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Apple Docking Patent Works Perfectly with Ultra-Slim MacBook
Posted by Jesus Diaz at 10:30 PM on January 3, 2008
This Apple docking station patent shows a screen base in which you can slide in a MacBook through its side. While this would be difficult to do with current MacBook models, it fits perfectly with the idea of the ultra-light, ultra-slim MacBook that allegedly will be presented at MacWorld. Basically, the patent shows an iMac-like unit with all the necessary ports and components, with a slot-loading right bay. The system works similarly to the old PowerBook Duo and its DuoDock base station, but vertically instead of horizontally. The complete patent text and diagrams leave no doubt about how it works:
Running at 7,200rpm and with a 1TB capacity, Samsung's new F1 RAID Class 3.5-inch HDD offers the world's highest recording density and is aimed at storage and video surveillance applications. Using just three platters, the HDD's low power consumption makes it the coolest operating 1TB drive in its class. Full press release is below.
Oh LG.Philips you are cruel. You teased us with your 
The Skinny: MediaSmart 1080p LCD TVs are coming of age—both the $US1,900 42" and the $US2,400 47" of them will have built-in Microsoft Media Center Extender connectivity and an improved higher-contrast panel (2000:1). They have 3 HDMI ports, 2 component inputs, integrated Wi-Fi in A, B, G, and N flavors and Ethernet. Has ATSC and QAM Tuners and 500cd of brightness.
If you lack the wherewithal to afford one of HP's dandy new 
The Skinny: Lenovo's launching their Ideapad Notebook line and they've got textured magnesium covers, 11.1-inch widescreen, SSD options, weight 2.5 pounds, have a 1.3mp camera, touch sensitive multimedia controls, and face recognition biometric logins. Santa Rosa chips. Thinkpad heritage FTW.
It's an HP kind of night, apparently. The HDX Dragon, its beastly 
The Skinny: HP's new tx2000 Entertainment Notebook (really a tablet) sequelizes its tx1000 tablet with a slight design change, a new Wacom digitizer "optimised for hand-writing capture" with a rechargeable eraser pen, updated chips and a snazzier skin. The Catch: N-Trig's 
Hitachi's upping the notebook 2.5-inch storage game to the 500GB level, which means that you'll have much, much more space to store all your eBooks and comics to take with you on the go. The Travelstar 5K500 will be available in 400GB or 500GB models, and have optional Bulk Data Encryption for drive-level security. It also has a power-usage level almost identical to its 5K250 predecessor, and have a 1.9 watt read/write power draw and a 0.7 watt low power idle.
The futuristic skyscraper look that HP conjured up for its MediaSmart Server will be seen in a number of new products branded with the MediaSmart name:
HP is also dropping a pair of updated desktops and monitors for CES. First up, the HP Pavilion Slimline s3330f is a media-oriented machine, now with a sweet Dual Format Blu-Ray and HD-DVD player, plus a TV tuner and GeForce 8500 vid card with an HDMI port to connect to an HDTV. It comes in at under a grand, which is nice with the Dual Format HD drive. 
Dell has flaunted this gorgeous monitor for a while in various trade shows and press events, always saying that it's just a design concept and not available yet. That all changes now, because the 22-inch Dell Crystal LCD display is suddenly a real product. Just in time for CES, this beauty is set to ship in the next few days, and even though its spec list isn't as high-end as we had hoped, it's still so pretty, if it were smaller we'd want to wear it as a necklace. 
You'd think that most companies are going down the cheap, low-end laptop route (Eee PC) in order to differentiate themselves and bring in more customers, but Lenovo is one brand that still focuses on shoving in as many features as possible. Their IdeaPad Y710 and Y510 laptops are focused at both entertainment and general-use users, but have some very interesting unique features such as VeriFace facial recognition and a frameless screen.
Those charming froggies from Archos are coming to CES2008 with the new Archos TV Plus, their 
Jim Jannard, the rambunctious Oakley founder and Red HD camera revolutionary has taken a leak into his own hands and confirmed that the company's next camera, a pocketable pro dubbed Scarlet, will be shown at this year's NAB. Jim: I'm glad you're pushing the tech toward consumers. This sounds like an interesting dovetail with the redcode rumours from Macworld. [
Netflix' movie streaming is fine if you're OK with watching movies on your computer, but LG's planning on integrating hardware into their TVs to allow you to watch those same films in your living room. The NYT says LG and Netflix have reached a deal to be announced at CES to allow integration via its HD DVD/Blu-ray combo players as well as a TV line with Wi-Fi that will stream stuff straight from the internet. 
