Archive for 09/10/14
Will you run Android 2.0 on your droidish device?
Well, if you own a G1, a Dream or a Hero, then most probably you’re
in for a nice treat! Not only can you get the Android 2.0 goodness on
your smartphone, but also as recently became clear, you can even get
Google Maps Navigation even outside USA. On the other hand, if you own a Motorola Droid, please just find another place to enjoy your smug grin, will you?
So where were we? Ah, the Android 2.0. It turns out that after Google let their 2.0 cat out of the bag (meaning they released the complete source code), there’s no stopping the hard working devs into porting it to *unofficially* to older devices.
Only hours after the source code was published, developers were already able to run it on the T-Mobile G1 – all nice and fluid.
HTC Hero’s users need to be patient, because their 2.0 official upgrade is already cooking, while the rest Android handsets still count on custom ROMs.
Currently Android 2.0 is available only on the Motorola MILESTONE (or DROID in the USA) and there is no word when and if it will become officially available as an upgrade to the rest Android handsets out there (except for the Hero).
Still the G1 port manages quite well, except the audio/video playback. These issues of course will be fixed very soon and more cooked 2.0 ROMs will start popping up.
So where were we? Ah, the Android 2.0. It turns out that after Google let their 2.0 cat out of the bag (meaning they released the complete source code), there’s no stopping the hard working devs into porting it to *unofficially* to older devices.
Only hours after the source code was published, developers were already able to run it on the T-Mobile G1 – all nice and fluid.
HTC Hero’s users need to be patient, because their 2.0 official upgrade is already cooking, while the rest Android handsets still count on custom ROMs.
Currently Android 2.0 is available only on the Motorola MILESTONE (or DROID in the USA) and there is no word when and if it will become officially available as an upgrade to the rest Android handsets out there (except for the Hero).
Still the G1 port manages quite well, except the audio/video playback. These issues of course will be fixed very soon and more cooked 2.0 ROMs will start popping up.
Two new builds of Windows Mobile 6.5.3 leak, can you spot a difference?
l’ve seen screenshots of a facelift version of Windows Mobile 6.5 before,
which itself is a facelift version of an aging OS. Now, the Internet
rumor mill strikes again and delivers screenshots of a newer version
WinMo version – v6.5.3.
They actually show a UI that seem better suited for thumb operation, not just larger versions of the old controls.
At first, these changes were slated for 6.5.1, with speculation that the screenshots were in fact from the next major version of the OS – Windows Mobile 7. Now, we’ve made the jump to 6.5.3, skipping over 6.5.2 and there’s still nothing official – just firmware leaks. I don’t see many major changes between 6.5.1 and 6.5.3, just the clock application, which shows off the new look of some UI controls.
Screenshots of Windows Mobile 6.5.3, build 28002
As for the changes between the current WinMo 6.5, which we reviewed a while back, is that the iconic Start menu is no longer on the top. It’s now placed at the bottom (and it’s just the Windows logo, instead of having the actual “Start” label) on the reskinned bottom row. This bottom row also houses the virtual softkeys, which are now rendered as nicely rounded pill buttons. *cough*Aqua*cough*… Also, there’s support for gestures, which I hope means support for multi-touch gestures too, seeing how Windows Mobile phones recently jumped on the bandwagon with the HTC HD2.
Anyway, looking at the redesign and the screenshot of Internet Explorer Mobile 6 the similarities are too great to overlook. It’s just a guess, but it seems to me that this is how WinMo v6.5 was supposed to look like in the first place, but the only part that was production ready in time was IE Mobile. Maybe Microsoft should have held out until everything was ready, because the generally negative reviews that WinMo 6.5 are not really helping in selling the new OS to licensees (many of which are obviously switching to the free Android).
Those two belong together, don’t they? It’s the new WinMo homescreen and the already available IE 6
I’m sure the guys at the xda-developers forum have already cooked up ROMs compatible with the most popular phone makes and models, but their forum is currently down again so I can’t really get you any working links.
You can read more about where these leaked WinMo builds come from.
They actually show a UI that seem better suited for thumb operation, not just larger versions of the old controls.
At first, these changes were slated for 6.5.1, with speculation that the screenshots were in fact from the next major version of the OS – Windows Mobile 7. Now, we’ve made the jump to 6.5.3, skipping over 6.5.2 and there’s still nothing official – just firmware leaks. I don’t see many major changes between 6.5.1 and 6.5.3, just the clock application, which shows off the new look of some UI controls.
Screenshots of Windows Mobile 6.5.3, build 28002
As for the changes between the current WinMo 6.5, which we reviewed a while back, is that the iconic Start menu is no longer on the top. It’s now placed at the bottom (and it’s just the Windows logo, instead of having the actual “Start” label) on the reskinned bottom row. This bottom row also houses the virtual softkeys, which are now rendered as nicely rounded pill buttons. *cough*Aqua*cough*… Also, there’s support for gestures, which I hope means support for multi-touch gestures too, seeing how Windows Mobile phones recently jumped on the bandwagon with the HTC HD2.
Anyway, looking at the redesign and the screenshot of Internet Explorer Mobile 6 the similarities are too great to overlook. It’s just a guess, but it seems to me that this is how WinMo v6.5 was supposed to look like in the first place, but the only part that was production ready in time was IE Mobile. Maybe Microsoft should have held out until everything was ready, because the generally negative reviews that WinMo 6.5 are not really helping in selling the new OS to licensees (many of which are obviously switching to the free Android).
Those two belong together, don’t they? It’s the new WinMo homescreen and the already available IE 6
I’m sure the guys at the xda-developers forum have already cooked up ROMs compatible with the most popular phone makes and models, but their forum is currently down again so I can’t really get you any working links.
You can read more about where these leaked WinMo builds come from.
You can’t deny modular handsets may just be the future of mobile phones
Let’s face it, phones are getting big….over the last six
months we’ve had the release of a series of touchscreen phones that have
pushed the boundaries of the term ‘mobile’. Samsung have released the
Omnia 2 and the Omnia HD, both of which sported 3.7” screens. Toshiba
unleashed the TG01 with its massive 4.1” screen, Acer the NeoTouch with
a 3.8” screen and lately HTC have topped them all with the HD2 and its
massive 4.3” screen.
But I think soon we are going to reach a tipping point. Those 4.3” are probably the limit of what people are going to be willing to carry around all day. I mean, people are going to start looking a bit silly holding these huge slabs of plastic up to their ears.
So it was with interest that I read on Akihabara News about a new handset released in Japan by Fujitsu whose various parts – screen, QWERTY and alphanumeric keyboard, mini-projector – can all be detached from each other and used separately. The screen can be used by itself to watch TV or films, surf the internet or you can connect it up to the keyboard for gaming action or messaging.
A few years back mobile phone manufacturers were obsessed with making their handsets as thin and as small as possible. Each new phone proclaimed itself “the thinnest handset in the world”. People now want more functionality from their phone: bigger screens, faster processors, more apps, hardware keyboards, the more bells and whistles the better and they seem willing to put up with less pocketable handsets to get that.
Enter the modular handset – such as the one by Fujitsu. Now, of course the chances of us seeing released outside of Japan are virtually zero. But I think that Fujitsu might be onto something with this idea of being able to detach and reattach hardware to give the phone different functions based on user needs. When traveling and listening to music or watching video we can just pull out the screen, when we need to give a presentation we whip out and attach the projector. When we know we are going to be doing some serious gaming, we reattach the keyboard.
Ok, I can see the disadvantages as well: it’s a damn sight easier to lose ‘bits’ of your phone and you can’t always predict what hardware you will need (you suddenly want to show some video to friends and you’ve left the projector at home). But I think mobile manufacturers need to come up with innovative ways of dealing with the increased demands of phone users and the idea of modules that you can attach/detach from your phone is an attractive one.
Unfortunately, the idea doesn’t seem to take off in the Western world. Carriers are the biggest clients for handset manufacturers and usually the biggest clients call the shots. In the case of the modular phone system by Modu, they had quite a hard time getting the the support of the major carriers. Word is we’ll be finally seeing Modus sold through some major channels next year. But we ‘re yet to see a modular phone system from a major manufacturer.
