Gadgetstronics

Posted Jan 18th 2008 3:59PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Laptops
We already knew the basic details about the processor at the heart of Apple’s MacBook Air, but those itching to know exactly how Apple and Intel managed to cram everything into that oh so small package may want to head over to AnandTech, which has pieced together a fairly thorough report on the matter. As the site reports, the processor is based on Intel’s 65nm Merom architecture and packs an 800MHz bus, yet it uses the significantly smaller chip package that Intel had originally only planned to debut with the launch of its Montevina laptop platform later this year. That combination, along with the Intel 965GMS chipset with integrated graphics, allowed for a 60% reduction in total footprint size, and a TDP rating of just 20W, as opposed to 35W from the regular Core 2 Duo processor. If that’s still not enough MacBook Air minutia you, you can hit up the link below for the full rundown.

[Via AppleInsider]

It starts with a case: This week, after one company preemptively announced a sexy MacBook Air sleeve before the Jobsnote, others have followed suit. Not only is there a real Manila folder case in the works, but others, from WaterField to Belkin, are launching their own lineups. Here are Belkin’s first hasty MBA-friendly bags. (They’re pretty, but almost too pretty. Is Belkin saying that the MacBook Air is for girls?) Like I said, the Bandwagonware starts with cases—easiest to fudge—but soon we think we’ll see companies like Belkin, Targus, Kensington, DLO and Griffin popping other goodies, from neon rubber protective skins to any number of competitively priced drives and dongles, just to fit in. [Belkin]

Posted Jan 18th 2008 12:41PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Cellphones We already caught sight of shiny little number pictured above these thanks to the generous folks at the FCC, but Toshiba’s just now gotten official with it, along with two other slightly less familiar models. That one above is the Portege G910, a follow-up to the company’s G900, which packs a 3-inch WVGA display, a 2 megapixel camera, Windows Mobile 6 and tri-band 900/1800/1900 GSM/EDGE support, in addition to 2100 HSDPA. If that’s not your thing, you can also look forward to the Blackberry-esque G710 (pictured after the break), which boasts GPS but no 3G, and the rather, um, unique-looking G450 “modem phone” (also after the break), which boasts 3G but no GPS (among other differences). Look for all three to hit Europe in March, with the G910, G710 and G450 running roughly $880, $440 and $290, respectively.

[Via Phone Arena]

While cell phones went through the “smaller and smaller” craze a fair number of years ago, it looks as though basic computers are going through the same design process these days. Case in point - the Ripple-Mini from Ripple. Measuring just 120mm x 300mm x 220mm, the Ripple-Mini looks pretty sleek for a mini-ITX computer. I’m surprised it costs a mere 90 Euros in Korea - now that’s yet another sub-$200 computer to further confuse those looking for a budget machine.

• Intel Celeron M215 processor (1.3GHz, 512KB)
• D201 GLY Intel motherboard
• 1GB RAM
• SiS 662 North Bridge and SiS 964L South Bridge

This sweet fishtank setup features a gigantic water bridge that connects two tanks, allowing the fishy inhabitants to travel between the two habitats at their leisure. It was housed in the former Evanston, IL coffee shop the Liquid Potion Lounge, and it was amazing. Sure, it’s highly unlikely that the fish even realized that the bridge actually connected two things, but fishtanks don’t exist for fishes amusment: they exist for ours. And this one fits that bill just fine.
galleryPost(’fishpipe’, 6, ‘Fish Bridge’);
[The Contaminated via Oh Gizmo!]

The Credit Card Microscope apparently lets you see stuff at 1000x magnification that you probably don’t want to know. Like checking the state of your hair, examining ‘micro-organisms’ (huh?) or…ahem…bodily fluids. Kind of a gross out gift to give to the mother-in-law if you ask us. $89.00. [Via Madville]

 These disposable compact microscopes allow you to magnify small amounts of material instantly, and view them through a light simply by holding it up to your eyes. Choose between 500 or 1000 times magnification!

Hate Wal-Mart? Sears also has a $200 Linux Desktop PC, produced by Mirus along similarly bottom-end lines to the popular Everex model that tore up the big box in December. This machine has a 1.6GHz Celeron 420 CPU, an 80GB hard drive, card reader and, more interestingly, a full gig of RAM. The bundled distro is Freespire 2.0.

And now, the bad news. Unlike Everex’s gPC, you have to fill out a rebate to get the $200 deal, which requires $300 up front.

Better looking—in fact, awesome-looking—is Shuttle PC’s own entry into the ultra-cheap PC market, the KPC. To be offered as a $100 barebones setup or $200 "pre-built," there are no details yet on specs.

$199 Linux PC Now Available at Sears.com [Linspire via Engadget]

Posted Jan 18th 2008 11:05AM by Erik HansonWe can’t count the number of times we’ve gotten to work and remembered we forgot to schedule that night’s American Idol football game to record on DirecTV, and wished we could do it using just our cell phone. Well, the satellite provider is adding the capability to do just that: with the DVR Scheduler (previously known as Remote Booking), you can log onto the mobile site at m.directv.com, and bounce a record signal from DirecTV’s satellite down to your DVR in minutes. The soft launch has HR20-700 DVR models going live right about now, with more models and an official rollout scheduled for February. Even the venerable TiVo HR10-250 is scheduled to get this feature, and it’s sure to be a big hit with commuters, travelers — and the rest of us who don’t properly set up our season pass recordings.

We recently wrote about the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) initiative and specifically the XO laptop. Basically, the XO is a $200 laptop specially designed for use in developing nations. The laptop instantly recognizes other XO’s and connects to them, forming a mesh network, which then enables collaboration and even shared internet access in areas that traditionally can’t afford laptops and/or connectivity to the internet. They’re also specially designed for viewing in bright sunlight, and are incredibly durable. We’re already hearing about the positive impact these laptops are having on small villages, and more are being delivered daily.

The OLPC foundation previously offered a way to get your own XO laptop by taking advantage of their Give One Get One program, which allowed you to purchase two laptops, donating one to a developing nation. While that particular program is no longer available–I am hearing it will be offered again soon–you can still give one.

I took advantage of the G1G1 program and have had one for a while now and recently had a “geek” session with Brian Jepson of HackZine and O’Reilly. Brian is a seasoned geek and a quality Linux hacker, so we had a good time playing around with the XO. I should also mention that we generated some interest in our local Panera as we completely took over an area by a fireplace and had some strange gadgetry flying high.

Not quite what the foundation had in mind when they made the XO

By the way, if you haven’t seen one in person, check out the picture below. I was amazed at how small it is when it first arrived.

Now, let the hacking begin!

XOChat.org
The first thing we did, once the machines were powered up and connected to the available Wi-Fi, was set them to use XOChat.org. This is a service setup by Tom Hoffman which is basically a public ejabberd server. The coolest thing about it is that you’re instantly connected with other XO users (provided they’re also logged into the service). To set it up you go to the Terminal application and type:

$ sugar-control-panel -s jabber xochat.org

That’s all you need to do! See the picture below for all of the options available.

Brian and I played around for a bit, chatting away and trying to chat with others. Unfortunately, Panera’s Wi-Fi and also Brian’s sugar environment–he hacked his a bit too much–were a bit flakey so we didn’t chat long.

You can see how many people are already on the service chatting away and collaborating for fun.

Here Brian and I were just trying out the chatting ability

Notice in the upper right you can see another user? That’s Brian. Basically, our laptops found each other.

Some fun with a sensor
After we were done chatting, Brian wanted to show me some other hacking he’s done. In this case he built a pressure sensor out of a collection of electronics parts. Here’s how he did it: he took a force sensing resistor (you can get one from Trossen Robotics, Parallax, or Solarbotics), set it up with a 10k resistor and an LED for output, using the 5 volt USB port as a voltage source. Then, to protect the sound card from the voltage, he plugged a photo resistor into the microphone jack and pointed the LED at it, and ran the Measure activity that comes with the XO laptop. Each time you press down on the force sensing resistor, it makes the on-screen waveform jump around. Not bad for a $200 laptop.

You can see on the screen that the sensor really was working–way to go, Brian!

We need Opera!
Next up we decided to pull Opera down onto the XO since the built-in browser gets the job done, but not quite the way we want. In order to do that we created a nested X server, since there’s already one running that you don’t want to disrupt. So, we basically ran one X server within another, and the nested server–software called Xephyr–ran outside of the other applications we had running. Doing this you can have a traditional Linux desktop running at the same time as your XO stuff, as long as your memory holds out.

Downloading the necessary packages for the prep work, before installing Opera.

Then we went to Terminal and had to locate where it downloaded. Then we installed Xephyr, and did a number of modifications to .bashrc using vi–always fun.

Here you can see all of the work we had to do, including adding a path, making a directory, editing the file xeph, changing the mode of our file xeph, and more. Lots of fun!

Here’s us locating opera and then unzipping it.

Below is the final result: Geek.com displayed on Opera running on the XO laptop.

By the way, one of the configuration changes that we showed in a picture above was to the dot pitch. By default Opera is basically unreadable in the X server, due to the XO’s screen resolution. Incidentally, if you look closely at the pictures above, all of the steps to doing this hack are captured.

One of my favorite moments was when Brian almost killed the OS install on both of our laptops. Notice how calm he is?

Also, check out the side view of the XO–it’s still readable, though a bit black and white

After hacking for about three hours we needed to get back to the real world, but I definitely had a new appreciation for the power of a $200 laptop–and linux and unix admins.

If you’re interested in doing some of your own hacking, check out the XO wiki.

I don’t know if it is the shape, the black and silver steel contrast or the total retro feeling, but this point-and-shoot handgun and camera is just absolutely amazing. Sure, it’s not digital. And maybe not as useful as the Leica Gun. I don’t care. I’m in love. Bang bang, this baby shot me down. [High Tech via Gizmodo Japan]