Author: Terren

The Saskatchewan Roughriders have hired Greg Marshall as the Canadian Football League team’s new head coach.

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Microsoft is taking notice of industry trends, and told attendees Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that the next version of Windows would run on ARM chips. The move is an acknowledgement of the changing face of consumer electronics — that smart phones, tablets, and portable devices are indeed the future.

The move is also significant for another reason — up until now, Microsoft on ARM was relegated to the stripped down versions of Windows, either Windows Mobile, CE, or Embedded. Having the capability to run a full version of the operating system natively on these mobile processors opens up more possibilities for manufacturers in developing compact devices, the Redmond company believes.

“We’ve reached a point in technology where everyone really does want everything from their computing experience,” Windows chief Steven Sinfosky said in explaining the decision. “Today’s demonstrations will highlight the work we have done on the architecture of Windows to enable the richness of the Windows platform to run natively on the ARM platform.”

Some manufacturers have already attempted to put Windows 7 on tablet devices, but the fact that the OS itself is still built for an x86 architecture does not make it optimal as it requires more battery life and power than can be fit into the smaller form factors of these devices effectively.

Other considerations are a native touch screen interface — something Windows 7 essentially lacks — and a user interface that works well with that type of input. It was not immediately clear if Microsoft also plans to make these necessary user interface tweaks as part of this new commitment.

Sinofsky was somewhat vague on bringing other critical applications — such as Office — to the ARM platform, only offering that Microsoft was “committed to making sure that Windows on [system-on-a-chip] architectures is a rich Windows experience.”

The Redmond company did not offer any guidance as to when Windows 8 (as it is thought to be called) may release, although it is likely not for another two years. That said, the question now becomes whether that time frame may be too late.

With the ever quicker pace of innovation in mobile computing, in two years ARM may be yesterday’s news, leaving Microsoft scrambling once again to keep pace.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Continue reading Panasonic’s Android-based Viera Tablet unveiled at CES 2011

Panasonic’s Android-based Viera Tablet unveiled at CES 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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quote-book

Details have emerged today about new features that may be found in the next iteration of Microsoft’s operating system, Windows 8.

According to blogger Paul Thurrott, Windows 8 may include an all-new user interface for products such as tablet computers. Dubbed “Mosh”, it’s thought the new UI will be based around…

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Second-generation Intel Core Family processors are here, and laptop manufacturers are wasting no time announcing new models. Samsung has the eye-popper of the Consumer Electronics Show (OK, so far), and it’s sure to make MacBook Air owners whine with envy (that is if they’re between Apple Kool-Aid fixes). Hell, I want one. The Samsung 9 Series packs big performance in a little package.

How little a package? The 9 Series has a “.64-inch profile,” (16.3 mm) according to Samsung. MacBook Air thickness ranges .11-.68 inches (3-17 mm) Both laptops weigh 2.9 pounds (1.73 kg). The two thin-and-lights feature 13.3-inch displays with 1366 x 768 resolution, DDR3 memory and no optical drive. But the 9 is two full Intel processor generations ahead of the Air, with second-generation 1.4GHz i5 Core processor compared to the aged 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

I often harp about the importance of good design and out-of-box experience. Perhaps Samsung gets it. “When designing a premium laptop like the 9 Series, Samsung wanted to offer an unforgettable experience without limitations. The 9 Series laptop successfully combines elegant styling, performance and ease of use in an ultra thin and lightweight package,” Scott Ledterman, Samsung’s director of Enterprise Business Division mobile PC marketing, said in a statement. Look at the photo and dare to disagree. But, first, please, wipe the drool off your existing laptop.

Full specs: 1.4GHz Intel Core i5 processor (2537M), with 3MB cache and turbo boost to 2.3GHz; 13.3-inch backlit-LED display (400 nit); 1366×768 screen resolution; 128GB sold-state drive; 4GB DDR3 memory; Intel HD GT2 integrated graphics; 3 watt (1.5W x 2) stereo speakers with 1.5 watt sub-woofer; USB 3.0; Bluetooth 3.0; 802.11b/g/n; WiMax; Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional (64-bit for both); 6.5 hours claimed battery life.

What will this beauty cost? Gulp, it starts at $1,599 (available in February), and with Samsung listing 128GB SSD storage as “max,” the configuration above will likely cost quite a bit more. There, 13.3-inch MacBook Air, which starts at $1,299, will have price advantage. The higher-end config is $1,599, with twice the storage but half the memory.

Would you buy the Samsung Series 9?

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Now that’s love. Forget a hot dinner – what you’d want after a long day at work is a Nerf fight! – via The Daily What

Now that’s love. Forget a hot dinner – what you’d want after a long day at work is a Nerf fight! – via The Daily What

A study suggests Saskatchewan students’ reading levels are falling, Adam Hunter reports.

North Korea is calling for “unconditional and early” talks with rival South Korea to put an end to months of tensions, but Seoul quickly dismissed the offer as insincere.

