The numbers are in for Americans’ TV and video consumption, and The Nielsen Company reports that our TV and video watching habits have reached new heights. Whether this is the natural progression of a long-standing trend, a byproduct of more people staying home because of the recession, or perhaps a combination of the two, Nielsen states that “the average American watches more than 151 hours of TV per month”–which averages out to over five hours of TV per day–“an all-time high.”  Nielsen calculates that

Ever had the desire to place a standard UMPC-type computer within a rugged chassis and check your email while trudging through mud, rain and sleet? Trimble has, and it’s making sure that those of you needing a rugged portable computer don’t go away empty handed. The all new Trimble Tablet is described as a rugged, versatile and fully connected handheld computer for heavy and highway and marine construction professionals. Of course, you could replace that last bit with “for anyone who computes in extreme environments”

There are some rumors circulating this morning that it is possible to enable the fourth hidden / disabled core in a triple-core Phenom II X3, by simply enabling Advanced Clock Calibration (ACC) in the system BIOS on motherboards outfitted with SB750 southbridges and AMI BIOS derivatives.So far, a couple of stories have surfaced that claim to have unlocked the fourth core in a triple core processor using ASRock M3A790GXH/128M and Biostar TA790GX motherboards. And in their testing, the processors simply worked

It looks like the rumor or Delphi and CoolIT working on a price for Delphi Thermal's Electronic Cooling engineering, products, patents and facilities in Mexico and China can be put on the back burner. I got an e-mail from CoolIT Systems this morning saying the following.

CoolIT has worked with Delphi for quite a long time on the Dell liquid cooling system and recently CoolIT has taken over the supply of the H2C unit independent of Delphi. As far as acquiring Delphi's liquid cooling capabilities, at this stage, CoolIT is a bit too busy managing the successful worldwide roll out of the Domino ALC.

Microsoft says it made an accounting error when it laid off some employees last month and now feels the best way to correct the error is with what will likely add up to a public relations blunder. The software giant, which recently laid off 1,400 employees, sent letters this past week week to some of those former workers letting them know that their severance payouts were a bit too “generous” and respectfully requested that the former employees pay back that money, according to a report Saturday on TechCrunch.

While the payroll error must be irritating in and of itself to these laid off workers (severance is a sensitive subject), it appears that Microsoft HR isnt even bothering to explain how it happened (employees are instructed to call the office, which is closed for the weekend, if they want to know the details). Given that it was Microsoft HR that screwed this up in the first place, youd think theyd at least include the calculations they made and point out where the error took place.

If you ever have that nagging feeling that you are being watched, you might not be wrong. But with your watcher being 423 miles above you, you might have a hard time confirming your suspicions. And while being spied upon from such a distance may seem like not much detail can be realized, you might be in for a surprise–the GeoEye-1 Satellite, which just achieved “full operational capability certification from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency” (NGA), can capture images on the ground down to 0.41 meters

When you think ThinkPad, what do you think? Plain, classic, traditional, all-business, etc.? Probably, but the word “sturdy” is apt to be throw in that mix as well. Lenovo has made it a point of focus to always ensure that the business-minded ThinkPad line was well equipped to handle dozens of airport transfers, being dropped in airport security lines and enduring the daily stresses of the corporate world. Now, the company is coming out and shouting from the roof tops that its ThinkPads are amongst the toughest

One of our readers tipped me off over the weekend that Delphi was visiting Calgary, Alberta, CA last week and the reason why might come as a shock to many of you. If our source is correct Delphi was there last week to make a final deal to sell and turn over all of Delphi Thermal's Electronic Cooling engineering, products, patents and facilities in Mexico and China. This will make CoolIT Systems the number one OEM supplier in electronics cooling and a strong leader in the retail enthusiast market too since they will have all of Delphi's technology and patents!

Just think, not more than five years ago, CoolIT wanted Delphi to acquire them. Funny how things change over time. Delphi is shedding no-core businesses so GM can acquire them back into the fold. It's the only way for GM not to lose it's parts making ability here in North America. CoolIt may get the entire Delphi Electronics Cooling for less than pennies on the dollar. This will make CoolIT the #1 OEM supplier in electronics cooling and a strong leader in the retail enthusiast market too.

One of our readers tipped me off over the weekend that Delphi was visiting Calgary, Alberta, CA last week and the reason why might come as a shock to many of you. If our source is correct Delphi was there last week to make a final deal to sell and turn over all of Delphi Thermal's Electronic Cooling engineering, products, patents and facilities in Mexico and China. This will make CoolIT Systems the number one OEM supplier in electronics cooling and a strong leader in the retail enthusiast market too since they will have all of Delphi's technology and patents!

Just think, not more than five years ago, CoolIT wanted Delphi to acquire them. Funny how things change over time. Delphi is shedding no-core businesses so GM can acquire them back into the fold. It's the only way for GM not to lose it's parts making ability here in North America. CoolIt may get the entire Delphi Electronics Cooling for less than pennies on the dollar. This will make CoolIT the #1 OEM supplier in electronics cooling and a strong leader in the retail enthusiast market too.

Netbook vendors are dropping prices of their 8.9-inch netbooks models to clear inventory, and solid state drive-based (SSD-based) models are seeing the sharpest drops, according to sources at channel vendors.

The loosening of netbook hard drive restrictions from 80GB to 160GB, and the higher cost of SSDs are causing demand for SSD netbooks to drop. Acer's 8GB SSD version 8.9-inch Aspire one has dropped to NT$6,999 (US$202.27) in the Taiwan market, while Asustek Computer's 7-inch Eee PC now costs around NT$6,500-7,500 and the 20GB SSD version 8.9-inch Eee PC is around NT$8,999, the sources noted.