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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Intel swings 25nm factory doors open for a tour de fab

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/intel-swings-25nm-factory-doors-open-for-a-tour-de-fab/

Intel and Micron's recent announcement that their collective superhero body, appropriately named IM Flash, is sampling 25nm flash chips has been accompanied with a whirlwind tour of their Utah production facilities for a few lucky journalists. PC Perspective bring us the atmospheric photo above, along with some videos, as they prance about one of the most hallowed (and cleanest) environments known to gadget lovers. Apart from the die shrink, the lads also discuss Intel's reputed plans for a G3 SSD refresh some time "later this year" with snappier controllers onboard, which apparently was echoed by Micron who also intend to pump out faster processors with their SSD products. While you wait for all that to happen, hit the source link to find out how and where the stuff that gets put inside SSDs is made.

Intel swings 25nm factory doors open for a tour de fab originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nikon kicks out new Coolpix S- and L-series cams

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/02/nikon-kicks-out-new-s-and-l-series-cams/

Keeping with the pre-PMA announcements, Nikon also launched the S and L series of cams just now -- the S stands for "Style," and L stands for "Life." The Ls are the low-end of the bunch -- Life is apparently cheaper than Style -- and you've got two choices: the $280 L110 superzoom, which has a 15x optical zoom lens in front of a 12.3 megapixel sensor and a 3-inch 460,000-dot LCD, or the $130 L22 compact, which has a 3.6x zoom and a 12 megapixel sensor, and comes in many colors because low-end camera have to come in rainbow colors or the Best Buy people won't say they're any good. Nikon says the new $299 S8000 pictured above is the most notable of the Style line, mostly because of its 10x zoom, 720p video, 921,000-dot LCD for previewing. Yeah, not bad at all. After that it's just incrementally sadder steps down the features scale: the $249 S6000 has a 7x lens and a 230,000-dot LCD, the $200 S4000 adds touchscreen controls to its 3-inch 460,000-dot LCD but has a 12 megapixel sensor and a 4x zoom, and the $149 S3000 has a 2.7-inch LCD, a 4x zoom, and probably isn't interesting to you at all. Unless it is, in which case you can look at it in the gallery, read the PR after the break, and just generally party the night away.

Gallery: Nikon kicks out new S- and L-series cams

Continue reading Nikon kicks out new Coolpix S- and L-series cams

Nikon kicks out new Coolpix S- and L-series cams originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hasselblad creates 40 megapixel H4D-40 medium format camera, wants $20k for it

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/hasselblad-creates-40-megapixel-h4d-40-medium-format-camera-wan/

Tough though it may be to believe, Hasselblad's 39 megapixel H3D II actually came out in 2007. Yeah, last decade. In other words, it's about time we saw a true successor hit the market, and with PMA just about ready to get going in Anaheim, the bold and beautiful H4D-40 is making its grand entrance. Boasting a 40 megapixel sensor, this medium format behemoth -- which we spotted in a leak late last month -- also features a "True Focus" AF system and ships with an 80mm lens and a viewfinder. The kit is said to be shipping now across the globe for $19,995 (or €13,995 / £12,995 on that side of the pond), which should make choosing between a new shooter and a public college education remarkably difficult.

Hasselblad creates 40 megapixel H4D-40 medium format camera, wants $20k for it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP's 8440 and 8540 EliteBooks ready to ship with Core i7 inside

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/hps-8440-and-8540-elitebooks-ready-to-ship-with-core-i7-inside/

HP promised us a mobile workstation refresh in February, and sure enough, today we are staring down the retail pages for its quartet of upgraded business laptops. The new top of the line EliteBook models come in 14- (8440p/w) and 15.6-inch (8540p/w) varieties, with the w-appended models sporting appropriately beefed up NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics with up to 1GB of dedicated GDDR5. If you want to grab one for under a grand, you'll have to make do with the reasonably powerful Core i5-520M / 2GB DDR3 RAM combo, but we're most excited by the future customization options, which include a low-voltage Core i7-820QM CPU with 8MB of internal cache, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 256GB in SSD storage. Course, we can't put prices to these spectacular beasts just yet, as HP is still only offering preconfigured rigs, but we think it'll be less than five figures.