But I think soon we are going to reach a tipping point. Those 4.3” are probably the limit of what people are going to be willing to carry around all day. I mean, people are going to start looking a bit silly holding these huge slabs of plastic up to their ears.
So it was with interest that I read on Akihabara News about a new handset released in Japan by Fujitsu whose various parts – screen, QWERTY and alphanumeric keyboard, mini-projector – can all be detached from each other and used separately. The screen can be used by itself to watch TV or films, surf the internet or you can connect it up to the keyboard for gaming action or messaging.
A few years back mobile phone manufacturers were obsessed with making their handsets as thin and as small as possible. Each new phone proclaimed itself “the thinnest handset in the world”. People now want more functionality from their phone: bigger screens, faster processors, more apps, hardware keyboards, the more bells and whistles the better and they seem willing to put up with less pocketable handsets to get that.
Enter the modular handset – such as the one by Fujitsu. Now, of course the chances of us seeing released outside of Japan are virtually zero. But I think that Fujitsu might be onto something with this idea of being able to detach and reattach hardware to give the phone different functions based on user needs. When traveling and listening to music or watching video we can just pull out the screen, when we need to give a presentation we whip out and attach the projector. When we know we are going to be doing some serious gaming, we reattach the keyboard.
Ok, I can see the disadvantages as well: it’s a damn sight easier to lose ‘bits’ of your phone and you can’t always predict what hardware you will need (you suddenly want to show some video to friends and you’ve left the projector at home). But I think mobile manufacturers need to come up with innovative ways of dealing with the increased demands of phone users and the idea of modules that you can attach/detach from your phone is an attractive one.
Unfortunately, the idea doesn’t seem to take off in the Western world. Carriers are the biggest clients for handset manufacturers and usually the biggest clients call the shots. In the case of the modular phone system by Modu, they had quite a hard time getting the the support of the major carriers. Word is we’ll be finally seeing Modus sold through some major channels next year. But we ‘re yet to see a modular phone system from a major manufacturer.
HTC HD2 gets Wi-Fi 802.11n with a registry tweak
There are several good reasons why Wi-Fi 802.11n hasn’t made its way
into mobile phones hardware just yet. Increased power consumption is
just not worth it if the speed will be limited by other factors such as
under-powered CPU or slow-memory anyway.
But when you have a 1GHz Snapdraggon CPU and 448 MB of RAM at your disposal the temptation to include it might just be too big to resist. And HTC obviously succumbed to it when designing the HD2 monster-of-a-handset. Unfortunately they disabled the feature via a software method.
They didn’t do a very good job of hiding it though and it was really a matter of time before someone enabled it. The usual suspects over at xda-delevopers have done the hard work, finding the hidden entry in the registry named 11nModeDisable (duh!). Switching its value from the default 1 to 0 converts your HTC HD2 in a lean mean Wi-Fi n machine. It’s already been tested and works fine.
In case you are not quite familiar, let’s just point the advantages of the 802.11n once again. It doubles the max range both indoors and outdoors, compared to the common 802.11g standard. The theoretical maximum net bitrate is increased more than eleven times to 600 MB/s and the typical throughput is expected to be in the region of 50 to 144 Mbit/s.
Surely all that awesomeness is worth the somewhat shorter battery life, right?
But when you have a 1GHz Snapdraggon CPU and 448 MB of RAM at your disposal the temptation to include it might just be too big to resist. And HTC obviously succumbed to it when designing the HD2 monster-of-a-handset. Unfortunately they disabled the feature via a software method.
They didn’t do a very good job of hiding it though and it was really a matter of time before someone enabled it. The usual suspects over at xda-delevopers have done the hard work, finding the hidden entry in the registry named 11nModeDisable (duh!). Switching its value from the default 1 to 0 converts your HTC HD2 in a lean mean Wi-Fi n machine. It’s already been tested and works fine.
In case you are not quite familiar, let’s just point the advantages of the 802.11n once again. It doubles the max range both indoors and outdoors, compared to the common 802.11g standard. The theoretical maximum net bitrate is increased more than eleven times to 600 MB/s and the typical throughput is expected to be in the region of 50 to 144 Mbit/s.
Surely all that awesomeness is worth the somewhat shorter battery life, right?
HTC HD2 battery life test ready, not bad at all
Let’s face it, battery tests are long and tedious. They’re
also quite hard to time correctly as mobile phone usage varies quite a
lot. But that’s not the reason why over at GSMArena we rarely have
something specific to say about battery life in our otherwise detailed
reviews.
Enter time constraints. The thing is, we rarely have the test units at our disposal long enough to properly test the battery life without interfering with our reviewing routine. In those cases the reviewers try to evaluate the battery performance based on their subjective feeling and experience rather than anything else. Not that can’t be correct. And we don’t pretend it is.
With the HTC HD2 we are using a retail version (unlike all the many pre-production units that come our way) and we had the opportunity to take our time and test the battery life properly.
Let’s start with the movie playback. Back in July when making the Samsung Omnia HD review we were impressed by the ability of the handset to play standard resolution XviD video for 5 h 30 min straight on a single battery charge. Well, the HTC HD2 runs Windows Mobile, it’s got the 1 GHz Snapdragon and a bigger display to worry about. But as you’ll see, though lower, the result of HTC HD2 is higher than what we expected. Here it is:
Movie playback test result – 4 h 30 min
Getting 4:30 hours out of it (though in Flight mode) is quite good actually and a lot better that what we expected, considering the hardware differences between HD2 and Omnia HD. BTW, on a personal note, HD2 might not be your first choice for watching movies on the go. The big screen size is a plus, but also help you to see the limitation of the 65K color restriction in Windows Mobile. Even more, the blacks are not as deep as I’d like them to be.
For our next test we left the smartphone idling at one of the setting screens (light gray background, if you’re getting technical) again with Flight mode on. What we got out of it was:
Backlight stand-by test results – 11 h 50 min
Again, better than what we expected, but what does the test mean? First, it means that fears the big display will deplete the battery quickly are unfounded. And secondly, if you like reading e-books on the go, the HD2 wont let you down.
Now that we’ve got that cleared, we come to the most important battery test – the one simulating real life usage.
Real life battery test results – 52 hours operation time (on 3G), including all of the following…
Side note – all test are executed with display brightness set to 50%. The HTC HD2 display is quite bright and 50% is more than enough for perfect visibility in all indoor conditions. If you plan to watch movies in a darker room you might go with an even lower brightness level – say 30% – to keep your eyes from straining and have the blacks as deep as possible.
Enter time constraints. The thing is, we rarely have the test units at our disposal long enough to properly test the battery life without interfering with our reviewing routine. In those cases the reviewers try to evaluate the battery performance based on their subjective feeling and experience rather than anything else. Not that can’t be correct. And we don’t pretend it is.
With the HTC HD2 we are using a retail version (unlike all the many pre-production units that come our way) and we had the opportunity to take our time and test the battery life properly.
Let’s start with the movie playback. Back in July when making the Samsung Omnia HD review we were impressed by the ability of the handset to play standard resolution XviD video for 5 h 30 min straight on a single battery charge. Well, the HTC HD2 runs Windows Mobile, it’s got the 1 GHz Snapdragon and a bigger display to worry about. But as you’ll see, though lower, the result of HTC HD2 is higher than what we expected. Here it is:
Movie playback test result – 4 h 30 min
Getting 4:30 hours out of it (though in Flight mode) is quite good actually and a lot better that what we expected, considering the hardware differences between HD2 and Omnia HD. BTW, on a personal note, HD2 might not be your first choice for watching movies on the go. The big screen size is a plus, but also help you to see the limitation of the 65K color restriction in Windows Mobile. Even more, the blacks are not as deep as I’d like them to be.
For our next test we left the smartphone idling at one of the setting screens (light gray background, if you’re getting technical) again with Flight mode on. What we got out of it was:
Backlight stand-by test results – 11 h 50 min
Again, better than what we expected, but what does the test mean? First, it means that fears the big display will deplete the battery quickly are unfounded. And secondly, if you like reading e-books on the go, the HD2 wont let you down.
Now that we’ve got that cleared, we come to the most important battery test – the one simulating real life usage.
Real life battery test results – 52 hours operation time (on 3G), including all of the following…
- 40 minutes of voice calls
- 30 minutes of web browsing
- 30 minutes of guided navigation (CoPilot)
- 50 minutes of video playback
- 2 hours of music playback
Side note – all test are executed with display brightness set to 50%. The HTC HD2 display is quite bright and 50% is more than enough for perfect visibility in all indoor conditions. If you plan to watch movies in a darker room you might go with an even lower brightness level – say 30% – to keep your eyes from straining and have the blacks as deep as possible.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 won’t be getting an official Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade
It’s now official, folks. A few days ago a spokesman of Sony Ericsson confirmed the XPERIA X1 will not receive any official upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5.
Well it was expected, as the X1 wasn’t included into the WinMo 6.5 upgrade list long before the release of the OS update. Still hope dies last.
It’s not clear why Sony Ericsson decided to cut the XPERIA X1 from the update list, since it packs the same hardware as the X2. Or may be the real answer is they don’t need a cheap competitor of the X2.
If you’ve got an X1, sure you can get some of the 6.5 features like the Windows Marketplace and My Phone Backup.
But if you insist on having Windows Mobile 6.5 in your X1 there is a lot cooked rooms for it out in the web. You may want to check the XDA developers one and follow their instructions.
LG KU6300 is the Korean BL40 New Chocolate, awarded with camera upgrade
The LG BL40 New Chocolate
is the latest fashionable GSM handset by LG. You may be interested to
know that it’s got a beefier, meaner twin made exclusively for Korea. It
comes in three falvors depending on the internal storage – LG LG
KU6300, LU6300 and SU630.
The main difference between the worldwide BL40 and those siblings here is the 8 megapixel camera onboard. All characteristic traits of the New Chocolate are present in the trio – the unique design, the 4-inch capacitive 21:9 display, the 3D S-Class UI, DivX support plus Dolby Mobile and microSD slot. It’s still unclear whether the Korean New Chocolate will sport Wi-Fi and GPS or will trade them for the T-DMB tuner as usually happens.
I am not sure why Koreans are the only one to get the upgraded version of the BL40 – it doesn’t really seem fair. If you’ve read our BL40 review, you’ll know we’re not really happy with its camera.
But the South Korean New Chocolates come with a spanking new 8 megapixel sensor. There is no word on the video recording or any other specs, but if a better video quality applies I suggest a public protest! No really!
The main difference between the worldwide BL40 and those siblings here is the 8 megapixel camera onboard. All characteristic traits of the New Chocolate are present in the trio – the unique design, the 4-inch capacitive 21:9 display, the 3D S-Class UI, DivX support plus Dolby Mobile and microSD slot. It’s still unclear whether the Korean New Chocolate will sport Wi-Fi and GPS or will trade them for the T-DMB tuner as usually happens.
I am not sure why Koreans are the only one to get the upgraded version of the BL40 – it doesn’t really seem fair. If you’ve read our BL40 review, you’ll know we’re not really happy with its camera.
But the South Korean New Chocolates come with a spanking new 8 megapixel sensor. There is no word on the video recording or any other specs, but if a better video quality applies I suggest a public protest! No really!
Office 2010 beta out now with new features on board, Windows 8 scheduled for 2012
Four days ago Microsoft released the first public beta of
their next Office 2010. It brings some new features for all apps in the
package, along withal slightly upgraded UI but still keeping the Office
2007 feel.
The first new upgrade to the Office family will be the ability to save your files directly into the Cloud. If you have Windows Live SkyDrive account you can upload all your documents there for free and easily access them from your mobile phone afterwards. The free SkyDrive service offers 25GB online storage where you are able to save, view and edit all kinds of documents.
The next major feature is that now you can embed online videos in your Power Point presentations. You just need to copy the embedding code and voala. But remember, you’ll still need an active internet connection during your presentation.
Then, there comes the integrated PDF writer. Now you will be able to save your documents into PDF format.
The rest of the new stuff includes video editing, improved printing options, built-in screen capture, easy ways of distributing docs on different devices and internet, and more.
You can download the free beta version from its official website. However, keep in mind that if you’re currently using an older MS Office version, it will be overwritten. And if you are using the Technical Preview of Office 2010, it should be uninstalled in order to install the new beta.
In the meantime a roadmap for Windows Server family has popped up in the web showing the next Windows installment – Codename 8 – and scheduled for release in 2012. This means we might even see early builds leaking out as early as next year.
The first new upgrade to the Office family will be the ability to save your files directly into the Cloud. If you have Windows Live SkyDrive account you can upload all your documents there for free and easily access them from your mobile phone afterwards. The free SkyDrive service offers 25GB online storage where you are able to save, view and edit all kinds of documents.
The next major feature is that now you can embed online videos in your Power Point presentations. You just need to copy the embedding code and voala. But remember, you’ll still need an active internet connection during your presentation.
Then, there comes the integrated PDF writer. Now you will be able to save your documents into PDF format.
The rest of the new stuff includes video editing, improved printing options, built-in screen capture, easy ways of distributing docs on different devices and internet, and more.
You can download the free beta version from its official website. However, keep in mind that if you’re currently using an older MS Office version, it will be overwritten. And if you are using the Technical Preview of Office 2010, it should be uninstalled in order to install the new beta.
In the meantime a roadmap for Windows Server family has popped up in the web showing the next Windows installment – Codename 8 – and scheduled for release in 2012. This means we might even see early builds leaking out as early as next year.
Sony Ericsson Satio getting pulled out from UK stores?
Some of our readers have been recently noticing a worrying lack of
Sony Ericsson Satio units throughout some major UK retailers. It became
even more obvious when Carphone Warehouse removed all Satio offerings.
Today an anonymous tipster sent us an internal memo, which states that Carphone Warehouse are withdrawing the Satio due to some undisclosed software issues. You can see the memo text for yourselves.
“From time to time we experience issues with new handsets, and their software, which result in a customer experience that is below our usually high standards. To give you the confidence that you’re able to deliver a World-Class experience to all our customers we will temporarily be removing the Sony Ericsson Satio from sale, with immediate effect. Please be assured we are investigating a solution as a priority.”
As you can see, the specific reason is kept hush-hush. As always you’d have to take unofficial info such as this one with a pinch of salt, at least we do. But if it is, what about the current Satio users? Whatever it is, we really hope they will sort this out before the holidays otherwise they’re so going down.
Today an anonymous tipster sent us an internal memo, which states that Carphone Warehouse are withdrawing the Satio due to some undisclosed software issues. You can see the memo text for yourselves.
“From time to time we experience issues with new handsets, and their software, which result in a customer experience that is below our usually high standards. To give you the confidence that you’re able to deliver a World-Class experience to all our customers we will temporarily be removing the Sony Ericsson Satio from sale, with immediate effect. Please be assured we are investigating a solution as a priority.”
As you can see, the specific reason is kept hush-hush. As always you’d have to take unofficial info such as this one with a pinch of salt, at least we do. But if it is, what about the current Satio users? Whatever it is, we really hope they will sort this out before the holidays otherwise they’re so going down.
What IF your browser was your operating system – meet Chrome OS
Yesterday Google officially presented their Chrome OS to the
world. Well, sort of. They’re still an year ago from release. But we got
the heads up on what it’s all about. It will be online based and with
rapid boot times and it will be optimized for specific hardware rather
than run on all walks of rigs.
What hardware-optimized means is that Google Chrome OS will be tailr-made for specific hardware configurations and you won’t be able to just download and install it on any computer. Only that way Chrome OS will be able to offer the promised unmatched boot times as it skips any hardware checks other OSes do at boot. The netbooks and similar kind of internet devices are the primary target of the new OS as it’s heavily online-based.
