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Sharp to bring solar-powered cell phone to China (and possibly elsewhere, too)

Posted: 27 Jan 2010 04:41 AM PST

Sharp, the biggest (in terms of market share) of all eight major Japanese cell phone makers, has been talking about internationalizing its phone business for quite some time now. It makes sense, as the domestic market is shrinking and as Sharp only sold 20% of all their cell phones outside Japan (1.6 million units) last fiscal.


JVC announces Blu-ray/DVD/VHS recorder with 250GB HDD

Posted: 27 Jan 2010 02:45 AM PST

Here’s a new device that can help those who still sit on precious VHS cassettes that never made it onto discs. JVC announced [JP] the SR-HV250 for the Japanese market today, a Blu-ray/DVD recorder, VHS recorder and 250GB hard disc drive all rolled into one.

The device supports MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and AVREC. You also get a USB port, an SD/SDHC slot, LAN connectivity, an HDMI interface, and an S-Video. The device lets you record video on BD-R/RE and DVD-R/RE discs.

It’s not the first of this kind (at least in Japan), as Sharp, Panasonic and JVC itself have rolled out VHS-compatible Blu-ray recorders last year. But combining three recording formats has its price: Be ready to pay around $3,000 if the SR-HV250 should make its way outside Japan one day (JVC hasn’t made an official announcement yet). In Japan, the device went on sale today.

Jason Calacanis (possibly) spoils Apple tablet event, drops major details (update: not)

Posted: 27 Jan 2010 12:43 AM PST

Jason Calacanis isn’t a a nobody. He’s a serial web entrepreneur, founder of Weblogs, Inc., co-founder of TechCrunch50 and CEO of search engine Mahalo (amongst others). And just a few minutes ago, via his Twitter account, he (possibly) dropped some major hints on the Apple tablet that’s going to be presented tomorrow. Calacanis claims he has been given a tablet by Apple ten days ago, adding “For background: apple asked me to do press tomorrow on cnbc, cnn, etc.”.

If he isn’t pulling a major PR stunt (I think he isn’t), Calacanis is stoked. Here’s the gist of what he says about the device. I know many of you are sick of hearing about it, and this may turn out to be totally false info tomorrow – but what he said seemed just too interesting.

Calacanis’ impressions:

  • it’s “the most amazing device ever”
  • it’s “really amazing for newspapers”
  • video conferencing is “super stable”
  • battery life is “great” when it comes to reading ebooks but not so great (2-3 hours) in Wi-Fi mode or when playing games
  • tailor-made games are “sick”, on Wii level
  • the customized Farmville app (which Jobs is going to demo tomorrow with the CEO of the company behind it) is “insane”

Functions and features:

  • OLED screen
  • solar pad for recharging on the back (the device is mainly battery-powered)
  • the tablet is running on an iPhone OS variation
  • it can run multiple apps at the same time
  • it has thumb pads on each side (for mouse gestures)
  • fingerprint verification (up to 5 profiles can be registered on one device)
  • HDTV tuner, a PVR and a chess game built-in
  • back camera and front camera (quote: “u shoot what’s in front of you + yourself. Augmented video conferncing!”)
  • wireless keyboard + monitor connection for external monitors

Availability and price:

  • the tablet will be offered by Verizon and ATT
  • it will cost $599, $699 or $799, depending on the screen size and internal memory

Calacanis says he can’t reveal the name and can’t show pictures of the device (for two possible spy shots, see here). We know in a couple of hours if he was joking or not (he says he isn’t).

Update: Not for real. We had our doubts. Screen size and internal memory options with such a carefully manicured ecosystem? Not so much!

Twas the night before the Creation event, and all through the internet..

Posted: 27 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST

Fair warning, this is probably a fake – we all know that people love to prank the night before an Apple event. Some suspected pictures of the iPad have shown up on the net, but it looks fishy to me.

I guess it is possible, maybe a prototype, or something bolted to a table, but I’m not buying it. Engadget also stated that they received a tip that the device will have a 10 inch screen, and a aluminum back like the MacBook. That sounds quite reasonable, but it also could be a good guess, it’s tough to tell. I guess we’re just going to have to wait until tomorrow morning to know the answer of what’s underneath the Apple tree.

