by Thomas Ricker, posted May 26th 2008 at 1:23AM As rumors go, the Canon 5D Mark II is one of the more venerable of those back-room whispers to grace these pages. Now we’ve got the Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital Field Guide on Amazon making a duplicate appearance on the publisher’s website. You know something we don’t Ms. Charlotte K. Lowrie? Guess we’ll find out in November-ish. (Read the full post about ‘Canon EOS 5D Mark II in November?’…)
Symantec are making a bold claim for the forthcoming release of Norton Internet Security 2009. The claim is that the security software will have “zero-impact” on PC performance with Janice Chaffin, group president for Symantec’s consumer business stating:
People have told us ’security software is too big, it irritates me, I turn it off when I’m gaming’ … Fundamentally, consumers don’t want to be bothered at all. We’ve set as our goal zero-impact security.
In order to achieve this transparent protection Symantec has changed the way in which the 2009 product decides to scan a system.
(Read the full post about ‘Symantec: Norton Internet Security 2009 is “zero-impact security”’…)
by Ryan Block, posted May 26th 2008 at 3:25AMOkay, they’re only embedded ARM chips, but le Inq is reporting that NVIDIA’s prepping not just the the Tegra APX 2500 we heard about before, but also a second line of high performance embedded CPUs. Supposedly the forthcoming CSX 600 / 650 will run in the 700-800MHz range, and be capable of 1080p / 24fps video playback. We’ll give these guys until, say, 2010 before they’re jockeying for AMD’s spot at number two in desktop processors.Read PermalinkEmail this0 CommentsFiled under: Misc. gadgetsTags: Ogg, cool gear, ipod, gadgets (Read the full post about ‘NVIDIA might get even deeper into the embedded CPU game’…)
by Ryan Block, posted May 26th 2008 at 12:09AMSo news is making its way around the internets that at the Wedbush Morgan Securities Management Access Conference, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell proclaimed the end of PC gaming piracy as we know it, thanks to a “stealth encryption chip.” The magic chip he’s referring to that “will, in fact, absolutely stop piracy of gameplay”? The TPM chip — what’s been on motherboards for years, that apparently Bushnell just found out about. While the tinfoil hats in the house will likely attribute TPM (Trusted Platform Module) and other onboard crypto-chips to the eventual downfall of privacy and personal computing, to date we’ve yet to see piracy stunted or civil liberties breached because of the little bugger. (Read the full post about ‘Atari founder cries wolf about piracy-ending chip’…)
The band Weezer posted their new music video called “Pork and Beans” on YouTube. The video features a huge collection of “internet stars” from Tay “Chocolate Rain” Zonday to Chris “Leave Britney Alone” Crocker. Weezer even plays in front of a huge deluge tribute to “Coke + Mentos“. Weezer’s new self-titled “Red Album” comes out June 3rd, 2008. methodshop Posted in Miscellaneous Tags: mobile devices, cameras, mobiles, digital (Read the full post about ‘New Weezer Video Features YouTube Celebs’…)
While details are still emerging, it looks like it will not be much longer till we see the debut of the Asus desktop PC. The latest of the rumor mill has the desktop model still being announced during Computex on June 3, however instead of the now familiar Eee Box name, it is expected to be called the EBOX. As usual this report is still unconfirmed, but comes courtesy of the Inquirer. Otherwise the previously leaked specs still seem to be holding true, either way in just about a week we should be getting the remaining details when the official announcement (hopefully) comes as expected. Read [The Inquirer] Via [Engadget] Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! (Read the full post about ‘Rumor: Asus Eee Box to debut as the EBOX’…)
by Ryan Block, posted May 25th 2008 at 8:36PM Ain’t nothing like a good robot-related publicity stunt to get the heart poundin on a Sunday. For your consideration, Panasonic’s offered up a small 7-inch robot powered by EVOLTA AA cells, which willingly participated in a nearly seven hour rope climb of more than 1,700 vertical feet of sheer Grand Canyon expanse. Fine, we get it Panasonic, EVOLTA batteries last a while — now you can stop putting adorable little robots in harm’s way to prove it.[Via Pink Tentacle]Read PermalinkEmail this23 CommentsFiled under: Misc. (Read the full post about ‘Panasonic EVOLTA powered robot climbs Grand Canyon’…)
If the recently announced Fujifilm Finepix Z200fd made you excited because of its ultra-slim, compact metal body and high 5x optical zoom, the other Finepix model, the A850 may not even make you pause for a second look. Even its official press release put down the A850’s output quality with the lines, “offering high-end technology to every-day users who want point-and-shot simplicity at an affordable price point, but are not prepared to compromise on image quality.” I mean who would get excited with that statement? But at least the Fujifilm people are honest enough to admit that users may not find the A850 capable of producing high-quality images. (Read the full post about ‘Fujifilm’s other new camera is the not so exciting Finepix A850′…)
by Ryan Block, posted May 25th 2008 at 9:11PM Uh oh, Samsung’s just announced their first 256GB SSD. Not that you needed to know anything more than that to trigger salivation, but the MLC-flash SATA II drive has speeds of 200MBps read and 160MBps sequential write. Not like we’ll be able to afford it or anything, but they’ll be available come September, with a 1.8-inch version due in Q4. (Read the full post about ‘Samsung announces crazy fast 256GB SSD, our knees buckle’…)
by Darren Murph, posted May 25th 2008 at 4:07PM RFID has long since been a pretty common find in your modern day hospital, but now GE and CenTrak are teaming up to make the technology even more useful in those long, winding hallways. Simply hailed as RFID “virtual walls,” the creation enables venues to “track tagged mobile medical equipment down to a portion of a single room.” By providing sub-room-level distinction, personnel can locate hardware within a monitored area as tiny as 6- x 8-feet, and although it’ll likely be used to locate cardiac defibrillators and portable ultrasound machines, patients could theoretically be tracked, too. The new tech will be shown off at the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (Read the full post about ‘RFID “virtual walls” could keep tabs on hospital assets’…)
