Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, August 15, 2008

Scientists Demo New Nanoprinting Tech with Microscopic Golden Olympic Logos [Teeny Tiny]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/365565379/scientists-demo-new-nanoprinting-tech-with-microscopic-golden-olympic-logos

Scientists at Norwestern University have demonstrated their new nano-printing technology by mass-producing the Beijing Olympics emblem 15,000 times, each logo so small the whole print run fits inside one square centimeter. 2,500 of the images, made of thousands of 90 nanometers dots, would fit on a grain of rice. The polymer pen lithography uses an array of millions of tiny flexible polymer "pens" that can be used to scribe marks on various different nano-scales, and in this case deposit "ink" made of 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid onto a gold substrate (what else would do, in Olympic season?) The team thinks that the technique, which can print out tiny dot-matrix imagery, will find uses in computational tools, medical diagnostics and the pharmaceutical industry. The study is published today in Science Express. [Physorg]

First Android Phone Coming September 17, Sources [Htc G1]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/365565378/first-android-phone-coming-september-17-sources

September 17. That's the date when the first Android phone will reach the market at an initial $150. According to the NYT and the the unofficial T-Mobile blog, HTC and T-Mobile will release what they hope will be the bringer of the iPhonecalypse, and they are calling it G1, as in Galactus One or G-Spot One or Google One, all of them sound good to me. Looking at the alleged specs and leaked video, it seems that it could be a real challenge to the Apple cellphone:

• 3G connectivity.
• 3 megapixel camera.
• 5 x 3 inches wide touchscreen.
• Sliding QWERTY keyboard.

Basically, everything needed to one-up the iPhone, at least in theory and according to some people's tastes (although with a QWERTY keyboard it may end being thicker than the iBrick).

The price strategy is strange, however. TmoNews says that it will be available for $150 on the first week, going up to $250 and $400 after that, depending on the size. [NYT and TmoNews via Wired]

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Intel Centrino Atom becomes Atom, Atom still Atom, you're confused

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/364697530/

Filed under: Handhelds

Oh good, another marketing-speak change-up tossed our way from Intel. Apparently, the Centrino Atom naming convention is no more, leaving the in-house branded Menlow chipset used in MIDs and UMPCs essentially nameless. Atom, as you may recall, is the name of the Silverthorn and Diamondville-class CPUs. Got it? Of course you don't. No worries, that's why you've got us. You just focus on trying to understand the difference between MIDs and UMPCs and netbooks and ultra-portables and we'll take care of the rest.

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Funai (Sylvania, Symphonic and Emerson) Will Sell HDTVs With Blu-rays In 'Em [HDTV]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/364150348/funai-sylvania-symphonic-and-emerson-will-sell-hdtvs-with-blu+rays-in-em

Funai, whose subsidiaries are more familiar to us as Sylvania, Symphonic and Emerson, is planning on selling LCD HDTVs with Blu-rays on-board starting summer 2009. The company's previous successes in recent years with combo units (TVs with VCRs and TVs with DVDs) totaled up 40% and 20% of their sales in the US respectively. So how much will this low-end brand charge you for the all-in-one experience? CrunchGear says the target price for a 42-inch will be between $1100 and $1300. Keep in mind that's a price for something launching a year from now. [CrunchGear]

Update: Funai also took over the Phlips TV brand in the US, which means you might be seeing this under their name as well.

Google Maps Captures Natural Wonders by Photoshop [Google Maps]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/364160455/google-maps-captures-natural-wonders-by-photoshop

Geologists and people wasting time on the internet alike have failed to explain this particularly repetitious forest in Holland. A pretty clear result of a lazy/botched clone stamping in Photoshop, we can't help but wonder what Google covered up here. Government secrets? Cloud interference? A leprechaun lair? No one knows, but stay tuned as we spend millions of dollars in hard-earned ad revenue to fund an expedition and find out...or maybe just distract you from that promise with a poorly-executed wood-to-penis alluding pun. [Google Earth and PsD via boingboing]

Autonomous DIY Fireflies Make Order From Blinking Chaos [DIY]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/364211139/autonomous-diy-fireflies-make-order-from-blinking-chaos

Start a swarm of these DIY Firefly LEDs a-blinking, and they'll create a random pattern and blink an angry red. But after a few minutes, thanks to some clever microcontroller code and a light sensor, they'll soon all be blinking in sync with a nice, calming blue color. It's a neat bit of DIY electronics that's elegant in its simplicity, and surprisingly cool to see in action on video.

Even if you disturb their perfection with a flashlight, the system will eventually self-correct:

The code works like this:

Each firefly has a value that stands for the power to flash. This value rises over time. If the power reaches a certain limit, the firefly flashes and the power is reset to zero. If the firefly detects another flash nearby, it increases the power by a small boost value. That way it will flash slightly earlier than last time. Doing so over and over again may lead to all fireflies flashing in sync.

For instructions on making your own, check out: [Tinkerlog via MAKE]

Would You Watch Cellphone Ads if it Got You Free or Cheap Service? [Question Of The Day]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/364273672/would-you-watch-cellphone-ads-if-it-got-you-free-or-cheap-service

The Direct Marketing Association, a lovely group dedicated to forcing ads down your throat, have done a study that found that while a mere 7% of cellphone users are open to receiving ads on their phone, a much more significant 24% say they've responded to such ads on their phone. A whole quarter of the phone population responding to ads? That has advertisers salivating, so you know that phone ads will be the norm soon enough. So, let's say they came up with a deal that paid for half of your bill if you agreed to watch a few ads a day on your phone. Would you do it?

As much as I hate ads and I hate being inundated with them on a daily basis, if it meant saving $50 a month, I would be all over it. On the other hand, if they tried to send ads to my phone without it saving me any money, I'd be livid. I pay too much for it to be forced to watch ads to further line the pockets of the people I'm already keeping in business.

What do you think?

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[NY Times]

InFocus minds the budget with its Play Big IN80 projector

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/364094855/

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

While we won't complain about the performance or styling of InFocus' Play Big IN83 projector, the $6,000 price tag is a little steep. Sure, it's got that 1080p DarkChip4 DLP and styling that doesn't look like you "borrowed" it from the boardroom, but that $6,000 price tag gives us pause. InFocus is adding the Play Big IN80 model to the lineup to fill the gap, though. The specs put the IN80 above the company's X10 model -- it packs a 1080p DarkChip with BrilliantColor, can pump out 1300 lumens in the snow scenes and shares the design with its IN83 big brother, so you won't be tempted to try out your PowerPoints at home. Best of all, though is the MSRP £1,299 ($2500) when it ships in September.

[Via AboutProjectors]

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