Hi-tech Frontier

Speech-controlled garbage -- Fun! Have you ever stared at a garbage can and wished you could command it to come towards you? No? Then you may still be interested in this new speech-controlled trash can built by DIY-er Amnon, which will respond to your beck and call yet never stray beyond the safe confines of your carefully laid out tape route (sure to complement any room). Unfortunately, there isn't a step-by-step guide for building a little trash buddy of your own, but Amnon has provided a shot of the all-important underside (linked below), and a complete parts list, so it shouldn't be too hard for experienced folks to follow along.

Transpiral is A Tramway with Spiral Structure Spiral is a fascinating concept structure that can be compared with the nature and universe. The concept is to design a Tramway as a combined element leaving out-of-the-way the idea of interior and exterior. Integrating all the parts is the main intention, opening up in the way the inner side to the outer. This structure embraces the inner side with the outer, working as a unifying nexus. All the working elements of the interior emerge from this structure and the outer design is also dictated by it. Thus, the designer created a profound communication between all its elements. This vehicle gets the inspiration by the spiral because of not only what it symbolizes or its dynamism, but also due to the transmission sensations.

Magellan debuts 4.7-inch RoadMate 1470 navigator We haven't heard a peep from Magellan since MiTAC took over its consumer products division, and quite frankly, we're still waiting for a little trumpet blowing. Sneakily, said company has just launched the well rounded RoadMate 1470 on Amazon, which packs a 4.7-inch touchscreen, NAVTEQ maps of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, multi-destination routing, highway lane assist, spoken street names, AAA TourBook and a Roadside Assistance menu. Motorists looking for live traffic updates can plug in the optional Traffic Link device, but those kosher with doing things the old way can procure just the PND right now for $229.99.

Mini Hydro Turbine concept could bring renewable energy production to your bathroom Environmentalists would have you believe that leaving the faucet running while you brush your teeth puts an unnecessary drain on the environment. We always disagreed, and if Jin Woo Han's concept Mini Hydro Turbine ever goes into production we might finally have something to back up our argument. The device would capture the "free" energy of your tap to spin a little generator, in theory producing enough juice to charge up an electric toothbrush or shaver. That actually sounds somewhat reasonable, but Han's suggestion of powering your boiler with this thing is probably a bit optimistic. It would also take quite an optimist to think this could some day appear in a bathroom made of tiles and not pixels, but we'll keep on hoping; pairing this with a turbine toilet might enable us to take our homes completely off the grid -- or our bathrooms at least.

LG W53 SMART monitors Just when we thought the desktop monitor market couldn't get any more staid, LG comes along and spices it up a little bit. The new W53 SMART Monitors series includes a few "smart" additions like ambient light detection for Auto Brightness adjustment (like some laptops have), a Cinema Mode for blacking out the rest of the screen when video is playing, a timer to remind you to take breaks (like right now, for instance... you feel yourself getting very sleepy...) and a proximity sensor to activate the monitor controls when your hand approaches the display, and hide them when you're not tweaking anything. Sizes range from 18.5- to 27-inches, and the models 21.5-inch and up do 1920 x 1080p Full HD at 16:9. The displays also offer contrast ratios up to 50,000:1, and 2ms response times. The lineup should hit worldwide this month.

Samsung's new SyncMaster 70 displays consume 33% less energy, 0% less pizzazz Taking global climate change as seriously as anyone is these days, Samsung has trotted out a pair of new SyncMaster 70 series monitors, on the green tip. Coming in at your choice of either 20- or 23-inches, the displays sport a 50000:1 contrast ration, 2ms response time, and consume thirty-three percent less energy than previous Sammy outings. No word yet on screen resolution, release date, or price. Don't tell us that you're not a little bit excited. Just a little?

Microsoft's Vexcel Imaging announces 92-megapixel UltraCamLp Microsoft's Vexcel Imaging division hasn't exactly caused a whole lot of fanfare during its short time in existence, but it has managed to carved out a nice little niche for itself in the field of aerial cameras, and it's just kicked out its latest model in the form of the 92-megapixel UltraCamLp. Apart from that boost in megapixels, this one looks to be mostly identical to the medium-format UltraCamL that it's based on (pictured above), although it does make use of a smaller 6 μm CCD array that makes that increase in image format possible. Otherwise, you can expect a 1:2.2 pan sharpen ratio, and the ability to collect RGB and NIR in parallel with forward motion compensation by TDI, which will let you use the camera in a whole host of applications ranging from orthophoto production to corridor mapping to lidar integration. No word on price just yet, but it looks like existing UltraCamL users will be eligib...

HP's 12.1-inch Pavilion dv2 on sale Ah, there we go. Not quite a week after HP's Pavilion dv2 was spotted on sale in Thailand, the Blu-ray-packin' ultraportable has now surfaced here in North America. Starting right now, prospective buyers can select a machine directly from HP, and if you're still curious to see what exactly you'll be buying, there's even a link to a few hands-on images for your perusal. Oh, advice on financing? Sorry, that one's on you.

Personal Trainer: Walking bringing pedometers to Nintendo DSi Nintendo's DSi may have just launched, but if you figured your wallet would be safe from buying any other related hardware in the near future, you clearly aren't in tune with the rabid peripheral market. Our best buds over at Joystiq sat down with David Young, the assistant PR manager for Nintendo of America, in order to talk shop and get a glimpse into the DSi's future. Of note, Mr. Young stated that DSi interaction with the Wii was "certainly a possibility," but he failed to elaborate much beyond that. What he did confess, however, was that the DSi will soon be interacting with a pair of pedometers (or "activity meters"), which will ship with the Personal Trainer: Walking title. We're told that the devices will connect wirelessly with the console, and the game itself will be the first where you can import a Mii character from the Wii. Heck, users can even affix one of the meters to their...

Olympus mju 9000 The kids over at Photography Blog got their hands on that Olympus mju 9000 we've been hearing about -- and sadly, there was nary a Swarovski in sight. Despite that, the reviewer's enthusiasm was palpable. It's hard not to like the little guy, apparently -- it's "well made, easy to use," and "the wide-angle 10x zoom is a real attraction in such a small camera." On the downside, low-light performance is said to be "patchy," and though image quality is "pretty good," problems with noise, distortion, and color fringing were noted. The only other draw back seems to be its feature set, which is apparently lacking in comparison to other similar cameras, such as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 and Canon PowerShot SX200 IS.

Gigabyte T1028 TouchNote Gigabyte's T1028 TouchNote has been cooking on the back burner for weeks now. After we first spotted it lookin' pretty at CeBIT, the tablet / netbook hybrid has since landed in the FCC's database and has now shown up officially on the company's website. The formal specifications list explains that the 10.1-inch machine will boast a swiveling touch panel (LED-backlit), a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 92 percent full-sized keyboard, embedded HSDPA module, a 2.5-inch 160GB SATA HDD, Bluetooth 2.1, 1.3 megapixel camera, Ethernet, 4-cell battery, WiFi and twin 1.5-watt speakers. Optional equipment includes an Atom N280 CPU, WiMAX module, 1,366 x 768 resolution panel (at least according to the user manual) and a more longevous a 6-cell Li-ion. Now, give us a price and ship date and we'll be pleased as punch.

Olympus SP-590UZ (and its 26x zoomer) We're beginning to think there really is no number too high for the megazoom focal length. Back in the day, just boasting a 10x zoomer was enough to fall into said category; today, you best top 20x if you even want into the discussion. Olympus' 26x SP-590UZ is definitely amongst the craziest out there, sporting a 12 megapixel sensor, 2.7-inch LCD and a launch price of just under $450. Reviewers over at PhotographyBLOG were duly impressed across the board, with a certain critic noting that "the ability to go from capturing wide-angle landscapes to distant details in a four second zoom of the lens cannot be underestimated, especially as there's little distortion to worry about at either end and excellent sharpness across its entire range." Not surprisingly, the cam notched a "Highly Recommended" badge along with 4.5 out of 5 overall stars -- that said, are you really willing to buy in knowing a 58.983x successor is jus...

Sony shows that 'C' stands for Crocodile with skinned VAIO Type C Shattering misconceptions that crocodiles only come in various shades of dark, menacing green, Sony has managed to genetically engineer crocs in girly pink, luscious red, and chocolaty brown colors exclusively for the sake of wrapping its CS series VAIO notebooks in organic texture. Mind you, textures are all those crocs sacrificed, as like the company's earlier Crocodile-themed machines these lappys are still made entirely of plastic and bits of silicon -- just grooved and pigmented to look like prehistoric, genetically modified reptiles. The crocette devices, which are otherwise identical internally to those sporting myriad of other hues, hit Japan on the 18th for ¥104,800 (just over $1,000), and while Sony hasn't announced any plans for an international release, we're thinking if you head on down to Florida you could find yourself a good 'ol boy who could whip up one of these in no time and mak...

Data Robotics goes large with 8-bay DroboPro Not sure if you've been keeping tabs, but it's been just shy of a full year since we've seen a new piece of hardware from the labs of Data Robotics. 60,000 Drobos later, we're being formally introduced to the bigger, stronger and more capacious DroboPro. As the name implies, this 8-bay beast is truly aimed at small businesses and creative professionals, but there's nothing here that the average consumer can't fall in love with. Generally speaking, everything here has remained the same as the second-gen Drobo: it looks similar, it uses the same genius BeyondRAID intelligent data storage technology and it's not really meant to be used on networks.

Futuristic Honda Zeppelin Luxury Sports Sedan Concept Was Inspired by An Airship Myung Jin Jung, who is studying in car design course of Hongik University, has designed the Honda Zeppelin, a luxurious futuristic sedan car as his final year thesis. As the name suggests, this splendid car was partially inspired by airships. The mass impression of this car was achieved by combining soft volume elements of an airship and potent lines that are commonly found in luxurious automobiles. The symmetric styling of this Honda Zeppelin is an extraordinary feature which can run from the hood, down the roofline and the entire rear end. Slit-like windscreen is another exclusive feature of this car. There is an inclusive video display inside the car which will allow the driver a greater field-of-vision.

Gigabyte ThinNote S1024 and Booktop M1022 It's all coming together, folks. Merely hours after Gigabyte hosted up a product portal for its T1028 TouchNote, the same occurrence has just went down for the ThinNote S1024 and Booktop M1022. Both rigs were initially introduced last month at CeBIT, and now you can pretty much bank on 'em shipping stateside within the next little while. As for the M1022, you'll find it bundled with a vertical docking station and packing an N270 or N280 processor, Windows XP Home, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, WiFi, optional WiMAX / HSDPA and a 6-cell battery. The S1024 netbook contains most of the same hardware, but you'll have to handcraft your own stand if that you're thing.

WiFi-equipped BlackBerry Storm 2 Looks like you might be able to cross at least one bullet point off of your Storm 2 wishlist. According to unnamed source who SlashGear swears is the bee's knees, the successor to BlackBerry's touchscreen smartphone will add WiFi support for faster home / coffee shop web browsing. The informant hinted there's other surprises on the horizon but wouldn't give specifics, so for now you'll just have to keep dreaming about that SurePress touchscreen that doesn't slow down your texting. As for when we should expect the sequel, the report pointed to a release sometime in September on Verizon's network.

