Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook: 6/22/08 - 6/29/08

Friday, June 27, 2008

Ethnic Kettle

Source: http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2008/06/ethnic-kettle.html

Have you ever tasted the Kettle chips?
The renowned US brand has recently launched a new ethnic line with an impressive packaging: white flow pack dressed with a colorful band printed on kraft paper.
The final result is eye capturing and the band can be used again for several uses...for example as a crown, making yourself feel like an Indian king.

Digit Kettle in Flickr an you'll find many examples!

ATI Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 reviewed: all that and a bag of RV770 chips

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319608375/

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

If you haven't heard of AMD's new RV770 graphics processor then you either haven't been paying attention or are simply too set in your ways to start calculating your GPU's performance using a 1.0 TFLOP base unit. For the rest, we bring you all the reviews that on-line advertising can buy in the link round-up below. We'll give HotHardware the honor of summarizing the performance of the sub-$200 Radeon HD 4850 and $299-ish 4870: "it appears AMD is back in the graphics game versus rival NVIDIA." Now put on your propeller caps and start clicking.

Read -- Hot Hardware
Read -- PC Perspective
Read -- Hardware Canucks (HD 4870 only)
Read -- AnandTech
Read -- TweakTown (4870 in Crossfire)

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VIZIO intros XVT Series of 1080p LCDs / plasmas

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319665552/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Well, what have we here? A trio of newcomers from "North America's fastest growing brand of flat-panel HDTVs," that's what. Kicking things off in the all new XVT Series is the 42-inch SV420XVT and 47-inch SV47XVT LCD HDTVs, both of which feature 1080p panels, VIZIO's Smooth Motion technology (120Hz), a 6,500:1 contrast ratio and the usual complement of ports including four HDMI 1.3 sockets. Next up we've got the 50-inch VP505XVT, a 1080p plasma with Silicon Optix's famed REON HQV processing engine. Furthermore, this one packs an integrated digital TV tuner (with ClearQAM support), a dynamic contrast ratio of 30,000:1 and SRS Labs' TruSurround XT audio processing technology. The new trio is all set to ship next month for $1,499.99, $1,899.99 and $1,699.99, and of course, you'll find 'em perched at Circuit City, Sears and your favorite Club retailer. [Warning: PDF read link]

Gallery: VIZIO intros XVT Series of 1080p LCDs / plasmas

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MyVu Crystal a worthy travel companion, available now

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319665554/

Filed under: Displays, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Surely you remember Veronica Belmont posing with the MyVu Crystal / Shades at CES earlier this year? Yeah, the former unit is finally available to order for the three people in attendance who care, and better still, a recent review by PC World asserts that this thing actually isn't a half bad travel companion. Imagery was said to be "crystal-clear" (har) and battery life was more than reasonable, but look, even the reviewer admitted that he "wouldn't be caught walking down the street" with 'em on. Purchase accordingly.

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Varioptic liquid lenses now shipping in SnakeCam webcam

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319902114/

Filed under: Digital Cameras

We've been hearing about how Varioptic's liquid camera lenses would revolutionize cellphones for a while now, so it's a little bit surprising to see the oil-and-water optics pop up in Akkord Electronics' el cheapo SnakeCam webcams first. The 1.3 megapixel S1300 and 2.0 megapixel S2000 cams feature a Varioptic Arctic 416 lens, as well as bendy mount, built-in microphone, and CMOS sensor, and will sell for just $20 per unit -- but we'd imagine that whoever ends up rebranding these will mark that up a bit.

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More details and press shots of ASUS Eee Box

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/320132114/

Filed under: Desktops

In typical ASUS style, it utterly failed in dishing out a nice gallery of press shots to go along with the official unveiling of the Atom-powered Eee Box. Nevertheless, those photographs you've been hankering for have finally appeared, with luscious high-resolution angles of the white, black and "red" Eee Box. For the whole gallery along with a few informational pages on how this miniature PC is guaranteed to revolutionize the way you compute, give the read link down there a little love.