Chrome OS won’t work with any native apps, instead it will operate with web apps. Got you interested, read on for more.
The core of Chrome OS is a web browser. In fact the entire OS will be this web browser. There will be no additional services and support for native applications. This will cut the whole booting process and now the Google Chrome needs only 7 seconds to power up. And it’s just the beginning of its development.
As I mentioned before – there will be no apps – the guys in Google think most of the today people use only internet-based stuff – email, chats, blogs, online games, videos and music, etc. And they target exactly this kind of users.
Google Chrome OS
This way there are no updates to the OS to download and no anti-virus programs to run. With Chrome OS the computer turns into a web console with all your files constantly stored in the Google web cloud instead locally on your hard drive. This will help unifying the logging process on any Google Chrome running netbook. When you log on with your Google account your settings will be automatically retrieved (even your Wi-Fi ones) and you will feel at home on every Chrome-enabled netbook – even if you borrow one from your friend.
Of course when the right time comes and its market grows, Google Chrome OS will be able to take full advantage of more powerful computers with multi-core CPUs and modern GPUs – that means desktop computers and laptops.
Right now Google Chrome OS is far away from its release – so it’s too early to pass any judgments. But it’s a novel concpect, we’re only not really sure about its practicality. It’s like turning your computer into a smartphone – it will be easier to use, but it won’t have the full features of a desktop OS. Ad we’re not really sure if we’d like to dumb down our netbooks.
If you are enthusiastic to try the new OS, even its in very early stage, you may try through a compiled VMware image. Since the Google released the current code onlince for free use, the user Mark Renouf succeeded to make an image file from it. You may download it from The Pirate Bay.
What hardware-optimized means is that Google Chrome OS will be tailr-made for specific hardware configurations and you won’t be able to just download and install it on any computer. Only that way Chrome OS will be able to offer the promised unmatched boot times as it skips any hardware checks other OSes do at boot. The netbooks and similar kind of internet devices are the primary target of the new OS as it’s heavily online-based.
Chrome OS won’t work with any native apps, instead it will operate with web apps. Got you interested, read on for more.
The core of Chrome OS is a web browser. In fact the entire OS will be this web browser. There will be no additional services and support for native applications. This will cut the whole booting process and now the Google Chrome needs only 7 seconds to power up. And it’s just the beginning of its development.
As I mentioned before – there will be no apps – the guys in Google think most of the today people use only internet-based stuff – email, chats, blogs, online games, videos and music, etc. And they target exactly this kind of users.
Google Chrome OS
This way there are no updates to the OS to download and no anti-virus programs to run. With Chrome OS the computer turns into a web console with all your files constantly stored in the Google web cloud instead locally on your hard drive. This will help unifying the logging process on any Google Chrome running netbook. When you log on with your Google account your settings will be automatically retrieved (even your Wi-Fi ones) and you will feel at home on every Chrome-enabled netbook – even if you borrow one from your friend.
Of course when the right time comes and its market grows, Google Chrome OS will be able to take full advantage of more powerful computers with multi-core CPUs and modern GPUs – that means desktop computers and laptops.
Right now Google Chrome OS is far away from its release – so it’s too early to pass any judgments. But it’s a novel concpect, we’re only not really sure about its practicality. It’s like turning your computer into a smartphone – it will be easier to use, but it won’t have the full features of a desktop OS. Ad we’re not really sure if we’d like to dumb down our netbooks.
If you are enthusiastic to try the new OS, even its in very early stage, you may try through a compiled VMware image. Since the Google released the current code onlince for free use, the user Mark Renouf succeeded to make an image file from it. You may download it from The Pirate Bay.
AMD unleashed the HD5970 beast – the world’s fastest video card
AMD seems to be on the right track with their HD5xxx series, since
their cards become just faster and faster and there’s no stopping them. A
few days ago, their latest crop – the Radeon HD5970 – made its way to
the retail stores and awaits you there with a pricetag of $600.
The HD5970 has two separate Cypress cores with 1GB GDDR5 memory each. The engine clock goes up to 725 MHz (the HD5870 one is 850 MHz), while memory runs at 1000 MHz. And it has full hardware support for DirectX 11.
Looking at the specs table made by tomshardware.com you can see that the new HD5970 is exactly twice the HD5850 was (even price-wise). But prepare for a huge power drown – at full throttle the HD5970 uses 300W and combined with the board power reaches a bit under 400W. If you want Crossfire with two of these 1 kW power supply is the minimum requirement for you… plus a bag full of cash.
In most of the benchmark tests made by tomshardware.com, the HD5970 show almost similar performance with a Crossfire configuration of 2x HD5870 and outperforms all NVIDIA contenders.
The HD5970 has two separate Cypress cores with 1GB GDDR5 memory each. The engine clock goes up to 725 MHz (the HD5870 one is 850 MHz), while memory runs at 1000 MHz. And it has full hardware support for DirectX 11.
Looking at the specs table made by tomshardware.com you can see that the new HD5970 is exactly twice the HD5850 was (even price-wise). But prepare for a huge power drown – at full throttle the HD5970 uses 300W and combined with the board power reaches a bit under 400W. If you want Crossfire with two of these 1 kW power supply is the minimum requirement for you… plus a bag full of cash.
In most of the benchmark tests made by tomshardware.com, the HD5970 show almost similar performance with a Crossfire configuration of 2x HD5870 and outperforms all NVIDIA contenders.
Casio announce rugged EX-G1 with a face only a mother could love
Casio are obviously keen to refresh their digital cameras lineup in
time for the Christmas shopping spree. The new offering by the Japanese
company is called EX-G1 and according to the manufacturer is the
slimmest shock-resistant camera in the world.
Measuring just under 20mm (19.8 to be exact) at its slimmest part the
Casio EX-G1 can withstand a drop of 2.13 meters and is waterproof at up
to 3 meters. It is also capable of working in dusty and extremely cold
(up to -10°C) environment.
On the imaging side Casio EX-G1 packs a 12 MP 1/2.3″ sensor that can also capture WVGA (848 x 480 pixels) videos at 30fps. The 3x zoom lens goes from 38 to 114mm (in 35mm equivalent) and has maximum aperture values of F/3.9 (at 38mm) to F/5.4 (at 114mm).
The EX-G1 will hit shelves in December in black and red. Taking one with you the next time you go rock climbing will set you back 299.95 US dollars. If you are interested you can preorder yours at Amazon right now.
On the imaging side Casio EX-G1 packs a 12 MP 1/2.3″ sensor that can also capture WVGA (848 x 480 pixels) videos at 30fps. The 3x zoom lens goes from 38 to 114mm (in 35mm equivalent) and has maximum aperture values of F/3.9 (at 38mm) to F/5.4 (at 114mm).
The EX-G1 will hit shelves in December in black and red. Taking one with you the next time you go rock climbing will set you back 299.95 US dollars. If you are interested you can preorder yours at Amazon right now.
Want a Mac tablet? You can convert your MacBook or buy a brand new Modbook
There are quite a lot of rumors floating around about an
upcoming MacBook tablet. Well, in case you don’t feel like waiting, it
seems there’s an option out there already. It’s called tablet
conversion and what it means is that the internals of your current Mac
are taken and then transformed into a touch-only device. You’d bet
that’s not some garden-shack DIY project you might undertake yourself.
And no, Apple have not started converting to tablets.
Read more to see what this conversion is all about. This WILL void your warranty.
The company Axiotron has been offering this option for a couple of months now, but it was only recently that the conversion price dropped by $500 and now it starts from $650.
What you need is a 13.3 inch MacBook with 2.13 GHz CPU. Of course if you don’t own one, you can always buy the Axiotron Modbook tablet starting at $1600.
The new tablet, despite its origin – your old Mac or a new one, can be upgraded with up to 6 GB RAM and up to 1.28 TB storage memory. The latest is achieved with replacing the optical drive with another HDD (or SSD).
