10/1 Mobile Magazine

Please add updates@feedmyinbox.com to your address book to make sure you receive these messages in the future. Mobile Magazine This Netbook Has Dual Intel Atom Processors September 30, 2009 at 3:51 pm The netbook market is incredibly popular these days with just about every computer company jumping into the fray with an offering of its own. By and large, they make use of the Intel Atom processor, but when are we finally going to get our hands on some dual-core Atom action? Behold the Swordfish Net 102 Dual Netbook Computer. This may look like any other netbook, but there is one very significant difference: this Swordfish has two Intel Atom processors. Don’t get confused, however, because this does not mean that it has a dual-core processor. It actually has two separate 1.6GHz Atom processors. I’m not entirely sure how having two separate processors would be inherently useful in a machine like this, since I’m not sure if you can really use both of them at the same time as if they made up a unified dual-core processor, but I’ll leave that up to the Swordfish people to explain. Aside from the strange CPU configuration, the Swordfish Net 102 Dual Netbook Computer gets a 10.2-inch display, 2GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, Dual Bluetooth, WCDMA 3G, and a three-cell battery. It’s listed at $450, placing it in the same range as many single Atom-equipped netbooks. Source: Wired Honda CR-Z Hybrid Hatchback Almost Production Ready September 30, 2009 at 3:36 pm Some of you may remember the old Honda Civic CRX. It may not have been the most powerful of vehicles at the track, but that was one nimble little hatchback. While you could try to achieve the same with the Honda Fit, you may be much more interested in the upcoming Honda CR-Z. We’ve already seen the concept, but Honda is saying that the car is almost ready for full production. Next month at the Tokyo Motor Show, we’re expecting to see the official debut of near-production model of the Honda CR-Z hybrid hatchback. This nimble little number clearly evokes the sporty feel of the older hatchbacks, but it comes with Prius-fighting hybrid technology. Who said that you had to sacrifice style and performance in the name of hybrid-ness. The pure concept of the sporty two-passenger CR-Z was unveiled way back in 2007, so it’s good to see that Honda almost has this car ready for showrooms. The 1.5L four-cylinder engine gets backed up with Integrated Motor Assist technology. Instead of the CVT as in the Insight, the CR-Z gets you to throw through the gears with a six-speed manual transmission. Honda will still be showing the CR-Z hybrid hatchback as a “concept” at the Tokyo Motor Show, but that appears to be only in name. This is pretty much what we can expect from the production model when it hits production in Japan early next year. The US launch should follow shortly thereafter. Source: Autoblog DoubleSight USB Mini-Monitors Come with Webcams Too September 30, 2009 at 3:23 pm They say that as soon as you go with a dual monitor configuration at your workstation that you simply cannot go back to using a single screen again. That may or may not be true, but the resource draw of running an external monitor can be a bit much for some people. That’s why the family of USB monitors from DoubleSight is so darn convenient. Rather than requiring the graphics card on your laptop or desktop to power a second screen, these monitors latch on via a single USB connection. That single USB cable provides both the power for the external monitor and the data feed, making for a very simple and clean setup process. DoubleSight is going even further with this idea by including an integrated webcam on one of their newest models. The range-topping $160 version gives you a 9-inch screen (1024×600) and a webcam. It’s really quite impressive that this is all done through a single USB cable. If you want to save some money, the nine-inch model without a webcam is $140 and it features the same 1024 x 600 pixel resolution. For people who want to save some more money and get something more compact, there is also a seven-inch model for $120, though you get bumped down to a 800 x 480 pixel resolution. All versions work in landscape or portrait. Source: Crunchgear Ontario Cell Phone Ban Kicks in October 26 September 30, 2009 at 3:07 pm Remember a few months ago when we learned that cell phones would be banned in Ontario? This would follow in teh footsteps of other jurisdictions, like California, where it is unlawful to use your handheld cell phone while behind the wheel of a vehicle. At the time, we didn’t know too much regarding the particulars, but we’ve learned a little more now. Most importantly, we know about the effective date for Bill 118, also known as the “Countering Distracted Driving and Promoting Green Transportation Act.” There are some other stipulations in there, but the most important part for our purposes is the restriction on handheld phones while driving. The Ontario cell phone ban kicks in on Monday, October 26, 2009. That’s less than a month away, so you may want to go shopping for some sort of handsfree device. I’m sure all the Bluetooth accessory retailers in Ontario are more than happy with the passing of Bill 118. The new law goes into effect on October 26, but ticketing doesn’t start until February 1st of next year. That gives you some buffer time to adjust to the change, but if you do get caught, you can be hit with a ticket as high as $500. You won’t get any “points” though. Source: MobileSyrup BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac Coming This Friday September 30, 2009 at 2:56 pm For the most part, Apple products can play friendly in a Windows environment, since you can launch iTunes in your Vista computer and load up that iPhone or iPod as necessary. The reverse hasn’t exactly been true for BlackBerry devices up until now, but that’s finally changing this Friday. The good people in Waterloo have officially confirmed that the BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac will be released this Friday, October 2. Just because you’re rocking a MacBook doesn’t mean that you can’t take the path of the BlackBerry Storm instead of the iPhone. This means that you no longer have to use VMWare or Parallels to get your BlackBerry connected to your Mac, since Research in Motion is finally recognizing that plenty of BlackBerry users prefer using an Apple computer over one powered by Microsoft’s Windows. As far as we can tell, the BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Mac will offer the same functionality as its Windows counterpart, though it may be jazzed up a bit in aesthetics to fit in better in the Mac environment. Either way, set your clock for 1PM EST this Friday and get your Mac-Berry on. Source: BGR REVIEW – Verbatim AquaAce Glossy White Inkjet-Printable DVD-Rs September 29, 2009 at 10:11 pm While most of us have come to rely on online storage and USB flash drives, there is still a definite need for writable optical media. We still burn CDs and DVDs for a number of different reasons, whether they be to watch movies or to have a more cost-effective way of distributing marketing materials. In this latter implementation, you want to maintain a certain air of professionalism and that’s why burning your material onto a generic disc may not be the best of ideas. The point is that the distributed disc has your company branding and not that of TDK, Fujifilm, or Memorex. That’s why having personalized labels can be so important, not to mention the personalization that the average consumer can enjoy as well. Sharing family photos and movies this way can be great. One possible solution that you may want to consider is the Verbatim AquaAce family of discs. More specifically, we’ll be taking a closer look at the Verbatim AquaAce Glossy White Inkjet-printable DVD-Rs. These writable discs can be used with compatible inkjet printers for disc printing. The Deal with AquaAce Technology This family of discs makes use of Verbatim’s patented AquaAce glossy white disc coating. The glossy white surface has an appearance not unlike the glossy white photo paper that you may find in a variety of different stores for printing your favorite pictures. The idea here is twofold. First, it allows for a very professional glossy appearance that can be printed on directly using compatible inkjet disc printers from companies like Primera, Microboards, Epson, Microtech, HP, and so on. There is no Verbatim branding on the discs themselves, so you really can make them your own. It’s also notable that this photo-quality printing surface is resistant to smudges and bleed due to water and humidity. I normally associate water-resistance with matte finishes, but I found that the glossy surface of these Verbatim AquaAce discs was smudge resistant right away. No more messy fingers. And the Burning Speed and Quality? I was provided with a sample of standard DVD-R discs with just 4.7GB of storage. These are not dual-layer discs. They are also rated at just 8x speed and they are single-write discs (not -RW). With the 8x speed, you can fill the disc to capacity in less than 10 minutes. In terms of reliability, the first disc that I used on my Dell laptop failed to finish. It’s hard to determine whether this is the fault of the software, the DVD burner, or the disc itself. The burning process looked like it finished, filling it with 4GB of photos as a data disc, but the disc showed up as empty when I tried to read it later on. Repeating the process with a second disc resulted in absolutely no errors and no problems. As mentioned, the initial problem may be due to my computer or it could have been a faulty disc. I can’t say for sure. Conclusion Printable DVD-R media isn’t exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but if you have the right printer, these discs are much more convenient that the printing label solutions that you may find elsewhere. The glossy white surface really is as good as the glossy print paper that photographers use and the high-sheen surface really does give a sense of professionalism. The smudge-resistant surface is quite nice. A 50-disc spindle sells for about $35. Overall Rating: 7.5/10   This email was sent to six.emp@gmail.com.  Create Your Account Don't want to receive this feed any longer? Unsubscribe here.