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• You heard it here first, Apple will invent the iPhone, the first phone in the world to work as ... a PHONE!

Here we have one that broke up with IE. Fun story ;)
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5570803-1.html ?tag=nl.e497/

The only 'legit' links i've found are from cnet, and pc mag, and knowing cnet them they probabbly didn't charge the battery to 'full' before testing, and they may have even had wi-fi turned on for the entire duration (hard to say as they didn't mention any of the testing conditions)
PC mag on the otherhand got 8 1/2 hours in 'informal' testing, and they did charge the battery to full prior to playing.
I've heard of people getting ten or mour hours of gameplay time on a DS, on slashdot, but likely they were playing GBA games on the DS, rather than DS games (while cnet and pc mag were testing DS carts, not GBA cart batt life...)
http://reviews.cnet.com/Nintendo_DS/4505-6464_7-30 895578-2.html?tag=glance
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1730092,00.as p
People are bitching about load times too, but hey the load times are comperable to ps2 titles, so if you can cope with ps2 load times then psp load times shouldn't bug you much.
From what I can tell the PSP's battery is exclusively for keeping your system running while you head to the next power supply, unless you run it as a memory stick based mp3 player, a 2 GB memory stick will run you about $300 and of course every mp3 you want to put on it will only play in sony portable mp3 players, and only on the memory stick you originally copied them onto using sony's DRM software.

It's not a dream anymore for some, it's a reality. Just like Matt Mullenweg was recently hired by C|Net because of his work on WordPress.

You're not too far off-base. The satellite as it appears on the front page seems to be made up of a sub-woofer and 4 plainted-black trays from the cafeteria. I understand that they are already working on a custom communications protocol as well.

Very exciting.

I know you're a troll... because the price difference you allege doesn't exist.

I'm happy to check out a link that shows otherwise, and bad-mouth the moderators for calling you a troll as a result, but... until you do, everyone has the link above, showing clearly that, if anything, the 40GB iPod can be had cheaper than the 40GB iRiver.

There are some other 40GB players that are actually a bit cheaper than the iPod, if you weren't just a troll you might have mentioned one of them, or provided a link to back up your troll. Sadly, you're just a troll...

Just to be clear, I don't own an iPod and could care less which 40GB MP3 player is cheaper ( I'm not buying one, sorry ), I just like to bug people who don't back up their baseless claims with at least links to other baseless claims...

Sometimes I wonder if the editors even read the stuff they pick for the front page. This is one of the most empirically worthless slashdot stories I've seen in a while though.

This "story," submitted by an "anonymous reader" (ie the author of the review), was a complete waste of time. It's nothing but a collection of PR gibberish copied from the product pages of the players being reviewed. There is nothing of any interest in ANY of the blurbs, no evidence that the author has even seen the players he's "reviewing," and to top it all off, no links to the products he's "reviewing." (I googled one of the players he "reviewed" and got a bunch of garbage on the first page.

I don't mean to insult Michael here, but I think he probably picked this one based on the headline (the writeup is better than the "story" linked to, and not supported by the story.)

Obviously, people are indeed hoping to take some marketshare from Apple, but
(1)none of the players reviewed in this story are going to take it (they're all obscure 2-bit companies which will be lucky to move 10k units.) and
(2) Others (http://cnet.com/, http://wired.com/, and (don't laugh) even NYT's Circuits do a better job of reviewing gadgets). My advice though: just do a search for MP3 Player on http://engadget.com/ and http://gizmodo.com/.

I am not trolling here. Please read the story yourself before moderating me.

like here

here

and here

No thanks, I'll deal with the memory issue easier than I will a slow-ass pda.

Please let me know what laptop you are using that gets 5 hours of battery life.

It's called the Pentium M, dude. Look into it.

The laptop at that review gets 5.5 hours in real usage. IBM and others supposedly have models that'll get 7.5-8 hours, but I haven't seen that really tested (no doubt that's really stretching things in low-power mode, but still).

But even my old-skool (by today's standards) Pentium 4-M laptop gets 3.5 hours without any real coaxing, and this is a big, heavy, widescreen laptop. I bought this thing early this year.

It ain't 1990 anymore, man. I think the point was made and the point stands - if we can get even 5.5 hours out of a laptop with a big, bright screen, a DVD drive, a hard drive, wireless, etc. then why can we only get a few hours out of the much less powerful and versatile PSP? 8-10 hours should be the minimum you should be able to expect from a handheld gaming machine these days - even the DS is right on the edge of acceptability. The PSP is over that edge, on the wrong side.

Or maybe it was this that caused it.

According to CNET Asia http://asia.cnet.com/news/software/0,39037051,3919 4057,00.htm "Symantec's Norton AntiVirus product has blacklisted a piece of software which enables users in China to access websites which are blocked by order of the government."

"According to a report in the Financial Times, the firm has said the program, called Freegate, should be considered a Trojan horse. "

No one uses Apache 2 in production. I guess all those sites don't have a clue about security.

Although the review says that this function is only enabled in the "international version". Pretty stupid if you ask me, since this is one of the features I'm looking for in an HD based MP3 player.

Only better if it comes with this.

sorry.. the proper links

Did Microsoft software trap Thailand 's finance minister?

BMW glitch locks Thai minister in

Ask and ye shall receive:
BMW glitch locks Thai minister in

• AximSite - Axim X50V
• PocketNow - Axim X50 & X50v
• infoSync - Axim X50v
• infoSync - Axim X50 Advanced
• infoSync - Axim X50 Standard
• PDA Buyers Guide - Axim X50v
• Read - Brighthand - Axim X50v
• CNET - Axim X50v
• Pocket PC Thoughts - Axim X50
• BargainPDA - Axim X50 & X50v
• Geek.com - Axim X50 & X50v

Sony unveiled on Tuesday a new DVD burner that can be connected to a camcorder or VCR for transferring taped footage directly to a DVD, without using a computer.

apart from that: Rio does not replace the Karma battery. I also haven't seen 3rd party replacements for sale.
I returned mine for an iPod due to a couple of technical problems.
I miss the karmas gapless playback and crossfading, but with the aforementioned troubles I conider my current investment to be a bit safer. iPod is also a lot slimmer, the karma is quite thick especially when carried in a trouser pocket.

I'm here to be the voice of reason and sanity in this discussion. I bought a Karma on June 5th of 2004, for many of the same reasons listed here: great battery life, ogg vorbis support, and good price (if you buy it on-line). Though I loved the unit while it worked, it did work for long. I'm finally getting a refund for mine after the first one broke, and then the replacement broke in a week, and then the next replacement broke in a week again! Since then, my experience with Rio customer support has shown me that it is the worst customer support department that I have ever dealt with! I've spent probably 25-30 hours on the phone with them (mostly on hold) in the past three months. I'm so tired of speaking to the ebonics-speaking idiots they hire. And they will never return support request messages or emails. I mean never! Is my experience unusual? NO! The Karma has a reputation for this, as the user reviews at cnet show.

While reviewers give the Karma high marks for its impressive array of features, they don't keep the unit around long enough to see things get ugly..and they do. So consider what the users have to say in the cnet user reviews section. Here are the percentages of positive and negative reviews for the top five 20GB models reviewed.

MODEL / % POSITIVE / % NEGATIVE / # OF REVIEWS
Rio Karma 63%/37%/649
20GB iPod 73%/27%/627
iAudio M3 (vorbis) 76%/24%/190
iRiver H120 (vorbis) 88%/12%/981
Creative Zen Touch 77%/23%/254

That's right folks, the Karma has the worst customer reviews of all of five leading models. Now consider some of the bright explanations some have offered.

"DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING THIS COMPANY SAYS ABOUT THEIR DEVICE. I will never buy from them again."

