Dodge sparks 2007 Nitro in advance of Chicago debut
 Out of the box, the Nitro will come standard with a 3.7L, 210-horsepower V6, the same engine shared with its Liberty platform-mate. Unlike the Jeep, however, the Nitro will have an available 4.0L 255-horse V6 in R/T trim (pictured). Poverty-spec Nitros will come with a six-speed manual cogswapper, though a four-speed auto will be on offer. On the upmarket SLT, the latter is the sole transmission available. Those plumping for the big-daddy R/T will have to slake themselves with go and stop pedals-- a five-speed automatic is the only gearbox extant. Nitros will be available in 4x2 and 4x4 trim.
Features for the Toledo-assembled SUV are to include a raft of safety equipment, including stability control, side-curtain 'bags and anti-lock brakes. The Nitro's favorite party trick is sure to be the "Load 'n Go" moving cargo floor, which slides 18" to aid in loading and unloading. With a max load of 400 lbs., it could make for a fun tailgating proposition as well. When properly set up, the Nitro will tow up to 5,000 lbs., to boot.
Options will include 20" wheels, rear-seat DVD, remote start, a DVD-based sat-nav system with live traffic update, U-Connect (Dodge-speak for Bluetooth) and Sirius satellite radio.
No word on pricing yet, but the least expensive Jeep Liberty stickers at just over $21k.
Read more..!
IBM announces 630 Mbit/second millimeter wave chipset
 IBM seems to think we need yet another potential standard for high-speed wireless, and has announced that it has fabricated a working prototype chipset based on 60 GHz millimeter wave technology. According to the company, the chipset is capable of transmitting data at 630 Mbit/second over distances of 10 meters, which may make it a serious challenger for ultra wideband, which is typically rated at 480 Mbits/second. Read more..!
New DBZ: Shin Budokai screenshots
Sony Ericsson's M600 3G tri-band GSM cellphone
 Sony Ericsson just announced their new M600 handset. This 15-milimeter-slim, 3G flip-less sibling of the P990 is a dual-mode communicator bringing UMTS and tri-band GSM/GPRS with a touch-sensitve, 2.6-inch 240x320 262K color display, dual-function QWERTY keyboard, RSS reader, and Bluetooth with A2DP stereo audio support for untethered playback of that MP3/AAC audio stored on the 80MB of internal memory or Memory Stick Micro expansion card. And like the P990, the M600 is the second SE phone to feature the Symbian 9.1 OS and UIQ 3.0 interface with support for a wide range of push email for business users including BlackBerry Connect, Seven, Vista, and more. Available Q2 for Europe and US in Black or White for a yet to be determined price.
Read more..!
Louis Vuitton Mens Fall/Winter 06/07 Show
 Luxury powerhouse Louis Vuitton has unveiled its Mens line for the fall and winter. Louis Vuitton, under the helm of Marc Jacobs, has made a splash with a throwback to design great Halston. The ready to wear collection is filled with sporty profiles and looks ready to hit the slopes. The shows music provides a haunting backdrop that gives a almost somber effect to the collection. However, more impressive were the leather goods that the gentlemen were carrying, a smart alligator weekend bag and another leather bag sporting a "V" emblem. You can watch the entire show at Vuitton.com Read more..!
 There's been a mite of hype surrounding Furby creator Caleb Chung's latest robo-toy venture, Ugobe, and today at DEMO they announced their first "Designer Life Form", Pleo. Pleo, the 1-week-old Camarasaurus, runs on Ugobe's "Life Form Operating System" and receives sensory input by way of 38 touch, motion, toe, light and sound sensors, moves with 14 servos, has such adorable dino-dos as twitching, sneezing, sniffing, yawning, chomping, coughing, blinking, as well as interacting with all the faux-lifelike behaviors, moods, and desires you'd expect from a week old sauropod. Of course, the SD memory expansion is an especially nice touch for any robopet in the wake of Aibo's untimely demise, but you're gonna have to wait until Q306 if you want to drop your $200 on this little monster. Read more..!
Google making private Googlenet, Google Cube?
 The Times Online is reporting that Google is working on creating its own privately-controlled Internet, according to an anonymous leading content provider that says it's in talks with Google "to provide content for their alternative Internet service, to be distributed through their Google Cube product." The article goes on to speculate that this is the purpose Google has in mind for the "dark fiber" it has been buying left and right, and of course this news ties in with the long-standing rumors that Google is building a $100 PC with build-in AdSense ads. Google is sticking to its policy of not discussing rumors about upcoming products. Read more..!
