bitbucket.kylewelsh.com

People expecting Solid State Drives (SSDs) to become more popular may have longer to wait, according to a new report from Objective Analysis.

The researcher, which specializes in chips, says a new technology coming from Intel called Braidwood, will likely stifle demand for SSDs next year.

Intel showed the technology off at Computex Taipei in June. Braidwood is a NAND flash memory technology built onto a module made to fit onto computer motherboards. The technology speeds boot-up times, makes applications launch more quickly and improves overall speed on a system. It's essentially the next generation of Intel's Robson technology, which was designed to provide similar speed improvements.

"NAND has a role in the PC platform and Braidwood promises to be the right implementation at the right time," said Jim Handy, analyst at Objective Analysis, in a statement.

Braidwood accelerates input/output in computers by saving some data on the NAND flash memory chips, including oft-used programs, for quick launches. Braidwood will work with Intel 5-series chipsets, which are due out soon, and Intel's Clarkdale line of microprocessors.

Objective Analysis said Braidwood has the potential to be a game changer.

"The move to NAND in PCs will boost the NAND market, soften the SSD and DRAM markets, and pose problems for those NAND makers who are not poised to produce ONFi (open NAND flash interface) NAND flash," wrote memory analyst Jim Handy, in a statement.

SSDs, which are also made of NAND flash memory chips, have battled for years to replace hard disk drives (HDDs). SSDs transfer data at speedier rates than HDDs, and are more power efficient and durable. HDDs remain the most widely used storage because they are far cheaper than SSDs and offer far greater storage capacity. Braidwood would be paired with storage such as HDDs or SSDs in a computer, and more likely HDDs due to the cost savings and because Braidwood already offers some of the benefits of SSDs.

Samsung Electronics is the world's largest maker of NAND flash memory chips and a champion of SSDs. Intel also sells SSDs.

Technology tech, Technology

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman wants to be California's next Governor. But, alas, she can't seem to find time for the good people of California and will be skipping an an upcoming event in Silicon...

Technology tech, Technology

	Apple holding 'rock and roll' themed event, September 9th The big A will be holding the proceedings at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco (go figure).		Nikon D300s unboxing and hands-on Judging by the box that just arrived on our doorstep, we'd say Nikon (just barely) kept its promise of having these things out by the end of August.
	Dell Mini 3i breaks cover for most complete photo shoot to date A peek at the phone's Android-based and China-centric OPhone operating system, which ditches the familiar Android Clock in favor of new, different clocks -- and a slew of other interface changes.	Other news of import Snow Leopard: what's broken (or working) for you? ASUS' Eee PC roadmap leaks: Ion-boasting netbooks, multitouch T91 coming soon? Canon EOS 7D pics and specs leak out Engadget's back to school giveaway, part one!
	LG's 15-inch OLED TV on sale in Korea this November, overseas in 2010 LG also plans to show off a 40-inch OLED in the "not too distant future," but don't expect to be seeing that hit retail shelves for a good long time to come.		Sprint follows T-Mobile's lead, wants $350 for HTC Touch Pro2 We're all about that 3.6-inch WVGA tilting screen, but with Pre selling on this very network for a full $150 less, we're thinking this one won't appeal to many outside of the WinMo faithful.
Surprisingly, cheaper Blu-ray movies make everyone happy NFL to let Cowboys giant HD scoreboard stay as-is, at least for 2009		Dell Mini 3i breaks cover for most complete photo shoot to date LG GW880 leaks out, runs Android on China Mobile BlackBerry Essex to bring WiFi on Tour?

The Daily Roundup: here's what you might've missed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Technology tech, Technology

The Opera 10 browser is now ready to download for Windows, Linux, and Mac three months after the beta first emerged (hands-on Opera 10 beta review).

If you've been keeping up with the beta updates, the final build of the cross-platform browser shouldn't surprise you. Opera Turbo, the browser's much-publicized compression engine for slow-poke connections, remains a feature highlight. Opera claims that Opera Turbo runs the browser up to eight times faster on suffering connections than do competing browsers.

The refreshed user interface is also noteworthy. Joining the new default skin (changed from version 9.6), are changes to tab bar behavior. The conventional tabs double as thumbnail images. Double-click the thin gray bar below the tabs (indicated by dots) or click and drag to expand open tabs into preview windows that you can navigate by clicking among them.

