Hasta La Gadget!

You might have forgotten about this guy. It’s been over a year since Jason Giddings put his clear keyboard concept up on Kickstarter. Well, the infrared-based touch board may not have found enough backers to get off the ground, but some other investors saw potential and now Translusense is making its way towards a reality. The company wasn’t quite ready to show off working prototype at CES — there’s still a number of issues to work out with the firmware. But we were able to get a glimpse of what the final hardware will look like. The main platform is a relatively thick piece of glass with a surprisingly pleasant curve, while the base is a heavy chunk of plastic and metal. The smooth surface feels nice, but we are concerned about the effect it’ll have on our touch typing skills.

The keyboard actually starts completely blank. The “keys” you see above are actually a print out that is laid over the glass and can be peeled off, replaced or customized with a piece of software. This will allow users to create custom layouts specifically for use with games or applications like Photoshop. Unfortunately, Translusense hasn’t escaped vaporware status just yet. While we did see what appears to be a nearly production-ready piece of hardware there are still many software issues to work out. To see what this piece of science fiction (nearly) come to life looks like from a few different angles hit up the gallery below.

Filed under: Peripherals

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It’s normally hard to spruce up a USB power charger, but Osungo gave us a pleasant little treat at its CES booth. It’s readying a Flower Power series of wall adapters that are unabashedly cute and, more importantly, can save as much as 95 percent of the energy that’s wasted when devices already have a full charge. No, it’s not extremely sophisticated, but it doesn’t have to be to do some good — and we’ll admit that the pseudo-organic cord wrap is a nice touch. Versions are coming with both 1A of current for phones and 2.1A for tablets, and we’re told they should be on sale in March. US-friendly adapters will cost about $25 to $30.

Filed under: Peripherals

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Source: Osungo

Transparent displays are nothing new, but while trawling the labyrinthine backstreets of CES in search of hidden gems, we couldn’t help but stop at IL WOO’s booth and ogle one. The company was demoing a couple of its Transview display cases with see-through Samsung panels, intended for interactive advertising and other commercial uses. We were particularly drawn to the 22-inch, 1,680 x 1,050 model with infrared touch control, mainly because of the nifty Flash program running on it, which did a great job of showing how the cases could be used. It was very much a treat for the eyes, so we’ll leave it there and just point you to the gallery and video below.

Kevin Wong contributed to this report.

Continue reading Transview touch-sensitive transparent display case eyes-on (video)

Filed under: Displays, HD

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We’ve seen Sony SimulView in action before — the system was first unveiled on Sony’s tiny 24-inch PlayStation 3D Display back at E3 2011 — but never quite like this. An 84-inch 4K LED Sony television at CES 2013 upscaled Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo 5 to 4K resolution, but instead of employing said resolution for graphics, it was used to deliver two full HD images to two separate players. Those two separate HD feeds are then pumped into the same screen, which can be viewed fully independently by two separate people wearing polarized glasses, all at the same time.

Did we lose you? Let’s break it down: since 4K TV delivers twice the number of lines vertically as well as horizontally, the television is upscaling GT5‘s HD visuals by double. Rather than employing those lavish numbers on single player, the duty’s divided between each player’s video feed, allowing two-player gaming all on one screen. The two images are then overlaid, a la 3D, resulting in a simultaneous feed that looks crazy until you put on polarized glasses. Once you’re wearing those glasses, though, you only see one of the two feeds in full HD. It’s … it’s kinda messed up. The system is incredibly impressive, but boy is it weird how effectively it works. Even better, it works without the game developer having to actually do anything (other than making a 3D-enabled game, that is) — the splitting is handled by the television rather than the software. It’s similar to systems that LG has in Dual Play and Samsung has in Multi-View, and it’s not exactly brand new, but it’s as impressive as ever. We’ve captured a variety of stills and dropped a video after the break showing the system in action, should you wish to join in our amazement.

Continue reading Sony SimulView gets even more bananas in 4K, we go eyes-on

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Sony

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When it comes to Samsung’s collection of large-screened phones, the Galaxy Note II (as well as the Galaxy S III) takes the bulk of the mindshare. And while that particular handset is the flagship, the company is still interested in branching out to a market segment that wants a large screen but needs to keep within a limited budget. Welcome the Galaxy Grand Duos (and Grand, a single-SIM version), a 5-inch WVGA device that will likely see most of its time in emerging markets. We had an opportunity to sit down with the Grand Duos for a few minutes, so keep your eyes peeled below for our impressions, as well as a photo gallery and video.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos hands-on (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

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