[Thanks, Sascha]

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AMD smells a comeback with ATI All-in-Wonder HD

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/320226454/

And you thought Microsoft bringing back the SideWinder was gnarly. Announced today, AMD is resurrecting the long-standing AIW line with its first-ever high-definition variant: the $199 ATI All-in-Wonder HD. The PCI Express 2.0 card attempts to handle both PC gaming and HDTV duties by boasting specs like DirectX 10.1 support, a 725MHz engine clock, 600MHz memory clock and MPEG2 / VC-1 / H.264 video decoder acceleration. You'll also find Vista and AMD LIVE! certification badges to go along with the dual-link DVI port, HDMI jack (which supports 5.1 Dolby Digital transmission) and optional component video connectivity. As expected, users can capture live programs (as well as pause / rewind) in SD or HD over-the-air, and there's even support for ClearQAM. For those looking to take their clips elsewhere, the bundled Avivo software converts it for viewing on some of today's most popular handhelds (yes, including the iPod). Look for models from Diamond Multimedia and VisionTek to hit retailers in North America late next month. Full release after the jump.

Gallery: AMD smells a comeback with ATI All-in-Wonder HD

Continue reading AMD smells a comeback with ATI All-in-Wonder HD

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

A-DATA Turbo Series CF 350X Is the World's Fastest Compact Flash Card [A-Data]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/319194255/a+data-turbo-series-cf-350x-is-the-worlds-fastest-compact-flash-card

A-DATA's Turbo Series CF card is 350X, which gets you a 52MB/sec read and 47MB/sec write, and comes in 8 and 16GB sizes. It's the fastest Compact Flash card in the world, which is made out of Single-Level-Cell (SLC) flash memory, and has dual-channel support.
[A-Data]

Dynamic Tower Skyscraper: Every Floor Self-Rotates, Powered by Wind and Sun [Buildings]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/319357117/dynamic-tower-skyscraper-every-floor-self+rotates-powered-by-wind-and-sun

Italian architect David Fisher is building his first skyscraper, the Dynamic Tower, and it happens to be one of the most ambitious construction plans since the Pyramid of Khufu. Every floor of the 80-story self-powered building rotates according to voice command, and nearly the entire construction of the $700 million structure is pre-made. I caught up with the architect in New York, and he blew my mind again and again.

Fisher was inspired to design the Dynamic Tower during a visit to a friend's top-floor Midtown Manhattan apartment. "I had a view of the Hudson River and East River at the same time, it was beautiful and I wanted to make that feeling accessible to more people." He loves the idea of seeing the sun rise and set in the same room, and considers the building to be four-dimensional. "Time is always changing the shape of the building," he told me.

The rotation takes up to 3 hours (so you're not always spilling your coffee), and gets power from photovoltaic solar cells and 79 wind turbines, one located between each floor. The system is meant to create enough energy to power to the entire tower and still have juice to spare for some surrounding buildings. According to Fisher, two of these $700 million futuristic scrapers are planned so far, one each in Dubai and Moscow. They will be built using a truly radical technique.

Construction on the Dynamic Tower will be unlike anything that preceded it. The only part of the tower built on site will be the skinny center core. It is strong enough to hold the floors in place, and will contain the building's elevators, which transport people and cars right to their door. Each floor will be made piece by piece in a factory in Italy—a throwback to Fisher's previous life in prefabricated bathroom design—and placed onto the core using a lift system. With this metho! d, each story is completed in about six days. By comparison, traditional ground-up methods can take six weeks per floor.

Groundbreaking for Dynamic Towers in Dubai and Moscow is expected to happen in the fall, with construction reaching completion by the end of 2010. If you're game—and very, very loaded—you can sign up now for a villa or office space. The going rate is $3000/sq foot. [Dynamic Architecture]

Lightning Review: T-Mobile's @Home VoIP Phone Line [Review]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/319416472/lightning-review-t+mobiles-home-voip-phone-line

The Gadget: T-Mobile @Home, a phone service for T-Mobile customers hooks your standard home telephone over the internet to make unlimited nationwide calls for just $10 a month on top of your current wireless bill. It's similar to the Hotspot@Home service which uses a cellphone for home calls, but only for home phones.

The Price: $10 a month with 2-year contract provided you have a qualifying T-Mobile plan ($39.99 standard plan or $49.99 FamilyTime plan), plus $49 for the T-Mobile @Home HiPort Linksys Wireless Router. There's also a VTech cordless phone you can purchase from them for $59.99, or you can just use your own.

The Verdict: Fantastic. Over our Comcast cable internet connection, voice quality was super clear and the people we talked to all said it sounded like we were talking on a landline. Delay—what little of it there was—was on par with a regular landline.

Setup was easy, and you can use the Linksys router in place of your current one, or on your network behind your existing router. There are two SIM slots in it for two lines (only one is active by default), and contains E911 information. All in all, it's a very good alternative to getting a separate landline if you already have T-Mobile cellphone service, and at $10 it's next to free. The only downside is that it still doesn't work with fax, but their engineers are working on it. [T-Mobile]

Panasonic working on 37-inch OLED TV? They'd better be.

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/318712817/

Filed under: Displays

No, really... more rumors of Panasonic shifting R&D yen into OLED televisions? Oh you betcha, albeit this time with the specifics of a 37-inch OLED targeted for a retail launch in the next three years. Japanese newspaper, Sankei Shimbu, is reporting that the OLED panels will be produced on a parallel assembly line at Panasonic's new IPS Alpha factory. Without offering any specifics, Panny did have the decency to confirm that it's working on OLED technology -- something we already knew about. With consumers and editors alike awestruck by OLED display technology and Sony and Samsung already official committed to delivering medium to large panels in 2009/2010, only the chatter of Panasonic not pursuing OLED as a future panel technology would surprise us.

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Ricoh's 12 megapixel GX200 for the undecided

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/318786817/

Filed under: Digital Cameras

So long GX100, hello GX200 and your new 1/1.7-inch 12 megapixel CCD sensor. Ricoh's bridge between point-and-shoot cameras and DSLRs also features new Smooth Image Engine III processing to better control noise, a larger 2.7-inch LCD, and a 5fps continuous RAW shooting mode. The 24 to 72-mm (35mm equiv) wide-angle lens, SDHC slot, RAW image support, thin 25-mm chassis, and removable tilting electronic viewﬁnder all carry over from the predecessor. Available next month for £350 (about $689) or £400 (about $788) if you find that viewfinder a must.

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JVC's 42-inch LT-42SL89 / 46-inch LT-46SL89 LCD HDTVs nab July ship date

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/318868238/

Filed under: Displays

Dust those cobwebs out and strain that memory, won't you? Surely you haven't forgotten about JVC's pair of "world's thinnest" LCD HDTVs; after all, they were just announced at CES. Whatever the case, the 42-inch LT-42SL89 and 46-inch LT-46SL89 HDTVs are both proud members of the outfit's Procision series and boast a cabinet that "across most of its width measures a mere 1.5-inches, with a maximum depth of just 2.9-inches at the panel's center." Of course, each set also includes a TV tuner, three HDMI inputs, two component jacks and one S-Video / VGA port to complement the USB picture viewer, illuminated remote and touch-sensitive buttons on the front panel. Both super-slim units will hit retail stores next month for $1,899.99 and $2,399.99, respectively.

[Via FarEastGizmos]

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Orange's Dance Charge finally makes dance meaningful

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/318868237/

Filed under: Wearables

It's summer, that means music festival time for the pagans. Orange knows this and returns with another solution to keep your Glastonbury-bound portable electronics charged. Revelers will get the chance to try this prototype Dance Charge kinetic charger. Right, kinetic as in movement. With an assist by eco-house GotWind, the 4.25 x 2.5-inch / 180-gram velcro and elastic band converts your chemically-fueled, backbeat twitches into electrical current with the help of a system of weights and magnets. This in turn charges an embedded battery for topping off your portable electronics throughout the multi-day event. Add EL lighting effects and you've got yourselves a trend Orange.

[Via RegHardware]

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CoAir: world's first UWB chipset with wireless, coax and gigabit Ethernet

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/318892272/

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Wireless, Networking

Sigma Designs has been dabbling in wireless HD technologies for eons, so we aren't going to get too excited until we see this here system-on-chip (SoC) actually hit some products that we care about. Still, the CoAir is a fairly sweet concept, wrapping integrated wireless, coax and gigabit Ethernet capabilities into one single chip aimed at whole home networking. Put simply (or as simply as possible), this chip is the world's first to "simultaneously deliver multiple independent streams of video and data over coax cable, Ethernet cable and wirelessly without compromising quality of service and throughput." Based on the WiMedia standard, it can reach speeds of up to 480Mbps with UWB (ultra-wideband) wireless streaming, and room-to-room linkage via UWB-over-coax can peg those same rates. What we have here is a great basis for building a whole home server on, but until said device emerges and performs flawlessly, we'll just smile and carry on.

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Samsung to release T-DMB-packin' YP-P2 in South Korea

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/318929728/

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

When we asked you to list the things you'd change about Samsung's YP-P2, a number of you yearned for mobile TV. Granted, you'd have to set up shop in South Korea for your dream to be fully fulfilled, but Samsung's definitely making it possible. The YP-P2 DMB will arrive packing an obligatory T-DMB mobile TV tuner for youngsters and hipsters alike to find their favorite program when those hundreds of albums grow stale. We're hearing that the unit will feature a 3-inch touchscreen along with Bluetooth 2.0 and your choice of black or white motifs. Price wise, you'll be laying down ₩239,000 ($231), ₩309,000 ($299) or ₩389,000 ($377) for the 4GB, 8GB or 16GB version.

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Daewoo Lucoms hops in low-cost laptop game with Lukid

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/318978490/

Filed under: Laptops

Daewoo Lucoms is no stranger to building smallish computers, but it seems to have taken a few obvious design cues from Intel's 2go PC when crafting its own Lukid. According to the firm's site, this kid-friendly PC includes a 900MHz Celeron M ULV processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 9-inch display, 30GB hard drive and Windows XP Home Edition. There's also two USB jacks, audio in / out, WiFi, Ethernet and a rather unsightly (though quite useful, we imagine) carry handle. Expect this one to land in South Korea for around ₩549,000 ($531), though we haven't heard a peep in regard to availability elsewhere in the world.

[Via AVING]

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DARPA's Vulcan engine combines turbo jet with scramjet, faces will melt

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319038699/

Filed under: Transportation

DARPA vulcan

When you're building a jet that exponentially accelerates past Mach 6 -- as one does -- you need to come up with a way to get it off the ground. Scramjets, or Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) engines, use compressed air and a reduced nozzle to accelerate planes, and they're a hot technology in aviation. Problem is, you have to get them to Mach 4 before the magic happens. Traditionally, scramjet tests have involved strapping the craft to supersonic jets to get the jet up to speed -- not a very cost-effective solution. DARPA has come up with a hybrid engine design called Vulcan that can power a craft like the Falcon HTV-3X to the magical point with a turbo jet and then switch to the CVC to get the craft to the promised land. They expect to have a working prototype by 2012. Check the concept video after the break.

Continue reading DARPA's Vulcan engine combines turbo jet with scramjet, faces will melt

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Intel's 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme Mobile X9000 gets tested

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319146652/

Filed under: Laptops

Who says you need a desktop chip packed within a 3-inch thick, 15-pound beast of a "laptop" to get decent FPS while at a LAN party? Intel's speedy Core 2 Extreme Mobile X9000 checks in at 2.8GHz (prior to overclocking, of course), and promises to punish today's latest games while sipping less power and generating less heat than the aforementioned alternatives. The gurus over at HotHardware were able to sit down with said chip and put it to the test; overall, the Mobile X9000 "proved itself to be as fast as its desktop counterparts in many scenarios, all the while consuming less power as a complete system in the Dell XPS M730 notebook testbed." If you're the type that gets all hot and bothered by benchmarks and graphs, there's plenty of those in the read link below.

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Nokia dishes out OS2008 Feature Upgrade for N810 / N800

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319146649/

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

The first official OS2008 update came to Nokia's internet tablets late last year, and those yearning for yet another can finally breath a sigh of relief. Reportedly, the company has pushed out the OS2008 Feature Upgrade for the N810 and N800, but we are told that users will still need to "reflash the device in order to install this release." Thankfully, future OS updates are slated to be provided over-the-air without the need to reflash. The changelog is actually quite lengthy, but the highlights include an open source email application based on Modest and the tinymail framework, simplified account setup and the introduction of Chinese character rendering support in email, browser and RSS feeds. Let us know how it goes, will ya?

[Image courtesy of Seartipy, thanks Ryan]

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Mitsubishi's LaserVue 65-inch and 75-inchers due this fall

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/319397586/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

We got a first glimpse of Mitsubishi's brand new rear-projection-ish laser-based TV tech, LaserVue, back at CES, but now the sets are just about primed for action, and should be hitting store shelves, as previously noted, Q3 2008. LaserVue will debut in 65-inch and 73-inch, with the 65-inch version hitting the scene first. Mitsubishi is still pretty coy about what exactly makes the technology tick -- other than the "zomg, lasers" aspect -- but is quick to point out the 200 percent color gamut that LaserVue provides, more than twice that of most traditional HDTVs. The sets also run at 120Hz, and boast 500 nits of brightness. Head to head against LCD and plasma sets we had trouble finding the differences, other than the color depth (particularly in the reds, almost too much so, though we're sure you can tweak that). Have no fear: the blacks are black, the brights are bright, and the viewing angle puts DLP to shame. That said, we're hearing price points are going to be more comparable to plasma and LCD than DLP, so Mitsubishi might have its work cut out for it in convincing consumers that these new "chubby," 10-inch thick TVs are the way to go. We're not entirely convinced ourselves, though one aspect can't be disputed: LaserVue draws under 200 watts, about half that of LCD and a third of plasma.

Gallery: Mitsubishi's LaserVue 65-inch and 75-inchers due this fall

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Monday, June 23, 2008

CNRS learns to control nanoscale strain in CPUs, heads to Jedi training

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/317745139/

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

We've always heard that Chewbacca and friends had the power to control nanoscale strain in processors in a galaxy far, far away, but we Earthlings are just now getting caught up. Researchers at the Centre d'élaboration de matériaux et d'études structurales (CEMES-CNRS) have reportedly patented a measurement device that will essentially "enable manufacturers to improve microprocessor production methods and optimize future computers." We'll warn you, the meat of this stuff is pretty technical, but the take home is this: the technique has a good chance at "optimizing strain modeling in transistors and enhancing their electrical efficiency," which is just what we need for more potent chips that demand less energy. And that's something even a layman can appreciate.

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Firefox 3.0 USB Lets You Take Your Browser Everywhere [Firefox]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/317728165/firefox-30-usb-lets-you-take-your-browser-everywhere

Those of you need Firefox 3 on the go can now get a portable USB edition of the browser from PortableApps.com. The download lets you launch Firefox from your USB and lets you bring all your extensions and bookmarks with you while making sure that the computer you're using doesn't end up saving your info. The file is 8MB and free (though, as with all open source stuff, I'm sure the folks at PortableApps would love it if you threw them a few bucks). [Portable Apps]

Researcher crafts tattoo / scar matching system to nab outlaws

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/317405431/

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Passports and licenses are so last century -- these days, sophisticated crooks can change their identity on a whim, and one particular Michigan State University researcher is looking to stay one step ahead. Anil Jain has created an automatic image retrieval system dubbed Tattoo-ID, which "includes an annotated database containing images of scars, marks and tattoos" that is "linked to the criminal history records of all the suspects and convicts who have a tattoo." Essentially, the application will give law enforcement the ability to query on permanent skin markings, which sure beats manually flipping through ginormous books of images just hoping for a match. Reportedly, Jain and his team are continuing to improve the system, but there's been no word on how long it'll take before implementation can begin. Better stay on the straight and narrow, ~~Zune Guy~~ Microsoft Zune.

[Via TG Daily]

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