Gadgets Future

In this world where going green is the in thing, how about this method that involves getting power from waste parts of the cassava plant? You might be more familiar with tapioca as the common name though, and thanks to the efforts of Nigerian engineer Dr. Joseph Adelegan, this devised method collects cassava waste which in turn is transformed into a biogas that generates electricity as they turn small turbines. The electricity produced will be enough for basic needs such as lighting and low-powered electronics, although heavy duty usage like your Xbox 360 and refrigerator will still require the services of a grid.

Ridata (part of the Ritek, group which owns Traxdata) has announced its Ultra S-Plus series of 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB SSDs which will retail for $169.90, $294.90 and $537.90 each. This was done in a bid to compete with OCZ’s core series which halved its price. Ridata says that its Ulra S-Plus models, offer a performance of 128MB per second read and 80MB per second write, a mean time between failure (MTBF) rate of 4 million hours and a write endurance cycle up to 1 million.

The thing is: recent tests have shown that SSD have little benefits to the user when it comes to battery life and performance. Now, should still run cooler and are probably more shock resistant, but even then they are really expensive. More SSD stories

According to Gene Munster from Pipe Jaffray, the iphone 3G is estimated to be in short supply until mid-August. Munster said that he’ll wager “we’ll see problems for another two to four weeks,” adding, “early demand has been more than [Apple] expected and checking with Apple’s own supply tool, it can be seen that Apple is quickly running out of units to put on their shelves with the hardest model to find being the black 16GB version.

Remember all those bizarre Thanko products that were exclusive to Japan?  Well, turns out Thanko is opening up a shop for those of us in the US.  Which is partially great news, because then I won’t have to mess with translating the page just to see the speccs of all their strange products.  It won’t open till August, so as of now we still have to translate things over to English.  Which includes this USB Cooler Mouse.

Thanko seems to think of everything, even those that tend to get all hot and sweaty while on their computer.  The mouse sucks air through the bottom and blows it out directly onto your palm.  When you’re cool enough, you can just shut off the tiny fan and use it as a normal mouse.  The mouse has five different buttons and the extras are programmable.  It is being sold for about $19.  Which isn’t bad considering you get the extra perk of having your hand blown on.  After all, who wants to purchase a normal sized fan and cool off your whole body at once?!

Source: gearlog

• Email to a friend
• Leave a comment

Amazon has launched a new service for its customers in the U.S. that allows them to buy and watch streamed movies and TV shows. To begin with it will be available to a limited user base of selected customers, but by the end of the summer is expected to open up to everyone.

Amazon already has a digital download service called Unbox, but this is the first time no download is required. Instead, the content is available immediately and streamed to a user’s PC. All purchases are stored by Amazon in a customer’s account through a “Your Video Library” section. That means you have access to the content purchased whenver you want; and from any PC or Net-connected TV.

Bill Carr, Amazon vice president of digital media said:

For the first time, this is drop dead simple … Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button.

The e-tailer isn’t standing still on the issue of getting content to your TV via the service either. A deal has been struck to allow the digital streaming store to be accessible via the Sony Bravia Video link device and to be included in future Bravia TV releases. Amazon are also working to develop similar tie-ins with other TV manufacturers.

Initially Amazon Video on Demand will carry TV shows and movies from most of the major studios. The one notable exception being Disney.

Read more at the New York Times

Matthew’s Opinion
This certainly sets the standard for what a digital entertainment streaming service should be. Content you buy is accessible anywhere, is always available with a login and has growing support from the major studios.

I am interested to see the pricing structure compared to buying a DVD or Blu-ray. I’m hoping it is significantly lower not only to spur people to try it, but because of the type of access you are getting to the content.

So how many of you welcome this kind of service for your entertainment purchases? I do like having a physical copy of the item I’ve bought, but this service, like a lot of the digital music sites, offers a lot of flexibility and accessibility.

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 3:45AMWhen you’re Intel, everyone from governments to gamers wants to know your next move. So pay attention, DigiTimes has it on shaky word from “motherboard makers” that Intel’s next quad-core, 3.2GHz Extreme “Bloomfield”-class gaming processor for overblown desktop rigs will hit for $999 when purchased in bulk by PC manufacturers — a traditional price-point for Intel’s top o’ the line Extreme silicon until the launch of its $1,499 Core 2 Extreme QX9775 earlier this year. We should also expect $562, 2.93GHz and $284, 2.66GHz versions before the year is up.

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 14 Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

HP have decided to cater for those businesses that need either a new data center, or an expansion very quickly with the introduction of the POD.

POD stands for Performance Optimized Data Center and basically offers a complete data center contained within a shipping container. HP says it can deliver a POD in just 6 weeks hoping to catch the market where businesses need some extra capacity for a while, need to fill a shortfall or just want something that is actually mobile.

In terms of performance, a POD has 2 basic configurations offering either 3,500 computer nodes for increased processing, or 12,000 hard drives for extra storage capacity. A combination of these may also be configured in a single POD.

Christine Martino, vice president and general manager, Scalable Computing and Infrastructure Organization at HP commented:

Customers have more flexibility to balance their capital expenditures and operating expenses while quickly and seamlessly meeting their needs for additional capacity with HP PODs … HP’s innovative POD approach allows customers to deploy world-class, scalable, highly power-efficient data center resources quickly and ships in just six weeks.

Read more at BusinessWire.com

Matthew’s Opinion
In a perfect world businesses will plan well in advance for their data center needs. But this isn’t a perfect world and there are times when extra capacity is needed and this either had to be outsourced or new facilities built or hired very quickly. With POD HP is giving a lot of extra flexibility and a sort of standby, emergency solution.

It also offers new ways for businesses to operate. For example, imagine you are a company that handles operations at the big festivals that take place every year. Having a POD to deal with your processing needs is probably much easier than having to setup at each venue, and probably cheaper than outsourcing to a 3rd party.

PODS also could potentially lower insurance premiums if you are a data center business because you have a backup plan and a few PODS on standby. I’m sure they are expensive, but there is clearly a need otherwise HP wouldn’t be backing it so strongly.

Visionman really knows the name of the game when it comes to gaming notebooks. It just released a powerful and wickedly fast gaming machine with an ultra-cool name, the Widow Double Nine. This portable gaming machine boasts of a NVIDIA GeForce 9800M video chipset supported by a whooping 4GB-8GB of RAM and Intel’s quad-core 9000-series processor rated at 2.66GHz. These specs are further complemented by a 17-inch, 1680×1050 WSGA+ resolution LCD display with a option to hook up a secondary display.

A quick rundown of the Widow Double Nine’s features and specifications yield the following aside from the previously mentioned key features; a 320GB SATA-II hard drive with additional support for two more hard drives, a 7-in-1 card reader, SLI enabled, 8x DVD-RW, 5.1 sound system, built-in microphone, integrated speakers, Express card 34/54 slot, integrated touchpad with scroll up/down slider, full-sized keyboard, user definable gaming hot keys, DVI/D-Sub VGA/USB/RJ-45 ports, S-Video TV-Out, 2.0MP digital web camera, 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless and Bluetooth.

The Widow Double Nine is now available for online purchase or at various retail stores starting at $4,600, which is expectantly what you have to pay for such a powerful gaming machine.

Product [Visionman] Via [Electronista]

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

This is the Rolling Jackass, a central, motorcycle-style stand for your bike. Seen here is the final prototype before the Jackass goes on sale, modeled by Bettie 2.0, the cargo-bike/mascot of Bikehugger.

Why do you need it? Well, for simply standing your bike in a corner, a regular kickstand is fine. But for big, long wheel-based cargo bikes like Bettie, you need something a little more stable while loading. According to the blog post by Byron of Bikehugger, it’ll even take your weight while you sit and sip a coffee.

It’s not going to be cheap, though. Although the website and launch date are still not finalized, the price is, and it’s $375.

Rolling Jackass Center Stand [Bikehugger]

Samsung will release the spanking new Omnia Windows Mobile pocket PC phone in the Italian market on July 22nd, 2008. The handset will be available via major European mobile operators and in most of GSM supporting open markets during July and August. FYI, the consumers who made the pre-order for Omnia from July 14 will receive Xbox 360 Arcade gaming systems. The Samsung Omnia i900 is priced at 499 Euro (8GB) without subsidy.
[ Source ]