New Gadgets

We have seen previous versions of the PaPeRo robot from NEC in the past, and this time around NEC decided that it is ready for an upgrade. What new stuff and features can you expect from this updated little creature which seems to be almost lifelike at times, like a pet save for the fact that it comes in cold, metal furnishings? The updated PaPeRo will now boast visual recognition capability, allowing it to project “avatars” of people elsewhere. I wonder whether this would mean some sort of 3D holographic capability like Hitachi’s effort…

Apart from that, there is also the ability to type-to-speech, although not directly to audio conversations. Just like many other robotic vacuum cleaners this time around, the robot is capable of recharging itself automatically when it starts to run low on juice. Currently, trials of the update PaPeRo are being held in public buildings and old folks’ homes, although we don’t know how long they will remain under the testing phase.

In the upcoming Hugh Jackman movie, Real Steel, HP provided some of the concept designs for the futuristic technology used in the show. While the movie won’t be out until next month for us to watch, HP decided to show off what they came up with so in the meantime we can imagine what our computers will be like in the future. From see-through screens to compact 3D printers, the future sure is chockfull of technology to drool over.

First up we have The ThruScreen – a super-slim display that allows users to overlay virtual objects on top of physical ones to bring inanimate objects to life. It is basically a transparent touchscreen display that lets you manipulate real objects you place behind it and virtual objects on screen.

The VolumeJet is a 3D printer that creates 3D reproductions of what you’re seeing on screen. While the scene with the printer didn’t make it into the movie, according to HP, it can be used to print whatever is shown on screen, i.e. robot parts. I can imagine the printer being used to create gadgets in the future – all users need to do is purchase plans online and print them out. I guess this eliminates the need to go out to shop!

The Curve – no it’s not a BlackBerry phone but an L-shaped (all-in-one computer) and touchscreen display that users can manipulate with a stylus or their fingers. Imagine playing your favorite real-time strategy games on this device. It sure looks like it would be fun.

Lastly we have the Flex – a flexible laptop that the actors in the movie use to control the robots during battle. Like the ThruScreen, it also features a transparent display which can be used to check the status of the fighting robots. While it’s going to be many years before we’ll be able to get our hands on such technology, HP (not surprisingly) lists out some alternative products that you can get your hands on today. Find out more about the Real Steel gadgets.

Mergers often end up with some corners being cut (cost savings in corporate parlance), resulting in a leaner and often meaner entity. Of course, there will be collateral damage along the way, but then again that is to be expected. The latest news that is going around would be three Japanese giants, Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi working together to merge their liquid-crystal display (LCD) operations by taking advantage of the $2.6 billion government-backed funds in order to hold their ground against fierce competition from rivals who hail from South Korea and Taiwan.

This merger would mean the final entity ends up as the world’s largest manufacturer of small panels that will see action in a plethora of devices, including smartphones and tablets, helping them surpass global leaders Sharp Corp. of Japan and Samsung Electronics of South Korea.

In addition, this move intends to help the firms place more focus and emphasis on their main operations. It seems that the 90% government-owned fund might just come under fire as public money is being used to prop up a volatile business. Not too sure what the Japanese taxpayers have to say about the situation though – what do you think?

Yes, we all know that many eyes are trained on the iPhone 5 that is touted to arrive sometime in September or October, but that doesn’t mean Apple does not own any other high value “targets” – the iPad family being one of them. It seems that whispers are on the street, touting a premium version of the iPad 2 being in production, where it is intended to appeal to certain segments such as publishing – at least according to analysts.

Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw says that “Apple is…expected to roll out a premium version of iPad 2–a higher resolution screen, front-/rear- facing HD cameras–in the current quarter. It looks like Hon Hai is going into production with this new SKU.”

Do you think any of these analysts’ claims hold water, considering the iPad 2 was just announced back in March, and a hardware refresh so soon after is not quite Apple’s style. If this was meant for a new iPad release next year, then it might be more plausible. Of course, we won’t really know unless we’re in the select group of people whom Steve Jobs trust, but a professional version of the iPad sounds more like hogwash to me at the moment. What about you?

The Xbox 360 has undeniably become much more than a game console, and with the recent announcement of Xbox TV in addition of the existing Hulu and Netflix support, it’s clear that Xbox 360 needed… a media remote, which will arrive on the market at $19.99 on November 2011.

Obviously, there is some overlap with the Xbox controller: directions and A,B,X,Y buttons are present to deal with basic user interface elements. After that, you will find the usual play+pause/rewind/forward buttons.The remote is fairly basic, but I’ve seen much worse for the price, and if you use the xbox to watch movies often, it should feel better than using the gamepad.

Incidentally, Microsoft has also announced a $60 Bluetooth wireless headset that should come out at the same time. It’s nice and shiny, but it’s just a BT headset, so if you want to save a buck or two, it’s possible to get something cheaper.

The Clear 4G-Apollo router did make an appearance at the FCC a while ago, and since it has leaked out on the Internet already, why not go ahead to make it official? That is exactly what Clear has done with their latest generation 4G hotspot device. The Spot 4G-Apollo is different from the other devices to date simply because it is touted to have its very own display that goes one up on all those LEDs on current routers. This display will show off metadata such as connection strength, battery life, and amount of data transferred amongst others – all without having to check out your browser. Being the good and obedient router that it is, it is capable of handling up to eight devices simultaneously via Wi-Fi with a six-hour battery life – now the latter is definitely not something you see every day.

Manufactured by Gemtek, this hotspot will not feature legacy 3G support that allows you to roam on Sprint’s network, but if you are on WiMAX, it ought to huddle around the typical 3Mbps to 6Mbps speeds as promised by Clear.

To purchase or hire? That is a question all households need to ask themselves, as purchasing the Spot 4G-Apollo will cost you $100, or you can always rent it at $6 per month. Expect to see stores stock the Clear 4G-Apollo router from the end of July onwards.

Just what is so special about the KDDI Mi-Look pedometer? For starters, this GPS-capable device will cater for the elderly, as it sports a waterproof body so that a drop into the toilet bowl or a trip to the puddle of water is not going to faze it, while a QVGA display ought to be good enough to let even the elderly check out information on it without having to squint, and three main buttons keep things simple. Oh yeah, one more important aspect – the Mi-Look is also handy in communicating with family members.

Apart from that, it doubles up as an emergency buzzer – all you need to do is pull the strap, and off it goes to draw attention to yourself. According to a KDDI executive, “Often, people worry about their parents being alone, but can’t visit them often, and don’t want to keep calling them up either. In fact, that’s how it is with my parents. So we’ve designed the Mi-Look to let people keep an eye on their parents’ situation unobtrusively. We think there’s a big market for it.”
The Mi-Look will arrive in the Japan market later this September, in case you are interested (and living there, of course).

It looks like the rumors were correct: Sprint announced on Monday that the rugged Motorola Titanium phone will be available on July 24th for $149.99. The Motorola Titanium runs Android 2.1 (Eclair) and meets Mil-Spec 810G ratings for dust, shock, vibration, low pressure, solar radiation, high temperature and low temperature. The Titanium, which supports push-to-talk, is equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a 2GB microSD card and a 1,820mAh battery. Read on for the full press release.

Motorola Titanium, First Android 2.1 Smartphone with Best-in-Class Nextel Direct Connect, Available Beginning July 24 for $149.99

Motorola Titanium™, America’s first Android 2.1 (Éclair) smartphone with best-in- class Nextel Direct Connect™ for Push-to-Talk, goes on sale in Sprint Stores, online at www.sprint.com, Telesales at 1-800-SPRINT1 and Sprint Business Sales beginning Sunday, July 24, for $149.99 with a new line or eligible upgrade and two-year
service agreement, after $100 mail-in rebate.

As the successor to the popular Motorola i1 launched by Sprint in 2010, Motorola Titanium is sleek and attractive, yet durable. It features a full QWERTY keyboard and 3.1-inch touchscreen display for a feature-rich, business-class experience. Built military-grade tough, Motorola Titanium is designed to meet Military Specification 810G for dust, shock, vibration, low pressure, solar radiation, high temperature and low temperature.

Additional key features of Motorola Titanium include:
• Support for Nextel Direct Connect Services, including Direct Connect, Group
Connect®, International Direct Connect®, DirectSendSM, Group Messaging and
NextMail®
• Android Market™ for access to more than 200,000 applications, widgets and
games available for download
• Google™ mobile services such as Google Search™, Gmail™, Google Talk™,
Google Maps™ with Navigation, syncing with Google Calendar™ and
YouTube™
• Corporate email (Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync®) and personal (POP3 &
IMAP) email, calendar and contacts
• 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with camcorder, 4x zoom and LED flash
• Wi-Fi b/g/n
• Stereo Bluetooth®
• GPS navigation
• microSD slot, with a 2GB memory card included, supporting up to 32GB
• 1820 mAh Lithium-ion battery

With more than 17 years of expertise, Sprint is the industry leader in Push-to-Talk, serving the world’s largest Push-to-Talk community with millions of Nextel Direct Connect subscribers on the fastest national Push-to-Talk network. Nextel Direct Connect has set the industry standard for Push-to-Talk worldwide. More U.S. workers communicate in less than a second with Nextel Direct Connect than with any other Push-to-Talk service.

Don’t you just hate it when you try to take a photograph of your child or one of your favorite nephew/niece and they look at everything except the camera? Normally you’d need to wave a brightly colored toy around while you’re taking the picture so the kid will look in the general direction of the camera? Sometimes this can cause your picture to be off focus or shaky. And other times, when you’re out, you might not have a toy handy with you.

Well, Samsung has devised a solution to the problem with their latest 2View camera. Back in 2009, Samsung introduced a new line of cameras that featured dual-LCD displays – one in the front and one in the back. Probably targeted at the younger generation, the cameras made taking self-portraits a snap. Well now, Samsung are back with an update to the 2View camera. Called the ST700, it works like a regular 2View camera with a new addition: cartoons.

By playing back interesting, cute animations on the camera’s front screen, asking a child to look towards the camera is going to be a no-brainer. Just hit play, and you can be sure that for your next photo album, the kids are all going to be looking at the camera – at least until the kids get bored of the cartoons (luckily the camera comes with eight different animations). Users can also record and playback 30-second clips on the front display, or run a slideshow of photos on the camera if the kids have lost interest in the cartoons.

The camera takes images in 16.1-megapixels resolution, has a 5x optical zoom and Smart Auto 2.0 presets to help you automatically optimize your shots in any lighting. The Samsung ST700 is on sale now for $279.99.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android Honeycomb tablet is now available for pre-order from J&R. The 16GB tablet is priced at $499.99 while the 32GB version will set you back an additional $100. Here’s a quick rundown of its specs: it offers a 10.1-inch display with a 1280 x 800 resolution, a 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, full 1080p HD playback, a 3-megapixel camera capable of recording 720-p video, a 2-megapixel forward-facing camera for video chats, and more.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 also happens to be the thinnest tablet on the market right now. If you want a deeper dive, be sure to check out our full review of the limited edition version.  J&R doesn’t specify exactly when the tablet will ship, although we’ve heard the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be available on June 8th.