I'd hit that.

I recently purchased a laptop for college. It’s a Lenovo T420 and, despite looking like a 1990′s era business laptop, it’s one of the smoothest-working rigs I’ve used. I mean, the thing was built to take a beating, and sure shows it. 

At any rate, here are my specs:

• Intel i7 2620M Processor clocked at 2.7 ghz (dual core)
• 8 Gigs of DDR3 Ram
• 500 Gig Harddrive
• NVidia NVS 4200M Workstation Graphics Card with NVidia Optimus
• Fingerprint Scanner (YEAH!)
• 720p webcam
• Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN Wireless Card (I get reception in the basement now. Yeah.)
• 14″ 1600×900 HD+ Anti-Glare Widescreen
• 9 cell battery with an additional “Slice” battery (The slice battery clips onto the bottom of the laptop. Without it, I’ve gotten up to 11 hours of battery. With, 30.)

Ironbuds - Modular earphones.

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had to get rid of (or unsuccessfully try to repair) a pair of earbuds because part of them had frayed or broken. It sucks, particularly when the earphone itself still works fine. Those cables never last me. I abuse them way more than I should. At any rate, get ready for some modular earphones from Ironbuds, the first completely modular earbud: Ironbuds.

The site is still a startup and is using Kickstarter to raise some initial funds. The headphones are relatively cheap ($21-47 for some pretty good quality headphones) and seem to be made of high quality materials. The cables are even wound in a woven protective covering.

At any rate, definitely give it a look. If you donate to the startup, you can even receive a pair of earphones for yourself. I myself donated to the cause and will hopefully receive a pair soon.

Check them out on kickstarter.

At any rate, I should be back to my good ol’ blogging self. Expect some design changes as I’ve been learning a lot of web design in the past few months.

In the mean time, if you want a copy of the app, let me know. I’ll email it to you directly or something.

Edit: Here’s the app.

View this page on your android device, follow the link below, and then download/install the app.

http://www.4shared.com/file/jY6nJJFX/new_twitter_for_android.html

What is RockMelt?

It’s a new browser, built off Chromium, with tons of social networking features. It allows you to update your facebook and twitter statuses, share any page you’re on seamlessly, keep up to date with your various RSS feeds, chat with friends… there is a lot of stuff. It’s kinda cool, actually.

More importantly, beta giveaway!

I’m giving away three beta invites. Just share this page somehow and post a comment with a link to where you shared it. StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook… they all work just fine (if you share it on facebook, make sure you set the visibility of the post to “Everyone” so we can see it). I’m cutting off submissions on February 15th (or sooner if there isn’t a whole lot of interest (psh, like that will happen)).

That’s right.

Apparently, Google is looking for beta testers to pilot their new Chrome-OS-powered netbook, the Cr-48. It’s just like all those “Click here to try out the NEW iPHONE 5!” advertisements you see all over the internet, except its real. I hope.

At any rate, to apply, open Google Chrome and run a new tab. Or just click here. You’ll need to supply your name, address, phone number, and email address.

The laptop itself is really sexy, if I do say so myself. It looks like its rubberized (like most phones are now). Based on screenshots and articles, here are some specs:

• Solid State Drive
• 12″ LCD Screen
• Large trackpad
• VGA-Out
• 1 USB port
• SD Card reader
• 1/8″ headphone jack
• 8 hours of battery, 8 days of standby
• 10 second boot, instant wake
• Webcam

They left out “Spinning disks, caps-lock key, function keys, and lap burns,” according to the site.

Oh, and also,

There’s no caps lock key. Hopefully the comments on the internet will be less stupid.

[Google Chrome]

Apparently, Foxconn, the company that manufactures all of Apple’s stuff, will start shipping the new iPads in February to brace for an April launch. This exciting new iPad is said to make it more like a computer and less like a super-sized iPod Touch, giving it a USB port and camera (not to mention other previously-released goodies like a Retina Display and a gyroscope).

The sources pointed out that the iPad 2 will ship as soon as the end of February in 2011. Apple originally planned to start mass production in January, but because the device’s firmware is currently still in testing, Apple has been postponing the schedule.

-Digitimes

Initial shipments are said to be somewhere between 400,000 and 600,000. This is exciting, isn’t it?

[DigiTimes via iPodTouchFans]

OnLive

This is the first one I got a chance to see. It markets itself as an instant game system, allowing users to play any game they want instantly (or, at least, after a purchase). And it’s true to its word. The PC client is completely free. Download it and play through a variety of free demos pretty much immediately. Their catalog is pretty extensive. You’d think streaming games would be confined to obscure, indie games, but names like Homefront, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and Just Cause 2. They charge for 3 and 5 day passes, as well as full game licenses. They are also trying out a new $10 a month unlimited plan. Plus, they offer a $100 console, complete with a controller, to let you play OnLive games on your TV. I tried out the PC, and although the video quality is a little grainy, it works really well overall. I was thoroughly impressed.

Gaikai

But I was more impressed with Gaikai. It functions a lot like OnLive, but instead of charging for games and subscriptions, the site hosts advertisements. That’s right, companies actively test your bandwidth when you visit the site, and if you meet requirements, it will offer you free game tests that stream similarly to OnLive’s games in the hopes that it will get you to buy their games.  The site is offering a 90 minute demo of Mass Effect 2 (a very good game, might I add), among other great demos. Their servers are a little swamped due to the publicity they’ve received as of late, so if it takes a bit to load, give it some time.

GameString

GameString streams games to your phone. Whoa. If you have an Android phone, you can literally play server-hosted games on your device. Interface worries? The service allows for customization of your interface so that literally any game works as you want it too. There’s a nice demo of the service playing WoW on an Android smartphone below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRwaPxBz2jk

By the way, the awesome music in that video is by the Glitch Mob, I think. I’ve been listening to a lot of them recently, but that’s another story for another time.

Is the future in the cloud?

Perhaps. Things done for us remotely seem to be how things are moving. I’m not a huge fan, as I actually take pride in the fact that I can manage all of the software and data that I use, but for non-power users, perhaps the cloud isn’t such a bad thing. You don’t need to worry about drivers, compatibility, or system performance. It seems like a good deal in the end.

WordPress users, make sure you upgrade to the latest version of wordpress. The release includes security patches as well as numerous bug fixes. No huge features this time, it seems.

Make sure you backup your files and database before you update!

Check here for the update information.
[WordPress.org]

Over 70 “alleged” piracy sites have been seized by the Department of Homeland Security this morning, some without any torrents or trackers (meaning that they facilitate no files of any sort, and thus couldn’t possibly be trafficking illegal content). They were not forewarned, nor were they provided with any means of due process. The sites were simply removed, without warning. Some popular sites, like Torrent-Finder.com,  are listed among the blacklisted sites.

Keep in mind, COICA is not even out of the Senate, let alone in effect.

Some of the sites were, in fact, somewhat annoying; several of them sold knock-off versions of popular brands (Burberry scarves, Polo ties, and NFL jerseys, to name a few), but this doesn’t mean that they had any less right to exist than other sites. I’m a bit repulsed by the fact that legislature wasn’t even needed to carry out these takedowns. I feel like these seizures are blatantly unconstitutional and need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

For a list of the taken-down sites, check TorrentFreak’s article.