[Thanks, Jared]

HP's 8440 and 8540 EliteBooks ready to ship with Core i7 inside originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP TouchSmart 600 Quad series does the Core i7 thing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/hp-touchsmart-600-quad-series-does-the-core-i7-thing/

What? Did Intel release a new processor or something? HP is just the latest PC vendor to make the Core i7 jump as it plans to put its new TouchSmart 600 Quad series up for sale starting today. The beefed up 23-inch all-in-one starts at $1,699 with options for a 1.6GHz Core i7 720QM or 1.73GHz Core i7 820QM Intel quad-core processor. Otherwise, the rest of the specs remain unchanged for this Windows 7 AIO. Still, if you've been waiting to pull the trigger since hearing about this update from our December leaks, well, keep refreshing that source link boy, it'll be available shortly.

Update: It's live.

HP TouchSmart 600 Quad series does the Core i7 thing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ricoh CX3 gets back-illuminated CMOS sensor, much geek lust

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/ricoh-cx3-gets-back-illuminated-cmos-sensor-much-geek-lust/

Just like clockwork, here's Ricoh -- six months after its last CX series refresh -- with a new superzoom point-and-shooter to tempt us into breaking open those piggy banks. The package on offer is compelling: there's a new 10 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, an enhanced noise reduction algorithm borrowed from the GR Digital III, and a 3-inch 920k-dot LCD, while the 10.7x optical zoom lens (28-300mm in 35mm equivalence) is carried over from the CX2. 720p video recording -- fast becoming a standard feature in compact cameras -- is present and accounted for, with recording in 16:9 ratio available to the ubiquitous Motion JPEG format. The CX3 is arriving this month, with early prices of AU$499 ($441 in US currency) matching the cost of the current generation.

Ricoh CX3 gets back-illuminated CMOS sensor, much geek lust originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung does the 2TB shuffle with EcoGreen F3EG hard drive

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/samsung-does-the-2tb-shuffle-with-ecogreen-f3eg-hard-drive/

Look out, Western Digital -- you've got a little competition up there in the rarefied storage air. Samsung just got official with its newest EcoGreen HDD, the 1.5TB and 2TB F3EG. This here drive is the followup unit to last year's F2EG, and aside from sucking down as little power as possible for a capacious internal drive, it also incorporates a 3.0Gbps SATA interface, native command queuing features and 16MB / 32MB of buffer memory. It should be making its way out onto European and US shelves this month starting at $179.99, thus bringing your ultimate archival dreams that much closer to reality.

Samsung does the 2TB shuffle with EcoGreen F3EG hard drive originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Solving a misperception or simple lack of knowledge adds $1.8B to cheese industry revenues - that's a lot of cheddar - http://bit.ly/91CvwJ

Mark Cuban to Newspapers: Kill the Vampires http://bit.ly/caqbSt -- ah, I c what's happening here; reverse psychology to kill papers faster

Google Nexus One Gets Multitouch, Google Goggles and 3G Fix via OTA Update Now [Google]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/SEkhE3rWP30/google-nexus-one-gets-multitouch-google-goggles-and-3g-fix-via-ota-update-now

Nexus One owners can stop being jealous that the iPhone got an update today because an over-the-air update for the Google device is being pushed out starting now. It finally brings multitouch along with some 3G fixes and Google Goggles.

According to Google, the following changes come with the software update:

Google Goggles:
This mobile application will now be available directly on your device by launching it from your All Apps menu. Just use your Nexus One camera to start searching the web

Google Maps:
The Maps application with be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4, which will include:
Starred items synchronized with maps.google.com - access your favorite places from your phone or computer
Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history - makes it easy to search for places you've searched for before
Night mode in Google Maps Navigation - automatically changes your screen at night for easier viewing and driving
Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone's Browser, Gallery and Maps applications

3G connectivity: we will provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones

All you need to do to get the update is wait until you "receive a message on your phone's notification bar. Just download the update, wait for it to install, and you should be all set. This update will be rolled out gradually to phones - and most users might not receive the notification until the end of the week." Easy. [Nexus One Board]

