Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 may ship with Android 3.1 on board, said to be 'a few days away'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/25/samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-may-ship-with-android-3-1-on-board-said/

Do you like Android 3.1? Do you like tablets slimmer than the iPad 2? You might want to talk to Samsung in that case, because the Galaxy creator has put those two features together on its Galaxy Tab 10.1 product page and has compounded the excitement with a tweet saying the tablet is mere days away. Now, there's a bit of conflicting information here, because Samsung's tweet actually promises Android 3.0, but the Tab 10.1 page clearly lists the harder, better, faster, stronger Android version as the one that comes with the slate. Additionally, our conversations with Samsung at Google I/O earlier this month indicated that the June 8th launch date that we've been taking as gospel until recently is a little shakier now, with a slight delay possibly being caused by the desire to install the latest Honeycomb on board. So maybe the tweet's accurate in saying the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is coming in just a few days, it just depends on your definition of "few."

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 may ship with Android 3.1 on board, said to be 'a few days away' originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 04:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS preparing an ultraslim Eee PC 'with a twist' for Computex

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/25/asus-preparing-an-ultraslim-eee-pc-with-a-twist-for-computex/

ASUS' week of merciless teasers continues today with a silhouette of what the company calls a "super-slim sensation [with] a twist." It's an Eee PC and there are no doubts about it being a netbook, but something about this evolutionary product won't be quite the same as on its predecessors. Notebook Italia has dug up the above image, which looks like a match for ASUS' shadow-obscured teaser and shows what may very well be the thinnest Eee PC we've yet seen. Last time ASUS was touting anything laptop-shaped that was quite so slim, it was the Neo smartbook prototype that never made it out of the labs, but this here cheese slicer looks very likely to be hitting the market shortly after Computex. Naturally, we'll be in Taipei getting the lowdown for you, whatever happens.

ASUS preparing an ultraslim Eee PC 'with a twist' for Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 06:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cray XK6 supercomputer smashes petaflop record, humbly calls itself a 'general-purpose' machine

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/25/cray-xk6-supercomputer-smashes-petaflop-record-humbly-calls-its/

Sure, IBM's ten petaflop supercomputer may sound impressive, but Cray can do you five better -- the outfit just announced the Cray XK6, an upgradable, hybrid supercomputing system capable of more than 50 petaflops of computational muscle. Powered by Cray's Gemini interconnect, AMD Opteron 6200 processors, and NVIDIA Tesla 20-Series GPUs, the XK6 system blends x86 and GPU environments with the firm's own flavor of Linux. The folks at Cray won't resort to bragging, however -- they're humbly declaring the machine to be the first "general-purpose supercomputer based on GPU technology," and not, as they put it, a stunt to place high on any Top 500 lists. Suggestive, aren't they? Check out the unassuming press release after the break.

Continue reading Cray XK6 supercomputer smashes petaflop record, humbly calls itself a 'general-purpose' machine

Cray XK6 supercomputer smashes petaflop record, humbly calls itself a 'general-purpose' machine originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 06:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung's AF315 All-in-One 3D PC targets the sophisticated woman and those who aspire to be one

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/25/samsungs-af315-all-in-one-3d-pc-targets-the-sophitsticated-woma/

Say what you will about Samsung's questionable chaebol business practices and KIRFy ways, at least the company's got the stones to openly target a specific demographic with its marketing pitches. This time Sammy's new AF315 All-in-One PC is targeting stylish and sophisticated women who've moved on from their pink peddle pusher ways. The most notable features are that big 23-inch LCD coupled with Samsung's switchable active shutter 2D / 3D technology and narrow 11-mm bezel. Otherwise, we're looking at a Core i5 CPU, 1TB 7200RPM hard disk, USB 3.0, TV receiver, Blu-ray player, remote control, 3D glasses, and a wireless keyboard and mouse combo in the box when this thing ships in South Korea starting tomorrow for 2.19 million won or just a tad less than $2,000.

Samsung's AF315 All-in-One 3D PC targets the sophisticated woman and those who aspire to be one originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 07:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google backs Alta Wind Energy Center, boasts $400 million clean energy milestone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/25/google-backs-alta-wind-energy-center-boasts-400-million-clean/

Google announced today that it's throwing $55 million dollars to the wind... energy, that is. A post to the official Google blog said the company has invested the aforementioned amount in the Alta Wind Energy Center, which is set to generate 1,550 megawatts of energy -- enough to reportedly power 450,000 homes -- from a batch of turbines in the Mojave Dessert. Developed by Terra-Gen Power, the operation will carry the resulting energy via transmission lines to "major population centers." The ever-humble internet giant pointed out that this particular injection of funds marks a total investment of $400 million in the clean energy sector. In fact, El Goog signed a deal last year to power several of its data centers with wind power, and most recently announced the opening of a seawater-cooled data center in Finland.

Google backs Alta Wind Energy Center, boasts $400 million clean energy milestone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 08:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Getaround car sharing service goes live, rent out your ride with an iPhone app and car kit

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/25/getaround-car-sharing-service-goes-live-rent-out-your-ride-with/

We expressed our excitement when we first heard about Getaround, the personal car rental service that enables users to rent out their autos by the hour or day, and at TechCrunch Disrupt the service has officially gone live for drivers outside the Bay Area. The company also announced an accompanying car kit that allows potential renters to unlock their temporary ride using just an iPhone app, at which point they can access a physical key inside. The company says it functions just like any other keyless entry device, and can be set up in as little as five minutes. Worrisome owners should also know that when you offer up your ride you get full insurance coverage from the Getaround folks, so all liabilities are transferred to the individual behind the wheel. Renters get rated by car owners so there's definitely an incentive to keep things neat and tidy, though we'd totally get downrated for neglecting to return the seat to its original position. Be sure to check out the demo video at the via link, you'll wish you thought of this yourself.

Getaround car sharing service goes live, rent out your ride with an iPhone app and car kit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 08:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Sensor-Size Compares and Converts Digital Camera Measurements [Cameras]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5805067/sensor+size-compares-and-converts-digital-camera-measurements

We've noted before that more megapixels don't mean a better camera; a better indicator of photo quality from a camera is its sensor size. The Sensor-Size app helps you compare popular cameras' sensor sizes and also convert unfriendly ratios often given.

Many point-and-click cameras often report their sensor size as a ratio, e.g., 1/1.8", or in millimeters, making it hard to compare different cameras. Sensor-Size's calculator will get you the simpler diagonal measurement—the larger the measurement, the higher photo quality you can expect from that camera.

The site also offers a table that compares sensor size and other features of best-selling digital cameras. As you'd expect, digital SLR cameras like the Nikon D300 DX and the Canon EOS 40D have very high sensor sizes. There are also a few compact cameras with above average sensor sizes, like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 or the Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR.

If you're in the market for a new camera, check out the site before buying.

Sensor-Size | via the New York Times

You can contact or follow Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter.

Cray's XK6 Uses x86 Processors and GPU Power to Form a Hybrid Supercomputer [Supercomputer]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5805168/crays-xk6-uses-x86-processors-and-gpu-power-to-form-a-hybrid-supercomputer

Cray's latest supercomputer uses AMD x86 processors with NVIDIA Tesla 20-Series GPU to create a supercomputer capable of more than 50 petaflops in computing power. A petaflop is a quadrillion (or a million billion) operations a second. MORE POWAHH.

