Developages - Development and Technology Blog

We’ve heard a lot about Blu-ray in the past couple of years but is the technology any closer to making it into your home this Christmas? This time last year the high-defintion (HD) war was in full swing between Blu-ray and HD DVD but dedicated players [excluding the PS3] were not cheap. Now, a year on, Blu-ray stands alone and the path to HD immortality and becoming the ‘next DVD’ stands clear but are players cheap enough to tempt you to stick one in your stocking this Silly Season?Last year, dedicated Blu-ray players - apart from being few and far between in the UK - boasted wallet-crushing price tags ranging from £400-800. This time out, prices are a more reasonable £200 and [much] higher, but you can also get older Blu-ray spinners for around £150. So, will you be taking the Blu-ray plunge or holding out? Let us know.-Martin Lynch blu-ray movies christmas

Original post by nafiz

Blu-ray may have won the HD war [against HD DVD] but it’s still fighting hard to win the hearts and wallets of consumers. Obviously, a looming recession doesn’t help anything but according to Stan Glasgow, head of Sony’s US electronics division, sales of its Blu-ray players will not hit its worldwide goal of 5 million units. To be fair though, it won’t miss by much. Glasgow said: “It’s not that far off of it. Maybe 10 per cent off of what we had thought. It’s truly one of the items that has performed well during this economic mess.”Prices of Blu-ray players are expected to be slashed after the US Thanksgiving holiday this week, with many hoping it will prompt a surge in sales in the Christmas run-up. Prices for some models are expected to hit just $150. But even Glasgow admits that the high price of Blu-ray movies has to fall to help drive sales. “They (movie studios) need to make money, and the packaged media (discs) is a critical way for them to make money so I understand their problems also,” he said. “But I’d love to see those prices come down, as well as the price of Blu-ray players, to drive adoption.” Even though sales in the DVD market are on the way down, 147 million DVD players and recorders were sold in 2007, according to In-Stat.-Martin Lynch [Reuters] blu-ray movies sony

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Household, Robots

You try and you try to keep your plants well-watered and situated in the brightest spot you can find, but that darned sun has an annoying tendency to move and leave your urban foliage wilting. You could try leaving them in the window, or switching to creepy robotic flowers, or you could just replace your pots with PlantBot, a four-legged contraption designed to seek out the sun and plunk your plant right where it needs to be. Designed by The Play Coalition, a group of people who “love to design things that are often functional but usually just fun,” it looks like something out of a woodworking-themed anime, tickling our geeky natures while exuding that undeniable aesthetic of a well-made piece of furniture — even if not delivering quite the same level of usefulness. Alas, there’s no video available of this in action, but we do have an animation of it shambling across the room waiting for you just below.

[Via MAKE]

Continue reading PlantBot takes your flora in search of sun (and fun!)

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Original post by Tim Stevens

Brenthaven markets the Sling II to the “urban mobile professional,” but the 15.4-inch laptop case’s metallic silver and black color scheme seems more fitting for college students than businessmen.

Brenthaven claims that the bag can accommodate notebooks up to 15.4-inches, though the three 15.4-inch Windows-based notebooks I tried were too thick to fit. I also tested the bag with a brand new MacBook Pro, but fitting the Apple notebook into the Sling II took way too much effort.

If you’re lucky enough to own a notebook that fits (14.1 and 15.0-inch computers will work just fine), you can depend on foam padding to keep your goods safe on all four sides. The bag can accommodate laptops with displays as small as 14-inches, though smaller computers won’t be as secure.

If you’re a gadget freak like me, you’ll find a home for all your goodies among the bag’s eight zippered pockets. There’s also a handy pouch towards the top of the sling strap, providing easy access to your MP3 player, cell phone, or pocket-sized digital camera.

Students will find storage for pens and pencils, calculators, and even a set of gym clothes and sneakers. Professionals can use the bag for overnight trips as well, with enough storage for small clothing items and toiletries in the main compartment. A dedicated water bottle holder zips closed when not in use.

Rotating the bag to access the main compartment without removing the Sling II from your back may require a bit of effort when holding a laptop and a variety of other items, though it’s certainly possible to do so. You can hide away the sling strap when not in use, with a top handle making it easy to carry the bag for short distances.

Commuters will find the bag to be comfortable, even when carrying a heavy load. With padding in all the right places, the Sling II won’t wear you down on long walks on campus or through the city. My only design complaint relates to the lower half of the sling strap: without a restraining sleeve, the adjustable strap seems to flop around, but only becomes a problem when there’s a lot of slack.

If you typically find sling bags to be convenient and comfortable, and have a laptop that fits, this bag won’t disappoint. The Brenthaven Sling II is available in metallic silver for about $78 shipped on Amazon.com.

Original post by Zach Honig

The ultra-slim Brenthaven Edge II laptop case is designed for Apple MacBook Pro computers, but can also accommodate 15.4-inch laptops with a similar profile. We got a sample in recently, and I took it for a test drive.

You can carry the bag using its retractable handle or over your shoulder or across the chest using the removable shoulder strap. The Zero Impact series bag is ideal for daily use by commuters that keep a spare power adapter at work, as the shoulder bag leaves little room for cables and other sizable accessories. An AC adapter pocket is available an as optional accessory.

15.4-inch laptops are secured by Brenthaven’s CORE Protection System, which includes padded protection for all four sides. I packed the Edge II with a 1.5-inch thick Gateway notebook–you’ll likely have trouble zipping the bag with thicker lappies. I wouldn’t suggest the bag for notebooks with smaller displays, however, as the included padding is not adjustable. A front zipper pocket can accommodate discs and instruction manuals, and the bag’s rear pocket provides storage for magazines, booklets, and papers, and is secured with a 2-inch strip of Velcro.

The Edge II doubles as a portable workstation, with four rubber patches holding the notebook in place while also keeping your lap cool. The bag is also TSA compliant, so airport screeners will be able to view contents in a single x-ray image without requiring you to remove your laptop.

As I mentioned, the Edge II is an appropriate choice for road warriors who like to travel extremely light, but users who prefer to carry more than just a laptop and a couple magazines should look for something roomier. The $59.95 bag is available in Jet Black and Steel Blue, and includes Brenthaven’s lifetime warranty.

Original post by Zach Honig

The ultra-slim Brenthaven Edge II laptop case is designed for Apple MacBook Pro computers, but can also accommodate 15.4-inch laptops with a similar profile. We got a sample in recently, and I took it for a test drive.

You can carry the bag using its retractable handle or over your shoulder or across the chest using the removable shoulder strap. The Zero Impact series bag is ideal for daily use by commuters that keep a spare power adapter at work, as the shoulder bag leaves little room for cables and other sizable accessories. An AC adapter pocket is available an as optional accessory.

15.4-inch laptops are secured by Brenthaven’s CORE Protection System, which includes padded protection for all four sides. I packed the Edge II with a 1.5-inch thick Gateway notebook–you’ll likely have trouble zipping the bag with thicker lappies. I wouldn’t suggest the bag for notebooks with smaller displays, however, as the included padding is not adjustable. A front zipper pocket can accommodate discs and instruction manuals, and the bag’s rear pocket provides storage for magazines, booklets, and papers, and is secured with a 2-inch strip of Velcro.

The Edge II doubles as a portable workstation, with four rubber patches holding the notebook in place while also keeping your lap cool. The bag is also TSA compliant, so airport screeners will be able to view contents in a single x-ray image without requiring you to remove your laptop.

As I mentioned, the Edge II is an appropriate choice for road warriors who like to travel extremely light, but users who prefer to carry more than just a laptop and a couple magazines should look for something roomier. The $59.95 bag is available in Jet Black and Steel Blue, and includes Brenthaven’s lifetime warranty.

Original post by Zach Honig

Today, Digium, creator and primary developer of Asterisk, the leading open source telephony platform will be making a major announcement at Astricon later today. Digium hinted to me that a major announcement would be made at Astricon when I visited their Huntsville, Alabama headquarters in August.

I tried to find out what the news will be, but alas Digium couldn’t tell me. So I thought it would be fun to prognosticate what this deal could be.

1) Digium’s Switchvox will be distributed by Dell, which currently carries another Asterisk competitor, Fonality.

2) Digium will be acquired by Adtran, an avid supporter of Digium in the past.

3) HP seeing that competitor Dell is offering IP-PBXs (i.e. Fonality and Nortel) will partner with Digium to offer Digium’s line of IP-PBXs and telephony hardware

4) Now that Adtran, a financial supporter of Digium, offers their own line of IP phones, including the IP706 and IP712, perhaps Digium will offer a bundled IP-PBX package that includes Switchvox and a few Adtran IP phones.

5) Digium will announce this whole open source thing is nonsense, there’s no money in it, and they’re announcing that they are making Asterisk closed source effective immediately. Ok, maybe in some alternate universe!

6) CDW, a major distributor, will be carrying and distributing Digium’s products.