After Google’s big reveal of their Chrome OS platform, it seems people aren’t so keen on paying for web apps. TechCrunch says that the most purchased paid app in the Chrome web store gets about 65 weekly purchases. Ouch. More »

It’s shaping up to be a big week for everyone’s favorite sling-shooting fowl. Earlier today we took note of the fact that Angry Birds is set to hit the PlayStation Network. Now it seems that the wildly popular mobile gaming phenomenon will also be making its way onto laptops everywhere, courtesy of Intel’s AppUp store.

Rovio created an exclusive version of the game, which is available through the Intel store and AppUp storefronts from Best Buy, Best Buy Canada, Future Shop, Dixons, Asus, Croma, HSN, NewEgg, TigerDirect, and more. The app store runs on Windows XP and 7.

The PC version of the game is quite a bit pricier than its mobile counterpart, running $9.99 — though AppUp is offering a limited time discount of $4.99. Probably best to get on that, ASAP, considering all of the paid work you’re likely to miss playing the thing.

Here they are: ASUS’s duo of Tegra 2-powered, 10.1-inch tablets with unique physical keyboards. Starting with the craziest of them, is the Eee Pad Slider (pictured on the left), which reminds us a lot of HTC’s old school Shift with its slide out QWERTY keyboard. The device is planned to run Google’s Honeycomb, sports a IPS, 1280 x 800-resolution display, and houses mini-HDMI and miniUSB ports as well as a microSD card slot. The 2.2-pound / .5-inch thick slab also has dual cameras — a 1.2 megapixel front-facing one and a 5 megapixel one with an LED flash on the back. We have to say we love the idea of always having that keyboard around, but if you don’t want to drag along a physical keyboard all the time, ASUS has something for you too. It’s the Transformer, and like the Eee Pad we saw at Computex, it’s a 10.1-inch tablet that will come with a laptop like dock with a full size keyboard and touchpad. The tablet part — like the Slider — will run Android 3.0 and packs a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, two cameras, and a 1280 x 800-resolution IPS display, however, the dock has an integrated battery that will keep the tablet running for 16 hours on a charge — the tablet on its own should last eight. We’re obviously aching in our seats here waiting to get these two in our hands so stay tuned for some crazy videos of the two in action — until then we leave you with the specs after the break.

Update: How much will it cost you to keyboard-ify your slate and how long will you have to wait? ASUS says the Transformer will run between $400 and $700 and the Slider from $500 to $800. Expect them in April and May respectively.

Continue reading ASUS Eee Pad Slider and Transformer are here for those that can’t imagine using a tablet without a physical keyboard

ASUS Eee Pad Slider and Transformer are here for those that can’t imagine using a tablet without a physical keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Earlier today Europe, Asia, and Africa got to see a nice partial solar eclipse as the Moon passed in front of the Sun, blocking as much as 85% of the solar surface. The extraordinarily talented astrophotographer Thierry Legault traveled from his native France to the Sultanate of Oman to take pictures of the eclipse. Why there, of all places? Heh heh heh. It’ll be more clear when you see this ridiculously awesome picture he took:

Holy solar transits! Click to embiggen, which you really really should do.

Can you see why he traveled so far to get this shot? The silhouette of the Moon taking a dark bite out of the Sun is obvious enough, as are some interesting sunspots on the Sun’s face… but wait a sec… that one spot isn’t a spot at all, it’s the International Space Station! This was a double eclipse!

That’s why Thierry sojourned to Oman; due to the geometry of the ISS orbit, it was from there that he had the best chance of getting a picture of the station as it passed in front of the Sun during the relatively brief duration of the actual solar eclipse. But talk about brief; the ISS was in front of the Sun for less than second, so not only did he have one chance at getting this spectacular once-in-a-lifetime shot, but he had only a fraction of a second to snap it!

To give you an overall idea of what you’re seeing here: the Sun is 147 million kilometers away (less than usual because this eclipse happened, coincidentally, very close to perihelion, when Earth was closest to the Sun). The Moon is 390,000 kilometers away. The Sun is about 400 times bigger than the Moon, but also about 400 times farther away, making them look about the same size in the sky. If you’re still having a hard time picturing the scale, take a look at the dark sunspot in the lower right of the big picture: it’s about twice the size of the Earth!

The space station, on the other hand, is 100 meters across (the size of a football field) and orbits about 350 km (210 miles) above the Earth’s surface. So the Moon was very roughly 1000 times farther away than the ISS when this picture was taken, and the Sun 400,000 times more distant. Yet all three lined up just right to make this extraordinary photograph possible.

Thierry has taken some of the most amazing pictures of the station passing in front of the Sun and Moon I’ve ever seen — his shot of the ISS and the Moon shortly before last week’s lunar eclipse was beautiful — but this one really stands out. It took an extraordinary amount of planning, scheduling, travel, and plain old good thinking to make this picture happen. Congratulations to him for getting it, and I thank him for sending it to me!

[More eclipse pictures can be found linked from Stuart’s Astronomy Blog as well as on the BBC’s Sky at Night Flickr pool of pictures.]

“I don’t pretend to know what love is for everyone, but I can tell you what it is for me; love…