Upcoming - Collage from Tapulous

Tapulous - Social Apps for iPhone - Collage

This is an iPhone app to watch - Twinkle has been a great success and this could be, too!

The State of the Mac mini October 2008

The State of the Mac mini October 2008

I love my Mini and I really hope Apple can come up with an interesting update. I guess I have to wait and see. But I agree with the points mentioned in above link that Mac Mini is NOT a failure.

Floriade 2008

The theme of this year is Movies that Changes Australia - or Floriade 21. I'm not too sure where the 2¹came from. My beat guess was it came from the biggest cineplex chain in Indonesia, 2¹Group. But maybe it's too far fetched.

What A View

This photo was taken when we stopped for quick rest on our way to Canberra. I've never bored with the view every time I stopped by.

Qantas boarding passes go digital - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au

Qantas boarding passes go digital - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au

Asher Moses
September 12, 2008 - 9:59AM

Qantas has signaled the end for paper boarding passes and will offer customers the ability to board using a mobile phone or other handheld device from early next year.

And for the first time, Qantas international customers will be able to check in to their flights over the internet, a feature previously offered only to those travelling on domestic flights.

Flyers could also select their seats online either at the point of booking or later via the Qantas.com website.

Qantas said mobile boarding passes would be sent to the device as a 2D barcode a day before the flight, but the option was only offered to those who selected their seats online before departure.

Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti said the move would allow customers to have a completely paperless booking and boarding experience.

He specifically named the iPhone 3G as a device Qantas was working to support.

"Customers with baggage [who have already checked in] can proceed directly to the bag-drop facilities before heading straight to their flight," Borghetti said.

But while the move towards barcode boarding passes will lead to a faster, smoother boarding experience for passengers, it is also designed to cut Qantas' personnel costs, such as at check-in counters.

Inside Google Desktop: From the desktop to your TV

Inside Google Desktop: From the desktop to your TV

Interesting tool from Google for Windows (at the moment). It basically searches and locates your media files (movies, photos, musics) and makes them available for streaming using standard uPNP connection (supported by Playstation 3, X Box 360, and media streamers).

Microsoft eats humble pie over XP

Microsoft eats humble pie over XP

Looks like we might be seeing Windows XP as the OS with the longest lifespan in computer history...

Bluetooth helps double amputee walk again

Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Bleill lost his legs when a bomb exploded under his Humvee while on patrol in Iraq. He has 32 pins in his hip and a 6-inch screw holding his pelvis together. He's starting to walk again with the help of prosthetic legs and Bluetooth -- the technology that usually brings to mind hands-free cell phones.

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MacBook Pro rumored to be getting multi-touch trackpad, sun also rumored to rise tomorrow

Filed under: Laptops

While you'd be hard pressed to come up with a safer Apple rumor to predict, it seems that AppleInsider has it on supposedly reliable word that the company will in fact be extending multi-touch trackpads to its top-end MacBook Pro line, and in the "next several weeks," no less. What's more, those same sources say that the new MacBook Pros (both 15-inch and 17-inch models) were originally supposed to make their debut "at or around Macworld Expo," but they got pushed back after Apple was forced to put additional resources and personnel on the MacBook Air in order to get it out in time. No firm word on what other specs we can look forward to, unfortunately although AppleInsider speculates that the laptops could be standardized around Intel's 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz mobile Penryn processors, which should offer some slight battery improvements in addition to a boost in performance.

[Thanks, Mark]

 

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Microsoft facing patent violation accusations in China

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

In the second such incident in as many months, Microsoft has been accused of using a foreign organization's intellectual property without proper compensation, this time over a proprietary method of inputting Chinese characters called ZhengMa. Following last month's copyright suit in the Philippines, Redmond is now facing accusations from Chinese tech firm Zhongyi Electronic that it has been using the latter company's technology "without commercial agreement for a decade." Microsoft, for its part, denies the claims, stating that there was in fact an agreement in place and that it was fulfilling its fiduciary duties as laid out in that agreement. According to Reuters, a lawsuit may be in the works once Zhongyi figures out how many infringing copies of Windows are in the wild.

