Hasta La Gadget!

After the Asus Eee Tablet launched yesterday, I was able to grab a few minutes with Will Chuang, a product manager who handles the device, and shoot this video. At first glance it looks like an E Ink display, but the reflective TFT is MUCH faster.

The product is still months away from shipping, so expect the interface to change a lot. And of course, the all-important question of battery life (10-hours?!) is still untested. Still, this video will catch the eye anyone who has every played with an Etch-a-Sketch.

Take a look at our ever-growing slideshow of Computex 2010 at PCMag.com.

It was almost a throwaway line in Nvidia CEO’s Jen-Hsun Huang‘s Computex presentation about the future of graphics technology, but I caught it. Huang announced that Sony’s new Alpha interchangeable lens cameras would now be part of Nvidia’s 3D Vision ecosystem, enabling users to take 3D still images and view them on their PCs.  Fuji has already announced plans to support 3D Vision in one of its cameras, but the Sony support should give the technology a boost.

PCMag.com just tested the Sony Alpha NEX-3 in the Labs and liked it a lot. In fact, that is what I shot Huang’s keynote with. Personally, I am no huge fan of 3D still photography, but since the NEX-3 won an Editor’s Choice without 3D, I guess it can’t hurt to have the option.

Want to see more? Check out our Computex 2010 slideshow at PCMag.com.

If you know what Memjet technology is, the title tells you most of what you need to know: Memjet printers are finally here (and I’ll get to the sort of part shortly). But let me start with a quick explanation for those who have forgotten about Memjet. Or never heard of it.

Memjet printing technology, a distinctly new variation on inkjets, was first unveiled in early 2007 along with some demo videos of spectacularly fast prototype printers. The promise was that Memjet printers could print letter-size output at 60 pages per minute that’s one page per second–and 1,,600-by-1600 dots per inch, with printers that were supposed to be available in 2008 for $200 to $300. Really. (If you want more details, take a look at the story I wrote at the time: The Future of Ink Jet Printing?)

After 2008 came and went without a Memjet printer, and then 2009 did the same, you might have been forgiven for deciding that Memjet printers were just vaporware that you’d never see in real life. So for all the skeptics out there, this announcement’s for you: In the last month, we’ve seen four Memjet printers announced in rapid succession.

That’s the good news. The bad news–the sort of” part–is that all four
are special-purpose label printers, from RENA Systems, Addressing and Mailing
Solutions, Impression Technology Europe, and OWN-X Industrial.

So where are the home and office printers we were promised?

Liftoff, right on schedule!

Update: 3: 40 PM 5-14-10

It’s been over an hour, and I still can’t shake the sensation–the heart-pounding, head-thumping thrill–of witnessing a space-shuttle launch.

Space Shuttle Atlantis successfully launched, for the last time, from pad 39A at 2:20 PM EDT amid a massive plume of white smoke and orange flames. It was a picture-perfect launch. I overheard one NASA Administration official say during the post-launch news conference, “Atlantis is telling us, ‘Please use me again.'” I agree.

You can view more of my photos from the launch and NASA Tweetup event at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ulanoff/sets/72157623931612379/

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See my previous journal entries and more photos, after the jump

There have been robots that can balance themselves and even objects and people on top of them (think Segway and the Honda U3-X)–but the robot that can balance on top of a ball is a rarer species. Now there’s one that can do this and, adding a new wrinkle, rotate around its vertical axis.

Like a toy dog in a circus, BallIP (short for Ball Inverted Pendulum) can roll along atop a rubber-coated ball without falling over. It can even balance objects on top of itself while balancing on the ball–a trick even the circus dogs can’t duplicate.

According to a post on the IEEESpectrum blog, the robot is the brainchild of Dr. Masaaki Kumagai, director of the Robot Development Engineering Laboratory at Tohoku Gakuin University, in Tagajo City, Japan. He began building what’s known as “inverted pendulum” robots back in 2004 with the goal of creating a single ball-balancing bot. BalllP works to keep its inclination at zero degrees and to keep the rolling ball under it in the same spot.

What makes BalllP a standout is its ability to roll with the ball in virtually any direction. This is thanks to the three sets of omnidirectional rollers that drive the ball’s stability and direction from above. It can also manage to stay upright even if pushed.

[Image is from a video of a 2008 BalllP prototype]