Author Archives: Scott

DataJack Is the MagicJack For 3G

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Where MagicJack made Voice over IP calling simple (self contained USB flashdrive with phone jack) and cheap ($20/year)… DataJack has stepped in to do the same for 3G Wireless coverage on your various mobile computers.  Instead of $60/month for a max of 5GB/month like every other carrier out there.  DataJack is offering unlimited 3G for $40/month.  A much more appealing price for the masses that are already paying $40-50/month of broadband at home. $60 always seemed a tad steep for supplemental internet.  I never liked the caps either, besides, most people aren’t going to download movies or other huge files over 3G… we’re not patient enough to for 1Mbps speeds when we have 12Mpbs at home. However, we would like to have the option for surfing beyond our phone’s capabilities fairly often and you can only hang out at Panera and Starbucks so much and still be cool.

Oh and did i mention there are no contracts involved….

New Atom Chips For Better Netbooks

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Intel has officially unveiled their new Atom Processor, though netbooks with them won’t go on sale until January 4th.  Early benchmarks on the new 1.66 Ghz N450 chip put it at around 5% faster than current 1.6 Ghz N270 and about 1% faster than the less common 1.66 Ghz N280.  Intel has also “improved” their graphics by 50%.  Which sounds impressive until you realize that Nvidia’s Ion netbook GPUs are over 1000% more powerful than Intel’s current offering.

So if the performance improvements are marginal at best – why bother?  Simple: power. The new Atom chips are designed using a 45nm process and Intel’s new NM10 Express Chipset.  It also moves the memory controller on chip.  Which means the Atom N450 and chipset package has TDP of just 7 watts. Compare that to the 10 and 12 watt TDPs of current offerings.  Less power consumed means both longer battery life and thinner devices (since there is less heat to dissipate).  The netbooks launching after the New Year should be slightly thinner and 10 hour usage should be the norm for 6 cell batteries.

So if Santa doesn’t bring you that netbook you’ve been eyeing, I’d hold out a week. Unless you can score a killer clearance deal.  ;)

Archos 9 Tablet Gets Windows 7

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The Archos 9″ Tablet/Slate is inching closer to reality as the first boxing impressions have just hit the net.  This looks like it could be a great web surfer/video player/e reader IF the underclocked Atom CPU can handle it.  We’ll have to wait and see but check the nice video from UMPC Portal in the meantime…

Give Where?

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Free Money Finance has a great post on Where Christians Should Give that is an excerpt from a new book called Dollars & Doctrine.  Check it out, excerpt of the excerpt below. ;)

By now you have seen why you are called to give and how to go about giving, but one question has yet to be answered: where am I to give? In one sense there is a simple answer to this question–in another sense it is much more complex. The Old Testament gave specific instructions as to where one’s contributions were to go, who was to receive them, and how much was to be given, but the New Testament is much more vague in its instructions of who should receive our giving…

SpaceShipTwo Unveiled

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spacetwo.jpgSir Richard Branson officially took the wraps off his shiney new spacecraft.  The SpaceShipTwo rides part of the flight in the center of the WhiteKnightTwo and the continues the last leg into space.  Space tourism will start in 2011 for 6 passengers per flight at around $200k each. Just in time to escape the end in 2012…