With Lytro, cameras would no longer need to focus to a single object within the image. Nor would they have to adjust apertures, light entrance to get the right focus and defocus. You won’t even have to wait before you click the shutter.

Lytro is the brainchild of Dr. Ren Ng, a Stanford Ph.D whose dissertation on light-field technology five years ago was showered with awards. Now, with the help of $50 million in funding, they are  preparing to launch a focus-free digital camera later this year.

How Lytro Camera works

The camera captures all the information it possibly can about depth of the field in front of it. Result that you get back is a digital photo that is adjustable in an almost infinite number of ways. In the resulting picture, you can focus at any spot, change the light levels (exposure, aperture) and if you have a 3D screen, you can also tilt and shift the photo in three dimensions.

Of course all of that sounds possible with current cameras but what you might be thinking at this point is that resulting image would be large enough to fill memory cards quickly. But in reality the file size is roughly comparable to the average size of a digital photo today. The camera’s onboard DSP does the heavy image processing to make the image size small enough.

It also sports a revolutionary light sensor tahts very sensitive and allows you to capture low-light situations like candle light dinners, without actuating a flash. No more grainy ISOs!

Lytro Demos: Tip: Click on area to focus, double click to zoom

Availability

Lytro would be available by end of 2011, but you can get a sneak peak at the demonstrations that are already available. All of them use Flash, HTML5. Works on all browsers, including webkit smartphone browsers.

Pricing

What would be your guess for such a camera that takes all the pain? Don’t worry its not going to drill holes in your pocket, the company promises that it would not cost more than current digital cameras on the market.

The photography is going to shift to all new level!

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The next Nexus device, would be called the Nexus 4G, featuring next gen dual-core 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz CPU (OMAP 4460 or a, ultra low-power 28nm Krait-based Snapdragon). The best part would be its high resolution display 720p HD “monster-sized” screen.

What’s more would be that it would be ditching all physical features in order to align with Honeycomb flavored Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 operating system.

Ice Cream sandwich would bring:

• Unified for Smartphones + Tablets goodbye fragmentation
• New innovative features like face-tracking and camera focus shifting based on voice recognition.
• Hardware accelerated holographic UI from honeycomb.
• Face recognition, Virtual camera.
• Improved multitasking.

Other than that it would sport 4G LTE radio, 1GB of RAM, 1080p HD video capture and playback, a 1-megapixel front-camera, and a 5-megapixel rear camera. The rear camera may seem to be similar on specs but it would actually be a high-end, high performance 5MP camera  that would deliver class-leading image quality and really nice ISO sensitivity to reproduce excellent results even in low light.

Nexus 4G would be thin and light, and would be available around Thanksgiving with AT&T & sprint.

The awesome display resolution, thin and light would make it adorable gadget in November. However, Samsung Galaxy SIII Tegra 3, launching in Q1 2012, would beat the phone in every sense.

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AR-driven EyePet can make an adorable gremlin crawl around your living room floor. Sony’s new SmartAR solution loosens the limitations on augmented reality, bringing it a step closer to genuine usefulness, closer to Reality.

Watch SmartAR in action below:

SmartAR, unlike traditional Augemnted reality programs, doesn’t require visual markers, like the 3DS AR cards. Its intelligent enough that it can generate the animation on just another photo. What’s more is that with its high speed object tracking, the photo can then be rotated, moved, or even dropped to the floor without causing a hiccup in the overlay. It handles all the 3-dimensions bringing a 100% seamless 3d experience.

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Till date, world’s thinnest smartphone was crowned to Samsung Galaxy SII, but the days are not far when such smartphones would go even thinner. The new contendor is flexible enough to fold like a paper.

The e-paper prototype PaperPhone sports a 3.75-inch thin-film display. Its s smartphone and hence can do everything you would expect it to do: make calls, Read books, and Play music. The rest of the phone’s hardware is situated alongside the non-bendablepart, which is also surprisingly thin.

Queen’s Human Media Lab director says, “This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years”.

However, the prototype is based on e-ink technology, the same technology that powers Amazon’s kindle ebook readers. It can be operated by bending the corners to turn a page, squeezing to make a call, and even written on with a pen. Were you expecting more ?

