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Linux Devices posted info on a new rugged CarPC by Aaeon.  The  Boxer AEC-6905 is a rugged, vehicle mounted computer running an Intel Celeron M processor.  They were able to make it fanless by the use of the huge orange colored heat-sink which doubles as the case.

Features and specifications listed by Aaeon for the AEC-6095 include:

• Processor — Intel Celeron M from 600MHz to 1.5GHz
• Memory — up to 1GB of DDR RAM in single SODIMM slot
• Display — integrated VGA output; supported resolutions not specified
• Networking — 10/100 Ethernet port
• Other I/O:
  • 4 x USB 2.0
  • 3 x RS232
  • 1 x RS232/422/485
  • 1 x PS/2
  • 1 x VGA
  • audio mic-in, line-in, and line-out via DIN connector
• Expansion:
  • PCI slot (size not stated)
  • PC/104-Plus interface, accepts two-board stack
  • CompactFlash slot
• Operating temperatures:
  • From -20 to 60 deg. C (with SSD)
  • From -20 to 55 deg. C (with HDD)
• Dimensions — 13.3 x 11.6 x 10.3 inches
• Weight — 12.3 pounds
• Power requirements — 9VDC to 30VDC; external AC adapter is optional

 Link

I’m looking for a new cam.. Thinking of the Sanyo Xacti HD700 or the HD1000.

I’ve been playing around with the Aiptek A-HD and a bit with the Flip Video Ultra and I’m disappointed with the CMOS sensor. It creates the typical ‘wobble’ effect. characteristic of digicams. I know the higher end HD cams from the big 3 (Sony, Panasonic, Canon), don’t have that effect with their CMOS sensors, but we’re talking about cheap webcam parts strung together and hope the chip is smart enough to figure it all out.

What appeals me with the Aipteks are the technical features, solid yet cheap build, and price to go with them. For $130, I have a 720P cam that produces H.264 video at around 4Mbps. I won’t feel bad bring an Aiptek along while surf fishing. If I end up catching the big one and have to sacrifice a cam to the Ocean, then so be it, I could always grab another.

I will always strive to be at the place where I can have a nice balance of a solid build, high tech, and portability. So, now, I’m looking a step up. Sanyo’s.. Or perhaps a Panasonic HCD-HD9 (not very durable or portable). I’m leaning toward the Sanyo HD700 though. Pocketability (!) is fairly important.

The Sanyo E1 is very appealing as well. It’s freaking water proof. You can submerge the MoFo 5 feet deep and it’ll record all that in at 640×480 using the H.264 codec. It’s a bit bulky though. I cruised over to Fry’s and compared the E1 to the C6 , which has the same build as the CG65 and HD700; the E1 is pretty huge in comparison, but it does look durable.

What’s lacking for these cheaper hybrid cams.. are the essentials to compete as a heavyweight in the camcorder field.

Let’s see:

• Opitical Image Stabilization (OIS). Much better than EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization).
• Auto/Manual Focus. Fixed lens cams have their use. For day-to-day use, autofocus is convenient. The option for manual focus is gold.
• Optics. The big players (Sony, Panasonic, Canon) all focus on their optics #1 priority. They don’t bother with cheap webcam parts. I love the pistolgrip form-factor, but it’s tough to combine a huge lens and portability. The big 3’s solution for their flash based cams are bullet shaped. House the best optics and ergonomics goes out the window.
• Standard? This is one to argue about. Sony and Panasonic are going AVCHD which has caused a bit of trouble for those trying to edit video with both Mac and PC. Every format seems have trouble working with your favorite video editor though. Basically, most people have trouble even playing 1080p/720P H.264 footage since it’s so demanding. The thought of them even editing HD footage is a shiny new computer, long, far.. away.
  For me, Sony Vegas has worked well. For you videographers/vloggers using digicams, MP4Cam2AVI has been gold for converting video to an editable format.
  Installing ffdshow also helped in viewing/editing video with the preinstalled Windows Movie Maker.

Ok this is awesome.

I have Jam Sessions for the Nintendo DS which basically turns your DS into a guitar. It’s fairly realistic if all want to do is strum chords.

Soon you’ll be able to have synthesizer for your DS. AQ Interactive is releasing the KORG DS-10 synthesizer.

From the AQ Interactive site:

Description:

• World’s first music tool software created for the Nintendo DS
• Two patchable dual-oscillator analog synth simulators:
• Four-part drum machine that uses sounds created with the analog synth simulator
• Six-track (analog synth x 2, drum machine x 4) /16-step sequencer
• Delay, chorus, and flanger sound effects available from the mixing board
• Three note-entry modes: touch-control screen, keyboard screen, matrix screen
• Real-time sound control mode via touch-control screen
• Exchange sounds and songs and play multiple units simultaneously through a wireless communications link

Release date is July 2008 for 4800 YEN in Japan

KORG DS-10 synth turns Nintendo DS into instrument of awesomeness - Engadget

French site Archos Lounge announced the upcoming Archos 606 PMP/MID which will include 3G.  It appears to be an upgrade to the WiFi enabled Archos 605.  No word on availability but I’ll assume France only at this time.

