Western Digital serves up the latest Windows Server Essentials

This looks like the business server to beat, even if it does come with a $1449 price tag for the 8tb version…

This great looking server comes in either 4TB or 8TB configurations and can be further expanded thanks to its 2 x USB 3.0 ports. Powered by an Intel Atom 1.8 GHz dual core processor and 2GB of RAM the WD Sentinel DX4000 features an LCD display panel on the front of the unit which displays system status and critical alerts and comes complete with dual Gigabit Ethernet configured in Adaptive Fault

Equipped with WD’s Enterprise Class WD RE drives these can be configured as a RAID 1 array (2 drives only) or a RAID 5 array (3-4 drives), the WD Sentinel DX4000 can hold up to 4 SATA hard drives.

via mswhs.com

Comparing the old and new HP Microserver; 1.3ghz vs 1.5ghz editions

I’ve recently upgraded my Homeserver to the latest 1.5ghz version, more out of curiosity than necessity, luckily I could use the same 2tb samsung hard disks, as the price has lept almost 400% in the last month. I was interested to see how the performance differs from the original machine so I ran the latest Passmark benchmarks against each machine (for reference the 1.3 version has been upgraded to 4gb ram and the new 1.5 version has the standard 2gb ram it ships with).

	AMD Athlon II Neo N36L Dual-Core 1.3ghz	AMD Turion II Neo N40L Dual-Core 1.5ghz
CPU Mark	862.9	959.8
2D Graphics Mark	111.1	131.4
Memory Mark	257.3	293.9
Disk Mark	550.4	593.3
PassMark Rating	409.5	465.2

The numbers stack up in an interesting way, the process came out 11% faster (rather than the 15% on paper you would expect), but it also helps to boost all the peripheral parts of the server that you wouldn’t expect to get a boost, disk performance goes up by almost 8% and the overall score by 13%.

Obviously it’s not going to be a compelling upgrade for most existing owners, but for new buyers still a great deal, at £250 in most stores, with £100 cash back from HP. I’d love to see a Core i3 version of the server, as there will always be users wanted to do more video compression, I’m looking forward to seeing if this new faster processor can keep up with the new quad tv tuner I have on order to work with DVBlink on the Microserver.

New capacitive touch screens recognise gloved hands

October 31, 2011
Technology
Gloves Screens Winter

Interesting new technology, I hope this makes its way into tomorrows smart phones…

Instead of redesigning the displays from the ground up, the company added a new chip that improves detection sensitivity, while incorporating a new sensor panel that’s better suited to filtering out noises and unwanted inputs as a result. When used with a bare finger, the new technology also facilitates the addition of a protective panel over the display up to 1.5mm thick, making them better suited for use in public kiosks. And because most users will only need to operate a touchscreen with gloves on when it’s cold out, the panels will operate to temperatures as cold as minus thirty degrees celsius.

via Gizmodo

Wheels up on the Navy’s latest stealth fligher drone

October 29, 2011
Technology
Design Drone Plane

The US Navy’s latest stealth drone, I love the sleek design, it really does look more like a space ship than a normal plane…

This isn’t the 62-foot wide X-47B’s first time in the air. Rather, it’s the first time it’s been able to pull up its landing gear and go into full “cruise mode”—an important step that gives the craft a chance to flex all of its sophisticated onboard navigational and sensor equipment. It’s still experimental right now, but if and when it’s ever deployed for real, it’ll be able to pack 4,500 pounds of weaponry, refuel in the air, and land at sea. That’s a lot of killing power in a robot—and all guided by someone far away.

via Gizmodo

Microsoft Lync for Windows Phone

Nice find by wpcentral, the Lync app for Windows Phone, no video support (but the phone is also missing the key front mounted camera anyway!). I’m guessing there’s no extensibility to link Lync into the message hub?

Hey, look at that! Microsoft Lync Mobile was on hand, in beta form, for us to play with on a Nokia 800. The communications app for enterprise was quite snazzy and very fast from our brief hands on. You get your contacts, IM, email and status updates all from within a very nice Metro app.

via wpcentral

Nokia’s new Windows Phone offering

I’m excited to get my hands on the new Lumia 800, I hope it delivers in terms of speed (not that my Omnia 7 is slow, but faster is always nice), a much better camera and a high quality screen. On paper this phone should rock, it also comes with some Nokia services, complimenting the Microsoft and 3rd party ones…

Nokia Drive is a full, turn-by-turn voice navigation solution with support for 95 countries. It’s available from the start screen of the Lumia 800 for easy access, and offers simple search and real-time GPS, with speed and distance information.

I doubt apps like Turn-by-turn have much to worry about, given the lack of any traffic routing or downloadable maps, this service may feel a bit basic compared to the likes of Android or TomTom.

via Mashable