Shuttle takes quiet nettops down the Cedar Trail, intros XS35V3 and XS35GTA V3

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/29/shuttle-takes-quiet-nettops-down-the-cedar-trail-intros-xs35v3/

Nettops have slipped a bit out of vogue, but Shuttle is keeping the flame alive for those who like their desktops tiny and hushed. The XS35V3 and XS35GTA V3 have moved on to more contemporary Cedar Trail-era, 2.13GHz Atom D2700 processors that keep the power draw to a fanless 27W, even when everything is churning at full bore. That limit might get tested with the GTA variant, which brings in Radeon HD 7410M graphics for a lift to 3D performance, but neither mini desktop will exactly make the power company beg for mercy. Either is a barebones kit with the laptop-sized hard drive, optical drive and OS left to the buyer -- if you don't get them at the same time, you'll have only the HDMI, VGA, USB and card reader to keep you company. Europeans are currently the only ones getting a crack, where it costs €172 pre-tax ($214) for the XS35V3 and €233 ($290) to get its faster GTA cousin.

Shuttle takes quiet nettops down the Cedar Trail, intros XS35V3 and XS35GTA V3 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 06:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google helps train developers, hook up universities in new education programs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/29/google-helps-train-developers-hook-up-universities-in-new-educa/

While it only just revealed Google Developers Live earlier last week, offering interactive broadcasts and tutorials, the hardware-dabbling giant has now kicked off two more programs to support its dev faithful. The Google App Engine, Google Drive, YouTube and several advertising APIs will all be covered by the Google Developers Academy, a new site hub that offers up training materials on the above, with more promised in the future. It's joined by a new University Consortium, aiming to collaborate between academics who use Google's tools and dev platforms in their research and teaching. Both sites are now live -- learners can hit up the sources for all the details.

Google helps train developers, hook up universities in new education programs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jun 2012 06:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Google Developers Blog  |  Google Developers Academy, University Consortium  | Email this | Comments

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THE STATE OF MOBILE COMMERCE: How Facebook Is Losing The Retail War

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-state-of-mobile-commerce-how-facebook-and-pcs-are-losing-the-online-retail-war-2012-6

As more online shopping moves to mobile and tablet devices, PCs are the obvious losers in the e-commerce wars.

But Facebook, which once also dominated social media referrals into e-retailers, is losing share too.

About 67 million iPads have been sold since the device was launched. Apple now claims it sells more iPads than any other PC—and that's having a profound impact on e-commerce and social commerce retailers.

"Desktop and laptop usage is being replaced by tablet browsing," according to a new report by Monetate, the e-commerce customization company. "At the current rate, website traffic from PC users will dip below 75% in less than one year."

Until very recently, nearly 100 percent of shoppers arriving at retailers' web sites did so on a PC.

But "at the current rate, website traffic from PC users will dip below 75% in less than one year," Monetate's report says, because of the iPad.

In addition, Facebook's dominance of online shopping referrals has weakened. It once served 88 percent of e-commerce referrals. Now it only serves 59 percent. Pinterest is stealing its share over time, the numbers show.

The following slides are a selection from Monetate's "EQ1 2012" report into social commerce. The data is drawn from more than 100 million online shopping experiences.

The death of the PC? Traffic to e-commerce sites from tablet devices increased 348% in one year; visits from smartphone users increased 117%. PCs, however, lost 6 points of share.

Tablets are almost as effective as PCs for converting users into customers. Phones are the least effective for purchases. The conversion rate for smartphone shoppers has never gone above 1.7%, Monetate says.

Similarly, tablets are now just as effective at getting existing shoppers to add things to virtual shopping carts. Phones aren't.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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3D NAND Chips Are Going to Make High-Capacity SSDs a Reality [Guts]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5921974/3d-nand-chips-are-going-to-make-high+capacity-ssds-a-reality

SSDs are wonderful things that massively speed up your computer and they're getting cheaper too. But currently they don't offer the capacity that some users demand. Fortunately, that could all be about to change.

Extreme Tech reports that a company called Applied Materials has announced that a new etching system will allow it to take 3D transistors from scientific dream to reality. You see, currently most flash memory is made up from a bunch of transistors grouped together to form things called NAND gates, which can be used to store data. String enough of them together, and you get a flash memory chip.

The problem is, though, that currently they have to be made in 2D layers. That means the only way to increase memory density for a given area is make the transistors smaller—but scientists are reaching a plateau, where they can't reduce things in size any longer.

The solution it to build up—a bit like building skyscrapers in Manhattan. One way is just to stack layers on top of each other—and that's already done—but to really get high-density memory, you need to build a proper 3D NAND structure in the first place.

One snag: according to Applied Materials, trying to build 3D NAND structures in real life is like trying to dig a one-kilometer-deep, three-kilometer-long trench with walls exactly three meters apart, through interleaved rock strata. Scaled down, obviously. Their new system, however, uses some neat tricks to make that possible—though they're not letting on exactly how it works.

They do, however, admit that the 2D proportions of the resulting chips are akin to older NAND memory—but that the extra third dimension allows them to cram in storage space which massively offsets the difference.

The downside, as usual, is the fact that there's bound to be a long wait before it makes a commercial appearance. Don't go expecting an affordable 1TB SSD just yet. [Extreme Tech]

Image by Intel

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JVC's Tiny HD Action Camera Looks Like a Freaking Tank [Video]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5921995/jvcs-tiny-hd-action-camera-looks-like-a-freaking-tank

JVC's new GC-XA1 ADIXXION action camera is loaded, combining the best features of the competition into a compact, everything-proof package. No extra add-ons to buy. Is this the most-powerful compact action footage weapon yet?

The GC-XA1 ADIXXION weighs just 4.5 ounces and it's water, shock, dust and freeze-proof. It packs a five-megapixel CMOS sensory, shoots Full HD 1080p footage as well as 1280 x 720 footage at both 30 and 60 fps. It's also capable of shooting stills.

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