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Archive for August 17th, 2008

Car Camera acts as eyewitness

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

The Car Camera is a rather interesting device to have, as it can be mounted in just about any vehicle thanks to the two-size adhesive sticker located at the bottom of the mount. It is able to record events that occur both inside and outside, helping you capture the evidence for legal or insurance purposes. It can be powered by a 12V DC power cord or a trio of AAA batteries, and records AVI video in 320 x 240 resolution. All recordings are stored on an SD memory card that ranges anywhere from 128MB to 2GB. The Car Camera can be yours for $69.

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New Sony Walkman PMPs hit the internet, flash all kinds of colors

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 4:44PM
A whole new slew of Walkmans have hit Sony’s New Zealand site, and we’ve got the goods on them. The new models, dubbed the NWZ-E435, NWZ-E436, and NWZ-E438 all sport a 2-inch QVGA LCD display, FM tuner, codec support for MP3, AAC, WMA, and Linear PCM files, and clock in at a very petite 8.5mm / 50g. The players will be available in 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB variations, with various color options for each model (except for the NWZ-E438, which only comes in black). Apparently, the PMPs play nice with both Windows Media Player and iTunes, offering drag and drop management for files. No word yet on price, regions, or release date, but we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for these sweet babies.

[Via Sony Insider]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

British bots battle it out, Army-style

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 4:14PM
Robot designers are currently duking it out for the British army in hopes of nabbing the hearts (and pocketbooks) of the UK’s fighting force. In a makeshift “wartime European village,” scientists and researchers are putting their helper-droids to the test as Army officials look on and investigate how the automatons might serve alongside troops. Some of the robots being looked at include a “Moon buggy” which remotely patrols for enemies via thermal imaging and then sends the data back to a command center, a helicopter that can be maneuvered in tight urban spaces, and a RC car with what appears to be a pile of digicams mounted on top of it. The winners of the competition will be announced Monday, but you can hit the read link and see a video — replete with annoying British television presenter — of some contestants.

[Thanks, Jack]

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Filed under: Robots

Pandora hit with soaring royalty fees; Is shutting down their only option?

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

Pandora, the ad-supported internet radio service that builds stations off of your personal taste, may be shutting down in the near future.  Due to high royalty costs from the labels, that may be their only option.  According to the Washington Post, Pandora founder Tim Westergren doesn’t seem too confident the company will survive.

“We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision…This is like a last stand for webcasting.”

The Post mentioned that a whopping 70% of Pandora’s $25 Million in revenue this year will go to royalty fees.  Representative Howard L. Berman, a Democrat from California, is attempting to work up a deal between Pandora and SoundExchange, the organization that represents artists and labels.  Lets just hope Berman can get through to them… or we may have to go back to hating the RIAA.

I’m deeply saddened by the fact they may go out of business… and I’m sure their million other users are as well.  So what do you think Pandora should do?  Should they stick it to the RIAA and start playing all indie bands?  Is going out of business really their only option?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Read [Washington Post] Via [ReadWriteWeb]

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Apple trims push notification out of newest iPhone firmware beta

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 11:57AM
According to Appleinsider, the newest beta of iphone firmware (2.1, beta 4) has been seeded to developers, but takes one crucial element off the table — push notification. If you’ll recall, the new feature will allow third-party developers to take advantage of Apple’s servers for real-time push of data to and from applications. Apparently, the feature has been cut from the most recent beta for “further development” with no indication of when it will be reinstated. Of course, this is a beta seed of the firmware — the actual release is slated for September — and it makes sense that Apple would be tweaking major additions like this before going live, especially considering its recent launch debacles.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: cellphones

Apple trims push notification out of newest iPhone firmware beta

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 11:57AM
According to Appleinsider, the newest beta of iphone firmware (2.1, beta 4) has been seeded to developers, but takes one crucial element off the table — push notification. If you’ll recall, the new feature will allow third-party developers to take advantage of Apple’s servers for real-time push of data to and from applications. Apparently, the feature has been cut from the most recent beta for “further development” with no indication of when it will be reinstated. Of course, this is a beta seed of the firmware — the actual release is slated for September — and it makes sense that Apple would be tweaking major additions like this before going live, especially considering its recent launch debacles.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: cellphones

Oregon begins building first “solar highway” project

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 9:20AMJust over a year ago, we passed off a far-out proposal that would turn highways into wind farms. Now, however, the state of Oregon is proving that such feats are actually within reach as it breaks ground on the first so-called “solar highway” demonstration project. The project will be installed at the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin, where it will cover around 8,000 square feet and produce 112,000 kilowatt hours per year. The total cost for the 104-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system is $1.3 million, and believe it or not, it should be completed and operational in December of this year.

[Via Digg]

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Filed under: Transportation

Oregon begins building first “solar highway” project

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 9:20AMJust over a year ago, we passed off a far-out proposal that would turn highways into wind farms. Now, however, the state of Oregon is proving that such feats are actually within reach as it breaks ground on the first so-called “solar highway” demonstration project. The project will be installed at the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin, where it will cover around 8,000 square feet and produce 112,000 kilowatt hours per year. The total cost for the 104-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system is $1.3 million, and believe it or not, it should be completed and operational in December of this year.

[Via Digg]

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Filed under: Transportation

Athlon 64 2000+ at 8-watts outperforms, draws less energy than Atom

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 5:46AMAMD’s going through some rough times, no doubt about it, but for fanboys of the CPU maker (wait, do CPU fanboys still exist?) here’s your feel-good story of the year. The always-thorough Tom’s Hardware has pit Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor against AMD’s Athlon 64 2000+, and the results just might surprise you. The 1GHz Athlon (with a core voltage of 0.90 volts and a power draw of just 8 watts) managed to best the aforementioned Atom in both energy consumption and processing power tests. The gurus at Tom’s credited the more modern 790G platform and the highly efficient K8 architecture as big players in the Athlon’s strong showing, finally deeming said chip “more economical, faster and quieter” than the Atom. We know you’re in disbelief — good thing there are 14 pages of proof waiting in the read link.

[Thanks, Carl]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Athlon 64 2000+ at 8-watts outperforms, draws less energy than Atom

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 5:46AMAMD’s going through some rough times, no doubt about it, but for fanboys of the CPU maker (wait, do CPU fanboys still exist?) here’s your feel-good story of the year. The always-thorough Tom’s Hardware has pit Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor against AMD’s Athlon 64 2000+, and the results just might surprise you. The 1GHz Athlon (with a core voltage of 0.90 volts and a power draw of just 8 watts) managed to best the aforementioned Atom in both energy consumption and processing power tests. The gurus at Tom’s credited the more modern 790G platform and the highly efficient K8 architecture as big players in the Athlon’s strong showing, finally deeming said chip “more economical, faster and quieter” than the Atom. We know you’re in disbelief — good thing there are 14 pages of proof waiting in the read link.

[Thanks, Carl]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

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