Microsoft pushing for designer PCs?

"Now that Macs are PCs -- we mean really real PCs that run Windows n' stuff -- the beige box world is having a harder time than ever keeping peoples' interest when their inner John Hodgman longs to walk on the wild side and snap up a Macintel. Re-enter Microsoft: the company's latest kick is, of course, vertical integration (see: Zune), so it should come as no surprise that Redmond's supposedly been issuing a strict aesthetic best-practices kit, called the Windows Vista Industrial Design Toolkit..."

Continued on at Engadget.

Wow, Microsoft seems to have a lot of surprises up its sleeve. First it was their announcement of their Zune MP3 Player which will compete with Apple's IPod, and now they have a strict aesthetic best-practices kit for Windows Vista just to make PCs look as good as Apple's Macs? Seems like Microsoft really wants to get onto Apple's turf. I must admit, if they can pull this off, we will be in for some beautiful computer cases in the future.

Hmm Windows Vista looks + cool looking PC cases. Seems like Microsoft may be able to compete with Apple's smooth and stylish Macs and Mac OS X.

Well good luck to Microsoft with this interesting endeavor.

Technorati : Apple, Desinger PCs, Mac s, Microsoft

Juroku Bank Adopts Hitachi's Finger Vein Authentication System for ATM Machines

Tokyo (JCN) Nov 24, 2005- Hitachi announced on November 21 that the Juroku Bank in Gifu has adopted its proprietary finger vein authentication system and will begin offering a biometrics service for customers on December 26.

The bank will issue a cash card embedded with an IC chip and install automated teller machines (ATMs) with a finger vein authentication system provided by Hitachi. Hitachi will provide comprehensive support to the bank in everything from issuing smart cash cards to installing the authentication system to ATMs.

Initially the service will be available at the bank's head office and its Gifu Chuo Branch. The bank plans to deploy ATMs with the finger vein authentication system at all branches. With this move, the bank aims to reinforce its security measures and prevent crimes, such as unauthorized withdrawal and credit card skimming.

By Aki Tsukioka, JCN Staff Writer

From: JCNNetwork.

KDDI Designing Studio Unveils Prototype Handsets

More at JCNNewswire.

Sony develops the most efficient Fuel Cell

Sony has developed a fuel cell capable of generating 100 milliwatt-hours of power per sq. centimeter at room temperature, the highest generation efficiency ever achieved by a "direct methanol-type" device.

The firm attained this level of efficiency, about 60% higher than that possible using conventional technologies, by reducing the amount of power generation loss caused when methanol oozes out of the fuel cell into the atmosphere, company sources said.

The reduction was achieved by increasing the ability of the cell's electrolytic membrane to block the methanol to a level two to five times higher than other technologies.

In making the membrane, Sony used molecules called fullerenes.

Source: FuelCellWorks.

Cheap’o Creative Zen’o PMC

It appears that the Creative Zen Personal Media Center wasn’t really flying off the shelves with its hefty $500 price tag, so Creative is hoping to give it a little nudge by offering an enormous $200 rebate on it. This device was never really that bad, it has somewhat of a big design, but that accompanies the high-end specs that this PMP features. $300 for a device of this caliber isn’t too bad, and a hell of a lot more effective at video watching than the, ahem, iPod Video. Yeah, we talk down on iPod from time to time. Better bookmark this, it won’t happen again for a while.

Zen PMC now $200 after Rebate [Digital Media Thoughts]

Scratchless Disc

Want some serious protection for your discs? Try the oh-so-subtly named Scratchless Disc, being happily touted as “The World’s Safest Optical Disc.” Using 20 small bumps that are added to the bottom of the disc to raise it off the surface you so sloppily left it on, this crazy technology basically just keeps it from rubbing up against anything while it’s lying around. Add to this a layer of polymer and Scratchless-Disc LLC thinks you’ll be completely scratch-free. Almost. They hope. Comes in CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW and DVD-RW formats.

Scratchless Disc [Scratcless Disc]

The hono electric candle

We’ve seen candles sportin’ LEDs with and without wax, pin-hole cameras, and even powerin’ faux-digital clocks. However, the $84 Metaphys hono is the first candle we’ve seen which actually mimics the real-deal like those robots which will one day replace us. Hold the “match” near the candle to light it or give it a tempestuous blow to snuff it out. And if your Red-packed lungs can only bark-up a feeble waft, the candle will flicker menacingly at your impending doom. Fully rechargeable and fully Japanese.

[Thanks, Nic]

Loc8tor lojacks your life

Lost your keys or wallet again? Tag them to work with the Loc8tor, and the radar-like device will track them down in no time, within a 500-foot range. Tags can even be attached to children and pets, in case you’re too lazy to give a yell or check their known hiding places. That’s the promise behind this not-yet-released device, but the developers of Loc8tor are extremely vague on details of how it works. RFID? GPS? We have no idea. However, as long as it’s better than those cheesy, bulky RF key-locator things that Sharper Image sells, we’re willing to give it a go. They claim to be debuting at CES, so keep your eyes open.

[Via Tech Ticker]

MobiBlu DAH-1800T includes RFID smart card

Finally, some news from MobiBlu that isn’t about how darn small their audio players are: The company is putting out a version of its DAH-1800T player with a built-in RFID smart card that can be used to pay fares on Korean subways and buses. We assume you can keep the player in your bag or pocket, and just get within close proximity of the card reader to make this work; otherwise, it’ll never fly in other markets, where subway riders have been warned not to flaunt their audio players (then again, rubbing your pants pocket against a turnstile may not be the best public behavior either).

PlaysForSure hits the Xbox 360 by way of iRiver’s H10

Microsoft’s (or at least Bill’s) love of iRiver MP3 players is no secret, and today iRiver announced their H10 will be the first device ready to play back / stream PlaysForSure content through the Xbox 360 (presumably via its USB ports) with a firmware update to the MP3 player. Still, kinda makes you wonder why iRiver needed a firmware update to do this when the PlaysForSure audio DRM standard is already Microsoft’s, and that the 360 itself can play back PlaysForSure audio as a Media Center Extender — but we’ll try not to take it for granted that it could be more complicated than it sounds.

[Thanks, DJ Unimpressed]

Little Lluon small form factor media PC

If you’re looking for a small form factor media PC and don’t want to wait for the rumored Intel-based Mac mini media center, you can always take a look at the Little Lluon, from Korea’s TG Trust. The 4.6-pound PC includes 512MB of RAM, an AMD Turion ML-32, SD/Memory Stick reader, a TV Tuner and, of course, Windows XP MCE. Of course, you shouldn’t expect to find this outside of Korea, so you may have to settle for something a little bulkier … or wait to see what Apple has under the covers.

Intel’s VIIV partnerships taking shape

Intel wants to get you stoked about their new VIIV multimedia-centric home computing platform, the same way they wanted you to get stoked about Centrino — it’s not really any one particular thing, but more a bundle of products and technologies aimed at streamlining the user experience (and building a bit o’ the old brand recognition along the way). But Intel’s rolling deep on this one, going to the press today to rattle off a few dozen key players and partners in their VIIV initiative, which include big names Adobe, Ulead, MovieLink, Ubisoft, and so on. We’re not impressed by the showboating, of course, but TiVo seemed to be a big name in the pack, and is apparently working on what sounds to be even deeper TiVo ToGo integration in order to further ease transferring media from (and to) your TiVo box, as well as prepping content for use on your portable devices.

Logic3 PSP Solar Charger

In what must have been three months of intense R&D, the engineers who brought us the solar charger shaped vaguely like a Nintendo DS have discovered that the PSP, and not the DS, has the most efficient shape for gathering the sun’s rays. Actually, we suspect that the two products were not in fact manufactured by the same company (and not just cause they’re sold on different sites), seeing as the DS-shaped charger only needs four hours to recharge while the PSP-shaped model needs eight- even though they both sport an 1800mAh li-ion battery. You’ll get four to five hours of extra playtime from this device claims the retailer, who goes on to sternly caution you to “just be careful you don’t mistake it for the PSP, they almost look one and the same.” Thanks for the heads up, guys.

Tivoli Audio iSongBook reviewed

At $330, the Tivoli Audio iSongBook may be one of the most expensive ways to integrate your iPod into a home entertainment system, but you do get great sound for that price. That’s the conclusion reached by Playlist, which reviewed the iSongBook, which also includes an AM/FM clock radio. The review found the iSongBook to produce “excellent” sound, accomplished in part by a detachable speaker, allowing a separation of up to six feet between the system’s two speakers. The review also cited the iSongBook’s solid AM/FM radio, good battery life, and a good (though “quirky”) remote. The reviewer also paid the iSongBook the ultimate compliment: he said that, despite the high price, it’s the speaker system he’ll buy for himself (glad to know he’s not accepting a freebie!).

