Press Release: Intel Keeps Mobile Engine Humming, Fueled By Silicon Technology Advances

Exciting times indeed, MIDs or Mobile Internet Devices will invade the consumers next year. MIDs, in a simple terms, is bigger than a smart phone but a lot smaller than laptop, making them fit in the middle (pun intended, yay). Check out the full press release straight from the source, Intel.

Intel Keeps Mobile Engine Humming, Fueled By Silicon Technology Advances

Innovation, Processing Performance and Cooperation Key to Moving Forward Faster
INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, Beijing, April 18, 2007 ? Describing the latest trends in mobile computing at the Intel Developer Forum today, Intel Corporation executives said that personalization and content are key drivers behind increased demand for notebook PCs and mobile Internet devices (MIDs).

"The Internet is one of the driving forces in today's PC market and there is a desire for the Internet to be mobile," said David (Dadi) Perlmutter, Intel senior vice president and general manager, Mobility Group. "Intel is serving the market today with notebook PCs, and will expand its reach by adding WiMax to notebooks as well as small form factor MIDs in 2008."

Perlmutter continued by discussing the importance of high-performance processors to enable users to have mobile access to the internet. Intel continues to provide high-performance processors based on innovative silicon technology that delivers energy efficiency and great battery life needed by users on-the-go including the next generation Centrino processor technology "Santa Rosa."

Due in May, Santa Rosa processor technology is comprised of a next-generation Intel® Core™2 Duo processor, the Mobile Intel® 965 Express chipset family, Intel® Next-Gen Wireless-N Network Connection, Intel® 82566MM and 82566MC Gigabit Network Connection, and optional Intel® Turbo memory. Perlmutter demonstrated how Intel Turbo Memory decreases resume time from notebook hibernation, thus increasing productivity and reducing system power consumption.

In the first half of 2008, Santa Rosa will be refreshed with Intel's innovative 45nm Hi-k dual core mobile processor, codenamed "Penryn." Later in 2008, Perlmutter said Intel will deliver "Montevina" processor technology, also with Penryn, for greater performance and energy efficiency. With approximately 40 percent smaller components, Montevina will be ideal for mini- and sub-notebooks, and will include integrated hardware decode for high-definition video.

For the first time, Intel will make its integrated Wi-Fi/WiMAX solution available as an option with Montevina-based notebooks, enabling people to connect to Wi-Fi and WiMAX networks worldwide. Mobile WiMAX provides multi-megabit speed, greater throughput and wider range versus other wireless broadband technologies, which is crucial as consumers increasingly want to access user-generated content, high-definition videos, music, photos and other large data files while on the go.

Redefining Mobility with Innovation, Integration
Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Ultra Mobility Group, described the evolution of the personal mobile Internet, outlined changes in Intel's silicon roadmap that will create radical reductions in power requirements and innovative new packaging technology, and disclosed a range of leading industry players Intel is working with to establish the MID and ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) categories.

Chandrasekher introduced the Intel® Ultra Mobile platform 2007 (formerly codenamed "McCaslin") for MIDs and UMPCs and said systems will be available over the summer from Aigo*, Asus*, Fujitsu*, Haier*, HTC* and Samsung*. The Intel Ultra Mobile platform 2007 is based on the Intel processor A100 and A110, the Intel 945GU Express Chipset and the Intel ICH7U I/O Controller Hub.

"Today's environment is primed for a truly personal, mobile Internet experience and the Intel Ultra Mobile platform 2007 combines the flexibility of a PC with the mobility of a handheld device," said Chandrasekher. "But we will not stop here. In 2008, Intel will deliver an entirely new platform based on Intel?s 45nm low-power microarchitecture designed from the ground up to let people to carry their personal mobile Internet in their pocket."

Pulling in the schedule by half a year, Chandrasekher said Intel will deliver its next-generation platform for MIDs and UMPCs ? codenamed "Menlow" ? in the first half of 2008. While demonstrating the world's first working Menlow-based prototype, he said it will be based on a new 45nm Hi-k low power microarchitecture-based processor, codenamed "Silverthorne," and next-generation chipset, codenamed "Poulsbo."

