![[Electronix Express Logo]](http://www.elexp.com/buttons/exp_sml.gif){kind=small}
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
To Alpha. Index
To Manuf. Index
To Category Index
Part No. Index
WEB SPECIALS
NEW PRODUCTS
VIEW CART
STORIES
|
|
|||||||
The plastic substrate that is thinner, lighter and more durable than conventional LCD glass panels will maintain a constant thickness even when it is bent.
The display is intended for use in notebook computers, cell phones and it could even be included in clothes for wearable advertising panels. Samsung claimed it has overcome several problems with processing to make the plastic substrate practical. A low-temperature processing technique that Samsung has developed is used to manufacture the display's amorphous thin-film transistors, color filters and liquid crystals at process temperatures much lower than standard glass-based, amorphous silicon (a-Si) technology.
The GSMA (Global System for Mobile communications Association) announced in July a highly publicized contest to develop a less-than-$30 mobile phone. Motorola won Phase One of the contest with its model C113a handset due out in the first quarter of 2006.
The C113a promises 340 to 700 minutes of talk time and 175 to 450 hours of standby time on a single full charge The GSMA estimates that a low-cost handset could add 1 billion more users to the 1.5 billion GSM users worldwide today. Four-fifths of the world's population lives within reach of a cellular network, but only 25% tap into it; hence, the drive for the low-cost phone. Only Nokia and Motorola have come out strong in this competition. The less-than-$30 phone is the easy part of providing mobile-phone service to developing nations. However the real challenge is building the mobile infrastructure that can get the monthly bill down to $5 to $7.
The other effort to serve cost-constrained sectors, such as education and developing countries, is the $100, Linux-based laptop under development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab . The only thing it can't do that a $1000 laptop can is store massive amounts of data, according to MIT. Specs include USB ports, WiFi, and a 500-MHz to 1-GHz processor. Its answer to scarce electricity sources is a built-in hand-cranked charging unit.
MIT plans to market the $100 laptop to ministries of education under the "One Laptop per Child" program and says shipping will begin as early as next year once the lab receives 5 million to 10 million paid orders. MIT officials claim that they've held discussions to place orders with Brazil, China, Thailand, and Egypt.
This Design Idea extends an earlier one by describing a muscle-power-driven capacitor charger. The combination of a muscle-powered electrical generator and a high-value capacitor provides a highly autonomous and environmentally clean power approach for emergency equipment and survival kits. Applications of such an alternative "renewable" energy source span a range of modern portable electrical and electronic devices, including cellular phones, MP3 players, AM/FM radios, PDAs, handheld PCs, and flashlights.
A muscle-powered capacitor charger contains only a few components: a storage capacitor, a bridge rectifier, and a voltage-limiting zener diode that protects the capacitor from excessive voltages. For practical energy-storage experiments, you can use 1 or 0.47F capacitors with 5.5V maximum ratings, such as those available from NEC-Tokin America. For more storage, you can use higher capacitance capacitors, such as Elna's 100F, 2.5V Dynacaps. You can remove the lamp from an inexpensive, hand-powered flashlight and use its generator as a capacitor charge. Also, a variety of manually powered products now appearing on the market offer possibilities for experimentation. For higher outputs, you can use a stationary-bicycle-powered generator. Depending on the individual providing pedaling power, these generators can deliver average powers ranging from 20 to 100W. Thus, the following equation calculates the energy, E, stored in the capacitor of value C: E=1/2CxVMAX2=12.5J, and the following equation calculates the average maximum muscle-generated electrical power over time, T: TMAX=E/T=12.5/10=1.25W.
IPods ruled the holiday season in Electronics, owning the top three slots - the Apple 3GB iPod Nano (black), the Apple 30 GB iPod with Video Playback (black), and the Apple 512 MB iPod Shuffle were the top sellers. Video game hardware was also hot with Game Boy Advance SP in Pearl Blue, the Sony PlayStation Portable Value Pack, and the Electric Blue Nintendo DS leading the pack.
Video games were also popular this year, according to Amazon, which said that top sellers were Mario Party 7 for Game Cube, Sid Meier's Civilization IV for PCs and Microsoft's Age of Empires 3 for PCs. Amazon said in a statement following the Christmas holiday that it had enjoyed its most successful holiday season ever, as measured by sales from Nov. 25 through Dec. 22.
A larger number of men surf the Internet for pleasure, with 70 percent acknowledging they go online to pass time, compared with 63 percent of women. Men are more likely than women to listen to music, view Webcams and pay for digital content.
But women are catching up in several areas measured by the survey, and intensive use by younger women suggests some of the gaps will continue to narrow.
The latest wave includes MP3 players like iPods -- popular with everyone from the kid next door to President Bush -- high-definition television and digital video recorders like TiVo.
The bill for being thoroughly plugged in to entertainment and communications runs more than $200 a month for a third of the households in this country. Four in 10 spend between $100 and $150 a month, according to the poll of 1,006 adults taken December 13-15. Almost half of personal computer owners say they can't imagine life without their computers. About as many cell phone owners say the same thing about their portable phones.
The intense loyalty to high-speed Internet is a sign that people are getting hooked on newer technology. Almost four in 10 people with high-speed Internet say they consider it essential. About two in 10 feel that way about their DVD players, digital cable and CD players
In 2009, camera-equipped cellular phones are forecast to represent almost three-fourths of the total handset market globally, up from about 45 percent in 2005. Nokia alone is expected to ship over 100 million camera-equipped handsets this year. Moreover, the quality of the camera in the cellular handset is increasing dramatically, according to the market researcher.
NaturalNano says that by filling Halloysite tubes with copper and then mixing the tubes into a polymer, a manufacturer could make an electrically conductive plastic. If filled with fungicides, the Halloysite particles--which consist of aluminum, oxygen, silicon and hydrogen--could be swirled into paint to make it more resistant to mildew and mold. Time-released coatings could also be added to make all-day deodorant. The tubes could even have agricultural uses.
Nanotechnology involves building products or enhancing existing products with designer molecules that measure 100 nanometers or less. (A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.) The applications also help explain why nanotech entrepreneurs haven't become overnight billionaires: Textile and plastics manufacturers can't raise their prices easily.
Japan's third-biggest automaker, known for its cutting-edge robot technology, introduced on Tuesday a second-generation Asimo that can also push a cart weighing up to 22 pounds, walking straight, sideways or backwards with it. With more joints and flexibility of movement, Asimo can now also grip and carry a tray of drinks, placing it safely on a table.
By preprogramming the guest's name, meeting room and other data in an IC (integrated circuit) tag to be worn by the visitor upon arrival, an office worker can remotely send commands to Asimo, which in turn would pick up the commands through a built-in IC tag reader. Behind the seemingly simple tasks are myriad advanced sensor, image- and voice-recognition and other technologies that Honda says will be applied to its core automotive business to improve safety and other features.
Copyright © 1996-2006 Electronix Express
A Division of R.S.R. Electronics, Inc.
365 Blair Road
Avenel, New Jersey 07001
Phone 1-800-972-2225 (In NJ 1-732-381-8020)
Fax 1-732-381-1006; 1-732-381-1572
To Top Of Page