Forumchem - Forum with AI(ALICE BOT & HAL9000) and TTS

People with glass desks shouldn’t use mice without a dusty old mousepad–that used to be the rule, at least. Logitech announced two new mice today that work on virtually any surface, even glass. The Performance Mouse MX ($100) and Anywhere Mouse MX ($80) use a new dual-laser technology called DarkField (said in an ominous Dark Knight voice, of course) to track your movements on the shiniest, clear surfaces. Can it be true?

I tested the Performance Mouse MX against the slightly older MX 1100 on PopSci HQ"s lone glass tabletop in reception and, well, she speaks the truth:

The DarkField lasers are able to track movements on virtually any surface because they don’t hunt for the surface itself, but tiny imperfections like scratches and dust. When on a glass surface, the lasers create a map of the table based off the reflections of flecks and dings they see.

Both mice will be available sometime this month, when OCD glass tabletop users can pitch one more piece of clutter from their desktops.

This is the week of the Internationale Funkausstellung (er, International Consumer Electronics Show) in Berlin, which is pretty much just what it sounds like. It"s one whopping, European CES. The trouble with IFA for us on the State-side, though, is that a lot of companies forget one key thing: the magical Internet can cross water. Because of that, a lot of new product announcements are things we have already seen, so it takes a little more effort (and flexing what"s left of my undergrad German skillz) to figure out what"s worth paying attention to.

Over the last two days, the IFA press preview has kicked up some real goodies -- even before the show floor opens to the public today. IFA "09 has already shown us a real taste of how our home theaters will look in the next half-decade, laptops on serious diets, and a couple cool new toys.

Check out our picks here for the top 10 things to look forward to from this week"s unveilings.

The selling point of Google Android is its customizability, the ability to create a unique-looking interface that"s compatible with a steady stream of apps. The trouble is, most of the Android-based handsets we"ve seen -- starting with T-Mobile"s G1 -- have all pretty much felt the same. The just-announced Motorola CLIQ, though, is the best example (so far) of what Android is capable of.

And we"re not alone in that thought. Google"s Mobile Platform VP Andy Rubin told Gizmodo that the CLIQ may be a more promising rep for the idea of Android than the G1. In fact if he has his way, the social features baked into the CLIQ could eventually become a native part of the platform. That"s not to say the CLIQ won"t turn up its fair share of shoulda-coulda-wouldas, but it looks like a good start.

Welcome Motoblur, the CLIQ"s user interface that brings Moto"s own software and Android together seamlessly. The software allows simultaneous access to all your social networks, e-mail accounts, and contacts in a single feed -- much like the Palm Pre"s WebOS. Blur has four parts: Happenings (social media site updates), Messaging (emails, site messages including Twitter direct messages, and texts), News Feeds (self-explanatory), and Social Status (blast all your accounts at once).

Contacts handling is especially WebOS-like. In addition to pulling all them into one place, viewing an individual contact shows your entire history, regardless of how the message was sent.

All this shows up on the home screen; from there you can reply to messages in your feed with a single click. As far as your own display preferences go, Motoblur lets you play with the home screen widgets and feeds to place them wherever you like.

Motoblur also keeps your contacts secure in a cloud-based server, so if you lose your phone or upgrade to another "blur device, you can easily reload them. Plus, you can remotely wipe data from a lost or stolen handset.

Then there"s the hardware. The CLIQ has a 320-by-480-pixel, 3.1-inch touch display and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It"s much smaller than the T-Mobile G1, and pretty thin (0.61 inches) for a QWERTY slider. It also has a 5-megapixel camera, which is nice, but no Wi-Fi, which is not.

Look for the CLIQ on T-Mobile before the holidays, in white and titanium.

Well, now that T-Mobile"s G1 has had plenty of time to rest on its Android laurels, it"s apparently coming out season for the rest of the pack. The just-unveiled Archos 5 Internet Tablet mixes one part Archos with one part Android and seasons with some great GPS features to create a multi-function power-player.

I got a chance to take a hands-on tour of the Archos 5 last week, and the performance of its 32GB flash model made my iPod touch feel a little uneasy. The first thing I noticed was its five inches of touchscreen real estate. After that, was the speed: Its processor streamed 720p video to an HDTV (with the help of a docking accessory) without a blip and rendered four Web pages simultaneously.

Then on to the features: Archos devices have always had great media players, so rather than simply running a device solely on Android (whose media player ain"t exactly the cat"s pajamas) they"ve offered a hybrid. The 5"s home screen keeps Archos" media playing menu (video, music, photos) on the bottom of the screen, and groups all your Android apps up top.

The device comes pre-loaded with 10 of Archos" AppsLib store"s more handy tools, like the Twitroid client or Thinksfree MS Office app. What"s really cool, though, is how the Archos 5 can morph into a fully functional 5-inch GPS device. Powered by TeleAtlas maps with 3D landmarks and a cool 3D photorealistic in-city view with multiple angles. I watched the device depict a route on the streets of Paris (North American cities aren"t supported quite yet, but are expected in early 2010).

The Archos 5 will be available in the next two weeks in both flash- and hard-drive-based models running from %250 to $440 for 500GB.

Soldiers sometimes lug more than 30 pounds of batteries to run GPS units and other critical gear, so San Francisco company Ardica set out to give them a lighter power pack. Now a civilian version lets the rest of us charge our phones—and stay warm. Ardica’s Moshi Power System is the first to charge your heated winter clothes, like this jacket from Mountain Hardwear, and your gadgets.

Ardica’s military pack, now in testing, tucks hydrogen fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries into a flexible case. The Moshi uses only batteries, since fuel cells aren’t widely available. But the layout is similar: Seven 2.75-inch batteries are linked inside a foam sleeve, so the 11.3-ounce package can flex at the joints. It slips into the jacket’s back and holds enough power to simultaneously drive heat-creating conductive yarn and send current to a USB cord in a pocket. You get about nine hours of heat or 11 iPhone charges before you have to plug it in.

Sturdy plastic connectors hook the Moshi to a jacket’s wiring. Detach them, and it becomes a portable charger that you can transfer to several compatible coats or take on its own on your next mission.

In Related News: Skinny Sun Power

Another way to juice gadgets on the go: a solar charger that folds for easy transport. A new 35-by-14-inch model rolls up to just two inches thick yet provides as much power as units twice as chunky. The slimming secret is Konarka’s Power Plastic, a flexible solar panel made by printing a photoreactive polymer “ink” onto 0.01-inch-thick sheets of polyester. It doesn’t convert sun to watts as efficiently as thick silicon-based panels do, but it’s more versatile. It absorbs light from many angles, not just head-on, so it works in cloudy weather and as the sun moves. The charger fuels a phone in four to six hours and hits stores this winter.

— Carina Storrs