Items tagged with ease
The GPS market as a whole changed when Google introduces its Maps Navigation feature on the Motorola Droid. All of a sudden, real GPS was available to anyone willing to support Android, and buying those dedicated navigators suddenly felt less necessary. In response, it seems that both Garmin and TomTom are being more mindful of pricing, and there's no better proof that the TomTom EASE. This new entry-level navigation unit is super thin, super small and will supposedly be super cheap. It's designed to provide only the basics to those in need of a routing system, with a 3.5" display, 6.1oz. chassis, 2GB of Flash storage, preloaded maps of the US from Tele Atlas and text to speed. Drivers can easily...
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Kanguru Solutions Releases First Of Its Kind eSATA + USB Flash Drive November 19, 2008 09:17 AM Eastern Time - MILLIS, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kanguru Solutions, announces the release of the Kanguru e-Flash™, a cutting edge flash drive with both eSATA and USB connectivity. Utilizing eSATA (External Serial ATA) technology allows the Kanguru e-Flash to achieve performance speeds never before obtainable with standard USB Flash Drives. This performance, coupled with large storage capacities means the Kanguru e-Flash can handle any application or data file, regardless of size. In addition to eSATA, it also contains a USB2.0 connection for universal connectivity to virtually any computer.The...
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Since launching the MobileMe syncing service in July, Apple has been working on various fixes. Earlier this week, Apple revealed that 27 changes were made late last month. MobileMe is a hosted service, so you don’t have to do anything to get the updates—Apple made all of the changes on the servers. All components of the service were affected by the update, with MobileMe Mail receiving the most updates. Keyboard shortcuts that didn’t behave as expected were fixed, along with a bug that didn’t remove messages from the Drafts folder once they were sent. MobileMe Mail users should also see improved performance when first logging in to MobileMe Mail and also when Junk Mail Filtering is enabled. The...
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NVIDIA has just recently released a fresh set of beta drivers from some GeForce cards with plenty of noteworthy changes and updates. The GeForce 180 series drivers as they are known are still currently in the beta phase, but NVIDIA wanted to get them out the door ASAP because these new drivers incorporate significant FarCry 2 performance enhancements of the 170 series drivers. But there's more to these drivers than just some FarCry tweaks. First, here are the release highlights as per NVIDIA's website:Beta driver for GeForce 200-series, 9-series, and 8800-series desktop GPUs (refer to the products supported tab for more detail).Recommended for the best experience on Far Cry 2: “Since we first...
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Mozilla’s mobile Firefox browser, dubbed Fennec, just got one step closer to launch. Last week, Mozilla formally released the alpha version of the mobile browser for developers. At release, the alpha version is only available to Nokia N800 and N810 Internet Tablets, but it’s also available for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs so developers and other users without these Tablets can still experiment and build add-ons. It’s important to note, however, that the desktop version of Fennec is not a supported product. Early screen shots of Fennec on Windows Mobile show that Fennec isn’t immune to the space constraint problems many other mobile browsers face in trying to cram navigation controls and content...
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Text-heavy users rejoice: AT&T just released four new phones just for you. Sporting QWERTY keyboards, these phones are designed for text-heavy users who don't need corporate e-mail access and other features you'd typically see on a smartphone. Here's a closer look at each of the new phones: Pantech MatrixThe Pantech Matrix comes in navy blue and black with green and will also be available on the 16th in red. It is $79.99 with a two-year agreement and discounts, and it features the same double-keypad design that is found on the Pantech Duo. Just slide the phone vertically, and you'll see a number pad. A horizontal slide reveals the full QWERTY keyboard. The Matrix...
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It's difficult to function productively in a professional or educational environment without access to Microsoft Office. Many offices supply the software to its employees at work and some universities even give copies of it to incoming students. But if you don't fall into either camp and you require a legal copy of the software, you could spend anywhere between $149.95 and $679.95, depending on which version you need. And you might want to start saving your pennies now, because the next version of Microsoft Office (codenamed "Office 14") is rumored to be due out sometime next year (the Alpha program for Office 14 should begin in the next two months). Microsoft Office is not the only game in town,...
