Machines That Go Bing!

Andrew Chase’s mechanical cheetah stalks the underworld

Steve — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:09:17 +0000

Designer Andrew Chase is already knows for his mechanical animals through his Timmy underworld project and the latest addition to his collection is this stunning-looking robotic cheetah.

The Cheetah will join other mechanical animals, a giraffe and elephant, in the collection that stalk the imaginary ‘Timmy’ underworld created by Andrew Chase who says:

Before I started this latest project, I promised myself that this time, things will be different. I shall remember history, I will learn from the excesses of my past. I will build it small, I will build it light, and above all, I will build it quickly. I failed on all three counts. Dismally. Ah well, as the great sage Dirty Harry often said, “a man’s got to know his limitations.”

The cheetah measures 24″ high and 50″ nose to tail and weighs about 40 pounds. She took about 60 hours, spaced over 10 weeks time, to build. She’s constructed out of electrical conduit, transmission parts and 20-gauge steel.

Th following youTube movie shows the sculpture animated to look like a robotic cheetah running.

More mechanical cheetah pictures below:

[via bornrich]

Orange unveils the Solar concept — the eco-friendly tent

Steve — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:13:35 +0000

You might not think that tents are particularly damaging to the environment but Orange has found a way of reducing even the fabric flophouse’s minuscule carbon footprint.

They’ve done this not by reducing the energy usage of the tent itself but by focusing on the recharging of all those little gadgets that you’re bound to have taken camping with you.

Orange, alongside US product design consultancy Kaleidoscope, has used “Cutting edge eco-energy technology” has created a tent that allows campers to power their gadgets from a WiFi-enabled control panel incorporating a magnetic induction driven charging point. The charging point is in turn powered by photovoltaic fabric mounted on three ‘glides’ that slide over the top of the tent throughout the day so they’re always pointing towards the sun.

Kaleidoscope strategist, McKenty Aim said:

The development of photovoltaic fabric will revolutionise festival tent design, in working with Orange we have created a vision of camping that we believe is glimpse to a great future.

The tent also comes with a few other features:

The ‘glo-cation’ feature makes the tent glow when the camper gets close to it (using RFID or an SMS message) so you can find it in the dark!

You won’t get cold at night either since the ground sheet incorporates under-floor heating.

Orange’s Solar tent is just a concept at the moment but will be on display at this year’s Glastonbury festival.

Via: Pocket-Lint

Apple announces new 15-inch MacBooks, OS X Snow Leopard and iPhone 3GS at WWDC

Steve — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:19:15 +0000

Phil Schiller opened an eagerly anticipated and speculated World Wide Developers’ Conference today standing in for a still-absent Steve Jobs. Many updates to the iPhone and Safari had been ‘pre-announced’ and Snow Leopard was always going to be a minor update so hopes were not particularly high. But in an era where Jobs sightings are few and far between and WWDCs have been offering less and less revolutionary hardware over recent years this year’s event offered a few announcements worth raising a cheer about.

My first paragraph remarks may sound a little harsh. After all it may be to Apple’s credit that the expected changes to it’s operating system and its phones are so minor when Microsoft is busy re-writing Vista and trying to convince us that Windows 7 is a completely different animal. So here is a rundown of the recent updates to the hardware and software of a company whose products actually work:

15-inch MacBook Pro

Recent changes to the 17 inch MacBook Pro are applied to the 15 inch version including the Unibody. We also see the ExpressCard slot replaced by an SD card slot (can’t we have both?).

The updated MacBook Pro comes with what seems to be the same built-in, non-removable battery as in the current unibody 17-inch machine. Phil tels us that the cell will last the average user around five years (1,000 recharges), and a charge could last around seven hours under ideal conditions.

The CPU is also upgaded. Phil tells us:

“…it’s the fastest notebook we’ve ever made. Up to a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, and up to 8GB of RAM. You can get up to 500GB in hard drives, or up to 256GB SSD.”

There will be three standard configurations:

$1699 (2.53GHZ, 4GB RAM)
$1999 (2.66GHz, 4GB RAM 320GB HD)
$2299 (2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD)

13-inch MacBook

The updated MacBook comes with the same battery as the Pro and the SD card slot. Apple has also added:

Up to 8GB of RAM
50GB Storage
Backlit keyboard
FireWire 800 port

In addition Apple has added the 13-inch MacBook to the Pro Range.

Prices will start at $1199.

They’re also updating the Air with more aggressive configurations and prices which will now start at $1799 — $700 lower than before.

Phil boasts that these are now the greenest laptops money can buy.

Snow Leopard

Bertrand Serlet inytroduces us to Snow Leopard which enjoys a large number of tweeks but nothing revolutionary:

Exchange support (mail, calendar, address book)
Finder rewrite:
Fewer wait cursors
New eject manager
Out of process plugins
Faster cancellation
Customizable search scope
Put back from trash
Contextual menu consistency
Animations
Enhanced icon previews
Faster icon drawing
More consistent click-through
Faster empty trash
Icon size adjuster
New services menu

Bertrand enthuses about some of the user interface features:

“Next up, the Dock — we’ve had a feature that we use to deal with clutter, called Expose, and now we’ve built it into the dock.”

