Innocomm Reveals Ambitious Android Plans [Android]

Smartphone developer Innocomm Technology might be small when compared to players like HTC and Motorola, but their plans for Android are just as big. Around the middle of the year, the handset maker plans to drop their first of many Android-based handsets. Called the Shark, Innocomm's smartphone will be a high-end device with a considerably lower cost.

Innocomm's hopes are that wireless providers might be able to offer their handsets free with contacts. Our hopes are that this happens!

Innocomm Skate

Shark's tentative specs include a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 8-megapixel camera with flash, GPS, 3G, HSPA, Wifi, and Bluetooth. The Shark will be also have a 3.5mm headset jack, a microSD card slot, and mini-USB connection. Also getting squeezed in will be an analog TV tuner with future versions expected to offer a digital tuner.

Other handsets in the Inncomm pipeline are the Shadow, which features a 4.3-inch screen, the Gemini, and Scorpion. Previously, the company showed their Skate handset off at 2009's MWC which sports 'the World's smallest 2.8' smartphone based on the Android OS.' As of right now, the Skate has been pushed back due to changing the chipset inside.

Innocomm has no plans to work with any other mobile platforms, even the recently unveiled Windows Phone 7. 'Windows is nice, but it can't beat the price on Android. It's free and the Google brand is already well known. Android is the only OS we're working on.'

[AndroidGuys via PC World]

Days Get Shorter Because of Chilean Earthquake [Science]

Apart from a colossal tsunami, here's another effect of the 66.6 exajoules liberated by this weekend's earthquake in Chile: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says that days will now be shorter because the quake shifted Earth's axis by three inches.

The change—which can only be measured thanks to computer models—will result in days that are 1.26 microseconds shorter than before. That's 0.00000126 seconds shorter. There may have been more visible changes, like islands changing its position. One of them, Santa María, may have raised two meters after the shattering land move.

This is not the first time this has happened, as every single earthquake has an effect on the planet's axis.
[Gizmodo via Business Week]

Freescale's i.MX508 Chip Will Make E-Ink Readers Way Cheaper and Turn Pages 4X Faster [Guts]

The silicon inside 90 percent of ereaders out there is made by Freescale, and their new chip, the i.MX508—based on a ARM Cortex A8 (sorta like the iPad!)—will make them cheaper, and page turns 4x faster.

The chip's a custom SoC that integrates the functions from multiple chips into one—specifically, the E-Ink hardware display controller—along with that Cortex A8, which gives the readers enough juice to turn pages in half a second, versus the two seconds that's typical now. As the first chip expressly designed for ereaders, it also strips out unnecessary features, so the net result for the ereader is that it's $30 cheaper a unit. Freescale wagers that with the cost savings, it could drive ereaders to under $150 by the end of the year. (Though that in part depends on how much the E-Ink displays themselves are going to continue to cost.)

An E-Ink reader that costs $150 would definitely look more attractive as a dedicated long-reading device against an iPad that does lots of things on top of reading—and has those fancy digital magazines—than the ones that more like $260 today. Then again, Amazon's working on a full-color multitouch Kindle with Wi-Fi, if that tells you anything about the future of E-Ink readers. In the meantime, I'm all for cheaper.
[Gizmodo via Freescale via Bloomberg via Digital Daily]

The Apogee Astro Drive Series A101 from Chaintech is apparently the world’s smallest USB 3.0 drive [USB 3.0]

USB 3.0 is finally getting some traction in the market place as more products are announced from more manufacturers. Chaintech just intro’d its first USB 3.0 drive and slapped the notorious “world’s smallest” label on it, which is probably true although a bit disingenuous as there’s only about three USB 3.0 flash drives available right now.

Still, the Astro DRive Series A101 isn’t a slouch. The drive can see read/write speeds of 186MB/s and 130MB/s, respectively. That’s quite a bit faster than the average 30/20 that USB 2.0 generally sees and slightly higher than the speeds I’ve seen on USB 3.0 hard drives.

The series will initially be available in three storage sizes: 32GB, 64GB, and 125GB. No word on when they will be available or how much they’ll sell for, though. Hopefully for the sake of the marketers, the drives will be released soon than later as the World’s Smallest title will likely be stripped away before too long.
[CrunchGear]

Panasonic batteries to last 30% longer: Breakthrough? [Batteries]

Panasonic announced a new battery that lasts 30% longer than today's lithium ion batteries. Instead of a graphite anode, these new rechargeable lithium ion batteries will use an anode made of silicon alloy, and Panasonic claims after 500 charge/discharge cycles, the batteries will still retain 80% of their capacity.


This could be a big deal. While there are already silicon alloy batteries in development by Hitachi Maxell, Panasonic's 30% improvement goes 10% beyond their alleged capacity improvement. Aimed at laptops, Panasonic says this new battery technology will be manufactured in volume starting in 2012.


But wait a second. This 30% improvement is nothing compared to those nanotech-enhanced lithium sulfur batteries we heard about last year — said to last three times longer than conventional lithium ion batteries. Talk is cheap, Panasonic. We'll believe it when we see it.


[DVICE via Nikkei Electronics, via Engadget]

MorphPad, a physical keypad and touchpad all at the same time

When buying a phone, you usually have to decide between something with a traditional keypad or a more versatile touchscreen. Why can't you just have it both? It's 2010, for goodness sake. Well, Pelikon is looking to make the old keypad vs. touchpad debate a thing of the past for consumers with its upcoming MorphPad.


The MorphPad looks like your average keypad when everything is all lit up. When the backlighting gets a little creative, however, it's different uses become apparent. A numerical keypad, for instance, could be illuminated when you want to use your phone. Want to play a game? All of a sudden you're looking at glowing directional buttons like you'd see on a game console controller. With an entire surface that doubles as a touchpad, the MorphPad really covers all bases when it comes to controlling a phone.


You won't see the MorphPad on any phone just yet, but Pelikon is already partnered with companies such as Toshiba on various projects, so there's a good chance this idea won't remain a prototype. Check out a demo of the MorphPad in action in the video below.





[DVICE via Pelikon, via Engadget]

New Wacom Cintiq 21UX Has 2048 Pressure Levels and Back Touchpads [Tablets]

I'm excited about the new 21-inch model, the Cintiq 21UX. According to Wacom, it has better pen performance and ergonomics. The two back touch-strips have me intrigued.

They say their new Grip Pen has their new Tip Sensor technology that requires near-zero pressure to start painting, which is great to get a more natural feeling. It also has 2048 levels of pressure—doubling the previous model. The tablet itself has been redesigned, with eight programmable keys on each side of the tablet, over the bezel.



The coolest addition, however, are the two touch strips on the sides of the tablet, on the back of the bezel itself. These are like mini-trackpads, which can be used for four functions depending on the application. You change the function with your thumb using the round button on the front of the tablet—a LED displays the selected function—and use your middle or forefinger to manipulate the touchpad up and down. For example, you can use it to control the variation of a brush, then click the round button, and use it to control the speed of the airbrush, while using the pen with your other hand. Smart. Can't wait to try it.



The tablet display allows you to position the screen at any angle between 10 and 65 degrees, and it can be detached to use any VESA-compatible mount. I would definitely want to have one mounted on a hydraulically-assisted arm, to be able to position it in front of my main monitor at any time.
[Gizmodo]