Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Storage

We already had some early benchmarks of Western Digital’s speedy new VelociRaptor hard drive the day it was announced, but the folks at Extreme Tech have now had a bit more time to spend with the drive, and they’ve churned out a full review of it for those that still haven’t made up their mind. As with others, they found the drive more than lived up to its promise of being the “world’s fastest SATA disk,” with it even beating out many solid state drives in terms of write performance. The biggest downsides, as you might expect, are its relatively high (but not unreasonable) price to gigabyte ratio, and its maximum 300GB capacity, although that’s nothing a second (or third) drive can’t solve. Of course, they don’t stop there, and you can find plenty of charts and comparisons to quench your curiosity by hitting up the link below.

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Well, it certainly didn’t take long for someone to leverage AOL’s Open Voice APIs featuring full SIP support. TringMe is apparently the ‘first’ out of the gate announcing support  to millions of AIM call-out users to make calls directly from TringMe. AIM users can use TringPhone - TringMe’s fully web-based SIP phone to make calls directly from the browser.

According to TringMe, "with TringMe’s MobileVoIP solution, AOL/AIM users can use a mobile device (e.g. Symbian devices) to make VoIP calls from a mobile device. If they desire to use Gtalk to make VoIP calls over this service, that’s supported too. In general, AOL/AIM users can use any of TringMe’s supported originating devices to make calls (say Gtalk)."

Apparently it’s pretty easy to setup. You just login to your TringMe account, enter your AIM or AOL screen-name (AOLScreenName@aol.com or AIMScreenName@aim.com) and SIP password in the TringPhone settings. Make sure to specify “AOL” in the Domain or Proxy setting as well. That’s it! Now you can use TringPhone for making calls through your AIM call-out account.

Via TringMe blog

Tags: AIM, AOL, SIP, tringme, TringPhone, VoIP

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Original post by nafiz

esocid writes “Researchers at HP Labs have solved a decades-old mystery by proving the existence of a fourth basic element in integrated circuits that could make it possible to develop computers that turn on and off like an electric light. The memristor — short for memory resistor — could make it possible to develop far more energy-efficient computing systems with memories that retain information even after the power is off, so there’s no wait for the system to boot up after turning the computer on. It may even be possible to create systems with some of the pattern-matching abilities of the human brain. Leon Chua, a distinguished faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley, initially theorized about and named the element in an academic paper published 37 years ago. Chua argued that the memristor was the fourth fundamental circuit element, along with the resistor, capacitor and inductor, and that it had properties that could not be duplicated by any combination of the other three elements.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by ScuttleMonkey

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Psystar_Open_Computer_notes_benchmarks_and_video’; Okay, so we’ve been playing with the Psystar Open Computer for a few hours now, and we’ve formed some early impressions and put together a short video of it in action. We haven’t really tried to stress the system yet, but based on our other experiences with OSx86 machines, we’re expecting things to generally go smoothly. That said, there are some definite rough patches and issues, all mostly having to do with the fact that OS X isn’t really built for this hardware. Here’s what we know so far:

Continue reading Psystar Open Computer notes, benchmarks and video

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Hugh Pickens writes “Nick Bostrom has an interesting interpretation on why the failure of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) for the past half-century is good news and why the discovery of life on Mars could foretell our doom. Bostrom postulates a ‘Great Filter,’ which can be thought of as a probability barrier and consists of one or more evolutionary transitions or steps that must be traversed at great odds in order for an Earth-like planet to produce a civilization capable of exploring distant solar systems.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by ScuttleMonkey

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Well screw us — T-Mobile’s 3G network debut tomorrow? It’s going to be voice only. That’s right, you heard us, VOICE ONLY. So trepidatious is this company to actually get their 3G data rollout, um, rolled out, they’re launching first with kneecapped voice-only service, keeping only EDGE for those demanding data. Here’s the snippet from the memo we received:

“3G is the next generation of our wireless network, following our current GSM network. In this early phase of our network evolution, 3G is a new technology for carrying wireless voice calls and supporting existing data capabilities on our network. In future phases, this next generation network will power ‘high-speed’ (3G) products and services that connect customers in new and exciting ways. … Inform customers who are interested in high-speed data that the first phase of our 3G roll out supports voice only.” [Emphasis ours]

No word on when T-Mobile actually plans to turn on the faster data, but for everyone who was hoping he wait continues — for those that haven’t already jumped ship, anyway.

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Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Storage

“Memristors” are one of several memory technologies that have been theorized and promised in the coming years. HP has made a real memristor, however, and the way solid state memory is created and stored could have just changed forever. First theorized in 1971, memristors are basic circuits like resistors, capacitors, and inductors. These circuits are able to store data by allowing their levels of electrical resistance to fluctuate between high and low, or 0 and 1 to a computer. Like flash memory, they retain that data without power — except they do it all on one circuit and at the speed of D-RAM. In the end, we could be looking at a whole new kind of storage, as long as someone can figure out how to get these things onto integrated circuits. Nerds hats off, return to your fanboyism — now.

