March 6th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
The 75th edition of the Geneva Motor Show is now on and runs from March 3-13, 2005. One of the automobiles that debuted at the show is the new Pagani Zonda F… 
…a rival for the Porsche Carrera GT and the Ferrari Enzo. 
The Zonda F is made primarily of carbon fibre, aircraft aluminium, titanium, and chrome-molybdenum alloys. 
Nardi steering wheel. “The electronics are kept to a minimum”.-Horacio Pagani The specs for the 2005 Pagani Zonda F include the following:
- 7.29 litre / 444.9 cubic in. M-B AMG V12 configuration
- 0-100 km per hr in 3.6 sec, and 0-200 km per hr in 9.8 sec
- pulls 1.4 lateral g’s
- Maximum speed in excess of 345km per hr
- weight-to-Power ratio: 1.89 kg/hp
- Max. Power: (kW) hp/rpm: (443) 602/6150
- 478,000 Euros ex factory, excluding taxes 2005 Geneva International Motor Show. Pagani.
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March 5th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Stuff Essentials just published their list of what will be the 10 hottest gadgets of the year.
- Sony PlayStation Portable
- Apple iPod Photo 60GB – MP3 player
- Sharp 902 3G mobile phone
- Pentax Optio SV digital camera
- Sony VAIO VGN-T2 laptop computer
- Samsung Yepp YH-999 video jukebox
- Philips 32PF9986 home cinema system
- Pentax Optio MX4 tapeless camcorder
- Blaupunkt Chicago IVDM-7002 satellite navigation system
- BT Aviator 10M digital radio
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March 5th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Nokia commissioned some 15 second films for camera phones back in 2004 and 2003. Some of the films are quite creative and humorous considering the constrained platform to which the directors were limited. Nokia Shorts.
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March 4th, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Flexible displays have been discussed for years now, and they always seem to be just around the corner. But this one (see right) from Philips seems to be real, even if its not all that flexible.
The idea is to be able to roll the display up like a scroll to minimize the form factor. The concept phone with the flex screen below is what Philips and Polymer Vision are working towards, but at this rate of progress, it might take years…
Philips Steps up Rollable-Display Development.
Polymer Vision vision.
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March 3rd, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Netscape today released version 8.0 of their browser. The user interface has been re-designed to include a number of widgets for automatically updated news and weather and shopping and the like. Old standbys like File/Edit/View have been moved off to the right.
An interesting feature of the new browser is that it evaluates each website for trustworthiness, based on AOL’s “Trust Rating” system. Whitelisted sites get a green-colored shield on the site’s tab. Blacklisted ones get a red shield and a special page with a warning that the user may be entering phishing, spyware or virus laden sites. Sites that are neither whitelisted nor blacklisted (i.e. most websites), get a yellow shield, and will render in Firefox with cookies, Java, etc. activated — but ActiveX off — for maximum security. Seems like a good idea.
The second main feature is that if a page doesn’t render or work properly, the user can flip it to IE with a single click.
Netscape.com
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March 3rd, 2005
By GadgetManiac
GlobalFlyer just touched down a few minutes ago in Salina, Kansas thus completing the first solo, nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world. Elapsed time: 67 hours, 2 minutes and 38 seconds. [ Emphasis is on the word 'solo', as Voyager was the first to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, back in 1986, but that was a 2-person effort. ]
Congrats to Steve Fossett and the guys at Scaled Composites, and to Virgin CEO Richard Branson for backing winners.
Steve Fossett … the pilot
Scaled Composites … the builder for Voyager SpaceShipOne GlobalFlyer
Richard Branson … the sponsor
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March 3rd, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Today’s New York Times has an article entitled “Sharpening Plasma’s Image”, wherein the author posits some concerns regarding the shortcomings and viability of plasma TVs.
The piece compares and contrasts the performance of L.C.D. and plasma TV sets in the following areas:
- Screen Size
- Plasma had the size advantage, but LCD is catching up.
- Resolution
- They give the edge to LCD which generally has higher resolution.
- Contrast
- Plasma wins at a contrast ratio of 3,000:1, while LCD is around 800:1. But then they qualify that by saying that LCDs look better in brightly lighted rooms and vice-versa.
- Color Reproduction
- Plasma has a wider color gamut, but LCD is improving by moving to LED-based backlighting … they cite the Sony Qualia 005
- Brightness
- They waffle, but seem to give the edge to Plasma.
- Burn-In and Panel Life
- LCD wins here, but Plasma has greatly improved of late.
- Power Consumption
- LCD uses much less power.
The Times gives an overall edge to Plasma, and thus they seem to be in agreement with most other reviews. But they’re saying that LCD is coming on strong in terms of panel size and price reductions.
Sharpening Plasma’s Image. New York Times article referenced above.
Similar reviews that compare Plasma to LCD can be found at the following websites:
Plasma vs LCD TV.
LCD TV Vs Plasma TV.
Flat-panel TVs: plasma and LCD.
LCD TVs versus Plasma TVs. … a statistical outlier in that they prefer LCD by a wide margin.
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March 3rd, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Sony’s gone and slapped the Walkman label on a new mobile phone … the model W800.
- works with MP3/AAC formats
- 1/2 GB Memory Stick
- 2 Megapixel autofocus camera
- Tri-Band GPRS
- 100 x 46 x 20.5 mm + 100 grams
- 30 hours of music, or 15 hours if phone is on
- 176×220 pixel screen
Product announcement.
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March 3rd, 2005
By GadgetManiac
Mass MoCA has a new showing by artist Cai Guo-Qiang entitled Inopportune. The set pieces consist of exploding cars…
… and tigers shot through with arrows…
…must be some kind of metaphor for the times in which we live.
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
Slide show of Inopportune images.
è¡åå¼· – the artist’s website
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March 2nd, 2005
By GadgetManiac
In a boon to virtual workers everywhere, The King Jim Corporation of Japan has developed the ‘Clock On’ clock that displays the time as a QR Code. While sitting there in your virtual home-office with your barcode-reading cell phone, you start your shift by punching-in ( Ã la timeclock fashion) by scanning the QR code and xmitting it to your manager. I guess it beats having an implanted RFID device or something…
And in what may be a 1st, Omron has developed software for cell phones that supports biometric face recognition. …Some competition for those boring password and fingerprint based systems. Hmm … nobody seems to be working on cell phone biometrics based on skin, hand, voice or iris recog … wonder if there are any business opps there?
King Jim product annouce.
Omron’s OKAO Vision.
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