Grote Announces First Flexible LED Lighting Film

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Flexible LED sheets are here! At the 2009 SEMA show, Grote Industries has announced the release of the first commercially available LightForm flexible LED film. These LED sheets are less than 1 mm thick, and come in strips that are 10” long and less than 1” wide. You can cut them, paste them around corners and inside crevasses (time to rice up your car with some LED trim?), and even sew them into clothing. A whole new era of bright, gaudy fashion is about to arrive.

These LED strips come in red, green, or blue. You just peel off the back and apply the adhesive to a clean surface and, voila, instant festive lighting! Initially the uses for the LightForm film will probably be limited to decorating vehicles and costumes. Since the film is billed as durable and weather-resistant, it could also be perfect for decorating your home during the holidays.

Posted on Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:27:50 CST | by Robert Evans

The Acer A1's Snapdragon Processor; Underclocked?

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The Acer A1 “Liquid” made headlines as the first confirmed Android smartphone to pack the badass Snapdragon 1 GHz processor under its hood. Unfortunately, it looks like people who buy the A1 won't actually get to make use of a whole GHz of power. According to MobileTechWorld (via Engadget) the Liquid's processor will be underclocked to just 768 MHz.

There are several reasons for Acer to gimp their own processor. Chief among them is battery life. The A1 boasts up to a week of standby battery life, putting it far ahead of most power-sucking Android handsets. It's also possible the Liquid team underclocked the processor as a way to avoid overheating issues.

Posted on Mon, 2 Nov 2009 11:32:47 CST | by Robert Evans

Walmart Announces 100 More Toy Rollbacks Featuring Top Holiday Toys

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Today Walmart announced 100 additional toy Rollbacks, weeks before Black Friday arrives.
This week in all stores and online at Walmart.com, the prices of more than 100 toys will be rolled back, many at an additional 20% and 30% savings, and will last through the Christmas shopping period.

These new savings are in addition to the Walmart 100 toys for $10 previously announced, and bring to you additional savings on many more of this season’s hottest toys. Read more

Posted on Mon, 2 Nov 2009 06:51:29 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Nvidia's Fermi Renders Life-Like Faces, Launches Soon

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Today a leak from a Chinese forum has shown us the future of graphics rendering. Electronista reports that detailed advertising shots and information about Nvidia's upcoming Fermi hardware have now hit the web. Fermi should first see the light of day with Nvidia's Geforce 300 series, the first of which could be due out by the end of the year.

The Fermi appears to be capable of rendering hauntingly life-like faces, including realistic stubble and skin that looks almost, almost perfect. The fastest models of the 300 series will pack as many as 512 cores in order to bring this high level of detail to your computer. Notebook versions of the Fermi should also be out soon. The GeForce GTS 360 M is the only notebook chip leaked so far that will be built for high-end performance, but more are sure to follow.

Posted on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:16:46 CDT | by Robert Evans

Sprint Announces Least Awful Quarter In Years

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Apparently, the Pre has helped Sprint's bottom line. The company posted its Q3 numbers today, and its losses were lower than they have been in years. They had a net revenue of $8 billion, with losses of "only" $478 million.

For most companies, posting half a billion dollars in losses isn't something to celebrate. Yes, things at Sprint really have been that bad. They lost another 135,000 subscribers this quarter, which at least represented a 20% reduction in subscriber losses over their last quarter. Things are getting better for the ailing carrier, but they're far from out of the woods yet. Sprint is still hemmoraging money and subscribers. The fact that they're doing it less now than they were at the start of the year is hard to get excited about.

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:04:33 CDT | by Robert Evans

HTC CEO Peter Chou Talks HD2, Other Devices

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With its 4.3” touchscreen and 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, the HD2 is one of the hottest smartphones on the market. The only issue with the handset is that it runs the widely panned WinMo 6.5 OS. Our hopes were raised earlier this week when we heard that an Android version of the HD2 was headed for Verizon. Unfortunately, it now looks like those rumors were untrue.

In an interview with Forbes, HTC CEO Peter Chou stated that "technically, we could make the HD2 an Android phone, but I have to take care of Windows Mobile."

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:24:50 CDT | by Robert Evans

CES 2010: Crazy 70s Acousticom Sound Egg Debuts

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Acousticom announced plans to release their 70s style Sound Egg chair at the CES 2010 in January.
The 5.1 Surround Sound Egg is designed to isolate sound inside and out, similar to wearing a pair of headphones.
The Sound Egg can be configured to Stereo, and can be used as a personal sound booth. Read more

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Target Black Friday 2009 Promises Their Lowest Prices Ever

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There is a lot of hype around leaked Black Friday ads in the weeks before retailers make the ads official. For retailers this period is a great opportunity for marketing their deals, but only a few of them really work this pre-Black Friday opportunity.
I just stumbled over Target's Black Friday 2009 page. They actually managed to get their place holder page onto the 2nd page in Google for the search term Black Friday 2009. Read more

Posted on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Mitsubishi Electric Announces New 12.1-inch TFT-LCD

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Mitsubishi Electric has announced that it will be selling a new TFT-LCD panel module internationally. The new screen is 12.1-inches in size and has XGA resolution with full color. The big selling point of the screen is that it is 10% smaller with a reduced frame width.

The screen is model number AA121XL01 and has up to 1000 cd/m2 brightness and longer backlight life thanks to white LEDs. The new features of the screen will reduce the size and weight of the device. The product will be available starting February 1, 2010 and will ship globally at 52,500 yen or equivalent. Read more

Posted on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

385 Million Ultra mobile Devices to ship by 2014

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Well it seems that the ultra mobile market is only going to continue to grow and by 2014, ABI Research predicts that the market will ship 385 million ultra mobile devices. That number will be reached with a large diversity of form factors and device types with vendors trying to meet audience's preferences.

The research firm says that the MID is the most interesting product category to watch since the segments is still emerging. The most common product design will likely be the tablet form factor with other models with slider keyboards, clamshells, and touchscreens growing in popularity as well. Read more

Posted on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:49:21 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Walmart Set to Offer Installation Services

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Walmart is one of the largest electronics retailers in the country and the world for that matter. The company fights Best Buy as the location that many consumers go to when they want something electronic. Best Buy has had its Geek Squad for a long time now and Walmart is now set to move into the installation services business as well.

Walmart has started a partnership with N.E.W. Customer Service Companies that will allow the retailer to offer in-home setup services for items purchased from Walmart stores. The new install services should be coming soon. Read more

Posted on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Tilera Unveils 100-core Processor

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When most of us think about processors, we think Intel and AMD. A third name is now offering up an interesting processor and the company is called Tilera. The firm has announced a new CPU that has way more cores than offerings from AMD or Intel can muster.

The new Tilera Tile-GX processors are aimed at the server market and boast 100-cores inside the single processor. The chips are targeted specifically at servers that execute web-related functions like indexing, search, and video search. Read more

Posted on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Access Launching Linux Phone

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Another contender is throwing their hat into the smartphone ring. Access, the same company that bought the rights to the Palm OS, is coming out with a badass new smartphone. Electronista reports that the Else Intuition will be a 3.5" touchscreen smartphone (designed with help from Emblaze) that runs on Access' Linux smartphone OS.

Access has already built a customized UI for the Intuition, and the concept shots we've seen of it look pretty great. The primary purpose of this OS seems to be ease-of-use with a single hand, which is why Access went with a rotary UI design. All of your menus are held on a rotary dial, and your running apps are displayed onscreen to aid in multi-tasking. The Intuition will support push email and OpenGL 2.0 graphics. Unfortunately, it will be limited to Access' proprietary NetFront browser.

Posted on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:03:43 CDT | by Robert Evans

Netflix Enabled Devices Will Get A New Mystery Member

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Netflix announced their earnings (pdf) yesterday. The movie rental company Netflix ended the third quarter of 2009 with approximately 11,109,000 total subscribers, representing 28% year-over-year growth from 8,672,000 total subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2008.
Revenue for the third Quarter was $423.1 million, up 24% from last year. Besides solid numbers Netflix unveiled some interesting things at the earnings call according to NewTeeVee.
Read more

Posted on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:26:38 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Zhu Zhu Pets Slide and Ramp Accessory Review

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Today I am checking out the Zhu Zhu Pets Slide and Ramp accessory. This is the largest of the accessories and connects to the starter kit that I reviewed previously.

The slide isn’t perfect but my daughter loves it and had lots of fun playing with it and the hamsters. The thing is difficult to put together thanks to poor instructions. Read more

Posted on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:02:48 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Samsung Makes World's First 4G LTE Devices

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If you're in Sweden or Norway, 4G wireless Internet is about to come to you, courtesy of Samsung and TeliaSonera. 4G mobile Internet is a very hot service right now, with only a few states in the U.S. even offering it. TeliaSonera, a telecommunication provider in Eurasia, is very much ahead of the curve here.

And so is Samsung. According to their press release (which should always be taken with a grain of salt) the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) devices that TeliaSonera contracted them to create will be the first of their kind. These LTEs are basically little USB 4G modems. The service will launch next year in Sweden and Norway, well ahead of the rest of the world.

Posted on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:25:40 CDT | by Robert Evans

Comcast To Offer 3G/4G Services

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Comcast, one of the nation's leading ISPs, is about to go 4G. And 3G. They're offering bundles now for customers to purchase both a high-speed cable connection for their homes, and a rolling 4G and 3G connection for a really good price. If BGR is right, Comcast is using Sprint's network to deliver the 3G/4G connection. That seems accurate, considering 4G is only available in Bellingham, WA, Portland, OR, or Atlanta, GA.

Posted on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:22:07 CDT | by Robert Evans

Zhu Zhu Pets Num Nums Hamster, Car and Garage Accessory Review

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Today I am checking out the Zhu Zhu Pets Num Nums hamster and the Car and Garage accessory for their habitat. The hamster is a fun little toy for kids and will make a great holiday gift.

The car and garage accessory were a bit frustrating, but overall the stuff is fun. If your kids are asking for these Zhu Zhu Pets toys, you need to start buying now, they are hard to find and it will only get worse the closer we get to the holidays. Read more

Posted on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:50:35 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Apple Announces Mac Mini

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Buried deep within the Apple press release today was information about Apple's new Mac mini. Like the rest of Apple's Mac line, the mini received a substantial boost. The entry-level mini now costs just $599, practically nothing compared to standard Mac prices, and packs a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, plus 2 GB of DDR3 1066 MHz RAM. The mini also saw its storage space increased. It's got a 160 GB HD, plus 5 USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800, an Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics card, and a SuperDrive.

If you've got an extra two hundred to spend, the $799 Mac mini is even better. It has a 2.53 GHz dual core processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB HD. There's also a $999 mini, that's built around Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server. This machine features 2 500 GB HDs.

Posted on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:34:34 CDT | by Robert Evans

AMD Launching Triple Core Athlon Processors

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One core isn't enough for many people these days, and dual core machines are starting to show their age as well. Quad cores are fantastic, but expensive and out of many people's price range. That's why AMD has just announced the coming of their first Athlon triple-core processors (via PC World).

AMD has four Athlon II X3 processors so far. These processors can handle speeds varying from 2.2 GHz to 2.9 GHz, while drawing around 95 watts of power. The X3s are designed primarily for desktops, as well as all-in-one PCs and net-tops. The X3 can handle 3D graphics, and represent a substantial advance over dual core machines.

Posted on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:48:55 CDT | by Robert Evans

New AMD Athlon II Processors Unveiled

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AMD announced several new AMD Athlon II processors today that are supposed to offer outstanding performance and low power consumption, while enabling sleek desktop PC designs and attractive price points.

In addition to the standard power processors, the full AMD Athlon II processor family now delivers high-performance, low-power dual-, triple- and quad-core processors to meet a range of computing needs. This variety and value enables OEMs and system builders to develop compelling PC solutions that address the market shift to power efficient, innovative PC designs optimized for Windows 7. Read more

Posted on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr