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Filed under: Displays

Got OLED on the brain? What about FED? Holograms suit your fancy? Regardless of how you feel about the world’s latest and greatest up-and-coming display technologies, we’ve got one more that you should probably keep an eye on. Funai has just announced the development of a swank new panel that consumes just 0.16-milliwatts of electricity per square centimeter, or around 1% as much as traditional LCDs. The Dynamic ECD is made of a reflective display that uses color-changing dyes that light up and morph as electricity flows through. In other words, there’s no need for a backlight, and it even boasts 80% reflectivity (compared with 50% on reflective LCDs) for easier viewing in broad daylight. The real kicker? It should cost around one-third as much as an LCD to manufacture. Expectations are to have 7- and 14-inch units out in 2009, though ultimately it hopes to completely dominate the mobile phone and e-book market.

[Via SlashGear]

Power-sipping Funai Dynamic ECD display don’t need no backlight originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oops. Jordan Hubbard, Director of Apple’s Unix Technology Group, made a boo boo. The slide above was pulled from the deck presented last week at the LISA (Large Installation System Administration) conference. Up until now, Apple had only been willing to say that OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard would be ready “in about a year” — that was back in early June at WWDC. You just know that this will have Steve fuming given Apple’s tight control over information. One thing is perfectly clear: the race is on for both Redmond (rumored to be shooting for a mid-2009 Windows 7 launch) and Cupertino, nobody wants to be second with their next gen OS release.

[Via MacRumors]

Read — Presentation [Warning: PDF]

Apple: Snow Leopard release in Q1 2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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17th November 2008: Human Touch Technology has released HTP3 Darbukator Extreme, HTL1 Oriental Toolkit and two new software bundles, and updated HTP Darbukator Lite to v1.5. Also, the prices of HTP1 Darbukator Maksoom a…

Filed under: Transportation

We’d stick out if were to drive the Helios concept car down the Long Island Expressway or the 405, but almost every other solar-powered car we’ve seen looked like an old Trabant cursed with further ugliness by a wicked witch, so considering the circumstances we’re impressed. The sadly-only-on-paper vehicle netted designer Kim Gu-Han the Best Use of Technology award at the 2008 Interior Motives Design Awards for its frill-neck lizard-inspired solar fan, which unfolds when the car is immobile. If the renders are any indication, though, it’s meant only for Martians — please tell Marvin we’re jealous, cause the eco-friendly cars we get now generally look like they were designed by someone with all the exuberance and colorful panache of Al Gore.

Helios solar concept car is bird-like in that it evolved from lizards, has wings originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Yeah, we confess we’re nerds and watched all that behind-the-scenes stuff on the Matrix DVD — when it’s the only DVD you own, you gotta get your money’s worth. If you’ll recall (don’t try and deny it), the much-lauded “bullet time” effect was accomplished by surrounding the leather-bedecked Keanu with dozens of digital still cameras to capture every millisecond of his limbo moves from every angle. Commercials aplenty soon co-opted the technology to push their wares, but Toshiba is flipping that formula here, hiring an ad agency with its very own bullet time vareint called “timesculpture” to plug Toshiba’s XDE technology. A circular rig with 200 Gigashot HD camcorders and 20,000 gigabytes of data later, they created this little number, which mixes full motion video, Matrix camera moves and a healthy dash of hipsterism. Check it out after the break.

Continue reading Toshiba’s “timesculpture” ad is bullet time meets Feist, or something equally impressive

Toshiba’s “timesculpture” ad is bullet time meets Feist, or something equally impressive originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It’s been just about a year since we saw the patent for Philips’ remote control “pill,” and it looks like the thing is finally a reality. For those of you straining to remember that far back, the iPill (as it is now sadly known) is a miniature capsule that among its many charms contains a microprocessor, power supply, medicine reservoir and pump, and a radio so that it can remain in contact with external medical equipment. The pill’s ability to accurately determine its position in the digestive tract enables it to deliver drugs precisely where they’re needed, reducing dosage strength and side effects. According to Philips, the current design is a prototype, but it’s suitable for serial manufacturing. Of course, this is not the first robot pill we’ve seen — and it certainly won’t be the last. Just the same, we think we’ll refrain from swallowing any nanotech for the time being.

Philips iPill — it’s like a regular pill, but with a microprocessor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Gadget: 3M’s pocket-friendly MPro110 projector packs a sizeable screen into a tiny, battery-powered package. It’s mainly for fast-moving business types, but could it also be an alternative to buying a 40-inch TV?

The Price: $350

The Verdict: I am in love with the concept, and this little LCOS-based 640×480 projector does some amazing things given its size and resolution. But even understanding its limitations, it still has some major build-quality issues that prevent it from true awesomeness.

As a portable projector for still presentations and videos alike, it has its strengths and weaknesses. It powers up easily, connects to composite and VGA sources (including component if you have the right cable adapters), and never gets so hot you can’t touch it. It’s got a tripod screw like most cameras, so you can easily position it where you want to. 3M doesn’t disclose the lithium-ion battery life though it should given the LED’s constant brightness. Still, plugging it into a wall isn’t a big deal, so battery life may not matter. (I will continue to test that and update if there’s anything significant.)

The MPro110 isn’t going to be of help in a big boardroom—you can only get up to a 40-inch screen (by positioning it about 6 feet), but even then, fine details are blurred. Your best bet for readable viewing is a 20-inch screen at 4 feet. Ironically, this is more of a problem for the businesspeople for whom the product was intended—I didn’t suffer much watching slightly blurred DVD rips or cable-box TV at the full 40 inches, though like most projectors, near-pitch darkness is required.

As you can see from the shots, there’s some pinch distortion and not a lot you can do about it. There’s no optical or digital compensation like on larger projectors—in fact the only control besides on/off is focus, and that only goes so far. Brightness-wise, it’s okay, but it suffers noticeably the farther back you pull. Its colors are impressive, especially here, given the fact that I was projecting against a dark yellow wall.

Again, I was forgiving of limitations based on size and functionality—my biggest problems were in construction. The focus dial felt flimsy and wouldn’t hold its place if jostled. Worse, it was hard to keep my computer connected, because the projector’s VGA cable wouldn’t stay inside the projector’s jack.

Yeah, $350 is a lot for a toy, but it’s not the reason I wouldn’t recommend this. If 3M could apply more quality control, this would be a novelty more of us might carry. I can see it being a fun way to watch movies in hotel rooms when traveling, and as the technology behind brightness, throw and resolution improves, these could become hot sellers indeed.

Griffin has announced updated versions of their TuneBuds Mobile and SmartTalk products for both versions of the iPhone, the iPod nano 4G, iPod touch 2G, and iPod classic (120 GB). TuneBuds are intended to be an alternative to Apple’s upcoming premium in-ear headphones—both offer a built-in microphone and remote for answering calls and controlling playback, although Griffin’s version costs considerably less at $40 (but that is without the dual drivers). Or, if you prefer, Griffin’s updated SmartTalk accessory will give you the microphone and remote functionality with your current earbuds for only $20.

Griffin Technology Announces TuneBuds Mobile and SmartTalk Updates

Updated Earphone & Mic Solutions Now Extend Recording Capabilities

NASHVILLE, TN - November 10, 2008 - Griffin Technology Inc., creator of all things iPod and iPhone, today announced the availability of updated versions of their TuneBuds Mobile and SmartTalk audio solutions for iPhone and iPod. TuneBuds Mobile and SmartTalk are now both equipped with inline microphones compatible with iPhone, iPod nano 4G, iPod touch 2G and iPod classic 120 GB

“We upgraded TuneBuds Mobile and SmartTalk so that both iPod and iPhone users alike can record audio and enjoy a superior listening experience,” said Mark Rowan, Director of Product Development at Griffin Technology. “With so many great apps coming out on iTunes such as our recent iTalk Recorder application, we wanted to offer iPod users the ability to enjoy those apps that require an external mic.”

TuneBuds Mobile offers great-sounding earphones with crisp, clear highs and powerful, deep bass. The buds fit the ear snugly, with washable ear cushions in a selection of sizes, and conform to the ear for maximum comfort and sound isolation. Built-in is Griffin’s ControlMic, a high-sensitivity microphone and control button. Griffin has even given thought to the cord, made of nylon braiding for strength, good looks, tangle-resistance, and durability.

SmartTalk is a headphone adapter solution with the same great microphone and control button features as TuneBuds Mobile, but which allows users to plug in their own favorite earphones. The noise-canceling microphone ensures clean recording and conversations, and the ControlMic button allows convenient Play, Pause and Skip forward controls. SmartTalk features a 30″ cable sheathed in nylon braiding.

[Tunebuds and SmartTalk]

Google just added voice and video chat capabilities to Gmail, the perennially in beta web mail program. It uses a special web browser plug-in available for PC and Mac, which requires Firefox, IE, Chrome, and a camera. The plug-in only weights 2MB.

For now there’s no video support in Google Chat, but you will be able to access this from the web browser, with the capability to tear the video chat into a separate window. According to Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds, the idea is to make it “quicker and easier to communicate with other people by whatever means is best convenient.” Which of course really means “easy to access video sex from any computer”. [Reuters and Cnet]

In the interest of thwarting credit card theft, Visa is testing some pretty interesting card technology with a handful of European banks. Using what appears to be Visa’s mutant hybrid of a credit card and a pocket calculator, users can enter their PIN into the card itself and have a security code generated on the fly.

The method can stop thieves in two ways. Those who copy down your credit card information will find that your account number and expiration date is not enough to place an order. And those who actually steal your physical card will find that they still don’t know your pin.

While the cards house a 3-year battery, we’re just hoping that they can stand up to a good pocket sweat. Because when we’re roasting away in the summer sun, we need ice cream money to floweth from our plastic like a refreshing, icy deluge. [ITPro via gadgetell]