ComScore, -- a common metric used to measure internet traffic -- is showing off some impressive stats these days. In the month of November, for instance, Facebook overtook Yahoo! for the first time in worldwide traffic, with the social network nabbing 648 million unique visitors while the portal named after Gulliver's Travels pulled in 630 million. What does this mean to? Well, to point out the obvious, it seems that while Facebook continues its epic growth, the relatively flat state of Yahoo!'s traffic is simply not enough to retain its third place spot behind Google and Microsoft's sites, which grab up places one and two consistently. One note about these ComScore statistics, just in case you're wondering about that last one: it 'groups' sites together rather than counting individual URLS, so for instance, the Microsoft sites take the number two spot en masse. In terms of U.S. traffic, Facebook still trails Yahoo! a bit, with 152 million visitors and 181 million, respectively, so if they're truly hoping for world domination, they have their work cut out for them. We're looking at you, Mark!
He may be flashing a peace sign, but you can tell from the look in his eyes that Sonic isn't exactly thrilled to be doing anything to support Nintendo. This is the cat that made blast processing a reality, whose addiction for gold rings is legendary, and who hasn't starred in a truly great game since, well, since Sega stopped making hardware, now reduced to this. Look at him, perched atop a mock floating platform, brown and tan checkerboard base with a green top where you can set your Wiimotes for charging without stripping them of their prophylactics. Though the press release makes no mention of this, we were led to believe that this is not actually powered by your AC outlet, instead by the spirits of fuzzy little squirrels and rabbits trapped within, making this $49.99 figurine from Mad Catz all the more nefarious.
Lookin' to get a jump on the rest of the folks, eh Onkyo? Rather than waiting for CES to kick off next week, the aforementioned firm has just let loose its TA117, proving that it's totally kosher with supporting both Microsoft and Google in the tablet wars. A duo of models will be made available -- the TA117C3 and TA117C1 -- with both of 'em getting a 10.1-inch touch panel (1024 x 600 resolution), Android 2.2, NVIDIA's Tegra 250 (1GHz), 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a microSD expansion slot, USB 2.0 connectivity (x2), HDMI out and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. There's also a docking port to use with an optional stand, and if you're looking to spot the differences between the two models, the C1 is home to 512MB of DDR2 RAM alongside 8GB of integrated storage, while the C3 doubles up with 1GB of memory and 16GB of NAND. There's nary a word on price nor release, but we hear Samsung's Galaxy Tab is now feeling a bit small. If you know what we're getting at.
We're not sure how many more times it must be said, but seriously people -- stop texting on your cellphone while operating a gigantic vehicle at high speeds. If you're not already convinced that driving a car and trying to tap out a message on a tiny keyboard (or heaven forbid, no keyboard at all) is a poor match, perhaps the short documentary AT&T has just released will convince you otherwise. The carrier is launching a campaign geared towards teens over the holidays leading up to New Year's Eve in the hopes that the youth of the world will be slightly less sure of their invincibility -- at least where car driving and text messaging is concerned. Sure, the video (located after the break) borders on sentimentality at times, but we'll take a little heavy-handedness over the injury or death of human beings simply because someone couldn't wait to tell someone else that they'd be there soon. Trust us, your friends aren't that worried about punctuality.
We mean this with no disrespect to Lenovo, but when you first lay eyes (or hands) on the incredibly attractive IdeaPad U260, it's pretty hard to believe that it was made by the company. Sure, the Chinese laptop manufacturer has always had a certain knack for creating very powerful and well-rounded ultraportables, but "drop-dead gorgeous" isn't exactly how we'd describe systems like the Lenovo IdeaPad U160, Edge 11, or ThinkPad X301. The U260 is indeed a total 180 for the company, and it's one of the most dapper and svelte laptops we've seen in a long time -- there's no question about it, its magnesium-aluminum alloy shell, leather palm rest, and glass touchpad even give the newest MacBook Airs a run for their money. But even better, the 12.5-inch system has the brawn to match that external beauty – its 0.7-inch shell has been injected with a Core i5 ULV processor, 4GB of RAM, and 320GB of storage. At $1,100 (the Core i3 version starts at $999), there's no denying that it's more than enticing, but is the U260 immune to Lenovo's typical ultraportable pain points, including poor battery life and tepid temperatures? We've been lucky enough to spend the last few days with the beautiful machine (yes, we took it on vacation!), so jump down below to find out in our full review!
It's obvious by now that we've got a real crush on the U260's bronzish, mocha exterior (it comes in an orange hue as well), and a glance at a few of the pictures in the gallery above makes it very easy to see why. It isn't as minimalistic as some others out there -- say Google's Cr-48 --but the soft-to-the-touch magnesium-aluminum alloy that envelops the system like a book cover gives the entire system a very clean and simplified look. Believe us, it's more than a welcome change from the glossy lids and rounded edges that we've gotten used to on the ThinkPad Edge family. The U260 also feels as high-end as it looks -- it may not have a unibody build, but it has a very rigid construction and that almost-rubbery metal lid not only seems to protect it from scratches, but feels really soft in hand. No, seriously, we've caught ourselves petting this thing a couple of times. Under the lid, the U260 loses its metal coverings, yet has an equally soft faux leather palm rest.
