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University of Victoria's Mano underwater robot to prowl Arctic waters for legendary ships
Canadians well-versed in their history are very aware of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage: a British voyage that set out to establish a sailing route through the Arctic and ended with the untimely, mysterious deaths of its two ship crews. No human ever found the abandoned ships, which makes it all the more fitting that the next best shot at discovery might come through a just-launched autonomous underwater vehicle from the University of Victoria and Bluefin Robotics. Meet the Mano, a new sonar-toting robot that can produce detailed undersea maps all by its lonesome while keeping a steady altitude above the ocean floor. It can only operate for 12 hours at a time, which will keep humans in the area, but its ability to run untethered below storms and cold Arctic winds should dramatically expand the territory that researchers can cover during their share of a larger five- to six-week journey. There's no guarantee that the Mano will hit the jackpot, or find something recognizable even if it does. Still, any mapping should improve navigation for modern boats -- and hopefully prevent others from sharing Sir Franklin's fate.
Virgin Mobile USA and Boost take WiMAX live, ship HTC EVO V 4G and EVO Design 4G on May 31
In sync with Sprint's plans to get its sub-brands on 4G using its legacy WiMAX network, both Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile have trotted out their initial 4G lineups. The early Virgin mix includes retreads of two Sprint data-only devices -- a Broadband2Go-badged version of the Sierra Wireless Overdrive Pro 3G/4G hotspot and a matching version of the Franklin U600 previously seen at Clear. Virgin's real star, however, is the HTC EVO V 4G: though it's ultimately the EVO 3D with a slightly more 2D name, it's shipping with Android 4.0 from the start and has HTC's Frankenstein-like Sense 3.6 rather than the 4.0 of the One series. The network upgrade and all three new devices swing into action on May 31, and while your $35 minimum monthly plan will stay in effect even with unlimited on-device 4G, you'll need to spend $300 (contract-free) to take home an EVO V 4G, $150 on the Overdrive Pro or $100 on the U600 stick. Boost Mobile is also going the Sprint rebadge route through the HTC EVO Design 4G. As with its bigger brother over at Virgin, the single-core EVO Design 4G is identical in hardware to its Sprint equivalent but slaps Android 4.0 and Sense 3.6 on top to keep the software fresh. The update does mark the first time a Boost phone gets Visual Voicemail, so you can feel slightly less guilty when you miss a call. HTC's phone will oddly cost the same $300 off-contract as the more advanced EVO V 4G, although Boost is likely counting on customers sticking around long enough for an all-inclusive unlimited plan to drop to $40 per month and make it worthwhile. %Gallery-154875%
Novatel sues ZTE and Franklin over MiFi-related patents
Smartphones aren't the only mobile devices caught up in patent warfare, it seems: Novatel's just sued ZTE and Franklin over five patents related to the "key architecture and functionality" of its MiFi series of mobile hotspots. What's interesting is that Verizon carries the MiFi and ZTE-built Fivespot, while Sprint's MiFi lives alongside the ZTE Peel and carrier-branded Franklin modems, so we're curious to see if any of the carriers step in to mediate the dispute. We also took a quick skim of the complaint, and it looks like the five patents in question are broad enough to cover WiFi tethering from phones, so we've got a feeling this suit could affect more than ZTE and Franklin -- we'll see what happens.
Franklin Roadie modular music system needs a table to boom
We've seen speaker systems that use flat surfaces as a diaphragm before, but Franklin's Roadie might be the first modular to splash down in the new millennium. It's a three part system (if you want it to be), consisting of the EVS-2000, EVS-3000 and EVS-4000. In order of mention, you've got a base model that accepts sources via a 3.5mm input jack, a rechargeable battery with SD card slot, and a bonus tweeter / equalizer. It ain't much good in your hand, but slap it on a table (or any other flat surface, like a floor) and the tunes start to boom. Or become marginally more audible, anyway. The trio should go on sale soon for $99.99 as a bundle, while the 2000 and 3000 can be picked up by themselves for $49.99 / $79.99, respectively.
Franklin AnyBook brings timeshifting to the voice recorder world, thinks of the children
Hello there, Franklin -- sort of forgot you existed in the consumer electronics realm. Our bad. But being frank, we're pretty stoked about your newest educational tool, and we get the feeling that parents everywhere will be as well. The AnyBook digital pen is a voice recorder at heart, but it's actually far more unique underneath. Put simply (or as simply as possible), parents can record their own voices as they read aloud the favorite books of their offspring, placing a special sticker on each page as a marker and denoting page turns by pressing a button on the pen. Then, if the child(ren) wish to hear mum or dad read the text aloud in the future (say, while at daycare), they simply tap the pen to the aforementioned stickers and a familiar voice comes belting through. Think of it as comfort food for your tyke, but in aural form. The October-bound AnyBook will ship in two flavors: the DRP-3000 holds up to 15 hours of voice for $39.99, while the DRP-4000 holds 60 hours of soothing, loving words for $59.99. Touches your heart, doesn't it?
