SanDisk's new embedded SSDs for high-end tablets

SanDisk introduced a new line of embedded flash drives, the iNand Extreme. These new drives are designed to be used with high-end tablets and other mobile devices that require high performance drive for data-intensive applications. The new drive features up 80MB/sec of sequential read and up to 50MB/sec of sequential write speeds.

With all the multimedia files that tablet devices use there is a significant need for speed and responsivnes of the drives. Some devices feature HD recording capabilities which is a data-intensive process and a fast drive reduces the risk of frame-drops. This can also signifactly increase the data-rate of the video and in turn quality.

“The embedded application market is experiencing significant growth through the increasing popularity and variety of mobile computing platforms,” said Jeff Janukowicz, research manager, solid state storage technology, IDC. “Companies with broad embedded product lineups and value-added services have an increasing capability to meet the diverse needs within the mobile market.”

Full PSN restoration

Sony announced today the full restoration of the PlayStation Network in the Americas, Europe and some parts of Asia. Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea will be online by the end of this week. Sony will also resume Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for the PS3, PSP, VAIO and other devices.

Source: Sony

NVIDIA showcases its new quad-core Kal-El cpu

Nvidia is showcasing in a video on Youtube their new CPU, code-named Kal-El, with Nvidia's new Glow Ball demo. The tech demo is running on a Honeycomb tablet with a resolution of 1280x800.

NVIDIA's new wired 3D Vision Glasses for only $99

Nvidia introduced a cheaper alternative to their wireless 3D Glasses for desktop and laptop users. This new product will go on sale in late june with a $99 MSRP compared to the $149 for the wireless version. The wired version features a 10-foot (or 3-meters) usb cable, making it a perfect gadget for users wanting to watch 3D content on their desktops computers or laptops without spending to much for the wireless version.

"3D Vision provides gamers and enthusiasts with the world's largest ecosystem of 3D products and features," said Phil Eisler, general manager of 3D Vision at NVIDIA. "3D fans have been waiting for more affordable glasses, and we're expecting our new 3D Vision wired glasses to hit the sweet spot for them."

NVIDIA 3D Vision wired glasses are expected to be available beginning in late-June 2011 from the NVIDIA Store, as well as from leading retailers and e-tailers.

AMD Fusion APU "Sold Out"

AMD announced a few days ago, that they sold 5 million Fusion APUs. AMD's representatives state that the Fusion APUs are completly sold out and demand has overtaken supply.

The Fusion APUs are a combination of CPU and GPU and are getting implemented in low cost and low power Netbooks as alternatives to Intel's Atom processors. There is also interest in AMD's Llano series chips, which are also in the Fusion family of processors.

Google Chrome Extension For Artists

If you are an electronic music composer, you will probably know about software suites like Qbase, ProTools, Fruity Loops and Reason. What you might not know is a new application for creating music that runs on your browser. That's right, a high quality music production extension for your Google Chrome browser called: Audiotool.

Doodling with the layout

I've decided to play around a bit with my blog layout, since weekends are not very interesting in news. No official news, press releases, nothing. So, I've changed the heading with a very simple logo and changed the description. I've also added a facebook activity box on the right column and on the bottom of the page I've added a "Our Favorite Diggs" module and Most Popular module. (all-time/this week).

UPDATE: Changed the default commenting system with DISQUS commenting system. I've also added a new widget on the right column displaying the categories for this blog.

e-Paper From The Future

Check this new invention by Polymer Vision.

It's a rollable 6" display. Polymer Vision made Science Fiction into Science Fact!

Official PlayStation 3 Wireless Stereo Headset

Sony unveiled a new accessory for the PlayStation3 gaming console. It is a wireless stereo headset featuring 7.1 digital surround sound and a retractable microphone to use whenever you need it. Check it out here: LINK

Million Dollar Earth turns 24...days old! First copycat emerges

It took only 16 days for Jerry Li to create the first copycat of MillionDollarEarth.com, called FortuneEarth. A cheap ripoff of a clever and original idea by Ryan Hart and Scott Dahl. Visiting that site, you get introduced to ads and a not so elegant design.

 

Ryan Hart said in a blog post on MillionDollarEarth, "You may be thinking that my reactions was OH NO YOU DON’T! but rather it was THANK YOU. Copy-cats validate the feasibility of a venture. Imitators show you that you are on the right path. Everyone loves a good cover song."

The ripoff site appears to have sold 3 cities already for a total sum of $40.500 US. The original project (MDE) has sold 43 cities for $58.250 US, but you get to keep the city for yourself and can later resell for a better offer. Unlike FortuneEarth were you pay ridiculous amounts for exclusive ownership and without the ability of re-selling it for a better offer. Meanwhile MDE gives 10% of the proceeds to Charity:Water, a non-profit organization that brings clean water to millions in need.

