Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Yep, just like we’d heard, the Phoenix lander has identified water in a soil sample it collected in Mars earlier, and NASA’s extended the mission for another 90 days to go look for more. There’s no analysis of the ice yet, but it doesn’t look like there’s any organic materials in the sample, and it’ll take another three to four weeks before there’s any more data to reveal. Hopefully that means we’ll be packing up our silver go-go boots and taking off for our fabulous future lives on Mars in a month, but we’ll see how things go.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Wireless

Municipal WiFi systems in the US have been pretty much failures across the board, but the good people of Akron, Ohio are apparently in for another go-round — the city’s just commited some $800,000 to build out a free wireless network over the next five years. The service will be installed and operated by a nonprofit called OneCommunity, which just received a $4.5M grant as part of a $25M commitment from the John S. and John L. Knight Foundation to implement digital access projects in 26 cities. The University of Akron has kicked in another $350,000, since the signal will cover its campus as well as the downtown area — all in, some 90,000 residents and 31,000 workers will get access through the project. The network will start lighting up in the next year — let’s hope it fares better than other city WiFi projects.

[Thanks, Glenn]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Wireless

It’s a crying shame (okay, not really), but the long-standing availability of free WiFi to Nintendo DS users in Mickey D’s is now over. Apparently the contract that enabled the access has expired, and there’s no signs of a renewal happening in the US or Canada. Of course, if you’re incredibly desperate to kick some tires online while treating yourself to a supersize medium order of fries and a vanilla cone, you can fetch the Nintendo DS web browser add-on or WiFi USB Connector from the second-hand market and carry on. We, however, see this as a perfect excuse to avoid the temptations that lurk underneath the Golden Arches.

[Via DS Fanboy]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Household

Someday soon, the phrase “dripping with light” won’t just be an abstruse lyric in a post-punk song you’ve written… light may actually be dripping on things. At least that’s what researchers at Nikki Chemical Co. and the Nagoya Institute of Technology hope to see happening by 2010. The team of scientists has created a white, fluorescent material which can be used to create white light, yet can be molded into a number of shapes. The mushy lamps consist of an organic compound, which is coupled with ultraviolet light and a glasslike inorganic compound that gives the substance structural protection. The combo can handle temperatures to 500 degrees Celsius, uses half the power of typical fluorescent lights, and will last longer than white LEDs due to heat resistance. Also, did we mention it’s like Silly Putty? [Warning: read link requires subscription]

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Household

It may not boast any fancy or slightly terrifying measures to haul you out of bed in the morning, or pack the DIY flavor of some clocks we seen, but if you just want to keep things simple and stylish you could certainly do a lot worse than one of these new LEXON jet clocks from designer Theo Williams. Available in wall/desk clock (pictured above), clock radio or travel alarm clock versions, the clocks each boast an electroluminescent backlit display, which lights up all your vital information (including the temperature) dot-matrix-style. You can also get the clocks in your choice of gold or brushed aluminum finishes, although it seems that only the wall clock model is available right now, with it setting you back €45 (or just under $70).

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: HDTV, Portable Video

Do you ever wonder just how realistic all these coin / hand / White House-to-miniscule item comparison shots are? We certainly do, and while the ¥1 coin seen above could be the size of a frisbee for all we know (we jest, we jest), we suppose we’ll believe Sharp when it says its latest 1seg tuner is indeed the world’s smallest. The VA3A5JZ922 checks in at just 5.9- x 5.9- x 0.9-millimeters — about 35-percent smaller than competitors — and should cost around ¥20,000 ($185) when samples start shipping out next week. Don’t get too excited just yet, however, as mass production isn’t slated to get going until late September.

[Via PMPToday]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

The Wiimote may be spurring on the majority of desktop VR hackery these days, but at least one enterprising developer seems to be aiming to change that, and he’s now showing that you can do more or less the same thing with a PlayStation Eye. As with the Wiimote, you need a pair of homemade IR-equipped glasses, but you’ll also need to perform a couple of minor modifications to the PS Eye itself. That all-important detail consists simply of a homemade lens cap that houses some exposed and developed film, which lets the camera receive only the infrared signals from the glasses. Pair that with some custom-made software (now available for the taking), and you’ll be giving unsuspecting visitors motion sickness in no time. Head on over after the break for a peek at the setup in action.

Continue reading PlayStation Eye hacked for desktop VR use

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Displays

Look, the LCD monitor market is hot. How hot, you ask? Well let’s just say that panel manufacturer Chunghwa Picture Tubes (or CPT) has decided to circumvent the battle for ultimate supremacy in the 19-inch market by creating a totally new size of monitor: an 18.4-inch widescreen display. The new size will feature a 16:9 aspect ratio, 1366 x 768 resolution, a contrast ratio of 1000:1, and a response time of 5ms. The benefit of the slightly smaller size is that the cost to consumers will be lower than its 19-inch brethren, thereby giving CPT a cleaner shot a some market share. The first company to bite on the new size is Acer, which will be using the new panels in a Quanta-made laptop set to hit Europe in the second half of 2008.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky