Jumat, 04 Maret 2011

What's new on SlashGear.com

What's new on SlashGear.com

NashMoney’s custom Sneakerspeakers

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:06 PM PST

London artist, Alex Nash, has a lifelong fixation with athletic footwear. In a nod to his life-long obsession he created this custom set of desktop speakers as part of Intercity’s Inspired Ingenuity project. This project is meant to showcase pieces of artwork that show inspired ingenuity by taking normal objects and turning them into something completely different. Nash took a pair of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers and constructed them into a pair of amplified speakers. The project is challenging artists to create pieces that take the everyday and turn it into something other. One winner will be chosen every month through June.

Nash started with the sneakers. He then cut through the sole of each in a number of places, leaving space for speakers, and the wires. This took a lot of meticulous measurement so that the speakers, boards, and wires would all fit perfectly into the finished product. He also built, sanded, and varnished the stands himself. He says about the process, “I've always had to tackle problems and learn new skills or techniques with most of my customs/designs, but I never thought electronics and carpentry would be one of them.” This is some beautiful work from the man known as Nashmoney.

[via Art and Sole]

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Plextor Unveils USB 3.0 Ultra Light Portable Hard Drives

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 02:50 PM PST

Plextor has announced its newest portable hard drive that is USB 3.0 compatible and also backwards compatible with USB 2.0. The PX-PH500U3 is super light weight at 162 grams–roughly 1/3 of a pound–and comes with 500 GB of storage. The hard drive will come with a USB 3.0 cable and a leatherette case.

The small yet sturdy looking hard drive is encased in 'aircraft aluminum' and has no need for an external power adapter since it will be powered via the USB connector. Plextor has also preloaded some software onto its speedy new hard drive making it ready to interface with different system setups. Users will be able to maximize read and write speeds with the Turbo HDD utility and can backup and restore their data with FNet PC Clone EX.

Plextor plans to release a 750 GB version as well, the PX-PH750U3 sometime in April. The 500 GB PX-PH500U3 will be on sale in Europe starting in March for £90 and the 750 GB version can be yours for £120.

[via GeekyGadgets]

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Surfsens released by Pukas, Tecnalia

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 02:25 PM PST

Spanish company Pukas teamed up with partner Tecnalia to release the Surfsens surfboard diagonistics package. Surfing is an iconic sport worldwide, and never before have surfers had the ability to track their movements. Not only will this allow surfers to analyze their turns and motions, but this could revolutionize judging and scoring in competitive surfing competitions. The Surfsens board is the first of it’s kind.

Pukas:

Surfing is still a sport governed by feelings. The driving forces behind this joint project, PUKAS and TECNALIA, aim to "turn feelings into facts and figures" and provide as yet unquantified data that can be directly applied to improve the features of surfboards, the technical performance of surfers and/or measurement of parameters during competition.

Pukas has been making surfboards in La Concha Bay in San Sebastián, Spain since 1977. They teamed with Spanish technology company Tecnalia recently to produce the Surfsens package. The Surfsens board watches every twitch of your toes with a gyroscope, accelerometer, GPS, compass, and flex sensors. The data is saved on the board’s internal computer for later display. One of the surfers who tested the board mentions that it feels heavier, but the whole sensor and computer package only adds 650 grams to the weight of the board.

Check out these links for video and pictures from the release.

Pukas – Tecnalia Surfsens project from Pukas Surf on Vimeo.

Tecnalia’s Photostream

[via Pukas and Tecnalia]

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iPad2 Case Encrusted with Swarovski Elements

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 01:13 PM PST

What do you get for the pimp who has everything? You get an iPad 2 and a Swarovski gem encrusted case by Distinctive Styles. This company’s website advertises a range of crystal-studded cases for smartphones and tablets. They also offer the more traditional items’de’bling like handbags, lighters and bears. With the release of the iPad 2, DS added four new models of blinged-out gemologically vomitous insanity to their line of luxury gear. You can bling to the max in purple, graphite, classic silver, or gradated versions.


You can get a solid block of bling if you want to cover every single bit of your pad in the non-slip Swarovski elements. If you are looking for a more understated look, you can get a custom design. An artisan will attach the gems one-by-one according to your exacting wishes.

“All cases are not only limited, but also unique!! That is, your own style on the Earth only!!”

Distinctive Styles offers a wide range of non-blinged products as well. They have cases made from wood to leather to cloth. They support a variety of devices. We don’t think we care for anything that doesn’t contain Swarovski elements though. Watch this. You’ll understand.

[via Distinctive Styles]

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Google Demos Self-Driving Robot Car At TED

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:55 PM PST

An idea you almost always see in movies set in the future is the self-driving car. Passengers simply step in and the car will whisk them to their desired location. Google has brought us one step closer to that after they showed off their self-driving car program at TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) this week in Long Beach.

Sebastian Thurn, Google's head software engineer behind the project spoke at TED and had a video showcasing just what the cars can do. The video showed cars on regular roads doing some very impressive driving like avoiding a deer that jumped out in front of the car, or carefully making a turn around a hill as a large truck came towards it. Google didn't just have a video to show TED attendees, it actually had a live demo set up on a closed track to let people experience what riding in a self-driving car is like.

The videos are extraordinary to say the least. Since it was a closed track Google felt it was ok to program the cars to drive "aggressively". The cars are driving pretty fast and Google intended it that way, to show that it was capable of it. There is some tire squealing and really shows off the quick maneuverability in the program. Normally passengers would program their destination into the car like a GPS navigation box and the car would calculate the route. Google says that the car has routes from San Francisco to Los Angeles fully automated.

It's pretty amazing just how well the cars performed. The demo track had to be specially programmed into the car because there were no roads to follow there. I look forward to seeing how Google develops this even further and whether aspects of the technology may have a more immediate application.

[via SearchEngineLand]

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Microsoft Bing Partners With Kayak For Improved Travel Search

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:39 PM PST

Microsoft may be leading at this point in its battle with Google to see who has the better travel search. With Google’s acquisition of ITA, a travel industry software company, still pending, Microsoft is moving full steam ahead announcing a partnership with the travel search engine company Kayak.

We mentioned last week that Microsoft launched some new features for their travel search with the addition of autosuggest flight and price predictor. With the new partnership, Kayak users will gain access to these features while Bing users gain access to more comprehensive flight listings and itineraries.

This partnership between Bing and Kayak should be a good move for both companies to battle Google’s potentially formidable travel search service once the ITA acquisition completes. Kayak will start powering Bing’s flight metasearch within the next few weeks as a first step in their alliance.

[via Tnooz]

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Angry Birds Catapults To Facebook

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:17 PM PST

Rovio has announced that its immensely popular Angry Birds game is coming to Facebook. A version made for the social networking site should be released within a month's time and be ready in April. There will be a few new changes to the game, but no details were given out except that the pigs will have a more prominent role on the Facebook version.

The studio will also be releasing a special version of Angry Birds with a tie-in to the upcoming movie Rio which hits screens on April 15th. No information on the Rio version was given, but if you "like" Angry Birds on Facebook you will receive notice when both special versions of the game are released.

The Angry Birds machine keeps rolling on and it doesn't seem like there's a limit to the number of titles they can produce with so many different "seasons" of games and now that the company is doing movie tie-ins as well. Be ready to lose more hours of productivity flinging birds at pigs.

[via Pocket-lint]

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Sign Phone Concept by Joseph K. Lee

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 12:04 PM PST

The Sign phone concept, designed by Joseph K. Lee, is a sweet piece of vapor technology. Ideas like this are what keep us looking forward into the horizon of tomorrow with joy. With technologies like capacitive touch pads, Active Matrix Organic LED screens, and high-efficiency solar panels married together into this sleek looking phone, how can you go wrong?

The concept images we got show two concealed OLED screens, one of them paired with a touchpad. For solar lovers out there, the design includes an integrated solar charging panel on the back of the handset. Joseph also shows a rendering that suggests what seems like a primarily gesture based UI. The touchpad area is a slight concave depression that contains another AMOLED screen. We don’t know why he decided to have a partial touchpad and separate screen when most devices these days seem to be gravitating after the iPhone’s basic design. He claims that the solar charging system will charge the battery to 80% of full capacity. We’re looking forward to seeing this design, and others from Mr. Lee in the future.

Check out our other articles on concept designs here.

