Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

iCard ECG brings heart monitoring to the iOS device of your choice (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/20/icard-ecg-brings-heart-monitoring-to-the-ios-device-of-your-choi/

AliveCor's iPhoneECG case was pretty sweet but, being a case, could only be strapped to an iPhone 4. Doctors content with their 3GS or patients who prefer to hug an iPad to their chest will be elated to hear the company is working on a more hardware-agnostic option for your iOS heart monitoring needs. The business card-sized iCard ECG mounts to the back of your iDevice using velcro and wirelessly feeds data from its electrodes to the AliveECG app. The app automatically records 30 seconds of your heart's rhythmic pulse before uploading it to AliveCor's servers for sharing with your doctors. The bad news? They're still awaiting FDA approval, so you can't run out and pick one up just yet. But, when it does hit shelves, it looks like you'll have a choice of red or black -- so you can make sure your medical accessories match your scrubs. Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading iCard ECG brings heart monitoring to the iOS device of your choice (video)

iCard ECG brings heart monitoring to the iOS device of your choice (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Elusive Acer Iconia Tab A100 coming to Walmart for $349 (updated)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/20/elusive-acer-iconia-tab-a100-spotted-at-walmart-for-349/

Typically, the whole fun of spotting products in the wild is that they haven't been officially announced to the world yet, but in the case of the Acer Iconia Tab A100, we're just amazed it's finally here, and that it's so... unassuming. Just weeks after rearing its head in FCC drawings, the delayed Tab has quietly surfaced at Walmart with a price tag of $349. That sticker there says it all, but for the money you'll get Tegra 2 innards with 8GB of internal storage, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera, and a 5 megapixel one 'round the back. And of course, it runs Android 3.0 at a time when most other 7-inchers still tap out at Android 2.3 -- possibly the reason it was delayed in the first place. There's no listing on Walmart's website just yet, and our tipsters indicated it wasn't actually on display. Still, if we're seeing a price and tag, that means we're beyond the point of any more delays... right?

Update: What you see in the wild is a display tag -- not the elusive A100, of course. You can't pop into a Walmart to buy one yet, but if that sticker is any indication, that'll change soon.

Update 2: At least one reader says he not only saw, but played with the A100 at the Walmart in Leavenworth, Kansas, and even double-checked the model number when he saw the price. So depending on where you live, the tablet may have already landed at a Walmart near you.

Update 3: One sneaky reader snagged a sheet of wally-world pricetags, see the A100's barcode hanging with tags for the Iconia A500 and HP Touchpad after the break.

[Thanks, Mat, David, Jared, and Clyde]

Continue reading Elusive Acer Iconia Tab A100 coming to Walmart for $349 (updated)

Elusive Acer Iconia Tab A100 coming to Walmart for $349 (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba's quad-core Satellite L750D goes on sale for $699 as one of the first available Llano laptops

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/20/toshibas-quad-core-satellite-l750d-goes-on-sale-for-699-as-one/

When AMD came clean with its Fusion A-Series platform, the outfit was quick to admit that some manufacturers have already started slipping these hybrid CPU / GPU chips into their spankin' new PCs. Still, at this early stage we still haven't spotted many of 'em -- if anything, we have a better idea what's on tap for later this summer. But here we have the Toshiba Satellite L750D-ST4N01, the first available Llano-packing notebook we've seen since the A-Series' launch. At $699, this 15.6-incher might seem like a forgettable system with its 4GB of RAM, 640GB 5400RPM hard drive, 1366 x 768 panel, and three USB 2.0 ports. Heck, Toshiba barely even gave the L series lip service when it announced a slew of laptops last week. But, what makes this seemingly ho-hum machine special is that it packs AMD's mid-range quad-core A6-3400M chip and an AMD Radeon HD 6520G graphics core -- a combination that adds just $10 to the cost over a similarly configured Satellite L755-S5258 with a dual-core Core i5-2410M processor and integrated Intel graphics. The L750D isn't for you? The deluge of A-Series systems hasn't even begun yet, friends. And while the jury's still out on real-world battery performance, this should make it crystal clear that if nothing else, AMD is taking no prisoners when it comes to pricing.

[Thanks, Eric]

Toshiba's quad-core Satellite L750D goes on sale for $699 as one of the first available Llano laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel plans exascale computing by 2018, wants to make petaflops passÃ©

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/20/intel-plans-exascale-computing-by-2018-wants-to-make-petaflops/

Sure, Fujitsu has a right to be proud of its K supercomputer -- performing over 8 petaflops with just under 70,000 Venus CPUs is nothing to sneeze at. Intel isn't giving up its status as the supercomputing CPU king, however, as it plans to bring exascale computing to the world by the end of this decade. Such a machine could do one million trillion calculations per second, and Intel plans to make it happen with its Many Integrated Core Architecture (MIC). The first CPUs designed with MIC, codenamed Knights Corner, are built on a 22nm process that utilizes the company's 3D Tri-Gate transistors and packs over 50 cores per chip. These CPUs are designed for parallel processing applications, similar to the NVIDIA GPUs that will be used in a DARPA-funded supercomputer we learned about last year. Here we thought the war between these two was over -- looks like a new one's just getting started. PR's after the break.

Continue reading Intel plans exascale computing by 2018, wants to make petaflops passé

Intel plans exascale computing by 2018, wants to make petaflops passé originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japan speeding ahead with 500km/h Maglev train

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/20/japan-speeding-ahead-with-500km-h-maglev-train/

Traveling the 515 km (320 miles) from Tokyo to Osaka by Shinkansen bullet train currently requires 2 hours and 25 minutes (and costs a small fortune, too). Come 2045, travel between Japan's two largest metro areas will take just over one hour, following the launch of the country's longest maglev track, which just received construction approval from Tokyo. The nine trillion yen project (approximately $112 billion) was first proposed in the 1970s, but was tabled indefinitely due to its astronomical costs, most of which stem from an extensive network of tunnels that will represent 60 percent of the route. You'll be able to get your Japanese Maglev fix beginning in 2027, when the Central Japan Railway launches its high-speed route between Tokyo and Nagoya. One notable neighbor to the west is already operating its own maglev train. China's Shanghai Transrapid has been blasting riders to Pudong airport since 2004, and once achieved a top speed of 501km/h (311 mph). The country is also constructing a 1000km/h vacuum-based train that it plans to launch within the next few years.

Japan speeding ahead with 500km/h Maglev train originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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