The future fair keeps getting closer and closer these days. Not only do we have iPhones with FaceTime–which, when combined with the iPod Nano (as I’m obvious they will be before too long) will near aesthetic conclude to creating a mass-market version of Dick Tracy’s 2-way wrist TV–we’ve also got robot cars and, ahem, robot journalists (which I’m trying to support at bay by design of this terribly sophisticated and never-ending sentence–apparently the roboscribes have difficulty with such Proustian gymnastics: like a flash! They’re coming for our jobs! Hand me another semicolon and an em accelerate!) .

And too, we’ve got Minority Report-like gesture-driven interfaces and now this: a multiuser touch conceal the size of a desk, which curves up to gain a, well, desktop like the metaphorical one you may be staring at legal now.

frosty!

I realize some of you will scoff at this device–whipped up by The Media Computing Group at Germany’s RWTH Aachen University, and brought to my attention by Engadget–but I freely admit that it fires my imagination.

I can peruse it combined with the type of Wacom pen-and-tablet intention that lets you “intention” directly on cover. As a sometime graphic designer, I’d be in nirvana. I could hunch over in a hard-working, tortured artist kind of blueprint and design a relate or manipulate a Photoshop file, assign a version of it, and then scurry that version across the (horizontal) desktop to contemplate it curve up onto the (vertical) desktop that would now be a perfect bulletin board.
(Credit: Media Computing Group)

I can survey it incorporating the aforementioned gesture-driven technology to allow me to sit aid and point at the drawings on my bulletin board to decide the ones I like: I could snap my fingers, say, and retain those files; then–I don’t know–dismiss the rejects with a disdainful backhanded wave and examine them burst into unbelievably lifelike flames courtesy of a supercharged graphics card or an up-and-coming 3D Web technology like WebGL. A client meeting was never so worthy fun! It’s a multiuser device: I could area the client’s current drawings ablaze, and she could ignite mine! We could produce a modern videogame! I’d let her acquire! I’d have to! She’s now my only source of income–my journalism job having been stolen by R2-D2!

But enough of my overheated holiday-weekend imaginings; irrelevant asides about robots; and expressionless, monotonous, tiresome–tiresome–syntactical pyrotechnics. Why don’t you purchase a peruse at the video and section with us your hold gleaming vaporware in the comments part below?

(And, yes, I know, we’ve already had at least one real-life interpretation of the Dick Tracy gadget–and for a long time now. gape? I told you the future impartial keeps getting closer. So cessation it’s become the past. Feel free to point out if and where the technology mashup I’ve conjured already exists–and when it appeared.)

CNET – The Motorola Droid Pro features a slate design that combines both a touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard. It’s not particularly striking, though it’s not necessarily meant to be, either, as a business device. Instead, it’s got a classic black and silver chassis and at 4.69 inches tall by 2.36 inches wide by 0.46 inch wide and 4.73 ounces, the smartphone is not petite but still pocketable. In the hand, it feels solid, but it would have been nice to see a soft-touch finish on back instead of an all-plastic battery door, just to give it more of a premium feel. We also noticed that the phone can get a bit warm with use and while charging.

The good: The Motorola Droid Pro combines a touch shroud and burly QWERTY keyboard into a compact invent. The Android 2.2 smartphone offers enhanced security features for business users, as well as mobile hot position capabilities.

The bad: The Droid Pro’s HVGA note isn’t quite as inspiring as the competition. Call quality could be better. Paltry internal memory.

The bottom line: The enhanced security features and touch-screen-keyboard combo perform the Motorola Droid Pro a nice BlackBerry alternative, but it quiet has some shortcomings.

Features
The Motorola Droid Pro has a couple of distinctive features compared with Verizon’s other Android devices. First of all, it offers dual-mode functionality, meaning that the phone supports both CDMA and GSM technologies for world-roaming capabilities. Domestically, the smartphone will operate on Verizon’s CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A network, but will then automatically detect and switch to the international GSM bands, allowing you to construct calls and receive data while traveling abroad. (The Droid Pro offers overseas 3G attend.)

Now, while Verizon ships the Motorola Droid with a SIM card, the carrier will unlock the SIM as long as you’ve been a Verizon customer for more than 60 days and are in suited financial standing. This means you’ll be able swap out the included SIM for one you prefer from an international carrier, which can often be cheaper. Regardless of which option you decide, be positive to check out Verizon’s international coverage design and roaming rates, so you’re fully informed and prepared before you create your jog.

Endagdet – We’ve always had a soft set for Altec Lansing’s wide array of speaker docks — these guys have been embedded in that status for an awfully long time, and the quality has always seemed up to snuff in our eyes. Er, ears. For whatever reason, it looks as if Altec is trying to replicate that success in the earbud market — a market that’s been growing increasingly crowded over the past couple of years as the portable media player and smartphone sectors have exploded. These days, a spot of third-party headphones are nearly a requirement to fully bask in whatever media player you’ve ended up with, and thus, hordes of companies have flocked to cater to the quiz. The Ultra MZX606 earbuds ($99.95) popped onto the scene unprejudiced two months ago, and now we’ve had a solid weekend to push the latest Underoath, ecstatic Body tiring, Brain, Kanye West and Otis Redding jams through here. Hop on past the rupture for our impressions.

earn wise, these are about what you’d quiz for a $100 residence of ‘buds. The glossed cable is tough to tangle, the input jack is solid and thick, the remote is rugged enough and the earbuds themselves are downright classy. We haven’t exactly seen a effect like this before, and while it’s eye-catching at a peek, we score the impression that Altec’s designers were going for more than aesthetics. The more chances you give users to bend or demolish a cable, the worse, so this bracing system actually helps to prevent unnecessary bends when they’re inevitably shoved into the bundled carry case. They’re also delightfully lightweight, but strangely tremendous. The casings themselves feel bloated by novel day earbud standards, and the included earbud tips are no different.

Altec threw in four sets of tips with our review unit; a runt / medium / gargantuan trifecta of the typical “round” tips, and a single, one-size-fits-all dual-flange spot. But here’s the thing: even the minute tips are stout. We can’t even imagine a human outside of The Undertaker or Shaquille O’Neal who could realistically exercise the titanic ones. In the past, we’ve tended to pick the dual-flange tips when given the choice, and while the seal was certainly suitable with those, they were calm too gigantic for us. We’re thinking a smaller plot of dual-flange tips would’ve hit the sweet place for us, but alas, those aren’t included. Or even created, so far as we know.

Unfortunately for Altec Lansing, the eartips form all the disagreement in the world when it comes to audio quality and overall enjoyment / dissatisfaction. We tested out all of the tips, and while the dual-flange ones did actually beget a relatively obedient seal even while exercising, the sound quality was underwhelming through all of them. We tested out a variety of genres — from jazz to metal and honest about everything in between — and two things made themselves apparent throughout. First, there’s a sure lack of low-end. Even from a non-basshead’s perspective, the coarse lows unbiased weren’t in attendance like they should be. Secondly, the mids and highs were aesthetic impressive, and quite right even when pressed at higher volumes. Sadly, two out of three doesn’t chop it these days, and even though the highs and mids were on-point, they unruffled lacked a clear enthusiasm that was evident in Sleek Audio’s $79 SA1 and Klipsch’s $99 Image S4i.

Here’s the thing: the Muzx Ultra MZX606 earbuds cost $100. That’s a plucky effect point, and considering the intense competition in that range, there’s simply no room whatsoever for a let down in any aspect of the product. The aforesaid SA1 from Sleek Audio and Klipsch Image S4i (which includes an three-button iPhone remote, to boot) both outperform these guys handily, from overall do to overall audio quality. For some uncommon reason, Altec decided it best to stuff the inline remote about an dash from your cheek rather than at the yoke below your chin — we’re guessing they wanted the microphone closer to your lips, but you’re left with a ridiculous stick slapping you in the face with every single step on the treadmill. Not wintry. Furthermore, it’s hard to endure any eartip once you’ve had the pleasure of inserting Klipsch’s oval tips into your flappers. Canal openings simply aren’t round; they’re oval, and oval tips undoubtedly provide a more premium seal, and in turn, a better audio experience. If Altec Lansing were to notice these at half of what they are, they’d be tough to overlook. But at $100, given the competition, they’re frankly hard to even assume.

Techcrunch – We admire Gran Turismo 5. So considerable so we have a whole trace for it. We even interviewed its creator, Kazunori Yamauchi, at CES. But damn, son, that is a lot of gigs to be taking up!

The game is a beast, clearly, but a 40-50 little install time and 6.4GB of data to attach on your drive makes for an glum gamer. I mean, it’s really not that vast of a deal, go win lunch or something while it installs, but seriously, they must really be pushing at the limits of the system if all that stuff has to be stored locally.

Either diagram, it’s going to be a badass game, and I’m looking forward to playing it… in like five years, when I’ve saved up enough to lift a modern game system. fair remember to check that you’ve got enough situation before you commence that craziness up.

CNET – For more than 26 years, Dell has empowered countries, communities, customers and people everywhere to use technology to realize their dreams. Customers trust us to deliver technology solutions that help them do and achieve more, whether they’re at home, work, school or anywhere in their world.

The Round Rock, Texas, company barely missed on revenue expectations: Analysts were looking for revenue between $15.42 billion and $16.02 billion, but it came in at $15.4 billion. Dell’s profit, however, doubled from the same time last year.

Dell reported today it made $1.02 billion during the third quarter this year, compared to the $577 million in profit it made in the fiscal third quarter 2010. That’s equivalent to 42 cents per share, a record for Dell in the third quarter.

Dell CEO Michael Dell had said earlier this year as his company struggled that he might consider taking the company private. When CFO Brian Gladden was pressed on that point today he was very direct in his response:”We have no plans to take the company private. Period.”

On a call with reporters, Gladden emphasized the improvements Dell had made in the quarter. The company’s large enterprise, small and medium business, and public sector divisions all saw growth greater than 20 percent during the quarter. The consumer business is the only one that continues to lag, increasing its revenue just 4 percent.

The consumer business, which accounts for just 20 percent of Dell revenue, is struggling with what Gladden termed “muted consumer demand.”

It’s continued from the previous quarter, he said. “We’ll continue to manage that.”

The consumer unit is undergoing some recent changes, including reshuffling the product lineup and launching a new worldwide branding campaign. There’s also been some executive turnover–the former head of the consumer unit who had been transferred to a newly created mobile division, Ron Garriques, will leave the company in January, Dell announced yesterday in an SEC filing.

“We’re making progress on consumer, but we do still have work to do there,” Gladden admitted.

“Enterprise solutions is at the heart of where we’re driving the strategy.”