LaCie unveils the first hard drive with Thunderbolt

HomeNewsLaCie reveals the first hard drive with ThunderboltPosted Devina from Divecha on Sun 27 Feb 2011

Will be the first ever capable-Thunderbolt hard become essential for techies as LBD is for fashionistas?

Today LaCie announced the first storage device that supports the newest Thunderbolt technology, available only on the new Apple MacBook Pro Apart from Thunderbolt, the new MacBook Pro seems to host a variety of impressive specifications.

Formerly known as light Peak, Thunderbolt is a standard technology fast i/o peripheral that owns a 10Gbps (1 .25gbps), speed, and can support high-resolution displays.

Running on PCI Express and DisplayPort protocols, the LaCie Little Big Disk is designed for mobile professionals and the media in mind, allowing multiple HD video streams in minutes instead of hours without compromise.

Data transferred between devices on Thunderbolt reported can be made 20 times faster than USB 2.0.

The LBD consists of two 250 GB Intel 510 series solid state drives and is enclosed in an aluminum d2.

Philippe Spruch, CEO of LaCie said, "Thunderbolt technology is a breakthrough in technology and represents the future of mobile computing. Soon will be able to exercise power and workstation-class functionality in compact devices. "

The LaCie Little Big Disk was developed by Intel and is expected to become available by summer 2011. Capacity of storage and prices are yet unknown.

What are your thoughts on the new standard Thunderbolt? Head to our Facebook and Twitter pages and tell us. Watch this space for more news updates superfast tech.

Production wins the first humanoid robot Marathon

February 27, 2011, Last updated at 03: 46 GMT Robovie-PC (right) has won the tender to the narrowest of margins, beating Robovie-PC Lite for just a second a humanoid production narrowly won the first full-length Marathon in the world for two-legged robot.

Robovie-PC crossed the finish line on the Japanese city of Osaka just one second ahead of his nearest rival, after more than two days of travel.

Race 26 miles (42 km) involved 423 laps of a indoor track at an average speed of 0.77 km/h.

Two other androids are yet to complete the course, while one has pulled out after a single spin.

Robovie-PC-40 cm (16 inches) with a weight of 2.4 kg (5.3 lbs)-has taken an initiative unlikely with just a few laps to go when rival Robovie-PC Lite arrested, wasting a comfortable lead.

After the final handshake, both robot arms waving and bowed himself to an enthusiastic crowd in clapping audience.

State of the art: first Rush, there is a Tablet

Happened with the iMac and iPhone. Now iPad is now entering phase 3. Apple iPad sold 15 million in the nine months, so you can bet that 2011 will be the year of iPad Clone.

Starting from Thursday, you will be able to buy one of the most anticipated iPad rivals: the Motorola Xoom. Like most candidate countries, this iPad runs Google's Android software — but Xoom is the first that runs Android 3.0 (code-named honeycombs), that Google designed for tablets instead of phones.

The Xoom Motorola's recent continuous strip of gadget attractive, compact and robust. Unless you inspect the rear (rubberized plastic instead of aluminium silver), you may not be able to tell this iPad touchscreen plate.

There are some differences, though. One is the price: the Xoom costa a stunning $ 800, $ 70 more equivalent iPad 32 gigabytes (mobile Wi-Fi and 3 G). If you are willing to sign a two-year Verizon contract, you can get the Xoom for $ 600. This means paying $ 20 per month to get online with Verizon cellular network (if you can get only 1 GB of data), rather than just Wi-Fi hot spots.

The Xoom also has a dual core processor, which, according to Motorola, means smoother animation. And cameras. On the back, there is a 5 megapixel camera that can also record high definition video. On the front, there is a low resolution camera for video chat. The new Android software includes a beefed-up camera module, which highlights strange imaginative effects that never use, like Solarize, sepia and Polarize.

Clearly, a camera is useful on a Tablet and will remain a huge competitive advantage for the Xoom — at least until iPad 2 comes out next month (if Apple adheres to its usual annual update model, that is). If the new iPad doesn't have a camera or two, you eat a Tablet PC.

Screenshot of Xoom has slightly higher resolution than the iPad, and gives a slightly different form the Tablet — more like a business envelope an envelope greeting card. The screen design is a better match for high definition video, but worse for pictures and maps.

The Xoom has stereo speakers instead of mono, a battery good for 10 hours of video playback and a power button on the rear panel. Motorola says that this year, a software update will allow the Xoom take advantage of the 4 G cellular networks of Verizon, which means better speed downloading a few lucky town.

