Belkin boosts HD streaming with Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit

By Paul Best

18:32 June 23, 2009 PDT

As web viewing figures begin to put on serious weight, so grow the demands on households’ internet connections. Recent stats show that more than four in five people are watching more internet video than a year ago and the number of videos being viewed has ballooned 10-fold in a couple of years. But speed and bandwidth, which are critical to quality video streaming, remain issues. Belkin’s new Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit adapter is helping the challenge of delivering mass entertainment over the internet, achieving 1000Mbps using the home’s existing powerline network. Read More

Dyson energy bracelet a good call

By Paul Best

20:45 June 22, 2009 PDT

How many times has your cell phone run out of juice in the middle of an important call? Too many. A team of designers, however, thinks it may have come up with a way of generating enough electricity to jolt your cell phone’s dead battery back to life to finish that all-important call – an energy bracelet that uses body heat and ambient temperature. Read More

Bigger night in with Sony movieIQ and cinechat

By Paul Best

20:26 June 21, 2009 PDT

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment hopes to give BD Live – the feature that puts Blu-ray Disc (BD) players in touch with a web-load of online extras – a shot in the arm with the launch of movieIQ and CineChat – and one to its bottomline, as the blue-laser video platform begins to gain some traction, with US hardware sales ballooning 400 percent in first-quarter results. Read More

Moby concept car puts the squeeze on city traffic

By Paul Best

18:47 June 16, 2009 PDT

Moby – so named after the big white whale of American literary fame – is an incredibly slim, three-wheeled electric concept vehicle designed to sail through, one assumes, the narrow openings in choked city traffic, like a motorbike. Or a latter-day Captain Ahab. Read More

The Cube models all-purpose vehicle to a T

By Paul Best

21:26 June 14, 2009 PDT

Industrial designer Carlos Mendez adopts a simple philosophy to his work – to make the world a better place. It was with this in mind that the honors graduate from California’s Art Center College of Design came up with his own 21st-century remodeling of the Ford Model T – the Mendez Cube. Read More

Archerfish mobile video surveillance sees what you want to see

By Paul Best

01:01 June 11, 2009 PDT

We’re both a watched and watchful society. In spite of the Big Brother overtones, the reality is many like the comfort and sense of secureness that video surveillance brings. And where would reality TV be without security cameras posted on just about every street corner. In a similar fashion, the Archerfish Mobile Video Intelligence surveillance system empowers us to keep a close eye – some might say, spy – on what we value whether it’s our kids, home, business. The difference with the Archerfish system is that alerts you only when you decide something’s up. Read More

Movie studios look at the big picture (and small) with Epix service

By Paul Best

20:10 June 10, 2009 PDT

A triumvirate of major movie studios – Lionsgate, Paramount and MGM – is planning to launch a new TV service called Epix that will screen recent catalogue titles in HD. But what’s interesting is the group's move to bundle it with a Hulu-like on-demand, commercial-free service that streams the same films in 720p HD. Read More

Western Digital lets loose mammoth 4TB external hard drive

By Paul Best

18:57 June 10, 2009 PDT

It doesn’t seem so long ago we were oohing and ahhing that an external hard drive could hold a terabyte (TB) of data, then a couple... and the march continues unabated. Western Digital (WD) has followed on from its 2TB MyBook with the release of the 4TB dual-drive My Book Studio Edition II. Read More

Pool-Mate goes stroke for stroke with swimming's best

By Paul Best

19:11 June 9, 2009 PDT

For swimmers and triathletes in training or racing, keeping a tab on laps is tedious, but also it can be easy to lose track at times, especially as you tire. Plus there are frankly better things to think about while you’re working out in the pool. British company Swimovate has come up with a swimming computer, worn like a wristwatch, which takes the mental work out of keeping a lap count. But being a smart bit of tech, the Pool-Mate does a heap more besides. Read More

Apple adds a bit of zip and grunt to latest MacBook Pro line-up

By Paul Best

22:19 June 8, 2009 PDT

Apple has given its MacBook Pro line a quick touch up, most notably increasing processing speeds, hard-drive capacity and battery life, as well as adding SD card slots to the 13 and 15-inch models. The 13-inch model has also undergone a name change – the MacBook now joins the MacBook Pro family – and has had its Firewire port restored.

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CarGo concept beats the hell out of traffic

By Paul Best

19:23 June 7, 2009 PDT

One of the corollaries of increased urban density is nerve-shredding traffic congestion and billowing pollution. So anything that addresses these problems receives our applause – like the compact, battery-powered CarGo goods van that is designed to negotiate the urban jungle, making frequent deliveries without fuss or fouling the air. Read More

Sony goes into battle with its motion controller for PS3

By Paul Best

01:21 June 4, 2009 PDT

A day after Microsoft took the wraps on its Project Natal motion control system at the E3 expo in Las Vegas, Sony Computer Entertainment has followed suit, showing off its own motion controller prototype for the PlayStation 3. And while the announcements have been popularly characterized as something of a “controller wars”, they're really a signpost pointing the way gaming has been heading since Nintendo stole the show with its Wii motion-sensing game console in 2006 – the need to capture the hearts and minds of the growing gaming audience, especially the moms, dads and similar less hardcore gamers. Read More

The squidolin takes new approach to teaching violin and there's nothing fishy about it

By Paul Best

21:28 June 2, 2009 PDT

“I love the sound of the violin,” explains Carlos Mendez. “Since I was a kid, I wanted to learn how to play it. But born in a poor country such as Nicaragua, my parents couldn't afford lessons.” It was this childhood affection for the stringed instrument that encouraged the young industrial designer to use part of his final project at the Art Center College of Design in Pasedena, California, where he graduated with honors in product design, to come up with an affordable way of learning the violin. So was born the concept of the “squidolin”. Read More

