Crave

Got an HP Mini 311? Download the Flash 10.1 prerelease update ASAP.

The HP Mini 311 is one of our favorite current Netbooks, thanks to its hi-def screen, reasonable price, and Nvidia Ion graphics. Our main knock has been that the accelerated video, while great for basic gaming and HD video file playback, didn't work with the kind of streaming flash video used by Hulu and other sites. In our recent review, we said:

Video playback was excellent, and our test HD WMV file ran flawlessly--something no other Netbook has been able to do. Web-based video is a bit of a different story, but an updated version of Flash (reportedly available in November) will let streaming Web video take advantage of the GPU. For right now, Hulu on-demand content ran decently as-is, but not radically better than other Netbooks.

So, we're pleased to see the Flash player 10.1 update is available (as a prerelease version) for download. It's not even in official beta form yet, but we downloaded and installed it on an HP Mini 311 Netbook to test it out.

Even in this early form, full-screen HD video via Hulu was much improved. Playback was mostly smooth, with a tiny bit of occasional stuttering. Prior to the Flash update, low-res Hulu programming played reasonably well (and even then, not in full-screen mode), and HD video was very hard to watch.

If you're interested in installing the pre-beta version of Flash 10.1 on your Nvidia Ion Netbook or Nettop, you can find it here.

(Credit: CNET)

Last month we blogged about a bug marring Flash playback on the latest 27-inch Apple iMacs. Users on several Web sites, including the Apple Discussion Threads, noticed a problem with the Flash player that caused choppy audio and video playback, but it appears that the newest Mac OS X v10.6.2 update fixes the issue that was apparently caused by a conflict with the Airport driver.

According to Apple, the update "addresses video playback and performance issues for iMac (21.5-inch, late 2009) and iMac (27-inch, late 2009) computers that may occur in some situations while AirPort is turned on." Since our own 27-inch iMac also experienced slow Flash streaming and intermittent sound hiccups with the AirPort turned on, we downloaded the 10.6.2 update and left it to sleep overnight.

Prior to the update, the Flash Player consumed 114.4 percent of system resources, but 24 hours after the update we're happy to report 26.8 percent usage in the activity monitor and smooth performance across all popular streaming video Web sites like YouTube, Hulu, etc.

Much thanks to the Apple Forums and Apple itself for quickly addressing the needs of its community. If you haven't updated yet, simply choose Software Update from the Apple menu to install OS X v10.6.2.

(Credit: CNET)

After reading Engadget's report citing recent complaints about Flash video playback mucking up system resources on the latest 27-inch Apple iMacs, we decided to test out the claims using our own system. Users on the Apple Discussion threads noticed a bug in the Flash Player that bogs down CPU processes, resulting in choppy audio and video playback.

We visited several sites with heavy streaming video content like Hulu, YouTube, and the Break Media Network, and experienced similar issues: popping sounds and jerky video rendering the content unwatchable on several accounts. Like many of the users in the Apple thread, we called up the Activity Monitor and saw that the Flash Player demanded a surprising 114.4 percent of the iMac's CPU processes.

We were able to temporarily fix the problem by putting the computer to sleep and waking it up, but some people are speculating that a hardware malfunction could be to blame. We've also tried to contact Apple for official word, but our messages have been as yet unreturned.

If you're experiencing similar problems, we'd like to hear about it--leave a comment and let us know the issue and what you did to fix it.

(Credit: Get Busy Committee)

Airport security can be so impersonal sometimes--they expect you to open up your luggage and show them your most intimate clothing without so much as a dinner date. If you are really desperate to solicit a more "personal" experience with a man (or woman) in uniform, this unique USB drive is the way to go.

Shaped like the familiar Israeli Uzi gun, the flash drive isn't your typical storage device. Instead, it's a medium for Los Angeles-based rap group Get Busy Committee to release its upcoming album "Uzi Does It" on October 27. Whether or not you're into the group's music, this is definitely a must-have gadget if you want a memorable experience at the airport security line.

(Source: Crave Asia via Wired)

As longtime Netbook fans, we've been well aware of the platform's limitations, from choppy video playback to a total lack of gaming ability. These sticking points have kept many people from making the Netbook jump, or forced them to also keep a full-size laptop for these tasks.

With Nivida's Ion GPU coming to several Netbooks, but seen first in the HP Mini 311, we're one step closer to a low-power, low-cost system that really can be a laptop replacement for many. In our recent review, we said:

We've seen hi-def Netbooks from Sony and others, usually with prices closer to $599, so we're excited to see HP's new Mini 311 packing in an 11.6-inch, 1,366x768 screen, as well as Nvidia's Ion graphics chip, all starting at $399.

The real payoff is in the Nvidia Ion, which, while not a true discrete GPU, offers enough power to play HD video files smoothly (a sticking point for Netbooks), as well as do some basic gaming.

We got Unreal Tournament running fairly smoothly at 800x600, and Call of Duty 4 was also playable at the same resolution (and not terrible at higher resolutions, either) -- although we did run into some stuttering on that game during more frenetic sequences (see the video above), no matter how far down we dialed down the settings .

While a new, and possibly more expensive, version of the Ion GPU is reportedly on the way, one likely workaround to squeeze more performance out of the HP Mini 311 is to add a second GB of RAM -- something that won't be possible until the Windows 7 version ships sometime after Win 7's October 22 launch. We pointed out the folly of being an early adopter in this case when we said:

As much as the Mini 311 may be our new go-to Netbook, we'd be hard-pressed to suggest buying one of these right now, when Windows 7 comes out at the end of October. With Netbooks exempt from Microsoft's free upgrade offer, it makes more sense to wait a few weeks and get the new OS out of the box (which should also make it possible to get past the artificial 1GB of RAM limit on XP-powered Netbooks).

Also, note that taking advantage of the Ion for flash-based Web video, such as Hulu, will require you to wait for the next Flash platform update, which Nvidia tells us is due by the end of November.

Read the full review of the HP Mini 311.

Gallery: HP's Mini 311 with Nvidia Ion graphics

(Credit: Geek Stuff 4 U)

I don't know if this $125 Ninja Kunai 2GB flash memory drive is made of metal or not. They don't say in the product page description. What they say in the warning has me a bit worried, though:

Please note that this product is not a "real" Kunai, and cannot be used as such; also we would like to remind you that this product may be dangerous due to its sharp edge and MUST be handled with care.

GeekStuff4U.com cannot be responsible if you misused this product and hurt yourself or others with it.

So it is not the real thing but it can actually cut? Can I take care of my garden with it? Do they just mean you can use it to take one of your eyes out? Are they giving nerd ninja wannabes any kind of ideas here? I hate when Tuesdays come with so many questions.

(Credit: Geek Stuff 4 U)

This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.

(Credit: SanDisk)

Despite its being out of vogue at the moment, I'm still a big believer in the faster-is-better philosophy. That said, I also recognize that it's not always worth the extra cost for some people, and that not everyone can or will always take advantage of it. So that's why I always take announcements about new, high-performance media cards, like SanDisk's 90 megabyte-per-second Extreme Pro line (along with Transcend's similar 600X CF), with a grain of salt. And after running some casual tests on the new card, I've concluded that for now, even only a limited number of pros will see worthwhile advantages to the faster model given the price premium you'll pay.

The point of using a faster card is to free up bottlenecks that constrain performance. In a camera, those occur when shooting in burst mode, when the camera needs to quickly offload data from the buffer to the card. So a card's speedy usefulness is a function of buffer size, file size, controller (interface) speed, and card write speed. On the downloading end, the bottlenecks occur when copying files from the card to the hard disk, where it's determined by the interface speed (USB or FireWire), media read speed, and operating system overhead. A faster card only helps if the card speed is, or contributes to, the bottleneck. So, for instance, if you're shooting burst but the buffer is sufficiently large and the files are sufficiently small, then a fast controller and write speed on the card don't matter. Same goes if the controller technology bandwidth is sufficiently lower than the card's.