"Typical poor Rio product quality. Frequently hangs up. You need to always have a paper clip to reset. It died completely after 3 weeks."

"hard drive keeps dying. I've had two of these for less than 60 days and both hard drives died."

"Customer service is the worst i have ever seen from any company."

Check out http://reviews.cnet.com/Rio_Karma__20GB_/4852-6490 _7-30474134.html?tag=top&pn=1&fb=2&ob= 0 for more.

In my personal experience, my scroll wheel broke after five or six weeks. So I paid to ship the unit in. About ten days later I get a new Karma, and treat it like a delicate flower. About a week later, the hard drive completely locks up and it won't restart. So I make numerous calls to support, spending hours on the phone, and finally I get to send it in again.

After a week or so, I call to check on the status of my replacement, and I'm told they still have not received it. So I send an email to the customer support person who emailed me about where to send it in. She never replies back, which isn't surprising anymore, because Rio customer service has never returned any email, on-line support request, or voice message support request that I've ever left. So I call back five days later to check on the status of my second replacement, to learn that they still have not received it. So finally they ask where I sent the return to, and then the guy makes the observation that I was given the wrong address. I was given their old out-dated address. So he assures me that he'll check into it and get right back to me. But he never does. So then I call and call some more, until finally I convince these morons to replace my unit. What I receive a week later is a "refurbished" unit that is all scratched up and has white pasty stuff on it, like dried up milk or glue..or..well, let's not go there.

So now I have my third Karma. And what do you know--a week later it dies as I'm walking down the sidewalk holding it in my hands. So this time I'm furious. So I've spent about 15 hours in the past 10 days on the phone, and finally reached the head of R

If you want a fast LCD monitor, then you have to buy one that has it. Different manufacturers have different pixel response rates. You have to shop for a good one just like anything else. Cheaper monitors tend to have the worse response times whereas more expensive ones tend to have better response. Just because they are using new technology that is currently more expensive to produce. Here is a Buying type guide from CNet

Everything is normal now.

The problem with the victim's computer is not a bad display driver. The problem is spyware or a virus.

My advice is to stop visiting those porn sites unless "Playboy Magazine" has certified them.

why Larry Ellison, one of the most ruthless businessmen the world has ever seen, is against software patents?

Because he IS the little guy, next to a far more ruthless businessman.

(If Microsoft, IBM, or Sun started enforcing all their software patents, they could eliminate every other professional computer programmer. Patent-wise, Oracle is small potatoes compared to them)

The free market works great if

1. there are many buyers and many sellers in the market,
2. buyers or sellers don't collude with one another (effectively reducing the number of buyers or sellers), and
3. there is free exchange of truthful information and a dearth of powerful and effective deceptive information.

There are various examples where those conditions are not met.

There are also a few other singular cases where the elasticity in the market can become strained, such as healthcare provision. If you're hurtin', you might be willing to pay a lot to feel better, not die, etc.

On the LCD issue, I'm looking at big LCD TVs, like the Sharp Aquos 45". I like the native hi-res and the tolerably good pixel response time, but they're only just beginning to come onto the market and I'm not sure how expensive they are - the mentioned projected intial retail prices around US$10K are too steep for me, but if the price goes down 30% I'd probably get one. Samsung also has a big LCD in this size range.

Anyone out there with either of those?

The free market works great if

1. there are many buyers and many sellers in the market,
2. buyers or sellers don't collude with one another (effectively reducing the number of buyers or sellers), and
3. there is free exchange of truthful information and a dearth of powerful and effective deceptive information.

There are various examples where those conditions are not met.

There are also a few other singular cases where the elasticity in the market can become strained, such as healthcare provision. If you're hurtin', you might be willing to pay a lot to feel better, not die, etc.

On the LCD issue, I'm looking at big LCD TVs, like the Sharp Aquos 45". I like the native hi-res and the tolerably good pixel response time, but they're only just beginning to come onto the market and I'm not sure how expensive they are - the mentioned projected intial retail prices around US$10K are too steep for me, but if the price goes down 30% I'd probably get one. Samsung also has a big LCD in this size range.

Anyone out there with either of those?

Eliot Van Buskirk writes his MP3 Insider column semi-regularly for C|Net. It's pretty decent. He doesn't scoop anyone, but he's smart. I didn't know he used the MP3 Insider name elsewhere.

He also forgot to set up mail forwarding. I just moved into a new apartment, and I keep getting mail for an Eliot Van Buskirk. I wonder if it's the same guy...

I'll be convinced IBM contributes as much as Sun to OSS when I see that IBM has GPLed AIX like Sun will GPL Solaris...

Funny, the latest I've heard was that Sun still isn't saying what license they plan to use for Solaris. Do you have a link to an article where Sun claims they will use the GPL? All I've heard from them is that they want to "take the model with Java and bring it to Solaris."

Personally, as a Linux user, I'm much interested in IBM's real contributions to the Linux kernel. Their intent is to make Linux capable of replacing AIX eventually.

I'm not just talking about mainframe and POWER ports, as an anonymous coward above suggested, either. Of course, we all know about JFS, NUMA, SMP scalability, and EVMS (the last of which wasn't accepted, in the end). IBM has also contributed work on ext2/3, IA-64, PCI hotplug, udev, USB, and a number of other projects.

...or that IBM has given a huge office solution like OpenOffice...

How many office solutions do we need? How about a huge software development solution like Eclipse, instead?

...or that IBM supports Gnome with code contribution/HIG...

How about donating code to projects like Mozilla, Samba, and of course Apache (and more Apache)?

Finally, let's not forget that it's IBM that is paying the legal bills that will prove that Linux is free of whatever UNIX intellectual property may still exist, while Sun has been pumping funds into SCO's war chest.

Here's a price comparison among different vendors, non of whom have it in stock http://shopper.cnet.com/LG_Flatron_L2320A_-_flat_p anel_display_-_TFT_-_23/4014-3174_9-30536226.html

Unfortunately the iRiver HDD players seemindly are of the larger form factor. I'm really looking something iPod mini sized, like the Philips HDD060-series is. iRiver has smaller-sized devices, but they all seem to be flash based, and the one with my minimum capacity of 1 GB wish is quite expensive, more expensive than a 4 GB iPod mini. I have heard a lot of good things about them, though.

All true.

I don't know of any ipod mini "style" players without DRM. You didn't mention the Rio Carbon (5GB) , but that seems to have DRM as well.

.....ah! found it:
The iRiver iGP series devices.

1.5 GB HDD based player. Plays OGG, etc.

Link

After seeing this picture I can already guess how every conversation will go:
1: What games does it play?
2: it doesn't, just video and mp3s
1: how much was it?
2: $500
1: wow you got ripped off!


Think I'll wait until they have a portable game system that does everything this thing does AND play games (PSP, anyone?)

I'm sorry, but you are mistaken. When talking about RAM, Xbox has 32MB, which it puts to good use in it's games.

I'm sorry, but you are mistaken. when correcting someone, make sure your are actually correct first. The xbox has 64MB of ram.

Cnet full specs

http://asia.cnet.com/news/software/0,39037051,3918 9680,00.htm Microsoft creates a special cut down version of Xp for developing countries, then sells it for $36 USD making it the cheapest windows version available. While selling copies here with a few more features for $200 to $300 USD kind of ironic.

And while Apple certainly gets the design perfect for the iPod (sadly, my Archos Jukebox V2 is admittedly homely), the build quality is another thing entirely: Apple does not have a good track record with build quality on the iPods (see hereand here, for instance).

I'm consistently seeing good reviews for Archos' new products (Laptop Magazine gave the AV420, a portable PVR/video player, 4.5 out of 5 stars in their latest issue, for one) , and the Gmini 400 itself was very favorably reviewed in a recent Cnet review. I may have to get one for myself, actually.

