Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Peripherals

Yeah, we’ve seen the cart come before the horse before, and such is the case with NZXT’s Avatar gaming mouse. Shortly after being previewed, the outfit has done its duty and made things official. Specs wise, we’re looking at 7 customizable buttons, a 2,600DPI optical sensor, 4-speed DPI switch, ambidextrous design and a rubber grip to keep your palm secure even when the sweat really gets to pourin’. It’s available now to challenge your Razer for $59.99.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Peripherals

You don’t even need to dig into the machine translated read link to understand that the gaming mouse you see pictured above looks a lot like a Razer, but NZXT’s Avatar is a beast in its own right. Best known for lavish (and stylish) PC cases, the outfit has evidently seen fit to dip its toes into the wide, wide world of gamer-centric input peripherals. Boasting a 2,600DPI sensitivity rating and a rather unadventurous design, the Avatar should fare fine in heated deathmatches or WoW raids, though it’s probably overkill for the Excel maven. Nevertheless, the currently unpriced unit has been previewed quite thoroughly by the folks over at TweakPC, so give the link below a look if you could ever see yourself wanting this in your arsenal.

[Via I4U News]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Handhelds

Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader has been doing pretty well as a consumer device, but we’ve always thought it had amazing potential as a textbook reader — especially coupled iTunes-style with Amazon’s online distribution system. Apparently Princeton University (Jeff Bezos’s alma mater) agrees with us, because it’s just announced plans to publish Kindle version of its textbooks this fall, joining Yale, Oxford, and Berkeley in supporting the device. It’s not clear how many books are due to be published on the device or how content like photographs and full-color diagrams will be handled (what’s a bio book without red mitochondria? They’re the “powerhouse” of the cell!), but we’re certain students will gladly make the tradeoff to reduce their backpack loads just a little bit.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Displays

Shuttle may have been the first out of the gate with this minimalist design (presumably OEM, and likely only a sign of things to come), but that’s not keeping Princeton from doing its own thing with its new PTB-TMW19B tablet display, which just got official for Japan today. While the exterior’s identical to the Shuttle, the Princeton model takes a slight dip in resolution to 1440 x 900, although the company makes up for that somewhat by including a stylus and some handwriting recognition software. Otherwise, you can expect a 5 ms response time, an 850: 1 contrast ratio, and even a pair of built-in speakers. Look for this one to set you back ¥128,000 (or just under $1,200) when it hits Japan later this month.

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Normally we get excited when a slab of silicon makes our games run at 60 frames per-second, but in this case we’re impressed with a new chip that filters out cancer cells. The device, created by some impressive souls at Princeton and Boston University, directs and focuses streams of cells in a liquid. Like a change sorter, it then separates regular cells form unusual ones. The silicon wafer is tacked with tiny pillars that catch abnormal cells that are, in the end, potentially cancerous. The device hasn’t been used to any major extent, but we’ll keep an eye on this promising discovery.

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Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Alienware’s AMD-powered Aurora ALX picked up CrossFireX support just as soon as it went live from ATI, but it has taken a few weeks for the technology to make its way over to the iconic Area-51. Said gaming rig is now available with ATI CrossFireX, meaning that you can take advantage of all four GPUs across a pair of Radeon HD 3870 X2s. Full release posted after the jump.

Continue reading ATI’s CrossFireX now offered on Alienware Area-51 gaming PC

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Features, GPS

We’re fairly impressed with Navigon’s showing at CeBIT, busting out those 4.3-inch 2100 Max PNDs at a $299 pricepoint, and raising the bar for GPS sexy with the 8110. The software for the 2100 Max couldn’t be much more frill-free, but we found the 3D maps of the 8110 — as in, actual 3D terrain — to be quite impressive. We didn’t see any 3D buildings in our demo, but apparently you can download those to flesh out the experience.

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: GPS

Navigon is hitting CeBIT with some new and fairly expected hotness: the 8110. With a 4.8-inch WQVGA screen, full 3D maps and some sexy brushed metal looks, this one’s going to turn some heads — just promise you’ll try and keep your eyes on the road, will you? There’s a 533MHz processor under the hood, along with a independent graphics accelerator to handle the 3D. 512MB of ROM and 128MB of RAM round out the specs, which won’t exactly make this your second computer, but should handle media from SD cards just fine. TMC Pro is also included for higher quality traffic info. The 8110 should hit Europe at the end of April for €449, no word on a US release yet.

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Fujitsu isn’t just updating old laptops, you know. The company currently has scores of mad geniuses sweating away on new, bizarre, and possibly unnecessary concepts, too. For your viewing pleasure we present the “Card Viewer,” an information device which consists of multiple electronic sleeves that can be detached while retaining their digital data. Also on tap is the “Clerk Browser,” a device worn on the wrist which is meant to provide information to shopgirls, car dealers, and other people trying to sell you something. The company has also been working on a “Fabric PC,” which — you guessed it — is a PC based around soft, flexible materials, and the “Customer Browser,” an information device which provides maps of stores, product location and information, and on-line help. All of these, needless to say, aren’t and won’t be available any time soon… so enjoy!

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky