Hasta La Gadget!

Arduino has shields and now BeagleBone has capes. The Cortex A8-based hobbyist board has earned a number of fans for its speed and affordability. Now it’s adding simple versatility with 20 expansion capes, ranging from touchscreens, to cameras and even weather stations. Some have been available for some time, but the latest — the Camera Cape — allows you to easily capture 3.1 megapixel images. Obviously, the perfect partner cape would be one of the several displays available, such as the seven-inch 800 x 480 resistive touchscreen. Really, they’re essential if you hope to preview your photos before snapping them. To check out all the available boards hit up the source link, and check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading BeagleBone gets plenty of expansion options with new ‘cape’ add-ons

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

BeagleBone gets plenty of expansion options with new ‘cape’ add-ons originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TI isn’t just in the business of making ARM-based processors. The company makes all manner of components and chips. Amongst the things in its vast repertoire of silicon are charging controllers. Texas Instruments’ latest offering, the UCC28700, not only draws an impressively low sub-30mW when idle (meeting new five-star rating requirements from the European Commission), but does so in a tiny package that eliminates the need for an opto-feedback circuit or other external components. A second new controller, the TPS2511, tackles the problem of multiple chargers by moving to a 5V universal system for tablets and smartphones using the USB Battery Charging 1.2 specification. This could mean not only lower electricity bills (if only nominally so), but smaller wall warts that can be used across numerous devices. For more, check out the PR after the break.

Continue reading New TI power chips save energy, move towards universal charging

Filed under: Tablet PCs

New TI power chips save energy, move towards universal charging originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 03:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember Miselu’s Neiro — that prototype app-based Android-powered synth we last played with at SXSW? Not only is it being showcased at Google I/O 2012 here in San Francisco, but we got an exclusive first look at some of the apps being developed for the new platform ahead of the event. The company’s been on a roll since our meeting in Austin, gaining (ex-OQO CEO) Jory Bell as CTO and building relationships with partners like Korg and Yamaha.

Now on its second iteration, the laptop-like synth has evolved from the hand-built prototype we saw at SXSW to a more polished reference design — complete with breakout board for SD card and Ethernet support. As before, the device runs Gingerbread on a dual-core TI OMAP processor and features a two octave velocity and pressure-sensitive keyboard, a capacitive multitouch widescreen, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, audio and MIDI I/O, plus USB and HDMI ports. This version even adds XLR and quarter-inch audio jacks — just keep in mind that those specs have not been finalized.

What’s really exciting about the synth is the apps. The company’s ongoing partnership with Retronyms to create a suite of touch-controlled, cloud-enabled musical apps has evolved beyond the drum-machine demo we covered at SXSW. Called nStudio, the suite now also includes a pad-based sampler / sequencer and a mixer. Plasma Sound is a touch-based musical instrument that’s part theremin, part keyboard / sequencer. It’s already available for other devices on Google Play, but was easily tweaked to run on the Neiro — sight unseen — thanks to Miselu’s musicSDK and OS X-based emulator.

Miselu will be showcasing two more apps on its synth here at Google I/O: Korg’s Polysix and Yamaha’s Vocaloid. The Polysix app fainthfully recreates Korg’s legendary 1981 synth — known for its rich, thick analog sound. A real, mint-condition Polysix was even available for comparison during our brief time with the app (see our gallery). Vocaloid takes full advantage of the NSX-1 DSP chip that’s built-into the Neiro. It’s a singing synth app produced by Yamaha that “uses concatenative synthesis to splice and process vocal fragments extracted from human voice samples.”

We’ll be spending some time with the Vocaloid app and its creator — video game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi (of Sega and Lumines fame) — later today. In the meantime, check out the gallery below and watch our hands-on video with the other apps after the break.

Continue reading Miselu Neiro synth at Google I/O: exclusive first look at apps from Korg and Yamaha (video)

Miselu Neiro synth at Google I/O: exclusive first look at apps from Korg and Yamaha (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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