Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Laptops

You wouldn’t know it by the vast array of spin-offs and iterations, but the Eee PC has only just now turned one year old and, whether by coincidence or design, it’s also now finally dropped under the ever-elusive $300 mark. That doesn’t come in the form of that rumored new sub-$300 model, however, but rather an existing Eee PC 900A that’s now available from Best Buy for $299.99. Not that we’re complaining, as this particular model packs an 8.9-inch display compared to the 7-incher on the 701SDX spotted yesterday, along with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB or RAM, a 4GB SSD, and Linux pre-installed. Now, about that $200 Eee PC.

Read - jkOnTheRun, “Asus breaks sub-$300 price barrier with Eee PC 900A at Best Buy”
Read - Laptop, “Happy Birthday Eee PC!”

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Laptops

Look, we hate to be crude — after all, you won’t find any bigger proponents for bulking up the breast cancer research fund than the team here at Engadget — but Toshiba might have a tough time selling its latest Portégé M800. We mean, just look at it. We’re not exactly sure how it gets off calling this thing “pink,” but the 13.3-inch machine will be sold (or just stocked) exclusively at Best Buy Canada for $799.99. As for specs, you’re looking at a 4.6-pound chassis, 2GHz T3200 CPU, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 250GB hard drive, Intel’s GMA4500M integrated graphics, a dual-layer DVD writer, Bluetooth / WiFi and a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam. $40 of each sale will be contributed to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, though we’d probably recommend picking up something a touch less ugly and just mailing in a donation yourself.

[Via ChipChick]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Desktops

Really, eMachines? You’re honestly going to give your newest cheap-o PC this kind of tagline? Truth be told, we’re not exactly sure what a standard sized dictionary even looks like (there’s this thing called the internet…), but apparently, it’s exactly the same size as the E򹵰 desktop. Not sassy enough to be called a nettop, this here mini-tower is 40% smaller and 55% lighter than the company’s second tiniest rig, and while it won’t handle the likes of Crysis, it shouldn’t have too many issues surfing the web and opening Word documents. As for specs, we’ve got a 1.5GHz AMD Athlon 2650e 64-bit CPU, NVIDIA’s GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics, 1GB of DDR2, 160GB hard drive, a dual-layer DVD burner, 14-in-1 multicard reader, seven USB 2.0 ports and a $298 (MSRP) price tag. That system we just rattled off is available now at Wally World, while a slightly more stacked edition can be had at Best Buy for $349.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Laptops

Hey guys / gals, check this out. Best Buy is practically admitting that it is just now starting to “gather insights from customers and work with manufacturers to design products that address [consumers’] needs.” In a rather odd release, the big box retailer is announcing two new laptops that′ll be exclusive to its store: the 14.1-inch Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402 and the 13.3-inch HP Pavilion dv3510nr. As for the former, expect a 1.2-inch thin frame, WXGA (1,280 x 800) panel, backlit keyboard, DVD burner, 5.5-hours of battery life and an $1,199 price tag. The HP (shown after the break) will include a LED-backlit WXGA display, up to 4-hours of battery life, inbuilt webcam and precisely the same retail price. Eventually, Best Buy is hoping to expand the Blue Label series to other product lines, though there’s no word on where to find these elusive input cards that it’s supposedly using to pick and choose wares.

Continue reading Exclusive HP / Toshiba laptops first in Best Buy’s Blue Label lineup

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation

In Japan, the hand can be used like a knife. Now, in another Japanese world′s first (according to Nissan), you can use your mobile phone to open and start your car thanks to a new twist-up of Nissan Motors, NTT DoCoMo, and Sharp. The Sharp prototype cellphone pictured above integrates with Nissan’s Intelligent Key system already fitted in various Nissan vehicles. Look for the device to be demonstrated on September 30th with the opening of the CEATEC Japan show. Hiiiiya!

[Thanks, Stop Spamming]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Desktops

Tranquil PC just announced two new products based around Intel’s upcoming Atom 330 dual-core processor, which Tranquil has confusingly dubbed the Atom2 Z330. We’ll find out soon enough who’s right in their terminology, but cheap-ass speed freaks have more exciting distinctions to worry about. The new processor has dual Atom wafers, for pretty much twice the fun, and Tranquil says that desktop performance is “very very snappy.” They’re celebrating the new processor with the T7-HSG Home Server, which will start shipping on September 30th in very limited supply for £299 (about $528 US). There’s also a DVB-T Media Center in the works, but we’re otherwise short on details.

