Evsion Lab

NASA says Phoenix lander is sampling water on Mars

Posted by Nilay Patel under 1

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Yep, just like we’d heard, the Phoenix lander has identified water in a soil sample it collected in Mars earlier, and NASA’s extended the mission for another 90 days to go look for more. There’s no analysis of the ice yet, but it doesn’t look like there’s any organic materials in the sample, and it’ll take another three to four weeks before there’s any more data to reveal. Hopefully that means we’ll be packing up our silver go-go boots and taking off for our fabulous future lives on Mars in a month, but we’ll see how things go.

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Figuring out which NVIDIA GPUs are defective — it’s a lot

Posted by Nilay Patel under 1

Filed under: Laptops

So now that HP's joined Dell in releasing information on which laptops have those defective NVIDIA GPUs, we can sort of piece together which chips are faulty -- and just as had been rumored, it looks like basically every Geforce 8600M and 8400M chip is affected. That's not good news for NVIDIA, which has been saying that only "previous-generation" chips were problematic -- unless the chipmaker is planning on updating the hugely popular 8x00 series sometime, say, now, that's not exactly true, now is it? Other affected chips appear to be in the GeForce Go 7000 and 6000 lines, as well as the Quadro NVS 135M and the Quadro FX 360M, but that's just looking at model numbers, and we can't be exactly sure. We'd say that if you've got a machine with any one of these GPUs, it might be wise to call in and see what your laptop maker is going to do -- and it would be smart for NVIDIA to come right out and say exactly how big and how bad this problem really is.

Read - Dell list of machines and patch
Read - HP list of machines, extended warranty info

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Dell Vostro 2510 now configurable online

Posted by Donald Melanson under 1

Filed under: Laptops

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Digg Launches New Mobile Version with Optimized Interface

Posted by Kristen Nicole under 1

Since the launch of the iPhone 3G, the past couple of weeks have been prime time for companies to launch new mobile sites. Digg is taking advantage of the new surge of interest in mobile applications to reveal its upgraded mobile version of Digg. If you don’t have the new iPhone, it’s all good.

The new Digg mobile site isn’t necessarily an iPhone app–it just looks cooler on the iPhone than the Blackberry. Upgraded features for Digg’s new mobile version include multiple views of popular stories, improved usability for surfing between stories, and faster page loads. You can also add stories to your Favorites while logged in. This new mobile version is designed to operate more like the Web version of Digg, so navigation overall has been improved, specifically the ability to tab between topics and consume more content throughout the site.

The release of the new mobile version also coincides with Digg’s reported traffic increases due to its new recommendation engine. It’s clear that Digg Founder Kevin Rose looks to mobile as the future of media consumption. Ensuring that Digg’s own mobile version is as easy to navigate and interact with as its Web version is important in the grand scheme of things.

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Digg Launches New Mobile Version with Optimized Interface

Posted by Kristen Nicole under 1

Since the launch of the iPhone 3G, the past couple of weeks have been prime time for companies to launch new mobile sites. Digg is taking advantage of the new surge of interest in mobile applications to reveal its upgraded mobile version of Digg. If you don’t have the new iPhone, it’s all good.

The new Digg mobile site isn’t necessarily an iPhone app–it just looks cooler on the iPhone than the Blackberry. Upgraded features for Digg’s new mobile version include multiple views of popular stories, improved usability for surfing between stories, and faster page loads. You can also add stories to your Favorites while logged in. This new mobile version is designed to operate more like the Web version of Digg, so navigation overall has been improved, specifically the ability to tab between topics and consume more content throughout the site.

The release of the new mobile version also coincides with Digg’s reported traffic increases due to its new recommendation engine. It’s clear that Digg Founder Kevin Rose looks to mobile as the future of media consumption. Ensuring that Digg’s own mobile version is as easy to navigate and interact with as its Web version is important in the grand scheme of things.

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Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

Better Digg Access from your Mobile
Digg Finalizes Comments Upgrades
Digg Needs Your Comments About its Upgraded Comment System
LinkedIn Launches Mobile
YouTube Mobile Site Launches
Reddit River - A Lighter Version of Reddit for Mobiles
Digg Adds New Features to API

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Team overclocks Core 2 Quad to 5.1GHz, claims world record — too bad it’s not

Posted by Nilay Patel under 1

Filed under: Desktops

So we hate to break it to the good guys at Tom’s Hardware, but while we’re impressed that they managed to overclock a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 to 5.1GHz using a cryogenic cooling system, it’s not nearly close to the world record they’re claiming — we’ve seen P4’s at up to 8.18GHz, and just a couple months ago someone jacked a Core 2 Extreme QX9775 on a Skulltrail board to 6GHz. Still, it’s always fun to watch people pour liquid nitrogen over a mobo — video after the break.

[Via PC World]

Continue reading Team overclocks Core 2 Quad to 5.1GHz, claims world record — too bad it’s not

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Team overclocks Core 2 Quad to 5.1GHz, claims world record — too bad it’s not

Posted by Nilay Patel under 1

Filed under: Desktops

So we hate to break it to the good guys at Tom’s Hardware, but while we’re impressed that they managed to overclock a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 to 5.1GHz using a cryogenic cooling system, it’s not nearly close to the world record they’re claiming — we’ve seen P4’s at up to 8.18GHz, and just a couple months ago someone jacked a Core 2 Extreme QX9775 on a Skulltrail board to 6GHz. Still, it’s always fun to watch people pour liquid nitrogen over a mobo — video after the break.

[Via PC World]

Continue reading Team overclocks Core 2 Quad to 5.1GHz, claims world record — too bad it’s not

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AirBed & Breakfast: For Obama’s Sake, Skip the Hotels

Posted by Kristen Nicole under 1

AirBed & Breakfast made its debut earlier this spring when it introduced itself as a service that connects spare rooms with people in need of a place to sleep. With an event as large as SXSW, hotel prices often skyrocket and are usually sold out as the event approaches. AirBed & Breakfast had a great idea in matching people with spare rooms in their homes with those out-of-towners in need of an affordable alternative to pricey hotels.

When I first reviewed the site, I mentioned that its niche could easily be expanded (even beyond events), but AirBed & Breakfast is remaining event-specific for now. The latest housing project the service plans to tackle is the Obama nomination speech at the Democratic Convention next month. Lucky for AirBed & Breakfast, it had plenty of practice with SXSW and has an early start for the upcoming convention. There will be an expected 75,000 people in attendance, and so far AirBed & Breakfast has 328 people with available rooms, ready and waiting for Obama supporters.

I still hope to see some deeper integration with other travel planning services and social networks, but AirBed & Breakfast is doing well to help establish a niche marketplace that empowers individuals and is contributing to the larger movement of a consumer-driven market, currently only supported via the Web.

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Casio gets fancy with LED-infused Tough Movement

Posted by Darren Murph under 1

Filed under: Wearables

Automatic movement? Sweeping hands? Pish posh. Casio's looking to impress a few watch aficionados itself with the all new Tough Movement. Designed to slip inside its Oceanus and G-Shock series of timepieces, the new movement "features a high shock resistance and a hand position correction function using LED." During the 55th minute of each hour, the movement receives time calibration signals from six bases located throughout the world; if the hands are off at all, it automatically corrects things to ensure that you're never a moment off. Reportedly, the first wristwatch to utilize the technology will be the GS-1200, which is currently slated to hit Japan this September for a stiff ¥42,000 ($390).

[Via OhGizmo]

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AOKI’s deodorizing suits keep you so fresh, so clean (clean)

Posted by Darren Murph under 1

Filed under: Wearables

We’re not even going to front — some seriously bizarre air conditioning-related gizmos have emerged from the great nation of Japan. The latest concoction to deal with heat wave side effects actually has nothing to do with keeping folks cool; rather, AOKI’s deodorant suits are designed to keep businessmen suffering from Hyperhidrosis adequately fresh. Most of the details are lost in (machine) translation, but all you need to know is that these outfits “suck out the smell of sweat using a silver ion.” Yeah, that’s totally worth the ¥61,950 ($575) asking price.

[Via CrunchGear, image courtesy of ListVerse]

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Researchers find ways to squeeze light into spaces never thought possible

Posted by Donald Melanson under 1

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It looks like a team of UC Berkeley researchers led by mechanical engineering professor Xiang Zhang (pictured) have found a way to squeeze light into tighter spaces than ever though possible, which they say could lead to breakthroughs in the fields of optical communications, miniature lasers, and optical computers. The key to this new technique, it seems, is the use of a “hybrid” optical fiber consisting of a very thin semiconductor wire placed close to a smooth sheet of silver, which effectively acts as a capacitor that traps the light waves in the gap between the wire and the metal sheet and lets it slip though spaces as tiny as 10 nanometers (or more than 100 times thinner than current optical fibers). That’s apparently as opposed to previous attempts that relied on surface plasmonics, in which light binds to electrons and allows it to travel along the surface of metal, which only proved effective over short distances. While all of this is still in the theoretical stage, the researchers seem to think they’re on to something big, with research associate Rupert Olten saying that this new development “means we can potentially do some things we have never done before.

