My Thoughts on Everything

Cheating Friends

2009-06-15T22:41:00.003+05:30

Over the years there has been a general lowering of standards in ethical behavior. Many people today see nothing wrong, still less sinful, in what formerly was regarded as cheating, even as stealing. If grown-ups tend to be dishonest and steal and cheat, it is most probably because they learned to cheat and to be dishonest as youngsters, as children. Cheating was and is a regular accepted activity in many high schools and colleges nowadays. Cheating in school can, and usually does, lead to cheating in other situations, including friendship, dating, jobs, and sports.

When friendship is concerned, one might have heard the quote “A friend is one who walks in when others walk out.” True friends are hard to find nowadays and even harder to keep. With increase in the amount of corruption and disloyalty, it is hard to find the right person to trust and accept as a friend. With so many people believing in gossip and cheap plots, betrayal of friendship has become very common now. People are so self-absorbed these days that they do not tend to see whether the friends they have are trustworthy individuals or not. Worse are those people who betray true friends because of materialistic pleasures. Coping up with friends cheating is quite hard, more so if you have no fault of yours. But, life goes on and you make new friends. You push away your hurtful past and learn a valuable lesson from it.

When friends let you down and are not there for you when you need them the most, it is known as cheating or betrayal. But first of all, who would expect their friends to cheat on them? Not many as I would suspect, especially when this situation catches a lot of people off guard mainly because this has never happened to them before. Sometimes the reason why friends cheat on you is just not known. When you are at the receiving end, you feel hurt, confused, and angry. You demand answers as to why have you been betrayed for absolutely no fault of yours. The talks end abruptly, phone calls are not returned, mails, chat messages, or even SMSes remain unanswered and there is no contact whatsoever. Hate it as much as you want, you will have to come to terms with reality and accept that things were not meant to be. We are dealing with a situation that involves innocent friends getting cheated on by their friend of however many years that comes out and say’s our whole friendship was a lie.

Though it may seem like the end of the world, there are ways to cope up with it. If the friendship has been ended by you, then there has to be reason concrete enough to justify the action you have taken. There is no point in dragging along a friendship when you know you are not comfortable with it. However, on the other hand, if you have been at the receiving end and feel that you have been cheated or betrayed by your friend for no fault of yours, it can be very hurtful. Do not be embarrassed to cry and scream. You have been hurt and you have the right to vent out your frustration. Believe me, you will feel a lot better after you have cried your heart out. Seek out other friends, siblings, or your parents and talk to them, tell them you have been hurt and ask them for solace. Sometimes you will be surprised to see that help was just around the corner. All that you needed to do was ask.

One thing that should be remembered is that these betrayals are experiences that teach you valuable lessons in life. Do not be afraid to seek help and talk about it to others. Such betrayals should not stop you from trusting people and making new friends, but it does, it does leave a question about your ability in trusting people and making new friends, I mean, doesn’t it?

Solar Powered Blue Car Hitting the Streets in 2010

2009-06-15T17:17:00.004+05:30

A new fully-electric vehicle with solar panels will be hitting the streets of Europe by the year 2010. Italian car designer Pininfarina and French battery manufacturer Bolloré have officially announced that the five door Blue Car hatchback is said to be now ready for production.

Previously unveiled at last year's Geneva Show, the Blue Car is a fully-electric vehicle that comes equipped with solar panels on the rooftop. The vehicle is 3.65 meters long, 1.6 meters high, and 1.72 meters wide, and features a 50kW electric motor that provides an acceleration of 0-60 mph in around 6 seconds and a top speed of 80 mph.

The solar panels on the vehicle’s roof provides some power to the vehicle’s systems. It comes with regenerative brakes and a Lithium Metal Polymer batteries, and has a range of 155 miles per charge. According to the manufacturer, all the materials in the construction have been sourced to be as environmentally friendly as possible. The Blue Car will be available in 2010, with full scale production of 60,000 units in the years to come.

via here.

Man Hits Back Of Truck At 120mph, Gets Stuck & Dragged (NSFW)

2008-09-29T19:49:00.004+05:30

This crash was at 169 near Admiral exit on April 17th 2007in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.

How would you like to be a truck driver, who walks around back and see THIS hanging from the ass end of your truck?

They said that the dude hit the back end of the truck at about 120+ mph.

These are the pictures from a motorcycle accident that happened on April 17th 2007 on Highway 169 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. The guy was going over 120+ mph at around 2 am when he hit the back of this Yellow truck. The truck was going at normal speed and the driver did not know what had happened. He was dragged approximately a mile before the truck stopped. Highway 169 is known for late night speed driving and trick driving of motorcycles. This guy's friend was killed 1 week after this while again going on his motorcycle at 120+ mph on Highway 169. Please be aware of what you're doing at all times..... and watch your speed.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Origins: The fatal accident depicted above took place on U.S. 169 near Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the early morning hours of 17 April 2007. The motorcyclist, 26-year-old Brandon Lee White of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, was traveling at an estimated 120+ mph when his motorcycle struck the back of a tractor-trailer rig.