[via Concept Phones]

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iPad 2: Post-PC is Premature

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 11:09 AM PST

The “post-PC” world. Sounds great, doesn’t it. No more malware headaches, none of that awful association with dull cubicle work. Steve Jobs sits in a comfy chair and pages happily through his latest productivity-slash-entertainment apps; we imagine ourselves soaking up the WiFi in our local coffee shop, whiling our days shooting 720p video, editing it and uploading it all in one fell swoop. Dump your desk chairs, throw away your mouse mats. The iPad 2 has saved us from our shackles and shown us the light.

It’s easy to get caught up in Jobs’ rhetoric. Sure, people are buying Macs, but look how many iPads we’ve sold. See how well we slotted this slice of finger-friendly beauty into peoples’ lives. This is no inflated iPod touch, and if you thought it was – if, you narrow minded fool, you still quietly think that it is – then you’re simply part of the Old School of dreary PC pushers. Still, it’s also just as easy to poke holes in the hyperbole. A post-PC tablet that demands a computer to set it up in the first place?

So, what exactly has the iPad 2 delivered on top of the first-gen model? Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the original iPad wasn’t groundbreaking in its way: it shaped the consumer tablet market and impacted on the enterprise as well, helped create an expectation from Android that Honeycomb, for all its strengths, will have difficulty meeting. The iPad 2, though, feels very much an incremental, “because it was time” update – akin, as many have pointed out, to the iPhone 3G to 3GS evolution. If, as the leaks and rumors suggest, Apple is actually building up to an iPad 3 later this year then this second-gen model feels a lot like an attempt to merely tide things over until that takes place, to suck away some of the attention Google has been gathering with Android 3.0.

Again, don’t misunderstand. Apple perhaps didn’t need to do much to the iPad because, let’s face it, they’re leading the market right now. The iPad 2, with its faster guts packed into a skinnier body, raises the bar that little bit higher, keeps the rivals on their toes. It’s already worked with Samsung, executives apparently scurrying back to the lab to think how they can make their Galaxy Tab 10.1 cheaper and more competitive.

No, what rankles is the language, the presentation. Steve Jobs is a master salesman, little doubt about that, but this time around the rhetoric feels at odds with the product. His iPad 2 isn’t just “magical” any more, it’s segment busting, paradigm changing. He brought a quicker, thinner iPad out on stage, with a couple of cameras and some magnets, and dressed it not just in Smart Covers but the PR blitz of the decade.

Look at the figures coming out of RBC Capital Markets, though, about the comparative levels of tablet market penetration against computers and other technology. 2011, two months in, is already “year of the iPad 2,” and this is our “post-PC” era, but at 394m users – combined with smartphone owners, no less – there’s still a huge gap between tablets and the 1.27bn PCs around. I don’t expect Apple to say “this is a comparatively tiny segment that we’re trying to shape” but trying to resculpt an ecosystem, to present the tablet market as sewn up and settled at this terribly early stage, does a disservice to everybody but Apple’s shareholders.

I won’t be trading in my first-gen iPad for its successor. I’ve been asking for front-facing cameras on phones and tablets for years, but I never actually seem to use them when they’re there. Apple’s decision to use a VGA front-facer, when the recent MacBook Pro gets 720p support, seems calculated and smacks of cost-cutting; I wouldn’t be surprised to see the iPad 3 get an HD camera upgrade and be thoroughly lauded for it. Faster is great, but I – like so many – use the iPad predominantly for browsing and, the continued absence of Flash aside, that internet experience is still pretty solid. It’ll get even better when iOS 4.3 arrives, a free upgrade, with the new Nitro JavaScript engine.

Tablets are muscling into the market, yes. The iPad and the iPad 2 are even leading the way. There’s more to user interaction than keyboard and mouse these days, more software flexibility than big boxed applications. It’s an exciting time because there’s a glimpse of a niche in-between notebook and smartphone that could, with time, develop into a legitimate alternative solid enough to stand on its own. Right now, though, to say we’re “post-PC” is premature.

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Pulse News Features Android Community!

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 11:02 AM PST

Today our favorite picture-based-blog-viewer Pulse News has decided to feature our sister site Android Community! We recently learned that Android Community is one of the highest-added blog feeds added in the entirety of the application (with SlashGear right alongside it,) so we were gleeful in finding it also featured in the tiny list released today via the bigtime Twitter and AlphonsoLabs blog announcements. Take a peek at the blog post right over [here], have a look at the Twitter post at @PulsePad, then add Android Community to your big list on Pulse on any one of the many devices it can be hosted on. Android phones, Android tablets (including the XOOM, on which it looks fantastic,) iDevices including the iPad and the iPad 2 (on which Pulse again, looks fantastic.)

