Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, January 11, 2010

TCL completes the no-glasses 3D trifecta at CES

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/11/tcl-completes-the-no-glasses-3d-trifecta-at-ces/

Add one more piece of tech to your glasses vs. glassless 3D display battlemap, as TCL was showing off this autostereoscopic display in an odd reflective frame at its CES booth. Around the corner from a conventional RealD shutter glasses setup, it whipped through several animated 3D renderings similar to those from Alioscopy and Magnetic3D. The frame made it hard to tell but it seemed to have a little less pop than the competition, with slightly better clarity. All the glassless displays we saw this year used similar lenticular lens technology applied to 1080p HDTV screens to achieve their affect, with mostly similar results, with so many players, there should be plenty of billboards and in-store opportunities for you to get a look yourself soon enough.

Gallery: TCL autostereoscopic 3D

TCL completes the no-glasses 3D trifecta at CES originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

A Simple, Translucent Laptop [Concepts]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lcq7iz8jxC0/a-simple-translucent-laptop

For those who can't afford clear OLED laptops, this acrylic concept by designers at PEGA may be the next best thing...if you enjoy squinting at those sitting across from you through a tiny port between your keyboard and screen.

It's pretty, but as soon as this machine leaves its studio photography session, it'll be covered in a layer of irremovable human grease. [PEGA via designboom via Unplggd]

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Monsoon adds streaming, sideloading sweetness to new Volcano placeshifting box

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/10/monsoon-adds-streaming-sideloading-sweetness-to-new-volcano-pla/

Blazing a different path from Sling or even its own HAVA line, Monsoon's Volcano is not just an HD placeshifting device -- it can play back video from attached storage devices, NAS or PCs, plus internet video from YouTube or CinemaNow. Existing remote DVR and streaming features are joined by sideloading, as it can deliver compressed recordings to compatible mobiles (Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Mobile) over 3G for later offline viewing. Other additions include an OS X client, MPEG-4 support plus plans for downloadable apps like Boxee and an open SDK for developers. Pricing is set at $199 with 4GB of flash memory included or $299 with 250GB HDD. Check out a video of our quick demo of the client running on a Motorola DROID and a press release with all the other details after the break.

Gallery: Monsoon Volcano

Continue reading Monsoon adds streaming, sideloading sweetness to new Volcano placeshifting box

Monsoon adds streaming, sideloading sweetness to new Volcano placeshifting box originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Take Dramatic Photos with a DIY Drinking-Straw Snoot [DIY]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/9VVfW8AXYXk/take-dramatic-photos-with-a-diy-drinking+straw-snoot

If you've ever looked a photo with dramatic lighting in the style of old detective movies, you're likely seeing the effect of a snoot—a flash-modifier that directs light in a tight pattern. You can mimic the effect with straws.

The appropriately named blog LightingMods has a tutorial for turning a box of drinking straws, cardboard, and tape into a snoot for your camera flash. A snoot is essentially the opposite of diffusion—we showed you how to diffuse your flash with an old film canister and a cigarette pack—you use a snoot to tightly focus the flash into an intense area, instead of diffusing it softly around the room.

The raw materials are nearly free they're so cheap; the biggest investment you'll make is the time it takes to cut up the straws and glue/tape the whole thing together (which really shouldn't take that long). Check out the tutorial at the link below for sample pictures and a step-by-step build guide. Have a photograph-related hack of your own to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.

DIY Black Straw Snoot Grid Part 1 and Part 2 [LightingMods]

Hands On Casio's EX-FH100 High Speed Exilim Camera: Slow Mo Tech is Maturing [Cameras]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/eoK-zSwjl9U/hands-on-casios-ex+fh100-high-speed-exilim-camera-slow-mo-tech-is-maturing

I love Casio slow motion cameras, even if their stills are generally not all that great. The new EX-FH100 is pocketsized, has a 10x zoom and a new 120frame per second mode that doesn't have low light issues. Love it.

Older cameras would be impossible to use at 300FPS indoors, because the grain and exposure would become an issue. A quick test on the floor of CES showed that even zoomed in, the 120FPS mode, benefiting from the highly light sensitive backlit CMOS, did really well. And truthfully, 120FPS is better for sports, etc than 300FPS, in my opinion. The 120FPS mode also has another benefit — 640 x 480 pixel res, which is more usable than the old 300FPS mode's 512 x 384 res. It has modes up to 1000FPS, though.

I'm getting one of these, without a doubt.

More HP Tablet Rumors: HP Android Tablet Will Be Bite-Sized...and More [Tablets]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/f5e6qiaHQBY/more-hp-tablet-rumors-hp-android-tablet-will-be-bite+sizedand-more

If Ballmer's revelation of the slate wasn't enough HP news for you, Bits reports the Palo Alto-based company is also working on an Android tablet roughly twice the size of an iPhone, and seemingly similar to Dell's Mini 5 Tablet.

Citing an anonymous source, Bits editor Nick Bilton was told there are multiple tablets HP has in the works, and the Android "half-pint" tablet was one of them. HP is also said to be rounding up magazine content partners for the devices, which include Microsoft, Adobe, BusinessWeek and Wired/Conde Nast.

In addition, TechCrunch heard similar rumblings about a HP Android tablet yesterday. [Bits]

Mophie juice pack TV hands-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/09/mophie-juice-pack-tv-hands-on/

You won't know it by the product's official name, but this is the FLO TV appendage for the iPhone that's been teased since November last year. Combining a mobile TV receiver with Mophie's juice pack, this is 2mm thicker and noticeably heavier than the normal external battery pack. You can see comparison shots in the gallery below -- the red and black units are samples of the new peripherals while the white one is the standard Mophie hardware. Alas, no working FLO TV demos were available, but we were told the iPhone UI should be one different from what the company offers at present. Reps kept mum on pricing, but they confirmed the juice pack TV should be arriving in the first half of 2010.

Gallery: Mophie juice pack TV hands-on

Mophie juice pack TV hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Fils Sound Film transparent speaker hands-on (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/09/fils-sound-film-transparent-speaker-hands-on-video/

Korean gadgets these days are either gunning for next-to-nothing thinness or mind-boggling transparency, which is marvelous. Today we came across another Korean company (and an old friend), Fils, which does transparent "sound film" speakers in many forms: photo frame, umbrella, curtains, cap, hoodie and even model yacht (yeah, seriously), all thanks to the highly-flexible piezoelectric film. Sure, the sound quality was hardly top-notch, but apparently Fils is hooking up with a few big-name Korean electronic companies (TVs?), so we're all going to suffer soon whether you like it or not. Cheer yourself up with the video after the break.

Gallery: Fils Sound Film hands-on

Continue reading Fils Sound Film transparent speaker hands-on (video)

Fils Sound Film transparent speaker hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Inbrics M1 is the thinnest Android slider we've seen, probably everything we ever wanted

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/09/inbrics-m1-is-the-thinnest-android-slider-weve-seen-probably-e/

We don't know what everybody else in the phone business has been doing lately, but Inbrics has just unveiled what looks to be the near-ultimate Android phone. The Inbrics M1 is a slider handset with a (great) 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display, 3 megapixel camera, front-facing VGA camera, 16GB of built-in storage, microSD slot and all the other usual trimmings, but what's particularly stunning is that the phone is not only half an inch thick, but it has a full QWERTY keyboard that's surprisingly clicky and typable. The phone is running Android 1.5 right now, but it should be up to Android 2.0 by the time it hits the market in March. The biggest concern is the 800MHz Samsung processor, the same chip that's in the Samsung Moment, but the interface (as demonstrated in the video after the break) is smooth as butter, and they demo'd it playing back 720p video just fine.

Inbrics actually has a lot of custom UI and software running on top of Android, but the most interesting part is what they're doing with video calling and beaming media from handset to videophone to TV to laptop over DLNA or through an access point device that plugs into the TV over HDMI. Inbrics also has a Cover Flow-style media browser that isn't super deep in functionality, but still puts the stock Android stuff to shame, and some rather sexy custom widgets.

The plan is apparently to get a carrier to bite and rebrand this phone in the US, so price and availability are still pretty hard to pin down, but if this phone can hit the market soon it sure could give the rest of the QWERTY Android sliders out there some body image issues.

Gallery: Inbrics M1 hands-on