FocuSoft Tech Blog |
- Large Hadron Collider smashes its first protons
- HTC HD2 tweak enables WiFi N support
- Lenovo gets nature paint job
- Core i7 iMac DOA and cracked-screen woes reported
- Canopy Financial Accused Of Serious Financial Fraud, Investors Burned
- Large Hadron Collider reboots, makes first protonic bang!
- Creative Vado HD camcorder boosts low-light performance
- Convert slides and negatives to digital
- Nokia X6 arrives in UK this Friday
- Nokia 6700 Slide and 7230 budget cameraphones outed
| Large Hadron Collider smashes its first protons Posted: 24 Nov 2009 01:22 AM PST
Think back over the last 24 hours or so – did you feel a shimmer in the fabric of the universe? If not, you’re obviously not tuned into CERN, who powered up the Large Hadron Collider and fired two proton beams simultaneously for the first time yesterday. While the first collisions have already been spotted, it’s still early days for Higgs boson spotting overall: the scientists in charge of the LHC still have to ramp up the proton speed, with a target of 1.2 trillion electron volts (TeV) by Christmas.
It hasn’t been an easy journey getting to the first collision, either. An electrical problem back in 2008 led to the whole system being decommissioned until mid-2009, while just a few weeks back a rogue loose-beaked bird was accused of dropping a piece of bread on some exposed electronics and further delaying the experiments. Currently the beams are moving at a relatively slow 450 GeV, but even so the early results are finding favor among the research team. ”The tracks we're seeing are beautiful,” said LHCb spokesperson Andrei Golutvin, “we’re all ready for serious data taking in a few days time.” Relevant Entries on SlashGear
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| HTC HD2 tweak enables WiFi N support Posted: 24 Nov 2009 01:11 AM PST
As if the HTC HD2 needed any more hyperbole, it’s now emerged that the Windows Phone can actually be coaxed to use WiFi 802.11n networks rather than just the advertised b/g support. The tweak was identified over at xda-developers and requires a registry hack; however some users have reported significant increases in battery consumption when the higher-speed wireless is switched on.
That’s likely the reason that HTC chose to disable WiFi n in their shipping firmware, but if you’re addicted to speed (or have picked up a Euro-spec HD2 and want to use it in the US where the 3G bands aren’t supported) you may be able to live with recharging more frequently than normal. The tweak itself is reasonably straightforward – using a registry editor go to HKLMCommBCMSDDHD1Parms on the HD2 and change the value of 11nModeDisable from 1 to 0 – but as with any such registry tinkering there’s always the chance that you could brick your phone, so attempt it at your own risk. Curious about the HTC HD2? Check out our full HD2 review here. HTC HD2 hands-on: [via Engadget] Relevant Entries on SlashGear
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| Posted: 24 Nov 2009 01:00 AM PST
Only yesterday, we see that Dell had gone all arty with the Inspiron Mini with artwork by Deane Cheuk for $390. Now it seem that Lenovo had the same idea with the S10-2 Nature has been given a green look with a grass type graphic all around the computer on sale at Amazon for just under $350. Product Features 1.6GHz Intel N270 Atom Processor 1GB (200-Pin) DDR2 SO-DIMM Memory 160GB 5400RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive, 802.11b/g Wireless Connectivity 10.1″ (1024
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| Core i7 iMac DOA and cracked-screen woes reported Posted: 24 Nov 2009 01:00 AM PST
Apple’s 27-inch iMac did the Cupertino company proud when we reviewed the Core 2 Duo model last month, but trouble is afoot with the freshly-shipping Core i7 models. Various Apple support forum threads are suggesting that not only are some Core i7 iMacs turning up DOA and refusing to power on, others have hit desktops only for their eager buyers to discover the glass screen has cracked.
Neither of those is a particularly happy situation when you’ve just spent in excess of $2,000 on a high-end computer. The cracked glass issue is being blamed on both shipping companies (whether those responsible for getting the iMacs to the Apple Stores, or direct to consumers for online orders) and insufficient packaging inside the box itself, and generally seems to be happening around the lower left-hand corner of the display. Apple are replacing the iMacs, but deliveries don’t seem to be expected to take place until early December. As for the DOA issue, it’s a similar frustration in terms of the delay in sourcing a new unit. The Core i7 iMacs are built-to-order, and despite Apple customer support telling some owners that their replacement will be priotized over other customers, that doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case. [via Gizmodo] Relevant Entries on SlashGear
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| Canopy Financial Accused Of Serious Financial Fraud, Investors Burned Posted: 24 Nov 2009 12:45 AM PST
This is one of the high flying startups that had a lot of buzz the last couple of years. They’ve raised at least $85 million in venture capital with the help of an investment bank, Financial Technology Partners. Their most recent round, a reported $62.5 million, was funded by Spectrum Equity Investors. Canopy debuted on the 2009 Inc. 500 List at #12 in terms of the fastest growing private companies in America. In 2008 CEO Vikram Kashyap said his company had 2007 revenues of $9 million. More recently, we’ve heard, the company was saying they’d hit $60 million in revenue and $9 million or so in EBITDA. All of this may have been lies. Until recently all the venture capitalists involved proudly placed Canopy Financial on their portfolio pages. Now all trace of the company have been erased from the portfolio pages of investors GGV Capital, Spectrum Equity and Foundation Capital. And their investment bank has erased them from their trophy page as well. But here’s what these pages looked like very recently:
So what happened? Multiple sources have told us that Canopy was absolutely making up their financial statements, even forging audited statements with fake KMPG letterhead. And somehow the investment bank and all the investors never figured it out. A call to KPMG before investing tens of millions of dollars would have been a good start, although I have the benefit of hindsight here. Spectrum took the biggest hit, with their recent $62.5 million investment in the company. And we’re hearing that they’re now suing to try to recover some of that money. One of the early investors, GGVP, may have taken as much as $25 million of the recent round “off the table” from the Spectrum investment, and they’re now a defendant in the lawsuit, says one source. Canopy’s website right now is a simple information page. All deep links are broken, and the old site has been taken down (we have a screenshot here from a few months ago). We’ve reached out to just about everyone involved with the company for comment. Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. View original post here:
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| Large Hadron Collider reboots, makes first protonic bang! Posted: 24 Nov 2009 12:42 AM PST
 Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that most epic triumph of human engineering and physics research has finally taken place, and strangely enough our planet’s still in one piece too. The search for the Higgs boson particle resumed yesterday, somewhere under the Franco-Swiss border, with the CERN research team successfully executing what the LHC was built to do — accelerating proton beams to nearly the speed of light, then filming the wreckage as they crash into each other. Having encountered a number of bumps in the road, the researchers have had to significantly scale down the energy at which their early collisions will take place, with the very first ones said to have happened at 900 billion electron volts. Still, plans are afoot for an imminent shift up to 1.2 trillion electron volts (TeV), which would be the highest energy level any particle accelerator has achieved yet, before a ramp up to 7 TeV over the coming year if all goes well. Large Hadron Collider reboots, makes first protonic bang! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Creative Vado HD camcorder boosts low-light performance Posted: 24 Nov 2009 12:37 AM PST
Creative’s latest point-and-shoot camcorder has emerged, and though the feature list isn’t exactly overwhelming it’s a decent update over the second-gen version. The new Creative Vado HD still grabs 720p high-definition footage but now the company are claiming improved low-light and bright-light performance together with out-of-the-box compatibility with both PCs and Macs.
There’s also more choice in terms of connectivity, with a freshly added stereo microphone port and headphones connector. The Vado HD will also now take still photos, and can be used in a motion-activated mode. HDMI connectivity, a pull-out USB cord and a wide-angle lens are still present, though the 8GB model appears to have been canned in favor of the 4GB version, which can store up to 120 minutes of HD footage or 7,000 still photos. Most obviously, the somewhat bland casing of the previous versions has been replaced with a choice of glossy black or white, with red, blue and purple to follow. It’ll be available to preorder imminently, priced at $179.99. Press Release:
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| Convert slides and negatives to digital Posted: 24 Nov 2009 12:30 AM PST
It was not that long when taking a photo meant using a film such as 35mm, but now digital is king and film processing is almost non existent. However, some people still have those old slides and negatives, but have nothing to do with them. Yet with this device and a laptop, you become your own film processor as all of those slides and film negatives can be turned into digital images. Features – Slides and negatives are placed into a tray that aligns each properly; at the press of a button, the converter’s 5MP CMOS sensor captures each image at up to 1,800 dpi, with three bright white LEDs providing backlighting. 10 bits per colour channel, fixed focus, and automatic exposure control and colour balance result in sharp digital images without loss of quality. Includes a USB 2.0 cable and photo editing software for Windows Vista (32-bit) or XP. 6 1/2″ H x 31/2″ W x 3 1/2″ D. (1 lb.) Priced at $99.95 Source [Hammacher Schlemmer]
Post from: Laptop Pimp Blog – Laptop Reviews for Laptop Whores Convert slides and negatives to digital negatives into digital images, turn slides in digital, USB, USB Gadgets Related posts
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| Nokia X6 arrives in UK this Friday Posted: 24 Nov 2009 12:26 AM PST
Nokia UK have finally announced launch and pricing details for the Nokia X6, the company’s new Comes With Music flagship media phone. Packing a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen, 32GB of integrated storage and a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, the Nokia X6 will arrive at UK retailer Phones4U on Friday November 27th, free with a £35 ($58) per month agreement.
Video demo after the cut If you have an old Nseries Nokia you fancy trading in, you can knock £10 off that contract price and still take the X6 away without spending a penny on the handset itself. It’s also available to preorder SIM-free online, at Nokia’s UK store, for a somewhat extravagant £449 ($746), though at time of writing we couldn’t find any sign of it. Other features include 3G, up to 35 hours battery life for music playback, the Ovi apps store and a TV output and support for video recording. It also has a touch-enabled browser with Flash Lite 3.0 support, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, A-GPS and a micro-USB port. Check out our hands-on video with the Nokia X6 and live gallery below. Relevant Entries on SlashGear
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| Nokia 6700 Slide and 7230 budget cameraphones outed Posted: 24 Nov 2009 12:08 AM PST
Nokia have outed two new budget sliders with a strong emphasis on media sharing, the Nokia 6700 Slide and the Nokia 7230. The 6700 Slide packs a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, together with onboard editing software, while the 7230 gets a more modest 3.2-megapixel camera.
Both have 3G for high-speed uploads (though only according to the press release; the 7230 data sheet only mentions EDGE), and integration with various (unspecified) social networks that we’re expecting to include Nokia’s own Ovi system and probably Facebook and MySpace. The 6700 Slide has a 2.2-inch QVGA 16.7m color display, FM radio, mediaplayer and microSD card slot, while the 7230 has a 2.4-inch display. Both handsets are expected to arrive in Q1 2010, with the Nokia 6700 Slide priced at around €160 ($239) and the Nokia 7230 at €100 ($150) (both pre-tax and pre-subsidy). Each will be available in various colors. Press Release:
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Something really, really bad went down at high flying startup 
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