Dr. Blip's PC-Doctor Blog

What's happening in tech today? Trust Dr. Blip to find out!

Turn by Turn GPS Navigation for iPhone Coming?
Mac Rumors - MSNBC recently spoke (via MacDailyNews) with several GPS manufacturers about their plans to develop a turn-by-turn GPS solution for the iPhone. While the manufacturers were unable to provide many details about their plans, TomTom reasserted that they do have GPS navigation working on the iPhone and that it works well:

History Proves the iPhone Will Never Win the Handheld Gaming Wars
Gizmodo - Super Monkey Ball is arguably the current zenith of iPhone tilt gaming. The gameplay involves navigating your bebubbled monkey through a series of elevated, edgeless mazes without letting him fall—it's fun, if repetitive. Nintendo’s Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble is similar: The player guides Kirby through mazes using tilt-sensitive control, collecting stars along the way. Both games are entertaining, and both won positive reviews for nearly identical control schemes. So why is Monkey Ball getting all the attention?

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Friday, August 15, 2008" »

What's happening in tech today? Trust Dr. Blip to find out!

Apple to Update MacBook Air to Penryn Soon?
Mac Rumors - PhoneNews claims that Apple is preparing to release a new version of the MacBook Air imminently. The external design is to remain the same, but the new MacBook Air is said to incorporate a new Penryn-class processor "from 2.0GHz and potentially beyond". To compensate, Apple will be including a higher capacity battery.

Logitech Snaps up Ultimate Ears, Chasing this "Portable Audio" Market we've Heard so Much About
Engadget - Logitech is getting into the earbuds game, announcing today that it's buying privately-held Ultimate Ears. Historically focusing on spendy in-ear monitors for live musicians, Ultimate Ears has recently hit the earbud game with full force, and Logitech seems to want a piece of that action. Plus the acquisition price of $34 million is like, what, profits from your last seven minutes of iPod dock sales, Logitech? Logitech and Ultimate Ears expect the deal to close in August.

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Thursday, August 14, 2008" »

What's happening in tech today? Trust Dr. Blip to find out!

Some Customers with iPhone 3G Connection Issues
Mac Rumors - There are a number of reports of iPhone 3G users having problems with inconsistent cellular connections with their new phones. CNet points to a growing discussion thread at Apple's forums detailing the problems.

UK Researchers Give Robot a "Biological Brain"
Engadget - It looks like a group of researchers from the University of Reading are making a solid run at the title of mad scientists of the year (in the best sense, of course), with them now boasting that they've developed a robot that's controlled by a "biological brain." That's not quite the sci-fi sight you may be imagining, however (though it's close), with it instead made up of some 300,000 neurons taken from the neural cortex of a rat fetus, which are contained in multi electrode array that packs 60 electrodes to pick up the signals generated by the cells and, in turn, control the robot.

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Wednesday, August 13, 2008" »

What's happening in tech today? Trust Dr. Blip to find out!

Lenovo Intros the Monstrous ThinkPad W700
Slashdot - Engadget recently got their hands on an early delivery of Lenovo's new powerhouse of a laptop, the W700. Aimed at graphic artists and photographers this beast is designed to really pack a punch. No word on how much for the extra fusion generator to power it for longer than 20 minutes.

The Quick 10: 10 Things 300 Didn’t Tell You
mental_floss - It was, um, a lot of years ago today (480 B.C., to be exact) that King Leonidas and the Spartans were defeated by Xerxes’ army at Thermopylae. Well, that’s according to some accounts. Some historians say that we can’t be sure exactly what day in late summer the Battle of Thermopylae happened, but for our purposes today (namely, a timely Quick 10) we’ll stick with the ones who have agreed on August 11.

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Tuesday, August 12, 2008" »

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Why Shoot Down a Satellite? Analyzing an Analysis
Slashdot - Writing in the IEEE Spectrum, James Oberg analyzes whether there was, in fact a significant risk to humans from the satellite which the US military shot down on 21 February, purportedly 'to head off the possibility of its splashing a half ton of toxic hydrazine fuel somewhere on Earth.

