WORLD’S FIRST INTEGRATED GSM/WIMAX HANDSET

Scartel (brand Yota), Russian provider of Mobile WiMAX, and HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today announced the HTC MAX 4G, the world’s first integrated GSM/WiMAX handset. Supported by a broad range of services based on Yota’s Mobile WiMAX network, the HTC MAX 4G delivers a rich multimedia and high quality telephony experience in a sleek and powerful touch screen handset.

“Yota was established to provide a unique set of mobile communication services to millions of people in Russia and today we have launched the first device and services to realise its full potential,” said Denis Sverdlov, General Director of Yota’s parent company, Scartel LLC (brand Yota). “We really believe that these innovative services, high-speed Internet and stylish HTC MAX 4G will completely change the communications industry, just as the introduction of cellular communications did many years ago.”

The Yota Mobile WiMAX network offers high-speed wireless Internet access that opens a new realm of entertainment and communication possibilities. The basic Yota Home package will provide subscribers with instant access to online games, maps, messaging and file exchange applications while on the move. In addition, the high-capacity Mobile WiMAX network with traffic prioritisation algorithms, allows online films, video and TV programmes to be viewed on the large WVGA screen. Broadcasting 14 free channels at launch and 23 channels by the end of 2008, Yota TV introduces a powerful mobile television experience. The vibrant, 3.8 inch 800x480 screen of the HTC MAX 4G can display up to nine TV channels simultaneously, allowing quick and easy channel surfing and programme selection. Thanks to the device’s TV-out capability, users can also watch content on the big screen, putting the HTC MAX 4G at the very heart of the mobile entertainment experience.

For music-lovers, Yota Music offers an extensive online music catalogue of more than 50,000 titles, including a wide range of music from both international and independent music labels. Users can choose to either play the tracks direct from the online catalogue, or download them to the HTC MAX 4G’s 8GB of onboard flash memory.

Key HTC MAX 4G specifications:

• Processor: Qualcomm® ESM7206A™ 528 MHz
• Platform: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Memory: ROM: 256MB / RAM: 288MB / Flash: 8 GB
• Dimensions: 113.5mm X 63.1mm X 13.9mm
• Weight: 151 grams (with battery)
• Display: 3.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 480 x 800 WVGA resolution
• Network:
• Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:900/1800/1900 MHz
• Yota Mobile WiMAX 2,5-2.7 GHz
• Device Control: TouchFLO™ 3D
• GPS: Inbuilt GPS
• Connections:
• VoIP
• Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR
• HTC ExtUSB™
• Main camera: High-resolution with autofocus
• Second: VGA-camera
• Additional:
• Motion G-sensor (automatically rotating picture)
• Proximity sensor (saving energy while talking due to the switching the display off)
• FM-radio
• Audio: Ring tone formats:
• AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV
• 40 polyphonic and standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI
• Battery: Li-Pol, 1500 mAh
• GSM: up to 350 hours
• VoIP: up to 50 hours
• AC Adapter: Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
• DC output: 5V and 1A

Source : HTC

Video-Processing Technology Enabling World's First Wraparound View of Vehicles in Real Time

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. announced today the development of a new video-processing technology that enables a complete wraparound view of a vehicle's perimeter in real time, to enhance the driver's field of view. The new driver assistance technology adapts to different driving situations, enabling the driver to peripherally view the entire surroundings of a vehicle, from the point of view and field of view that is most appropriate for each driving situation. The technology improves driving safety by assisting the driver in a variety of situations, such as parking, passing on a narrow street, and seeing around corners at intersections with poor sightlines.

Details of this new technology will be presented at the 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems & ITS America's 2008 Annual Meeting and Exposition, being held from November 16 to 20 in New York.

Fujitsu Laboratories developed the world's first video-processing technology that enables the supplement of a field of view that can show any perspective and any sightline on the vehicle's periphery, and which can instantaneously smoothly transition from one view to another.

Four cameras were installed around the vehicle's perimeter, and their video images of the vehicle's surroundings were synthesized by a "3-D virtual projection/point of view conversion technology" developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, comprised of the following: projection of the video images onto a virtual 3-D curved plane as a virtual 3-D video, and conversion of the the video images into views from any desired perspective of the vehicle's surroundings ("omni-view"). This technology enables drivers to easily check views from any direction or from any perspective desired, thereby alleviating the cognitive burden involved in recognizing the view that is being displayed. Additionally, when switching between different views as the driving situation changes, this new technology makes a smooth transition from one view to another by continuously interpolating points of view, fields of view, and sightlines. This helps to quickly orient the driver to the new view currently being shown, when the driver makes periphery checks.

Source : Fujitsu

Lunar Baby Thermometer

Designed by Duck Young Kong:

The idea is based on a common and natural behavior of putting your hand on the forehead to measure internal heat of their body. Checking the temperature by scanning the forehead with this device is easier and faster, since it eliminates the need to insert an external tool while holding them in a still position. The intuitive shape of the device allows the user to easily understand how to hold and use the device. The organic and ergonomic shape provides a secure grasp in the users hand.

After simply placing the device on the forehead, a beeping sound followed by a flashing LED alerts the user when it is done. In addition, the user can clearly see the temperature on the LCD screen, while holding the device to their baby.

Source : Yanko

According to Darpa,

• Flying car will move on land, at a max speed of 60mph, and
• Once in air, the speed would go up to 150mph with a 2-hour flight time
• Envisioned as two or four seat vehicles, these cars may be used for evacuation and delivery missions
• Likely to get morphing wings
• Optimized disk loading propulsion
• Strong flight control software

JAGUAR – New Super Computer

In recent years the title of "world's fastest" supercomputer had been lost by the company, ping-ponging from Wako, Japan to Armonk, NY, but is now back in Cray's hands with the implementation of the XT Jaguar. It's comprised of over 45,000 quad-core Opteron processors, 362TB of memory, and has a 10PB (petabyte) storage array, able to perform calculations at a massive 1.64 petaflops. That's over one and a half quadrillion operations per second and more than 50 percent faster than IBM's previous heavyweight

NASA finalizing Interplanetary Internet – Internet For Space

Vint Cerf, cocreator of the Internet and a vice president at Google, is designing protocols for a robust space-communication network, modeled on the terrestrial Internet. Cerf is working with a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (where he is also a visiting scientist) and at the MITRE Corporation, based in Washington, DC. "The project started 10 years ago as an attempt to figure out what kind of technical networking standards would be useful to support interplanetary communication," Cerf told the Technology Review. "The Interplanetary Internet project is primarily about developing a set of communication standards and technical specifications to support rich networking in space environments." Communication in space presents the team with two unique challenges: the pronounced delays, and the constantly changing positions of sender and receiver (due to rotation, orbit, etc).

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Windows Azure

Windows Azure, a new operating system that resides completely on the Internet. The Azure™ Services Platform is designed to help developers quickly and easily create, deploy, manage, and distribute web services and applications on the Internet. This will help developers create custom applications that run entirely on the Internet, accessible from web browsers on PCs, laptops, netbooks, smartphones and cell phones. Microsoft hopes that businesses will use Azure on Microsoft's servers to do all their computing.

Use Windows Azure to:

* Add Web service capabilities to existing packaged applications.
* Build, modify, and distribute applications to the Web with minimal on-premises resources.
* Perform services (large-volume storage, batch processing, intense or large-volume computations, etc.) off premises.
* Create, test, debug, and distribute Web services quickly and inexpensively.
* Reduce costs of building and extending on-premises resources.
* Reduce the effort and costs of IT management.

Charge your Cell phone by walking

Time Magazine has named the Bionic Energy Harvester, a knee brace that harnesses energy from walking, as one of the Top 50 Inventions of 2008. The 3.5 lb brace works by generating power using the same technology that lets hybrid cars harvest energy from braking. One minute of walking with a single brace generates enough power for half an hour of talking time on a cell phone. The harvester is capable of generating seven watts of electricity from each leg— enough to operate 14 cell phones.

The brace, developed by researchers at Simon Fraser University, uses the energy put into slowing down the knee joint at the end of a person’s step.

Electronic Cutlery

The IC3 concept consists of a computerized shaft with 3 interchangeable eating apparatuses; fork, spoon, and knife. The fork analyzes composition such as fat, protein, sugars. The spoon measures weight, and the knife takes temperature readings. Together this info creates a detailed report on what you’re eating, helpful to those with diabetes and nutritional sufficiency.

