Hasta La Gadget!

Rapid prototyping isn’t anything new, but making prototypes for future technologies in under a couple of hours is pretty incredible. In what almost seems like something you would see MacGyver do, a team of rapid prototypers have come up with working prototypes of several different technologies, including Google Glasses and the touch interface featured in Minority Report.

At Mind The Product 2012, Google’s Tom Chi demonstrated that anyone can build these incredible products and ideas by using everyday materials and a bit of ingenuity. For example, Chi’s team built a fully-working prototype of Google Glassses from a coat hanger, a piece of plexi-glass, a Pico protector, a wire harness, and a netbook.

Chi’s team also built a prototype of the gestural interface as seen in the movie Minority Report. Unlike the Google Glasses rapid prototype, this only took 45 minutes to throw together, and it uses materials that you would normally find in any office or home, including a coat hanger, a whiteboard, fishing wire, a couple of hairgrips, a chopstick, and a presentation clicker.

Obviously, these rapid prototypes aren’t that practical, but the important thing that Chi notes is they get you to think and do the first things that pop in your mind. Chi also notes that the first thing that does pop in your head is “the right thing” only about 5% of the time, but he mentions that 5% is usually the rate of success for most startups. Chi notes that once you begin rapid prototyping, you go through ideas a lot quicker, meaning a higher success rate:

“By the time you try 20 things, even if each individual thing only has a 5% chance of success, by the time you try 20 things, your chance of success goes up to 64%. By the time you try 50 things, it goes up to 92%. It’s almost like you can’t fail!”

[via Mind the Product]

Google Glasses rapid prototype built in just two hours is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple CEO Tim Cook caused quite a stir when he announced that at least some Macs would soon be made in the US, and it looks like one of the world’s biggest device manufacturers is now set to follow suit. As Bloomberg reports, Foxconn is planning to expand its operations in the US to fulfill what it sees as a growing demand for more Made in the USA products. While not providing many details beyond that, Foxconn spokesperson Louis Woo said in an interview with Bloomberg that “supply chain is one of the big challenges for US expansion,” adding that “any manufacturing we take back to the US needs to leverage high-value engineering talent there in comparison to the low-cost labor of China.” Of course, while the timing of the news is a bit coincidental, there’s no indication yet that Foxconn will be working with Apple on its US manufacturing plans, nor is there any word on any other clients it’s lined up.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: Bloomberg

When we hear of a “new way to stream music around your home and garden,” bass-heavy speakers disguised as unnaturally large rocks come to mind. It’s not entirely clear what type of “garden” the good folks at Veho envisioned for the Mimi X-3, but we’d be willing to bet underground sprinklers and fresh morning dew were never part of the picture. Whatever the venue, this cord-free combo does pack an interesting twist — a proprietary 2.4GHz wireless transmitter comes bundled in the box, letting your 30-pin dock connector-equipped iOS device stream music 95-120 feet without the need for a WiFi network. The rectangular speaker module itself can pump out tunes through its dual 4.5-watt speakers and 9-watt subwoofer for up to six hours on a full charge, and can receive transmissions from a computer using the bundled USB adapter as well. All those accessories may seem a bit excessive when you see the price, though. The X-3 is shipping now for a hair under $500.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Wireless

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Source: B&H, Veho

The John McAfee circus came to a head last night when McAfee was finally arrested in Guatemala. Except uh, now he’s blogging from a computer the Guatemalan police gave him in his jail cell. More »

If you kept up with last week’s rumors about Intel’s 14nm Broadwell chip being hardwired and non-upgradeable, then you’ll know they were anything but precise. They never quite implied that all of Intel’s next-gen desktop processors would be soldered to the motherboard, even if Broadwell (or some of its variants) did happen to go that way. So perhaps it’s fitting that Intel’s rebuttal — reassuring as it is — maintains the theme of imprecision. In a statement to Maximum PC, the chipmaker said it…

“…remains committed to the growing desktop enthusiast and channel markets, and will continue to offer socketed parts in the LGA package for the forseeable future…”

Now, that’s a solid promise, especially considering how careful silicon companies tend to be about revealing any long-term plans. But it’s also worth bearing in mind that the wording leaves some wriggle room for Intel — not least in terms of selling LGA socket chips only as expensive niche options (i.e. the true definition of “enthusiast”) rather than as mainstream products, should it wish to do so. Indeed, the prospect of Core i3 owners chaining themselves to HDD cages in defense of their upgrade rights may yet come to pass, and no one would want to be on the wrong side of that.

Filed under: Desktops, Intel

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Via: TechPowerUp

Source: Maximum PC