These shots depict the already epic Turda Salt Mines, located in Transylvania, Romania. They could also be what Christopher Nolan chooses as the revamped Batcave in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. I can’t think of a better candidate. More
Ever wondered what the World Wide Web’s illustrious history would look like if plotted in timeline form? Well, thanks to Google’s “Evolution of the web,” you won’t have to. The delectable chart traces the evolution of HTML, the web technologies that came alongside it and the browsers that’ve held it all together — all in a seriously meta HTML5 package. Ready for a trip down memory lane? Hit the source, friend, and revel at how far we’ve come.
Visualized: an interactive timeline of the web originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
When it comes to having the world’s slimmest display, competition is fierce, and technicalities abound. One manufacturer in particular makes that class-leading claim more often than others, however, so it was no surprise when LG decided to show off a “world slimmest monitor” at its enormous IFA hall this year. The E2391VR is, as expected, incredibly thin. At 7.2mm, it’s noticeably skinnier than the 9.3mm iPhone 4, so if you actually spend time looking at the side of your display, you’ll probably really like this one. But — and this, as with other models, can be a very big but for some users — all of the ports, and most of the critical components, are in the TV’s base. The 23-inch model we saw is rather small to wall-mount, so that base shouldn’t be an issue for most. It offers 1080p video, a 2ms response time, HDMI, D-sub, headphone out, and a “10,000,000:1 contrast ratio” — and, well, it looks great too, though reflections were a glaring issue in the bright exhibit hall. No word on pricing or availability just yet, but jump past the break for some PR magic.
Gallery: LG E2391VR LED LCD Monitor hands-on
Continue reading LG E2391VR LED LCD Monitor hands-on
LG E2391VR LED LCD Monitor hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Thanks to some eccentrics, the fedora is making a comeback. I guess it’s that whole Don Draper chic thing. But it strikes me as inappropriate headgear for the workplace, or public places in general. This helmet made by Garrett Mace offers a classier, yet subtle statement to people that you meet.
If you think the above photo of the helmet is impressive, then just wait until you see the video at the link. The LED fibers can light up in complex, variable patterns and colors. It’s a really amazing piece of fashion design.
Read more here:
LED Mohawk Viking Helmet
It’s called simply the “Amazon Kindle”. But it’s not like any Kindle you’ve seen before. It displays content in full color. It has a 7-inch capacitive touch screen. And it runs Android.
Rumors of Amazon making a full-fledged tablet device have persisted for a while. I believe we were one of the first to report on the possibility from a credible source — the same person who accurately called Amazon’s Android Appstore. That source was dead-on again, it just took Amazon longer than anticipated to get the device ready to go. They’re now close.
How do I know all of this? Well, not only have I heard about the device, I’ve seen it and used it. And I’m happy to report that it’s going to be a big deal. Huge, potentially.
First of all, before every commenter asks, no, sadly, I don’t have any pictures to share. That was the one condition of me getting this information. So instead you’ll have to rely on my prose to draw a picture of the device in your head. Or you can just look at a BlackBerry PlayBook — because it looks very similar in terms of form-factor.
So here’s what I know and what I saw:
Again, the device is a 7-inch tablet with a capacitive touch screen. It is multi-touch, but from what I saw, I believe the reports that it relies on a two-finger multi-touch (instead of 10-finger, like the iPad uses) are accurate. This will be the first Kindle with a full-color screen. And yes, it is back-lit. There is no e-ink to be found anywhere on this device.
Earlier this week, reports suggested that a 7-inch Amazon tablet could be released in October, with a larger, 10-inch version to follow next year. That’s somewhat accurate. As of right now, Amazon’s only definitive plan is to release this 7-inch Kindle tablet and they’re targeting the end of November to do that. The version I saw was a DVT (Design Verification Testing) unit. These have started floating around the company. It’s ready, they’re just tweaking the software now. If it’s not in production yet, it will be very soon.
Originally, Amazon had planned to launch a 7-inch and a 10-inch tablet at the same time. But that plan changed this summer. Now they’re betting everything on the 7-inch. If it’s a hit, they will release the more expensive 10-inch tablet in Q1 2012.
So how much will the 7-inch Kindle cost? $250.
Yes, Amazon has been able to trim the cost of the device to half of the entry-level iPad. And it will be the same price as Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color, which this will very obviously compete with directly. Both have 7-inch color touch screens. Both run Android.
And this is where things get really interesting. As anticipated, Amazon has forked Android to build their own version for the Kindle. Simply put: it looks nothing like the Android you’re used to seeing.
The interface is all Amazon and Kindle. It’s black, dark blue, and a bunch of orange. The main screen is a carousel that looks like Cover Flow in iTunes which displays all the content you have on the device. This includes books, apps, movies, etc. Below the main carousel is a dock to pin your favorite items in one easy-to-access place. When you turn the device horizontally, the dock disappears below the fold.
Above the dock is the status bar (time, battery, etc) and this doubles as a notification tray. When apps have updates, or when new subscriptions are ready for you to view, they appear here. The top bar shows “YOUR NAME’s Kindle” and then the number of notifications you have in bright orange. It looks quite nice.
There are no physical buttons on the surface of the device. You bring up a lower navigation menu by tapping the screen once. This can take you back home, etc.
But the key for Amazon is just how deeply integrated all of their services are. Amazon’s content store is always just one click away. The book reader is a Kindle app (which looks similar to how it does on Android and iOS now). The music player is Amazon’s Cloud Player. The movie player is Amazon’s Instant Video player. The app store is Amazon’s Android Appstore.
Google’s Android Market is nowhere to be found. In fact, no Google app is anywhere to be found. This is Android fully forked. My understanding is that the Kindle OS was built on top of some version of Android prior to 2.2. And Amazon will keep building on top of that of that over time. In other words, this won’t be getting “Honeycomb” or “Ice Cream
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.
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.
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.