Origami Laptop

The teeny MacBook Air has tried inserting itself between the two, but for those of us who prefer a full-sized screen, Niels van Hoof's Feno laptop concept could be the answer.

Well, if it were more than pixels on our screens, that is. The designer suggests flexible OLEDs could be used on laptops so they could fold up in three, making them smaller and lighter than before. I like how it's still wide enough to slide a CD in, and that there's also room for a little pop-out mouse. It'll never get turned into a real product of course, but it's nice to dream isn't it?

 

 

Vodafone lets Londoners Pay For Taxis via Text Message

Mobile payment systems may be gaining only gradual steam in the US, but over on the other side of the pond, Vodafone UK has launched a broad new campaign to integrate smartphone technology where Londoners may need it most -- in the back of taxis. As of today, many cab passengers will be able to charge their smartphones in transit, thanks to a wide range of chargers that the mobile carrier has installed in more than 500 of London's iconic black vehicles. Vodafone is also rolling out a new payment scheme today, whereby cash-strapped travelers can text their cab's license number to a specific code, allowing any owed fares to be charged directly to their phone bills. The system certainly doesn't sound as elegant as some of the NFC-based operations we've heard about, but it still beats having to navigate your cab driver to the nearest ATM, with the meter tick-tocking away.

 

 

LG Blade Laptops Bedazzle With Slim Bezels, Aluminum Bodies, and Core i7

The 14-inch P430 and 15.6-inch P530 mark the start of LG's new Blade series of laptops, which are the result of some obsessive slimming work at the LG labs -- display thickness is 4.5mm and 4.7mm, respectively, while the bezel on the 14-inch model is so narrow as to fit its screen within the dimensions of a traditional 13.3-inch laptop. Weight, at 1.94kg on the P430 and 2.2kg on P530, is also said to be on par with machines offering significantly smaller screens, but that's not at the sacrifice of construction materials as brushed aluminum is used to strengthen LG's new slimsters. A Core i7 CPU and GeForce GT520M GPU will provide the internal firepower, though the rest of the hardware specs are as yet unannounced. The P430 will launch in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America at the end of May, to be followed by the P530 in June.

 

 

Samsung Sliding PC 7 Series Now Available for $649 Amazon Pre-order

According to Amazon's listing, the 7 Series should ship with many of the same specs: a 10-inch touchscreen with 1366 x 768-resolution, dual front and rear cameras (1.3 and 3.0 megapixels, respectively), a 32GB SSD, 2GB of RAM and, of course, Intel's 1.5GHz Atom Oak Trail Z670 processor, which was originally scheduled to launch in March, before being pushed back to May. The slider will also run on Windows 7 Home Premium, and come equipped with 802.11b/g/n WiFi. When it debuted earlier this year, the Series 7 boasted optional 3G and WiMax features, as well as a six-cell battery that claimed to last up to nine hours on a single charge. And, at $649, it's even a little cheaper than expected.

 

 

Biological Viruses Might Actually Give Us Better Solar Power

Boffins at MIT have discovered that a genetically modified version of the M13 virus can actually increase the efficiency of solar cells, to as much as a third greater efficiency. This means converting sunlight to electricity wouldn't take so darn long, and perhaps even more electricity out of mother nature's rays, as well.

Fooling around with viruses at the microscopic level is only a tiny process, but has extraordinary benefits. In fact, MIT's researchers have only added 0.1 per cent extra weight to the finished solar cells, but as Professor Belcher says, "a little biology goes a long way."

Gigabyte's S1080 Windows Tablet

Looks like Gigabyte's S1080 tablet, which landed in Taiwan earlier this month, is getting ready to hit shelves in the US. The 10.1-inch Windows 7 slate stopped by the FCC, where it got cracked open and had its silicon-packed innards exposed for the camera. There's nothing new to glean here -- specs are still the same (dual-core Atom, 320GB hard drive, etcetera).

 

 

Finger-Nose Smartphone Stylus

Finally! For those of us who happen to take our smartphones into the bath with us—admit it—Dominic Wilcox has the answer. It's a stylus wrapped in plaster that you wear on your nose to peck at your phone.

