Many Windows 7 users are complaining about the severe loss in battery life in their notebooks after only a few weeks. Cases like a previous battery life of two hours cutting down to 30 minutes or less are common. Other cases involve their notebook actually telling them they need a new battery after upgrading to 7, even though Vista said it was fine. Many complaints similar to those above have been put onto Microsoft’s TechNet forum; and Microsoft has decided to investigate into this problem.
So far, Microsoft’s only reasoning for these problems is compatibility issues with its hardware. A spokesman from Microsoft states that it might be a problem in communication between the BIOS and Windows as that is where 7 gets all of its data on battery life. Other than that though, no official cause has been found. But Microsoft did state that as soon as one was found, they would update the community on their TechNet forum.
Be sure to check back for more information regarding this issue.
A Portuguese company has come up with a technology called the projective capacitive touchscreen. Unlike the typical multitouch screen on your gadgets, this touchscreen is a thinner-than-paper polymer film that when applied to glass, plastic or wood turns the surface interactive. Due to the nature of the polymer film, it can even be applied on curved surfaces.
It currently supports16-finger multitouch on a 50-inch screen, and they expect to improve it to support up to 65 fingers! The screen also interacts with airflow, which means that you can blow the surface and the screen will be able to detect it.
They are already working with a number of manufacturers to bring this technology to market, and if things goes according to plan, we may be able to see Displax-based applications this July!
If you ride on a motorcycle often for travel, then you probably know how difficult communication is of any sort, whether it be on the phone or talking to the person next to you. Recently, Cardo Systems announced a new product based on Bluetooth to help motorcyclists communicate with one another, or multiple riders.
The scala rider G4 allows up to two riders and two passengers to communicate all at once, or three separate riders, or just two people as long as everyone is within a one mile radius. If you and a group of friends are all traveling to the same place, the ability to communicate at once is definitely helpful. In addition, the scala rider G4 can connect to any other Bluetooth device, such as a MP3 player, GPS unit, and cell phones. In case your devices are not Bluetooth-capable, the scala rider G4 still has a jack that can connect to those devices.
It sports a FM radio, voice activated controls, automatic volume control based on surrounding noise, a weatherproof design, 10 hour battery life on constant usage, and a noise canceling microphone. It it set to retail for $279.95.
The Fujitsu LifeBook UH900 has just been released in the US, for $999. It comes with a 5.6” multitouch display, features an Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz processor, 2GB RAM, a 62GB SSD, GPS and it runs on Windows 7 Home Premium. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth. The LifeBook UH900 weighs at just a little over 1 lb, sporting a Lithium ion 2-cell polymer, 7.2V, 1800 mAh battery. No words on its battery life, though.
The US version of the LifeBook UH900 is slightly cheaper than its Japanese counterpart, which is priced at approximately $1100. The LifeBook UH900 is not exactly the cheapest UMPC in town, but with the $50 off and a $100 mail-in rebate, it brings down the price to $849. As part of this special offer, Fujitsu is also offering a free 160 GB Backup Ultra Portable Hard Drive, or a free Lexmark X2650 All-in-One Inkjet Printer, as well as free shipping.
JVC has just announced a new addition to its newly formed Everio line of HD cameras, the GZ-HM340. The Everio line-up of cameras features three sub-$500 HD models, including the GZ-HM340. The GZ-HM340 features an internal flash memory of 16GB, and an expandable SD/SDHC card slot. The camera utilizes a 1/5.8” 1.37 Megapixel CMOS Sensor, a lens capable of up to 20x optical zoom, Advanced Image Stabilizer and face detection. The camera allows you to shoot continuously using dual SD cards or flash memory by automatically switching between those internal media without any interruptions to your recording. It comes with a feature called Face Flow Thumbnail, which displays thumbnails of your videos by using human faces automatically cropped from sections of your video.
Another interesting feature included in the GZ-HM340 is the Time-lapse recording option. It allows for one to 80 second intervals of recording. It is unknown whether a power conservation feature (such as auto off and on) is available when recording a time-lapse video with long intervals. Perhaps the camera needs to be powered up by an AC adapter throughout the time-lapse recording.
The GZ-HM340 also features integration with web services such as YouTube and iTunes. The bundled Everio MediaBrowser software automatically converts, downscales or upscales SD and HD videos for immediate upload to YouTube. The software also allows files to be exported to iTunes, and synced with an iPod or iPhone, or burned to a DVD.
For only $499.95, I think this camera is definitely worth the buy. It will be available later this month.
FROM APPLETELL - Using the Sonnet Firewire 400 to 800 adapter, I was quickly able to get my old Firewire 400 MiniDV camcorder to show up in iMovie on my Firewire 800 Mac. MORE »
Samsung has just updated its EcoGreen HDD line with a new green hard drive called the EcoGreen F3EG, boasting a massive capacity of 2TB with a 3Gbps SATA interface and 16MB or 32MB buffer memory. It has 4 platters of 500GB each, totaling up to its 2TB capacity.
What’s green about this HDD is that it features low-power consumption, low-noise, and an eco-friendly design which meets environmental regulations including RoHS (Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment). Samsung claims that the hard drive uses 40% less power in idle mode and 10% less power in read/write mode than competing drives. Although there isn’t much difference in power usage when in read/write mode, every bit helps in going green. The F3EG also features Samsung’s proprietary technologies such as SilentSeek and NoiseGuard to achieve quiet operation. The F3EG is available for $179.99.
FROM GAMERTELL - It was reported that Microsoft has already hinted that it might try to link Xbox Live experience to the Windows Mobile platform but what will it take to work? Read on… MORE »
Several Twitter users have reported that their accounts have been locked out of Twitter, and are forced to perform a password change. They have received an email notifying them of possible phishing attacks on their accounts, sparking rumors of a wide-spread phishing attack. Some of them have even suspected that the official notification emails sent out by Twitter are actually attempts at phishing, however, the email is genuine. The staff at Twitter may have discovered something fishy is going on, and decided to take precautionary steps. For now, it would be wise to heed Twitter’s advice on changing your passwords. Here is an excerpt of the email:
Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset. Please create a new password by opening this link in your browser: [PASSWORD RESET LINK].
As a reminder, you should be extraordinarily suspicious of any third party that offers to artificially inflate your follower count. We do not endorse any of these sites.
FROM APPLETELL - Neil Curtis has edited together an under-three-minute clip of Steve Jobs’ iPad media presentation. And yes, it’s meant to be humorous. MORE »
Acer won’t play that. According to DigiTimes, Acer Taiwan President Scott Lin says he won’t follow Apple down the rabbit hole to tablet computer land. Instead, he says the company will focus on ultra-thin notebooks.
Lin reportedly explained the while creating a tablet is child’s play for Acer, creating the ecosystem around it is Apple’s forte and is not easily repeated. Lin hinted other companies will try to duplicate the hardware, but will fall short in software. Therefore, Acer will focus on what it does best notebooks and ultra-thin notebooks.
Lin noted he expects the iPad not to draw sales away from his product line. He believes the iPad will draw from a very different customer base than those that seek Acer products. It will be interesting to see if Apple can convert netbook buyers or even notebook buyers into iPad buyers or if Lin is correct and they’ll pull from a different base.
According to a phone interview with Venturebeat, the JooJoo tablet computer will begin shipping to pre-orders later this month, within the time promised by the company. With all the hype behind the Apple iPad tablet, the timing could be perfect for Fusion Garage to launch the JooJoo as Apple has done the hard part of whipping potential customers into a frenzy for the next great thing. The JooJoo is listed for sale at $499.
Revealed during the call is manufacturing assistance by a phone manufacturer in southeast Asia. Though Fusion Garage refused to name the company, the move will reduce the high up-front costs of small run manufacturing in exchange for a royalty of each JooJoo sold. This should help keep the company stable throughout the launch cycle. Fusion Garage raised $3 million in first round funding and expects to announce a new round shortly.
When asked point blank about the JooJoo’s chances over the iPad, Fusion Garage CEO said, “t has a much larger screen, 12.1 inches instead of 9.7 inches. The resolution is 1368 by 768 pixels instead of 1024 by 768. There are an extra 300 pixels of length, so it's 16:9 widescreen resolution instead of 4:3. Watching video on it is a joy. And the Web browsing experience is even better than the iPad, because of the size of the screen.”
JooJoo started as a partnership between Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Fusion Garage. The relationship has since deteriorated with both partners bringing legal claims against the other. It is unclear if those claims will delay shipping to customers that have pre-ordered. The pre-orders reportedly have surprised Fusion Garage.
The JooJoo won’t have an app store according to the interview, believe that the web can provide much of the content brought about by these applications.
The iPad may be the hot topic at the moment, but I am sure that the iPad is far from the last tablet that we are going to be seeing this year. We already know that Google is planning to do something with Chrome OS and now we are being given what could be described as a first look. Below we have some images, along with a concept video which come courtesy of Google Chrome designer Glen Murphy. Keep in mind that the tablet shown here is likely just one of many (multiple) as we have already heard that Chrome OS will not be limited to just one device. Anyway, its an early look, but still an interesting video and set of images.
As tax time rolls around here in the US, TurboTax has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and will answer questions tweeted from taxpayers. TurboTax is using Twitter to answer general tax questions as well as support questions for their tax software, TurboTax. TurboTax is the nation’s best-selling tax software.
"People are increasingly going online to file their taxes. Now they can just as easily go online to get answers from @TeamTurboTax on Twitter," said Scott Gulbransen, lead for @TeamTurboTax. "This expands the options people have to get answers – whether it's on Twitter, on the Web or on the phone.
TurboTax looks to have a team of 13 on Twitter responding to questions. So far, there looks to be a lot of activity and the team seems very responsive. It’s an aggressive move by the TurboTax team and as we’ve seen from some companies, a very handy well to assist customers. You can get your tax questions answered at @teamturbotax.
The long rumored Motorola Devour that has been popping up on blogs randomly for the past year or so has finally shown a step towards hitting shelves. Verizon’s shelves that is. The latest evidence shows the Devour on a promo box that will likely be shipped to Verizon retail stores.
The rumored specs on this device have been blurry but usually come to a middle ground at a 600 MHz Qualcomm (the same as the recent Pixi), 3.1-inch capacitive touchscreen display, 3-megapixel camera, and will run Android 1.6 with Motoblur. Motoblur will be the interesting new addition that Motorola has thrown on top of Android.
Based on the image in the promo material, the device sports a Razer gray color (not my favorite), and a full QWERTY keyboard minus a D-Pad. Well now that the cat is out of the bag, all we can do is wait.
Many Windows 7 users are complaining about the severe loss in battery life in their notebooks after only a few weeks. Cases like a previous battery life of two hours cutting down to 30 minutes or less are common. Other cases involve their notebook actually telling them they need a new battery after upgrading to 7, even though Vista said it was fine. Many complaints similar to those above have been put onto 
Acer won’t play that. According to DigiTimes, Acer Taiwan President Scott Lin says he won’t follow Apple down the rabbit hole to tablet computer land. Instead, he says the company will focus on ultra-thin notebooks.
According to a phone interview with Venturebeat, the 
As tax time rolls around here in the US, TurboTax has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and will answer questions tweeted from taxpayers. TurboTax is using Twitter to answer general tax questions as well as support questions for their tax software, TurboTax. TurboTax is the nation’s best-selling tax software.
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