I thought this Ballmer's autograph on a Macbook Pro was fake, but according to this video of the big man scribbling it, it's not. Somewhere in a dark place, Jon Ive is bracing himself and sobbing. With a British accent.
Computers in movies look nothing like the beasts we lug around today. They're thin and light, a single pane that jumps to life when touched. Technology follows Hollywood dreams; here's hoping this montage is a portent of what's coming soon.
The world will be shocked if Apple doesn't reveal a tablet computer next week. It won't be the first, not by any stretch, and it won't be the first multitouch device, naturally. But as we envision it, the tablet represents the fusion of two of the most steadfast dreams of sci-fi nerds and ordinary people alike.
This reel, compiled for Giz by Mike Byhoff and Frank Cozzarelli as a celebration of sci-fi's longstanding love affair with tablets and touch interfaces, is pretty self explanatory, but there are a few things to think about:
• The greatest literary device in sci-fi history, the actual Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was, in fact, a tablet.
• Gene Roddenberry was—like some tech analysts these days—in favor of the tablet coming in large and small sizes.
• The Incredibles, created by Steve Jobs' Pixar, not only has the most Apple-like vision of a tablet, but shows it sliding out of a manila envelope, three years before Steve drew the slender MacBook Air out of the same.
• We're not sure what Bart Simpson is doing to that iMac either, but apparently "Mapple" beat Apple to the punch with touchscreen all-in-ones.
• It is physically impossible to craft a montage of sci-fi interfaces without showing Tom C. in Minority Report.
• You may say that the tablets of Moses weren't exactly interactive. Fine, believe what you will, but take our advice and stay the hell away from golden calves.
There are plenty more crazy touch computer sightings in TV and movies—if you can track any down, be sure to post them in comments.
Special thanks to Mike Byhoff and Frank Cozzarelli of Gawker TV for working overtime to pull this reel together. The catchy music—chosen for its sci-fi-friendliness, its nice buildup, and its utter lack of resemblance to 1990s techno—is "Lovely Allen" by Holy Fuck, which you can (and should) buy here at Amazon, or here on iTunes.
IBM and Fujifilm have spent the last three years working to improve magnetic tape data density, and the result is a prototype with a density of 29.5 billion bits per square inch—enough to hold 35TB of data.
That's about 39 times the areal data density of today's best products and 44 times the capacity of today's IBM LTO Generation 4 cartridge. Plus, tape has cost advantage over flash and HDD, which makes it an attractive option for businesses that need to store large amounts of data. UPDATE: A video discussing the achievement has been made available. [PR Newswire Image via IBM Flickr]
If you thought a boogie board was a salt-water vessel that lets you skim the waves, think again. Improv Electronics' Boogie Board is a pressure-sensitive tablet that uses a watch battery for power. It's like a digital blackboard!
The Reflex LCD doesn't need any power to keep the scribbles and drawings on the screen, with the watch battery only being put into use when the screen is erased. The watch battery will last for 50,000 erases, which makes the $29.97 board cost 15 times less for each erase than a normal sheet of paper. It's ideal for kids, or perhaps artists who care about the long-term saving associated with the Boogie Board. [Improv Electronics via CrunchGear]
I'm liking Bing more and more every day. Not only it looks and feels better than Google, but its specialized searches are great. Like the new food recipe search. Check out the nice results, and the useful criteria bar.
As a long-time amateur chef, I see myself using this on a daily basis. If I weren't so lazy and there weren't so many great restaurants and bars around me, that is. But since I'm getting married next week, maybe it's time to start organizing food at home again.
In film and video, if you want to rack focus, a "follow focus" makes the job a lot easier. Attaching to the focus ring, a follow focus can be as simple as a stick or as complicated as a gearbox.
Ultimately, the purpose is always the same: Make it as quick and simple as possible to rotate that focus ring from one spot to another. And make the job one-handed.
