Rumors are buzzing all around the net about several different pieces of Apple news. One of the more reliable rumors bouncing around is that Apple will be hosting a keynote event for the week of September 7th. At this event the voices rumors say that Apple will be announcing some new products. This would follow the companies habit of releasing new iPods every fall.
The products that are to be announced are the new iPod touches which boast a camera, microphone and versions with 16, 32 and 64GB. These are rumored to be released for $199, $299 and $399.
More rumors include the notorious Apple Tablet that we have been hearing about. But, there are no solid rumors about that so we will just have to see. Hopefully more info will begin to leak out about the Apple Tablet such as what OS it will be running, hardware specs, will it have service through ATT or some other carrier?
An undisclosed source has said the following:
“The device, which I’ve held mock ups of, is going to have a 10 inch screen, and when I saw it looked just like a giant iPhone, with a black back— although that design could change at any time, with the same black resin back, and the familiar home button.”
“But it will come in two editions, one with a webcam and one for educational use.”
“The first prototype was built around the end of 2008. The time to market from first prototype is generally 6-9 months.”
Of all the good ideas and technological advancements there have been, this one isn’t. Well, ok I guess it as the idea is good. The robot is designed to enter buildings that are too dangerous for firemen. It–via remote control–can scout for any injured/unconscious individuals and chomp them to bits pick them up and spit them back out at a safe location. Lets just hope there is something good to watch in case someone wakes up while in the bowels of the rescue robot.
External hard drives are pretty nifty but if you really want some decent external storage you have to carry around the hard drive, USB cable and power adapter. That was the case until now. Western Digital’s My Passport Essential SE is now available in 1TB and 750GB models that get their power via USB doing away with the need for a power plug and additional cord.
The 1TB version is going to cost you $300 or–if you can do without the extra 250GB of storage–you can get the 750GB model for just under $200.
The Chevy Volt may be the first car publicly available to get a 3 digit MPG rating in the city.
The catch?
It doesn’t really get 230 MPG.
This morning, Government General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson made the incredible announcement,
“Having a car that gets triple-digit fuel economy can and will be a game changer for us.”
While we would definitely agree something must first be explained.
For the first 40 miles you drive the Volt will be running on battery power and use virtually no gas. After that the gas engine will kick in and take you from there. Henderson said, “most Volt drivers will operate on a daily basis without having to use a single drop of gas,” claiming that 3 in 4 drivers travel less than 40 miles a day. After the vehicle runs out of battery power in that first 40 miles or so the gas engine will kick in that could get as much as 50 MPG.
Determining fuel economy on a true electric car can be tricky. With a Toyota Prius it is relatively easy because all of the driving power of the Prius is still generated by gas, it just handles its energy more efficiently than a standard vehicle. The Prius averages 46 mpg while other similar sized vehicles only get low 20s.
The Volt is different in that it gets its energy from two different sources, a battery–charged by an outside sourc–as well as gasoline. On the gas the Volt may get the same fuel economy as the Prius but that is not accounting for the fact that the Volt has already gone 40 miles on battery power and used no gas.
So, if you never go more than 40 miles a day then your gas mileage will be roughly infinity. The way that GM has been able to come up with the 230MPG figure is by assuming that the average person will travel roughly 50 miles a day. The first 40 miles will consume no gas and then for the last 10 miles 0.2 gallons will be used. 50 miles on roughly 0.2 gallons equals 250 MPG which is really impressive. But if you go 300 miles the fuel economy would only be 62.5 mpg.
Don’t get me wrong that is still excellent but it is no 230 MPG which is very deceiving. Still at 40 cents a charge driving to work and back could be really cheap if these vehicles are reasonably priced when they come out.
20 year old Wu Zhongyuan–a farmer from the Henan province–created a home made helicopter using wood from an elm tree, a 150 cc motorcycle engine, steel pipes and no formal training–except for what he learned in a middle school physics class.
In Guangdong, 12-year old Xie Yanshou has created a flying car capable of taking off vertically.
“The car is powered by two pairs of propellers of the same rotation speed and different rotation direction, which would also balance the propellers’ torsional stress at the same time. Ducted fans are another feature helping accelerate the efficiency of the propellers and protect people from getting hurt.” said Xie
It is unbelievable how fast the price of technology goes down. Four years ago it would be hard to find a 720p projector for around $1,000 and now you can have a 1080p 120″ HD projector screen for under $1,000.
The Optoma HD20 is available to purchase from Amazon now and is suppose to ship within the next few weeks. The HD20 has two HDMI inputs, VGA, component and composite video inputs. It has 1,700 ANSI lumens of brightness with an estimated 4,000 hours of lamp life and can have a screen size up to 300 inches!!!!
Mr. Nakamura Akira is a member of the Japan Rubber Band Gun Shooting Association–I wish I was kidding–and creator of the rubber band machine gun. The gun is capable of firing off 200 rounds rubber bands without a reload–which is good since loading the 200 rubber bands is very time consuming.
Now that you have seen what the gun can do take a look at what Nakamura can do:
And yes–unfortunately–I believe that is a holster he has under his left arm.
Interested in making one yourself? Nakamura has the book for sell on amazon for a little over $16 USD–that is if you can read Japanese.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have come up with an idea that would allow you to use scratching as an input method. The idea is that any surface can be turned into an input device allowing you to turn down the music at a party by scratching the wall anywhere in the room in a certain way or doing basic commands on your computer by scratching your desk. In theory it is a pretty good idea but probably one of those that we will never see make its way into our daily lives.
Windows Mobile 6.5 video here from PockeNow does give Windows Mobile 6.5 some hope. Don’t get me wrong it still too closely resembles previous Windows Mobile versions that we hate with a fiery passion relied completely on the use of a stylus. Keeping in mind that this is a rough beta build of WM6.5 it does look a little more intuitive but still has alot of work to go before being as finger friendly and easy to use as the iPhone.
This photo supposedly is a from a Best Buy computer showing the arrival of several upcoming devices. The one of course that jumps out to us is the Omnia 2 scheduled to come out on August 23rd. There are some confusing things here such as the G2 Black and Red that is probably referring to the mytouch3G that is already out at T-Mobile. Also the Tour is there on the 23rd as well which is already available through Verizon and Sprint.
I doubt that this photo is legit. Through several trips to Verizon stores and speaking with 4 or 5 different reps none of them had heard of or were familiar with the Omnia 2. One of them said to me “if we knew of one coming out later this month we could let you know but as of now I don’t know that any are”. I think I am going to wait for some more legit leaks to pop up or for an official statement as to the official release date of the Omnia 2 to the Verizon network.
We knew this was coming and I have got to admit, now that they are on their way I am rather excited about going in to test out a Microsoft Surface PC or Xbox 360 with Natal device. Yes this picture doesn’t show us much but as plans are passed around and construction begins we will no doubt begin to see more images leaking to the net. The first two stores will be opening in Scottsdale, Arizona and Mission Viejo, California this fall.
You remember the doomsday devicegiant laser machine we posted about last month. Well, after a series of unfortunate events the guys at CERN have decided that it would be best to run it at half power–only 3.5 trillion electron volts–per beam when they start it up again late this fall. If things go well and we are all still here then they are going to step it up to 5 TeV per beam and then by the end of 2010 hope to be back at full power–7 TeV per beam. So, keep an eye on the news… while you still can.
What you are looking at is actually two different storage devices. The one on the left you will probably recognize as a MicroSD card. It is plugged in to the incredibly small Buffalo USB MicroSD card reader which is suppose to be available at the end of this month. This is perfect for laptops that only have an SD card slot.
This puppy is is going for ¥ 2,100.00 or a little over $21 USD. You can also buy them in an assortment of packages including one with a 16GB MicroSD card for $160 USD.