There is also a contest to win a $1000 city on MillionDollarEarth. I've already signed my email and if I'm lucky to win, I'll resell and give the earnings to the same charity! Since I live near a spring of fresh water that is just a couple kilometers from my home, I'm in no need of fresh water unlike millions.

http://www.milliondollarearth.com/ 

NVIDIA 3D Vision now on Youtube

If you are an owner of a NVIDIA 3D Vision equipped PC, you will be able to take the browsing experience into a new level. Nvidia announced that Youtube is giving the ability to view high-quality 3D content to users with a 3D vision capable PC and Firefox 4+. Using HTML5 and WebM, Youtube made thousands of 3D videos available to users.

"We're excited to introduce HTML5 and WebM support to the thousands of 3D videos available on YouTube," said Jonathan Huang, 3D Product Manager at YouTube. "By embracing these open standards, NVIDIA 3D Vision users now have a great way of experiencing YouTube's library of 3D content."

"Firefox with 3D Vision creates a stunning and smooth 3D video experience using HTML5 video based on open standards," said Jay Sullivan, VP of Products at Mozilla. "3D Vision from NVIDIA is a great example of the rich, innovative experiences that are being built on top of the speed and graphics power that Firefox delivers to the Web."

With all the consumer grade gadgets out there having the capability to shoot 3D, you'll be expecting a lot more 3D content to come online on Youtube and similar sites.

In order to watch 3D videos on Youtube, you will need a 3D vision capable PC with the latest GeForce Drivers (version 275+) and Firefox 4+ which has HTML5 video streaming support. You should switch to HTML5 viewing on Youtube as well  http://www.youtube.com/select_3d_mode. 

I just made 6.500.000 USD today. Not!

Symantec issued a warning for spam attacks on their blog. This time the spammers are targeting the Indian Premier League fans. The spam message is promoting an IPL lottery and asks it's victims to provide their personal details, Full name, date of birth, address, email and mobile number to claim the “(Rs/-56,80,708.00) Fifty Six Lacs Eighty Thousand Seven Hundred and Eight India Rupees”.

Digg Us!

I've managed finally to get a share on digg icon on the share toolbar of blogger. You can "digg us" now ;)

I've made a few changes on the default theme, it is now 960px wide! It feels more roomy now!  

Stuck in Space Break

I was viewing and playing with Google Chrome's "experiments" and found this Arkanoid-style game called Space-Break. After breaking some blocks in a level, I've managed to get the game stuck in an endless loop... watch me trying to get it un-stuck unsuccessfully in the vid below:

You can find the experiments here: LINK
And Space Break here: LINK 

6-years Youtube, 3 billion views per day!

Youtube closed 6 years since the launch in May 2005. Since then it grow with a geometric rate, to have in the year 2011, 3 Billion views per day. More than 48 hours of video content is being uploaded every minute, a 37% increase over the last six years and 100% over last year. You can find any kind of video on youtube, from a 10 second laugh of a baby to full movies and documentaries, all delivered in high quality streams, from 360p to full HD 1080p. Youtube has become a synonymous to video streaming.

Check out the image above.

Cray XK6: The most powerful supercomputer to date

Cray unveiled their new powerful supercomputer, this Petaflop beast is a compination of AMD Opteron 6200 CPUs and NVidia's Tesla-20 GPUs, making it a hybrid 50 petaflop, multi-purpose supercomputer. Already the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS), will the first customer of Cray XK6. The CSCS is supporting scientist working in diverse fields such us weather forecasting, climatology, chemistry, physics, material sciences, geology, biology, genetics, experimental medicine, astronomy, mathematics and computer sciences.

AMD Fusion APU wins Best Choice of Computex Taipei Award

AMD's Fusion APU won the Best Choice award at Computex Taipei. The Fusion APU won this award in the Computer & Systems category. The award is given by Taipei Computer Association, key player in IT industry and exhibition in Taiwan, and appraised by a panel of government representatives, academicians, research analysts, oversea media, editor-in-chiefs and industry experts.

AMD's APU offers great computing power and HD video capabilities to small form factor devices with long battery life.

“We are honored to receive this prestigious award from the Taipei Computer Association, which is a manifestation of our efforts and excellence in AMD Fusion APUs,” said Andy Tseng, AMD Corporate Vice President and Taiwan General Manager. “AMD Fusion APUs are already widely recognized within the industry for being creative and innovative. This award proves the importance of listening to our customers and designing breakthrough products around their needs.”

Best Choice of COMPUTEX TAIPEI Award has recognized achievements in product design and technology innovation since 2002; it’s one of the important official events during COMPUTEX TAIPEI, the second largest ICT exhibition worldwide. Through reviews, the jury selected outstanding design and cutting-edge technology across 10 product categories.

