Negroponte Moots Windows XP Version of OLPC--Is It a Case of So Long, Sugar? [Olpc]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/276136172/negroponte-moots-windows-xp-version-of-olpc++is-it-a-case-of-so-long-sugar

The founder and chairman of OLPC has admitted that only using open-source software has not been good for the project. Just a day after the resignation of group president Walter Bender, Nicholas Negroponte admitted that the choice of the Sugar operating system has hit the XO laptop project in two places: usability; and popularity.

With Windows XP already available for the XO on an SD card, the news that future OLPC machines may have Windows XP, with Sugar running on top, may dismay the non-profit brigade. But with no support for the latest versions of Flash—a staple on many educational websites—the XO may not be catering to its supposed target audience.

If Windows XP does become the XO's operating system, then a substantial reworking of the laptop will be in order. Currently just 1GB of internal memory is available, and XP needs around 1.1GB. Sticking a larger SSD inside the machine will just pump up the price, making the XO even further out of reach of those who need it. [ComputerWorld]

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Intel Mash Maker Launches Without Chips on the Side

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/275463549/

Intel’s Mash Maker application, which launches today, isn’t exactly a new idea; Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft’s Popfly are similar. But Mash Maker marks the first time Intel has launched a software effort with no hardware attached. Presumably you can run Mash Maker on a computer with an AMD inside without melting your motherboard.

I was super skeptical at first and frankly, still am. According to Robert Ennals, senior researcher at Intel Research Berkeley and the architect for Mash Maker, the goal of Intel Research is to make the computing experience better. He said Intel Research and Intel Capital are the only divisions at Intel who have the freedom to think outside the PC box, as it were. Fine, Intel launched Mash Maker to make the Internet a better place. Does it?

Jeff Klaus, marketing director for Intel Mash Maker, said it is more useful than Pipes or Popfly because it not only allows users to make mashups, but also allows those who have downloaded the Mash Maker client to see which previous Mash Maker mashups might improve their web surfing experience. This way users of Mash Maker can benefit even if they don’t know how to create mashups. As one of the biggest complaints I have about Pipes is the difficulty I have using it (yes, it’s a me-centric complaint), I have to think there are others who could benefit from this.

In the meantime, I’ll watch with interest as Intel moves outside of its chip-centric world. A few years ago it made the decision with its Intel Capital venture investing arm to look not just for companies that could eventually sell more Intel chips, but also those that might make for a good return. In 2007 it started investing in seed deals, especially consumer-facing startups, as part of that expanding mission.

As for selling more chips, programs such as Mash Maker may not directly influence buying decisions, but by making the computer easier to use, Intel makes them more important and thus, more necessary. And by associating its brand with a fun application, Intel is achieving brand recognition in a much more sophisticated way than its dancing bunny-suited guys back in the 90s.

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Virtualization Goes Mobile With VirtualLogix

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/275053959/

Motorola Ventures today put an undisclosed amount of money into Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup VirtualLogix, which aims to do for communications equipment and mobile devices what VMware has done for the server. I’m pretty leery of companies throwing around the v-word, but with its take on virtualization, VirtualLogix is actually creating value.

For proof, check out the plans for a sub-$100 multimedia 3G phone developed by Purple Labs using NXP chips running VirtualLogix’s software. The software allows a processor to run a rich operating system on the same chip that controls the baseband access. (In a typical smartphone — depending on the applications and radios needed — this takes two or more chips.) The end result is a high-end feature on a low-end phone using fewer chips. That’s excellent for device makers, but VirtualLogix counts among its investors TI and Intel, two companies that want to sell more chips.

VirtualLogix CEO Peter Richards explained this contrast away by saying the chip vendors just want to make customers happier. But while that may be true, what’s really behind the chip firms’ interest is VirtualLogix’s ability to take software written for single-core chips and run it on multicore chips by virtualizing the multicore hardware. Multicore chips aren’t in phones right now, but given how much we want our handheld devices to do, they will be.

The other beneficiary of virtualizing a communications device is the gear market, where VirtualLogix customers such as Alcatel-Lucent are using the software to combine multiple products, like call routing servers, call management servers, etc., into one box rather than four or five. Virtualization as offered by VMware and Xen is creating a lot of savings by allowing companies to reduce the number of servers they use in data centers, so it stands to reason that it can do the same in the telecommunications world.

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Dell Introduces Their Smallest, Greenest PC Yet [Dell Green PC]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/275649178/dell-introduces-their-smallest-greenest-pc-yet

Michael Dell, the king of Dell, just previewed his company's smallest and greenest desktop PC yet at FORTUNE Brainstorm: GREEN. There's no name for this mini green PC, shown rendered above, but it's 81% smaller than a mini tower and 70% less energy-consuming. It's also shipped in recycled and recyclable packaging, and look a whole lot like those cheapo Sun workstations that colleges love(d) to use. As long as this machine is at least as powerful as a laptop (we don't mean an Eee PC), we're all for Dell's enviro-conscious direction.

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DIY Discovery Channel: Casio EX-F1 Slow-Mo Cam In My Backyard [Digital Cameras]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/275831958/diy-discovery-channel-casio-ex+f1-slow+mo-cam-in-my-backyard

Tomato violence only marks the beginning of my love affair with the Casio's Exilim EX-F1, aka the Hiro Nakamura supercam. It's crazy addictive. Last weekend I went looking for fast-moving objects to capture in slow-mo, and in my backyard I came up with a freakin' menagerie of unexpectedly interesting little beasties.

