This TV is a beast. It’s called the ZL2, and to be honest it’s the only TV I actually have gadget envy for right now. The rest of the 3D TVs out there rely on end-of-life active shutter glasses or immature polarized 3D, but this monster is going straight to the lenticular lenslets. This technique involves a layer of tiny lenses that direct the light in the direction of the viewer, with a slightly offset to send a different image to each eye. No glasses required.

Oh, and did I mention that this TV has a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160? That’s “quad-HD,” twice the height and width of 1080p and four times the pixels.

The ZL2 can provide 3D for up to nine positions, adjusting its lenslets to send information in the right direction (it tracks faces with a built-in camera). There’s no saying how well it’ll actually work, but Toshiba seems pretty confident about it.

And as long as it’s tracking your face, it will adjust the TV to your personal preferences once it recognizes you. Favorite channels, shows, that kind of thing. And there’s an iPhone app! And it’ll record to and play from USB drives!

Honestly, I rarely get excited, or even slightly interested, in TVs. I don’t own a TV, I don’t particularly want one. But this one sounds just plain amazing. The only thing I’m worried about is the price. I don’t see this thing hitting for less than five grand. I guess we’ll find out what the damage is when December rolls around.

Update: Yes indeed, the price is enormous. €7999, or around $11,500.

Read more here:
Toshiba Outs Monstrous 55″ 4K, Glasses-Free 3D TV With Facial Recognition

Like most Ubuntu updates, version 11.10 isn’t a huge overhaul; rather, it improves on the big changes made in 11.04, by cleaning up the Dash, overhauling the Ubuntu Software Center, and bringing in some new default software. Here’s a look at the biggest changes in the newly released beta. More

Leaves and vines grow on the Ford Fusion dashboard in proportion to conserved energy.

Phil Patton, the automotive design writer for The New York Times, has a killer piece looking at the design and interfaces for hybrid and electric cars on Design Observer. The driving point of his piece is that these new green dashboards are not only informing the driver on vital statistics like speed and mpg, but have become a marketing platform for new technologies:

They wrap new technology in interfaces that both excite and reassure. They make drivers feel good about themselves. And they use game-like strategies to encourage them to drive more efficiently.

With the help of design firms and interaction designers, hybrid and electric car dashboards are a recent example of thoughtful design shaping human behavior—encouraging drivers to employ green driving habits. Read the full piece where Patton takes a closer look at the dashboards of new green vehicles here at Design Observer.

(more…)

Read the article:
The Green Dashboard

If you’ve been waiting for someone to take the glasses part out of the current 3D TV viewing experience, Toshiba has finally put a launch date on its glasses-free 3D TV. The world’s first to be available to the public at the size, the ZL2 will take its place at the top of the company’s range of sets when it launches this December in Germany (no word yet on other European countries, or anywhere else for that matter) complete with an LED-backlit QuadHD resolution (3,840 x 2,160) LCD panel and Cell-processor based CEVO engine technology within. Check out the press release after the break for more of the specs, no word yet on how much it will cost but the glasses-based 3D ZL1 it's replacing was rocking a £4,000 price tag.

Update: We have a price, as Toshiba’s German press site currently mentions the set will cost 7,999 euros when the 55-inch version launches. We’re figuring you can afford a couple of pairs of active shutter glasses instead at that price, but at least it’s still a 4K screen, right? [Thanks, Daniel]

Continue reading Toshiba’s glasses free 3D TV launches in Europe as the ZL2 this December

Toshiba’s glasses free 3D TV launches in Europe as the ZL2 this December originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today sees the release of Parallels 7, the newest version of its popular, competition beating virtualization software. This edition plays nicely with Lion, runs multiple virtual machines and has received several performance tweaks — for the number obsessed, you’ll enjoy knowing that it resumes Windows 60 percent faster than Parallels 6. Gamers will notice a 40 percent bump in 3D graphics rendering and video-chatters will find that Windows can now access your Mac while it’s being dictated by OS X. Low end users who don’t have Windows 7, fear not — you can use the “Windows on Demand” service to buy a license via an “easy-to-use wizard” like, erm — Clippy. Mobile fans will also see Parallels’ iOS app give you remote access to your home machine, but be quick — the price is leaping skyward from $4.99 to $19.99 soon. You can grab the standalone edition for $80, but folks already using versions 5 or 6 can level-up for $50.

Continue reading Parallels Desktop 7 plays nice with Lions and cameras and developers, oh my!

Parallels Desktop 7 plays nice with Lions and cameras and developers, oh my! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were already amazed by the thinness of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad 2, prepare to have your mind blown. Toshiba’s AT200 checks in at 7.7mm, which is about 1mm thinner than the two aforementioned tablets. More