OnlyGizmos

FERVOUR 2010: THE GREEN EFFORT

Tassavur — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:13:22 +0000

The IEEE fest of Student Branch of BVCOE, FERVOUR, is organized on an annual basis. This extravaganza witnesses some truly eye catching events and is held on a large and magnanimous scale. With a wide spectrum of activities, the fest draws massive participation not only from numerous Delhi and NCR colleges, but also from premier institutes all over the country.

The fest encompasses events ranging from technical to managerial, from literary to informal; thus providing the students with a perfect opportunity to portray their vivid capabilities and showcase their talents in various fields of learning.

Fervour’10 – The 4^th Annual Festival is to be organized by the IEEE Student Branch, BVCOE from 12^th-14^th March 2010.

They, as engineers, are concerned about the technology been developed by them and its impact on the environment. It is needless to talk about what is Global Warming anymore. Now is the time to act for it. Hence, the branch has decided to dedicate this festival to the theme of “Green & Clean”. The theme is in sync with the current environmental challenges faced by the entire world.

Fervour 2010 is a step in this direction, which aims not only at creating awareness among the student community, but also at making the efforts to involve them in environment–friendly activities.

FLAGSHIP EVENTS:

PLAN DE NEGOCIOS 2010

The IEEE Student Branch of BVCOE is aware of the presence of deserving ideas which need to be nurtured into successful ventures. This contest is thus a platform for such ideas and start-up ventures to be heard and felicitated for their efforts. The purpose of this event is to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of young students and to formulate new ideas to be implemented. The event is judged on the parameters of feasibility of the concept, strategy, corresponding analysis – market and financial, innovation, social impact and overall presentation.

The Business Plan event is subdivided into 2 categories:–

Post Graduate
Under Graduate

NATIONAL STUDENTS SYMPOSIUM

FERVOUR 2010 presents National Students Symposium-

“Green Technologies, Challenges for the future.”

This national level paper presentation presents the students with an excellent opportunity to propose innovative ideas in various fields of research. The theme of this symposium is Green Technologies and is an effort to urge the youth to develop sustainable solutions for the existing problems of the nation.

TECHNICAL EVENTS

FIGURE OUT THE PATH (Robotic Line Follower)

This contest tests a builder’s ability to construct a robot which can follow a simple line course. The primary objective of the contest is speed and accuracy.

The engineers spend half of their lives playing with digital circuits, and now its time to test how the bots deal with them. See you at the arena.

MAZE WARRIORS

The event combines the excitement of ROBO MAZE and ROBO WARRIORS. There will be two teams competing against each other. Each team will have to protect its own flag from the other team and also require not to touch the other team’s flag in order to win the event. The teams will begin in their own halves, moving through the maze and proceeding towards the other team’s flag. The track will comprise of obstacles and pits. If the team falls into the pit or moves out of arena, they are disqualified.

DIGI MANIA (Digital design ICE matrix maze)

The age of IC’s has dawned upon us making our future more & more digitalized. As the name speaks for it, the event demands the participant’s knowledge in designing a digital circuit as per the design specifications thrust upon him…So come and prove yourself to be a DIGIHOLIC! The is the first round which involves the participant to answer 25 to 30 questions, mainly objective in nature in a time span of half an hour. The questions will be mainly based on simple digital logic and digital IC’s. The final round shall consist of the top five teams from round 1.This round requires the team to design a digital circuit based on the specifications given to them within a time limit.

CRACK THE VHDL CODE

Programming is a major requisite of any engineering domain. To give the students an opportunity to test their programming skills VHDL code cracking competition is being organised. It shall consist of 2 rounds, the preliminary with objective questions and the final programming round.

C/C++ CHAMPS

This is a C++ programming event designed to test the expertise of the students in the C/C++ languages consisting of 2 rounds.

BUILD A PC

This is a PC assembling event which requires in depth knowledge of the hardware support.

The students shall be given a certain amount of time to assemble the components and create a functional PC.

MANAGERIAL EVENTS

BUSINESS OF CRICKET

This is a unique quiz comprising of business and cricket strategies. There shall be a preliminary round after which the final round shall consist of a Virtual Bidding pool of 50 players using a certain amount of virtual money allocated to all teams.

AD-MAD – the Advertising Contest

AdMad – the Advertising Contest is an event for all the creative geniuses. Every business endeavor targets a certain clientele, and good advertising goes a long way in keeping them interested. Ad Mad is an event for all those who have the ability to cast a spell on buyers.

The competition has two levels –

First round – Questionnaire consisting of 20-25 questions .

- Time duration of first round is 30 min.

- Maximum of 20 teams will be participating in the first round.

2. Final round - Only top 6 teams will be qualified based on their first round score

- Enactment of an AD for a particular product

THE STRATEGIST (CASE STUDY)

The event is aimed to bring out the best amongst the participants when exposed to real, Business world problems. The event would test the comprehending ability, decision taking capability and overall resource management ability of the participant. The case study shall be presented by the team in the form of discussion much like an extempore (power point presentation not required). The evaluation criteria is understanding of the problem statement, practical and feasible approach to the problem, quality of the presentation and clarity of data and novelty and originality of the idea put forward.

BULLS AND BEARS

Pick a brokerage or a mutual fund of your preference, or hedge them, and that’s just the beginning. There’s a world of options in this virtual world, with minute by minute graphs of shares, and news flashes giving updates on market moods.

It is real stock market game played with virtual money. The players face real time share price fluctuations and trade accordingly. The game ensures first hand experience of the real market without the associated risk of losing money. This event allows you to understand the vagaries of the stock exchange and gain experience before you take the markets head-on.

Disclaimer:

All company names, prices and news utilized in this game are purely fictional.
Any resemblance to actual market prices and trends is unintentional.
All the information provided is for use only in VIRTUAL STOCK MARKET, “bulls n’ bears”, FERVOUR 2010.

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OG Review: LG Cookie Pop / Pep GD510

Annkur — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:30:39 +0000

LG is out with a refresh to its successful touchscreen series Cookie. Its amazing to see how companies like Samsung and LG have seen a great market in the low end touchscreen market after the iPhone came and swept the smartphone industry. The LG Cookie Pop would give competition to the Corby range and hopefully keep up the momentum that Cookie KP500 had set (yes the Cookie range has got new blood after a little delay IMO).

Design:

In this segment, what sells more than the features is the looks. LG has gone with a very simple bar shaped design, but managed to keep the phone housing a 3.0” screen very handy and compact. This thing weights just 87 gms and you will actually feel that when handling the phone. The buttons on the side have some chrome and all of them are pretty clickable and neatly placed. Press the camera button the the right once to open up favorite apps and long press to go to the camera mode. The button on the front enables a lot of single key operations like return to home screen, answer or disconnect a call etc. On the top you have the power button which also performs the wake / sleep function.

Features:

Cookie Pep has a 3MP camera but misses out on Flash & autofocus, has EDGE but no WiFi / 3G, has a large enough touchscreen but resistive. If you haven’t go it yet, be clear that its a low cost touchscreen phone and not a super smart phone. You would do well by limiting your expectations from the handset. The resistive touchscreen is well optimized for finger input and IMO works better than the Samsung Corby / Star or even the Nokia 5800. However you just can’t compare it to a capacitive touchscreen.

Cookie POP allows Bluetooth AD2P music output and you can add Micro SD (SDHC) cards to extent memory. Opera Mini works on this and you would do much better with it, than the stock web browser. However typing on the onscreen keyboard is a pain, specially for an iPhone addict like me. With the narrow touchscreen, this was expected, but do not see yourself doing great texting on this. In portrait mode the keyboard is a T9 / multipress and in landscape mode its a full QWERTY (my advice, stay away from the QWERTY – its horrible). The music player and standard features are usable but I find the interface slow, not in terms of responsiveness but the notifications that pop up. Like if you delete a sms, it would waste around a second just giving your a ‘Deleted’ notification. Just like the Corby, even LG is missing a smart OS in the low end touchscreens even though they managed to extract better performance from the touchscreen (they had to, LG supplies LCD’s to Apple).

The 900mAh battery works ok and frankly I didn’t get to much time to test it out thoroughly. However the specs sheet quotes a average 3hour + talktime. The camera quality is nothing great and does strictly OK. Here are a few sample images taken from the Cookie Pep camera:

Test image from LG Cookie Pep camera

Round up:

LG Cookie GD510 (referred as POP or PEP) will await reinforcements in the form of LG Cookie Fresh and Plus, while competing fiercely with the original Corby. If you are looking for a choice between the Samsung Corby or the LG Cookie Pop – the decision would to quite an extent depend on what looks you like? The trimmed, light weight, elegant looks of the LG or the flashy and bright Corby?

Quick Hands on video:

Video Review:

Note: As it seems the Cookie GD510 is being promoted in India as the Cookie Pep instead of the name Pop as we hear internationally.
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Show us the Xperia X10, Sony Ericsson!

Nimish Dubey — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:11:54 +0000

As this is Oscar week, we will just start this post with an instance from Jerry Maguire in which football star Rod Tidwell tells his agent Jerry Maguireto shut up and “show him the money!” Well, we can understand how he felt after hearing Sony Ericsson make YET another comment about the Xperia X10. We first heard of the Android-driven device in early November when we were told it would be available in Q1 2010. At the recent MWC in Barcelona, we were shown Mini and Mini Pro versions of the device and told it would be coming a bit later.

And NOW we have a Sony Ericsson spokesperson telling CNET that it could come in the second half of the year with a new version of Android. Honestly, we were very impressed by the specs of the X10 (a 8.1 MP shooter, 4.0 inch touchscreen, and every connectivity option in town) but the inordinate delay in its arrival is really making us wonder if like the original Xperia, it would be actually outdated by the time it arrived. It must be one of the few smartphones in cellphone history to have three different avatars, none of which happen to be in the market.

So allow us to paraphrase Rod Tidwell and say, “Enough talk, Sony E. Show us the X10 in the market. Please!”

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4N wristwatch is a mechanically digital timepiece

Kunal — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:35:00 +0000

When technology advances and we develop simpler mechanisms, the devices keep getting more economical. But what about those who can’t think simple and go on developing complicated designs for simple things? They end up making what is called as exclusive luxury goods . 4N is a similar unaffordable luxury watch from designer François Quentin.

The watch has been made of mechanical gears. It consists of three discs with different numbers engraved on them. The plates rotate to show the exact time in four digits (4N = four numbers). The discs are made of aluminum or titanium alloy. Only 16 of these designer watches would be available which adds to the exclusivity. The price is not yet known and when it would be announced, it won’t be worth asking. Though it might be unaffordable; I still love the concept and the design of this watch.

I’m still wondering whether the watch shows time in the digital or the analogue format??? Probably you would like to take a guess at it. Please go ahead and express what you feel about the phone. We would love to hear what you have to say about this watch

via [aBlogToRead]
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Samsung E6 eReader set for spring launch in the US

Kunal — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:21:16 +0000

Samsung has announced that it would be releasing its slider eReader this spring. Samsung E6 would be released in partnership with Barns and Noble. The Barns and Noble partnership would give E6 users access to more than a million e-books, e-magazines and e-newspapers.

Barns and Noble already has its own eReader – the Nook in stores. The difference between the two eReader lies in their pricing. While the Nook is priced at $259, Samsung E6 would be retailing at $399. Below is a quick look at the specifications of the Samsung E6 -

6” E-ink display
600 x 800 resolution with 8-Gray scale
E-pub, PDF/a, TXT, BMP and JPG format support
text-to-speech (TTS)
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 2.0
microSD card support upto 16GB (internal memory 2GB)

E6 is a slider with all the control buttons and front speakers hidden under the screen. The Nook’s color display may pose a major competition within the partnership model for E6. The E6 houses a EmoLink technology which allows its users to share content between Samsung eReader devices. E6 comes with a electromagnetic resonance (EMR) stylus pen which allows its users to take notes on the compact touchscreen.

via [CrunchGear]
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Steve Ballmer: 2007 vs 2010

