A Keyboard to DIE for

Pictured above is the Optimus Maximus from Russian designer, Artemy Lebedev, that I came across while compiling my Custom PC list.  You might be saying, “So, what’s so special about this keyboard?”  Well, every key is equipped with a tiny OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen.  This allows for total customization of the keys.  From different languages to say, pictures of the different Photoshop tools!  It houses two extra USB ports and a SD card slot for the 32MB card that holds the configurations for the keyboard.  It carries a hefty price tag of $1692.31, so it is safe to say that it won’t be part of my collection for quite some time!  Here is another pic of the keyboard in white.

---------------UPDATE---------------

This concept art for the next rendition of the Optimus Maximus, called the Tactus.  It is a fully touchscreen keyboard.  The board is TOTALLY customizable and is even able to show video.  The first thing that I thought of when I saw this was that it can be programmed to do the same thing an electronic art tablet does.  This is a designer’s dream and I can’t wait for it to drop.  Below is a pic of the concept keyboard showing video!

Google Chrome OS

There has been exciting news coming from Google’s blog.  In light of the success of their operating system, Chrome, they have decided to move forward with constructing an operating system.  The open source OS will initially be rolled out on notebooks and netbooks, but there is no reason to believe that it won’t hit desktop computers.  Notebook/netbook manufacturers, HP and Acer have already stated that they are on board, but Dell is contemplating their decision.  I, personally, am looking forward to this.  The only snag would be giving up certain programs that are OS dependant, such as Office 2007.  Google reports that we should see it’s OS the end of next year.

Knowledgeable Media Pick…HTC Touch Pro 2

 

Recently, I have noticed that HTC has slowly gained momentum in the mobile market.  The HTC Touch Pro 2 will definitely help them cement themselves.  The first thing that catches your eye is the beautiful 3.6” WVGA resistive screen.  It can easily be mistaken for an iPhone, that is until you slide the screen up to reveal a spacious QWERTY keyboard.  This addition alone was enough to get me excited.  The keyboard was one thing that I definitely felt was missing from the Touch HD.  The keys are offset (like the keys on your PC keyboard), so it feels a little more natural while typing.  If that wasn’t enough, HTC brought back the tilting screen from the TyTN II (Tilt).  Turn the phone over and your presented with a massive speaker (pictured above).  It uses two mics, which help filter out background noise.  The speaker is crisp and loud.  Now on to the software!

                                                            

The operating system is Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, which is masked by HTC’s TouchFlo 3D UI.  The resistive touchscreen is very fast and responsive and TouchFlo 3D is wonderful at keeping important things at your fingertips.  It doesn’t hurt that the hard working geniuses over XDA Developers are working hard to port Windows Mobile 6.5 over the Touch Pro 2.  They have successfully done so with the Touch HD (including TouchFlo 3D) and there have been ROMs floating around with the second edition of HTC’s UI, TouchFlo 3D 2.  It has all the regulars that you would expect from a high-end phone.  WiFi, Bluetooth, SMS (text) & MMS (pic text), GPS (works wonderfully with TomTom 7, pictured above), G-Sensor (accelerometer), as well as EDGE network speeds are included, but sadly no 3G support.  It houses a 3.2 MP camera on the back with a VGA CMOS camera on the front, for video calls.  Battery life is substantial at 510 minutes (8.5 hours) talk time and 500 minutes (8.3 hours) standby.  It supports a number of video and music formats and makes playing YouTube videos playable with a dedicated program.  Mini USB and expandable storage via a microSD card round out the myriads of features offered by HTC.  With a price tag around $650.00 (lowest I’ve seen), the phone better be worth it!

iPhone 3GS is hot, hot, hot!

Right now, there is a bit of a touchscreen war going down.  In my opinion the key companies in this brawl are Apple (iPhone 3GS), HTC (Hero), Palm (Pre)and Nokia (N97).  Each camp has very strong handsets, but we all know that the iPhone is the phone to compete with.  This being said, there has been some uneasy claims in the iPhone 3GS community recently.  Some have been complaining that their iPhones have been getting “unusually” hot, to the point that they leave marks on the skin when left in a pocket.  Specifically, white iPhone 3GS users have been dismayed at the fact that the back has been discoloring because of it (see pictures below).  This news won’t break Apple, but it may shun some of those who are undecided on which handset to get, away from Apple.

pic courtesy of NoWhereElse.fr

Archos 9PCTablet…Impressive

Archos.  The name might not sound too familiar to you, but after spending some time on the site, I realized that it had some pretty nice products to offer.  Pictured above is a portable PC that caught my eye, specifically the fact that it will be running Windows 7.  It offers an 80GB HDD, Bluetooth and 2 antennas (one for receiving DBV-T TV (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial).  All and all, the handset seems pretty solid.

Crazy Animation from France

Sigg Jones from Asterokid on Vimeo.

I came across this video recently and fell in love with the animation.  The video is from three students, Douglas Lassance (Asterokid), Matthieu Bessudo (McBess) and Johnathan Vuillemin (Motraboy). They all attend the Supinfocom Animation School in France.  What really caught my eye was the kicks the two characters had on.  Sigg Jones (the black wrestler) is wearing a pair of Puma Slipstreams in a special color.  The agent starts out with a pair of low black & white Nike Dunks, but after some pink health juice, they transform into some pink Nike Vandals with Celestial Wings!

Galactic Mail from Asterokid on Vimeo.

This is another video from the trio that bought you Sigg Jones.  It’s a futuristic space battle, rugby style, between FedEx and UPS.  Quite entertaining!

SideBar – Other videos from Supinfocom students can be found HERE!

A Hero is Born

I know it’s been a while since you heard from us, but we have a logical explanation.  We have been doing research.  There has been a sort of lull in the mobile market, or so we thought.  Recently, I was looking at some of the features of the iPhone 3GS, but in doing so, it got me interested in the HTC Touch HD.  When comparing the two phones, the only thing that the iPhone has over the Touch HD is slightly quicker response (which can be fixed with a shiny new TouchFlo 3D 2 Rom).  The Touch HD has far more tech goodies, not to mention a bigger screen.  I went searching for some other contenders and stumbled across HTC’s YouTube channel, which debuted the HTC Hero (video below).  It runs the wonderful Android platform, but with a new UI on top, called HTC Sense (kinda like what TouchFlo 3D is to Windows Mobile).  The phone design is better than the G1 (except for the fact there is no QWERTY keyboard).  It’s a beautiful phone with well thought out programs, but I’ll let you be the judge.

Knowledgeable Media Verdict - I think it does what the iPhone has been trying to do since it’s “birth”, handle both the WORK and PLAY parts of your life.  Don’t get me wrong, the iPhone is the phone to contend with, but that is no reason to overlook it’s shortcomings.  It has all the features of most touchscreen phones of late – GPS, WiFi, Accelerometer and Digital Compass.  The 3.5 Audio Jack and 5.0 MP camera (2.0 on iPhone) are a definite plus.  No 3G, which is rather odd though.  Price and drop date coming soon.