The future of the laptop and the tablet PC has been rolled up into one. German designer Evgeny Orkin has developed a concept design for The Rolltop. The Rolltop is constructed of a flexible OLED display that wraps around the removable power supply stand. Tucked into the power stand is a webcam, speaker sound bar, USB ports, and the power supply and power cord.

The screen can either be formed into a 13-inch conventional laptop (well sort of) or rolled flat for a 17-inch tablet with stylus. Another great feature is you can stand it upright with a fold out support leg and watch videos like a flat screen TV. And with multi-touch technology you don’t need a separate mouse and keyboard because everything is right on the screen. It might be hard to type on a digital QWERTY keyboard but it might be like a large iPhone.

I know its just in the concept form but it would really be cool to see one in person and maybe use one some day. To really appreciate the capabilities and possibilities of The Rolltop check out this video from Orkin Design.
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Popularity: 9% [?]

Digital frames are popping up everywhere these days. Even my grandmother received one for her 85th birthday, right along with a pair of fuzzy, pink slippers. I’m pretty sure that even if she did know how to work it, it wouldn’t tweet. And yours probably can’t tweet, nor can it view pictures on Facebook, Flickr, or Picasa. But the new SilverFrame, the latest and greatest digital photo frame from SilverPac, can do all of the above.

This 10.1-inch touchscreen-operated digital frame is Wi-Fi enabled and actually connects with several photo-sharing social networking sites. But really, it’s more like a mini computer than it is a digital frame. Windows CE 6.0 R2 is the operating system, supporting Windows Sideshow and Live FrameIt. It is also Bluetooth-enabled, allowing users to send images directly to the frame from their mobile phones. Additionally, the SilverFrame has USB ports and a multi-card reader, just in case you’re set on uploading pictures the old fashioned way. Images can be stored on the SilverFrame’s 1GB of onboard memory, and two 1.5W speakers provide impressive stereo quality sound. The SilverFrame even comes with an IR remote control and AC adapter.
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Popularity: 8% [?]

The Apple rumor mill is churning out fresh rumors at an alarming pace. The latest round, as reported by Ars Technica’s Chris Foresman, centers on MacBooks and the supposedly coming soon Apple tablet.

According to a report a “favorite” source of the Web site 9to5Mac, Apple is working on netbook or tablet with a 10″ screen. This would seem to verify other speculation that’s been making the rounds lately, but the project is apparently being kept “under lock and key” (probably literally, in this case) so no other details are included.

Also according to 9to5Mac, speed bumps are coming to the entire MacBook line, including internal 3G wireless networking hardware and non-removable batteries on the 13″ MacBook and 15″ MacBook Pro to match the ones already installed on the 17″ MacBook Pro. According to the rumors, Apple will release these new MacBooks along with their tablet at WWDC in June.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Looking at the list of award honorees for CES 2009, it’s no surprise that Samsung is grabbing awards up left and right. They looked quite impressive with a slew of products being announced, and demonstrated at CES 2009. From their new line of LED TV’s, to their mountable Blu-Ray player, Samsung looks poised to bring some fresh, and unique ideas to the home theater setup.

Samsung LED TV’s

What is shaping up to be their benchmark in television technology, the LED 8000, LED 7000, and the LED 6000 look to up the ante as to what televisions can bring to consumer’s home theater system.
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Popularity: 8% [?]

It is called the Lenovo IdeaCentre A600 All-in-One Desktop and it is supposedly the world’s thinnest all-in-one PC. The price for one of these machines is at $999 but any add-ons like Blu-ray player will cost you more. It is very similar to the Sony VAIO LV and the iMac all-in-one, but comes with a pretty sweet remote that is an air mouse like a Wii-mote for you computer. One thing it is lacking is an HDMI input to make it the ultimate home entertainment system. Here are a few words and a specs list from Lenovo.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

SanDisk has taken this idea of digital music and ran with it. They have just introduced slotMusic, which plays on microSD cards. Because of the failed attempt to control or stop illegal downloading of music they decided to release a DRM free format for mp3 albums. Many big named record labels have already signed on like Sony BMG, BMI Music, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group.

Over forty artists are available now including Chris Brown, Coldplay, Daughtry, Katy Perry, Nickelback, and Tim McGraw. They also released some classic albums by ABBA, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, and KISS. The 1GB microSD album is priced at $15, which includes high-quality (320kbps) MP3s, artwork, videos, and other digital content. Here is a Press Release from SanDisk talking more about the artists and the slotMusic microSD cards.
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Popularity: 8% [?]

I know you love your USB devices and fancy flash drives, but wait until you see USB 3.0 aka USB Superspeed. This is the future standard for Universal Serial Bus data transfer. It will be ten times as fast as your USB 2.0 Hi-Speed and will be backwards compatible. This means you will be able to use all of your old USB devices, but you won’t get the full benefit of the Superspeed.

The biggest improvement has to be the speed. USB 2.0 transfers data at 480Mbps, which is not too bad. USB 3.0 will be transferring at 4.8GBps, ten times what it does now. Imagine being able to transfer a 27GB HD movie in a little over a minute instead of 15 minutes.

If you look at the new connectors, they have added five new lines parallel to the four original lines of 2.0. What this means is now instead of only being able to send data and receive data, you will be able to do both at the same time. This will make backing up data and syncing your devices very fast.

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Popularity: 6% [?]

The ASUS Eee PC 4G will go on sale today for £219 (including VAT).  It will be available in Pearl White and in Galaxy Black.  There will be limited stock available today in select London stores, with the unit going on sale nationwide this Wednesday.

The Eee PC is Windows XP compatible and has over 40 built-in applications. It’s not all about the software though as the 7” Eee PC is only 0.92kg with large flash-based storage capacity and built-in webcam. Snazzy!

“This delightful little computer is incredibly easy to use but at the same time is packed full of technology,” said Sean Maloney, Intel Executive VP, GM of Sales & Marketing Group, “Intel is delighted to partner with ASUS on the development on this project, and we would like to once again extend our congratulations to the ASUS team of engineers and researchers.” Read the rest

Popularity: 13% [?]

Celebrities should not be endorsing things like USB pen drives. Should they? Ok, perhaps we exaggerated a little in the title with the word ‘huge’ but seriously, Jennifer Lopez has put out a USB pen drive!

Now if it stopped at being a drive, we would continue to bash her for it. However, it actually comes in a cool wood look finish and includes her latest album “Brave” on it. Personally we think this is a sad attempt to make money while having the appearance of “reaching out” to the youff of today. Not cutting any slack with us, but the J-Lo obsessives are bound to be jumping all over this like a flea on a trampoline.

The product sounds fine until you get to the $70 weight of a price tag hanging around it’s neck. At that point, a copy of her CD plus a no name drive will be a much better purchase, plus you can store all your fake J-Lo porn shots on the drive while keeping the music on a handy CD that will easily Frisbee out of the car window at a moments notice.

Popularity: 15% [?]