How about this for green energy? A pocket-sized device developed by a US company called M2E (Motion 2 Energy) promises to generated enough electricity to charge cellphones, media players and such, just by rattling around in your pocket or handbag. The gizmo is full of coils and magnets that convert movement into electricity, which is stored in a rechargeable battery, ready to be let loose when you need it. Apparently it generates between three and seven times as much power as rival ‘kinetic’ energy systems. The company has also developed ‘D’ cell type batteries that self charge as they are moved around, a bit like those torches that light up when you shake them. Read the rest of this entry »
The fall 2008 update for Zune takes Microsoft’s iPod killer at version 3.0. The Redmond company is preparing to release a new lineup of devices, including a new 120 GB model for $249.99, but also variants of 80 GB for $229.99, 16 GB for $199; 8 GB - $149.99 and 4 GB - $129.99. But the new devices are only a part of the Zune 3.0 evolution. According to the software giant, the new models will be accompanied by the introduction of fresh color schemes: blue-on-silver and sleek all-black. And as the new Microsoft digital media players will hit the shelves, consumers will be able to enjoy new features and upgraded firmware.
“Digital music services really come alive when they help people find not only the music they know they like, but the music they didn’t know they would love. With the combination of subscription, wireless access to millions of tracks, and powerful discovery features like personal recommendations and the ability to buy music from FM radio, Zune is taking the digital music experience to the next level,” explained Chris Stephenson, general manager of Global Marketing for Zune at Microsoft. Read the rest of this entry »
Before anyone writes in, yes, I know this rather bizarre USB ‘Thumb’ drive has been around for a while, but I thought it deserved another outing as I’ve been looking into the weird and wacky world of USB drives, and there’s plenty of them about.
One of my favourites is the humping dog, which does what dirty dogs do, to your PC or laptop, when you download or upload data to the drive. Trust me, this is just the tip of the iceberg, I’ve found Barbie dolls with drives in the most unbecoming places, drives shaped like cakes and cameras, bottles and bones (check out what Vavolo has on offer), and objects one doesn’t discuss in polite company. Read the rest of this entry »
Although Microsoft is not breathing a single word in relation to an event it has cooking for September 9, 2008, under the slogan “Say Goodbye to Laser,” leaks from its partners are managing to paint a more complete picture. As it has been speculated, the new technology, which will be unveiled in the second week of the coming month, has been incorporated in a mouse. The Microsoft Blue Track mouse, featured in the adjacent images, reportedly sports a LED in combination with wide angle lenses, instead of a laser diode. In this context, despite the attempt to build anticipation with consumers, the Blue Track mouse is by no means reinventing the wheel. Read the rest of this entry »
Now contain yourself! News that Intel has released the final draft specification for USB 3.0 has been sending ripples of excitement throughout the PC industry. You too will have to come to terms with a whole load of new jargon if you want to stay ahead of the game. Provisionally dubbed ‘SuperSpeed USB’ the big selling point is that data transfer speeds are up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0, which means a whopping 5 Gigabits per second. That’s really fast, quick enough to whizz a DVD from one place to another in just a few seconds and it’s going to make things like data transfer from things like MP3 players, cameras and storage devices virtually instantaneous. Plugs and sockets look superficially similar, and it should be backwards compatible but USB 3.0 sockets have an extra 5 contacts, set behind the front five contacts and these are the ones that carry the SuperSpeed data. Read the rest of this entry »
How about this for green energy? A pocket-sized device developed by a US company called M2E (Motion 2 Energy) promises to generated enough electricity to charge cellphones, media players and such, just by rattling around in your pocket or handbag. The gizmo is full of coils and magnets that convert movement into electricity, which is stored in a rechargeable battery, ready to be let loose when you need it. Apparently it generates between three and seven times as much power as rival ‘kinetic’ energy systems. The company has also developed ‘D’ cell type batteries that self charge as they are moved around, a bit like those torches that light up when you shake them. Read the rest of this entry »
