Suitable only for the littlest Whos, Grinchmas offers awkward, repetitive gameplay. Skip it and get the entertaining Dr. Seuss Camera, Grinch Edition instead. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10406305-233.html” class=”origPostedBlog”iPhone Atlas/a/p
The story keeps getting worse for Psystar, a small Florida-based startup that was selling Mac clones. In its court battle with Apple, a judge recently found Psystar guilty of violating Apple’s copyrights. What’s more, the payoff for being a rebel was meager for Psystar: the startup sold only 768 systems, according to an economist Apple hired to analyze Psystar’s business records.
On top of that, Psystar told investors that it projected it would sell between 1.45 million and 12 million machines in 2011. The small company opened shop in April 2008; Apple sued three months later. 12 million units? Talk about absurdly optimistic.
768 shipments is a puny number, but I’m not all that surprised. Back when I worked as an editor at Macworld, I remember how difficult it was for us to order a Psystar desktop for lab testing. Only after numerous attempts did our order go through; the process felt shady from start to finish. Also, I would imagine that the people who are nerdy enough to desire — and put up with — a PC hacked to run Mac OS X would take it upon themselves to build a Hackintosh of their own (like Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel and I did with our netbooks).
Plus, I can’t imagine many would opt to throw money at a company that’s battling Apple’s legal sharks. That circumstance brought the longevity of Psystar, and its ability to provide customer support, into question. Psystar’s spin for investors is even more bizarre: Psystar argued that its legal battle with Apple would frighten off other potential competitors, thus insulating its success. However, plenty of businesses offering Hackintosh solutions have emerged throughout the course of Psystar’s fight with Apple.
ComputerWorld, the first to report this story, happened upon a slide presentation containing the shipment projections, which Psystar showed to venture capitalists in 2008. Get the full story there.
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Photo: Psystar
According to a report filed Monday by DailyTech, 2010 laptops from Dell, HP, and others will include card readers that support the SDXC card standard. Don’t be confused by the nomenclatures; think of the SDXC card format as the 2-terabyte format of the SD cards you normally use for digital cameras and portable storage.
The articles goes on to say that that the new card readers will need to be connected to a dedicated PCI Express connector, rather than a USB 2.0 bus, because of the higher bandwidths they require. This all has the ring of truth about it, but we’ve reached out to several PC OEMs for comment, and we’ll report back if they have any.
ClearPlay — remember those guys? You know, the outfit who garnered all sorts of attention years ago by having their content filtering DVD players yanked from store shelves, only to be vindicated by Congress itself? Amazingly enough, these cats are still hanging around, and they’ve just pushed out their first filtering DVD player to upscale content to 1080p over HDMI. As expected, the $99.95 deck still sports the same filtering technology that gives dutiful parents the ability to block objectionable content based on customizable settings, but now you can rest easy knowing that any slip-up in blocking a steamy bedroom scene will be viewed by your impressionable youngster in glorious high-definition. Huzzah.
ClearPlay introduces first content filtering 1080p upscaling DVD player originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The LG Expo has a 1Ghz processor and it supports an optional pico projector. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-10406348-85.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Dialed In/a/p
With an experimental project, Dell has adapted Google’s browser-based operating system to its Mini 10v Netbook. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10406318-264.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Deep Tech/a/p
Like to blow stuff up real good and gain experience points while doing it? BioWare’s action-RPG smash hit came to the PC in style, and it’s on sale for just 5 bucks. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-10406347-58.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Cheapskate/a/p
ASUS has been giving its motherboard owners ways to tinker with their wares for years now, but it sounds like things are about to get seriously amped up with the Maximus III Extreme. The P55-based board, which falls into the growing Republic of Gamers lineup, adds a new feature to the existing ROG Connect overclocking system: Bluetooth control. You heard right — ASUS claims that this mainboard actually “enables users to tweak system settings wirelessly over Bluetooth via a mobile phone.” More specifically, RC Bluetooth allows users to “review the status of their systems’ hardware and tweak parameters wirelessly from a Bluetooth-enabled PDA phone,” with examples like controlling music playback and dealing with Skype conversations given. There’s no specific mention of a price or release date, but you can bet we’ll be digging for specifics on the limits and functionality baked in here.
ASUS Maximus III Extreme mobo lets Bluetooth cellphones tweak settings originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington says his company’s tablet computer, the CrunchPad, is officially dead. We take a look at what the Web is saying about it. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10406276-2.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Webware/a/p
How many uses can one tool have? If you think the answer is “never enough,” the Piranha by Pocket Tool X might just be for you. A multipurpose job (which kinda reminds us of a dinosaur’s head), the Piranha boasts a double-ended bit holder, both open and box wrenches, a bottle opener, a nail puller, a scraper, and pry ends — and it’s made of heat-treated S30V Stainless Steel — which means it should be sturdy enough to make it through a few family camping trips. The tool is available for pre-order now, with shipments heading out sometime in December, and for $49 it could be all yours.
Pocket Tool X’s Piranha looks like it’s a multipurpose animal originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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