Buffalo Technology has introduced a new NAS series in Japan called the LinkStation Living HS-DHGL. According to Akihabara News, the LinkStation Living HS-DHGL features:

• Gigabit Ethernet support
• DLNA certification
• Built in iTunes server
• Support for PC and Mac
• New case design for improved air flow

Buffalo is apparently claiming that you should be able to record television shows directly to this device from your system on the network. We’ll believe it when we see that! But now that I think about that claim, the name of the new NAS makes more sense to me. LinkStation Living - could that infer this is a network storage device designed for living room environments? People who own media center style systems? Hmm..

The new LinkStation Living HS-DHGL will come in 250GB, 320GB, and 500GB capacitiies which prices ranging from 218 euros to 340 euros.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Buffalo Technology, LinkStation Living HS-DHGL, LinkStation

Wow.. how did I totally miss this? I guess I really haven’t been following the processor business all that closely over the last few months. I knew AMD was going to launch their quad core-ish processors but I didn’t realize it would be today.. and hence.. all the major tech sites have reviews of the new AMD Quad FX platform. Is this the answer AMD fans have been waiting for in response to Intel’s rise from the near dead??

Before showing the review verdicts, I thought I’d brief you guys on what’s new about the Quad FX platform. The platform was known as the 4×4 and it’s not really a true quad core processor system. The Quad FX platform actually pairs two dual core processors into one system so you’ll need to purchase these processors in pairs. In fact, you can’t purchase them separately which is, as ExtremeTech calls it, a big irony. The Quad FX can  be purchased for roughly $999 for the pair which means each dual core processor is roughly 500 dollars. A comparable dual core Athlon64 X2 processor will run you 700 dollars. Errrr..

Finally - to support the new Quad FX platform is the NVIDIA 680a chipset.. which as you know is a competitor of ATI .. which as you know was purchased by AMD. Go figure.

OK.. now onto the reviews and their verdicts:

From ExtremeTech:

Users who really, really need several terabytes of disk and four or more displays may find a good solution here. Most of the rest of us will look elsewhere.

From Anandtech:

Prepare to revisit this discussion in less than a year’s time, and next time AMD will hopefully be much better prepared, armed with a new architecture and a cooler, smaller 65nm process. Until then, there’s always Quad FX but you’re better off with Kentsfield.

From X-Bit Labs:

First of all, the performance of a dual-processor platform built with two dual-core Athlon FX processors turned out lower than that of the competitor’s solutions built on quad-core Kentsfield CPUs. We have seen this in all test applications throughout the entire session.

From LegitReviews:

Quad FX has arrived and closes the performance gap between AMD and Intel, but ultimately it’s nothing more than a stop gap till AMD K8L processors can arrive.

Technorati Tags: AMD, Quad FX, Intel, Quad Core Processors,

After years of delay, Microsoft has officially launched Microsoft Vista for businesses today. The new OS was formally introduced at a press conference at the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York. Microsoft Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 were also launched today - making this the first time all three products appeared at the same time. The consumer versions of Vista and Office 2007 will be available to consumers worldwide starting on January 30th. However if you are a member of MSDN, then you’ve been able to download Vista for several weeks now.

By extending the consumer launch date until January of next year, Microsoft is providing additional time for hardware manufactures to develop and fix their device drivers. If you install Vista now, be prepared for several updates between now and January - most of which will probably be drivers.  In the meantime, many believe businesses will wait some time before deploying Windows Vista. However, should you decide to deploy the OS on your machine, check out this article at PC Magazine detailing the OS at work.

Now if you’re looking for an indepth review of Windows Vista, make sure to check out Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows multipart review of Vista here. He’s at part 5B now.. and yes there are many more sections to go. It’s a great read though so definitely check it out.

Ah yes - and if you’re interested in the Windows Media Center application under Vista, make sure to visit our own review of the app here.

In other Vista related news, PC Magazine interviews Microsoft’s Jim Allchin and he’s got several little tidbits about Vista that you guys might be interested in hearing about. Here’s the basic summary:

• Type “PERFORM /report” to get a diagnostic report within Vista
• When you first turn on Vista, leave it alone for a little bit - Search is working to index your system
• 64 bit version of Vista can only accept signed drivers
• Microsoft is pre-ordained to move to 64 bits
• Go to the command prompt and type “ROBOCOPY” - this performs bulk replications between machines

That’s it for now for the interview..

