Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, October 23, 2008

DroboApps Make Your Drobo Smarter and More Useful [Storage]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/428061981/droboapps-make-your-drobo-smarter-and-more-useful

If you have a Drobo, the storage robot that takes care of your hard drives so you don't have to worry about reliability—or so they say—you will be interested in the new applications for the platform. Called DroboApps, they will convert your Drobo into a web server, an iTunes media server, a BitTorrent client, or an FTP server. [Drobo via CrunchGear]

Super Skinny OLED Display Is Thinner Than a Sheet of Paper [Oled]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/428084965/super-skinny-oled-display-is-thinner-than-a-sheet-of-paper

If you thought OLEDs were thin already, researchers at the Universal Display Corporation (whose factory we visited last year) have made a flexible display that's positively anorexic. The ultra-thin metal foil screen is less than 50 micrometers thin, which means it's even thinner than a sheet of A4 paper. The UDC folks also claimed that their new invention exceeds the industrial target of 1,000 hours and the lifetime of conventionally sealed glass packaged OLEDs.

The researchers said they were able to get better lifetime ratings after identifying a flexible, highly impermeable barrier layer, which helps keep the OLED screen from degrading because of oxygen and water. Flexible, amazingly thin and with a very decent lifespan? It sounds like we're two steps closer to handing out Young Lady's Illustrated Primers. [AVS Symposium via Slashgear]

Stantum "True Multitouch" Lets You Use ALL Your Fingers [Multitouch]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/428172906/stantum-true-multitouch-lets-you-use-all-your-fingers

In case the two-finger multitouch seen on the new Macbook Pro and Fujitsu's upcoming notebook wasn't enough for you, French tech company Stantum recently showed off a ten-finger technology that it's calling "true multitouch." On Stantum's 15.4-inch screen, you can use as many points as you want to control the screen. Judging by the smears in the picture, a lot of people found that appealing and took advantage of their chance to feel the new technology up. [Electric Pig]

T-Mobile G1 now available

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/428210959/

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Now that T-Mobile's systematic discrimination against non-T-Mobile customers (how dare they?) has come to an end, we can all exhale, pull out our credit cards and get to maxin' out the plastic. That's right -- the Android-powered G1 is now available for sale from T-Mob's website to all comers, though we're only seeing the black and bronze models listed at the moment and both are tagged with an ominous "extremely limited availability" label which tells us they probably won't be there long. $179.99's the price on two-year contract, and if they do sell out online, don't sweat it just yet -- sweep your local stores today.

[Thanks, Elisha]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

ASUS Eee PC S101 hands-on

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/427853012/

Filed under: Laptops

Confession: we love, love slim laptops. Air, Envy, X300, slips of copier paper with "laptop" written on them... anything decently under that magical 1-inch thick mark has a special place in our hearts. And then there's the Eee PC S101. Don't get us wrong, we really like this little netbook. It's slim, light, solidly built, not entirely gaudy and comes with quite the pedigree, but we're having trouble choking down that $699 pricetag for what's still ostensibly a "second" computer. Here's the way we see it: this new, wonderful 0.75-inch thick form factor can't just be a random noodling by ASUS, we're expecting all sorts of trickle down to other models in the future -- except there's really no place to trickle down on the specs. Perhaps they could drop the Bluetooth, or the "n" spec from the WiFi, but at the end of the day 1GB of RAM and an Atom processor are pretty baseline for netbooks, and we expect something exactly delicious as this netbook from ASUS or elsewhere before the glossy paint is dry on the S101 -- or at least a built-in 3G option in a few weeks to make this thing obsolete. Our other big gripe is with the keyboard. The keys are good-sized and rather tactile for a netbook, but they could certainly be better, and the right shift key is inexplicably on the far side of the up arrow key -- basically unreachable by our mortal pinkie. It makes zero sense from a typing standpoint, and since we tend to over-rely on the right shift key out of bad Mavis Beacon-induced typing habits, we're not stoked about ASUS's choice here. Otherwise there's a nice collection of ports, a great (multi-touch) touchpad, a wonderful matte screen and that pesky hole in our wallet where all our cash used to be.

Gallery: ASUS Eee PC S101 hands-on