chis ferrara's world: November 2010

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Tokyoflash brings RPM LED wristwatch concept to reality (video)

Tokyoflash, purveyor of all things awesome when it comes to watches, has just unveiled its latest addition. If you're of the eagle-eyed variety, you've probably spotted it just to the right (or after the break in video form). The difference between this fellow and most of the timepieces found here is pretty simple: the RPM LED watch started as a fan render. Over the months, the company took this grand idea and made it a reality, now offering it to anyone with with more money than sense. The operation is semi-simple -- the inner ring shows the hour, while the outer ring shows the minutes. There's a group of five LEDs at the top that further explains the latter, and we're hearing that the band itself pushes the IQ of the wearer higher by 12 to 15 points. Even if confirmed by a respected panel of mad scientists, we still say it's not worth the $208.42 asking price, but you're obviously free to disagree vehemently.

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Tokyoflash brings RPM LED wristwatch concept to reality (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 17:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel research projects bring Legos to life, make groceries interactive

Kinect hacks aren't the only projects using depth cameras these days, Intel's Seattle research lab has also been working on a whole range of projects using what it describes "Kinect style" cameras, and it's now showing off some of the results. Among the most interesting are a pair of projects that combine a depth camera with a projector for some rather inventive augmented reality applications. One of those examples can effectively bring Legos to life (as pictured above), while the other adds a whole new degree of interactivity to everyday objects, namely groceries -- which could let you manage a grocery list using actual fruits and vegetables, for instance, or even warn when you've left a tub of ice cream sitting on the counter too long. That's just scratching the surface, though -- the group has also devised a system that can map a room just by walking around with a depth camera, which can then of course be navigated using the very same depth camera and a pair of 3D goggles. Head on past the break for a couple of videos, and hit up the source link below for the rest.

Continue reading Intel research projects bring Legos to life, make groceries interactive

Intel research projects bring Legos to life, make groceries interactive originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hands-on video review of Office for Windows Phone 7

If you weren't aware, it's impossible to take screenshots with Windows Phone 7. Perhaps once it's rooted we'll be able to -- but until then, screenshotting apps for reviews is laborious -- you have to take a photo of the screen -- and the quality is inevitably low.

So, looking for an alternative, I decided to do a video review of Office for Windows Phone 7. It's about 10 minutes long, and the video quality is excellent. You should be able to clearly see the text on the screen, and the audio commentary should be informative (and perhaps even funny).

In the video I step through the three key features of Office for WP7: OneNote (and its integration with SkyDrive); Word and Excel (viewing and editing); and SharePoint integration (though I sadly couldn't get it to work). OneNote definitely stands out as one of WP7's killer features, especially when combined with SkyDrive synchronization. Word and Excel, which lack the ability to sync, seem rather useless in comparison -- but still, being able to view Word and Excel documents on the move is surely a good thing.

The video review is after the break.

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Filed under: Windows Mobile, Microsoft

Hands-on video review of Office for Windows Phone 7 originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Beautiful Foot-Cranked Kitchen Appliances

Check out this amazing kitchen appliance from Berlin-based designer Christoph Therard, a human-powered cabinet of mechanical wizardry which lats you crank normally electric-powered gadgets with nothing but your leg.
A machine like this needs a suitably cool name, and the R2B2 has one. The R2B2 works thusly: You hit pump the pedal and a big, heavy [...]

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AAXA debuts L1 v2: world's smallest 20 lumen pico projector

The pico projector may have peaked a year or so ago, but AAXA Technologies is hoping to ride the coattails of success with the laser-based (read: focus-free) L1 v2. Predictably, this is the second generation L1, and it's being hailed as the world's smallest 20 lumen pico projector at 4.2- x 2.1- x 1.2-inches. Other specs include a native 800 x 600 resolution, on-board gamma correction, an inbuilt media player capable of decoding a slew of file formats, an LCoS imager, a USB socket and an internal battery good for 1.5 hours of use. We're told that it can blast images up to 50-inches in size, and while the $449 MSRP still stings, those who pre-order now can get in for $399. Not exactly a Black Friday special, but hey...

