Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The Cuso PC S600 is not the UMPC of your dreams... or a UMPC

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/244366496/

Enter the Cuso PC S600 "UMPC," your ticket to near-constant ridicule from friends and family. Sure, you'd think with specs like the blazing 266MHz ARM CPU, 1GB or 4GB of flash memory, 802.11b WiFi, miniSD support, playback of MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV, OGG, AAC, APE, AVI, WMV, DIVX, H.264, ASF, and 3GP files (um, with the freeware app TCPMP), and all kinds of Windows CE-powered document handling (TXT, DOC, XLS, PDF, PPT, PPS) you'd be all set, but we don't think it's that simple. There's something about that cheap looking plastic casing, stereo speakers, and totally out of line use of the term UMPC that tell us this probably isn't much more than a glorified PMP. On the bright side, we're thinking this isn't going to break any banks, though we've got no word on price or release date.

[Thanks, KC Kim]

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ASUS busts out 7-inch R70 UMPC at CeBIT

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/244433650/

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

It's big, thick, lacking any sort of keyboard and not all that pretty. But if you're aching for ASUS' next gen UMPC to cut loose from the product chute then the R70a is it. Besides toting a 7-inch display with Vista tucked inside a 120GB disk (we think) purring along on a 1.6GHz processor of unspecified Intel make (Silverthorne, please?) we really can't tell you much. Forgive us but the show doesn't open for a few more days -- instead of marketing types the booth is currently staffed with a mustachioed security brute named Dieter. Nevertheless, from the outside we can tell you that it sports a pair of USB jacks, memory card slot, kick-stand for watching videos, and controls in line with the 5-inch R50a. And judging by the way it's displayed as a dashboard-mounted device, it's safe to say that integrated GPS is at least an option. We'll find out more just as soon as ASUS decides to make the R70 official.

Gallery: ASUS busts out 7-inch R70 UMPC at CeBIT

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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Apple MacBook Pro (with Penryn and multi-touch) unboxing

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/242841029/

Filed under: Features, Laptops

We just got our 2.5GHz Penryn / 4GB fourth-gen MacBook Pro. Plenty of power under that hood, but the outward differences are few: it's got the new, reorganized F-key layout (which we're not all that fond of), and the trackpad physically the same (with the addition of multi-touch, which works just as well as it did on the MacBook Air). It's definitely an anticipated upgrade to the flagship, but whether you think the form factor's still got the longevity necessary to keep you coming back after, what, more than two years on the market with no major changes -- well, we'll leave that to you. We'll have some updated benchmarks shortly.

P.S. -It includes the same model 60Wh battery they've been selling on these for a while, for those puzzled about the battery life changes made to the Apple's MBP spec page.

Gallery: Apple MacBook Pro (with Penryn and multi-touch) unboxing

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Researchers Transmit Optical Data at 16.4 Tbps Over 1,500 Miles [Speed]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/242764960/researchers-transmit-optical-data-at-164-tbps-over-1500-miles

FiOS, you ain't got nothing on this: Alcatel-Lucent researchers in France have successfully transmitted optical data at an absolutely blazing speed of 16.4 Tbps over a distance of over 1,500 miles.

The transmission was done with the goal of achieving a 100 Gbps Ethernet connection, which, as I'm sure you'd agree, is a goal we can all get behind. All sorts of fancy, confusing-sounding technologies were used to get the blazing optical transmission, including "a highly linear, balanced optoelectronic photoreceiver and an ultra-compact, temperature-insensitive coherent mixer." I kept telling them that they just needed a more balanced optoelectronic photoreceiver! I'm glad they finally listened.

We're still pretty far from seeing speeds anywhere near this in consumer connections, as the technology being worked on here will go towards the internet's backbone rather than in a line to your house. But I mean, honestly, at what point is bandwidth so fast that it doesn't matter if it gets any faster? When we're talking about speeds that'll allow you to download a full HD movie in 15 seconds versus 3 seconds, you really start to lose the right to complain about it. Those 50 Mbps connections we'll start seeing offered to consumers in the next few years should be just plenty for the time being, no? [IT News Australia via Slashdot]

Android gets handled, now with Street View

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/242724761/

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

While Apple might have your attention at the moment with that impending SDK, the Android OS seems to be coming along quite nicely over at Google and the Open Handset Alliance. BBC's Darren Waters got to peek "under the bonnet" with Andy Rubin himself, and has video to prove it. The OS was running on an unknown 3G touchscreen prototype, which also had a track ball at the bottom. The interface has come a long way since we saw it first, and browsing the web looks snappy and intuitive. Andy also showed off a version of Street View -- complete with smooth panning and zooming, of course -- and the fan-favorite Quake demo. Not bad at all for a 300MHz-ish processor, and while Android is still in "Alpha" stage, it's already got a lot of good things going for it. Video is after the break.

[Thanks, Omar A.]

Continue reading Android gets handled, now with Street View

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