Microsoft go Bing Bing Bing!
May 29th, 2009
Archive
Archive for May, 2009
SATA Revision 3.0 specification completed and released
May 28th, 2009
In August of last year, the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) got us all hot and bothered when it introduced the SATA Revision 3.0 specification to double transfer speeds to 6Gbps. It’s taken until today, however, for that very specification to be completed and released.
Thankfully for those who love to relish in the past, the new spec is backward compatible with earlier SATA implementations, and for those looking forward to new innovations, you’ll appreciate the new streaming commands for isochronous data transfers between audio and video applications and the Low Insertion Force (LIF) connector for more compact 1.8-inch storage devices. We’re told to expect SATA Revision 3.0 demonstrations next month at Computex, but who knows how long it’ll be before this stuff seeps into shipping products.
Zeebo Has Landed….
May 27th, 2009
Zeebo is a video game console produced by Tectoy and Qualcomm. Announced in early2008 as the first ever Brazilian-designed console, it was released in Brazil yesterday with a suggested reatil price of R$ 499,00 and it will be licensed for other countries by Zeebo Inc.
Zeebo was launched with three games installed - FIFA 09, Action Hero 3D and Brain Age. Prey, Quake and Need for Speed Carbon will be available for download for free, all in Portuguese. In addition to these titles, Zeebo’s library has more than ten games, all developed for this platform.
Google Chrome 2 awaits your Download
May 26th, 2009
Back in March Google released a faster beta version of Chrome that boasted a 25-35% speed boosts on benchmarking tests, and now those improvements—along with a few new features—are now officially available in the stable release of Chrome.
They’re calling this release Google Chrome 2, but according to the post on the Chrome blog, “that’s mainly a metric to help us keep track of changes internally. We don’t give too much weight to version numbers and will continue to roll out useful updates as often as possible.” Fair enough. Google Chrome is a free download, Windows only.
More Than Meets The Eye?
May 25th, 2009
There has been a number of Transformers Gadgets flying out just in time for the Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen movie
Get your hands on (or off) these:
Blaster the Laptop transforming 4-port USB Hub
USB Flash Drive Transforms into Ravage
Aussie whiz-kids can cram 1.6TB on a DVD-sized disc.
May 22nd, 2009
Don’t take it personally, Blu-ray — we still love you and all, but there’s just something dreamy about baking 1.6TB of information onto a blank piece of optical media we can actually afford.
According to a new report, a crew of researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia have exploited the properties of a certain gold nano-rod that will theoretically enable them to shove 300 DVDs worth of data onto a single disc. Calling the method “five-dimensional optical recording,” the technique “employs nanometer-scale particles of gold as a recording medium,” and according to developers, it’s primed for commercialization. Essentially, these gurus have figured out how to add a spectral and polarization dimension, giving them the ability to record information “in a range of different color wavelengths on the same physical disc.”
As for the chances this actually makes it out of the laboratory and into the lives of real humans? You be the judge!
Panasonic with two new 1080p24 camcorders
May 21st, 2009
First is the HDC-TM30 another “world’s lightest” cam, this one with the caveat that, at 227 grams, it’s the lightest with 32GB of internal storage. It sports a 16x (44 - 706mm equivalent) optically stabilized zoom ahead of a single CMOS sensor that can record 1080p24 video.
The other player, the HDC-TM350, offers a bit more on the quality front and pledges the “world’s largest capacity” full HD camcorder, offering 64GB of storage. That equates to a nigh-ridiculous 16 hours of 1080p24 video shot through a stabilized 12x (45 - 540mm equivalent) lens. It even records 5.1 audio, but with the mics all placed within what looks to be a one square inch patch don’t expect great channel separation here.
Both are set for release in late-June for undisclosed prices.
If your lounge room isn’t cluttered enough! New Tony Hawk’s Ride
May 20th, 2009
Tony Hawk’s new game “Ride” will come with a skateboard peripheral so you can do all kinds of amazing tricks. The motion controls are pretty detailed and feature an advanced mode that will allow for in-place 180s, but it doesn’t look like you’ll be lifting the board off the ground.
Grabs are performed by actually grabbing the board as it senses your hand position, and pushing is performed by running your foot along the side of the board. Obviously, ollies and flip tricks are going to be different than the real thing.
Sounds like Tony Hawk sees the controller as a “standard,” which could work with snowboarding games, surfing games, exercise games and other stuff
HTC Magic comming to Australia
May 19th, 2009
Leaked: Office 2010 Technical Preview
May 18th, 2009
Microsoft was planning on giving out the Office 2010 technical Preview to select testers in July on an invite-only basis. Office 2010 will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and both flavours have been leaked to torrent sites and the like. Multiple screenshots of each application are available. ‘… some applications have changed a lot more than others. The ribbon seems to be on every application now, which is great for consistency’s sake. … The biggest change, in my opinion, is that the no file/orb menu is no longer a menu. When you click the colored office button, you get a screen that is shown in the second screenshot for each application.