Chandrasekher also announced the formation of the Mobile Internet Device Innovation Alliance. Together, alliance members will work on engineering challenges, including power management, wireless communications, and software integration, that are associated with delivering the full Internet in ever-smaller MID form factors.

45nm High-k Metal Gate Transistors Technology Leadership
Intel's next-generation processors for the ultra-mobile, mobile, desktop, workstation and server segments will be based on the company's leading 45nm silicon process technology that uses its revolutionary high-k metal gate transistors.

During his Technology Insight presentation, Intel Senior Fellow Mark Bohr said the company now has working versions of its Silverthorne processor based on its 45nm Hi-k low power microarchitecture for MIDs and UMPCs. Silverthorne joins already working versions of its 45nm Hi-k Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad and Intel Xeon family of processors. Today, Intel has more than 15 different 45nm Hi-k product designs in various stages of development, and will have two 45nm manufacturing fabs in production by the end of the year, with four in production by the second half of 2008.

Intel's long-standing research and technology pipeline has led to innovative advances in silicon technology that in turn allow the company to continuously deliver the cost and performance benefits of Moore's Law. In 2003, Intel was the first to introduce strained silicon technology to greatly increase the speed of its transistors on its 90nm process.

Intel is already working on technology for 32nm, 22nm and beyond. Bohr described several options that Intel is researching for future technology generations, including tri-gate transistors, Indium Antimonide quantum well transistors and carbon nanotube interconnects.

View Intel Developer Forum Day 2 news disclosures.

View product information for the Intel® Ultra Mobile Platform 2007 at www.intel.com/products/mid/ultramobile2007.htm

View the complete Intel Developer Forum press kit at http://www.intel.com/pressroom/idf.

Source:Intel Keeps Mobile Engine Humming, Fueled By Silicon Technology Advances

Tech Link (Gadget): Apple TV Part 1: Unboxed and Dissected

AMDTech got hold of the new Apple TV gadget and they pry it open, meddle with it, and just took them all apart till the author, none other than the AMDroid himself Anand Lal Shimp, is satisfied. There's no functional testing yet, but if you are like me who have a knack for breaking cool things open (and failing to put everything back together), then you may find this interesting. Check it out...

Although the less exciting of Apple's major announcements this year, Apple TV is finally upon us. As the world waits for the iPhone, it's time to look at Apple's latest entry into the convergence market. While we work on our review we thought you all might like to see the innards of the Apple TV.

Source:Apple TV Part 1: Unboxed and Dissected

Tech Link (Graphics): ASUS XG Station Preview

vr-zone has a cool preview of the Asus* XG-Station I posted sometime ago. Though nothing new has been shared, it's great to know that it'll go mass production and will be available next quarter (Q2). It will initially launched bundled with a graphics card to avoid compatibility issues. Expand for more...

When XG Station, the world's first external graphics for notebooks from ASUS made their first appearance over at CES back in January, it has stirred up huge interests from the media and consumers. This time round, ASUS plans to demo a more finalized version of their XG Station over at the upcoming CeBIT but the feature set remains the same as before.

XG1 is able to accommodate a double slot graphics card that requires up to 150W power (GeForce 8800GTS is possible we heard), supports 2 x USB 2.0 ports, 5.1 audio channels with Dolby headphones technology, real-time adjustment of GPU clocks, volume control, LCD display of GPU temperature, fan speed and games FPS.

At start, ASUS plans to bundle and sell the EN7900GS graphics card together with XG1 to avoid any compatibility issues but there are plans for selling XG1 alone without graphics card at a later date. Currently, Magma Electronics has a similar offering called ExpressBox that sells for a hefty US$729 but it doesn't come with features like USB, audio and LCD display features. Not to worry as we heard that the XG1 will be available at a very competitive and reasonable price.

