Computer Information - myOddPc
Canon's new PowerShots: SD890 IS, SD790 IS, and SD770 IS
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Canon's got another three new PowerShots going out this evening. What you need to know:
- SD890 IS (above) - 10 megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom, 2.5-inch display, sub 1-inch macro
- SD790 IS - 10 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom, 3-inch display
- SD770 IS - 10 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom, 2.5-inch display
They'll be out in April, and will run you $399, $349. and $299, respectively.
[Thanks,
Dave]
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Lack of competition sends Blu-ray player prices upward
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Late last month, we actually posed the
question of buying a Blu-ray player now (being that the format war is over and all), or waiting things out until prices sink and
Profile 2.0 players flood the market. Aside from the
PlayStation 3 -- which is actually priced fairly reasonably if you were in the hunt for a new console anyway -- it seems as though HD DVD's exit has actually caused Blu-ray player prices to creep back upwards. Granted, this is about as far from surprising as it gets -- after all, it's nothing short of supply and demand working its magic. Still, it wasn't too long ago that we saw Toshiba
actively putting pressure on the Blu camp to reduce prices in order to stay competitive, and now that said pressure has vanished, stickers on the whole have headed north. Ah well, it's not like the consumer didn't ask for this, um,
right?
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iPod touch burns from within with fiery passion... and fire
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
We apologize for the blurriness of the image -- imagine you are looking through the photographer's tears -- but what you see before you is supposedly an esploded
iPod touch. Tipster Max S. tells us he had the pleasurable experience of having his touch catch on fire between the glass and the components, which can't have been a fun time for the iPod. The heat managed to burn his desk, and needless to say Max won't be getting any more use out of the thing. Apple has been kind enough to issue a free replacement, and is apparently going to look into the situation to see how much of an anomaly this is. This is of course "hot" on the heels of that iPod nano incident, and while an exploding iPod situation would be bad enough for Apple and consumers, what we're really not looking forward to is the inevitable
DOT ban on PMPs. Let's hope these are some isolated incidents, or Apple pays off the right people to hush up about it. There's another blurry shot after the break.
Continue reading iPod touch burns from within with fiery passion... and fire
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Blu-ray on Xbox 360? Microsoft hasn't heard about it
Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Those
hot/
cold "Blu-ray coming to
Xbox 360" rumors just cooled off a bit again, with product manager Aaron Greenberg telling
Reuters "Xbox is not currently
in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience". Clear enough? He also dropped the nugget that Microsoft expects to trail the PS3 in sales again in February, but should have things turned around by April, just in time for the
GTA IV launch, which should also be right around the time this rumor rears its head again. In the meantime,
digital distribution anyone?
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Taliban pressures Afghan cell networks into 5PM curfew
Filed under: Cellphones
After a series of attacks on mobile phone towers, it appears life in Afghanistan has gotten even harder: the four privately-owned Afghan cell companies have all cowed to the Taliban's demands and begun shutting off their networks between 5PM and 7AM every night. The Taliban claims that the companies are aiding Afghan and NATO troops by leaving the networks operational, and has attacked 10 towers in the past few weeks, completely destroying six. We're not sure how big an impact the shutoff has on troops, but there's no denying the effect on Afghan citizens, many of whom rely on mobile phones to contact loved ones and summon medical services. The Afghan government has said it's encouraging the phone companies to resist the Taliban tactics, and that it will "persuade the companies to turn the signals back on again," but it's not clear when that might happen.
[Via
Textually.org; Image courtesy of
Talking Proud]
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Toshiba swallows a billion dollars on HD DVD
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
There are spicy meatballs, and there are
spicy meatballs -- and now there's a figure that will be tossed around for decades to come, one which will instantly represent the caution companies should take when embarking on another format war: a billion dollars. At least that's what Nikkei is reporting that Toshiba's losses on HD DVD totaled in 2007 alone: a ¥100b, or about $982m USD. It won't drive Toshiba under or anything, but you seriously have to ask yourself, was it really all worth it? [Warning: subscription req'd]
[Via
Reuters]
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Laser-guided EL-E robot offers point-and-grab operation, the future
Filed under: Robots
While we're usually content to watch the slow, inevitable progress towards
humanoid robots, the researchers behind this EL-E bot might very well be on to something. Instead of making a robot that acts like humans, they've built a robot that chases around the dot made by your laser pointer, and picks up whatever you point at with his crane. Not exactly on the path to replicants, but perhaps that's a good thing -- a bot that can pick up stuff you aim at and bring it to you is much more useful in the here and now. Plus EL-E yells out stuff like "Bob's your uncle" when he completes tasks, and if that isn't progress we don't know what is.
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OCZ announces 32, 64GB SATA II SSDs
Filed under: Storage
32 and 64GB capacities aren't all that impressive when it comes to SATA II 2.5-inch solid state drives, but OCZ's new devices do claim 120MBps read and 100MBps write speeds which would put it up there on the ranks. Unfortunately, OCZ neglected to clue anyone in on price or release date for these puppies.
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GoDaddy Silences RateMyCop.com
mikesd81 writes "Wired is running a story about GoDaddy shutting down a police watchdog site called RateMyCop. However, GoDaddy can't seem to give a consistent answer as for why. From the article: 'RateMyCop founder Gino Sesto says he was given no notice of the suspension. When he called GoDaddy, the company told him that he'd been shut down for suspicious activity. When Sesto got a supervisor on the phone, the company changed its story and claimed the site had surpassed its 3 terabyte bandwidth limit, a claim that Sesto says is nonsense. "How can it be overloaded when it only had 80,000 page views today, and 400,000 yesterday?" Sesto says police can post comments as well, and a future version of the site will allow them to authenticate themselves to post rebuttals more prominently. Chief Dyer wants to get legislation passed that would make RateMyCop.com illegal, which, of course, wouldn't pass constitutional muster in any court in America.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Microsoft Submits Windows 7 for Antitrust Review
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has submitted the follow-up to Windows Vista to the committee that oversees its US antitrust compliance, to ensure the operating system is meeting the terms of the company's agreement with the government. According to last week's status report on the US antitrust case, Microsoft "recently supplied" the Technical Committee (TC) with a build of the OS, code-named Windows 7, and the TC will "conduct middleware-related tests on future builds" of the software. The move was revealed in papers filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. Those on the TC so far are the only ones privy to what the follow-up to Vista will look like, and Microsoft is mum on details of the software. But recent company moves and revelations hint at what can be expected from the software, which is due for release in late 2009 or early 2010. Lets hope Microsoft learns some lessons from the "Vista Capable" dilemma!!"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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