Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Car That Hangs Outta Your Window

The Car That Hangs Outta Your Window

Picture this: you walk into this hub hanging outta your high-rise apartment and then it gently glides down to the ground level. Touch ground and it transforms into this ultimate car that looks and feels SEXY! This IS the Peugeot Metromorph and it transports you thru the city with ease. I dunno about your hometown, but where I live, I got to pay premium rent for parking my car in my apartment building. This kinda concept looks at eliminating parking woes. Hit the jump to see how this beauty soars.

There are some specific features that have been attributed to the Metromorph, to make it a viable concept:

Drivetrain- the vehicle is powered by two in wheel motors placed in the back. There are two battery cases on the back as well.

Interior- the seats are held by rotating arms which keep the seat level when the vehicle goes vertical or horizontal. When the vehicle is a balcony the seats are placed on a rolling base which enables them to become lounge chairs thus freeing up the interior of the car to make it a balcony. The interior is also left fairly hollow to accommodate the balcony mode.

Exterior- the car is designed to not look like a car vertically mounted to a building and still look like a vehicle when it's on the road. So the wheels are concealed toward the inside. Rather than go vertically like many scissor doors today Metromorphs' arms rotate closely around the vehicle allowing the doors to freely open in a cramped area like a garage.

A Car Elevator!

Designer: Roman Mistiuk

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Peugeot Metromorph Concept Car by Roman Mistiuk

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Ten Incredible Technological Medical Marvels For The Future

Ten Incredible Technological Medical Marvels For The Future

Medical marvels covered on YD range from tech solutions for the impaired to regular stuff like toilets and oral hygiene. Here's a look at ten medical and technological solutions for those with disabilities and not-so-impaired people. Hopefully some of them will make from the drawing board to the real-world.
10) I Contact by Eun-Gyeong Gwon & Eun-Jae Lee

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Although at the moment it may be hard to fathom this concept, but designers Eun-Gyeong Gwon & Eun-Jae Lee propose a contact lens that is so technologically advanced that it works like a mouse for your computer. It's intended for people with disabilities, but that shouldn't stop the able-bodied people from experimenting with it.
9) Touch Sight Camera by Chueh Lee, Liqing Zou, Ning Xu, Saiyou Ma, Dan Hu, Fengshun Jiang & Zhenhui Sun

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Designed for the visually impaired, the Touch Sight Camera looks to be an innovative solution for those who would like to capture precious moments even though they can't literally see it.
8 ) Sens Phone by Takumi Yoshida

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Giving the blind an edge of independence is the Sens Phone. It's easy to use features will make it a practical device for independent use.
7) Batphones by Matthias Ries

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Quite comical to say the least, although grandma here looks quite content to use it as her hearing aid!
6) Universal Toilet For The Disabled by Changduk Kim & Youngki Hong

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The Universal Toilet has a flexible design coz it can be used by both the able-bodied and people on wheelchairs conveniently.
5) Oral Hygiene Monitor by Sarah Tisdale

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Put me through the surgical knife but spare me the dentist! How many of us echo this sentiment…me, me me! Oral Hygiene Monitor makes sure that we won't forget our dentist; EVER!
4) Braille Interpreter by Hyung Jin Lim

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Just because someone is blind, it's not necessary that they know Braille. Braille Interpreter is a gadget that will help them learn and interpret the language.
3) Nike Air Jordan Prosthetics by Colin Matsco

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Designer limb!
2) Beagle Scarf For Autism by Leo Chao

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A scarf that acts as a comforter for those with Autism, this one includes speakers in the hood, customized aroma patches along with textured inner pockets.
1) Lumitact Breast Prosthesis by Stephanie Choplin

Besides the pain and trauma associated with Breast Cancer, the loss of femininity is the biggest psychological side-effect. Lumitact is an adhesive, tactile breast prosthesis that integrates Phillips' Lumalive material into its design. It tries to bring back the sense of self-confidence and sexiness into the woman's life.

Clear Fast Track Airport Security Is No More [Security]

Clear Fast Track Airport Security Is No More [Security]

Allowing people to quickly hop through airport security with a TSA-verified biometric "fast passes," Clear had great idea on their hands. Sadly, as of yesterday, their freeflowing security lanes will be closed.

So what was it? Did tightened government regulations make operating impossible? Was there some kind of security breach? An issue with the TSA granting a virtual monopoly to a private fast track service? Nope! It was something simpler, and more timely. Cue their goodbye email:

Clear to Cease Operations
Dear xxxx xxxx,

At 11:00 p.m. PST today, Clear will cease operations. Clear's parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.

