Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Apple's Core i5 / i7 27-inch iMacs now shipping to expectant owners

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/10/apples-core-i5-i7-27-inch-imacs-now-shipping-to-expectant-own/

Lovers of Snow Leopard, oversized IPS display panels, and Intel's very latest processors, your time for rejoicing has come. Apple has begun sending off shipping confirmations to customers who ordered up their slab of quad-core all-in-one nirvana in October, and the biggest and baddest iMacs should be arriving at their new homes imminently. To remind you, the reason for waiting on these units was the 2.66GHz Core i5 750 inside, which comes along with 4GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 4850, and a cool terabyte of storage. We're sure some of the eager new owners couldn't resist upgrading that spec to a 2.8GHz Core i7 860, which we can kind of see the sense in -- after all, an iMac is for life, not just for Christmas. That's how that saying goes, right?

Filed under: Desktops

Apple's Core i5 / i7 27-inch iMacs now shipping to expectant owners originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ricoh GXR now official, generates sample images and early impressions

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/10/ricoh-gxr-now-official-generates-sample-images-and-early-impres/

That Ricoh GXR camera system we saw yesterday has today become official, and dpreview have gotten on the case to provide an early preview and a set of sample images taken with the shooter. The novelty to this new setup is in the so-called lens units, which contain both a lens and an appropriately matched sensor inside a sealed casing. This precludes dust from getting in where it doesn't belong and provides a tailored pairing of optics and electronics. The body, in spite of not doing much -- zoom motors plus aperture and shutter mechanisms are all handled within the lens unit -- is built out of a magnesium alloy, and its major attraction will be a good control scheme allied to excellent ergonomics, according to dpreview. What you're getting then, is a competitor to Micro Four Thirds that's smaller in size, but larger in price. Sounds about right.

Read - Press release
Read - dpreview preview
Read - Sample image galleries
Read - Comparison shots vs. the Panasonic GF1

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Ricoh GXR now official, generates sample images and early impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell's Inspiron Zino HD now official in Ireland and UK

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/10/dells-inspiron-zino-hd-now-official-in-ireland/

The Irish may be a few hours ahead of us Yanks, but that's not stopping us from snooping on their web pages. Dell's long-awaited Inspiron Zino HD has finally popped official over on the outfit's IE portal, and considering that it even made a brief appearance on the US site over the weekend, we're guessing it's only a matter of hours, minutes and / or nanoseconds before the minuscule desktop shows up everywhere. A total of ten interchangeable colors and designs are being offered on the machine (which gets going at €329), not to mention an integrated HDMI socket and an optional Blu-ray drive. Unlike most of the mini PCs out there today, this one actually has a specs list worth drooling over, and if we can figure out how to get a TV tuner in here, we'd say we just might be looking at our next bedroom HTPC. C'mon US admins -- it's not that early in Round Rock.

[Thanks, Andy]

Update: It's now live in the UK! Another market down, a few hundred to go...

Gallery: Dell's Inspiron Zino HD now official in Ireland

Filed under: Desktops

Dell's Inspiron Zino HD now official in Ireland and UK originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel Reader reads books to the lazy and infirm (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/10/intel-reader-reads-books-to-the-lazy-and-infirm-video/

While we're busying ourselves with arguing about how to replace the perfectly usable book gadget, Intel is right to point out that plenty of people, for whatever reason, can't read at all. Presenting its Reader as a necessity rather than luxury, Intel has shown off its vision for how visually impaired and dyslexic people can obtain access to the written word. Combining a text-scanning camera with a text-to-speech engine (powered by an Atom inside) is certainly no bad idea, but as the video beyond the break will show you, Intel's execution isn't exactly stellar. The arrhythmic, robotic reading from Alice In Wonderland left us shaken, but what floored us was the $1,499 asking price. Yes, it's a customized niche device, but we reckon we could build something similar for a third of the price. Full PR and video after the break.

Continue reading Intel Reader reads books to the lazy and infirm (video)

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Handhelds

Intel Reader reads books to the lazy and infirm (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Esquire's Augmented Reality issue goes on sale, and we have video to prove it

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/10/esquires-augmented-reality-issue-goes-on-sale-and-we-have-vide/

The Augmented Reality issue of Esquire has hit the newsstands, and our fears have come true: when this magazine comes in contact with your webcam, Robert Downey Jr. is unleashed! Aside from dangerous levels of the Academy Award-winning actor, however, the video (after the break) really highlights how silly the whole affair is: While AR has been implemented to great effect for a number of different applications, delivering video content that could just as easily been delivered without waving a magazine in front of your computer definitely crosses the line into gimmick territory. Still, the magazine's design team did pull all the stops -- so if you're curious to see what you'd get for your hard-earned dollar, check out that video walkthrough after the break.

Continue reading Esquire's Augmented Reality issue goes on sale, and we have video to prove it

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Esquire's Augmented Reality issue goes on sale, and we have video to prove it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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