Hasta La Gadget!

Honestly, I don’t understand how any reasonable Justin Bieber fan can contain their love for the teenage Canadian pop-singer in just 140 characters. They manage, somehow, and that is why they are true heroes. A lot of them manage, in fact. So many that Bieber Fever consumes roughly three-percent of Twitter’s resources.

That’s just downright staggering. The number comes from Dustin Curtis, a designer who tweeted, “At any moment, Justin Bieber uses 3% of our infrastructure. Racks of servers are dedicated to him. -Twitter employee.”

Curtis told Gizmodo that the singer has “racks of servers dedicated to him.” Here’s where I would off-handedly reference some Justin Bieber reference, were I not currently using up the three percent of my brain devoted to thinking about Justin Bieber at all times.

Windows Phone 7 Office Image via Microsoft.

Traditionally, Microsoft has been a software company, leveraging its office suites and operating systems, but selling applications for any compatible hardware and platform. For smartphones in particular, its strategy has been to supply the software and let other companies worry about developing the phones. So why not go all the way and sell its software for every device on every platform?

That’s what Business Insider’s Dan Frommer proposes the company do: “Microsoft should develop Office apps for the iPad, Android, Chrome OS, BlackBerry tablet, and any other computing platform that is likely to become popular over the next 5-10 years,” adding that “if Microsoft wants to keep people tied into its Office suite, it needs to go where the people are going.”

Office is integrated into the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 OS, but would compete on several fronts in smartphone and tablet platforms, including iWork on Apple’s iPad, Google Docs on the mobile web, and Dataviz’s multi-platform Documents To Go, just acquired by Blackberry maker RIM.

Frommer sees RIM’s purchase of Documents To Go as a defense against the possibility of Microsoft introducing an Office app for Blackberry. Ironically, if RIM stops active development of Documents To Go for other platforms, that could create just the multi-platform opening needed to entice Microsoft to swoop in.

See Also:

• RIM Confirms It Bought Documents To Go
• Microsoft Office Web Apps
• Wired 15.04: Desktop, R.I.P.
• Microsoft's Mobile Strategy Takes Aim at Apple, Google
• Apple: The Microsoft of Mobile?
• Microsoft's Mobile Shakeup: Will It Unleash Windows Phone …
• Microsoft's Challenge With Windows Phone 7 Is Wooing Developers …
• BlackBerry Tablet 'BlackPad' Readies to Take On the iPad
• Documents To Go: Finally, an Office Suite for the iPad
• Microsoft Tells Windows Phone 7's App Story

With Intel showing signs of jumping on board, USB 3.0 is looking more and more like the one next-gen interconnect to rule them all. Them all except for Apple, of course, who has notably thrown its support exclusively behind Light Peak. The chums at Cupertino have no interest in newer, bluer revisions of USB, but enterprise storage firm CalDigit thinks that many Apple lovers will. It has developed USB 3.0 PCIe and ExpressCard adapters (plus the necessary drivers) that will bring 5Gbps transfers to Macs, and is releasing its CalDigit AV Drive to match, up to 2TB of external storage with 145MBps transfers. (It also sports FireWire 800 compatibility if you’re not ready to cross the interface picket line just yet.) That PCIe adapter will set you back a not entirely unreasonable $59, while the 1TB external drive is $199. No price on the ExpressCard adapter or 2TB version yet, but all are said to be shipping presently.

Update: As bhillyer70 pointed out in comments, these are now available in the CalDigit store. The 2TB drive will set you back $299, while the ExpressCard adapter is listed at $69 and sports this somewhat troubling disclaimer: “CalDigit does not guarantee USB 3.0 performance on all Macs or when used in conjunction with third party products. The driver has been optimized for CalDigit certified products.” Perhaps we should re-open those peace talks…

Continue reading CalDigit brings USB 3.0 AV Drive to the Mac, still working on peace in the Middle East (video)

CalDigit brings USB 3.0 AV Drive to the Mac, still working on peace in the Middle East (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lean on me, says the iCarpus. Or it would if it could talk. It’s a little stand that can hold whatever smartphone you have at whatever angle you’d like. Now that your phone has a big beautiful screen, enjoy hands-free viewing of those TV shows and music videos. This stand is simple, compact, and even works with devices that already have cases around them. The spring-clamp design and non-slip edges ensures that it’ll hold your phone just where you want it.

The iCarpus is available in white and has a list price of $12.99. You can find it on Amazon. Pink, green, and graphite versions are coming later in the fall. As for the weirdly bad name, who knows? Is this stand really named after the eight wrist bones collectively called the carpus? Perhaps, but it’s better not to think about it.

For some, the upgrade from Android OS 1.6 to 2.1 has meant the loss of features such as video playback, PC syncing, and the Facebook widget. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20015820-94.html” class=”origPostedBlog”News – Wireless/a/p