But, it's those aesthetic pieces combined with the U260's very slender design that really makes it turn heads. The system is a uniform 0.7-inches, which means there's no enlarged battery back or slight flare in the front to make it appear uneven, and when you open it up you certainly notice the svelteness of the screen. At 3.4-pounds, the U260 was just slightly heavier than pulling out a netbook at airport security, and it's just the right size and weight to comfortably transport it from the desk to the couch with one hand. Naturally, to maintain its lean body, Lenovo had to nix the DVD drive, but the U260 still houses a good array of ports along its edges. The right side is home to a USB socket and headphone jack, while the left houses USB, Ethernet, HDMI, and VGA ports. Unfortunately, there's no SD card slot, and while there's a place for an ExpressCard card slot, it doesn't open.
Keyboard, touchpad, and screen
There's no doubt that Lenovo knows how to make some of the best keyboards around (see: Thinkpad Edge, ThinkPad T410), but the one on the U260 leaves a bit more to be desired. Don't get us wrong, the squircle shaped, matte keys have a great curve to them and feel as if they were molded for our fingertips, however, the chiclet layout is a bit cramped and doesn't stretch to the edges of the panel. Instead, the right Shift key is noticeably smaller than the one on the left and even the Caps Lock and Tab keys on the left are shrunken. It's not a deal breaker, but it did take us a bit of time to get into the groove of typing this review. Our bigger complaint about the keyboard comes with its lack of a backlight. In fact, it actually seems like oversight to not include a backlit keyboard option on a higher end system like the U260, and we definitely found ourselves wishing it was a feature in a dimly lit airplane cabin.
However, the polished glass touchpad receives our highest stamp of approval. The smooth surface, which feels similar to that a piece of sea glass, was incredibly soft on our index finger and just let the cursor glide along. Additionally, the two dedicated right and left mouse buttons, although slightly mushy, were quite comfortable. While two-finger scrolling worked decently in Word and Chrome, the dedicated scroll strip happens to give you a bit more control.
So, what's it like using the world's first laptop with a 12.5-inch display? To be honest, not that different than using a laptop with a 12.1-inch panel, considering the new screen still has the typical 1366 x 768 resolution. Okay, so it's not exactly great for pixel density, but that doesn't mean we're not seriously impressed with the anti-glare matte display. Yes, that means there's no glossiness or reflections, and yes, it's great! We actually were able to work on the laptop on a bright day without putting up any sort of shade. Too boot, the display is quite bright and the viewing angles are rather decent -- we had no problem sharing the screen in a tight airplane seat with our neighbor. We do have one complaint though -- the screen bezel is certainly glossy and can pick up its fair share of fingerprints.
Performance and battery life
Like the ThinkPad Edge 11, the U260 is available with both Core i3 and i5 ultra-low voltage processors -- Lenovo sent us the highest end configuration with a 1.33GHz Core i5 CPU and 4GB of RAM. As one would expect, the machine handled the brunt of our usual computing tasks, including simultaneously writing this review in Microsoft Word, chatting with friends in Trillian, checking our Twitter feed in TweetDeck, and surfing the web with multiple tabs open in Chrome. Even when we threw a 720p clip into the mix the system was able to keep up.
Speaking of HD content, the machine has no problems with full HD video, but as you can see from its 3DMark scores, it's definitely not a gaming rig. It should be fine for some light mainstream or Flash games, but you're not gonna want to fire up Black Ops on this thing, unless you're cool with playing at very, very low settings. We have to admit it would have been nice to see Lenovo put the U260 up with both discrete graphics and SSD options, though the latter can be accomplished on your own as the entire bottom of the system is removable. Obviously, we didn't test the waters on that with our review unit.
PCMarkVantage
3DMark06
Battery Life
Lenovo IdeaPad U260
3858
1153
2:56
Lenovo IdeaPad U160 (Core i7 ULV)
3863
1175
3:10
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 11
2964
1105
4:42
Dell Inspiron M101z (Athlon II Neo K325)
2572
1311
3:35
ASUS Eee PC 1215N (Intel Atom D525)
1924
181/2480
5:42
Acer Aspire One 721 (Athlon II Neo K125)
1814
1235
3:30
Alienware M11x (Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300)
2689
654 / 5593
4:30
Unfortunately, battery life is the U260's (expected) Achilles heel. On our usual video rundown test, which loops the same standard definition video with brightness set at 65 percent, the integrated 20Whr, four-cell Lithium Polymer battery lasted just two hours and 56 minutes. In regular use -- basically surfing the web and writing this review -- the system ran for about three hours and 20 minutes. Obviously, for a highly mobile system like this, the endurance is pretty terrible, and because there's no way to swap out the battery, you're pretty much stuck dragging the AC adapter with this thing everywhere you go.
Thankfully, there's better news on the heat side of things. Given our experience with the U160, we expected the system to get rather warm, but for the most part the system stayed relatively cool thanks to its "breathable keyboard" and Intel's latest Advanced Cooling technology. While we did notice the bottom right edge getting slightly warm, the vents in the back kept the entire chassis, including the keyboard and touchpad, at room temperature.
Software-wise, Lenovo's actually done a decent job of keeping this one crapware free. However, like the U160 it has a "Smile Dock," which can be launched by clicking on that creepy smile icon on the desktop. You can search Google and check Weatherbug from the dock itself, but other than that it's pretty useless and takes up precious screen real estate. Oovoo and McAfee are also preloaded.
