Dear Father Christmas..

It's that time of year when children start working out what they want for Christmas. I know, I used to work in the toy industry.  Well grown-ups can have wish lists too, even if they're of the dream on rather than Amazon kind, and this is sure going on mine...

I've just seen this video for the Sony Ericsson Live-View: Everything the Pop-Swatch I had in 1990 (or thereabouts) did in gadget wearable versatility,  PLUS a load of cool Android capability thrown in. 
Geek happiness. Watch!

Fashion retail goes multi-media with YouTique by French Connection

French Connections' foray into the multi-media world tripped across my radar this morning.

They've created a "YouTique" (YouTube based  boutique) to show and tell their autumn collections and provide some sort of quasi-personal online personal shopping guide (i.e select the event / occasion you need to find an outfit for and it will return a personal shopper suggestion video).

So far so good, but it gets better, the videos are annotated with "buy" buttons that link you out to the French Connection website, which is the first time I've seen external linking on YouTube.

 

 

 There's already been lots of great examples of videos linking to other videos and using annotations well, notably the Boone Oakley non-website and one of my other favourites come from Berlei bras in Australia, but this is new functionality as far as I am aware.

I think this approach makes an awful lot of sense, multi-media showcasing of ranges is much more interesting than flat online-catalogue approaches, which is what Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and H&M amongst others have opted for via mobile Apps (read the reviews, pretty mixed!), and being able to close the purchase loop there and then is a no-brainer. I think there's an awful lot more French Connection could have done with it, but we'll award marks for trying, and for doing something new.

Via David Cushman's Faster Future blog I found this link to a social media audit of the UK Fashion retail scene which is quite interesting reading whilst I am on a Fashion theme. I also recently noted that Burberry were loaning out iPads at the new season previews with bespoke iPad apps on  allowing customers to order new season collection items there and then. Nice. Gucci were also using their iPad app to shout about live streaming their catwalks shows...

Rich fodder today, the subject of interesting things being done by fashion retailers:  Uniqlo have for a long time been the pace setters in exploiting technology to create interesting interactions between brand and consumer, such as their Lucky Switch activity making banner ads organically spreadable, increasing reach along the way. Whilst I was looking that link up recently to show someone I discovered that they publish this handy overview of lots of their cool Uniqlo activities.  Be inspired!

Meanwhile I'll be off to talk to my clients about how they can mash and adapt the YouTique approach and push it harder!

Bookworms: Dying out??

I've been what's commonly referred to as a "bookworm" since I was about 3.  

But I've never seen a real one :-)  I've enjoyed imagining what they look like though.

It's a lovely term for an avid and passionate reader. I've almost missed flights as I've had my nose stuck in a compelling book. I've lost sleep over books, elastic promises of "just one more chapter before I turn off the light". I've missed my station or bus stop because a story has been so compelling I've been lost to the real world around me.

Somehow reading then ended up being a large part of what I do for work. Yet like most people, most of what I read these days is on a screen. Big screen, small screen, in-between sized screen. I fret that bookworm is a term threatened by the onward march of technology. Up there with cassette as a term that generations below will wrinkle their brows and look puzzled over. Worms in tech terms fill me with fear and dread of the blue screen of death.

Yet for all my digital immigrant book nostalgia I welcome the ways that technology can amplify and add depth to narrative, making it compelling in new ways.  Stories exist in so many forms. Stories swapped over coffee or a beer amongst friends, choose your own adventure stories - in paper or game format, stories translated into videos and pictures, stories reviewed and recommended in new ways and by new people.  Multi-player / media online games are just another way people share and interact in or with stories.

My two recent favourites (back to wearing my work hat) are:

1) the Touching Stories App on the iPad - choose your own ending multi-media adventure & very funny in places. Just nice to see touch being explored as an interface.

2) The Tipp-Ex YouTube takeover / commercial from a few weeks back that gave you the ability to interact and be playful or silly and also dictate your own ending. I particularly liked that for the retro product using new channels.

You could then throw in good ole' Huck Finn which I've been reading on my iTouch for a while now. Old story, new distribution platform. New preferences of when and why I choose to engage with them. I'm also looking forward to having a play with the Story Patch app later. It's designed for kids but I'm imagining it will be like me learning to use Keynote (Mac Powerpoint equivalent) on the iPad -writing presentations when you are much more reliant on tactile manipulation makes you think about how you convey the key point in different ways. Challenge is good sometimes.

Smartphone, tablet, laptop, hardback, paperback - I just now have a whole series of reading choices in my repertoire. Some I'll learn to have different expectations of over time. I'm now a repertoire reader in more senses than one. It used to be just having a few different books on the go at once, maybe one in several languages for pleasure and a business related one for inspiration or challenge. Now it's about what I'm reading on what device. No doubt before long I'll be keeping it all in the cloud not locally and just pulling it down on whichever device is to hand.   

I'm not sure if I'll become known as a content-craving consumer or a starving scanner or by some other nomenclature in the future but I'm pretty sure that it won't have the charm of identifying myself as a bookworm. I'm also sure the world won't stop wanting to swap stories.  So here's a nice video from the IDEO gang on how they see the future of books... I think they just misjudged the title - it's the future of storytelling and information sharing.  Books are merely a specific format.


The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Ubuntu 10.10 Has a Brand New Wallpaper

Canonical released last evening the final wallpaper for the upcoming Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) operating system.

A couple of weeks ago, we've announced that Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) has seventeen new beautiful wallpapers and a lightweight and eye-candy theme, that will please every existing and future Ubuntu 10.10 user.



Apparently the default wallpaper introduces on August 27th, was not good enough for the final release of Ubuntu 10.10, and for most of the Ubuntu users. Therefore, Canonical replaced that ugly wallpaper with the one below.

This is the final and default wallpaper for the Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) release!

MacX iPhone Video Converter Available for Free - License Code Giveaway

MacXDVD Software (of Digiarty Software, Inc.) has announced a giveaway promo for MacX iPhone Video Converter which aids users in Converting HD and SD video to iPhone, iPod, iPad with original quality. The tool is available for free download for both Mac and Windows users until September 30th.

All Mac users need to do to get a free copy of MacX iPhone Video Converter is to simply download the trial version using the link below, and then activate it with the following license code: AZ-TGUMTQYN-OFQPET.

Download MacX iPhone Video Converter (Trial)

For Windows users, just visit MacXDVD Software here, click the “Windows” button, and the full version will be automatically downloaded to their computers. A license code is not required.

This giveaway version of MacX iPhone Video Converter is not eligible for free upgrades, once a new release is out. Also, no technical support is offered.

On the good side, you get to keep this version and use it for as long as you want, for free.

Also noteworthy is that MacX iPhone Video Converter offers some pretty advanced conversion functionality, making this an offer you can’t miss out on.

MacX iPhone Video Converter accepts almost any popular video format as input, including high definition video formats like MKV, M2TS, AVCHD, MTS, TOD, HD H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and HD MPEG, as well as standard definition video formats, including AVI, MPEG, WMV, DivX, MP4, MOV, RM, RMVB, ASF, 3GP, WebM, etc.

A lengthy list of features provided by the folks at MacXDVD Software is available below:

- Support Converting both High Definition and Standard Definition Video on Mac OS

- Convert Video to iPhone, iPod, iPad, MP4, MOV, FLV, H.264, MP3, etc.

- Multi-track video supported. It lets audience choose their preferred language when watch HD videos that contains multiple audio language track and video track.

- Trim video segment, clip the required segments from your video and remove the unwanted video advertisement.

- Take snapshot from video files to be saved as JPG, BMP format and extract audio tracks from multimedia files to set as the ringtone for your iPhone.

- A series of practical settings are provided to make personalized videos, such as video trimming, batch conversion, frame rate, video bitrate, audio bitrate, stretch to full screen, etc

- Simple graphical user interface makes it easy to use and it enables you to makes full use of dual and multi-core CPU to speed up the conversion, up to 8x real time

HDR Photos Already Available for Older iPhones, No Jailbreak Required

Speaking of adding HDR capabilities to old-generation iPhones, the folks at Pictional LLC have just issued version 2.0 of their TrueHDR application for iPhone owners which brings a - new rapid Autocapture mode.

“Have you taken pictures, only to find out that the clouds were washed out, making the sky look like a white haze? Or how about pictures where everything in the shadows looked like a dark blob with no details?”, says Pictional LLC.

“With TrueHDR, you can get the best of bright and dark areas and merge them into a single realistic-looking picture that is much closer to what your eyes originally saw,” the app’s iTunes description reads (iTunes link).

Notably, the software puts HDR photography into the hands of iPhone 3GS owners, and does not require a jailbreak.

A report published online by Softpedia minutes ago informs of a hack that will put HDR photos on legacy iPhones via a Cydia tweak set to become available when the iPhone Dev Team rolls out their iOS 4.1 jailbreak.

While TrueHDR does not support the iPhone 3G as well, it does bring the function to a large group of iPhone users whose devices don’t have native support for it, namely those wielding an iPhone 3GS.

“Take full-resolution HDR (high dynamic range) pictures with your iPhone 4 or 3GS!”, Pictional LLC states.

“A new Rapid Autocapture mode makes it easier than ever to take HDR pictures, and new SemiAuto mode offers greater control in choosing exposure points. Share using Facebook, Twitter, or email from within the app,” the company adds, delving into the new stuff delivered by TrueHDR 2.0.

The full changelog is then provided as follows:

What's New In Version 2.0

- New rapid Autocapture mode - fully automatic and fast (with support for front facing camera!)
- New SemiAuto mode - more control, drag the exposure points around to get them just how you want
- Full support for front facing camera in all three modes (Auto, SemiAuto, and Manual)
- Improved UI with easier access to Facebook, Twitter, email sharing

Download TrueHDR ($1.99)

According to the list of requirements, the app is not only compatible with iPhones, but also with the iPod touch - most likely, the fourth-generation model which boasts a camera.

The software also requires iOS 4.0 or later.

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Apple Peel 520 Officially Makes iPod touch a Phone, Requires Jailbreak

GoSolarUSA has announced that staggering sales figures for Apple’s iPod touch prompted the company’s option agreement with Chinese firm Yosion to start selling the Apple Peel 520, an device that traps on the portable media player and adds cell phone functionality.

The Apple Peel 520 is described as “a wireless device that when used with the iPod Touch functions as a protective skin that adds mobile voice and text messaging capabilities to the touch-screen media player.”

According to GoSolarUSA, “The startling new technology represents a more affordable alternative to purchasing Apple’s costlier iPhone.”

“When we researched the number of iPod Touch units sold, our eyes really popped,” GoSolarUSA President Tyson Rohde said.

“There is truly a huge market for Touch accessories, both in the U.S. and around the globe. With the Apple Peel 520, we believe we will have the most exciting and functional iPod Touch accessory produced to date,” Rohde added.

“The Apple Peel 520 is a very affordable piece of technology that greatly increases the functionality and value of the iPod Touch. We believe strongly that this is something all Touch users will want, and it will be priced for most budgets,” the GoSolarUSA President concluded.

The Apple Peel 520 was covered on Softpedia not once, but twice, one of the reports also containing a number of statements from the actual developer.

Early details about the product, including those on the software side, indicated that users would only be able to employ the Apple Peel 520 after performing a jailbreak.

GoSolarUSA avoids to make this obvious in today’s report, although it does note that “Once the proper software is installed, the Apple Peel adds the ability to make voice calls and text messages to all versions of the Touch.”

Without fail, by heading over to the gosolarusa.com web site, visitors are greeted by an advertisement for the Apple Peel 520 alongside a handy jailbreak guide, complete with iOS firmware downloads and jailbreak tools.

As previously noted by Softpedia, the "Apple" reference in the product's name may constitute an problem for the product's long-term existence.

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Facebook Scam Lures Users with Free Poker Chips 2010

Security researchers from GFI Sunbelt warn that scammers are tricking Facebook users into participating in surveys and sending spam by promising them 10 million free Texas Hold'em poker chips.

These are not real poker chips, but virtual currency for the popular Texas HoldEm Poker game on Facebook, which is developed and run by Zynga.

"Zynga just gave me 10 million poker chips for Texas Hold'em Poker, for FREE! Get yours now: [url] Limited time offer!," the Facebook spam
messages read.

As it turns out, the scammers don't only abuse Zynga's name and reputation, but also the company's logo, which is clearly visible on the external landing page the link points to.

Moreover, a large banner with graphics from the real game and the text "FREE 10M POKER CHIPS" is also displayed to make it appear as if this is a legit campaign.

As it usually the case with most of these scams, the users are asked to jump through a few hoops in order to allegedly receive the amazing bonus.

The first step involves Liking the rogue page, which will promote it to their walls. At the time of writing this article almost 13,000 users fell for the trick and did this.

The second step requires Sharing the page, while the third and most intrusive of all tells users to post the previously mentioned spam message in five different places on Facebook.

Ana even if a misguided user does all this, they will still not get the 10 million chips. Instead they will be asked to complete one of several surveys in order to "help keep this quality content available."

These surveys attempt to sign up users to useless premium rate services and the scammers earn money through affiliate marketing schemes for directing traffic to them.

According to GFI Sunbelt's Tom Kelchner some of the websites users are led to offer game downloads rigged with adware.

Believe in Fairies bearing gifts...

Ok, brace yourselves, I admit that it's been a while since I believed in the tooth fairy.  Luckily I don't think I have any readers aged below 6. If I do, go and play outside immediately.  Fairies at the bottom of the garden however, are an entirely different matter.

Or at least they are very real for my brothers who live in Sydney, as Coke launched the Coke Machine Fairy project last week. It's a great example of brands experimenting with location to create brand / consumer involvement, and a nice build on the Coke Happiness vending machine work they've done over the last year.

The basic premise is this.. for a week, the Coke Machine Fairy will be dropping off a special prize-winning bottle of Coke per day  in various vending machines around the city.

They are announcing clues to the special bottle whereabouts via their FourSquare and  Twitter feeds... Checking in as they go leaving clues as to where they are headed and then having set up various Coke vending machines as locations on FourSquare.

  Then challenging people to find them, and shout out about having done so to claim their prize.

 
Nice!  I love this for several reasons:

• It invites participation in a social gaming kinda way (and let's fact it life's one big game if you think about it)
• It engenders a sense of time limited competition (who can get there first) and we're a react to deadline based race these days
• It harnesses the power of (accessible) location based technology to give human interaction with the brand, 
• It requires the winners to shout out about their involvement with the campaign = influential reach / spread of a brand message

 Oh, and just that little detail of contributing to the brand equity, reinforcing it's happiness work, cos everyone likes free stuff, even if they've had to do a little work for it.  :-)  You can bet your Aussie dollar that those who've won, or been beaten to it are telling their mates about it too.

Over the last few days I've seen the prizes claimed in anything between 4 and 12 minutes after they've been planted.  (click to enlarge)

How's that for direct response & the power of the hyper-local capability that so many of us carry in our pockets these days (i.e your mobile)?  Really nice to see a brand experimenting.

If in doubt put a cat in it...

We all know that cats are a big traffic driver on the web. Lots of people love their feline friends and love to share pictures of them. And have been for a very long time now as this meme / timeline shows ;-)

Cat-lovers were recently in uproar across the web after some poor misguided soul put a cat in a wheelie bin, an act unfortunately caught on a personal cctv webcam, and footage of said act posted on YouTube. Today, a quick search on YouTube rustles up 457 results and the first 5 account for over 500k views. Nuts. In just over a week.  But I am not going to add fuel to the flames by linking or posting it. Instead I am going to link to the spoof Twitter feed some enterprising individual set up, which was wrong so wrong but mildly amusing, and has 29.5k followers as of today.

So, point proven cats drive traffic on the web.

Co-incidental perhaps then that one of my mates just sent me todays Dilbert comic strip:  (Posted as a screengrab as it'll change tomorrow)

(NOTE if you look at the image carefully they encourage you to mash and play!).  Back to the cat theme...

IKEA couldn't have dreamed of the random act by catbinlady occuring & nicely boosting searches for cats for them. Handily just as they were about to let 100 cats loose in one of their UK stores to create footage for a new ad to promote the launch of their new cat-alogue (forgive the pun, but surely someone had to have thought of that one??!).

If you want to watch the making of said cat-ercial click here(be warned it's 4 minutes), or you can just watch the finished result here  (1 minute) as for reasons best know to IKEA they've not made it embeddable, which is pretty poor etiquette these days.

 

Now for a little mashing of my own - take your IKEA UK's cat-ercial and mash it with IKEA Austria's approach to launching the new catalogue...





UPDATE: 27th Sept: Just found the updated cat-section of the Ikea website with some very amusing videos (she says with just a hint of cynicism) under the nav heading "pussy people". Be warned it's got VERY ANNOYING auto on music, so turn that off quick using the mute speaker icon bottom right.  They've also added a competition element whereby you can and match an item of furniture to a specific cat (presumably one that interacted with the item during the ad shoot) to win the item (not the cat), albeit you have to log in via Facebook to complete the competition process.  There's also the new cat-alogue which is indeed a picture of lots of Ikea products with cats sitting on/nearthem!

I want it now... seems to be fashionable this week

Last week Google beta launched Google Instant search, in short, search answers appearing as you typed your query, but more on that another day, even if its functionality will save me 5 seconds a search!!

Speed being one of the amazing things about the web, some quick off the mark smart cookie created a YouTube instant version, which is pretty impressive.

Have a play with the "unofficial" YouTube Instant here....

Meanwhile YouTube themselves, are about to kick off a two day beta test of Live Streaming, something that they've experimented with in the past with U2 concerts and cricket tests. They've hooked up with a few content partners and put together this rather nice looking widget so you can see what they are scheduling:

Fun Mashups: Time Travel via YouTube videos & Spotify Poems

 The amazing thing about the web is that there is such a diverse range of things already out there, inspired by creativity across the world (or sometimes the lack of it!), which in turn just fuels more creativity as people find ways of tweaking and repurposing content that exists elsewhere into something new. Inspire people and you don't even have to create things yourself!

So my two treasure finds of yesterday were...

A YouTube based time travel machine. Pick your category and a date, and before you know it you can be watching some footage from 1888! Or the Tango & Cash movie trailer from 1989.

I also rather liked  Spotify Poetry, compose your own poem using song titles via Spotify & then screengrab & share :-)  Quite fancy having a go at that one at some point.

KDE SC 4.5.1 Is Now Available - Download Now

The KDE team has released the first update to the latest major release of the software compilation. KDE SC 4.5.1 is a minor update, focusing on bug fixing and more localization.

"KDE has released a series of updates to the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, the KDE Applications and the KDE Platform. This update is the first in a series of stabilization updates to 4.5.0, coming every month, as if delivered by a cronjob," the KDE team announced.

"4.5.1 brings bugfixes and translation updates on top of KDE SC 4.5.0. KDE SC 4.5.1 is a recommended update for everyone running KDE SC 4.5.0 or earlier versions," the announcement read.

"As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. KDE SC 4 is already translated into more than 55 languages, with more to come," it added.

Highlights of KDE SC 4.5.1:

· Fixed some stability issues in several platform components, notably the new shared data cache, in KHTML and in KNewStuff;
· Moving applets inside Plasma panels has been improved;
· Listing of UPnP devices in the network:/ KIO slave has been fixed;
· Fixed a regression in KWin which prevented desktop effects from being used;
· Both the weather and the news applet are now updated when internet connectivity is restored.

KDE SC 4.5.1 is the first stability update to the latest big release. The KDE team plans to provide updates like this at regular intervals, once a month.

KDE SC 4.5.0 brought quite a bit of new features for the platform, the user interface but also for developers. You can read more about the release here.

KDE SC 4.5.1 is available for download here (source code)

DDR4 Will Have Clock Speeds of Up to 4.2 GHz

Currently, DDR3-SDRAM is the fastest type of memory on the market but it seems that JEDEC's efforts to increase performance while staying in the same electrical footprints may, in fact, yield a much more powerful memory than users might expect, even making speeds of over 2,500 MHz seem lackluster.

Apparently, the target effective clock speeds of DDR4 will have 2,133 MHz as the lower limit, which is already higher than most DDR3 products currently on sale.

