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- Air Voltage: Maxell Japan Announces Wireless Charger For iPad 2
- Hitachi Develops Low-Cost, High-Quality 4.5-Inch LCDs For Phones
- Daily Crunch: Shelf Life
- Cable Providers Mull Switch To A La Carte Subscriptions
- Hands-On With The Toshiba Thrive 7″ Tablet
- 20 Years Of Microsoft Research
- Canon To Bring Smooth Aperture Adjustment Rings To DSLRs?
- Toshiba Announces Updated Kid-Friendly Laptop
- Kobo Pulse Aims To Offer New Twist On Social Reading
- Under Fire, OnStar Revises Plan To Continue Tracking Former Subscribers
- The Future Of Books: A Dystopian Timeline
- Disney’s Appmates Turn The iPad Into An Interactive Playmat
- “Toilettenpapier Drucker” Is What You Think It Is
| Air Voltage: Maxell Japan Announces Wireless Charger For iPad 2 Posted: 28 Sep 2011 04:19 AM PDT  Hitachi Maxell, in cooperation with Murata, has announced [JP] the so-called Air Voltage for the Japanese market today, a combination of a wireless charging pad (dubbed “Energy Stand”) and jacket (“Energy Cover”) specifically for use with the iPad 2. According to Maxell, the device is the first of its kind (mass-produced). The way it works is that users put their iPad 2 into the jacket, place it on the pad and let the Air Voltage system charge the tablet – no cables required. Maxell says that the wireless power transmission of 10W takes about 3 hours for a full charge, as long as charging the iPad the conventional way (AC adapter). Owners can place the iPad 2 on the pad/stand either horizontally or vertically and keep using the tablet while it’s being charged, too. Maxell plans to start selling the Air Voltage in Japan on November 25 for $196. Murata, the maker of the wireless power transmission module that’s built into the Air Voltage, has set up a detailed web page that explains the product in English (here‘s a video).
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| Hitachi Develops Low-Cost, High-Quality 4.5-Inch LCDs For Phones Posted: 28 Sep 2011 02:04 AM PDT  Back in February this year, Hitachi Displays took the wraps off a super-advanced LCD for smartphones that boasted a 4.5-inch IPS LCD with 720 x 1,280 resolution. Fast forward to today, and the company is now announcing [JP] the development of a very similar panel with (almost) the same quality that costs “10-20%” less than touch displays currently used in smartphones. This new panel shares the main specs with the one shown in February: same size and resolution, 500cd/m2 brightness, LED backlight, and 329ppi pixel density. The only difference is that the older model had a better contrast ratio (1,100:1 vs. 1,000:1). And this time, Hitachi used amorphous polysilicon to manufacture the display, a material that’s often used for making TVs and that’s cheaper than the low-temperature polysilicon smartphone panels usually are made of. Hitachi Displays (or possibly Japan Display) expects to begin mass-production of the new LCD display by the end of this year, targeting phone makers in Japan and abroad. Note: the picture shows the old model, as Hitachi hasn’t released one showing the new display.
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| Cable Providers Mull Switch To A La Carte Subscriptions Posted: 27 Sep 2011 06:09 PM PDT  I remember when we first got cable, back in the late 80s I suppose, and even as a youngster one of my first thoughts was “man, do we really need all these channels?” That suspicion, that we were perhaps being sold the whole buffet when we knew exactly what we wanted already, only became stronger with time, and before long it was a running joke shared by many in the world. 500 channels and you end up renting a movie because nothing good is on. Selling the whole package, dozens or hundreds of channels, has been part of the cable TV business model for a long time. It enabled smaller networks to grow and flourish under the ownership and careful tending of larger ones. But cable providers never talked about it as a reality of the TV business. They always just said people didn’t want a la carte. A funny thing to tell the people asking for it. Now, with those same people getting their content a la carte by whatever means necessary (and feeling justified after decades of mistreatment by cable companies), it appears that Comcast, Time Warner, and the rest of the cable giants are changing their tune. Yes, it’s hard times for cable, and according to Reuters, they’re hatching a plan to salvage as many subscriptions as possible by putting a la carte back on the table. The trouble is that all the deals they’ve cut with content providers like Disney and Discovery during the salad days of the 90s and early 2000s are hindering that plan. The cost of business has been rising steadily as the value of a cable TV provider has dropped. When Fox or ESPN has millions of viewers online and commands a stable of premium content, the balance of power starts to change. Why Comcast et al. didn’t see this coming a decade ago is beyond me — unless, and this is just speculation, the future was obscured by their enormous hubris. The ugly truth for them is that their mode of distribution, as totally indispensible it was to hundreds of millions only a few years ago, is now just one of many, and its new competitors are cheaper, more mobile, and occasionally more convenient. These days people can barely bring themselves to pay for anything online, and that philosophy is leaking into the cable world. Cable-cutting isn’t a real possibility just yet (the contenders for TV replacement, Google TV, Hulu, and so on being still in their infancy), but if a family needs to cut costs, that $80 per month cable bill is a mighty easy pick. The streaming services may not quite be there, but they sure as hell are cheaper, and they don’t make you pay for four hundred channels you didn’t ask for. Unfortunately a contraction in this sector isn’t likely to be popular in the industry. The potential for riches is still huge, and no one wants to hear that maybe their company will only launch 12 new shows this year instead of 18. But that might have to happen as a stopgap as the rest of the distribution question gets itself figured out. Unless they want to float a billion or two in production costs. The “let the market decide” philosophy has never been a favorite in the TV business. “You’ll watch what we tell you to, when we tell you to” is a little more their style. And they might have stuck to it a little too long. And right now the market is deciding to leave them behind. If they’re smart, they won’t half-ass this little juke they’re doing, because it’s either this or a death spiral. Not that other industries haven’t chosen the death spiral (I’m looking at you, RIAA). I say bring on the a la carte. If consumers won’t pay $4 a month for 24/7 access to ESPN or the Discovery Channel, well, what the hell were they worth in the first place?
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| Hands-On With The Toshiba Thrive 7″ Tablet Posted: 27 Sep 2011 05:00 PM PDT  Toshiba’s entrance into the Android tablet market was a pretty good one — Android 3.1 Honeycomb, a wide array of connectivity ports, and interchangeable batteries. But all those ports coupled with a 10-inch form factor made for quite the hefty slate. Personally, I tend to favor the 7 to 8-inch tablet category, which is why I was so pleased to get a peek at Toshiba’s latest tab: The Thrive 7″. Unfortunately, some of the best parts of the 10-inch Thrive were scrapped to meet portability goals, like the full-sized SD card slot and that removable back cover. Instead, the Thrive 7″ has a micro SD card slot and a micro HDMI port along with a mini USB. But even with certain stand-out features missing on the 7-incher, it still has a few tricks up its sleeve. For one, the 7-inch tablet runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb instead of 3.1. A minor upgrade, but an upgrade nonetheless. Past that, the display resolution is pretty brilliant. Most 7-inch tablets on the market today sport a resolution of 1024×768, but the Thrive 7′ kept the same resolution as big brother: 1280×800. Since screen real estate was reduced to from 10 to 7 inches, the pixel density on this thing far surpasses that of the 10-inch model. Under the hood, the Thrive 7″ has the same Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor as the bigger version, and comes in 16GB and 32GB flavors. The original Thrive shipped with an 8GB version as well, but with the removal of a standard SD card slot on the little guy, Toshiba likely ditched the idea of an 8GB 7-incher. Just like in the original, the smaller model also comes with a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. However, that rear camera now has dual-LED flash capabilities. The Thrive 7″ weighs just under a pound (.88lbs) and is .47-inches thick. The slate also has the same Easy Grip textured rubber back panel as the original model, which doesn’t do so well with prints but does give it a more solid, durable feel. The Thrive 7″ is a WiFI-only tablet, and won’t be available until early December. Toshiba says it should stay under the $400 mark. Full gallery below.
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| 20 Years Of Microsoft Research Posted: 27 Sep 2011 03:23 PM PDT  This month marks the 20th anniversary of Microsoft Research, perhaps the most consistently interesting division of the hulking software company. Take a few minutes to peruse the timeline of their work, which ranges from consumer-facing work like Cleartype and spam recognition to the obscure, academic, and quixotic. The names behind the ideas are unlikely to be recognized, but they include geniuses, visionaries, knights, and humanitarians. Billions of dollars per year being expended towards furthering the reach and worth of technology constitutes an important but largely thankless endeavor. Sure, products like Office, Exchange, and other enterprise stuff make up the majority of Microsoft’s income, but I don’t think Microsoft was founded to be a office-tools company. The vision of Microsoft was putting a computer in every home and making that computer as versatile and powerful as possible. Microsoft Research is perhaps more in line with that philosophy than its parent company has been in years. If I had to pick a place to work at Microsoft, Research would be it without a doubt. Unfortunately, I’m not an accomplished computer scientist or engineer, so I have to be content with occasionally reporting mind-blowing creations like using a Kinect to map a room in 3D in real time. Things like that make me actually excited about what they’re doing. So many companies featured on this site have their sights set on such miniscule problems, such niche applications, that I can’t bring myself to feel anything at all about them, however much funding they score. If Instagram had a billion dollars a year to spend on R&D, what would they spend it on? More filters? Watching for interesting projects is especially easy with both MSR and Google, because both companies want this stuff out there. And with the Motorola purchase, I think Google might just be getting started with the tinkering. There is probably quite a lot of interesting research being done at Apple as well, but their secretive nature over there doesn’t permit snooping. That’s why I like Microsoft Research. Their semi-academic model for collaborating and sharing means the papers and demonstration videos are often right there for you to browse. Sure, for budding products like Kinect they have to keep the lid on tight, but for more esoteric projects it’s all in the open. Rob Knies describes here MSR Redmond Director Peter Lee’s optimism at the next few years for the division, and looks back at the last 20 years of discoveries and investigations. Research has grown to encompass more than 850 researchers at 12 facilities around the globe. Microsoft spends $9 billion per year on R&D, and while they may have some trouble turning them into products, MSR is still an idea factory well worth the money.
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| Canon To Bring Smooth Aperture Adjustment Rings To DSLRs? Posted: 27 Sep 2011 01:24 PM PDT  If you’ve been in photography for more than ten years, you probably remember the way things used to be on old film cameras. There was no electronic interconnect between the lens and the body, so lens-related functions (focus, zoom, aperture) were on the lens and body-related functions (ASA, shutter speed) were on the body. That changed as autofocus and auto-exposure, particularly on digital cameras, necessitated a data connection between the lens and the body. While we never did away with the focus and zoom rings, aperture went right out the window and was electronically controlled. A few nice cameras have aperture rings now — the X100, for instance — but generally speaking you can’t find one except on professional cinema gear these days. But Canon may be looking to change that. A recent patent detailed at Photography Bay shows a system for controlling the functions of a lens using three on-lens rings (or two on a prime, presumably), the hindmost of which controls a diaphragm, which we can take to mean the iris. Old-school photographers will be overjoyed. Newer camera systems have attempted to modernize the ring system by having one ring stand in for all three, its active function chosen by a switch or setting. A reasonable attempt but (I suspect) unsatisfying for many photographers. One point that isn’t clear is whether the ring will be stepped or stepless. Traditionally, aperture rings have moved in mechanically-separated 1/3-stop steps, which aids in keeping exposures consistent and prevents an aperture equivalent to zoom creep. But the stepped exposure dial is a pain for motion video, where the steps are easily perceived as they change. There’s no reason why the iris shouldn’t be able to move smoothly from open to shut and stop anywhere along the way (perhaps rounded off to the nearest third), and it may be that this is a feature planned for Canon’s next big announcement in November. No announcements have been made, of course, but the patent was interesting to warrant a post anyway.
