by Nilay Patel, posted Apr 19th 2008 at 12:17AM Samsung’s been getting pretty creative with cell cameras lately — the Instinct lets you pan around web pages by tracking movement with the camera, for example — but the company’s latest patent application, for a gesture-based phone interface, might be a little less practical. The idea is to use the phone’s camera to track your hand movements, which, from the drawings, should have you looking insane on the subway in no time. (Read the full post about ‘Samsung skips the touchscreen, patents gesture-based phone interface’…)
by Joshua Topolsky, posted Apr 19th 2008 at 6:29AM Like your Rolls-Royce, Louis Vuitton bags, and priceless, endangered animal collection, the Urwerk UR-202 turbine regulated watch is another expensive item you don’t really need. Still… you want it, right? Who wouldn’t want this beast, what with its self-winding kinetic motor, telescopic minute hands, orbiting and revolving hour satellites, and fancy, mechanical turbines that we understand almost nothing about. But hey, when your timepiece is more complicated than a jet plane — and likely more expensive — you’ve probably made it. Check out the totally awesome video after the break to see this thing in… (Read the full post about ‘Urwerk’s UR-202 combines turbines and watches just how you always wanted’…)
The wonders of the built-in accelerometer are put to good, legitimate use by Nokia as it enables an automagic screen rotation feature on any European Nokia N95 8GB handset. This move makes Nokia look like it has accepted that the feature is really in-demand with users. It might seem a novel idea, but who would’ve thought that this little trivial thing could become one of the most popular features ever on mobile phones? (Do I really need to say it? Um, iphone? Hello?) Unfortunately, Nokia N95 8GB NAM owners still have to wait a bit for official support to roll out on local shores. But you can ask your European friends how this old new feature fares out with their handsets. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia N95 8GB firmware update enables automatic screen rotation’…)
For those who don’t know Carrefour, it’s huge retailer, much like a WalMart (except that they sell all kinds of food as well). They started out in France but Carrefour retail stores can be found in many countries. For example, there are around 10 Carrefour stores in Beijing. Anyhow, when you see a company like that going into the Movie Download business, it means a few things:
The technology behind the business is a commodity. Sure, it can be improved, but it is no an edge anymore.
Margins are going to get thin. I doubt that Carrefour will compete on user-interface or user-experience. They will compete on price. It’s their DNA.
Do you know what “dark matter” is? I thought I knew what it was until I tried to explain it to myself and failed. But I no longer need to file away topics like this for later study (my ever-growing list of things I will learn someday in order to become a more cultured and informed human being) because I now know I can pick up knowledge about dark matter - enough to get by in a drunken conversation at a bar in any event - and other weighty scientific subjects in 60 seconds (or thereabouts). As part of its 60-Second Science offerings, Scientific American has been running a video podcast series in which its editors explain big scientific topics of general interest, using common objects. (Read the full post about ‘Become an instant egghead with 60-Second Science’…)
You might have heard the news that the Microsoft Surface table has hit five select AT&T stores across the country, and are now available for you to try out for yourself. In case you haven’t had the chance to drop by any of these stores yet and seen the Microsoft Surface in action, we have here a video showing just how it can complement your AT&T experience by adding multi-touch and satellite mapping technology.
OWC has just introduced a new 500GB portable hard drive known as the Mercury On-The-Go drive. This one is a little bit special compared to the rest, since it not only hooks up to your computer via USB 2.0, it also features both FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 connections. The best part of all? There is no bulky power adapters to lug around as it runs off bus power instead. The drive isn’t too speedy at 5,400 rpm, but it ought to suffice for a portable hard drive. Best to use this with a FireWire connection, since USB 2.0 will require you to rely on an AC adapter still. Backup solutions that ship with each purchase include NovaStor NovaBackup for Windows and Prosoft DataBackup III for Mac OS X . (Read the full post about ‘OWC introduces Mercury On-The-Go drive’…)
Forget quad-core, AMD is preparing a dodeca-core chip. If you didn’t stay in boarding school if you need refreshing with your greek vocabulary, dodeca means 12, and that’s 12 cores for you right there. Imagine, a dozen times faster than a normal chip. But how fast does one’s computer ever really need to be? AMD doesn’t seem to care if there’s an answer to that question or not (just as its closest competitor Intel doesn’t), and moves on with their plan to produce a 12-core processor to be released by late 2008. It will reportedly be called the Shanghai, and will be a 45nm successor to their not-so-successful Barcelona chip. (Read the full post about ‘AMD readying 12-core 45nm processors for late 2008′…)
Let’s face it, Microsoft Office is one mighty expensive software package. Costing hundreds of dollars for each Office iteration, it makes upgrading to the latest MS Office a difficult and sometimes impossible task. Not everyone can afford paying hundreds of dollars every few years. Fortunately, Microsoft is attempting to make it easier for users to migrate to the latest and future versions of its highly popular productivity suite. Currently in private beta testing, Microsoft’s “Albany” program is a subscription based model of Office. (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft tests subscription based Office’…)
I’m probably the biggest evangelizer of Dash Network’s Dash Express GPS device. The Dash Express is the first two-way Internet-connected GPS navigation system delivering traffic and destination information in wicked new ways. The Dash Express is the next generation of GPS technology and it’s available today! Unique to the Dash Express, you rely on the Dash Driver Network to provide the latest and most accurate current traffic information available and with features like emailing your Dash Express addresses for your next generation and MyDash which allows you to Browse the Dash Network library of user-created and locally relevant searches such as “Movie Times” and “Great Steakhouses”. (Read the full post about ‘Dash Express Two-Way Internet-Connected Portable GPS Navigator’…)
