It may not be a CGI apology (bet his wife would’ve loved that!) but Tiger Woods will be making his first public apology live on YouTube today.
YouTube is live-streaming the press conference from Florida at 11am EST / 8am PST today to the Citizen Tube area of the site. Tune in if seeing a grown man grovelling is your idea of fun—I’ll be brushing up on my sext messages. [YouTube Citizen Tube via YouTube Blog via Electricpig]
UPDATE: Video below:
Intel is moving from conifers to deciduous trees as inspiration for its next Atom Z-series platform, if PC Watch is correct. The Z-series is residing in netbooks and ultra-portables such as the Vaio P from Sony, but with Moorestown not compatible with Windows it makes sense Intel would need a new processor.
Enter Oak Trail, which PC Watch admits is an unconfirmed rumor—but supposedly will be more energy efficient and perhaps even based on Moorestown, yet capable of running Windows. It’s certainly not a replacement for Pine Trail, which only launched in December, as they’re too large and use too much energy. [PC Watch via Pocketables]
Sony. Working on a PlayStation controller that can also be used with Xbox 360s. And Nintendo consoles. Has hell iced over? Did the last 30 years never happen? Has Linus Torvalds replaced Kazuo Hirai at SCEI?
I know Sony’s been working through its propriety issues of late, using the ePub format for ereaders and—heaven forbid!—launching its first range of SD cards. But opening the PlayStation up so the controller can be used with rival game consoles? Well I never.
GoRumors has dug up a patent suggesting Sony’s working on a controller with a touchscreen LCD panel that would display commands for other consoles or players that have been set up to work with it.
The patent spells it out:
“A game console controller includes a hand-holdable housing and a touch sensitive liquid crystal display (LCD) on the housing. The LCD is caused to present, depending on what type of game console a user has selected, a controller key layout for a first type of game console or a controller key layout for a second type of game console. A key layout includes plural keys selectable by a user to input commands to a game console.”
By the looks of the diagram, the controller wouldn’t just be a remote control that would let you turn on the different consoles—it would be an actual gaming peripheral, with the X/Y A/B buttons displayed on the LCD. It certainly wouldn’t replace the use of an Xbox 360 or Wii controller, as I can’t imagine mashing my thumbs on a touchscreen display for too long, but could be handy when you’ve got extra friends around and not enough pads to go around. Or as I mentioned before, turning the consoles on to access media.
I’m just in a state of shock that Sony of all companies is proposing this idea. I need to go lie down for a while. [GoRumors – Thanks Anand!]
Those scientist types have been very active of late, between making ethanol fuel from orange peel and now tree-derived sugar being used to make plastic. Who’ll be first to make trees from fuel?
The latter project is being worked on at the Imperial College of London, and unlike plastic made from corn it’s looking like these tree and grass-derived molecules actually biodegrade faster and are better for the environment.
In the next five years we should be seeing plastic made from sugar on the market—whether it’s the work of this particular project or someone else, it’ll still benefit everyone. You’d be right in having doubts over how much more expensive it would be to produce, but at least it’d use less energy, and hopefully over time become cheaper the more it’s adopted. [Telegraph]
Cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlights are fast disappearing due to the more efficient and brighter LED swaggering onto the TV scene, but the Japanese company Sanken Electric claims its new CCFL technology is 60 per cent cheaper to produce.
Too little, too late for the unfashionable technology? Sanken reckons TVs perform just as well using two of its lamps as opposed to the six normally required. As production won’t start until this summer, it’s unlikely we won’t see them in TV sets for at least another year—and by then, LEDs will reign supreme. [Nikkei via CrunchGear]
He’s been working on them for 12 years, but finally John Coker was successful in launching his Crayola crayon rockets. Only four of the eight worked properly, but they managed to soar to 2,928 feet in the Nevada desert.
Trying to keep the crayons and box as realistic as possible, Coker built an eight-pack box slightly larger than scale, to accommodate for the launch rods and fins of each crayon rocket. The full explanation of how he did it is on his site (something to work on once you retire?), but I want to see someone build a Heineken beer crate of rockets instead. Or a 12-pack of sausages. [John Coker via Walyou]
Rubbish powered the DeLorean’s Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor power source in Back To The Future, so it makes sense that now we’re in the future we can make ethanol fuel from fruit peel.
It’s the work of professor Henry Daniell at the University of Central Florida, who can also turn newspaper into fuel fit for running a car with—using more than 10 enzymes from plants to break the rubbish into sugar that is then fermented into the ethanol fuel, producing less greenhouse gas emissions than electricity or gasoline. Plus, it decreases the pressure put on landfills—and might help stave off the “iPad effect” and keep newspapers in print for a while longer. Zing! [PhysOrg]
We’ve seen several new camera formats recently—micro four thirds, 3D cameras, heck, even Polaroid has made a return. But a camera where the lens and the screen can separate, so the subject can hold the screen? Madness.
It is merely an idea in designer Xi Zhu‘s head unfortunately—but I can see Fujifilm being inspired by it. The lens and screen are actually held together with magnets, so the person in shot can primp and preen while looking in the screen, before the user actually takes the shot. Once taken, the photo is streamed to the screen by wireless USB—although I think it’d be cooler if it used UWB like the Leyio. [Yanko Design]
I can see Monster scratching their (many) heads in the board room, wondering how to appeal to women after too many Dr Dre headphones. “I know!” (shouted Noel Lee), “butterflies! They all like butterflies!” I must have a penis then.
They’ve actually teamed up with the fashion designer Vivienne Tam, who’s busy lending her name to any tech company that’ll have it. The Butterfly headphones have a “light gold-brushed finish” and “colorful butterfly images on the earpieces.” They come with a matching carry case, which might go some way to explaining how they can charge $199.95 for them—50 bucks more than the similar Dr Dre ones. [Press release via ChipChick]
iTunes visualizations are nice to look at (though nothing will replace Winamp’s in my heart), but this Sound Scape concept looks a treat with the inbuilt LED projector beaming visuals out to match the music being played.
It’s all based on nature, so if you’re playing 50 Cent don’t expect images of guns to be projected. Instead, the concept renders show fluffy clouds and relaxing pools of water. A stone-like controller can change tracks or volume—or at least would do, if it was actually a real product. Sadly this concept is as real as the cerulean clouds it projects. [Hyunsoo Choi, Hyori Kim & Gisung Han via Yanko Design]
Moore’s Law dictates that memory gets larger and cheaper as the years go by (roughly speaking), but how can this SD card store the equivalent of 256MB of photos and cost $16?
When the 60 photos are printed out and stuck in the album sleeves, naturally. On sale in April, it’s available as a pre-order for $9.99. [Spinninghat via Technabob]
It was threatened, and thus now available. Hit up the BlackBerry App World to download the free Kindle app now—but only if you live in the US. And are happy paying up to a tenner to read a book on a 2.44″ screen. [THINQ]
Windows Phone 7 is only three days old, but leaked documents from Microsoft supposedly showing developer requirements have turned up thanks to XDA-Developers, suggesting WP7 will use both Silverlight and XNA—which makes sense, given the Xbox 360 integration.
It also means it’s quite likely that WP7 will actually allow you to play Xbox 360 games—if not existing titles, then new ones. Maybe even games from the Zune will be ported over, considering the Zune also uses XNA.
In the “development tools” document, it states that “Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft Express Blend are the primary tools for developing applications for Windows phones.”
The “partner application development policy” claims:
“partner applications will have access to an extended set of managed APIs and a limited set of native APIs. The extended managed APIs are meant to support extending the phone experience with functionality that is specific to a phone or network. This set of APIs supports functionality such as camera mode extensibility.”
“If the managed APIs in the application platform are not sufficient to support critical partner needs, then partners can request access to native APIs (provided support is available in the operating system). If Microsoft approves the request to enable an application scenario, then the specific native APISs supported will be explicitly documented.”
The three documents are included for chewing over, but so far, not too many surprises. This is Microsoft, after all. [XDA-Developers via WMPowerUser via Engadget]
While these actual, real, strap-’em-to-your-hands-and-navigate-ski-slopes gloves are, you know, real, I much preferred the GPS gloves concept from two years ago. Give me a bionic hand over insulated glove any day of the week.
Still, there’s something to be said for GPS gloves you can actually wear, and while Zanier hasn’t confirmed the price of their Xplore.XGX ski gloves, they’ll be going on sale sometime this year. Sure, you can just download a ski app on your iPhone which can help steer you down the slopes, but unless you’ve got an ultra-padded compartment for it I wouldn’t risk taking one skiing. But then you’re probably far less clumsy than I.
It’d be much easier just glancing down at the monochrome display on the thumb of the glove to see basic stats on how fast you’re traveling, the distance you’ve covered, duration and altitude. Plus, that all important question of where the hell am I?