Although XG1 possess some really neat features but it still has its downsides like limited bandwidth and requires external display. Since XG1 is linked up to the notebook through the ExpressCard slot, therefore the graphics card slotted into the PCIe x16 slot inside the XG1 has a reduced bandwidth from full x16 (4GB/s in each direction) to just x1 (250MB/s in each direction). Certainly graphics and video performance will suffer a considerable hit. Also another downside is that XG1 needs to be hooked up to a display monitor since there is no video-in capability in the current notebooks so you can't play games on your notebook screen.

XG1 will be entering mass production in April and retail availability in May timeframe.

What's Next?
To really make an impact in the market, ASUS will have to solve the two tricky issues facing XG1 currently. Some good news to cheer about is that ASUS's strong R&D has made a major breakthrough recently and alleviate the problems completely. The next generation XG Station will have full x16 bandwidth, smaller form factor and is able to output to notebooks for display. ASUS also plans to adopt the cabled PCI Express specs for their future XG Station. However, we can't go into details right now so stay tuned for more announcements from ASUS in the near future.

Source:ASUS XG Station Preview

Tech Link (Gadget): Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE Review

I normally am not interested with TV card, since I rarely watch TV using my HTPC but if you are looking for one, VH has a good article posted.

There is no doubt that this Christmas, a lot of the readers out there got some nice, high end computer gear. But what about some of the extra gear we have that is still very useful, along with the new stuff we have? How about creating a HTPC or a PVR? Most of us have the hardware and power requirements to do such a thing, but may be missing one key component, like a way to get a TV signal into the computer. Well, this is where the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE from Directron comes into play. The WinTV-PVR-500 is a Plug and Play TV tuner support for Windows XP Media Center Edition. Live TV is accessible from the built-in 125 channel cable ready TV tuner, plus composite/S-Video and audio inputs to connect to a cable TV-set top box or satellite receiver. It lets you pause Live TV with instant replay, fast forward and rewind, and has built-in dual hardware MPEG-2 encoders. Records up to two TV channels at the same time to disk, using from 1-2 Gigabytes of disk space per hour of recorded video. While recording, the WinTV-PVRs' hardware MPEG encoder does all the work, so your PC continues to run at full speed. It also includes a Microsoft-certified Media Center remote control to control all Media Center functions, plus includes an IR transmitter to control the channels on a cable TV set top box or satellite receiver. The WinTV-PVR-500 is also Windows Vista supported.

Source:Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE Review

Tech Link (Gadget): USB Digital Thermo Clock With Air Purifier from Brando WorkShop

I don't know about you, but I sure love this new USB gadget reviewed by DragonSteelMods. The gadget works as a digital clock, a digital thermometer, and take this, air purifier! Check it out...

Depending on your work environment, the air might not be as clean as you think, you could get one of those large expensive air purifiers, but they take up lots of space, or you could get a USB powered one from Brando WorkShop that is also a clock and thermometer as well. So today for review I have the USB powered Digital Thermometer Clock with built in Air Purifier from our friends at Brando WorkShop. This thing is tiny, and can purify the air in up to a 100 square foot room or office so you can breathe easier with some nice clean fresh air. So let's jump right on into this review to look at this nifty little device a bit further...

Source:USB Digital Thermo Clock With Air Purifier from Brando WorkShop

Press Release: ASUS XG Station Empowers Upgradeable Graphics Power for Notebook Computers

This is a very nice innovation from Asus*. I remember I used to have add-on graphics card with my Toshiba Portege 660CDT laptop docking station. It was great, even adding capability for add-on PCI devices. This new device looks like to be a hit for laptop lovers like me, but prefers better graphics and gaming capabilities.

It accepts standard PCIe x16 Video Card, so it'll be flexible enough to accept current and future graphics card. It is externally powered, which will be reasonable enough for such application, and dedicated power is good anyway, specially with high end video cards. User can also monitor FPS, temperature, and can even overclock the GPU via round knob controller.

Pretty neat idea, I just hope this will become available locally! Expand to read the full Asus scoop!

Enjoy up to 10-times faster graphics power boost with cinematic audio performance

Taipei, Taiwan, January 6, 2007 –ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (ASUS), the leading provider of high-performance graphics solutions, today launched the XG Station as the industry’s first public demonstration of the world’s first external graphics card station for notebook computers. Equipped with Express Card interface, USB 2.0 and Dolby headphones, the XG station seamlessly integrates notebook computing with PC graphics power.

