NVIDIA takes on the entry-level DirectX10 market with a sub-$100 retail graphics card
Graphic card manufacturers silently launched retail GeForce 8400GS-based add-in boards this week. The GeForce 8400GS is NVIDIA’s newest retail entry-level offering, slotting below the GeForce 8500GT. NVIDIA previously released the GeForce 8400GS a couple months ago to OEMs only.
The retail GeForce 8400GS arrives ready to take on AMD’s upcoming ATI Radeon HD 2400-series. The entry-level offering introduces DirectX and shader model 4.0 to a sub-$100 price point. NVIDIA also packs the GeForce 8400GS with PureVideo HD for hardware accelerated video decoding, which accelerates decoding of H.264, VC-1 and MPEG2 high-definition video formats.
GeForce 8400GS-based cards feature 16 stream processors clocked at 900 MHz with a 450MHz core clock – similar to the GeForce 8500GT. NVIDIA pairs the GeForce 8400GS with 256MB of 400 MHz, 800 MHz effectively, DDR2 memory as with the GeForce 8500GT. However, NVIDIA has castrated the memory interface, leaving the GeForce 8400GS with a 64-bit interface instead of the 128-bit interface found on the 8500GT.
Expect GeForce 8400GS-based cards to start popping up in retail within the coming weeks. A quick search reveals MWAVE is the only retailer with a GeForce 8400GS in stock for $70.
Reference:Anh Huynh,dailytech
6/23/07
NVIDIA Partners Quietly Rollout Retail GeForce 8400GS
HP Introduces Industry's Largest Digital Camera Touchscreen
HP to sell $80 five-megapixel digital camera in July
HP introduced nine new digital cameras on Thursday, including one with the largest touchscreen LCD display of any compact digital camera in the industry.
The HP Photosmart R937 Digital Camera has a 3.6-inch Auto-bright touchscreen display for editing and organizing photos directly on the camera. Included within the touchscreen is a Microsoft Windows Vista-compatible tagging feature and a virtual keyboard, making photo organization and management quicker and easier once the camera is connected to a PC.
The 8-megapixel R937 also features the latest generation of HP Design Gallery, which includes the popular ‘slimming’ feature that can take up to 10 pounds off photographed subjects, HP pet-eye fix to correct glowing pet eyes and touch-up technology for removal of blemishes.
The HP Photosmart Mz67 Digital Camera, which produces 8-megapixel photos, is HP’s first compact midrange zoom digital camera. The Mz67 features a big 6x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch display.
Setting a new low for entry pricing into digital cameras is the 5-megapixel HP Photosmart E337 Digital Camera, set to retail below $80 and is expected to be available for purchase in July.
HP Photosmart R937 Digital Camera, HP Photosmart Mz67 Digital Camera and the rest of the new line up are expected to be available for purchase in August.
Reference:Marcus Yam,dailytech
Nintendo, Sony Will Not Accept "Adults Only" Games
AO-rated Manhunt 2 would be unacceptable to Nintendo and Sony
Nintendo tried with the GameCube to shed its image of being a video games system strictly for children by promoting games such as Resident Evil 4. With the widespread success and family appeal of the Wii, Nintendo may be facing another challenge on coming up with the appropriate mix of games for the mature crowd and everyone else.
While Nintendo may be hoping that its developers make mature games for the Wii, it may be getting more than it bargained for with Rockstar Games’ Manhunt 2.
In what could be the game with the most controversy stirred before release, Manhunt 2 is already banned from sale and distribution in the UK, recently also banned in Ireland, and is tentatively rated as AO for adults only by the U.S.-based ESRB.
Although AO-rated games are legally sellable in North America, the approval processes of Nintendo and Sony do not allow such games to appear on its systems. Manhunt 2 is under development for the Wii, PlayStation 2 and PSP, though the game would not be approved for release by Sony or Nintendo.
“Games made for Nintendo systems enjoy a broad variety of styles, genres and ratings. These are some of the reasons our Wii and Nintendo DS systems appeal to such a broad range of people,” read a Nintendo statement to the press. “But as with books, television and movies, different content is meant for different audiences. That's why the ESRB provides ratings to help consumers understand the content of a game before they purchase it. As stated on Nintendo.com, Nintendo does not allow any AO-rated content on its systems.”
Sony Computer Entertainment of America responded to inquiries with a similar response, saying, “Currently it's SCE's policy not to allow the playback of AO rated content on our systems.”
Of the 23 games ever to be given an AO rating by the ESRB, only one has ever appeared on a home console. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, also from Rockstar Games, had its M for mature rating changed to AO following the sexually explicit “Hot Coffee” incident. Copies of the AO rated game were recalled from retailer shelves and replaced with a version of the game without the adults only content.
Even if Sony and Nintendo were to allow the AO version of Manhunt 2 for play on their systems, retailers such as Wal-Mart have a policy of not selling explicit media, which would severely limit the game’s exposure to the buying public.
Reference:Brandon Hill,dailytech
New Content Protection System Ready for Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is getting another layer of content protection with the availability of BD Plus (BD+). The system, from BD+ Technologies LLC, is now complete and available to all Hollywood movie studios and content developers for implementation in Blu-ray Disc media. Issued by BD+ Technologies are system specifications, key management rules, test specifications and various agreements. Also launched are a key issuing center, testing centers for players, and testing facilities for disc playability. With the recent compromises to the Advanced Access Content System (AACS), BD Plus represents a new DRM scheme in hopes to thwart piracy. The BD+ system is believed to play a part in several Hollywood movie studios’ choice of which high-definition optical format to support. As the HD DVD specification does not account for BD+, movie studios such as Fox may have sided exclusively with Blu-ray Disc for its extra levels of protection. The attacks on the AACS have also had a noticeable effect on the release of movies from Blu-ray-exclusive studios. Neither Fox (which holds the Star Wars movies) nor MGM (has the entire 007 catalog) have released any Blu-ray movies since April. The release of the new BD+ system, however, may soon change that. BD+ differs from AACS in its complexity. Effectively an embedded virtual machine inside player hardware, BD+ allows content providers to include executables on Blu-ray Discs to perform specific, content protecting functions. For example, the BD+ virtual machine could run diagnostics on the host environment to see if the disc player has been modified, or to verify that the keys have not been changed. As part of the BD+ scheme, video may be deliberately corrupted or modified to prevent the ripping of the data stream for piracy purposes. The BD+ environment, once verified, will correct and descramble the content to render it viewable. “BD+ will be the proverbial thorn in the side of Blu-ray movie rippers,” said optical storage analyst Wesley Novack. “With AACS and BD+ switching up encryption keys and methods routinely (BD+), it might become too much work to determine how to rip every Blu-ray Disc title out there.” BD+ is a system made for Blu-ray Disc, but not all implementations of the media are required to support the system. In fact, support for BD+ is less that for AACS. Of all categories of BD-ROM, only game consoles, movie players and BD PC software are required to work with BD+ encoded media. Although an entire generation of Blu-ray Disc (and HD DVD) titles were cracked by a single AACS processing key, the extra layer of BD+ should make it much more challenging for hackers. Unlike AACS, BD+ can protect each Blu-ray Disc with a title-specific code, making the circumvention of the scheme much more involved than finding a single “silver bullet” processing key. Crackers would need to reverse-engineer each title individually to bypass the protection. While that task may be difficult, it may not be impossible as PC software with virtual machine-based protections, such as StarForce, are still being circumvented. “Only time will tell and there is no guarantee that BD+ will be effective against the persistence and tenacity of the talented online community,” added Novack.
