Sep 27

LG Optimus EX gets official in Korea, sporting 1.2GHz Tegra 2 chip, 700 nits of brightness

Posted in: Android, dual-core, gingerbread, korea, launch, LG, mobilepostmini, NVIDIA, optimus, smartphone, South Korea, SouthKorea, tegra 2, Tegra2, Today's Chili
So, about that LG Optimus EX we saw last week — it’s now gone official in South Korea and it’s looking slightly more alluring. Announced yesterday, this Gingerbread-coated handset is the first to ship with NVIDIA’s revamped 1.2GHz Tegra 2 processor, which means it’ll support 1080p video, much like the Galaxy S II. It also boasts a four-inch LCD with 480 × 800 resolution and a full 700 nits of brightness, along with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage, a five megapixel camera and front-facing VGA shooter. Available in either black and silver or white and gold color schemes, the EX is slated to launch on Korea’s SK Telecom at an unspecified price, though plans for an international release remain unclear. As soon as we find out, however, we’ll be sure to let you know.

LG Optimus EX gets official in Korea, sporting 1.2GHz Tegra 2 chip, 700 nits of brightness originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 27

Folding E-Bike Concept Is About to Get Real

Posted in: Today's Chili, Transportation

Gabriel Wartofsky’s e-bike exist in real life

You know all those concept bikes we see which look like they’d break in two as soon as you jump on them? And how it doesn’t matter anyway, as they’ll never make it outside of a CAD rendering? Well, Gabriel Wartofsky’s e-bike is not one of those concepts. Not only did he come up with a plausible-looking design, but he managed to get it funded already on Kickstarter.

Strength-wise, the bike looks good, sharing the fat tubes and chunky joints of the super-tough (although slightly wobbly) Brompton. The fold, too, is smart. The handlebars fold first, and then the front and rear wheels simply swing around on their tubes too end up tidily tucked inside the loop of the frame.

Drive comes from an electric motor in the front hub, and by a rod-based direct rear-wheel drive connected to the pedals. This last eliminates the chain, which is a real pain to deal with on folders.

No CG renderings here. The direct drive keeps pants hems clean

Most important of all, Gabriel has a fully functioning prototype, and it looks great. Amazingly, the Kickstarter buy-in price is a mere $25,000. Not bad for a bike, when sometimes we see iPhone case makers asking for upwards of $60,000. This probably has something to do with Gabriel’s design being rather well developed already — he’s been working on it since 2008.

Folding Electric Bike for Commuters [Kickstarter]


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Sep 27

Slingshot Camera Makes Coworkers Cower in Fear

Posted in: Today's Chili

I hate you I hate you I hate you. Fun and frolics with the Sling Shot camera

Here’s a great way to win friends and popularity. It’s called the Sling Shot, and it’s a camera designed to make subjects cower in fear as you photograph them. No longer will your (soon-to-be-ex) friends and coworkers crowd around a tiny LCD screen to see how good they look in your snaps. They’ll already know that you have caught them at their most vulnerable, and they will hate you for it.

The real purpose behind Sung Young Um and Jung Eun Yim’s concept design is to free people from their inhibitions and let them relax in front of the camera instead of presenting the usual lock-jawed grimace. Flip out the y-shaped arms and pull on the cord and the lucky subject will recoil, then realize what’s going on, and then slump in relief with a genuine smile on their face.

You get a great shot, at the expense of being a total douche. Keep going for long enough and you’ll become the Bruce Gilden of cubicles, or find that your packed lunch, which you foolishly left in the canteen refrigerator, has been tampered with.

Candid Camera with a Sling [Yanko]

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Sep 27

Scientists prove that active exploration isn’t required to create memories, +1 for 2D learning

Posted in: education, science, Today's Chili, video games, VideoGames

In a small victory for gamers and TV junkies everywhere, scientists found that viewing 2D images helped create long-term memories, meaning that visual media can help your learn. To form lasting memories, nerve cells normally experience “long-term potentiation” and “long-term depression” — both essential for learning. Researchers found that long-term depression was achieved when they let rats actively wander around a new environment. When they replaced the explorable area with a computer screen, the same memory-making phenomenon still occurred. The study’s conclusion? Video games and TV shows can help us learn, similarly to traditional non-electronic methods. Of course, there are concerns that visual media overload could lead to shorter attention spans, interfere with lessons taught at school and… oh look! A cat! Check out the full findings by hitting the source link below.