The Cray XK6 is supposed to be the first 'general purpose' supercomputer that uses GPU technology and the first buyer is the Swiss National Supercomputing Center. The XK6 will range from $500,000 to $1 million and serve as further proof of the larger role GPUs are playing in computers. [Seattle Times]

WolframAlpha Is My New Doctor [Medicine]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5805228/wolframalpha-is-my-new-doctor

Feeling ill? Whatever you do, don't look at WebMD, unless you enjoy convincing yourself you're having an aneurism. But WolframAlpha just made self-internet diagnosis useful. [Jump}

WolframAlpha launched a medical tools feature today so you can stay at home and play doctor. It aggregates survey data from the CDC to give you a search tool that lets you see how various symptoms (and combinations of them) correlate with various diseases. It also breaks down that data to show distribution actoss a variability of patients' attributes, like age, weight, height, and body mass. It's oddly kind of fun. And I found out I'm probably not having an aneurism! Which was a relief.

Photo by Allan Foster

Google and Sprint team up to take your digital dollars with new NFC payment system? (updated)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/google-and-sprint-team-up-to-take-your-digital-dollars-with-new/

There's been rumors of a Google-fied mobile payment system for some time, and now it looks like the Mountain View crew is teaming up with Sprint to finally make it happen. Last month, we heard that the Now Network would bring NFC payments to its customers this year, and Bloomberg reports that the partnership and payment system will make its debut on May 26th. Apparently, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are the first cities getting the service, which is a much broader initial footprint than its Isis mobile payment competition. The anonymous sources also say that Verifone and Vivotech are providing the hardware and software that will let you replace your credit card with a Nexus S -- because you always wanted to replace your credit card with your Nexus S.

Update: According to All things D, the payment system will be put through its paces by none other than El Goog's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt at the D9: All Things Digital conference next week -- where we'll be on hand to peep the contactless payment presentation in person.

Google and Sprint team up to take your digital dollars with new NFC payment system? (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 15:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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T-Mobile flips on 42Mbps HSPA+ across 55 markets, launching Rocket 3.0 modem stick tomorrow

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/t-mobile-flips-on-42mbps-hspa-across-55-markets-to-launch-rock/

Fellow road warriors, we bring you good news: starting today, T-Mobile customers across 55 markets -- including Chicago, Detroit, Honolulu, Pittsburgh, Miami, and many more -- will have immediate access to a faster HSPA+ "4G" network. This means anyone with compatible devices can achieve theoretical download speeds of up to a whopping 42Mbps, as opposed to just 21Mbps from the good ol' days. But of course, only time will tell whether this upgrade will deliver its promise -- you may recall that even AT&T's LTE demo last week delivered "realistic" download speeds of up to just 28.9Mbps, when in theory it should be capable of hitting up to 100Mbps.

Anyhow, if you want to soldier on and be ~~a guinea pig~~ an early adopter, then help yourself to ZTE's Rocket 3.0 USB modem stick starting tomorrow -- the entry price is $99.99 after a $50 mail in rebate, but tied to a two-year broadband plan of 2GB or higher; or you can opt for the contract-free price of $199.99. Hit the press release after the break for the full list of activated markets.

Continue reading T-Mobile flips on 42Mbps HSPA+ across 55 markets, launching Rocket 3.0 modem stick tomorrow

T-Mobile flips on 42Mbps HSPA+ across 55 markets, launching Rocket 3.0 modem stick tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD Llano quad-core APUs and Zambezi octa-core CPUs get priced, the former listed inside an HP dv6

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/amd-llano-quad-core-apus-and-zambezi-octa-core-cpus-get-priced/

Don't mistake the relative quietness from AMD on the APU front for inactivity. Ever since announcing the first shipment of its Llano Accelerated Processing Unit in April, the company's been working behind the scenes to ramp up availability to OEMs, and somewhere along the supply chain a gracious soul has been found who's leaked the bulk pricing for those chips. The new quad-core A Series processors start off at $110 for an A6-3450 and max out at $170 for an A8-3550P, but there's also mention of octa-core FX processors, which will weigh in at $320 a piece and reputedly compete with Intel's 3.4GHz Core i7-2600K. The latter are built around AMD's Bulldozer modules (wherein one module counts for two cores) and look to be the manifestation of the company's Zambezi CPUs, which could come without an integrated graphics processor as is available on the Llano and the rest of AMD's Fusion line.

