Samsung releases an EcoGreen 1.5 TB HDD, uses 45% less power

 Samsung has developed a 1.5 TB three platter hard disk drive (500 GB per platter) which consumes 40% less power at idle, and 45% less power when reading/writing than other comparable drives. Dubbed F2EG EcoGreen, the drive is comparably priced to high-power consuming drives.


Samsung's "EcoGreen" name employs what they call an Eco-Triangle methodology for the drive's construction, which is "low-power, low-heat and low-noise operation." The drive contains 500 GB platters which, compared to other drives, allows for more data on less surface area.

Said Andy Higginbotham, Samsung's director of HDD sales, "Lower platter count means less power to start the motor, less power to continuously spin the motor and a lighter head-stack which takes less power to seek. With fewer heads and disks, the F2EG hard drive has a lower probability of head-disk failures, enabling customers to build more reliable systems."

The F2EG drive contains a 16 MB or 32 MB buffer, 3.0 Gigabits per second interface and comes in 500 GB, 1 TB or 1.5 TB versions. The 1.5 TB model sells for $149.

Sony X1000 OLED Walkman to Hit UK Next Month for ~$300

Sony's slick-looking X1000 Walkman line popped up for preorder on Amazon UK with a release window of 2-5 weeks. That means we should be seeing the touchscreen, OLED player before the end of March.

The 16-gigabyte NWZ-X1050B will cost £214 (~$300) and 32-gigabyte NWZ-X1060B will cost £283 (~$400). Looking forward to the X1000 making a stateside appearance sometime soon. 

Supposed photo of new Apple Mac mini leaked

Has the right ports, but no new design It's that time again, another Apple rumour and another semi-blurry picture of what is meant to be a new piece of hardware that will be out "soon". The rumour about a new Mac mini has been going on for months now with some pictures turning up online just ahead of Mac World back in January, but this time around, the design doesn't seem to have changed. What have changed is the ports on the back, as the pictured Mac mini in this case has had a fairly radical upgrade (in Apple terms at least). It comes with five USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, a mini DVI and more interestingly a mini DisplayPort, as well as an Ethernet port and two audio jacks. There was of course some spec's listed as well and in this case we're talking about a mobile Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB of L2 cache and a clock speed of 2GHz. There's also meant to be 2GB of DDR3 1,066MHz memory as standard, which we highly doubt, as the cost of DDR3 memory is still very high and Apple wouldn't stick more than 1GB in the system because of this if its past records are anything to go by. The "Super Drive" is meant to have a SATA interface rather than IDE as with the current Mac mini. Fact or fiction? You can make your own mind up by taking a look at the picture here

Apple buys more flash memory

Another iPhone coming 

The dark satanic rumour mill has been churning out a yarn which suggests that Apple might be planning to release another iPhone.

The rumour comes on the back of news that Apple has cleaned out Samsung's supply of flash memory in recent weeks. AppleInsider claims that the outfit has also asked Toshiba and Hynix to step up with more flash memory. This means, the rumour says, that Apple is planning to release a new iPhone.   

It makes sense as Apple's bottom line suffers that it hopes that the same people who bought the iPhone 3G might be dumb enough to want a replacement.

In January, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller hinted that Apple has settled on a midyear refresh cycle for iPhones, after launching the original iPhone in late June and the iPhone 3G in July.

Apple kills 20-inch Cinema Display

It's official. As of today, the 20-inch Cinema Display is no more, reducing Apple's display lineup to the 30-inch model (that works with all Macs) and the recently introduced 24-inch LED-backlit Cinema Display featuring a DisplayPort interconnect and works only with unibody MacBooks. Whether the product's removal is the sign of hardware refresh that will transition 20-inch models to DisplayPort or, as some think, indication of a new 28-inch Cinema Display that would nicely complement previous rumors of the new top-of-the-line 28" iMac model, remains to be seen. All we know is that Apple told its partners that the 20-inch model has reached end-of-life status, effective immediately -- adding that all backlog will be canceled.

