WOW-POW = World Of Wonderful POWer: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Video of the new Panasonic C1 Convertible Tablet PC with Core i5 CPU

PC Watch Japan has a hands one with the new Panasonic C1 Tough Book Tablet. This is probably one of the best convertible tablet PC now available as it has a fast Core i5 2.4Ghz Intel CPU, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM with the MyLets model, 250GB HDD, and most importantly, Panasonic's Tough Book construction.
This 12.1" inch 1280x800 LCD tablet come with a unique hot swappable 2 battery setup that allows over 12 hour battery life. Along with all the usual connectivity features, Bluetooth, Wifi a/b/g/n, gigabit Ethernet, the C1 can be configured with both WiMax and 3G.
We loved the touchscreen and digitizer pen setup giving the best of both worlds. It comes bundled with Windows 7 64bit with the tablet features enabled. Panasonic also have included its own software that allows you to do your own notations to web pages, etc.
The C1 is not cheap coming in at over $2000 USD but these are designed for business, and offer the best quality, still made in Japan construction.
Lots more pictures at PCwatch
Available at Concis.net

Monday, June 21, 2010

Video of Toshiba NEW Dual Screen UMPC libretto W100 coming to Japan this August

Toshiba's NEW Dual Screen UMPC libretto W100 coming to Japan this August. Toshiba has resurrected there Libertto series in a big way with the new dual screen W100 which looks a lot like the recently canceled Microsoft Courier.
While sporting two 7" capacitive touch screen displays (1024x600) one of the displays also doubles as a keyboard and mouse pad. Thankfully Toshiba passed on the anemic Atom CPU for a dual core CULV 1.2GHz Intel Pentium U5400 processor, as well as 2GB of RAM, a 64GB SSD and Windows 7 Home Premium. Prices in Japan is set at about 120,00 YEN (about $1300 USD). Other features are an accelerometer, 1x USB 2.0 port, 802.11abgn wifi, WiMax, Bluetooth, Webcam, and a microSD card slot. It sizes up at 202×123×25.4mm and weighs in at 699grams. While we are happy that they are using the CULV CPU the battery life is reported to be only about 2 hours with the standard battery and 4 hours with the large.
More pictures below and more info at PC Watch
Conics.net is taking pre-orders now.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Double Solar Cell Efficiency with Quantum Dots

Quantum Dots may one day lead to a Doubling of Solar Cell Efficiency. Popular Mechanics has an interesting articular about how new research by the Department of Energy shows that Quantum Dots can double the efficiency of solar cells. Researchers have shown that it's possible to harvest lost energy before it escapes from standard inefficient solar cells in the form of heat, meaning that engineers could one day develop next-generation solar cells with efficiencies of up to 66 percent. The research, funded by the Department of Energy, is described in the June 18 edition of the journal Science.

Study author Xiaoyang Zhu at University of Texas at Austin said the group used nanoscale crystals of a compound called lead selenide which is a semiconductor, meaning it absorbs light energy within a certain range of energies. But semiconducting nanocrystals, also known as quantum dots, exhibit very different properties than their larger silicon counterparts. Most importantly they can hold on to a hot electron for a longer period of time, stretching out the amount of time it takes for the electron to cool instead of losing them to heat.

Once a hot electron is confined within a quantum dot the researchers chose titanium oxide, a well-studied compound known for its ability to accept new electrons to pull the electron out from the dot. Then the team arranging the lead selenide quantum dots and titanium dioxide in such a way that their chemical interactions would induce electron transfer.

Not only was the transfer successful, it was also very fast. However, the process is very difficult to accomplish meaning a long road for commercialization.
More details at Popular Mechanics.