Gadgets Future

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 13th 2008 at 2:50PM
We heard that Pal Technology’s REEM-B would be “fully revealed in Q1 2008,” and while things seem to be running ever-so-slightly behind, we can’t gripe too much. The creature was recently shown off in Abu Dhabi, where onlookers swooned and secretly crushed on the totally macho being. Its creators have also announced that the 1.47-meter tall robot was the last prototype to be formed, as it has plans for a commercial venture “in the near future.” The overriding goal for REEM-B is to have it act as a service bot for the elderly and disabled, and considering that it has no qualms reacting to voice commands and “engaging in simple conversations,” we’d say it’s pretty well suited to do just that. Check out the video after the break to see it in action.

[Thanks, Saad]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 119 Comments

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 13th 2008 at 2:12PM We unwrapped iriver’s new US-bound Lplayer from its space age packaging and took it for a whirl. It must be said, iriver’s design chops really shine when comes to these tiny little D-Click experiences — perhaps the E100 is just too much canvas to work with. The 2-inch QVGA screen is plenty sharp, even if it could withstand a stronger backlight, and the interface is as intuitive as ever. Codec support is just dandy, with MP3, WMA, ASF, FLAC and OGG Q10 for audio, and MPGE, WMV9, XVID for video — no AAC, though. Sound is decent enough with the included headphones, but plugged into our regular home stereo setup the player pushed out very little low end. FM worked fine, as did voice recording, but there aren’t many other frills here. The 4GB version will go for $110, while the 8GB is slotted for $160 (the same prices its much larger E100 counterpart goes for), and both should be available in the States on June 24.

Gallery: iriver Lplayer hands-on and unboxing

• Permalink
• Email this
• 45 Comments

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

I just got a notice from my cable provider, Charter Communications, that they may start to “deliver or facilitate delivery of advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest” to me.  Apparently, they’re not too concerned about their customers’ rights, and are doing this as an opt-out service.  It’s one thing to spy for national security reasons, it’s another thing to spy on innocent people just to deliver ads.

From their website:

Targeted Marketing

Charter may partner with a third-party advertising company who may utilize cookies or web beacons to deliver or facilitate delivery of advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to You. This partner will not have access to or use Your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number or other personally identifiable information; it may, however, anonymously track Your Web usage and collect what is known as “Click Stream Data.” Click Stream Data is anonymous, and may include information such as a web surfer’s IP address, web pages which have been viewed by a web surfer, date and time, domain type, and responses by a web surfer to an advertisement delivered by us or a third party advertising technology vendor. We, and/or the third party advertising technology vendor, may use different types of technologies to collect this type of information, including cookies and web beacons (1×1 pixels).

Opting-Out of Targeted Marketing:

You can request an “opt-out cookie” at http://www.charter.com/onlineprivacy, which is an identification tag that will prevent your anonymous data from being matched to any particular machine. Please note that this opt-out process will erase the cookie ID but not the cookie. It’s necessary for us to store this “opt-out” cookie on your computer in order to recognize you as an opt-out user. This is the only way Charter and our third party advertising partner can know you’ve chosen to take this action and ensure that your decision is recognized by our servers. Please note that if you ever clean out cookies from your internal drive you will need to visit http://www.charter.com/onlineprivacy site again and repeat this quick procedure. Also, please be aware that any time you change computers, have different browsers, have different computers, update your Internet browser or delete your cookie(s), you must repeat this opt-out process.

Does anybody else have a problem with this?

See also [Your web surfing habits, brought to you by Charter]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 13th 2008 at 12:09PM While some automakers are already promising to have plug-in hyrbids on the road by 2010, the US Department of Energy is now pouring some cash into a slightly less ambitious joint effort with Ford, General Motors, and General Electric, which would see plug-ins capable of driving 40 miles on a single charge roll out by 2014. Under the new effort, General Motors will be tasked with improving lithium-Ion battery packs and charging systems, and integrating them into its own research with a test fleet by 2011, while Ford will be aiming to speed up the mass-production of plug-in hybrids, as well as improve its batteries and build prototype vehicles. Rounding things out, General Electric will be partnering with Chrysler to develop a dual-battery system, which promises to let vehicles travel 40 miles on a charge. All of that is still subject to appropriations by Congress, however, and the aforementioned companies would obviously be pouring in a good chunk of change themselves, as a mere $30 million isn’t exactly quite enough to shake up the auto sector these days.

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 72 Comments

Filed under: Transportation

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 13th 2008 at 1:18PM
Alright, so we’re not really any closer to determining whether or not ChauhanStudio’s HAL LCD TV is headed for commercial production, but we do know this: at least one of these bad boys are real. Yep, the mockup we saw a few months back has somehow made it into reality, though we can’t say for sure that there is anything more than rarefied air packed within the glossy white enclosure. Regrettably, specifications are still unknown, but you can peek a shot of the back in the read link below should you be so inclined.

[Via Unplggd]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 17 Comments

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 13th 2008 at 4:21PMWe’ve seen plenty of robots that attempt to display emotions, but none quite like this Pomi penguin bot developed by Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, which can emit two unspecified smells in addition to employing some more common means of letting you know how it feels. Those other options include a “heart box” on its chest that changes its heartbeat based on its mood, and movable lips, eyebrows and pupils that’ll let it make faces at you, along with the usual sensors to follow you around, and voice recognition to help it recite some pre-programmed answers. Unlike some other similar bots, however, this one is apparently going to actually be commercially available by the end of next month, although there’s no word on a price tag just yet.

[Via The Raw Feed]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 19 Comments

Filed under: Robots

HP has a new mobile printer in town - the OfficeJet H470. What you get in this tiny package includes :-

• 50 sheet capacity
• Up to 330 color pages per cartridge
• Integrated memory card reader
• Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity

Well, do you think the H470 is worth the $249.99 price tag?

HP has a new mobile printer in town - the OfficeJet H470. What you get in this tiny package includes :-

• 50 sheet capacity
• Up to 330 color pages per cartridge
• Integrated memory card reader
• Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity

Well, do you think the H470 is worth the $249.99 price tag?

The Nielsen Company today announced something unexpected at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Chicago. Apparently, over 9 million people have already bought something from the comfort of their cell phone.

According to Nielsen, those utilizing the ability to buy via website or text message on their phones aren’t the most surprising demographic. They’re mostly men and they’re predominantly between the ages of 25 to 34.

While 9 million people may sound like a lot, it only represents 3.6% of the American cell phone-owning public, with security concerns holding the rest of us back. For the most part, people are concerned that their credit card or other personal information will be compromised if they transmit it over their cell phone.

Others are worried about the amount of time it would take to make a purchase in this manner, and some people are thinking that with cell phone service as stellar as it always is, their purchase might not go through. Of course, there are also the people out there that don’t even have data plans or have no clue how to use their phones.

Nielson compiled the information from a monthly study on 30,000 U.S. phones. Between April 2007 and April 2008, there has been a 73% rise in people visiting a shopping or auction site on their phone. It might be a while before mobile purchasing is the norm, but it’s fair to say that the practice is already taking off.

Read more at Digital Trends

Toshiba has just announced that it will be releasing the industry’s highest-capacity series of SATA 1.8″ hard drives, bringing 5,400 RPM performance in single-platter 80GB and dual-platter 160GB models. These new hard drives are meant to deliver market-leading capacity, high-performance and durability in a diminutive package, targeting space-efficient mobile PC systems. Guess well will see more mini notebooks and other such portable media players with larger capacities without a huge bump in price sometime in the near future thanks to Toshiba.

The storage capacities offered by the 160GB MK1617GSG and 80GB MK8017GSG mirror those of larger form factor HDDs, while reducing the storage footprint by nearly 40 percent compared with the 2.5-inch form factor. Combined with the new micro-SATA connector, Serial-ATA 1.5Gb/s interface and 5,400 RPM spin speed, the MKxx17GSG series offers small and light-weight solutions at increased data transfer rates for enhanced performance in sub-notebook PCs. To develop these products, Toshiba applied an extensible platform approach that features a shared architecture base with the company’s landmark 2.5-inch HDD product line, ensuring cross-platform compatibility. This approach allows the new 1.8-inch HDDs to leverage proven technologies, as well as certified compliance to the Serial-ATA 2.6 specification.

How do you see this release affect the gadget and computer world? Which are the gadgets that you would like to see most featuring a larger capacity? Do you think a hard drive based iphone is a viable idea, compared to just using (relatively) more expensive flash memory inside? Well, just mark August 2008 in your calendars if you’re looking forward to these new Toshiba hard drives as both the 80GB and 160GB models will ship to PC manufacturers and distribution partners then. Maybe those China-made portable media players will put up more a fight now by including hard drives instead of being capped at a measly 4GB memory.

Press Release

• Email to a friend
• Leave a comment