convergence
Gadgets
Unintended Gadget Fusion Puts It Where It Doesn’t Belong
9:20AM Sean Fallon | German artist Christian Weber has put together a series of photographs entitled Unintended Fusion that focuses on connecting unrelated gadgets. More »
Screens
Sharp’s Aquos BD Series HDTVs First To Include Built-In Blu-ray Players
6:06AM John Mahoney | What’s that CES magic word we hear? Convergence? Yes, indeed: Sharp’s all-new BD series, as the name suggests, features a built-in side-loading Blu-ray player in all fives sets ranging from 32-52 inches.
Software
Windows 7 Will Run Fully Accelerated Graphics From Your CPU
11:30PM John Herrman | Adding to the already impressive pile of Vista-deflating features we’re expecting to see in Windows 7 is WARP, a tech which will allow your PC’s CPU to act as a graphics accelerator, possibly doing away with the need for integrated graphics hardware to render user interfaces and low-end games. Not-so-seductively described as a ‘fully conformant software rasterizer’, WARP requires nothing more than an 800MHz processor for complete—if comically slow—DX10 compliance.
Music
Philips Luxe Bluetooth MP3 Player Is Simultaneously Bare-Bones and Feature-Packed
5:00AM Gizmodo US Edition | The sparkly, diamond-esque Philips Luxe mp3 player is a tale of contradictions. On the one hand, it’s an MP3 player with a mere 2GB of memory, a scant 10 hours of battery life, a one-line LCD screen, and an expected price of around $US90. On the other hand, it’s a feature-packed Bluetooth 2.1 headset, providing 100 hours of standby time, an FM radio, and excellent sound quality. More »
Design
Retromodo: Microsoft Takes a Few Steps Back With ‘The Veda’ Computing System
9:00AM Sean Fallon | While The Veda concept is a fairly new idea out of Microsoft’s R&D labs, the design itself looks as though it was picked out of a time capsule sealed in the mid 90’s. Apparently, the Veda can be used as a phone when the screen is closed, as a multimedia player when the screen is open, and as a normal portable PC by opening the screen and extracting the keyboard. It also looks about the same size as a library dictionary. More »
Gadgets
Portable Digital Frame, Webcam and Alarm Clock All-In-One
12:40PM Sean Fallon | Hong Kong based WinWin Industry has just recently unveiled a product that combines a digital picture frame, webcam, and an alarm clock with temperature and calendar functions in a single, semi-portable device. It also features 8MB of memory, a built-in rechargeable battery, a 1.44-inch screen and a 300K pixel camera resolution. More »
Phones
Couple-It Handset Takes a More Practical View on Convergence
9:20AM Sean Fallon | When it comes to convergence, the trend these days is to cram all sorts of functionality into a single device—even if those functions seem to be massively impractical given the limitations of current technology. However, a UK based design firm named Alloy has taken a more practical approach with their Couple-IT concept. The unit consists of a handset and a pocket-sized “laptop” that share information over a network. More »
Gadgets
S(tool) Turns Garden Fork into Garden Chair
9:10AM Benny Goldman | It’s been a long summer day tending the garden and you need to sit down, but there is no chair in sight. If only you were using the S(tool), then you wouldn’t have to worry about finding one. Designed by Langton Stead, the S(tool) is a bent wood handle with two garden forks on either side. All you have to do is shove them into your lawn, and BAM!, instant chair. The perfect gift for the laziest green thumb you know, it’s available directly from the designer, though no word on price. [Langton Stead via productdose] More »
Games
Evergreen Genius Navigator 365: It’s a Mouse! It’s a Gamepad! It’s a Gamemousepad!
3:16AM Benny Goldman | Evergreen’s new Genius Navigator 365 is described by the English translation of Impress as “a USB gamepad deformed laser mouse”, and we couldn’t agree more. The mouse is 1600dpi, the gamepad has eight buttons and a D-pad, and it sells for $36 (¥3,499). Be warned, of course, that you get what you pay for. [Impress] More »
_
