Wednesday, August 19, 2009

HDMI 1.4 Rocks for Six Reasons, Sucks for Four More [Hdmi]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/X_UkQnD1c-w/hdmi-14-rocks-for-six-reasons-sucks-for-four-more

The new HDMI standard—1.4 to be precise—is pretty excellent, since it has an integrated Ethernet channel, 1080p 3D support and oh yeah, delicious 4K resolution images. But, like we said before, you need all-new everything for it.

TechRadar breaks down everything you need to know about HDMI 1.4 into an easy-to-digest 10-thing listicle. Personally, I'm most excited about the new Micro Connector, since I just love new kinds of cables, though sad I'll have to wait a whole year to buy it. [TechRadar, Image via Sam Catchsides/Flickr]




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World's Biggest Water Pump Under Construction In New Orleans, Would've Been Cooler Four Years Ago [Engineering]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/PpgeALwb4uM/worlds-biggest-water-pump-under-construction-in-new-orleans-wouldve-been-cooler-four-years-ago

The Army Corps of Engineers has broken ground on a serious construction project: a 150,000-gallon-per-second, $500m pumping station charged with keeping the city of New Orleans a little, uh, dryer than it has been in the last few years.

The pump is just a small part of a larger $14bn plan to seal up New Orleans' levees and bolster the city's disaster preparedness, but it's without a doubt the most visually impressive. PopSci's thrown together a couple of diagrams to give us a sense of scale, and trust me, they're necessary—see that little white thing next to the diesel engine? That's a full-sized human being. There aren't a whole lot of companies that make combustion engines that cartoonishly huge, so my money's on something from a company like Wartsila-Sulzer, which makes engines like this to spin the props on ultramassive cargo ships, and conceivably, pumps:

At any rate, the pump is expected to be operational—and NOLA slightly safer—by 2011. More at [PopSci]




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Plasma HDTV Sales Soar, LCD Sales Steady, Sony Loses Ever More Market Share [HDTVs]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/49gdSHBRMxI/plasma-hdtv-sales-soar-lcd-sales-steady-sony-loses-ever-more-market-share

HDGuru has some notes from the now-concluded second quarter HDTV sales, and they show some interesting movement: With dirt-cheap prices, high end plasmas (42"-50") surged almost 40%, though LCD sales merely held steady. The big loser? Sony.

Total plasma sales went up 31% compared to the first quarter, mostly due to the high value attached to them in this economic downturn. In terms of LCDs, Vizio continues its hold as the number 1 maker, and in fact grew their market share, as did Samsung, Toshiba and Panasonic. Sony, unfortunately, lost more than 3% of the market—a huge piece of its share—though the Japanese giant did retain its third place position. Check out HDGuru for more info and analysis of the numbers. [HDGuru]




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Lenovo's Sleek IdeaCentre Q110 Nettop Has Nvidia Ion Graphics [Lenovo]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Sxz0-aCeJkM/lenovos-sleek-ideacentre-q110-nettop-has-nvidia-ion-graphics

After teasing us over Twitter yesterday, Lenovo has now outlined full specs and pricing for its new Q100/Q110 nettops, and D400 Home Server. Both nettops are 0.7-inches thin, and the Q110 has Nvidia Ion graphics with 1080p HDMI output.

The $349 IdeaCentre Q110 has 2GB of memory and a 250GB hard disk, versus the $249 Q100's 1GB RAM and 160GB hard drive. Both use a lowly single-core Atom 230 processor, but I guess they are tiny systems, and Atom is a requirement for Ion.

Each also has Gigabit Ethernet, an 802.11b/g Wi-Fi dongle, and run either XP Home or Vista Premium. No keyboard or mouse is included.

Meanwhile, the IdeaCentre D400 will start at about $499, and support up to 8TB of storage over four hard drives. Specs include an Atom 230 single-core CPU, 1GB memory, Gigabit Ethernet, plus 1eSATA and 5 USB ports.

The company has had a bunch of new gear of late, including the IdeaCentre C100 All-in-One and IdeaCentre Q700 HTPC.




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Asus Tops Apple Again in Reliability Rankings [Reliability]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Vkc_XaA28t4/asus-tops-apple-again-in-reliability-rankings

Asus has held onto its lead over Apple in the second quarter RESCUECOM Consumer Reliability Report, scoring 416 to Apple's result of 394. IBM/Lenovo and Toshiba came in third and fourth, with scores of 394 and 314, respectively.

The report aims to provide unbiased data on big name computers by taking into account both market share and the amount of repair and service calls RESCUECOM had to handle.

"Because ASUS just introduced the newest version of the EEE laptop last fall, the original predicted computer reliability of this laptop has been somewhat up in the air," says David A. Milman, RESCUECOM's founder and CEO.

"However, a good eight months later, we're still receiving the fewest calls for computer repair and support with ASUS, while their market share is increasing, adding the EEE desktop to their line as well, indicating that this PC is continuing to prove itself in terms of computer reliability."

[RESCUECOM Report via PR Newswire]




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