So far the only uses for the Cell Chip technology has been for research, and the PS3. However, at CES 08. Toshiba demoed the laptop on a modified Qosmio G45 laptop with a standard Intel Core 2 Duo, in addition to the cell chip with four 1.5GHz synergistic processing elements (SPE). They had four demos running, all were multi-tasking beasts. One was scanning movie files and using face recognition to detect all the faces within the movie file. It then created a thumbnails of each of them. You could then click on the faces, and watch all the clips that included that face.

We’re barely getting the 45nm Quad Core  generation into full swing and they’re already using the cellchip in consumer computers.

A new revision to the already fast USB interface was announced this year at CES. With blazing speeds of 4.8Gb/s, you’ll be able to transfer full length movies from your desktop to a USB Thumb Drive or other device in just over 1 second. (4.8Gb/s = 600MB/s Avg. movie size ~750MB). It will also feature a smart power management utility that will regulate the amount of energy a device consumes, based on it’s current usage status. Unfortunately this technology will not be made available until 2010.

The 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was pretty fun this year, although most of the hype was around different displays from short throw projectors to the 150-Inch Plasma T.V., and even Alienware’s huge Curved Monitor. There was a lot of other stuff that we enjoyed quite a bit that sometimes got buried by the hype, so here’s our list of the top 5 favorite things and their pictures from C.E.S. 2008.

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SanDisk’s latest MicroSDHC card has a 12GB capacity. If you’ve ever held one of these cards, you’ll appreciate the true beauty of this article. If you haven’t, we’re talking small. MicroSD is a very small form factor, about the size of a small pinky nail. (The actual memory bank on the whole chip takes up about half the space.)

Currently you can buy the 8GB MicroSDHC cards for around $130. That’s about $16 per gig, and factor in the +$2 per gig on the next model up, we’re talking about $18 per gig on the 12GB model, totaling $216.00 USD is our guess at the price (SanDisk hasn’t released pricing info yet).

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The LCD screen, which measures 52.9-inches high by 93.9-inches wide, is being manufactured at the new Kameyama plant in Japan. What’s interesting is this is the first plant to begin using eighth generation glass-substrates. The new substance allows manufacturers to make larger televisions at reduced prices, especially in comparison to the current sixth generation standard. (Sony and Samsung both use the Seventh generation, however, and plan to start using the new substrate soon). No pricing was announced during the CES conference. It’s the first prototype of this size to be shown.

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The guys over at touchmods.net have proven it possible to use your iPod Touch as a phone - no lie. Using the iPod’s wifi it can connect to a free SIP- VoIP and make phone calls.. to anywhere. See their proof below.

What’s interesting? Well, aside from the obvious, the fact that it’s free is pretty cool. It’s almost like having the iPhone, but no service plans, and a cheaper device. It still seems a bit unpractical, but cool nonetheless.

Today, you traditionally get 21 gears to choose from on a mountain bike. Leonardo da Vinci, back in the 1400’s, sketched out a transmission system that utilizes ball bearings and discs to set an infinite amount of possible gear ratios. A knob at the handle bars controls the angle of the ball bearings within the wheel hub. You pedal to rotate one disc, and the other disc transfers power to the wheel. The bearings have a wide range of motion, which gives you very precise control over the energy being put in, and the speed coming out.

Within four years you can expect to see this technology in cars, wind turbines, or anything with need for a transmission system. It will dramatically decrease the amount of energy needed to be mobile, and will reduce wear and tear on engines (or bikers). The system is called NuVinci to credit the genius behind it all. Visit http://www.ellsworthbikes.com/ for more information on the bikes. Sketch of transmission after break.

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Nanosolar isn’t just your average tree hugging group of people promoting over priced alternative energy sources for a greener earth, no, they are the worlds current leading producer in cheap-as-dirt solar power technology. Nanosolar just announced the other day about their first real-world application over in eastern Germany - a megawatt solar plant being built over what else, a land fill.

Their cheap ideas which include the elimination of the use of high priced silicon, and the new innovations have attracted big investors, including Google! Even though the tech is cheap, people feel this is such a breakthrough that it’s sentimental value is driving the value of the first trio to roll of the line way up. Part one is being displayed at the Nanosolar HQ, the second is currently over $12,000 at eBay, and the third is being displayed at the science museum in San Jose.

The guys over at PopSci are going crazy over it, and have an array of information including a video here.

Putting Verizon FiOS’ 50Mbps Up / 30Mbps Down to shame is Comcast’s announcement to implement it’s new DOCSIS 3.0 infrustructure in 2008, with 20% system-wide availability by the end of 2008.

It will theoreticly max out at 160Mbps down speed, which is a whopping 20MB/s. That would enable a computer that has a good enough performance level to handle lots of connections from a P2P client to download a full length movie in just a few minutes. It will also mean an Up speed of about 120Mbps or 15MB/s. (If you’re confused about the units, Mbps is Megabits per second,while MBps is megabytes per second. one MB is larger then one M. Bits are commonly used in internet talk because companies like it since it looks like you’re getting much more for what you pay for. Google’s built in unit converter will translate them if you need it. Your query would look like this: 160Mbps to MB (which would be 20.))

What’s surprising however is the sudden announcement to release this new infrastructure and make it so widely available by the end of ‘08. At that rate we would expect full integration by 2010.

If there’s any perfect gift idea out there, this is it. Perfect for your techie boyfriend or even for yourself. We here were so amazed with this products size, yet long list of features that we tagged it with ‘Tech Achievements.’

The credit card sized media player is just that. It’s a… media player… the size of a credit card! It comes pre-loaded with 2GB of storage with an expandable memory drive for MicroSD or TransFlash. (SDHC compatibility not specified). You can transfer the data and also charge the device’s 8 hour battery right over USB.

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