Review: Nyko Wiimote Wireless Adapter — Just State Yes
Nyko Cord-Free Wireless Adaptor for the Wii Nunchuk What sucks worse than getting smoked in Mario Kart? How about getting smoked in Mario Kart because the cord on your Wii nunchuck got tangled up worse than Wario’s mustache? Ah, look…

Nyko Cord-Free Wireless Adaptor for the Wii Nunchuk

What sucks worse than getting smoked in Mario Kart? How about getting smoked in Mario Kart because the cord on your Wii nunchuck got tangled up worse than Wario’s mustache?

Popularity: unranked [?]

Share This

Popularity: 2% [?]

Share This

Future technologies are intent on giving us everything we already have, but in a superior package that is easier to use. And we like that. What else is the iPhone but a nicely packaged mix of available technologies found separately…

Future technologies are intent on giving us everything we already have, but in a superior package that is easier to use. And we like that. What else is the iPhone but a nicely packaged mix of available technologies found separately elsewhere?

Drs. Ernst Pechtl and Hans Geiger of SuperWise Technologies AG take the same approach with their artificial intelligence software called Apollo (see full AI outline below), which they are hoping to build into a mobile device called, aye, the eye-Phone. If it ever comes to pass, the eye-Phone will include GPS navigation, object recognition viewfinders, and search engine technologies all into one.

The Apollo AI software is a real development project, however, and it should recognize objects within the space of a frame and then spit out information in a super-fast form. The Apollo software was developed for a European contest seeking the ideal use of satellite navigation applications.

An example of the process of the AI system goes like this: Take a pic of the Golden Gate Bridge and select (with a touch cursor), the specific item you want on the picture. The object is transmitted (with satellite navigation localization) to the Web for a specific search answer. The information is found and sent to the portable device (for reading in text form), super-imposed on top of the image.

The Apollo technology identifies objects from any angle, in all types of lighting conditions.

Clearly, there are a couple of potential problems with this: The speed of the device is integral and matching very specific recognition requests to a perfect (or near-perfect) answer will prove very difficult. And who will provide the ‘answer’ for each localized request? Will it be Google, Microsoft, a travel book publisher, or the local government? (Imagine the implications with China’s net restrictions and their gerrymandering of history.)

Plus, there’s already too much stop-and-go activity during travel excursions to take pictures and check on the travel book, rather than enjoying where you’re going.

But the potential for micro-learning lessons of different places is great, and could enhance the walkabout experience. A prototype should be ready by the end of this year, and after a couple of years of development with manufacturers, they anticipate a release sometime in 2010.

Source: ESA/SuperWise Technologies AG

Via [wired.com]

Popularity: unranked [?]

Share This

Popularity: 2% [?]

Share This

Via [gizmodo]

Popularity: unranked [?]

Share This

Popularity: 2% [?]

Share This

Nicholas Negroponte showed photos of the second-generation laptop that’ll be produced by his One Laptop Per Child project. You’ve got to give the guy credit for visionary design: This prototype (or more likely, series of nonworking design models) looks…

Nicholas Negroponte showed pictures of the second-generation laptop that will be produced by his One Laptop Per Child project. You’ve got to give the guy credit for visionary design: This prototype (or more likely, series of nonworking design models) looks like a book, with two touch-sensitive displays separated by a central hinge.

It’s a brilliant design that could let kids read pages from an e-book, work on the thing like a notebook (with a virtual keyboard that appears, iPhone-like, on one half of the clamshell), or even play games together, by laying the thing flat on the ground with one kid on each side.

It’s also so far from production that these images should be classed in the category of “wishful thinking.” Given the OLPC’s difficulties in meeting its ambitious goals, the 2010 availability date that Negroponte quotes is probably realistic.

Still, I’m pulling for these guys. Whether or not OLPC succeeds in shipping millions of cheap laptops — or e-books — to children all over the world, it has already succeeded in another dimension: Pushing the computer industry to develop cheap, durable, superportable laptops.

And that, in turn, will bring us closer to the day when interactive, electronic books, like the primer envisioned in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, will educate the world’s girl children, giving them unparalleled knowledge, confidence and capabilities, changing the course of history for the better.

Laptop mag’s blog has pictures and a tiny video from Negroponte’s presentation.

Negroponte also said that OLPC’s popular Give 1, Get 1 program will resume in August or September of 2008, enabling U.S. consumers to purchase an XO for themselves at the same time as they purchase one for an underprivileged child in a developing country.

First Look: OLPC XO Generation 2.0 (Laptop Magazine)

Via [wired.com]

Popularity: unranked [?]

Share This

Popularity: 2% [?]

Share This

Powered Front Wheel For Any Bike
Neodymics’ Ciclomotor is a quick and dirty electric conversion for your pushbike. The hideous but effective unit is a straight swap-in for your existing front wheel, and uses four DeWalt power-tool batteries to drive the one Horsepower motor to 28…

Neodymics’ Ciclomotor is a swift and dirty electric conversion for your pushbike. The unsightly but effective unit is a straight swap-in for your existing front wheel, and uses four DeWalt power-tool batteries to drive the one Horsepower motor to 28 mph, giving a range of 10-20 miles per charge – although you can carry spares to extend your range.

I’m not a large fan of electric bikes. A pedal bike is easy enough to drive and also helps you get fit. Powering the thing nearly defeats the point. But if it means getting more people out of vehicles, that can only be a good thing. Ditto for those too weak to pedal but who want to convenience of a bicycle. The Ciclometer scores here because its clamp-on design means fast and easy setup, and it also leaves the rear drive train unaltered, useful for power failures.

The Neodymics guys are looking for help to bring this to market. The timing is certainly right, with gas prices going crazy. They might want to make it look a tiny less like a Meccano kit, though.

Product page [Neodymics via Bike Hugger]

Popularity: unranked [?]

Share This

Popularity: 2% [?]

Share This