Items tagged with LM
One of the toughest reader questions to answer when it comes to hardware recommendations is "Which vendor gives the best support?" In theory, as journalists, we have both direct access to corporate staff and a wide reader base to poll from. In practice, companies claim this sort of information constitutes trade secrets and lock it down tighter than Ft. Knox. Laptop Magazine recently set out to rank the various major laptop vendors (Acer, Apple, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba). beginning with a set of three basic questions for each. Most people aren't aware of this, but Panasonic briefly experimented with a NotSoToughBook before settling on their current...
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YouTube, the world's largest video site, has partnered with MGM to begin showing full-length films from the studio's archive. Recently the video giant has been trying to play catch up to video site Hulu. The partnership hopes to boost revenue to both Youtube and MGM along with giving more direct competition to Hulu, the NBC owned site that features free full-length shows from Fox, NBC, and CBS, along with various full-length movies. Jim Packer, co-president of MGM Worldwide Television, is optimistic, saying, "They have a lot of people walking through their front door everyday. And if they are smart in how they grow this, YouTube should have a successful business also." The video presentation...
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The folks over at COMsciences' IMOVIO might have taken the concept of the netbook a bit too far. They have just announced the iKIT, a 0.6 x 2.6 x 3.7-inch, 0.25-pound, Bluetooth and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi-enabled, "Pocket Mobile Companion" with "a full QWERTY/AZERTY keyboard, an 8GB SD card slot and a [260K color] 2.8 inch QVGA display." They are calling it a "Pocket Mobile Companion" that they claim makes it "a fully functional communicating and browsing device and a viable substitute for a laptop." Credit: webitprThe iKIT runs off a 312MHz Marvell PXA270 processor, with 128MB ROM, 64MB SDRAM, and uses the Linux 2.4.19 operating system with the "Proprietary plus Trolltech QT/E 2.3.8" GUI....
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In May, the FCC announced that Wilmington, North Carolina had volunteered to be the victims, er, first community to switch completely over to digital TV. Although there were concerns that Tropical Storm Hanna would cause a postponement of the switch, the FCC announced on Sunday that the experiment would still go live on Monday, Sept. 8th.About 15% of Americans still get their TV over-the-air, via antennas, and when the switch to DTV takes place, many of them will require converter boxes. Coupons to subsidize the cost of these boxes are available, with a value of $40. Each household can get 2 of these coupons.In a press release, the FCC said: The early digital switch in...
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While Craig Barrett delivered a rather non-technical, but socially-charged keynote earlier in the day at IDF, Pat Gelsinger's (Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group) keynote address by contrast was all about the tech. We've got all of the details of Gelsinger's keynote which includes news on Nehalem and Larrabee posted right here: IDF Day 1: Pat Gelsinger Keynote: Embedded + Dynamic + VisualImmediately following Pat Gelsinger was David Perlmutter (Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobility Group). David delivered the final keynote of the first day of IDF and talk about Intel's mobile offerings. The details of the keynote are available here: IDF...
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David Perlmutter (Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobility Group) delivered the final keynote of the first day of IDF. Perlmutter started out by declaring that notebook shipments are about to surpass desktop shipments. He predicts that within the next 10 years, Intel will be shipping over one billion Intel Architecture-based (IA) mobile devices per year. As to the growth of the mobile platform, Intel had only 35 notebook design offerings in 2002. In 2008, there are 244. Perlmutter stated that the first notebooks were heavy, slow performers, and had poor battery life. Today's notebooks have good battery life, are high performers, are light weight, and...
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While Craig Barrett delivered a rather non-technical, but socially-charged keynote earlier in the day at IDF, Pat Gelsinger's (Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Digital Enterprise Group) keynote address by contrast was all about the tech. Immediately following Pat Gelsinger was David Perlmutter (Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobility Group). David delivered the final keynote of the first day of IDF and talk about Intel's mobile offerings. The details of the keynote are available here: IDF Day 1: David Perlmutter: "Where Will 'On-the-Go' Go?"...
