Archive for September, 2010

Malata launches a candy-colored educational smartbook, we give it a whirl

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Technology

The tablet craze may have pushed smartbooks out of the spotlight, but don't tell Malata that -- the ODM's launching an ARM-powered mini laptop in China this very week. Spotted at Mobilize 2010, the Malata T9000 is a cute-as-a-button blue and black clamshell with a 10-inch, 1024 x 600 screen and a Marvell Armada 166 inside, running a Chinese version of Linux (on an 8GB SSD) designed for the educational market. It's most certainly cheap and underpowered, but we weren't really able to tell, as the UI didn't actually launch any usable applications when we randomly clicked on the icons strewn about. That said, it's got a fairly usable, springy little keyboard and a good number of ports, so it might be fun to tinker with, but we won't shed a tear if the machine never makes it stateside.

Gallery: Malata T9000 smartbook, hands-on

Malata launches a candy-colored educational smartbook, we give it a whirl originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Malata  | Email this | Comments

Comments Off for now

You’re Effing Downloaded: The Kenny Powers App [Mobile]

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Technology

Kenny Powers, the washed-up lout protagonist of the sports comedy Eastbound & Down on HBO, has his own 16-bit inspired home-run derby game, free on the iPhone. You can use a donkey to distract him into throwing a meatball pitch. More »


Comments Off for now

Marvell’s quad core Armada processor won’t see tablets or phones, destined for a mystery game platform

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Technology

Looks like that quad-core Armada processor won't be having apps for breakfast after all -- confronting Marvell's Jack Kang at Mobilize 2010, he told us the chips proved too power-hungry for devices without a dedicated cord. That doesn't mean we won't see them soon, however, as the man let slip that it's actually the quad-core chip that will appear in a new game system, though we can probably rule out the Nintendo 3DS for the same reason as the phones.

Marvell's still hoping to get in the mobile market in a big way, though, and that's what the tri-core Armada 628 is all about, which uses low power profiles to save battery life. According to Kang, however, the system's actually a little more exciting than that -- its two up-to-1.5GHz cores kick in when the system's under a multimedia strain, but actually shut off completely for day-to-day use, relying instead on the third 624MHz processor which slowly sips your battery juice. All we know is, we'd better find out which devices will sport these chips, and soon -- our curiosity is beginning to gnaw.

Marvell's quad core Armada processor won't see tablets or phones, destined for a mystery game platform originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Comments Off for now

How a Blind Architect Still Practices His Trade [Architecture]

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Technology

Chris Downey lost his sight just two and a half years after taking over a design firm's architecture practice. The Atlantic explains how today, he's in some ways even more effective at his craft than ever before. More »


Comments Off for now

NFL ‘currently talking’ with Verizon to distribute programming on tablets

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Technology

Ah, so now we understand Verizon's intentions to hastily roll out LTE service to NFL cities. The NFL, which has sided with Sprint over the years when it comes to cellular distribution of content, is apparently talking to Big Red in order to get its prized content into even more hands. As the idea of watching NFL games on-the-go because more and more sensible, the league is apparently mulling the decision to distribute games (and potentially more) on the next big thing. You know, tablets. Brian Rolapp, the NFL's senior vice president of media strategy, recently said the following: "The NFL will be on a tablet. It's a question of what shape or form. We are currently talking to Verizon about it." VZW declined to comment on the rumblings, but it's really not a shocker -- the carrier's doing everything it can to get a live LTE network here in the States, and inking a deal with America's most popular sporting league would obviously bring in boatloads of revenue. The real question is this: what tablet is the NFL eying, and if it's not the Samsung Galaxy Tab, what's Verizon's second tablet going to be? Inquiring minds would love to know.

NFL 'currently talking' with Verizon to distribute programming on tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Wall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

Comments Off for now

16 Year Old Internet Addict Beaten to Death in Chinese Boot Camp [Internet Addiction]

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Technology

After refusing a direct order, 16 year old Chen Shi was beaten to death at a boot camp for troubled youth in China. And it's not the first time this has happened to teenage internet addicts. More »


Comments Off for now

Beautiful Dream

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Uncategorized

Comments Off for now

Facebook’s Rolling Out High-Resolution Photo Sharing [Photo Sharing]

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Uncategorized

As a big fan of photo-sharing site Flickr, one of the most frustrating things about the popularity of photo sharing on social-networking site Facebook has always been the relatively terrible quality of Facebook's highly compressed photos. Starting today, that's changing. More »


Comments Off for now

Bridge Projector Reminds Suicide Jumpers "You Are Not Alone" [Projector]

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Technology

Forty people jump from bridges in Belgrade, Serbia each year. Working with ad agency McCann Erickson, the Belgrade government installed a projector underneath the bridge that shines the message "You Are Not Alone". It's only visible from above. More »


Comments Off for now

Hotel’s Curvature Causes ‘Deathray’ Effect

Posted by Ry on Sep 30 2010 | Cool Stuff, Interesting News

deathray-1.jpg If you haven't heard already, Las Vegas is a dangerous place. And not just because you can lose your life savings and contract something from a prosty in the same weekend, but that shit happened to a couple of my friends and now I won't drink after them. Except alcohol. That stuff kills everything. Most importantly, the pain.
A totally unforeseen and unpredictable consequence of building a 57-foot curved mirror in the desert, the Vdara Death Ray is the affectionate nickname given to a phenomenon that's been plaguing poolside loungers staying at the hotel / spa. Among the victims is one Bill Pintas, whose tale of woe was recently printed in the Las Vegas Review-Journal: [A]fter a brief dip in the hotel pool, he was sunning on a recliner. He was on his stomach, relaxed, eyes closed. But suddenly, the lawyer became so uncomfortably hot that he leaped up to move. He tried to put on his flip-flop sandals but, inexplicably, they were too hot to touch. So he ran barefoot to the shade. "I was effectively being cooked," Pintas said. "I started running as fast as I could without looking like a lunatic." Then he smelled an odor, and realized it was coming from his head, where a bit of hair had been scorched.
Hoho, looks like money isn't the only thing burning in Vegas! Get it? Because goofus there scorched his domepiece. Now, here's what you do: put the hotel on casters so you can spin it around and burn all nearby hotels to the ground. BOOM -- monopoly. Which is exactly why the second Death Star was built. The Empire was tired of Ewoks stealing all their tourist dollars! Hit the jump for a diagram of the hotel explaining the deathray phenomenon in case you're better with pictures than words (aren't we all).

Comments Off for now

« Prev - Next »