Just to whet appetites further, we've also come across an HP dv6 on an obscure German retail site, offering a 1.6GHz A6-3410MX APU, 6GB of RAM, and a most reasonable €590 price. There's obviously no promised delivery date, but this should be the first of many such appearances in the coming days as we build up towards Computex 2011. Something tells us AMD won't be holding back when the Taipei electronics show gets started.

[Thanks, Shashwat and Vygantas]

AMD Llano quad-core APUs and Zambezi octa-core CPUs get priced, the former listed inside an HP dv6 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 04:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Phone 7.1 is the likely name for Mango OS update

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/windows-phone-7-1-is-the-likely-name-for-mango-os-update/

Microsoft's proper preview event for the next big release of Windows Phone may be mere hours away, but there's still time for a bit of good old fashioned web sleuthing before then. Latest on our radar is this Microsoft Developer Network page listing out all the APIs in Silverlight for Windows Phone 7.1. That's right, your eyes do not deceive you, there's a whole extra decimal added to the OS number, ostensibly signifying the move to the Mango update we're all so hungry for. We'd previously heard the moniker of Windows Phone 7.5 bandied about, but that was based on supposition more than anything else, and a .1 upgrade makes sense in light of the curent 7.0.7 version number. Fuller details will be forthcoming later on today, but for now, pencil in the number 7.1 alongside the dream specs of your next Windows Phone.

[Thanks, Garret]

Windows Phone 7.1 is the likely name for Mango OS update originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 05:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer's 10-inch Oak Trail tablet running Android 3.0 rumored for July delivery

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/acers-10-inch-oak-trail-tablet-running-android-3-0-rumored-for/

Paul Otellini already told us that we'd see new Android tablets running Intel silicon at Computex. Now DigiTimes is quoting loose-lipped upstream component makers who claim that Acer is set to launch its 10-inch Android 3.0 tablet built upon Intel's Oak Trail platform in July. Mind you that's the retail date, making the May 31st kickoff of Computex the perfect event to demonstrate the unARMed Android tablet for the first time in public. Of course, Acer was early with its Android-based netbook back in 2009 so it's no surprise to see the company with another Google first in 2011. And really, without a suitable Microsoft tablet OS available until 2012, you can bet that Intel's going to be pushing the Honeycomb port to x86 hard over the coming months with rigs from Lenovo and ASUS also tipped by DigiTimes. Oh, and for whatever it's worth, the Taiwanese rumor rag also says that Acer is "evaluating" an Oak Trail with MeeGo tablet. Which version, we wonder?

Acer's 10-inch Oak Trail tablet running Android 3.0 rumored for July delivery originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 ! May 2011 06:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pantech Vega No.5 bringing sexy back to tabletphones, packs 1.5GHz dual-core chip

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/24/pantech-vega-no-5-bringing-sexy-back-to-tabletphones-packs-1-5g/

Yes, tabletphones are coming back! Joining the eccentric Dell Streak 5 is Pantech's conveniently named Vega No.5 (or IM-T100K), a 5-inch Android 2.3.3 smartphone powered by Qualcomm's brawny dual-core 1.5GHz MSM8660. Apart from the extra 0.7 inches of screen size, what we have here is essentially the same package as the Vega Racer: 800 x 480 LCD, 8 megapixel 1080p camera, front-facing camera, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 16GB of memory, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, and 14.4Mbps HSPA+ connectivity. No word on international availability, but expect this slate to hit the shops in Korea later this month. Hands-on video after the break.

Continue reading Pantech Vega No.5 bringing sexy back to tabletphones, packs 1.5GHz dual-core chip

Pantech Vega No.5 bringing sexy back to tabletphones, packs 1.5GHz dual-core chip originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 06:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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