New Samsung DDR3 allows 16GB RAM sticks

Samsung tonight pushed its DDR3 memory lineup forward with news of a new two-gigabit (256MB) module. Using a new 50 nanometer manufacturing process, the memory is twice as dense as before and enables RAM capacities that are still rare: a dual-die, error-corrected RAM stick can now hold as much as 16GB by stacking the chips. Notebooks should also see a boost with up to 4GB per stick in a thin pac...

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MacBreak 111: Macworld 2008: Drobo

Cali Lewis investigates the Drobo intelligent media storage. Read more

GBTV #0385 (small) | GeekBrief.TV

Drobo released an SDK today. Developers can build apps to make Drobo do more after joining the Drobo Developer Community.

Fontstruct is a free, Web-based app for future typography rock stars. I want the creator of the next Helvetica to be a GeekBrief.TV viewer.

GoLive2 is releasing a Wiimote inspired series of controllers for PC gaming and they're calling them Stix.

Philippe Starck designed a small wind turbine that might generate 20% to 60% of the energy needed to power a home. I skeptical, but definitely interested.

149 Series Mitsubishi HDTVs will include 16-point speaker systems that simulate 5.1 surround sound. Read more

GBTV #435 (small) | GeekBrief.TV

Vincent Laforet's short film that we mentioned yesterday is online at Canon. He used the 5D Mark II to shoot the film. The behind the scenes footage is online at SmugMug.

We've all been waiting to see a real live phone built on Android, an open source platform. Today, T-Mobile, HTC and Google showed us the G1. It doesn't have multi-touch, but it has a physical keyboard and a trackball. More pros/cons in the show.

Sony announced the VAIO TT, an ultraportable notebook with Blu-ray included. Anyone know what the "TT" stands for? Leave a comment below.

Eye-Fi got an update. It's an SD card that automatically uploads your photos to your computer or a photosharing site like SmugMug. The update makes uploads faster.

Microsoft applied for a very interesting patent. They're calling it "Mobile Device Collaboration". The idea is that you and your friends can all lay your phones side by side and aggregate resources for one large display, surround sound, extra battery life, and more.

You can save money on domain name registrations and renewals from GoDaddy.com with discount codes GB1, GB2 and GB3. For an explanation of each code, click here. Read more

GBTV #0342 (small) | GeekBrief.TV

So, this one's different. Today, we continually encountered slightly silly, but entirely lovable attempts at video today. That became the theme of Brief 342. It started with a project from Microsoft Research called MySong. The team had fun with their video showing how the technology works. It's a parody of bad commercials. The application though looks like it's going to be so much fun for kids when it's released. It creates an backing track to go along with what you sing into a mic. We had some fun with them having some fun.

Then today Flickr launched support for video and they used sock puppets to demonstrate what it's like.

Then John Biggs from CrunchGear.com was at some kind of event when he was attacked by a Lego Mindstorm robot.

Drew Domkus appears courtesy of Dawn and Drew TV. You can get a Nokia N810 for 15% off at podshowoffers.com (more details here). Use Promo Code "geekbrieftv". Read more

First Look: Heart Monitor

First Look: Heart Monitor

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

If you run, or participate in sports, you can now use your iPhone to measure your heart rate in addition to listening to your favorite tunes. Last week we mentioned that Heart Monitor [iTunes link] would be released soon, and as it turns out, it was approved by Apple this weekend. I've been testing this application all week. Here are my results.

This application can measure your heart rate using one of two methods. One way is to place the iPhone, microphone-down, on the bottom of your wrist, or chest -- this method produced poor results.

The other method, which works well, is to use the standard Apple headset/mic combo and place the microphone portion on your neck. Both methods are sketchy in a noisy room, as Heart Monitor uses sound to detect your heart beat.

If you are in a noisy location, you can use the "Pulse Count" tab to measure your heart rate manually. The application will walk you through counting your pulse rate for 10 seconds. Then, you will be prompted to press the corresponding button for the number of beats. The application will then log your heart rate in the "Results" tab. It would be nice to be able to export the results somehow (possibly through email).

The hardest part to using this application is finding your pulse, but the developer has included pictures and tips to help. Overall, Heart Monitor works as advertised and has a beautiful user interface that gets right to the point. Be sure to look at our gallery of screenshots. You can purchase Heart Monitor for $4.99 on the iTunes App Store.

Gallery: First Look: Heart Monitor

Thanks, John!

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Sky HDi - is the grass any greener?

Our home is crammed full tech waiting to be reviewed, most of which my ever-patient wife is itching to get rid of. The one bit piece of gadgetary she won't live without, however, is our MySky box. Not only has it totally changed... Read more

MacBreak 10: Conduit

Emery and Ben Syverson discuss Conduit, a new realtime nodal compositing plugin for Apple's Motion. Read more

A Look At The New Google Moderator

Recently Google unveiled Moderator. Moderator is a tool that allows you to crowdsource questions and suggestions. To put things in perspective, Google Moderator was developed as an internal tool to see what questions a majority of people wanted to ask during a talk and then ask the top questions to the presenter. However, it found more [...]