 

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Vista successor rumored to be on track for 2009 release

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Rumors of Microsoft's successor to Vista have been cropping up virtually since day one, and if this latest one is to be believed, it looks like one of the earliest may have been right on target after all. According to TG Daily, "several industry sources" are now saying that the a very early version of the so-called "Windows 7" OS has already shipped to "key partners," and that Microsoft is now eying the second half of 2009 for a release of the real deal. That's a slight revision from the most recent rumors, which had pegged the debut as late as 2010 or, more vaguely, sometime within the next three years. As if that wasn't enough, Microsoft's apparently also lined up the next two early versions to be released, with the so-called M2 build slated for April or May of this year, and the M3 release slated to drop sometime in the third quarter. Given recent history, however, it's probably not the best idea to start marking your calendars just yet.

 

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Testing Animoto

I was playing around with animoto (www.animoto.com) and it was quite impressive...

Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system gets FCC approval

Filed under: Networking

It's not like we haven't seen consortiums working to establish better links between America and Asia, but the more the merrier, right? Apparently, Verizon Business has just recently received the all-important thumbs-up from the FCC to "activate and operate the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system in the US." The TPE cable is hailed as "the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the US and mainland China," and is the first major system of its kind to land on America's West Coast (Oregon, to be precise) in over seven years. For those curious, the 10,563-mile submarine communications cable will be able to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls -- which is "more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the US and China" -- and will initially provide capacity of up to 1.28Tbps. So, when will this thing be up and running? If all goes to plan, it should be fully operational by August (you know, prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing).

[Image courtesy of Devicepedia]

 

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MacBook Air

YEP...

 

Macrumors is reporting that the new slim MacBook will be called the MacBook Air

But why do they call it Air?

Maybe it is the Wimax?  Macpredictions thinks that it won't have any cables.  Induction charging!  Ultra Wideband Bluetooth!  Wireless USB!  Cool if true.

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Wired article on development of the iPhone

Wired today has an incredibly good article on the iPhone, what it took to get it built and how it changed an industry.  There is no shortage of insider details throughout and it really puts a great perspective on the difficulty of making this product and the challenges Steve Jobs/Apple had to overcome

Go.  Read.  It.   (if you haven't already)

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In case you missed it: Sony Pictures is going DivX

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video

It's been hard enough to keep up with the CES onslaught of news over here on Engadget, so it's understandable if you missed the news over on Engadget HD that Sony Pictures Television is going to start releasing download-to-own but entirely DRM'd DivX content to DivX-certified products like the PS3 and DSM-330. Sadly, 360 owners will be left out in the cold thanks to that unit's lack of proper DivX certification. Otherwise Sony is short on details of actual distribution, so hopefully we'll be learning more soon.

[Via Engadget HD]

 

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Mozilla Takes on Microsoft in China

Like most Chinese Internet users, Chengdu native Gang Lu for years used Microsoft's (MSFT) Internet Explorer for his Web browsing. He switched to Firefox, the open-source browser, six years ago only after going to Britain for graduate school and finding most of his friends and colleagues using it. Today, Lu is the London director of business development at Netvibes Asia, which offers personalized home pages, and spends much of his time working with Chinese Web startups. He says he's frustrated because so few Chinese sites support Firefox. "I have visited quite a few Internet companies and talked to their developers. More than 95% of these guys say: 'We just need to make sure our Web site or our service can work on IE. I don't care about Firefox.'"

Now, Firefox fans are trying to boost the upstart browser's Chinese profile. Last month, Mozilla signed an agreement with China's most popular search engine, Baidu (BIDU), to cement an existing relationship that allows...

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Macworld 2008 banners popping up: "There's something in the air"

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Gotta love those vague, suggestive statements Apple puts on its event banners before the big show. This year's Macworld Expo banners read "There's something in the air" -- but even if that something isn't a whole lot of new wireless / cellular gear, there's certainly no shortage of breathable hype.

[Photo courtesy of Andrew S.]

 

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New Intel Canmore chip destined to hit AppleTV 2

HardMac is speculating that the next generation AppleTV 2 (or 3?) might use one of the new System on a Chip (SoC) designs Intel announced this week at CES.  Currently, Apple uses a standalone  1Ghz pre-Core Intel chip for its AppleTVs.  According to Hardmac,

They plan to release in Q3 2008 the Canmore, an x86 processor-based SoC supporting audio 7.1, hardware-decoding for high-definition video up to 1080p and advanced DRM management.
In summary, all functions required to build a new and more powerful Apple TV which could then become independent of any computer to get access directly to movie catalogs available on the iTunes Store.

According to Intel, the Canmore line shouldn't be ready until mid to late 2008.  Apple, readying iTunes movie rentals won't need too much - if any- more horsepower to download and play rentals on the AppleTV.  However, if the device is to operate as a standalone device, a speed bump may be in order.

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