feedburner
Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

feedburner count

Samsung Rumours, Killzone 2 Demo, Silicon Mountain's Atom-based Allio LCD TV-PC, Rambus' 4.3Gbps Mobile Memory, IE Losing Users

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Earlier today, i mentioned the 12MP Samsung cameraphones that may be weeks away from being announced (here). Well, that's not the only news that Samsung is stirring up. Apparently, there is also a rumour of a new Samsung Omnia. It will have the same features as the 8GB Omnia, but it will instead have 16GB's of internal memory. I don't know why Samsung would do this, since the UI is pretty non-responsive. My friend got one for Christmas and it was kind of annoying to use. I only used it for a couple of minutes though, so i couldn't exactly do a thorough review. Yesterday, my friend Yang, finally got his Samsung INNOV8 for only $580 CAD. I thought that was a bit of a steal. Anyways, the phone is a bit bigger than my phone (Nokia N81) but it obviously packs a heck of a lot more features inside, such as having 8GB of internal memory and a 5.0MP camera. I didn't get to play around with the phone too much, since it was so new and i didn't really want to break it or anything. Hopefully, i'll be able to take some pictures and record some video with it, to see exactly how it is. I noticed that it's running a modified Symbian S60 OS though. I noticed this because it's the same OS as my phone. He told me that he uses Opera Mini for his browsing and that it doesn't save his passwords. He also mentioned that the browser is really fast. More on the INNOV8 when i get a chance to hold it some more. It's only missing a touchscreen.

If you're waiting for the Killzone 2 demo date, it will be on February 5. There will only be one demo, with the exception of Japan, of course. They will be receiving 2 demos. I don't know if the 2 demos will be released on the same day though.

The TV and the PC continue to bump heads. It was mentioned at CES 09 that the distinct line between TV and PC will disintegrate in the upcoming years. Silicon Mountain just pushed out it's first LCD TV-PC, the Allio. The Allio will have 2 models: a 1080p 42-inch and a 720p 32-inch model going for retail prices of $1,599 USD and $1,299 USD, respectively. Both models will have the same internal hardware. A dual-core Atom 330 processor, a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, a DVD drive and it will run on Windows Vista Home Premium. Engadget also mentions that there is "no Blu-ray option, it seems." Interesting. No? Tell me in the comments if you like that the TV and the PC are coming together as one.

Rambus has been getting into a bit of trouble lately, but if we push that aside, they may have something interesting to mention. They are calling it the Mobile Memory Initiative, "a 4.3Gbps phone-oriented variant of the XDR RAM used in the PS3 that requires just 100mV of power. That means companies can either build super-powerful phones that take advantage of a complete MMI system's estimated 17GBps throughput, or build cheaper devices that offer performance equivalent to today's memory with fewer MMI parts." A long quote, but it is very informative. Basically, the message is: super-powerful phones can be made by utilizing MMI. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until early 2010 for the first products.

What a delightful introduction to this article on ZDNet. "The reign of IE is coming to an end." I love that line. Internet Explorer's market share has dropped 7% over the last year. This is because those users still using IE6 are dumping that browser for newer browsers, such as Firefox, Safari or Chrome. This is really interesting because 20% of people cruising the Internet are still doing so using IE6. Those people must be out of their mind, in my opinion. If you enlarge the chart you will notice that IE's market share is on a steady pace downwards, while Firefox, Safari and Chrome continue to gain market share. Firefox is projected to grow at least 4% from March 2008 - 2009, Safari should gain about 3% from March 2008 - 2009 and hopefully Chrome can stay above the 1% mark by March. I hope that Chrome releases their extensions / themes soon because they should start to make their move now, while users are trying to make the switch from IE6 to a better browser.

Samsung Rumours (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/16gb-samsung-omnia-shows-itself-other-samsung-rumors-surface/
Killzone 2 Demo: http://ps3.qj.net/Killzone-2-demo-coming-February-5/pg/49/aid/128589
Silicon Mountain's Atom-based Allio LCD TV-PC (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/silicon-mountain-debuts-atom-based-allio-lite-lcd-tv-pc/
Rambus' 4.3Gbps Mobile Memory: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/rambus-introduces-4-3gbps-mobile-memory/
Internet Explorer Losing Users (and chart): http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=1116



Super Bowl Interfered By Porn, Google Earth 5, Hellgate: London is Finished, E3 Reveals List, Nehalem-based Xeon Chips By March?

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

So, if you watched the Super Bowl last night and you lived around Tucson, Arizona, you may have seen this happen. Apparently, as Fitzgerald was running in for his 64-yard touchdown, Comcast users were shown a short clip of a porno movie. "The offending video was only broadcast to standard definition viewers." Oh gosh, imagine if they also showed that hardcore action in high-definition. Apparently, this was done "by accident" and Comcast Cable are going to give everyone $10 off their next month's bill. This completely surpassed Janet Jackson's recent boobie-showing at the Super Bowl a couple of years back.

