Intelligent Power Regulator

Came across this nifty little device that disconnects itself from the plug point. A cell phone which is being recharged, is used here in this video as an example.

Outlet Regulator Video from conor klein on Vimeo.

Alternatively, one can watch the video here: http://vimeo.com/9392135


For more information, please visit: http://conorklein.com/index.php?/ongoing/outlet-regulator/

PUMA launches Solar-Powered Smartphone!

It is said that PUMA starts in Sport and ends in Fashion. The PUMA PHONE certainly reflects that!

PUMA, of all the companies, has jumped on to the smartphone bandwagon. PUMA AG and Sagem Wireless have taken the wraps of their PUMA PHONE at the recently held Mobile World Congress.

Weighing 115g, the phone features a solar panel on its back, reminding me of the Samsung’s Blue Earth. It’s got a 2.8 inch, 240 x 320 QVGA touchscreen; 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash and x6 zoom; a VGA video call camera; GPS; a pedometer for the fitness conscious; GPS tracker and stopwatch; and FM radio among other things.

The phone will be available in Europe and on PUMA website from April this year.

Here’s the teaser website for the PUMA PHONE - http://pumaphone.com/

For the full specifications, you can download the spec sheet available for free at the above mentioned teaser website or refer to the press release here - http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/puma-phone-roars-into-life-84464137.html

Of course, one can always Google for the hands-on reviews of the phone for more information. It is said to cost around 25000 Indian Rupees (400 Euros).

Samsung Reclaim

It costs less than 50 dollars at Sprint and according to the Samsung, the Reclaim is 80 percent recyclable as it is made from bio-plastic. The packaging is made from 70 percent recyclable material, while the ink used for printing text and images on the package and the phone warranty is made from soy. The charger consumes about 12 times lesser power than the Energy Star standard.

Samsung has positioned it as an eco-friendly messaging phone. 2 dollars will go to the Nature Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program in the U.S.

Image Courtesy: Samsung

ZTE Unveils Its Solar Powered Phone At The Mobile World Congress

If CES was a whirlwind of a show, then the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is like cruising along an open road on a Stretch Limo.

I know that the comparison sounds bad, but I cannot get anything better out of my head today. It is a Saturday and I shouldn’t even be sitting in front of my computer.

Even though the industry moaned that this years CES was muted with recession in the background; for someone like me trawling through the internet for news, CES was a whirlwind. Too many announcements and showcases were crammed in 4 days.

In comparison though, the GSMA Mobile World Congress was a cruise. According to a press release put out by the event organizers; the conference boasted of  55,000 plus visitors, more than 230 chief executives and other high-level speakers and 8,000 plus delegates. Good turnout in spite of the recession.

What had caught my attention was the solar powered mobile phone from Samsung. However, later I came to know of an announcement that ZTE too had come with a solar powered mobile phone! Thanks to an article on CNET.

Digicel Group unveiled the Coral-200-Solar, manufactured by ZTE using proprietary technology from Intivation. It was being touted as “the world’s first low-cost solar-powered mobile phone.” Digicel said that it will deploy the Coral-200-Solar in selected markets from June.

Another relief was an announcement from an association of handset makers and operators pledging to develop a 'universal' charger. Which means that by 2012, newly manufactured phones would come with the 'one-size-fits-all' energy efficient charger. It would result in a 50 percent reduction in standby power consumption, and the new chargers will be three times more energy efficient than most on the market today.

I have one question though. Why did they wait all these years to come with such a concept? It would have saved us a lot of trouble if they had come up with something like that earlier.

Solar Powered Touch Screen Mobile Phone Made From Recycled Water Bottles!

Now does the latter part of the headline sound familiar? Motorola had announced something similar during CES. But this one from Samsung has more than a trick up its sleeve.

Called the “Blue Earth,” Samsung claims that it is a fully solar powered touch screen phone. Blue Earth is made from recycled plastic called PCM, which is extracted from water bottles and is free from Brominated Flame Retardants, Beryllium and Phthalate. I did not know that these substances would have been used normally otherwise.

Screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth can be set to an energy-efficient mode called the ‘Eco mode’.

The phone also features an ‘eco walk’ function that enables the user to count their steps with an in-built pedometer, calculating how much CO2 emissions have been reduced by walking as opposed to motor transport. Samsung claims that through this unique function users’ can calculate the value of their footprint through the number of trees that have been saved. It did not make sense and I was left wondering how I would save trees by walking.

The packaging for Blue Earth is made from recycled paper, and comes with a 5 star energy efficient charger which uses standby power lower than 0.03W.

Blue Earth will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress 2009 for the first time.

Motorola, I hope you do realize how far you are lagging behind. Am I being too optimistic by expecting a Phoenix like revival?

Source: Samsung

Modern Day Iteration Of Aladdin’s Magic Carpet!

I couldn’t come up with a crazier headline, but this should suffice for now. If you can think of something even crazier, feel free to comment.

A British Company called Hoverit Limited has come with a nice, futuristic sounding concept of a ‘hovering chair.’

The concept uses the simple repelling force of magnets that gives the feeling of floating on air as one sits on the chair. It is called ‘the Lounger’ and currently retails at a promotional price of £5,875 GBP (almost 40 grand INR). The company’s website says that it usually retails at Usual price £7,500 GBP. So make use of this promotional offer if you are planning to buy one.

The Lounger weighs around 90 Kg and measures 2m x 1m x 1m.

Do not forget to read the safety disclaimer on the Hoverit’s website.

Source: Hoverit

Shelby Building An Electric Supercar?

What do you get when one puts an “electric powertrain” into the “World’s fastest production car?” The “World’s fastest production electric car.”

The Guinness World Records has already certified that Shelby’s Ultimate Aero TT supercar is the fastest production car in the world with a speed in excess of 412 km/h (256.14 mph).

With that record in that bag, Shelby is aiming for another. This time it’s the “World’s fastest production electric car.” Shelby is planning to incorporate its “All Electric Scalable Powertrain” into the Ultimate Aero super car pictured above. Shelby feels that this model will act as a high visibility outlet to demonstrate the capabilities of its new Green powertrain. The new electric car has been dubbed as the Ultimate Aero EV.

Basically Shelby is out there trying to prove that electric powered vehicles will not only match but also provide more linear power (electric motors have 100% torque at 0 RPM) and overall performance than internal combustion cars.

According to Shelby, the Ultimate Aero EV can cough up an astounding 1000 hp and 800 lbft of torque enabling it to rocket to 60 mph in a mere 2.5 seconds and reach a top speed of 208 mph. The Ultimate Aero EV will have a range of 150-200 miles on a single charge, with its patented onboard charging system that will recharge the battery completely in 10 minutes on a 220V line. The car will sport a 3 speed automatic transmission rendering shift times of .24 seconds. The entire AESP is liquid cooled allowing it to run for extended periods of time at peak performance with no overheating issues.

Shelby expects to roll out its first full scale, pre production Ultimate Aero EV in the second quarter of 2009. Ultimate Aero EV deliveries will start as early as fourth quarter 2009.

For further reading, please click here.

Source: Shelby Supercars

3G Touch Watch Phone From LG

It has been a whirlwind of a show, at least from a crazy media analyst’s perspective. The general consensus however, tells a different story that the CES has lost its sheen and there have been very few products and less excitement. Blame it on the recession.

Apart from Palm Pre and its new webOS platform, only LG comes to my mind. Its 3g touch watch phone did make some news before Palm took the center stage and hogged all the limelight. But LG was no pushover. Fourteen LG products were awarded the CES Innovations Awards. My favorite? The 3G touch watch phone a.k.a. LG-GD910.

LG says that this is a follow up to the prototype that was introduced at CES 2008. How did I miss that? Well like they say, better late than never. Here’s the low down on this watch phone or should I mention it as a phone watch? Never mind.

