Tech Today w/ Ken May

USB-powered monitors started out small but are finally getting big enough to serve as a main display. The 24-inch ASUS MS248B is brought to life with a single cable courtesy of USB 3.0’s extra current and bandwidth. What’s more, this is achieved with few compromises: the LED monitor is just 16.5mm (0.66-inches) thick, does 1080p with a 2ms response time and has a 10000000:1 contrast ratio (although this last spec requires the usual seasoning). Some extras did have to be thrown overboard to bring power consumption down — there’s no additional USB or audio ports, webcam, card reader or ability to daisy-chain. But then, how much could you achieve with a mere 9W?

ASUS MS248B 24-inch display does it all with one cable, thank you USB 3.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As promised, Apple unveiled its new digital storage and syncing service iCloud at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference today. iCloud integrates with a number of apps on both iOS devices and Macs to sync content like pictures, documents, and music between devices, and will provide 5GB of storage free to all users. A sub-feature related to iTunes, called iTunes Match, will allow users to store and handle an unlimited number of songs via Apple’s iCloud for $24.99 per year.

Steve Jobs noted that, because PCs are no longer the digital hub of activity they once were, users often have content like music, videos, and pictures spread across multiple devices. Now Apple wants to move the content base into the cloud, where all devices, including iPod touches, iPads, iPhones, and Macs (but not Apple TVs) can access it.

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Apple details iCloud’s digital storage and syncing, free 5GB of storage

Apple on Monday announced that the next major version of iOS, set to ship this fall, will include over 200 new user features. During the keynote presentation at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Senior Vice President of iOS Engineering Scott Forstall demonstrated just 10 of those features, including overhauled notifications, BlackBerry-style messaging for all iOS devices, and the ability to use iPads and iPhones without needing to connect to a Mac or Windows PC.

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iOS 5 overhauls notifications, messaging while cutting the USB cord

Apple’s new big cat is here, and it’s going to change a hell of a lot about the way you use your Mac. Like we said last time, the best parts of the iPad are now on your desktop. More

You might remember Trulia for their highly informative eye-candy maps dealing with apartment listings and the residential rent:buy index, but now they’re making house or apartment-hunting decisions even easier by mapping crime statistics, with Crime Maps beta. More

Just because you didn’t get to go to that awesome conference doesn’t mean that you can’t still watch the lectures! This talk: Scaling WordPress for High-Traffic, presented by Envato’s very own developer extraordinaire, Ryan Allen, will detail some of the potential pitfalls and solutions when maintaining massive WordPress blogs, like Tuts+. Don’t miss this great opportunity!

Source: http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/scaling-wordpress-for-hi-traffic/

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How to Scale WordPress for High-Traffic

Seeing solar energy progress is a good thing, but it still has one problem: at this point, it’s still inefficient when compared with other sources of energy. And now Japan and Europe have announced [PDF] that they will work together to develop the world’s most efficient photovoltaic cell over the next four years.

The aim is to reach the world’s highest photoelectric conversion efficiency of at least 45%. Using it in practical applications, however, will not be possible until 2025, Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization says. Commercializing the cell will take another 5 years.

The project is expected to cost $15.5 million, with the Japanese side shouldering $8.1 of that sum. Participants from Japan include big names such as Toyota, Sharp, and the University of Tokyo. From Europe, organizations from five different countries (Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain, and France) will be contributing.

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Europe And Japan Collaborate To Develop World’s Most Efficient Photovoltaic Cell

You might remember Trulia for their highly informative eye-candy maps dealing with apartment listings and the residential rent:buy index, but now they’re making house or apartment-hunting decisions even easier by mapping crime statistics, with Crime Maps beta. More

In the second full month of availability for the new Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9, clear trends are starting to emerge. Firefox users are upgrading; Internet Explorer users are not. And Internet Explorer’s slide is continuing unabated.

Microsoft’s browser is down 0.84 points to 54.27 percent. Firefox is up a fraction, gaining 0.08 points to 21.71 percent. Chrome saw gains of 0.58 points to 12.52 percent. Safari too is up a little with a 7.28 percent market share, up 0.13 points. Opera dropped 0.11 points to 2.03 percent.

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Microsoft and Mozilla’s continuing Chrome conundrum

If your address book or contacts list is virtually unusable because of the number of duplicates and unwanted entries, Scrubly can help tidy them up. It’ll search your contacts, and when it finds dupes, it’ll show them to you to merge, manage, or automatically clean. More