The new features, which a Modbook will give you, include GPS capabilities, “ForceGlass” touchscreen, camera cover and a WACOM-”Penabled” digitizer with 512 levels of sensitivity plus an Axiotron digitizer pen for input. So as you see, Axiotron are just adding a digitizer layer over the original screen, so you can still have the high-quality Apple product but in a touchscreen variety.
So if you are tired of waiting for the official Apple tablet and you’re interesting to convert your old MacBook or want to buy a new Modbook you can visit the official Axiotron dealers.
But be careful, because as every other Mac stuff, this one here is also expensive.
And while I’m still on the Apple wave, I’ve found another interesting “conversion” – this time it allows your Apple iPhone to detect some dangerous chemicals in the air and their concentration. This technology comes directly from NASA and presents a small sensor containing 64 nanosensors. It’s plugged into the iPhone’s proprietary port and is capable of detecting ammonia, chlorine gas and methane. The guys at NASA even designed their own beautiful app for this purpose. However, we’re not really sure if it will make it to mass production so don’t expect the app in the App Store any time soon.
If these kind of gadgets reach the mass market, then it could ease a lot of field work of many chemists and reduce the size and price of their equipment they use (that’s gotta be some expensive rig if they consider iPhone cheap). You can find more information at the NASA website.
Read more to see what this conversion is all about. This WILL void your warranty.
The company Axiotron has been offering this option for a couple of months now, but it was only recently that the conversion price dropped by $500 and now it starts from $650.
What you need is a 13.3 inch MacBook with 2.13 GHz CPU. Of course if you don’t own one, you can always buy the Axiotron Modbook tablet starting at $1600.
The new tablet, despite its origin – your old Mac or a new one, can be upgraded with up to 6 GB RAM and up to 1.28 TB storage memory. The latest is achieved with replacing the optical drive with another HDD (or SSD).
The new features, which a Modbook will give you, include GPS capabilities, “ForceGlass” touchscreen, camera cover and a WACOM-”Penabled” digitizer with 512 levels of sensitivity plus an Axiotron digitizer pen for input. So as you see, Axiotron are just adding a digitizer layer over the original screen, so you can still have the high-quality Apple product but in a touchscreen variety.
So if you are tired of waiting for the official Apple tablet and you’re interesting to convert your old MacBook or want to buy a new Modbook you can visit the official Axiotron dealers.
But be careful, because as every other Mac stuff, this one here is also expensive.
And while I’m still on the Apple wave, I’ve found another interesting “conversion” – this time it allows your Apple iPhone to detect some dangerous chemicals in the air and their concentration. This technology comes directly from NASA and presents a small sensor containing 64 nanosensors. It’s plugged into the iPhone’s proprietary port and is capable of detecting ammonia, chlorine gas and methane. The guys at NASA even designed their own beautiful app for this purpose. However, we’re not really sure if it will make it to mass production so don’t expect the app in the App Store any time soon.
If these kind of gadgets reach the mass market, then it could ease a lot of field work of many chemists and reduce the size and price of their equipment they use (that’s gotta be some expensive rig if they consider iPhone cheap). You can find more information at the NASA website.
Nikon D300s reviewed to the bone, considered second best in class
Nikon D300s, one of Nikon’s latest DSLR cameras, has been treated to a
long and detailed review by one of the leading websites for photography
gear. In one of their trademark epic 30-page articles DPreview have
examined the device performance and ergonomics, telling us almost
everything there is to know about it.
Quite as the naming suggests the Nikon D300S is more of a cosmetic upgrade to its predecessor, than a genuinely new camera. The added video recording, contrast-detect AF and increased continuous shooting rate will probably be enough for many to consider an upgrade, but the image quality has remained virtually unchanged.
That is probably the main reason why the Nikon D300S didn’t manage to retain the leading spot in the APS-C-pro-build-quality segment that belonged to the company for seemingly ages. The Nikon D300 had a relatively easy time against the Canon 50D, but now that Canon released the 7D, D300S faces much more serious competition.
As a matter of fact, the two biggest manufacturers used to place their cameras in-between each other (the ultra-low end being the only exception). The 50D was considered lower-end than the D300 (the new D300S following suite) and the 7D was the first direct go at a competitor’s model. And as it turns out Nikon lost the first round in that battle. The differences are pretty minor and won’t make any expensive optics owner switch teams, but for a new DSLR adopter even the slight disparities can be decisive.
To summarize, the Nikon D300S has a slightly less detailed output than the 18MP Canon 7D and outputs a bit noisier images than its competitor. Its 720p video also doesn’t really compare favorably to the 1080p capabilities of the 7D, leaving the better dynamic range as its only notable advantage.
Quite as the naming suggests the Nikon D300S is more of a cosmetic upgrade to its predecessor, than a genuinely new camera. The added video recording, contrast-detect AF and increased continuous shooting rate will probably be enough for many to consider an upgrade, but the image quality has remained virtually unchanged.
That is probably the main reason why the Nikon D300S didn’t manage to retain the leading spot in the APS-C-pro-build-quality segment that belonged to the company for seemingly ages. The Nikon D300 had a relatively easy time against the Canon 50D, but now that Canon released the 7D, D300S faces much more serious competition.
As a matter of fact, the two biggest manufacturers used to place their cameras in-between each other (the ultra-low end being the only exception). The 50D was considered lower-end than the D300 (the new D300S following suite) and the 7D was the first direct go at a competitor’s model. And as it turns out Nikon lost the first round in that battle. The differences are pretty minor and won’t make any expensive optics owner switch teams, but for a new DSLR adopter even the slight disparities can be decisive.
To summarize, the Nikon D300S has a slightly less detailed output than the 18MP Canon 7D and outputs a bit noisier images than its competitor. Its 720p video also doesn’t really compare favorably to the 1080p capabilities of the 7D, leaving the better dynamic range as its only notable advantage.
Is Apple phasing out iPhone 3G, should we get ready for a cheaper 8GB 3GS?
I’ve been hearing those rumors lately that Apple have a
cheaper 8GB version of the latest 3GS ready in the oven. The sources are
nothing in particular, but they add up, you know – and they come from
various places. Now there’s not anything specific about market
availability, but we sure hope that there will be some of those in
stores around our parts on time for Christmas.
Obviously, there are one too many things to consider here. For one, Christmas coincides with the 6-month cycle that Apple usually uses for lowering their current models pricing. Introducing a new lower-spec’d model of the same generation actually sounds credible when you look at it this way. But you can bet there’s more to it.
Last year Apple went ahead and broke their price reducing scheme for the iPhone 3G so nothing is really certain this year.
So, we don’t really have any answers at this point – only questions. We can only hope for those rumors to turn out true since the high price of the 3GS is rather prohibitive.
And how about you? What do you think about the idea of an 8GB version of Apple iPhone 3GS? Go ahead share with us what’s on your mind.
Obviously, there are one too many things to consider here. For one, Christmas coincides with the 6-month cycle that Apple usually uses for lowering their current models pricing. Introducing a new lower-spec’d model of the same generation actually sounds credible when you look at it this way. But you can bet there’s more to it.
Last year Apple went ahead and broke their price reducing scheme for the iPhone 3G so nothing is really certain this year.
So, we don’t really have any answers at this point – only questions. We can only hope for those rumors to turn out true since the high price of the 3GS is rather prohibitive.
And how about you? What do you think about the idea of an 8GB version of Apple iPhone 3GS? Go ahead share with us what’s on your mind.
Nokia N900 pays GSMArena a visit
It’s finally here folks – the Nokia N900
in all its Maemo-powered shine finally arrived at the office. It is
certainly one of the hottest names of the season and the hype generated
by the new OS is huge. So now that we have the actual device on our
hands we can see what this fuss is all about.
Nokia N900 at ours
Now we cannot tell you too much about the phone itself just yet but we can show you how it looks (and behaves). Judging a book by its cover is never a smart idea but starting off at the wrong foot is not what a new platform pioneer would like to do.
Handling the beast
Oh yeah, we almost forgot – there’s also a short demo video after the break, demonstrating a part of the Nokia N900 UI and performance.