As insane as this sounds and looks, it does what its supposed to. Nevermind the fact that you shouldn't get your phone or tablet wet with whatever is on your hands when you use it. Just take the extra time to put your Finger-Nose on, and away you go.

I can just barely see using this indoors for those guilty moments when I need an almost hands-free solution for my iPhone. I really want to see this catch on just to see professionals walking around looking like characters out of a Tim Burton movie. There is literally no downside.

 

 

I-O Data's HDCA-UT3.0K Drive Offers USB 3.0 And 3TB of Storage

If you've been on the hunt for the biggest, fastest hard drive around, it seems your options are expanding. I-O Data just introduced the HDCA-UT3.0K external hard drive, which offers USB 3.0 support and 3TB of storage, which, as the company notes, makes it an ideal companion for TVs with a USB recording mode. Struggling to resist the charm of its blue LED and the possibility of owning more storage than you'll ever need? Look for it in mid-May with a price of ¥26,400 ($324).

 

 

IdeaPad S205 Hits Lenovo Webstore, Starts at $499

The base model sells for $499, sporting a 1.60Ghz dual-core AMD Fusion E-350 CPU, an 11.6-inch (1366 x 768 resolution) 16:9 widescreen panel, 3GB of DDR3 SDRAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 6310 graphics, and a 350GB HDD. Two higher cost configurations score an extra gig of RAM, an optional Bluetooth radio, and a 500GB or 750GB HDD. 

 

 

Google launches Chrome 11 With Fat Icon

Firefox 4? Too furry. Internet Explorer 9? Too blue. Google's Chrome? Just the right amount of shine -- or is it? The company introduced a flat new logo for the browser and now that logo is gracing the software's latest stable release. Chrome 11 is now available, the biggest changes being a number of security and bug fixes, some of which "may be kept private until a majority of our users are up to date with the fix." The new version also delivers speech-to-text and, perhaps more importantly, text-to-speech. 

 

 

Depleted Uranium Could Be Used to Create MASSIVE Hard Drives

Uranium that's been depleted isn't necessarily waste, according to researchers at Nottingham University. They think—besides making ammo and tank armor—it could be used as the basis for future hard drives thousands of times larger than current ones.

You see a molecule comprised of two Uranium atoms has magnetic properties at low temperatures, making the element ideal for a super dense hard drive. Referred to as a single-molecule magnet, this possible application for Uranium wouldn't pose any safety threats because any radioactive properties would be absent. All of this is still in the infant stages of the research project, but imagine being able to store the capacity of today's data center in a single desktop drive. Awesome, right?

 

 

iPhone Turntable Concept Brings Dropped Calls to Your Record Collection

Any audiophile worth their weight in 180 gram vinyl will gladly tell you that nothing sounds quite as good as a record. Unfortunately, the format has a few major drawbacks, like a lack of portability and the fact that it really sucks at making phone calls. The iPhone, on the other hand, is light years ahead of those fronts -- well, one of out two ain't bad. This new concept from designer Olivier Meynard offers the best of both worlds, embedding a horizontal iPhone dock next to a wheel of steel, so you can play back your favorite LP through the built-in speakers and encode those tracks as MP3s, which are uploaded to your handset as it charges. Finally, a way to turn your long out of print prog rock albums into ringtones, as they were meant to be heard.

Free Android Apps Outnumber Free iPhone Apps

Good news for Android users who hate paying for stuff: according to new numbers from Netherlands-based mobile analytics group Distimo, there are now more free apps available for Google's mobile OS than the iPhone, at 134,342 to 121,845. There are a few things to consider here: first, when one adds free iPad-only apps, the total number of gratis iOS apps increases to a more competitive 132,239. 

And then there's Apple's sometimes rigorous vetting process, which has probably played a role in its numeric slippage -- after all, this report doesn't highlight things like legality, repetition, or the overall number of apps dedicated to making farting noises. Also, Apple has a lot more premium apps, giving it the overall lead at 333,124 to 206,143 -- but between Android's rapid growth and what the report terms iOS's relative stagnation, Distimo expects Google to take the top spot in five months' time, outnumbering iPhone and iPad apps combined -- a rough scenario for Cupertino to stomach, no doubt, but at least the company will still have Windows Phone to kick around a while longer.