Engage Mobility with Powerful Graphics Processing
As technology advances to accommodate all aspects of modern life styles, digital devices are often merged or connected for a combined maximum benefit. As with the case of mobile notebook computing and high powered 3D gaming or multimedia experience, a balance is established with the exclusive ASUS XG Station.


When on the go, compact notebook makes work efficient without adding extra pounds, while at home, large LCD monitor is preferred for enhanced visual enjoyment. ASUS XG Station brings the power of a dedicated 3D graphics engine, providing users with the best of both worlds. Simply plug in the XG Station to the LCD monitor and connect the notebook via an Express Card connector and get ready to game!

Fast and Upgradeable Graphics Power
The XG Station is the world’s first docking station to provide a standard PCI Express slot for additional graphics computing power on notebook computers with Express Card slot, delivering VISTA Premium performance. The device also conveniently accommodates future graphics technology such as, HDCP and HDMI upgrades possibility. Lab experiments on a notebook based on Intel 945GM graphics connected to the XG station with a ASUS EN7900GS graphics card showed an astounding 9 times faster acceleration.

Sensational AV Enjoyment
XG Station also features enhanced audio and video functions. With Dolby® Headphone technology any headphone is capable to delivers cinematic 5.1-channel surround sound for a dynamic true-to-life quality during PC game play and music or video playback. Real-time Overclocking is easily controlled with the ergonomic knob design for simple GPU clock speed adjustments.

Large Information Display and Easy Control
XG Station is designed with ease of use in mind. A large LED screen is adopted to provide clear display of critical system status statistics including the following:

System master volume
GPU clock speed
Current GPU temperature
Dolby® Headphone feature status
Current actual Frames Per Second (FPS) information
GPU fan speed Indicator
The XG Station also has a dedicated control panel to let users control the settings through the GUI based interface and easily switch modes between the notebook screen and the external LCD monitor.

The XG Station is currently scheduled to be released at the beginning of Q2 2007. A full package will include the XG Station graphics docking station, one ASUS EN7900GS graphics card and assorted accessories.

Source:ASUS XG Station Empowers Upgradeable Graphics Power for Notebook Computers

Misc: Omigosh, USB Humping Dog!

Anyone who may know how to get one, do let me know please. I want one (or two) for Christmas! I am drooling for this cool USB device! It could be from Japan or Taiwan, I can't be sure, but I am 100% sure I want it this Christmas.

Tech Link (Gadget): Star Wars character USB flash drive.

Yay, another gadget :). I wanted to have this, if only to brag it to fellow StarWars fans like me. However, the author of this article seems to be at a lost as to what Star Wars is. I guess to each his own :).

I don't watch movies that have Star or Space in the title (Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Lost in Space, Space Odyssey), but I do know some people who would ditch their 6-gig Megadrive for this 256MB designer Star Wars flash memory stick in a heartbeat.

These stylish, metallic quarter-sized drives come with a full-body image of a Jedi, Darth Vader, Boba Fett, or Clone Trooper. Whoever the fuck those people are, I don't know, because I slept through Star Wars: Episode 1 and will never again waste $10 on that silly movie series again.

Source:Star Wars character USB flash drive.

Misc: T.M.X. trouble: Elmo is stolen!

Bah, humbug! I could care less about the toy, but I understand how the parents and their kids would react to such baroque atrocity. Expand to read the full news...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wal-Mart is seeing red over a missing shipment of T.M.X. Elmo, a frontrunner for this year's hottest toy.

The world's largest retailer wants the missing Elmos back as soon as possible and declared that it will "do whatever it takes to ensure [Elmo] gets to shelves this holiday season."

In a statement emailed to CNNMoney.com, Wal-Mart (Charts) spokeswoman Jolanda Stewart said the shipment, containing more than 100 T.M.X. Elmo dolls, went missing on Oct. 31 en route to a Wal-Mart store in Bentonville, Ark.

