25. avgust 2010

PHP SOAP Extension

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ASUS N53JN and N73JN with Blu-ray and SonicMaster sound now available in the UK

ASUS N53JN and N73JN with Blu-ray and SonicMaster sound now available in the UK:

So it's been six months since ASUS announced its new N Series laptops, but who's counting? Okay, we are, but there's good news, at least for the dear Brits -- the 15.6-inch N53JN and the 17.3-inch N73JN are now available in the UK. The N53JN will range from £649.99 to £999 ($1,005 - $1,545) and has an impressive array of specs, including a Core i5 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GT325/415M graphics with Optimus, 320GB of storage, a Blu-ray drive and USB 3.0 ports. The wider £1,099 N73JN is pretty much identically configured, but has 640GB of storage (with two 320GB drives). However, ASUS is hoping the major lure of these systems will be its new SonicMaster sound technology, which has been developed with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower. The press release claims the audio feature is not a 'gimmick' and that ASUS's 'Golden Ear' team toiled over the audio fidelity...for months we assume. There's some bold assertions, but we guess there's really no knowing what these bad boys really sound like until you take one home and pump up the volume.

16. avgust 2010

Jetway JBC600C99-52W is a long name for a little nettop with Atom D525 power

Jetway JBC600C99-52W is a long name for a little nettop with Atom D525 power:
Jetway JBC600C99-52W is a long name for a little nettop with Atom D525 power

ASUS has yet to make the EeeBox EB1501P official, with its new dual-core Atom D525 internals, and the price for being tarrying is being beaten to the punch. Jetway (who previously took a little inspiration from the Wii in its case designs), is launching the sensually titled JBC600C99-52W nettop, with a D525 processor running at 1.8GHz, ION2 graphics, gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. No memory whatsoever is included, so it's BYO DDR2 and storage, but a price of $270 should leave at least a little room in your budget to meet those needs.

7. avgust 2010

Photon enhanced thermionic emission could double efficiency of solar cells

Photon enhanced thermionic emission could double efficiency of solar cells:

Engineers at Stanford have developed a process which can harness the light and heat of the sun simultaneously, which could lead to solar cells that are twice as efficient as those currently available. Called photon enhanced thermionic emission -- or PETE for short -- the process differs from traditional cells which lose efficiency as temperatures rise, and the materials needed to build the cells are cheap and widely available. The engineers got around the lower efficiencies by coating a piece of semiconducting material with a thin layer of the metal cesium, which enables the material to use both heat and light simultaneously. While the materials as currently demonstrated work best in very high temperatures, the researchers indicate that in the near future, the materials could have wide enough application to make them competitive with traditional forms of energy. Hit the source for the full story.

Toshiba's dual-screen Libretto W100 hits Japan next week

Toshiba's dual-screen Libretto W100 hits Japan next week:
Toshiba's dual-screened Libretto W100 ships next week

It's no Courier, but Toshiba's dual-screened Libretto W100 is about as good as we're going to get and, if you're in Japan, the getting is about to get good. The key-free lappy is due to start shipping there on August 11, which means you're just a few days (and, possibly, a few very long flights) away from getting your fingerprints all over one. If, however, you're not so much into the importing scene, you're going to have to wait a bit longer for this $1,100 curiosity to hit US shores through normal retail channels. How much longer? Toshiba promised a summer release, and let's just say that the days aren't getting any longer.

ASUS' EeeBox EB1501P leaks out with Atom D525, Ion GPU

ASUS' EeeBox EB1501P leaks out with Atom D525, Ion GPU:

We're still waiting on leaked (or official, we're not partial) images to confirm, but based on a presentation slide and a bit of insider information passed on to Notebook Italia, ASUS is gearing up to replace its aging EeeBox EB1501 with the EB1501P. Reportedly, the box will be based around Intel's dual-core Atom D525 processor and will feature NVIDIA's Ion GPU, a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of DDR3 memory, 802.11n WiFi, an HDMI output, six USB sockets and Bluetooth. That aligns quite nicely with the EB1501U (shown above) that we spotted back at CeBIT, which has yet to launch in any capacity since. A proper introduction at IFA, perhaps? We'll be watching, ASUS.