Surveys of any kind regarding technology are always tough to prove, though that doesn’t make them any less interesting. In a Motorola-commissioned survey, it looks as if the generational gap regarding “being connected” via technology is disappearing. The study was done to find out the connection “Millennials,” “Gen Xers,” and “Boomers.”
The study has shown that all generations relay on connectivity. To a majority of all the generations, being connected and accessible is viewed as more of a necessity than anything else, with Millennials having the highest rating of 79 percent. Not only to those surveyed feel a need to be connected, but 66 percent of all those surveyed have become to expect being able to access their media anywhere, at any time. There was also found an interest among those surveyed in customization of technology, which has been a recent selling point for many devices.
The one part of the survey I find to be fairly hard to prove is that fact that most Gen Xers (89 percent) and Boomers (74 percent) say that they influence their children’s tech habits. Surely parents are going to say that they influence their children’s decisions on many things, but those overwhelming figures for decisions regarding tech seem a bit questionable. Either way, it is showing that we, as an American society, are becoming increasingly reliant on connectivity through our technology. Say what you will about that idea, but I find it to be a good sign. It can be overwhelming at times, but more connectivity, to me, is always a good thing.
OWC has launched a new line of portable hard drives. The Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini line sports the same brushed aluminum case as the Mercury Elite-AI Pro line but in a smaller package. This new line of hard drives is only 3.8 by 5.5 by 1.1 making them easy to tote around. They are bus powered, eliminating the need to carry a bulky AC adapter with you, but an optional one is available. The drives offer an eSATA port, USB 2.0 port and a pair of FireWire 800 ports. Cables for all are included along with a FireWire 400 to FireWire 800 cable.
The drives come in a wide variety of sizes and prices for every need and budget, starting with three 5200RPM/5400RPM drives. The 320GB model goes for $139.99, the 500GB for $169.99 and the 750GB for $249.99. There are also two 7200RPM drives, a 320GB for $149.99 and a 500GB for $199. For the big spenders there is even an SSD option-256GB for a whopping $839.99. Want to use your own drive? There are also enclosure kits available for $97.99 with an included software bundle including back up programs, or $89.99 without.
The only downside I see so far is buried in the fine print: "Over 2GB of Freeware, Shareware, and Public Domain software installed." Now I don't know about you but I prefer to decide what I want installed on my drives and devices. When I get a new computer the first thing I do is uninstall all the trial and junkware that comes with it. If you're like me you may have to do the same with these drives!
FROM GAMERTELL - Walmart has announced if you purchase a Wii in-store between December 5-12, 2009, you’ll get a $50 gift card. Walmart has also announced that it has discounted 25 select games until December 24, 2009. MORE »
Last week, the internet was ablaze with stories about the new “Black Screen of Death”, Gadgetell included. Sources claimed that the Windows 7 security update caused this new BSOD and even though Microsoft denied those charges, the blame continued on. But now, the same company who made the original claim against Microsoft, Prevx, now is stating that the black screen is most likely caused by malware, not the security update. It seems those Mac vs. PC commercials have finally gotten to our heads.
Prevx’z CEO Mel Morris made a blog post, apologizing to Microsoft.
"The issue appears to be related to a characteristic of the Windows Registry related to the storage of string data. In parsing the Shell value in the registry, Windows requires a null terminated 'REG_SZ' string. However, if malware or indeed any other program modifies the shell entry to not include null terminating characters, the shell will no longer load properly, resulting in the infamous Black Screen with the PC showing only the My Computer folder."
Microsoft’s Chief Security Adviser of Microsoft EMEA Roger Halbheer retaliated to this post on his own blog.
Looking at that, you should now make your risk assessment and decide which source you want to trust. For me, the ultimate source for information you should build your assessment on is neither Twitter nor your brother's sister in law's father's brother (unless he works for Microsoft's security) but our website.
I can understand how people would believe that this would be Microsoft’s error. With all the problems that Vista had, and all the Mac vs. PC attack ads, its understandable that we have lost some trust in Microsoft. But that doesn’t mean we can believe every rumor that comes out about them. Microsoft has given reason to begin to trust them again, in Windows 7. Listen to both sides of the story in every argument.
FROM APPLETELL - If you’re a watcher of Diggnation, then you already know Alex Albrecht was “shocked” to hear how low the price of the long rumored Apple tablet will be. MORE »
Prospective students now have another weapon to make deciding on a college easier: Google Street View. Google added two colleges and is soliciting for more, free of charge, to make choosing a college as easy as a few clicks. Google sent cars and trikes to take imagery to add to their Street View. The results: pretty cool.
