Clarion MAP780 using iGO My Way 8

Clarion's two newest Personal Navigation Devices the MAP680 & MAP780, from Clarion's German site, reverberated through the vascular system that is the blog-o-sphere by way of Navigadget on Tuesday.

These impressive GPS units, that where announced in April and include iGO 3D mapping software, have also made their there way to Youtube. Showing the device in action, the video demonstrates a no-joke navigator with mad 3D rendering skills provided by iGO's My Way 8 software, a 3D map rendering application designed for portables.

This upgrade gives you access to so much terrain/building mapping data you may never have to look at the road again. Well, there's still that bit concerning other cars and people getting in your way. Although, these units will have you wanting to keep them in front of you.

Clarion has included all the functionality you'd expect from a high-end PND, but they also added some you might not.

These knowledgeable navi's boast SMS (texting) capabilities, and can connect to a streaming audio service. The differences in the units are mainly disc space and what maps are loaded on those flash memories.

The Clarion MAP680 includes regional map information only, the region in this case is Germany so that includes four countries on it's 1GB internal storage. The MAP680's partner in 3D map rendering touts quite a bit more mapping data, 43 European countries are stored on it's 2GB Memory. Both devices can be expanded and accept SD cards.

No word on when Clarion will grace us with an American version of these mapping moguls but the software is available, a manufacturer just needs to bring it to market in the US.

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TED: Brilliance Uncorked

There is an amazing exchange of brilliant ideas taking place in Monterey, Cali every year. It's a conference called TED, short for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. What goes on at these meetings of uber-inventive minds are presentations on any number of substantial topics.

It was started in 1984 as a way to converge the aforementioned disciplines and has morphed into an open exchange of groundbreaking ideas covering a wide range heady topics.

TED's organizers pride themselves on the conference's openness. The talks, given by an eclectic array of presenters, are filmed and uploaded; from veteran researchers, such as Jane Goodall, to newer scientists like Johnny Lee, who gained exposure exclusively through Youtube, they all have something outstanding to convey, and only 18 minutes to do it.

Every video is available for free and is released under the Creative Common license, so the brilliance is easily disseminated.

Do your synapses a favor and mosey on over to their site. Just make sure your schedule is clear for, oh say, the next couple days. Yeah it's that engrossing.

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'Shure' you need new headphones...

Shure is one of those companies. Rather being a renowned producer of consumer grade products, they're mainly associated with high-end high-performance equipment designed with the professional in mind.

Their equipment prices aren't discount, that being said, their prices aren't unreasonable either. You get what you pay for with Shure.

Now, what you pay for when you plunk down those hard earned greenbacks for a pair of Shure SE110 headphones is a set of Hi-def MircoSpeakers with unique soft foam sleeves. These sleeves, or the parts that go in you ear, are made from the same foam material as the earplugs you would wear at a rock concert or an auto race.

This idea is genius. Forget noise canceling headphones that attempt to mask outside noise, the Shure SE110 completely isolates the music; without even a hint of outside noise ruining your listen experience. You hear nothing but superb highs, clear mids, and thumping bass. All while enjoying your music at a level that won't damage your hearing.

If you read the instructions of most sets of headphones there will be a warning against turning the volume up enough to drown out noises. Say what!? Now I know in a sue crazy world disclaimers are a necessity, for dummies; but, how could you enjoy listen to your music on the bus if you can still hear the crazy homeless dude beside you rambling incessantly.

Lucky for us there is no sign of this disclaimer in the Shure SE110's literature. As I'm writing this and using the ES110s, I have the volume on my iPod touch set at half, and I can't even hear the strokes of my own keyboard. Just think of what these Shure's could do for annoying managers.

There are some drawbacks with the SE110. Having to clean the ear wax out of the nozzle is kinda gross but completely required, plus Shure designed the ES110 so they are worn with the wire going behind the ear. This configuration is a bit annoying and lacks the familiarness of other earbuds, not a deal breaker at all though.

Bottom line on these Shure ES110s is they're a great entry level professional in-ear headset. Offering superior sound quality and wonderfully effective noise isolating foam sleeves, which won't let any of the music get away from you.

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Wacom makes strides in Touchscreen Tech

Wacom, on Friday, announced they've engineered a more sensitive capacitive touch screen. Using newly designed low-power circuitry and a patent pending technology that they've dubbed Reversing Ramped Field Capacitive (RRFC) touch.

What this means to a touchscreen interface is that even with a less than optimal battery level the RRFC touchscreen still delivers precise and drift-free cursor performance.

Other innovations of the RRFC touch, touted by Wacom, include the screen's superior optical performance, increased sensitivity, and durability through use of a non-glass surfaces.

Apple's multi-touch displays use older capacitive touchscreen technology, but in a more inventive way. With Wacom's new capacitive touchscreen you can use tablet with the screen and get dual touch action, but it's not the same at all.

If only Wacom and Apple would develop products together without patent restrictions, they might be able to realize an interface that conforms to us.

The video (tap Read More!), from last year, shows the direction we could be going.

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Car Electronics are on the On Ramp to the Information Superhighway

or Computers to Replace Common Sense

Today Honda announced their newest GPS units will let drivers know if they're about to leave their economically viable ride in an economically challenged area.

The new system alerts drivers if they have picked a less than desirable spot to park, places were the chances of the car coming out unscathed are slim to none.

The GPS’ calculated decisions are made by accessing local police records for any specified area. A crime rating is issued for each area you park in that has a higher than normal level of crimes against cars. Using the law of probability, the GPS alerts you when the chips are stacked against you and your car.

Don’t expect this system in the US anytime soon, on the fly access to local US law enforcement data systems seems like a logistical nightmare. Not to mention the cries of socioeconomic profiling that will be sure to follow.

Implementing this system should prove to be a good incentive to clean up crime ridden areas, especially if people started avoiding certain places based on this new GPS’ recommendations, which they will.

People are very willing to give over thinking to a computer as the folks in Wedmore, England know all too well...International Herald Tribune.

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..via physorg.com..via AFP..
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Archos 605 Becomes the Ultimate Travel Companion

A week from today, Archos plans to announce they'll be adding GPS to their already feature heavy personal media player, the Archos 605.

Unfortunately, for those of us in the New World, the news of this announcement comes from the island nation of Great Britain, via Pocket-lint. So, you shouldn’t expect this GPS functionality stateside until at least the end of the summer; by then the ‘hommes et femmes’ over at Archos should be able to hammer out an agreement with a GPS provider, in the United States, to become their partner in mapping.

Who knows really? We’re talking about a French company after all. They might get too caught up drinking wine and eating baguettes to remember about us silly Americans.

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Portishead and last.fm Pull 'a Radiohead'

The heads have it. Radiohead, back in October, shocked the digital media distribution world by offering "In Rainbows" online, before its hard copy release, with no set price. Instead asking fans to pay what they felt the albums was worth.

They pulled the files after December 10th, but understandably, the trick work like a charm; the blogosphere was ablaze with the news of a free album direct from the artist and the recording, once released on CD, enter the charts at #1.

Portishead, another English based band that saw major fame starting in the mid nineties and have also had quite the long hiatus, are set to release their latest effort "Third" on last.fm, later this month.

The release won't be a free download. However, fans can listen to the entire album before they buy; not just clips of songs...ehm, Steve you hearing this, bro.

Last.fm has always let music fans hear their catalog of tracks in their entirety; however, this is the first time they have had an exclusive release.

Portishead has a special place in last.fm's heart. They spearheaded last.fm by being the first artist the founder, Martin Stiksel, uploaded, and his affinity for Beth Gibbons, Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow of Portishead is shared by millions. Mainly, because they rock in a slow and oh so melancholy way. Happy listening.

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Fame in the digital age

An AP report titled, “Video of teen beating raises questions”, sure does. The trend of becoming famous for nothing in particular, that has its roots firmly cemented in reality television and is proliferated on video sharing sites like YouTube, has morphed into some young people seeking fame by committing heinous acts of violence against anyone that they think won’t fight back.

Brazen teens are nothing new; videoing acts of violence, vandalism, or stupidity it’s new either, but prior to the YouTube revolution, videos of this nature were quietly circulated within tight lipped communities of teens. Because of this, worldwide infamy wasn’t even a possibility. They may have become the stars in their particular town, but the perpetrators’ identities or acts of distaste would have never be disclosed. Unless a nosey parent happen stumbled across the VHS tape.