GM keeping it all in the country with electric engine manufacturing

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 08:50 PM PST


Good for GM. I don’t just congratulate them on a strict “buy American” level, but the decision to break off from the pack and both design and build the next generation of electric engines is a good one. Of course, there’s the question of whether they’ll be using Panasonic batteries and other Japanese parts. They’re still pretty much cornered in some of those areas. But hey, we’ll take what we can get.

The reasons for designing and manufacturing your own engine are pretty easy to see, and it’s a lot easier to do with an electric engine than an internal combustion one. Not nearly as many parts, and you aren’t managing hundreds of carefully controlled explosions every second. That’s not to say I could design one, but clearly GM thinks they can, and we should give them a slap on the back for it. How good it’ll be, we’ll just have to find out, but in the meantime just buy some flags and start waving.

SteelSeries asks: You know the goody bag given out at the end of fancy events?

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 08:20 PM PST

Jimin-with-the-big-FLAC-collection and I met with one of the SteelSeries guys today. It’s funny: you think you understand where a company’s coming from, but then you sit down and actually talk to them and it’s like, "Wow, OK, you guys are pretty cool." So to the people who will walk out of Sunday’s Grammy Awards with one of those fancy gift bags you always hear about, I can say this: you’ll probably enjoy the SteelSeries headphones you find in there.

Yup, SteelSeries’ Siberia V2 headphones will be part of the super-fancy gift bag that Grammy Awards presenters receive on their way out the door. (The gift bag for the average tech press party? A t-shirt and USB thumb drive. So there’s a bit of a discrepancy there.) I guess it’s a way to bring attention to the fact that SteelSeries headphones, while designed for crazy professional gamers (and I mean that in a good way, of course), they’re also not too shabby when it comes to listening to your music collection.

In other SteelSeries news, we got a sneak peak at some of their upcoming gear. Hot stuff all around.


Olympus announcing something soon

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 07:40 PM PST

Olympus is announcing.. something.. soon. We think. It kinda looks like a camera. But it might be fingernail clippers, or perhaps prosthetic hands. We’re not sure.

Ok, all kidding aside, it looks like Olympus is announcing another camera. Most likely, another micro 4/3 unit, since that seems to be their favorite product line as of late, and it’s been paying off for them. Of course, given the fact that the E-P2 came out just last December, it would be surprising to see another camera from them so soon. As always, once we know more, we’ll let you know.

[Via PhotoRumors]

Review: Iomega ix4-200d

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 07:30 PM PST

Short version: Iomega has been making storage devices for years, and it shows. I’m a fan of NAS hardware and technology, and Iomega has created a product that not only stores data, but has enough value add to make it stand out from the dozens of other black boxes for storing your data.

Features:

  • Dual gigabit ethernet
  • Comes in 2TB or 4TB sizes
  • Case well ventilated, looks nice
  • LCD display provided up to the moment information on storage, status

Pros:

  • Supports Bittorrent
  • Compatible with most backup programs
  • Crazy number of features

Cons:

  • Cost – you can’t get it without hard drives
  • Too many features, might be intimidating
  • Setup can be tricky

A good NAS should be invisible. You should be able to set it up, start your schedule for your backups, plug the thing in, and forget about it. As such, reviewing a NAS is a very difficult thing to do.

So let’s talk about the basics. The ix4-200d supports dual gigabit ethernet, along with a laundry list of compatibility and features. Want to use it with Windows Backup? No problem. Time Machine user? It’s got you covered. Something more esoteric, like VMware, iSCSI, or BlueTooth picture transfer? It’ll do that too. The ix4 will even work with Axis network cameras to function as a DVR, and record from up to 5 different video sources.

The NAS in itself isn’t terribly impressive looking, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a power button, three status lights, a USB port, and an LCD display on the front. The LCD display shows you that status of the device, including if there are any jobs working, and how much space you have remaining. The back has two gigabit ethernet ports, and the power plug in point. Oddly, the cover to the case sits sideways, meaning that the drives are mounted sitting sideways as well, instead of facing out of the front of the case. Iomega puts four drives in the NAS for you, and you can select from the various RAID configurations to choose the one that works best for you. Drives are hot-swappable of course, based on the level of RAID selected.

