Transparent Truck System Could Actually Save Lives [Concept]

Art Lebedev calls this simple invention—a camera that takes images from the front of a truck to show it on screens in the back—Transparentius. I call it geeneeuzz.

I don't know why this drawing shows a tank at the front of the truck, but I guess that in Russia people drive T-90s like in the US people drive Fords. I wish the technology was so cheap that this could be implemented for real, because I'm sure it would save a lot of lives on the road.
[Gizmodo via Engadget]

LifeBook MH380: Fujitsu’s new netbook with Pine Trail processor

Intel’s Pine Trail Atom processor (1.66 GHz Atom N450/unveiled earlier this year) is one of the key elements in the LifeBook MH380, Fujitsu’s latest netbook. The MH380 has a 10.1-inch glossy LCD screen with LED backlight, 200nits brightness and no less than 1,366×768 resolution. What’s quite unique design-wise is the tiny circle area (next to the trackpad), which enables circular motion scrolling.

You also get 2GB of RAM, a 250 GB SATA HDD, a card reader, a 1.3 MP web camera, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, USB/SD/SDHC ports, and Windows 7 (Starter). The made-in-Japan MH380 has a battery life of 7.5 hours and weighs just 1.3kg (2.97 lbs).

Fujitsu America will start selling the MH380 next month (price: $449). It will be available in brown, black and white.

[CrunchGear via Netbooked]

LG reveals details about its 2.6mm 42-inch LCD HDTV

Grab two SD cards and sandwich them together. Done? That’s how thin the latest 42-inch LG LCD TV is: 2.6mm. My kid would break it. No, I would break it.
Even though the TV is super-duper crazy thin, it still maintains top-tier specs: 1080p, 120Hz, and edge-lit LED backlighting. The set weighs in at only 4 kilograms too, which LG says makes it perfect for wall mounting. That’s light enough that duct tape could hold it up. Or push-pins.
LG will reveal more about the set in a few weeks at CES and we’ll be there to make even more jokes about how thin the TV is. And I thought the TVs were getting too thin last year.
[CrunchGear]

Samsung Bada screenshots hit the web, but what’s with the Series 60 font?

Hey, good on Samsung for trying to make their own OS. I'm sure it will be wonderful for them. It saves them from having to, I don't know, use Android? But what's with all the Nokia Series 60 font usage in the UI?

These screenshots, which are floating around right now, show some of the UI elements of the new OS, Bada. The font they're using is approximately (or exactly, I'm not a font scientist (fontographer?)) the same font used on most Series 60 Symbian phones.

[CrunchGear]

3D Blu-ray Specs Officially Confirmed, We Can All Breathe Easy Now [3D]

The Blu-ray Disc Association has issued the official specifications for 3D Blu-ray, thankfully confirming that the discs will be backwards-compatible for when you tire of actors lunging out of the TV at you.
Making it easy for everyone to adopt 3D entertainment, good ol' Sony has worked it so that the PS3 will be able to play 3D Blu-ray discs, and the upcoming 3D players will be able to play 2D discs too. In regards to codecs, these discs will use Multiview Video Coding (or MVC), which is similar to the ITU-T H.264 AVC codec we use now, and will actually take up 50 per cent less space on the discs compared to 2D content.
Again clearing up any questions we may've had about 3D Blu-rays, the content will be full 1080p, so even though you're watching in 3D, the quality of the resolution won't be compromised. Expect to see some massive announcements from manufacturers and movie studios next month, including exactly what LG's going to sell in order to reach that 3.8m 3D TV units sold target.
[Gizmodo via BDA]

Intel's New Superefficient-But-Fast Laptop Core i5 Chips on Jan. 7 [Intel]

Intel's dropping a big bowl o' chips January 7th—17 of 'em—like the first lower-end Core i3 chips, but we're most excited about the Arrandale Core i5 for laptops: still fast but more efficient 'cause they're shrunk to 32nm.
Remember all the excitement about Penryn a couple years ago, which took the Core 2 and made it more efficient with a new manufacturing process? It's the same deal here, as the tick of Intel's tick-tock cycle. "Tock" is a whole new microarchitecture, while "tick" is a die shrink of that, which makes it more power efficient. Nehalem is the tock—it was 45 nanometers—and Westmere is the tick, shrunk to 32nm.
Arrandale is what this set of mobile Core i5 chips, based on Westmere, is called. (Here's our primer on Intel codenames.) One thing in particular about Arrandale is that it has a graphics core built right onto the main chip package, which Intel says is good to go for Blu-ray.
Anyways, what all this means is that there's about to be a whole bunch of new laptops with faster, better Intel chips inside that won't munch your battery as hard.
[Gizmodo via Cnet]

Rumor: Google Working On Chrome OS-Branded Netbook With One (Secret) Manufacturer [Google Chrome OS]

Google's already said you'll need to buy a Chrome OS machine if you want it officially, but if TechCrunch's sources are right, they could be launching Google-branded hardware for the platform, much like they're doing with the Nexus One.
Sure, you may've already downloaded an early Chrome OS build on your current machine, but unless you want it to be your sole platform, and running just the way Google intended, then you'll need to buy the official hardware. Acer's stated its intent to be first with a product release, presumably at the tail-end of next year, but ASUS, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba are also involved in the Chrome OS project too.
A 'request for proposal' has already been issued to potential suppliers, such as those mentioned above, supposedly listing the specifications Google would like to see in that first netbook. Google is believed to be working with just the one manufacturer, to build the ideal netbook. TechCrunch's sources are claiming they'll be 3G-embedded, and quite possibly subsidized by a carrier.
Michael Arrington, editorializing at this point, goes on to say that:

'I'd be willing to bet one of our writers' right hands that it's ARM [as opposed to an Intel Atom processor]. And I'd even go out on a limb and suggest that they may very well be targeting Nvidia's Tegra line.'

Adobe, Freescale, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments are the other parties already working with on the Google Chrome OS project, so presumably the netbook will contain some components from them as well.
So, which company do we think Google will choose in this all-important talent show? Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo or Toshiba, or even someone else? ASUS obviously has strong heritage with netbooks, thanks to inventing the market for it back in 2007, but Acer launched the first Android-powered netbook. HP, Lenovo and Toshiba have all produced some solid netbooks in their time, but haven't quite measured up to Acer and ASUS' success just yet.
[Gizmodo via TechCrunch]