Honda on Wednesday unveiled the U3-X, a stool with a unique directional wheel system that allows it to travel diagonally, as well as right, left, forward, and backward.
It's basically a robotic unicycle.
The device is able to readjust itself so that instead of riders having to constantly balance themselves, the robotic unicycle does the compensating.
Honda pointed out in its unveiling video that the U3-X's seat is slightly higher than an average person's waistline, forcing riders to jump up slightly to sit on it and place their feet on a foot rest. This elevated height of the robotic unicycle leaves riders at relative eye level with passing pedestrians while in motion, according to Honda.
It's a nice touch. A common complaint among people in wheelchairs are the social and psychological effects of literally being looked down upon while traveling the world in a sitting position. But requiring the rider to be able to hold upright while on a backless seat clearly disqualifies the U3-X as a wheelchair substitute for many.
And in this age of rising obesity, who among the fitness-conscious is really going to ride the streets on a robotic stool when they can get a little chance at some exercise during their busy day by walking?
It's just one of those things you know no one is really going to buy. So why, then, did Honda unveil the U3-X robotic unicycle?
... Read moreSTUTTGART, Germany--Earlier Wednesday, we told you about the X3 and the X6, two high-end music phones announced by Nokia at the Nokia World Conference here.
The non-3G slider, the X3, is the first S40 device with Ovi Store enabled and comes bundled with the portable MD-9 mini speaker in selected markets. The higher-end X6 phone has a 3.2-inch capacitive touch-screen glass display and will be available only with the Comes With Music service. Watch a video introduction to the X6 below.
(Source: Crave Asia)
SideWinder X3 Mouse
(Credit: Microsoft)Microsoft just announced a new addition to its SideWinder line of performance peripherals, introducing the SideWinder X3 mouse, a gaming powerhouse that should give the older SideWinder X5 a run for its money. We weren't very thrilled with the X5's $60 price tag or its flimsy build, but the X3 comes with a cheaper price tag ($40) and offers new features including new button placement and a smaller, ambidextrous shape.
Like its sibling, the new X3 features a 2,000 dpi laser sensor with variable sensitivity, five programmable main buttons, and USB connectivity, but this new version is a bit smaller and adds a single button on each side of the mouse for added gameplay versatility. As an added bonus, Microsoft also made the X3 ambidextrous for all the left-handed gamers.
The Microsoft SideWinder X3 Mouse will hit stores in May for $40, but pre-sale orders are available now on Amazon.com if you can't wait. One more pic after the jump.
(Source: Microsoft via Gizmodo)
... Read more
Apple Aperture in action.
(Credit: Apple)LAS VEGAS--Apple on Monday added support in its software for raw image files from Nikon's top-end SLR, the $8,000, 24.5-megapixel D3X.
Apple's Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.5 also adds support for Epson's Epson R-D1x digital rangefinder camera, according to the Apple support page.
The software enables Aperture 2, iPhoto '08, and iPhoto '09 to interpret the cameras' raw files, proprietary formats that include more information than JPEGs. The update requires Mac OS X 10.4.11, Mac OS X 10.5.3, or later.
A full list of Apple's raw image support is available on Apple's support site.
Aperture's competitor, Adobe Systems' Photoshop Lightroom, also got D3X support Monday, which is eve of the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) show here.
(Via Rob Galbraith.)
Nikon's D3X is now supported by Adobe Lightroom.
(Credit: Nikon)LAS VEGAS--Adobe Systems has released the final version of Lightroom 2.3, its photo-editing and cataloging software, along with its close relative, the Camera Raw 5.3 plug-in to let Photoshop CS4 edit raw images from higher-end cameras.
The new software (available as a download for Windows and Mac OS X) supports Nikon's top-end D3X, an $8,000, 24.5-megapixel machine whose owners likely will usually prefer raw files for their flexibility and quality advantages over JPEG. Also supported is Olympus' new midrange E-30.
The Lightroom 2.3 update also fixed a number of bugs and adds support for eight new languages: Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Korean, and simplified and traditional Chinese. Adobe made the announcement Monday just as the Photo Marketing Show (PMA) was getting under way here.
The Camera Raw software works with Adobe's flagship CS4 version of Photoshop, but also with the consumer-oriented Photoshop Elements 7, Premiere Elements 7 for video editing, and Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac OS X.
Nikon D3X
(Credit: Nikon USA)Adobe Systems on Friday issued near-final release candidate versions of Lightroom 2.3 and the Camera Raw 5.3 Photoshop plug-in, software that can support Nikon's new top-end, $8,000, 24.5-megapixel D3X camera and Olympus' mid-range, $1,299, 12.3-megapixel E-30.
According to the release notes, the new Lightroom version also fixes a few bugs: a memory leak that could crash the software while people were making local editing adjustments to photos, a processing error handling smaller sRAW photos from the Canon 5D Mark II, a slideshow glitch, and problems uploading and burning files to discs.
Lightroom is designed for editing, labeling, and cataloging photos--in particular, the flexible but non-standard raw files from higher-end cameras. Adobe Camera Raw is used to handle raw files in the more general-purpose Photoshop software, letting people convert them into JPEG, TIF, or other more portable formats.
... Read moreThere's something of a cottage industry on the Internet of making parodies through artful subtitles of Der Untergang, a movie about the last throes of the Third Reich. And now there's one that takes on Nikon's D3X, the company's new $8,000, 24.5-megapixel SLR.
The subtitles depict Adolf Hitler coming to terms with the arrival of Sony's Alpha A900. One amusing moment comes when a minion listening to Hitler's rant comforts a weeping colleague, "There, there, I hear he shoots only JPEG." (In case the humor is lost on you, that's a jab at pixel-peeping camera snobs such as myself who prefer to shoot raw images.)
According to The Online Photographer, where I spotted the video Tuesday, the parody is by Nikon D3 photographer Samuel Vert.
The Nikon D3X's body is identical to the D3.
(Credit: Nikon USA)Though almost everything you need to know about the new Nikon D3X leaked Friday, the 24.5-megapixel dSLR Nikon dubs its "extreme professional" model formally debuts today, November 30. What didn't leak was the price: $7,999.95. Start saving your pennies now.
There's quite a bit of speculation as to how similar the sensor in the D3X is to that in the Sony Alpha DSLR-A900; Nikon says it's "a Nikon designed sensor" that may (or may not) be manufactured by Sony, which usually means they're pretty similar. However, the A900's sensor has a pixel pitch of 5.9 microns, while Nikon's is surprisingly smaller--5.49 microns. So, they're pretty much different sensors, with different performance characteristics. The D3X's sensitivity range runs from ISO 100 to ISO 1600, with a Lo 1 of ISO 50 and Hi 1 and 2 of ISO 3200 and ISO 6400. The camera will also offer a 5:4 (8x10) crop mode at 20.4 megapixels, along with the same 10.5-megapixel DX crop mode as the D3, and support.
With all that extra data to process, it's no surprise that the D3X isn't quite the speed demon the D3 is for burst shooting, though 5 frames per second at full resolution is certainly zippy enough for most. (Nikon didn't provide info on the number of frames, however.)
The rest--body, AF system, viewfinder, and Expeed image processor--is all identical to the D3, and Nikon claims you should expect similar performance. It's also compatible with the D3's accessories.
Pitting the D3X against the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III when the Nikon becomes available in late December will certainly make my cold winter days a little more interesting.
On Sale Now: $7,499.00 - $7,999.95
View the latest prices for Nikon D3X (body)
The D3X as it appears in Nikon Pro.
(Credit: Nikonrumors.com from Nikon Pro magazine)Thanks to a campaign of print BIG teaser ads (which may not even have been about this camera, but sparked the hunt for info) and a premature posting on Nikon's Web site, in addition to the usual Web rumormongerings, the Nikon D3x will probably go down as the worst kept digital camera launch secret of 2008. So it's not surprising that readers of the European Nikon Pro magazine were treated this morning to a premature disclosure about the Nikon D3X.
According to the page scans posted on Nikon Rumors (from Seb Rogers blog), the D3X has a 24.5-megapixel FX-format sensor covering ISO 50-6400, and a burst speed of 5fps (7fps in DX crop mode). It looks identical to the D3, and uses the same 51-point AF system.
No information on price or availability, though, so you'll have to stay tuned.
(Via Rob Galbraith DPI)
You will be missed.
My friends often show concern about being obsolete when I tell them to stay with Windows XP and skip Windows Vista entirely. Little do they know, a lot of people are still actually using Windows 3.x. And for those, I have some bad news.
According to BBC, Microsoft finally decided to stop selling licenses of Windows 3.x, starting this month.
The third major release of Windows first came out in May 1990 with a few minor releases in the early 1990s. It was Microsoft's first big success with operating systems that have graphical user interfaces.
Windows 3.x is actually just a software application that runs in MS-DOS environment. However, thanks to its rich graphics and the ability to multitask, it completely changed the way people interact with computers.
Microsoft stopped its support for Windows 3.x at the end of 2001 but left it as an embedded operating system until now.
I personally have a lot of good memories of Windows 3.11 on my 386 computer and really enjoyed its ability to display 256 colors on a 1,024x768 screen resolution.
While this is rather sad news, considering that it is a 16-bit operating system that can address just a little more than 640KB of RAM and is definitely not secure enough for the Internet, it's probably time for you to upgrade.
