Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
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The electric car continues to be a hot topic in Japan . A slew of influential Japanese companies like Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi (whose i miev is pictured above), or Tokyo Electric Power have now started an initiative aimed at creating a global standard, dubbed CHAdeMO, for high-speed battery chargers for electric cars. The consortium will consist of a total of 158 different companies and organizations. The goal is to turn a charging system developed by Tokyo Electric Power into a global standard for electric cars. That system lets the charger determine what kind of batteries are installed and how much charge they require, basically a charging protocol. The technology is already being put to practical use by Mitsubishi and Subaru, with Nissan likely to follow. Most electric cars still can’t travel more than 200km on a single charge, which makes the availability of brand-agnostic charging stations a critical factor for their future success. Apart from Japanese firms (Honda, Mazda or Toshiba will also take part), the consortium also has European engineering group ABB, PSA from France (Peugeot, Citroën), German auto equipment giant Robert Bosch and a few other foreign companies among its members. The Japanese government is supporting the joint venture with $13.7 million.
Posted by 010081
Tech
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
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We’ve spent three posts covering Street Fighter IV for the iPhone so far, and this fourth one is intended to inform you Capcom’s latest game has finally arrived in the App Store (I checked the US, German and Japanese store). Capcom itself isn’t listing the app [iTunes link] on their official “Capcom Mobile” site yet, but it is already being offered for $9.99. Initial reviews in the App Store are overwhelmingly positive. The game received 64 reviews so far, with 55 people rating it five out of five stars and 9 with four stars. And Street Fighter IV gets a lot of buzz on Twitter , too. Tell us what you think of the game in the comments.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, March 5th, 2010
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I need to move to Europe for several reasons, but the one that’s relevant right now ? 3D broadcasts of top-tier football (“soccer”) leagues. Sky Deutschland has announced that it will broadcast the March 14 match between Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg (that’s the second place team versus the fourth place team). Lucky devils. To view the broadcast in 3D glory—I use the term “glory” lightly since 3D TV is still sorta “meh,” based on what I saw at CES in January—you’ll obviosuly need a 3D-capable TV, and those things cost an arm and a leg. Sky is also putting together some sort of invite-only viewing party in Munich. In attendence will be Franz Beckenbauer , a former German soccer player. He was so good he was nicknamed Der Kaiser. Don’t forget that ESPN will also broadcast at least one World Cup game in 3D this year. Since I’m not made of money, there’s zero chance I’ll be able to view it, but if any of you are investment bankers I will more than happily invite myself to your house to watch the game in 3D.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, March 5th, 2010
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As part of a “digital classroom” roadshow currently underway in Germany, Samsung is showing off it’s new “e-board”. This e-board, in 65″ and 82″ sizes, is a really interesting convergence of e-book reader, smartboard, and classroom display solution. In addition to typical smartboard functionality, it can also display the desktop of a connected PC or laptop, as well as display contents from Samsung ebook readers using their new “emoLink” technology. There’s a write-up in German for those who can read that fine language (or who can suffer through a Google translation ). A video introduction, again in German, is presented here for your edification. Expect pricing to be around 9,000 euro. That’s more than $12K USD, which is far from cheap, but the new functionality should open some interesting new possibilities in classrooms. Thanks Johannes for the tip!
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Monday, March 1st, 2010
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Archos is gunning for the more budget-sensitive crowd with the 7-inch “Archos 7 Home Tablet” running Android atop a 600MHz ARM9 CPU due in April for around $179. The lower-powered CPU ought to be good for some nice, long battery life and the tablet is capable of basic web browsing and 720p video playback across a wide variety of codecs. You can check out 8:35 of pure ebullience from one of Archos’ biggest fans, Charbax : The tablet will be available in capacities of 2GB and 8GB, priced at 149 Euro and 179 Euro, respectively. Charbax says that US pricing for the 2GB version should be around $179 “because European countries have more taxes they don’t just convert Euro prices to US Dollar prices.” Also announced was an 8-inch tablet/digital photo frame, the “Archos 8 Home Tablet,” which the company positions as “a product that can be used as a digital picture frame and as a mobile video player or Internet browser.” Sounds like it may be a photo frame with a (hopefully) rechargeable battery and some online-centric bells and whistles. It’ll be available in May in a 4GB capacity for 149 Euro, which will likely mean $179 in the US considering the Archos 7 also starts at 149 Euro and has been confirmed by Charbax to cost $179 US. Not a whole lot of info yet, but these things are just starting to spill out. Archos has also said that it’ll be rolling out a range of new products sized between 3 and 10 inches and based on ARM Cortex CPUs up to 1GHz throughout the summer. [via UMPC Portal and ArchosFans.com ] Press Release (translated from German)
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
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These clever little German kids toys from Kaufladen cost about $400 and are pretty silly but I think the best part is when DaddyTypes writes: Kids in the US get play kitchens. Kids in Germany get play sales kiosks. Which country has a childhood obesity problem and which one has already pulled out of the recession? That’s what I thought. Amen, brother.