Joined: Dec 16, 2009
Posts: 1091
Location: North Carolina
Ipads are getting put on craigslist already LOL
While the hype for Apple's iFad has not turned into sales, it also seems that some of those that were dumb enough to buy the overpriced keyboardless netbook are trying get rid of them.
Since the iFad went on sale on Saturday Craigslist has 200 entries from people who bought one trying to offload them onto another victim. We guess they need to sell them before word gets out how gruesome the gadgets are.
One seller said that she had stood in the line with all the Apple fanboys and got really excited “with the clapping and everything”. However when she got the gadget she wondered why she had done it. There are 9,813 results to be found on ebay but some of them are resellers who are flogging new ones.
It is possible that people are falling for the hype and then wondering what the hell they are actually buying. Once they get it home they are not sure if it actually has a use.
Why NOT to buy a Icrap er i mean Ipad
We have been scanning through all the over hyped coverage of the iPad launch over the weekend, including some reviews. Those which were clearly not written by Apple fanboys reveal a few things in common. While many say that it is nice looking and sleek there is also lots of reasons why anyone who buys one is insane.
It is impossible to carry - There is no way of viably carrying it. You'll need a case of some sort to protect it and carry the power cable. It's too thin, heavy, slippery and expensive to put under your arm. You end up carrying it like a dinner tray and people insist on putting their coffee on it
It weighs a ton - Well it weighs 1.5 pounds but in comparison to a Kindle ebook reader, which is about 10 ounces, it is weighty enough to bend light. If you hold it too long you get tired wrists although many Apple fanboys have strong wrists so that might not be a problem.
It is hard to hold - Some reviewers claim it is slippery, and its aluminum back is ever-so-slightly slightly concave. For some reason it lacks rubber feet so if you use it on a table because your hands are tired, see above, it moves.
The screen is about as reflective as a mirror - This is great if you want to use the iPad to do your make-up or brush your hair. However to use the iPad you have to dim the lights otherwise you can't see the screen. It is safe to forget about using the iPad in the sunshine. The Kindle's non-glossy e-ink display is better for reading.
Fingerprints - Within seconds of using an iPad you realise that your fingers are not clean. It does not matter if you wash them you really need to handle your iPad with surgical gloves if you don't what your paw marks over the picture. The iPad is too big to wipe on your jeans so you have to carry a proper screen wipe too.
Multitasking? Don't make me laugh - The iPad uses the iPhone OS which means it is about as useful as a computing device as a dead badger. The iPhone can't multi-task to save its life which is bearable on a phone, but intolerable on anything trying to resemble a computer.
A machine for people with more money than sense - You have to stump up $500 for the basic low low-memory model. If you use it, the memory will fill up quickly. If you buy what you really need memory wise, including the 2-year, $280 "we'll replace it even if you drop it" warranty it will cost $1,000.
The browser is useless - The iPhone ships with a cut down version of Safari which only an Apple fanboy or Steve Jobs' mum could love. It can't play Flash because Steve is at war with Adobe so you can forget visiting about 90 per cent of the world wide wibble. True Flash is buggy but it is mostly what the Internet runs on what ever Steve Jobs wishes.
The keyboard is useless - While it is nice to play with a touch screen on a phone when it is increased in size its usefulness does not match. Sure it is bigger but you still end up typing with one finger. Those who touch type will find the keyboard impossible to use. True you can plug in a real keyboard but that somewhat defeats the purpose of Jobs' dream machine.
There's no USB port - What was Jobs' smoking? You can't connect the gear to anything useful. Oh there is a separate accessory from Apple for a camera. Whoop.
Applications look pants - At the moment the software for the iPad are based on the iPhone. These have been designed for a screen the size of a postage stamp. When they are shoved on to an iPad screen, iPhone-only apps look pixelated. Ipad software is more expensive.
Why do you want it? - The iPad can't replace a smartphone, a laptop, it is too heavy for an ereader. What do you want it for?
Microsoft rolls update as promised
The promised USB Mass Storage support or “Up to 16GB USB Flash Drive” support as we like to call it, is making its way to Xbox 360 consoles as promised. The decision by Microsoft to move in this direction caught many by surprise, including us here at Fudzilla.
While Microsoft is capping the support at a total of 16GB per USB Flash Storage design and only permitting two of these to be connected at once, as with most users we applaud the decision by Microsoft to go this direction. Being able to purchase low-cost 16GB flash drives will allow a lot of flexibility for users to be able to both save and archive much more data; and some suggest that coupled with the recently released 250GB hard drive it will stop a lot of the clamor for larger storage options.
Microsoft will not be releasing their Xbox 360-branded offerings that will be coming from their partnership with SanDisk till next month. Of course, the Microsoft/SanDisk offering will be pricey when compared with offerings from other vendors. According to what our sources tell us, the Microsoft/SanDisk offerings will come in two sizes with an 8GB and 16GB offering. The 8GB is said to be going for $39.99 USD, with the 16GB version going for $69.99 USD when they hit the shelves.
While we have been unable to do a lot of testing of the USB Flash Drive support, from what we have seen it works as advertised and the performance was not bad; but clearly a USB Flash Drive with faster read support does, of course, yield better results. While our testing was informal, to say the least, the three models tested did vary in read performance. If you want the fastest access times, it is worth it to perhaps purchase a brand name model that might cost a little more, but that offers better performance.
You thought standard Blu-ray was big
With the ability to store 25GB on a single-layer Blu-ray disc or 50GB on a dual-layer Blu-ray disc, we thought that in the short term this was more than enough storage. Well, apparently this is not the case: you should get ready for the BDXL standard, which will allow for 128GB of storage on these high capacity discs.
Of course, as with the introduction of any new standard these days, it will not be compatible on existing Blu-ray players or recorders, meaning that you will need a new drive to take advantage of the new standard. Many are comparing it to the transition from DVD-RW drives that could only write to single layer discs, to the newer drives that have the ability to write to dual-layer discs.
While there is no word yet on how BDXL will break into the market space, it seems that manufacturers are confident that it will one day find its way into home players there by cutting down the amount of discs needed in many sets. The biggest advantage could be in episode TV offerings where it could cut the number of discs needed by more than half, which equals higher profits for the studios. We say that you should not look for it anytime soon; it will just be too expensive and not enough people will have BDXL support when it does finally arrive in home players. We are also told that the standard cannot be supported on the PlayStation 3 with a firmware upgrade.
Blu-ray is getting another new format, as well, called the IH-BD. This format features a dual-layer disc with one layer being a BD-ROM and the other layer a BD-RE. The idea here is that the BD-RE will be used for viewing data. Again, there is no support for it yet and it is unclear if any current generation Blu-ray drives could get a firmware update to support the format, but our sources tell us most likely not.
Don’t look for either format soon, but do expect them to generate a lot of buzz in the upcoming months. We just don’t know that those who just took the plunge to buy a Blu-ray drive are going to be all that eager to upgrade this early.
New Generation of VelociRaptors
Although they were detailed yesterday, Western Digital has officially launched its new VR200M VelociRaptors hard drives. Despite the fact that these 450GB and 600GB new VelociRaptors are quite an upgrade when compared to the previous generation, SSDs still retain the performance throne.
The new VR200M VelociRaptors are still designed as a 2.5-inch drives with an optional 3.5-inch heatsink. WD has simply increased the platter density and has doubled the buffer size to 32MB.
The rest of the specs include 0.4ms track to track seek, 8.5ms full stroke seek, transfer rate/buffer to disk of 145MB/s, 32MB buffer size, rotation speed of 10,000RPM and SATA 6Gbps interface. The aforementioned support for SATA 6Gbps interface that is kinda useless as there is no performance benefit. In fact, according to some reviews that are online, it is actually slower than 3Gbps SATA in some cases.
Most reviews agree on same facts. With US $329 and US $299 price tags for the 600 and 450GB drives, and its performance gains of up to 5 to 10 percent for average user, these new VelociRaptors fit somewhere between the regular HDDs and pricey solid state drives.
Interacting with graphics cards
Mozilla Foundation is working on Direct2D accelleration which will mean that it s Firefox browser will be able to call upon the power of the GPU to speed itself up. While it certainly won’t turn a sluggish Internet connection into a speedy one it will help number crunch all those browser scripts a lot quicker.
The downside is that Direct2D is currently slated for an alpha build, so it probably won’t make it into the release schedule of Gecko 1.9.3. At this rate it will be a year or so before it makes it onto a proper build.
Microsoft has indicated that its forthcoming versions of Internet Exploder will also look to using more of the computer's hardware to speed itself up.
Gaming is bad for your teeth?
New research shows that playing computer games is bad for your teeth. (Among other things. sub.ed.)
New research, penned by Jordon Poss at the University of Iowa and presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Dental Research in Washington suggests snacking while playing computer and video games could be responsible for poor levels of oral health among young teenagers. The report said that gamers who spend substantial amounts of time at the screen are more than twice as likely to develop tooth decay and caries as those with more active lifestyles.
Apparently teens are more likely to snack on sugary foods while absorbed in computer games. It is estimated half of teenagers in the UK have a video console in their bedroom and 97 per cent of all teens play video games regularly. The study is one of the first to suggest dietary habits leading to decay are associated with screen activities and that computer games, if associated with increased snacking are associated with decay experience.
Kids who had parental rules regarding screen time and diet were less likely to eat or drink while watching television and playing video games than subjects without parental rules. Participants without structured eating patterns were more than a third more likely to have caries than subjects with structured patterns.
