Monthly Archives: June 2009
Samsung Introduces 32GB DDR3 Memory
Samsung has created a new memory module that puts normal consumer computer specs to shame. They have come up with a module that is 32GB DDR3 memory. As of right now a 32GB memory module is available for servers, but not for PCs or Macs. The Samsung 32GB DDR3 module operates at 1.35 volts and uses the Samsung 50nm 4Gb DDR3 chips. There is a row of 9 quad-die packaged 16Gb DDR3s mounted on each side of the printed circuit board.
Categories Samsung Electronics Inc.
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Google Street View Car Accidentally Captures Crime On Camera
Two Dutch twin brothers robbed a teenager in the town of Groningen, The Netherlands. Looks like those robbers had bad timing because a Google Street View camera caught them committing the crime red-handed.
“The picture was taken just a moment before the crime,” stated one of the police officers. The robbers stole 165 Euros and a mobile phone from the 14 year old victim last September. This past March, the victim saw himself on Google Street View and the two robbers on camera.
The police investigated the crime after the boy reported the Google Street View evidence. One of the 24 year old boys confessed robbing the boy after being questioned. The punishment that will be made against the robbers is unknown. But this further proves that Google Street View can do more good than harm.
[via Reuters]
Categories Google, Google Street View
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Pixar Grants Dying Girl’s Wishes For Up DVD
Disney-Pixar’s latest movie Up is about a cranky old man and a Wilderness Explorer that fly to South Americans in a house attached to hundreds of floating balloons. Ten year old Colby Curtin had a rare form of cancer and one of her last wishes was to see the movie, but she was too sick to watch the movie in theaters.
Colby was diagnosed with vascular cancer three years ago and earlier this month, doctors reported that she would not be alive for much longer. One of Colby’s family friends kept calling Pixar to try and work out a way for Colby’s wish to come true. Pixar sent an employee with the Up DVD to Colby’s house in Huntington Beach, California. Colby passed away about 7 hours after watching the movie.
“When I watched it, I had really no idea about the content of the theme of the movie,” stated Colby’s mom Lisa. “I just know that word ‘Up’ and all of the balloons and I swear to you, for me it meant that (Colby) was going to go up. Up to heaven.”
[via OC Register]
Categories Colby Curtin, Lisa Curtin, Pixar, The Walt Disney Company
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Google Voice Reserves One Million Phone Numbers
Google is making use of the GrandCentral VoIP service that they acquired back in July 2007. GrandCental has been rolled into a service called Google Voice. Google Voice includes all of the features that GrandCentral had when the property was acquired plus several additions.
Google Voice allows users to sync phone numbers and transfer calls to all of their devices. Voice calls can be converted into text messages and there is the ability to call multiple parties. Another feature that Google voice has that gives Skype some competition is discounted international calls.
Through Level 3, Google has already reserved 1 million phone numbers. “If you are a GrandCentral user, over the next few days you will be prompted to upgrade to Google Voice. Currently only GrandCentral users have access to Google Voice, but we will be opening up the new service to new users soon,” stated the GrandCentral website.
[via ReadWriteWeb]
Categories Google, Google Voice, GrandCentral
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Scamander RRV Gets Test Driven
Peter Wheeler used to be an owner in independent car manufacturing company TVR. TVR was subsequently sold to Nikolai Smolenski, giving Wheeler spare time to pursue a passion project called “The Homer.” Wheeler passed away earlier this month, but the prototype of his Scamander rapid response vehicle (RRV) has been test driven.
“Lots of people are fed up with their traditional sports cars, like Ferrari and Lamborghini produce, so I wanted to create an alternative,” stated Wheeler in an interview with EVO Mag. ”I created it for me, to be honest. I enjoy shooting, sailing and driving on track, so I wanted something that could cover all these elements. I call it an RRV, for rapid response vehicle.”
Wheeler wanted the vehicle to be light and simple. The behicle has 35″ diameter tires that function similarly to tractors. The body is filled with foam plastic pods and a central alumninum tub. The weight of the vehicle is about 2,425 lbs. The prototype uses a 2.0 liter Ford Zetec engine and fiddle brakes. The Scamander vehicle can hold 4 people at a time. The vehicle can drive on road, off road, and on the water.
Wheeler was privately financing the project himself. Since he passed away, it is uncertain what will happen to the Scamander. It is fairly unlikely that the Scamander won’t be moving to production assemblies, but at least Wheeler was around to see the prototype’s completion.
[via Jalopnik]
Categories Peter Wheeler, Scamander
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Governor Schwarznegger Tweets Emergency Landing
Governor Arnold Schwarznegger is an avid Twitter user. He reports what he is up to regularly including his meetings, visits, and even his thoughts on the Lakers championship. The Governor was recently involved in an emergency landing by his plane. Fortunately he made it out of there safely and tweeted what happened.
“A little adventure just now when my plane made an emergency landing. All’s ok, though,” reported the Governor. He sent out the above Twitpic too. Schwarznegger was making his way to the Santa Monica airport to give a speech about a drought happening in the state. The jet had landed at the Van Nuys airport when smoking started to erupt from the cockpit instrument panel. There were no signs of a fire, but the pilot made a quick and steep landing.
There have been several aviation incidents that were reported on Twitter in the last year. Amy Trachtman reported a low flying plane that was part of a government training exercise this past April. This past February Jonathan Nipp reported an accident in Amsterdam. And this past January Janis Krums reported the Hudson river incident.
Categories Arnold Schwarzenegger, Twitter
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Twitterfeed Adds Analytics Features
Twitterfeed was started by Mario Menti. Menti created Twitterfeed in London through the BBC developer program. The service converts a blog or website’s RSS feed into tweets. The tweet contains the title and a link to the article of an individual blog post or news story. About 170,000 publishers are converting 330,000+ feeds as of right now. Earlier this month, Betaworks and The Accelerator Group bought a majority stake in the Twitterfeed.
Twitterfeed is becoming so overused that Menti was having a hard time scaling the service. However Twitterfeed relaunched earlier this week in order to offer an analytics service. The analytics reports how much traffic a website is receiving through Twitter and how many people are clicking on short URLs. The new Twitterfeed analytics service also offers a side-by-side comparison of what Feedburner RSS is doing for them.
To create a Twitterfeed account, an OpenID account is needed, but now they are starting to accept Google, AOL, and Yahoo login capabilities. One of Twitterfeed’s biggest drawbacks is the length of time that is between RSS conversion to Twitter reporting. TechCrunch is reporting that in some cases, it takes Twitterfeed half an hour. That is way too long considering that Twitter prides itself on reporting real-time data.
Categories Betaworks, Mario Menti, The Accelerator Group, Twitterfeed
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Zune HD Will Be Powered By NVIDIA Tegra Processor
The NVIDIA Tegra processor architecture is based off of the ARM chip technology. The Tegra was designed primarily for mobile, MIDs, and PDA devices. Recently it was confirmed that the Microsoft Zune HD will be powered by the NVIDIA Tegra processor architecture. The rumor was confirmed in a podcast on Zune Insider, hosted by Matt Akers. Listen to a clipping from the podcast below:
[audio:http://mediaserver.pulse2.com/uploads/2009/06/tegra.mp3]
Categories Matt Akers, Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Zune HD, NVIDIA, NVIDIA Tegra
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T-Mobile Dash 3G Arriving July 15th
Word on the streets is that the T-Mobile Dash 3G phone will be hitting the shelves on July 15th. Although there isn’t a photo of the mobile phone out right now, the specs have been spotted in the wild. No price is known as of yet either. Below is a list of the known phone specs:
- Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system
- AWS 3G capable
- GPS
- 2 MP camera
- 528 MHz processor
- microSD
- QWERTY keyboard
- Bluetooth
- Microsoft Outlook
[via BGR]
Categories T-Mobile, T-Mobile Dash 3G
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John Schappert Quits Microsoft, Heading Back To EA
John Schappert was the Corporate VP of Interactive Entertainment LIVE of Microsoft’s Software and Services Business. Now he is returning to Electronic Arts as the Chief Operating Officer. Schappert left EA for Microsoft two years ago.
When Schappert was at EA, he worked in leadership positions behind the Madden NFL and Tiger Woods video games. Schappert arrived at Electronic Arts when his gaming company studio Tiburon was bought out in 1998.
Microsoft has decided not to look for an individual to replace Schappert. Instead they have decided to allow Marc Whitten and Phil Spencer to head up their divisions. Both of them will report to Don Mattrick, SVP of the Interactive Entertainment Business.
[via CNET]