Some leaked AMD presentation slides are doing the rounds and they look just about arcane enough to be genuine. Assuming they are, and bearing in mind that they’re already a few months old, then the key news is that the Trinity APU could swing into full production as early as January. This successor to the immensely successful Llano range of mobile APUs will be based on “Piledriver” CPU cores, which themselves are variants of the Bulldozer cores in AMD’s imminent desktop refresh. Suddenly that Llano-powered laptop you’ve been ogling doesn’t look like such an obvious purchase. Check out the gallery below for more slides, including intriguing references to post-Trinity “Kaveri” and “Kabini” APUs planned for 2013.
It’s not often that fabric softener is made to appeal specifically to single women who want romance, but here we are.
“Which Romeo would you want to fall in love with?” is the latest advertisement slogan for a new Aroma Rich Juliette campaign that, quite frankly, made us fall out of our chairs in the office. The campaign for the aromatic fabric softener was running for about a month aimed at Japanese women who fantasize of being “Juliette” for a night and spending it with the Romeo of their choice. The Romeos, in this case, being mostly foreign guys with dreams of being famous in Japan.
These charming fellows were competing for the romantic title of The Next Romeo. It’s interesting that, among them all, the only Japanese guy in the bunch came in first!
Each one of the candidates did his best romantic performance in a short video presentation where he introduced himself, his skills, passions and dreams, while the final message was to convince the audience to choose him and become their Romeo for one night. This was the most surreal part of the video where he shows his affection – supposedly to Juliette- while cradling the Aroma Rich fabric softener bottle in his arms.
It was a hard decision, I must say. Choosing between French Vincent who whispers romantic French words to Juliette, the tall British model who divides his time with volunteer work in Tohoku…Or rather the sweet Hawaiian surfer who wants to take the next Juliette to round-the- world trip… hmmm…
Kasey Cummings, the surfer, has a blog if you want to check it out. The line when he introduces himself in the video is mindblowing in any language: “My name is Kasey. Please remember, it’s ‘Kasey’ like ‘keshi-gomu.’”
For those wondering, ‘keshi-gomu’ is Japanese for eraser, but you don’t have to snap your fingers and point when you say it.
The campaign is nicely wrapped in the fairy tale, dreamy atmosphere, piano and violin background music and French titles- something that seemingly appeals to the woman wanting romance and a Western-style courtship and wedding.
The prize, as promised, was to make this dream come true, for only one night. Two winning Juliettes will be escorted by the chosen Romeo to a production of the real ‘Romeo and Juliette’ and a romantic dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant. Runners up will be forced to live out their dreams through free bottles of fabric softener.
The chosen first place Romeo, surprisingly enough, was the only Japanese- Onuki San from Kanagawa prefecture, who humbly introduced himself with a short, but convincing, performance, as a dancer, with a simple dream of becoming a man of his words. His fun and playful final message represents probably the most of what is the ideal Romeo in Japanese women’s eyes. After all, French romances are just for dreaming, and Japanese girls remain with their reality and cultural priorities.
Aroma Rich, a Soflan brand from Lion, has other scents of happy- fruity Scarlett and elegant-floral Violetta fragrances. Juliette is the scent for love, but be careful at the airport:
Last week, OnStar issued a privacy notice informing customers that it would continue to collect data on vehicles still connected to its servers, even for those who have already canceled their subscriptions. The move elicited a chorus of protests from Democratic privacy advocates in the Senate, including Chris Coons, Al Franken and, most recently, Charles Schumer, who wrote a letter to the FTC yesterday calling for an investigation into what he sees as a bold violation of consumer rights. “By tracking drivers even after they’ve canceled their service, OnStar is attempting one of the most brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory,” the New York Senator said. “I urge OnStar to abandon this policy and for FTC to immediately launch a full investigation to determine whether the company’s actions constitute an unfair trade practice.” Find out more about OnStar’s new policy, after the break.
Nokia is still hammering out the hardware for its premier Windows Phone, but here’s a taste of what the beleaguered phone giant will be adding in the way of exclusive apps. Posted on the Zune marketplace, Top Apps turned up a few days ago and we managed to get a screen grab in case it disappears. It appears to be Nokia’s “fun and quick” interpretation of a curated app portal, all pretty similar to the stock Windows Phone offering. Looks like we’ll have to wait just a little longer to see exactly how much creative freedom Nokia manages to wring from Microsoft’s (previously stringent) Windows Phone UI.
Monday morning is hardly the time for philosophical questions, but here’s one anyway: should manufacturers refresh product lines if they’re not adding anything new? Toshiba’s Canvio 3.0 external HDDs announced today have pretty much identical specs to the Canvio 3.0 Plus drives already available on Amazon: capacities from 500GB to 1TB, prices from $90 to $140 and the inclusion some cloud backup software worth around $40. The pocket-sized drives come in a range of colors and it’s hypothetically possible that they’ll look better than their predecessors, but we can’t be sure until we get product photos instead of the plain render you see on the right. Meanwhile, things get relatively more interesting when we come to the Canvio Basics range, which make a few sacrifices to come in $10 cheaper and which at least now come with USB 3.0. Enough with the nihilism already.
The Nyko Power Pak+ does an admirable job of keeping Nintendo’s 3DS out of the red, but what if you want an extended battery that won’t fit in your pocket? Look no further than CTA Digital’s Deluxe Power Grip, the 3DS cradle that doubles your console’s bulk to match its newly extended battery life. The grip’s form mimics that of an Xbox 360 controller, replete with a 2600mAh battery pack and a game-card storing kickstand. The peripheral’s grips seem to lend better access to the handheld’s awkwardly positioned D-pad, but its real triumph comes in the option to charge the unit via USB; folks looking for a standardized charging solution can kick Nintendo’s official AC adapter to the curb. Comfy grips and USB compatibility will set you back about $30. Not convinced? Barrel roll past the break for the official PR and a cheesy overview video.
A new cloud storage system may not exactly be big news these days, but it is certainly a bit more noteworthy when it’s the San Diego Supercomputer Center (or SDSC) behind it. That new service, simply dubbed the SDSC Cloud, also isn’t your ordinary cloud storage system — it’s designed specifically for academic and research use, and it’s said to be the largest of its kind in the world. That title comes from an initial raw capacity of 5.5 petabytes, which the SDSC notes is scalable by “orders of magnitude to hundreds of petabytes,” and which is accessible at sustained read speeds from 8 to 10 gigabytes per second (also promised to be improved over time). Those interested in signing up can do so right now through an application process, with rates starting at $3.25 a month for 100GB of storage. Additional details are in the press release after the break.
Broadcom is really throwing its weight behind this whole NFC thing. Its new family of BCM2079x chips have moved to a 40nm manufacturing process which cuts power use by 90-percent and board size by 40-percent. Broadcom claims they’re the smallest and most power efficient NFC chips on the market — and we’re not in any position to refute that assertion. The company’s Maestro tools have also been upgraded to let their NFC chips speak to a device’s Bluetooth and WiFi radios. This could be used to quickly pair with other gadgets using Bluetooth or stream media to a connected television. For more details check out the PR after the break.
To promote yet another release of Star Wars, Tokyo trains have had their handles turned into lightsabers
Debate still rages as to whether George Lucas should be banned from touching the original Star Wars movies. The latest Blu-ray release further ruins his once-great movies. Take these examples, from Wikipedia’s list of changes:
The Ewoks’ eyes now have CG eyelids, allowing them to blink
Darth Vader now says “No” while Luke is tortured by the Emperor’s Force Lightning attack, and then immediately screams “Nooooo!” as he picks Palpatine up and hurls him into the Death Star’s reactor core
Almost impossible to believe, I know, but even this insensitive tinkering doesn’t lessen the greatness of the Japanese publicity campaign for the Blu-ray release. Advertisers have turned the grab-bars on the Tokyo subway into lightsabers.
Using stickers with built-in buttons and LED lights, the promo isn’t only smart, it’s also a great opportunity for stealing Star Wars memorabilia. I imagine that these stick-in ’sabers are going to disappear very quickly indeed.
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