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Playstation Portable (PSP) Debuts At E3

Sony has taken the wraps off the upcoming Playstation Portable, due for release in Japan in late 2004 and after x-mas in the States. The PSP will use a 333 MHz processor, run games off proprietary mini-DVDs called UMDs, and playback video and audio (ATRAC3+ only?) from the Memory Stick Duo slot or from UMDs (pre-recorded only though). It’ll have integrated WiFi, a 4.3″ widescreen, stereo speakers, USB 2.0 (maybe) with a number of different options, like GPS and camera, and much more. If this costs less than $200, it’ll be a runaway hit, despite stoopid DRM.

Get all the specs and pics and something to wipe that drool off your face at Ferrago.

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New Improved Blogger

Blogger, my long-time favorite tool for maintaining personal blogs, has just re-tuned itself a bit, adding some nice new features and a cleaner interface. In addition to the new interface and “user dashboard” Blogger now has better templates for easier blog creation. Most importantly though Blogger now includes support for comments on blog entries right out of the box, and supports email blogging.

Unfortunately, photo-blogging is still not supported. But a thousand words is worth a picture, so you’ll just have to type more!

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Sony’s 20 Gig Music Player

Sony has finally released a hard-drive based music player, though for now it’s only in Japan. The device, which goes by the name of VAIO Pocket VGF-AP1, has a 20 gig hard-drive, transfers tunes via USB 2.0, and most impresssively a 2.2″ QVGA+ 320×256 screen, on which photos can be viewed — unknown if it supports video. It’s not quite as slim as an iPod, but at 4.5″ x 2.5″ x 0.66″ it’s pretty close. It also uses a cool-looking control called the G-Sense, which seems to be modelled on one of those rubber things you put in your bathtub. Oh, one more thing. Did I mention that it doesn’t look like it will play MP3?

Like most music players from Sony, it seems the VAIO Pocket only plays ATRAC format tunes, and MP3s have to be translated by the included Music Move software. F’get it Sony. We don’t want your stinkin’ HD player.

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Virtual Keyboard Actually Hits the Market!

File under Tech I Never Expected To Actually See: the keyboard-less keyboard. This device actually projects via laser a virtual keyboard onto any flat surface, judging your typing strokes with infrared sensors. It’s only about the size of a disposable lighter, has internal rechargable lithium batteries, connects to PDA or laptop (tablet, most usefully) via USB or data cable, and costs just $99. While it may not be very comfortable on a hardwood table, there’s no reason it can’t be projected on felt, leather, or even a nice big slab of Jello. Mmmmm. Edible keyboards.

Considering this technology was only hinted at less than a year ago, while Bluetooth has been around 10 times longer, it’s surprising to me that we still don’t have a Bluetooth folding keyboard from ThinkOutside.

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The “Geek Disorder”

There’s a fascinating article in the NY Times on Asberger’s Syndrome, a disorder related to autism. It is best described, perhaps, as the “geek disorder” because of the particular traits that those who have it seem to suffer: inability to interact socially, usually combined with high mental capabilities, particularly with engineering, mathematics, computer science, etc.. Those who have Asberger’s may have a range of symptoms in the spectrum — anywhere from complete inability to read social situations to slight akwardness or making innappropriate comments in social situations, and obsessive interest in certain kinds of information. While certainly not all geeks have Asberger’s, nor are all that have Asberger’s “geeks,” it certainly goes a long way to explaining the difficulties many have who are afflicted with this condition, and the tendency for “geeks” to be drawn to computer science and similar fields

Incidently, a classic case of someone likely suffering from Asberger’s is the character Toby Radloff from American Splendor.

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DesignsOnTheWhiteHouse

Designs On The White House is a design contest hoping to inspire a little creativity in designs for Kerry t-shirts. Using Cafe Press, the winning entries in such categories as best pro-Kerry, best issue (foreign and domestic), best anti-Bush, best retro, and most stylish (to be shown on QE) will be made available for sale to the public with all proceeds going to the Kerry campaign. You get nothing, except whuffie of course.

Of course, you don’t need the approval of the “judges” to make your own Kerry t-shirts at Cafe Press. So even if you’re entry isn’t considered a winning one, you can always just make your own, put it up and buy it for yourself. Please just stay away from comparing Bush to Hitler. Please.

via BoingBoing

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Smart Cars On The Way To US

There’s a lot of attention being paid to the youth market for cars these days. Companies are coming up with a lot more strange designs centered around the “lifestyle” and tastes of younger people, as evidenced by Honda’s Element and the Toyota Scion. But the innovation isn’t just coming from the Pacific side — Diamler Chrysler, which for many years has developed small, youth-oriented cars for the European market, has decided to release some of those little Smart Cars here in the US.

While the models for the US won’t be as small as the originals (some of which apparently were designed in conjunction with Swatch…no kidding) they will be some pretty unique cars. The first to come over will be the ForMore, which is a small sport ute. Other cars should follow though, and there are some pretty interesting looking ones, including a coupe (pictured, top) with a customizable two-tone color scheme that will probably make it over, and a strange variation of the ultra-tiny ForTwo two seater that looks like it could be popular in southern climes (pictured, bottom).

It should be noted that the two-seat versions of the Smart cars (like the one above, called the Crossblade) are now approved for import to the US and Canada. Two US companies will carry Smarts even before the ForMore makes its official debut.

Correction: originally I said the ForFour, a four-dour sedan, would be the first model to come over. Apparently it was too ugly for the American market and they decided to launch with the ForMore instead, which can be seen in an artists rendering by clicking “Read more..” The Smart brand will be sold through US Mercedes dealerships.

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O2 Cellular Music Player Suffers Hypoxia

British cellular provider O2 has got a new branded music player with a pretty cool feature: it can download tunes directly from the company’s online music store. The flash-based player with included 64 meg SD card connects via infrared to a data-enabled cell phone, and downloads whatever track you like. Sounds cool, but as T3 points out in their micro-review, it would have been better if it had Bluetooth, didn’t sound like crap, and wasn’t burdened with one of the worst examples of DRM yet implemented. Price of the player is about $180 with songs at $2 apiece.