Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Portable Audio, Wearables

We’ve stated it before, but this time you really have ran out of excuses to run. Thanks to Yamaha’s BODiBEAT, you can expect your tunes to automatically sync with your steps, giving you new reason to get out of the house and get to steppin’. Granted, the $299.99 price tag is pretty steep for just 512MB of space and 12-hours of battery life (marathon, what?), but we’re sure there are a few of you out there willing to pay the premium to keep your head nodding perfectly in line with your pace. Oh, and if you completely skipped over the headline, it’s shipping now. Right now.

[Via Coolest Gadgets]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets

KDDI’s au design project has churned out plenty of interesting cellphone concepts over the years, and it looks like its latest batch is no exception, with it enlisting the help of Yamaha to develop some cellphones that double as musical instruments. That includes the self-explanatory “Strings for fingers” and “Sticks in the air” concepts pictured above, as well as the “Box to play” synth / scratch pad combo, the “Key to touch” foldable keyboard, the “Trio in your hand” scratch pad / sampler, and the “Band in my pocket” device, which accommodates a number of accessories to create instruments ranging from a harmonica to a trumpet. What’s more, unlike some concept devices, KDDI actually had some working prototypes to show off, which you can check out in action in the video after the break (be sure to dig into the links below for some more pics and videos as well).

[Via textually.org, Trends in Japan]

Continue reading KDDI’s au design project creates cellphones that double as instruments

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Transportation

Look, we’ll be the first to hand over an adequate amount of kudos each time artificial intelligence is improved, but we won’t lie — we’re kind of scared about giving our vehicles too many smarts. Yamaha Motors has just unveiled a comparatively affordable electric bike which looks to continuously monitor your driving behavior and react accordingly. The PAS Brace features the highly touted S.P.E.C.8 mechanism, which keeps a close eye on your speed, acceleration and gear position in order to conserve battery life when possible and provide just the right amount of oomph to get you over that one… last… hill. This one is set to land in Japan on the same day the Olympics begin for ¥125,800 ($1,171), and if you’re not feelin’ the black, red and white flavors will be available for your pedaling pleasure.

[Via CrunchGear]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Not much to get excited about here unless you’ve got a thing for shooting 640 x 480 VGA video underwater. Shipping in May for a bit less than $500, Sanyo’s latest waterproof Xacti packs a 5x optical zoom and 8 megapixel CMOS sensor for stills and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video recordings at 60fps to SDHC media. It also carries JIS IPX5 and IPX8 waterproof ratings which means it’ll go to a depth of 1.5-meters for up to 1-hour without electronic seizure. Video riot after the break.

[Via Impress]

Continue reading Sanyo’s Xacti DMX-CA8 waterproof camcorder drips VGA weak sauce

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Earlier this month, we disagreed that HD movie downloads would trump HD DVD / Blu-ray disc purchases in the not-too-distant future, and now we’ve got yet another clever alternative on deck that just doesn’t have the makings of a winner. While it seems that consumers still prefer something tangible when purchasing movies, we can’t help but agree that flicks on flash drives just wouldn’t work. Aside from the prohibitive cost to pop out a standard DVD on a flash chip versus a disc, the idea of having customers flock to some sort of movie download kiosk to refill memory cards with new releases just seems absurd. Sure, we understand how this could sound marginally appealing from the sidelines, but we just can’t imagine all those DVD cases at your favorite big box retailer getting swapped out with movie-filled SDHC cards anytime soon.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Transportation, Wireless

Merely hours after hearing that a contactless payment trial was going live on San Francisco’s BART, along comes word that a test of a slightly different nature was also underway on the very same public transportation system. Reportedly, a recent Wi-Fi Rail installation on a select stretch of track proved that WiFi could be delivered to passengers at around 15Mbps — up and down — and if things go smoothly, the firm hopes to get its technology onto all sorts of rail systems across the globe. Unfortunately, there doesn’t look to be any firm plans for the trial to stick on BART, but who knows, keep on refreshing that nearby network list on the morning commute and you might just get lucky.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Laptops

We already saw the Amilo Xi 2550 from Fujitsu-Siemens, but if you thought that was the only mobile Penryn-based lappie you’d see prior to January 6th, you’ve got another a few more things coming. Spotted over at Notebook Italia, we’ve got five new Acer Aspires (2920, 4920, 5920, 7720 and 9920), a pair of new Acer Travelmates (6492 and 6592G), a couple of Fujitsu-Siemens (the aforementioned Amilo Pi Amilo Xi 2550 and the 2428) and four new Sony VAIOs (FZ31, SZ71, CR31 and AR61) — all of which will be housing that Penryn goodness when they launch. As you can imagine, there’s far too many specs between the 13 new machines to cover in this space, but feel free to tag the links below for all the details on each.

Read - Fujitsu-Siemens
Read - Acer Aspires
Read - Acer Travelmates
Read - Sony VAIOs

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph