Evsion Lab

Arkansas school has an 11-year-old IT department — no, really, an 11-year-old

Posted by Nilay Patel under 1

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Seeing as our high school network hijinks pretty much led to semi-permanent suspension, our barren hearts were actually warmed by the story of 11-year-old Jon Penn, who has been in charge of his elementary school’s 60-machine network since last year. The previous network administrator at the Arkansas school simply up and left, leaving the IT systems in shambles — and in the hands of Jon’s mom, the school librarian. Jon’s since scrubbed the aging Windows 98 machines of their accumulated viruses and spyware, and he’s installed a firewall and virus / spam filter to keep things clean while he works out a plan to move to Windows 2000 and centralized system management. Right now though, Jon’s got his hands busy doing everything from fixing everything from paper jams to revising server configurations, and it sounds like he’s having a ball — he says he’s been testing out virtualization products lately, and he’s studying up for A+ technician certification this summer. Looks like school’s a lot more fun when you’re running the show, no?

[Via Switched]

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NextWeb Web 2.0 MeetUp [Live Video]

Posted by Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins under Mashable

A bit ago, we announced our sponsorship of the NextWeb Web 2.0 Expo - today the group is broadcasting live via Mogulus a meetup pertaining to the expo.  Info after the video embed.

April 22-25, 2008: Mashable is proud to announce a media sponsorship for the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco from April 22-25, 2008. Web 2.0 Expo takes the pulse of the Web ecosystem and looks to its future, shining a spotlight across the Web 2.0 landscape to show how the Internet Revolution is being created and delivered. It showcases the latest Web 2.0 business models, development paradigms and design strategies for designers, developers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketers, product managers and business strategists, from start-ups to enterprises.

Web 2.0 Expo is for the builders of the next generation web; people who have experiences to share and a passion for learning–the hot new thing, lessons from failures, innovations and inspirations, and the practical applications of all of the above. Discounts are still available for Mashable readers; visit our post for more Web 2.0 Expo information.

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General Dynamics UK touts near real-time 3D maps for soldiers

Posted by Donald Melanson under 1

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

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Sniffing Your Friends Sounds Nasty, But it’s Not.

Posted by Kristen Nicole under 1

So you’re out on a Saturday night, and half your crew met up at a local bar on their side of town while you and the rest of your buddies went straight to the club. Now what? You can call each other to find out where everybody is located, or you could even text each other back and forth to get the same information. Both require a good amount of time, and effort.

And for an event like SXSW, out-of-towners (like me) spent a good portion of their time figuring out the name of the bar where they were currently located so that they could text the name of it to their friends. Wait back for a reply requesting the address, asking around for that information, and texting it back to their friends again.

Sniff hopes to remedy this problem by leveraging location-based capabilities for informing you of where your friends are. Already gaining popularity in Sweden, Sniff is making its way to the US, and to other parts of Europe. I know what you’re thinking. There are already location-based services out there that help me keep tabs on all my friends. Loopt mobile even landed a deal with Verizon for similar features.

Well, there are a couple of options that Sniff hopes will help it stand out from the crowd, starting with a Facebook application. This not only gives you access to your friends without having to input them separately into Sniff’s service, but it allows you to check on friends’ locations both online and via your mobile phone. The other good thing about Sniff being a Facebook app is that it allows for a higher level of privacy features so that you share your location with only those friends you’ve selected (both of these aspects are not limited to the Facebook app).

Additionally, Sniff works via SMS messaging on your mobile phone. That means there’s no application you need to pull up in order to access the location of any of your friends. Text “sniff” along with your friend’s name to the Sniff service shortcode (60506), and you’ll receive a message back with their location on a map. I like the hand’s off approach to Sniff, in that there’s no time-consuming back and forth between friends. Other options allow for SMS updates pertaining to a friend or an event. But

I do wonder at Sniff’s viability to thrive in a growing mobile market, when existing services like Jaiku have such automated location-based options included in their larger suite. Not to mention, sending Sniff a text message will cost you. Thankfully, the billing is integrated and will show up through your carrier service, but paying for an SMS-based mobile feature in addition to a wireless plan could be a hard pill for some people to swallow.

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Hitachi intros short-throw CPX3 WXGA projector

Posted by Donald Melanson under 1

Filed under: Displays

It looks like Hitachi is aiming to give those normally confined to XGA projectors a bit of a boost, with its new CPX3 model not only boasting a slightly more home theater friendly WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution, but some short-throw capabilities as well. Exactly how short that throw is isn’t clear, however, with Hitachi only going so far as to describe the projector as boasting a wide-angle lens that’ll let you use it “close to the screen with no obstructions.” Apart from that, the 3.9-pound projector is fairly standard fare, with it packing 2,000 lumens of brightness, HDMI input, and a built-in 1 watt speaker, along with some security measures sure to please more business-minded types. While there doesn’t appear to be any official word on a price from Hitachi, a couple of retailers seem to already be selling it for around $1,000.

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Hitachi intros short-throw CPX3 WXGA projector

Posted by Donald Melanson under 1

Filed under: Displays

It looks like Hitachi is aiming to give those normally confined to XGA projectors a bit of a boost, with its new CPX3 model not only boasting a slightly more home theater friendly WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution, but some short-throw capabilities as well. Exactly how short that throw is isn’t clear, however, with Hitachi only going so far as to describe the projector as boasting a wide-angle lens that’ll let you use it “close to the screen with no obstructions.” Apart from that, the 3.9-pound projector is fairly standard fare, with it packing 2,000 lumens of brightness, HDMI input, and a built-in 1 watt speaker, along with some security measures sure to please more business-minded types. While there doesn’t appear to be any official word on a price from Hitachi, a couple of retailers seem to already be selling it for around $1,000.

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13 Awesome Resources For HDR Wallpapers

Posted by Sean P. Aune under 1

HDR (high dynamic range) images are photos made up of the same image shot at several different exposures, and when you combine them you get a color-rich, almost surreal image with amazing highlights. They make stunning desktops for your computer, and we’ve found 13 resources for you to grab some of your own to freshen up your dreary work space. (more…)

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Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile demands Engadget Mobile discontinue using the color magenta

Posted by Ryan Block under 1

Filed under: Cellphones

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/T_Mobil_Tells_Engadget_Mobile_Stop_using_the_color_Magenta’;So last week Deutsche Telekom, owners of the global T-Mobile brand, sent Engadget a late birthday present: a hand-delivered letter direct from their German legal department requesting the prompt discontinuation of the use of the color magenta on Engadget Mobile. Yep, seriously.

Granted, we get nastygrams from angry tech companies practically every day, but rarely regarding anything that’s not some piece of news we published that they’re livid about having out in the open. And irony of ironies, this whole use-of-magenta thing is precisely the topic we took up last year on behalf of DT.

We spoke with David Beigie, vice president of corporate communications for T-Mobile US, who offered: “As a trademark owner, from time to time Deutsche Telekom looks at usage that could lead to confusion in the marketplace. The letter sent by DT merely outlines these perspectives and is meant to simply open a dialogue. Engadget continues to pioneer forums for discussion of wireless industry developments and innovation. T-Mobile respects the role Engadget and its readers play in advancing dialog on these important topics.”

So in the interest of that open dialog we’ve posted Deutsche Telekom’s letter below (typo in the first word of the first sentence and all), as well as a handy guide to allay any confusion should you suddenly find yourself disoriented and trying to buy your next SideKick or MDA from Engadget Mobile.

P.S. -Not an early April Fool’s joke.

#comparechart { border: 2px solid #333; border-collapse: collapse; } #comparechart td { padding: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; vertical-align: top; margin: 0; line-height: 1.3em; } #comparechart th { font-weight: bold; text-align: left; padding: 4px; background: #eee; } #comparechart th.mainth { border-bottom: 1px solid #333; font-size: 1.2em; } #comparechart td.red { background-color: #f08c85; } #comparechart td.green { background-color: #b3e2c4;

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Fav.or.it Conversation Tracking + API Will Let You Own Your Blog Comments

Posted by Adam Ostrow under Mashable

Although still in private beta, much like FriendFeed, fav.or.it is showing a knack for releasing features that play to some of the currently hot memes around the blogosphere. Today, the social RSS reader is showcasing a feature that they are dubbing a “conversation tracker,” aggregating all of your comments from around the blogosphere in one place and allowing you to keep tabs on the conversations that you’re involved in.

Since a major selling point of fav.or.it is that it allows you to comment within the reader and have it show up on the originating blog, this means that you can track conversations you’re having in the comment areas of Mashable (though technically, Mashable is not yet supported), CenterNetworks, paidContent, or whichever other blogs your frequent. You can then follow up on replies from within fav.or.it, in turn saving you a visit to all of those individual blogs (and costing us page views, hmm…). Here’s a demo showing how it works:

fav.or.it Conversation Tracker from Nick Halstead on Vimeo.

While distributed commenting systems like Disqus are also aggregating user comments, the big difference with fav.or.it is that as an RSS reader, it can aggregate comments from all of the blogs you read – not just those using Disqus or a similar product. Additionally, as the company indicates in a blog post, there will soon be an API for the conversation tracker so that any external service can make use of the data. In turn, this means fav.or.it will give you ownership of all of the comments you leave around the blogosphere, allowing you to integrate them into your own blog, web page, or web service of your choosing.

As I wrote in my initial review of fav.or.it, the biggest hurdle the company will face in gaining users isn’t in convincing user’s it’s a cool product - it has already done that, at least for me. The challenge is in overcoming the lock-in of other RSS readers - such as Google Reader with its Shared Items list. However, giving users ownership of all of their blog comments is a powerful value proposition, and one that could lure some power users over once fav.or.it launches to the public.

