2008 March 23 | official tech blog

Mar 23 2008

Google Event Monday About White Spaces: Google Wi-Fi in the Works? [Google]

Posted by: admin in General Tech News

Google, along with Microsoft, Dell, Intel, HP and Philips are pretty hot on devices that use white spaces—unused tiny blocks of the TV spectrum band that are prem-o for high-speed wireless. Billy G, for instance, wants to use it to make Wi-Fi even awesomer. So Google’s announcement they’re holding a press conference at 11:30 AM on Monday to speak about a white spaces filing with the FCC definitely has our eyebrow in a perked arch. They didn’t play to win the 700MHz auction, so what exactly do they wanna do with this tiny slab of wireless goodness? [CNET, Image via Flickr]

Mar 23 2008

Portable TVs to be used at F1 races for real-time video

Posted by: admin in Tech And Life

I went to the Grand Prix in Monaco one year and heard the entire race. That’s about it, though, as the cars were moving too fast and my view was obstructed by annoyances like “other people” such that I couldn’t see much of anything. A device called Kangaroo TV is looking to remedy that […]

I went to the Grand Prix in Monaco one year and heard the entire race. That’s about it, though, as the cars were moving too fast and my view was obstructed by annoyances like “other people” such that I couldn’t see much of anything. A device called Kangaroo TV is looking to remedy that type of problem. Here’s more…

The gadget is about the size of handheld GPS receiver, with a 3in colour screen and navigation control pad. It receives live pictures from a series of cameras around the track that beam real-time video back, meaning that no area of the circuit is ever out of sight. Users are also able to switch to in-car cameras of designated drivers, giving them a behind-the-wheel view of the race. An earpiece connects them directly to commentary.

Very nice. It’ll be available at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July. Hey, you know what would be really awesome? If you could watch the race on a huge TV while sitting on a couch. Maybe indoors, even.

I kid, I kid. People like to be at the event to smell the oil and hear the engines revving and this Kangaroo TV thing will actually allow them to see what’s happening on the rest of the course rather than what’s happening on the stretch of course directly in front of them. The behind the wheel thing seems pretty cool, too.

“People attend live sports events for the atmosphere, the spectacle and in the case of motor sport the smell,” says Alain Charette, Kangaroo TV’s executive vice-president of corporate development. “But the experience can be ruined because most of the action takes place miles away from where you are standing. We offer the best of both worlds.” Fans will be able to hire out the gadgets at Silverstone for a fee of about £50 for the weekend, and Kangaroo says it is in talks with governing bodies of other sports including cricket, tennis and the International Olympic Committee.

The device underwent a trial run at last year’s F1 championship and will be more widely available this year. A similar offering by Sprint Nextel here in the states called FanView is available at NASCAR races.

Handheld TV brings action replays to live sport [Times Online]

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Via [crunchgear]

Mar 23 2008

Newsweek’s Steven Levy Going to Wired [Media]

Posted by: admin in General Tech News

Steven Levy is a notable tech reporter because of his intimate access to new Apple gear and long history of non-tech reporting to back up his relative-to-the-world lightweight beat. He’s long been associated with Newsweek. But now, Wired, who he’s written for before, just picked him up as a staff writer. Stupid Newsweek!

Difficulties between Apple and Wired have been patched up since the This is the Phone of the Future Cover?, mocking iPod ads and kicking the iTunes compatible Moto ROKR while it was down. But will Levy’s famous Apple access follow to the new pub? I haven’t asked, but I’m sure Apple will decline to comment. Valleywag also chimes in with rumor that Newsweek, in an attempt to trim its headcount, is paying up to two years salary for people to voluntarily depart.

Mar 23 2008

CrunchArcade: Guitar Hero: On Tour priced and dated

Posted by: admin in Tech And Life

Activision/RedOctane’s hottest new addition to the Guitar Hero franchise will ship June 22 for a mere $50. That’s right, Guitar Hero: On Tour for Nintendo’s DS is now up for pre-order from Amazon so get it now! ShareThis

Activision/RedOctane’s hottest new addition to the Guitar Hero franchise will ship June 22 for a mere $50. That’s right, Guitar Hero: On Tour for Nintendo’s DS is now up for pre-order from Amazon so get it now!

