360 DEGREES Weblog

About as slim as the Adamo and just half a pound heavier, Dell’s new ultra-thin laptop is a PC intended for business users who crave beauty and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get it.

At the basic level, the Dell Latitude Z is a notebook with a 16-inch HD display that runs Intel Core 2 Duo processor and offers a choice of up to two 256 GB solid state drives. It comes with multi-touch trackpad that supports gestures such as pinch and zoom.

But the device goes beyond that to offer some smooth features — a new kind of touchscreen, wireless charging and some solid security features.

Lets start with the touchscreen. Instead of a touchscreen display, the Latitude Z has touch functionality built along the frame of the notebook display.  Sliding your fingers vertically along the frame pops up a tool bar that lets you choose common applications like email, photos, and camera.

The Latitude Z has a two megapixel camera that goes significantly beyond the traditional webcam function. Hold your business card in front of the camera and it scans the card and saves the information to Microsoft Outlook contacts.  If you have a sheet of paper, you hold it in front of the camera and can choose to save it as a PDF.

The camera also has face-recognition capability. So, if turned on, it can detect when you step away from the computer and automatically lock the machine then.

Other security features include a fingerprint reader and contact less smart card reader so you can lock the computer by just waving your office badge over it.

Another interesting addition to the laptop is new hardware that supports a ‘Latitude On’ mode. The mode promises instant start up and offers always on connection to email, internet, contacts and calendar.

The idea is to bring the functionality of a BlackBerry that promises always synced email and calendar to a PC, says Steve Belt, vice president of business client engineering at Dell.

“We wanted to create something that would be the best of both worlds,” says Belt. “The Latitude On mode is fast and gives users gobs of battery life.”

In the ‘Latitude On’ mode, users don’t have access to all of Windows applications such as word processing and PowerPoint. Instead they can access e-mail and browse the internet with boot up times of less than a second. The trade off also brings with it extended battery life of up to 12 hours, says Dell.

Compare that to the idle mode of the laptop where boot up time can be a few seconds and emails are checked every few minutes. But then the battery life can extend up to two days. To switch back to Windows, users have to press a special power button on the laptop.

These are nifty features but the question is does it deserve the $2000 price tag — more than the Adamo? And if that’s not enough for a sticker shock, accessories such as wireless docking and an inductive charging stand will cost extra.

Thanks WIRED

These ungainly plastic diapers go by different names and they’re all over the ass ends of cars in New York City. But why?

This I had not remembered from previous trip to the United States—maybe it’s a recent invention. In any case, bumper guards are perhaps the ugliest things affixed to non-tuner automobiles.

I realize this will read as impolite for the owners of expensive cars, especially coming from someone who is more used to seeing little beat-up city cars here in Europe, but what exactly is the deal with these bumper guards I saw all over New York City?

Do people drive with these things on all the time? Why not get a banger of a car for inner city errands? Why take a fine-looking sedan and Pampers it like a child with substandard bowel control? It’s like buying a nice leather shoe and wearing it all the time enclosed in the blue plastic shoe protectors one has to wear in hospitals.

This particular example, photographed at the Gansevoort Street entrance of The High Line, was manufactured by Parking Armor, who claim to be “the ultimate in bumper protection.” Who would have figured that one day we would have a strap-on contraption for an automotive part which was designed to sacrifice itself for the sake of pedestrians and car occupants.

Thanks Jalopnik

The Microsoft Courier made its first appearance last week, but now, a leaked video shows just how the interface works. It was “produced by the same firm that collaborated with Microsoft’s Pioneer Studios and it walks through a slightly different iteration of the Courier interface.

Today’s travel needs are definitely different compared with the situation 20 years ago, and the prime cause lies in the innumerable tech gadgets and devices that almost became crucial to a modern lifestyle. No matter you’re up to a weekend trip or just on the daily commute, this case will care about your precious essentials with its unique Grid-It organization system. It basically offers a dynamic way to keep that devices firmly in place via a weave of a myriad rubberized elastic bands, thus it provides an intuitive packaging without any thought wasted about how the mobile fits between the digi-cam and battery recharger. Besides it is bolstered for a slight shock absorbing capacity and features an additional hidden zippered pocket.

