New Gadgets

Recently, the official site of Toshiba in Japan described a new robot called Toshiba ApriPoko. This robot is designed to fulfill the wishes of its owner and help him/her in everyday life. It observes, learns what you ask and what you want and, thus, becomes an indispensable assistant.

To say briefly, for the first time Toshiba ApriPoko takes command via special remote control and remembers what you asked. And the next time it will do the same thing just by your voice command. By the way, it has a camera and microphone for IDENTIFICATION of the person who asks something. It can have several users as the data is collected and summed separately.

Another interesting feature is that this robot can operate your TV from a distance, as it can be done by a remote control. That is, if you ask it to change the channel, reduce or increase the volume, etc., it will be able to do it.

At the moment there is only a demonstrational version of ApriPoko and it understands only simple commands. But we hope that it will soon be on shelves.

Have you ever argued, during watching television, with someone for a remote control? To avoid this, you can buy a remote control for each family member, but then again everyone will watch what he/she wants.

This is a new special panel, which is suited to all televisions. You can simply lock the other remote controls. A very useful thing for the head of the family.

This gadget has also two other advantages: first, it can replace a lost remote control, and second, you can turn off the TV, so that others have not been able to switch it on.

There are times that the remote control is lost, and you can’t find it. This special remote control has an on/off button, volume increase/decrease button, also changes channels, switches off the sound, switches the TV/AV. And this is quite enough for a full remote control.

The second method is the use of general interest. Imagine that you punish the child and order him/her not to watch TV, but you have to leave him/her alone for some time. Then you just turn off the TV and pick up the remote control. Now your child will not be able to switch on the TV with other remote control.

In order to control your TV with this panel you just need to click “Mute” and hold a few seconds. The gadget works with many TV-sets – Toshiba, Sanyo, Aiwa, Mitsubishi, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, JVC, Sharp and others.

It is small and compact, so that you can even play tricks on your friends who can not understand why their remote control doesn’t work…

Its price is only 15 dollars, size 5.8×3.6×0.6 cm. The manufacturer is Ninja.

The presentation of PlayStation 3 was held in Hollywood, in one of the pavilions of Sony Pictures. The console was introduced by the Co-founder of Sony and the father of PlayStation – Ken Kutaragi. Here it has become a common subject on how Sony is going to deal with X-box 360.

The name of the new console has remained the same, only number 3 is added to the end of the name. In fact Sony does not need any additional characters, like 360. PlayStation is a super brand, which in 2004 celebrated its 10th anniversary. PlayStation has sold about 190 million consoles and 2 billion copies of games. By the way, one third of the Sony proceeds are brought by consoles.

During the presentation the “iron characteristics” of PS3 were introduced. The heart of the whole system is CPU Cell, developed jointly by Sony, Toshiba and IBM. Having the size of a pin, it has a high productivity. The basis of this miracle is 64-bit kernel, built on the PowerPC technology and operating at 3.2 GHz frequencies. In the future, the frequency will be increased up to 5 GHz (!). There are 234 million transistors, while its area is only 221 square mm.

The company NVIDIA is responsible for the development of graphics processor for PS3, but X-box 360’s graphics processor develops ATI (note that even here the opposition of two “graphics giants” is clearly seen). It will be called RSX (“Reality Synthesizer”). Its operability is carried out at a frequency of 550 MHz. But the main advantage of PS3 is its capacity, which 2 times exceeds X-box 360’s.

The original gamepad for Free PS3, remotely resembling a boomerang, work on the protocol Bluetooth, and the battery can operate over 24 hours. As you can see from the specifications you can connect up to 7 gamepads.

PS3 will be equipped with a rich set of multimedia features: video chat, Internet access, as well as the opportunity to watch video and listen to music. Separately there was mentioned about an improved version of EyeToy – it is possible that the console can be controlled with the help of gestures. The participants of the presentation were very impressed by the manipulations made before EyeToy with conventional plastic cups, with the help of which they could draw virtual water on a huge screen, and transfuse it from one cup to another.

It became known that O2 has concluded the transaction, which received the exclusive right to sell super smart phones Toshiba TG01.
 

Toshiba TG01 is the first smart phone, which is equipped with a processor with a frequency of 1GHz, and the first smart phone with a WVGA display at 4.1 inches. In spite of these significant characteristics, thickness of this gadget is 9.9 mm. Moreover, in the standby mode, the phone can work up to 11 days.
The appliance is made on the basis of OS Windows Mobile Pro. It is also equipped with the UI, called Stripes, which is optimized under the control of the fingers. There is an accelerometer, which not only turns the images, but is also responsible for the gesture control.
We know that O2 will start selling Toshiba TG01 in June-July, but its value has not been announced yet.

Yesterday Toshiba company presented its first notebook in the United States. Mini NB205, as most of its competitors in this market segment, has small dimensions and weight, touchpad which is bigger than usual and battery, sufficient (as announced by manufacturer) to 9 hours of autonomous work. 

Among the functionality of the device are the 10,1 “LED-display, processor, Intel Atom N280 (1,66 GHz), 1 GB of RAM (it is possible to install up to 2 GB) hard drive to 160 GB, support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Interesting features of this notebook are the original technology, Impact Sensor, designed to save data on your hard drive if dropped, and other troubles of mobile life. 

Toshiba offers customers two options for the model NB205. The option of N310 index is covered by «metal» coat with chromium elements and will be supplied in four colors – Sable Brown, Frost White, Indigo Blue and Posh Pink. The company called the Mini NB205-N210 coloring Black Onyx, its flat keyboard is painted in the color Black Matte. The ultimate price of the two options, with complete Windows XP operating system, is respectively $ 399 and $ 349, their release to the big stores is expected on 23 June this year.