LaCie's XtremKey USB

If your typical USB thumb drive amounts to a padlocked warehouse for data, LaCie’s XtremKey USB is the Fort Knox. Fortified to the hilt with protection that only a fraction of users will ever take advantage of, the XtremKey combines unrivalled protection for data with bleeding-edge transfer speeds, making it one of the most appealing thumb drives on the market today. Like a Hummer, tough doesn’t come cheap (the 16GB version sells for $80), but for those who see value in their data, the premium will be a petty one.

 

Features and Design

Like its chief competitor, the Corsair Survivor, the XtremKey seals up data in a quite literal sense – within an impregnable metal shell. The USB key itself has been encased in 2mm-thick metal, and might pass for any other except for the beefy threads on its base, which screw into a one-piece, pipe-like shell. The entire assembly has been cast from Zamac, a super-tough alloy of zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper that’s typically used in everything from zippers to plumbing fixtures, blenders and firearms.

Obviously, the package weighs quite a bit more than your average thumb drive, but it lends some sense of security, too. We’re pretty sure you could throw it through a plate glass window in a bind. When it’s all sealed up, the XtremKey has a solid feel that’s hard to find outside of Apple in the consumer electronics business. A loop of braided steel cable provides a convenient place to attach it to a keychain, although the size is sure to strain pockets and catch a few janitor jokes on already-jangly keychains.

As we’ve come to expect with LaCie, the industrial design on the XtremKey is miles above Corsair’s rather cheesy, rubber-studded Survivor. Silly as it is, weight centered at the bottom of the key allows it to stand on end like a buoy, which prevents it from rolling off desks. The brushed-feeling surface, besides looking slick, also gives it better grip than polished metal, and makes it easier to hide scuffs and marks that are sure to collect on any device bearing the “rugged” label.

Durability

As a result of all its reinforcement, LaCie claims the XtremKey will resist submersion in up 333 feet of water, temperatures as low as -122 Fahrenheit and up to 392 Fahrenheit, and drops from five feet, not to mention the pressure of a 10-ton truck rolling over the top of it.

Do most people need this kind of protection? Absolutely not, but like a good insurance policy, most people won’t realize it until it’s too late. From an accidental cycle in the washing machine to getting fumbled into the street and hit by a car, we can imagine plenty of everyday scenarios that would destroy a lesser thumb drive, and the data on it.

While we didn’t push the XtremKey through every scenario possible, we did give it a few solid drops onto concrete and a long dunk in scalding water. While the water didn’t faze it, the drops did seem to loosen the USB connector within its metal shell. We’ll admit, though, that we stretched its “five feet” rating to more like seven, and the drive still functioned flawlessly, so we can hardly discredit its survivability.

Keep an eye peeled for an upcoming video where we put the XtremKey to much more trying tests.

Performance

Even if it can survive apocalypse, a USB drive doesn’t do much good if it’s so slow that it makes you late to work as you sit at home frantically waiting for your PowerPoint presentations to load. Fortunately, this particular drive doesn’t suffer from that issue.

We tested the XtremKey’s read and write capabilities by copying all 4.19GB of The Empire Strikes Back to it – then reading the same files back. It pulled the entire file system off our PC in 3 minutes, 48 seconds, and spat it back in 2 minutes, 40 seconds. That equates to average write speeds of 18.37 MB/s and read speeds of 26.19 Mb/s. While that falls a little short of LaCie’s advertised 30MB/s write times and 40MB/s read times, it still blows most of its thumb drive competitors out of the water.

LaCie also offers a complementary stash of online storage – 4GB on our 16GB drive – with Wuala. The online backup service offers more secure storage by spreading your files privately across other Wuala users, ensuring that no one location can fail and leave you high and dry. It also allows instant access from anywhere with Internet connectivity.

 Highs:

• Attractive, practical industrial design
• Ultra-rugged shell for durability
• Quick read and write speeds
• Capacity up to 64GB  

 Low

• Large, rather heavy form factor
• Expensive relative to capacity
• Not much margin for excess on rated shock limits

Seabird Open Web mobile phone concept from Billy May

As laptop computers continue to shrink in size and mobile phones become more and more powerful, can it be that long before the two merge into a device with the portability of a mobile phone and the functionality of a laptop? While it is just a matter of time before the power of a fully-fledged PC can be crammed inside a device the size of a mobile phone, our fingers aren't getting any smaller so overcoming the problems of interacting with such a small device will require some creative thinking. Creative thinking like that of designer Billy May who has come up with a mobile phone concept called the “Seabird” that is designed to address some of the frustrations people face when using such physically small devices.

