Filed under: Displays

Face it, the past few decades of flat holograms have been a sham. Baseball cards? Security logos? Software piracy protection? This isn't what sci-fi had in mind at all. Thankfully, some University of Arizona scientists are getting the technology back on track with a new three-dimensional holographic display. What makes this one special is that the display is dynamic -- it can be rewritten with an entirely new image in a few minutes. Obviously the refresh rate's going to need some work before we're all chugging along on a holographic workstation, but it's certainly a start. The current prototype is 4-inch by 4-inch, and only displays in red, but the researchers believe a full color display is feasible, and they're already at work on a 1-foot by 1-foot version.

 

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Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

A Michigan Middle School student learned the hard way about bringing video games to school when his PSP battery overheated in his pocket during band practice, sending him to the hospital with leg burns. Apparently students are allowed to bring the systems to school as long as they don't play them during school hours -- a policy which we're sure the children follow to the letter. There's no word from Sony on the incident yet, or whether the kid was using a shady third party battery inside the system.

[Thanks, Robin W; image courtesy of Jakob L]

 

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Filed under: Gaming

Some folks in the UK happened upon a set of British patents submitted by Nintendo recently for a whole slew of crazy Wiimote accessories, and you might be surprised to know what the company wants dibs on. Included in this large collection of sometimes bizarre add-ons is a Wiimote-cradling teddy bear, skateboard, helmet (with goggles), golf club, baseball bat, and of course... a bicycle. We're not sure what the big N was thinking when they assembled this list -- perhaps they just wanted to cover all the bases as those filing patents are wont to do. However, we suggest they scramble for these gems that have been unfairly left off: Wii-chocolate bar, Wii-sofa, Wii-Terminator, and of course, the Wii-Wii -- a larger Wiimote which the regular Wiimote gets slotted into.

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy and The Register]

 

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Filed under: Cellphones

Alright, we'll definitely cop to having broken off a relationship or two via text message, but we don't think we've ever heard of a high-ranking executive discovering he'd been fired when his phone stopped working -- which is exactly what happened to Roy Kosuge, COO of Voce, that "luxury" MVNO. We'd heard rumors of Voce's demise, but it looks like ol' Roy wasn't so plugged in, only finding out that his company was dead when his phone stopped making calls. Of course, when a company's chief operating officer doesn't know that you're about to kill the lights, it's a safe bet that things a pretty screwed up, so if you were among the few who signed up for Voce's premium services, we'd recommend calling your credit card company immed -- oh, right. Sorry about that.

 

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Filed under: Laptops

We've definitely been curious about the difference sticking an SSD would make in the MacBook Air's otherwise average performance and battery life, and it looks like the answer is a resounding "meh." The crew at Ars Technica ran an SSD-equipped Air through a battery of tests, and found that while the increased random disk read / write speeds and slightly faster processor led to a minor overall speedup and less pinwheeling, the dramatically lower sequential read/ write speeds of the SSD made things essentially a wash. What's worse, battery life -- where the SSD should have shone -- was decidedly mediocre. Ars was able to coax the SSD model in to lasting 29 minutes longer than the HDD version they tested, but on average the SSD-equipped MBA didn't have the juice to last any longer than the HDD model, getting to about 2 hours and 31 minutes before petering out. All said, Ars says the extra $1300 for the SSD MacBook Air just isn't worth it -- but c'mon, you know that's not stopping the people who are buying Airs in the first place.

[Via Digg]

 

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Filed under: Gaming, HDTV

 

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Filed under: Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Spotted at CES and out this month in Korea, Samsung's 3D-capable plasma is going to be making an appearance Stateside in March. The 42-inch and 50-inch PN42A450P TVs use the TriDef 3D tech from DDD Group, which costs $200 for two pairs of 3D glasses and the TriDef 3D software. Samsung's calling this the "world's first 3D-ready flat-panel HDTV," but didn't leave out the other fixins like a 15,000:1 contrast ratio, 18-bit color processing and three HDMI-CEC plugs. No word on cost, but you can't put a pricetag on those migraines.

 

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Filed under: Transportation

 

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Filed under: Household

Despite numerous technological advancements in home automation, it's never really seemed to catch on with the mainstream. Now it's time for the children -- our future -- to take things into their own hands. Hasbro is launching the Room Tech Clock (left) and Room Tech Lamp (right), which put a bit of wireless conspiracy to good use by having the Clock turn on the Lamp when the alarm goes off. Sadly, these kids aren't really dreaming big yet, since that's about all this duo can do, other than an audio jack on the alarm to play tunes off your portable audio player. The two Room Tech devices will be out in September, at least in the UK, for £39.99 ($79 US) a piece.

 

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

 

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