Apple quietly removed the 20-inch Cinema Display from its online store today. In addition, the company has informed resellers that the product has reached "end-of-life" status, warning that "all backlog will be cancelled and there is no automatic order conversion." Apple allegedly stopped manufacturing the display at the end of last year and was selling just channel inventory. Sources have immediately deciphered the move as a sign of hardware refresh with an updated product of the same design, meaning the LED-backlit display and DisplayPort technology found in the 24-inch Cinema Display overhauled last October.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during the unibody MacBook introduction (last September) that DisplayPort will find its way into every computer Apple makes. "We're building it into everything we make," he said. And Apple fans surely welcome the first signs of action from Cupertino, following an unusual period of silence that brought no refreshes to the company's hardware lineup since the 24-inch Cinema Display last October. The latter model replaced the previously sold 23-inch Cinema Display, having ditched the DVI interconnect in favor of DisplayPort.

Is Apple killing the 20-inch Cinema Display entirely?

Some Apple watchers are not convinced the removal of the 20" model means there is hardware refresh around the corner. Instead, they suspect Apple might have killed the 20" display in order to bring an alleged 28" display into the view. The move would fall nicely in line with previous rumors of a new top-of-the-line 28" iMac model that is also allegedly in the works.

The oversized iMac model would, according to these voices, sport the fastest processor and graphics architecture, catering to creative professionals who find Mac Pro too pricey but require more performance and screen real estate than the current top-of-the-line 24" iMac brings to the table. Readers should note that the 28" iMac rumor was based on unnamed sources, so it quickly fell in oblivion and has not been corroborated by reliable sources to lend it some credence.

DisplayPort confusion

With the removal of 20-inch model, Apple's current Cinema Display lineup consists of the 30-inch model (introduced in June 2004) and the24-inch LED-backlit Cinema Display with DisplayPort, meaning it can only be used with the latest unibody MacBooks equipped with the latest VESA-backed interconnect standard. Given Jobs' comments, the company will eventually update the largest 30" model to DisplayPort technology as well.

Apple's miniaturized DisplayPort variant, dubbed Mini DisplayPort and used in unibody MacBooks, has been officially approved and will become a part of the upcoming industry-backed DisplayPort 1.2 specification. Users should pay attention to compatibility issuesbetween non-DisplayPort-compatible Mac computers and DisplayPort-compatible devices like the 24" LED-backlit Cinema Display. The company is expected to refresh its iMac, Mac mini and Mac Pro line with DisplayPort later this year, as well as its Apple TV set-top box.

By bringing DisplayPort technology to both its computer and display products Apple will eventually make life easier for new users, while owners of older displays or computers will have to resort to additional converter boxes to make their equipment work with the new standard. However, it is likely Apple will make this a relatively easy transition as well.

TRANSITION TO THE DISPLAY PORT
Apple began transitioning to DisplayPort interconnects with the new unibody MacBooks unveiled last October. The company soon replaced 23-inch Cinema Display with the new 24-inch LED-backlit model and its DisplayPort interconnect, meaning it can only be used with unibody MacBooks.

MINI DISPLAYPORT NOW PART OF DISPLAY PORT 1.2 STANDARD
Mini DisplayPort, Apple's own miniaturized variant of DisplayPort, can drive 30-inch Cinema Display via "Mini DisplayPort to dual-DVI" converter box and is just one tenth in size compared to the regular DVI interconnect. Mini DisplayPort will become part of the upcoming industry-backed DisplayPort 1.2 specification.

Sony Ericsson shows of media tastic phone

Codename Idou, with 12.1Megapixel camera

Despite everyone expecting Samsung to be the first company to announce a 12.1Megapixel camera phone, it turned out that Sony Ericsson managed to beat them to it with the introduction of a handset that is currently going under the code name of Idou.

This handset is quite different from what we've seen from Sony Ericsson in the past and it focuses on the multimedia features more than anything else and as such, it has a 16:9 3.5in touch screen with a somewhat disappointing 640x320 resolution, as this isn't as good as some other recently announced media savvy handsets. It looks like Sony Ericsson has also borrowed the UI, at least in part, from the PS3, although it doesn't show on the pictures below.

This is also the first Sony Ericsson handset based on the Symbian Foundation platform to be officially revealed. Other features include built in WiFi, GPS, a forward facing camera for video calls, a Xenon flash and an M2 memory card slot. As for the rest, we'll just have to wait and see and it's a long wait, as Sony Ericsson has only given a very vague 2H 2009 launch date. If Samsung hurries up, they might be the first to market with a 12.1Megapxiel camera phone at this rate.

Upgrade of 5G iPod to 240GB now possible

Still working on additional iPod models

Still running out of storage on your 5th generation iPod? The modders at Rapid Repair have just the ticket for you, with the announcement that they have been successful at upgrading the 5G iPod to a whopping 240GB of storage.

According to Rapid Repair CEO Ben Levy, “The mod is actually very simple on the 5th generation iPod.” The upgrade uses the Toshiba MK2431 hard drive to expand 5G iPod to 240GB.

Right now the Toshiba hard drive is only compatible with the 5G iPod, but the company is working hard to mod the iPod Video, iPod Classic, and the second generation Zune to be able to add these to the list of units that are compatible with the 240GB upgrade. The only problem may be with the almost $250 price of the MK2431GAH hard drive required for the upgrade.

You can learn more here

Sony denies rumors of Intel Larrabee in PlayStation 4

Best work of fiction since The Lord of the Rings

This week, the Inquirer published an exclusive report based on conversations with unnamed Sony representatives at CES, claiming that Nvidia would be entirely out of the picture in all upcoming next generation consoles. Overall, claims were made stating that Intel's forthcoming Larrabee would be the general purpose GPU to power Sony's PlayStation 4 in the next gen console war.

"The nice Sony engineering lady at CES told us that Intel essentially bought the win, a theoretically good architecture, no imminent threats of going bust, and not being hated by Sony all contributed too. With a couple of deliverables satisfied, the PS4 GPU belongs to Intel."  The report continued: "Yeah, Intel won the PS4 GPU, no shock considering how much they needed a console win to get people coding for Larrabee."

Fortunately, Sony Computer Entertainment has moved quickly to deny this latest rumor that Intel will be producing the GPU for the PlayStation 4. To further correct the given claims, TechRadar spoke with a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe representative who clearly stated, "it's nonsense, and is quite possibly the best work of fiction I've read, since Lord of the Rings."

On another note, the report even stated that the next gen consoles "will likely have a CPU which we know nothing about"and would "seem to be leaning towards x86" all while claiming this to be solid information. 

All in all, we'll let the rumor mill have a swing at this one. The only speculation we are going to give at this point is the idea that Sony might very well choose to implement the OpenGL 3.0 specification in its next gen console for the new texture compression algorithms and full frame buffer object functionality, not to mention 32-bit floating-point textures. We hope some kind of general purpose GPU functionality will also be included, although we are left waiting in anticipation with the rest of the world for much more needed concrete evidence.

Exploding cellphone kills man

 

A Chinese man has died after his cellphone exploded, severing a major artery in his neck.

The man, thought to be a shop assistant in his twenties at a computer shop in Guangzhou, China, died after he put a new battery in his phone, the UK's Daily Mail reported on Tuesday.

It was believed that he may have just finished charging the battery and had put the phone in his breast pocket when it exploded.

According to the local Chinese daily Shin Min Daily News, the accident happened on January 30 at 19:30.

An employee at the shop told Chinese media that she heard a loud bang and saw her colleague lying on the floor of the shop in a pool of blood. The employee said the victim had recently changed the battery in his cellphone.

Chinese authorities have yet to determine the make and model of the phone and its battery.

Local reports said that this was the ninth recorded cellphone explosion in China since 2002.

In the most high profile recent incident, in June 2007, a 22-year-old welder, Xiao Jinpeng, died from chest wounds when his cellphone exploded while he was at work at an iron mill in Gansu province.

A local government inquiry found that the mobile phone battery had exploded due to the heat of the iron mill.

Lithium batteries are widely used in mobile phones - but if they are overcharged or exposed to heat, the inflammable liquid inside can explode, the Daily Mail reports.

Motorola and Nokia, two of the world's biggest mobile phone makers, denied links to the distributors of problem batteries in China, suggesting they were counterfeit.

After the latest incident, the Shin Min Daily News published advice for consumers on how to avoid mobile phone explosions. The tips included:

- Always use original batteries. Be sure that batteries by the manufacturer are meant for your mobile phone.

- Never modify your phone

- Do not expose your cellphone to high temperatures, and avoid exposing it to direct sunlight

- Avoid long phone conversations

- Do not make or answer calls when the phone is charging

- Try to keep your phone in a bag instead of in a pocket

- Do not use damaged batteries

IBM to build massive 20 Petaflop supercomputer for NNSA

What happens in the supercomputer world is a seemingly distant topic for most of us, yet it impacts all of us in many ways through new opportunities for scientists and hopefully accelerated research results.  Recent advances in supercomputing are simply breathtaking, and the computing power they'll soon possess is awe-inspiring.


