Driving a BMW remotely with a Nokia C7 makes you a real-life James Bond

I remember seeing James Bond remote-control a BMW with his phone in Tomorrow Never Dies. Pure fantasy, right? Except, two guys did pretty much the same using a Nokia C7…

It took them 20 days of coding and 7 demo tests on toys and home appliances but they did it – they’ve got a BMW 1 Series car driven remotely using a Nokia C7 with touchscreen controls. Check out the video, which shows some of their early tests, fitting the car with the control mechanisms and finally, driving it from a distance.



Before getting to work on the car itself, the guys tested their tech on an air conditioner among other things, and we gotta say that seems to have more practical value, not to mention it’s a lot safer.
Now the adventurous duo have their eyes on an airplane. Sky is the limit, as some say…
Anyway, we’ve been seeing several smartphone apps from car makers and phone/in-car entertainment system integration (like Nokia’s Terminal Mode). Do you think this could be the next big thing?

Intel starts 2011 with a bang: 29 new Sandy Bridge CPUs are here

Intel used the first workday of 2011 to announce a fresh lineup of Core processors. The second generation of i3, i5 and i7 chips uses the Sandy Bridge architecture and so far includes no less than 29 CPUs.

All the new Intel processors are based on 32nm manufacturing process and boast improved performance plus better power efficiency. And it’s not just the reduced-size instructions that lead to it – according to Intel it’s also due to the L3 cache, which is now shared between all cores.
The new CPUs come with built-in HD 2000/3000 graphics that promise a 2x improvement in performance compared to their predecessor. That’s still not matching a discrete GPU, but it’s not like everyone actually needs so much graphics power. Early reviews say that the new Intel graphics are even good enough for gaming if you can live with the lowest detail settings.
The Turbo boost technology was also improved in the latest generation of Intel chips. It now allows for even higher clock speeds. For example the 2.8 GHz Core i7-2600S can reach 3.8 GHz with Turbo Boost, which is downright impressive.

If you are looking to upgrade your desktop PC or laptop in 2011 you obviously have quite a lot to look forward to. Intel promises over 500 systems based on the new chips to appear this year so you can bet choice won’t be limited.

Samsung finishes the development of the world’s first DDR4 DRAM

Although DDR4 DRAM is not expected to be in anyone’s computer system until the beginning of 2012, Samsung is already done developing it. The new DDR4 modules will not only be faster than their DDR3 predecessor, but they are going to run using less power as well.

In order to accomplish the lower power consumption of the modules, Samsung is using the 30nm-class process technology.

Now you may be wondering how much faster the new DRAM is compared to the current DDR3. We can’t know for sure, until the production of actual units starts, but here are some initial figures for you. The speed of data transfers that DDR4 DRAM can achieve is 2.133Gbps (gigabits per second) at 1.2V, compared to the DDR3 DRAM, which can only pump out 1.6Gbps at either 1.35V or 1.5V.
The modules make use of a new circuit architecture, which helps them make the jump from 1.6Gbps all the way up to 3.2Gbps. This is tremendous improvement compared to the usual speeds of 1.6Gbps and 800Mbps for DDR3 and DDR2 DRAM respectively. In addition, when used in notebooks, the new DDR4 DRAM is expected to be 40% more energy efficient than the commonly used 1.5V DDR3 modules.

KFA2 launches the GTX 460 WHDI – the first wireless video card

You didn’t see that coming did you? KFA2 has launched world’s first video card capable of wirelessly transmitting raw, uncompressed 1080P, 60Hz signal to the included WHDI receiver.

The wireless signal can be transmitted up to 30 meters (100 feet) even through walls and obstacles so you don’t need to worry about putting your PC in another room. This is quite useful if you want to put the PC away from your HDTV or monitor for whatever reason, and I am pretty sure you can find one one.
KFA2 NVIDIA GTX460 WHDI is just an ordinary GTX 460 but with wireless antennas. It features 1024 MB of RAM, 256-bit memory interface and a processor clocked at 1.35Ghz.

Next-gen Microsoft Surface gets revealed at CES 2011, makes your jaw drop

You remember Microsoft Surface when it was first showed to the public almost three years ago, right? Well, at this year’s CES Microsoft revealed their latest generation of the magic touch table.

