Posts Tagged ‘performance’

HTC Bravo pictured more lucidly

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on December 8th, 2009

We realize we might have overfed you a little with that plentiful leak of HTC's 2010 plans, so here's a chance to better ogle and digest HTC's "Performance" flagship to be: the Bravo. Pairing Android with Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon and presenting a 3.7-inch AMOLED facade, this certainly ticks the headline boxes, and the addition of a five megapixel AF cam capable of 720p video capture gives it an extra sheen of 2010 newness. The picture above is accompanied by less solid info indicating a 1,400mAh battery, which will be joined by the mandatory WiFi, Bluetooth and MicroUSB connectivity, plus MicroSD expansion, FM radio tuner, digital compass, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Then again, the source is the same bunch of heroes responsible for our extra early -- and accurate -- info on the HD2, so those specs may be considered pretty reliable. Oh, if you're wondering about the touchscreen, it's capacitive, like it should be.

HTC Bravo pictured more lucidly originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of…the Hills [Terrafon]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 14th, 2009

The Alunda Church Choir wanted to see what their giant earth phonograph, the terrafon, would sound like if they dragged it across the ground. Unsurprisingly, it sounds like dirt being plowed. But louder.

Occasionally, nature's music of scraped soil and rocks is augmented by a loud creak from the giant gramophone horn. If you must know what that sounds like, check out the surreal 11+ minute video.

Harvest by Alunda Kyrkokör (2009) from Olle Corneer on Vimeo.


The "Harvest" performance was part of the Volt Music Festival in Sweden. The group wants to bring the terrafon to other croplands soon, so if you hear what sounds like a really loud plow in your backyard, go give the team a hand. That thing looks heavy. [Create Digital Music via Inhabitat]




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Building a NAS? Skip the Performance Drives [Nas]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 7th, 2009

A while ago I was considering putting low-powered 5400 RPM drives into a NAS. I was worried about performance, but Tom's Hardware shows us that drive speed isn't the bottleneck, and how slower drives can even beat faster ones.

The main bottleneck in any NAS is the RAID engine. Since many NAS units don't include a dedicated controller, oftentimes the speed of the drive just doesn't matter. If you're using a blazing-fast hardware RAID card in your own custom built setup, then drive speed might make a difference. But for most consumer units, the controller is the bottleneck.

With that in mind, you can go with slower 5400 RPM drives that reduce power consumption, generate less heat, and will likely cost less up front too. Even if you have a dedicated RAID card that could let a 7200 RPM drive do it's thing at full speed, I'd consider the benefits of low-power drives to outweigh the marginal speed increase you might see.

This chart shows the difference between Samsung 7200 and 5400 RPM drives in various RAID configurations:

Not much, right? So think twice before you drop more than necessary on 7200 RPM drives for your backup unit. Check out the link for the full test rundown. [Tom's Hardware]




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Intel’s SSD Toolbox, firmware update promise boost in performance

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 26th, 2009

We won't say that we love products leaving the oven before they're completely done, but we do adore gratis firmware updates that better a product even after you've purchased it. That being said, we're actually stoked that Intel has decided to out its second major firmware update for the second-gen 34nm X25-M SSD, and unlike the first, this one has the potential to put smiles on lots and lots (as opposed to a few) faces. The newfangled SSD Toolbox includes an SSD Optimizer for the aforementioned device, which promises to help users "more effectively monitor and manage the SSD's health." It also offers a performance boost to sequential write speeds by delivering up to 100MB/sec on the 160GB model, which represents a rather substantial 40 percent uptick over the existing firmware. The best news of all? Intel's doing more than just blowing hot air, as the benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware found out. Hit the read link for their eye-opening analysis.

Intel's SSD Toolbox, firmware update promise boost in performance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple quietly updates AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule, promises improved performance

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 20th, 2009

Just as it did in March, Apple has subtly updated both the AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule, this time improving performance on both. According to new testing between today's model and yesterday's edition, the AE Base Station (which ships within three days for $179) can hum along at up to 25 percent faster thanks to undisclosed tweaks to the antenna design, while the Time Capsule's improved antenna promises the same. Just as before, both of these devices support dual-band 2.4GHz / 5GHz transmissions, though we can't seem to find an "802.11n draft" phrase anywhere on either page. Apple hasn't gone out of its way to say that both of these are certified with the final specification, but it's certainly a possibility. Finally, the new Time Capsule promises Time Machine backups in Snow Leopard that are some 60 percent faster than before; we're not sure whether to celebrate with new buyers or weep with existing ones, but it should ship within three days for $299 (1TB) / $499 (2TB).