 

 

Microsoft Announces Record Q3 Earnings: $16.43 Billion Revenue, $5.23 Billion net Income

Well, it looks like the record quarters from tech companies just keep on coming -- this time it's Microsoft, which just reported $16.43 billion in revenue in its third-quarter results, a jump of 13 percent from the previous year, and well ahead of analysts' expectations. Net income clocked in at $5.23 billion, a whopping 31 percent increase from the previous year, with Microsoft citing strong sales of Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect as key driving factors. The company also reiterated that it's sold a staggering 350 million Windows 7 licenses so far, and said that its Entertainment & Devices Division has grown a full 60 percent year-over-year -- again, largely fueled by those record-setting sales of Kinect and continued strong sales of Xbox 360 consoles and Xbox Live.

As for Windows Phone, Microsoft unfortunately isn't providing much in the way of specifics -- on its earnings call, it only went as far as to say that "product reviews are good" and "customer satisfaction is high," and that developer interest has increased following its announcement of the Nokia partnership. It was unsurprisingly a bit more eager to divulge specifics for its gaming business, though, and revealed that it sold 2.4 million Kinect sensors in Q3, along with 2.7 million Xbox 360 consoles -- the latter of which is a new third quarter record for the company.

 

 

MSI Gets a SteelSeries Keyboard, Builds The GX780 Gaming Notebook

The worst part about buying a fancy new gaming keyboard? It's hard to show the thing off if it never leaves your basement apartment. MSI's newly announced GX780 notebook combines a colorful backlit 102-key SteelSeries-designed keyboard with the (relative) portability of an 8.6 pound gaming laptop. The keyboard features 1,000 different color combinations, five lighting modes, 10 key simultaneous input, and a layout the company calls "The Golden Triangle" -- trademark pending, we're sure. The 17.3 inch notebook has some solid non-keyboard specs as well, including GeForce GT555M graphics, a second gen Intel Core i7 processor, and an impressive maximum 16GB of DDR3. No word on pricing or availability, but hopefully the MSRP isn't as colorful as that keyboard.

 

 

Samsung Galaxy S II Begins Quest for 120 Country Domination

Samsung is holding a media day event in South Korea to celebrate the domestic launch of its smokin' fast Galaxy S II. Thedual-core 1.2GHz Gingerbread handset with 4.27-inch 800 x 480 pixel Super AMOLED Plus display,TouchWiz 4.0 UI, MHL port, and 8 megapixel camera capable of 1080p video is already on limited sale in the UK on its way to a 120 country / 140 carrier invasion.

 

 

Google Docs Gets an Android App, Lets You Capture Text With Your Phone's Camera

Google's had a mobile-friendly version of Google Docs available for some time now, but it's now finally gone the extra step and released a dedicated Android app. That will of course let you access and edit your documents on your smartphone, but the real standout feature is the ability to capture text with your phone's camera and have it instantly made editable thanks to some optical character recognition. 

Google notes that won't work with handwriting or some fonts, but it promises it will get better over time. Hit up Android Market to try it out for yourself.

White iPhone 4 Releases Tomorrow, Finally

The rare albino iPhone 4 has been spotted numerous times in the wild, skulking through the trees in the magical United Kingdom, cavorting across the mysterious lands of Vietnam, and most recently standing in formation in Belgium. Now it's coming somewhere rather less exotic: the Apple Store. Apple has finally announced it will release the white iPhone 4 tomorrow around the world. 

Here in the US it'll come in both AT&T and Verizon flavors, warming the hearts and minds of those who like a little less pigment on their handsets. Other than a proximity sensor tweak nothing else has changed on the device, and so the pricing remains the same: $199 on contract for the 16GB model, $299 for 32GB. 

 

 

MySpace Will be Sold

After buying MySpace for $580 million five years ago, News Corporation will sell the dying social network at a steep discount, with bids due this week. But don't even think about bidding below $100 million. MySpace has its dignity!

One of MySpace's potential buyers, which include a Chinese internet portal and various private equity firms, told the Wall Street Journal that News Corp. has set a $100 million floor on bids for MySpace. Because apparently News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch will gladly take a $480 million bath on the value of MySpace, but they absolutely refuse to take a $481 million bath. OK!

