That’s not exactly the successor to the Dreamcast that you’re looking at above. It’s the Sega Zone, the newest addition in the long lineup of proprietary consoles – or plug-n’-play systems – that come bundled with a limited number of games (such as the Atari Flashback).
Sega’s Zone contains a Wii-like controller (as well as upright console design), 20 classic Sega games and 30 additional games, 16 of which are motion controlled. The system contains two of these Wiimote knockoffs which can be used with familiar sports games such as golf and table tennis:
The Sega Zone is reported to be releasing this summer in Europe for a price of £50.
One of my pet peeves in life is when my Rock Band wireless guitar runs out of battery juice mid-way through a song. Yes, I’m well aware that isn’t much of a pet-peeve, but hey, it’s annoying. If new research is any indication, I may be able to plug the guitar into my t-shirt and eek out a little more time.
Scientists have successfully turned ordinary fabrics like polyester and cotton into batteries without hindering the flexibility of the fabric. Basically, fabric is dipped into an “ink” of microscopic carbon tubes and what follows is magic:
The idea is the same as that outlined in their work with plain paper; the interwoven fibers of fabrics, like those of paper, are particularly suited to absorbing the nanotube ink, maintaining an electrical connection across the whole area of a garment.
Cloth is simply dipped into a batch of nanotube dye, and is then pressed, to thin and even out the coating.
The fabric maintains its properties even as it is stretched or folded. Even rinsing the samples in water and wringing them out does not change their electronic properties.
“Our approach is easy and low-cost while producing great performance,” Professor Cui told BBC News.
“Fabrics and paper represent two technologies with a thousand-year-old history. We combined ‘high-tech’ – nanotechnology – with traditional ‘low-tech’ to produce new applications.”
The next step is to integrate the approach with materials that store more energy, in order to create more useful batteries. By combining the approach with other electronic materials in the ink, the team believes even wearable solar cells are possible.
With the Consumer Electronics Show in full-swing, one thing has become crystal clear: the electronics industry is hell-bent on making consumers look like complete tools by the end of the year. By “tool” I mean, “Who is that dork sitting on the sofa wearing the nerdy 3D glasses?”
3D TVs are all the rage. Every major television manufacturer, and a few minor ones, are jumping on the bandwagon without hesitation. ESPN and DirecTV have both announced imminent, full-time 3D channels. Sony has finalized their specifications for 3D Blu-Ray and the industry will have the home version of Avatar to use as consumer-bait.
But…we’re still going to look like complete tools with our 3D glasses.
Is this really what the consumers wants? Probably not. I think it is safe to say we want 3D without the frickin’ glasses. It’s not just the aesthetic-hit your once macho appearance will take, but the real, cold hard facts of reality that will take its toll. WTF am I talking about?
I’m talking about your dog munching on your beloved pair of 3D glasses while you are at work. I am talking about your rug-rat kids bending, throwing, playing and breaking your 3D glasses. I am talking about your 3D glasses disappearing under the sofa or between the cushions. I am talking about your big, fast ass sitting down hard on that pair of 3D glasses.
3D glasses only work in theory and the safety of an IMAX theater. All other locations will spell constant hassle and small-scale disasters.
Hence, this brave new world they want us so desperately to enter will only work sans glasses.
Beyond the hurdles of every-day life we have the tech itself. Everything on display at CES is first-generation technology without a unified standard. Early-adopters will undoubtedly be screwed by the time the second generation is greatly improved and enhanced. The 3D TV you buy today could be tomorrow’s HD-DVD.
So wait. Be patient. What is available now will be considered garbage by CES 2011, a date that will hopefully see a whole new generation of 3D that can be attained without glasses and the punishing hit to your fashion sense.
The BMW Lovos concept car, which runs on solar generated power, looks like it just escaped from some far-future racing videogame or Transformers 3. It also looks like it would hurt like hell to be a pedestrian in the way of this beast. So what are all those strange metal plates? Those are the solar-cells; solar-cells that can turn and follow the sun for maximum efficiency.
The exterior of the Lovos – which stands for Lifestyle of Voluntary Simplicity – concept is theoretically constructed from just one fully exchangeable part that recurs 260 times. Each exterior piece is covered in solar photovoltaic cells and can hinge on a substructure underneath to follow the sun or act as individual airbrakes. We can only assume the concept would be powered by electricity.
Bidding starts at 12pm noon today on a very large collection of props and artifacts from the likes of Amelia Earhart, Michael Jackson and Stan Winston. We’ve included a more complete list below, but some particular items worth noting are Gus Grissom’s space flight suit, Michael Jackson’s glittery white glove, a full-scale male T-Rex head from Jurassic Park, multiple Terminator endoskeletons, Kirk’s Starfleet uniform from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Michael Keaton’s Batman costume, a 17-foot Bumblebee from Transformers, and even Predator, Ghostbusters, He-Man and Freddy Kreuger memorabilia.
The list goes on and on. If you’re rolling in dough and want to pick out something to wear Trick-or-Treating early this year, the auction ends tomorrow (Oct. 9) so head over to this link to place your bets. (If you’re looking for a little more affordable memorabilia and reproductions though, we recommend you checkout some of the amazing stuff from Sideshow Collectibles.)
More pictures follow and from the press release, here is what’s on the block: read more…
Today in New York Microsoft is hosting an open house showing off all its goods it intends to offer consumers this holiday season, including a new generation of cellphones it hopes will grab the attention of users it lost to Apple’s iPhone. Still relying on various 3rd party manufacturers to provide the hardware, the new operating system, creatively dubbed Windows Mobile 6.5, will need to do most of the talking. One of the biggest improvements Microsoft has made to the new OS is the internet browser which has been notoriously slow, unwieldy, and unable to scale well or handle most Web 2.0 applications. They have also surrendered to touchscreen interaction rather than staying focused on the bottom left and right anchor buttons which they insisted was necessary for one-handed use of all applications -but severely restricted developers.
They’re saying the phones can already access more than 600 applications with more on the way, but only time will tell if the phones and new OS can help reclaim a share of the consumer market or bring over a significant number of mobile developers. With the success of iPhone’s Apps, it seems like a real chicken-and-egg problem I hope they can overcome. Why? In spite of where health care reform seems to be headed and what Michael Moore says, I think real competition can only benefit both Windows Mobile users (of which I previously was one) and iPhone owners (of which I am one). I happen to think Apple is sitting a little high-on-the-hog right now and too comfortable.
Microsoft’s open house is also showing off Windows 7, Bing, MS Office, Live, and new keyboards, webcams, and Zune hardware – all in a cliche’d mock-up of a house of the future, were Microsoft IS the future. There is even a garage featuring a couple of Fords using Microsoft’s SYNC technology. (Sadly, the cars of the future seem to be normal terrestrial-bound vehicles that don’t fly or even hover.)
The event also has a gaming room which is said to be showing off Forza 3 and the Xbox 360 Holiday Bundle which includes Lego Batman and Pure.
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