Not all netbooks are created equal, and the NEC Versa N1100 is definitely no beauty, looking as unattractive as its initial pres shots. You get an traditional boxy design complete with sharp corners instead of round or tapered edges, making it look a whole lot bulkier compared to what we have on the market. The comparatively large bezel around the display doesn’t help in its quest for elegance, either, while the location of buttons beside the touchpad will need some getting used to compared to a standard touchpad layout, although it does help free up some space for a near full sized keyboard.

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I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: City Folk pretty regularly. I’m not as obsessed with it as I was Animal Crossing: Wild World, but that’s mostly because I have to play it on the Wii instead of the DS. The whole house can hear me when I play Animal Crossing: City Folk and the town is 52 inches wide. When Mike can see my obsession in HD greatness, I’m a little less willing to play for hours on end. The DS was a more private way to obsess.

Since it’s winter in the game, there aren’t very many bugs to catch, but one of the bugs that I can still get are mole crickets. Imagine my shock and surprise when The Bloggess showed me a photo of a REAL mole cricket.

If I saw that thing running around, there’s NO WAY I’d catch it! Butterfly net or not! After reading her comments, they are harmless:

dewde says:

LOL it’s a mole-cricket. Pick it up and it will try and “dig” into your hand much like a puppy digs in the dirt. It tickles, actually.

In the game, when you hear the mole cricket, you have to get out your shovel, dig a hole and then hurry and get your butterfly net to catch the cricket scurrying away. When I’m playing Animal Crossing, mole crickets look so cute. In real life, not so much. I think I’ll stick with the fantasy for now.

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CES 2009 will be the platform where many a company roll out new products, and PQI is one of them. At Las Vegas, they will unveil their full range of Solid State Drives, USB Flash Drives, Memory Module and Flash Memory Cards. We will try to catch a glimpse of four new SSD products for our dear readers - the 1.8” microSATA SSD S518, Express Card SSD S520, 2.5” SATAII SSD S525 and e-SATA Combo Card S530. The PQI 32GB Express Card SSD S520will and PQI’s patented Intelligent Stick Interface when running on a PCI ExpressCard slot, and users can also choose to use it as a standard USB flash drive or extend its PC/laptop storage capacity via the said PCI ExpressCard slot.

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The flower power era saw the rise of The Beatles as well as the iconic Volkswagen bus stamping its mark around the globe in the 1960s, and it is sad to see something from that era being turned into a radio in the 21st century. Dreams of Japan has released a miniature version of the Volkswagen bus that features an AM/FM radio, all the relevant jacks for hooking up an external audio source and radio antenna alongside a tiny LCD display in the back window and a digital clock to help you tell the time. Not everything is digital though, as there are a couple of analog dials to tune the radio and adjust the volume. You’d need to cough up $129.99 for this Flower Power relic though, which is pretty pricey compared to the components you get inside.

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You know those electronic timers that people have at home whenever they go away for a vacation? We believe burglars these days aren’t that silly to pounce upon a random house, and chances are they’ll stalk out your home beforehand and know you’re off for a vacation. Well, just in case there are still folks who want to break in without doing their homework, the House Sitter device could come in handy - it turns on the light whenever dusk falls, and the timing is entirely randomized to provide an illusion of people being at home. The House Sitter can be programmed with TVs, lamps and stereos, featuring a fireproof plastic case and the ability to restart automatically after a power outage. It will retail for $15 a pop.

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Show the world what a Nintendork you are with the SNES cartridge that has been modded to become a wallet. This is no ordinary wallet as it is a pocket disco of sorts, featuring internal lighting as well as theme music. The internal light is made possible thanks to LEDs from leftover Christmas lighting, while the switches and battery compartments come from an archaic all-in-one joystick with sounds provided by an old holiday card. In addition, the plexiglass window allows clear view of your ID, with a belt clip holding everything in place along the belt since you wouldn’t want this to end up in your back pocket, do you? It’d be a pain trying to sit down with it there, that’s for sure.

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DigiFi has rolled out its Opera wireless earphones in the US, making available to the masses what was previously found only in South Korea. Inside the Opera wireless headphones, you will find the following :-

• Kleer wireless technology
• Frequency range of 20Hz to 20KHz
• 86dB signal to noise ratio
• 10 hour battery life

The Opera’s transmitter can be connected to just about any ipod, portable media player or laptop without the need for a particular software installation. One can connect up to four Kleer-enabled receivers to the same source simultaneously. Interested parties can pick up the DigiFi Opera system for $100 a pop.

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If the Sonoro Eklipse ipod/CD sound system looks familiar to some, that’s because it has already been roaming the streets of Europe for quite some time already, although it has yet to step foot on US soil. Never fear - the FCC have just gotten their hands on it, and you will get the following :-

• OLED display
• 7.5W power output
• Headset jack
• 3.5mm input
• Support for MP3 and WMA-loaded CDs

There is no word on a US release yet though, but if it ever comes out, it will retail for approximately €499 (around $690).

