A once-unthinkable combo: a picture frame that hides a router
You know those dolls with the crocheted skirt your grandmother had on the back of the toilet, combining home decor with hiding the spare roll? Now D-Link hides a network router inside a digital picture frame.
The D-Link Xtreme N DIR-685 includes an 802.11n Wi-Fi router, an FTP server, network attached storage (how much, D-Link doesn't say), SharePort technology for sharing USB printers and scanners -- and a 3.2-inch LCD monitor that displays pictures, live streaming video and other Internet content, the weather, and network performance statistics and gauges.
Kindle to deliver your daily news, sports, money, and life
USA Today -- which veteran journalist Linda Ellerbee once described as the newspaper for people who find the evening news too complex -- is now available on Amazon's Kindle electronic reading device.
The paper is said to be the top-selling newspaper in the U.S., with a total average daily circulation of 2.3 million and a daily readership of 5.4 million.
Toshiba SSD creeps into an SAS
Showing the expansion of the use of flash memory into enterprise hardware, Toshiba said it was developing a solid-state drive using a SCSI (SAS) interface, making it suitable for high-performance enterprise storage.
Flash memory is solid state, is faster than traditional memory, uses less power, and produces less heat. But although it's earned a bad reputation lately among foundries for being cheap, compared to DRAM, it typically has been more expensive -- at least by the gigabyte -- and thus far it's been used primarily in laptops. On the other hand, servers that take less power and produce less heat could save data centers a lot of money.
Bug Labs' build-your-own devices get sound and wireless
If you know the basics of Java programming, you can use Bug Labs' lengthening list of pre-built components -- which now includes audio and four types of wireless, for instance -- to build devices that do exactly what you want.
At CES this week, Bug Labs is announcing the addition of five more component modules to its earlier five.
Legislation would block the resurrection of TV's 'Fairness Doctrine'
If your YouTube video makes a statement, and it gets onto somebody's HDTV some day, is YouTube obligated to make time available for opposing viewpoints? Certainly not...or so you might think.
Since 1949, a law has existed on the US federal books mandating that broadcasters who grant time for certain viewpoints or opinions grant "equal time" to opposing viewpoints. This is the infamous Fairness Doctrine, which is still the law of the land -- according to a Supreme Court ruling -- although the federal mandate for the FCC to enforce that law was officially repealed in 1985.
Making gestures at Hitachi's latest displays
Those of us who like to gesture at the television while watching news and sporting events are going to have to watch it, thanks to Hitachi.
This week at CES 2009, Hitachi is demonstrating a prototype television that is controlled by hand gestures instead of a remote.
Best Buy gets by on Web sales, Circuit City's struggles persist.
Two major CE retailers released news about how they're coping with the economic downtown, with Best Buy doing considerably better than Circuit City -- which might cease to exist before the month is out.
Best Buy released its sales figures for the 2008 holiday season, and there was good news and bad news. According to the Financial Times, though December sales dropped 6.8% in U.S. stores, the retailer's overall business actually went up 4%. The company also said in its statement that its Web sales had grown 34% in the month of December. The segment which did the best was home office -- which actually went up year over year by 6.5% -- and the segment which did worst was appliances, which went down 24.5%.
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 betas go live
Download Windows 7 Beta from Fileforum now (or at least try).
Huge public turnout online for a beta package that flirts with the 3 GB mark, forced Microsoft Friday afternoon to suspend distribution of its Windows 7 beta.
Yahoo leverages TV widgets in rebound attempt
Yahoo is trying to bounce back from its financial woes with the announcement at CES of blue-chip partnerships around its TV widgets, a technology pointed to by some pundits as something that will transform television as we know it today.
At CES press conferences packed with reporters from all over the world, top manufacturers like Sony and Samsung unveiled plans to include Yahoo's widget technology in future HDTVs so as to help consumers customize their converged TV/Internet experiences.
RIM rolls out a thinner Curve smartphone
At CES, RIM is introducing a smartphone touted as the thinnest full-QWERTY BlackBerry to date. The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is one of several new phones from various vendors now being added to T-Mobile's US network.
RIM's new Curve 8900 is both thinner and lighter than older Curves in the 8300 series, which are available for T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and other networks, a RIM spokesperson said, speaking with Betanews at the show in Las Vegas. RIM has upgraded the Curve's built-in camera to 3.2 megapixels.
Palm's past is Pre-logue for a buzzworthy phone
Click to view images of the Palm Pre
It's a phone. It's a phone that didn't even arrive on Earth shooting out of Steve Jobs'... shirt pocket. So what about the reveal of the Palm Pre proved so intoxicating on Thursday to CES attendees and press?
Ford SYNC gets navigation tools from Telenav
Navigation services company Telenav will be powering Ford's newest in-car GPS navigation system with the very long and unwieldy name: "Ford SYNC with Traffic, DIrections and Information."
SYNC was a big announcement for Microsoft and Ford in 2007, giving Bluetooth-connected personal media players and phones in SYNC vehicles voice command-ability. At last year's CES, SYNC received HD radio as a standard option, exportable performance analytics, and 911 Assist. Today, Ford announced that Telenav will be giving SYNC some much-needed navigation features, including turn-by-turn directions, live news, weather and traffic reports.
Casio debuts its Greenscreen-ish 'Dynamic Photo'
For the last decade, Casio Computer has kept a sharp focus (no pun intended) on digital imaging innovations. This week, the company is showing off its latest feature, a sort of on-the-fly greenscreen capability in point and shoot cameras.
Last year, Casio's big development was the high-speed digitization process in the EXF-1, which makes 60 fps still photo imaging and 1200 fps HD video possible. This year, the company has taken that technology and used it in a new way.
AMD to develop a cloud supercomputer for graphics rendering
The system that could render the next 3D game for cell phones and handsets may not even reside on those devices, if AMD has its way.
Easily AMD's most important announcement from a corporate survival standpoint was its Phenom II X4 platform, which could earn the company some bragging rights in the important enthusiast market. But AMD also needed a psychological boost, something which could represent the company's goals equally among everyone, not just system builders.
Sony's new DSC-G3 Wi-Fi camera includes... a Web browser
Left out of its press event yesterday, Sony today launched a new Wi-Fi enabled camera, the 10.1-megapixel DSC-G3. Most notable about this slim digicam is a built-in Web browser for connecting to public hotspots.
While Wi-Fi in a digital camera can make it possible to upload while on the go, many hotspots require a login or registration using a Web page. To get around this problem, Sony simply embedded a browser into the camera, which can be accessed by pressing the WLAN button on the back.
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