Archive for the ‘Tech’ Category
Intel’s new Core i7, Core i5 desktop chips bring faster CPUs to the maintream
September 7th, 2009 | 
Author: Intel put itself far ahead of AMD technically last year with its Core i7 desktop CPUs, but the high-end prices for the Core i7 900-series made Intel’s most advanced chip architecture more of a luxury than an industry standard. Monday’s announcement of Intel’s new, more affordable Core i7 800-series chips, as well as an even cheaper Core i5 CPU, will likely lead to Intel’s most advanced chip penetrating the mainstream retail market.
Intel has three new chips to announce, as well as the new Intel P55 Express motherboard chipset to support them. The new Core i7’s include the $562 2.93GHz Core i7 870, the $284 Core i7 860 at 2.8GHz, as well as the $196 2.6GHz Core i5 750 chip. Each is essentially a stripped-down version of its counterpart from the Core i7 900-series, the most affordable of which, the 2.66GHz Core i7 920, starts at about $280.
Full story :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10345053-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Asus Eee-reader to open like a book
We’re getting more details about that upcoming Asus Eee-book reader we told you about last month.
The company is looking at two versions: budget and premium, a spokesman for Asus in the U.K. told the Times of London.
But most intriguing is that at least one version of the reader, the higher-end one, would have a hinged spine, opening like a traditional book and closing into tablet form. This design would let users view the text of their book on one screen (turning its pages using the touch screen), while browsing a Web page on the other.
One screen could also act as a virtual keypad, according to the Times report, which would move the device into laptop territory.
The Asus e-reader would have a full color screen, and it may also feature speakers, a Webcam, and a mic for Skype, enabling cheap phone calls over the Internet, the Times reports.
As for price, we don’t have hard numbers for you yet, but Asus is known for low-cost products like the ultraportable Eee PC, and speculation has the budget e-reader going for around $163 (Sony’s Reader Pocket Edition, in comparison, runs from $200 to $300; Amazon’s Kindle 2 also goes for around $300).
Expect to meet the Eee-readers by the end of the year if all goes according to plan.
Full story :
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10346194-1.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Nokia unveils N97 Mini, plus Netbook pricing
Nokia, the world’s largest maker of cell phones, on Wednesday announced new phones loaded with more music features and better integration with Facebook, as well as pricing for its upcoming Netbook.
Nokia N97 Mini
(Credit: Nokia )
The company announced the new phones and services at its Nokia World Conference in Stuttgart, Germany.
Tops on the list of new phones is the N97 Mini, a slightly smaller version of Nokia’s existing flagship N97 smartphone. This new, smaller N97 has a shorter battery life than the earlier device and also less memory (8GB compared to 32GB), and a smaller touch-screen display. The device is expected to ship in October. Its list price at 450 euros, or about $639, is not much less than that of the full-fledged N97, which initially went on sale in the U.S. for $700.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10331767-266.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Control4 displays to monitor energy in smart-grid project
Control4 Energy Systems, one of a growing number of home energy display providers, said on Tuesday it will supply energy monitors in a planned smart-grid project in rural Texas.
The home energy monitor–a five-inch-wide monitor that resembles a car GPS unit–will display electricity usage in real time and provide consumers the ability to program a thermostat, according to Will Holford, the public affairs manager at Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative.
The system works by using Zigbee wireless networking within the home to connect the monitor to the thermostat, which communicates with the utility via a smart meter. Other providers in the project, which the utility hopes to begin work on in the second quarter next year, include smart meter provider eMeter and Silver Spring Networks which provides a networking card for the meter.
Control4, which is perhaps better known for its home media management systems, raised $17.3 million in July to expand into the energy monitoring business.
Control4’s display for managing home energy along with home media.
(Credit: Control4.)
Home energy monitors, or in-home displays, are a key piece of the more advanced smart-grid programs being pursued by utilities. By providing more data and ways to program appliances, utilities hope that consumers will be able to find ways to shave back on consumption.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10322885-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in evironment, Green, software, Tech | 
Tags: Control4 Energy Systems, energy monitor, Green | 
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Tetris is good for the brain, study claims
I met a perfectly lovely young woman this weekend who told me that when she was a teenager she took Ecstasy, snorted coke, and inhaled pot as if it were dim sum on a Sunday morning.
So I found myself relieved beyond the effects of a hot stone massage to discover that research on teenage girls has shown that when they play Tetris it has a wonderfully positive effect on their brains.
The Mind Research Network, which appears to be a nonprofit organization that examines brain injury and mental illness, decided to spend three months of its life and donations on watching what happens when teenage girls play Tetris.
The network’s scientists seem giddy about the results: consistent practice on the pleasantly mind-numbing little game seems to have given the girls a thicker cortex, as well as creating more brain efficiency in other parts of their tender gray areas.
Now, I’m not sure that every teenage girl on earth will be excited about having a thicker cortex, but the brain of Dr. Rex Jung, one of the boffins behind this experiment, is veritably bursting with joy.
“We did our Tetris study to see if mental practice increased cortical thickness, a sign of more gray matter,” Dr. Jung said Monday in a press statement.
(Credit: Cc TotalAldo/Flickr)He continued: “If it did, it could be an explanation for why previous studies have shown that mental practice increases brain efficiency. More gray matter in an area could mean that the area would not need to work as hard during Tetris play.”
Essentially, the excitement engendered by this little game playing seems to revolve around the notion that the brain’s structure is not as fixed as scientists of old had assumed.
However, I feel I need now explore the frisson of doubt that overcomes me every time I read research. You see, this study does not help us discover the actual relationship between a thicker cortex and increased brain efficiency.
How might I know this? Why, because I read the smaller print, in which Dr. Richard Haier, a co-investigator of the Tetrisettes, said: “How a thicker cortex and increased brain efficiency are related remains a mystery.”
You see, the functioning of teenage girls’ brains is, as one has always thought, an utter befuddlement.
While the scientists claim that they used girls in the study because boys tend to have too much video game experience, I am now wondering just one thing: were these Tetrisettes drug-tested?
I know you might think this is far fetched. I know you may think I only meet lovely girls who are strange and tell outlandish tales of teenage drug use.
But, you see, there were only 26 girls in this study. And if I’m to believe that the actions of teenage girls will somehow inform our knowledge of the brain, I want them tested for coke, pot, E, and, definitely, crystal meth.
Interestingly, the study’s notes say that none of the girls was taking a prescription medication. But neither were so many baseball players in the 1990s.
Perhaps my zeal for scientific purity, otherwise known as my skepticism, may be excessive here.
But perhaps it was made excessive by some small print in the study. I know your cortex will become thinner on receiving this information, but the study was funded by “Blue Planet Software (BPS), Inc., the company holding exclusive licensing rights to Tetris”.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10322773-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Here’s a great Tetris site :
