|
|
 When I got up this morning, I threw my Kindle in my bag’s padded courdoroy laptop sleeve like I always do. A few hours later, I pulled it out and it looked like this.
Granted, this is partially my fault—I didn’t keep it in the ugly cover that comes with the Kindle, just like I don’t lock my iPhone or any other gadget in disfiguring covers, since I’m all about naked gadgets (almost entirely for aesthetic reasons), and I thought my bag’s padded sleeve provided sufficient protection. Apparently it does not when you have a heavy DSLR on the other side of the stuffing and some guy slams into your bag.
A book made out of dead trees would’ve buckled and creased and returned to its original shape. So would a reader with a flexible display like Plastic Logic’s, which at one point was said to withstand getting smacked by a shoe. Which actually takes it one step closer to emulating books than the more fragile Kindle or any other E-Ink powered reader—too bad Plastic Logic’s reader is about a year away. (Though it says something about the Kindle that I’d sort of taken to treating it almost like a real book, and that this is the first time I’d actually materially felt the gap between it and paper.)
The story for other kinds of flexible displays, like bendy OLED, is actually even more depressing, since “progress” at this point means they’re now 5 years away. Given how easy it is break screens, and how much we depend on them now—witness the slow recession buttons, though I’m sure they’ll experience a retro counter-touch resurgence—rugged displays that we can treat like organic materials instead of delicate magic under the constant threat of destruction by mere everyday living might be more revolutionary than expected.
Or maybe I’ll just have to learn to be more careful
 Why do we reserve the glory of carbon fiber for lightweight performance items? You know, other than durability and expense?
This custom controller’s carbon fiber and fiberglass chassis may be eye-catching, but maybe more impressively, the stick is constructed with dual circuitry for maximum compatibility. Filled with both the guts of a MadCatz Xbox 360 controller and a Chtulhu PCB (for PC/PS3), it works on every major platform. Meanwhile, the actual play components are from Seimitsu, though Sanwa buttons will fit as well, fanboys.
Still, even with the blessing of a carbon fiber body, this arcade stick still weighs almost 4lbs. Next time, let’s just go with marble and iron. [Shoryuken via CarbonFiberGear]
 With gun laws being a little stricter in the UK, the weapon of choice for day to day murdering can often be found in the kitchen. That’s why the first anti-stab knife is now ready for sale there.
As the designer notes:
Mr Cornock, 42, from Swindon, said that the knife will cut vegetables, but will make it almost impossible to stab someone to death and will reduce the risk of accidental injuries.
He said: “It can never be a totally safe knife, but the idea is you can’t inflict a fatal wound. Nobody could just grab one out of the kitchen drawer and kill someone.
Really? Couldn’t you go all Jack the Ripper on someone’s throat with it? At any rate, if your wife or husband decides to replace your current knives with these anti-stab versions, that really says something about how they feel about you. Either they have the wrong impression, or they are on to you. [New Point Knives and Times Online via Fark]
 The Eee Keyboard PC was pretty amazing before, but now that we’re seeing it running Intel’s Moblin OS, we want one even more.
We’ve only seen Windows XP versions of the computer-inside-a-keyboard before, but sticking Intel’s Linux-based Moblin on there actually makes sense. I’ve always pictured the Eee keyboard as something you’d have hooked up to your TV rather that a traditional monitor, and Moblin looks like it’d be great for casual internet use from the couch.
No word on if it’ll actually come as an option on the Eee Keyboard, but we’ll keep you updated. [NetbookNes.de via SlashGear]
The Samsung M7600 Beat is a DJ. What’s on its mind is on its face, a brave stab at not only putting music in your pocket but in your hands as well. The M7600 Beat is quick to claim a territory of its own, where playback simply won’t do unless you mix your own music.
The inspired and unmistakable styling, vibrant OLED capacitive touchscreen, sweet clicking TouchWiz and a whole new music experience will make you have a crush or wish you were younger. Meet the first DJ phone.
 Key features:
Stand-out design
Quad-band GSM and 3G with HSDPA support
2.8″ 16M-color AMOLED touchscreen display of WQVGA resolution
3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and VGA video at 15 fps
Accelerometer for screen auto rotate
Proximity sensor for auto screen turn-off
MicroSD card slot (up to 16 GB), 8 GB card included
Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support, Google Maps
Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)
DivX/XviD video support
Stereo FM radio with RDS, FM recording
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Office document viewer
Smart dialing
BeatDJ app for scratching and sampling
 Main disadvantages
User interface is quite laggy
BeatDJ app could’ve been better and more responsive
No virtual on-screen QWERTY keyboard
Limited Flash support in browser
Poor music reproduction quality
 The Samsung Beat lineup has a few pawns on the chessboard already, but the M7600 Beat DJ is different stuff. A touchscreen media gadget with high-speed data, GPS, enhanced video playback and good enough imaging, it’s fit to stand its ground even against smartphones with an ear for music.
Every once in a while Philips remind us of themsleves with some new mobile phones. Their Xenium line is known for giving you over a month of stand by. If you’re thinking that the prolonged battery life comes at the expense of features – you’re wrong. Their latest full touch device – the Philips Xenium X830 – comes with a 5 megapixel camera.The X830 is a feature phone that builds on the X800 and X810 – a big 3″ touchscreen with WQVGA resolution and 262K colors. The camera is also quite respectable – 5 megapixels with autofocus and LED flash.
The phone is headed to China and Russia, so it doesn’t have 3G support. The Philips X830 offers quad-band GSM/EDGE. It makes up for the lack of UMTS by offering Wi-Fi.
  The GPS receiver is another goody that made its way into this power efficient handset. The other connectivity options of the X830 include Bluetooth and USB. A microSD card slot, music player and FM radio will help make the commute to work shorter. The built-in memory is 47MB.
The physical size of the Philips X830 of 105 x 53 x 15.5mm makes it quite compact, though its 120 grams are a bit much. The phone will be available soon though there’s no word on pricing yet. We don’t know the stand by time either, but its predecessor – the X810 – manages a respectable 1 month.
Source: GSMARENA
 Apple’s WWDC 2009 liveblog is just a weekend away. On the menu: Definitely Snow Leopard, new iPhone, new iPhone OS, and maybe even a guest star appearance of Steve Jobs himself.
Here are the latest updates:
Search for What we know today for the updates.
The new iPhone
The biggest announcement and biggest question mark is the new version of the iPhone. A new model is coming for sure, but we don’t know what will be in it.
Most probably, the new Apple cell will keep its current design. Since Steve Jobs came to Apple, dramatic industrial design changes have only happened across various generations of gut changes. Historically, the iMac, the Powerbook/Macbook, or the Mac Pro went through several iterations before experiencing a complete redesign. It’s too early for the iPhone to change its face dramatically, specially when the current form factor works so well. And, after all, there are only a few ways to do a touch-screen phone. The iPhone 3G’s design is simple, elegant, and works extremely well, so there is no reason to see a big re-design now.
 Here are the latest updates:
Search for What we know today for the updates.
The new iPhone
The biggest announcement and biggest question mark is the new version of the iPhone. A new model is coming for sure, but we don’t know what will be in it.
Most probably, the new Apple cell will keep its current design. Since Steve Jobs came to Apple, dramatic industrial design changes have only happened across various generations of gut changes. Historically, the iMac, the Powerbook/Macbook, or the Mac Pro went through several iterations before experiencing a complete redesign. It’s too early for the iPhone to change its face dramatically, specially when the current form factor works so well. And, after all, there are only a few ways to do a touch-screen phone. The iPhone 3G’s design is simple, elegant, and works extremely well, so there is no reason to see a big re-design now.
 Palm designer Michelle Koh and CEO Jonathan Rubinstein have recently begun speaking about the design process of the Pre, and they’ve got some pretty interesting insights. These aren’t PR people spouting catchphrases—these are the folks who create.
Michelle Koh’s interview is particularly interesting; we love how she clearly admires the iPhone, and doesn’t feel the need to trash it. She makes it clear that one of the most important parts of the design process was really adoring the product they were creating, and she does think the Pre is great, but that doesn’t mean she needs to engage in competitive smack talk. Check out the interviews (Michelle Koh is here, and the design team is here) for a wider view of the Pre and how it came to be.
Kasper Hauser, the brilliant minds behind the SkyMaul parody, have tackled another delicate tech subject: President Obama’s beloved BlackBerry. When you see the First Dude staring at his handheld and snickering, this is what’s going on.
The book Obama’s BlackBerry is on sale now, $11 at Amazon, and is consistently hilarious, as you can see from the (authorized) excerpts below. [Kasper Hauser]
The new handset Samsung M8920. will obviously come with a 12 megapixel camera, complemented by both LED and xenon flash units. The really hot part about the Samsung M8920 is that it also supports 3x OPTICAL zoom, so if they get the image quality right it might easily rival low-end and mid-range point-and-shoot cameras. To make the device even sweeter there go built-in GPS and Wi-Fi with DLNA support.
 As it seems the initial source of that photo sent to us by an anonymous tipster is in fact an online forum. Thanks to OhadM from the forum over at Pocket.co.il who made the original photo, we now even have more new info besides the photo itself.
The new M8920 cameraphone is not a smartphone, but instead uses the Samsung proprietary TouchWiz interface. There’s a huge touchscreen on the other side that’s not visible on that shot and the M8920 also comes with 8GB of integrated memory. All that high-tech features of course have taken their toll on the size of the thing and it surely is one extra large handset according to OhadM.
Unfortunately, it’s still not clear whether the M8920 is the phone to be presented on 15 June or if this is a leak for a product that should come later on this year.
|
|