The research institute, Vertegaal along with MERG claims that the larger versions of the displays could eliminate paper and printers from offices. This is possible because E-ink displays require no power until the information on screen is refreshed.

So this is flexible, but how much would it cost?  It’s a $7,000 prototype, but the final product would be ultra affordable.

And yes, the prototype uses Android. Of course its not ready for the primetime, but we grab a fairly good idea of where we are heading.

Watch the thinnest bendable phone in action:

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XBLA cross-platform gaming is also coming. So what this means is that XBox games are making their way to WP7 devices.

We had compiled a list of Windows Phone 7 Software updates 2011 Roadmap, here are few latest updates:

March 2011:

• Performance improvements,
• cut and paste,
• support for CDMA radios to the platform.

Mid-Late 2011:

• Full version of Internet Explorer 9 with hardware acceleration on the phone (no flash).
• “wave of multitasking applications” Multitasking, but it could be limited to some apps.
• Better social integration with Twitter into the People Hub, and Office document cloud support will be added.
• Cross-platform gaming

Cross platform gaming:

Finally, the update could include cross-platform play with Xbox Live, but what Microsoft showed off at MWC was pure tech demo.

Related: Nokia WP7 Concept Phone.

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This handy little gadget comes with a marker (a wireless device) which when attached or held with a subject,  drives the rotor of the base station which holds and rotates iPhone/Android or any equivalent Camera.

You’ve to see it to believe it:

The device is an experiment at this time, but can be ordered from their website. You can also help them design the perfect device here.

System Specifications

• Supports both portrait and landscape use of iPhone4 or iPod touch and even android devices.
• Comes with one marker per base
• Rotates 180 degrees
• Works whenever the base can “see” the remote up to 8meters indoors and outdoors
• Base and marker will be battery powered with purchase-able, off the shelf batteries. Marker will be larger than pictured in the “looks like” model to accommodate two AAA batteries and will not be made to dock into the base.
• Does not include video app controls
• Not for use with cameras that weigh more than 6oz.

“Seriously, Follow us.”

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LG Star would be the first android phone with Nvidia Tegra2 dual core processor clocked at 1Ghz x 2. The UI on this phone is much like the Samsung Galaxy S, but the most interesting part of this phone is its dual-core processor.

GSM Israel has got the first handson video for the LGP990 (aka the Star) compared side-by-side with an iPhone 4.

The handset is powered by a 4-inch display and 8MP camera, as well as a front-facing counterpart and an HDMI port. At this time its running on a non-optimized Android Froyo, and is expected to improve speeds with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which would be optimized for dual core Tegra2 processors.

Nvidia Tegra 2 offers full support for real-time run Full HD 1080p encoding, In terms of build quality, its sturdy,   combines elements of plastics and metal.

The screen is very bright and very high quality and even though it (apparently) is not a Super AMOLED or SLCD.

Despite running non-optimized Froyo 2.2, it is still very fast relative to all other Android device we’ve seen and iPhone 4 at everything. It performs equally well vs. iPhone 4 even when Flash is turned ON. Now that’s a big thing. With Gingerbread, native support for Dual core Tegra2 will be embedded into the kernel, and hence make the dual core phones perform much faster than iPhone 4 or any other device in the market.

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Printers with TouchSmart Technology

Today, everyone wants to go  wireless with everything.

While phones and computers seem to have advanced greatly in the last few years, printers seem to have stagnated. They still do same old paper printing, connected over same cables and havent gained much speed either. However, Hewlett-Packard has developed an All-in-One Printer with TouchSmart technology which is perfect for users who have been clamoring of a web-connected printer.

With the HP TouchSmart printer, the printing machine becomes so much more than ink cartridges and glossy paper. This printer allows users to be connected to your favorite sites, all at the touch of a button. In addition, specialized apps allow users to not only connect to the sites they visit often, but also allow for a printer-friendly interface. This way, you can have constant access to your Google Calendar or print those movie tickets from Fandango at a flick of an eye. The result is a true Web 2.0 enabled Printer that understands webapps.

This HP printer is also perfect for printing photos from the web. With a direct connection to Snapfish, printing has never been easier. Users can save time by accessing photos directly from the printer. The HP TouchSmart printer also comes with automatic paper sensing and quality settings, which allow it to save paper and ink.  As paper and ink are often the highest auxiliary expenses associated with printing, HP is really saving consumers money by saving ink cartridges.