BD Plus now available to help prevent Blu-ray piracy
SoundGate - Computer For Musicians by Nicolas Gonzalez Garrido
SoundGate provides musicians with tools for a new rich experience in individual learning, tutor instruction and live playing. The optimal user-experience has been designed taking in account the needs of musicians. The Tablet facilitates the creative process by recording playing sessions, recognizing and transcribing music, prompting sheet music and lyrics, generating electronic accompanist sound and displaying onscreen timing and metronome. [ Click here to download the video ]
Designer: Nicolas Gonzalez Garrido
Read More......USB Notebook by Hsuan Cheng Li
The USB Notebook makes your USB storage device a virtual notebook. The software enables you to duplicate the environment of your PC to portable USB storage devices, such as Flash drives, hard drives, and memory cards. By connecting your USB storage device to any other PC via its USB port, you can do your work just like you on your own PC. After your work is done, all your personal data and settings will be removed as soon as the USB storage device is disconnected. This product also has the function of data synchronization, which facilitates you to keep track of all data modifications you have made on another PC.
Designer: Hsuan Cheng Li
Newsware - Digital Toolkit for Reporters by Benjamin Kuhn
Newsware is a system of wireless connected digital devices. Each device serves a simple purpose without an overload of unnecessary functions. The Camera shoots images or video and uses the benefits of external displays, the VoiceStick records audio and the NotePad collects and organizes all information recorded with those devices. Its double sided touch display permits a quick application change or flipping pages like in a book. The handheld provides all the necessary applications used by journalists with a focus on text processing. A soft keyboard completes the toolkit.
Designer: Benjamin Kuhn
Read More......Seesaw Mobile Phone
This phone concept by Karsten Willmann has all the basics of “phone concepts 101″ down. You’ve got the high contrast OLED display. You’ve got the really thin form factor. And then there’s the number key pad and soft keys sitting nearly flush with the surface. But what’s really interesting is the bulge protruding from its center-back, hiding a camera and flashlight. Lay it on a table and the screen stays angled just enough so legibility isn’t an issue. Put a Pokemon on either side and watch it seesaw. Pokemon not included.
Designer: Karsten Willmann Read More......6/21/07
Seagate Launches Mobile Hard Drives for Extreme Environments
Soon after Seagate Technology began shipping its first 1TB hard disk drive offering, it launched a new mobile hard disk drive built for extreme conditions. Seagate Technology is offering the 2.5-inch EE25 Series 5400.2 mobile disk drive at up to 80GB in capacity and is geared towards those who require durability and reliability in the most hostile conditions.
Seagate to offer second generation high tolerance mobile hard drives for extreme operating conditions
With a top capacity of 80GB the EE25.2 Series 5400.2 features a high tolerance of extreme temperature conditions, vibrations, humidity, shock, and not-so-ordinary altitudes. Capacities of 30GB, 40GB, and 60GB will also be available in both PATA and SATA interfaces.
To put the tolerance levels in numbers, the EE25.2 Series 5400.2 drives can withstand temperatures in the -30 to +85 degrees Celsius range, humidity levels of 90%, and operate at up to 16,400 feet above sea level. The drives will also tolerate vibrations of 150 Gs at 11 milliseconds. Additionally, Seagate backs these drives by its 5-year warranty which makes this series that much more cost-effective.
Pricing information has not yet been released but we can bet these drives will be aimed at those who are willing to pay for the durability of a tank.
