Tech Funda

Friday, 18 November 2011

University gets $188 million AMD-based supercomputer, free copy of Norton

It used to be that you only needed a bachelor's degree and elbow patches to be taken seriously as an academic, but now it's all about that 50-petaflop supercomputer with 500 petabytes of storage whirring away in the basement. The University of Illinois used to shop with IBM, but it's just about to have a brand new Cray XK6 installed instead, so it can continue providing computing power to the National Science Foundation's Blue Waters project. It's not all about inciting gadget envy, of course: the machine's unlikely truce of AMD Opteron 6200 16-core processors and NVIDIA Tesla GPUs will help more than 25 teams of scientists to model and understand real-world phenomena, from the damage caused by earthquakes to the way viruses to break into cells. Breakthroughs from these projects will -- hopefully, one day -- make the $188 million total cost of Cray's products and services seem like a bargain.

Boxee Box Live TV dongle shipping for $49 in January 2012, pre-orders open

No point in hiding in plain view, eh? Boxee has just affirmed that the leaked Live TV dongle is legit, and it'll be splashing down on North American shores in January. The Boxee Box Live TV dongle will allow North American users to connect an antenna to their Box to watch channels like ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC in HD with no monthly fee -- assuming you're close enough to an OTA tower to receive said signals, of course. Once equipped, a Box will be able to fetch content from the major networks, Vudu, Netflix and Hulu, though you may want to spring for that bolstered internet connection.

Boxee Live TV works with signals from HDTV antennas (using ATSC) or an unencrypted cable connection (using ClearQAM), and a portable antenna is included. Users who live out in the 'burbs may want to consider something a bit beefier, and if you're hoping to use this thing with something other than the Boxee Box... well, keep dreaming. In fact, Boxee has confirmed that even the forthcoming update of its Boxee software for Mac and PC won't support the device, so you'll be forced to pony up for D-Link's hardware if you're looking to party. There's also no DVR function in sight (sort of defeating the purpose, given just how many TVs have tuners already), but hey -- who knows what'll roll out at CES. Pre-orders are available down in the source link, with $49 claiming your spot in line.

SparkFun announces $80 Electric Sheep development board for Android accessories

Looking for an alternative to the Google-approved Android Development Kit? Then you now have another fairly inexpensive option to consider courtesy of SparkFun. It's officially announced its new Electric Sheep development board, which costs just $80 and will let you build your own Android accessories using the Open Accessory protocol. That means it and any accessories built with it will work just fine with your Nexus One, although there's of course no guarantees it'll work with, say, a future Nexus-6 model -- we hear those might be a bit unpredictable.

Fanny Wang lets you make your headphones as ugly as you want

Making it big in the headphone industry isn't always about sound quality, sometimes you just have to be loud. The folks at Fanny Wang have that covered, offering up some wildly colored cans to help them "break through the noise," as they put it, of the headphone market. Users can customize the outfit's 1001, 2001 and 3001 model headphones on the firm's new interactive website, picking and choosing colors for seven distinct parts, including the cord. Orders take about three weeks to assemble and ship, Fanny says, giving you just enough time to snag some colorful cans before the holidays. You know, in case someone on your list is looking for something sort of like those ColorWare tinted Beats, but with a bit of actual color.

Roku planning to bring set-top boxes to Canada, UK in early 2012

It's been a big year for Roku. The streaming content box manufacturer launched its Roku 2 HD, XD and XS this summer, with a $50 LT model coming just last month. Now, the Netflix / HBO Go / Angry Birds player will cross the border into Canada and the U.K., with the expansion set to begin in early 2012. The company is looking to build its 350 channels with region-specific content, which can be provided free, supported by ads or with a subscription -- and if you choose to add your own content to the service, you'd certainly be in good company.

Archos debuts Arnova 9 G2 Android tablet, offers Gingerbread on a 9.7-inch IPS display

Archos' new Arnova 9 G2 tablet looks to be the very definition of a mixed bag. It's part of the company's budget-minded Arnova line, so it will likely be relatively inexpensive (there's still no official word on a price), and it packs some specs that range from decent to high-end, including a 1GHz ARM A8 processor and a 9.7-inch IPS display with a 1,024 x 768 resolution (the same as the iPad). But it also runs the smartphone-minded Android 2.3 OS on that decidedly tablet-sized display and, as with other inexpensive Android tablets, you'll have to make do without official access to the Android Market (Archos offers the Appslib application store instead). Still curious? Details on everything but a price and release date can be found at the source link below.

Update: Matias emailed to let us know that he spotted an official listing for this device on Amazon.de, carrying a price of 250 Euro. If you're interested, that's about 340 of our American dollars.

Plextor outs M3S SSD: SATA III and an 'ironclad' five-year warranty from $199

Harken to the news of Plextor's latest 2.5-inch SSD, which beats previous offerings with three things you can't complain about: a lower price, a modest spec bump and an extra two annums beyond the usual three-year warranty. The M3S employs SATA III and a Marvell controller to deliver speeds of 525MB/s and 445MB/s for sequential reads and writes, and 70,000 and 65,000 IOPS for random reads and writes. The lowest 128GB capacity will sell for $200 from the end of this month, alongside a 256GB variant for $350 and -- from early next year -- 512GB for $700. The company's proprietary True Speed software is also in attendance, which claims to preserve "like-new" rapidity even as the drive fills up with fragmented data. You'll find further specs in the PR after the break, but alas it has none of the third-person narrative flair we saw last time.

Cedar Trail Eee PCs get previewed in ASUS magazine

Today we learned that ASUS produces its own in-house magazine, stuffed full of thoughtful pieces about the company's products. This season's festive edition of Tech in Style included a holiday gift guide (exclusively packed with ASUS products, of course) and a first look at the Cedar Trail-powered Eee PC 1025C and 1025CE netbooks. Both ship with the latest 32nm processors, come in a variety of colors, have 12 of hours battery life and pack a 10.1-inch slim LED WSVGA (1024 x 600) display. The CE model adds USB 3.0, USB Charger+ (letting you recharge your cellphone even when the Eee is switched off) and WiFi direct connect, which can network with other devices without a standalone router. Both models have already passed inspection by the FCC, so it's likely we could see the wee beasties arriving just in time for the holiday buying season. Head on after the break to see the full page, hewn from ASUS' very own Tech in Style.

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Mozilla seeks to infiltrate Android with Boot to Gecko, a new mobile OS for geekos

Remember those rumblings about Mozilla and its very own mobile OS known as Boot to Gecko? We now have further details to share, and unlike most operating systems -- which demand their own hardware -- this one is aiming to shack up with Android smartphones. Given the existing complexity of altering many of these devices, Mozilla's Boot to Gecko will likely find favor among geeks alone, but the project itself has much greater ambitions. First and foremost, the OS will be designed with web apps in mind, yet with functionality and device integration that's on par with native applications. The true boon here is the potential for other operating systems to integrate Mozilla's technologies into their own browsers, thus allowing true cross-platform application development and the possibility of bolstering platforms that struggle for developer interest. Right now, much of the project exists only in the minds of a few tenacious developers, but the group hopes to unveil a public demo early next year. As if this weren't wild enough, while Mozilla has no intention of creating its own Boot to Gecko device, the group has expressed a willingness to work with OEMs that share its dream of a web-based future. Go ahead and count us in.

T-Mobile to carry Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus with 4G, available November 16th for $250

We were already expecting to see the WiFi-only version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus make its American debut on November 13th, but it may be worth waiting an extra three days if you'd like to have some good old-fashioned HSPA+ connectivity on T-Mobile. Indeed, the carrier announced its 4G-ified iteration of the tablet will be ready for your purchase on November 16th for a $250 down payment after a mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract. Oh, and that's not the only fine print: you'll need to shell out twenty monthly interest-free payments of $10 in addition to your normal data plan. To sum up the specs, the seven-inch tablet has Android 3.2 preinstalled, runs on a 1.2GHz Exynos CPU, has 16GB of internal storage and takes advantage of a 3MP rear-facing camera and 2MP front-facing cam for video chat. Still intrigued? Read on through the press release to learn more about your potential Tab life.

Microsoft wants a share of Huawei's Android profits

As a reward for its growth and successful product launches, Huawei now finds itself on the grim radar of Redmond's patent fee hunters, who claim that Android-based hardware impinges on their intellectual property. "Microsoft has come to us," said the Chinese manufacturer's chief marketing officer at an event in London last night, confirming that "negotiations are in progress" and hinting that Huawei could soon be another head on Steve Ballmer's wall -- which is already crowded with trophies.