Tech Nukem

If you are Apple’s iPad lover but think that its weight is too heavy to be carried around, the recent rumor of having a 7-inch smaller size iPad seems to get solid confirmation with reliable source from Taiwan. Economic Daily News, a major newspaper publisher in Taiwan has recently disclosed a few potential vendors that are already working on iPad 2 with its targeted availability date by end of this year or early of next year.

According to the source, a number of Taiwanese vendors have won the contract to manufacture the long anticipated iPad 2. One of them is Chimei Innolux, a famous LCD manufacturer that will be supplying the 7-inch LCD panels utilizing IPS (in-plane switching) with significant color and viewing angle improvement. At the same time, its capacitive touch sensitive display layer will be provided by AU Optronics, making it a complete touch panel solution for the next generation tablet. If you wonder whether Foxconn (Hon Hai) will still be its contract manufacturer to assembly the end product, but surprisingly the Cupertino based company seems to outsource it to different vendors, Compal, a famous e-book and tablet PC maker in Taiwan.

While there is still a lot of unfinalized details, but preliminary specifications indicated that the next generation iPad will be much lighter with merely 1.1 pounds (versus 1.5 pounds for existing model) thanks to its smaller panel at diagonal 7-inch as compared to 9.7-inch for current iPad. However, it will be redesigned with much powerful ARM Cortex-A9 (current version is based on Cortex-A8 architecture) with 512MB memory RAM with unknown storage capacity.

No exact pricing and availability yet, the iPad 2 could be reaching consumer market as early as end of this year or early next year.

Graphics capability is one of the most important elements besides the processor core power in both PC and mobile market. And in order to continuously stay competitively in this market segment, some ARM licensees and even X86 architecture chip maker has actually licensed the latest graphics technology solution from Imagination Technologies, which is famous for its advanced Powervr SGX GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to be integrated into its processor core for sophisticated graphics processing. Just recently, TI (Texas Instruments) has taken an initiative to license the latest SGX Series5XT from Imagination Technologies for its next generation OMAP SoC (System on Chip).

The new SGX Series5XT is claimed to be able to boost from 100MHz to 400MHz, and is capable to deliver impressive performance with up to 35 million polygons per second. Besides, it will be available in multi-core (up to 16-core) and is compatible to almost every OS like Android, Symbian, WinCE, windows XP and even Vista with OpenGL 2.0, OpenVG 1.1 and the new OpenCL 1.0 support. If you remember, both Intel and Apple are eying on its advanced graphics solution and has already invested additional share into this company with the hope to get some influencing power in their future directions. Some of the famous ARM based processors that had been integrated with Powervr graphics IP include the recently announced Apple iPad’s A4 processor, TI’s OMAP series, Marvell’s PXA310/312, Freescale’s i.MX31, Samsung’s S3C2460/S5PC510, Renesas’s SH Mobile series and many more. From X86 architecture core perspective, Intel’s Pentium based CE3100/4100/4130 and 4150 were also having earlier version of Powervr, besides the US15W chipset that used to be paired with first generation Intel Atom Z5XX (codenamed as Silverthorne). Not to be surprise, there are already more than 250 millions of mobile devices in the market that being powered by Powervr graphics technology.

No official availability yet, but we should expect more and more ARM licensees as well as Intel to continue acquire its latest graphics technology ready for their next generation SoC suitable for multimedia centric applications.

Meetings are meant to be productive activities with certain specific purposes to be achieved such as decision making, discussion of issues, etc. However, sometimes when they are not properly planned without specific goals or agenda, the meetings are not only boring but a waste of time. On many occasions, you may be aware you are attending an unproductive meeting but your role, say, as a consultant or service provider prevents you from excusing yourself. Perhaps a good way to indicate to your clients and alert them of the fact is to bring along a TIM clock! Alternatively, you are the paymaster and would like to highlight to your staff that they are wasting invaluable time and money in unproductive meetings.


TIM or the Time is Money clock is an interesting meeting cost calculator and clock that will do instant calculation on how much money has actually been spent in a particular meeting if it is dragging on and on. This device is pretty easy to operate. Users just need to key in the number of people in the meeting room and an estimated hourly wage of the respective attendees. Once this is done, users press the illuminated start button and the calculator cum clock will start working. This fun gadget for sure will catch everybody’s attention when people start looking at the money piling up as the clock continues ticking. It indirectly informs the chairperson or boss: “Look, how much money you are wasting for this idiot meeting!”. Besides, TIM also features an audible and visual fifteen minute reminder to remind users with a light beep sound and simple visual light flash on every fifteen minute interval. The alert indication is not really strong and will not really irritate meeting attendees. It is a good time keeper to ensure meetings are kept short and sweet.

Besides being a meeting cost calculator and clock, TIM can also be used for other purposes. For instance, general workers or some consultants are paid hourly; the device can be used to show proof to clients their actual working hours to prevent any dispute in calculation. TIM costs $24.99

Looking for an extreme convenient, true hands-free solution for easy communicating on the road? The world’s leading provider of innovative Bluetooth peripheral devices and accessories, BlueAnt Wireless is planned to launch its new sleek, stylish BlueAnt S4, which the company claims as the world’s first voice controlled Bluetooth car speakerphone, allowing drivers to communicate completely using just their voice commands, without the need to touch their handsets or car speakerphones while driving – all with the cool BlueAnt S4.

In addition to voice control capability, BlueAnt S4 also incorporates Vlingo SafeReader application that able to read out all incoming text messages and e-mail with just the touch of a button, fully compatible with BlackBerry smartphones and Google Android 2.0 or newer mobile devices.

Features of BlueAnt S4:

Say trigger phrase “BlueAnt Speak to Me” to activate voice recognition
Say “Answer” or “Ignore” for responding to an incoming call
Say “Phone Commands” to activate voice dialing
Store up to 2,000 phonebook entries per paired mobile phone
True multipoint for connecting and conducting calls on 2 cellphones simultaneously
Pre-loaded with Vlingo SafeReader app that designed to read out SMS and email, utilizing text to speech (TTS) technology
High-performance, full duplex speaker for a rich, superior audio quality
A2DP streaming capability for playback of music, podcasts and directions from GPS navigation app on handset
Integrates with Microsoft BING-411 for a handsfree gateway to a world of information, including stock quotes, movie times, weather, sports, news and traffic updates
Talk time: up to 20 hours ; Standby time: up to 700 hours
Size: 124 x 60.7 x 16 mm
The new powerful, portable hands-free BlueAnt S4 voice controlled Bluetooth car speakerphone that comes with 2 metal visor clips for easy attaching to the vehicle’s sun visor is now available at Best Buy, scheduled to hit AT&T stores beginning May 23 for approximately $100.

The world’s leading maker of audio products, Altec Lansing has announced its new inMotion Compact (iMT320) portable speaker system for iPhone and iPod, which able to fold as small as a book for portable quality sound, claiming as the most compact model of Altec Lansing’s popular inMotion family, featuring 2 front firing ports to push surprisingly deep bass.



“We know that modern consumers like to take their music with them. Altec has designed the most portable dock with the iPhone certification,” explained Steve Schlangen, product manager of Altec Lansing. “We incorporated the latest design and technology so our users can enjoy their beats on the go. In addition to looking great, the attached wrap-around cover offers a new level of travel protection for your dock. You’ll be surprised by how much great sound this small form factor delivers.”

Main Features Of Altec Lansing inMotion Compact iMT320:

* Drivers, enclosure and electronics are balanced for optimum sound, thanks to Audio Alignment technology
* Two full-range neodymium drivers deliver pure, distinct full-spectrum crystal-clear sound
* “Works with iPhone” certification ensures crystal clear sound without annoying GSM buzz, eliminating the need to switch to airplane mode
* Standard 3.5mm audio jack for second device connection, such as computers, CD, DVD or MP3 players
* Improved contemporary design with soft, leather like sleek protective cover that doubles as a speaker stand
* Two innovative, front firing ports for enhanced low-end sound (powerful bass)
* Powered from AC adapter or 4 AA batteries
* Folds as small as a book for easy portability

The new stylish, lightweight Altec Lansing inMotion Compact (iMT320) that compatible with all iPhone and iPod models is slated to be available through Altec Lansing’s official website, Amazon.com, and other retailers in coming February 2010 for about $80.

Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are all the rage nowadays. Everyone wants to be part of the social networking group but some may find the typing tedious or simply time-consuming. The Lighthouse SQ7 by Adela Voice and Smart Devices bring social networking to a new frontier by introducing the portable voice-recognition social media device.



The Lighthouse SQ7 has a 7-inch touch screen, 800×480 resolution, WiFi b/g connectivity, a Samsung ARM S3C6410 667MHz processor, 128MB DDR memory, 1GB of flash storage and a 4500 mAH rechargeable battery lasting up to five hours of use or twelve hours in standby mode. All that is needed is for users to speak into the device and the voice-recognition feature will transcribe the speech into the corresponding Twitter or Facebook website. The SQ7 can also be converted into a digital photo frame complete with a stand to display your Facebook photos.

Measuring 7.8″ x 4.7″ x 0.94″ and weighing just about a pound, the Lighthouse tablet brings Facebook and Twitter closer to die-hard fans. The device runs Linux Ubuntu and is available for $249 from its dedicated website, LighthouseTablet.com.

A team of researchers in Purdue University have reached a technology breakthrough with the new invention of band-pass filter as resonator utilizing MEMS, or better known as Microelectromechanical system. The new band-pass filter unique structure and design is believed to be able to filter off unwanted noise for much more effective radio frequency transmission in daily life.


The new resonator is fabricated using silicon-on-insulator technology and it can be used to filter off unnecessary radio frequencies, by passing only the designated incoming signal for more effective transmission to as compared to existing filtering technology. More importantly, the design is tiny enough that can be used to drive for much smaller form factor, low power mobile devices while able to scale up its performance with sharp and accurate filtering characteristics especially useful in mobile communication. Besides being used in mobile phones or 2-ways radios, the usage model can be extended into both medical and military segments as a mechanical memory element that can store data pattern based on different vibration modes.

More details will be published in research paper during an American society of Mechanical Engineers’ Third International Conference held on September 2nd. Meanwhile, prototypes are in progress with simulation data to prove the concept feasibility before actual implementation in end products.

Designed for taking aerial photography or video for aerial observation and recording purposes, the new Draganflyer X4 is a small, affordable and reliable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that carry lightweight wireless video and still camera suitable for industry use. It is another UAV by Draganfly Innovations under the Draganflyer series.



Compared to Draganflyer X6 which was released end of last year, Draganflyer X4 is a trimmed version with lower specifications and of course price as well. Weighing 680gram with battery and bodied with carbon fiber, the Draganflyer X4 features 4 carbon fiber rotor blades and 4 motors. The X4 copper is equipped with advanced flight sensors and comes with 3 accelerometers, three gyroscopes, three magnetometers and a barometric pressure sensor. The flying detective allows multiple camera modules to be installed and attached to it depending on users’ needs. Users can opt for the
25/812.1 MP digital still camera with 720p video recording, low light video camera, thermal imaging video camera or micro color video camera. The flying object can be controlled remotely via an OLED touch screen. Besides remote control, the X4’s advanced autopilot feature also helps users
to get their job done.

The Draganflyer X4 will be useful for aerial monitoring purposes. Users can use it to monitor huge compounds such as a big factory, farm, campus, development site, etc. The price for this interesting flying object is estimated at about $10,000.

Netbook is famous for its competitive price and lightweight which is about to replace low end notebook in consumer space. In order to differentiate from other rivals’ solutions, Gigabyte has tried to come out with an innovative netbook design that integrates with touch screen tablet PC functionality. Named as T1028X/G, it is featured with a rotatable touch screen LCD that can be flip and fold down for easy portability while on the move.