Ok, so what’s your guess? Costco? And remember the clock is ticking. The announcement could be made at any moment.

Tags: Adtran, alabama, Astricon, Digium, fonality, Huntsville, ip-pbx, IP706, IP712, voip

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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Robots

WowWee’s Rovio isn’t due to start shipping to the general populace for a few days still, but the mighty important folks over at RobotsRule were somehow able to procure one a hair early. Thankfully for us, it took the time to neatly unbox this home sentry and give us an up-close look at what it’s made of. A full-fledged review is promised within the next few days, but for now, just hit the read link and enjoy the shots.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Right, so we have to pepper in some skepticism here just in case someone with way too much time on their hands has simply coated Vista in what they believe is Windows 7 garb, but ThinkNext purportedly has a whole host of screenshots from the forthcoming OS. The shots in the read link are supposedly from Windows 7 M3 Build 6780, and to be honest, it doesn’t look a tremendous amount different than Vista. Oh, and keep the source linked bookmarked — the author has promised videos shortly. Mmm, videos.

[Via GottaBeMobile]

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Original post by Darren Murph

The fourth-generation iPod nano brings Apple’s smaller portable player back to its form factor roots, albeit through a smaller and more feature-laden package. To wit:

The newest iPod nano is oh so slightly thinner than its predecessor, and the displays of both the 3G and 4G variants are actually the same, in terms of size and max brightness. Check out the pics and see for yourself (click on the thumbnails on top to see the bigger versions, and continue reading to see the rest of our gallery.

No idea on why Apple bumped the max video playback time to 3 hours though.

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Original post by Rico

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Pioneer got official with its 50-inch KRP-500A and 60-inch KRP-600A over in Europe earlier this summer, and just as each set got set to ship, the firm felt it necessary to bring ‘em to Japan. Best of all, AkihabaraNews was able to see just how deep those blacks really were at a recent press event, and it was kind enough to host up a plethora of photographs for us common folk to gaze at. If we just rang your bell, pop down into the links below for specs and images galore.

Read - Camera flash, capture Pioneer’s new plasmas
Read - Formal introduction in Japan

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

Though it may never live the proper life it should have, Sony Ericsson’s now-canned 𕚛 is alive and well in these spy shots. Of course, being that the Alicia is officially dead, you won’t find any updated specifications or a super-secret release date, but the gallery of images in the read link is a mighty fine look at what could’ve been. It’s never too late, SE…

[Via DailyMobile, thanks Daniel]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Desktops

Looks like EA’s about to cash in on all that “can it run Crysis” chatter — Crysis Warhead will be accompanied by the launch of a $699 Ultra-built gaming tower that should manage a consistent 30fps. Crytek has been testing on the so-called “Warhead PC” since early on the dev process, tweaking the engine to make sure the game ran well on the 2.66GHz E7300 Core 2 Duo, 512MB GeForce 9800GT and 2GB of RAM– the rule was “if it sucks on this, the whole thing sucks” — and it apparently cranks out consistently solid framerates at high quality settings. No word on an exact release date, but for $699 it’s not a bad deal — and hey, it plays Crysis.

[Via CNET]

Read - Article on Warhead PC’s development
Read - Tiger Direct info page

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Wireless

Belkin has been dangling its FlyWire wireless HD box for, what, ever now? Thankfully, it seems that all the kinks have been worked out, and the October ship date should actually stick. A few tidbits we learned while hanging out at the outfit’s CEDIA booth: first, we confirmed that the technology within the device is AMIMON’s, so we′re guessing it’s WHDI. Secondly, we heard that the retail price of the top-end AV69003 may scoot up to $1,499 when it’s finally released. We know, that’s a lot of coin to make your components cord-free, but the demonstration showing off Blu-ray streaming through thin air was nothing short of astounding. No hiccups, no jaggies, no hints whatsoever that there wasn’t a direct HDMI connection. Check the box (and the receiver) out in the flesh over at Engadget HD.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Peripherals

For better or worse, it looks like the so-called iControlPad is edging closer to reality — or at least something really similar. According to a new image (and our limited Spanish translation skills), Belkin is actually looking to produce an App Store gaming controller, though we’re still not entirely convinced that what we’re seeing is legitimate. Whatever the case, the JoyPod would somehow, someway provide users who purchased Super Monkey Ball to play it using a bona fide game pad, though we can’t figure out if the iPod touch / iPhone slips in behind the controller or if it just morphs to fit the JoyPod’s space constraints. Guess we’ll see (or not) soon enough.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Original post by Darren Murph