Microsoft 3D desktop with Kinect concept revealed

Microsoft may be currently prepping Windows 8 for the world, but it has still found time to allow all of us a peak at what is to come in the near future, showing off a 3D desktop concept which uses Kinect functionality.

Shown off at its TechForum, the bods at Microsoft Research explained that the 3D-enabled desktop uses a see-through Samsung OLED screen and a Kinect sensor – combined they create a virtual desktop that can be controlled by swipes and gestures.

This isn't the first time we have seen a see-through OLED display from Samsung - it was also shown off in one of the company's own future-focused promos, where it was part of a flexible tablet concept.

Kinect, the best a man can get

According to the developers of the desktop, the Kinect sensor tracks all sorts of movement, including head and eye movement, as well as hand gestures.

Although the screen is 3D a normal keyboard is used for typing – so the desktop concept isn't completely motion-controlled.

It does look as if the future of desktop computing, however, is decidedly mouse-free.

Say what you want about Microsoft, the company has always been open about its future technologies – even if some of them never come to fruition.

We can only dream that Apple will one day operate the same way, but for now it looks as if Cook and co are very much working on their upcoming projects in a room with more security than the Pentagon.

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGa1Q7NvsI0#%21

Sony Shows Off VAIO Slider Concept

We’ve seen a lot of laptop ideas come and go over the years. One that seems to periodically resurface is the slider, a device that can function as a laptop in normal mode, or it can slide all the way open until the display sits on top of the keyboard and it’s in tablet mode. ASUS had the Eee PC Slider SL101 last year, but they seem to be leaving that behind and going more with the Transformer design for 2012. Sony had their own slider tablet/laptop concept on display at their booth, including a stylus to go along with the device. The hybrid system was behind glass and as a concept there’s no information on the hardware or software running inside the chassis, but for those interested in something other than the standard tablets, let Sony know you like their concept—or not.

Gallery: Sony Shows Off VAIO Slider Concept

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Sony VAIO: Z with Dock, SE with IPS, and an Ultrabook Concept

When we stopped by the Sony booth, there was plenty to see. Vivek will be covering some of the other areas—tablets and gaming devices—while I’ll focus on the laptop side of things.

Like all the major OEMs, Sony had an ultrabook concept on display. I use the terms concept loosely here, as while Sony didn’t commit to anything the ultrabook push by Intel pretty much guarantees that the 13” VAIO ultrabook will see the light of day this year. The Intel booth, incidentally, was largely devoted to pushing ultrabooks with over half of the public area devoted to singing the praises of the devices. As for the Sony ultrabook, it’s not too hard to guess at the hardware inside (Ivy Bridge ULV), and the design is flat (e.g. no sloped keyboard) and looks stylish. We were unable to physically handle the preproduction/concept device, but we hope to have a unit for review when the time comes.

Next up on the list of VAIO laptops is the updated VAIO Z that started shipping about five months back. This was my first chance to actually get hands on with the VAIO Z, and I can see why so many people like it. The display on the unit at the booth was a beautiful 1080p 13.1” panel that puts just about every other laptop to shame (1600x900 comes standard in the base model). Sony also uses Intel’s Light Peak technology (a.k.a. Thunderbolt with a proprietary connector that plugs into the AC socket and USB 3.0 port) to drive an external dock. The dock houses a Radeon HD 6650M GPU and Sony had it driving two additional displays with one more external display connected to the laptop’s HDMI port along with the integrated 1080p display.

The VAIO Z is an amazingly feature rich package, but I do have a few concerns. First, the GPU in the dock is still only a 6650M; if you’re going with a dock, I’d be more than happy to sacrifice size for a faster GPU (e.g. 6770M as a minimum). Second and perhaps more of a concern, the keyboard definitely shows flex, which is not something we like seeing in premium devices. Finally, there’s the price of nearly two grand, but given everything else you get—premium display quality, an ultra-thin laptop, an mSATA SSD (two in some models), and the attached Media Dock—we’re not surprised at the cost. Overall, the VAIO Z is an impressive tour de force from Sony and we’re eager to see what they cook up with the inevitable Ivy Bridge refresh.

The final laptop we were impressed with at the Sony booth is another laptop that has already started shipping, the VAIO SE. It sports the familiar VAIO styling and looks in many ways like a larger version of the Z—and that’s a good thing. Sony was using the SE to show their Media Gallery 2.0 software, but that wasn’t nearly as impressive to us as the 15.5” 1080p IPS display. (I’m always a sucker for a good display!) The word on the web is that the display isn’t full sRGB on the color gamut, but then there are many laptops that fall into that category and they don’t come with a 1080p IPS panel. With pricing starting at just over $900, we’re definitely interested in doing some additional testing of the VAIO SE!

