Hasta La Gadget!

Spring Design has unveiled Alex, which the company claims is the first e-book reader powered by Google Android. It’s also the first reader with two screens: a 6-inch panel based on e-ink (specifically, monochrome EPD, or electronic paper display) for regular reading, and a separate 3.5-inch color touch LCD for browsing the Internet and supporting content for the main screen.

In fact, that second screen is an entirely self-contained Google Android device. Alex includes a Wi-Fi radio, as well as internal 3G support on both EV-DO and GSM networks–assuming Spring Design can find carrier support for the thing.

Alex also includes earphones, stereo speakers, an SD card slot, browser bookmarks and history, and the ability to transfer content from the touch LCD to the e-ink display for easier reading. Spring Design said it’s currently in talks with said carriers, and is targeting a release before the end of this year.

Anyone who has tried their hand at overclocking recognizes just how evil waste heat is, and we’re guessing that one Wataru Kobayashi at Waseda University in Japan understands explicitly. He, along with a few colleagues, has recently devised a new diode that allows heat current to travel in one direction but not in the other. The breakthrough essentially paves the way for thermal computing to actually take off, with obvious applications including heat sinks for microprocessors. Kobayashi, who may or may not be able to eat a dozen hot dogs per minute in his spare time, also hopes that his discovery will lead to a thermal transistor, thermal logic gates and a thermal memory. The future’s yours, friend.

Filed under: Science

Heat diodes give thermal computing a fighting chance originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If it’s any consolation to those of you Sidekick users who lost your data during the Danger server outages earlier this month, Microsoft wants you to know that it’s hard at work trying to get that data back. “The Danger / Microsoft team is continuing to work around the clock on the data restoration process,” the company wrote in a post yesterday.

Microsoft also used the post to apologize for the delay, but insisted that it was making, “steady progress.” The company also added that it “hope[s] to be able to begin restoring personal contacts for affected users this week, with the remainder of the content (photographs, notes, to-do-lists, marketplace data, and high scores) shortly thereafter.”

The Sidekick’s carrier, T-Mobile, has already offered monetary compensation for affected users.

Mmm, nothing like a pinch of predictability to wake us in the morning. Just days after the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) finally announced that a North American mobile DTV standard was struck, Samsung has jumped in with what it’s calling the planet’s first single chip solution designed to handle those very transmissions. All we’re told is that the solution combines RF and “digital chip components” into one 65 nanometer chip, making it ideal for smaller devices such as smartphones, car-mounted televisions and portable media players. Of course, Sammy doesn’t even bother to mention a mass production date, so we’re guessing we all just rise awkwardly and start a roaring slow clap to celebrate the accomplishment.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Video, Wireless

Samsung develops first chip for US mobile digital TV transmission, provides no release date originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Could the new Droid finally be the smartphone to knock the Apple iPhone off its pedestal? Droid partners Verizon, Motorola, and Google are positioning it as such.

The latest Android-based smartphone, the Droid, could debut as early as October 30, according to a cryptic countdown code on Verizon’s Web …