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It’s clear today why Steve Jobs dropped the word "Computer" from Apple’s company name in 2007.

The CEO had greater ambitions for Apple. And with the phenomenal success of the iphone, ipod, iTunes Store and App Store in 2008, Apple shook up the music, phone and software industries, ultimately proving the company is far more than a PC manufacturer. Meanwhile, sales of its Mac desktops and notebooks continued to build momentum, getting the company’s share of the PC market to flirt with double digits for the first time in over a decade. 

Now, with Apple preparing to make its final appearance at the Macworld trade show in San Francisco this week, everyone is watching to see what the company’s next move will be.

"One thing that’s become clear over the last seven or eight years is Apple is much more than a personal computer company," said Yair Reiner, an Oppenheimer analyst. "It’s a company that is able to revolutionize the way that consumers interact with digital media of every kind."

Apple’s growth in the past decade is indeed remarkable. The company had a series of hits and misses in its early years, with flops such as the clunky Macintosh Portable in 1989 and successes like the first PowerBook laptop in 1991. And in the background, Jobs even resigned from Apple after a power struggle in 1985 — which led to a dismal period for the corporation until he retook the helm in 1997. It wasn’t until 1998 that Apple gained some serious momentum with the introduction of its all-in-one desktop, the iMac, which boosted the company into profitability.

The iMac hit a grand slam for Apple, driving the company to the success evident today. Since 2001, the corporation has expanded from just two stores to 240 retail locations worldwide to date. And you know Apple’s doing well when practically every computer you see in a Hollywood movie is a Mac. Heck, Macs and Steve Jobs even recently appeared in an episode of The Simpsons. As for the phone industry, Jobs in October proclaimed Apple to be the third largest handset supplier in the world thanks to the insanely popular iPhone, only two years old. 

Not bad for a company that remains a miniature player in the worldwide PC market. Apple still only possesses 3.3 percent of the global market share and 8 percent in the United States, according to research firm IDC.

"Apple is everywhere now, and everyone knows Apple," said Bruce Evans, better known as "Snaggy," who co-writes the geeky comic strip Joy of Tech. "Ten years ago the thought of Apple stores in malls would have seemed as far off and dreamy as rocket cars in the parking lots!"

Apple and its cult following have much to celebrate, but its future is uncertain. The majority of speculators believe that Jobs’ era — and the entire Apple era — is coming to an end.

The corporation recently delivered some shocking news: Jobs won’t be delivering his famous keynote speech to launch new Apple products at Macworld Expo 2009. And on top of that, Apple won’t be appearing for another Macworld show after this year.

Of course, these announcements rebooted a dialog about Jobs’ health. Some are insisting that the pancreatic cancer survivor is without a doubt extremely ill. Others are making a more conservative guess — that Apple is transitioning Jobs out of the CEO role. Either way, none of the guesses about Apple’s future bear positive implications.

"Whatever the condition of Steve’s health, his cancer has caused a certain amount of soul searching by the company," said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies. "How do you replace the maestro?  The paradox of the dictatorial personality is that it can’t replicate itself. Genghis Khan’s empire was gone 130 years after it was created…. So, a big question mark relates to how the product development process will work once he’s out of the picture."

The future of Macworld Expo is in question as well. Before Apple announced it was pulling out of the show after 2009, Macworld already saw a 20 percent drop in registrations. Most surprising — and alarming — is that Adobe will not be exhibiting at the show.

International Data Group, who hosts Macworld Expo, said it plans to return for another Macworld in 2010. Still, things are looking grim for Macworld. When Apple pulled out of the east coast Macworld show in 2003, the event survived for a few years before it died out.

"I’m hopeful  that Macworld will survive and evolve into even more of a cultural event and less a marketing one," Evans said. "That’s the core strength behind Apple, the geeks and nerds who love to use the products to create new things, and share information with each other. The Spirit of the Homebrew Club lives on."

Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

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by Ross Miller, posted Dec 31st 2008 at 9:39AM Here’s an odd one for you. Tobias Engel of the Chaos Communication Congress has discovered a rather nasty exploit that’ll cause any Nokia S60 devices running versions 2.6, 2.8, 3.0 or 3.1 to stop receiving SMS and MMS messages. The “Curse of Silence,” which has been independently verified by F-Secure, is triggered by sending an SMS that begins with an email address that’s at least 32 characters long. The attacker must also change the protocol identifier to internet electronic mail before sending. Devices with versions 2.8 and 3.1 lock up after 11 such messages and still have some limited receiving capabilities, while 2.6 and 3.0 devices will go completely mum after just one attack. In both cases a factory reset is required to fix it, and he says there is no other known workaround for the user. We don’t imagine this being a pervasive issue, but if you’ve got any tech-savvy enemies or malevolent pranksters in your life, you’ve been warned. Video demonstration is after the break, or hit up the read link to see if your device is among those listed at risk.

[Via Hack a Day]

Read - Vulnerability Advisory
Read - F-Secure Verification

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