Blog Is Everything

iPhone 3G S

2009-06-20T04:47:00.000-07:00

If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- right? We know countless reviews of the iPhone 3G S may begin with that cliché, but there's little chance you'd find a better way to describe the strategy that Apple has just put into play with its latest smartphone. In many ways, the 3G S is a mirror image of the iPhone 3G; externally there's no difference. It's inside where all the changes have happened, with Apple issuing a beefed-up CPU, new internal compass, larger capacities for storage, and improved optics for its camera. More to the point, the release of the 3G S coincides with the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, a major jump from previous versions of the system software featuring highly sought after features like cut, copy, and paste, stereo Bluetooth, MMS, tethering, video recording, landscape keyboard options for more applications, and an iPhone version of Spotlight. At a glance, what Apple seems to be doing is less a reinvention of the wheel and more like retreading the wheel it's already got (and what a wheel, right?). So, do the iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0 tweak the details in just the right places, or has Apple gone and gotten lazy on us? Read on to find out.

More specs : http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Joe Tech’s New Media Super Contest

2008-12-07T04:53:00.000-08:00

The New Media Super Contest has over 80 prizes from over 50 sponsors worth over $4,500! Take a look at the prize and sponsor list below.

Premium Sponsors

While we link out to all sponsors as a way of thanking them for adding to our prize pool, we also wanted to thank the premium sponsors, who went the extra mile to add larger prizes to the contest.

Pinky Arcade

The 5 member team at Pinky Arcade contacted us early on to ask if we'd like to have a 160GB Sony PS3 to give away in the contest. If you are a gamer, you would notice that this system isn't released yet and it's going to be the latest model for the widely popular, PS3. No strangers to giving away tons of free prizes, Pinky Arcade has already given away huge gift cards, consoles, and mp3 players. All these given away for simply playing some free games on the site.

BadEvan's Gay Blog

Evan also joined up as a sponsor early on, not only by helping promote via Twitter, and other "new media", but also by throwing in around $1,500 in advertising, reviews, and cash.

EcoPower and EcoVista

The sales team at EcoPower heard about the contest and sponsored it with some unexpected, but cool, prizes. Their EcoPower and EcoVista products help you save fuel in your automobile and electricity in your home or office. The products are pretty inexpensive, too, so they offered up three of each!

Platinum Sponsor Prizes ($100 and up)

Sony PS3 from Pinky Arcade

$100 cash from JoeTech.com

Citrus theme license from Unique Blog Designs

Palm Treo 650 (slightly used - Sprint only) from Bl.ogology.com

1 Year of hosting on DreamHost from afrogtokiss.net

125x125 banner ad for one year from afrogtokiss.net

125x125 banner ad for one year from JoeTech.com

Text link AND 125x125 banner ad for one month from Anshul Affiliates

125x125 banner ad for one year from BadEvan.com

one month of pimping from BadEvan.com

one month of pimping from BadEvan.com

Site review on BadEvan.com from BadEvan.com

Gold Sponsor Prizes (under $100)

10,000 ec from JoeTech.com

10,000 ec from Archon Digital

125x125 banner ad for one month from Winning the Web

125x125 banner ad for one month from Name Sherry

EcoVista M1 from Eco Power

EcoVista M1 from Eco Power

EcoVista M1 from Eco Power

EcoVista M2 from Eco Power

EcoVista M2 from Eco Power

EcoVista M2 from Eco Power

Silver Sponsor Prizes (under $50)

