Ma.gnolia Data is Gone For Good
The social bookmarking service Ma.gnolia reports that all of its user data was irretrievably lost in the Jan. 30 database crash that knocked the service offline.
How’s that for cloud computing?
The iPhone: It’s Not a Kindle
Ever since the Kindle was released I’ve heard several technology pundits talk about how the iPhone could kill the Kindle by just adding some ebook features. The problem of course is that the mosts critical feature of the Kindle isn’t the fact that it has ubiquitous wireless access, it isn’t the Kindle store, and it isn’t the fact that it has a web browser, the most critical feature of the Kindle is its display.
I’ve harped on this note before but the fact is reading for long periods of time on a display that has a backlight is incredibly hard on the eyes. The reason the Kindle works is because you can read for long periods of time without the level of eye strain as you would receive if you were reading on a display similar to… oh, let’s say… the iPhone.
The iPhone is a wonderful device but it clearly isn’t the be all end all, there are things that it can’t do, being the best ebook reader is one of them.
Palm Confirms Games are in Development for WebOS
Palm did confirm that games are in development for webOS, and seems a little defensive at accusations that the OS can’t handle that stuff — Palm hasn’t changed its stance on app development, of course, there are no “native” apps allowed currently, but they seem more reticent to admit that web-style app development will limit gaming options.
Palm confirms games are in development for Pre, drops a few other tidbits – Engadget.
Is the Latest Mac Mini Image a Fake?
On the same day as the recent leaked Mac Mini photo is deemed a fake by an image analysis a video of the rumored Mac Mini surfaces.
I don’t claim to know a whole lot about spotting photoshopped images but the the analysis done below does seem to make some sense, the only problem is that now we have a video of the same Mac Mini that these analyzers say isn’t real.
The jury is still out as to whether or not this is the new Mac Mini but we won’t know until Apple actually announces it themselves.
Gregory Raiz’s Proposed Kindle Redesign
I really like this redesign but I don’t think the color screen is necessary. I’m not even sure if ePaper technology is to the point where you can have color screens with no backlight for a price that would allow Amazon to actually sell one of these things.
The new design of the Kindle is great but Raiz’s design is clearly one step further in the right direction.
First Screenshots of Tiger Woods ’09 for the iPhone
Craig Law of EA has posted some screenshots on the Touch Arcade forums showing the first glimpses of Tiger Woods ’09 for the iPhone. The game was announced in September and although a release date is yet to be announced the game will probably be out in just a few months.
I have to say it is looking really good. I’m not really in to golf video games but I can appreciate the graphics in this game. These screenshots really show that the iPhone has some horsepower and stuff like this gets me really excited for the future of the iPhone as a gaming platform.
First Screenshots of EA’s Tiger Woods ‘09 iPhone Game | Touch Arcade.
Apple Discontinues 20″ Cinema Display
Apple has removed the 20″ Cinema Display from its online store and notified resellers that the product has reached its end of life.
I’m sure it won’t happen but I really hope that Apple comes to their senses and starts selling a reasonably priced 20″ Cinema Display. I don’t want to spend $500+ just for a monitor, I would be very willing to pay $300 or so but not much more.
I’d love to get a second monitor to hook up to my 20″ iMac but I am torn between getting a monitor that doesn’t match the iMac or waiting until Apple eventually releases a reasonably priced monitor (and lets hope I don’t have to wait too much longer).
Apple Discontinues 20″ Cinema Display, Product Refreshes Coming? – Mac Rumors.
Photo of Next Generation Mac Mini
The image above shows the rear of a Mac Mini that has 5 USB ports, FireWire 800, both Mini DisplayPort and mini DVI, Ethernet, along with audio in and out.
The port configuration on this new photo does seem to confirm previous rumors about the upcoming Mac Mini revision.
The image was posted on the MacRumors forums and it seems that they are the originator of the image. The forum member also claims the system will ship with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo with 3MB of L2 cache, 2GB DDR3 RAM, and an ATA Super Drive. The user didn’t comment on the rumors of the new Mac Mini featuring a chipset made by Nvidia, as the new MacBooks have.
I’m considering purchasing a Mac Mini in June to be used as a media server, I plan on connecting a Turbo.264, an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid, and maybe even an external hard drive so all of those USB ports will be greatly appreciated.
There has been some question on the AppleInsider forums as to why Apple would have FireWire 800 in the Mac Mini instead of FireWire 400, claiming that 400 is more consumer level. But, I see Apple attempting to completely remove FireWire from its products over the next few years and one of those steps is to move all of their products that will have FireWire up to the highest standard so that the idea of having an adapter might convince some people that FireWire won’t be around forever. It is a simple mind trick that will probably get people to start buying USB drives just because they don’t want to mess with adapters.
AppleInsider | Photo of next-gen Apple Mac mini in the wild.
Why Do Android Phones Have Chins?
Hopefully we will eventually start to see some Android phones that don’t even have track balls, maybe then we won’t have phones with chins (I think phone chins are ugly).
Nvidia Plans 9800GT Green Edition
Nvidia is going to quietly launch a GeForce 9800GT “Green Edition” in mid-March. The “Green Edition” has a lower GPU voltage, and consequently slower clockspeeds. The core clock looks set to be reduced from 600 to 550MHz, while the shader clock will be decelerated from 1500 to 1375MHz.
Sounds like Nvidia is in the renaming mood. I hate when they do this, but if it means we end up with eventually better priced graphics cards I’m happy with it.
Nvidia Plans 9800GT Green Edition, More Renaming Adventures – VR-Zone.com: News and Reviews.
Understudy Allows You to Stream Hulu and Netflix Through Front Row
I haven’t played around with Understudy much (it isn’t really all that good) but I have streamed some Hulu content through it. My experiences haven’t been too positive after adding a feed to Understudy I received errors and had to quit Front Row. After reopening Front Row the feed that I added (which was the Family Guy show feed) was still there but was named “Hulu Feed,” I could rename it but I probably shouldn’t need to. The video streamed fine but it wasn’t exactly full screen, there were black bars across the top and bottom, which isn’t ideal.
I didn’t spend any time with Netflix content but 9 to 5 Mac confirms that the streaming does work but you have to be logged into Netflix through Safari.
The fact is that if you want a simple 10 foot interface for watching Hulu and Netflix content this is a great option, especially if you already have a Mac Mini contected to an HDTV or if you have an iMac in your bedroom. But, it will take a while to set up and won’t give you the best experience, but since (from what I’ve seen out there) every other option involves either a special box (like the Roku Netflix streaming box) or a pay per episode system (like with iTunes) Understudy might be your best bet if you don’t want to drop a lot of cash.
Stream Netflix and Hulu into Frontrow using ‘understudy’ | 9 to 5 Mac.