The gloves can also be connected by USB to your computer so you can collate data on your various skiing trips, and as they’re made using Gore-Tex your fingers should be toasty warm. Unless the GPS happens to navigate you hand-first into an avalanche. [Ispo via Gadget Crave]
HTC swept the show with the sexy Legend, well-specced Desire and rugged WinMo HD Mini, and while US availability hasn’t been confirmed yet we can let our UK readers in on the good news. All phones will hit eXpansys on the 12th of April, with the HD Mini at £349.99, the Legend at £399.99 and Desire at £449.99.
Alternatively, T-Mobile and Orange will be flogging the Desire, with carriers for the Legend and HD Mini not yet confirmed. [eXpansys]
UPDATE: Commenter Hearthatvoiceagain tells me O2 and Vodafone will also have the Desire. As will 3 Mobile—it’s turning into quite a free-for-all type handset. Anyone got news on the Legend or HD Mini?
What do you do if you really want a Windows Phone 7 handset but prefer PlayStation to Xbox 360? Microsoft may end up catering for you too, with a senior product manager on the mobile division musing on the possibility.
Michael Chang told TechRadar that Microsoft’s doesn’t intend to be a closed door to other companies.
“If you look at our history in mobiles, we have never blocked anything off this platform because we compete in the same space, at least not in the phone space.”
Typically, he couldn’t actually pinpoint “a specific scenario” where they’ve allowed competing products onto their phones, but mentioned they allow Exchange “on other devices.” At a hefty license cost, I’m sure.
But going back to allowing users of WP7 to integrate their PlayStation Network stats and games, it’s something they’re considering.
“We think it’s pretty clear – I was slightly worried that when we showed off Xbox Live on the Windows Phone 7 platform people might think it was Microsoft trying to own the [mobile] world.
“But the simplest way to put it is that there’s a very obvious reason we called it the Games hub and the Music + Video hub: Zune and Xbox are key parts, but not the only parts, of the overall Windows Phone experience.”
But will they let me play Donkey Kong Country? [TechRadar]
Shipping containers in my mind are forever associated with grim situations seen in TV shows like Dexter or The Wire, but in South Korea they can also be observatories for viewing sunsets.
Erected on the harbor of Songdo New City in Incheon, five shipping containers were recycled and placed together aiming sky-wards for the best possible glimpse of the close of daylight. They’re angled at either 10, 30 or 50 degrees, offering various views across the water, with stairs and ramps inside so people can walk through them. [ANL Studio via Deezen via Inhabitat]
There’s a new power couple in town—Fatman’s Wi-Tube and FatDock. The Wi-Tube valve amplifier can stream music wirelessly from a docked iPod or by the multitude of outputs the FatDock also offers.
If you happen to invite a non-Apple-eating friend over for a long night in listening to Roxette’s back catalog, you can connect a media player or other source by the 3.5mm input, alternatively most iPod and iPhone models will do the trick. It not only charges any ‘pod that’s stuck in it, but can also sync up to a Mac or PC by USB.
The Wi-Tube amp has two RCA inputs and one 3.5mm jack, and the FatDock can output wirelessly, or by RCA, USB, Video or S-Video—controllable with the bundled remote control.
On sale in April for our UK friends for £399, it’ll retail for $599 in the States when it hits stores late April/early May. [Fatman]
Traveling on the Trans Siberian Railway has always appealed to me, but it’s difficult finding a spare eight days to ride the 9,259km long journey. Now I can complete the journey using YouTube and Google Maps…in 150 hours.
The website takes the viewer on a journey from the starter point of Moscow to the final station of Vladivostok, using multiple YouTube videos of a camera aimed out a window. You can choose to listen to just the rumble of the wheels, or Russian radio—even a reading of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. In Russian, of course.
The journey is tracked on Google Maps, with key details being pointed out, such as how far you’ve traveled and how much longer there is to go. If you want to skip ahead to the scenic mountains of Barguzin for example, you’re more than welcome to—and don’t need to pay for a fare.
It took 30 days for Google to film the 150 hours used in the YouTube videos, with two camera crews shooting out the windows of the train last summer. It’s pretty much the epitome of armchair viewing, and I must say that the noise the train coursing down the tracks is a very relaxing sound. Perfect blogging soundtrack, in fact. [Google.ru Moscow-Vladivostok via the Guardian]
Here’s the first video, which shows the train leaving Moscow:
A Canadian Best Buy spy has sent us an image of some dummy Apple SKUs showing up on their system, and while we can’t confirm it’s legit, it comes rather soon after the last round.
Our tipster says he also saw some “fully-speced high end iMacs in inventory that were not in stores yet.” It’s not really evidence of a new MacBook Pro/iMac refresh, but is certainly fodder to chew on. [Thanks, Spark!]