Brits willing to spend $60 for room-temperature butter

We have nothing against butter — or Brits — but put the two of them together, and it’s a recipe for culinary (and arterial) chaos. Think about it; you go to a sandwich shop in the UK, and they put butter on everything. Ask them to skip it, and they look at you like you’ve got three heads. So, leave it to the Brits to come up with the ButterWizard, a £34.95 ($60) device that’s designed to keep butter at an “optimal spreadable temperature” of 65.3 degrees. The developer, David Alfille, of East Sussex-based Alfille Innovations, tells Reuters that the company was “trying to find out what people’s frustration with butter was,” and discovered that it’s “either too hard or too soft.” In fairness, the ButterWizard does let you set your own temperature, in case you want it runnier or firmer. But still, $60 for a heated butter dish? Then, again, maybe we shouldn’t talk. America, after all, is the home of the radio/toaster combo, which could be the perfect companion for this.

Nagase TRANSGEAR HMP-100 features local Gracenote DB

Say hello to the TRANSGEAR HMP-100, a portable audio player from a Japanese company called Nagase Industrial Corporation. It comes stocked with Gracenote’s “MusicID” database — a database of song, genre, artist, and other information for roughly 3.5 million songs. Users connect their audio source to the player via analog audio input, and the player compares 15 seconds of waveform data with its internal “FingerPrints” database, matching the song up with its corresponding information from MusicID. Pretty slick if you ask us. But the fun doesn’t stop; the player even interfaces with a mobile phone so it can connect directly to the entire Gracenote database of 40 million songs, and retrieve information that doesn’t appear in its internal database. The player supports direct MP3 encoding at up to 192kbps, has a 6GB hard drive, 1.8-inch monochrome screen, and a rapid recharging battery that gets to 80% capacity in an hour and a half. Nagase plans to license this technology to other companies, so don’t be surprised if you see it turn up in someone else’s player.

ilo in-dash MP3-CD player with LCD and SD slot (for under $200!)

You’ll have to forgive us for missing the feature-packed ilo XM-ready MP3-CD car stereo that came out a few months back, but rarely do our electonics shopping excursions include Wal-Mart as a featured destination. The ilo delivers a lot of bang for the $175 pricetag: XM-ready tuner (for displaying programming info), MP3-CD player, 2-inch color TFT-LCD, and perhaps sweetest of all, an SD slot that reads MP3s, JPEGs, and AVIs. Seems that next time we’re picketing Wal-Mart for their sexist glass ceiling and questionable labor practices, we may actually pop in and see what other goodies we’re missing out on.

[Thanks, Car Guy]

Samsung Sprint Power Vision Phones

Samsung phonemeisters have been busy little bees these past few months, and the fruits of their labor now culminate in these two Sprint Power Vision phones, the MM-A920 and the MM-A900. Both use "broadband-like" speeds to let you get news, music and video. The services now offered on these phones include the recently announced Sprint Music Store, which lets you download songs directly to the phones, and includes 30 channels of live and on-demand video and audio from Sprint TV and On Demand, a personalized resource guide to news, traffic, weather, sports and entertainment. The MM-A920 has an embedded music player and music navigation controls as well as an expansion slot for up to 512MB of TRANSflash memory. The MM-A900 makes its mark by being just over a half-inch thick and extremely lightweight. It includes stereo speakers and a large display. Both phones have a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth and phone-as-modem capabilities. Both will retail for $349.

Low-Cost Wacom Tablet

The Volito2 is Wacom's entry-level tablet device, and at about $67, it could be worth it to have text input, photo editing and the ability to add digital signatures to your documents (which can be priceless). It's nicely designed even though it has a smallish active area. Other features include a USB 2.0 port and a battery-free pen but remember, it does need to be connected to your computer or laptop to work. Comes with ArtRage Wacom Edition painting software from Ambient Design, created just for the Volito2.

Wacom Volito2 Pen Tablet [Bios Magazine]

360 Degree LED Display

Want something that'll really impress the neighbors? Check out Dynascan's 360 LED display. Sure, right now it's being used for advertisements, but just think what you could do with this thing in your living room. It can be viewed from up to 20 feet away, perfect for the entryway of your new McMansion. And of course, you can actually view one single image all the way around or configure it with three images, each claiming 120 degrees of the surface. It's even possible to see this display outside. So, it may take another couple of years, but we'll let you know when it's ready for your home theater.

The 360 degree LED television [Gizmag]

Ventura SPARC rx Watch

Priced at about $2,200, this watch probably won't make it into my stocking this Christmas but it does look pretty cool. The SPARC rx has a rotating face that turns it from a standard watch into a Nike-esque sports watch with just one twist. The case is made of Durinox, which is up there with ceramic and adamantium in terms of hardness, and the sapphire crystal won't scratch much, either. Not a lot of sexy features, but the styling is nice. They've got a few more models, but this one really stands out.