Via : Yankodesign

Electronic Paint Palette – Robust design

Canadian designer Yana Kilmava has developed a conceptual product that would help the novice artist have more confidence in learning how to paint. Virtuo looks very similar to the traditional paint pallets used by artists for hundreds of years, with the added bonus of modern technology. There are no wasted paints, no confusing mixing of colors and you don’t have to be an experienced artist to create really beautiful pieces of artwork. Virtuo includes an art pallet, a charger, 5 different art tools and works by electromagnetism so no worry about quick battery loss. Even though it was designed with the inexperienced artist in mind, Virtuo can also be used by the more professional digital artists who are also experienced in the traditional forms of creating art.

Texts from the designer:

The palette uses Bluetooth technology for communicating with the computer.
It mimics real paint mixture techniques with LED lights. The user can also mix
dark colours due to the special coating on the palette’s surface. The amount of
paint “picked up” by the tool is determined by the amount of time the tool
spends on the mixed colour.

The tools, consisting of a pencil, paintbrush, palette knife, airbrush and pastel,
use sensors to translate the user’s gestures into visual information. Taking a
palette knife as an example, it would use pressure and accelerometer sensors to
translate its position and pressure on the screen into an appropriate stroke.

Virtuo comes with software that is based on the real painting process: minimal,
leaving the user free to experiment. Most of the time it would look like a blank
piece of canvas, with a simple drop down menu showing only when the user
wants to start a new digital painting, save, close it or open a previously started
one. The really cool thing about this software is that it would treat all the digital
materials used on the canvas as real ones. Ex. You would not be able to erase paint, only paint over it. It would also have only a limited number of “undo” steps to encourage the insecure user to practice by correcting rather than erasing.

Via : Yankodesign

NASA unveils lunar rover

Two teams of one astronaut and one geologist each have been driving the rover through the Arizona desert, trying it out in two different configurations. One configuration leaves the crew members free to get on and off the rover whenever they like, but they must wear spacesuits at all times to protect them from the lunar environment. The second configuration called the Small Pressurized Rover, or SPR adds a module on top of the rover’s chassis that the crew can sit inside as they drive the vehicle, donning spacesuits whenever they want to get out. The battery powered rover can move at a speed of 10kmph, and cover 625 miles of ground on a single charge.

Sony's PSP2


His design calls for a flexible OLED display that can be conveniently rolled. An electric charge powering the display stiffens it while providing near bezeless prime real estate for gaming. Stereo speakers on either side double as a jog wheel and camera control.

Designer: Tai Chiem

Solar Satellites - Energy from Space

Ben Bova, the president emeritus of the National Space Society, recently suggested an incredible solution to the world’s energy crisis. Instead of taking solar panels and sticking them on your roof, he wants to send photovoltaic arrays off into space and beam solar energy down to earth. Since they are constantly exposed to the sun, such solar power satellites could provide a continuous stream of 5-10 gigawatts of energy.

His proposal is to build and launch solar power satellites - large photovoltaic arrays that constantly convert sunlight into electricity and use microwaves to beam that energy back to earth-bound receiving stations. According to Mr Bova, a single one of these satellites would send enough energy to power all of California. Since one would need a large surface to collect all of this energy, the best locations for receiving stations are dry areas such as the Nevada Desert or the Sahara.

Source : Inhabitat

USB Negative Scanner

Ingenious USB Negative Scanner At the touch of a button this gizmo scans 35mm negatives or slides and converts the trapped images into digital pictures. You can then edit, crop and resize them using the included software ready for printing, archiving or just viewing on the big screen.

Simply plug it in your USB port (no mains power or batteries required), slip a negative or slide into the respective holder and push it through. The image then appears on screen. All you do is wait a few seconds for the intuitive software to adjust the back light and colour balance and hit scan. you'll have a genuine 5 mega pixel picture on your PC.

Product Features:

• 5 mega pixel high resolution full colour scanning
• One touch instant scan (1-2) seconds
• USB 2.0 Hi Speed only (not USB 1.1 compatible)
• Powered directly from USB 2.0 port; no need for external power supply
• Small and compact
• High quality 4 glass optic element
• Fixed focus range & automatic exposure/ colour balance
• Built in Colourbright technology for more accurate colour conversion
• Arcsoft PhotoImpression editing software included
• Price Euro 80

You can place an order via Firebox