After today, Clear lanes will be unavailable.

Sincerely,
Clear Customer Support

Apparently not enough people were willing to spring for the service, which could cost as much as $199. Looking at the numbers, though, it's ~~clear~~ obvious that Clear never really took off, spreading to just 20 airports and garnering about 150,000 subscribers.

The company hasn't yet announced how they plan to deal with those subscribers—an impatient bunch, I'm guessing—but as far as getting any kind of service refund, this sparingly worded announcement does! n't bode well. [Clear—Thanks, Tom and David]

Lenovo intros well-connected 0.83-inch thick ThinkPad T400s

Lenovo intros well-connected 0.83-inch thick ThinkPad T400s

Thinner than some netbooks and more potent than four or five of them combined, Lenovo's ThinkPad T400s aims to hit some sort of sweet spot in between weak ultraportables and battery-draining 15-inchers. The 14.1-inch lappie measures in at a remarkable 0.83-inches thin and boasts a starting weight of under four pounds. Within, you'll find Lenovo's heralded roll cage technology, a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, your choice of a 128GB SSD or 250GB HDD, a 9.5mm slim DVD burner or Blu-ray player, a multitouch trackpad, Ethernet, WiFi, optional WiMAX / WWAN / Bluetooth / ultra-wideband, a 34mm ExpressCard slot (or 5-in-1 card reader), a battery good for six hours and VGA / DisplayPort outputs. There's also support for the company's ConstantConnect and Protect technology as well as a built-in USB / eSATA port. In a surprising move, Lenovo decided to actually tweak the keyboard that has become a staple of the ThinkPad line; it increased the size of the Delete and Escape keys and tightened up the spaces between the keys to "help avoid crumbs that would otherwise fall below the keyboard." You can check the full release just past the break, and you can call one your own starting today for $1,599 and up.

Gallery: Lenovo intros well-connected 0.83-inch thick ThinkPad T400s

Continue reading Lenovo intros well-connected 0.83-inch thick ThinkPad T400s

Filed under: Laptops

Lenovo intros well-connected 0.83-inch thick ThinkPad T400s originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gateway's AMD-packing LT3100 netbook unleashed

Gateway's AMD-packing LT3100 netbook unleashed

Last time we saw Gateway's 11.6-inch LT3100 it was buried in a heap of other Acer / eMachines netbook reveals, including the Timeline. Now it's gone official, and the big surprise here is that the self-proclaimed netbook is sporting a processor from AMD -- you know, the company who has largely shunned netbooks while later looking to differentiate with the "ultra-portable" Athlon Neo processor. The 1.2GHz Athlon 64 L110 is what's packed in here, in addition to integrated ATI Radeon X1270 graphics, WXGA resolution, up to 2GB RAM and 250GB HDD, card reader, 802.11b/g, webcam, three USB 2.0 port, and a 6-cell Li-ion battery. Not sure if it's because they shied away from Atom or not, but instead of XP we've got Windows Vista Basic for the OS. Available in NightSky Black and Cherry Red, it should be out soon-ish with prices starting at $400.

Filed under: Laptops

Gateway's AMD-packing LT3100 netbook unleashed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel making 'important announcement' today -- a Nokia netbook / MID?

Intel making 'important announcement' today -- a Nokia netbook / MID?

Possible big news on the way later today. According to Bloomberg, Intel's very own Mr. MID, Anand Chandrasekher, will announce Nokia as a new customer of its mobile processors. This is important because Nokia is a long time friend of ARM and Intel by its own admission can't currently compete with ARM when it comes to the ultra-low power consumption requirements of smartphones. So whatever Nokia's got cooking will presumably be running on Intel's upcoming Moorestown MID platform or its ultra-low power Medfield silicon targeting mainstream smartphones in 2011. On the other hand, Nokia's CEO already expressed interest in entering the laptop race with Intel or the ARM-based Snapdragon rumored to be at the core. But if this announcement results in yet another Atom-based netbook, well, good luck with that Nokia.

[Via IntoMobile]

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops

Intel making 'important announcement' today -- a Nokia netbook / MID? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, June 22, 2009

Collecta Searches News and Images in Real Time [Search Engines]

Collecta Searches News and Images in Real Time [Search Engines]

If you're in the market for some real-time search results, Collecta offers filtered news, blog comments, images, and more at a really rapid clip.

We've covered methods of monitoring real-time searches before, and previously mentioned TweetGrid certainly wins the prize for most parallel search options. Few sites, however, offer the kind of filtering that Collecta does.

