Library Technology – Reviews, Tips, Giveaways, Freeware

A reader writes: I need a good TV for my living room, and I’ve decided that LCD, particularly LED, is the way to go. I’ve heard that some plasmas can look better than LCDs, so I definitely want good video quality, but I heard they use up a lot of energy and I don’t want to break the bank if I can avoid it. Also, I’d like something that doesn’t use up too much power. Please… just tell me what to get! What up, reader? Indeed, the Plasma vs. LCD conflict is a tough. 

Every year at CES, there are tons of companies pushing home automation and smart appliances, and, every year, these products fail to storm the marketplace. LG is hoping that 2011 will be different, and that the key to success will be the sudden proliferation of tablets and smartphones. LG’s new Thinq technology will let handheld devices “talk” to the company’s appliances, such as ovens, refrigerators and washing machines. The company is even launching HOM-BOT, a robotic vacuum. 

In a case of Internet espionage that makes the antics of double agent Cold War operatives seem like frivolous child play, Bing has been caught stealing search results from Google with its Bing toolbar and IE8’s Suggested Sites feature. Google first suspected foul play in May 2010. By October 2010, with Bing results beginning to look uncannily like Google’s, it knew something had to be done about it — and so, in true, nerdtastic style, Google set up a sting to prove that Microsoft. 

Sim racing keeps on moving toward higher-end accessories, while there have always been top-shelf components available to the hardcore, games like Gran Turismo 5 are encouraging more and more people to want a more and more realistic driving experience. Fanatec has been delivering that experience for years and its $250 Porsche 911 GT2 is the company’s latest and highest-end product, offering a luxurious Alcantara covering, the obligatory 900 degrees of rotation, and full compatibility with. 

Greenwave Reality CEO Greg Memo shows off how a grid-aware home energy system can be controlled and monitored either from a smart phone, PC, or Sony TV. Devices are connected to a home network by using smart plugs, seen on left, and a smart meter. The company is testing its system with utilities in Europe. Soulra radios from Eton can charge are equipped with solar panels to charge an iPod which fits inside the case. The radios can also run off of an AC outlet. This week, the company also introduced. 

Peanut butter and jelly. Gin and tonic. Peaches and cream. Some strange combinations make perfect sense paired, but how about the mouse and the PC gamepad? Those two items are what a Hong Kong peripheral manufacturer decided to combine, and the result was the Shogun Bros. Chameleon X-1 — a gaming mouse you can flip to find twelve buttons and two miniature analog sticks on the bottom. It works as a gamepad, sure enough, and functions as a one-handed multimedia remote too. But is it any good?. 

The adoption rate of the iPad was celebrated as the fastest ever in electronics history. Now, less than a year after the tablet’s launch, Microsoft has usurped that distinction with Kinect. Kinect, Microsoft’s new controller-free gaming peripheral for the Xbox 360, has been selling at a breakneck pace, with 2.5 million sensors sold within its first 25 days on the market (Read reviews of the Kinect). As ReadWriteWeb notes, this means consumers have been purchasing Kinect twice as quickly. 

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer plans to extend a management shake-up aimed at adding senior product executives with an engineering background, two people with knowledge of the decision said. Changes may be announced this month, said one of the people, who declined to be named because the plans are private. Last month, Ballmer pushed out server division president and 23- year company veteran Bob Muglia, saying the company needed new leadership that could focus on areas such. 

Microsoft claims La Familia is selling bootleg copies of Office, and the company is using this to show how counterfeiting and piracy is a more serious problem than many people believe. It’s been a strange week for Microsoft. It began with Google revealing it had set a honey-trap in order to catch Bing copying its search results. And it’s ending with the revelation that the Mexican drug cartel, La Familia, is selling counterfeit copies of its Office software throughout the country. The claim. 

Razer have revealed two new products at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The first of these is a new wireless mouse, the Razer Mamba, which features “gaming grade” wireless, and can be used with and without a cable, making it the first “dual mode” mouse, and also the fastest, with a polling speed of 1ms when used wirelessly. The second new product is a headset – dubbed the Razer Carcharias, which features “uncompromising comfort and audio clarity”.