NASA's Future of Aviation

NASA has release several concept images of what they believe the future of aviation will be like, and they range from the saucer-shaped craft (above) to massive cargo planes.

The NASA concept takes its hints from scramjet designs, and may be a very real possibility in the next 20 years. However, there are some things in this gallery which I doubt will ever find the light of day.

[via Gizmodo]

Logitech's Harmony 1100 remote is more touchscreen, less buttons

Logitech's last Harmony launch was of the subtle and sneaky variety, but there's nothing at all quiet about this one. The big, bold and brash Harmony 1100 is showing itself here in Las Vegas, and the primary selling point is the customizable, 3.5-inch QVGA full-color touchscreen. Rather than getting your buttons all gummed up with pizza grease, you can now smear a nice, innocent panel as you attempt to alter volume and change channels. As expected, the unit packs a rechargeable battery and RF capabilities, and the guided online setup should make programming a lesson in simplicity. Can't wait to get your own? Tough luck, 'cause this one's not shipping to the US and Europe until next month for $499.99.

Strange Panasonic Gel Remote Revealed

This could quite possibly be the strangest, or most innovative, remote control we've ever seen. At the push of a button, this gadget becomes rigid and ready for use. No word yet on availability.

When not in use, this Panasonic concept remote is said to slumber
peacefully, its limp body pulsating with light not so differently than a gently sleeping MacBook.

Saxnet intros Meshnode III mesh networking router

Lookin' for a WLAN router with a 500MHz AMD processor within? If you're frantically waving your hand in a futile attempt to say yes, Saxnet's got your goods. The German firm's Meshnode III is a well-spec'd mesh networking router that features a "full x86-based system" within, four radio modules and "an integrated heating and cooling system" to boot. Additionally, this thing packs 256MB of RAM (expandable to 1GB), a pair of 512MB CF cards (expandable to 16GB each), 802.11a/b/g support, twin USB 2.0 ports, a rugged, water-resistant enclosure and Debian GNU / Linux runnin' the show. As you may expect, such a loaded device comes with a fairly stiff pricetag, but at least you've got a few months to save up the $1,150 it'll take to snap one up when it lands in January.

Meshnode III specifications

The Meshnode III's specs are listed as follows:
CPU -- AMD Geode (X86) LX 700 (standard), 800, 900
Memory:
256MB RAM, expandable to 1GB
CompactFlash -- two 512MB flash cards, expandable to 16GB each
LAN:
1 x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
1 x 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet
WLAN:
802.11a/b/g (5GHz/2.4GHz/2.4GHz, respectively)
Transmit power -- 100 to 600 mW
Aerial ports -- 8 x N-female (4 x diversity)
Meshing technology:
OSI Layer 2 with ad-hoc and infrastructural mode
Aggregate data rate -- up to 108Mbps with SuperA encodings (WEP/WPA/WPA2)
Other I/O ports:
2 x USB 2.0
2 x serial ports
I2C
VGA video
Expansion:
2 x CompactFlash slots
4 x Mini PCI sockets
50 digital I/O lines (optional)
Physical:
Housing -- water- and UV-resistant Makrolon
Dimensions -- 10.2 x 7.9 inches (260 x 200 mm); 13.8 x 13.4 inches (350 x 340 mm) with sun protector
Operating temperature -- -40 to +70 degrees C (@ 95% humidity)
Operating system -- Debian GNU/Linux, with 2.6.21 kernel

Sony announces PCM-D50 handheld flash recorder

Sony has announced a new handheld flash recorder in the PCM-D50, a 4GB jobbie that also includes a Sony memory stick slot for extra storage, internal stereo condenser mics, and a list price of $599. It has a pretty powerful preamp for unpowered external mics -- which it'll also recognize automatically as soon as you plug them in -- usable internal mics, and a chunky metallic feel. Sounds like just what the doctor ordered, but in case you're not convinced, check out some sample recordings at Brad Linder's blog.

The Voiis mini Pocket Messenger: for Bluetooth putzing around the home

Here ya go media streamin' fans, the Voiis mini Pocket Messenger Phone. The class 1 Bluetooth device allows you to interact with Skype and MSN Messenger calls as well as iTunes and Windows Media Player music within a 100-meter (max) radius of the included base station. It packs a built-in mic as you'd expect as well as what appears to be a standard mini-jack to connect your choice of headphones. The battery should last for 6-hours or 72-hours on standby. Available June 12th in Japan for an expected ¥15,900 or $130. Click-on for a few more pics.

