Originally posted on May 29, 2008 @ 12:21 am
On our wishlist: optimus maximus keyboards for laptops. Yes, it’s expensive, but a lot of laptop aficionados wouldn’t mind paying extra money for the functions. Each key image can be customed, language layout can be switched, and secondary symbols appear automatically after you press the shift key.
Originally posted on June 30, 2008 @ 11:18 pm
Netgear has recently announced the first native open-source consumer router.
The WGR614L’s capabilities are a bit murky at this point as Netgear representatives have not been able to give additional details except that it is now available in the US and will retail for $69.
The basis for this development though is on projects like Tomato, which has allowed a way of replacing firmware (albeit illegally) on Broadcom-based routers like Linksys WRT54G with new programming instructions that let users customize the router as well as give additional features like more robust security and more simultaneous connections.
Netgear’s router will encourage users to develop new projects. An example would be this firmware project that allows WPA2 support as well as guest SSIDs that allow guests to a network to use the internet without being allowed into the host network.
I’m inclined to get this kind of router because of my love to tinker with electronics and the special firmware would also make it harder to exploit especially with war drivers.
Originally posted on January 8, 2008 @ 11:59 pm
AMD’s opening salvo for 2008 is underway with the announcement of the company’s LIVE! Explorer software that will be used in desktops and laptops equipped with the company’s processors. Another “product” that was introduced is the LIVE! Ultra brand that is envisioned to bring the Spider multicore platforms additional teeth to make it more responsive and a better product.
The LIVE! Explorer is what the company calls an “immersive and 3D” way of browsing through the media library of a computer user. This is done while at the same time accessing other media content like watching TV, a video or even surfing the internet in the same video.
The new “solution” will be available in AMD LIVE! desktops and laptops, AMD LIVE! Home Cinemas, Home Media Servers, Entertainment Suite and AMD LIVE! Explorer. The software can now be downloaded for free on AMD based PCs that are able to qualify their system requirements.
I’m about to check if my laptop or desktop will be able to meet the requirements. I’ll talk about this soon once I’ve downloaded it.
Originally posted on April 1, 2008 @ 11:51 pm
Whenever I get cabin fever from working too much inside my house I would often bring my laptop, go to coffee shop and work from there. Free hotspots have really helped in making me more productive. Of course, productivity can only happen when there is an existing hotspot near you.
I discovered this limitation when I decided to accompany my wife in one of her errands as a magazine editor. She needed to visit a number of commercial shops and look for items that can be featured in her magazine. Hoping that this would be a great way to spend some time with her while at the same time catch up with work, I decided to join her. The plan was for her to walk around these establishments while I go look for a coffee shop where I can work. Good idea, right?
It wasn’t. The commercial area we went too didn’t have a hotspot and the one area that did have Wi-Fi was restricted to subscribers of a Wi-Fi service. I was well and truly screwed. This incident really drove home the convenience of having a ready internet connection wherever you go. Subscriptions to a Wi-Fi service is really not a good idea because it is still dependent on an available hotspot. This made me really see the value of HSDPA based internet connections. With just a small gadget plugged to your lappie, you can access the internet literally wherever you are — in the car, in the middle of a mall, even on the beach! As long as the area is within range of a mobile network you’ve got internet.
With the level of mobility that my work requires from me especially in the near future HSDPA will give me the productivity edge that I need.
Originally posted on October 15, 2007 @ 11:43 pm
I run a very small buy and sell business. I bring in a number of nifty gadgets from China and Hong Kong and sell them to people. It’s still too small an operation to really be called a self sustaining business but I’m happy with the way things are going. One of the items I usually buy are Hitachi hard drives. The brand is kind of hard to come by but the price of Hitachi HDs is very competitive especially for a businessman like myself. The build quality is also top notch. Being a satisfied Hitachi user and reseller I’ve always wondered why they do not have a bigger presence in the market.
Hitachi may not have a big presence right now but the company looks like it has what it takes to compete with the big boys in terms of product innovation. Recently, Hitachi through its subsidiary Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced that they have developed what is said to be the world’s smallest read/write head for hard drives.
The small size will allow for magnetic densities that are so fine that it will be possible to make 4 terabyte capacity hard drives and terabyte sized notebook drives by 2009. The new technology will supposedly mature by 2011.
This is good news for storage junkies like myself who are more confident in the capability of hard drives to store sensitive information rather than transferring it to DVD-Rs for storage. Hitachi seems to be on the right track with this new technology and I hope that this could lead to more presence from the company in the hard drive market.