Innovation Technology

It's impossible to talk about hoverboards without invoking a particular movie title, so we're not even going to try: Remember that awesome scene from Back to the Future Part II? It's one step closer to reality: A California startup just built a real, working hoverboard. Arx Pax is attempting to crowdfund the Hendo Hoverboard as a proof of concept for its hover engine technology -- it's not quite the floating skateboard Marty McFly rode through Hill Valley (and the Wild West), but it's an obvious precursor to the imagined ridable: a self-powered, levitating platform with enough power to lift a fully grown adult.

I initially approached the floating pallet with caution, expecting it to dip and bob under my weight like a piece of driftwood. It didn't. The levitating board wiggled slightly under my 200-pound frame, but maintained its altitude (a mere inch or so) without visible strain. Arx Pax tells me that the current prototype can easily support 300 pounds and future versions will be able to hold up to 500 pounds without issue. Either way, you'll need to hover over a very specific kind of surface to get it to hold anything: The Hendo uses the same kind of electromagnetic field technology that floats MagLev trains -- meaning it will only levitate over non-ferrous metals like copper or aluminum.

It's impossible to talk about hoverboards without invoking a particular movie title, so we're not even going to try: Remember that awesome scene from Back to the Future Part II? It's one step closer to reality: A California startup just built a real, working hoverboard. Arx Pax is attempting to crowdfund the Hendo Hoverboard as a proof of concept for its hover engine technology -- it's not quite the floating skateboard Marty McFly rode through Hill Valley (and the Wild West), but it's an obvious precursor to the imagined ridable: a self-powered, levitating platform with enough power to lift a fully grown adult.

I initially approached the floating pallet with caution, expecting it to dip and bob under my weight like a piece of driftwood. It didn't. The levitating board wiggled slightly under my 200-pound frame, but maintained its altitude (a mere inch or so) without visible strain. Arx Pax tells me that the current prototype can easily support 300 pounds and future versions will be able to hold up to 500 pounds without issue. Either way, you'll need to hover over a very specific kind of surface to get it to hold anything: The Hendo uses the same kind of electromagnetic field technology that floats MagLev trains -- meaning it will only levitate over non-ferrous metals like copper or aluminum.

That's where the Hendo "white box" comes in. Backers who contribute to the company'sKickstarter at the $299 level will receive a complete, working Hendo hover engine and enough hover surface to play around with. It's a developer kit, Henderson says, and he wants makers to use it to build their own hover projects. If they have an idea they want to take to market, Arx Pax will work with them to make it a reality. "The most important piece of it all for me is the idea of taking away the limitations of how we think about problems in general. Not just thinking outside the box, but off the page," he says, explaining how Hover technology could be used to solve old problems in new ways. "When you do that -- when you approach problems that were seemingly impossible in different ways -- you'll never cease to be amazed by the solutions you can come up with."

While long-term goals go far beyond that of the not-so-humble hoverboard, there are plenty of Kickstarter goals focused on scratching that itch exclusively. For instance, 250 backers at the $100 level will be eligible for a five-minute ride on one of the company's prototype boards, and $1,000 buys a privately coached hour-long ride. Not content with merely renting hover-time? Okay, okay: The first 10 backers to contribute $10,000 will get a hoverboard to keep. The delivery date? 10/21/2015 -- the date Marty McFly arrives in the future.

Riding the contraption was a lot fun, but also quite the challenge: The Hendo hoverboard doesn't ride at all like McFly's flying skateboard. In fact, without a propulsion system, it tends to drift aimlessly. Arx Pax founder and Hendo inventor Greg Henderson says it's something the company is working on. "We can impart a bias," he tells me, pointing out pressure-sensitive pads on the hoverboard's deck that manipulate the engines. "We can turn on or off different axes of movement." Sure enough, leaning on one side of the board convinces it to rotate and drift in the desired direction. Without feeling the friction of the ground, however, I had trouble knowing how much pressure to exert -- Henderson's staff had to jump in and save me from spinning out of control. Clearly, this might take some practice.

