zcollvee - Slashdot User

In-Depth Review of the MacBook Air With Photos 244

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday January 26, 2008 @09:29AM from the long-road-ahead dept.

Engadget has the first really in-depth review of the MacBook Air that I have seen with plenty of great photos and specifics. They do a great job of highlighting the highs and the lows with plenty of concrete examples to back their claims up. It seems that while the MacBook Air is a great step towards ultra-portable computing, overall the pricepoint is just too high. Which is not surprising from a new Apple gadget I guess.

Math on iPhones Just Doesn't Add Up? 289

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday January 25, 2008 @03:16PM from the bad-math dept.

Tech Dirt is reporting that recently announced numbers by Apple and AT&T suggest that there is a large gap (1.7 million) between the number of iPhones being sold and those being activated. Taking into account factors like the iPhone launching outside the US and a 20% estimate of people buying the iPhone just for the purposes of unlocking, there are still 700,000 iPhones unaccounted for. "[...] suggesting that they're sitting on store shelves, piling up as unsold inventory. That number suggests at least some gap between perceived demand and actual demand -- while also raising questions about how much effort it will take to eat through that inventory."

HD DVD Player Sales Grind To a Halt 507

Posted by kdawson on Friday January 25, 2008 @01:07PM from the it-was-that-bunker-video-did-it dept.

Lucas123 writes "While the news may fall under the 'Duh' category, it's still relatively shocking how quickly the death knell for HD DVD player sales came on after Warner Bros. announced they were dropping dual hi-def DVD format support in order to back only Blu-ray. According to a Computerworld story, the week after Warner's announcement, sales of HD DVD players dropped to 1,758, down from 14,558 players the week before. In contrast, consumers bought 21,770 Blu-ray Disc players, up from 15,257 the previous week."

Edward Tufte Weighs In on Apple's iPhone 170

Posted by Zonk on Thursday January 24, 2008 @05:00PM from the word-from-on-high dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Via Daring Fireball, a post from design guru Edward Tufte's site discusses his views on the interface used by the Apple iPhone. The post includes a video presentation by Tufte on the subject of video resolution on the phone. His argument is primarily that while the iPhone does a lot of things very well, Apple hasn't quite realized the platform's full potential by making screen real estate all it could be. "

KDE Goes Cross-Platform, Supports Windows and OS X 513

Posted by Zonk on Wednesday January 23, 2008 @04:02PM from the strange-confluence-of-events dept.

klblastone writes "The KDE desktop environment is going cross-platform with support for the Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. In addition to porting the core KDE libraries and applications, developers are also porting popular KDE-based software like the Amarok audio player and the KOffice productivity suite. New KDE binaries for Windows were released yesterday and are now available from KDE mirrors through an automated installer program. The Mac OS X port is made available via BitTorrent in universal binary format."

Feed Engadget: Uh-oh, Optimus -- United Keys partners with FoxConn to build OLED gaming keyboar (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Tuesday January 22, 2008 @04:32PM

Filed under: Peripherals

Man, it looks like all these display keyboards are finally going from vapor to reality -- United Keys, which has been pimping various versions of its Display Keys product since 2005, has just announced that it's signed a deal with FoxConn to build a gaming keyboard with several OLED function buttons, and thats it's aiming to ship by summer. Interestingly, United Keys told us it holds two US patents and several foreign patents on the tech, and that it's searched for Art Lebedev's claimed Optimus patents but "can't find anything." Fair enough, but there are definitely some other similar patents on the books, like Elkin Acevedo's "display keyboard" patent, and Apple's recent filing. Looks like there's a giant, dorky light-up keyboard fight in the works, eh?

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Bookmark Windows 7: Video+Pics (wordpress.com)

by zcollvee on Tuesday January 22, 2008 @09:41AM

Feed Engadget: Switched On: Apple bets that to Air is human (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed on Monday January 21, 2008 @02:52PM

Filed under: Features, Laptops

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

The MacBook Air is the third member of Apple's notebook line and weighs only three pounds while it barely penetrates the third dimension. Nonetheless, Apple is again banking that human factors -- particularly that bigger screens and keyboards are better -- will allow the blade-like profile of the world's thinnest notebook to slice into the traditionally slim market for ultra-portable notebooks.

