Archives for July 2010

White Sony PlayStation 3 Slim Could land in Japan July 29

Sony has announced that a new white Sony PS3 slim is due to be launched in Japan on July 29. The new model will have the CECH-2500 marking on it and when available will cost around $400 (34,980 yen).

Last month some details of new chipsets (including the CECH-2500) were sent in to the FCC. This news from Sony confirms what was actually happening there to some extent. Other news shows that the PS3 in Japan will soon not be available in 120GB and 250GB capacities. Instead a couple of news models will be released with 160GB and 320GB capacities. Both models will be available in the regular black or the new “Classic White” as it is being referred to as. [Read more…]

Samsung Galaxy S vs HTC Desire – Quake 2

The Samsung Galaxy S is a powerful smartphone. We’ve heard over the last few months that the device is capable of shifting a lot of triangles per second. When compared to the iPhone 3GS, it can shift just over 3 times more per second at 90 million.

This comparison shows the Samsung Galaxy S vs the HTC Desire with each smartphone running Quake 2. Technical spec wise, the Samsung Galaxy S uses a Hummingbird/Power VR chipset. The HTC Desire has a Snapdragon CPU clocked at 1GHz and an Adreno chip. Both configurations are quite respectable although you’ll sure see a difference when you see them side by side. [Read more…]

HP Hit Print Ad

About a year ago, Matt and Tom created a video showing several HP printers printing an animation. The video was created because of a student competition with the brief being as follows… “Present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive”. The original can be found here.

The team who created it were asked by HP to create another film for the company, ie a sequel. The short film follows the same style as the last in that it uses HP printers to print out frames of an animation.

The video took a week to film and used HP Photosmart printers with paper fed in real time. The footage captured was then sped up showing off an animation. [Read more…]

Samsung Galaxy S2 to get 2GHz CPU – Rumour

The Samsung Galaxy S is a fantastic device that has not long been out. We now are starting to hear rumours of a new next-gen version of the smartphone that will be called the Samsung Galaxy S2. The Galaxy S2 is said to have a 2GHz processor. We hear the S2 will also have a 720p HD display that can display an impressive 1280 x 720 pixels. The screen will measure 4.3 inches.

We also hear that the Galaxy S2 will have 1GB of RAM and 4GB of ROM along with 32GB of storage space built in. More can be added by using a microSD if needed.

On the back is rumoured to be an 8 megapixel camera. Back on to the 2GHz processor. It is unclear at the moment if it will be two 1GHz chips or a single 2GHz processor. Either way, it sounds powerful and should add more kick to the already fast Galaxy S. [Read more…]

Sony Readers See Price Drops

Recently Amazon has dropped the price of the Kindle. The new Kindle that comes in Graphite, has dropped $110 to $379 while the smaller model dropped to $189. Barnes and Noble also dropped the price of the Nook to $149 (wifi model – 3G dropped to $199). Sony seems to be following by dropping the price of the Sony Reader. There are several models which have dropped in price as follows…

Sony Readers:
Pocket Edition: From $169 to $149
Touch Edition: From $199 to $169
Daily Edition: From $349 to $299

Pocketbook Series:
Pocketbook 360: From $239 to $199
Pocketbook 301: From $279 to $219
Pocketbook 302: From $339 to $279

[Read more…]

Google Android 3.0 and Google Music Could Launch Together

We heard today that Google [GOOG] could launch it’s music service and Android 3.0 (aka Gingerbread) together towards the end of this year. The information comes from Gaurav Jain who is the Android Product Manager where he confirmed the launch timing to an Israeli newspaper called Calcalist.

The reason that both are being launched together is that music will play a big part in the next version of Android perhaps making it a little more media centric.

‘Google will combine music download service next version of Android launched for the U.S. holiday season.

[Read more…]

Mouseless – An Invisible Mouse

The computer mouse has advanced over the years by trimming down a little, becoming optical, becoming more responsive and becoming wireless to name a few advances. The next step is to get rid of the mouse altogether and have an invisible mouse, also known as Mouseless.

The concept was created by Pranav Mistry along with Patti Maes and Liyan Chang and basically gets rid of the mouse completely.

By using an IR sensor with some custom software, the movements of a hand on a desk can be interpreted in to mouse and finger movement allowing users to simple glide their hand on a desk and tap the desk with their finger. [Read more…]

iTunes Accounts Hacked to Inflate Sales Numbers and Steal Cash

Over the weekend some interesting news started appearing about iTunes accounts being hacked. One of the hackers is believed to be associated with Thuat Ngyun who might be the hacker, or associated with the group. Either way, the apps published accounted for at least 42 out of 50 in the Books category charts which is odd considering none of the books had any reviews at all with the exception of the odd rating here and there.

Right now the books are not in the app store any more, so it appears that Apple [AAPL] have responded although Engadget are still waiting for a response when they reached out a couple of days ago.

The main problem is not so much the books being raised in popularity, but the facts of how they got there. The books sold cost money and the money was spent by hackers breaking in to iTunes accounts leaving some users with over $100 of sales in their iTunes account. [Read more…]

8-Bit Video Game Costume

Check out this for a fancy dress costume. It’s designed to look like an old 8-bit character from a computer game. It is built from large pixels cut from high density foam. These large pixels are then glued to an articulated cardboard suit structure allowing the costume to be fairly light weight and wearable.

Around 4000 pixels were cut to make this costume although not all were cut for this particular costume as three in total will be made for a video project that is being worked on.

Check out the images below to see more of the 8-bit costume. [Read more…]

3D Screen Made of Water Plays Tetris

Check out this Tetris style game that is being played on a screen made of water. The screen is separated in to three screens with the water streams lined up allowing a projector to project seamlessly on to each layer.

The result, although not amazing in terms of resolution and clarity, is still quite amazing. It allows a 3D effect to be given thanks to the depth of the water streams which are created by 50 stainless steel needles. 60 lines of image are created every second to make up the “floating image”.

Check out the video below to see it working and how it looks. [Read more…]

Google Nexus Two and Google Branded Chrome OS Netbook Not Happening

Google [GOOG] was asked recently if a Google Nexus Two Android device was going to launch. In short, the answer is no. The details came from an interview with Eric Schmidt where he was asked about the possibility of a Nexus Two smartphone branded by Google.

The reason for not creating a Nexus Two is due to how successful the Nexus One was, not in terms of how many sold, but more of moving hardware developers on to creating better hardware. We have certainly seen an amazing set of Android smartphones launch after the Nexus One, so in that respect we agree with them about that.

It is also believed that a Google branded Chrome OS netbook also wont be happening. Reasons for this is that the PC industry is used to working with Microsoft (a strong software provider) which means the hardware is more up to scratch unlike how Google felt about the Android hardware prior to the Nexus One. [Read more…]

LCD Pinball Machine Plays Any Table

This Pinball Machine is used in a Nike Store and rather than using a traditional layout with bumpers and rails etc… it uses a large LCD screen allowing any pinball game to be played.

The Pinball machine is themed in a football way and uses a football pinball and Nike shoes as flippers.

The digital pinball machine is over in a Nike shop in Spain and is part of a World Cup campaign called Write the Future. [Read more…]