Article33 - Gadgets & Reviews

OS X-installing EFiX device gets a price, release date

Donald Melanson — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:05:00 +0000

The folks at EFiX don't exactly have the best record of sticking to promised release dates, but the company's CEO and lead engineer, Wilhelm von Vnukov, now tells us that the V2 edition of the OSX-installing device for desktop PCs will be available on Monday (July 7th), "I think," with the V1 version set to follow three to four weeks later (still no word on the promised device for laptops). According to the website, the only difference between the two is the addition for support of "several motherboards" on the V2, as well as "experimental support for some prototype motherboards." What's more, the company has also now confirmed that the price for the initial batch will be €80 (or about $125), although availability seems to be confined to Taiwan and Bulgaria at the moment, with a number of other countries (including the United States) listed as being "in negotiation." The company is also promiising that the price will be substantially lower once the device enters mass production, although it's unsurprisingly not making any promises as to when that might happen.

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KDE 4.1 Beta 2 – Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?

timothy — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:23:00 +0000

jammag writes "Linux pundit Bruce Byfield takes a look at the latest KDE beta and finds it wanting: 'Very likely, KDE users will have to wait for another release or two beyond 4.1 before the new version of KDE matches the features of earlier ones, especially in customization.' He notes that the second beta is still prone to unexplained crashes, and goes so far as to say that "Everyone agrees now that KDE 4.0 was a mistake." I'm not too sure about that — really, 'everyone'?"

Teardown party: the MSI Wind and Acer Aspire One get ripped open

Joshua Topolsky — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:07:00 +0000

Filed under: Laptops

You knew this was bound to happen. Like any good piece of gadgetry, there's always someone who can't wait to get their grubby hands all over it... and rip it to shreds to see how it works. Today we present the disemboweling of two of the latest challengers to the Eee's netbook throne: the MSI Wind, and the Acer Aspire One. The Aspire One at least gets the courtesy of a proper unboxing before the medical proceedings begin; the Wind just gets cracked open like a cold PBR at your cousin's barbecue. Don't take our word for it, however -- truck on over to the read links and see the messes with your very own eyes.

Read - Breaking Wind
Read - Acer Aspire One Unboxed and Disassembled

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Ask Slashdot: Digitizing Old Magazines?

kesuki (posted by timothy) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:00:00 +0000

"I have a lot of old video game magazines, they're nice for playing 'classic games' because a lot of classics are impossible without the manual, and hard without a magazine (the magazine obviously negates the need for a manual usually). But they'd get damaged with a flatbed scanner, and digital cameras are hard to set up right for capturing old magazines. I know that old documents are digitally archived with very high-res cameras..." So, the question is, what is the best way to capture all the information in old magazines in digital format? Does anyone have a home-built rig taking after the angled-pair-of-scanners setup that Project Gutenburg uses?

Digitizing Old Magazines?

kesuki (posted by timothy) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:00:00 +0000

Next Vista Media Center leaked — no DirecTV HD till 2010?

Ben Drawbaugh — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:44:00 +0000

Filed under: HDTV, Media PCs

Engadget HD has gotten the latest on the highly anticipated update for Vista Media Center and it doesn't look good. The first release candidate made it into testers hands recently and they weren't happy to see that the most anticipated features -- support for a DirecTV HD tuner and native H.264 support -- got pushed to Windows 7. So head over to Engadget HD for more details (screen shots included).

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