It is the top-most limit that will truly turn heads, if what Bill Gervasi, vice president of engineering at US Modular and a member of the JEDEC board of directors, reportedly said is to be trusted.

Apparently, DDR4 will actually go as high as 4,266 MHz, and one can only imagine what type of overclocking fits and performance levels will be possible with such resources.

For those interested in a reminder, the target clocks of DDR2-SDRAM were 400 to 1,066 MHz, whereas those for DDR3-SDRAM are 1,066-2,133 MHz.

Some players on the memory front do, of course, already deal in memory of higher frequencies, but those products are both expensive and, sadly, impractical for common end-users.

DDR4, on the other hand, should be more than able to keep up with the advancements on the CPU front, especially considering the electrical footprints. To be more specific, DDR4 will have voltages of 1.1-1.2 V.

There is, unfortunately, an apparent drawback to the new memory, in the way that every memory channel in DDR4 memory sub-systems will support just one memory module.

It seems that developers decided to trade the current multi-drop bonus for point-to-point technology. This, however, will hamper system builders' ability to provide high-end systems with sufficient amounts of gigabytes.

Thus, DRAM makers will have to use multi-layer techniques to boost the capacities of the memory chips themselves. The other solution is for special switches to be installed on mainboards, to let multiple modules work on the same channel.

The first samples of DDR4-SDRAM will start to ship next year, but mass production will only start in 2015.

Likewise Presents VMware ESXi Active Directory Integration Technology

Likewise, a provider of software for integrating Unix, Linux, and Macintosh platforms with Windows environments, announced last evening at VMworld that will demonstrate how VMware vSphere 4.1 uses the Likewise Identity Service to integrate the ESXi or ESX hypervisors securely on networks that use Microsoft’s Active Directory technology.

Likewise combines both virtual and physical desktops & servers running Unix, Linux, and Macintosh to an organization's existing network using the Active Directory technology. The result is a single and secure framework for access control and authentication in mixed networks.

"It was about a year ago that VMware first selected Likewise to provide the directory integration technology for their next release of vSphere,” said Barry Crist, Likewise CEO.

"We’re demonstrating the benefits of vSphere with licensed Likewise technology, plus more to show how security can be incorporated in a virtualization initiative right from its inception."

Microsoft’s Active Directory technology offers a secure and enterprise-ready solution for centralized authentication, access control, and identity management. VMware ESX and ESXi administrators can join those systems to Active Directory using the Likewise technology. Therefore, users will only need their Active Directory password to log-in, and administrators can securely appoint management tasks to these users, based on their Active Directory authentication information.

About Likewise

Likewise provides authentication and integration tools for mixed networks to more than 70,000 organizations, enabling secure access of Unix, Linux, and Macintosh platforms on networks using the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Likewise offers identity management and integration solutions to enhance operational efficiencies and security, and to help perform regulatory compliance in mixed networks.

Likewise Open is a tool for integrating Unix, Linux and Mac machines into Microsoft Active Directory environments.

Likewise Enterprise offers all the core authentication technology available in Likewise Open, plus world-class migration, auditing, reporting and group policy modules.

GlobalFoundries Shows Picture of Llano and AMD Orochi 8-Core

GlobalFoundries just used its first Global Technology Conference as an opportunity to offer a sneak peak at one of the upcoming Fusion processors from Advanced Micro Devices, codenamed Orochi and based on the as yet unreleased Bulldozer architecture.

The Bulldozer and Bobcat are the new architectures that will spawn working processors either by late 2010 or in 2011.

The Bobcat's first incarnation will be the Ontario mobile chip, based on TSMC's 40nm manufacturing process and with DirectX 11 graphics.

The Bulldozer architecture, on the other hand, will be used in desktops and servers, the Orochi being one of the apparently more ambitious projects that the chip maker is working on.

No real information was provided on this 8-core product besides that it will be the second 32nm-based product and will be built immediately after the Llano.

The Orochi will feature a set of 4 Bulldozer modules, which provide 8 cores and 8 threads, and will probably have an AM3+ package with an integrated DDR3 memory controller.