May developed the concept phone as part of Mozilla Labs’ Concept Series, which asked people to share ideas and develop concepts around Firefox, the Mozilla projects and the Open Web as a whole. In early 2009, May, who also came up with the Hindsight concept glasses, developed a throwaway concept for an “Open Web Concept Phone”. In response to community feedback on that concept he developed the Seabird that explores what an Open Web phone might look like and how one would interact with it.

Virtual keyboard

The popularity of standard 3 x 4 keypads has declined as the popularity of smartphones has increased and the capabilities of mobile phones have expanded, to the point where QWERTY keypads – be they physical, such as those found on a BlackBerry, or onscreen, such as those found on the iPhone – are now the norm. Still, the size of these miniaturized keyboards is less than ideal, which is why May has opted for a full-sized QWERTY keyboard using a couple of in-built pico projectors.

When the Seabird is placed down on a flat surface two pico projectors on either side of the device can be used to display a full-sized virtual keyboard with the full complement of keys, while an unmarked area below the base of the phone serves as an infrared touchpad area. Additionally, with the use of a dock the projectors would act independently, with one used to display the virtual keyboard and the other projecting the screen onto a wall.

Bluetooth Headset/IR remote control
May’s Seabird concept also features a detachable Bluetooth/IR Dongle that fits into the back of the device that functions as a Bluetooth earpiece or as a remote control to move a cursor on the phone’s screen. An infrared camera array built into the phone would detect motion of the dongle in three dimensions, allowing users to zoom in and out as well as pan.
The Seabird would include features already found in mobile phones today such as an 8-megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack and mini-USB port. It would also run Android and would also charge wirelessly – again, technology that is already commercially available in devices such as the Powermat.
The device would feature a flat face with no physical buttons, while the bulge at the top of the device’s back elevates the two side projectors to allow them to better project the virtual keyboard onto the surface it sits upon.
Although there are no plans for the Seabird to become a real-world device, the technologies that May has used in his concept either already exist or are within the realm of possibility. So it’s also not beyond the realm of possibility that we’ll see a similarly equipped device appearing from a mobile phone manufacturer in the not too distant future.

First Large-Scale Organic Light Emitting Diode Display System by Mitsubishi Electric

Mitsubishi Electric has released world’s first large scale display system in the 100-inch and above which uses light emitting diode (OLED) as its light source. The new “Diamond Vision OLED” features Mitsubishi’s newly developed video controlling technology, delivering seamless, vivid images. The new display features wide horizontal and vertical viewing angles reaching approximately +/- 80 degrees, with maximum brightness of 1,200 cd/m2 and high contrast which is twice as the other LED products, making it ideal for installation in relatively bright area like commercial facilities, stations and airports.

The new display has been built through connecting a number of standard modules where each measuring 384mm both in height and width, weighting eight kilograms. The new “Diamond Vision OLED” scalable design makes it flexible to form a certain size or shape, even against rounded surfaces. The OLED device of the display has been jointly developed by Mitsubishi Electric and Tohoku Pioneer Corporation, which creates light via a process of electro-luminescence (EL), where each pixel is consisted of an anode and cathode separated by a thin organic membrane. Sales of the new display system will commence on September 21st, 2010. The new “Diamond Vision OLED” will be on display during CEATEC JAPAN 2010 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.
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New Ultra-Long Life Pinion Shaft by NSK

NSK has developed a new pinion shaft featuring a significantly longer service life than existing products. The new Pinion shaft is made from original NSK material SHX3 for use in the planetary mechanisms of automatic transmissions.

The new shaft features a 20% reduction both in size and weight, and it is suitable for more demanding operating environments. The new shaft is capable of operating at a minimum lubrication of 50 cc/min, in comparison with conventional minimum of 100 cc/min. Furthermore, the new shaft is capable of operating at a maximum temperature of up to 150 degrees Celsius, slightly higher than the conventional maximum of 120 degrees Celsius. Finally, the adoption of the cage and roller design has increased the maximum RPM capability to 3 folds that of a full-complement roller bearing from 12,000 rpm to 38,000 rpm. NSK is targeting sales of 2 billion JPY by 2015.
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ARM MPCore processor 2.5GHz

The Eagle has landed. As portable devices sporting ARM's Cortex A9 1GHz powerhouse start to appear, the company has unveiled the next step in the evolution of its system-on-a-chip Cortex A architecture, the A15 MPCore processor. ARM-based chips currently provide the processing power for a host of mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets, and this latest development is claimed to deliver five times the performance of current solutions such as the Cortex A8, yet has a similar low energy footprint.

ARM sees its latest system-on-a-chip development being available in configurations ranging from 1GHz to 2.5GHz, and being extended to octo core designs and beyond for certain implementations. The scalable solution can provide processing power in everything from smartphones, tablets and televisions, right on up to high-end servers and wireless infrastructure. Like the rest of the Cortex A family of processors, the new baby is fully application compatible with existing software developer ecosystems like Google's Android, Adobe's Flash, Linux and Windows.

Other features include up to 4MB tightly-coupled low-latency L2 cache, multiple software environment capabilities including full hardware virtualization, the ability to support up to a terabyte of memory, and advanced memory correction. Up to 30 per cent less memory is required to store instructions, the inclusion of NEON technology is said to speed up the handling of multimedia and processing algorithms, and hardware support for floating point operations coming in the next generation of consumer products is provided.

Currently available to system manufacturers in 32nm and 28nm flavors, the A15's development roadmap is also reported to extend to 20nm. As to when consumers will begin to benefit from the new chip... the Cortex A9 was launched by ARM in October 2007, and we are only just now seeing it in new tablets – so don't hold your breath.

Source: A15

Iwasaki electric and Teijin have jointly developed world’s first all plastic LED lamp that uses a high thermal conductivity resin, which is made by combining Teijin’s RAHEAMA high thermal conductivity carbon material and polycarbonate resin for making the housing of the lamp instead of aluminum. The new LED lamp which is commercially named “EYELAMP” will be sold under Iwasaki electric by the end of 2010. Well, the all-plastic is really the housing of the Lamp and it does not include the bayonet cap.

The new lamp which weighs only 300 grams, offers one tenth of the power consumption of a conventional mercury-vapor lamp, with brighter illumination, lasting for 40,000 hours, roughly seven times than conventional lamp. The new product comes in a warm-colored 3,000 (Ra80) model as well as white 6,500k (Ra70) one.
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Rechargeable Waist Warmer

Sanyo is at it again by introducing Rechargeable Waist Warmer as well as 2010 version of the Rechargeable Neck Warmer, all members of Sanyo’s eneloop warmer series. The Rechargeable Waist Warmer is equipped with Thin Film Heaters, which can effectively warm the belly and waist with the hyperthermic effect of the thin film heaters. The Rechargeable Waist Warmer ENW-WW1S uses eneloop mobile booster (KBC-L3A) as its power source.

The new ENW-WW1S is designed for effective thermal conduction as well as in preventing overheating. The thin film heaters are made of carbon and special materials, allowing it to fit the body comfortably all year round at home or work. This cordless rechargeable device can be used in various occasion, whether is commuting by bicycle or motorcycle, or during winter sports or any other outdoor activities. The product is made in two sizes of Medium (M) and Large (L) for both men and women. The belt is adjustable and it can be washed by hand (excluding the heater and the power source). 

The 2010 version of Rechargeable Neck Warmer warms around the neck with the hyperthermic effect of the built-in thin belt heater and it can be charged with eneloop mobile booster as well. It is designed to prevent overheating as well. It is available in colors of ivory and black. In addition to these products, Sanyo also introduced the 2010 version of Rechargeable Hand warmers. The waist and neck warmer will hit the Japanese market on October 14th, 2010.
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Highest Efficiency by SANYO DENKI

Sanyo Denki has released SANUPS P61A, a new PV Inverter achieving industry’s highest efficiency of 96%. The inverters which are 3kW and 5kW are targeted for South East and East Asian, Oceania and European Countries. 