The Air was certainly the show-stealer at this year's Macworld keynote. While some Mac fans were hoping for a pocket-sized productivity product, the best hope for that in the near term are third-party solutions that can turn an iPhone or iPod touch into such a device. Furthermore, Apple remains one of the few major notebook companies to not offer a product with integrated 3G wireless connectivity. While most of these products have been aimed at business users, the premium positioning of the MacBook Air should have exceptional appeal to these potential customers.

While the computer may fit in an interoffice envelope, the company clearly did not mail the effort in. As usual, Apple has asked much of its suppliers and some of its users in order to achieve stunning results. The Intel chip die package that powers the MacBook Air is 60 percent smaller than those used in other notebooks. For users, there are also compromises, including a bare minimum of ports that exclude wired Ethernet and FireWire. The latter has been a Mac hallmark since the days of the first iMac, but with camcorders now rapidly moving to USB and flash cards, the case for its inclusion where space is at a premium is not as strong as it once was.

Continue reading Switched On: Apple bets that to Air is human

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Bookmark SPAM: MacBook Air: It's the iPod of Macs

by WirePosted on Monday January 21, 2008 @07:56AM

Link to Original Source

NBC's Zucker Hints At Return to iTunes 68

Posted by Zonk on Monday January 21, 2008 @07:31AM from the yay-we-can-all-just-get-along dept.

Bad corporate blood led to the collapse of the NBC/Apple business relationship in the fall of last year. Now, via the Engadget news feed, comes word that things may be thawing out between the two. A for-pay article in the Financial Times had words from NBC Universal's COE Jeff Zucker, saying: "'We've said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple.' He then unexpectedly adds, 'We're great fans of Steve Jobs.' No telling what has caused the turnabout. Perhaps the writers strike gave both parties time to reflect on their mounting lost revenue." The site also notes that NBC signed a deal as part of the recent movie rental announcement, possibly contributing to the thaw. They link to a BusinessWeek article pointing out positive statements from Jobs reciprocating these 'feelings'.

AI Taught How To Play Ms. Pac-Man 167

Posted by Zonk on Saturday January 19, 2008 @04:21PM from the way-better-than-i-can dept.

trogador writes with the news that researchers are working to teach AIs how to play games as an exercise in reinforced learning. Software constructs have been taught to play games like chess and checkers since the 50s, but the Department of Information Systems at Eotvos University in Hungary is working to adapt that thinking to more modern titles. Besides Ms. Pac-Man, game like Tetris and Baldur's Gate assist these programs in mapping different behaviors onto their artificial test subjects. "Szita and Lorincz chose Ms. Pac-Man for their study because the game enabled them to test a variety of teaching methods. In the original Pac-Man, released in 1979, players must eat dots, avoid being eaten by four ghosts, and score big points by eating flashing ghosts. Therefore, a player's movements depend heavily on the movements of ghosts. However, the ghosts' routes are deterministic, enabling players to find patterns and predict future movements. In Ms. Pac-Man, on the other hand, the ghosts' routes are randomized, so that players can't figure out an optimal action sequence in advance."

FCC Will Test Internet Over TV Airwaves, Again 86

Posted by Zonk on Saturday January 19, 2008 @03:26PM from the automagic-for-the-people dept.

Weather Storm writes "According to MSNBC.com, the FCC will try again to test prototypes on Jan. 24 for transmitting high-speed Internet service over unused television airwaves. The devices were developed by Microsoft and Motorola, among other corporate partners, and will be tested in laboratory and real-world conditions for three months. 'Last year, a high-technology coalition — which included Microsoft, Google Inc., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp. among others — submitted prototypes they said could transmit broadband Internet service over unlicensed and unused TV spectrum, known as "white spaces." Television broadcasters and the wireless microphone industry say such devices could interfere with programming. The Initial prototype testing failed last July because the devices did not reliably detect and avoid TV programming signals and could have caused interference. If the tests are successful this time and the devices are approved, the coalition plans to introduce commercial devices for sale after the digital television transition in February 2009.'"