In fairness, News Corp. probably did fine on MySpace when you factor in the $900 million in MySpace advertising it sold to Google five years ago. Did fine, that is, unless News Corp. somehow manages to blow even more of that money trying to keep MySpace alive on its own books.

A Chair With Better Speakers Than Your Pimped-Out Sound System

Anyone who's toured their local modern art museum has seen a fair share of odd-looking furniture. And the Subsonic Chair would fit right in.

It doesn't look like something I'd want to sit in. But what this chair lacks in comfort is made up for in power. The Subsonic uses 1,000 watts to run its two 16-inch subwoofers, two 4-inch mid-range speakers, and two high-frequency tweeters. John Greg Ball, the chair's designer, originally conceptualized the idea in 2005, but has since gone ahead and created this prototype. Ball said he wanted "this to be an extremely loud object... I want the sound to be just like thunder." On second thought, a museum is probably the last place you want a chair that makes your ears bleed.

 

 

Netgear's N750 Wireless Router Newspeaks its Way to 750Mbps

Believe it or not, blazing-fast WiFi routers don't have to look like anti-aircraft weapons. The new flagship device from Netgear, the N750, keeps its array of antennae stashed out of sight. Even without a gaudy design, this dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n router can hit speeds of 450Mbps over the 5GHz band and 300Mbps at 2.4Ghz, for an "aggregate combined data rate" of 750Mbps. 

Don't get too excited though, all that means is you can connect one device in either band without dragging down the transfer rate of the other -- you're still bound by the 450Mbps speed limit. The N750 also includes a ReadySHARE USB port for network storage, parental controls, and guest access -- not bad for $150, eh?

 

 

Shock! Microsoft’s BSOD Will Actually be a Black Screen of Death in Windows 8

Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death has been simultaneously worrying and pissing people off since Windows 1.0. No doubt trying to add a bit of sexy glamour to an otherwise frustrating experience, Microsoft's next OS looks to include a black screen.

The change in colors (well, color to an absence of color) was dug up in an early build of Windows 8. It's possible Microsoft could have a change in heart and decide not to paint everything in black—after all, early copies of Windows 98 and Vista showed a Red Screen of Death. It's just as well they defaulted back to the BSOD—I would've had a heart attack seeing a blood-red RSOD flashing up.

 

 

Acer Iconia Tab A500 Now on Sale

Yearning for some diversity in your hunt for a Honeycomb tablet? Acer's new Iconia Tab A500 doesn't really stray from the Tegra 2 norm when it comes to internal specs, but it does have that brushed aluminum back, a full-sized USB 2.0 port, and a sane $450 price point going for it. You'll get 16GB of storage and 802.11b/g/n WiFi connectivity for your money.

 

 

FDA Gives Robots Permission to Sew Hair On Your Scalp

Balding sucks. But will you trust the machines to repair your scalp? The FDA does, which is why they approved this piece of robotery to perform hair transplants. It's name is ARTAS, and it lives in your dermatologist's office.

If you have straight hair that's brown or black and you want more if it, you can sit in ARTAS' lap, at which point it will massage your scalp (along with a few "dermal punches" thrown in for good measure). A year later, you'll have a scalp full of healthy hair, or so the story goes. 

 

 

HTC Sensation 4G Launching on June 8th, Because Google AdWords Says So

The dual-core Sensation 4G will be showing up in the states "beginning this summer," though HTC and T-Mobile have been mum on an actual date. If you look up said phone on Google, you should see a cheeky Adwords ad mentioning a "6/8" date in the link. Of course, anything could change between now and June, but this preliminary date is certainly a good sign for all HTC Gingerbread anticipators -- or, you know, you could just get the leaked ROM right now.

 

 

Beats by Dr Dre Get a Chrome Paintjob and $1,000 Price Tag

Love 'em or hate 'em, plenty of people seem to have a pair of Beats by Dr Dre headphones. Mind you, plenty of people watch reality TV shows. And eat MaccyDs. I do think these special limited-edition chrome ones look great though, but at $1,000 each you've got to be a special kind of deranged to cough up for one of the 50 pairs.

 

 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Shows Up Online, Looks Freakishly Thin

ThinkPad aficionados mourning the loss of the X300 series of ultraportable laptops might have something mighty fine to look forward to in the near future. A ThinkPad X1 has shown up at Swiss e-tailer Tell IT systems and other online locations, replete with a 2.5GHz Core i5-2520M CPU, a 160GB SSD, a 13.3-inch Gorilla Glass screen, and as you can see above, a profile thin enough to rival the likes of the Samsung Series 9 and Apple MacBook Air. 

The X1 is said to be 21.5mm thick, so it doesn't quite match those crazy cats, but -- provided we're not looking at an extremely elaborate hoax here -- it'll still be the thinnest ThinkPad by far when it launches. One 8GB stick of RAM, an SDXC card reader, and a 1366 x 768 resolution, while a price of 2,585 CHF ($2,920) sits alongside a promised delivery date of May 20th on Tell IT's website.

 

 

Sony Ericsson Saps Walkman Logo on X8, Renames it W8

Take one Xperia X8, add a dash of color, paint a "W" on it and, voilà, you have the first Walkman phone running Android -- the W8. Not it on the US Sony Ericsson site yet, but a quick visit to the company's German page reveals the decidedly low-end specs: a 3-inch, 320 x 480 touchscreen, a 600MHz processor, 168MB of RAM and Android 2.1. The W8 may not recapture the luster the Walkman brand enjoyed in its TPS-L2 heyday, but at least it'll update your Twitter status. 

 

 

Fujitsu LifeBook Replace Optical Drives With Projectors

Optical disc drives may be passé nowadays, but the enclosures usually reserved for them in laptops need not go to waste. Fujitsu has just rolled out its latest line of portables and a pair of them pack a pretty awesome new extra: an integrated pico projector. The 13.3-inch LifeBook S761/C and 12.1-inch P771/C both fill their ODD slots with a small visualizer, and while the specs of its actual output aren't clear, the two machines have been fully specced and priced. 

The S761/C can offer you a Core i5-2520M CPU, a (presumably upgradeable) 1GB of RAM, 160GB of storage, and a 1366 x 768 resolution for a price of ¥219,450 ($2,675). Moving down in size class but up in price, the P771/C matches those specs, but for a squarer 1280 x 800 resolution, and asks for ¥255,150 ($3,110). Both will be available in Japan in mid-May, which is also when Fujitsu will release its LifeBook E741/C, whose claim to fame is the ability to authe 

 nticate users by reading the veins in their palms. 

Obama Is Sending Predator Drones to Libya

Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defense, just said that Obama has authorized the use of of Predator Drones in Libya against Gaddafi's forces. In fact, the first mission of the Predator Drones in Libya had taken place earlier today.

They've already used drones for gathering intelligence in Libya, but sending in Drones armed with Hellfire missiles would mark a significant growth in our country's contribution to the now NATO led effort in Libya. These unmanned predator drones pack a punch but more importantly mean that by sending these drones, no troops are sent there. Hopefully, that won't change.

 

 

Ideum Releases MT55 HD Multitouch Table For Hands-on Museum-Goers

Ideum has taken the wraps off the latest addition to its growing family of multitouch tables, with the release of the MT55. The table, originally announced late last month, boasts a handsome 55-inch LCD display, which beams LED-backlit graphics in 1920×1080 HD resolution. As with its predecessors, the MT55's screen comes coated with a 5-mm layer of sturdy, tempered glass, and sits atop a pedestal made of aluminum and steel. Within that pedestal lurks an Intel Quad Core i7 CPU, with 4GB of RAM, a pair of 250GB SATA hard drives, and an NVIDIA Quadro 600 video card. 

The system runs Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, and comes packed with GestureWorks multitouch software for both Flash and Flex. The MT55 also features an integrated Bose Audio system, and can support up to 32 simultaneous touchpoints -- not quite as many as the 50 that its 100-inch counterpart can handle, but definitely enough to enthrall any class of 4th-graders on a field trip to the museum. You can find it here.