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| Toshiba Announces Updated Kid-Friendly Laptop Posted: 27 Sep 2011 01:23 PM PDT  If ever there was an audience for a silver and neon green laptop, kids would be it (and also maybe people who like lime green a lot). That said, Toshiba has just launched its updated kid-friendly laptop: the Satellite L735D. Toshiba and Best Buy worked on this one together, and did quite a bit of research to make sure that the little ones were getting what they wanted. Which was a lot of silver and neon green. The Satellite L735D is really just the L635 wrapped up in some kid-friendly design, packed full of kid-friendly software, with more aggressive pricing. It’s a full 13.3-inch laptop, with a 1.3GHz AMD E-series processor and a 320GB hard drive. The 13.3-inch screen has a 1300×708 resolution, and supports video playback in 720p. The L735D also has two USB 2.0 ports, a webcam for video chat, and a battery life of five and a half hours. Obviously, these aren’t specs to drool over, but they make sense considering the rather low price point this little guy is going for. As far as kid-centric features go, the most obvious (aside from the color scheme) would be the “wipeable” keyboard. Toshiba was very careful to not use the term “spill resistant,” so don’t think you can send little Tommy over to his laptop with a full glass of soda pop. Once he’s finished, however, and made the keyboard sufficiently sticky, feel free to wipe it clean. The Satellite L735D also comes with LEGO Harry Potter: The Video Game pre-installed, as well as KidZui (a browser just for kids). The Satellite L735D will be available exclusively from Best Buy in the beginning of October, with an MSRP of $497.99.
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| Kobo Pulse Aims To Offer New Twist On Social Reading Posted: 27 Sep 2011 11:58 AM PDT  Kobo has been cultivating their Reading Life initiative for a while now, and with the announcement of their new Pulse feature, they’re digging even deeper into the social space than before. Slated to launch in their Kobo iOS apps first, Pulse is a new way for readers to connect with others while digitally thumbing through their collections. The pulse manifests itself as a pink splotch on the bottom of any given page, where it waxes and wanes to display the level of social engagement is going on around that point in the book. Expect a small pulse, for example, when you run into a few pages of dull, lifeless exposition. Likewise, the pulse will grow bigger and brighter once you start hitting the juicy bits. A quick tap on the pulse reveals others reading the same book, and a shortcut to the page feed where you can discuss all the details. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen brings up a book statistics pages, which among other things shows how many times the book has been read and some of the conversations surrounding the book. Kobo’s been down with Facebook since their Reading Life plans started, but now they’re looking to tie their social reading ideas into some of the new functionality demoed at this year’s f8. Pulse updates will show up in in your Facebook ticker, and reading habits will eventually make their way onto your Timeline. In addition to showing up in your iOS and Android Kobo reader apps, Pulse will also make an appearance on their line of Touch Edition eReaders as an automatic update. Personally (and I don’t think I’m alone on this one), I’ve always felt that reading was one of those things that was best done alone. I like to curl up in a chair, turn everything else around me off, and just dive in. Visually, the pulse also seems as though it would be a distraction, though I suspect I may be in the minority on that one. Don’t get me wrong, parts of Pulse seem truly compelling; as a bit of a numbers nerd, personal reading stats are something I’d love to have a look at, and the idea of seeing a book’s “life” unfold is sort of charming. I’m looking forward to playing with Pulse when it comes via update, but I’m not expecting it to change years of reading habits.
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| Under Fire, OnStar Revises Plan To Continue Tracking Former Subscribers Posted: 27 Sep 2011 11:36 AM PDT  Last week, OnStar made some changes to its terms of service which were almost universally recognized as being overreaching and unnecessary. The two primary changes were, first, that OnStar would continue to track subscribers who had terminated their service. They could ask to have their data connection severed in addition to unsubscribing, but why should they have to? Second, OnStar gave itself the ability to share or sell anonymized driving data to “any third party,” “for any purpose, at any time.” Faced with a flurry of criticism from users, sites like this one, and even Congress, OnStar has gone back on at least one of the changes. They relate the update in a brief press release:
Kudos to them for quickly responding to pressure from their user base, but the tracking after cancellation was only part of the trouble. Their self-awarded ability to anonymize to their own satisfaction and then share with literally anybody they want to seems to be intact, and there doesn’t appear to be any mechanism for OnStar to even ask customers whether they want their information shared for marketing purposes (the “honor” bit is too slippery and vague to trust). If you want to use the service, this is something you’ll have to agree to. Whether that’s a good trade-off is up to you.
