The iPhone is now available in the UK, and officially went on sale from 6pm on Friday the 9th of November, but so far the release of the iPhone over here has been pretty calm and has been nothing like it was in the US. There have been reports of Apple fanatics queuing up on the 9th to be the first to get their hands on the iPhone, but compared to the US release these numbers were extremely small.
I thought that by the weekend it would have kicked off, but there still doesn’t seem to be any visible signs of demand for the phone; since you can walk into any store selling the iPhone and take a look at it without being hindered by large groups of people trying to do the same. Maybe it’s the fact that we have so many Carphone Warehouses and O2 stores scattered throughout the UK that it’s helped to distribute the demand a lot better than the US did. Still, I was expecting larger queues and pretty much chaos everywhere the iPhone is being sold, but that’s just not the case. A number of other sites here & here are describing the same lack of enthusiasm about the iPhones release, even The Register is reporting that the iPhone has flopped on its first day in the UK.
Unfortunately for Apple & O2 I too will be contributing to the low demand as I am happy with my current phone: it may not be cutting edge but it suites me just fine. I am more interested in the iPod touch than the iPhone. The only thing that is holding me back from buying one is the drive size; but I’m guessing it will not be that long until Apple release one with a larger capacity.
The new iPod Touch features an iPhone-like touch screen with Wi-Fi capabilities, also included is the Safari Internet browser and, like the iPhone it will play YouTube videos. it comes in two capacity’s 8GB or 16GB which is an improvement over the iPhone which only has 8GB for storage at the moment. The size of the iPod Touch is slightly smaller and weighs a little less than the iPhone but the screen size is exactly the same on both models, except the iPod Touch beats the iPhone by 3 dpi.
Specs:
iPhone
iPod Touch
Height: 4.5 inches (115 mm)
Height: 4.3 inches (110 mm)
Width: 2.4 inches (61 mm)
Width: 2.4 inches (61.8 mm)
Depth: 0.46 inch (11.6 mm)
Depth: 0.31 inch (8 mm)
Weight: 4.8 ounces (135 grams)
Weight: 4.2 ounces (120 grams
Display: 480 by 320 pixel at 160 dpi
Display: 480 by 320 pixel at 163 dpi
Maximum capacity: 8GB
Maximum capacity: 16GB
Along with announcing the iPod Touch, apple also announce a number of updates to the current iPod line. Both the Nano and the current 80GB iPod models have been upgraded with new metal casing. And the Nano, now has a larger & brighter screen with the ability to play videos. while the current 80GB iPod has been re-branded as the iPod classic, and has had its capacity doubled form 80GB to 160GB. The only member of the iPod family that didn’t get upgraded was the iPod shuffle. I was actually hoping for the shuffle to be upgraded to something slightly bigger say 4GB. Anyway Apple should begin shipping the New iPod Touch this month, so it looks like it’s just in time for Christmas.
Dean Kamen & the Norwegian company ‘Think’ are working together on a project that sounds extremely similar to the Mr Fusion engine from Back to the Future. Over the last 10 years Kamen has spent around $40 million developing the Stirling engine, which can use virtually any fuel source to heat a sealed container containing a fixed quantity of gas - most commonly hydrogen or helium - that expands and contracts to drive a piston and produce electricity.
These engines are already being used in developing countries, but Kamen started to realise that the engines would never be economical until they were mass produced.
That’s where the Norwegian ‘Think’ car comes in. By combining the two together, you could basically use any combustible material, for example: Diesel, vegetable oil, paper, fast food, timber, cow manure etc.. to help keep the batteries charged. So instead of throwing your rubbish away, you would just use it to power your car. Not only would this extend the Thinks range by hundreds of miles, it would also turn the car into a mobile generator. When electricity demand peaks during the day, thousands of ‘Thinks’ plugged in at office parks could feed power back to the grid. If you have enough ‘Thinks’ out there you would literally change the architecture of the grid, says Kamen
At the moment the Stirling electric hybrid prototype only generates around 1Kilowatt of power unfortunately that’s nowhere near the 1.21 Gigawatts required for time travel.
I know, I know its a few days late but I thought I would post about it anyway, by now am sure every one on the Internet has heard that Apple have launched 4 iPhone ads (Never Been an iPod, How To, Calamari & Watered Down) announcing the iPhone launch date on the 29th of June.
The iPhone will have 2 versions the 4GB version that will sell for around $499 (£250) and the 8GB version for $599 (£301). unfortunately the June release is not a global release and is only intended for the US, So still waiting for the UK release date to be announced I’ve heard it could be in October or at the very latest not until early next year.
Sony recently revealed their new 2.5-inch Flexi-OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) display, made from a glass substrate it has a resolution of 120 x 169 pixels, weighs a mere 1.5 grams and is only .3mm thick. The flexible display has the capability of being bent in any direction.
The great thing about OLED displays is that the pixels emit there own light so no additional light source is required, making the display consume less power compared to current displays that require back-lighting. Because OLED pixels directly emit light, OLED pixel colors appear correct and unshifted, even as the viewing angle approaches 90 degrees. This technology is also less expensive to produce over the current LCD display technology.
Dean Kamen and DEKA Research are working with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), in an attempt to create the next-generation robotic prosthesis for soldiers wounded in battle, and it looks like they have succeeded. At a recent conference in Honolulu, Hawaii As part of his presentation Kamen gave a little background information on the project and showed a short video clip of the arm in action.
Titled “Gen X - Separate Exo Control” two team member demonstrated the robotic arm grasping a water bottle, & preforming delicate tasks such as picking up a pen and scratching a nose. weighing less than nine pounds this is a really impressive piece of technology and a needed leap forward for prosthetics.
NASA and Ohio Aerospace Institute have been working on designs for a solid-state unmanned aircraft that mimics the flight of a bird. Using thin-film solar arrays and an ionic polymer-metal composite material that can deform in an electric field like an artificial muscle and return to its original shape when the field is removed, Combining the unique characteristics of these materials the vehicle would be able to flap its wings without using conventional mechanical parts.
With a flight profile similar to that of a hawk or eagle, the Solid State Aircraft will be able to soar for long periods of time, utilize its flapping motion to regain lost altitude. It could have a number of uses such as gathering data, relaying communications, and surveying terrain. It could even be used on other planets in atmospheres that would ground conventional aircraft’s.
Microsoft have recently unveiled an impressive Work Touch-Desk concept at the Convergence 2007 conference in San Diego, California. It seems like the present is finally catching up with the future through this device. After Microsoft’s unimpressive attempt at bringing 3D visual effect to the Vista desktop with Aero the Touch-Desk is slightly more impressive, with its ability to transform paper documents to digital format with a nice degree of interactivity with the newly converted digital document, voice seach & Star Trek like touch interface this could possibly revolutionize factories and warehousing around the world.
The Ontario government has given approval for a California company to construct a massive 40MW solar power plant near Sarnia that will blanket an area larger than all three Toronto islands with hundreds of thousands of solar panels. It will be the largest solar power station in North America and among the most expansive in the world to use photovoltaic cells. Once complete, the 40-megawatt Sarnia project will be able to supply enough emission-free electricity to power between 10,000 and 15,000 homes on sunny days. If all goes according to schedule, the Sarnia solar plant will be fully functional in 2010 and will continue supplying clean electricity to the grid for the next 30 to 50 years.
Researchers from the IBM Almaden research lab and the University of Nevada have created a simulation that was as big and as complex as half of a mouse brain on the BlueGene L supercomputer. Half a real mouse brain is thought to have about eight million neurons each one of which can have up to 8,000 connections. Using the BlueGene L supercomputer the researchers created half a virtual mouse brain that had 8,000 neurons & had up to 6,300 connections.
In other smaller simulations the researchers say they have seen characteristics of thought patterns observed in real mouse brains. In these other tests the team saw the groups of neurons form spontaneously into groups. The researchers say that although the simulation shared some similarities with a mouse’s mental make-up in terms of nerves and connections it lacked the structures seen in real mice brains. For future tests the team aims to speed up the simulation, and make it more neurobiologically faithful, by adding structures seen in real mouse brains
