Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on February 29, 2012
10 Essential Gadgets to Survive and Thrive in the Great Outdoors
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Don’t believe the slander: Gadget geeks aren’t afraid of the great outdoors. Quite the opposite, in fact. Whether were on desolate hiking trails, back-country powder runs, or the sun-baked playa, we relish exposure to the elements — if only because it gives us perfect opportunity to test our outdoor survival gear.
In this collection of essential gadgets, we use the term “outdoor survival” liberally. A hydration pack that filters out protozoa from river water is certainly a survival gadget, but so is a kick-ass mountain bike or solar-powered boombox. Outdoor survival isn’t just about maintaining a pulse. It’s about fully owning the environment around you. Read More…
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on February 29, 2012
Most Dangerous Object in the Office: North Face Avalanche Airbag Safety System Backpack
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Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on February 29, 2012
Report: Google-Branded Tablet to Land in April
Google's Nexus tablet could be the company's next hardware device. Jon Snyder/Wired.com
The long-awaited Android-running, Google-branded tablet reportedly arrives in April.
The device is aimed squarely at the dominant, and cheap, Amazon Kindle Fire, which is the world’s leading 7-inch Android device. The tablet, which former CEO Eric Schmidt first mentioned in December, also would advance Google’s plan to create a unified software and hardware ecosystem — just like that company in Cupertino.
Richard Shim, an analyst with DisplaySearch, told CNET the Google tablet is on track for production in April and is expected to cost $199. It will sport a 7-inch, 1280×800 display and run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). Those specs, if they pan out, one-up the Kindle Fire, which also costs $199 but has a 1024×600 display and runs on a modified version of Gingerbread (Android 2.3).
Should the tablet actually materialize, it would be yet another entry in Google’s sweeping hardware initiative. Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility will give the search company a ready-to-go hardware division. The tablet also would follow the rumored music-streaming entertainment device that would take advantage of the proposed Android@Home initiative announced at Google I/O.
This week The New York Times reported that Google is working on HUD glasses that could be formally announced by the end of the year.
Beyond its internal hardware initiatives, Google has partnered with HTC and Samsung for its Nexus-branded smartphones. The current crop of Nexus flagship phones were the first Android phones powered by Ice Cream Sandwich.
Indeed, all the rumored hardware and the Motorola Mobility acquisition suggest Google is positioning itself as a company that owns the entire “product stack,” from operating system to app ecosystem to hardware. This, of course, is the strategy employed by Google’s main rival in the mobile market, Apple.
Should Google continue down this path, it may be the next company, to “own the whole widget,” as Steve Jobs would say.
Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on February 25, 2012
Report: Google-Branded Tablet Lands In April
Google's Nexus tablet could be the company's next hardware device. Wired.com photo.
The long-awaited Android-running, Google-branded tablet reportedly arrives in April.
The device is aimed squarely at the dominant, and cheap, Amazon Kindle Fire, which is the world’s leading 7-inch Android device. The tablet, which CEO Eric Schmidt first mentioned in December, also would advance Google’s plan to create a unified software and hardware ecosystem — just like that company in Cupertino.
Richard Shim, an analyst with DisplaySearch, told CNET the Google tablet is on track for production in April and is expected to cost $199. It will sport a 7-inch, 1280×800 display and run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). Those specs, if they pan out, one-up the Kindle Fire, which also costs $199 but has a 1024×600 display and runs on a modified version of Gingerbread (Android 2.3).
Should the tablet actually materialize, it would be yet another entry in Google’s sweeping hardware initiative. Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility will give the search company a ready-to-go hardware division. The tablet also would follow the rumored music-streaming entertainment device that would take advantage of the proposed Android@Home initiative announced at Google I/O.
This week The New York Times reported that Google is working on HUD glasses that could be formally announced by the end of the year.
Beyond its internal hardware initiatives, Google has partnered with HTC and Samsung for its Nexus-branded smartphones. The current crop of Nexus flagship phones were the first Android phones powered by Ice Cream Sandwich.
Indeed, all the rumored hardware and the Motorola Mobility acquisition suggest Google is positioning itself as a company that owns the entire “product stack,” from operating system to app ecosystem to hardware. This, of course, is the strategy employed by Google’s main rival in the mobile market, Apple.
Should Google continue down this path, it may be the next company, to “own the whole widget,” as Steve Jobs would say.
Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on February 25, 2012
Keyboard Patent Shows How Apple Could Make MacBooks Even Thinner
Slimming down the keyboard could help Apple shave off a few precious millimeters from future MacBooks. Image: Free Patents Online
Apple is like the Vogue of the tech world. Not only are its models some of the best looking and most fashionable — they also seem to just keep getting skinnier and skinnier.
A new Apple patent application filing from the Cupertino company certainly doesn’t do anything to deter this trend. The patent, called “Single Support Lever Keyboard Mechanism,” describes a few different ways Apple could trim some of the fat from existing notebook keyboards, making them more slender.
The keyboard design comes from a need to create computing products that are “attractive, smaller, lighter, and thinner while maintaining user functionality,” according to the patent application.
Current notebook keyboards often utilize a scissor-switch design, with two plastic support levers that slide outwards when a key is depressed (this is shown in Figure 1 in the illustration above). Another is the dome switch, where a key presses down on a rubber dome beneath it to connect two circuit board traces.
Apple’s method would have the keyboard’s key caps held in place by a single rigid support lever made of stainless steel or aluminum, which could be implemented in a few different ways. Instead of collapsing horizontally, a single lever could rotate downwards when a key is pressed. Or, a more flexible material could be used as this lever so when a key is pressed, the key would just bend downwards slightly. Apple posits that with this method, the top portion of the key cap could be made of materials normally thought of as unsuitable for a keyboard, like wood, glass, or — wait for it — “polished meteorite.”
Is this going to be a MacBook for the one percent?
Keyboard implementations nowadays have a travel distance, how far the key moves when pressed, of 2 mm at a minimum, and up to 3.5 or 4 mm in some cases. Apple’s implementation would bring travel down to a tenth of that: .2 mm. If the keys don’t require as much space to be pressed, the entire chassis can get shaved a few crucial millimeters.
And with all those pesky ultrabooks trying to best the MacBook Air in the slimness department, I’m sure Apple’s eager to show them what’s what.
via Apple Insider
Source:wired.com
Posted under Gadget Reviews
This post was written by Journalist on February 24, 2012
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