What does that mean in real life? Comparing the UDMA 6 90MB/sec Extreme Pro and the UDMA 5 60MB/sec Extreme shooting a burst of 20 raw+JPEG shots in the Nikon D300s--a combined file size of about 19MB--yielded identical burst performance: 2.9 frames per second (fps). There was a difference in the time it took the camera to be ready to shoot again after the burst completed: 13.1 seconds for the Pro versus 14.4 seconds for the Extreme, or a small savings of 1.3 seconds.

With the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a significantly higher resolution camera with combined JPEG+raw file sizes of 26.3MB, a frame rate differential of 0.2fps did occur--1.8fps with the Extreme versus 2.0fps with the Pro. But that's on average, because the 5D Mark II's buffer only holds 8 shots (the Nikon D300s' holds 12), so the speed difference only shows up after that. It then took 5.9 seconds before the buffer was ready again, compared with 7.8 seconds with the Extreme card. Similarly, with the 15-megapixel 50D, performance diverged by about 0.2fps once you passed the 10-shot buffer limit.

So you really won't see much of a gain unless you shoot relatively long bursts of raw+JPEG files with very high resolution cameras. And keep in mind that it doesn't necessarily apply to all high-resolution cameras. For instance, Sony's A900 and A850 only support up to UDMA 5.

(Credit: SanDisk)

On the download end, the real problem is readers and operating systems. Even SanDisk admits that it's only been able to attain close to 90MB/second speeds with its new ExpressCard reader, shipping in October, and only under OS X. (SanDisk couldn't get me one in time to test its performance.) Even the company's FireWire Extreme reader, currently one of the fastest on the market, only provided a significant performance advantage--39MB/second versus 37MB/second--running at FireWire 800 under Snow Leopard. Oddly, using the reader with a FireWire 400 interface, the Pro card was actually a lot slower, both on the Mac and the PC; And the fastest performance I saw was the older Extreme card, with a rate of 40MB/second on Vista 64 running FW400 (I don't have a FW800 interface for that system). I'm guessing there are some operating system optimization issues here.

The thing is, most pro cameras today are optimized for whatever the highest speed cards available were at the time they were developed, which makes it pretty hard to eke substantial performance gains out of them now, and it'll take a new controller technology, such as USB 3.0, before we'll see significantly better performance for people who aren't working on a 17-inch MacBook Pro. (Perfect time for Apple to remove the ExpressCard slot from the smaller notebooks. Argh.)

With the new card, SanDisk also improves the error correction capabilities for improved reliability--it uses 42-bit ECC up from 10-bit--which is always a plus.

Finally, for many people the price premium may not be worth the small gains. The Extreme Pro cards cost $811.99 (64GB), $507.99 (32GB), and $304.00 (16GB) compared with $375.99 (32GB) and $223.99 (16GB) for the plain old 60MB/second Extreme, which has all the same durability technologies that well, make it extreme. Of course, for a few, every microsecond of performance counts and the time may be worth the money. And if you need that 64GB capacity, well, you're stuck, since there's no 64GB version of the cheaper card, at least from SanDisk. But give it 9 months: once the price comes down a bit, more people have cameras that can benefit from the speed, and we've got the computer interfaces to handle the faster downloads and then I think it'll be a great deal.

(Credit: The Verdict)

Here's a low-tech way to secure your flash drive. The Flash Drive Lock uses a three-digit combination to restrict access to the USB connector on your portable drive.

These combination locks are commonly seen on luggage, and as most of us know, they aren't terribly effective. But if all you want to do is deter casual snoops while out for lunch, it should do the trick. For those who need serious security, there's always data encryption. The Flash Drive Lock sells for $9.80.

(Source: Crave Asia via Red Ferret Journal)