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Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger

Several readers wrote to tell us about one of the next major projects to enter the Google-verse. We already have pretty views of the Earth and the Sky, the next target is apparently a 3D map of the oceans. “The tool–for now called Google Ocean, the sources say, though that name could change–is expected to be similar to other 3D online mapping applications. People will be able to see the underwater topography, called bathymetry; search for particular spots or attractions; and navigate through the digital environment by zooming and panning. (The tool, however, is not to be confused with the “Google Ocean” project by France-based Magic Instinct Software that uses Google Earth as a visualization tool for marine data.)”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by ScuttleMonkey

You’ve spent the last several months of your life in the basement, honing your Guitar Hero skills day and night, executing more acrobatically complex riffage than Robin Williams halfway through a week-long speed bender. The time has finally come for you to emerge pale and bleary-eyed from your Xbox-equipped subterranean womb, to show off your god-like skills–well, if you live in the greater New York area, that is.

Samsung and GH3 manufacturer Red Octane are co-sponsoring a “Guitar Hero Championship” tomorrow in NYC at the Samsung Experience, located in Columbus Circle’s Time Warner Center. The tournament is scheduled from noon to 8 PM and requires a registration fee–$20 online or $30 at the door.

The grand prize includes a custom GH3 guitar and a Samsung P2 MP3 player. Runners up will receive a Samsung K3.

For more information or to register, check out the event’s official site.

Original post by Brian Heater

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Yamaha’s got a thing for making dreams into reality, and we must say, we’re crossing our fingers and hoping to all that’s good and merciful in this world that the above pictured device goes commercial. Little is actually known about the keyboard / notepad hybrid aside from the fact that it was showcased at the Milano Salone trade fair in Italy, and for what it’s worth, Yamaha christened the device “key for journey.” Look, there’s even slots in the leather-bound lid so the keys have room to breathe when it’s all closed up. Ah well, a boy can dream, can’t he?

[Via kanYe West Blog]

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Original post by Darren Murph

AlexGr notes an article by Jeff Gould where he says ” Sometimes I wonder whether Ubuntu is really an open source software company any more. Yes, yes, I realize Ubuntu is not a company at all but a free Linux distribution, GPL’d and open source by definition. But still, the Ubuntu distro is sponsored by a traditional for profit company. The answer that has recently emerged to this question is, “yes and no.” Yes, of course, because Ubuntu’s web site promises that the distro “will always be free of charge, including enterprise releases and security updates.” But Ubuntu the enterprise ecosystem — understood as the collection of desktops and servers running Ubuntu in a given organization — is not.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

Filed under: Gaming, Household

Highly modified foosball tables are a dime a dozen, but this contraption could easily be mistook for some sort of Martian gaming machine at first glance. Dreamed up and crafted by designer Chelpa Ferro, this Tota Treme Terra looks to be a vanilla foosball table with an artsy overhead light and a hodgepodge of speakers wrapped all around. Word on the street has it that the machine belts out sound effects based on the action up above, but sadly, the actual details about this potential ninth wonder of the world are being left to our imaginations.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Lo-tek multitouch using a Web cam, a cardboard box, and a sheet of glass.

5 Minute, Dirt Cheap Multitouch Pad

Related:

• LED multitouch input device
• No-budget multi-touch interface?

[Read this article] [Comment on this article]

Original post by Gareth Branwyn

Here at PC Magazine, we get a lot of weird stuff in the mail. Just this morning, someone sent me a package with stink-free sweat socks and a box of Croatian chocolates. Still, so far as I know, no one has ever sent us a purposefully destroyed hard drive before. In a place where we take our devices’ health seriously, it’s a pretty good way to get our attention. On top of the drive was a transparent piece of plastic labeled, “Visual Verification of Destruction.”

The package came from eDR Solutions, maker of the Hard Drive Crusher (HDC-V), a device that destroys your hard drive to help protect you from possible identify theft once you toss your PC out. The HDC-V drills a hole through your drive’s spindle, “physically creat[ing] ripples in the platter making it impossible to recover data.”

The Crusher weighs about 80 pounds and can destroy a disc in about 10 seconds, so up to 60 disks in an hour. The HDC-V uses a standard wall outlet and can crush over 100,000 disks without having to be serviced, according to eDR. It runs $11,500–pricey, but not bad compared to the potential cost of identity theft. It’s also a potentially endless source of crusheriffic fun.

Original post by Brian Heater

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We first heard about this laser-guided wheelchair way back in 2006 but didn’t really have much more than promises from the team behind it about exactly what they had in store. As New Scientist reports, however, it seems that the folks from Lehigh University and Freedom Sciences are still hard at work at it, and they’re finally showing off some of their progress. The wheelchair is apparently still not entirely automated though, with it needing to be driven to the rear of the vehicle by remote control, after which the on-board LIDAR system kicks in and loads it onto the lift all by itself. Not surprisingly, the estimated price for the eventual commercial version has also gone up since we last heard from the team, with it now set to demand $30,000 (as opposed to $15,000 to $20,000) when it goes on sale later this year, assuming it gets the necessary FDA approval. Until then, you can head on over after the break to check it out in action.

Continue reading Researchers show off laser-guided wheelchair that docks with vehicles

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Original post by Donald Melanson