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Via [crunchgear]

Mar 23 2008

Porta Jump Will Jump Start Your Vehicle From the Comfort of the Driver’s S

Posted by: admin in General Tech News

You’re sitting in the parking lot at work with a dead battery. You obviously need a jump, but you don’t have jumper cables and your co-workers are dicks that don’t want to help. Screw them—you have the Porta Jump. There’s no need for jumper cables or helpful friends, all you need to do is plug it into your cigarette lighter and wait for the green light to turn on. Just like that, you are back in business. Plus, it will recharge while you’re driving. Seems like a no-brainer for only $20. [JC Whitney via Book of Joe via Coolest Gadgets via DVICE]

Mar 23 2008

5 Takes on Windows Vista SP1 [Roundup]

Posted by: admin in General Tech News

Vista’s SP1 was officially released on Tuesday. That means people have had enough time to tinker around with it, test it out, and share their thoughts. The reviews are in, and here’s what the usual suspects (plus our own most eloquent commenters) had to state.

PC World: “Pre-SP1, the [1.9GB] file copy averaged 384 seconds; post-SP1, the copy process showed a noticeable improvement, averaging just 348 seconds to complete the same task. That’s a 9 percent improvement, a difference you’re prone to notice… It’s not life-altering when you’re talking about just 2GB of data, but if the performance improvement holds across bigger data sets, that’ll be a huge boon to anyone copying data in the Vista environment.”

PC Mag: “From the beginning, Vista had some significant issues with excessive hard drive use. The drive light would routinely stay fully or mostly lit for many minutes at a time, even when most programs had been shut. The downloaded SP1 improved this quite a bit, resulting in crisper performance… even with Office 2007 Professional, Adobe Creative Suite CS3, and Norton System Works 2008 on the machine and various components of each running (Outlook, Word, InDesign, Acrobat, and Norton AV, for instance), the drive light stayed remarkably unlit on the SP1 clean install. This issue bears watching: If the difference turns out to be as significant as it seems, then it alone is reason to upgrade.”

Anandtech: “Compared to where we were a year ago, our general suggestion for Vista is unchanged. We’re however impressed with the progress of the x64 versions of Vista over the past year, after feeling like it was lagging behind Vista x86 from beta up through the release version of Vista. Vista x64 is now clearly on par with Vista x86 and we have no concerns about its compatibility or performance.”

CNet: “Do you need Windows Vista SP1? Yes and no. It’s always good to install the latest (read: patched) code for any operating system. But downloading and installing the update will take some users a few hours without any visible or tangible improvements to their systems.”

Giz Commenters:
We received a large response to our poll question the other day, “How’s Windows Vista SP1 working out?” Most of you didn’t notice much of a difference after the install, but a good portion of you thought it was either the ideal or worst decision you’ve ever made. Here are some of the most informative things your fellow commenters had to state about the upgrade:

Topcat: Installed without incident in ~20 minutes for me. RAM use is down 7-10% on average from the OS (Ultimate-32), and it fixed some of the problems I’d had frequently

shiftyeyedgoat: I have the ability to definitely notice a difference in network transfer speeds. I mean, it’s multitudes faster.

Claystil: My startup time seems to be shorter and windows connects to the network MUCH faster.

JoeStalin: No difference. Huge file transfers still suck ass.

Darrone: …it boned my personal harder than Eliot Spitzer at Scores.

The majors seem to echo what everyone else has been saying; while updating is usually the right thing to do, SP1 doesn’t have enough noticeable changes to make you jump out of your seat. The commenters were more outspoken in their distaste for the update, some even reporting several crashes, but overall they seemed to like it as well. Putting all of the feedback together, we’re going to give Vista SP1 an “upgrade” verdict, but don’t anticipate too much from it.