But while follow focus is basically a standard in motion film and video cameras, it's nonexistent in the modern day, video-wielding dSLR world. So one flickr member made his own follow focus with a $6 steel hose clamp from Home Depot. Padded with a rubber band, it clamps right around the focus ring. And hey, it works great!
Look for the official, $200 versions from Nikon and Canon some time in the future, I'm sure. Unlike the Home Depot version, they will be powder coated black. [flickr]
Wouldn't it be great if we could recycle all those old clothes lying in the back of our wardrobes, turning them into flexible batteries? By dipping fabric into an ink comprised of carbon nanotubes, their electrical properties are transferred over.
It's being worked on by some Stanford University scientists, and follows their efforts in turning paper electrical. Because of the nature of fabric, it's still flexible and can even be washed in water without affecting the carbon nanotubes residing in the fibers.
At its present state, it can't do much, but the Stanford University bods will be working on it some more to actually turn it into a functioning battery, or even solar panel apparel. If they can make a hoodie that charges your smartphone as you're in the sun, that'd solve a lot of problems. [BBC]
ISS Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer has sent the first tweet from space. Did he use his pointy nipple antennas to transmit data back to Earth? No. According to NASA, he used the "ultimate wireless connection", which actually is quite clever.
The new network is called Crew Support LAN, a software update that allows astronauts to personally use the internet as they will use it from their own home. This can only happen during times in which the ISS is transmitting data to the ground stations at high speed, using Ku-Band communications. However, it's not as simple as firing up Firefox from space.
The astronauts get into a remote desktop program on their laptops to control a desktop computer on the ground. So, while the computer on the ground access the internet openly, but the ISS's astronauts don't really "touch" the internet with their laptops. A simple, but very smart way to avoid security problems on board the space station.
This connection is purely for personal use, as the crew already has e-mail, IP telephone, and videoconferencing. According to NASA, the personal use "will be subject to the same computer use guidelines as government employees on Earth." So no porn or torrent for the space dudes. [NASA]
From an AskReddit member: "Go to a hotel and say you think you lost it there. It's the #1 most left behind item at hotels, so most places have a big bin filled with every phone charger imaginable. [Reddit] UPDATE
UPDATE: I just received this note from a reader on the subject:
"I work for the second largest conference hotel in my city. You have no idea the size box we have of chargers left behind. 90 percent are idiot blackberry chargers. This works 100% of the time, we never verify that anyone stays here we just let them go shopping for there charger. Hell we even will give people a charger if they call down to the front desk and say they forgot theirs!"
Nice!
Speed. Toughness. Efficiency. Silence. That's why we want solid-state drives in our computers. But we worry about the zoom-zoom performance degrading over time, and the fact that SSDs might eventually wear out. Here's what you need to know about 'em.
To understand what's great about SSDs, let's start with HDDs (you know, old-fashioned hard drives). On a basic level, a hard disk drive works thusly: Inside is a magnetized recording surface called a platter that spins around really fast, with a head that zooms across disk to read and write data—think kinda like a record player, except the head never touches the surface, 'cause that would be very, very bad. So, you can see the problem with hard drives: They're fragile (don't drop your computer) and they're slow to access stuff because the head has to physically move to where the data is.
With an SSD, on the other hand, we're talking straight silicon. What's inside is a bunch of flash memory chips and a controller running the show. There are no moving parts, so an SSD doesn't need to start spinning, doesn't need to physically hunt data scattered across the drive and doesn't make a whirrrrr. The result is that it's crazy faster than a regular hard drive in nearly every way, so you have insanely quick boot times (an old video, but it stands), application launches, random writes and almost every other measure of drive performance (writing large files excepted). For a frame of reference, General Manager of SanDisk's SSD group, Doron Myersdorf, says an equivalent hard drive would have to spin at almost 40,000rpm to match an SSD. And, you can drop it—at least, a little.
Typically, what you've inside an SSD is a bunch of NAND flash memory chips for storage—the same stuff found in memory cards and USB thumb drives—along with a small cache of DRAM, like you'd find on most current hard drives. The DRAM is also flash memory, but the difference between the two is that the storage memory is non-volatile, meaning the data it holds won't go poof when it loses power, while the faster DRAM is volatile memory, so "poof" is exactly what happens to DRAM data when the power goes out. That's fine because it's the faster DRAM is just for caching things, holding them temporarily to make the whole system work faster.
So, let's talk a bit about flash memory itself. I'll try to keep it straightforward and not lose you, because it's key to the benefits and problems with solid-state storage.
Flash memory is made up of a bunch of memory cells, which are made up of transistors. There are two basic kinds of memory: With single-level cell (SLC) memory, one bit of data is stored per cell. (Bits, the basic building block of information, if you recall, have two states, 0 or 1.) The SLC type is fast as hell and lasts a long time, but it is too expensive for storing the dense amounts of data you'd want in a personal computer. SLC memory is really only used for enterprise stuff, like servers, where you need it to last for 100,000 write cycles.
The solution for normal humans is multi-level cell memory. Currently, up to 4 bits can be stored per cell. "Multi-level" refers to the multiple levels of voltage in the cell used to get those extra bits in. MLC SSD drives are much cheaper than SLC but are, as I mentioned, slower, and can wear out faster than their pricier counterpart. Still, for now and going forward into the foreseeable future, all of the SSDs you could come close to owning are of the MLC variety.
Structurally, flash memory is divided into blocks, which are broken down further into pages. And now, we get into one of the major problems with flash. While data can be read and written at the individual page level, it can only be erased at the larger block level. In other words, suppose you have a 256k block and a 4k page, and you want to erase just one page worth of data, you have to erase the whole block, and then write all the rest of the data back to the block.
This is a huge problem, for one, because MLC flash memory wears out after 10,000 write cycles. Two, as the drive fills up, performance significantly degrades. (Anandtech has a pretty great illustration, amidst a massively deep dive on SSDs you should read if you're interested at all, showing this.) That's because without free blocks to write to, you've gotta go through that intensive erase and rewrite cycle, which, as you'd imagine, entails a lot of overhead. Problem numero three is that, according to SanDisk CEO Eli Harari, there's "a brick wall" in the near future, when storage at the chip level could stop increasing in the not-too-distant future.
The thing is, you actually probably still want an SSD in your next computer, to make it run awesomer. Because where there are problems, there are sorta solutions. Remember how I mentioned up above the other major component in an SSD, besides the flash memory, is the controller? They're a big part of what differentiates one company's SSD from another's. The controller is the secret sauce, as SanDisk's Myersdorf told me. Because the game, for now, is all about managing flash better, both physically and logically. In other words, it's about algorithms.
The first standard technique for long flash-memory life is wear leveling, which is simply not writing to the same area of the drive over and over again. Instead, the goal is to fill up the entire drive with stuff before you have to start erasing blocks, knowing that erasing and re-writing will use up precious cycles. The problem of "Write amplification"—say you have a 1MB document that ends up causing 4MB worth of writes to the drive because of the whole block and pages problem described above, where you wind up reading, erasing and re-writing a bunch of extra blocks and pages—that is being lowered, says Myersdorf, because drive management is shifting from being block-based to page-based. More granular algorithms with caching and prediction means there's less unnecessary erasing and writing.
The biggest thing is what's called TRIM. As you probably know, when you delete something from your computer, it isn't instantly vaporized. Your OS basically just marks the data as "Hey it's cool to pave over this with new stuff." Your hard drive has no real idea you deleted anything. With the TRIM function, when you delete something, the OS actually tells the SSD, "Hey you can scrub this crap." The SSD dumps the block to a cache, wipes the pages with the stuff you want gone, and copies the stuff you want to keep back to a new block, leaving you with clean pages for the next time you want to write something to the disk. This means better performance when you're saving new stuff, since it handles the read-erase-rewrite dance ahead of time. Windows 7 supports TRIM, and Myersdorf says Windows 8 will be even better for solid-state storage.
As for busting through the brick wall of limited storage, the number of electrons that can reside in a cell, increasing flash memory storage at a pace faster than Moore's Law, right now, Toshiba, who invented NAND flash, is currently the chip capacity king. The company just announced a new 64GB NAND flash module that combines 16 4GB NAND chips. This would seem to be closing in on that wall, which we don't want them to do, because we want the dollar-to-MB ratio to keep dropping. Myersdorf is optimistic (despite his boss's gloomy pronouncement), "There have been several walls in history of the [flash] industry—there was transition to MLC, then three bits per cell, then four—every time there is some physical wall, that physics doesn't allow you to pass, there is always a new shift of paradigm as to how we make the next step on the performance curve."
Okay, the big question then: When are SSDs gonna get seriously affordable? A 160GB version of one of the one of the most acclaimed SSDs, Intel's X25, retails for $470. OCZ's Colossus is a verifiable brick of solid-state storage, and the 1TB model has an MSRP of $2200, though it's going for much more. By contrast, a 1TB WD hard drive is like from a hundred bucks on a bad day. Myersdorf says it's hard to say when the dollar to byte is going to go down absolutely, mostly because of supply and demand, but he did predict that a lot of "mainstream" laptops are gonna have 256GB SSDs in the next 18 months. Oh good, I'll be due for a new laptop right around then.
Thanks to SanDisk for helping us out! Still something you wanna know? Send questions about solid states, solid snakes, or solid shakes here, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.
The age old conundrum of how to eat chips at a keyboard without making a giant mess has finally been solved. So how do you keep your hands clean? By using another hand. A robotic hand.
As this lady demonstrates, you push the button on the shaft to clamp the hand around the chip, which you then shove in the direction of your face. It's soft enough to not completely crush through the chip—which is bad—but still stable enough to carry it without dropping. You might say that there was too much thought and engineering effort going into a problem that nobody needed solving, but you'd be wrong. Very wrong. [ITmedia via Crunchgear]
You may have already noticed YouTube looking a little different this week, but now it's official: the site's undergone a major redesign that aims to clear out the clutter.
YouTube's new pared-down look is opt-in at the moment, and up and running internationally. It's a little spartan, but it does make it easier to focus on the video you're watching—and the advertisements packaged with it. Gone is the five-star rating system, replaced with a gladiatorian thumbs up or down. Information about each clip's creator is tucked under the video, while you can view a list of their other offerings and choose to subscribe above it. Actions like sharing, saving, and flagging a video have been reduced to buttons, and you can search while continuing to watch whatever's on your current page.
On the right-hand side of the screen, the "Next UP" box now incorporates the search that brought you there and takes into account your subscriptions, instead of the previous one-video experience.
According to YouTube, the move was made to simplify the user experience and to create a video page that could accommodate a wide range of genres. This is good! What would be better—and what's coming eventually but not available now—is the ability to to customize your viewing page, using this design as a foundation.
One thing that's not going anywhere are the number and placement of ads. That's understandable—it's a business, after all—but I do wonder, if they were taking such a big axe to the design elements of the page, if there may have been a little room to cut those down as well.
It sounds as though there's still room for change, as YouTube monitors and measures user response over the next couple of weeks. But overall, it's a good clean look for all your Muppet music video needs. [YouTube]
For all four minutes and 34 seconds of the video below, I just zoned out listening to the relaxing noise of wind passing through the Winduino II's Bluetooth board. I fell into a kind of blogger coma.
The Winduino II is made from an Adruino BT Bluetooth board, and is inspired by the Aeolian harp that was used in ye olden days. Hung outside, the wind makes the various sensors tinkle with harmonious sounds of music, and a USB port keeps it charged up if the solar panels on top aren't soaking up enough rays. [Fascination Workshop via Matrixsynth via MAKE]
The Winduino II from Fascination Workshop on Vimeo.