By making the interface smarter and more intuitive, these printers can be more successfully integrated into our on-the-go lifestyle. Choose wisely, print wisely.

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Augmented Reality is all about filling the Real world with augmented objects that fit the Real world, nicely. Watching virtual balls fall through a digital gap in a table, and a life-sized virtual human sitting in an empty chair, those are things  we expect from a good Augmented Reality glasses.

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality

Whereas virtual reality shows you only a digital landscape, augmented reality (AR) mixes virtual information, like text or images, into your view of the real world in real-time.

In the last few years, AR has started appearing on smart phones. On phones, software superimposes information on top of your view of the world, as seen through the device’s screen. But AR eyewear is superior because of inherent advantages —  it provides a more immersive experience.

Best Augmented Reality Glasses

The Wrap 920AR glasses from Vuzix does it perfectly. It costs around $1,995, which is about half the price of other AR goggles with similar image resolution. The glasses will primarily appeal gamers, animators, architects, and software developers, and it has developed software for building AR environments, which is included with the glasses.

So what does it feel like wearing one of these Glasses? Wearing the 920AR means looking at the world through a pair of LCD video displays.

The glasses have two video cameras for 3d augmentation of depth. Apart form that glasses are equipped with accelerometers, gyro sensors, and magnetometers that track the direction in which the wearer is looking. The best part of the glasses is that this Augmented reality glasses work with iPhone, and compatible devices like Android, for portable power and controls, such as loading a particular AR object or environment.

The Vuzix software can recognize and track visual markers and lock onto a certain object or color. By tracking head movements, the software can make sure that virtual objects are perfectly positioned atop the real world.

“There are other folks who make stereo, see-through eyewear, but there’s no one making anything near the price point of Vuzix’s,” says Steve Feiner, professor of computer science at Columbia University, and a lead AR researcher since the 1990s. Also,  the integration of cameras and motion sensors into the display makes the glasses less bulky.

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iPhone 4 Retina display was touted by Apple as the most advanced displays ever made for Mobiles. Buut aare samsung’s claims true that Super AMOLED featured in Samsung Galaxy S is better? These new displays promised to be brighter, less reflective, and consume less power than the previous generation of AMOLED, used in Google Nexus One.

DisplayMate has released their evaluation of the displays, and though they found the Super AMOLED to be excellent and awarded it “Best New Technology,” called the Apple iPhone 4 still has the best mobile display.

Google Nexus One vs. iPhone 4 s Motorola Droid vs Samsung Galaxy S

Samsung’s display was 25 percent brighter, used 20 percent less power and reflected less than a third as much ambient light as compared to normal AMOLED.

Te Super AMOLED possess  incredible contrast and low screen reflectance. But “Super AMOLED’s contrast ratio is visually insignificant as compared to iPhone 4 retina display,  except under dark ambient lighting.The report also highlights 14 ways the iPhone 4 has the best display. For instance, the iPhone’s LCD is the sharpest (with the Highest Resolution i.e. most pixels per inch)

Here is the report in  brief,  summarizing five of Soneira’s results: brightness, contrast, screen reflectance, color accuracy, and power consumption.

The Super AMOLED reflected the least ambient light out of any display. This is also an important factor for viewing outdoors; the least reflective screen shows the least amount of glare.

The Super AMOLED on the Samsung Vibrant was 25 percent brighter than the AMOLED on the Google Nexus One. However, the iPhone 4′s LCD was the brightest. The brighter the screen, the easier it is to view the display in bright environments (like outdoors on sunny days.)

When all displays were set to the same level of brightness (229 cd/m2), the Super AMOLED consumed 20 percent less power than the AMOLED, but iPhone 4′s LCD used even less power.

The AMOLED on the Google Nexus One had lower black levels, which resulted in the highest contrast, though Soneria considered the contrast on the the AMOLED and Super AMOLED outstanding.

The LCD on the Motorola DROID offered the most accurate representation of the sRGB color gamut. Colors on the Super AMOLED were oversaturated by 38 percent percent, and on the iPhone’s LCD were undersaturated by 36 percent.

Verdict

At most practical things, he Retina Display really whoops on the Super AMOLED on the pixel level. Definition still looks ridiculous on the iPhone 4. The Super AMOLED seems to exhibit stronger color saturation and sharper definition, in spite of looking pixelated sat next to Apple’s smoother resolution. BUT, when viewed from a normal distance away from the user, and it will look identical, difference is saturation and contrast.

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Everything is revamped and they call it “Flow UI”.

There have been rumors that the first volley of BlackBerry 6-powered devices showing off goodies likes aggregated social network integration, universal search, and — of course — the all-new WebKit-based browser, which would bring Android, iPhone identical browsing experience to Blackberry OS. RIM has only showcased on Multitouch devices, no one knows what happens to their popular form factor that made them famous – -wide screen, with wide keyboard.

In addition to the new fluid user interface, the video below illustrates a few of the new applications and features in BlackBerry 6 that are designed to provide users with a mobile experience that is fun and approachable, yet extremely powerful.

Watch the Official sneap peak video

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Various multitouch and gestural interaction technologies have been explored as means to implement alternative methods to interact with a computer. Despite these advances in computing hardware technologies, the two-button computer mouse has remained the predominant means to interact with a computer.

But this could all change in the Future. The innovator Pranav Mistry comes with yet another proof of concept for computer input that could change the way we communicate with our PCs. The Mouseless invention removes the requirement of having a physical mouse altogether but still provides the intuitive interaction of a physical mouse that we are familiar with.

Watch the demonstration:

How Mouseless Input Works

As pranav Mistry explains it:

Mouseless consists of an Infrared (IR) laser beam (with line cap) and an Infrared camera. Both IR laser and IR camera are embedded in the computer. The laser beam module is modified with a line cap and placed such that it creates a plane of IR laser just above the surface the computer sits on. The user cups their hand, as if a physical mouse was present underneath, and the laser beam lights up the hand which is in contact with the surface. The IR camera detects those bright IR blobs using computer vision. The change in the position and arrangements of these blobs are interpreted as mouse cursor movement and mouse clicks. As the user moves their hand the cursor on screen moves accordingly. When the user taps their index finger, the size of the blob changes and the camera recognizes the intended mouse click.
As work is done on better Programmatic vision algorithms, an extensive library of gestures could be implemented in addition to mouse movement and mouse clicks. Typical multitouch gestures, such as zooming in and out, as well as novel gestures, such as balling one’s fist are all possible. In addition, the use of multiple laser beams would allow for recognition of a wider range of free hand motions, enabling novel gestures that the hardware mouse cannot support.

Cost of Ownership for Mouseless Input

Now that you know how it works, it shouldn’t be hard to guess cost to manufacture this system. The team was able to build it under $20.

Related: The Future Input Device: Your Skin

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Today, all of the smartphoones in the market have a upper limit of 1Ghz powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and Apple’s A4 chips.  The new processor will give Android powered handsets a big step ahead of the competition. In addition, Motorola would be getting a dedicated nVidia Tegra-based graphics processor, a gyroscope and hardware accelerated Flash 10.1 support.

If Motorola starts this revolution,  the whole smartphone market would change, coz, soon after every other mobile manufacturer in the Google’s Open Handset alliance will follow. Somethign similar was heard from HTC, when they declared that they would be bringing Qualcom’s 1.5Ghz processor to the market within 2010.

Although Intel also has big Plans to add it’s 1.6Ghz and 2Ghz Atom Z processor on smartphones, Nvidia makes alot more sense when it comes to graphic reproduction on these small devices. A Nvidia Tegra, a 2Ghz processor will literally kick out iPhone 4 out of the game, running Desktop-like Gaming Graphics right on the palm of your hand.

Seriously, if you have a 2Ghz smartphone with a decent 4″ screen, who needs a Netbook or even an iPad?

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The 7-inch Galaxy Tab (previously called  S-Pad), runs Android with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on top (similar to the Galaxy S). Samsung revealed it using strange resources: Tweets on Samsung Blog South Africa, it has a “high resolution” screen, it’s has a gorgeous AMOLED display which feeds on lesspower as compared to LED backlit iPad IPS display.

