Daily Archive for April 22nd, 2008

Dell gets official with Dell 500 laptop for emerging countries

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Usually, when a product is officially announced, the veil of mystery surrounding it is lifted, but that’s not the case with Dell’s new Dell 500 laptop, which the company announced in India today in conjunction with the opening of a new factory in the country. As you may recall, we previously heard that Dell was all but set to introduce a new budget-priced 8.9-inch laptop, and it seems like this could well be it, although we don’t have so much as a screen size on this new model to confirm that possibility just yet. Still, the Rs 24,500 price tag (just over $600) is at least in the same ballpark, and the choice of Windows XP Home or Ubuntu Linux only would seem to suggest some Atom-level hardware. Apart from that, the only details the company seems to have deemed fit to announce are an 8-in-1 card reader, some direct media playback buttons, and a “host of wireless access options.” Leading us to suspect that it might not be the same 8.9-inch laptop, however, is the fact that this one is apparently intended specifically for emerging countries like India and China, which doesn’t exactly match up with Michael Dell’s comment that the company was readying an answer to HP’s Mini-Note, though we suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how things shake out.

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Samsung Gearing up for OLED Push in 2009/2010

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on April 22, 2008
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Samsung_oled
It wasn’t that long ago that we were drooling over Samsung’s OLED displays at CES. Now the company says its medium and large OLED displays should start popping up regularly in laptops, HDTVs, and monitors as soon as 2009.

Wong-Jong Lee, Samsung’s VP of mobile display marketing, tells DigiTimes that the work will be in bringing up manufacturing capacity so that production costs will drop on the expensive displays. According to Lee, Samsung has a production capacity of 1.5 million OLED displays today, which it expects to double in 2009, and then again in 2010.

Ideally, this type of market saturation from Samsung (and competitors like Sony) should drive the price down on OLED displays. But one has to wonder how cheap the units can realistically get. We’re hedging our bets and setting aside $1,000 for our mythic 37" OLED just in case.

[Via DigiTimes]


Virtual Laser Wall will protect pedestrians on crossroads

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Virtual Laser WallThis interesting concept shows us how the problem of dishonorable drivers can be dealt with. The main parts of this system are two laser-equipped stands that stand just in front of each other at the different sides of the road. When the traffic lights turn red, lasers will display the wall that virtually stays in the way of drivers.

NES Stuffed Into Super Mario Bros. Cartridge

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on April 22, 2008
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cartridge-nes.jpg

If you can make a NES controller mouse, and stuff a whole system into a shoe, then stuffing one into a game cartridge is clearly the next step (don’t question my foolproof logic). And that’s exactly what someone did (well, they actually put a Nintendo on a chip (NOAC) in there . As you can see it’s got everything it needs to be a fully functional Nintendo. But the real question is this: If you try jamming this cartridge into another NES does it tear a gaping hole into the video game dimension and release retro gaming bosses to wreak havoc on our planet? My guess is yes. And I’m all for it if it means I stand a chance with Zelda. It’s not that her doppelganger wasn’t awesome in the sack or anything, it’s just that one of her pointy ears came off while we were doing it. Freakin’ awkward.

nes system built into game cartridge [technabob]

Thanks to Andrew, who once stuffed a pinball machine into a grain of salt, for the tip

Honda nav system helps you steer clear of crime, just like your momma taught you

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Honda has a new GPS navigation system for Japan that taps into the police database and points out seedy areas on the map. The device can point out specific locations that cars have been stolen or broken into in the past, as well as generally sketchy districts, which basically means that if you weren’t paranoid before you got this installed, you certainly will be afterwards. Honda is launching the service today, and we’re sure criminals the world over are already wondering what one of these nav systems will go for on the black market.

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Researchers Turn Your Laptop Into A Portable Seismometer

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Mac_earthquake

With scientists now saying there’s a 99 percent chance “the big one” will finally hit California sometime during the next 30 years, seismologists are scrambling to come up with new ways to detect and analyze quakes as soon as they happen. One team of researchers is now hoping to employ the distributed computing approach to detection and create a giant, low-cost tremor-sensing network that takes advantage of the motion sensors that may already be in your laptop.

The Quake Catcher Network, while not replacing the slew of sophisticated seismometers are already in place in California, will “fill in the gaps,” Paul Davis, a professor of geology at UCLA, told Technology Review. Indeed, researchers say the they will initially focus on quake-prone areas like the San Francisco Bay and Greater Los Angeles Basin and eventually expand the initiative to other parts of the world.

Here’s how it will work: If you have a laptop with an accelerometer (Macs only for the time being), you’re pretty much good to go. You can simply download and install the distributed computing software (BOINC), enter up to five of your favorite laptopping locations, and bam, your computer is now a seismometer. After enough people have signed up for the program, the resulting ad-hoc network will use this software to analyze only the largest shakes sensed by your computer’s accelerometer and report them back to a central server. Small jolts, like someone bumping into a table or the passing of a garbage truck, will be disregarded by the software. Ultimately, researchers say the pattern of signals received by the server should allow the network to recognize a significant earthquake very quickly. Thankfully, the plan is to also add software that also turns PC computers, like the Thinkpad and HP laptops, into portable seismometers as well.

Currently, the initiative is in beta, and touts links to several hundred Mac laptops.

Researchers stress they’re not trying to predict earthquakes here, but rather looking for ways to measure and analyze them as quickly as possible and get that information out before damage is done to large populations.

[Technology Review]

[Quake Catcher Network Home Page]

Photo courtesy of Technology Review

Netflix has “three additional partners” launching hardware this year

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Details surrounding Netflix’s upcoming set-top box partnership with LG are still scarce, but that hasn’t stopped it from announcing similar plans with four other unnamed hardware manufacturers that it expects will sell “millions” of devices per year. Feel free to guess, but the only details available are that the fourth company is a small one likely to launch sooner than Q4, while the other three (including LG) will turn on Netflix functionality in some of their devices in the fourth quarter. It’s unlikely to wash away the bad taste of an HD price hike, but we like imagining that all the hardware needed to connect Netflix’s all-you-can-eat streaming movie service to our HDTV is already in the living room (Xbox 360 & PS3, we’re looking at you).

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Icron’s Cost-effective 100m USB Distance Extenders

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on April 22, 2008
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For a little over a decade, Icron has been focusing on developing USB distance extenders; it has been successful in increasing the reach of USB over CAT5 Ethernet, fiber optics, power-line and most recently, WiFi. It however has never quite tried to lower the cost of their ExtremeUSB solutions until now. The Vancouver-based Icron has announced their Ranger 2101/2104 ExtremeUSB extenders, which can maintain Hi-Speed USB connection over CAT5e cables up to 100m, will now retail for only $349 (single node) and $389 (with 4-port USB hub). It seems a no-brainer which one to pick here.

Icron has a couple of specific markets to target, including industrial control, remote desktop, automatic telematics, access control and video surveillance. Most consumers are mostly concerned with sharing printers, scanners and storage; though most of these have been taken care of long ago via add-on or integrated solutions.
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LEGO Star Wars Pen Set Is Questionable

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on April 22, 2008
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star-wars-pens.jpg

I love LEGO and Star Wars, so one would think that I’d find this LEGO Star Wars pen set ($25) bonetastic. Well that is not the case. But mostly because I have a problem with the advertising.

Each of these pens are a completely personalized writing instrument, since you use the included LEGO pieces to build a favorite Star Wars character, then add your choice of colors and shapes. Set of three includes Yoda, R2-D2 and Darth Vader.

Anybody else have a problem with that? “Completely personalized”? To me it looks like you can only choose whether Yoda has a gumball machine or a silver ball bearing on his head. To their credit though, you can build my favorite character with the set, Darth Yoder D2 — he’s got Vader’s body, Yoda’s head, and R2’s robotic schlong.
Star Wars Lego Pen Set - Lego, Star Wars And Stationery [tfts]

Thanks to Melissa, who has never let me down like this product has, for the tip

Samsung set to release YP-PB2 PMP in Korea

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Samsung’s done pretty well for itself with its YP-P2 PMP, and it now looks to be set to bust out yet another upgrade to the player, although you likely won’t be seeing this one outside of Korea. Helping to keep it close to Samsung’s home base is the addition of not only a DAB radio tuner but, apparently, a DVB-T mobile TV tuner as well. Other than those two notable additions, however, the device appears to be unchanged from its previous incarnation, with it boasting the same 3-inch WQVGA display, built-in Bluetooth, black or white color options, and 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB capacity as before (no word on a 16GB model). There’s also no word on a price or release date, but you can pretty safely expect to pay a tidy premium over the tuner-less models.

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