Blu-ray and HD DVD may become non-existent with the new HVD coming into play. HVD is the holographic versatile disc which has been in the making for nearly 20 years and it is finally going to happen, maybe. The two players in this battle are American InPhase and the Japanese company, Optware, which we have reported on in the past. Optware is already claiming that they will have a 200GB HVD drive out by the end of 2006. HVD is where it is at, better speed, size, and would possibly serve as a better new media format.

Blu-Ray/HD DVD Could Become Irrelevant as HVD Nears [Game Daily]

Intel and Ultrasuede’s “ultrashionable” laptop concept

Oh yeah, we totally knew that someday micro-fibers would come and save us from a humdrum laptop existence. Who needs a sleekly styled lappy when you can just slap a few badly styled color swatches on the back of a clunker? That seems to be Intel and Ultrasuede's plan, who have teamed up to develop an "ultrafashionable" laptop concept by integrating micro-fiber fabric into the casing. You can blame the design on the Ultrasound peeps, Intel is just bringing their Centrino tech to the party so they're mainly tagging along for the PR. Are we the only ones not getting the design on these?

Via DarkVision.

Hitachi first to offer laptop with vein recognition

We've already heard of Hitachi putting vein-recognition technology in handles, so the next logical step is obviously (?) laptops. The company announced the "FLORA Se210," a Windows XP Embedded system with no hard drive (for security purposes, we take it), 600MHz Celeron processor, 256MB of RAM, and otherwise normal specifications. Set at around $1,625, the system will launch on December 1st and is apparently the first notebook in the world to feature vein-recognition technology, which is touted as being both faster and harder to falsify versus traditional fingerprint recognition. LEDs shine into your finger, and depending on how the light is diffused by the veins in your finger, a certain pattern will be returned to the sensor. If that pattern doesn't match what is stored on the "KeyMobile" USB key included with the system, you'll be unable to access its data. Since the machine has no hard drive, Hitachi is marketing it as a enterprise-level terminal.

Nokia’s 9300i WiFi business phone announced

The Nokia 9300i tri-band GSM smartphone with EDGE we saw last month is now official. Like Nokia's E-series phones, the 9300i targets business users and sports a wide 640 x 200 pixel display throwing down 65k colors with an additional 128 x 128 display on the cover, a full QWERTY keyboard, and support for BlackBerry Connect, Nokia Business Center, IBM WebSphere, Oracle Collaboration Suite, Seven Always-On Mail and Visto Mobile enterprise eMail solutions and all the MS Office attachments you can cram into the included 80MB internal storage with MMC expansion. It also features WiFi (802.11g), Bluetooth, and speakerphone with five-party conference calling skills. Fortunately, Nokia brings you wage-donkeys some relief with MPEG-4 and MP3 playback support in hopes of keeping you off the ledge. The 9300i should drop 'round these parts in Q1 '06.

SFFTech reviews and pans the AOpen Mini PC

SFFTech got their hands on the Apple AOpen Mini PC and churned out a massive, and ultimately unflattering review of this Mac mini knock-off. While Apple and AOpen target the low end or entry level market with their mini offerings, SFFTech found the Mac mini to be a better choice for beginners or the "less technologically inclined." No surprise there. And, although the Mini PC looks to be ideal for home theater setup with its component, S-Video and composite video outputs for standard and high definition television sets, SFFTech found playback to "stutter and lag" HD videos while offering audio which simply "isn't up to the task." While AOpen's attempt at the mini is actually 1.5-centimeters smaller in length and width than Apple's, you'll still be limited in options for placement due to the "very annoying whine" emitted by the Mini PC's fans which only intensifies when the system is pushed to its limit. In fact, it was so bad during testing that the reviewer had to shut the machine down at times. While SFFTech gives AOpen credit for offering a low end PC in a "cool" form factor, they ultimately can't recommend it for PC enthusiasts or even as a file server due to the noise. Ouch.

sThe Cenix GMP-M6 pulls PMP and gaming dutie

We have reached into the depths of a bad Babelfish translation to bring you this gamer centric Korean PMP, the Cenix GMP-M6. First off, it's 2-inch screen puts the player squarely in the Game Boy Micro size range and form factor, so if you've played with that little bugger you should know right away if this size is going to work for you. Of course, we mean that purely figuratively, because you're probably never going to see this thing in the States, along with it's 220 x 176 resolution, MiniSD expandability, 1GB of storage, and two included games. We can't quite tell if the 3D capabilities have any developed games to flaunt yet, but we do know that the usual suspects - MP3, WMA, OGG, MPEG-4 - are supported format-wise, and that an FM tuner is included for good measure. Hope you like 'em small and imported.

