Gadgets Future

This week at the Gartner Synposium/ITXPO 2008 held in Las Vegas, Xerox has shown off a prototype of a new piece of paper that is reusable.

Steve Hoover, VP of Xerox’s Research Center, gave a presentation and demonstrated how the paper worked. What he showed the audience was what looked like a normal piece of paper, but he then took out a UV LED torch. Holding the torch against the paper for a few seconds left a black mark. He also got a UV LED pen and drew a line on the paper as you would with a standard pen and paper.

A hot plate was also present on stage and Hoover took a marked piece of paper and placed it under the heat for a few seconds. Once removed the paper was totally blank and ready to be reused. Hoover then went on to explain that printers can be manufactured that add information to the paper using UV LED lights and then clean the paper using heat when it is inserted into what would be the paper tray on a standard printer.

Hoover also stated a number of interesting facts including:

• The energy efficiency of printers has improved 3x in the last decade
• Producing a piece of paper takes 20x more energy than printing on it and therefore a piece of paper reused can have a significant impact on our use of resources
• 50% of office print outs are discarded within a day
• 75% of office print outs are discarded within a week

View the video at ZDNet UK

Matthew’s Opinion

I highly recommend watching the video of his demonstration just to see how easy the system is. Basically you just have to replace your printers (good for Xerox), buy special paper (again, good for Xerox) and start using a different pen.

The unknown factor in this is the cost of the printers and paper. If the costs are comparable to standard equipment then the potential savings are clear and if staff are encouraged to reuse then it could see significant savings for a business as well as the environment.

The idea of the paperless office is a myth that is proven just by walking into any productive office. Print outs are still preferred for viewing information in a number of circumstances. Notes in meetings are also usually taken down on a piece of paper. Give employees the ability to use paper as they currently do, but then wipe it and start again, and you may see a significant reduction in paper usage.

Intel is working on a long-term software project (and somewhat hardware, I guess) that aims at increasing the communication between mobile devices and the electronics “resources” that could be paired to them, like large displays, internet connections, printers, keyboards, mice… you name it. The goal is to best use the computing and electronics resources that are already available.

For a starter, wouldn’t it be nice if we could connect our smartphones to any display and USB keyboard? That’s totally possible today, and some companies have even been testing it, but no-one has a commercial product, yet. More info

The current traffic report system used by Microsoft on maps.live.com can’t tell you much about traffic on city streets. They only have highways (just like Yahoo or Google, to be fair) and therefore the system isn’t of much help for something other than “should I hit that road now?” or “how bad is it going to be”?.

With Clearflow, users will really know if there is a better route outside the highway network. Microsoft will sample more data from volunteers providing GPS data that is analyzed by Microsoft to create a road traffic conditions “pattern” that could be used to get a “best shot” at guessing what current road conditions are on any streets. The ultimate data sampling would be to query data from all devices like GPS, phones, traffic cameras and road sensors to have a true global view of a city’s traffic.

Just like any statistical measurement, the sampling size is what really matters. If Microsoft can get enough data, this will work. After all, companies like Dash are already doing something like this. There no way around it: this is the future of traffic reports.

Asus has added a new addition to their product line, and for a refreshing change it does not fit in the Eee family. The newest addition is the Essentio CS5110 desktop PC, in which Asus is claiming that it is “the world’s smallest Desktop PC equipped with a fully embedded discrete graphic card,” which is an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card with 256MB of memory.

With the graphics aside, the CS5110 seems to be a decent offering, and one that would work equally well for a home PC or a media-centric PC in the living room thanks to the low 23.9dB sound output when idling. The CS5110 also has an S/PIDF out which offers up 7.1 audio as well as HDMI support.

Otherwise the CS5110 features an Intel G35-based motherboard, which can support a Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core or Celeron D processor, up to 4GB of RAM and has room for one 3.5-inch hard drive and a slot loading DVD burner with an optional Blu-ray drive. The CS5110 also has Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, VGA port, built-in card reader, six USB 2.0 ports and a Firewire port.

Sadly with all the information that Asus released, they neglected to mention any pricing or availability.

Via [DailyTech]

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In Japan and Korea, where mobile technology and culture is well ahead of the rest of the world, mobile users are accustomed to receiving advertising, including SMS ads, on their cell phones. It’s a give and take, as users also receive mobile coupons on their phones, with bar codes that can be directly scanned from their screens. Here in the U.S., it still seems like a strange concept to allow advertisers this kind of access and to use our cell phones to directly transact business. But someday, inevitably, we will - most of us - accept advertising messages on our mobile screens, and pay for merchandise with our cell phones, as part of the daily routine of life, just like we all use ATM cards today.

Users can use the Slacker Portable Radio player to tune in internet radio stations. When not connected, it’s also possible to download radio programs or create your own station, based on the kind of music that you like. By basing the downloads on a genre, it will also download songs from new artists and therefore expose you to new music that you are likely to appreciate.

It’s not perfect: with a 4” display, it seems like a huge “pcket” device – especially as it doesn’t play video!

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 11:52AM
Hey, we hate lawsuits just as much as the next guy, but we’re finding it hard to fault Verizon for this one. Verizon and Time Warner Cable arrived in court on Wednesday to settle a tiff over some ads that Verizon claims offer up misleading info about Verizon’s FiOS service. Listed among the complaints include supposed false implications by TWC that FiOS requires a satellite dish, doesn’t include phone, broadband and video, and that Time Warner’s network is better. Time Warner Cable is naturally calling the lawsuit “without merit.” Verizon wants TWC to stop running the ads and issue a retraction, as well as compensate them for lost revenue. We’re not positive which ad Verizon is referring to, but if it’s anything like the ad after the break — which has some downright false implications about Time Warner Cable using fiber optics “for over a decade” — then Verizon very well might have something here. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

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Filed under: HDTV

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 11:32AM
Just what we needed, another couple of me-too MIDs dropped into the world without a purpose. USI is naturally putting some fine tech in these devices, like a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, up to 8GB of SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, 512MB of RAM and a 1.2GHz Intel Atom processor, but given the lack of proof that an MID is even what consumers want at the moment, we’re having a hard time getting excited about these particular MIDs. The main claim to fame of the MID-200 (keyboard) and MID-150 (no keyboard) is a PCI-express slot for adding 3G or GPS, but the existing four hour battery life is certainly going to strain under the load of any additions. No word on price or a release date just yet.

[Via thegadgetsite; thanks KC Kim]

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Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

Filed in archive Tip by jim on April 10, 2008

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These days more and more couples are having their weddings photographed by friends and family rather than by a pro.

The decision to do so is usually dictated by economics and if you're asked to do the honors you should feel flattered because obviously your photos have impressed the bride and groom.

Of course you'll be nervous about having the responsibility of documenting such a momentous occasion but that's to be expected. Take a deep breath and start planning your project.

Make a list of all "must" shots", such as the bride going up the aisle, and the newly married couple coming back down the aisle, and of course, the key shots of the ceremony itself.

If there's a reception afterwards it's time to take pictures of the attendees, the dancing, the cake cutting, the garter toss and other traditions.

Even as an amateur you have many advantages over the pro photographers of yesteryear who used film cameras.

You can take many shots content in the knowledge that there isn't any film to have processed; you pay only for what you want printed. You also get instant results so after review any muffed shots can be redone immediately. This helps raise your confidence level.