Hasta La Gadget!

The rise of wearable devices like smartwatches have spurred the world’s electronics makers to miniaturize their already tiny components even further. And TDK has managed to create what it’s claiming is the world’s smallest Bluetooth module, which also happens to be incredibly energy efficient.

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When it comes to cramming as much data as possible on a platter, hard drive manufacturers will use every trick in the book to maximize capacity. Including turning up the heat as TDK plans to do with a new technique that could deliver 40 terabyte hard drives by 2020.

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[CEATEC 2013] Do you remember the sound effects in Quake 3, whenever someone hits two sweet rails in a succession? That would end up with the arena announcer saying, “Impressive!”, which is also another signal to the rest of the world that you have a mean mouse hand with the railgun. In order to be proficient with the railgun, you would definitely need a steady hand, and steady hands do come in handy as well whenever you want to capture a photo in low light conditions, or a decent video. While optical image stabilization technology in cameras have improved by leaps and bounds over the years, there is still room for improvement. Case in point, TDK’s Anti-Shake Actuator.

In the demonstration, TDK’s representatives showed just how this magnetic actuator is capable of stabilizing a shaking camera sensor, so much so that the result is extremely impressive. Just a single flick of the switch and the actuator turns off, making it look as though you were trying to capture a photo in the midst of an earthquake. The TDK representative did not divulge just which smartphone companies have already included this anti-shake actuator in their devices, but we do speculate that the LG G2 could very well be one of them.

TDK Anti-shake Actuator original content from Ubergizmo.

While the old-fashioned hard drive isn’t as fast or slender as an SSD, it can still lord its greater capacities and cheaper price over its upstart rival. TDK thinks it’s extended the mediums lead in that area by tweaking the magnetic heads and recording medium of the hardware — increasing the areal density of a unit to 1.5 TB per square inch. It means that we could see 1TB platters arriving in 2.5-inch laptop drives and 2TB platters in desktop modules, meaning even your commuting machine can store all of your heftiest data with ease.

Filed under: Storage

TDK breaks the Hard Drive density limit, could go on to develop super-sized storage originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back at IFA we spent most of our time handling new tablets and Win 8 devices, but, given that the show has grown into something of a mini-CES, there was news in almost every product category, portable audio included. TDK announced a trio of speakers that week, and though we didn’t get hands-on in Berlin, we got a second chance tonight at a New York City press event. In particular, the company is showing off its first ruggedized product, the Wireless Weatherproof Speaker. As you can see in those photos down there, it has all the stylings of a run-of-the-mill portable speaker, except it also happens to be IP64-certified against the elements. When TDK talks about its durability, it talks about liters of dousage, so a splash on your next beach vacation shouldn’t be an issue.

As for audio, it has two speakers up front, a subwoofer and two passive radiators ’round back. TDK declined to clarify the wattage, but we’ll say this: the little guy is powerful enough that we could hear it over the din at Pepcom, a local press event. And, TDK had a larger, more powerful speaker playing nearby, and we still had no problem hearing the song coming from the weatherproof model. Granted, then, this was hardly the best scenario to evaluate audio quality, but we did sense that the treble was a bit trapped compared to the bass, which came through loud and clear. Lastly, there’s a rechargeable battery inside, which TDK rates for up to six hours of runtime. It’ll go on sale in late October for $250, but in the meantime help yourself to some first-hand shots below.

Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video

TDK preps its first weatherproof speaker, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 19:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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