Best Gadgets News

by Ryan Block, posted May 29th 2008 at 3:18PM Inventor extraordinaire Dean Kamen spoke at D today about the latest developments in the Luke arm. Not that it wasn’t already impressive enough, but Kamen’s company, DEKA Research, has made even more amazing developments in the arm’s interface, complementing the early mechanical controls with spatial and neural interfaces. The shot above was taken of a man with transected nerves, which were interfaced directly to the arm, enabling him to delicately utilize numerous degrees of motion within hours of installation. Also in development for the Luke arm is a spatial interface (which would intelligently give some control of movement back to the arm itself), as well as a non-invasive mind interface that utilizes infrared to read neural signals through the skull. (Read the full post about ‘Dean Kamen’s Luke arm now has mind-control and 3D-spatial interfaces’…)

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At the D6 Conference yesterday, Microsoft’s chairman and founder took the stage to present the world with a glimpse of Windows’ future.  A brief demonstration of the forthcoming Windows 7 showed a multitouch interface that is, according to Julie Larson-Green, VP of Windows Experience, built in throughout the OS.  During the demo, there were hints that the Windows Dev has seriously considered how the Widows UI needs to adapt to support multitouch.  This begs the question: Is multitouch Windows a true interface revolution, or is it merely another niche add-on to the system, much like it’s less-than-stellar cousin the tablet pc?

(Read the full post about ‘Microsoft’s multitouch: interface revolution or me-too attention grabber?’…)

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VIA’s exciting Isaiah processor, which we have been looking forward to for months has officially been dubbed the “Nano” family of processors. With the 64-bit, 65nm processor line VIA expects to offer up to four times the performance within the same power range as VIA’s C7 line while maintaining pin compatibility. This means C7-powered hardware, like small form-factor motherboards, subnotebooks, and UMPCs will will be able to get a substantial power boost without serious internal changes.

VIA has announced five models so far, which will scale from a TDP (max) of 5W-25W.

(Read the full post about ‘VIA’s Isaiah launches as Nano’…)

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by Thomas Ricker, posted May 29th 2008 at 5:58AM
Whoa, big day in the land of low-cost ultra-portables. First Dell, now Acer in what appear to be the first shots of Acer’s first sub-$500 ultra-portable. The images above were dumped into the forum over at UMPC Portal and show what appears to be an “Aspire One” branding to the right of the touchpad and what could certainly pass as the rumored 8.9-inch display. And although that UI is very un-Microsoft, there’s no denying the Microsoft flag waving back from the keyboard. (Read the full post about ‘First pics of Acer’s Aspire One, the Eee PC’s evil twin?’…)

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Dragons aren’t the only creatures that are able to breathe out fire and roast their target - all it takes is a little bit of ingenuity, plenty of DIY skill and passion in order to create an inorganic fire-breathing device - a wheelchair. This unique seating device uses parts from several different machines, consisting of a Marine rescue Helicopter seat and parts from an electric golf cart as well. Fully powered by electricity, it hits full stride at 22mph, and if a gentle demeanour fails to let ordinary folk move out of your way, you can always threaten to give them a tan they won’t forget anytime soon.

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Samsung has just announced the Soulb handset, also known as Spirit of Ultra. I wonder how one would pronounce the word “Soulb”, but that aside, some of the features include :- Candybar form factor at 9.9mm 3 megapixel camera with LED flash Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity Integrated FM radio with RDS Audio and video player 1GB internal memory microSD memory card slotThere is no word on pricing, but it will first arrive in Germany this June. (Read the full post about ‘Samsung Announces Soulb’…)

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by Chris Ziegler, posted May 28th 2008 at 5:59PM
Following the grand reveal of the latest Android build running on fresh HTC-sourced hardware at I/O today, Google took some questions that managed to pull a few extra gems from the rough. First and foremost, key specs of that lovely piece of kit were exposed: 3.6Mbps HSDPA is on board, as is a Qualcomm MSM7201A processor good for 528MHz, 128MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM, a capacitive touchscreen, and the key to our hearts. Despite that capacitive action, it was reiterated that Android is designed to work with a wide variety of form factors — everything from touchscreens to QWERTY keypads to devices with no screen at all (!!) — so fans of physical input methods definitely needn’t fret in the least. (Read the full post about ‘Android Q&A session at I/O reveals Dream specs, carefree mentality’…)

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Guess Dell wants to jump onto the mini UMPC bandwagon as well, with a mini Inspiron (not the official name as there is no announcement from Dell just yet) being the fruit of their labors. There is no word on what operating system will this diminutive computer run on, nor how much it will cost, but it does feature a trio of USB 2.0 ports, a memory card reader, VGA out, and an Ethernet port. Do you think this will be Atom-powered, and just how much internal memory will it hold? I wonder how Asus will innovate itself to stay ahead of the game they started. (Read the full post about ‘Dell Mini Inspiron’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted May 29th 2008 at 3:12AM
We’ve certainly seen musical gizmos meshed with wearables before, but the Pacer Suit doesn’t even pretend to be anything other than a cacophonic jumpsuit (with a beastly set of kneepads). Laced with sensors and integrated speakers, the suit sends out tones based on movements from the person within. Heck, there’s even a headphone jack if you’re looking to be courteous while bustin’ a move on the subway. (Read the full post about ‘Pacer Suit gives you the perfect excuse for doing the Macarena’…)

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by Thomas Ricker, posted May 29th 2008 at 2:07AM Would you look at that: a thick slab of iphone meat in a Sony Ericsson and HTC sandwich. The iPhone’s big screen is nice and all but the device is starting to look a bit portly given that the Xperia X1 sports a QWERTY with chewy HSDPA data, the latter shared with the Raphael Touch Diamond. (Read the full post about ‘iPhone vs. HTC Touch Diamond vs. Xperia X1… Fight!’…)

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