Continue reading AAXA debuts L1 v2: world's smallest 20 lumen pico projector

Filed under: Displays

AAXA debuts L1 v2: world's smallest 20 lumen pico projector originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 13:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kinetic ? CNC Aluminum and Carbon Fiber goodness for your iPhone 4

If silicone, leather or plastic cases aren’t worthy enough for your iPhone 4, how about these really snazzy looking CNC’d aluminum frame cases from Kinetic? You might recall that we reviewed a similar offering from ElementCase a few months ago. Andy wanted to love it, but it wasn’t comfortable to hold and seemed to hinder [...]

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NSFW: Another Junk Peripheral [Culture Smash]

Click here to read NSFW: Another Junk Peripheral

Not "junk" as in "trash", but "junk" as in "tickle pickles", "flesh bananas" or "knobgoblins". You know, dicks! More »

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Pirate Bay founders lose appeal: jail time reduced, fines raised

It's been a while since the four Pirate Bay founders lost their case in a Stockholm district court -- April 2009, to be more precise. The verdict was of course appealed, but alas, it was not to be. A Swedish appeals court has upheld the original ruling but changed the sentencing. Three of the quartet have had their jail time reduced: Fredrik Neij gets ten months, Peter Sunde eight months, and Carl Lundstrom four (Gottfrid Svartholm was too ill at the time of the hearing; his "criminal liability" will be determined later, according to BBC News). The fine, however, has been upped from the original 30 million kronor to 46 million (US $6.4m). That's seriously going to cut into their Black Friday shopping plans, but hey, we know a great way to pick up the Adobe suite. Well, maybe not.

Pirate Bay founders lose appeal: jail time reduced, fines raised originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 19:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fear In A Can [Can]

These fear-in-a-can cans by Hoxton Monster Supplies are perfect: the unassuming typeface, color and laugh out loud descriptions make for a great gag gift. I'll take a vague sense of unease and escalating panic please. More »

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Daily Crunch: Step Into The Body Shot Edition

Body Scanners That Don?t Keep Pictures Apparently Keep Pictures Sony Announces HandyCam NXCAM, An E-Mount Super-35 Sensor Camcorder Using The Kinect To Make Any Surface Multi-Touch Review: Barnes & Noble NookColor Codemasters Joins Growing List Of Companies That Hate Pre-Owned Games

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Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: E-readers

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! The team here is well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties of the seasonal shopping experience, and we want to help you sort through the trash and come up with the treasures this year. Below is today's bevy of hand curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season.

E-readers have really started to come into their own in the past few years, and there are now a bevy of options ranging from the utilitarian to the multi-tasking. If you're thinking about getting a reader for a friend or loved one, look no further: we've got our best picks below.

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Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: E-readers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google branches out into machine-curated high-fashion with Boutiques.com

Representing its first chic service, Google has just launched Boutiques.com. In true Google style, Boutiques parses hundreds of thousands of products to produce a personalized shopping experience that's tailored just for you. Interestingly, there's no sign of an accompanying Android app -- only an iPad app [iTunes].

Boutiques uses 'fashion rules' garnered from high-fashion taste-makers -- designers, fashion bloggers, stylists and celebrities -- to produce a wardrobe of clothes just for you. Have a quick step through the Stylyzer to discover your favorite style of clothes -- or take a look at the wondrous array of dress styles that you can choose from.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to shoehorn you into buying merchandise. Once you're done filling in your loved (and hated) styles of dress, top, bottom and shoes, you're shown to your storefront, which is full of perfectly-picked items of clothing with all the right accessories. Take a look at my storefront, if you can't be bothered to sign up and click through each of the steps.

Sadly, Boutiques only offers female clothes at the moment -- and the products it lists are all from American stores. Still, it's early days -- I'm sure Google has lots more in store.

Filed under: Google, web 2.0

Google branches out into machine-curated high-fashion with Boutiques.com originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jolicloud Jolibook review

The Jolicloud Jolibook. Oh yes, it's sounded like a made-up device ever since the pictures of it started to leak out, but the netbook centered around the Jolicloud Linux operating system is indeed a real product. So real that we've been using the Atom N550-powered system over the past few days. Sure, we've gotten looks in public because its cartoon-covered lid, but the £279 ($443) machine isn't meant for "grown-ups" -- it's intended for a younger set, or those between the ages of 15 and 25. You know, those that tend to live in the Cloud. So, does the netbook have appeal beyond the young'uns? And is the social, app-based Jolicloud 1.1 OS, which is built on Ubuntu and HTML 5, robust enough to take you away from Windows or another flavor of Linux? We've got the answers to those questions and so much more in our full review.

Gallery: Jolicloud Jolibook review