IFA – Part 1

For me IFA is not a “consumer electronics show”, but rather a festival of biiig TV’s – LCDs, LEDs, Plasma TVs and so on. That is why I’ve decided to start with most non-TV-like things revealed in Berlin today.

First – PC -Z1 Netwalker from Sharp. It is very hard to say whetehr it will be a bestseller or is it some kind of artifact from old days. It is even hard to say what it is in a fact., Netwalker is something between a PDA and a netbook. I would called it a mini mini notebook, as it is as small as a bar of chocolate. It has a laptop form, has a 5-inch touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard. It even has a smart mouse-like device – an optical port on the upper right corner, that behaves as a tiny touchpad. To click on something you must use one of the two buttons (as for right and left mouse buttons) placed in upper left corner.
Netwalker runs on Ubuntu (it behaves really good -well at least during my 15 minutes test), has 4 GB of internal memory, microSD card slot (allows you to upgrade the memory for another 16 GB) and a USB port and WiFi, that allows you to connect to the internet. And ttta’s it. Not so much yet everything what You need to surf in the net, write an e-mail or post something on WordPress. Yet I don’t know if such a device has its right to exist in the world of mobiles with full keyboards (IMHO it is easier to write on slider with QWERTY with your thumbs than with your both hands on Netwalkers keyboard but maybe it’s just a matter of training).
Netwalker is available in Japan. No word whether it will arrive to Europe.

One more thing from Sharp – mobiles with solar panels. This clamshell (very Japanese in its form – rather big for European standards, rectangular, no round edges, everything…well, sharp ;-), has a tiny solar panel (the size of phone’s screen) placed on the outside of the as the solar panel is able to recharge the dead battery to 30 percent.

Moving on in computer-mobile subject. Toshiba has showed on IFA it’s foirst tablet or rather a MID (mobile internet device) with 7″ toushscreen . It’s called JournE and it looks – for me at leats – as to big GPS gadget you’d put in your car. It has an ARM processor, 1 GB internal flash memory (with possibility of upgrade with microSD cards) and it runs on Windows CE 6.0 Pro OS. Furthermore JournE has been equipped in two 0,5-Watt speakers, WiFi, HDMI and USB ports. It is said to cost ca. 249 Euros and arrive to Europe in the end of this year.

From MID let’s jump to classic laptops -brand new extra slim Sony Vaio X, presented on 2nd September here in Berlin. It’s a typical bag-size lapto – 11,1″ screen, just 14 mm thick and less than 700 g in weight. It is not sure whether it has Intel Atom or CULV processor and is said to have 120 GB memory and 2GB RAM. Caseing is said to be made of carbon fibre – very taugh yet light and trendy.

Another nice new thing from Sony is it’s pocket HD camcorder MHS-PM1. It is a small gadget the size of a typical mobile that captures 5MP still images and records 1080p HD video in MP4 format videos. It has  individual ‘MOVIE’ and ‘STILL’ buttons for quick capture and a ‘SHAREMARK’ button for easy and fast Web upload. For your freedom and comfort it has a rotating lens (270 degree) and comes in shiny, vibrating colours.

More on different things (means TVs and other home cinema stuff 😉 tomorrow.

Sharp PC-Z1 Netwalker

Sharp Solar Mobile

Toshiba JournE MID

Sony MHS PM1 HD Camcorder

Join the first scientific experiment on Twitter

Twitter as an experimental tool?
Why not!
Today Richard Wiseman has announced  on his blog the official start of the First Scientific Exeperiment on Twitter. It is being organized togather with the New Scientist. The idea (making long thing short) is to chceck if people can guess once localization. Each day on 3 PM (GMT) Richard will post a tweet and all his followers are  asked to guess where the hell he is.

Richard writes: “If the majority of people select the correct target then the trial will count as a hit, otherwise it will count as a miss. There will be trials at 3pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Three or more hits in four trials will be seen as supporting the existence of extrasensory perception.”

To achieve valid results, Richard need thousnads of people joining him.

To participate, simply follow him on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/RichardWiseman