A very cool feature: The Xoom has an HDMI, which means that a single cable can send audio and high definition video to a TV. That is a perfect proposition for the peripatetic PowerPoint Presenter.

Dock doctor Motorola has been working overtime, too. You can purchase either a speaker or a charging dock that activates automatically the Xoom presentation or alarm mode. If Xoom's hardware was all history, would be much of an anecdote. These hardware improvements alone do not knock iPad iPad 2 — — especially from his pedestal, especially considering the premium price.

No, the story is more important here honeycombs, Google Tablet PC software. This is the real iPad competitor; Honeycomb tablets in any size, shape and price range will arrive in stores soon.

As comb? Four words: more powerful, more complicated.

Screen now leads two strips of small icons. In theory, the main ones concern the program you're using and those along the bottom ones look like the Windows system tray: status icons and pop-up menu to various settings.

But these icons are darned cryptic; You might think that they were designed by aliens. Google seems to have overlooked a huge drawback of unlabeled icons on a touch screen computer: there is no way to see the names or the functions before you open them. There are no pop-up tips, for example. All you can do is tap one to enable it, see what's happening and learn from experience annoying.

New strips do not always make sense, even. Because, for example, tapping on the clock icon brings up the list of notifications (download complete, incoming text messages, and so on)? Why enter some settings by tapping the icon of a fund-Strip and the rest of the settings by tapping the icon of a strip higher? Android wants to be when it grows up Windows?

Some of the changes in the honeycomb are cool. There is a pop-up menu of the list of recently opened programs — not just their names, but miniature screens that show exactly what you were doing when you left. Widgets (small Windows that display the most recent data, say, Gmail or Twitter accounts) are more flexible now; for example, you can scroll content without having to open up a whole big app. You can drag individual messages in mail folders.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

FIX: February 25, 2011

In the column State of the art on Thursday, on the Tablet Motorola Xoom, misstated the price difference between Xoom and its equivalent iPad 32 gigabytes. Is $ 70, it is $ 200. (As the column correctly observed, the Motorola Xoom is $ 800. Equivalent, with Wi-Fi and 3 G, $ 730 — not $ 600.)

US launches first national broadband map

The Department of the national telecommunications and information Administration (NTIA) Commerce has unveiled the national broadband map for the United States. The map is the first public map, searchable nationwide availability of broadband Internet: its goal is to help expand broadband access and adoption in Communities at risk of being left in the economy of the 21st century, as well as aid to businesses and consumers who seek information about their high-speed Internet options.

The NTIA created the national broadband map in collaboration with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), using data that every State, territory and the District of Columbia (or their delegates) collected from broadband providers, or other data sources. The result is more than 25 million searchable see records where the broadband Internet service is available, the technology used to provide the service, the maximum advertised speed of service and the names of service provider. Users can search by address, display data on a map or compare broadband in different geographic areas (States, counties or districts of the Congress).

The map shows that between 5-10 percent of Americans do not have access to broadband at speeds that support a set of applications, including the downloading of Web pages, photos, videos and use simple video conferences. This is a rather confused, as the FCC defined broadband in July 2010 as throughput 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream to support these applications. The NTIA only data collected in the intervals between 3 .6Mbps and 6 to 10Mbps download speeds advertised, which means that all connections were grouped in category 3Mbps broadband. The FCC found in December 2010 that 68 percent of us broadband connections were not really broadband.

"The national broadband map shows there are still too many people and institutions lack the level of broadband service, needed to fully participate in the Internet economy."We are pleased to see the increase in broadband adoption last year, particularly in light of the difficult economic environment, but a digital divide remains, Lawrence e. Strickling, Assistant Secretary for communications and information and NTIA administrator, said in a statement. "Through the program opportunities NTIA's broadband technology, digital literacy activities and other initiatives, including the instruments that today we are releasing the Obama administration is working to address these challenges."

The NTIA has also published a new report preview of data collected through the survey on the use of the Internet of 54,000 households, conducted by the U.s. Census Bureau in October 2010. Here are a few highlights:

Broadband Internet access at home continues to grow: 68 percent of households have broadband access compared to 63.5% last year. (In the survey, broadband is defined as the Internet access service that uses DSL, cable modem, fiber optic, mobile broadband and other high speed Internet access).Significant disparities between demographic groups: people with low income, disabled, elderly, minorities, the less educated families, not family and non-employed tend to other groups in home broadband use.While since 2007, has reduced the digital divide between urban and rural areas, remains significant. In 2010, 70 percent of urban households and only 60 percent of rural households accessed broadband Internet service. (Last year, those figures were 66% and 54%, respectively).Overall, the two most commonly cited reasons for not having broadband Internet access at home are that it is perceived as unnecessary (46%) or too expensive (25%). In rural America, however, the lack of broadband availability is a big reason for non-adoption than in urban areas (9.4% vs. 1%). Americans also cite the lack of a computer as a factor.Despite the growing importance of the Internet in American life, 28.3 percent of all persons do not use the Internet anywhere, down from 31.6% last year.

If you want to read the report in all 28 pages, check it out here: February 2011 digital nation (PDF).

Fujitsu introduces the first MeeGo netbook world

Fujitsu announced the Lifebook MH330 's debut, the company's first MeeGo netbook based on Intel Atom processor. The company also seems to be the first supplier to offer a netbook with MeeGo; pre-installed While MeeGo for Netbooks is already available for any Pine Trail Netbook, Fujitsu says that this version specifically customized for MH330 (take advantage of the hardware buttons). The company is also offering MeeGo for exploring current machines.

The netbook is powered by a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N455, 1 GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard drive. Comes with a 10.1 inch LED-backlit display (resolution 1024 x 600). The device is priced at S $ 488 at Singapore, which means I would go for some $ 400 in the United States.

Rich interface of MeeGo MH330 features that enables users to have unlimited access to a full suite of applications, including social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter and multimedia capabilities through a panel of media with an organized view of your video and music files stored in your media library. The biggest advantage of using MeeGo, however, is the significant reduction of startup time.

"For our valued users, human-centric nature of MeeGo based netbook not only transcends the boundaries of netbooks but also serves as the new standard for the tomorrow's computing experience," Mr. Lim Teck sin, Vice President of Engineering and Product Marketing Fujitsu PC Asia Pacific, said in a statement. "The netbook crystallizes the two products, Best-of-breed and MeeGo is part of efforts, Fujitsu and Intel, to bring the industry a great step forward. For native multimedia that long for greater interactivity and immediate access multimedia, the LIFEBOOK MH330 definitely exceed refreshed their expectations. "

Although Nokia has dropped very MeeGo and Symbian phone for Windows, we must remember that strategy only applies to Smartphones. The company still intends to ship a product related MeeGo later this year (we think that is their tablet). Additionally, Intel is pushing yet Nokia MeeGo despite change of strategy.

ZTE intends to sell the first Smartphone in the United States. This year

Chinese handset vendor ZTE plans to launch its first smartphone in the United States this year, a move that follows the success of the company's most recent increased tightness of the mobile market.

ZTE made big gains in the mobile market in 2010, becoming the fourth largest supplier of telephone ahead of Apple, according to research firm IDC. During the year, the company has seen laptop shipments rise of 94%, up to 20.4 million units.

Now the company wants to increase sales of smartphones in 2011 by five times, up to 10 million units. For the North American market, ZTE said will more than double the portfolio of the device. The company adds that hopes to sell Tablet devices in the United States this year.

ZTE, a supplier of networking equipment, compiles even phones for mobile operators. The company has historically focused on developing smaller and mid-end laptops. But on Monday, the company announced a new development strategy that would move towards the higher end, by building more smartphones, tablets, and devices of Internet TV box.

While ZTE has yet to launch a smartphone in the United States, the company has seen one of its low-end phones offered by Verizon Wireless last year. Called the greeting, the device is available now for $ 20 with a two-year contract.

Earlier this week, ZTE has inaugurated a new low-cost smartphone called the skate at the Mobile World Congress. The device has a 4.3 inch screen and runs the operating system Android 2.3. The phone will start shipping globally during the month of May. The company is also preparing to launch a tablet running Android 3.0 in the third quarter.

IBM Watson in danger! first day: could do better

By Richi Jennings. February 15, 2011.

The first day of the IBM supercomputer game of jeopardy! It's over. Watson has reasonably well, but his game was far from perfect. Stay tuned for another two days. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder, "what is Watson?"

Your humble blogwatcher curated by these bits bloggy for your entertainment. Not to mention the shortest path between two Wikipedia articles ...
(IBM)

Dean Takahashi reports:

Competitor Ruttner linked with human Brad Watson, a supercomputer built by IBM. Another rival, Ken Jennings, is not far behind. ... The match has demonstrated that artificial intelligence technology of IBM is a force to be reckoned with, and in the future is only going to get better. ... Some scientists from IBM Research 25 worldwide struggled for four years on Watson, who is spiritual successor of IBM's Deep Blue, the supercomputer that chess master Gary Kasparov in 1997 defeated.
...
At the beginning of the second half, Watson had $ 5200, Rutter had $ 1000 and Jennings was only $ 200. Then, the man made their comeback, beating the buzzer Watson a couple of times. And Watson wrong answers in the second half.