The most recent list of the Top 500 supercomputers, published in November 2008, included the first ever Petaflop systems - capable of performing more than 1 quadrillion floating point operations per second. Now we hear that the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has ordered a supercomputer that will be able to deliver 20 times that performance by 2012.

The new supercomputer, called Sequoia, will be installed at the site of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in stages necessary to reach its maximum processing power in three years. The first portion of it, called Dawn, is currently being installed and is expected to deliver about 500 TFlops during Q1 2009. While Dawn is based on currently available processors, Sequoia will be built on future IBM BlueGene technology.

When completed, the supercomputer will have 1.6 Petabytes of memory, 96 racks, 98,304 compute nodes, and 1.6 million cores. IBM promises Sequoia will be 160 times more power efficient than ASC Purple and 17 times more so than BlueGene/L - both previously installed supercomputers at LLNL.

BlueGene/L is currently listed as the world’s fourth fastest supercomputer with a maximum performance of 596 TFlops. The system was upgraded in 2007 and 2008 to 106,496 PowerPC 440 (700 MHz) processors with 212,992 cores.

IBM said its performance is comparable to the world’s population (6.7 billion people) working together on a calculation 24 hours per day and 365 days a year using a hand calculator: However, it would take all of us 320 years to achieve what Sequoia can do in just one hour.

In theory the projected 20 PFlops will offer a 50x improvement in predicting earthquakes and a 40x improvement in predicting weather - allowing forecasters to predict local weather events that affect areas 100 meters to one kilometer in size, which is a significant improvement over their current ten-kilometer ability.

As far as earthquakes are concerned, the possibilities such a new system offers are fascinating: We recently ran a story on the work being done by the Mid-America Earthquake Center (MAE) at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and the impact such research has on people living in areas threatened by earthquakes - down to even predicting which houses may be destroyed and which may not.

Imagine the possibilities of continued, affordable supercomputer growth. What a fascinating time we live in.

Samsung hints to DDR4 with first validated 40 nm DRAM

Samsung today announced that it has developed and validated its first 40 nm DRAM chip, which are expected to consume 30% less power than current 50nm modules, and is an important step toward DDR4 development.


The 40 nm 1 Gb memory component, which will be used in a 1 GB 800 Mb/s DDR2 module for notebooks (SODIMM), has been validated for Intel's GM45 chipset platform, Samsung said. The company is also developing a 2 Gb version, which should be ready for mass-production by the end of the year.

Compared to the current 50 nm memory, Samsung believes that it will be able to accelerate the time-to-market of new memory devices by 50% and increase productivity by 60%. The 40 nm memory modules are expected to consume 30% less power than current devices. 

Perhaps most interesting, Samsung noted that the 40 nm node marks a "a significant step" toward the development of "ultra-high performance DRAM technologies," such as DDR4. The company did not provide further details, however, but we have heard from industry sources that DDR4 should not be expected to surface before 2012.

Core i7 isn't selling well

Platform too expensive? Core i7 is definitely the fastest CPU on the block, but when it comes to sales, it is not doing particularly well. Despite the fact that the cheaper Core i7 920 sells for a reasonable €260 for a 2.66GHz quad-core, motherboard and memory prices are the reason why customers shy away from this platform.  Core 2 Quad is still performing quite well, and the motherboards are cheaper, not to mention the memory and most of the customers even today tend to go for a Core 2 Quad rather than a Core i7.  This surely has something to do with the economy, as nowadays the cheapest X58 motherboard sells for a reasonable €177 or more, but the guys who are selling these CPUs confirmed several times that Core i7 is not a top seller.

Rumor: Samsung Announcing First 12MP Cameraphone This Month

 

Samsung is reportedly planning to announce the first 12MP cameraphone at the Mobile World Conference in about two weeks, lobbing another salvo of megapixels in the moment's most pointless technology race.

Details are slim about the handset, which is telling—if the most notable and leakworthy feature of this phone is a noisy, pumped-spec camera then we probably aren't going to be treated to anything revolutionary. It'd be reasonable to expect something like the Innov8, Samsung's 8MP cameraphone (pictured above, slightly 'shopped by Unwired) but a touchscreen handset like theabout-to-drop 8MP Memoir isn't out of the question either.

