Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Dell pricing mistake $399 for macbookair-like V13 laptop w/Core2Duo, 2GB, Win7 (half off still seems to work) - http://bit.ly/e9P2vH

A Sneak Peek of the MacBook of the Future [Blockquote]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5737171/a-sneak-peek-of-the-macbook-of-the-future

Apple looks at the MacBook Air as the "MacBook of the future, shipping today," according to COO Tim Cook. What does he mean?

It's all solid

If the MacBooks of the future are like the Air shipping today, the biggest difference internally is that they're going to move to flash memory—solid-state storage—across the board. It matches perfectly with what Apple itself says is so great about the Air and bringing the things it's learned from the iPad and iOS to Macs.

Moving to flash storage would deliver the biggest, most dramatic performance increase to the Mac, way more than any other component upgrade. Way more jaw-dropping than a screaming Intel processor, blistering Nvidia graphics chip or crazy amounts of RAM. Crazy fast startup times, instant on from sleep, and less fear about a catastrophic hard drive crash if you drop your MacBook. The truth is, performance increases—the kind you can really feel—have been hitting the point of diminishing returns with faster processors and graphics cards. There's only so much boost you notice. A second sliced here, a second there. But cutting the startup time down to 10 seconds? Launching programs instantaneously? The amazing performance you get out of flash storage is the kind of thing people really notice.

If you're not convinced by the performance power of an SSD, just look at some reviews of the MacBook Air. Even with a dinky 1.4GHz processor and 2GB of RAM, the 11-inch Air runs like the wind, for all but the most CPU-driven of tasks (namely, video). Imagine delivering that in every Mac. It's the kind of here-today-and-awesome-but-sorta-inaccessible technology upgrades that Apple likes to drop into its products as a differentiator, the kind of thing that puts them subtly ahead of other computer makers. (Like the retina display in the iPhone, multitouch buttonless trackpad, etc.)

Cost doesn't seem like much of an issue, either, since they're able to shove SSDs in their cheapest MacBook product, the $999 Air. I expect they can afford to put them into the pricier Pros. And even if it does cost more, it wouldn't be the first time they've offered more expensive components in a product that costs the same price, just look at the retina display in the iPhone 4. One possible issue though: less storage space. So, like the iPod classic sticks around, they'll probably still offer regular old spinny hard drives for data packrats.

The other bits

Thinner! Maybe lighter! Higher resolution screens by default. (Apple seems to have a boner for higher res displays lately.) Priced not unlike current MacBook Pros.

Overall, I think I'm a fan of the MacBook of the future.

A $1 Million 3D Printer Could Give You the Tiny Titanium Balls You've Always Wanted [3D Printing]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5737307/a-1-million-3d-printer-could-give-you-the-tiny-titanium-balls-youve-always-wanted

This funky—and surprisingly tiny—ball was created out of pure titanium powder using a $1 million 3D printer. You could have one made for $124 to $192.

The ball—which has a 2cm diameter—was created by i.materialise, a company who is taking custom orders for titanium 3D prints right now. This is actually a new thing to be available to consumers, who have only been able to have plastic or stainless-steel 3D prints made up until now.

You can follow the link for more details on how to get your own titanium model printed, but I'll stay here and continue waiting for adamantium to become an option. [i.materialise via The Next Web via Courtney Boyd Myers]

Linksys E4200 Dual-Band Router Is Their Newest Top of the Line [Routers]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5737296/linksys-e4200-dual+band-router-is-their-newest-top-of-the-line

Not only does the latest Cisco/Linksys E4200 router look amazing for a router, it's got upgraded features from their older models, like 3x3 antennas and dual-band wireless-N.

The six antennas (both internal and external) are supposed to make this reach farther inside larger homes, and can shoot up to 450Mbps at 5GHz, or 300Mbps at 2.4GHz. It's priced at $180 and will hit in the next few months. It still only has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, whereas I'd love if routers upped it to 8 as a standard. [Cisco]

Silver Tesla Model S Alpha hits the road, carves some corners (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/18/silver-tesla-model-s-alpha-hits-the-road-carves-some-corners-v/

We've seen it inside and out. We've seen it naked. Now we're seeing it do its thing. Tesla has just released a tasty video of the Alpha version of the Model S carving some corners, and while this isn't the first time we've seen the car in motion this is the best taste of the Alpha we've yet been given. Check out the video after the break and, no, your speakers aren't broken, it is that quiet. Oh, and if you'd like to know more about what's going on under all that chrome and silver make sure you peruse our chat with Chief Engineer Peter Rawlinson.

Continue reading Silver Tesla Model S Alpha hits the road, carves some corners (video)

Silver Tesla Model S Alpha hits the road, carves some corners (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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