 

 

Nokia and Microsoft Sign Definitive Agreement, Bring Windows Phone Handsets Closer to Realization

Microsoft and Nokia's industry-altering announcement of a strategic alliance back in February has today been bolstered with the signing of a definitive agreement between the two companies. In announcing the inking of the paperwork, the Microkia crew point out that they're already hard at work developing "a portfolio" of Nokia Windows Phone devices, which will be shipping "in volume" in 2012, but there's still a twinkling hope that they can get something out on the market in 2011. Nokia devs have started porting key applications and services to Windows Phone, with mapping and navigation getting a highlight mention, while there will indeed be a "Nokia-branded global application store that leverages the Windows Marketplace infrastructure." Notably, this is described as a single portal where devs can serve their apps to users of Windows Phone, Symbian and Series 40 devices -- it'll be interesting to see how they work out the details of that. There's also confirmation that Microsoft will pay Nokia multiple billions of dollars as part of the agreement, some of which will be spent on completing an intellectual property-sharing agreement between the two teams. So yes, the third ecosystem is well and truly on its way.

 

 

Indulge Your Deepest Digital Paranoia with Signal-Blocking Faraday Bags

In light of recent cellular privacy revelations, your most paranoid neurons might be firing hard. You can put a tinfoil hat on your head, but what about your gadgets? These Faraday Bags put your device in a radio-proof vault.

The cases, like a standard (room-sized) Faraday cage, block out electrical charges and electromagnetic radiation—so zero signal bars for you, sir. The bags come in a variety of sizes, priced from $80 to $275 here.

 

 

Samsung Crafts an Underwater Flip Cam Clone

 

Samsung's new W200 digital camcorder is very, very similar to the recently murdered Flip. It looks the same, functions the same, and has about the same quality (1080p at 30 FPS). But it's got a trick—it swims.

The W200's waterproof up to three meters, and ruggedized against nasty falls. The W200 also snaps 5 MP stills, but the main draw will be for those who want to capture video where a smartphone might wuss out. Check for it in May.

 

 

Stuff Your Camera Inside the Body of an Easter Bunny

Just in time for the holiday, this adorably strange Micro 4/3 camera case has my ears (eh? EH?) perked up with excitement. Sure, it may not be "practical," but come on—it's a furry rabbit case.

No mention on pricing, but it's stitched of cotton and leather, so probably not cheap.

 

 

ASUS Bamboo-plated U43SD Laptop

The U43SD doesn't appear to stray from its predecessor's industrial design (save for its bigger 14-inch screen), but it steps up to the latest Core i3 and Core i5 processors, along with NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M graphics with 1GB of video memory. You can also choose from 5,400RPM and 7,200RPM hard drive options and either a six- or eight-cell battery.

 

 

Maxell's Vibrabone HP-VBC40 Earbuds Can Rattle Your Skull, if You'd Like

Maxell has taken a slightly different approach to the bone conduction trope with its new Vibrabone HP-VBC40 earbuds – headphones that combine standard stereo drivers with the same bone-rattling, vibration-based technology we've all come to know and love. According to Maxell, the Vibrabone's hybrid system enhances the bass that would be coursing its way through your cranium, while its dual volume control allows users to fine tune that bass flow. 

Apparently, this bass adjustment mechanism puts less stress on your eardrums, which might make the entire bone conduction concept seem slightly less creepy. The earbuds come in black, blue and white, and will be available in Japan toward the end of April, for a little under ¥4,000 or about $50.

 

 

Samsung Sells HDD Division to Seagate for $1.375 Billion

The Korean electronics giant has just announced that it's selling its hard disk drive-manufacturing arm to Seagate Technology for a neat $1.375 billion in equal measures of cash and stocks. As a result, Samsung Electronics will own approximately 9.6 percent of Seagate and get to nominate one new member to join Seagate's Board of Directors, while the two companies have further agreed to deepen their strategic relationship with related cross-licensing and supply stipulations. 

Samsung will provision Seagate's solid state drives with NAND flash memory, whereas Seagate will furnish Samsung's PCs and consumer electronics products with hard disk storage. 

