INDIA ANNOUNCES THE $10 LAPTOP......FOR $20

NOT the computer, just an example

With great fanfare, the Indian government announced their $10 laptop, now known as the “Sakshat” and stated that the laptop would sell for twice the planned cost … $20. Still, not to bad. And although there’s no picture of this price breaking design at the moment, here’s an overview of what’s under the hood:

The Sakshat will have about 2GB of storage, presumably flash/solid state, with WiFi, Ethernet and use only about 2 watts of power. That’s really the only information so far. No specs on what size screen (although we’re guessing it’ll be on par with an average netbook, so say about 8-10 inches), or how much on board RAM it will have, and we don’t know about it’s processor either. What we do know is that the Sakshat is expected to ship in six months. The laptop will also include free e-books of all textbooks used in the Indian School system and the government promises to pay about 25% of any broadband fees to students in college.

So, really, all we learned from this epic announcement is pretty much the name of the computer and that it’s going to cost twice as much.

KINDLE 2 IS NOW OFFICIAL

Amazon.com’s CEO Jeff Bezos finally unveiled the Kindle 2 today. Like the famous upgrade of the iPhone, the Kindle is slimmer as it is 0.36 inches thick (half as thick as the old one).

Another upgrade of the Kindle 2 is the battery life. It is approximately 25 percent larger than before, and good for two weeks without charging. The memory has also been increased at 2GB instead of the 256MB from the old Kindle.

One of the most outstanding features is the text-to-speech feature that literally allows the Kindle to read to you. Yes, the voice sounds very artificial, so you might not want it to tell you your favorite story for very long.

If that new feature doesn’t turn you on, then you might be interested in Whispersync, which allows for automatic synchronization with other Kindles. Now you can share content to both old and new versions of the Kindle, and the company plans to have Whispersync compatible with other wireless reading devices.

If you want to get the Kindle 2, you should be able to get it on February 24th. It might take a little while to ship to you, but the cost will be the same as the original: $359.

MICROSOFT STORES COMING TO YOU

It appears that Microsoft has found yet another way to dominate the market as they are starting their own line of retail stores.

Some of you are probably looking at the picture here and can’t help but compare it with Apple stores. I mean, look at the minimalist décor, and the company logo emblazed in the glass. Should we have any problem with Microsoft stealing a page from Apple’s playbook? It wouldn’t be the first time.

Ooooo, that was below the belt with that cheap pot shot at Microsoft. I suppose that I could take a lot more, because a company like Microsoft is too big not to hit. So let’s get all the Microsoft cracks out of our system.

Perhaps I should start out by making comparisons with the iPod and the Zune? That’s always good for some tech blog laughs. Or you want me to talk about how the Wii and PS3 will always be reigning the video game frontier in comparison to the Xbox 360, which is able to play outdated HD format movies?

No, it is time to stop the hating of Microsoft by ending the ridicule. Yes, Microsoft has more money than you, deal with it. It is capitalism at work! They have a product that everyone wants, and they have made money from it. If you are sick of Microsoft jokes, and want to get them out of your system, leave a comment.

As for me, I admire Microsoft’s new endeavor with my full support. By full support, I mean that I will visit them if they open up a retail outlet that is close by. I hope that each store will have the Microsoft Surface, as you can’t help but love that technology.

STANDARD UNIVERSAL PHONE CHARGER

The main association of mobile phone manufacturers, GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association) has recently announced a plan to standardize all phone chargers with a microUSB connector.

What does that mean? It means that there will no longer be a myriad number of charging cords, with all those tips that are not compatible with each individual cellular phone manufacturer.

One of the motivations of this new agreement is to stop the environmental damage caused by the waste of old cellular phone chargers. Did you know that there is 51,000 tons of cell phone chargers being discarded a year? A standardized charger could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from this waste by 13.6 to 21.8 million tons.

Another economical and environmental improvement by the standardized charger is that they are projected to consume up to fifty percent less power.

The plan is to implement this sweeping change to the mobile phone industry by the year 2012. Isn’t when the world is coming to an end, according to some Mayan calendar? At least according to some new film by Roland Emmerich, the guy who gave us Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.

So, by the time we have standardized phone chargers, it may be too late. Here is a list of those cellular phone companies who will be part of the deal: AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom Austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and 3 Group.

SCIENTISTS WORKING ON DEATH STAR LASER......BUT FOR ENERGY,NOT BLOWING UP

The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is working on creating a laser which can compress and heat a single fuel capsule to more than 180 million degrees in order to trigger a thermonuclear reaction. In short, they’re building a Death Star Laser. But for good, not evil. The idea is to create a kind of miniature sun on earth that would supply “limitless, safe, and carbon free energy.”

Normally, fusion – which is the bonding together of heavy atoms to create energy – takes place in hot environments like stars, but with 192 giant lasers, the NIF is attempting to create the same kind of reaction here on earth. The reaction will be accomplished by superheating the outside of a fuel capsule contining about one millionth of a pound of deuterium and tritium. This will cause the interior of the capsule to compress while the exterior explodes much like a star does. The biggest challenge? Containing the reaction as 180 million degrees will melt just about any known substance here on earth. But the reaction itself may be the key to containing it as, according to the NIF, the reaction consumes the cooler outer region faster than the capsule can release the hotter elements, thereby containing it.

Serious ignition testing is scheduled for next year. Then its’ bound to be a horse race to see if it can beat the Hadron collider in destroying the planet.

TOUCHABLE HOLOGRAPH? ALMOST.....

It’s cool enough to have holograms, but what if you could actually touch them? This was a project that some researchers at the University of Tokyo took on, and have achieved some interesting results.

You can watch a video of what they have done after the jump, but here is a quick summary. First, they used two Wiimotes (yes, Wiimotes) to track a holographic object in realtime and space. So when that hand that you see in the picture tries to dribble that tiny ball, it responds like a real superball would.

Ultrasounds are then given so the hand can actually “feel” the impact. Experiements have shown that the ultrasounds can disrupt things from a distance, and if focused properly, they can create a sense of touch. At the end of the video is that hand underneath some raindrops, and it can apparently “feel” them.

This is definitely one of those “this could change everything” technologies, but it is still in its fetal stage. In other words, don’t be dreaming about having your own holodeck from Star Trek TNG anytime soon. By the way, I believe that technology used energy and matter conversion.

Man, I am such a geek sometimes. I’ll prove it yet again by saying that this technology reminds me of a short-lived show called Automan. It was about a guy who created a holographic man who others could actually feel. He even had an Autocar and Autoplane which were also tangible holograms.

Yeah, we are a long way holograms that we can feel. I suppose if they had this touch holograms in Star Wars, then Luke Skywalker could have felt Princess Leia saying “help me Obi-Wan Kenobi”.

Oh, that is so wrong.

ACER TO OFFER NETBOOKS POWERED BY ANDROID

Acer to launch world's first Atom based Android Netbook

Since the launch of the Google G1 smart phone running Android, there has always been talk that Android could be a great mobile platform for small notebooks. And with the popularity of Netbooks being sky high - the most popular selling computers so far this year - there has been talk that sooner or later, there will be an Android driven netbook on the market. And it looks like Acer is goin’ for it in a huge way.

Scheduled to ship this fall, the Acer Android netbook will be based on the Aspire One with the Atom processor and 10 inch screen. Unveiled at the Computex Electronics show last June, Acer showed that not only can the Aspire run Android, but it can also run in a dual boot configuration with Windows XP. This can be especially advantageous until more Android based Netbook applications come online.

Acer is the first company to offer an Android based netbook running the Atom processor, and the advantage that Android has over a Windows configuration is it’s open source community development which would translate into a more affordable netbook.

No word on how much the Aspire Android will run, but it’ll be here this Fall.