Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, April 12, 2010

WePad comes out of tablet hiding, reveals its â¬450 price and August availability

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/12/wepad-comes-out-of-tablet-hiding-reveals-its-450-price-and-aug/

There's no I in pad. Only we, of course. Yeah, we've been wanting to make that joke for awhile -- but in all seriousness, Neofonie, makers of the 11.6-inch WePad, held a press conference in Berlin today to reveal a bit more about its Linux-based slate. According to our German counterparts there will be two versions of the Intel Atom N450-powered tablet, which has two USB ports and an onboard webcam -- the 16GB / WiFi version will go for €450 and the 64GB / HD capable model for €569. We're a bit intrigued by the promised "full HD" support of the larger version, but Neofonie was quick to say that there is no NVIDIA inside. Hmm... Broadcom's Crystal HD, perhaps? The company wasn't willing to let reporters play with the early build of the multitouch device, but they did show off some videos of the Linux interface. You can watch a few after the break, but the live widget-based GUI looks extremely attractive and amongst other things, the browser supports Flash. It sort of hurts that we won't be able to get our hands on one until August, but we're happy to hear that the company, unlike some others, is taking the time to get things right.

Continue reading WePad comes out of tablet hiding, reveals its €450 price and August availability

WePad comes out of tablet hiding, reveals its €450 price and August availability originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp's Doin' A 3DTV Now Too [3dTv]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5514913/sharps-doin-a-3dtv-now-too

Sharp's Doin' A 3DTV Now Too Sharp looked kind of foolish at CES when all their rivals announced 3DTV sets...and they had only discovered the color yellow. Playing catch-up, they've unsurprisingly announced they're working on 3DTVs for a Japanese launch this summer.

Other countries will follow after the Japanese retail launch, providing their RGBY sets go down well over there. Basically, those yellow TVs they showed off at CES have been converted with 3D tech, and will apparently have less "crosstalk" and brighter colors. We'll see Sharp, we'll see. [Akihabara News via CrunchGear]

Entelligence: What can Courier teach the market?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/11/entelligence-what-can-courier-teach-the-market/

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

A few months ago, some videos leaked from Microsoft showed a book-like device with two touch screens and a stylus. The user is seen researching, creating and designing content in a manner that looks both intuitive and innovative. Called Courier, the product doesn't (yet) exist beyond the conceptual videos, but it shows Microsoft is thinking in some new ways. Ross Rubin discussed Courier's role for creative professionals last week but I think there's even more at stake here -- I think the concept shows computing models are evolving. Here's what Courier represents to the market:

The pen isn't dead. The pen's been searching for a place in computing for more than a decade. We've seen experiments in all different types of pen computing from the PC to the PDA and the phone. They've all pretty much failed, and today's hot commodity is capacitive touch. Microsoft's Courier video shows how the pen can play a prominent role in the evolution of computing interfaces. While fingers are great for many things, there are tasks better served by the ability to manipulate at the pixel level. Handwriting and the ability to take written notes is one of them. Content creation and painting is another. It's clear Microsoft knows all this -- in addition to Courier, there's the Deskterity project that melds pen and touch on Surface.

Continue reading Entelligence: What can Courier teach the market?

Entelligence: What can Courier teach the market? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seagate teams with Paramount, pre-loads movies onto 500GB FreeAgent Go

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/12/seagate-teams-with-paramount-pre-loads-movies-onto-500gb-freeag/

Another fine day in paradise, another fine external hard drive for archivists to consider. Seagate has just announced its latest FreeAgent Go USB 2.0 drive, a pocket-sized external HDD with a 2.5-inch 500GB disc in there ready to be stuffed with your favorite blurred images and shakycam videos from the decade that was... except for the 20GB or so that's already claimed. In a move that may or may not be indicative of forward progress in the fight to free digital content, Seagate has partnered with Paramount Pictures in order to pre-load these drives with Star Trek (yes, the 2009 version), which can be unlocked gratis and shuffled about as you please after you register the drive. Additionally, 20 other titles are pre-loaded, and those guys can be "easily and securely unlocked through the online purchase of a license key," with pricing ranging from $9.99 to $14.99 per film. We had an opportunity to fire up Star Trek, and we must say -- the whole unlocking process was pretty painless on a Windows 7 rig. We didn't splurge on a ~~third~~ ninth copy of Nacho Libre, but we're pretty sure that masterpiece would be similarly easy to tap into. Oh, and if you'd rather just have free space rather than movies you already own / couldn't care less about, the delete command works wonders.

Gallery: Seagate FreeAgent Go tag-teams with Paramount

Continue reading Seagate teams with Paramount, pre-loads movies onto 500GB FreeAgent Go

Seagate teams with Paramount, pre-loads movies onto 500GB FreeAgent Go originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung i8910 HD runs 62 apps at once, multitaskers bow their heads

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/12/samsung-i8910-hd-runs-62-apps-at-once-multitaskers-bow-their-he/

While iPhone 3G owners and would-be Windows Phone 7 buyers sit in the corner, quietly weeping over their lack of true multitasking, webOS and Symbian continue to point and laugh. In mid-January, a Palm Pre Plus was seen cackling with joy over its rivals' misfortune even as the device staggered under the weight of 50 simultaneous applications, and less than a week later, a Samsung Omnia HD performed the very same feat, despite having only half the Pre Plus' RAM (i.e. 256MB) to work with. Now, in what we can only interpret as a large middle finger and "come here" gesture to all who aspire to the cell phone multitasking heavyweight title, we have a video of the i8910 running no less than sixty-two applications thanks to a custom ROM by HyperX. Watch in stunned silence as a finger scrolls through them, right after the break.

Continue reading Samsung i8910 HD runs 62 apps at once, multitaskers bow their heads

Samsung i8910 HD runs 62 apps at once, multitaskers bow their heads originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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