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At The w880 Launch – Brief Notes

At The w880 Launch - Brief Notes Brief notes from the launch of the W880.

First in a new line for them – a slim Walkman phone – 9.4mm thin/thick – slimmer than a CD case.

Comes complete with 1Gb memory stick (M2) which can hold 900 full length tracks, with the equivalent to 90 cds. It features the latest version on Walkman player 2.0 (the 850 has it already). They’ve tried to simplify the navigation, which is especially important with 900 tracks and 18 hours of music playback.

Software features: TrackID disc2phone and playnow; 2mpx camera; 3G with video calling too.

It’s already in production – Shipping in February 2007 (* We suspect a dig at Apple).

There’s a W88c with it just for China as there’s no 3G China

It was designed in the Tokyo design studio with the software being done in Sweden.

At The w880 Launch - Brief Notes

Apple Tells Vista Upgraders To Wait

Apple Tells Vista Upgraders To Wait Apple has warned Windows-based iTunes users to hold back from upgrading to Microsoft Vista, because the software may not work properly with their iPods.

Citing several issues – including problems with synchronising data and playing purchased files – Apple says that they should have an updated version of iTunes for Vista “in the next few weeks”.

Compatibility issues and suggested workarounds for those crazy folks who dived headlong into an early install of Vista are listed in a support document on Apple’s site.

Apple Tells Vista Upgraders To Wait The problems included poor animation speeds, an inability to play back music and video purchased from the iTunes store and data in media, contacts and calendars not synchronising.

More worryingly, the notice posted on Apple’s web site warned that iPods may be corrupted when they are unplugged from a Vista system using the ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ feature in the Windows taskbar.

In response, Adam Anderson, a spokesman for Microsoft’s Windows division, said they didn’t think that iTunes users should stop using their shiny new copy of Vista.

He added that Microsoft has employed a team of techies to work with Apple to iron out the problems, adding that they will keep at it “until they have the program running to the quality level they’re shooting for.” [insert your own Microsoft joke here].

Apple support

Sony Ericsson W51S Mobile Phone

Sony Ericsson W51S Mobile Phone Sony Ericsson in Japan is launching the snazzy new W51S phone which comes in a striking clamshell package.

The no-fuss, flip out design is pleasantly understated, featuring a textured matt black front with just three icons for notifying the user of an incoming email, call or alarm/reminder.

Sony Ericsson W51S Mobile Phone The Organic Light Emitting Device (OLED) icons look rather dandy to our weary eyes, although work-shirkers probably won’t like not being able to see who’s actually calling before flipping open the phone and getting an irate boss on the line.

Once opened, the phone sports a 2.7-inch display with a 16:9 widescreen which (apparently) employs RealityMAX technology to “enhance picture quality.”

Also bundled on board the phone is a 2-megapixel camera backed up by a fairly healthy 120MB of internal memory and IrDA. As ever, Sony are persisting with their love of all things Memory Stuck, burdening the W51S with a Pro Duo expansion slot.

Sony Ericsson W51S Mobile Phone The W51S measures up at 105 × 48 × 19.3 mm, with talk time quoted at 210 minutes, with a standby time of 270 hours. For the security conscious, there’s also a feature letting users remotely lock and delete data on the handset over the web (Palm Treo users have been able to do this for years via excellent software like Warden)

The phone will be available in black, silver or pink, but there’s been ne’er a whisper from the Sony head honchos about pricing, release dates or even if this funky number will be getting it into the greasy paws of Britlanders.

[ From MobileWhack ]

Sony W880i Ai: Tuesday Euro Launch?

Sony W880i Ai: Euro Tuesday Launch? Sony Ericsson have let it be known via press invites that there’s a number of new handsets being released in Europe next Tuesday.

What they are and where it’s going on is currently being held close to the chest, but there’s rumours going around that one of them might be the W880i Ai.

There’s some shots purporting to be it floating around on a Swedish site called Mobil.

If the shots are to be believed, it looks mighty svelte, appearing only just bigger than a Bic lighter and as thin as you like.

It’s understood that it feels really solid, with a covering of metal conveying a feeling of quality.

We think it looks pretty hot, but the only thing that holds us back from near-total lust is the size and make up of the numeric keys, that have more than a passing similarity to a 1970’s calculator. Without having our hands on it, it’s unclear how friendly it will be to texting at high speed.

Specs are unclear, but it looks like two cameras, one facing forward, the other, a 2mpx facing back. Walkman branding makes it pretty clear it has music-ness included.

It looks like it’s 3G, which makes it all the more remarkable that it’s so tiny.

We’re really interested in its almost-neon-type interface.

Last, but not least, it looks like it’s heading to the US, as it’s got FCC approval.

Tune in next Tuesday for more details following the press launch, until then have a look at Mobil for more shots of it – and get a handkerchief to catch the drool.

The official I Want My W880 site.

Well done to those at Mobil for the photo scoop and Thanks to Hugo for the pointer.

220,000 PS3’s At UK Launch

Sony Computer Entertainment UK’s managing director, Ray Maguire, has put a figure on the number of PlayStation 3 machines (PS3) that will be available at its UK launch, on 23 March.

220,000 PS3's At UK Launch Towards the end of an interview with SPOnG (the Super Players On-line Gamebase), he revealed his estimation to be 220,000 units, with the hope of getting a few more units if, “he goes down on bended knee.”

His rough maths to get to this figure is based on one million units being delivered to Europe as a whole for launch, and the UK having a 22% slice of that, making it the single largest market in Europe.

Maguire was keen to point out that it will be the largest launch the games industry has had to date, “Probably over four times PlayStation One, and close to double the amount of PS2s. So, it’s going to be a logistical nightmare – that’s a lot of trucks to get around.”

PS3 fanboys will also be excited to hear that, “Product is already on its way, on ships, at the moment, and there is more being generated every single day.”

The other point of interest will be the confirmation that the UK price for the 60Gb will be £425, despite the wails from prospective UK owners. There will be no lesser model (20Gb) sold in the UK, as there are in other places around the world.

The success of the PS3 is not a done deal however. The xBox 360 has been selling well for over a year and the Nintendo Wii has done pretty well too. Our observations at the GameOn exhibition recently saw much of the public interest directed towards the Wii rather than the PS3.

Blowfly Alarm Clock

Blowfly Alarm Clock Are you always late for work? Does your alarm clock fail to wake you up in the morning? Have you developed a reflex action that bashes the ‘alarm off’ button while you carry on counting sheep?

Hard core slumberers and die hard alarm ‘snooze button’ activators fed up with always being late may find the Flying Alarm Clock the answer to their problems.

Like most bedside alarm clocks, there’s a big LCD display and buttons for setting the time and alarm.

Unlike regular alarm clocks however, there’s no snooze button to be found and – as you can see – there’s a rather curious contraption sitting on top of the clock.

Blowfly Alarm Clock When it’s time for you to get out of your jimjams, this totally daft clock launches a flying propeller that hovers around the room, making strange buzzing noises while the clock’s alarm sounds.

The only way to shut the thing up is to get out of bed and put the propeller back on the clock – by which time you should be wide awake (or have your neighbours hammering through your walls in rage).

The clock is a commercial development of an idea that won a prize in the Taiwan International Design competition in 2005 and has just appeared for sale on a Danish website for around £27.

blowflyalarmclock.net
[Via]

High-k Metal Gates To Give Major Chip Advance

High-k Metal Gates To Give Major Chip Advance Both IBM and Intel have announced what they are calling major jumps forward in the design of microchips.

They both centre on building transistors using so-called high-k metal gates, which after almost seven years of industry research in the area, it’s claimed will lead to increases in the speed and power of chips for another decade.

The high-k metal gates reduce current leakage and will be used to replace the polysilicon gate electrode currently in use. It does this because the new material holds its charge longer.

It is understood that Intel is further ahead in the process, with the release of computers based on the next chip types by the end of the year. A most fortunate dovetail with Vista being released, which requires a lot of horsepower to run at usable speeds.

Intel said its new family of chips, code-named Penryn, will have 410 million transistors, using the new materials combined with the 45-nanometer technology manufacturing process. This compares with about 280 million in current chips. Intel also said electrical leakage will be reduced by about 30 percent.

Batting off the Intel claims of it being in products this year, Bernie Meyerson, chief technologist for IBM Systems and Technology Group retorted, “It’s almost meaningless to say I’m going to ship a chip first. Yes, you can do that. It doesn’t mean that you are actually going to put it into a server; there is a ton of work to get to that.”

IBM said they will be putting it “out the door in a product in roughly in the 2008 time frame.”

Intel are trotting out Moore’s law again (the number of transistors on an IC doubles every two years), claiming that these advantages will enable it to be maintained. Many people view this as somewhat of a marketing message by Intel, rather than a law.

High-k Metal Gates To Give Major Chip Advance

It’s understood that the approach of IBM and Intel differ. Intel are mounting the components on top of the silicon, where IBM are mounting theirs inside the silicon. IBM’s approach potentially gives them the advantage of being able to build many levels on top of each other.

What the heck is a High-K material?
Intel’s view of it is that “High-k” stands for high dielectric constant, a measure of how much charge a material can hold. Example of High-k materials are hafnium dioxide (HfO2), zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) and titanium dioxide (TiO2).

PC World Says Farewell To Floppy Disks

PC World Says Farewell To Floppy Disks Electronics giant PC World has announced that it is to stop selling floppy disks once the current stocks run out.

First introduced by IBM way back in 1969 as a big flapping thing, the floppy disk hit mainstream consumers after Sony released the familiar 3.5 inch format in 1981.

