7.7

British scientists developing bomb-resistant train

The 7/7 bombings, a series of suicide blasts that took place on London's public transport system on July 7, 2005, were among the deadliest terrorist attacks of the post-9/11 world. Since then, efforts have been made to mitigate the possible damage of future attacks on public transit, and a group of British engineers from Newcastle University is doing its part by designing blast-proof trains.

SecureMetro, a collaborative project funded by the European Union, launched three years ago with the goal of developing blast-resistant and fire-proof above-ground and underground metro trains that minimize death and injury in the event of a bomb attack.

The video below shows the progress on the project. First you'll see a decommissioned train, highlighting the potential collateral damage exploding trains can cause. Doors, windows, and pieces of the carriage fly through the air. The interior of the train is also demolished, as furniture and ceiling panels prevent any survivors from easily escaping the carriage.… Read more

Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate lives up to the name

If you watch a lot of video on your computer, a decent video converter is an absolute necessity. But if you also watch a lot of video on your smartphone or tablet, or like to make DVDs, or find yourself constantly saving bits of video for later, a decent video converter isn't good enough. You need a good one. Like Xilisoft's Video Converter Ultimate. It's on the high side of premium video converters for home use, but you get what you pay for, which in this case means automatic profiles enhanced for just about any device or … Read more

Toshiba Excite tablet reviews: Say hello to the family

Although the Toshiba Excite 10 has already been out since May, the rest of the family is due to be released in just a few days and they're all excited (ha! see what I did there?) to hit the market.

On June 10, the two remaining members of Toshiba's lineup of tablets are due to hit stores. These Wi-Fi-enabled devices all run on Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich and they're powered by Tegra 3, quad-core processors. Oh, and they're also all kind of expensive.

The smallest-size option is the Excite 7.7. Unlike its big … Read more

Toshiba Tegra 3 tablets offer extras we've seen before

With its Excite 10 LE, Toshiba offered a well-designed tablet with disappointing performance, and (in my opinion) too high a price tag for what was offered. With the company's announcement of new 10-, 7.7-, and 13-inch tablets today, it doesn't seem as if much has changed on the pricing front, but at least now it's offering Tegra 3-based devices.… Read more

New iPad ranked top tablet by Consumer Reports

The latest iPad has a new fan, namely Consumer Reports.

Apple's latest tablet scored the highest ratings among its rivals in a report out today from the consumer publication.

The new iPad was commended for its 5-megapixel camera, battery life, and 4G coverage through Verizon Wireless. But it was the high-resolution screen that earned the sharpest praise.

Citing the detail and color accuracy of the Retina Display, Consumer Reports said that the screen "establishes a new benchmark in excellence" and is "the best we've seen" on a tablet. Specifically, the publication found that the … Read more

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 review: 7-plus inches of AMOLED goodness

Don't overlook this screen. While it doesn't offer the same pixel density as the new iPad's Retina Display, it's still one of the most impressive I've encountered, offering deep blacks and an unmatched contrast ratio by tablet standards.

While games looked vibrant and well-saturated with color, there was an unfortunate side effect on background textures.

The full review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 has more on that admittedly cryptic statement as well as many other amusing anecdotes.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 arrives March 1 on Verizon

Back in January during CES (yeah, with all this Mobile World Congress stuff, it can be hard to remember), Samsung announced its tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7.7.

We liked the initial look and feel of the device, and if you're interested in purchasing one, it will be available this Thursday, March 1, on Verizon's 4G LTE network.

As CNET's Stephen Shankland reported, the Galaxy Tab's 7.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus display uses "active matrix organic light-emitting diode technology." Combine that with a 1,280x800-pixel resolution, and it's easy to expect that graphics and videos will be bright, clear, and vibrant.… Read more

Keep your notes organized with KeepNotes

When you pull out one of your spiral-bound notebooks, do they all come out at once? And not in a good way, but snared by the dangling ends of their spiral bindings? If so, try KeepNote, a simple but effective tool for saving and using notes for class, lab, meetings, papers, accounts, journals, and more as XML or HTML files. You can insert or attach images, spreadsheets, and other files, too. KeepNote offers a lot of flexibility, but it leaves out bells and whistles like contact managers, task schedulers, and other distractions from the job at hand. Its main job … Read more

USB 3.0 that much closer to standard on Intel PCs

USB 3.0 has gotten the green light for becoming a standard offering on Intel-based Windows PCs next year.

The USB Implementers Forum announced this week that the upcoming "Ivy Bridge" 7 Series Chipset and other Intel chipsets have achieved USB 3.0 certification. Chipsets are support silicon that work in tandem with the main processor.

USB 3.0, aka SuperSpeed USB, delivers up to 10 times the data transfer rate of USB 2.0, as well as improved power efficiency.

Intel's Ivy Bridge silicon, due to ship in Windows PCs in the April-June time frame, will … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1544: Of lost iPhones and shrimp ceviche (Podcast)

Apple, evidently, has a lot of employees with drinking problems, and it keeps letting those employees take iPhone prototypes out of the building. Really? Wow, dudes. Also, T-Mobile tries to pump up its employees over the merger situation, you can finally legally play Doom in Germany, tablet makers try everything but the easy solution, and China is going to kill us all. Or give us $99 tablets, hard to say. And Buzz Out Loud is getting out of the daily deals business.