The Decision Engine

Whenever a certain name becomes a verb, you know it's a definite success.
And Google's been scoring plenty of touchdowns lately, if not all, creating, developing, upgrading, and buying...stuff. No one seemed to have an answer to Google's gigantic success or the threat that it caused to some.

So you wake up one morning and you find out that Microsoft have re-branded their search engine (previously code-named Kumo) and called it Bing. Some early testers say it beats Google in many ways, and I'm only projecting here but I think in a short while we'll be talking nonsense like "I looked that up and BING! I found it!" or "Bing it, will you?!" because Microsoft seem to be pretty serious about this and they're going all the way to steal some of that market share from the big G.

They say: "The truth is you've evolved. It's time search caught up. So we had an idea. Start over. And we did."

Yes they did, and Bing seems to be set for an early launch, starting June 3rd. It's when using Live Search will show Bing results, and then you can Bing and decide. That's why they call it the "Decision Engine".

So if you need more info about Bing, just Google it up!
This will definitely drive Microsoft crazy...

Read more...

Samsung's PRAM chips hit mass production in June

Mark your calendars, memory enthusiasts, for the date you've all been waiting for. Samsung's phase change RAM will go into mass production starting in June. The PRAM chips -- not to be confused with paramter RAM, often what you curse / reset if you've got a Mac on the fritz -- can rewrite data without having to erase what's already on there first. The company's still boasting it's 30x faster and has 10x the lifespan of traditional flash memory. You want to know what gadgets and gizmos will first use these chips? Us too, but we're all gonna have to wait because Sammy's not talking yet.

Read more...

Review in Photos (No.1) - Teenee weenee computers

A new section in our blog is the "review in photos" where we keep our big mouths shut and let the pictures do the talking.
This week we have Sony's "ultra-portable PC" up against HP's little rugged laptop.
You can clearly see the differences in size and thickness, however the HP's keyboard is far more comfortable for typing.
Note that the Sony P-series weighs in at 625g whereas the HP Mini-note is double the weight at 1.27 Kg.

I'll leave you with the photos, enjoy!

Read more...

USB with OLED screen/fingerprint scanner

It's still a little ways from an actual release, but it looks like the folks at Ennova Direct just couldn't help themselves from announcing that they've received a patent for a newfangled biometric USB flash drive that packs a built-in OLED screen. Even better, that OLED screen apparently actually doubles as the fingerprint scanner, which may not add much extra in terms of security, but should be good for at least a few gee whiz moments. The actual patent, however, isn't for that bit of convergence, but for the sliding mechanism that covers the screen when it's closed and pops out the USB connector when it's open. No word on pricing or capacities just yet, but it looks like the first few drives should be available under the ION Technologies brand sometime in the first quarter of 2010.

Read more...

FireFox 3.5

Mozilla on Monday released beta 3.5 of Firefox, a revamp of the open-source Web browser designed to include better performance, several new Web programming features, and a private browsing mode.

The earlier betas had been numbered 3.1, but Mozilla switched to the version 3.5 name after concluding the changes were more significant than it envisioned earlier. Mozilla has said earlier the fourth beta will the last, with more polished release candidates expected before the final version of Firefox 3.5 is released. You can download Firefox 3.5 beta 4 from CNET Download.com for Windows and Mac.

The software emerges amid what's become a fiercely competitive browser market. Microsoft has released a significant new version, Internet Explorer 8, while Google has entered the market with Chrome and Apple is trying to secure a Windows foothold for its Safari browser. Firefox holds second place in market share to IE.

Among the changes compared with the current Firefox 3.0.x versions are the faster TraceMonkey engine for running Web sites' JavaScript programs; built-in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) technology for exchanging data between servers and browsers; support for tags to describe audio and video content the way images have been available for years; the private browsing mode for leaving no traces on your computer while surfing; support for technology to let permitted applications know the user's location; and support for the Web workers standard for letting a browser perform processing in the background without holding back a Web application's user interface.

Read more...