New Siggy; What do you think?
While the hype for Apple's iFad has not turned into sales, it also seems that some of those that were dumb enough to buy the overpriced keyboardless netbook are trying get rid of them.
Since the iFad went on sale on Saturday Craigslist has 200 entries from people who bought one trying to offload them onto another victim. We guess they need to sell them before word gets out how gruesome the gadgets are.
One seller said that she had stood in the line with all the Apple fanboys and got really excited “with the clapping and everything”. However when she got the gadget she wondered why she had done it. There are 9,813 results to be found on ebay but some of them are resellers who are flogging new ones.
It is possible that people are falling for the hype and then wondering what the hell they are actually buying. Once they get it home they are not sure if it actually has a use.
Why NOT to buy a Icrap er i mean Ipad
We have been scanning through all the over hyped coverage of the iPad launch over the weekend, including some reviews. Those which were clearly not written by Apple fanboys reveal a few things in common. While many say that it is nice looking and sleek there is also lots of reasons why anyone who buys one is insane.
It is impossible to carry - There is no way of viably carrying it. You'll need a case of some sort to protect it and carry the power cable. It's too thin, heavy, slippery and expensive to put under your arm. You end up carrying it like a dinner tray and people insist on putting their coffee on it
It weighs a ton - Well it weighs 1.5 pounds but in comparison to a Kindle ebook reader, which is about 10 ounces, it is weighty enough to bend light. If you hold it too long you get tired wrists although many Apple fanboys have strong wrists so that might not be a problem.
It is hard to hold - Some reviewers claim it is slippery, and its aluminum back is ever-so-slightly slightly concave. For some reason it lacks rubber feet so if you use it on a table because your hands are tired, see above, it moves.
The screen is about as reflective as a mirror - This is great if you want to use the iPad to do your make-up or brush your hair. However to use the iPad you have to dim the lights otherwise you can't see the screen. It is safe to forget about using the iPad in the sunshine. The Kindle's non-glossy e-ink display is better for reading.
Fingerprints - Within seconds of using an iPad you realise that your fingers are not clean. It does not matter if you wash them you really need to handle your iPad with surgical gloves if you don't what your paw marks over the picture. The iPad is too big to wipe on your jeans so you have to carry a proper screen wipe too.
Multitasking? Don't make me laugh - The iPad uses the iPhone OS which means it is about as useful as a computing device as a dead badger. The iPhone can't multi-task to save its life which is bearable on a phone, but intolerable on anything trying to resemble a computer.
A machine for people with more money than sense - You have to stump up $500 for the basic low low-memory model. If you use it, the memory will fill up quickly. If you buy what you really need memory wise, including the 2-year, $280 "we'll replace it even if you drop it" warranty it will cost $1,000.
The browser is useless - The iPhone ships with a cut down version of Safari which only an Apple fanboy or Steve Jobs' mum could love. It can't play Flash because Steve is at war with Adobe so you can forget visiting about 90 per cent of the world wide wibble. True Flash is buggy but it is mostly what the Internet runs on what ever Steve Jobs wishes.
The keyboard is useless - While it is nice to play with a touch screen on a phone when it is increased in size its usefulness does not match. Sure it is bigger but you still end up typing with one finger. Those who touch type will find the keyboard impossible to use. True you can plug in a real keyboard but that somewhat defeats the purpose of Jobs' dream machine.
There's no USB port - What was Jobs' smoking? You can't connect the gear to anything useful. Oh there is a separate accessory from Apple for a camera. Whoop.
Applications look pants - At the moment the software for the iPad are based on the iPhone. These have been designed for a screen the size of a postage stamp. When they are shoved on to an iPad screen, iPhone-only apps look pixelated. Ipad software is more expensive.
Why do you want it? - The iPad can't replace a smartphone, a laptop, it is too heavy for an ereader. What do you want it for?
Microsoft rolls update as promised
The promised USB Mass Storage support or “Up to 16GB USB Flash Drive” support as we like to call it, is making its way to Xbox 360 consoles as promised. The decision by Microsoft to move in this direction caught many by surprise, including us here at Fudzilla.
While Microsoft is capping the support at a total of 16GB per USB Flash Storage design and only permitting two of these to be connected at once, as with most users we applaud the decision by Microsoft to go this direction. Being able to purchase low-cost 16GB flash drives will allow a lot of flexibility for users to be able to both save and archive much more data; and some suggest that coupled with the recently released 250GB hard drive it will stop a lot of the clamor for larger storage options.
Microsoft will not be releasing their Xbox 360-branded offerings that will be coming from their partnership with SanDisk till next month. Of course, the Microsoft/SanDisk offering will be pricey when compared with offerings from other vendors. According to what our sources tell us, the Microsoft/SanDisk offerings will come in two sizes with an 8GB and 16GB offering. The 8GB is said to be going for $39.99 USD, with the 16GB version going for $69.99 USD when they hit the shelves.