Grab it! It’s in the featured list, super easy to access all day long (and forevermore!) We’re hoping that this move will make it even easier than it’s been in the past for everyone to grab the largest amount of excellent Android news from us on Android Community. Of course this isn’t the only place you can grab your Android Community news – the site looks great in your smartphone screens of any size, then we’ve got our own app as well! Type in Android Community in the Android Marketplace or head on over to the following link [AC on AM] on your phone or on your desktop to access it directly.

Take a peek above and below at how lovely the app looks whilst displayed on the Motorola XOOM, a tablet we’re taking close looks at over on Android Community. We’re very stoked about this addition, as should be very apparent, and we’re working our hardest to make our way to the frontscreen of your Pulse readers from now until the end of time! We’ll see you there!

OH and if you don’t have Pulse News yet, get it [here]

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WikiLeaks Movie Rights Optioned by DreamWorks

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 09:45 AM PST

In a move that should surprise noone on this earth, the movie rights to a pair of books about Julian Assange and his undeniably controversial website WikiLeaks. Over the past year or so, WikiLeaks has become a household name in revealing “secret” government and private business documents, causing a ruckus at every level of money changing and United States security and beyond. Now DreamWorks studio has decided this epic story would make at least one fabulous movie to be released in a few years from now – if it gets released at all.

The books being optioned are “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy” by journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding of The Guardian, and “Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website” by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former partner of Assange that’s currently what’s known as a “defector” from the organization. As mentioned above, the movie isn’t at a point where it’s been green-lit by any means, and no director or producer is yet slated to be attached.

One of the inspirations for this particular set of actions is almost certainly “The Social Network,” aka the Facebook Movie. This film made approximately $221 million at worldwide box offices and found itself the earner of a best picture Oscar nomination in 2011. Co-presidents of DreamWorks, Holly Bario and Mark Sourian, have decided to option the books mentioned more than likely because even making that $221 million, the Facebook movie will appear quite tame in terms of drama when compared to this new global hero story.

[via Rueters]

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Fragments released to Android smartphone devs for tablet-friendly apps

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 09:17 AM PST

Google has enabled its Fragments API for non-Honeycomb versions of Android, allowing developers to code apps with layouts that work both on smartphones and tablets. The new Android Compatibility package is available through the SDK Updater, and works with Android 1.6 and above. Fragments basically allows developers to create panelled UI layouts that can be separated or combined depending on how much screen real-estate is on offer.

So, on a smartphone, an app may display a single panel at a time in full-screen. However, on a tablet – such as Motorola’s 10.1-inch XOOM – which has more pixels to play with, multiple Fragment panels can be combined for a more feature-rich layout. Google originally launched Fragments as part of Android 3.0 Honeycomb, with the example of an email app that might show a header list and message preview pane simultaneously on a tablet, whereas the same app would split the two sections between different screens on a smartphone.

Fragments is important since it’s part of Google’s response to criticism regarding the number of tablet-compatible apps currently available in the Android Market. Steve Jobs criticized that number earlier in the week, when he contrasted the roughly 100 tablet-specific titles available for Honeycomb against the 65,000 iPad titles in the App Store. However, Android’s native method of handling different screen resolutions is arguably more polished than iOS’ basic pixel-doubling of iPhone apps on the iPad, while Fragments will build on that advantage.

[via Android Community]

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Libya goes offline as government pulls internet plug

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 08:58 AM PST

Libya’s internet connection appears to have been cut again, with Google observing a flat-line in traffic from roughly midday EST on March 3. The move to clamp down on communications in the country is believed to be an attempt by the current government to prevent protests as tensions escalate.

It’s the third wholesale attempt to take a country offline since the start of the year, after the Egyptian government axed internet access in late January. There, the ban lasted for around a week. The Libyan government has pulled the plug on services once already, on February 18, though the outage only spanned a roughly seven hour period.

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NASA Glory satellite suffers inglorious crash landing

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 08:37 AM PST

A wet, unsatisfactory ending for NASA’s Glory this morning, after a rocket casing malfunction saw the environmental observation satellite likely land in the South Pacific rather than reach orbit. According to the space agency, “the fairing, the protective shell atop the Taurus XL rocket, did not separate as expected about three minutes after launch.” The same issue occurred on another launch two years ago, though NASA is quick to point out that the system has been successful many times.

