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When Apple purchased chip manufacturer P.A. Semi, the Department of Defense was worried. Why? P.A. Semi manufactures chips for ten different military systems, and has $100 million in deals with the DoD over the next four years. And the DoD never expected Apple to keep supporting the sweet, deadly chips.
But they were wrong.
According to The Register, while Apple does not plan to continue modifying/improving P.A. Semi's PowerPC-based processor architecture, Apple has employed a number of veteran P.A. Semi staff members just for the task of supplying the current chips for years to come.
To us, it seems pretty logical, as if Apple is simply honoring the existing contracts/promises of P.A. Semi. Then again, it's just such a strange move from such a painstakingly marketed company—Apple and the military certainly make for strange bedfellows. More on this point from The Register:
While the information is limited at this point, we believe the military interest in PA Semi's low-power chip may have forced Apple's hand here. Uncle Sam hates to design new missiles only to have the guts ripped out by some dude in a mock turtleneck.
Think deadly? [The Register via Valleywag]
Microsoft's Mediaroom is the company's IPTV solution that brings TV into to your house (much like cable and satellite) over IP. You might be familiar with it in its commercially released service forms such as AT&T U-Verse here in the US or BT Vision in the UK. The features out now—quick channel changing, multiple channel records simultaneously without a hardware tuner limit, multi-room viewing, multiple picture-in-picture—are pretty fantastic, but we had a visit with Microsoft earlier this week and learned that what's coming soon is even better.
First, let's go over the features that Mediaroom offers now. With a simple set-top-box, you can grab high quality HDTV that's better quality (seeing as Comcast has been compressing their HDTV shows like mad) than what you'd otherwise get on cable. If you've got two set-top-boxes, you can stream shows off of each other so you don't have to record a program twice to be able to watch it in your living room and bedroom. This feature is called DVR Anywhere, and will be available whenever operators roll it out.
You can even watch the same TV broadcast or recorded shows on your Windows PC or Xbox 360, a feature that's been announced since CES by Microsoft, but is up to the actual service provider (AT&T, BT) to roll out. In AT&T's case, it won't be available until the second-half of 2008. Update: Microsoft tells me that the details here were a bit off. The Xbox 360 support was announced at CES and will be rolled out on BT's Vision service in the future. AT&T hasn't announced Xbox 360 support. Viewing shows on a PC is something I saw demonstrated in Microsoft's labs, but I'm clarifying with Microsoft as to what it was.
This leads us to the new feature Microsoft showed off: Applications. Since IPTV is a two-way street, your Mediaroom set-top-boxes are able to pull down information from the net, leading to very interesting interactive programs that people can code up for shows. For example:
• During a boxing match, you can pull up different mics, view fighter stats, and even view/vote in polls.
• Nascar races will let you bring up the cockpit cams of your favorite driver (as long as the driver is being tracked by TNT), or listen to the pit crew shout directions.
• During a primary event, CNN allows you to bring up voting results, bios, and other information about each candidate.
And so on. These apps are coded by the shows' producers, then sold to the provider in order to enhance your viewing experience. You could even code up your own app, tack it onto Lost, and try and sell it.
No service provider currently has applications in place now, but they're lightweight and should be able to be run on set top boxes out there today. It's just a matter of your local provider getting these features from Microsoft and integrating it into their service plans. [MeidaRoom]
I say "guaranteed" date disasters, but that may be a little too strong a word. After all, it is possible to find a cool chick that can handle your geeky obsessions—but the likelihood of that happening is remote at best. So, if you have a date this weekend, it is probably in your best interest to hide gadgets that could be viewed negatively by women—gadgets like those found after the break.
If the Clapper is bad, a Star Trek Voice Activated Light Dimmer is liable to have her hospitalized for tearing a muscle in a fit of laughter. This geeky gem plugs into any standard wall outlet and can be illuminated in three brightness levels using simple voice commands—which will be confirmed by the voice of Majel Roddenberry herself. It also doubles as a night light—and we all know how much women love men who are afraid of the dark. Available for $69.99. [Kleargear]
Creepy binoculars that make you seem like a pedophile are a definite no-no. So steer clear of these plushes with built-in binoculars. [Global Sources via Link]
I hate to break it to you guys, but there probably isn't a woman out there that would be interested in having sex with the Dr. Who Dalek, Optimus Prime, or the Dalek Sec Hybrid. So get those voice-changing helmets out of sight. Priced at $79.99, $34.99 and $64.99 respectively. [Dalek and Optimus Prime and Dalek Sec Hybrid]
As impressive as your collection of Star Wars figures, video games, and squirt guns might be, many women will be turned off by a hobby that requires a significant financial investment—not to mention a dedicated wing of your home.
Religious fanatics are just plain creepy—so avoid over-the-top imagery like this Miracle Eyes Jesus plaque. If a woman sees a statue of Jesus with eyes that follow you around the room, she is going to think that you are in some sort of applesauce eating, Kool-Aid drinking cult. Besides, "Jesus didn't come to Earth to give us the willies." Available for $8.75. [Merch-Bot]
When a woman enters your bathroom for the first time, she is going to poke around in there. We all do it. So, make sure that anything incriminating is disposed of properly. This is especially true if you happen to own one of these Turd Twisters. Basically, it is a device similar to those old Play-Doh machines that transform the dough into various shapes—only, instead of Play-Doh you are using your own feces. In all seriousness though, if you do use one of these, do the world a favor and stop dating altogether (no need to breed!). Available for $14.89. [Prank Place via Link]
Finally, the furniture you select to decorate your home says a lot about you. And if you happen to have a coffee table shaped like an NES controller (or a coffin) and a dresser resembling the lower half of a naked woman—that says you are a twisted, geeky pervert. A bed with springs for legs won't help boost your image either. [NES Table and Coffin Table and Sexy Furniture and Spring Bed]
Remember yesterday's drooltastic Motion Pro II racing simulator? Here's how it works and how much it costs. We talked with Chris Considine—CXC Simulations head honcho—who tells us that yes, people actually buy these things even if they cost more than a car: the Motion Pro II starts at $25,995, but he said that a client spent $45,000 on one, after add-ons. See the complete shopping list—and high definition pictures from a real system—after the jump.
Remember yesterday's drooltastic Base model: $25,995 (one screen)
Add-ons
Panoramic display system: $12,995
Six-speed gated shifter and progressive clutch upgrade: $1,049.95
Sequential shifter and hand brake: $1,049.95
Mobility System: $529.95
Carbon fiber bodywork kit: $1,799.95
Advanced on-site setup and training: $2,995
The other options, like the custom paint for the bodywork, are listed as "Call." And then you have to add the software, like Rfactor for $450 or Race for $195. Too expensive to buy? You can rent one: six hours for $1,400 or a week for $12,200, plus two operators at $750 for half a day. And shipping. [CXC Simulations—full video at Inside Sim Racing]
We've reviewed MacBook and MacBook Pro battery chargers before, but the problem with that is that they aren't compatible between different laptop types. Not so with FastMac's U-Charge. Their external battery charger lets you juice up MacBook Pro (15 and 17-inch), MacBook, PowerBook G4, iBook and even PowerBook G3 batteries externally all from the same unit.
Why would we need this? Because we go through multiple batteries in a day of liveblogging, and this is the perfect thing to charge up more than one battery at night without having to wake up multiple times in the middle of the night to swap them out from your laptop. At $69, it's fantastic, and even better than the NewerTech chargers since it charges pretty much every recent Apple laptop. [Fastmac]
GM lugged 17 environmentally friendly cars to New York—fittingly, to Tavern on the Green. The rain-soaked occasion was a display of Challenge X contenders, nearly identical 2005 Chevy Equinoxes modded by teams from schools across the US and Canada to be environmentally friendly, fuel efficient and/or low in emissions. University of Waterloo's hydrogen powered, zero-emissions, electric SUV earned the most awe from the crowd for its ambitious yet completely safe, student-built fuel-cell power plant.
This vehicle from University of Waterloo in Canada uses a 400kg fuel cell to turn on-board hydrogen and airborne oxygen into energy that powers two 67-kW electric motors. If the SUV demands more power, it has a backup battery that is charged in part by a regenerative brake, like on today's hybrids.
They actually let me drive the thing. Here's what I thought: The ride is extremely smooth. Since the SUV doesn't have an engine, it's relatively quiet, especially when accelerating. Most of the noise comes from the oxygen intake system, but it only comes in quick bursts. The brakes are sensitive, but part of the reason for that is to use the kinetic energy harvested by braking for recharging the battery. A touchscreen computer in the center displays all the diagnostics, and shows where the vehicle is getting its power.
The truck holds about 4kg of hydrogen packed at 5000psi, which gives it the equivalent of ~25mpg. It is extremely clean, as the only emission given off by the vehicle is a bit of water, a byproduct of the fuel cell process. It tops out around 65mph, but that can be improved in the future. The main problem with the fuel cell SUV is the lack of places to fill up the tank. Hydrogen fueling stations are a long way from the mainstream, and the team said there are only two locations where they can reload on the way to Washington, DC, their final destination on this tour. Hopefully this will change soon, because a clean, abundantly available fuel source seems like a pretty good option to me. [Challenge X]
It's not from Apple, but it gives a pretty good idea of what to expect from them, especially knowing that only one guy—Christian Moore—got this system running at full speed on a simple Intel-based MacBook. His Lux free open framework enables true multitouch interaction in Mac OS X. In fact, he says it can work under any platform and even a web browser, enabling complex user interfaces and object manipulation comparable to Jeff Han's magic walls or the Microsoft Surface anywhere. We talked with Moore about how it works and what to expect from it.
It's not from Apple, but it gives a pretty good idea of what to expect from them, especially knowing that only one guy—Christian Moore—got this system running at full speed on a simple Intel-based MacBook. His Lux free open framework enables true multitouch interaction in Mac OS X. In fact, he says it can work under any Jesus Diaz: Tell me more about Lux. This is a framework that anybody can use, right? Under any platform?
Christian Moore: Well, yeah, is an open source framework I've been working on for experimenting with user interfaces. It's more a general framework than targeting one main deployment platform. That video is actually all AS3 running in Flash 9 ?over Mac OS X, but you can integrate it with any development system and platform.
JD: Why Flash?
CM: Because it's fast to prototype in. However, the software is broken into several segments. One C++ application that tracks hands that talks to Flash... WPF... or another C++ app... and basically everything you can imagine. You can enable multitouch in any environment, like Cocoa.
JD: So anyone can grab the framework and make native multitouch apps right in Mac OS X or Windows or Linux.
CM: Yeah. We have an Xcode-developed app for photo and paint coming, as well as a tracking application. But using Flash for this demo was the fastest way for us at the moment.
JD: How many people did this?
CM: I did the core system, but four people from the NUI Group contributed demos.
JD: What machine is running the demo in the video? Looks amazingly fast.
CM: Just a MacBook.
JD: And for the multitouch screen?
CM: I use a ~box from naturalui. It's ghetto tech, I know, but I developed the majority of Lux on a cardboard box. And it works great.
JD: Indeed, it looks like it works perfectly right. How does this compare to frameworks like UITouch, in the iPhone?
CM: Apple's UITouch its very, very well designed. It runs at the core level, while ours is more a free environment to develop on top... to learn about multitouch and share code.
To commemorate the golden jubilee of America's Defense Advance Research Projects Agency—formed these 50 years ago in response to a little traveler called Sputnik—New Scientist has come up with a short list of 10 DARPA inventions: five that changed the world, and five that fell flat:
Five Big Wins
The internet - You know, ARPANET, or a communications network that heals thyself. The whole porn-music-movie triangle trade was not in the original blueprint.
