Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Spray-on antenna revealed: best thing to come in a can since Easy Cheese (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/11/spray-on-antenna-revealed-best-thing-to-come-in-a-can-since-eas/

Ever found yourself without a signal and wished you could just spray one on like magic? Well, maybe soon, you'll be able to do just that. Chamtech Enterprises has developed a spray-on antenna it says is more lightweight and energy-efficient than current technology. Revealed at Google's inaugural Solve for X shindig, the antenna can be "painted" onto almost anything, including trees, walls and fabrics. Chamtech's already talking with government-based customers, and as such can't spill too much detail on how it works, but said it uses organic elements to tinker with magnetic and radio-frequency fields. The start-up's CTO, Rhett Spencer, claims the antenna could increase mobile energy efficiency by 10 percent. It was also found to work particularly well under water, and being organic, we presume, would make it ideal for sub-aquatic telecom infrastructure, and of course, rainy days.

Continue reading Spray-on antenna revealed: best thing to come in a can since Easy Cheese (video)

Spray-on antenna revealed: best thing to come in a can since Easy Cheese (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Wall Street Journal | source

Chamtech | Email this | Comments

Arris brings Moxi HD DVR sales to an end, plans to cut off guide data after 2013... maybe

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/11/arris-brings-moxi-hd-dvr-sales-to-an-end-plans-to-cut-off-guide/

While Moxi may live on in spirit as a white label multiroom HD DVR for cable companies, parent company Arris announced on its website this week the retail boxes and extenders are no longer being sold. Initially, a note on the company's home page indicated tech support and guide data would come to an end at the end of 2013 as noted by Zatz Not Funny, but references to that have since been removed. Potentially abandoned users on AVS Forum have already started looking for alternative ways to keep the guide data flowing and possibly get help from Arris in prying open the code to do so. We've contacted Arris for more information but haven't received a response yet -- we'll update you when / if we do. In the meantime Digeo's baby is still operational, so owners can enjoy however much time they have left, we'd recommend studying up on the stages of grief so you'll understand how to handle them over the next several months.

[Thanks, Alfred]

Arris brings Moxi HD DVR sales to an end, plans to cut off guide data after 2013... maybe originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | source

Moxi | Email this | Comments

LG Miracle appears in real life, we start to believe

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/12/lg-miracle-appears-in-real-life-we-start-to-believe/

LG's smartphone workshop is keeping itself busy. Alongside the manufacturer's attempt to out-Note Samsung, its latest Windows Phone has resurfaced. A kindly mole has offered some better focused (but unfortunately watermarked to heck) shots of LG's first Mango-laced Windows Phone. Skinnier that we expected, we can now make out a front-facing camera, paired up with a rear-facing five-megapixel primary shooter on the back. It's still a prototype, judging by that not-so-subtle "not for sale" etching on the back, but expect the Miracle -- when it does go official -- to match those middleweight credentials leaked so far.

LG Miracle appears in real life, we start to believe originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

WMPoweruser | source

GSMArena | Email this | Comments

Force Flyer accelerometer-controlled RC helicopter, we go gloves-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/12/force-flyer-hands-on/

Being able to wave your hand through the air and control a physical object -- as if by magic -- is everyone's dream. And if you say it's not yours, then you sir or ma'am are a liar. That's why we had to stop at the Regal Elite booth on the floor at Toy Fair. The company was showing off the Force Flyer, an RC helicopter you pilot with an accelerometer-equipped glove. The patented tech, called Glove Force Technology, adds a level of physical interactivity that's more Wii than RC. A small joystick you hold in your palm controls thrust, while tilting and moving your hand through the air gets the chopper to perform acrobatic maneuvers -- or plummet to the ground if you're an Engadget editor. The Regal Elite staff seemed to have pretty good control of the Force Flyer, which gives us hope that our difficulty in keeping the toy airborne was due more to our lack of familiarity and not with the quality of the device. The glove controller on hand was still a prototype (as is much of what's on the floor at Toy Fair), hence the New Balance logo, but the actual internals are around 80 percent complete according to a rep. The smaller, indoor Force Flyer should be hitting the market in late April for $49.95, followed by a larger outdoor version. Check out the gallery below and video after the break for more.

Gallery: Force Flyer accelerometer-! controll ed RC helicopter

Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

Continue reading Force Flyer accelerometer-controlled RC helicopter, we go gloves-on

Force Flyer accelerometer-controlled RC helicopter, we go gloves-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Saturday, February 11, 2012

A Strange Anomaly Is Happening With Corporate Earnings

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-strange-anomaly-is-happening-with-corporate-earnings-2012-2

Earlier in the week, we did a quick story on a note from Credit Suisse's Andrew Garthwaite on various anomalies that were occurring in the market right now.

The big anomaly, as almost everyone knows, is the disconnect between Treasuries and equities. Equities have been on a tear. Treasuries are still pricing in fear and no growth.

The full note has some deep points regarding some strange turns happening in the market.

Particularly interesting is the disconnect between growth right now and earnings.

The macro data continues to be very strong, and yet we keep hearing about how Q4 earnings have been some of the worst since the end of the recession.

And there's a chart to prove the disconnect between leading indicators and earnings momentum.

chart

One simple reasons for the earnings "weakness"? Consensus may have just gotten out of hand.

chart

But it's not all bad news for stock investors.

CS concludes:

This tells us that it is probably still right to be negative on earnings as we are (we forecast EPS to be 12% below consensus in Europe and 8% below consensus in the US). This is a problem but not necessary that bearish for markets. There have been plenty of years when earnings expectations fall a lot yet markets rise as we show below.