People love coffee, I get it. But spending $US11,000 on a machine that produces one cup of "heavenly" coffee at a time is just plain stupid. It pours water over a bean people. The device was developed by Clover for cafe owners looking to charge a premium (like $25 apparently) for a regular cup of coffee. The machine works using an extremely fine filter on top of a piston that sinks into the machine. Over time, the piston will rise creating a vacuum that forces water through the grounds. More info and an additional pic after the break.
If you love Doraemon, you will really love this voice activated remote control...controller. Just sync the air pistol up to your remotes and then put the gun on your finger. Every time you say "bang" you can turn on the tv, control the DVD player and more. When not in use, the finger gun rests comfortably on Doraemon's arm. The device can control up to four remotes —but my guess is that novelty value trumps the practical value big time on this one. It will probably be fun for about an hour before you hurl it across the room. Available for around $35. [
AppleInsider reports that there will be something "super secret" unveiled at a January 16 Final Cut Pro group, held a day after Steve Jobs' January 15 MacWorld keynote. What it is is unknown (obviously, because it's a secret), but will probably not be the next version of Final Cut Studio. It could be an updated Mac Pro with improved processors/memory/specs/whatever, but it's unlikely that it's going to be anything for the consumer audience. So unless you're waiting for an update to the high end Macs or some sort of Final Cut software feature update, you won't have much to look forward to. [
It may seem a little stupid, but if you are faced with a power outage, having a candle holder that doubles as a flashlight may prove useful. It can be used as a decoration, so you will never have to scrounge around in closets and cabinets to find it —plus should the 3 AA batteries die, you can just flip it over and use the candle end. Clever idea, but the style leaves a little something to be desired. Available for $US40. [
What geek can resist replacing their boring vehicle horn with a 5 trumpet Wolo 485 Star Trek Air Horn? With one push of a button, you can tell that dude who just cut you off to suck it with 118 dB of brain shattering power. The horns play the 5 most recognisable notes from the Star Trek theme — and hooking it up to your car is a simple matter of plugging it into your cigarette lighter and wiring the compressor directly to your vehicle's battery. No air tank or valve is needed. Now all you need is a custom 
This week at TreeHugger: The early returns on 
Even though we're comfortable with sitting on a toilet seat that someone just vacated (and vacated their bowels on), it still comes as a surprise just how warm that seat is—the ass must be a bit higher than 98 degrees. This thermochromic toilet seat, however, lets you know exactly how warm the seat is, with a bonus effect of showing you exactly which part of the seat was in contact with the previous occupant. As you can see from the picture, the man before was a widey. Almost as good as the hypercolor shirts of yore, which let us know of Kelly's extracurricular activities in a visual manner. [
CameraPro, a new application available through Installer, brings enhanced options to the otherwise bland iPhone camera. The best feature is digital zoom, which allows you to zoom in pretty close on your scene, albeit with reduced clarity. Grayscale works too, and the images come out very clean. I found a problem with "burst" (an option to take pictures in rapid succession), as the pictures I took did not show up in my camera roll. Also, the resized image option just takes digitally zoomed pictures, and in one instance placed a smaller image into my large image. This is definitely some interesting proof-of-concept material, and I hope that Apple will include similar options in a future firmware update. Check out the gallery to see CameraPro in action.
Scientists are investigating the possibility of using the "tiny assembly line that powers the whip-like tail of sperm" to send medical nanobots racing throughout the body. In order to work, these devices would have to be made from biomedical components —and at that size, "biology would provide the best functional motors." This approach seems bizarre, but apparently it could help solve the problem of supplying energy to thousands of minuscule internal devices that can fight or ward off disease. How long it will be before these spermbot slave drivers become a reality is anyone's guess. [
And a slew of other PC games, like HL2: Ep 2, GTA: Vice City and Warcraft III (natch) to name a few. EeeUser forum members are cobbling together a list of games than run, plus any 
The most recent update to Now Playing widget for OS X gives it the ability to download shows from your TiVo Series 3 and have it automatically decode for playing using 
Sleeping with your arm around a loved one—how sweet. Unfortunately, doing this in a conventional bed is massively uncomfortable. There is simply no place to put the extra arm—and its not like your loved one can just lay on it. If you do that, you might as well go the whole 9 and chop it off because it will be useless in the morning. 
Looks like there might another major announcement at MacWorld. BGR says they've "confirmed" that Apple is launching a record label with Jay-Z, who's set to