CrunchGear

CrunchGear

Link to CrunchGear

Sharp Japan Prepares Tablet Designed For Elderly Shoppers

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 04:04 AM PST

Is this a sign of things to come in other countries? In Japan, Sharp is currently developing [JP] an inexpensive tablet aimed at a very specific target group: elderly online shoppers.

Big S has teamed up with Japanese retail giant Aeon whose “Net Super” online store will be featured in a central position on the home screen. The plan is to let users of the tablet visit the store with the push of a button and pay for products using Aeon’s proprietary electronic money “Waon”.

Sharp says that in order to attract elderly users, the tablet will have larger fonts and be extra-easy to use. The company will likely go for a Galapagos-based piece of hardware and is also expected to handle the software and design side of things.

What’s also interesting is that through the deal, distribution isn’t an issue: Aeon plans to start offering the tablet in its stores all over Japan and hopes to sell 50,000 to 60,000 units in the first year (price: “under $600″).

Via PC Watch [JP]

Video: Those Flying Fish Are Called Air Swimmers

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 06:14 PM PST

Would you buy a toy fish that flew in the air wagging its tail as if it were swimming? If you answered yes, then check this out: it’s called Air Swimmers. Air Swimmers consist of a helium-filled balloon with motorized fins that flap in the air. From the video you can see it looks pretty cool and the ‘swimming’ doesn’t look too bad either. One battery in the fish, three in the remote, and the bag of helium should last a few weeks.

They’ll be about $40 when they come out in July.

New Tech Helps Paralyzed Patients Move Their Limbs

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 04:33 PM PST

It appears that folks with catastrophic spinal cord injuries might be able to move their limbs again thanks to a new system that “trains” the nerves to move using a “pocket-sized electric stimulator.”

The stimulator is connected to the affected limbs and fired in order to jolt the muscles into action. After eight weeks, patients given the stimulation tended to have more motor control and a significantly reduced disability over those getting physical therapy alone.

“This study proves that by stimulating peripheral nerves and muscles, you can actually ‘retrain’ the brain,” says the study’s lead author, Dr. Milos R. Popovic, a Senior Scientist at Toronto Rehab and head of the hospital’s Neural Engineering and Therapeutics Team. “A few years ago, we did not believe this was possible.”

Six months later, a number of the respondents still had improved motor control after the stimulation therapy.

TAG Heuer Carrera Mikrograph: Measure 1/100th Of A Second Like A Boss

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 02:59 PM PST

I’m not a huge fan of the stlying in this TAG Mikrograph chrono, but this video is pretty neat. It basically shows the watch measuring a few hundredths of a second in slow motion, a feat that is quite impressive for a mechanical chrono.

You can read more about the watch here.

Shock(ing) Study: No Link Between Mobile Phones and Brain Cancer?

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 02:35 PM PST

Here’s another CrunchGear Shock Study, shocking not because of cognizability but because of what it claims. The study by the University of Manchester says that RF exposure from cell phones does not appear to increase the risk of brain cancer by any significant amount.

The UK researchers used public data from the UK Office of National Statistics to look at trends in newly diagnosed brain cancers that occured in England from 1998 to 2007. The study was published in the science journal Bioelectromagnetics.

Lead researcher Dr Frank de Vocht, an expert in occupational and environmental health at the University had this to say about the study:

Cell phone use in the United Kingdom and other countries has risen steeply since the early 1990s when the first digital cell phones were introduced…There is an on-going controversy about whether radio frequency exposure from cell phones increases the risk of brain cancer. Our findings indicate that a causal link between cell phone use and cancer is unlikely because there is no evidence of any significant increase in the disease since their introduction and rapid proliferation.

Our research suggests that the increased and widespread use of cell phones, which in some studies was associated to increased brain cancer risk, has not led to a noticeable increase in the incidence of brain cancer in England between 1998 and 2007.

It is very unlikely that we are at the forefront of a brain cancer epidemic related to cell phones, as some have suggested, although we did observe a small increased rate of brain cancers in the temporal lobe corresponding to the time period when cell phone use rose from zero to 65% of households. However, to put this into perspective, if this specific rise in tumour incidence was caused by cell phone use, it would contribute to less than one additional case per 100,000 population in a decade.

We cannot exclude the possibility that there are people who are susceptible to radio-frequency exposure or that some rare brain cancers are associated with it but we interpret our data as not indicating a pressing need to implement public health measures to reduce radio-frequency exposure from cell phones.

There you have it. Is it true, is it not true? Will a study come up in 10 years that concurs or contradicts? Serious questions, but certainly for those who are glued to their iPhone; relief. Those researchers just need to make up their minds.

[via cellular-news]

The Nissan ESFLOW Concept Breaks Cover A Bit Early

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 01:37 PM PST


Nissan’s unveiling the ESFLOW EV concept at the Geneva Auto Show next month. Well, here it is. Click through for the interior shot. God I wish the CE industry had the guts to show-off their forward-thinking concepts — just the Microsoft Courier comes to mind. Anyway, the European auto show is actually expected to feature a fair amount of new production and concept vehicles with this Nissan as one of the stars. No doubt more flattering photos will surface showing off the graceful curves Nissan designers love to use.

