Gadgets Blog

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 10:42AM

We dig the idea in theory, we really do, but we can definitely see this causing more harm than good. Starting this fall, San Francisco will begin a trial involving wireless parking sensors in 6,000 of its 24,000 metered spaces, enabling antsy drivers to be alerted via street signs or cellphones when a spot becomes available. Only one problem — give 50 anxious motorists the same message that a single spot is unoccupied, and you’ve just created a bona fide mess. Though it’d probably be fun to watch from the sidewalk, wouldn’t you agree?

[Via Core77]

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Filed under: Transportation, Wireless

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 9:30AM

Hey, what do you know? More Centrino 2 news hot on the heels of Intel’s official announcement. Today we’ve got HP shipping the Centrino 2-based EliteBook, Pavilion and a number of HP Compaq business laptops, with specs and pricing varying pretty wildly based on what you’re looking to squeeze out of your rig. If you’re looking to wrap your noodle around ‘em, tap the read link and bust out the reading glasses.

[Via Electronista]

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Filed under: Laptops

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 1:53PM

FujiFilm has made some pretty bold claims about its FinePix S100FS “DSLR-styled” camera and, according to the folks at Photography Blog, it looks like it has mostly managed to live up to them. They seem to have been especially impressed by the camera’s solid build quality, which they say leaves an “impression that stays with you” and, just as importantly, they had few complaints about the image quality, with the 14.3 x zoom delivering the goods and the resultant images boasting great colors and detail. On the downside, the camera is, as expected, more sluggish than a proper DSLR, it’s battery life is only “average to poor,” and it’s $800 list price isn’t exactly a bargain considering what you can get for just a couple of hundred bucks more. Of course, you can likely find it for cheaper than that if you do a bit of digging, which Photography Blog says makes it even easier to recommend.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 1:21PM

Lenovo’s heralded “rock solid” design? Check. An ample amount of ports stuffed into a lightweight package? Check. A price tag that’s on the good side of reasonable? Check. Laptop has just awarded Lenovo’s recently announced X200 ultraportable an Editor’s Choice award after determining that what it has is likely what you’ll want. Reviewers deemed the travel-friendly machine an “excellent lightweight notebook for mobile professionals who demand the business essentials,” noting that the omission of an optical drive wasn’t really a deal-breaker for them. The Centrino 2 platform was also praised, and while performance wouldn’t please the avid gamer, it should handle most everyday tasks without breaking a sweat. If you’ve got $1,200 or so burning a hole in your pocket, this might not be a bad way to remove that discomfort.

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Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo has just released the new SL400 and SL500 ThinkPads touting a 14- and 15-inch LCD display respectively. Both laptops are loaded with the new Intel Centrino 2 processor. Covered in black-gloss design, these ThinkPads are being geared for small- and medium-size business users. Aside from the Centrino 2 processor, the laptops feature high-speed mobile broadband connectivity, various software for data recovery, Internet connection setup and some optional service package for online data back-up and on-site warranty repair.

Some other noteworthy features of these Lenovo ThinkPads include; high definition audio and video including an optional Blu-ray DVD optical drives and HDMI port, high resolution WXGA widescreen displays, SXGA webcam, and a full-size ergonomic keyboard.

The Lenovo SL400 and SL500 ThinkPads are both available now and are priced starting at $799.

Product [Lenovo] Via [electronista]

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by Joshua Topolsky, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 11:54AM

C’mon now — you saw this one coming down the road, didn’t you? Apple has officially taken legal action against Mac clone-maker Psystar, according to court documents. On July 3rd, the Cupertino giant filed suit in the federal district court of nothern California alleging violations against its shrink wrap license, trademarks, and copyright infringement. Clearly this doesn’t look real promising for the Florida-based cloner, but we’re confident they’ll handle this situation with the tact and aplomb we’ve come to expect from them. Which is none.

Read - Confirmed: Apple files suit against Psystar
Read - Apple goes after clone maker Psystar

[Thanks, ginger.al]

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Filed under: Desktops

If you have a Wii, you’ve probably heard complaints about the motion sensing technology. Somebody, at some point, has come over to your house and played a game and then put it down because the sensors weren’t perfect. It’s even conceivable that some of you have stopped playing with the system for the same reason. Well, Nintendo heard you and they’ve done something about it. It might not be the answer you were looking for, but a small attachment on the Wii-mote won’t be too horrible, right?