All Android apps would run out of the box with pixel doubling, However, the bad news is that Google currently doesnt allow dedicated Tablet form factor apps into the Market.  In the good side, Samsung  in introducing Samsung Apps store, which might host very platform-centric apps, but would be portable to ohter devices with minor modification when Google decides to lift the flood gates.

Samsung Galaxy Tab specifications:

AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 1024 x 600 pixels, 7.0 inches
- TouchWiz UI
- Multi-touch input method
- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
- Touch-sensitive controls
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Swype text input
SOUND Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones

Java: Yes, MIDP 2.1

BATTERY Li-Ion 2000mAh

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Between the yelling of sergeants, the growling sounds of choppers, and the blasts of bullet, an obvious thing is soldier’s sense of hearing rapidly deteriorates. Microflown, a dutch company, has designed a special microphone that can do a soldier’s listening when he’s not capable of doing it.

This device is so accurate that it can measure the mechanical movement of individual air particles (in addition to sound waves), which makes the device capable of not only pinpoint the origin (in sense of direction in 3d space) of sniper fire or approaching aircraft, but detail-out their make and model, as well.

What makes is so Sensitive?

Most microphones use air vibrations to detect sound to a diaphragm, but microflown’s mic uses platinum strips only 600 atoms wide. Two pairs of strips are arranged in different directions, Air molecules passing between the strips cool the strips at different speeds depending on the direction of flow, and a computer then interprets that cooling as an exact x, y, and z source for the sound.

Sense of Direction is just one side of the story, it can also determine the pitch and character of the noise to distinguish between distant explosions, human screams, and chopper blades, destructions and gunshots.

Despite all the power, the mic is very small, of the order of match head which makes it possible for every soldier to carry it, giving them personal autonomy, or turning individual into a 3d radar.

The armies from Netherlands, Germany, India, Poland, New Zealand and Australia have agreed to test the device out. and would used in war times in future.

[via dvice]

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As we prompted earlier, SuperSpeed USB delivers data transfer rates up to 10x faster than Hi-Speed USB and offers optimized power efficiency, increased power delivery and backward compatibility with the billions of USB-enabled computers and devices currently in use. The assortment of certified SuperSpeed USB products represents end-to-end solutions for consumers wanting the fastest USB experience available.

SuperSpeed USB product page on the USB-IF Web site highlights most of the products getting the certification.

The most deserving devices in the list are HP’s Envy 15 laptop and WD’s My Book 3.0 (not WD My book ii)external hard drive, but that the vast majority are adapters says a lot about how early this format is. Of the 50 said to be certified only 45 are listed on the site, meaning there are five left unidentified, ready for a stunning, blue-plugged unveiling.

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Here are the other Key Specs of the device:

• Camera: 5.1 MP (Vivaz has 8.1MP)
• Video : 720p HD video capture
• Display: 3.2″ 640 x 360 wide 16:9 HVGA touchscreen display
• OS: Symbian S60 5th Edition
• Cellular: UMTS HSPA 900/2100 and GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS HSPA 850/1900/2100 and GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• Data Connectivity: 3G variants with quad-band EDGE, WiFi, Bluetooth, TV out (VGA resolution), USB mass storage, USB support
• Colors: Black & white

Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ pro targets both business and hardcore end-users

Other Features include:

• Inbuilt Unified email, Twitter™, Facebook™, blogging and chat
• View everything on the 3.2″ 16:9 wide touchscreen
• Capture the action in HD resolution – upload to YouTube via Wi-Fi™
• PlayNow – immediate online access to applications, games and music.
• Camera features: 4x digital zoom, Auto focus (photos), Continuous auto focus (video), Face detection (photos), Geo tagging, Image stabiliser, Photo light, Send to web, Smile detection, Touch capture, Video light,
• Unified Music (and albumArt), Entertainment, TrackID™
• Web: Bookmarks, Google™ search (from standby), Web feeds, WebKit web browser
• Voice: Speakerphone, Vibrating alert, Video calling (main camera)
• Messaging: Conversations, Email, Handwriting recognition, Instant messaging, Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync®, Picture messaging (MMS), Predictive text input, Sound recorder, Text messaging (SMS)
• Design:Auto rotate, Full slide-out keyboard, Picture wallpaper,
• Entertainment: 3D games, Facebook™ application, FM radio, Java, Twitter™ application, Video streaming
• Organiser: Alarm clock, Calculator, Calendar, Document readers,
• Location-based services: A-GPS, Google Maps™, Wisepilot™ turn-by-turn navigation