They will be available in white and black so be careful if you drop it in the grass, you may never find it again.
When excitement was building around the initial release of the Nintendo Wii there were pictures circulating that had the Wii in a wide assortment of colors. Much to our dismay we have been stuck with white since release day.
Just recently news and pictures of a black Wii have been making their rounds. It is now confirmed that the black Wii will be released on August 1st…. in Japan ONLY!
Bummer for the rest of the World. Nintendo has said there are “no plans to have other colors of Wii in the U.S.”
It seems Dell has continued its recent marketing strategy. Last night 3 new LCD monitors appeared on the Dell website unannounced. The Dell ST2310 23″ LCD, Dell E2210 21.5″ LCD and Dell E2010 20″ LCD are now available from the Dell website for the very reasonably priced $230, $169 and $139.
The ST2310 is impressive with its 23″ 16:9 anti-glare LCD capable of full HD resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 at 60Hz with a dynamic contrast ratio of 50000:1. The monitor has HDMI, DVI and VGA ports but for some reason only comes packaged with a standard VGA cable–come on Dell!
Here are the promised videos. PocketNow received one of the highly anticipated Samsung Omnia 2 smartphones. His model is the GSM version which he was able to use here in the US with ATT. He is even able to access 3G and 3G+ at some times.
We still have yet to see a CDMA version and when I spoke to a Verizon rep today he was totally oblivious to what I was talking about when I mentioned the Omnia 2.
The following videos are from the complete review by PocketNow all the way from the unboxing to an indepth view of the phones interface.
Here you go, more videos about the Omnia 2 than you could ever hope for.
The BedBunker Gun Safe is now available. If the name alone didn’t sell you then let their Billy Mays impersonator moderately enthused spokesman in the video above do the job.
With a BedBunker you can keep your money, guns and other important items right under the bed in a secure and incredibly convenient hidden location. The safe is rated to be able to withstand 2 hours of fire and can hold 30 rifles and 70 handguns but will that be enough?
You can pick one of these puppies up from BedBunker for $2k to $4k depending on the size of your bed.
This interesting survey performed by the American Time Use Survey shows how the majority of people in the US spend their day. Using the interactive graph you can change the demographic to show information based on age, employment status, etc. Check the NYTimes website to see the graph.
It has only been a few days since we posted some stock pictures and some specs about the Omnia 2. We now have some more info and pictures to share. The coolest update is the Omnia 2 emulator on the Samsung website. Click on the link and check it out. Use your mouse like you would your finger. It is very intuitive for a Windows Mobile 6 overlay.
Videos coming tomorrow! For now you will have to be happy with the pictures below.
Above is a front facing photo of the Omnia from PhoneArena complete with 3.7 inch touchscreen, front facing camera and soft keys.
Here is a picture of the back side of the phone with the 5.0 megapixel camera that is capable of DVD quality video recording.
Here is a comparison of the iTouch placed next to the Omnia 2. The Omnia 2 is slightly larger top to bottom which you will really notice if you are someone who carries their phone in their pocket. For comparisons sake the iPhone 3G measures 4.5″ H x 2.4″ W x 0.48″ D and weighs 4.8 ounces . The Omnia 2 measures 4.65″ H x 2.36 “W x 0.47″ D and weighs 4.34 ounces.
This phone is now coming to GSM carriers as well as Verzion so you ATT and T-Mobile drones users are in luck.
Click on the images below for full sized versions of the Opera web browser in action, the miniUSB and 3.5mm headphone jacks as well as the front facing camera. For a complete review of the GSM model of the Omnia 2 visit PhoneArena.
Still just a rumor for now but a believable one. MultiChannel is saying that we could expect to see iPhone and iTouch apps allowing you to watch your Netflix movies and tv over Wi-Fi as well as on the Wii.
MultiChannel is presenting it as fact but we are hesitant to believe that this is all coming to fruition in the future.
