Archive for the 'Tech to watch' Category

Apple iPhone, SolidWorks 2009 Beta, It’s All Crazy *Updated*

Published
by
Josh
on June 9, 2008
in Tech to watch
. Comments

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Right now, everything is in this amazing state of flux. The Apple WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) is kicking off (10AM PST) on the WestCoast and on the East Coast SolidWorks 2009 Beta may be announce (12AM EST). It’s just about more than someone interested in new technology can handle.

These two things are obviously not even related, although I’m sure there are some that wish it was. A couple years ago maybe, when the eDrawings Viewer was announce to be compatible with Macs.

So far, there’s no rumors of anything going on between SolidWorks and Apple. Maybe something about 3D. We’ll see though and I’ll mention it for sure. I can just imagine if Beta was announced that included a beta for Mac. I wouldn’t car to use SolidWorks on a Mac myself, but man, would that ignite some fires.

Get in on the Action
Realtime WWDC Coverage
SolidWorks Customer Portal

UPDATE:
Apple News: The 3G Apple iPhone is now available - 8GB/$199 - 16GB/$299
SolidWorks News: The SolidWorks Beta Site is down. Nothing has shown up on the Customer Portal.

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Killer 3D Performance With AMD Turion X2 Ultra?

Published
by
Josh
on June 5, 2008
in Tech to watch
. Comments

AMD has just been making all sorts of Duo-core, 64-bit waves with their new mobile ‘Puma’ platform release yesterday. There’s a lot of news, but not much meat about what this chipset will do for mobile computing or 3D, so here’s some key points to start a discussion.

Maybe some others, more hardware savvy than I, can give their opinion on how AMD’s technology will make 3D CAD programs like SolidWorks perform better. Some seem to think these new platforms will have the performance of a Mac within a PC with phenomenal HD.

AMD says its chipsets deliver three times better 3-D performance and five times better high-definition image quality than competing models because of the strength of its integrated graphics. Foxnews

Here’s the highlights. What do you think?

Single Source CPU Platform - Processor (Turion X2 Ultra 64), GPU (ATI Radeon), bus interface (AMD’s M780G), and SB700 South Bridge connected via AMD’s Hypertransport 3 bus.
Hybrid Graphics support - Can accept integrated, discreet or combination. Discreet GPU’s render graphics from dedicated video RAM, which helps system performance.
Enhanced HD - MPEG2, H.264, and VC1 playback, lower power/lower noise levels, HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort support.
Many OEM’s on board - HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, and Toshiba’s Satellite Series. They’ll start showing up next week.

Via Engadget, InfoWorld, DigitalHomeThoughts

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The Ultimate Desktop Engineer’s Chair

Published
by
Josh
on May 30, 2008
in Product Design and Tech to watch
. Comments

Before you run out to get one of those rubber balls to sit on, take a look at this concept fro Jian Guan that will have your deep-vein thrombosis taking a long clot-free vacation to the island of comfy-chair bliss.

The SmartChair, aptly named, provides a biofeedback system that senses your movement and adjust the padding to provide the most focus-enhancing comfort a desk-jockey could ask for in a chair. No more getting on your knees to adjust the angle and height. All the controls are completely accessible from an on-board touch-screen that allows you to pitch, roll, rock and flatten through endless hours of tedious work.

Price? The Herman Miller Aeron chairs still ranges around $800 US, so you can imagine the SmartChair wouldn’t be the cheapest item in your office. However, once something like this is available, the temptation of ultimate comfort will make that extra laser printer or rude employee seem… not so valuable.

Jian Guan via Coolest Gadgets

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Two Crazy Cool Spreadable, Flexible Display Technologies

Published
by
Josh
on May 16, 2008
in Tech to watch
. Comments

flexible plasma screensAs if Multi-touch technology wasn’t enough to make you sing and dance through the forest of TechBlogs, two developers have been working with Plasma and OLED technology to make whatever displays will be in the future thinner, more flexible… and yes, spreadable.

Flexible Plasma monitor
Shinoda Plasma has create a supper-thin (1 mil), super-flexible (wrap-around) plasma tube array (PTA) that measure at 1 x 1 meter each. They can be linked together to form long screen and they’re working on larger ones. The current resolution is crap-errific, but it’s as light as a 8 lb hamburger. Of course the only thing people can talk about using this for are signs and advertising. puh-lease! There’s other people out there that use monitors!

Spreadable OLED
No good photos here, but imagine accidently spreading some organic light-emitting diodes on your toast. yum. What’s super rockin’ about this is the same technology can be used for solar panels. So, you basically a mobile phone shell could be infused with a self-powered, self-lighting gel. Same with you monitor, watch, lawnmower, etc. Fixed screen OLED Monitors should be out more near 2009 (Sony has one now). Psst… they use a lot less power and have a glorious 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio, but are dang pricey now. It’s sad though, the spread-tech is still about two-years out for prototypes.

Via TechNews and PinkTentacle

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Microsoft Reveals the TouchWall; CAD Will Never Be the Same

Published
by
Josh
on May 15, 2008
in Tech to watch
. Comments

microsoft demos multi-touch technologyWhile Micorsoft’s Surface is kinda cool, but also like the Pac-man console at that pizza place, the newly debut Microsoft Touchwall puts it all in perspective and drops an ax on what it would take to get multi-touch technology into your tech-grubby hands.