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You gotta love Steve Ballmer. He's like the crazy uncle at the family reunion that wants to sing karaoke with a lampshade on his head. I imagine that when the Washington Post asked for a wide-ranging interview with the Microsoft CEO, they figured they'd get all sorts of inside spin in Ballmer's tussle with Yahoo! chief Jerry Yang, or maybe a sneak peek into Ballmer's future vision for Microsoft. Ballmer was pretty tight-lipped about his opinion of Yang, and Microsoft's future, for a change. But he was more than willing to tell the Post that there would be no such thing as print media in a decade or so. Awkward. In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are...
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Earth Trek has released what it claims is the world's smallest projector: "Earth Trek, a Hong-Kong based company, recently released the world's smallest handy projector, the 90-805R mini projector. Our little device features a card slot (SD/T-flash card), built-in lithium battery (1-2 hours), built-in speaker, MP4 player, and provides a 22" diagonal projection. It measures 105x58x25mm and weighs 160g."Details such as price, native resolution, and the projection technology were not available at the time of this post. However, with only a maximum 22-inch projection space and no computer display-specific input, the 90-805R will have limited functionality. Images and video will be projected either...
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Vista certainly had a less-than-smooth delivery, and there are still lingering issues that keep some away. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently addressed the issue in a speech he gave at Microsoft’s Most Valuable Partners conference.Here’s an excerpt:“Windows Vista: A work in progress. [Laughter, applause.] A very important piece of work, and I think we did a lot of things right, and I think we have a lot of things we need to learn from. Certainly, you never want to let five years go between releases. Can we just sort of kiss that stone and move on? Because it turns out many things become problematic when you have those long release cycles. The design point, what you should be targeting....
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Palm just doesn't seem able to catch a break these days. Take the Foleo for example. When Palm announced it, it made waves but also drew some criticisms. Once VIA announced their Nanobook, many were keen to compare the two and it seemed that Foleo wasn't winning too many armchair comparisons by the world's forum jockeys. Once Asus entered the fray it was more or less over for Foleo and Palm pulled the plug.But the Foleo might be responsible for an entire segment of UMPC/mini-notebooks.“It's easy to point to the Eee PC from Asus and its surprising and instant popularity. But the Eee wasn't the first to employ the broader concept of a mobile Web device that looked like a...
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Palm has a gift for Vista users to help celebrate the operating system's first birthday: an 'final' desktop synchronization kit. It should be noted that Palm has offered a beta of this software since summertime, but the final revision still lacks a few features such a the Quick Install tool and the ability to synch e-mail over a USB cable.“In addition to supporting Windows Vista Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate, Palm Desktop 6.2 is compatible with Windows XP Home and Professional and Windows Media Center Edition 2005. 64-bit Editions of Windows Vista are not supported.Palm devices supported include Palm Centro under Vista and XP and the Treo 755p, 700p, and 680, Palm TX and Z22,...
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Palm has been taking a beating recently. The smartphone market they compete in was already crowded before the iPhone appeared to steal marketshare, and their ill-starred UMPC bombed so badly that the product was withdrawn. Now Palm is laying off about 10% of their workforce of 1150. Merry Christmas. Palm's statement said the restructuring, which also included some reassignments, was part of its ongoing effort to "focus and better align resources behind core initiatives" and "to ensure that our expenses are in line with projected revenues." Palm has struggled against stiffening competition over the past year. Some missteps, including product delays and the cancellation in September of a portable...
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In a recent Web 2.0 conference, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer declared that the company wasn't changing their acquisition strategy. The Redmond Giant will continue making smaller purchases in the $50 million to $1 billion range instead of larger, multi-billion dollar purchases.“The CEO of the world's largest software maker said it is logical for people to speculate that main rivals would join forces to take on an industry leader. In this case, Ballmer was referring to dominant Web search leader Google.Microsoft historically has shunned costly acquisitions, opting to purchase lots of less expensive companies. But company watchers saw this year's $US6 billion acquisition of digital advertising...
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