ZPower promises to deliver Silver-Zinc laptop batteries in 2009

Filed under: Laptops

ZPower has made a few promises before that haven’t exactly panned out, but that apparently hasn’t stopped it from making another bold claim at IDF this week, with it boasting that its newfangled Silver-Zinc battery will be rolled out in a “major notebook computer” sometime in 2009. According to ZPower, that battery will provide up to 40% more runtime than traditional lithium-ion batteries and, just as importantly, be far more “chemically stable” than its sometimes explosion-prone lithium-ion counterpart. ZPower also looks to be going the extra mile when it comes to recycling the batteries, with 95% of the battery itself apparently recyclable, and the company offering “financial discounts” to folks when they trade in their old Silver-Zinc batteries.

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36-Inch Twitching Spider: Your Worst Nightmare in Lamp Form [Lighting]

I have yet to meet someone who is genuinely not creeped out by spiders, so I would imagine that you could get a lot of laughs out of a 36-incher that features four twitching legs illuminated by purple incandescent lights. It would be great as a Halloween decoration, or for placing next to your partner in bed. Nothing starts a morning right like watching a loved one pee their pants and let out and a shrill, girlish scream. Now, that’s invigorating. Available for $70. [Hammacher via Boing Boing Gadgets]

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Filed under: Robots

VIA may be ditching its traditional motherboard business, but it looks like its not wasting any time in stepping up its efforts to get its more specialized boards and chipsets into as many devices as possible, and it’s now taken advantage of the Taipei International Robot Show to show off their potential for robotics. Leading the way is Lynxmotion’s Johnny 5 robot above (yes, that’s actually its name), which has been outfitted with VIA’s new EPIA P700 board and VX800 unified chipset just for the show. That, VIA says, offers a whole host of advantages over other systems, including “far easier” software development. Of course, VIA also sees plenty of potential beyond hobby kits, with it also showing off an EPIA Mini-ITX-based version of the Vecna Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (or BEAR), and it touting the benefits of its Pico-ITX platform for all sorts of “extremely space constrained robotics designs.”

[Via Far East Gizmos]

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Via [Engadget]

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Intel Explains In What Year We’ll Be Cyborgs But Terminators Will Kill Us Anyway [Intel]

2050. That’s the year that you’ll plug your brain into a toaster. Intel doesn’t know how, precisely, but according to Intel CTO Justin Rattner’s recent keynote at the Intel Developer Forum, they’re working on it. From Intel’s summary of the event:

He said Intel’s research labs are already looking at human-machine interfaces and examining future implications to computing with some promising changes coming much sooner than expected.

“The industry has taken much greater strides than anyone ever imagined 40 years ago,” Rattner said. “There is speculation that we may be approaching an inflection point where the rate of technology advancements is accelerating at an exponential rate, and machines could even overtake humans in their ability to reason, in the not so distant future.”

Excellent, Intel, While simple math can show computers crushing our intellect in no time, it’s very comforting when the world’s leading microprocessor developer confirms it. You’d just better sell me faster chips than the machines. I’ve been an excellent customer. [Intel via bbGadgets]

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A Skyscraper So Tall Builders Can’t Use Walkie-Talkies [Burj Dubai]

If you want to build a skyscraper 2,275 feet tall, you will face engineering challenges comparable to those of the Space Shuttle just because its sheer size. One of them is communications. When the unbelievable Burj Dubai started to get really high, the construction workers discovered one problem that seems obvious now: their walkie-talkies stopped working as they climbed the structure.

The reason was simple: distance. At the beginning of the construction they used walkie-talkies—which are light, durable, and have a long battery life—across the site. However, these stopped working after some time, as the tower kept raising over the desert. With unreliable communications, Samsung Corporation—the main contractor—had to turn to a different kind of link between workers to avoid misunderstandings that may have jeopardized the safety of workers (even more, because plenty of people have had fatal accidents in the tower) and delayed the project.

Fortunately for them, they turned to mesh networks, which are similar to the ones used in mobiles, but local. For that they used a company called Firetide, using several Wi-Fi-enabled VoIP phones over a HotPort wireless mesh, which also serves as the transport for the security video in the site.

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Filed under: Robots

VIA may be ditching its traditional motherboard business, but it looks like its not wasting any time in stepping up its efforts to get its more specialized boards and chipsets into as many devices as possible, and it’s now taken advantage of the Taipei International Robot Show to show off their potential for robotics. Leading the way is Lynxmotion’s Johnny 5 robot above (yes, that’s actually its name), which has been outfitted with VIA’s new EPIA P700 board and VX800 unified chipset just for the show. That, VIA says, offers a whole host of advantages over other systems, including “far easier” software development. Of course, VIA also sees plenty of potential beyond hobby kits, with it also showing off an EPIA Mini-ITX-based version of the Vecna Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (or BEAR), and it touting the benefits of its Pico-ITX platform for all sorts of “extremely space constrained robotics designs.”

[Via Far East Gizmos]

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Via [Engadget]

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Acer Drops Price of Aspire One to Impulse Buy Territory [Aspire One]

Acer’s Aspire One was already one of the most affordable 8.9″ mini-notebooks on the market, but now they’ve gone and dropped the price further while adding a 6-cell battery version to the mix. The Windows XP version (120GB hard drive and 1GB RAM has been reduced $50 from $400 to $350. Their Linux system (8GB SSD and 512MB RAM) dropped $50 as well from $380 to $330. Oh, and those of you wanting the 6-cell system can pick it up for the old price of the 3-cell, $400. So is Acer worried about the competition from a potentially $300 Dell system? We don’t know, but we sure do like seeing prices going down for once. And for the time being, the Aspire One is probably the best deal in the mini-notebook market. [Laptop]

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The Skinny on Projection Screens [Projection Screen 101]

If you have been toying with the idea of setting up a home theater with a projector, the guys over at Home Entertainment Mag have put together a handy guide for beginners that can help you maximize performance. They say the key is to match your projector with the right screen—and that means knowing what kinds of screens are out there, what size and shape you need, what to look for in terms of screen gain, whether a perforated screen is the way to go and what the deal is with rear projection. The basics of these issues are covered, and they offer up plenty of suggestions for you to investigate. Hit the link to check out all the details along with some pretty pictures. [Home Entertainment Mag]

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OLPC achieves goal of One Laptop Per Child… on The Rock

Filed under: Laptops

One Laptop Per Child. That was the lofty goal set out by NickNeg before Intel ever dreamed of a Classmate PC. Today that goal was realized although perhaps on a smaller scale than the non-profit may have hoped. The tiny, South Pacific island nation of Niue (known locally as “The Rock”) just issued a shiny new laptop to every sticky-fingered, primary and secondary school miscreant — that’s 500 in total for a island of 1,500 people. Seems, high-schoolers have been fitted with the freebie as well to go along with the free Internet access provided to all the island’s inhabitants. Luxembourg, you paying attention?

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Xbox 360 Special Edition Sidekick LX Shown Off By Soulja Boy [Xbox 360 Sidekick Lx]

Soulja Boy claims that he has the only Xbox 360 Sidekick LX in the world, something that we believe him on, seeing as Danger is a huge fan of doing limited runs of designer Sidekicks for special people. Does it mean that Soulja Boy will have the only Xbox 360 Sidekick LX forever? Tough to say, but we’re hoping there’s some kind of tie-in seeing as Microsoft and Danger are more than just BFF. In the meantime, head over to Gamertagradio to see him fiddle around with it on video while mumbling incoherently. [Gamertagradio via Engadgetmobile]

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