Sony's PlayStation 3 has been on the market for a little over seven months now, but it has not been the roaring success that company executives had once promised. Development of the PS3 resulted in budget overruns, internal turmoil between key executives and a lengthy delay for the console. For his part in the rocky development of the PS3, “Father of PlayStation” Ken Kutaragi was forced out of the company and replaced by Kazuo Hirai. When it comes to the sales of current generation hardware, the PS3 is at the rear of the pack. For the month of March, Sony sold just 130,000 of its PS3s compared to 199,000 and 259,000 respectively for the Xbox 360 and Wii. For the month of April, sales totals were at 82,000, 174,000 and 360,000 units respectively. In May, the numbers were 82,000, 155,000 and 338,000 respectively. Sony hopes to reverse the fortunes for its $599 console (the $499 20GB model was dropped earlier this year) by opening the flood gates with new games. There are currently roughly 150 games available for the PS3 platform, but Sony plans for at least 380 new games to hit store shelves during the current fiscal year. "Attractive game software is the key to accelerate PS3 growth over the next year," said Sony CEO Howard Stringer today at the annual shareholder's meeting. The increased number of game titles will help Sony move a projected 11 million PS3s during the current fiscal year. The company shipped 5.5 million PS3s through the month of March -- less than the projected number of 6 million. "All the production problems have been solved. We are making a comeback already," Stringer continued. Also on the agenda is tackling the huge losses for Sony's Games division. The division witnessed a $1.9 billion USD loss for the fourth quarter due to the PS3. "We always lose money in the hardware initially, and we recover that money gradually," remarked Stringer. "We believe that the PS3 going forward will be vital to our future, and succeed." Sony is has already found at least two ways to reduce costs on its PS3. The company removed the Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesizer (EE+GS) chip which is necessary for hardware-supported backwards compatibility for previous generation games from European PS3s. That functionality is now accomplished with software emulation. Sony has also increased the production of the blue-violet diodes necessary for the PS3's Blu-ray drive which should drive down manufacturing costs. Whether these lower costs on Sony's end will be passed on to the consumer remains to be seen, however. Stringer had this to say last week with regards to PS3 price cuts: "That is what we are studying at the moment. That’s what we are trying to refine."
380 new games coming for the PS3 this fiscal year
Nokia Extols Touch-sensitive Interfaces, This Week
Nokia's upper management quickly reverses its thoughts on optical and touch sensitive interfaces for mobile devices
Last week Nokia gave a vote of no confidence to the use of touchscreen technology in mobile phones. In an interview with Swedish newspaper, E24.SE, Nokia's General Manager of Mobile Devices, Antti Vasara, simply said that users prefer keyboards and joysticks over touchscreen displays and that Nokia is not enthusiastic about touch screens. Despite this, he did say that if Nokia sees the demand for touch screens, the company would use them in mobile devices.
A week later it seems that Nokia has seen the demand for touchscreen technology in mobile phones. Tero Ojanpera, Chief Technology Officer of Nokia, yesterday said, "Optical sensors and touch will be the next big things." His statement is a 180 degree turn from what Vasara said last week.
Ojanpera lauded touch screens, claiming the technology would allow cell phone makers to hide keypads. In addition, he said that movement sensors would also bring new and unheard of features to mobile phones. Ojanpera believes there will be a large amount of innovation between these two technologies.
HTC, LG and Apple all embraced touch screen technology. Dell and Hewlett-Packard pushed touch-sensitive displays for almost a decade on some devices.
Nokia, one of the few companies that refused to offer a Windows Mobile phone, might face its sudden interface problem alone. Over the last year, Microsoft unveiled optical and touch sensitive technology at a brisk pace with platforms like Surface and HTC's TouchFLO. Yet with Nokia's strong support for Symbian on its existing devices, the likelihood that Microsoft's sensing technologies will ever appear on a Nokia device is rapidly diminishing.
Reference:Gabriel Ikram,dailytech
YouTube Hits Apple TV Today, iPhone on June 29
Apple embraces YouTube on its latest products
Apple announced last month that it would bring YouTube content to its Apple TV. Today is the big day and all Apple TV users can download a software update to enable YouTube functionality.
Users can browse for video content as well as login to their personal YouTube accounts to view and save their favorite videos.
In addition, Apple announced that its upcoming iPhone will also feature YouTube support when it launches on June 29. iPhone users will be able to browse YouTube content through EDGE networks or through the built-in WiFi connection. The iPhone will also be able to take advantage of H.264-encoded videos -- over 10,000 videos encoded in H.264 will be available for viewing on June 29.