The problems start when you install the software that comes with the device. I’m an experienced user, and consider myself to be quite knowledgeable, so it was a bit of a disappointment when I was unable to get the NAS set up at first. After reading the instructions further, I was able to determine that you must install the software first, before you plug the NAS into your network. That will allow your computer to talk to the NAS and set up the various network options and formatting, and allow the system to work. Once the software is installed and configured however, it works perfectly with any computer on your network. Back up processes happened as scheduled, and never missed a beat.

One extremely convenient function is the QuickTransfer. You can plug a USB device into the front of the NAS and press the transfer button, and the data on the device will automatically download into the storage device. This could be a USB drive, or flash drive, and I even used a memory card reader and downloaded photographs directly into the file server. It’s fast, efficient, and easy to control from the LCD screen.

Conclusion

Overall, I liked the ix4-200d. It did what it was supposed to do, without issues, and worked as intended. As far as the feature set goes, it’s almost too much. This makes the set up a little difficult, but once you get through the process it’s seamless. Additionally, as a photographer, I love the QuickTransfer feature. I’d come home from shooting, plug my card reader into the NAS, push the button, and it would automatically back up my images. This made backing up really easy.

The Iomega ix4-200d is currently available from your favorite electronics retailer, for a MSRP of $699.99 for the 2 TB version.

Doonesbury takes on the Apple Tablet announcement

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 07:00 PM PST

So very true. [Slate via Daring Fireball]

TeleNav creating GPS blog reading system

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 06:30 PM PST

To me, geo-tagging in photography hasn’t really held much interest. Sure, it’s helpful when you see someones work that you admire, but generally I’ve always felt that it was kind of silly. TeleNav is looking to change that, through the use of a device that will show you images to places in your area that have been tagged.

TeleNav’s patent appears to be for software that would allow you to see geo-tagged pictures from your immediate area, based on the current GPS co-ordinates. Details are sketchy to say the least, but it’s safe to assume this will be a mobile device application. No word on what platform, when it will be out, what it will cost or anything.

[via GoRumors]

Break free from the corporate Snuggie stranglehold by sewing your own

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 06:20 PM PST

Make-Your-Own-Snuggie

Are we still expected, in the year 2010, to pay $20 plus $8 shipping for a Snuggie? And another $8 shipping for a second bonus Snuggie? NO! Show the fat cats at the Snuggie conglomerate that you're onto their little ruse. Take a big piece of fabric – any fabric you want! — cut some arm holes, and sew some arms onto the arm holes.

That sounds far more complicated than the sewing I'm used to (which mostly involves a stapler or nail gun) but a pleasant-looking lady over at Instructables has finally cracked the Snuggie code. What's more, she's been kind enough to share the secret with the world.

Advantages to making your own Snuggie:

  • It's cheaper (unless you use really high-quality fabric, in which case…)
  • It's higher-quality. The Snuggie I reviewed (and haven't used since the review) seems highly flammable and definitely attracts a lot of static.
  • You can size it to fit you exactly.
  • More fabric pattern choices.
  • You can make your own pockets. I'd have one for my laptop, one for my Kindle, one for my glasses, one for my contacts, one for my phone, one for my camera, one for my keys, one for my inhaler, and one for my wallet. And a cup holder somehow.

Make Your Own Snuggie [Instructables]

Dog barks, gets sprayed by own collar

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 05:40 PM PST

78022 I'm getting this for my dog. He's soooo dramatic. He hears people screaming, he barks. He hears a gunshot, he barks. He hears explosions, well you get the idea.

Plenty of people have resorted to spray bottles or squirt guns to curtail canine barking, so this seems like a natural extension of that.

Oh wait. You can't slide this $50 apparatus onto your dog's existing collar and it uses special "unscented water-based solution" instead of plain old tap water.

And the battery only lasts four weeks? And the spray refill costs $10?? And a new battery costs $5??? And shipping costs $8???? I just talked myself right into a $1 squirt gun.