Android Smartphone are now outselling iOS smartphones in Japan

Samsung's smartphone, the Galaxy S, outsold iOS smartphones in Japan during Q1 2011. This places Samsung in the top 4 handset vendors of Japan.

Tom Kang, Director of the Handset Country Share Tracker service at Strategy Analytics, said, “The Japanese market had always been tough to crack for foreign vendors as all previous attempts had failed. With smartphones, things are changing rapidly. First, Apple shook up the market with the iPhone, and now, for the first time, Samsung, is shipping more handsets than most local vendors, such as NEC, Casio and Kyocera.”

Neil Mawston, Director, Strategy Analytics, added, “Strategy Analytics believes that the healthy demand for the Android-powered Galaxy S at NTT DoCoMo drove Samsung growth in Japan. Samsung is the main player behind surging Android smartphone sales, followed by Sharp. Japan had always had a unique competitive landscape, but is now looking more and more like any other advanced smartphone market in the world as Android has flown by iOS in just three quarters.”
“Japan was not the only market affected by changes in the handset vendor rankings,” said Linda Sui, Analyst at Strategy Analytics. “In China, Huawei surpassed most foreign brands, such as LG and Motorola. Huawei even leaped ahead of local rivals like Lenovo and ZTE, entering the top-5 vendor list for the first time. The growth from smartphones and 3G devices is a serious disruptive force in Asia right now.”

Here you can find the full report: LINK

Opera Mini 6 for iOS

Opera Mini 6 is now available for the iOS platform. This is an alternative to the mobile Safari version. Available on the App Store for iPhone nad iPad now and free of charge

3D On Demand by Samsung

Samsung started a new streaming service, the "Explore 3D", for their customers in the U.S. This service will deliver on demand 3D content for their 3D LED and 3D Plasma TVs. The owners of those products can immediately register for the service and enjoy rich 3D content on their TV's

Dell XPS 15z The Ultimate Blend of Style & Performance

Dell introduced today the XPS 15z laptop. The thinnest 15" laptop on the planet. This new laptop comes equipped with the 2nd generation of Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 processors, a backlit keyboard and battery life of up to 8hr. In a stylish and less than 1" thick case. This new laptop comes to challenge the Apple's MacBook Pro series. With a price tag of $999.99. (Can't understand this pricing practice, why not $1000?)

NVIDIA Tegra 2 awarded the Computex "Best Choice" award

Another big success for NVIDIA at Computex. The Tegra 2 mobile super chip has been award the Computex "Best Choise" award for Smart Handheld Devices Innovation from the Taipei Computer Association.

The competition was hard and the chip got picked from 400 other products, from every electronic product category. The Tegra chip was selected based on overall technical merit, innovation and marketability by a panel of government representatives, academia, research analysts, tech editors and other expers.

NVIDIA's award is the 3rd in a row of awards from Computex. NVIDIA won the same award last year for the GeForce GTX 480 GPU and the year before that, with the NVIDIA Ion GPU.

"The NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor is truly a super chip,” said the jury of the Best Choice Award. “It has ushered in a new wave of super phones and tablet devices with never-before-seen capabilities and experiences. We selected Tegra 2 from hundreds of entries because it’s an outstanding technological achievement that’s impacted the industry very positively."

"It’s an honor to receive this prestigious award from the Taipei Computer Association,” said Phil Carmack, Senior Vice President of the Mobile business at NVIDIA. “This helps validate the very sizable investment we’ve placed in Tegra and demonstrates that the mobile market is significant for NVIDIA. But this is only the start. With Project Kal-El, our quad-core processor, we’re planning to take mobile computing to even higher levels."

With the Tegra 2 chip, we have seen simple handheld devices transfrom into real computers with enough processing power to challenge even console gaming platforms. Already a lot of devices in the market, feature this incredible processor and we will see even more in the coming future.

26 TeraBits per Second

Found an interesting article on BBC Science & Technology. They report that TeraBits per second speeds of data communication have been achieved in lab. Not just 1 Tbps, but 26 Tbps. You can read about it here.

What can you do with those speeds? What would you do if you had an internet connection with that kind of data rate? That's 2.95TBytes per second!

In one second you could transfer:
4427 Audio CDs (700mb)
659 Single Layer DVDs
362 Dual Layer DVDs
129 Single Layer BluRays
65 Dual Layer BlueRays
3 1TB Hard Disk Drives

Of course all the above figures are just comparisons to the data rates achieved in the lab. There is no computer that fast to transfer those kinds of data. A typical motherboard with a x16 PCI express slot can deliver up to 16GBytes per second. A DDR3 memory running @1333Mhz transfers data with a rate of 10.4GB/s.

