Played with Lego when you were younger? Then I guarantee you’ll go gaga over these pneumatic-powered lego-built engines! First you’ve go an inline 3-cylinder engine:
And, even more awesome, a V8!
These engines are meant to power lego-constructed vehicles, and are at least 11 bricks high. Check out lpepower.com for more details. (via)
Tags: geekasm, Geekasms, Lego Pneumatics
Original post by Rico
Filed under: Handhelds, Wireless
Aigo′s P8860 MID was already a potent, handsome piece of machinery in its factory form, but adding in 3G is like adding melted chocolate to a glazed hot doughnut from Krispy Kreme — it’s just better, even though it’s tough to accomplish and potentially harmful to your health. Far-reaching metaphors aside, our pals over at jkkmobile have put together an all-telling 18 minute video that explains how to add 3G HSDPA to this here MID. For seasoned DIYers, the process of opening it up, soldering a mini PCI-e connector / SIM card slot and tossing in a 3G card / antenna won′t seem that difficult. For everyone else, we’d recommend watching thrice to make sure your confidence level is at the appropriate position before delving in. Vid’s after the break, per usual.
Continue reading How-to video shows 3G implant into Aigo P8860 MID
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Handhelds
It looks like France’s SFR will be getting some tweaked variant of Aigo’s familiar P8860 Intel-based MID… with 3G on-board. The device features an 800 x 480 touchscreen display, an 800MHz Atom CPU, 4GB of RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi, a VGA webcam, 3 megapixel camera, and a full slide-out AZERTY keyboard (as well as some odd, circular navigation wheel). Obviously the big bonus here is the 3G connectivity, which sounds like it will be offered at €19.90 (about $26) or €24.90 ($32) per month, depending on plan. By appearances, those plans include unlimited data — though the machine translated article seems to suggest there could be some capping. The Linux-powered device will sell for €249 / $310 (€349 with a €100 rebate) — no word on release date.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs
Size definitely matters for MIDs, what with the whole Mobile moniker in there, but features matter too, and USI’s upcoming MID-160 offers most of the important ones. It’s got a 5-inch 800 x 480 touch-screen, connectivity over 802.11b/g as well as HSDPA and WiMAX, plus GPS and Bluetooth, served by an (unspecified) Atom processor and 512MB of RAM with 8GB of flash storage (expandable via microSD). All that’s delivered in a package just 15mm in thickness and 250 grams in heft, but sadly missing one thing we tend to use a lot when surfing the web: a keyboard. Nokia’s N810 WiMAX Edition has one, plus most of the other goods (lacking the Atom and 8GB of storage), yet manages to be just as thin and even lighter — not to mention available right now. By contrast we have no information on availability or price for MID’s sleek, but perhaps unnecessary, successor to the M-150.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Tim Stevens
Filed under: Handhelds
Continue reading Intel unveils world’s first working Moorestown MID
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Handhelds
Update: Sadly, it now appears that the demonstration was little more than a validation board running fresh from the factory, three-day old Moorestown silicon in an Intel lab. Significant, but hardly a working MID prototype. A working Moorestown MID like that pictured above remains the stuff of Intel’s graphics department fantasy for the time being.
Read — World’s first Moorestown platform
Read — Moorestown MID prototype on display in Taipei
Continue reading Intel unveils world’s first working Moorestown MID platform
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Thomas Ricker
Mac enthusiasts have been transfixed lately by the mystery product, code-named “brick,” that’s due for release later this month.
Some bloggers and pundits have suggested it might be a new iteration of Apple TV or an updated Mac Mini. But according to a report on 9to5Mac.com, “brick” refers not to what it is, but how it’s made.
The Web site, which cites an anonymous source, says the code name has to do with a manufacturing process for Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pro lines of laptops. Apple will build the notebook out of a single piece of carved-out aluminum — a brick.
A radically different production method might well boost costs, at least at the outset. But there could also be savings from the change, says market research firm iSuppli. If you′re working with one single unit of metal, you′re reducing a lot of the materials costs and also a lot of labor time on assembly.
Using a single piece of metal would also provide the opportunity for the kind of design flourishes that distinguish Apple and its chief executive, Steve Jobs (at left in photo above with Woz, right).
Screws might be minimized or eliminated entirely. Seams joining different pieces of metal would disappear. In short, these notebooks would be unlike anything else on the market in appearance and design.
Apple has been known to push the envelope on notebook design over the years. Its metallic MacBook Pros have inherited a distinctive look and feel that dates to 2001 when Apple launched its PowerBook G4 product line. Since then, there has always been a metal notebook, sometimes boasting a titanium shell, sometimes one of aluminum.
Much more at Businessweek.
Tags: 9to5mac.com, apple, apple tv, brick, isuppli, mac mini, macbook, macbook pro, powerbook Њ, steve jobs
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Much Ado about the Apple ‘Brick′
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Original post by nafiz
Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals
Imagine this — you, sitting in a dingy airport terminal waiting on your flight with a lifeless laptop and just 10 minutes to spare. You′ve got oodles of spreadsheet work to do before 8:00AM tomorrow, and unless you get it done on this flight, you′re fubared. Toshiba is looking to make said scenario seem like one that’s not so grim, as its prototype SCIB (Super Charge Ion Battery) purportedly has the potential to get 90% full in just 10 minutes. The battery was unveiled at CEATEC 2008 in Japan, though little was known about its eventual availability. Shame development cycles can’t be fast tracked in a similar manner, huh?
[Via UberReview]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Handhelds
Before we go any further, we’d like to inform this here Telson UMPC that if Pandora can finally get out of the starting blocks, so can you. Today, we’re looking at new evidence that Digital Cube (the handheld’s new parent) could be inching ever closer to bringing this shockingly thick gaming handheld to market. Out of seemingly nowhere, images have emerged of the portable posing beside a USB 3D camera dongle (saywha?); additionally, we’re told that it will pack a 1.2GHz VIA C7M CPU and feature a 4.3-inch display, 512MB of RAM, 30GB hard drive and Windows XP. Oh, and we’re also informed that it’ll be “released in October” in at least one section of the world, so we’ve got T-minus 27 days to see if that claim is legit.
[Via Pocketables]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Digital Cameras, Wireless
If you’re still in disbelief that wireless HD is finally catching on, here’s yet another demonstration that just may sway you into being a believer. Hitachi demonstrated a wireless HD camcorder setup at CEATEC in Japan, which saw a hacked up handycam get fitted with a protruding wireless card and stream high-def content to a nearby TV via DLNA (got all that?). Obviously, there’s no telling when or if the company will clean the application up and bring it to retail, but in all seriousness, we have our doubts about the value proposition here.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Cellphones
Remember that scene in ‘The Dark Knight’ where (spoiler alert!) Batman uses the city’s cell-phones to look through walls and find the bad guys? Totally awesome, right!? A group of scientists at KDDI apparently thought so too, creating a prototype they say could do something similar. Using geomagnetic sensors, accelerometers, and GPS, the device is able to determine its position and render its surroundings on the screen in OpenGL, including areas that are currently out of sight. We’re guessing you must have already scanned those areas with the phone and that it can’t actually see through walls, but we′d be happy to be proven wrong — whenever they actually have something to show us. Like the group’s funky concept phones we brought to you earlier, this one doesn’t actually work. Yet.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Tim Stevens
Filed under: Wearables
Oh sure, we’ve already seen solar jackets, backpacks and all manners of like-minded creations, but having an energized trinket around your neck just seems so much more useful. Dreamed up for Samsung’s Young Design contest, the Prometeo is an admittedly large box that could be worn around one’s neck or arm and used to suck in energy from the beaming sun; once it’s juiced, wearers can simply plug a couple USB devices in there and let the good times roll. Additionally, there’s an integrated power meter to let you know just how full / drained the thing is, though we don’t see any sort of AC plug in order to power it up in a pinch. We know, you′re balking at the size of this thing, but don’t you think folks looked at Mr. T funny back in the day? Trendsetting ain’t easy, people.
[Via DesignLaunches]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment
Now that pico projectors are actually headed to end users, we’re seeing a number of companies hop in the fast lane to production. Take Microvision for instance — these guys were taking their sweet time by introducing the PicoP beamer back at CES, and now we’re looking at a freshly revamped version that has already begun shipping to OEMs for “evaluation and end-user testing.” Reportedly, the device shown at CEATEC featured a “thinner, smaller and brighter PicoP engine and several image quality enhancements” over the unit displayed at CES, and it officially boasted a WVGA resolution that could be blown up to 100-inches in size. Unfortunately, we’re still waiting to hear how long it′ll be before this one slips into consumers’ hands, but we’ve a feeling it′ll be sooner rather than later.
[Via AboutProjectors]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Hitachi drug its oh-so-sexy 1.5-inch plasma to Japan after showing it off in Denver earlier this month, but what we didn′t see at CEDIA was this: a 15-millimeter thin 37-inch LCD TV. The “reference” set packed a 1,920 x 1,080 panel and a fittingly designed stand, though it won′t see mass production until “2009 or later.” Ugh, even 1-inch just seems so bloated now.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Transportation
While Chevy makes quite a to-do about the upcoming Volt hybrid, GM-cousin Chrysler has quietly continued to produce over 38,000 real, honest to gosh electric cars in its GEM sub-division. In need of a little eco-PR boost, Global Electric Motorcars is re-branding itself as Global Eco Mobility and introducing the Peapod. No, not that Peapod, or that Peapod, but a new Peapod that will travel up to 30 miles at 25 mph on an eight hour charge — stats that sound suspiciously identical to the company’s earlier Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (when not in muddin‘ guise, at least). But, that car doesn′t sport bulbous looks on the outside nor gratuitous iPod integration on the inside (pictured below), which, if you don′t have to go far or fast, might make it the perfect accessory for your pod when it enters production sometime next year for an undisclosed price.
[Via Register Hardware]
Continue reading GEM becomes Green Eco Mobility, introduces Peapod prototype
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post by Tim Stevens
Developages - Development and Technology Blog