Slate Again

Everyone has said that Apple's next event will occur on Tuesday, January 26th at the Yerba Buena Center.

Ideal iSlate ... This is What We Want

Apple tablet is coming to the light of day in 2010. But there is one more thing. Apple tablet device will be named iSlate. That would be in line with earlier connections of the 'slate' term to the elusive tablet computer. It might come with OLED as well.

In August 2008, a 52-page patent filed by Apple described how a touchscreen tablet might work. The patent described a device that would be able to detect simultaneous touches and gestures from two hands. But that hardly sounds like it would be surprising.

A new patent application that was appeared this week in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s database. Filed by Apple, the patent application is titled “Keystroke tactility arrangement on a smooth touch surface.” It describes a tactile-feedback mechanism for a touch surface keyboard to create physical bumps for the user to feel the keys.

Can't wait ? Get one of these ........ Super Duper Big iPod Touch

The Times Square New Year's Eve Ball Timeline

Click the image for a large version

The 102-year history of the Times Square New Year's Even Ball is one filled with technology of 32,256 glimmering Philips LEDs and, of course, pretty shiny lights. See it all unfold in our historical timeline.

Micro Solar !! What About A Nano Solar ?

These are the new solar cells developed at Sandia National Laboratories, same lab that brought us the nuclear bomb and many other wonderful inventions. The cells are made of crystalline silicon, which means that they can produce the same energy as most standard solar cells, even while they are 10 times thinner. How much? They can get 14.9 percent solar-to-electricity power conversion efficiency at only 14 to 20 micrometers thickness. By comparison, a human hair is 70 micrometers thick.

As a result of their thickness and overall size, the Sandia Labs' solar cells can be attached to any flexible surface, including cloth. In other words: These things have the potential to turn your jacket or underpants into a giant walking power source. Or a small one. That depends on you.

Hammer Me ... I'm OLED and I'm Strong

Samsung has been working to deliver flexible displays for cellphones that will be significantly thinner than current LCD screens and allow for new form factors. But a big question for electronics makers will be how sturdy are these flexible displays? There’s only one way to answer that question and that’s with a hammer.

A video clips shows what happens when you pound a flexible, 2.8-inch display that is about 20 micrometers thick. And the answer is nothing. There’s not a scratch on the OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display. In comparison, an LCD screen shatters when it is hit.

Samsung hasn’t disclosed when it plans to bring its flexible displays to market. But it is likely, the the first commercial products with flexible displays will debut around the same time.

Source by GadgetLab

Energy Tree – Sustainable Computing

We have entered the 21st century entering a dawn of being constantly connected and always on. We are now more efficient within our work and leisure but not within our use of power and energy. The EnergyTree will change the perception and view of how power is being used, implementing a complete system looking at device consumption, home consumption and long term sustainability. The EnergyTree is more innovative as it looks as energy consumption.

Tree Health – The Energy tree contains a real tree, which requires no conventional maintenance from the user. The trees health is decided upon how well the user utilizes energy. If the user is extremely efficient with there energy use the EnergyTree will give the tree the nutrients and water it needs to survive and flourish. If the User is inefficient with their energy consumption the EnergyTree will poison and malnourish the tree, eventually killing it. This benefits the user by giving them a long term overview of how much energy they are saving.

Device drain – Device drain is a more specific use of the product that both monitors and can control devices that are connected to the EnergyTree, allowing all devices connected by DeviceCheck to monitor energy consumption and can control and turn off all power to device when not needed, or when controlled from the EnergyTree control panel.

Household drain – This part of the EnergyTree monitors the house as a whole. Looking at all energy consumption from heating the house, to the efficiency of your recycling with the aid of EnergyTree Recycling bins. This will be linked to an online system that will calculate your household efficiency and give you green points in reward for an eco-friendly house.

Collector – Collector makes use of the community spirit in today’s web 2.0 online societies. The system will be online, and accessed via the touch screen of the EnergyTree. The collector is there to encourage people to recycle and take recycling to the depot to be processed. Once at the depot the collector will get extra green points. Although every person could take there own Re-Tree Bins, not everyone will want to and not every local government can afford to collect and sort the recycling as effective as lots of dedicated collectors.

Apple and the Miracle M@C

Hello, I'm Mac I'm PC. A popular Mac vs. PC Ads you typically watch on TV. Apple Computer (AAPL) redefine the consumer electronics market with innovative products, from the way we listen to music with iPod to redefining cell phones with iPhone. Now, Apple has market cap of $150 billion with rising earning every single year.

In 2003, company announced their first handheld music player an iPod since then Apple become the Next Big Thing. iTunes store launched in 2004 and became one of the premier marketplaces for digital music. For god sake, I still remember the day that their stock trade at $60 price range in late 2006 before it shoot up to $180 in late 2008; 200% gain in 2 years. What's a incredible day !!! Sadly, Many investors missed that opportunity.

Steve Job introduce his iPhone in 2007

The question is Should we invest in Apple now? Is it too late? My simple answer is, "Yes but not yet." Here's why:

First, Apple thrives on innovation and managing its product cycles however Apple doesn't have any new blockbuster products on the immediate horizon coming, except rumors about their own netbook "tablet." Only that it's not enough for driving Apple's growth plus their stock price a little too high comparing to its book value.

Apple Rumor "iTablet" spread all over internet

Second, the volatility in share price caused by speculation over Steve Jobs' health makes stock a little risky. Company must less dependent to their beloved founder. What will be happen if Steve gone forever ? For us now, Steve Job is Apple.

Nevertheless, Apple Computer has an unique corporate culture; beautiful is everything. Many people consider Apple a design company with engineer. Definitely, Apple has current strength in consistent income stream; their new iPhone 3GS sold over 1 million in just 3 days and a 4% increase in Mac sale revenue from a year ago. These performance indicate that company slowly gain a bigger share of the computer market. Unfortunately, the future is not quite impressive for Apple. While the latest iPhone numbers are good, iPod sales are downed 7% year on year. Since company relies on a strong product cycle, without any highly-anticipated offerings on the horizon, We have to be skeptical of Apple's future prospects.

Three things that we would like to happen at Apple are More Focus and Competitive on its OS and computers, Less Focus on CEO Jobs and More Impressive Numbers on profit margin.

Steve on 10 Sept 2009 after his pancreas cancer surgery

Introducing the new iPod Nano with video camera

Courier Tablet Part 3

OLPC with New XO-3

One Laptop Per Child, or OLPC, or the XO, was a flop however you look at it. Instead of just making a cheap, basic machine that could tough it out in its target third-world market, Nicholas Negroponte’s supposedly $100 laptop instead chose to both patronize and confuse with an over-simplified interface. At the same time, as the price rose and dates slipped by, the Rise of the Atom put cheap netbooks within reach of anyone with a few hundred bucks.

Now, Nick’s back, with the XO-3. The new hardware (read: vaporware) will come in the familiar green and white livery, only this time it’s a tablet (surprise, right?). The XO-3 will be showing its 800Mhz, 8.5-by-11-inch face in 2010, when hopefully the technology will exist to build what is essentially a giant iPod Touch for just $75.

But making an impossibly cheap entertainment device for developing countries (for what else is a tablet but a handheld media-center? Certainly not a functional computer or Microsoft’s earlier tablet PC efforts would have been successful) is not the only mission of the OLPC group. Negroponte told Engadget that there will be an OLPC 1.5 appearing in January, a $200 update to the current hardware, and an OLPC 1.75 in 2011, which will make good on the dual-screen promise first teased in May this year.

We’d love to see all of these devices, but CG mockups and philanthropic promises aren’t the same as real, shipping hardware. Still, the picture do look good.

Better Bulb Brighter Future ... LED 2 Go

The Light Bulb of The Future ?

You bet !! Saving Energy is upon us. The ubiquitous but highly inefficient 60-watt light bulb badly needs a makeover. And it could be worth 10 millions in government prize money plus government contracts - to the first company that figures out how to do it. The L Prize is the first government-sponsored technology competition designed to spur lighting manufacturers to develop high-quality, high-efficiency solid-state lighting products to replace the common 60-watt light bulb. Among the criteria: The lamp can use no more than 10 watts to create the equivalent light of a 60-watt incandescent bulb; the color of the light output must mimic that of today’s incandescents; and the bulbs must last at least 25,000 hours, as much as 25 times as long as today’s standard bulbs.

The L Prize competition will substantially accelerate America's shift from inefficient, dated lighting products to innovative, high-performance products. Just as Thomas Edison transformed illumination over a century ago, the L Prize will drive innovation and market adoption. And here we go .... Mr. Phillips is the first contestant for this competition. Recently, Philips has shipped 2,000 prototype samples to the Department of Energy, plus around 100 pages and a CD of supporting documents. The tests will take close to 1 year to complete nevertheless the life span test of the lamp would take close to three years of continuous lighting, so the Department of Energy will make sure that the lamps last at least 6,000 hours (approximate 8 months).

Phillips Transforming the Lighting Landscape

Philips Master LED bulb has the same form factor as the old-fashioned kind, making it "simple for people to use and feel good about using." The bulb draws just 7 watts but gives off light equivalent to 40 watts' worth, and lasts 45,000 hours, as opposed to the 1,500 of its incandescent predecessors.

Phillips Living Colors

Another interesting Philips product is their LivingColors LED lamp, which contains just four LED bulbs; two red, one blue and one green, that can be controlled to produce 16 million different colors. Dragging your finger around the iPod-like touch wheel on the remote produces different hues.

Today’s LED-based lamps cost up to $100 each. To get the cost down, US-Department Of Energy has enlisted 27 utility companies around the country as L Prize partners. Once a winner is chosen, the utilities will help promote and possibly subsidize the cost of the lamp. Over the long term, we can absolutely get the cost down to the $20-25 range.

Courier Tablet Part 2

Courier: Microsoft's Secret Tablet

This is Courier, Microsoft's astonishing take on the tablet. The dual 7-inch screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They're connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.

the Rambler Socket

This is one of the best power socket ideas I've seen in a long while: A socket with an extension cord inside the wall itself. They should make these standard everywhere. I even like the name: The Rambler Socket.

It works easily: Pinch the sockets sides, pull it out, and use with your electrical thingamajig. Once your are done, tug the wire gently, and let the recoil mechanism neatly store away the extension cable. Power socket people of the world: Make it happen.

Energy of The Future Or Monster of All

In 2007, nuclear power's share of global electricity generation dropped to 14%. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the main reason for this was an earthquake in western Japan on 16 July 2007, which shut down all seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. There were also several other reductions and "unusual outages" experienced in Korea and Germany. Also, increases in the load factor for the current fleet of reactors appear to have plateaued.

The United States produces the most nuclear energy, with nuclear power providing 19%[5] of the electricity it consumes, while France produces the highest percentage of its electrical energy from nuclear reactors—80% as of 2006.

In the European Union as a whole, nuclear energy provides 30% of the electricity. Nuclear energy policy differs between European Union countries, and some, such as Austria, Estonia, and Ireland, have no active nuclear power stations. In comparison, France has a large number of these plants, with 16 multi-unit stations in current use.

In the US, while the Coal and Gas Electricity industry is projected to be worth $85 billion by 2013, Nuclear Power generators are forecast to be worth $18 billion.

International research is continuing into safety improvements such as passively safe plants, the use of nuclear fusion, and additional uses of process heat such as hydrogen production (in support of a hydrogen economy), for desalinating sea water, and for use in district heating systems.