KegDroid, a beer tap under Android:

May 2012 is definitely full of surprises… Blizzard fans are behind their screens playing the much waited Diablo 3, meanwhile Android and beer fans will be astonished by this: Paul Carff designed an Android beer tap. The name of this prototype is KegDroid (called Betsy sometimes); its physical appearance is the famous BugDroid. The particularity of the machine is not only the design, it is also the Motorola Xoom tablet who is incorporated (it can be removed for another tablet if wanted) and an Arduino system inside the machine in order to pump it up (the beer of course). However, the only way of payment is by an NFC chip: we can believe this is the beginning of Google’s marketing for businesses in order to introduce his new NFC application (Google Wallet).

Betsy / KegDroid beer tap

Moreover, the application is connected to your Google + account, and here is a video showing how works the whole system!

Choc Creator : a 3D chocolate printer

Easter is already finished, but for Choc Edge, that argument is invalid for not thinking about chocolate anymore. Therefore, they invented a machine that can print chocolate in three dimensions. The program used by the printer is open-source, and you can shape the chocolate in the three directions (height, depth and length).

Choc Creator 3D chocolate printer.

The machine is still in a prototype phasis, but Choc Edge will commercialize it soon enough. Choc Edge is a spin-off company from the University of Exeter, where the founder of the company Dr. Liang Hao created 3D chocolate printing technology in association with colleagues and students.

You can see videos on their website : http://www.chocedge.com/ .

Electric car’s future, seen by IBM

Three big companies in the high-tech sector allied there selves in order to create a new battery for electric vehicles. These firms are IBM, Asahi Kasei and Central Glass. This new battery generation is called Battery 500, due to the fact that some tests were showing the autonomy was about 500 miles.

Battery 500 technology

The two main components of this battery are lithium, and… air. More precisely, oxygen contained in the air: in contact with lithium, oxygen generates an amount of electric energy, so that the battery, when driving is charging herself. When the battery is completely empty of energy, you just need to plug the battery, you refill it with electricity, and all the oxygen is free again.

Currently, electric vehicles generally have 90 miles of autonomy. From 90 to 500, there is a lot of difference, but the battery shouldn’t be commercialized before 2030.

Brand-new born from Google : Google Drive

Google Drive is the new cloud computing application of Google. However, what is exactly cloud computing ? To explain it in a sentence, cloud computing is an online application that allows the user to store and share whatever he wants, and the application can communicate with many devices (computer, mac, iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones…).

There are many kinds of cloud computing, but the most interesting are DaaS and STaaS : Data as a Service and STorage as a Service. These two allow users to connect to the application wherever they are and with every device he registered. Data and storage concern all type of documents and informations : internet accounts, Word documents, videos… and you can access with your Google + account to share instantly in one click.

Before Google, there were a lot of other services, for instance DropBox, or Amazon, but Google has an important sharing service provided with (certainly same sharing than Google Docs). Google Drive is absolutely free for the first 5GB. In order to have more, prices are : less than 2$/month for 25GB and up to 800$/month for 16TB.

The cloud computing experience is having more and more importance in our lives. Google already found that out, and after 6 years of developing its new application, Google Drive is out now (but not for all devices yet). Visit the official website to obtain more informations and to see the video.

Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

Laser or ink-jet printer?

The best printer must print quickly and cheaply? Then buy a laser printer. It costs a little more than an ink-jet, but later saves a lot of money and time.

Recently, ink-jet printers are cheaper shamelessly. However, their price does not so low, the value as needed to pay for the ink cartridge refill. Although ink-jet printers are indispensable in producing pictures, but if most prints text, rather buy a laser printer, which makes it much cheaper and faster.

Most laser printers are better than ink-jet? Monochrome laser printers are popular for a number of benefits:

High printing speed. Laser printing equipment is several times faster than ink-jet. Therefore, laser printers is often used in offices, where you need to print lots of documents. Of course, this speed comes in handy at home.

Mobile and resistance. Compared with ink-jet, laser printers are more resistant to various environment impact. For example, they are completely resistant to strong light, water, to a lesser extent – abrasion, change requests, and saliva. Therefore, a laser printer sheets are longevity’s.

Reliability. Laser printers is produced without using of liquid and sophisticated ink-jets. Such devices used to print a laser beam heated drum, and bulk toner powder.

