Items tagged with ally
LG has been rather quiet when talking specifics about their new Ally smartphone. Ever since Iron Man 2 became the most promoted thing in America, the company has been dropping hints here and there about what exactly the Android-powered phone would bring. Today, Verizon Wireless moved to remove the mysteries surrounding it, but given that the HTC EVO 4G was also officially revealed today, we'd say the timing here could have been a little better. If you're committed to VZW and have no interest in testing the 4G waters, LG's Ally isn't a bad option. Featuring a large 3.2" touch screen (with vibration feedback), a silver-and-black case, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, microSD card slot, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi,...
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You might not realize this, but Yahoo quietly launched a new way to provide search results last night. This new paradigm is called Yahoo! Glue, is currently in beta in the U.S., and is based on a similar program Yahoo! has already been experimenting with in India for the last few months. If you perform a search on Yahoo! you are not going to see anything different--Yahoo! Glue currently resides on its own standalone site at glue.yahoo.com, and you'll need to perform searches specifically from Yahoo! Glue if you want to see the new search results selections and layout.The focus of Yahoo! Glue is to offer an alternative to what has traditionally been a text-heavy-based model and to make providing...
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Windows PC owners have been able to enjoy Netflix's Watch Instantly movie and TV streaming service since January 2007. The service even significantly expanded the quantity and quality of its streaming content recently by partnering with CBS Television Network, Disney-ABC Television Group, and Starz Entertainment. But Netflix customers who own Macs have been all but left out in the cold. The Netflix Watch Instantly service currently doesn't work on Macs. The only way a Mac user could use the service would be to use in on a Windows partition running Boot Camp. But this is all about to change, thanks to none other than Microsoft... If you spent any amount of time online this last August, you would...
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Although an application store on a mobile phone isn’t exactly new, the idea of having this functionality on a BlackBerry is. At the BlackBerry Developer Conference, RIM announced a new online application storefront and a new on-device application center for BlackBerry smartphones. RIM plans to launch the application storefront in March 2009. Developers can start submitting applications and content for inclusion in the storefront starting in December. This storefront will allow developers to set their own prices for applications and retain 80% of the revenue generated from sales of their applications. PayPal will provide payment services within the application storefront. Under the plan, organizations...
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A new commercial PC game came out two days ago from a brand new game development and publishing company. The game is called CellZenith and the company is called Faramix Enterprises. What make this a unique story is not actually the game (full disclosure: we've not played the game, so we cannot comment intelligently about it), but the story behind the game's making and the genesis of the company... Credit: Faramix Enterprises Three young men in their twenties, from three different states, enrolled in the online bachelor's degree program for Game and Simulation Programming (GSP) with DeVry University. Their mutual interest in games development quickly clicked with each other and they not only decided...
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What do you know? The fourth time is the charm, at least for the Falcon 1 two-stage SpaceX rocket. This was the fourth flight of the rocket, and it became the first commercial space vehicle to reach earth orbit. Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX, who made his fortune as co-founder of PayPal prior to starting this space venture, said: "This is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team. The data shows we achieved a super precise orbit insertion—middle of the bull's-eye — and then went on to coast and restart the second stage, which was icing on the cake."Of course, the saddest part about the failure of flight 3 was the loss of not just...
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In a move that will leave many saying, "Duh! What took so long," the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) has just added movie and TV streaming to its site. IMDb has long been the first stop for many (IMDb.com claims 57 million users) looking to find information related to movies, TV shows, and the people associated with them, such as actors and filmmakers. Available now, the Amazon.com-owned company hosts "over 6,000 full-length feature films and TV episodes for free." This new features is currenly labeled as a "Beta." IMDb.com will feature a rotating selection of video content from providers such as "CBS, Hulu, Sony Pictures Television and over 500 independent filmmakers." Content will include...
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When microprocessor manufacturers ran into increasing complications as they tried to make chips runs faster, they shifted gears, and started building more powerful processors using multiple cores. We're still at the early part of the multi-core revolution, but researchers at the University of Rochester claim that microprocessor manufacturers will eventually run into similar challenges with today's multi-core processor design because of the "limits of miniaturization." So what comes next? The answer still lies with multi-core processors; but instead of just packing cores in next to each other on the same plane, the cores will be stacked on top of each other vertically. The concept of a three-dimensional...
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Do you remember that half a billion dollar Microsoft ad campaign we told you about a couple of months ago, architected to improve the image of Microsoft and Windows Vista? Well, the first two ads in the campaign have hit, and if nothing else, they've got people talking.The first ad featured Jerry Seinfeld stumbling upon Bill Gates shopping in a Shoe Circus store for discount shoes. There's some wacky banter between the two, a few funny moments, and an Easter egg or two (am I the only one that noticed Bill's mugshot on the platinum card?), but basically nothing Microsoft or technology related comes up, except for an off the wall question from Jerry at the very end.The brand new second ad...
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Today's Web search engines are driven primarily by searching for text keywords. This works fairly well when what you are searching for is words; but it fails pretty miserably when you are searching for video. Video search is almost entirely dependent on someone taking the time to manually (and accurately) add text tags to videos to make them searchable. This is all about to change, however, if VideoSurf's claims are true: The company says it has developed a way to visually search videos for it content: "VideoSurf is a computer vision search engine that has created a new way for users to easily find, discover and watch the videos from across the Web. Founded in 2006 by leading experts in computer...
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Talk about cannibalizing sales from Windows Vista. It's bad enough Microsoft has to worry about XP doing that, but ... All right, all right, obviously we're just kidding. And yes, you read that right. Windows for Workgroups (WFW) 3.11 is still being sold. Microsoft is selling it in the Embedded Channel. However, in a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft announced that as of November 1st, that venerable old OS would go the way of the dodo.As John Coyne announced in the blog post: for those that were not aware, we recently announced that effective November 1st, 2008, OEM's will no longer be able to license Windows for Workgroups 3.11 in the embedded channel. Now we all know that it's been long gone...
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Gamers, start your tentacles! Today is the day that Electronic Arts releases the long awaited, first step of the Spore evolution: Spore Creature Creator. For the uninitiated, Spore is a single-player, simulation game where you manipulate the evolution of an entire species of creatures from single-cell organisms through the development of civilization and even onto deep-space exploration. It is the brainchild of Will Wright--the genius behind the Sims series of game titles. Spore has been referred to as "Sim Everything" or even "Sim Life." Available today for both PC and Mac, the Spore Creature Creator is a stand-alone product and creativity toy box where players create their own unique creatures,...
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As hard as it may be to believe, Windows XP SP3 has finally shipped to manufacturing. Users will be able to download it on 4/29.Keroack confirmed that date today. "We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the Web on April 29, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center," he said.Users will be able to update their XP systems to SP3 starting next week, but they will have to select the optional download in Windows Update or download a much larger, stand-alone installer from the Microsoft site. The company won't begin pushing XP SP3 to users who have Windows Update set to automatically download and install important patches or fixes until "early summer," said Keroack....
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Soft errors, they sound a little less ominous than hard errors, don't they? Actually, both are not a lot of fun for the average computer processor or memory chip. A soft error, relative to semiconductor technology, is corruption inside of the memory structure of a device where bits are flipped inadvertently. Soft errors have become much more of a concern than ever before, as chip technologies shrink smaller and smaller. And the chip manufacturer with the most skin in the game right now is of course, Intel. Bleeding-edge 45nm process technology allows for more powerful, complex chip designs but also brings with it, higher risk of soft errors...
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Although as early as Saturday NHK had reported the decision by Toshiba to drop HD-DVD had already been made by Toshiba, the company did not publicly announce it - until today. "We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a...
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MP3 is a lossy format - meaning you lose quality from the original. Because of that fact, wording in a recently passed Italian law may have just made trading MP3 files legal.The law states that music or images that are at "degraded or low resolution" can be distributed on the Internet "for scientific or educational use, and only when such use is not for profit," according to a rough translation.Experts that have reviewed the law told the Italian daily La Repubblica that even though MP3's are not specifically mentioned, the fact that the word degraded is used implies the existence of that format, which is by technical definition a "lossy" format that loses some fidelity through degradation. An...
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No press release yet, but with CES upcoming companies are "slipping out" details on CES-specific pages on their websites. Sony is no different, and it looks like, according to their site, that Skype is finally coming to the PSP. Details are scarce at the moment (i.e., nonexistent), but the company makes clear mention of a Skype client for the handheld game system on its CES 2008 promo site, which is pretty official -- though we're gonna hold our breath a little till we see a press release. Of course, until there's a press release, they could always pull back on this (editing the page would be so easy!), but at least for now it looks like PSPs are finally going to get VoIP functionality....
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Over the course of the past few months, we've brought you detailed analysis on Intel's forward-looking products based on their 45nm Penryn core architecture. At the time, these products were not officially launched in the various sales channels. Today Intel has announced official full availability of a number of new processors based on their bleeding-edge 45nm High-k metal gate silicon process technology that offers both lower power consumption and higher clock speeds... INTEL’S FUNDAMENTAL ADVANCE IN TRANSISTOR DESIGN EXTENDS MOORE’S LAW, COMPUTING PERFORMANCE Sixteen Eco-Friendly, Faster and ‘Cooler’ Chips Incorporate 45nm...
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The federal government doesn't understand the Internet. That might be a good thing, because if they understood it, they'd probably wreck it. But the Internet would like to understand the federal government, and it can't, because the enormous amount of publicly available information about the government isn't configured to allow it to be seen by webcrawlers. And let's face it: If Google can't see you, you don't exist on the Internet. Google is working with legislators to change that. The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will consider S. 2321, which extends and updates the E-Government Act of 2002. Part of the bill directs the Office of Management and Budget to create guidance...
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INTEL’S FUNDAMENTAL ADVANCE IN TRANSISTOR DESIGN EXTENDS MOORE’S LAW, COMPUTING PERFORMANCE Sixteen Eco-Friendly, Faster and ‘Cooler’ Chips Incorporate 45nm Hafnium-Based High-k Metal Gate Transistors SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 11, 2007 – Built using an entirely new transistor formula that alleviates the wasteful electricity leaks that threaten the pace of future computer innovation, Intel Corporation today unveiled 16 server and high-end PC processors. In addition to increasing computer performance and saving energy use, these processors also eliminate eco-unfriendly lead and, in 2008, halogen materials. Called the biggest transistor advancements in 40 years by Intel Co-Founder Gordon Moore,...
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The much anticipated 45 nanometer scale Penryn chip from Intel will be formally announced today in at an event in San Francisco. Shrinking circuit size from 65 nanometer is great, but the big news about the processor might be what it's made from. Instead of silicon dioxide, the Penryn will be made from a material called hafnium. The new materials for making transistors, meanwhile, can increase their switching speeds by more than 20% while reducing their power consumption by about 30%, Intel estimates. Intel's latest chip designs have other features to raise efficiency. Performance increases, compared with earlier models, average 7% to 13% at the same clock speed, Mr. Perlmutter says....
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How many times have you been annoyed by a cell phone user, practically shouting into his or her phone on a bus or subway? Or been annoyed by someone's phone ringing in the theatre? More than you can count, right? Unless, of course, you are of the offenders. Ever wish you could rip the phone out of their hands, or just tell them to knock it off? Some are doing more than that, illegally, however.One afternoon in early September, an architect boarded his commuter train and became a cellphone vigilante. He sat down next to a 20-something woman who he said was “blabbing away” into her phone.“She was using the word ‘like’ all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl,”...
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