EcoPower from Eco Power

EcoPower from Eco Power

EcoPower from Eco Power

$25 cash from BadEvan.com

$25 BP gas card from AutomoBlog.net

Review on sitegorge.com from Web Buzz

Review on sitegorge.com from Web Buzz

SEO consultation from Web Buzz

SEO consultation from Web Buzz

2,000 ec from Realm of Prosperity

2,000 ec from Random Detox

125x125 banner ad for one month from Heart Random

125x125 banner ad for 3 months from Lankapo.com

125x125 banner ad for 3 months from Damia.Lnkapo.com

Review on needlessproductions.com from NeedlessProductions

125x125 banner ad for one month from Contestu.com

Review on anshuldudeja.blogspot.com from Anshul Affiliates

2,500 ec from sofhaljamil.com

3,000 ec from BadEvan.com

5,000 ec from TechByPC.com

125x125 banner ad for 12 weeks from TechByPC.com

125x125 banner ad for one month from MyFashionLink.com

125x125 banner ad for one month from MyGossipGirl.com

125x125 banner ad for two months from The Positive Life

Blog makeover from The Positive Life

125x125 banner ad for one year from Alanzain

Text link for one year from Alanzain

125x125 banner ad for one month from Nspeaks

One WordPress or Flash template from Flash Templates

125x125 banner ad for two months from Slightly Mordant

Bronze Sponsor Prizes ($10 and under)

$10 cash from Slave to the Internet

$5 cash from The Positive Life

1,000 ec from Journal of Journey

125x125 banner ad for one month from Multiply Themes

125x125 banner ad for one month from 24patrol

1,000 ec from Web Buzz

1,000 ec from International Freebies

125x125 banner ad for 3 months from Better Interpersonal Communication

125x125 banner ad for 3 months from Free Famous Quotes

125x125 banner ad for 3 months from Gift Reviews

1,000 ec from Contest Whiz

1,000 ec from LOL Celebs

1,000 ec from kisahberuang.com

1,000 ec from MichealPark.org

1,000 ec from Anshul Affiliates

One Secret Tip on the winners blog from Anshul Affiliates

1,111 ec from The Chetan

125x125 banner ad for one month from sofhaljamil.com

Text link for one month from Blogging from Scratch

Text link for two months from The Positive Life

1,000 ec from The Positive Life

125x125 banner design from The Positive Life

1,000 ec from DailySMS.in

125x125 banner ad for one month from Submit Your Contest

1,000 ec from Jo's Reviews and Ad Space

1,000 ec from Programming The Life

1,500 ec from Affiliate-Revenue.info

125x125 banner ad for two weeks from Affiliate-Revenue.info

2,000 ec from Kasakk.blogspot.com

125x125 banner ad for one month from Kasakk.blogspot.com

How to enter

There are a lot of ways to enter. If you do any of the following, you get entries into the drawing. Even though we have over 70 prizes already, making it easy for everyone to win, your odds of nabbing the Platinum prizes increase with each entry you earn. Most of the ways mentioned below are very easy and take very little time, so try a few or all of them and good luck! Entries must be earned before January 1, 2009 to be eligible.

- Tweet the contest at Twitter.com (must include "#joetech") (5 entries/once per day)

- Tweet "@joetech I hope I win" at Twitter.com (5 entries/once per day)

- Follow joetech on Twitter.com (10 entries) (all current followers already entered)

- Blog about the contest (must include the pre-formmated contest html, unedited, with working links and images) (100 entries)

- Stumble the contest at StumbleUpon.com(10 entries)

- Comment on the contest post (1 entry)

- Subscribe to JoeTech.com via email (existing subscribers will be entered automatically) (20 entries)

- Subscribe to sponsors via email (20 entries each/participating sponsors only)

- Email me (joe@joetech.com) a blog post title or other detail proving you visited a sponsor's site. (Subject must include "NMSC ENTRY" and you should include the url of the sponsor site.) (10 entries/once per day)

Badges, Buttons, Banners, and HTML

This contest is about spreading the word about new media and by new media. That said, it's important for you to have the tools to help you promote it. It'll earn you more entries, too. Below are some blocks of HTML to make it very easy for you to post about the contest or add a badge or button to your site or blog. Please note that it is important for the images to come from JoeTech.com (as they do in the codes below) so they will automatically update with new prize total information.

Blog post HTML

Get the HTML here

Badge HTML

125x125 Button HTML

Text Link HTML

How to sponsor

Although the contest is already under way, we'll accept sponsors and prizes until the very end. Currently we're looking for more cash and electronics like laptops, iPods, etc., but feel free to be creative. Remember to think big. The better your prize, the more attention you'll get in the contest. Premium sponsors will receive special mentions in contest posts, in addition to all the name recognition and traffic the contest will bring naturally.

