Posted 03/12/10 at 10:21:22 AM by Paul Lilly

FujiFilm's Z700EXR digital camera was first announced about a month ago, but one feature that has been overlooked is its animal face recognition. Looking to give the feature its due, FujiFilm has been demonstrating the camera's canine (and feline) facial recognition at this week's Camera and Photo Image Show in Yokohama, Japan.

FujiFilm used stuffed toy dogs and cats to show off the camera's capabilities, which works just like face detection for humans. It can detect up to 10 faces of dogs or cats and automatically optimize the focus, but as it turns out, recognizing the real deal is a bit harder than stuffed animals. With that in mind, FujiFilm has put together a list of cat and dog breeds that are easier to identify than others.

There are other pitfalls, primarily "dogs or cats that are constantly in motion cannot be recognized." But the technology also gets confuzzled with dark coats, large patches of fur around the eyes, or a wrinkly nose.

Still, if you're a pet owner intent on filling up your Flickr account with pictures of Fido, the $280 FijiFilm Z700EXR might be the best game in town.

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Posted 03/12/10 at 10:03:55 AM by Paul Lilly

In what ranked as a poor month in overall console sales, analyst group NPD reports Microsoft's Xbox 360 outsold Nintendo's Wii console in February. In doing so, the Xbox 360 claimed the top spot in U.S. monthly sales, a feat it hasn't achieved in over two years.

Despite Microsoft's strong showing, it was a pretty bad month for consoles. Combined sales for software, hardware, and peripherals came out to $1.26 billion, with console sales slumping 20 percent to $426 million.

"Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month," said Anita Frazier, a games analyst at NPD.

Not surprisingly, Nintendo's DS dominated the handheld gaming space, selling 613,200 units compared to Sony selling 133,400 PlayStation Portable units.

As for the games people are playing, Take 2's "Bioshock 2" topped the sales chart with 750,000 copies across all platforms, and 562,900 for the Xbox 360. "New Super Mario Bros." came in second with 555,600 units, and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" slipped into third place with 667,100 units, now the third best selling game of all time with lifetime sales approaching 10 million units.

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Posted 03/12/10 at 09:00:43 AM by Paul Lilly

Citing sources from motherboard makers, news and rumor site DigiTimes says there's a shortage of mobo components, including multilayered ceramic chips (MLCCs), solid capacitors, LAN connectors, and other odds and ends. The reason, sources say, is because of recent labor shortages.

In response to the shortages, Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ECS have all begun "aggressively placing orders" in an attempt to avoid having the component shortages affect overall shipments.

The good news is that the labor situation is expected to improve after April, by which time the mobo market will have entered the slow season. The tight supply of components will also improve, but component makers fear that their performance will be affected in the second quarter as top-tier mobo makers halt any new orders to avoid a surplus in inventory.

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Posted 03/12/10 at 08:47:51 AM by Paul Lilly

Short and to the point, Apple this morning has started accepting pre-orders for its upcoming iPad tablet, which will be available on April 3 (Wi-Fi) and late April (Wi-Fi + 3G).

As a reminder, pricing breaks down as follows:

• 16GB Wi-Fi: $499
• 32GB Wi-Fi: $599
• 64GB Wi-Fi: $699
• 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G: $629
• 32GB Wi-Fi + 3G: $729
• 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G: $829

Shipping is free, and Apple's wording makes it sound like the tablet will be delivered on the day of its release (or April 5 if Saturday delivery isn't available in your area). If you don't want to chance it, you can also opt to reserve a copy at your local Apple Retail Store and pick it up between 9AM and 3PM.

So, who's in for one (or two, which is the pre-order limit)?

Pre-order Page

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Posted 03/12/10 at 08:02:29 AM by Paul Lilly

Nobody really talks a whole lot about Nokia anymore, not with sexy smartphones like the Motorola Droid and Google's  Nexus One stealing all the spotlight. Part of the problem is that Symbian, even though it dominates the market, hasn't kept pace with other OSes. Look for that to change with Symbian 3.

According to Nokia, "it is about renewal" with the upcoming OS and the new phones that will be built around it. Symbian 3 should be "functionally complete" by the end of Q1. It will include a more polished UI that's easier to use, an improved homescreen, a podcast manager, and a bit more pep, among other features. According to David Rivas, a vice president at Nokia, Symbian 3 will help get his company back on track.

And as for Android? Rivas claims his company has a more "open" stance around Symbian and MeeGo than Google does with Android.

"Anyone can go to the Symbain website and see what features will be coming months in advance," Rivas explained. "Show me where you can do that with Android."

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Posted 03/12/10 at 07:36:17 AM by Paul Lilly

Network and storage vendor Buffalo Technology said it is getting in the saddle with NovaStor, a data protection and backup software specialist. The plan is to bundle NovaStor's NovaBackup data protection software with all of Buffalo's network attached storage (NAS) products.

"Data protection is extremely important and providing first-class, cost-effective backup solutions has always been a top priority for Buffalo," said Ralph Spagnola, vice president of sales at Buffalo. "This strategic partnership with NovaStor not only strengthens our product portfolio, but it strengthens our committment to delivering useful, all-in-one solutions that exceed our customers' expectations."

This is the second partnership this month for Buffalo, who earlier announced it was teaming up with NewMedia-NET to bring DD-WRT based software as part of the standard configuration for all of Buffalo's high-power routers and access points.

Buffalo said NovaBackup will be offered on all TerraStation and LinkStation NAS solutions beginning in May, 2010.

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Posted 03/11/10 at 10:47:39 AM by Paul Lilly

We're not the least bit surprised that OCZ has come out with yet another solid state drive (SSD), but here's something you probably weren't expecting: It costs less than $100.

OCZ's new Onyx SATA II 2.5-inch SSD series looks to tackle the mainstream market by putting more focus on price than it does with raw performance or high capacity. Available initially only in 32GB form, the Onxy drive offers up to 125MB/s read and up to 70MB/s write speeds, so it's not going to knock out the competition. But it will make a solid argument for a netbook or boot drive.

"As new technologies become available, OCZ continues to expand both our enterprise and consumer SSD lines, and one of our goals is to make SSDs more affordable to end-users. Our new Onyx series SSD does exactly that and is a perfect solution for netbooks, laptops, or home desktop PCs," commented Ryan Petersen, CEO of the OCZ Technology Group. "Designed to offer the best of both worlds, the new OCZ Onyx SSD delivers the speed and reliability of solid state storage to mainstream consumers at an aggressive price point that makes the technology more accessible to customers who want to take advantage of all the benefits of the SSDs without incurring the high cost normally associated with the solution."

Few other details are available, such as which controller the Onyx uses, though we do know it comes with 64MB of cache and serves up TRIM support.

No word yet on when this one will make it to market.

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Posted 03/11/10 at 10:32:58 AM by Paul Lilly

During CeBIT, Mushkin was spotted showing off a new line of memory modules. Dubbed "Ridgeback," the upcoming memory kits will sport a redesigned heastpreader with ridges along the back (imagine that).

News and rumor site Fudzilla says the Ridgeback heatsink will be available in gaming and enthusiast grade memory kits in both DDR3 and DDR2 trim. These will include:

• 4GB DDR3-1600, 6-8-6-24, 1.65V
• 6GB DDR3-1600, 6-8-6-24, 1.65V
• 6GB DDR3-1600, 8-8-8-24, 1.65V
• 4GB DDR2-1066, 5-5-5-15, 2.1V

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