Recently Google unveiled Moderator. Moderator is a tool that allows you to crowdsource questions and suggestions.

To put things in perspective, Google Moderator was developed as an internal tool to see what questions a majority of people wanted to ask during a talk and then ask the top questions to the presenter. However, it found more uses and now it has been opened to the masses via the app engine.

So lets take this new tool for a spin, shall we ?

The primary use for Moderator is to crowdsource questions or suggestions. Let’s say we would like all of our readers to let us know if they want us to cover a particular app or recommend a solution to a particular need or problem. Google Moderator is ideal for such things. Here’s how we would go about it.

Create a new series

A series is like the top level heading under which you would like to group all the questions. I put in MakeUseOf since most of the questions and suggestions would be MakeUseOf related.

Create a topic

Topics are the next lower level in the hierarchy to series. Topics would be used to keep the things tidy. Like there is a featured series “Ask a World Leader” over at Moderator in which people submit questions they will like to ask famous personalities. So to keep things tidy, each personality becomes a topic. So now if you want to ask Barack Obama a new question you would go to the respective topic and put in a question.

For our MakeUseOf series I put in a Article Requests topic, where you can submit your article requests or thumbs up/ thumbs down other readers’ suggestions/requests. Periodically we will pick the one that is on the top.

Now let people vote and ask questions

Others can now vote on the questions that have been submitted in the topic. People can give a positive vote (which is essentially a thumbs up) or a negative vote (thumbs down). Depending on the positive to negative count of the various questions, the most popular question will eventually rise to the top. If a question has 100 total votes of which 50 are positive and 50 are negative, it will be ranked lower than a question with 90 total votes, of which 85 are positive and only 5 are negative.

Some things I missed:

(1) First off, is it just me or do the names: series, topics, questions sound confusing to you as well? Do they convey what you should put into what? See here ‘Suggest an android application’ becomes the series, ‘the genres’ become the topics and ironically the ‘actual ideas’ have to be termed as ‘questions’. It works, but it’s not so intuitive to the first timer considering that the masses will use it for different purposes and not only for picking up questions to ask in a tech talk. I actually ended up putting the question in the series name and it was only afterwards that I figured what is what. Either that or may be I just needed some sleep. What you say?

(2) Since the main focus is people, letting others know that you have created a new series and would like to know their suggestions would be helpful. So I greatly missed a share this link. Right now you have to go back to the series and copy paste the link from the address bar.

(3) No email notifications or RSS feeds at the moment. I think it would be nice if people could subscribe to the topics, or if the owner could get notifications of important events like a new top question, or a new event.

Go ahead, check out Google Moderator, see how you like it, how you would like to MakeUseOf it and then let us know in the comments. Oh, and by the way, there really is a MakeUseOf series over there at Moderator. So go ahead check it out as well and contribute.

(By) Varun Kashyap - Programmer, Blogger and Tech enthusiast, who blogs about tips, tricks, tutorials, latest on the web on his TechCrazy Blog

New subscriber? Get your freebies at MakeUseOf Downloads. Enjoy!

Tags:crowdsourcing, Google, google moderator, Q&A websites

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Carl Freer dishes out new Gizmondo tidbits

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

It's been a little while since we've heard from the normally very talkative Carl Freer, but the chief Gizmondo booster has now finally returned with a few new tidbits of information about the gaming handheld, which we know you've all been patiently waiting for. Most interestingly, but not surprisingly, Freer made no mention of that supposed end of 2008 release date, with him instead saying that the company plans to release the handheld's full spec list by the end of October, and that they plan to have "volume availability" of the handled by the second quarter of 2009 -- in Europe, at least. In other news, he also confirmed that the device would boast an improved camera, and that they're even planning their "own version of the Apple App Store," which would seem to be a must considering that they're apparently also going to be relying exclusively on indie developers this time around.

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Join MakeUseOf on Twitter!

This goes to all of our readers who are on Twitter. I keep getting emails from readers asking me if there is a MakeUseOf Twitter feed. Yep, we got one! If you’re a Twitter user and would like to be notified everytime there is a new post on MakeUseOf Blog, web app review on MakeUseOf [...]

This goes to all of our readers who are on Twitter. I keep getting emails from readers asking me if there is a MakeUseOf Twitter feed. Yep, we got one!

If you’re a Twitter user and would like to be notified everytime there is a new post on MakeUseOf Blog, web app review on MakeUseOf Directory or something new on Geeky Fun than follow us @ twitter.com/MakeUseOf

More from MakeUseOf.com :

- MakeUseOf Directory : Read about up-to 5 truly useful web apps on a daily basis.
- MakeUseOf ‘Geeky Fun’: - Fun Geeky Pics, Cartoons and Videos.

(By) Aibek, the guy behind MakeUseOf.

Tags:announcements, Twitter

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GBTV #417 (small) | CEDIA Expo #1 repost

GBTV #417 (small) | CEDIA Expo #1 repost
CEDIA Update #1 covers the Triad InWall Silver/4 Omni Sconce Loudspeaker. It's a speaker system and LED light source in one.