Archos Gmini400 - CNET Review

Well, the article is linked. Still breaks CNET's Fair Abuse Policy

Why do you keep making up fallshoods as points.

If you read anything about similar incidents you'll note that Prosecutors have not sought to charge the owner of the Wi-Fi connection used to download the images... Wi-Fi case law is not developed enough to clearly support negligence claims

If you want to spread such FUD, please find a case where someone was found liable; and maybe people would start to believe you. Posting nonsense like that just blows your credibility.

The benchmark runs the following applications: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator (Mozilla 5), McAfee VirusScan 5.13, WinZip 8.0, Macromedia Flash 5.0, and Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 ... MobileMark also includes a conditioning run that prepares a notebook's battery for testing by draining the battery completely, then requiring that the battery be fully charged before an official test run can commence.

HP Compaq Business Notebook nx5000 (review): 6 hours, 4 minutes (15" 1024x768, 6.2lbs)

Panasonic ToughBook CF-W2 (review): 5 hours, 47 minutes (12.1" 1024x768, 2.9lbs)

HP Compaq Business Notebook nc6000 (review): 5 hours, 32 minutes (14.1" 1024x768, 5.9lbs)

Acer TravelMate 8000 (review): 5 hours, 25 minutes (15" 1400x1050, 6.8lbs)

The benchmark runs the following applications: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator (Mozilla 5), McAfee VirusScan 5.13, WinZip 8.0, Macromedia Flash 5.0, and Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 ... MobileMark also includes a conditioning run that prepares a notebook's battery for testing by draining the battery completely, then requiring that the battery be fully charged before an official test run can commence.

HP Compaq Business Notebook nx5000 (review): 6 hours, 4 minutes (15" 1024x768, 6.2lbs)

Panasonic ToughBook CF-W2 (review): 5 hours, 47 minutes (12.1" 1024x768, 2.9lbs)

HP Compaq Business Notebook nc6000 (review): 5 hours, 32 minutes (14.1" 1024x768, 5.9lbs)

Acer TravelMate 8000 (review): 5 hours, 25 minutes (15" 1400x1050, 6.8lbs)

The benchmark runs the following applications: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator (Mozilla 5), McAfee VirusScan 5.13, WinZip 8.0, Macromedia Flash 5.0, and Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 ... MobileMark also includes a conditioning run that prepares a notebook's battery for testing by draining the battery completely, then requiring that the battery be fully charged before an official test run can commence.

HP Compaq Business Notebook nx5000 (review): 6 hours, 4 minutes (15" 1024x768, 6.2lbs)

Panasonic ToughBook CF-W2 (review): 5 hours, 47 minutes (12.1" 1024x768, 2.9lbs)

HP Compaq Business Notebook nc6000 (review): 5 hours, 32 minutes (14.1" 1024x768, 5.9lbs)

Acer TravelMate 8000 (review): 5 hours, 25 minutes (15" 1400x1050, 6.8lbs)

The benchmark runs the following applications: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator (Mozilla 5), McAfee VirusScan 5.13, WinZip 8.0, Macromedia Flash 5.0, and Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 ... MobileMark also includes a conditioning run that prepares a notebook's battery for testing by draining the battery completely, then requiring that the battery be fully charged before an official test run can commence.

HP Compaq Business Notebook nx5000 (review): 6 hours, 4 minutes (15" 1024x768, 6.2lbs)

Panasonic ToughBook CF-W2 (review): 5 hours, 47 minutes (12.1" 1024x768, 2.9lbs)

HP Compaq Business Notebook nc6000 (review): 5 hours, 32 minutes (14.1" 1024x768, 5.9lbs)

Acer TravelMate 8000 (review): 5 hours, 25 minutes (15" 1400x1050, 6.8lbs)

The benchmark runs the following applications: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator (Mozilla 5), McAfee VirusScan 5.13, WinZip 8.0, Macromedia Flash 5.0, and Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 ... MobileMark also includes a conditioning run that prepares a notebook's battery for testing by draining the battery completely, then requiring that the battery be fully charged before an official test run can commence.

