Hasta La Gadget!

Here’s something that managed to slip beneath our radar but is definitely worth the double-back: Musiblocks. The design project consists of a central control block at the base of the tower with an embedded force sensor and 6 circular connectors. Add more (or heavier) blocks to increase the volume or twist the block atop the base to switch tracks. The only block with any electronics is the core, control block at the base — the other blocks are just hardwood slabs with tin conductors. Remember, if Sony can mass produce the Rolly, don’t be surprised to see Musicblocks go retail sometime soon. Video after the break.

[Via Yanko Design]

Continue reading Video: Musiblocks rock the house

Filed under: Portable Audio

Video: Musiblocks rock the house originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Difficult though it may be to believe, Panasonic showcased a conceptual in-dash BD deck of its own back in October of 2007. Obviously, nothing has really come of that, so Mitsubishi’s stepping in with a prototype of its own. It’s stated that the player has only a third of the volume compared to a traditional “home Blu-ray player,” with it somehow being able to slip into a standard single-DIN opening. Better still, we’re told that the final unit — which is slated to hit production during fiscal year 2009 — could also boast a mobile TV tuner in select markets, giving us even more reason to not pay attention to pedestrians, road signs and stop lights while taking that Sunday cruise.

Filed under: HDTV, Peripherals, Transportation

Mitsubishi unveils prototype in-dash Blu-ray player originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phew. For a moment year or so there we reckoned that amazing FeRAM discovery had been pushed aside and forgotten entirely. Thankfully, Toshiba has picked up the ball and refined the original chainFeRAM architecture by creating a new architecture that prevents cell signal degradation — which, as you may or may not know, is the usual tradeoff from chip scaling. In essence, this has allowed the company to design the world’s highest bandwidth, highest density (128-megabit) non-volatile RAM. Unfortunately, this amazing device — which should realize read / write speeds of 1.6 gigabytes a second and combine the fast operating characteristics of DRAM with flash memory’s ability to retain data while powered off — is still in prototype form, which probably means we’re months (if not years) away from actually seeing a tangible end product hit store shelves.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

Filed under: Storage

Toshiba makes progress on FeRAM, still no tangible product in sight originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From what we can gather, even Apple purist Jeremy Mehrle doesn’t own one of these ultra-rare set-top-boxes, and if you think you’re the only Apple fanboy out there eying this one seriously, we fear you’ll be sorely mistaken. This prototype Interactive Television Box was crafted in or around 1994 and was designed to deliver content to one’s TV by connecting to a central server and downloading content. Thus, the unit itself doesn’t boot into anything nor does it feature an internal hard drive. Still, DIYers and collectors alike will have a hard time passing up the opportunity of snagging this piece and turning it into a makeshift iTunes server, but given the remarkably low $249.99 buy-it-now price, we’d say that window of opportunity may not be open for long. Oh, and Apple TV — you ain’t got nothin’ on this in terms of desirability. Sorry, bub.

[Thanks, Marc]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Prototype Apple Interactive Television Box up for auction: there goes your savings originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has pulled together a squad to make this whole simple, cheap, internet tablet thing he started talking about in July, 2008 happen for real. Their goal is to make a tablet that browses and plays flash videos really well (pretty simple stuff) that costs around $200. Built by a team led by Louis Monier — former CTO of Alta Vista — “Prototype B” is a 12-inch touchscreener with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Internally, the “CrunchPad” has a Via Nano CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 4 GB of flash memory, a 4-cell battery, and WiFi, plus a camera. In terms of software, the prototype runs a full install of Ubuntu with a custom browser. They estimate the total cost of the device at just over $200 to produce, and that a commercial model would realistically cost about $300. They don’t seem to be heading toward production anytime soon, so don’t cross your fingers, but you’ll undoubtedly want to see if it’s any good for yourself in the breathtaking video after the break.

[Via jkkmobile]

Continue reading TechCrunch’s internet tablet gets a new prototype

Filed under: Tablet PCs

TechCrunch’s internet tablet gets a new prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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