You click and hold on an app and it automatically zooms out your active windows.

“We’ve made installs 45% faster. And after you install, you recover disk space… it’s over half the footprint of the previous version.”

Thats going to be very handy for those of us already running out of disk space.

“Preview, we’ve changed the way text selection works — we use AI to find the right text in the right place.”

Some other features:

Handwriting recognition for the trackpad!
Safari Is updated to version 4 on Leopard, Tiger and Windows.
All major system apps are 64-bit
General Central Dispatch - coordinating threads accross Leopard

Bertrand then announces OpenCL, a C-based technology that Apple claims moves beyond OpenGL and that all the major graphics card manufcaturers are behind. Here’s a list:

iPhone

Phil Schiller is back and announces that there are now more than 50,000 apps in the iPhone app store. He then moves onto the new OS 3.0 features

Cut copy and paste
Shake to undo
Developer APIs
Cocoa Touch support for text
Landscape on key apps
MMS

MMS will be supported by 29 carriers when Apple launches. Here’s another list:

Spotlight can now search anything on your phone, including apps
You can now use iTunes to rent and purchase movies right from your phone.
AutoFill remembers user names and passwords to login to websites
Tethering allows you to share you connection with your computer.

Tethering works with Macs and PCs, wired over USB, or wireless with Bluetooth. It is a seamless experience. There’s no need to run any software once it’s turned on. This requires carrier support. Apple has 22 partners in 44 countries.

Bertrand then explains a new technology to help you find a lost iPhone:

“Hopefully you haven’t had a 30 Rock experience, but this is why we created Find My iPhone. If you lose or misplace the phone, you can login to MobileMe on any browser and it will show you where the phone is. Now, if it is lost or stolen, you can send a remote wipe command which will delete all of your data.”

He demonstrates and sure enough a Google map apears showing the location of his phone.

iPhone 3GS

Phil:

“This is a really fast iPhone. Something as simple launching messaging, 2 times faster… everything is faster. These are all speeds against an iPhone 3G.”

If the iPhone was a car the 3GS would be the sports version. SunSpider tests show the 3GS to have less than half the rating of the 3G with 3.0.

The 3GS also comes with a brand new 3 megapixel autofocus camera (iPhone users are still getting low resolution cameras when 5MP cameras have been on phones for more than 2 years now). However — hang on to you’re hats — it records video!

Phil continues:

“There’s another great feature — we call it voice control. You can hold down the home button, and a brand new UI pops up — the voice control interface. And talk about easy to use, the commands you make are scrolling by as you use it. You can make calls with your voice, you can control your iTunes by voice. I can ask my phone, ‘what’s playing now’ and it’ll speak the title and artist back to me.”

Phil seems to be getting into his stride:

“There’s also a built-in digital compass. The compass app is a new one that comes on the iPhone — you can tap to go right into Maps, and if you tap a second time, it will orient the map to where you’re facing.”

“And something businesses have asked for … hardware encryption. All new iPhone 3GSs will have it.”

The battery lasts for up to 5 hours 3G talk time, 9 hours of WiFI internet. The basic model comes with 16GB of storage and will retail for $199. The 32GB model will cost you $299. The original iPhone 3G will be reduced to $100.

The iPhone 3GS will be available in the US and prime export markets in a week and a half (19th June) and will be in 88 more countries by 9th August.

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NEC will start selling CRV-43 in July — that’s a 43-inch 2880 x 900 curved monitor!

Steve — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:09:43 +0000

The NEC CRV-43 may look very similar to the Alienware curved monitor featured here in January 2008 and that’s because it’s basically the same device (they’re both made by Ostendo) with NEC branding. The difference is we will soon be able to buy it!

The NEC CRV-43 comes with some astounding specs:

Seamless curved screen
2880 x 900 double WXGA native resolution
200 cd/m² brightness
0.02ms Rapid Response
10,000:1 contrast ratio
100% coverage of sRGB colour gamut
99.3% coverage of Adobe RGB colour gamut
32:10 aspect ratio
Single link DVI-D and HDMI 1.3 input connectors
USB 2.0 connectivity for easy use of peripherals
Front panel controls
On Screen Display (OSD) and software-based GUI

Keith Yanke, Director of Product Marketing for NEC Display Solutions said:

“The NEC CRV43 curved display provides an excitingly immersive viewing experience for any type of user. Its lightning-fast response time coupled with its seamless curved screen provides enhanced comfort, decreased frustration and increased productivity. The monitor eliminates the bezel and screen gap issues that have complicated users’ work environment for years.”

NEC is aiming the CRV-43 at professional users such as graphic designers, educators, government workers, financial professionals, command and control and home office. This is an interesting departure from Alienware’s very obvious targeting of ’serious’ games adicts. The CRV-43 would also be an ideal monitor setup for simulations.

The CRV-43 will be on display at InfoComm on June 17-19 at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. It will then be on sale from July at a retail price of $7,999 (£4,878).

