Items tagged with Misc
Sometimes competitors join forces for the mutual benefit of each party, which is what Samsung and Sony did by teaming up on their S-LCD venture. Now, Sony is bailing, selling its almost 50% share to Samsung for a reported $940 million. Sony’s struggles in the TV business are no secret, and this move looks to be an effort for the company to outsource its displays to a cheaper alternative elsewhere. There appears to be no bad blood in this deal, as Sony may even continue to get some of its displays from S-LCD. For its part, Samsung will now be able to claim S-LCD as a wholly-owned subsidiary. For Sony, this means that it is looking for cheaper ways to put screens on its devices; for Samsung,...
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On a national holiday, when most of us are enjoying being at home instead of at work, it’s nice to see a work/life balance story coming out of Germany. According to the BBC, car maker Volkswagen has agreed to stop sending email to its employees after work hours. The move is designed to better establish boundaries between their home and work lives, and it came after complaints about the lack thereof. Reportedly, its BlackBerry email servers will cease routing emails half an hour before employees’ shifts end won’t resume until half an hour after their shifts begin again. The ban on company email will not affect employees’ use of their BlackBerrys on their own time. A spokesperson...
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Oh, Google. You and your doodles. This holiday season, Google is giving us a noisy, festive, colorful doodle in the form of “Jingle Bells”. If you click each colored square, they make a musical note in turn. Once you’ve clicked them all, the page breaks into song...and dance. When the song is finished, Google automatically searches for “Happy Holidays”. It’s a charming doodle to say the least, and it’s one your kids will get a kick out of when they wake up this Christmas--er, Christmas Eve morn....
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Well, you win some, you lose some. Nobody is more painfully aware of that this week than AT&T, whose failed merger with T-Mobile cost the company billions in break-up fees. However, AT&T also just received word that the FCC approved its purchase of wireless spectrum from Qualcomm, with the deal to be finalized within days. With a price tag of $1.9 billion, AT&T is grabbing 700MHz spectrum licenses that cover over 300 million people. Considering the amount of money the company just flushed down the toilet, $1.9 billion is a steal. Plus, spectrum in the wireless industry is as good as gold, and AT&T will need every break it can get to keep pace with competitors like Verizon. AT&T...
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In tech, we love when things get smaller. It’s almost always a good sign. TRENDnet announced a new powerline adapter (TPL-306E) that is about 30% smaller than its predecessor, the TPL-303E series, thus taking up a little less space around the outlet. The 200Mbps powerline adapter features an LED display for quickly and easily determining its status, CD-free installation, and power saving technology designed to reduce consumption by as much as 70%. A single TPL-306E is $54.99, and a kit with two of the devices is $99.99. Both are available now and have a 3-year limited warranty. TRENDnet Launches Compact 200Mbps Powerline Adapter TORRANCE, Calif. –December 21, 2011– TRENDnet,...
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Got a special someone in your life? You can make them smile with a personalized video (or audio) message from Santa, thanks to this nifty Google site. It takes just a couple of minutes to fill out all the selections, and the results are quite fun. You can send the greeting either via email or to Google Plus. Below is Google’s sample video, if you need some inspiration....
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Back in September, we learned that Dell was looking at using Baidu Yi (an Android-based mobile platform developed by China’s Baidu) on an upcoming smartphone. The two companies have indeed teamed up and have released the Dell Streak Pro D43 in China. The 3G phone features a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM 8260 chip, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display (with Corning Gorilla glass), 8MP rear-facing and 1.3MP front-facing cameras, 8GB of flash storage, 1GB of SDRAM, and WiFi. China Unicom will apparently be the mobile operator providing service. Of course, the Streak Pro D43 will have a healthy dose of Baidu services, including the Baidu Web browser, the SmartBox search tool, a music service, and...
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A case without easily accessible hard drive bays or enough room to accommodate beefy components is one that is liable to get chucked out of a window in frustration at some point. Sharkoon’s T28 case is designed to alleviate those issues. The otherwise black case is available with red, green, or blue accents and features eight hard drive bays. It can also handle two 5.25-inch drives, and a pair of mounting frames for 2.5-inch drives is included. Part of the hard drive cage (containing three bays) can be removed to provide 40cm of space for a long graphics card. The T28 allows for a CPU cooler up to 16.5cm high and a PSU up to 29cm long. The case is now available for 54.90 euros. PC Case...
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Steve Jobs’ already-famous comments to his biographer Walter Isaacson about his designs upon the TV market seem to have predicted Apple’s next great technological foray. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Apple has been meeting with media executives at large companies and discussing its TV future. The most compelling possibility is the prospect of an Apple TV--that is, an actual TV set as opposed to the not-quite-a-blockbuster set-top box the company currently offers--that would wirelessly stream content and interface with iOS devices. The effect would be a seamless one wherein a user could control the TV with an iOS device and pause a program on the TV and pick it up on a...
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If you’re a Time Warner Cable customer with access to HBO, you’re in luck, because your cable provider will be providing you with access to HBO GO and Cinemax’s MAX GO within the next month. With HBO GO, you can stream 1,400 HBO programs toy our computer, mobile device, or Roku box. MAX GO is essentially the same thing, only for Cinemax. The services are free to those who subscribe to HBO and Cinemax, and they’re already available via a number of providers, including DirecTV, Dish, Cox, Charter, and more. Time Warner Cable to Launch Latest Online Offerings From HBO®, HBO GO® and MAX GO® in the Next Month –More Than 1,400 Titles Will Be Available Online...
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We've got some of the juicy stuff for you here, weekend round-up style. Enjoy... ABS Computer Ultimate X8 System Review - [H] Consumer XFX GeForce 8800 GTX XXX Edition - PC Per (be sure to check out Jeff's coverage of Asus' EN8800GTX for comparison) A Look At Asus' Vista Edition Motherboards - Tech Report VisionTek X1950Pro XGE 256MB - Driver Heaven Not Enjoying The View - NVIDIA's Vista Drivers Debacle - bit-tech The Fender VG Strat Digital Guitar (too cool for words - I want one) - GuitarGearCentral...
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Here's an article that's bound to anger of few of you. Most of the assertions are harmless, but a couple of the comments in PCMech.Com's "Computer Myths and Misconceptions" will surely ruffle some feathers. This one's definitely going to spark some flames, "People also believe Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer. Not true." "The internet is a great medium for getting information and help on all sorts of subjects. Many people have a lot of specialized knowledge in one field, so they can give out lots of good advice in that area of expertise. Of course, once in a while you get someone who doesn't know their stuff...
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