The Kitchen Sync concept by Noah Balmer combines computers and online recipes with old-fashioned cookbooks for the perfect way to cook in the 21^st century.

It features a small, flexible, washable screen with a dock. The Kitchen Sync allows you to view recipes online and follow links to buy whatever products you may need to concoct your favorite dishes. It eliminates the need to print out recipes or bring your expensive laptop into the kitchen only to get it covered with food.

Kitchen Sync takes full advantage of its wireless internet connection -besides downloading recipes, you can also chat with other users cooking the same dishes for a richer cooking experience.

Balmer received an International Housewares Association design award for his concept. We hope to see the Kitchen Sync make it to production as it would be an instant favorite of cooks worldwide. More pictures after the jump. Read more »

WiFi is commonplace in today’s large, booming cities. You can probably find a few hotspots walking around on any street. However, for rural areas, especially in undeveloped nations, WiFi and any other kinds of internet access are hard to come by.

Intel is trying to solve the problem with its Rural Connectivity Program (RCP). The company is utilizing a new technology consisting of a processor, software radios, and an antenna to enable wireless signals to travel up to 60 miles.

Wireless access is the way to go in these countries, as there are several problems with putting in wires. They are too expensive, too long for a good signal, and would often get dug up and sold.

So far, the RCP has been tested in India, Panama, Vietnam, and South Africa with successful results. “We’re seeing a lot of interest in the industry,” said Jeff Galinovsky, a senior platform manager at Intel. “Every time we talk about this, they say, ‘We need this yesterday’.”

This is a great program, and combined with efforts to make cheap laptops targeted at these countries will help them catch up to the information age. It will be great to see what the internet is like with so many more people with such different perspectives on board.

What do you get when you cross an iPhone with an iPod shuffle? An iStick, of course! Designer Alexei Mikhailov has dreamed up this gadget to show what he thinks that hybrid should look like.

The iStick is modeled after a tube of lipstick. However, all four sides have a touchscreen providing for a slick interface.

While the device isn’t for movie or photo viewing, it would be perfect for listening to music. It’s small, light, and has the same great interface as an iPhone. The iStick would also have Coverflow to let you scroll through album covers for an added effect. WiFi is also built in to browse iTunes.

The pictures also show some tiny wireless headphones. We’d really like to see some of those.

The concept is great, but it would be pretty hard to fit all that technology into a device as compact as the iStick. We’re also wondering what the gray end cap is for. Maybe you can twist it around as another way to interact with the gadget. Hopefully we’ll see a similar device from Apple sometime in the future. More pictures after the jump. Read more »

It’s been a long time coming, and riders of San Francisco’s ‘Connected Bus’ will finally have WiFi service during their journey around the city. People will never have to stop looking at their computer screen again.

Although the name isn’t very clever, the bus itself certainly is. Besides the free WiFi access, it also has touchscreen maps on the walls with live transit information.

“This is a smart bus in every way, shape and form,” said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. “You can download music, you can play video games. It’s a bus where you are connected. It’s constantly generating information about your connection to the rest of the Muni system.”

However, some riders are not happy with the new bus. Instead, they’d prefer buses that run on time, better drivers, graffiti removal, and more comfortable seats.

We think the idea is good, but mostly unnecessary. Many people already spend too much time starting at a computer, and this bus won’t help that at all. It would probably be a much better idea to improve the bus system by spending the money in other places. However, constant WiFi access is the future and this is one small step there.
Photo: Chronicle/Michael Macor

We all know that Apple products aren’t the cheapest around, but according to a report by research firm Piper Jaffray that could change soon. The best part? The “coolness” factor doesn’t have to go.

In a report to clients, Piper Jaffray claimed that Apple saw the worst year-over-year growth rate in the history of the iPod. To change this, the firm thinks that Apple will have to change its strategy.

“In order to achieve this level of year-over-year iPod growth, we are expecting Apple to introduce cheaper, innovative iPods with Wi-Fi and multi-touch technology,” analyst Gene Munster wrote. “We believe that, despite a slowdown in growth in the MP3 market, Apple’s vision of the iPod line-up becoming a mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform will have two results. First, it will spur growth in the portable media player market, particularly from the replacement cycle. Second, if Apple is able to lower prices on Wi-Fi connected and possibly touch-screen iPods, it will be able to maintain or grow its leading market share position,” Munster concluded.

Apple has yet to respond on the matter, but considering the company’s close ties to Piper Jaffray, these predictions are probably not that far-fetched.

This bamboo-inspired speaker design (with pics) by Soohyuk Im has some great features: WiFi, wireless speakers, an LED screen, MP3 line in, remote desktop syncing, radio, and a CD player. Not only does it have more than the expected features, but it also sounds great due to the acoustics of cylindrical objects. The setup includes left/right wireless speakers, a control ring, and a base station that houses the subwoofer.

The base station can be setup to wirelessly sync with your computer. The Bamboo’s charge lasts for 12 hours.

We think this thing looks like an awesome speaker setup, and we really love the computer syncing feature. Too many times people need to use an iPod for the sound systems they use in their house, when in reality all modern sound systems should have features to sync with a person’s computer and make it as easy as possible to manage music.

Researchers at UCLA have invented a WiFi music polling system for DJing by consensus. Instead of a DJ having to guess his listeners’ preferences, the “Smart Party” system polls the music on each party-goers’ WiFi enabled mobile device (so far only laptops) and creates a playlist based on the most popular songs or music genres.

There are still a lot of kinks to work out, such as dealing with DRM and supporting more devices including cell phones (come on, who brings a laptop to a party), but the system has the potential to create great party mixes tailored to the audience when it’s perfected.
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