 

 

The iPhone 4 is Killing Compact Cameras When it Comes to Photo Uploads

The iPhone 4 has steadily been pushing its way up the most-uploaded list at Flickr for some time now, it's almost toppled the Nikon D40 off the pedestal. It'll be around a month when Apple receives the Flickr crown, on Flickr, at least.

Interestingly, the D40 is three years old, and the iPhone 4 is under a year old. Behind the iPhone is the Canon EOS Rebel XSi, which is also three years old. The second chart, above, shows the decline of the most popular compact cameras, which coincidentally are all Canon PowerShots.

So what's behind this trend? Is it that more people own iPhones than compacts, or simply that the iPhone's always-connected status (well, if you're not on AT&T, anyway) is a better conduit for uploading pics on the fly?

MacBook Airs With Faster Blade SSDs

When Apple released its redesigned MacBook Air in October 2010, much was made of the switch to flash storage using a custom-built Mini PCI Express form factor SSD drive. It took a few weeks but these SSDs would ultimately be released as the commercially available Toshiba Blade X-gale SSD module, model TS128C. Now we're seeing user reports showing MacBook Airs equipped with a second, even faster SSD with a SM128C part number -- the "SM" hinting at its presumed Samsung manufacturing origins.

 Samsung's SSD manages up to 260MBps read and 210MBps write speeds compared to Toshiba's 210MBps read and 185MBps write performance. Of course, it's hardly unusual for Apple to multi-source components. And a recent decision to source parts from Korea's Samsung would have been a smart move to keep just-in-time supply lines fully stocked following the spate of disasters in Toshiba's home country of Japan. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any way of confirming which SSD you're about to purchase without cracking open the retail box and running the OS X System Profiler. Good luck with that.

 

 

The Minimalist, Lightweight Knife

These tiny, lightweight knives might make the perfect pocket knife for everyday use, and they're no doubt great for travel. Note: Probably not on planes.

Manufactured by Baladeo, the knife is available in two featherweight varieties, 22g and 34g, and performed pretty well in basic knife-related tasks (although, as Boing Boing notes, they are not workhorses).

The only "minor" issue they discovered while using the knife was that the locking mechanism slipped once and folded in such a way that it could have conceivably cut the tester's fingers. But it didn't!

 

 

Paper Alloy Takes

So you're anxiously awaiting your biodegradable car and your biodegradable 3D glasses, waiting for the day when everything you own can return to the loam from which it sprang. But, what about the computer you're using this very moment? It's probably made of non-green materials like injection-molded plastic, and slapping some bamboo on it isn't fooling anyone.

 Design and engineering firm PEGA comes to your rescue with a new composite material made of recycled paper and polypropylene alloy. Lightweight, durable, and inexpensive to produce, it acts just like typical ABS plastic -- and it even comes in the classic soul-killing beige. Maybe this is what Apple's been waiting for.

Google Announces Q1 Earnings: $8.58 Billion Gross Revenue

Well, it looks like Larry Page had a bit of good news and some bad news to deal with on his first quarterly earnings call as CEO of Google. The company has just reported $8.58 billion in gross revenue for the first quarter of 2011, which represents a 27 percent increase over the first quarter of last year, but is actually a bit less than analysts were expecting. That figure also doesn't include the company's so-called traffic acquisition costs, however, which totaled $2.04 billion for the quarter and bring the company's actual revenue down to "just" $6.54 billion. Net income for the quarter was $2.3 billion, which represents a more modest gain from $1.96 billion in the first quarter of 2010. Also cutting into profits quite a bit was Google's operating expenses, which were up a hefty 33 percent to $2.8 billion -- a sizable chunk of which went to the nearly 2,000 new employees the company hired during the quarter.

Interestingly, Google also revealed a few Android stats during its earnings call, saying that app downloads are up a full fifty percent from the fourth quarter of 2010, and that there's a total of three billion Android apps installed worldwide. As for Android devices, there's apparently 350,000 of those being activated every day. Head on past the break for company's full earnings report.

 

 

Brazilian Police Wear Glasses That Can Scan Faces to Find Criminals

In technology that is lifted straight from Robocop, Brazilian cops will be outfitted with glasses that can scan faces in a crowd and automatically pick out criminals. The glasses use advanced facial recognition technology that can scan 400 faces a second at 50 yards away.

