Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

NVIDIA's GTX 560 desktop GPU fills an exceedingly narrow pricing niche

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/17/nvidias-gtx-560-desktop-gpu-fills-an-exceedingly-narrow-pricing/

With Tegra 2 hogging the spotlight, sometimes it's easy to forget that NVIDIA is still primarily in the business of making GPUs for computers. Yet, here it is with the GeForce GTX 560, another graphics chip ready to be inserted into mid-range gaming rigs. This smaller sibling of the GTX 560 Ti is designed to plug right into a small price gap in the company's lineup -- right around the $200 mark. The 336 CUDA cores inside this second-gen Fermi card, predictably, perform slightly better than the GTX 460 and fall just short of the 560 Ti, but it does eke out a victory over similarly priced competition from AMD. The only thing that kept reviewers from wholeheartedly endorsing the various (and often overclocked) flavors of the 560 was the tiny difference in price between it and its relatives -- tacking on the letters Ti and its 48 additional stream processors costs as little as $15 after a mail-in rebate. Check out the reviews below for all the benchmarks your little nerd heart can handle. And don't miss the video of a GTX 560 plowing through Duke Nukem Forever, Alice: Madness Returns, and Dungeon Siege III at the more coverage link.

Read - Tech Report
Read - AnandTech
Read - Tom's Hardware
Read - Guru 3D

NVIDIA's GTX 560 desktop GPU fills an exceedingly narrow pricing niche originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 16:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bing adds Facebook 'friend effect' to search, hopes you 'Like' it

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/17/bing-adds-facebook-friend-effect-to-search-hopes-you-like-i/

If you'll recall, Google has been pushing social integration into its search algorithm quite aggressively for the past few months; lest we forget the versatile +1 button. Not to be out done by Team Google's spider-crawling and link-snatching ways, Microsoft has announced full-on Facebook integration for Bing. They're referring to it as, the "Friend Effect." So, what's the difference?

While Google's approach aggregates its standard search results with shared content from the social networks you've manually linked to your account, Bing's approach relies upon the ol' Facebook "Like" button. Basically, Microsoft found that most people usually want opinions from friends and family before they make a decision on something. So by including friends' and families' Facebook-based Likes in the search results the company lets you know their input without ever having to ask. At the same time, Microsoft has added a universal like button to the Bing Toolbar that you can use to mark your approval on anything you find on the web, which in turn, can help out your friends' searches in a socially, antisocial kind of way. Bing uses "Collective IQ" of the internet hive-mind to optimize search results should your friends lack opinions about your interests.

Bing's Friend Effect search integration is pretty interesting stuff, and it could definitely offer a compelling alternative to Google's social search approach if your Facebook "friends" can truly be classified as such. Check out the videos after the break if you want more detail, and be sure to let us know what team you're on in the comments below.

Continue reading Bing adds Facebook 'friend effect' to search, hopes you 'Like' it

Bing adds Facebook 'friend effect' to search, hopes you 'Like' it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 19:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Social TV Startup BeeTV Raises $1.5 Million, Releases iPad App

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/17/beetv-funding-ipad-app-social-tv/

It’s been two years almost to the day when Israeli startup BeeTV raised $8 million in funding for a – really impressive – personal TV suggestion engine they’d been building.

Fast forward to today, and the company has shifted its focus squarely on offering social tools for sharing the TV viewing experience with online friends.

The company’s co-founder and former CTO, Yaniv Solnik, is leading the pivot as the startup’s chief executive officer, backed with $1.5 million in additional funding from Italian investment firm Innogest, a previous investor in BeeTV.

BeeTV lets users share ‘TV moments’ with friends and others in real-time, via an iPad app (iTunes link) that hits the App Store today. The app, which leverages the company’s existing recommendation technology, comes free of charge.

The idea is to start with the iPad and the website and then expand to social networking sites and mobile apps for iOS, Android and other smartphone and tablet platforms.

BeeTV lets people interact with each other while watching the same TV show or movie, and get more information straight from the same app (think news, gossip, fan pages and so on). The app also lets users rate and get personalized recommendations for TV shows.

Also cool: there’s a VIP section that shows tweets and messages from celebrities who act in, wrote, produced or are somehow related to the show or movie you’re currently watching.

Some screenshots of the iPad application:

CrunchBase Information

BeeTV

Information provided by CrunchBase

BoxyTunes Turns Dropbox into a Cloud Music Player for iPhone and iPad [App Of The Day]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5802110/boxytunes-turns-dropbox-into-a-cloud-music-player-for-iphone-and-ipad

There seems to be no lack of options for cloud music players on Android these days, but what about your neglected iPhone? If you have a Dropbox account and use it to store music and podcasts, BoxyTunes makes it easy to grab those audio files on the go.