Annkur — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:21:30 +0000

Name: Steve Ballmer

Designation: CEO, Microsoft

What he did in 2007:

Laughed at the Apple iPhone. Quoted saying: “the most expensive phone in the world” – “doesn’t appeal to business customers.”

and 2010:

‘Apple’s done a very nice job that allows people to monetize and commercialize their intellectual property’ (wrt the App Store)

Via iPhoneHelp
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LG introduces third Cookie phone – Cookie Fresh GS290

Kunal — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:35:28 +0000

It would not be wrong to say that LG was the first to introduce economy touchscreen smartphones. LG managed to create a new segment with LG Cookie. The segment also has developed interest by many other cellphone manufacturers like Samsung with its Corby and now Nokia introducing the C-Series. After LG Cookie and LG Cookie Plus GS500, now there is a new member under the Cookie umbrella - LG Cookie Fresh GS290.

LG Cookie Fresh would be more affordable than the other two in the series. It is expected to be available for under £100. The specifications known are -

3″ resistive touchscreen display
2MP camera
3.5 mm jack
Live Square
FM radio
Built-in social networking apps
Bluetooth
microSD support

LG Cookie Fresh would be available in 10 different color options. It would be available in Europe and Asia later this month.

via [Phonearena]

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Ezy 3G Tablet comes at $680, Win7, Multi-touch ++

Annkur — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:23:39 +0000

Cashing in on the tablets rush we are seeing this year, here is another entrant from Malaysia. Costing $680 the Ezy tablet features Windows 7, multitouch magic, USB ports, 250GB HDD, 3G and 2GB RAM.

No ground breaking form factor but this one manages to house even a RJ45 network port with a total weight of 1.0 Kg. No huge brand name of controversy like the JooJoo, it won’t be very easy for the Ezy to market themselves in the US markets IMO. However given the

rich bag of features that they have, might attract a few (while I would chicken out to try a untrusted / unheard brand). If you happen to be buying one of these from the online listing at ShopKami do let us know how it turned out for you.

via Crunchgear

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Verizon 4G test gives 12Mbps to 50Mpbs download speeds

Annkur — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:00:21 +0000

Yes I know that we are still waiting for the 3G license auctions in India but here is a cheer from Verizon (US). Testing their LTE / 4G network, Verizon has released promising numbers of data transfer speeds over the network. The average speed given in these tests are between 5-12 Mbps, though much lesser than the 100Mbps theoretical promise, this still does a lot better than the 3G networks with peak download of 50Mpbs.

Trials in Boston and Seattle indicate the network is capable of peak download speeds of 40 to 50 megabits per second (Mbps) and peak upload speeds of 20 to 25 Mbps. The speeds are significantly faster than Verizon Wireless and other wireless providers’ current or promised 3G network speeds. [Verizon]

Rolling out later this year (possibly with the new iPhone 4th Gen?) the Verizon 4G network would initially cover 20-30 areas and go nation wide in US by 2013. Now only if we can have some handhelds that can use this super speed? Please

Via Techmeme

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iPhone all set to overtake Blackberry in 2011

Annkur — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:52:05 +0000

Blackberry remains the highest selling smartphone in the US, thanks to the plethora of business handsets it has to offer. One company that is fast catching up (and currently in no 2 position) is the Apple iPhone. Analyst prediction says that the iPhone would overtake Blackberry in sales sometime in 2011.

RIM’s touchscreen attempt with the Blackberry has failed to matchup and failed to counter the touch hype that iPhone has created. Meantime the iPhone 3GS has went on to be the best selling iPhone ever with Apple unable to go ahead with its global roll out as scheduled due to stock issues. Apple is expected to nab a 11% market share where as RIM Blackberry is seen at 8% in 2011. While a lot would depend on releases by both these companies in 2010, the iPhone 4G would be crucial for Apple as Blackberry has its momentum rested on a series of smartphones and not just one model.

Via / Trefis

(PS: I am a little confused here as the chart shows Apple with 4.43% share and RIM with 4.29% share, however the writeup from Trefis reads 11% and 8%. Nevertheless the trend remains the same – iPhone beats Blackberry in 2011) Update: Graph fixed
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Loved Ironman or Jetsons? Then try Jetlev!

