Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

China joins Better Place on the battery-swapping bandwagon

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/02/china-joins-better-place-on-the-battery-swapping-bandwagon/

EV's are great for getting around in a green-conscious way, but plug-in people must practice patience while waiting hours to juice up their ride. Better Place's battery swapping stations offer much faster EV refueling, which is why China Southern Power Grid Co. (CSG) is betting big on the technology. The Chinese utility giant has teamed up with Guangzhou's municipal government and Better Place to build a power pack exchange depot and an EV education center. With exhibits, meeting rooms, and EVs to test drive, the education center aims to help persuade administrative officials, captains of industry, and the general populace to jump on the electric car bandwagon. In addition, Ghuangzhou's government will "encourage local car manufacturers" to create autos with switchable batteries and "promote" EV adoption in taxis and state vehicles -- all of which seems likely to happen post-haste, 'cause what the Chinese government wants, the Chinese government gets.

Continue reading China joins Better Place on the battery-swapping bandwagon

China joins Better Place on the battery-swapping bandwagon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 21:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Supply chain issues limit ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer production to 10,000 a month?

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/03/supply-chain-issues-limit-asus-eee-pad-transformer-production-t/

So, it seems that ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer has been hard to find, at least in part due to reasons other than customer demand. According to Netbook News, the Taiwanese company is having trouble sourcing the supplies needed to build the tablet / keyboard combo in sufficient numbers. For now, that means only 10,000 Transformers a month -- a fraction of the 300,000 ASUS was reportedly hoping to make. Word on the web suggests components in greater quantities are coming soon, and production will ramp up significantly in June. Until then, would-be owners will have to go the beg, borrow, or steal route to get one. Investing in a horseshoe or four-leaf clover might not be a bad idea, either.

Supply chain issues limit ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer production to 10,000 a month? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 00:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG P430 and P530 Blade laptops bedazzle with slim bezels, aluminum bodies, and Core i7

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/03/lgs-p430-and-p530-blade-laptops-set-out-to-conquer-the-world-wi/

We heard of a bezel-hating LG Shuriken display sneaking its way onto Acer laptops recently, but the Korean company has wisely opted to debut that cutting-edge technology in its own portable computers first. The 14-inch P430 and 15.6-inch P530 mark the start of LG's new Blade series of laptops, which are the result of some obsessive slimming work at the LG labs -- display thickness is 4.5mm and 4.7mm, respectively, while the bezel on the 14-inch model is so narrow as to fit its screen within the dimensions of a traditional 13.3-inch laptop. Weight, at 1.94kg on the P430 and 2.2kg on P530, is also said to be on par with machines offering significantly smaller screens, but that's not at the sacrifice of construction materials as brushed aluminum is used to strengthen LG's new slimsters. A Core i7 CPU and GeForce GT520M GPU will provide the internal firepower, though the rest of the hardware specs are as yet unannounced. The P430 will launch in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America at the end of May, to be followed by the P530 in June. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading LG P430 and P530 Blade laptops bedazzle with slim bezels, aluminum bodies, and Core i7

LG P430 and P530 Blade laptops bedazzle with slim bezels, aluminum bodies, and Core i7 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Logitech's 720p TV Cam lets you get your Skype on your 2011 Viera Connect HDTV

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/03/logitechs-720p-tv-cam-lets-you-get-your-skype-on-your-2011-vier/

Logitech's 720p TV Cam lets you get your Skype on your Viera HDTV

If you have yourself a Skype-compatible 2011 Viera Connect HDTV from Panasonic but still find your living room lacking the optics required to make high-latency VOIP calls that much more interesting, you now have yet another option courtesy of Logitech. The company has just announced its TV Cam for Skype, a 720p model that, if we didn't know better, we'd say was exactly the same as the camera you can get for the Revue -- which is also a dead ringer for the C910. Anyhow, it'll do 720p video, has cool blue lights, and is set to be available sometime this month for $149.99. More details in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Logitech's 720p TV Cam lets you get your Skype on your 2011 Viera Connect HDTV

Logitech's 720p TV Cam lets you get your Skype on your 2011 Viera Connect HDTV originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 04:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Electronic House crowns iOS-equipped dwelling 2011 Home of the Year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/03/electronic-house-crowns-ios-equipped-dwelling-2011-home-of-the-y/

Electronic House just announced its pick for 2011 Home of the Year, and from the look of things, this iOS-enabled abode has the stuff to put your robotic butler out of work. The mammoth craftsman's interiors, designed by OCD poster boy Jeff Lewis, were automated by HD Media Systems using the Savant app. Everything from lighting to shower temperature are controlled using wall-mounted iPads or a series of unencumbered iOS devices. A pre-programmed "party button" immediately adjusts lighting and temperature, and bumps music to the 15 different Sonance in-ceiling speaker zones while displaying a slideshow on monitors dispersed throughout the house. Among the extravagant extras at work here are a switch in the master closet for flipping on the iron in the laundry room, a chandelier that flickers when it's time to switch out the toilet paper, and a virtual butler that warns of impending visitors. Looks to us like Rosie's days are numbered. Check out the source link for more automated overkill from this year's runners up.

