Chainless Bicycle

Some people choose not to ride a bicycle to work or school because it would simply be too inconvenient; not every place has a bike rack outside, and sometimes the chain grease can make for a messy commute.

Well, now you don’t have to worry about those problems, thanks to a new chainless bike that can be easily disassembled.

Designed by Hungarian engineers, the Stringbike uses two steel cables attached to pulleys, which move on swinging discs as you pedal. The discs replace a traditional round gear system, and they can be changed depending on your needs.

The pedals and discs swing in opposition, as the position of pedals determines the position of the discs: one is always pulling the bike forward, while the other lags behind. This allows for a continuous transmission change, instead of having to shift gears. Higher or lower gear is obtained by a higher or lower placement of the pulleys (see the animated video below for a clearer visualization of how the bike works).

The Stringbikes are also convenient because both wheels can detach quickly and easily as there are no chains to align. And since there are fewer components, eventually these bikes will be cheaper to produce than traditional ones.

Apple iPod Touch 4G

The new iPod Touch is the best dedicated music player that Apple has released to date. The 'Retina' display, iOS4 and the faster processor mean that listening to music, playing games and surfing the Web are easier and more enjoyable than with its predecessors.

Out of the box, the new iPod touch reflects the changes made recently to the iPhone 4, with a slimmer profile and the hint of a square design. The back is still stainless steel, with a slightly squarer profile than previously. The new touch is narrower overall and one of the changes has been to remove the way the casing wrapped around the edge in previous versions.

And I am not sure I like this change. Yes, to look at, the new iPod touch screen is now framed by only a thin silver border. This means that the edge is harder and less comfortable to hold. Whereas previous versions had a comfortable edge, the new iPod touch does not. Many, we suspect will use a cover, in which case this change will make little difference.

Apple has managed to squeeze into it a super-sharp Retina display, two cameras and the A4 processor that powers the iPhone 4 and iPad.These key hardware upgrades mean you can now make FaceTime calls and record and edit HD video, just like you can on the iPhone 4.

The importance of being innovative

Necesity, as the saying goes, is the mother of invention. However, when it comes to technology sector, the need to innovate is very much a necessity. More often that not, new innovative products and adaptability are dictated not so much by approprite use but by rapid changing market demand. It is not just the technology that is the basis for competitive advantage; at time it is a determining factorr of survival.

The acceleration of technology innnovation through information and communication technology (ICTs) impacts society, industry and economy in various ways but it is a pace of innovation that draws our attention to high tech more than any thing else. Social scientists observe that although it took "radio 38 years to acquire 50 million users, television took only 13 years to reach the same milestone, the internet four years, and the iPod three years".Social networks such as Facebook and iPhone dwarf even these rapid rates of adaptation of life to technology. Within a stretch of the past nine months, Facebook attracted 200 million new users. The total number of subscribers is now larger than the population of any country other than India and China. In the same amount of time, one billion iPhone applications have been downloaded.

The culture of innovation is often undermind by another culture - the competition to keep up with the latest tech fad. The latest tech fad sells not because any dramatic changes but because of million spent on promoting products that then bring a major return for the producers of sleek marketable products. Such a culture sells not the product itself but the idea of it. Our own tech innovators would do well to stay focused on technology that is appropriate for our local economy and needs instead of developing a complex which creates a culture of viewing everything from the outside as superior and better for us than what we develop ourselves.

Leaked: Acer’s dual multitouch screen laptop

If you praised the futuristic attempt at dual touchscreen laptops by Asus over a year ago at the CeBIT then this latest leaked development from Acer will make you think once more.

Tech Review Source purportedly show a 2.67GHz Intel Core i5 processor (likely a Core i5-580M) with dual fifteen-inch multitouch screens, making both the Libretto and MSI’s 7-incher look positively dated by comparison.


The leaked laptop looks impressive but unfortunately the source does mention that is ’still slow and buggy’. What we can definitely conclude on this leak is that similar design laptops are probably in the making within the secret chambers of many other laptop makers and we will no doubt see more in the near future.


[via Engadget]

Rumor: Facebook working on a Facebook phone?

Facebook has been available on cellphones for a while, but we still haven’t seen a phone that is entirely optimised for Facebook yet. According to the latest rumors, that might change because Facebook could be working on its own phone, how will it be welcomed by its 500 million users?

Rumor has it that Facebook is secretly working on its own phone along with former iPhone app developer Joe Hewitt and Google’s previous Chrome OS project leader Matthew Papakipos. This information hasn’t been confirmed but I would agree that Facebook phone would be a blast if we see it someday. However, Facebook has declined the rumors saying that it isn’t developing its own phone.

According to Facebook, its interest was always to develop apps and make phones more social with better Facebook support and not to develop phones. Only thing that Facebook is doing is the deep integration with some manufacturers, and whenever that happens people tend to think that a Facebook phone could be on its way.

