Stan's List

Xerox is still in development of a new printing technology which does not require ink of any kind. The new technology involves paper which can be printed and erased dozens of times. Inspired by the fact that many print outs have a life-span of a few hours or minutes. More …

ExtremeTech reports that in a long-term study conducted by Google “… presented at a storage conference last week, found that the SMART predictive analysis used to calculate the likelihood of disk-drive errors is almost ineffective, although basic disk checks can signal that a drive is about to fail.” More …

DiskWarrior makes use of this SMART technology to check drives. I will try to get an answer as to whether they agree with Google.

There is the present multiple CPUs, even the possibility of Dual Quad systems,. As fast as the 3.0 GHz Quad Mac Pro is, double the processors would crown a new king of speed. CIOL looks at the coming specialized processors which, when grouped together, will offer even greater benefits. More …

And you thought Mac Minis were just desktop computers. TechEBlog has a run down of the top 5 other uses for Apple’s low end half-cube. While most people will know about using it at a DVR perhaps you a hankering to make a mac powered robot. Or maybe that Apple tablet you have been dreaming about.

What didn’t ship in 2006? Wired has the list of all the stuff that didn’t happen this year.

# 8 on the list is the much-fabled ‘iPod Killer’. Microsoft did indeed ship the Zune in November, but no firm is closer to shipping an iPod killer than they were two or even three years ago More …

Smarthouse, quoting unnamed Taiwanese sources, reports that Apple plans to launch a ‘Tablet Mac’ in 2007 with a type of docking station.

The rumor mill also relied heavily upon the various touch-screen patents Apple has lodged in past year. According to the report, the Mac Tablet “has been designed to handle third party applications such as home automation software that will allow users to control lighting, audio, entertainment devices and security feeds. It also acts as a full blown PC has wireless linking for a new generation of Wireless Hi Fi speakers that are currently being tested by Apple.” More …

In an article entitled “Mistakes Made On The Road To Innovation,” BusinessWeek online cites Apple as the example of how to not to make them.

Apple Computer (AAPL ) shows how it’s done. Here’s a company that was trapped in an ever-dwindling niche of the PC business. Then came the iPod, a must-have device for music fans, and iTunes, an online music shop that turned music downloading into a profit-making business. By making iPod and iTunes work with Windows PCs, Apple broke out of selling only to its niche of loyal fans. But its transformation is even more profound than that: In essence, it switched from being a great designer of computer products into a great designer of consumer experiences delivered via devices and services. Now music represents 44% of Apple’s revenues, and an even larger share of profits. More …

T3 reports that plans for an Apple-branded universal remote have surfaced, hinting at an even bigger push by the Mac maker into our living rooms. “Apple’s patent documents show a touch screen remote crafted with typical minimalism, and a range of screen functions. More …

Although it’s been years since the last Newton MessagePad rolled off the production line, users continue find new, useful and delightfully offbeat ways to put the devices to work. However, the coolest to date is the Newton Webserver by Grant Hutchinson, who’s definitely earning his 15 minutes of fame. More …

The EETimes describes the new Samsung memory, phase-change RAM, called PRAM. Samsung is dubbing it ‘Perfect RAM’ because it is thirty times faster than NOR flash, ten times more durable — and cheaper to produce, to boot, which would be much like RAM.
More …

Samsung also announced a 40-nm, 32-Gbit NAND flash device. More …