Category: Computers (Page 30 of 33)

Google Wants to Study Netbook Usability

May 9, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

This past Thursday, Google posted an ad on Craig’s List asking for users willing to participate in a netbook usability study. Participants would be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement and be paid $75 in American Express gift checks.

The ad was released the same day as Google’s annual meeting, during which CEO Eric Schmidt declined to comment on the future of Android netbooks. From his short press conference, it sounds like Schmidt and the Google squad are looking to keep their web services viable on netbooks, and possibly roll out some new features for the netbook level consumer.

Sounds like business as usual for Google – telling us very little about what they’re actually doing. What kinds of applications are they looking to develop specific to netbook users? What kind of stability issues arise with netbooks/Google products. Why no word on Android?

Source: CNet

Computers, News

android android netbook eric schmidt google netbook netbook usability

Century’s 3-in-1 USB Dock Expands Netbooks

May 4, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

As netbooks continue to shrink, so does their collective feature list. Hard drives are smaller, batteries can’t last as long, optical drives are completely out of the question. Century hopes to bring back some functionality with their 3-in-1 USB docking station.

The dock comes with a standard CD/DVD drive built in, along with an internal SATA port for adding a hard drive. The unit also has a 4cm fan for…cooling the netbook? I’m not real sure why they added that last feature. Even if its miniscule, it just means more power being drawn from the netbook’s battery, and isn’t battery life one of the biggest issues?

There’s definitely a gap between reducing a tech’s scale and maintaining efficiency in that new scale. Until the two merge, I’m sure we’ll continue to see stopgap gadgets like this one.

Souce: Everything USB

Computers, Mobile

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Cablevision offering 101Mbps download

May 3, 2009 / Gary Fairchild

Next week, Cablevision is going to start offering customers download speeds of up to 101 mega bits per second. And while at $99.95 per month it’s not the cheapest internet service, it certainly is the fastest available in the US. Here are some of the details:

The new service will offer download speeds of 101 megabits per second and upload speeds of 15 Mbps for a cost of $99.95 a month. It will be available May 11 to all 5 million of the people in areas served by Cablevision, mainly in the New York City suburbs.
Cablevision is deploying a new technology called Docsis 3 which can utilize more of the capacity of a cable television system for data, offering both higher capacity and lower costs. In Japan, J:Com uses the same technology to offer 160 Mbps service for 6,000 yen ($62) a month.

I can’t say that I’m happy about the pricing but at least the cable companies are moving in the right direction when it comes to speed. For too long other countries have had better, faster, and more reliable internet service. It’s about time our corporate monopoly of ISPs start getting Americans up to speed. Hopefully after the initial investment, they will start lowering prices to compete. Though I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Computers

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AMD “Black” CPU for $69

April 29, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

The AMD Black Edition CPUs have long been the choice of the budget conscious gamer. Historically they’ve offered a decent processor with some overclocking potential just a bit under Intel prices. Today the struggling CPU manufacturer let loose the AMD X2 7850 Black Edition, a rock solid processor that slides well under the competition at just $69.

Early reports suggest the chip is a good buy. Overclocking is a little tough, but it is possible to push the 7850 up to 1.5x normal operating standards. The processor should make it even easier to build that sub-$500 Crysis machine.

Computers, Gaming

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Sneak Peak: Windows 7

April 27, 2009 / Gary Fairchild

Gizmodo has a peak into Windows 7 and so far, I like what I see:

Stream Your Library Over the Internet With Windows Media Player
This is hot—it’d be hotter if it was easier to set up. Windows Media Player’s Remote Media Sharing will let you access your media library from anywhere over the internet. You need a Windows Live ID that you associate with your Windows 7 user account using a tool you have to download. (This could grow to include other “online identities,” like Facebook I’m guessing, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for your Gmail account.) You also need the same version of Windows Media Player running on both computers. After everything’s all associamated, then your home library you wanna stream from should show up just like a local library under the “Other Libraries” section in the side navigation pane. Can’t do this in iTunes, buddy.
Windows XP Mode
To encourage enterprise people to let loose and rock Windows 7, it runs a full-fledged Windows XP virtual environment using Microsoft’s Virtual PC. It requires an additional download (booo), but you won’t have to worry about your applications breaking like with Vista.

This is really good stuff and smart on Microsoft’s part. I have a feeling that Windows 7 is going to be much, much better than Vista is. I hope they’ve learned a lesson from Vista and won’t release such crap again in the future. Although it does seem to be a trademark of Microsoft to released good product followed by horrible product followed by good product again.

So now to the details. Streaming your home library from anywhere is awesome. Come to think of it, why hasn’t Apple or Microsoft done this sooner? There are applications out there that can do that now, but it will be nice to have it built into Media Player.

No matter what anyone tells you, adding XP mode is genius. XP is their most stable, most reliable, and most used operating system. Most business and corporations have not purchased Vista because pretty much nothing works on it. Now corporations can purchase Windows 7 and not worry if their employees be able to run the applications they need to do their jobs. This is great for the end user and even better for Microsoft as it should dramatically increase their Windows 7 sales.

Definitely some welcome changes from Microsoft. I can honestly say that I was never looking forward to Windows Vista. However, I am looking forward to Windows 7.