So those kind of transfer speeds can be utilized only by large telecommunications companies, to deliver more data to their networks.

MSI WindPad 110W 10.1" available for pre-order

MSI's WindPad 110W is up for pre-orders at excaliberpc.com for $599 (~430€). The launch is scheduled for June 1st, 2011 according to the website.

There are no official specs, but from what I've gathered it will feature a dual core 1Ghz AMD Fusion Ontario C-50 , a 10.1" 1280x800 touchscreen display, 2GB DDR3 ram, internal storage of 32GB SSD, WiFi+Bluetooth. It will come preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium.

I'm guessing, when MSI releases the official full specs, I'll do another comparison with the other tablets.

Dungeon Siege III Launch Date

Dungeon Siege® III launches June 21, 2011 for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Windoze. Next week you'll be able to download the Xbox 360 demo (May 31st) and on June 7th the demo will be made available to the rest of the platforms.

Official Website

Micro-HDMI Cable for Tablets and Smartphones

These days a lot of portable devices, like tablets and smart phones, support playback of High Definition video. Most of the time this video is to large for the device's display (1080p). Standard HDMI cables are to bulky to be used with these devices. There are solutions to this problem and RedMere has the best solution to date. A ultra-thin and portable Micro-HDMI cable.

Cables powered by RedMere’s technology are only 25% of the size of a standard HDMI cable and because they are light and ultra-thin they are easier to bend, route and disguise in your home after plugging in and installing with your DVD, set-top box, or Blu-ray player.

AMD G-Series APUs

AMD introduced today two new Embedded G-Series APUs with an amazing TDP rating of 5.5 and 6.4 watts, up to 39 percent power saving compared to earlier designs. These new APU's support one or two low-power x86 "Bobcat" CPU cores with a discreet DirectX-11 capable GPU on a single die.

This ultra low APU can be used on systems with a fanless design like, mobile industrial devices, kiosks, digital signage and many other small form factor devices.

 “We have seen many of our embedded customers deploy fanless systems even with our 15W TDP processors in the past. Today we take the ground-breaking AMD Fusion APU well below 7W TDP and shatter the accepted traditional threshold for across-the-board fanless enablement,” said Buddy Broeker, director, Embedded Solutions, AMD.

Systems based on the new low power AMD Embedded G-Series platform include an industrial mobile device from Amtek, a Pico-ITX single board computer from Axiomtek, a Qseven form factor computer-on-module from datakamp, and a fanless digital signage platform from iBASE. Additional customers are expected to bring new products to market in the coming quarters.

Source: AMD PressRelease

Sony hacked again?

It appears that a Greek site of Sony BMG was hacked. SonyMusic.gr The attackers or attacker, used an automated SQL injection tool to find a security hole in some input form. The attack was a success and the hackers got a hold of all the user records of the database. The database information then was posted in pastebin.com including usernames, real names and email addresses of users registered on SonyMusic.gr

Source: Sophos.com

Fujitsu unveiled a Projector for Business Laptops

Fujitsu unveiled a new gadget for their business oriented users. It is a type of "fold-out" Bay Projector, that you simple pull out like a laptop's optical drive bay and your ready to give your presentations in no time with zero configuration.

You can use most of the surfaces found in a typical meeting room for your presentation and can be used for all sorts of thing, like: slides, spreadsheets, viral videos or when you're done with the meeting and you're back at the hotel, it can double-up as a personal cinema.

14-year old Hacker @Hackathon

Meet Jake Essman, a 14-year old self-taught programmer. He was the youngest participant in TechCrunch's Hackathon. He paired with two other participants and created a mobile app for finding products based on your location.

300 Likes and One Big Thanks!

Thank you all for the support!

TechCrunch Hackathon 2011 Winners

2nd Honorable Mention, Venture Crapital
1st Honorable Mention, JoystiCC
On the 4th place, Dispatch IO
On the 3rd place, Doach - The Dating Coach
On the 2nd place, Docracy
On the 1st place, Gilt-ii

Other mentions:
Whodata wins best data/API award from Palantir!

Xoom vs. Galaxy vs. iPad2

I've recently wrote a comparison article on the Motorola Xoom vs. the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I'm currently seeking to buy a tablet device and was aiming only at Android tablets. The conclusion on that article was, that both reviewed devices were almost identical, in terms of design, hardware/software and price tags. (Very uncompetitive in my opinion) So I'll do a follow up to that article , throwing Apple's iPad in the game. Let us see what conclusions we can draw up after that. I should also state at this point that I generally don't like Apple and their products due to bad personal experience. I'll try my best for a un-biased comparison/review.

Games for Cats!

Who said that tablets are only for humans? Friskies developed 3 games that are intended to be used by our feline friends.

