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Filed under: Laptops

ASUS has apparently gotten totally, righteously official on its Eee 904, according to reports. Word on the street is that the new iteration of its overflowing line of micro-laptops will be headed to shelves very soon, though it won't exactly pack a groundbreaking set of features. As we previously reported, the system will feature an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 display -- but now full specs include a 900MHz Celeron M CPU, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and an install of Windows XP on board. Keep in mind the keyboard on this model mirrors the one used on the larger Eee 1000, though little else is different about this model versus the Eee 901 (which incidentally gets a price cut to £299, or about $595). The 904 will retail for £269 ($535), and will be available mid-July.

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Dekortage writes "The NYTimes has a piece up about the paradox of privacy: 'Normally sane people have inconsistent and contradictory impulses and opinions when it comes to their safeguarding their own private information.' More specifically, it's all how you ask: if you don't talk about privacy, people won't worry about it. In one survey, 'When the issue of confidentiality was raised, participants clammed up. For example, 25 percent of the students who were given a strong assurance of confidentiality admitted to having copied someone else's homework. Among those given no assurance of confidentiality, more than half admitted to it.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean flat screen maker LG Display Co and two smaller Taiwanese rivals are set to post profits for the second quarter that more than trebled thanks to strong demand for TVs and tight supplies of PC panels.

wooferhound sends along an amusing piece about thieves who got run over by technology and never knew what hit them. "A Rain Master Eagle-i Irrigation Controller recently stolen out of a housing development just outside of Tucson traveled nearly 80 miles before rescuing itself. The smart controller is now back in place on the wall where it was originally pinched... In this day and age, something that may look passive like an irrigation controller may not be so passive. The thieves didn't realize they were removing equipment that features 2-way wireless communications via the Internet. Three weeks later, the unexpected happened. The Maintenance Supervisor noticed a signal coming in from the stolen controller. He thought it was kind of odd that it was up and running... Whoever had stolen it had plugged it back in."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Laptops

Hey USers -- we know where all those "delayed" Winds are. Just take a look across the pond. bit-tech managed to wrap their paws around a retail unit of MSI's Eee PC fighter, and while early reviews sang a lovely song, this one was just a bit flatter. All in all, reviewers found the machine to be useful and totally practical, but it was glaringly obvious that they were none too pleased about MSI jacking up the price of its own machine while the completely identical (save for branding) Advent 4211 was selling for less. If you're listening to these guys / gals, you'll gloss right over the Wind and nab yourself a rebadge, but whichever edition you end up getting, it's sure to be "great" in the grand scheme of things. Check the read link for the full spill.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

Not bad eh? These tiny 35 x 25 x 20-mm remote controlled cars fit inside your choice of sport-themed balls which double as the controller. You can even dangle your ball from a lanyard... perfect for all you athletic supporters. While no real technical details are provided regarding battery life or RC range, for $13 you can afford the surprise. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

quanticle writes "As you may recall, France previously threatened to cut off broadband access for file sharers. However, after lobbying by the public, the legislation failed in the National Assembly. Now, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to revive the the measure by pushing it as an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package. This amendment has the potential to impose 3-strikes across Europe, not just in France."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Wearables

It's true. Any decent mother would wonder what on Earth her child was thinking rocking that thing you see above, and even though all those wonderful ladies of the world would be entirely entitled to that curiosity, we can understand the obsession. On its surface, this timepiece and its cryptic display is unquestionably ugly -- even the "stainless steel" band reeks of cereal box quality. But there's just something about those flashy lights that stirs the soul of nerds everywhere, making it seem quite the bargain at $132.85. It's okay, we won't tell mommy.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese private broadcaster TV Asahi Corp aims to ally with an information technology and telecoms firm by the end of the year and is open to a capital tie-up, its president said.

Filed under: Displays

Forget schools, forget lighting, forget easy access to drinking water... it's that sweet TV goodness that people living off the grid really need. Well, that and laptops. You're looking at Sharp's 26-inch LCD prototype which uses just a quarter of the power (or a third measured annually) of a conventional CRT with the same screen size. That's low enough to be suitably powered by a Sharp, triple-junction thin-film solar cell module whose surface area is roughly equivalent to that of the LCD screen. Sharp hopes to market the two items as a pair in a bid to "contribute to the environment." Good thing too, 'cause nothing fills a billion empty bellies like an eye-full of boob-candy.

