Hasta La Gadget!

Bogged down and confused with the latest spate of wild mobile speculations? Relationship troubles clouding your judgment? Lonely? Well Josh, Nilay and Paul — your jovial (yet often enraged) Engadget Podcast crew — are back for another installment to help you sort all that out. In a week heavy on rumors (Palm Eos, Microsoft “Pink” and the not-so-nano “iPhone lite”) and laden with opinion (Windows 7 RC1, TiVo’s sad state of affairs), join the boys as they delve deep into the abyss that is gadgetry. Sure, there might never be a Zunephone, but remember: the beauty is in the journey… or something.

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Song: All That She Wants

00:01:13 – Palm Eos: super-thin, 3G, and headed to AT&T?
00:27:20 – Microsoft’s “Pink” smartphone could rival iPhone on Verizon
00:29:00 – Microsoft reiterates what we knew: no first-party handset, no Zunephone
00:36:40 – Apple prototyping “iPhone lite” and MacBook Mini / media pad for Verizon?
00:46:30 – Samsung I7500 with OLED touchscreen powered by Android, dreams
00:57:42 – Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 impressions, insights, and expectations
01:10:05 – Ten years of TiVo: how far we haven’t come

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Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget

Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 144 – 05.01.2009 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 May 2009 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The first meaty rumors of the Xbox 360 using full-body motion controls—without a controller—are pretty interesting, since Microsoft showed us their “write in the air” tech a couple months ago, complete with Xbox logo:

Microsoft showed off a “Write in the Air” system developed in China. You can write with a gyro controller or in thin air, using a camera. Is it next for the Xbox?

You can’t help but notice the giant Xbox logo there on the screen, and the researcher I talked to said that it would be a great system for the Xbox or for Microsoft interactive TV. Still, when I pressed him, he said he didn’t know of any immediate plans. Whatever, it makes sense, except maybe the part where he grabs an orange and uses it as a stylus.

If the rumors are true, the orange makes a lot more sense now, don’t it? Not that I’m any less skeptical of these kind of controls actually working for gamers in the real world. PSEye, anyone? [Giz@Microsoft TechFest]

It is difficult to picture consumer electronics products without Liquid Crystal Displays or that one man was responsible nearly 46 years ago for the paper that would set the ball rolling for the use of LCDs.

George Heilmeier, a researcher at RCA Laboratories, along with Richard Williams published a report in 1963 suggesting the use of liquid crystal materials for display. That paper laid the groundwork towards the the use of LCDs in everything from watches to cameras and TVs.

“When we built several prototype displays we thought it would be great for shower doors,” laughs Heilmeier during an interview with Wired.com. “But it is amazing to see how far LCDs have come as a technology so many years after we first talked about them.”

On May 2, Heilmeier will be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, a non-profit organization that was founded in 1973 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the National Council of Intellectual Property Law Associations.

Every year the National Inventors Hall of Fame inducts a group of distinguished American inventors. So far 390 individuals have been honored including Thomas Edison and more recently Segway’s Dean Kamen and Steve Wozniak (not Steve Jobs since Wozniak holds the patent.) “We have two primary rules: The inventor has to have a US patent and their invention has to change the world,” says Jeffrey Dollinger, president of Invent Now, a division of the organization. This year the group received about 100 nominations and it will honor 15  individuals including former Intel CEO Andy Grove. (See complete list here.)

Heilmeier has been at the intersection of some of the biggest technological breakthroughs in the U.S.  Following his work on LCDs, he became the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he managed projects including stealth aircrafts and artificial intelligence.

“The U.S.  is still the world’s leader in fundamental research,” he says. “Though some people may not agree with me, I make the argument that US is spending a great deal on basic research. What we need is more big ideas, not just a demand for more money on research.”

Heilmeier’s comments are in sharp contrast to the perception among many U.S. technology leaders that lack of funding has led to a decline in fundamental research in the country.

Last year, iconic research institution Bell Labs decided to discontinue basic science research. Increasingly companies under shareholder pressure to show greater profit are cutting back on research budgets, Judy Estrin, former CTO of Cisco told Wired.com. America is facing an innovation crisis as the federal government has cut back on spending, other experts have said.

Heilmeier isn’t buying that. “I think academia has essentially overstated the case that we are beginning to lag,” he says. The bottom line for those people is they always want more money.”

During his reign as director of DARPA, Heilmeier says he often met with researchers seeking additional funding and was surprised to find that often they were reluctant to outline their ideas before the grants were awarded.

“People felt entitled for research dollars from DARPA and NSF but they told me they didn’t have the time to write proposals and reports,” he says. “I think academia spends too much time lobbying.”

What America lacks, he says, is the increasingly the ability to take basic research and find a way to commercialize it successfully. Take the LCD technology that RCA Labs helped pioneer. Seven years after his first big paper on the subject, Heilmeier left RCA to never return. Meanwhile Japanese companies built on Heilmeier’s work and went on to become among the biggest LCD manufacturers.

LCDs are now a part of his past, says Heilmeier. Now he spends time reading about breakthroughs in areas such as cognitive processing and cybersecurity. “One of the most exciting things in the future will be in cognitive processing where computers can learn, reason and teach,” he says. “And we are very much in the preliminary phases of that research now. That’s where the most exciting things will emerge in the next five to seven years.”

Photo: George Heilmeier at RCA Labs

After the death-defying moments astride the Zero S, and the claustrophobia experienced within GM and Segway’s P.U.M.A., we were ready for something a little more relaxing in the electric vehicle space: and Ultra Motor’s A2B electric bike provided. Not to say it doesn’t have any pep — we took it for a test ride around SoHo, and found plenty of juice to power past those other suckers doing their own pedaling — but there’s something a tad more gentle to this bike than some of the other rough-around-the-edges EVs we’ve bumped into lately. The best news is that the A2B is available now at various dealerships, with an almost-palatable price tag of $2,600, 20 mile range and 20 mph max electric-assisted speed (limited due to regulations on bikes). Testing it out we found ourselves pedaling just a bit out of habit, and on the short city blocks we rarely got it past third gear, but there’s plenty of power for urban transport. The front and rear shocks provide a well-cushioned ride (and are bouncy enough for some easy wheelies), the small wheels keep the center of gravity low and maneuverability high, and the brakes are excellent. Catch the magic on video after the break.

Continue reading Engadget’s delightful cruise on the Ultra Motor A2B electric bike (with video!)

Filed under: Transportation

Engadget’s delightful cruise on the Ultra Motor A2B electric bike (with video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 May 2009 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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