Asus on Friday has announced two new mini PCs in India, dubbed the Asus VivoMini UN42 and Asus VivoMini UN62, with a price starting at Rs. 13,500 and Rs. 26,500 respectively for the 'barebones' models, not including RAM, HDD, and OS.

Users can additionally purchase the VivoMini UN42 and VivoMini UN62 with Windows 8.1 or Windows 7 Professional 64-bit operating systems. Asus says that both variants are available starting this month and will come with a three-year warranty.

The VivoMini UN42 comes with Intel Celeron 2957U processor(1.40GHz, 2 cores, 2 threads, 2M cache); 2GB to 16GB DDR3L 1600MHz RAM options (2 Slots), and 32GB to 256GB mSATA SSD storage options. On the other hand, the VivoMini UN62 comes with optional 4th generation Intel Core i3 or Core i5 processor; 4GB to 16GB DDR3L 1600MHz RAM options (2 Slots), and 32GB to 256GB mSATA SSD storage options.

Various connectivity options and ports on VivoMini UN42 and VivoMini UN62 include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, four USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI, one RJ45 LAN, one display, one audio jack (mic in/ headphone out), one four-in-one card reader slot, one Kensington lock, and a DC-in port. Both machines measure 131x131x42mm and weighs around 1kg.

Asus says that the two VivoMini PCs also support up to three independent displays through HDMI and DisplayPort++ without the need for an additional graphics card, along with output support for 4K/ UHD (Ultra-high definition) resolution displays. The ultra-low power design on both is said to draw as little as 6.95W power at idle.

"VivoMini is ideal for a wide range of business applications and home needs. It can be used in point-of-sale (PoS) terminals, digital signage, kiosk displays, or as a computing platform for small workstations; it can also be a personal or family PC for surfing the web, playing games and watching movies," notes company in its press release.

Cambridge Audio is on a roll with its new range of wireless speakers – we have already awarded five stars to both the bigger Minxes, the Air 100 and Air 200.

And now it’s the turn of the baby of the range, the Cambridge Audio Minx Go.

The Minx Go, available in black or white, has a trick or two up its sleeve that set it apart from a regular £100 Bluetooth speaker. Its rechargeable lithium-ion battery is a very different beast from those slow-charging powerpacks of only a few years ago.

Set-up

Sound quality

You might be grateful that it remembers eight devices, too: people will be queuing up to use the Minx Go.

• Basalte Switch
• Jetlev Flyer (A water powered jetpack)
• 10 New Innovations That Could Change the World
• Plantronics Voyager Legend (Bluetooth)
• Samsonite Torus solar backpack
• Moto Hint: A good Bluetooth earbud if you have the right smartphone
• Leap Motion Controller
• Amkette Trubeats Metal (Trubeats Metal BT speaker)
• Swiss Army knife with 1TB USB stick

Denon’s first Cocoon didn’t contain any butterflies, but it did sprout a pop-out 30-pin iPod dock.

This new version ditches the physical connection: now you get wireless music streaming courtesy of Apple AirPlay and a simpler front panel. And still no butterflies.

It isn’t just a pretty fascia, either. The Cocoon Stream sounds excellent. Play Jay-Z’s BBC and that all-important bass part has plenty of weight, but crucially this doesn’t cloud the speaker’s judgement higher up the range. Percussion sounds sharp and precise too, and the Denon gives the vocal plenty of warmth and body.

Connections

See also :-

• Basalte Switch
• Jetlev Flyer (A water powered jetpack)
• 10 New Innovations That Could Change the World
• Plantronics Voyager Legend (Bluetooth)
• Samsonite Torus solar backpack
• Moto Hint: A good Bluetooth earbud if you have the right smartphone
• Leap Motion Controller
• Amkette Trubeats Metal (Trubeats Metal BT speaker)
• Swiss Army knife with 1TB USB stick

GoPro has introduced the Hero+ LCD camera, sharing many features with the entry-level Hero with the addition of a touchscreen. The Hero+ LCD is waterproof to depths up to 40m/131 ft, and adds both Bluetooth and integrated Wi-F with support for the Android and iOS GoPro App. Videos can be recorded at up to 1080p/60, and 8MP still image capture is offered.