The aforementioned Llano APU (accelerated processing unit) was also pictured during the conference and is known to lack L3 cache.

On the other hand, the individual L2 caches will be of 1MB and will support dual-channel DDR3 and will, of course, have its own built-in graphics with support for DirectX 11.

The APU should also feature an integrated northbridge, integrated PCI Express root complex, a HyperTransport interface to the chipset and an integrated SIMD array with 480 stream processors.

The Llano will have to compete with the Sandy Bridge processors from Intel, which also have integrated graphics and will feature better performance than the current Core series.

What AMD will have to deal with is the fact that its rival will ship Sandy Bridge before it gets the Llano out, and the company hopes the graphics performance of the APU will help make up for Intel's head start.

LG's IFA Exhibition Features a High-Quality 31-Inch OLED HDTV

Though OLED is more expensive to make than regular LCDs, it is still a very good display technology because it needs no backlights and has a very high color quality and brightness, and LG definitely appears to have put it to good use when it developed its 31-inch HDTV with a supposedly infinite contrast ratio.

The IFA 2010 show in Berlin, Germany, has entered its second day and IT players have already brought forth a significant number of new or upcoming products.

NVIDIA stole a bit of the spotlight when it released the DirectX 11 mobile GPUs, and PC suppliers also got attention by unveiling multiple new systems.

Now, LG has taken the microphone in order to boast of having created a 31-inch OLED display that has a thickness of just 2.9 millimeters.

Since OLED, through its nature, enables very thin form factors, LG needed to only come up with a suitable layout for the tuner connectivity and all other connectors.

Thus, it set them all in the box at the bottom of the product, leaving only the OLED panel itself to impress with its visual quality.

Not only does the HDTV support resolutions of Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, but it is reportedly one of, if not the most color-rich and bright of all OLEDs available.

What's more, its maker claims that the contrast ratio is infinite, which should give one an idea of how sharp and clear its images can be.

That said, in order to connect to multimedia players or set-top boxes, the OLED TV has a regular digital TV Tuner, an USB port and a pair of HDMI connectors.

According to Slashgear, LG has two versions of this product on show, the only difference between them being that their stand arrangement and controls are different.

As for availability, they are expected to start selling sometime during the first half of 2010, though their likely massive prices have not been disclosed as of yet.

First Alpha of uTorrent Server for Linux Released

BitTorrent Inc. proudly announced a few hours ago the immediate availability for download of the first alpha version of uTorrent Server for Linux and UNIX-like operating systems!

The uTorrent Server application provides a state-of-the-art implementation of the popular BitTorrent protocol and a full-featured WebUI (web-based user interface).

"This morning, we are announcing a preview release of the first of two new products for Linux users. µTorrent Server, an alpha version available immediately for download, is intended for users seeking a fast, powerful and lightweight BitTorrent client without the need of the full features and complexity of the native GUI."

"The server is a daemonizable 32-bit binary of the µTorrent core, built for x86 compatible Linux. It can be managed programmatically via an HTTP API or interactively by using the (included) customized version of the popular uTorrent Web user interface." - was stated in the announcement.

Highlights of uTorrent Server:

· DHT support (Distributed Hash Table)
· UPnP port mapping
· NAT-PMP port mapping
· Upload rate limiting
· Download rate limiting
· Queuing support
· Configurable limit on number of simultaneously uploading peers
· Incremental file allocation
· Block level piece picking
· Separate threads for download and file-check
· Single port and single thread for multiple torrent downloads
· BitTorrent extension protocol
· Multi-tracker extension support
· Fair trade extension
· Compact tracker extension
· Fast resume support
· Queuing of torrent file-check if fast resume not possible
· HTTP seed support
· Resumption of partial downloads from other BitTorrent clients
· File-sizes greater than 2GB
· Selective download of multi-file torrents
· IPv6 support
· High performance network stack
· uTP - Advanced UDP-based transport with dynamic congestion control

At the moment, this alpha version of uTorrent Server for Linux is available only as an archive, intended to be used for testing purposes only. Packages for various Linux distributions (i.e. Ubuntu, Fedora) will be available in the next releases!

