Hasta La Gadget!

To date, we haven’t exactly been huge fans of the Peek–or its follow-up, the TwitterPeek. That said, Peek founder Amol Sarva is an honest, sharp-eyed tech enthusiast, and one whose opinion we trust.

Today, Sarva posted hands-on impressions of the elusive Nexus One, the so-called Google Phone. He called it “every bit as good a piece of hardware as the Droid or the iPhone,” and said it has a “really great, big touchscreen” and is also thinner than the iPhone.

“Here’s a prediction come true: through relentless iteration, the iPhone-wannabes have now closed the hardware gap entirely. They have cloned it… Apps present the last remaining delta, and I am certain that the open marketplace + the many OEM/many SKU Android strategy will eventually draw every bit as lively a dev community as Apple now holds. Partly because Android like App Store also clones Docomo i-Mode’s monetization and discoverability breakthroughs. Well done, clone droid army.”

Sarva now predicts that Apple must deliver another game-changing new iPhone by 2010, and not just a refresh, if it wants to stay ahead. In short, Sarva declares: “The Droid Clone Wars are over.”

You really can’t fault MIT’s branding strategy here. Debuting at the biggest climate change conference since Kyoto, its Copenhagen Wheel is a mixture of established technologies with the ambition to make us all a little bit greener and a little bit more smartphone-dependent. On the one hand, it turns your bike into a hybrid — with energy being collected from regenerative braking and distributed when you need a boost — but on the other, it also allows you to track usage data with your iPhone, turning the trusty old bike into a nagging personal trainer. The Bluetooth connection can also be used for conveying real time traffic and air quality information, if you care about such things, and Copenhagen’s mayor has expressed her interest in promoting these as an alternative commuting method. Production is set to begin next year, but all that gear won’t come cheap, as prices for the single wheel are expected to match those of full-sized electric bikes. Video after the break.

Continue reading MIT’s Copenhagen Wheel turns your bike into a hybrid, personal trainer

MIT’s Copenhagen Wheel turns your bike into a hybrid, personal trainer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba has just announced the availability of a new embedded NAND flash memory chip, which can hold up to 64GB of data. These are the chips that sit inside the iPhone and iPod Touch.

One reason that the iPod Touch usually has more memory than the iPhone is that, despite its skinny form, there is more room inside. Consequently, the Touch can fit in two chips where the iPhone only has space for one. This new release from Toshiba, then, means that the iPhone could double-up on storage and the iPod Touch could again leap ahead.

Of course, pricing of these chips will have a lot to do with when Apple actually starts to buy them. This, in combination with the now well-established launch schedule of iPhones in the summer and iPods in the Autumn means that we might be waiting a while. On the other hand, if Apple goes ahead with a camera-equipped Touch as expected, we may get a New Year surprise.

One thing we are sure of is that the days of the hard-drive based iPod Classic are now numbered.

Toshiba Launches Highest Density Embedded NAND Flash Memory Modules [Toshiba]

Outside of the occasional leaked roadmap, one of the best ways to predict the future of consumer electronics is by looking at the evolution of the components within. Take this Toshiba NAND package for instance. While the launch of a 64GB embedded NAND flash memory module (the highest capacity in the industry) that combines sixteen 32Gb NAND chips fabricated using 32nm manufacturing processes might sound a bit boring, consider its uses. As you’ll recall from the iPhone 3GS teardown, Apple’s lovely uses either a single 16GB or 32GB Toshiba NAND module depending on the model purchased. The fact that Toshiba is now sampling its new high-capacity chips with mass production set to begin in Q1 2010 hints at what we can expect from the next-gen iPhone rumored to have landed in Foxconn’s lap. That’s enough capacity for 1,070 hours of recorded music (at a 128Kbps bit rate), 8.3 hours of 17Mbps high definition video, and 19.2 hours of 7Mbps standard definition video according to Toshiba’s calculations. The iPod touch, you’ll remember, differs by using a pair of NAND packages for a total of 32GB or 64GB of flash today. Anyone for a 128GB iPod touch? Check the module’s internals after the break — fascinating stuff, really.

Continue reading Toshiba announces 64GB NAND packages: Apple winks, gives a nudge

Toshiba announces 64GB NAND packages: Apple winks, gives a nudge originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The first- and second-generation iPhones are now capable of video recording, and you won’t even need to do any hacking.

Last week, Wired.com reported that Apple released its restrictions on a private API for video capturing. As a result, Apple approved Ustream, a live video streaming app that’s free in the App Store. The extra bonus? In addition to streaming-video capability, the app has a video recorder, too — and that also works with older iPhones.

Permitting the video API in third-party apps should open doors to a host of apps offering video recording for older iPhones. Today, The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s Erica Sadun pointed out a $1 app called Camcorder for shooting video with older iPhones. Its interface is straight to the point: You launch the app, and there’s a Record button to start capturing. However, Sadun noted the frame rate is slow on an iPhone 3G, and you can’t do much with the recorded video except watch it on your iPhone. She added that the GUI is flimsy.

Based on those comments, we’d say “pass.” But look forward to some slick video-recording apps optimized for older iPhones. It’s inevitable developers will capitalize on this opportunity.

This should come as good news for many owners of the previous-generation iPhones. Previously, video recording was exclusive to the new iPhone 3GS. Owners of the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G could only gain access to video recording by jailbreaking the iPhone, but that’s no longer the case.

Camcorder Download Link [iTunes]

Ustream Download Link [iTunes]

See Also:

• 6 Reasons to Jailbreak Your iPhone
• Why the IPhone Doesn’t Record Video
• Apple Hints at Video Conferencing for Future iPhones
• Apple’s Next Media Frontier Will Be Streaming Video