Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Fujitsu cellphone design contest yields mind-blowing results: hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/fujitsu-cellphone-design-contest-yields-mind-blowing-results-ha/

Fujitsu has been wowing us with cellphone concepts for quite some time, but this year's round at CEATEC is undoubtedly a show-stopping bunch. Some of the hottest ideas to come from the outfit's most recent mobile phone design contest were on display here in Japan, and we went end to end capturing the lot. The clear pebble mock-up (shown above) was easily the crown jewel (in our mind, anyway), with a small black blob able to morph into different screens (media panels, a keypad, web browser, etc.) depending on which corner you drag said blob into. There was also a design reminiscent of paper mache, not to mention one with a circular vibe that just has to be a long lost cousin to Motorola's AURA. Have a gander at the masterpieces in the gallery below, but don't bet on these hitting your ~~favorite~~ carrier anytime soon.

Gallery: Fujitsu cellphone design contest yields mind-blowing results: hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets

Fujitsu cellphone design contest yields mind-blowing results: hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony's CEATEC concept party includes Walkman bracelet and 0.2mm thin OLED

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/video-sonys-ceatec-concept-party-includes-walkman-bracelet-and/

We've yet to see a trade show where Sony left its Rhode Island-sized booth at home, and CEATEC is no exception. Aside from pushing its 1080p 3D installations with an epic amount of force, the company also had a smattering of swank new concepts on display that caught our eyes. A 0.2 millimeter-thin flexible OLED display was alive and displaying content, while an ultrathin Reader mock-up looked more like a MID and less like a Kindle. Without question, the two items that took our breath away were the all-panel laptop (which tossed the traditional keyboard in favor of a single, swooping display) and the Walkman bracelet, which did little more than talk dirty to us and get our imaginations working overtime. Unfortunately, all the good stuff was behind bulletproof glass with practically zero information to digest, but you can indulge your senses anyway in the gallery below and video after the break.

Gallery: Sony's CEATEC concept party includes Walkman bracelet and 0.2mm thin OLED

Continue reading Sony's CEATEC concept party includes Walkman bracelet and 0.2mm thin OLED

Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets, Laptops, Wearables

Sony's CEATEC concept party includes Walkman bracelet and 0.2mm thin OLED originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ROHM shows off flexible organic EL light tech in shiny bracelet form

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/rohm-shows-off-flexible-organic-el-light-tech-in-shiny-bracelet/

ROHM, the Kyoto-based semiconductor company that has been promising us tiny, thin OLED lights of joy for years, has finally delivered what we've all been waiting for: a shiny, pulsating, light-up bracelet. During a construction-laden sneak peak of the CEATEC show floor, ROHM was nice enough to show us this organic EL bracelet that sports their new flexible Japanese paper-based lighting technology. This particular bracelet is powered by a wafer-thin lithium battery and is sure to go quite nicely with your little silver dress. No word on availability or pricing, but this thing is for real, and you can see as much for yourself in a fun little video after the break.

Gallery: ROHM shows off flexible organic EL light tech in shiny bracelet form

Continue reading ROHM shows off flexible organic EL light tech in shiny bracelet form

Filed under: Displays, Wearables

ROHM shows off ! flexible organic EL light tech in shiny bracelet form originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kohjinsha dual-screen swivel netbook prototype hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/video-kohjinsha-dual-screen-swivel-netbook-prototype-hands-on/

Sure, gScreen is slowly mastering the art of grainy video teasers with its dual-panel portable, but here at its CEATEC booth, Kohjinsha's got quite a looker of its own, on display in a very clear and well-lit case. We're looking at two 10.1-inch LCDs each capable of outputting at either 1024 x 600 or 1366 x 768 resolution, and if one is all you need, it's a sliding mechanism to hide the other monitor. What's more, the base of it swivels, although we didn't get to see it twist behind 15 degrees so we're not sure the extent of its flexibility. Powering the DirectX 10-compatible little guy is an AMD Athlon MV-40, along with a 2.5-inch SATA HDD, up to 4GB DDR2 memory, and Windows 7 Home Premium, all for a hair under four pounds. There is a bit of bulk in its height, about 1.7 inches at its tallest and 0.75 inches at its shortest, but that's something we're willing to live with considering the value we're getting with the screens. The rep we spoke with says it's still in prototype phase at this point with no price or release date on the books, unfortunately, and the battery life is something of a mystery -- we can't imagine powering two bright displays is doing its energy reserves any favor. Video after the break.

Gallery: Kohjinsha dual panel netbook prototype hands-on

Continue reading Kohjinsha dual-screen swivel netbook prototype hands-on

Filed under: Laptops

Kohjinsha dual-screen swivel netbook prototype hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feed! s.