Sony VPL-VW100 SXRD projector
 Sony originally planned to bust out the VPL-VW100 SXRD projector by the end of 2005, but noticed availability today thanks to a European launch. Based on the specs of this powerful projector; the VPL-VW100 is a 1920 x 1080 res unit with an output of 800 lumens and contrast ratio upwards of 15,000:1, folks looking for an HDMI-capable projector will be thrilled. The VPL-VW100 sports HDMI along with a DVI-D, component, S-Video, and Ethernet jack. The guts are built off of the successful Sony SXRD sets that we just love. The projector is in the $8k to $10k street price range. Read more..!
Open source game list for Windows
 This post goes out to all those Open source advocates, PC gamers, and friends of free. Source Forge has compiled a massive list of open source games available for download for your gaming self. Genres cover the gamut including adventure, sports, strategy and lots more. Enjoy! Read more..!
Hitachi shows off 7.5 micron thick mu-chip RFID tag
 RFID chips are already well beyond the embeddable-anywhere threshold, but the breakthrough Hitachi's planning to show off at this year's ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference) is their newest mu-chip, an RFID tag that's a mere 0.15 x 0.15 millimeters, and 7.5 microns thick -- ten or more times thinner than a sheet of paper with all the 128-bit identifying goodness. Ah, just think of the possibilities of embedding these things all the places their previous, positively bloated 0.3 x 0.3mm / 60 micron thick chip wouldn't go (pictured right is the even more obese 0.4 x 0.4mm version). Read more..!
Video games highly susceptible to becoming vaporware
 In an article entitled "Vaporware: Better Late Than Never", Wired News has published their reader's top ten vaporware tech products for 2005. Out of the top ten, four are games and one is a games console(the Phantom). No prizes for guessing which product came in at first position. 1. Duke Nukem Forever - 8 years and 11 months late 2. Phantom Game Console - 3 years late 5. StarCraft Ghost - 3 years late 6. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 1 year late but delay has been amplified due to intense demand 7. Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms - approx. 7 years late Read more..!
Intelix HDMI baluns for hi def over Cat5
 Intelix has got your back if you've got some HDMI to move up to 150 feet and happen to have a couple Cat5 cables laying around. Their HDCP-compliant HDMI baluns can pump that signal over your Ethernet lines for a very decent distance, but it'll cost ya: their MSRP on a pair of these is $560. Read more..!
Cingular 8125 goes on sale B2B
 Word has it that Cingular is finally beginning to take orders on their version of the HTC Wizard, the Cingular 8125, but only to their Business 2 Business partners. No, it's not any different from what you get in T-Mobile's MDA (outside the case design and keyboard, of course), but this one's on the nation's largest carrier, so if your company uses Cingular and you've been looking for a new smartphone, looks like today's your lucky day.
Read more..!
Hornby to take model trains digital
 UK-based Hornby is about to bring change to Lionel and turn it all digital. The new train sets feature a Digital Command Center which will allow individual control of up to 255 different trains and up to 250 accessories including lights, switches, and turntables. The control units will sell individually for about $100 with three complete train sets rolling out this Xmas ranging in price from $230 to about $400. Read more..!
PSP (officially) getting email and GPS?
 According to a second article "leaked" from the now infamous March 06 PlayStation Magazine, Sony will include a new "Sony Mail" client on an "upcoming" firmware update that will allow users to setup a new email account using their PSP's unique system ID. Nice, but PSP users can already access web-based email accounts. However, the article goes on to say that Sony will also be releasing a GPS add-on "this year" which includes the peripheral device as well as UMD-based software and maps presumably like those already announced for Japan. Read more..!
Sony's Memory Stick Micro to debut in March
 Last year Sony announced it was launching yet another version of the Memory Stick, and soon you can begin adding Memory Stick Micro (aka M2) cards to your collection of Sony-specific media. Like MicroSD, MiniSD and TransFlash, M2 is designed to be used in cellphones, and chances are good that if you pick up any Sony Ericsson phone announced from now on (including today's newcomer, the M600) you'll have no choice but to go with M2 if you want to add storage. Read more..!
Cultural choices of game platforms
 BIGresearch tries to tackle the question, "Do gaming trends exist among different races?", by asking 15,000 blacks, Hispanics, and whites which video game platforms they prefer. From the study: "All of the platforms seem to shrink in percentage of White, Black and Hispanic users based on age. While Playstation II increases with Blacks 25 to 34, it decreased with Hispanics and decreased with Whites. PC shrunk in use across Whites, Blacks and Hispanics who are 25 to 34."As you can see from the above graph, there aren't many outliers and current console market leaders (PS2 and Xbox) seem to apply all across the board. Conclusion: males, regardless of the color of their skin, enjoy playing video games. Read more..!
Pay By Touch aims to bring biometric payments to web
 Pay By Touch -- the company behind the fingerprint scanners in supermarkets like Piggly Wiggly and Albertsons -- is planning to make biometric payments the norm on the web as well. The company's new service, Pay By Touch Online, aims to create a standard for biometric hardware and software. Pay By Touch says it expects to certify millions of scanners this year, and that its service "diminishes consumers' fears and increases customer satisfaction" by allowing customers to use a fingerprint instead of a credit card to pay for online purchases. Read more..!