Facial profiling! The glasses scans 46,000 biometric points on a person's face and compares it against a criminal database. When the glasses find a bad guy (it's actually a camera attached to the glasses), a red light pops up inside the glasses and alerts the officer on what to do.

The goal is to start using these Robocop glasses in test runs at crowded events (think soccer games and concerts) so police will be familiar with the technology come 2014 (when Rio de Janeiro hosts the World Cup). A big concern about the World Cup being in Brazil was the security, and if you saw Robocop, you'll know he handled his share of bad guys with ease. Hopefully, they can do the same!

 

 

Shooting Hoops in the Adidas AdiZero Crazy Lights, the Lightest Basketball Shoes Ever Made

The Adidas AdiZero Crazy Lights, which will make their debut on the feet of professional basketballers during next week's playoffs, each weigh just 9.8 ounces, making them the lightest basketball shoes ever made. They may or may not have helped prevent me from embarrassing myself in terrifying pick-up game earlier today.

The AdiZero Crazy Lights are, indeed, crazy light—when you pick one up, it's hard to believe that it's a professional-quality basketball shoe, something that the world's best players will rely on in some of their seasons' most important games. But they will! Thanks to some disciplined, scrap-what-we-have-and-start-from-square-one design, the shoes apparently offer all the comfort and support needed for play at the highest levels while still doing the least work of any shoe ever to keep players anchored down to terra firma.

 

 

Microsoft confirms IE10 won't run on Vista, millions of IE9 users shrug

If you're part of the dwindling group still using Windows Vista, you'll have to wait until your next upgrade to take IE10 for a spin -- Microsoft has confirmed that the latest version of its browser won't run on its last-gen operating system, either in developer preview form or when the final software ships. 

While it's tempting to interpret that as an attempt on Microsoft's part to put the widely loathed Vista in its past, there's actually a precedent for this -- remember that Microsoft cut off XP support when it unveiled IE9. 

 

 

Download iOS 4.3.2 NOW

iOS 4.3.2 is now available for download, which has fixes for Facetime, the 3G Verizon iPad 2 and other security issues. The update is available for iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, iPad and iPad 2, as well as the third and fourth gen iPod touch. Just plug your device into iTunes.

Apple also released a separate 4.2.7 build for the Verizion iPhone 4, which only addresses security fixes.

 

 

Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Shoots Pics Straight to a Mobile Device

The Eye-Fi's "Direct Beam" magicalness is mobile—doing what the little Wi-Fi cards should have been all along. The new models skip your network entirely, creating a link between camera and mobile device.

What gadget? Lots! Smartphones and tablets will get a suite of Direct Beam-compatible apps dropped on them, allowing for in-the-field transfers. So, for instance, you could snap a photo, shoot it over to your iPad, and then edit it with the wonderful new touchy Photoshop. That's a pretty nifty setup, whether you're a photog pro or not. An 8 GB SD model will be out for $80 later this week.

This Biodegradable Golf Ball Is Made From a Lobster

Lobsters! Not only do they have delicious meat, their shells have use too! Researchers at the University of Maine have developed a biodegradable golf ball from lobster shells.

The material of the golf ball is made from crushed lobster shells with a biodegradable binder and coating. Lobster shells are a great resource to tap into as most of the stuff just heads to landfills (no one has a need for red shells, I guess). The balls work with both drivers and irons and flies a "similar distance to other biodegradable balls", though not as far as real balls. Which is okay!

 

 

Lenovo Hoping To Launch 23-inch Tablet This Year

Dual 14-inch touchscreens not big enough? 21-inches of touch sensitivity still failing to sate your fingers' need to roam wild and free? Maybe the 23-inch behemoth of a tablet that Lenovo is planning on unleashing this year will make those digits dance with delight. The plan is, apparently, to take one of the company's Windows-powered all-in-one machines, delete the stand, put it on a crash diet, slap a big 'ol battery on there, and then watch the eyes of pixel junkies around the world light up with glee.

William Cai from Lenovo said "It's obviously not for full mobility use, but it could be moved from room to room in the house... you could lay it on a table top and use it for family games." Never mind that -- with the addition of just a few legs this 23-inch slab could be a table.