Wrap-up
How much are you willing to sacrifice for love? If you're anything like us, you're absolutely smitten with the U260's metal build, soft leather palm rest, brushed glass touchpad, and the fact that it packs Core i5 power in such a thin shell. But you're also asking yourself one question: can you live with just three to three and a half hours of battery life? For us the answer is sadly a flat no -- in fact, that sort of battery life is simply unacceptable in our book, especially when you consider that equally portable systems like the Toshiba Portege R705 or the new MacBook Airs last at least two hours longer on a charge. It's a sad story of an amazingly attractive and solid performing laptop brought down by a single fatal flaw -- but if you can get past the battery life, nearly everything else about the U260 is almost perfect.
If you can't tell your DRAM from your STT-MRAM, you'll need to bear with us for a sec: IBM's figured out the math required to read and write data from the spaces between magnetic fields, racing across a nanowire, at hundreds of miles per hour. IBM's been plugging away at the so-called racetrack memory since 2004, calling it the perfect hybrid of magnetic storage and flash, but until recently scientists didn't know whether the magnetic domain walls (where data will live) had any mass to speak of. As it turns out, they do, and thus have to obey the tiresome laws of physics as they move along the nanowire "track," but also accelerate and decelerate the exact same amount, more or less canceling out the effect. Long story short, IBM can use this knowledge to precisely position those 1s and 0s in their newfound data bank, and someday we'll all reap the benefits of dense, speedy and reliable memory. You know, assuming PRAM, FeRAM, ReRAM and memristors don't eat IBM's lunch. PR after the break.
Show full PR text
Made in IBM Labs: Scientific Discovery Moves Racetrack Memory Closer to Reality
New Kind of Memory Device Combines the Best of Flash Memory and Magnetic Storage
SAN JOSE, Calif. - 23 Dec 2010:
Highlights:
IBM Research is the first to measure the movement and processing of digital data as a magnetic pattern on nanowires 1,000 times finer than a human hair.
New memory uses the spin of electrons to move data at hundreds of miles per hour to atomically precise positions along the nanowire racetrack.
This memory could someday enable a single portable device to store all the movies produced worldwide in a given year(i) and run on a single battery for weeks at a time.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) Researchers today revealed a previously unknown aspect of key physics inside Racetrack memory -- a new technology design which stands to improve memory capabilities within mobile phones, laptop computers and business-class servers. This new class of memory could enable devices to store much more information - as much as a factor of 100 times greater - while using much less energy than today's designs.
The Racetrack memory project -- which started in IBM's Research labs only six years ago -- flips the current memory paradigm on its head. Instead of making computers seek out the data it needs – as is the case in traditional computing systems – IBM's Racetrack memory automatically moves data to where it can be used, sliding magnetic bits back and forth along nanowire "racetracks." This technique would allow electronic manufacturers to design a portable device capable of storing all the movies produced worldwide in a given year with room to spare.
Digital data is typically stored in magnetic hard disk drives, which are low-cost but slow due to their moving parts, or in solid state memory such as Flash memory, which are faster but more expensive. Racetrack memory aims to combine the best attributes of these two types of devices by storing data as magnetic regions – also called domains – in racetracks just a few tens of nanometers wide.
The new understanding, revealed today in the journal Science, allows the precise control of the placement of these domains, which the IBM team has proven can act as nano-sized data keepers that can not only store at least 100 times more memory than today's techniques, but can be accessed at much greater speeds. By controlling electrical pulses in the device, the scientists can move these domain walls at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour and then stop them precisely at the position needed -- allowing massive amounts of stored information to be accessed in less than a billionth of a second.
The full scientific details of the discovery can be read in the scientific paper. In short, the IBM scientists were the first to measure the time and distance of domain wall acceleration and deceleration in response to electric current pulses, which is how digital information is moved and processed in Racetrack memory. This not only gives scientists an unprecedented understanding and control over the magnetic movements inside these devices but also advances IBM's Racetrack memory -- driving it closer to marketplace viability.
"We discovered that domain walls don't hit peak acceleration as soon as the current is turned on, and that it takes them exactly the same time and distance to hit peak acceleration as it does to decelerate and eventually come to a stop," said Dr. Stuart Parkin, an IBM Fellow at IBM Research – Almaden. "This was previously undiscovered in part because it was not clear whether the domain walls actually had mass, and how the effects of acceleration and deceleration could exactly compensate one another. Now we know domain walls can be positioned precisely along the racetracks simply by varying the length of the current pulses even though the walls have mass".
To achieve the densest and fastest possible memory, the domain walls inside the device must be moved at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour to atomically precise positions along the tracks. These timescales (tens of nanoseconds) and distances (micrometers) are surprisingly long, especially since previous experiments had shown no evidence for acceleration and deceleration for domain walls driven along smooth racetracks with current.
A closer look at Racetrack
For nearly fifty years, scientists have explored the possibility of storing information in magnetic domain walls, which are the boundaries between magnetic regions or "domains" in magnetic materials. Until now, manipulating domain walls was expensive, complex and used significant power to generate the fields necessary to do so. In a proof of concept paper in 2008(ii) IBM researchers were the first to demonstrate the potential of Racetrack memory, showing how the use of spin momentum considerably simplifies the memory device. The details and results of this research effort will be reported in the December 24, 2010 issue of Science. The paper is titled, "Dynamics of magnetic domain walls under their own inertia," and is authored by Luc Thomas, Rai Moriya, Charles Rettner and Stuart Parkin of IBM Research – Almaden.
