Gadgets Blog

Tom’s Hardware has published an article that establishes that SSDs (Solid state Drives) are not saving battery life (that was already confirmed during the macbook air tests) or increasing performance. To explain quickly, conventional wisdom would say that SSD drives should be faster because there are no moving parts (faster access time) and they should consume less because they don’t have a motor that spins at several thousand rounds per minute.

While it seems logical to blame the drives themselves for failing to deliver on the hype, there is a need to understand that it’s everything around them that needs to be improved. That means the disk interface, but most importantly the software. Today’s SSDs are built to look just like a mechanical drive to the operating system (OS), and therefore the OS manages it in a sub-optimum manner. That partially explains why SSD drive aren’t as cool as they are supposed to be.

The bottom-line is that today, they are expensive, and for many reasons, you don’t get the benefits that you thought you had paid for. Stay tuned as we will keep an eye on this problem, but we can certainly say that it will take many years before SSD can deliver on its promises.

The open-source community is booming these days. Hardware manufacturers have seen the potential for growth and profit in releasing products that can be tweaked by the coders among us, and they seem to be committed to releasing more and more as time goes on.

While the idea will never become the norm for consumers, ingenious programmers have yet another piece of hardware to play with as NETGEAR has announced their new WGR614L model router. Why buy a router without functions and create them yourself when you can buy one that has all of those features built-in? The honest answer is that you’re a geek. The answer those geeks would give you is that they can do it better than NETGEAR can.

The router does have a good base to work with, including

a 240 MHz MIPS32® CPU core with 16 KB of instruction cache, 16 KB of data cache, 1 KB of pre-fetch cache, and incorporates 4 MB of flash memory and 16 MB of RAM. In addition to an external 2 dBi antenna, the WGR614L integrates a second internal diversity antenna to provide enhanced performance and range. The router supports free open source Linux®-based Tomato and DD-WRT firmware and will soon support OpenWRT.

It’s nothing spectacular without the open-source respect, but then again, it doesn’t need to be. The router also has support from www.myopenrouter.com, which is a site dedicated to providing help to would-be programmers on how to use their new, open router. They even have downloadable firmware already available. So get at it, geeks.

Read more at Crunchgear

Targus has just rolled out its new portable foldign speaker known as the AEM0702AP in Korea. I suppose you could always slip a love note inside it when folded to your mate, surprising her as she opens it at work to listen to the new CD you bought for her. Of course, if she happens to work in a place where power outlets are hard to come by, it would be prudent to include a quartet of AAA batteries into the mix so that these speakers can be powered. Alternatively, just hook it to your computer’s USB port and you’re good to go. No idea on pricing though.

Source: AVing

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OCZ has a new Core Series SSD which not only aims to bring as much storage space to you as possible, it also hopes to make it affordable across the masses. The 2.5″ SATA II flash drives will be available in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB capacities, retailing for $169, $259 and $479 respectively. DIY folks who want to upgrade their notebook in terms of power savings and speed will do well to consider OCZ’s offering - after all, OCZ touts a ten times faster access rate compared to a standard hard drive while consuming half the power.

Planning a wedding can easily be one of the happiest and the most stressful events of a young couple’s life. It’s not uncommon for those doing the planning to use technology to make the process a little easier. What may be unique is the couple that utilizes Google services to make things run smoothly.

David and Bergin Boyle were able to find a wedding date that matched both of their schedules through the use of Google Calendar. To-Do and RSVP lists were created with Google Docs and then shared with relatives and friends. The couple even went as far as creating a site about the wedding which included a personalized Google Map.

To top everything off the couple posted their Google wedding story using Blogger’s “future-dated posts” so that their post appeared the same time they were coming down the aisle.

Boy, this is quite a marketing piece for Google. It’s no wonder they make a point of bringing it to the attention of visitors through their Google Blog. I must admit it was a slick little idea to future-date the post about their wedding. Of course, it allowed them the flexibility to back out of the wedding if needed. Still, I don’t think that was a concern for either of them.

Honestly, it sounds like the couple’s love of Google made them a perfect match.

Read more from the Google Blog and the Info Clarity blog.

This is just in!

