Monday, May 09, 2011

Samsung's 75-inch D9500 3D TV announced for Korea, doubles as wind shield

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/09/samsungs-75-inch-d9500-3d-tv-announced-for-korea-doubles-as-wi/

3D is best served on a large plate, which is why Samsung's latest HDTV got us all dribbling over our TV munchies. This 75-inch platter, dubbed D9500, has stolen the short-lived crown off LG's 72-inch LZ9700 to become the world's largest LED-backlit 3D LCD HDTV, and obviously Samsung's still staying faithful to its active shutter 3D technology following its recent price drop on its glasses. The 240Hz display will also come with the usual Smart TV features, garnished by a QWERTY flip remote for your web-browsing and SNS needs on that large screen. Oddly enough, only an ex-factory price of a whooping ₩19,000,000 ($17,600) is quoted here, so customers will have to pay a bit more than that during the pre-sales at the end of the month. Alternatively, you can hold off your shopping spree until Samsung pushes out its 70-inch "Ultra Definition" 3DTV.

Samsung's 75-inch D9500 3D TV announced for Korea, doubles as wind shield originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 May 2011 01:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Akihabara News  |  sourceSamsung  | Email this | Comments

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ASUS Sabertooth P67 motherboard sheds its skin, feels better without it

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/09/asus-sabertooth-p67-motherboard-sheds-its-skin-feels-better-wit/

There's no denying the ASUS Sabertooth P67 motherboard looks fantastic, and The Tech Report didn't spare praise for its military-grade components or five-year warranty in a recent review, but the publication also reports that the standout feature -- that component-cooling "Tactical Jacket" -- may hurt more than it helps. The plastic shroud has been re-dubbed "Thermal Armor" since our last run-in, but that doesn't change the result: ASUS doesn't ship the primo slab with a dedicated cooling fan, so component temperatures can actually go up ten degrees Celsius when wearing the shroud with a system under heavy load. Of course, cooling depends on a number of factors, but we were hoping the Sabertooth's unique coat would be a positive one. Back to the drawing board.

ASUS Sabertooth P67 motherboard sheds its skin, feels better without it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 May 2011 03:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceThe Tech Report  | Email this | Comments

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Sunday, May 08, 2011

Five Best Apps to Send Group Text Messages on the Cheap [Hive Five]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5799695/five-best-apps-to-send-group-text-messages-on-the-cheap

Five Best Apps to Send Group Text Messages on the Cheap When you need to get the same message out to a lot of people immediately, you could send them an email, but that's hardly real-time communication. At these times, group texting apps are excellent tools for the job. Here's a look at five of the most popular group messaging apps or services that communicate with several people instantly.

On Thursday, we asked you which apps or services you turned to for group texting: those times when you have to change a meeting place at the last minute or you want to make a big announcement to all of your friends—and keep the real-time communication flowing between everyone without incurring massive texting fees. You weighed in, we collected the votes, and now we're back to review what you suggested.

GroupMe

Five Best Apps to Send Group Text Messages on the Cheap Available for the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and even non-smartphones, GroupMe is the Swiss Army knife of group texting and communication apps. Download the app, sign up for an account, and enjoy the ability to send texts to and start conference calls with multiple people in your contacts, or even from Twitter and Facebook. Plus, you can add your location or photos to any message you send. Plus, it's free.


Beluga

Five Best Apps to Send Group Text Messages on the Cheap Recently acquired by Facebook, Beluga offers free, dead simple group text messages to iPhone and Android users. Create your group from people you know, keep them completely private, and share your location and photos with them or just send them all a note to coordinate them as a group. Plus, you can send messages to your group from the Web if you don't feel like using your phone.


WhatsApp

Five Best Apps to Send Group Text Messages on the Cheap WhatsApp brings multimedia messaging to the mix, and allows you to send audio and video messages to your friends as well as texts and photos. Plus, the app supports international messages without charge. WhatsApp is available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and select Nokia S60 and Symbian devices. iPhone users buy the client for $0.99 and pay once. Everyone else pays $1.99/year to subscribe.


Google Voice

Five Best Apps to Send Group Text Messages on the Cheap Sometimes you don't need a fancy app to do what one of your favorite apps already does. A number of you reminded us that Google Voice allows you to send a text to up to five people at the same time, and that works just fine, thank you. Google Voice doesn't offer conversations (each response text is just to you and is a separate message) or location and media sharing, but for many of you, it gets the job done.


BlackBerry Messenger

Five Best Apps to Send Group Text Messages on the Cheap Blackberry Messenger is probably the original group texting app. It supports multimedia messages, like photos and videos, and works with your existing contacts. You're not restricted by character length, and you don't have to pay text messaging fees to use it. You don't get the benefit of conversations, but you can send the same message to multiple people. You can only use BlackBerry Messenger with a BlackBerry device right now, and the environment is still a closed one, but rumor has it that may change soon.


Now that you've seen your favorites, it's time to decide which one is the best.



What's The Best App for Group Textingsurvey software

The honorable mention this week goes to Kik Messenger, a newcomer to the genre that supports both Android and iPhones. Kik sports over 3 million members, 1 million if whom downloaded in the first 15 days. It supports conversations, photo sharing, and delivery confirmation. It's likely we'll hear more from them in the future.

Did we miss the app you prefer to use, or do you get the word out a different way? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.


You can follow Alan Henry, the author of this post, on Twitter.

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How News of bin Laden's Death Spread on Twitter [Visualizations]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5799593/how-news-of-bin-ladens-death-spread-on-twitter

How News of bin Laden's Death Spread on TwitterThe fact that the death of Osama bin Laden rocked the Twitterverse is very much common knowledge. Here, though, is a visualization showing just how far and fast the news spread in those first moments after the news leaked.

SocialFlow, a social media platform, did their analysis of the announcement that presents the major players, Keith Urbahn and Brian Stelter, as the epicenters of the explosion that would see 4,000 excited tweets a second. Pretty cool. [SocialFlow via Mashable]

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Artist Turned Typewriter Into This Sculpture of Your Grandpa [Art]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5799585/artist-turned-typewriter-into-this-sculpture-of-your-grandpa

Artist Turned Typewriter Into This Sculpture of Your Grandpa What with all the recent buzz about the death of the typewriter — that turned out to be super false — artist Jeremy Mayer went ahead and created this piece, Bust V (Grandfather), to comment on the hullabaloo.

Mayer is no stranger to repurposing typewriters for his decidedly badass sculptures. However, this piece in particular tries to embody the typewriter as a proud, if aged, medium.

The initial inspiration for the piece was that I wanted to create a self-portrait in my old age. I wanted to say something about aging, transition (particularly transition into new technology), and the place of the personal mechanical machine in modern society, all without making the piece look too "robotic". I wanted to convey a little human weakness, malaise, boredom, and pain, but with an underlying strength and pride.

So cheers, old man. The truth is, if you have to go out, you'll certainly do it with some style. [BoingBoing]

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