Martin Jetpack flies again, sees IPO on horizon but no commercial sales yet (video)
April 6, 2011 No Comment
We were all aflutter this time last year when it was announced that the Martin Jetpack was finally available commercially and would be heading out to eager buyers in exchange for $86,000 . Regrettably, the time since then hasn’t been filled with bunches of happy new owners levitating on the power of their dual-fan-equipped Jetpack and even less encouragement can be found on the product’s website, which still says that sales to private individuals will begin only once “development and refinement” of the vehicle is complete. To that end, we’ve got video of the Jetpack’s latest test, which shows it elevating as high as it’s ever done, but even that’s tinged by the fact it’s carrying a testing dummy and is remotely controlled by a grounded human below. Ah well, at least the company itself seems to be in good shape still and is looking forward to floating about 30 percent of its value on the local stock market in order to gain extra funding. We get the feeling if they could just start selling the darn things, cashflow shouldn’t be a problem. Video after the break. [Thanks, Sean] Continue reading Martin Jetpack flies again, sees IPO on horizon but no commercial sales yet (video) Martin Jetpack flies again, sees IPO on horizon but no commercial sales yet (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Disappointed by the lack of companionship offered by your current media center PC? Then you might be interested in this so-called REETI unit developed by France’s Robopec. You see, not only is it a full-fledged media PC, it’s also a robot — one capable of displaying a range of emotions, no less. The company’s actually been working on this one for a little while now, but it just recently made its public debut at the Innorobo trade show, where it showed off its ability to track people with its eyes and respond to both speech and touch. Still no word on availability, but it seems like the company is, in fact, planning to sell them at some point. Until then, you can check out a pair of videos after the break, including some shocking evidence of where REETI really came from. Continue reading REETI: the media center PC that’s also a robot REETI: the media center PC that’s also a robot originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Fiat will lose $10,000 on every 500 EV it sells, still intends to bring it to US in 2012
April 6, 2011 No Comment
Any new technology generally costs an arm, a leg, and a bit of your sanity to adopt early, but that’s a luxury that the well settled auto market cannot afford. In light of its elastic economics, car makers looking to go electric have had to be extremely aggressive in cutting their own profits, an aggressiveness that’s now been estimated by Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne to cost them as much as $10,000 per unit sold . Fiat’s famed little car, the Cinquecento, is going to be hitting the US in a new EV configuration in 2012 , in spite of the fact it’ll be causing a ding to the company’s bottom line. It’s not actually clear whether Mr. Marchionne is factoring in research and development costs or whether he’s talking purely of material costs, though Fiat’s fate is hardly unique — the Nissan Leaf isn’t expected to generate a profit for a good couple of years yet. The Fiat 500 EV’s likely price was indirectly revealed, too, by the company chief’s assertion that it’ll retail for about three times the cost of its gas-powered version. So about $45,000. Yikes! Fiat will lose $10,000 on every 500 EV it sells, still intends to bring it to US in 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …RFID-enabled vending machine ditches coinage, gets Mario Bros. tone (video)
April 6, 2011 No Comment
A Twitter-enabled kitty door it is not, but this RFID-equipped soda machine is by far one of the most practical DIY projects we’ve seen in sometime. A Canadian tinkerer picked up this pop pusher a few years back, and has been using it to sling drinks in his building ever since. Unfortunately, finding the right change to feed the machine proved an issue for his neighbors, so he did what any logical hacker would do, and built in a contactless payment system . Using an Arduino, an Ethernet shield, an LCD screen, and an RFID reader, he created a system that allows customers to swipe a card and easily add funds from an online account. Best of all, every time you press that little blue button you get a Mario Bros. sample . Big ups, PopCARD. Video after the break. Continue reading RFID-enabled vending machine ditches coinage, gets Mario Bros. tone (video) RFID-enabled vending machine ditches coinage, gets Mario Bros. tone (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Looks like President Obama and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg just can’t get enough of each other. Just two months after his tech industry schmooze fest , the White House has announced the Commander in Chief’s plans to hold a live streaming Town Hall meeting from Facebook HQ with Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The event is set for 1:45PM PST April 20th, and already has 3,400 attendees lined up. Users are encouraged to submit their questions about innovation and the economy via the event’s Facebook page, and the comments are already rolling in. Somehow, though, we don’t think this is the sort question he’s likely to answer: “Dear President Obama, could we please be friends?” Sorry, Carolina. President Obama to appear at Facebook HQ for Town Hall meeting originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …NASA makes longer, straighter piezoelectric nanowires in microgravity, no flat iron needed