"We're continuing the search for them," she said. Wal-Mart is also offering a trip to a comedy club in New York City as a reward for returning the shipment.

However, officials at the Bentonville police department told CNNMoney.com that they were not currently aware of any missing Elmo report from Wal-Mart.
12 hot holiday toys

Fisher-Price, a division of No. 1 toymaker Mattel (Charts), unveiled the new T.M.X. Elmo to the world in September.

Industry watchers pegged T.M.X. as the hottest toy of the year and suggested consumers get the toy while they can because they expected an extreme shortage of Elmo over the holiday shopping season.

For its part, Wal-Mart said while many retailers are concerned about having the item in stock, it still expects to receive weekly shipments of the toy over the holidays.

But Marshal Cohen, chief retail industry analyst with market research firm NPD Group, said the missing toys could turn into quite an embarrassment for Wal-Mart.

"It's a really big deal for Wal-Mart," said Cohen. "T.M.X is the hottest product is has in its stores right now. So suddenly the missing Elmos make the toy three times more valuable to Wal-Mart than its original retail price."

"The other problem for Wal-Mart is that it really can't afford to have consumers read about the missing Elmos and then avoid its stores and go to the competitor in hopes of finding Elmo there," he added.

Anxious parents can also hope to score an elusive T.M.X. Elmo at Wal-Mart's rival Target (Charts) and other toy stores such as Toys 'R Us and online merchant Amazon.com (Charts).

Source:T.M.X. trouble: Elmo is stolen!

Tech Link (Gadget): USB Cannon

You have seen the USB Missile Launcher, now how about a little going back in time and instead of Missile, a Canon is used instead! Wow, this is one hot stuff, it's out of stock last time I check. You gotta have this one, if only to annoy anyone you found poking behind your back looking at what you are browsing when you're not busy at work. Woot!

Why boing rubber bands around the office when you can aim and fire foam darts with a flick of your space bar? Powered and controlled by your PC, this comedy cannon will blast its squishy ammo up to 20ft amidst a cacophony of circus music. Includes net for target practice.

Source:USB Cannon

Tech Link (Gadget): Optimus Mini Three Keyboard Review

Looks like XBitLabs had some issues with the gadget, but if you're a gadget freak or worst (or better, depending on your belief, yayayay) a fanboy, then you'll be drooling (if not getting) over the really cool looking piece of device. Expand to check what is XBitLabs' thoughts...

Conclusion
Today we did our best to share with you our impressions and experiences from working with Optimus mini three keyboard from Artemiy Lebedev’s Studio. Summing up I have to say that our impressions turned out pretty ambiguous. On the one hand, Optimus mini three is a very interesting, beautiful and useful USB gadget. It can be used for a lot of different tasks and theoretically features unlimited functionality thanks to flexible software. Besides, this keyboard is designed greatly and looks good. I believe the use of OLED displays inside the keys is a nice solution.

Unfortunately, despite all the positive emotions we had from this product and the pride we feel for our fellow Russians, we cannot forget about the drawbacks and bugs that we discovered during our tests. The hardware solution turned out pretty slow and it generates some strange whistling noise during work. But the biggest problem with Optimus mini three is the software. The current version of Optimus mini Configurator boasts very scarce features that are much less impressive than what they promised us before the launch in the marketing and promo materials. Moreover, the software is not free from frustrating bugs and loads the entire system pretty heavily. Luckily, the software issues may be resolved in the upcoming Configurator versions, which we hope will happen soon. We also hope that the third-party developers will support this product as well.

In conclusion I would like to say that Optimus mini three should be regarded as the first try before they roll out a fully-functional 101-key Optimus keyboard where each key will feature a small OLED display. Of course, Artemiy Lebedev’s Studio will take note of all our comments and remarks and hopefully the review of their next offspring turns out much more positive.

Source:Optimus Mini Three Keyboard Review

Tech Link (Technology): MultiMeter Basics

It's a bit dated but still I find this very useful for those wanting to learn how to use this nifty tool. Mine is a pretty old one, and I think I may need to get new digital-based one. So if you would like to learn more about usage of Multimeter, overclockers.com has the 101 for you. Expand for more...

