Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, January 04, 2010

Your Next Cellphone Might Have a 14.6MP Sensor and Shoot 1080p Video [Cameras]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/iKo8qn7rXRE/your-next-cellphone-might-have-a-146mp-sensor-and-shoot-1080p-video

OmniVision has made a new 14.6MB image sensor specifically for cellphones which will give them the ability to shoot 1080p video at a breezy 60 frames-per-second. Considering that we're talking about cellphones here, that's quite a nice upgrade.

The OV14825 image sensor is designed to go easy on power consumption and will hopefully enter mass production in the second quarter of this year. There's no word on when we'll start seeing it in cellphones, but I'm hoping it's before I buy my next one, even if it's uncertain whether phones hitting the market in the near future will be able to process all that data from the sensor.

Ah well, there's at least always the novelty of saying that it's a 14.6MP phone. [Mobile Burn]

Android Taking Wind Out Of iPhone's Sails [Data]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cfCxtrNpvTM/android-taking-wind-out-of-iphones-sails

Just in time for Google to unveil its own Nexus One smartphone, ChangeWave Research reports the public is more excited than ever to buy an Android based handset — at the expense of Apple, Microsoft, and Palm.

ChangeWave surveyed 4,068 consumers in the first weeks of December and found that 21% of people looking to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days want to buy one running on Android. That's up from 6% when ChangeWave asked people in September.

Considering Verizon is spending tens of millions marketing the Droid, this shouldn't come as a shock. Google is a popular brand unto itself, so it makes sense that people are excited about its smartphones.

Apple remains the smartphone of choice for now, with 28% of the people saying they will buy an iPhone. The BlackBerry falls to third place with 18% — but interest in BlackBerry devices actually perked up. Meanwhile, Palm needs big help.

Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid: laptop by day, unhinged tablet by night

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/lenovo-ideapad-u1-hybrid-laptop-by-day-unhinged-tablet-by-nigh/

We are still trying to wrap our heads around what Lenovo's just announced here, but it appears that the 3.8-pound IdeaPad U1 Hybrid is a 11.6-inch laptop with a retractable multitouch screen. It's sort of like the Always Innovating Touchbook, but in our opinion a lot more interesting. When the screen is locked into its upright position in the laptop's chassis, it's powered by a CULV Intel Core 2 Duo processor and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. But when the screen is pulled from its shell it morphs into a Qualcomm Snapdragon powered-multitouch slate with a 16GB SSD that boots Lenovo's customized Skylight Linux interface. Two processors and two operating systems? Hybrid is right. It seems like we'll have to wait until June to buy the $999 device, but we've been promised a look at it in Vegas so stay tuned.

Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid: laptop by day, unhinged tablet by night originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Syabas' Popbox: Get Ready for the New Media Streamer Champ [Hdmediaplayers]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/6CI-zd0pwLg/syabas-popbox-get-ready-for-the-new-media-streamer-champ

Take Syabas' Popcorn Hour C-200, the much-loved streamer of choice for AV nerds. Now make it smaller, add Netflix support and a far superior interface, and cut the price from $300 to $130. That's the Popbox.

The Popbox isn't a replacement of the Popcorn Hour, which remains on as a giant hackable tank of a machine, but it does look fully ready for mainstream adoption. Here's why: Syabas expects to slash the price down to a mere $130, yet it keeps the Popcorn's stellar codec support and a lot of the online channels the Popcorn was missing, like Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, MLB, and a whole bunch more. (It does lose some things, like the internal hard drive bay and Bittorrent support, but it's still all open-source so you can install games, apps, or whatever fun stuff the homebrew community can think up). Plus, Syabas's interface (which Wilson, in his streamer roundup, described as "lame") has been totally revamped, and actually looks, well, kind of awesome. It's got great little touches like animated weather and automatic IMDb and AllMusic lookup for movie, TV and music info.

The hardware's been significantly revamped, too—it's much smaller than the admitted beast that is the Popcorn Hour, and it's fanless (AKA silent), but it'll still pump out full 1080p video over HDMI. It's also got 2 USB ports and an SD slot for added storage, since you lose the hard drive bay the Popcorn Hour has. It remains to be seen whether Syabas has fixed the problems users found with the Popcorn Hour's remote control, but we'll find that out soon enough.

It's set to be unveiled on January 5th at CES, where we'll stop in and get some photos and impressions&mdas! h;but I' m really excited for it already. We'll find out release date there, but they seem locked in on the $130 price point, which is super reasonable—Roku, Asus and the rest should be very scared right now. [Syabas]

Update: Due to a typo in my notes, you may have seen an early version of this story as saying the projected price will be $100. Syabas actually expects the final price to be $130, and I need to practice my typing. Sorry for the confusion.

How Non-Latin Domain Names Could Be Used to Steal Your Money [Crime]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/5lWG2rA50Wk/how-non+latin-domain-names-could-be-used-to-steal-your-money

Unicode is great because it supports multiple languages simultaneously, bringing international understanding, universal peace, and planetary love. And so is ICANN's decision to allow domain names that use non-Latin alphabets. Until both combine to steal your credit card numbers.

Or your login name, passwords, address, or whatever other data a phishing site can get from you.

Until now, there was an easy way to test if a site was legit or not: You just look at the browser URL. If it's not paypal.com or amazon.com or whatever.com, then it's not those companies' web sites, no matter how well they clone their layout and graphics.

The problem will come in 2010. That's when sites' URLs would start popping in non-Latin alphabets like Cyrillic. And that's when there will be cases of mistaken identity: Just check the image above, in which the russian word "raural" becomes "paypal." According to trademark expert Charlie Abrahams, of MarkMonitor:

The risk for general brand abuse is going to increase exponentially. It's difficult enough in English. At present, most e-mail phishing does not use anything that resembles the real site name. We could see the level of sophistication in phishing attacks increased by the use of foreign languages.

Can you see what this is going to be bring? Yes, unless someone comes up with rules soon, this will bring a big bag full of hurt. [The Times via Masable]

Note: To those readers who said there's no "l" in the Cyrillic alphabet, you are right, there's no "l" in traditional Cyrillic, but there is in the extended Cyrillic supported by Unicode.

MSI Prepping Dual Screen, Nvidia-Powered eReader and a 3D Laptop [EReaders]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/A8ivBOdWRTQ/msi-prepping-dual-screen-nvidia+powered-ereader-and-a-3d-laptop

Rumor has it that the eReader MSI plans to unveil at this year's CES will not only have Nvidia Tegra graphics, but dual screens as well. A 3D laptop may also be in the works.

Of course, as you can see from the Asus dual screen eReader pictured here, the concept of a dual screen eReader is nothing new. But I have to wonder how devices like this will compete or blend with more functional tablet computers. As for the 3D laptop, there isn't any further detail. Hopefully we will learn more when CES kicks off. [Digitimes]

Can Microwave Technology be Used to Make Food Cold? [Microwaves]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/oD-6ijhJoa8/can-microwave-technology-be-used-to-make-food-cold

Microwaves can transform a frozen pizza into hot, melted goodness in four minutes flat, but they can't rescue your melted ice-cream sundae. Or can they?

To cook food, a microwave oven converts voltage into high-frequency electromagnetic microwaves. The molecules in food-especially water and fat-absorb this energy and wiggle at high speeds, causing them to heat rapidly and warm the surrounding food. Although quickly turning leftovers cold would be handy, this is a one-way operation, explains David Pozar, a professor and microwave expert at the University of Massachusetts. Microwaves can only speed up atoms, not slow them down.

Scientists do have a high-tech method for slowing atoms, however: lasers. Shoot a moving atom with a laser, and it will absorb the laser's photons and re-emit them every which way, causing the atom to hold nearly still. Placing an atom at the junction of multiple beams can slow its momentum in all directions, decreasing its energy and cooling it.

This drops an atom's temperature a couple hundred degrees Fahrenheit-much colder than anything you'd want to put in your mouth-in less than a second. But because it works most efficiently on low-density gases of atoms of a single element, physicist Mark Raizen of the University of Texas doesn't think it will be useful for cooling food anytime soon: "Not unless you can subsist on a thousand sodium atoms."

Popular Science is your wormhole to the future. Reporting on what's new and what's next in science and technology, we deliver the future now.

WebOS Getting Doom, Quake, OpenGL, and Native SDK [Palm]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4AlTZVkvGuA/webos-getting-doom-quake-opengl-and-native-sdk

With some elbow grease, we've been able to play Doom on our WebOS devices for a while, but now we can do so without any messy terminal commands. Oh, and there's a playable version of Quake, too.

The folks of the webOS Internals global team have been throwing new things at us each day lately. At first Quake was only an unplayable demo, but now it plays just as well as the previously released version of Doom. These won't be the last games we'll see on the Pre though, because the same team has discovered demoed an OpenGL application and a "method for installing and running native Linux applications without the need for add-on services like webOSInternals' own Upstart Manager Service."

All of this is great news for homebrewers, Pre owners, and smartphone gamers, but tell me, what are you most eager to see next? [PreCentral]

Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/freescale-reveals-7-inch-smartbook-reference-design-hopes-to-se/

Freescale Semiconductor is helping to kick this year's CES off with a bang, as its latest reference smartbook design actually has somewhat of a sexy flair to it. Currently, the model is little more than a great idea, but the company is hoping to have it available for partner evaluation starting next month. In theory, at least, this "smartbook tablet" would boast an ultrathin form factor, weigh around 0.8 pounds and get powered by a 1GHz i.MX515 processor. Other specs would include 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 1,024 x 600 touch panel, 4GB to 64GB of internal storage, a microSD expansion slot, optional 3G WWAN module, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, a USB 2.0 socket, audio in / out, 3 megapixel camera, inbuilt 3-axis accelerometer, an ambient light sensor and a 1,900mAh battery. We aren't quite sure what kind of bulk discounts Freescale is counting on, but it's hoping that this design will "enable a second generation of smartbook products with prices less than $200." We dig the ambition and all, but we're guessing OEMs will actually want to turn a profit should they sign on to sell something like this.

Gallery: Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200

Continue reading Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200

Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200 originally appeared on E ngadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel's Arrandale and Clarkdale CPUs get benchmarked for your enjoyment

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/intels-arrandale-and-clarkdale-cpus-get-benchmarked-for-your-en/

Whoa, Nelly! Just weeks after Intel came clean with its new Pine Trial nettop and netbook platform, the company is today cutting loose with a few more. This go 'round, we've got the 32nm Arrandale (which consists of the Core i5 Mobile and Core i3 Mobile) heading for the laptops and the 32nm Clarkdale chips over on the desktop front. Starting with the former, most reviews found the CPU + GPU solution to be faster than rivaling Core 2 Duo + integrated GPU options, with the Core i5 being particularly potent in highly threaded applications. Better still, battery life didn't seem to take a hit even with the extra performance, though high-end, high-res gaming was still a lesson in futility when working without a discrete graphics card. Overall, the chip was a welcome addition to the fold, but we got the feeling that the first wave was priced too high and offered too little of a performance increase on the gaming side to really warrant a wholehearted recommendation. As for the Clarkdale? The Core i5 661 that everyone seemed to snag was found to be blisteringly fast, with most folks deeming it the outright champion in the dual-core realm. Unfortunately, the integrated GPU was -- again -- not awesome for hardcore gaming, and the questionable pricing didn't exactly thrill some critics. Do yourself a favor and dig into the benchmarks below -- we get the feeling we'll be seeing oodles of machines hit the wires this week with these chips within.

Arrandale reviews
Read - HotHardware
Read - AnandTech
Read - Tom's Hardware
Read - PCPerspective
Read - Legit Reviews

Clarkdale reviews
Read - NeoSeeker
Read - HotHardware
Read - HardOCP
Read - TechSpot
Read - AnandTech
Read - PCPerspective
Read - Legion Hardware
Read - Overclockers Club
Read - Bit-tech

Intel's Arrandale and Clarkdale CPUs get benchmarked for your enjoyment originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS UL30Vt-A1 pops up on Amazon for pre-order: silver, 5600mAh battery, $849

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/asus-ul30vt-a1-pops-up-on-amazon-for-pre-order-silver-5600mah/

