Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Dell E-series netbooks to include 10-incher? Today we hope to find out.

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/362702929/

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It's time for more Dell E-series netbook rumors, you ready? According to DigiTimes and its industry sources, Compal Electronics is slapping together both 8.9-inch and 10-inch E-series netbooks for Dell. Previously, we've only heard mention of an 8.9-inch E and 12.1-inch E Slim. The 10-inch E is scheduled for an October product launch while the 8.9-incher was previously rumored for August. Interestingly, Dell expects the 10-incher to experience almost twice the demand of the 8.9-inch model (assuming a sole-source manufacturing deal) based on Compal's monthly production estimates of 400k-450k and 250k units, respectively. There's a Dell press event later on today where we might just bring all these Dell netbook rumors to rest. Stay tuned, as they say.
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Posted by Augustine at 8:30 AM

Monday, August 11, 2008

Blue Screen of Death Strikes Bird's Nest During Opening Ceremonies Torch Lighting [Olympic Fail]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/362000018/blue-screen-of-death-strikes-birds-nest-during-opening-ceremonies-torch-lighting

Well this is just perfect. At the exact moment Li Ning was rounding the lip of the Bird's Nest during the amazing torch-lighting climax, someone snapped this photo of our good friend the BSOD nestled amongst the Nest's steel twigs. Perhaps an Opening Cermonies IT dude spit out his coffee on the machines in the server room when Li took to the sky? Another question is what a projection screen is doing inside the Nest at that location, but I think the better question is what wasn't going on inside the Nest's roof—did you see that thing during the ceremonies? Lights! Fireworks! LED screens! Everything! Anyway, if only one image of this perfectness existed we'd be skeptical, but thankfully, someone has grabbed more from a different angle that pretty much seal the deal.

UPDATE: And it's been confirmed on the NBC broadcast by commenter cirby on his DVR. Fo' real!

Click for high-res:

Ouch! More super-zoomed images for error message decoding here:
[Powerapple Forum (Chinese, original pic), and Rivercool (alternate angle pics) via Dvor ak - props to Dvorak commenter Improbus for "Olympic Fail"]

Read more pan-Gawker coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games.


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Posted by Augustine at 10:30 PM

Fastest Graphics Card Alive ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 Gets Official Tomorrow [Ati]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/362461925/fastest-graphics-card-alive-ati-radeon-hd-4870-x2-gets-official-tomorrow

ATI's Nvidia-slaying Radeon HD 4870 X2, previewed last month, will get official tomorrow at SIGGRAPH says the WSJ, who notes that some reviewers are calling it the most powerful card around. It's an interesting test of ATI's graphics card strategy: Cheaper, less power-hungry GPUs that can be easily strapped together (like the dual-GPU 4870 X2) versus Nvidia's penchant for obscenely powerful single GPUs. The best part? Whoever you go with, you can't really go wrong anymore.


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Posted by Augustine at 10:02 PM

DIY SSD adapter takes 6 SDHC cards, the cake

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/361888115/

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Seems everyone is coming out with a cheap, do-it-yourself SATA adapter to convert all your extra flash memory cards into a makeshift SSD. This time, we're looking at the ¥10,000 (about $91) PhotoFast CR-9000. The 9.5-mm tall, 2.5-inch, 3Gbps SATA adapter accommodates up to 6x SDHC cards and should fit into most slim laptops. That's enough slots to make a 192GB SSD (using 6x 32GB cards) for a bargain $900 or about $270 for a 48GB SSD based on a quick calculation of SDHC cards found on-line. While performance depends upon the weakest card of the lot, Impress Watch was able to squeeze a respectable 111.4MBps reads and 55.17MBps writes from their RAID 0 setup using class-6 rated, MLC-based, SDHC cards. That's nothing like the performance of the latest MLC-based SSDs but not bad for what you pay. Still, with SSD prices in freefall, these DIY adapters are quickly becoming less and less attractive.
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Posted by Augustine at 9:11 PM

Indilinx trumpets SSD controller with 230MB/sec read speed

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/362037340/

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With SSDs, there really is no "fast enough." In the never-ending quest for more speed, Indilinx has just introduced its Barefoot solid state drive controller with 90-nanometer process technology. Said device has reportedly shown the "fastest read speed (230MB/sec) of all the products currently available in the market and supports the capacity up to 512GB with multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash." Additionally, it plays nice with SATA 2.0 and flash memory from Samsung, Toshiba, Hynix and Intel / Micron. Sadly, mass production isn't scheduled until Q4 of this year, so now you can sit on that vanilla HDD even longer as you wait for the future to arrive. Ugh, what a tease.
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Posted by Augustine at 9:09 PM

VIA ditches motherboard business, focuses on processors

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/362073948/

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It looks like VIA has finally had enough of the schoolyard fights with Intel and tauntings with hair dyers, as it has just dropped word over the weekend that it's quitting the motherboard chipset business in order to focus on processors and chipsets for motherboards that use its own Nano CPU. According to Custom PC, this is actually a move that VIA had seen coming all along, with vice president of corporate marketing saying that, "one of the main reasons we originally moved into the x86 processor business was because we believed that ultimately the third party chipset market would disappear." Of course, that also means that VIA is putting most of its "chips" in one basket (yes, we said it) and, as Slashdot points out, it leaves other third-party chip manufacturers like SiS with some tough questions to ask themselves.

[Via Slashdot]
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Posted by Augustine at 9:09 PM

HTC Touch Pro hands-on

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/362298910/

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After spending a few minutes with it, there's no question to us that the Touch Pro is HTC's most impressive handset to date (even if you count the Xperia X1). Okay, the phone is still a bit thick (roughly the same as a Tilt), and there's no 3.5mm headphone jack, but it's got a very small footprint and a very comfortably proportioned keyboard. We can also really definitely appreciate the lengths HTC is going to trying to make Windows Mobile a bit less doggish these days -- but were they to spice up the Touch Pro with a capacitive touchscreen and Android, HTC might just have a game-changer on their hands.

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Posted by Augustine at 9:07 PM

Month's Top 10 Most-Liked, Most-Recalled New TV Spots

Nielsen IAG Research Ad Ratings: Consumers Like Dove's Model Ad


Published: August 05, 2008

NIELSEN IAG TOP 10 MOST-LIKED NEW TV ADS
June 23 - July 20, 2008
TOP MOST-LIKED SPOT
Dove continues its conversation regarding beauty and self-esteem in the face of commercial exploitation. In this spot, which was the commercial most liked by viewers during the last month, a young girl is bombarded with visuals of tone, buff, scantily clad women. Dove goes on to describe the self-esteem workshops it has formed to educate young girls about notions of beauty.
Rank Brand Description Index
1 Dove Girls are under more pressure than ever; images of models flash by little girl's face; sits alone; goes to self-esteem workshop. 154
2 Burger King Steakhouse--Man asks other men what they did to deserve a burger; one discovered a new planet, the other man helped. 147
3 Capital One Card Lab--Sea captain designs his own credit card while a giant squid attacks his submarine; card features picture of his pet. 141
4 Target Boy scouts with huge marshmallows and Hershey's bars; More joy, Less jingle; More quench, Less coin; More pretty, Less penny. 136
5 Hyundai Dollars & Sense Sales Event--There's never been a better time to do something completely sensible with your money; up to $2,000 cash back. 133
6 Hyundai Dollars & Sense Sales Event--Now is a great time to do something smart with your money; great fuel economy; up to $3,500 cash back. 129
7 AT&T FamilyTalk with Rollover--Man spills milk on his minutes and throws them out; wife says they're rollover minutes; sister loses her old minutes. 127
8 Chili's Create Your Own Fajitas--People in an office play musical chairs while on a conference call; trying to create your own fun?; welcome to Chili's. 122
9 Hyundai Dollars & Sense Sales Event--Author talks about investing to end up with buckets of money; man opens car door and money falls out. 119
10 Allstate Dennis Haysbert in supermarket; if this isn't a recession, it sure feels like one; other companies have skimped on coverage to get the price down. 117
Source: Nielsen IAG (iagr.net)
Only new ad executions considered, airing weeks of June 23 to July 20, 2008. The Likeability Score is the percentage of TV viewers who report to like "a lot" an ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing TV (among those recalling the brand of the ad). These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all new ads during the period (Likeability Index). 100 equals average. For example, with a Likeability index of 154 the top ranked Dove spot has proven to 54% better-liked than the average new commercial during the past four-week period.
NIELSEN IAG TOP 10 MOST-RECALLED NEW TV ADS
June 23 - July 20, 2008
Rank Brand Description Index
1 Dannon Activia Challenge--Women at pool; one woman doesn't want to swim because she is irregular; Jamie Lee Curtis says Activia works or it's free (:30). 195
2 Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Crackers--Kids eat and are lifted by cheese geysers; kid by pool; kids at lunch; blast of the cheesiest in every bite. 191
3 Capital One Card Lab--Butler says mankind needs you; Armadillo superhero says mankind can wait, designs card instead; decorates card with family picture. 183
4 Coca-Cola John Pemberton created Coca-Cola in 1886; bottles from different eras are shown on a white background; best ingredients for secret formula. 181
5 Lowe's Squeaky door tells man to "paint me" as his wife reads a Lowe's circular; Lowe's has new lower prices all over the store. 179
6 Dannon Activia Challenge--Women at pool; one woman doesn't want to swim because she is irregular; Jamie Lee Curtis says Activia works or it's free (:15). 174
7 DirecTV Robert Patrick from Terminator 2 bursts into helicopter; says he's not here to terminate John Connor, just wants to watch his DirecTV (:15). 171
8 Verizon Wireless Two spooky boys warn a man that the laundry room is a dead zone; he's not worried because he has the Verizon network. 170
9 DirecTV Robert Patrick from Terminator 2 bursts into helicopter; says he's not here to terminate John Connor, just wants to watch his DirecTV (:30). 166
10 AT&T FamilyTalk with Rollover--Man spills milk on his minutes and throws them out; wife says they're rollover minutes; sister loses her old minutes. 161
Source: Nielsen IAG (iagr.net)
Only new ad executions considered, airing weeks of June 23 to July 20, 2008. The Recall Score is the percentage of TV viewers who can recall within 24 hours the brand of an ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing TV. These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all new ads during the period (Recall Index). 100 equals average. For example, with a recall index of 195 the top ranked Dannon spot has proven nearly twice as memorable as the average new commercial during the past four-week period.

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Posted by Augustine at 11:41 AM

Export Photos from Flickr to your Computer with flump

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/pictures/export-flickr-photos/4174/

flumpflump is a tiny Adobe AIR app. for downloading photos from Flickr.

You supply a Flickr ID (it could be your own or someone else’s) and the tool will download all the public photos from that Flickr account to your hard drive.

flickr download

flump downloads the original images but only if the Flickr account owner has set their account permissions to allow the original images to be downloaded.

The app was originally developed by Mike Chambers and Lee Brimelow of Adobe and the full source is now available on Google code.

Related: Download Flickr Pictures in a Batch

Export Photos from Flickr to your Computer with flump - Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

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Posted by Augustine at 8:24 AM

Announcing Winners of the SnagIt 9 Challenge

Source: http://www.labnol.org/software/snagit-challenge-winners/4179/

snagit Thank you all who participated in the SnagIt screenshot challenge which was about discovering stuff on your desktop that cannot be grabbed with a screen capture program.

Here are the 10 winning entries (out of 92) who get a copy of SnagIt 9 courtesy Betsy.

1. Fer Vazquez: Even with the option to capture mouse pointer enabled, it is impossible to capture the pointer trail (once this is enabled too!)

2. Prakash: You cannot take a screenshot of taking screenshot.

3. Michael Markuson: Snagit can not capture the screen that appears after pressing pressing Ctrl Alt Delete.

4. William Baer: Quite simply, active screen savers cannot be saved with screen capture software because as soon as you would define the area and try to capture it, your activity shuts off the screen saver.

5. Gaurav: You cannot capture Windows Vista's UAC prompts with SnagIt because it uses Secure Desktop mode.

6. Michael Bazzoni: I do tons of screen captures but the only thing I found that I cannot capture is a UAC prompted message in Windows Vista. The only way I could get this is via digital camera.

7. Sid: I wish we could capture the screen when they hang - or the Blue Screen — to send to IT for debug.

8. Ross: The BIOS.

9. Akshay Jain: You cannot capture Google Talk conversation in "SCROLL" mode with Snagit. I have been using Snagit and other screenshot programs but they fail to auto-scroll the gtalk chat window.

10. Haim: Can I capture a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD).

Your registration codes have already been dispatched. Meanwhile, you can read some SnagIt Tips or this detailed review of SnagIt 9.

Announcing Winners of the SnagIt 9 Challenge - Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

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Posted by Augustine at 8:22 AM

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