Cool Gadgets and Technology

HP readying mini-Tablet PC format

2003-04-08T01:28:00.000-07:00

Do you wish your PDA had bigger screen? Or that your laptop was smaller? HP have high hopes on a new design codenamed Scout (see end of article), a Tablet PC that is "bigger than a PDA but smaller than a thin-and-light notebook". The Scout is about the size of a day planner, has tilt-up display and retractable keyboard.

Digital TV recorder with HD and DVD-RW

2003-04-03T23:15:00.000-08:00

This is one useful gadget for your home theater system. Sony NDR-XR1 (Babelfish-translated :) is a digital video recorder with 80 GB hard disk, which can record up to 90 hours of TV. It has a broadband connection for retrieving program information. In addition it also has a DVD-RW recorder, for archiving and compilation of recorded material, and of course DVD playback. It's on sale this month, but so far Japan only...

MS with IP telephony for mobile devices

2003-04-02T01:13:00.000-08:00

Microsoft is trumpeting IP telephony in next version of the WinCE.Net-based software for Smartphones and PocketPC, due in June. Hitachi, NEC, Casio Computers, Samsung and other manufacturers are developing products that use the feature.

Motorola builds 4 Mbit nanocrystal memory

2003-04-01T02:49:00.000-08:00

A Motorola lab is building 4 Mbit nonvolatile memory on pieces of silicon measuring 50 angstroms in diameter, and they see no problem in making the next step to productize the silicon nanocrystal technology.

Biofuel cell can run your PDA on vodka

2003-03-26T04:55:00.000-08:00

Researchers at Saint Louis University has developed a new type of biofuel cell that can run on alcohol, including drinks like vodka and gin. It can replace rechargeable batteries in all kinds of appliances, and recharge instantly with a few milliliters of alcohol. "Bartender, gin for me and my smartphone please."

New iPAQs will introduce new PocketPC OS?

2003-03-25T02:52:00.000-08:00

HP has gotten FCC approval for a new iPAQ H2200 series, of which one model will come with integrated Bluetooth. The new iPAQs will have both CF and SDIO cardslots (IO means it takes a growing number of expansion and networking cards, not just SD memory) and transreflective TFT screen. Rumors says that the machine will be introduced with a new version of the PocketPC OS this summer, Pocket PC 2003 (built on WinCE 4.2 with .NET runtime).

Talk to the dancing robot

2003-03-25T02:35:00.000-08:00

The AIBO dog was just the start for Sony. The new improved "Small Biped Entertainment Robot" is a small walking robot that can talk with you and entertain you with song, dance or theater performances...

Nokia with Wi-Fi cellphones

2003-03-25T02:21:00.000-08:00

Like Mitsubishi (see blog post 18/3) Nokia is planning to introduce cellphones with built in 802.11b wireless LAN support and the ability to roam between GPRS and Wi-Fi zones.

A new blue laser standard proposal

2003-03-25T01:09:00.000-08:00

A Taiwan consortium has developed and submitted to DVD Forum a new contender for becoming the next generation high-definition DVD standard based on blue laser technology. Called Blue-HD-DVD-1 and Blue-HD-DVD-2 the specification has 17 or 27 GB capacity, and will come in ROM and rewritable versions. They claim advantage over competing Blu-ray and Advanced Optical Disk (AOD) formats in among other things a better compression technology that gives 5 hours of HDTV (MPEG-2 requires 15 GB for 2 hours) and playback of several programs at once.

Intel Robots and Mechanical Men Inc?

2003-03-21T00:34:00.000-08:00

What is the next big thing for a company like Intel? They are researching robotics, biology and nanotechnology...

20 inch OLED display

2003-03-20T06:15:00.000-08:00

IDTech is claiming a breakthrough in OLED technology and production costs with a 20 inch prototype (1280 x 768) that will be demonstrated on SID 2003 in May.

Windows XP palmtop

2003-03-19T06:03:00.000-08:00

Want a full fledged PC in your hand? Sony Vaio PCG-U101 (Babelfish-translated :) is a handheld Windows XP PC with built in Wi-Fi and 7.1 inch XGA screen (1024x768). It weighs 880 gram, is 178 x 139 x 34 mm and has 5.5 hours battery time (13.5 with extra battery). But Japan only for now...

Tri-Wireless PDA Concept Design

2003-03-18T04:56:00.000-08:00

Texas Instrument WANDA (Wireless Any-Network Digital Assistant) is a PocketPC hardware reference design offered to OEMs that includes integrated support for GSM/GPRS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, for simultaneous voice calls, wireless web access and personal area networking.

