Booting up your laptop only to find there are no Wi-Fi networks nearby is a pain. Thankfully, geeks everywhere can now find a signal for surfing by simply looking down at their apparel.
The Wi-Fi Detector Shirt has a basestation design on its front with signal waves emanating from it that apparently glow according to the intensity of a nearby network’s strength. For example, a weak signal may only light up a couple of bars on your shirt, while a stronger signal could illuminate all of them. Read the rest of this entry »
Sharp, in collaboration with MIT have announced an improved fuel cell technology that’s claimed to have the highest power density to date. Fuel cells have been around for yonks and basically convert chemical energy into electrical energy. It’s a sort of reverse electrolysis process (where water can be turned into hydrogen and oxygen by passing a current through it), using exotic materials that act as catalysts. In this case methanol is the fuel source. It’s a lot safer, cheaper and easier to transport than Hydrogen, which has been a popular choice with fuel cell developers in the past.
Sharp’s Direct to Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) prototypes are small enough to be used inside most gadgets, from mobile phones and GPS receivers to personal stereos and cameras and they say they’ll last around as long as lithium ion rechargeable batteries (3 – 5 years). Read the rest of this entry »
Intel’s upcoming generation of processors, called the Nehalem, will be introduced later this year, and all the signals point to a Q4 release. As previously stated by the chip manufacturer during this spring’s Intel Developer Forum, the first Nehalem units to hit the market will be built on the 45-nanometer process technology (Bloomfield silicon) and will sport four processing cores.
It is widely known that the 4-core behemoth will come with an integrated DDR3-1333 memory controller, SMT (Simultaneous Multi-Threading) technology and 8 MB of L2 cache. The SMT implementation will allow each of the CPU cores to simultaneously process two threads, just like the previous HyperThreading technology introduced back in the Pentium 4 era. Read the rest of this entry »
Mobile computing has conquered both the high-end and the mainstream markets and analysts claim that the number of sold notebooks will outpace desktop systems by 2010. Mobile gaming is still a niche market, dominated by bulky notebooks with significant price tags, but most of the general-purpose laptops deliver optimal performance at a reasonable price tag.
The first entry in the mainstream notebook line-up is the Acer Aspire 5920 model, that comes rigged with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 chip running at 1.6 GHz. The system also packs 2 GB of DDR2 memory and runs Windows Vista Home Premium. The 15.4-inch LCD display sports anti-glare technology that boosts the video output and offers a comfortable computer experience. The system sells for about $910 via the company’s retail outlets. Read the rest of this entry »
Nvidia is reportedly working on a new driver for its already existing and upcoming graphics card offerings that will unleash 3D features even for 2D games. The new feature is expected to arrive in June or July this year but will only be available for Nvidia graphics card owners.
In short, once the 3D driver is installed, any PC equipped with an Nvidia graphics card will be able to run the game either in 2D mode or in 3D, without having to purchase an expensive 3D-ready monitor. However, you will still have to purchase a pair of 3D glasses, also designed in Nvidia’s laboratories.
The three-dimensional effect will be achieved by giving the user a left eye- and right eye-view of the screen. The new technology is expected to work with any gaming title, given the fact that the 3D effect is not rendered on-screen, but rather on the user’s eye via the special glasses. Read the rest of this entry »
