The official word from Dell may be that its Mini 9 netbook has hit “End of Life,” but it looks like the company may have had a change of heart or (more likely) a surplus of excess stock, as the popular netbook has now made a surprise reappearance on its website. With a starting price of $299, however, it’s not as cheap as some of the past deals we’ve seen, but you do still have your choice of quite a few configuration options, and a promised ship date of August 24th. So, if you’ve been holding off, you better get in now before they disappear, again.
In this day and age, it’s hard to imagine that there might be an automotive speed record left that’s only slightly north of 100 miles per hour. Heck, I’ve been passed by Audis on the autobahn that seemed to be going twice that fast.
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
In one of the great blunders of journalism, Mark Twain once found his name listed in the obituary column. His famous reply, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” has forever become part of our lexicon for describing hyperbole. Yet, at a certain point in time, Mark Twain’s death was no longer exaggeration and Samuel Clemens did indeed pass away. Today, many are lamenting the passing of the personal computer as the information device of choice for the masses of consumers, and like Mark Twain, the news of its death is greatly exaggerated. But like all good things, the PC and its complex operating system foundation will also eventually come to an end. Here’s why the PC isn’t dead yet but over time might no longer be the dominant platform for the digital age.
The sound of a fingernail raking across a table or a board may be enough to drive most people crazy. But get past that annoyance and it could become a way to answer your phone, silence a call or turn up the volume.
Scratch Input, a computer input technique developed by researchers at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, uses the sound produced when a fingernail is dragged over the surface of any textured material such as wood, fabric or wall paint. The technology was demonstrated at the Siggraph graphics conference this year.
“It’s kind of a crazy idea but a simple one,” says Chris Harrison, one of the researchers on the project. “If you have a cellphone in your pocket and want to silence an incoming call, you don’t have to pull it out of your pocket. You could just drag your fingernail on your jeans.”
As researchers study how people can interact in simpler and more innovative ways with computers and gadgets, going beyond the traditional keyboard, mouse and keypad has become important. Earlier this year, Harrison and his team demonstrated a touchscreen where pop-up buttons and keypads can dynamically appear and disappear. That allows the user to experience the physical feel of buttons on a touchscreen.
Scratch Input is another way to explore how we can interact with devices, says Harrison. Harrison, along with a colleague Julia Schwarz, and his professor Scott Hudson started working on the idea a year ago. Scratch Input works with almost any kind of surface except glass and a few other materials that are extremely smooth.
“With this we can start to think of every flat surface as an potential input area,” says Daniel Wigdor, user experience architect at Microsoft and curator of the emerging technology demos at Siggraph. “Imagine a cellphone with a mini projector. You can now turn an entire surface into a screen for the projector and use the surface to control it.”
Scratch Input works by isolating and identifying the sound of a fingernail dragging on an area.
“All the sound happening in the environment like people putting coffee cups on the table, cars going by or children screaming, we know what frequencies they are in,” says Harrison.
A fingernail on a surface produces a frequency between 6000 Hz and 13,000 Hz. Compare that to voice, which is typically in the range of 90 Hz to 300 Hz, or noise from a refrigerator compressor or air conditioning hum, which is in the range of 50 Hz or 60 Hz.
“It makes it easy for us to throw away all the other acoustic information and just listen to what your nail sounds like,” says Harrison.
Harrison and his team used that principle to rig up a system for Scratch Input. They attached a modified stethoscope to a microphone that converts the sound into an electrical signal. The signal is amplified and connected to a computer through the audio-input jack.
“If mass produced, this sensor could cost less than a dollar,” says Harrison.
Scratch Input also supports simple gesture recognition. Tracing the letter ‘S,’ for instance produces an acoustic imprint that the system can be trained to identify. The idea has its limitations. For instance, many letters that are written differently, sound very similar such as M, W, V, L, X or T. Scratch Input cannot accurately distinguish between these gestures. But still Harrison says the system can respond with about 90 percent accuracy.
Another problem is that the system cannot determine the spatial location of the input, says Wigdor. “For instance, with volume control, it can hear your finger spin in the appropriate gesture but the system can’t see it so sometimes it does not have enough information to react.”
Despite the limitations, the technology holds enough promise to make it into the hands of consumers, says Wigdor. “It is exciting because it is so low cost,” he says. “This idea has the potential to go beyond just a research project.”
Good news, kids! It looks like Lenovo’s O1 “OPhone” handset is finally ready to hit the shelves over on the Mainland sometime next month. Truth be told, the story arc of this Android-powered 3G (TD-SCDMA) handset has been quite the emotional roller coaster: Some were riveted by the sleek, sexy physical design of the thing, while others were repelled by its intensely KIRFish UI. China Mobile is obviously hoping for big things from the little guy — and getting it into stores before Unicom gets the iPhone sorted can’t hurt. Either way, it looks like someone’s just taken a bite out of iOrgane’s market share!
The way I see it, there is only one way to overcome your complete lack of athleticism. No, not hard work and dedication—I’m talking about gadgets. These 10 products will help you play like a champ this summer.
Face it, you could barely slip a playing card between your feet and the ground on a vertical jump. Poweriser spring-loaded boots can give you a vertical leap of up to six feet and run strides of up to nine feet. Just imagine what you could do on the basketball court. Check out the product page to see it in action. [Powerisers] Of all the sports out there, golf is probably the one you need the most help with. Titanium drivers have revolutionized the sport, but the Air Force One driver from PowerBilt takes things a step further with compressed nitrogen. Filling the clubhead with nitrogen at 150 psi allows you to reduce the thickness of the face and increase the size of the sweet spot—and increased flex in the clubface means greater distance. Surprisingly, this club even meets USGA guidelines. [PowerBilt via Link] When it comes right down to it, putting is really at the core of a good golf game. The Argon Laser Putter helps give you an edge in that area with a three-laser targeting system. [Argon Putter via Link] The Vector O Bat blends the finest in wiffle technology with space age alloys to generate better aerodynamics, faster bat speed and greater distance. [Reebok via Link] Designed for the three big football leagues (England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, and Italy’s Serie A), Nike’s T90 Ascente is the most advanced football $140 can buy. The secret is in a three-layer construction that basically turns the entire ball into a sweet spot. [Nike via Link] Wooldand creatures won’t know what killed them when you are sporting a TAC-15 crossbow. It mounts directly onto an AR-15 rifle, allowing you to switch between both weapons quickly and easily. [PSE via Link] Until these high tech bodysuits like the LZR Racer are officially banned from major swimming competitions starting next year, athletes are going to continue to break world records at an alarming rate. [Speedo] I don’t see a Tour de France in your future, so why work so hard with all that pedaling? The Sanyo Enloop carbon fiber electric bike handles that problem for you and can keep you going for up to 62 miles on a single 3.5 hour charge. [Sanyo via Link] Spend less time fishing and more time getting drunk with this radio controlled chum boat. Not only does it drop feed and a bait hook up to 950 feet away, it also has a built-in fish finder that relays information to your handheld remote. [Pro Idee via Link] Team building my ass—show your co-workers who is really the boss on your next paintball excursion by building a turret. This beauty can mow down your enemies with a firing rate of 34 balls per second. It can even be controlled with a HUD from up to half a mile away. Hit the following link for the complete instructions on how to build one yourself. [Inventgeek]
It’s once a week I turn away from the monitor and gag at the latest Swarovski crystal-embellished gadget. I think to myself: “Will someone really purchase this bling-bling Hello Kitty camera? If they do, will they take it out …
Over the past few weeks, Olympus’ first Micro Four Thirds camera, the EP-1, has been the talk of the town, thanks in no small part to its retro and compact form factor. That gave it greater buzz over Panasonic, which launched the first two Micro Four Thirds …
Well, Slacker certainly got our attention with this one: the popular streaming Internet radio service has announced that it is covering the up-front cost of BlackBerry Curves–essentially, making them free–for all four major carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile).
AT&T subscribers will get a BlackBerry Curve 8310, T-Mobile subscribers get the Wi-Fi-enabled Curve 8320, and Verizon and Sprint fans get the CDMA-based, 3G-capable Curve 8330.
What’s the catch? There isn’t any, aside from the usual two-year contract shenanigans. If you were to buy these handsets on your own, they’d all be pretty cheap — averaging $49 up front — but free is better than $49 by a wide margin. To get started, head to www.slacker.com/freephone. Oh, and to be nice in turn, I’d say give the free Slacker for BlackBerry a whirl, since I imagine that’s the point of the giveaway. (It’s good, too.)
The gang’s all here, folks! Yes, it’s been a rough couple weeks apart, but Josh, Paul, and Nilay have finally managed to reunite, and Engadget Podcast 158 is the happy result. Join the boys as they take Apple to task for its recent App Store shenanigans and the dismissal of Eric Schmidt from the board of directors, pick apart the Windows 7 upgrade matrix, and then shift into cruising gear for a run to The Shack and some quick thoughts on a trio of new cameras. Yeah, it’s good to be back.
Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller Producer: Trent Wolbe Song:Ruby Soho
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC). [RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator. [Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace
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When it comes right down to it, putting is really at the core of a good golf game. The Argon Laser Putter helps give you an edge in that area with a three-laser targeting system. [
Until these 
Team building my ass—show your co-workers who is really the boss on your next paintball excursion by building a turret. This beauty can mow down your enemies with a firing rate of 34 balls per second. It can even be controlled with a HUD from up to half a mile away. Hit the following link for the complete instructions on how to build one yourself. [
