A brief post today by Facebook product manager Justin Shaffer describes a new version of Facebook’s photo viewer coming out now. In place of the black lightbox background window that it previously had

You might remember Rob Spence, known online as the Eyeborg for his project to create a working bionic eye. We wrote about him before, and interviewed him a while back, but the project has advanced to the point where even a seasoned tech blogger is left speechless with amazement.

Spence has worked with a team of engineers to adapt an endoscope into a working in-socket video camera. It’s turned on by waving a magnet near it, at which point it will begin transmitting a wireless video signal to a handheld LCD viewer. Absolutely incredible.

Watch the video from Sky News below, but be warned that it is slightly graphic. If you can’t handle someone installing and removing an artificial eye, consider this your warning.

Just astonishing that this is even possible. But really, this is more of a general achievement in miniaturization, not bionics. Endoscopic cameras with wireless transmitters are now commonplace; the enclosure and ergonomics of the device would be the hard part of this build. What’s yet to be accomplished with an artificial eye is hooking it up effectively to the visual cortex, and that is still years away from being practical — at least, for producing any kind of detail. Existing cortical microelectrode arrays just don’t have the density required, and as a result produce something only loosely definable as an image.

The timing of this new info is part of a media push for the new Deus Ex game (of GameStop infamy), in which cybernetics and prosthetics figure prominently — which doesn’t diminish the wonder of the thing, in my opinion. They also produced a short documentary about prosthetics and research in that field that’s worth a watch as well. It’s a very exciting field and the best bit is that they’re creating things that truly improve people’s lives. A prosthetic eye is a long way off, but it’s people with passion and dedication, like Spence and his team, who drive innovation, regardless of how far off the “final” product might be.

More information can be found at the Eyeborg Project’s home page.

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Video: “Eyeborg” Replaces Eye With Functioning Wireless Video Camera

Something big’s been brewing over in Carlsbad, and the time has finally come for it to be revealed to the world: the Razer Blade. The onyx aluminum beaut before you is the culmination of over three years of work by a stealth team of engineers — many of them absorbed from the former OQO team, but Razer also pulled talent from other places to build the Blade. Despite being only 0.88-inches thick (thinner than another 17-incher we know…), the svelte number still packs a punch with a 2.8GHz Core i7 2640M CPU and GeForce GT 555M graphics replete with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory. All that graphical horsepower will splay your exploits on a 17.3-inch LED 1920 x 1080 full HD panel with an HD webcam nestled above. Rounding out the package is 8GB of RAM, three USB ports (one which’ll support 3.0), HDMI out and a 60Wh integrated battery. And it could all be yours for $2,799 when it debuts in Q4 of this year.

That’s dandy, but we’re more stoked on the 480 x 800 LCD trackpad just to the right of the backlit keyboard. It works either as a multitouch enabled input device or as an additional display for in-game info when the mood strikes to slay demons with an external mouse. North of that hotness lie ten fully customizable buttons, both in appearance (courtesy of a separate LCD) and in function. The keys and trackpad are running a custom Switchblade UI — inspired by the company’s oh so sexy Switchblade concept that we saw at CES. And just like the concept, Razer’s used a custom lighting panel to ensure you can see those keys clearly from an angle — people don’t look straight down at their keyboards, after all. Follow on past the break for more impressions, video and PR.

Continue reading Razer Blade: hands-on with 17-inches of gaming greatness

Razer Blade: hands-on with 17-inches of gaming greatness originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac/Windows/Linux: dupeGuru is a free, open source, and cross-platform utility that will scan and help you remove duplicate audio files from your music library. The app uses filename, creation date, tag information and metadata, and even the audio fingerprint of the file to determine which songs are duplicates, even if they’re named differently. More