Massive Solar Flare Causing Communications Problems In China

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 01:20 PM PST

Nasa’d

A recent solar flare, the strongest in four years, is apparently giving China a bit of a headache. Astronomers there have reported a disruption in radio communications in the country’s southern regions. The Sun giveth, and the Sun taketh away.

Nasa says the flare was of the X-class, which is the most powerful class of flare. The sudden jet of solar… stuff flew off the star at a cool 560 miles per second. Per second! The airplane you use to visit Mom & Dad for the holidays has a max speed of 560 miles per hour.

If the flare were to travel around the circumference of the earth it would do so in about 44 seconds. My PC takes longer than that to cold boot.

Irony: Smartphones Can Save The Honeybees

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 12:45 PM PST

Here’s an interesting use for old smartphones: monitoring bee activity. According to research done at the UK’s Nottingham Trent University, it may be possible for smartphones to monitor activity in beehives. Many smartphones have accelerometers built-in making them able to feel the vibrations of the hive. Those vibrations can aid beekeepers detect signs that the old Queen is about to leave the hive. Alerting the beekeeper of this can give them time to setup another home nearby, curbing the swarming phenomenon. Swarming is understood to be the reason many bees are dying in the US.

Once the vibrations are detected, the smartphone can send an SMS to the keeper — as long as there’s service, of course.

Dr Martin Bencsik from Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology said, “The data we have gathered from our investigations is absolutely fascinating. The application of these devices, and the method we have developed for deciphering the information that they gather could provide a key to slowing the dramatic rate of decline in honey bee populations across the world.” This idea could help the honeybee population, unless of course, those rumors of cell phones waves killing the bees is true.

The Scosche goBAT II Can Charge Two USB Devices

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 12:30 PM PST


Portable battery packs are starting to become commonplace. You can buy them at major grocery stores now. But how about one that can charge two USB devices? Oh yeah, that gets the juices flowing to the ol’ tech boner, doesn’t it?

Inside the goBAT II is a 5000mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery that outputs to two USB ports: one for 10 Watt port for power-hungry devices like the iPad and another 5 Watt port for most other gadgets. It even works with Scosche’s free reVIVE charging app that indicates how long charging takes and notifies the owner via email when the charging is complete. The $90 battery pack just went up for sale on Scosche.com.

Magna’s AcoustiVision Turns Rear-Windows Into Subwoofers

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 12:07 PM PST

A new technology called AcoustiVision hopes to put some Boom Boom Pow into your rear window. All car subwoofers rattle the entire car — rear window included — but Magna says their technology can use the rear window to make sound. AcoustiVision uses two exciters at the base of the window with power fed from amps in the trunk, which are said to boost a stereo signal from 12 to 200 volts. After the system is connected, the two exciters use the glass as a membrane to vibrate the window, moving air to create sound.

If the system works as well as my Detroit cruiser then it could mean getting rid of those huge speaker boxes in the trunk. "It is a whole new way to generate sound in a car," said Magna product director Greg Rizzo. "There are still tweeters up front but the glass replaces a big subwoofer in the trunk."

Magna hasn’t landed any contracts from any big automakers yet, but says that AcousticVision could be ready for production by 2015.

To Celebrate Washington’s Birthday, Direct2Drive Gives 20 Percent Off

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 12:00 PM PST

Washington’s Birthday, commonly known as Presidents Day, falls this Monday, and Direct2Drive, the IGN-owned direct download store, celebrates with a 20 percent off sale. All the games in its catalogue will be 20 percent off this weekend, and this weekend only. What’s the tie-in?

To be honest there’s barely any connection, but Direct2Drive has highlighted some of the games that feature some of this country’s finest presidents. Honest Abe leads the American civilization in Civilization V; John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon are slumming around Call of Duty: Black Ops; and Martin Sheen, America’s president in The West Wing, provided the voice of the Illusive Man in Mass Effect 2.

What to get, what to get…

Apple Patent Describes Power And Data Over A MagSafe Adapter

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 11:42 AM PST


As the headline states, a recent Apple patent shows a system where data and power share a MagSafe adapter. It would look and magnetically connect just like the current MagSafe, but two cables would exit the adapter with a a fiber optic line for data and the standard power cord. Internally there would be an additional “pin” for the fiber line.

Apple notes in the filing that currently there’s a need for multiple connections when docking a computer. You have the power cable as most notebook batteries cannot make it an entire work day and then either a USB connection to a hub or an Ethernet cable. This patent talks of a future where this one cable handles it all.


The filing also states that it could be used for mobile devices as well as notebooks. A MagSafe power adapter on a cell phone would certinally be Steve’s greatest gift to mankind. But no matter the application, the MagSafe female receptacle is nearly flush mounted on the device, which great contributes to Apple’s clean lines.

Of course it’s just a patent and Apple, along with most other CE companies, routinely file patents without ever implemented the described technology. It’s just part of the game.

Apple “Bans” The Steve Jobs Action Figure

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 11:14 AM PST

M.I.C. Gadget was selling a goofy “Pineapple CEO” doll online for $89, an action figure that pokes fun at His Steve’s efforts to sneak shuriken out of Japan.

The action figures were nicely detailed and quite complete and, like any good Chinese knock-off, didn’t immediately appear to infringe on copyrights, especially since you could “mix and match” the base so it didn’t look like the Apple logo. Alas, Apple’s lawyers thought different:

"Mr. Jobs has not consented to the use of his name and/or image in the Product. Unauthorized use of a person's name and/or likeness constitutes a violation of California Civil Code Section 3344, which prohibits the use of any person's name, photograph or likeness in a product without that person's prior consent… The figure and its stand are replications of Mr. Jobs image and Apple's trademark. The thin attempt to "disguise" the figure in its current iteration does not impact the fact that you are plainly trading on Mr. Jobs image…"

That’s right: the action figures are no more. Generally it was a goofy move to begin with, but God bless those M.I.C. boys for trying.

H2O Power: Shower-Head-Powered Shower Radio

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 11:00 AM PST

Check out this unique way to power a radio in the shower. Normal shower radios have the mess of dealing with batteries, but not the H2O Shower Power Radio. Nope, it runs on water pressure. The entire radio is waterproof, so there’s nothing to worry about on that end, and it stores excess energy so that it doesn’t die when the water is shut off. The only thing to consider before purchasing would be the installation and removal of your existing shower head. $56 gets the radio and a new shower head, so that’s not bad.

PlayOn Officially Rolls Onto Android, Brings Netflix And Hulu With It

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 10:44 AM PST

Given what Netflix has said so far, we know that Netflix for Android is coming… eventually. Even then, Netflix is still being a bit mysterious about which devices it’ll work on (though given their recent Qualcomm partnership, “things running a Snapdragon CPU” is a good guess.)

In the meantime, there’s a work around of sorts: PlayOn. After months of beta testing, PlayOn for Android is now available.

Read the rest on MobileCrunch, where we… wait, what were we saying? Sorry, new episodes of Buffy showed up on Netflix >>

Why Can’t Tablet Makers Just Freaking Ship?

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 10:26 AM PST


CE manufacturers are scared. They’re scared of competition, they’re scared of unique designs, and they’re scared, most of all, to ship. Take the RIM Playbook, for example. As Jim Dalrymple points out, RIM first announced the Playbook in September 2010. Then it announced a 4G version in January and then 4G LTE, HSPA+ and Mobile WiMAX models this month. RIM, in short, released three products that don’t exist. Jim calls the Playbook vaporware but, given what we’ve seen, it’s a real product that just hasn’t rolled through RIMs front doors yet.

So it’s been six months since RIM announced their device and two months since Motorola announced the Xoom. HP still hasn’t shipped the TouchPad, either. Every tablet you saw at MWC this year is shipping “later this year” and the only sure thing is probably the iPad 2 and that doesn’t even exist yet.

There are a few reasons while CE manufacturers are so cautious. First, Apple has the tablet component market sewn up. An entrepreneur I talked to in China described the difficulty he still has buying touchscreens that are worth a darn. The real reason most of the current tablets are 7 inches? Because Apple bought up all of the 10-inch capacitive touchscreen stock and if they didn’t then they drove the price too high for smaller orders. There is no way to dabble in the market without paying a premium.

Then, even when they do ship, there is no guarantee of user acceptance. Look at the horrible reviews the Dell Streak 7 received (although I thought it was an acceptable device.) Why? Because it was designed and built to beat the current iPad, not future devices, and it was built without Honeycomb in mind. Google clearly runs at its own pace as well and if there’s one thing CE manufacturers aren’t good at it’s predicting the future. Therefore they release product that was finished eight months before launch and not signed off on until the CEO gets up in front of the press and announces the actual launch. And those products took a full year to design in the first place. So you have a device that’s already a year and a half old before it’s even announced. Add a few months of run up time to that and you’re basically buying a two year old device.

So what about Playbook and Touchpad? Well, obviously these companies just can’t pull together the resources to build and ship products that they have no guarantee of selling. They’re waiting for the other iPad shoe to drop and they’re waiting for the market to firm up so people actually have the cash to buy their wares. They’re waiting for linnets and planets to fall like rain. They’re waiting and waiting. They’re waiting for, it seems, the rebirth of wonder. And it’s getting pretty tiring.

How about shipping, guys? People clearly are interested in these things and the sooner they hit the shelves the better, even if it allows you to move on from a dud and on to another device. Some devices should never ship in the first place. But we’re getting to the point where gear folks like Samsung, HTC, RIM, and HP are pretending to offer isn’t worth waiting for and consumers will figure that out sooner or later. Without product on the streets, Dalrymple is correct: it’s all vaporware.

CrunchBase Information
Motorola
Research In Motion
Apple
Information provided by CrunchBase
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)