This time they have cooperated with Samsung to create a truly impressive user experience, and although Microsoft claim it’s cheaper than the original and if you badly want one it’s going to set you back $7,600.
The Surface 2.0 is greatly improved than it’s predecessor. First of all, it’s thinner than the original, the computer part of it being only four inches thick. In it there’s a full-power PC with an AMD graphics chip and a dual-core processor, again from AMD, running Windows 7. Unlike the first generation of Surfaces that had cameras in them to track your movements and react correspondingly, the new version technology, relying on infrared, called PixelSense. In essence each and every pixel on the screen is acting as a camera and reads what’s going on the screen.
Imagine this technology in next generation tablets and smartphones. Oh, boy, is the future exciting or what! There you go, check the coolness of the Surface v2.0 in action in the following video.

Dual-core Motorola DROID BIONIC coming soon on Verizon USA

It was just yesterday that we met the Tegra2-powered Motorola Atrix 4G headed for AT&T. Today Motorola has announced another powerful Droid, this time for Verizon.

DROID BIONIC is also based on the Tegra2 platform and utilizes a dual-core 1GHz processor, but it packs “only” 512MB RAM.
The rest of the specs include a 4.3-inch qHD (540×960 pixels) capacitive touchscreen, an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and 1080p video recording, Wi-Fi b/g/n, 4G LTE support, GPS, HDMI port, 3.5mm audio jack and microSD card slot.

Motorola DROID BIONIC runs on the latest Android v2.3 Gingerbread and is expected to hit the Verizon stores in the end of Q1 this year.

Microsoft announces Touch Mouse, it’s like a Magic Mouse for PC

I was sure it was only a matter of time before Microsoft launches a full-touch mouse similar to Apple’s Magic Mouse. And the time has come – meet the Touch Mouse.

It’s not as compact as the Arc Touch Mouse, but supports various gestures thanks to its multi-touch capabilities.
The gestures are quite similar to those on the Apple’s pointing device – you can pinch-zoom, bring the desktop/task manager with three-finger scroll, move through different windows with two-finger gestures or use your thumb to go back/forward.
Here is a live video how it works:

The Touch Mouse sounds as cool as the Magic Mouse, but I hope Microsoft will do a better job than Apple. I’ve used the Magic Mouse for a while and despite its helpful gestures, it was terrible in recognizing the right-button click. In order to do it right, I had to rest only one of my fingers at time on the mouse, while the others had to stay in the air. Very inconvenient indeed.
Microsoft Touch Mouse is already available on pre-order for $80 and will be released in May. It will be compatible only with Windows 7 (and above) and comes with a standalone 2.4GHz USB receiver (sorry, no Bluetooth).
If you want to see more videos you can go to the official Microsoft Touch Mouse website. You’ll need Silverlight though.

Two new watches launched at CES from Nike and Casio help you stay fit and connected

Nike and Casio demonstrated at CES 2011 their new watches aimed to make life a little bit easier on you. Prices and availability is still unknown, but they should surface soon enough.

With the help of TomTom navigation technology, Nike+ SportWatch GPS helps you track the calories you burn, how much time you’ve run, your location, heartbeat rate and also, well, shows you the time. The onboard memory module in the form of a USB dongle can save up to 50 different workouts and lets you upload them to Nike’s online community. Tapping the display tells the clock whether to start or end a run, which is great because you don’t have to search for a button or anything. Here’s Nike+ SportWatch GPS video ad.

As for Casio, the company has just released an interesting watch that let’s you operate your phone via Bluetooth from the clock’s interface. Stopping an alarm, declining a phone call and checking for unread emails are some of the key features of the otherwise still nameless prototype. It’s battery though is not swappable so if Bluetooth is turned on for 12 hours a day, it’ll serve you for about 2 years.

Dell introduces the 4G-enabled Streak 7 tablet at CES, teases the Streak 10 too

Let’s give a warm welcome to the Dell Streak 7. The follow-up to the original 5-inch-screen Streak features a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor ticking at 1Ghz. The device will be running on Android 2.2 Froyo with Dell’s custom Stage interface, until Honeycomb is launched later this year when it will be updated.

As the name suggests, the Streak 7 packs a 7” capacitive multi-touch display with WVGA resolution of 800×480 and Gorilla Glass for protection. Weighing about 450 grams, the tablet features up to 32GB of internal storage expandable via a MicroSD card slot, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and GPS. Standard front and rear cameras are on board, 1.3 MP and 5MP auto focus with flash with respectively.

T-Mobile will launch the slate on its “HSPA+42” network in the coming weeks, although it’s still a mystery when exactly and how much it’s going to cost you is still a mystery.
After the Streak 7 was presented, on the stage appeared its bigger brother, the Dell Streak 10. The 10-inch tablet is targeted mostly towards business users and will feature built-in VPN support. Expect more news on the device soon.