Read - Updated AirPort Extreme
Read - Updated Time Capsule

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Apple quietly updates AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule, promises improved performance originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“Performance Enhancing iPod” Gets Marathon Winner Disqualified [IPod]

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 14th, 2009

I can't run a mile without being hyped up by music, so I'm glad I'm not a marathon runner. After being declared the winner of Milwaukee's 26.2-mile Lakefront marathon, Jennifer Goebel was stripped of the title because she…used an iPod.

It sounds pretty lame, but apparently USA Track and Field rules state that elite runners competing for USATF championships or cash prizes aren't allowed to use electronic devices. Everyone else is free to.

Adding to the whole mess, Goebel was only made the winner after the fastest woman was earlier disqualified for accepting a water bottle from a friend, instead of just official water stations. On a forum debating the water incident, a photo of Goebel using the iPod turned up, and then the shit hit the fan. Again.

If they're going to disqualify me for having an iPod they should disqualify everyone who had one," she said. "It's just a little ridiculous. I went there to have a fun race with my friends. If you're bored, it pumps you up a little bit."

I hear ya, but rules are rules, I guess. [JSOnline via The Sporting Blog]




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Indilinx firmware cleans dirty SSDs, restores performance while idle

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on August 10th, 2009


You know those quirky, not-at-all convenient issues that can cause certain solid state drives to lag with extensive use? Yeah -- not cool. Thankfully, the engineers at OCZ Technology and Indilinx are fed up, and rather than sitting around doing nothing, they've both collaborated on a breakthrough firmware that can actually clean and restore one's "dirtied" SSD while the drive sits idle. In short, the firmware instructs the SSD to perform a "garbage collection" process in order to mitigate the unwanted block re-writing quandary, where the drive actively seeks and removes garbage that hinders read / write performance when handling small chunks of data. The crew over at HotHardware managed to run a few speed tests with said firmware firmly implemented, and the results are downright shocking: after just five minutes of idle time, the SSD was restored to near new, with an hour of downtime being enough to "totally restore" performance. Don't believe us? Give that read link a tap, bub.

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Indilinx firmware cleans dirty SSDs, restores performance while idle originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 02:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone musicians invited to perform live with indie legends Good Night, States

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on July 14th, 2009


Good Night, States, it seems, are a trusting lot. These indie rockers have not only supplied Noise.io soundbanks for their songs, but if you check 'em out at Mr. Small's in Pittsburgh this Friday you can plug your iPhone or iPod into the house sound system and jam along with the group. Noise.io, if you've not seen it before, bills itself as a "highly advanced sound synthesis workstation," with a unique touchscreen interface and all kinds of features sure to make softsynth fans positively giddy. Ready for your fifteen minutes of fame? Pick up your copy at the App Store for $8.99, and then proceed to the read link to get started -- but not before you peep the video demonstration after the break.

[Via Speed of the Pittsburgh Sound]

Continue reading iPhone musicians invited to perform live with indie legends Good Night, States

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iPhone musicians invited to perform live with indie legends Good Night, States originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OCZ cranks clock speed, DRAM on Vertex Turbo SSD

Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on July 8th, 2009


While every other solid state drive maker is thinking of snazzy new model names to slap on their next-gen wares, OCZ Technology is actually breaking up the monotony with its Vertex Turbo SSD. While we won't go so far as to say that these things are overclocked ('cause let's face it, they aren't), OCZ has bumped the core clock speed and the SDR DRAM cache to 180MHz (compared to 166MHz on the original). These drives also posses a custom firmware designed specifically for performance junkies, and the company claims that users will see read and write speeds of up to 270MBps and 210MBps, respectively. We're still waiting to hear back on pricing, but you can expect capacities of 30GB (32), 60GB (64), 120GB (128), and 250GB (256) to hit the shelves in short order.

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OCZ cranks clock speed, DRAM on Vertex Turbo SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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