Gabo, Gabo, Gabo! Friends! Alienware is bringing back the Area-51 ALX desktop, the top-of-the-line model that had many PC enthusiasts reaching for their credit cards not too long ago. This time, the Dell-owned brand has overclocked the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770—”the big one”—from 3.2GHz to 4.0Ghz. What on God’s Green Earth you need that many hertz for I don’t know, but it’s good to see Alienware not forgetting who brought it to the dance. Carelessly executed metaphors, at your service. The components: quad GeForce 9800 GX2 or dual Radeon HD 3870, up to 4GB RAM (hmm, that seems low to me), liquid cooling, the whole 10 yards. And it still looks like a glowing space ship, natch. → Read More
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I never used the squad controls in the first GoW. Does anyone else care or not care that this feature is being axed for GoW2? → Read More
After the banners were unfurled at January’s Macworld with their “There’s something in the air” teaser, many hoped Apple would be announcing the addition of WiMax to their laptop line up. When it turned out that the “air” bit was referring to Apple’s Macbook Air, the Apple/WiMax rumor mill grinded to a halt, presumably because everyone was busy checking if they could squeeze their laptop into a manilla envelope. Read the rest of this entry >> → Read More
Director James Cameron, maker of such amazing films as Terminator and The Abyss, has spent years and millions developing 3D cinema technology, rumored to be a driving force behind the film Avatar he’s been working on since the beginning of time. But he wants you to know that it’s not just about movies, the technology could be used in many other ways. He points out that by using stereo digital projectors, you can actually broadcast things in 3D live, such as sporting events and other activities. But is it the next big thing? Cameron thinks so, and he might be right. At CES this year, we saw much ado about 3D technology, some of it was actually quite impressive. If this is the infancy of the 3D revolution, then we can’t wait to see what happens next, like in-home, glasses-free 3D TV for about the same as a standard HDTV. And gaming. We’ll take it. → Read More
Yesterday was “Hey, look at the new Acer gaming PCs” day. Today is “Hey, we’ve got some early pricing and specs for you” day. TrustedReviews.com has some interesting information in that the Predator line of PCs won’t be customizable — the machines will just be sold off-the-shelf in stores. That’s good for people who don’t want to wait, but bad for people who like to tweak stuff like, oh, I don’t know, gamers? Anyway, on to the specs and prices. → Read More
Feel like sharing? Two ex-Ebay/Skype execs have created Tokoni, a social story sharing site that they hope will become the web’s virtual “front porch”. The site, which quietly launched last December, hopes to foster a warmer and better connected sharing environment than other similar communities on the web. Tokoni is essentially a community of connected blogs with a social networking slant. After creating a personal profile, members can write an unlimited number of stories. Each story (which is basically a blog post) can be tagged with keywords and placed in ‘Hubs’, which are essentially groups of related stories. Stories can include embedded images or YouTube videos, and other members are encouraged to leave comments and participate in a discussion at the bottom of each story. At first glance, Tokoni seems like a pretty half-baked idea. People have been sharing personal stories online since the dawn of Usenet, and allowing members to group stories by topic isn’t exactly a novel feature. Why not use a blog? Then again, painfully simple ideas have been known to work in the past (YouTube and photobucket come to mind). It’s possible that Tokoni will fill a niche for users that just want to sit down and write without having to deal with blogging software or forums. And the community aspect helps differentiate the site from a blog by allowing writers to quickly find and link to stories posted by others without having to sift through the blogosphere. Tokoni’s most encouraging assets are its founders. Mary Lou Song was eBay’s third employee, and her husband Alex Kazim has held a laundry list of top positions: Director of Engineering at eBay, President of Skype, SVP of eBay New Ventures, and VP Marketing at PayPal. The site also features a strong list of investors, including eBay Inc and a number of current eBay execs. Tokoni isn’t the only player in this space. In fact, there are literally thousands (if not more) of sites that are dedicated to story sharing, though many of them revolve around a specific topic or community. Six Apart also offers Vox, a simple blogging service that offers some of the same tagging and group features. Tokoni has an impressive set of credentials, but unless it can find a better way to differentiate itself, its stories will fall on deaf ears. CrunchBase Information Tokoni Mary Lou Song Alex Kazim Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Rogers Wireless announced today that they will be selling the HTC Shift in Canada, starting immediately. At $1,599 with a three year contract, it doesn’t come cheap, but this thing is a beast. You can check out a review of the GSM version’s CDMA brother over at Crunchgear. In an additional announcement that was oddly obscured within the availability announcement, HTC and Rogers announced that they will be pushing a software update to customers within three months which will enable GPS connectivity and Telenav navigation. No word yet if the update will be made available for Shift owners outside of the Rogers network. CrunchBase Information HTC Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
