Items tagged with interface
As Computex marches on over in Taiwan, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has announced the proper release of the DockPort standard. VESA, as you're likely aware, is the team behind those mounting plates that enable you to hoist monitors and HDTVs up on your wall using uniform standards, but it's also responsible for certain interconnect standards. DockPort is an optional extension of the DisplayPort standard that will allow USB 3.1 data and DC power for battery charging to be carried over a single DisplayPort connector and cable that also carries high-resolution audio/video (A/V) data. This new extension of the DisplayPort standard is fully backward compatible with all existing...
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Brainwave interface, you say? Most people would look at you with a blank stare if you even mentioned those words to them, but if you took time to view our OCZ NIA Brain-Computer Interface review, you probably know very well what the deal is here. PLX Devices has debuted what they call the world's first brainwave interface for iPod/iPhone/iPad, with the "XWave" and its accompanying apps allowing you to just think and control the world around you. Pretty bold promises, don't you think? To use this, you'll first need to get over any fear you may have of looking goofy in public. Because as soon as you strap this headgear on, you'll be considered goofy. The device is powered by Neurosky technologies,...
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Google has done it once more, and by "it," we mean "turn something in the tech world on its head." BumpTop, a desktop environment that debut last year on Windows 7 and this year on OS X, has just been swallowed whole by the search giant, and while finely laid plans have yet to be made public, assumptions are already running wild. In the year or so that BumpTop was available, not many consumers seemed to grab it by the horns and try it out. Basically, it's a user interface overlay that makes traditional desktop operating systems a lot more user-friendly on touch-based machines. Aside from the iPhone OS, we haven't really seen an OS tailor made for touch input, but it's obvious that touch is the...
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OWC ANNOUNCES INDUSTRY’S FIRST BLU-RAY EXTERNAL DRIVES WITH “QUAD INTERFACE” OWC Mercury Pro Features Quad Interface for FireWire800/400, USB 2.0, & eSATA – for Mac and PC 4X Speed Writes up to 50GB, Reads/Writes HD-DVD, DVD/DVD-R, CD-R/RW Discs October 22, 2008 -- Woodstock, IL -- Other World Computing (OWC®) https://www.macsales.com, a leading Mac and PC technology company, announced today its new line of OWC Mercury Pro™ Blu-ray “Quad Interface” external drive solutions. The first Blu-ray external drives on the market offering a “Quad Interface” of FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA, the OWC Mercury Pro drives feature 4X Blu-ray disc write speed for burning up to...
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First Microsoft brought its multi-touch interface, Surface, to tabletops. Next, Microsoft demonstrated how the interface could be taken vertical to walls. Now it looks like Microsoft's Surface technology is ready for global domination--16 to 72-inch globes that is. This week at Microsoft's ninth annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft showed off its Sphere research project, which takes its cues from the Surface concept and morphs the multi-touch interface onto the surface of a globe. Here is how Microsoft explains how the technology works: "Our prototype device builds on a commercially available globe projection system (Global Imagination’s Magic Planet). We...
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Gaming controllers, be it a gamepad, joystick, wheel or mouse, are some of the central defining elements of any gaming experience. Any gamer with a modicum of experience knows how a bad controller or control scheme can completely ruin the experience of playing an otherwise excellent game. Judging from the huge variety of input devices available, we put a high value on the kind of immersiveness that a good controller-to-game match can create. While game controllers come in all shapes, sizes and colors, the input technologies they feature are surprisingly universal. Nearly all game controllers receive some or all of their input from various switches of some type. More advanced controllers...
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OCZ lays claim to being the first company to bring a "brain-computer" interface to the retail market and they have aimed it squarely at the gamer. The device is called the NIA, which is an acronym that stands for Neural Impulse Actuator, and instead of buttons, sticks, gyroscopes or motion sensors, it reads the body's natural biosignals and translates them into commands that can be used to control PC games. No question, it's a pretty wild product. Go now and see....
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Napster, now offering legal music via streaming, has decided to move to a complete web-based format. No more software to download, and anyone who can run a browser (probably with Java enabled) should be able to enjoy songs from Napter's library of over 5 million tracks.The question remains whether or not people will be happy to stream vs. just buy songs.“Napster sells a subscription service for $10 to $15 a month where users can stream or download an unlimited number of songs from its 5 million-strong library. But Napster's and other music subscription services have so far lagged behind larger rival iTunes, which uses a more traditional buy-to-own model. Itunes sells songs as permanent...
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You have to see this technology in action to believe it and get the full effect. This demonstration is about as jaw-dropping as we've seen here for any technology in a very long time. And the speed of the interface is amazing as well... "Jeff Han demonstrates his intuitive, "interface-free," touch-driven computer screen. Working all but alone from his hardware-strewn office, Jeff Han is about to change the face of computing. Not even the big boys are likely to catch him." Vista? Who needs Vista? Read the article on the man behind this amazing technology at: www.fastcompany.com...
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There has been a lot of talk within the industry of consolidation as of late. AMD's acquisition of ATI has been a hot topic ever since it was announced. And that acquisition has spurred rumors of an unlikely merger between Intel and NVIDIA. Both AMD and Intel have talked about integrating a GPU on to the CPU in one form or another, Seagate bought Maxtor, Asus and Gigabyte entered into a strategic partnership, and the list goes on and on. Despite all the talk about consolidation, however, there are still quite a few companies that are pushing for more dedicated co-processing processing elements in the PC architecture. By now, we're all familiar with Creative Lab's Audigy and X-Fi audio...
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Our friends at the Tech Report have an interesting article on-line tonight (or this morning depending on where you're from!) investigating the effect Windows Vista's Aero interface has on power consumption. As most of you probably know by now, Aero required a DX9 class video card to render properly, so even while sitting at the desktop your GPU is being put to use... "Much has been made of Windows Vista's new Aero interface, and for good reason. The GUI is loaded with luscious eye candy, including the liberal use of transparency, and even a few 3D effects. That eye candy doesn't come cheap, though. Aero relies on graphics...
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For some, a simple USB thumb drive is not enough portable storage, even at its largest capacity. Whether it's for backup purposes or there's a need to carry gobs of data around, there is no better alternative to hard drive capacities. Retail external drive kits can be pricey, which is where Vantec comes in with their NexStar3 with eSATA Interface. This enclosure lets you drop in your own hard drive and make it as portable as can be. Married with the right hard drive, this package can offer sizeable external space along with excellent transfer rates."External hard drive enclosures have been out for some time now. Vantec has been at the forefront with their NexStar series...
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And interesting product has found it's way into the PimpRig labs, a new type of thermal paste. Liquid Metal is the name, and it looks like, well, liquid metal. It's also a bit hard to spread around, as PimpRig found out. They got the paste from a seller on e-bay, so does this stuff actually perform well? "I was shocked when I pulled the cap off the syringe and saw that the needle was still there. I had no idea how the thermal interface material could get through an opening that small until I pressed the plunger slightly over the CPU. A drop of the material came out with no problem and sat there like a ball on the CPU. It was at that point that...
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Good morning everyone. We just got some interesting information from Rambus regarding their new high-speed XDR memory interface that we wanted to send your way. If you think GDDR3 RAM running at 1.3GHz is impressive, wait until you see what Rambus has on tap. Here's a snip from their press release... RAMBUS UNVEILS NEXT GENERATION XDR MEMORY INTERFACE 8GHz XDR2 DRAM with micro-threading enables unprecedented graphics capabilities LOS ALTOS, Calif. – July 7, 2005 – Rambus Inc. (Nasdaq:RMBS), one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in high-speed chip interfaces, today announced the latest version of its high-bandwidth XDR...
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