Pandigital Kitchen Technology Center

Pandigital is hoping you're looking to update your kitchen technology with a little of their technology. Back in March, they announced their latest foray into digital frames is going to involve a 15-inch LCD touchscreen, 720p HDTV, and recipe database.

The Kitchen Technology Center, or KTC arrives on your countertop pre-loaded with the hundreds of recipes, a music/picture player, and calendar/clock. The calendar function allows you to program the frame to start a slide show at 2pm, bring up a recipe and play you a song at 4pm, or just remind you "Emerald" is on.

Of course being that it's an offering from a Pandigital, it also accepts every digital camera card you can think of...

Worried about operating a sensitive piece of technology when you have messy fingers? The KTC touch screen is a mess-proof design that is easy to clean. Sealed with glass, it is protected from water, oil, flour and other common ingredients, as well as from spills and splatters.

Other niceties are - the included countertop stand, an under-cabinet mount, and flat panels are also wall-mountable, so you can position the KTC where you’ll need it most. Interchangeable faceplates in brushed stainless, black, and white let you match your kitchen’s décor.

Centralized control over the entire array of kitchen appliances has been a promise of consumerism since the Fifties, these frames are the first widely available system that actually presents the idea to homemakers in a way they can use now. I could easily see something like the KTC controlling the kitchen one of these days... when blenders, refrigerators, and ovens learn to communicate with one another.

June was the proposed release, but it doesn't look like that's happening.
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Hydrogen Airships not Hydrogen Cars

Flying is usually done for speed and convenience, but what if the ticket price outweighs that convenience? Rising fuel and security costs could make this a reality for air passengers - if we ever stop paying to bail airlines out with government subsidies.

There is an alternative brewing in the place were most alternative thinking begins (i.e.,Democratic governing)... France. Popular Science reports on Jean-Marie Massaud, an industrial designer that believes slow moving airships are the next step (be it forward or backward) in air travel.

Mr. Mossaud, who has designed submarines for Yamaha, is building a luxury airship with a top speed of 80mph, and two story cabin that can carry 15 passengers. The undertaking is a joint venture. Mossaud has hooked up with Onera, the French NASA, expected ROI has to be in 2050 or so, because the projected sale date is 2020. Crazy bunch of French futurists... I wouldn't mind pimpin' in this ride, though. Hopefully, Christopher Walken would be aboard waring his Max Zorin costume.
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Sony Ericsson Cybershot Phone has the Goods

Not an apple fan? The thought of owning an iPhone sends you over the edge? Check Sony's answer to the the newly announced iPhone, the C905 Cyber-shot, a slider phone equipped with an impressive 8.1-megapixel camera, GPS, and the ability to geotag any of photos that you take with the phone. Sony doesn't put cybershot on just any camerphone so you know it's decked out. The C905's Xenon flash, image stabilizer, face detection, and autofocus, are some of the highlights.

Press Release

Update: will be available for pre-order at the Sony style store 9.19.2008
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HDTV's Go Small?

Why we over here in The States are trying to learn the virtues of not always going bigger, Asia has always seemed to get it. It’s modest and not garish, that makes sense. So, It’s no surprise BenQ, a Taiwanese firm, has introduced the worlds smallest HD display with a native 1080p resolution. At 21.5” the E2200HDA monitor ekes in under the 24” size that other manufactures produce.

This diminutive display sports a 16:9 aspect ratio (1,920 x 1,080-pixel), which is a better fit for full-HD content than the conventional 16:10 (1,920 x 1,200 pixels) found in most LCD monitors today. Users also get to enjoy a dynamic contrast ratio of 10,000:1. Meaning, it produces a greater range of tints and shades of colors, making the picture rich and colorful, rather than washout.

Enabling the panel's full-HD capabilities, the BenQ E2200HDA includes HDMI and DVI connectivity as well as HDCP support, on top good old VGA display support. Ready to move in, the BenQ packs integrated speakers, a headphone jack, and a 2.0M webcam. It's expected in select markets throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America, in the third quarter of this year. No pricing details have been announced.
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iriver Lplayer Seeks Battle-royale with Apple nano

iriver’s latest player release, the Lplayer, screams screen. Its most striking element is the uncluttered façade. Donning nothing but its a 2-inch screen, this pint-sized picture-show player costs less than a nano. Making no secret of the fact that Lplayers seek a stake in the Apple dominated portable media player (PMP) market.

But, despite the fact the LPlayer is decked out with more than nanos, like an AM/FM radio, voice recorder, and showing up as a drive on our computer, the sale of Lplayers will only comprise a small percentage of the total PMP market. The iriver brand needs a marketing plan, for tech savvy cities, that targets people burned by Apple or that talks about regaining control over your music, sans iTunes; hate works for presidential campaigns. Why not here?

Lplayers use D*click, the same button-free touch controlled user interface as its cousin, iriver Clix. Pressing the sides and corners of the screen allows intuitive control over menus, movies, and music. Some things are a little buried in the menu system, or awkward to activate (like the EQ?), but these are not insurmountable issues.

As with the nano, you have to buy new headphones to make this thing sing on key, and Shure offers up some splendid sets to do this.

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Panasonic's Two Latest Video Cameras Offer Manual and Intelligent Control

Panasonic has introduced a new pair of tapeless HD video cams, the HDC-SD100 and HDC-HS100. They promise more control, higher fidelity HD images, improved low-light shooting capabilities, intelligent exposure control (iA), and use Panasonic’s latest sensor, the 3MOS.

Full manual control over the exposure, color balance, and focus is a rare addition. This simple pleasure, for those of us that prefer to set their own camera setting, is great brain exercise, and often yields better results than those images capture by the ‘intelligent system’.

While some situations call for finessing the controls, other times you have to grab and shoot. This is where you can appreciate the quick reacting intelligent system. When that, ‘have to grab’ shot comes your way you’ll always be ready thanks to these pannys choice of recording media. The HDC-SD100 uses SD cards only, where the HDC-HS100 has both and SD cart slot and a 60GB Hard Drive.

Some manufactures have been outfitting their latest models with HD picture quality, then turning around and sacrificing the picture quality for...

compression. Sure they can boast crazy long record times, but really, do we need the camcorder running all weekend long. Vacation spots have SD cards for sale. I’d rather have the image be outstanding and get a few less hours of record time, than have all the record time in the world but only produce so so images. There is no such nonsense over at Panasonic.

Panasonic employs an optically refined Leica Dicomar lens to complement their new 3MOS sensor's abilities. Based on their 3CCD design, but with double the sensor area, the 3MOS sensor collects more light and records that light with more clarity, more precise color reproduction, and better contrast.

An improvement in the dynamic range of the sensor means it can see more in the shadows and highlights than any sensor previously used. Also, the 3MOS sensor uses less power and works brilliantly in low light. The 2 lux rating is the lowest I’ve seen. But then, most press releases don’t give a lux rating at all... pretty old school panny.
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Samsung SCH-W510 Corn Phone Has User-facing Camera

Everyone seems to be excited by the phone’s use of more biodegradable plant based plastics. But what about all the nasty head penetrating radiation? Of course, the FCC's consensus is that a little Radio Frequency (RF) radiation doesn’t harm the ‘ol noggin. However, some folks like being more safe, than free (read vegans).

Good thing Samsung has equipped the W510 with a user–facing camera, for all our mobile videoconferencing needs, so we won’t have to hold this handset to our heads at all. Nice.

Wait, is a person walking around a busy area videoconferencing really any safer?
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Chinese iPhone Wannabe Sports Embedded Projector

This latest discovery from the Orient serves to reiterate the fact that tiny embedded projectors are coming to a cellphone near you. This is the first cell phone slated to go into production that includes a embedded LED projector. This not so subtle addition, can project up to a 30" screen at 640x480 resolution.

The battery life, while projecting, is said to be two hours. My guess is the spokesperson at the trade show, where this was introduced, made up this answer. But, I'm a bit cynical. The battery could really last that long. Either way it's going to be interesting to read some user reviews of this model and their suggestions on improvements.

I'd never heard of the phone's manufacturer ChinaKing, but a quick look at their site uncovers a slew of somewhat unorthodox phone offerings.




via ...OhGizmo!.., Engadget..
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iPhone Gets Video Projection

So while we portable gadget addicts wait for cell phones that include tiny embedded projectors. A Johnny-on-the-spot Taiwanese manufacturer, Honlai, has been reducing the size of today’s available projection technology, and making it into a form suitable to befriend iPhone aficionados.

This projector represents some of the newest iPhone accessory tech being reviled at Computex Taipei 2008. It boasts screen sizes between 15”~ 27”, which is perfect for a medium sized room. It’s far from HD, but youtube works in a pinch; so a resolution of 640x480 should be enough to satiate you ravenous media appetite. The paltry contrast ratio of 200: 1 is a bit of a bummer, but hopefully a nice price upon release will allow us gloss over this.

Judging from the test runs published online...

the picture quality isn’t bad. There's no doubt, these units give you instant access to room filling visuals that would otherwise remain handheld; however, as far as the sound goes, the speakers pump out all of two watts. Which will be sufficient to get the point across, though some audio is bound to get lost.

Whether this iPhone projector will be used to display the buyer’s vast array of legally purchased iTunes movies, or whether it will become an impromptu presentation tool, allowing enterprising business folks to sell their ideas on the fly, has yet to be determined. Price will most likely decide this.

But, however they take off, I predict they definitely will. Our digital lives are turning away from being solely sedentary. More and more people are realizing the benefits of mobile computing; in turn computers are getting smaller and are conforming to us more. I can’t wait until we are truly freed from the desk, and wearable computers are commonplace.

If this all seems a little far fetched too you, you can always plug your iPod into any analog AV system using cords from Apple.
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Solar Gets Realistic

Solar panels are great for gather the sun's energy, but historically they aren't very green. Producing the panels can reek havoc on the environment. Their byproducts are environmental pollutants; so it makes sense to reign in the cost and sustainability of their production, before we ramp it up.
Check the technique.


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