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High-End Graphics for Mainstream Consumers - Meet the first 1 Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 4670 Graphics Card CHATSWORTH, CA - Diamond Multimedia (www.diamondmm.com), a leading manufacturer of PC graphics cards, sound cards and communications products, launched today the ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card. The 4600 series of cards boast up to 3 times the performance of the previous generation of GPUs.The HD 4670 is a single slot card, PCIE 2.0, with 1024MB of DDR3 memory and a clock speed of 750 MHz. The memory speed is 900 MHz, designed with 320 stream processors.The HD 4670 provides plug-and-play ATI CrossFireX upgradeability with up to quad-GPU support. Making it fast and efficient is ATI’s Power...
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Plug in two drives: Sharkoon has endowed its popular QuickPort with a second hard drive slot, now offering its docking station for externally housed mass-storage in the model "SATA QuickPort Duo".With the Sharkoon QuickPort, a 2.5" or 3.5" SATA hard drive can be quickly and easily connected to computers without permanent installation in an external enclosure. Now, a second HDD slot allows the QuickPort Duo to service two hard drives at once, irrespective of whether they are 2.5" or 3.5" drives. The two slots are covered by folding covers with small cut-outs for notebook hard drives. Both smaller and larger hard drives are held securely in place, and drives are removed through an easy-to-use release...
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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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NVIDIA has posted a fresh set of Forceware drivers for all of you GeForce owners out there. The new Forceware 178.13s are WHQL-certified drivers for GeForce 6-series, 7-series, 8-series, 9-series, and 200-series GPUs, including the recently released GeForce 9800 GTX+, 9800 GT, 9500 GT and 9400 GT GPUs.In addition to a number of bug fixes, NVIDIA has updated support for PysX in these new drivers and they also allow for two- and three-way SLI configurations on the Skulltrail platform.A number of performance enhancement are offered with the drivers as well, which include... Single GPU increases up to 11% in 3DMark Vantage (performance preset) Single GPU increases up to 11% in Assassin's Creed DX10...
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WD Best-Selling Portable Drives Put Half a Terabyte of Storage In The Palm of Your Hand LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Sep. 15, 2008 - Catering to consumers on-the-go with the world's most popular portable storage offerings, WD (NYSE: WDC) today introduced its new 500 GB capacity My Passport Portable USB Drives which are designed to make it easy to store a half a terabyte of music, videos or photos and carry them in the palm of your hand. Available now at WD's online store (www.shopwd.com), the new 500 GB capacity is offered on the My Passport Elite and My Passport Essential portable drive models.A recent consumer study conducted by WD of 1,559 external hard drive users revealed that 54 percent...
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If you were one of the lucky people who wanted to try the new "Genius" feature of iTunes 8, and had an HP USB printer driver installed and said printer connection --- or perhaps a few other drivers --- you might have experienced the (yes, it's still part of Windows) tried and true BSOD when you plugged in your iPod.The BSOD was happening in usbappl.sys, and a few various workarounds were posted at the Apple support forums, including unplugging or turning off your HP printer when plugging in your iPod (or iPhone, whatever). Low-tech, right?Well, today Apple re-released iTunes 8.0.0.35 with a fix. No more BSOD. Of course, they did it the lazy way. They removed the new driver...
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Not satisfied with Firefox 3.0.1? Want to see if Firefox 3.1 is really faster than Chrome, as Mozilla claims (though it's arguable)? Well, last night Mozille released the second alpha for Firefox 3.1. Note the word "alpha.:" Beta is buggy enough, but Alpha starts to stretch the limits a little.Shiretoko Alpha 2 is an early developer milestone for the next version of Firefox that is being built on top of Mozilla's Gecko 1.9.1 layout engine, Shiretoko Alpha 2 is being made available for testing purposes only, and is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox should not use Shiretoko Alpha 2.Yes, they are indeed warning...
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In a Monday press release, Amazon.com announced that buyers who want to get their hands on some upcoming hot games can upgrade their shipping to be assured they'll get them on release day: Gamers have been asking for it and Amazon has answered the call. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that it will offer release-date delivery for "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09," "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed," "Fable 2" and "Gears of War 2." For $5.98, Amazon customers can upgrade their shipping option for guaranteed delivery of these titles on the first day of availability to all addresses within the continental United States. Additionally, Amazon Prime customers will receive release-date delivery for...
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Thecus Reveals the AMD Processor-Based N4100PROThe Leader in Digital Storage Turbo-Charges the Four-Bay NAS 08/18/2008 – Beginning with the introduction of the N4100 NAS device, Thecus has rocked the world of digital storage with innovation after innovation. Today, Thecus is proud to reveal the brand new 4-bay NAS – N4100PRO. With powerful new RAID options, a built-in LCD, and vastly improved data throughput, the N4100PRO ups the ante once again with increased usability, functionality, and performance. Powered by the AMD Geode LX800 processor and 256MB of DDR400 memory, the N4100PRO delivers the raw horsepower required to transfer files quickly and efficiently. With updated hardware and a ton...
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The potential throttling by ISPs of certain types of Internet traffic has been in the news quite a bit lately. In fact, this last Friday, the FCC issued a ruling (PDF) against Comcast, stating that "Comcast's network management practices discriminate among applications rather than treating all equally and are inconsistent with the concept of an open and accessible Internet." Whether the FCC actually has the authority to take action against Comcast in this matter is still under debate, but the core of the FCC's argument is that Comcast engaged in "discriminatory network management practices" by monitoring and selectively blocking users' access to peer-to-peer (P2P) connections. The FCC's position...
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Perhaps those of us who live the United States take our freedoms for granted. We can complain all we want about inappropriate content in Grand Theft Auto IV, but we'll stand behind the right of Rockstar Games to sell it. We might not want our children surfing for porn, but we have no intention to tell other folks that they can't view it just because we might find the content objectionable. We're obviously generalizing here; there are plenty of U.S. citizens out there who would love to ban all objectionable content, but they do not represent the majority.In the U.S., we have a self-regulating organization that assigns and enforces content ratings: the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)....
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Kingston Technology Releases HyperX High-Performance DDR2 SO-DIMMs in 3GB Kits Fountain Valley, CA - July 9, 2008 - Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced it is shippingHyperXR 667MHz and 800MHz low-latency DDR2 SO-DIMM notebook memory in 3GB kits. The 3GB SO-DIMM kits are an excellent way to take advantage of the Microsoft Windows VistaR 32-bit operating system and for notebook users running mid- to high-performance applications. Kingston's 3GB kits boostsystem performance and assure users that their notebooks are equal in memory capacity to most of the desktop systems sold on the market today. The release of the 3GB SO-DIMM kits continues...
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Ever wonder why Microsoft releases these sorts of major updates via manual update first? Well, if you've been reading along, you know why (and we've seen more than one example of why). However, Windows XP SP3, after its initial fits and starts, is nearly ready to hit automatic distribution via Windows Update.This was revealed in an MSDN blog post by Nick MacKechnie, senior technical account manager at Microsoft New Zealand:Hi All,Microsoft is committed to providing quality products to customers. As part of this commitment, we would like to remind you that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) will be released to Automatic Updates shortly. The third service pack to Windows XP includes the previously...
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Let's state a bit of the obvious, Linux, in all its various incarnations, is becoming more pervasive every day. From traditional desktop distros, to its omnipotent place in the embedded space -- from hand-helds to mission critical appliances in the enterprise, everywhere you look Linux is making inroads. One of the places you may not even have realized you were running Linux, is your home or office wireless router. What embedded realtime OS is running those configuration panels you mess around with when you want to reset that WEP key or punch a port open for gaming? You guessed it, the Peguin strikes again. In fact, the folks at Netgear seem to be making a business...
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You'll recall last week NVIDIA announced that its 177.39 drivers would provide PhysX support on the GeForce 9800 GTX, 9800 GTX+, and GTX 260/280 cards. You'll also probably recall the big dust-up over whether or not NVIDIA was cheating in terms of optimizations for various benchmarks. Whether or not you believe that (read their response here), for end users, the real question is: "where are the drivers? I want to try them." NVIDIA has posted beta versions of 177.39 on its site. Just remember, they're beta, so the normal warnings apply. Windows Vista 32-bit Windows Vista 64-bit Windows XP 32-bit Windows XP 64-bit...
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