"What the? Why won't my computer turn on? Crap! Did the power supply die?"

Pretty much anyone who has owned a computer has been in this situation. But sometimes there just isn't that handy spare power supply laying around to double check your suspicion. Thus it is always good knowledge knowing how to test a power supply. But how do you test a power supply? This seemingly magical act can actually be performed multiple ways.

One way it so simply buy a power supply tester online (as most computer gear stores don't carry them, at least in my neck of the woods). Most of them are very simple devices - plug in your main 20/24 pin power supply connector, make sure all the lights come up green and you're good to go. Coolmax has recently (to me anyway) released a very cool upgraded power supply tester - you plug in your main power connector as usual and it displays the voltages on an LCD screen for you.

Source:MultiMeter Basics

Tech Link (Gadget): USBCell, rechargeable battery via USB

USBCell is such a very cool innovation I've seen so far. A rechargeable battery, and all you have to do is plug that same battery via your USB port. This is really neat. I still rechargeable batteries on my LED-based flashlights, as well as some gadgets and this will make charging an easy one. No need for a separate cradle for charging these batteries. Only caveat, availability is only for UK. Expand for more...

Specification

* Battery Type
* Rechargeable AA NiMH Battery 1.2v 1300mah

* Product Specifications
* Built in Intelligent Charger

* Charge by powered USB

* Also can be charged in approved NiMH Chargers

Technical

* Battery Chemistry
* NiMH - Nickel Metal Hyrdride

* Technical Specifications
* 90%+ Charged after 5 Hours by powered USB

* Also rechargeable by approved NiMH charger at 250ma for 7 Hours

Source:USBCell, rechargeable battery via USB

Tech Link (Gadget): The Mysterious Nintendo DS MP3 Player

I am not a gadget boy, but many of my friends are into this Nintendo, Playstation, and other consoles so this might be interesting for them. So, it's at Gizmodo that I stumbled upon this news bit, such an interesting device. From these features, almost everything now can play MP3/MP4 and browse the net. If you like to view more,expand =)

Nintendo's set to release an official MP3 player for the Nintendo DS, making it not only a game machine and a web browser, but a music playing device too. The above picture was seen in a brocure from the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany.

Source:The Mysterious Nintendo DS MP3 Player

Tech Link (Gadget): Yes! It's the USB missile launcher!

This is one cool gadget indeed, but a bit pricey. Price could be because of the software included or the effort to make this thing work. Hmmm, I think I can use one of those, if only to shut down a few pesky people on the distant country. Too bad, it can only reach a very short distance, just a stone's throw distance if I may give it it a guess. Click on the image for bigger pic and expand for more.

What with North Korea's recent rocketry shenanigans, Reg Hardware readers' revelation of what could be the silliest USB add-on yet couldn't have come at a less tasteful time. But what the heck, here it is, the USB-powered missile launcher.

Source:RegHardware

Tech Link (Gadget): Head(less) Teddy USB Drive

This is so neat, you have got to see this one. I love the creativity built in this one: funny, hilarious, great! I give props to the maker, I think he should be patenting it. I don't know, it's the first time I've seen one really funny. I've seen other nice twists, but this is the first one that looks gross, but not really, and turned out to be really hilarious.
_{Image owned by the author, whoever he is, yay}

Source:Flickr

Tech Link (Gadgets): Solar bat box

A nice little gizmo to keep whenever you need that extra oommph for your gadgets. This should be useful where the sun is really shining its brightest, and yep, that means countries in the tropical Asia would be suitable. Of course, it'll be nice even in other countries, but hey, if sun is the name of the game, count on the sunny PH to provide it all year long!

This charger will charge four batteries of the same size simultaneously. On a good sunny day, 4 x AA 2000mAh NiMh batteries can be charged in as little as 6 hours. The batteries are charged within the case, which features a fold out stand for directing the solar panel towards the sun…The charger is supplied complete with a 5-way spider for powering small electrical goods such as personal stereos, toys or torches.