Annkur — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:53:38 +0000

Love Iron Man? Or for that matter Jetsons and the whole action of flying around with Jetpacks? Well then here is Jetlev Flyer that brings you the experience of flying like none other. 9 years in development and here is a watersport that promises to make para-sailing old fashioned. Powered by a four stroke engine in a small boat which sucks in the water with a small pipe below the flying harness and its supplied to the pack at the back of the flyer via a yellow hose which also prevents the flier from exceeding safe heights.

Jetlev Flyer can take you to a maximum altitude of 10 mtrs and a speed of 65km/h and this is just the beginning. Just wait for the design improvements, Excited!

Via Makezine
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Palm Elan: leaked Palm phone or Pixi codename?

Kunal — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:33:29 +0000

A new Palm phone has surfaced on a lot of websites that sell phone accessories. A snapshot from one of these websites shows that the handset is called Palm Elan. An AT&T employee also leaked that the Palm Elan would feature a ’soft keyboard’ and its testing would be starting in a couple of weeks.

The websites selling the accessories for Palm Elan have also put up pictures of the handset. Apparently, these handsets look exactly the same as that of the Palm Pixi (check HERE). For now, it looks like the Palm Elan could also be a codename for Palm Pixi. Whatever it is, it sure leaves us curious. More on Palm Elan as soon as something else surfaces.

via [UberGizmo]
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Olive Telecom launches India’s first dual-powered handset

Kunal — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:22:44 +0000

Olive Telecom has Introduced India’s first handset called Olive Frvron (V-G2300) that can be powered by a AAA battery. The handset is primarily powered by a rechargeable Li-ion battery. In case the primary battery dries out and there is no power source available nearby, the handset can provide an hours talktime on a standard AAA battery.

Except for the dual-power option, the handset has no biggies on the specs sheet. It features a 1.5″ color display along with built-in FM radio, speaker phone and polyphonic ringtones. A compromise on low specs always means a win on the pricing. The handset is pried at Rs. 1699 ($37) and is available in the markets. The low pricing and dual-power option may bring some good sales numbers for Olive Telecom in the rural parts of India which face some severe power cuts.

From dual SIM to dual powered phones. I think very soon we’ll have phones (commercially available) driving power from various sources like solar and dynamo. After the price war that plagued the mobile operators in India only time will tell what it does to the low end cell phone markets like rural India with entrants like Vodafone’s Voda 150 & 250 all ready to put it on fire. Tell us what you feel. Feel free to comment below.

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Waterpebble: checks the water wastage

Annkur — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:59:36 +0000

Waterpebble is a unique tiny gadget that monitors the amount of water you consume during a shower and helps you save water. The tiny pebble shaped gizmo placed below your shower checks the water outflow via the plughole. Using your first shower as a benchmark, the waterpebble alerts you using different lights ranking your water usage. So once you have set the benchmark with your first shower, you can use the indicator lights by waterpebble to alert your self and reduce your water wastage. Video demo below

Water pebble lasts for 4-6 months and does not allow you to change batteries. However you can reset the pebble pretty easily.

via the design blog

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GigaByte G1305 leaked, runs Android v1.6

Kunal — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:05:44 +0000

GigaByte’s GSmart Android is yet to hit the streets and here is another android phone from the Taiwanese cellphone manufacturer. Dubbed GSmart G1305 Codfish, the handset has been leaked by French website PointGPhone with a few pictures and specifications of the phone. The website calls it “good manufacturing quality” and is “very responsive”. The leaked specifications include a Android 1.6 Donut with a custom UI, 5MP camera, 3.2″ touchscreen and other ‘decent features’. In terms of specifications, the handset sure looks better than the GSmart Android, but nothing in particular impress us (including the v1.6 of Android).

Another similarity in the two Android handsets from GigaByte? No one knows the pricing and availability details of both (i.e. if they would be available).

via [PointGPhone & Engadget]
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Gizmo mod: HDD to Digital Clock (Strobeshnik)

Kunal — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:09:51 +0000

Do you have an old Hard Drive eating dust on some top shelf of your work place? If you do, here is a cool way to use it and make some of your friends go wow for your new gizmo clock. All you have to do is follow the mod done by Svofski.

