Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Acer Liquid mixes Snapdragon and Android 1.6 'donut' for a movable feast

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/14/acer-liquid-mixes-snapdragon-and-android-1-6-donut-for-a-movab/

Hey, what do you know, Acer just kicked out its first Android handset into the mystical kingdom of donuts and Snapdragons. Liquid, a rebranded (and slightly restyled) A1, brings a 800 x 480 WVGA capacitive touchscreen upon which you'll watch Android 1.6 ride that peppy Snapdragon processor. It's resumably tuned to 1GHz (or higher) and not 768MHz as listed on the eXpansys Germany spec-sheet -- a trick that'll make this the fastest Android handset on the planet. Of course, what would Android be without some tweaking? Acer promises a bevy of unique features such as improved power management, a new UI with tight entertainment and web integration, geo-tagging, a "Spinlets" application for access to streaming video and music, and full address book integration with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and other social media houses. Unfortunately, that's all the detail that Acer's willing to spill at the moment; dates, real specs, and prices when we get 'em.

[Via ElectricPig and SlashGear]

Filed under: Cellphones

Acer Liquid mixes Snapdragon and Android 1.6 'donut' for a movable feast originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Dell Mini 9 modded into an internet tablet

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/14/dell-mini-9-modded-into-an-internet-tablet/

MyDellMini forum member Rob928, take a bow. This honorable gentleman has only gone and transformed an aging 9-inch netbook into a new-fashioned internet tablet. it might still be a chubby little thing, but there's no denying the usefulness of using the entire screen to navigate instead of the usually cramped netbook touchpad. With a 16GB SSD upgrade alongside the venerable Atom N270 and 1GB of RAM, this device will even boot faster into Windows than your run-of-the-mill netbook. The read link will reveal all, including more shots of the hardware laid bare.

[Via SlashGear]

Gallery: Dell Mini 9 modded into an internet tablet

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Dell Mini 9 modded into an internet tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Sun FlashFire's record-breaking storage performance will make network admins giddy

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/14/sun-flashfires-record-breaking-storage-performance-will-make-ne/

Sun's FlashFire's record-breaking storage performance will make network admins giddy

Most businesses look for a good mix between value and performance for the hardware they lock in the server closet, the majority of those leaning toward the "value" side of the equation. However, for those companies that dodged the economic downturn entirely and want only the best, there's the FlashFire storage array from Sun. It's 2TB of rackmountable bits able to perform 1.6 million read and 1.2 million write operations per second, with a sustained throughput of 12.8GB/sec. Sun says these are records, and we can't find anything to refute them, the closest being the RamSan-440 from Texas Memory Systems, offering an (until very recently) impressive 600,000 I/O operations per second with a 4.5GB/sec throughput. TMS, it's been brought.

Filed under: Storage, Networking

Sun FlashFire's record-breaking storage performance will make network admins giddy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Barnes & Noble twin-screen e-reader revealed early?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/14/barnes-and-noble-twin-screen-e-reader-revealed-early/

At this point, there's little doubt that Barnes & Noble will soon be joining the e-reader game. We've heard whispers through the grapevine, seen FCC documentation and now, renders of what the thing might actually look like. With October 20th rapidly approaching, Gizmodo has secured images that it claims are of the forthcoming device -- and the design certainly jibes with recent happenings. If you'll recall, a B&N-badged representative recently noted that an e-book reader with its logo on it was on track for a Spring 2010 release, and by golly, it would sport a color display. Plastic Logic later stepped forward to deny the claim, but if these images are legit, both parties might actually be correct; the dual-panel device would boast a traditional e-ink display up top with a multitouch panel beneath, the latter of which would undoubtedly lead to all sorts of shenanigans. So, is it Tuesday yet, or what?

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

Barnes & Noble twin-screen e-reader revealed early? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

JVC SP-FT is a drool-inducing, 31mm thin home theater speaker system

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/14/jvc-sp-ft-is-a-drool-inducing-31mm-thin-home-theater-speaker-sy/

We know, life's tough. You want to buy the latest ultraslim HDTV, but find that your home theater speakers will look monstrously bulky sitting alongside it. JVC wouldn't want to cause you such headaches, which is why it's trotted out the above pair of 31mm thin speaker satelittes -- known as the SP-FT1 in black and SP-FT2 in their white garb -- and the AX-FT amplifier squeezed in between them. While you should probably not expect Telos 5000-like output, the amp will deliver 80W of total output over 4 independent channels, and has support for Dolby Digital, DTS and AAC formats. Prices are expected to be around ¥24,000 ($267) for the amp and ¥20,000 ($223) for the speakers when their black iterations hit Japan later this month, with the willowy white option showing up in November.

Gallery: JVC SP-FT and AX-FT