Timothy Prickett-Morgan adds:

Jennings, who once had a winning streak of 74-game Jeopardy, is known to be one with the beep, but Watson cleaned his clock before the first commercial break. ... As a few more incorrect assumptions Watson, Brad Rutter – which has won more dough than anyone else playing Jeopardy – came alive and started transferring money.

Elizabeth a. Harrisspeaks of errors Watson:

"Elegance, elegant, or students who all graduates in the same year," read the question. "What is chic?" Watson replied.
...
"What is the class?" Mr. Rutter said.
...
At the end of the turn on Monday, Mr. Rutter and Watson were tied to 5000 dollars each. Mr. Jennings ... slunk off in time slot Wheel of Fortune with only $ 2,000. The winner of this contest three days will be awarded $ 1 million.

Gordon Haffcomments on the avian influenza situation:

Speech understanding proved to be really difficult. ... In fact, when IBM Watson takes on past samples of "danger" in a televised contest beginning tonight, the questions presented to it as text rather than speech. But answering questions often twisted used on "danger" is hard enough without spoken word processing.
...
Watson is in no real sense of thinking and the use of the term "agreement" in the context of Watson should be taken as anthropomorphism, rather than a literal description. ... Watson is part of the project DeepQA of IBM. The QA stands for question answering. ... In association with Carnegie Mellon University, IBM created the Open progress of question answering (OAQA). ... Among other things, this initiative aims to enable the software to adapt Watson of new domains of data and the types of problem.

Michael cooneycalls "The ultimate in man v. machine moments":

If the preliminary test sessions are any indication, you give the supercomputers of natural language known as Watson of IBM ... Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter a serious run for their money this week. ... Watson software runs on IBM POWER7 servers are optimized to handle the huge number of tasks that must run fast speed to analyze the complex language and provide correct answers to jeopardy! clues. ... Jeopardy! requires forms of reasoning are very sophisticated, using metaphors, puns, and puzzles that go beyond the basic understanding of the language. As a matter of challenge, Jeopardy! stretch the State of the art.

 
And finally ...
Find the shortest path between two Wikipedia articles

Don't miss out on IT Blogwatch:

You can also read Richi full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

Lenovo earns first gold rating in the new green certification system

It seems that there is a certification of new types IT can look at when it comes to ratings for green IT.

Maker Lenovo notebooks known has earned the first gold rating for laptop under the UL environment sustainable production certification (CPS). The rating has been granted for the next ThinkPad420, a laptop that is expected to be launched later in the month of February.

The video below provides some perspectives, but some of the factors that have contributed to Lenovo earn this distinction were a focus on the use of low-halogen and post-consumer recycled content in the product, and the choice of a design that make this notebook than the average for dismantling for recycling or reuse after his life. Some expected to release the ThinkPads this year have more than 10 percent post-consumer content, while some ThinkCentre and Lenovo ThinkVision contain recycled up to 65 percent of things. Specific things that are examined during the review process of UL environment include product documentation, compliance with Energy Star 5.0 and production facilities. The evaluation programme is based on IEEE standard 1680 sustainability, who leads the process of certification of EPEAT green technology more familiar.

As I reported earlier this month, UL environment is spearheading the development of standards for mobile phones.

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

LG Optimus Pad: first look

Another day, another Android Tablet PC dual core Honeycomb. LG unveiled the Latest Android-based Tablet to hit the Mobile World Congress 2011, LG Optimus Pad. The Optimus Pad is unique from other tablets, however, as has a 8.9 inch display, rather than a 10-incher as the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tab.

I've never been a big fan of tablets simply because the ones I've used have felt a little awkward. The Galaxy 7 inches is too small for my taste while managing iPad 10.1-inch always makes me feel a little nervous, as if you could drop it. LG has hit a sweet spot with 8.9 inch: Optimus is a convenient size and easy to handle.

Another standout feature is the ability to record video in 3D. The Optimus Pad has a dual-lens 3D camera, as well as an HDMI port, so you can view 3D content on the TV 3D--that is, if you are bringing in pasta and has a 3D TV. I couldn't test this feature on the show floor, unfortunately, as LG have no one linked to a 3D TV. The Optimus Pad also provides Full HD 1080p decoding so that you can transfer high-quality video from your Pad to the TV without any loss of image quality.

So what tablet Honeycomb appeals to you more: Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy card 10.1 or LG Optimus Pad? Capture 3D video in front of the pack put LG? Sound off in the comments below.