Two weeks ago we saw a Youtube video of HTC’s “Dream” – the first phone to run on Google’s Android platform. As the presumed release date draws near (sometime in the next month or two), we’re bound to be seeing more leaked images before an official press release. Anyway, here are some pretty high quality (in comparison to the Youtube video) spy photos of it. At least for a little while anyway, this thing will only be a dream in my Google-loving head.
[Engadget]
Down at NVISION (nVidia’s computer graphics event), the Mythbusters revealed a 1100-barreled paintball gun that painted a pretty good picture of the Mona Lisa – in less than a second. In the demonstration, a first paintball gun is used to draw a smiley face, but at a very slow rate (this one only has one barrel). The second, 1100 barreled gun paints a much more complex picture, much, much faster. In the spirit of NVISION, the purpose of this project was to illustrate the difference in power of single core and multi core GPUs.
The Mythbusters have a knack for permanently engraving things in my brain with outlandish demonstrations, but this one is truly spectacular.
[Giz]
While we probably won’t see consumer hologram projection units anytime soon, this little iPhone app will generate a fake one for you. The app assumes a 35-45 degree viewing angle, and then calculates how to change the angle of the character based on the iPhone’s built in accelerometer. iHologram essentially warps the picture, an anamorphic picture but in real time. The app is currently in development and will be released for iPhone and iPod Touch.
Anamorphosis in Hans Holbeins “The Ambassador”:
[David Oreilly via Pocket Lint]
Kevin Rose, the mastermind behind the social bookmarking and news site Digg, has just announced to the internet that in roughly a month (give or take a week) the iPod Nano line will be redesigned. The new (4th generation) iPod Nano will revert back to the 2nd generation iPod Nano’s rough shape, but with a gently curved profile. The screen will also be in widescreen format, but positioned vertically.
Also, since the iPhone has seen a large price drop from the original to the 3G upgrade, its iPod cousins will follow suit with a significant price drop.
Beyond the minor cosmetic changes to the iPod touch, iTunes is moving up to 8.0. The upgrade is tagged as significant enough to deserve the “8.0″ grade.
An Apple fanboy somewhere just wet his pants.
Here’s Kevin’s video:
Art Lebedev, the studio that brought the rich and famous the Optimus Maximus Keyboard, has introduced its latest computer peripheral. The Folderix uses sturdy aluminum construction for the casing – after all, what else can you expect from a company that made a $1900 keyboard? The Folderix comes in 3 colors, yellow, purple, and blue. Aside from a laser-etched logo and 4GB of storage, that’s pretty much it for this little device.
You can get your hands on the Folderix starting today, for $55. It is a bit pricey for what you can potentially get, but Art Lebedev has been known to make high quality products – this should last you quite a while.
After much speculation and leaked images of Palm’s Treo Pro, it’s finally been announced. The Treo Pro not only sports a unique (‘n sleek) design, but it also has a large array of desirable features:
The Pro also runs on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition and has a 2 megapixel camera. The best part is the phone comes unlocked, so you can pop in your current SIM card and avoid setup hassles! Costs $549 without a contract, but should be much less with one. Looks like it will be a prime competitor to BlackBerry. More pictures on the offical Palm website.
Here’s a video of the Pro in action:
Compose is a great concept tablet device that allows budding composers to get their tunes out on paper ( or should we say digital paper? ). The device is essentially just that – a digital sheet of music paper, with an electronic pen that doubles as a microphone. Press the button on the “pen” to record as you sing a tune. The digital paper’s console will transcribe your melody into sheet music!
I think it would be great if this device supported the ability to export your music sheets into PDF format. Even better, how about some freeware for tablet PCs that does the same thing?
Today Lenovo launches its latest laptop – the X301. The X301 succeeds its lesser brother, the X300 with just a few minor tweaks here and there. The ultrathin laptop is Lenovo’s response to the MacBook Air and sports the following specs:
The ThinkPad X301 also adds the display interface DisplayPort – allowing the laptop to output in 2560×1600 resolution and up to 2 monitors, without any addons.
The ThinkPad X301 may not be as visually aesthetic as Apple’s MacBook Air, but it does have many more bells and whistles for the same price. The esitmated retail price for this notebook is $2,599, starting August 26th.
Augmented reality is essentially a mashup of the virtual and the real. A 3D image is overlayed over a certain artifact of a video clip or live feed to transform it into something new.
ARToolkit v 4.4 is the first to bring augmented reality to the iPhone, all in a standalone application. ARToolkit uses the iPhones accelerometer to gauge movements and keep the 3D object in the correct position.
ARToolkit also has the power to track and overlay multiple objects, courtesy of iPhones’ unique multitouch interface.
Unfortunately, we (and probably you, unless you work on this project or happen to be some Web 2.0 super genius) won’t be able to get our hands on this software for at least a little while – the software is still in its early stages. You can check out more on the toolkit by visiting the official website or watching the video below.