USB Typewriter Keyboard

Love your computer or iPad, but long for the days of clacking keys and writing like Hemingway? Well, this item won't improve your prose, but it will give you that old-timey typewriter to type on with a USB input into your computer!

Check out more here.

Motorola Xoom vs iPad vs PlayBook

The New Technology From Motorolla.

When the Motorola Xoom and BlackBerry PlayBook hit the market, we'll have two serious challengers to the iPad.

And, perhaps most interestingly, all three will be running different operating systems. So let's compare how the two newcomers stack up against the hottest tablet yet released.

In terms of releases, Motorola won't say anything about the Xoom's UK release date, though it is pencilled in for the first quarter of 2011 in the US. However, it depends on when Google is planning on getting Honeycomb out the door.

OS

This is the biggest difference between the three tablets. The iPad runs Apple's own iOS, the Moto Xoom Android 3.0 Honeycomb and the BlackBerry PlayBook runs RIM's own bespoke Tablet OS. The Xoom was the main unit used to demo Android 3.0 Honeycomb, at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, though we only saw videos of OS features running on the new device.

Android 3.0 rumours and latest updates

ANDROID 3.0: This Xoom was just running a video, but the real Honeycomb looks special

There will also be no Motorola MotoBlur interface overlaying Android 3.0 – this could be part of a bigger move by Google to stop having so many variants of Android.

We got hands on with the BlackBerry PlayBookat CES a few weeks ago and it's a serious threat to the iPad's dominance of the sector. TechRadar's Reviews Editor James Rivington says the PlayBook "could well be the tablet that changes the game. In a word, it's a triumph."

Processor

All three units use ARM-based silicon. The iPad runs Apple's own A4 processor clocked at 1GHz (it's less in the iPhone 4), while the Xoom plumps for a dual-core Nvida Tegra 2 processor, capable of 720p video or sending 1080p full HD to your TV via HDMI. The PlayBook is also running a dual core 1GHz Cortex-A9-based processor, though there are no more details on who has manufactured it. It's probably an Nvidia Tegra 2.

Touchcreen

The Motorola Xoom has a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 display. The PlayBook is only a 7-inch tablet and to us it can feel small. The touch on the PlayBook does extend right across the bezel though, which is a nice touch and pretty important for navigating around the OS.

The screens on both the PlayBook and Xoom look pretty spectacular even under the bright show lights where we checked them out. The PlayBook'ssize gives it an advantage though, as we said in our hands on:

"The PlayBook's 1024 x 600 resolution isn't far off the 9.7-inch 1024x768 iPad, but because of the Playbook's 7-inch display, the increased pixel density makes all the difference. It's sharp and crisp, and 1080p HD video looks fabulous."

3 Touch Screens Phone

 A concept smartphone designed by Kristan Ulrich Larsen with this clamshell phone has 3 touch screens and flexible, which can be aligned in many ways as needed. Equipped with AMOLED super resistant lenses, flexible and completely modular. 3 Touch Screens Phone explanations after the jump.

Mouse concept | Air Mouse

 If technology is evolving with each passing minute then why should the gadgets and accessories remain square and orthodox? Catching up the technological evolution, Canadian firm Deanmark Ltd has come up with a revolutionary computer mouse that invariably becomes an integral part of your body. Hailed as the “AirMouse,” the radical mouse can be worn on your hand like a glove, allowing easy as well as brisk web navigation. Integrating a right and left click mouse buttons in the palm, the AirMouse comes equipped with optical tracking laser that lasts for a week on single charge.



In comparison to the conventional mice, the AirMouse reduces the excessive force in a huge way, as it aligns itself with the user’s hand and wrist ligaments to keep the hand in a neutral position. Moreover, the user can type on the keyboard with ease without removing the glove. The wearable mouse will be available for a reasonable $129 by the end of the year.

STD test? Pee on your phone!

Ain't technology grand?  The advances in smartphone technology now allow each and every one of us to carry around a single small device that can effectively replace your telephone, computer, entire music, film, and book collections, world atlas, street maps, television, local library, video arcade, and generally most reasons to leave the house.

Well now you can add "Free Clinic" to that list.  Strange bump down below?  Burns when you pee? There's an app for that!

Or at least there will be...  They're working on self-testing technology in the UK:

People who suspect they have been infected will be able to put urine or saliva on to a computer chip about the size of a USB chip, plug it into their phone or computer and receive a diagnosis within minutes, telling them which, if any, sexually transmitted infection (STI) they have.