According to the newspaper Tulsa World:

Police said the truck driver reported hearing a bump and then seeing debris from the motorcycle going past him. When he managed to pull over, he saw that a man was embedded in the back of his trailer.

White was dead at the scene.

Brandon's family said that they hoped his unfortunate death at least would help to bring attention to the issue of motorcycle safety:

"If I can save one mother, one father from going through what I've gone through, then it's worthwhile," said Broken Arrow resident Dennis White, Brandon White's father. "I can't be mad, but I know I have to do something. I've got to make a positive out of this."

Despite the hurt, the family members said they hope something good — a review of motorcycle safety laws — comes out of the recent death.

Helmet requirement laws, harsher penalties for speeding on a motorcycle, and community-based services to decrease drunken driving are among measures about which the family hopes the two young men's deaths spark a discussion.

Taking away a rider's motorcycle and motorcycle license for going a certain amount over the speed limit would be one way to curb speeding on bikes, said the elder White, who has ridden motorcycles for several years.

"That's the only thing that would make me think — that I'm going to lose it (his motorcycle)," he said. "I'm not a lawmaker, but I'm a biker, and that's the only thing that would work."

White said clubs that don't serve alcohol would go a long way toward helping reduce drunken-driving deaths for youths by providing them a hangout without the temptation of drinking and driving.

"We've got to do something to save these kids," he said. "We've got to do something to support them.

A few inaccuracies have crept into the text accompanying forwarded versions of these pictures. A 2008 variant carried the closing legend "He lived. Wear your helmet!", but unfortunately Brandon Lee did not survive the accident despite his wearing a helmet. Also, the friend of Brandon's who "was killed one week after this on his motorcycle going 120+ mph on Highway 169" referenced in the second example above was 21-year-old Devin Seigal, who was killed in a similar motorcycle accident five days after Brandon's death (and had, in fact, attended Brandon's funeral).

Unocycle - a one-wheeled motorcycle concept

2008-09-20T22:59:00.002+05:30

Unocycle or simply Uno is designed on a one-wheeled motorcycle concept that probably looks like a motorcycle that has been in a nasty accident, but the teenage (18-year-old) inventor of this electric bike, Ben J. Poss Gulak from Canada, believes that this is the answer to urban traffic chaos and pollution. Although it resembles a unicycle, the Uno has two wheels side by side and uses gyroscopic technology to stay upright. The rider leans forward to accelerate to speeds of 15-20mph, and backwards to slow down. The inventor states that he was inspired to make the bike after visiting China a few years ago and seeing all the smog there. They all drive little bikes that are really polluting and he wanted to make something to combat that and the final product of his several years of research is Uno. The Uno weighs around 120 pounds and is light enough to be taken indoors to be charged up and run for around 2.5 hours. Still in development, the Uno's top speed is said to be around 15-20 mph, but the inventor, Ben Gulak, suspects it could be made to go as high as 40 mph. That's no Harley, but it's still faster for a unicyle, and remember this is a battery-powered machine that you never need to fill up.

I have always thought the unicycle was dangerous, but this going twice or maybe thrice the speed is bound to have some very cool injury stories I guess!!!

Here are some pictures for you all to have a look at this futuristic motorcycle, sorry Unocycle.

Sony Ericsson W902

2008-08-08T19:27:00.010+05:30

Sony Ericsson has Unveiled their new candy bar walkman phone Sony Ericsoon W902 which offers just about any and every feature that you think you might want to have in a Sony Ericsson walkman phone.

Since the Sony Ericsson W902 falls under the Walkman line and not the Cybershot range, one might certainly expect this to be an audio-centric handset, pumping out tunes with verve. The phone comes with a Memory Stick Micro Card slot that allows you to carry up to 8GB of music on a single card, which roughly equates to around 8,000 eAAC+ encoded songs or so on an average. Music playback isn’t the only function that Sony Ericsson W902 is good at as it is more than capable of doing video just as fine as well with its 5-Megapixel camera and scratch-resistant 2.2” QVGA screen and lens made with mineral glass and Digital Zoom of up to 16x, making Sony Ericsson W902 an all-around performer handset that could prove to be a handy and versatile instrument only secondary to a portable media player (the iPod being the primary device, of course;)). The phone has BestPic™ feature installed which enables you to take nine pictures in one second and you can pick the best among it.
The phone also comes with Auto Rotate feature through which one can switch from vertical to horizontal mode by just rotating the phone. Whatever you are viewing will rotate to suit.
According to Ben Padley, Head of the Music Category at Sony Ericsson, “The Sony Ericsson W902 is one of our most high-performing mobile phones yet and perfect for those who want it all.”
Some of the features available on the Sony Ericsson W902 are as given below.

