Samsung has unveiled LTE (Long-Term Evolution) versions of its GALAXY S II smartphone and GALAXY Tab 8.9. Displayed at this week’s IFA 2011, the devices will have access to 4G download speeds of up to 100Mbps. If you can get yourself onto a 4G network, the (theoretical) upload speed is 50Mbps and double that when downloading. Samsung equates this to downloading a four-minute MP3 track in 0.3 seconds.

GALAXY S II LTE smartphone

The Galaxy S II 4G LTE looks pretty similar to its non-LTE counterpart, but the Super AMOLED Plus display gets bumped up from 4.3 inches to 4.5 inches with a screen resolution of 800×480, and the dual-core processor gets bumped up from 1 GHz to 1.5GHz. The phone features an 8 megapixel camera on the rear and a 2 megapixel camera on the front, and offers 16GB internal memory. The phone will of course come pre-loaded with Android Gingerbread. It’s also a bit thicker and heavier than its non-LTE equivalent, coming in at 9.49 mm instead of 8.49, and weighing 130.5g instead of 116 g.

GALAXY Tab 8.9 LTE tablet

The LTE version of the GALAXY Tab 8.9 (meaning 8.9-inch screen) retains its slimline 8.6mm (0.33-inch) profile and comes with either 16 or 32 GB Internal memory. The tablet has a 1280 x 800 pixel 8.9″ display, and its dual-core processor has also been bumped up to 1.5 GHz from 1 GHz and it now runs Android 3.2 (Honeycomb).  You’ve still got the 3 megapixel primary camera and 2 megapixel front-facing camera of the original.

The LTE models are expected to start shipping in early 2012 but no pricing details as yet. We’ll keep you posted.

Check out the full specifications of both devices below.

Samsung GALAXY S II LTE specifications

Network: LTE 800/1800/2600, HSUPA＋ 900/2100, EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
Processor: 1.5GHz Dual-Core
Display: 4.5″ WVGA Super AMOLED Plus
OS: Android 2.3(Gingerbread)
Camera: Main(Rear): 8 MP with LED Flash, Front: 2 MP
Video: Codec – MPEG4/H.263/H.264, Format – 3GPP, MPEG4, MKV, Playback -
VGA@30fps, Recording – QVGA @ 15fps
Audio: Codec – MP3, AAC, AAC＋, eAAC＋, WMA,FLAC, OGG, 3.5mm Ear Jack
Connectivity: Bluetooth® technology v 3.0, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Accelerometer, Digital compass, Proximity
Memory: 16GB Internal memory ＋ microSD (up to 32GB)
Size: 68.8 x 129.8 x 9.49mm, 130.5g
Battery: Li-on 1,850 mAh

Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 LTE Product Specifications

Network: LTE 800/1800/2600, HSUPA＋ 900/2100, EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
Processor: 1.5GHz Dual-Core
Display: 8.9″ WXGA 1280×800
OS: Android™ 3.2 (Honeycomb)
Camera: Main(Rear) – 3.0-Mega Pixel Camera AF with LED Flash, Front – 2.0-Mega Pixel Camera
Video Format – MPEG4/H263/H264, Divx/Xvid, Playback – 1080p Full HD Video@30fps, Recording – 720p HD Video
Audio, MP3, AAC, AAC＋, eAAC＋, OGG, MIDI, AMR-NB/WB, 3.5mm Ear Jack, Stereo Speaker
Connectivity: Bluetooth® technology v 3.0, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Ambient Light sensor
Memory: 16/32GB Internal memory
Size: 230.9 x 157.8 x 8.6 mm, 455g
Battery: 6,100mAh

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Sure, BC Rich, Fender and Godin all have their distinctive styles, but the templates tend to stay fairly similar in the world of electric guitars. While working as a machinist at a factory in Illinois, Hector Trevino was lamenting on the “3 or 4 basic templates” that electric guitars have been constructed from in the last half century. Trevino decided to try and reinvent the electric guitar, and create something that would stand out from all the solid-body electric guitars on the market. After two years of planning and building, Trevino came up with the “Sonic Wind” guitar, which has an open chamber body and a through neck. Apparently it offers players more resonance and natural sustain than solid-body electric guitars.