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New Service Lets You Get an “earfl” of Stories and Gossip

Posted by Kristen Nicole under 1

earfl is like Twitter for phone calls. Instead of sending in an SMS update, you can just dial a number and say a little something. The recording will be linked to your account on the Web, and can then be shared with family and friends. Attach an image if you’d like–this makes audio recordings (especially those from the phone) more interesting.

Stories can be rated, commented upon, emailed out to friends, or embedded into other social networking profiles or websites. earfl also features groups, so you can connect with others regarding a particular topic of interest. Another useful feature is the ability to send a recording to another user and invite them to participate. For this option, earfl will actually grant them a redemption code that allows them to submit a recording without having to set up an account.

Each public story has a ShareThis button, so items can easily be spread to most major social media networks and bookmarking sites. And while ShareThis allows these stories to be sent to other microblogging tools like Twitter, an automated option for users would be helpful as well, especially if they’re looking to diversify their content for redistribution purposes.

Even though we’re seeing a lot of development in this industry, with BT acquiring Ribbit and a number of other applications finding ways to leverage vocal commands and conversions for multimedia purposes, earfl still fights an uphill battle, as there are a number of other services (besides Twitter) like Pownce and Utterz that are present in the microblogging domain and support multiple file types. To that end, having additional options like speech-to-text conversion and SMS and email distribution options could help earfl straddle more aspects of the microblogging market.

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KNGT offers up Windows XP-powered icom MK1 carputer

Posted by Darren Murph under 1

Filed under: Desktops, Transportation

We genuinely hope you don’t value your dash very much, because a great deal of it will vanish if you opt to install KNGT’s icom MK1.The full-fledged car computer wows passengers and drivers alike with its 6.95-inch 800 x 480 resolution display, on-screen QWERTY keyboard, wireless connectivity and mobile TV (T-DMB) tuner. Furthermore, you’ll find a 40GB / 80GB hard drive, upwards of 2GB of RAM, a few USB 2.0 ports, a 1.6GHz Intel CPU and Windows XP running the show. You know all those threats you made when you were younger about heading out and just living in your ‘79 Riviera? Following through just got a whole lot easier.

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

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Hacker stuffs a wired 360 controller in a DualShock 3 shell

Posted by Nilay Patel under 1

Filed under: Gaming

Console modders out there have been doing crazy things with controllers for a while now, and while this latest piece isn’t as crazy as the one-handed Access Controller, it’s still good for a double-take — check out this wired 360 controller shoehorned into a DualShock3 shell, complete with green LEDs. THe modder, RDC, says it works great, rumble included, but that there’s no headset connector and the L2 and R2 triggers aren’t analog — both things he’s hoping to fix in the next version. We’d suggest keeping the DS3 buttons as well — while the colorful 360 buttons look pretty hot against that black case, we’d rather break this thing out and blow minds stealth-style.

[Thanks, Aguiluz]

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Hacker stuffs a wired 360 controller in a DualShock 3 shell

Posted by Nilay Patel under 1

Filed under: Gaming

Console modders out there have been doing crazy things with controllers for a while now, and while this latest piece isn’t as crazy as the one-handed Access Controller, it’s still good for a double-take — check out this wired 360 controller shoehorned into a DualShock3 shell, complete with green LEDs. THe modder, RDC, says it works great, rumble included, but that there’s no headset connector and the L2 and R2 triggers aren’t analog — both things he’s hoping to fix in the next version. We’d suggest keeping the DS3 buttons as well — while the colorful 360 buttons look pretty hot against that black case, we’d rather break this thing out and blow minds stealth-style.

[Thanks, Aguiluz]

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Delicious Without the Dots. Version 2.0 Delivered.

Posted by Paul Glazowski under 1

So “soon” really did mean soon. Props to the Delicious crew for making it happen this time around.

There it is. The new Delicious. It looks good, huh? It shares some characteristics from the “heritage edition,” but it seems to carry a bit more in the way of currency. If you liked what came before, you’ll probably find the new one a nice fit. Kind of like buying a new pair of shoes that, by default, feel good. You still have some breaking-in to do, but the new style probably won’t slow you down much.

Delicious is promising three primary things with the 2.0 tag: more speed, overhauled search (also said to be a leadfoot), and, of course, a fresh design. As the company describes in its latest blog post:

…we’ve updated the user interface to improve usability and add a few often-requested features (such as selectable detail levels and alphabetical sorting of bookmarks). Our goal has been to keep the new design similar in spirit to the old one, so all of you veterans should be able to jump in without any confusion. At the same time, we’re hoping that newcomers to Delicious will find it easier to learn.

Delicious is welcoming feedback for the new version at the Delicious Discussion Forum. No special access key needed. As long as you have a valid account registered with the service, you can tell the gang what you love and what you don’t. Don’t ask for the dots back, though. That probably won’t happen.

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