E-Z Life

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Palm_s_Jon_Rubinstein_named_a_Geek_of_the_Year’; Just to clarify right out of the gate, the “year” Fast Company is referring to is 2009, but nonetheless, it’s an award we’re sure Jon is happy to have. 11 geeks were found worthy of the “Geek of the Year” award in ’09, with the likes of Evan Williams and Biz Stone (Twitter), David S. Goyer (the creator of Flash Forward on ABC), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Neill Blomkamp (the writer of District 9) joining him. The justification for Jon making the cut?

“He came on board as the new chairman of Palm and brought about the Web OS and the Palm Pre, the start of a line of products that is the best hope for reintroducing the geek masses to Palm.”

After speaking with him on our first-ever Engadget Show and falling head over heels in love with webOS, we can’t help but agree. And yes, after last year’s introduction at CES, it’s all we can do to contain our excitement for this Thursday.

Palm’s Jon Rubinstein named a ‘Geek of the Year’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey Lenovo, your cards are showing. Just weeks after the FCC tipped us off on a new pair of netbooks that are all but definitely slated for a CES unveiling, Lenovo has no one but its web administrator(s) to blame for this one. A “New product showcase” portal over on the outfit’s site has just revealed a half dozen new lappies that are slated to go on sale starting January 5th – 7th, with the ultra-sleek 13.3-inch ThinkPad Edge (pictured above) leading the way. Said rig boasts up to 7.8 hours of battery life, a dual-core CPU, Windows 7, Bluetooth and WiMAX options, integrated WWAN / GPS, WiFi, a spill-resistant keyboard, three USB ports, a 5-in-1 media card reader and an option for a red paint job. There’s also a sub-3 pound ThinkPad X100e ultraportable with an 11.6-inch display, AMD processor and an only-available-overseas Arctic White color option. The T410, T410s, T510 and W510 are bringing up the rear, with their (admittedly brief) specification lists spelled out in the source links below.

[Thanks, Jake and Daniel]

Lenovo leaks ThinkPad Edge, X100e, T410s, W510, T510 and more ahead of CES originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Main Portal, Edge, X100e  | Email this | Comments

Microsoft looks beyond the motion-sensing marvel

Making credit card theft all that easier…

We’ve seen plenty of far-fetched EMG-based input methods, like the concentration-demanding, head-based NeuroSky controller, but Microsoft Research is asking for a patent that involves much simpler gestures — and might actually make a bit of sense. As demonstrated in the video after the break, Microsoft’s connecting EMG sensors to arm muscles and then detecting finger gestures based on the muscle movement picked up by those sensors. It does away for the need of a pesky camera (or Power Glove) to read complicated hand gestures, and can even sense modified versions of the gestures to be performed while your hands are full. Microsoft’s developing a wireless EMG sensor module that could be placed all over the body, and while like all Microsoft Research projects this seems pretty far from market, there’s a small, optimistic part of us that could see some of the benefits here for controlling mobile devices. And boy do we love controlling mobile devices.

Continue reading Microsoft Research patents controller-free computer input via EMG muscle sensors

Microsoft Research patents controller-free computer input via EMG muscle sensors originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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