With all the news on tablets that you come across these days, here’s something else to pique your interest – the Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet. What makes this different from the rest? Well, this is a tree-friendly electronic alternative to paper, pencils, and pens, where you need not carry notepads with you ever again – all you need to do is press the surface with the included stylus (other suitable writing instruments like your finger is also fine) in order to create an image, while erasing it with the push of a button. More than just a memo pad, you won’t need to worry about erasing boards or amassing a stash of junk paper after a while. Too bad it doesn’t do color, eh?

Permalink: Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet from Ubergizmo | Hot: Macbook Pro Review, iPad Review

If you’re the touchy-feely type and you’re looking for a little pick-me-up under the hood of your all-in-one, HP’s “TouchSmart 600 Quad” series might pique your interest.

Starting at $1700, you can get the 23-inch touchscreen machine loaded up with an Intel Core i7-720QM quad-core processor running at 1.6GHz with 6MB of L2 cache. For $260 more you can step up to the i7-820QM CPU, which sports a 1.73GHz clock speed and 8MB of cache.

Other upgrade options include various flavors of Windows 7, hard drives starting at 750GB, DVD burner or Blu-ray combo drive, TV tuner, and more. Standard features include a 23-inch touchscreen at 1920×1080 resolution, wireless keyboard and mouse, card reader, webcam, five USB ports, game console input (HDMI, composite), and a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT230M graphics card.

HP TouchSmart 600 Quad series desktop PC [HP via Engadget]

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The Nissan Land Glider concept solves it's narrow track problem by leaning into the turns to gain traction.

(Credit:
Nissan

If you like what you’ve been hearing about Nissan’s Leaf electric car, but think it looks too much like a futuristic Versa 1.6 for your tastes, then maybe Nissan’s other Zero Emissions concept will pique your interest.

The Nissan Land Glider concept is a tiny electric vehicle that features a computer controlled steering system that leans the car into the turns. The pilot driver is seated centrally in the cabin with space for a single passenger directly behind in the narrow cabin. At least, it looks like that’s where the passenger would sit. Although the photos clearly show a driver’s four-point harness, none of the pictures show a rear seat belt.

The steering wheel has been replaced with what looks like a flight yoke. The rear view mirrors have been replaced by cameras and monitors. The dashboard definitely looks like it belongs on a vehicle of the future.

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Now THAT is a cockpit!

(Credit:
Nissan

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Ultimate speed is not this vehicle's goal.

(Credit:
Nissan

Details about the drivetrain are scarce, but we do know that it will be motivated by all-electric power. Expect the battery technology to be similar to that of the Leaf, albeit on a smaller scale. With it’s narrow profile and potentially lighter weight, we presume that the Land Glider will get by with less horsepower than the Leaf requires.

The Land Glider will be displayed at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, alongside the Leaf production concept. Stay tuned for more details as they emerge. In the meantime, check out the embedded video of the Land Glider in action after the jump.

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Originally posted at The Car Tech blog

New season, new ball. The three big football leagues—England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, and Italy’s Serie A—begin in just a few weeks, and Nike has developed a fancy, new ball for them that’s loaded with all types of hi-tech goodness that may pique your interest. It’s called the T90 Ascente. Goalkeepers will hate it; flashy forwards will love it.

What’s so damn special about the ball? The Nike bullet points are: “360 Sweet Spot,” “Longer Range,” “Increased Visibility,” “Higher Accuracy,” and “Greater Speed.”

Breaking those down, the “360 Sweet Spot” refers to the way the ball reacts to being kicked. Usually, footballs have a “sweet spot,” like the “meat” of a baseball bat, that you’re trained to hit for maximum speeds, accuracy, etc. Apparently the T90 Ascente doesn’t have a “sweet spot,” per se, rather that the whole ball is a sweet spot. That is, wherever you kick it, the ball will react as if you’ve kicked the sweet spot. Good news for Quaresma. (Why do sports compilation videos on YouTube always have terrible music?)

Longer range? That’s pretty obvious, right? The ball is constructed in three layers, and this somehow makes the ball travel two ball lengths longer than previous Nike footballs.

Increased visibility. You’ll notice the patterns on the ball; it sort of looks like the scanner from Half-Life 2:

Anyhow, the patterns are such that they create a “flicker” as the ball spins. That’ll be helpful on those awful, gray winter days in Liverpool.

If you actually had the ball in your hands, you’d see that its surface is textured to a degree that’s probably a little different than the last ball you kicked. Nike calls it “micro-textured,” which basically lets air flow around the ball more smoothly, creating less resistance, etc. You know, like the dimples on a golf ball.

The T90 Ascenete is also faster than previous balls, traveling at about 22.19 m/s (72.17 feet/s). Something to do with the three-layer construction.

All this talk of multi-layer construction reminds me of the great Razor Blade Wars of the past decade. “Our razor has three blades.” “Well our razor has four blades.” “Ha! Our blade has five blades!.

And, uh, if you speak Spanish, watch this video. It explains the technological wonder of the ball.

Nike has its own video, in English, that I can’t embed. (Though, if I were feeling crazy, I could probably just swipe the Flash file then upload to our CG YouTube account. No thanks.) It’s here if you’re interested.

About 15 minutes ago I wrote “Goalkeepers will hate it; flashy forwards will love it.” But now I see FC Barcelona’s goalkeeper Víctor Valdés praising the ball in that Spanish video. Figures.