Google has put the offer out there to parks, theme parks, schools, or anywhere Google Street View visitors might like to visit. The company partnered with LegoLand and Hershey Park to be among the launch locations.
Colleges have much to gain from this as well. Currently Boston University and San Diego State University are the two schools on board, but surely more will follow. The walking tour takes you through the school, under archways and winds through busy quads. How they get the college kids not to moon the camera must be a well-kept Google secret.
Billed as music-infused headwear for those who hate wires, the i360 headbands and beanies provide wireless listening enjoyment. Could this be a Bluetooth A2DP solution we’ve all been waiting for? Anyone who has exercised around swinging headphone wires knows we need a better solution.
Instead of Bluetooth, i360 chose to go another route: it stores the iPod up in the headwear. Clearly this concept would work best with a smaller iPod Shuffle vs the longer Nano, but that doesn’t stop this company from going after both. Most products are offered in two versions, to support all generations of the Nano.
The company produces headbands, beanies and even hat beanies with pockets for the Nano and Shuffle at prices starting at $39.99. Controls are left exposed so you can pause, forward and rewind your tunes. In the video below, the brainchild explains that you can even play a music video on the screen showing people how bold you are.
The thought of being tracked is in the minds of many, personally it has crossed my mind more than I would care to admit. Now with always connected, and always tracking devices that possibility is becoming more and more commonplace. But aside from speaking of my paranoia, there may be reason to worry, or at least give a second thought—at least for those using Sprint.
It seems that Sprint has handed over the GPS location data more than 8 million times in the past 13 months. Now, to make that number seem a little worse, if we went ahead and broke that down into how any requests that meant per day I am sure many would have a sick feeling in their stomach. Of course, I would like to imagine that the requesting officials had a good reason to suspect you of having done something wrong.
Interestingly enough, due to the demand for these requests Sprint has gone and actually created a special web interface to make the process of giving up the data easier. Now, while we see the 8 million number, it is not clear how many actual customers were affected, and more worrysome was whether or not any warrants were needed to get this information.
Of course, in all fairness I should point out that while this is referring to Sprint, I would imagine that the other three major US carriers (as well as smaller ones) have done similar things when asked by law enforcement officials.
I guess the bottom line is that if you are not doing anything wrong then you should not have anything to worry about, but still it makes me feel a little uneasy.
Its hard to think of Gmail as anything other than an email service, but for a limited time this holiday season they are going to be in the business of mailing out postcards, by way of snail mail.
The holiday post card offer is going to be around for a limited time, and for a limited amount of people so if you want to send one you better not wait to long. As far as what you can choose from, they have a variety of six different designs, all of which can be personalized with a 255 character message. And yes, Google is even paying the postage, but that also means they are limiting your holiday post card sending experience to one per person.
I guess this is just about as close to a way to send some holiday cheer to that one person in your life that is not using email yet.
Personally I have always loved the idea of getting gift cards, mainly because I am nearly impossible to shop for. That said, I often like to give a gift card, mainly because I am a terrible shopper. Still, I understand that gift cards are generally a boring gift for many to receive.
But it seems that Target has decided to change that up a little bit with their new Remote Control Gift Card. According to the description, it is a “gift card and a remote-control toy all in one.” Basically what you get is a remote control with a few buttons that controls a little mouse in a shopping card.
Finally, these gift cards can be purchased with a value ranging from anywhere as low as $25 up to $1,000 and are available both in-store and online.
Its not often I get excited about the announcement of a set of desktop computer speakers, but the latest news from JBL has me itching to break out my debit card. The news is the return of the Creature speakers, which comes in the form of the Creature III.
Of course, for anyone that may not remember, these were originally released back in 2002 and similar to the older versions this update offers a 2.1 design (meaning 2 speakers and 1 subwoofer). But the new Creature III’s are a little different in design, based on what I can tell from the images, in the footings. And according to the press release, the subwoofer is also “more compact” which is a little strange to think because the subwoofer was not all that large in the past.
As of now these speakers are not yet available for purchase, though they are expected to be available soon. Price wise they will retail for $129.99 and will be found with Apple—both online and in the retail stores.