And speaking of Microsoft Office 2007, don’t forget that PC Magazine had posted a review of the suite back in early October here. I’ve been using Office 2007 since the technical refresh and it’s been really solid. So far - there’s no real reason not to upgrade.

[Check it out]

[Check out the PC Mag interview]

Technorati Tags: Windows Vista, Microsoft

OtterBox has released a new iPod nano case designed to combat the elements called the OtterBox for iPod nano 2nd Generation Case. The new case comes with an airtight seal which prevents unwanted materials from entering into the case and damaging the iPod. It also provides a rugged drop proof design which cradles the nano from falls and scratches.

The new 2nd generation OtterBox case also comes with a completely interactive Click Wheel membrane which means you’ll be able to use the Click Wheel even though the nano is fully enclosed within the case.

Here are the main features of the case.

• Waterproof, dustproof, dirtproof, sandproof, and drop-proof
• ClickWheel protected by a thin membrane which remains fully functional through the case
• Included belt clip provides cable management for your headphones
• External headphone jack usable with any style headphones with a standard mini stereo plug (1/8”)

The new 2nd gen case from OtterBox is available now on their website for $39.95.

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Technorati Tags: OtterBox, OtterBox 2nd generation iPod nano case, Apple iPod nano cases

Here’s a bit of PR from Philips - they’ve announced the manufacturing of their one millionth Ambilight FlatTV TV at their manufacturing facility in Bruges. The one millionth TV was a 42 inch LCD HD display utilizing Philips unique Ambilight Full Surround feature.

Rudy Provoost, CEO of Philips Consumer Electronics had this to say about their one millionth FlatTV:

“This demonstrates that Ambilight has clearly become a hit with consumers - it not only enhances the overall viewing experience but it also makes watching TV easier on the eyes. We look forward to our next million Ambilight FlatTVs and remain committed to our brand promised of ’sense and simplicity’ - delivering products and solutions that are easy to experience, advanced and designed around the consumer.”

Philips’ Ambilight technology is designed to enhance the viewers experience by producing ambient light that automatically adapts color and intensity based on the changing content on the screen.

Congratulations to Philips on their 1 millionth FlatTV - I’ve yet to meet someone who actually owns a Philip Ambilight FlatTV but I’m sure there are a lot of them out there.

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Technorati Tags: Philips, Amblight, FlatTV, Philips Ambilight FlatTV

PureDepth Inc. has announced that they have authorized Sanyo Electric System Solutions Co. Ltd. to become a manufacturer of PureDepth screen technology for an array of products. On top of this, Sanyo has an exclusive license to incorporate the PureDepth technology  into their amusement gaming platforms in Japan where Sanyo is a key player in the (gulp) $12 billion dollar pachinko hardware market.

So what is PureDepth you might ask (I sure did when I heard of it)? Put simply - PureDepth places two or more LCD displays into a single physical unit which provides a real sense of depth of vision. From there, one can develop a slew of possible applications including new user interfaces and navigation systems.

The deal with Sanyo allows them to develop products for a wide range of products and form factors - from portable mobile devices to big screen television sets. It’ll be interesting to see where Sanyo and PureDepth Inc. take this technology.

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Technorati Tags: Sanyo, PureDepth,

If you’re bored by many of the iPod case designs out there, then ifrogz has a program for you. They’ve launched a beta of their new Custom ifrogz Screen Creator service at ifrogz.com which allows users to create their own Custom Screenz design. Screenz are what ifrogz calls the images that are placed on top of the Apple iPod click wheel interface as part of their unique three piece case design.

Now users can customize the Screenz design with their own uploaded images or graphics. You simply go to this website here and upload the image you want to use on your ifrogz iPod case. Keep in mind that obscene or offensive images will not be allowed. Image file sizes must be kept between 50 kilobytes and 2 megabytes - the higher the resolution the better.

The new ifrogz Custom Screenz service are available at an introductory price of $14.99 and will take approximately 2-3 weeks to arrive once ordered.