Scientists Closer To Invisibility Cloak
Slashdot - "Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible. Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects."

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Monday, August 11, 2008" »

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Published Blacklist Blocks Core Location Only?
Mac Rumors - DaringFireball.net clarifies that the published blacklist url likely only blocks malicious apps from accessing the iPhone's Core Location functions. Core Location allows applications to detect the user's location through GPS and Wi-Fi triangulation.

Iron Man Blu-ray Packs a Stark-Worthy Arsenal of Bonus Features
Gizmodo - The Blu-ray version of Iron Man has been available for preorder on Amazon for quite a while now, but no one knew exactly what they were buying (other than, you know, the movie itself). Now we know that the Ultimate Edition will be released September 30 and contain two discs packed with all sorts of good stuff, including the ability to check out Iron Man's full suit in crazy-explicit detail:

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Friday, August 8, 2008" »

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Remote iTunes Streaming to iPhone or iPod Touch?
Mac Rumors - A new patent application (as detailed by AppleInsider) by Apple reveals that Apple has been working on the ability for iPhone and iPod touch owners to wirelessly stream content from their at home iTunes library for use on the road.

NVIDIA Uncorking PhysX Support for GeForce Cards on August 12th
Engadget - It's arriving a month later than anticipated, but at least it's arriving (we hope). According to a first look at PhysX on NVIDIA's GeForce cards, The Tech Report is reporting (ahem) that the graphical outfit will dish out new drivers that add PhysX support on August 12th.

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Thursday, August 7, 2008" »

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New Apple Cinema Displays Finally at MWSF 2009?
Mac Rumors - Readers interested in new Apple Cinema Displays may have to wait just a bit longer. Apple has not significantly updated their Cinema Displays in years. Apple currently offers 20", 23" and 30" monitors at $599, $899, and $1799, respectively. While Apple has introduced routine price drops and minor spec improvements, the displays have remained largely unchanged since June 2004.

EC Cuts a Slice of Spectrum for Vehicle-to-vehicle Communication
Engadget - It seems that Dash-like devices that rely on plain old GPRS for two-way vehicle communications could one day be a bit redundant in Europe, as the European Commission has just set aside a slice of spectrum that's intended specifically to let vehicles communicate with each other.

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Wednesday, August 6, 2008" »

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MIT Team Working On a $12 Apple (II) Desktop
Slashdot - "A new project to create a $12 computer is underway at MIT, the same University that spawned the One Laptop Per Child non-profit laptop. The PCs will be loosely based on Apple 2 machines, first unveiled over 30 years ago, and the team are actively recruiting enthusiasts of the retro computer to help develop the new PC."

Burning Question #234: how Deadly is Space?
mental_floss - Fifty years of movies that feature gory death scenes in which people are exposed to total vacuums (with decidedly gooey results) would have us believe that outer space is so incredibly hostile an environment that it can’t be withstood, even for a second. According to damn interesting (and some scientists with access to fancy vacuum chambers), that’s not entirely true.

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Tuesday, August 5, 2008" »

What's happening in tech today? Trust Dr. Blip to find out!

Microsoft Working On "post-Windows" Cloud Computing OS
Slashdot - "Microsoft is working on a web-based operating system called Midori, as it looks to life beyond Windows. Midori is expected to be a cloud-computing service, and so not as dependent on hardware as current generations of Windows".

Scotty's Final Mission
Slashdot - "According to Ars Technica, the ashes of James Doohan, who played "Scotty" in the original 'Star Trek' series and several movies, were aboard the SpaceX III launch and were lost when the launch vehicle failed." Which totally wouldn't have happened if Scotty was the engineer.

Continue reading "Top Tech Headlines for Monday August 4, 2008" »