The other day I cruised over to my local deli on Greene Street in Soho to grab breakfast and noticed a contingent of Canal Street locals lining up at the Soho Apple store. I didn’t think anything of it at the time and I just got back from the post office and they were still there! A buddy of mine who works by Central Park just texted me asking if something was going on because he noticed a line at the 5th Ave. store. It’s obvious why they’re waiting on line, but they’re about three weeks early. This is getting out of control. → Read More
Apparently there’s a Coca-Cola robot running wild through the streets of Tokyo, ostensibly promoting the sugar water drink at passers-by. The initial write-up has more than one quip that made me chuckle: “…lumbering around Tokyo pinching the heads of people who prefer a different brand.” What is it with Japan and vending machines? → Read More
Do you pretend to care about the environment because it’s the trendy thing to do? Simultaneously, do you like to display strange, avant-garde art around your domicile? If so, then take a gander at Saazs’ newest endeavor, light-emitting glass. Yes, light-emitting glass, truly sterner stuff. The pictures more or less tell the whole story. Panes of glass with little light things give off a warm, glowing glow. That’s about as eloquent as it can be described by this hack. → Read More
Remember back in the early days of the Internet people were worried that “hackers” could break into their computers and cause permanent hardware damage, and those of us in-the-know would be all, “pshaw! Can’t happen” about it? As it turns out, a new attack method called a PDOS (permanent denial-of-service) can do just that. It’s going to be demonstrated this week by a computer security researcher, and it’s apparently a very real and threatening way to destroy someone’s hardware remotely. The reason it’s so dangerous is because unlike most scripts or viruses or trojans, it doesn’t attack the OS, instead using firmware flaws to render your machine a brick. The firmware is a small piece of software that’s actually embedded in your computer’s motherboard, which lets the operating system (XP, Vista, OSX, etc.) communicate with the various components within the box. By taking over this area, a hacker could theoretically cause all sorts of hardware mischief, even destroying the machine. This is a scary area that most security experts don’t spend much time on. Firmware viruses are arcane at best, but as we’re seeing they can be quite powerful. We’ll see what this hack is like, as it could be doomsday for many users if patches aren’t made fast. → Read More
In an interview with UK site TechRadar.com, Samsung R&D engineer Jeongseon Euh said the following about his company’s plans for its third-generation UMPC… “We will refresh our design and upgrade our performance and specification. We will continue to invest in form factors. We will launch the 3rd generation of UMPC probably early Q1 next year.” Design and performance improvements, those are a given. The part about form factors is interesting, though, as Samsung’s current Q1 Ultra UMPC has met with lukewarm reviews concerning its form factor, especially the split keyboard. Will we see a more notebook-like design with a standard keyboard or will Samsung try something new altogether? I’m guessing we’ll see something different. via SlashGear → Read More
Quick reminder that tomorrow, Friday, May 23 is the deadline to submit ideas for the TechCrunch “Mobile Connections” forum that will be hosted at the upcoming Supernova Conference on June 16. The forum will discuss important themes to advance innovation in the mobile environment, and we’ve invited the TechCrunch community to submit your ideas to participate. How to participate At the forum, we want to talk about important mobile themes to grow the future of wireless– platforms, standards, privacy, monetization, etc. This is not a startup contest — it’s a search for ideas. We’re challenging anyone to make submissions. We want to hear about innovative concepts, prototypes, research lab projects, hacks, and business ideas that can engage the mobile development community. Companies are welcome to submit, but the focus of your proposed presentation should be on themes broader than your own product / service. If your submission blows us away, we’ll invite you to join us on stage Monday evening at Supernova 2008. There is no charge to submit your ideas or to present as part of the Mobile Communications Forum. Additional details are available here. Email your submission to mobile@supernova2008.com by midnight PST, Friday May 23, 2008. We will notify selected participants by June 2. Get tickets Supernova is extending discounted registration to TechCrunch readers. Preferred pricing is $1,495 ($200 discount.) Thank you Sponsors Thanks to Nokia for sponsoring the Mobile Connections Forum and making this lively discussion possible. Several other sponsor slots remain open. Please email Supernova for additional sponsorship details. Supernova will also have a special Technology Showcase for demonstrators during the opening Networking Gala, evening of June 16. Email Jeanne Logozzo to learn more about demonstrator sponsorships. → Read More
While I love having food delivered, I can’t stand the ordering process. If I somehow have the number handy, chances are I threw away misplaced the menu at some point. Even if I have the menu and ordering seems to go smoothly, I always wonder if the person on the other end actually wrote down my request to hold the mushrooms. (Mushrooms make me die, and no – they usually don’t write it down.) CityMint is aiming to do away with all of the annoyances of having food delivered by moving the entire process online. You use CityMint’s simple online interface to order from their selection of local restaurants, and they pass on your delivery request. They’re not the first to try online food ordering, but they’re the first to put an emphasis on mobile users. The service launched this morning with an iPhone web app, and pages optimized for Blackberry/Palm users. You can browse menus, place orders, set special requests for each item (e.g no mushrooms), and review/reorder past orders. Unfortunately, CityMint’s services are currently only available in San Francisco, offering food from around 80 different restaurants. Hopefully it expands soon – I imagine it’d be incredibly popular in major cities and college towns, where food delivery is big business. Check it out at m.citymint.com CrunchBase Information CityMint Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
“We’ll take the time to get the product right.” You wanna know why Apple’s designs are so lauded, why they make so many competitor’s products look like junk? It’s because of the mentality expressed in the above quote. Apple cares. More specifically, senior vice president of industrial design Jonathan Ive cares. His works include the iMac and iPhone. You may have heard of those. So yeah, the Independent’s running a very magazine-y feature on Apple design boss Ive. There’s artful discussion of pencils—awards—and what makes Apple so damn special with its eye-catching designs. For his part, Ive wants only “to try to make products that really are meaningful to people.” You’ll also run into Ive’s views on how advertising and design play off each other, and why quality ID comes so easily to Apple. → Read More
Anyone that’s traveled with their laptop knows what a pain in the ass security is because you’re required to take out your laptop when going through the x-ray machine. I despise it and I travel quite often and it’s slowly becoming the bane of my existence. Maybe I’m being dramatic, but I think we can all agree that it’s an annoying process. Targus and Skooba, among others, have heard our plight and they’re looking to cash-in. Both companies are currently working on prototype “checkpoint-friendly” cases that the TSA is currently testing. No word on when these bags will hit the market, but you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be waiting for one. → Read More
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Some people out there are under the impression that they’re the only ones using text messages in the US. Turns out it’s become more popular than you might think, with 301 billion texts forecasted total for 2008. But the SMS’s time in the sun might be over before the zenith, as mobile IM is set to overtake it, or so the analysts say. I don’t think that’s going to happen this year, and you can find out why on CrunchGear. → Read More
Last week marked the 25th anniversary of the G-Shock watch. We’ve all been around long enough to recognize the ruggedness and durability of these watches. They’re built like tanks and last a long time. I’ve got a handful in my stable of time pieces that I’ve collected over the years and I’ll continue to collect them in the coming years. Rather than pointing out each watches unique features, I’ll just paste the release for each one for you to peruse. I’m quite keen on the second one with the clear band. The first and last one’s are 25th anniversary editions. → Read More
Unless that coin-looking object is actually a manhole cover on 500th Street, the new CMOS camera module on its left is pretty tiny — the world’s smallest, in fact. Ah, indeed it is, according to SlashPhone. “The camera module has a size of only 9.5 x 9.5 x 6.6mm and support auto focus for better image quality. Sharp will start sending out the sample unit next week and start the mass production from July.” What does this mean for guys like you and me? You know, guys who like guys/girls who like camera modules? It means that some day your phone will have a teeny tiny 5-megapixel auto-focusing camera, that’s all. Sounds fine to me. → Read More
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