On this episode of Ping, Laura is joined by special guest Adam DePue to give their insight into the top stories from Microsoft this week. Here's a sampling of the dishes served:
Visual search for WP7 apps- COOOL!
Fastest growing apps...really?
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Corsair Graphite Series 600T: Cool and Quiet
Over the past couple of years, Corsair has been branching out from just producing system memory. They've moved into Solid State Disks, power supplies, enclosures, and even brought their first gaming headset to market just this year. Each entry has met with some success, but while the cases in their Obsidian series have proven excellent, they're still prohibitively expensive. The Graphite Series 600T is relatively new, and while the $159 MSRP is still on the steep side, it lines up to compete with the crowd favorite Antec P180 series. I had a chance to take the 600T for a spin, and it may just be worth every penny.
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T-Mobile to announce new, low-cost international talk and text plan
According to a memo acquired by TmoNews, U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile is set to introduce a new, low-cost,�international text and calling plan in time for the holidays. The new offering will allow users to send unlimited text messages to cell phones in over 220 countries and call land-line phones in 56 countries without�incurring�long-distance charges — calls to these countries will count against your plans monthly minute-allowance. The new international talk and text plan will require subscribers to have a postpaid calling account with a�monthly�plan costing $49.99 or higher and an unlimited domestic text messaging plan. After those prerequisites are met, users can add the international text and calling plan for an additional $10 per line. The plans should be available
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Prop 8 Update, Ctd
Orin Kerr isn't sure that drawing Judge Stephen Reinhardt, "the most-reversed Court of Appeals judge in the land," is especially good news for supporters of marriage equality: It goes without saying that Reinhardt will vote the liberal way, and he?ll...
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Toshiba 55WL768 review
Toshiba may be coming late to the 3D party, but it hopes to make a splash with the spectacular 55WL768. Just 29mm thin, it’s the largest screen to benefit from the brand’s collaboration with the Jacob Jensen Design studio (better known for its minimalist work with Bang & Olufsen). This sleek, Edge-LED set sports both a Freeview HD and satellite DVB-S tuner - and naturally, it’s 3D ready.
This 55-incher is extremely well built. The edge-to-edge glass-fronted panel looks marvellous, even when switched Off, and it sits on a heavy pedestal with distinctive alloy V neck.
There’s a full complement of connections: four HDMI inputs, component, phono AV, PC (with minijack audio), and Scart. There’s also an optical digital output and aerial/dish connections. In addition to Ethernet, the set has integrated Wi-Fi (so no need to purchase a separate dongle), plus two USB inputs.
Toshiba 55WL768: 3D picture quality
We ran the set with a selection of 3D Blu-rays and settled in for a three dimensional shoot-em-up with COD: Black Ops, only to conclude that crosstalk is an inescapable problem. There is no provision for tuning 2D sources into 3D – the brand is saving this party trick for its CEVO-Engine range due out early 2011.
While this set’s 3D capabilities left us as cold as an artic snap, its 2D Full HD performance gets a much warmer reception. Picture quality is crisp and dynamic.
The 55WL768 features the most advanced iteration of Toshiba’s picture refresh technology, Active Vision M200 Pro, plus Resolution + and Film Stabilization. This trio exert a massive influence on overall picture performance.
Fine detail is terrific and motion resolution excellent. We think this makes the screen a great choice for HD sports and film fans. The set’s only Achilles’ heal is a slightly uneven backlight.
Sonically, the 55WL768 can be considered average (which actually constitutes high praise for any super-slim LED model these days). There’s enough mid-range to make general viewing passable, but avoid the ‘Cinema’ audio mode. Unless you want to recreate what a movieplex sounds like should you be eavesdropping from outside the fire exit. . . in a busy street. . . with Nachos stuffed in your ears.
This TV may be DLNA certified but it isn’t happy about streaming media across a network. Next to no video files on our test NAS were recognised. AVIs, XviD, MKVs etc all got the cold shoulder. However, these same files did play back when accessed from a local USB flash drive. On the plus side, there is direct access to BBC iPlayer and YouTube.
Overall, we think the 55WL768 is strikingly capable Hi-def telly, producing an excellent Blu-ray picture and backed by some strong technical features. It's certainly one of the best large screen LED sets we've seen this year at this price. Our advice to buyers is Ebay-off the 3D spex which come free in the box and vow never to enter the third dimension ever again.
Toshiba 55WL768 release date: Out now, find out more from Toshiba
Toshiba 55WL768 price: Around £1800
Posted by Steve May
Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 7: HTML5 Galactic
Rob Mauceri, Group Program Manager for Internet Explorer, shows off the HTML5 Galactic test drive sample, available on the IE Test Drive.
Leslie Nielsen, RIP
Airplane remains one of a handful of movies I would take with me on a desert island. But somehow this clip is one Nielsen himself might have been proudest of.
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Disney's "50"
A reader writes: Of Disney's animated feature films, that list leaves out at least two: Victory Through Air Power (1943) Song of the South (1947) Probably not an oversight.
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Microsoft touchscreen patent to bring Braille to tablets
Microsoft has revealed a revolutionary new design patent that could pave the way for Braille-capable touchscreen devices.
Pixel-sized shape-memory plastic cells coated in a UV light reactive malleable polymer spray could soon be included on larger touchscreen devices such as tablets allowing objects and shapes to be “called to the surface” and ‘felt’ according to a report by the New Scientist.
Whilst Microsoft has failed to reveal exactly how close to market this futuristic technology is, the possibilities for visually impaired centric products as well as revolution mass consumer devices could change user, product relationships forever.
Currently believed to be targeted only at larger touchscreen devices, it is unlikely that Braille friendly smartphones will be available in the near future. One potential use for such technology, however, could see Braille eReader devices become a reality.
Stay tuned to T3.com for all the latest on this and other future technologies and share your views on such ground-breaking tech via the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.
Via: TechRadar
Posted by Luke Johnson
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Electricpig Advent Calendar starts tomorrow: Win laptops, tablets and gadgets every day until Christmas!
Got a hankering for some free gadgets? Beside yourself at the prospect of Christmas being less than a month away? You need to get stuck in to the Electricpig Advent Calendar. We’ve partnered with the generous folks at PC World to give away a fantastic high tech prize every day until Christmas day, starting tomorrow.
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Monday, November 29, 2010
Sometime it's hard to be a woman... or is it?
Hi Ladies!
I'm writing a column for a new adventure motorcycling mag in the US called Outrider Journal Outrider Journal | The Print Quarterly for Dual Sport and Adventure Motorcycle Riding Enthusiasts (http://www.outriderjournal.com)
The first issue is due out in March next year and the editor says he has already been besieged by women riders wanting their perspective covered in the mag. Hurrah to that!
So he has asked for my first column to cover the female viewpoint and I got to wondering... what are the best and worst things about being a laydee on the road? Obviously I can draw on my own experiences but I would love to hear your thoughts too. Any musings most welcome.
Rock on!
Lois
I'm writing a column for a new adventure motorcycling mag in the US called Outrider Journal Outrider Journal | The Print Quarterly for Dual Sport and Adventure Motorcycle Riding Enthusiasts (http://www.outriderjournal.com)
The first issue is due out in March next year and the editor says he has already been besieged by women riders wanting their perspective covered in the mag. Hurrah to that!
So he has asked for my first column to cover the female viewpoint and I got to wondering... what are the best and worst things about being a laydee on the road? Obviously I can draw on my own experiences but I would love to hear your thoughts too. Any musings most welcome.
Rock on!
Lois
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS MOTOROLA MOODYS MISCROSOFT OFFICE MICROSOFT
Restoring Trust to Banking
My grandpa Carl managed The Farmer's Trust & Savings Bank in Lakota, Iowa (population 304). Carl served his neighbors, sometimes to a fault. (My "summer vacations" often included walking beans under the hot Iowa July sun). Hard work, discipline and accountability drove my grandfather and when he passed away, hundreds of people from the surrounding farms came to his funeral. Like many local bankers of his era, Carl had earned the greatest asset in banking — the trust and respect of his community.
Sadly, there is little room in today's banking industry for a man like Carl. Thirty years of consolidation has left nearly forty percent of our nation's deposits in the hands of four banks in three U.S. cities. This efficiency hasn't come without cost. Trust, the very lubricant of our financial system has declined by 58 percent in three years in our data surveyed from BrandAsset Valuator. Today's pursuit of profitability comes with words like 'robo-signers', technical foreclosures, and complex derivatives. And in exchange for lowering the costs of transactions, finance has lost its human connection — the relationships that engender trust.
Yet in the post-crisis landscape a new crop of outsiders is emerging to restore trust in the financial system.
Venmo is a social-payments platform based on peer-to-peer transactions. The Philadelphia start-up, which appeared on Inc.'s 30 under 30 list this year, makes it easy for friends to exchange money using their phones, such as paying for drinks, a fantasy football wager, or a communal gift. What is fascinating about Venmo is it offers a level of trust for close friends, which enables payments to be made without authorization (and no charge from Venmo). This takes the transaction cost between trusted parties to zero. Venmo is small and unproven, but it is rewiring the channels we use to allocate trust, while doing it more efficiently.
Another entrant rethinking the banking model is BankSimple, a company that proclaims "We're not a bank. We're better." BankSimple's premise is to advocate for customers in ways that a traditional bank cannot. Traditional banks earn money on deposits. BankSimple builds new interfaces to make interacting with your money simpler and easier, and uses the scale of its customer base to influence deposit-taking institutions to be more transparent and efficient. (Think of BankSimple like an AARP that's also part FDIC). BankSimple's next mission is make accessing your money free in 300,000 ATMs throughout the U.S. Given that GroupOn is arguably the fastest-growing company in history, BankSimple might be on to something.
Or what about PayPal's bump app. With this app, you transfer money by literally bumping iPhones or android phones with one another. The financial exchange is just like currency and a new manifestation of trust. Now you can go up to your landlord and pay her with a quick bump of your phone and the money is transferred. PayPal is offering a physical connection to payment in a digital world.
Likewise, Blippy and Swypely publish a user's purchase trails for all to see and evaluate. Now your network can interrogate your purchase stream and learn from your shopping strategies while alerting you to better prices or better service elsewhere. Conceivably a company might look at your purchase history and offer you a better deal too. Once again, we see elements that constitute financial trust being localized and remade in forms that our current banking system does not.
What I find fascinating is that these organizations are attacking the established system of financial transactions and creating new trust networks that have the potential to revolutionize our markets and our commerce. They could dis-aggregate the financial system. Or better yet, a prescient company might utilize these tools to advocate for their customers and bring about a return to the corner-bank system of trust to American customers. In the aftermath of the "too big to fail" financial crisis, it makes a lot of sense to try to get back to that place — and to remake America for 21st century success.
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Rumor: Microsoft Following Apple Again, This Time Into Online TV
Okay, so Apple's not the only player in this market--and Google TV is a bold move into a game where Boxee and others are already playing. But the comparison to Apple is inevitable, given the whole Macs versus PCs debate, Microsoft's amusing choice about placing its swanky high-street stores near Apple ones...and the fact that it's having to engage in lengthy debates with TV content providers in order to get shows for its plans.
That's the meat of the rumor hitting the news right now, because we know nothing about the technical aspects of the plan other than it's to provide TV content through the Xbox game console. There's a suggestion MS will also provide website access to the shows, acting as a "virtual cable" channel, but there's no clue if it's going to ape Apple more closely still and launch its own set-top box for non-Xbox owners. We do know some individual channels may be sold directly to consumers, copying the way ESPN is sold through Xbox live, and the Xbox system may also let MS supply enhanced interactive shows to consumers, with pop-over information or perhaps even games, as a way to differentiate itself from the other Internet TV options.
The sources who've spoken to Reuters suggest it may not arrive as a real product for around a year, which is interesting all by itself: It gives Netflix time to further refine its pricing model, Apple time to turn the Apple TV into an app-driven Internet TV giant, and other players like Boxee to sign deals to get more exclusive content. The time delay is almost certainly due to the same sort of issues that've plagued Apple, and heavily damaged Google TV's chances--tight-gripped content owners who are worried about losing control of prized aspects of their business as the entertainment game slowly shuffles from the broadcast era into the Internet era.
One thing's for sure--if MS TV does come to the Xbox, it's going to be fun controlling it using gestures and Kinect.
To read more news on this, and similar stuff, keep up with my updates by following me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.
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