Folding -- Engadget

folding posts

Fujitsu cellphone design contest yields mind-blowing results: hands-on

by Darren Murph posted Oct 6th 2009 at 5:01AM

Fujitsu has been wowing us with cellphone concepts for quite some time, but this year's round at CEATEC is undoubtedly a show-stopping bunch. Some of the hottest ideas to come from the outfit's most recent mobile phone design contest were on display here in Japan, and we went end to end capturing the lot. The clear pebble mock-up (shown above) was easily the crown jewel (in our mind, anyway), with a small black blob able to morph into different screens (media panels, a keypad, web browser, etc.) depending on which corner you drag said blob into. There was also a design reminiscent of paper mache, not to mention one with a circular vibe that just has to be a long lost cousin to Motorola's AURA. Have a gander at the masterpieces in the gallery below, but don't bet on these hitting your ~~favorite~~ carrier anytime soon.

Gallery: Fujitsu cellphone design contest yields mind-blowing results: hands-on

Kyocera shows off preposterous, beautiful EOS folding OLED phone concept

by Paul Miller posted Apr 16th 2009 at 6:22PM

We're big fans of reality and feasibility, we swear, but something like this "EOS" concept phone Kyocera was showing off at CTIA is just too good to pass up. The handset folds up into what could roughly be described as a wallet shape, but folds out into two configurations: portrait QWERTY mode (pictured), and full-on widescreen OLED display (after the break). Samsung was showing similar screen-folding folding abilities, but a much less impressive handset, at CES. Things get even wilder, tough, with Kyocera envisioning shape memory keys that can morph flat when not in use, and a kinetic charging method based on piezoelectric generators and Mary Poppins. Sure, our great grandkids are going to have a good laugh at us for thinking this is lovable, but they always were a bunch of theoretical brats. Kyocera plans on implementing some of the concept ideas into its "near future" lineup of devices. We'll see how that pans out.

[Via Inhabitat, photo courtesy of Jeffrey Sass]

Continue reading Kyocera shows off preposterous, beautiful EOS folding OLED phone concept

ASUS CEO: Fold / Unfold laptop will cost between $1,000 and $1,500

by Darren Murph posted Mar 21st 2009 at 6:58PM

We had already heard that ASUS' Fold / Unfold laptop concept -- which we originally spotted at CES in January -- would be shipping later this year, but that little fact just got a lot more official. In an interview with TechRadar, ASUS CEO Jerry Shen confessed that this very machine would be shipping in the September to October time frame, and that the end-user price would be "somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500." Just make sure we're not stuck with integrated graphics and we'll be pleased as punch, okay Jerry?

[Via Notebook Choice]

ASUS plans to ship Fold / Unfold laptop concept this year!

by Paul Miller posted Mar 6th 2009 at 3:27PM

It may sound like sheer insanity, but it's the right sort of crazy sauce if you ask us. ASUS is planning to make its Fold / Unfold laptop concept into a for-reals product this year, with plans to ship by Q3. That seems pretty accelerated for something we've only seen in concept form, and something with such a new and interesting form factor -- Fold / Unfold's keyboard slides backwards as you open the display to maximize room for keys, trackpad and palm rest (video of the "folding" action is after the break). The concepts we've seen have also been suspiciously thin, so hopefully ASUS can pull this off without compromising this delicious form factor too terribly much. Sadly, that dual-touchscreen concept is further out, there's currently no slated window for commercialization.

Continue reading ASUS plans to ship Fold / Unfold laptop concept this year!

Nokia dreams up four-way folding Communicator

by Darren Murph posted Dec 26th 2008 at 5:38PM

Not that Nokia's current Communicator is in need of a major refacing or anything, but we're always up for some innovation. A recent patent application from the outfit showcases a completely bizarre four-way folding Communicator, chock full of hinges, keys and pixels. In fact, the verbiage spells out a future device consisting of "at least four device parts," leaving open the option for a handset that miraculously unfolds to completely envelope you in a glass case of emotion. Hit the read link for the full dream spilled out in entirely too much detail.

[Via Cellpassion]

ITRI's folding TFT-EPD display: ready for smartphones next year

by Thomas Ricker posted Dec 5th 2008 at 4:48AM

While everyone wants their gadgets, particularly smartphones, to become smaller and smaller we paradoxically want the screens to get bigger and bigger. That's why so much R&D money is spent on wearable, folding, projecting, swiveling, and rollable displays: there's a gold mine to be had by the first to offer a solution with mass-market appeal. Here's Taiwan's great economic hope developed by its Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) with some help from industrial design house, PilotFish. The TFT-EPD (Thin Film Transistor Electrophoretic Display) panel combines a folding-top display with a bottom-sliding secondary (separated by a 1-cm flexible strip) to double the total panel size to 5-inches -- other screen sizes are also in the works. What looks like a break through the center of the combined display above is actually a software taskbar. While these are obvious mock-ups, prototype displays do exist with plans to take the technology -- which will included touchscreen capabilities -- into production sometime next year. Imagine this applied to an N97 followup and you might appreciate our enthusiasm.

Gallery: ITRI's folding TFT-EPD display: ready for smartphones next year

[Via Computerwoche]

Pomera DM10 is tri-folding overkill for note takers

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 21st 2008 at 3:23AM

Oh, we get it. The SPH-P9000-inspired, Pomera Digital Memo DM10 is built for quick data entry on the go. As such it features a full-size folding keyboard, 2-second startup, 20-hour battery life, microSD expansion, and 4-inch VGA display in a device the size of a 1.18-inch thick paperback. But we're not going to hand over $269 of our hard-earned cash when we can take home an 8.9-inch netbook for $30 more. You, however, are free to do as you please when the DM10 lands in Japan on November 10th. Just prepare yourself for haughty looks of contempt from behind our pipes and moleskins -- hmph.

[Via Impress]

Valeswood's Pearl: the hydrogen powered bike

by Joshua Topolsky posted Nov 23rd 2007 at 4:29PM

Listen -- we know you want to do your part for the environment, but you don't have to wear jean shorts while doing it. By all means, take a gander at the Valeswood Pearl hydrogen-fueled, power-assisted bicycle, which motors up to 15 MPH and takes you about 80 miles before you need to juice the batteries. When you're finished with all the hard labor of pedaling, the bike folds up neatly and can be tucked away in the trunk of your 9 MPG SUV. If you're the eco-centric cat or kitten that we think you are, you're not going to be too miffed about that $4000 price tag, and we're sure the only kind of short you'll be rocking will be of the organic hemp variety. We wish we could say the same for the chap in the photo.

Samsung's SPH-9200 gets specs, leaked manual

by Joshua Topolsky posted Oct 10th 2007 at 10:01AM

You may remember our old friend -- the Samsung SPH-9200 UMPC -- from way back in the hot and humid days of August, when we first laid eyes on the contraption (a re-up of the SPH-9000). Well, the little flip-out, fold-up has gone and gotten its manual leaked out to the internet, and we understand that at least two ultra-nerds have read it cover to cover. Of course, there's an upside -- we've got confirmed specs. What does it look like under the hood you ask? Well, the whole package runs atop a VIA C7-M CPU, sports 512MB of RAM, a 5-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen, a 30GB hard drive, a 1.3-megapixel camera, WiFi, WiBro, HSDPA, and between two and five hours of battery life. No word on price or release date, but you can watch the most boring video possible of the device in action after the break.

[Via SlashGear]

Continue reading Samsung's SPH-9200 gets specs, leaked manual

Haier's crazy / crazy expensive laptop

by Joshua Topolsky posted Sep 16th 2007 at 12:08PM

Apparently, in other parts of the world, Haier (a minor brand here in the States) is busy manufacturing highly expensive and totally bizarre laptop computers. The cats over at Engadget Chinese have gotten their hands on info concerning this totally outrageous laptop / tablet PC, apparently an offshoot of the Flybook line, which rocks a Core Duo U2500 processor (coupled with an Intel 945GM chipset), 2GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, 802.11a/b/g, an 8.6-inch widescreen tablet display, plus a fingerprint scanner, Bluetooth, and an option to go all 3G wireless (should you so desire). Apparently, the system folds down into a tablet, replete with handwriting recognition and all, and can be yours for the fantastically low price of 35,999 Yuan (or about $4,790). We wish you nothing but good luck on finding one, and even better luck on footing the bill.