For more information about Racetrack Memory, please visit: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/spinaps/research/sd/?racetrack
Apple's iOS devices currently support just 50 languages, out of thousands that are in use globally. Soon, that figure will creep up to 51. A fresh AP report notes that Cherokee Chief Chad Smith actually visited Apple and used students currently being schooled in immersion programs to "pull at the heartstrings" of Apple's brass, and eventually, Cupertino caved. The tribe has been working with Apple to develop Cherokee language software for the iPhone, iPod and iPad, the latter of which will purportedly become available at a later date. Naturally, this momentous occasion wouldn't have occurred without "years" of work, and while we're sure members of the Cherokee Nation are stoked to have the only American Indian language supported by Apple devices, this may actually serve to provide hope for others who speak less prominent tongues. All told, just 8,000 or so individuals still speak Cherokee, and most of those are aged 50 and up. But if Apple's willing to include support for that, who knows what else it'll become fluent in during the coming months.
LG swore up and down that it would be bumping its smart TV investment to kick-start 2011, and lo and behold, it looks as if this is one New Year's resolution that'll be kept. The aforesaid company has just revealed that it'll be bringing the planet's largest LED-backlit 3D LCD HDTV to CES 2011 next week, with the LZ9700 handling both 2D and 3D content and offering TruMotion 400Hz to smooth out Cam Newton's faster-than-fast evasion techniques. As you'd expect, this set is also outfitted with the company's Smart TV functions, giving owners access to TV apps, games, language classes, etc. The company's also talking up its Magic Motion Remote Control -- a diddy we'll definitely be anxious to put to the test once we land in Vegas. There's no mention of an expected price, but it'll be available starting in "early 2011" for those who passed on HDI's 100-incher.
LG TO INTRODUCE WORLD'S LARGEST FULL LED 3D TV AT CES 2011
LZ9700 Offers Rich, Life-Sized Images for a More Immersive Viewing Experience
SEOUL, Dec. 27, 2010 – LG Electronics (LG) will unveil the 72-inch LZ9700, the world's largest FULL LED-backlight LCD 3D TV (FULL LED 3D TV) at CES 2011 in Las Vegas. The LZ9700 gives viewers life-sized action with a beautifully crisp picture in both 2D and 3D.
Fitted with LG's innovative FULL LED technology, the LZ9700 is illuminated by a full panel of LEDs directly behind the screen, producing pictures as colorful as paintings in an art gallery. The extra spacious FULL LED screen size also makes the picture more expansive than ever, enabling viewers to experience superb picture quality with detailed images as big as, or larger than, real life.
Further enhancing the experience, the LZ9700 offers extraordinarily comfortable 3D viewing. Combining the world's largest FULL LED screen, the LZ9700's 3D takes on added depth and draws viewers even further into its immersive viewing experience. In addition, TruMotion 400Hz delivers a super-fast processing rate for exceptionally smooth 3D images.
"The LZ9700 combines the ultimate in LG's picture quality with our latest developments in 3D TV," said Mr. Havis Kwon, President and CEO of LG Home Entertainment Company. "With the LZ9700, LG is poised to take the lead in the TV market with the world's largest FULL LED screen that delivers a truly outstanding TV viewing experience."
This state-of-the-art TV is also fitted with LG's Smart TV functions. Via a strikingly simple Home Dashboard, this Smart TV delivers premium content from global providers as well as the best locally sourced shows and movies. It also provides access to LG's growing collection of TV apps, which offer everything from language classes to games. And thanks to LG's intuitive and easy-to-use Magic Motion Remote Control, the LZ9700's numerous functions are extremely simple to find and operate.
The LZ9700 will be available to customers early 2011; additional details to follow in local markets.
Main Features:
- FULL LED-backlight LCD 3D TV - 72-inch class - TruMotion 400Hz - Micro Pixel Control (Local Dimming) - Smart TV - Magic Motion Remote Control - Smart Share (DLNA, Media Link, USB, etc.)
Consider all the things you've bought from Amazon, all the things you wanted to, but couldn't afford to buy from Amazon, all the wildly popular fashions and fads that have gone through that online store's brief, but torrid history ... each of those has now been overshadowed by the mighty sales of the third-generation Kindle. Jeff Bezos and team have today announced that their latest and greatest Kindle has become their bestselling product of all time, thanks in no small part to an aggressive price that's been "low enough that people don't have to choose," as Jeff puts it, between an e-reader and a tablet -- they've just gone and bought both, apparently. Alas, we're still no closer to knowing the exact figure of Kindle sales, but who really cares at this point, the thing's looking like a runaway success.
Show full PR text
Third-Generation Kindle Now the Bestselling Product of All Time on Amazon Worldwide
In just five months, new Kindle replaces 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' as best-selling product in Amazon's history
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: AMZN)-Amazon.com today announced that the third-generation Kindle is now the bestselling product in Amazon's history, eclipsing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)." The company also announced that on its peak day, Nov. 29, customers ordered more than 13.7 million items worldwide across all product categories, which is a record-breaking 158 items per second.
"We're grateful to the millions of customers who have made the all-new Kindle the bestselling product in the history of Amazon -- surpassing Harry Potter 7," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. "We're seeing that many of the people who are buying Kindles also own an LCD tablet. Customers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies, and web browsing and their Kindles for reading sessions. They report preferring Kindle for reading because it weighs less, eliminates battery anxiety with its month-long battery life, and has the advanced paper-like Pearl e-ink display that reduces eye-strain, doesn't interfere with sleep patterns at bedtime, and works outside in direct sunlight, an important consideration especially for vacation reading. Kindle's $139 price point is a key factor -- it's low enough that people don't have to choose."
On Christmas Day, more people turned on new Kindles for the first time, downloaded more Kindle Buy Once, Read Everywhere apps, and purchased more Kindle books than on any other day in history. On the peak day this season, Amazon's worldwide fulfillment network shipped over 9 million units across all product categories. Amazon shipped to 178 countries. One of Amazon's most remote shipments contained the "Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue," "Toy Story" DVDs, "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul," NHL 11, Halo Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops and was delivered to the hamlet of Grise Fiord, north of the Arctic Circle in Canada. Amazon shipped over 350,000 units to APO/FPO addresses.
Kindle (Wi-Fi) and Kindle 3G were the best-selling products on Amazon.com this holiday season.
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was the most purchased Kindle book on Christmas Day.
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was the most gifted Kindle book on Christmas Day.
Of Amazon's top 500 most popular Kindle books, "The Dork Diaries" saw the greatest gain in popularity on Christmas Day.
There were millions of Price Checks from Black Friday through the FREE Super-Saver Shipping cut-off date (for delivery before Christmas).
During the holiday season, the biggest mobile shopping days for iPad, iPhone and Android users was Sunday, however the biggest mobile shopping day for BlackBerry users was Friday.
The last One-Day Prime order that was delivered in time for Christmas, was placed on Dec. 23 at 6:48 p.m. PST and shipped to Billerica, Mass., for delivery on Dec. 24. The item was a Nautica Men's NST Chronograph Bracelet Watch.
The last Local Express Delivery order that was delivered in time for Christmas was placed by a Prime member and went to Woodinville, Wash. It was an Apple Mac Mini that was ordered at 1:41 p.m. on Christmas Eve and delivered at 8:04 p.m. that evening.
Amazon customers purchased enough snow/tire chains to outfit the entire population of three of America's top ski cities: Aspen, Breckenridge and Sun Valley.
For the holiday time period alone, Amazon customers bought enough copies of "Eclipse" for Edward Cullen to watch the movie 1,000 times a day for all 109 years of his life.
Amazon customers purchased so many pairs of jeans that if you folded each pair and stacked them on top of each other, the height would be the equivalent of Mt. Everest.
Amazon customers purchased enough Kyjen Hide-a-Squirrels to hide one toy squirrel everyday for the next 100 years.
Amazon customers purchased more Philips Norelco shavers this holiday season than the average beard hairs on a man's face.
Oh, look at you Europe, with your white Christmas blizzards and your fancy satellites. All proud and bragging as your second internet-beaming vehicle in as many months rockets off into orbital oblivion. Following November's Hylas 1 is Ka-Sat, using the same spotbeam technology to rain down limited, focused areas of connectivity that are a couple-hundred kilometers across, allowing better management of overall satellite bandwidth. Hylas 1 used its beams to cover areas across the UK and Eastern Europe, while Ka-Sat will cover more areas of Europe and also hit parts of the Middle East. Maximum speeds offered to subscribers will be 10Mbps down, 4Mbps up, but with only 900Mbps on tap total per beam we're thinking that could get a little slower on Saturday nights. Obligatory countdown and blastoff video below.
Once one network attached storage manufacturer upgraded to 3TB hard drives, it was only a matter of time before the rest followed suit, and this time it's Synology's turn with the DiskStation DS1511+. In case you haven't done the math already, this particular unit can store up to 15 terabytes of your juiciest secrets across five 3TB hot-swappable drives, and its 1.8GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of memory handles a RAID 5 array capable of speeding that data across a local area network at up to 197 MB / sec read speeds and 165 MB / sec writes. If that capacity isn't enough to house your plan for world domination and monitor all the IP cameras in your underground volcano lair, the unit can scale up to 45TB with a couple of secondary expansion units, each with five more 3TB drives of their own. Yours for roughly $900 -- sans storage -- wherever NAS are sold. PR after the break.
Show full PR text
Synology® Unveils High-Performance DiskStation DS1511+ with Greater Scalability and Full-Featured NAS Solution for SMB Users
Taipei, Taiwan-Dec 21, 2010-Synology® Inc. today unveiled DiskStation DS1511+, a high-performance NAS server that offers greater scalability, significant storage capacity and full-featured business NAS solutions for SMB users.
As information data increases exponentially by the minute, the performance of data transmission becomes a predominant requirement for setting up a centralized file server in a business environment. "With link aggregation, the DS1511+ surpasses its predecessor to deliver an astonishing 197 MB/sec in reading speed under RAID 5 configuration in a Windows® environment, and 165 MB/sec in writing," said Chad Chiang, the product manager of Synology Inc. The 2 LAN structure with failover support coupled with hot-swappable drives thus ensure high data availability.
The DS1511+ provides space for five hard drives – with a single drive reaching a 3TB capacity – that can be scaled up to a total of 15 drives for a maximum of 45TB by connecting with two Synology DX510 expansion units. The default 1GB RAM can also be upgraded to 3GB to enhance work process performance. Running on a 1.8GHz dual-core processor, the DS1511+ only consumes 68 watts of power during operation, while the multiples scheduled on/off, wake on LAN/WAN and hard drive hibernation facilitate energy saving and low operating cost. The reliability of DS1511+ is solidified by Synology's 3-year limited warranty.
Blessed by the Synology DiskStation Manager 3.0 (DSM 3.0) operation system, the DS1511+ can fit to a business environment easily. Windows ACL support allows for customized privilege setup on files and folders through existing Windows user interface. Moreover, user account can be managed more efficiently and productively by utilizing the Windows ADS integration to reduce burden of IT administration.
For anyone seeking an alternative of Storage-Area-Network (SAN), the affordable and cost-effective iSCSI support in DSM 3.0 allows SMB users to consolidate storage into data center storage arrays while providing hosts with the illusion of locally-attached disks. The DS1511+ also serves as a seamless storage solution for virtualization servers, such as VMware® vSphereTM, Microsoft Hyper-VTM, and Citrix® XenServerTM.
The Synology DS1511+ has many features that enhance the effectiveness of resource sharing. The comprehensive network protocol support assures seamless file sharing across Windows, Mac® and Linux platforms, while file access on the Internet is simplified by the encrypted FTP server and the web-based file browser. In terms of security protection, the presence of HTTPS, firewall, IP auto-block and AES 256-bit encryption engine provides users with a peace-of-mind during file sharing.
Availability
The Synology DS1511+ is now shipping globally.
Please find the product photos in the following link: http://www.synology.com/enu/marketing/photos/ds1511+.php
Synology at a Glance
Founded in 2000, Synology is a young and energetic company dedicated to developing high-performance, reliable, versatile, and environmentally-friendly Network Attached Storage (NAS) products. Our goal is to deliver user-friendly solutions and solid customer service to satisfy the needs of businesses, home offices, individual users and families.
Recording music on iOS? Been there, done that. A major artist recording its latest album on an iPad? That's something new, and that's what Gorillaz has done for its latest release: The Fall. Anyone can listen to the album for free, but members of the fan club can give it a download and archive it for future posterity. How'd the band make it? We can't say, but surely there was some cell-shading involved, and here's the list of apps that were said to be used:
We've included one track below for you to listen to yourself and hear what the pinnacle of modern iPad harmony sounds like. We're no music critics, but it seems safe to say it's no Tomorrow Comes Today -- which we also embedded, purely for comparison purposes.
One of the lesser known predictions of the Mayan calendar foretells that 2011 will be the year of NFC. The contactless communications stuff looks to be building all kinds of stream in the Western world, but don't lose faith in your current smartphone if it doesn't already have it. Japanese carrier Softbank has responded to complaints about the iPhone 4's NFC deficit -- the FeliCa payment system is pretty popular over in the land of sumo, sushi and sun-rising -- by introducing a new "seal" for the back of Apple's latest and greatest. It sticks on, covering almost the entire rear, but is apparently thin enough not to get in the way of using one of Apple's own Bumpers alongside it. From our reading of the press release, the sticker doesn't actually communicate with the iPhone, it's just a dumb NFC card, but hey, other people don't need to know that when you're swiping payments with your phone, now do they? On sale in February at a price of ¥2,980 ($36).
Dell's still calling this a Mobile Internet Device, but you can call it by any of its codenames: Looking Glass, M02M, iPad eviscerator, they're all in here. Yes, the FCC has spent a month of quality time with Dell's still unofficial, but very much upcoming, tablet and has given the go-ahead for its integrated 3G (the listed UMTS bands II, IV and V indicate compatibility with both AT&T and T-Mobile), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and 802.11n WiFi radios. Labeling for the attached (and apparently not removable) door on the back of the device indicates an SD card slot, which will sit right alongside a SIM card port. The latter will presumably be used mostly to funnel data into the Dell tablet, but voice calls aren't completely out of the question either -- there's a (inactive) proximity sensor thrown in as well. Either way, Dell's almost sure to launch this device, expected to feature a 7-inch screen and Tegra 2 internals, at CES next week.
Samsung Hub is reporting this morning that Samsung intends to introduce a new Galaxy Player to the tech gathering known as CES early next month. We've not been able to track down Samsung's official word on the matter, but the Hub's information details a 4-inch Super Clear LCD display with 800 x 480 resolution, Android 2.2 as the operating system (replete with Sammy's own TouchWiz layer, by the look of that screenshot above), a 1GHz CPU, 3.2 megapixel imager on the back plus a front-facing camera, and a 1200mAh battery. Android Market access is also in the cards, apparently, but when (or if?) this most worthy successor to the Galaxy Player 50 will make its US retail debut remains a mystery for now. We'll be sure to ask when we get our hands on the new hardware next week.
Ah, the joy of getting something for nothing -- that's what this time of year is all about, right? The techPowerUp! guys seem to think so, and they've got the perfect gift for all you thrifty PC gaming enthusiasts: a BIOS flash for the Radeon HD 6950 that unlocks the full potential of its hardware (in other words, it turns it into an HD 6970). We already knew the two retail SKUs were built on the same Cayman core, but this hack confirms that all the 6950's performance handicaps have been enacted in software rather than hardware, leaving you all to flip a switch, click a few confirmatory dialogs, and get your game on. You should be aware that the retail 6970 card uses an 8-pin and a 6-pin connector for its auxiliary power whereas the 6950 only has a pair of 6-pin intakes, which might cause trouble under extreme loads, and there's also the fact that you'll most likely be hacking your warranty away together with your GPU's limitations. But hey, you can't make eggnog without cracking a few eggs.
HP's disregard for Intel's officially scheduled Sandy Bridge launch continues today, with the news that Singaporean malls are already stocking Pavilion dv6 laptops with the new Core i7 silicon lurking within. It's the same quad-core i7-2630QM chip that popped up on a dv7 spec sheet not too long ago -- it runs at 2GHz by default, but dynamic overclocking and disabling of cores can take that up to the 2.8GHz mark. Keeping it company inside HP's 15.6-inch laptop are 4GB of RAM and AMD's Radeon HD 6570M GPU. The entire machine is described as indistinguishable, in terms of construction, from HP's current crop of dv6s, leaving the precious internals to justify a price of 1,899 Singapore dollars (about $1,460).
A quick gander at Samsung's Canadian support site for the Galaxy S line reveals that two Android 2.2 updates are currently available: one for the Vibrant -- offered by Bell, Virgin Mobile, and SaskTel -- and one for the Fascinate as sold be Telus. This all follows just a few days after Sammy had to pull the Vibrant's Froyo update on word that it seemed be killing the internal microSD storage, so hopefully, this build will be just a little more drama-free. Oh, and Samsung had originally said that Telus Fascinate owners would be waiting until next year to upgrade their units, so it's pretty neat that they were able to rein that in a bit and get it pushed at the tail end of '10. So have fun, Canadians -- you've beaten your friends with T-Mobile Vibrants and Verizon Fascinates to the punch on this one, and we encourage you to lord it over them at every opportunity.
Do you recognize this handset? Neither do we, and that's kind of the point. We're looking at a never-before seen Sony Ericsson smartphone running Android -- neither the Anzu / X12 nor the PlayStation Phone -- and if we're not terribly mistaken, that's the company's translucent Timescape UI on top. Oh, and it seems to be attached to Vodafone Germany, for whatever that's worth. What's more, the picture itself only tells half the story, as the other half is where it came from -- a Picasa account filled to the brim with 8 megapixel test shots from a pair of camera phones. It's hard to say whether either the Sony Ericsson "LT15i" or the "MT15i" are the device we're actually looking at here, but the brethren have now fired off over 150 images testing out these camera modules. Rumor has it that both are running Gingerbread and that this one's internal codename is "Hallon," but honestly we're more interested in that huge camera module on the front. HD video chat, perhaps? Find a full-frontal picture after the break, and plenty more at our source links.
It's always fun when scientists discover new stuff about really old cultures, especially when it has to do with getting weird and rocking out. Recent research suggests temples built around 600 A.D. in Palenque, Mexico were designed with projection rooms that shot the sound of voices and instruments 300 feet away with the help of stucco-coated surfaces. 1600 years before that, in the Peruvian Andes, a pre-Incan society in Chavín was constructing a nightmarish Gallery of Labyrinths to play "strange acoustic tricks" during cult initiations: animal-like roars from horns, disorienting echoes, and maybe even choirs designed to produce otherworldly effects. And all of this while the poor inductees were being fed psychedelic San Pedro cacti. Yikes! To a certain extent this is all speculation, but we can tell you that if we were ancient priests with this kind of gear at our disposal we'd be using it for mind-controlling purposes too. Just because!
This isn't Google TV, though we can see why you'd ask. No, this monster is merely the world's largest fully-functionalNexus S handset. Presently on display in a Best Buy store in San Carlos, California, the enormous Android is equipped with a 42-inch multitouch screen, rigged to a real Nexus S that does all the processing. There's a working camera, internet access and the whole Android 2.3 user interface to explore, though it does look a mite difficult to navigate in the video below. Did we mention there's a video? Stop reading, hit the break, and get on with the show!
Running Android on the Nokia N900 has been an ongoing theme for the better part of the past year -- and with hardware designed from the ground up to be both hackable and high-end, we'd expect no less. Indeed, Android 2.3 is the latest victim of an N900 sneak attack, and impressively, core components like messaging already seem to be working -- likely thanks to the fact that hackers had already gotten pre-2.3 builds rock solid. What's even more impressive, though, is how smooth and generally non-janky everything seems to be -- smooth enough so that you might be able to do this as your daily driver if Maemo 5 is starting to wear thin for you. Nokia might not approve, but then again, we don't approve of the N9 still not being announced... so yeah, tit for tat, as it were.
NeuroSky's mind-reading headsets haven't exactly revolutionized modern user input -- they just measure midichlorian count and control an app or three -- but the company's definitely moving towards products that the general public can take seriously. This BrainAthlete system, for instance, first graced Tokyo Game Show 2010 as an ugly sweatband, but has since graduated to this handsome golf visor cap, which merely measures an athlete's brainwaves as they play rather than promise brain control. The idea is that trainers can analyze the data in real time, and potentially find strengths and weaknesses in their charges' state of mind. The 40,000 yen (about $483) went on sale in Japan early this month, and promises to find stateside availability in the first quarter of next year. Plenty of time for you to figure out how you're going to get one onto your opponent's head. Video after the break.
Show full PR text
NeuroSky Partner B-Bridge International, Inc. announces BrainAthlete
Tokyo, Japan, December 21, and San Jose, CA, USA, December 20, 2010 - B-Bridge International proudly unveils the first brainwave athletic trainer. Powered by NeuroSky, the leader in mass-market Brain-Computer Interface technology, the BrainAthlete system is the first sports training unit available for general consumers to track an athlete's level of concentration, helping them find their "zone." Engineered into a standard golf visor, three non-invasive contact points in the headband monitor the EEG electrical activity from the brain to determine the athlete's mental states.
The BrainAthlete visor will allow athletes and trainers to track concentration levels during a workout activity, such as a golf swing, and analyze the performance in real time or after the completion of the training session. "We have found that there is a lot of interest in how this device can help athletes more easily 'get into the zone,'" states Hiro Masumoto, president and CEO of B-Bridge International.
"For the past five years, we have focused on research of mental sports performance. We are pleased to finally have a product that will be available to the public and specifically for peak sports training," states NeuroSky CEO, Stanley Yang.
NeuroSky has been working with the USA Olympic Archery team for over four years, but the concept of "mental training" goes back much further. "When it comes to expert level players or athletes, the difference between win or lose, gold or silver is often the athlete's mind", says Dr. Lee, NeuroSky's CTO and one of the company founders.
The potential of this technology and device to help other athletes - amateur or professional level - is huge. According to the National Golf Foundation, there are 28.8 million American golfers. Acknowledged as a mental game by many, golf is the ideal sport to introduce the neuro-feedback technology because it can help golfers improve on their skills.
As a professor of psychology at Arizona State University, Dr. Debra Crews has been studying golfers' brainwaves for a decade. She sees a correlation between mental state and performance accuracy. Her challenge has been the lack of portability in bringing medical EEG to the golf course. "EEG will be a factor in golf coaching and other sports where mental acuity influences outcomes." Dr. Crews would historically record EEG data and return to her office on campus later to conduct analysis.
The product began shipping in Japan on December 1. It will be available in the US in the first quarter of 2011 at a price to be determined.
Technical Specifications: Expected Price: 40,000 Japanese yen Bluetooth Ver.1.2 Operation range: Max.10m` Operation time: Max 2 hours Weight: 100g Currently available on Windows (Mac and mobile versions will be launched next year) About B - Bridge International, Inc. The B in B - Bridge stands for Biotechnology and Be the bridge between USA and Japan. Currently, the company focuses on business development, incubation and R&D for brain-wave detection systems in partnership with NeuroSky Technologies.
For more information about B-Bridge, please visit http://www.b-bridge.com/.
For Brain Athlete product, please visit Japanese site, www.brainathlete.jp, or http://store.neuro-bridge.com/ for the online store For more information on B-Bridge, please contact hq@b-bridge.com or (408) 252-6200.
About NeuroSky
NeuroSky, Inc. is the leader in Brain-Computer Interface technologies for consumer product application. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in San Jose, CA, NeuroSky works with industry partners, developers, and with academic and research institutions, to provide innovative products and solutions across a wide range of areas. Technological innovations include significant advancements in "noise" reduction, dry-sensor development (rather than requiring a conductive gel), substantial "cost engineering" (reducing the price), and enabling the wearer to use it outside of a lab (without the assistance of a doctor).
Xbox Live and the Achievement system kind of reinvented the high score list, letting you compete against your friends even when you're roaming solo through a stark, barren wasteland. It looks like Nissan is doing much the same with the Leaf -- but minus the bloatflies and the supermutants. As the cars are now rolling out to eager owners we're learning more about just what its Carwings system can do and another neat trick is the "Regional Rankings" page, where one driver's driving efficiency is rated against others in the area. There are bronze, silver, and gold medals up for grabs but, if you cover the thing with speed tape and only commute downhill, you might just be awarded the platinum award. What does that get you? Why, a little picture of a trophy, of course. What were you expecting?
If you can't tell your DRAM from your STT-MRAM, you'll need to bear with us for a sec: IBM's figured out the math required to read and write data from the spaces between magnetic fields, racing across a nanowire, at hundreds of miles per hour. IBM's been plugging away at the so-called racetrack memory since 2004, calling it the perfect hybrid of magnetic storage and flash, but until recently scientists didn't know whether the magnetic domain walls (where data will live) had any mass to speak of. As it turns out, they do, and thus have to obey the tiresome laws of physics as they move along the nanowire "track," but also accelerate and decelerate the exact same amount, more or less canceling out the effect. Long story short, IBM can use this knowledge to precisely position those 1s and 0s in their newfound data bank, and someday we'll all reap the benefits of dense, speedy and reliable memory. You know, assuming PRAM, FeRAM, ReRAM and memristors don't eat IBM's lunch. PR after the break. 
No comments:
Post a Comment