Monday, January 08, 2007

VIDEO: Live demo of Ford/Microsoft's Sync


From Autoblog:
Our car-culture obsessive friends over at Jalopnik traveled into the bowels of FoMoCo to get some exclusive playtime with the Sync, the infotainment progeny of the Ford and Microsoft partnership.

You can view the first installment, as Ray Wert sits down with one of Ford's techy PR people for a demo and comes away more than just impressed. Once you see the video, you'll understand why, as the Sync seemed to make everything look, well, easy. Does it get any simpler than just plugging any USB equipped music player (or simple flash drive) into a port in the armrest, speaking the name of the song and then forgetting about it?

Just the fact that they got a speech recognition function to work is enough to impress, but what if you don't have your iPod isn't at, but you're Bluetooth phone can stream music? Even simpler. The system integrates with the phone and, as long as you have Microsoft Windows Media Player and an internet connection, you can stream whatever you like: music, talk radio, our podcasts and whatever else you can find online.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

What does a hard drive look like inside while in use?

German robotics group crafts LEGO factory to build... LEGO cars

t's one thing to craft something remarkable all by your lonesome, but constructing an entire factory to handle all the dirty work for you is really doing something. A robotics group assembled (ahem) at a German "grammar school" (VHG) in lower Bavaria has fabricated a feat that even Toys R Us would marvel over, as the group's expansive LEGO Mindstorm factory was built entirely out of LEGO blocks, and moreover, programmed to assemble LEGO-based vehicles. Taking a note from every other major assembly plant in the world, this automated construction site feeds blocks from one end to the other, carefully pushing, pulling, and connecting pieces as necessary to completely assemble a LEGO car.

Friday, January 05, 2007

DDRdrive uses PCIe and DDR RAM to increase speed of mainstream solid state disks

They need to come out with this now! Booting a computer from windows in 10 seconds! Yes please! Heres a video of Gigabyte's I-ram in action:

TomsHardware reports from the CES 2007 show:
If you are wondering about the other type of SSDs, powered by SDRAMs, we have been waiting for some products, especially the DDRdrive, but haven't heard anything about a public display yet. Of course, the recent speed hype in the performance memory segment will continue - with Patriot showing 1302 MHz DDR2 modules. Also, Rambus will promote its XDR memory modules by having a Playstation 3 console ready for action at its booth.
From Tomshardware original article:
Gigabyte's i-Ram and HyperOs Systems' HyperDrive III solid state disk recently gave us a first impression that solid state storage is making its way into the mainstream: And there is more to come in the near future: DDRdrive will soon release a PCI Express device that uses external power to ensure the memory will not lose its stored data.