To sponsor, just email joe@joetech.com with the subject "NEW MEDIA SUPER CONTEST". Each prize should be worth at least $10 U.S. Include the details about the prize or prizes you are offering, the U.S. dollar value of each prize, your site or company name and the URL to link to. All sponsors will be added to the list as seen above and updates will be posted on every Thursday.

KOGAN AGORA PRO - World's 2nd Android Phone

2008-12-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

The Kogan Agora Pro mobile phone is the first in Australia powered by Android™ software – the ground-breaking new open source mobile phone operating system.

Featuring fast 3G wireless technology, multimedia capabilities, and a host of Internet applications, this is a must have mobile phone. The Kogan Agora Pro will work on networks around the world, and is not restricted to customers in Australia and New Zealand.

More info

Blackberry Bold 9000

2008-11-20T09:17:00.000-08:00

Are you getting a Blackberry Bold 9000? Alright, the Blackberry Bold was announced back in May this year. This Smartphone is powered by 624MHz Intel PXA270/Marvell Tavor PXA930 CPU and running on BlackBerry OS 4.6. It comes with 128MB of flash plus 1GB of onboard memory, Half VGA resolution 480 x 320 pixel color display, 2.0-megapixel camera with flash, built-in GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi support, Media player, 3.5mm stereo headset input and a microSD expansion slot. Bold supports UMTS: 2100 / 1900 / 850MHz, GSM: 1900 / 1800 / 900 / 850 MHz, GPRS, EDGE and HDSPA networks. You can get the unlocked Blackberry Bold for $722. More pictures after the break.
The media player - DivX 4, Div X 56 are partially supported, XviD is partially supported, H.263, H.264 and WMV3; Audio Support - .3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro/WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+.

More info : http://www.gsmarena.com/blackberry_bold_9000-2370.php

Best Buy offers to replace $2200 laptop with $600 Eee PC

2008-11-06T06:37:00.000-08:00

You know, for a company that insists netbooks aren’t actually computers, Best Buy seems pretty eager to push the low cost ultraportable laptops on customers willing to spend nearly 4 times as much on high performance ultraportables.

Well, kind of. I’m sure if I walked into a Best Buy today and asked for the best subnotebook money could buy, a friendly salesperson would direct me to a $2000 computer. But when one customer who bought a $2200 Sony TZ series notebook last year along with the optional damage protection plan came and asked for a replacement model, Best Buy officials pointed him to a $600 netbook.

On paper, the two netbooks are quite similar. Both weigh less than 3 pounds, have 1GB of RAM, around 100GB of hard drive capacity, and CPUs with clock speeds in the 1 to 1.6GHz range. But here’s the problem - you can’t really judge computers on those basic specs anymore. What’s missing from this equation? CPU performance, hard drive RPMs, RAM speed, display resolution and a whole host of other factors.

In a nutshell, Best Buy didn’t have the Sony laptop model that the customer had purchased, and instead of directing him to the nearest replacement, someone looked at a misleading list of specs and decided that a PC that sold for $2200 a year ago was about the same as one that sells for $600 today. It’s not.

That’s not to say that netbooks aren’t capable little machines. But the current lineup of Sony TZ notebooks have Core 2 Duo processors, biometric fingerprint scanners, DVD-RW drives, 11.1 inch, WXGA displays, and other features tha tdevine them as premium devices. Personally, I’m not sure I’d want to pay the extra $1000 - $2000 to pick one up. But if I had one and someone tried to replace it with a netbook, I think I’d be more than a little annoyed too.

Golden Porsche 911: The Gold Standard

2008-10-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

People usually paint their cars in fancy colors, but this particular car fanatic from Russia coated his car with gold, real gold!

This Porsche is covered with 18 kg (or 40 lbs) of gold, well pretty much want to set the “gold” standard among sports cars.