As compared to its predecessor T1028M that was based on Intel Atom N270 series processor, the new T1028X/G series is powered by a newer and much more powerful N280 processor running at 1.66GHz that can provide significant processing capability for normal office applications. Besides, it is designed with bigger screen size of 10.1-inch, as compared to 8.9-inch in its previous version, which at the same time able to scale up the screen resolution from previously 1024 X 600 pixels to current 1366 X 768 pixels for greater viewing experience. Although some do expect better performance in terms of hardware video decode capability but in reality, the chipset companion chip is still stuck with 945GSE with ICH7M as similar to its predecessor. Other specifications include an a 1GB DDR2 RAM, 160GB SATA hard disk drive, ExpressCard slot, Ethernet port, 802.11b/g/n wireless technologies, a built in 1.3-megapixel camera module, USB ports and many more. Not to be lack behind, it offer an optional support for HSDPA cellular modem as well as WiMAX module for seamless connectivity while traveling around.

No pricing and availability yet, the netbook will be reaching consumer market soon, competing against other existing solutions in this competitive market space.

Wonder how nice would it be if we can use our voice to control the alarm clock so that it can be turned on, snooze or set the right time without the need to physically set it in traditional way. Now with a bit of innovation and integration of voice control technology, you will be able to enjoy the convenience especially during your bedtime. Known as iTalk Voice Alarm Clock, it can be activated by voice control with few common commands that make your life easier in digital home.



In order to activate the voice control and command, just say “Hello iTalk” and the clock is ready to serve you. Users can say “Set Alarm” and it will turn on the alarm setting for you to configure the alarm time. One of the very useful functions that is worth to be mentioned here is the snoozing feature. Without the need to wake up to try to snooze the alarm clock, just say “Snooze” and it will activate the function to give you more time for extra rest. On top of these, there are additional six commands including “what time is it”, “alarm sound”, “help” and many more that will definitely simplify the control function.

Alternatively, users can switch back to conventional manual control function just like normal clock. However, at a retail price of $70, it may set you back unless you really need some embedded technology
even for simple clock device.

Sony has officially announced the launch of its new pocket-sized electronic book readers – Reader Pocket Edition (PRS-300) and Reader Touch Edition (PRS-600), which feature Sony’s award-winning industrial design, 512MB onboard memory, and E Ink Vizplex electronic paper display with 800×600 pixels resolution and 8-level gray scale, aiming to enhance your digital reading experience.



Features of Sony Reader Pocket Edition PRS-300:

* 5-inch electronic paper display
* Stores up to 350 standard eBooks
* Supports up to 2 weeks of reading enjoyment on a single charge
* Available in navy blue, rose or silver color

“We firmly believe consumers should have choice in every aspect of their digital reading experience,” said Steve Haber, president for Sony’s Digital Reading Business Division. “Our goal is to expand the market and provide greater access to what consumers want to read when they want to read it — whether they buy, borrow or get it for free.”

Features of Sony Reader Touch Edition PRS-600:

* Responsive, menu-driven 6-inch touchscreen panel enabling quick, intuitive navigation, page turning, highlighting as well as note taking with the swipe of a finger (or included stylus)
* Built-in Oxford American English Dictionary allows users to look up a word by simply tapping on it
* 5 adjustable font sizes
* Memory Stick PRO Duo and SD memory expansion slot
* Available in red, black or silver color

The new affordable Reader Pocket Edition and Reader Touch Edition that bundled with an attractive protective sleeve and USB cable will be available later this month for retail price of $199 and $299, respectively. In addition, the new releases and New York Times bestseller titles in Sony’s eBook Store (ebookstore.sony.com) will now be available for around $10.

Have you ever wished that you could see inside your mouth
to check how clean (or dirty) your teeth are? Yucks! Sounds like what mums would do for kids who dislike thorough brushing. Or check that out that little mouth ulcer causing so much pain and discomfort? Thanko’s USB Dental “microscope” lets you do just that. It comes equipped with six LEDs and a small CMOS camera so you can shoot (640×480) JPEGs/BMPs or 1280×1024 resolution video. The results can be downloaded into a computer.




This device is not about taking pretty pictures to thrill your loved ones. On the contrary, the results are inevitably gross and disgusting. They lead to but one conclusion – you need the services of your dentist. The Japan-based company specializing in spy camera gadgets figures it’s a necessary evil. For about $80, you can document hard evidence to convince yourself and your loved ones to pay a visit to the dentist.

