GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

Thimble is a Bluetooth finger-glove that hooks up to your smartphone and works as a Braille display. By pulsing Braille shapes onto the fingertip via an “electro-tactile grid array”, all kinds of messages can be conveyed to the user.

But that’s not all. The concept design, by Erik Hedberg and Zack Bennet, also has a camera inside to scan words in the real world and transcribe them into Braille, along with a microphone for voice control. Thus the user can ask where they are, the phone will provide the location via GPS and the Thimble will read out the answer. Here’s a slow-moving video showing how it would work.

The phone, in this case, is an iPhone, as iOS already has great accessibility features for the sight-impaired, and already works just fine with existing Braille displays. Hedberg and Bennet are “working on a patent”, and as the product is actually fairly straightforward, we’re hoping to see real, working versions in the future.

Thimble – There’s a Thing for That [Vimeo via DVICE]

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Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

With every new Apple product there are usually some wrinkles to be ironed out, and the 11 and 13-inch MacBook Air have proven to be a little more wrinkled than most. Both models of Apple’s new slimline notebook have been suffering display issues. Now, Apple has acknowledged the problem in internal memos with instructions to help the Geniuses fix things.

The 13-inch MacBook Air suffers from “horizontal flickering” on the screen when it wakes from sleep or if you hot-plug an external display, and both the 11 and 12-inch models can experience a display that is “fading dark to light colors repeatedly after waking from sleep.”

The memos, snapped off Apple Store screens and acquired by the Boy Genius Report, say that the problems will be fixed in a future software update. Until then, if you have these troubles. save yourself a trip to the Genius Bar and fix them yourself. Apple says you should close the lid and sleep the computer for 10 seconds. This will power-cycle the screen and get things back to normal.

Apple Confirms MacBook Air bugs internally [BGR]

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Source:wired.com

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This is the Table Connect, a rather wonderful-looking hardware hack which connects an iPhone to a 58-inch capacitive multi-touch display, allowing full control of the iPhone’s navigation functions, only using hands instead of fingers.

Or is it? Look closely and you’ll see that the demo-guy presses the sleep-button on the top of the iPhone as he fires up the controller “app”. What you are actually seeing in the video, unless this is some weird kind of double-bluff, is some amazingly well rehearsed mime, in which the protagonists manage to match their movements up exactly with what is going on on-screen.

Distracted by the homo-erotic excitement of zooming in on an already oversized Sly Stallone by stroking his biceps with two hands, I almost fell for this one, so well is the trick executed. Is it a pre-recorded sequence, or is this really a live display piped from another jailbroken phone being controlled off-camera by a third stooge? We may never know.

If nothing else, the table itself is a beautiful piece of work, kind of high-tech meets 1950s diner-style. Good job, anonymous tricksters at Table Connect. Good job.

Table Connect for iPhone – video demo launch [Table Connect]

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At first, SonAt first, Sony Ericsson’s tiny 1.3-inch Bluetooth external cellphone screen seems like a joke. And then you realize that it is designed to work with the giant, slab-like HTC Desire or Sony Ericsson’s own Xperia X10 and it all makes sense.

The LiveView is a small OLED screen the size of a watch-face. It has physical buttons on its corners, and the bezel is touch-sensitive. You can use it to control music, check Twitter, read RSS feeds or do pretty much anything an app wants to do. Applications need to be written to use this monitor, and the most impressive demo in the video below shows a sports app sending stats to the LiveView as you run.

The widget comes with a wrist-strap (of course – wrist-mounted gadgets are the new pocket-watches, or something) and can be clipped onto clothes, just like the iPods Nano and Shuffle. There are a handful of phones that support it already, but you can use it with any phone running Android 2.0 or better by downloading Sony Ericsson LiveWare Manager from the Android Market.

I love the idea. Wouldn’t it be great if Apple did something like this with the Nano and the iPhone? The LiveView will be in stores in the fourth quarter of this year, price as yet undecided.

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LiveView product page [Sony Ericsson via Engadget]

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Apple’s big-ass, expensive cinema display went on sale this morning in the Apple Store.

The 27-inch LED cinema display sports a 2,560 by 1,440 resolution, LED backlighting and a 178-degree viewing angle, according to Apple.

It also includes a MagSafe connector to charge MacBooks and a Mini DisplayPort to connect to Macs, three USB ports, a built-in webcam (iSight), microphone and 48-watt speaker system. So basically it’s a $1,000 display that turns your MacBook, Mac Pro or Mac Mini into a pseudo 27-inch iMac (or your 27-inch iMac into a really, really big iMac).

The 27-inch display replaces the 30-inch Apple cinema display, which cost $1,800 and did not include LED backlighting.

The display ships in one to two weeks, according to Apple’s online store.

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

After Microsoft’s Surface multitouch table premiered, early implementations were limited: retail stores, hotels, restaurants, bored executives goofing off in board rooms, and university researchers modeling totally kickass Dungeons & Dragons games.

But why waste your time controlling virtual armies of NPC henchmen when you can control REAL armies of tiny robots? Or giant ones? That’s the Doctor Doom move. You don’t even need to peek at your WWDDD? bracelet from inside your hideous metal mask.

Nobody at the UMass-Lowell Robotics Lab (as far as I know) has a hideous metal mask. And they haven’t even built the robots yet — so this is still at the D&D level of virtual awesomeness/villainy, not cartoonish super-villainy.

But there’s important, amazing, yet simple tech at work in this proof-of-concept demo. The researchers use multitouch to send the robots scurrying around to execute commands, but also to pan and zoom a map of where they’re operating, create virtual subcontrollers, and display text and video data, all within the same interface.

The lab’s work focuses (among other things) on human-robot interaction, robot vision, interactive learning, and disaster response. The ease-of-use of multitouch controls is clearly valuable in all of those scenarios. As Evan Ackerman gushes at BotJunkie, “Its not even that theres anything that innovative going on here, strictly Its just that Surface is able to merge existing hardware and existing controls into a new interface, which makes all the difference.” Ackerman also notes that very little innovation in robotics research is happening at the UI level; the fact that a consumer/commercial product can be introduced on this end solves a slew of practical problems for existing robotics, not to mention potentially putting control of the technology in the hands/fingertips of many more people.

Now imagine if this research merged with the retail applications of Surface already in use. You go to a bar, touch a table, order a drink — and a robot navigates the room and brings it to you.

From UMass-Lowell Robotics Lab via the Microsoft Robotics Blog and BotJunkie.

Related posts:

• D&D + Microsoft Surface = Unheard-of Levels of Radness
• First Look: Microsoft Milan Surface Computer A Table That Knows Whats On It
• Microsoft to Install Surface Systems in AT&T Stores
• Microsoft Shows Off Surface in Sheraton Hotels
• Quadrocopters Work Together to Lift Loads, Destroy Mankind
• Robo Spiders Are Multilegged Mechanical Marvels
• Gallery: Robot Bartenders Sling Cocktails for Carbon-Based Drinkers

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Black-and-white e-readers are limiting while full color LCD displays such as those in tablets like the iPad can be power hungry and tough on the eyes. That’s why Qualcomm is betting that a new hybrid device that bridge the two worlds could be in the hands of consumers early next year.

Qualcomm is on track to ship 5.7-inch displays in the next few weeks that can shift between black-and-white and color, Jim Cathey, vice-president of business development for Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, told Wired.com.

These displays called ‘Mirasol’ will first go to device makers who are likely to introduce new products based on it early next year, says Cathey.

Last year, e-readers were one of the fastest growing consumer electronics products. But intense competition and pressure from Apple iPad has put many smaller e-reader makers out of business. Meanwhile, many consumers remain undecided when it comes to choosing between e-readers and tablets. Consumers want the convenience of a low power, display that’s lightweight and easy on the eye, with the advantage of a color screen.

With Mirasol, Qualcomm is hoping it can give companies such as Amazon that are reportedly looking beyond black-and-white e-readers an attractive option.

Mirasol displays work by modulating an optical cavity to reflect the desired wavelength of light. The reflected wavelength is proportional to the cavitys depth. Mirasol screens looks more like glossy scientific books rather a full color LCD screen. But the displays consume very little power, are bistable and can play video.

Over the next few months, Qualcomm hopes to ramp up production of the displays. Qualcomm is building a new $2 billion Mirasol production plant in Taiwan, according to a report in DigiTimes.

A “major client has already started the design-in process,” using Mirasol, says DigiTimes.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Black-and-white e-readers are limiting while full color LCD displays such as those in tablets like the iPad can be power hungry and tough on the eyes. That’s why Qualcomm is betting that a new hybrid device that bridge the two worlds could be in the hands of consumers early next year.

Qualcomm is on track to ship 5.7-inch displays in the next few weeks that can shift between black-and-white and color, Jim Cathey, vice-president of business development for Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, told Wired.com.

These displays called ‘Mirasol’ will first go to device makers who are likely to introduce new products based on it early next year, says Cathey.

Last year, e-readers were one of the fastest growing consumer electronics products. But intense competition and pressure from Apple iPad has put many smaller e-reader makers out of business. Meanwhile, many consumers remain undecided when it comes to choosing between e-readers and tablets. Consumers want the convenience of a low power, display that’s lightweight and easy on the eye, with the advantage of a color screen.

With Mirasol, Qualcomm is hoping it can give companies such as Amazon that are reportedly looking beyond black-and-white e-readers an attractive option.

Mirasol displays work by modulating an optical cavity to reflect the desired wavelength of light. The reflected wavelength is proportional to the cavitys depth. Mirasol screens looks more like glossy scientific books rather a full color LCD screen. But the displays consume very little power, are bistable and can play video.

Over the next few months, Qualcomm hopes to ramp up production of the displays. Qualcomm is building a new $2 billion Mirasol production plant in Taiwan, according to a report in DigiTimes.

A “major client has already started the design-in process,” using Mirasol, says DigiTimes.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Last of today’s Apple updates are the new 27-inch Cinema Display and a new 12-core Mac Pro. The display is essentially a super-sized version of the 24-inch monitor already available. Here’s what you get:

The display hooks up to any Mac with a Mini DisplayPort connector, which is every late-vintage model. The cable combines a power-cable and a USB-connector, and this last will pipe the sound from your MacBook to the display, as well as send back data from the screen’s built-in iSight camera and microphone. It also has a 2.1 (sub and “satellite”) speaker system (50 watts) and, most important of all, Apple new favorite display tech, IPS (in-plane switching) for an almost 180-degree viewing-angle.

The 16:9 widescreen aspect-ratio panel sports a 2560 x 1440 resolution, and the panel now has an ambient light sensor to automatically dim the display. If it works as well as it does in other Apple products, you’ll probably want to switch it off. The display will be shipping “soon” for $1,000.

The new Mac Pro also beefs things up. Apple’s heavy-lifter now comes with 12 processor-cores, faster graphics and SSD options and, well, did I say it has twelve cores?. This monster begins at $5,000, but you can have the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” for “just” $2,500. Add to this an ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory and a couple of those fancy new 27-inch Cinema Displays, and you’ll have a pretty mean setup (and a very light wallet). The new range of Mac Pros will be on sale in August.

LED Cinema Display [Apple]

New 12-core Mac Pro [Apple]

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Source:wired.com

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You probably already know that you can hook up a MacBook to your giant 27-inch iMac and use it as an external display. But what if you have another device that you’d like to plug into the big screen? A Blu-ray player or a games console, perhaps?

Belkin’s new white plastic brick will take any HDMI signal and squirt it into the iMac’s Mini DisplayPort. The AV360 will let you play XBox games on the iMac, and even watch DRM-crippled movies – the adapter is HDCP-compliant, and also pipes through stereo audio.

There are a couple of gotchas. One is that any 1080p source will be downgraded to 720p, a shame on the biggest iMac’s 2560 x 1440 pixel display. The other problem is one of price: The AV360 is $150. That’s $150 for an adapter, although $150 is certainly cheaper than buying a second display, and the box takes up a lot less space. Available now.

AV360 Mini DisplayPort Converter for 27-inch iMac [Belkin via Oh Gizmo]

Source:wired.com

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