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Generally speaking, Oppo has stuck to its bread-and-butter: decently stylish PMPs and a well-received family of upscaling DVD players, respectively. Now, however, we′re seeing a trio of concepts which allude to a future unit (or three) boasting gaming functionality. Unfortunately, details beyond that are few and far between, and we′re not even certain of their place of origin. In other words, don’t bet on seeing these hit shelves in the foreseeable future, but keep your fingers crossed that they do anyway.

[Thanks, Raz]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

We′ll be frank — we really have no idea what Samsung’s getting at with its freshest Soul promotional video, but it’s certainly a fine piece of eye candy if nothing else. Put simply, the video shows a maniac darting about demonstrating ten optical illusions in just over two minutes, and in case you couldn’t guess, the Soul is saved for last. Should we have prefaced that bit with a spoiler warning? Too bad — vid’s still waiting after the jump if you’re interested, though.

[Thanks, Joel]

Continue reading Samsung Soul promo video shows 10 optical illusions in 136 seconds

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Original post by Darren Murph

cynagАst writes “A Pew Internet &amp American Life Project report indicates that of an overwhelming majority of Chinese people that believed the internet should be “managed or controlled,” 85% want the government to do this managing. This is resulting from surveys on internet use over the last 7 years in China. ‘The survey findings discussed here, drawn from a broad-based sample of urban Chinese internet users and non-users alike, indicate a degree of comfort and even approval of the notion that the government authorities should control and manage the content available on the internet.’ The report goes further into describing the divide in perspective between China and Western Nations on the matter and discusses the PRC’s justifications for internet control.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

cynagh0st writes “A Pew Internet & American Life Project report indicates that of an overwhelming majority of Chinese people that believed the Internet should be ‘managed or controlled,’ 85% want the government to do this managing. This is resulting from surveys on Internet use over the last seven years in China. ‘The survey findings discussed here, drawn from a broad-based sample of urban Chinese Internet users and non-users alike, indicate a degree of comfort and even approval of the notion that the government authorities should control and manage the content available on the Internet.’ The report goes further into describing the divide in perspective between China and Western Nations on the matter and discusses the PRC’s justifications for Internet control.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

An anonymous reader writes “The Mormon Church has instructed its lawyers to gag the Internet over WikiLeaks’ release of the 1968 and 1999 versions of its confidential handbook for Church leaders. Apart from attacking WikiLeaks, legal demands were sent to Jimmy Wales of the WikiMedia foundation for a WikiNews article merely linking to the material, and scribd.com has also been censored. WikiLeaks has (of course) refused to remove the documents.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

hackingbear writes “After text, pictures, and videos, China starts regulating Internet map publishing (here is the google translation.) The government believes that Internet maps can represent the state’s sovereignty and its political and diplomatic positions in the international community — and consequently, inaccurate maps could harm national interests and dignity, produce bad political influences, reveal national secrete and harm national security, in addition to harming consumer interests. So from now on, publishing maps would require approval and (yet another) license from the state survey bureau. That means Google, Yahoo, etc., need to remove China from the map; or maybe they just pay up some officials and their agents to acquire yet another license. And our newest 80Gbps DPI monsters need to be upgraded to identify maps together with porn.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by timothy

An anonymous reader writes “A Seattle Times editorial notes that the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal will put author Mark Steyn on trial for his book ‘America Alone,’ which has angered Muslims in Canada. Steyn is a columnist for the Canadian magazine Maclean’s. According to the editorial, British Columbia bans all words and images ‘likely to expose a person… to hatred or contempt because of race, religion, age, disability, sex, marital status or sexual orientation.’ Steyn is unapologetic, and is advertising his book as a ‘Canadian Hate Crime’ and daring the tribunal to ‘pronounce him bad.’” The Canadian tabloid the National Post has coverage of what it calls “a media storm.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

jp_papin writes “The Chinese government is demanding that US-owned hotels there filter Internet service during the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, US Senator Sam Brownback has alleged. The Chinese government is requiring US-owned hotels to install Internet filters to ‘monitor and restrict information coming in and out of China,’ Brownback said Thursday. ‘This is an insult to the spirit of the games and an affront to American businesses,’ he said. ‘I call on China to immediately rescind this demand.’ US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he wasn’t aware of those specific requests from the Chinese government, but Brownback said he got the information on Internet filtering from ‘two different reliable but confidential sources.’ The State Department is apparently continuing dialog with China about freedom of expression.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by timothy

debatem1 writes “Apparently, anti-violent-video-games crusader Jack Thompson is at it again, this time writing a letter to the mother of Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two, the company that produces the GTA series of video games. In it he compares Zelnick to a member of the Hitler Youth, advocates beating the young Zelnick, and contemplates the existence of a Ted Bundy merit badge for boy scouts.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by timothy