Sunday, March 3, 2013

Anyone Can Be a Pool Shark When This Projector Calls the Shots

Published on Gizmodo | shared via feedly

Pool is simple if you know your geometry. And physics. And have good hand-eye coordination. And while none of those seem that hard on their own, they can be a little tough to put together. But with a little help from tech, it becomes as easy as just keeping your eyes open. More »

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Google’s New Chromebook Pixel Looks to Target the Retina MacBook Pro

Published on iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource | shared via feedly

Two arrows 2

Google today announced their new Chromebook Pixel, their latest notebook offering:

Today we're excited to announce our newest laptop—the Chromebook Pixel—which brings together the best in hardware, software and design to inspire the next generation of Chromebooks. With the Pixel, we set out to rethink all elements of a computer in order to design the best laptop possible, especially for power users who have fully embraced the cloud. The philosophy of Chrome has always been to minimize the "chrome" of the browser. In much the same way, the goal of the Pixel is to make the pixels disappear, giving people the best web experience.

Chromebooks run Google Chrome OS, essentially a system based on Linux with Google Chrome as the web browser, which means the system runs best when connected to the internet. Here are the specs of the latest Chromebook Pixel, which comes with a touchscreen display:

Intel Core i5 dual core processor at 1.8 GHz, integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics GPU
4GB of RAM
12.86-inch touch screen with 2560 x 1760 pixels; 239 pixels per inch (13-inch and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros have 227 PPI and 220 PPI respectively)
32GB or 64GB of flash memory storage
Five hours of battery life
1TB of free Google Drive cloud storage for 3 years
WiFi version: $1299
WiFi + LTE version: $1449

Below is Google's promo video for the Chromebook Pixel, check it out:

The Verge went hands-on with the Pixel and you can see from their tests the touchscreen is not perfect by any means.

Not sure what Google was thinking with trying to price these notebooks starting at $1299 when the device relies on an internet connection to be completely useful and also has limited local storage options. To put this insane pricing strategy into perspective, a refurbished 13.3-inch Retina MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of flash storage is actually cheaper, priced at $1269.

Anyone going to buy a Chromebook Pixel?

Google's New Chromebook Pixel Looks to Target the Retina MacBook Pro is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Polytron’s Transparent Smartphone May Be in Your Future

Published on Mashable! | shared via feedly

If Polytron Technologies has its way, you'll barely be able to see your next smartphone.

The Taiwan-based manufacturer has released a futuristic-looking prototype for what it hopes will be the world's first transparent smartphone.

The product, which remains in its early stages, is made from Polytron's Polyvision Privacy Glass. The glass is opaque when powered off, but it appearance transforms when electricity is applied. According to Polytron's website, "the liquid crystal molecules line up, the incident light passes through, and Polyvision looks clear."

Technically, the glass design isn't completely see-through -- the batteries and SIM card remain visible, as does the power switch…
Continue reading...

More About: Hardware, innovation, smartphone

Sunday, January 27, 2013

The last time I reviewed a ZIIIRO watch, I absolutely fell in love with it. To be honest, I nearly didn’t want to part with it. Now, the designer watch company has just released a brand new model called the ZIIIRO Saturn. Will it fill the void in me left by the ZIIIRO Celeste?

ZIIIRO Saturn Watch Review and Giveaway

By Jackson Chung

How will the ZIIIRO Saturn, a somewhat digitised version of the ZIIIRO Celeste, hold up against my expectations? Will I like this €179 watch as much, and be willing to recommend it as highly as I did its predecessor? We’ll just have to find out. We’re also giving this designer watch away, so read the review for more details on how you can be the one who wins it!
ZIIIRO takes the mundane act of time-telling onto a whole new level of excitement. And as you may have read in my review of the Celeste watch, its unique clock face design is not just pretty to look at, it’s also entertaining. It attracts quite a bit of attention from friends and random strangers. Even though the ZIIIRO Saturn is €30 dearer than the Celeste, it is slightly more subtle — which may or may not be a good thing, depending on your needs and preference.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

A new battery that could revolutionize wearables

Published on GigaOMTech | shared via feedly

Picture a Nike FuelBand that's just a small ring on your index finger, or a cell phone that's as slim and pliable as a credit card. Those types of thin, tiny or just down right unusual shapes could be created if there were batteries that were both slim, flexible and also powerful enough to run the gadgets. It's the batteries, it turns out, that are the main barrier to modern electronics design.

But in a small, brightly-lit lab in an office park behind the Oakland Airport in Alameda, Calif., a young startup called Imprint Energy, is using research created at the University of California, Berkeley to develop just such a battery that could free gadget makers from the constraints of the standard lithium ion battery. Well, that's the plan anyways.

Using zinc, instead of lithium, and screen printing technology, Imprint Energy is already churning out low volumes of its ultra-thin, energy-dense, flexible, and low cost rechargeable batteries for pilot customers.

