Filed under: Displays, HDTV

Sony's taken the crown in the race for thinnest LCD HDTV. At just 9.9mm thick the KDL-40ZX1 nearly halves the depth of Hitachi's former champ (likely throwing up in the bathroom right now) and comes within a whisper of Pioneer's ultra thin concept. Featuring a LED backlighting, a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 120Hz MotionFlow tech, x.v.Color and BRAVIA Engine 2 image processing this is about as close to a 40-inch window on your wall as is likely to arrive soon. Only one HDMI in is directly on the screen itself, all unnecessary HDMI / USB / component inputs are relegated to a base station, with the option for wired or -- possibly WHDI based? -- 5Ghz wireless (unfortunately limited to 1080i max resolution for now). We'd mention the XMB GUI, AcTVila video on-demand and DLNA support, but at some point it's just piling on. A mere 490,000 yen ($4,474 U.S.) puts the ZX1 on your wall, due at your local Japanese retailer November 10. See you there?

[Via AV Watch]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets

It's hard to say when we, the consumers, will actually see any real benefit from the latest noteworthy discovery from Northeastern University, but we can only imagine that Srinivas Sridhar and team aren't wasting any time moving things forward. Said crew has recently created a "new microlens that focuses infrared light at telecommunication frequencies," and if you're looking for specifics, it can focus an infrared beam to a spot just 12-micrometers away from the surface. The science behind the discovery is probably only digestible by those that understand rocket science, but the long of short of it is this: the "research shows that it is possible to create smaller, ultra-compact infrared optical components that can be integrated into existing semiconductor technologies while not sacrificing image quality." Now that's something even the layman can appreciate.

[Via Physorg]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

CANBERRA, (Reuters) - A Chinese factory worker has become an Internet sensation after a picture of her smiling and flashing a peace sign to a co-worker testing an Apple iPhone stayed on the phone that was sold to a man in Britain.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp released on Wednesday a second test version of Internet Explorer 8, delivering a feature-complete upgrade to the world's most widely used Web browser.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

It's been a month since we first caught a glimpse of the sharp-looking Logitech Squeezebox Boom, but the wireless network speakers are official today, coming in at a list price of $299. Yeah, it's basically a standard-issue Squeezebox with a built-in amp and speakers, but that's a pretty solid idea, especially since we're guessing the 24-bit Burr Brown D/A converter and bi-amped 3-inch woofers and 3/4-inch tweeters will offer up some decent sound. Everything else is regular Squeezebox kit -- 802.11g WiFi, SqueezeNetwork, optical and S/PDIF out, VFD display, 10/100Base-T Ethernet -- so if you're looking to expand your system, this is probably a pretty solid way of getting it done. Expect to see this one on shelves next month. One more pic after the break.

Continue reading Logitech Squeezebox Boom hits the stage

Permalink | Email this | Comments

risinganger writes "BBC News is reporting that a customer had his password changed without his knowledge. After some less than satisfactory service the customer in question changed his password to 'Llyods is pants'. At some point after that a member of staff changed the password to 'no it's not'. Requests to change it back to 'Llyods is pants', 'Barclays is better' or censorship were met with refusal. Personally I found the original change funny, like the customer did. After all, god forbid a sense of humour rears it's ugly head in business. What isn't acceptable is the refusal to change it per the customers requests after that."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Storage

SanDisk's pushed both Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo and regular SD cards to 30MB/s transfer rates before, and now it's SDHC's turn with the new Extreme III series. Yep, it's a really fast memory card for DSLRs, and it'll cost you: 4GB will be $65, 8GB $110 and 16GB will set you back whopping $180 when these hit in October.

[Via Digital Camera Info]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

So we might not have a physical device here, but these packaging renderings are pretty solid evidence of exactly what BlackBerry fans on Verizon -- particularly those jealous of the Bold -- can expect in a few weeks' time. It looks like RIM's first foray into the scary world of touchscreens will be officially branded the 9530 Storm, will be global (it includes a SIM card, after all), and will feature an 8GB SanDisk microSD card preinstalled. Wondering what happened to the Thunder name? Turns out that'll apparently be reserved for the version of the phone launching on Rogers up in Canada and on Vodafone across the pond. Those Storm users on the screen there sure look happy, don't they?