Everything is a twitch here, a blur there—you have to realize that this whole two-minute video consists of just 10 to 12 seconds of real life, shown at 300fps or 600fps. (1200fps turned out to be too much of a novelty, too dark to be practical, as you can see in the tomato-blender vid.)

Shooting slow-mo takes some getting used to, and because you end up with long stretches of zero movement, the in-cam video editor is not just a luxury but a necessity. In the end, though, everything looks like it's ready for Discovery Channel. I think that chipmunk's gonna be a star. [Casio Exilim EX-F1 on Giz]

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Tips for success in a Web 2.0 world

By Dr. Augustine Fou  SVP, Digital Strategist, MRM Worldwide 

Web 2.0 has been described as "lots of video," "cool user interfaces that use javascript," "social networking," "word of mouth." Google, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, etc. have been used as examples, as have countless other companies and terms, correctly or incorrectly. But what really is the essence of this new wave of websites rising from the ashes of the first web implosion? And what are the implications for advertising and marketing?  

Web 2.0 versus Web 1.0 Web 1.0 was about the tools which made getting information online easier -- HTML, website creation software, standards, internet connections, etc. This led to an explosion of information online and generated the estimated several hundred billion web pages online today. Web 2.0 is about organizing, filtering and prioritizing the vast amounts of information so that the information becomes more useful, timely, and relevant. Web 2.0 was born out of necessity in the current "age of too much information." It also has profound implications for advertising since advertising messages are part of the clutter and people have accustomed themselves to tuning everything out until such time they are interested in researching something for themselves.

Modern users' high expectations Web 2.0 sites, which include Google, YouTube, Facebook, etc., have collectively set extremely high expectations among users. These "modern users" are impatient -- they want their information right now; they are intolerant -- if a site disappoints or frustrates them, they won't come back, and they are vocal -- they tell their friends about good sites and about bad ones too.

continue reading... 

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3K Longitude 400 Mini-Notebook -- you'll never guess what this reminds us of

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/275635780/

Filed under: Laptops

Alright peoples, how many Eee PC knockoffs do we really need? Is 10 enough? How about 100? There seems to be no end in sight, and here comes the relatively unknown 3K Computers to give it a whirl. We'd say the first mistake is the 7-inch screen, gotsa stay ahead of the curve. Pair that with the 400MHz processor and a $400 pricetag and we haven't the slightest idea why we'd go in for this little Linux-based boringbook. Oh, wait... nope, we got nothing.

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HTC's Raphael and Diamond: coming to Sprint and looking good

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/275895252/

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

No one really knows whether HTC's May 6 gathering will usher in the age of Android (our guess is still "no"), but let's look a little beyond that, shall we? We've just laid eyes on a handful of documents detailing HTC's efforts to ready the Diamond and Raphael models -- already known to be valid HTC codenames -- for Sprint later this year, and things are definitely looking up in the post-Touch world. The Diamond turns out to be the successor to that very device, lacking a physical keyboard and relying almost exclusively on a large, glossy touchscreen for user input; the Raphael meanwhile (pictured) features a full QWERTY deal and is destined to replace the Mogul. The paperwork's pretty blurry, but it appears that both Windows Mobile devices will feature WiFi, 3 megapixel cameras, and -- get this -- VGA displays. Goodness! The Raphael is currently lined up to be the first out of the gate, hitting the streets in September if everything goes well, with the Diamond following on in November. Surprised that these devices are CDMA-based and Sprint bound? Us too, we admit -- but we'd be shocked if there weren't GSM twins of both of these hotties getting cooked in the lab at the same time.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

Gallery: HTC's Raphael and Diamond: coming to Sprint and looking good

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Apple buys P.A. Semi chip designer, Intel says wha?

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/275923081/

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Apple loves 'em some Intel right? Sure, it was the Intel power-per-watt roadmap which Jobs cited as the reason to ditch IBM's PowerPC platform. Analysts have since been tripping over themselves with speculation about future generation iPhones and iPod touches going Intel -- especially since the arrival of Atom. So what will analysts make of Apple's $278 million in cash purchase of the 150 person P.A. Semi microprocessor design company? The company was founded by Dan Dobberpuhl, lead designer of DEC's doomed Alpha and StrongArm processors, and responsible for the introduction of a 2GHz, 64-bit dual-core microprocessor which in February 2007 was said to be 300% more efficient than comparable chips running at 5 to 13 watts. Forbes speculates that Apple will wrap its ARMs around the company's boutique processor in a bid for exclusivity -- a move meant to differentiate itself from competition based on Intel and other off-the-shelf processors. Interestingly, after a long courtship with P.A. Semi, the acquisition discussions only began in the last few weeks. Say what you want about Jobs, but he's nothing if no! t a man who knows what he wants and makes damn sure he gets it.

Update: Oh shazam! We just remembered that P.A. Semi and Apple had been this close to a deal just prior (as in minutes) to the announced Intel switch in 2006. Interesting, very interesting. Why now Apple?

Read -- P.A. Semi PWRficient processor announcement
Read -- Forbes

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Century's SATA adapter supports 3 CF cards: cheap SSDs for all

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/276008865/

Filed under: Storage

While we patiently wait 18 to 24 months for the CFast CompactFlash cards to arrive, there's always this: the DIY Century Compact Flash to SATA adatper. We've seen these adapters before of course, but this is the first we recall supporting 3x cards. That's a quickie 96GB SSD for about $450 (plus $192.57 for the adapter plus shipping) given current on-line prices. Not bad when you consider the $1,000+ price tag for a smaller 64GB SSD. Better yet, performance should be rock solid based on earlier reviews. In stock with RAID 0 / 5 support starting May 1st.

[Via Akihabara News]

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