Scientists prove that active exploration isn’t required to create memories, +1 for 2D learning originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMedicalXpress  | Email this | Comments

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Sep 27

Gmail Themes are Available… and They’re Sweet!

Posted in: Gmail, Google, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on November 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

I’ve always thought that Gmail has one of the best interfaces out there in terms of web-based email clients, but not everyone may feel the same way. In true Google fashion they are starting to roll out a feature where users can choose from 30 awesome looking themes that will give your Inbox a fresh new feel.

This new feature isn’t going to be part of Gmail Labs either. Once the themes have been rolled out to your account you should notice a new Themes tab in the settings. Alternatively this link will take you directly to the theme settings provided that it has been activated for your account.

Here’s a quick look at a variety of the themes available (notice the ASCII theme in the bottom-left corner):

gmail themes.jpg

Bravo Google! You’ve really out done yourself this time. Now there’s just one thing that would really put this over the top, and that would be if they create some sort of system so that designers can create and upload their own themes. I’m not going to complain though because the set of themes they currently have available is pretty amazing.

P.S. I have one account that has this feature already, and another that doesn’t. So be patient why this gets rolled out to everyone.

Read more about the new themes over at the Gmail Blog

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 27

Sprint’s unlimited data plans aren’t going anywhere, CTO confirms

Posted in: business, mobilepostcross, money, smartphone, Sprint, Today's Chili

Sprint may have plenty of changes in store for its upcoming “strategy update,” but it looks like one crucial policy will remain in place — unlimited data plans. Speaking to reporters at Mobilize in San Francisco yesterday, company CTO Stephen Bye confirmed that even though competitors like Verizon and AT&T are phasing out their unlimited plans, Sprint remains committed to providing its customers with infinite data. Doing so won’t come without costs, since, as Bye explained, not all unlimited subscribers eat up the same amount of data. But the exec pointed out that these efforts are counterbalanced by the relative simplicity of managing unlimited schemes, and don’t seem quite as prohibitive when compared with the hidden customer support costs involved with more complex, tiered plans. Yet despite all this optimism, Sprint seems fully aware that some major expenses are on the horizon, especially with a revamped 4G LTE network in the pipeline and, perhaps, with the iPhone 5 on the way. “Is there pressure? Yeah,” Bye acknowledged. “There’s a challenge for all engineers to work on how we get the cost structure down.” Bye went on to reiterate, however, that although a new data network may attract new investors, it’s ultimately Sprint’s unique data plans that will keep its customer base intact.

Sprint’s unlimited data plans aren’t going anywhere, CTO confirms originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 03:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceCNET  | Email this | Comments

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Sep 27

Yahoo to Acquire Zimbra for 350 Million

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites, Yahoo

This article was written on September 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

All along I had been wondering why Yahoo hadn’t acquired Zoho (Online Office Suite) yet. In fact, back in July I asked this very question and I suggested that Yahoo seemed like a likely buyer because Microsoft has no need for them, and Google has their own Office Suite. Now I know that Yahoo had no need for Zoho – they were going after Zimbra, an Online Open Source Office Suite. TechCrunch just reported that Yahoo is set to announce their acquisition of Zimbra tonight for $350 million in cash.While Yahoo hasn’t made their official announcement yet, thus it hasn’t been confirmed, Arrington says that they got this information "through a very solid source."

Seeing as Zimbra is Open Source, it’s no surprise how versatile it is.  Users on Windows, Apple, and Linux operating systems using browsers like Firefox, IE, and Safari are able to use their service. And the fact that their Desktop application offers both online and offline functionality makes it that much more appealing. They also make great use of Ajax in their applications which gives you a great experience. Their web client integrates a shared calendar, contacts, email, online document authoring, and more.

Aside from being known as one of the best open source options for messaging, collaboration, and reducing the need for Microsoft Outlook, Zimbra is also pretty well known because of the skins that you can make. Zimbra is very customizable and you can make it look nearly any way you’d want. To prove this, they made (for fun- not for us), a skin that looks like Gmail pictured to the right. Impressive, isn’t it?

zmail

There’s SO much that you can do with Zimbra and it’ll be interesting to see how Yahoo decides to use it.  I also assume Yahoo intends to use Zimbra to directly compete with Google Apps, but we’ll just have to wait and see. When I look at Zimbra, I must say, it makes me wonder why Gmail and other mail services haven’t been able to do what Zimbra has done already by integrating all of their services together.

