Hasta La Gadget!

The iWatch is as fanciful a design as you could wish for. The concept timepiece is a wrist-sized iPhony, a tiny iPod Touch on a strap. It’s also gorgeous.

The design is from the Italian ADR Studio, and exists only in the world of Photoshop. The main screen, seen above, shows the time, date and weather (Rome’s looking very inviting this month). The gallery goes on to show the Bluetooth syncing options (to iPad and iPhone but not a computer, oddly) and a picture of the iWatch throwing a projected movie onto a wall (hell, it’s a concept design: why not dream a little?) Read the specs and you learn that there will also be an RSS reader, Wi-Fi and 16GB memory.

I would buy one in a second, like Cult of Mac’s resident deviant John Brownlee (who also – curiously – claims the iWatch makes his “heart flutter”, despite the fact that he demonstrably has no heart in his dry, rattling cage of a chest). Sadly, it will never be so, and instead I shall be forced to strap an iPod Touch to my forearm like some giant, lottery-winner’s Rolex.

iWatch [ADR Studio via John “Dee” Brownlee]

Panasonic has done something with a simple firmware update that Adobe can’t seem to manage with a team of engineers and a few years of work: Improving the performance of flash (rimshot). Joking aside, those who use the GF1, the GH1 or the G1 cameras to shoot video will be pleased with the new firmware update, issued today.

For all three of the Four Thirds (and Micro Four Thirds) bodies, the updates improve autofocus performance with third-party lenses. The G1 and GH1 both receive “improved modulation accuracy of flash,” and the GH1 alone gets the ability to use AF while shooting HD video with compatible lenses, and better AF performance when using the 45mm ƒ2.8 Leica Four Thirds lens while recording movies.

In the interests of safety, I downloaded and installed the new firmware on my GF1. It went smoothly, and nothing has broken (yet). For me, without any third-party lenses, it isn’t nearly as awesome the feature-adding v1.1 update from November last year, but at least I know I’m up to date. Available now, links below.

Firmware v1.2 for Lumix DMC-GF1 [Panasonic Japan via DP Review]

Firmware v1.2 for Lumix DMC-GH1 [Panasonic Japan]

Firmware v1.4 for Lumix DMC-G1 [Panasonic Japan]

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

See Also:

• Panasonic and Canon Issue Firmware Updates
• A Month With the Lumix GF1, And Why I No Longer Use The Nikon D700 …
• Panasonic's New Micro Four Thirds Camera Shoots Video
• Panasonic Launches First 'Micro Four Thirds' Camera

Hey, who’s this charming young rogue giving Ma Earth a peck on the cheek? While opinions may differ on the utility of regenerative braking, we can’t envision anyone outside of Chevron or BP’s head offices complaining about suspensions that generate electricity out of the bumps you encounter on the road. GenShock is just such an invention, and its creator Levant Power claims it can improve fuel efficiency by up to six percent when implemented in hybrid or all-electric vehicles, while being affordable enough to pay for itself within 18 months of installation. The company is presently targeting heavy trucks, consumer hybrids, military vehicles, and mass transit systems for implementation of its tech, which is also claimed to result in a smoother ride. Should you doubt its actual efficacy, you’ll also want to know that GenShock has so far garnered awards from the US Department of Energy, MIT, and Popular Science magazine. See it on video after the break.

Continue reading Levant Power’s GenShock absorbs energy as well as bumps (video)

Levant Power’s GenShock absorbs energy as well as bumps (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 08:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, we did have some strong evidence to suggest that Sony was planning a design update to its VAIO P Series, but there happens to be a lot more than fresh aesthetics going on with the new 8-inch lappie. Sure, it gets a new matte lid that’s available in five different shades, but Sony has also updated the 1.3-pound P Series with an optical touchpad and accelerometer. The former is built into the LCD bezel and, as the picture above shows, is all about navigating the desktop by just holding the screen – the pad is on the right bezel while the right / left mouse buttons are on the left. The accelerometer is probably the most interesting addition – you can flip the device vertically to read documents, but also tilt it to the left or right to move forward or backward while surfing the web. Pretty cool stuff, and there’s even more: it’s been given a faster Intel Atom Z560 processor option, though the entry-level unit has a slightly-slower Z530 CPU. Still waiting for US pricing to see if Sony can tempt us with its notoriously expensive VAIO P when it begins shipping in June. We’ll have a piping hot review of the new VAIO P coming up later this morning. So, will you hit the break for the official PR, or just wait for the review? Decisions, decisions.

Update: The U.S. has finally released its PR. The VAIO P will start at $799 stateside, though that includes the 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor, and not the newer Z560 upgrade. That’s an $100 price drop, but still too much if you ask us.

Continue reading Sony VAIO P Series gets an accelerometer, touchpad (Updated: starts at $799)

Sony VAIO P Series gets an accelerometer, touchpad (Updated: starts at $799) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As with most good things, this comes from Bulgaria. Laptop.bg have finagled themselves a prototype unit of Acer’s forthcoming Aspire 5553G and taken it on a benchmarking adventure to see what it’s made of. Their first impressions relate to the case, which comes in a familiar Timeline-inspired design, including a fingerprint-loving glossy lid and Acer’s particular take on the island keyboard, but they quickly move on to analyzing the quad-core Phenom II N930 heart beating within. Sadly, this particular unit was held back in gaming by its anemic Mobility Radeon HD 4250 GPU, but the news wasn’t all that flattering in CPU-isolating comparisons either. Cinebench 10 found the N930 outperforming Intel’s previous generation chips in multicore workloads, but falling behind on single-threaded tasks. AMD seems intent on pricing its latest Phenoms aggressively, and if you’re not too hung up on getting great battery life these will look appealing, but we can’t help feeling disappointed that Intel’s Core i7s aren’t being given more to worry about. Hit the source for the full review.

Acer Aspire 5553G showcases AMD’s quad-core Phenom II N930 in early review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 07:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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