Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, February 23, 2009

ASUS Eee PC T91 sits down for photo shoot, early critique

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/23/asus-eee-pc-t91-sits-down-for-photo-shoot-early-critique/

Much like the S101, the T91 isn't exactly "Eee PC" material. Sure, it's small and ASUS-branded, but design wise, it's a pretty bold departure. bit-tech was able to sit down and take an early look at the Eee PC T91 convertible tablet, and while the machine is still a few months out from release, it seems that you can curb your enthusiasm in the meanwhile. Critics found the touchpad to be a hair less awesome than those on other Eee PCs, the lack of multitouch to be a real bummer and the uncanny ability of the LCD to attract fingerprints as just plain annoying. Of course, their unit was still subject to alterations, so the crew isn't completely giving up hope that things won't improve by launch day. In fact, it noted that the inclusion of a DVB-T tuner, WWAN support and GPS functionality were very nice touches, but it still maintained that a standard netbook would likely suit you best unless you're just head over heels for touching.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

ASUS Eee PC T91 sits down for photo shoot, early critique originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI unveils new X-Slim models ahead of CeBIT

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/23/msi-unveils-new-x-slim-models-ahead-of-cebit/

MSI unveils new X-Slim models ahead of CeBIT

We certainly aren't tired of the X-Slim 320 laptop from MSI, with its Air-like form-factor in less expensive and slightly more practical packaging -- it's still many moons away from release, after all. Despite that, MSI felt the need to announce two new models to round out the still unreleased lineup: the 13.4-inch X340 and 15.6-inch X600. We don't know much about these two yet except that the X340 is slated be priced somewhere in the (wide) range of $699-$999 in the US, that both offer HDMI in addition to VGA output, both are Centrino 2-based, and that the X600 even has an eSATA port on top of its two USBs. We'll surely be seeing a lot more of this pair (plus the X320 as well) at CeBIT in just a few weeks, and are hoping that MSI will go ahead and maybe release one before introducing any more.

Filed under: Laptops

MSI unveils new X-Slim models ahead of CeBIT originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung intros 12 megapixel duo: TL320 and HZ15W

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/23/samsung-intros-12-megapixel-pair-tl320-and-hz15w/

What's this, Samsung? Announcing a few new cameras each week until PMA hits us when we least expect it? Just days after the firm expanded its less than enthralling SL lineup comes two new 12 megapixelers. The TL320 is the same one we spotted earlier at Amazon, though some of those specs were -- shall we say, preliminary. The official specs sheets lists a 12.2 megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 3-inch HVGA AMOLED display, 720p movie recording, HDMI output, dual image stabilization and twin analog gauges for checking out memory capacity and battery life. As for the ZH15W, that one checks in with a dozen megapixels even, a 10x optical zoom, a 3-inch LCD monitor, 720p movie mode and most of the same features as the aforementioned cousin. Both shooters should be available this May for $379.99 and $329.99, respectively, and you can catch the full release after the break.

Gallery: Samsung intros 12 megapixel duo: TL320 and HZ15W

Continue reading Samsung intros 12 megapixel duo: TL320 and HZ15W

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Samsung intros 12 megapixel duo: TL320 and HZ15W originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The $1.94 reason micro-USB is the new phone charging standard

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/23/the-1-94-reason-micro-usb-is-the-new-phone-charging-standard/

Yep, we're all gonna get squeezed for accessories again as the member companies of the GSM Association begin standarizing on micro-USB chargers, and while we're happy that the madness is over, we can't help but feel the decision to use micro-USB over the already-ubiquitous mini-USB was purely greed-driven -- sure, micro-USB's supposedly more robust connector can handle something like 10x more disconnects, but if mini is good enough for everything from pro-level DSLRs to rugged portable hard drives, it's probably good enough for your average flip phone, don't you think? Sigh.

[Via Geardiary]

Filed under: Cellphones

The $1.94 reason micro-USB is the new phone charging standard originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, February 20, 2009

Run Silverlight Plug-In on Google Chrome [Google Chrome]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/gexWVTj9qO0/run-silverlight-plug+in-on-google-chrome

For those Google Chrome users who need access to one or two Silverlight sites, a Microsoft developer offers a file-tweaking work-around to get access to certain sites.

The Chrome/Silverlight hack requires grabbing a few .js files normally intended for Silverlight developers and tweaking them to have Silverlight sites accept and provide content to Chrome. By downloading the .js files and modifying them a bit, you should be able to access, as the developer rates it, "most" Silverlight apps, but your mileage will certainly vary.

Moonlight 1.0 Released, Silverlight script updated – and a Chrome hack [Tim Heuer via FavBrowser.com]

How Can I Sync Bookmarks Across All Browsers? [Ask Lifehacker]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/tUR3xOwENwQ/how-can-i-sync-bookmarks-across-all-browsers

Dear Lifehacker,
How can I sync favorites in Opera, IE7, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox? Is there any way to do it, beside manually export everyone and then painfully editing the HTML?

