News: May 2007 Archives

Zima Designs, sponsored by Intel, have shown off their specifications for a new 'Metro' laptop, dubbed the world's thinnest at 0.7-inches and lightest at 2.2-pounds. The external e-ink display and always-on Internet connectivity may be pretty high-tech, but Intel may also be heading towards the female market - one corner it hasn't cornered yet. Intel is hopeful that it could begin manufacture later this year, although we know the consequences of repeated delays all too well.


Read: BusinessWeek

Size really does matter as manufacturers look for new and innovative ways to loosen Apples strangle hold on the MP3 player market. The latest is the announcement from LG of the ultra-stylish MFFM37, their first touch-screen video player.

Chic and compact, the LG MFFM37 made in light-weight aluminium measures just 51.5mm wide, 90mm long and 9.9mm thick is available in 2Gb and 4Gb options.

The MP3 player has an easy-to-use touch screen, which features a customisable and interactive interface on a 2.4inch LCD display. With LG's Mobile XD Engine built-in the player claims to offer a better viewing experience.

The (long long) long-awaited Optimus keyboard is finally available to pre-order from Art Lebedev. Back to its original 113-key layout, it can be yours in December for $1564.37 (about £700, which works out at $13.84 per key). Only 200 will be made in the first batch, so act quick if you want one.

Also at the below links are some decent images of the finally-built keyboard. We can see it has USB output, two USB input ports as well as an SD card slot for saving the keyboard layouts. Also provided is a K-Lock for security - you wouldn't want a $1500 keyboard to go walkabouts in the office, would you?

Link: Art Lebedev

The Center for Information Work at Microsoft concentrates on taking emerging and new technology and finding real-world applications for it. One product they have developed is the DigiDesk workstation, shown off at Convergence 07. The DigiDesk is a workstation intended for use at a manufacturing plant or suchlike, and it combines many managerial functions into one station. From this desk, you could check for errors on the system, see where stock is, calculate whether there is enough stock to fulfil any new orders, automatically order new stock, alter the schedules and rotas to accommodate changes and publish them directly to the web. It also includes a document digitizer (OCR), natural language input (speech recognition) and loads of fancy user interface gimmicks such as manual on-screen document moving and resizing. No word on when this would actually be implemented anywhere, but the concept is great. Video after the jump.