A few details:

• Slightly bigger screen than 605
• All black
• 30GB drive
• Support for Opera widgets

Could be a great alternative to the iPhone/iPod Touch, Nokia Internet Tablets, and MID’s if you favor media playback and/or recording as a main feature.

Via Gizmodo

You can now grab a Nokia N810 for $389.99 retail.

Nice call but I think it should be lower at around $300.

Wonder which forces are pushing Nokia to lower the price of the N810 at this time.

• The MID’s coming around the corner with the Gigabyte M528 appearing to be very competitive?
• iPhone/iPod Touch SDK released?
• WiMax enabled N830 coming?

Nokia has a lot to worry about in a few months.  Hope they can respond with something.

I remember some time ago in order for a laptop to gain ‘Vista Premium Certified’, it required a hybrid harddrive.  Now, I guess not..  but question still remains.. where are the hybrid harddrives?  It’s been almost 3 years or more since it was mentioned..

I mean, there should be at least one around now.  Samsung and Seagate announced theirs last year.  So where are they?  Does ReadyDrive work just as bad as ReadyBoost? 

Engadget is reporting Art Lebedev are working on the Optimus Mini 3.0 which may include a touchscreen and wireless bluetooth.

Anyone thinking what I’m thinking?  This would be sweet to stick on the dash of your car to use as an input device.  It may require AC power though.

So I try to boot up my Fujitsu U810 last night and something horribly goes wrong. It wouldn’t boot. Right after the BIOS information shows up, I could hear a bad clicking sound from the harddrive and it would immediately shut down and go through an endless loop of restarting.

To say the least, I was bummed out. I initially thought my drive was gone. I’ve already dropped U810 about 3-4 times and it always came back like a champ. I didn’t remember dropping it this last time but I could have jarred it by not gently setting it down on the table. Thoughts of replacing it with a $500-600 32GB SSD drive crossed my mind so I can prevent things like this happening since I am always mobile with this device and could use the extra durability.

So I pull out my thumb drive which contains Bart PE which I installed a while back in case something like this happens to any of my computers. As long as you can boot from the USB port, you can run this slimmed down version of Windows for diagnostics, testing, and recovery purposes. I basically wanted to check if my C:\ drive was intact so I could go on to the next step. Bart PE is great in that you can also get a network connection and backup the contents of your drive if you computer doesn’t want to boot up.

It turns out my harddrive was fine. Within Bart PE, I could see the entire contents of my drive and ran chkdsk which showed everything looked ok.

Then I remember the last thing I did. I put the U810 into hibernate mode. Ok, this told me the master boot record (MBR) was screwed. I have a dual-boot set up of Windows XP and Ubuntu and have GRUB as the bootloader. So somehow hibernating screwed up the MBR and left me with an unbootable machine.

So I began searching around for a Windows XP install CD. I did not have one. The usual solution for fixing the MBR is running a boot disk or Windows XP install CD, going to the recovery console, and running  fixmbr in the command prompt.

I searched around and found that the Ultimate Boot CD contained some utilities to recover the MBR. I downloaded the ISO and burned a CD with the MacBook. After connecting an external CD drive to the U810, I booted the CD to see if I can fix this thing. To say the least, trying to find a utility that worked was frustrating. Some of the utilities ran a virtual machine and left you with a DOS prompt without telling you the name of the .exe file to run. I ran several boot managers from the CD and successfully booted into XP, but couldn’t figure out how to fix the MBR with the boot loaders. At least I could get XP going, but there’s no way I’m going to carry around an external drive just to get it to boot.

After about an hour, I found partition application that successfully restored the MBR and used the XP partition as the default boot partition.

The next thing I did was wipe out the Ubuntu partitions, install Partition Magic, and resize the XP partition to use the cleared up space. I didn’t use Ubuntu much anyway. If I ever need to screw around with distros, I’ll go back to using VMWare.

So… phew.. damn I’m glad I didn’t have to reinstall the OS or replace my drive. Bart PE and Ultimate Boot CD saved my ass and prevented me from considering trying out Vista again.

I ordered some accessories last week for the Fujitsu U810 from the Fujitsu store.

One of the items was the docking station.  I finally brought it in to work today and took some snapshots with the iPhone.

On the back are 3 USB ports, VGA, LAN, and power.  The right side includes an additional USB port to make it 4 total.

There’s not much to it.  The piece of metal in the back slides in to make it more portable.  It works fine and will make it much easier to set up at my second location.

Panasonic unveiled a rugged UMPC at CeBit.  Based on Intel’s Atom (Silverthorne), it has a 5.6″ touchscreen and is water, dust, and shock proof.

I’ll assume this is not cheap since it’s under the Toughbook line.  This should be aimed to field workers.

Panasonic Also has an Atom Powered UMPC! : Akihabara News .com