Electronic House crowns iOS-equipped dwelling 2011 Home of the Year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Strandbeests birthed from 3D printer pop out ready to walk (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/03/strandbeests-birthed-from-3d-printer-pop-out-ready-to-walk-vide/

While designer Theo Jansen's dreams of a race of independently multiplying Strandbeests is more than just a little bit out there, it seems he has found a way to streamline production of the rather fascinating self-propelled creatures. In language that is unique to Jansen's relationship with the things, he explains the impact of 3D printing on the Strandbeest production process as such: "Strandbeests have found a way to multiply by injecting their digital DNA directly into the Shapeways system." The 3D printed versions of his strolling mechanisms, known as Animaris Geneticus Parvus, are now available in the Shapeways store, and require zero post-printing assembly. Check out the video after the break for more of Jansen's eyebrow-lifting take on reality.

Continue reading Strandbeests birthed from 3D printer pop out ready to walk (video)

Strandbeests birthed from 3D printer pop out ready to walk (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 May 2011 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Monday, May 02, 2011

Gaming gets immersive thanks to union of pico projector and eye tracking camera (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/02/gaming-gets-immersive-thanks-to-union-of-pico-projector-and-eye/

Although in the earliest stages of development, this virtual reality gaming rig already looks pretty intriguing. Engineered by clever kids at the University of Texas at Austin, it hot-wires an eye tracking camera to a motorised pico projector with the result that the player literally can't take their eyes off the screen. Wherever they look, that is where their view of the gaming world is projected. The rig makes most sense in a first-person shooter, although the students have also tried it in a flight simulator where the player uses their head to roll and pitch the aircraft. Yes, it looks rather similar to the Microvision PicoP laser projection gun we wielded at CES, but there's a key difference: the player does not need to hold anything or have anything attached to their body. This unencumbered Kinect-esque approach could potentially allow a greater sense of freedom -- except that, for it to work, the player is forced to sit directly in front of the eye tracker. Find a way to fix this, dear Longhorns, and you could be onto something. Video after the break.

Continue reading Gaming gets immersive thanks to union of pico projector and eye tracking camera (video)

Gaming gets immersive thanks to union of pico projector and eye tracking camera (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Compulab's Trim Slice on sale, for power users only

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/02/compulabs-trim-slice-on-sale-for-power-users-only/

Remember the Trim Slice, that Tegra 2-powered nettop that surfaced back in January? Well, it's finally on sale, but the company would prefer that casual consumers hold off on buying. To recap, the chassis, just six tenths of an inch thick, is home to a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU, GeForce ULP chip, SATA SSD, 1GB of RAM, 802.11n WiFI, Bluetooth, and a cornucopia of I/O ports. It starts at $199 for a model that lacks internal WiFi and storage (you can add these via dongles), and graduates to models with 4GB of microSD storage and a WiFi dongle ($219) and a "Pro" version with a 32GB SSD and wireless and Bluetooth dongles ($319). Whichever iteration you choose, though, you'll be greeted by a warning that the software remains a work in progress, so you'll probably want to stay away for now. Unless, of course, you're a developer -- or you really know how to have a good time.

Continue reading Compulab's Trim Slice on sale, for power users only

Compulab's Trim Slice on sale, for power users only originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series now available for $649 Amazon pre-order

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/02/samsung-sliding-pc-7-series-now-available-for-649-amazon-pre-or/

Samsung has yet to announce a revised release date for its Sliding PC 7 Series tablet / laptop hybrid, but the 2.2-pound netvertible slider is already available for pre-order on Amazon. According to Amazon's listing, the 7 Series should ship with many of the same specs we noticed at this year's CES: a 10-inch touchscreen with 1366 x 768-resolution, dual front and rear cameras (1.3 and 3.0 megapixels, respectively), a 32GB SSD, 2GB of RAM and, of course, Intel's 1.5GHz Atom Oak Trail Z670 processor, which was originally scheduled to launch in March, before being pushed back to May. The slider will also run on Windows 7 Home Premium, and come equipped with 802.11b/g/n WiFi. When it debuted earlier this year, the Series 7 boasted optional 3G and WiMax features, as well as a six-cell battery that claimed to last up to nine hours on a single charge. Amazon doesn't mention either of these specs in its listing, but everything else checks out with what we've already heard. And, at $649, it's even a little cheaper than we expected.

Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series now available for $649 Amazon pre-order originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 08:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Qualcomm shows off MSM8660's slick video performance on development kit (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/02/qualcomm-shows-off-msm8660s-slick-video-performance-on-developm/

If you've been closely tracking the development of Qualcomm's 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8660, you would've already seen AnandTech's impressive set of benchmark results back in early April. But of course, it'd be more convincing to actually see this chipset in action, so Qualcomm's latest videos of its Mobile Development Platform should satisfy your curiosity. As demoed after the break, this Snapdragon's Adreno 220 is seen effortlessly handling in-page HTML5 video streaming, Flash video streaming, and 1080p playback. And as a sideshow, Qualcomm even put its current-gen single-core QSD8255 head-to-head with a rival dual-core chipset -- no doubt a Tegra 2 in an LG Optimus 2x -- and easily won the Flash video contest. All of this might lure you into getting the MDP as your next everyday phone, but here's the bad news: this professional kit will cost you a dear $1,350. So unless you're feeling very generous, you'd probably want to wait for the consumer devices to arrive in the summer -- think EVO 3D, Sensation (with GSM-flavored MSM8260, naturally), Flyer, and TouchPad.

Continue reading Qualcomm shows off MSM8660's slick video performance on development kit (video)

Qualcomm shows off MSM8660's slick video performance on development kit (video) ori! ginally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 May 2011 04:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sunday, May 01, 2011

Five Engineering Students. Significant Budget. One Year. The Perfect Bicycle? [Bicycles]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5797442/five-engineering-students-significant-budget-one-year-the-perfect-bicycle

Voila! UPenn's super-sophisticated uber-bike. Five kids. Substantial funding and sponsorship dollars. Free reign to eliminate clunks gears and cables. It's called Alpha.

But what makes it so special, exactly?

For one thing, the drive train is completely enclosed within the bike's frame. There's a three-speed electric gearbox contained within the central hub, which is controlled by a handlebar-mounted LED screen. Also on that screen is a readout that displays current gear, distance traveled, speed and data from the SD card that you're completely free to insert into the bike's SD reader.

Powering all these onboard electronics is a dynamo in the front wheel housing. Safety lights (LED, naturally) are located in the rear for night riding.

And you probably already guessed this, but the frame is lightweight carbon fiber, which has been coupled with aluminum lugs and a titanium clutch. Sadly, weight was not given, but we'll assume it's "incredibly light."

Lastly, you will never ride this bike—it's one-of-a-kind and not slated for production. [Alpha via Core77 via DVICE]

Nanocones make solar cells more efficient, sinister looking

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/01/nanocones-make-solar-cells-more-efficient-sinister-looking/

Going green is de rigeur, so the sun is becoming a much-preferred source of power. However, solar cells' inefficient harvesting of helical energies is a major reason they haven't usurped the power of petroleum. Good thing the big brains at Oak Ridge National Labratory are looking to change that with nanocone-based solar technology. The teeny-tiny cones are made of zinc oxide and create "an intrinsic electric field distribution" to improve electrical charge transport within solar cells. We aren't sure what that means, but we do know the prickly-looking design provides a 3.2 percent light-to-power conversion efficiency that's a substantial improvement over the meager 1.8 percent offered by today's flat photovoltaics made of similar materials. That's 80 percent more efficient, and 100 percent more awesome.

Nanocones make solar cells more efficient, sinister looking originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 May 2011 05:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Intel's Cedar Trail gets some specs, combines CPU and GPU on a single chip

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/intels-cedar-trail-gets-some-specs-combines-cpu-and-gpu-on-a-s/

Intel Atom Lineup

That new processor smell has barely started to fade from Oak Trail and we're already getting some tantalizing details about the next generation of Atom chips -- Cedar Trail. As expected, Intel has moved to 32nm, which allows it to cram the GPU and the CPU onto the same sliver of silicon. The first two models, the D2500 and D2700, will be dual-core, sport 1MB of L2 cache, and have a miserly TDP of 10w -- 3w lower than current dual-core Atoms. The former will be clocked at 1.86GHz with Hyper-Threading turned off, while the D2700 flips the switch on those two extra threads and kicks it up a notch to 2.13GHz. The new integrated graphics will boast better HD decoding and support for Blu-ray playback which, when combined with the taunts of fanless designs and WiDi, make Cedar Trail a natural fit for the living room.

Intel's Cedar Trail gets some specs, combines CPU and GPU on a single chip originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square to add encryption to mobile card reader, skimmers put on notice

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/square-to-add-encryption-to-mobile-card-reader-skimmers-put-on/

It's only been a couple days since we first heard about Visa's involvement with Square, but the credit card giant is already making its mark on the mobile payment startup. At the Visa Global Security Summit on Wednesday, Square Security Lead Sam Quigley revealed that the company will distribute an encrypted card reader this summer, which will work exclusively with its mobile payment app. The current reader theoretically scans credit card data to any app, but the encrypted version will only work with Square, which should alleviate VeriFone's concern that the company was essentially distributing "card skimmers" to anyone with a social security number. Luckily, the new encrypted reader will remain free, giving Square a colossal advantage over VeriFone's Payware Mobile product, which carries a $49 activation fee, in addition to standard merchant fees. Not to mention, it isn't available in white.

Square to add encryption to mobile card reader, skimmers put on notice originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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