PS3 gets Folding@Home update, enables PSP Remote Play

by Darren Murph posted Aug 21st 2007 at 9:36PM

It's been a few months since the PS3's Folding@Home client received an upgrade, and thanks to heaps of ~~complaints~~ suggestions, the developers have finally conjured up another refresh. This go 'round, users will notice a "totally revised rendering engine for the molecules and a more sophisticated display format," but beyond aesthetics, the newest version now supports PSP Remote Play. Yep, this means that you can "now access FAH remotely from your PSP." So go on, Team Engadget, fire up your PS3 client and get to work with a newly revamped flavor, cool?

Water reactive sheets could become critical part of MEMS

by Darren Murph posted Apr 15th 2007 at 4:49AM

While we've seen mention (and patent applications) of origami-based gadgetry before, the latest gizmo to incorporate crafty folding also melds it with a water reactive plastic in order to create diminutive shapes that "could be used to make certain microscopic 3D structures in large quantities." Gurus from ESPCI and the Paris Institute of Technology have teamed up to concoct specialized plastic sheets which react in curious ways to wee water droplets, and while the process itself seems more interesting than useful, the bigger picture could enable this technology to become a staple of microelectromechanical systems used in printing heads and video displays. Interestingly enough, the scientists were even kind enough to create a time lapse video of the morphing process in action, so be sure to tag the links below if you're even remotely interested in seeing a two-dimensional triangle mystically convert into a pyramid.

[Via NewScientistTech]

Stanford University tailors Folding@home to GPUs

by Darren Murph posted Sep 29th 2006 at 6:43PM

Apparently the insane amount of gigaflops that your modern-day graphics card can churn out is nothing short of a phenomenon, as Folding@home's forefather Vijay Pande has tailored a new piece of software to harness to raw processing power of GPUs. Pande claimed that even the latest dual-core CPUs can't hold a candle to the floating point performance of ATi's X1900 / X1950 graphics cards. He estimated a Core 2 Duo chip could push about 25 gigaflops of folding power, while a high-end off-the-shelf ATi card could unleash a whopping 375 GFLOPS, which is about "20 to 40 times more speed" than the project has seen thus far. The team has also optimized the algorithms in the GPU-centric software, which is expected to add "10 to 15 times" more speed on top of the GPU's already impressive performance figures. Currently, the beta version is limited to the X1900 lineup, but plans are to include the X1800 variety in the near future, and Pande even mentioned that a PlayStation 3-friendly version was in the works. So if you aren't too busy tweaking your GPU-based supercomputer (or stressing over your energy bill), why not put those excessive GFLOPS to good use through Engadget's own Folding@home team, yeah?

PlayStation 3 to join Folding@Home for Cure@PS3

by Ryan Block posted Aug 23rd 2006 at 7:06PM

There's no denying it, even though the PlayStation 3 may be the most late, most expensive, and most, um, well ventilated of this this generation's consoles, Sony's also going out of their way to make the device appear as versatile as possible. So hell, if your machine is going to burn energy when not in use, best to put that power suck toward a good cause, right? Stanford and Sony have announced that PlayStation 3s will be able to participate in Cure@PS3, making gamers' consoles massively parallelized computing nodes for the Folding@Home project. (You're on Engadget's Folding@Home team, right?) Right up top is a taste of the eye candy that awaits those who dedicate their Cell processor to stamping out cancer with the Stanford crew, but the veneer doesn't stop there: click on for a slew of sexy new PS3 pics that just surfaced.

[Thanks, Mike! Pics via MaxConsole]

Continue reading PlayStation 3 to join Folding@Home for Cure@PS3

Sony patents fold-up origami gadgetry

by Paul Miller posted Jun 8th 2006 at 12:59PM

No, not that Origami. Sony is taking the term a bit more literally, and working on a technology to allow a device to be folded up to fit in your pocket, but which when unfolded becomes rigid for use. The whole unit, body and screen, would be made from a flexible material and contain conductive rubber bracing struts with some gel of aluminosilicate particles suspended in silicone oil mixed in for good measure. When zapped with a little bit of electricity, the struts harden almost instantly, allowing you to use the gadget in its proper state. The patent goes on to suggest the possibility of using this technology in conjunction with a video game in response to on-screen action. Unfortunately, our magic 8 ball says the signs aren't looking too hot for seeing something like this in action any time soon.

[Via New Scientist]