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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Deals.Woot is a User-Run Bargain Site [Deals]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/02cNe0D9pkc/dealswoot-is-a-user+run-bargain-site

Popular one-deal-a-day bargain finder website Woot has just launched a new section, deals.Woot, which instead of featuring one good deal chosen by Woot staffers, features a list of great deals found and voted on by Woot users.

TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid affectionately (and rather accurately) calls the portal the "Digg for bargains." The site features a list of user-submitted and voted-on deals from around the web, and, like the regular Woot site, is very tech- and gadget-heavy in its list of deals. There are still a few other things hiding inside the site, like coffee, t-shirts, and even bacon salt, but old fans of Woot and all technophiles will be happy with the plethora of deals available.

While most of the site is user-run, the deals on the top part of the page are all sponsored—that is, they are still deals, but they were submitted by retailers or manufacturers, not by users. The deals still need to be deemed worthy by Woot's staffers, but just keep in mind that they do not follow the Digg-style process that the rest of the site does.

Deals.Woot [via TechCrunch]

Device Doctor is a Free Driver Update Scanner with Promise [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/f1mrHnLwJ_Q/device-doctor-is-a-free-driver-update-scanner-with-promise

Windows only: Driver update utility Device Doctor finds outdated drivers on your PC, and helps you download the latest version—without charging you a dime.

Using the utility, which can be installed or used as a portable application, is about as easy as it gets—just click the Begin Scan button, wait a couple of seconds, and you will be shown a list of drivers that can be updated. The download button for each driver will take you to their web site, where you can download the drivers for free, without signing up for anything at all. Most of the drivers come with setup programs, but some of them are nothing more than zip files, and would need to be installed manually—hopefully something they can improve on in the future.

During our testing, we used the application on half a dozen PCs, and had varied results—on our XP test system, Device Doctor worked well and accurately found new drivers, but for Windows 7 we didn't have as much luck, with a few incorrect drivers being thrown at us. That said, Windows 7 was only released recently, so expect that support to improve in the future.

Device Doctor isn't perfect yet, but as a completely free, portable application that you can toss on your thumb drive, it's well worth a look. It might even save you some time searching for new drivers while you are fixing mom's PC.

Device Doctor is a free download for Windows only. Be sure to check out the full How-To Geek review for a more in-depth look, as well as instructions on installing drivers manually.

Device Doctor [via How-To Geek]

Do You Know When Fedex Drops Your Package? Senseaware Does [Tracking]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/bl9UZkz66So/do-you-know-when-fedex-drops-your-package-senseaware-does

Package-tracking sensors aren't super new, but Senseaware is one that's unique because it tracks multiple criteria—temperature, location, drops and light exposure—and updates those to the web constantly. Useful when you're transporting organs and not MP3 players.

Senseaware is going to be using these sensors in the medical transport field, who distribute organs on a regular basis, and offer it as a simple drop-in addition to the package. How this affects you is that Fedex is working on lowering the price so that not-so-essential packages can also get the same detailed tracking. [Fast Company]

Nokia X6 coming to Finland and the UK this Friday, other countries soon

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/24/nokia-x6-coming-to-finland-and-the-uk-this-friday-other-countri/

Nokia's just confirmed on its official blog that the X6 will hit shelves in Finland and the UK starting next week, with other countries to follow soon after. After hearing a while back that the touchscreen, Comes With Music-lover would be shipping around November 12th -- well, we didn't want to falsely get anyone's hopes up again. But now that the word is official, we can all sit back and behold the beauty that is the X6 -- with its 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera, and 32GB of onboard memory. The S60 (that's the 5th edition) device will be available in Nokia stores this Friday, retailing for £449 (about $742) free of contract.

Nokia X6 coming to Finland and the UK this Friday, other countries soon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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US Air Force orders up 2,200 more PS3s, says they help it think

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/25/us-air-force-orders-up-2-200-more-ps3s-says-they-help-it-think/

We were as surprised as anyone when the USAF threw down the cash for 300-odd PlayStation 3s back in March of last year, but what's more shocking is that it's now back for more -- seven times more, in fact. Already employing its PS3 cluster for research into high-def video processing, the Air Force Research Lab wants to expand its capabilities significantly and it seems that Sony's Cell processor is still its weapon of choice. We would use this opportunity to make a few jibes about lazy engineers upgrading their setups in time for Modern Warfare 2, but we're better than that. We'll also totally avoid noting that the US government's skimping on costs now is leading it to commit to an instruction set tailored specifically to the Cell processor, which contrary to the latest Xeons -- pricier though they may be -- is not guaranteed to keep updating in pace with the USAF's needs. Those are things we'll leave for someone who isn't afraid of death lasers and autonomous attack drones to say.

US Air Force orders up 2,200 more PS3s, says they help it think originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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