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During a summit for entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, venture capitalist John Doerr spewed some funny logic regarding the iPhone:

But he also repeated his claim - made in March at the App store announcement - that the iPhone is more important than the PC. Even with the runaway success of games on Apple’s iconic device and thousands of other applications for the iPhone, that is still quite a claim.

I’m trying to think of a metaphorical explanation here (perhaps Doerr was trying to package the iPhone as the platform of the future), but I can’t help but gag and agree with the polite “quite a claim” conclusion of Mike Harvey.

Let’s face it: the iPhone is, for all intents and purposes, a phone. The PC—a generic gadget category that ironically covers the Mac—is a versatile multi-purpose piece of machinery that can do so much more. Even the most wild-eyed iPhone fans understand that even the “best” phone can’t do everything a PC can.

Granted, Doerr may have equated the importance of the iPhone with the apparently vast market potential of its application platform. But we are all aware of current hardware and ergonomic limitations. The phone still has a long way to go to offering an experience that matches what’s offered by the PC.

(image from kottke.org)

Tags: apple, importance, iPhone, John Doerr, pc

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Original post by Rico

If you thought the whole world was going solid disk drive (SSD) mad, then you’d be wrong. The world’s biggest hard drive maker, Seagate, has just confirmed that it will not be entering the mobile SSD market because there’s no money to be made. Although Seagate will launch an enterprise SSD next year, it is steering well clear of the mobile and consumer SSD space . Seagate CEO Bill Watkins, speaking to journalists in London, said: “The problem is you can′t make money out of it [mobile flash memory]… I don′t need to get into a market I can′t make money out of. I can get into that market any time - all I have to do is show up with a product and price it. The problem is, I can′t show up with a product that’s any better or significantly better than what they′re getting now so I have to match their price. “And right now if you look at it whether it’s Micron or Samsung or SanDisk - they′re selling at a loss. To do the product is not a big deal but to make money at it - it’s important to us. When Samsung can′t make money at this… it’s a tough market.” IDC predicts that mobile SSDs will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 85% from now until 2010. That said, it also believes that SSDs - sexy and all as they are - will ship no more than 32m units by 2010, compared to 600m HDDs.-Martin Lynch [Silicon] storage ssd technology

Original post by nafiz

Edifier has recently released a particularly sleek looking 2.1 portable speaker system in the MP300 Plus. It comprises of an aluminium tube 9W subwoofer and two full-range satellites which are magnetically shielded so you don′t need to worry about where to put them. Edifier has won design & engineering awards in the past for its audio products and its team is led by an ex researcher for the BBC’s loudspeaker department, so you can be sure they’ll be of good quality Designed for use with a notebook, MP3 player and digital telephony systems, they should certainly offer an impressive alternative to internal speakers, though you won′t find a remote control supplied so will have to operate power and volume from controls on one of the terminals. It is available pretty cheaply though, £49.95 from John Lewis to be exact, you’ll find a link below along with more information from the official site.- Paul Lester [JohnLewis] [Edifier] Edifier speakers 2.1

Original post by nafiz

Honestly, I never really heard that much about Wireless USB, a cable-free standard that promises speedy data transfers without wires (duh). But, here’s to hoping it (or any of its competitors) proliferates, so that newer gadgets will have wireless USB capability built-in.

That way, laptops would work with the Toshiba Wireless USB Dynadock out of the box. And that’s a great thing, because the Dynadock—aside from fulfilling the traditional laptop dock role of quickly connecting a portable to peripherals—automatically “plugs in” once a laptop enters its range, and “disconnects” once said gadget leaves the vicinity. Of course, there’s still provisions for wired USBs for backward-compatibility’s sake, but plugging in cables is so 2008.

(image from Toshiba)

Tags: Toshiba Dynadock USB Docking Station

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Original post by Rico

We all know solid state disk (SSD) drives are faster, quieter, more reliable [and more expensive] than hard disk drives (HDDs) but SanDisk has just announced a new technology that will allow SSD drives to perform up to 100 times faster than they can now. Called ExtremeFFS (Flash File System), it will accelerate random write speeds by up to 100 times over existing systems. This new flash file management system operates on a page-based algorithm, which means there is no fixed coupling between physical and logical location. With ExtremeFFS, a written data sector is put where it’s most convenient and efficient. The result, says SanDisk, is a jump in random write performance by up to 100 times, as well as increased endurance for the SSD. A key element of ExtremeFFS is “usage-based content localisation”, where the flash management system ‘learns′ user patterns, putting the most commonly accessed data in the place quickest to retrieve it from. And will we have to wait years for this ‘breakthrough’? Thankfully, no. The tech will appear in SanDisk SSD drives from next year.-Martin Lynch [SanDisk] storage ssd technology

Original post by nafiz

Wow. So a Best Buy salesman convinces you to get accidental damage coverage for your laptop when you buy it a year ago. So when you accidentally drop your laptop, you’d expect Best Buy to eagerly replace it, right? With something comparable, right? Apparently not. Oh the store played nice when setting up the replacement, but it seemed the good intentions of a floor guy were overruled by the by-the-book intractability of the higher-ups.

The attendant showed me a what she referred to as a comparable model (Vaio Z) and said I could take that as a replacement or use that money($2000) towards another computer , in essence store credit. I picked out a computer that was more expensive and she said it was fine, but I had to pay the difference. When we got to the register and as she started to ring me up, she stated that she had not done this type of return before and she asked a colleague to help her. She was told it was being done incorrectly and we were sent to talk to the supervisor of the computer department. This is where the trouble began.

I was told because of the specs of my computer the most comparable model was $600, which was an Asus EEE pc, but they would do me a favor and give me $1200 for a 15” Dell. When I stated to them that neither of them were comparable, because the sized and features that the TZ, they replied that they do it spec for spec and that my laptop only had 1gig of ram, a 1ghz processor and 100gig hard drive, and that was the closest computer. When I tried to explain to them that this computer was expensive because of the size features and ultra-portability; they ignored me and threatened to make my in-store credit less than $400 for some other netbook.

Wow. Good thing I’ve never bought from Best Buy! Got any bad experiences with the retailer you’d like to share? I’m simply too busy going wow. (consumerist.com)

(image from eeepc.asus.com)

Tags: Best Buy, customer service, replacements, warranty replacements

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Original post by Rico

The big Firefox news today is that the latest research stats from Net Applications show that Mozilla’s browser captured 20% of the market for the first time. For many though, this might be eclipsed by the news that pre-release versions of Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 now include the Private Browsing feature, or ‘porn mode’, as it has become affectionately known. Firefox programmer Ehsan Akhgar, explained:”Private Browsing aims to help you make sure that your Web browsing activities don′t leave any trace on your own computer. It is very important to note that Private Browsing is not a tool to keep you anonymous from Web sites or your ISP, or for example protect you from all kinds of spyware applications which use sophisticated techniques to intercept your online traffic. Private Browsing is only about making sure that Firefox doesn′t store any data which can be used to trace your online activities, no more, no less.” Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari and the Beta 2 of IE 8 from Microsoft also sport a so-called ‘porn mode’. Firefox users will be able to download a more stable version of Firefox 3.1 soon.-Martin Lynch internet browser online

Original post by nafiz

The reason why Asus claimed it will not be releasing a Vista-capable Eee notebook may be because it’s opting to improve prices rather than specifications, following a recent announcement of a new budget model. Asus is looking to capitalise on healthy notebook sales during these shaky times with a new $200 model in 2009. It shipped 2.5 million notebooks in the first half of 2008 and looks to improve on this for the second half, which would eclipse its original goal of 5 million, so it doesn’t seem as though it’ll be short on profits. Unfortunately there’s no information on specification yet but the report does also state that it’ll be phasing out 7″ and 8.9″ models to be replaced with 10″ products, so a larger display seems like a cert. Of course the exchange rate means we’re unlikely to see a sub £100 notebook when it reaches our shores, but it should still be cheap and popular enough to help it build on an impressive first year. - Paul Lester [DigiTimes] Asus Eee notebook

Original post by nafiz

The reason why Asus claimed it will not be releasing a Vista-capable Eee notebook may be because it’s opting to improve prices rather than specifications, following a recent announcement of a new budget model. Asus is looking to capitalise on healthy notebook sales during these shaky times with a new $200 model in 2009. It shipped 2.5 million notebooks in the first half of 2008 and looks to improve on this for the second half, which would eclipse its original goal of 5 million, so it doesn’t seem as though it’ll be short on profits. Unfortunately there’s no information on specification yet but the report does also state that it’ll be phasing out 7″ and 8.9″ models to be replaced with 10″ products, so a larger display seems like a cert. Of course the exchange rate means we’re unlikely to see a sub £100 notebook when it reaches our shores, but it should still be cheap and popular enough to help it build on an impressive first year. - Paul Lester [DigiTimes] Asus Eee notebook

Original post by nafiz

After a little ‘toe in the water′ experiment with an educational netbook, HP has finally gone all out by announcing 3 Mini 1000 netbooks targeting “mobile professionals, always-on social media enthusiasts and fashion-forward women”. The piano-black Mini 1000 comes hot on the heels of Dell’s big-screen Mini 12 but sports a more modest 10.2in display with a good 1024 x 600 resolution. There’s also one with a more usual 8.9in display and all models come with a keyboard that’s ‘92%’ the size of a regular lappie keyboard. The Mini 1000 is powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, has up to 2GB of Ram and comes with a choice of Windows XP or Linux operating systems. It has an Ethernet jack, 2 USB ports, built-in Webcam and microphone and WLAN support. 3G versions are due in December so it may be wise to hold off. Storage options include SSDs up to 16GB or mechanical hard disk drives.There are three versions: the Mini 1000, the Mini 1000 MIE [Linux] version and the expensive Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam version for fashionable ladies. They are priced at [US] $399, $379 and $699, respectively with the MIE version being held back until January 2009. We are still awaiting UK pricing but expect it to be a lot higher.-Martin Lynch laptop netbook

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Hope you’re eager to break into that Halloween candy early, because you’ve got some (re)celebrating to do. If you’ll recall, we first heard that laptops accounted for over half of US retail computer sales back in 2003, and in June of 2005, we found that it was somehow worth getting jazzed over once more when it happened again. Here we are in the latter half of 2008 shaking our heads in disappointment, as IDC has amazingly discovered that notebook shipments into the US market have exceeded the 50% threshold for the first time evar. Go ahead and stock up on rave supplies early — we get this weird feeling that we′ll be doing this same song and dance in 2010 or so.

[Image courtesy of DayLife]

Laptop shipments exceed desktops in US for the not-exactly-first time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Original post by Darren Murph

By now, every Mac-fanatic out there is talking about Lockdown, a free download that lets Mac OS X (Leopard) owners place an alarm on their unattended computer (most probably a laptop). My friends Mike and Rico were kind enough to demonstrate for me:

So, as you can see, Lockdown is pretty secure. Even flipping the laptop to remove the battery (a common tactic against anti-theft software) will set off the alarm. The only issue we had with Lockdown was that it only takes one snapshot; thieves approaching the laptop high enough will be able to conceal their face.

In any case, I still don’t recommend leaving your Lockdown-equipped laptop unattended at a public place. Lockdown does provide relative security, alerting you of any snoopy officemates, for instance.

Tags: Lockdown, Mike Villar, Rico Sta. Cruz

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Original post by Rico

Just about the worst kept secret in the laptop market has been the imminent arrival of a big brother to Dell’s Mini 9 netbook . And here it is, the Mini 12, sporting a 12in display - you see what Dell did there? They cleverly linked the name…. sorry, couldn’t help it. Dell is targeting this netbook at “teens, tweens, travellers and “Tweeters” to surf the Web, chat with friends, blog, stream content, upload photos or enjoy online videos, music and games.” It weighs around 1.2Kg, is under 1in thick and comes with Windows Vista Home Basic, built-in webcam, 1GB of Ram and a choice of 60GB or 80GB hard disk drives. Vista? Don’t panic though, XP and Ubuntu versions are expected by the end of the year. It will be powered by a choice of 1.3GHz Atom Z520 or 1.6GHz Atom Z530 and comes with the usual Bluetooth and 802.11b/g wireless connectivity features. The Mini 12 netbook certainly holds the crown for the one with the biggest screen and although UK pricing has not been announced, Tesco recently listed it [by mistake] at £299 which tallies somewhat with the $600 US price. Out in Japan now, it’s expected to ship globally from the end of next month.-Martin Lynch laptop dell news

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

When Dell started pre-loading digital copies of Iron Man in new systems for $19, we didn’t think that was very enticing, but at least it was a pretty good movie, right? Quite possibly encouraged by thousands of accidental purchases (we kid, sort of), Dell’s announced two new content pre-loading partnerships — Universal Music Group and CinemaNow. The music comes in 50 and 100 song bundles starting at $25, but at least it’s DRM-free, so if you don’t mind a mega mix chosen entirely by Dell it’s not all evil. CinemaNow, though, offers $25 and up bundles including (among other flicks) world-renown classics like The Fast and the Furious and the Matrix sequels. Fear.

Read - Universal Music Group
Read - CinemaNow

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Original post by Samuel Axon

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

When Dell started pre-loading digital copies of Iron Man in new systems for $19, we didn’t think that was very enticing, but at least it was a pretty good movie, right? Quite possibly encouraged by thousands of accidental purchases (we kid, sort of), Dell’s announced two new content pre-loading partnerships — Universal Music Group and CinemaNow. The music comes in 50 and 100 song bundles starting at $25, but at least it’s DRM-free, so if you don’t mind a mega mix chosen entirely by Dell it’s not all evil. CinemaNow, though, offers $25 and up bundles including (among other flicks) world-renown classics like The Fast and the Furious and the Matrix sequels. Fear.

Read - Universal Music Group
Read - CinemaNow

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Original post by Samuel Axon