A NASA press briefing this morning detailed the failure a little further, but it will take a full investigation to properly figure out what went wrong on the Taurus XL rocket. Meanwhile NASA is also looking for the Glory satellite itself

“The new Earth-observing satellite was intended to improve our understanding of how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth’s climate” NASA’s project mission states. It would have orbited the Earth once every 100 minutes, using a Total Irradiance Monitor and an Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor to measure sunlight and aerosol presence.

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Panasonic LUMIX FX77 packs touchscreen makeup studio [Video]

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 07:59 AM PST

It’s tough being a point and shoot digital camera these days; cellphones are eating into your segment, and it takes more than just megapixels to stand out from the crowded shelves. Panasonic has gone a little odd with the new LUMIX FX77, however, turning the touchscreen 12.1-megapixel camera into a portable virtual makeup studio.

Video demo after the cut

After you’ve taken a shot, you can use the 3.5-inch display to add makeup to your subjects, smearing rouge and lip gloss with a fingertip. It’s undoubtedly handy if you’ve always wanted to see what your father looks like wearing mascara, but never quite built up the courage to ask.

Otherwise there’s HDMI connectivity, an SDXC memory card slot, optical image stabilization and Leica optics with a 5x optical zoom. It’ll also shoot HD video. Currently on sale in Japan for the equivalent of $398, there’s no word on when it might launch in North America or Europe.

[via Red Ferret]

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ASUS CEO: 3D quadcore tablet in 2011, maybe Windows Phone in 2012

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 07:35 AM PST

ASUS has confirmed plans to launch a 3D tablet running a quadcore processor sometime in 2011, though the slate will not have 3D cameras like the LG G-Slate. Speaking to hi-tech.mail.ru, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen said that quadcore chips – presumably NVIDIA’s Kal-El – will be essential for smooth video playback at Full HD resolution or higher. The company is aiming to be the second largest player in tablets by 2012, with a 5 to 8 percent market share.

While Shen had plenty of praise for Apple, saying the company was ahead in interface and ecosystem, he also insisted that ASUS was ahead in hardware such as display technology. Meanwhile Google’s partnerships with NVIDIA, Qualcomm and others is a key strength of Android, the CEO suggested, claiming Apple’s own processor was in fact a weakness.

As for smartphones, Shen pointed again to multicore processors, initially dualcore chips but then quadcore soon after. Cloud services also got a namecheck. Asked about Windows Phone 7, Shen said the OS was “very promising” but that ASUS would be sticking solely with Android for 2011 and then considering the Microsoft platform in 2012 after the impact of the Nokia partnership was clear.

Finally, there are MeeGo netbooks on the horizon, using Intel’s Atom processor, as well as Android based x86 models. Shen says 30-percent of tablet users also want a keyboard option, as with the Eee Pad Transformer, and that one of ASUS’ advantages over Apple is that the company offers customers a choice across multiple segments and form-factors.

[via Unwired View]

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Verifone adding NFC to all new payment systems

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 07:09 AM PST

Point-of-Sale (POS) hardware specialist Verifone has confirmed it will be integrating NFC support into all of its new terminals, a move that should dramatically speed the adoption of wireless payments. Describing the decision as a reaction to “merchant resistance,” CEO Douglas G Bergeron told NFC World that those retailers upgrading their POS hardware will find that they are automatically able to process NFC and contactless payments. However, he also cautions that throwing in an NFC chip won’t be sufficient to kill off traditional payment methods.

“This isn’t just an issue of adding an NFC reader,” he explains, “it requires deep software richness at the point-of-sale to interact with the smartphone and manage a services-based model encompassing new applications and deployments without disrupting operation of existing card systems.” For instance, he suggests coupons, loyalty rewards and discounts for those using NFC systems, so as to encourage what may initially be seen as a gimmick.

Primarily, though, Bergeron insists that speed of adoption is key: 10-percent acceptance, he reckons, is not sustainable. While the new POS systems won’t be inside every store straight away, by removing any price barrier to the NFC hardware there’s at least more chance we’ll see mobile payment support spread more readily.

[via IntoMobile]

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HTC Flyer palm-rejection wins tableteer approval [Video]

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 06:44 AM PST

As the tablet ecosystem hurriedly juggles to face the new iPad 2 threat, attention turns to slates with differentiating features to see if they’ve got what’s needed to stand their own against the Apple juggernaut. The HTC Flyer‘s stylus input option may not have met with universal approval at its MWC 2011 launch, but it looks like those keen on digital inking may well have a solid experience with the 7-incher. Carrypad tested out one of the most important features, palm-rejection, to see if the Flyer could hold up to proper pen use.

Video demo after the cut

Palm-rejection is basically the ability of a touchscreen device to ignore the touch of a hand leaning on the screen while a pen or stylus is being used. Officially known as vectoring, if not implemented properly then the tablet will mis-interpret the various points of contact, and skew the on-screen cursor. It’s particularly difficult on resistive and capacitive-only touchscreens, and is what makes so-called capacitive styli generally disappointing to use.

Happily, the Flyer’s system looks to be reasonably good, aided most likely by the fact that the stylus itself uses an active digitizer (which, we’re guessing, deactivates the capacitive touchscreen layer when it’s near the tablet’s screen). Interestingly, Carrypad suggests that the firmware version had a lot to do with palm-rejection efficacy, so with the Flyer still not expected for a couple of months, that leaves HTC plenty of time to improve the system even further.

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Verizon HTC Trophy confirmed a World Phone, but won’t launch until June?

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 06:22 AM PST

Verizon may well be the last big US carrier to have a Windows Phone device on the market, but going by the latest set of leaked HTC Trophy photos their version may have some advantages over Sprint’s HTC Arrive. WPCentral scored some shots confirming what we’ve suspected since the tail-end of last year, that the Verizon Trophy will be a so-called World phone with both CDMA and GSM connectivity.

As well as having CDMA/EVDO Rev.A connectivity for use in North America, the Trophy will also be able to use the GSM/UMTS networks more prevalent in Europe and elsewhere. Considering the Arrive will be little use beyond WiFi when travelling internationally, that’s a big bonus for frequent flyers.

Now for the bad news; according to a Verizon source who is supposedly “involved with the phone,” we shouldn’t expect to see it launch until June. Previous rumors had pegged a late March release, but according to this new information Verizon is still testing it with its large corporate partners.

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Olympus single-shot HDR camera in development tips insider

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 05:32 AM PST

Olympus is reportedly working on a new camera with single shot HDR capabilities, able to create a high dynamic range image from a single frame. Most conventional HDR systems – such as that on the iPhone 4 for example – combine at least three frames of varying exposures to form a single picture with extra detail in both brighter and darker areas. However, according to 43 Rumors‘ source, Olympus is developing an in-camera HDR system that can do it with just one original frame to work from.

The exact nature of the system is unknown, though a Canon patent application spotted midway through 2010 suggested using exposure mapping across a single RAW frame that could then be used to tweak exposure at individual pixel level. Although not spelled out by the Olympus source, the same single-frame HDR technique could likely be used for recording HDR video as well.

Other technologies under development apparently include sensor shift with rotation, a larger, multi-format sensor, a new battery grip with integrated A/V I/O, and bringing the same video capabilities as found on the GH1 to an Olympus model. However, as with any pre-announce systems, it’s entirely possible that none of these could make it to a final, shipping camera.

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Flip Video offers Flip Video Action Tripod

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 05:29 AM PST

Flip has been making its awesome little camcorders for a long time now including the Ultra HD, MinoHD, and the Slide HD. The Flip camcorders are cheap and that low price makes them some of the most popular camcorders on the market today. Flip has a new accessory for its camcorder line that has debuted.

The accessory is a tripod called the Flip Video Action Tripod and it is designed with lots of flexibility to be able to stand the Flip camcorders on a surface and more. The tripod is designed to allow it to attach to all sorts of things like a bike or helmet for instance.

Attaching the tripod to a helmet means that it will make for a nice little action camera. The tripod is cheap enough at $24.99 and it will work with all Flip camcorders. The neck of the tripod will allow the user to position the camera at any angle. The only downside I see is that the Flip camcorders aren’t rugged and one good crash might spell the end of your camera.

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iPad 2 makes Samsung feel inadequate about Galaxy Tab 10.1

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 05:07 AM PST

The iPad 2 that launched this week is a heck of a nice tablet with great performance and a very thin profile. It is certainly more than just a minor refresh of the iPad that was already leading the tablet market. When Apple whipped out the iPad, some competitors weren’t happy.

One of those competitors that suddenly weren’t as competitive as it was the day before was Samsung. A Samsung exec named Lee Don-Joo has noted that Samsung is now looking to “improve the parts that are inadequate” about the Galaxy Tab 10.1. What those inadequate parts are the exec doesn't specify. He does note that the iPad 2 is very thin.

Perhaps the Tab 10.1 will lose some weight in a future version. The exec also notes that Samsung is reconsidering its pricing strategy. That means that the electronics giant might make the thing cheaper. It really needs to be cheaper than the iPad if Samsung wants to woo shoppers to its offering.

[via Android Community]

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Star Wars: Episode I the Phantom Menace gets 3D launch date

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:45 AM PST

Star Wars is hands down one of the most popular sci-fi franchise ever made. The original three films are my favorites, but there were some aspects of the three new films that were cool. I liked the red spiky dude with the light saber staff in The Phantom Menace for instance. You may recall that George Lucas had said he would be bringing the flicks back to theaters in 3D.

If you were excited about the chance to see the films in 3D, Episode I has been gifted with an official launch date for the 3D version in studios. The flick will hit theaters on February 10, 2012. That is a bit less than a year away. February is a strange date; I would have figured these flicks would see a summer release.

Love it or hate it, this flick should make for some interesting 3D effects with the fights between Darth Maul and the Jedi and the invasion sequences. Perhaps Jarjar Binks won’t be so irritating in 3D. The pod race sequence should rock in 3D too.

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Second Samsung Windows Phone update having problems of its own

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:30 AM PST

The Windows Phone update for Samsung WP7 devices just can’t seem to catch a break, with the re-released update apparently experiencing some problems of its own. Microsoft’s February update ended up breaking some Samsung phones, prompting the company to pull the firmware until it could be suitably tweaked. That happened yesterday, with updates resuming, but now there’s talk of a second batch of errors affecting the smartphones.

According to Windows Phone Thoughts – and plenty of reports on Twitter – some users are complaining of seeing error message 800705B4 and the update failing to install, either when trying it through the Zune software on PC or the Windows Phone Connector on OS X. Some users have found removing all but one email account on their Samsung fixes the problem, but others have been left with no option but to factory-restore the handset.

Microsoft’s official Windows Phone Support Twitter account is telling users individually that “For now we suggest holding off on it while we investigate the issue” but there’s no global advice for Samsung users. The company’s original blog post – which had been updated earlier in the week after the first batch of issues – makes no mention of the problem at time of writing.

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JPR report finds graphics card add-in board sales totaled $17B for 2010

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:22 AM PST

Jon Peddie Research or JPR is one of the firms that tracks the tech world and specifically looks at the GPU shipments and associated gear. The latest report is in from JPR and it looks at Q4 2010 and at 2010 as a whole. According to JPR the add-in video card market didn’t do well compared to 2009 in 2010 with a total value of $17 billion.

In Q4 alone, the industry was worth $4.4 billion and as well all know the main players in the add-in card market are NVIDIA and AMD. Despite the fact that the recession was letting up in 2010 and 2009 was the worse year for the economy shipments in 2010 were lower overall than in 2009. In 2009, the industry shipped 75.3 million add-in cards and in 2010, the industry shipped 72.8 million.

Another interesting fact is that despite traditionally higher sales in Q4 with holiday shopping, Q4 shipments didn't exceed shipments from Q3. NVIDIA still has the share lead in add-in cards with 60.8% of the market and AMD had 38.8% of the market. NVIDIA grew its share 3.6% compared to Q3 and the share for AMD slipped 5.2% for the Q4 2010.

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M-Edge iPad 2 accessory line debuts

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:07 AM PST

M-Edge has announced a new line of gear that is coming for the iPad 2 that launched this week from Apple. The new line of accessories for the iPad 2 includes several cases and jackets that should work for just about anyone that needs a case to protect their iPad. The line will launch this spring.

The line includes gear for the pro users with an Executive Jacket with a stand for propping the tablet up. A new case that is aimed at the business user called the Method Portfolio. It has more storage space than the typical iPad 2 case offers. M-Edge will also offer the Latitude Jacket that zips around the tablet to protect it from dust and drops.

The most interesting of the offerings is the Latitude Jacket with TheaterStand. It has a stand that will hold the iPad up at 16 different viewing angles in portrait or landscape modes. That stand will make watching video a snap for most users. The firm will also offer the Touring Sleeve made from neoprene and the Cambridge Jacket. The Touring Sleeve is the only item in the line available right now.

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Silk-based flexible ereaders and displays promised

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 04:01 AM PST

Taiwanese researchers have figured out a way to use silk as a component in bendable electronics, potentially finding a role in future ereaders, LED displays and RFD tags. Hwang Jenn-Chang of National Tsing Hua University, along with two post-grads, are already in talks with manufacturers about commercialising the system, which turns liquid silk into membranes that function as insulators for flexible thin-film transistors.

Although silk is among the more expensive fabrics, in comparison to flexible electronics components it’s far more affordable. The research team expect the silk cost to be around $0.03 per device, and since it’s a natural fiber the ecological impact is reduced as well. No word on which manufacturers are looking to use the new fabric technology, nor when we could expect to see rollable displays and other gadgets based on it.

[via Slashdot]

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Zotac unveils new AD02 and AD02 Plus nettops with AMD hardware inside

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:47 AM PST

Zotac has unveiled a pair of new nettops today that include the new Zbox AD02 and AD02 Plus offerings. Both of the machines run the AMD Brazos platform inside that is combined with the E350 dual-core APU. The machines also have 2GB of DDR3 RAM and have graphics that support DirectX 11 for entertainment content and good multimedia playback.

The GPU inside the machines is the Radeon HD6310 unit. Data storage inside the nice looking Plus version of the nettop is to a 250GB HDD. The difference between the standard AD02 and the AD02 plus is that the standard version gets no storage or RAM. The buyer has to add their own hardware to that machine.

Other features include a gigabit Ethernet card and WiFi in both machines. Both of the nettops have a single USB 3.0 port and a pair of USB 2.0 ports. Other features include DVI, D-sub and HDMI ports along with eSATA and a Blu-ray player in each. Pricing on the units is not announced. The video below has a nettop with the Brazos platform in use.

[via Notebookitalia.it]

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Elfoid P1 humanoid cellphone is bizarre telepresence attempt

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:37 AM PST

Back when we were initially befreaked by the Telenoid R1 robot midway through 2010, the last thing we wanted was a pocket-sized version of the creepy, fleshy telepresence ‘bot that could lurk in our pocket. Unfortunately that’s just what Osaka University researchers – along with NTT DoCoMo and Qualcomm – have done, designing the 8-inch long Elfoid P1 cellphone.

As before, the concept is to give users a sense of the physical presence of the person they’re communicating with, with cameras and motion-capture systems tracking each party and the Elfoid on the other end replicating their movements and gestures. The initial prototypes can’t actually move themselves, but future versions will get motors and shape-memory components allowing them to move facially and twitch their rudimentary limbs.

The keypad is built into the chest, but there’ll be a voice and gesture based control system for more complex feature navigation. Other hardware includes a temperature sensor and accelerometer. A fully-working model is expected to be finished within five years.

[via Pink Tentacle]

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InFlight Labs announces new messaging service available on WiFi airliners

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 03:31 AM PST

Most airlines are now outfitting their aircraft with WiFi service that passengers can use while they are in the air. The WiFi services allow web surfing, game playing, and chat to take place in the air. Some of the aircraft also allow voice calls to be made. InFlight Labs has announced a new service that works with WiFi equipped aircraft that will let the passengers have text conversations in the air.

The tech used by the company allows for two-way communications with groups of up to 25 colleagues at one time and works at up to 30,000 feet. The messages take 4-7 seconds to reach the recipient and the service is supported on computers with an iPad app comign soon. The messaging service gives the user time stamps message history and a text message calendar.

The company says that the messaging service will be priced at $1 to $1.99 depending on the package the user chooses. It’s not clear if that is for a set number of messages or if it is unlimited. “Business travelers can use their laptop or iPad (coming soon) to access this simple web interface to send and receive messages (approx. 4-7 seconds) to any mobile phone in the U.S. Add to that the ability to group message up to 25 colleagues at once and hold ‘text conversations’ while at 30,000 feet, and you have a powerful business productivity tool,” says Tiffany Van Alst, Head of Strategic Alliances for the InFlight Labs, LLC.

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