Interesting Thing About MAC's OS X Lion.

Developers noted an interesting feature in progress within the Mac OS X Lion release, dubbing it the Crash or continue app, an writers exploit aid.  It has the ability to continue an application poised to crash.  When Lion encounters an app that raises an exception and fails to properly handle it (essentially, it's like throwing an object in the air and failing to catch it), it now offers the user the choice of either allowing the app to crash or a new option of continuing to allow the app to run.  While results in the app running in an inconsistent state, it does allow the user at least an attempt at saving data in any open files before quitting the app are restarting it fresh. The error dialog below indicates how an app that suffers a internal error presents the option to the user, providing a look at what caused the problem.  In closing I think, not only is a pretty damn good feature, but helpful toward consumers as well when looking for that right dependable tool on your itool (PC, phone, pad, or car stereo...wherever MAC wants to utilize it sounds just fine).

HP's Comin' Up!

HP has unveiled three new webOS devices, including a pint-sized smartphone known as the Veer, a beefier business phone dubbed the Pre³, and, yes, the first Palm tablet: the HP TouchPad.  The devices are designed to work in concert, and to dovetail with myriad "cloud-based" services, consolidating your calendar appointments, contacts, photos, email, SMS, and other messages.  Weighing little more than a pound and a half and measuring 13mm thick, the HP TouchPad includes an iPad-esque 9.7-inch capacitive multitouch display, 1.3-megapixel front-facing webcam, 1.2GHz ARM-based Qualcomm dual-core processor, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and stereo speakers. HP will offer one version of the tablet with 16GB of storage and one with 32GB.  Also the device does video calling, and it's specifically designed for multitasking. It ships with a full version of Amazon’s Kindle app and QuickOffice, which lets you view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents, but it's also designed to work with Google's online word processor and spreadsheet app, Google Docs. You can adjust the size of the keys on the device's software keyboard, but you also have the option of using an external hardware keyboard. You can dock and charge the device on an optional HP Touchstone wireless charging contraption, which works even when the TouchPad is in its case.  The Touchstone has been upgraded to automatically set docked devices to an "exhibition mode", displaying photos or serving up other applications suitable for use when the device is docked. HP's Touchstone technology also lets you share URLs between webOS devices. To share a URL (uniform resource locator), you simply touch a phone to the TouchPad, Via Bluetooth, you can also share SMS messages between phone and tablet and send voice call alerts from phone to tablet. In the future, an HP spokesman told us, the company plans to offer other sharing between devices, either through Bluetooth or Touchstone. HP said that a Wi-Fi only version of the tablet will be available "this summer," with 3G and 4G versions following. A webOS tablet SDK (software development kit) will be made available to developers on Wednesday evening.

Lastly, we find the smart phones; HP's Veer smartphone is no wider or longer than a credit card. It offers a 2.6-inch 320x400 display, a five-megapixel camera, 802.11 b/g, 8GB of storage, and an 800MHz Snapdragon processor. There's also a slide-out keyboard, and the device can serve as a mobile hotspot. The device will be available "this spring."  Meanwhile, the Pre³ offers a 3.6-inch 480x800 display, a five-megapixel camera, 8GB or 16GB of storage, a 1.44GHz Snapdragon processor, and full QWERTY slide-out keyboard. Like the HP Touchpad, the Pre³ is said to be available this summer. “Finally HP is getting it, if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em” I’ts always been about the toys and what they can do, we live by the tips of our fingers now and for one of the top hardware competitors to develop their own type I think helps ensure their success in the field of touchpads and smartphones.

Namibia's Extension

In Namibia an undersea telecoms fiber-optic cable laid along the West African coast went live on Tuesday, allowing high bandwidth connectivity for the country and its neighbors, officials said.   "The 14,900 kilometer West African Cable Systems (WACS) will bring direct connectivity between Namibia, West Africa and the United Kingdom,"  The cable which landed in Swakopmund beach, some 370 kilometers west of capital Windhoek was developed by Telecom Namibia and French partner Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks for $600 million dollars.  The cable will provide an Internet speed of at least 5120 gigabits (= 5.12 Terabits).  Other landing points are in several African countries and in Britain, Portugal and Spain's Canary Islands.  The arrival of the cable which will also be extended to Botswana is expected to bring down prices for Internet users and broadband connectivity.  Marc Gregan, the manager of Internet services provider AfricaOnline Namibia say’s  "The investors would want some return on their investments, so I expect prices to fall only later, not immediately.”

