May 12th, 2009

ViewSonic plans to launch the company’s first product in the three-generation (3G) smartphone, market with China as the first target market that will be followed by Europe and the Americas.

Along with the demand for mobile phone functionality, ViewSonic’s inheritance in display technology plays an important part in the development of smartphones. Consumers are wanting larger screens, greater color saturation and contrast to take advantage of new services such as mobile Internet, television and video applications, gaming and eBooks.

As a leading global provider of visual display products, ViewSonic has 20 years of display experience and this is a natural extension of the company’s product expertise. This is an important strategic step for ViewSonic, as it allows us to apply the company’s display technology to an even larger and fast-growing worldwide market.

After successful market entries with LCD monitors, LCD TVs, projectors, digital signage displays, digital photo frames, computing products and other display solutions, ViewSonic is in the right place to take benefit from the fast-expanding 3G smartphone market.

Market research firm DisplaySearch said sales of flat-screen TVs climbed sharply North America during the period of January-March of 2009, after stumbling in the previous year.

DisplaySearch said fry Vizio earned the number-one spot as the best-selling LCD vendor in the first quarter, which had never been reached the second quarter of 2007. It said Vizio’s market share jumped to 18.9% and the company was the only one to show a sales increase from the fourth quarter of 2008. Although Vizio is a relatively young TV brand in the US, their strong alliance with mass merchant and warehouse club retailers seemed to have benefited the company.

Funai which sells similar products at lower prices, also recorded a growth in market share from 7% to 8.5%. Funai sells the Sylvania and Emerson brands in North America, and added the Philips and Magnavox brands last quarter. Companies with premium flat-panel models like Sony and Samsung recorded a market share decline as consumers turned to lower prices.

Renewable energy which is freely available in the form of wind, sun and water, has become a profitable business today as reflected in the market value that reached at USD$246 million in 2007 so companies are trying to improve on existing technologies and share the profits.

Wind power is one among the fastest-growing alternative energy markets so researchers at Purdue University and Sandia National Laboratories in West Lafayette (Indiana) are striving to make wind turbines more efficient, dependable and durable.

Those researchers use sensors and computational software that continuously monitor forces exerted on wind turbine blades with the aim of developing a smarter wind turbine structure.

But the main problem with wind turbines is that the wind can abruptly change direction and force, lessening efficiency and causing costly damage to blades. The team from Purdue and Sandia is confident that its technique can help avoid this by providing real-time information to the turbine’s control system and predicting fatigue.

Futuristic turbine blades could be fitted with flaps like those on an airplane’s wings. Sensors inside the blades would enable blade pitch to be adjusted in real time to respond to changing conditions.

Among companies trying to improve on existing technologies and share the profits from renewable energy is Catch the Wind which is based in Virginia. It has developed a fibre optic laser sensor, the Vindicator. It sits atop turbines and measures wind data in real time, allowing adjustments to be made to the turbine well before the wind comes. The company’s research suggests it can provide an increase of up to a 10% in turbine output power.

The other is Leviathan Wind Energizer which claims to increase power output by between 15 and 30%, when the turbine is spinning. It uses aerodynamic modeling to direct the surrounding wind flow to the critical area of the blades, via a passive structure located near each of the turbines.

Meanwhile, ExRo Technologies believes its generator reduces costs and increases output by up to 50% because more than 90% of its energy can be converted into electricity. Rather than use a traditional mechanical generator to compensate for variations in the wind, they have developed a self-adapting electrical system that can scale up and down with available energy in a way that would take almost 70 traditional generators to match.

You known Lenovo’s IdeaPad S10 first coming to town last autumn, today Lenovo already made a few attempts to better its cute-as-a-button netbook, but now it’s ditching the little-by-little approach entirely and introducing a ‘Part II’ version.

The new IdeaPad S10-2 specs base 1.6GHz Atom N270, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, WiFi, 1.3 megapixel camera — You may see more images and press release below.

New Lenovo Netbook Steps Ups Design for Extra Portability and Style

Built thinner and lighter, packed with latest entertainment and wireless connectivity technologies

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – May 12, 2009: Lenovo today announced the IdeaPad S10-2 netbook to give online enthusiasts, social networkers and mobile consumers the latest in connectivity, entertainment and performance features to keep them better connected and enjoying their computing experience anytime, anywhere. The new IdeaPad S10-2 netbook gives consumers even cooler netbook features – models with 3G connectivity1 and 2, the rich sound of Dolby headphone technology for music and movies and long battery life. Lenovo also made the IdeaPad S10-2 netbook thinner and lighter than the previous IdeaPad S10 netbook, and packaged the netbook in an expressive, colorful new ring pattern design.