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Panasonic's next-gen IPS-Alpha panel is uber quick, dark

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/video-panasonics-next-gen-ips-alpha-panel-is-uber-quick-dark/

We've seen some dark, dark panels in our day, but Panasonic's next-generation IPS-Alpha has us all sorts of hot and bothered. Unlike Pioneer's plasmas of yesteryear, the prototype seen here at CEATEC has wide angle viewing down to an art, and the image quality was simply stunning. Fast moving objects slid in with nary a jagged edge in sight, while the production unit on the left produced a noticable and continual blur. When portraying a pitch black background, it's easy to see just how much darker the IPS-Alpha panel was compared to the next best thing. Have a peek at the video below for a more personal peek, and look forward to us prying out some sort of price and release estimate when the company shows this again at CES. You will have that information at CES, right Panny?

Gallery: Panasonic's next-gen IPS-Alpha panel is uber quick, dark

Continue reading Panasonic's next-gen IPS-Alpha panel is uber quick, dark

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment

Panasonic's next-gen IPS-Alpha panel is uber quick, dark originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google signs PowerMeter partnership with The Energy Detective, lets everyone play along

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/google-signs-powermeter-partnership-with-the-energy-detective-o/

Google signs PowerMeter partnership with The Energy Detective, opens door to energy tracking nirvana

It's hard to lose weight without a scale. That's more or less the idea behind Google's PowerMeter program, enabling users to view real-time power usage and unplug things accordingly to both reduce their demand and increase their feeling of eco-cockiness. Before today you needed to be getting your juice from one of a very few utility companies to audit your infos, but now you can break free thanks to a partnership with The Energy Detective. That company makes a line of straightforward power monitors that simply plug into a power outlet then connect to the internet via Ethernet to dump your kilowatt gluttony online. The TED 5000-series devices start at $200 and go up from there with optional displays and packages that allow the detection of solar or wind generation, and while they previously allowed online monitoring of power usage, this Google partnership ups their hipness by a factor of at least 10. And, if you were so cool you already bought one of these trackers before they went mainstream, you're just a firmware update away from tracking it with the Googs.

Filed under: Household

Google signs PowerMeter partnership with The Energy Detective, lets everyone play along originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microvision's laser-based SHOW WX pico projector shines at CEATEC

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/video-microvisions-laser-based-show-wx-pico-projector-shines-a/

Microvision just struck a deal to start shipping its PicoP-based SHOW WX pico projector in Asia, and while the size may not blow any minds, the image quality just might. With a native 848 x 480 resolution (WVGA), this one pumps out more pixels than pretty much any other pico projector on the market today, and with enough darkness, it can actually spit out an image that's around 100-inches in size. We stopped by the company's booth here at CEATEC in order to have a look at what makes the world's first laser-based pico PJ so special, and we can honestly say the picture was pretty stunning (considering the device we're talking about). We got a lecture on just how amazing the innards actually are (hear for yourself after the break), but it's the estimated $500 price tag and 2010 US ship date that really had us intrigued.

The company also confessed that it's toiling away in an effort to miniaturize its PicoP engine even further, and while it wouldn't come right out and say it, we got the feeling that it was jonesing to get that very device into all sorts of other gizmos in the near future. In the meanwhile, you can expect the SHOW WX to ship with support for pretty much any input via a composite adapter, while an iPod / iPhone connector is apt to be bundled in as well. There's also a 3.5 millimeter audio passthrough, 10 lumens of brightness, a 60Hz refresh rate (trust us, the lines you see in the video aren't seen by the naked eye) and a built-in battery good for two hours on a charge. Oh, and this thing's ability to refocus instantly as you move it closer and farther from the wall is pretty swank -- just sayin'.

Gallery: Microvision's laser-based SHOW WX pico projector shines at CEATEC

Continue reading Microvision's laser-based SHOW WX pico projector shines at CEATEC

Filed under: Displays, Portable Video

Microvision's laser-based SHOW WX pico projector shines at! CEATEC< /a> originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google and Verizon announce partnership, love and new Android handsets to result

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/google-and-verizon-announce-partnership-love-and-new-android-ha/

Google and Verizon announce partnership, love and new Android handsets to result

We've seen blurry pics and reports from inventory systems, and now the official confirmation. This morning's joint press conference between Verizon and Google has resulted in a holy matrimony of sorts; a melding of the minds; a promise of new hardware to come. Yes, it's just a promise for now as neither company took the chance to confirm the Sholes or any of the other devices that have been popping up. But, Verizon did at least say that the agreement "will come to fruition within the next few weeks as Verizon Wireless introduces Android-based handsets." So, it won't be long now.

Filed under: Cellphones

Google and Verizon announce partnership, love and new Android handsets to result originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Trad'l ads are like homeless mktng - at best, you'll get a glance; what are the chances they'll stop & give you money? http://bit.ly/dFdKB

FTC Cracks Down on Blogger Payola, Celebrity Tweets; Rules on Endorsements and Testimonials Extended to Social Media - http://bit.ly/WGguV

Adweek: Shouldn't advertising pros base their creativity on the facts/data? (and don't say we do so already) - http://bit.ly/2ByyPR

Monday, October 05, 2009

Use TinEye to Find Source Images for Desktop Wallpaper [Image Search]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/_lXICTfLKhc/use-tineye-to-find-source-images-for-desktop-wallpaper

It turns out that TinEye, the image search engine, is good for more than simply finding carbon-copy matches of pictures. You can also use it to go from a screenshot of a desktop to the source image.

