Friday, April 02, 2010

Marketing success is when users remember you, remember to look for you, and remember to tell their friends about you - http://bit.ly/cFZy6q

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University of Washington's Prefab tool promises to 'unlock the desktop'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/01/university-of-washingtons-prefab-tool-promises-to-unlock-the-d/

The University of Washington may be overstating things a just a tad with a headline like "what if all software was open source," but the so-called "Prefab" software tool developed by some researchers at the university does indeed manage to pull of some fairly impressive tricks. The short of it is that the tool promises to you let you (or developers) modify any application without actually modifying it. To do that, the software constantly looks for easily identifiable elements of an application (dialog boxes, scroll bars, buttons, etc.) and then "alters their behavior" by effectively taking over your display, leaving the actual program running in the background and displaying the augmented version instead. According to the researchers, the possibilities from there on out are virtually endless, and include things like adding iTunes buttons to your Word toolbar and tweaking Photoshop to display previews for a whole range of effects at once. Head on past the break for a quick demo video, and look for more to be unveiled at the CHI 2010 conference in Atlanta next month.

[Thanks, Keith]

Continue reading University of Washington's Prefab tool promises to 'unlock the desktop'

University of Washington's Prefab tool promises to 'unlock the desktop' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CBC  |  sourceUniversity of Washington  | Email this | Comments

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Olympus E-PL1 review

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/01/olympus-e-pl1-review/

It seems like such a simple thing now, but it took Olympus three revisions to finally get its "Pen" Micro Four Thirds series down below (or even close to) the magical $600 mark. Lucky for us, the E-PL1 doesn't skimp on functionality, and in fact expands on the capabilities of the E-P1 and E-P2 with an integrated pop-up flash. We already rounded up some reviews from the big boys, so check out those in-depth walkthroughs if you're looking to get nerdy, but if you'd still like to hear our thoughts on this new shooter, follow along in our mini-review after the break.

Continue reading Olympus E-PL1 review

Olympus E-PL1 review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fujitsu debuts thin-and-light LifeBook MH330 netbook

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/01/fujitsu-debuts-thin-and-light-lifebook-mh330-netbook/

We just got a chance to check out Fujitsu's MH380 netbook in February, but the company has now already followed it up with a new, thinner and lighter model: the LifeBook MH330. In addition to getting the weight down to 2.4 pounds (with a three-cell battery), the netbook sports a slightly more angular design than its counterpart, but remains mostly unchanged when it comes to specs, That includes the same 10-inch screen as before (albeit WSVGA instead of WXGA), along with an Atom N450 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and the usual niceties like built-in Bluetooth and an integrated memory card reader. Still no official word on a release over here, but it looks like this one is now at least available in Singapore for the local equivalent of $500.

Fujitsu debuts thin-and-light LifeBook MH330 netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Far East Gizmos  |  sourceFujitsu, Notebook Italia  | Email this | Comments

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Motorola patent application offers new option for 3D cellphones

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/01/motorola-patent-application-offers-new-option-for-3d-cellphones/

Flip phones may be somewhat on the outs these days (at least among those demanding the latest and greatest), but they may well be the key to future 3D cellphones -- at least if this Motorola patent application is any indication. The basic idea is actually a fairly simple one: you'd see a regular 2D image on the screen when the cover is open, but when it's closed you'd be able to look through the transparent lid and see the images with a "three dimensional appearance." As you can probably figure out, that screen would be a touchscreen that takes the place of a keypad, and another illustration also shows that the same idea could be applied to a slider phone. Of course, what the illustrations don't show is how effective that three dimensional appearance would actually be, although it seems like it could give Motoblur a whole new meaning.

Motorola patent application offers new option for 3D cellphones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Go Rumors  |  sourcePatent Application  | Email this | Comments

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