Collecta can search Twitter, Identica, and other microblogging services in real time, putting microblog entries are displayed in the central column, while articles and news clippings are displayed on the right. The left column houses the search box and the filter settings, allowing you to drill down to just stories, blog comments, microblog updates, and photos. While you're searching, you might want to cut down on noise by filtering out re-tweets. If you have a favorite real-time search tool, sound off in the comments below.

Collecta [via DownloadSquad]

GDocBackup Makes an Offline Backup of Google Docs [Downloads]

GDocBackup Makes an Offline Backup of Google Docs [Downloads]

Windows only: Tiny utility GDocBackup makes short work of downloading an offline copy of your Google Docs files.

After installing the utility, simply enter your Google account details into the configuration screen, pick a backup folder location, and click the Exec button to download all of your documents. You can even choose the format that you want to export them as—so if you wanted to download all presentations as PDF format, you can easily do so. Once you've run a backup once, the utility will only backup changed files on subsequent backup jobs—even though the backups are manual, it's still worth a look if you want a simple, non-instrusive method for backing up your Google Documents.

GDocBackup is free and open source, available for Windows only. Readers using Linux or Mac can check out the GDataCopier Python script, or OpenOffice users can use an extension to sync documents back and forth.

GDocBackup [Google Code via gHacks]

TiVo coming to Time Warner Cable, potentially lots of other providers

TiVo coming to Time Warner Cable, potentially lots of other providers

It's been a long, messy road, but now that TiVo's beaten a victory out of EchoStar in that seemingly-endless DVR patent lawsuit it sounds like the company is trying to exert some muscle -- it's already in talks to bring its service to Time Warner Cable, and sources have told Bloomberg the ultimate plan is to eventually collect royalties from every pay-TV provider in the US. That might sound bullying and even a little trollish, but keep in mind these patents have withstood pretty much every legal challenge EchoStar could throw at them, so TiVo's operating from a position of some certainty here -- especially since it's got license agreements with huge players like Comcast and DirecTV to use as leverage in negotiations as well. Of course, none of this solves any of TiVo's actual problems with its products, and the company's topsy-turvy balance sheet has some analysts thinking its ripe for a buyout by one of the bigs, so things could change dramatically at any minute, but for right now it sounds like your chances of getting the TiVo interface on your cable or satellite company DVR just went up, and that's almost certainly a good thing.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

TiVo coming to Time Warner Cable, potentially lots of other providers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer rolls out new budget-minded Aspire laptops

Acer rolls out new budget-minded Aspire laptops

They may not be quite as thin and light as Acer's Timeline laptops, but the company's latest trio of Aspire models will at least save you a few bucks, and give you some decent enough specs as well. On the low-end of the lot are the 15.6-inch AS5536 and the 17.3-inch AS7735Z (pictured above), the former of which packs an AMD Athlon 64 X2 processor, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, and a 320GB hard drive, while the latter sports a Pentium T4200 processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, and a 250GB hard drive. Both of those, however, are bested by the 15.6-inch AS5739G, which dials things up to a Core 2 Duo T6500 processor, 4GB of RAM, NVIDIA Geforce GT130M graphics with 1GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive, and a built-in Blu-ray drive -- all for just $750. Look for all three to be available this month, with the AS5536 and AS7735Z running $480 and $600.

Filed under: Laptops

Acer rolls out new budget-minded Aspire laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Disney Netpal hands-on (with video!)

Disney Netpal hands-on (with video!)

We got a quick look Disney's little Netpal Eee PC rebadge, and found our not-too-high expectations slightly exceeded by the fairly slick skin Disney has slapped on top of XP. The Netpal platform is really Disney's primary contribution here, since the computer underneath is vanilla Eee PC other than the fairly stylish "boy" and "girl" skinning job. The shell, however, is a locked down environment that allows parents to white list web sites and email addresses for kids to access, along with a list of allowable apps -- kids aren't restricted to just Disney's set of experiences, little Bobby can master PowerPoint in between play dates if his parents don't mind. Standard netbook sluggishness is of course a drawback, but the extensive parental controls, kid-friendly interface and $350 retail price are all good omens for rising above the general shoddiness and usual misnomer of "kid tech." Video is after the break.

Gallery: Disney Netpal hands-on

Gallery: Disney Netpal press shots

Continue reading Disney Netpal hands-on (with video!)

