Technology for the blind has been improving every year but never far enough for them to use a device like the iPhone, until now. Designed by Yosi Bar-Cohen, the iPhone would use a “Braille Touch Screen”, similar to that of the braille phone, by Samsung we’ve written about earlier. Yosi thought that Electroactive polymers could work to turn the letters and numbers into braille format so that the visually impaired could actually touch the words.

The responsive screen would form the dots along with the touch of the user, making the user experience on the iPhone much better for them. It is great that the blind finally get to use some great technology and that there are technological advancements out there that can help them. Yosi has done his part to help mankind, now its all up to Apple to implement this into the iPhone as we’ve seen it integrated with their computers already. More »

1 Comment

We’ve all heard about the universal wheelchair, the Rodem. Well, the company has finally decided to give out information on availability and price. The Rodem operates on 4 hours per charge and has an accelerator that operates by joystick.

The fastest the wheelchair goes is 2 miles per hour so don’t plan any getaways on it. The scooter is electric and has the user’s comfort in mind with the futuristic ergonomics where the rider sits in an upward position, sitting from behind and relaxing forward. Veda International plans to get find a partner to mass produce the Rodem which will sell between $5,300 and $7,500 a piece. More »

0 Comments

As kids, we all dreamed of being able to build the biggest Lego tower only to have it come crashing down at the end. As we got older, we moved on to more important things and forgot about Legos but Top Gear’s, James May never shed his childhood mentality and is building an entire house out of brick sized Lego blocks, each of them made up of 272 smaller Lego pieces.

May’s house, located in Surrey, England will require 2 million bricks and will have a staircase, a lavatory and a shower as well. His Colorful, two story house is being built above a vineyard where over 1,200 people have been granted access to help May build his house. May said he plans to live in it for up to 3 days. Unfortunately, this won’t become a landmark in that area, the house will be torn down after May’s stay. More pictures More »

1 Comment

Sony and Zenrin have joined forces to create their new navigation software for the PSP. This will be arriving in Japan on November 5th to Y8190. The features of Nav- U are all there and have very powerful searches and on-point walking routes. There is no way you are getting lost with this thing.

The most usable and interesting feature on this add-on software is PlaceEngine which is basically GPS through WiFi. Many people in Japan already use this technology but PlaceEngine takes it to a whole new level, making it specific all the way down to sidewalks, crossings, subways, and other things. With all of this technology being introduced, I can’t help but wonder, when will this be coming to the US? More »

0 Comments

It’s finally Official. Apple will be holding their “Rock and Roll” iPod event on September 9th.

(Via CrunchGear)

0 Comments

Looks like Spider-Man will be hanging out with Mickey Mouse more often than he wants. The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment and all its superheroes. The total cost of the acquisition will be around $4 billion.

Disney will now have access to over 5,000 Marvel characters, some of them which include house hold names like Spider-Man, X-Men, and Iron-Man. This is what Marvel’s CEO, Ike Perlmutter, had to say:

“Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses. This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney’s tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world.”

More »

3 Comments

Verizon has had it with the Blackberry Storm and wants to get rid of it ASAP. That’s why they’ve dropped the price on the extremely hyped but unpopular phone to $50. Blackberry’s first foray into a touch-screen phone turned out to be a failure. There’s also been rumors up an upcoming Blackberry Storm 2, so it makes sense for Verizon to get rid of these ASAP. More »

0 Comments

Apple’s annual refresh is just around the corner and every source and tech site are announcing that there will be 3.2 megapixel cameras in the iPod Touch and the Nano. One iPod we did not expect to have the camera was the iPod Classic. Why Apple would want to add a camera to a dying iPod is questionable. After being bumped down to one model, Apple consumers were sure it was going to go extinct.

Rumors are swirling that this year’s refresh will be held on September 9 and users are pretty sure that the touch and Nano are getting cameras, the Classic is still a mystery. The chances of it getting a camera are very slim. More »

0 Comments

Nurus, the company known for its famous use of carbon fiber to make chairs and sofas have teamed up with Turkish designer Can Yalman to design a breathtaking carbon fiber desk called the Hexa. The futuristic design allows for a lightweight structure, incredible strength and amazing sustainability.

Both the base and the desk surface are made of the woven composite, giving it a very high tech look which Nurus strives for in all of their products. Now, who wouldn’t want their desk to be able to move their desk around without a hitch? Unfortunately, there is no word yet on availability or price but I’m pretty sure it won’t come at a cheap price. More »

0 Comments

China will be finally getting the iPhone this year after long and lengthy negotiations with two Chinese mobile carriers that spanned almost two years. The deal is a three-year deal that will bring the iPhone to China sometime later this year through China Unicorn, the second largest wireless carrier in China.

China was supposed to get the iPhone through China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless carrier with over 687 million wireless customers, but China Mobile balked at the revenue share model originally proposed by Apple. It broke down again over operation and control of the App Store after the introduction of the 3G iPhone. China Unicorn jumped in earlier this year and finally cut a deal with Apple. But is it all going to be worth it for Apple, considering China already has the iPhone in gray markets and not to mention the iPhone clones? More »

0 Comments

More comedy from The Pirate Bay Sale: Key partner says there’s no money, CEO has property repossessed

Years from now, when the history of BitTorrent-related Internet piracy is written, there will have to be at least one chapter devoted to The Pirate Bay. It showed up just as the likes of Suprnova and LokiTorrent were being shut down, and quickly became the go-to place for, shall we say, the less savvy BitTorrent user. It also became a symbol of the copyright reform movement, though the site’s cavalier attitude toward any sort of authority ultimately led to its undoing…CrunchGear

Australian PS3 Ultimate Blu-ray Movie Kit isn’t as ultimate as you might expect

Sony’s PlayStation 3 already only does everything, so what more could you possibly need? Australians can find out for themselves with the Ultimate Blu-ray Movie Kit. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s really just the PS3 remote and two discs, but at $60 AUD (that’s $51 for US), it’s only one Banjo Paterson / $10 AUD more than what the remote retails on its lonesome. Both bundles include 300 as the first film, so you’re really choosing between 10,000 B.C. and Batman Begins. Not exactly a tough decision unless you already own Batman, but then again, you still might opt for a second copy instead…Engadget

Nokia Takes Aim at Apple

Nokia (NOK) has seemed determined recently to remind the world that it, not a certain Cupertino (Calif.) rival, is the world’s dominant handset maker. In the space of four days, the Finnish company, which accounts for 37% of global mobile-phone sales, announced plans for a netbook computer, unveiled a new bargain-priced touchscreen handset, and a high-end “Internet Tablet.” Nokia also rejiggered its top management, elevating an executive in charge of user friendliness to the executive board. Finally, the company announced an ambitious effort to offer money-transfer services to the billions of handset owners in emerging markets who don’t have bank accounts…BusinessWeek

Report: Are iPhones Really Exploding All Over the World?

We have done some research, and it appears than the rumors of iPhones exploding all around the world—”world” as in “France, UK, and Belgium”—are greatly exaggerated. Here are all the known cases, and Apple’s official answer…Gizmodo

Name Game: Why It’ll Keep The Kindle Above Anything Sony Has To Offer

Sony released their latest answer to Amazon’s Kindle last week, The Daily Edition, offering wireless 3G service, wireless syncing and a 7-inch touch screen - which the Kindle lacks. But it still might not be enough to trump Amazon’s highly popular Kindle device. And here’s why…Ziggytek

0 Comments

USB drives come in many shapes, sizes, and objects. There are USB drives that look like food, computers, cartoon characters, and animals. Why not make some USB drives that look like weapons? Well, now there is, the hand grenade USB drive.

This USB drive is no different than any other, it just looks lethal and will probably scare the crap out of someone, so the airport is probably not a place to go with this. To use it, just pull off the grip and plug it into your computer and there you have it, 4 GB of deadly storage. If you would like to take the chance of being stopped and arrested at the airport then you can get yours for $20 here. What will we have next? A handgun? More »

1 Comment

This probably fell out of James Bond’s cache. A tiny robots, smaller than a fingernail has been created and is being called the I-Swarm. These self contained robots run on energy from their built in solar cells, for anytime use. They are controlled by tiny infrared control signals which makes it easy for them to be tracked and kept in order.

The robot has four legs, three to hep it navigate and the fourth one is used as a sensor to find objects and other robots. The robots are also equipped with ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) which allows the robots to be used for micromanufacturing, medical procedures, cleaning or surveillance. I’m sure James Bond won’t mind losing a few of these. After all, it is helping mankind. More »

0 Comments

Sony released their latest answer to Amazon’s Kindle last week, The Daily Edition, offering wireless 3G service, wireless syncing and a 7-inch touch screen - which the Kindle lacks. But it still might not be enough to trump Amazon’s highly popular Kindle device. And here’s why.

Let’s use Apple’s iPod as an example. The iPod has now become synonymous with music and Mp3 players around the world. No matter who you ask, almost everyone knows what an iPod is over a Zune or any other Mp3 player from well known brands. Apple took the features already in place, put it in a nice package and called it something that rolls off the tongue easier than, let’s a Samsung CXS-101 (made up name). It’s so easy and well known now, my parents, both of who don’t know anything about gadgets, don’t own a computer or music player, know what an iPod is. They constantly tell my siblings to stop listening to their iPods at home. Imagine my mom having to tell my brother, “stop listening to that Samsung CXS.” Doesn’t sound like it rolls of your tongue now does it? I don’t think so. In terms of name recognition, you don’t get any better than the iPod. More »

0 Comments

250GB Xbox 360 revealed in South African ad: the “Super Elite”

Confirming what we saw yesterday on Amazon.de, there is indeed a new 250GB model of the Xbox 360 called, disappointingly, the “Super Elite,” unless that’s just what this particular South African retailer decided to go with. Forza 3, two controllers, no HDMI cable. Seriously? at this point, I should be getting HDMI cables in my Multi-Grain Cheerios…CrunchGear

Study finds Kindle more eco-friendly than actual books, maybe

A mass-produced piece of plastic and electronics more environmentally-friendly than a simple book? Possibly, at least according to a new study released by the Cleantech Group. While the group found that the Kindle’s upfront environmental impact was indeed fairly significant, they also found that the numbers can change dramatically over the course of the device’s lifecycle — depending largely on the users’ reading habits, of course…Engadget

Dell’s Profits Dive, Stock Climbs

Sluggish desktop and laptop sales continue to drag on Dell’s profits, but improved margins and increased server and storage sales give investors hope…Businessweek

Horrendously Ugly Notebook Has Performance at Heart

One hates to judge too harshly, but someone at Toshiba didn’t get the memo that with a thin and light computer, the operative descriptors are both “thin” and “light.”…Wired

Apple Tablet To Have 3 Screen Sizes and Run Full OS X ?: Rumor

Oh Goody, more Apple Tablet rumors! This one comes from a Gizmodo source “that has always been 100% reliable.” The source tells Gizmodo that Apple may be working on a 13 and 15-inch tablet models, along with the long rumored 10-inch model, and run the full version of OS X 10.5. Here’s more from Gizmodo… Ziggytek

0 Comments