Intel launches Atom CE5300-based storage platform with multiple streams, smart scaling

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/04/intel-launches-atom-ce5300-based-storage-platform/

There's been more than a few Atom-based storage servers. Most of them either have to lean on the same Atom processors you'd usually get with nettops, though, which makes them less than ideal for media tasks than a chip dedicated to the job. Intel has just launched a new platform that might be a better fit for home network storage. New NAS arrays from Asustor, Synology, Thecus and others (none yet pictured here) all revolve around a dual-core Atom CE5300 system-on-chip that's better-optimized for media processing duties: it can stream video across the network to multiple devices at once, and can automatically downscale video to accommodate smaller screens. The small chip contributes to a relatively small price at the same time, with NAS boxes starting around $299. Not everyone can suddenly justify a dedicated media server in the home just because the CE5300 is an option, but those that do may at least get more for their money.

Filed under: Storage, Networking, HD, Intel

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Source: Intel

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This App Makes Conference Calls Completely Free And Painless

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/unison-conference-calls-2013-3

Unison is essentially a social network for the workplace, letting people collaborate and get updates on what people are up to regardless of where they are.

And one of its most compelling features will have you getting rid of whatever conference call service you use – "instant live group conversations."

As soon as you log in to Unison, you can share your audio with everyone on your team that's also logged in to the same Unison "room." While you're working, you only need to speak out loud to get the attention of everyone else.

No more long phone numbers and PIN numbers.

Here's what Unison co-founder Rurik Bradbury had to say about it:

Conference calls always have some innate level of confusion – dial-in codes, bad connections from people's cellphones, people simply not joining and having no idea who's on. It saps hours from most businesses' lives because it's so pervasive. Unison's a case of everyone logging onto their computer (even in a browser) and hitting 'talk live.'"

Intrigued?

Check out our tour of Unison here >

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A Giant iPhone Will Look Stunning

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5988345/a-giant-iphone-will-look-stunning

If you shut your eyes and listen closely, you'll hear the clop-clop of the inevitable: an iPhone that keeps getting bigger and bigger. And as much as we generally hate phablets, if an iPhone Plus looked like this, we'd melt.

Gizmodo reader Martin Hajek put together these gorgeous renders for Nowhereelese.fr, which imagine the iPhone Plus as a 4.8-inch wonder that eschews a physical home button for a display that clicks at its bottom—a terrific idea on its own, actually. There's barely any bezel, allowing for Biggie Phone that's virtually nothing but screen and lovely iOS. No clutter, not a stylus to be spied, and seamless aluminum in black or grey.

I'll take the latter, because I'm nostalgic for the old rear end of the original iPhone.

The only work that'd remain is figuring out a means of controlling such a big phone, comfortably, with one hand, or retooling the whole device to make better sense with two mitts. As we've agonized over, once you start going beyond four inches, a phone can become hostile to the hand holding it. But if the thing looks like this, we'll have to make concessions. Maybe. But looking great and being great will never be one in the same when it comes to phones. [nowhereelse.fr]

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How Your Smartphone Will Get Lytro-Like Superpowers

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5988341/how-your-smartphone-will-get-lytro+like-superpowers

As neat as they are, the Lytro camera's re-focusing tricks aren't going to convince most of us to replace our highly pocketable cameraphones. So a California company called DigitalOptics has found a way to give us the best of both worlds with a new ultra-thin sensor that promises Lytro-like tricks.

Instead of employing clever 'light field technology' like the Lytro, the Mems|Cam simply snaps a series of photos with varying depth of fields in quick succession, and then combines them all into a single image that allows you to change the focal point afterwards. It's not only a less complicated approach, but the images from the new sensor could be as large as 13 megapixels in size, compared to the Lytro's measly one-megapixel.

It sounds like a win-win development that surprisingly gets even better because the Mems|Cam sensor is created with 'micro-electro-mechanical systems' technology that results in ultra-thin electronics with incredibly low energy consumption. To the point where this new sensor uses about one percent of the energy of a traditional cameraphone sensor, and facilitates handset form factors as thin as five millimeters. At the moment there are no official announcements as to what hardware manufacturer will be adopting the Mems|Cam sensor, but it's already ready to ship and should be appearing in phones later this year. [Digital Trends via PetaPixel]

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Google to monitor unused white space across the US, take us one step closer to spectrum sharing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/04/google-to-monitor-unused-white-space-across-the-us-take-us-one/

One of the biggest hold-ups in the global deployment of LTE and long-range WiFi is a lack of available spectrum. Even when a particular frequency is free and usable for mobile broadband, it's often officially reserved for some other purpose. Google's charitable wing, Google.org, has long claimed that as much as 6 MHz of white space kept aside for TV channels in the US is actually untapped, and now it's going to get a chance to prove the point. The FCC has just granted it a 45-day window in which to run a trial public database (linked below) to keep track of exactly which bits of spectrum are free in which parts of the country.

If all goes well, Google should find itself among up to ten other organizations that are allowed to supervise spectrum sharing -- in other words, allowing mobile devices to temporarily exploit available TV spectrum that isn't being used by the primary holder. Google's ultimate aim, we're told, is simply to "improve connectivity" at a global level. As to whether the other nine names on the FCC's list -- like Microsoft and Ericsson-owned Telcordia -- are equally altruistic, we have absolutely no idea.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Google

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Google.org Official Blog, Google.org's Spectrum Database

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