All games are developed using HTML5 and CSS3, this way you can use a URL and an HTML5/CSS3 enabled browser to let your cats play the games. Of course you would want to open these up in your iPad or Android tablet and let your cats use the touchscreen rather than your mouse...or worse, your 27" inch IPS monitor that doesn't support touchscreen features. :p

The colors, movement, and game-play have been researched and tested for maximum feline fun. See the Games for Cats in action in the video below:

Free PC maintenance tools

I'll start this list of tools with a small and very useful tool to clean up useless files from your Windows PC.

CCleaner (free)
Link: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

It is a free utility, 3Mb in size, and with it you can clean unnecessary files from your Windows computer. It also features a Registry cleaning tool. You can also integrate it with your Recycle Bin for easy access.

Defraggler (free)
Link: http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

This utility comes from the same developer and is a simple defragment tool for your Windows computer. It is fast and better than the one that comes with Windoze.

SpyBot S&D (free)
Link: http://www.safer-networking.org/gr/mirrors/index.html

Finally a free Anti-spam utility to shield you from malicious websites. It protects your pc from malware with a huge list of blocked addresses that this program injects into your Windows Hosts file.

I use these three utilities almost daily, except defraggler which I use once per week. SpyBot SD issues updates regularly and with it you can surf the web with a clear mind.

Ofcourse you should accompany SpyBot with a real-time antivirus and a firewall to ensure maximum protection against attacks and viruses.

If you have a suggestion for this list please leave a comment and I'll include it with the rest!

A Developer's guide to the App Galaxy!

Google launched a very beautiful website for mobile applications developers, to help them brand and promote their application in the ever increasing galaxy of applications. Ass you "maneuver" this guide, you will get the basics app promotion, monetization and measurement.

Inside the guide you will also find success stories from well known developers like, Rovio or The Weather Channe.

The guide is featured in four other languages besides English. You will find, a French, a German, a Japanese and a Korean version of the guide.

The Guide to the AppGalaxy

Sharp's new 85-inch LCD Super Hi-Vision TV.

Sharp developed with NHK (Japan Broadcastin Corporation), the next generation of television format. The Super Hi-Vision. With 16x the resolution of HDTV (720p) this panel is a 33megapixel monster!

Tablet Accessories by Logitech

Logitech's new lineup of accessories will give your Apple and Android tablets new roles in your lives.

The first of these accessories is a keyboard-case by ZAGG, it's a sleek keyboard made of aircraft-grade aluminum with a bead-blasted, anodized finish to match your iPad2. Protect your iPad2 with style and when needed, open it up and setup your iPad2 for some serious power typing with the removable wireless Bluetooth keyboard!

Wait! There's more for your iThings! Wireless speakers! Take your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch and turn it into a sound system for your relaxing moments at your home, or outdoor parties with your friends and never worry about any cables! This set of dual 2" drivers will deliver rich, sterio sound and plenty of bass!

There is no need for the android community to feel left out. Logitech prepared and launched a few accessory goodies for you to!

First up is a wireless Tablet Keyboard for tablets with Android 3.0 that support Bluetooth capable Human Interface Devices! With a sleek and stylish design and low profile keys, it will revolutionize your experience with your Android tablet! The carrying case has a double role, one is for safekeeping your keyboard when traveling and the second role is to act as a stand to place your tablet on, for a comfortable working environment!

And last but not least, a wireless Tablet Mouse for completing the experience of a true Android Tablet workstation environment. Cursor control your tablet and do stuff quicker than before with this Bluetooth enabled wireless mouse! You want scroll? Done! Scroll up and down all day long on your documents or browser, without ever touching the screen. Need smooth, precise movements for that new drawing app you just downloaded? Done! Laser precision means smooth tracking on almost all surfaces.

Million Dollar Earth

Remember back then in 2005 when a website came online, selling pixels for 1$ each? Imagine now the same with Google Maps Pins. Yes, that's right! You can virtual own an entire city now!

Ryan Hart and Scott Dahl, inspired by Alex Tew's idea on selling pixels for advertisement, sparked a brilliant idea in them.

“What would happen if that idea could be reapplied so that someone could “own” the virtual pinpoints within Google Maps,” Hart mused. “Someone could virtually own an entire city.”

Then both felt this burning in the chest, when you get while having an awesome idea, and started working on their idea.

MillionDollarEarth.com

You can now virtually "own" an entire city and place advertisements on it. The virtual city "owners" can include their Facebook Page, Twitter Feed, Youtube video and a custom text box to add whatever they want.

Both Hart and Dahl created this service not just to become rich and famous, but to contribute back to the world by giving 10% of the proceeds to Charity:Water, a non-profit organization helping people of developing nations have clean drinkable water.

A very honorable gesture from them. I wish this world had more people like them.

