“Yer… look at me, my MP3 player has 30Gb of memory!”
“Pah, I’ve got a new 80Gb I pod, that’s hours of music.”
“Hours??? Mine goes for 3 years.”
And he’s not kidding you know! (Sort of). Our friends at IBM have been developing what they are calling ‘racetrack memory’ which they say will be able to store over 100 times more than what our current storage of mediums can, which means MP3 players could be storing enough songs to play constantly for 3 years.
Using tiny magnetic boundaries to store data, this technology will be able to revolutionize (again) the size of our gadgets and what they can hold, which in the case of an MP3 player would mean half a million songs. It would also use less energy, so battery’s would take less time to go flat, and it would mean that the process would create less heat, good news for the computer industry.
However they predict that it will take them another 3-4 years to produce a prototype, and roughly the same amount of time to develop it so that it will be available for commercial use; so please don’t get too exited yet. However it is another great step into the technologically unknown, and who knows what this will develop into.
As any laptop owner knows one of the worst things to happen whilst on your laptop is for it to break. However the second most irritating thing especially if you have just spent $1500 on a brand spanking new one is for the battery to die thus halting whatever you were doing until you can find a power socket. So news that Asustek (better know as Asus) are having battery problems will have anyone who has bought the recently released Eee Pc 900 twitching slightly and holding their wallet tightly.
Fortunately the batteries in the laptops are 100% fine (yes, you can stop shaking now) and to be fair if you have spent the $800 (ish) then you have a great laptop. However Asus have been having problems getting the batteries to the laptops and are reported to be having quite a few battery shortage problems. This was in no way helped by a fire in March which halted the second biggest South Korea battery maker’s Ochang plant, who (coincidentally) supply Asus.
However Asus say that they are over the hill, and that in fact sales will not be affected which is a relief for any shareholders (who must be rubbing their hands in glee after shares were up 1.9% today). Although this may seem like a nothing story, last month Asus said that they were expecting that battery shortages would affect 40% of sales, so this is good news for customers, Asus shareholders and blog writers alike!
The Asus Eee PC 900 has been spotted in both Europe and Asia (man, they always get the good stuff first…), with no talk of it ever reaching U.S. soil. However, that has changed a little bit. Rumored reports have been circulating around that Asus is now going to launch the Eee PC 900 in U.S. stores on May 12th.
Before you jump for joy and shout triumphantly into the wind there has been some improvements, or really some increases, made to both the pc andthe cost.
The Asus Eee PC 900 is now coming with a 8.9 inch display and a new $549 pricetag. That’s $50 more than the original cost bringing the Asus out from under the $500 low cost pricetag. Is this worth it?
The 900 will also be featuring more system RAM (1GB vs. 512MB), a higher 1,024×600 screen resolution, and more solid state hard drive space — 12GB in the Windows XP version and 20GB in the Linux version. There is also a 1.8 mp webcam. But, as stated above… is this worth it?
The price now puts it in the area of a budget 15 inch laptop which may or may not be more powerful, but it is still much lower than an ultraportable, $1000 tablet PC. Of course, the Asus does make sacrifices in quality (keyboard as an example) to keep the cost low. So… is it worth it?
$549 for a 8.9 inch display and relatively low stats for the ease of being mobile?
Yesterday (Friday 15th) Microsoft announced plans to release a subscription service which has been codenamed Albany. It is a move that will put Microsoft on the ‘on demand’ map, and will allow access to Home and Student version of Microsoft Office 2007, the Windows Live OneCare security software and a variety of Microsoft’s other free software, including Live Mail and Messenger.
Unfortunately there are no details as to when this will be available, or as to what the cost will be, but it could well end up being a cheaper alternative to buying the software as you would only pay for it when you needed it. But again we will have to wait for more information but it does promise free updates, which would defiantly be an advantage.
Water energy. It’s clean. It’s tantalizing. But it’s hardly news if you’ve been listening to Arnold Schwarzenegger. But the big downside to water as energy source is that splitting water to obtain hydrogen is a bit clumsy and expensive at this stage. Samsung claims that its technology in the form of a micro-fuel cell has solved some problems of existing technologies.
Estimated to be in the market by 2010, the micro fuel cell will be able to power devices for 10 hours.
After Intel’s Dunnington hexa-core hype, AMD has been embarking on an around-the-world epiphany of sorts, tinkering with its Barcelona hexa-core chip to come up with Shanghai, which has the HyperTransport 3.0 clock generator right.
Moreon, Shanghai was pimped out some more to become Istanbul, AMD’s response to Intel’s hexa-core.
Here’s the good bit. The twin-die Istanbul processor could allow you-gotta-be-kidding 12 cores per package, using the ultra-high-speed HyperTransport 3.0 bus to exchange data. What’s more, a single core, with its dual-channel memory controller, will be able to emulate quad-core functions. Enough said.
BBCi, however they sell it, will always be the poor mans sky+ meaning you can watch BBC programmes whenever (for a month after they are shown). However despite that it is still very good, and with great quality you wouldn’t guess that it was free which is what makes it so desirable, and wy it has been heavily used and praised by all.
However the largest impracticality of BBCi is that generally the only way you can feasibly and easily watch what is available on there is on your computer. This means that you often end up watching TV in your ‘computer’ chair and on a substantial screen. Obviously you could link your PC to the TV (or have an all-in -one [http://thetechdon.com/all-in-one-pcs-part-1/] ) but this is beyond the capabilities of large sections of the population, and many of those that can can’t be bothered.
So a solution that didn’t involve money was neccessery, so the BBC have worked together with Nintendo so that now you can easily watch BBCi on the wii using the Internet channel (500 points/£3.50), which means the wii is now even more of a quality console. Unfortunately this is only available in the UK and is still in the beta stage, but it has good prospects for the future, especially for Kangaroo when it is released later this year.
Sony has always been good at coming out with what is cool and sometimes on the “do I need?” side. But, I kind of like this one.
Sony, I’m sure, wants everyone to have a portable version of the PS3 and this is as close as it will get. The PlayStation 3 users can now enjoy the freedom of almost-portability with a new Clearvision 7” LCD Display with built in speakers. While it isn’t going to be exactly high definition by PS3 standards it is cool if you need to set it up somewhere where there isn’t anything else available.
There is no word on cost yet. I know that you’ll all be waiting with baited breath.
OWC has just given those of us who hate to delete anything and want to carry around our entire library of movies, music, and pictures a reason to live.
OWC is now revealing their newest hard drive in their Mercury On-The-Go brand. It’s a massive half-terabyte, or 500GB, hard drive that you can easily connect to whatever computer you’re using at the time.
The Mercury On-The-Go 500GB pocket drive can be connected with Firewire 800, Firewire 400, or USB 2.0. You’ll also find a copy of Prosoft DataBackup III for OS X and NovaStor NovaBackup for Windows included to make your installation a breeze. The Mercury moves at 5,400RPM, and has 8MB of cache drive.
The only down side to this thing… the $360.00 price tag.
When there is such a powerful name brand such as Apple, Iphone, or Ipod laughing at you and your pitiful attempts at new mp4 players what do you do? What do you do?
Why you copy them of course!
The KL-285mp4 player is taking the stance that if they look like an iPhone or iPod then people will grab it just to look cool. But, does it stand up? The KL-285 certainly can’t call anyone nor will you be able to get any internet connection no matter how hard you smack it, it does have some alright features for an mp4/mp3 player.
It features include the usual such as a microSD memory card slot, support for 3GP, MP4, and AVI video formats, MP3 playback, a clock and calendar function, an e-book reader and an integrated FM radio.
The $47 KL-285 also includes a 2.8″ touch screen 320 x 240 resolution display, a 2 megapixel camera with video recording capabilities, 4.5 hour video playback and 8 hour audio on a single charge. If you’re looking for just an mp4 player with no bells and whistles then why not.
After Intel’s Dunnington hexa-core hype, AMD has been embarking on an around-the-world epiphany of sorts, tinkering with its Barcelona hexa-core chip to come up with Shanghai, which has the HyperTransport 3.0 clock generator right.
BBCi, however they sell it, will always be the poor mans sky+ meaning you can watch BBC programmes whenever (for a month after they are shown). However despite that it is still very good, and with great quality you wouldn’t guess that it was free which is what makes it so desirable, and wy it has been heavily used and praised by all.