Try to imagine a Ferrari in gold…

Dell Vostro A90

2008-10-25T00:38:00.000-07:00

Dell has apparently dressed up the Inspiron Mini 9 netbook with a coat of black paint and redubbed it the Dell Vostro A90. While the Inspiron Min is clearly aimed at consumers and perhaps educational markets, the Vostro line of laptop computers is typically targeted at business users. And the black paint certainly makes the Vostro A90 look a little bit more uptight businessy than its Inspiron cousins.

On the inside, the Vostro A90 appears to be identical to the Inspiron Mini 9 series. It has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of flash memory, Bluetooth, and a 4 cell battery. It’s only available with Windows XP, not Ubuntu Linux.

So how much does that coat of black paint cost? Well, let’s put it this way. Dell is charging ¥92,830 or about $998 US for the Vostro A90 in Japan. The company charges ¥57,079 or about $614 US for the Inspiron Mini in Japan. I can only assume that the black paint is bullet proof.

We’re starting to see a disturbing trend of netbook makers giving machines a cosmetic facelift and charging a premium price for essentially the same machine. I can’t say I’m surprised. Netbooks are cheap laptops with low profit margins for computer manufacturers. The price wars that have brought down the prices even further over the last few months have been good for consumers, but companies like Dell are probably looking for ways to help bring the profits up while still continuing to pump out the low cost netboks that consumers appear to be clamoring for.

OLO iPhone-powered netbook isn’t real, might never be

2008-10-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago a concept design for an iPhone-powered netbook started making the rounds. The OLO Computer concept would basically turn an iPhone into a netbook by allowing you to dock the phone in a larger chassis and use the phone as a touchpad while using a full sized keyboard and a larger screen.

The screen clearly shows a full version of OS X, while the iPhone only runs a stripped down version of the operating system. And that left some people scratching their heads wondering how this thing is supposed to work. The answer is simple. OLO doesn’t know either. This design is just a concept, and the company doesn’t build computers. Rather, it’s looking for partners who might be able to turn the mockup into reality.

In other words, it might never happen.

So while Steve Jobs may consider the iPhone Apple’s entry into the netbook space, it doesn’t looke like the OLO Computer will be dressing the iPhone in more traditional garb anytime soon.

Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440

2008-10-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Sun Microsystems recently launched the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 4-socket server, based on the UltraSPARC T2 Plus processor. The Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 extends the price and performance efficiency of Sun's chip multi-threading (CMT) architecture to midrange computing.

The Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 Server, the industry's first quad socket CMT system, packs a massively scalable 256 threads, ½ TB memory design into just a 4RU form factor. For the first time, you get the scalability and reliability of traditional midrange systems, while enjoying the breakthrough performance, eco efficiency and cost effectiveness of Sun's proven open-source CMT architecture. Sun's new massively scalable midrange system can virtualize applications and consolidate existing workloads into a single server and also provide ample headroom to handle future computing requirements as customers' needs grow.

In numerous benchmarks, the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 outperforms competitors' products, and can deliver up to 4 times the performance, at 1/5 the price of competitive systems and uses a fraction of the energy of servers with conventional designs.

With the introduction of the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440, the next generation of midrange computing is here!

Asus throws obnoxious 3G launch event with Hummer

2008-10-17T08:33:00.000-07:00

Exactly a year after launching the first Eee PC 701 4G in Taiwan, Asus is showing off how far the market has come with launch events for the super-thin (and kinda pricy) Eee PC S101 and the super-mobile, 3G-enabled Eee PC 901 Go.

For the Italian launch of the Eee PC 901 Go, Asus picked one of the most ostentaious and obnoxious ways I can think of to demonstrate the computer’s abililty to connect to 3G wireless networks: they took the press out for a drive in a big ole Hummer limo. Notebook Italia was on hand to document the affair.

Acer's F-22bid LCD sounds like a jet, looks like a Ferrari

2008-10-02T09:09:00.000-07:00

We've seen Ferrari's logo and lacquer applied to everything from GPS nav systems to overpriced clock radios, each product diluting the brand that Enzo built bit by bit. Acer is the most common enabler, and its latest prancing horse-decal'd product is the F-22bid, a 22-inch LCD sporting a 1680 x 1050 resolution and a racy (sorry) 2ms gray-to-gray response rate. Brightness is the standard 300cd/m2, though a contrast ratio of 20,000:1 impresses, and VGA, DVI, and HDMI inputs mean it should easily connect to just about all of your headless video outputting devices -- but at what cost? Acer isn't telling, and with only 500 of these being built, we're not expecting affordability here.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1

2008-09-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Last we heard from Panasonic, the DMC-G1 super-light was tentatively priced at $799 for US markets. Turns out this is fact, at least if the officials at Panasonic's booth here at CEATEC are to be believed. What's more, they say the G1 will hit stateside shores in November, so if you're in the market for a new camera, start saving now. In related news, we got our hands on the G1 again, this time in red (the camera, not our hands). The digital viewfinder is still a bit disorienting, but the proximity sensor that turns off the big display when you're up close is a nice little trick.

LG KP500

2008-09-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Got touchscreen envy but don't have the pair of Benjamins required to get yourself into a celly without a keypad? LG has a solution: the KP500, a nearly button-less and stylus-bearing handset that sounds rather like another recent cheap smartphone. LG's not giving many details about this one beyond its 3-inch display, a 3 megapixel camera, motion sensor, and availability in black, brown, silver, or gold (though based on the pic above we'd stay away from that last one). There's a short video of the TouchFLO-like UI to whet your appetite just below, but that's all we have to share until this phone hits Europe in a month, with a worldwide release to come afterward.

Super Talent 128GB Solid-state drive

2008-09-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

If you've been waiting for SSD prices to drop to reasonable ranges -- now may be the time to put the credit card down. Super Talent has begun selling its 128GB, 2.5-inch, SATA II "MasterDrive LX" for the shocking affordable price of $299, which works out to about $2.49 per gigabyte. If that still puts of pinch on your pocketbook (and what doesn't right now?), then perhaps you can be enticed by the company's 64GB offering, which clocks in at a fairly doable $179. With prices this low, you barely have a defense against purchase... unless, you know... you don't have the money. Then we totally understand.

Husbands are husbands ..........

2008-09-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

A man was sitting reading his papers when his wife hit him round the head with a frying pan.

'What was that for?' the man asked.

The wife replied 'That was for the piece of paper with the name Jenny on it that I found in your pants pocket'.

The man then said 'When I was at the races last week Jenny was the name of the horse I bet on'

The wife apologized and went on with the housework.

Three days later the man is watching TV when his wife bashes him on the head with an even bigger frying pan, knocking him unconscious.

Upon re-gaining consciousness the man asked why she had hit again.

Wife replied. 'Your horse phoned'

Sprint's Touch Diamond

2008-09-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Like they said they would, Sprint just spun the HTC Touch Diamond out for retail. $250 (after $200 instant savings, $100 mail-in rebate, and 2-year contract) takes home this WinMo 6.1 candybar with HTC's TouchFLO 3D salve layered atop a 2.8-inch touch-screen display, 4GB of memory, WiFi, 3.2 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, GPS, and EV-DO Rev. A. The tough decision is buy now, wait for Sprint's Touch Pro launching on October 19th, or hold-out for Best Buy to get its act together and put the $700 unlocked 3G Touch Diamond out onto store shelves.

How Cabbies are made

2008-09-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

A woman and her son were taking a cab in New York City.

It was raining and all the hookers were standing under the awnings.

'Mommy,' said the little boy, 'what are all those ladies doing?'

'They're waiting for their husbands to get off of work,' she replied.

The cabbie turns around and says, 'Geez lady, why don't you tell him the truth?

Their hookers. They have sex with men for money.'

The little boy's eyes get wide and he says, 'Is that true, mommy?'

His mother, glaring at the cabbie, answers in the affirmative.

After a few minutes, the kid asks, 'Mommy what happens to the babies those ladies have?'
'They become cab drivers,' she replied.

