Gadgets Mobile

The Henosis concept vehicle was specially designed to merge both man and machine as one fluid robo-organic organism. It will feature a bunch of technological advancements including the ability to analyze the environment (hello, K.I.T.T.), the driver’s mood, experession as well as a host of biometric readings in order to create the safest and most comfortable driving experience possible. The Henosis definitely challenges conventional thinking when it comes to design, and will be powered by environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel cells. Steering is done ala video game controllers, so you might actually be able to drive one of these when you’re 90 and the Henosis is realized. Until then, you’d best pay attention in driving school.

All About Symbian reviews the Nokia N78 and writes, “The top of the device houses the 3.5mm audio jack and power button. The right hand side has, from top to bottom a speaker, volume controls and the camera capture key. The volume controls double as the zoom keys in the Camera and Photos applications. One absence compared to earlier devices, such as the N73, is the Gallery key - this is because it has effectively been replaced by the multimedia key, although because of its versatility, an extra few key presses are required to access recently captured photos…The back of the device houses the 3.2 megapixel, auto-focus camera, with its Carl Zeiss optics. It’s accompanied by a single LED flash. This limits the camera’s abilities in low light conditions, but makes sense given the pricing and positioning of the N78.”

Read more about the Nokia N78.

MSI’s EX400 takes personalizing a generic notebook to another level thanks to its Combing Color Film Print technology with ocean wave patterns that sets it apart from other offerings in the market. It will feature some pretty decent hardware, allowing you to game away from your desktop with decent frame rates while offering enough muscle should you require to perform plenty of number crunching. Among the hardware specifications you will find in the EX400 include :-

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD3450 256MB graphics card
• 14.1″ WXGA TFT LCD display
• Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity
• 4-in-1 memory card slot
• ECO Engine for better power management
• 2nd-gen Dolby Surround Sound
• DVD or optional Blu-ray optical drive

No idea on pricing though, unfortunately, while the release date is also strangely missing from the press release.

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 27th 2008 at 6:07AM
While the Vostro 2510 might be Dell’s primary bid for dual-use small business computers, that doesn’t mean they have to keep beating the rest of the Vostros with the ugly stick. The new Vostro A860 and A840 feature spiffed up looks and aggressive prices for emerging markets. Unfortunately, “emerging markets” means we won’t be getting these in the States for the time being. Both laptops are naturally light on specs, with 1GB of RAM, 160GB or 120GB hard drives, CD or DVD burners, WiFi and optional Bluetooth. The 15.6-inch A860 sports an “HD” resolution, while the 14.1-inch A840 runs at WXGA. Processors range from Celeron to Core 2 Duo, both laptops can be outfitted with Vista or Ubuntu, and they both weigh in around 5 pounds. Oh, and if you’re more of a desktop sort, Dell is also offering the new Vostro A180 and A100 desktops, with the A180 offering a range of specs and both OS choices, while the A100 sticks with an Intel Atom processor and Ubuntu. No word on price for any of these yet, since pricing will vary from country to country, but we might be looking at a new low for Dell in both categories.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 27th 2008 at 8:22AMIt’s one thing to take good pictures. It’s another to show ‘em off on a good display. Epson Imaging Devices has just made official its new 4-inch high-resolution LTPS LCD, which is featured in the forthcoming P-6000 / P-7000 photo viewers. The diminutive display has an 80-degree viewing angle (from all sides) and covers 94% of the Adobe RGB color gamut. Built upon the Photo Fine Premia technology, Epson is hoping that this newfangled screen will find its way into digital cameras and PMPs so owners can be proud of playing back photo slideshows on the go. Funny thing though — we’re never told just how “high” high-resolution really is. Is the sky the limit, or what?

[Via Physorg]

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Filed under: Displays

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 27th 2008 at 9:44AMThe always-imaginative gurus at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft never cease to amaze, and at this year’s IFA, they’re delivering once more. The so-called “virtual mirror” gives to-be garb buyers an accurate look at what different outfits look like on their person without requiring them to try a single thing on. Granted, shopaholics are apt to detest this thing, but anyone with better things to do than try on four sweaters to see which one makes them look fat should be completely in love. The concept here is far from new, as we’ve seen both virtual makeover machines and fitting room enhancers before. Still, Fraunhofer’s dream of getting you suited up and out of the store in mere minutes is one we’d love to see come true. Just don’t ditch the traditional stalls too soon — we wouldn’t want any kind of worldwide uprising.