The Wii MotionPlus is a new add-on that makes your pointing experience that much more specific. It attaches to the back end of the Wii-mote and right now, it’s unclear whether or not it needs separate batteries or if it runs on the same as your Wii-mote. Either way, expect to buy many, many more batteries or to be recharching in your Nyko stands much more often. Nintendo will announce more on this accessory soon, but for now, here’s the press release:

Nintendo’s upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo’s commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing.

Read more at Gizmodo

Looking for a simple way to run the Ubuntu Eee OS on your Eee PC? Then this may possibly be the answer for you, the team behind the Ubuntu Eee project have announced that they will be offering a limited edition 4GB SD card with the OS pre-installed.

Users would have to just insert the SD card into their Eee PC and then select to boot from the SD card. Nothing really special to do, nothing to install, just insert the card and start up your computer.

The cards are currently available for order, but are a little pricey at $50. With the low price of 4GB Class 6 SD cards nowadays you can certainly accomplish this for less, but then you would not have the convenience, or satisfaction of donating to a good open source cause.

However if this is something you are looking for you may not want to wait to long because according to the developer Jon Ramvi, he has only purchased 10 blank cards to date.

Of course for your $50 what you do get, aside from the warm fuzzy feeling that donating to a cause will give you, is a shiny new 4GB Class 6 SD card that has the Ubuntu Eee OS installed and is branded with the Ubuntu Eee logo.

Read [Jon Ramvi] Via [Liliputing]

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A new study, entitled World bandwidth growth over the next decade – is it viable? (PDF) has predicted that we are on our way to experiencing a global bandwidth famine.

The reason for the famine is the rate at which the world is using the available bandwidth compared to the the rate at which new bandwidth is coming online. Ultimately, right now we are using what’s available faster than we can increase the limit.

The study was written by David Payne, Institute of Advanced Telecommunications at Swansea University, UK and was sponsored by CIP Technologies. David Smith of CIP commented:

The Global Bandwidth Study demonstrates that current telecom networks will be unable to cope with the scaling demands for bandwidth. A step-change in technology is needed that can not only deliver this bandwidth demand at economic cost but also significantly reduce the amount of energy required to power and cool it … The current technology will be physically too large and energy-hungry to deliver the levels of bandwidth growth demanded by users. CIP believes that photonic integration will be increasingly the way forward to provide the step change cost reduction per unit bandwidth necessary to economically meet projected demand.

Based on Payne’s research and possible scenarios he believes the use of bandwidth could grow between 40 and 100 times today’s levels by 2018. He also believes current architectures, if expanded as they are today, would not be able to meet that demand. The study is also backed up by similar findings in studies carried out by Cisco.

The solution according to Payne is large scale deployment of low-cost optical technology alongside simplifying the networks by removing, “as many expensive electronic nodes and terminations as possible“. The question is will the companies involved with the infrastructure make the investment and upgrades in time, or at all?

Read more at ITWire.com

Matthew’s Opinion
It’s clear to see that web users are using a lot more bandwidth due to the growing number of rich media sites out there. ISPs are already complaining about coping with demand when services like the BBC iPlayer get released. The question is whose responsibility it is to improve the infrastructure?

In reality this is a widespread, global issue and it requires everyone to invest and upgrade. Ultimately it will be the broadband customers who vote with their feet, moving ISPs if the service becomes poor. In turn the ISPs need to push for, and implement upgrades to cope with demand. If they value their business they will have to react and plan for the future.

A few years ago there was a large pool of bandwidth that could easily cope with the demands from users on the web. It looks like the spare capacity has been used up very quickly and going forward it’s unclear if networks will be able to cope. Hopefully, they will and things won’t come to a screeching halt.

Every Tuesday morning Joel Evans calls in to Rover’s Morning Glory to answer the listener’s tech questions, and this morning was no different. Joel and the crew talked tech and had a little fun, with as little techno-babble as possible.

This week the group talked about LogMeIn, Blu-ray, Joel’s MacBook, and of course, the iphone 3G. It’s worth a listen if you are looking for a distraction while you work or do something more important.

You can listen to the MP3 here.