Editor’s Note: If you requested fav.or.it invites, they should be going out in the next day or two. Thank you for your patience!

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HP goes all out with Blu-ray-packin’ Pavilion laptops for Europe

Posted by Donald Melanson under 1

Filed under: Laptops

HP's not one to let its laptops sit on the shelf too long without a revamp, and it's now let loose yet another raft of updates for its Pavilion line, albeit only in Europe for now. The big news here is the addition of Blu-ray drives across the board, which obviously replaces the HD DVD option previously found on the models they're replacing. That desirable feature finds its way onto the new Pavilion dv2800, dv6800 and dv9800 series models, which boast 14.1, 15.4, and 17-inch displays, respectively, along with your choice of Core 2 Duo or Turion 64 X2 processors, integrated graphics or NVIDIA GeForce 8400M or 8600M (depending on the model) and even a Blu-ray burner on the 17-inch model. If you're looking for something other than a traditional laptop, HP's also busted out an update to its monster HDX-9000 desktop replacement series in the form of the HDX-9300, and a new Pavilion tx2300 tablet PC (only the former boasts a Blu-ray drive). Otherwise, you can expect the HDX-9300 to pack Penryn T8100 or T9300 processors, 3GB of RAM standard, and a beefy NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS graphics card, while the tx2300 rolls in with a Turion 64 X2 TL-60 processor, 2GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 graphics, and a DVD burner standard. No word on pricing or availability for any of 'em just yet, unfortunately, nor is there any word of a release 'round these parts.

Read - Notebook Italia, "HP Pavilion dv2800, dv6800, dv9800 with Blu-ray"
Read - Notbeook Italia, "HP Pavilion HDX9300 and tx2100 tablet PC"

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DisplayLink releases beta drivers for OS X

Posted by Darren Murph under 1

Filed under: Displays, Peripherals

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MSI’s 13.3-inch VR340 laptop ain’t too pretty, special

Posted by Darren Murph under 1

Filed under: Laptops

MSI seems to be in quite the contradictory mood, as that “Innovation with Style” slogan certainly doesn’t apply to the laptop it’s plastered on. We had to triple-check to ensure the VR340 wasn’t actually introduced ages ago, but in fact, this 13.3-incher is incredibly fresh. Packed within the way-too-heavy 4.85-pound frame is an elusive dual-core Intel CPU, WXGA panel, up to 3GB of DDR2 RAM, dual-layer DVD burner, a trio of USB ports, 5-in-1 multicard reader and a six-cell battery for good measure. Mum’s the word on a price, but chances are that won’t hurt too many feelings.

[Via FarEastGizmos]

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PS3 homebrew hack found, Hello World!

Posted by Paul Miller under 1

Filed under: Gaming

Continue reading PS3 homebrew hack found, Hello World!

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Audiobooks for Your Kids, on Kindle

Posted by Kristen Nicole under Mashable

Audible, the digital audiobooks company that was snatched up by Amazon earlier this year for $300 million, has launched a network just for kids. The new site, called AudibleKids, has about 4,000 titles from 75+ publishers available at the time of the launch, with exclusive stories from the likes of R.L. Stine (who didn’t love Goosebumps?).

Seeing as we’re living in the digital age and all, your 5 year-old probably knows how to work your iPhone as well as you do. So all of AudibleKids’ content is available for download to your favorite mobile media device, including iPods and Amazon’s good ol’ Kindle, too. AudibleKids is working with the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) nonprofit organization in order to provide support to RIF’s mission. In doing so, AudibleKids also has a featured section where a select number of audiobooks are available for free download.

AudibleKids is more than just an online store for digital books–it’s also a social network. Parents will have to create accounts, though they can set up various profiles for each of their children, providing them different permissions than their own accounts. Content can be rated so that recommendations can be provided for the best digital audiobooks, and there are ratings, reviews and previews for each audiobook as well. The community is aimed to be an online resource and discussion platform for parents, educators and kids alike.

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Okoro’s OMS-ZX100 Media PC does Blu-ray, HD DVD and SSD

Posted by Darren Murph under 1

Filed under: HDTV, Media PCs, Storage

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Lime green Motorola Q9c headed to Alltel, US Cellular

Posted by Darren Murph under 1

Filed under: Cellphones

Don’t you dare say green wasn’t already in style, as in all actuality, it’s US Cellular and Alltel following the crowd yet again. As the run-up to CTIA 2008 continues, the aforesaid outfits have both announced that a lime green variant of the Motorola Q9c will soon be on their shelves. Aside from that, prospective customers can also snap up the WinMo 6-powered Q9c in licorice, and of course, they’ll find a 1.3-megapixel camera, 2.4-inch display and 128MB of onboard memory. As for pricing, you can call Alltel’s version your own for $99.99 on contract, and while US Cellular is being mum on the subject, both providers will have ‘em available “this summer.”

[Via CNET]

Read - Alltel’s announcement
Read - US Cellular’s announcement

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