Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

NEC's Aterm WM3300R is like a souped-up WiMAX version of the MiFi

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/27/necs-aterm-wm3300r-is-like-a-souped-up-wimax-version-of-the-mif/

Not every company has the design chops to make it in modern consumer electronics. Case in point: NEC's Aterm WM3300R. While it looks like a thermostat you'd wall-mount at the local health center, it packs enough technological appeal to make up for that clinical dowdiness. See, it's a pocketable WiMAX router with integrated 802.11b/g WiFi -- think MiFi only with the relatively blazing speeds of 40Mbps (downstream) / 10Mbps (upstream) WiMAX instead of EV-DO or HSPA and a battery capable of about 2.5 hours of shared usage. The WM3300R can also be USB-attached to a PC as a WiMAX modem. Drop another ¥5,000 (about $54) and you've got a spare battery to keep the mobile action going. Expect it to be released in early November in Japan for an estimated ¥25,000 or right around $272. You seeing this Sprint, Clearwire?

[Via Akihabara News]

Filed under: Wireless, Networking

NEC's Aterm WM3300R is like a souped-up WiMAX version of the MiFi originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI working on Tegra-based e-book reader for 2010

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/27/msi-working-on-tegra-based-e-book-reader-for-2010/

Oh Tegra, is there anything you can't do? Not only are you at the heart of the Zune HD, you're also the rumored silicon foundation underpinning next generation smartbooks, media pads, MIDs, and even the Nintendo DS. Now we've got MSI chairman, Joseph Hsu, peddling promises of an NVIDIA Tegra-based e-book reader that will be fully revealed in the first half of 2010 -- exactly as rumored. While no details have been provided, one could assume that a device with that kind of power will be doing more than just refreshing electronic ink on a single display slab, particularly with dual-display e-book readers now the norm.

Filed under: Displays, Handhelds

MSI working on Tegra-based e-book reader for 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:11:00 EST. Please see our terms f! or use o f feeds.

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Nissan and AIST partner up to make foot-sized Segway shoes, enable first tracks all year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/27/nissan-and-aist-partner-up-to-make-foot-sized-segway-shoes-enab/

For the northern half of the world it's almost ski season, and thus a curious time to debut a pair of devices that allow skiing in the summertime. Nevertheless Nissan and Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology are introducing this pair of two-wheeled, self-balancing devices. Lace up your fresh New Balance kicks, grab onto the handlebars, then hop on to go for a ride. Each one detects weight shifts and motors itself in the direction you want to go -- or at least the direction you're leaning. They don't look particularly stable nor safe, but they could enable some sweet concrete hot doggin' in the summertime -- and some sick splits if you don't have your snowplow perfected.

[Via Plastic Pals]

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Nissan and AIST partner up to make foot-sized Segway shoes, enable first tracks all year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Roku HD-XR Player and Roku SD Player announced (with hands-on!)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/27/roku-hdxr-player-announced-adds-802-11n-not-much-else-with-h/

We had big hopes the Roku HD-XR streaming player would add local streaming when those leaked pics showed a USB port, but we just got the official launch materials and a review unit, and as of right now the only difference between the new $129 HD-XR Player and the existing model is an upgrade to 802.11n WiFi -- the USB port is for "future use." Now, we're big proponents of 802.11n, so we're not complaining, but we've never had a problem streaming HD Netflix or Amazon with our regular Roku HD Player on 802.11g, so we're not too sure the HD-XR is worth the $30 premium right now. Roku is gearing up to launch a new Channel Store with additional content in the coming weeks, however, so there's a chance this little box will need the extra bandwidth sometime soon -- we'll have to wait and see.

Roku's also launching the SD-only Roku SD Player for $79, which might actually be the more interesting product here, as we know tons of people with old TVs in bedrooms and basements who would love some cheap movie streaming. It'll be in the same enclosure as the HD Player and the HD-XR Player, but only have 802.11g WiFi and RCA audio / video outputs.

Gallery: Roku HD-XR Player unboxing and hands-on

Gallery: Roku HD-XR and SD Player press images

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Roku HD-XR Player and Roku SD Player announced (with hands-on!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nokia N97 firmware 2.0 hits the tubes, is ready for your attention

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/27/nokia-n97-firmware-2-0-hits-the-tubes-is-ready-for-your-attenti/

Got an N97? Yeah? Reckoned that Nokia has forgotten about your loyalty and moved all of its focus onto the N900? Fret not, dearest early adopter -- the engineers in Espoo are making good on a promise to clear out lots of bugs in the aforesaid handset with firmware 2.0, and if we're seeing this right, it's available now to download all over the world. We know, you 5800 owners are clamoring for the same type of TLC, but for now it looks like the pricier sibling is getting its due. Hit the read link and get your download going, and make sure to report back on your kinetic scrolling experience, cool?

