drag2share: aTV Flash (black) leaves beta, grants your Apple TV media-playing super powers

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/18/atv-flash-black-leaves-beta-grants-your-apple-tv-media-playin/

We're definitely of the opinion that the dedicated devs who do all the heavy lifting so you can tweak and hack your pile of gadgets deserve a little something for their troubles. That being said, Firecore's aTV Flash (black) is still going to be a tough sell at $30 (now that it's left beta). But, before you go, perhaps you'd like to know what that chunk of cash will enable your 2nd-gen Apple TV to do. For one, it blesses Cupertino's hobby set-top with an all new media player that can open AVI, MKV, MP4, ISO and host of other file formats. There's also an HTML5 browser for surfing the web and streaming media. Want more apps? How about a Plex client and Last.FM radio? Perhaps best of all, though, it allows you to play back files stored on a PC, Mac or NAS without the need for iTunes. Check out the video demo after the break.

Continue reading aTV Flash (black) leaves beta, grants your Apple TV media-playing super powers

aTV Flash (black) leaves beta, grants your Apple TV media-playing super powers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: MediaTek-powered ZTE MT73 packs TD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, GSM, dual SIM and magic dust

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/18/mediatek-powered-zte-mt73-packs-td-lte-td-scdma-gsm-dual-sim/

Here's a funny one we spotted at China Mobile's booth at Mobile Asia Congress: a ZTE Android phone powered by a MediaTek chipset that supports TD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, GSM and dual SIM! Of course, given that China Mobile is currently the exclusive carrier to the TD-SCDMA technology, we're not expecting this peculiar device to pop up anywhere beyond the Great Wall any time soon; but knowing that there's a dual-SIM LTE phone somewhere on this planet still makes our day.

Spec-wise this MT73 prototype features Android 2.3.4, an 800MHz processor, 1GB of RAM, a 4.1-inch 854 x 480 LCD with capacitive touchscreen, a five megapixel main camera, a VGA front-facing camera and a 1,100mAh battery. As per usual ZTE build quality, there's an inevitable cheap feel upon laying our hands on this phone, but we'll give ZTE the benefit of the doubt and wait for the final version. As for a launch date, the folks at China Mobile said it'll depend on when will the government issue a commercial license for TD-LTE. To keep you occupied for the time being, we have a hands-on video right after the break.

Continue reading MediaTek-powered ZTE MT73 packs TD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, GSM, dual SIM and magic dust

MediaTek-powered ZTE MT73 packs TD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, GSM, dual SIM and magic dust originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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drag2share: Camera+: "VolumeSnap Is Back!!" [Apps]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5860391/camera%252B-volumesnap-is-back

Three months after being booted from the App Store for employing, "iPhone volume buttons in a non-standard way," the popular Camera+ app is once again for sale—volume-button functionality and all.

The original version of Camera+ was, of course, pulled for including an "easter egg," unlockable by the end user, that allowed the program to trigger a shutter release via the phone's external volume buttons—a feature that also mimicked Apple's as-of-unveiled virtual shutter button. Camera+ has been resubmitted and does include the same taboo feature, but since Apple has recently implemented a similar technology, the prodigal app has been re-approved. Its latest version, Camera+ 2.4, includes auto-stabilization, one-touch exposure and focus, and 6x digital zoom in addition to the fast-snapping capabilities of shoulder-mounted shutter releases. It's currently available through iTunes for $1. [iTunes via Cult of Mac]

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You can keep up with Andrew Tarantola, the author of this post, on Twitter or Google+.

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drag2share: Amazon Powers Silk With One of the World's Fastest Supercomputers [Supercomputers]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5860429/amazon-powers-silk-with-one-of-the-worlds-fastest-supercomputers

All the hype surrounding Amazon at the moment centres on the Kindle Fire. But behind the scenes, they've been developing one of the world's most powerful super computers — and it powers the Fire's browser, Silk.

The list of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers came out this week. The top 10, as usual, are owned by universities and research organisations.

Look down the list, though, and at number 42 appears Amazon, with its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service. Made by the company itself, this thing features 17,024 processing cores, 66,000Gb of memory and a 10 Gigabit Ethernet interconnect

Customers can hire out hours of the EC2 service. Though you can't use all the processing power at once, for less than $1,000 dollars anybody can have access to grunt that would alone snag a place in the top 500 list.

No wonder Amazon Silk, the Fire's web browser, is able to make use of the cloud to keep it zipping along. I just wonder when they'll reach the top 10. [Ars Technica; Image: kosheahan]

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drag2share: Nano-Scale LEDs Toast Lasers When It Comes to Data Transfer [Guts]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5860459/nano+scale-leds-toast-lasers-when-it-comes-to-data-transfer

When it comes to transferring huge amounts of data in the fastest possible time, copper sucks. What you need to use is light. Until now that meant lasers—but nano-scale LEDs can do it with a fraction of the energy.

Plenty of laser data transfer systems already exist, designed to replace circuitry on motherboards in supercomputers. But a new nano-scale LED set-up from Stanford improves on the prevailing energy efficiency 2,000 times, using just 0.25 femto-joules per bit sent as compared to a laser's 500 femto-joules. And even though they use so little energy, they should be capable of data transfer rates as high as 10Gbps.

So, how do they do it? Well, most normal LEDs give off light at a range of frequencies, which makes them impossible to use for this kind of data transfer. What they've managed to do at Stanford is create a single-frequency LED, created by applying electricity to nano-dots of indium arsenide. As a result, the dots give off light which can be focussed into a beam. The whole process is highly efficient, mopping the floor with power-hungry lasers.

It means that light-based motherboards might actually make it to market as opposed to being some kind of academic dream. And that means much faster data transfer, not just in supercomputers but for everyone. Good job, guys. [Stanford Engineering via The Verge; Image: Stanford Engineering]

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