Man, Tesla’s been busy today — in addition to the announcement of the Model S and Elon Musk’s promise of a sub-$30K electric car in four years, word on the street is that the company’s inked a deal with Daimler AG to supply it with lithium-ion batteries for upcoming electric cars. Daimler’s CEO has said the company was open to leasing battery tech to get out an electric Smart by 2010 and it’s rumored that the German marque is looking to ditch gas entirely by 2015, so going to Tesla, which has been working on battery tech for some time, isn’t a totally out there proposition. Just a rumor for now — given Tesla’s generally-prickly relationships with others, we’d wait for an official announcement before getting too excited about a Roadster-powered SLR, but it’s certainly intriguing.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard about Sprint’s Airave femtocell—basically a little box connects to your router and sends your calls over the internet so you have cell service even where you don’t—but it looks like it’s finally set to launch nation-wide, maybe as early as July 15. (It’s been (in Denver and Indianapolis since Sept.) The Sammy-made station is apparently set to go for $99 at retail, which ain’t so shabby. We’re guessing the $30 per family (or $15 per user) monthly fee will either stick or actually go down (undercutting is one of their major strategies of late). [Sprint Users, Thanks Art!]
According to Kilmatec, their Base 1 AirWater Machine can extract up to 20 liters (around 5 gallons) of water from the air in a 24 hour period. Unlike a common dehumidifier, it also makes that water suitable for drinking by running it through a carbon filter and ultraviolet light chamber to eliminate any pollutants or bacteria. It can even dispense the water hot or cold. So, in essence, the Base 1 is like a water cooler that never needs refills.
If you are concerned about how much power something like this would consume, Kilmatec has answered that problem as well with a solar power option that can keep the water coming even in the harshest conditions. Five gallons in 24 hours may seem high—but that is actually a fairly common feat for a dehumidifier. Pricing information has not been made available. [Kilmatec via TRFJ via DVICE]
No, the XPS 2.0 from Skyhook is not a tie up with Dell despite sharing the same namesake as the latter’s notebook range - instead, XPS 2.0 is a “next-generation hybrid positioning system.” It doesn’t just rely on Wi-Fi, but will incorporate data from GPS satellites and cell phone towers as well, ensuring you will never, ever get lost again despite being in an urban canyon that is often the bane of satellites and towers when it comes to triangulating your position. The XPS 2.0 service is meant for handheld devices, but Skyhook has yet to announce any deals with big phone chip makers. Well, with more and more cell phones featuring A-GPS these days, it would be interesting to see which niche XPS 2.0 resides in.
The new YSP-3050 features 21 beam drivers, and two woofers, 23 corresponding digital amplifiers, three Cinema DSP programs (movie, music and sports), analog to HDMI video upconversion, high definition video upscaling to 1080i/720p and a 1080p (24Hz and 60Hz) compatible HDMI interface with two inputs and one output to facilitate pure digital connections with the latest home theater components.
Well, guess they’ve finally made the jump to the world of high definition, eh?
The Mac mini looks good because the front is completely minimal. Unfortunately, that makes the front completely useless, and a pain in the ass if you have it set up where you need spelunking gear to get to the USB ports. Enter the unfortunately named Hang With Mi, which lets you mount your mini anywhere and adds four USB 2.0 ports to the front. Downside is that it needs its own power source, but the overall neat and convenient factor definitely adds up to the $50 pricetag. [macessity via Unpluggd]
Sony has just lifted the curtain on its eyeVio HD Pro service, allowing posting and sharing of HDTV video files on its video sharing portal. Hmmm, a high definition version of YouTube, eh, except that this is more exclusive. This new upgrade in the eyeVio service will commence from today onwards in Japan, whereas standard definition eyeVio files have been up and available since April last year. Users can use PCs, PS3s and Sony’s BRX-NT1 network TV box to upload their videos. You will need a pretty muscular computer to view the videos though, with a minimum system specifications of an Intel 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, and Windows XP SP3/Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. Forget about copper telephone lines, you’ll need hard hitting optical fiber networks for the optimal experience.
Owners of the PowerMac and Mac Pro will be able to rejoice knowing that there is now a MCE 6x Blu-ray burner available for both computers, being natively recordable with Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later with the ability to record data directly from the Finder without the need for any pesky additional software. In addition, the MCE 6x Blu-ray recordable drive can burn BD-R media up to 6x, DVD ± R media at up to 16X, CD-R media at up to 40X, and does read HD DVD-ROM media as well, allowing you to view those bargain bin HD DVD movies. You can pick up this drive for $499, and should you opt for an external FireWire/USB 2.0 option, it will cost you $750.
Olympus has just released a 360-degree camera and lens, hoping that those in the surveillance business will see the importance of such a camera, letting one take a photo of everything around it. I suppose the final image will be drastically different from playing Quake in “cg_fov 360″, since it is nigh impossible to see anything at that setting. This new camera and lens combo will shoot in all directions using just a single lens, but it is shackled by the fact that it cannot shoot 360 degrees vertically like Google’s camera can. There is no word on a shipping date, but thieves ought to brush up on their act if they want to work around this all-encompassing digital eye.
Yes, apart from the image leak from the German magazine concerning the new Nikon D700 DSLR, here’s a product presentation video (in French) that showcases the D700’s interface, menu system, flash, and even the battery port. Chances are this will be available sometime in July, retailing for approximately €2,600 - that’s roughly a gazillion US dollars if your calculator’s broken. Actually, $4,000 will net you a 12-megapixel shooter complete with a sensor cleaning system.
Man, Tesla’s been busy today — in addition to the announcement of the Model S and Elon Musk’s promise of a sub-$30K electric car in four years, word on the street is that the company’s inked a deal with Daimler AG to supply it with lithium-ion batteries for upcoming electric cars. Daimler’s CEO has said the company was open to leasing battery tech to get out an electric Smart by 2010 and it’s rumored that the German marque is looking to ditch gas entirely by 2015, so going to Tesla, which has been working on battery tech for some time, isn’t a totally out there proposition. Just a rumor for now — given Tesla’s generally-prickly relationships with others, we’d wait for an official announcement before getting too excited about a Roadster-powered SLR, but it’s certainly intriguing.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard about Sprint’s 
According to Kilmatec, their Base 1 AirWater Machine can extract up to 20 liters (around 5 gallons) of water from the air in a 24 hour period. Unlike a common dehumidifier, it also makes that water suitable for drinking by running it through a carbon filter and ultraviolet light chamber to eliminate any pollutants or bacteria. It can even dispense the water hot or cold. So, in essence, the Base 1 is like a water cooler that never needs refills.
The Mac mini looks good because the front is completely minimal. Unfortunately, that makes the front completely useless, and a pain in the ass if you have it set up where you need spelunking gear to get to the USB ports. Enter the unfortunately named Hang With Mi, which lets you mount your mini anywhere and adds four USB 2.0 ports to the front. Downside is that it needs its own power source, but the overall neat and convenient factor definitely adds up to the $50 pricetag. [
