Archive | January, 2009
The tiny Proteus motor, at only 2.5 times the width of a human hair, is small enough to enter the bloodstream and perform duties previously requiring some surgical slice-and-dice. Researchers at Australia's Monash University developed the tiny motor to minimalize the risk of certain, more invasive surgeries. After being injected into the bloodstream, it can carry a camera and other sensors to monitor a patient without the danger that cutting and sewing presents. To move, it uses a spinning tail that spirals at 1295 RPM, and uses piezoelectricity (which uses mechanical stress to create electrical potential) for energy. Oh, and here's my required Fantastic Voyage reference: This bloodstream sperm motor is named for that movie I never saw! [GizMag] Source[gizmodo]
LAS VEGAS -- With its new Palm Pre phone announced earlier today, troubled phone maker Palm has clearly put itself back into the game. The spotlight is clearly on the slick hardware but Palm is betting its secret sauce, its... LAS VEGAS -- With its new Palm Pre phone announced earlier today, troubled phone maker Palm has clearly put itself back into the game. The spotlight is clearly on the slick hardware but Palm is betting its secret sauce, its newly created operating system, WebOS, will give the Pre an edge over competitors. "We created a new platform from the ground up," said Ed Colligan, CEO of Palm at CES 2009. "It is going to redefine the center of your access point to the Internet." A key feature of WebOS is the Palm Synergy, which brings different information from calendars, contacts and instant messaging applications into a single screen. WebOS links contacts together so if the same contact is listed in Outlook, Google and Facebook accounts, it recognizes that they are the same person and links them together into one listing. There's also combined messaging, which allows you to see who's active in a buddy list and start a conversation with just one touch, instead of having to fire up the IM application seperately. The OS treats every application as a "card", a new term that Palm has introduced with the Pre. Cards or individual applications are stacked up like a deck on the main screen and can be scrolled through. WebOS also comes with global search-- any search string typed on the phone searches through contacts, applications and other information repositories on the device. The OS also offers to search the Internet, all in a seamless way. While Palm has said the WebOS is developer friendly, it hasn't commented about how applications written for WebOS will be compatible with Palm OS 5. Source[Wired Gadget Lab]
Inexpensive netbooks are quickly maturing to suit business users, and already a certain type of professional is showing interest in the puny devices — accountants. Accounting Web compiled a list of notebooks best suited for accountants. Two netbooks made it... Inexpensive netbooks are quickly maturing to suit business users, and already a certain type of professional is showing interest in the puny devices — accountants. Accounting Web compiled a list of notebooks best suited for accountants. Two netbooks made it to the list: Asus's Eee PC S101 and Samsung's NC10 — for their spacious keyboards and larger hard drives. The NC10 also got kudos for sporting a battery that reportedly lasts seven hours. Not bad for a relatively young product category that was just a year ago considered a dumbed-down, novelty device made for goofing off. The top 10 laptops [Accounting Web via Liliputing] See Also: The Next Netbook Trend: Cellphone-Like Contract Deals Apple Still Oblivious to Netbook Opportunity Tiny Notes Net Big Gains: The Netbook Revolution Photo: Lady Madonna/Flickr Source[Wired Gadget Lab]
Coming on like a piece of spam, an email invite from Acer just dropped into my inbox: Good day, Are you ready to join Acer’s launch into the world of mobile communications? The event? A February 9th launch at Barcelona's... Coming on like a piece of spam, an email invite from Acer just dropped into my inbox:Good day, Are you ready to join Acer’s launch into the world of mobile communications?The event? A February 9th launch at Barcelona's crazy Gaudí-designed Casa Batllò, featuring Acer head honcho Gianfranco Lanci. The product? A smartphone launch. This invitation is certainly a teaser -- there appear to be no leaks so far to give us any clues as to just what Acer has planned. Digging a little into last year's news, though, turns up Acer's purchase of E-Ten, makers of Glofish phones, including the old (2006) QWERTY slider M-700. That phone ran Windows mobile 5, and a newer Windows Mobile handset is certainly possible. But given that Acer has dallied with Linpus, the (almost) instant-on Linux, in its Aspire one, we'd hope for some Linux action in the smartphone, too. Android? Pretty please. The best part? "Buffet Dinner and Open Bar". I'm already signed up. Acer has smartphone on deck [CNET] See Also: The Next Netbook Trend: Cellphone-Like Contract Deals Source[Wired Gadget Lab]