Either way, the point remains that the cameraphone megapixel battle is a ridiculous one, driven by marketers instead of engineers—until there's a truly great 3.2 megapixel cameraphone, milking more pixels out of these phones' already strained sensors shouldn't be a priority.

Google Explains the Site-Wide Mistake: "Human Error"

Earlier this morning, every single one of Google's search results came with a warning that the site "may harm your computer," including their own properties like Gmail and Google Maps. They've since explained what happened:

Google works with the non-profit StopBadware.org to create a list of potentially dangerous sites, which is updated periodically. One such update happened this morning, but somebody typed in "/" by mistake. That simple keystroke expands to every single URL, which is why Google was universally borked. Google engineers fixed the problem in about half an hour, and it's back to normal now.

Please don't play with our heads again, Google. We trust you. If you tell us the entire internet might infect our computers, we'll probably believe you.

Flash on iPhone IS Coming, Up To Adobe To Clear Tech Hurdles

Bloomberg's interview with Adobe's Shantanu Narayen reveals that Adobe is developing Flash for the iPhone, it's been in development since June 2008, and is a customized solution just for the iPhone.

Apple has said repeatedly that regular desktop Flash is too heavy (on CPU, and thus battery life) for the iPhone, whereas Flash Lite is too lousy. Jobs has coerced Adobe to create a custom solution. From Narayan's words of "the ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver," the engineering effort lies more in Adobe's engineering team than in Apple's.

Adobe actually said, back in September '08, that there would be a version released "in a very short time" if Apple approved it. Obviously either Apple rejected it, or Adobe themselves decided it wasn't quite resource-friendly enough to launch.

XFX's ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 pictured

Still with a reference cooler
Thanks to the Alternate.de, we finally have a picture of XFX's HD 4870 X2 card. This card wasn't listed at XFX's web site, even if it was listed at some local e-tail/retail shops.
The card has a same reference cooler, which isn't that strange as the non-reference cards are very rare. As far as we know, Gainward, Palit and Sapphire with its Atomic are the only partners with non-reference cooled X2 cards. The sticker on XFX's HD 4870 X2 looks good and the card is currently listed but unfortunately not yet available. According to the details over at Alternate.de, the card works at reference 750MHz for both GPUs, and has 2GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 3,600MHz.
You can find the card listed here and here is the picture of XFX's HD 4870 X2 card. We hope that XFX can ship these cards soon to as many retail/e-tail shops, as at current listed price it is just way to expensive.

DSTL1 Android Smartphone Is Battlestar Galactica's iPhone

This is the Android-based, 3-inch Sharp touchscreen, General Mobile DSTL1. And it is everything the T-Mobile isn't: A stunning design and features combination that may convince regular consumers to choose the Android platform over iPhone.

Seriously, while the T-Mobile G1 leaves me completely in a blah state of mind, DSTL1 actually makes me horny in a "I wish this thing vibrates really hard" kind of way.

Look at it. It's like the Battlestar Galactica designers took the iPhone design and passed it through their Colony-Design-a-thon, adding angled corners to it but keeping the same black glass, chrome accents, black plastic, circular home button, ear speaker grill, and volume controls. The result is a design which looks extremely familiar to the public, yet adds enough changes to appeal to people who want something cool looking, but different. And with better specs too:

Technology
Double SIM, Linux 2.6 Kernel
Platform
Marvell PXA 310 (624MHz)+NXP 5209
Bands
900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
Screen
TFT/ WQVGA/ 260K Colors/ 3.0" Sharp Brand Touchscreen Display/ 240 x 400 pixels
Wi-fi
802.11 b/g
GPRS
Yes
EDGE
Yes
WAP
Yes, HTTP/WAP2.0 support
MMS
Yes
E-mail
Yes
Bluetooth
Yes / BT 2.0 + EDR, SPP, A2DP, AVRCP, OPP, HFP
FM Radio
Yes
TV
Java
Yes ( MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1 )
MP3/MPEG4
Yes/Yes
Face to Face videoconferencing
Yes

Weight
135gr
Dimensions
112 x 54 x 16 mm
Memory
4GB internal memory, 256MB flash + 128MB SDRAM ,"Up to 8GB T-flash Card Support"
Camera
5MP Auto Focus with Flash Sharp Brand Camera
Voice Recorder
Yes

