Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Monday, September 15, 2008

Peugeot Concept Cars of Tomorrow Have Propellers, Joysticks [Future Cars]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/391703946/peugeot-concept-cars-of-tomorrow-have-propellers-joysticks

If Gundam mated with Will Smith's Audi in I, Robot, the offspring would resemble these futuristic concept cars from European brand Peugeot. The ~~cars~~ car-like vehicles were all entries in the 2008 Peugeot Design Contest. Designers were asked by organizers to create vehicles for that ambiguous but tantalizing "city of the future." Areas of focus included environmental awareness, "social harmony," interactive mobility and efficiency. As you can see in the "Blade" vehicle above, efficiency is improved with the wind turbine that designer Ying Hui Choo added to charge an on-board electric battery.

The 888, designed by Oskar Johansen, pivots at the center and reduces its size for "easier parking, maneuverability and increased visibility."

Emre Yazici's "EGO" has two wheels and is controlled Atari-style with a joystick. The windshield doubles as the door. [Telegraph]

iPhone Modem App Promises 10 Second iPhone Tethering [Jailbreak Apps]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/391814937/iphone-modem-app-promises-10-second-iphone-tethering

Just released yesterday, iPhone Modem for the Cydia jailbreak application repository promises tethering your laptop to your iPhone in just ten seconds. We haven't gotten around to jailbreaking our own yet, but this one is supposedly even easier than the official NetShare tethering app in the official App Store. ModMyiPhone forum says it works just fine on both MacBook and MacBook Pro. Careful using this on AT&T, since too much tethering data usage you're not actively "paying" for will get you neutered. [modmyiphone]

3M reveals MPro110 pocket projector: ships this month

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/391384947/

Filed under: Displays

It's official: the age of the pico projector has arrived. And we're not talking the age of pico projector announcements, we're talking about launches. Just after Toshiba came clean with its LED Pico Projector, along comes 3M (of all companies) with one of its own. The MPro110 pocket beamer got handled by PopSci, and the results were pretty much as we'd expect. Decently bright, extraordinarily novel, but not exactly world-class. Brightness (the lack thereof, actually) was an issue, and a few movie scenes were deemed "indecipherable." Additionally, it has no built-in speaker, but for just $359, we suppose that's an omission we can live with. Best of all, this one's set to ship on September 30th. To America. Woo!

[Via AboutProjectors]

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Dell's Mini 9 netbook gets unboxed on video

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/391721719/

Filed under: Laptops

We already found that Dell was shipping out the first wave of Mini 9s to eager consumers, so it's perfectly logical to see that at least one particular owner was able to stifle his excitement long enough to video the unboxing process and upload it to the intartubez. Not like there's anything there you'll be shocked about, but the comparison shots with a much beefier sibling really puts things in perspective. Check it out in the read link.

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SSD shootout, round II: OCZ, Super Talent and Mtron do battle

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/391805488/

Filed under: Storage

If you'll recall, a slew of prohibitively expensive SSDs were pit against one another last summer in a battle royale of pricey HDD replacements. Fast forward a year and change, and the barrier to entry for one of these heralded devices has dropped significantly. That being the case, we've a feeling HotHardware's latest shootout will be a whole lot more relevant for the average joe / jane. The aforementioned test simultaneously reviews the OCZ Core Series 64GB MLC, OCZ 64GB Standard SLC, Super Talent MasterDrive MX 64GB MLC and the Mtron MSP 7500 32GB SLC. Interestingly, the writeup didn't conclude with a medal ceremony, but rather, it elaborated on the merits of each and where it would likely fit best. You know what that means -- time to bust out the spectacles and get to readin'. Chop chop!

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