Hanvon's multitouch tablet previewed, surfaces in China March 25th with 1080p playback

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/15/hanvons-multitouch-tablet-previewed-surfaces-in-china-march-25/

Though cheap Android craptablets were a commodity item at CeBIT 2010, that doesn't mean we didn't find the occasional diamond in the rough. Specifically, the Hanvon Touchpad BC10C, a sleek, multitouch Windows 7 device with specs firmly entrenched in high-end netbook territory. Thanks to our friend jkkmobile, we now know exactly what's powering this thing -- a comparatively juice-gulping 1.3GHz Celeron M ULV 743 CPU and GMA4500 graphics -- and that when it comes to the US and Europe, it'll cost a little more than we thought, hovering around $877. Mind you, that price bump might be worth it when you consider just how smoothly the 10-inch tablet performs (peep 1080p video and Microsoft Surface Globe demos after the break) but also know your YouTube surfing sessions will be limited by a simply sad 3.5 hours of battery life. For when "mobile" isn't an important word in your vocabulary... the BC10C launches in China March 25th.

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Hanvon's multitouch tablet previewed, surfaces in China March 25th with 1080p playback originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Vaio M and its Atom N450 heart get unboxed

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/15/sony-vaio-m-and-its-atom-n450-heart-get-unboxed/

Sony's successor to the Vaio W netbook made its debut a little prematurely earlier this month, which has now been followed by its first unboxing and preview. Encased in an appealing matte black plastic, the Vaio M is set for an April launch in the UK at the very reasonable £300 ($456) price point. Unfortunately, the drop in price also means a lower-res 1024 x 600 display, while the W's chiclet keyboard has also been replaced with a more conventional typing surface. With 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 250GB storage drive, Sony seems to be giving us the bare minimum here, but that's alright with us -- let's just make sure this thing actually has a battery that lasts, shall we Sony? The original article doesn't seem to be up anymore, but give the Google Cached source a click for some more pictures.

Sony Vaio M and its Atom N450 heart get unboxed originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Non-Enclosed 3D Printer Can Build Houses [3D Printing]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5492014/non+enclosed-3d-printer-can-build-houses

Normally they're contained in a box, so the fact that this 3D printer isn't confined means it's theoretically capable of building much larger objects that most. In fact, the owner wants to build a cathedral with it.

It lives in Pisa, Italy, and uses CAD software to create objects designed using the program. Blueprint Magazine describes how it works:

Driven by CAD software installed on a dust-covered computer terminal, the armature moves just millimetres above a pile of sand, expressing a magnesium-based solution from hundreds of nozzles on its lower side. It makes four passes. The layer dries and Enrico Dini recalibrates the armature frame. The system deposits the sand and then inorganic binding ink. The exercise is repeated. The millennia-long process of laying down sedimentary rock is accelerated into a day. A building emerges.

3D printers are still very expensive though, so before you start planning on adding a new extension or granny flat to your house you should definitely weigh up the costs. Having said that, 2010 is apparently going to see the cost lower drastically from the $15,000 or so that they normally cost, with the MakerBot being the cheapest we've seen so far, at $750. [Blueprint Magazine via MAKE]

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Did You Know That Octopus Love High Definition Crabs? [Machine Vs Nature]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5492349/did-you-know-that-octopus-love-high-definition-crabs

New research shows that the advantages of HDTV aren't lost on octopuses. A recent study on octopus behavior made the upgrade from CRT sets to HDTVs for the playback of octopus-related videos, like one of a tasty crab.

Whereas the octopuses had previously ignored the videos—researchers surmise that on the CRT sets the images were "incomplete and probably incoherent" when viewed by the octopuses—the HD crabs had the octopuses reacting like they were the real thing. Scientists had tried unsuccessfully for ten years to get octopuses to react to video, until the leap to HD got the creatures interested. Wait until they see Crabs in 3D. [New Scientist]

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By Your Accelerometers Combined, I Am Quake Catcher! [Earthquakes]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5492384/by-your-accelerometers-combined-i-am-quake-catcher

What if computers could be turned into a worldwide earthquake detecting network? With the Quake Catcher software and your laptop's built-in accelerometer, that might just be possible.

Elizabeth Cochran, an earth scientist at UC Riverside, has already managed to get about 1,000 people to install Quake Catcher and has been tracking the date submitted by the software—including disruptions from the recent magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile.

The system isn't perfect as it's limited by the sensitivity of accelerometers built into computers or ones connected by USB, but at least it does have a mechanism in place to ignore vibrations that are limited to a single machine. This means that accidentally letting your laptop fall off the desk won't make anyone assume there's an earthquake. Now if you coordinated such a drop with a bunch of people in your geographic area on the other hand, we might manage to upset Ms. Cochran a bit. [LA Times via Pop Sci]

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