All this uses is a couple hundred bucks of readily-available, rear-projection hardware and the software technology called “Plex” that runs on top of Vista.

Before you run out and get a Vista tattoo though, you should know this isn’t commercially available yet and Microsoft doesn’t have any plans to make it so, until they realize how stupid that is.

CAD will never be the same
One of the first thoughts when someone sees this is how cool it will be for gaming. Fact is, it will be cool for a lot of applications. In my opinion, multi-touch and display technology has the greatest affect on how traditional CAD programs, user interaction and design functions will change. I say Microsoft needs to Open Source this software and let everyone go buckwild with development.

Get to the video already right?

Via Techcrunch

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What Does a LARGE 3D Interface Look Like?

Published
by
Josh
on May 7, 2008
in Tech to watch
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It looks like something that doesn’t exist except in the movies. Since the Ironman Movie launched last week I’ve been trying to get my hands on some video of the stinkin’ cool 3D holo-CAD user interface he uses to design the MarkIII he goes kickin’ butt in.

If you’ve seen the movie you already know what I’m talking about and are wondering what the heck is taking CAD companies so long to make a system that only traumatized alcoholic millionaires can afford. The best I can do is give you a link to a video of the UI (that might be infringing on copyright laws.)

What do you think?
Is this too far off? Whoever thought of this had some idea of how things are designed and what goes into the process of how CAD systems work. You can see Tony Stark interacting with the holographic objects - moving, exploding, rotating, touching and testing out the design with his hands. Some would say it’s unrealistic. Where’s the history? the parametrics? where’s the commands? Maybe it will be none of those things or maybe it’s something cooler. The way technology looked on star trek isn’t exactly the way it looks today ya know.

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What Does a Tiny 3D Interface Look Like?

Published
by
Josh
on May 7, 2008
in Tech to watch
. Comments

It looks like a pre-programmed bunch of flippy things making your phone look cooler than those plain jane iPhones, that’s what it looks like.

The HTC Touch Diamond is the next amazing 3D interface stuffed into a tiny 2.8 inch display to make you strap that drool-cup on again. Sure its tiny, but you can make all your 2D friends that much more removed from reality.

All you cool European folk can run out and get one now, the rest of us will have to wait till the last part of 2008 to gaze into the Windows Mobile® 6.1′in, Integrated GPS’in, 4 GB Internal Storin’, 3.2 MP shootin’ touch phone. There’s a cool video if ya click on the pic.

Via ZDNet

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How Microsoft’s Live Mesh Will Affect 3D CAD

Published
by
Josh
on April 24, 2008
in Tech to watch
. Comments

microsoft-live-mesh.jpgLast night at 11 PM CST Microsoft let loose the fetters of Live Mesh, a new platform technology to synchronize and interact with data across any device and access it from anywhere from any computer or browser.

Oh, but it’s so much more and it could, and I think will, affect how you work with CAD in ways you may not realize.
Continue reading ‘How Microsoft’s Live Mesh Will Affect 3D CAD’

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Faster Than Lightning Chips To Store and Access 3D CAD Data

Published
by
Josh
on April 14, 2008
in Tech to watch
. Comments

japanese-hurdlejump.jpgYep, faster than blindfolded Japanese hurdle jumpers for sure. You may think your 8GB flash memory thumbdrive is all that. Sure, it’s tiny and cute and degrades slowly over time, but how about some memory that will store and access information over 100 times faster and not degrade?

IBM’s Racetrack memory has been buzzing around for about a year now, but some events last week broke the research barriers that could have this tempting your zombie tech-consumers lusts within the next ten years.

Knocking Down the Walls
To totally geek out on you, IBM has been able to dance gingerly around the inconsistencies in the crystalline structure of magnetic nano-wires to allow magnetic domains to read/write data unhindered. Fascinating. This means some fast data accessin’ power son. An explanatory video? Sure, see below.

Faster Load Times For 3D CAD?
You all know load 3D data can take an eternity sometimes. If it’s not the network, it’s the size of the model. If it’s not the model, its your fist in the computer screen. Its hard to even comprehend not having to wait for load times huh? Since no load times leads to more free time, models and data will become so complex and realistic that there will still be load times. Here’s that video.

Via TimesOnline

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Cemaphore Solves Gmail Outlook Syncronization

Published
by
Josh
on April 1, 2008
in Tech to watch
. Comments

gmail-google-sync.jpgOk, enough of the silly posts. Time for something seriously cool and real. If you use Gmail, it’s an absolute pain to have it synced with Outlook. On top of that, if you use Plaxo and have all your other email accounts synced with Outlook, your Gmail account is an abyss of random email addresses and calendar entries.

Cemaphore is changing that with MailShadow® for Google Apps that ties Outlook and Exchange Server to the Google backend, giving you seamless interoperability with your offline and online email and calendar management.

This is big news and badly needed. My Gmail is like the missing link for contacts and calendar even though I manage all my emails from it.

MailShadow is in private beta right now but you can learn more and sign up at the Cemaphore site. Here’s the demo that Scoble caught earlier today.

Via Scobleizer

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