Transparent LG GD900 Crystal

A recent communication from The CPW Group has outlined a release date for the newly named GD900 by LG, this new phone famed for its transparent keypad is to be launched as the LG Crystal and is the first of its kind to hit UK shores.


LG GD900 Crystal
The manufacturer is touting the LG GD900 to be as popular as the Prada phone, we have to agree that it is a very good looking piece of kit but will it stand the test of time once the novelty of the automatic slide out transparent keypad wears off? There’s only so many times you can show your friends this neat little trick before it becomes a little nerve grating!

Quick Oveview:

Transparent yet eye-catching, the LG GD900 Crystal will stand out from the crowd, and so will those who carry it. When opened, its sliding, translucent keypad illuminates a cool glow that reflects the phone’s sleek and polished silver body. But first-rate design was not the only thing in mind when creating the LG GD900. It also lives up to the highest level of technical features expected in a premium calibre handset, including its dedicated Bluetooth headset.

With the LG GD900, seeing is believing. The LG Crystal features a slide out fully transparent touchpad. Not just amazing to look at, the Crystal touchpad is touch sensitive supporting handwriting recognition and gesture control which lets you access applications by simply sweeping your finger across the glass surface (i.e. draw an ‘M’ to open the music player). The LG GD900 also has a 3.0 inch touchscreen sporting the S-Class UI for fast and fluid navigation, an 8.0 Megapixel camera with auto focus and face detection, HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity and a music and video player supporting DivX.


GPRS EDGE class 12
Touchscreen slider
127 g of weight
3 – inch 16 M color TFT screen
1.5 GB internal memory
8 mega pixel camera with flash
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 2.0

Google Chrome O/S

There is a new kid in the Operating System (OS) block. The source code of Chromium OS, the open source project behind Google Chrome OS, was released a couple of weeks ago and, according to the official Google blog, netbooks preloaded with the finished OS will be available by late 2010.

It will support both x86 (Intel) as well as ARM chips and, from the looks of the early release, the interface will sport a Spartan aesthetic – similar to Google’s browser.

Google is consulting a variety of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to design machines with “specific reference hardware.” This will skip a lot of the hardware checking steps that standard operating systems run through. In some of the test runs, the OS booted up in under seven seconds. The platform is based on a Linux kernel which will self-check and self-update at every boot.

But what does all the guesswork about the final technical specifications and the anticipated use of emerging technologies such as HTML 5 really mean to you?

Advantages
The first obvious thing is laptops loaded with an open source OS costs less because the device manufacturer does not have to pay a licensing fee. The second being those who want to stay on the ‘Cloud’ might now have a real option and the third is the broader issue of competition driving innovation.

The OS is the interface which lets you ‘talk’ with your computer. It helps the underlying hardware in the machine to understand what you are saying. Chrome OS is more of an interface to the web than a real operating system with a desktop. Google realises that the Web is no longer filled with static web pages; it is a place where people interact with complex software applications.

The Internet has evolved to a point where you no longer need an operating system to perform the most basic computing tasks. All that you need is an operating environment. That is the approach Google has taken. All the applications run from within a browser and your data is stored in the ‘Cloud’ – which essentially means as Google puts it “completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.”

You also wouldn’t need driver support or application installation and hence lightning fast boot-up.

Chrome OS might also change the nature of the software application environment. Now application developers have to accept Microsoft’s terms to access the information which will let them initiate the hardware calls through the OS. Competition will mean they will have more leverage.

Chrome OS, much like its namesake in the browser arena, will change the game even if it’s a niche product just by adopting newer technologies, thereby forcing others to evolve and provide better solutions.

But can the cloud-driven platform do simple tasks which we take for granted in today’s OS. Can it print? “You will be able to print,” said Chrome’s lead engineer, Idan Avraham, at the launch, but the OS would take a “more innovative approach” to supporting printers. In the end it might prove to be a big win for everyone but Microsoft.

dual-screen laptop

Japanese electronics maker Onkyo has introduced the market's second dual-screen notebook. The Sotec DX1007 brings a few improvements over Kohjinsha's dual-display DZ6HKE16E laptop, which also launched recently, but is otherwise virtually indistinguishable.

Onkyo's product increases each 10.1-inch display's resolution to 1366x768 and boosts the RAM to 2GB compared to Kohjinsha's 1024x600 and 1GB offering. The Sotec DX1007 also brings twice as much storage space with a 320GB HDD instead of 160GB.



Both systems pack a 1.6GHz Athlon Neo MV-40 single core processor and Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics. Other features include a 1.3 megapixel webcam, 802.11 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, three USB ports, as well as a multi-card and fingerprint reader.

It's worth noting that the DX1007 reportedly offers less battery life at 3.7 hours versus 4.5 hours. Onkyo's Sotec DX1007 is expected launch in Japan on December 21, and will be priced at $960 -- just like the DZ6HKE16E.

Holographic Data Storage

Holographic Data Storage

Data storage and management fuels many aspects of the world's economy. The average company's data storage needs triple every 18 to 24 months and the worldwide data storage capacity has grown from 283,000 terabytes in 2000 to nearly 5 million terabytes by 2005. Couple that with the average person's data storage growth of 250 megabytes per year and the fact that 75% of all IT spending is for data storage, and you have one enormous data storage challenge.
From Mechanical to Chemical
Data storage today operates in essentially the same way it did when GE's co-founder Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. The Edison phonograph used a diaphragm, which had an embossing point and was held against a rapidly-moving metal cylinder wrapped in tin foil. Today's CDs and DVDs use virtually the same mechanical technology. Only now, the pits and grooves are imprinted onto a polycarbonate material and are read with a laser. Advancements from CDs to DVDs to new blue laser optical formats have involved using shorter wavelength lasers to read smaller marks, thus increasing the amount of stored data. But that's all going to change.
To meet the exponential growth in data storage over the next 5 to 10 years, GE is abandoning the traditional two-dimensional "pits and grooves" mechanical approach and instead is working on 3D volumetric holographic storage technology using a chemical approach. By leveraging 50 years of polycarbonate research, GE scientists are developing specialized polycarbonate materials that chemically change when bombarded by a specific type of laser to "write" material onto the "disc." Another laser is able to "read" those chemical changes in the material to retrieve the data that has been stored. The major benefit of this approach is being able to use the entire volume of the material instead of being limited only to the visible surface area. If you would apply this new technology to a disc the size of a DVD, you could fit 200 times more data on a DVD. The other advantage is a huge increase in data retrieval speed through parallel reading schemes.
And while some of us just get excited about fitting the entire Star Wars epic on one DVD, there are many more possibilities with this new technology. Because surface area isn't a factor any more, there can be much more flexibility in media size and shape, enabling data storage for a range of new applications. Imagine the possibilities of checking into the hospital and having your entire medical history stored on a chip and embedded into the plastic ID tag on your wrist. It's closer than you think.
Holographic Data Storage Research Focus
This multidisciplinary effort leverages expertise at GE Global Research in polymer chemistry, materials science, physics, optics and electrical engineering for the following key focus area

New Material Design
Leverage high performance GE plastics and add molecules to enable 3D storage.
3D Storage Systems
Understanding material interaction within the system and developing the optical systems architecture.
Electro Optics
Exploring how optical technologies can improve future GE products.

GE Global Reach