News Archive for 09/01/02

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Ecamm announces BT-1 wireless webcam for Mac

01/02, 6:10pm

BT-1 Wireless Webcam

Ecamm Network has announced the BT-1, a Bluetooth webcam for Mac. The device offers streaming H.264 video at 640 by 480 pixel resolution and 48kHz AAC stereo audio. An included flexible mini-tripod allows users to mount or position the camera for a variety of applications. The internal battery is claimed to offer roughly four hours of usage and the package comes with a USB charging cable. The BT-1 is said to work with applications such as iChat and Skype.

Rogue Amoeba unveils Pulsar SIRIUS/XM client

01/02, 5:40pm

Pulsar sat radio client

Rogue Amoeba has unveiled Pulsar, a desktop client for listening to XM Radio Online and SIRIUS Internet Radio. Subscribers to the satellite radio services can use the program to access both corresponding web-based versions, without using extra hardware or a browser. Listings are continuously updated with station and current song information, while users can also save any favorite stations. The client can work with Audio Hijack Pro and Airfoil for recording streams or distributing the audio via AirPort Express.

Crypto Games Mix 1 launched for iPhone

01/02, 4:15pm

Gaming 5-pack on App Store

Cryptocybernetics has launched Crypto Games Mix 1, a five-game combo-package for the iPhone. Word Hunter and Word Scramble are combined with three recent apps, Observation, Cupid and Hexapawn. Word Hunter is a word-square game, challenging players to find the words in a square matrix of letters. Word Scramble presents gamers with mixed-up words, with the goal of unscrambling the words in the shortest amount of time. Both titles have English, Spanish and Russian word lists, with a total wordcount over 110,000.

Briefly: Magic iPhone tricks, Hess List, MacMod

01/02, 4:00pm

iPhone, Macworld

In brief: A new e-book has been released, showing iPhone users how to perform various mind tricks. Macworld goers may want to check The Hess Memorial Macworld Events List before heading out; the list includes information about otherwise unannounced gatherings. MacMod, meanwhile, is looking to reposition itself as a network for Mac users looking to socialize and learn from their peers.

PQI to debut four new SSD products at CES

01/02, 3:35pm

PQI to intro SSDs at CES

Taiwan's Power Quotient International (PQI), which claims it has more than ten years of experience making solid state drives (SSDs), will display its range of SSDs, USB Flash Drives, Memory Modules and Flash Memory Cards at the CES show next week, including four new SSD products. The debuts will include the 1.8-inch microSATA SSD S518, Express Card SSD S520, 2.5-inch SATA II SSD S525 and eSATA Combo Card S530. The S518 and S525 offer up to 128GB capacities, with the former meant for use in notebooks while the latter offers two interfaces for use inside or outside of computers.

First Look: HP MediaSmart Server

01/02, 3:30pm

FL: HP MediaSmart Server

Many people own multiple computers, such as a notebook and a desktop, or a a Mac and a PC. The problem with multiple systems is backing up data from all of them -- while backing up a single computer is easy with an external hard drive, buying separate disks for several computers can become cumbersome and expensive. In the corporate world, businesses can back up multiple machines to a single server; HP’s MediaSmart Server makes this option available at a reasonable cost to individuals, as well as small businesses.

ASUS first with Dolby TrueHD bitstream audio cards

01/02, 3:20pm

ASUS Dolby TrueHD cards

Taiwan's ASUS on Wednesday announced it will soon release its Xonar HDAV1.3-series of sound cards that are the first in the industry to offer TrueHD audio bitstream support for HTPCs. The lossless digital compression rate of 24-bit/192KHz audio is delivered to AV receivers thanks to the use a specially designed C-Media AV200 audio processor and ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre software. HTPC users can now enjoy DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus audio formats usually found on today's Blu-ray movies discs.

Android Market expands, paid apps coming soon

01/02, 3:10pm

Android Market expansion

Google has confirmed that the Android Market application store for the T-Mobile G1 cellphone will begin offering paid applications in the US and the UK early on in the first quarter of 2009, according to a report posted earlier this week. Soon thereafter, the Android Market in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain will also sell applications for devices running on the Google Android operating system. The move should help bring the Android Market more in line with the more established App Store from Apple, as the paid apps are expected to be more advanced and of higher quality.

Ace to release sub-$1K CableCARD HTPCs

01/02, 2:45pm

Ace CableCard HTPCs

Ace Computers will add two new models to its LMS range of HTPCs, unveiling them at the CES show next week, both under the LMS 250 designation. Both will include CableCARD support, allowing users to view and record encrypted digital TV programming. The key factor is that Ace will price the PCs starting at just under $1,000, or about $500 less than competing models with the same CableCARD support.