Mobile phone with Wi-Fi and voice over IP

2003-03-18T04:30:00.000-08:00

Mitsubishi demonstrated on CeBIT an interesting Symbian concept phone. Besides large flipover colour screen (QVGA), megapixel camera and memory stick duo slot, the most interesting part is that it has wireless LAN (Wi-Fi), and can do voice over IP through the Wi-Fi connection. Telephone users using Wi-Fi hotspots for both data services and voice calls can be an interesting challenge for the cellular carriers...

More on 3D display

2003-03-18T03:41:00.000-08:00

More detail, new products and new members, are available from the newly formed group that want to promote 3D displays. One of the founding members, Sanyo, will this month start sampling of a 20 inch LCD and 50 inch plasma display said to give 3D depth to multiple viewers without the need for special glasses. Another founding member, Sharp, says 15 inch LCD 3D screen will be available in the stores before the end of this year. The groups homepage (Babelfish-translated :)

Motorola Symbian 3G phone

2003-03-16T07:09:00.000-08:00

The coming Motorola A920 Communicator is a 3G/UMTS and tri-band GSM/GPRS phone with GPS, camera (still and video), handwriting recognition and SD card for expansion. The platform is Symbian with UIQ (same as Sony Ericsson P800).

New ultra-small MiniSD cards

2003-03-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

ScanDisk has introduced memory cards based on the new MiniSD ultra-small form factor. With a size of 21,5 x 20 x 1,4 mm the cards volume is 602 mm3, compared to 1612 mm3 for ordinary SD Cards. The new format targets advanced phones with camera, MP3, games etc. The cards are demonstrated at CeBIT, are ready for sale this month and will this year come with capacity up to 256 MB. With an adapter they will fit in ordinary SD slots.

GPRS watch-phone with bluetooth and OLED

2003-03-13T13:12:00.000-08:00

A lot of news from CeBIT this week: Samsung has shown the worlds first wristwatch GPRS phone, with OLED colour screen, bluetooth, voice activated dialing, wap and polyphonic ring tones. 90 minutes talk time and 80 hours standby. For sale in Europe Q4 this year.

Worlds largest LCD TV: 54 inch

2003-03-12T13:18:00.000-08:00

On CeBIT Samsung is showing the worlds largest LCD TV, a 54 inch HDTV unit with 1920x1080 resolution, 800:1 contrast and 170 degrees viewing angel. Ready for sale later this year. There seems to be interesting progress in LCD TVs.

Connect PC and TV with Wi-Fi

2003-03-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

BenQ's WM1000 Wireless Media Adapter is designed to stream DVD-quality MPEG4 video and MP3 music over an 802.11b wireless LAN connection, connecting PC content with playback on TV and stereo. Or the other way around.

Will military 'sneaky waves' replace Bluetooth?

2003-03-12T05:13:00.000-08:00

Bluetooth certainly has a more catching name, but the new IEEE 802.15.3a standard for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), coming up this june, could use military ultra wideband technology that is cheaper, less power hungry and 100 times faster than Bluetooth.

Wearable Bluetooth networked devices

2003-03-12T04:56:00.000-08:00

Motorola and Frog Design has developed the "Offspring" concept design, an entire family of modular wearable devices that share information with other devices in a personal Bluetooth network, with shared connection to a public wireless network and Internet. Motorola is preparing for user testing and plans to bring a product based on the design to market within two years. Another similar concept is Ixi Personal Mobile Gateway.

DVB-X spec to deliver TV on cell phones

2003-03-11T00:34:00.000-08:00

The Digital Video Broadcast Group has unveiled it's "secret plan" to marry the cell phone network infrastructure and digital TV broadcasting, with new DVB-X specifications for one-to-many broadcasting of music, film and other multimedia content to large audiences via mobile handsets.

Tomorrow's 5g cell phone

2003-03-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

Interesting interview with DARPA scientist and his thoughts about cognitive radio - next generation cell phone services with self-learning personal assistant in your phone. More mobile visions: HP tests mobile unit as personal navigation tool.

New FeRAM technology can boost mobile units

2003-03-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hynix Semiconductor has started commercial sampling of new ferroelectric RAMs (FeRAM). A non-volatile RAM technology that combines the capacity of DRAM, the speed of SRAM, and the data retention capabilities of flash memory with lower power consumption. They expects rapid adoption in PDAs, mobile phones, mobile gaming devices, etc. More about FeRAM here.