10 Mar 10 Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo?

We heard a rumor last week that Sony was working on new handhelds to compete with devices like the iPad. It sounds like a great idea: a PSP with integrated telephony and e-book functionality could perhaps give everyone in the market a run for their money. But I'm a little skeptical -- Sony's Clié line once defined state-of-the-art PDA, but the company ceded the market to Palm long before the PDA was eventually reborn as the smartphone. If Sony's seriously thinking about getting back to the handheld space, here's some lessons it might learn from its efforts back in the PDA day.

1. Innovation is great but only when you really innovate. Sony led the market in innovation when it entered the PDA space. It offered the first Palm OS devices with removable storage, the first devices that could play back audio and video, and the first high-resolution color devices. All of these clearly drove the market forward. Then the innovations became less innovative and more "gadgetry." There were 3D interfaces for the launcher that were confusing and awkward. Some devices had Bluetooth support but not others. Devices like the NZ-90 (pictured above) added so many features into the mix that it was big, bloated, and nearly useless.* In short, the innovations became less compelling and eventually stood in the way of. I'm worried that Sony's meshing the type of functionality rumored to be its new device without any thought how it all has to work together.

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Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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06 May 10 WoW On an iPad Via Gaikai

Gametap writes "If cloud gaming works for enough genres, it can't help but find popularity. Even just a game like WoW might be enough to make it happen, and Gaikai's Dave Perry posted a picture of doing just that on an iPad. So is it the future or not? Could somebody make a tablet with nothing more than a screen, battery, network port, and video decoder, and have it be a good gaming platform? Will it change the mobile, PC, console, and TV world as we know it? Lots of questions, lots of skepticism, lots of players and money being invested — but one thing is for sure: it will be very interesting to see how this evolves."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tagi: gaming works, ipad, good gaming, video decoder, mobile pc, mdash, mey, tv world, ayers, genres, popularity, game, dave perry

04 Jun 10 12th Internet Problem Solving Contest, This Sunday

misof writes "Roughly a thousand teams from all around the globe have already registered for IPSC 2010, which takes place on Sunday, June 6. $3,000 in prize money (courtesy of Facebook, Inc.) is waiting for the best few of them. Participation is free and the contest is open to everybody. IPSC is what you could call a programming contest with a twist. Over the years, the problems always push the boundary and go beyond the usual stuff you see in a programming contest. For example, in past few years the contestants have had to understand how arithmetic in computers differs from that in mathematics, produce a sequence of cache requests that generates many page faults, solve a logic puzzle given as a Flash game, and recognize images to evaluate a rock-paper-scissors game."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tagi: logic puzzle, page faults, internet problem, ipsc, facebook, flash game, mey, twt, arithmetic, ace, usual stuff, mathematics, globe, ctest, images

11 Jul 10 Conde Nast's Reddit Asks Users for Donations to Fix Site

Technology news aggregate and online message board Reddit is in trouble. Recent site slowdowns—and, in some cases, outright outages—have prompted programmer Mike Schiraldi to issue a call for help: He's asked users to become Reddit subscribers for a donation of "whatever you want" in an effort to raise money to hire more resources to fix the site's issues.
Tagi: line message board, reddit, mey, conde nast, rae, aggregate, programmer, technology news, donations, subscribers

10 Aug 10 Asymmetric Flat-Panel TV Stands May Have You Rethinking a Wall Mount [Home Entertainment]

If you are looking for an alternative to wall mounting your flat panel TV, the asymmetric design of the Hollywood and Dolce Vita stands from Cattelan Italia are one stylish (but expensive) option.

The Hollywood unit can accommodate flat-panel LCD or Plasma televisions up to 42" wide while the Dolce Vita handles smaller sets up to 32". Both are vertically adjustable, so you can achieve the height that is most suitable for viewing. In addition to the glass shelving, the Hollywood also features a stainless steel CD storage unit mounted behind the television.

I'll admit that I like the clean contemporary look, but spending $1468 and $1573 respectively for the Dolce Vita and Hollywood is a lot of money to drop on a TV stand. There are, of course, cheaper options for achieving a clean look without wall mounting—like the Synchro Furniture Mate for $599. [Cattelan Italia via Trendir]

Tagi: flat panel tv stands, flat panel lcd, cattelan italia, dolce vita, asymmetric design, glass shelving, optis, cd storage, storage unit, flat panel tv, televi, mdash, mey, tv stand, home entertainment, stainless steel, mate, hollywood, furniture