Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Microsoft’s interactive multi-touch tabletop technology has escaped from Las Vegas bars and climbed the social ladder to BMW car showrooms. The German car maker has become the first car company to implement the Microsoft Surface technology in some of its showrooms. It’s somewhat ironic that BMW has plumped for this kind of investment in an expensive hi-tech sales tool when the new car sales market is in the toilet. Still, well-heeled BMW shoppers should be happy. The multi-touch system allows potential car purchasers to interact with their chosen car. For instance, by dropping various colour-coded blocks on the screen, they can change the colour of the car, inside and out. It also allows them to customise all aspects of the car with those ‘extras’ that help to dramatically drive up the basic sticker price. The finished car can then be viewed up on a big TV screen, driving around and looking all shiny and cool - just without you behind the wheel. Your final choice can then be printed out or emailed to you. That way you can gaze at it longingly for the next few years until that little thing known as ‘the recession′ blows over.-Martin Lynch [BMW Blog] microsoft car technology

Original post by nafiz

There are many things already out there designed to comment on our driving skills, from annoying ‘front-seat drivers’ to meaningful hand gestures from other motorists and the symphony of blaring horns. Now Honda has decided that what we really need is a ‘green′ speedometer. As part of the Honda Ecological Drive Assist System in the forthcoming hybrid car, Insight [2009], the speedometer changes colour to provide real-time guidance on fuel-efficient driving. That’s right, gunning it from 0-60 in true Top Gear fashion will result in the speedometer turning blue, obviously with outrage at your lack of consideration for the planet. However, drive sensibly in a fuel-efficient manner and the ambient glow is - you guessed it - an eco-friendly green. They say: “The ambient meter enables the driver to be aware of real-time fuel consumption patterns, and encourages the driver to achieve fuel-efficient driving while trying to maintain the green colour display. In Honda’s hybrid system, the motor assists during acceleration and performs regenerative recharging during braking; as a result, braking practices also have an impact on fuel economy.” Still, I could live with an opinionated Honda speedometer if it was clad in the company’s new concept car, the FC Sport. All we need now is a hook-up between Honda and Xbox LIVE and you’ll probably soon be able to unlock Green Driver Achievement Points.-Martin Lynch car hybrid

Original post by nafiz

Medion is a good choice for solid and reliable, if a little uninspiring, in-car satnav devices and is updating its range with the new GoPal 󄨶. This little number will suit those who find smaller, budget alternatives a bit difficult to manage since it sports a large 5″ widescreen display and full maps of Europe are preinstalled. There’s also an FM transmitter, a fingerprint reader for security, a built-in TMC antenna for navigating your way around traffic jams and Bluetooth for pairing with your mobile phone. Add an Ṃ player, travel guide and even a game of Sudoku to keep you entertained when you′re stuck in traffic and it becomes one of the most feature-packed on the market. The good news is that Medion is sticking with its policy of offer a lot for your money and the GoPal 󄨶 will set you back just £175 when it’s released at the end of the month. - Paul Lester [TechDigest] Medion GoPal GPS

Original post by nafiz

Mad Russian designer Art Lebedev - of OLED keyboard fame - has been busy in recent times looking into lots of different types of very odd products but I have to say that even we were surprised when we found out he was working on overhauling the trusty old traffic light. Meet the Luxofor traffic light which ditches the traditional round light for a square one that that not only looks better but is designed to be much easier for drivers to see. Ye olde round traffic lights were shaped that way to better dispense light from the spherical light bulb but Art and his team have ditched old bulbs too. The Luxofor light prototype uses a square lens that’s lit up by superbright diodes, making it much easier for non-attentive drivers and texting-while-walking pedestrians to see. The new light makes better use of the light housing too, using more of the available space than round lights do. Art says his studio is willing to work with road safety councils and local authorities to improve traffic lights, road markings and signs. Like most things coming out of Art’s studio, Luxofor looks like a great piece of design but, considering how long we all had to wait for the hugely expensive Optimus Maximus OLED keyboard, we could all have our bus passes by the time this hits the streets. [Electronista]

Original post by nafiz

How about a nice flashy sports car to wind down for the day on a lazy Friday afternoon? The Honda FC Sport concept is no ordinary sports car though, since it runs on hydrogen power and uses the same fuel-cell technology first seen on the Honda FCX Clarity. It was designed at Honda’s Advanced Design Studio in California and is intended to be a working prototype for production sports car that uses fuel-cell technology. Strangely there doesn’t seem to be any information floating about on horsepower or speed, but we do know it’s a mid-engine design that’s been streamlined and lowered to hug the road, so it’s got to be quite nippy. It’s a bit of a marmite design in terms of looks - you′ll either love it or hate it - but if this is the kind of thing we have to put up with to get someone to design an efficient zero-emission engine then so be it. Click the link below for some more images before you make up your mind. - Paul Lester [CarMagazineOnline] sports car concept fuel cell

Original post by nafiz

Having problems parking that Bentley in central London? No worries, Fujitsu has developed a wraparound camera for cars that offers the driver a 360-degree view of the car and its position to make it easier to park and manoeuvre. The system adapts to various driving situations, offering up a choice oif views best suited to stop you backing into Bugatti Veyrons and running over the feet of traffic wardens. OK, maybe not that last one. That means you can chose what view of your car and the surroundings you need in situations like “parking, passing on a narrow street, and seeing around corners at intersections with poor sightlines”.This latest system goes well beyond the typical camera-mounted systems in use right now. The Fujitsu version comprises 4 cameras installed around the vehicle’s perimeter, with the video images being synthesised by a “3-D virtual projection/point of view conversion technology”. They add: “Additionally, when switching between different views as the driving situation changes, this new technology makes a smooth transition from one view to another by continuously interpolating points of view, fields of view, and sightlines. This helps to quickly orient the driver to the new view currently being shown, when the driver makes periphery checks.” You know it’s only a matter of time before the steering wheel is replaced by a games console controller.-Martin Lynch cars news camera

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It’s made it through some tough times in the past (the other DIVX, anyone?), but it looks like Circuit City is now really up against the wall, and it’s apparently considering some rather drastic measures to avoid becoming the largest retailer to enter bankruptcy protection in recent years. According to The Wall Street Journal, “people familiar with the company” say that Circuit City is contemplating closing at least 150 stores and making the associated high number of job cuts in order to get itself in a better position to shore up some much needed financing, which it has been unable to secure so far. To put things in a bit of perspective, before it packed up and went home, Blockbuster offered to buy Circuit City in February of this year for $6 to $8 a share. The company’s share value as of this writing? 40 cents.

[Via MarketWatch]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Cellphones

Oh yeah, you′ve seen Sony Ericsson’s succulent XPERIA X1 unboxed in still image form, but there’s just nothing like a little unpacking on video to really whet your appetite, right? Oh, and there’s also some comparison action thrown in with the HTC Touch Pro, and of course, we get to see the OS in action. Hop on past the break to have a look, but we’re warning you, those who covet easily will want to restrain themselves.

[Thanks, Oscar]

Continue reading Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 unboxed, played with on video

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

We’d been encouraged in previous spy shots that AT&ampT was intending to keep a clean, brand-free look on the front of the Fuze, but what were we thinking? That’d never sit well with the suits up on the 49th floor of AT&T’s headquarters (we just made that up, by the way — we have no idea how many floors AT&T’s headquarters has), and sure enough, the latest batch of shots is showing a big ol’ logo slapped on the upper right of the face. The poster says release is currently planned for early November, but we’d say that target is about as solid as one of those Jello rings you make in a bundt mold. We’ll believe it when it’s on the shelf, as they say.

[Via wmpoweruser]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Handhelds

Like your smartphones with a little heft to them? Check out Motorola’s new V򥄀, an oversized Windows Mobile 6.1 device for those with inventory (and employees) to track. The 4.85 pound behemoth is intended for dashboards, not Dockers, and features a wealth of connectivity to ensure your workers are never offline, like HSDPA, 802.11a/b/g, and Bluetooth too. It also offers SAE J1708 and J1939 ports for communicating directly with the systems of whatever vehicle you mount it in, and a SiRFstarIII GSC3ef/LP GPS chipset for pinpointing exactly where your last shipment of widgets was delivered. The front sports a 6.5-inch VGA touchscreen and a backlit 65-key keyboard, while inside hides 128MB of RAM plus 256MB of flash for storage and a 624 MHz XScale PXﻶ processor, a faster version of the same chip we’ve seen before in other shop-minded portables. Price isn’t set, but this could be the must-have gadget for your fleet in ‘09.

[Via NaviGadget]

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Original post by Tim Stevens

Filed under: Cellphones

Not that Motorola’s Q11 comes as any big surprise, but it’s nice to see the Windows Mobile 6.1-packin’ smartphone get all official on us. Now boasting its very own dedicated page on Moto’s website, the Q11 comes to us with quad-band GPRS / EDGE (no 3G, for whatever reason), a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash, 64MB of RAM, microSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.1, a 320 x 240 resolution display, integrated GPS and a multimedia player with support for all sorts of file formats. You can also expect up to 450 minutes of talk time and up to 195 hours in standby, but you won’t be able to wrap your paws around it until December. As for carriers and pricing? Patience, friends, patience.

[Via UnwiredView]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

Not that Motorola’s ᾯ comes as any big surprise, but it’s nice to see the Windows Mobile 6.1-packin’ smartphone get all official on us. Now boasting its very own dedicated page on Moto’s website, the Q11 comes to us with quad-band GPRS / EDGE (no 3G, for whatever reason), a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash, 64MB of RAM, microSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.1, a 320 x 240 resolution display, integrated GPS and a multimedia player with support for all sorts of file formats. You can also expect up to 450 minutes of talk time and up to 195 hours in standby, but you won’t be able to wrap your paws around it until December. As for carriers and pricing? Patience, friends, patience.

[Via UnwiredView]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: GPS, Wireless

Skyhook’s WiFi positioning service hasn’t really appeared in many devices despite its high-profile usage in the iPhone, but now it looks like it’s set to become downright ubiquitous — Broadcom is planning on building it directly into its extremely popular WiFi chipsets. Just like Skyhook’s deal with SiRF, the idea is to use WiFi positioning to supplement GPS in mobile devices, allowing location-based services to function indoors and in densely-built cities where GPS doesn’t always work well. No word on when we might see any devices with Skyhook-enabled chips in them, but given Broadcom’s reach in the market, we’d guess it won’t be too long.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Cellphones

We could start off by telling you just how much this decision will hurt Qualcomm and just how celebratory the mood must be at Broadcom, but instead, we’ll key you in on this quote: “The appeals court also rejected Qualcomm’s request for a new trial.” At long last, we may have actually heard the end of what has seemed like a never-ending battle between the aforementioned parties. Today, a US Appeals court upheld an earlier ruling that Qualcomm had indeed infringed upon two Broadcom patents while ruling that a third patent in question was invalid. The ruling is obviously a huge win for Broadcom, who will soon be bathing in Benjamins as Qualcomm is forced to pay mandatory royalties for the chips it sells during the “sunset period″ ending January 31, 2009.

[Via Reuters]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Handhelds

Man, the Peek email-only handheld must really be, uh, piquing people’s interest — it just went up for pre-orders and two of the three colors are already backordered a week. The $100 device should also be showing up in Targets nationwide Monday, so if you’re as curious as we are they′ll be easy to impulse purchase in person as well. Too bad that you’re locked into that $19.95/mo data plan as your only option, though — if we could somehow use our existing data plan or even pay a flat fee upfront for lifetime service we’d be way more likely to snag one. Anyone else picking one up?

[Via Silicon Alley Insider]

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Original post by Nilay Patel