Friday, November 14, 2008

HTC Touch HD Reviews Pour In (Verdict: Best Win-Mo Phone Yet, But Still Win-Mo) [Htc Touch Hd]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/tFxe1DiS1Mo/htc-touch-hd-reviews-pour-in-verdict-best-win+mo-phone-yet-but-still-win+mo

HTC is not releasing the Touch HD in the United States. Which still seems a little crazy to me, because few other phones have received such a favorable and envious reaction online recently. Despite the fact that you probably won't ever want to import one (no US 3G pretty much seals the deal), the Touch HD is still a useful indicator of where HTC, one of the biggest mobile players there is, is going. Now that the phone is available in the UK and Europe, the reviews are starting to hit, and while pretty much everyone continues to be wowed by the hardware, there's that pesky little Windows Mobile thing that keeps coming up.

Hardware wise, there is of course the 480 x 800 screen which is the centerpiece—everyone says what the pictures and videos have been telling us since the beginning: it's beautiful. Less fantastic, though, is the resistive touch screen (which is cheaper and less-responsive than a capacitative touchscreen like the iPhone 3G's). HTC goes with resistive on almost all of its phones to ensure they'll be accepted by the Asian market, in which recognition of complex characters written with a stylus is key (styli are the only thing that doesn't work quite as well on a capacitive screen).

TouchFLO, HTC's custom Win-Mo GUI has a ton of room to be awesome on this screen, and makes Windows Mobile look as good as any other phone out there now. But there's one huge problem: unless you stick with making calls, taking photos and using a few of the built-in widgets like weather and stocks, you'll often find yourself dropping back into Win-Mo 6.1's default interf! ace, whi ch looks MUCH less pretty on the HD's beautiful screen. That means getting your media on the phone and accessing it is still just as painful as on any other Win-Mo piece. Ahem, HTC? Android? Think it's about time.

So yeah, given that this phone is useless on all of the US 3G networks, the import market will be next to 'nil. But here's hoping the Touch HD is merely a prelude to a similar device running Android, complete with luscious US 3G bands, sometime soon.

[Mobile Tech Addicts, CNET UK, Slash Gear, Phone Arena]


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American Airlines Brings Cellphone Boarding Passes to O'Hare [Cellphones]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Vyq8Gmzd3ZE/american-airlines-brings-cellphone-boarding-passes-to-ohare

Chicago's O'Hare airport, the second busiest in the world, is set to join several other airports serviced by Delta and Continental in offering passengers the option to use their cellphones as boarding passes. The service will be available to passengers departing from Los Angeles International and John Wayne Orange County airports starting on Nov. 17. [Chicago Tribune]


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Astronomers Take First Ever Pics of Other Planetary Systems [The Truth Is Out There]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ey6bglxcdPc/astronomers-take-first-ever-pics-of-other-planetary-systems

Huge astronomy news! For the first time EVER, galaxy researchers have taken pictures of planets orbiting a sun-star, much like our own. The first, taken by the much beloved Hubble Telescope, shows a planet orbiting the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis. The second picture, snapped by upstaging Hawaiian observatories Gemini and Keck, shows two young planets orbiting a completely different star located 130 light-years from us! Take that Hubble! But I warn you—like the ultrasounds your friends show you of their three-month old fetus—these pictures wow mostly because of what they are, not because of what they look like.

This is what the Hubble Telescope saw, conveniently labeled by our friends at NASA. Where is the planet, you ask? Do you see that little underlined part to the right? That's the unimaginatively named Fomalhaut b! To get the image, Hubble's camera needed to block out the brightest part of the star, which shines millions of times brighter than the planet itself.

And here's the picture taken by the Gemini and Keck observatories of the bodies orbiting Star HR8799. HR8799 is about 1.5 times more massive than our sun, and five times more luminous. Like the Hubble's image, this star needed to have its light blocked too in order for us to see the planets. These two, despite being an even greater distance away, were slightly easier to find since they're young. Being only about 6! 0 millio n years old, they're still glowing from leftover heat from their formation, making them brighter than Fomalhaut B, which only glows when reflecting light from Fomalhaut.

Here's an artistic rendering of Star HR8799 and it's planets. The third planet hasn't been imaged yet, but thanks to mathematical calculations, we know it's there!

So in case you were doubting it—yes, other star systems exist. And as our galactical camera technology gets better, the pictures will start looking more like actual planets, rather than fetal specks on a giant Eye of Sauron. [Bad Astronomy]

Image credits: NASA and the Gemini Observatory


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AMD's Upcoming Conesus Netbook Chip Won't Stoop to MID Levels [Amd]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/2OePd0cw3M4/amds-upcoming-conesus-netbook-chip-wont-stoop-to-mid-levels

In case you were wondering what somewhat troubled chip maker AMD was going to do in the next few years, the company's now revealed its completely updated roadmap that addresses everything from high end all-in-one desktops to netbooks and UMPCs. Especially interesting is it's treatment of its "Atom-killer"... which it says "won't be going to the bottom where Atom is going."

Basically, AMD's designed two chips targeted at the netbook market on its "Yukon" platform, due in first half of 2009. Consumers are getting "Caspian" and "Conesus," both 45-nm dual-cores with integrated DDR-2 controllers. Caspian is designed for ultraportables and will contain 2 Mbytes of cache. Conesus, made smaller to fit into the tiny little bodies of netbooks, will only contain 1 Mbyte. But Senior VP Randy Allen hedged that the chips weren't specifically designed for netbooks, and that Yukon was focused on customers who don't want a "compromised PC experience." Translation: AMD's saying no to Mobile Internet Devices.

It's 2009 desktop plans were less murky. High-end lines will get "Deneb", a quadcore chip with 8Mbytes of cache and options for both DDR-2 or DDR-3. Mainstream desktops can look forward to "Propos"—also quadcore but with 2 Mbytes of cache.


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Cycle Life Watch Concept Charts Your Life Draining Away In Daily Drudgery [Timepieces]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VqsMi-bLjRc/cycle-life-watch-concept-charts-your-life-draining-away-in-daily-drudgery

Here's a bit of tech that'll cast a wonderful air of doom and gloom over your morning breakfast cereal: The Cycle Life watch charts your progress through the boring average day's drudgery. It begins cheerfully with "wake up!" but then the rest of your productive, vividly personal, exciting daily life is reduced to displays for "Car, PC, Car, TV, Go to Sleep!" Totally reminds me of a French slang saying about daily tediousness "Metro, bulo, dodo, Metro bulo..." travel, work, home, travel, work... At least the watch also has a real time display so you can see exactly how much closer to death you're getting. A concept, but a darkly delicious one. [Yanko]


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