No one knows you, the small fish in a big pond? Make a new pond? The mktng problem then becomes no one knows your pond: http://bit.ly/bb8MOd

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Set Up a Low-Tech, Whole-House Speaker System Through Existing Phone Lines [DIY]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/Si_GJKftNz0/set-up-a-low+tech-whole+house-speaker-system-through-existing-phone-lines

Ed. note: It can be pretty expensive (and a big pain) to install a wired, whole-house speaker system, but reader Tom O'Brien writes in with his low-tech solution: Route your speakers through the phone lines already installed in your house.

Here's Tom's set-up:

Using existing telephone wire and powered speakers, it's fairly simple to connect speakers throughout the house via existing phone lines. This will work only if the lines have 3 extra wires, such as when no land line is in use, or if the house has 6 (very common) or 8 strand telephone wire. Cat 3 wire is 8 strand.

Each audio jack in the setup can connect to any source or supply output to speakers. All power is supplied by the input and output components. This is just a big complicated extension cable.

I live in an old 3 level house. This permits the same audio to be played throughout. Off/on and volume controls are on the remote speakers, as with any powered speaker. This will possibly violate the sensibilities of audiophiles, but the sound is fine for me.

Materials include:

• 3.5 mm headphone jacks from Radio Shack
• Repurposed Cat 5 or Cat 3 junction boxes drilled out for audio jacks. Home Depot's are cheapest.

Tools:

• Soldering iron

All audio files, podcasts, etc are saved on netbook PC at "Home Base" (pictured above).

Note 2 cords plugged into panel. One is output from computer, other is to the speakers on shelf.

A CD player, portable mp3 player or any other source can be plugged in as well, hence so many jacks at home base.

The good speakers in living room.

3.5 mm headphone jacks from Radio Shack.

This is a cover panel for an in-wall junction box. The example has both speaker jacks and a phone jack and uses cat 3 (8 strand) wire. It would have been easier to just wire in a second box for the speaker jacks.

This is suitable for an in wall junction box.

The 3 screws at the top are for the audio jacks, the 4 screws at the bottom connect a 2 line phone via the cat 3 phone jack in the center.

External box wired in to existing phone system.

Double sided tape works well to secure wood to the box.

Thanks for the great suggestion, Tom! If you're looking for a higher-tech solution that'll still keep it cheap, check out our previous guide to using an AirPort Express to set up wireless, multi-room music playback.

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Toshiba's Viamo is the tablet your doctor has been dreaming of

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/toshibas-viamo-is-the-tablet-your-doctor-has-been-dreaming-of/

Convertible tablets are a dime a dozen in the laptop space, but very, very few of them can save your life. Toshiba's Viamo is the one that could -- when used by someone who knows how to control it, that is. It's a portable ultrasound device that has some tactile knobs and buttons for the old-school practitioners, but can be entirely controlled by that touchscreen, which folds flat. Sure, it isn't as portable as other ultrasound machines we've seen before, but it certainly looks quite a bit more advanced, and this one mounts on a pole for easy wheeling around your busy ER -- important when helicopters crash into your roof, ambulances explode out front, and two doctors madly in love need to make a little room. Viamo is newly approved by the FDA and so is now available in the US at a cost that we wouldn't hazard to guess at.

Toshiba's Viamo is the tablet your doctor has been dreaming of originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MedGadget  |  Tosh iba Medical  | Email this | Comments

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Samsung's transparent OLED laptop could hit retail, IceTouch PMP will get the ball rolling

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/samsungs-transparent-oled-laptop-could-hit-retail-icetouch-pmp/

So um, remember this crazy 14-inch transparent OLED display Samsung was showing off perched atop a laptop at CES? Yea, that might be in the shops within the next 12 months. If that doesn't get you tingling with excitement, we don't know what will. Samsung will start its big push toward translucency with the IceTouch PMP, which we found to have a gorgeous 2-inch display in our earlier hands-on, but it's already working away in the labs on turning the prototype above into a concrete retail product. The IceTouch is slated to make its US arrival early in the first half of this year, priced at around $332. European availability is as yet uncomfirmed, but the Korean's company is being very ambitious about its technology, suggesting that windscreen-mounted SatNav units could be next on the agenda and ruling nothing out as it strives to bring its transparent AMOLED displays into the mainstream.

Samsung's transparent OLED laptop could hit retail, IceTouch PMP will get the ball rolling originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink OLED-Info  |  +Plastic Electronics  | Email this | Comments

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ARM planning three new Cortex CPUs, Eagle headed for smartphones

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/arm-planning-three-new-cortex-cpus-eagle-headed-for-smartphones/

As if the Cortex-A9 isn't stirring up enough emotion all by itself, ARM revealed the roadmap for an even faster iteration of its Cortex-A series of chips during its earnings call a few days ago. Codenamed Eagle, the new processor is slated for a production run of 3 billion units annually, but alas this slide shares no more information on it beyond the intended market of smartphones, mobile computing, and digital TV products. (We've definitely heard that it'll be a 28nm multi-core part destined to ship around 2012, however.) There's also word of a pair of embedded chips, dubbed Heron and Merlin, which will find roles to perform in automotive and audio processing environments. Unsurprising that ARM isn't standing still, but we could've done with a little less mystery and a few more specs.

[Thanks, Kamal]

ARM planning three new Cortex CPUs, Eagle headed for smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GadgetMix, SlashGear  |  Tech.163  | Email this | Comments

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