ASUS' UL30Vt-X1 was largely hailed as the CULV machine to get when it finally went on sale just a few weeks back, and it has a Core 2 Duo CPU alongside a switchable graphics solution to thank. Still, the main two gripes on it were the inability to choose a color and the (comparatively) lackluster battery. Thankfully for those who managed to hold off, ASUS has quietly pushed its UL30Vt-A1 onto Amazon's pages, complete with a silver paint job, a capacious 5,600mAh battery (good for "up to 12 hours" of usage) and an asking price that's $50 higher than the X1. All other specs have seemingly remained constant, from the 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 CPU to the 4GB of DDR3 RAM to the 500GB hard drive. You'll also get a 64-bit copy of Windows 7 Home Premium and an NVIDIA G210M (512MB) + GMA 4500MHD GPU setup, but there's no telling when your order will actually ship. Here's hoping for sooner rather than later, yeah?

[Thanks, Paul]

ASUS UL30Vt-A1 pops up on Amazon for pre-order: silver, 5600mAh battery, $849 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HSTi Wireless Media Stick nixes the need for dedicated storage drives

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/hsti-wireless-media-stick-nixes-the-need-for-dedicated-storage-d/

The banners aren't even officially up in Vegas yet, and already we're catching a drift of what all will be unveiled in the days to come. Take this Wireless Media Stick for example, which is HSTi's way of telling you that a dedicated storage drive beside your Blu-ray player or media player is completely unnecessary. Put simply, this device (and the accompanying software, we presume) plugs directly into any USB-enabled disc player or media streamer that's connected to your television; from there, you can easily stream media that's already shacked up within your main PC to your TV-connected device(s), which cures the problem of having your media fragmented between varying drives. We're still waiting to hear exactly what kind of technology this thing relies on (we're guessing 2.4GHz), but hopefully we'll find out more (along with a price and ship date) real soon.

HSTi Wireless Media Stick nixes the need for dedicated storage drives originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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QNAP gets serious with Turbo NAS line, packing Pineview, iSCSI, and VMWare certification

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/qnap-gets-serious-with-turbo-nas-line-packing-pineview-iscsi/

QNAP is generally known around these parts for its ever shrinking line of NAS devices that pack plenty of goods in a small space. The company's latest series sets a new bar for functionality, but does so in a device you probably won't be wedging in on a bookshelf between your well-worn (but never finished) copy of Ulysses and your leaning tower of software boxes. The latest Turbo NAS series is intended for small businesses, available in sizes ranging from one to the eight bay monster you see above, each packing an Intel D510 processor with enough oomph to fuel virtualized environments, so VMware vSphere4 certification and Windows Server 2008's Hyper-V are on-tap. iSCSI is also supported, as is IPv6 and, in one small nod toward consumers, Apple Time Machine backups have been enabled. We're expecting to see the full suite of devices at CES just a few days hence, while they're all slated for retail release in the coming weeks at prices ranging from $599 for the two-bay TS-259 Pro all the way up to $1,499 for that eight-bay TS-859 Pro flavor. You didn't think all this professionalism would come cheap, did you?

QNAP gets serious with Turbo NAS line, packing Pineview, iSCSI, and VMWare certification originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Casio Exilim G EX-G1 hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/04/casio-exilim-g-ex-g1-hands-on/

Casio's Exlim G EX-G1 certainly managed to turn a few heads when it was announced back in November, with it introducing a new angular design to complement its status as the "world's thinnest shock-resistant camera." Add to that the promise of being freezeproof, waterproof and dustproof, and you just know this is one we had to check out first hand. As we're happy to report, the $299 Exlim G definitely feels solid and substantial from the moment you pull it from its packaging, although all that shock-proofing and weather-proofing does come with a few minor inconveniences compared to a standard point-and-shoot. The first of those is that the battery compartment requires a special tool and some pretty nimble fingers to open and, secondly, the two extra side protectors that provide even more ruggedness require that you first remove some very tiny screws from the camera and then attach the protector with some slightly longer screws (Casio thankfully provides a few spares). Once you've got things set, however, the camera should easily survive life in a pocket or backpack during even your most arduous travels -- and take some decent pictures and YouTube-ready video, to boot.

Be sure to check out the gallery below for our extensive hands-on look at the camera, and check back later for some sample shots and additional impressions once we've had a chance to really put the Exilim G through its paces.

Gallery: Casio Exilim G EX-G1 hands-on