Gizmo Ave

UK electronics retailer Dixons just got the memo that slim is in, and its taken it to heart. The store is on the verge of launching two new PCs as part of its Advent brand — and the 13.3-inch CULV Altro line is pretty sexy looking. Already drawing the obvious comparisons to the MacBook Air in the looks department, the Altro boasts an Intel Celeron CPU, 3GB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, plus USB and HDMI ports, and one multifunction connector for hooking up an external port replicator. [...]

There isn’t much to go by here, but a set of photos appeared in some unnamed forum the other day showing what is believed to be a new slate-style Android MID that is estimated to have a touchscreen measuring somewhere between 4.3 to 5 inches and said to feature applications like MSN Messenger and GTalk, WiFi, and possibly 3G connectivity.

The MID is rumored to be powered by a Rockchip CPU (the upcoming RK2808 perhaps?) and expected to perform better than the iPod touch, which I guess it’s trying to compete against. Other than that and whatever else can be deduced from the photos, nothing else is known about the device.

The anonymous tipster who sent the pics and info to me via email says the unit is currently making its rounds on a handful of Chinese tech sites, none of which link to or name the forum they all mention as the source, so I can’t direct you to anything more concrete either.

Anyone know where the images come from or what this device is?

via pocketables

French automobile and motorcycle builder Lazareth has managed to shoehorn an entire BMW V12 engine into one of its crazy Wazuma quads. While there isn’t much that’s environmentally friendly about a 500-horsepower supercharged V12 from BMW that’s powering a rather large and impractical quad platform, Lazareth has decided to attempt to give the machine a bit of eco-cred by running the engine on E85. [...]

Lanyu from Shenzhen, China, has achieved a world’s first with the cheapest netbook across the planet. The eBook LY-EB01 has been price at 666 Yuan (what a devilish bargain at approximately $98 after conversion). [...]

If it wasn’t for Verizon’s habit of castrating WIFI capable phones, there would not be any excitement about the spyshots that show a BlackBerry Storm 2 – with WIFI support. WiFi? Duh! Even my photo frame has WiFi, so what’s the big deal? [...]

By Andrew Liszewski

In the olden days, bicycle dynamos were really only used to power safety lighting on a bike. But in these modern times a cyclist can be using everything from a GPS device to a cellphone to an MP3 player while they’re out for a ride. So the PedalPower+ system safely harnesses the power generated by an AC dynamo and turns it into a safe DC source where the current is regulated and the voltage is consistent enough for electronic devices to be recharged. [...]

MSI’s X-Slim X600 may not be the quickest, most nimble or most powerful 15.6-inch laptop on the market today, bit with a thickness of just 0.75-inches, it’s definitely got the ultrathin motif down pat. The kind lads and ladies over at Laptop Mag recently secured one of the machines for review, and they seemed adequately impressed with the combination of a low-power CPU (1.4GHz Core 2 Solo SU3500) and a multimedia-friendly discrete GPU (ATI’s 512MB Radeon HD 4330) — a tandem that’s hard to find anywhere, let alone for $799. [...]

We’ve already told you about solar-powered cargo ships, now Hong Kong has decided to combat the area’s pollution problems by deploying solar-powered ferries. According to the makers of the vehicles, Solar Sailor Holdings Ltd., the ferries will operate using three-quarters solar energy and only one-quarter liquefied petroleum gas, potentially reducing carbon-dioxide output on the route by roughly half. [...]

The ground-breaking Nikon COOLPIX S1000pj ($430) is expected to shake up the compact digital camera market as people begin to see the benefits of sharing and viewing photos and videos using personal projection. The COOLPIX S1000pj doesn’t just pack a punch with its projector – the compact camera delivers high resolution images with 12.1 effective megapixels and a 2.7” wide viewing-angle TFT LCD monitor. [...]