USD 25

The recently-opened Etiqueta Negra boutique in downtown Manhattan has brought a modern take on masculine, equestrian style all the way from Buenos Aires. The store, which features among other décor elements a 1938 Alfa Romeo racecar (above), carries suits, jackets, jeans and shirts, as well as a line of leather shoes designed exclusively for Etiqueta Negra by Casa Fagliano, the Argentina-based maker of Prince Charles’ bespoke polo boots. Prices for the princely footwear, which is not available anywhere else in the U.S., begin at $2,500 a pair. They also carry polo gear as well as women’s clothing, though the emphasis is on the menswear.

While the web is disrobing many businesses in the name of transparency, the City of San Francisco is happy to expose itself. A month since the launch of DataSF.org, a public archive of government data, Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced that the site will now showcase applications which manipulate that data to make it more useful and accessible to the city’s residents. Inspired by the success of Apple’s iTunes App Store and Facebook’s open developer platform (60,000 and 350,000 apps respectively), writes Mayor Newsom, San Francisco is encouraging democratic participation by “giving residents the tools to build the kind of government that works for them.”

A number of apps are already online, with the new showcase expected to stimulate many more creations. Among those currently available, EcoFinder helps residents find out where their nearest recycling services are located, while Cabspotting—a project by the Exploratorium interactive science museum—displays a real-time map of cab locations in San Francisco.

It’s not the first step the tech-centric Bay Area has made towards ‘Gov 2.0’— as in June they introduced their Twitter service for civil complaints. But this latest effort could mark the start of a sea-change in the way governments provide public information services.

Thanks Springwise

After collaborating with Jean Paul Gaultier for the Haute Couture bottles, Evian has now teamed up with designer Paul Smith. The association of the two has led to the creation of the exquisite limited edition “Prêt-à-Porter” bottle. The unique designer bottle celebrates the holiday season and youthful spirit. Paul Smith, known for his sense of fun and optimistic attitude did perfect justice to this bottle by capturing the true essence of youth. The designer has kept this bottle festive and youthful with vibrant colored stripes that add life to this bottle of natural spring water from the French Alps. Experience the purity of water through this multicolored bottle that comes with five different collectible caps. The “Prêt-à-Porter” is sold as a single 750ml bottle. Priced at $14, this bottle is expected to be ready for shipment by October 31st. You can also opt for the limited edition case of the “Prêt-à-Porter” that includes 12 bottles and is priced at $118.

This week’s sign of the Carpocalypse? Close-to-the-door hybrid-only parking spaces. Our only question is how much carbon Greenhouse emissions are spewed out the tailpipes of the tow trucks coming to tow away violators?

Thanks Jalopnik

Unlike their Vaio P laptop, whose pocketability is dubious at best, Sony’s PCM-M10 digital audio recorder is small enough to be easily stashed in your back pocket without sacrificing functionality. Audio is captured as 96 kHz/24-bit WAV files (at the maximum quality setting) or as MP3s to max out the 4GB of internal memory, but that can be expanded with microSD or Memory Stick Micro cards. It is a Sony product after all.

Other features include a built-in electret condenser stereo mic and speaker, cross-memory recording, digital pitch and key control, a digital limiter, low-cut filter and a USB connection for easily transferring recordings to your PC. It also uses standard AA batteries instead of an internal rechargeable one, and can be yours for a somewhat hefty $399.99.

Choosing your new watch online just got easier. The days of messing with snobby retailers and hard sells are no longer a requirement of indulging in your beloved passion for watches. The Watch Gallery website has been steadily using its special camera to take 360 degree photo shoots of their watches. I checked out their handiwork on some Tag Heuer watches and was pleased with the results. No more mere marketing shots and the wrong angles. Now you get views of the actual watch from front to back, and side to side. This is a big help to give you a good idea of what you’ve never see looks like in reality. Marketing images are often touched up quite a bit, and it is not always possible to understand how light actually makes the watches we love look. Not all of their watches have this special view, but they are increasing the number of high quality 360 degree images they offer. Hopefully they will allow you to zoom in as well. You can see other Tag Heuer watches photographed like this here. Other brands get this photo treatment as well.