Common Paradox Tech Blog

Samsung is trying to maneuver itself into a position of prominence in emerging device segments. After having announced plans to enter the increasingly crowded e-reader market this spring, it now plans to lend to the bustle in another burgeoning segment: the tablet/slate PC market.

According to a  APC Magazine report, which quotes a high-ranking executive, Samsung will enter the tablet market in the second half of 2010. Philip Newton, the director of Samsung Australia’s IT division, told the magazine that the new tablet will be a consumer product unlike its Q1 UMPC, “a very niche product for a vertical market.”

You are not alone feeling underwhelmed by the iPad, especially given the hype it has generated. Newton made no attempts to smother his disliking for the hype surrounding the iPad, which he dubbed "a glorified MID (mobile Internet device)."

“I do feel that that slate-type platform has legs but I think the legs need to be far more powerful, for example an Atom-based product which has far greater flexibility, not to mention inputs and outputs. This has more potential than an iPad,” Newton told the APC Magazine. Going by Newton’s comments, Samsung’s perception of a tablet is that of a second computer rather than just a fun device that ships with ephemeral joy.

Image Credit: Engadget

In today’s Remainders: tomorrow’s news! Cisco’s ushering in the next generation of internet with the CRS-3; Kempler & Strauss’s futuristic PhoneWatch gets reviewed; geolocated Tweets; a WebKit-borrowing Firefox; an HTML 5 drawing app; Samsung’s point and shoot prices, and more!

Hang Ups
Back in October we previewed the Kempler & Strauss PhoneWatch—the smallest of its kind and the model that promised to bring the James Bond dream to every geek’s wrist. Or so we hoped. PC Mag just published their review of the watch and found it “basically unusable,” complaining about the tiny screen and how texting (as you might assume) was pretty much impossible. As they point out, i’s a one way street, this watch/phone business: your phone will always be able to tell the time, but your timepiece will not always be able to make phone calls. [PC Mag]

Tubular
Last night Cisco grabbed our attention with its promise that it was soon to make an announce that would “forever change the internet.” This morning they unveiled their internet changer: the Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System. Doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Basically, the new server triples the capacity of Cisco’s current ones, allowing for 322 Terabits per second transfer and ushering in, Cisco hopes, the “next generation” of the internet. Sure, that’s great, but even with crazyfast back-end, there are still plenty of things limiting the speed of the intertubes. Cisco’s claims for the CRS-3 are impressive, for sure:

The Cisco CRS-3 triples the capacity of its predecessor, the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, with up to 322 Terabits per second, which enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.

But if it’s only three times as fast as the one that came before it, Cisco’s current platform can stream every movie ever made in twelve minutes. It took me like two hours to download Lost last week, so I’m not ready to say that Cisco forever changed anything just yet. [Cisco]

Firey Fox
Firefox’s JavaScript engine, TraceMonkey, is starting to fall behind some of the other browser monkeys, so Mozilla is building a new engine, JagerMonkey, to get back up to speed. Ars Technica reports that Mozilla will snatch code from Apple’s WebKit to add to their TraceMonkey optimization techniques. David Mandelin, a developer on the project, explained:

The reason we’re [building JägerMonkey] is that TraceMonkey is very fast for code that traces well, but for code that doesn’t trace, we’re stuck with the interpreter, which is not fast. The JägerMonkey method JIT will provide a much better performance baseline, and tracing will continue to speed us up on code where it applies.

From the sound of things, JagerMonkey is aiming to put the fire back in the fox. [Ars Technica]
Image credit Smoking Apples

Gates’ Cells
Intellectual Ventures, the very cool, very smart invention factory we’ve covered before, has a new patent for the modification of red blood cells. Edward Jung, Intellectual Ventures’ CTO, explains:

Red blood cells are odd cells in the body because they have no nucleus. Thus they are ’stripped down’ cells that cannot reproduce and cannot renew themselves; therefore they die quickly and must be constantly manufactured by special cells in the bone marrow. All these attributes make red blood cells interesting vessels for sensing devices and medicines. There is no risk of their reproducing thereby creating a hazard, nor is there a lot of machinery to run awry.

We’ll take your word for it, guys. [TechFlash]

Doodling
We’ve already explained why HTML 5 isn’t going to save the internet. But it might save you from a few hours of office drudgery, in the form of Harmony, an awesome HTML 5 drawing app. Warning: Not Safe For Productivity. [Harmony]

Tweetin’ All Over the World
These days, social media seems to be focused on location, location, location. Foursquare is more popular than ever. Buzz, despite its faults, is a big play by a big company the location game. And Facebook is set to roll out its location-based solution next month. Today, geolocated Tweeets went live on Twitter.com (only to be turned off a few hours later). Still, Twitter is expected to turn the service on for good any day now, adding yet another element to Twittermania, for better or for worse. [TechCrunch]

Pricetags
We were very excited when Samsung’s new point and shoots, the TL500 and the TL300, first splashed on the scene last month. Now we have prices: the TL500 will go for $449 and the TL350 for $349. As for the “rugged” cams, the water-friendly AQ100 will have a price tag of $199 with the SL605 going for $129. [Engadget]

Browsin
Lab 126, the unit in Amazon responsible for the Kindle, posted a new job opening looking for someone to help build “an innovative embedded web browser.” The Kindle’s web browsing capabilities have been, well, lacking, so a more fully realized browser would be a welcome addition. And maybe a necessary one, if Kindle’s going to keep up with the iPad and its finger friendly version of Safari. [All Things D]

If you’re sick—literally or figuratively—of 3D now, just wait until the end of the month. HD Guru has Best Buy’s schedule for rolling out 3D capable HDTVs and Blu-ray players from Samsung and Panasonic, and they’re coming soon.

The Guru claims that sales and demonstrations of 3D gear will commence at 200 Best Buy locations on March 10—as in, like, Wednesday. According to his sources, that initial blast will feature Panasonic’s 50″ TC-P50VT20 plasma 3D HDTV—we’ve heard it will retail for around $3500—in tandem with their DMP-BD350 3D Blu-ray player.

On March 21, Samsung will apparently join the fray, showing and schilling their LED 3D HDTVs—the 46″ UN-46C7000 and the 55″ UN-55C7000—along with the awesome-looking BD-C6900 3D Blu-ray player at 900 Best Buy locations. TechRadar checked out this package earlier this week and said that if you decide to take the plunge, you won’t be sorry you did.

We’ve heard for a while now that Monsters vs. Aliens will be the first 3D Blu-ray movie available, and HD Guru reports that it will be available as part of a promotional package with Samsung’s gear on the 21st. [HD Guru]

This man is tightening a mold in a Samsung factory in Kaluga, Russia. Inside that mold is a portion of what will soon be a television. Let’s take a tour of the rest of the factory.

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Samsung opened this particular factory in 2008 and its been putting out products ever since. Aside from quality inspections, it appears that from the moment components arrive in gigantic sacks from Korea nearly everything is automated in this factory—from hot plastic being piped into molds to microcircuits being produced to the little logos being stamped onto panels. Humans mostly oversee the production and yes, occasionally tighten molds. Guess we’re still needed for something. [English Russia]

Samsung on Thursday said it plans to launch a new line of multimedia "powerhouse" R80 series notebooks at Best Buy, both online and offline, on March 7th. The sub-$1,000 notebook line will come with Blu-ray capabilities and Nvidia GeForce graphics.

"Best Buy continues to be an important retail partner for Samsung, and we’re excited to offer a range of notebook and netbook options to our customers that deliver exceptional craftsmanship and performance," said Todd Bouman, director of product marketing at Samsung Electronics Information Technology Division. "True to Samsung’s unique, customer-focused design aesthetic, these mobile PCs are flexible enough to be used as mobile devices or desktop replacements for all-day use."

There will be three models in all — R480 ($730), R580 ($830), and R780 ($930) — all of which come built around Intel’s Core i3/i5 platform. The flagship 17-inch R780 unit will include 4GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics, a 500GB hard drive, DVD burner, 1.3MP webcam, Wi-Fi, and Windows Home Premium 64-bit. Interestingly, there’s no Blu-ray drive on the higher end model, which is offered only on the 14-inch R480 and 15-inch R580.

Samsung has also started selling its N210 netbook in Best Buy stores, which comes with an Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory, Intel GMA 3150 graphics, a 250GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter Edition. This one sells for $380.

Image Credit: Samsung

It used to be that if you wanted to run with the big dogs in photography, you needed a DSLR. And while some would argue that’s still the case, point-and-shoot cameras continue to blur the line between the two market segments. Enter Samsung’s new TL350, a 10 megapixel point-and-shoot with a few tricks up its sleeve.

Samsung’s latest entry to the point-and-shoot market comes with a 24mm ultra wide-angle Schneider Keuznach lens, five levels of optical zoom, and a 3-inch AMOLED display. Budding photographers benefit from both smart and manual controls, but that’s not all.

Video buffs will appreciate the TL350’s ability to capture 1080p HD video. And with Samsung’s Dual Capture Mode, users can shoot videos and stills at the same time.

Of course, we need to see its performance before making any kind of judgment, but as far as spec sheets go, Samsung’s off to a good start, and a decent price point. This one will carry an MSRP of $350 when it ships this Spring.

Image Credit: Samsung

Samsung has just upped the ante on DDR3, by making the memory modules even smaller and more energy efficient. It’s reduced the process size from 40nm to 30nm, which lowers productions costs, allows for higher density memory, and reduces energy consumption.

According to Samsung, productivity in mass production is 60 percent greater with 30nm-class process technology, with production-cost efficiencies double that of DRAM using 50nm or 60nm-class technology.

Furthermore, the 30nm-class 2Gb “Green” DRAM reduces energy consumption by 30 percent. Samsung says a 4GB, 30nm DDR3 in a new generation notebook will only use three watts per hour, or about three percent of the notebook’s power consumption.

Samsung’s focus is not specifically the consumer market, but rather the server market where memory is one of the drivers for energy costs. Widespread use of this new memory technology promises significant reduction in server energy costs, which should be attractive to the enterprise market. (Hence the “Green” appellation.) Still, this new 30nm-class DDR3 will be making its way into consumer products: desktops, laptops, netbooks, and mobile devices.

Samsung says mass production of its new 30nm-class 1.35V DDR3 is scheduled for the second half of 2010. That could mean they will start appearing in consumer hardware by the end of the year.

Image Credit: Samsung

Christ, this is getting complicated. Mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses that promise near-DSLR quality without DSLR bulk are verifiably exploding. After the now-established Micro Four Thirds format from Panasonic and Olympus, Samsung jumped in with its Hybrid NX camera. Yesterday, Sony revealed its own spin, the Alpha concept.

And now, there’s Sigma, known for its prickly but highly capable compacts powered by its oversized Foveon image sensors, is going to make their own system with Foveon. More interesting, maybe, is that they’re thinking about making lenses for the other guys too. Oh well, who really wants simplicity? [DP Review]

In today’s Remainders: video! And in many cases, things caught on video for the first time, like Samsung’s E6 and E101 ebook readers, Apple’s $1 billion data center, Big Bloom’s “miraculous” fuel cell, and a modern day Superman.

newVideoPlayer( {“type”:”video”,”player”:”http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Ilkn8dHteOE&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22″,”customParams”:[],”width”:500,”height”:412,”ratio”:0.824,”flashData”:”",”embedName”:null,”objectId”:null,”noEmbed”:false,”source”:”youtube”} );
Stylish Stylus
We got a look at Samsung’s ebook readers—the E6 and the E101—back at CES, but now you can check them out on video. Their claim to fame: electromagnetic resonance stylii that let you doodle on the screen and annotate your digital texts. Sure, that seems like it’d be useful for a particular set of ebookworms, but now that we’re in the era of the iPad, watching and waiting for that E-Ink display to refresh is even more grueling. Still, the hardware looks pretty sleek, and might be a good fit for those who remain committed to their marginalia. [Engadget]

Pickleback
At the beginning of February, Nickelback had 1,380,820 fans on their Facebook page. Facebook user Coral Anne wondered if a Pickle could get more fans. So she started the group, “Can this pickle get more fans than Nickleback?” The answer was yes, yes it could; on Friday, the Pickleback surpassed Nickelback in terms of Facebook fandom. The little stunt apparently did not sit well with Chad Kroeger, Nickelback’s frontman, who fired off this snooty little message to Pickelback’s creator. No matter—I think she got her point across. [The Daily What]

Hype Machine
This morning, everyone was abuzz over a little cube called the Bloom Box. The publicity stemmed from a 60 Minutes segment in which the Bloom Box was described as a “power plant-in-a-box,” and posited as a “miraculous” solution to our energy crisis. Well that’d be great, wouldn’t it? BoingBoing, however, was quick to cut through the hype and peg the Bloom Box for what it really is: a gussied-up fuel cell. Here’s how it works:

[The creator, Sridhar] said he bakes sand and cuts it into little squares that are turned into a ceramic. Then he coats it with green and black “inks” that he developed.

Sridhar told Stahl there is a secret formula. “And you take that and you apply that. You paint that on either side of this white ceramic to get a green layer and a black layer. And…that’s it.”

Big Bloom Boxes are currently powering some buildings owned by Ebay and Google and the results are indeed promising. Sridhar says that he hopes to shrink the Bloom Box down to be cheap enough for consumers sometime in the next 5 to 10 years, which usually translates roughly to 10 to never years. So, all in all, is the Bloom Box miraculous? No. Is it revolutionary? Probably not. Is it a viable option for cheap, renewable energy going forward? Maybe. [BoingBoing]

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Safe!
Neatorama deems him a “real-life Superman.” I don’t know about that, but this guy, who dashed in front of an oncoming train to push a truck off the tracks, definitely has some super cajones. I like how he and his buddy celebrate so ecstatically right after his daring feat. And rightfully so. I’d imagine the “I just saved a car full of people” high five is the best high five of all. [Neatorama]

Nap Time
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley—nappers that they are—have determined that a 60- to 90-minute nap in the middle of the day can increase your brain’s ability to retain facts that you learn later in the day. Which is great, because I totally have an hour and a half in the middle of the day when I’m just sitting around trying to figure out how to replenish my brainpower. Oh wait no I don’t. There have been many studies like this that show how the mind benefits from naps, but they never seem to make it any easier for me to find time to do so. [PhysOrg]

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That Data Center Is Fully Operational!
You know that tingle up your spine you got when you first caught a glimpse of the Death Star II? Watch this fly-by video of Apple’s new $1 billion iDataCenter in Maiden, North Carolina and tell me if you get the same feeling. Still, you’ll probably learn to love it—in the iCloud future, this is where all of your data will be stored. (Unless it’s stored on a Bloom Box-fueled Google data center, that is). [Data Center Knowledge]

Can You Hear Me Now?
Fast Company has a piece about the 10 most addictive sounds that are currently nestling their way into our brains (largely without us even realizing it). The study, conducted by Buyology Inc. and Elias Arts, ranked the top 10 branded sounds and the top 10 non-branded sounds. The most addicting sound for each, respectively: the Intel jingle and a baby giggling. The article touches on how advertisers have begun to understand our brains’ addictions to these noises, and how soundbites are playing an increasingly large role in branding. All Intel needs to do is get a baby giggling “bumBUM bum BUM” and they’re unstoppable. [FastCompany]

In today’s Remainders: video! And in many cases, things caught on video for the first time, like Samsung’s E6 and E101 ebook readers, Apple’s $1 billion data center, Big Bloom’s “miraculous” fuel cell, and a modern day Superman.

newVideoPlayer( {“type”:”video”,”player”:”http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Ilkn8dHteOE&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22″,”customParams”:[],”width”:500,”height”:412,”ratio”:0.824,”flashData”:”",”embedName”:null,”objectId”:null,”noEmbed”:false,”source”:”youtube”} );
Stylish Stylus
We got a look at Samsung’s ebook readers—the E6 and the E101—back at CES, but now you can check them out on video. Their claim to fame: electromagnetic resonance stylii that let you doodle on the screen and annotate your digital texts. Sure, that seems like it’d be useful for a particular set of ebookworms, but now that we’re in the era of the iPad, watching and waiting for that E-Ink display to refresh is even more grueling. Still, the hardware looks pretty sleek, and might be a good fit for those who remain committed to their marginalia. [Engadget]