 
The new IP65 comes with superior waterproof and dust-proof performance, ideal to be used for outdoor conditions. The targeted application is Photovoltaic system. The product is to be released on October 15th, 2010.
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Laws of physics

Star Trek’s Scotty was adamant that you “canna change the laws of physics,” but, according to a report from a team of astrophysicists based in Australia and England, that could be exactly what happens in different parts of the universe. The report describes how one of the supposed fundamental constants of Nature appears not to be constant after all. Instead, this 'magic number' known as the fine-structure constant – 'alpha' for short – appears to vary throughout the universe.

“After measuring alpha in around 300 distant galaxies, a consistency emerged: this magic number, which tells us the strength of electromagnetism, is not the same everywhere as it is here on Earth, and seems to vary continuously along a preferred axis through the universe,” Professor John Webb from the University of New South Wales said.

“The implications for our current understanding of science are profound. If the laws of physics turn out to be merely 'local by-laws', it might be that whilst our observable part of the universe favours the existence of life and human beings, other far more distant regions may exist where different laws preclude the formation of life, at least as we know it,” Webb added. “If our results are correct, clearly we shall need new physical theories to satisfactorily describe them.”
The researchers' conclusions are based on new measurements taken with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, along with their previous measurements from the world’s largest optical telescopes at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
Mr Julian King from the University of New South Wales explained how, after combining the two sets of measurements, the new result 'struck' them. "The Keck telescopes and the VLT are in different hemispheres – they look in different directions through the universe. Looking to the north with Keck we see, on average, a smaller alpha in distant galaxies, but when looking south with the VLT we see a larger alpha."
"It varies by only a tiny amount – about one part in 100,000 – over most of the observable universe, but it's possible that much larger variations could occur beyond our observable horizon," Mr King said.
The discovery will force scientists to rethink their understanding of Nature's laws. "The fine structure constant, and other fundamental constants, are absolutely central to our current theory of physics. If they really do vary, we'll need a better, deeper theory," Dr Michael Murphy from Swinburne University said. "While a 'varying constant' would shake our understanding of the world around us extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. What we're finding is extraordinary, no doubt about that.”
"It's one of the biggest questions of modern science – are the laws of physics the same everywhere in the universe and throughout its entire history? We're determined to answer this burning question one way or the other," Murphy said.
The team from the University of New South Wales, Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Cambridge has submitted a report of the discovery for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters. A preliminary version of the paper is currently under peer review.

T-Mobile G2 official

The follow-up to the Google sanctioned G1 smartphone is on the way and T-Mobile has released official details. The T-Mobile G2 gets Android 2.2, an 800 MHz Snapdragon MSM7230 CPU, applications like Google Voice Actions built-in and 4G speeds via the carrier's HSPA+ network2. The HTC-designed handset also includes a 3.7-inch multi-touch screen, an optical trackpad, a new hinge design for the full QWERTY keyboard and a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video capture.

HSPA+ support is built into the processor to achieve 4G speeds, with T-Mobile citing a theoretical peak capability of 14.4 Mbps on a network that currently "covers 100 million Americans in more than 55 major metropolitan areas."

What else? The integrated Voice Actions feature is worth noting (and as we reported earlier in the week, voice is really starting to go places), Android 2.2 brings seven customizable home screen panels and Flash support, there's 4GB of internal memory and support for up to 32 GB of external memory (with an 8GB micro SD card pre-installed), Swype text input, a 3.5mm headphone jack and the camera has an LED flash and autofocus.

There's no confirmation of a release date or pricing yet (the predictions are for a cost of US$200 on contract and $500 without) – T-Mobile says it will start taking pre-orders from existing customers later this month.

Source  T-Mobile  + predictions

Eco Switch kettle

We've seen several innovations in the design of the humble electric kettle recently that save time and energy – here's another one. The "Eco Switch" kettle has two settings – one for normal boiling water and a second which heats water to 85-degrees Celsius (185F) for things like soup. This means you get your warm water quicker, save energy, and you don't have to wait for it to cool down before you can drink it.

SEVERIN's Eco Switch kettle also features a double-walled stainless steel housing which keeps the water hot for longer and an LED flip switch lets you see which of the two settings you have chosen.

The Eco switch kettle will hit shelves in March 2011 at a cost of 50 Euros.