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Soliloquy superyacht is eco-loving at its most extravagant

Steve — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:02:25 +0000

It’s a hard life being a billionaire! For example, you want to do your bit to save the planet but how can you possibly forgo that staple of billionaire excess, the superyacht. The Soliloquy may be just the answer you’re looking for.

The Soliloquy has been designed by Alastair Callender of Coventry University and extracts its power from wind, solar and Hybrid Marina Power (HMP)a technology developed by Solar Sailor Holdings Ltd.

Hybrid Marine Power couples a range of hydrocarbon and alternative fuels with electric drives. The choice of fuel source is made by a computer with the aim of minimising the use of fossil fuels. A HMP vessel can also use its rigid solar panels to charge its btteries or to sail.

Dr Robart Dane, CEO of Solar Sailor says:

When Alastair approached us to sponsor his final year major project, we were immediately impressed by his resume, and the concept itself seemed a perfect match with Solar Sailor. As a result, Alastair has developed a radical 58m, rigid-wing superyacht, powered by our solar, wind and hybrid marine power technologies.

Alastair Callender says:

In this ever-increasing environmentally conscious time, I wanted to focus my attention on looking at possible solutions to some of the current problems associated with the superyacht industry. Eco-luxury should no longer be viewed as an oxymoron. ‘Soliloquy – the Super-Green Superyacht’ is a true metaphor to show that this ideal is viable.

But the Soliluquy isn’t just for rich hippies. Innovative features include:

Ever-evolving superstructure that will create a striking visual display to all onlookers
Socializing areas include alfresco living spaces on the main deck
The use of the superstructure has been improved by the photovoltaic surfacing.

Without charge the Soliloquy can run at 8 knots for as long as the sun shines. The interiors have been specified to reduce the vessel’s carbon footprint.

Solar Sailor Holdings Ltd. will exhibit a scale model of the super green luxury superyacht in Majorca on June 25.

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Sony Ericsson announces flagship Satio touchscreen phone

Steve — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:50:04 +0000

Formerly named the ‘Idio’, the Satio has been officially announced by Sony Ericsson. It features a 3.5 inch 16:9 widescreen touchscreen, quadband GSM and a plethora of other high-end features.

The touchscreen has a resolution of 640 x 350 which is fine for displaying photographs. Along with the full internet browser the Satio has:

Google Maps preloaded
A FaceBook client
A YouTube viewer
On-screen full sized landscape keyboard

Fredrik Mansson, Market Business Manager as Sony Ericsson says:

“With Satio you can enjoy any form of entertainment anytime, anywhere. Whether its music or movies you will never be more than a tap away from your favourite tracks or shows. Just tap directly into your favourite videos and music with the unique full touch media menu, standby panels and music player. Snapping perfect pictures also just got so simple thanks to the 12.1 megapixel camera, intuitive touch focus and Xenon flash. Share them with your nearest and dearest via your social networking site, produce huge prints and you can even comment directly on your images.”

The Sony Ericsson Satio specification includes:

True 16:9, 3.5 inch widescreen
12.1 megapixel camera
Intuitive touch focus
Xenon flash
Face and smile detection
Web albums with messages
Intuitive full touch media menu
Symbian Foundation operating system
Music player

The Satio also comes with the smallest headset on the market, the Wireless Stereo Headphones HBH-IS800 as well as the Video Viewing Stand IM920.

The promotional video below shows the Satio in use and the Black, silver, ‘Bordeaux’ colour range.

The Sony Ericsson Satio will launch in October. No word on pricing, but it won’t be cheap.

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Motorola launches Moto W7 Active Edition for sports fanatics

Steve — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:00:49 +0000

The W7 Active Edition is a slider phone targeted specifically at those with an active lifestyle. It is able to detect movement in a way that enables it to help the exercise-addicted monitor and manage their training regime.

The W7’s accelerometer can detect gestures which can be used to control the device but what makes this phone special is its built in pedometer which combines with a personal training application helping users plan and gauge their workouts and monitor their fitness progress.

The W7 is a 3G device and networking protocols include Bluetooth A2DP. The phone also accepts microSD cards.

Specification

Band:
- GSM 900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 2100MHz
- GSM 850/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 850/1900MHz
- GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz, UMTS 850/2100MHz
Data: GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA
Size: 99mm x 49mm x 15mm (3.9in x 1.9in x 0.6in)
Weight: 105g (3.7 ounces)
Battery: 910mAh
Battery Life:
- 8/3.5 hours GSM/UMTS estimated talk time
- 12.5 days estimated standby time
Main Display: 2.2-inch 262k colors QVGA (320 x 240 pixels)
Camera: 2.0 megapixel
Video: Record and playback
Messaging: SMS/MMS
Email: Yes
Bluetooth: 2.1 with A2DP
Memory: 30MB, microSD card support
Other: FM radio, WAP 2.0, Java games, available in Licorice or Alpine White

The Moto W7 Active Edition is expected in the second quarter of 2009 in Asia and Latin America. Availability may extend to the rest of us at some time after that.