Best Regards from a Daily Reader

Dear Daily Reader,

For Firefox and Internet Explorer, at least, we'll whole-heartedly recommend the newly IE-friendly and Safari-friendly Foxmarks. It doesn't have the password support of its Firefox iterations, but it does do an admirably swift job of keeping your bookmarks and toolbar favorites synced up in the background.

As for Chrome and Opera, well, that's a trickier task. If you're using all four browsers equally, you might want to consider using the long-standing, well-tested Delicious as your primary bookmarking tool, since its accessible from anywhere, keeps everything in sync with or without your action, and has handy bookmark bar tools for reading and saving bookmarks from any browser. When you import your bookmarks from any browser, they'll be set to private by default, saving you a whole bunch of work. The minor pain is that new bookmarks can't be set to private by default (correct me if I'm wrong, readers!), but it's truly the only way to keep your bookmarks in sync without a lot of import/export/save shuffling.

Unless, of course, one of our readers have a smart solution for shuttling or syncing each browser's HTML bookmark files around—maybe an AutoHotKey script? A clever use of syncing tool Dropbox, simila! r to how we utilize it as the ultimate password syncer?

Peace and soul,

Lifehacker

So Who's Selling the Most Flat Panels in America? [Televisions]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/urZ6Ko6lc2c/so-whos-selling-the-most-flat-panels-in-america

Samsung. They're still on top, leading the US flat panel market with 20% of the market share. But Sony, who used to be in second place, has been pushed to third. The culprit? Vizio.

Here's how the flat panel television market looked as of Q4 2008:

20.2% - Samsung
14.3% - Vizio
13.5% - Sony
10.7% - Panasonic

So why is Vizio doing so well? We're guessing people like buying cheap televisions. But incidentally, if you're in the market for a cheap set, we recommend the Toshiba Regza. [Reuters]

Mac Mini 2009 'Leak' Analyzed, Declared Fake [Rumor Smash]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/IM7spch2h_E/mac-mini-2009-leak-analyzed-declared-fake

In the age of Photoshop, it can be impossible to discern a forgery with the naked eye. But one PCB (and imaging) specialist has analyzed the recent Mac Mini "leak" and declared it fake.

As you can see in this image, the general "dispersion of artifacts" is not consistent with an unedited picture. In other words, all of that confetti you're seeing around the ports and power plug are pretty suspect. Zoomed in to the pixel, the image also reveals the use of multiple macroblock types.

But apparently the expert's most damning argument has nothing to do with the image quality itself. It's the placement of the Mini DisplayPort and Mini DVI—the ports don't appear to be lined up with the motherboard, which is a big design no-no. [9to5Mac]

The Life of an iPhone App: Nasty, Brutish and Short [IPhone Apps]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/tdqxv-K6ULQ/the-life-of-an-iphone-app-nasty-brutish-and-short

Our breakdown of the 500 million apps populating the App Store was correcto: A study by Pinch Media shows only 20 percent of people use free apps again after the first day they download it.

After a month, the rate falls off to about less than 5 percent. Paid apps fare a little better, but not a whole lot, as you can see. It's pretty remarkable that the average app is so crappy or disposable you only use it for a single day, and within a month, you're almost definitely not using it. The presentation says that long-term users are "generally 1 percent" of total downloads. These stats—and a wealth of others in the presentation—are based on over 30 million downloads tracked by Pinch.

For developers, the big takeaway is that it doesn't pay to just give your app away—unless you're in the uppermost echelon of successful apps, there's no way you'll make any money with ads in a free app. There is, however, evidence that offering a free lite version of a paid app can boost sales.

But generally speaking, your app is going to have a short shelf-life: In the App Store, because of the way it's designed—for "maximum turnover—and because of the way people appear to be using their apps. It helps if your app is a game, which fares a little better than other cateogries, and you know, maybe if your app doesn't just make fart noises. [Pinch Media via TechCrunch]

Nanotech research could fit 10 trillion bits of data onto disk the size of a quarter

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/20/nanotech-research-could-fit-10-5tb-of-data-onto-disk-the-size-of/

Two researchers, Ting Xu and Thomas Russell, are in the midst of developing some potentially sweet nanotech that could allow storage of around 10.5 terabits (or 10 trillion bits) of data on a space the size of a quarter. They're currently working on the technique, which starts with a sliced crystal (sapphire or silicon) sliced at a jagged angle, which is then heated to 2,700 degrees Farenheit which causes the crystal to reorganize itself into a sawtooth pattern at three nanometer angles. The crystal is then sprayed with a custom polymer, dryed, and treated again with a different solvent, after which the polymer then settles into a hexagonal pattern on the surface of the crystal. Sound complicated? Well, it is, and all the kinks aren't quite work out, but the technique essentially provides a path to creating a self-assembling disk with far more storage capacity than anything currently available. The current state of the research will be detailed in the upcoming issue of Science magazine. We'll believe it when we see it, but keep up the good work, guys!

Filed under: Storage

Nanotech research could fit 10 trillion bits of data onto disk the size of a quarter originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of fee! ds.< /p>

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ASUS experimenting with Android-based netbook

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/20/asus-experimenting-with-android-based-netbook/

We'd already heard that ASUS was at least considering using Android on its Eee PC netbook, and seen it wrangled onto one unofficially (see above), but ASUS's Samson Hu has now offered a few more details that indicate just how serious the company is about the XP/Linux alternative. Apparently, ASUS has already allocated a team of engineers to work on the Android-based netbook, which Hu says could be ready by the end of the year, although the company isn't committing to actually releasing a product until it sees how things pan out. No further word on ASUS's other Android experiments, unfortunately, but it seems safe to bet that ASUS is devoting even more attention to those, at least if its latest timeline is any indication.

[Via GadgetMix.com]

Filed under: Laptops

ASUS experimenting with Android-based netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Philips Net TV rumored to go live in April

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/20/philips-net-tv-rumored-to-go-live-in-april/

We've been hearing about Philips' attempt to jump on the burgeoning connected HDTV bandwagon for nearly a year now, but at long last, it seems like the company will finally be making it happen -- months after everyone else stole the thunder at CES. At any rate, Pocket-lint has it that the aforesaid outfit is readying its Net TV module -- which should be an add-on of some sort that connects via wire to its 8000, 9000 and Cinema 21:9 HDTVs -- for an April release. The box will purportedly bring the web's best content to your HDTV through an easy-to-understand user interface, and the WiFi capability means that you won't have to run an Ethernet cable to your set. Like most everything Philips does in the HDTV / home entertainment space, we suspect this will also be limited to Europe, but a boy can dream, can't he?

[Via ShinyShiny]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Philips Net TV rumored to go live in April originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ARM's stash of netbook oddities and a Windows Mobile 6.5 MID

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/20/arms-stash-of-netbook-oddities-and-a-windows-mobile-6-5-mid/

We're not sure what sort of shenanigans ARM gets up to, but it managed to amass itself quite the interesting collection of netbooks for its MWC booth. Information was scant, but they were showing that Freescale i.MX-based Pegatron netbook and nettop we saw at CES, an ultrawide 11.1-inch Snapdragon-based netbook from Wistron, a Snapdragon-based convertible tablet netbook from Inventec Alaska, and a totally odd "tech demo" of a Qualcomm-based Wistron MID semi-running a sketch version of Windows Mobile 6.5. Most all of the systems were in some level of prototype form, and seemed unbearably slow at running whatever prototype flavor of Linux they happened to have, while the MID didn't really seem to operate at all, at least to our touch. Still, it's clear that Snapdragon and Freescale i.MX are allowing for some pretty wild and thin form factors while still rocking decent battery life.

Gallery: ARM's stash of netbook oddities and a Windows Mobile 6.5 MID

Continue reading ARM's stash of netbook oddities and a Windows Mobile 6.5 MID

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops, Tablet PCs

ARM's stash of netbook oddities and a Windows Mobile 6.5 MID originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA Ion platform to support VIA Nano processors this year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/20/nivida-ion-platform-to-support-via-nano-processors-this-year/

It's pretty clear NVIDIA already has some big plans for its new nettop / netbook-specific Ion platform, and it looks like its reach is about to get broader still, with company president Jen-Hsun Huang reportedly confirming that the platform will also support VIA's Nano processor by the end of the year. As you may recall, the two companies had been in off and on talks about a partnership last year before things finally fell though in November, and there was even a point where it seemed like NVIDIA might actually acquire VIA. No word from Intel on this latest development, although it doesn't seem like it'll be affecting the Atom's status as the go-to processor in the short term. There's also unfortunately no indication as to exactly what sort of VIA-powered, Ion-based systems we can expect to see, although it certainly wouldn't be a surprise if they followed the Ion / Atom combo and went with a nettop first.

[Via GadgetMix.com]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

NVIDIA Ion platform to support VIA Nano processors t! his year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG affirms that 12 megapixel cameraphone is in the works

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/20/lg-affirms-that-12-megapixel-cameraphone-is-in-the-works/

Here at MWC, the only cellphone maker to actually come forward with proof of a 12 megapixel phone was Sony Ericsson. Still, you know that everyone else is apt to follow suit as quickly as possible, and it seems that LG will be one of the first. In fact, said company "absolutely" has a 12 megapixeler in the works. That's according to Jeremy Newing, LG Mobile's head of marketing in the UK, who also proclaimed that the KS360 would be LG's first Android phone. In his words: "We'll very much be releasing a 12MP cameraphone. However, it's important that people realize when taking 12MP images, they'll be using huge amounts of data, and it will be more difficult to do things like send such files." Honestly, we're a bit tired of the megapixel race -- get an optical zoom onto a slim cellphone, and then we'll talk.

[Thanks, Jimb]

Filed under: Cellphones

LG affirms that 12 megapixel cameraphone is in the works originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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