| That simplistic looking wire that does it all from transfer our movies to portable drives and provide power for low consumption devices like our Blackberry’s, is getting an overhaul. After 7 years with no significant change, Intel has changed the future by unveiling its Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) draft specification revision 0.9 in support of the USB 3.0. |
Intel led the way with the UHCI back in the early days of the USB wars, and now they are leading the way to bring USB even more mainstream. Presently there are an estimated 2 billion USB devices available. Imagine how many of us have 3 or more devices that use that white/grey/black cable daily. Any of us that have purchased any new computer from the large chains recently, will notice that there are no more PS/2 ports, and plenty more USB ports. Most PC’s now carry a minimum of 4 in the back and two more front-end USB plugins for our iPods, Sidekick’s and Blackberry’s. | Needless to say, USB isn’t going anywhere and is getting a significant boost, with early estimates at 10 times the speed of 2.0. That’s going to put USB transferring speeds at 4.8 Gbit/s (600 MB/s). That’s one excessively large avi formatted movie file, a second. While in the near future, still in infancy as everyone from AMD to Microsoft is going to have it’s chance to review it now, and help to make revised xHCI 0.95 specification work and play well for easy adoption. The updated version of the specification will also be released uner RAND-Z licensing terms via an xHCI adopter’s agreement. | For those of us that just can’t wait a minute longer for our phones to back up, ipod to re-sync, and files to transfer for a friend… the age of seconds and not minutes is near. To read more about Intel, tune to Intel's About Section .
|
|
|
| Laptops generate significant heat; that’s not a secret. As they become more powerful and move to technologies that consume less power, this will change. However till then, there are items that help us cope with the heat. Recently we acquired a Belkin Laptop Cooling Pad . |
| The MacBook Pro that we use to write and produce some of the content you see here is so hot at times that it will literally burn up your finger if you hold it there long enough. My favorite was when I used to leave a palm print on the bezel. Now this is my everyday computer and I was skeptical of cooling fans/pads. We have owned some before that were literally a waste of the manufacturing space used to make them. However I think Belkin has done something worth at least 68% of people’s time, according to Newegg . |  |
Comfort is something that changes from person to person, so building a product that suits all is hard sometimes. We can’t all make an iPod now can we. However Belkin has done something right. Check the print screens below for the difference this piece can really make.
|
Laptop on a wooden dining room table, running for one hour while running the following applications: iTunes, iPhoto, iChat, Cyberduck, Firefox, Photoshop, Illustrator, Word, and Preview.
|  Kinda hot in here isn’t it? |
|
|
Items Needed:
- Windows XP or Vista Machine ( fully updated )
- Blackberry Desktop Software v4.2 SP2 or above (which includes Roxio Media Manager)
- Blackberry Mobile Device MicroSD Flash Card ( link ) If you want to get iPhone like features from your Blackberry we suggest at least a 2GB card.
|  | A recent problem that has been plaguing my Blackberry is the ever annoying, missing calls list, missing all text messages, and anything that can be shaken from the phone if it runs out of memory. I had called AT&T on this problem, and soon found out I was not the only Blackberry customer to have this problem. About 50% of users I personally knew experienced it at least once a week, some multiple times a day.
Calling Cingular yielded a clue, but not exactly the answer. Their response was to “go and buy a memory card” and my troubles would be over. While this was comforting for the moment, I already had a memory card. We then went through the usual cache cleaning of the Blackberry, I even went as far as backing it up and restoring it again. Still to my dismay, it happened again and again and again. I put up with it for a while and eventually it irritated me enough to call Cingular again. This time they gave me a few more pieces to the puzzle, but no answer that would have helped outright.