Gallery: BlackBerry Storm 9350 for Verizon gets boxed

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Creative isn't showing off too much new stuff at IFA this week, but we should be hearing about the X-Fi Go! mobile sound card, which looks to be an update on the old Soundblaster Play!. The tiny USB 2.0 stick packs in quite of bit of audio-tweaking magic, with Crystallizer, CMSS-3D, EAX Advanced HD and OpenAL support, as well as 1GB of flash storage preloaded with Alchemy, WaveStudio, and other apps. Available now in Singapore for S$79 ($56), we'd guess it'll be similarly priced when it hits Stateside.

[Via Electronista]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "NASA has received interesting results from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, originally known as GLAST, which has allowed them to create new map of the gamma-ray sky. The secret to its ability to resolve gamma-rays is that they use layers of tungsten interleaved with silicon detectors. When a gamma-ray strikes tungsten, it produces an electron/positron pair due to the photoelectric effect, which cascades as it goes through further layers of tungsten. Meanwhile, they record which silicon detectors had electrons or positrons pass through them to determine the direction of the source and they also record the total energy of the electron/positron pairs to calculate the wavelength of the gamma-ray using Planck's Law. The data gathered in just its first few hours of operation is reportedly comparable to the data from the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope, which gathered data for nine years back in the 1990's and there are hopes that it could detect dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Finally, a judge who may have actually visited the Internet once or twice before deciding a case. Judge Howard Lloyd, a judge on the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, threw out adult entertainment company IO Group’s 2006 copyright infringement case against Veoh today. At the time Veoh had some user-uploaded porn on its service that belonged to IO Group. Despite quick takedowns from DMCA notices, IO Group sued anyway.

A key issue of the case turned on whether or not Veoh should lose DMCA safe harbor protection because they transcoded user uploaded videos to the Flash format, something every online Flash video site does as a matter of course.

IO Group argued that the transcoding made Veoh a direct infringer and that the materials were under their direct control. Lloyd disagreed, saying “Here, Veoh has simply established a system whereby software automatically processes user-submitted content and recasts it in a format that is readily accessible to its users. Veoh preselects the software parameters for the process from a range of default values set by the thirdparty software…ButVeoh does not itself actively participate or supervise the uploading of files. Nor does it preview or select the files before the upload is completed. Instead, video files are uploaded through an automated process which is initiated entirely at the volition of Veoh’s users.”

In other words, nice try but no dice.

Viacom-YouTube and a host of other Internet video related lawsuits continue to rage on, but the good guys won this one. But those of you thinking you’ll find a little adult content on Veoh now that they’ve won the case will be dissapointed. Veoh banned it permanently back in 2006. This case was about nothing but money.

The full order is included below.

Veoh v IO Group - Free Legal Forms

CrunchBase Information Veoh Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

The business card needs to die, and everyone knows it. They’re clumsy, easy to lose, and virtually useless as one of the last bits of information that we pass non-digitally (they kill trees, too). The cell phone market could easily put business cards out of their misery, but instead of conforming to a single standard for contact exchange, handset manufacturers offer proprietary solutions or none at all.

FriendBook, an iPhone application from Tapulous, looked like it might hold the answer. The app uses a physical “handshake” to swap information - users simply put their iPhones next to each other and shake them. Granted, this would only work on iPhones, but it could have paved the way for similar apps on other phones. But as of yesterday the fate of FriendBook is now in jeopardy due to the departure of its lead developer (and Tapulous cofounder) Mike Lee. So is all hope lost?

Gabe Zichermann, CEO of rmbrME (”remember me”), thinks that his startup holds the answer. The service uses standard SMS or a web app to initiate the transfer of contact information, so it should work on nearly any phone. rmbrME initially launched last spring under a paid model (you’d have to pay around 50 cents every time you wanted to add a new contact). But because of an immediate poor response to the model, rmbrME is now free, though it plans to offer a premium service in the future.

To begin using the rmbrME, you first set up a profile including your standard contact information as well as links to your presence across various social networks. After meeting a potential new contact, you send a text message containing either the contact’s email address or phone number to a designated rmbrME shortcode. rmbrME then sends your new contact a SMS or email message with a link to your details, and asks them to create their own profile so that you can receive theirs.

Zichermann says it only takes about 3 seconds to initiate the process - just send your contact’s email to rmbrME, and you can complete the rest later. That may be the case, but each user still needs to create an account, logon to the site, and download the contact information from there. People may be willing to jump through a few hoops for essential contacts, but the process is still too involved, especially when meeting a large number of people at once. rmbrME is a step up from the antiquated business card, but at this point it isn’t the ultimate solution.

So what is the answer? Handset manufacturers need to agree on a format for proximity-based exchange over the air between devices - whip out the phones, detect nearby acquaintances, and hit accept. Palm was doing this a decade ago (albeit with a proprietary format), yet we’re still fumbling with Email exchanges and workaround solutions.

