CrunchGear |  |
- Video: New Construction Material “CO2 Structure” Could Serve As Alternative To Concrete
- ESSP-2000: Sony’s New Storage Battery Holds 2.4kWh, Lasts 10 Years
- Daily Crunch: Reduce
- Bevy Of Apple Patents Granted, From Visual Voicemail To PCI Card Brackets
- Algorithmically Generated Realistic Sound On Show At SIGGRAPH
- Shots Leak Of Acer’s New Ultrabook, The Aspire 3951
- Vizio’s 8-Inch Android Tablet Hits Shelves With $299 Price Tag
- Apple’s Trade-In Program Just Got So Much Better
- Use Your PS3 Controller On Your Android Phone Using This App
- MS Is Still Ruling The Desktop: 42% Of Machines Will Run Windows 7 In 2011
- Progress of 3D TVs May Not Be Quite As Bleak A Picture As Imagined
- The Lonesome Death Of WebOS
- Third Galaxy S II Iteration Surfaces With LTE In Tow, Dubbed “Celox”
- Tribune Co. Working With Samsung On (Free?) News Tablet
- Seagate Has Sold 1 Million Hybrid Hard Drives
- Toshiba Releases Glasses-Free 3D Laptop To Much Rejoicing
- OpenPCR Machine Makes Your Basement A Crime Lab
| Video: New Construction Material “CO2 Structure” Could Serve As Alternative To Concrete Posted: 10 Aug 2011 03:59 AM PDT  This almost sounds too good to be true: a Japanese company called TIS&Partners [JP] has developed a new kind of construction material that’s supposedly “better” than concrete (by some measures, at least). Dubbed “CO2 Structure”, the material hardens in about a day, as opposed to the 28 days it takes for concrete to cure to 100% of its strength. TIS&Partners says bricks consisting of the material can be formed in about a minute. After adding organic substances, CO2 Structure’s tensile strength is said to be “at least” 2.5 higher than that of concrete. In other words, the material not only hardens quickly, it’s also more “stable” than concrete. TIS&Partners says that their material could be used to reinforce structures in buildings in a quick manner, for example those that were damaged by the earthquake that hit Japan back in March. This video, shot by Diginfonews in Tokyo, provides more insight on CO2 Structure:
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| ESSP-2000: Sony’s New Storage Battery Holds 2.4kWh, Lasts 10 Years Posted: 10 Aug 2011 02:57 AM PDT  Sony Japan announced [JP] the ESSP-2000, a storage battery for professional use that serves as a backup power supply unit in the case of emergencies and blackouts. The lithium ion battery stores 2.4kwh, can be charged to 95% in about 2 hours (using conventional power plugs), and it boasts an impressive life span of over 10 years, according to Sony. The ESSP-2000 has six AC100V power outlets, is sized at 490x610x750mm and weighs 90kg. Sony says that in the case of an outage, it can, for example, power ten 100W desktop PCs for about 2.4 hours. The company plans to start rolling out the battery in Japan next month (price: $26,000). Sony expects to sell 300 units in the current fiscal year but hasn’t said anything yet regarding international sales plans.
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| Posted: 10 Aug 2011 01:00 AM PDT  Here are some of yesterday’s Gadgets stories:
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| Bevy Of Apple Patents Granted, From Visual Voicemail To PCI Card Brackets Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:55 PM PDT  As is befitting a global technology empire, Apple seems to always have a great number of patents in moderation. The latest batch is an interesting mix, with the standout patents hailing from as far back as 2007 or as recently as 2010. The current ruckus surrounding the patent system isn’t going to die down any time soon, so I’ll try not to editorialize too much here, but some of these do seem a bit more legitimate than others. The biggest win for Apple is probably the visual voicemail interface patent. Opponents of software patents in general, gird yourselves for battle. Patent 7,996,792 was submitted on June 28, 2007, the day before the iPhone was made available. It covers “A computer-implemented method for management of voicemail messages” and associated playback controls. While the visual playback and selection of voice messages certainly predates the iPhone, this patent is much more closely allied to the rest of Apple’s multi-touch and initial iPhone patents, the conceptual legitimacy of which as unique inventions may be a matter for discussion, but the legal legitimacy of which is not worth disputing at this time. The UI is very minutely described in this patent, making it nearly impossible to abuse and mooting any patent-war criticisms directly solely at 7,996,792. Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall are given prime billing for credit on this item. More troubling is the method for affecting boot item order, which is not very specific at all, and amounts to a patent on real-time prioritizing of boot items. During startup, if a user selects iTunes or Photos before other things are finished loading in the background, it then loads the associated libraries and data for that item first on the next boot. Startup and BIOS managers have allowed for this kind of reordering for a long time, and although I don’t know the specifics of how it’s handled, I have to guess that starting an application before Windows has finished loading all its background services (for example) changes the immediate priority in real time, though it doesn’t save that information for later. On a far less contentious note, Apple also was granted two fairly substantial hardware patents. The first is a manufacturing method that could result in a thinner touchscreen-display sandwich, the details of which are quite technical. The second is part of a component mounting system for a desktop PC — a minor item for making the locking and unlocking of PCI and other components easier. It was filed for way back in 2008, though, so it seems about as likely now as then that they have a new desktop enclosure in the works. Still, it’s nice to think about. There’s more info (and links to the other 16 patents just granted to Apple) over at Patently Apple.
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| Algorithmically Generated Realistic Sound On Show At SIGGRAPH Posted: 09 Aug 2011 05:53 PM PDT  Researchers at Cornell University are hard at work on a project that sounds odd at first, but is in fact a perfectly natural extension of existing 3D and computing technology. They’re making an engine for producing the sounds of colliding objects by simulating the materials of the objects themselves in a virtual space, and then calculating the forces and vibrations that would be produced. Academically it’s a challenging proposition, but it has plenty of practical applications as well. The simulation of noise propagation perhaps would be most easily applied in 3D games, which despite having nearly photorealistic models, textures, and lighting, still rely on a limited cache of pre-recorded sounds to play when, say, a table tips over. By simulating every object on the table and tracking the physical effects of collision with the floor, other objects, and the resulting reverberations, a more realistic and accurate sound can be created on the fly — or at least that’s the theory. Right now the researchers acknowledge two obstacles. First, the physical world needs to be simplified greatly in some cases in order to provide a workable amount of data. A ball hitting the floor is one thing, with only a few factors to calculate, but what about a stack of dishes rattling against each other on a table that has been jostled? The number of contact points must be reduced so thousands or millions of different interactions don’t have to be tracked separately. At the same time, they must have enough to produce a realistic sound. It’s a balancing act governed by the amount and type of objects and the computing power they have at hand. And it seems that not everything can be generated completely from scratch just yet. Their demo at SIGGRAPH has the stack of dishes mentioned above, but apparently soundtracking flames it isn’t so easy. The low-frequency part they’ve got, but for the rest had to base their models based on recorded fire sounds and then “paint” them onto the low end. That said, most common sounds are predictable in the same way physical interactions are predictable (being that they are themselves sums of physical reactions), and it’s just a matter of getting the tools to do so. Parallel processing hardware (like graphics cards or many-core CPUs) will be necessary to make these calculations on in real time, though: simulating the fire noise takes hours just for a short clip. But the very idea is compelling to anyone who’s heard the same “glass breaking” or “ricochet” noises in games or even movies, where the catalog of sounds is limited. Right now it’s still in the labs, but this is definitely the kind of thing that gets turned into a product and sold. A company like Nvidia or Havok would love to get their hands on this. Unfortunately there’s no video, but if one becomes available after it’s shown at SIGGRAPH, we’ll put it here.
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| Shots Leak Of Acer’s New Ultrabook, The Aspire 3951 Posted: 09 Aug 2011 04:39 PM PDT  Just a couple days ago, we heard about Intel’s plans to offer a new reference bill of materials for their “ultrabook” class of laptops. Essentially it’s a new blueprint with the aim of putting these new thin-but-powerful laptops (if they ever appear) under a thousand dollars — putting them in direct competition with the 2.38-pound gorilla of the laptop world, Apple’s MacBook Air. As the meeting was supposed to take place next week, I think we can be sure that Acer’s newest ultrabook, apparently leaked to a Vietnamese tech blog, isn’t made with the new mold in mind. The device pictured has a 13.3-inch screen, a Sandy Bridge generation Core processor, and comes with a HDD standard and SSD optional. No doubt that hard drive contributes to the 3-pound weight, though the case is aluminum, not the fiberglass we heard rumored. HDD included (I presume), it’s nearly as light as the 13″ Air, and it could be lighter without. Interestingly, the most-used ports are located on the back, a design I thought we left behind some years ago. On the sides are headphone and card reader ports; on the back are USB, HDMI, and power. The 3951 is certainly svelte, and the specs seem solid, but will it hit that all-important $1000 price tag? Sohoa estimates the price at 16-20 million VND, or ~$750-950, but the source isn’t clear. It’s possible — but I don’t think these will be made in large quantities, partly due to the shortage of aluminum milling workspace (they couldn’t make a million of these), and partly because of the upcoming Intel revision. Best to just wait and see. [via Tom's Hardware]
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| Vizio’s 8-Inch Android Tablet Hits Shelves With $299 Price Tag Posted: 09 Aug 2011 02:52 PM PDT  The Vizio Tablet is finally here after its initial debut at CES. Vizio wants desperately to control your home theater experience and the company’s new Android tablet is an integral part of that, acting as the central hub of Vizio’s V.I.A. (Video Internet Apps) Plus ecosystem. Acronyms aside, this means that Vizio’s HDTVs and its tablets will share the same interface and apps, keeping things uniform and easy to use. As far as specs are concerned, the Vizio Tablet is an 8-inch WiFi-only slate with 2GB of internal storage built right in, and support for a microSD card. The tablet features Bluetooth connectivity, HDMI out, and has a battery life of up to ten hours, says Vizio. Obviously, the specs on this bad boy aren’t going to change your life, but its price tag may be enough to win you over, at an MSRP of just $299. The Vizio Tablet is currently available at WalMart, Sam’s Club, Costco, and Amazon, along with other similar retailers.
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| Apple’s Trade-In Program Just Got So Much Better Posted: 09 Aug 2011 02:47 PM PDT  If you were thinking of dumping that old laptop, hold on a second. Apple has just updated its trade-in policy, and you can now bring in any Apple product, as well as any desktop or laptop, for free recycling or even store credit. Yes, any desktop or laptop, including PCs — and it won’t cost you a dime. Thanks to some keen eyes over at MacRumors, we now know that this is how it’ll go down: You can now trade in your iPad and/or iPhone for its “fair market value” (determined in store, by Apple) on an Apple gift card. Apple has done this for a while with desktops and laptops, both PC and Mac, but is now extending the offering to iPhones and iPads. But remember, this only applies if your hunk of old technology is fit to be used in something new. If it has no monetary value at all, it goes in the recycle pile. But no worries — Apple has easy, pain-free plans for that, too. It used to be that when you brought in old computers and displays that were worthless, you could recycle it for free if you were buying a Mac. If you weren’t buying a Mac, you had to pay $30 for a shipping fee. Now, whether or not you’re buying a Mac, any brand of computer or display will be recycled for free. Most brands have some sort of trade-in program for their old products, but just like Apple, they offer credit instead of cash. So if you aren’t an Apple fan and don’t really need credit towards Apple gear, it’s worth the two seconds it’ll take to look up the manufacturer’s trade-in program details and get credit towards a brand you like. Other third-party programs like Gazelle also make it pretty easy to trade-in your old stuff for cash. But where ever you choose to dump your old stuff, try not to aim for the trash can. The planet could use a break. Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer,...
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| Use Your PS3 Controller On Your Android Phone Using This App Posted: 09 Aug 2011 12:31 PM PDT  One issue I’ve had with Android superphones, with their dual cores and their gigawhats, is that there just isn’t much of a use for them. Android apps are mostly made for the lowest common denominator, hardware-wise, and aside from a few 3D games and cool (but impractical) HD video playback, you can’t really use those extra cycles for anything without really diving into device customization. We know that these phones have the chops to run Playstation-level games at least — now if only we could use our Playstation controllers! Oh, we can now? Yes, Sixaxis Controller lets you use your wireless PS3 controllers with your Android phone or tablet, making your new Galaxy Tab or Xoom an emulation paradise. Well, let’s not overstate the case: PCs will always be top dog in that field, but this does make the tablet platform a bit more exciting for gamers. Unfortunately, you must have root access to make this app work, so it’s not quite the plug-and-play solution I’d like. The controllers need to be paired over USB, after which time you can have up to four controllers going at once. X-Men Arcade, anyone? Analog isn’t supported yet, so keep that in mind if you want to try your hand at Mario 64 or the like. You can download the app in the Android Market, but be sure to check if your device is compatible first by using the compatibility checker app. [via Reg Hardware]
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| MS Is Still Ruling The Desktop: 42% Of Machines Will Run Windows 7 In 2011 Posted: 09 Aug 2011 12:15 PM PDT  Windows 7 is now the most prevalent – if not most popular – desktop OS with Gartner estimating that 42% of current PCs will run the OS while 94% of new machines will run Win7. In comparison, OS X got 4% of the pie while Linux is firmly at 2%. Even IT departments are starting massive roll-outs of Win7 to their desktops, a move that has pushed the fairly new OS into the catbird seat. However, Gartner expects this to be the last time a standalone OS image is installed on business PCs as IT departments move towards hosted computing and virtualization. Not everything is sunshine and roses, however:
You can check out the report here if you’re a subscriber but generally Windows is still strong even in the face of OS X and mobile popularity. The most interesting statistic I think will be how fast Chrome OS overtakes Windows in the low end of the PC/laptop world. I also wonder how much WinXP is still floating around out there, let alone how many WinCE and NT implementations still exist.
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| Progress of 3D TVs May Not Be Quite As Bleak A Picture As Imagined Posted: 09 Aug 2011 12:01 PM PDT  3D is a polarizing topic, whether it’s in TV, movies, or games. I think it’s interesting (which is why I wrote this extremely long article about it), but I’ll also be the first to admit that adoption was never going to happen quickly. People just don’t buy TVs frequently enough — not to mention the fact that there were no benefits to early adoption, but plenty of drawbacks. That said, it’s hard to avoid “3D ready” TVs these days, because even budget TVs are getting the minor changes necessary to make 3D possible (120Hz processing, for instance). And according to a study by Strategy Analytics (summarized on their blog), the 3D TVs out there are actually being used. Two thirds of the 3D TV owners they questioned watch 3D content at least once a week, and 41% watch every day. This suggests that people either enjoy what little 3D content is out there, or they feel a lot of pressure to get their money’s worth. I think these stats, heartening as they may be to TV makers, are probably a little premature, considering how 3D content is still relatively hard to come by in day-to-day programming and streaming. The biggest gripes, predictably, were price and glasses. Nobody likes the big clunky active-shutter glasses, of course, and the majors getting together (again) to standardize the glasses hardware (again) is too little too late. Besides, we know they’ll be replacing them with cheap passive and perhaps autostereoscopic 3D soon. As for cost, well, look at the price of a compatible set two years ago, and look at it now. The price is coming down, it’s just a matter of time — and price fixing, of course. [via Electronista]
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| Posted: 09 Aug 2011 10:30 AM PDT  I’d been hoping I wouldn’t have to say this a second time, but here we go again: WebOS is reaching a critical failure point and I doubt the technology will make it through the next two years. Why? Because WebOS just can’t grab the mindshare it needs to flourish. According to Woot, the deal site sold 612 TouchPads during its impressive $100-off sale. During a similar sale in July, the Motorola Xoom, sold2,288. This, in microcosm, is where the TouchPad and WebOS is headed. Before you argue that this sample size is far too small for a full assessment, think about the current price drops – over $100 in a few months – and also consider the last time you saw a TouchPad in the wild? The numbers may be skimpy but they’re all we have so far. This sudden decline in HP TouchPad pricing isn’t unusual. Given that HP is now in charge of this product, it’s obvious that the pricing, discounts, and giveaways are part of HP’s sales plan and, thanks to HP’s extensive experience in PC sales, they’re attempting to clear the channel for upgraded devices. While this pricing reduction is obviously part of HP’s traditional M.O. – you don’t sell millions of desktops and laptops by selling at full price all the time – I think this M.O. coupled with the general lack of consumer interest is what will sink the TouchPad and the Pre, leaving them to flounder and fail like so many devices before them. Consider, for example, the iPaq. Originally hailed as a solid competitor to the original Palm Pilot, Compaq sold itself to HP in 2002 and slowly sputtered out as HP gave less and less attention to these devices. HP attempted – and failed – to sell the the PDA concept to newly-minted smartphone consumers and even when the iPaq line began incorporating smartphone features it was too late: the world had moved on. Here’s the bottom line: HP is where good ideas go to die. The company isn’t set up to think like a scrappy start-up. WebOS will be rolled into laptops, the WebOS tablet product will be overtaken by Windows 8 tablets, and the long, twisted tale of Palm will end with a whimper. I don’t want this to come to pass. I love the TouchPad and the Pre 3 is a good phone. But there is just no room for a third (or fourth (or fifth)) player in the smartphone market right now with Android and iOS battling it out and Windows Phone creeping up behind. HP can’t pivot out of this and, in the end, they’ll pull the plug. Maybe not this year, maybe not this CES, but by 2013 we’ll be writing WebOS’ obituary. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but probably not. WebOS’ time has passed and we’re just watching the funeral. [Sort of via SplatF but seriously go read Dan Fromer's new thing]
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| Third Galaxy S II Iteration Surfaces With LTE In Tow, Dubbed “Celox” Posted: 09 Aug 2011 10:28 AM PDT  We already know there’s more than one version of the Galaxy S II floating around out there. We have the original, 4.3-inch tri-buttoned version that launched in Korea. Then we have the Infuse-esque 4.5-inch version we saw just a few days ago that’s headed to T-Mobile, dubbed the Hercules. And now, a third Galaxy S II version has emerged. Meet Celox, a 4G LTE monster. It just recently appeared on Korean site IT TONG, and was passed along by Unwired View. This iteration is more of a hybrid of the other two, with a 4.5-inch screen but an almost identical look-and-feel to the original S II, sporting three buttons instead of four. But under the hood, things have changed quite a bit. The Celox touts an LTE chip capable of speeds of up to 100Mbps (which, though the carriers have ignored it, is the ITU’s required transfer speed to use the term “4G.”) But before you get too excited: let me tell you a little bit about this 4G LTE chip lest you start scouring the Verizon site for a pre-order page in vain. Verizon’s LTE network supports 700MHz bands (as does AT&T’s unlaunched LTE network, though the two won’t be compatible), whereas the Celox sports 800 / 1800 / 2600 MHz LTE connectivity, meaning it’s probably headed to Australia, Europe, or Asia. But that doesn’t mean we won’t get a Celox of our own some day (..please?) In case we do: specs include a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash.
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| Tribune Co. Working With Samsung On (Free?) News Tablet Posted: 09 Aug 2011 09:43 AM PDT  Time for a thought experiment: let’s say you’re in charge of one of the largest newspaper publishers in the country. Readership is down, cheap content is replacing real journalism, and the day-to-day news cycle you’re used to doesn’t exist anymore. What’s your next step? Expand your online presence? Fire your most expensive staff? Well, if your name happens to be Eddy Hartenstein, then you’ve already made your decision. Hartenstein, who happens to be the chief executive of Tribune Co., is also the company’s chief tablet proponent. His vision? A free (or close to it) tablet that gives tech-savvy readers instant access to their Tribune newspaper subscriptions. If this idea sounds familiar, then you’re likely thinking about another beleaguered media company that had the same thought. The Philadelphia Media Network, which owns both of the city’s largest newspapers, announced a similar idea in which they would offer discounted tablets in exchange for one or two year subscriptions to the company’s news apps. The big difference here is that instead of just subsidizing the cost of tablets, Tribune may be looking to create their own. They have reportedly been working with Samsung in order to create a tablet specific to Tribune, although in CNN’s report, neither party wished to comment. Sources say, however, that Tribune Co. is already due to miss their mid-August hardware testing deadline. Both of these companies have reached the same conclusion, but I’m still not convinced that it’s a viable model going forward. Tribune in particular is taking a leap, considering their protracted bankruptcy woes. While I’d personally sign up for a tablet if they became available, it feels like the process of wrangling manufacturers and dealing with the logistics of tablet distribution may be too much for a company on shaky ground to undertake.
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| Seagate Has Sold 1 Million Hybrid Hard Drives Posted: 09 Aug 2011 08:24 AM PDT  Seagate has just announced that they’ve sold their 1 millionth Momentus XT hybrid solid-state/mechanical hard drive, an interesting development for the hard drive manufacturer especially considering the rise of expensive SSD drives. These hybrid drives run at 7,200 RPM, nearly twice as fast as standard mechanical drives. The drives contain some solid-state memory as well as a full mechanical drive and offer speed improvements at a very low initial cost. The Hybrid drive is an interesting technological advancement. It’s cheaper than a full SSD drive but thanks to a 4GB cache you can read and write to the drive – at least in theory – nearly as fast as you can with a SSD drive. To be clear, this isn’t a full SD drive. The speed savings are eventually reduced by the dependence on mechanical parts, but the price – about $99 for a 500GB model – is pretty good for a 7,200rpm drive.
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| Toshiba Releases Glasses-Free 3D Laptop To Much Rejoicing Posted: 09 Aug 2011 07:33 AM PDT  The Qosmio F755 3D laptop is now available for those who wish to live in the 2D world but – and only occasionally – may also want to view things in 3D. The laptop uses a “15.6-inch diagonal full HD TruBrite® display with Active Lens” to display both 2D and 3D images (sample shown here may not represent actual display, your results may vary, consult a doctor before playing 3D games, 3D gaming could cause headaches, nausea, a feeling that 3D is BS, the croup, accidental ingestion of your wedding ring, dance, Gary Oldman’s Disease, vestigial tail growth). The laptop runs a Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce 540M and allows for HD video and Blu-Ray playback. The laptop will start at $1,700 when it is available mid-August. Click through for the full press release.
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| OpenPCR Machine Makes Your Basement A Crime Lab Posted: 09 Aug 2011 06:30 AM PDT  You've heard of the CSI effect, right? It's this wacky "syndrome" whereby we've watched so much CSI Miami and Law and Order that we can't fully put our weight behind a verdict without some solid DNA evidence. I guess it's easy to forget that we had an entire legal system sans DNA for quite a while. In any case, we've apparently got an itch to be a bunch of white-coated forensic scientists, which is why we're so lucky that this crazy, and also beautiful, machine exists in the world. It's called OpenPCR, and it'll make science-style DIYers drool. PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction, and it's a crucial tool for just about any type of modern molecular biology. The way it works is by amplifying a specific region of a super teency-weency strain of DNA, and after that I kind of got lost in the biological jargon, but it's all explained here. With OpenPCR, you can do two different types of tests: DNA Sequencing and DNA Barcoding. Sequencing is where you use the PCR machine to check out some of your own genome, while Barcoding is checking out what kind of species a certain bit of DNA belongs to. If you have yet to be convinced, just check out how these two girls used DNA Barcoding to uncover a New York City scandal (hint: 2 out of 4 Sushi restaurants and 6 out of 10 grocery stores were selling mislabeled fish.) For $599, you'll get all the parts to the machine, instructions to set it up, and 16 PCR samples — the way by which you target certain regions of the DNA. Features include a heated lid that eliminates condensation, 2-degree per second ramp time (Centigrade), and compatibility with Mac and PC.
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