AT&T has just announced pricing of the iPhone 3G for new and existing A&T customers!

iPhone 3G customers can choose from four individual AT&T Nation plans, which bundle voice and unlimited data (e-mail and Web browsing).

• AT&T Nation^SM Unlimited: Includes unlimited Anytime Minutes for $129.99 a month.
• AT&T Nation 1350: Includes 1350 Anytime Minutes and unlimited Night & Weekend Minutes for $109.99 a month.
• AT&T Nation 900: Includes 900 Anytime Minutes and unlimited Night & Weekend Minutes for $89.99 a month.
• AT&T Nation 450: Includes 450 Anytime Minutes and 5,000 Night & Weekend Minutes for $69.99 a month. - AT&T News Room

See full press release HERE!

iphone 3G will be going on sale at AT&T retails stores at 8 am, Friday July 11.

And while you wait for July 11 to arrive, here are some interesting videos for AT&T users

• How Current AT&T Customers Can Be iReady
• How to “Hand Down” Your Current iPhone
• How All Customers Can Be iReady

So, are you lining up for a iPhone 3G?

[ Image source from Gizmodo ]

Tags: AT&T, AT&T iPhone pricing, iPhone

Sporting a cool blue color, Timex Kidz Watch T709819J is an ideal gift for your kid. This digital wristwatch comes with a grey color dial and multi-tone blue base. Designed especially for kids, Timex Kidz Watch T709819J also features a timer to help you kid manage time efficiently. Its Indiglo night-light spreads light uniformly in all directions even in the darkest of nights.

Features

• Fabric Elastic Strap.

• Digital Display.

• Chronograph.

• Night Mode.

• Matt Case.

Timex Kidz Watch T709819J is water resistant up to 30 meters. Apart from showing time, Timex Kidz Watch lets your kid see day, date and month. Its eye-catching band is made up of elastic fabric giving it more flexibility and a longer life. Timex Kidz Watch T709819J comes along with a one-year warranty. Since kids tend to lose things easily, Timex covers this watch by the Timex Kids Loss Protection Plan.

Price and Availability

Timex Kidz Watch T709819J is available at a price of $ 20.00.

Source : timex

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jul 1st 2008 at 7:02AM

While the axe that comes with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is pretty sweet, if you were hoping to just get the game and use your Rock Band guitar, you’re out of luck. Despite rumors that Activision had opened its doors to the Harmonix-made Rock Band guitar controllers, early users of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith are reporting that the Xbox 360 version game isn’t being so friendly after all. The sad message: “An unsupported guitar peripheral has been detected. Connect either a Guitar Hero guitar or Xbox 360 controller and press START to continue.” It’s like they never even knew each other.

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Tesla Motors made a big splash last year, with the introduction of their Roadster model. The car is 100% electric and can go from 0-60 in 3.9 seconds. That’s a big deal. Throw in the fact that the Roadster is also an attractive convertible, and you can see why Tesla’s stock just keeps rising and rising. Unfortunately, the starting price is US$109,000 with a lot of add-on costs for the less humble among us.

The Roadster is manufactured in California, so it seemed only natural that when announcing their plans for a new model, they would invite Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to make the announcement for them. The new model, code-named the Model S, will be a, “multi-use sport sedan” that will cost less than US$60,000. There aren’t too many other details yet except for the reported ability of the car to get 225 miles on a single charge.

The Governator was also extremely pleased with Tesla’s decision to build a new factory in California to produce the new model, a decision which they admit was up in the air. While it would have always been a U.S. based company, they were thinking about heading east to New Mexico to build the new plant.

With the plant still not built, don’t expect the new model any time soon, but that’s ok. You can start saving now.

Read more at Tesla Motors, found via Autoblog

As you can see from the message to all Netflix users above, the movie rental giant is keeping the profile feature on their world famous service.  When Netflix announced they were removing this feature, nerds around the world rioted.  When I say rioted, I mean purchased a domain name and began an internet petition. A topic which should sound familiar right about now, if you are following the Rogers/iphone scandal. The protest also expanded to emails and phone calls, which shows the gravity of the situation for users.  However, not only have the nerds won, but Netflix’s cred will only skyrocket from here on out.

Read [Download Squad]

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