The handmade guitar features curved maple body panels that come together to form the open chamber, and the neck is isolated from the back of the body to negate any damping effect that the body might have on note clarity. The neck has a 2-way adjustable truss rod and is topped with a 1.7-inch wide (at the nut) ebony fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets. Additionally, there is a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 pickup at the bridge position and a Jazz neck pickup. A 5-way switch offers either humbucker or single coil functionality. Strings are secured at the body end by a stainless steel tailpiece specially designed for the Sonic Wind Guitar, which then travel over a Tune-o-matic bridge on their way to the headstock. The icing on the cake is the nitrocellulose lacquer finish.

Trevino is currently touring with the Sonic Wind, taking it to guitar shows and exhibitions around the United States. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any video or audio footage of the guitar in action, but a YouTube video is currently being produced.

This guitar reminds me a bit of the work of Ulrich Teuffel of Teuffel Guitars. The “birdfish” guitar, in particular, seeks to transform the traditional body of an electric guitar. It’s very minimalist and even has pickups that can be exchanged with each other. Though Teuffel’s guitars cost up to $15,000 or more, and the first limited production run of 20 of the Sonic Wind guitars will be priced at $3,000 a piece, including a custom hard case and limited lifetime warranty.

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3D animation company AatmaStudio has released a cool concept video for the iPhone 5. It looks awesome, but how likely is it that the iPhone 5 could actually have the features shown in the video?

Ultra thin design

Smartphones are getting thinner and thinner, with the title of the world’s slimmest smartphone currently held by the Medias N-04C from Japanese company NEC Casio Mobile. At 7.7mm, the Android handset beats both the Galaxy S II and iPhone 4 when it comes to slimness.

The one in the video looks like it could be even thinner than that, but first camera sensors and radios will have to get smaller, as they typically make up the bulky parts. However, OmniVision recently announced an 8-megapixel camera module that comes in at a build height of just 4.4mm. So this aspect of the concept video doesn’t sound too unreasonable. The question is, will people want a smartphone that thin? At what point does it become uncomfortable to hold?

Laser Keyboard

Projection keyboards have existed for several years, but they’re generally not high-resolution or integrated into the smartphone as shown in the video. The projection keyboards on the market are generally dedicated Bluetooth/USB accessories. The Celluon virtual laser keyboard, for example, is fairly small, light and meant for tablets and smartphones, but is a separate component and uses a red laser beam. A couple more years before it is integrated into the smartphone, perhaps? iPhone 7?

Holographic Projector

Projecting video into thin air without any sort of screen to reflect the light is a bit trickier. Some say it’s just not possible. What do you think? Could we be seeing stuff like this on the iPhone 5, or will this be more of the kind of stuff we’d see on an iPhone 10?

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As a journalist, I have spent many hours working on illustrations and graphics that started out as doodles on a sketchpad. Scanning the image and then importing it into Illustrator or Photoshop isn’t difficult, but it is time-consuming, especially if I have to retrace the image to manipulate lines.

The new Wacom Inkling should make things a lot easier for artists, illustrators, graphic designers and pretty much everyone who doodles on real paper with a ballpoint pen and then needs to get it onto a computer. With the Inkling, you use the included ballpoint pen to doodle whatever your heart desires, and a wireless receiver stores the sketch digitally. The receiver can be clipped to the edge of standard paper or sketchbooks, as long as you’re using them on flat and rigid drawing surfaces.

Then, when you’ve finished drawing, you just hook up the receiver to your computer via USB to transfer the digital files. Files are opened with the Inkling Sketch Manager software where you can manage layers or change file formats to JPEG, TIFF or PDF and then open the fully layered files in Photoshop or Illustrator.

Yes, we know ink-to-digital pens are nothing new, but the pressure sensor technology of the Inkling is pretty neat. The gadget has 1024 levels of pressure, and pressure variations all appear in the digital version of the drawing. You can export your doodles as a vector illustration to Adobe Illustrator, which will allow you to re-work your lines in any way you want. That sounds pretty good to me.

The Wacom Inkling comes with a pen, receiver, rechargeable batteries, four spare pen ink cartridges, charging case and the Inkling Sketch Manager Application, which can be stored in the Inkling receiver. The Wacom Inkling will be available in the middle of September for $199.

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A bird-like surveillance drone crashed in southwestern Pakistan late last week, close to the Afghan border. Some spare parts and a camera were found with it, but they are not pictured. The Pakistani Frontier Corps in Baluchistan province recovered the drone, and they declared it to be an “American surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle.” While the United States does use UAVs to monitor militants in Pakistan, this doesn’t look like anything the military flies. That we know of, anyway.

Danger Room’s Spencer Ackerman compared the unidentified drone with the SmartBird drone from Festo, which was inspired by the herring gull. There are notable differences between the two, as the wings of the mystery drone are straighter and more sharply angled than the SmartBird’s rounder wings. The SmartBird’s wings are made up of more than one type of material, while the mystery drone seems to be made of only one type of material. Not to mention that the mystery drone seems to have hosted a propeller and has ailerons, while the SmartBird, pictured below, doesn’t have either.

At any rate, it seems to have crashed on its own, rather than being shot down as the wreckage is almost entirely intact, except for some scorch marks that you can see in the photo.

This could be the work of soldiers toying around with equipment.  It could just as easily be from China, India, or one of the many other countries with UAV capabilities and an insatiable need to spy.

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For sporty moms and dads on the go, a bike that turns into a baby stroller would be pretty convenient. The Taga Bike isn’t cheap at $1495, but the thing does combine a bike and stroller, and some strollers cost $400 or more, depending on just how fancy the features are. And how cool would it be to transform a bike into a stroller in 20 seconds?

The 3-wheel carrier bike design makes biking easy for those who have never learned how. It’s made with aluminum, with a Shimano Nexus Inter-3 internal gear hub, disk brakes on both front wheels and a roller brake on the rear wheel. The Taga Bike has 16-inch wheels and can be set into two positions in stroller mode and two positions in tricycle mode. You can also customize the stroller for two tots.

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Imagine if all it took to create biofuel was your Sunday paper. How great would it be if you could chuck your newspaper into a machine and it would come out as fuel for your car? We’re nowhere near that level of sophistication, but a team of scientists at New Orleans’ Tulane University have found something promising.

The scientists discovered a microorganism that converts cellulose into butanol, which can be substituted for gasoline. The scientists first found the organism, named TU-103, in animal droppings. Once they cultivated it, they found success using newspapers as the cellulose source in the patent-pending process. The advantage of using this organism is that it is able to produce butanol in the presence of oxygen, while other butanol-producing bacteria require an oxygen-free environment, which increases production costs.

“Cellulose is found in all green plants, and is the most abundant organic material on earth, and converting it into butanol is the dream of many,” said team member Harshad Velankar. ”In the United States alone, at least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials that could be used to produce butanol are thrown out each year.”

Although ethanol is also derived from cellulose, butanol is reportedly superior to that biofuel as it can be used in place of gasoline with no engine or fuel system changes, can be pumped through existing pipelines, is less corrosive, and contains more energy.

“As a fuel, bio-butanol produced from cellulose would dramatically reduce carbon dioxide and smog emissions in comparison to gasoline, and have a positive impact on landfill waste,” said David Mullin, whose lab in Tulane’s Department of Cell and Molecular Biology was the location of the research.

If you don’t subscribe to newspapers, you probably get a heap of flyers every month. Wouldn’t it be satisfying if that stuff could be turned into fuel, instead of being recycled into more ads? Or, what about cellulose materials that can’t be recycled into other paper? While we’ve been eagerly awaiting biofuel made from algae or a by-product of tequila, it would be a great way to get rid of all that paper waste floating around.

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You know what they say; If you can’t beat ‘em, hire them.