From then on, floppy disk became the de facto storage standard right up to the late 90s as its feeble storage capacity (1.44MB) failed to compete with an onslaught of cheap memory storage formats including memory cards, USB keys, rewritable CDs and removable hard drives all capable of holding gigabytes of data.

PC World also commented that the increased availability of broadband and wireless internet connections has more or less consigned small-scale removable storage devices into the technology dustbin.

PC World Says Farewell To Floppy Disks In decline since the late 1990s, the floppy once ruled supreme, shifting more than two billion units in 1998 – a figure now down to a measly 700 million last year.

Of course, you’ll still be able to pick up floppy disks elsewhere for now, but the end is surely nigh for this long serving piece of technology.

Although we’re tempted to get a bit misty eyed at the fall of the trusty floppy, we still can’t quite forget the long nights spent feeding our Amiga 1200 (and later our PC) masses of floppies containing programs spanned over several disks only to hear the grinding sound of doom right at the end.

Although we certainly got familiar with the “Non-system disk or disk error – Replace and press any key” error message over the years too, we’ll still miss the things – and they were always a satisfying shape to throw around the office when the network went down too.

So farewell, dear floppy. You served us well.

Floppy Disk

Via

Casio Announces EXILIM Zoom EX-Z1050 and EX-Z75

Casio Announces EXILIM Zoom EX-Z1050 and EX-Z75 Casio has knocked out two additions to its pocket pleasing, ultra-slim Exilim Zoom range in the shape of the 10.1-megapixel EX-Z1050 and the 7.2 million pixel Exilim Zoom EX-Z75 cameras.

EXILIM Zoom EX-Z1050
The EX-Z1050 follows on from the EX-Z1000 and nudges in at a tad lighter and smaller, measuring up at 91.1 x 57.2 x 24.2 mm and weighing 125g.

Bolted on to the lightweight aluminum clad camera is a wide aspect (14:9) 2.6-inch LCD screen and a 38-114mm (35mm equiv) 3x optical zoom, backed by a sensitivity boost up to ISO 800.

Casio Announces EXILIM Zoom EX-Z1050 and EX-Z75 Onboard there’s Casio’s EXILIM Engine 2.0 offering new motion analysis technology, with the camera able to rattle off a claimed 7 shots per second until the memory tank hits full.

There’s no proper optical stabilization, but the camera comes with built in “Blur-reduction technologies.” In other words, the camera hikes up the ISO whenever it detects a moving object or low light.

There’s also an Auto Tracking AF function for following moving subjects, and a Super Life Battery allowing up to 370 shots per charge.

The Casio EXILIM Zoom EX-Z1050 will be available in silver, black and gold in the UK (with prettier colours available elsewhere, by the look of things) and comes with a suggested retail price of £229.99.

Casio Announces EXILIM Zoom EX-Z1050 and EX-Z75 EXILIM Zoom EX-Z75
The cheaper 7.2 million pixel Exilim Zoom EX-Z75 looks to be a minor upgrade to last year’s EX-Z70 and adds the same wide aspect (14:9) 2.6-inch screen and more user friendly features.

The attractive point’n’shooter comes with a 3x optical zoom, an ‘Easy Mode’ for dorks baffled by buttons and digital Anti Shake DSP to keep things steady.

The EXILIM Zoom EX-Z75 can expect to have a £179.99 price label stuck on it when it hits the UK in February 2007, and will be available in silver, blue and girly pink.

Microsoft Vista – Made by Web 2.0?

Vista - Made by Web 2.0? Bill Gates launched Vista this morning by emphasizing the role of the general public in its conception. “We’ve got over 5 million beta testers to thank,” he told a packed audience at the British Library in London. “They’ve helped to make sure that Vista is the highest quality product we’ve ever released. And then we picked 50 families and talked to them about how they used computing in their daily lives, generating over 800 changes in the final version.”

This isn’t the monolithic Microsoft of old, laying down the law and strong-arming others to follow its digital lead. Instead, Gates pointed out that Office 2007 (also launched today) “redefines collaboration in the workplace. It embraces the XML standard and that’s a big deal.” He went on to say that “the strength of Windows has always been the ecosystem around it, consisting of hardware, solutions and software partners. We’ve always had ten times as many applications for Windows as for other operating systems, and that’s allowed us to see software at low prices.”

Vista - Made by Web 2.0?

It’s perhaps no coincidence that the Vista ecosystem opens up a whole new environmental niche, in the form of miniature applications called Gadgets, a selection of which were unveiled (at great length) by Windows marketeers. Although superficially very similar to Apple’s desktop Widgets, the Gadgets on show were heavily branded by partners ranging from BetFair to Universal Music, and seemed to integrate worryingly easily with Microsoft’s software. If you block out a meeting in Milan, for instance, the EasyJet Gadget could pop up to suggest suitable flights.

It remains to be seen whether Gadget developers have consumer – rather than corporate – interests uppermost in their minds. Bill gushed: “I’m excited to see what people are going to do with Vista”. Any bets that malware Gadgets are just around the corner?