JabzWEB.com » Gadgets

Overview of the Fujitsu FLEPia at CES

Tony — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:13:08 +0000

We saw the Fujitsu FLEPia at CES a few days ago, and unfortunately for those who live in the US, it will not go there, although it is already available in Japan. First impressions are very promising, and it runs on Windows CE and includes a frame rate relatively fast compared to its potential rivals, the Amazon Kindle and the Nook. The touchscreen 8-inch display passive matrix can support up to 4096K colors, and despite the fact that it has no backlight, the images are quite surprising because it was specially designed to reflect ambient light, black, red, green and blue. According to Fujitsu, the FLEPia will have a battery life up to 40 hours. Other features include: USB 2.0, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and an SD slot. It was released in Japan in April 2009, for a price around $1,000 after conversion.

Lexi ebook reader

Tony — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:47:36 +0000

Audiovox has unveiled its ebook reader, called Lexi, at CES 2010, joining the growing crowd of ebook readers. The Lexi features include a screen of 6 inches with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, 2GB of internal memory and a battery life of up to 7000 pages. Will it surpass the Kindle and the Nook? We’ll see when the device will be released in May 2010, priced at $229.

Jaeger-LeCoultre AMVOX3 Tourbillon GMT luxury watch

Tony — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:44:16 +0000

Jaeger-LeCoultre and Aston Martin have have created together the AMVOX3 Tourbillon GMT. This luxury watch is inspired by the Koenigsegg CCR sports car, it has an open worked dial that gives you a full view of the base plate and the ruthenium-coated bridges. It’s a limited edition, only three hundred copies of these hand made luxury watches will be available in the market.

Aigo EB6301 ebook reader

Tony — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:01:48 +0000

The EB6301 is a new ebook reader from the manufacturer Aigo in China. The device has a E-Ink 6-inch display (800 x 600 pixels) with a storage capacity of 2GB, a microSD slot, a battery of 1200 mAh and compatibility with TXT, PDF, DOC, HTM / HTML, CHM, MP3, WMV, WMA, JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, all in 164 x 127 x 11mm. Price: $360.

Neato XV-11 robot vacuum

Tony — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:10:48 +0000

There is a new robot vacuum cleaner in Silicon Valley: the Neato XV-11 is officially launched and aims to take the place of the Roomba, the champion in in the robot vacuum cleaner class. To overcome the Roomba, Neato solve old problems that iRobot (the company behind the Roomba) has never really improved (due to lack of competition).

Smarter: the Roomba is rather stupid. It doesn’t know where it is, and continues to bump into obstacles. The Neato XV-11 uses an internal mapping (RPS or Room Positioning System) that tells it where it is, where it comes from and what to avoid. Instead of cleaning the chance, it does so methodically.

Compatible with the carpet: the Roomba is not compatible with the carpet, but Neato says it does. This could be a decisive point for many users. If you rent, chances are that you have an ugly beige carpet (which still need to be sucked up). I wonder if the engineers of Neato live in Sunnyvale, California…

Compatible with the corners: I don’t see it as a big problem, but it is true that the Roomba doesn’t clean out the corners. Neato said it could be a fundamental improvement.

Self-docking for charging: this is a feature that has the Roomba, but if your room is fairly large and complex, it may happen that the Roomba will be lost and run out of power before reaching the dock. With its map, the Neato should return to its dock without trying to search.

Of course, the price is competitive. At $399, it is less expensive than the best and we look forward to organizing the ultimate contest, Roomba against Neato XV-11. There is a point where the Roomba wins: it has a better look. I can’t know if the design was done by a committee or if the engineers did the industrial design of the Neato XV-11.

LG RoboKing autonomous vacuum cleaner

Tony — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:52:08 +0000

LG has announced their new autonomous vacuum cleaner, the RoboKing, which includes two cameras to provide better analysis of its environment, so that the robot can calculate the best way of cleaning. This would result in an increase in efficiency of 30% compared to its predecessor. This is also associated with an increased rate of 30% for cleaning time, and the noise level has dropped to 50dB instead of 63dB.

Samsung SNE-60K ebook reader

Tony — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:53:09 +0000

The first ebook reader from Samsung, the SNE-50K was correct, except it was only available in South Korea, and somewhat lame because of the lack of Wi-Fi. All this will change with an updated version, the SNE-60K, which will have Wi-Fi, and an international launch. The CES 2010 will be certainly where we will see it.

Silent vacuum cleaner with iPod dock from Electrolux

Tony — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:28:22 +0000

Have you considered the possibility that vacuum cleaners can be silent? Electrolux has released the Silence Amplified. Called “the most silent vacuum cleaner ever made”, it works at 68dB, you can listen to music while you use it. Probably to illustrate that, Electrolux has integrated an iPod dock and speakers in the unit, so you can literally play music and use it at the same time. Unfortunately, this vacuum cleaner with iPod dock will not be mass produced, but it’s always nice to find such a possibility, right?

Sony FVA-U1 USB finger vein reader

Tony — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:47:41 +0000

Sony offers the FVA-U1 USB finger vein reader, which would be the smallest and lightest USB finger vein in the world. It will be released in Japan this December 18. To give you an idea of its small size, it weighs just 33 grams and measuring 70mm x 14.5mm x 58mm.

Eko Stoplight with countdown timer

Tony — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:47:54 +0000

Want to know how long you must wait at a red light? Well, here is a design of a spolight by Damjan Stankovic which will display a circular countdown of time left to wait at the red light. This way you can decide if you want to turn off your engine to save fuel, or prepare to start. Of course, a digital timer above the traffic lights would be more precise, and it is already implemented in many countries. However, this implementation has a terrible look!