Dell confirms Inspiron 910 netbook arriving this week

2008-09-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

Dell's Inspiron 910 / Mini Inspiron hasn't exactly been a secret since we first heard about it back in April, but it sounds like this baby bump is about to go from open secret to bouncing bundle of joy -- Dell just confirmed to InformationWeek that the netbook is scheduled to arrive later this week. That's all we know right now -- Dell reps called those earlier specs we'd heard "pretty much rumor and speculation" -- but we'll go out on a limb and say we wouldn't expect anything less than an 8.9-inch screen and 1.6GHz Atom in there. Sorry if we killed the surprise, guys -- but remember, you can still wow us with the price tag.

SONY UNVEILS WIRELESS MULTI-ROOM AUDIO SYSTEM FOR IPOD PLAYERS

2008-08-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

The new S-AIRPLAY™ system features Sony's S-Air™ technology, which provides a practical, wireless multi-room solution without complicated set-up requirements. Wireless audio can be transmitted from the system's main docking station in one room to various rooms throughout the home -- up to nearly 164 feet-simply by plugging a separate S-Air wireless speaker into a power outlet.

"This technology makes it easy to listen to music from a compatible iPod without carrying it from room to room," said Andrew Sivori, director of marketing in the personal audio group at Sony Electronics' Digital Imaging and Audio Division. "It's an easy, inexpensive way to get multi-room audio without professional installation."

S-Air technology delivers audio wirelessly to the included speakers without interfering with other household devices. The system comes with one docking station and two S-Air wireless speakers, but it can transmit to up to 10 speakers simultaneously (additional speakers sold separately).

Equipped with an AM/FM tuner, the S-AIRPLAY system's dual source feature lets users listen to music from the iPod player or from a radio station. Listeners in one room can hear their favorite radio station, while listeners in another room can enjoy music from the iPod at the same time.

The S-Air wireless speakers include remote control capability for the iPod player's music tracks so you can advance or go back to previously played songs. The speakers also incorporate sleep timers and an alarm clock function, making them perfect for bedside placement.
To connect to an existing home theater system or television set, the docking station includes composite A/V outputs. It also charges the iPod while it is docked.

Pricing and Availability
Pre-orders for the S-AIRPLAY audio system are now being accepted online at www.sonystyle.com. The system (model AIR-SA20PK) will be available in September for about $400 at Sony Style® retail stores and select retailers nationwide. Additional S-Air wireless speakers will also be available next month for about $130 direct from Sony.

Prison Break.........

2008-08-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

A man escapes from a prison where he's been locked up for 15 years. He
breaks into a house to look for money and guns. Inside, he finds a young
couple in bed. He orders the guy out of bed and ties him to a
chair. While tying the homeowner's wife to the bed, the convict gets on
top of her, kisses her neck, then gets up and goes into the bathroom.

While he's in there, the husband whispers over to his wife: 'Listen,
this guy is an escaped convict. Look at his clothes! He's probably spent
a lot of time in jail and hasn't seen a woman in years. I saw how he
kissed your neck. If he wants sex, don't resist, don't complain... do
whatever he tells you. Satisfy him no matter how much he nauseates you.
This guy is obviously very dangerous. If he gets angry, he'll kill us
both. Be strong, honey. I love you!'

His wife responds, 'He wasn't kissing my neck. He was whispering in my
ear. He told me that he's gay, thinks you're cute, and asked if we had
any Vaseline. I told him it was in the bathroom. Be strong honey. I love
you, too.

400 Gigabytes for your Laptop - Toshiba

2008-07-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

Toshiba's storage division is gearing up for the holiday season with a line of 400-Gbyte 2.5-inch disk drives.

Toshiba said that the 5,400-RPM MK4058GSX line, with capacities up to 400 GB, will begin shipping in September, in time for OEMs to build them into laptops they can sell in time for the holidays. The company also announced the MKxx54GSY family, a line of 7,200-RPM drives that will begin shipping in August.

Toshiba claimed that the new 5,400, 400-Gbyte drives are nearly inaudible, at 2.5 bels for both idle and operating modes. Toshiba specified the drive's power consumption at 0.0015 watts per gigabyte, which would make a 400-Gbyte drive consume 0.6 watts. Toshiba believes OEMs interested in quiet video playback will purchase the new drives.

The 7,200-RPM MKxx54GSY family runs at between 2.5 to 2.8 bels in operating mode, depending upon the size of the drive. Power consumption ranges from 0.0028 W/GB to 0.01113 W/GB.