Talk Time
240 minutes
Standby Time
150 hours
Battery
1200 mAh
Accessories
Extra Battery, USB Cable, Earphone, AC Charge Adaptor

Others
Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF document view MP3/ WAV/ MIDI/ AMR support 3GP, MPEG4, AVI (DIVX),QVGA recording 30fps, decoding 30 fps JPG/GIF/BMP/PNG Business card reader support Anti theft support Video chat support Impressive. Apparently the DSTL1 it will be at Barcelona's 3GSM in February and I will be there to see if all these features are the real thing and how much this beast will cost. But on paper and renderings, it may be the first phone that would make me drop my iPhone. The only "but" for me: It's 0.63 inches thick (16mm). Too much of a brick after being used to the ultra-thin iPhone.

Is The Xbox 360 in Real Trouble?

While Sony’s revenues increased this year, Microsoft’s share ended up decreasing in value likely due to decreased Xbox 360 hardware prices. This comes on the heels of Microsoft boasting and toasting themselves all over the gaming industry for their successful increase in unit sales of the 360 due to the price drop of the Arcade edition for $199.

While the 360 did gain ground on its rival Sony’s PS3. This is all attributed to the price drop. On the surface it seems like a good move, but underneath lies the truth that the current trend for Microsoft’s unit sales is; units sales up, profits down. Leaving it  up to software sales for continued economic prosperity. This is one area where Microsoft is no slouch. Gears of War 2 will easily go on to sell 5 million copies. Two new Halo games and continues high sales of third party titles almost assure success in 2009. The real question for Microsoft this year is not 09 itself, but rather can they sustain beyond.  

Competition has gotten very steep this year as Sony ups the ante with Killzone 2. From all impressions and reviews given so far, it seems as though Sony finally has an absolute powerhouse of a game on its hand. "Halo Killer" is a common statement heard in reviews and impressions. Also Sony has probably the biggest game of the year sitting in the training room brewing to what should be perfection. That’s right, God of War 3.

This year is beginning to shape up to be a very heavy hitting year in the HD console war. The stakes are higher than ever. Microsoft’s must hold of the huge onslaught of PS3 exclusive titles with its own triple A titles all while getting the next few years ready at the same time. It should be one hell of a ride.

WD finally launches 2TB drive

WD's much talked about 2TB hard drive has gone on sale in Australia, and we're expecting it to pop up in Europe and the States within days, if not hours. We were expecting it last week, but it seems WD wasn't in much of a hurry to launch it.

The cheapest listings currently stand at just under AU$400, while the WD's 1TB drive sells for under AU$180. Australians have the misfortune of paying more for their hardware than the rest of the world, and we expect prices in Europe to be slightly lower, although WD's official MSRP is €299. The company will also release a 1.5TB version of the drive, and one of the first uses of the new drives will be in WD's My Book series of external hard drives.

Seagate has recently announced its 12th generation Barracuda series, also featuring 500GB platters, so it might launch its own 2TB drive soon, this time around hopefully without messed up firmware.

Apple gets multitouch patent

Everything you touch belongs to Apple 

The glorious Apple religion has scored a key patent which now means that anyone who comes up with touch screen technology might have to pay Jobs' Mob shedloads of cash.

World of Apple spotted the patent, which was awarded to Steve Jobs, iPhone software chief Scott Forstall, and Wayne Westerman, one of the founders of a company called Fingerworks that Apple acquired in 2005.

The patent is extremely long, and covers many of the methods used by the iPhone to display data, such as pinch-to-zoom Web browsing and swipe-to-scroll. Yesterday COO Tim Cook's warned Palm that it would be getting nasty if iPhone competitors nicked its IP it would use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal.

Palm said that if Apple wanted to sue them they should “bring it on”.

Will the Google GDrive kill off the PC?

Cloud computing means stormy weather for Microsoft

That large beige box under your desk could be consigned to history if, as predicted, the Google GDrive hits the market.

It's said to be the next step in the company's 'cloud computing' strategy, with direct access to all of Google's office-based software, not to mention Gmail, Picasa photo storage, Google Maps, media files and of course, good old web searching. Ok, you'll still need a monitor, keyboard and other desktop accessories, but if this thing comes cheap, it'll fly out - and rip a large hole out of Microsoft's projected profits. After all, with no desktops, where does Microsoft stick its software?

Are there any downsides? Well, of course there are. You will have to trust all your personal data and files with a third party. If you've nothing to hide (or need to conceal), that's fair enough. But if the thought of a third party accessing your life gets you in a sweat, maybe the GDrive isn't for you.

And of course, we don't just use desktops for web browsing - if you use it for gaming or graphics, the Google box is unlikely to tick the boxes. Not much use if you rely on a laptop either.

But the pros certainly outweigh the cons. Google is refusing to confirm that the GDrive is imminent, but we suspect it is. Watch this space.

PSP to Come in New, Festive "Carnival Colors"

OK, when we werebrainstorming new functionality for the PSP, who out there requested four new "carnival colors" instead of a second analog stick?

Beginning March 5th, Japan will have access to the PSP in Radiant Red, Vibrant Blue, Bright Yellow and Spirited Green. They'll come alone for about 19800 yen (the normal PSP price) or with a matching case/wrist strap and 4GB Memory Stick for 24800 yen (that's about $280 when converted).

I don't know about you, but these new PSP colors make me crave elephants, clowns and bearded women...and definitely not in that order, if you know what I'm saying. 

3D Porn is Coming: Three Guesses as to What Will be Sticking Straight Off the Screen

Nobody asked for it, but it's coming anyways: 3D porn. Yes, Hong Kong filmmakers are hard at work on the first 3D adult film, shooting with a budget of $4 million.

The movie, which will be in Chinese, is called "3D Sex and Zen" and begins shooting in April.

Just imagine that you'll be watching it as if you were sitting beside the bed. There will be many close-ups. It will look as if the actresses are only a few centimetres from the audience.

And if lots of close-ups didn't sell you, get this: only 25% to 30% of the movie will be sex scenes. This sounds like a terrible porn. But hey, 3D guys! You'll get to watch it with headache-inducing glasses! The future!

GT300 is Nvidia's DirectX 11

Nvidia is working on what looks to be its first DirectX 11 card and as it was the case before, Nvidia will start with DirectX 11 in the  ultra high-end and it will pass it on to slower cards at a later date. The codename that we've heard is a quite logical one, GT300, and this card will help Nvidia to fight and eventually take the performance crown in ultra high-end market.

We do know that ATI should have its high end DirectX 11 at a similar date, and in the meantime both companies will focus more on cheaper cards in 2009, as the year of the Ox will probably be a good year for selling cheaper and more affordable stuff. All of the cards to launch in next three quarters in mainstream and entry-level will stick with DirectX 10 or 10.1, depending who are you talking about.

Many of you know that high-end helps selling entry level and mainstream, and it is rather important who wins this round, but it is still way too early to tell.

All electric car Aptera 2e in production

 California will soon be home to a production version of the Aptera 2e (see TG Daily'sprevious coverage with pictures). The futuristic, all-electric, highly aerodynamic car will go on sale only in California for starting at $25,000, will have a range about 100 miles on electric alone (down from previous 125 mile estimate). Like Chevy's Volt, a 2010 model (revised from previous 2009 estimate) small gasoline engine will be available to recharge the batteries, extending that range.



The Aptera 2e will be the official name of what was previously known during development as Aptera Typ-1. Aptera 2e is a three-wheeled, highly aerodynamic two-seater design. The doors open up and the roof includes a solar panel for powering the ventilation system. Some of the specs have changed from this original Typ-1 design (see original specs as published in December, 2007).




Note: See link above for additional images.

It has a 0-60 mph time of just under 10 seconds, a top speed of 90 mph and its energy consumption rate is equivalent to more than 200 mpg (compared to previous nearly 300 mpg estimate) using the standard EPA driving cycle. The company has received 4,000 $500 non-refundable deposit orders so far (up from 400 in December, 2007).

Nintendo DSi coming to U.S. in April

IGN has started a rumor that the successor to Nintendo's DS Lite, The DSi, will hit U.S. store shelves in April for $179.99. The devices have already sold more than one million units in Japan for the equivalent of $211.


There are not many changes to the new DSi appearance-wise. However, it does have two built-in 3 megapixel cameras, an SD Card slot that allows for AAC audio content playback, a slightly larger screen, 256MB of internal memory, and downloadable DSi games via the DSi Shop. The one drawback is a lowered battery life.