GPS - The idea that satellites up there could tell us where we are down here is as old as Sputnik, and DARPA had an attempt or two before getting it right with GPS. Again, not originally purposed for civilians and their "points of interest"—more about targeting ballistic warheads, but you know, potato, po-tah-to.
Speech translation - Soldiers in Iraq use handheld machine translators to aid in communication with some degree of success, meaning it's only a matter of time before some German tourists ask you to speak into the microphone.
Stealth planes - Stealth airplane technology was so sneaky it even snuck up on Air Force top brass, who were apparently shocked to learn about the prototype for the original F-117.
Gallium arsenide - Yep, some DARPA egghead discovered you can do more with arsenic than poison KGB triple-agents. It's now found in all kinds of everyday electronics. That may not last, though, because environmentally speaking it's still some pretty nasty stuff.
Five That Didn't Quite Make It
Hafnium bombs - DARPA put $7 million into researching a bomb with massive initial devastation but no radioactive fallout, but alas, it didn't ever work. Apparently if you want the good, you gotta take the bad.
The mechanical elephant - Hannibal would have been proud of this one: During the Vietnam War, some dudes at DARPA wanted to take terrain-friendly robot elephants into the jungle. Even DARPA's director was embarrassed.
Telepathic spies - People who claimed psychic powers were on the receiving end of a lot of government funding in the 1970s. Even though the project was a failure, getting rich by pretending to be psychic does seem to suggest a kind of sixth sense.
FutureMap - Apparently a bunch of Dick Cheney's friends betting on terror targets was considered grotesque by some people. I've still got $30K riding on Dubuque.
Project Orion - This is a nerd favorite: it's the spaceship powered by atomic-bomb turds. I think everyone was sad to see that one go.
Check out the New Scientist story for the real deal behind these 10 projects, and a look at some crazy projects that might make the list in the next 50 years. [New Scientist]
Microsoft has officially announced that Windows XP is coming to the OLPC XO with trial runs beginning as early as June. This comes after months of discussion and speculation of when the move would happen. The operating system has been specially modified to run on the computer and support its ebook reading mode, writing pad and camera. And according to the press release, the plan is to have both Windows and Linux running on the machines, to let users decide what's best.
The price increase for the OLPC loaded with XP will be about $3 on top of the $200 price tag. Users who want a dual boot version to the OLPC will pay $7 extra. The XP operating system will come preloaded on an additional 2GB flash chip, offering 3GB of storage space total (1.5 usable after OS install).
After months of opposition by Bill Gates, talks of the joint venture began at CES 2008, where both men were attending. Widespread distribution of the machines is expected to happen in August or September. Check out the video demo below. [Microsoft and NY Times]
Remember that rumored mockup of the Palm Skywriter we showed you last week? Yeah, this spyshot (courtesy of aliased citizen Shadowmite) of the finished Treo 800w shows the prototype was pretty spot on with the button layout of this WinMo phone. While unconfirmed, the 800w is expected to run WinMo 6.1 on a 400 MHz processor with 128 MB of RAM and have 256 MB of flash memory. It's also rumored to introduce a few firsts for the Palm brand — namely EVDO Rev.A, GPS, and Wi-Fi.
Shadowmite also says it has a micro USB connection, which brings Palm out from the proprietary connector rock. It may be incremental, but it's good to see Palm playing a bit of catchup with the smartphone heavyweights. [Shadowmite via Palm Infocenter]
If you guessed that Giz Explains Plasma TV was just the first of several TV-technology explainers, you were right. Congratulations! You win... this week's installment: Giz Explains LCD TVs. The little panels are in your phone, on your desk and maybe you're looking at one for your home theater too. Here's the quick and dirty basics.
