Archive for the ‘Announcements’ Category

For those of you who are still running XP because you’re waiting out your trust issues with Vista, you may not have to wait much longer… or you’ll have to come up with a new excuse. According to ZDNet, a beta build of Service Pack 2 is in the hands of some software partners. Apparently, it’s also Microsoft’s intention to deliver the Service Pack before Windows 7 hits the shelves on June 3rd of next year. A new OS coming out only two years after Vista is a little foreboding, but hopefully SP2 will fix some of the remaining issues with Vista, namely,compatibility issues. There’s very little known about the features of SP2, but we’ll be sure and keep you updated.

After Steve Jobs called the Blu-Ray format a “bag of hurt”, it’s sort of surprising to find a company which is already producing Blu-Ray players for MacBook and MacBook Pro owners. The unit is external, so if you’re fine with hauling around an extra piece of hardware, not to mention the discs, you’ll have portable Blu-Ray access where ever you go. The drives come in a glossy black or white finish and they’ll burn BD-RE and -R discs at 2x. The cost isn’t too painful at $289, but we’re still hoping to see internal Blu-Ray support. So c’mon Steve! Open up that bag of hurt!

Samsung has all eyes focused on them after announcing plans to enter the US laptop market with five different branded models. The laptops will be available in both online and traditional retail shops and the models featured will be the NC10, Q310, X360, X460, P460, and the P560. The N10 starts with a screen size of just 10 inches, while the P560 sports a nice 15.4 screen. The prices for these babies range from just $499 for the small NC10, all the way up to $1,49 for the P560. It looks like Samsung has thought this through and is hoping to target the entire laptop market by offering a wide range of laptops for a wide range of budgets.

Microsoft is set to hand out pre-betas of Windows 7 to various developers, and it looks like they’ve finally found the perfect name for it’s next-gen OS. Get ready… introducing.. Windows 7. That’s right, it turns out the code name which has been used all through development has been chosen as the real name, which is a first for Windows. Apparently the company decided to stick with Windows 7 because it “just makes sense”. Seinfeld must have helped them on the set of the commercials with this idea. Whatever it’s called, I just can’t shake the feeling that Windows 7 is little more than a patch Vista.

Earlier this month, we saw Mozilla CEO John Lilly claiming that Firefox mobile would be available within the next few weeks. The development track has been following schedule, with an additional bit of information. The first screen shots from the mobile browser have been available on the internet, and show Firefox Mobile running quite well on a Windows Mobile Professional touchscreen smartphone. The browser features full HTML browsing, which has become the industry standard for mobile browsing as more and more phones pick up the mini-computer moniker. No word on the release date, but if everything goes as planned, we should see it before the end of October.

Okay, so maybe that last bit of news has you a bit scared when it comes to the robot uprising. Maybe this will give you a little bit of peace. According to Maryland professor Jaydev Desai, a prototype of a robot being developed at the University of Maryland could one day be used to diagnose, hunt, and destroy breast cancer cells in one sitting and much more efficiently than human beings.

The prototype can work inside an MRI because of it’s titanium and stainless steel construction. Everything from the biopsy to the hunting of cancer cells will be done in the MRI, making it much easier on the cancer patient. The robot kills the cells by using a probe which is inserted into the breast until it comes into contact with the tumor. The probe then burns all of the cancerous cells until they’re dead. This would effectively consolidate three months of trips to the hospital into one visit.

For those of you who are afraid of robot overlords, this probably isn’t the best article for you to read. A computer named Elbot achieved a 25% success rate when trying to convince a human being that they were conversing with another human. Simply put, Alan Turing, the father of the whole test, stated any artificial intelligence need only achieve a 30% success rate to be considered sentient. While Elbot can not officially be considered sentient, this is just another huge step in making computers who literally think and act just like humans. Where’s Isaac Asimov when you need him.

ATM skimmers have been around for quite a while now, but one of the downsides of them, aside from the fact that it’s identity theft and you could serve serious time, is that thieves would have to personally retrieve the skimmer from the ATM it was planted on. A new model of ATM skimmer has been released which sends the information gathered via SMS to the thief’s phone. The go for around $8,500, so it’s not likely you’ll have one used against you. Just remember these devices do exist the next time you go to swipe your card at an ATM.

With today’s focus on the world going green, in home power consumption monitors have been popping up all over the place. Most monitors simply tell you what a wasteful person you’re being, but a new UK service called AlertMe could stand to make you more efficient. The service starts at $260 for the hardware and $17.50 a month, with Smart Plugs purchasable for $43 which communicate wirelessly to the heating controller you purchased. Once your service is active, you can monitor your energy usage online via computer or phone. The service also includes key fobs, which will automatically turn down the heat and deactivate devices when you’re away, so you conserve energy. You can also control your thermostat by text message, so you’ll never be more than a few key presses away from a warm home.

Tsukuba University professor Yoshiyuki Sankai designed a robotic suit called the HAL-5 in 2006 which would allow handicapped people more freedom. The manufacturer of the suit, Cyberdyne will be cranking out these suits in large numbers in order for the suits to be rented. The suits are scheduled to go on sale in Japan at the rate of $2,200 a month. That’s a lot of money for freedom. Sankai says he hopes it will be useful for elderly people with disabilities by providing super strength mechanical assistance when the suit intercepts your brain signals for limb movements. Wow. I bet you never pictured your grandmother in a Samus Aran suit. Interestingly, Sankai has turned down several military bids for the suit, so don’t expect to see Crysis soldiers on the street any time soon.