Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

When Samsung Electronics named Yoon-Woo Lee as vice chairman and CEO a few months back, we were hoping that all that rioting and poster burning would subside. Although we haven’t heard of any more breakouts of late, things are apparently still rocky on the inside. Lee Soo-Bin, chairman of Samsung Life Insurance and current representative for the Samsung Group, admitted that “without a captain or rudder, Samsung now faces a complex crisis, with each unit meeting cut-throat competition independently.” He continued to say that the group “was able to ride out a previous crisis together thanks to former chairman Lee Kun-Hee’s strong leadership and the guidance of the Strategic Planning Office, [but] now it could not do so.” From the outside looking in, it’s a bit tough to really understand what he’s getting at, but whatever the case, those are most definitely not the words you want coming from the mouth a head exec.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Shortly after hearing of rearrangements amongst the XPS / Alienware dev teams, along comes word the outfit’s current CFO will be headed out in June. Donald J. Carty (pictured), who was just hired as chief financial officer 1.5 years ago, will be resigning in June and will be replaced by longtime General Electric executive Brian T. Gladden. Mr. Gladden stated that he was “excited to be joining Dell at a time of transformation,” and considering the $700,000 annual base salary along with the $2 million signing bonus (amongst other monetary perks), we highly doubt he’s fibbing. It should be noted that the Round Rock powerhouse will keep Carty on its board, and that he actually “indicated several months ago that he wanted to retire as CFO.”

[Via CNET]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

Seriously though, how many are surprised to hear that Motorola’s Chief Technology / Strategy Officer Richard Nottenburg is jumping off the sinking ship? Apparently dude “left to return to the New York area to be with his family and pursue other opportunities,” which is code for a) he was passed over for CEO of the new mobile devices company, b) he was fired, or c) he finally wised up to the direction the company’s taken. Either way, we can’t really blame him.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Robots

We know that you love swarming bug-bots as much as we do, so of course we were thrilled to tell you about BAE Systems’ MAST project the other day. Luckily, the Army-contracted company didn’t stop at mere photos to scare the living daylights out of humanity, they also created a really cheesy, yet deeply frightening video to go along with them. Enjoy a glimpse of the Skynet-controlled / shredding-guitar future of warfare after the break — and don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Continue reading Bug-bot video reveals swarming drones, extreme rocking

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation

Not even half a year after Air France enabled passengers on its single OnAir-equipped Airbus A318 to send / receive messages and e-mail, the airline has went live with the second phase of the in-flight experiment. As of this week, guests who find themselves aboard the aforesaid aircraft can make / receive calls on their mobile at 30,000 feet. Reportedly, a dozen simultaneous calls are possible “per picocell network, as well as unlimited text messages and e-mails,” and while pricing details weren’t disclosed, you can rest assured it won’t be a bargain. Nevertheless, the voice aspect of the trial is scheduled to carry on for three months, and we’re assuming the results (read: whether annoyed passengers start assaulting chronic yappers) will determine if it gets rolled out to more of the fleet or quietly buried.

[Via WiFi Net News]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Pentax’s 31.6 megapixel medium-format 645 Digital has been announced for over a year now — we’ve even seen one in the flesh — but it’s never actually shipped, and now it looks like it never will. According to Impress, Pentax is killing off its digital medium format cameras to focus on K-series DSLRs, but the 645’s film versions will live on. Considering the ever-more-competitive field of excellent prosumer cams out there, we can’t say we fault the decision, but if there are any engineering samples lying around, we’ll be happy to take ‘em off Pentax’s hands.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Household

Everybody knows that if you’ve got real criminals to deal worry about, you buy a gun or a katana. That’s why we’re planning on pointing this “witness camera” DIY project at those little household criminals, like Felix. The project involves a few cheap-as-free components like a VGA CMOS color camera, PIR movement sensor, ATmega32 processor and a 1GB SD card. Oddly enough, the box looks like a regular alarm detector, which seems it’d be the first thing a burglar — or a diabolical cat that likes to hold hapless fish ransom for unreasonable quantities of catnip — would try to disable, but we suppose the whole point of DIY is that you can hide the setup in whatever you please.

[Via MAKE]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Cellphones

Apparently, the news we got (and saw on the company’s website) yesterday concerning AT&T’s offer of a SIM-only service plan was off the mark… or so says AT&T. According to the telco’s reps, a SIM card can be had sans-contract, saying that its attitude towards the service hasn’t changed and that pre-paid, post-paid, or any other millions of varieties of arrangements can be made to tap into its sweet service. So move along folks, nothing here to see.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Cellphones

It looks like all that shouting AT&T has been doing lately about its “openness” is starting to manifest itself in the way the company does business. It’s come to our attention that the mobile telco has started offering a SIM-only plan, thus providing the ultimate in open options. The idea being, of course, that you can bring any random / crappy / salvaged GSM-compatible handset the provider’s way, and it’ll let you hook a towline onto its satellites. Of course, you could just get one of those cheapo giveaways and pop out the card, but this is so much more open and free, like San Francisco in ‘69, a car-less road, some land of your own, and a good old-fashioned whiskey on the rocks. Oh, you still have a sign a two-year agreement… enjoy your freedom!

[Via The Boy Genius Report]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Portable Video, Wearables

It’s not often that we see a pair of new wearable PVRs within the span of 24 hours, but sure enough, Ajoka is launching its Belt Buckle DVR just after we peeked the VIEVU PVR-PRO. ‘Course, we’re fairly certain this one’s arriving a little late to be an official member of the “multifaceted belt buckle” fad, but with all the utility crammed into this one, it’s got a fair shot at gaining traction, regardless. As for specs, this hidden camera can record video at a paltry 176 x 144 resolution, and considering that no built-in memory is included, you better bring your own SD card. Also, you can transfer captures and recharge the battery via the USB port, but sadly, no price is disclosed.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Gaming

Not even two months after NVIDIA tempted gamers on a budget with the GeForce 8800 GT, the outfit has loosed a new beast just in time for those eleventh hour holiday shoppers. Based on 65-nanometer fabrication, the 8800 GTS 512MB boasts 128 stream processors, twin dual-link DVI ports, PureVideo HD technology, DirectX 10 support, a 650MHz core clock / 970MHz memory clock and hardware decode acceleration for smooth playback of “H.264, VC-1, WMV and MPEG-2 HD and SD movies.” According to the company, this card provides some 25-percent more processing power than NVIDIA products previously offered at the same price point, which, if you’re wondering, is around $299 to $349.

[Via HotHardware]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph