Gadgets Control

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 4th 2008 at 10:43AMAMD’s on a roll at Computex, and it’s keeping the stream alive with two more decently important announcements. First off, the company is making the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 official, which is said to “triple top-of-the-line graphics performance in comparison to the previous generation ATI Mobility Radeon GPUs.” The unit also enables laptop makers to include CrossFireX technology for the first time, so yeah, there’s that. (Read the full post about ‘AMD gets official with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 and PowerXpress’…)

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Last week, it was a tiny speaker, this week… a tiny microphone. If your laptop didn’t come with a built-in mic and you want to get chatty over Skype or another VOIP/IM service, or your desktop mic is too big and bulky and you’re looking to downsize, or you’re a podcaster looking for an inexpensive but good-quality piece of audio equipment that takes up very little space, the Snowflake mic could be for you. It can be clipped to your laptop (or I guess, to your clothing) and retracts for storage, and you can find it at Amazon for $59. Via Crave. (Read the full post about ‘Snowflake’s tiny mic has big ideas’…)

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by Nilay Patel, posted Jun 4th 2008 at 10:25AMThe more cells you can pack onto a NAND chip, the cheaper the storage, so we’re excited about Hynix’s recent annoucement of triple-level-cell NAND flash. You might have noticed that MLC-based SSDs are cheaper than SLC units, and TLC keeps the trend alive — Hynix says the cost of TLC production is some 30 percent lower than than current chips. On top of that, the 32GB chips themselves are 30 percent smaller than current NAND chips, meaning device manufacturers will be able to cram more storage into our PMPs and phones. (Read the full post about ‘Hynix develops triple-level-cell NAND flash: 30 percent cheaper than MLC’…)

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I have to admit that I’m not that into pampering. I know I might get my girl card taken away for mentioning this, but I’d rather have a quick shower then lie down and read a book than spend an hour flipping through a magazine in the bathtub with some kind of herbal mask (or worse, masque) covering my face. But I know not everyone is like me. Most of my friends find a long soak in a hot bath relaxing rather than boring, and I know they would freak out (in a good way) at the idea of owning this blinging bathtub: Engadget reports that the Water Games Technologies Red Diamond bathtub is worth a jaw-dropping $47,000. Tags: wireless, laptops, players, consumer technology (Read the full post about ‘The world’s most expensive bathtub’…)

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I am one that is extremely guilty of bad posture on occasion, I have gotten better with age.  However, the longer I am on my computer and even worse when I’m doing any gaming, my posture slowly gets worse and worse.  Eventually ending with a slightly sore back.  This shirt is meant to remind you when you’re starting to get that infamous hunch.  Personally, I say if your doctor hasn’t scolded you about your posture, slouch while you still can. (Read the full post about ‘Ergoskin shirt fixes your bad posture’…)

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If you’re reading a website called geek.com, chances are that you’re, well, a geek. Being a geek probably means that you do a lot online. Unfortunately, that may be about to change. There have been talks of either having tiered internet service or capped internet service for a while now, but Time Warner has taken it one step further by actually testing out a cap system in Beaumont, Texas.

The plan, Time Warner says, is being put in place “to address the top 5 percent of users, who have spent a ‘disproportionate’ amount of time on Time Warner Cable’s network.” They like to stress that this is just a test atmosphere and the caps can (and probably will) be changed if they need to be in the future.

(Read the full post about ‘Time Warner testing capped internet service in Texas’…)

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Google has released a new version of its hosted website search product that uses their Custom Search platform. The service has been renamed after initially starting out as Google Custom Search Business Edition; it will now simply be called Google Site Search.

Google’s aim with this new release is to bring the site search closer to what you would expect from a standard Google Internet search. In order to achieve that a range of new features have been introduced.

The first of these is the introduction of a Sitemap feature using Google’s Sitemap Protocol.

(Read the full post about ‘Google re-releases website search as Google Site Search’…)

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Today at Computex AMD launched Puma, their “next generation mobile platform” designed to bring performance and efficiency to AMD-powered notebooks. The platform is not really so much a new technology as it is the combination of a few components. Specifically Puma will use:

•  AMD Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor
• ATI Radeon HD 3000 Series Graphics
• Mobile 7-series chipset, like AMD M780G, with hybrid graphics
• 802.11n WiFi

This platform move is very similar to AMD’s 780G release, though it will probably gain more traction in the notebook market than it has on the desktop.

(Read the full post about ‘AMD introduces Puma notebook platform’…)

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Hybrid Technologies has come out with an all-electric supercar, featuring a 150-170 mile range, along with “a gasoline-electric hybrid that aims to capture the Automotive X Prize by managing at least 220 mpg.” Pricing and availability has not been announced. Looks like it is still under concept. Check out back view after the break. [ Source ] Tags: pvp, M4A, hdtv, speaker (Read the full post about ‘Electric Supercar from Hybrid Technologies’…)

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Smoking is a lonely pursuit. Ostracized and persecuted, the smoker must resort to a five minute exile in a drafty doorway if he is to calm his temper and top up the treacly cancer coating on his lungs. The list of countries and states outlawing the devil weed is growing relentlessly, although with one curious side-effect: the emergency exit of your local bar is now an ad-hoc singles club, and if you do manage to score, you can be sure that you won’t be nagged about your bad breath or poor stair-climbing skills. With this in mind, we take a look at a few gadgets which will bring some joy back into the life of the nicotine addict, and at the same time placate the moralists who poke their noses into other people’s business. (Read the full post about ‘Five Gadgets for Persecuted Smokers’…)

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