Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Cameras
Olympus Joins Mid-Range DSLR Club With The E-30
11:40PM Kit Eaton | Though it had the pro-end E-3 and entry-level E-520, Olympus until now had not been offering a mid-level DSLR: but now there’s the E-30. The 12.5-megapixel cam mixes up the 11-point autofocus if the E-3, and entry-level functions like face detection and live visual effects—”Art Filters”— to please all sorts of users, and throw in an electronic levelling system to banish wonky horizons, and sensor-shifting image stabilisation. More »
Networks
AT&T Monthly Bandwidth Caps Are Here
11:20PM Matt Buchanan | AT&T’s bandwidth caps for its high speed internet customers are here. They’re conducting a “market trial” in Reno that started on Nov. 1, where users get between 20GB and 150GB a month, depending on their speed tier. Unlike Time Warner’s trial in Beamont, where caps were only applied to new customers, existing customers will also be capped, though they’ll get the roomier 150GB cap. If you bust the cap, AT&T will charge an extra dollar per gigabyte. More »
Design
Beautiful LED Kinetic Sculpture Is Powered by Solar
10:56PM Mark Wilson | These simple Mobile Lights by Kyouei Design hang from the ceiling from fishing line to create a glowing kinetic sculpture with the size and shape of your choosing. Each piece is equipped with an LED, solar panel and AA battery backup, absorbing light during the day and emitting it at night. But what’s more impressive is that the Mobile Lights can actually be purchased. More »
Science
US Military Pretty Much Commissions a Real-Life Gordon Freeman Power Suit
10:20PM John Herrman | The Office of Naval Research just threw a $US1.6m grant at some UCSD researchers, to be used to build a “field hospital on a chip”. The system will monitor a few biomarkers for deviations from safe levels, at which point it will automatically medicate its wearer. While the military hopes that such a device could provide first aid to wounded soldiers, the technology could also find plenty of practical uses in medicine, especially for doling out insulin to diabetics or anesthetic to chronic pain sufferers. More »
Computers
Fujitsu Lifebook N7010 Equipped With Integrated, Touchscreen App Launcher
10:00PM Adrian Covert | The picture pretty much says it all, but the coolest part about the Lifebook N7010 is the 4-inch, 480×272 pixel touchscreen integrated into the keyboard area. Its most notable function is that it works as an app launcher, but according to Fujitsu’s Paul Moore, you can use it as a second (really small) screen, with the ability to drag whatever you want down to the second screen like any other external monitor. Aside from the app launcher, its intended to be used as a CD/DVD control panel, or as a photo viewer. More »
Computers
Fujitsu Introduces Lifebook P1630 and U820 Tablets For Small People, Very Small People
10:00PM John Herrman | In a long-awaited refresh to their tablet lines, Fujitsu has announced considerable upgrades for its U and P series. The comically small 5.6″ U820, following in the dainty footsteps of the U810, gets improved battery life, GPS, a super-sharp WSXGA touchscreen and a 1.6GHz Atom processor, somehow weighing in at just over 600 grams. The U series starts at $US1,049. For people with human-sized fingers, the P1630 8.9in convertible. netbook packs a 1.20 GHz Core 2 Duo, built-in accelerometer, 64GB SSD option and a steep base price of $US2,179. Press releases after the jump. [Fujitsu] More »
Science
Cassini Probe To Be Used to Look For Life on Saturn Moon
9:29PM Kit Eaton | NASA is considering re-purposing its successful Cassini-Huygens probe to do something that it wasn’t designed for, but is nonetheless amazing: searching for signs of life on Saturns frozen moon Enceladus. Back in July 2005 Cassini observed a huge plume of ice particles and water vapour shooting from the tiny moon, suggesting the possibility that there’s a liquid ocean hiding beneath its surface. More »
Science
Nanotube Speaker Film: Transparent, Stretchy, Likes Moldovan Pop
8:15PM John Herrman | Scientists at Tsinghua University in Beijing have just perfected a process by which nanotubes can be coaxed to emit sound, allowing for the construction of ultra-thin, transparent, flexible ’speakers’, demonstrated above affixed to a waving flag. Unlike normal speakers, which produce sound with direct vibration, these sheets produce sound with wildly fluctuating temperatures that create pressure oscillations in the surrounding air. In other words, these nanotube speakers — in contrast to other forays into flat sound production — don’t vibrate at all. More »
Screens
Toshiba’s TLP-X200U Projector Is the First To Talk, For Some Reason
8:05PM Kit Eaton | This may not be as small as yesterday’s picoprojector, but Toshiba’s TLP-X200U projector is still portable, and touted as being the world’s first with talking guidance. Apparently it’s designed to make the thing easier to use, and it also talks you through maintenance procedures, with the aim of making it all work better for you, and thus saving you money in the long run. Elsewise it’s got 3LCD tech, 1024 x 768-pixels resolution, 3000 ANSI lumen brightness and a 600:1 contrast ratio, and it’s wired and wireless LAN capable. It may indeed be “slim, light and compact” and have that voice function, but for an MSRP of $US1,740 I’d expect it to have an LCARS touchpanel and Majel Barrett’s dulcet digital tones. [I4U] More »
Vehicles