What Does It Do?

BoxyTunes syncs up with your Dropbox account and lets you download music stored inside for playback on your iPhone or iPad. Is that it? Yeah, pretty much. It does play every format iOS supports, works in the background, has AirPlay support, and has a quick rewind button for replaying the song you're listening to if you decide you want to hear it again (I think this button was made for me). What does it not do? Multiple playlists, which solidifies its position as a secondary music player. It's not going to replace the iPod app.

Who's It For?

Yes, it has a small feature set, but what it does do is excellent if you're looking to play music stored in your Dropbox. This app is for people who don't have the music they want right now on their iDevice. Maybe you don't sync everything to your device or maybe you just forgot to sync it, but if it's not there you can use BoxyTunes to easily grab it from the cloud.

Worth It?

BoxyTunes isn't perfect, but it's also only $2. While you can use the free Dropbox app to download and play your music on the go, and BoxyTunes doesn't provide much in the way of features, it works a lot better. If you sync your music with Dropbox and ever want to play it on the go, then it's absolutely worth it.

BoxyTunes ($2) | iTunes App Store

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter and Facebook. If you'd like to contact him, Twitter is the most effective means of doing so.

T-Mobile confirms gratis WiFi calling for the magenta-clad masses

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/16/t-mobile-confirms-gratis-wifi-calling-for-magenta-clad-masses/

Last week, the online grapevine foretold that T-Mobile users would have complimentary calling over WiFi. Now, the pink provider's powers that be have made good on the gossip and officially made free WiFi calling official. The service is available to those with Android handsets with the carrier's Smart Wi-Fi app preinstalled and are on T-Mo's Even More or Even More Plus plans. All others wanting a dose of free will have to pony up for a new plan -- you didn't think it was actually free, did you?

T-Mobile confirms gratis WiFi calling for the magenta-clad masses originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 21:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GreenChip lighting lets you flip the switch remotely, thumbs nose at IPv4 depletion

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/17/greenchip-lighting-lets-you-flip-the-switch-remotely-thumbs-nos/

Despite the looming IPv4 apocalypse, a new lighting system coming out of NXP Semiconductors promises an "IP address for every light bulb." The GreenChip "smart lighting solution" incorporates NXP chipsets into both LED and compact flourescents to enable dimming, extended lifespans, quick start times, and IP connectivity -- via IPv4 or IPv6. Proprietary network software allows users to control their bulbs from smartphones, PCs, and other devices, enabling them to fiddle with mood lighting -- including adjusting color -- via a specific IP address. So at least when IPv4 doomsday finally descends someone will have their lighting just right. Video and PR after the break.

Continue reading GreenChip lighting lets you flip the switch remotely, thumbs nose at IPv4 depletion

GreenChip lighting lets you flip the switch remotely, thumbs nose at IPv4 depletion originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 01:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Droid X 2 turns up on Moto and Verizon sites, confirms qHD screen and 1GHz dual-core processor

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/17/motorola-droid-x-2-turns-up-on-moto-and-verizon-sites-confirms/

Hey Motorola, your unannounced phone is showing. The Droid X 2 is spending this morning hanging out on the bright and airy support pages of motorola.com, though you may also spot it sneakily listed alongside some compatible accessories on vzw.com as well. Yes, the leaks are now happening from official sources, too, indicating an imminent landing for what we've confirmed to be a dual-core 1GHz Android smartphone with qHD resolution on a 4.3-inch display. Those long-rumored specs were revealed by the Droid X 2's user guide, which Moto has kindly provided at the link below. So thoughtful!

[Thanks, 3vil]

Continue reading Motorola Droid X 2 turns up on Moto and Verizon sites, confirms qHD screen and 1GHz dual-core processor

Motorola Droid X 2 turns up on Moto and Verizon sites, confirms qHD screen and 1GHz dual-core processor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 02:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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10 gigapixel, 360-degree panorama of Wembley Stadium is world's largest for a sports venue

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/17/10-gigapixel-360-degree-panorama-of-wembley-stadium-is-worlds/

Jeffrey Martin is a busy man. Having already shot an 80 gigapixel panorama of London's skyline and a 40 gigapixel peek inside a Czech library, he has now turned his attention to England's hallowed Wembley Stadium. The recently rebuilt home of football served as the stage for a new 360-degree panorama, shot during the FA Cup Final this Saturday, which spans 10 gigapixels in total and has been made available online at the source link below. Recording was done using a DSLR mounted to a custom robot rig that would continually pump out imagery to an equally exclusive Fujitsu workstation equipped with 192GB of RAM and 24 processing cores. All that grunt was used to automatically stitch more than 1,000 high-res images together, earning the finished product the title of world's largest 360-degree sports panoramic photo. Give the source a bash to tag yourself if you were at the Final or to check to see who else was there.

[Thanks, Adam]

10 gigapixel, 360-degree panorama of Wembley Stadium is world's largest for a sports venue originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 04:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Puccini touted as a 10-inch LTE tablet with 1.5GHz processor, Honeycomb flavor

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/17/htc-puccini-touted-as-a-10-inch-lte-tablet-with-1-5ghz-processor/

Hey look, the Flyer just got itself a bigger brother. A 10-inch tablet codenamed the HTC Puccini has been revealed by our old buddy 911sniper (who has a habit of finding and leaking HTC ROMs), living up to a longstanding rumor that places two 10-inch Android slates on HTC's roadmap for this summer. It's said to pack LTE for Cingular (AT&T) in the US and to be built atop Android 3.0.1. A 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8660 offers plenty of processing power within and screen resolution should match the 10-inch pack with 1280 x 800 pixels. Gazing at the above screenshot reveals a UI very similar to the Flyer's Sense 3.0 look, including the Notes app being in a prime position, which could very well mean Magic Pen compatibility will also be part of the Puccini's arsenal. You'll know more about this as soon as we do.

HTC Puccini touted as a 10-inch LTE tablet with 1.5GHz processor, Honeycomb flavor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Slingbox inventor releases Crestron R2 Control App for Android, teases something big

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/17/slingbox-inventor-releases-crestron-r2-control-app-for-android/

Own a professionally installed Crestron home automation system? Then check this out mister moneybags. Former Sling boxer, Blake Krikorian, has turned his home automation hobby into a full-fledged Android app ready for download. The R2 Control App will set you back $99 (hey, it's Crestron) from the Android Market and give you control over your 2-Series and 3-series systems from anywhere in the world via WiFi or cellular data networks. At least it will after an authorized Crestron programmer enables it. The app works natively with Mobile Pro / Pro G projects built for Crestron touchscreen or iOS devices and automatically resizes the UI to the native resolution of the Android device you're using.

Great, we guess, but what we find most compelling is what Blake teases about the future. We had a chat with the Slingbox inventor who shares our concerns about the current state of home automation and believes that the industry is "on the brink of something big" that could finally take it to the mass market. Given his entrepreneurial lineage and clear home automation interests, we're more than a bit intrigued by where this might go now that Blake and Google are in the mix.

Continue reading Slingbox inventor releases Crestron R2 Control App for Android, teases something big

Slingbox inventor releases Crestron R2 Control App for Android, teases something big originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 06:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer postpones Iconia Tab A100 launch to second half of the year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/17/acer-postpones-iconia-tab-a100-launch-to-second-half-of-the-year/

Looks like Acer's 7-inch Iconia Tab A100 has opted for a fashionably late entrance. We've just been informed by the company that its Honeycomb-sporting, Tegra 2-powered slate will not be arriving, as had been expected, right around now, but will in fact make its debut in the second half of 2011. No reasons have been given for the move, other than to say that the device has been postponed. The thing that prompted us to query Acer's PR team was a report out of Poland suggesting the A100 had been cancelled. Acer's UK reps are adamant that's not been the case, but anyone who was looking forward to grabbing one soon will be disappointed either way.

Acer postpones Iconia Tab A100 launch to second half of the year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 06:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mizzou Professor says nantenna solar sheet soaks up 90 percent of the sun's rays, puts sunscreen to shame

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/17/mizzou-professor-says-nantenna-solar-sheet-soaks-up-90-percent-o/

Photovoltaics suffer from gross inefficiency, despite incremental improvements in their power producing capabilities. According to research by a team led by a University of Missouri professor, however, newly developed nantenna-equipped solar sheets can reap more than 90 percent of the sun's bounty -- which is more than double the efficiency of existing solar technologies. Apparently, some "special high-speed electrical circuitry" is the secret sauce behind the solar breakthrough. Of course, the flexible film is currently a flight of fancy and won't be generating juice for the public anytime soon. The professor and his pals still need capital for commercialization, but they believe a product will be ready within five years. Take your time, guys, it's not like global warming's getting worse.

[Image source: Idaho National Laboratory (PDF)]

Mizzou Professor says nantenna solar sheet soaks up 90 percent of the sun's rays, puts sunscreen to shame originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 07:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook Ads would be more "buyer friendly" if they actually worked - http://bit.ly/kyEjQx

Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

NVIDIA's GTX 560 desktop GPU fills an exceedingly narrow pricing niche

Bing adds Facebook 'friend effect' to search, hopes you 'Like' it

Social TV Startup BeeTV Raises $1.5 Million, Releases iPad App