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Sonos CR200 controller outed by the FCC
Without a doubt, Sonos makes an excellent wireless distributed audio system. If we had to nit pick (and we do), then its massive controller, the CR100 is easily the first thing to complain about. For starters it's a $400 remote control that does one thing, it controls your Sonos audio system. Granted, the CR100 is rugged, splashproof, and turns on in an instant thanks to a built-in accelerometer; features that can't justify the price, however, in light of the solid Sonos did its user base when it released a free Sonos controller app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The app even one-ups the CR100 with its on-screen QWERTY since the CR100's scrollwheel isn't exactly the best interface for typing out the name of an artist search. So imagine our intrigue when we saw a new CR200 Sonos Controller pass through the FCC. The new controller appears to prefer a portrait orientation (instead of landscape like the CR100) and was tested across 802.11g WiFi frequencies with a 24Mbps fixed data rate. While that doesn't give us much to go on, at least it passed the tests meaning we could be close to an official announcement. Considering the controller's physical design hasn't changed since its launch in January of 2005, a few more days or weeks of waiting shouldn't be a problem.
PS3 network a boon to disease-fighting computations
What a difference a month and several thousand gaming consoles makes. Sony announced today that the 250,000 PS3s that have run Stanford's Folidng@Home research program in the last month have delivered nearly 400 teraflops of computing power, nearly doubling the pre-PS3 computing capacity for the network. The PS3 has been a PR dream for the project too, leading to a "halo effect" increase of 20 percent in the number of PC folders, according to Sony.A downloadable update for the PS3 version of the program will be available tomorrow, offering increased folding speed, better globe visibility and, most importantly, "the ability for users to create longer donor or team names." Finally, our dream of folding for Team "JoystiqSingleHandedlyCuresAllDiseases" can be realized.