Today, Google announced the release of a new version of Google Earth. I talked about the possibility of Google releasing an Earth version with the option to view the ocean floor (here). Well, the rumour was true. "Among the biggest changes are the inclusion of a detailed 3D ocean floor, the ability to go up to 50 years back in time when looking at a particular location, record a virtual tour of locations, and a 3D rendition of Mars." As you can see, they added an amazing feature of Mars as well as the awesome ocean floor. The download is now available for Mac and Windows PCs so go and check it out.

Yesterday marked the end of Hellgate: London. Hellgate: London was an MMO for the PC and i don't really know much about it. I do know that my friend did boast about this game to me. He actually didn't end up playing it when i told him that it was a pay-to-play kind of game, like World of Warcraft. Anyways, they shut down Hellgate's servers. Game over for Hellgate: London.

E3 will be held from June 2-4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The booth babes are making their return to E3 and hopefully this year will revive E3. They just released a list of all the exhibitors that will be present at E3. You can check out the list here, via ps3.qj.net. At E3 this year, we should expect to hear about the Nintendo Wii's "secret weapon software" plan that they say will push them past the PS2 as the world's top-selling console.

A new leak has revealed that there will be new Intel chips by the end of March. The quad-core Nehalem-based Xeon chips. These chips are pretty expensive "and tops out at $1,557 [USD] for a 3.2GHz quad-core Xeon W5580, with a 2.93GHz parallel costing $1,349 [USD]." These Nehalem-based Xeon chips are only quad-core and shouldn't be confused with the rumoured eight-core chips that may be announced this upcoming weekend at ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference). They have done some tests on these chips and they are said to be "roughly twice as fast as higher-clocked current Xeons in synthetic benchmarks."

Super Bowl Interfered By Porn: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/692884/Super-Bowl-Interrupted-By-Porn.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=TheFeed
Comcast Giving $10 Back to Viewers: http://www.pcworld.com/article/158816/comcast_customers_get_10_to_make_up_for_porn.html?tk=rss_main
Google Earth 5 (and picture): http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/02/02/google.announces.earth.50/
Hellgate: London is Finished: http://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs/Hellforge/Hellgate-London-Rest-in-Peace
E3 Reveals List (and picture): http://ps3.qj.net/E3-reveals-exhibitors-list-and-Activision-Blizzard-is-on-it/pg/49/aid/128591
Nehalem-based Xeon Chips By March?: http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/02/02/nehalem.xeon.late.march/

South Korea at 1Gbps by 2012, Samsung's 12MP Cameraphone, EEE PC Has 9.5 Hour Battery Life

Labels: , , ,

South Korea is looking to increase their broadband speed by up to 10 times the current amount. In South Korea their current broadband speed is 100Mbps. By 2012, South Koreans may see speeds of up to 1Gbps. This will cost an estimate of $24.6 billion. First, i wanted to live in Japan and now i want to live in Korea. Although, i probably wouldn't fit in there because of all the hardcore gamers. But, i sure would love to get beat by them in Starcraft 2, i'd be honored. Long time ago, i read an article about Korean WoW players complaining that they were getting such "high" latency at a tournament in the US. At the US tournament, the latency was barely double-digits, maybe 12ms. The Koreans complained because they all have their fibre optic cables back at home, which minimizes their latency to about 2-3 ms. I don't really know how they were able to tell the difference because i'm fine with my 134 latency in WoW. Anyways, this upgrade in Internet speed is also going to upgrade the clarity of their television by up to 16 times, as you can read in the picture.

Rumour has it that Samsung is ready to unveil their 12MP cameraphone at this year's MWC, which is oh-so-close. I can't wait until MWC and i've said this a couple of times already. I still want optical zoom and a better flash instead of just raw megapixels. We'll see if the camera has some decent features though.

9.5 hours of battery life? I remember when i was satisfied with my laptop's 3 hour battery life and i thought that it was incredible. Luckily, EEE PC 1000HE has showed my laptop up with a 9.5 hour battery life. The battery lasts so long because of "ASUS' own Super Hybrid Engine battery conservation tech." Of course this 9.5 hour battery life may only be attainable in the best conditions ever possible, but it's still impressive nonetheless. Besides, the long battery life the laptop comes with a couple of features, such as: a 10-inch LED screen, BlueTooth and a 160GB HDD plus an extra 10GB of "Eee Online storage." The built-in processor is a "1.66GHz Atom N280." It's a pretty nice looking laptop, but i think that a black version would look better than this blue one.

South Korea at 1Gbps by 2012 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/south-koreans-could-see-1gbps-web-connections-by-2012/
Samsung's 12MP Phone: http://i.gizmodo.com/5144209/rumor-samsung-announcing-first-12mp-cameraphone-this-month
EEE PC 1000HE (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/eee-pc-1000he-with-9-5-hour-battery-seeks-friends-pre-orders/