Terrafugia

Whilst it sounds like an exotic Japanese dish that consists of some amphibious fish – it isn’t. The Terrafugia is set to become the first roadworthy flying car available to consumers. Orders are already coming in and there is a backlog of over seventy orders that will ensure that the dream of the flying car is set to become a reality. The Terrafugia is more akin to an aircraft and it requires the driver to be a pilot in order to get the Terrafugia in the air. However, it is an aircraft that is legally allowed to be registered and driven on a road. The Terrafugia transforms from an aircraft into a car by folding its wings up so that the vehicle is car sized. It makes the Terrafugia easy to park in a standard car space and garage.
The transformation process takes approximately thirty seconds. While it may not any awards for being the most aesthetically pleasing vehicle – it’s essentially a flying car! The price is actually fairly reasonable for what is going to be the first flying car on the market (although it is out of reach for us normal wage earners). At around one hundred and ninety thousand dollars it is not cheap. It is a lot cheaper than I would have assumed it would be however.
It is not the fastest aircraft. If you consider what it is, that is not really an issue. It can travel at around two kilometres an hour while flying and can travel a distance of around eight hundred kilometres. It only has room for two people so it is not going to be a family oriented vehicle by any means. If you can afford it then it is probably going to be more about the thrill of owning it than having it for practical reasons

Hitachi LifeStudio External HD

Hitachi has introduced a new external hard drive called the LifeStudio which offers some unique features and new user software to enhance functionality. The LifeStudio drive is compatible with both the Mac and PC line of computers and comes with 3D Wall software, a product that will automatically amalgamate your documents, pictures, music and video collections from a variety of different sources including the local hard drives, USB gadgets and social media locations. Once collected, these items are organized in any easy to find arrangement.

In addition to Wall software, LifeStudio comes with both a content management app as well as a backup software solution which seems practical considering that this is an external hard drive. The drives are expected to go on sale both online and in retail locations around the middle of the month. There are 4 drives that comprise the LifeStudio suite of products and these are the LifeStudio Mobile, Mobile Plus, Desk and Desk plus. The drives range in size from 250GB to 2TB and are priced between $79.99 for the entry level unit to $219.99 for the top of the line device.

Read more about Hitachi LifeStudio External HD by Coolest Gadget Reviews

Key Mouse – Laptop Mouse With Number Pad

The primary focus of a laptop design revolves around being compact as well as portable. In doing so, one feature that some mobile users seem to miss is the numeric keypad. Sure you can get a separate USB keypad, but that means you’ve now got another notebook accessory to lug around with you.

Designer Sun Lihui envisions a keypad that has been integrated into a Bluetooth mouse so that the pointing device can perform a dual function. Called the Key Mouse, this conceptual product comes with a retractable hood that can be lifted to reveal a hidden keypad that can be used for all of your number crunching..

When the keypad is not required, the hood can be lowered and you’re back to using an ergonomic mouse that is fitted for the palm of your hand.

Read more about Key Mouse – Laptop Mouse With Number Pad by Coolest Gadget Reviews

intel Light Peak Technology

Light Peak Overview

Light Peak is the code-name for a new high-speed optical cable technology designed to connect your electronic devices to each other. Light Peak delivers high bandwidth starting at 10Gb/s with the potential ability to scale to 100Gb/s over the next decade. At 10Gb/s, you could transfer a full-length Blu-Ray movie in less than 30 seconds. Optical technology also allows for smaller connectors and longer, thinner, and more flexible cables than currently possible. Light Peak also has the ability to run multiple protocols simultaneously over a single cable, enabling the technology to connect devices such as peripherals, displays, disk drives, docking stations, and more.

Existing electrical cable technology in mainstream computing devices is approaching practical limits for speed and length, due to electro-magnetic interference (EMI) and other issues. However, optical technology, used extensively in data centers and telecom communications, does not have these limitations since it transmits data using light instead of electricity. Light Peak brings this optical technology to mainstream computing and consumer electronic devices in a cost-effective manner.

How the Technology Works

Light Peak consists of a controller chip and an optical module that would be included in platforms supporting this technology. The optical module performs the conversion from electricity to light and vice versa, using miniature lasers and photo detectors. Intel is planning to supply the controller chip, and is working with other component manufacturers to deliver all the Light Peak components. We expect that the components will be ready to ship in 2010. Over time, the optical components, designed to be small, easy to manufacture and affordable, are expected to enjoy the economies of scale that other components have in the computing and consumer electronics industries.

A Collaborative Effort

Intel is working with the optical component manufacturers to make Light Peak components ready to ship in 2010, and will work with the industry to determine the best way to make this new technology a standard to accelerate its adoption on a plethora of devices including PCs, handheld devices, workstations, consumer electronic devices and more. Light Peak is complementary to existing I/O technologies, as it enables them to run together on a single cable at higher speeds. The Light Peak initiative builds on Intel’s commitment in working with the industry on existing I/O standards, and provides a path to continued progress into the future.

Sony Nextep PC Concept – A Wearable Computer

The nice thing about conceptual products such as the Sony Nextep PC is that developers can let their imagination run wild in thinking up new features that can be included in futuristic gadgets and the thing is that if something sounds far-fetched today, it may not be ten years from now.

Such is the case with the Nextep PC which as been suggested by designer Hiromi Kiriki. The pc has been earmarked for the year 2020, 10 years from now. The computer will be worn like an everyday wrist bracelet and will be constructed out of aflexible OLEDtouchscreen. It will also utilize a holographic projector for the display screen and will feature a slide out keyboard and network connectivity for access to the social networking sites.

USB 3.0

Before you leave work, you need to back up your computer. You push a button, and 5 minutes later, while you're still packing up, your system has dumped 150GB of data onto an encrypted 512GB superfast solid-state drive, which you eject to take with you for offsite backup.

Any task that involves transferring data between your PC and a peripheral device--scanning, printing, or transferring files, among others--will be far faster with USB 3.0. In many cases, the transfer will be complete before you realize it has started.

The 3.0 revision of USB, dubbed SuperSpeed by the folks who control testing and licensing at the USB Implementors Forum (USB-IF), is on track to deliver more than 3.2 gigabits per second (gbps) of actual throughput. That transfer rate will make USB 3.0 five to ten times faster than other standard desktop peripheral standards, except some flavors of DisplayPort and the increasingly out-of-favor eSATA.

In addition, USB 3.0 can shoot full-speed data in both directions at the same time, an upgrade from 2.0's "half duplex" (one direction at a time) rates. USB 3.0 jacks will accept 1.0 and 2.0 plug ends for backward compatibility, but 3.0 cables will work only with 3.0 jacks.

The new USB flavor could also turn computers into real charging stations. Whereas USB 2.0 can produce 100 milliamperes (mA) of trickle charge for each port, USB 3.0 ups that quantity to 150mA per device. USB 2.0 tops out at 500mA for a hub; the maximum for USB 3.0 is 900mA.

The iWEB fold-out netbook keyboard concept

Designer Yang Yongchang is proposing a fold-away solution to the keyboard envy sometimes exhibited by netbook users. For the iWEB design, a full-size QWERTY keyboard is jointed in two places and folded inwards so that when not in use it sits within the frame of a 6.5in display portable device. Open up the netbook, fold out the side flaps and enjoy the ease of use and comfort of those nice big keys.

Mobility and portability have certainly taken their toll on keying comfort. As laptops shrunk into netbooks, keyboard size took a seriously big hit. But perhaps Yang Yongchang's vision for a netbook of the future holds some hope for those who tire of the numerous errors resulting from fingers that are chunkier than the keys they attempt to press down or those who just crave for something bigger.

The designer reckons that a hinged, full-size chiclet keyboard could be squeezed into netbook dimensions of just 6.3 x 4.1 0.7in. Hot-keys grace the bottom of the side panels for increased productivity and LED status indicators sit at the edges. Also included in the design is a capacitive multi-touch display.

Of course, being a concept, there are no more technical details available (such as processor, memory and storage) but as folding keyboard solutions already exist in various shapes and sizes then is it such a flight of fancy to incorporate one into a netbook?