Alright, so LCD stands for liquid crystal display. (Again, we're keeping this kind of simple, for simplicity's sake.) Basically, the liquid crystal part is a gel that sits in front of a backlight or—in the case of older panels such as those found in Game Boys up till like 2003—a reflective panel. (Remember those crappy lighting accessories?) The gel is divided up into a bunch of separate pixels, which can be fired individually. Color LCDs are a bit more complicated, made up of red, blue and green subpixels which combine to create pixels with the full range of color. To throw one more bit of tech at ya, most LCDs at this point are thin-film transistor LCDs, so that the control layer is embedded within the panel itself instead of off to the side. This provides better image stability and other benefits.
One of the problems with LCDs, and why plasma has an advantage in showing blacks, is that the liquid crystal layer is not opaque, even when all of the pixels are closed. On most LCDs, the bright backlight is on when the TV is on, so that will always bleed through at least a bit. LED-backlit LCDs can light up just a part of the panel instead of the whole thing, to an extent minimizing the problem.
Besides the "dynamic" backlighting described above, LCD technology is constantly improving its contrast through various crazier schemes involving pixel twisting and other light-blocking techniques.
The other notorious LCD problem is moton blur. If you've been buying LCD monitors for the past few years, you'll notice that advertised response times have dropped precipitously, down to as little as 2ms on some gamer-friendly computer monitors, and 6ms on big ol' TVs, so there's less true blurring of the picture. LCDs can also reduce motion blur further by processing the image: High-end LCDs use 120Hz technology to essentially double the framerate of source video, tricking the eye into seeing less blur.
Some 120Hz LCDs achieve this by tossing in a black frame of "downtime," but other sets morph two frames into a third, middle image that sits somewhere between the original frame and the next. As you might suspect, this can result in a weird, uncanny super silkiness that some reviewers object to.
Other reasons home theater buffs pick plasma over LCD in serious showdowns are that LCD naturally produces a less uniform picture and can't be seen as well (in color or brightness or both) from wide angles. LCDs can produce great pictures, and will keep getting better (LED backlights FTW), but in sets 42 inches and above, it just can't quite touch plasma, despite the fact that its cheaper pricer point has given it an overwhelming marketshare on the HDTV front.
Sony, which pushes Bravia LCD and hasn't sold plasma sets in years, is sending signals that it will soon focus on OLED instead. OLED pretty much makes both LCD and plasma look sad. They still cost a billion dollars and are a few years away, but the day of the OLED will come. [Giz Explains]
Incrudo makes water-proof, shock-proof, scratch-proof, and apparently T-72B tank-proof USB flash drives out of pure titanium. And to prove it, the crazy Ivans pitted the key—which also has a special metal-ceramics composite on the front and back panels, as well as a real ruby that illuminates from the inside—against the legendary tank. Sure, the test is on the mud, but that's 49.1 tonnes of tank. A Soviet tank. If there's something cooler than that, I don't know what is. [Incrudo]
Incrudo makes water-proof, shock-proof, scratch-proof, and apparently T-72B tank-proof USB flash drives out of pure titanium. And to prove it, the crazy Ivans pitted the key—which also has a special metal-ceramics composite on the front and back panels, as well as a real ruby that illuminates from the inside—against the legendary tank. Sure, the test is on the mud, but that's 49.1 tonnes of tank. A Soviet tank. If there's something cooler than that, I don't know what is. [Those who hate the idea of a monthly prick on the finger compared to a one-time police baton to the groin will be pleased to know that TiVo's Product Lifetime Subscription is back. The catch? It's more expensive than it used to be...for some.
New subscribers will have to fork over $399 to avoid monthly charges for the life of their new TiVo—that's $100 more than the traditional $299 fee (but to be fair, it's the same price we saw around the holidays last year). However, existing subscribers with multi-room setups (those who are paying for multiple subscriptions) can still get the $299 deal.
I've read countless comments complaining that the lifetime deal was gone, and it's a good option to return to customers. But even though I'm running two TiVos in my house, I'll probably be replacing one or both of them before I'd ever see the savings over my monthlies.