The new DSi is not compatible with GBA games, Guitar Hero: On Tour, or theNintendo DS rumble pack - because the front slot is not on the new device.

Nintendo of America said last October that it did not feel necessary to release the DSi in 2008 for the holiday season as its predecessor's sales were continuing at "phenomenal rates."

Up next for OS X: An Apple-branded gaming console?

Among all the things that Apple trademarked you wouldn't have thought that the company would had applied for the "OS X" trademark as well. Note: "OS X", without the "Mac" prefix. If it were the "Mac OS X" trademark, it would hardly file as news: It is a norm for companies to protect their respective trade names. What Apple's OS X  filing reveals though, is an intention to distance the operating system from the Mac realm, indicating Apple's desire to use OS X on a much broader array of gadgets in the future. Some Apple watchers are convinced we will see more OS X software platforms beyond current desktop and mobile OS X. Like a game console, for instance.

Apple originally filed for the "OS X" trademark in Tobago and Trinidad in the weeks following WWDC 2008. In addition, another trademark was filed in Asian trademark office in November 2007. The timing of the original Tobago and Trinidad filings isn't coincidental: It was at the WWDC 2008 where Apple first shed light on new plans about its operating system that used to power only Macs. WWDC show banners in the run-up to the event read "OS X Leopard" and "OS X iPhone", while Apple promoted both OS X flavors under the "world's most advanced operating system" and "world's most advanced mobile platform" taglines, respectively.

True, the new naming could have been purely a marketing or re-branding thing. Such explanations would fall in line with the company's broader re-branding effort that dates back to the January 2007 iPhone introduction when Steve Jobs announced Apple would drop "computer" from its name and would be known from there on as just "Apple, Inc." - indicating that the company wants to become a consumer electronics giant instead of a niche computer player.

But common sense logic suggests that removal of "Mac" prefix from the "OS X" trademark goes deeper than just re-branding. After all, Apple watchers have been saying for some time that the company will keep spawning OS X-based software platforms in the future, and beyond desktop and mobile OS X versions. OS X currently runs inside Apple's Mac desktops and notebooks, in addition to the Apple TV set-top box and the iPhone/iPod touch that both run a modified version of the operating system.

The three OS X flavors share the same essential components, but two of them - OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone - have now become distinct software platforms. Guessing what the third OS X-based software platform might be is another thing. Your guess is as good as ours and we can only speculate at this point, but we can safely assume that OS X will in fact power Apple's future gadgets as well.

Originally based on Mach microkernel (which was derived from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)), combined with parts of FreeBSD and NetBSD Unix implementations, OS X sports an efficient code base with a small memory footprint, making it easily deployable into many form factors - from cellphones to full-blown desktop systems. On top of that, OS X brings a set of libraries and high-level frameworks that take care of networking, audio, video, graphics, power management, input and output, security, communication, multi-core processing, and everything else. In short, OS X wraps everything neatly into a single package that's ripe for use.

We could speculate that Apple might deploy OS X next in a $600 Mac netbook, a Mac tablet or a home entertainment center. It is also entirely possible that none of these products are in the works at all. But if some of these are actually in Apple's queue, they will be most likely based around the existing, perhaps slightly tweaked, desktop or mobile OS X versions.

For example, there is no reason for Apple not to use current OS X Leopard in a rumored Mac netbook since it successfully powers current Macbooks. On a similar note, alleged Mac tablet or an oversized iPod touch could be entirely built around mobile OS X version that powers current generation of iPhone and iPod touch. Finally, a home entertainment device could be entirely built around the same desktop OS X code that powers Apple TV set-top box. But none of these products have the potential to spawn an entirely new OS X software platform like the Mac and the iPhone did.

If you ask us, of all future Apple products that come into mind, only a home gaming console could constitute a third, distinct OS X software platform. For start, a console would require Apple's software team to significantly tweak OS X code in order to optimize it for high-performance computations, graphics and sound - the things that matter the most in game applications.

On top of that, "console OS X" would require some entirely new accompanying components that currently do not exist - like online gaming services, broader support for gaming controllers, more advanced multimedia features with DV-R recording capabilities, in addition to an entirely new user interface. All of this would require more substantial adaptation of the existing desktop OS X code. Especially crafted version of the online game store for online-only games delivery, like the App Store for the iPhone, would complete the picture of the third OS X software platform, in addition to the desktop and mobile OS X platforms.