MathMagic 6.0 goes Universal, adds PDF support

01/02, 2:25pm

MathMagic 6.0 ships

InfoLogic has released MathMagic 6.0, now in Universal Binary format, with PDF support and improvements to the toolbar interface for Template and Symbolic palettes. Version 6 also adds better MathML and Wiki equations, and new symbol palettes for the Blackboard Bold, Calligraphic and Fraktur styles. MathMagic is an equation-editing suite geared to desktop publishing software, and is available in a Personal edition as well as Pro editions for Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress.

Apps: MailFollowup, newslight, Rotate and Flip

01/02, 2:20pm

DLCounter, Floola

MailFollowup Mail Plugin 1.3 (free) adds a "Follow Up" item to Apple Mail's Message and Contextual Menus so that the To, Cc: and Bcc: addresses appear in the reply exactly as they appeared in the original message. To match the semantics of Reply and Reply All, Version 1.3 has added functionality for both Follow Up (original To: recipients only) and Follow Up All (all original recipients). Users can also now change the follow-up menu item and toolbar button strings as well as he follow-up subject prefix from the default "Re: " to something else such as "Followup: ". [Download - 1.1MB]

Phenom intros watch phone with MP3 player, video cam

01/02, 2:20pm

Phenom phone watch

On Monday, Phenom announced the release of its Phenom SpecialOPS to add to its line of watch phones. The Phenom SpecialOPS has a tri-band GSM radio and is unlocked for use with most cellular networks. Users can send text messages with the SpecialOPS using the 1.3-inch color touchscreen with the included stylus or the keypad incorporated into the wristband. The watch is also capable of playing back MP3 audio files or MP4 videos and displaying JPG or GIF images.

Digital Foci intros 160GB photo viewer with USB

01/02, 2:05pm

D Foci Picture Porter 35

Digital Foci took the opportunity on Friday for the pre-CES launch of a new high-end photo viewer for vacationers and pros. The Picture Porter 35 both doubles the capacity of its full-fledged viewer range to 160GB but also adds a USB host mode that lets users attach an external hard drive to create backups of the viewer's contents without first returning to a PC. It accordingly comes with faster transfer speeds: about 1GB of images can be transferred to the Porter 35 in two minutes.

Android Market expands, paid apps coming soon

01/02, 1:50pm

Android Market expansion

Google has confirmed that the Android Market application store for the T-Mobile G1 cellphone will begin offering paid applications in the US and the UK early on in the first quarter of 2009, according to a report posted earlier this week. Soon thereafter, the Android Market in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain will also sell applications for devices running on the Google Android operating system. The move should help bring the Android Market more in line with the more established App Store from Apple, as the paid apps are expected to be more advanced and of higher quality.

CD sales drop 20% while softened by digital

01/02, 1:25pm

CD Sales Drop 20 Percent

By Jeff Valvano

New FIC netbook appears at FCC

01/02, 1:00pm

FIC CW001 netbook at FCC

First International Computer is preparing a new netbook for the US, documents from the FCC show. Currently known only as the CW001 Mini-note, the computer has a 10.4-inch display, supporting resolutions up to 1024x600. As with a number of netbooks, the machine is powered by a 1.6GHz Atom processor and integrated graphics; it also contains 2GB of DDR2 RAM however, and uses a SATA II hard drive, as opposed to the lower-capacity SSDs found in some rivals.

Mathomatic for iPhone solves symbolic math

01/02, 12:10pm

Mathomatic app arrives

Gotow.net has launched Mathomatic, a symbolic math calculator for the iPhone. Mathomatic goes beyond regular calculation to solving algebraic problems, ranging from basic algebra to complex polynomial and multivariate systems. It works through systems of equations, showing intermediate steps and all possible solutions, while simplifying and factoring expressions. Mathomatic works with derivatives, indefinite integrals, laplace transforms and taylor series expansions, as well as imaginary numbers.

PC builder MPC shuts down

01/02, 12:05pm

MPC Shuts Down

MPC Corp has quietly revealed that it plans to shut down its operations permanently. The long-time PC maker says an attempt to save itself during Chapter 11 bankruptcy has failed and that it will drop 147 jobs immediately. The firm likewise plans to keep a core of just 51 staffers for an unspecified number of months until it can completely wind down its operations. A tough economic climate gives the company no other choice, an official claims.

iPhone apps: AutoAlert Tracker, CompassApp, OffLeash

01/02, 11:50am

PinPoint Me, Attractions

AutoAlert Tracker (free) is a real time GPS tracking service that can be used to track an iPhone online via the AutoAlert web based control center. Current location can be sent to the control center from the iPhone which can be used to monitor the phones location and where it has been.

Firefox, Chrome, Safari rise in browser share

01/02, 11:45am

Safari use rises in Dec.

Minority browsers grew in popularity again during the month of December, according to tracking figures from Net Applications. Marketshare for Mozilla's Firefox reached 21.34 percent, up from 20.78 percent in November; Apple's Safari jumped from 7.13 to 7.93 percent, and Google's new, Windows-only Chrome browser shifted from 0.83 to 1.04 percent. This marks the first time the software has been over the 1 percent mark.

DreamGEAR launches WarBeast guitar, quad chargers

01/02, 11:30am

DreamGear guitar, chargers

Video game console accessory maker DreamGear announced on Friday that it has released its first guitar controller for the PlayStation3, the WarBeast, along with a Quad Dock charging station for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii consoles. The WarBeast, designed by guitar maker BC Rich, is compatible with the Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Rock Revolution titles, and connects to the PS3 using the 2.4GHz wireless band.

MS pay-per-use PC patent already rejected

01/02, 11:25am

MS Pay Per Use PC Rejected

Microsoft's patent application for a usage-based PC model has already been rebuffed by the US Patent Office, according to a letter disclosed today. Given to Microsoft a few days before the requested patent became public, the notice rejects Microsoft's submission for being at once too broad and too familiar. The tendency to use vague terms and the existence of already patented, relevant technology are cited as the core reasons behind the rejection.

Vuzix to show Wrap video glasses at CES

01/02, 10:40am

Vuzix Wrap 920AV at CES

Vuzix today said it would use CES next week to launch a substantially improved edition of its video glasses. The Wrap 920AV will reportedly tackle the problems of both appearance and viewing angles by following the design of traditional summer sunglasses. In addition to looking more like conventional eyewear, the Wrap will switch from the narrow display of before to a wider, more natural view that also shows some of the real scene in the background.

Apple looking to patent iPhone-friendly glove?

01/02, 10:30am

iPhone-ready glove patent

Apple may be exploring the idea of gloves more friendly to touchscreens, an application published by the US Patent and Trademark Office reveals. A problem common to iPhone and iPod users in colder areas, such as Canada and the northern US, is that they must wear gloves when going outside. Because Apple handhelds use capacitive touchscreens however, it may be difficult or impossible for the electrical signals from a person's fingers to pass through glove fabric.

Verbatim rolls quad-interface desktop drives

01/02, 10:05am

Verbatim Quad Hard Drives

Verbatim chose the second day of 2009 to introduce its first Desktop Hard Drive models with four interfaces. The simply titled Quad Interface drives carry both FireWire 400 and 800 ports as well as external SATA II and USB connectors, rendering them compatible with most any computer and letting users pick the fastest possible storage option. Bandwidth peaks at up to 3Gbps through the eSATA option.

Mac mini to get dual display jacks?

01/02, 9:35am

Mac mini Dual Display Leak

Apple's Mac mini will receive its first multi-monitor support with an update that may come as early as Macworld, an alleged leak from AppleInsider claims. The site points to anonymous sources who say the system will have jacks for both Mini DisplayPort and Mini DVI, letting users hook up both the company's newer Cinema Displays as well as legacy screens. A setup of this sort would prevent using dual Apple screens but theoretically lets users have an extended desktop that has been available on all other Intel-based Macs.

Beta unlock for iPhone 3G now available

01/02, 9:20am

yellowsn0w beta unlock out

As promised in December, the unofficial iPhone Dev Team has released an initial beta version of yellowsn0w, its new iPhone hack. The code represents the first serious software effort to unlock the iPhone 3G, which has otherwise resisted any hacking beyond basic jailbreaking. Applying the unlock currently requires the use of Cydia or Installer.

Mio to bring Spirit-based GPS units to CES

01/02, 8:25am

Mio Spirit GPS to Hit CES

Mio will bring the Spirit interface from its recent Navman units to US shores next week, the company says on its corporate blog. The company provides few details itself but has revealed the OS in the past to support touchscreen features that are normally unavailable on other navigators, such as dragging interface elements on the screen, displaying geotagged photos, and 3D representations of not just landmarks but also complex junctions.

Moto Renew, Samsung t119 headed to T-Mobile

01/02, 7:45am

Moto Renew Samsung t119

T-Mobile will soon pick up a pair of entry-level phones, a pair of leaks from TmoNews show. The Moto W233 Renew should be pushed as an eco-friendly phone and will reportedly use "sustainable" components and boxing material in addition to its cosmetic green look. The candybar handset appears basic but is shown in a product shot to have a dedicated media key for music as well as support for T-Mobile's MyFaves calling feature.