CrunchGear |  |
- New Mobile Tech To Identify Origin Of Fruit
- Prototype 64GB And White iPhones Surface In Hong Kong?
- DIY Bluetooth Handset For Your Hand (Video)
- Shock Study: Women Spend More Time Talking And Texting
- Best Buy: Yes, Floor Staff Get Tablets, But Not Necessarily iPads
- Excuse Generator Built From 14.4K Modem
- Apple To Shed Some Retail Games And Peripherals, Focus On Selling Macs
- Put Some Of The Slime On My Lips, Rob: A Review Of CyberClean
- The Best Notebooks Under $500
- Look, A Fujifilm X100 Next To A Leica M3
- Breville’s VTT296 2 Slice Radio Toaster Is Exactly What You Think It Is
- Hitachi GST Sold To Western Digital For $4.3 Billion
- New System Counts, Measures Nanoparticles
- Cisco Drops Price Of ūmi Video Chat Service, Offers New 720p Version
- Tesla Announces Model S Rollout Date And Prices
- South Korea Braces Itself For More Suspicious DDoS Attacks
- MSI Windpad Honeycomb Super Tab Videoed
- For The Tinkerers: The 3X3X3 LED Cube Kit
- Good Old Games: Lack Of DRM Makes Acquiring Games Quite Difficult
- Study: Too Much Technology Has Destroyed Our Ability To Sleep
| New Mobile Tech To Identify Origin Of Fruit Posted: 08 Mar 2011 04:41 AM PST
Did you ever ask yourself where the fruit you are about to buy in the supermarket comes from? If yes a new “fruit identification system”, developed by NEC, might be the right solution for you. The technology allows you to identify the origin of a given fruit by taking a picture of it with your phone’s camera. NEC is known for its fingerprint and face recognition technologies and now says it has combined their expertise in these areas to come up with the new system. The photos taken by users are compared with digital photos stored in an NEC data base. The company claims that during tests with “1,800 Andes melons”, the error rate stood at just 1 in 1 million. NEC says the tech will one day enable end consumers and distributors to check the origin date and shipment date of fruit just by taking pictures (instead of relying on bar codes and other methods). The company expects the system to be commercially available in 2-3 years. Via Mycom Journal [JP]
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| Prototype 64GB And White iPhones Surface In Hong Kong? Posted: 07 Mar 2011 06:41 PM PST
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| DIY Bluetooth Handset For Your Hand (Video) Posted: 07 Mar 2011 06:00 PM PST
You would expect someone with blue hair to wear a purple glove phone. This DIY Bluetooth glove, sourced from a purple fingerless glove and a Bluetooth headset, was made with just a few extra wires and shrink wrapping. Once fitted, the wires and components were sewn in and a microswitch was added for easy calling and working. I think this should make a run up on Kickstarter, so that everyone make easy calls with right at their fingertips. [via instructables]
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| Shock Study: Women Spend More Time Talking And Texting Posted: 07 Mar 2011 05:30 PM PST
Wireless provider Mobistar recently announced the results of their survey which sought out cell phone usage by gender. If stereotypes are to be believed, then the results are hardly shocking. The survey found that women spend more time on the phone, and send more text messages than men. However, the study also found that women are less keen on smartphones. Mobistar says that of their customers, women talk an average of 19 minutes more per month than men and calls last 15 seconds more. Moreover, Mobistar’s female customers send 51 more text messages than the y-chromosome. What’s is interesting about the survey, and less obvious, is that men spend 22% more time browsing the mobile internet, either because they have more success with smartphones and app usage, or just spend more time facebook stalking females. Men also use 14 MB more data per month. Typically, Belgian men are three times more likely to own a smart phone compared to women: 15% to 6%.
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| Best Buy: Yes, Floor Staff Get Tablets, But Not Necessarily iPads Posted: 07 Mar 2011 05:00 PM PST
Reasons for this may be a reluctance to look like an Apple outlet or support that brand too much, or perhaps it’s simply a cost consideration, and they plan to opt for a cheaper device. Either way, it seems likely that pretty soon, tablets will be a mainstay at retail: you can swipe credit cards, display license agreements, scan coupons, and all that stuff. Best Buy isn’t the first to do this sort of thing; Apple decentralized their checkout a long time ago, and many other companies have moved info and point-of-service away from the front-of-store checkout area. Why do I get the feeling that, even with an army of employees helping and cashing out shoppers, we’re still all going to be stopped by “security” on the way out?
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| Excuse Generator Built From 14.4K Modem Posted: 07 Mar 2011 04:41 PM PST
Ah, here’s a good one. “The CEO tried to drown me.” Much more likely in a fast-paced startup environment.
The project is built out of an old 14.4Kbps modem (remember how fast those were?), with a nice little processor and board inside just begging for repurposing. A couple holes on the front for display and buttons, a natural-speech engine with a dictionary of words, and you’re good to go! Not the simplest build, actually, and you can get the same excuses from the simulator, but I like the idea of hitting the red button in a panic and just stammering out whatever shows up on the screen. “Sorry, Mr. Biggs, but…”
[via Hack a day]
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| Apple To Shed Some Retail Games And Peripherals, Focus On Selling Macs Posted: 07 Mar 2011 04:01 PM PST
After all, Apple is positioning itself as not just a maker of quality computing goods, but the gatekeeper and distributor for everything you purchase, be it media, software, or accessory — even in the “real world.” The iPad is a magic window into an Apple-controlled marketplace; why shouldn’t Apple stores be the same way?
According to The Loop, most games being sold at the Apple Store will no longer be available there, or at least not on shelves. Ditto printers, hard drives, scanners, and potentially any other low-volume sales that are likely to be made online anyway. Many of the devices will be available to buy at the store, just not stacked on shelves and hung from pegs for the customer to grab. In a way, it makes accessory buying like the App Store. Click with your finger on the hard drive “icon” in the accessory case, and a dozen employees will scramble to retrieve it from the back. The vanishing point for this philosophy is essentially an iPad that sells iPads. Apple’s certainly in a unique in its position of power; it would be impossible for Microsoft or HP to do something like this. The supreme control Apple has over its software and hardware contributors added to the extremely strong, device-first branding make the Apple store a natural place to show off the next generation of electronics retail. I have problems with the stranglehold they exert on their ecosystem, but I can’t deny its effectiveness and wisdom given the limitations of retail. It’s one of those things they got right early on, and has only been refined since then — a rather different story than some Apple productions I could mention. Of course it’s not newsworthy every time Apple tweaks the layout of their stores, but I thought this particular move to be portentous.
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| Put Some Of The Slime On My Lips, Rob: A Review Of CyberClean Posted: 07 Mar 2011 03:30 PM PST It’s quite rare to find a video about a strange, glowing ooze that is designed to clean your gadgets but instead makes weird noises when you rub it on your keyboard. Thankfully Rob Beschizza has our backs. His video review of CyberClean AKA a loaf of snot is cinematic in a way very few video reviews are these days and his word choice shows his predilection towards Burroughsism.
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| Posted: 07 Mar 2011 03:00 PM PST
Laptop Magazine has their 5 Best Sub-$500 Notebooks post out right now, including the HP Pavilion dm1z. Laptop Mag is known for pretty good laptop reviews and their post is short and straight to the point. Sort of like this one.
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| Look, A Fujifilm X100 Next To A Leica M3 Posted: 07 Mar 2011 02:00 PM PST
Lots more comparison pics and other X100 porn at Nokton’s Flickr page.
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| Breville’s VTT296 2 Slice Radio Toaster Is Exactly What You Think It Is Posted: 07 Mar 2011 01:45 PM PST
The inventor of the VTT296 2 Slice Radio Toaster may have gotten this idea from Blankman’s Toaster Plus, but either way you look at it, it’s a neat toaster. The UK company, Breville, designed this kitchen appliance for those who need news, sports and talk along with their toast. There’s nothing too special about the toaster itself. It has the usual bread slice thickness options and a controller for toast darkness. The main talking point, the radio, is also nothing too special, other than being housed of the side of a toaster. The controls are located under the side speaker and include tuning, presets, and volume. There is also an aux-in 3.5 mm jack for connecting pretty much anything. The best part, if it’s something you’re interested in, is that you won’t have to put cough up a lot of dough to get it: $68 and the toaster is yours. [via redferret]
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| Hitachi GST Sold To Western Digital For $4.3 Billion Posted: 07 Mar 2011 01:30 PM PST
There’s also cloud storage, but of course that relies on traditional spinning drives as well, since they still provide an excellent value for bulk storage. I don’t think they’re in danger there just yet. What does this mean for consumers? Not a lot for now, but if all WD wanted to do was keep building big 3.5″ HDDs all year round, they would use that money to build factories. By acquiring Hitachi GST they’re also acquiring a lot of R&D and facilities. The next fight is probably creating a new standard for affordable bulk storage that doesn’t rely on a tech like spinning platters, something approaching endgame research-wise. At all events nothing will happen for a year or two at least as the two companies learn to love one another, work out redundancies and hires, combine facilities, etc.
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| New System Counts, Measures Nanoparticles Posted: 07 Mar 2011 01:00 PM PST
The system runs a fluid containing the particles past a counter at speeds as high as half-a-million particles per second. It’s described as a “turnstile” for nanoparticles.
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| Cisco Drops Price Of ūmi Video Chat Service, Offers New 720p Version Posted: 07 Mar 2011 12:30 PM PST
Well, either Cisco wildly overestimated the price people would pay for this thing, or… no, that’s pretty much the only option. At any rate, the price is coming down and there’s a new “cheaper” version. The new ūmi 720 is essentially the same product but at 720p instead of 1080p. That’s nice, because the original needed something like a constant 5-megabit connection to stay at full quality, and even during the demos I noticed some glitches. With luck this 720p service is a little more reliable; it only requires 1.5 megabits. The new hardware costs $400. The price of the old 1080p rig is now $500. The service itself has been lowered to $100/year or $10/month. It’s a good deal compared to the previous price, but really, why you would pay for a service that’s available for free elsewhere is beyond me. In fact, Cisco is releasing a PC version of their ūmi Connect video software for PCs this summer! Why buy a $400 webcam? Microsoft’s 1080p Lifecam Studio is sitting here on my monitor, and it can do solid high-def video chatting over a number of services. It costs $100. Whoever the target market is for this service, I’m sure they’ll be overjoyed at this price drop. Or they won’t notice, because the target market is people who have too much money to begin with.
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| Tesla Announces Model S Rollout Date And Prices Posted: 07 Mar 2011 12:18 PM PST
To those awaiting the most promising electric vehicles to ever enter the market (Tesla Model S), the company has given some more insight as to the Model S rollout. Today, on Tesla’s blog, George Blankenship, Vice President, Worldwide Sales & Ownership Experience, gave an update to the progress of the EV startup company:
It’s a bummer that the mainstream release is 2012, rather than 2011. But, it’s totally going to be worth the wait because this car has everything a sport EV should: sexy looks, great range, 17-inch touchscreen IP stack, and a decent price. The Volt will have to undergo serious price cuts if it plans to compete with the Model S.      
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| South Korea Braces Itself For More Suspicious DDoS Attacks Posted: 07 Mar 2011 12:15 PM PST Oh, look, Cyber War‘s in the news, that marketing gimmick that plenty of people have used to make a few dollars writing scary sounds books. Wonderful. Cynicism aside, the South Korean government has warned its citizens to "firm up their electronic defenses" as a result of a rash of distributed denial of service attacks. The attacks could have originated in any number of countries, but naturally North Korea has come under direct suspicion. Computers that have been attacked include those belonging to the government and banks. American forces in South Korea also came under attack. Never mind that, as we all know, any child can initiate a distributed denial of service attack. In fact, at one point there was a small application for Windows, Mac, and Linux that would start such an attack with the push of a button. It takes more effort to start up a lemonade stand than it does to DDoS someone.
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| MSI Windpad Honeycomb Super Tab Videoed Posted: 07 Mar 2011 11:43 AM PST The Inquirer has some handsome hands-on video of the MSI Windpad, a Honeycomb device with 10-inch screen and 1080p video support. I couldn’t embed their video – they haven’t uploaded it to YouTube and I didn’t want to do it for them in case they got angry or skeered (another demo video from CeBIT appears above) but you can check it out here. Considering this is basically the next Honeycomb tablet available to the masses, it’s worth taking a closer look at the 100A.
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| For The Tinkerers: The 3X3X3 LED Cube Kit Posted: 07 Mar 2011 10:49 AM PST
I just love the stuff from Makezine — tinkering and programming bring back such good memories. If you like tinkering with little electronic devices and programming patterns, it’s definitely worth checking out the site. And, they just released their new LED Cube kit, inspired by the 3D Borg cube from Das-Labor, so it’s a good time to buy. It’s an animated 3x3x3 cube made up of 27 single-color LEDs. The kit includes all the parts so that you can make it yourself. Once you build up the kit, you can use a web-based too to program your own animation patterns, then you can upload the code over a serial connection. The kit costs only $25 and you can grab it here. [via makezine]
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| Good Old Games: Lack Of DRM Makes Acquiring Games Quite Difficult Posted: 07 Mar 2011 10:15 AM PST
Beyond the DRM-free aspect of the game—no having to stay online 24/7 or having to sell your first born son just to play a game—GoG also brings up a great point: how many times can you play Call of Duty, or its derivatives? Why not, instead of trying to rank up in some meaningless scoreboard—yay, I’m ranked 47,000th in the world at this game, what fun!—you try a game that’s a little different? I don’t know what you’d call Dragon Age 2, but it really is stretching the definition of RPG. GoG, meanwhile, has Planescape: Torment for $10, Arcanum for $6, and BioWare’s own Baldur’s Gate games for $10. Or what about the original two Fallout games (seen here), which, I think we can all agree, were much better than Fallout 3. (New Vegas was pretty good, though.) So yeah, the interview is worth the read if you have a few moments to spare.
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| Study: Too Much Technology Has Destroyed Our Ability To Sleep Posted: 07 Mar 2011 09:45 AM PST
It would appear that our increased reliance on technology has destroyed our ability to have a good night’s sleep. So says the 2011 Sleep in America poll, which was conducted by the the National Sleep Foundation. Something tells me they would be the guys to go to for all your sleep data needs. The study shows that 95 percent of Americans use a communication device (computer, phone, etc.) in the hour before bedtime, which absolutely wrecks your body’s clock, as it were, thereby preventing you from having a decent night’s sleep. The study’s primary conclusion is that Americans don’t get enough sleep overall, and that the sleep they do get is largely rubbish. Waking up several times throughout the night, waking up too early, snoring like a truck, etc. As Ric Flair once asked, what’s causing all this? Blame technology. As mentioned, fully 95 percent of Americans use a communications device in the hour before going to bed. That’s a critical hour, too, since ideally you’d be winding down before going to bed. Texting your friends, trolling Facebook, reading Charlie Sheen tweets, etc. All of this mental stimulation essentially keeps your brain awake, and prevents the release of a certain hormone that tells your body, "Hey it’s time to go to bed. Get tired." Watching Netflix on your iPad may be handy, but it’s not necessarily healthy. What should you do? If you can, make sure your bedroom is only for sleep. Don’t have an entertainment system in there, and don’t play Angry Birds while in bed. Only go to your bedroom to sleep. And in the hour before going to bed, try to wind down. Turn off the TV, turn down the lights, maybe at most do some light reading (these books would be a great start). Failing that, you’ll have to put up with rubbish sleep, and not a lot of it.
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We’ve heard some 
I’m a big fan of nanoparticles. Anything I can’t see but could potentially eat millions of in a second is alright in my book. That’s why this little counter is so cool: it allows you to count and measure items in the range of 100 nanometers and smaller.
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