The hot tech gadget…

Posted on September 9, 2008 by Mark Urbin

…is the old Rev 1 Apple iPhone.   Tech consumers are spend up to $600 for a 16 Gig Rev 1 iPhone according to WirelessImports.com, a seller of used iPhones. That is $100 more than they sold for new! Even the 8 Gig iPhones are selling for the same $100 markup.

One of the main reasons given for the demand for the rev1 phones is that they are easier to unlock than the rev 2 3G iPhones.  An unlocked (i.e. hacked) iPhone can be used on other networks than AT&T.

Filed under: Apple, Internet, Smart Phone | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Google maps goes into orbit

Posted on September 8, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Google has purchased  the exclusive rights among online mapping sites to the new GeoEye-1 satellite. 

The GeoEye-1 will allow Google to obtain images with 50cm of resolution.   So be careful of what you have in your backyard folks, because everyone will be able to see where you left your lawnmower.

Filed under: Internet, Space | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

Google’s Navy

Posted on September 7, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Via slashdot comes this story about Google’s just-published application for a patent on the Water-Based Data Center.  The story says that water based data centers can use wave based energy and use the water for cooling.

Interesting and certainly will play well in many circles. There are also a couple of other interesting data points about the proposal.  One, having your data centers off shore, espcially if Internet commerce is involved, provides a possible tax haven.

There is also the issue of avoiding having governments demand access to your data by having it in International waters.  That is until a couple of warships show up and demand access in the interest of “national security.”

Update: The Times Online caught up with this story finally.  They provide some more detail, including that Google is looking at barges, not ships, to be anchored about 7 miles (11 Km) offshore.  The Times is also quick to pick up on the same tax angle as I did.  Being offshore means no property taxes. 

Filed under: Energy, Internet | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Dell enters the small notebook market

Posted on September 5, 2008 by Mark Urbin

The NY Times reports that Dell is entering the low cost, mini-notebook computer market.

It’s called the Mini 9. For $349 you get Ubuntu LINUX. For another $50, you can have XP. The base model has 512 Meg of RAM and a 4 Gig solid state flash “hard” drive.   You can get more RAM and and a bigger flash drive, but the price goes up.  The model with 1 Gig of RAM and 16 Gig flash drive will put you back $450, which puts close to standard laptop costs.

They come standard with 3 USB ports, a 3-1 media card reader, audio I/O jacks, WiFi and an Ethernet jack.

Filed under: Gadget, LINUX, netbook | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Taking a quick look at the Volt

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Chevy is looking at an electric sedan that uses a gasoline motor to charge the car’s battery.

This is very different than existing hybrids and all electric cars like the Tesla roadster.

Current hybrids have two complete drivetrains, electric and gas powered.  The electric motor is only good for low speeds and has to be supplimented by the gas engine to drive at highway speeds.

The Volt has a single drivetrain.  The electric motor is the only one connected to it.  The gas engine is only used to charge the battery. The battery in the Volt is also smaller than that of the Tesla Roadster.  The Tesla range is limited by the ability to charge it.  Tesla claims a 200+ mile range, but it has to be plugged in to recharge.

The battery in the Volt is only designed for a 40 mile range.  After that, the gas engine is used to recharge the battery, even on the go.  Chevy claims that on a full tank (6-7 galleons of gas), the Volt has a 400 mile range.  Even at $4.00 a galleon, seven galleons will cost $28.   I’ve seen gas at $3.50 a galleon, so that cost drops to $24.5.  That’s a cost of $0.06 to $0.07 a mile.  Compare this to a four banger getting 30 miles to the galleon highway.  13.3 galleons to go 400 miles.  At $4 a galleon, that’s $53.20 in gas or $0.13 a mile.

Now the Volt won’t have the performance of a Tesla Roadster, but it won’t have its $100,000 price tag either. Chevy is looking at a  price between $30 to $40 thousand.   The Volt will be able to venture beyond it’s power cord was well, much like current hybrids.

