Archive for world’s smallest

World’s Smallest Image Sensors, SOny’s Exmor goes Commercial

Sony’s “Exmor R” CMOS image sensors with back-illuminations are going to be sold to the public next year, one of these is going to be used on mobile phones. This move is expected to make photographic performance of devices where the Exmor sensors will be used dramatically improved. As of October 7 of this year, these innovations are rated to be the smallest and thinnest of all.

Sony’s announcement of commercialization of two of its highly acclaimed innovations came in October 7. The plans of commercialization is divided into four schedules, one in January, one in March, and the other two by April. The first to be in the market is the Type 1/2.8 16.41 effective megapixels back-illuminated CMOS image sensor “IMX081PQ” in January 2011. The next is the Type 1/2.8 16.41 effective megapixels*2 Lens module “IU081F” in Marxh 2011, and Types 1/3.2 8.13 effective megapixels back-illuminated CMOS image sensor “IMX105PQ” and Type 1/3.2 8.13 effective megapixels*2 Lens module “IU105F2″ in April.

The initial pricings for the four models of Sony’s Exmor will be 2,500 Japan Yen for the IMX081PQ, 12,000 Yen for IU081F, and 1,500 and 8,000 yen for IMX105PQ and IU105F2 respectively. These pricings are expected to fluctuate when these CMOS image enhancements come to market next year. The variation will greatly depend on how these items are accepted in the market. For sure, since its from the noted world-class manufacturer of entertainment gadgets and equipments Sony, these items must be good and thus the commercial success.

LaCie Minimus USB 3.0 Portable HDD – Minimum Size, Maximum Performance

If you’re a Roman Prelate or Roman Centurion General named Minimus, it may raise some eyebrows, a few laughs from the crowd or disrespectful jeers from an invading barbarian horde. But if it’s a LaCie ultra-compact 1 Terabyte external hard drive with USB 3.0 interface and resistant aluminum enclosure – even if it’s name Minimus, it’s no laughing matter. With the new LaCie Minimus, you’ve got the power and performance of USB 3.0 combined with a handy portable size. Compared to other desktop drives, it’s one of the smallest on the market making it the perfect hard drive for those who want to carry Terabytes worth of data on them without the extra bulk. With USB 3.0, the fastest interface on the market, it’s also easy to move HD movies, photos, and sound files between drives. Since the LaCie Minimus is backward compatible with USB 2.0, it’s guaranteed to work with any PC or Mac.

The LaCie Minimus USB 3.0 shows that size and performance do matter a lot. LaCie delivers the industry’s fastest transfer speeds at 5 GB/s in its small and lightweight form factor – mobility and performance on one small drive. Encased in sturdy brushed aluminum, the Minimus exudes an elegant and aesthetic appeal. The aluminum enclosure also offers protection from blunders, improved heat dissipation, and is fully recyclable. Designed to be trouble-free from inside out, Minimus comes with LaCie’s Software Suite to ensure flawless setup and backup support for Mac or PC. Furthermore, this new gadget product comes with 10GB worth of Wuala online storage so you can securely store and share files online.

Purchase LaCie hard drive USB 3.0 here.

A Glance at Some of the World’s Smallest Gadgets

For certain fields of consumer gadgets, technological advancement seems to be synonymous with making gadgets smaller. Smarter, smaller electronics along with consumers’ thirst for lighter, more portable gadgets is the major driving force behind the trend for tinier technologies. We have collected a selection of the world’s smallest gadgets – for the time being. Let’s start with the smallest DV camera in the world – the Muvi Micro DV Cam.muvi micro DV cam

The Muvi Micro DV Cam is just 16mm thick and not much longer than a matchbox. Its 2-megapixel lens records in 640 x 480 at 30 frames per second and it has a built-in microphone allowing you to record sound and use voice activated record – all can be saved to the included 2GB microSD card [can be upgraded to 8GB]. Powered by rechargeable Lithium Ion Battery [included], this tiny gadget requires a USB socket for charging [cable also included]. The Muvi Micro DV Cam is available here.

Xun_Chi_138Next is Xun Chi 138 – the world’s smallest phone. It’s a GSM with bar form factor that’s a bit longer than the AA battery. The Xun Chi 138 is said to come with built-in 1.3-megapixel camera, a touch screen with handwriting recognition, a stylus that neatly fits at the back of the phone, an MP3 player and support for GPRS connections. Of course it’s impossible to squeeze all the bells and whistles into a device that only weighs 55 grams and measures 2.64-inches in length. So it doesn’t come with a keypad, Bluetooth, or any expansion slot. And don’t expect the phone to hit the West anytime soon because for now, it only supports Chinese character.

ipod-shuffleNow, let’s talk about the world’s smallest music player that also happens to be the world’s first talking one – the 3rd gen iPod shuffle. It’s just 1.8” tall and 0.3” thin but with 4GB of storage. Moving all buttons to the right earbud cord shrinks down the size of this new iPod shuffle. And musically speaking, the new iPod shuffle is brilliant – thanks to an exciting new feature called VoiceOver that speaks 20 different languages so it can tell you song titles and artists in the correct languages. So little and yet so much! Get it right here!

lingo-tiny-mouseAnd this is TEC’s Lingo mouse that could possibly be the smallest wireless mouse in the world, or at least that’s what TEC claims it to be. I’m pretty sure you won’t be using this for a long period of time considering the 27.5mm x 60mm x 19mm form factor won’t be easy on your hand, but, you surely can’t argue with the 0.8 ounces weight if you’re a frequent traveller. This tiny pointer features 800 dpi, 2.4GHz with a range of up to 32.8 feet, and about 15 hours battery life with automatic shut off if left inactive for five minutes. Sadly, there’s no word on its Stateside release.

fit-pc2-compulabRecently also, CompuLab has released the smallest techie computer system in the world – the Fit-PC2 that’s based on Intel’s Atom Z530 processor and US15W chipset. It has 1GB RAM, a 2.5 SATA hard drive, a miniSD card slot, and it offers a HDMI output port. With its 4” x 4.5” x 1.05” size, it has managed to include six USB ports, Ethernet LAN port and built-in WiFi 802.11g connectivity. See also the features of the fit-PC here.

Future of Keyboards

optimus_mini1
Welcome to the future. Here’s a toast to the new smallest usb keyboard with only three keys!
How could that work, you may ask?
First, the Optimus Mini that features three keys. These keys has their own backlit OLED screen. Each key can display a static image or full animation. Press the key and a different action occurs depending on what is assigned to it.

This new geeky device is also built in with an Optimus Mini Configurator software that allows you to assign various actions to each of the three keys. With that you can instantly switch between six different key layouts by holding down the Ctrl, Shift, Alt-Shift, or Ctrl+Shift keys on your larger keyboard. Hotkey options for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Outlook Express and Windows media player are also included.

The best thing about this gadget is that it can assign a different webcam image to each key and have them dynamically update. Or have a clock face with animated second hand displaying the time in Tokyo on one key while a CPU Usage graph scrolled across another key. You can of course mix and match the key functions to your desire and there is even support for portrait or landscape orientation.

Product Features

  • Mini USB Keyboard with an OLED screen on each key
  • Keys can be configured for the following functions:
  • Start an Application
  • Set as any keyboard combination
  • System Status with Free Memory and CPU Usage graph
  • Display webcam or other dynamic images pulled from the web
  • Display the Time and Weather in any city with animated analog or digital clock face
  • Control Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Outlook Express and Windows Media Player
  • Instantly switch between six different keysets by pressing a modifier key on your larger keyboard
  • Keyboard images can be set for vertical or horizonal orientation
  • Software updates are planned for future enhanced features.

Want to be the hippest geek in town with this futuristic device? Click here.

mp3 on the go

have you ever been holdupped?

It was just one of your usual trip on your way back home, you are aboard a public transportation with your earphones plugged in your ears until you felt a pointed object through your sides and to your surprise it’s that hoodlum forcing you to give your mp3 player!

More often, the display of earphones are usually an eye-candy for many bad guys. They are usually attracted in seeing one in a very obvious fashion.

You may think how could it be possible to have music-on-the-go without having your life in danger.

Tok Tok Tak, a company from Japan, totally understands your needs and the situation that you are in. With the most basic and smallest mp3 player that ever graced our markets, surely you can hear quality music without getting too much attention.

Looking only like a standard audio jack, the plug dangles from your earphones when used on the go. People might even think that you are crazy walking around with what looks like earbuds attached to nothing but they’d be wrong.

The Tok Tak also comes with a base station in which you can plug it in to recharge, upload new music, and act as a joystic controller to listen to your turns externally.