No-glasses 3D display with 64 viewing angles to debut at CeBIT

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/02/no-glasses-3d-display-with-64-viewing-angles-to-debut-at-cebit/

Singaporean outfit Sunny Ocean Studios is pledging to put all of the autostereoscopic 3D we've seen so far to shame with a new 27-inch display offering 64 viewing angles it will show at CeBIT. A serious upgrade from the 8 or 9 viewing angle lenticular displays we saw at CES this year, the company claims it's ready to refit regular displays for 3D and also assist in 2D-to-3D image conversion. We've got all of the usual questions lined up like how will this affect resolution, what's necessary to render the necessary 64 different frames for each viewing angle and of course, how much does it cost, but founder Armin Grasnick says his company can handle screens of up to 100-inches quickly and inexpensively, likely by not wasting precious R&D funds on website design. The current state of 3D is glasses all the way, but we could get a peek at the next step March 2 in Germany.

No-glasses 3D display with 64 viewing angles to debut at CeBIT originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Next iPhone codename, new iPod touch revealed in latest SDK and firmware

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/02/next-iphone-codename-new-ipod-touch-revealed-in-latest-sdk-and/

If somehow you've become concerned that another iPhone might not be on the way to market, you can now rest easy. Our ingenious tipsters have discovered yet another fascinating factoid deep within the Frameworks of the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK, namely: the codename of the next iPhone. Buried way inside the platform simulator lies a set of folders dedicated to specific models of iPhone OS-ready devices, including the iPhone 3GS, second generation iPod touch, something called the "K48" (yep, the codename we were told was the internal name for the iPad), and... the "N89." Sure, it sounds like a Nokia phone just waiting to happen, but this is -- according to our extremely knowledgeable and trusted sources -- likely the codename of the next iPhone (previous versions were called the M68, N82, and N88). We can't take too much away from this beyond the fact that the model exists, though we're certain that with a little more digging, some detail is sure to rear its head (attention hive-mind). Interestingly, Apple's just released firmware (3.1.3) also includes another new model, the "N80," which we're told will most likely be the next version of the iPod touch. We're going to keep researching here, so stay tuned for more.

Next iPhone codename, new iPod touch revealed in latest SDK and firmware originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A First Taste Of What The Google Tabletâs Interface Will Look Like (Pics)

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/xoAdFohBkNU/

Last week, the world saw Apple’s long anticipated tablet device, the iPad, for the first time. In the aftermath since that announcement, a few things have become clear: it will be great for some people, but its apparent lack of flexibility (at least in its first iteration) may leave something to be desired. It’s increasingly looking like the best alternative will be Google’s Chrome OS, which is clearly on a collision course with the iPad. And tonight, we’ve come across some very impressive mockups of what Chrome OS may look like on a tablet form factor.

The photos have been posted to the official Chromium site (Chromium is the open source project behind Chrome and ChromeOS). And while Chromium is not actually part of Google, it appears that these mockups were put together by Glen Murphy, Google Chrome’s designer. In other words, there’s a good chance that the final version of Chrome OS will resemble this.

Update: Be sure to watch this video to see a mockup of the tablet in action.

It’s worth pointing out that there almost certainly will be multiple “Google Tablets”, given that Chrome OS won’t be tied to a single device. That said, Google is working with select hardware partners to ensure that it runs on devices that are up to its specifications, and there may be one tablet device that is designated as the “Google Tablet”, much like the Nexus One is the “Google Phone”.

Via TheChromeSource.

Aardvark Publishes A Research Paper Offering Unprecedented Insights Into Social Search

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/IMDRrISRf-8/

In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin published a paper[PDF] titled Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Search Engine, in which they outlined the core technology behind Google and the theory behind PageRank. Now, twelve years after that paper was published, the team behind social search engine Aardvark has drafted its own research paper that looks at the social side of search. Dubbed Anatomy of a Large-Scale Social Search Engine, the paper has just been accepted to WWW2010, the same conference where the classic Google paper was published.

Aardvark will be posting the paper in its entirety on its official blog at 9 AM PST, and they gave us the chance to take a sneak peek at it. It’s an interesting read to say the least, outlining some of the fundamental principles that could turn Aardvark and other social search engines into powerful complements to Google and its ilk. The paper likens Aardvark to a ‘Village’ search model, where answers come from the people in your social network; Google is part of ‘Library’ search, where the answers lie in already-written texts. The paper is well worth reading in its entirety (and most of it is pretty accessible), but here are some key points:

On traditional search engines like Google, the ‘long-tail’ of information can be acquired with the use of very thorough crawlers. With Aardvark, a breadth of knowledge is totally reliant on how many knowledgeable users are on the service. This leads Aardvark to conclude that “the strategy for increasing the knowledge base of Aardvark crucially involves creating a good experience for users so that they remain active and are inclined to invite their friends”. This will likely be one of Aardvark’s greatest challenges.
Beyond asking you about the topics you’re most familiar with, Aardvark will actually look at your past blog posts, existing online profiles, and tweets to identify what topics you know about.
If you seem to know about a topic and your friends do too, the system assumes you’re more knowledgeable than if you were the only one in a group of friends to know about that topic.
Aardvark concludes that while the amount of trust users place in information on engines like Google is related to a source website’s authority, the amount they trust a source on Aardvark is based on intimacy, and how they’re connected to the person giving them information
Some parts of the search process are actually easier for Aardvark’s technology than they are for traditional search engines. On Google, when you type in a query, the engine has to pair you up with exact websites that hold the answer to your query. On Aardvark, it only has to pair you with a person who knows about the topic — it doesn’t have to worry about actually finding the answer, and can be more flexible with how the query is worded.

As of October 2009, Aardvark had 90,361 users, of whom 55.9% had created content (asked or answered a question). The site’s average query volume was 3,167.2 questions per day, with the median active user asking 3.1 questions per month. Interestingly, mobile users are more active than desktop users. The Aardvark team attributes this to users wanting quick, short answers on their phones without having to dig for anything. They also think people are more used to using more natural language patterns on their phones.
The average query length was 18.6 words (median of 13) versus 2.2-2.9 words on a standard search engine. Some of this difference comes from the more natural language people use (with words like “a”, “the”, and “if”). It’s also because people tend to add more context to their queries, with the knowledge that it will be read by a human and will likely lead to a better answer.
98.1% of questions asked on Aardvark were unique, compared with between 57 and 63% on traditional search engines.
87.7% of questions submitted were answered, and nearly 60% of them were answered within 10 minutes. The median answering time was 6 minutes and 37 seconds, with the average question receiving two answers. 70.4% of answers were deemed to be ‘good’, with 14.1% as ‘OK’ and 15.5% were rated as bad.
86.7% of Aardvark users had been asked by Aardvark to answer a question, of whom 70% actually looked at the question and 38% could answer. 50% of all members had answered a question (including 75% of all users who had ever actually interacted with the site), though 20% of users accounted for 85% of answers.

CrunchBase Information

Information provided by CrunchBase

Mobile Barcode Company Scanbuy Raises Funding From Motorola Ventures, Others

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PxG9MO5xKgY/

Scanbuy, a New York-based provider of mobile barcode solutions, has received a capital injection in a round led by Motorola Ventures, Masthead Venture Partners, Hudson Ventures and private investors. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Scanbuy’s ScanLife platform provides a way for advertisers to provide digital information to consumers through the use of 2D barcodes and camera phones. That way, advertisers are able to provide consumers with access to information like product reviews, price comparisons and coupon offers simply by having them scan two-dimensional codes placed on product packaging, a magazine ad or other media. Scanlife can scan traditional UPC barcodes as well as popular 2D barcode formats like Datamatrix and QR Codes.

According to a statement released by lead investor Motorola Ventures, ‘millions’ of people have used ScanLife on a range of mobile devices running Android, BlackBerry OS, iPhone OS, Java and Symbian to date. Scanbuy also claims to have the largest and oldest patent portfolio of any company in the industry, with over 30 patents granted covering the solution.

Noteworthy: Scanbuy’s chief executive is Jonathan Bulkeley, previously CEO of barnesandnoble.com and prior Managing Director of AOL’s joint venture with Bertelsmann Online in the U.K., and AOL's Vice President of Business Development in the United States.

This investment follows Motorola Ventures’ backing of Zephyr Technology Corporation, which dates back to June 2009.

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