Philips and Swarovski Launch Active Crystals Luxury Electronics in US

I always look at boring old USB drives and ask, "Why can't these be jewel-encrusted?" Ditto for my run-of-the-mill earbuds, which seem to lack some kind of large embedded crystal. Believe it or not, the Philips-Swarovski Active Crystals collection is due to arrive in the US this August, and we've got the exclusive first look at the lineup.

First up are the USB drives: Heart Beat is a two-piece heart-shaped locket drive, and the cool retractable padlock-shaped one is called Lock Out. (Philips says they're keeping things simple, and those names sure do, well, smack of simplicity.) They both hold 1GB of files, and will retail for $179.

The USB drives are bubbling with little Swarovski crystals, while the earphones are set with one big jewel for each ear. There will be four headphone styles in all:

An over-the-head set called Icon ($79) and a set of earbuds with neckstrap called Amazone ($149) plus two shown below, the Space sealing earbuds ($99) and the Mirage earhook ones ($129).

Whether the Philips-Swarovski combo has produced a silly novelty or the must-have gift item of the holiday season is still up in the air, but frankly, they are classier looking than I had previously imagined. And hey, is it any stranger than Porsche Design conceiving of a power drill?

Philips and Swarovski partner to deliver a range of innovative fashion accessories

NEW YORK - Fusing lifestyle, technology and fashion, Philips is showcasing a new partnership with the world famous crystal and jewelry company Swarovski at the 2007 Holidays in June event. The alliance combines Philips leadership in developing innovative consumer lifestyle electronics products with Swarovski's expertise in creating fashion crystal jewelry and handbag collections to produce meaningful fashionable accessories for women.

Leveraging both companies' strengths, Philips and Swarovski have jointly designed and developed a range of unique products that will take technology to a fashionable new level for women. The Philips and Swarovski alliance will develop exciting market opportunities for each company by integrating high fashion and technology.

The initial innovations created by Philips and Swarovski are the Active Crystals range of products. These will be launched this summer and include sound accessories and storage devices.

"Philips' alliance with Swarovski combines two distinct and strong brands in order to create a unique proposition for consumers," said Rudy Provoost, Chief Executive Officer, Philips Consumer Electronics. "The outcome of the alliance is a range of products that go back to the essence of what many women are looking for: the fusion of functionality and fashion through a unique combination of technology and elegance. We are combining luxurious design with the practical, everyday benefits of consumer electronics to complement Philips' brand promise—Sense and Simplicity—and Swarovski's brand promise of Poetry & Precision."

Merging Simplicity with Poetry & Precision
The new range is the first result of the Philips and Swarovski alliance focusing on providing performance and class, offering technology with style and demonstrating a feeling of movement and activity combined with fashionable innovation. Targeted towards style-conscious women, the products combine the technologies of both companies to create unique, high-end products with a luxurious look and feel.

"The Philips and Swarovski alliance brings together the greatness of two companies with common values of quality, design and technological innovation," said Daniel Cohen, Member of Swarovski's Executive Board. "Both brands have distinct identities, rich histories and a passion to re-invent and enhance their value propositions, pursuing both brand repositioning and commercial goals. The result of this partnership will be a series of products that will provide women and consumers with meaningful and fashionable products that will enhance their lives."

Swarovski is a well-known brand in the fashion and jewelry industry. It brings credibility, style and design to the alliance, creating a unique product proposition with Philips. Unlike other products using the Swarovski crystal stones, the Active Crystals combine unique elements of functionality and fashion: truly jewels with a soul.

The full Philips and Swarovski Active Crystals range will be commercially available in department stores, consumer electronics retail and Swarovski stores in August 2007.

Non-robotic "X-Finger" replaces lost digits

An inventor with no medical background looks to have already made quite a name for himself with his X-Finger prosthetic device, which gives folks that have lost fingers a full range of motion without relying on robotics. To control the device, the wearer simply pushes against a lever with the remaining portion of their finger, which sets the knuckles into motion, apparently providing enough force to hold a coffee cup or clutch a golf club. While inventor Dan Didrick's already churning out 100 fingers every 45 days, according to The Naples Daily News, he's apparently far from meeting the demand, for which he says he needs about $11 million in funding. Presumably, that'd also help reduce the cost of the mechanical digits, which currently run a cool $10,000 per finger.

Dell 1907FP gets flamboyant steampunk makeover

The antique-minded modder over at Steampunk Workshop had it right: what good is a brass-clad mouse and keyboard with a 21st century monitor destroying the mojo? Fret not, as a Dell 1907FP was torn apart, blasted with gold Krylon, and decorated to the hilt with flashy pieces that your great (great) grandmother would surely love. Best of all, this here creator went above the call of duty by dressing up the monitor with gilded triggers to depress the monitor adjustment buttons underneath the panel. Trust us, you need to see this one to appreciate the passion behind it, so feel free to visit the read link for a plethora of photographs and even a few vids.

NewerTech's dual-bay MacBook battery charger / conditioner

NewerTech's dual-bay MacBook (and MacBook Pro, too) battery charger / conditioner is most certainly tailored for the authentic road warrior, as it allows users to "conveniently charge two batteries one after the other, or charge one battery while conditioning a second one." The device reportedly extends the maximum life and effectiveness of your batteries by doing the conditioning for you, but we're a bit bummed to see that it only charges the second Li-ion "when the first battery is done charging." Notably, NewerTech also seems to offer the device for owners of PowerBooks of days past, but the latest rendition will run you $149.95 for the convenience. Another shot after the break.

(Video) The Headless Batsman

The Headless Batsman is basically “a 265-pound quasi-human-shaped robot made from a jumble of salvaged auto parts, steel piping and pneumatic hoses for the sole purpose of belting every fastball thrown its way.” Video demonstration after the jump.

Tiny springs inside the robot’s wrists allow it to follow through; the momentum generated by its hip and shoulder rotation transfers through the bat to the ball.

New Computer Interface Devices

Above is a video of what could be the next generation of computer interface. It is obviously very raw but if it were mounted in a mouse shaped device and made wirless it could be a winner. Actually it would be very similar to the Wiimote since the Wiimote uses accelerometers to read controller movement and Bluethooth to transmit that data to the controller.

Popular Science gave an invention award to the ring mouse. It uses ultrasonic pulses to detect the position of the ring and moves the cursor accordingly. Which technology, if any, do you think will come out on top?

See more details of the ring mouse below.

“Although the system looks a bit rough, it works flawlessly. A small speaker on the ring pumps out ultrasonic pulses, picked up by five microphones arrayed on a piece of plywood. A central processor calculates the ring’s position in space based on when each microphone receives each blast of sound and then correlates this to the cursor onscreen. The ring and sensors communicate 100 times a second, so the translation of hand movement to cursor is instantaneous.”

Get a Remote Control Outlet, and Never Get Up Again

You don't need an elaborate and expensive system like X10, Insteon, or Lutron remote switches to control the world, not when you have one of these $19.95 Remote Control Outlets with its accompanying IR remote control. Whatever's plugged into it gets instant off/on remote control, and you can get up to three extra outlets for 10 bucks each, controlling them all with this handy remote. Well, you won't be able to control the world, just four different things, but it's hard to beat this easy setup that you (or your dad, think Father's Day) can put together right away for very little money.

Pretec shows off first miCARDs

We know that you've been barely able to sleep since the new miCARD memory card format was announced -- who would be the first manufacturer to get these out the door, you wondered -- so you can finally rest easy with the news that Pretec is showing off its own version of the multi-functional little wafers (pictured larger than actual size, of course) at Computex in Taipei. The company's S-Diamond line already tops off at an impressive 8GB (with theoretical capacities of 2TB, but we're not holding our breath), and like the flood of other miCARDs soon to hit the market, will work with regular SD/MMC-capable devices through the use of an adapter. Pretec still isn't being forthcoming with any pricing or release info on these, but since there's no miCARD-specific hardware on the market yet anyway, we doubt that many of you care.

Power Dome Generator is Really Just a Big Battery for Your Gadgets

Someone has decided to put a 18 lbs lead-acid battery in a yellow case with a handle and call it a "400-watt generator." According to the product page, this will feed "your TV for 5 hours or your PS2 for 8 hours" if the power goes down. If playing video games is not your thing you can always enjoy the built-in 275 PSI air compressor. Or the included nipple clamps. Whatever rocks your boat for $99.99.

Product Features

Portable Power Supply Can Run A/C or D/C Based Electronics, Appliances and Tools
Devices Can be Powered by The Internal Sealed Lead Acid Battery or from a Vehicle Cigarette Lighter
2 AC Outlets and 2 DC outlets
260 PSI Air Compressor with Gauge
600 Amp Cranking Power Jump- Starter
400watt inverter
1000watt surge
Charge level indicator
Bult-in 5 LEDs worklight
Able to power

Laptop(45w): 4.5hr
Boom box (23w): 8hr
Fax machine (15w): 18hr standby
Camcorder (8w): 24hr
Video Game (35w): 5.5 hours
Portable Refrigerator:(45W) 4.5hr
13" TV (59w): 3hr
Power Drill (360w): 1hr
Built-in Battery

High grade Sealed Lead Acid (Maintenance Free) 18amp-hr
Output

12V DC
115 volts AC (nominal)
Input Charging Source: DC or AC w/included cables
Fuse Type

40 Amps external
Charging Time

AC - 34hours, DC - 12hours
Light source

LED bulb
Safety Features

Overload Protection
Short Circuit Protection
UL Listed
Accessories included

AC adapter
DC cigarette adapter
Dimensions (inches)

10.5x11.5x8.5
Weight

18lbs

AMD Shows Off its Designer Chops with Concept HTPC

If you thought the Hanger18 looked cool, get a load of AMD's concept PC. It was created by AMD to show manufacturers the kinds of designs they can dream up when using AMD's hardware (in particular AMD Live!, which is their media center platform). The PC features an embedded LCD, a slot-loading optical drive, and built-in media controls. If not for the solid gold color, I'd say this was one sexy beast. Do you guys dig it or hate it?

Meraki announces solar-powered WiFi kit

Solar-powered WiFi isn't exactly anything new, but upstart Meraki looks to be doing its best to make it more accessible to the general public, today announcing a new outdoor wireless repeater with a solar panel to keep it running. Designed to be used with Meraki's existing Mini WiFi router, the repeater will let you beam a signal up to 700 feet away which, at just $99 a pop, would make a neighborhood-wide WiFi network a relatively low-cost affair. Unfortunately, there's no word just yet on what the solar panel accessory will cost, although Meraki says it'll "clearly be the most affordable option on the market." We shouldn't have to wait too much longer for that key detail, however, as the entire kit's set to ship sometime late this summer.

Soban Photo Keychain

The Soban Photo Keychain is a replacement for storing wallet-sized pictures of your kids printed out on—gasp—paper. Instead, the Soban has 128mb of memory storing up to 7,000 (really tiny) photos. A slideshow can run for 8 hours on a charge.

Let's be clear about one thing: the Soban is not a good product. Even if the screen is decent, it's too bulky for a keychain when we can already use cellphones for a similar purpose. However, should such a display be thinned and actually fit in a wallet, it could be a reasonable product update for baby boomers and retro cool to the younger generations. At least that's my two cents on the matter.

Hit the jump for the kinda neat side view (hint: it looks like a bunch of stacked photos).

EleeNo EG3 Watch

We just can't get enough of Tokyoflash's product lines here at the Giz, and the newly updated EG line is no exception. It gives us that combination of style and confusing lesser, stupid people that we just can't quit.

The EG3 is a fine-looking watch, sporting nine tiny glass windows through which you to decipher the LCD time (hour on top, 10 minute in middle and minute on bottom). Coming in three fairly obvious colors, you'll need to fork out $80 for the IQ boost. And soon, since these bad boys are limited edition.

Detail shots after the jump.

Saint B

Flash-player in a chrome-plated steel body frame.

Control elements and OLED-display are covered by flexible, semi-transparent plastic. A log in to the computer and charging are via USB port.

Concept: A form of the player is inspired by the original Christian symbol, the cross. Indeed, we wear it in the same manner as a player - around the neck.
We are playing not only with the form, but with religious symbolsycs. This player immediately brings many questions - whether it is possible to listen to any kind of music on it? Whether it can keep on playing a role of the religious symbol? Does everybody have a moral right to wear this thing?

Technical Specifications Size and weight Height: 75 mm Width: 52 mm Depth: 9 mm Weight: 82 g Capacity Built-in memory capacity: 1 GB MB Built-in memory type: NAND Flash USB flash drive Stores data via USB flash drive Display 4Line OLED yellow Audio Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Headphone Output Power: 14mW (16 ohms) at Max. Volume Signal/Noise Ratio: 90dB File support File type: MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, WMA, ASF, OGG MP3 bit rates: 8-320 kbps and VBR WMA bit rates: 5-192 kbps Tag: ID3 V1 Tag, ID3 V2 2.0, ID3 V2 3.0, ID3 V2 4.0 Headphones (not in base case) Earphones Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Impedance: 16 ohms Operating system requirements PC with USB port In version 1.0 - only Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later Environmental requirements Operating temperature: 0° to 40° C

Input and output Output: 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack Input: USB port Power and battery Built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery Playtime: Up to 13 hours when fully charged Charging via USB port Full-charge time: about 4 hours In the box Saint B Dock Quick Start guide USB cable