Other enhancements include an expanded Speed Dial (a feature that has later been adopted and adapted in Google's Chrome browser) that shows more commonly visited Web pages than in previous Opera browsers. You're also able to customize it with a background picture. You'll see that spell check will be applicable to any text field (for 51 languages), and that Opera's incorporated e-mail client takes a page from Google's books by threading e-mail conversations.

Developers get access to a newer version of Opera Dragonfly, the publisher's online development tools, but everyone can benefit from the speedier rendering engine that, according to Opera, makes version 10 up to 40 percent faster than version 9.6--before switching on Turbo's compression.

Despite all the additions that Opera hopes will keep Opera 10 competitive, there are still two notable omissions for this final release. The first is Opera Unite, which uses your browser as a Web server for sharing your content with others. The second is the Carakan JavaScript engine that promises to process JavaScript about 2.5 times as fast as the engine used in Opera 10 alpha.

Related story: Opera 10 browser to emerge Tuesday

Originally posted at The Download Blog

Technology tech, Technology

[Update: the investor group has since announced it would buy 65 percent of Skype for $1.9 billion, valuing Skype at $2.75 billion]

eBay is expected to announce a deal on Tuesday to sell its Skype web-calling division to a group that includes Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, the New York Times reported.

The report cited two anonymous sources that said the investor buyout group includes Andreessen Horowitz, the new firm launched by Andreessen and Ben Horowitz this summer. The rumors, as yet unconfirmed, say that Other investors include London’s Index Ventures and the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. This echoes last week’s rumor that an investor group including Andreessen was interested in buying Skype.

[Update: The deal places a value on Skype of $2.75 billion]

eBay reportedly wants $2 billion for Skype. The report said an eBay spokesman declined comment. Andreessen is on eBay’s board. eBay bought Skype in 2005 for $3.1 billion. It outbid Google and Yahoo in a deal that ultimately has been viewed as one of the worst tech transactions of the decade. eBay has written off $900 million of Skype’s value, and eBay’s new chief executive, John Donahoe, has said that Skype isn’t a good fit with eBay’s e-commerce business.

Earlier this year, eBay announced it would spin Skype out in an initial public offering in 2010. Skype’s founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, reportedly approached firms this year to make a bid. Google apparently walked away from a bid out of concern over litigation exposure, as well as the fact that owning Skype would alienate wireless carriers who are adopting Google’s Android cell phone software.

Technology tech, Technology

Opera Software just released the final version of Opera 10, the latest revamp of its pioneering-but-not-terribly-popular web browser.

Could this be the breakthrough Opera needs to reach a big audience in the United States? We’ve already written about how Opera is doing all right financially, but in the United States, it accounts for only 1.18 percent of the browser market, according to the W3Counter. (Opera accounts for a slightly higher percentage of VentureBeat visitors, but not much higher.) The company will need to make a big splash, or strike some big deals with computer makers, if it wants to grow much beyond that. I’m not sure there’s anything earth-shattering enough about Opera 10 to do that.

Still, Opera has also as led the way for other web browsers with some features — it was one of the first to adopt tabbed browsing, and also created the “speed dial” now also available in Chrome and Safari. So even if you don’t plan to download Opera 10 yourself, you may want to check out the company’s list of things you have to try (copied below), if only to see what features may be added to your browser of choice a few years down the road.

1. Opera Turbo, a new compression technology that solves the pain of slow connections. Whether you are an on-the-go business traveler, you rely on 3G cards in your netbook, or you find yourself stuck on a sluggish Wi-Fi connection Opera Turbo gives you a major browsing boost. If your network speed slows to a crawl, simply enable Opera Turbo to browse the Web at broadband-like speeds. Opera Turbo will automatically detect when network speeds will enable you to benefit. Once you turn it on, Opera Turbo instantly compresses pages, so less data needs to be transferred over a limited connection. Take the Opera Turbo test today. In our laboratory trials, Opera Turbo gives up to eight times faster Web surfing over slow connections than other browsers.
2. A sleek and beautiful interface. You have never seen an Opera browser that looks like this. For Opera 10 we gave the browser a streamlined and elegant new interface. The world-class design complements Opera’s world-class features that help you get even more out of your Web browsing.
3. Better tabs, from the original pioneer. Opera continues pioneering new ways to use tabs. In Opera 10, resize your tab bar by pulling down on it or double-clicking the handle, revealing a surprise: Opera now shows you full thumbnails of all your open tabs.

I’ve only had a copy of Opera 10 for a couple of hours, not enough to form any kind of informed opinion. But combine the features list, my limited experience playing with the browser so far, and some of my frustrations with Firefox 3.5’s bugs, and I’m intrigued. So I’m definitely going to continue giving Opera a try.

