Audiophiles can be a particular bunch when it comes to portable media players and, at the very least, can often be found carrying a not-so-discreet portable amp around with their PMP. This new HifiMAN HM-801 device aims to make their lives a tad easier, however, with it combining a Burr-Brown PCM1704 DAC and a OPA627 op-amp in a single modular unit that'll also let folks swap in their own amp of choice if they so desire. As you might expect, however, while it doesn't cut any corners when it comes to sound quality (including full support...Read More »

It wasn't all that long ago that DisplayLink was still courting manufacturers and showing off its then newfangled USB graphics adapter technology, but the company is now celebrating a fairly significant milestone, with it announcing that it has sold more than a million of its USB graphics chips. Those have found their way into more than thirty different products from a number of manufacturers, including both wired and wireless USB adapters, projectors, USB docking stations, and a whole range of USB-connected monitors. Of course, DisplayLink isn't about to...Read More »

Tom Young, Computing, Wednesday 13 May 2009 at 16:34:00 Traditionalists have bemoaned plans to boost IT education for primary schoolchildren, but there are good reasons for its elevation Leaked reports of the long-awaited overhaul of the primary school curriculum set alarm bells ringing ­ – history and geography lessons were to be scrubbed from timetables and replaced with IT lessons, it was said. But the details of the recent Rose Review of primary school education show that this is not the case. Although IT is to take a new role at the heart of the curriculum...Read More »

Tom Young, Computing, Wednesday 13 May 2009 at 16:28:00 Relaxation of Crown Copyright aims to spur innovative use of public data, but e-petition plans are being scaled back Last week, Tom Watson, the minister for digital engagement, told the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta)/Unesco Public Service Media (PSM) 2009 Conference that the government was ready to accept some of the key proposals made by the Power of Information Review, which aims to open up public sector information to businesses and individuals and improve the government’s engagement with citizens online. The most significant...Read More »

The octocore Sparc64 With Sun Microsystems and Oracle hogging all of the debate about the Sparc architecture these days, you can't blame Fujitsu for wanting to get a word in edgewise. So today, somewhere in Japan, Fujitsu reminded everyone that even though it's getting out of the chip manufacturing racket, it does have an eight-core Sparc64 chip in development.… Full published article at: Read More »

Mac patch on the way Microsoft has defended its decision to release a Windows-only security patch for its Office program after a researcher warned it put Mac users of the software at risk.… Full published article at: Read More »

Moore's Red Herring AMD finds it amusing that on a day when the EU dropped a record €1.06 billion fine on Intel, Intel is still calling the shots.… Full published article at: Read More »

Sprint is kicking off an exciting little contest that'll ultimately award two lucky winners with their very own Pres, Touchstones, and one year of Simply Everything service -- pretty awesome stuff. Both Sprint and Palm have been famously tight-lipped about pricing for the Pre thus far, but using a few basic calculations derived from the game's legalese, an eagle-eyed tipster pointed out that it seems that we can probably get within a few bucks of the full retail price. Here's the deal: we know that Simply Everything runs $99 a month. After federal taxes,...Read More »

It's been a long time coming, but the six-cell battery for HP's Mini 1000 netbook is now finally making its way into the hands of some eager users, and jkOnTheRun has taken a minute to give folks an idea of what's in store. As you can see above (and from another angle at the link below), the battery is amazingly even more unsightly than suggested in earlier shots, although it does expectedly deliver the goods when it comes to battery life, with jkOnTheRun managing about six hours on a charge. Of course, you'll have...Read More »

E-readers aren't for everyone, apparently. Clever hands fashioned this Kindle out of wood -- cutely called the Amazon Kindling -- using a laser cutter. You might only be able to read the same page of The Count of Monte Cristo so many times, but at least the battery will never punk out on you! One more shot of this wooden beauty after the break. Hit the read link for the whole set. [Via Boing Boing] Continue reading Amazon Kindling wooden e-book is a luddite's dream of the futureFiled under: Read More »