Technology Soup

SDXC memory cards promise 2TB of storage

technologysoup — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:12:38 +0000

Usually, we poo-poo any new memory card format what with the plethora of options available today. But when a new itty bitty card is announced with a ridiculous 2TB (2 terabyte!) maximum capacity (theoretical), well, we’re willing to make the jump to a new format. SDXC (SD eXtended Capacity) relies upon Microsoft’s exFAT file system and stores more than 4,000 RAW images, 100 HD movies, or 60 hours of HD recording with a transfer rate of up to 300MBps. The first batch of retail cards will hit before March with read/write speeds up to 104MBps in unknown capacities, though certainly less than 2TB on day one.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/sdxc-memory-cards-promise-2tb-of-storage-300mbps-transfer/

ASUS P565 review

technologysoup — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:00:22 +0000

Kamal over gadgetmix has published a mini review of ASUS P565′s benchmark with the other devices.

Click here to take a look at it

HP and Intel Atom Processors

technologysoup — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:01:17 +0000

HP is reportedly in negotiations with Intel to use the Intel Atom processor in the regular notebooks. Sadly, it would be difficult to do so as the Intel Atom was made to be run only on the netbooks and due to the restriction that they are allowed to be used only in the devices with 10.2″ or less, HP is going to have a hard-time convincing the Intel to use the Atom in their regular notebooks.

Read the complete article here

Innovisoft VirtuaMouse One-Hand review at Gadgetmix

technologysoup — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 10:15:16 +0000

Just saw this review of the wonderful application which gives you a mouse on your screen.

If you use your device on the go where you find selecting elements on the screen a little difficult, then this application can be extremely useful. It is also extremely useful in the case of those applications, which are not touch-optimized.

Also, it is a cool thing to show-off to your iPhone friends. It makes your device look like a mini-PC and it is easy to befool others that you are running PC-version of Windows

Read the full review here

Spb Holiday Sale: Software Treats for All Tastes

technologysoup — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:02:20 +0000

Spb Software, the world’s leading Windows Mobile software developer announces the start of Spb Holiday Sale 2008, which will run from December 16th until December 30th at the developer’s official website. For the first time ever, Spb launches a major sale campaign, offering a 30% discount across its entire product line: from usability applications to platform enhancements, from advanced business applications to games.

“The Holiday Season is a time when people exchange special signs of care,” comments Olga Gachko, Marketing Manager at Spb Software. “This year we are proud to be able to offer our customers more of our famous software for less money, and we do have quite a bit of new titles in store for everybody,” Olga concludes.

To claim the discount, shoppers need to enter the “SpbHolidaySale” discount code in their shopping carts at http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com, and see 30% deducted from the order total. The Spb Holiday Sale offer is not valid with any other promotion.

Citrix Receiver for iPhone

technologysoup — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:02:39 +0000

In the end, it is going to be difficult to impossible to provide a complete Windows experience on the iPhone due to the inadequacies of the device and its software. Simple things, such as an awful keyboard and the lack of a cut and paste function stand in the way.

That being said, I expect it will be possible to make key applications, such as an Email agent, a viewer for documents and presentations, and a file transfer function work well enough so that mobile staff members can be productive.

I guess we’re going to have to wait and see what Citrix and its community can do to overcome the weaknesses in the iPhone. Without major effort and creativity, it is likely that this tool will not live up to the expectations set by Citrix’s ICA clients on other mobile devices.

read full article at zdnet

Too Many resolutions = Nightmare for Windows Mobile developers

technologysoup — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:57:44 +0000

Kamal DS over gadgetmix.com has written a fantastic article about the problems being faced by windows mobile developers when making applications for windows mobile

The ability to support so many resolutions do present a great choice to the consumers, but it makes the life miserable for the developer. You need to design the application in a different manner for all the resolutions. This is due to the new resolutions that have cropped up (320×320, 800×480 and 480 x 800). Since it is the duty of the application developer to make sure that the application looks good in all the resolutions, he has to do extensive (public) beta testing to make sure that it is working on all devices and on all resolutions. Also, a developer has to take considerations of the versions of Compact flash frameworks. An application coded for CF version 3 may not work under CF version 1.

No such problem exist in case of iPhone. One more interesting thing to notice that even if the application works perfectly on the Windows Mobile emulator on the PC, there is no guarantee that it will run without giving any problem. Worse, it may not even run at all.

Another very important drawback is related to the extent the Microsoft let the OEMs and carriers modify the OS. They sometime delete/replace/edit the files or modules in operating system, which increases the differences between the devices running the same operating system.

Then, one would imagine, if the Desktop’s Windows can do that, why cannot the windows mobile. The answer is simple. On a desktop, a smaller sized application can simply be centered and the rest of the space can be left empty on a higher resolution screen. But, one cannot think of doing this on Windows Mobile. The reason is pixel density. The number of pixels per inch in windows mobile are very high as compared to Desktop OS. For example: an application hardcoded to run on QVGA display (240 x 320) would look odd if run on a device having WVGA (800 x 480) resolution display, say, HTC TOUCH HD. The programmers need to be very careful about the alignment of the elements as different resolution can make the application look and feel totally different as compared to some other device.

click here to read the full article

Hello world!

technologysoup — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 11:33:50 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!