The battery barrier

The problem is, it's hard to make standard lithium ion batteries thin and flexible, explained Imprint Energy CEO Devin MacKenzie to me in an interview in the startup's lab last week. There's a "lot of packaging," required to seal off the highly reactive lithium in the battery from the environment, said MacKenzie. If you've ever seen YouTube videos of lithium batteries that catch on fire in the air or water, you know why those barriers are needed.

But this architecture also makes lithium ion batteries rigid and potentially bulky. Even the slimmest laptops like the Macbook Air, or tablets like the iPad, faced design limitations created by the size and weight of the batteries. The Nike FuelBand uses a curved (called conformal in battery terms) lithium polymer battery, but if you look closely at the shape of the band (photo left), the battery is the only part of the bracelet that isn't pliable.

Upsides of zinc

Imprint Energy's battery tackles the problem of rigidity and bulkiness by simply throwing out the lithium. The company, which now has a staff of 8, was founded in 2010 by U.C. Berkeley PHD students Christine Ho and Brooks Kincaid, and more they recently raised seed funding from Dow Chemical and CIA fund In-Q-Tel.

The company uses zinc for the anode part of the battery, and combines that with a solid polymer electrolyte and a cathode made of a metal oxide. A battery is made up of an anode on one side and a cathode on the other, with an electrolyte in between — zinc ions (in Imprint's case) travel from the anode to the cathode through the electrolyte, creating a chemical reaction that allows electrons to be harvested along the way.

MacKenzie tells me that while zinc has been used for years in batteries, it's been difficult to make zinc batteries rechargeable. That's because when zinc is combined with a liquid electrolyte it creates something called dendrites, which are tiny fibers that grow and get in the way of the charging reaction. Imprint Energy solved this hurdle by using an electrolyte made of a solid polymer combined with the zinc.

Using zinc means Imprint's batteries can have far less "packaging" because zinc isn't highly reactive with the environment. In other words, the batteries can be made much more thinly. They can also be made as tiny as a few hundred microns thick (the width of a couple human hairs). Batteries that small could power tiny digital smart labels, like freshness detector stickers on food.

Zinc also makes Imprint's batteries more safe and less toxic than lithium-based batteries. The team at Imprint can work on the zinc batteries in the open air. And the zinc batteries are a safer option for creating devices that sit on — or even in — the body. Imagine a lithium battery powering a heart device inside a person's chest cavity, and the battery leaks lithium into the person's body. Yikes.

Printable batteries

The other innovation that Imprint Energy has developed is that it's printing out its batteries using standard screen printing technology. Most batteries are made by coating the materials onto foils, which are then assembled into cells.

In Imprint Energy's Alameda lab, CEO MacKenzie shows me one of two battery printing machines on site and a variety of screens that look sort of like t-shirt silk screening screens. The battery materials are printed like ink onto the screens in whatever shapes the client requires. Customers will pay a premium for batteries created to the custom shapes of their devices.

The company can churn out 100 cells a day on the machines in its lab. That's tiny in the world of the battery giants in Asia, but it's large enough to get samples out to potential customers. Down the road — potentially two to three years — the company will scale up manufacturing to a large commercial scale, but it won't likely be building its own factories. More likely, it will work closely with manufacturing partners or license its technology.

An eye on wearables

While it's still early days for Imprint Energy, the team's end goal is the wearable electronics market, both for consumers (like Nike's FuelBand and the FitBit line) as well as the health sector (such as implanted monitors). The wearables industry could reap the most benefits from the novel and thin shapes of the batteries, as well as the safe and less toxic materials.

Co-founder Kincaid is a wearables buff. He shows me his own Nike FuelBand on his wrist during the interview, and he says he's eagerly awaiting the arrival of his Misfit Shine. For the wearables industry, Imprint Energy's zinc poly batteries could enable an entirely new type of device that's more hidden, more streamlined, or more functional. Given that wearable electronics is an emerging sector, and one that could become a lot more mainstream over the next few years, disruptive design could ultimately completely change the wearable industry.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Windows 8 Hybrids: $750 Netbooks That Just Aren't Worth It

Published on Gizmodo | shared via feedly

Windows 8 hardware sales are off to a slow start as shoppers scratch their heads over Microsoft's new operating system and flock to low-cost tablets instead. Could a souped-up netbook save the day? The latest hybrids powered by Intel Atom processors promise the best of both worlds: the versatility of a laptop combined with the portability of a touch screen slate. But now that we've tested a couple of these detachables, I've concluded that the folks who price these things are detached from reality. More »

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Hexapod Hexacopter: Time to Build Underwater Bunkers

Shared via feedly // published on Technabob // visit site

Mad Lab Industries stays true to its name by frankensteining a hexacopter with a hexapod, driving 12 nails into humanity's coffin in the process. Meet Hexa², a remote-controlled flying robot spider. Kill it with water!

hexapod hexacopter by mad lab industries

As you'll see in the video below, the two parts of Hexa² are currently controlled separately. Watch it fly, walk, walk while flying and bully a plastic container:

Mad Lab Industries are planning to launch a Kickstarter to produce and sell Hexa² kits. So now we're funding our own doom? Seriously though I want one. I hope they can make one that can walk, fly and swim as a stretch goal.

[Mad Lab Industries via Geekologie]