Archos have announced plans to launch an Android-based Internet Media Tablet, that would deliver not only the high-definition media playback of the company’s existing range, but offer voice communication, wireless connectivity and access to the Android Market of smartphone applications. The Android IMT measures just 10mm thick, and has a 5-inch high-resolution touchscreen, up to 500GB storage and uses Texas Instruments OMAP 3 platform for “laptop-like performance”.
A group of MIT students have developed a wearable computer that projects its display onto any nearby surface, and is controlled by hand gestures and voice-recognition. A prototype was demonstrated at TED this week, capable of projecting a watch face onto the user’s wrist after they trace a circle over it, capturing images framed by their fingers, and pulling up information about an individual and projecting it onto them during conversation.
Video demos after the cut
It’s been around six months since OpenPeak showed off their OpenFrame home information center, and since then Verizon have launched their own take on the concept, with the Verizon Hub, while iRiver unveiled their own WAVE HOME. Obviously someone at carrier O2 has been taken with the OpenPeak device; photos of the OpenFrame in action, complete with new iconography, have shown up, together with a predicted release date.
The iPhone’s gaming talents have come in for some attention recently, with Apple’s attempts to ramp up the smartphone’s reputation as a mobile games platform seemingly beginning to pay off. According to comScore, iPhone owners accounted for a full 14-percent of mobile game downloads in November 2008, with 32.4-percent of all iPhone users reporting they downloaded a game in the month, compared with a market average of just 3.8-percent.
Verizon have officially launched the Verizon Hub, the company’s “communications command center”. Built around a 7-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen base-station and cordless home phone, the Hub connects to a broadband connection (which can be Verizon’s or from another provider) and offers on-demand access to information and entertainment. That can include family calendars, directory enquiries, traffic and news, theater times (and ticket booking), streaming video, photos and music, visual voicemail and more.
Further evidence suggesting Google is preparing to launch an online file storage service called GDrive has emerged, this time detailed in a file within the company’s Google Pack. Categorizing GDrive under “Online file backup and storage”, it goes on to describe it as “reliable storage” for files and media that can be accessed from multiple devices including cellphones.
More leaked screenshots of the new Windows Mobile 6.5 GUI have emerged, courtesy of the XDA-Developers forum, again showing the new honeycomb interface and, bizarrely, a huge scary bird wallpaper. Ill-advised backgrounds aside, the shots look slightly less polished than the previous round of leaks, although its been claimed that those images were actually concept pictures rather than true screenshots.
More screenshots after the cut
Nokia have axed their N810 WiMAX Edition Internet Tablet, and while the Finnish company did not state their reasons for its demise, a fair guess would be that it’s due to the slower-than-expected spread of the WiMAX network itself. However, according to company spokesperson Laurie Armstrong, Nokia is not writing off WiMAX altogether.
i-Mate have announced that they will be closing down their Momento Live online photo sharing service on February 25th, meaning users of their WiFi-enabled Momento photo frames will no longer be able to send and receive images automatically. In an email sent to all subscribers, i-Mate warned users that they will need to backup any images stored on Momento Live, as once the service terminates they will be deleted.
After yesterday’s Tweet-a-watt socially-talkative energy monitor, now comes a somewhat more comprehensive version. Rather than measuring electricity use of a single appliance, Jason’s system monitors the whole house’s energy supply: AC clamps mean there’s no dangerous wiring into the mains to be done, and the measurements are updated to a webpage automatically every ten seconds.
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