Entropy

Image via Wikipedia

Another info packed post with some exciting news making waves in the technology world.

• 3G iPhone update
• Vista - uptake inevitable
• Twitter rising
• Javascript curvy corners
• Worthy mentions

3G iPhone update

We have reported previously on speculation regarding the launch date of the 3G iPhone, now more information is starting to filter through. One hot topic drawing much attention is the price the new model will go on the market for. $199. While this price is contract dependant, it is still a hefty saving of $200. Apple are also expecting huge sales, with reports coming in that they have ordered 25million units to be manufactured by the same company, Foxconn, that put the first gen iPhone on shelves. 3 million of which will be ready for sale by the end of May.

the author of the story also says that the new phones will be available in “8-gigabit-memory and… 16-gigabit-memory” versions (for $399 and $499, respectively), so take that as you like. In addition to these discounts, the source says the new iPhone will be 2.5mm thinner than the previous iteration, although we understand that right after telling Fortune this information, the “person” burst into a cloud of rainbow-colored sparkles and went flying off into the night sky.

Vista - uptake inevitable

Let’s not beat around the bush on this subject. Vista has been a disappointment. I personally prefer it to Windows XP, but I am not the majority in this issue. XP is end of life with it being pulled from sale in the near future. Once this happens what choices do consumers have other than linux distros? You can order a new pc with Ubuntu, for example, installed. While Ubuntu is a worthy alternative, you must again remember about a corporate roll out of a new desktop environment. I know that companies have switched to linux over windows solutions, but the majority have been in the server market. We are talking about the average employee having to make the change and with that comes training (read expenses). I find Ubuntu quite easy to navigate and fx uses it on his laptop, but not everyone adjusts well. A computerworld article goes into more detail on this topic, while another reminds us about current uptake problems.

“They are sort of in a ‘caught between a rock and a hard place’ situation,” said Gray. Administrators may not want to move to Vista, but neither of the alternatives — the older XP and the not-even-officially-scheduled Windows 7 — is attractive, he said.

Twitter Rising.

Seen as pointless by some and indisposable by others, the stats don’t lie. Twitter usage is rising. I think the number of mashups using the API to do abstract things with what users are pumping into the system has a direct influence on the stats. Repeat users loyal to the service are also a big  influence in the increase of market share seen by Twitter, which is a healthy sign the site is gaining a strong foothold in the social network arena. fx and I were actually throwing around an idea for a Twitter mashup, so you might see something from us in the future putting a spin on what people are doing.

The chart makes the growth look impressive - and it is. However, to put things into context, the site ranked #439 among Social Networks and Forums last week and #4309 among All Categories of websites. Twitter’s size is notoriously difficult to measure as there are so many access points (mobile phones in particular). However, the website traffic data does give some idea of the rate of growth and also reveals that the service still hasn’t reached mainstream adoption.

Javascript curvy corners.

The rounded look of Web 2.0 designs can be a pain at the best of times. Most of the time you will need a few images combined in a bit of CSS to pull it off.  Being able to apply curvy corners on the fly is a huge step in the right direction, and Curvy Corners offer just that.

curvyCorners will automatically pickup style information from the DIV element. So for example if you give the DIV a 2px black border in a stylesheet then the borders will be automatically added to the rounded corners.

Worthy Mentions

Seeing as we have covered some news on Twitter, why not give you the Linux desktop options to make Tweeting easier - 6 Twitter clients for the Linux desktop and one for the road.

Twitter is a popular social networking utility that’s gaining popularity as a micro-blogging tool. Registered users can post messages — also called Tweets — via the Web interface, but many prefer to use desktop applications that offer additional functionality and move Tweeting out of the browser entirely.

Cool web stuff for April 2008 brought to you by WebKak - April 2008 round up of cool web stuff.

Well before we kick off with yet more cool web apps & stuff next month, it’s time for a round-up of the most popular posts for the month of April

Mighty Mouse Easter Egg

Since it’s Easter for a lot of people, and there are still things to be done, I don’t want to keep you waiting. Today, I just found an older picture of Apple’s Mighty Mouse, and I think it’s something great to see. Yes, it’s a hardware Easter Egg. No, this is not a fake image, is a picture made more than 2 years ago, but I guess this is still true today.

Source: WikipediaMost people know about the latest victim of the Format War - HD DVD. Developed mainly by Toshiba, the company officially announced earlier this year that the development and manufacturing process would no longer take place. This gave the Sony camp, responsible for Blu-Ray, the upper hand as they are now the future of high definition releases.

March 28 and the HD DVD Promotion group has been closed for business, just another nail in the coffin.

Being in South Africa, I wonder how long it will take for the affects to filter through to the local branches of Toshiba’s marketing division. Driving on the Highway past Melrose Arch is a billboard with the HD DVD logo hung high for all commuters to see. In terms of shops having to peddle off HD DVD movies, I don’t think that would be much of a problem as the range kept in most stores is limited to 3 or 4 movies. Blu Ray on the other hand has many titles right next to the HD DVD shelves almost mocking it’s fallen competitor drilling home that as far as a consumer has access to, Blu Ray was winning from the start.

HD DVD has officially taken residence next to Betamax as a fallen promise. Funnily enough, Betamax was Sony’s brain child in the 80’s. Maybe the next format war will see Toshiba coming out on top learning from this experience

To be fair, this list seems to include multimedia setups, but slapping a PS3 in should be no problem and so we link for you the 9 most sicktacular (its a word) home gaming setups: 9 Home Gaming Setups Better Than Yours

Thinner, lighter and cooler than its sibling (please believe when I say cooler I don’t mean temperature - like that even needed to be said).

You are going to build one, aren’t you? Because that’s the best part about it — we’re going to show you how to make one of your own in the coming weeks with a three part How-To series.

Read more at Engadget: Xbox 360 Laptop mk2

Intel’s chief technology officer Justin Rattner is set to give the first public demonstration of the company’s PRAM (phase-change RAM) technology at this week’s Intel Developer Forum (IDF) conference.

PRAM is a type of non-volatile memory being developed by Intel and several other companies. The prototype chips are seen as a replacement for flash memory and, perhaps, DRAM. Unlike DRAM, non-volatile memory like flash can store memory when a device’s power is turned off, but flash memory chips write and read data more slowly than DRAM, have less capacity, and are also more expensive.

Read more on PRAM at Techworld

Vault9 has a great Cooling discussion section, with resources from the past and plenty of helpful members with knowledge about cooling, modding and more.

Cooling @ Vault9