Pickleback
At the beginning of February, Nickelback had 1,380,820 fans on their Facebook page. Facebook user Coral Anne wondered if a Pickle could get more fans. So she started the group, “Can this pickle get more fans than Nickleback?” The answer was yes, yes it could; on Friday, the Pickleback surpassed Nickelback in terms of Facebook fandom. The little stunt apparently did not sit well with Chad Kroeger, Nickelback’s frontman, who fired off this snooty little message to Pickelback’s creator. No matter—I think she got her point across. [The Daily What]

Hype Machine
This morning, everyone was abuzz over a little cube called the Bloom Box. The publicity stemmed from a 60 Minutes segment in which the Bloom Box was described as a “power plant-in-a-box,” and posited as a “miraculous” solution to our energy crisis. Well that’d be great, wouldn’t it? BoingBoing, however, was quick to cut through the hype and peg the Bloom Box for what it really is: a gussied-up fuel cell. Here’s how it works:

[The creator, Sridhar] said he bakes sand and cuts it into little squares that are turned into a ceramic. Then he coats it with green and black “inks” that he developed.

Sridhar told Stahl there is a secret formula. “And you take that and you apply that. You paint that on either side of this white ceramic to get a green layer and a black layer. And…that’s it.”

Big Bloom Boxes are currently powering some buildings owned by Ebay and Google and the results are indeed promising. Sridhar says that he hopes to shrink the Bloom Box down to be cheap enough for consumers sometime in the next 5 to 10 years, which usually translates roughly to 10 to never years. So, all in all, is the Bloom Box miraculous? No. Is it revolutionary? Probably not. Is it a viable option for cheap, renewable energy going forward? Maybe. [BoingBoing]

newVideoPlayer( {“type”:”video”,”player”:”http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/gCQj_0khAiQ&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22″,”customParams”:[],”width”:500,”height”:412,”ratio”:0.824,”flashData”:”",”embedName”:null,”objectId”:null,”noEmbed”:false,”source”:”youtube”} );
Safe!
Neatorama deems him a “real-life Superman.” I don’t know about that, but this guy, who dashed in front of an oncoming train to push a truck off the tracks, definitely has some super cajones. I like how he and his buddy celebrate so ecstatically right after his daring feat. And rightfully so. I’d imagine the “I just saved a car full of people” high five is the best high five of all. [Neatorama]

Nap Time
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley—nappers that they are—have determined that a 60- to 90-minute nap in the middle of the day can increase your brain’s ability to retain facts that you learn later in the day. Which is great, because I totally have an hour and a half in the middle of the day when I’m just sitting around trying to figure out how to replenish my brainpower. Oh wait no I don’t. There have been many studies like this that show how the mind benefits from naps, but they never seem to make it any easier for me to find time to do so. [PhysOrg]

newVideoPlayer( {“type”:”video”,”player”:”http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/hDXSSi1qStA&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22″,”customParams”:[],”width”:500,”height”:412,”ratio”:0.824,”flashData”:”",”embedName”:null,”objectId”:null,”noEmbed”:false,”source”:”youtube”} );
That Data Center Is Fully Operational!
You know that tingle up your spine you got when you first caught a glimpse of the Death Star II? Watch this fly-by video of Apple’s new $1 billion iDataCenter in Maiden, North Carolina and tell me if you get the same feeling. Still, you’ll probably learn to love it—in the iCloud future, this is where all of your data will be stored. (Unless it’s stored on a Bloom Box-fueled Google data center, that is). [Data Center Knowledge]

Can You Hear Me Now?
Fast Company has a piece about the 10 most addictive sounds that are currently nestling their way into our brains (largely without us even realizing it). The study, conducted by Buyology Inc. and Elias Arts, ranked the top 10 branded sounds and the top 10 non-branded sounds. The most addicting sound for each, respectively: the Intel jingle and a baby giggling. The article touches on how advertisers have begun to understand our brains’ addictions to these noises, and how soundbites are playing an increasingly large role in branding. All Intel needs to do is get a baby giggling “bumBUM bum BUM” and they’re unstoppable. [FastCompany]