Featured Posts

Hotmail finally gets activesync and push notification

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in Phones | Posted on 29-08-2010

Tags: ,

0

Hotmail users will finally be able to get e-mail push notifications and sync their contacts and calendars on smart phones, according to reports.

Microsoft is adding Exchange ActiveSync support to Hotmail next week. All Hotmail users will be able to use ActiveSync with mobile devices that support it, including the Apple iPhone, Google Android phones and — soon — Windows Mobile 7 devices.

iPhone users, for instance, can currently connect to their Hotmail accounts via the e-mail app, but they aren’t fully synchronized. Through ActiveSync, Hotmail users will soon be able to get enhanced syncing capabilities: when they delete an e-mail, it will be deleted from their Web-based Hotmail; when they reply to an e-mail, that message also will be available online; when they create a calendar event, that appoint also will show up on their Windows Live calendar.

These features are already available to Gmail subscribers, for instance, through IMAP and to people who use a company e-mail system through Microsoft Exchange.

Now, Microsoft is opening up that ability to users of its free e-mail service.

Intel rolls out Dual Core processors for netbooks

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in PC Hardware | Posted on 24-08-2010

Tags: , , ,

2

Intel has just launched a new dual-core Atom processor, the N550. This new processor is geared toward enhancing the processing power of highly portable devices. This means the new dual-core CPU will be found in netbooks, and possibly even some tablet PC’s. To add to this, there are some big names such as Acer, ASUS, Fujitsu, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, MSI, and Toshiba already shipping netbooks using the new core.

Along with the additional core, the N550 supports DDR3 memory, comes clocked in at 1.5GHz and has a TDP 8.5W. With these specifications the Intel Atom N550 will have improved multi-tasking capabilities, but still only create minimal heat. Additionally, the low TDP will also prolong the battery life of netbooks, which is due to the N550 having a similar power requirement as the single core, N450.

The netbook market has grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years, so it makes sense Intel is aggressively pushing its Atom processor line.

“In their short history, the netbook category has experienced impressive growth,” said Erik Reid, director of marketing for mobile platforms at Intel. “Having shipped about 70 million Intel Atom chips for netbooks since our launch of the category in 2008, there is obviously a great market for these devices around the world.” and will see action in netbooks that arrive from next month onwards.

Full specs below:
Atom N550

ITV Player coming to PS3

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in Consoles | Posted on 21-08-2010

Tags:

0

PS3 owners already get the Beeb’s iPlayer via their console, and now ITV’s catch-up service is going to be landing on the games platform.

The ITV Player should be appearing on a PlayStation near you before the end of the year, although no specific date was given for the launch.

Apparently this is part of a push by ITV to gets its streaming service out there and watched in greater numbers.

Sony also announced the launch of a new movie streaming service called Mubi, which should be going live in October. It’s a little different in that it offers a library of cult classics and “visionary” films which might otherwise be overlooked.

3D Cameras and printers released

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in Gadgets | Posted on 21-08-2010

Tags: ,

0

Fujifilm set to release 3D compact camera and a 3D printer.

The camera features two distinct 10-megapixel CCDs and two Fujinon lenses (3x optical zoom) to create the 3D effect. In a neat trick, if you stick to 2D you can use one for taking a close up and one for a wide angle image – of the same subject at the same time, or you can go for different colour balances or ISO sensitivity.

Back in 3D mode, the camera can take both stills and video in 3D at 720p resolution. You can view content without glasses directly on the display on the rear, or hook up to a 3D TV and see it loom large on the big screen, using the TV’s compatible glasses. Fujifilm claims that thanks to a “parallax control function”, the crosstalk effects that plague some 3D TVs, particularly LCD based ones, will be reduced.

Additionally, there’s an optional 8in digital photo frame viewer that lets you view the images in 3D – also without glasses – which sounds a little like a 3D tablet.

What’s more, images from the camera can also be printed in 3D – or rather leticular prints of up to 9in x 6in, via a printing process that Fujifilm will be available soon in the UK. Lentiuclar prints are generally only effective when viewing from a sweet spot, so we’d be interested to see how effective these are.

Fujifilm said the FinePix Real 3D W3 will be available in major department stores from early September.

Price? a very reasonable £399

Smaller iPad rumoured

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in Gadgets | Posted on 21-08-2010

Tags: ,

0

Despite Apple not being able to keep up with existing orders for its iPad tablet, there are now rumours that a smaller 7in version of the iPad could be with us by Christmas.

The information comes from the translation of a Chinese language newspaper, Economic Daily News, which states that Apple supplier Chimei Innolux will be providing the 7in versions of the IPS based screen that’s used in the iPad of 9.7in fame. Touchscreen tech will come from Cando Corportion, and Compal will put it all together.

According to the reports, the thinking behind the move is that for many, the iPad is a mostly stay-at-home device, as it’s too big and heavy to regularly take out and about.

A smaller, lighter version would certainly solve that problem, and assuming the display resolution remains the same as the current model, it would make for an even sharper display for reading.

PS3 jailbreak available soon

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in Consoles | Posted on 21-08-2010

Tags:

0

A group of hardware hackers claim they are about to release the first product to allow gamers to play homemade and pirated games on the PlayStation 3.

The PS3 is the only games console that has not been publicly hacked, despite being on the market for more than three years.

Now a group called PSJailbreak says it will release a USB dongle containing software that allows users to save games to the console’s hard drive.

A distributor for the dongle said that he had tested it and would start selling the device “in the next two weeks”.

NASA’s accidental video art

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in Space | Posted on 20-08-2010

0

NASA’s accidental video art

NASA straps mini cameras to various parts of the shuttle for diagnostics.

Check out this 2001-esque video of the booster separation from the camera onboard the actual booster rocket:

skip to 1:55 for the action.

http://tlnk.me/4786

Probability Processors Say Maybe

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in Technology | Posted on 20-08-2010

Tags:

0

Newcomer Lyric Semiconductor has announced its rather novel approach to dominating the processor industry: a chip that can say “maybe.”
probability processor
In a video interview with tech news site V3.co.uk, company founder Ben Vigoda revealed details of his company’s planned “probability processor,” which dispenses with the black-and-white world of binary logic for a series of ever-shifting greys.

During the interview, Vigoda described the processors as “[taking] in numbers between zero and one […] instead of zero and one they have ‘maybe.’ [The] transistors are like dimmer switches.

Flying in the face of decades of traditional processor design – which relies on the simplicity of binary logic, simply adding more and more transistors to the mix to ‘brute-force’ solutions to increasingly complex mathematical problems – the company’s probability processor allows, Vigoda claims, specific instructions to be built to solve specific tasks far more efficiently than with binary logic.

The company’s research will come to fruition in a product known as the “Lyric Error Correction chip,” a processor for solid-state storage devices which aims to cut data transmission errors to one per thousand trillion – down from the estimated one in a thousand achievable with current binary logic processors.

As well as improving data transmission quality, Vigoda claims that the reduced complexity of the probability processor means companies can “cut the size and cost of the silicon, reduce the power consumption [by] twelve times, and still get your data faster.

Beyond the LEC, Lyric – an MIT spin-off – is looking to produce a more general purpose probability processor – and, while Lyric Semiconductor isn’t looking to replace CPUs with PPUs just yet, the company is hoping that its probability processors will become an essential component of modern motherboards in much the same way as math co-processors were before becoming integrated into the CPU.

Kindle and iPad screens under the microscope

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in Gadgets | Posted on 17-08-2010

Tags: ,

0

Kindle and iPad screens under the microscope:

also “real book print” for comparison:

Read more:  http://tlnk.me/6392

PlayStation gaming is coming to Android

Posted by Mike Redrobe | Posted in Phones | Posted on 15-08-2010

0

PlayStation gaming is coming to Android phone platform.

Well done Sony !

Read more: