You've probably heard of or even owned a computer that automatically turns off its hard drive when it senses shock or heavy vibrations. That is an example of sensitive human-machine intimacy. Another example I like is tilting the iPhone to use it as the driving bar for my racing games. Well, that nifty human-to-computer interaction is about to go to whole new level.
HP announced Thursday a new inertial-sensing technology that enables the development of digital micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers that are up to 1,000 times more sensitive than those in high-volume products currently available.
A MEMS accelerometer is a sensor that can be used to measure vibration, shock, or change in velocity. When implemented, this allows the device to "feel" the environment it is in.
According to HP, the new sensing technology--the result of HP's 25 years of nano-sensing research--includes multiple detectors as part of a complete sensor network and therefore is capable of real-time data collection, management evaluation, and analysis. This information enables users to make better, faster decisions, and take subsequent action to improve safety, security, and sustainability.
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The Dell U2410 bleeds tough.
(Credit: Eric Franklin/CNET)The Dell U2410 is finally here! And by "here," I mean in CNET's office. I've been pestering Dell about this since September, and they've finally accepted my tithe.
Unofficially, the successor to the Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP, the U2410 has lots of promise. Luckily I still have a 2408WFP in the office to compare it to.
Expect a review next week, but for now, check out some candid pics I talked the monitor into taking.
The Samsung Jack.
(Credit: Samsung)Fans of the Samsung Jack, I have some good news for you.
Samsung announced Wednesday that its Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade is now available for the smartphone. The upgrade includes Windows Phone 6.5 Standard Edition and a handful of software enhancements. Major improvements include:
- Windows Marketplace for Mobile: Provides access to secure shopping. You can download the application instantly to the phone.
- Internet Explorer Mobile 6: It delivers the same Web-browsing capability as Internet Explorer for a desktop computer, including support for multimedia-rich content like Flash animation, YouTube, and social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
- AT&T Wi-Fi integration: Samsung Jack users can now easily access more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots in the U.S.
- Vlingo for Windows Phone: This voice-command feature lets you send text or e-mail messages, call friends, search the Web, open native applications, etc., just by speaking into the phone.
The upgrade requires a 32-bit Windows computer running either Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 (for Windows Vista, 7) or ActiveSync 4.5 (for Windows XP). According to Samsung, the upgrade process takes between 5 and 10 minutes. Make sure you back up your phone data and sync your contacts with your computer before upgrading. The new firmware is available for free and can be downloaded from Samsung's Web site.
The LP3065 is a proud 30-incher that sticks to tradition.
(Credit: Josh P. Miller/CNET)It's rare that I get my hands on a 30-inch monitor these days, as only a handful of vendors actually make them. Not surprising given their usual prices, which can range from $1,000 up to $1,600 in some cases.
The HP LP3065 is a typical 30-inch monitor. A resolution of 2,560x1,600 pixels? Check. A number of useful ergonomic options? Check. A wide viewing angle thanks to its use of high-end panel technology? Checkeroo!
Unfortunately, the LP3065 also inherits the 30-inch monitor trend of only including a brightness setting as the sole video adjustment option. Check out the full review of the LP3065 to see what else HP did or didn't include.
Also, check out our new Monitor Buying Guide and be sure to check here for new monitor reviews.
There have always been fewer options in the enterprise-storage market than there have been in the consumer market. That's why it's significant that enterprise buyers now have another choice.
Western Digital announced Tuesday its entry into the enterprise market with the first shipments of its WD S25, 10,000rpm, 2.5-inch SAS interface hard drives.
The new WD S25 enterprise hard drive from Western Digital.
(Credit: Western Digital)While high-end consumer-grade 2.5-inch SATA hard drives can spin at 7,200rpm, at 10,000rpm the new hard drive from Western Digital is still considered entry-level. This is because in the enterprise market, vendors such as Seagate already offer SAS-based hard drives that spin at 15,000rpm.
Nonetheless, according to Western Digital, the new WD S25 drive is still suitable for high-performance storage for mission-critical enterprise server and enterprise-storage applications, such as high-I/O-driven applications, data centers, and large data arrays. Each drive offers up to 300GB of storage space.
The WD S25 supports both the 3Gbps and the 6Gbps SAS interfaces and offers a sustained sequential data rate of 128MBps. In addition to having the speed needed for enterprise needs, the WD S25 also provides a mean time between failures (MTBF) rating of 1.6 million hours.
The WD S25 drive is available now. You won't be able to buy one for yourself, but chances are you'll find them in your new enterprise-storage gear.
Don't tell him I said that please.
(Credit: Touchgloves)Happy belated Halloween! I know, I know. Halloween is so last week! Still, Dong and I discuss our experiences of the most popular holiday that you don't actually get to stay home from work for.
Then, we move to the toilet. Or more specifically, toilet technology. Even more specifically, we talk about motion detection technology used in the toilet. And by toilet, I don't mean in the toilet, just, you know, in the washroom. Also, clam-shell packaging? Who needs it?
Then we get down to serious business with Dong detailing the WD TV Live and the first 6GBps SATA controller card. I think you can actually hear me snoring during this segment. For my part, I point you directly in the direction of the Monitor Buying Guide.
To subscribe to this podcast, visit us at our main page and click the podcast link on the right. Don't forget to leave us voice mail at 1-800-947-6399 or e-mail us at insidecnetlabs@cnet.com.
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Your mobile devices' wireless LAN is about to get significantly better.
Atheros, a mobile Wireless LAN (WLAN) chip maker, announced Monday the lauch of its newest and possibly the industry's highest performance mobile WLAN chip, the the ROCm single-chip 11n AR6003 family.
The new AR6003 mobile WLAN chip is the smallest WLAN currently on the market.
(Credit: Atheros)According to Atheros, this tiny new chip, currently the smallest WLAN chip on the market, measuring just a 5mm by 5mm, combines both the energy efficiency of Atheros' ROCm technology and the faster 802.11n WLAN performance. As a result, it offers up to 85Mbps of actual throughput speed in the 5GHz band and 48Mbps in the 2.4Ghz band.
While this speed is slower than the 150Mbps ceiling speed of the single-stream 802.11n standard (which is just half the speed of regular dual-stream, 802.11n standard used in desktop and laptop computers), it's a very good fit and offers a major performance improvement for smartphones, mobile gaming devices, and other portable consumer electronics products.
The most impressive feature of the new chip, however, is its energy efficiency. According to Atheros, the AR6003 require about 20 percent less energy than the previous model, the AR6002, which prior to the launch of the AR6003, had always been the most energy efficient WLAN chip on the market.
In addition, the new AR6003 chip supports Atheros Universal Wireless Cooperation, which is a suite of advanced mobile wireless coexistence techniques. This helps significantly enhance the simultaneous operation of WLAN and Bluetooth in mobile devices. The new chip also support mobile device with host wakeup, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup, a feature that allows for quickly connecting a client to a wireless network without having to amnaully enter the encryption key.
The AR6003 mobile WLAN chip is available in single-band and dual-band (2.4/5Ghz) configurations. You won't be able to buy one on your own, but very soon you'll find one in your mobile wireless device.
G-Tech's new 2TB 7200 rpm-based external storage devices.
(Credit: G-Tech)It's not hard these days to find external storage devices that offer 2TB or even 4TB of storage. However, most of them use low-power and relatively low-performance internal hard drives, such as the My Book series from Western Digital or the FreeAgent series from Seagate. If you are looking for top speed and top capacity form external storage solutions for your Mac, G-Tech has some news for you.
The company announced Monday that it now incorporates Hitachi's 2TB, 7,200rpm, 32MB cache buffer SATA hard drives across its entire 3.5-inch product line, offering different storage solutions from single-volume external hard drive to RAID systems, with capacities ranging from 2TB to 32TB.
The company's newly refreshed products include the G-DRIVE, G-SAFE, G-RAID, G-SPEED eS, G-SPEED eS Pro, G-SPEED eS PRO XL, and the G-SPEED FC XL. With these new products, G-Tech claims that it's now the first in the world that offers a complete line of 2TB, 7,200 RPM drive-based external storage solutions, specifically designed for the Mac computer and audio- and video-editing markets.
G-Tech's new storage solutions comes with virtually all existing connections, from USB 2.0, FireWire and eSATA for desktop external drives to miniSAS and Fibre Channel for high-end RAID storage systems. The fact that now it uses the top 2TB capacity hard drives means that customers can significantly increase the amount of storage while retaining the same physical footprint.
The new G-Tech external storage devices are available now with premium prices ranging from $379 for the simple desktop 2TB G-Drive, $3,599 for the high-end 8TB G-Speed eS Pro to tens of thousands of dollars for other high-end storage systems.
The new Rocket 622 and Rocket 620 SATA 3.0 controller cards from HighPoint.
(Credit: HighPoint)In September, Seagate made the first 6Gbps SATA hard drive available. The new Seagate Barracuda XT hard drive offers twice the throughput speed of existing popular 3Gbps SATA hard drives. Now you're about to get the chance to take advantage of the new drive's performance with your current PC.
HighPoint, which makes controllers for storage devices, announced Monday the availability of the first SATA 6Gbps (or SATA 3.0) host adapters, the Rocket 600 series, which are based on PCI-Express 2.0 technology.
SATA 3.0 is the next generation of the SATA storage standard. Currently most computers use the second generation of this standard, the 3Gbps SATA (or SATA 2.0). At its full potential, the SATA 3.0 standard could theoretically transfer entire contents of a CD (about 800MB) in just one second. According to HighPoint, its new controller cards, however, offer the sustained speed of up to 500MBps.
HighPoint's new series of controller cards comes in two versions, the Rocket 622 that offers external eSATA connections to 6Gbps hard drives and the Rocket 620 that adds the higher-speed SATA to a computer's internal storage. Both of them, however, require an available PCI-Express slot inside the computer. You need the Rocket 620 if you want to install an operating system on the new and faster SATA 3.0 hard drive.
The two add-in controller cards are fully compliant with the Advanced Host Controller Interface (or AHCI) standard. They can also be installed in PCI-Express 1.0 slots and are backward compatible with previous generations of the SATA standard (the 1.5Gbps SATA 1.0 and the 3Gbps SATA 2.0). This means you can use them with any existing SATA-based hard drives and solid-state drives, other than the new 6Gbps SATA Barracuda XT from Seagate.
The new controllers are available this month. The Rocket 620 is slated to cost $70, while the Rocket 622 costs another $10.
(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)
Starting next week, the holiday season drops on us like an object of infinite mass hurled from the moon at the speed of light. Keep your eyes open in the coming weeks for a number of CNET holiday guides.
Sometimes, though a guide specific to the holidays isn't enough and you need something a bit more...all encompassing.
CNET's Monitor Buying Guide has been around for a while, but we felt it really wasn't addressing all that it could. So we revamped it. Check it out and let us know how it can be improved upon even more. Is there any aspect of purchasing a monitor we neglected? Would you like to see more detail on what we have included? Is there anything inaccurate?
If so, leave a comment or send an e-mail. This is a work in progress, so feel free to offer anything constructive.
Eric Franklin's colleagues once had the following to say to him: "Eric, you've been doing this performance testing thing for over 10 years now. How about you try something different?" To which Eric responded, "How about you shut the #%$@! up?" This candid attitude
allows him to go toe-to-toe with the most extreme of personalities, including that of Dong Ngo. This bio was written by Eric Franklin.
Dong Ngo is a knowledgeable, opinionated individual who wants to convince the world that he's just a normal person; but he hasn't had much success. According to him, this is because the world itself is abnormal. Dong loves traveling and is well-versed in several languages. He, unfortunately, is not so well-versed in English. Still, it's best to ask him questions. From networking and how to optimize your system, to turning a strange place into home or what the meaning of life is…most of the time, he has the answers. The question is: Will he make himself understood? Subscribe and find out!