LG goes insanely retro with Franklin Planner branding on SU100 phone
What do an old-school paper day planner and a phone with a 3-inch OLED have in common? If you answered "absolutely nothing," you'd be correct -- but LG apparently didn't get the memo, because they've decided to grace their latest domestic superphone, the SU100, with the rather unusual Franklin Planner branding. Besides the presumably gorgeous display, other totally un-Franklin features include a 3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and an S-DMB TV tuner, which should all make for a nice, smooth transition for anyone still committing appointments and contacts to paper in the year 2008. The SU100's launching on South Korea's SKT for about 700,000 won ($475) with a white version following on next month.
Nintendo promises 'core' gamers will be happy with E3 showing
Marc Franklin, director of public relations at Nintendo, tells GamePro that "core gamers" will be interested in what the company has in store for E3. Although Franklin mentions Mario Super Sluggers (we can sense Europe going into fever pitch!), he gives very little detail on what else the company has planned.There's been plenty of speculation about what Nintendo may reveal, but Franklin's comments come as Nintendo's more casual oriented Wii Fit storms the sales charts and a certain executive takes a jab at the Nintendo faithful. Franklin concludes that third-party publishers are rolling out more titles as they realize the "Wii is the current platform of choice in this generation." True, but these rollouts don't always equal payoffs. We're looking at you, Boom Blox.
Franklin Speaking Spelling Bee takes a page from Mylo, also the whole design
Given how few people have actually ever seen or used a Sony Mylo, we suppose it's possible that Franklin's designers happened upon the look of the Speaking Spelling Bee completely by chance, but somehow we doubt it. Franklin was demoing the lil' guy at Toy Fair this past weekend, and it's actually an interesting little gadget: it hooks up to a TV so up to 6 kids can take each other on in spelling contests, it contains the Merriam-Webster Intermediate Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Rhyming Dictionary, it plays Sudoku and Hangman, and it's expandable via SD. That's actually slightly more useful than the original Mylo, if you think about it -- but if Franklin busts out the Spider-man font for version two, we'll definitely know something's up.[Via Make]
Dictionaries galore: Seiko and Franklin's DB-J990, Canon's V300 and M300
Back when we were students, the only things our dictionaries could do were weigh down our backpacks and act as a home base during kickball. It's no secret that, like everything else, the Japanese have had better study aid options. Now not one, but three manufacturers announced new additions to their respective mega-dictionary handhelds: Seiko in conjunction with Franklin, and Canon. First up is Seiko's and Franklin's SII by Franklin DB-J990 which defies category conventions and opts for a slider design reminiscent of the Vaio UX rather than the usual clamshell. In addition to MP3 audio playback and support for common eBook formats, RSS, Word, and Powerpoint, it contains ten dictionaries, including The Princeton Review's "Cracking the TOEIC" test preparation, and boasts full PC connectivity, allowing users to access and manipulate all the information on their handheld from their computer (for instance, annotating words you're having difficulty with). Not to be outdone, Canon is offering a pair of dictionaries which also have MP3 playback: the Wordtank V300 ($471) and the Wordtank M300 ($386). Both devices have 38 reference guides in five subject areas, some with text-to-speech ensuring proper pronunciations. There is also a built-in voice recorder, so you can compare your articulation against the device's. The only differing factor between the two Wordtanks are in screen size and battery life: the V300 donning a 4.9-inch screen with 80 hours to the charge, versus the M300's 3.78-inch screen and 107 hours of life. Both Wordtanks should be available in Japan come February 2, and the DB-J990, which will retail for $295, will also be available in next month. For those not turned off by the usual not-for-the-U.S. disclaimer, you can peep pics of Canon's devices are after the break.[Via Akihabara News]Read - SII by Franklin DB-J990 Read - Canon Wordtank M300Read - Canon Wordtank V300
Franklin's 12-language speaking translator
As international jet-setters, we're always looking for tools that make it a little easier to hit on women discuss the latest gadgets with our foreign friends and colleagues. Usually we employ an electronic, translating dictionary for this task, but we always end up sounding like idiots as we futilely attempt to pronounce those crazy words they use in other languages. Well luckily for us, Franklin has just introduced a pocket translator that will put an end to our pathetic gibberish, as the new TGA-490 is actually able to speak aloud over 450,000 words and 12,000 phrases. What's more, you can forget about the old school machine-speak from back in the OK Computer days -- Franklin's device spits out human-sounding words recorded by real humans. All your favorite languages are supported here -- including Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean -- and you can translate back and forth among any of them, not just with English. Other nice touches include an MP3 player (of course), currency converter, world clock, alarm, and the ever-present voice recorder. No word yet on price or release, but when you begin to notice an uptick in the quality of our foreign-sourced posts, you'll know that the 490 has indeed hit store shelves.
Franklin brings some e-dictionary action to USofA with MWD-480
We're always seeing these souped-up dictionary things getting spec bumped in Japan: a color screen here, MP3 playback there, maybe some PMP functionality and a death-ray feature thrown in for kicks. Well, now slacker students in our very own homeland can see what all the fuss is about, and graduate past their TI-89 for "educational" screw-around device of choice. Of course, Franklin means well. They've packed in the obvious features you think you'd find in a "Merriam-Webster Dictionary & MP3 Player," along with a few reference apps and enough games to take your mind off those studies. The MWD-480 can also take SD cards for extra content to keep you busy, and you can load tunes to the device via USB. You should be able to find the device at one of those pesky "back to school" locations for around $80 bucks.
