CNN's Kyung Lah sinks her teeth into the 7 patty Wopper!

CNN's Kyung Lah sinks her teeth into a 2100 calorie 7 patty Wopper via a promotional deal between Burger King and Microsoft. Sadly only available in Japan Engadet has info on hacking your own region free version.

Kohjinsha PA series went on sale today in Japan

The Kohjinsha PA series went on sale today in Japan. Pricing starts at 69,800 YEN and the specs are as previously reported: CPU:Intel Atom Z520 (1.33GHz), Chipset: Intel US15W, Graphics: GMA500, Memory: 512MB (Max), HDD: 32GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth Ver.2.0, micro SD card slot, USB 2.0, 1,130 pixel Web CAM, built-in microphone,Headphone output, speaker monaural, analog VGA with cable, One-Seg TV tuner (only works in Japan), Battery life: about 7.5 hours, Size: approx 161 × 111 × 10 ~ 26mm (width × depth × height)Weight: about 400g.
Available though resellers like Conics.net
PC Watch did a nice write up on it and review in Japanese so grab your translater and check out the link here:
We should have a video review up soon as we will have ours in a few days.

Bridgestone Unveils 'World's 1st' Flexible E-paper Device

No flexible enough to fold and put in your pocket just yet, Bridgestone Corp announced a flexible electronic paper (e-paper) device based on its "Quick-response Liquid Powder" Oct 26, 2009.
The company expects that the device will be used for browsing electronic books and electronic data. It will be tested with the assistance system for liaison officers at Kansai Urban Banking Corp from the spring of 2010.
The device comes with 13.1-inch touch-sensitive e-paper that can display 4,096 colors. The e-paper has a higher reaction rate than other companies' e-paper and can refresh a 13.1-inch (A4) screen in 0.8 seconds. It has data processing and security functions and is capable of data communication via a mobile phone.
Bridgestone also developed an e-paper device whose e-paper, touch panel, drive circuit board and other parts are all flexible. The company claims it is the world's first flexible e-paper device.
The size of the e-paper is 10.7 inches, and the thickness of the device is 5.8mm.

Bridgestone plans to exhibit those e-paper devices at FPD International 2009, which will run from Oct 28 to 30, 2009, at Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama City, Japan.
More at Tech-on

Kohjinsha PA UMPC series to be released in Japan in early November

Kohjinsha PA UMPC series to be released in Japan in early November. It will be priced at 69,800 yen or about about $770 USD at current rates. It will be equipped with a 4.8" 1,024 × 600 dot LCD touch screen that rotates and become a tablet The left side of the display bezel and keyboard have optical pointing devices. It comes with a built in 1Seg TV tuner (Japan Only) and can withstand 100kg of weight on the body. The CPU is an Atom Z520(1.33GHz), Intel US15W Chip-set, 512MB Memory (cannot be upgraded) and a 32GB SSD. It comes with 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, a micro SD card slot, 1 USB 2.0 port, and 1 audio input and output. For VGA out there is a cable that extends to D-Sub 15 pin connector. The body size is approximately 161 × 111 × 10 ~ 26mm (width × depth × height) and weighs about 400g. The battery life is approximately 7.5 hours. This is a great size for using on a crowed train or in the toilet... That's why we call it the Toilet-book!
More at the Kohjinsha Website.

Video: Kohjinsha Dual screen laptop @ CEATEC Japan 2009

Elecom's "Lego (TM)" style Playbrick earphones - a lawyers wet-dream ?

Avaialble soon in 6 colours, from Conics.Net

Dow Unveils Solar Shingles that install like regular Shingles

Dow Unveils Solar Shingles that install like regular Shingles. From the NYT:
Dow Chemical has unveiled a residential roof shingle in the form of a solar panel designed to be integrated into asphalt-tiled roofs.Jane Palmieri, managing director of Dow’s Solar Solutions unit, said the Powerhouse thin-film shingle slashes installation costs because it can be installed by a roofer who is already building or retrofitting a roof. “As a roofer is nailing asphalt shingle on roof, wherever the array needs to be installed he just switches to solar shingle,” said Ms. Palmieri, who said the solar singles are similarly attached to the roof with nails.“You don’t have to have a solar installation crew do the work or have an electrician on site,” she added. “The solar shingle can be handled like any other shingle – it can be palletized, dropped from a roof, walked on.”An electrician is still needed to connect the completed array to an inverter and to a home’s electrical system, but unlike conventional solar panels that must be wired together, the solar shingles plug into each other to form the array.
More at the New York Times

60-foot tall pneumatic cannon shoots pumpkins over a mile

60-foot tall pneumatic cannon shoots pumpkins over a mile! From the Youtube blurb:
Gary Arold of Kingston and John Gill of Hurley built the coolest toy around, a 60-foot tall piece of farm artillery that can shoot bowling ball-sized objects -- such as pumpkins -- up to a mile. On most weekends during the summer and fall, the owners are busy entertaining customers by hurling various calibers of squash at Gill's Farm Market on Route 209 in Hurley. On Tuesday, they fired a few rounds off for Reporter Adam Bosch, Photographer Steve Borland, and Videographer John Pertel.

Video of the new Kohjinsha PA series and overview

Video of the new Kohjinsha PA series and overview. This model is well past the prototype stage and is probably in pre-production as there were at least 7 of them on display for anyone to play with and all had Windows product key stickers on the bottom. We expect to see this on sale before the end of the year.

New kohjinsha Dual Screen Netbook! 1.8kg, 2 x 10.1" screens!

It has been a busy day for Kohjinsha at the Createc Japan 2oo9 trade show held in Makuhari Mese. Kohjinsha displayed a Dual Screen Notebook prototype with two 10.1" WSVGA touch screens! (1024x600 x 2). The "Dual Display" worked by sliding the right side screen behind the other so that it could fold into a standard sized notebook. The prototype weight in at a respectable 1.8kg. The entire screen can swivel making it great for presentations.
Thankfully tossing the Atom cookie cutter mold, the specs include a 1.6Ghz AMD Athlon Neo CPU (MV-40), Max 4GB of RAM, Windows 7, 2.5" HDD, and a Direct X 10 compatible video card.
No word on when this unique notebook will be on sale.


More at PC watch
Video to come soon.

NEW Kohjinsha PA series - 400g Micro UMPC / MID 1.33GHz w/ 7.5 hour battery life!

NEW Kohjinsha PA series. Kohjinsha has just introduced there newest micro note book / MID / UMPC, the PA series. At 400g this 4.8" screened UMPC / MID comes with a 1.33GHz (Z520) Atom CPU, 512mb RAM, 32GB SSD and an astounding 7.5 hour battery life!

The PA series also comes standard with XP Home, 1.3 megapixel web camera, One Seg TV Tuner, Wifi b/g, Bluetooth 2.o, Micro SD card slot and a 4.8" 1024x600 touch screen.

The stand out features are the nifty optical mouse located in the front of the keyboard which makes using the keyboard feel like a normal laptop as well as scroll, mouse, and left right click buttons located on the screen. This thing is small and measure a measly 161×111×10～26mm. No word on pricing or release date but we predict it to debut for between 59,000 to 69,000 yen.

More info at PC Watch.
We will post Video in about 18 hours.

Lightning Packs Backpack Generates 40 Watts Just By Walking

This power-generating backpack was filmed at the Modern Day Marine trade show in Quantico. Proposed several years ago by Lightning Packs the prototype is now reality. It can generate over 40 watts just by walking at a cost of a candy bar worth of human energy if used all day! The backpack is mounted on rails that it slides up and down on when its wearer walks or runs. The movement generates electricity that charges a lithium ion battery to power your gadgets or the juice can go directly to a device. An added benefit is that the design relieves stress for the wearer. I want one! No word on when the military is getting these or a commercial version.
Via Gizmodo
http://www.lightningpacks.com/

The NYT: Solar Power, Without All Those Panels

The main way for homes to harness solar power today is through bulky panels added to the rooftop or mounted on the ground.
But companies are now offering alternatives to these fixed installations, in the less conspicuous form of shingles, tiles and other building materials that have photovoltaic cells sealed within them.
“The new materials are part of the building itself, not an addition, and they are taking photovoltaics to the next level — an aesthetic one,” said Alfonso Velosa III, a research director at Gartner and co-author of a coming report on the market for the new field, called building-integrated photovoltaics.
Companies are creating solar tiles and shingles in colors and shapes that fit in, for example, with the terra cotta tile roofing popular in the Southwest, or with the gray shingles of coastal saltbox cottages.
More at the New York Time

NEW Panasonic S and N Series Toughbook 2.53Ghz Dual Core 4GB RAM Notebooks Introduced

NEW Panasonic S and N Series Toughbooks 2.53Ghz Dual Core 4GB RAM Notebooks. Panasonic introduced 2 new Let's Notes, the N8 and S8 series and updates were announced for the rest of their line. However, the big news are the brand new N8 and S8. Powered by Core 2 Duo P8700 chips, clocked at 2.53Ghz, both machines come with 12.1-inch WXGA LCD screens 1280 x 800, 250GB HDDs, up to 4GB of RAM, WiMAX, WiFi, HDMI and SDHC connectivity. The best part of these notebooks is the claimed 16 hours of battery life! The one feature that distinguishes between them is the internal DVD burner on the S8. These will be released in Japan October 22 with Windows 7 and pricing around for the N series starts at about $2400.

Video and more data at PC Watch
Will be available in English at Conics.net

German Institute Achieves 23.4% Efficiency With N-type Solar Cell

Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) of Germany achieved an energy conversion efficiency of 23.4% with a single-crystal silicon solar cell made by forming a thin p-type semiconductor layer on an n-type semiconductor substrate.
Its cell area is 2 x 2cm. Fraunhofer ISE said that it is possible to mass-produce the solar cell, which is one of the most efficient crystalline silicon solar cells and could rival Sanyo and other companies' products.
Crystalline silicon solar cells based on n-type semiconductor substrates have a higher resistance to impurities than those based on p-type semiconductor substrates. Therefore, it is theoretically easier to enhance the energy conversion efficiency of the former solar cells.
However, most of the crystalline silicon solar cells developed so far are based on p-type semiconductor substrates. Specifically, they are made by forming a thin n-type semiconductor layer on a thick p-type semiconductor.
More at Tech-On

Honda U3-X :Personal Mobility Device

Honda Develops New Personal Mobility Device With the Goal of Co-existing in Harmony with People -- World's first drive system that enables movement in all directions:

Conics.net has a hands on of the Sharp Netwalker touchscreen PC-Z1

Conics.net has some great videos of the Sharp Netwalker. He has a hands-on video as well as a how to convert to English video. Take a look and more at Conics.net



Also available at conics.net

The Moon is all wet! Probes find water in moon dirt.

The moon isn't the dry dull place it seems. Traces of water lurk in the dirt unseen. Three different space probes found the chemical signature of water all over the moon's surface, surprising the scientists who at first doubted the unexpected measurement until it was confirmed independently and repeatedly.
If processed in mass quantities, the wet moon dirt might provide resources - drinking water and rocket fuel - for future moon-dwellers, scientists say. The water comes and goes during the lunar day. It's not a lot of water. If you took a two-liter soda bottle of lunar dirt, there would probably be a medicine dropperful of water in it, said University of Maryland astronomer Jessica Sunshine, one of the scientists who discovered the water. Another way to think of it is if you want a drink of water, it would take a baseball diamond's worth of dirt, said team leader Carle Pieters of Brown University.
"It's sort of just sticking on the surface," Sunshine said. The discovery, with three studies bring published in the journal Science on Thursday and a NASA briefing, could refocus interest in the moon. The appeal of the moon waned after astronauts visited 40 years ago and called it "magnificent desolation."
Much more at Physorg

DigiCube Z8 MID spied by Pocketables

Jen at Pocketables had a chance to play with the DigiCube Z8 MID spied at the 2009 IDF conference. Sadly, when first seen at Computex in June the Z8 (then called the Midphone-50) had intriguing specks but as the production version gets near this mid has been seriously downgraded. The Z8 went from a 5" WXGA screen to a 4.3" display neutered WVGA display,, the internal SSD is now a paltry 8GB as opposed to the 16 on the prototype, the CPU is only a 1.1GHz Atom (not the hinted at 1.6Ghz), and the RAM is stuck at 512MB. Looks like Jen will be sticking with the Sharp D4.
More at Pocketables.

Sanyo Claims HIT Solar Cell With 22.8% Efficiency & 98 Micron-thick

Sanyo Electric Co Ltd achieved a conversion efficiency of 22.8% with its HIT (heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer) solar cell with a thickness of 98μm, which is about half as thick as existing HIT solar cells.
Sanyo Electric realized the thinness while lowering conversion efficiency by only 0.2% (See related article). The company has not yet decided when it will start volume production of the cell.
"We can now reduce the amount of silicon used for HIT solar cells," the company said. "Silicon accounts for half the cost of those cells. So, we paved the way for lower-cost HIT solar cells."
Lower cost high efficiency solar sells are always good news.
Much More at Tech On