Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve ever watched an investigative journalism show that exposes things you didn’t know you had to worry about, there’s a good chance you’ve seen footage of the archaic green-screens in use at airport towers across the country paired with shocking headlines like “Hidden Airport Menace” or “Glidepath to Danger.” Plans to replace that tech are finally in motion, with the FAA indicating its new air traffic control system will go into effect by 2020, possibly as early as 2015. This system requires that any aircraft flying within commercial airspace must have a GPS-equipped navigation system — and we don’t mean a TomTom stuck on the windshield. These systems will cost between $5,000 and $10,000 for small planes and are able to beam information to ground control stations that will no longer have to rely exclusively on radar. The plan could cost the FAA alone roughly $4 billion, giving bored local news personalities something else to sensationalize.

GPS-based air traffic control system to go live by 2020 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re obviously well aware of what’s coming up from Intel, but today at Computex Chipzilla demoed its upcoming Sandy Bridge platform for the first time. The demo was quite brief, but showed off the power of the future Intel integrated graphics with a side by side comparison with a discrete graphics system. It’s all in the video after the break, but don’t get your hopes up about seeing these new processors anytime soon — Intel’s Dadi Perlmutter confirmed that they won’t hit the market until 2011.

Continue reading Intel briefly demos next-gen Sandy Bridge laptop platform at Computex

Intel briefly demos next-gen Sandy Bridge laptop platform at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic’s new 8mm fisheye lens brings a 180º field of view to the Micro Four Thirds camera range, allowing photographers the opportunity to shoot both the sky and their own feet at the same time.

On the MFT-system, with its half-frame sensor, the 8mm ƒ3.5 wide-angle is the equivalent of a 16mm fisheye on a 35mm camera. And these ultra-wide lenses are one of the few kinds of glass that don’t really need a super-wide maximum aperture: even an ƒ2 fisheye wouldn’t give you a super-shallow depth of field here, and because you aren’t zoomed-in on one detail far away as you would be with a longer lens, you don’t have to worry about camera shake, either. Just slow the shutter a little to get enough light at night.

Other than just being wide, the lens also lets you slide in a piece of gel-filter into the rear for creative, Lomo-like effects, and the seven-bladed aperture should shape any out-of focus highlights you manage to achieve into pleasing blurs. The stepper-motors used for focussing are silent (for movie making) and the lens can focus as close as 10cm (four inches).

The UK price has been announced as £730 ($1,060), which should probably bring it in at under a grand in the US, possibly in July.

Panasonic Introduces World’s Smallest and Lightest Digital Interchangeable Fisheye Lens [Panasonic]

See Also:

• Olympus Collapsible Wide-Angle Zoom for Micro Four Thirds
• Noktor ƒ0.95 Lens for Micro Four Thirds Cameras
• Panasonic Micro Four Thirds 'Rangefinder' with Leica Lenses …
• Panasonic Announces Micro Four Thirds Camcorder
• Micro Four Thirds
• Adapter Puts Leica Lenses on Micro Four Thirds Cameras
• Adapter Puts Nikon and Pentax Lenses on Micro Four Thirds Cameras …

Could the white box splayed atop the FCC workbench above known as the NSZ-GT1 be the first Google TV box from Sony? Sure seems to be: the 25 x 33-cm (9.8 x 13-inch) device is called the “Internet TV Box” in the FCC documents, similar wording to Sony’s already announced “Sony Internet TV” with integrated Google TV thingamaservice. The Foxconn-built settop box with 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi radios just cleared the FCC en route to an apparent US launch. The when is the big question — presumably on or around September 1st, the date that Sony’s short-term confidentiality request expires — that’s considered Fall right? A few notable document images after the break.

Continue reading Sony Internet TV Box revealed by the FCC as Google TV device?

Sony Internet TV Box revealed by the FCC as Google TV device? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 07:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gadget Lab reader and all-round handyman Anthony Matthews saw our post on the Bobino cable-tidy last week and decided to make his own. The first picture came along with this email, which is the kind of thing that makes this job so awesome:

Thanks for the inspiration! I have been frustrated for years by tangled earbuds and other cables. This isn’t so stylish, and I may even buy some Bobinos, but I think the double winder on my hack beats the Bobino on practical usefulness, especially for earbuds. Plastic crates like this usually have suitable latticework, and you can make all sizes.

That double-winder is indeed a nice touch: you can keep the bulk of the cord, the part you never use, wrapped away and just pay out the length you need from the remainder. It is ideal for those who keep an iPod in a breast pocket or in a pouch on a bag-strap.

The material choice is also great: The plastic of these crates weighs almost nothing at these sizes and stays healthy and unbroken however much you bend it.

Great hack, Anthony. It just shows how easy home-made widgets can be if only you have the eagle-eyes necessary to spot the opportunity. You might want to stop eating over your keyboard, though. Those crumbs are pretty gross.

See Also:

• Bobino Cable-Tidy is Cute, Cheap