"iPhone delivers the best YouTube mobile experience by far," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "Now users can enjoy YouTube wherever they are -- on their iPhone, on their Mac or on a widescreen TV in their living room with Apple TV."
Apple recently announced that its iPhone would ship with a new 3.5" screen comprised of "optical-quality glass" and a higher-capacity battery. The iPhone will be priced at $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model -- both prices include a 2-year contract with AT&T Wireless.
Reference:Brandon Hill,dailytech
6/17/07
Lamborghini Spiga by Ugur Sahin
he name “Spiga” refers to the roof shape of the car which sticks out along the windshield giving it a spike-like shape which translates in Italian as Spiga. The main charachtesristic of the car is that the rear and the middle flows in an harmonic way which kind of reminds the human muscles stretching to the back, as the front is slightly different than the rear, it also gives a sense of speed and movement forward when viewed form the side angles. The air intakes near the side windows are designed integrated on the body whcih also shows strong Lamborghini aspects.
Designer: Ugur Sahin
Yahoo Japan Teams Up With Apple iTunes
Yahoo Japan now hosts Apple's iTunes for music download store Reference:Nirav Sanghani,dailytech
Yahoo Japan Corp. and Apple, Inc. announced on Thursday that the web giant has replaced a Sony Corp.-affiliated music download service with Apple's iTunes Music Store as the default music store on Yahoo Music Japan, PC World reports.
With the new partnership, users will be able to access iTunes through the Yahoo Music Japan, which displays a prominent link and one-click access to the download service. This collaboration means good news for Apple, seeing that Yahoo is currently Japan's hottest portal site, reaching about 40 million users, or 84 percent of the country's internet users.
The switch for Yahoo Japan was from Mora, a download service run by the Sony-affiliated LabelGate Co. Ltd. Users are still able to access Mora through Yahoo Japan by logging onto the site and making it their preferred music store. The iTunes music store is now the default store for the website.
No financial details have been released yet on the deal, but Yahoo Japan has already begun hosting the iTunes Music Store.
Flickr Goes Multilingual
Online photo-sharing community Flickr gained multilingual support this week with the support of seven additional languages in hopes to expand the service to more people around the world. Now supported are the Traditional Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Korean, Italian and Portuguese languages. "Flickr has established itself as the eyes of the world, with millions of people all over the planet sharing photos of every imaginable aspect of life," said Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and general manager of Flickr at Yahoo! "Today, we're expanding our language support to make that dialogue easier and to connect those who may not speak the same language, but who share the same passions." To celebrate this milestone, Flickr will host a series of global community events starting this month in Berlin, Paris, London and Montreal. The photo site said that it will also unveil its 24 Hours of Flickr commemorative book, a global photo project for which members were encouraged to submit one photo taken on May 5, 2007 to illustrate that day in the life of the Flickr community. The multilingual improvement to Flickr came shortly after China's apparent ban on the photo sharing site. The ban was likely put in place after images from the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre – a taboo topic according to the Chinese government – appeared on Flickr. Reference:Marcus Yam,dailytech
Photo sharing site Flickr learns seven new languages
China Blocking Access to Flickr
The web site Flickr, a popular photo sharing web site owned by Yahoo, has been banned by the Chinese government. Even though Flickr has not received official word from the government over possibly being blocked, users confirmed they no longer have access to the photo sharing site. Starting last Thursday, the site became inaccessible to users in China -- and is not a technical issue caused by Yahoo.
The restrictive Chinese government has banned users from accessing Flickr
The ban was likely put in place after images from the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre were published on Flickr, a topic made taboo by the restrictive Chinese government. Yahoo did publicly state whether the images were put online by a Chinese resident or someone outside of the country.
"It is our understanding that Flickr users in China are not able to see images on Flickr, and we have confirmed that this is not a technical issue on our end," a Yahoo Hong Kong spokesperson said in an e-mail to Reuters.