Few other Facts
Size: 109 x 52 x 15 mm
Weight: 117 grams
Phone memory: Up to 75 MB
Memory card support: SanDisk microSD™, up to 16 GB
Memory card included: 8 GB microSD™ card
Operating system: Symbian™ S60 5th edition Processor: 720 MHz
Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 12 hrs 30 min
Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 430 hrs
Talk time UMTS: Up to 5 hrs 10 min
Standby time UMTS: Up to 440 hrs
Video call time: Up to 2 hrs 30 min

Here’s a Video of the User Interface:

The device will be available around 2nd Quarter of this year.

Misa Digital have come up a with a  unique, first-of-its-kind state of the art multitouch guitar. The body, is well finished with ABS. The player puts theirs hands in the same places you would on a guitar but the lack of strings and presence of multitouch makes it something different.

But wait a minute. Why do we need it?

Here’s what the founder has to say about traditional guitars

Guitars by their very nature have limitations. To create sound you need to hit a string, so that the sound at its most intense point is always the beginning of the pluck. The left hand controls what notes to play, and the right hand controls when to play these notes and the intensity of the notes. Effects can be inserted into the signal chain, but they are usually foot pedals which makes the experience of controlling effects disjointed from what your hands are doing. Plus, you can only really make use of one pedal at a time. Even in the (rare) case that controls are mounted on the guitar, the hand needs to switch between strings and controls. This may be okay if you only use effects occasionally, but when every note you play needs the controls set differently – good luck with that.

Basically, the fret is emulated by 144 sensors spread over 24 fret positions, six lying in each. Ofcourse you don’t strum with your right hand but rather uses the multitouch screen to control the inputs.

Touchpad controls:

• Digitizer filter
• note velocity
• pitch

The UI looks solid, something that can’t be explained in words, you wil have to see it for yourself:

The Concept:

The Misa digital guitar software is open source, and powered by the Linux operating system. This means programmers have the flexibility to modify how it works, and even change the interface to provide specific functionality. This is important because collaboration from the users themselves, experimenting and innovating in their own ways, will further improve the instrument.

The Misa digital guitar is a MIDI controller. It must be plugged into a MIDI capable sound module. The sound of this instrument is limited only by what you connect to it.

Specifications: Linux kernel 2.6.31 (Gentoo); 24 frets; touchscreen;

It is powered by  AMD Geode processor. That means this is open source waiting to see your own innovation. Other specs include MIDI out; Ethernet; and SSH server.

Get on, start writing code to get that beat.

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Qualcomm’s famous 1GHz Snapdragon is the same processor that powers devices like Nexus One, HTC HD2, Sony Xperia X10, Xperia X3 and several others giving them that speed. Today, the fastest gets even more faster as Qualcomm  announced two new chips that are going to power the next great mobile devices.

First one is the single-core Snapdragon 8X50A, a 45nm chip that’s essentially the next version of the 1GHz chip in the Nexus One clocked at 1.3GHz.

But the buzz is around the second processor which is the dual-core 8X72, which uses two Scorpion processor cores to achieve 1.5GHz. As per Luis Pineda, SVP at Qualcomm, 8X72 is suitable for smartphones and Netbooks and can handle 1080p video without any issues. Both the 8X50A and 8X72 will be available this year. So now Nvidia Tegra has a contender.

[via hexus]

A new Prototype from Nokia is kind of a strange innovation. Charging the phone is as easy as pouring Coke, the popular beverage, into the phone. Under the hood, it generates energy from sugar, making it possible to manufacture Green phones that virtually are non-polluting.

This concept phone was created by designer Daizi Zheng, who says:

“The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment. Bio battery is an ecologically friendly energy generates electricity from carbohydrates (currently sugar) and utilizes enzymes as the catalyst. By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugary drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out.”

It’s a great idea, but will it be adopted anytime soon? I seriously doubt. But following us @taranfx will definitely keep you updated.