While reviewing the TinEye Firefox extension last week, we noted that results were rather precise in nature and that variations on an image were often excluded. While that is true to an extent, reader TheLostVikings pointed out a way he uses the database and that it wasn't quite as narrow in scope as we initially believed:

Note on the "surgically precise" comment. I routinely use TinEye to find the actual background image when people post pictures [of] their desktops (complete with open windows, taskbars, docks, etc) and tineye will usually be able to locate the original picture.

To test this approach out we fired up Firefox with the TinEye extension and headed over to the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Pool. Chalk it up to luck or the popularity of the images people were using for their desktop background, but we were able to find 8 out of 10 of the source background images using TinEye.

The next time you see a capture of someone's desktop and you're dying to know where they got the cool background, give TinEye a shot at finding it for you. Thanks TheLostVikings!

NirLauncher is the Ultimate Flash Drive Toolkit [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/fSs_pwSfsr4/nirlauncher-is-the-ultimate-flash-drive-toolkit

Windows only: Portable application NirLauncher bundles 100+ of the best NirSoft utilities into a single launcher window, and even allows you to add your own utilities to make a killer flash drive toolkit.

Once you've downloaded the zip file, you can extract the contents into a new folder on your desktop or flash drive, and then launch the NirLauncher.exe application from that folder, which will give you quick access to the 100+ NirSoft utilities included in the package.

It's important to note that because of the system-tweaking, hacking nature of the NirSoft utilities, they sometimes come through as a false positive on your anti-malware utility—but that doesn't mean that they are infected with a virus. Depending on the type of system protection that you have installed, you might have to remove the files from the quarantine folder in order to use all of the utilities.

Tweaking the Launcher

You can edit the included NirSoft.nlp file in a text editor to add or remove the utilities that you prefer—or you can even create a new .NLP file with your own customized settings. Just make sure to use relative paths to the executable files to make sure that they will be portable when you put it onto your flash drive.

The NirSoft blog even provides a launcher file for the suite of awesome, portable, system-tweaking tools from SysInternals—simply download the launcher file and extract all of the SysInternals applications into a folder, and then use the Launcher -> Add Software Package menu to add the entire grou! p into t he application. Once you've got them there, you can switch between the NirSoft and SysInternals groups with the F3 key, or through the Launcher menu.

NirLauncher is a free download for Windows only. What applications would you include in your own portable flash drive toolkit? Tell us in the comments. Thanks, Scott!

NirLauncher [NirSoft]

SpotOn Motion-Sensing LED Light Brightens Your Dark Corners [Stuff We Like]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/eftjUIpI344/spoton-motion+sensing-led-light-brightens-your-dark-corners

Whether you've got a dark closet with no electricity running to it or a freezer without a light, the Philips SpotOn LED motion-sensing portable light illuminates the dark corners of your place.

In fact, a freezer lacking a light is exactly how Joseph Stirt over at Cool Tools put the SpotOn to use:

[The missing light] wasn't enough of a pain to go through exchanging refrigerators, but for the past 15 or so years, it's been a minor annoyance, requiring me to turn on a kitchen light to see what's in there. Until I remembered these motion-sensing LED lights I'd already placed in about a dozen spots throughout my house. Who says I can't put one of those in the freezer compartment, such that the motion of opening the door turns on the light? So I did just that and darned if it doesn't work beautifully. Better 15 years late than never.

The SpotOn will set you back $17 on Amazon.

Philips SpotOn LED Motion Sensing Portable Light [Amazon via Cool Tools]

AVG 9 Antivirus Improves Performance, Adds Identity Theft Tool [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/NrPpiLE9LKk/avg-9-antivirus-improves-performance-adds-identity-theft-tool

Windows only: One of our readers' favorite antivirus applications, AVG, has updated, claiming faster scan times (up to 50%), boot times (10-15%), and less memory usage. On top of that, it's added a new feature to assist with identity theft.

The identity theft feature, as reported by CNET, is only available in the U.S., and pairs the folks at AVG with a service called Identity Guard that integrates with your browser toolbar (Firefox and IE only); Identity Guard is there to help you avoid and handle identity theft.

Frankly, the Identity Guard addition doesn't seem like something to get all that excited about (who wants another browser toolbar, anyway?), but if nothing else, the performance boosts are worth the update for die-hard AVG fans.

AVG comes in both freeware and shareware versions, Windows only. Currently only the shareware version is ready for the update—apparently AVG delays the release of AVG Free to give their pay versions a little more time in the limelight. Unfortunately that means AVG Free users—which I suspect is most AVG users—will have to wait a bit longer to update to the faster version.

AVG Anti-Virus 9.0 [via CNET]
AVG Free

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