Along with banning certain web sites in the past, the Chinese government is known for forcing Internet sites like Yahoo and Google to adhere to various forms of Internet censorship. Human rights organizations also frowned upon a prior decision by Yahoo to turn over information on members' activities on the Internet.
Reference:Michael Hoffman,dailytech
New Kodak Image Sensors for Low-Light Photography
Eastman Kodak Company today announced what it considers a “groundbreaking advancement” in image sensor technology that will help reduce the accidental taking of dark and blurry digital photos. Kodak claims its new sensor technology provides a two- to four-fold increase in sensitivity to light (from one to two photographic stops) compared to current sensor designs. “This represents a new generation of image sensor technology and addresses one of the great challenges facing our industry – how to capture crisp, clear digital images in a poorly lit environment,” said Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak’s Image Sensor Solutions group. “This is a truly innovative approach to improving digital photography in all forms, and it highlights Kodak’s unique ability to differentiate its products by delivering advanced digital technologies that really make a difference to the consumer.” Image sensors convert light into electric charge to capture images. Today, the design of almost all color image sensors is based on the Bayer Pattern, an arrangement of red, green, and blue pixels that was first developed by Kodak scientist Dr. Bryce Bayer in 1976. In this design, half of the pixels on the sensor are used to collect green light, with the remaining pixels split evenly between sensitivity to red and blue light. After exposure, software reconstructs a full color signal for each pixel in the final image. Kodak’s new proprietary technology, invented by John Compton and John Hamilton, adds panchromatic, or clear pixels to the red, green, and blue elements that form the image sensor array. Since these pixels are sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light, they collect a significantly higher proportion of the light striking the sensor. By matching these pixel arrangements with advanced software algorithms from Kodak that are optimized for these new patterns, users can realize an increase in photographic speed, directly improving performance when taking pictures under low light. Inventor John Hamilton explains in the Kodak blog, “One way that helps to think about this is to look at it in terms of luminance and chrominance. In the original Bayer design, the green pixels are used to recover most of the luminance information from the image. Now, we are using panchromatic pixels - which are more sensitive than green pixels, because none of the photons get filtered out or wasted - to act as the luminance. This gives us a more sensitive luminance channel in the final image, which raises the sensitivity of the entire sensor.” John Compton adds, “The real advantage is that the panchromatic pixels are more sensitive, since they detect all wavelengths of visible light (rather than filtering light to detect color information).” Hamilton points out that the improved images don’t come from using panchromatic pixels, but rather the more accurate luminance data. Kodak’s new technology also enables faster shutter speeds (to reduce motion blur when imaging moving subjects), as well as the design of smaller pixels (leading to higher resolutions in a given optical format) while retaining performance. As for which situations benefit most from the improved sensor, Hamilton says, “In situations where you want more sensitivity to light. In a low-light situation, these new patterns will produce a lot less color noise than a Bayer pattern sensor. You can run the shutter faster, which gets rid of a lot of motion artifacts. It will cut down on camera shake or, if you're taking a picture of a moving object there will be less blur.” “Another way to think of this is that you have the same number of photons coming into the new sensor as you would with the Bayer pattern,” adds Compton. “It's just that the new filter arrays waste fewer of the photons since fewer of them end up absorbed in a color filter.” The inventors say that the technology is appropriate for use with both CCD and CMOS image sensors, and that Kodak is developing this technology for consumer markets such as digital still cameras and camera phones. The technology may also be applied to other image sensor devices for industrial and scientific imaging. The first Kodak sensor to use this technology is expected to be available for sampling in the first quarter of 2008. Kodak’s announcement comes on the heels of advancements in low-light photography made by South Korea's Electronic Technology Institute. The institute announced in late May that it had developed an image sensor for use in extreme low-light conditions and would be suitable for use in tunnels, night clubs and bars. Reference:Marcus Yam,dailytech
New Kodak camera technology could make dark, blurry photos as thing of the past