Plextor Unleashed!!

Plextor; a company known for manufaturing optical disc recorders, has announced that it is about to storm the UK with a range of fast, long life stable solid state disks (SSDs), its first of SSD units. Plextor say’s the M2S series SSDs have SATA III 6Gb/sec interfaces and come in a range of three capacities - 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. The long life, in Plextor's view, is 10 years, which I would like to assume is pretty long, and Plextor added that the SSDs' performance won’t degrade over time.

Although this does suggest that suddenly after 10 years the unit will simply cease to function, Plextor say’s it is unlikely. The three SSDs have read speeds of up to 480MB/sec and write speeds of up to 330MB/sec, on the biggest unit, and according to Plextor have performed well in benchmark tests. Plextor claims it performed so well that the M2S series are the fastest on the market. They are 2.5 inches in size and offer instant restore technology which is designed to improve stability, a 128GB DDR3 cache for improved data transfer speeds, Acronis True Image software for easy data migration, Windows data wiping tools, a server grade Marvell 88SS9174 control chip, which is the industry's most advanced, giving the unit an edge, and a three-year warranty.  The units, and pricing information, will be released in the UK in March.  U.S releases haven’t been posted yet but my interest is peaked and will remain monitoring its process as I hope you do as well.

Maxell's Hot Keyboard!

 

Maxell has a new HTPC keyboard. There are many features to choose from and many unlisted strengths and weaknesses that can't be described, but Maxell has adopted an old style with a new look and a good mixture of features. The Super Slim RF Home Theatre Keyboard has a number great features and power that make it an ideal tool for all applications. The keyboard also has a functional smart multi-touch pad that can make surfing on your big screen T.V. even easier then from a desk and a mouse. I think without a desk surface, the way we’re used to using a computer becomes a bore. The Super Slim RF Keyboard is USB compatible and fits comfortably in one hand and has many programmable buttons and multi-touch gestures that make one handed operation seem breezy. It’s said to be one of the top functional HTPC keyboards ever to seen hit the scene.

It sounds to me like this keyboard would be mainly for the power user, it has high gaming quality and net-surfing quality as well, it’s definatley one of the coolest looking keyboard I’ve seen.  It’s available by a company named Cleankeys whom specialize in making aseptic  (wipeable, waterproof) keyboards.  It is a little more geeky but very impressive as well is the Art. They can be hard to come by so far talks of  prices range from $24.95-$59.95 mostly it seems like a supply and demand situation, but they really do look like a really good way to show off your toys.

The Kin’s A Foul

The KIN series of smart phone devices have been nothing but a colossal fail for Microsoft. After being pulled from store shelves after dismal sales, and then reemerging several months later, KIN Studio is now officially closed.

The pulling of the plug on the service is effectively killing the device as much of its original services no longer function. Features including photo sharing, search near me, social media integration are all no longer working on the devices which renders them essentially useless for anything other than making phone calls or texting.  Although WPcentral is reporting that Zune pass still appears to be working over 3G despite originally being told that the service would only work over WiFi. 

This officially marks the end of the Kin program for Microsoft. When it was unveiled it was aimed at teens and was originally supposed to be offered with data plan below that cost less than a plan for a smartphone. But when the monthly pricing was the exact same as a smartphone, the Kin was dead before it ever hit the store shelves. While rumors that Microsoft missed Verizon's deadline for launching the device and that's why they gave it a higher data price point surfaced.

So agian as a result of KIN Studio’s termination, these following services stopped working:

-News Feed Reader

-Posting photos or status updates to social sites

-Search Near Me

-Loop

-Social network contacts

In other words, nearly every feature the social-oriented KIN was built around stopped working. On the upside, Verizon gave anyone who had the misfortune of nabbing a KIN during its 48 day lifespan a 3G device of their choosing, free of cost.