P.S. Diet coke may not be suitable for this phone’s health

Under the hood, Cell TV technology utilizes the IBM/Sony PowerPC-based Cell processor to allow for advanced video processing and frame interpolation on both standard definition and high definition content. The cell processor runs at 3.2 GHz with 8-cores (SPUs) — exactly 10x times faster than a normal home PC.

The Processor will be used to:

1. Upscale normal Videos to 1080p video
2. Upscale 60hz/ 60FPS to 480 hertz.
3. Convert normal TV broadcasts, video, games,etc from 2D to 3D.
4. Improve/fix Pixels for superior Video
5. Provide/Simulate higher Contrast ratio 50,00,000:1

These specs are way beyond other TVs we’ve seen in the Past.

Related: HDTV Buyer’s Guide – Everything you need to Know

Most attractive features:

* A powerful cell broadband processor with a focus on advanced picture quality and advanced applications
* Wireless HD video support, even at the highest resolutions and Wifi 802.11n
* Built-in hard disc storage with server capabilities for receiving and distributing content throughout the home
* Seamless Internet connectivity for downloading and accessing network content

The Cell TV will ultimately combine elements of IPTV, multi-source file compatibility (HDD, SD, USB, etc), DLNA support for remote file sharing/streaming, and full (and largely transparent) Internet support and possibly someone will hack-in a linux OS to levergae it’s processing power to make a perfect HTPC.

More on Features:

It features super-high luminance of 1250cd/m². A 7-speaker sound bar is attached underneath the display, and network functionality includes DLNA support, and an HD Web browser based on Opera.

On the real cutting edge side of the Cell TV, the system is said to be able to handle six (6) simultaneous HD streams at once. That means it can record 6 HD streams to the drive or storage system simultaneously. It will utilize a completely new 3D graphical user interface (GUI) and provide a new way of accessing data and programming material easily and from multiple locations. DLNA support and advanced networking would indicate that this box should be able to serve an entire home full of HD displays and enable itself to be a potential AV hub for large amounts of content.

The Cell chip is housed in an external box about the site of an older Blu-ray player. That’s also where a 3TB hard disk is installed to allow the TV to time-shift up to 26 hours of programs from up to 8 channels simultaneously. (1TB of storage is reserved for longer-term recordings). Another neat visual trick: the 55X1 can show eight channels on screen at the same time—and step through each without the delay common with rival HDTVs. Alright, do you still want just another 3d HDTv like Samsung 55 inches 3D 240Hz LCD TV ?

With Real 3d broadcasts coming within 2010 via ESPN, Sony, IMAX the experience on Cell TV is gonna get even better.

Alright, the worst side: $10,000+

Toshiba ‘s TV have a range of models, 4K x 2K model that upconverts 1080p to 3840 x 2160. Holy crap! Follow us @taranfx as we go crazy over CES 2010.

CES 2010 has lots of rumors building up already. Few predict that this time Steve Jobs will deliver the keynote. On the Contrary, other sources claim Apple will be missing in the gadgets show. whatever the case is, it’s going to be BIG.

Let’s go through Top 6 Trends for CES 2010 followed by the hottest Gadgets:

1. More, Better, crisper, cheaper 3D /2D HDTVs

Three-dimensional TV is coming to a living room near you, believe it or not and that’s what we are going to see at CES 2010. You might argue that 3D won’t make it’s way to Home theaters, but vendors don’t think alike, they will be there to change our perception. One thing is clear, TV manufacturers need something new to get people buying TVs. Samsung, Sony, Hitachi, LG and several others are going to showcase their latest offerings, some with 3d glasses, and others without it. Though it was there in CES 2009, 2010 is going to be bigger and more serious on this. Expect cheaper, energy efficient and Higher resolution, higher refresh rate TVs in 2010.

2.) PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks get snappier

With the announcement of Intel’s new Atom N450 processor, the netbook is taking steps toward becoming less than a poor-performing, undersized laptop.

At the same time, expect all the major notebook manufacturers to introduce laptops with ULV – that’s ultra-low-voltage — processors in them, which offer more performance than the Atom, great efficiency (and thus battery life), and quite thin form-factor.