Gallery: Sony VAIO: Z with Dock, SE with IPS, and an Ultrabook Concept

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Toshiba Demos Excite 10.1” and Concept Tablet Designs

We reviewed Toshiba’s Tegra 2-based Thrive 10.1” late last year and from a design standpoint, we were pretty disappointed with it. While elements like the removable battery, full size ports, and rubberized back cover were well done, overall the Thrive just wasn't designed as well as the leading Android tablets. It hit a more value oriented price point than higher end products like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but even compared to more midrange tablets like the Asus Transformer, the Thrive just wasn't competitive. 

Toshiba learned a lot from their experience with the Thrive, and clearly desire to improve on their tablet designs in the future. To that end comes the new Excite 10”, a tablet that represents a dramatic step forward from the Thrive, significantly improved in almost every way. Gone are the curved edges, rubber backing, and chunky design. In its place, we find an extremely slick looking tablet that can easily compete with the cutting edge of that Android world. At 7.7mm thick, it's definitely one of the thinnest new tablets on the market. The back is flat and made of magnesium alloy, with a rounded rim around the edge of the device. Toshiba went with magnesium alloy instead of a cheaper aluminum extrude here because magnesium was lighter and more structurally rigid than a brushed aluminum casing would have been. 

Gallery: Toshiba Excite 10" - CES 2012

Spec-wise, the Excite has a 10.1" 1280x800 display with an IPS panel and Gorilla Glass covering the screen (fixing our only two complaints with the Thrive's otherwise excellent display panel). It's running TI's OMAP 4430 inside clocked at 1GHz. The higher clocked OMAP 4460 (1.5GHz) didn't fit in the thermal envelope Toshiba was shooting for with the Excite, there just wasn't enough heat being dissipated to handle the increased clock speeds. The Excite does lose the full-size ports of the Thrive, though that makes sense given that a standard size HDMI connecter is actually thicker on its own than the entire chassis of the Excite (!). The units we went hands on with had Ice Cream Sandwich installed on them, the final device may ship on either Honeycomb 3.2 or ICS depending on when the Excite hits retail as well as how long it takes Toshiba to finalize the ICS port for the Excite.

I must say, I'm absolutely in love with the industrial design of the Excite. It also feels great in hand, a completely opposite experience from the original Thrive. It's a very premium feeling device, and it has a surprisingly solid frame even with the utter lack of thickness. I'm really impressed to see how far Toshiba has come in terms of design and quality since the Thrive was shown off here last year. Toshiba envisions the Excite as a premium level product slotting above the Thrive, so the Thrive will still be sold alongside the Excite. MSRP is $529 for the 16GB and $599 for the 32GB, price points that I think are on the optimistic side given that a similarly premium design-oriented product launched recently with the Tegra 3 quad-core SoC for $499/599 for 16GB/32GB. Availability is expected close to the end of Q1, and we'll definitely have an evaluation unit to look at when it does hit market.

Gallery: Toshiba Demos Excite 10.1” and Concept Tablet Designs

Toshiba also showed off a few tablet design concepts, with 5.1", 7.7", and 13.3" form factors being shown off. The industrial design used across the entire lineup is more mainstream-oriented than the high-end Excite, though in this case that still means a relatively thin body, clean lines, and a textured plastic backing. Overall they feel pretty good, and are a significant step forward from the rather clunky Thrive design. The 7.7" model with an OLED screen especially was impressive in both in form factor as well as feel and industrial design. The 13.3" model was an interesting one in that we haven't seen a whole lot of larger tablet form factors at CES this year. I personally feel like it's something that really lends itself to being a Windows 8 tablet, but Toshiba officially says that they are still evaluating both hardware and software choices for all of the future tablet designs.

It's worth noting that all of the design concepts were running Android, and it's a distinct possibility that both Win8 and Android models will exist. Toshiba genuinely seems to be agnostic on a hardware platform level (as shown by their use of Tegra 2 in the Thrives and OMAP 4 in the Excite) so it's not difficult to believe that they don't have a silicon partner finalized yet for any of the concept tablets. These prototypes were hand built preproduction units, so build quality was obviously not something we could evaluate, but even so, I came out with high hopes for Toshiba's tablet future. Availability was expected to be Q3 onwards, with the 5.1" model with a 21:9 aspect ratio screen being made primarily for the Japanese market and probably not having high hopes for a US launch.

Gallery: Toshiba Concept Tablets - CES 2012

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CES: Seagate Combines 500GB Portable Drive With Mobile Hotspot in Proof of Concept

 

While perusing the Verizon Wireless booth, a chunky little device caught our eye. Though considered a proof of concept, and not scheduled for release yet, a Seagate device was on display that combined an LTE mobile hotspot with 500GB of storage on-board. CES itself presents a clear use case for a device like this, allowing media generated by coverage of an event to be transferred to the device for easy access and collaboration by a reporting team. Sadly, Seagate and Verizon don't make market decisions based entirely on our whims. The more obvious use case is the traveler that carries a hotspot and external storage now, and would be able to downsize to a single device.

One thing is certain, the device would be chunkier than hotspots and external storage solutions are today. The burden on the battery from operating WiFi and LTE radios, as well as a spinning mechanical disk might also limit the value of this device. We will touchbase with Seagate and keep an eye on this product to see if it ever shows up in the wild. 

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Dual-screen LG Android phone shows up in the wild - with new concept

A little shindig held by Orange in the UK has unearthed a T-Mobile-branded LG device that we've never seen before. It features a display of moderate size and resolution, The coolest feature of the slider is that it has dual screens. The main screen is on top of the slider and looks like any other smartphone at first glance. Kick the slider open and you see a keyboard that is very different from others on the market and has a smaller screen in the middle.

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Computex 2011: Danshui Bay Concept Motherboard

ASUS have been coming to Computex to sensationalize and dazzle the press with concepts for years, and this year is no different, regardless of whether something is technically feasible or not.  Last year, we saw the ASUS Immensity motherboard concept that was never put into production – an X58 featuring a 5450-type integrated GPU and a Lucid Hydra chip to combine any discrete GPU combination on board.  This year takes a turn for the surreal.

Introducing the Danshui Bay concept:

Simply put, ASUS are wanting to combine two chipsets on one motherboard – the X58 socket 1366, and the X79 socket 2011.  If we completely disregard the technical challenges this faces, it provides the interesting idea of something that might be possible in the future:  You want to upgrade your machine to the latest chipset and processor.  Rather than throw your old processor away or sell it on, you could buy a motherboard that lets you harness the power of the old processor and a new processor together, in some form of chimerism.

As for the technical challenges in producing such a product, I could reel off a whole list.  For a start, chipsets are not designed to talk to each other.  Processors need dual QPI links to talk to each other of the same model – how that would work with different socket processors with different caches and core counts is also a mystery, as with 1366 you would need an appropriate Xeon.  With two chipsets, you’ll have to have a different set of memory for each processor, and possibly getting a mismatch there based on dual/tri/quad channel memory.  Each processor requires its power and a set of PCIe each – unless you disregard the PCIe of one of the chipsets but then you would have to have at least the processor of the other socket in order to run a discrete GPU.  The same goes with SATA ports, I/O connectors, USB headers, and so on.

Obviously, this board presented is a mockup – merely bits and pieces put together.  It’s showing sixteen SATA 3 Gbps and six SATA 6 Gbps for a start, as well as no significant power delivery and an obscene form factor.  ASUS only want to know that if there was a demand for such a product, despite the technical limitations.

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Computex 2011: Danshui Bay Concept Motherboard

ASUS have been coming to Computex to sensationalize and dazzle the press with concepts for years, and this year is no different, regardless of whether something is technically feasible or not.  Last year, we saw the ASUS Immensity motherboard concept that was never put into production – an X58 featuring a 5450-type integrated GPU and a Lucid Hydra chip to combine any discrete GPU combination on board.  This year takes a turn for the surreal.

Introducing the Danshui Bay concept:

Simply put, ASUS are wanting to combine two chipsets on one motherboard – the X58 socket 1366, and the X79 socket 2011.  If we completely disregard the technical challenges this faces, it provides the interesting idea of something that might be possible in the future:  You want to upgrade your machine to the latest chipset and processor.  Rather than throw your old processor away or sell it on, you could buy a motherboard that lets you harness the power of the old processor and a new processor together, in some form of chimerism.

As for the technical challenges in producing such a product, I could reel off a whole list.  For a start, chipsets are not designed to talk to each other.  Processors need dual QPI links to talk to each other of the same model – how that would work with different socket processors with different caches and core counts is also a mystery, as with 1366 you would need an appropriate Xeon.  With two chipsets, you’ll have to have a different set of memory for each processor, and possibly getting a mismatch there based on dual/tri/quad channel memory.  Each processor requires its power and a set of PCIe each – unless you disregard the PCIe of one of the chipsets but then you would have to have at least the processor of the other socket in order to run a discrete GPU.  The same goes with SATA ports, I/O connectors, USB headers, and so on.

Obviously, this board presented is a mockup – merely bits and pieces put together.  It’s showing sixteen SATA 3 Gbps and six SATA 6 Gbps for a start, as well as no significant power delivery and an obscene form factor.  ASUS only want to know that if there was a demand for such a product, despite the technical limitations.

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Minebea Cool Leaf Keyboard Concept Becomes Reality waterproof

You might remember the Minebea Cool Leaf Keyboard I wrote about back in March 2010 in which Minebea had developed a new next-generation input device dubbed the “Cool Leaf”, with a glass like smooth touch screen which could be used in keyboards, remote controllers and calculators. Well the conceptual devices have now made the jump into production and will shortly be available to purchase.

The Minebea Cool Leaf Keyboard has no keys and only has a touchscreen surface for input, so anyone who already has a tablet or similar touch screen smartphone will feel right at home with the Cool Leaf Keyboard.

The current model being launched is only compatible with Windows computers and features a 108 Key Japanese Keyboard layout. This model will be available in two weeks time on May 13 2011 for around 26,000 Yen.

But Minebea is developing versions in for US English, German, French, and Italian languages that are expected to be available two months later in July 2011, together with a Mac compatible version.