Most likely, degenerates (at least at the time of filming) produce these kinds of videos because they have no motivation to achieve anything that will bring them actual praise. Instant fame; no work needed. They figure putting their freedom or well being, or both, on the line is an acceptable risk for being considered cool by the cool kids. After all, they aren’t rational humans, they’re teens.

Nevertheless, it’s not YouTube’s fault for providing the service, or even for keeping these videos up so long. Even though their “general policies call for the removal of clips that show someone getting ‘hurt, attacked or humiliated’”, YouTube seems much more diligent when it comes to taking down videos depicting acts of sex, or copies of copyrighted material. They do still have a responsibility to alert the authorities when an illegal act is depicted on amateur video. Did they?

Another important question is, if no way to distribute these clips worldwide existed would these types of videos still get made?

The lure of easy fame definitely motives some to act out of character, and apparently, blinds them to the fact that the clip might be seen by cops. Though, this problem is enigmatic of our society as a whole, in these United States, and may reflect the failure of a nationwide experiment that was perpetrated by the medical establishment on this country’s “disturbed” youth. Not to say the teens shouldn't be held accountable.

I don’t want to come off too crazy here, and this is a simplistic view, but really the pharmaceutical companies defined, or invented a disorder, ADHD, through funding research. They then formulated the “cure”, Ritalin a central nervous system stimulant, described by critics as “Kiddie Cocaine”. Ritalin’s job is to increases the level of dopamine the brain has access to in much the same way as Cocaine. Continued use of Ritalin can lead to depression due to depleted levels of dopamine which, in turn, is treated with drugs like Zoloft. Anti-depression drugs increase the level of serotonin the brain has access to, hoping to reverse the other drug’s depressive effect; basically, this puts patients in a drug dependency cycle for life.

Side effects of Zoloft type drugs can include agitation and confusion. This fact has led some to believe these practices are the cause of the rise in violence at schools and homes perpetrated by disturbed, now drug addicted youth. Add to this the fact that the government divvies up monies for education depending on how many ADHD kids a school has in their population, and you have a system that thrives on misdiagnoses, numerous kids in the crossfire, and parent’s who blame themselves.

Now that I’ve thoroughly brought you down go here to cheer up.

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Micro SD Card Projectors are More Fun than Function

Making tiny projectors isn’t a new concept. In general, miniaturization is a consistent theme in electronics.

Cheap, on the other hand, is not. Cheap is definitely not something usually associated with the latest tiny tech. Yet, you’d be hard pressed to come up with a more accurate adjective than cheap to describe this Micro SD Card Projector. This fact seems to be ok; it’s designed to be inexpensive.

The resolution is viewable at best, but really this product is all about portable projecting fun. The SD card slot plays flicks, music, and videos, and the RCA inputs lets you run gaming systems or DVD players through the pint-sized projector.

There is an inherent advantage to having an ultra portable projector like this; you can share snaps and videos instantly with a large audience, but don’t expect this little guy to handle a five hour session of Halo 3, the 4 AA batteries that power the projector might not hold out that long.

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Pandigital Touch Panel Digital Photo Frames: PanTouch

Touch screens have been making their way into all types of devices lately, so it stands to reason that digital photo frames manufactures would eventually get into the touch interface game. Frames are usually with reach anyway, on our desk or sitting on an end table.

Remotes have worked up until now, but this added tactile aspect makes viewing photos in these frames reminiscent of flipping through album pages.

Pandigital, in May, will debut their new PanTouch series touch panel digital photo frames. Now if you’re like me you might be thinking, wouldn’t a touch screen picture frame mean fingerprints over the pictures? Wouldn’t the pictures be affected? Of course, this was considered.

Wisely, the matte around the pictures is where the touch sensor resides. The patented sensor responses to swipes or taps, and display icons point out all function controls for reference, if needed. Intuitiveness was a goal in this frame's development so learning the controls placement is reportedly a quick process.

PanTouches will be available in three flavors all of which incorporate image optimization (resizing) software, 6-in-1 memory card reader, and USB 2.0 speed:

• 7”, 482x234 pixel display, holds up to 800 images, MSRP 119.99
  
• 8”, 800x680 pixel display, holds up to 3200 images, MSRP 169.99
• 10.5”, 1024x768 pixel HD display, holds up to 2000 images, MSRP 249.99

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