The good news is that you'll be able to make sure that skank is clean before stumbling home with her at bar time.  The bad news is that either way your iPhone now smells like urine.

best audition of x factor 2010 and autotune?

x factor 2010 has just started back on tv and this has to be my favourite audition of the new x factor 2010 series by katie waisal, out of all the auditions katie's was the most difficult as she was told to change her song.

so katie waisal changed her song to a queen song, but did not fully remember the lyrics, so then got another chance with another song and managed to just about get the judges favour.

i found this first episode of x factor one of the best opening shows in recent years, was really fun packed with various types of acts, even what could be called a bad act, was in the end bad to be good, and got the judges yes votes as well! more on that other audition tomorrow.

but here is a early favourite for the x factor 2010 finals in katie waisal's audition, it was a bit of is she or isn't she going to get through to the x factor boot camp?.

early x factor 2010 favourite katie waisal?.



another issue i was just reading about in the news is something about contestants using autotune on there microphones, well through machines the microphones send the sound through, to make the singing of the contestant sound more in tune.

i did not spot this just seen it being talked about on the internet and on twitter, does not bother me really, but a lot of people seem upset with some contestants choosing to use auto-tune on the x factor 2010.

as this auto tune sounds like it is new to this 2010 series of x factor and not previous series of the x factor.

well will have to see how this story develops about the x factor 2010 autotune controversy, but it would not be x factor without some body complaining about the show, i can see why people would be unhappy if technology is being used to make the acts sound better.

all in all though it was still one of the best x factor audition shows i can remember in a long time, x factor auto-tune or no auto-tune, still a great saturday night viewing.

what can you say really though about auto tune, this is technology for you, and with this being such a big tv show they probably do look to use what ever technology they can to get a more polished effect to the overall x factor show.

now when it comes to the x factor 2010 live finals i doubt they would let the finalists use auto-tune though.

Flying Cars! Flying Cars!!!

It's about damn time.  It was a staple of almost any science fiction version of "the future" that we'd all carry small portable communications devices, talk to each other on video phones, and all drive flying cars.

Ten years into the 21st Century, nearly everyone has a cell phone (many of which double as computers, cameras, and more).  Video conferencing has become more and more ubiquitous - from companies using Skype for web conferences to lonely dudes showing their junk on ChatRoulette.  But despite what we've learned from Blade Runner, Back to the Future, and The Jetsons, we still don't have flying cars.  Where the hell is my flying car?

Oh... here it is!

Say hello to the Terrafugia Transition, which just got a special weight exemption by the FAA and will now be going into production for the public.  Of course the thing will cost about $200,000 so I can only afford one if I sell my house and live out of my new Flying Car.  But it would totally be worth it because I would have a FLYING F$%*ING CAR!

Now all I need is the options package that includes a Flux Capacitor.  And a copy of Gray's Sports Almanac.

Y'know back in my day...

OK, this is really depressing...

Wired has come out with a list of 100 things that you and I may remember, but kids today don't use or even know about.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/07/100-things-your-kids-may-never-know-about/

I feel old.

But this article written by a 13-year-old kid who was given his dad's old Walkman is even more depressing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8117619.stm

Damned kids and their newfangled toys. Back in my day I had to press real buttons that ran mechanical gears to pull a piece of magnetic tape from one reel to another in order to hear music. And it could only be a dozen songs or so, and you had to flip the tape over to hear the other half of the songs. And if I didn't like the song that was playing, I had to hold down the fast forward button until the tape got to the next song... and hopefully I wouldn't hold it down too long and end up missing the beginning and having to rewind a bit back.

Screw you and your shuffle button.

Chapter 69.93: If I Only Had a Name

The little girl has been christened with a name. Meet Oreo. Her mom wouldn't allow any clothing-related names that dad suggested, such as Tuxedo, Mukluk, or Bowtie. (All right, I actually didn't suggest Bowtie -- even I think that's a dumb name for a cat.) Since little Oreo has been confined to my wife's home office for the past few days, I suggested we name her after the cat from The Office. However, I couldn't picture either of us calling this cat Sprinkles, and that cat's life ends badly. No one needs to be saddled with that kind of ominous name. And Fart Monster wasn't kind either, though incredibly appropriate so far.

And mom wasn't keen on Orca, either. But Oreo's coloring, which inspired the Orca appellation, led to her eventual name.

Oreo also has a job. Like most kids these days, she's comfortable with technology and has already become quite familiar with the keyboard, the CD-ROMs, and of course the mouse. So Oreo has become the IT Specialist -- as seen above. Note: the photo a couple posts ago of a kitten with a toy computer is not actually our little Oreo but an incredible facsimile. That post was created before this little bundle of shaky nerves (she likes coffee, too) entered our yard and our lives.