BMW enters world of podcasting
 BMW has taken its famed online movies concept to its next logical step: podcasting. The German automaker isn't simply presenting informational media... it has paired up with publisher Random House and a number of notable authors to create audiobooks featuring the automaker's wheels. The automaker's novel [ahem] product placement will feature at least four authors: Don Winslow (Beautiful Ride), James Flint (Master of the Storm), Simon Kernick (The Debt), and Karin Slaughter (Cold Cold Heart), with the stories being released biweekly over the next two months. The first podcast, Winslow's tale centers on a down on his luck Gold Coast businessman who loses everything in a failed IPO, but keeps his BMW. The protagonist's Z4 convertible is featured (less-than-subtly) in the course of the 50-minute story, while subsequent episodes will highlight the 1-Series, 7-Series, and X3. BMW hopes that the WCRS ad-agency conception will play well with MP3-enabled consumers who have grown tired of mainstream marketing ploys, and enjoy similar success to their critically-acclaimed short movie series. Read more..!
Super Bowl HD, RF, and 3D at XL!!!
 First Congrats to the Pittsburgh Steelers as they defeated the Seahawks 21-10 to win the franchise's fifth Super Bowl ring. For coach Bill 'the jaw' Cowher, Jerome 'the bus' Bettis, Ben Roethlisberger, and Hines Ward'MVP' it was a well-earned reward. It was a great game! Now it's time to take a look at what kind of gear the folks in Detroit were using to keep everything safe, smooth, wired (or wireless), and what kind of shiny equipment ABC brings to the biggest TV event of the year.
The NFL brought in Motorola and Sprint to make sure WiFi, 3G, and voice networks worked unhindered with tens of thousands of people sending and receiving data simultaneously. Moto engineers installed a total of 48 Ethernet switch-linked, dual-radio, tri-mode 802.11 WiAP-200 access points, half in the stadium itself and half in surrounding venues, routing traffic through Comcast fiber. For its part, Sprint beefed up EV-DO at Ford stadium and for Detroit in general, and added 500 base radios to its existing in-stadium infrastructure to handle the anticipated spike in radio traffic. Sprint also ran physical lines out to the security and ticket booths at the perimeter of the event, creating an entirely separate WLAN, because of the several-hundred-foot distance from the stadium itself.
The Feds and Michigan National Guard had all the good toys, including an integrated, autonomous stationary and mobile sensor network. Besides the biological, chemical, and nuclear material sensors located throughout the facilities, National Guard personnel carryed concealed detectors that transmited their readings and GPS coordinates to a central location. This sensor coordination was made possible by Distributed Instruments LLC, which uses Transducer Data Exchange Protocol (TDXP) for plug-and-play sensor compatibility on top of the open-source OSGi Service Platform. Sony and OQO handhelds were also used by several dozen Guards during the game for communications and keeping track of the data flow.
No security regiment would be complete without a plethora of cameras watching everyone's every move. All of these security cameras transmited their feeds to surveillance vans, where software and hardware from Intrepid Defense & Security Systems rendered 3D holographic views from the footage. As you might expect, everyone entering the game was subject to patdowns, metal detectors, and dog-sniffing, and all 16,000 people working at the game were subjected to criminal background checks.
ABC decided to go all high-def this year, filming exclusively in 720p and editing on-the-fly with Final Cut Pro and five Avid Symphony systems. Twenty Thompson Grass Valley LDK 6000 mk II Worldcam stationary cameras with Canon lenses surrounded the field, some with optical image stabilization and a few with 100x zooms. Two wireless HD cams (pictured) also made a debut this year, along with Sony's 180fps 3x Super SloMo camera and two robotic goal line cams; the usual dual-operator SkyCam, goalpost cams, and Steadicams also got in on the action.
Another interesting tech-first this year was the implementation of DNA-infused game balls, which used a drop of the synthetic stuff that glows green under a specific laser frequency, to prevent counterfeiting. Since about 120 balls were used during the game, and each ball is worth over $1000 just for having seen some play time in the 'Bowl, there is apparently a strong incentive to pass off fake balls as the real deal. Thus, the DNA slipped into the balls is "heavily encrypted," with a one-in-33-trillion chance of randomly duplicating the exact sequence.
Once the game is over, fans at the stadium voted for the MVP at Superbowl.com on their cellphones, and Sprint Power Vision subscribers with the NFL Mobile package (which also broadcasts all pre-game press conferences) watched clips and highlights. Plus, everyone can watch those oh-so-entertaining Super Bowl commercials over-and-over on their PCs or wirelessly on their mobiles.
Read more..!
|
-Lytir1
