Gadgets Future

Yahoo! announced it’s new OnePlace service that will be live in Q2 of this year.  At it’s basic level, OnePlace allows you to access bookmarks and various links anywhere on any machine or mobile device. 

The example Yahoo! uses is a trip you are about to take.  You do research beforehand, noting some places you’d like to check out.  When you arrive at your destination, instead of relying on memory or a new search, you just look up those links you saved and you are good to go.

Sure you could send yourself an email of links but…switching back and forth from email to web browser on my Windows mobile phone is painful.  As is the internet but that is another post.

Is it me or does this strike you as something very easily copy-able if not already possible using iGoogle?

Read [Yahoo!!] via [MobileCrunch]

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Intel announced that their gross profit margin for the current quarter is dropping from 56% of sales down to 54%. It’s not a big dip but when you are talking billions, people will notice.

Standard NAND flash memory has been growing steadily in capacity at the same time as prices are dropping. Due to the performance of the memory, it won’t work great as a hard drive yet, but as people start to understand the limitations and prices drop more, it becomes more attractive due to its low power usage, low heat, and fast seek times. However, price and capacity are still a challenge as are reading of large files.

To be able to get a 32GB flash memory stick relatively cheap is pretty exciting. You can store 6000 5MB MP3s on that memory stick and for many people, that now represents well over their entire music library. The idea of the jukebox that you can fit into your pocket is starting to come true.

Posted Mar 5th 2008 10:26AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Tablet PCs
Panasonic just owned up to that Toughbook UMPC we spotted yesterday at CeBIT. No real surprises, the unit runs Vista on an Atom CPU, sports a 5.6-inch LCD and is slated for a Fall release.

Here is a photo of the Gigabyte M700 UMPC. It is obviously cute, but here are the specifications:

• 7” Touch display, 1024×600
• 1.2Ghz C7-M Via CPU
• 2GB
• 40GB to 60GB of hard drive
• Windows Vista Home Premium

You would think that there is a sliding keyboard, but right now it does not look like that is the case. In the past, we have shown you the Gigabyte M528 specifications – that one has a sliding keyboard.

Results of the study conducted by comScore shows that the number of U.S. Internet users accessing the web via mobile broadband increased by 154% in Q4 of 2007 as against the same period in 2006. Mobile internet is predominantly used in the work setting rather for domestic use.

The comScore report looked into the usage and characteristics of mobile broadband users from data collected by the research from Internet access using mobile broadband internet service providers (ISPs). This type of internet access is done using mobile phones subscribed through cellular networks and connected to a user’s PC. The study did not cover Internet access through Wi-Fi access which entirely a different thing from mobile broadband Internet access. Mobile broadband Internet usage is measured in terms of subscriber’s data charges from their respective cellular networks. The study also showed that Verizon and Sprint cellular network providers accounted for majority of the mobile broadband market.

comScore senior vice president Serge Matta said that the mobile broadband Internet access currently only accounts for 1 percent of the total U.S. population.

“As consumers increasingly demand and depend on portable Internet access, the demand for mobile broadband should continue to increase,” says Matta.

Analyzing the report’s data further by location of access, the study showed word-related mobile broadband Internet access accounts for 59% of the total data. Accessing the web through mobile broadband for domestic purposes account for only 41%. This would indicate that mobile broadband Internet usage is dictated more by users’ needs rather than their wants.

Read [comScore]

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ASUS unveil today Bamboo notebook at CEBIT 2008 press conference

Even is made from bamboo is not a good idea to folding in every direction. I think it will broke …

PCNews Verdict: 8/10 I like the idea of bamboo notebook. Now next on my list is concrete notebook.

I’m not sure if these Light Bulb Phone Charms are really essential, since setting your phone to silent mode with vibrate turned on is often more than enough to catch your attention whenever there’s an incoming call - still, I guess you might want to distract the rest of the cinema by telling them just how busy you are with this Light Bulb Phone Charm.

We bet Edison didn’t think his bright idea would end up in everyone’s pocket, but now it can. These mini Light Bulb Phone Charms are the perfect accessory for today’s super stylish mobile phones. Simply put your phone on ’silent’ to save the world from some hideous ringtone, and every time you receive a call or text, instead of a polyphonic cacophony, the mini Light Bulb will flash at you and the world in general in a decidedly retro, cool way, letting you know that someone out there loves you, or is chasing an invoice

The Lightbulb phone charm can be yours today for £5.95, never mind if you’ve constantly churned out bright ideas or not.

NEC expect to launch its NP3151W wide-screen installation projector this month in States. Weighing only 16.1 pounds, the unit supports 1,280 x 800 WXGA resolution, 4,000-lumen brightness LCD projector, Connectivity to wireless networks, and Low noise output of 31 decibels in ECO Mode. It’s going for about $4,999 and backed two-year of warranty.
[Source]

Posted Mar 5th 2008 8:43AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Storage
This has got to stop, people. We just can’t stand to think of all these bits and bytes — not to mention their offspring — crammed into something like this Buffalo LinkStation Mini NAS. Dual 500GB 2.5-inch hard drives were just never meant to be in this close of proximity. Oh, it has RAID 0 / RAID 1? We suppose those 1’s and 0’s will just have to suffer. The LinkStation Mini LS-WS includes an FTP server, DLNA and iTunes capability, can share a printer of USB and reads memory cards and other mass storage devices. Buffalo plans to ship it in March for 85,000 yen (about $824 US).

[Via Engadget Japanese]

The Asus Galaxi Mini, also known as the Asus P320 GPS touch screen smartphone, will be targeting the entry-level smartphone market, encroaching on HTC Touch territory and similar devices. It does come with an integrated GPS sensor though, making it a plus point where low-end smartphones are concerned. Features include :-

• Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900), GPRS, EDGE connectivity
• TI OMAP 850 200 MHz processor
• 128MB ROM, 64MB RAM
• Windows Mobile Pro 6.1
• 2.8? QVGA 320 × 240 resolution TFT LCD touch screen display
• 2 megapixel camera
• Built-in SiRF III GPS chipset
• Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
• USB 2.0 support
• microSD memory card slot

The Asus P320 is tipped to hit Europe sometime in Q2 this year, retailing for approximately 300 Euros.