glass

It takes a lot to stand out in the crowded world of ultrabooks, but HP is betting that a liberal dose of Gorilla Glass will do the trick.

The newly announced HP Spectre is the most glass-covered laptop we've ever seen. Is that a good thing? We've seen glass-heavy smartphones like the iPhone 4, but not so much in laptops...until now. At CES 2012, we got a good close-up look at HP's bold Envy redesign.

The Spectre is HP's first consumer-oriented ultrabook (the HP Folio 13 released last year was technically HP's first ultrabook, … Read more

Sure, the idea of augmented reality has some appeal.

Overlaid on your view of the real world, your Net-connected glasses show navigation instructions, prompt you with the name of the person you're talking to, and run an ad-blocker app to turn billboards into wallpaper with soothing nature photos. And with one display for each eye, you see in 3D, so you can turn the outisde world into an immersive videogame.

The only problem is that you look like a total dork walking around with bulky electronic devices stuck to your face.

Vuzix, which sells such products, says it's … Read more

Toshiba has confirmed to CNET that it plans to make a glasses-free 3D TV available to buyers in the U.S. sometime during the first quarter of 2012.

The set would be the first of its kind for the North American market, although Toshiba already has 55-inch glasses-free 3D TVs available for sale in Germany (the 55LZ2) and Japan (the 55X3). Both went on sale in December and retail for more than $10,000 in their home currencies.

A Toshiba representative told CNET that the U.S. version would be similar to those versions, but he couldn't provide additional … Read more

What do metallic glass, the world's largest solar-powered boat, and next-generation credit cards have in common? They all captured the attention of SmartPlanet viewers this year.

CNET sister site SmartPlanet has rounded up its most watched videos of 2011 in the areas of science and technology. Other videos that proved popular included one about a family recycling rain water and one on NASA recycling urine and turning it into drinking water for its astronauts.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "SmartPlanet's Top 10 videos of 2011."

Related SmartPlanet links:

It sometimes seems that the only time people talk about 3D TV lately is to knock it.

The much-hyped 3D revolution hasn't exactly set the world on fire after it kicked off at CES 2010, and even though plenty of new television sets are 3D compatible, the actual amount of 3D content available remains slim (and with 3D losing its luster at the box office, it may become slimmer still).

One possible exception is stereoscopic 3D video games, currently supported by both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Stereoscopic 3D feels like a perfect fit for this technology, which hypothetically only needs to render the 3D information already present in nearly every game (with the exception of, for example, 2D side-scrolling games).

On the PC side, stereoscopic 3D has been around for several years, thanks to Nvidia's 3D Vision platform, which uses compatible hardware and active shutter 3D glasses to enable you to at least try and play almost any PC game. Some games work better than others, and chances are you don't have the right PC hardware, but it's definitely fun to play around with different games (Dragon Age, Portal, etc.) and try your luck. … Read more

During my month or so with the Sony PlayStation 3D Display, I was quite content with it sitting beside me at my desk, allowing for awesome 3D gaming whenever I wanted. Then I wondered, "How many people find themselves in similar situations?"

It's this realization coupled with a healthy number of shortcomings that ultimately undid my initially positive impression of this display. Despite boasting the impressive SimulView technology (that lets two players see their own 2D screen), there is a laundry list of issues I have with the new PlayStation-branded display from Sony.

Aside from the fact … Read more

The recently released biography of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs isn't the only thing that's selling well in recent weeks. Apparently shoppers are snatching up the tech icon's favorite eyeglasses too.

Sales of German-made Lunor Classic Rund PP eyeglasses have "dramatically increased," since Jobs' death. That's according to The Wall Street Journal, which talked to Power Bloom, a distributor of the $450 eyewear. A Power Bloom representative told the outlet that the numbers sold are in the hundreds, representing a spike from typical sales of that particular model.

The glasses, which are a simple … Read more

The Photo Viewer is like many built-in Windows tools: it does a fine job, but it has room for improvement. ImageGlass is a lightweight, versatile image viewing application that is designed to take the place of Photo Viewer in Windows 7 and Vista, especially those installations that may have trouble displaying PNG and GIF files in Photo Viewer. ImageGlass loads images faster than Photo Viewer, thanks to a feature that uses RAM to preload the next image. It also lets you quickly resize and reorient images in the main display.

With a blank main window and an icon-based toolbar, ImageGlass … Read more

I reviewed the first version of Nvidia's 3D Vision technology more than two years ago. Since then, 3D has become synonymous with controversy. Whether it's higher movie ticket prices, 2D-to-3D conversions, or the home 3D TV dilemma, 3D definitely sparks interest.

According to Nvidia, the number of 3D-capable monitors increased by 112 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter in 2011 and the number of 3D notebooks increased by 126 percent in the same period. And with more than 550 3D games available on the PC. So, it would seem that at least hard-core gamers are taken with the tech.

The technology isn't perfect, though, and Nvidia seeks to improve the 3D experience in a couple of key ways with its new 3D Vision 2. … Read more