These Fraunhofer microprojectors are still quite a ways off from being implemented into real phones, but the technology is certainly interesting. Based on an insect’s compound eye, the projector is a wafer of tiny LEDs that can twist and turn depending on position. This means there is no “keystoning” and the beams striking the surface will always be “crisp and clear.”

“Our projector consists of hundreds of tiny microprojectors in an array, each of which generates a complete image,” said Marcel Sieler, a researcher. “This technology, known as ‘array projection,’ is modeled on nature – on the compound eye found in some insects – and with it for the first time we can create very thin and bright LED projection systems with tremendous imaging properties.”

In short, the screen geometry changes with the position of the projector. Using the phone’s position sensor the projector calculates the optimum angle for each micro-array.

By adding infrared beams to the mix, the researchers have been able to make the screens touch sensitive, allowing you to tap, swipe, and select items on any surface. Because the arrays are very small you could feasibly stuff these into a phone or even a smart surface that interacts directly with a mobile device.

The company will display the system this month but don’t expect it in your phones for a while. The future, as they say, is here. It’s just not evenly distributed.

via: techcrunch

According to LaCie, one of the two storage companies that’s involved in the introduction of the Thunderbolt standard, two Thuderbolts will be introduced at the NAB Show 2012: the Little Big Disk SSD and the 2big Thunderbolt.

These may not be new, but it will be the first time they will be demoed in Mac and Windows.

The Windows counterparts have the same space as the original Mac’s. This means that you don’t have to have new ports and cords to use it.

The identity of the lucky Windows computer that will be used for the demo is still unknown. Though it is said to run on Intel’s Ivy Bridge chipset.

This is the also a first because of USB 3.0. This demo may prove to be a momentous since it showcases a Windows computer both on Thunderbolt and USB 3.0.

This is a hint that Macs may be on USB 3.0 in the near future as well.

Can’t wait to see it for yourself?  Check out LaCie’s demo at NAB Show, which starts tomorrow in Las Vegas and lasts until April 19.

via: geeky gadgets

All businesses will admire the idea of erasing texts on printed papers. It doesn’t only cut their expenses, but also reduces their carbon footprints significantly. Toshiba has well recognized the issue and has come up with a sustainable printing system that shows off the option to erase what it prints. Heaps of papers can thus be reused for printing.

Have you heard of FriXion Ball pen that erases what it writes? Well, the Toshiba’s new copier almost utilizes the same technology to erase content. When the FriXion Ball erasable pens erase texts and marks by friction, the Toshiba printer does it by heat. Yes, Toshiba printer makes use of a toner that disappears once exposed to heat.

A single sheet of paper can be reused five times in the machine. You can also see how many times a paper has undergone printing process. And, the prior texts don’t completely get erased from the paper. Previous contents can be seen if the paper is tilted just right in the light. So businesses that are concerned of privacy can’t use it. There is also an option to scan and store the contents of papers before reusing them. Thus, people won’t have to be worried of data loss while reusing papers massively.

Unfortunately, the Toshiba erasable toner is a closed system, which will work with only printers from the company. It actually limits the technology’s sustainability. Currently, the toner only prints in blue. Toshiba is working further to make it support all colors. Let us hope many more tech makers will devise similar technologies to help businesses reuse papers and thus to cut the impacts on the environment.

Via: gizmo watch

We got a little worried when ITG missed its January unveiling for the xpPhone 2, but yesterday, this Windows 7-powered smartphone finally made its debut public appearance in Guangzhou, and we happened to be there to scoop up a demo unit. Since we last came across the second-gen xpPhone, its ambitious Chinese manufacturer has dished out more detailed specs: the 17.5mm-thick device comes with a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 LCD made by Sharp, multitouch input, an Intel Atom Z5xx series processor up to 2GHz, up to 2GB of RAM, up to 112GB of SSD made by Silicon Storage Technology, microSD expansion and a multipurpose HDMI Micro socket (not HDMI Mini as we mistakenly said in our video after the break) that takes care of video, audio, data (USB 2.0) and power. Read on to find out what we think of this weird creature.

Upon seeing the xpPhone 2 up close it reminded us of an enlarged Nokia N8 (with a footprint similar to that of the 5-inch Dell Streak); except the former lacks a main camera on the back — it’s only equipped with a 1.3-megapixel front-facing webcam instead. You’ll also find two call buttons and a power button around the top right corner, whereas the HDMI Micro socket is located on the left along the bottom side. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack, so here’s hoping there’ll at least be an adapter of some sort. Likewise, hopefully ITG will add volume adjustment function into the call buttons.

On the back there’s a loudspeaker along with a small monochrome LCD for showing the phone’s various statuses, caller number and eventually text messages (ITG’s still working on Chinese compatibility). The battery cover and most of the body is made out of a smooth, sturdy magnesium alloy — a huge improvement from the original xpPhone’s cheap plastic body — though we hope the final product will have finer seams. Inside it sits a huge 11.1Wh battery, which is almost twice as much juice as those on a regular smartphone these days. ITG has yet to confirm the phone’s final weight, but you can imagine it being the equivalent of a slightly larger smartphone with an extra standard battery.

To make phone calls or text people, you’ll have to use the xpPhone application in Windows (either by launching it the usual way or tap its draggable floating icon on top of all windows). It’s very straightforward here: you get the usual dialing pad, contacts list and call settings; but what ITG’s really pushing here is its self-developed VoIP software that allows free, 128-bit encrypted phone calls between xpPhone 2s. As expected at this day and age, your contacts list is synced to the cloud; and you can set certain contacts to let their xpPhone VoIP calls wake your xpPhone 2 up from standby on Windows — pretty cool if this works well. As for the standard cellular connectivity, the demo units we looked at were all running on China Telecom’s CDMA 1x 800MHz network, but there will also be support for China Unicom’s WCDMA and China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA — this is simply a matter of installing the appropriate radio module at ITG’s factory. To return to Windows, simply tap on the Windows icon at the bottom-right corner of the application’s main screen.

The company’s chief engineer told us that the xpPhone 2 gets between three to four hours of battery life on Windows 7, which is much more than the one-hour usage we got out of the F-07C, but definitely not enough for an active user especially considering there’s no low-power OS as a backup. Either way, we shall see if the battery life is as good as promised when we get hold of a review unit. From a performance point of view, the desktop OS we saw felt almost as smooth as you’d get on a netbook thanks to its 1.2GHz Atom Z515 chip and 2GB RAM, and we had no complaints when playing a quick 720p clip of Girls’ Generation, despite the loading of it wasn’t as instantaneous as we had hoped. At no point did our phone get too warm but we shall check more thoroughly with a review unit.

It’s a real shame that Windows 8 is months away from launch (ITG originally thought the new OS would be out in January, hence the previous event date for the xpPhone 2), so early birds will have to live with Windows 7′s not-so-finger-friendly interface. With our demo unit we did struggle to hit some buttons, especially when trying to close the windows. On the bright side, the phone does come with a capacitive touchscreen (unlike its predecessor), which is one of the reasons for why ITG decided to ditch the physical keyboard; but if users need it, they can purchase a flip-cover style keyboard add-on that also packs a battery to double the device’s endurance. As for your USB peripherals, the xpPhone 2 will have an expansion dock to take care of those.

The China-exclusive xpPhone 2 won’t be cheap when it launches in a month or two: its various flavors (with either silver or gold highlight) will cost between ¥7,000 ($1,110) and ¥12,000 ($1,900), so it’s not the kind of phone that you’d want to accidentally drop into the toilet. When asked whether this price range could be an issue to gain traction, ITG’s CEO Brad Wu (pictured above) said the xpPhone’s actually aimed at the likes of business executives and government officials, especially with its aforementioned “military grade” call encryption service. By putting out ads on TV and in subway stations, Brad hopes that office workers will choose the xpPhone 2 over the regular, less premium smartphones when sucking up to gifting their bosses. Well, we can already picture the awkwardness when one explains to the boss about keeping an eye on the battery while running Windows on the device.

While he’s at it, Brad also gave us a little background on his company and himself — after all, we were curious as to what made this 40-year-old Hunan man so ballsy. Prior to ITG, Brad graduated in 1993 with an electrical engineering degree, before joining P&G to help market its shampoos and Pringles chips in China (no, really). The CEO recalled the days when laptops were still too bulky and when phones were not very powerful, but one day the UMPC form factor came along, he looked at the OQO (which is now owned by a Chinese company, funnily enough) and Sony VAIO UX, and thought to himself that the technology was ready to bring the PC and the mobile phone together as one, which then lead to the xpPhone as his first attempt.