Sony was thinking along those lines when they offered Koushik Dutta, a hacker and developer, a Software Engineer role within their R&D team. Dutta politely declined stating, “due to Sony’s recent treatment of a fellow hacker, George Hotz, I could not in good conscience work at Sony.”

Tech companies hiring hackers is no new thing, and now 19-year old Nicholas Allegra, known as Comex to the iPhone world, will be starting an internship with Apple in early September. Comex announced on Twitter that he will start the internship “the week after next.” He gained notoriety last year when he released a web-based JailbreakMe exploit for the iPhone 4 while a member of the iPhone Dev Team. In July, Apple fans rejoiced again when he released an updated version of JailbreakMe for iOS 4.3.3, which took advantage of an exploit found in the operating system’s PDF reader. However, Apple responded with an update that patched up the security hole related to the PDF exploit.

Allegra has been on leave from Brown University since last winter while looking for an internship. Steve Jobs himself dropped out of college and in a commencement speech to graduates at Stanford University, mentioned that dropping out was one of the best decisions he ever made. Perhaps Allegra will follow in Job’s footsteps, drop out of Brown and end up working for Apple permanently. Who knows? The future looks bright for young Allegra. The hacker has expressed that circumventing Apple’s security measures comes easily to him.

“It feels like editing an English paper,” Allegra said. “You just go through and look for errors. I don’t know why I seem to be so effective at it.”

Allegra taught himself to program when he was just 9 years old, and confessed that he hacks the iPhone because he likes the challenge. Maybe he’ll bring the tweaks to the iPhone that fans love and desire, without the need to jailbreak.

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Thanks to a fire sale on the HP TouchPad from pretty much every major retailer, someone went home with a special TouchPad – it’s running Android 2.2. There are currently two YouTube videos posted of the unique tablet, and the device flashes a Qualcomm Innovation Center (Quic) logo so it looks like it was a development project that accidentally mixed up with the fire sale models.

The buyer decided to sell it on eBay, and at the time of this post the current bid was $1,275. HacknMod is also offering a reward of $2,225 as of this posting for a successful port of Android to the TouchPad.

However, more than one person has received a special Android-running TouchPad. Shahzeb Jiwani has also come into possession of an HP TouchPad running Android 2.2… and to the delight of developers and the Android community, he’s decided to make a ROM dump available on RootzWiki, so everyone who owns one of the $99 tablets can run Android on their tablet.

The files are available for download and the port of Android 2.2, 2.3, and maybe even 3.0 Honeycomb will get a little head start.

Check out Jiwani’s TouchPad running Android in his own video.

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As someone who’s been called an outdoor enthusiast, I understand the need for gear that isn’t bulky or awkward, is easy and comfortable to carry, and can be packed up quickly. However, there are people who consider a portable bed not a weekend accessory for the mountains, but an urgent necessity every night of the week. Homeless people can’t carry around a luxurious tent; they need something practical to lug around downtown streets.

That’s why Tony Clark’s charity, Swag for Homeless, distributes lightweight, easy to carry Backpack Beds to Australia’s homeless. The Backpack Bed is “the most awarded sleeping module in the world” and is made from a fire-retardant, windproof, waterproof, mildew-repelling UltTrex Lite fabric. The fabric covers a 6-foot 2-inch insulated foam mattress that sports a space blanket backing for added warmth. You just roll out the backpack into a bed when it’s time to sleep. It has mosquito protection, padded, adjustable backpack straps, and you won’t need to wet it down before you use it.

When it rains or when the sun is too strong to bear, there’s a cover that can be tied up to create a shelter and it’s waterproof with up to 5+ meters of water resting on it. All of this quickly rolls back up into the backpack, weighing a total of no more than 4 kg, or about 9 lbs. Handy for the homeless, and handy for hiking the West Coast Trail and backpacking across Europe, too.

If you want to donate one to a homeless person, you can purchase the Backpack Bed for $68 AUS (roughly $71 US) on the Swag for Homeless website. If you want one for yourself, it’s yours for $199 AUS. You can get something handy for that weekend camping trip, and sleep easy knowing all the proceeds went to helping out those without a home.

[via Gadget Review]

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