So here are the instructions for avoiding the most annoying Blackberry glitch yet. I say glitch because I had about 20 – 30 pics saved on the device memory. If RIM didn’t plan for enough internal memory for users to carry 30 pics at minimum, shame on them. I can understand the several hundred I have now on my memory card, but 30 pics and one ringtone?!?!
|
|
|
|
The Story: Oscot recently upgraded a team members PC. The Oscot Team was very meticulous in researching both the competitors and off-the-shelf hardware in order to build the best machine for your money. Here we have outlined for you a direct hardware list of our Ultra custom built machine, one of HP’s highly acclaimed Blackbird machines, and Dell’s XPS 720 system for a side by side comparison. We will refer to the custom built PC as “Ultra” (case model), the HP as the “Blackbird”, and Dell’s XPS 720 as “XPS” for the purposes of this documentation. The HP and Dell were spec’d out to match as much as possible direct from the vendor. They were ALL chosen with no monitors. The custom built Ultra PC has no mouse and keyboard, but with the money we’re saving you, you’ll manage. | Case Specs:
• (2) AeroCool Xtreme Turbine-Black 120mm Case Fan (Replaced with (2) Thermaltake A2018 1200mm fans)
• Ultra USB 2.0 MD3 5.25" Multi Function Panel Blk
• Ultra 750w X2 Power Supply/120mm Titanium UV Side
|
• Full-System Air Cooling
• Separate Thermal Chambers
• Heat Sinks and Pipes
• Discreet Wiring
• 900 Watt Power Supply
| • 750 Watt or 1KW Power Supply - SLI, ATX2.0, EPS12V, SSI industry compatibility
• Externally available: 2 Optical (5.25), 1 9-in-1 Media Card reader (2 x 5.25) & 1 Floppy (3.5)
• 7-slot BTX motherboard | Processor:
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40 GHZ, 8MB L2 Cache Total, 1066 MHZ FSB (link)
|
• Quad Core - Intel(R) Core2(TM) Quad-Core 2.4GHz Q6600 ( link )
|
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40 GHZ, 8MB L2 Cache Total, 1066 MHZ FSB ( possible link match )
| Video:
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512 DDR3 PCI Express with dual DVI (link)
| • NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, with 512MB of GDDR3 SDRAM ( link ) | • nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB ( link , a possible video card) | Motherboard:
• Asus Gaming Series "Republic of Gamers" Formula Maximus Motherboard ( link )
|
• ASUS Striker Extreme 680i ( link )
|
• Foxconn X38A LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard ( link, a possible video card)
| Memory:
• OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Vista Upgrade 2GB Module/4GB Kit ( link )
|
• 4 GB 1066MHz CORSAIR PC2-8500 DDR2 SDRAM SLI Ready ( link )
|
• 4GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz OC'd to 1066MHz-4 DIMMs ( link )
| Hard Drives: • 320GB 7200rpm SATA
• 1TB 7200rpm SATA |
• 320GB 7200rpm SATA
• 1TB 7200rpm SATA
|
• 160GB 7200rpm SATA
• 1TB 7200rpm SATA
| Drives: • Plextor PX810a 18x DVDRW Black Retail ( link ) • Asus Black 16x DVD-ROM/48x CD ROM ( link ) |
• Super multi-drive, slim slots with Lightscribe (DVD +/-R/RW+/-DL )
|
• Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|
|
Myka has just released information about a tv set-top box that has some people wondering if we’ll really want anything else, much less need. They have introduced the first ever BitTorrent Set-Top Box that will allow high quality content to just flow throughout the web based on your selections, not bad. Myka has a great advantage through BitTorent as they already have existing relationships with major content producers , which will boost Myka’s popularity.
|  Myka Set-Top Box
| Myka Key Features:
- WiFi enabled - 802.11/g
- Direct ethernet connector for direct connection
- HDMI, Composite, S-Video and SPDIF ports for maximum flexibility
- Internal hard drive choice of 80, 160 or 500 gigabytes
- BitTorrent peer to peer software built in
- USB port for expansion |
|
|
| |
|
|
Support www.oscot.com in making a small donation:
|
|