Modder Svofski converted his old hard drive into a digital clock using some LEDs and a controller circuit. The controller circuit and the LEDs are mounted behind the platter of the hard disk. LEDs glow to show the time on the rotating drive platter. The stroboscopic effect makes the numbers look persistent on the face of drive platter, while actually the numbers are created by the LEDs behind the platter.Check out the video to see the mod in action.

Want to make your own Strobeshnik clock? Follow the steps HERE.

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MSI introduces Android powered VoIP phone [Video]

Kunal — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:13:02 +0000

Everyone knew that Android would not be limited to powering cellphones. Android powered netbooks and media players were anticipated even before the google OS picked up momentun. But, recently we have seen the OS powering a few not-s0-expected devices. First we saw the Android powered landline phone and now we have the Android powered VoIP phone on display at MSI’s booth at CeBIT.

The device, MS-9A31 is a landline-cum-VoIP hybrid featuring a large touchscreen. The phone supports DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication), video conferencing and instant messaging. Connectivity options include two LAN ports and a USB port. It also has a card reader for multimedia file transfer. There is no news on pricing or availability of the phone. Check out the video

via [Engadget]

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Bluetooth 4.0 specs out, ready to hit markets by year end

Annkur — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:04:53 +0000

The Bluetooth SIG has started to push the next version i.e. Bluetooth 4.0 already. While we are still seeing numbered devices offering Bluetooth 3.0 being announced, Bluetooth 4. 0 is said to be ready for a year end launch. The high power requirements for Bluetooth 3.0 has been a deterrent to its adoption and thats exactly what the new version fixes. The new 4.0 specs supports even coin-cell batteries to compared to the minimum requirement of a AAA or larger capacity battery for Bluetooth 3.0.

Bluetooth 3.0 has enabled data transfer speeds of upto 24 Mbps by allowing Bluetooth transfers to piggyback on WiFi – 802.11 signals. The Bluetooth 4.0 specification retains this speed (25 Mbps) and brings in lower power requirements. This promises that Bluetooth 4.0 would see much faster and widespread adoption compared to v3.0.

Via

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Align several mobile phones to make one large screen (patent)

Annkur — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:08:14 +0000

Yes weird as it sounds and geeky for sure! The idea of combining several cellphone displays by just placing them next to each other is certainly impressive and Motoorla is on it (the only problem is I don’t see a very practical use of this). According to this patent (“Reconfigurable Multiple-Screen Display”) filed by Motorola you can stream a video in parts on more than one cellphone at once and thus create a larger output by aligning the displays of these cellphones next to each other. See the diagram below to get some clarity:

So next time when you are out with a bunch of moto-friends, you can coming your moto-phones to have a larger display to view videos. We do wanted this, didn’t we?

Via Gizmodo
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Oblique Clock : An Abstract (Time)piece of Art (Video)

Navin Israni — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:49:35 +0000

Every one who owns or works in an office with a classy single tone finish would want this piece of Art on their walls.

Its an Oblique Clock. The makers say it’s not just a timepiece, it’s a kinetic sculpture. The shape of the clock changes with each passing second, which the designer Tristan Zimmermann claims is inspired by the fluid nature of time.

The clock is made up of Maple, Laminate, Custom Mechanism, Digital Driver, Stepper Motor. Custom material and colors are available.

Here’s how to interpret the time with it :

The basic idea to interpret the time here is to look at the darker hands (on the under-side) for the minute and hour hand. The seconds hand is the smallest white one, which moves along with it the remaining white arms, thus making a dynamic series of angles. The video below makes it more clear.

Oblique Clock by Tristan Zimmermann from mocoloco on Vimeo.

It is supposed to be like a piece of art more than just a timepiece . So, no wonder only 20 limited edition pieces are being sold, each priced at $3,900 Canadian Dollars ( $3784 USD)

( Science+Sons via OhGizmo!)
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