Thursday, February 19, 2009

AMD nets final approval to create The Foundry Company

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/19/amd-nets-final-approval-to-create-the-foundry-company/


After having to delay the final vote earlier this month due to a lack of participation (d'oh!), AMD has dotted the final 'i' in its attempt to spin off semiconductor manufacturing. Said company, along with the Advanced Technology Investment Company, have now secured the final approval necessary to create The Foundry Company. Stockholder approval was the only remaining hurdle to be jumped, and the joint venture transaction is expected to fully close by March 2nd of this year. By the numbers, AMD stockholders approved a proposal to issue 58 million shares of its common stock along with warrants to purchase 35 million shares of its common stock and 35 million shares of the company's common stock upon exercise of those warrants to an affiliate of the Mubadala Development Company PJSC (perplexing, we know). Now, let's see if AMD can keep up with Intel's own $7 billion investment.

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AMD nets final approval to create The Foundry Company originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Mobile Hits Windows Mobile [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/-FDLCqyjnGI/google-mobile-hits-windows-mobile

Windows Mobile only: Google Mobile for the likes of the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry have been around for a while. Now the autocompleting, quick search application is also available for your Windows Mobile phone.

While the WinMo version of Google Mobile isn't quite as saucy as the iPhone or Android versions—which support search-by-voice features—but the app is still a winner for quick and easy searches from your phone. Hit the link below for a closer look at the Windows Mobile page, or go to the main Google Mobile page to check in on the availability of Google Mobile for your phone.



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iPodME Converts Your Video to iPod Friendly Format [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/DtRG_deHFpY/ipodme-converts-your-video-to-ipod-friendly-format

Windows only: If you're looking for a fire-and-forget video converter to help stock your iPod, iPodME is a dead simple and lightweight tool for bulk converting your video files.

iPodME is a completely portable standalone application—a GUI wrapper of the venerable ffmpeg for the curious among you. Operation is as simple as running the application, dragging and dropping a list of video files you want to convert onto it, and adjusting the basic video settings. You can select the video dimensions and the quality using the plain English metric provided--slow, quality or turbo, size for instance—to determine the conversion speed. If you dig into the options menu you can also tweak the process priority. The default for the application is to take advantage of idle cycles and back off when you're actually attempting to do work. Using the fast, quality setting and leaving it on the default of idle, it took approximately one hour to convert 20 episodes of Fraggle Rock into iPod-compatible MP4 files. An unexpected bonus in such a small package is support for SRT subtitle files, if you have them for your favorite foreign media you can embed them as you convert. If you'd like more fine tuned control over your video conversions, check out the candidates in the Hive Five Best Media Converters and the Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters to fulfill your tweaking needs.



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How Can I Download Every Attachment From Gmail? [Ask Lifehacker]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/C1ZkuOwiS28/how-can-i-download-every-attachment-from-gmail

Dear Lifehacker,
Over the years, I've accumulated lots of images/files in attachments throughout my email. What I'm looking for is a way to download ALL Gmail attachments in one fell swoop.

Sincerely,
Gmail is Great

Dear Gmail is Great,
There may be several ways you can accomplish this, here's how we'd do it: You can easily download every attachment in one fell swoop using a combination of Gmail's IMAP capability, Mozilla Thunderbird, and the AttachmentExtractor extension for Thunderbird. We'll take you through the steps, which might take a little while but will end up with a local folder full of attachments.

  1. Use our guide to turning Thunderbird into the Ultimate Gmail IMAP client to setup local access to all of your email. Make sure to fully sync all folders, including your All Mail folder.
  2. Install the AttachmentExtractor extension by going to Tools \ Addons and dragging in the downloaded file.
  3. Sort the All Mail folder by the attachment icon, and then select all the email that has attachments. Right-click and choose "Extract Selected Attachments to..." from the menu, and pick a folder to save your attachments.
  4. Wait, for probably a very long while, for all the attachments to download.
  5. All done!

This technique should work for any email account that works in Thunderbird, so you aren't limited to Gmail. For an alternate wa! y to acc ess your Gmail attachments, check out Adam's guide to advanced file and attachment management in Gmail.

Love and Geekery,
Lifehacker



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GigaPan Epic Review (Verdict: A Cruel Yet Fantastic Tease) [Review]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/eRHOXiCn124/gigapan-epic-review-verdict-a-cruel-yet-fantastic-tease

The gadget: The GigaPan Epic, the famous mechanism behind the 1,474 megapixel ubershot of the Presidential Inauguration that allows a standard digital camera to take massive landscapes.

The price: $380, plus your point and shoot digital camera of choice.

The verdict: The Epic really is an interesting product, but it's lacking the polish and execution that most of us expect in a $400 gadget. Let me explain.
The Epic is essentially a robotic arm that automates the process of large scale digital photography. Attaching to a tripod (or just sitting on a solid surface), you show the system the top left and bottom right corners of a landscape, and it will automatically tilt and pan your camera, snapping all necessary shots with a tiny arm that pushes down your shutter button.
You download the 100s of pictures from your digital camera to proprietary GigaPan software, and it will, over a few hours, stitch the photos together into magnificent landscapes.
And it works! With a few caveats.

You'll need to lock your camera's zoom, focus and exposure down, lest various pictures be lighter or darker than others. This can be easier said than done on the dummy point and shoot cam! eras tha t the Epic is designed for. And taking a large panorama is still a process that will take several minutes to complete, meaning that there's a good chance pedestrian will stop and stare into the lens in any public atmosphere you choose to photograph. Also, GigaPan's software essentially requires you to upload images to the web, then grab stills through that interface. A simple mega TIF output would have been a welcome option. UPDATE: Apparently I missed the export screen.

Still, check out the shot I was able to capture outside the Hancock building in Chicago, despite not locking down the f-stop. (Check it out for yourself here.)



Neat, right? You create a photo that can be zoomed in to the full potential of your lens while still maintaining a vast master shot.

Here's the real issue: Manual overrides are reasonable for the average Gizmodo reader. What's tougher is that the battery life is atrocious. The Epic runs off of 6 AA batteries that, for me, took about 200 shots (or two panoramas) before dying. (GigaPan has assured me that premium batteries can take 1,000 pictures at room temperature.) Believe it or not, 200 shots is a limiting proposition, especially for the average guy who would be interested in this unit. I actually ran out of battery during my example shot—a whole column of photos is missing. Why would a company design such a functional product with such an obvious Achilles' heel?

I can't deny that the GigaPan Epic is absurdly cool. And I can't wait for a sunny day when I can explore the city and grab some stunning, massive images through my dinky consumer camera. But I really don't want to find myself perched precariously on a ledge with the perfect shot, only to see the unit die with 60 pictures left to go.

Then again, give me a heftier battery option and maybe some SLR compatibility, and it's on.

GigaPan Epic In Brief:

My mom could use it, pending a brief tutorial

Works with simple consumer cameras

Facilitates truly amazing shots, even when you screw up a bit

An SLR-compatible model would be welcomed

Battery life severely cripples functionality



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