[Via Physorg, image courtesy of Flickr]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets, Wearables

SanDisk is a household name when it comes to flash storage solutions, and their line of Extreme SD memory cards are pretty famous with professional photographers as well as computer enthusiasts. This time round, SanDisk’s new Extreme III SDHC memory card will feature a transfer speed of 30MB/s, hitting the market from next month onwards in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities. You can purchase the 16GB version for $179.99, so you do the math as to whether this offers enough bang for your buck. Just to get an idea of how fast and capable it is, I quote from Canon’s 50D literature, “It can shoot up to 6.3 fps, in bursts of up to 90 JPEGs (using an UDMA CF card), 60 JPEGs (using a CF card) consecutively or 16 RAW files, so you’ll never, ever miss a shot.”

Nikon has announced its hotly anticipated new DSLR, the D90, and it turns out that yesterday’s rumors were spot-on. First, the numbers: 12.3 megapixels, Live View, face detection (which Nikon describes with some hyperbole as being able to “render up to five faces with newfound sharpness”), a maximum ISO of 6400, a DX sized (ie. non full-frame) CMOS sensor and 4.5 fps shooting.

The one thing we didn’t see coming, though, is the movie mode, a world first for DSLRs. Using the feed from the Live View mode, the D90 will capture 24 frames per second at up to 720p resolution (1,280 x 720 pixels). We foresee a lot of debate over this. Some will call it a “toy” feature, not suitable for a serious camera like a DSLR. Others will love it, especially as it means video shooting with a relatively big sensor chip, giving good low-light performance and shallower depth of field than smaller video cameras.

It also means that you can use the full lineup of Nikkor lenses, from super wide angle up to long, long telephotos. In fact, the more we think about this, the more it seems that this simple addition from Nikon could really change the marketplace for video cameras and coming one step closer to the hybrid photo/video cam we’ve been wishing for.

There’s another innovation inside the D90. It’s the first DSLR to be tweaked to play nice with SanDisk’s Extreme III Edition SDHC cards. The camera will write to these at up to 30MB/s, which certainly comes in handy when throwing HD video onto the card. And as Bryan Pope of SanDisk tells us, the fact that the cards run up to 16GB in size is pretty useful for video, too. These new cards are also fifty percent faster than the previous version.

Photographer Chase Jarvis has been playing around with the Nikon D90 for a few weeks now. In fact, he’s been playing with five D90s, and has shot a video of the testing process (Warning: highly fashionable – and quite questionable – haircuts).

It comes on a little like an ad, but Jarvis seems to agree about the ground-breaking possibilities of the video functions:

HD720 video in an dSLR is really big news. It’s so cool that we’re seeing the merging of high quality still and video pictures into the same camera. Sure, for us pros, we’ve got the RED camera. But for everybody else? This is the future. People: this is an SLR that shoots killer video! It’s the merging of features that the pros are using and it’s made accessible the the amateur at a price point of $1200+ bucks.

Trust me, I played with this feature at length…all of us on location did, for that matter. It’s going to be a powerful tool. You can control your own depth of field so beautifully using the manual focus ring, the audio capture is solid, the high ISO capabilities in video?! Way cool… Long lenses, fisheyes, zoom lenses…versatility. I’m a BIG fan of the D-Movie.

First the D3, with its crazy low-light shooting, then the D700 (ditto) and now an SLR with a video camera inside. I’m not on one side or the other in the Nikon/Canon battle (I own one of each), but Canon must be feeling pretty hungry right now, because Nikon keeps eating its lunch. Body only, $1000.

Press release [Nikon]Product page [Nikon]Advance Testing the Nikon D90 [Chase Jarvis. Thanks, David!]

by Donald Melanson, posted Aug 26th 2008 at 6:43PM
Does having a handle instantly make something portable? Canon sure seems to think so, and it’s hoping the lug-ability of its new ES3 and ES30 Selphy printers will be enough to rope you into buying its special integrated ink and paper cartridges for years to come. For the most part, two printers are identical, although the ES3 does boast a slightly larger 3.5-inch LCD (as opposed to a 3-incher), as well as an added 1GB of internal memory, which Canon claims is a first for a compact photo printer. Otherwise, you can expect a 15-in-1 memory card reader on each, along with PictBridge support, and a number of frame, clip art and calendar functions to impress your friends with. If that’s got you convinced, you can pick up both of ‘em now, with the SELPHY ES3 running $199.99 and ES30 setting you back $149.99.

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Filed under: Peripherals

We have been answering questions in the Laptop Experts Campaign sponsored by Toshiba for quite a while now and we have run ads for this campaign on our site too. On the Laptop Experts Site, you can ask anything about any kind of laptop (not only Toshiba) and you can get answers by bloggers participating in the campaign. To make this process more convenient, Toshiba is providing a desktop widget that allows you to ask questions directly from your desktop without opening a browser.

Here is a link to download the Toshiba Laptop Experts Widget. Please note that you need to install Adobe AIR to make it work.