Friday, September 19, 2008

ASUS AiGuru SV1 Skype videophone hands-on

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/396834494/

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Sure, it's frumpy, overpriced and rather pointless for anyone who owns a computer with a webcam and knows how to use it, but ASUS and Skype are after the grandma / grandpa / computerphobic set with this here AiGuru SV1 videophone, and aren't doing horrible job of it. The screen is great, the icons are ginormous, and operation couldn't be much simpler. Unfortunately, the video quality is pretty inexcusable for a dedicated box like this: the VGA image is crap, and the framerate is totally weak -- it could've been a problem with the network we were on, but it looked like a straight-up wired router to us. What gives, ASUS?
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Lenovo X200t swivel tablet hands-on

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/396854130/

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We're torn. Lenovo kicks ass in the tablet space, and the X200t is no exception to that rule, but we were hoping for a little more "X200" and a little less traditional Lenovo tablet action. Compared to its straight-up X200 namesake, the X200t is mega heavy, due to a different battery, screen and internals. It's not that it's bad, it's just a letdown compared to the insanely great engineering that Lenovo poured into the X300 and X200. We're also a little miffed that Lenovo hasn't worked out a capacitive touch option yet, though they claim that the X200t's dual-purpose touchscreen has been improved, including a method for switching off touch automatically when the pen is in close proximity to the screen, to allow for some palm resting. They were just showing pen-only units this evening, so we didn't get to test that out. Everything else is traditional love-it-or-hate-it ThinkPad design, quality and touchpad-freeness.
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Lexar's "Shoot-n-Sync" Eye-Fi card in the flesh

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/396899685/

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We know, it's so exciting.
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Thursday, September 18, 2008

Phone Jacks, Be Gone! One In Five May Go Mobile-Only

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=90844&Nid=47414&p=958345

by Mark Walsh, Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 7:00 AM ET
phone jack being cutHard-wired phones may increasingly become a victim of the tightening U.S. economy as consumers look for new ways to cut spending.

A new Nielsen Mobile study indicates that one in five U.S. wireless households could be wireless-only by the end of 2008. Already 20 million households, or 17%, are abandoning land-line phones in favor of mobile ones. That's up from only 8.5% in 2005.

With landline connections costing $40 monthly on average, Nielsen surmises the downturn is likely to turn more consumers into "cord-cutters."

"As wireless network quality improves and unlimited calling becomes increasingly pervasive, we expect the trend toward wireless substitution to continue," said Alison LeBreton, vice president of client services for Nielsen Mobile, in a statement. "In a tightening economy every dollar counts, and consumers are more and more comfortable with the idea of ditching their landline connection."

Underlying that assumption is that the majority of cord-cutters are at the lower end of the economic scale. Nearly 60% have household incomes of $40,000 or less, and 55% are renters rather than homeowners. They also skew younger, with 64% in the 18- to-34-year-old age range.

Not surprisingly, wireless-only adopters use their mobile phones 45% more than wireline subscribers. But they still save an average of $33 a month.

Among the biggest benefactors of the wireless-only migration have been regional service providers such as Cricket and Metro PCS, which began offering fixed-price, unlimited calling plans well before the major carriers joined that trend this year.

But the spread of all-you-can-eat plans will only further encourage people to give up their land lines. Among four the major U.S. carriers, Sprint and T-Mobile are more likely to count cord-cutters among their customers.

Nielsen points out, however, that opting out of traditional phone service doesn't always work out. The study found that 10% of land-line phone users said they were previous cord-cutters who had reconnected. These "cord-menders" came back because they needed the land line for another service, bundled it with other services, or because it was too costly or unsatisfactory to go mobile-only.

Beyond phone lines, what's the next cord to be cut? Nielsen found that wireless-only users are less likely to have satellite TV than average households (16% to 27%) and more likely to have broadcast TV (15% to 12%). They also represent the same demographic that reports watching TV on their PCs.

"Some wireless substitutors may, therefore, also forego the costs of cable or satellite TV by plugging their PC directly into a television to stream video, although the vast majority of all households continue to subscribe to some form of television service," the report concluded.

Mark Walsh can be reached at walsh@mediapost.com

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Turn Gmail into a Tagged Knowledge Base [Gmail]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/394594817/turn-gmail-into-a-tagged-knowledge-base

Blogger and information junkie Steve Rubel details how he uses Gmail as a taggable, searchable knowledge base using previously mentioned tricks and tools like Gmail plus addresses, the Ubiquity Firefox extension, and Gmail Labs Quick Links. It's a fantastic system, not only because it works perfectly with apps you already live in (namely Gmail), but also because you can save and tag an entire web page in a few keystrokes. Likewise, you can access the information quickly and easily with Gmail's excellent search. I recently detailed how you can expand your brain with Evernote, a free, cross-platform note-taking application, but if you live and breath Gmail, Rubel's methods (which improve on similar Gmail solutions we've seen before) are worth a try.


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