Sharp releases "industry's thinnest" solar panel for mobile devices

By Paul Best

23:22 May 28, 2009 PDT

Recently we reported on Japanese cellular provider KDDI releasing a Sharp waterproof, solar-powered cell phone, which we believe has been renamed the SH002. Growing interest in both photovoltaic power as a clean and green source of energy and solar-powered devices has galvanized Sharp to release globally its new LR0GC02 solar module for mobile devices – which it claims is the industry's thinnest. Read More

Green energy charger ready and pumped for UK's biggest music festival

By Paul Best

23:30 May 26, 2009 PDT

Mobile operator Orange and renewable energy specialists GotWind know they’ve hit on a good, marketable idea. The companies have joined forces for a third consecutive year to showcase their outdoor charging solution at next month's Glastonbury Festival, the United Kingdom’s largest and hippest open-air music bash. This year Orange has unveiled a mobile phone charger prototype it’s calling the Orange Power Pump. By treading on what is essentially a standard camping air foot-pump, the kinetic energy created drives a small turbine inside the Power Pump. The energy is converted into electrical current, which recharges the mobile phone. The idea is not only simple, it cleverly encourages you to dance and charge your mobile at the same time. Read More

Electric concept vehicle in the clear

By Paul Best

19:41 May 26, 2009 PDT

Smaller car = less weight = less energy to get from A to B. It's a simple equation that's well understood by those looking to design the car of tomorrow. Among them is industrial designer Alan Kravchenko, who caught our eye with this clean-lined concept for a compact urban commuter dubbed the Peugeot Clear. Read More

Reboot takes a hike with Ksplice update software

By Paul Best

23:19 May 25, 2009 PDT

Rebooting your PC after updating software is one of the more tedious aspects of working on computers. New award-winning software, called Ksplice, however, addresses this by enabling important updates, like security patches, without the need to restart – at this stage – Linux-based computers. Read More

Android KOBIAN feels its way in a human world

By Paul Best

21:58 May 25, 2009 PDT

When in science fiction films android robots show anything other than blind obedience – or something akin to feelings – it tends to spell trouble for the human race. I, Robot and Blade Runner come to mind. So here we are, not even properly ensconced in the age of humanoid robots yet, and already researchers at Japan’s Waseda University and Kyushu robotics manufacturer Tmsuk have conspired to create a robot, named KOBIAN, that can express a range of emotions. Uh-oh. Read More

Sharp launches first notebook PC with optical sensor LCD pad

By Paul Best

01:06 May 19, 2009 PDT

Sharp Corporation is releasing a new notebook PC with an innovative optical sensor built into an LCD touch pad – which the company claims is a world first – at the end of the month. While Sharp’s Mebius PC-NJ70A netbook will only be released initially in Japan, the 4-inch track pad, which recognizes input by pen or touch, clearly signals the direction notebooks are headed. According to Sharp, a pen can be used to input drawings and text, while finger gestures on the LCD pad can enlarge, shrink or rotate items on the notebook screen – all in addition to the conventional ways a mouse is used. Users can sign their name to a photo before emailing it, for instance; or they can use two fingers to zoom in and out of internet websites to adjust them for the best view. Read More

Christie shows "up" at this year's Cannes Film Festival

By Paul Best

23:00 May 12, 2009 PDT

The 62nd Cannes Film Festival opens today in 3D, with a preview of Up, the new animation from Pixar/Disney. The 3D camera being used for the screening is the Christie CP2000-SB projector with built-in Brilliant3D innovative technology. Christie is a technical partner to the festival through its partner, digital cinema service company XDC. Read More

Toy haulers all the go for big kids

By Paul Best

19:29 May 12, 2009 PDT

Toy Haulers are like giant toy boxes on wheels for grown-ups looking to get away to the great outdoors with their all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), dirt bikes, bicycles, snowmobiles, jet skis, boats or any other recreational toy you can think of. Read More

The PediSedate uses video games to calm children

By Paul Best

00:02 May 12, 2009 PDT

It’s not entirely brand new but interest in the PediSedate has been resurrected by Technologizer looking at Game Boy oddities as part of a 20th anniversary tribute to Nintendo’s handheld gaming console. The PediSedate is a clever medical gadget consisting of a colorful, toy-like headset that connects to a game console like a Game Boy system or some portable digital music player. Read More

Robotic Hawk serves and protects … and entertains

By Paul Best

00:31 May 11, 2009 PDT

It plays drums, serves drinks and learns whatever you care to teach it – it’s Hawk, your very own bot for the home. Designed and built on an i90 robot base, Hawk is a human-like robot with hawkish head and long claw-like arms. Ergo, it’s moniker. Read More

Panasonic unveils Fukitorimushi: a worm-like robot for cleaning floors

By Paul Best

20:28 May 10, 2009 PDT

Panasonic has shown off its robotic worm that cleans as it inches its way across the floor. Tagged the Fukitorimushi, which roughly translates as “wipe-up bug”, the robotic floor-sweeper is covered in a patented nanocloth – called Nanofront – made up of thousands of polyester filament fibers that can pick up extremely fine dust conventional cleaners leave behind – at least according to its makers. Read More

Kindle DX: Amazon upsizes e-reader

By Paul Best

23:41 May 6, 2009 PDT

Amazon.com has added an upgraded version of its wireless electronic reader Kindle, with several improvements, its larger 9.7-inch screen the most obvious. The Kindle DX also introduces a PDF reader, auto-rotation and expanded memory that can store up to 3,500 books. Read More