April 6, 2011 No Comment
Piezoelectric nanowires are the stuff that make power-generating pants a possibility, and that prodigious potential has drawn the attention of NASA. You see, self-powered spacesuits are awfully attractive to our nation’s space agency, and a few of its finest student researchers have discovered that the current-creating strands of zinc oxide can be made longer and straighter — and therefore more powerful — when freed from gravity’s unrelenting pull. That means nanowires grown in microgravity could lead to higher capacity batteries and the aforementioned juice-generating interstellar garb. Of course, there’s no such end-products yet, but let’s see if NASA can do what others have not: give pants-power to the people. NASA makes longer, straighter piezoelectric nanowires in microgravity, no flat iron needed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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It’s been more than a year since the Coolpix P100 hit the review panels, and now it’s time for the new kid on the block to step up. The fine folks over at Photography Blog seem to find that the P500 performs similarly to the P100 — the Achilles heel still being image quality, suffering from the same washy retention of detail. The overall handling and controls haven’t changed much either — a second control wheel, the ability to mount an external flash, as well as dedicated ISO and white balance buttons are all still missing. With rather modest changes, the P500 gives you another dose of what the P100 served up — convenience in a compact package. Besides being able to zoom 10x more with that 22.5-810mm monstrous lens, and take larger pictures due to a 2 megapixel increase, the P100 is still faster (with a f/2.8 lens) and smaller, not to mention $100 cheaper. It’s difficult to say that the P500 is ready to grab the reins from the P100 entirely, but that miniature telescope of a lens sure makes it a contender. Hit up the source for the full analysis. Nikon Coolpix P500 reviewed, zooms to infinity but not beyond originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 03:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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There are console mods and there are console mods … and then there’s this — a completely custom Nintendo Wii built from steel and cooled by two liquid-filled containers that would look more at home in a mad scientist’s laboratory. Not surprisingly, this mod took a long time to complete. Bit-tech forum member Angel OD began the so-called “UNLimited Edition” project way back in December, 2009 and, after a few diversions, finally finished it this past weekend. Be sure to hit up the links below for a look at the complete build process, and a few more shots of the finished product. Liquid-cooled Wii takes console mods to a ridiculous extreme originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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What was a Japanese-only device has finally made it to the US shores. Sanyo’s Eneloop Mobile Booster (aka, KBC-L2) battery supplies 5V 500mA of juice to a pair of simultaneously connected USB devices or 1,000mA to a single, more power-hungry tablet. The 5,000mAH Lithium-ion pack is baked right into the device (rechargeable Eneloop AA owners should check out Sanyo’s Mobile Booster stick) and charges fully in about seven hours from an AC circuit or 14 hours from a relatively feeble USB jack. Available now for $79.99. Continue reading Sanyo Eneloop Mobile Booster provides $79 of USB power-suck Sanyo Eneloop Mobile Booster provides $79 of USB power-suck originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Someone deep down in Intel’s development dungeons must be laughing a haughty laugh of disdain at us mere mortals getting excited about dual-cores in smartphones . The old Chipzilla has just turned out its 10 -core Xeon E7 processor family, which can work on 20 simultaneous computational threads courtesy of the company’s Hyper-Threading knowhow. Needless to say, there aren’t that many casual workloads that will ever properly harness such extremely parallelized prowess, but then Intel isn’t really gunning for the Facebook crowd here anyhow. The new E7s are for those dealing with truly data-intensive tasks, meaning that Facebook itself would be a good candidate to buy up a few, provided it’s tempted by such things as 40 percent performance improvements over the Xeon 7500 tied to dynamic power adjustment for increased energy efficiency. Pricing for the Xeon E7s starts at $774 and climbs up to $4,616 per 32nm chip, with the usual proviso that Intel won’t sell them in batches of less than 1,000. More details follow in the press release and video after the break. [Thanks, Khan ] Continue reading Intel rolls out 10-core, 20-threaded Xeon E7s, shows everyone who’s boss Intel rolls out 10-core, 20-threaded Xeon E7s, shows everyone who’s boss originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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