Hasta La Gadget!

We hope you all made it last week when CScout Japan supported PSFK in producing the Good Ideas Salon Tokyo at Hotel Claska. To celebrate Nissan’s zero-emission car’s release at the Tokyo Motor Show, two panels held an informal discussion on green living.

The event was a great success and we received an overwhelming response from people wishing to register. Over a hundred media, corporate and design people got together to discuss and exchange. These types of events are rare in Japan, but a great approach for creating buzz and exposure for an idea or product.

Along with trend consultancy, CScout Japan executes events and seminars, and in the past has worked with Mini to produce the Kyoto Mash-Up party.

We would like to thank PSFK for the opportunity to work with them on this occasion. We are proud to announce that in the future we plan to organize further Good Ideas Salons in Tokyo, and gladly welcome any partners and sponsors. We are also currently welcoming ideas for topics, and any feedback (positive or negative) from guests who attended last week. Please feel free to post comments below.

At the event on October 20 speakers included greenz.jp founder Hiromi Matsubara, architect Rie Azuma…

…otaku blogger Danny Choo (above)…

…gdgt, Engadget and Gizmodo founder Peter Rojas (center), green visionary Marc Alt (right), and architect Mark Dytham (left).

The discussion over, the guests and speakers all mingled together to enjoy some drinks and food.

Thanks to Zuco.org’s Pietro Zuco for one of the photos above.

We’ve seen no shortage of homegrown clocks in our day, and while most are cute for their time, few are worthy of being lauded in this manner. Alan Parekh’s Gear Clock is a delightful mishmash of machined gears, thrown together in a fashion that resulted in an actual time-telling gizmo. Hop on past the break to watch this thing spin, but be sure to hold the mute button for the lead-in. Clearly ‘Sound Check’ wasn’t activated.

Continue reading Machined Gear Clock makes watching the time pass a true joy (video)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household

Machined Gear Clock makes watching the time pass a true joy (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sorry Litl, but the FCC just spoiled your surprise party. Described as “a web computer” running Litl OS (sorry Microsoft), the 3.38-pound Litl Easel (built by FIC) packs a 1.86GHz Atom Z540 processor beneath that 12.1-inch 1280×800 pixel display, a meager 2GB of storage, 1GB of DDR2 memory, 802.11b/g WiFi, and webcam all powered by a 2600MAh battery. There’s also HDMI, a single USB jack, and an IR receiver for a Litl remote. A dedicated baby-blue “Litl” key on the keyboard would appear to act like a home key that takes you back to the “Card View” home page. Based on the description from the manual, the Litl OS will present information in stacks of cards: blue cards are “permanent” cards for the card catalog, family and friends, and settings; white cards are web cards displayed in a Mozilla browser; and black “channel” cards (known as widgets everywhere else) feature a Litl alarm clock, New York Times headline ticker, and weather channel. And if the cutsie-wutsie factor of the Litl Easel is lost on you then perhaps the “best results if plugged in” label on the power brick will help drive the message home. Litl already has a teaser page up so we expect this to launch Stateside sometime before the holidays.

Read — FCC document
Read — Litl teaser

Filed under: Laptops

Litl Easel ‘web computer’ is cute as a baby-blue button originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some of us love nothing more than a portable and convenient netbook — something that Asustek knows all too well — but how about those of us who need real computing power? To that end, Taipei’s choice for all things ultraportable has just announced its very own 1.1 Teraflop supercomputer. Dubbed the ESC 1000, this (albeit large) desktop-sized machine sports a 3.33GHz Intel LGA1366 Xeon W3580 microprocessor and three CUDA-based Tesla C1060 GPUs, the likes of which we last saw in Dell’s Precision “personal supercomputer” line. Shipping with 24GB of DDR3 DRAM (1333MHz) and a 500GB SATA II hard drive, the machine is said to have a cost structure of $14,519 over five years. We’re guessing that you’ll be able to both surf the net and watch HD quality video on the thing, although you probably won’t be taking it along with you to Crazy Mocha any time soon. According to a company spokesperson, this thing is ready to ship now, although a launch date and street price have yet to be determined. One more pic after the break.

Continue reading Asustek announces a 1.1 Teraflop, Tesla GPU powered supercomputer

Filed under: Desktops

Asustek announces a 1.1 Teraflop, Tesla GPU powered supercomputer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Legendary DIYer Johnny Chung Lee may have only been with Microsoft for a few months, but it looks like he’s already making his presence felt, even when he’s not working on projects himself. His latest effort involves getting videos from the User Interface Software and Technology (or UIST) conference online, including this look at a new muscle-computer interface developed by Phd student Scott Samponas and some other folks working with Microsoft Research. While it obviously has a number or potentially exciting and practical uses (like controlling devices when you’re hands are full, or when you’re running), Samponas et al apparently just couldn’t help themselves from demonstrating one of its most obvious applications: an true implementation of air Guitar Hero. Video after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft researchers build muscle-computer interface, play air Guitar Hero

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Microsoft researchers build muscle-computer interface, play air Guitar Hero originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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