All Posts by Paul

Clearwire releases first pre-WiMAX PC card for laptops

Paul

The latest saviour of wireless broadband is at hand. Clearwire is finally shedding those clunky external modems, and is launching its very first pre-WiMAX data card to bring what it deems “True Broadband” to laptops. The PC card uses Motorola’s pre-WiMAX OFDM tech, and doesn’t require any extra power sources beyond your laptop’s own precious juice. If you’re luckily enough to be living in some random part of Clearwire’s primarily-podunk US coverage area, you can be getting some 1.5Mbps wireless internets for $59.99 a month, plus a $6.99 a month fee to lease the PC card. You can buy the card straight up for $230, but that seems a bit excessive given the “pre” nature of the thing at the moment.

Hmm, I want one!!

Panasonic’s internal LF-PB271JD drive burns Blu-ray at 4x

Paul

Nah, Panasonic’s LF-PB271JD couldn’t hold a candle to Sony’s BWU-200S in a runway competition, but when it comes to performance, we’d say the two are practically neck and neck. This unit fits snuggly within any Windows-based machine lookin’ for a 5.25-inch optical drive, and it has no problems burning dual-layer BD-Rs at a furious (ahem) 4x pace. Additionally, you’ll find a SATA interface along with backup software bundled in, and just in case you’re not working exclusively with BD-R, it can also toast BD-RE at 2x, DVD±R at 16x, DVD±R DL at 8x, DVD-RW at 6x, CD-R at 40x and CD-RW at 24x. Of course, you’ll be paying through the nose for the luxuries presented when it lands on November 10th, but the ¥55,000 ($468) asking price is still a good bit lower than what Sony’s demanding.

[Via Impress]


Now if they could make an internal Blue Ray burner for laptops!! 😉

Hibernate vs. Standby

Paul

Quick: What’s the difference between putting your PC in Hibernate or Standby mode? Yeah, we weren’t sure either. Luckily the Productivity Portfolio weblog schools us on the finer details of Windows XP power schemes. Using Standby:

Your machine recovers quickly as your data is stored in RAM. The slower part is waking up the peripherals. Although your machine is in “standby” the power has been cut to items such as your hard drive and monitor. You’re running your machine in a very low power mode, but it is still on. This mode can be useful if you’re on a notebook and need to conserve your battery while you step away.

With Hibernate:

The big difference is that your PC has shut down and is not pulling power. Another difference is that your data is saved to your hard disk and not RAM. This makes it a safer, but slower option for shut down and resume.

Not all PCs have the capability and are configured to Hibernate. If yours is, to see the Hibernate option on your XP shutdown screen, hold down the Shift key when you shut down.

Hibernate and Standby | Windows XP Power Scheme [Productivity Portfolio]

A really interesting article on the differences!!

Do More from GNOME’s Panel with Gimmie

Paul

Linux only: Keep your recent documents, frequent contacts and favorite file locations close at hand with Gimmie, a panel utility for GNOME-based Linux clients. Gimmie fits a lot of handy stuff into four buttons, including Pidgin integration, a Windows-like list of frequently used programs and quick network browsing, and promises more web and office document functionality in the future. The newest version runs on the release candidate for Ubuntu’s Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), but Feisty Fawn (7.04) users can install it from the repositories by entering into terminal:

sudo apt-get install gimmie

Gimmie is a free download, Linux only.

Gimmie [via Tombuntu]

thought people would like this program!! Check it out if you use LINUX