Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

NVIDIA brings the Fermi-packing Quadro 4000 to the Mac Pro

For most Mac users, upgradeable anything is starting to sound like a distant memory, but Mac Pro users bought that big ol' box for a reason: expandability. Now NVIDIA is here to make it worth their while, releasing the mid-range Quadro 4000 graphics card with that latest / greatest Fermi architecture. With 256 CUDA cores and 2GB of GDDR5 memory, the card should slice through just about anything a pro app (Photoshop, Maya, Snood) can send it, and probably wouldn't mind popping out a FPS session now and then just to stretch the legs. Of course, when we say "mid-range" we aren't talking cheap: NVIDIA's MSRP is $1,199, a good bit more than the card's $700-ish PC-compatible counterpart. It should be available this month.

Continue reading NVIDIA brings the Fermi-packing Quadro 4000 to the Mac Pro

NVIDIA brings the Fermi-packing Quadro 4000 to the Mac Pro originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mimo announces iMo eye9 USB touchscreen with built-in webcam

Mimo Monitors isn't exactly short on small USB monitors these days, but that hasn't stopped it from rolling out yet another new model: the 9-inch iMo eye9. As with some of the company's recent models, this one is a touchscreen monitor (resistive, as you might expect), but it takes things one step further than the rest by adding a less-than-discreet 1.3 megapixel webcam. Otherwise, you'll get a basic 1,024 x 600 resolution, plus full Mac and PC compatibility, a detachable base that allows for both portrait and landscape viewing, and a built-in stylus that will also double as a stand. Look for this one to start shipping on November 20th, and you can get youpre-order in now for $229.99.

Continue reading Mimo announces iMo eye9 USB touchscreen with built-in webcam

Mimo announces iMo eye9 USB touchscreen with built-in webcam originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jim Balsillie says BlackBerry PlayBook has a 'module cavity,' hints at NFC capabilities

He unfortunately didn't have one on hand (or at least on stage), but RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie did make a bit of news about the BlackBerry PlayBook at the now-happening Web 2.0 Summit. The first is that the tablet packs what Balsillie described as a "module cavity" -- the most obvious use for which would be to add WWAN capabilities to the WiFi-only model (something Balsillie himself suggested), although the possibilities certainly extend far beyond that. Balsillie also later mused a bit about NFC capabilities, stating that "we'd be fools not to have it in the near-term, and we are not fools." That's obviously in relation to BlackBerry phones in general and not just the PlayBook, but it does seem like a prime candidate for that aforementioned "module cavity," which we really hope is not the final name.

Jim Balsillie says BlackBerry PlayBook has a 'module cavity,' hints at NFC capabilities originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official Google Voice app for iPhone hits the App Store

A few weeks after third-party apps started filtering in, Google's launched its own Google Voice app for the iPhone, and it looks to have all the most important features: call and text support, push notifications, and voicemail access (including transcriptions). It's available right now -- US only at the moment -- on iPhones with iOS 3.1 or higher as long as you've got a valid Google Voice account set up... so get to it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Note: For some reason, you need to search the App Store for "googlevoice," not "google voice." Weird, we know.

Official Google Voice app for iPhone hits the App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dynamics' credit card-based computing platform makes what little money you have more secure (video)

Some folks are trying to replace your credit card with your cellphone, while Dynamics, Inc. is among those trying to make credit cards better. And you know what? We seldom get excited by such things, but this video from the CES New York press preview has us seriously itching to upgrade our plastic. Card 2.0 is the computing platform powering the new Citi cards that re-write the magnetic strip depending on whether you want to spend you cash or your rewards points. The technology fits snugly in your credit card, is waterproof, has a battery life upwards of four years, allows multiple accounts on a single card, and even can be used to require a PIN before displaying the card number. This is some pretty awesome stuff indeed -- but don't take our word for it! Get a peep yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading Dynamics' credit card-based computing platform makes what little money you have more secure (video)

Dynamics' credit card-based computing platform makes what little money you have more secure (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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