Gadgets Mobile

It is without a doubt that Microsoft’s high hopes for Windows Vista has been dashed due to lackluster reception, and it is so bad that Microsoft even needs to push Windows Vista by quickly killing off XP. Now I love my XP, and Vista has been anything but tempting to me thus far, hence making me resist the next logical upgrade path until my current notebook decides to give up the ghost (touch wood). Hopefully in what could be Microsoft’s efforts to make up for its mistakes in Vista, it will be unveiling Windows 7’s features sometime next month. Hopefully Windows 7 won’t be the laggard that Vista is, what with the multi-touch user interface that seems to be all the rage these days considering the huge amount of iphone owners worldwide.

These new Windows 7 features will be previewed at the coming developer and hardware conferences this October and a month after, and the Redmond, Washington company has gone so far even as to set up an official Windows 7 blog where senior engineers will discuss the operating system with users. OK, I do know that these engineers already have their hands full with work, so I’m not too sure whether they will have the extra time to cater to the service line in this case. I suppose this is where the benefit of the doubt comes in, eh? The two events where Windows 7 technical details will be released are its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) that are held in October and November, respectively.

Looks as though Microsoft is trying to gauge the interest level for the unreleased Windows 7 features so that they will be able to make the necessary amendments (if any) in order to play to the gallery. Take note that the blog won’t be that comprehensive, as it will “not set expectations around the release that end up disappointing,” like “features that don’t make it, claims that don’t stick, or support we don’t provide.”

Source: TG Daily

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We have just received a tip about a new LCD HDTV from Philips that should hopefully gain a fair amount of attention when it’s announced at this years IFA. The new HDTV (or range we assume) will be called the Philips Essence. The Essence LCD will have a 42-inch screen size and ultra light and ultra thin at just 38mm thickness. It’s ultra thinness has been achieved by moving out much of the picture processing electronics to a separate box or “hub” and connected to the HDTV by a single cable. We have seen this approached used before by Pioneer, and it seemed popular.

We haven’t seem anything particularity exciting from Philips recently, so we hope to see something special in a couple of weeks time at IFA in Germany. At the last technology show, CES 08, Philips won an award for their low power eco HDTV. I’m personally hoping for something that will excite the A/V fans rather than the Eco fans.

The Philips Essence HDTV will be able to be wall mounted like a picture frame, and have a feature similar to the latest Sony’s where Photos or art work can be shown when the set is not being used.

Currently that is all the information we have on the Philips Essence LCD, but as more information is announced at IFA, we will keep you upto date on the Essence, along with everything else HDTV. We are also expecting to see the Philips Aurea second generation.

Pandora, the ad-supported internet radio service that builds stations off of your personal taste, may be shutting down in the near future.  Due to high royalty costs from the labels, that may be their only option.  According to the Washington Post, Pandora founder Tim Westergren doesn’t seem too confident the company will survive.

“We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision…This is like a last stand for webcasting.”

The Post mentioned that a whopping 70% of Pandora’s $25 Million in revenue this year will go to royalty fees.  Representative Howard L. Berman, a Democrat from California, is attempting to work up a deal between Pandora and SoundExchange, the organization that represents artists and labels.  Lets just hope Berman can get through to them… or we may have to go back to hating the RIAA.

I’m deeply saddened by the fact they may go out of business… and I’m sure their million other users are as well.  So what do you think Pandora should do?  Should they stick it to the RIAA and start playing all indie bands?  Is going out of business really their only option?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Read [Washington Post] Via [ReadWriteWeb]

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by Darren Murph, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 9:20AMJust over a year ago, we passed off a far-out proposal that would turn highways into wind farms. Now, however, the state of Oregon is proving that such feats are actually within reach as it breaks ground on the first so-called “solar highway” demonstration project. The project will be installed at the Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 interchange in Tualatin, where it will cover around 8,000 square feet and produce 112,000 kilowatt hours per year. The total cost for the 104-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system is $1.3 million, and believe it or not, it should be completed and operational in December of this year.

[Via Digg]

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Filed under: Transportation

PricePirates is a piece of Windows freeware that lets you compare prices in eBay auctions ( you can select what country), Amazon.com and Shopping.com. Each of those product sources show up in different tabs in the software and automatically populated once you switch to a tab. There is also a tab with a Web search (although I don’t know why you would bother with this when there are much better search engines out there).

