Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Saturday, March 06, 2010

CeBIT Remainders: 8 Reasons We Didn't Go [Remainders]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/mCxENfg5ek8/

Every year, Hanover, Germany hosts hordes of tech journalists, analysts, and PR people for CeBIT. It's like CES, sort of, except further away, and more boring. We decided not to go this year; it ends tomorrow. Here's what we missed!

To be clear, these were some of the bigger stories of the conference, at least for American audiences. We've written a few other CeBIT stories up as well, which you can find here, but by and large, the event just sort of came and went. So, this is what was happening over in Hanover this week, while the rest of the tech world was going about their business.

Pierre Cardin Tablet: Wikipedia tells me that Pierre Cardin is a "Italian-born French fashion designer" who is famous for his "space age" clothing designs. He's paired up with a small Taiwanese OEM to make a tablet—the old foldy kind, not the slate-like new kind. It's pink, and it will cost $450, if it ever hits stores in the US.

CeBIT Remainders: 8 Reasons We Didn't Go ASUS EeeTop ET2010PNT and ET2010AGT On the exterior, ASUS EeeTops are basically a budget take on the AIO concept you're familiar with from the likes of the iMac and HP's Touchsmarts. On the interior, as with most ASUS products, they're incomprehensible parts soup.

Shuttle I-Power External GPU: Breaking news, for people who would like to buy a box that's nearly the size of a netbook and which can help boost their notebook's graphics capabilities! (But only certain notebooks, because you need a special adapter!) The Shuttle I-Power External GPU is ready to accommodate your fantasies.

1Cross B'ook ereader: Entourage eDGe on a budget: The first step here is to try to remember what the Entourage eDGe is. Now that you've done that, the second step is to figure out why you care about this cheaper, gaudier, and somehow less practical take on the same concept.

Intel Atom for Storage Devices: Intel's Atom processors, traditionally meant for netbooks and cheap laptops, are about as unglamorous as tech products get. I'd even hold that this was true five minutes ago, which was before I'd even heard about the Intel Atom for storage devices, which is a special version of the platform for household and small business network storage devices.

New Intel Classmate: Intel's ultra-budget Classmate convertible tablet PCs are evolving! (Slightly!) Here is the reference design for the newest one, which is quite similar to earlier reference designs on the outside, but adjusted slightly for cost and performance reason on the inside.

CeBIT Remainders: 8 Reasons We Didn't Go LG 12x Blu-ray drives: Did LG not have 12x Blu-ray writers before? Are these just new versions of their old Blu-ray devices? Such are the mysteries of CeBIT, which could easily be solved, if anyone cared enough to Google for backlinks.

CeBIT Remainders: 8 Reasons We Didn't Go ASUS O!Play USB 3.0: We're big fans of the ASUS O!Play set-top boxes around here and we're not very slightly more enamored with the concept, now that it supports USB 3.0.

Google Beats 'Em AND Joins 'Em With DocVerse Acquisition [Google]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qSC2TBZHmpQ/google-beats-em-and-joins-em-with-docverse-acquisition

Google Beats 'Em AND Joins 'Em With DocVerse Acquisition Google's shopping spree continues. This time they've picked up a company called DocVerse, whose software will eventually allow seamless interoperability between Google Docs and Microsoft Office. That's right, Microsoft... the call is coming from inside the house.

You can already store and share Office files through Google Docs, but DocVerse adds the functionality of letting users collaborate directly on Office documents. As the crowing Google Blog puts it:

DocVerse is a small, nimble team of talented developers who share our vision, and they've enabled true collaboration right within Microsoft Office. With DocVerse, people can begin to experience some of the benefits of web-based collaboration using the traditional Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint desktop applications.

Current DocVerse users won't be affected, but you won't be able to sign up for a new account until Google figures out exactly how they're going to incorporate the company. Of course, Microsoft was moving Office to the cloud on their own anyway; it's just that it'll be a bit more crowded there than they'd thought. It's official, though: even productivity software is a battleground now. [Google Blog via TechCrunch]

NVIDIA says Optimus 'works perfectly' with Intel Wireless Display

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/nvidia-says-optimus-works-perfectly-with-intel-wireless-displa/

Intel's Wireless Display technology is undoubtedly impressive, but it does place a few specific requirements on the gear you're able to use with it (mostly involving Intel hardware). As it happens, while Intel may not be talking it up (we can't imagine why not), NVIDIA says that WiDi also 'works perfectly' with its Optimus discrete graphics technology. The two obviously weren't designed to be compatible from the start, but NVIDIA says it "just works," and doesn't require any software or hardware changes. That's apparently due to the unique way that Optimus interfaces with the integrated Intel graphics in a laptop, which effectively acts as a bridge between the WiDi system and the GPU, and makes it the only discrete GPU that will work with WiDi. Head on past the break to see the magic happen on video.

