There are times when innovation produces aggravation, and when that happens, technology can drive Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage of TV's MythBusters nuts. So with that, the duo takes aim at seven examples of misguided machinery.
Read about it at Popular Mechanics:" 'MythBusters': Seven tech headache--and how to fix them"
Today's Internet, he said, is a "go-to" Internet.
"The Internet reacts to our requests rather than anticipating them," he told the conference at the Venetian Hotel and Casino.
In the future, he predicts Internet services will be more proactive, predictive and context aware.
"The Internet … Read more
Intel on Monday formally responded to the European Commission's allegations that the chip giant violated antitrust laws by abusing its dominant market position.
In addition to responding to the Commission's "statement of objections" that the antitrust agency filed in July, Intel will also seek an oral hearing on the matter, said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman.
Once that hearing concludes, the Commission has one of three paths it can take: request more information from the chipmaker, remove the objections, or levy fines and sanctions against the company.
The Commission is under no deadline to choose any … Read more
Like with its Weather Forecaster, you don't have to log onto the Internet or connect to Wi-Fi network in order to get information streamed to the Baseball Scorecast. The wireless transceiver is built into the unit and the device automatically receives information (… Read more
Carl Yankowski, who piloted Palm during the peak of the PDA boom, was tapped Wednesday to head Ambient Devices, a company that embeds wireless data into everyday products.
Yankowski, who was also president of Sony Electronics and CEO of Reebok in the 1990s, replaces David L. Rose, one of the company's co-founders, who is leaving "to pursue other interests."
Ambient's products include a $125 umbrella that lights up when rain is in the forecast, as well as displays that can show weather forecasts or sports scores.
The company was launched in 2001 to help commercialize technology … Read more
My 3-year-old Hewlett-Packard PC stopped playing optical discs a couple of months ago. Not only were the built-in DVD and CD-ROM drives out of commission, I couldn't even get a brand-new external DVD drive to work. I searched and searched for driver updates, but came up empty. It wasn't until I happened upon a Registry patch on Chris Pirillo's great Lockergnome site that I got the machine to recognize the optical drives.
The patch was provided by a volunteer who had no affiliation with HP, Microsoft, or the drive vendors. It's not uncommon for PC experts … Read more
Intel is making a "small" change to its lineup of solid-state drives.
The chipmaker announced late Friday that it is making a solid-state drive for handheld devices that is smaller than a penny and weighs less than a drop of water. The Z-P140 drives will be available in 2GB and 4GB sizes, and are intended for low-power, rugged devices, presumably gadgets like Internet tablets, smartphones, portable video players, and handheld computers. Intel says it is 400 times smaller than a 1.8-inch hard drive.
The drives use flash memory to store data, and have a PATA (parallel ATA) … Read more
Advanced Micro Devices said Wednesday it expects in the fourth quarter to take a sizable write-down for the declining value of intangible assets related to its $5.4 billion acquisition of graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies.
AMD, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, said it doesn't yet know the exact size of the write-down but expects it to be "material"--or in other words, substantial--when it concludes its review.
The chipmaker said it's planning to write off the value it assigned to the ATI acquisition that was above the actual value of ATI's assets, otherwise … Read more
It's not the amount that counts--it's the first few milliliters.
That's the word from Helen Lee, an associate professor at the University of Cambridge, who invented the FirstBurst, that device you see in her hands. It captures the first part of a male patient's urine sample and seals it off into a tube. Those initial milliliters are the ones doctors need for testing. Lee hopes to see the device get shipped into emerging markets to help health professionals. (She has also invented a device for rapidly testing for chlamydia.)
The FirstBurst testing has been fairly rigorous. … Read more
While Windows Vista is slowly adopted, subsequent waves of users may make the mistake of downloading the latest version of ActiveSync to hook up their Windows Mobile device.
This is a bad idea. ActiveSync withers when it comes into contact with Vista's radiant style sheets. Instead of creating ActiveVista, or some similarly named offshoot, Microsoft opted for an overhaul. And lo, Windows Mobile Device Center was born.
Sadly, Windows Mobile Device Center (for 32-bit and 64-bit desktops) only syncs your cell with up to two computers; hard luck for someone with an office rig, a laptop, and a desktop (… Read more
Technically Incorrect
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Christina Milian and the gadgets she loves
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