It will be at least another year before the Volt hits the street.  So there probably will be some changes from the current planned release.

Filed under: alternate fuel cars, Energy | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Google jumps into the browser market

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Mark Urbin

Google has come out with an open source browser.  It’s called Chrome.

Of course, being the geek I am, I am writing this post using Chrome.

It’s a fairly straightforward, clean, Google like interface, based on tabs.  From what I’ve read, the special sauce is under the hood, specifically the tabs.

From what I’ve read, the tabs are supposed to be fairly seperate entities.   If a process goes south in one tab, it only takes out that tab, not the entire browser.

Currently only available on XP/Vista.  No Mac or LINUX support.  

I’ll report more about it after I have banged on it some more.

Filed under: Internet | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Tesla Tech

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Mark Urbin

The MIT Technology Review has a look under the hood of the electric Tesla Roadster.

Some the interesting things found there include the alternating-current induction motor and the lithium-ion battery cells.

The motor is of the type advocated in the late 19th century by Nikola Tesla, and has several mechanical advantages over a DC motor.  The lithium-ion battery cells give more power for the volume than  nickel-metal hydride batteries.  The nickel-metal hydrides are what are typically used in gas-electric hybrids, such as the Pious.

Unlike the gas-electric hybrids, the Tesla roadster can go from 0-60 mph in 4 seconds, without putting a dime the pocket of Middle Eastern oil tyrants or Central American Socialists.

Filed under: alternate fuel cars | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

No Bluetooth support in Android 1.0

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Mark Urbin

According to the Android Developers Blog, Bluetooth support has been dropped from the upcoming Android 1.0 release.

The reason is that we plain ran out of time. The Android Bluetooth API was pretty far along, but needs some clean-up before we can commit to it for the SDK. Keep in mind that putting it in the 1.0 SDK would have locked us into that API for years to come.

The honesty is refreshing, but that is a major chunk of basic functionality missing.

Keep in mind, that Android plans on doing a lot more with Bluetooth than supporting wireless headsets. So I’m expecting a 1.1 release to follow up pretty quick with Bluetooth and GTalk functionality.

Filed under: Gadget, Smart Phone | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

Prices dropping on small notebook computers

Posted on August 24, 2008 by Mark Urbin

The NY Times calls them “netbooks”, which is what probably what one of their reporters heard someone call one at a Starbucks while he was trying to think of what to write to meet his deadline.

Small systems, typically running UNIX, and in some cases XP, and have been selling for around $400.  Now, the prices are dropping to the mid $300 range and will probably be flirting with $300 or or even $250 soon.

About the price of a SmartPhone, and in some cases, less.

I’ve been on the road for the past week, and yes, I did bring a laptop with me.  I really didn’t need to.  I just wanted something to back my pictures up on and do a limited amount of editing of both photos and text.

My gen one iPhone has been able to handle most of my short term Internet needs. I don’t need to find an Internet connection for it, which I would need for my laptop.

An Acer EEE PC would have fit the bill as well as the larger laptop I’m lugging.  Being lighter and smaller is a big plus.  Even with an 80 or 120 gig mini harddrive for backups, it still would have been smaller and lighter than the larger laptop running XP.

The NetShare app that Apple pulled from the iTunes store would have been a perfect fit with a small WiFi enabled laptop as well.

Filed under: Gadget, Internet, Smart Phone | Tagged: , , , | 10 Comments »

Another good iPhone etext reader

Posted on August 21, 2008 by Mark Urbin

I’ve tried Stanza, which has the advantage of being free. 🙂

It takes advantage of the nice big screen on the iPhone nicely.  Easy to read and page back and forth.

They have a large number of public domain books to download, including ERB  and H. Beam Piper. Two of my favorites.

I haven’t looked into what other libraries are available, but what they have is sufficient to keep many voracious readers busy.  It makes a good replacement for the dog eared paperback in the back pocket.

Filed under: Apple, Smart Phone | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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