Is this the ROKR E2?

Of course we have no way of verifying this is the real deal, but it looks like those Czech mobile peeps scored, well, something. While what they're claiming is the new ROKR E2 doesn't exactly have the tell-tale signs of a photoshop, the crappy quality of the picture still doesn't lend much credence to its case, so as always take with a grain of salt. But we were able to cherry-pick a few terms off their site: USB 2.0, stereo Bluetooth (i.e. A2DP), UMTS. Could it be true? Glory, glory.

The new Mac mini — with Front Row 2.0 and DVR?

It's on ThinkSecret, which means, of course, that we can't verify the information or its source, but now the rumor on top of the pile for things we might see at Macworld in January is that the Mac mini will be given a second life as a Front Row 2.0-bearing digital media hub - complete with DVR features. Apparently it'll also be an Intel Mac, and feature an iPod dock, in addition to receiving a larger (physically and logically) 3.5-inch drive - all of which would undoubtedly result in a more corpulent Mac mini. There are a lot of things we could (but won't) get into here, but we would like to take a moment to say that if Apple did want to get their foot in the door to the living room really quick n' easy, an Intel Mac mini + Front Row + DVR + iPod dock would be the way to do it. In fact, the only thing they'd probably have to worry about would be the low-margin mini really cannibalizing thes sales of their non-Intel, non-DVR higher-margin iMac and Power Mac products (at least for the time being). But again, this is all unconfirmed, so we'll ease up on ya.

Linksys WRT54GX4 and WPC54GX4, MIMO router and PC card

Linksys is hitting the market with a pair of new MIMO products, which the company says can offer double the speed and triple the range of traditional wireless networks. Like other MIMO routers, the WRT54GX4, which will retail for $150, uses more than one 802.11g radio to improve throughput when coupled with a compatible wireless card, such as the $100 WPC54GX4. Sounds impressive; let's see if these speed claims stand up in court - or at least the court of public opinion.

Escient SE-D1 front-end for media servers and DVD jukeboxes

When we last heard from Escient, the company was pitching its Fireball DVDM-100, a $2,000 set-top box that hooks into a Sony DVD-changer and provides an onscreen interface for browsing and accessing DVDs. Nearly two years later, the company is back with the Fireball SE-D1, which matches the features of the earlier unit, but comes at half the price. Of course, that doesn't mean the SE-D1 is cheap; you'll still need a DVD-changer, and possibly one of Escient's expensive media servers, in order to get the full value out of this thing. In the end, chances are you'll spend a lot less - and have a more flexible system - if you use a home theater PC and rip archive all of your DVDs to your hard drive.

Escient SE-D1 front-end for media servers and DVD jukeboxes

When we last heard from Escient, the company was pitching its Fireball DVDM-100, a $2,000 set-top box that hooks into a Sony DVD-changer and provides an onscreen interface for browsing and accessing DVDs. Nearly two years later, the company is back with the Fireball SE-D1, which matches the features of the earlier unit, but comes at half the price. Of course, that doesn't mean the SE-D1 is cheap; you'll still need a DVD-changer, and possibly one of Escient's expensive media servers, in order to get the full value out of this thing. In the end, chances are you'll spend a lot less - and have a more flexible system - if you use a home theater PC and rip archive all of your DVDs to your hard drive.

Evergreen GH-SP-125W adds speaker to iPod shuffle

The iPod shuffle has been overshadowed by the nano in recent months, but that doesn't mean developers have stopped trying to graft accessories onto the minimalist player. Evergreen Japan's GH-SP-125W speaker, which follows in the footsteps of the PodGear Pocket Party and Griffin TuneBox by adding a wimpy 2.5-watt speaker to the shuffle making it an instant micro-ghettoblaster. The $25, 2.5 ounce speaker can be strapped onto your shuffle and worn with it around your neck, though we can't quite figure out why you'd want to do that over slapping it on your shoulder- or bulking up the shuffle with a speaker system of any kind in the first place

Technorati : Evergreen GH-SP-125W adds speaker to iPod shuffle

AAS gets hands-on with the Nokia N92

This is another one of those digital TV-enabled handsets that won't be making it over here in the States due to compatibility issues, but All About Symbian got their finely-manicured British hands on a pre-production version of the Nokia N92. To refresh your memory, this one's a flip-and-folder with GSM/UMTS, integrated 802.11g, a 2.8-inch, QVGA LCD screen, Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP!), and support for UPnP. Yeah, it's big and heavy for a handset, and they're not so hot on the keypad or how fragile the phone itself feels, but they liked watching mobile TV on the N92, which has a some nice touches like 30-second instant replay.

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