So let’s hope that would be enough to keep you warm while we complete our preview (which should be out before the end of the week). You can also check out our homepage at the beginning of next week for a full-fledged review.
Nokia N900 at ours
Now we cannot tell you too much about the phone itself just yet but we can show you how it looks (and behaves). Judging a book by its cover is never a smart idea but starting off at the wrong foot is not what a new platform pioneer would like to do.
Handling the beast
Oh yeah, we almost forgot – there’s also a short demo video after the break, demonstrating a part of the Nokia N900 UI and performance.
So let’s hope that would be enough to keep you warm while we complete our preview (which should be out before the end of the week). You can also check out our homepage at the beginning of next week for a full-fledged review.
introduces new zooming for camera samples
The ones that have been paying attention have certainly
noticed there’s a certain new feature in our reviews. For the rest of
you, we decided to do a quick tutorial how it works so you can get 100%
our of interacting with it.
Starting yesterday we have introduced new image zooming system for the camera samples that should hopefully make it easier to browse all the camera samples that we publish for each handset when reviewing it over at GSMArena.com.
Magic Touch zooming now provides more natural and intuitive control on the level of zoom of those images. Once you click on an image thumbnail just wait for the downsized preview to fully load (this is important for the whole thing to work out) and you’ll then get ALL the benefit of a much more advanced zooming and panning system. More details after the break.
Now once the image preview has fully loaded you can use the overlay controls in the top right corner to go fullscreen or zoom in to 100% magnification. If you don’t quite dig these controls, there are other ways to zoom in and out.
Clicking anywhere on the fully loaded preview window will zoom to 100% and center on that spot. You can also use the scroll wheel of your mouse for that purpose – a scroll forward zooms in and centers on the place where your mouse cursor is hovering right now. A scroll backwards zooms out to show the whole image preview again. You simply can’t beat that for consequently checking the image detail at 100% zoom at selected places on the image.
Now that we’ve covered zooming options, we gotta also mention the different options for panning – you can either click on the image itself and the point you clicked will get aligned in the center of the window or you can use the mini map at the top left corner. Of course, you can also grab-n-drag the image around so you can see a different part of it in the viewport.
In case you prefer to browse the images on your computer, as always you can right-click a photo a select Save image… to download it.
Go ahead, try out the new image browsing system with these camera samples taken by Nokia N97 mini and tell us what you think in the post comments. We’d love to hear your feedback.
The whole system is provided by the professionals over at Magic Toolbox, so all props go to them.
Starting yesterday we have introduced new image zooming system for the camera samples that should hopefully make it easier to browse all the camera samples that we publish for each handset when reviewing it over at GSMArena.com.
Magic Touch zooming now provides more natural and intuitive control on the level of zoom of those images. Once you click on an image thumbnail just wait for the downsized preview to fully load (this is important for the whole thing to work out) and you’ll then get ALL the benefit of a much more advanced zooming and panning system. More details after the break.
Now once the image preview has fully loaded you can use the overlay controls in the top right corner to go fullscreen or zoom in to 100% magnification. If you don’t quite dig these controls, there are other ways to zoom in and out.
Clicking anywhere on the fully loaded preview window will zoom to 100% and center on that spot. You can also use the scroll wheel of your mouse for that purpose – a scroll forward zooms in and centers on the place where your mouse cursor is hovering right now. A scroll backwards zooms out to show the whole image preview again. You simply can’t beat that for consequently checking the image detail at 100% zoom at selected places on the image.
Now that we’ve covered zooming options, we gotta also mention the different options for panning – you can either click on the image itself and the point you clicked will get aligned in the center of the window or you can use the mini map at the top left corner. Of course, you can also grab-n-drag the image around so you can see a different part of it in the viewport.
In case you prefer to browse the images on your computer, as always you can right-click a photo a select Save image… to download it.
Go ahead, try out the new image browsing system with these camera samples taken by Nokia N97 mini and tell us what you think in the post comments. We’d love to hear your feedback.
The whole system is provided by the professionals over at Magic Toolbox, so all props go to them.
We have a new HTC HD2 video, the review is due tomorrow
Perhaps you’d be happy to hear that we have a little treat for you ready to be published tomorrow. After the successful HTC HD2 preview
we did last week, we are now ready to push out the full-featured N900,
oops… HTC HD2 review tomorrow. Sorry about that lapsus over there, my
mind was off to a different thing altogether. Just forget I mentioned
N900 up there, alright?
The HTC HD2 next to Apple’s iPhone
So anyway, I thought you guys (our avid blog readers) deserve a little taster of what’s coming, so here you go. Oblige yourself with a new HTC HD2 UI video. It will be up here at the blog exclusively – it’s the little things that count. We’re really impressed by how snappy this thing is. Check out the clip after the break and stay tuned for our full featured review tomorrow evening (CET).
The HTC HD2 next to Apple’s iPhone
So anyway, I thought you guys (our avid blog readers) deserve a little taster of what’s coming, so here you go. Oblige yourself with a new HTC HD2 UI video. It will be up here at the blog exclusively – it’s the little things that count. We’re really impressed by how snappy this thing is. Check out the clip after the break and stay tuned for our full featured review tomorrow evening (CET).
NASA gives us a breathtaking shot of Atlantis right before its launch in space
Continuing my NASA theme, here’s a really cool shot of the
space shuttle Atlantis, taken few hours before its launch today. The
picture is made by dawn, while the launch will be at 2:26 pm EST. Full
res download link after the break.
This will be the last flight of Atlantis for the 2009 and the second to last one ever (or at least planned). The final flight will be on 14 May 2010, again headed to the ISS (International Space Station). You can download a full-res copy from the NASA gallery.
This will be the last flight of Atlantis for the 2009 and the second to last one ever (or at least planned). The final flight will be on 14 May 2010, again headed to the ISS (International Space Station). You can download a full-res copy from the NASA gallery.
Where is NASA heading after they’ve found water on the Moon?
I admit the discovery of the water on Mars thrilled me much
more than those ice craters found on the Moon. Yet, it’s another
significant discovery in the mankind history and may result in some
groundbreaking answers about the very fabric of our galaxy. Or at least
provide the opportunity to create the first permanent cosmic base up
there.
After numerous recent evidences from different lunar mission, a few days ago NASA has officially confirmed in a press conference that they’ve found “a significant amount” of water in some of the Moon’s craters. As you may have guessed, it’s frozen, but NASA promises it is water like any other and will be suitable to drink after some filtration.
Well, this will certainly help the future Moon habitants – the astronauts, which may live in a future permanent cosmic base. Still NASA is quiet about the exact amount of water reserves up there.
Just don’t get too excited over the water discovery – it’s not something that can save you a** when 2012 comes around (just watched, love it). First off, the Moon is a natural satellite instead of some independent planet like Mars. If anything catastrophic happens on Earth, it will most probably involve the Moon as well. And secondly, it is just a peace of rock, without any atmosphere, which makes the living up there quite hard.
Still the water on the Moon gives us hope. We might be far away from the discovery of space traveling (like in Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica), but I believe NASA is on the right track. Searching for human friendly factors and environments along with the understanding the planet’s structures is the first step of venturing into Space. And until we find some Stargate hidden in the deep jungles, let’s hope NASA and the other countries’ space programs will make more and more breakthroughs.
After numerous recent evidences from different lunar mission, a few days ago NASA has officially confirmed in a press conference that they’ve found “a significant amount” of water in some of the Moon’s craters. As you may have guessed, it’s frozen, but NASA promises it is water like any other and will be suitable to drink after some filtration.
Well, this will certainly help the future Moon habitants – the astronauts, which may live in a future permanent cosmic base. Still NASA is quiet about the exact amount of water reserves up there.
Just don’t get too excited over the water discovery – it’s not something that can save you a** when 2012 comes around (just watched, love it). First off, the Moon is a natural satellite instead of some independent planet like Mars. If anything catastrophic happens on Earth, it will most probably involve the Moon as well. And secondly, it is just a peace of rock, without any atmosphere, which makes the living up there quite hard.
Still the water on the Moon gives us hope. We might be far away from the discovery of space traveling (like in Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica), but I believe NASA is on the right track. Searching for human friendly factors and environments along with the understanding the planet’s structures is the first step of venturing into Space. And until we find some Stargate hidden in the deep jungles, let’s hope NASA and the other countries’ space programs will make more and more breakthroughs.
Casio announces high-speed EX-FH25 and EX-FC150 with back-light CMOS sensors
Casio Japan announced a couple of pretty interesting digital cameras
today. The EX-FH25 superzoom and EX-FC150 compact both feature
back-light CMOS imaging sensors that should be able to deliver better
signal-to-noise ratio than conventional front-lit units.
Casio EX-FH25
Both cameras sport 1/2.3” 10 megapixel sensors and are able to shoot video at up to 1000 FPS. Of course that number is only achievable in the miserly resolution of 224 x 64 pixels but VGA @ 120 FPS ain’t too bad either.
Casio EX-FH25 sports a 28-560mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens with minimal aperture of F/2.8-4.5, while the more modestly sized EX-FC150 comes with 37-185mm (35mm equivalent) F/3.6-F4.5 lens.
Casio EX-FH25
Both cameras will start selling on 27th of November but there is no information about their pricing just yet. Admit it – you gotta fancy recording 1000fps video footage yourselves, wouldn’t you? I know, I would.
Casio EX-FH25
Both cameras sport 1/2.3” 10 megapixel sensors and are able to shoot video at up to 1000 FPS. Of course that number is only achievable in the miserly resolution of 224 x 64 pixels but VGA @ 120 FPS ain’t too bad either.
Casio EX-FH25 sports a 28-560mm (35mm equivalent) zoom lens with minimal aperture of F/2.8-4.5, while the more modestly sized EX-FC150 comes with 37-185mm (35mm equivalent) F/3.6-F4.5 lens.
Casio EX-FH25
Both cameras will start selling on 27th of November but there is no information about their pricing just yet. Admit it – you gotta fancy recording 1000fps video footage yourselves, wouldn’t you? I know, I would.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 goes on video again, looks much better
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10
is one of the hottest names of the season and understandably none of
its public appearances can go unnoticed. We just stumbled upon a new
video demo of the handset, showing a much better side of it.
The XPERIA X10 unit that the guys over at Wayerless took for a spin has much improved performance compared to the one we saw
at the official announcement event in London. It now looks more like a
1GHz CPU-powered device, and less like one that has a hamster running
inside to power the whole thing. Check out the video after the break.
It’s in Spanish but the handset does most of the talking you need
anyway.
There aren’t any new features shown, but the snappiness demonstrated is great news by itself. And with a few moths remaining to the official launch of the device we expect the final version to be really impressive. It’s a real pity they couldn’t finish it in time for Christmas but maybe the wait will be worth it.
There aren’t any new features shown, but the snappiness demonstrated is great news by itself. And with a few moths remaining to the official launch of the device we expect the final version to be really impressive. It’s a real pity they couldn’t finish it in time for Christmas but maybe the wait will be worth it.
The war is over! Intel agrees to pay AMD $1.25 billion in antitrust settlement
It’s either Intel are too often being caught red-handed or their lawyers
are total crap. The company just lost another 1.25 billion US dollars,
which should go to its main rival AMD.
In short, Intel have promised to behave themselves and pay the fine,
while Advanced Micro Devices have agreed to drop the antitrust lawsuit
filed in 2004. So offering inducements to customers and retailers in
exchange to make them dealing with Intel and forget about AMD is now
completely out of line. Did they really need to go to court (and lose
twice) to learn that?
We remind you that some time ago the European regulators filed a separate case that ended with another 1.5 billion US dollars fine for Intel. Intel is still appealing on that but we cannot see them achieving anything but delaying the inevitable. And just last week New York attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Intel that accuses the company of bribery.
We doubt that Intel and AMD will become best friends anytime soon but the companies promised to turn a new page in their relationship (“fierce but fair competition” they say). Yeah, that will last!
We remind you that some time ago the European regulators filed a separate case that ended with another 1.5 billion US dollars fine for Intel. Intel is still appealing on that but we cannot see them achieving anything but delaying the inevitable. And just last week New York attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Intel that accuses the company of bribery.
We doubt that Intel and AMD will become best friends anytime soon but the companies promised to turn a new page in their relationship (“fierce but fair competition” they say). Yeah, that will last!
YouTube bringing 1080p HD
We all knew this was going to happen eventually but we are a bit
surprised by that kind of speed. Only 5 months after the 720p videos
started rolling on YouTube, here comes the 1080p support.
Obviously the rapid growth of Full HD devices available has sped up
the upgrade process. So, starting next week, if you have a fast enough
computer and a large enough monitor you can switch to 1080p for the best
video streaming experience available online.
And if you happen to have already uploaded 1080p videos, those will be re-encoded automatically and become available in their native resolution.
To get a better feel for the advantage that Full HD gives you can check out some trailers:
Up, Transformers 2, Dark Knight, Ninja Assassin, 2012.
And if you happen to have already uploaded 1080p videos, those will be re-encoded automatically and become available in their native resolution.
To get a better feel for the advantage that Full HD gives you can check out some trailers:
Up, Transformers 2, Dark Knight, Ninja Assassin, 2012.
6 ways to get real 3D technology for home use this Christmas
You’ve all played the so-called 3D games, you’ve all seen 3D animation, but 3D films are a different animal all together. The FPS games and movies are “3D” in the sense that they are set in a three dimensional world. In addition to moving left or right, forward and back, there’s the third degree of motion – moving up and down.
But regardless of the number of directions you can move in, the image is still displayed on a flat surface, be it the computer monitor or the cinema screen. The problem here is that there no real perception of depth. Sure, you can tell how far things are thanks to perspective but that’s about it, depth is just an illusion.
Enter 3D movies, where you perceive “depth” just like you would in the real world. Normally each eye gets a slightly modified image of the natural setting around us due to the physical distance between them. The brain compbines the two images and presto – there’s real depth. It’s what our minds call 3D. And it’s what we’re after in this post – a small venture inside the 3D technology for home use.
Serving each eye with a different image is what’s behind most technologies for displaying 3D content (and trust us, there are a lot of these). Showing each eye a slightly different image confuses the brain enough to think it’s seeing real depth.
Passive anaglyph glasses work with just about any monitor and cost pennies
The simplest and most recognizable method of doing this false 3D is with the infamous anaglyph glasses. “Anaglyph glasses” are glasses that have a set of two differently colored spectacles, typically being cyan and red. In that case the two eyes get their different views from the special coloring of the 3D image. It changes when looked through differently colored filters. Here’s a pair of anaglyph glasses and a sample image to give you an idea of what this “special coloring” looks like when looked with bare eyes:
The 3D glasses most people are familiar with
The key advantage of using Anaglyph glasses is that they work on every display and they are cheap – the frame of the anaglyph glasses can be made out of cardboard, while the spectacles themselves can be simple plastic filters. They don’t provide the best image quality, but color reproduction has improved in recent times. But still, this method is dirt cheap on the user side of things – you can get several pairs of glasses for a dollar. So anaglyph glasses easily grab our award for the best value entry-level 3D “equipment”. Here, you can check out a bunch of 3D videos in YouTube. Just make sure you snatch a pair of anaglyph glasses off Ebay.
Plus it’s not only videos you can watch, you can also put your glasses to use for real 3D gaming as long as your computer has a recent NVIDIA GPU (here’s the list of requirements) and you use NVIDIA’s 3D Vision Discover software for 3D visualization. Thanks to that NVIDIA technology you can play 3D games (they claim to support more than 350 titles), you can watch 3D movies and browse photos in 3D. The key feature here is that works on any CRT or LCD monitor – most other 3D methods don’t. So here’s another one vote for anaglyph glasses. You simply have no excuse to not give them a try this holiday season.
Active LCD shutter glasses need a 120Hz LCD monitor and have a $200 pricetag
3D Vision Discover – the software we mentioned in the previous paragraph, is just to get you hooked. The real 3D home treat by NVIDIA is called… 3D Vision – yeah, we know, how resourceful! Anyways, 3D Vision makes use of a pair of special “LCD shutter glasses”. But don’t be misled by their name – they don’t have tiny LCD screens embedded.Instead, LCD shutter glasses use liquid crystals to make each of the two lens lens either transparent or opaque in any given moment in time. This makes showing a different image to each eye easy – “cover” the left eye and show the image for the right, then “cover” the right and show the image for the left, rinse and repeat 60 times per second.
LCD shutter glasses almost look like normal glasses
The glasses “talk” to the computer over an IR transmitter, which is plugged into a USB port. This IR connection is used for sychnronization so that the glasses can “cover” each eye just in the right time.
The advantage of NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses (199 US dollars for the glasses and IR receiver and 149 dollars for an extra pair of glasses) is that they use clear spectacles for each eye without any color tint so they don’t influence the monitor’s color reproduction or viewing angles. But the problem is that the computer has to output double the required framerate.
If a game is to be played at 60Hz, then the display needs to work on 120Hz (60Hz times two eyes). And LCDs in general can’t do that – but of course there are “3D-ready” computer monitors and even TV sets. Unfortunately, you would have to pay an extra for a 3D-ready monitor and the choice is pretty limited right now. You should know however that those 120Hz monitors are just fine even when not used in 3D modes. Two examples of such monitors include Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ and ViewSonic VX2265wm.
Passive polarized glasses work only with a special polarizing monitor
Polarized glasses are used in the next method of getting digital 3D in your home. The polarized glasses in question are much like the ones they typically use in modern 3D cinema. Each of the spectacles on the glasses passes through only light that’s polarized in a special way. The way they do it in the cinema is with two separate projectors, each beaming light with different polarization. With the glasses on, each of your eyes gets only the image from one of the projectors. Without the glasses, the picture appears blurred because you see the images from both projectors overlapping. It’s that simple. But how do you go about implementing the same system in the comfort of your home.Well, a possible solution is by using a special monitor, which does the dual polarizing of light much like those projectors in the cinema. You might be surprised to know that getting such a monitor can be even less expensive than its 120Hz peers we showed you in the previous chapter. Zalman for example have their Zalman ZM-M220W polarizing monitor.
Polarized glasses look normal too • the Zalman ZM-M220W works with polarized glasses
Here’s how it works – the image on the display is composed of multiple rows or pixels, right? Well, the odd numbered rows are polarized one way, the even numbered ones the other way. In 3D mode each one of your eyes sees only half of the rows and as your brain merges them together, the resulting 3D imagery has only half the vertical resolution (525 pixels instead of the original 1050).
The monitor also works in 2D mode but as it seems the filter over the display isn’t perfect and in 2D mode there are visible horizontal lines, which makes it unsuitable for use as a primary monitor for 2D use.
Another solution based on the same stereoscopic trick comes from iZ3D. Now they have a monitor that uses two separate matrices – the first is an ordinary LCD matrix, which produces the image (a combination of the images for each eye) and the second uses magic (or rather complicated physics) to change the polarization of the light for the underlying LCD matrix.
The display itself looks normal • here’s a glimpse of the glasses in action – right eye is covered
The difference here is that the second matrix is able to change polarization on pixel level, which means no loss in resolution. The advantage is even bigger – in 2D mode, the second matrix looks like gray transparent panel on top of the regular one, so it’s actually fit for use as a main monitor. It’s not perfect though, because the combination of two images in 3D mode results in visible artifacts. This Xbit labs review has all the details and more info on how the magic works.
Lenticular displays don’t need any glasses at all
Another type of 3D display is the so-called lenticular screen. The best part about it is that it works without glasses. They achieve this by using tiny lenses on screen, which direct the light at different angles – some lenses direct it to your left eye, others to the right.The problem with this is that you need to be in a specific spot, the sweet spot, in order to experience the 3D effect. Some screens allow several people to enjoy 3D at the same time by having several sweet spots. The disadvantage of lenticular displays is that the maximum number of viewers is still fixed and that all viewers have to stay put on one place.
Some lenticluar screens even have a fix for adding another layer of three-dimensionality. They allow for the so-called “look around” effect. What look-around means is that you see different 3D views as you move from side to side, seeing different aspects of the 3D object or scene.
Lenticular screens look like normal screens – until you turn them on!
In lenticluar screens the color accuracy doesn’t suffer from the use of the added lenses, but since the image is split in two vertically (similarly to how the polarizing displays work) the horizontal resolution is reduced in half. With the “look around” enabled, the drop in resolution is even higher and since more than two versions of the image are produced (one for each possible viewing angle), the computational requirements are very high, making 3D games almost impossible to run in real time with the currently available consumer computer systems.
An example of a lenticular screen is the Wazabee 3Dee (review) or Philips TVs like the
Philips 42-3D6W02 (PDF leaflet), which runs around 9000 US dollars.
Other methods
With most 3D displays your viewport is fixed – even if you move around, the picture doesn’t change. Some technologies offer to give you the ability to look around – the lenticular display from the previous section for example.Another way to do it, regardless of which method is used to separate the images for each eye, is to use a web cam to track the viewer’s head and eyes and adjust the picture accordingly. The current solutions (like this one), so far work for only one viewer, but the technology to track multiple faces is getting better and better and with the multiple viewports of lenticular screens, several people might be able to enjoy the kick ass 3D very soon.
Yet another option, is the so called “Virtual Reality” glasses, or VR-glasses. These are more officially known as Head-mounted displays, which is a dead giveaway of how they work.
VR glasses would make you look cool in the 80s
There are no light-splitting tricks here, just two separate screens, one for each eye. Their drawback however is that they are quite pricey (around 400 US dollars) and you run the risk of looking like something that jumped out of an 80s sci-fi movie. But seriously, most models use low-resolution screens, which spoils the whole experience.
And finally a quick comparison for further reference
We’ll try to organize the pros and cons (and price) of each method in a more easy to read table:
Method |
Pros |
Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Anaglyph glasses | Cheap, work on any displays, full resolution, allow 3D gaming | Poor color accuracy |
| LCD shutter glasses with a 120Hz monitor | Accurate colors, full resolution, allow 3D gaming | Expensive glassses, work only on high refresh rate displays |
| Polarized glasses with a polarizing monitor, the Zalman way | Accurate colors, allow 3D gaming | Half the vertical resolution, noticeable horizontal lines on the screen in 2D mode, so can’t really be used as primary monitor |
| Polarized glasses with a polarizing monitor, the iZ3D way | Accurate colors, full resolution, allow 3D gaming, can be used as primary monitor | Ghosting artifacts in 3D mode, just one manufacturer |
| Lenticular screens | Accurate colors, allow “looking around” | Half the horizontal resolution (or less), fixed viewing positions, computationally taxing (3D games probably won’t work) |
| Face tracking with web-cam | Accurate colors, allows “looking around” | Any drawbacks of the technology used to split the images, work only for one person unless used with lenticular screens |
| VR-glasses | Accurate colors, allow “looking around”, allow 3D gaming | Expensive, lower-cost models have low-resolution screens |
Conclusion
This post got quite long but we tried to pack in as much information as we could find and cover all of the numerous 3D display technologies. We hope we’ve managed to get you interested and we enourage you to do some research yourself. 3D displays are already quite accessible and will only get cheaper. The HDMI standard already has support for 3D content (since version 1.4), so it’s only a matter of time before you can enjoy 3D TV in your own living room.Snooker, with it’s many colored balls, was used by the BBC to demonstrate the advantages of color TV. 3D will also need something like that – if the technology is to become a household name, it must deliver more than 3D movies. So, what do you think – what game can be the Snooker of 3D TV? Quidditch you say? Well…
No more wondering which grey ball costs 5 points • Quidditch is played in three dimensions
For more information, HowStuffWorks has an excellent collection of articles covering anaglyph and polarized glasses, LCD shutter glasses and lenticular displays.
