Gadgets Blog » 2010 » July

As British Petroleum continues to struggle with both their public image and the oil spill off the Gulf Coast, there have been some difficult lessons to learn for the United States and the rest of the world. Political implications aside, the oil spill has taught us one important thing: oil, and the fuels that stem from it, can be a messy business.

In addition to concerns about global warming and environmentalism, the push towards electric or more fuel-efficient cars has be steady but slow.

Companies like Toyota and Chevrolet have had solid entries into the hybrid market, but no one has yet to unveil a car that truly excites people about the possibility of these hybrid vehicles. All of that, however, is about to change.

In their stunning number of remarkable free services, Google has undoubtedly revolutionized the way we think about Internet technology. Everything from blogging to image searching to collaborative work projects have been covered via their products. Yet for me, the most impressive Google feat has always been Google Maps.

With their spectacular satellite images of our planet combined with a navigation system better than just about any out there, finding a location anywhere in the world has never been easier.

But the crowning jewel of the entire thing? That would have to be Street View, the remarkable ability to see what an address looks like as though you were standing there in person.

Ever since the release of James Cameron’s spectacular Avatar motion picture, 3D technology has been all the rage in the world of visual media. While other movies have experimented with bringing the technology to the big-screen, the experience sadly cannot be duplicated in the living room.

As companies race towards building a functioning 3D display, there remain many complications. Most 3D displays that have been revealed required glasses for the users, which can limit the number of people who can enjoy the picture at once.

The result could be a serious detriment to bringing 3D technology to the average consumer. Sony, however, took matters to their own hands when they unveiled their new RayModeler television display earlier this week.

With a lineup of sleek and sexy gadgets, few tech buffs can fault Apple for bringing some of the most intuitive technology to market. Even in spite of their steep cost, there is a certain sense of wonder that surrounds most Apple electronics. Even though I was a longtime PC user, I’ve grown immensely attached to my Macbook Pro, making it difficult and somewhat weird to use other people’s laptops that aren’t Apple.

There are many features I’ve grown attached to, but perhaps none so much as the most essential part of computing: the mouse. Apple’s TrackPad interface has to be one of the defining characteristics of their latest laptop series. And now, desktop users are able to get in on the action as well.

While it may lag far behind other Internet browsers in terms of market share, Google’s Chrome web browser has been steadily gaining on industry standards such as Internet Explorer & Mozilla Firefox ever since Google brought the product to market. As with so many Google products, the focus has always been upon ease of use.

Chrome is certainly no different. With an intuitive interface and some changes that seem so obvious its a wonder no one else thought of them, Google has continually upgraded the browser, now preparing to unveil Version 6 of the interface. Today we’ll be taking a look at some of the features that will get tweaked next time around, as well as a few that have been pushed back to version 7.

The bulk of the updates for Chrome 6.0 are just that: updates. Not so much developing new features as providing better functionality and smoother net-surfing, the modifications under the hood are the core of the new Chrome. Featured among these are modifications better-enabling Chrome to handle many advanced web features.

Today’s headline and gadget sound, in many ways, too good to be true. But it is true, amazingly enough. Here in the United States, those wishing to be early adopters of the upcoming tablet computing trend have only one option: the Apple iPad, which costs the user a pretty penny in both initial cost and data plans.

While other devices are still in development, none has emerged as the front-runner to challenge Apple’s place at the top of the world.

Tablet computers, if they are indeed the future, remain elusive to the market in both the United States and Europe. The high cost of these devices makes them impractical for the average citizen of many other countries in the world. India’s solution? Design a better tablet and sell it for a jaw-dropping price.

The tablet, which was unveiled as a prototype earlier this week, was the child of a joint development between the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science. With an estimated retail price of approximately $30 USD (about 1500 Rupees), the tablet is intended to find a home in the Indian education system, providing a computer to everyone from grade schoolers to graduate students.

For a company that has become as ubiquitous with the Internet as Google, the firm has maintained an air of moral purity that is rare in the modern business world. Unlike a company like Microsoft, which made plenty of enemies during its rise to the forefront of the technology world, Google has kept a public image tailored to being the good guy in the 21st century. Many of their best products are released for free, and they generate finances not by charging their users, but rather by engaging in ingenious advertising sales. Some services, such as Google Maps, offer not only a practical application, but also continually wow users with the impressive array of information available.

However, in an article from the “Los Angeles Times Blog,” it seems there’s a concern growing about one facet of Google Maps: the fantastic Street View feature allowing us to see a staggering number of locales from the ground level. According to the article, Google allegedly collected information from unsecured WiFi connections while filming the street. Google recently unveiled a feature allowing for users to see WiFi hotspots, many of which were not supposed to be accessible to the public. Google, since 2007, has allegedly picked up 600+ gigabytes of data from these unsecured WiFi points.

While names like Google, Yahoo, and Bing immediately come to mind at the mention of a search engine, the fact of the matter is they are not perfect entities. Large search engines can do a great job of finding a particular website or photo, but when it comes to finding local businesses, the information provided can oftentimes be underwhelming.

The major engines have attempted to correct this via user ratings and reviews, but EZLocal.com takes things in a new direction. Branding itself as the first “with’ engine, which means it provides information on what services businesses have available, the company recently announced that it had been granted a patent for its idea.

Today’s top gadget news story is a fairly surprising instance of two for the price of one. As other developers attempt to get products into the market inspired by the Apple iPad, Hewlett Packard seemed to be the best bet for consumers holding out for a PC-oriented tablet computer.

The HP Slate in particular was an impressive model, boasting Windows 7 and offering a series of features that could even make it a solid improvement on the iPad. I was surprised by the announcement that HP canceled the Slate, a serious blow to companies chasing down Apple.

This is the second tablet device that HP has dropped this year, meaning they’ve backed off from both a Windows 7-based model as well as an Android model. So the fact that the second half of our story was the announcement of an HP-copyrighted device known as the PalmPad makes things even more interesting.

With a name that sounds like some sort of mash-up between iPad and Palm Pilot, the device churned up Internet rumors that HP had decided to go with Palm’s Web OS as a tablet operating system instead. This news, undoubtedly, would be fantastic for Palm if it were true.

This week, Microsoft unveiled what has to be one of the more exciting gadget-related stories of the year. Boasting a full-fledged preview in Engadget, similar in scope and depth as their notorious iPhone preview, the computing giant unveiled its tentative models for what could be their most important gadget of 2010.

The Windows Phone 7 marks an important area where Microsoft has lost ground to competitors like Google and Apple. The company may still have a relative lock on desktop computers, but as things stand now, portables like smartphones and tablets lack a consistent Microsoft product that can compete. Perhaps then, this would be the gadget to bring Microsoft back?

To be fair, it is a bit too early to tell just how great these phones will be. One key difference between Microsoft and Apple products is their manufacturing process. Microsoft designs the software on their phones, but the actual phone design and manufacturing is left up to other companies like HTC and Samsung. Apple, on the other hand, makes both software and hardware, creating what some feel is a better-integrated system. Microsoft’s Windows 7 has been fully integrated for mobile phones, replacing Windows Mobile 6.5, a product that was plagued with some less-than-stellar features.