Low cost of printing. Laser printers are much cheaper. This amount can be further reduced by filling the powder or using non-genuine toner cartridges

Uses a lot of energy. An ink-jet printer is printing on average consumes 10 watts of energy, and laser – even one hundredth So, they are using about 10 times more of electricity than ink-jet relatives.

Hazardous substances. Tests showed that the number of laser printer cartridges contain harmful substances. Moreover, the printed material is often discarded into the environment. Due to the high pollution and energy consumption, using a laser printer, you should aim to be as brief as possible to turn an electrical outlet. You will save money and health.

The winner of all laser printers is Canon i-SENSYS LBP6650dn:

This printer has average speed and print quality. It is relatively expensive to print. But worth the praise that the toner was not harmful. Drawer unit can accommodate only 151-page, often making it necessary to supplement it.

Machine to the computer is connected via USB cable. The price is right, especially if you buy it from Pixmania and  use Pixmania promotional codes. Those Pixmania promotional codes gives you a possibility to get your printer more simply and for discount prices.

How to choose the best printer? How to get an entire satisfaction on printing results for a discount prices? We give you the best counsel to find the best solution. Pixmania discount codes gives you an exceptional possibility to pay less for the best  Canon i-SENSYS LBP6650dn   laser printer.  Don’t miss this chance!

The war of video games developpers (Part 2)

Microsoft is the last game console developer to create a video game console, the Xbox. The goal was to be competitive against Nintendo and its Cube but mostly against Sony and its PS2.

After years of competitions, Microsoft tries to compete Sony and its PlayStation Move, with Kinect.

Kinect for Xbox 360, or simply Kinect was originally known by the code name Project Natal.

It’s a motion sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console.

It’s composed by:

- A webcam add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it allows users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without touching a game controller, but using gestures and spoken commands.

The main goal is increase the Xbox 360′s audience beyond its typical gamer base.

Kinect competes with the Wii Remote Plus and PlayStation Move with PlayStation Eye motion controllers.

Kinect was launched in North America on November 4, 2010, in Europe on November 10, 2010 and in Japan on November 20, 2010. Kinect can be purchased with either a 4 GB or 250 GB Xbox 360 console and Kinect Adventures.

Kinect was a real success for Microsoft; it sold an average of 133,333 units per day with a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days. And it enters in the GuinessWorld Record as the “fastest selling consumer electronics device”

Like its competitor PS Move, Kinect won an award: the 2011 MacRobert Award for engineering innovation.

The war of video games developpers (Part 1)

Last week, we saw the new Nintendo revolution with the Wii U. This week, we are going to linger on the two other video games tenors: Sony and Microsoft.

In a first part, I’ll be attached to show you, the new technologies created by Sony to conquer the video games market.

Sony tried at the end of 2010 to conquer this market with an all new way to play video games, it’s the beginning of Playstation Move.

The PlayStation Move is an add-on peripheral on PlayStation 3, which acts as a motion controller. It’s also named PS Move, and it’s distributed since the 15th of September 2010 in Europe, the 17th of September in North America and then the 21st of October in Japan.

Its first name was usually Playstation Motion Controller, when it was revealed. But its commercial name was announced as the Playstation Move during the Game Developers Conference the 11th of March 2010. Some rumors announced it as Gem or Arc…

The system is composed by:

- The PlayStation Eye: a new camera, replacing the EyeToy, which  track the wand’s position,

- A handheld motion controller wand, including  inertial sensors in the wand to detect its motion,

- A supplementary PlayStation Move navigation controller,

- An optional PlayStation Move charging station.

Up to four Move controllers can be used at once (four Move motion controllers, or two Move motion controllers and two Move navigation controllers).

The PlayStation Move won the 2010 Popular Science Award for “Most immersive game controller”.

There are a large range of video games which allow to play with the PS Move, such as Kill zone 3, Sports Champions, and updates of Heavy Rain Move Edition, RUSE or Dead Space Extraction.

But Sony wants to conquer the entire Video games market, including the handled game console market, which was for a long long time under the control of Nintendo with the range of GameBoy.

We already knew the PSP, the first Sony handled game console, produces to stop the Nintendo DS. Now, we know the next generation of Sony handles game console, secretly names Next Generation Portable, but mostly known as the PlayStation Vita!

It was presented for the first time during the E3 Conference, one of the most important Video Games Salon. This new portable will be sold at the end of 2011, for Christmas time all around the world. It will be a revolution to play like in front of our TVs!

But now, it’s time to look on Microsoft’s side…

The next generation of computers (Part 3)

 

Last week, I wrote about the most important categories of computer: PCs and Mac. But a new kind of computer is merging! Google is going to launch, maybe a new future, the first computer which entirely work under Internet: Chromebook!

Like we spend our most computer time on the Internet, Google find a new way to make easier the way we use computer.

Chromebook, is built on many aspects, just cited right after.

- The instant Web: we only have to wait 8 seconds before the Chromebook turn on. We can go on the Internet easier than before, the latest web standard runs on this Chromebook, for instance with Adobe Flash.

- Chromebook employ the principle of  ”defense in-depth” to provide multiple layers of protection, including sandboxing, data encryption, and verified boot. Our Chromebook is still protect from threat of malwares and viruses.

- Chromebook is always connected on the Internet thanks to Wi-Fi and 3G: you can go on Internet any time, anywhere, you just have to start your chromebook.

- Chromebook is always updates. The big difference with other PCs is that any time you open your Chromebook, it is still new, because it is updated all day long, the apps are updated automatically. You always get the latest version of operating system.

- Chromebook allows you to get all your data safely in the cloud! Your apps, your documents, are stored in the cloud. If your Chromebook is lost or stolen, you don’t lose your data, and you just have log on an other Chromebook to get back your data.

- With millions of web apps, Chromebook allows you to get great games, spreadsheet, photo editor, whatever…

With this last part, we can conclude that computers are really revolutionnary!

The Nintendo Wii U

It should be one of the most expected announcements of the E3, the most important video games show in the world, the new Nintendo game console, secretly named Coffee Project.

The main novelty of this console comes from… the game controller. Now it will be a touchscreen tablet.

An all new Pad

The TVscreen is no longer alone. The game controller/tablet allows a synchronized display with the Wii U box, which is directly connected to your TV.

So now, you can turn off your TV or change channel,  but still playing your games on the tablet.

The Wii U offer the possibility to get a zoomed image directly on the tablet screen, and more new innovator options promising a lot of surprise. It’s now to the developers to make us dream !

The Wii U allows you to play with friends and family thanks to the 5 game controllers (four on TV, and one directly on the tablet. Furthermore, the new game console will be compatible with the Wiimote and the Balance Board

The front camera et the microphone allows you to communicate with other connected users. A software which could be competitor of Skype, acquired by Microsoft. But for the moment, only few information are given… Nintendo keeps the secret.

The classical buttons are still present (A, B, X and Y) thus the buttons (L, R, ZL, ZR) but also the directional cross and the analogical sticks.

 

Nintendo goes to HD

Wii U has an 1080p, 1080i, 720p and 480i HD screen. The Nintendo game console works under IBM power multi-core processor, which allows to be as realistic as the PS3 Sony and the XBOX360 Microsoft

Wii U will get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to get an Internet and a Nintendo Network access.

The line-up is still huge with a lot of great games such as  Batman Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed, Dirt and Darksiders II

The next generation of computers (Part 2)

Since few years now, Mac is becoming the best retailer of High Tech equipment.

But, its place is due to not only IMac and Macbook, but also with all ranges of IPod, IPad, ITouch.

Apple succeeds in creating a demand of High Tech equipment for all classes of customers (family, business people, teenagers, adults) with contents for everybody.

The Macs are living a new revolution actually with all new desktop operating system OSX Lion.

With this all new operating system, a new way of computing is beginning: all become easier!

For instance:

Multi-Touch Gestures make easier to the way to interact with Mac, making all more intuitive and direct including rubber-band scrolling, page and image zoom and full-screen swiping

Mission Control allows watching in one only move what is running on your Mac (Dashboard, Exposé, and Spaces)

Launchpad is a new full-screen home for all the apps on your Mac, in one click all your apps appear just in front of you.

I could write all day long, but there are 250 other improvements on this new revolutionary desktop operating system.

Apple is changing all we know about High tech: it transforms the way we use our cell-phone with the touchscreen IPhone (since the first I-Phone, the cell-phone market has known a revolution)

And so with the IPad: a new sector is growing under the impulse of Apple. Samsung, HTC,… have decided to create their own tablet, creating new way to surf on the Internet, to work,…

We can experiment new way to communicate any where with anyone.

We can use this tablet to show some conference, or meeting.

we can watch movies, documentary, playing game, listen music in the subway, on the road,…

And so I conclude today with the next generations of computers.

I can’t wait tomorrow