Archives for February 2010

Apple iPad uses PowerVR SGX Graphics Hardware

Confirmation has arrived from Apple [AAPL] that says the iPad uses the same family of graphics chips found in the iPad and iPhone.

Confirmation didn’t arrive in an official document, but instead it was tracked down in the iPad SDK Beta 3 documentation. At the moment it doesn’t specify which chip out of the family that it is, but just indicates that a particular chip is there.

Using OpenGL ES on iPad is identical to using OpenGL ES on other iPhone OS devices. An iPad is a PowerVR SGX device and supports the same basic capabilities as other SGX devices. However, because the processor, memory architecture, and screen dimensions are different for iPad, you should always test your code on an iPad device before shipping to ensure performance meets your requirements.

[Read more…]

Thinklabs Electronic Stethoscope iPhone App

Thinklabs Medical have created a new iPhone app that integrates with the electrostatic ds32a stethoscope to provide detailed visual readings of sounds heard by the stethoscope.

By attaching the ds32a to your iPhone you get to use basic editing and see a number of visualisation options that can be emailed or sent by MMS to other users to monitor what is happening.

As well as being able to record sounds from the stethoscope, a pre-recorded library is also available that can be used to teach students as well as being used for comparisons of live sounds. [Read more…]

Apple iPad to go on Sale at Best Buy and Other Places

Tim Cook of Apple [AAPL] has been heard to have said recently that the Apple iPad will not only go on sale in Apple stores, but also it is to be found at various locations such as Best Buy as well as other partner stores.

From what we hear, the exclusive first sales will be at Apple Stores for a period of time after which the iPad will go on sale at other stores.

At the moment the details on this are not set in stone or even official. Although it came from an Apple person, it hasn’t been published as an official announcement just yet. [Read more…]

New iPad SDK Mentions Video Calling

The Apple [AAPL] iPad was first announced about a month ago and at that time it was revealed that it doesn’t have a camera at all on the device. A few weeks later it was spotted that the iPad’s bezel actually had a cut out for a camera but it still seems like the final iPad won’t actually arrive with a camera. This could mean a second generation iPad is already being built.

A new iPad SDK was recently released that was also found to support a front facing camera, camera flash, zoom and video conferencing.

This information was found in the SDK thanks to a couple of buttons that show large Decline and Accept video call buttons which appear to be too big for the iPhone screen. [Read more…]

Typeface lets your Facial Expressions Design a Font

Typeface is an application that captures a picture of your face and uses that picture to capture facial expressions to create a font from.

The system was designed by Mary Huang and uses a geometric type system to calculate data from various features on your face. The system is dynamic working almost in real time allowing users to change their face to see how the font changes on-screen. [Read more…]

Three Types of Windows Phone 7 Series Planned

Windows Phone 7 Series will be made available on three types of chassis. The first called Chassis-1 are classed as the large touch-screen devices that have a 1GHz snapdragon processor. The next chassis, Chassis-2 are designed to look like Palm Treo devices and will feature a keyboard under the screen. Certain screen aspect ratios have to be used though which means the device will have to reach particular dimensions to get everything just right.

The final version which is Chassis-3 hasn’t been details although some are suggesting it will be a candybar style layout although if a slideout keyboard isn’t present in Chassis-1 or 2 then perhaps Chassis-3 will handle the slide out keyboards. [Read more…]

Michael Jackson Disco Shoes

These shoes are designed to look like the shoes worn in the classic Billy Jean video which MJ wears when walking on floor tiles that light up. The problem though is that if you want your own light up floor then you are restricted to walking on that floor if you want light up squares under your feet. Normally, you wouldn’t be able to easily carry a vast amount of light up tiles around with you.

These shoes actually come with light up tiles attached to them allowing you to take the light up squares with you wherever you are walking. [Read more…]

NVTouch Touch Table Surface Computer costs $70K

The NVTouch Touch Table is a multi user and mult-touch surface computer that allows you to integrated with a desk based system. By converting digital information in to images you are able to drag the contents of the computer around the surface. Example could be dragging and dropping photos in to various folders.

Other things that can be used on the surface computer are digital maps that can be grabbed, rotated, zoomed etc… by using gestures on the surface.

This particular version uses a computer with a powerful graphics card, a HD projector mounted under the table projecting an image upwards and puts it altogether in a cabinet that is smooth on top. [Read more…]

Home-made Lego Soap Bricks are amazing

Roots and Wings Co have created a detailed tutorial that gives all the steps you need on how to make your own soap bars that look like bricks of Lego.

The mold that created the bricks was made of urethane and was shaped around actual Lego bricks. By attaching the real Lego bricks to a surface and building up surrounding walls it allows the liquid urethane to be poured and left to set. Once the mold is created it allows for soap to be poured and again left to set creating some colourful Lego soap bricks. [Read more…]

Sigma SD15 Digital SLR Camera

Sigma have revealed details of a new camera called the Sigma SD15. The SD15 is a digital SLR camera that is an upgrade to the previous SD14 model. The new model now accepts SD cards for storage and has a more durable shutter mechanism.

Other features include a new sensor that can capture images in RAW format up to 21 frames in a single shoot. The sensor is called the Foveon X3 and the image processing engine used is the Sigma TRUEII. A 77 segment AE sensor can be found on the SD15.

On the back of the camera is a 3 inch TFT screen that can display 460,000 pixels. [Read more…]

General Electric Introduce new Digital Cameras

General Electric isn’t a company you’ll probably think of if asked to name a make of digital camera, but here we have a few new cameras introduced by GE recently.

The first series is the GE Active Series G5WP that is waterproof and rugged camera. It is built with a sturdy metal design allowing it to take a few knocks along the way. The camera it’s self has a 4X internal zoom lens which captures images at 12.2 megapixels. The camera comes in a graphite gray, raspberry red and ocean blue colours. When launched in the second quarter it will cost $179.99.

The next camera is the GE Power Pro Series X5 that features a larger optical zoom capable of 15X. A 28mm lens is included along with optical image stabilization. When launched in Q2 it will be priced at $149.99. [Read more…]

Street Figher 4 for iPhone Coming in March for $10

Street Fighter 4 will arrive on the Apple iPhone next month with a price tag of $10. The downside is that although it’s the 2009 game that you are getting, you’ll only be able to fight with 8 characters.

The eight characters included in this version of the iPhone game are Ryu, Ken, Guile, Blanka, Chun-Li, Dhalsim, M. Bison and Abel. From what we see in the game play footage, the graphics look amazing, as does the sound. I’m not sure how good an on-screen controller will be but I am sure we’ll find out more as reviews of the SF4 game for iPhone start appearing. [Read more…]