If you’d like to see what Zimbra is all about, you can try out this demo — no registration is required to do this.

Thanks “S” for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Sep 27

Boeing officially delivers 787 Dreamliner to ANA, future of air travel finally arrives

Posted in: minipost, Today's Chili

It’s the plane so nice, they unveiled it twice. Boeing once again presented its long-awaited and much-delayed 787 Dreamliner to client All Nippon Airways, but this time the goods were officially delivered. After taking the wraps off the airliner early this August, the aerospace company managed to get a flight-ready unit over to its Everett, Washington production plant for a celebratory hand-off. Despite a fit of stops and starts for the line’s rollout, Boeing expects to meet ANA’s order of its future 55-strong fleet, producing an additional 20 craft for the Japanese airline by 2013’s end. If you want to be among the select few to call “First!,” you might want to consider booking that Japan-bound vacation now.

Boeing officially delivers 787 Dreamliner to ANA, future of air travel finally arrives originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceReuters  | Email this | Comments

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Sep 26

Samsung’s Galaxy S II for T-Mobile proves that unicorns do exist (hands-on video)

Posted in: breaking news, galaxy s ii, GalaxySIi, hands-on, hspa, mobilepostcross, nfc, qualcomm, samsung, snapdragon, t-mobile, Today's Chili, video

After eluding our grubby little paws at its launch in New York and again this morning at Mobilize 2011, we’re happy to report that we’ve finally caught up with T-Mobile’s Galaxy S II. To recap, the carrier’s permutation rocks the same WVGA 4.52-inch Super AMOLED Plus display as Sprint’s Epic 4G Touch, but replaces Samsung’s in-house 1.2GHz Exynos CPU with Qualcomm’s dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S3 processor. T-Mobile tells us the brain swap was necessary as it wanted its variant to support 42Mbps HSPA+ on the network’s AWS band (just like its cousin the Amaze 4G). Oh, and like AT&T’s variant it comes with a little NFC glitter sprinkled on top. So is it the same delectable Galaxy S II as its European and Sprint counterparts? From our brief time with the handset, the transplant doesn’t appear to have impacted performance at all — it’s just as snappy as ever. In terms of appearance, the phone sports a soft-touch matte black finish in back and its bezel is a lighter shade of chrome than used on its siblings. Check out our gallery below, and peek after the break for our hands-on video.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

Gallery: T-Mobile Galaxy S II hands-on

Continue reading Samsung’s Galaxy S II for T-Mobile proves that unicorns do exist (hands-on video)

Samsung’s Galaxy S II for T-Mobile proves that unicorns do exist (hands-on video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 26

Hands-on with HTC’s Amaze 4G for T-Mobile (video)

Posted in: 1080p, Android, breaking news, BreakingNews, dual-core, gingerbread, hands-on, hspa, HTC, mobilepostcross, TMobile, Today's Chili, video

So how does HTC’s Amaze 4G stack up to its European counterpart, the Sensation XE? Pretty well actually. The 4.3-inch qHD smartphone also features Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon CPU, but bumps the RAM from 768MB to 1GB. It’s also HTC’s first NFC toting device and joins T-Mobile’s Galaxy S II as the other 42Mbps HSPA+ -capable handset on Magenta’s network. More noteworthy is its trick eight megapixel shooter, which features the same backside-illuminated sensor, f2.2 wide-angle optics and 1080p video recording capability as the myTouch 4G Slide. Similarly, the Amaze 4G hangs on to quite a bit of that phone’s camera software, including a new composite mode that automagically creates one stellar image out of five less than fabulous snapshots. We also liked the addition of two physical camera buttons, one for stills and the other for video. First impressions of the Sense-laden, Gingerbread smartphone? It’s very much like a Sensation on steroids, with a definite T-Mobile flavor. Take a look at our gallery and hit the break for our hands-on video from Mobilize 2011.

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

Gallery: HTC Amaze 4G hands-on

Continue reading Hands-on with HTC’s Amaze 4G for T-Mobile (video)

Hands-on with HTC’s Amaze 4G for T-Mobile (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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