Improved Vision Implants Rejuvenate Damaged Retinas Like Digicam Sensors for the Eye [Bionics]

The eye is a delicate thing. Most ocular implants that get too hands-on with your squishy sightballs cause rejections problems, but a new implant developed by the Boston Retinal Implant project shrinks the components significantly, allowing your eye to take on its cyborg enhancements without casting them off violently as unwelcome invaders.

For people with retinal diseases like acute macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, vision is impared because the retina’s photo-sensing cells become unreceptive to light; however, the nerves leading from the eye to the brain (the most Monster cables) are generally left in good shape. Implants like this one stimulate the sleepy retina cells with electric current, which is generated from the wirelessly-powered coil surrounding the iris and processed by a microcontroller in the tiny titanium case that sits on the outside of the eyeball.

This iteration is the first to have components small enough to be mostly external, which is less complicated from a bio-rejection standpoint. So to go where lasers can’t, hopefully Eye 3.0 tech like this will pick up the slack. [Technology Review]

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Rockbox Replacement MP3 Player Firmware Gets Updated [Mp3 Players]

Remember Rockbox? Back when MP3 players couldn’t do a whole lot more than play MP3s, Rockbox was there to add Gameboy emulators, additional codecs and other homebrew features. And if you’re still holding on to an older player, the new version 3.0 now supports a whole lot more of them for squeezing a few more months of life out before you cave. It also now comes with a handy bundled installer. Thrift on. [Rockbox via Lifehacker]

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Filed under: Robots

Look National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, we understand this is your first walking, bi-pedal robot — but why the peel-away face? Just slap in some big manga eyes and button-mouth and we might be able to sleep at night. But no, you show up at the Taipei International Invention Show with this creepoid, capable of singing via synthesizer and walking 2-meters in a straight line — presumably in preparation to celebrate our demise.

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Via [Engadget]

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Motorola USBW100 WiMax Adapter Allows Easy Wireless Upgrade [WiMax]

If you’re tempted to buy into WiMax technology but don’t want to purchase a whole new computer to partake, this Motorola USB adapter offers WiMax to any laptop with a USB port. Coming in multiple bands for worldwide compatibility (2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5 GHz), global travelers will, unfortunately, have to collect all three. No price yet, but we can expect the units to go on sale in Q4 2008.

Motorola Introduces First WiMAX USB Adaptor for Laptops

Motorola USBw 100 for 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz or 3.5 GHz bands delivers high-speed mobile broadband to laptop PCs

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - 23 Sept. 2008 – Fulfilling a promise of delivering high-speed, wireless broadband while on the go, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today unveiled its first WiMAX USB adaptor, the USBw 100. This thumb-drive-sized device is available in three versions to connect to WiMAX networks in each of the three bands approved for use around the world - 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5 GHz. The Motorola USBw 100 plugs directly into laptop computers to provide mobile and nomadic wireless broadband connectivity, both indoors and out. It is expected to be available in Q4 2008.

Motorola’s wi4 WiMAX USB adaptor has been designed with multiple antenna technology to provide reliable, high-speed connectivity in the various and unpredictable environments where users expect service, especially indoor home, business and coffee shop environments, as well as on-the-go in a mobile world. The USBw 100 delivers increased range and higher throughput when compared with single-antenna solutions. When used with Motorola’s dual antenna Diversity Access Point (DAP) /Wireless Access Point (WAP) 400 Series, both uplink and downlink performance are significantly enhanced.

The device, which easily plugs into the USB port, seamlessly connects the laptop computer to a WIMAX broadband network for reliable, easy, high-speed connection for e-mail, web surfing, video and audio streaming, GPS services, Internet phone calls and other uses.

“Our new USBw 100 adaptor will let people enjoy desktop-like performance while on the go with their laptop computers by giving them wireless connectivity to a WiMAX service provider’s broadband wireless network,” said Charles Riggle, senior director of strategy and business development, WiMAX devices, Home & Networks Mobility. “With hundreds of thousands of commercial WiMAX CPEs shipped to date, the USBw 100 is the latest addition to our portfolio of award-winning devices that are providing fixed, nomadic and mobile connectivity to our WiMAX customers around the world.”

The USBw 100 will be on display in Motorola’s booth, #601, at WiMAX World 2008. For more information on Motorola’s WiMAX solutions, please visit: http://www.motorola.com/wimax

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Dell to transition all laptops to LED displays by 2010

Filed under: Displays, Laptops

We’ve already heard about a certain other computer manufacturer’s supposed plans to go all LED with its laptops in the not too distant future, and it looks like Dell is now set to take the energy-saving leap as well. According to PC Magazine, Dell says that two-thirds of its Latitude E-series laptops will ship with mercury-free LED backlighting as standard by December 15th of this year, and that by the end of 2009, fully 80 percent of all its laptops will be equipped with LED-backlit displays, which also have the added benefit of looking better and being thinner. The remaining laptops will then apparently make the switch sometime in 2010. In case you’re wondering, Dell also says that it is “absolutely committed” to transitioning its desktop displays to LED, although it doesn’t seem to be quite ready to make any firm commitments.

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Rumor Roundup: Apple Brick [Rumors]

What is the Apple Brick? It’s a rumor that started over at 9 to 5 Mac. A trusted source told the site that the (also rumored) October 14th Apple Event would be “all about the Brick.” The fun sort of spiraled from there, with plenty of guesses of just what the Brick could be…

TGDaily (Netbook)
“There is some chatter that this “Brick” is actually a Mac tablet, but we here at TG Daily believe that if that is in fact the case, Macworld in January may be a more appropriate event to unveil a tablet. Another rumor has it that Apple may introduce a brand-new sub-notebook to compete with Asustek’s EeePC.”

iPhone Savior (Mac Mini Pro)
“Sources have indicated Apple’s “one more thing,” code named ‘Brick’ rumored to be announced around October 14th along with a MacBook refresh, will actually be a re-design of the Mac Mini super-sized to reveal a Mac Mini Pro of sorts.”

ComputerWorld (Wireless USB Hub)
“Perhaps the “brick” would have a Wireless USB hub…We know that most features of a traditional dock can be used with USB. Audio in/out, keyboards, mice, DVD drives, external hard drives, networking… even new displays can be plugged in via USB. “

Macenstein (Windows Smasher)
“…it is now our belief that The Brick has nothing to do with the device actually looking physically like a brick at all. Rather, we feel it is likely that it is simply a name for an upcoming product (or group of products) that Apple thinks will be sexy enough to pull a huge marketshare away from Microsoft. After all, how do you break “Windows”? You throw a brick through them!”

All we know for sure is that all of these guesses cannot be right…assuming the “Brick” is a real product in the first place.

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Chevy Orlando is Totally the Minivan of the Future, Dude [The Future]

This is the 2010 Chevy Orlando, a concept vehicle due to be shown off at the Paris Motor Show next week. It’s pretty similar to the 2010 Chevy Cruze, but as you can see, it’s got some pretty dramatic blue lighting on its exterior. I’m not quite sure if its completely ridiculous or totally awesome; it probably falls somewhere between the two. I mean, Tron lights are awesome, but Tron lights on a glorified minivan? It’s interesting, at least. Hit the jump for a shot of this with its sunroof glowing, then head over to Jalopnik to see many, many more pictures of this thing.

[Jalopnik]

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Lenovo ThinkPad X200 tablet goes on sale

Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

Anyone interested in Lenovo’s ThinkPad X200 tablet is no doubt pretty well acquainted with it by now, and if you’re sold on it you can now finally get your order in for one, though it’ll apparently still take one or two weeks to actually ship. Contrary to what we had heard earlier, it looks like the base price starts at a slightly more reasonable $1,844, although you’ll have to drop an additional $275 if you want a fancy MultiTouch + MultiView display, and the rest of the baseline specs are also expectedly lightweight. That’s nothing an extra $1,000 or so in upgrades can’t fix though — hit up the link below to get configuring

[Thanks, Micah]

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