Plug Computing Goes 3.0

Marvell have recently announced the follow up to the hugely hacker friendly Shivaplug. Titled Marvell Plug Computer 3.0, it now contains such goodies as WiFi, Bluetooth and a blisteringly fast 2 GHz Armada 300 processor.  All this crammed inside  something that resembles a mobile phone charger.

This little device can run as a NAS, web server, media streamer, print server, bittorrent downloader and anything else you can imagine, while using very little power and being dead quiet. If they can keep the price around the $US99 of the original, I will be plugging one in soon.

Via [SlashGear]

Budget Boxee Gets Cool Remote

For the people who aren’t media centre geeks, Boxee is an open source media centre based on XBMC (Xbox Media Centre). They took the solid and attractive looks and added a whole array of internet enabled widgets, from YouTube to Hulu (which seems to come and go). They have now gone a step further and created an all-in-one box with D-Link, and it looks incredibly sharp.

From the pictures, and the hands on, the box screams innovation. The unusual sunken pyramid, the reverse keyboard remote control (remote on one side and keyboard on the other). All the function (go to Engadget for more detailed info) and they still managed to keep the little box that can below the $US200 mark.

Via [Engadget]

Google Nexus Is A Phone!

I’m sorry Google fanboys. I know you expected a miracle from the god machine, but it seems that Google has simply made a phone.

The first full fledged Google Nexus review is in and guess what, it is a solid smartphone, but it’s an evolution and not a revolution. Engadget gave it much praise for build quality and performance, but under all the added flash that Google have added is the same Android 2 OS that the Droid (and Milestone) use. That isn’t bad news if you like Android. If you expected the Google phone to teleport you into the future where you become instantly better looking to the opposite sex, and gain copious amount of respect from your peers, then you may be a little disappointed.

Via [Engadget]

Vaio Getting Backlit (Keyboard that is)

It seems all the over hype about how amazing backlit keyboards are
have reached an ear at the Sony Vaio development team. Their upcoming
Z series refresh is rumoured to be the first Vaio to feature a backlit
keyboard (also the first to feature quad SSD drives). All you
need now is to sell a kidney to be able to afford all that creamy Vaio
goodness (2 kidneys for quad SSD).

Via [Engadget]

Thumbthing Is Brilliantly Useful

While people are jumping on the digital age of reading with their Kindles and other E-Readers, I still like a good old fashioned paperbacks. While books are great, where they are beaten hands down by their digital counter parts, is one handed reading. They just love to close and a single thumb doesn’t cut it.  This is where the simple brilliance of the Thumbthing comes into play.

Pictures say more then words in this case, but I am jealous that I never thought of it myself.$4 to read a book single handed seems a no brainer to me.

[Thumbthing] VIA [The Gadgeteer]

HP Ink Is Bloody Expensive

It seems someone who was very bored has compiled a list of liquids and there costs per mL. Guess who came out on top? HP printer ink. It is so pricey, that it is almost twice the price of human blood! If Twilight had been about ink it would have been a much more expensive movie.

VIA [ReflectionOf.Me]

The Coming Year

Merry Christmas Everyone. Now that is out of my system I would like to look ahead at the year coming.

What will be the defining technology? What breakthroughs will be made? What will be the ultimate lust machine?

This is a hard one for me to answer personally. I am a laptop man, and love the all in one devices, such as smart phones and tablets. I am interested in CES in January and the release of the i3 and i5 Intel processors coming out (and hopefully a new Sony Vaio Z based on it). I am interested in the evolution of Android devices, new Blackberries and Windows Mobile 7. I am interested in emerging green energy and their evolutions.

What you say? No iPad/iTablet/iSlate?

Before you string me up for not being an Apple Fanboy, I want to explain why. Apple are not a hardware company. Sure they make laptops and other devices, but it is usually other companies tech with their own interface. Sure their interfaces are the best (I agree they are simple to use and flow better then most), but they don’t really push the technology envelope very often. The Apple Tablet will be cool to look at and do flashy things, but ultimately it will do exactly what you imagine it will do (good video player, bad E-Book reader).

As the year comes to an end, I am looking forward to seeing something game changing in the coming year.

The Only Good DRM Is A Dead One

One day till Christmas and it looks like Kindle owners got an early gift. An Israeli hacker named Labba has created a Python script which decrypts your legitimately purchased Amazon E-books.  Then, you can throw your legitimately purchased  books on your Nook or any other E-Reader device.

Not the most user friendly process, but if you are interested  go check out the  Hacking.org forums.

My first day

I don’t know what to say. If you know me in year life, that is a hard task to accomplish.

I am back after almost 2 years. Why? I can give you a dozen excuses, but the truth is I was disheartened. Originally I wrote because I wanted a change of life. I wanted to be a famous technology writer, who got send piles of awesome gadgets and never had to work a hard days labour in my life. Of course the best laid plans are of mice and men and I had gotten ahead of myself.

It started with a refresh to the design and a general break. My numbers dropped off and I was back at the start again. The air was taken out of me and a realisation was made, as soon as I stop writing people will find somewhere else to get their information. I understand completely and would react the exact same way in the same position.

So, why am I back again? A realisation. I love technology. I love taking about it, playing with it and teaching other people about it. It is my passion and my hobby. Basically I missed it.

Change is in the air this time around. No longer will I attempt to be the general technology and science website. No longer will I attempt to write dozens of articles a week and keep up with the bigger sites. This time around I want to talk about technology and science that interests me. This time it is about the love of writing and technology.

So if you are reading this, I thank you, and I hope to see you around.

Sandisk Sansa Fuze Gets Test Treatment

The newest in the ever growing range of Sandisk MP3 players is the Fuze. It has been around for a few days now and has been given the review treatment by AnythingButiPod. What did they think? They said “across the board there are plenty of other improvements in screen quality, build quality, and sound quality” and “overall I’m pretty positive on it and can easily say it is the best Sansa to date”. Good news for Sandisk and great news for people who wanted a bigger Sansa Clip.

For the complete review, click over to AnythingButiPod.