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Toyota :)

In 2012, whoah seems like a long time from now, but.. time goes by fast, anyways, Toyota will begin selling electric vehicles in the U.S.. They are determining what platform and what model will be battery powered.

"Bill Reinert, national alternative-fuel vehicle manager for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., said Toyota is determining the new vehicle's range between charges."

"We are wishing for the sky and making deals with the devil as we go down the road," Reinert said at the Detroit auto show. "We are looking for a 50-mile range right now" when such features as the defroster, heater, windshield wipers and stability control are operating at the same time.
The front-drive FT-EV, a concept based on the small, two-door Toyota iQ, was displayed last week at the Detroit show with electric power. That concept shows the size of the electric vehicle Toyota plans to offer. The Toyota iQ is sold in Japan and Europe. There is no electric iQ.
Toyota expects the electric production car to be used as the second or third vehicle in a household, primarily for urban driving.

Reinert expects a charge will take about six hours using a 110-volt outlet or about two hours using a 220-volt outlet. The car will be powered by lithium ion batteries.

Toyota still must decide whether the vehicle will be offered regionally or nationally when it is launched in 2012 and whether it will be available for purchase or through a lease, said John Hanson, a Toyota spokesman. Price and import volume for the first year have not been determined.

Asked about the potential size of the market for electric vehicles, Reinert said it will depend on how fast and how extensive the infrastructure is put in place for recharging.

He said other factors are battery development and consumer acceptance of vehicle range and recharging times."

Source: (2009, Jan 24). Toyota will begin selling an electric vehicle in U.S. in 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2009, from reviews.cnet.com Web site: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10145823-48.html?tag=centerColumnArea1.1

Mouse created specially for World of Warcraft gamers

"Are you experienced Warcraft gamer? Do you need a weapon that destroys Orcs and other enemies? World leader of gaming gadgets, SteelSeries presented new World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse. SteelSeries mouse is the most incredible like-tank mouse I have ever seen. This gadget was designed by Blizzard is specially made for World of Warcraft players, offering them striking advantage. This gadget with 15 programmable buttons can be modified according to a customer's individual requirements. Yes, you did not misunderstood, three times the number of fingers we have on a hand. It allows by single click to make your Wow maneuvers. The notches on the back of the mouse flush with fine colors. That original illumination features up to 16 million colors. Some people may consider it an outdated concept, though other people like it. Smooth cooperation of software with hardware will give the user an wonderful experience featuring exceptional action, comfort and controlling. This gadget will meet and surpass all expectation and requirements of even the most skilful Warcraft gamer.

Key features:

• Macros up to 160 characters

• 15 programmable buttons

• More then 130 preprogrammed commands for drag-and-drop own macro creation

• 16 millions colors for bottom illumination with 2 levels of intensity and pulsation

• 800-300 count per inch

• 3,6 mm lift distance

• First gaming mouse created specially for playing (MMORPG) - World of Warcraft (WoW)This new War of Warcraft gadget was created to provide striking benefits to all gamers. MMO Gaming Mouse already available for about \$90."

Source: (2009, Jan 23). First exclusive mouse created specially for World of Warcraft gamers. Retrieved January 24, 2009, from gadgets-reviews.com Web site: http://www.gadgets-reviews.com/index.php?page=post_new&id=1

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Neat.. They created a mouse designed specially for "World of Warcraft". World of Warcraft WoW is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for those who don't know. Not that I play that game.

This video talks about the smallest laptop, Sony Vaio Lifestyle PC. Also Known as the P-series. It is less than an inch thick and the size of a business envelope!! To know more about this tiny laptop you're going to have to watch the video. =D

Camera Hidden in Belt Buckle

When you are up to a secret video and audio recording, you have a full set of possibilities. Every modern cell phone has a voice recorder inside, many of them have cameras. However, it would be clearly obvious that you are recording if you are holding phone in your hands. There are some special gadgets that are carefully designed for making discreet recordings, so it would be smart to use one of them. Usually they look just like ordinary things - pens, pencils, watches… This one looks like a belt buckle, and it really is a buckle - however, not the simple one. Details follow.This buckle has a secret hidden inside of it - tiny video and audio recorder. While looking like a usual accessory, it turns out to be an ultimate spy tool. Inside of this buckle rests a useful gadget that can record video and audio, and is beautifully camouflaged! Wireless cameras are a no-go in places where they can be detected by wireless camera detectors, so when you are forced to use another way of recording - put it on your belt and it will film everything you want, with practically no risk of getting caught. Miniature camera records video in 3GP video format (176x144, QCIF) with sound , which can be saved on the microSD card from 128 MB up to 2 GB. After that, recordings can be played on PC or on your mobile phone. It can live 3 hours on one battery charge, but if you want to record a 3 hour length video you'll need some spare cards - 1 GB microSD card can only take up to 33 minutes of video. It is available in two models: classic one, called Buckle DVR, and strangely shaped one called Obaba DVR.This gadget, named Ajoka Obaba Buckle DVR Camera, will be very useful for investigation or evidence collection. It can't be seen by wireless camera detectors, it is comfortably hidden inside your belt buckle - a perfect companion in such missions. However, not everything is so bright. Camera records in a very small resolution - even modern cameraphone can do much better. It will be very difficult to see small details, if not impossible at all. Quality was sacrificed to the size and comfort - so if you want almost invisible camera that is not detected by any sensors then you can give this gadget a try.

Source: (2009, Jan 23). Camera hidden in a belt buckle. Retrieved January 24, 2009, from gadgets-reviews.com Web site: http://www.gadgets-reviews.com/camera-obaba-buckle.html
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Wow! That's really cool a camera hidden in a belt buckle... never thought I'd come to hear that. That is really clever and sneaky. No one would ever suspect a belt bucke as a spy gadget.

Laser Light Lane Eases Bicyclist's Life

Because Bicycles are much cheaper and less complicated than cars, like paying fees for entering city centers and doesnt use and fuel. Bike are more mobile than cars because u dont have to get stuck in traffic. But Many citizens who use bicycles everyday wants to buy cars as soon as possible so they can travel in more comfortable way and they want to feel themselves safer.

The Altitude Inc. has designed a awesome laser light lane gadget that is attatched to the bike. The gadget draw shape of a bike lane. "It was design in a way so the rider will be visible in the dark. That way drivers won't brake into his own space. Laser light will probably grow dim in the lights of a vehicle or street illumination. If we dive into Highway Code, we find out that bicyclist is a participant of the road traffic, which means he can use a full lane. Why to bother with gadgets and confuse drivers in this case? Anyways, if LightLane helps to avoid accidents on the road, it will by highly appreciated. LightLane shouldn't be an expensive device, so why not to reinsure then?"

Source: (2009, Jan 16). Laser LightLane eases bicyclist's life. Retrieved January 24, 2009, from gadgets-reviews.com Web site: http://www.gadgets-reviews.com/altitude-lightlane.html

Mind Controling Game

Nice...

First 'Pretexting' Charges Filed Under Law Passed After HP Spy Scandal

Prosecutors have filed "pretexting" charges in the first cases brought under a federal law passed in 2006 in the wake of the Hewlett-Packard spying scandal.
Pretexting is a method in which a perpetrator poses as a phone-company customer, or someone else, in order to request records of the customer's phone calls.
Authorities in Ohio filed an indictment last month against 28-year-old Vaden Anderson alleging that the defendant used pretexting to obtain confidential phone records from Sprint/Nextel. According to the indictment, Anderson served the phone company with a fake U.S. District Court civil subpoena to obtain the records.
If convicted, Anderson faces a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine.
In a separate Alabama case, Nicholas Shaun Bunch was charged in November with using a victim's name and the last four digits of his Social Security number to obtain confidential phone records from T-Mobile. He was also charged with aggravated identity theft for use of the victim's Social Security number.
Bunch agreed to plead guilty to both charges and pay restitution in an amount to be determined by the court. The pretexting charge, as in the Ohio case, carries a possible prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine up to $250,000. The aggravated-identity-theft charge carries a possible sentence of up to two years per offense and a fine of up to $250,000. The government has agreed to recommend a decrease in his sentence for his cooperation.
Private investigators and data brokers have used pretexting for years to obtain records for their clients, but the tactic was unknown to the general public until September 2006 when private investigators working for Hewlett-Packard were found to have used the method to spy on company board members and reporters.
The Telephone Records and Privacy Act, which outlaws the pretexting of phone records, was introduced in the House in February 2006, shortly after news broke that Verizon had filed lawsuits against data brokers who used pretexting to obtain the phone records of thousands of its customers. The House passed the bill, and it moved to the Senate in April of that year where it languished until the HP story broke that September. The Senate passed the bill three months later in December, and the law went into effect in January 2007.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/first-pretextin.html

Intel Cash Register Knows Who You Are, What You Want

Asking the question: “Do you know who I am?” is not likely to score you any points at the store, even in these trying economic times. But Intel wants to change that with a proof of concept cash register that knows not only who you are, but also what you want.
The prototype till, to be unveiled Monday at the National Retail Federation show in New York, aims to bring Amazon-style recommendations to the meatspace market.
Though Intel conceived of the machine, it’s not getting into the point of sale business. This prototype won’t go into production. Instead, it is meant to highlight a new direction for retail terminals — made possible (naturally) by the chipmaker’s newest processors. “We wanted to show the future,” says Ryan Parker, of Intel’s Embedded Computing Division. “And people don’t like looking at motherboards.”
For help wrapping up its silicon, Intel turned to Frog Design, the San Francisco-based outfit known for both objects (Apple IIc) and interfaces (Dell.com). Frog took a depressing look at “modern” machines — which average five years old — and came up with a concept that replaces today’s haphazard agglomeration of cash-box, signature pad and barcode scanner with a triple-touchscreen aluminum altar of lights that looks like a pinball machine from the Holodeck.
Two vertical screens function as kiosks, baiting you with ads and promotions. Flash an RFID store loyalty card, and your purchase history pops up — along with recommendations for what you might buy today. At checkout time, the salesperson brings the counter screen to life with their badge; images of your items materialize. So do related products for the salesperson to talk up, and hopefully sell you.
The goal is to combine the marketable social possibilities of shopping in the real world with the Web’s ability to up-sell.
But touch panels and next-gen processors don’t come cheap. A machine like this is expected to cost far more than the typical black box, so Intel had to be ready with some of up-selling of its own: energy savings. Today’s registers draw up to 250 watts and are typically left on 24/7 to receive inventory info. The prototype uses more efficient screens LCD screens and processors, but more importantly, it goes to sleep as soon as a salesperson walks away. (It can be remotely awakened for updates and diagnostics).
All told, Intel’s future machines will draw up to 90-percent less power. For a retail chain with 5,000 terminals, that’s a serious rebate.

http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/09/intel_extra_4.jpg

Robotic Suit Helps Paralyzed Walk

A new robotic suit known as a ReWalk helps paralyze people walk changing people's life. Dr. Amit Goffer, an engineer and founder of Haifa, Israel-based high-tech firm Argo Medical Technologies created this invention.
"It acts like a kind of exoskeleton. It consists of lightweight, motorized leg supports and an assortment of intricate motion sensors. The person who uses this invention wears a backpack holding a computerized control box which helps the device recognize when a step needs to be taken." (2009)

"Standing changes my whole environment. I don't have to look from the bottom up. Now I am eye to eye with everybody," Radi Kaiof, who has used the device. He is a former Israeli soldier, who was paralyzed from the waist down 20 years ago. He is now able to move with the robotic suit.

People who wear the suit and is paralyzed from the waist down can walk, bend, sit and climb stairs, needing the assistance of cruches to balance the and support them.

"If the invention gets an approval, then it would be a hit in the market for 2010. The price of the product has not been set yet, but it is expected that it will be comparable to the expense of a wheelchair." (2009)

Source: (2009, January 9). Robotic suit helps paralyzed walk. Retrieved January 10, 2009, from www.cnn.com Web site: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/09/robotic.suit/index.html

Holagrams of Parents When They are at Wars

Troops who left the military because they are needed in the wars in Iraq and Afganistan, will be soon getting payed by the Pentagon up to $500 bonuses monthly. The Pentagon now wants to create a computerized holagram-like for children whose parents are far from home or at the war and are not able to contact them. That way when moms and dads are beyond telephone and, or e-mail contact, moms and dads can talk with their kids.

"The stresses of deployment might be softened if spouses, and especially children, could conduct simple conversations with their loved ones in immediate times of stress or prolonged absence," says the Pentagon solicitation. "The requirements for voice recognition and a customized, family-specific nature make the idea technically challenging. Not to mention the need for artificial intelligence to respond appropriately to what the child might say. "The application should incorporate an AI that allows for flexibility in language comprehension to give the illusion of a natural (but simple) interaction," the solicitation says." (Mark, 2009)

Catherine Caldwell-Harris, a psychology professor at Boston University question is "How would a young child understand an artificial-intelligence program that is a simulacrum of their parent?" (Mark, 2009)

Simular questions have been ask by Blogs as well . Their wondering what the impact would be on a military kid whose parent is killed in action but continues to "live on" in cyberspace. Shilling says if the military discovers the idea is too challenging or won't benefit the troops and their families, the project won't go forward.

Hmm.. I thought the idea is pretty cool and interesting, like how they will get moms and dads different voices and their image on the product. But thinking of the little kids who might not realize that its just a holagram and they might die or get killed in the action so0 it just might not be a good idea anymore 4 those little kids who dont understand.

Source: Thompson, M (2009, January 9). When Daddy Is Off at War: A Hologram Home?. Retrieved January 10, 2009, from http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1870426,00.html?cnn=yes Web site: www.time.com