“With the netbook scene rapidly changing, consumers are telling us they want to merge the capabilities of their most commonly used sources of electronic entertainment, such as digital photographs, online TV, music and social networks all into one portable and affordable device,” said Dion Weisler, vice president, Business Operations, Idea Product Group, Lenovo. “We’ve incorporated that feedback into our new IdeaPad S10-2 netbook, giving consumers around the world more ways to connect with options for wireless connectivity, a more portable and expressive design and entertainment-packed features.”

Slimming Down on Size and Pumping Up Performance

With consumers becoming more mobile today, thin and light laptop design matters, and saving space counts. Starting at just over two pounds and measuring less than an inch thick, the new IdeaPad S10-2 netbook is setting the bar higher in portability and affordability. Lenovo also revamped the S10-2 netbook with a modern and sophisticated ring pattern on the top cover for a distinct look personalized in grey, pink, white or black.

While slimming down the netbook’s size for increased portability, Lenovo outfitted the netbook for usability by giving it a larger keyboard over previous models. Lenovo made the netbook’s keyboard nearly 90 percent the size of a standard keyboard to give users an improved typing experience closer to that of a familiar, full-function laptop. The netbook also has identically sized and balanced shift keys on both sides of the keyboard. Lenovo made the netbook’s touchpad larger and more comfortable to use, and the netbook now comes with three USB ports for greater expandability, a 4-in-1 card reader for flexibility in using different multimedia tools and up to six hours of battery life3 to keep up with consumers’ mobile lifestyles. The IdeaPad S10-2 netbook’s battery saving software helps it achieve up to 30 percent more battery life than before.

Making Internet and Entertainment “On Demand”

Consumers can now go online “on demand” with their netbook anywhere1  with a host of wireless connectivity options to surf the Internet, email or chat at home or on the go. A great online experience and a great entertainment experience go hand-in-hand. Lenovo equipped the IdeaPad S10-2 netbook with Dolby Headphone technology to amplify customers’ audio experience. Users can wear any set of headphones to hear surround sound audio from 5.1 channels of sound. For individuals who demand “on demand” functionality, the netbook lets them use their favorite applications quickly with Lenovo QuickStart. From this application, users can listen to music, view photos, send instant messages or even make Skype calls without waiting for their operating system to boot. Users are also only one click away from Lenovo Social, a website designed to help get them up to speed on social networking.

“On demand” users will also enjoy VeriFace facial recognition technology, letting them log into the PC with their face instead of having to remember lengthy passwords. A built-in web camera can be used to record video messages or conduct web calls, making the netbook the one device for connectivity, entertainment and extreme PC portability.

Extreme portability means taking extra steps to help protect data. With Lenovo’s OneKey™ Rescue System consumers can recover their data if it becomes corrupted in just a few simple steps. The tool can also be configured to run virus scanning before entering the main operating system to restore damaged files and allow users to back up and recover their data. Additionally, the netbooks offer added performance with the latest Intel Atom processor technology, a 10.1inch LED screen and plenty of hard drive storage.

Pricing and Availability4

The IdeaPad S10-2 netbook will be available beginning at the end of May on www.lenovo.com and through business partners beginning at the end of June. Models start at $349.

Boeing will develop an internally-financed program called Phantom Ray, an unmanned flying test bed for highly-developed air system technologies, that will use the prototype vehicle which Boeing initially developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)/US Air Force/US Navy Joint-Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program.

This aircraft will carry out 10 flights within a period of approximately six months to back missions that may consist of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; suppression of enemy air defenses; electronic attack; hunter/killer; and autonomous aerial refueling.

The Boeing Phantom Works organization is utilizing quick-prototyping techniques that will ease the speed and nimbleness required to fulfill the flight schedule in 2010.

The Phantom Ray program is obviously aimed at demonstrating the US commitment to rapid prototyping and is an important part of Boeing’s efforts to become a leader in the unmanned aircraft business.

Phantom Ray will lift up where the UCAS program left off in 2006 by further demonstrating Boeing’s unmanned systems development capabilities in a fighter-sized, state-of-the-art aerospace system.

Boeing UCAS program started with the X-45A, which successfully flew 64 times from 2002 to 2005. Those flights consisted of a demonstration exercise with two X-45A aircraft that marked the first unmanned, autonomous multivehicle flight under the control of a single pilot. Boeing also designed a larger UCAS aircraft, the X-45C, that will function as the basis for the Phantom Ray demonstrator.