A Facebook phone might be a great thing, but it looks like we’re not going to see it. Some of you might be disappointed, but Facebook has declined all such rumors. With so many phones that already have support for Facebook and social websites you have to ask yourself. 

Do you really need a Facebook phone?

Dell Streak: The versatile 5-inch Android tablet

Introducing the Dell Streak. The perfectly-sized, go-anywhere entertainment, social connection and navigation device.

Widescreen display optimally designed for mobile web, video and movies Integrated social networking widgets and apps, plus tons of apps through the Android Marketplace Crystal-clear scratch-resistant Gorilla® glass screen Google MapsTM  with navigation and text-to-voice, turn-by-turn directions with Street View Multitasking Google Android OS that gives you the freedom to do what you want

The perfectly sized, go-anywhere device

Watch, listen, play and connect with a 5" high-quality screen that fits perfectly in your hands.

Now that’s entertainment.

Take good times with you, wherever you go. A brilliant 5" screen lets you surf, watch videos and stay connected, with less squinting and pinching, plus front-and-back cameras capture photos and videos on the fly with 5MP resolution. Watch streaming video on YouTube^TM , then post your own movies directly from your Streak.
With compact 6" wide x 3.1" high x .4" thin dimensions, there’s plenty of space to take full advantage of the multi-touch display, plus the high-quality scratch-resistant Gorilla^®  glass means your view stays crystal clear. Ultra-intelligent facial proximity and ambient light sensors automatically adjust screen brightness, optimizing your battery life

Think fast. Play faster.

The Dell Streak ensures that you can multitask and play without delay (including music and games), with the powerful yet efficient 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon^TM  processor speeding things along using Google’s Android-based OS with multi-touch Dell user experience. 3G mobile broadband, WiFi and Bluetooth^®  mean you’ve always got an easy way to connect, while swappable microSD memory cards mean virtually limitless storage for movies, music and pictures — up to 42 movies, 32,000 photos or 16,000 songs on each of your individual 32GB memory cards.

The road awaits. Where are you headed today? Find the quickest route with real-time maps from integrated A-GPS and e-compass functionality. Text-to-voice and turn-by-turn directions let you keep your eyes on the road, while Google Maps’ live traffic functionality helps you avoid those dreaded red zones (requires 3G connection). The best part: The Streak multitasks, so you can play your favorite driving tunes and receive calls at the same time.

Get face time, any time. Facebook® , TwitterTM , Gmail, a phone call — however you like to stay connected, the Streak keeps the lines of communication open. The Streak is a full-function 3G phone with IM and SMS/text capabilities, plus you can take photos for sharing using the rear-facing camera with dual-LED flash. Integrated real-time Facebook and Flickr®  upload abilities put your photo or video online in no time.

AMD's Six-Core Phenom II X6

AMD may have already raced ahead of Intel when it comes to integrating more cores into its CPUs with the launch of its 12-core Magny-Cours workstation/servers CPUs, but it’s taken considerably longer to release a desktop processor with more than four cores.

However, while Intel’s first six-core desktop CPU, the Core i7-980X Extreme Edition is brutally fast, it’s also extortionately expensive, more than three and a half times the price of the quad-core Core i7-930.

In contrast, AMD has taken a completely different approach with its first six-core desktop CPU, the Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition - pricing it far more reasonably.


 

The X6 1090T BE is physically indistinguishable from the X4 965 BE as it’s also a Socket AM3 processor. This means it should work in any Socket AM3 or Socket AM2+ motherboard that can handle a 125W TDP CPU with a suitable BIOS update.

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition

• Frequency: 3.2GHz
  
• Number of cores: 6 x physical
  
• Core: Thuban
  
• Packaging: Socket AM2+/AM3
  
• L1 cache: 64KB L1 data, 64KB L1 instruction per core
  
• L2 cache: 512KB per core
  
• L3 cache: 6MB accessible by all cores
  
• HTT: 200MHz
  
• Memory: Dual-channel DDR2/DDR3
  
• TDP: 125W

Intel Core i9: Six Cores Of Speed

On paper, the Core i9 might not sound that exciting: It's a lot like the Core i7, except built with a 32nm fabrication process and two extra cores, for a total of six. Early benchmarks, though, say it flies. Sometimes. 

The i9 doesn't extract significant advantages from its pumped core count (which brings processing thread count up to 12) in a lot of day to day tasks, so don't expect to see an increase in game performance, Windows startup speed or other single-core optimized tasks. It's when you start rendering video or doing 3D modeling—tasks that are suited to parallelization—that the i9 flexes its muscles.

While testing the pre-release 2.8 GHz Gulftown chip, PCLab found a significant speed increase with certain applications. According to their report, certain resource-intensive tasks, such as editing video or 3D modelling, perform up to 50% faster than Intel's current Core i7 chip.

Unfortunately, the chip didn't shine in all areas; its performance is similar to that of older Core i7 chips when handling less demanding general activities.

However, the Core i9 CPUs fared well when it came to power usage, using less power and running cooler compared to older chips.