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RIM’s new BlackBerry Bold smartphone arrived in North America yesterday. The Bold is a bit bigger & heavier than most previous BlackBerry models, but offers a larger display (480 x 320), works over 3G networks and supports 802.11a/b/g. 1GB onboard memory + up to 16GB on a media card. Specs are here.

The Bold has been out and about in other countries for a while and so reviews are already available. CrackBerry, for example, likes the Bold, describing the speed as fast and the display as excellent.

BoyGenius has more of a mixed review here, and a side-by-side with the Nokia E71 at this link (”Bold smokes the E71″ ).

BG also has a comparison of the Bold to the iconic Apple iPhone (”Bold…is the best BlackBerry ever”), where interestingly the result is a kind of stalemate.

More kudos for the Bold can be found at BlackBerry Bold: the DEFINITIVE hands-on review, wherein the reviewers deem the 2.6 inch 240ppi screen to be Bold’s killer feature #1.

And analyst Jim Suva of Citigroup opines “We are positive on the Bold (strong product but not a game changer), and we believe it will appeal to business users who travel internationally, but less so to consumers given its likely high price ($399.)”.

And finally, Digital Journal TV offers up the following video coverage of the Bold’s launch and an accompanying not-unfavorable comparison to the iPhone…

Next up from RIM are the touch-screen Thunder and the flip phone Kickstart.

BlackBerry Bold debuts in North America – CNet, August 21 2008

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It appears that the use of swearing, cursing and bad language isn’t all bad. Applied judiciously, use of the “F word” and other assorted niceties can build group solidarity, release stress as well as get an audience’s attention. Cussing works because it seems to operate at a more basic level in the brain’s circuitry.

Profanity Works – 37Signals, Aug 20 2008

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Ok looking notebook, the new HP EliteBook 2730p. LED-backlit 1280×800 LCD screen. 80/120 GB 5400 rpm 1.8″ SATA II Hard Drive. ‘Business Rugged’ meets Mil-Std-810F. Specs are at this link. $1670.

Holding on to the new HP EliteBooks – Crunch Gear, August 21st, 2008

Posted in Computers ~ 2 Comments

Sony today announced a new model of PlayStation Portable, dubbed PSP-3000. The new hand-held game console is about the same as the model that it replaces, but for better contrast ratio, response time, and improved color gamut as shown below…

New Playstation Portable Comes With Advanced High Contrast LCD Screen – Sony Press Release, 08.21.2008

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Someone named Jake Loniak has a developed a concept strap-on motorcycle that looks quite striking.

A Wearable Motorcycle – Pop Sci, 08.18.2008

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Wired Magazine throws cold water on the notion that we’ll ever get to the stars. Why? … it’s too expensive & takes too long with conventional propulsion. And with exotic but plausible drives like Daedalus, the engineering isn’t there yet. And then there’s alternative & breakthrough propulsion systems that have the problem of being fictional, er, we mean to say that the physics isn’t there yet.

But for those who enjoy a challenge such as working on hypothetical interstellar space drives (propulsion without propellant), here’s a handy summary of what NASA has considered thus far…the chart is from document NASA/TM—2004-213406 entitled Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project: Project Management Methods:

…and at the moment NASA’s no. 1 candidate for achieving exotic propulsion seems to be the dark matter drive which proposes to use presumably ubiquitous dark matter as a source of reaction mass.

Rocket Scientists Say We’ll Never Reach the Stars – Wired, August 19 2008

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Toshiba today announced their XDE, or “eXtended Detail Enhancement” technology, which upconverts standard video DVDs at 420i resolution to high-defintion video at 720p, 1080i or 1080p.

T abandoned their HD DVD rival to Blu-ray back in February 2008, but let it be known the following month that they will try to stay in the game via unconversion. The result is XDE which promises one of better sharpness, enhanced contrast or nicer blues & greens (as compared to reg DVD) … you can’t have all three.

While Toshiba did not provide any tech specs that explain just how they plan to perform all of this video scaling, we’re predicting failure mainly because it’s not that easy to guess at missing information … upconverting from 720×480 all the way to 1920×1080 (eg), requires the creation of 1,728,000 new pixels from 345,600 old ones.   

Toshiba “Breathes New Life” into DVD with XDE™ Technology – Toshiba news release, August 18 2008

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The games start with an impressive opening ceremony…

…held in the National Stadium.

Olympic Games in Beijing Open With a Lavish Ceremony – NY Times, August 8, 2008

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J.D. Power and Associates, best known for customer sat surveys about cars, tries its hand at cameras.

JDPower’s 2008 Digital Camera Usage and Satisfaction Study asked 8000 customers to rate their newly-purchased cameras in the areas of picture quality, performance, ease of operation, and appearance/styling. This is what they came up with…

At the top of the heap in terms of both picture quality and price are the EOS Digital SLR Cameras, with a score of 823.

Other cameras worthy of consideration are…

Sony Cyber-shot T series – best of the ultra-slims
Canon PowerShot G series – best in the category of premium point-and-shoot

…and if you’re too cheap for any of the above, go for the Fujifilm Finepix S series, which JDP claimed was best point-and-shoot digital camera.

Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Panasonic and Sony Model Series Rank Highest in
Their Respective Segments in Digital Camera Owner Satisfaction – JD Power news release, 31 July 2008

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