And, as much as I hate to admit it, I am still sporting a set of speakers that were most likely purchased sometime around 2004, and yes they are a set of the previous generation Creatures. In short, that means I am long overdue for an upgrade, and what better way than to upgrade with a new model of a speaker I already love, both in terms of design and sound quality. Personally I am opting for the black, but they are also going to be available in white.
Rumored to be available in a few months, the Sholes Tablet will feature a 3.7” screen, multitouch support, and the same processor as the Droid. But the big news is the 8-megapixel camera. The Droid only had a 5-megapixel. With the new camera, the encore to the Droid will be able to shoot 720p video. Then, you’ll be able to use the built-in HDMI port to output that video. With that, you now have an on-the-go HD video camera; the first of its kind to be seen on a mobile cellular device.
The Motorola Droid was just released in October and is already a very impressive and successful phone. But according to the Chinese website, we could be seeing the Sholes Tablet replace the Droid within months. The only thing we have to go on, though, are the pictures that have been posted. Hopefully, this phone will set the new standard for phones just like the iPhone did and bring about the next generation of cell phones.
Solid State Drives, or SSD’s, are finally becoming cheap enough to be popular and with good reason. SSD’s have the ability to run much faster at significantly lower temperatures when compared to regular hard drives. This is because SSD’s have no moving parts in them whatsoever, unlike hard drives. But now there is an SSD that claims to be 50% faster then any hard drive.
Micron’s C300, 2.5 inch RealSSD comes in 128GB and 256GB and is the first to utilize the new SATA 3.0. The 3.0 allows 6GB/s throughout, two times that of SATA 2.0’s. With that, the C300 has a read speed of 355MB/s and a write speed of 215MB/s. Compare that to the OCZ’s Agility EX, another leader in the hard drive industry, with read and write speeds of 255MB/s and 195MB/s respectively.
According to Micron’s comparison video on YouTube, the C300 can boot up to two times faster than a regular hard drive and that can be seen in that video. The difference between the two is obvious.
Now, your going to be paying a pretty penny for these things next year. The 128GB comes in at $350 dollars and the 256GB comes in at $715. But if you have the money to spend, go for it. These things are quite a few steps above everything else. First for being a SSD, and second for using the SATA 3.0 which combined gets it incredible speeds.
Wolfram Alpha is fantastic for finding any type of data known to man. Now they have released a new component of their service that gets closer to actually doing all of the work for you.
The concept is simple. When you get stuck solving an equation, Wolfram Alpha will give that little push to keep you going. Of course any typical student will most likely abuse this service to get done with homework quick, but for others, it will be an extremely valuable tool for learning and problem solving.
So the next time you need to solve a quadratic or find any integral just Alpha it.
Surveys of any kind regarding technology are always tough to prove, though that doesn’t make them any less interesting. In a Motorola-commissioned survey, it looks as if the generational gap regarding “being connected” via technology is disappearing. The study was done to find out the connection “Millennials,” “Gen Xers,” and “Boomers.”
OWC has launched a new line of portable hard drives. The Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini line sports the same brushed aluminum case as the Mercury Elite-AI Pro line but in a smaller package. This new line of hard drives is only 3.8 by 5.5 by 1.1 making them easy to tote around. They are bus powered, eliminating the need to carry a bulky AC adapter with you, but an optional one is available. The drives offer an eSATA port, USB 2.0 port and a pair of FireWire 800 ports. Cables for all are included along with a FireWire 400 to FireWire 800 cable.
Last week, the internet was ablaze with stories about the new “Black Screen of Death”, 
Billed as music-infused headwear for those who hate wires, the i360 headbands and beanies provide wireless listening enjoyment. Could this be a Bluetooth A2DP solution we’ve all been waiting for? Anyone who has exercised around swinging headphone wires knows we need a better solution.
The thought of being tracked is in the minds of many, personally it has crossed my mind more than I would care to admit. Now with always connected, and always tracking devices that possibility is becoming more and more commonplace. But aside from speaking of my paranoia, there may be reason to worry, or at least give a second thought—at least for those using Sprint.
Personally I have always loved the idea of getting gift cards, mainly because I am nearly impossible to shop for. That said, I often like to give a gift card, mainly because I am a terrible shopper. Still, I understand that gift cards are generally a boring gift for many to receive.
Pictures were recently leaked of the Motorola Droid’s successor code-named “Sholes-Tablet” featuring a set of very impressive specs on a 
Wolfram Alpha is fantastic for finding any type of data known to man. Now they have released a new component of their service that gets closer to actually doing all of the work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment