THE Tech Scoop

Aimed specifically at those delivering presentations whilst out and about, AWIND’s MobiShow serves as what AWIND describe as a wireless access point allowing video and PowerPoint presentations to be streamed directly from a remote PC – thanks to AWIND’s mTVic platform - courtesy of a smartphone’s (iPhone or Windows Mobile device) Wi-Fi connection whilst the phone acts as a remote control for the ensuing presentations.

Introduced by Richard Chen, program manager of Awind who states that ‘(The) MobiShow delivers more possibilities for mobile phone applications, and we believe people who travel around the world for business would love to have such an accessory in their pocket’ the AWIND MobiShow is capable of delivering presentations at 1024×768 resolution and can be connected to both TVs and projectors resulting in a highly mobile device that could see the wealth of business presentation gadgetry needed whilst out on location cut considerably.

There’s no word concerning the AWIND MobiShow’s pricing or expected availability at the time of writing.

Here are some good deals recently posted by Dell for gifts $100 and below.

Giving made easy with the Dell Home Gift Guide

In this time of fiscal madness, I’m continuing in my series of relevant terms that shape our economic landscape

The TED spread is the difference between the interest rates on interbank loans and short-term U.S. government debt (”T-bills”).

Initially, the TED spread was the difference between the interest rates for three-month U.S. Treasuries contracts and the three-month Eurodollars contract as represented by the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). However, since the Chicago Mercantile Exchange dropped T-bill futures, the TED spread is now calculated as the difference between the three-month T-bill interest rate and three-month LIBOR.

TED is an acronym formed from T-Bill and ED, the ticker symbol for the Eurodollar futures contract. The size of the spread is usually denominated in basis points (bps). For example, if the T-bill rate is 5.10% and ED trades at 5.50%, the TED spread is 40 bps. The TED spread fluctuates over time, but historically has often remained within the range of 10 and 50 bps (0.1% and 0.5%), until 2007. A rising TED spread often presages a downturn in the U.S. stock market, as it indicates that liquidity is being withdrawn.

Indicator

The TED spread is an indicator of perceived credit risk in the general economy. This is because T-bills are considered risk-free while LIBOR reflects the credit risk of lending to commercial banks. When the TED spread increases, that is a sign that lenders believe the risk of default on interbank loans (also known as counterparty risk) is increasing. Interbank lenders therefore demand a higher rate of interest, or accept lower returns on safe investments such as T-bills. When the risk of bank defaults is considered to be decreasing, the TED spread decreases.

Sunday Shortbread - Sun, 23 Nov 2008
Sunday Steam client update released Weekend deal - buy Sam & Max Complete Season One for $14.99, a savings of 50% Grand Theft Auto IV - now available for pre-purchase C|Net reports Boston-Power readies...

The TR Podcast 26: Faith, revelations, and exploring Shanghai - Sat, 22 Nov 2008
This week's episode adds two new X58 motherboards and games to the discussion, another editor to our series of biographies, and a sneak peak of our upcoming Shanghai Opteron benchmarks.

Saturday Shortbread - Sat, 22 Nov 2008
Saturday VentureBeat on Apple's 2008 ad budget: nearly a half billion dollars Microsoft CEO Ballmer ordered to testify in 'Vista' case Microsoft, Rob Enderle, and their conflicting perceptions of reality Microsoft hires away key search VP from Yahoo DigiTimes reports Fujitsu introduces first netbook series Microsoft announces...

Saturday science subject: Martian glaciers - Sat, 22 Nov 2008
NASA just keeps finding Earth-like features on Mars. After water ice and snow, the space agency has now uncovered water-ice glaciers hidden under "thin layers of crustal debris" near the red planet's equator. Scientific American elaborates: The findings, published today in Science, come from the [Mars...

OpenCL spec is almost out the door - Fri, 21 Nov 2008
The Khronos group may release the completed OpenCL specification in about a month, according to a report by MacWorld. One of the site's editors was at the SC08 high-performance computing conference in Austin, where Intel's Tim Mattson revealed what's going down: "The bottom line is, we've defined it technically,"...

New S3 Chrome graphics card is cheap, has built-in HD audio - Fri, 21 Nov 2008
Every so often, S3 posts a press release to remind everyone that AMD and Nvidia aren't the only two companies to offer discrete GPUs. After revealing last month that it, too, is working on general-purpose GPU technology, S3...

Deal of the week: Two GPUs and a classic game - Fri, 21 Nov 2008
If you've shopped around for graphics cards lately, you'll know AMD's Radeon HD 4870 and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 260's graphics cards have both been available around the $250 mark for weeks. The GTX 260 was usually a tad cheaper than that, while the Radeon was typically a tad more expensive. Both companies...

PC market to grow less than expected in 2009, 2010 - Fri, 21 Nov 2008
The financial crisis may end up having a greater impact on the PC market than some previously believed. Market research firm iSuppli says it has revised its outlook for 2009 and 2010, cutting forecast growth by almost two thirds for next year. Last quarter, iSuppli expected the PC market to...

Friday Shortbread - Fri, 21 Nov 2008
Friday Engadget HD reports USB 3.0 demonstrations dazzle: uncompressed 1080p transfer proves simple C|Net reports Dell profits slide 5 percent Microsoft seeks to end Vista lawsuit Internal e-mails: Microsoft execs on Vista ...

Internet Explorer 8 will go gold next year - Thu, 20 Nov 2008
Microsoft has revealed more details about its release roadmap for Internet Explorer 8. In a post on the official IEBlog, Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch says you can expect a public "release candidate" build of the new browser in the first quarter of 2009. Some time after that, the...

We’ve got the details on Gateway’s MC7801u and the MC9804h notebooks – both of which sport true 16:9 aspect ratio ‘Cinematic 16’ 16” Ultrabright displays (a first for Gateway) offering 1366×768 resolution TFT displays capable of delivering a 720p HD multimedia experience.

Featuring an Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2.0GHz CPU, the new base level MC Series notebooks feature 4096MB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, a 320GB 5400rpm SATA HDD, integrated Intel 4500MHD graphics (which can be upgraded to ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 standard for an additional $50), a built-in 5-in-1 card reader, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, 56K fax/modem, 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet LAN and integrated Intel WiFi 5100 Link 802.11a/g/Draft-N and 8x Multi-Format Dual Layer DVD burner.

Additionally you’re also looking at the Gateway MC Series offering four USB 2.0 ports, VGA and v1.3 HDMI video outputs and, of course, you also have what Gateway proudly refers to as ‘illuminated multimedia touch controls’.

Expected to become available around the end of October, the base model Gateway MC Series notebook is expected to retail at around the $950 price point with various point of sale upgrades (as yet not wholly specified, but including the aforementioned ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 GPU) serving to push that figure up somewhat.

Here is the original post:
New Gateway MC Series Multimedia Notebooks Detailed [Gateway MC7801u & MC9804h]

According to a report by the Digitimes, MSI’s much anticipated new 3.5G Wind U120 netbook, which was expected this quarter, will actually begin shipping as of next month (November) with a retail price of around $552.

Powered by an Intel Atom N270 CPU, the MSI Wind U120, as well as being supplied with a 3.5G module, comes with 1GB of RAM, a 120GB HDD and, as well as being preloaded with Win XP will be made available in white and black.

MSI have also confirmed that they will not be producing a touchscreen version of the Wind netbook citing prohibitive costs though, interestingly, Digitimes reports that Asustek is planning a touchscreen version of its ever popular Eee PC for release sometime in ’09 (which could see MSI changing their minds in the fullness of time a bid to ensure it cuts into the new Eee PC’s market share).

Here is the original post:
MSI 3.5G Wind U120 Netbook Available November [Wind U120 Shipping Next Month]

Check out this tiny palm sized Linux PC from iMovio, the iKit.

The iMovio iKit is designed to be used for IM, web browsing, email etc, it also has built in WiFi, Bluetooth and has a Marvell PXA270 Processor. The iKit  also has a 0.3 megapixel camera, a mini USB port and it runs Linux 2.4.19 kernel, and Qt Software’s QT/E 2.3.8

There isn’t much in terms of memory or storage with a total of 192MB, but there is an SD card slot and the storage can be expanded up to 8GB.

Here’s the full specs.

• Processor — Marvell PXA270 312MHz Memory 128MB RAM; 64MB SDRAM; includes 12MB for user data and 23MB for user media files Flash expansion– MicroSD slot supporting up to 8GB
• Display — 2.8 inch QVGA (240 x 320), TFT, 260K colors, landscape
• Keypad — QWERTY/AZERTY plus numeric keys; two soft keys; five quick-access keys
• Audio — 16mm monophonic speaker; headset connector
• Camera — 0.3-megapizel fixed-focus; 15fps viewfinder, 16-bit color depth; up to 3X digital zoom with seven steps
• USB — Mini-USB 1.1 port used for charging and PC data exchange
• WiFi — 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth — Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR Status and alerts – LEDs; vibrator alerts
• Audio formats — MIDI, WAV, MP3
• Image formats — JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG
• Video formats — 3GP, MP4, and AVI format; 25fps playback for QVGA-size video
• Web software — Opera Mini 4.1 browser; Java (JTWI/JSR75 compliant)
• Email and IM — POP3, IMAP, SMTP; MSN messaging PC sync – syncs with Outlook 2000/2003 and Outlook Express v6 PIM features: 2,000-record contact list 1,000-event calendar Calculator Media folder Notepad World/alarm clocks Stop Watch/timer
• Battery — 1050 mAh, Li-ion; 3 to 4 hours battery life with typical usage; 250 hours standby time
• Dimensions — 3.7 x 2.6 x 0.6 inches (95 x 65 x 15.5mm)
• Weight — 4 oz (113g) with battery

The Imovio iKit will retail for around $860.

Go here to see the original:
iMovio iKit - Palm sized Linux PC

In what could be a sign of things to come, an unnamed staffer was pictured on Election Night showing Vice President-Elect Joe Biden something on a MacBook Air. Biden also appears to be holding an iPhone 3G with a sticker on the back.

Biden was apparently observing something on screen, while President-Elect Barack Obama celebrated in the background with another staffer. The MacBook Air appeared to be connected to a USB 3G network adapter.

The Obama administration could become the most technologically-savvy presidency so far. The President-Elect’s transition team has already put up change.gov, a website developed by Blue State Digital, the same firm that created Obama’s campaign website. Obama’s administration promises to be the first to include a Chief Technology Officer, and he supports net neutrality.

Obama has been photographed during his campaign using an iPhone. A Newsweek article in Feburary noted that Michelle Obama bought the president-elect and their children each a MacBook, so they could stay in touch during the long campaign. [via]

BlackBerry Storm rolled out in Europe

Toshiba has launched a new high end gaming laptop, the Qosmio X305-Q708.

The Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q708 is powered by an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 processor and comes with 4GB of DDR3 RAM. On top of that you get a 128GB SATA solid state drive, a 7,200 RPM 320GB SATA hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 9400m graphics, plus dual 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS graphics cards, which are set up in SLI.

If that wasn’t enough there is also a DVD burner, four Harmon Kardon speakers and a built in sub woofer and a 1.3 megapixel camera with face recognition technology.

The Qosmio X305-Q708 features a 17 inch LCD screen with a resolution of 1680 x 1050, and it runs Vista Ultimate with the choice of 64-bit or 32-bit.

The Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q708 will retail for around $4,200, and will be availble at major retailers including Toshiba Direct shortly.

Read more here:
Toshiba launches a high end gaming Laptop - The Qosmio X305-Q708