by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 12:09AMAnalysts love to come up with all sorts of conjecture based on history, numbers, and general guesswork. In this case, FBR Research analyst Craig Berger has a few predictions to give us regarding the future of Apple’s iPod and iPhone lines. We’ll keep them short and sweet here and leave the static mulling to you. First, he expects an updated, lower-priced iPod nano in the near future along with product refreshes for both the iPod classic and touch. That sounds about right, as Apple is almost due for updates of those products anyway. As far as Apple’s production rate, he says Apple has increased ipod production around 15 percent and sees Apple shipping 15 million iphone 3G by the end of the year (he’s a big fan of the number “15″). (Read the full post about ‘Surprise! Apple to refresh iPod nano / touch, make tons of iPhones’…)
by Darren Murph, posted Jun 28th 2008 at 12:24AM Western Digital’s hasty VelociRaptor already got reviewed by its lonesome, but for those thinking of getting a RAID system into their rig, HotHardware has taken a trio of ‘em, setup a RAID 5 array and put the drives through their collaborative paces. The configuration was made possible thanks to an Areca PCIe X8 hardware RAID card, and the results were rather impressive — to no one’s surprise, might we add. Across the entire volume, performance was generally linear save for a few small valleys along the way, burst speed was 598MB/sec and average read speed was 209.4MB/sec, which pretty much blew the doors off of everything that came before it. (Read the full post about ‘Three WD VelociRaptors get setup in RAID 5 array, testing ensues’…)
Brando has returned with yet another interesting and actually useful product, a USB calculator with a 3-port USB hub. The calculator also offers a built-in thermometer, 12/24 hour clock, calendar, alarm, time and has the ability to announce the time. The calculator measures in at 7.09 x 3.89 x 0.87-inches, has Windows 2000, XP and Vista support and ships with a USB cable. It is currently available and retails for $19. Product [Brando] Via [Gear Live] Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! (Read the full post about ‘Brando offers up a three-port USB hub/calculator’…)
by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 2:08AMAs if overnight, Eran Badit of NGOHQ.com has PhysX running on the AMD Radeon 3870. Badit said that the hack was “easy,” and NGOHQ.com will distribute the utility after a bit more testing. As for performance, he hit a 22,606 CPU score in 3D mark Vantage, which is nothing to sneeze at. (Read the full post about ‘PhysX layer running on AMD Radeon 3870, utility available “soon”’…)
I always love seeing what makes up the insides of my gadgets, but like many I am not willing to tear it open and actually find out because of the risk of damage. So its always fun to see the pictures when someone else does the work and takes the risk for you.
The Samsung Instinct has become the latest phone to get dissected. The work comes courtesy of Rapid Repair and they posted plenty of pictures as well as instructions, just in case you were feeling brave. Keep reading to check out a few of the images showing off the guts, then hit the Read link below to check out the full set.
Read [Rapid Repair] Via [IntoMobile]
Keep up with the latest gadget goodness!
(Read the full post about ‘Samsung’s Instinct gets opened up, instructions offered’…)
by Darren Murph, posted Jun 28th 2008 at 1:11PM
Compared to the other single-seat electric vehicle that we had the misfortune of laying eyes on recently, Topia’s HUVO looks just magnificent. This clearly minuscule road warrior, which officially tips the scales at 150-kilograms (or just over 330-pounds), holds one lucky motorist and a small briefcase (if you’re lucky). Reportedly, the frame is constructed from high-tensile steel plate, the doors and the back panel from aluminum alloy, the roof from carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), the windshield from polycarbonate and the interior / wheels covers from ABS resin. (Read the full post about ‘Topia shows off 330-pound HUVO electric car’…)
by Chris Ziegler, posted Jun 28th 2008 at 6:24PM
Remember that touchscreen Motorola Blaze we’d mentioned a while back that was on the hook to get Verizon’s visual voicemail service? It may not be in Verizon stores yet, but it’s all up in Boy Genius Report’s labs with a dark red body, MING attitude, and almost limitless mediocrity on board. The touchscreen apparently requires ridiculous amounts of effort to actuate, and that problem is compounded by a lame on-screen keyboard that makes texting tricky at best. EV-DO Rev. A is cool and all — and the visual voicemail support should be a pretty popular add-on feature — but that giant Motorola logo up front with the red ring and three pounds of chrome leaves the Blaze with a face only a mother could love. (Read the full post about ‘Motorola’s touchscreen Blaze for Verizon in the wild’…)
by Darren Murph, posted Jun 28th 2008 at 4:13PM Never mind those ginormous dam-based hydroelectric generators — we’ve got a much smaller version that you can actually use in your backyard. The Pico Hydroelectric Generator was installed within a 5-gallon bucket by Sam Redfield in order to convert the energy from “existing gravity fed irrigation, fresh water, or waste water systems” into usable electricity that can juice up your cellphone, DAP, portable fan / water-bottle combo, etc. Regrettably, there’s not a whole heap of details beyond that, but you can check out another angle in the read link below.Read PermalinkEmail this19 CommentsFiled under: Misc. (Read the full post about ‘Bucket-based hydroelectric generator powers up small gadgets’…)
by Darren Murph, posted Jun 28th 2008 at 4:13PM
Never mind those ginormous dam-based hydroelectric generators — we’ve got a much smaller version that you can actually use in your backyard. The Pico Hydroelectric Generator was installed within a 5-gallon bucket by Sam Redfield in order to convert the energy from “existing gravity fed irrigation, fresh water, or waste water systems” into usable electricity that can juice up your cellphone, DAP, portable fan / water-bottle combo, etc. Regrettably, there’s not a whole heap of details beyond that, but you can check out another angle in the read link below.
Filed under: Misc.
(Read the full post about ‘Bucket-based hydroelectric generator powers up small gadgets’…)
It looks like the rumors have come true, Virgin Mobile has officially announced plans to acquire Helio. The deal is still pending approval, however it is expected to close during Q3 2008. The deal is not going to be a cash deal though, instead Virgin Mobile is taking Helio from the current owners, which are SK Telecom and Earthlink for $39 million in Virgin Mobile USA stock. Its also sounding pretty good for current Helio customers, as they have already posted a nice FAQ to answer most questions. It also looks like there are not going to be any quick changes. It seems to be that current Helio customers will not see any service interruption, and new customers are still able to sign up for Helio service. (Read the full post about ‘Helio acquired by Virgin Mobile for $39 million’…)
