electronics
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Adafruit Propeller Platform USB entices DIY electronics builders, 'Gadget Gangsters' at large
It's days like today where you realize just how badly you need to scratch that DIY itch, and Adafruit's newest two circuit boards couldn't be landing at a more opportune time. Both of these bad boys are classified as Gadget Gangsters, which makes 'em viable for purchase without any additional investigation. Should you choose to, however, we'll have you know that the Propeller Platform USB is an open-source platform for building your own electronics projects with a new eight-core Parallax Propeller chip; the ProtoPlus model adds video / audio support as well as a "prototyping area." Tutorials are available in the source links for those inexperienced with Spin, and at just $50 / $15 (respectively), we'd say they're well worth the purchase if you're looking to simply get your toes wet. Better known as "become hopelessly addicted to modding" 'round these parts.
Globalfoundries takes ARM Cortex-A9 into 28nm land, looks forward to 20nm chips in 2013
Forget the numbers, here's what matters: Globalfoundries' new production capabilities will lead to "smooth production ramp-ups and faster time-to-market" for its customers. Now consider that this promise relates to scrumptious 28nm Cortex-A9 SOCs and feel free to rejoice. The chip fabricator has just declared itself ready to take orders for ARM's systems-on-chip built using its high-k metal gate 28nm fab process. This fulfills its pledge for mass production in the latter half of 2010, but lest you think Globalfoundries is resting on any nanoscale laurels, it also has a 20nm roadmap to tell you about. It's very simple, really: expect even smaller, even more power-efficient silicon in 2013. We don't know if the future will be bright, but it sure looks like it's gonna be small.
Memory Shocker: keeping busy makes you too busy to remember things
The New York Times has picked up the scare-story baton again, this time citing two pieces of research that supposedly indicate we're spending too much time jacked into our electronic devices. The University of California, San Francisco, has come out with some data showing that the brain needs "downtime" to properly digest, learn, and memorize events. This is supported by the University of Michigan, which confirms that people remember much better after a walk through nature than after a walk through dense urban environments. Basically, crunching new data is preventing us from assimilating older, potentially more important, information. That's neatly (though somewhat dubiously) tied into electronics by reference to their ubiquitous presence and use in daily life. If you're constantly listening, watching, or checking something, you can't very well be packaging those precious memories of grandma's 85th birthday at the same time. Of course, the same could be said of a really good book you can't put down, but that doesn't make for a sexy headline, now does it?
Foxconn makes designs on the Chinese retail market, gives laborers $25,000 to start stores
Three months ago, the compensation of Chinese laborers was low enough that those who built an iPhone couldn't dream of buying one, but the spending power of China in general has increased enough that electronics giant Foxconn (aka Hon Hai Precision Industries) is actually planning to sell such goods in those laborers' home country. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company will open ten large electronics stores in Shanghai by the end of 2011, and extend its existing chains of smaller retail stores and booths around the country by about 50 and 200 respectively. The plans aren't all focused on middle- and upper-class Chinese, as they provide provision for those aforementioned laborers as well -- on top of several recent wage increases, Foxconn would reportedly provide $25,000 to employees to help start up electronics stores in their hometowns. We wonder how many iPads a laborer would have to sell to afford one of their own.
Hardware photography contest unearths a treasure trove of geeky creativity
Who'd have thunk it, setting geeks loose with their cameras can actually produce some outstanding results. A recent photography contest held by the Tech Report fellas has come up with a wideranging selection of ultra-geeky imagery; whether you want humorous compositions like the metallic soap opera above, arty monochromatic mood shots, or intimate closeups of classic chips, it's all in there. Our personal favorite has to be the dramatic interplay between a desperate Ethernet card and a CAT5 cable -- you can see it after the break, but we recommend feasting your eyes on the full set at the source link.
Hacker reveals how Apple artificially restricts iPhone chargers (video)
Most cell phone manufacturers have charging standards these days, even if they can't always agree on which version of USB to use, but as the hair-tearing message above shows, third-party renditions of Apple's proprietary dock connector haven't always been universal solutions for iPods and iPhones. Now we know another important reason why -- secret resistors placed on the data lines in connectors for each iDevice. Minty Boost creator ladyada recently reverse-engineered the chargers for a variety of Apple gadgets, and discovered that iPhones in particular don't draw electricity until they detect 2.8V and 2V signals when they attempt to charge. At that voltage, the handsets suck down about one amp, leading to a rapid filling of your device's Li-ion belly, but by adding additional resistance to drop the voltage further, the iPhone can be coerced into accepting 500mA instead -- perfect for the set of AAA batteries you stashed away in that Altoids tin. Video after the break, full explanation at our source link.
NPD: Apple ranked #5 US electronics retailer in 2009
Market research firm NPD Group has published its annual report profiling the consumer retail sector for 2009, and guess who made the list of top five electronics retailers? Hint: If you guessed the Microsoft Store, you would be wrong, and everyone would be pointing and laughing at you right now. No, I'm talking of course about Apple, who came in at a respectable number five, alongside such industry stalwarts as Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Dell, to name a few. While the report primarily details consumer spending trends throughout 2009, as well as other dry and boring data interesting only to bean counters and TUAW's own Mike Rose (because he loves numbers and cheats at poker), NPD's study does show some growth in Apple's favor, lifted no doubt on the back of iPhone's popularity. Especially when you consider that their competitors sell many, many brands, and Apple sells just their own product line, their achievement is that much more impressive. In other news, 98% of people surveyed in my own study find Apple to be awesome. And lest you question my sample source, I will reply that the TUAW staff are an excellent focus group for conducting such studies.
Self-assembling solar cells built using ancient wisdom, modern technology
Alright, so self-assembling electronics are hardly new in and of themselves, and nanoscale tech tends to always come with bombastic promises, but you don't wanna miss how this latest innovation is built. Two professors from the University of Minnesota have successfully demonstrated a self-assembly technique that arranges microscopic electronic elements in their proper order thanks to the absolute enmity that exists between water and oil. By coating elements with a hydrophilic layer on one side and some hypdrophobic goo on the other, they've achieved the proper element orientation, and the final step in their work was the insertion of a pre-drilled, pre-soldered sheet, which picks up each element while being slowly drawn out of the liquid non-mixture. The achievement here is in finding the perfect densities of water and oil to make the magic happen, and a working device of 64,000 elements has been shown off -- taking only three minutes to put together. If the method's future proves successful, we'll all be using electronics built on flexible, plastic, metal, or otherwise unconventional substrates sometime soon.
UCLA nanowire discovery could lead to faster, stronger, smaller electronics
Advancements in silicon-germanium have been going on for years now, but a team at UCLA is convinced that their discovery really is "the next big thing." For scores now, microchip makers have struggled with miniaturizing transistors as the public at large demands that things get smaller and smaller. Thanks to researchers at the aforesaid university, it's looking like silicon-germanium nanowires could be the key to making the process a whole lot easier. According to study co-author Suneel Kodambaka, the new nanowires could "help speed the development of smaller, faster and more powerful electronics," also noting that they're so small that they can be "placed in virtually anything." Which is great, because the Adamo XPS is just entirely too pudgy.
A Dozen Daily Deals, Day 3
Well, Black Friday is here! If you're looking to save some money, here are another dozen deals from DealNews.com to consider once you wake up from your tryptophan-induced coma: Walmart: [Black Friday] Walmart Black Friday Sale now live Other World Computing: [Store Events] OWC Black Friday Sale: Accessories, HDDs, speakers, RAM, LCDs, more Apple Store: [Black Friday] The Apple Store Black Friday Sale: Up to $101 off select items Dell Home: [Black Friday] Dell Home Black Friday Sale now live iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] App Store Freebies: UpNext 3D Cities, Sip-N-Store, PhotoScatter, Super Shock Football, more Staples: [Black Friday] Staples Black Friday Early Bird Specials available online OnSale: [Black Friday] OnSale.com Black Friday Sale live now TigerDirect: [Black Friday] TigerDirect.com Pink Friday Sale now live eForCity: [Black Friday] eForCity.com Black Friday Sale: Deals from $3 + free shipping MacUpdate Promo: [Mac Games] MacUpdate 2009 Black Friday Game Bundle: 11 Mac games for $30 AT&T Wireless: [iPhone] Refurbished Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB for $49 + free shipping, 32GB for $149 eForCity: [Black Friday] eForCity.com Black Friday Web Buster: 30% off sitewide
A Dozen Daily Deals, Day 2
As Victor mentioned yesterday, for the next few days we'll be featuring daily deals from our friends at DealNews.com. Lots of good stuff today, so why not get started browsing for Christmas gifts on stuffing day? Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Walmart: [Black Friday] Walmart Thanksgiving Day Sale live now Best Buy: [Black Friday] Best Buy Thanksgiving Weekend Sale: Netbooks from $180, more MacMall: [Black Friday] MacMall 72 Hour Apple Black Friday Sale: Up to 25% off Apple systems after rebate RadioShack: [Black Friday] Radio Shack Shack Friday Sale live now Sam's Club: [Black Friday] Sam's Club Black Friday Sale live now JR: [Black Friday] JR.com posts Black Friday Sale 6ave: [Black Friday] 6th Avenue Electronics Thanksgiving Day Sale live now DicksSportingGoods: [Black Friday] Dick's Sporting Goods Black Friday Doorbuster deals now live iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] Gameloft iPhone / iPod touch Apps: Real Tennis 2009, Blades of Fury, more for 99 cents each Lowe's: [Black Friday] Lowe's Super Friday Sneak Peek Sale live now GoGamer: [Black Friday] GoGamer Black Friday Madness: Deals from 1 cent + $3 s&h iTunes Music Store: [iPhone / iPod Apps] CoPilot Live North America for iPhone downloads for $20
Xerox announces silver ink, keeps printable electronics dream alive
Here comes Xerox, huffing and puffing its way back from obscurity with what it believes is a revolutionary new advancement. Its brand new silver ink and related printing technologies promise to make it possible for the lazy or breadboard handicapped among us to print their own circuit boards atop plastics, film, and even textiles. The wizardry of it lies in the company's development of a metallic ink with a melting point lower than that of plastics, which allows the former to be laid (in liquid form) atop the latter. It's all very neat, and the potential for flexible, lightweight, disposable electronics is well and good, but haven't we heard this all before?
Korg Nanokey controller repurposed into MIDI foot pedal
Korg's Nanokey MIDI controller is pretty awesome in its own right, but using it with your feet gets a little difficult under "normal" conditions. We can't say for certain why Marc Fischer decided to convert his perfectly good control board into a MIDI foot pedal, but frankly, that's beside the point. The point is he did it, and he did it with just a bit of ingenuity, some wooden blocks for risers and a bit of Plexiglas to cover up the missing keys. Hit the read link if you're interested in doing something similar, and feel free to ask the man himself where that gorgeous shag carpet came from. Kinky! [Via MAKE]
Walmart to rival Best Buy's Geek Squad with own in-home install crew
We've never truly been at ease with that Geek Squad crowd. Something about "the people" they hang with and "the places" they hang at just worries us, so we're pretty thrilled to see another mega-corp stepping in to take the place of the now-deceased Circuit City FireDog crew. Starting sometime before the holiday season, Wally World will be partnering with N.E.W. Customer Service Companies in order to offer in-home installation to customers buying anything from a wireless router to a HTIB. The service plans will be sold on prepaid cards ranging from $99 to $399 in value, and each install includes a "preliminary consultation and a tutorial after installation is completed." Granted, it may be a bit tough to get the dude looking to spend $5 on a new plasma to spring for such a service, but hey, it's not like competition is a bad thing. [Via Hot Hardware]
Apple as "the world's most feminine brand"?
Fortune's Bridget Brennan has a bold statement: "Why doesn't Apple make remote controls? You ask: Why Apple? Because if any company could improve one of the world's most user-unfriendly electronic devices, it would be Apple. And then there's this: Apple just may be the world's most discreetly feminine brand." Oh man. We were with her right up until that last statement: remote controls are fairly user-unfriendly, and an Apple remote (other than, you know, the one already out there) would be a thing of beauty. But "the world's most discreetly feminine brand"? That opens up a whole can of nuts we probably don't want to open. But what the heck, snakes be damned, let's open it up. Brennan says that women drive the economy, by influencing 80% of all purchases, and 61% of all consumer electronics products. And she says Apple is doing great, because in a market that's "dude-driven" (her words, obviously), they've brought elegance and style to their products. She says that Apple products don't need manuals, and that Apple's face-to-face customer service is excellent. Which we mostly agree with (while even Apple fans have their issues with customer service, they do a relatively good job). But "feminine"? Do guys not like elegance and style in their products? Do they enjoy reading manuals, or using electronics that aren't user friendly? Apple is successful for these reasons, sure, but we don't quite see how that makes them "feminine." Brennan concludes by suggesting that "Apple's success [shows] when you make women happy, you make everybody happy." But we're pretty sure that, in Apple's case, it's actually the other way around.
Scientists use single electron pump to take subatomic particles for a spin
German and Latvian researchers at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have successfully demonstrated how a single electron pump can be used to give the elementary particles a predefined "spin." Aptly titled spintronics, the technology aims to manipulate a quantum-level property of electrons similar to the north-south axes in magnets. The results would be faster chips that require less energy than current electronics, which deal in electron movement. Of course, all of this is still a ways off from consumer use, so don't expect to be overclocking your electron pumps anytime soon. Science-minded readers would be advised to hit up the read link to peruse the research paper.[Via Nanowerk and Spintronics-Info]
Kmart publishes next wave of Black Friday-style deals as world ends
Kmart's unloaded some fresh deals upon us today, proving that no matter how completely weak the economy is, come Black Friday (which now encompasses the entire month of November) we'll probably buy up whatever's on sale. They have a few legitimate bargains, certainly, peppered in amongst the tripe, including a 2GB Element MP3 player for $22.99, a 19-inch Sony Bravia M Series LCD HDTV for $374.99, and a GE A835 digital camera for $79.99, all for your consumin' pleasure. The sale starts Sunday, and runs through the actual Black Friday, or until the economy collapses and we move to a bottle-cap-based currency, whichever happens first. Simply not enough bargains for you? Hit the read link for the full rundown. [Via I4U News]
Survey: Apple riding high on news of economic woes
A survey by ChangeWave says Apple is looking ahead to record sales for Macs, which smiles in the face of further declines in U.S. consumer spending. The survey polled 4,416 people between August 4 and August 12. If the poll is any indication, Apple will do well in the next three months, with 34 percent of respondents planning on buying a new Mac laptop, and 30 percent planning on buying a new Mac desktop. It's unclear how many of those overlap (that is, people who want to buy both). That's a modest uptick since last month -- two percent more for laptops and three percent more for desktops. Compare that to general consumer electronics spending: 15 percent said they'd spend more over the next three months, while 34 percent said they'd spend less. That's almost unchanged since last month, but 13 points lower since August last year. Also in the survey, 17 percent of the respondents (who own an iPhone 3G) are now more likely to buy a Mac in the future; one percent said they were less likely. [Via MacsimumNews.]
Making yourself heard with the right headset
Mr_elenganza has a great question over on the WoW LJ-- what headset do you use for voicechatting in WoW?Me, I use two different audio inputs. On my Mac Powerbook, the built-in microphone actually works really well (and I hear from others who've used the new Macbooks that those work even better), so whenever I'm raiding with Teamspeak on, I'll have it on there, and just use that mic to talk.But when I need something a little clearer, I use the cheaper Logitech headset-- there are more expensive gaming headsets out there, but the headset is really just for voice (I've also got a nice set of 5.1 speakers on my PC), so it works just fine for my purposes. To tell the truth, if I went for another headset, I'd probably try and get something Bluetooth (the fewer wires running around, the better), but I haven't shopped around too much for that-- anyone want to recommend one?At this point, headsets are so cheap and so commonly used that "I don't have a mic" isn't really a valid excuse for not voicechatting any more (of course, it's always a good excuse if there are other reasons you don't want to speak). A nice USB headset will help you hear what's going on, and will make the experience better for people playing with you, too.
Chinese electronics company sues Blizzard over fonts
An electronics company in Beijing has sued Blizzard, claiming that they allegedly used five copyrighted fonts in World of Warcraft. Founder Electronics wants 100 million yuan for the alleged infringement, which is apparently the largest amount ever asked for by a Chinese company in a copyright case (Founder claims the loss cost them 1 billion yuan). The case is sitting in front of the Beijing High People's Court, and the9, which is the Chinese company that runs WoW there, is considering their options.I'm assuming that means the9's Chinese version of WoW, which would mean the fonts themselves are for Chinese characters, so there's probably no fonts that English-speaking users would recognize ingame. However, Founder is apparently known for creating some of the most popular fonts in China, so the odds that someone at the9 used one of them (or at the very least one that looked like one of them) are probably pretty good (the picture on this post is from a Founder event, not a Blizzard event, so the obvious use of the Founder font there doesn't count). Of course it's up to the High Court to decide whether the infringement actually took place or not-- no word on how long the judgment will take.