Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Spring Design Alex starts shipping tomorrow

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/spring-design-alex-starts-shipping-tomorrow/

We'd gripe about the wait, but given all the e-book readers we saw at CES that've fallen off the radar or been delayed to oblivion, we're actually pretty proud of Spring Design for shipping the Alex at last. Orders will start going out tomorrow for the $399 dual screen reader. Not sure it's worth the price? Well, we're not positive either. Check out our review for a bit of help deciding.

Spring Design Alex starts shipping tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel wraps up 'best first quarter ever' by teasing new dual-core Atoms for Q2

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/intel-wraps-up-best-first-quarter-ever-by-teasing-new-dual-cor/

Android support for Moorestown isn't the only morsel of Intel news to come out today. In an earnings call today that kicked off with word of a 288 percent year-over-year net income increase -- its "best first [fiscal] quarter ever" reportedly -- Intel CEO Paul Otellini said, "the next innovation coming out on Atom is dual core, which comes out in the second quarter." Given dual core Atoms already exist for nettops, we're gonna guess he's referring specifically to netbooks. That jibes pretty well with what we heard about the supposed D510 remake as N500. Guess we've got something to look forward to in the netbook category over the next few months.

Intel wraps up 'best first quarter ever' by teasing new dual-core Atoms for Q2 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Telstra's landlocked T-Hub tablet phone launches in Australia

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/14/telstras-landlocked-t-hub-tablet-phone-launches-in-australia/

A few years back, Telstra -- synonymous in Australia with "communication" -- told Apple it had no business making a cellphone. Look how that turned out. To make a long story short, the company has since repented, and is on the verge of releasing an app-filled touchscreen phone of their own, the Telstra T-Hub, on April 20th. Thing is, this tablet stays plugged into your wall. Marketed as a "family organizer," the T-Hub stores contacts, surfs Facebook, plays YouTube, displays photos, accesses personal bank accounts and even sends text messages like a smartphone, but does it all while connected to a landline telephone jack -- albeit with cordless handset as backup. While existing Telstra customers can get the device for $300 AUD, the company would of course prefer you get it for $35 with a 24-month service agreement... for a minimum total cost of about $1980 AUD with 2GB data per month. We're not Australian, but compared to US iPhone pricing, that doesn't sound terribly fair.

Telstra's landlocked T-Hub tablet phone launches in Australia originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 04:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

wondering why business travelers don't use JetBlue more, even though it's reputation has been solid so far? http://bit.ly/bCv2MB

LG's Snapdragon-powered LU2300 Android handset gets official

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/lgs-snapdragon-powered-lu2300-android-handset-gets-official/

This one's been floating around for a while now and just spotted in the wild last week, but LG has finally come clean with its new LU2300 Android handset, albeit in a somewhat roundabout way on its official UK blog. The biggest news is that LG has confirmed that the phone does indeed pack a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and Android 2.1, along with some other fairly impressive specs to match, including a 3.5-inch AMOLED capacitive display, a 5-megapixel camera, built-in WiFi, DivX support and a DMB TV tuner -- that last feature of which likely indicates that this one won't be available over here anytime soon. There's also still no indication of a price or a firm release date, although it will apparently be available in Korea sometime this month or next.

LG's Snapdragon-powered LU2300 Android handset gets official originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MeeGo Gone Wild! Features detailed, companies come on board at IDF 2010

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/meego-gone-wild-features-detailed-companies-come-on-board-at-i/

Wow, the MeeGo news is flying fast and furious today! Our first stop is the Intel Developer Forum, where a recent talk detailed feature lists for netbooks and handhelds running (presumably) 1.0. For the former, you can expect to see it rockin' Chrome (or Chromium), and overhauled social messaging, media, camera, email, and calendar apps. That's in addition to touch and gesture support. As for handhelds, Fennec with Flash support popped up on the slides (probably a carry-over from Maemo, since they already have Mozilla with Flash), VOIP (at least until the carriers start hollerin'), instant messaging, social networking, location-based services, cloud data syncing, and portrait mode support -- not to mention "the Intel app-store framework that can be used to make branded 3rd-party app stores." But that ain't all! According to some freshly minted PR, the Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco will be lousy with developers staring Wednesday when the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit begins in earnest. To be announced announced at tomorrow's keynote are are a host of companies that are throwing their lot in with the mobile OS, including: EA Mobile, BMW Group, Acer, Gameloft, Novell, Asus, and more. Which is all well and good, but the question remains: when are we finally gonna get our hands on an LG GW990? PR after the break.

Continue reading MeeGo Gone Wild! Features detailed, companies come on board at IDF 2010

MeeGo Gone Wild! Features detailed, companies come on board at IDF 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Beautiful Soho-chic gallery and event space -- massive 1,600 sf (midtown 35th btn 5th/6th Aves) -- http://bit.ly/crt9b6

HTC Incredible's Specs Leak, Show Snapdragon Android Phone With 8MP Camera [Android]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5515922/htc-incredibles-specs-leak-show-snapdragon-android-phone-with-8mp-camera

HTC Incredible's Specs Leak, Show Snapdragon Android Phone With 8MP Camera It's one of the leakiest phones of the year, but it looks like BGR has the official specs, courtesy of a well-placed source at Verizon—rumored to be the exclusive carrier for this Android phone.

A 3.7-inch WVGA OLED capacitive screen, 1GHz Snapdragon QSG8650 processor and 8MP camera with autofocus and flash place it above both the Nexus One and HTC Desire, and by the looks of things, it'll come with Android 2.1 pre-loaded, slicked with HTC Sense over the top. GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth—it's all there. I'm seriously excited about this handset. If you thought the Desire sounded good after reading my review, the Incredible could blow it out of the water.

But then...it's no Sprint Evo 4G, is it? [BGR]

Image Credit: AndroidAndMe

HTC Incredible's Specs Leak, Show Snapdragon Android Phone With 8MP Camera

GE's LED light bulbs look cool, last forever, cost a lot

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/ges-led-light-bulbs-look-cool-last-forever-cost-a-lot/

GE's LED light bulbs look cool, last forever, cost a lot

Citizens of the Earth, you're looking at the lightbulb of the future. In the coming years and decades our lives won't be illuminated by simple spheres or coils of white. Oh no; future bulbs will have cool fins and flares that make them look almost worth the $40 to $50 we'll pay for the things. That's what GE plans to ask for its Energy Smart LED bulb when it ships sometime in the next 12 months, and while that is a lot compared to the exiting options, look at the benefits: GE's bulbs will last a whopping 17 years when used four hours a day, and they give off light in all directions -- not focused in one spot like previous designs. But, most importantly, they're very efficient, using nine watts to give off the equivalent amount of light of a 40 watt incandescent bulb. That's 10 percent less than a 40 watt equivalent CFL, and there's no mercury or other toxic goop involved here either. It's the future, folks. Start saving.

Gallery: GE Energy Smart LED bulb

GE's LED light bulbs look cool, last forever, cost a lot originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel adds Android to Moorestown compatibility list, wants to Atomize your smartphone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/13/intel-adds-android-to-moorestown-compatibility-list-wants-to/

Alright, so this isn't the first time we've seen Android running on the x86 CPU architecture, but it's notable that Intel has ported the OS to run on its Atom CPUs with the specific aim of offering Android plus Atom smartphone combos. Such is the news that has emerged today at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, which means Intel loyalists will have a second option in the smartphone sphere, beyond the already known Moorestown-powered MeeGo handsets. It would seem that Chipzilla is taking the ARM threat to its home markets seriously, and is launching a counter-offensive in the mobile space. As to when that will happen, Intel's bigwigs are saying they're still "on track for introduction during the first half of this year," meaning we'll be seeing (or at least hearing about) the vanguard of its attack by the end of June.

Intel adds Android to Moorestown compatibility list, wants to Atomize your smartphone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 05:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, April 12, 2010

Virus Helps Researchers Split Water into Hydrogen and Oxygen

Source: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-04/virus-helps-researchers-split-water-hydrogen-and-oxygen

Viruses generally get a bad rap, but they can also be very helpful little machines. For instance, bacteriophages have been engineered to clear up infections that seemed otherwise untreatable, and genetic material from viruses has been used to ease biofuel production. Now a team at MIT is using a modified virus to assemble the biological nano-scaffolding necessary to split water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

Of course, other means to split water into hydrogen and oxygen exist, but none of them are as efficient or simple as the method plants use to oxidize water through photosynthesis, requiring energy from outside the system to carry the process to fruition. Meanwhile, efforts to extract the photosynthesizing components from plants for use in harnessing solar power have been largely unsuccessful.

So the MIT team decided to engineer a virus to imitate plants' oxidizing machinery by artificial means. Using a zinc porphyrin pigment and iridium oxide catalyst, the team was already able to mimic nature's own photosynthesizers, which are very efficient at flipping solar power into fuel for water-splitting reactions within plants. But for efficient water-splitting, those catalysts and pigments must be arranged in a very particular way.

Therein lies the team's innovation: an engineered bacterial virus known as M13 that serves as a sort of self-assembling biological scaffold, spacing the porphyrins and iridium such that oxygen production increases fourfold. The pigments capture sunlight and transfer that energy down the length of the virus the way a wire transfers electricity from one end to the other. That energy in turn powers the iridium reaction that splits the oxygen from the water.

The process still lacks a critical step: once the splitting is complete, the oxygen has been siphoned from the water but the hydrogen is left split into its component electrons and protons. The team is currently exploring other biomimicking systems that might reassemble those building blocks into usable, storable hydrogen atoms. An actual commercial process that produces hydrogen from water as efficiently as plants do is likely years away, but the MIT team hopes to have a working, self-sustaining device that can perform the entire water-splitting process in the lab within two years.

Site Speed Now a Factor in Google Rankings [Search]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5514997/site-speed-now-a-factor-in-google-rankings

Site Speed Now a Factor in Google Rankings Google announced in an official blog post that, a few weeks back, they began considering site response speed in a web page's ranking in search results. Google has been all about speed for some time, but this subtle introduction could eventually mean big things for sites that put a priority on swift loading—and for those that don't seem to care at all. Right now, the speed ranking only effects fewer than one percent of search queries, Google reports, and only those in English through the Google.com page. [Official Google Blog via Search Engine Watch]

Index Your Files Catalogs Local and Networks Files for Speedy Search [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5515039/index-your-files-catalogs-local-and-networks-files-for-speedy-search

Index Your Files Catalogs Local and Networks Files for Speedy Search Windows: If all you need is local search you have many great search tools to choose from—like the lightning-fast Everything—but it gets sparser when you look for local and networked. Index Your Files covers both bases effectively.

Index Your Files excels at indexing local, attached, networked, and even indexing drives you won't have real-time access to for easy search. While the previously mentioned Everything will always win with raw speed—it accesses the HDD file table for crazy-fast file finding—Index Your Files builds databases of every drive you point it at and keeps those databases accessible even after you've disconnected from an external hard drive, turned booted down your file server, and so on. Since it's portable you could even index hard drives at work and search them at home.

Index Your Files supports searches based on name, size, date, location, and advanced search using Boolean operators. You can switch between the indexes of different disks—or searching them all—by simply checking or un-checking them beneath the search box. Index Your Files is free, portable, and Windows only. Have a favorite search tool to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Index Your Files [via The Portable Freeware Collection]

QSynergy Makes Multi-System Control Easier and Prettier [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5515093/qsynergy-makes-multi+system-control-easier-and-prettier

QSynergy Makes Multi-System Control Easier and Prettier Windows/Mac/Linux: It continues to amaze, just how easy it is to control multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse with Synergy. QSynergy clamps a crisp, generally easy-to-grasp interface onto Synergy, giving it the update its long deserved.

QSynergy isn't the first update to Synergy we've come across—Synergy-Plus added some updates and bug fixes to the original. QSynergy adds a few bonus features of its own, but its main benefits involve how easy it is to install on Windows, Mac, or Linux systems, and the setup tools and design put into it. Arranging the left-to-right arrangement of multiple systems is done with a grid interface, the crude, Windows-98-era options panels are cleaned up, and with just a little tweaking, you're managing multiple computers as if they were just multiple monitors on one grand Mother Brain.

QSynergy is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. Thanks for the tip MePerson!

QSynergy [via #tips]

Mandatory Password Changes Costs Billions in Lost Productivity [Passwords]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5515133/mandatory-password-changes-costs-billions-in-lost-productivity

Mandatory Password Changes Costs Billions in Lost Productivity Big enterprises that force their workers to change their access passwords on a regular basis, and adhere to complex rules when they do, might be their own worst enemy. At least that's how Boston Globe editor Mark Pothier sees it, and he cites a Microsoft research paper as part of his argument against that and other seemingly perfunctory IT rules. We prefer using a solid root password and subtle variations to implement secure passwords, along with easy-but-secure browser tools. What does your own office require of your passwords, and do you think it helps or hurts? [Boston Globe via Gizmodo]

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