CrunchBase Information rmbrME Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

The appearance of Blu-ray HTIB systems under a number of brands is an encouraging sign that the format is at least trying to move into the mainstream living room, and now JVC's thrown its hat into the ring with the 2.1-channel NX-BD3. Of course, simply pulling bits off of Blu-ray discs isn't enough entertainment value these days, so the system also sports DLNA support, a 200-Watt powered sub and a 4x55-Watt amplifier (leaving you two channels to grow into). At £799 ($1,465) for a 2.1-channel setup, you might expect to get the latest and greatest in Blu-ray tech, but Profile 2.0, DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD didn't make the cut -- let's hope some sort of "market adjustment" happens between the time this appears next month and when it crosses the pond.

[Via Electronista]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

An anonymous reader writes "The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has apparently discovered a new world-record prime number. A GIMPS client computer reported the number on August 23rd, and verification is currently under way. The verification could take up to two weeks to complete. The last Mersenne prime discovered was over 9.8 million digits long, strongly suggesting that the new value may break the 10 million digit barrier — qualifying for the EFF's $100000 prize!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Storage

Sure, it's just network attached storage, but somehow, someway, LG's dressed its NB41 Blu-ray burnin'' NAS with just enough sex, just enough appeal to coax this helpless editor into risking security's ire just to grab a few pre-IFA snaps. It's bigger than we expected -- mini-tower PC big -- but we guess those four 1TB disks need plenty of ventilation. Just check that reflection in the mirror for a sense of scale.

Gallery: Eyes-on with LG's NB41 Blu-ray NAS

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Even though it's in nearly every phone available, only a few flat panels with integrated wireless networking have surfaced so far, and now LG's packing Bluetooth into its already highly anticipated "infinite black" PG7000 plasma and Scarlet LG7000 LCD models. Pricetags are still in the air, but LG says these flatscreens will hit worldwide starting with Europe in September.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

BackType is the newest YCombinator startup to launch from their summer program. They’re a blog-comment focused startup - founders Christoper Golda and Michael Montano are for the first time aggregating all comments from millions of blogs into a single, searchable, parsable stream. Think Twitter for all comments on the web.

They are not like the recent barrage of startups focusing on cleaning up the comment experience on blogs - see Disqus, SezWho, JS-Kit, etc. Blogs (and even commenters) don’t have to actively participate to be included. Instead BackType is grabbing all comments from millions of blogs (via feeds and scraping) and adding them to the site.

Like Twitter it’s a gold mine of information. I tried searches for TechCrunch50, Obama and Olympics and got back all kinds of content that I would normally miss. RSS feeds for searches are also available.

You can also track by commenter. BackType aggregates comments made by a name that matches to a linked URL. So if you, like most people, leave comments with the same URL across multiple blogs, they will be aggregated. You can also claim an account, like i did, and have your comments aggregated even if you use different URLs. Since there is not authentication other than what people type into comment boxes, there’s a big fake comment problem. That can be fixed by turning moderation on so that you have to approve anything that goes under your name.

I like this one a lot.

CrunchBase Information BackType Y Combinator Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

DesScorp writes "The Times reports on the problems of adding wind farms to the power grid. Because of the grid's old design, it can't handle the various spikes that wind farms sometimes have, and there's no efficient way to currently move massive amounts of that power from one section of the country to the other. Further complicating things is the fact that under current laws, power grid regulation is a state matter, and the Federal government has comparatively little authority over it right now. Critics are calling for federal authority over the grid, and massive new construction of "superhighways" to share the wind power wealth nationally. Quoting the article, 'The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Desktops

The two-inch-square Space Cube computer has apparently been making the rounds in Japan for some time now, but PC Pro has finally managed to sneak one into the UK and, thankfully for us, they've decided to share. This one packs a 300MHz NEC VR5701 processor, 64MB of RAM, a 1GB CompactFlash card, and a special version of Red Hat Linux, along with a single USB port, VGA out, built-in Ethernet and, most importantly for its target market, a SpaceWire port, which is used by the likes of NASA and the European Space Agency. Unfortunately for hobbyists that may have gotten their hopes up, while the price was initially estimated to be a reasonable $325, it now looks like it could be demanding upwards of £1,500 (or over $2,700) but the time it's officially released outside of Japan, although it seems like it will at least actually be sold to the general public.

[Via Slashdot]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Sony's joint venture with cell phone maker Ericsson must do better, Sony's chief executive was quoted as saying by a German newspaper on Wednesday.