As mentioned in our review, the added RAM in the Palm Pre Plus means you can run "a LOT" of apps. You know, like 10! Absurdist logic site PreCentral asks the obvious question: why not 50?
Anyway, I'm stuck on the third mission of GTA: Chinatown Wars on my iPhone, because I keep getting calls while I'm playing, which shuts down the game completely. So, my question is, is this Pre Plus making fun of me? Because it sure feels that way. [PreCentral]
According to AppleInsider's sources, this flickr image is the closest mockup of the Apple Tablet that anyone has seen to date. And yes, it's essentially a big, first-gen iPhone that's "met its match with a rolling pin."
Rather than a plastic back, AI claims the Tablet will have the same, two-tone aluminum look of the original iPhone. But while this image is thought to be very close to Apple's final design, it doesn't sound like a full-fledged OS X will be on board. Why? The Tablet will have an iPhone-inspired Home button (along with a 10-inch screen, 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speaker grills, a microphone, GPS, 3G connectivity and a 30-pin dock connector, if AppleInsider has it right).
Personally, I never grew tired of the iPhone's original look, and I'd love to see the design in tablet form. What about you? [AppleInsider and flickr]
According to this tale by Fake Steve Jobs, the Apple tablet isn't just great—it actually cures lupus. In other words, Dr. House's entire diagnostic team is pretty much out of a job as of next week. [FakeSteve]
RIM has already been moving away from the trackball to the trackpad, but this new image of a yet to be released device shows neither. All signs point to the first touchscreen BlackBerry Bold.
There's not much more information available beyond the picture, but it's certainly a relief to see an improvement over earlier touchscreen prototypes. And it's even better to see RIM continuing to innovate, although it's likely months before we see this—or the final version of it—in stores. With the BlackBerry Storm having had touchscreen capability for some time, it's only natural to see that technology infiltrate other brands.
But what do all you BlackBerry enthusiasts think? Is this sacrilege, or progress?
UPDATE: Crackberry is reporting that this is almost definitely an early Magnum prototype, which sounds right to me. So expect to see a lot of these design elements sometime this year, though probably not this exact design. [Cell Guru via FoneFrenzy]
People love trying to trick us with fake shots of unreleased Apple products. We recently received the shot above of the supposed iPhone 4.0 firmware, which we know for a fact is a fake. Can you do better?
It's really easy to fake a screenshot on the iPhone. Simply make what you want in Photoshop, load it onto your phone as a photo and take a photo of the phone with it on the screen. That's clearly what the person who made the above shot did. The above shot is a jailbreak app, but you get the idea.
So what do you hope to see in the iPhone 4.0 software? Go nuts! Send your best entries to me at contests@gizmodo.com with iPhone Fakes in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs under 800k in size, and use a FirstnameLastname.jpg naming convention using whatever name you want to be credited with. Send your work to me by next Tuesday morning, and I'll pick three top winners and show off the rest of the best in our Gallery of Champions. Get to it!
After giving Archos 5 owners the Android 1.6 update and then taking it back again cruelly, Archos has rereleased Donut (with new Quick Search feature) for the masses. [Engadget]
The guys at DVICE got one of the first fondles of the bizarre Microsoft Arc keyboard that raised some eyebrows at CES. Initial impressions were positive for both design and functionality.
Interestingly, the bottom of the keyboard is actually flat—so it won't hug your lap as one might have initially presumed. However, the arched keys were comfortable to type on and, overall, the feel was described simply: "great."
On the downside, if you don't like smudging and quiet keyboards, the Arc is probably not for you. It also lacks the color range of Microsoft's Arc mice and, inexplicably, the included USB dongle doesn't accommodate both peripherals. Still, if you want a functional keyboard that actually complements your decor, the Arc might be worth looking into. [Microsoft and DVICE]