“Online there has been no unique voice in advertising,” says Hart. “I want this website to change that and be the creative wall for businesses to hang their advertisement on.”

MillionDollarEarth.com

Latest news on PSN

We temporarily took down the PSN and Qriocity password reset page. Contrary to some reports, there was no hack involved. In the process of resetting of passwords there was a URL exploit that we have subsequently fixed.

Consumers who haven’t reset their passwords for PSN are still encouraged to do so directly on their PS3. Otherwise, they can continue to do so via the website as soon as we bring that site back up

Motorola Xoom vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab

This is more of a personal post and not a review. I'm thinking to get one of those android tablets, but can't decide which one. There is quite a buzz going on with tablet computers these days and with summer coming up, a tablet will be a great addition to have on vocations.

So let's get started.

How Do Americans Shop?

Found this survey online and found it interesting enough to share.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One size does not fit all when it comes to enticing online shoppers to buy, according to a new consumer survey released today from SteelHouse (www.steelhouse.com).

“What kind of online shopper are you?”

Man eats 25.000th Burger

Just found this story on Digg. I was aware of a man in the US that was eating Big Macs every day for some years now, but was surprised to see that he reached this number! So Don Gorske ate yesterday, in a special ceremony at McDonald's, his 25.000th BigMac!

He jokes that 25,000 is a milestone because people didn’t think he’d live this long. But he says he recently saw a doctor who said he was in good health and his cholesterol is low.

Congrats on that lead lined stomach !!

Source

Duke Nukem Forever Available for Pre-Orders

The "13-years-in-the-making" game finally gets official release dates. June 10 internationally and June 14 in North America.

A list of shops for pre-orders also appeared on the game's official site.

There is also a demo for those with a First Access Club membership and those who will pre-order the game. The demo will be available on June 3rd.

Unconfirmed: MacBook Air launch date!

Taiwan-based supply chain for Apple products will begin shipments of new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch MacBook Air models featuring Sandy Bridge platform and Thunderbolt interface in late May for launch in June or July, according to makers in the supply chain. Apple did not post any official announcement yet about the launch date.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy S WiFi 5" & 4" up for pre-order

The much anticipated Galaxy Tab 10.1 is up for pre-orders at J&R. The official release date is 8th June according to mobile oriented blogs. J&R lists the price tags for the 16GB and 32GB, 499.99$ and 599$ respectively. (What's up with those 9s?)

Specifications

• OS: Android 3.0 Honeycomb
• Display: 10.1" 1280 x 800 (WXGA) TFT, PLS Technology
• CPU: 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra Dual-Core
• Chipset: CP: XMM6260
• Memory: 1GB (RAM)
• Connectivity: WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1
• Camera/Flash: 3MP AF (Rear) + 2MP FF (Front)
• GPS: A-GPS
• Connectors: Proprietary 30-pin, 3.5mm earphone jack
• UI/Web Browser: Honeycomb UI / Android Browser
• Audio: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, RA
• Video: WMV9, WMV7, WMV8, H.264, MPEG4, H.263, VP8
• Other Services & Applications: GMS / Google Applications / Android Ecosystem / Samsung Hub (Social Hub, Game Hub, Readers Hub, Music Hub) / Live Panel
• Battery Capacity: 7000mAh
• Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.9 x 0.34 in. / 256.7 x 175.3 x 8.6 mm
• Weight: 1.25 lbs. / 565 g

The smaller tablets are also up for pre-orders. There are 2 models to choose from. A 4 inch and a 5 inch tablet both are WiFi only. 229$ and 269.99$ respectively.

Some specs for the smaller ones:

• OS: Android 2.2 Froyo
• Monitor: 5" & 4" WVGA
• CPU: 1GHz A8 Cortex Processor
• Memory: 512MB RAM, 8GB Internal Memory & microSD Slot

GeForce GTX 560

A few days ago we mentioned nVidia's GTX 560 launch date. Well today is that day. NVIDIA just released the full specifications of the new card along with the GeForce R275 Drivers.

Western Union New App

Send money directly from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch with the new application from Western Union. Using your credit card or debit card you can easily transfer funds around the world. You can send money to 400.000 Western Union Agent locations in 200 countries.
App Link
Source

Definition of a Sexy & Thin monitor!

HP introduced a new 23-inch Micro Thin LED backlit monitor. The HP x2301 is a very thin monitor with a very beautiful design. With a profile of 9.8cm or 0.39", it makes other "thin" monitor look huge! The HP x2301 consumer monitor is expected to be available on June 10 in the United States at a starting price of $279.99. (why not 280?)

PSN Customer Appreciation Program

The PlayStation Network and Qriocity are offering some free goodies to their customers in North America. The "Welcome Back" program will be made available to all existing registered PSN and Qriocity users in US and Canada, shortly after full restoration of the service.