Samsung M2310 That M2310 we saw make a covert appearance down in Brazil not long ago is looking more official by way of a Dutch trade show, where the low-end music phone was demoed alongside a couple with which we're less familiar: the M2510 and S5200. By all accounts the S5200 (pictured) is the more interesting of the two, featuring a 3 megapixel camera and a stylish two-tone black / red scheme, but the M2510 slider is no slouch with an FM radio, QVGA display, and VGA cam (okay, actually, that does make it kind of a slouch by definition, but we're sure it'll be priced appropriately when it gets around to launching). Speaking of launching, we still don't have dates or prices for any of these -- so in the meantime, you Sammy lovers will just have to keep pining after the Omnia HD. Poor babies.

Samsung Impression now on sale If you were waiting for a big-ass OLED display before pulling the trigger on a new North American handset, go ahead and get your wallet (or coin purse, or piggy bank, whatever) ready. The Samsung Impression has now officially launched on AT&T, bringing HSDPA, microSD expansion, landscape sliding QWERTY keyboard, and a 3 megapixel camera -- but the headlining feature clearly has to be that gorgeous 3.2-inch AMOLED screen clocking in at 400 x 240 resolution. $199.99 on contract after rebate makes it yours, if you think you can really handle everyone within a 50-foot radius being dazzled every time you turn it on.

AU Mobile's iida pico projector for G9 handsets unveiled Unless you're in the thick of it here in the Engadget organization, you can't possibly realize how many desperate (and sometimes, just plain odd) emails we get in the average day. The high weirdness can, at times, become staggering -- dire warnings of robot apocalypse come to mind -- but we do take our responsibilty as media darlings and role models very seriously. Case in point: many of you have been asking, "what's up with that iida pico projector for the G9 phone?" Well, we dug up some more details for you, and if you're anywhere near Japan (or Okinawa) you just might want to check this bad boy out. The device boasts approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes of charge time, projects and image anywhere from six ro sixty-three inches, and features a 0.5W (mono) speaker. In case this particular handset isn't on your short list, the proj is also compatible with AU S001, VA001, H001, W63CA, W63H, W62CA ...

Motorola showcases USB-powered Media Mover We didn't think much of Motorola's MCU3E (MCUBE) wireless transcoder when it was launched as a prototype late last year, but obviously Moto's got dreams of seeing this in homes around the world. Showcased at this year's Cable Show, the rechristened Media Mover is a USB-powered device that not only transcodes media on your DVR, but also broadcasts said media (transfer or streaming) locally or remotely via WiFi or Bluetooth. Dave Zatz reported that the quality was actually pretty stellar, and while the company wasn't exactly forthcoming when it came to hardware specifics and availability, we don't suspect it'll be too long before the company comes right out with those very details.

Netgear EVA 9150 Digital Entertainer Elite When we last got some hands-on time with Netgear's EVA9150 Digital Entertainer Elite at CES, we found it to be a pretty impressive media streamer. The aptly-titled MyDigitalEntertainer's managed to get an early unit -- packaged and everything -- and has provided ample unboxing pictures and some hands-on impressions. It's love all around, with a faster interface, extended support, and a new buffer ability that makes it a lot smoother than its predecessors. The RSS feature is functional enough, but any video podcast streams you subscribe to should be great. YouTube HD support is an added plus, but we've got no word on CinemaNow and we're admittedly a bit bummed by no Netflix.

USB-powered heated lunch bag keeps your meal warm Features: USB powered or by AC adapter Embedded two heaters inside the bag, incorporated into the top and bottom Warms your meal to 50 degrees C (122 deg. F) Dimensions: 140 x 200 x 90mm (5.5" x 7.9" x 3.5") (W x D x H) Price: US$ 32.00

Link Urban Modular Scooter System for Better Environment Link urban scooter system is a modular transportation solution that you can retrofit with the present Streetscape Smart Poles. Anton Grimes has designed this superb concept electronic scooter and will be available for hire from a hub to ride to the preferred destination. After reaching there, users have to return it to another hub for recharging. Grimes have used the existing light poles to reduce the expenses of the unit and offers strong anchors that are able to carry both power and telecommunications to the hub. The main goal of the design is to reduce cars in the CBD as per Sydney 2030 plan and make a more pedestrian city.