Godspeed, Yves Rossy, Godspeed! All 180 miles per hour of it, flying over the Alps with your four jets, guiding your carbon fiber and kevlar wings using just your body, and landing with your parachute on some boozetastic jacuzzi party on top of Mont Blanc. Then get drunk like a Japanese astronomer and fly away to the stars. We envy and admire you, Mr. Fusion Man, so here's a song just for you.
Godspeed, Yves Rossy, Godspeed! All 180 miles per hour of it, flying over the Alps with your four jets, guiding your carbon fiber and kevlar wings using just your body, and landing with your parachute on some Sprint has released the rest of its iPhone-bashing ads, part of the Instinct $100 million campaign attacking the old iPhone just when Apple is about to release a new version with Jobs-only-knows how many new features. This time, however, on top of the internet connection and the GPS location, the other features may not be available on the next iPhone. What may be the scorecard next month?
Sprint has released the rest of its iPhone-bashing ads, part of the • Live TV: knowing Apple's aversion to television, this one will probably not make it to iPhone 2.0.
• Internet speed: For sure, 3G on the iPhone 99.9%
• GPS: High probabilities of GPS making it to the iPhone 2.0, given the standard integration in last-generation chipsets, the low-power consumption and Apple's recent focus on geographic location.
• Video capture: Also very high probabilities. The current iPhone can capture video already, and Apple was most probably saving it for the next generation, to both make it right, and as a sales bullet point.
• Music store anywhere: The current iPhone limitation of iTunes Music Store access only through Wi-Fi will most probably disappear in the 3G version as well.
So yes, our verdict remains the same: those $100 million are going down the drain. [Sprint]
The Gadget: Aliph's second-gen Jawbone has a revamped design, improved noise-blocking technology, and is 50% slimmer than Aliph's original Bluetooth headset.
The Price: It's out today in black for $130. Silver and gold models will be available soon.
The Verdict: The new Jawbone beats its predecessor from top to bottom in comfort and sound. While the original earpiece set the standard for Bluetooth sound quality, wearing it for an hour felt like exercise to my ear. The gen 2 is much lighter, sits in my ear comfortably and barely touches my face. The clip is slimmed down and covered in leather, a much better feeling than the rubber and metal monstrosity of yore.
The outgoing sound is better than gen 1's too. Aliph ditched "Noise Shield" for "Noise Assassin" technology, and while that sounds like a bunch of marketing mumbo jumbo, people on the other end of the line while I was testing it could hear a difference. The new tech kept the outside noise to a minimum and my voice stayed clear.
Despite these improvements, the Jawbone still has flaws. Incoming sound isn't much better than before; it's loud enough, but the digital crunch found in all Bluetooth headsets is still there. Considering how long Bluetooth has been around, it's a wonder why no one has been able to really improve on this. Also, the new Jawbone only has four hours of talk time compared to the old one's six; the weird part is, it almost has twice the standby time, over 8 days.
Since the only worthy competition for the Jawbone is, well, the Jawbone—or better still, the nXZEN nX6000—the gen 2 is a clear winner. Bluetooth headsets still have a way to go before they measure straight-up to using the phone, but this slimmed-down, enhanced Jawbone is another step in the right direction. [Jawbone]
French blog Blogeee.net has allegedly exclusive pictures of the next Asus Eee PC 901, which apparently includes a new motherboard. Apparently this model is the one that will have Intel Atom inside, which is why the company has sightly redesigned its exterior. The images show a ton of small refinements over the design of the previous Eee PC 900:
• Metal sides on the screen hinge.
• The power button on the hinge is gone.
• Slim, metal button bar over the keyboard.
• Power button is not located on the thin button to the far right of this bar.
• Metal framing for the trackpad.
• USB ports have been sightly re-arranged.
• VGA port is now on the right side.
• Kensington lock next to the Ethernet port on the left, which allows you to secure the machine while using the VGA on the right side of the machine.
• Two microphones for stereo input above the battery.
• Asus logo is gone in favor of the Eee PC brand.