I found that the results were a bit hit or miss on the Amazon.com and Shopping.com tabs, although eBay results looked fine. For example, a search for ‘ipod touch 8gb‘ did not return the actual ipod listed on Amazon. On the plus side, search results came back quickly and re-sorting results by description, price, time left, etc. was also very fast.

PricePirates also features your own personal watchlist, the ability to search multiple eBay and Amazon stores in other countries, eBay store searches, and even the ability to submit a bid directly from the app.

PricePirates has potential. If it could search on multiple shopping sites ( a la Pricegrabber), or perhaps focus on auction sites, and compare items across multiple auction sites, then it would become a lot more valuable. Otherwise, if you’re strictly an eBay/Amazon person, then this is a good way to compare whether bidding for an item or buying it outright/used on Amazon is the better way to go.

Posted in Miscellaneous

An aircraft is a vehicle which is used to travel through the air. An aircraft is made up of number of different parts and each part has a specific function. For an aircraft to work smoothly, each and every part should work perfectly. Fasteners, engine, bearings, wings are some of the common aircraft parts.

Each part of the aircraft has a specific function. An engine is used to create the thrust which is required to push the aircraft into the Earth’s atmosphere. Different types of engines are available and an engine is selected after analyzing the capacity of the aircraft and the thrust required for putting it into the atmosphere. Wings are required to help the aircraft maintain balance in the air and also to adjust the direction. Fasteners are the hardware devices that are required for joining two or more things together. Different types of fasteners are available and a number of fasteners are used in an aircraft as an aircraft is a big vehicle. Buckle, batten, nail, pin, staple are some of the types of fasteners.

Apart from fasteners, bearings are also used in an aircraft. Bearings are the devices that control relative motion between different parts of a machine. Like fasteners, a number of types of bearings are available and they are distinguished from each other on the basis of the motion they allow. The bearings are also classified on the basis of the operation principle. Liner motion, hinge motion and axial motion are some of the common motions permitted by bearings.

Fasteners and bearings are used extensively in aircrafts. The engineers working on aircrafts should make sure that they use certified aircraft parts. It’s not very difficult to find aircraft parts but it’s very important to make sure that the parts are of high-quality in order to ensure safety of travelers.

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 11:57AM
According to Appleinsider, the newest beta of iphone firmware (2.1, beta 4) has been seeded to developers, but takes one crucial element off the table — push notification. If you’ll recall, the new feature will allow third-party developers to take advantage of Apple’s servers for real-time push of data to and from applications. Apparently, the feature has been cut from the most recent beta for “further development” with no indication of when it will be reinstated. Of course, this is a beta seed of the firmware — the actual release is slated for September — and it makes sense that Apple would be tweaking major additions like this before going live, especially considering its recent launch debacles.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: cellphones

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 11:57AM
According to Appleinsider, the newest beta of iphone firmware (2.1, beta 4) has been seeded to developers, but takes one crucial element off the table — push notification. If you’ll recall, the new feature will allow third-party developers to take advantage of Apple’s servers for real-time push of data to and from applications. Apparently, the feature has been cut from the most recent beta for “further development” with no indication of when it will be reinstated. Of course, this is a beta seed of the firmware — the actual release is slated for September — and it makes sense that Apple would be tweaking major additions like this before going live, especially considering its recent launch debacles.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: cellphones

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 17th 2008 at 5:46AMAMD’s going through some rough times, no doubt about it, but for fanboys of the CPU maker (wait, do CPU fanboys still exist?) here’s your feel-good story of the year. The always-thorough Tom’s Hardware has pit Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom 230 processor against AMD’s Athlon 64 2000+, and the results just might surprise you. The 1GHz Athlon (with a core voltage of 0.90 volts and a power draw of just 8 watts) managed to best the aforementioned Atom in both energy consumption and processing power tests. The gurus at Tom’s credited the more modern 790G platform and the highly efficient K8 architecture as big players in the Athlon’s strong showing, finally deeming said chip “more economical, faster and quieter” than the Atom. We know you’re in disbelief — good thing there are 14 pages of proof waiting in the read link.

[Thanks, Carl]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 16th 2008 at 10:50PM
What could possibly provide us more joy and mirth than a Segway? How about a Segway-inspired bot that fails spectacularly on a consistent basis? The tech in play here is quite simple, and the fact it can stand as long as it does being that top heavy is actually pretty surprising. The best news? Hit the read link for a guide to making your very own fail bot at home. It’s fun for the whole family.

[Via technabob]

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Filed under: Robots