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| The Future Of Books: A Dystopian Timeline Posted: 27 Sep 2011 10:15 AM PDT  With the launch of the Kindle Fire tomorrow, I thought it would be fun to write a little bit sci-fi and imagine what the publishing market will look like in the next ten or so years. I’m a strong proponent of the ebook and, as I’ve said again and again, I love books but they’re not going to make it past this decade, at least in most of the developed world. As we well know, ebook sales are now outpacing hardback sales and publishers are now crowing ebook numbers alongside their traditional in-store sales numbers. Soon those in-store sales numbers will dwindle and disappear simply because there will be no stores – heavy readers, the folks who buy genre fiction by the basket-full will be happy to head over to Nooks and Kindles, especially when they drop below $99 (as they will this year). If I were a betting man, I’d wager quite a bit on these predictions. However, if you’re currently in the book sales racket – from publisher to used bookstore owner, I’d be very worried. The time to pivot is now and it’s clearly already happening. While I will miss the creak of the Village Bookshop’s old church floor, the calm of Crescent City books, and the crankiness of the Provincetown Bookshop, the time has come to move on. 2013 – EBook sales surpass all other book sales, even used books. EMagazines begin cutting into paper magazine sales. [Image: Blend Images/Shutterstock]
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| Disney’s Appmates Turn The iPad Into An Interactive Playmat Posted: 27 Sep 2011 08:29 AM PDT  I wasn’t much for playing with toy cars as a kid — you’d have found me parked in front of a Sega Genesis, if anything — but I suspect Disney Mobile’s new line of Appmate iPad peripherals would have been just the thing to change my mind. The Appmates and the iPad work in tandem to create a pretty novel play experience. Featuring the likenesses of characters from Cars 2, the Appmates are miniature figures with special sensors mounted on the bottom. Those sensors (patent pending, naturally) identify each particular figure to the iPad, so it will know the difference between Tow Mater and and Lightning McQueen even if you don’t. By gently pressing the figure down on the screen, the corresponding app essentially turns the iPad into an interactive playmat. Since the iPad can differentiate between characters, players will hear different bits of narration and dialogue depending on the figure they’re using. The app itself takes a sandbox approach to the Cars world: players can engage in races with other characters, complete missions to pick up some virtual cash, or just tool around scenic Radiator Springs. It’s an incredibly cool concept, and one that you can believe Disney will milk in coming months. The last time we heard from Disney Mobile was during the launch of “Where’s My Water?”, an iOS game starring a brand new character who they hoped would hit an Angry Birds level of ubiquity. The plan seems to be working so far, as Where’s My Water? has since overtaken Angry Birds in the Top Paid Apps chart. If the Appmates gain the same kind of traction, expect to see them everywhere just in time for the holidays.
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| “Toilettenpapier Drucker” Is What You Think It Is Posted: 27 Sep 2011 06:11 AM PDT  If you told me two-and-a-half decades ago that this tow-headed youngster from Columbus, Ohio who spent his evenings looking up at the stars, engrossed in endless wonder at the boundless horizon of the invisible universe, would one day be able to print on toilet paper in his lifetime, he would have spit at you and then kicked your dog. He was a pretty crappy kid. But it has happened: we can now use off-the-shelf components to print on toilet paper. This is the end of history. The printer uses a few broken CD players, an Arduino board, and good old Toilettenpapier to print messages for posterior. The creator, Mario Lukas, built the printer for hacking contest in Germany and he notes that you can connect it to an RSS or Twitter feed to tell folks what you really think about their content. I suspect some of our commenters could use this product to express their overt displeasure at having to read free content 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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