lab

Note: This post was updated on August 17, 2007, to make a correction.

With VMware's official release of Fusion 1.0 less than two weeks ago, there are now no less than four different ways to run Windows applications on Intel-based Macs. Fusion, as well as SWsoft's Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac use virtualization technology to allow you to simultaneously run the Windows operating system as a virtual machine alongside the Mac OS. CrossOver Mac 6.0 from CodeWeavers uses a different virtualization approach by building on the open-source API, Wine, which allows you to run individual … Read more

"Open the donut box and pass me a glazed, Hal."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."

Keeping your diet in check and working out is a great way to lose weight, but robotic assistants are always a huge help.

The weight maintenance sociable robot project at the always fascinating MIT Media Lab has one goal: to help you shed pounds. The talking, face-tracking, eye-contact-making weight-loss coach is designed for in-home use.

The MIT Media Lab site has a video of the robot in action.

Daily and long-term exercise patterns and eating habits are … Read more

Some of us at Crave are an admittedly superficial lot, one that's particularly taken with just about anything that comes from the designers at Bang & Olufsen. But not this time.

The Danish company's "BeoLab 3" speakers seem kind of like a high-tech interpretation of the emperor's clothes--they look almost naked, but we're supposed to laud their innovative design. Given B&O's track record, however, we have little doubt that they'll provide quality sound; according to Luxurylaunches, each unit houses three drivers with a tweeter positioned on top like a periscope, … Read more

Enthusiasts of Microsoft 's Live Labs project Photosynth get a new environment to explore this morning. In addition to art galleries, town squares, and various buildings in Britain, users can now explore shuttle Endeavour before its launch on Wednesday. For those unfamiliar with Photosynth, it's a new technology that groups together a collection of photos taken in the same location into a 3D environment. Users can zoom in and out of various parts to take advantage of higher resolution shots that show more detail, while getting an idea of where they are spatially. In the case of the space … Read more

LOS ALAMOS, N.M.--I spent Wednesday night and Thursday here, in the town that gave birth to the atomic bomb. And even though it's been 62 years since the Manhattan Project finished its work, its aura still pervades Los Alamos.

For example, the main drag through the eastern end of town is Trinity Drive. And one can't help but understand, when driving in from Santa Fe, why the government chose to place the Manhattan Project here: among other reasons, that road is a windy, two-lane affair with a sheer cliff on the north side that made it … Read more

VMware announced today that its virtualization software for the Mac, VMware Fusion--which has been in beta since December 2006--will start shipping as of Monday, August 6. Fusion joins SWsoft's Parallels Desktop for Mac as available options to run additional, concurrent operating systems on Intel-based Macs as virtual machines.

VMware claims that Fusion supports more than 60 operating systems--both 32- and 64-bit--with dual-core processor support. While some users will benefit from being able to run Novell Netware or Linux as virtual machines on their Intel Macs, the largest user-base will mostly consist of those looking to run Windows Vista … Read more

What came first, the chicken or the egg? For PC gamers, the answer is a no brainer...The advanced hardware comes first, and the game titles that can truly take advantage of that hardware come months, if not years, later. It comes as no surprise that Microsoft's own DirectX 10 page talks about the benefits of DX10 in the future tense: "Many of the newest Windows games will take full advantage of the next-generation graphics technology in Windows Vista called DirectX 10." (Italics added.)

Game developers have little incentive right now to produce games for DX10, as … Read more

Digg seems to have outgrown Google as its ad provider, as today marks the start of a new three-year deal with Microsoft to serve up ads on the popular social news service. Microsoft is replacing Google for serving up many of the ads you see on Digg's pages. The rest are provided by Federated Media, which also works with Digg to create special branded pages like the newly-updated Arc visualization in Digg labs.

Digg is claiming the move is about scalability, and positive reviews from Facebook who also uses Microsoft for their contextual advertising. What does this mean for … Read more

Welcome to Inside CNET Labs, an occasional column on the ins and outs of testing tech goods for CNET Reviews. Here, we'll rant and elucidate, giving you a little peek into CNET's most geek-filled department.

I'm starting to question just how much printer vendors value their own products.

One of our prerequisites at CNET Labs is that when we test an inkjet printer for quality, we must use the best available paper provided by the vendor. This allows us to determine the highest quality threshold for the printer, which in turn allows us to fairly compare the … Read more