Pioneer develops 400GB blue laser disc

2008-07-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

Pioneer has developed an optical disc that can hold up to 400GB of data, easily surpassing previously announced prototypes (see "A battle brews between blue-laser optical disk and tape").

The new disc manages to pack 16 layers, each with a 25GB capacity, into a conventional 12-centimeter diameter optical disc. The new discs are similar to Blu-ray Disc technology and slight changes to the hardware on a Blu-ray drive would allow the new Pioneer discs to be used on one.

Pioneer doesn't have any plans to commercially produce the disc but is looking to work with disc manufacturers that would make it themselves. The technology is about ready to enter commercialization, said Michiko Kadoi, a spokeswoman for Pioneer Corp. in Tokyo.

A one-sided Blu-ray Disc has 25GB of capacity, far less than the Pioneer disc.

Currently, dual-layer 50GB discs are the highest capacity discs available commercially. Various companies have worked on higher capacity discs and TDK Corp. previously announced development of a 6-layer disc with 150GB capacity, but that has yet to reach the market.

Getting a clear signal from each recording layer has been a stumbling block for higher capacity discs with more layers, but Pioneer said it has managed to solve this problem by employing technology it developed for DVDs. The new disc has a structure that reduces interference from adjacent layers and so accurate playback is possible from all 16 layers, the company said.

The initial prototype is a read-only disc but the same technology is also applicable to recordable discs.

A current 50GB Blu-ray Disc can store about six hours of digital high-definition TV so the higher capacity discs, if commercialized, would be able to expand this to 48 hours.

Pioneer plans to detail the technology at the Joint International Symposium on Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage 2008 that will be held in Hawaii from July 13 to July 17.

Microsoft Releases Free Customization Pack for Office Accounting 2008

2008-07-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

Partner Customization Pack for Office Accounting 2008 provides a guide on how you can create a customized version of Microsoft Office Accounting that includes your company brand and exposes your products and services to your customers. Without writing any code, you use a customized XML branding file (Branding.xml) to modify the Office Accounting default user interface. After you customize the branding file, you create a setup package and distribute your co-branded version Office Accounting to your customers. You can also use the Office Accounting services infrastructure to create services, which interact with the Office Accounting client.

--> Download Partner Customization Pack for Office Accounting 2008

20 Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts To Save You Time

2008-06-28T23:51:00.000-07:00

Select location bar: Ctrl/Cmd+L or Alt+D
Select search bar: Ctrl/Cmd+K
Go to your default homepage: Alt/Option+Home
Go back a page: Alt/Cmd+Left Arrow or Backspace
Go forward a page: Alt/Option+Right Arrow, or Shift+Backspace
Select an entire page: (ready to copy and paste) Ctrl/Cmd+A
Copy selected text: Ctrl/Cmd+C
Paste to new location: Ctrl/Cmd+V
Select specific text with keyboard: Turn carat browsing on (F7)
Refresh/reload page: F5 or Ctrl/Cmd+R
Open New Tab: Ctrl/Cmd+T
Switch between tabs: Ctrl/Cmd+Tab
Select tab by position: Ctrl/Cmd+position (1 - 9)
View Page Source: Ctrl/Cmd+U
Find specific words on a page: Ctrl/Cmd F to open Quick Find Box (bottom left of screen).
Print Page: Ctrl/Cmd+P
Save Page: Ctrl/Cmd+S
Increase text size: Ctrl/Cmd++
Decrease text size: Ctrl/Cmd+-
Clear Private data: Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Del

Yahoo delivers new free email addresses

2008-06-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yahoo on Thursday is tripling the size of its globally-popular free online email service by adding two new domains as options to "@yahoo.com" addresses.

The introduction of "@ymail.com" and "@rocketmail.com" as Yahoo email address options comes as the pioneering Internet firm strives to convince investors it is on a path to reclaim faded glory and eroded revenues.

Yahoo Mail is the most popular web-based email in the world. Its profitable ad-supported service has approximately 266 million users, according to industry statistics.