It’s also worth remembering that the Norwegian company’s hopes aren’t just invested in its PC web browser. It also has mobile browsers including Opera Mini, supposedly the most-downloaded app ever, and is developing Opera Unite, a service that’s supposed to turn your computer into a server.

Technology tech, Technology

The 'Comes With Music' service lets users download an unlimited number of copy-protected tracks for 12-18 months after buying selected Nokia phones. Problem is, it's only in parts of Europe, and...

Technology tech, Technology

Silicon Mitus raised a second round of funding for its business of making power management chips. The Seoul-based company stands out since relatively few chip startups are getting funding these days. Theamount wasn’t disclosed.

The firm is headed by Youm Huh, chief executive, and it makes custom chips for flat panel displays, mobile applications and energy-related hardware.

The round was led by ePlanet Ventures and participants included Walden International. Lip-Bu Tan, chairman of Walden, said in a statement that Silicon Mitus exceeded his expectations for financial performance. The company raises its first round of institutional funding in 2007.

Technology tech, Technology

It's official: MTV is going ahead with that horrible and unnecessary Teen Wolf series.

Technology tech, Technology

First gay housewives, now lesbian housewives? We've seen everything. Or, we will, because Showtime picked up nine episodes of a new Sapphic reality show. Yay! It's title? Not so new: The L-Word: Los...

Technology tech, Technology

EBay plans to announce a deal to sell its Skype voice-over-IP service to a group of private investors, The New York Times reported on its Web site, citing people briefed on the company's plans.

(More coming.)

Technology tech, Technology

New York Times:
EBay Is Said to Have a Deal to Sell Skype  —  SAN FRANCISCO — EBay plans to announce on Tuesday a deal to sell its Skype Internet calling division to a group of private investors, according to two people briefed on the company's plans.  —  The investment group is likely to include Andreessen Horowitz …

Technology tech, Technology

Now everyone pretend to be surprised here. Canon's gone official with what everyone has already seen and read about in detail, the EOS 7D. Specs look to be exactly what we heard, too: 18 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor with 8 frames per second continuous shooting, 1080p 24fps HD video with full manual control, a 3-inch LCD, 19-point AF system, and wireless flash control. Mum's still the word on pricing and availability, though. Hit up the read link for the full press release, as well as some hands-on impressions care of Digital Photography Review.

Update: Canon's press release has now gone live. Price is $1,699 body-only or $1,899 with an EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM zoom lens, and target launch is set for end of September.

Read - Press release
Read - Hands-on

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon EOS 7D now official, coming end of September for $1,899 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Technology tech, Technology

It's not unusual for HTC to repackage the same phone in dramatic ways for different carriers (see Sprint Touch Pro vs. Verizon's vs AT&T Fuze), but the Hero that 8080.net reportedly has is a pretty marked difference -- most notably a more conservative chin. Here's what we can glean from the admittedly bad machine translation: the outlet claims it's the Hero200 that the FCC just approved for CDMA bands, and while it certainly seems like a Hero variant one way or another, we have no proof that this is actually the same recently-approved version, nor have we seen what Sprint's Hero will actually look like. With all those caveats all the way, feel free to jump into the read link and enjoy a number of pictures up close and personal with the device.

[Via Cloned in China]

Filed under: Cellphones

Mysterious HTC Hero revision pics surface, angled chin now M.I.A. originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Technology tech, Technology

Hugh Pickens writes "Studies of reproduction in space have previously been carried out with sea urchins, fish, amphibians and birds, but Brandon Keim writes in Wired that Japanese biologists have discovered that although mammalian fertilization may take place normally in space, as mouse embryos develop in microgravity their cells have trouble dividing and maturing. The researchers artificially fertilized mouse eggs with sperm that had been stored inside a three-dimensional clinostat, a machine that mimics weightlessness by rotating objects in such a way that the effects of gravity are spread in every direction. Some embryos were ultimately implanted in female mice and survived to a healthy birth, but at lower numbers than a regular-gravity control group. Part of the difference could be the result of performing tricky procedures on sensitive cells, but the researchers suspect they also reflect the effect of a low-gravity environment on cellular processes that evolved for Earth-specific physics. '"These results suggest for the first time that fertilization can occur normally under G environment in a mammal, but normal preimplantation embryo development might require 1G," concludes the report. "Sustaining life beyond Earth either on space stations or on other planets will require a clear understanding of how the space environment affects key phases of mammalian reproduction."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Technology slashdot, tech, Technology