, but it looks like that was only just the beginning of a deluge of news out of the slightly troubled company today, which includes the expected announcement of its netbook platform, the introduction of its new ATI Stream brand, and word of a delay to its much-vaunted Fusion platform. On the netbook front, AMD is hoping that its "Conesus" processor will prove to be a formidable competitor to Intel's Atom, with it apparently existing only in a 45nm, dual-core version that includes 1MB of cache and support for DDR2 RAM. Look for it to roll out in the first half of 2009. Coming ahead of that is AMD's new ATI Stream brand, which encompasses a number of the company's different stream and GPU computing initiatives and attempts to make them more attractive to both consumer and enterprise markets. To that end, AMD will be adding Stream support to its next Catalyst update (due in December), which will apparently let folks easily run stream applications that make use of your graphics card's GPU for some added computing power. It's not all high-fives around AMD, however, as the company has also let out word that its ! Fusion p latform based around the dual CPU / GPU "Shrike" processor will be delayed until sometime in 2011, a full year later than originally planned. As if that wasn't enough, it's also shaken up the rest of its processor roadmap a bit, although it's entirely possible that it'll fluctuate a bit further before things really settle down. Hit up the links below to break all that down piece by piece.

Read - Extreme Tech, "AMD Answers Atom with 'Conesus,' Roadmap Update"
Read - PC Perspective, "ATI Stream Computing: From the desktop to the datacenter"
Read - HotHardware, "AMD ATI Stream Computing Update"
Read - TG Daily, "AMD delays Fusion processor to 2011"

AMD announces Conesus netbook platform, ATI Stream brand, Fusion processor delay originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell's Vostro A860 yours for a song (and $379)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/13/dells-vostro-a860-yours-for-a-song-and-379/

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The Dell Vostro A860 we've heard so much about has finally hit the Stateside scene, and it looks like we'll finally be able to get our hands on the laptop that those lucky folk in the "emerging markets" of Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America have been into since before it was cool (that is, late August). Starting at $379 with Dell's instant savings, the 15.6-inch, 5.4 pound laptop comes with either a Celeron or Pentium Dual Core processor, GMA X3100+ integrated graphics, up to 2GB of memory, up to 160GB storage, 1366 x 768 display resolution, WiFi and optional Bluetooth. This "speed demon" comes preloaded with Vista Home Basic or Vista Business and is available now at Dell's website.

[Via Laptoping]

Dell's Vostro A860 yours for a song (and $379) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Walt Mossberg reviews Autonet: spotty, but still distracting enough to be dangerous

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/13/walt-mossberg-reviews-autonet-spotty-but-still-distracting-eno/

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Chrysler's in-car WiFi, Autonet Mobile, has been around for a little while now, and Walt Mossberg has helpfully reviewed it for us. He found the service (which is basically an in-car 3G WiFi router) to be great for email and basic web surfing, but it was too slow to handle anything much more demanding, like streaming videos. Speed test results ranged from 100 kbps to 500 kbps, with an average of 400-450 kbps... pretty average for 3G speeds, and Walt says the connection never dropped. On the plus side, it appears that Chrysler is willing to mount the ruggedized router in the trunk of any car -- not just their models -- which is great news if, like most people, you have no intention of driving a Chrysler around. The Autonet box runs $499 ($399 for the holidays) with a one-year contract and monthly fees of about $29. That may seem expensive, but can you put a price on your kids checking Facebook rather than asking "Are we there yet" every twelve seconds? Hit the read link for the full review.

Walt Mossberg reviews Autonet: spotty, but still distracting enough to be dangerous originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Callpod's Drone Bluetooth adapter turns your Bluetooth headset into Skype's best friend

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/14/callpods-drone-bluetooth-adapter-turns-your-bluetooth-headset-i/

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We were always curious as to why computers don't make it easier to take advantage of that fancy little Bluetooth headset of yours -- why buy a whole 'nother headset for Skype and Counter Strike (is that what kids are up to these days?) when your ridiculously overpriced Jawbone will do just fine? Callpod's newly released Drone USB Bluetooth adapter makes your Bluetooth headset look just like a regular headphone / mic combo to a PC or Mac, perfect for chewing out the kids from your hotel room over some long-distance Skype without messing with a tangle of wires. Callpod is also touting a 100 meter wireless range, and can naturally do regular, boring Bluetooth chores like transferring files and tethering your keyboard. The Drone is available now for $50.

[Via Crave]

Callpod's Drone Bluetooth adapter turns your Bluetooth headset into Skype's best friend originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

Anandtech Lab Notes - Core i7 920 OC with Patriot Memory DDR3


Anandtech Lab Notes - Core i7 920 OC with Patriot Memory DDR3
By eva2000
Keeping VCore, VDimm, and VQPI in proper sync is the key to a stable overclock at voltages that will not shorten your processor's lifespan, well not by that much from what we can tell at this point. Intel's guidance continues to be not ...
i4memory.com - http://i4memory.com/wp/

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