[Thanks, Daniel]

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Nokia N97 firmware 2.0 hits the tubes, is ready for your attention originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba launches 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor with backside illumination for cellphones

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/27/toshiba-launches-14-6-megapixel-cmos-sensor-with-backside-illumi/

Toshiba launches 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor with backside illumination for cellphones

Backside illumination may sound like something a proctologist would use in a poorly-lit examining room, but it's actually a re-imagining of the CMOS sensor that brings the photodiodes closer to the action, thus delivering brighter images from smaller packaging. OmniVision and Sony both have their takes on the tech and now Toshiba is putting it into a 14.6 megapixel sensor for cellphones and compact cameras. The company claims light absorption is boosted by 40%, resulting in bright pictures despite the high-density 1/2.3-inch sensor. Early production will begin before the end of the year but manufacturing lines won't start firing en masse until sometime next summer, meaning yet another dark and murky winter of dark and murky pictures.

Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras

Toshiba launches 14.6 megapixel CMOS sensor with backside illumination for cellphones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, October 26, 2009

Build The Spirit Radio That Creeped Out Tesla Himself [DIY]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/_NtzD2luDYU/build-the-spirit-radio-that-creeped-out-tesla-himself

Tesla's Spirit Radio uses a simple crystal radio circuit connected to a computer sound-in jack to generate spooky sounds from all kinds of electromagnetic sources. As you will see, it creeped the hell out of Tesla himself.

"My first observations positively terrified me as there was present in them something mysterious, not to say supernatural, and I was alone in my laboratory at night."
- Nikola Tesla 1901

"The sounds I am listening to every night at first appear to be human voices conversing back and forth in a language I cannot understand. I find it difficult to imagine that I am actually hearing real voices from people not of this planet. There must be a more simple explanation that has so far eluded me."
- Nikola Tesla 1918

Is it science or the supernatural? Check out the video to see what the radio is capable of and, if your are so inclined, build one and decide for yourself. Needless to say, this would be a hit at a Halloween party. Hit the link for a complete set of instructions. [Instructables]

Brother, NEC look to invade your retinas next year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/26/brother-nec-look-to-invade-your-retinas-next-year/

Brother may spend a big chunk of its time on things like printers and sewing machines, but it's also quietly been working on some decidedly more futuristic products, and it may just be set to deliver on one of them. While it wasn't offering much in the way of specifics the last time we heard about its retina display technology, Brother now seems to have a fully developed, fully functional prototype (pictured above), and it says it plans to commercialize the glasses sometime "next year." Naturally, there are a few considerable limitations compared to more traditional displays, but the company's as yet unnamed goggles do promise to beam an 800 x 600 image directly into your retina that'll appear as a 10-centimeter wide image floating about one meter in front of them -- which is certainly no small feat, even if it may not be the most practical one. Slightly less specific, but also working on a retina display of its own is NEC, which apparently hopes to incorporate a microphone into their display and use it as a real-time translation device that would quite literally display subtitles as you talk to someone. Ambitious, to be sure, but NEC is also saying it hopes to get it on the market in 2010.

Read - Register Hardware, "Brother creates direct retinal imaging specs"
Read - Far East Gizmos, "NEC develops Worlds first retina-display translation Eyeglasses"

[Via Popular Science]

Filed under: Displays, Wearables

Brother, NEC look to invade your retinas next year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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eviGroup's Pad is a 10-inch 3G tablet with personality

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/26/evigroups-pad-is-a-10-inch-3g-tablet-with-personality/

Time to freshen up the old netbook market with a dash of Windows 7, a pinch of touchscreen functionality, and a generous helping of... Seline10? eviGroup, the crew responsible for the attractive 5-inch Wallet MID, has announced the 10.2-inch Pad, whose pièce de résistance is the Seline10 artificial intelligence software that's been in development for a decade, if you can believe it. Its purpose is to act as your secretary / assistant, and while the novelty's good, we all know how well Clippy worked out. Fret not though, it's just an optional extra and shouldn't detract from the appeal of a device that offers 3G and a/b/g WiFi connectivity, one VGA and three USB ports, multicard reader, webcam, microphone, and the old faithful 1.6GHz of Atom power. A price of under €500 is being touted, with further details set to emerge over the coming days.

Filed under: Handhelds

eviGroup's Pad is a 10-inch 3G tablet with personality originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel's SSD Toolbox, firmware update promise boost in performance

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/26/intels-ssd-toolbox-firmware-update-promise-boost-in-performan/

We won't say that we love products leaving the oven before they're completely done, but we do adore gratis firmware updates that better a product even after you've purchased it. That being said, we're actually stoked that Intel has decided to out its second major firmware update for the second-gen 34nm X25-M SSD, and unlike the first, this one has the potential to put smiles on lots and lots (as opposed to a few) faces. The newfangled SSD Toolbox includes an SSD Optimizer for the aforementioned device, which promises to help users "more effectively monitor and manage the SSD's health." It also offers a performance boost to sequential write speeds by delivering up to 100MB/sec on the 160GB model, which represents a rather substantial 40 percent uptick over the existing firmware. The best news of all? Intel's doing more than just blowing hot air, as the benchmarking gurus over at Hot Hardware found out. Hit the read link for their eye-opening analysis.

Intel's SSD Toolbox, firmware update promise boost in performance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo gets official with Win7-powered IdeaPad and IdeaCentre machines

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/26/lenovo-gets-official-with-win7-powered-ideapad-and-ideacentre-ma/

Lenovo already got official with a couple of its Windows 7-powered machines last week, but it looks like the rest of the crop is landing today. Of course, we've already seen the 11.6-inch IdeaPad U150 and 15.6-inch U550 pop up in various corners of the globe this month, and the IdeaPad U350 has been around since the summer. That said, we'll take the OS refresh and minor spec bumps any day of the week (along with new colors on the S10-2), and that's exactly what we're getting. We'll spare you the rehash (it's all there in the read link if you need a refresher), but over on the desktop front, we're pretty stoked about the stylish (and previously rumored) all-in-one IdeaCentre B500. Packing a Core 2 Quad CPU, 1TB of HDD space, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 23-inch LCD, this thing may actually perform fairly well in tasks more strenuous than checking email. The business-minded K300 and bargain-priced H230 ($299 starting point) are less thrilling from a hardware perspective, but they'll certainly fit their respective molds quite well. The whole lot should be available to order soon directly from Lenovo, and there's bound to be plenty of options for those not content with base configurations.

Gallery: Lenovo gets official with Win7-powered IdeaPad and IdeaCentre machines

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Lenovo gets official with Win7-powered IdeaPad and IdeaCentre machines originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GlideTV Navigator gets a thorough hands-on and critiquing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/26/glidetv-navigator-gets-a-thorough-hands-on-and-critiquing/

If you're not down with snapping up an HTPC-centric keyboard with an integrated trackpad or trackball, controlling the likes of Hulu, Boxee and ZeeVee's Zinc TV viewer can be a real chore. Dave Zatz was able to wrap his paws around the problem-solving GlideTV Navigator, and while he deemed the actual remote trackpad "the best he'd ever used," he couldn't unequivocally say that this beauty was worth a buck-fifty. He also found that the remote could be used one-handed with a bit of practice, and he expressed understandable concern about this thing's ability to stay functional as the software around it evolves. If you've been waffling on pulling the trigger here, you owe it to yourself to give the read link a look.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals

GlideTV Navigator gets a thorough hands-on and critiquing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Export All Your Google Docs to a ZIP File [Backup]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/17XxWo682kk/export-all-your-google-docs-to-a-zip-file

Google Docs has officially thrown open their data doors, allowing users to back up all their documents to whatever formats they choose and compressed into a ZIP file. It's serious peace of mind for those concerned about the cloud.

The feature seemed to arrive very recently without any official blog post or explanation, but it seems to be working for more than just a select few testers. The only catch to using it is selecting all your files, as the Google Operating System blog explains. I frequently "hide" (or basically archive) documents I'm not using frequently, so I only had to head to the "Hidden" view in the left-hand view selector—those with more complex filing schemes should try the "All Items" view, or a wildcard asterisk search to pin down what they want.

Once you've selected or searched for what you want to export, you'll have to scroll all the way down until all the documents are exposed, then hit the checkmark box to select them all. Finally, right-click somewhere in your selected docs, choose "Export," and tell Google how to export your word, spreadsheet, and PDF files.

While you're securing your Docs data somewhere other than on Google's servers, take a peek at other free tools to back up online accounts—you'll feel a bit less tethered to the whims of various server administrators and account security representatives.

Google Docs Batch Export [Google Operating System via Digital Inspiration]

Imo.im Provides a Web-Based Portal to Messaging and Social Networks [Instant Messaging]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/rvPkbrvfUGs/imoim-provides-a-web+based-portal-to-messaging-and-social-networks

When you're away from your home terminal and without your favorite portable cross-service IM application, imo.im can help you get all your messages back into one window again.

Imo.im is a web-based tool to help you log in to multiple messaging and social networks. It currently supports MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Skype, MySpace, and Facebook. You can log in to one or all of the supported services and access your contact lists. Messaging windows are all displayed within the imo.im site and denoted by service type and the user name of your contact.

In addition to the spartan but effective chat interface, imo.im also has a photo sharing tool and a whiteboard system. Using imo.im requires no special login, you access each account with the login you're already using. Have a web-based chat solution you love? Just tried out imo.im and want to share your opinion? Let's hear about it in the comments.

imo.im [via TechCrunch]

uTorrent Portable Puts BitTorrent on a USB Drive [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/9e2mBxZezqs/utorrent-portable-puts-bittorrent-on-a-usb-drive

Windows (Portable): You've always been able to grab uTorrent's program folder and drop it onto a thumb drive for portable BitTorrent handling. Now the PortableApps.com suite has packaged our favorite torrent client and integrated it with their application menu.

If you wanted to try out uTorrent with no commitment, this portable download would be a handy download for any Windows system. More likely, however, is that you'll grab uTorrent Portable for stand-alone installation on your USB drive, or integrate it into your existing PortableApps.com USB installation. All the same features that you've come to love about uTorrent, like remote web control and organized downloads, are present in the portable version. In short, you'll never be stuck at mom's house without a means to access crucial content again.

uTorrent portable is a free download, runs from anywhere on Windows systems.

µTorrent Portable [PortableApps.com via Download Squad]

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