Each month we put together a list of the technology and trends that have made us sit up and take notice.
Robot chauffeurs
Would you like a robot to drive you to work and do the parking? Team Lux, plucky German entrants in the DARPA (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge 2007 look very close to realising the dream of a Robot Robbie who can take care of the tiresome chore of driving in urban areas. Distinct from the previous “Grand Challenge” which took place on dirt tracks, this new robot-driver challenge requires the robotic ‘driver’ to heed speed limits, obey traffic signs, stay in the correct lane, and dodge moving traffic. Having converted a Volkswagen Passat, the robotics are totally integrated, thereby freeing up the driver’s seat.
www.team-lux.com
www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge
Apple in your TV
If you have a high definition TV, it’s worth considering the Apple TV, which allows easy streaming of content from the Apple’s iTunes application. With a 40GB hard drive, dinky remote control, 802.11n Wi-Fi support, HDMI and component inputs, the only thing it can’t do is record free-to-air digital TV. The appeal of this device would be greatly amplified if US TV episodes were available in Australia via iTunes, but as Steve Jobs famously said, “I don’t see that as a problem.”
GPS in your phone
The Nokia 6110 Navigator is a GPS-enabled phone from the company with the world’s best user interfaces. GPS models from other providers have been slow to take off, but we expect this model from the industry standard phone maker will kick off widespread adoption of phone-integrated GPS, using technology by Navteq.
www.nokia.com.au
Volcano cooling
Sometimes, standard cooling fans and heatsinks just aren’t good enough if you want to push the speed of your CPU or graphics to the limits. This is where the Thermaltake Volcano V1 CPU cooler comes in. With 630 grams of copper and a fan speed of 2000 RPM, it takes the heat out of overclocking.
www.anyware.com.au
Track your posessions
Along the lines of the maritime “Shiploc” systems that track hijacked ocean liners, the AGT-100D is a GPS tracking bug for locating anything that might suddenly go missing. It’s water and dust resistant, and you can establish remote control via a web service application - but sadly you’d have to do that integration work yourself.
www.anydata.com/products/agt100d.html
Most wanted
HOT: 802.11n Wi-Fi Draft 2.0
The ongoing, years-old saga of the new Wi-Fi draft’s ratification by the IEEE 802.11 Working Group has taken a step forward with their approval of draft 2.0 of the standard. During the voting process, apparently over 3000 comments were received, but despite the hellish bureaucracy, it appears that the final 3.0 draft will be all but rubber-stamped on its way out the door, suffering only minor final revisions. The process has apparently been stuck in the mud in recent times due to the lack of a clear leading organisation to put energy and resources into driving development forward.
NOT: Putting Vista to sleep
The unfortunate tendency of early Windows Vista retail code to crash drastically when putting machines into sleep mode has caused no end of consternation (and data loss) around the world, including in the PC Authority Labs. Pressing the sleep button seemed to have the same effect as injecting a small pekinese with around 500ml of vodka – they’d flatline, go quiet, and slide into the ‘big sleep’, ignoring all prompts to action. Although there were some compatibility issues with certain RAM, waking the systems up caused some of the most comprehensive fragging of Windows installations that we’ve ever seen. According to online site Neosmart, the majority of show-stopping Vista sleep bugs will be ironed out with the release of Vista Service Pack 1.