Thursday, September 6, 2007
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A-Space, MySpace for Feds
11:43PM Mark Wilson | What do the the United States’ most classified, undercover agents need to do their job better? A little social networking. In order to better share information between various areas of U.S. intelligence, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is setting up a network called A-Space. A-Space is a social community ala Facebook that includes blogs, searchable databases and collectively editable content. Except it’s classified. Because just as if the government’s information on the real whereabouts of the world’s terrorists was leaked to the public, it would be equally damning to know which agents were “at work,” who was interested in “random play,” and just how many members of our CIA have Dawson’s Creek listed as a favourite TV show. It’s all for our own protection, trust me. [yahoonews] More »
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iPod Touch Has Bluetooth Support?
11:21PM Mark Wilson | According to this picture—found on the official German Apple website and still up at the moment—the iPod Touch supports unannounced Bluetooth. Look to the upper right corner near the battery gauge. Yup. Bluetooth. That is, unless Prince went back to symbol form, signed a contract with Apple and has his name stamped on every iPod Touch. Either way, I’m good. [Gallery via fscklog via crunchgear] More »
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iPod Hi-Fi R.I.P.
11:02PM Mark Wilson | Nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah. Hey hey hey. Good-bye. As of yesterday, Apple’s Hi-Fi is gone from their online store. The wrath of Jobs falls hard upon those who don’t meet their quotas. The Hi-Fi was a massive mistake. Apple, don’t you know? Only third parties can make money off of big, tacky speaker systems, so the launch of the HiFi was lose lose. Either the system would be too big, too ugly or too worthless to listen to. And one thing’s for sure: it was too expensive. [tuaw] More »
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ASUS Silent Knight II Super Cooler
10:39PM Mark Wilson | ASUS has announced a new version of their obnoxious yet effective Silent Knight CPU cooler. Now supporting quad core processors, the SNII is packed with six copper tubes and 100% copper fins to distribute heat away from your precious processor. A PWM function fan automatically adjusts its speed to the core temperature, while a badass blue LED on said fan gives the unit a space age glow. Like a freaking jet engine. I’d love if this thing could pop out of my Macbook Pro whenever it needed an extra jolt of cooling, sending the other Starbucks yuppies diving under their tables, clutching their iPhones for dear life. [physorg via fareastgizmos] More »
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Panasonic Rolls Out 720 AX200 Projector Designed for Gaming, Also Updates 1080p AE2000
10:00PM Charlie White | Panasonic announced an update to its AX line of 720p projectors today, and this one’s the AX200, specially designed for gamers with significantly increased response time. Panasonic says it has improved the projector’s signal processing, so the time between pressing a button on a gaming controller and the results showing up on the screen is much quicker than ever. In fact, this is the first projector created with gaming in mind. More »
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Feet-On with the Shoe Pure 100 (Verdict: It Works Great)
8:00PM Jesus Diaz | Fulfilling a lifelong dream, we tried the eggciting Shoe Pure 100 at IFA 2007, where a gazillion Germans with smelly shoes passed by —sadly without using it. We didn’t have enough time to try the full power of this ozone-generating germ and smell destroyer from Japan, but we definitely noticed the difference in barely five minutes. More »
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Revived HP iPAQ Line Official, Almost Enough Models for the Brady Bunch
7:54PM Matt Buchanan | Those leaked pics and specs for a new line of HP iPAQs turned out to be spot on, U.S. model numbers aside. Led by the formidably spec’d iPAQ 900 Business Messenger smartphone, the lineup consists of another smartphone (600 Business Navigator, the 900’s QWERTY-less little bro), two “classic handhelds,” (the 100 and 200, “classic” meaning Wi-Fi, no cellular) and a jazzed-up GPS unit (300 Travel Companion). Press release laying it all out after the jump. More »
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Microsoft Media Extender Platform Relaunched With 802.11n, DivX and Xvid Support
6:30PM Matt Buchanan | Probably the only Media Extender hardware most people are aware of is the Xbox 360, and with everyone and their mum getting into the set-top box game, it’s time Microsoft re-juiced the stagnating platform. Renamed “Extenders for Window Media Center” (okay?) the new platform will debut on hardware from Linksys, D-Link and Niveus Media later this month and appears to newly support wireless N, DivX, Xvid, Windows Media Video HD, and encrypted HD streaming at a minimum. We’ll get a closer look at some of the hardware at CEDIA later today, but hit the jump for the full release. Update: Only these new devices have the capability, and the Xbox 360 does not. More »
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JVC’s LCD Reaction Time Shootout
3:01PM Charlie White | JVC showed us an impressive demo of its 120Hz “Clear Motion Drive II” tech on its Procision (yes, that’s the way these guys spell it) line of LCD monitors announced a couple of months ago and shipping this month. JVC lined up its 47-inch LT-47X898 (second from the right) against 120Hz contenders from Sony (at left), Toshiba (third in the row) and Sharp (on the end). Here you can plainly see the JVC monitor responding quicker to a controller of this Madden 08 football game on a Sony PS3. It’s beating the other three, but only by a couple of frames. But still, when you’re hard-core gaming, every frame counts. JVC showed a second demo that was also impressive, demonstrating how its 120Hz interpolation can smooth out artifacts in an image. JVC’s now in its second generation of this double-framed 120Hz goodness, where they actually create extra frames in between each of the normal 60 frames, estimating where objects would be in between and literally creating something out of nothing. While it’s hard to show it on this crappy YouTube-quality video, there was a noticeable difference between the brands, all of which were running 120Hz frames, especially in scenes with lots of movement. Of course, in this demo JVC’s TV looked the smoothest by far. Whether this demo is rigged or not (and that wouldn’t be that hard to do), this 120Hz capability is getting to be a must-have feature. UPDATE: Some extra analysis below. More »
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