Aptina producing cellphone image sensor that shoots HD video

It sounds like your camera phone's video capabilities may get exponentially more awesome in the near future. Aptina -- a division of Micron that manufactures one out of every three sensors for mobile phone cameras -- has announced the high resolution 5 megapixel MT9P013. There are better sensors out there already, but this one will also be able to record 720p HD video at 60 frames per second, and 5-megapixel video at 15fps. The sensor is going into production in January of 2009, according to Aptina, so it shouldn't be too long before we start seeing much better quality amateur films out there in the world.

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The Insane Hardware Driving the World's Biggest LED Billboard [Walgreens]

In a dusty supply closet at 1 Times Square, a computer terminal hooked up to hordes of ethernet servers, RAID arrays and monitors humbly runs the largest LED sign in the world. The sign, a 3-sided,...

World's Tallest Bridge Goes Up in China with the Help of Some Rockets [Engineering]

In China, they're currently working on the Siduhe Grand Bridge, what will be the tallest bridge in the world when completed. How tall is it? Well, let's just say that you could put the Empire State...

With Nokia Build, French Users Can Customize the Nokia 7310 Online

AMD overclocks the snot out of Phenom II processors

No, you're not looking at some high-precision, multimeter-laden kegerator; the above is a picture from a recent AMD event in which things apparently got a little out of hand. The company started by talking up its upcoming Dragon platform (Phenom II X4, Radeon 4800 graphics, and 7-series chipset), took a few moments to discuss how its new 45nm chips will use 30-50 percent less power than their predecessors, and then threw all notions of sensibility out the window in an attempt to see just how fast the darned things could go. A Phenom II X4 managed 4GHz with air-cooling, 4.4GHz with a refrigerated setup, and finally a "stable" 5GHz on liquid nitrogen. That's mighty fast, but will the chips be quick enough to tackle Intel's mighty Core i7 when stripped of their fancy-pants cooling appendages? We'll see when they ship early next year.

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NXE creating HDMI headaches for UK Xbox 360 owners?

The path to Netflix-enhanced glory hasn't been entirely trouble free for everyone, this time it's posters on AVForum noticing a distinct lack of audio on Xbox 360s connected to their HDTV by HDMI. So far suggested solutions for the afflicted include plugging in the hard drive while the system is on, or waiting several minutes before switching the monitor to HDMI, and repeating them every time the system is started. It's not the first time we've heard of UK-centric HDMI weirdness, any of you hearing a whole lot of nothing while gaming (that's not attributable to hard drive installs)?

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Scalado demonstrates zero-lag cellphone camera

Great news for all you aspiring paparazzi -- it looks like someone has finally figured out how to eliminate that nasty camera phone shutter lag. By sending image data directly to the camera's display and capturing it as a modified SpeedTagged JPEG when the time comes to immortalize that precious moment (or romantic indiscretion), the Scalado Camera Solution not only takes nigh-on instantaneous photos, but also provides high quality, real-time preview, pan and zoom. With several camera phone sensor and module manufacturers (including Aptina, OmniVision Samsung, and MtekVision) already on the SpeedTags tip, it looks like that laggedy old camera phone may soon be a thing of the past. Don't believe us? Take a look at the demo video yourself. It's after the break.






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Two Guys Jumped Off the Burj Dubai and Lived to Tell About It [Insanity]

Oh, wow. Apparently, in May, a Brit and a Frenchman snuck on to the under-construction Burj Dubai and BASE jumped from it at 650 meters up. Now, there's video available of their infiltration, jump...

New Xbox Experience Causing HDMI Sound Loss Issues [Xbox 360]

According to a long thread at the AVForums, several Xbox 360 users are losing all sound after upgrading to the New Xbox Experience. Apparently, the problem only appears in HDMI-connected systems. but...

Mercedes' Web-Connected myComand Takes on BMW iDrive [Cars]

Mercedes-Benz new myCOMAND system has appeared at the Los Angeles Auto Show, taking on the fourth-generation BMW iDrive. Whereas the latter has an Xbox 360 feeling, this one gets some clues from...