Mad Tech News

Miyamoto may have been dropping hints about some new Nintendo hardware recently, but it looks like a true Wii successor isn’t among the options in the short term. That’s according to Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway, who told GameSpot during the company’s just-concluded Media Summit that she doesn’t see a proper Wii follow-up coming “anytime soon.” She further went on to note that even though the Wii now has a larger installed based than the PS2 did at the same point in its life cycle, the Wii “still has a lot of room to grow,” adding that “we’ll have it [a successor] ready when we think the time is right.”

Not interested in piecing together your own hybrid SSD hard drive with something like SilverStone’s HDDBOOST kit? Then you might want to consider waiting for Raidon’s upcoming HyBrid Disk drive, which promises all the same benefits with none of the hassle (apart from actually installing it in your computer, that is). Complete details on this one are still a bit light, but you will apparently be able to remove the SSD and use it on its own if you like, and then have its contents automatically backed up when you put it back in its enclosure. No word on pricing just yet either, but Raidon says the drives will first be available in an internal, 3.5-inch version in April, with an external version following later in the year.

Call us optimistic, but we pictured February 25th rolling around with us laying on a couch and watching some Olympic ice dancing clips on the JooJoo’s 12-inch screen. Ah, but here we are about to cross off the last few days of the month and the only thing we’ve got in our hands are some tissues and hot cocoa. Promising to ship units to those who pre-ordered in December within 8-10 weeks, Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan told us just a month ago that it was on track to ship before the end of February. However, when we called them up to see what the deal was we were told they’d have a shipping update for us by the first week in March. Additionally, when asked if there were delays with production or shipping the first units to customers we got the never fun “no comment.” We’re going to go ahead and assume there’s been some sort of delay — perhaps JooJoo primary investor CSL has been too busy updating the BlueBerrry KIRF line with an optical pad to write out the check for the manufacturing costs. Okay, that’s unlikely, but we’d love to hear if any of those that pre-ordered have heard differently or anything at all.

Our good friends at Adafruit Industries are now taking mobile payments with the best of ‘em thanks to a prerelease Square dongle they’ve managed to score, ostensibly as a part of the public trial announced earlier this month. They’ve posted a quick video showing the process of taking someone’s cash via plastic, and it looks every bit as painless as Square makes it out to be — just swipe, sign with your fingertip, and your Square-equipped payee is a few dollars richer. The particular dongle Adafruit’s been provided looks rough to say the least — these aren’t the units you’ll be getting off the shelf — but that’s part of the fun of being involved with a beta, isn’t it? Head over to Adafruit to peep the video, and needless to say, we’re curious to see how they plan to make use of this little bugger.

Asus prépare 3 nouvelles références d’EeePC de 10″ de diagonale. Asus prepares 3 new references EeePC 10-inch diagonal. Je n’ai malheureusement pas beaucoup d’informations sur ces machines et juste une image de deux d’entre elles. I do not have much information on these machines and just a picture of two of them. Mais il semblerait que la marque n’aie pas fini de travailler le concept des engins 10″. But it seems that the brand have not finished working on the concept of gear 10. Finitions luxueuse pour le 1018P , vocation professionnelle pour le 1016P et pavé tactile ultra large pour le 1015P, des machines a priori appétissantes. Luxurious Finishes for 1018P, vocationally for 1016P and ultra-wide touchpad for 1015P, machinery prior appetizing.

It begins with the enigmatic EeePC 1015P which closely resembles the current 1005P: Screen Matte and shiny frame, webcam, dual array miscro EeePC and signature in the upper left are identical. Le clavier est également de type chiclets mais de petits détails évoluent. The keyboard is also type chiclets but small details change. Le nombre de leds en bas à droite du châssis change pour se réduire à 4. The number of LEDs in the bottom right of frame rates to be reduced to 4. Le pavé tactile semble également avoir fini sa crise de puberté et se retrouve débarasséé de son relief en boutons pour redevenir lisse et large, délimité par des bordures. The touchpad also seems to have finished its crisis of puberty and is found Far away from his relief buttons to become smooth and wide, bounded by borders.

Pas d’infos quand à l’équipement exact de l’engin… Je sais juste que la coque devrait être en aluminium et qu’Asus promet 14 heures d’autonomie pour cette machine, chiffre qu’il faudra ramener a une utilisation en Wifi. No info on when the equipment exactly the machine … I just know that the shell should be made of aluminum and 14 hours Asus promises of autonomy for this machine, it will reduce sales for use in wireless .

The EeePC 1018P is also promising as it further reduces the thickness of 1008P and 1008HA … With an aluminum hull also happens to 18mm thick. Clavier chiclets, large pavé tactile lisse et… lecteur d’empreintes digitales sur la droite. Chiclets keyboard, large touchpad and smooth … fingerprint reader on the right. Une autonomie annoncée pour 10 heures ce qui semble exceptionnel pour un engin aussi fin. Autonomy announced for 10 hours which seems unique for a device as thin. Dernier détail, ce 1018P sera équipé en USB 3.0. Last detail, 1018P is equipped with USB 3.0.

Un EeePC 1016P devrait également voir le jour en réponse aux machines pro de Lenovo et consorts. A EeePC 1016P should also emerge in response to pro machines from Lenovo and others. Cet engin dont je n’ai pas d’images devrait être plus sobre,n plus carré dans le design que le reste de la gamme et s’adresserait à un public professionnel avec toujours du chiclets et une coque en aluminium et une autonomie également annoncée de 14 heures. The gear I have no pictures should be more sober, no more square in design than the rest of the range and be aimed at a professional audience with always chiclets and an aluminum hull and autonomy also announced of 14 hours.

Pas de prix ni de dates, on en saura probablement plus lors du CEBIT. No pricing or dates, we will most probably during CEBIT.

LUXEMBOURG, 25 February 2010 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd and Skype today announced that the new Samsung LED 7000 and 8000 series models of 2010 high-definition televisions will feature embedded Skype™ software allowing Skype users to make video and voice calls through the TVs. Samsung, the global market leader in televisions, will begin shipping TVs with Skype software in the Korean market today, and worldwide in the first half of 2010.

“Our consumers want their televisions to be a ‘one-stop shop’ for entertainment and communication delivered with the highest quality,” said Kevin Kyungshik Lee, Vice President of Visual Display at Samsung Electronics. “Including Skype on our TVs meets that expectation perfectly. We’re thrilled that Samsung’s consumers can now use our TVs to experience the rich video and voice communication that hundreds of millions of Skype users worldwide enjoy.”

The debut of Samsung’s Skype-enabled televisions reinforces Skype’s commitment to making its video and voice calling capabilities available on a full range of Internet-connected devices, including TVs. Televisions with built-in Skype software were first introduced at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010.

The Samsung LED 7000 and 8000 series televisions include Samsung’s free Internet@TV service, which allows access to select online content. Consumers who connect the TVs to the Internet can easily attach a low-profile FREETALK® TV Camera for Samsung provided by In Store Solutions (ISS), available at www.skype.com/store, making it possible to place and receive voice calls and High Quality Video calls. Voice calls will use Skype’s SILK audio codec, which enables super-wideband audio quality.

Using the TVs’ remote controls, consumers can create free Skype accounts, log into their existing accounts and navigate via a simple Skype interface accessible on the televisions’ screens. Skype video calls will be free, as will voice calls between Skype users. Using Skype to call traditional landline and mobile phones will cost just pennies per minute.

“Increasingly Skype users want to communicate away from their computers, particularly when it comes to video calling,” said Jonathan Christensen, General Manager of Platform at Skype. “Thanks to Samsung, Skype is helping even more friends and families benefit from the meaningful connections that Skype’s video and voice calling provides.”

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company consists of seven independently operated business units: Visual Display, Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, Digital Appliances, IT Solutions, Semiconductor and LCD. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.
About Skype

Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Everyday, people everywhere also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. Download Skype to your computer or mobile phone at skype.com.

ZMP Inc will release the “RoboCar G,” a one-seater electric vehicle (EV), expecting that it will be used for the researches of next-generation vehicles.

The RoboCar G is based on a one-seater EV developed by the Next-gen EV Study Group at Gunma University. And ZMP added its technologies and know-how accumulated from the development of the Robocar, a platform for research and development assistance in the field of robotics (See related article), to it.

“We developed the RoboCar G for research and development using a car that is large enough for practical use,” ZMP said.

Sensors that can be mounted on the vehicle include a laser range finder, a stereo camera, a GPS (global positioning system), an IMU (inertial measurement unit), a milliwave radar and a sonar sensor. Sensors will be mounted in accordance with user needs and connected with one another via a network. And the RoboCar G will be shipped as a computer-controlled robot vehicle.

It will be built to order, and its price will be determined based on the types and the number of mounted sensors. Shipment will begin in or after November 2010.

Well, we’ve already heard some rumors that Sony was considering a relaunch of sorts for the PSP Go, and it looks like at least some execs from the company are now starting to speak publicly about why such a move might be necessary. In an interview with IndustryGamers, SCEA Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations Rob Dyer admitted that the PSP Go did “confuse” customers, and that the “higher price point didn’t help matters any either” — not exactly the sort of thing you hear Sony say every day. Does that mean we’ll be seeing updated hardware or a lower price anytime soon? Dyer unsurprisingly wouldn’t say when pressed, adding only that Sony is “going back and re-communicating” with consumers.

Over the last year, we’ve been inundated with tech products branded as ECO-this and Green-that. While we’ve always been interested in energy consumption as an indicator of aspects of technical design and performance, we’re far from convinced that you can actually save significant cash by buying a-n-other company’s ‘power saving’ product. Read the rest of this entry »

Pentax is going for broke with its take on the rugged camera, the W90, which is unlikely to ever be confused for a svelte and stylish point-and-shoot. What it loses in looks, it gains in usability, however, as the 12.1 megapixel shooter can withstand shocks from a height of four feet, go nearly 20 feet under water, and withstand temperatures as slow as -10 degrees Celsius. The dustproofing is just topping on that rugged cake, though it still offers things like 720p / 30fps video recording and 5x optical zoom that are now considered standard camera specs. There are also three forms of shake reduction: one is post-processing of affected images, the second is by automatically increasing the ISO in low light conditions, and the third is the use of “exclusive software” during movie mode. We can’t say any one of those will be as good as a well-implemented optical image stabilization, but at least they’re there and might offer some assistance. As to the X90, it joins a growing band of 26x and above optical superzoomers, while adding the W90’s 720p video mode and anti-shake plus its own sensor-shift stabilizer for good measure. Both shooters are expected in April, priced at $330 for the W90 and $400 for the X90, though we’ve noticed the former will show up a month earlier in the UK with a £270 ($417) price tag.