Sony Ericsson W902 specifications:

Walkman Player
5 megapixel camera with Auto Focus
Clear Stereo
Clear Bass
Java
Shake control
FM Radio
Access NetFront Web browser
Geo tagging of photos (cell-id)
Polyphonic ringtones
Bluetooth
Dedicated music keys
USB mass storage
USB support
Weight: 99.8 grams
Size: 110 x 49 x 11.7 mm
Display Screen: 262,144 colour TFT
Resolution: 240×320 pixels
Size: 2.2 inches
Phone memory: Up to 25MB
Memory Stick Micro (M2) support
Talk time GSM: Up to 9 hrs
Standby time GSM: Up to 380 hrs
Talk time UMTS: Up to 4 hrs
Standby time UMTS: Up to 360 hrs
Video call time: Up to 2.5 hrs
Music listening time: Up to 25 hrs
Networks: UMTS/HSDPA 2100 GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

You will be able to pick one up in Volcanic Black, Wine Red, and Earth Green this Q4 for a yet undisclosed price.

Link: Sony Ericsson w902 and All Techno Blog

Side Angle Motorcycle Helmet Camera System (SAM-HCS)

2008-08-08T18:02:00.010+05:30

Motorcyclists are sometimes limited in how far they can twist their head to look behind them. Yet, some drivers habitually change lanes without checking their blind spots for other vehicles. It's a good idea to adjust your position relative to other traffic to stay out of other drivers' blind spots whenever you can. I normally look over my right shoulder when I change lanes to the right. I was taught this years ago when I started to drive and I still do it to this day. I use my mirrors and look over my shoulder. It's easier for me to see any fast moving motorcycles or cars zipping in between the lanes. Also, I can spot anyone who is running parallel to me who is planning to merge into the same spot I want. Additionally, my mirrors can be realigned if someone accidentally bumps into them or when I'm cleaning them off.

If you are unsure what blind spots are, then here it is:
Blind spots, in the context of driving an automobile, are the areas of the road that cannot be seen while looking forward or through either the rear-view or side mirrors. Blind spots can be eliminated by overlapping side and rear-view mirrors, or checked by turning one's head briefly, or by adding another mirror with a larger field of view. Detection of vehicles or other objects in blind spots may also be aided by systems such as video cameras or distance sensors, though these are not common in automobiles sold to the general public.

The blue car's driver sees the green car through his mirrors, but cannot see the red car without turning to check his blind spot.

Blind spots can be eliminated by adjusting one's review-view or side mirrors effectively. But this will not eliminate the blind spots completely. So Gary Oldham and his company Adorg Safety Technologies Inc. believes to have developed a solution to the challenge motorcyclists face gauging blind spots behind them as they try to keep their eyes on the road ahead. Its called the SAM-HCS, for Side Angle Motorcycle Helmet Camera System.

It's a system in which two tiny color video cameras are mounted inside to the back sides of your helmet, pointing to the blind spots of the motorcycle and the live full color video is sent to the full color monitors inside the front of the helmet, in the upper corners of your viewing area so the rider can see the blind spot on each side. The rider can see slow moving traffic as well as fast moving traffic on each side of him where the mirrors cannot see. The monitors can be detached from the helmet and can be used wirelessly, for example, you can place them on the handlebars or the windshield of your motorcycle to show you the same view, you never have to take your eyes off the road and traffic in front of you to see if someone is positioned where your mirrors can’t see. The helmet never needs to be plugged into the bike or into electricity; it is fully self-contained and has a solar panel to charge the battery pack, no cabels needed.

The product is designed to fit inside your helmet and the system works in full face, half helmets, dirt bike helmets, probably almost any kind of helmet.

The only issue that I see is that the view is directly affected by the angle of your helmet, although in a normal riding position and with wide angel lens that may not be an issue at all.

Price of the system is said to be around $299 plus $25 shipping and handling. You can pre-order the item by going to the contact us page of the Adorg Safety Technologies Inc. website and they will send you a helmet box. You need put your helmet into it and send it back to them and they will install the system into your helmet and test the system and then send it back to you, all in a short turnaround time of three weeks, at present.

The product is Patented in the US Patent office and PCT and will be manufactured and ready for sale by the end of 2008.

Link: Adorg Safety Technologies Inc. and The Kneeslider

some artistic paint works

2008-08-05T20:57:00.000+05:30

Some very nice artistic paintwork done on cars that I found over the internet. Feel free to comment.

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via

Future of the Internet Search

2008-02-12T11:10:00.000+05:30

With the rate at which the techonology is growing I wish to see this in the future, where an Internet search can be done through mobile devices embedded with GPS, touchscreen, built-in camera, scanner, WiFi, google maps, google search, image search, etc., all in one device like this way, where when you see a building through it, touch the screen and provides you more details about it on the spot. It doesn't have to be a building; it can any object you see that you want to know more about it like the car model that you like, restaurant menu listing, and details of a monument like who built in, which era, etc., even can search the meaning of a word in the newspaper or magazines using the built-in camera and scanner and get details through wikipedia, dictionaries, etc.

What an invention would it be then? Well, I think this will surely be a testimony to how fast the technology is growing.

More details at petitinvention.

Nokia N96: The Beast Is Unleashed

2008-02-11T22:59:00.003+05:30

If you take the world's most feature-packed mobile phone available (Nokia N95), which has sold more than seven million units worldwide since it went on sale last year, and enhance the spec a little bit such that you would get what Nokia calls as the "most advanced multimedia computer optimized for entertainment," but I prefer to call it just as "Nokia N96."

Officially, the eagerly awaited successor to popular N95 was at last unveiled in Barcelona today at the Mobile World Congress.

So what does this beasty phone has that it replaces another phone, which is still a beast by any measure? Well, surprisingly nothing big is happening here. The N96 weighs around 125 g and comes packing with a solid 16GB of storage internally, which is twice that of the N95, in addition, to a microSD slot (expandable to up to 24GB, three times that of N95 8GB, i suppose) should you still round out of space, something that N95 8GB lacks. The 5-Megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss lens carries over, but there is now two-LED powered flash and video light to offer. The 2.8” QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) LCD TFT with up to 16 million colors display comes in handy for the integrated DVB-H mobile TV tuner (470-750 MHz ) allowing the users to watch digital Live TV on the phone's 2.8” display, while the 3.5 mm headphone jack, A2DP, and integrated stereo speakers should take care of the audio with aplomb. As shown in the picture below Nokia has even added a little kick-stand to the handset, so you can prop it up on a flat surface to watch your favourite TV shows.

Other features include WiFi, AGPS, and morphing lights on the smaller second slide that hook the user up with game controls are similar to that of N95. Unfortunately, the first and the only version released thus far of the N96 supports HSDPA only on the 900 MHz and 2100 MHz bands, but I think the strength of the spec sheet should still be enough to sell a few of these when it launches in the third quarter of this year.

The N96 also supports Nokia’s "Ovi platform" for music downloads on demand and A-GPS technology to allow users to ‘geotag’ their snaps when uploading them to a social-networking sites. One can also view Flash-based internet videos and videos encoded in the Mpeg4 and WMV formats also on the N96. Nokia has also launched a Video Centre to bring together all its movie trailers and mobile video content in one place.

I think Nokia's N96 is a pretty much impressive phone, but there isn't much improvement over an already mighty impressive N95. It doesn't even have a touch screen, aren't all phones supposed to have those in this day and age? The only feature that I didn't like in N96 is that of the battery (Nokia Battery BL-5F, 950 mAh). I think given two-LED powered flash light Nokia should at least have provided a 1200 mAh battery. Hope they will upgrade it in their second release like they did with N95. The N96 is scheduled for retail in the third quarter of 2008 and will carry an estimated retail price of around €550 (USD $797).

Read more about N96 at its official Website.

Blackberry patents: Angled Slider and Multi-Touch Technology

2008-02-11T20:14:00.000+05:30

After the iPhone, every major cell phone manufacturers in the world is working on somekind of touch-interface based device that would have a great impact on the design of the next generation of consumer friendly handsets. Having said this, here's the good news for all the Blackberry users around the globe. A new and interesting patent filed by the RIM Blackberry indicates a new direction that the smartphone company is heading into with its upcoming Blackberry 9000/9100/9900 series devices and consumer handsets giving us a valid reason to believe the rumors that RIM Blackberry may soon have its own touchscreen interface. However, there's not much information available about the new 9000/9100 line of Blackberries.

The first one is titled "Handheld mobile communication device with movable display/cover member," which as illustrated below, introduces us to an interesting angled Blackberry slider configuration whereby the keypad is hidden underneath the screen section, similar to the HTC Touch Dual or the Samsung SGH-i620 aka Sangria.

I think the intention behind this is to be able to use the Blackberry both in the standard as well as the angled-slider modes as needed, and in the closed position it could be operated via the touchscreen interferace, which brings us to the second patent filed called "System and method of integrating a touchscreen within an LCD," which means the company could be creating it’s own multi-touch touchscreen technology.

This patent relates to the field of liquid crystal displays (LCDs), more specifically to touchscreen LCDs. Although there are several types of touchscreens possible, the two most commonly used touchscreen in handheld devices are resistive and capacitive touchscreen. This new technology is said to be different from capacitive touchscreen used in Apple’s iPhones, which uses a metallic coating on a glass sensor, but somewhat similar to the touchscreen described in Nokia S60 Touch patents.

As illustrated in the picture below this also encompasses a touchscreen embedded within the LCD itself. Only instead of using light sensors, it uses an array of parallel electrodes throughout the display and measures the change in voltage between them as pressure is applied through the finger or stylus provided.

In addition of being able to detect multiple touches at once, the basis for Multi-touch, this technology also provides the capability to detect the level of pressure the user is making on the screen and that opens another set of interesting 3D touch interface design possibilities like zooming in and out by just increasing/decreasing the finger pressure on the display or switching between "scroll" and "move" similarly by varying the pressure applied during the sliding gesture.

It’s uncertain whether RIM Blackberry will be displaying any handset that uses either of the two concepts by the end of this year.

More details can be found at Unwired View .

NEC Flask Cell Phone – a phone that shows you "the juice"

2008-02-04T22:30:00.000+05:30

Ever dreamt of having a see-through phone which uses liquid as its fuel (speculatively ethanol) to provide the "juice" and has one of the most convenient way to see how much “juice” remains in a device. Juice being the battery life and in this case battery life being displayed with liquid. It seems like such a good idea: booze = power.

NEC, the Japanese electronics manufacturer, recently unveiled a new concept phone that uses fuel cell as power. While the idea is not new, NEC's fuel cell phone is really something that we haven't seen until now. The handset is apparently named NEC Flask Phone and, at a first glance, it looks like a giant lighter. On the second glance, there seems to be device that is said to be packed with some sort of a touchscreen that also plays the role of a keypad and features a large transparent liquid-reservoir that holds the precious “fuel” that is converted to electrical juice, thus it allows one to see when to recharge. It's so cool to be able to watch the liquid inside drain as you’re using the phone, so you can see how much power you have left. Without the need to recharge the device with electricity, NEC’s Flask Phone should reduce your carbon footprint a bit. There seems to be a “recharging” port on the bottom-end of the fuel-cell, possibly allowing for the liquid-fuel to be re-filled when needed. They say the contents aren't for human consumption, so the option of just opening up the fuel-cell and taking a swig doesnt exist and also might not help you smuggle any reasonably-priced alcohol into any popular nightclubs around the city.

There are no technical details available regarding this phone concept, so I can't say much about the concept or about the features the phone has to offer. On the other hand, judging by its appearance, it's kinda hard to believe that this NEC phone will be able to offer any multimedia features or support, so it will probably be just another basic phone for calls, SMSing, and may be some games. The colors are obviously very woman friendly. NEC says that they’ll be releasing this liquid-powered handset sometime by third or fourth quarter of 2008.

Since the phone look more like a giant lighter, I won't be surprised if they embed a cigarette ligther into it and turn the concept into one of those crazy japanese invention, so for the moment I’ll be classifying this as just another ‘too good to be true’ concept phone.

Introducing the EarthDrive, the world's first earth-friendly USB Drive

2008-01-20T19:58:00.000+05:30

ATP Electronics, Inc., a leading manufacturer of flash and DRAM memory solutions, announces the world's first bio-recyclable USB Drive, rightly named as EarthDrive. With years of product development and extensive research, the EarthDrive is designed and built using the maximum amount of bio-recycled materials, resulting in a fully recyclable product.

ATP in conjunction with American Forests Global ReLeaf Program - The World's Most Technologically Innovative, Eco-Friendly Flash Memory Product is planning to donate some of the revenues that this new eco-friendly drive generates to planting of trees for environmental restoration.

EarthDrive is scheduled for mass production immediately and will be available in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB densities with price ranging from USD $19.99 to USD $99.99.

Read more about EarthDrive here and here

First fuel cell mobile phone to double the battery life

2008-01-20T19:03:00.000+05:30

Here is another concept that could shape up the future of electronics. By using fuel cells as a very useful power source, Angstrom Power Inc., a Vancouver, Canada based company, has developed a technology that promises not only to double the phone battery life but also reduce the recharge time in the order of just 10 minutes by the year 2010.

Motorola SLVR L7

Angstrom's micro hydrogen fuel cell

The trial involved a Motorola SLVR L7 and a fuel system that can fit inside the phone without modification. The fuel cell designed on the Micro Hydrogen platform, a relatively new fuel-cell architecture, micro-fluidics, and a refillable hydrogen storage tank is used to provide power. Angstrom believes the technology could be built into phones as early as 2010, although the logistics of refilling/recharging systems is yet to be worked out.

More info at Angstrom Power

First Look on Nokia Solar Eco Concept Phone

2008-01-20T18:35:00.000+05:30

Here's an update regarding the Nokia Thinks Green with their new Eco Sensor Concept that I had posted earlier this month in which I had mentioned that the user will be wearing a wrist or neck strap which is made from solar cell panel and powers the sensor or the phone. Well, it is kinda real.

