// November 10th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
Hollywood’s attempt to force DRM measures on the BBC’s over-the-air high-definition broadcasts looks to have come a cropper after intense public pressure.
// November 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
We all know the old stereotypes—men don’t ask for directions, women talk a lot, no one reads the manual. Well, some of those stereotypes seem to ring true in the latest data provided by Gadget Helpline , a tech support service based in the UK. The company’s report reveals the shocking news that men and women exhibit different behaviors when it comes to dealing with technology and getting help. Gadget Helpline analyzed 75,000 calls received between September and October of 2009 and discovered that it’s not just geeks that aren’t reading the manual. A full 64 percent of men and 24 percent of women calling into the line had not checked out the booklet that came with their computers or gadgets before picking up the phone. If the numbers are that dire (especially for the men), we can’t help but wonder how many more kept quiet about their inability to RTFM.
// November 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
We are kicking off the first of many recurring monthly contests for you, our readers! Each month you will be able to enter to win various illustrious prizes. Premier Subscribers have the additional benefit of being automatically entered each month, and don’t have to worry about entering each time. This month the giveaway is an Xbox 360 game pack featuring five great games (we will work with the winner to make sure he/she doesn’t get a game already owned). A second place winner will receive the new generation iPod nano (5G). Last but certainly not least, 12 lucky winners will win a guitar shirt provided by Think Geek! I rocked this thing on Halloween, and it was hilarious. Check out this video of someone far more skilled than me making it wail: Frankly, I can’t imagine a better way to get kicked out of a retirement home. Here is how to enter online. Just hit the discussion and tell us your favorite guitar tune. Winners will be drawn at random, so don’t worry if your favorite tune is an REO Speedwagon hit. We won’t count it against you. And just to be clear: Premier Subscribers are entered automatically (but you can still tell us your favorite tune if you want to). You’ll need to register an account if you don’t have one. The contest will close at the end of the month (when another one will soon after begin). The official rules can be found here . Unrelated to the contest, I am also pleased to announce that Premier Subscribers will shortly be receiving a Think Geek coupon code good for $5 off purchases of $25, or $10 off $40 . This could help with your holiday shopping. Be sure to verify that your email address attached to your registration is current and accurate.
// November 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
If you are Paul Haddad of TapBots, LLC , it isn’t unusual to get requests for contract work. When your applications are as eye-catching and functional as his, you garner attention. So when he received an e-mail earlier this month with a subject line of “I’m interested in Tapbots,” it didn’t really come as much of a surprise. What was surprising was the message content. This prospective client wasn’t looking to hire TapBots for any development work, they were looking for confirmation that a development firm out of India did the coding on ConvertBot, a popular TapBots application. The client had found Trucid , the supposed coders of ConvertBot, on the Rentacoder.com website, a virtual cork board where companies can hang their business cards. Trucid quoted a sum of $2,400 for an application similar to ConvertBot. The only problem? TapBots designs and writes all of its applications entirely in house.
// October 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
Intel is just one of the semiconductor companies that has been working on phase-change memory (PCM) for the past few years, and now the chipmaker and its collaborator, Numonyx, have hit on a way to increase PCM densities by stacking memory arrays on top of one another. They’ve demonstrated at 64Mbit memory using the stacking technique, which they plan to describe in a paper at the forthcoming IEDM conference. PCM, which combines the speed of DRAM and the non-volatility of flash memory, has been the subject of much excitement since it was first proposed in the 70s. The basic idea behind the technology is that each memory cell consists of a small chunk of a special alloy that changes its physical characteristics and electrical properties (i.e., it changes phase) in response to how it is heated and cooled. The alloy’s temperature is manipulated by injecting an electrical current into it, and the applied voltage level and timing of the injection determine which phase it ends up in.
// October 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
Motorola and Verizon announced today that the new Motorola Droid smartphone will be officially launching next week. It will be the first smartphone to feature Android 2.0, the latest version of Google’s Linux-based smartphone OS, as well as the new Google Maps Navigation software. The handset will also be the first of the new crop of smartphones on Verizon’s network that isn’t one of RIM’s Blackberry devices. The Droid made its TV debut with an ad campaign that pokes fun at certain features that the iPhone lacks, like a removable battery and a more “open” development program. The device is also touted as the “thinnest full-QWERTY slider phones available.” In addition to the keyboard, the phone includes a large 3.7″, 854×480 touchscreen, 5MP autofocus camera with LED “flash” capable of “DVD-quality” video, GPS, WiFi, and voice control. Hardware-wise, Droid has the bases pretty well covered.
// October 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
P2P use is down this year, possibly thanks to the growing availability of online video. Network equipment provider Sandvine observed these two trends in its ” 2009 Global Broadband Phenomena ” report (via Broadband Reports ), noting that there was a “dramatic increase” in realtime video consumption while users are moving away from bulk downloads that they can’t consume right now . While this doesn’t mean P2P is dead just yet, it reflects a shifting user focus as more content providers give people what they want the legal way. “Realtime entertainment traffic”—which includes video and audio streaming, Flash media, and other various webcasts—grew to more than 26 percent in 2009, according to Sandvine. This reflected a 12.6 percent growth, or a near doubling of the numbers from last year. YouTube, of course, remains a top destination for those looking for video entertainment, and North Americans consume the most videos (per subscriber) globally. Europeans, however, consume the most YouTube minutes out of any region.
// October 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
One of the awkward aspects of modern physics is that its two most successful fields, relativity and quantum mechanics, are fundamentally incompatible, as things happen in the quantum world that relativity says should not be possible. That’s left physicists looking for a way to harmonize the two, with two primary contenders: string theories, and quantum gravity theories. Testing either of them has been a bit challenging, but researchers have now managed to use a single, intensely powerful photon detected by the Fermi Telescope to significantly limit the number of viable quantum gravity theories. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has only been operational for about a year, but results from its observation have already been appearing in a number of significant publications. The observatory is designed to detect the highest energy radiation, which is only produced by the most energetic events in the universe, such as supernovae. In this case, the key observation was of a single photon produced by the gamma-ray burst GRB 090510, which came in at an extremely energetic 31GeV.
// October 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
A few short months have seen some amazing developments in the world of computers. They’re not revolutionary—at least, most aren’t—but looking at their effects on the System Guide, we see some nice new options for us to consider. Most affected by recent developments are the Budget Box and Hot Rod. The Budget Box usually packs more performance than ever with each update, as does the Hot Rod, and it’s getting to the point where we might not always want to bang on the the upper end of our price range because the best mix of performance and value might not always be at that mark. The God Box is also affected, but it’s not as dramatic because the changes are easier to consider. If the new top-of-the-line from AMD or Intel is dramatically faster, it can be generally considered. It’s not always straightforward, but it generally generates somewhat less debate.
// October 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
Roku, makers of the popular Roku Digital Video Player set-top box , announced new hardware options just in time for the holiday shopping season. The new options include a lower priced, SD-only $80 option, while a new higher-end device will sell for $130. The company is also readying its Roku Channel Store, which will bring even more content to a collection that already includes Netflix streaming, Amazon Video on Demand , and MLB.tv. First up is the hardware. For those on a budget, or those that don’t plan on getting an HDTV anytime soon, there is the Roku SD. This box is a simplified version that is only capable of SD resolution, and limits the output to composite video and analog stereo audio. Networking options include Ethernet and 802.11b/g WiFi, and it sells for $20 less than its older cousin at $79.99.
