Gadgets Control

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Sep 15th 2008 at 12:06PM Italian Engadget readers, take note: Abaco Computers of Milan just announced the production of Europe’s ‘first’ Intel Atom dual-core PC. Measuring up to a mere 27 x 20 x 10 cm (just under 11 x 8 x 4 inches) in the classic and classy “box” configuration, what appears to be a Betamax VCR at first glance is actually a reasonably stacked PC. The machine boasts a 1.6 GHz Atom CPU and up to 2GB RAM; oddly, the site says it sports a “generous” six USB ports, while the pictures clearly show only four and a single firewire jack (which they failed to mention altogether). The Abaco comes loaded with Ubuntu 8.04. (Read the full post about ‘Abaco announces the production of Europe’s ‘first’ Atom dual-core desktop’…)

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by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Sep 15th 2008 at 12:06PM Italian Engadget readers, take note: Abaco Computers of Milan just announced the production of Europe’s ‘first’ Intel Atom dual-core PC. Measuring up to a mere 27 x 20 x 10 cm (just under 11 x 8 x 4 inches) in the classic and classy “box” configuration, what appears to be a Betamax VCR at first glance is actually a reasonably stacked PC. The machine boasts a 1.6 GHz Atom CPU and up to 2GB RAM; oddly, the site says it sports a “generous” six USB ports, while the pictures clearly show only four and a single firewire jack (which they failed to mention altogether). The Abaco comes loaded with Ubuntu 8.04. (Read the full post about ‘Abaco announces the production of Europe’s ‘first’ Atom dual-core desktop’…)

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Typically novelty speakers offer all kinds of shiny extras, but very little quality in the important parts of the gadget.  This one has the extra of flashing colored lights, which adds up to over 200 color combinations, plus it offers quality sound.  The speakers are said to have powerful enough light and sound that it will fill the room.  Turning your office or bedroom into a miniature rave, except at least with these speakers you get to pick out all of the music. The speakers also have real-time beat recognition and red, blue and green static color modes.  The speakers offer clear and crisp sound along with the flashing lighting.  Since it is such a nice set of speakers it does cost a little more, luckily it’s being sold on Amazon.  Currently there are eight sets of used versions that start out at a little over $20.  However, if you’d like to pick up a new one it will cost you $73.50. (Read the full post about ‘The Lightwave CS1SPK Color-Changing Speakers with Beat Recognition’…)

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During a long night of playing your favorite online multiplayer game, there is nothing better than having a nice cold drink. Of course, if you’re like me, you tend to get absorbed into the game and your favorite drink, once cold, has now become warm and not as refreshing. Sure, you could walk to the fridge and get another cold drink, but I have a better solution. I’ve seen a lot of devices come along that utilize the power of the USB port to enable accessories, but I am a big fan of the latest one I have had a chance to test out. The folks at CoolIT Systems sent me the USB Beverage Chiller. I must admit that at first I thought it was pretty gimmicky until I gave it a try. (Read the full post about ‘Review: USB Beverage Chiller’…)

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Sony loves the wireless world, which is why it is working on a wireless OLED TV that ought to hit the commercial market in the near future. Among the features found on this 11″ model are :- 960 x 540 resolution 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio Integrated battery Built-in tuner Since the tuner has been integrated into the rear end of the display, surely the XEL-1’s position as the thinnest LED TV in the market (3mm) is not threatened. No idea on pricing or availability, but it won’t come cheap that’s for sure. (Read the full post about ‘Sony wireless OLED TV’…)

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Adobe has beefed up its competition with Microsoft and other online video encoder providers by giving publishers an easy way to encode videos to Adobe Flash Media. The new Adobe Flash Media Encoding Server will enable videos to be transferred from other formats including Microsoft Windows Media, MPEG-4, DivX and H.264 to FLV or F4V. Videos made into Flash format can be played on the Adobe Flash Player which includes mobile phones thanks to Flash Lite technology.

Adobe is demonstrating functions of the new server at the IBC2008 Exhibition. The Adobe Flash Media Encoding Server is expected to be released before the end of the year.

(Read the full post about ‘Adobe to release Flash media encoding server’…)

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Microsoft added one to Internet Explorer 8, Google added one to Chrome, and now it looks like Firefox 3.1 is getting a “Privacy Mode” in a not-too-distant update.

Although this may be seen as a reaction to what Microsoft and Google are doing with their browsers, it turns out a privacy mode was actually planned for implementation to make it into the Firefox 3.0 release, but got held back.

On the Mozilla Wiki, as part of the weekly meeting notes, the following is listed under the “Firefox 3.1 Update” heading:

Private Browsing Mode: Ehsan went and implemented Connor’s functional spec bug 248970 - way to go!

(Read the full post about ‘Firefox to get privacy mode’…)

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It may not be first to market with 500GB laptop hard drives, but Western Digital has finally started shipping its Scorpio Blue drive in volume. Samsung, Hitachi and Fujitsu all have competing drives, but the Scorpio Blue more than performs next to them. The drives squeezes 250GB on to just 2 platters and manages a rotation speed of 5,400rpm giving a 3GB/s transfer speed. Western Digital has incorporated a number of proprietary technologies including WhisperDrive for very quiet drive operation using intelligent seeking algorithms, ShockGuard for additional protection against damage travelling inside a laptop, and IntelliSeek offering dynamic seek speed adjustment to minimise vibration, noise and power consumption. (Read the full post about ‘Western Digital volume ships Scorpio Blue 500GB drive’…)

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The development in technology has resulted in the availability of a number of different formats. A number of different formats are available for audio and video files. Usually, the selection of the format depends on the required bit-rate, sound quality etc. However, if you’re someone who doesn’t want to create audio and video files but want to play the files then you should not worry about bit-rate etc. All you need to do is to find the software that supports the file.

Usually, quality software are paid ones and if you’re someone who deals with different formats then you definitely need a number of software for playing different formats.

(Read the full post about ‘Looking For an All-In-One Converter?’…)

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This commercial for Nokia is so good I want to watch it over and over:

Welcome to the Fourth Screen!

Via: Nokia’s Fourth Screen Commercial is Epic | commercial, geeky video, Nokia | geeksugar - Technology, gadgets, & How Tos.

Tags: mobile phone, buyers guides, gear, video games

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