"Today's version is only the first step, and we will continue to support the Linux user community with new versions in the near future. If you prefer to stick to more conventional user experience, rest assured we are working hard to build a full-featured client, coming soon."

"µTorrent Linux will offer the same clean and full featured UI that millions of users of of µTorrent on Windows have enjoyed. We are hoping to get this out to you for testing in a few months. Stay tuned!"

Download uTorrent Server 3.0 Alpha for Linux right now here.

New - Google Posts Simplified Privacy Policies

Google has announced that it has updated its privacy policy and that the new version will come in effect starting October 3rd. The actual policies haven't changed, but the text has been simplified and some bits added to make the whole thing easier to read and understand by the regular user.

"Long, complicated and lawyerly—that's what most people think about privacy policies, and for good reason. Even taking into account that they’re legal documents, most privacy policies are still too hard to understand," Mike Yang, Associate General Counsel at Google, wrote.

"So we’re simplifying and updating Google’s privacy policies. To be clear, we aren’t changing any of our privacy practices; we want to make our policies more transparent and understandable," he explained.

One of the biggest changes taken towards simplifying the policies is getting rid of some of them. Most of Google's products are governed by the global Google Privacy Policy, but many have additional policies of their own.

Google is now getting rid of those for 12 products. This should make it easier to know which policy applies. Google notes that since may services share information and work together, they should have the same policies.

The second big change is to the main policy which is getting a rewrite. Some of the legal jargon is gone and some redundant parts have been removed. New content has bees added as well, where further details were needed, but, overall, the new text is smaller and easier to understand.

The new privacy policy is now available for review and will be implemented starting October 3rd. Google is providing a FAQ for the changes which should cover any uncertainties.

Google is also posting the full text of the new policy for users to get familiar with. Finally, there is also a version which shows exactly what has been removed and what has been added.

NVIDIA Releases 7 DirectX 11 Fermi Mobile GPUs

Coming to assist the GeForce GTX 480M in covering the laptop graphics market, seven new mobile graphics products have now been unveiled by NVIDIA, each boasting full support for DirectX 11 and aimed at the enthusiast and performance markets.

Though Advanced Micro Devices has been selling DirectX 11 mobile graphics cards for months, NVIDIA has had only the GeForce GTX 480M to address this market.

Eager to remedy this, the Santa Clara, California-based outfit took advantage of IFA 2010, Berlin, to trumpet the arrival of a whole collection of Fermi GPUs.

The list includes two GTX Series models, namely GTX 470M and GTX 460M, as well as five GT Series, specifically GT 445M, GT 435M, GT 425M, GT 420M and GT 415M.

The cards naturally support their maker's proprietary technologies, such as CUDA, PhysX and 3D Vision.

What's more, the 400M GPUs support the Optimus technology, which dynamically switches between the integrated and discrete graphics based on application requirements.

"The GeForce 400M Series takes the award-winning Fermi architecture across a complete line-up of DirectX 11 GPUs for notebook," said Rene Haas, general manager of notebook GPUs at NVIDIA.

"Coupled with Optimus technology, 400M Series notebook GPUs deliver great performance for visual computing applications when you need it, and great battery life when you don't," Haas added.

The newcomers have up to 288 processing cores, GPU clocks of up to 675 MHz, up to 1GB of GDDR3/GDDR5 and a memory width of up to 192 bits.

They should soon start to show up inside notebooks aimed at the enthusiast and performance markets, a fact confirmed by the fact that multiple laptop makers have already announced support for them.

The list of PC suppliers that intend to release Fermi-based mobile computers includes ASUS, Acer, Dell, Samsung, Lenovo and Toshiba, to name a few. Those interested in the specifications of each newcomer need only visit this page( http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_family.html ).

Email happiness: Gmail now sorts your inbox :-)

Yay, last week Google announced the launch of Gmail priority and the beta's finally reached me.  Multiple Gmail accounts, used for personal and work stuff means a LOT of emails so now I can get the important stuff flagged up and reaching me first.

So we'll give it a whirl and see what happens. I'd have given it a go just for the sake of a nice combination of animation and soundtrack in the explanatory video!



I'll be interested to see if / how it works on my Android based phone too.