Man’s life is very much hooked up with electronic gadgets nowadays. One common problem with too many gadgets around is in recharging these gadgets. If you are a frequent traveler who always flies from one country to another, surely you will understand the pain where your charger cannot be used in some countries due to the different electrical output. You can’t access important information as the battery is running flat. To assist frequent travelers or globetrotters to overcome this practical problem, the famous pocket projector manufacturer, BeamBox, has added another mini lifestyle product, Mili Universal Charger, to their list.



Mili Universal Charger is a mini, compact and practical universal charger which comes with four interchangeable adapters that can enable users to use it without problem in UK, US, Australia and Europe. The adapters suit the US, UK, EU or Australian-style sockets. Besides supporting various socket formats, Mili Universal Charger also allows users to charge their gadget in the car via a car charger adapter that comes along with it. Users can just plug the charger into the cigarette lighter socket to do the charging work. Another interesting feature of the BeamBox’s Mili Universal Charger is the dual USB port which allows users to charge two devices at the same time. Users will be notified when their devices are fully charged by a change of colour in the two LEDs mounted.

For a mere $28.50, users can get the universal charger with a choice of nine different colors: blue, purple, green, yellow, and orange.

This is definitely a great gift for any toddler or child. Little Mommy: Walk and Giggle Doll can stand, sit, talk, walk, right herself after a spill, drink from a bottle, take the dog for a walk, and play peekaboo. Built-in sensors in the doll’s body and limbs help to detect if the doll is being tickled or falls down. The doll can utter a substantial number of phrases and sounds as well as sing songs.


littlemommyt

Apart from being cute and adorable, the doll needs nurturing and care from a young child who will definitely be drawn to this walking and talking toy. This technologically advanced doll from Fisher-Price mimics many of the abilities and activities of the young child, thus facilitating physical and emotional development as well as confidence-building.

The leading manufacturer of hard disk drives, Western Digital (WD) has launched its two new mobile hard drives with 12.5 mm form factor – 750GB and 1TB (Terabyte) WD Scorpio Blue, which the company claims as the industry’s highest-capacity 2.5-inch hard drive available on the market, based on industry-leading 333 GB-per-platter technology, supporting up to 3Gb/s (gigabits per second) of transfer rate.


wd-scorpio-blue

“The convergence of the growing mobile computing and digital media trends produces demand for desktop-like capacities in portable devices,” said Jim Morris, senior vice president and general manager of client systems, Western Digital Corporation. “Our new WD Scorpio Blue drives enable people to take even more of their digital collections with them wherever they go and, realizing the value of their data, back up their notebooks on their My Passport drives.”

Main features of WD Scorpio Blue:

* WhisperDrive – Exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to produce one of the quietest high-capacity 2.5-inch hard drives available
* ShockGuard – Leading-edge ShockGuard technology combines firmware and hardware advancements to meet the highest combined shock tolerance specifications required for mobile and notebook applications
* SecurePark – Parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off, ensuring the recording head never touches the disk surface, resulting in improved long-term reliability due to less head wear and improved shock tolerance

The new 750GB WD Scorpio Blue hard drives are available now through select distributors and resellers for approximately $190, while the 1TB Scorpio Blue model that configured into newly released My Passport Essential SE USB drives is available now for MSRP of $249.99.

Have you ever wanted to jot something down while reading? While the traditional pen and paper allow you to do that, the e-reader only displays pages on an electronic screen without allowing you to write anything. Samsung Electronics’ new product is set to change that.


Samsung_SNE-50K

Formerly known as Papyrus, the newly named SNE-50K reader is an all-in-one device It not only allows users to read text files, PDFs, and Microsoft Office documents in BMP graphic format, it also allows users to write memos, view calendars, record appointments, and plan schedules. It comes equipped with a 5-inch touchscreen display and an accompanying stylus pen. The 6.5-ounce e-reader has a memory of 512 MB with a screen resolution of 600 x 800 pixels.

Samsung has paired up with South Korea’s Kyobo Bookstore Company which has 2500 titles in e-book format thus far. New titles not available as e-books in Kyobo can be requested online via Kyobo’s website. Samsung is also seeking to collaborate with other book publishers to package new books for the e-reader. The SNE-50K reader is currently only available in South Korea for about $270 though there are plans to market the device in other countries in the future.

Typically, Intel Atom processoris designed to pair with its own northbridge/southbridge companion chip. However, its graphics performance is not always up to expectation and that is how the Nvidia’s Ion solution comes into the picture. Now with its superior graphics decode capability integrated into the chipset, users can experience the greater multimedia experience even in entry level nettop device. Just recently, Point of View, a Dutch company has just unveiled a new nettop, named as Mobii Ion that is powered by Intel Atom 230 processor pairing with Nvidia Ion for consumer market.


pointofview_ion

While the netbook is still based on native 10.2-inch screen size, what make this device so unique is it has been enhanced with HDMI video output that can be used to scale up the display resolution for external display in case there is a need to run HD media playback on the machine. Thanks to its powerful video decode engine embedded in the GeForce 9400 GPU. Based on the hardware and graphics driver capability, it can boost up the resolution to maximum of 2560 x 1600 pixels with 1080p full HD media playback. Although Nvidia claims that its chipset can supports a relatively newer DDR3 memory technology as compared to DDR2 that being used in Intel US15W or 945GSE chipset, but the current solution is based on 1GB DDR2 RAM with hard disk space of 160GB. Some other interfaces include Gigabit Ethernet LAN, Wireless 802.11b/g technology, USB 2.0, SD/MMC Expansion slots and many more.

The nettop is expected to ship by next month and at a retail price of around $500, it is slightly above common nettop pricing but it is understandable in view of the licensing and royalty fee that it needs to include for the HDMI technology.

Have you had trouble keeping your working and personal lives separate? Split Stick allows you to do that literally; it is a double-sided USB drive which provides 2GB of storage space for the two separate halves of your life. Or if you share a USB drive with a partner, Split Stick provides one half for ‘his’ and the other half for ‘hers.’


split-stick

Available in orange, pink, blue, red, violet, grey, or green, Split Stick should appeal to all users. Made of anodized aluminium body encased in a rubber casing, this retractable USB device is elegant and useful. A plastic button enables users to switch easily between the two different components of the USB drive. For $19.99, users can get a double-sided USB device for twice the efficiency and double the fun.

Kindle users who enjoy night reading can have a look at the new e-Luminator2 booklight unveiled by M-Edge Accessories. The new e-Luminator2 booklight is a chic e-Reader accessory to improve the lighting quality for reading in dark places. The booklight is designed to complement M-Edge’s existing lines of protective jackets. The device features a super bright LED light which can be adjusted to two brightness settings. The rotating steel neck enables users to direct the light from the top or the side.



E-Luminator1

The e-Luminator2 booklight is stylish and slim in design. It weighs 1.3 ounce and can be carried around easily. For $19.99 (limited period – normal price $24.99), the device is handy and chic for the Kindle reader on the go. It is also compatible with M-Edge Prodigy and M-Edge’s library of products in their new Sport line. For Kindle 1 users, e-Luminator2 with a shorter neck is also available.

Apple’s iPhones are famous for its multi touch capabilities that have able to penetrate well into competitive smart phone market space. While you may hear about this technology only after Apple’s iPhone becomes famous and it seems to be brought by Apple Inc to consumer market space but have you ever aware that Synaptics has actually came out with a multi touch product, named as ClearPad 2000 four months before the iPhone being released to market. Good news now, the California based company has just unveiled a more powerful next generation, named as ClearPad 3000 series that is claimed to be able to track up to ten fingers simultaneously.

The new sensor technology is claimed to be able provide an accuracy of up to +/-1mm radius, which is very precise to make the ten fingers possible on the tiny touch screen. Without complicating the hardware design, the whole stack up is measured at merely 0.3mm in thickness but still can go up to 8-inches touch screen module diagonally.

Some manufacturers are believed to have already started the engagement with Synaptics to bring this technology into their product lines and one of them is the T-mobile G1 by HTC, as well as some Korean based customers such as Samsung and LG. Besides the 3000 series, the company is also working on an entry level model, named as ClearPad 1000 series allows one-finger capacitive touch for some lower end smartphone and tablet PC products.