New spam campaign on Facebook

If you see a message in Facebook like the following: "YO! [username] what are you doing in this vid?" Just ignore the this message. It is just another scam, to make another spammer some money.

Read the full blog post from Symantec here.

PSN FAQ – Restoration Questions Answered

Now that PlayStation Network is once again operational, a great many of you are once again enjoying playing games online. Of course, that’s only part of the Network’s offerings – and you’ve got some questions about how the downtime affected planned releases and online events. Here are answers to some of the more pressing queries:

Beware of rogue Defragger software

Symantec is warning user to be wary of rogue software posing as legitimate system restoration utilities. Trojan.Fakefrag takes over the victims computer, rendering it useless until the user buys their restoration software for a mere 79.50$.

Playstation Network Restoration UPDATE

Sony announced on Twitter that they started restoring services in Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico and South America. Plus an announcement on experiencing heavy loads on their servers due to increased passwords reset requests.

Source: PlayStation Twitter

PSN up and running in the US and Canada

Sony announced the availability of the PlayStation Network for all US states and Canada.

Source: Sony Twitter

Samsung Galaxy S II updated

Samsung’s Galaxy S II may be fresh to the market, but that hasn’t stopped the company’s engineers from pushing out updates. In fact, we’ve seen two firmware updates arrive through Samsung’s Kies app in short order, bringing the GSII up to i9100XWKE2.

The first left Swype more responsive and apparently also addressed some connectivity issues, while the second fixed the Galaxy S II’s automatic brightness. The firmware is also rootable, which is good news for those looking forward to all the third-party hacks we’re promised.

Source: AndroidCommunity

SONY PlayStation Network Relaunches

Sony is restarting the PlayStation Network.

nVidia GTX 560 launches May 17th

NVidia confirmed the launch date for the new GTX 560 GPU.

Sneak Peak of the new GPU running three upcoming games:


Check back with nVidia on Tuesday May 17th at 6:00am for complete product details.

Source: nVidia

New Laptop by DELL... Teaser

Dell posted this teaser video on Youtube...



More info soon...

Mark Shuttleworth: "200 Million Ubuntu users in 4 years"

The "father" of Ubuntu, Mark Shuttleworth, sets a goal for 200 million Ubuntu users by 2015. 200 million users would be great, because this would get software firms to focus their products also for Ubuntu and Linux in general. Hardware support will get better with official drivers releases. Linux already has great software and good hardware support.

200 million users will attract malware creators as well. Today you won't see much malware targeting Linux distros or MacOS, but as more people start to use them malware developers will roll up their sleeves and get cracking.



“[Our] goal is 200 million users of Ubuntu in 4 years. We’re not playing a game for developers hearts and minds – we’re playing a game for the worlds hearts and minds. and to achieve that we’re going to have to play by a new set of rules.”

Twitter is down now...

What's up IT guys? Keep the services alive... :p

Blogger Apologizes for the Outage.

Blogger users were unable to post for 20+ hours, blogs were set in a read-only mode and none could post new content. But things are almost back to normal now. I'm missing some statistics but that's ok.

Official Announcement:
What a frustrating day. We’re very sorry that you’ve been unable to publish to Blogger for the past 20.5 hours. We’re nearly back to normal—you can publish again, and in the coming hours posts and comments that were temporarily removed should be restored. Thank you for your patience while we fix this situation. We use Blogger for our own blogs, so we’ve also felt your pain.

Here’s what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that’s why you haven’t been able to publish. We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of restoring.

Again, we are very sorry for the impact to our authors and readers. We try hard to ensure Blogger is always available for you to share your thoughts and opinions with the world, and we’ll do our best to prevent this from happening again.

HTC Flyer In Europe Stores Today

Today HTC throws a new competitor in the tablet market with the availability of the HTC Flyer across stores in Europe. The 7-inch tablet will come in 2 flavours. One 32GB 3G version and another 16GB Wi-Fi only version. Of course the 3G version will also include Wifi connectivity.

The price tag for the 32GB 3G model is 600£ (680€) and for the 16GB WiFi model will be at 480£ (500€).

Specs overview:

• CPU: 1,5Ghz
• Memory: Internal 32GB, RAM 1GB (incl. MicroSD expansion slot)
• OS: Android with HTC Sense
• Screen: 7 inch touch screen 1024x600
• Camera: 5mpx rear, 1,3mpx front facing
• Weight: 420 grams with battery.
• Other features: WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and more.

Complete list of features can be found here.

First ever Wi-Fi Mouse

Sorry for the delayed posts, but Blogger was down for 20hours.