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Technorati Tags: Apple iPod, Apple, ifrogz, Custom Screenz

Pantech Wireless Inc. has announced the introduction of the new Pantech C3 flip phone - an enhanced version of the popular Pantech C300 which also happened to be the world’s smallest camera flip phone.

The new C3 has been given a stylish upgrade by Pantech. Users can now customize their phone with a variety of changeable color faceplates. When you purchase the C3 from Cingular Wireless (which also happens to be the exclusive provider for the phone), you will receive two colored faceplates - a “Secret Blue” faceplate and a “Silver” faceplate. There will be other colors available after the launch of the C3.

Here are the main features of the new Pantech C3:

• Changeable faceplates
• Mobile email services supported including Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN Hotmail
• VGA camera with flash and 4x digital zoom in LCD mode
• MMS support
• Downloadable music ringtones (MP3, MIDI, and i-Melody)
• Downloadable wallpapers and screensavers
• Support for GPRS
• Picture and ringtone caller ID
• Predictive text input
• Calendar and reminders

Techical features are as follows:

• Mode: GSM/GPRS Tri-Band 850/1800/1900Mhz
• Dimensions: 2.72 x 1.69 x 0.80 inches
• Weight: 2.5 ounces
• Internal Display: 260K TFT, 1.52 inches, 128 x 128 pixels
• External Display: 260K TFT, 1.0 inch, 96 x 64 pixels
• Standard Battery: Li-Ion 850mAh
• Audio formats: G-MIDI, iMelody and MP3
• Image formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF, WBMP, BMP
• Usage Time: Up to 3 hours
• Standby Time: Up to 10 days

The C3 will be available through Cingular Wireless and oh yeah - it’s the world’s smallest camera flip phone measuring in at 2.72″x1.69″x.8″ and weighing only 71.9 grams. The price of the C3 via Cingular is $39.99 after a 2 yr agreement and an online discount of 60 bucks.

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Technorati Tags: Pantech, C3, Pantech C3, Cingular Wireless, Flip Phones

Here’s some pretty exciting news from 3DLABS - they’ve announced their entry into the handheld media processor market with the launch of the new DMS-02 processor. This is a multi-core architecture (consisting of two ARM 926EJ cores) platform which includes a programmable array of floating point processrs. This all translates into a handheld processor capable of handling HD 720p H.264 video playback at low power consumptions. On top of this, the DMS-02 is also capable at handling things such as video, imag, audio, 2D/3D graphics, and signal processing tasks.

However the real key initially will be its’ ability to play back HD 720p H.264 video while consuming less than 1 watt. This means you can now have a small portable device capable of outputting HD quality video to a television set while consuming very little power - a boon for portable device manufacturers.

The 3DLABS DMS-02 is the first version of their new DMS architecture and is designed to fit into a wide ranges of products from mobile devices to set top systems.

Key performance figures include:

• HD H.264 720 decoder
• H.264 D1 encoder at 30 fps
• 4.8 GFLOPS performance
• 19,2000 MIPS performance
• 200 M pixels/s, 8M vertices/s
• 1.6 GBytes/s memory bandwidth

[Check it out]

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Technorati Tags: 3DLABS, HD H.264, H.264 video, DMS-02, media processor

Now here’s something interesting. SRS Labs has announced that they have licensed their SRS WOW HD audio enhancement technology to mobile handset maker Pantech Co. Ltd. Pantech has in turn created the first mobile handset to support SRS WOW HD in the form of the Pantech IM-U130 CDMA phone.

SRS WOW HD support within the IM-U130 is made possible thanks to the Telechips TTC772 module. There isn’t much info on the IM-U130 phone right now except to say that it’s a designed to be a music jukebox (one would expect that if it’s going to carry SRS WOW HD)

So what does SRS WOW HD do for you on a mobile phone? Here’s a quote from the press release:

SRS WOW HD presents the handset with 3D stereo, improved low frequency bass performance and enhanced high frequency sound clarity, especially on the micro speaker and earphones, ensuring a great music listening experience for users.

Pretty nifty..

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Technorati Tags: SRS Labs, SRS WOW HD, Pantech, Mobile Phones, Music Phones, IM-U130