HP Compaq Business Notebook nx5000 (review): 6 hours, 4 minutes (15" 1024x768, 6.2lbs)

Panasonic ToughBook CF-W2 (review): 5 hours, 47 minutes (12.1" 1024x768, 2.9lbs)

HP Compaq Business Notebook nc6000 (review): 5 hours, 32 minutes (14.1" 1024x768, 5.9lbs)

Acer TravelMate 8000 (review): 5 hours, 25 minutes (15" 1400x1050, 6.8lbs)

The benchmark runs the following applications: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator (Mozilla 5), McAfee VirusScan 5.13, WinZip 8.0, Macromedia Flash 5.0, and Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1 ... MobileMark also includes a conditioning run that prepares a notebook's battery for testing by draining the battery completely, then requiring that the battery be fully charged before an official test run can commence.

HP Compaq Business Notebook nx5000 (review): 6 hours, 4 minutes (15" 1024x768, 6.2lbs)

Panasonic ToughBook CF-W2 (review): 5 hours, 47 minutes (12.1" 1024x768, 2.9lbs)

HP Compaq Business Notebook nc6000 (review): 5 hours, 32 minutes (14.1" 1024x768, 5.9lbs)

Acer TravelMate 8000 (review): 5 hours, 25 minutes (15" 1400x1050, 6.8lbs)

Yes, Intel Centrino is more then just marketing hype, all Centrino laptops have longer battery life then typical laptops.

linkage

The catch however, is Centrino laptops are also underperformers compared to regular laptops.

Nice post on prefetch, but the link is a little dry. Here's a more analogous article. http://asia.cnet.com/enterprise/apps/0,39035809,39 172453-39000221c-1,00.htm

Dear Apple Employee,
the iPod actually has a crippled chipset (PortalPlayer PB5502B-C) with the WMA decoder disabled, and the MP3 decoder is virtually identical to every other embedded decoder, including the Rio Karma (which uses the identical PortalPlayer embedded chipset). The disparity between iPod sound quality and eg. iRiver iHP-140 is small, and most people seem to agree that iPods don't feature the best sound quality. Read reviews, check it out.

The true reason that iPod's battery life stinks (and it's quite a lot worse than the official specs indicate, unless you just sit quietly in a corner and don't touch iPod) is that AAC decoding penalty is higher than MP3, the firmware isn't very good and the battery itself is garbage.

There was an article at Apple Insider discussing the new iMac and speculating on the possible design.

It sounds like they will make a unit much like the IBM Netvista X series with the internals built in to the LCD and have no base unit. Presumably the styling will resemble the new Cinema Display monitors with a Netvista X-looking hump on the back for the internals.

I personally welcome this design if it is in fact the way it shall be. With an optional VESA FDMI mount, Bluetooth wireless keyboard/mouse, and AirPort Express the new iMac will take up zero desk/floor space aside from your broadband modem.

The writeup may be a little misleading; Dell isn't the entity behind installing Linspire on these machines, it's Questar:

A PC dealer in Europe has begun selling Dell desktops equipped with Linux, but Dell emphasized that the systems were customized by the dealer and that this isn't the first time this has happened.

That article can be read here at Cnet.

Another site with a bigger photo here.

There's another company doing CF players: Maxtech. They went for more conventional designs with LCDs and loads of dials and buttons which is unfortunate because the player also has to accomodate space for the CF memory. Looking at the piccies, they are much bigger than the iriver players. Amyway, specs of the SSP-100 here. No idea if you can find it in the US, but some retailers in Europe seem to have it.

ITMS does in fact allow the Indies to get involved... It's just a matter of them signing up.