The timing is right for Dell to make a stab at the smartphone market – the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona starts in a couple of weeks – and the Wall Street Journal reports that Dell may be about to... The timing is right for Dell to make a stab at the smartphone market – the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona starts in a couple of weeks – and the Wall Street Journal reports that Dell may be about to just that. Or not. The leak from which the WSJ gleaned this information says that Dell may just give up and abandon the launch. To me, this is hardly a proper rumor -- you or I could have come up with it: "Rumor -- Dell may or not release smartphones next month." Still it is the WSJ, and there are some more details. There may be two handsets, an iPhone clone (natch) and a Pre clone. Both will be offered with a choice of Windows Mobile or Google's Android OS. It certainly makes sense for Dell to get into the smartphone game. With PC sales dropping through the floor in favor of cheap netbooks, the computer giant needs to make some money somewhere. In fact, I know a local bar which needs a waiter. Are you interested, Dell? Dell Prepares To Dial Into Smartphone Marketplace [WSJ via the Reg] Source[Wired Gadget Lab]
Sources close to Orbitcast have revealed that Sirus is finally submitting their uSirius StarPlayr to the App Store this weekend. Once accepted, subscribers will be able to enjoy Sirius XM on their iPhone. With Sirius being so late to the party, the only question is whether the service is really worth paying for when there are so many good, free streaming apps out there like Pandora and Slacker. [Orbitcast via The Motley Fool] Source[gizmodo]
LAS VEGAS -- Remember the Casio calculator? The humble digital abacus that has been pimped in every possible form, including that geek icon, the calculator watch? With all the fuss over Casio's rather splendid 1000fps Exilim FC100 here at CES... LAS VEGAS -- Remember the Casio calculator? The humble digital abacus that has been pimped in every possible form, including that geek icon, the calculator watch? With all the fuss over Casio's rather splendid 1000fps Exilim FC100 here at CES 2009, it's easy to forget the humble calculator, but here they are at the show, proudly on display in the center of the Casio booth. The Casio booth girl approached me. "Would you like to know all about Casio calculators?" she asked. I scoffed. What could you tell me, a boy who was so pleased with the calculator (Casio) he received for his tenth birthday that he actually took it to bed that night? And the next night. The answer is, of course, an arrogant "nothing". I just took the photos. And upon getting back to Wired's CES HQ, a monolithic box that resembles the one in Kubrick masterwork 2001 (if Kubrick had made his monolith out of MDF and trestle tables), I took another look at the photo. Can you see it? Yes. It has a "replay" button. Why? What is that there for? I want to head back to the Casio booth to ask, but I'm embarrassed by my earlier behavior. Really, though, it doesn't really matter. The only useful upgrade that Casio could make is to add a mode that automatically spells out rude words when you turn the handset upside down. Every schoolboy would buy one. See Also: Casio Spruces Up Nerdy Calculator Watches Casio Crams High-Speed Shooting into Tiny Camera Body Source[Wired Gadget Lab]
Who in their right mind would dare hack a construction sign with zombie warnings? Well, apparently some people in Austin—probably some pesky University of Texas students according to a local traffic controller: Jones, who has one of only two keys to the locked access panels on the portable signs, said that the hacker broke into the panels on each sign and bypassed the passwords before leaving five different zombie messages and even changing one of the passwords. Jones said he had to wait until 8 a.m. to call the manufacturing company to figure out how to override the hacker’s work. OK OK, but here's the punchline: He speculated that the hacker could be a computer genius from UT. Yes, kids. You too can be a computer genius. [Statesman and No Fear of the Future] Source[gizmodo]
"Engineers now predict the day will come when we get all our newspapers and magazines by home computer," the narrator says with a hint of sarcasm, continuing, "but that's a few years off." Indeed. The piece is about the earliest days of digital media, when the lucky few home computer users could view content from a handful of prominent papers on their "television screens" by dialing into their CompuServe Information Service with their rotary phones. It's interesting to see how many people involved in the project at the Examiner and elsewhere had a resolutely realistic take on the whole thing, assuming, despite how clunky current technologies were, that digital media was the unavoidable future—a sentiment that has since lost favor in newsrooms, now that it's actually coming to pass. [TechCrunch] Source[gizmodo]
Filed under: Industry, Displays, Media streamers, HP Chalk this one up as rampant speculation for now, but word on the street has it that HP may be fixing to axe its LCD TV business and kill the MediaSmart HDTV while it's at it. In taking a step back, it's easy to see how logical this move seems -- HP has never been a giant in the LCD HDTV arena, and its MediaSmart line serves an even smaller niche. Couple those facts with plummeting LCD prices and diminishing margins, and you've got yourself a pretty strong case to hit the eject button. If all of this pans out, it'll surely hurt Microsoft's chances of getting even more TV manufacturers to sell sets with Media Center Extenders built in, but at least those still on the hunt for a MediaSmart HDTV on the cheap would have an opportunity to find just that.[Via ElectronicHouse]HP exiting LCD TV biz, killing MediaSmart HDTV line? originally appeared on Engadget HD on Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read
You want the best for your child. And if your kid is to have a shot at being Gordon Gekko or just the next world text messaging champ, they need start early. Real early. The LeapFrog Text & Learn puts a BlackBerry-esque device into the hands of babes three and up. Preschoolers can enjoy texting Scout (a quasi-imaginary friend) while browsing the "web." Intended to teach spelling, basic computer skills, and the layout of a QWERTY keypad, we just hope that "Scout" is every bit as asexual as his/her name implies. Because my child's first booty call will not, and I repeat, not, be from some crappy pretend friend on some crappy pretend smartphone for kids. I want a better childhood for them than I had. No word on pricing or availability just yet. Source[gizmodo]
According to some newly leaked docs, the 8MP Samsung Memoir is coming to T-Mobile February 25th, a week later than we'd originally thought for $299 w/2 year contract. [TmoNews via MobileCrunch] Source[gizmodo]
Filed under: Blu-ray, Players, Others, Pioneer, Sony Ah, the sweet smell of progress. Just months after Blu-ray Mods hosted up a wave of BD-Live decks with multi-region support, the site is now offering up the next gaggle of units in the same fashion. For those scouting a high-end player with an ICOS HD mod baked right in, you can order up a number of Pioneer players (the BDP-LX91 and BDP-09 Elite included), Denon's DVD-1800BD / DVD-3800BD and Sony's BDP-5000ES. We won't even scare you with the prices here, but you can venture to the read link if you're suddenly curious.Multi-region capabilities come to third-generation Blu-ray players originally appeared on Engadget HD on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read
Last Saturday, suspect Erik Salvador Ayala fired into the streets of Portland, Oregon. He killed two and injured seven before shooting himself in the head. But beforehand, he'd left meticulous instructions regarding his PS3's future. The unemployed, depressed 24-year-old left his roommate a suicide note containing hazy details of his location along with personal information (like his SSN and bank account). And then he went into a meticulous set of instructions regarding his PS3. You know my ps3 is special. Similar USED ps3's go for AT LEAST $450-$500. Our landlord guy wants a ps3 like mine. Let him know that $400 would be a GOOD deal. If he doesn't want it, format the drive by going to Settings>System>Format Utility. You can say it "comes with the latest firmware software" to help market it on the internet. In case you don't know, it's the special "100% backwards compatible" (60 GB) ps3. An awkward moment of kindness preceding the most selfish act of murder. It's hard to understand, but that's probably a good thing. [KATU via Kotaku] Source[gizmodo]
Pre-medieval warriors! Battling to the death! In Pittsburgh! (Appropriately, at Samsonia Way.) Obviously a serious tear in the spacetime contiuum, since it even replaced their iron weapons with modern foam-rubber. [Google Maps - Thanks tipster!] Source[gizmodo]
Saturday, January 31, 2009
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