Optical Drives for Roadwarriors? Not Anymore

Looks like Apple’s attempt of dropping the optical drive from its MacBook Air was quite a swift move. It’s now the year 2008, and who needs the optical drive on their ultraportable notebook anyway?

Allow me to explain. To what point and purpose do we need optical drives on ultraportables for? Watching DVDs? Well, one can actually cram a couple of movies onto a flash drive instead. What’s more is that there are no moving parts (besides the electrons, of course) in flash memory, helping you to conserve your precious battery life. I’m certain that battery life is a major constituent to what makes a good portable notebook. Traditional optical drives have discs gyrating at a couple of hundred RPMs per minute. Now that’s one mean juice sucker. Plus, you actually even get a performance boost via USB for your viewing experience.

The next challenge: software installation. Much software requires an optical drive in order to install itself, no doubt. But now, it is possible to find these installers on the internet to be downloaded readily. Furthermore, much to the iPhone’s delight, many programs are now web-based, not requiring any form of installation. Ever heard of a web-based productivity suite?

What about disc burning?! How often do you burn discs while on the road may I ask? Most of us resort to a portable HDD or thumb drive to store our data anyway. The CD-RW, or DVD+/-RW, for that matter, is quickly being alienated as a “modern” floppy disc. Simply redundant. If you really insist on burning, take your ultraportable back home with you and count on your 16x Dual Layer DVD writer instead.

So finally, the conundrum of how to take ultraportables to an even portable level has been worked out. Eliminating the optical drive from a laptop will definitely slim the laptop down. I mean, just take a look at the MacBook Air.

To all the upcoming ultraportable models: the optical drive’s epitaph clearly reads “I’m obsolete, period”.

Enough said?
T’ang

(With references from Lance Ulanoff’s article at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2309779,00.asp. Image from www.cbcnz.com.)

The Spirit of Ultra Lives

Just purchased a new handphone a couple of days ago. It's still in Singapore though, thus I haven't got a first hand tryout of the phone itself. This Soul, Spirit of Ultra, U900, or whatever we want to call it, will be the last of the Samsung Ultra Edition lineup.

Huh? That quick?

Apparently the answer is a yes. The Ultra series has been a thriving line I believe, with sliders, candybars and clamshells reaching unprecedented slimness. Besides, it was equally striking that Samsung managed to squeeze so much of the latest features into so thin a phone. A 3.2 Megapixel camera in a 5.9mm candybar? You've gotta be kidding. This lineup of phones have also been largely design oriented - a trait in mobile phones that has been fading these few years. I mean, just take a look at those Sony Ericssons. (Don't mean to pick on Sony lol)

It seems depressing that Samsung has chose to discontinue this splendid line of phones. Nevertheless, it's fortunate that Samsung will at least leave a perpetual legacy for others, including itself to pick up and look up to.

The last of its kind

Overview of the Soul:
-A touch interface
-5 Megapixel camera
-HSDPA 7.2Mbps
-FM radio
-12.9mm thin

What's next?
T'ang

(image from http://uk.samsungmobile.com/mobile/SGH-U900)

When Iron Turns Platinum: A Review of the Iron Man Film

"Yeah. I can fly."

Spectacular! Absolutely dazzling! This is one superhero action flick that clearly sets itself apart from the competition. Previously, after I watched the trailers for the film, I predicted that the film will be just another average superhero movie, just like Fantastic Four and The Hulk (Ang Lee’s version. Not the upcoming one). Thus, I thought to myself nonchalantly, "why bother?" However, after many of my buddies have seen the film, rumor has it that the film is astoundingly good. Plus, movie ratings site Rotten Tomatoes actually presented it with a “FRESH” rating of over 92%! And the only way I could find out the truth behind all this, was to watch the film myself which I did today.

The movie features an affluent and brilliant ladies’ man Tony Stark, who builds an omnipotent exoskeleton for himself after a series of tragic events in Afghanistan. As expected, this superhero uses his suit to protect the people he put in harm’s way. Apparently, the Iron Man’s nemesis is his long-time business partner, who has secretly been selling Tony’s weapons to terrorist groups.

The panoply of mesmerizing visual effects never ceases to amaze! This applies particularly well to the F-22 Raptor chase scene, where the film ignites into a thrilling climax. Additionally, there is a close resemblance to the transformation of robots in another distinguished film, Transformers, where Tony Stark is seen suiting up in his new Mark III exoskeleton.

Besides, Tony Stark’s mansion somewhere on the coast in California is SO advanced. The pinnacle of his tech toys has got to be the holoprojector. He can even place his hand into the projection and design his suit’s components. Also, the automated windows that fade to black does a decent job in keeping his bedroom dark while he, ahem, does his thing. On a side note, I actually have the exact same arching lamp that Tony has in his living room, lol.

The Audi R8 featured notably in the film is so cool. Speaking of cars, wow! Tony has one huge myriad of supercars. He owns a Saleen S7, a Shelby Cobra, a Koenigsegg CCR and of course, his fabled R8. Too bad he crash lands on his Shelby though.

Oops, I’ve typed close to 400 words now. Forgive me, for I babble too much. Finishing up, I’d give Iron Man a worthy 4 out of 5. I eagerly anticipate the imminent 2nd and 3rd sequels!

Is it better to be feared, or respected?
T’ang

(image from http://vargucci.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/ironman-08preview-lg.jpg)

Less Storage Space Than Advertised? Creative Has Got Your Back

Sick of noticing that your spanking new 16GB ZEN has actually got merely 14.xxGB of usable memory? Well, that "problem" is about to be compensated by Creative itself.

It offers it's loyal customers a 50% reduction of price for a 1GB player for those who bought a Creative MP3 player between May 5 2001 to 30 April 2008. Fortunately, not many of us will want another meagre 1GB right? There's another way: you can get a 20% off any single item from their online store (Mark Ho, I think this should apply to you, so far).

Regrettably, this generous offer only applies to those who have purchased their original player within the US. Interesting to note is that this bargain does not apply in Singapore, which is supposedly where the company is based. This is due to the fact that the court settlement took place in the states.

This "missing memory" is present because of the way companies define a gigabyte of memory: a decimal, or a binary definition.

Creative Technology. What are your hidden intentions?
T'ang

Intel LGA775's Singing Its Swan Song?

For the better, apparently.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the Intel P45 chipset is due to be released soon. However, it seems that it'll be the last of the LGA775 chipset. This socket has actually got an excellent record of service, serving the old NetBurst days to the new and revolutionary Conroe era. It seems like Intel managed to pull off an outstanding act by keeping it's chipset standardized for a considerable amount of years. Contrary to this, AMD has changed it's socket repeatedly - Socket 939 to AM2 to AM2+ in a matter of 2-3 years.

Maybe it is time for Intel to change its own, due to the impending Nehalem CPUs which will feature an entirely new architecture. Surprisingly, this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise: reports have shown that the P45 may be long-lived as motherboard manufacturers are now scrupulously designing the BIOS, components and layout for it. So much blood, sweat and tears has never been put into any other board for a long time.

Because of this, promises of a long-lasting motherboard will certainly allure many consumers, including myself. Rarely has a computer component stayed current for a long time. With any luck, this chipset may indeed break this barrier.

All the more reason to get my PC, and soon!
T'ang


With references from http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/602523/rumour_control_p45_will_be_last_lga775_chipset.html

War is Brewing

"So long as there are men, there will be wars."
-Albert Einstein

The next one will commence when GPU manufacturers meet CPU manufacturers.

Not long ago, Intel, the world's superpower in the CPU industry, declared war on Nvidia and ATI/AMD when it stated that it will produce its own graphic cards. Just as AMD acquired ATI, Intel is giving computer graphics a shot.

On the other hand, Nvidia, currently the market leader in graphic technologies, proudly boasted that its upcoming innovations will sweep the need for CPUs away. Just how Nvidia is going to accomplish this is only a matter of time. Nvidia is looking particularly aggressive nowadays.

Never before have anyone seen an SLI setup on an Intel chipset based motherboard. Why did Nvidia acquire Ageia? And have you seen their integrated graphics technologies on each other's chipsets? We can see that these two companies never sat too well with each other. These are timeless "domino pieces" that will spark an inevitable war.

When CPUs and GPUs unite as one, the war will come to both graphic and processing fronts.

What will be the result when these two Goliaths pit against each other? A catastrophic one to us consumers? Let's hope not.

Whose side are you on?
T'ang

Fat & Slim

That’s it! I have finally gotten a hold of my PSP Slim and Fat. Yep, that’s two PSPs. Essentially, I only own one – the Slim, but I somehow managed to borrow the other from a Korean friend. I must say that I am really am lucky to have the Fat: my brother and I had a hell of a time WLAN gaming!

Frankly speaking, both systems exceeded my expectations by a mile. The pinnacle of the exhilaration has got to be the built in Wi-Fi. Prior to my purchase of my PSP, I actually anticipated for the Wi-Fi wireless gaming (or WLAN) to be a total flop, and it was there with the sole purpose of being a marketing gimmick; just to appeal to potential buyers. How wrong I was - the wireless functionality is reliable, speedy and hassle-free to say the least.

In case you would want to know, the PSP Slim runs on version 3.71 of the M33 custom firmware (arguably the finest firmware). I was hoping that Amos was right, when he told me that the pre-modified PSP will most probably run M33 firmware. Now, my worries of not being able to play ISO and CSO games have at long last been put to bed.

As for the functionality of the PSPs, I’m thoroughly stupefied. With an Internet browser, a multi-format video player, a music player, a photo viewer, and of course, a game player, what more could you ask for? Furthermore, it has the capability to make Skype VOIP calls and can function as a wireless PS3 controller. Not only that, with my custom firmware, the PSP opens the door to countless 3^rd party apps that I can run, rendering the PSP’s functionality limitless. No wonder why Amos bought another Fat after his former one got stolen by a repairman, lol.

Note: My Internet browsing experience with the PSP is pretty bad though, it comes nowhere close to the PC and iPod touch.

The Slim has quite a number of nice additions when directly compared to the Fat. Of which, the most outstanding is the reduction of its size and weight. Hands that have been seasoned with hours of gaming with the Fat will instantly notice the alteration. The micro stereo speakers have been moved up to the front now, but the infra-red sensor has been eliminated.

Wrapping up, given the notable functions of the PSP, it is most assuredly a fine addition to my growing line of tech gadgets.

Now, if you would excuse me, I have to go kick some ass!
T’ang