As you can see in the above video, this new Nokia’Solar EcoConcept Phone uses a self-reliant, no plug-in socket required solar phone consisting of a solar paneled case which convert the sun rays into electricity and charges the phone In brief, an environmentally-concious super smart phone. Employing a cutting edge design with the use of innovative eco-friendly materials, the concept phone features a totally transparent touch sensitive keypad. This ultra-stylish candy bar phone is about a year from being produced commercially. The concept seems to be gaining a good amount of attention and can lead the mobile industry towards a more sustainable future.

via: ecofriend and NokNok

Optimus Maximus Keyboard

2008-01-15T00:03:00.000+05:30

The Optimus Maximus Keyboard, previously just "Optimus Keyboard", is a keyboard currently in development from the Art. Lebedev Studio, headed by Artemy Lebedev.

The speciality of this keyboard is that each of its keys is a stand-alone OLED (Organic light-emitting diode ) display screen which shows the function currently assigned to it; in other words, it can dynamically change to adapt to the keyboard layout in use or to show the function of the key. For example, when the user presses the Caps Lock key, the images displayed on the keys would automatically change to an upper-case versions. It can easily switch between different keyboard layouts for different applications and could make the switch to alternative keyboard layouts such as Dvorak or Colemak making it easier for people who only have a QWERTY keyboard with no possibility of rearranging the keys. As such keys are slightly oversized, but placed together almost too closely, so that typing might get tricky.

As seen in the video, the keyboard is said to be extremely customizable which allows convenient use of any language on the keyboard such as Cyrillic, Ancient Greek, Georgian, Arabic, Quenya, hiragana, etc., as well as of any other character sets such as notes, numerals, special symbols, HTML codes, math functions, and so on to infinity. One can also use the Utility Configurator Software to change the background, foreground, and make the whole keyboard rainbow-colored if you so wish.

The service life of displays and their ribbon cables has been enhanced by making the screens embedded in the keytops motionless - it’s only the transparent caps that are pressed.

Every button on the keyboard (or, more precisely, a module with a moving cap, a microchip and a display) is easy to remove in order to clean or replace.

Specifications:
Keyboard dimensions
width: 537 mm
depth: 173 mm
height: 38 mm
key: 20.2×20.2 mm

Each of the 113 displays
technology: OLED
visible area: 10.1×10.1 mm
resolution: 48×48 pixels
rame rate: min. 10 frames per second
colors: 65 536
viewing angle: 160°

Compatibility
Connection: USB 2.0
Control: Optimus Utility Configurator Software
Supported OS: Windows and Mac OS X

System requirements:

PC with installed OS Windows XP or Vista, with a USB 1.1 (or better 2.0) port; Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher.
At least 20 MB of free space on hard drive.
At least 256 MB of RAM.

The Optimus Maximus Keyboard with 113 programmable keys is priced at USD$1564 and will probably be shipped in the second quarter of 2008. Variations of the keyboard with fewer OLED keys are also available, each upgradeable by replacing the static keys with OLED keys after purchase. An Optimus Maximus keyboard with one active key (just the space bar is an OLED key the rest are all static keys or normal keys) costs USD$531.84; one with 10 active keys (the block on the left side is made up of OLED keys the rest being static keys) costs USD$689.15; and one with 47 active keys (only the letters, numbers, and punctuation marks are made up of OLED keys) costs USD$1149.64.

More info about it here and here are the pictures of the keyboard being presented at CES 2008 in Las Vegas, USA.

Mercedes Benz Nailed to the Roof

2008-01-13T13:38:00.000+05:30

If you visit Moscow Airport now you will be lucky to see a full-sized Mercedes Benz E-Class car like never before. A full-sized Mercedes Benz E-Class car can be seen nailed to the ceilings not far from the entrance at the Domodedovo International Airport now.

English Russia reports that it attracts sights of the travellers coming through the airport’s lobby and make them wonder whether it’s safe to walk right under in or whether it might occasionally fall on your head?

The banner to the left of the nailed car in Russian says, "This isn't a private plane" and the right banner in Russian says, "But the sensations are the same."

I wonder whether or not its a real Mercedes. However, according to the report this is not real Mercedes, but it is a lightweight full-size plastic replica of it to the smallest details like brake discs, etc., which are clearly visible.

I also read that Mercades Benz had this advertisement displayed at Hamburg Airport in Germany and other places too. This is a sure sign of Russia's growing prosperity. Maybe in the near future one can see these sort of advertisements in Indian airports also!

Now you might be wondering why nobody seems to be looking at the Benz. Well, it is because I heard that Mercedes Benz is kinda common car in Moscow and not a special sight for an average Muscovite citizen to look for.

Alienware Curved Monitor, a Concept at Present

2008-01-09T00:28:00.000+05:30

Alienware, the far-too-expensive boutique gaming computer company that was acquired by Dell, is showing off this surprisingly attractive (and potentially even useful) curved DLP monitor at CES 2008.

This is something like the Flight Simulator Game Chair that lets you sit in a deep bucket seat and control an on-screen plane from the comfort of a simulator that will ensure you never get laid. Well, Alienware’s oddly cool, but wildly curved monitor is more of this same concept — something hardcore gamers would love to have, but will probably be expensive.

This curved DLP (Digital Light Processing) display, which is only a concept at present, is about three feet long and consists of four separate screens stitched together seamlessly. This 2880x900 resolution monster is well over three feet wide and is said to have an other-worldly .02ms response time. Again great for gaming, but what about those who work on graphics or print? Big and flat is probably better. You can see the seams between the monitor's four segments, but that flaw will be gone by the time this hit the market in the midst of 2008. The blacks look a bit washed out to our eyes, too. Price is yet to be determined.

I wonder how many games nowadays support that kinda resolution? And even if they could, I'm not sure whether the hardware could with that many pixels to take into consideration. The roughly 2 million pixels (1920x1080) resolution itself does take a toll on a lot of gaming machines today. I can only imagine adding another 500,000 pixels (2.5 million for the 2880x900) resolution might just explode them. Secondly, flexible displays are around the corner and can be replaced by something thinner, more resolution, and may even drain less power.

It's appealing, but I don't think we're ready for it yet.

Moto ROKR E8, 100% Touch Interface

2008-01-08T21:24:00.000+05:30

From talk to music in one touch, ROKR E8 features cutting-edge, easy-to-use controls that allow a smooth transition from phone to MP3 player to imaging device.

Here's the first video of the Moto ROKR E8 from the Motorola press party at the CES 2008. Check out the phone-to-music player's ModeShift keypad morphing action below.

Motorola leaked the ROKR E8 images way back in September 2007, but the company finally unveiled its new music phone on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2008) in Las Vegas. Moto ROKR E8 comes with an interesting back lit touch keyboard and a novel navigation wheel in the middle, which might not be the revolution Motorola is touting it as, but sure looks good. The phone is free of physical keys, with a completely smooth face and is equipped with vibrating haptic controls that makes the phone give you vibration feedback, whenever a key is pressed. The FastScroll navigation wheel is called “Omega Wheel” for music and menu navigation.

Using the breakthrough ModeShift technology from Motorola, the quad-band GPRS/EDGE device presents users with only the controls they need, at the time they need them, instantly transforming from music player to phone to imaging device with the touch of a button. Simply move a thumb across the FastScroll navigation wheel to search for music (music mode), contacts (phone mode), calendar (phone mode) and multimedia (imaging mode). A perfect blend of art and science, the face of the ROKR E8 is a sleek, seamless panel that features the first haptic touch pad from Motorola, which provides vibrating, tactile feedback when the user touches virtual buttons.

Motorola ROKR E8 is a GSM/GPRS phone with 2 megapixel camera, and 262K color QVGA display. The handset has 3.5mm headphone jack, 2GB of flash storage, a microSD slot, FM radio (the 3.5mm headphones must be plugged in), and a microUSB plug. The phone is Linux-based, and Motorola is quite proud of its audio fidelity. The phone is comaptible with Windows Media Player 11 and on the PC allows users to easily transfer their favorite music onto the device.

The price for Moto ROKR E8 is said to be around 280 Euros and is expected to be available around the first quarter of this year.

Click Here for more details about this phone

Nokia Thinks Green with their new Eco Sensor Concept

2008-01-07T18:02:00.000+05:30

Here's another Nokia phone concept, called the "Nokia Eco Sensor Concept."

The Nokia Eco Sensor Concept is a 'green' mobile phone, designed to enhance our awareness about both the environment and of ourselves. The Nokia Eco Sensor Concept examines how 'green technologies' may be used in the future to create ever more sustainable devices. Inspired by the "three R's" principle -- reduce, reuse, and recycle -- the concept explores a range of potential new materials and technologies such as printed electronics (the use of small components through nanoinks), bio-materials (polyactic acid (PLA) or other biomass-based modifiers), and reclaimed materials (the phone's casing will be made from 100% reclaimed steel). It also looks at ways that mobile technology could employ mobile sensing to monitor and report on both the health of the user and the surrounding environmental conditions.

The concept consists of two parts – a wearable sensor unit, which can sense and analyze your environment, health, and local weather conditions, and a dedicated mobile phone. The sensor unit, which can be customized to monitor and display other specific data as well as well as environmental monitoring options such as atomspheric gas-levels, etc., will be worn on a wrist or neck strap made from solar cells that provide power to the sensors. It also has an ultraviolet radiation sensor.

By using the NFC (Near Field Communication) technology the information collected will be relayed by touch from the sensors to the phone or to other devices that support NFC technology. Both the phone and the sensor unit will be as compact as possible to minimize material use, and those materials used in the design will be renewable and/or reclaimed. Technologies used inside the phone and sensor unit will also help save energy.

