R2-D2 Hologram: Science Fiction to Just Science

As reported by New Scientist a holographic image of Princess Leia was created by scientists at the MIT media lab:

"Bove's group started with an array of 16 low-resolution infrared cameras, spaced evenly along a metre-long line. Computer processing combined the images to generate the data needed for the 3D holographic projector at the rate of 15 frames per second.

The next step came in late December when they bought their first Kinect, and hacked the camera system made by PrimeSense of Israel, which records three-dimensional profiles by projecting a grid of laser light onto a scene. This approach, called structured light, yields resolution of 640 by 480 pixels, three times higher than each infrared camera. That was good enough to record the holographic Princess Leia scene shown here."

 The image quality of the projection is still fuzzy, but it's still pretty mind boggling.  Check it out for yourself!

Why Battery Life Needs to be a Key Spec for Phones

In a world with dual core processors, 4g, mobile hotspots, multitasking, retina, Super AMOLED, and qHD displays when will manufacturers start putting battery life up there as an important specification?  

A prime example of this was the release of the Evo 4g (sorry sprint).  This was the first "4g" (I do not think any carrier has earned the right to not have quotes up for 4g) phone released in the United States and had all the great features; 1Ghz processor, 8mp camera, 4.3 inch display, mobile hotspot, kick stand (surprisingly not battery powered!), front facing camera, and of course 4 connectivity.  And was it blazing fast!  The problem with it was, if you used 4g the battery would die faster than Jek Porkins in his X-Wing en route to liberate the galaxy, and if the 4g hot spot was on it was even faster.  

Now here is the real kicker, with the announcement of the HTC Thunderbolt, which is essentially the same thing as the Evo (4g, 1Ghz processor, same cameras, same screen size, both have a kickstand), except HTC decides to put in a 1400 mAh battery–100 less than the Evo.  Put one and one together and apparently we get 12.  This is incredibly stupid HTC, I doubt some new technology you imposed will dramatically decrease power usage.  This is basically the main reason I do not want this device.  I will never get to use it!  What's the point of having a phone that does all these cool things but only for an hour?  I do not want to sit by a wall socket all day that's for sure.  

Though there may be hope yet!  The Motorola Atrix and Bionic both sport over 1900 mAh batteries to help accommodate their dual core processors.  Hopefully it does the trick and we can have a phone that lasts a day without trying to squeeze a dry lemon.  

I think that battery life is just as important of a feature as a dual core processor.  I mean what is the one thing that you can definitely can not go without?  The Battery.  I hope in the near future that this can be just as an important specification.  

Why HP/Palm Needs to Step up Their Game

With the release of the Verizon CDMA iPhone, things could not be getting worse for the ever decreasing stock of Palm smartphones.  Even though Palm was bought out by HP there have not been any notable releases in the smartphone department.   I mean there was the Pre Plus and Pre 2....but those are not much of a change from its predecessor, and what HP/Palm needs is a refreshed and revamped hardware to meet its already well polished software.

HP/Palm is having a little get together on the 9th of February, one day before the release of the iPhone 4 for Verizon.  The even is supposedly marking the beginning of a new era for HP/Palm and could be the release of the ever so talked about PalmPad as well as the possibility for a Verizon LTE device.  With the new Pre's and Pixi's there hasn't been much to offer spec wise.  The Pre 2, which hasn't even release and may not even be released by Verizon, finally got a 1Ghz processor.  A new phone with WebOS on it needs a phone with a lot of kick and RAM.

Possible specs for a new webOS phone:

4" high resolution display
Same Gesture area
5-8 mp camera
1 Ghz Dual Core Processor
At least 700 mb RAM for all the multitasking webOS is capable, it needs a lot of RAM
Better battery life
1.3 mp front facing camera
none of the plastic it has used in the past which made it feel cheap

Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu Ray Pre-Order Today!

Coming Soon to a galaxy near you!  The entire Star Wars series is on Blu Ray and all together for the first time ever.  It was first announced at CES and will be available for 139.99 but Amazon is selling the series for 89.99! 

Merry CES a.k.a. Second Christmas!

The past two days have seen the release of some truly remarkable devices from Motorola, HTC, LG to name a few.  The field is pretty equal with a phones and tablets at this years CES.  Some ten devices for Verizon were announced today alone, notably the Moto Xoom, the first Honeycomb device in the world. 

 

Motorola kicked it off yesterday with the the Motorola Xoom and Droid Bionic for Verizon, and the Motorola Attrix destined for AT&T's LTE network.  

The Motorola Xoom is the first Honeycomb device ever and it will be launched later this quarter with 3g capabilities, upgradable to 4g, a 2 MP front facing camera, 5 MP rear camera, a 1GHz dual core Tegra 2 processor, wifi, and 32 GB of onboard storage. 

Information regarding the Droid Bionic can be found on my last post 

Thirdly for Motorola, the one phone to rule them all.  It sports a 4.3" display, 1.3 MP front facing camera, 8 MP rear camera, 1 GHz dual core tegra 2 processor, and a whopping 1GB RAM, froyo with MotoBlur skin on it, but the coolest/probably useless but still awesome feature is that it can be docked up to turn into a desktop or laptop computer!  The Attrix is regarded as the "Most Powerful Smartphone In The World"  and specs wise, it sure is!  

Next we move on to the world of HTC, which is just one phone.  But what a phone it is!  The HTC Thunderbolt.  This device is probably going for a March release in my opinion, and will be the first 4g LTE device release for Big Red.  It has a 4.3" screen, 1.3 MP ff camera, 8 MP camera with dual LED flash, Sense 2.0, Froyo with a promise to go to Gingerbread soon, a kickstand, 1 GHz snapdragon processor, and Super LCD Display.  

How will this monster fair against it's dual core competition?   

For your average user who will use this for messaging, email, web browsing, and some gaming I think it will not make too much of a difference whether you use a dual core or not.  It will only add to the flow of the software and drain the battery faster.  With 4g running I do not think that you will notice if you have a dual core, it will be super fast with or without one.  Now for people who are hard core 3d gamers on their phones it is a different story.  The dual core will help power any game you throw at it with ease, it can even support the some of the industry's most powerful games on your normal system.  That's pretty damn good if you're asking me!  

Though I still want to know how these phones will fair in a battery test as well as quadrant standard.  

Can't wait until these devices come out!  Hopefully I can review the Thunderbolt when it comes out.  

Droid Bionic Announced For Verizon

A mysterious new Verizon device shows up called the Droid Bionic boasting a huge 4.3" display, 8 MP camera, front facing camera,  either 512 MB RAM or 1GB the site says the latter while the announcement came out with the first. 


This may be the year for Dual Cores.  How will the battery drain on this bad boy?

UPDATE:  It's official that it is just 512 MB RAM the website was sadly wrong