Source:RedFerret

Tech Link (Gadgets): A DIY MP3 Boom Box

Wow, a marriage of 01d sk00l and modern technology, playing MP3 on your old cassette player "Boom Box". I guess people just can't get the "coolness" factor of carrying a heavy Boom Box on your shoulder, dancing to the rhythm and whiling your night away on the streets together with a pack of your friends. If you're up to the challenge, there's a how-to-do linky, ummm........heavy!
_{Image owned by PCMag}

You've doubtless seen the iPod Hi-Fi, Apple's supposed boom box, by now, and you've probably also realized that it's nothing of the sort. It's a tabletop audio system, less likely to venture outdoors than a New York City house cat. Why would Apple want to make a boom box anyway? You'll recall that in their heyday boom boxes were widely reviled, seen as an assault on the senses and a way of imposing one's musical tastes on others who likely did not share them.
MP3 Player Boom Box

Sometimes you want your music to fill a room, though, or to make it portable and listen to it in situations where earbuds just won't do. With that in mind, I developed the iBoom Lo-Fi, a portable music player that's more boom box than hi-fi. I found an old boom box, gutted its cassette player, and adapted it to hold an iPod instead. The result is a portable music player with a stealthy secret—its high-tech payload isn't obvious unless you spy the iPod inside the cassette compartment. I designed it so that the cassette transport buttons now control the iPod. That way, you don't have to reveal your cargo to start playing or to forward to the next song.

Unlike the iPod Hi-Fi (which leaves your iPod exposed to the elements), the iBoom Lo-Fi completely encloses and protects the iPod, so you can take it to the beach, on a picnic, or just to the kitchen while you paint the trim. You too can build an iBoom; it takes a minimum of tools and a bit of ingenuity. I budgeted $50 for this project. It came in at $46.—Putting It All Together >

Source:PCMag

Press Release: Elgato Releases eyetv 250

If you're a Mac* boy then you probably have heard about the Elgate eyetv series. It is a very portable pvr replacement. It makes possible cable and antenna shows recording, and matches an iPod in both size and color.The EyeTV* easily plugs into any available USB port, and its coax input will stream in the data, and using a built-in hardware encoder, it will offload any CPU processing of video to MPEG-1 to MPEG2.

Watch, pause and rewind live television on your Mac.
# Record and edit your favorite TV shows using EyeTV’s powerful yet easy-to-use interface.
# Find programs and schedule recordings using the built-in Electronic Program Guide (EPG).
# Create playlists to manage your recordings and TV channels.
# Export clips and complete episodes to your video-capable iPod.
# Store your collection on an external storage drive, or burn it to DVD.

Source:ElGato

Tech Link (Industry): Computer-On-a-Stick™

If you aren't into making your own USB stick as mentioned by THG here but needed to have one, then why not buy one?

The Computer-On-a-Stick (COS) is a USB Flash Drive featuring its own onboard Operating System, a Microsoft Office-compatible suite, PDF Creator, and tons more...

The Computer-On-a-Stick (COS) also boasts the powerful Mozilla Firefox Web Browser, Evolution email, and Yahoo & MSN compatible Instant Messenger for superior Internet connectivity

Plug the Computer-On-a-Stick (COS) into your PC or Laptop and instantly transform your old environment into a new and powerful secure workstation - without a hard disk!

The combination of low cost and a powerful Onboard Operating System provides users with all the benefits of a thin client solution without changing their existing PC hardware or software.

• Use the Computer-On-a-Stick when your PC or Laptop’s existing OS slows to a crawl or even fails.


• Use the Computer-On-a-Stick to continue working on Windows-compatible documents.


• The Computer-On-a-Stick is compatible with files created in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Paint, and more…


• No need to pay for expensive new software releases or upgrades $$$ !


• View and create Adobe PDF files


• Share a pool of office PCs or work from home without changing your own desktop each time you use the device.


• Reduce your exposure to viruses, worms and spyware by running applications from a read-only partition on the device.


• Connect to remote servers with secure connectivity tools, including VNC, SSH and RDP.

Source:FingerGear