In order to produce screens that consume less energy than LED or OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display units, Nokia chose to use electrowetting technology. In this technology electrical voltage is applied to tiny droplets of oil, causing them to expand and contract. When compressed under the display glass, the expanding oil droplets produce an effect similar to a pixel "lighting up".

Sounds interesting??? Well, lets take look into the future. The Nokia Eco Sensor Concept will be shown for the first time in North America at CES 2008 where they will show the just-announced Nokia 3110 Evolve candybar phone, which I think is a tiny step in the Eco Sensor Concept detailed above. As the name suggests the phone appears to be an evolved version of the Nokia 3110 Classic. Certainly, there is nothing to write home about it, but Nokia 3110 Evolve's claim to fame is that it's "bio-covers" made with over 50 percent renewable materials and comes in a box made of 60 percent recycled stuff. On the technical side, the Evolve's charger is Nokia's most efficient ever, but don't be fooled: it's not a high-efficiency charger due to the extreme speed in recharging your phone, it's high-efficiency is due to the fact that it uses 94 percent less energy than the standard units. The Nokia 3110 Evolve is supposed to evolve its way into the cell phone market sometime in the first quarter of 2008. Nokia has not disclosed the price yet, but it’s supposedto be very low.Nice, but not impressive. Thanks for the look into the future Nokia.

And for reference, here's what the original Nokia 3110 Classic looked before Nokia bio-tricked it out:

Nokia Aeon - A Wearable Concept Phone

2008-01-03T19:53:00.000+05:30

Nokia's Aeon is a "full surface screen" cellphone concept is one of the most futuristic phone that I've seen lately. Nokia's research and development team have kicked it up a gear with an attractive "aeon" concept phone showing up in the R&D section of the company's website about a year and half ago. The most prominent design feature of aeon is a touchscreen that stretches over the full surface area of the phone, similar to BenQ-Seimen's Black box concept phone.

A thin candybar phone, Nokia's Aeon is said to have two touch-sensitive panels mounted on a fuel-cell power pack. The complete phone is virtual and the panels can be used for voice calls/sending messages and enjoying the musical experiance from any panels. It can also merge itself into other local products using the inbuilt sensors with the complete design similar to synaptics onyx and BenQ-Siemens’s Black box, replacing the need for the complete tradional keypad. Aeon is said to be about 13.7mm thick and, oh yeah, may be priced around a cool $2,000.

Aeon concept isn't as far out as it seemed when first announced almost a year ago, but it will probably do it all by the time it's released...say in a year or two, but watch out Nokia, we might see some knock-off come out of China before that.

And when I say China, actually there is a surprise for all of those who have been eagerly awaiting the dual-touch display of the Nokia AEON. You might be either frustrated or excited to know that a clone device is already available in China called The GF-W168, which is said to be designed to resemble the AEON device and probably launched in November 2o07.

The GF-W168 (Dual sim mobile phone +bluetooth mobile phone +mp3 mobilel phone + MP4 mobile phone+Camera mobile phone ) features the similar dual touch feature of the Nokia device, with the keypad nixed for a touch interface. Sporting a 3 MP camera, 2.2 ' TFT screen, 3D stereo music, Bluetooth, a media player, dual band GSM (900/1800 MHz), and support for 3GP and MP4 video formats, the clone device matches much of what the AEON would offer.

More on the GF-W168 here including specs, additional features, etc. etc. for all of those who are interested in it. Well, close enough to the real thing, but still not the same...I suppose.

New "smart" plug that will switch off your electrical devices if you forget

2008-01-03T00:38:00.000+05:30

An 'intelligent' plug is being developed that will switch off TVs, desk lamps, and other electrical devices when they are not being used. It is part of an electrical system designed at the University of Essex in Colchester to cut household power bills by keeping watch over energy use. Home owners will be told how much power every device is soaking up, and when equipment is operating needlessly.

The system will also detect and switch off devices that have been carelessly left on in empty rooms. Researchers hope to see the plugs fitted as standard to all domestic appliances within a few years. The plug, which will look no different from a normal 13 amp one, is also said to contain an 'integrated motion sensor,' which will detect when there is little activity in a room where a device such as a TV has been left on or not. The plug will alert the central controller by transmitting the information to a central control point in the home, which can then switch the device off.

The plug is being developed with a £90,000 award from the Carbon Connections Development Fund, a green initiative managed by the University of East Anglia.

A batch of prototypes should be ready within six months and will be tested in Essex University's 'iSpace' department, where hi-tech gadgets can be tried out in home surroundings. It is estimated that the plugs would cost less than £1 each; however, with mass production this should be possible.

More on this stuff here with a pretty interesting comment made by Jimmy Richardson from Scotland.