Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on July 18, 2008 by CyberNet.

One of the beauties of Wikipedia is the simple fact that nearly anybody is able to contribute to the site. They’re also criticized for this as well, and some say the practice of allowing open-editing makes Wikipedia susceptible to vandalism. What is Wikipedia to do to find a happy-medium where they can allow open editing of content yet keep the site accurate and free of vandalism?

Right now at the annual Wikimania 2008 event going on in Egypt, Wikipedia officials and contributors are discussing what they can do to improve the quality of content on Wikipedia and reduce vandalism. One idea that has come up and is already being tested on the German Wikipedia site is something they are calling “flagged revisions.” The concept of flagged revisions is pretty basic but could definitely change the way Wikipedia operates. Under the system, when someone contributed a change to an article, the change would not appear on the site until an “authority figure” verified the changes and assured they were accurate.

What does this mean for Wikipedia users? Well, for those who tend to use it almost as a news source, they’ll no longer be able to. The near instant updates to the site have turned Wikipedia into a place where you could go to learn about current events, but by the time an authority figure is able to verify changes, the event will probably no longer be “current.”

The New York Times wrote about this new approval system and said, “it well could bring some law and order to the creative anarchy that has made the site a runaway success but also made it a target for familiar criticism.” It’ll be near impossible for Wikipedia to please everybody because on one-hand they’ve got those that like the current system as it is, flaws and all, and then on the other-hand they’ve got those pushing for a more accurate and correct Wikipedia with a checks and balances system.

Our thought on this is that Wikipedia has done something right to get millions upon millions of visitors every single year. Why “fix” something if it isn’t broken? Flagged Revisions could certainly help cut-back on vandalism, but in the process it could stifle creativity and slow-down the flow of information.

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Sony Ericsson T715 on the FCC table

(Credit: FCC)

Not a lot went through the FCC this week, but we did notice a few interesting devices on the list. The Nokia RX-51 looks to be some kind of large tablet phone hybrid, and Motorola has something called the Crush in …

It’s been a little while since TDK has made some news in the neverending race for next big hard drive breakthrough, but it looks like that could be changing fairly soon, with a recently revealed roadmap indicating that the company currently has some 640GB drive platters suitable for a 3.5-inch drive going through qualification tests by its OEMs. While nothing’s obviously official just yet, TDK is reportedly looking to begin mass production of the platters in November of this year, which could pave the way for some four-platter, 2.5TB drives to debut as early as February of next year. As Register Hardware points out, a five-platter, 3.2TB drive would also be possible, though somewhat less likely. We can dream, though.

[Via Electronista]

Filed under: Storage

TDK looks to deliver 2.5TB hard drives in early 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now this is one stat from an analyst that we wouldn’t refute, but we do wonder how Versaly Entertainment acquired this information. How exactly does one calculate streaming revenue from a subscription service like Netflix anyways? To be fair we are only assuming that Netflix is involved here as it wasn’t specifically mentioned, but we really can’t think of any other subscription based video streaming service. Our best guess is that the revenue in question is based on what the studios are receiving and not for the service itself. Regardless, it isn’t hard to figure out why no one is paying $4-$5 for the 24 hour rights to watch a movie on any of the pay-per-download services out there. Especially when you can rent a movie from just about anywhere via Redbox for $1.

Read — Subscription downloads outperform pay-view.
Read — Redbox undermining DVD value

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Subscription services like Netflix Watch Instantly generate 20x the revenue of pay-per-downloads originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, Sharp, you introduced the world’s first HDTV line with integrated Blu-ray players last year, what are you going to do next? Only naturally, the Japanese lineup of DX2 series one-ups the original DX by adding Blu-ray recording as well. It doesn’t appear that these pack the LED backlighting of the new X-Gen based displays headed our way this fall, so for now buyers will have to make do with the 15,000:1 contrast ratio shared with the other D-series televisions. Still, the big deal here is that the 1080p (52-, 46- and 40-inch) and 720p (32- and 26-inch) displays will burn up to 30 hours of HD video on dual-layer Blu-ray discs, by way of transcoding and compressing to MPEG-4 format without any messy external boxes or wires. The price range from ¥170,000 ($1,740) at the low end to ¥480,000 for the largest size when these ship September 15 but don’t count on seeing them on this side of the Pacific (or the Atlantic.)

[Via AV Watch]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Laptops

Sharp’s AQUOS DX2 HDTVs don’t need any help to burn Blu-ray discs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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