Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, January 11, 2008

Microsoft CES fashion show flaunts (some) good looking gear

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/214714614/

Filed under: CES

Not content with Apple's design team running circles around the PC world, Microsoft has created a team dedicated to helping OEM manufacturers make their boxes less beige and boring. Ingredients may include: aluminum, leather, carbon fiber and, uhh, cow fur. Microsoft held a fashion show at CES this year to show off the fruits of the PC world's collective efforts, and luckily betanews was there to nab some shots (like the one above). While we're not quite ready to say we're looking forward to more cow fur laptops, recent PC designs like the XPS One give us hope for the future of the beige box. [Thanks, Shyamal]

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Tuesday, January 08, 2008

TV star publishes bank details in anti-privacy editorial, gets ripped off

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/213014874/tv-star-publishes-ba.html

Jeremy Clarkson, a presenter for Top Gear on British TV, wrote a newspaper editorial that accused privacy activists of being hysterical over giant data-leaks (such as the British government repeatedly losing CDs bearing the financial details for 25 million households). To prove that identity theft wasn't a big deal, he included his bank account details in the article.

Whereupon someone promptly began making fraudulent withdrawals from his account.

Clarkson, 47, writing in his column in the Sunday Times, decried the furore last year after CDs disappeared containing the banking details of 7 million families.
The loss led to fears of mass identity theft with people's bank accounts open to internet scams.
At the time he wrote: "I have never known such a palaver about nothing. The fact is we happily hand over cheques to all sorts of unsavoury people all day long without a moment's thought. We have nothing to fear."
However, yesterday he told readers he had opened his bank statement to find a direct debit had been set up in his name and £500 taken out of his account.
"The bank cannot find out who did this because of the Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again," he said. "I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake."

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(Image: crop from Books, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike photo from William Hook's Flickr stream)

Panasonic 150-Inch Plasma Next To That Tiny 103-Incher From Last Year [Big Tv Watch]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/212953404/panasonic-150+inch-plasma-next-to-that-tiny-103+incher-from-last-year

Want some perspective on that Panasonic 150-inch plasma display? Here it is with a human standing next to it, flanked by Panasonic's largest TV shown at past CESes, a 103-incher. So if you like your TVs as big as a queen-sized bed and capable of displaying an elephant in actual size, you may now begin your five-year wait for it to become available, if you can save your money fast enough. UPDATE: video here and a bonus elephant pic on the next page!

Maybe someone really would want an elephant in the living room. Well, now it's perhaps someday kinda almost possible, in the fantasy world of Panasonic's gigantic CES plasma displays!

Mitsubishi Laser TV's Colors Look Even Juicier Than the Girls on the Set [HDTVs]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/213083195/mitsubishi-laser-tvs-colors-look-even-juicier-than-the-girls-on-the-set

Mitsubishi put together quite a spectacle to introduce its Laser TV last night at the Moon Nightclub at The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, unveiling a 65-inch rear-projection set that uses a unique laser backlight. The result is some of the most vivid color we've ever seen on any TV, especially the primary colors of red, green and blue. The blacks were midnight-dark, too, and there was even a 3D version of the TV (goofy glasses required) that only made us slightly cross-eyed. Mits officials said to look for the TV to appear on the market "later this year" at an undisclosed price, and added that it will cost about the same as flat panel TVs of the same size. On the next page, let's explore how this laser backlight works and gawk at a slightly NSFW gallery.

When pressed for details, they kept repeating their mantra about laser being the "purest light source," but from what we could see, we think it must have something to do with hot-looking dancing girls, frickin' lasers, smoke and maybe even mirrors. We were taking shots of the TVs, but all these women kept getting in our way. Oh, well.

Mitsubishi laser TV unveiled

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/213019999/

Filed under: CES, Features

Tonight at the Moon Room on the top floor of the The Palms Hotel & Casino overlooking Las Vegas, Mitsubishi unveiled its laser HDTV. As expected, Mitsubishi kicked off the event with a few execs expressing their love for lasers -- and Mitsubishi in general. They explained that Mitsubishi is a leader in laser technology and owns 75% of the led laser market, so bringing them together with big screen TVs made perfect sense. Then the event went from execs to night club as the curtain was dropped and there were three 65-inch laser HDTVs on display. At first glance the colors were sensational and the contrast was extremely intense; and although we were hard pressed to see anything that struck us as groundbreaking, we'll need to see this side by side with a traditional set to really know what we're looking at. Unfortunately, the event was short on details, such as price or availability, but during 2008 is the time frame Mitsubishi is aiming for.

Gallery: Mitsubishi laser TV unveiled