You can save money on domain name registrations and renewals from GoDaddy.com with discount codes GB1, GB2 and GB3. For an explanation of each code, click here.

MacBreak 43 Macworld 2007: Andrew Baron

MacBreak 43 Macworld 2007: Andrew Baron
Leo dicusses the MacWorld Keynote with Andrew Baron of Rocketboom.

Dell's One-Touch Privacy filter keeps your Latitude E6400 screen undercover

Dell's One-Touch Privacy filter keeps your Latitude E6400 screen undercover

Filed under: Displays, Laptops

We're a bit miffed as to why Dell's keeping its new One-Touch Privacy system exclusive to the Latitude E6400, but whatever the story is there, it'll definitely keep straying eyes from seeing too much confidential information. Interestingly, this here filter isn't hardware based; rather, it's a software-driven application that "creates a pixel-based pattern on the screen, reducing the side viewing angles of people seated next to the user." Dell assures us that it has "minimal impact on display brightness" and that it can be activated with a single touch key, but we're still wondering how it landed on the seemingly sky-high $139 price. Talk about paying for the privilege.

[Via T3]

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RIM has "head in the sand" vs. iPhone

RIM has "head in the sand" vs. iPhone
Needham and Company contributed to a steep decline in Research in Motion's share price today by warning investors that the BlackBerry creator is likely going to perform below expectations in the near future. Analyst Craig Bisagna notes that while RIM is secure in its business sales, Needham sees the company's dismissive attitude towards competitors in a financial conference call Thursday as overl...

Icons: It’s Still Orange

Icons: It’s Still Orange
I am glad to see that we can maintain some level of RSS icon standards between Mozilla and Microsoft. Wouldn’t be great if this level of cooperation could continue? My last post shared some of our conceptual designs of the feed icon and expressed some of the criteria that we are using to select the right [...]

I am glad to see that we can maintain some level of RSS icon standards between Mozilla and Microsoft. Wouldn’t be great if this level of cooperation could continue?

My last post shared some of our conceptual designs of the feed icon and expressed some of the criteria that we are using to select the right icon. Several of the comments liked icon #4 simply because it looked liked the Firefox icon, and many (like this one) suggested that we work with the Firefox team to standardize on an icon.

This seemed like a very good idea, so in November, Amar and I took a visit down to Silicon Valley to meet with John Lilly and Chris Beard from Mozilla to get their thoughts on it. We all agreed that it’s in the user’s best interest to have one common icon to represent RSS and RSS-related features in a browser. And the winner isR30; [Source: Microsoft Team RSS Blog]

Yahoo upgrades ad system

Yahoo upgrades ad system
NEW YORK - Yahoo has launched a much-anticipated upgrade to its online advertising system as it tries to bring to graphical display ads some of the innovations that powered Google's rapid rise in search marketing. Playing to...

MacBreak 34: Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

MacBreak 34: Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
Sal Soghoian is back to teach us how to create auto-presenting Keynote presentations with Applescript and text-to-speech voices from Cepstral.

GBTV #0354 (small) | GeekBrief.TV

GBTV #0354 (small) | GeekBrief.TV
Monday night, I thought gmail was down so I tweeted. I got plenty of responses from other gmail users that lead me to think I was the only single person on the interwebs having and issue. @quecojones shot me a link that I immediately bookmarked. The site, downforeveryoneorjustme.com, answers that very important question: Is [insert the name of a Web site here] having a major problem or am I delusional?

Page2rss.com is another recently bookmarked Web site that turns a non-RSS enabled Web page in to RSS enabled content. I tried it with a T-Shirt company I like. If it works, I should see an update in my feed reader when they add new shirts.

In prep for William the former Geek Brief Intern's 21st birthday, we were searching for Wii news and we came across MiiSculptures.com. You can upload a picture of your Mii and they'll turn it into a little sculpture for $75.

Wireless HDMI technology will soon be available in the Sharp X-Series of HDTVs. Japan will get them first. The rest of the world will have to wait.

Viewzi is a visual search engine that is really fun to use. The invitation code, "geekbrief" will get a couple hundred of us into the semi-public beta. I really like Viewzi, except for the Video x3 feature. I'd like to know what you think.

Canon EOS 40D owner hacks camera, records silent movie

Filed under: Digital Cameras

This enterprising EOS 40D owner wants a DSLR that records video, too -- and he's taking action. This hack uses CHDK -- the free firmware enhancement for Canon PowerShot cameras -- and LiveView to capture video to the camera's CF Card. There are still a few issues: LiveView shuts down after a period of inactivity, video can't be transfered via USB, and unlike your $79 consumer grade camera, the EOS 40D won't record audio. But what's a little challenge in the face of a good camera mod? There's no word on file format, frame rate or resolution (though the camera's display weighs in at 320 x 240), but there are lots of other juicy details available once you hit the read link. And be sure to catch the video after the break.

[Via Hack A Day]

Continue reading Canon EOS 40D owner hacks camera, records silent movie

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