Still, though. Cool idea if you've got the money to spend on stuff like this.

The Bark Deterring Spray Collar [Hammacher Schlemmer]

The latest movie franchise to be rebooted? Mortal Kombat. Yikes.

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 05:30 PM PST

Does the world need another Mortal Kombat movie? No, probably not, but that won’t stop Hollywood from attempting to exploit a license that was last hot in 1994. Word on the street is that Warner Bros. wants to, yes, "reboot" the series. (Note: You cannot reboot a dead computer, so I don’t know if it’s possible to reboot a dead movie franchise.) To that end it has hired Oren Uziel to write the script. You’ve probably never heard of Uziel, but he wrote Shimmer Lake. You’ve probably never heard of that, either.

This is good news for, well, Uziel, who does, to be fair, have quite a bit of lore to work with. Granted, most of that lore is a hodgepodge of flimfam, but I’m sure a long weekend can be spent parsing through Outworld this, thunder god that.

Of course, this is all what horror site Bloody Disgusting was told. If it ends up being false, blame them.

Or, actually, don’t blame anyone, because I’ve been reading about a third Mortal Kombat since a 1997 issue of GamePro magazine.

Clearly we need a YouTube clip to remind us of godawful Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was. (The first movie wasn’t terrible. It can be watched without wanting to jump out a window.)

via Destructiod

The BigTrak poised to turn left-right-forward-left-back into your heart

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 05:00 PM PST

Remember the BigTrak? It was a six-wheeled tow with built-in memory that allowed you to program various moves – forward, back, left – and then play them back. If you’re thinking to yourself “What fun is that?” then you were probably born after 1980 and expect all your toys to have native intelligence. Back when us kids were kids, this kind of stuff stuff was high tech considering most of us had little more than rocks and sticks during the Carter administration.

Anyway, it’s coming back. It will be called the BigTrack Jr. and will let you program and store up to 32 programs. It will cost about $40 and you can even add a digital camera and rocket launcher attachment for $20 each. It should be available later this year.

via Pocket-Lint

MagicJack giveaway update: they went to a good home

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:45 PM PST

Back when we were at CES, we were given a case of MagicJacks to give away to contest winners and the like. After scratching our heads about about what to do with them, we threw the question out to you, our valued readers. Based on your suggestions, we found a new home for the entire case of the things.

We contacted the USO, and asked them if they wanted them for the troops being posted overseas. To say that they were excited to get them would be a bit of an understatement. So, I’m sorry that we didn’t give them away to any of the readers who commented; we did make sure that they went to people that can really use them. Thanks for the suggestions all.

Tea Sub. For your daily cuteness infusion needs

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:30 PM PST


I’m not a tea drinker yet, but I’ve already started thinking about what method I’ll be using to create the stuff. I mean, you can go loose leaf, or glass infuser, or tea ball, regular bags, and probably a number of other ways as well. Look at this thing, for example. I guess it falls under the infuser category, or a cross with tea ball, but let’s just call it what it is: a shameless attempt to get young children hooked on tea.

Well, that’s probably putting it a bit strongly. It’s also for Beatles fans.

The Tea Sub can be found here, although if you can figure out how to order one, tell us, because Matt wants one bad.

Also: special behind-the-scenes look at the CrunchGear chatroom! Featuring Greg, who is skeptical, and me, unfocused as usual.

[via Noquedanblogs and Reddit]

The Top Ten Groundbreaking Slates

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:19 PM PST

Tomorrow is a big day. Apple will be revealing a brand new product to the masses. While we don’t know what it will be called, we’re quite certain Jobs will be unveiling the much-anticipated Apple Tablet. While the Apple Tablet may very well revolutionize the tablet industry–as their previous products have done many times before–it wouldn’t be where it is without those that came before it. Below you will find a list of what we believe to be the top slates.

Apple MessagePad/The Newton:
The Apple MessagePad was the first powerful PDA device. Introduced in 1993, the MessagePad ran on the Newton OS and featured handwriting recognition software which would learn a user’s natural handwriting. The original version only supported portrait viewing, but future iterations allowed the screen to be rotated and viewed in landscape mode as well. The device used Four AAA batteries, which hampered battery life. It wasn’t until Apple switched to the use of AA batteries that the Newton could be used for extended periods of time. Perhaps the biggest shortfall of the Newton was the handwriting software’s learning curve. It took the software anywhere from two weeks to two months to learn a user’s handwriting style. This delay, coupled with the lack of desktop connectivity for most of the lines life-time, forced Apple to abandon the project in 1998.

Panasonic Toughbook 08:
The Panasonic Toughbook 08 was a tablet built for abuse. The magnesium alloy case is purportedly 20 times stronger than that of standard plastics used in tablet and laptop construction. The Toughbook 08 comes with a 10.4 inch LED touchscreen and only weighs 2.6 pounds. The device comes with wifi, bluetooth and an ethernet slot. This tablet has a SD expansion slot, which is necessary given its paltry 64MB of RAM. Turns out that while consumers want a rugged and sturdy alternative, aesthetically unpleasing products such as the Toughbook 08 will struggle. Who would have thought? As such, the Panasonic Toughbook 08 is no longer in production.

Motion M1200:
Long before the Apple iSlate (or iPad, or whatever they’ll be calling it) was even a thought in our minds, there was the Motion M1200. The first “slate,” the M1200 sported a massive 12.1 inch display, giving it a competitive advantage over similar tablets which used the smaller 10.4 inch display. Although built with a magnesium alloy chassis, the Motion M1200 was not designed to take a beating like the ToughBooks. The M1200 came with an 833 MHz mobile Pentium 3 processor, 128 to 512 MB of RAM, and either a 20, 40, or 60 GB hard drive. The advertised price of this tablet was $2,200 in 2002, which undoubtedly had something to do with the low adoption rate.

Fujitsu Stylistic ST5010:
One of the first slates to be produced by a big manufacturer was the Fujitsu Stylistic ST5010. Taking a page from Motion’s book, the Fujitsu Stylistic ST5010 came with a huge 12.1 inch screen. Weighing in at 3.4 pounds, the tablet was larger than most, but still light enough for extensive travel; however the four hour battery life was not conducive to this end. Boasting a 1 GHz Pentium M processor, the ST5010 was faster than most of its competitors in the space. Unfortunately, the larger screen led to smaller buttons which were hard to push. The ST5010 was also mysteriously missing a four-way navigation pad which made navigation quite a pain.

Samsung Q1 Ultra:
The Samsung Q1 was one of the first projects built under Microsoft’s Origami project. The Q1 can boot directly into Windows XP or AVS mode. With AVS mode, the Q1 boots to a media player with no Windows Explorer interface. The Q1 Ultra is extremely lightweight, coming in at just over 1.7 pounds. The Intel Celeron M ULV chip running at 900 MHz was supposed to help with battery life, but the device could still only muster 3 hours. The 7 inch touchscreen was smaller than the standard we became accustomed to, and given its poor performance and short battery life, the Q1 Ultra was not well-received.

iPod Touch:
The iPod Touch was introduced to the masses in September of 2007. It comes with a 3.5 inch multi-touch display, and weighs only 4.2 ounces. The battery life in the first generation is sufficient, with up to 22 hours for audio, and 5 for video. Subsequent versions have improved battery life. It was the first of the iPod line to be able to access the iTunes store as well as Apple’s App Store, which greatly increased the number of third-party applications being offered to the platform. While not marketed as a slate, the iPod Touch, has all the functionality of its predecessors, along with the addition of multi-touch. The success of the iPod Touch has been prolific, with over 20 million sold in its first two years.

Lenovo U1:
The Lenovo U1 is a netbook with a removable tablet. When docked, the U1 takes advantage of an Intel processor and runs Windows 7. However, when the tablet is removed, the U1 utilizes the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and runs a Linux distro. While docked, the netbook weighs 3.8 pounds, but when removed, weighs only 1.6. The screen is 11.6 inches and supports multi-touch. While not in production yet, this hybrid was revealed at CES 2010 and has potential to disrupt the market. It will be interesting to see how the product handles being synced to the dock while running programs.