HP unveiled an “industry's first” WiFi mouse. It's the first mouse that connects with your computer without the use of a USB dongle, but uses the computer's Wi-Fi receiver. Other features include long battery life, of up to 9 months. Five customizable buttons. A four way scroll wheel and ambidextrous design. HP also introduced the Link5 technology. It's a USB receiver that allows instant connection of compatible PC accessories with one receiver.

Link-5 delivers reliable connectivity using 2.4-GHz wireless technology and has an intelligent sleep mode to ensure the longest possible battery life. The latest Link-5 accessories lineup includes:

• HP Wireless Mini Keyboard: Just the right mobile companion for a tablet or entertainment PC, this full-featured keyboard is lightweight and ultra-small in size.
• HP Wireless Ultrathin Wireless Keyboard: Offering a stylish look and feel, this keyboard is durable, full-featured and a great value.
• HP Wireless Elite v2 Keyboard: Featuring a sleek, ultra-slim design, this keyboard offers superb performance and comfort.
• HP Wireless Optical Comfort Mouse: Offering a comfortable, secure grip for use in the right or left hand, this mouse features an optical sensor with adjustable sensitivity that works on most surfaces.
• HP Wireless Laser Comfort Mouse: Using a laser sensor with adjustable sensitivity, this mouse delivers optimal performance and works on most surfaces.
• HP Wireless Mobile Mouse: Designed for users who are on the go, this mouse delivers reliable wireless connectivity at a great value.

Source: HP

New Space-Time warping 64-gigabit MLC NAND Flash, Using Toggle DDR 2.0 interface

Samsung announced today the new production NAND flash chips. A high toggle DDR2 multi-level-cell (MLC) memory chip. The new NAND flash chip features a 64 gigabit density, made possible by using an advanced 20 nanometer process technology.

These new chips will support an impressive transfer speed of 400Mbps. Three times faster than toggle DDR1 and and ten times faster over the 40Mbps SDR NAND flash memory that is in use today.

Source: Korea Newswire

Chromebooks by Acer and Samsung

Google announced today the first Chromebooks by Samsung and Acer. According to Google these new devices aren't exactly your typical notebook. They are devices to browse the web, with a notebook form factor...hm... but not a notebook.

Chromebooks will be able boot up in just 8 seconds. And you will be instantly on the web. You won't be storing any data locally but rather in the cloud and it will be accessible every where you go. Even if you destroy your notebook! Um sorry. Your Chromebook.

More interesting is the claim that it will be secure without the need of Antivirus or any type of security software. The OS has been designed from the ground up with security in mind. Will see...

Chromebooks will be available online June 15 in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain with more countries following in the coming months.



Some Specs:
The Samsung Chromebook

• 12.1" 1280x800 Display
• 3.26 lbps | 1.48kg
• 8.5 hours of continuous usage.
• Intel Atom Dual Core
• WiFi & 3G(optional)
• HD Webcam
• 2 USB 2.0 Ports
• 4-in-1 Card reader
• Mini VGA port
• Fullsize keyboard
• Oversized fully clickable trackpad

The Acer Chromebook

• 11.6" Widescreen CineCrystal LED-Backlit LCD
• 2.95 lbs. | 1.34kg
• 6 hours of continuous usage.
• Intel Atom Dual Core
• WiFi & 3G(optional)
• HD Webcam
• HD Audio
• 2 USB 2.0 Ports
• 4-in-1 Card reader
• HDMI port
• Fullsize keyboard
• Oversized fully clickable trackpad

Both product specs are similar to a standard netbook but with a vital component missing. An internal hard drive. I don't know if the specs aren't finalized yet but what would you do with hard drive since saving stuff will be done over the net?

Facebook Security Hole Fixed

Nishant Doshi, a Symantec employee, wrote in a blog entry that Symantec discovered that certain Facebook applications inadvertently leaked access tokens to third parties like advertisers or analytic platforms.

According to an estimate by Symantec there were close to 100.000 applications that enabled the leakage of information. These apps were leaking access tokens to third parties.

This security issue was reported to Facebook by Symantec and Facebook took action to fix the issue on their back-end systems.

Read the blog entry here.

Grow your social network easy!

Found this site today that allows you to get Twitter followers, facebook page likes and Youtube video views for free.

Simply sign-up and you'll get free seeds to spend on getting traffic to your social network!

Follow this link to start!

Microsoft Acquired Skype for 8.5b$

Today Microsoft acquired Skype for a price tag of 8.5b$, Cash! Skype, a leader in peer-to-peer real time communications with 170 million connected users and over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010, Skype has been a pioneer in creating rich, meaningful connections among friends, families and business colleagues globally.

Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.

"Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world."

Skype will become a new business division within Microsoft, and Skype CEO Tony Bates will assume the title of president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Ballmer.

"Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers," said Tony Bates. "Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype's plans to extend our global community and introduce new ways for everyone to communicate and collaborate," Bates said.