Posted 08/28/2008 at 01:25:16pm

It might not be able to float, but Samsung can get away with claiming its new X360 laptop is lighter than "Air." MacBook Air, that is. At a scant 2.8 pounds, the X360 weighs a smidgen less than Apple's MacBook Air, while also touting a slightly larger screen at 13.3-inches (compared to 12.8-inches). With regards to body fat, the X360 measures 0.66-inches thick on the low end, and 1.2-inches on the fatter end.

Samsung's new ultraportable is based on a Centrino 2 ULV processor with 1GB RAM standard (upgradable to 4GB). For storage duties, buyers can choose between a 5400RPM 120GB hard drive, or a 64GB or 128GB SSD. Visuals are handled with the X4500 integrated graphics allowing the screen to run at 1280x800. Other features include:

• 7-in-1 card reader
• Three USB ports
• PCI ExpressCard/34
• HDMI / VGA inputs
• WiFi and Bluetooth
• Integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam

Noticeably missing is an optical drive. Samsung says battery life will be in the vicinity of 6 to 10 hours. No word yet on price or availability.

Posted 08/28/2008 at 12:29:13pm

Starting this week, Microsoft will update the way its Windows Genuine Advantage behaves. The first change will come in how WGA keeps itself updated, with MS saying "in this release we've also added the ability for future updates to WGA Notifications to have both the validation logic, as well as new forms of notifications, installed without additional steps."

But the biggest change comes to how WGA handles installations that fail to pass validation. Taking somewhat of a cue from Vista, users sporting a copy of Windows flagged as non-genuine will be greeted to a plain black background. Users will still be given the ability to change the background to whatever it was before, but every 60 minutes the desktop will go back to black until Windows passes validation.

In addition, Microsoft plans to add a "persistent desktop notification." Similar to a watermark, the non-interactive notification will appear permanently over the system tray as a reminder that the copy didn't pass validation. Users won't be able to click, move, or otherwise manipulate the notification, but it will be translucent over desktop items, and stay hidden under open windows.

Will this latest effort curb software piracy, or is WGA a bad idea to begin with?

Posted 08/28/2008 at 11:31:03am

Samsung is attempting to answer the question of how low can you go while doing the solid state limbo. The semiconductor company this week said it has begun sampling low-density, higher-performance solid state drives (SSDs) measuring just 30 percent the size of 2.5-inch SSDs. Samsung also says they're highly cost-efficient to manufacture, which should help the technology continue to penetrate the mainstream market.

"We've refined our manufacturing techniques and redesigned our low-density SSDs to get what the low-priced PC market is looking for in the way of improved cost, performance, and availability," said Jim Elliot, VP of memory marking.

Available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB flavors, the new multi-level cell SSDs will use the same SATA II controller found on Samsung's recently introduced MLC-based 128GB SSD. The company says the 32GB SSD will read data at 90MB/s and write at 70MB/s, while the 16GB will sport read and write times of 90MB/s and 45MB/s. Bringing up the rear, the 8GB model will also read at 90MB, but write at 25MB/s.

Mass production will start in September 2008. And mass consumption? That question remains to be answered.

Posted 08/28/2008 at 11:00:54am

Sometimes you have to roll the dice if you're to have a shot at a big payout, and that's exactly what NBC did when it scheduled no less than 2,200 hours of live streaming coverage to be available free of charge on its website. Without enough viewers tuning to turn those pageviews into advertising dollars, the decision could have turned into an epic fail for NBC. Instead, the broadcasting company was able to cash in on the virtual gold.

As of Saturday, NBC reported it had received a staggering 1.2 billion pageviews resulting in an equally impressive 72 million video stream views. Those numbers represent more than the totals for the 2004 and 2006 Games combined.

But NBC wasn't the only big winner in this years' Olympics. According to research firm Nielsen Online, search engine and news aggregation Yahoo was getting 4.7 million unique visitors a day at the Olympics' peak. AOL, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, the Beijing Organizing Committee, The New York Times, and USA Today also saw heavily increased traffic.

Posted 08/28/2008 at 10:36:20am

Google doesn't often trail the competition in the search engine market, but while others had already implemented a suggest feature to online searches originating from their respective home pages, the same thing was noticeably absent from Google.com. Having a suggest feature means related search queries to the ones you're typing in appear below the search bar. You may have noticed this when typing search queries in Firefox's search box or the Google Toolbar, but up until now, it hasn't been a part of Google.com. So why did it take so long to implement?

"Quality is very important to us, and since so many people visit the Google.com homepage, we wanted to make sure to evaluate and refine our algorithms to provide a good experience using Google Suggest," a Google spokesperson said.

If you're not seeing it just yet, not to worry, your interweb isn't broken - a full roll out is expected to be complete by the end of the week.

Posted 08/27/2008 at 03:18:07pm

Point-n-shoot digital cameras have had the ability to shoot video for quite some time, but the same feature has been noticeably absent among digital SLR (DSLR) cameras. Adding insult to injury, even low end DSLRs typically cost more than high end digital cameras, yet if owners of the latter want to take videos, it meant spending even more money on a camcorder.

Nikon looks to change that trend with the release of its latest digital single-lens reflex camera, the D90, which is the company is billing as the first SLR with video capability. Nikon made it possible to record video by using a faster frame rate and a different way of processing the images.

"The big plus is that you can now shoot video with a great lens," says Steve Heiner, Nikon's senior technical manager.

The D90 will be capable of recording both high definition and standard video clips, but the new functionality won't come cheap. Expect to pay around $1,300 for the D90 with lens when it becomes available in stores next month.