The Hero+ LCD's features include HiLight Tagging for marking notable moments while recording or playing back footage, as well as in-camera video trimming for rapid editing and sharing without the use of a computer. Content can be shared directly to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Like the Hero, the Hero+ LCD offers a QuikCapture setting, allowing the user to power the device on and start recording with one button press. The battery allows for about two hours of recording per charge; microSD cards up to 64GB are supported.

The Hero+ LCD will launch in the United States at retailers and online on June 7 for $299.99 USD. The camera will then go on sale internationally on July 12.

 “HERO+ LCD illustrates that even as we push the limits of life capture with bleeding-edge devices like the HERO4 Black, we’re also focused on delivering accessible, high-quality capture solutions to anyone wanting to GoPro,” said Nick Woodman, founder and CEO of GoPro.

Whether you are a first-time user or a GoPro veteran, the HERO+ LCD is an impressive capture solution. It combines GoPro’s famed image quality, versatility and durability with WiFi connectivity, long battery life and touch display convenience in an all-in-one design. 

HERO+ LCD  $299.99 MSRP – All-in-one awesome + touch-display convenience

HERO+ LCD will be available for purchase in the U.S. at authorized GoPro retailers and GoPro.com beginning June 7, 2015. International availability will begin July 12.

See also :-

LAS VEGAS -- With the 2013 introduction of both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, you'd think the living-room gaming category would be pretty tied up. Veteran PC gaming company Valve, the force behind classic games such as Half-Life and the massive Steam online PC game store and app, thinks differently. With its new Steambox initiative, and the SteamOS that runs a living-room-friendly version of the Steam app, the company hopes to usher in a new generation of small form factor PCs specifically designed to hook up to a big screen television.

While many of the early Steambox systems are coming from smaller custom PC makers, one of the handful of early hardware partners for Valve is Dell, through its Alienware gaming PC brand. That's a bit of a surprise, as Alienware is known for big-budget gaming desktops and laptops, not console-priced small-form-factor PCs that run operating systems other than Windows.

Dell calls this unit the Alienware Steam Machine, and it shares a basic boxy look and feel with the other Steambox hardware we've seen to date. Exact specs and price details are not available yet, but we're told the system will sell for a price comparable to current-gen living-room game consoles, and will include one of Valve's inventive new wireless game controllers.

We expect this system, which will likely run a system-on-chip CPU/GPU combo and play some native Steam games while streaming others from a compatible PC on the same network, to be available sometime in late 2014. Alienware also plans to make a Steam OS version of its X51 desktop available, most likely with a Windows/Steam OS dual-boot option.

See also :-

CES 2012 Victorinox is making a Swiss Army penknife with a 1TB USB stick inside it, claiming it's the world's highest USB stick capacity.

It's being shown at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. You can either buy the stick on its own – the airline-friendly version swings out from a standard-looking Swiss Army penknife container, coloured red or black – or you can get one with a pair of scissors and a knife... but don't expect to get that through airport security.

It has been running the product line for some years; there was a 1GB version in 2008, meaning a 1,000X capacity improvement in four years.

It can be accessed via USB 2.0 and 3.0 or eSATA, and has a 48 x 96 dot monochrome LCD display showing enough text for a device label or some indicator of the drive's contents. It also has AES 256-bit encryption.

On a separate note, just how small can a PC be these days? You could probably get an acceptable CPU, support chips, DRAM and SSD on a motherboard the size of a matchbox. With a keyboard and screen a basic design decision would be whether to stick the little sucker inside the keyboard or the screen enclosure.

Could you get rid of the mechanical keyboard without compromising the screen display area? You could have a clamshell tablet with two screens. One would display a soft keyboard and the other be the main display screen with, say, half the keyboard screen available as well.

Capacities range from 640GB up to the 1TB level and you will pay $470 for the 640GB one and – wait for it and get a tissue handy – an eye-watering $2,000 or so for a 1TB product. Save up your cash to buy one in April when they should be available. ®

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