joule elana: August 2013

Chinese Segway Clone Nets $2 Million Investment

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chinese-segway-windrunner-2 Is it the second coming of the Segway? The American dual-wheeled transportation device hailed as a revolution ultimately wasn?t, but that hasn?t stopped China?s PowerUnionTech from creating the Windrunner, a ?self-balancing electric vehicle? that looks a lot like the Segway and just yesterday netted a 12 million RMB ($1.96 million) investment, according to Chinese tech blog 36kr.

The Windrunner is, by all accounts, pretty much the same as the Segway both in terms of its external appearance and its internal tech. Like the Segway, it?s an electric short-range personal transporter that will take you between 20 and 40 km on a 2-4 hour charge cycle. And like the Segway, its biggest problem may be that riding one around looks and feels a little bit ridiculous. This is especially true in China, where the things are most closely associated with the police, as evidenced by one of the comments on 36kr:

Oh, this is a domestic product? The security guard at our place is already using one of these.

The Windrunner put to use in a variety of situations.

Could it catch on with a larger audience? The $2 million cash infusion ? from an undisclosed investor ? could help, but I think it?s going to take a lot more than $2 million to make this thing cool in China, and that?s not to mention the logistical problems it would need to overcome, like theft prevention and general safety on China?s clogged, dangerous, and polluted roads.

(via 36kr)

Source: http://www.techinasia.com/chinese-segway-clone-2-million-investment/

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Milton Greene slides of Marilyn, others snag $1.8M

NEW YORK (AP) ? Tens of thousands of negatives of Marilyn Monroe and other stars by celebrity photographer Milton Greene have sold at auction for $1.8 million.

The archive includes 3,700 negatives and slides of Marilyn Monroe. All the material was sold with copyright.

Profiles in History auction house says the highlights included a collection of color transparencies of the Hollywood siren with Laurence Olivier from the "The Prince and the Showgirl" movie. It sold for $42,000.

A group of transparencies of Monroe from the film "Bus Stop" fetched $39,000.

The seller is an American photography collector who purchased the archive 10 years ago. The items came from the Greene estate.

The buyers weren't identified.

Like his contemporaries Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, Greene is credited with elevating fashion photography to fine art.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/milton-greene-slides-marilyn-others-snag-1-8m-185012146.html

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Moto X preview: A Google phone assembled with you, the user, in mind

Motorola. A Google company. It's time to commit that to memory. With the Moto X, a 4.7-inch phone going on sale later this summer for $199 on contract, the company has officially started the shot clock for the "new Motorola"; this is the first Moto product designed from scratch with Google's direct oversight. And it shows, from the packaging to the messaging to the features aimed at mainstream users. Most importantly of all, there's Moto X's standout feature: personalization. We've been hearing for years from various OEMs that smartphones are a personal statement, a reflection of the individual, but aside from the occasional color option, the wallpaper and case have been the only real opportunities for personal expression. Well, you can kiss those days goodbye. Motorola's keyed in to a core part of the user experience -- self-styling -- and we expect its rivals to follow suit.

But all of that backstory can wait. We need to talk about the Moto X. The company never explicitly said so when it showed us the phone behind closed doors today, but this is clearly a mainstream phone (it's geared towards the "majority of users" several execs told us). To that point, its spec sheet and feature list (Touchless Control, Active Display, Quick Capture) won't dazzle the technorati. And, from what we can tell, it's not supposed to. To hear the company tell it, the Moto X's journey began one year ago with a whiteboard listing all of the most common user problems, ways to address those issues and a plan to get the device into as many hands as possible. You won't be able to assess that for yourself until the phone launches on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and US Cellular later this summer. For now, though, if our initial hands-on time is any indication, it appears Motorola's succeeded.

Gallery: Motorola Moto X preview