Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s iWatch has been making the rounds lately, and we’ve seen our fair share of mockups and possible ideas going behind the rumored smartwatch. Today, for instance, a new patent filing suggests Apple is working on a slap bracelet of the future, complete with a small AMOLED flexible display. It comes straight out of Apple’s R&D labs with the name “bi-stable spring with flexible display.”

Of course, the watch would be able to communicate with your iOS device and could things such as view recent calls, view and reply to text messages, manage music playlists, and look up addresses on Apple Maps possibly. The patent also describes a number of ways of powering the smartwatch, including using a solar panel or possibly even kinetic power sources.

Of course, this is only a patent application, which most of the time means that these things usually ever come to fruition in real life. Apple is all about setting trends, but we don’t think that means bringing old trends back from the early 90s with a new slap bracelet that you can also hit your classmates with (remember that?).

An Apple smartwatch certainly isn’t farfetched — users are already using iPod Nanos as watches, but we have a hard time believing that Apple would use a slap bracelet design for their official iWatch. Of course, we’re not really sure what they might do as far as design, but it’s safe to assume that it could be something fairly mindblowing.

[via Patently Apple]

Apple iWatch wristband patent shows the future of slap bracelets is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Have you heard about the Canon MREAL system before? MREAL stands for Mixed Reality in short, and we have seen the company feature its augmented reality headset in the past before, but thankfully, an official announcement has finally been made. The Canon MREAL will feature an augmented reality system which allows designers to interact with computer-generated versions of their creations, which is a good idea, before the idea itself is willed into existence.

The Canon MREAL basically generates video of one’s surroundings, where this is made possible thanks to a pair of cameras that have been positioned in front of the wearer’s eyes. This will then be merged with computer-generated graphics in order to achieve the desired result. A couple of small monitors are there to help one “create high-impact, three-dimensional images.” Some of the potential target audiences for the product include automotive designers, manufacturers, university researchers and museum exhibit curators. Canon is working on opening up its SDK (Software Developer Kit) to developers as well, in an effort to increase the number of apps down the road. The Canon MREAL system will cost a whopping $125,000, with $25,000 in annual maintenance to boot.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Buffalo DriveStation Carries 1GB RAM As Well, Nikon D7100 Announced,

Rumors about the potential for an Apple iWatch continue to build, and adding fuel to the fire is a patent filing from Apple discovered by Apple Insider which shows off a curved, touchscreen display which could be worn on the wrist.

The U.S. Patent filing, originally submitted in August 2011, but updated as recently as today, starts off as follows:

A wearable video device arranged to be worn by an end-user, comprising: a flexible substrate having a flat state and a curled state; a flexible display disposed upon a first surface of the flexible substrate, wherein in the curled state the flexible substrate conforms to an appendage of the end-user, the flexible substrate further comprising: an electronic module in communication with the flexible display, the electronic module providing information to the display, at least a part of which is presented in real time for presentation by the flexible display; and a mechanism for detecting an end portion of the flexible display, the detection for adjusting the arrangement of information shown on the flexible display to match the size of the appendage the wearable video device is mounted on.

…or in layperson’s terms – a watch with a flexible touchscreen and flexible electronics.

The design would wrap around its wearer’s wrist, and automatically adjust the display UI based on their wrist size – pretty slick stuff. The capacitive touch display would be wrapped around a “bi-stable spring substrate,” which would allow the watch to conform to its wearer’s wrist, much like a slap bracelet. In addition curved screen and bracelet, the patent describes the inclusion of an inertial orientation  sensor which would automatically reorient the display based on how the user is looking at it.

In order to keep the patent sufficiently broad, they don’t specify all of the potential use cases for the watch, but one example sounds like it could offer smartphone connectivity similar to that found in other smartwatches already on the market:

…the end user could respond to alerts sent from the portable electronic device and even direct the operations of the portable electronic device to an extent limited by the accessory device user interface. With a touch screen user input a user can accomplish a number of different tasks including adjusting the order of a current playlist, and reviewing a list of recent phone calls. A response to a current text message can even be managed given a simple virtual keyboard configuration across the face of the flexible display.

The patent also describes the potential for using a kinetic energy device as well as an ambient light energy collector to help keep its battery charged. It also envisions a possible configuration which would include bright edge-lighting for displaying alerts with increased peripheral visibility. They also hint that the device could support both 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth connectivity, with Wi-Fi being used for content like video streaming, and Bluetooth for smaller data payloads.

While it’s always possible that Apple won’t bring any or all of these ideas to market, it clearly shows that there’s still innovative thinking going on within the walls at Apple, and that if they do release an iWatch, it won’t be like any other watch you’ve seen.

You can read the full patent application here.

[via Apple Insider]

The new TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition isn’t the first color-screen graphing calculator. It isn’t even TI’s first color graphing calculator, a distinction claimed by the TI-Nspire CX and its sibling the TI-Nspire CX CAS. However, the TI-84+CSE, as we’re abbreviating it, is a major milestone in the 17-year-old TI-83 and TI-84 Plus family of calculators. Although it retains the look and feel of the TI-84 Plus operating system, and keeps the familiar case shape and key layout, the outstanding feature of the TI-84+CSE is a bright, glossy color LCD screen. No longer will math and programs need to squeeze into 96 by 64 monochrome pixels; the new screen is 320×240 and can display 65,000 different colors. More »

There is nothing quite like having leaked material of an upcoming device, as it whets the appetite and will definitely whip up the interest of fanboys into a frenzy. Well, we sort of know that the Asus MeMo Pad Smart 10 is on its way, and was recently spotted at the Thailand Mobile Expo, with this being an affordable 10-inch tablet that runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Well, check out the official promotional video above, and see whether it nails it for you, and you are sure to purchase the Asus MeMo Pad Smart 10 when it finally hits the market.

We do know that the Asus MeMo Pad Smart 10 will sport a 10.1-inch WXGA display, running on a quad-core 1.2GHz Tegra 3 processor, carrying 1GB RAM that will be accompanied by 16GB of internal memory which can be further augmented by a microSD memory card slot. Not only that, there is a 5-megapixel shooter located at the back. Arriving at $299 a pop in the US later this year, you can choose from blue, pink and white colors. Seems to be a decent enough tablet without breaking the bank.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Consumers Spent More On Mobile Games Than Handheld Games Last Quarter, Microsoft Considered ‘Cool’ Again By Young Adults,