While we have been unable to do a lot of testing of the USB Flash Drive support, from what we have seen it works as advertised and the performance was not bad; but clearly a USB Flash Drive with faster read support does, of course, yield better results. While our testing was informal, to say the least, the three models tested did vary in read performance. If you want the fastest access times, it is worth it to perhaps purchase a brand name model that might cost a little more, but that offers better performance.
You thought standard Blu-ray was big
With the ability to store 25GB on a single-layer Blu-ray disc or 50GB on a dual-layer Blu-ray disc, we thought that in the short term this was more than enough storage. Well, apparently this is not the case: you should get ready for the BDXL standard, which will allow for 128GB of storage on these high capacity discs.
Of course, as with the introduction of any new standard these days, it will not be compatible on existing Blu-ray players or recorders, meaning that you will need a new drive to take advantage of the new standard. Many are comparing it to the transition from DVD-RW drives that could only write to single layer discs, to the newer drives that have the ability to write to dual-layer discs.
While there is no word yet on how BDXL will break into the market space, it seems that manufacturers are confident that it will one day find its way into home players there by cutting down the amount of discs needed in many sets. The biggest advantage could be in episode TV offerings where it could cut the number of discs needed by more than half, which equals higher profits for the studios. We say that you should not look for it anytime soon; it will just be too expensive and not enough people will have BDXL support when it does finally arrive in home players. We are also told that the standard cannot be supported on the PlayStation 3 with a firmware upgrade.
Blu-ray is getting another new format, as well, called the IH-BD. This format features a dual-layer disc with one layer being a BD-ROM and the other layer a BD-RE. The idea here is that the BD-RE will be used for viewing data. Again, there is no support for it yet and it is unclear if any current generation Blu-ray drives could get a firmware update to support the format, but our sources tell us most likely not.
Don’t look for either format soon, but do expect them to generate a lot of buzz in the upcoming months. We just don’t know that those who just took the plunge to buy a Blu-ray drive are going to be all that eager to upgrade this early.
New Generation of VelociRaptors
Although they were detailed yesterday, Western Digital has officially launched its new VR200M VelociRaptors hard drives. Despite the fact that these 450GB and 600GB new VelociRaptors are quite an upgrade when compared to the previous generation, SSDs still retain the performance throne.
The new VR200M VelociRaptors are still designed as a 2.5-inch drives with an optional 3.5-inch heatsink. WD has simply increased the platter density and has doubled the buffer size to 32MB.
The rest of the specs include 0.4ms track to track seek, 8.5ms full stroke seek, transfer rate/buffer to disk of 145MB/s, 32MB buffer size, rotation speed of 10,000RPM and SATA 6Gbps interface. The aforementioned support for SATA 6Gbps interface that is kinda useless as there is no performance benefit. In fact, according to some reviews that are online, it is actually slower than 3Gbps SATA in some cases.
Most reviews agree on same facts. With US $329 and US $299 price tags for the 600 and 450GB drives, and its performance gains of up to 5 to 10 percent for average user, these new VelociRaptors fit somewhere between the regular HDDs and pricey solid state drives.
Interacting with graphics cards
Mozilla Foundation is working on Direct2D accelleration which will mean that it s Firefox browser will be able to call upon the power of the GPU to speed itself up. While it certainly won’t turn a sluggish Internet connection into a speedy one it will help number crunch all those browser scripts a lot quicker.
The downside is that Direct2D is currently slated for an alpha build, so it probably won’t make it into the release schedule of Gecko 1.9.3. At this rate it will be a year or so before it makes it onto a proper build.
Microsoft has indicated that its forthcoming versions of Internet Exploder will also look to using more of the computer's hardware to speed itself up.
Gaming is bad for your teeth?
New research shows that playing computer games is bad for your teeth. (Among other things. sub.ed.)
New research, penned by Jordon Poss at the University of Iowa and presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Dental Research in Washington suggests snacking while playing computer and video games could be responsible for poor levels of oral health among young teenagers. The report said that gamers who spend substantial amounts of time at the screen are more than twice as likely to develop tooth decay and caries as those with more active lifestyles.
Apparently teens are more likely to snack on sugary foods while absorbed in computer games. It is estimated half of teenagers in the UK have a video console in their bedroom and 97 per cent of all teens play video games regularly. The study is one of the first to suggest dietary habits leading to decay are associated with screen activities and that computer games, if associated with increased snacking are associated with decay experience.
Kids who had parental rules regarding screen time and diet were less likely to eat or drink while watching television and playing video games than subjects without parental rules. Participants without structured eating patterns were more than a third more likely to have caries than subjects with structured patterns.
New Siggy; What do you think?