Compaq iPAQ:
The Compaq iPAQ, introduced in 2000, was another advanced PDA device. It took advantage of a Windows interface which gave it multimedia functionality over its Palm rivals. Consumers were able to buy “sleeves” which added functionality; such as GPS, wireless networking, and extra batteries. The first model ran at 200 MHz, and had 64MB of RAM, while later versions had as much as 128 MB of RAM and a 624 MHz processor. The iPAQ line have undergone major revamps since HP’s acquisition of Compaq and are no longer being branded as the iPAQ. Instead, HP has decided to call the future iterations Personal Navigation Devices and Travel Companions. This is a good way to differentiate themselves from their competitor, since calling a product the i”Name” makes one think of something Apple-related.

Microsoft Surface:
The Microsoft Surface is the only non-portable slate on the list. It has an incredible 30 inch multi-touch screen, but only has 2 GB of RAM, a 250 GB hard drive, and a 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The Surface is able to recognize different objects as well as register multiple users, which is where this product excels. We have one of these in our TechCrunch office and the multi-user recognition makes for great air hockey games, but it gets more use as a coffee table than anything else. This is definitely not made for personal use, but larger organizations such as hospitals could benefit from this technology.

iSlate/iPad/Apple Tablet:
The hype over the product has caused such a media frenzy that one can’t go to any news site without seeing the tablet mentioned in some form or another. No no one outside of Apple knows what the tablet will be packing with regards to specs, but we do have our thoughts on some groundbreaking gesturing techniques. Even if the Apple Tablet disappoints, it will go down in history as one of the most groundbreaking slates created, simply because of the all the buzz surrounding the product.

Battery-powered heat socks

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:00 PM PST

Battery-powered socks that help keep your feet warm? What may sound a bit like overkill at first does make sense when you think of motorcycle riders or people having to work outdoors for long hours during winter. Made by Tokyo-based Bionics Japan, the so-called Heat Sock EX [JP] heats your entire foot by incorporating conductive carbon fibers.

The Heat Sock EX warming system mainly consists of a lithium ion battery pack (4,400mA, 7V), cords, a switch to control the temperature in five levels and the socks themselves (you can choose between S- and L-sized socks). Bionics Japan says the socks can be worn by both men and women and that the system is designed so you can wear it to any clothes you like.

The Heat Sock EX will keep your feet warm for three to ten hours on a single charge. It’s Japan-only, but people living anywhere can get it in the Japan Trend Shop (where the whole system costs $265).

Via Japan Trend Shop

Folding “stealth” Hot Wheels: More stuff to step on when you come downstairs at 5am thinking that the furnace is broken

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 03:52 PM PST

Hot Wheels is about to launch “Stealth Rides,” tiny, folding Hot Wheels cars that are – get this – remote controlled. The cars are about as big as standard hot wheels and fold into the shape of a thick credit card.

The toys will debut at the Toy Fair in February and include Batman and Army models. Each come with a case that doubles as a remote control and they will cost $25 each. The case also charges the cars.

There is no word as to what Mattel expects us to do with all the other remote controlled junk we have lying around the house including a robotic velociraptor and a big truck we got from my wife’s sister that we had to stuff into a huge duffel bag and carry all the way from Warsaw last month because it would insult the family if we didn’t take every darn thing that my son got for Christmas back with us to America even though most of that garbage is a) cheaper in America b) imported from China anyway so available in America.

via CNN

Open thread: What does your ideal Apple tablet look like?

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 03:30 PM PST

At this point in the game, you know as much about the Apple tablet as we do — squat. Sure, some esteemed tech pundits seem to have it all figured out, but they don’t. Hell, Apple might not even announce the iPad tomorrow. That’s what I’m praying for.

But we’re curious, what’s your ideal Apple tablet look like? Mine would be an 11-inch slate that can dock on its side in an iMac-looking fashion so it could serve double-duty as a small desktop and allow for a more natural text input via a keyboard and mouse. An updated interface is a must, too.

Sound off in the comments after the jump. You have to have something in mind. The Internet has been obsessively covering the damn thing for years.
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