Continue reading NVIDIA says Optimus 'works perfectly' with Intel Wireless Display

NVIDIA says Optimus 'works perfectly' with Intel Wireless Display originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer D241H monitor has built-in WiFi, media player, identity crisis

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/acer-d241h-monitor-has-built-in-wifi-media-player-identity-cri/

Is there room for a product that's part digital picture frame, part all-in-one PC, but mostly just a monitor? Acer seems to think so, and it's doing its best to carve out a niche for itself with its new 24-inch D241H model, which promises to do nothing short of "revolutionize the way you use a monitor." To accomplish that feat, the monitor packs built-in WiFi, along some basic internet / media player capabilities that will let you check your email, keep watch on the news, weather and other things via some widgets, or simply enjoy some music, photos or videos. You'll also get a built-in memory card reader, a pair of USB ports, a wired LAN port, and an apparently included wireless keyboard (no touchscreen here, folks). No indication of a price or release date just yet, but we're going to go out on a limb and guess it'll fall somewhere between a standard 24-inch monitor and an all-in-one PC.

Acer D241H monitor has built-in WiFi, media player, identity crisis originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola patent combines multiple devices to make one large display

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/motorola-patent-combines-multiple-devices-to-make-one-large-disp/

It seems to us that if you indulge in mobile video from time to time, you're either lugging around a device with a decent display size (netbook, tablet, whatevs) or more likely than not you're watching your Britain's Got Talent! clips on a handset -- either solution is obviously less than ideal. What if we told you that Motorola has filed a patent application for a "Reconfigurable Multiple-Screen Display"? This technology will essentially let you configure multiple devices for use as one big display: Instead of lugging around your Thinkpad or suffering the indignity of watching postage stamp-sized video on your Droid you can simply and conveniently carry four phones around. Why didn't we think of that?

Motorola patent combines multiple devices to make one large display originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS' EeeBox EB1501U packs ION and USB 3.0, need we say more?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/asus-eeebox-eb1501u-packs-ion-and-usb-3-0-need-we-say-more/

Sure NVIDIA's Ion 2 is all the rage right now, but ASUS still has a few tricks left in store for the progenitor nettop GPU. The EeeBox EB1501U sports a typical nettop processor -- in this case, the older Diamondville Intel Atom 330 dual core -- with Ion One, and as an added bonus, there's USB 3.0 support. Also under the hood? A 2.5-inch, 320GB HDD, DVD drive, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. As for the other home theater PC box, the EeeMedia EM0501 isn't quite as exciting -- just a 800MHz Samsung ARM processor, a variety of codec supports, and HDMI out. Still, given history, it's a pretty solid addition. Pricing and availability? Your guess is as good as ours for now. Enjoy the pictures for the time being.

Gallery: ASUS EB1501U hands-on

Gallery: ASUS EM0501 hands-on

ASUS' EeeBox EB1501U packs ION and USB 3.0, need we say more? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround eyes-on, triple the fun

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/nvidia-3d-vision-surround-eyes-on-triple-the-fun/

What's better than gaming on one 3D screen? Gaming on three, of course. We're no strangers to NVIDIA's 3D Vision along with the Acer and Alienware displays, but the company has unveiled its 3D Vision Surround capability at CeBIT that lets you play 3D games on three 1080p 3D displays simultaneously. Yeah, it's as crazy as it sounds -- we got to throw on a pair of the glasses and it's one seriously panoramic and immersive experience. What won't be as pleasing is how much a set-up like this will cost you -- you'll need three 3D screens, and a rig with an GeForce GTX 480 SLI configuration or higher (the desktop we saw had two GeForce GTX 280 GPUS). NVIDIA will officially launch the whole platform along these new GeForce GTX 480/470 GPUs later this month.Thinking about digging into your savings? Maybe the video after the break will put an end to your wavering.

Gallery: NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround

Continue reading NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround eyes-on, triple the fun

NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround eyes-on, triple the fun originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA GTX 480 makes benchmarking debut, matches ATI HD 5870 performance (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/06/nvidia-gtx-480-makes-benchmarking-debut-matches-ati-hd-5870-per/

We're still not happy with NVIDIA's failure to publish anything on its site alerting users about the doom that may befall them if they switched to the 196.75 drivers, but the company's making an effort to get back into our good books with the first official video of its forthcoming GeForce GTX 480 and even a benchmark run against ATI's flagship single-GPU card, the HD 5870. It looks like you'll need to jack in a pair of auxiliary power connectors -- one 8-pin and one 6-pin -- to power the first Fermi card, as well as plenty of clearance in your case to accommodate its full length (stop giggling!). NVIDIA's benchmarking stressed the GTX 480's superior tesselation performance over the HD 5870, but it was level pegging between the two cards during the more conventional moments. It's all well and good being able to handle extreme amounts of tesselation, but it'll only matter to the end user if game designers use it as extensively as this benchmark did. As ever, wait for the real benchmarks (i.e. games) before deciding who wins, but we're slightly disappointed that NVIDIA's latest and greatest didn't just blow ATI's six-month old right out of the water. Benchmarking result awaits after the break, along with video of the new graphics card and a quick look at NVIDIA's 3D Vision Surround setup. Go fill your eyes.

Continue reading NVIDIA GTX 480 makes benchmarking debut, matches ATI HD 5870 performance (video)

NVIDIA GTX 480 makes benchmarking debut, matches ATI HD 5870 performance (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 07:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, March 05, 2010

Draw Abstract Wallpaper Using the Flame Drawing Tool [Wallpaper]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/6SNbkVCoVW0/draw-abstract-wallpaper-using-the-flame-drawing-tool

Draw Abstract Wallpaper Using the Flame Drawing Tool If you're a huge fan of abstract wallpaper but you don't have the software or the know-how to make one you'll definitely want to try Flame, a web-based drawing tool that makes creating abstract doodles easy and fun.

Using Flame you can create a variety of shapes and patterns and the user interface is simple. You have a palette which is black by default, white is the only other option. You have an adjustable brush, customizable in size, softness, and other variables, and you can select your colors and the level of opacity and saturation.

One of the best ways to create really soft and flowing lines is to move the mouse quickly. The faster you move the mouse the "wider" the brush stretches and the softer and more diffuse the lines are. If you move the mouse slowly you get a laser-focused beam of intense color, move it quickly and you get a wide swath of gossamer-like color.

Draw Abstract Wallpaper Using the Flame Drawing Tool

You can save your pictures to your computer, the default size is 1680px × 1050px with no ability to select other sizes—a feature we'd love to see implemented for creating crazy triple-screen wallpaper and other sizes. If you make a particularly awesome wallpaper, share it in the comments below. Have a neat tool for making your own wallpaper? We want to hear about that too.

Flame [via Download Squad]

Ceiling Painted By Light [Concepts]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cAOc9-o6GRY/ceiling-painted-by-light

At the moment, our choice of lighting is fairly committal. We drill holes in our ceilings for permanent placements of bulbs. But LEDs open all sorts of other possibilities.

It's not hard to imagine a ceiling covered in RGB LEDs, like Seo Dong-Hun's Draw the Lights concept. Equipped with a few sensors, a laser (or IR) pen could "paint" an array of light, allowing you to customize your entire living space in a manner not unlike a Philips LivingColors lamp...only a lot more immersive. [Red Dot via Yanko Design]

This Is Why that Amazing NASA Earth Image Looked So Familiar [IPhone]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Y-HwSNlxHLo/this-is-why-that-amazing-nasa-earth-image-looked-so-familiar

After publishing the The Most Accurate, Highest Resolution Earth View to Date, it got extremely popular: The day after, countless newspapers and blogs worldwide reposted the story. NASA wrote to us, surprised. Why? Because everyone already knew about it:

This Is Why that Amazing NASA Earth Image Looked So Familiar

Yes, the Blue Marble is the iPhone's default screen, which have been seen by millions of iPhone owners and by everyone who has read about the iPhone since 2007. In fact, the image has been public since 2002:

From: *************** <***********@nasa.gov>
Subject: Question on Blue Marble image from NASA
Date: March 2, 2010 8:17:49 PM EST
To: Jesus Diaz

Mr. Diaz

Hello. I am the photo editor for the Public Affairs Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

We were happy to see you featured our Blue Marble image on your website last week.

http://gizmodo.com/5478787/the-most-accurate-highest-resolution-earth-view-to-date#comments

We also featured it on our Flickr page but it has really taken off on the web. We had over 500,000 hits in the last two days alone.

Given that this is an image from 2002 I'm just curious what prompted you to post it on your site? Or did you pick it up from someplace other than our site? I see at the bottom it says "NASA via Twitter"

Really, I'm just curious because it's gotten so much play over that few days.

Thank you for your interest in our work.

Take care,
Rebecca

The reason? Because it's a beautiful image, that's all. One that makes you marvel at the beauty of our planet, and how tiny and insignificant we are, but also how unique and rare. [Gizmodo—Thanks to John Hermann for telling me about the obvious]

Don't forget to check NASA Goddard's Flickr page. They keep posting really cool stuff.

Microsoft Courier's Devolution [Microsoft]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/XsHGG6aya7I/microsoft-couriers-devolution

These fresh images and details of Microsoft's Courier paint a slightly different device than the one uncovered a few months ago—tinier seeming, perhaps less genre-busting, and a more direct iPad fighter.

This take is built on the same mobile OS core as Windows Phone 7 and Zune HD, powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2 hardware. It's supposedly thinner than an inch, under a pound, and about the size of a 5x7 photo when closed.

As you can see, the device seems even smaller (Update: maybe not), the interface, though still pen-based, seems less whizzy based on these stills than the wildly complex and sophisticated (or maybe just complex) interface shown earlier:

Is Courier progressing or regressing? It's hard to tell—we're not sure where in Courier's development these concepts are from vs. our initial reportage. But if they are newer, a few things stand out.

• Courier's grown to be more realstic and less different, which is not uncommon for mind-bogglingly radical-seeming products. (Our mind was blown by the original interface, anyway, for better or worse.)

• Shifting from using Windows 7 as its core as Mary Jo Foley first reported to Windows CE6 and mobile guts puts it more squarely against the iPad, using a similar philosophical approach of scaling up to a tablet, vs. scaling down as Microsoft's always done before. (Which makes sense, given that this is supposedly J. Allard's project—he'd want to use E&D's own goods to power his tablet.) Also, mobile guts are cheaper than low-power laptop guts.

• This could be one of the several prototype tablets J. Allard's got—which would explain why there's versions that seem more like full Windows 7 vs. Windows Phone 7.

• Engadget pegs the launch date later this year, though we've heard separately that Courier won't show up anytime in 2010.

• We're still pretty excited.

[Engadget]

Sony VAIO Z with Quad SSD stripped down and explained by its project leader

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/sony-vaio-z-with-quad-ssd-stripped-down-and-explained-by-its-pro/

For the average geek like us, there's nothing more satisfying than watching a gadget skillfully torn apart by its creator. That's why we're slightly envious of Engadget Chinese, who saw Sony VAIO Z Series project leader, Takamitsu Kasai, explaining the differences between the old and new VAIO Z literally part by part. Hightlights include Sony's proprietary Quad SSD (so not user-upgradable, sadly), a redesigned heatsink to accommodate the new chips' higher TDP (thermal design power), and various features of the "one-piece milled aluminum" and "hybrid carbon" chassis. Of course, all we really care about are photos of the naked VAIO Z, so go ahead and gorge yourselves after the jump.

Sony VAIO Z with Quad SSD stripped down and explained by its project leader originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft's Courier 'digital journal': exclusive pictures and details

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/microsofts-courier-digital-journal-exclusive-pictures-and-de/

We've been dying to know more about Microsoft's Courier tablet / e-book device ever since we first caught wind of it last September, and while our entreaties to Mr. Ballmer went unanswered, we just learned some very interesting information from an extremely trusted source. We're told Courier will function as a "digital journal," and it's designed to be seriously portable: it's under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn't much bigger than a 5x7 photo when closed. That's a lot smaller than we expected -- this new picture really puts it into perspective -- and the internals apparently reflect that emphasis on mobility: rather than Windows 7, we're told the Courier is built on Tegra 2 and runs on the same OS as the Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series, which we're taking to mean Windows CE 6.

As we've heard, the interface appears to be pen-based and centered around drawing and writing, with built-in handwriting recognition and a corresponding web site that allows access to everything entered into the device in a blog-like format complete with comments. We're also hearing that there will be a built-in camera, and there's a headphone jack for media playback. Most interestingly, it looks like the Courier will also serve as Microsoft's e-book device, with a dedicated ecosystem centered around reading. It all sounds spectacular, but all we have for a launch date is "Q3 / Q4", and we have no idea how much it's going to cost, so we're trying to maintain a healthy skepticism until any of this gets official -- call us any time, Microsoft. One more pic showing the interface after the break.

Update: We've added a gallery of user interface shots -- some of which we've seen and some of which are new.

Gallery: Courier user interface