After Etherfast presented the world’s smallest PC, we were invaded with comments and feedback. One of them linked to what I am going to present.

It’s called Jack PC, and it can fit into a network wall port. Just plug your keyboard, mouse and monitor into the wall. The Jack PC runs Windows CE and it’s equipped with an equivalent of a 800MHz to 1.2GHz x86 desktop processor.

The Jack PC comes in 3 models, ranging from �209 to �349, and it’s produced by a company in Israel, called Chip PC Technologies. So, if you’re fed up with your big old PC, you can always get a replacement the size of a small box, or one that can fit into your wall. Below are several pictures of the latter. (Note: If you enlarge them, please be patient). Read the rest of this entry »

It’s only 2×2x2.2 inch! It’s called the Space Cube and it’s supposed to be the smallest personal computer in the world. It has a built-in 300MhZ processor and it’s also equipped with 64MB of SDRAM. There are a bunch of ports visible in the picture, such as USB, Ethernet, Flash memory, a monitor output port, serial connection and even a microphone slot.

The monitor is capable of displaying up to 65k colors at a resolution of 1280×1024 pixels. Less than a year ago, this fancy piece of equipment was retailing ~$325/piece. Isn’t that cool?

Supposing I’d posses ten of these beauties, I would be running a LAN party from a small cardboard box ;)

Paper thin.

Sony’s paper thin 15-inch LCD monitor is a sight for sore eyes. Less than 1/2-inch thick, this new flat panel delivers incredibly sharp images with killer on screen colors.

Features include just one cable that delivers all audio, video and power to the display, AutoImageSet technology which automatically adjusts image position, phase and pitch and a decent sounding pair of stereo speakers built into the base.

While Apple Computer’s $4,000 super sexy, 22-inch flat screen is the current MAC style pick of the litter, this Sony 15-inch Multiscan N50 (at $1,500) will certainly become the desktop display of many a mogul and dot com millionaire.

Would you find it useful?

“The first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007″.

After looking into yesterday’s keynote and saw what’s Apple preparing, I find the above mentioned slogan nothing but truth. After all, every company that wishes to survive on the IT market has to evolve.

Let’s leave behind the iPhone, the Apple TV and all the rest and concentrate on the name change instead. “What name change?” Well, some might say it’s not that big, since Apple is still Apple, but if we look closer, a change from “Apple Computer, Inc.” to “Apple Inc.” is not something to overlook. “Why, are they going to stop manufacturing computers?”, some may ask. No, of course not!

That name change isn’t just a strange idea of Steve Jobs. Apple started as a company that started from manufacturing computers, and ended up 30 years later with many other consumer electronics, including iPhone, Apple TV and many many others. Now, wouldn’t Apple Computers be inappropriate?

Analysts say that the iPhone will conquer 1% of the total number of cellphones worldwide by 2008. That’s 10 million phones, if you might wonder.

Overall, I don’t think there will be someone to complain about the name change. It’s just a new start for an experienced corporation.

The showcase took place at CES 2007, today. Intel revealed a new PC concept that was created to counteract AMD’s 4×4 gamer platform. The new system is called “V8″ and a demonstration took place with a pair of Kentsfield Xeon’s (quad-core). That’s a total of 8 physical cores.

The system is running at 2.4GHz and uses 1066MHz system bus and FB-DIMM memory. The graphics card is supported by a single NVIDIA 8800GTX. According to Intel officials the “V8″ platform managed to score 6089 points in 3DMark 2006.

Unlike AMD’s Quad FX platform, Intel’s “V8″ system will require FB-DIMMs while Quad FX will work with regular unbuffered memory. The AMD Quad FX platform can also support multiple GeForce video cards in SLI configuration, while the “V8″ is currently limited to a single graphics card.

However, the competition spirit is still strong. AMD is not far away from releasing something that won’t be far away from a “8×8″ system based on quad-core Opteron processors. So with Intel and AMD making their moves, it’s Apple’s turn to hit the spotlights. They already launched their dual-xeon Mac Pro platform in the middle of last year, but it’s time to keep up with the technology.

If something else happens, we’ll keep you posted.

Since the Macworld conference and expo is just a few days away, I thought making a short trip in the past and present you with the history of MacWorld.

It all started in 1985, that was the first edition. Not much variety at first. Although the expo was held twice a year, the location was always the same.
The Moscone Center in San Francisco. Things got pretty difficult because at first the Moscone Center wasn’t able to hold both the Conference and Expo, so in the first 9 years, the Expo took place in Brooks Hall, near the San Francisco Civic Center. In 1993, the Moscone Center finished its expansion and was able to hold both events under the same location.

With the two annual editions of the Macworld, a summer show was being held somewhere in the Eastern part of the United States. In the early years, it was first held In Boston, was moved to New York in 1998 and it remained there until 2005.

Steve Jobs’ keynote presentations - also known as the “Stevenotes” - became a trademark of the show since 1997, and it’s interesting to know that in 1999, the actor Noah Whyle appeared during the keynote address posing as Jobs, in reference to his role in the notorious movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley”. In 2000, the keynote revealed the Aqua user interface to the public in San Francisco, while New York’s keynote saw the introduction of the Power Mac G4 Cube.
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In every field there is bound to be two or more companies whose rivalry has lead to the evolution of the field where they “fight” their advertising battles. I took the liberty of analyzing the early beginnings of projects that became huge international companies, and made their founders very rich people. I grouped these projects by their fields of activity, and each field has two main competitors. So here we go: Read the rest of this entry »