Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, August 31, 2007

Sanyo's Xacti DMX-HD1000: the world's smallest 1080p camcorder

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

We like giving Sanyo heaps of grief over their boxy gear from time to time. But make no mistake, they've nailed it with their Xacti series of solid state camcorders. Meet the DMX-HD1000, their first to record full 1080p, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution video using the HD/MPEG-4 AVC codec. It features the ability to shoot 8 megapixel stills via its 1/2.5-inch CMOS sensor, a 10x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD, HDMI-out, and the ability to record direct to SD/SDHC cards for up to 2 hours at a charge. That's plenty of juice since an 8GB SDHC card will only hold about 1 hour and 25 minutes of Full HD recordings. All this in an itty-bitty pistol grip shooter which Sanyo claims is the world's smallest at this resolution. Available in Japan starting mid September for about ¥120,000 or about $1,000.

Gallery: Sanyo's Xacti DMX-HD1000: the world's smallest 1080p camcorder

[Via Impress]

Philips announces WOWzone 3D wall, has nothing to do with Vista

from Engadget by Ryan Block

Just when we were starting to think Vista had complete ownership of the term "wow" in the tech industry, along comes Philips with its WOWzone 3D wall, a 132-inch multi-panel glasses-free system designed for promotional display of high def 2D and 3D content. It'll be out in Q1 of next year, so don't worry, you've got a few more months left before your mind is like, totally blown, man.

[Via TFOT]

Nissan's Mixim all-electric concept car

from Engadget by Nilay Patel

We've seen a lot of all-electric cars come and go, but scant few from the major automotive manufacturers -- aside from the EV1, of course -- so Nissan's Mixim concept caught our eye with more than just its swoopy lines . The baby hatchback weighs just 2100 pounds and clocks in at a tiny 145 inches end-to-end -- but inside that diminutive shell you'll find seats for three, a lithium-ion battery pack and two Nissan "Super Motors" that provide the Mixim with all-wheel-drive. Since it's a concept, it's got to have a crazy interior, and and the central driving position and video game-influenced controls don't disappoint -- welcome to Blade Runner, kids. The Mixim is just a concept, but here's hoping the next all-electric car from a major manufacturer we hear about will be ready for the street.

[Via GizMag]

The 2008 iPhone display? Sharp's next gen multi-touch LCD revealed

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Want to see the glass behind the iPhone's multi-touch panel? Well this ain't it, it's better. Sharp -- one of Apple's iPhone panel providers -- just unveiled their newest 3.5-inch, 320 x 480 pixel resolution multi-touch panel which does what its predecessor did in just half the thickness. The new 1-mm depth was achieved by integrating the optical sensor into each pixel while incorporating scanning functionality for fingerprint authentication or barcode and business card scanning. Right, with the appropriate underlying software of course. Sharp expects to adapt the new technology to multi-touch, glass panels as large as 12.1-inches. Sample LCDs will be made available in September before mass production beings in the Spring of 2008. Update: Whoa, reader Tony C just reminded us of this Apple patent application. Sure, the jump from scanning business cards to having your screen become the webcam is pretty big. Still, it's not as crazy as it once sounded, eh?

Gallery: The 2008 iPhone display? Sharp's next gen multi-touch LCD revealed

[Via Impress]

Hands-off with the impossibly thin Sharp LCD prototypes

from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky

The ultrathin Sharp LCD prototype we saw yesterday at the company's press conference has made an appearance on the showroom floor (though out of our reach for fiddling with, provided it had any buttons), and boy is this thing... uh, thin. As you can see by the photos, the display practically disappears when you get around the side of it, and for those of you wondering about cabling, there's nothing to see when you peek at the back, though we suspect that those tubes / bars holding the things up may have something to do with getting an image on these behemoths. Check the gallery for a full view of your television-watching future.

Gallery: Hands-off with the impossibly thin Sharp LCD prototype