We’ll get to see Intel and AMD coming with new line of processors that are faster and lower on the power footprint.

3.) Smarter Smartphones

CES is mainly to do with innovations and never wass driven by gadgets like phones. But sicne last year, the Trend has been set and this year, it would go better.

The era of WindowsMobile, Blackberry is over. What we will see at CES is more of Android, maemo based devicesWith 50+ android devices coming in 2010, it makes sense that few of them would be seen at CES.

Google is demoing the Nexus one a.k.a Google Phone on 5th Jan, few days ahead of CES, probably goes live during CES. Palm also aspires to launch a new WebOS device that could potentially save Palm from dying.

Dell also has eyes on launching anew gadget — maybe an Android phone, maybe a tablet PC.

4. Tablets

There’s almost zero chance of Apple’s Tablet to feature here but other companies will definitely come with a Netbook equivalent powered devices while trying to capture market before apple raises the bar.

5. E-Book Readers

Who can forget E-book readers? B&N Nook is hot this season, and expecting more from Amazon Kindle  & Sony PRS, others won’t be wrong. Android based eReaders will come along. And the most exciting, Plastic Logic QUE proReader is irresistible.

6. Go Green

Every company is taking going green seriously. Reduction in power consumption, smaller size, smaller packaging, eco-friendly ways of production, is all in vogue.

This year’s CES is making “green” official by scheduling green-specific conferences and green gadget show-and-tells. The show’s governing body, the Consumer Electronics Association, has also promised to buy carbon offsets and donate $50,000 to the Las Vegas police department to invest in electric vehicles.

Most Interesting Gadgets To Watch at CES 2010

Nikon Coolpix S1000pj  : Why settle for a basic camera when you can get a projector built in?

SilverPAC’s Evolution 5500: watch TV on the couch while also accessing content from your PC.

ATI Radeon 5870 : World’s Fastest Graphics card gets demoed for DirectX11 gaming ready to beat your imagination.

Audiovox’s FLO TV Personal TV: Why sit and watch when you can carry your TV? The device is powered by 3.5″ capacitive screen and Qualcom’s MediaFLO technology priced at $249.99, plus an $8.99 monthly.

Crystal Cable’s Arabesque Speakers: Loudspeakers can be trendy too. This new Crystal one employ a glassy look with high power ouptut. The innovation lies in the re-tooled glass that provides great sound while still omitting the wadding. Crystal’s Arabesque speakers are available now at pricing of $65,000 per pair. he geometry is excellent for acoustics and the panels are glued with invisible, UV-resistant polymers.
The Arabesque is a passive two-way design with a 1.6kHz crossover frequency, 4-ohm nominal impedance, 450-watt RMS power handling, frequency response of 27Hz to 100kHz -3dB, <0.5% THD at 1kHz and a voltage sensitivity of 93dB. Max SPLs are 115dB and the weight is approximately 80kg.

NetGear’s Stora: This is one state- of the art NAS with hot-swappable 1TB drive, but it also has room for another 1 TB drive.

That’s not all, stay tuned for Hybrid cycles and all the stuff that we mentioned  in trends. The complete list of gadgets is on the CESweb. Stay tuned for more updates.

The idea is prevailing. Where on one side Apple may be already doing something with it in iPhone 4G, we see new prototypes which can practice next generation gestures. Now, MIT’s Media Lab has come up with a revolutionary interface that allows users to manipulate on-screen images with the wave of their hand.

The MIT’s bi-directional display interface (call it “BiDi”) screen is capable of capturing both touch and off-screen gestures through the use of embedded optical sensors. The resultant design can be ultra thin (thinner than LCD/LED TVs) at fraction of the costs.

“The BiDi Screen uses a sensor layer, separated a small distance from a normal LCD display. A mask image is then displayed on the LCD. When the bare sensor layer views the world through the mask, information about the distance to objects in front of the screen can be captured and decoded by a computer.”

BiDi screen takes a different approach to spatial tracking. The system can be incorporated into a “thin LCD device” like a cellphone and it does not require the use of cameras, lenses, projectors or special gloves, unlike Sixth sense, which makes it truly portable.

For more on the project checkout MIT’s  project website and Subscribe to us below:

Image credits: engadget

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