With the watch one can make phone calls, send text messages, video phone calls with the help of a built in camera, look up contacts using voice, have the watch read out messages and other information loud (being lazy, wouldn’t I love that? Except that people around you can also listen to it.), listen to music with the help of a built in speaker and stereo Bluetooth.  The watch also boasts of a touch screen interface with flash support, 7.2 Mbps 3G HSDPA compatibility, 3.63cm (1.43-inch) screen and it is only 13.9mm thick.

LG says that this phone watch or watch phone will be available sometime this year in Europe. I am guessing Japan. Any bets?

While writing this post, I did come across another statistic telling me how dismal the ongoing recession is. Channel Insider has, after thorough research of all available reports on layoffs, concluded that there have been more than 100,000 layoffs since October in technical, sales and marketing positions.

If I were LG, I wouldn’t bet on many of these watch phones or phone watches selling.

Honda NSX Mugen Concept RR

Came across this beautiful concept car from Mugen. The site was in Japanese and the google translator was not much of a help. So feast your eyes on the pictures. For more information please visit Mugen.

Source: Mugen
 

Palm Pre at CES

This was a first time experience for me, when I got overwhelmed by the amount of media coverage that was devoted to Palm Pre and its new platform. I have covered other phone companies before when they had launched a slew of models. But Palm was different. Palm has a huge loyal following over the internet. I have heard that Apple has a similar if not bigger fan following on the internet. But when the iphone loyalists started posting sarcastic posts to the effect that Apple deserters have come up with an iphone killer, I knew that Palm had rattled their cage.

On the first day of the CES, Palm unveiled a new mobile platform called webOS and a phone that is based on the new platform called Pre.

Palm claims that webOS has been built from the scratch and keeps the user constantly connected to the internet.

Palm Pre, oval shaped with a slide out QWERTY keyboard, 3.1 inch touch screen with 24 bit 320x480 color display. Now the icing on the cake: it has a 3 mp camera with LED flash and a 3.5 mm headset jack!

It has also got 8 GB of internal memory, a proximity sensor that automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear, a light sensor which dims the display if the ambient light is dark (to reduce power usage) and a ringer switch that silences the device with one touch.

Weighing at 135 g, the Pre’s connectivity includes support for Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), integrated GPS, Bluetooth 2.1; along with EVDO Rev. A or UMTS HSDPA high speed internet connectivity. It also has an accelerometer and Outlook. It also supports POP3 and IMAP.

Palm Pre is scheduled to be available first in the United States exclusively from Sprint in the first half of 2009, and will be followed by a world-ready UMTS version for other regions.

Source: Palm Press Release

Mobile phone made from recycled water bottles!

As a build-up towards CES, Motorola has unveiled a mobile phone that has been manufactured entirely from recycled water bottle plastics. MOTO W233 Renew is being claimed by Motorola as the world’s first mobile phone made using plastics comprised of recycled water bottles.

Motorola also says that the phone is 100 percent recyclable and is also the world’s first carbon neutral phone. Through an alliance with Carbonfund.org, Motorola has offset the carbon dioxide required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation.

Even the packaging and the materials inside are made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper.

The company has also included a postage-paid recycling envelope inside the box, making it easier for customers to return their old Motorola mobile phone for recycling for free.

Coming to the features of this phone, Motorola says that it as a no-nonsense phone and it is the most basic phone. One can only make calls and send & receive messages. That’s all. A simple phone.

Well, this is a huge step for Motorola, once again creating and setting the standards in a non-existent product category. That is the true spirit and soul of Motorola, which was missing in its products that was manufactured after the Razr era. I had once written a post on Motorola describing it as a phoenix that will rise from the ashes. Is this the moment? We have to wait and see.

Feels good! I am writing about Motorola after quite a long sabbatical.

Source: Motorola Press Release

Handmade Designer Keyboard To Satisfy Your Geek Cravings

Here’s a fine masterpiece, from Nishi-Ki. Sporting a QWERTY layout, its got 86 keys, can be plugged in via an USB port. It’s compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 2000. It’s got a price tag at around $155.

Image Source: geeksugar

Motorola RAZR2 V9 Now In Ferrari Overalls

I came across an article on Gizmos.es which mentioned that Motorola is now going one step further with its Ferrari Limited edition phones. The latest model from Motorola’s stable to receive the “Scarlet makeover” is the Motorola RAZR2 V9.

There will be no changes in the phone specifications and initially will go sale in Latin America and Asia. Motorola has a Luxury Edition of its RAZR2 with a gold and snakeskin theme which was recently released in India.

Any guesses how much the Prancing Horse edition of the RAZR2 is going to blow a hole? Let me know.

Image Source: Gizmos.es, Techgadgets.in

Samsung Proclaims i200 Is The World’s Slimmest Phone

The i200 features Windows mobile 6.1 operating system, a measly 2 mp camera, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and weighs 102.2 g. Surprised at the weight specification but what caught my eye was that sporting a width of 11.8mm its no way the “World’s Slimmest Phone. It does support Mobile printing, but that’s become a standard anyway. It lacks an infrared port. It supports Micro SD (Transflash). Oh yes, did I forget to mention that it also has the full suite of Office applications. Otherwise it would not be a “Smartphone,” would it?

Gordon Kelly of Trusted Reviews.com says that the i200 is no better than the ageing Motorola Q9 (11.8mm), far fatter than HTC's Touch Diamond (10.7mm) and is even bested by Apple's soon-to-be-business-worthy iPhone (11.6mm).

Image Source: Mobile Whack.com

This Keyboard Gives A New Meaning To The Phrase “Lap-Top,” Literally….

Erik De Nijs has woven a laptop into a pair of pants (looks like jeans) and was featured in the concepts section of the website Vous Pensez. Well geeks are going to love these pair of pants which also has a pair of speakers built into the knees. The mouse can be stuffed into one of the back pockets and the website also adds that for gamers, there is a joystick controller located just behind the front zipper.

Do check out the concepts section of the website, which features some really crazy and cool concepts.

Source: Vous Pensez

A Concept Phone for Motorola

Came across an interesting piece of story that is been circulated around, it’s about a concept phone for Motorola designed by a Frenchman Lysandre Follet. Now whether Motorola had commissioned Follet to design a concept phone, it’s not yet clear, but here’s the dig on the concept phone.

It’s been nicknamed the “Brick” by some publications for obvious reasons, it’s quite broad. It supposedly has a multimedia player, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi. At least there are indications that the designer wants all these features on the phone.

Now here’s where it gets wacky. It has a stereo camera. When decoded into plain simple lingo, it has two cameras side by side. It’s got dual flash to boot! One each for the two cameras. This will come in handy while taking 3-d panoramic shots. Apparently, one camera can be used for recording videos and the other for taking pictures at the same time ! ! ! Wow.

This concept was first posted on Coroflot.

Nokia Morph: Nanaotechnology in full flow

Nokia Research Center and the University of Cambridge unveiled on February 25^th, a joint nanotechnology concept titled “Morph” which will be on view from February 24 to May 12, 2008, at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Morph is being touted as a futuristic shape changing, self cleaning, transparent electronics and self charging (through harvesting) mobile phone. The interface of the phone as shown in the video reminds me of the futuristic computer interface in the movie Minority Report.

The technology behind the Morph concept is Nanotechnology.

The video gives us a graphical demonstration of the Morph’s capabilities. I have refrained from giving an insight into Morph’s capability to preserve the shock and awe element. The video is self explanatory and describes all the features of the concept phone.

The phone can be stretched into any shape as desired by the user and it still retains the touch interface. Wow….However, this technology will not be available any time soon. For the individual concepts or ‘elements of morph’ to be incorporated in to our everyday usable mobile phones, might take around 7 years. Expect the cost of such phones to be astronomical.

How feasible is this technology….only time will tell.

Source: Nokia