Filed under: Laptops

Disney Netpal hands-on (with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG Powers Ahead With Connected HDTVs, Picks ARM As Its Accomplice [Lg]

LG Powers Ahead With Connected HDTVs, Picks ARM As Its Accomplice [Lg]

Connected HDTVs—the kind that can display widgets, stream network content, browse the web or tap into other software services—haven't gotten off to the most auspicious start, but they seem sort of inevitable, no? Anyway: LG thinks so!

The company has announced a partnership with ARM to license its processor technology for the "next generation" of HDTVs, essentially committing to the connected TV ideal that other companies—namely Sony, Vizio and Samsung—have been toying with for the last year or so.

The technology itself isn't the story here, since ARM processors are in quite a few TVs already, and the MPCore chips and Mali graphics processors aren't expressly new, although they are admirably capable. It's that LG, one of the biggest HDTV manufacturers in the world, wants to make your next TV into a net-savvy quasi-computer. Well, the road from a partnership announcement to an actual product is a long one, so maybe not your next TV, exactly, but the one after. Honest! [ARM]

iPhone 3GS Selling As Quickly As iPhone 3G [Numbers]

iPhone 3GS Selling As Quickly As iPhone 3G [Numbers]

Whether the Phone 3GS will find as much demand as the iPhone 3G over the first few months of its release is still to be seen, but as of now it's off to a strong start.

Note that it took 74 days for the first million iPhones to sell, 3 days for the first million iPhone 3Gs to sell and just another 3 days for the first million iPhone 3GSs to sell. That puts the early pace of the iPhone 3G and 3GS at a close tie.

So what do you think? Will the public continue to adopt the 3GS at the same rate as the 3G? The 3GS's hype certainly hasn't been as strong as its older brother, but maybe Apple's position in the mobile market has strengthened since then.

Shameless confession: As long as my iPhone has strong app support, I really don't care how many units sell. In fact, the less the better. Those Apple geeks are sooooo annoying. Yes, that criticism includes myself. [Apple and Apple and Apple]

Apple Sells Over One Million iPhone 3GS Models

iPhone 3.0 Software Downloads Reach Six Million

CUPERTINO, Calif., June 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today announced that it has sold over one million iPhone™ 3GS models through Sunday, June 21, the third day after its launch. In addition, six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days since its release.
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"Cus tomers are voting and the iPhone is winning," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "With over 50,000 applications available from Apple's revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever."

The new iPhone 3GS is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including improved speed and performance — up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G — with longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control. iPhone 3GS includes the new iPhone OS 3.0, the world's most advanced mobile operating system with over 100 new features such as Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS*, Spotlight™ Search, landscape keyboard and more. iPhone 3GS customers get access to more than 50,000 applications from Apple's revolutionary App Store, the largest application store in the world where customers have already downloaded over one billion apps. iPhone 3GS offers twice the capacity for the same price with a 16GB model for just $199 and a new 32GB model for just $299.** And iPhone 3G is available at the breakthrough price of just $99 for the 8GB model — a huge milestone for the high end smartphone market.

QNAP SS-839 Pro Turbo NAS Shrinks Mega RAID to Notebook Sizes [Storage]

QNAP SS-839 Pro Turbo NAS Shrinks Mega RAID to Notebook Sizes [Storage]

The QNAP SS-839 Pro Turbo NAS is the smallest 8-bay networked attached storage solution on the market. In fact, it's just a hair larger than a 7-inch cube.

How is it so tiny? The SS-839 uses 2.5-inch SATA drives instead of the clunky 3.5s you find in desktops (and most NAS systems).

But beyond its compact 4TB capacity, the SS-839 features plenty of performance enhancers, like a low-voltage Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and 2 eSATA ports along with 5 USBs. Fully loaded with 8 hot-swappable hard drives, the system sips on just 34W—a handy side effect of its netbook/notebook components.

There's no word on pricing yet, but QNAP has more networking specifics over at their site. [QNAP and BW]

Belkin Powerline HD First to Reach Gigabit Ethernet Speeds [Networking]

Belkin Powerline HD First to Reach Gigabit Ethernet Speeds [Networking]

Network-over-powerline solutions have never been bad—their convenience just came at a cost of speed. That's no longer the case with Belkin's Gigabit Powerline HD.

Reaching data rates of 1000Mbps (over the former speed of 200Mbps), Belkin's new $150 Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit includes one Powerline router and two Powerline adapters, allowing you to stream multiple uncompressed HD data feeds through your home with little issue.

Of course, these are best case scenario numbers. If your old home has lousy electrical, that theoretical spec speed could drop a lot lower. Then again, at the overkill bandwidth of 1000Mbps, it can afford to. [Belkin]

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