HD Photo plug-ins for Photoshop released from Redmond

Microsoft is really throwing the gauntlet down and by how things are progressing, it's a well-aimed one.

With the announcement of official plug-ins (for Vista, XP and OSX) for Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3, arguably the kingpins of image editing software, HD Photo has gained more traction.

HD Photo is Microsoft's supposed gift to the photographic world. It is designed to be used as a new industry standard for compressed image file formats.

According to this blog, while it is not officially supported, older versions of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements have limited compatibility with these plug-ins.

For download information, check this link.

Via Bill Crow's HD Photo Blog

Goldman Sachs: New iPhones, Apple TV for 2008

We had a pretty good idea that a new iPhone would be coming in 2008, but what will it look like?

A report from Goldman Sachs Wednesday spotted by AppleInsider doesn't exactly shed much more light on that subject, but says that Apple is gearing up to deliver two new iPhones next year. The first one sounds like it will be just a storage upgrade with more flash memory in the first half of the year, while the second half of the year should bring the long-awaited 3G iPhone, according to the report.

Not one, but two iPhones could be released next year, according to Goldman Sachs.

Both Apple CEO Steve Jobs and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson have indicated that 2008 is the year for the 3G iPhone, so that's not much of a surprise. An iPhone that could connect to 3G (third-generation) data networks would allow for faster download speeds, but Apple has held off on introducing such a model to this point because of concerns over battery life, according to Jobs.

Goldman also thinks that Apple is getting ready to introduce a newer version of Apple TV, which had a disappointing first year. But the report doesn't make much sense; it says Apple is going to attach an LCD screen to Apple TV. Maybe I'm missing something very obvious, and feel free to point it out below, but I just can't fathom why Apple would want to do that. Apple TV's problems have nothing to do with the lack of a display.

Anyway, the report also says that Goldman can't find as much evidence of the long-rumored ultraportable notebook that's supposedly on tap for Macworld, saying that "possible design issues" might have delayed that model. Just another day in the Apple rumor business.

Via CNET Crave

New generation of Lithium-ion batteries

Japanese manufacturer Toshiba has launched what it calls the Super Charge ion Battery (SCiB), a Lithium-ion battery that it claims has a life cycle of over 10 years and recharges to 90 percent of full capacity in just 5 minutes.

In a press release, the company also touts it as having "excellent safety" because of the new technology and that the "possibility of rupture or combustion is very low". That would be a very important factor considering the first uses for these cells will be in vehicles. The SCiB will start shipping in March 2008 and will go into electric bikes, motorcycles, forklifts and maybe even hybrid cars.

We personally can't wait for the technology to trickle down to notebooks and mobile phones. Imagine, forgetting to charge your device before leaving home will only cost you a 5-minute delay. Not bad.

Kewpie Doll cell phone charms freak us out

I hope we're not the only ones who feel that these Kewpie Doll cell phone charms look really freaky. We hate the guts of the Zombie Kewpie (see image above), but love the irresistibly adorable Poopie Kewpie. If you have a boss who's a sh**head, the latter may be the perfect gift this Christmas. He gets a present, while you subtly drive your point across. There are about 471 of them on Strapya World, so you'll definitely find one that suits you. But if you want to cut down on searching, InventorSpot has done the legwork and compiled a list of 10 really weird and bizarre Kewpie Dolls here.

Thanks Steve!

Via InventorSpot

New Nvidia 3D cards thin-slice the market, deliver strong performance

It's certainly not a bad thing that the new US$349 (give or take, but more likely give) Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS delivers comparable performance to last year's US$500-plus GeForce 8800 GTX. The question is, would you be able to pick it out off the shelf? To do so you'd have to sift through the older (and slower) 640MB and 320MB GeForce 8800 GTS cards, as well as the 512MB and 256MB (introduced today) versions of the GeForce 8800 GT. Then, of course, there's the various overclocked SKUs from ASUS, EVGA, XFX, and Nvidia's other board partners. And that's just the Nvidia side of the aisle. We haven't even mentioned ATI's newer cards yet.

We'll point you to Anandtech and PC Perspective for the blow-by-blow performance charts. The gist is that the 512MB GeForce 8800 GTS is faster than both the older 8800 GTS cards and competitive with the 8800 GTX due to a new chip design (code-named G92) that uses a 65 nanometer manufacturing process. The result is increased power efficiency compared with the older chips' 90 nano and 80 nano processes, and higher core and memory clock speeds.

We're less sure about the price-performance of the 256MB 8800 GT. If you can find it for its suggested US$199 price tag, it seems like a good buy. And while it seems to be faster than the US$179 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3850, it doesn't outpace the US$249 512MB Radeon HD 3870. With 512MB quickly becoming the recommended amount of video RAM for respectable 3D gaming, you're better off spending more for the faster ATI card. But then when you consider the 512MB GeForce 8800 GT card is between US$275 and US$300 (when it's actually in stock), you start to see just how much ATI and Nvidia are thin-slicing the hyper-competitive graphics card market to the point of consumer confusion.

Via CNET Crave

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