Hardware posts

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion has introduced its first promo video pushing what’s positive inside the future BlackBerry 6 OS, set to ship in Q3. It’s an incredibly busy presentation, but you do get to see some album cover-based music navigation, an onscreen (virtual) keyboard, Facebook and Twitter clients, and a quick glance at the new WebKit-based browser. (Note. WebKit is also used in Safari and Firefox). Oh, and don’t miss the consistently touch-based interaction throughout this video as Research In Motion takes it to Cupertino….

The time has come for all of us to start saying our goodbyes to the floppy disk. Sony made a statement saying that in March 2011 it will no longer be selling the 30-year-old floppy disk in Japan. Earlier in the year, Sony had stopped selling floppy disks in many international markets because of decreasing orders and competition from other storage systems. The demand for floppy disks started to decline in 1998 when Apple didn’t include a floppy drive in the G3 iMac computer. Because of that many different companies have stopped their support for floppy disks. Dell Computers stopped in 2003 and PC…

If only I’d had this as a frustrated kid, yelling over a half-completed Lego kit. Lego has teamed up with Metaio to produce a truly eye-popping concept – in-store displays that can give you an augmented-reality preview of a completed Lego kit. Just hold the box of your desired purchase up to the screen and the model instantly assembles itself on top. This is no foolin’. Seriously, I brought a video. Check it out. [Via Cnet]…

Soon you too could be sending or receiving unsolicited messages via Bluetooth from up to 65-metres (200-feet) or more away, as the new Bluetooth 4.0 standard has been finalised. Now we know manufacturers haven’t exactly rushed to launch Bluetooth 3.0 devices, but the new standard may interest some, with its low-energy mode and boosted range, up from 30-feet to 200-feet. Realistically, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) maintain the new standard will be of use to manufacturers of small devices, such as watches or remote controls, and to those creating network equipment. “Bluetooth…

Adobe has ceased development of its tools to export Flash content into a format suitable for the iPhone. “We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5,” said Adobe’s Mike Chambers. “However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.” Apple CEO Steve Jobs has previously slammed Adobe as “lazy” and Flash as unsuitable for use on mobile devices. Apple has not enabled Flash playback on the iPhone, pushing the open HTML 5 standard instead. Adobe’s announced cessation of development follows Apple’s decision…

Silk is being used to make electronics that stick to the brain. A far cry from fabric but doctors are hoping that using silk will help them explore parts of the brain that they weren’t previously able to. “This development heralds a new class of implantable devices, not just for the brain, but for many other tissues,” said neurologist Brian Litt of the University of Pennsylvania, in an interview with Wired.com. Engineers chose to use silk because it’s easily stretched and the material is super thin, making it easy to mould and work with, making for better brain-computer interfaces. BCI’s…

Nope. While it does have the Apple branding on it, we are certain that this thing is nothing more than a Chinese knock-off that has a cute design. It is supposedly called the “Leady Apple” (maybe Google Translate is having a very bad day), and it looks like a blend between a mirror and phone. But don’t be fooled by the Apple logo and iPhone branding on the back side of this phone. Again, we are sure Apple wouldn’t venture so far out there with a design like this. (We are also sure that every news publication on Earth would have caught wind of this.) What is admirable, however, is the round design and the round…

What happens when you take your ordinary floor and turn it into a jumbo-sized multi-touch trackpad? Awesome happens. A few students at Hasso Plattner Institute have come up something that could have significant impacts in the future with regards to how we interact with applications and games. And they call it Multitoe. It works by tracking a user’s shoes in relation to the floor. It also detects the location and pressure applied from these shoes to allow a great amount of control over the interactions with the floor displays. Interactions like tapping your toe or leaning on your heel can be detected….

In an attempt to get everyone interested in the Vulcan life, Paramount Pictures announced that they will be teaming up with Seagate Technology to sell hard drives with a copy of the newest version of “Star Trek” already installed onto the device. Paramount and Seagate are offering the 500 gigabyte hard drive special for one month only and units will sell for $100, whereas an empty drive would normally have a price tag of almost $150. The hard drives include 20 additional well-known titles such as “GI Joe” and “Nacho Libre,” and each require a code to unlock them, at $10 to $15 each. The extra films take…

Following yesterday’s reports suggesting Palm has put itself up for sale comes more news on the company’s attempt to find a new friend. Chinea’s Huawei Technologies has been approached by an investment bank on behalf of Palm for preliminary acquisition talks, but discussions have not yet moved forward. Huawei Technologies isn’t a household name, but it has become the world’s second-biggest telecoms equipment company after Ericsson. And that lack of a household name could be the benefit it gains from buying a well-known brand such as Palm. One of the pioneers in PDA and smartphone tech,…