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There was a recent news items article for Lithium-Sulfur batteries with 4 times the capacity of today's.

There are lots of things that work in the lab, but are impractical in the field. Will this battery work at -50F in Fargo, ND? How about at 120F in Las Vegas? Will it handle 3000 discharge cycles? Will it be safe if it ruptures in an impact? Will it degrade if it is left fully discharged in an airport long-term park lot for three months? Very few batteries meet these criteria.

There was a recent news items article for Lithium-Sulfur batteries with 4 times the capacity of todays. There is also evidence suggesting batteries with 10 times current capacities may be viable.

Battery tech appears poised for a breakthrough that could be game changing for lots of transportation use. Given the rules of chemistry, this would be the last possible break-through for batteries (only so-much energy in chemical bonds).

I like supercaps too, especially if you can built them from carbon instead of lithium -- though the voltage drop-off issue is a significant limitation.

Adding rails to all of our roads seems like an expensive refit, though potentially adding to interstates and other high-volume roads might be economically justifiable -- I guess LENR cars would be even better.

I know that, but what I'm wondering about is at what point does Amazon admit that their format lost and add support for epub to their product. And hopefully drop .mobi as a failed file format.

Well, earlier this year, Amazon was enjoying 90% of the eBook market share. It's projected to plummet over the next five years and I think the iPad gobbled up 22% of the eBook marketshare instantly. Of course, I would bet that 22% was growth, not switch. Like, I think it's safe to say most people who bought iPads didn't sell/disable their Kindles immediately afterward and they probably had no eReader to begin with. I'm guessing that the Kindle still enjoys large numbers and has a comfortable lead still in market share.

At what point does Amazon admit defeat in this? Somewhere way down the road. If (as the article above predicts) they're still at 35% of the marketshare five years from now, then I'd say that it won't be happening until after then.

So aside from all that, you are dependent on Amazon just genuinely caring about the end user experience and giving up some lock-in that they've already established. *snicker*

Personally I'm making due with my android phone and awaiting the color readers (Hanvon, etc) as I'm really interested in what this could do for the graphic novel/comic industry. For too long it's been dominated by large publishers.

a kinect review
Highs:

* Just plain fun
* Limitless potential, could move beyond gaming.
* New, innovative technology will only get better.
Lows:

* $150 price on top of Xbox 360 console
* Half-second of inherent lag
* Fairly basic games
* Only handles two players at a time



german summry
Approximative transaltion in english :
The setup is a problem too. So kinect needs really much place and has problem with light. One tester from joystiq was not
recognized due to his glasses, because it was reflecting too much light.

Whoever want to paly to 2 needs 3 meter of free palce from TV (9 foot aprox) which needs a lot of moving furniture by many.
Which means also that the dashboard features like move command cannot be used when one want to do only a to watch a film, not to play.
Also the price is critized.



IGN video review linked ina rticle

Mixed reviews for kinect



My verdict from what i all read : the lag will probably limit it to games where it is not too important (casual family game, or game where a 1/3 to 1/5 second lag has no impact). Tech looks good and could be a revolution, but at the moment too expensive. Wait and see for Kinect 1.2 with a good offering of games.

Geek Squad has to actively defend their trademark, otherwise they risk losing it. Looking at the FP's link with a bit more information, it sounds to me like Best Buy's PR woman was hinting at an appropriate solution. I bet they find a way to make everyone happy and simply license the trademark to Father Luke for his "God Squad" use.

http://www.i4u.com/37852/omg-geek-squad-wants-sue-priest The priests logo. And we all know what Geek Squad logo looks like.

I'll choose Microsoft for an example, although this sort of boilerplate is fairly standard. I quote from the license terms for Microsoft Office:

The software is licensed, not sold. [...] You may not:

• work around any technical limitations in the software;
• use the software in any way that is against the law;
• rent, lease or lend the software;

The first user of the software may make a one-time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party.

And many other restrictions.

So Microsoft can (successfully, in the Central District of California) sue you for copyright infringement the moment you load Office into RAM after: fixing their product for them; using it for any purpose that is "against the law" (which law?); borrowing it from anyone; buying a 2nd hand copy.

You think that's ridiculous? The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California doesn't think so. They think that the EULA gives Microsoft exactly that right.

This is not hyperbole or speculation; this is now established case law in that District (pending appeal).

You don't think Microsoft would ever exercise this power? OK, pick a different name then. Adobe. Apple. SCO. Choose your poison.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have developed a cool 3D display dubbed pCubee. Imagine the Nintendo 3DS be like this interactive cube, Sony would start taking the 3DS seriously.
Users playing with pCubee experience new interaction techniques for 3D scene manipulation in a cubic display.
Watch the awesome demo video here.

Here is a rumor that the 3DS will use the 3M film 3D LCD screen.

The screen is a frame-sequential two-view autostereoscopic system based on directional backlight. The left eye frame is displayed with the backlight applied on one side of the 3M film that directs the light into your left eye, the right eye frame is then displayed with the backlight applied to the other side of the 3M file to direct the light into your right eye.

I have one on the viewfinder of my Fuji FinePix Real 3D stereoscopic digital camera, and it works pretty well. You do have to position yourself fairly precisely in front of the screen to get the stereoscopic effect, but that is not too hard with a portable device.

New phones are being touted as "iPhone killers"

That's not saying much. It is just the blinkered view that pundits get in regards to Apple. We already have people talking about iPad killers before it is even released.

When it comes to usability and design, the iPhone is the yardstick that other phones are being measured against.

Having watched my mother-in-law recently trying out her new iPhone, I have the say that the usability is overrated. There are too many places where you have to suck-it-and-see to work out the user interface. You have to tap on everything just to find out what is an active control. I found myself being uncertain whether something was going to open another application/screen or actually start making a call. Why should I have to be worried that I will inadvertently make a call?

I eventually got into the habit of doing test scrolls in case there were other hidden controls beyond the current screen because there was no visual indication that you need to scroll (like a scrollbar or a "Page 1 of 3").

Once you get to know the quirks of the interface then I am sure that it is OK, but as a new user experience I have been less than whelmed. I think that people have just been bamboozled by the flashy transitions between screens.

Why is this a hard idea to you? Japan has had similar ideas for years. The idea even floated around the US a bit previously .

Add google's location tagging, even if they just use the wifi one that is probably about a 1/2 mile radius of the picture location, and they still could be quite reasonably accurate (and quite easily at that).

So actually, the chance for you understanding the article seems to be smaller than the supposed chance of them doing an easy task which you deem insurmountable.

http://blog.laptopmag.com/msi-upgrading-wind-ram-voids-warranty and http://www.i4u.com/article13439.html partially tell the story. On the older models of the EEE, there was a label saying "warranty void if removed" over the memory area. They eventually made a statement that changed it, but its still a risk on some of the netbooks on if you can upgrade memory.

Gee, I could have deduced that most PC users DON'T also have a Mac. How? Maybe the bloody marketshare? Appologies for the US-centric market data, but I'm sure Apple is less than double-digit in the ROTW.

This is really a story in search of a topic, isn't it? :-)

This with the clever investment in toilets http://www.i4u.com/article4746.html. Something the Japanese have been doing for years. Hey Mark any good recommendation for bidet derivative investments?

Indeed, it even wants IE to perform well with Gmail and the rest. It's just that it has very limited control over this. That's why Google's been frustrated and it is launching this Chrome browser.

Did I call it, or what? ;-)

For those of you who are interested, Chrome is supposed to be launching later today. Apparently around 11 AM PDT to coincide with the press conference. (Any moment now...) For those of you who can't wait, PCWorld seems to have figured out how to finagle screenshots out of Google's 404 page.

For those of you who didn't get to see it, the comic book is now available for viewing.

2006? I thought the name change was recent.

http://www.i4u.com/article951.html (article from 2003 where it was called "tea cube" or perhaps t-cube)

Michel Fournier's record skydiving project failed today (Tuesday May 27th 2008), because the balloon left the capsule with Fournier behind. Source: http://www.i4u.com/article17593.html

Yes, the kid chip is being marketed via fear mongering
for their kids already.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2176543,00.asp

It will get worse too, and they have started putting the
RFID tags on medical implants as well.

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/3978/1/1/

I expect phones, watches, and other devices will have them
with or without us knowing about it as well.

They will simply hide the devices.

Not very hard as small as they are getting.

http://www.i4u.com/article5046.html

I'd say you may not like the idea of being tagged,
but odds are they are thinking a stealth tagging method.

Only ppl that will use a active scanner to
find them on themselves will have any luck.

NewEgg started to take orders on the new Asus Eee 900 PCs and the new Eee PCs are ready to ship.
ASUS Eee PC 900 12G XP and the ASUS Eee PC 900 20G each sell for $549.99. If you prefer Windows XP you get 8GB less of flash memory. Besides that difference both Asus Eee PC 900 are the same.
More details.

from Wikipedia

Time magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006. Time also collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda and U2's lead singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts. In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman in 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".[56] Gates was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001.

Bill and Melinda received the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on May 4, 2006, in recognition of their world impact through charity giving.[62] In November 2006, he and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un país de lectores".

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/globalhealth/otherinitiatives/emergencyrelief/announcements/announce-050318.htm

http://www.i4u.com/article6050.html

Wow, the e-paper he is holding in that picture has a full 4,096 shades of brown. Perfect for Doom!

Seriously, Here is an article with a better picture. Still not much contrast, but getting better.

SiCKO got also uploaded in full on Youtube. http://www.i4u.com/article9613.html

MicroSD will let you have 2GB

Soon eight. No kidding.

Wow. Ain't progress fabulous?

With a read speed of 16 Megabytes (MBs) per second and a write speed of 6MB/s, Samsung's 8GB microSD card well exceeds the Speed Class 4 SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) standard

Darn, that's for mid-2008 production according to engadget.

Verizon and Samsung jointly announced a 4GB MicroSDHC for May 1 2007 release, but I can't find it.

Anyway, performance on these systems will be more than sufficient for regular office work on Linux or as a thin client, and they'll support video up to 1080p (with add-on lvds daughter card of course). I believe the chipset supports SATA, though they don't show a connector on the device. Watts are ridiculously low (system: 14W Idle, 16W running Memtest!) It will be interesting to see what people do with them.

I'll have to buy a few to play with when they're available. I could have fun with this.

Gumstix is cute, but I'll take that x86 instruction set for ready applications and standard interfaces for readily available attachable goodies by preference.

This is actually quite interesting technology. It has been conceived before - but only that - conceived. This is one time Microsoft gets kudos.

Not quite. Even tho Microsoft was the first to market with something in the $10,000 range for places like Vegas. I wonder what the Blue Screens look like?

More info the MS product here, here and here.

I imagine that Jeff Han's own Fascinating multi-touch system just might not use Windows as a fundamental foundation. Don't forget about the 16 foot long interactive wall So I can imagine several patent fights coming out of this, even though the research lines are likely independent. Microsoft might even get accused of stealing somebody else's research, regardless of the facts.

Of course, this happens a little while after Apple revealed their own multitouch interface. Microsoft must hate that. After all, Microsoft can't get a patent on the use of fingers, even tho they can try.

>> The brown one looks like a turd.
> Hm. I think many fashion people would brown Zune just for sake of its color - brown. Many leather and fur goods are of that color. And nobody did the color before [...]

Actually, I remember seeing ads in print and on the web -- for at least several months now -- promoting a line of brown-colored MP3 players (including mobile phone / music player hybrid units):

http://www.i4u.com/article7383.html

The marketing tie-in is that the product line goes under the name "Chocolate". Hey, the candy color Angry Fruit Salad selection for iMacs worked, right? ;-)

-yagu

"I've lost the ability to record FM on my Creative Zen with my last firmware update"

Check this out: it says that Creative fixed it back.

Screw that! Let's hook them up with sonar and lasers.

Geforce 8800 GTX's are set to release on the 8th... There were a few places where breifly they were available early... Details on the g80 gpu

Grazer is now free The tool synchronizes GPS location information in GPX format and matches the timestamp of the location information with the timestamp on the EXIF header of your photos.
http://www.i4u.com/article6502.html

Sony has released a GPS Geotagger gadget: Using time and location recordings from Sony's GPS-CS1 GPS device and the time stamp from a Sony digital still camera or camcorder, you can plot your digital images to a map and pinpoint exactly where you've been.
http://www.i4u.com/article6207.html

Grazer is now free The tool synchronizes GPS location information in GPX format and matches the timestamp of the location information with the timestamp on the EXIF header of your photos.
http://www.i4u.com/article6502.html

Sony has released a GPS Geotagger gadget: Using time and location recordings from Sony's GPS-CS1 GPS device and the time stamp from a Sony digital still camera or camcorder, you can plot your digital images to a map and pinpoint exactly where you've been.
http://www.i4u.com/article6207.html

The HRP-2m Choromet will cost about 500,000 yen (~$4,400).

source:
http://www.i4u.com/article5733.html

I realised this myself a few weeks ago and bought myself a dvd rewinder.
they claim its the fastest in the world!

http://www.i4u.com/article2485.html

USB CD Carousel

USB CD Carousel
For people who have to many CDs lying around the USB CD Carousel might be the solution.

The device manages up to 150 CDs. The Carousel can spit out a CD via the desktop software or the keypad on the CD Carousel. Multiple CD Carousels can be hooked up together.
There are two models available. The newer one has a keypad and a USB hub built-in.

The question is just what system you have together with the Wii. Price is only one component, it is also about Games, Content Availability of Blu-ray versus HD DVD, Network Gaming and Fanboyism: http://www.i4u.com/article5611.html

If you use DVD-Shrink at maximum compression, reauthor to remove most of the alternate languages, menu chrome, and other bonus features, you can sometimes squeeze a regular release DVD down to a single 1.4GB 80mm DVD-R. Sometimes not, if the movie runs a little long, but OTOH it's usually quite practical if you're only taking a single TV episode from a collection that puts several on each retail disk.

Of course, one could use a different codec besides VOB/MPEG2... but that loses compatibility with many non-computer DVD players. And, of course, many codecs are covered by patents, which adds to the costs if you want to make a retail product, and there are definite trade offs with the video quality. But if the whole problem was easy, someone would have solved it by now.

The PS3 will also feature other pricey items, such as a hard drive

That's news to Sony, AFAIK...See here and here, although I admit that they haven't come out and said that "it won't have a hard drive built in" they certainly haven't said that it will either.

I always assumed that was the whole reason behind the Xbox 360 Core, so that people would go to the store and see a 360 Core for $299 and a PS3 for $499(good luck even getting that low!) with identical hardware(minus blu-ray*) and make the simple decision to get the Core+3 games for the same price as the PS3 with no games.

* - Who has blu-ray movies? When the PS2 came out DVD had been on the market for years and people already had DVD collections and the ability to rent them at the local video store, so it made sense to get a console that also played DVDs. I don't see the same happening for BluRay or HD-DVD. It will take years for the hardware to come down enough in price to catch on in the mainstream so it won't be as big of an advantge(if at all) this generation.

Hi,

we have actual video reports from the CES Unveiled event.
watch them here:
http://video.i4u.com/ [i4u.com]

Nice way to ride on someone else's popularity... Can't you get Slashdotted yourself??

Hi,

we have actual video reports from the CES Unveiled event.
watch them here:
http://video.i4u.com/

This is seriously old news. Like, from September old. What next, are we going to get an editorial about this new phenomenon called "blogging"?

From http://www.i4u.com/article4108.html

The NEC HD DVD Drive HR-1100A will be shipping in limited numbers in November. The HD DVD drive can play HD DVDs with 2x speeds.

... Also, no HD-DVD movies will be released in 2005 so you can play nothing on it in this year. Duh.

The robot's COOL and all but... I don't see the point.

The point is to build something that people who watched the original Gundam TV series would want, i.e. their own Haro that's not just a damn PC case.

Like this jacket with a built-in DVD player?.

Here's a shot of a small Samsung laser printer: http://www.i4u.com/article3081.html

I have a different Samsung and they have easily refilled cartridges (don't over do this if the drum is part of the cartridge) and my start cart has lasted 2000+ pages so far.

My basic strategy: BW Laser for regular use (maps, recipes, ...) and Costco photo service for digital prints. Costco has low prices, and free delivery. (This is new btw)

Sadly, you Johnnies-come-lately will never blend in with we true-blue old school Mac users.

photos of shuffle and dah-1500
http://www.i4u.com/article3863.html

New MobiBlu DAH-1500 review on I4U
http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-101.html

photos of shuffle and dah-1500
http://www.i4u.com/article3863.html

New MobiBlu DAH-1500 review on I4U
http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-101.html

here's a review and some pictures

Actually, Walmart is selling an enchanced version with usb 2.0 added and the ability to play walmart's drm files (wma). I am fairly certain this means high speed transfers. http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-101.html lists the max download speed at 6 Mbps.

How about one of these ? http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-97.html Price point is $649.00 which is near your limit. Though slightly above. Not completely rediculous.. but you lose the whole Laforge look I'm afraid... It's not the same type of device in the OP but I'm sure someone could make it work :)