Only- Electronics

Filed under: Laptops, Storage

Who makes a 160GB, 1.8-inch SATA disk spinning at 5400RPM? Nobody, until today. Toshiba just announced the industry’s largest-capacity / fastest 160GB MK1617GSG disk for ultra-portables and netbook-class machines. While others have hit the magical 160GB mark in an 8-mm thick form factor, this is the first 1.8-inch SATA to reach 5400RPM. Oh, and because you’re about to ask: no, it’s too chubby for an iPod classic (where that speed wouldn’t likely be noticed) or ultra-thin laptop like the MacBook Air or Envy 133. Thanks for asking though.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Nice try HP, trying to pull a fast one on us with this here Quick Calc. Turns out there’s a calculator inside our computer, so we don’t need none of your fancy Quick Calc shenanigans to spell “boobless” and cheat on our long division homework anymore — we forked over good money for this beige tower PC, even went in for that “multimedia” package, and we’re going to put it to good use.

[Via Boing Boing Gadgets]

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Filed under: Transportation

This angry-looking skinned beast is the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model. GINA, which stands for Geometry and Functions in ‘N’ Adaptations — whatever that means — is shelled in a textile fabric wrapped around a carbon fiber and metal frame. This means that the skin and skeleton can bend and contract like, well, real skin and skeleton. For instance, the doors bend up, the headlights are exposed like eyeballs under eyelids, and the hood opens from the center like some sort of gaping maw to expose the engine. Even the interior is skinned and modular: only the dash displays that you need at any item are available via openings. Don’t get too excited, though — this is purely a concept and nothing you’ll see in a showroom any time soon. We can dream, though, right?

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Filed under: Desktops

We’ve seen seen some wild cases in our day, but few have matched the general bad-assery of the NZXT Khaos. The whole shebang is built from thick aluminum, there are eleven 5.25-inch drive bays, there’s support for dual power supplies, and a myriad of 120mm fans are locked and loaded for pushing all that hot air around. And hey, everything is better with a gutteral “Kh” before it, so you know it has to be good. Khaos will retail for $399 when it hits mid-June.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Paris who? Sony Ericsson’s let yet another one slip out of its fingers before the official announcement, this time around a killer slider said to be the Cyber-shot C905, codenamed “Shiho.” If the rumors pan out, it’s got one heck of a rap sheet, too, starting off with an 8.1 — yes, eight point flippin’ one — megapixel camera with both xenon and LED flashes (for still and video capture, respectively), GPS, TV out, DLNA certification, and HSDPA in your choice of European and American flavors. The screen’s apparently just QVGA, but in light of everything else we’re hearing, we might just be willing to let that slide. It’ll apparently be announced on the 17th of the month in gold, silver, and black for a fourth quarter release. Wowza!

[Thanks, Adrian]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Paris who? Sony Ericsson’s let yet another one slip out of its fingers before the official announcement, this time around a killer slider said to be the Cyber-shot C905, codenamed “Shiho.” If the rumors pan out, it’s got one heck of a rap sheet, too, starting off with an 8.1 — yes, eight point flippin’ one — megapixel camera with both xenon and LED flashes (for still and video capture, respectively), GPS, TV out, DLNA certification, and HSDPA in your choice of European and American flavors. The screen’s apparently just QVGA, but in light of everything else we’re hearing, we might just be willing to let that slide. It’ll apparently be announced on the 17th of the month in gold, silver, and black for a fourth quarter release. Wowza!

[Thanks, Adrian]

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Filed under: Household

You can find a washer just about anywhere that promises to consume less water than most of its rivals, but finding one that’s “virtually waterless” is still a chore. Yeah, there was that one contraption from Singapore a few years back, but c’mon, it’s no bona fide washing machine. Nevertheless, a University of Leeds spin-out company — dubbed Xeros — has already received £500,000 in order to commercialize a device that “uses less than 2% of the water and energy of a conventional washing machine.” Instead, it relies on a plethora of plastic chips that are tumbled with the clothes to remove stains. We’re not sure how comfortable we really are with the thought of that, but folks that have already warmed to the idea can look for these things to hit the UK market in 2009.

[Via MetaEfficient]

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Filed under: Household

You can find a washer just about anywhere that promises to consume less water than most of its rivals, but finding one that’s “virtually waterless” is still a chore. Yeah, there was that one contraption from Singapore a few years back, but c’mon, it’s no bona fide washing machine. Nevertheless, a University of Leeds spin-out company — dubbed Xeros — has already received £500,000 in order to commercialize a device that “uses less than 2% of the water and energy of a conventional washing machine.” Instead, it relies on a plethora of plastic chips that are tumbled with the clothes to remove stains. We’re not sure how comfortable we really are with the thought of that, but folks that have already warmed to the idea can look for these things to hit the UK market in 2009.

[Via MetaEfficient]

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Filed under: Displays

Shuttle may have been the first out of the gate with this minimalist design (presumably OEM, and likely only a sign of things to come), but that’s not keeping Princeton from doing its own thing with its new PTB-TMW19B tablet display, which just got official for Japan today. While the exterior’s identical to the Shuttle, the Princeton model takes a slight dip in resolution to 1440 x 900, although the company makes up for that somewhat by including a stylus and some handwriting recognition software. Otherwise, you can expect a 5 ms response time, an 850: 1 contrast ratio, and even a pair of built-in speakers. Look for this one to set you back ¥128,000 (or just under $1,200) when it hits Japan later this month.

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Filed under: Gaming

Some wily web browsers have found a job listing at Nintendo of America that suggests the game company is finally getting serious about USB support for the Wii. The job search, found a few days ago, was for a “Software/Harware Tester” who can execute a “test plan for Wii’s USB devices.” Some think this could mean compatibility for external USB storage devices like hard drives and flash drives given the Wii’s limited 512MB internal memory. We, however, hope this means some sort of support for USB keyboards. It’s about time, isn’t it, Nintendo?

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