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4WebChimps writes "As featured previously on Slashdot, the KOffice project is working towards a cross-platform, open source office suite for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. The most recent release, KOffice 2.0 Alpha 8, achieved that goal by being the first release for all three operating systems simultaneously. Want to try KOffice on Windows? TechWorld has a review (with screenshots) of KOffice on Windows, including the installation process which is as simple as clicking a few buttons (the online installer does the rest). Hopefully it won't be long before KOffice sits alongside OpenOffice.org as a usable cross-platform open source productivity suite."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

It really does pay to be a foreign minister representing the 8 richest countries in the world. This Japanese-lacquered DS lite is just one of the items presented to the G8 ministers participating in last week's talks in Kyoto. The other items included a scented perfume ball and manga-styled stickers for each of the participant to attach to their diplomatic tricycles.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Displays, Gaming

Clearly, Acer's G24 monitor is the only monitor capable of matching your high-performance Predator gaming rig. It's orange... or "metallic copper" if you work in Acer's arts and charts department. Bounced around trade shows for the last month, the 24-inch LCD is now officially featuring a proclaimed 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio which, according to a Acer, is a world's first for monitors. Now the specs: 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, 2-ms response, 400-nit brightness, and a host of Acer image tweaking and color management tech meant to brighten images and avoid ambient light reflection. Around back you'll find PC-friendly DVI and game-console/Blu-ray friendly HDMI too. Unfortunately, it's dateless and priceless just like Britney's little sister.
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ruphus13 writes "July 4 will be day when OpenMoko's Neo FreeRunner will be available to US consumers. Being Open Source, it is modifiable down to the core. From the article: 'The FreeRunner is based on a GNU/Linux, and it will initially ship with basic software to make calls, send and receive SMS, and manage contacts. But the company is encouraging users to write and install their own applications. Software updates will add features to the phone over time, and the company said an August update will enable location-based services.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We can only hope that the makers of this beer bottle phone actually got Budweiser's permission before slapping its logo on there, but regardless of all that, who can deny the awesomeness here? Okay, so you've got to be "that guy" for it to take your breath away, but we know you're out there somewhere, that guy. Aside from looking like a cold one, it pretty much handles everything else a hamburger phone (or similar) would, but at least this one doesn't require prior knowledge of Juno to be appreciated by your tipsy pals. Get your inebriated dialing on now for just $16.99 delivered.

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Filed under: Laptops

Seems that just about anyone inside of Asus is authorized to discuss the Eee PC roadmap judging by the whirlwind of information we always get prior to an official launch. Case in point: an unnamed "company representative" says that a 3G version of the Eee PC will be launching as early as September in Europe. An alternative to the WiMax version already annouced and demonstrated on Sprint's Xohm. The prices for the presumed HSDPA/HSUPA enabled mini-laptops will of course vary depending upon contract. Can't wait? No worries, why not roll your own? Should be a snap now that the Eee is riding that bigger 9-inch chassis.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Now here's an instrument you wouldn't have minded practicing as a tot. Alle Meine Klänge's AMK is a modular recorder (you know, those plastic flute wannabes) that pack an array of individual blocks which can hold any sound you like. Simply transfer homegrown beats / notes / tunes / etc. over to each block, connect 'em up and you've got yourself a instrument of cacophonic delight. 'Tis a shame it's still a concept -- Fisher-Price, you seeing this?

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Iddo Genuth writes "UK astronomers, as a part of the Dark Energy Survey collaboration, have reached a milestone in the construction of one of the largest ever cameras to detect dark energy by completing the shipment of the glass required for the five special lenses. Each step in the process of completing this sophisticated camera brings scientists closer to detecting the invisible matter that cosmologists estimate makes up around 75% of our universe."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tomorrow we celebrate July 4th, and a week later our long National Nightmare is over. On the 11th we deposit our 2G iPhones in the FriendFeed donation bins and officially hook ourselves up to the Enterprise iPhone. The ePhone will change how we work and play, and in the process free us from the tyranny of our jobs as consumers.

When the iPhone shipped last year, IT responded with a wave of dismissal to the shiny new platform. No keyboard, no push email, no secure deployability, and certainly no way to decommission the phone on exit from a company

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Filed under: Robots

var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/mods/22_foot_tall_robot_crafted_entirely_from_excess_styrofoam'; Building a big robot is nothing to congratulate yourself on, but doing it in this manner is certainly worthy of a little self-indulgence. The creature you see standing before you is a 22-foot tall Styrobot constructed entirely from spare polystyrene packing materials, and no, each piece didn't just show up that way. Michael Salter managed to whittle away on this beast until its completion, and now we're hearing that it'll be going on a short demonstration tour before being "decommissioned." We say throw a brain in there and see what happens when you cut it loose.

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