VW Group design chief Walter de'Silva reskins the Leica M9

Filed under: Etc., Technology, Volkswagen, Design/Style

Leica M9 Titanium by Walter de'Silva - Click above for image gallery

Walter de'Silva has worked his magic on countless Alfa Romeos, Seats, Audis and now, as head of design for the entire Volkswagen Group, is responsible for styling even more brands and their products than just about anyone in the industry. But he can now add one more to his resume: a Leica camera.

The iconic German optics company brought de'Silva in to give its compact M9 camera a bit of a make-over. Rising to the task, de'Silva refitted the camera in titanium, gave its screen a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, trimmed it in Nappa leather, a diamond-texture surface and even reworked Leica's famous logo, centering it above the lens like a hood ornament. A gun-holster-like shoulder harness completes the package as de'Silva follows in the footsteps of fellow car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, who designed for Canon and whose ItalDesign studio de'Silva's employers recently acquired.

Only 500 examples of the limited-edition, de'Silva-designed Leica M9 Titanium will be produced, fetching a suitably car-like $31,300 apiece. Zoom in on the images in the gallery below for a closer look.

Gallery: Leica M9 Titanium by Walter de'Silva

[Source: Leica via The New York Times]

VW Group design chief Walter de'Silva reskins the Leica M9 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/07/vw-group-design-chief-walter-desilva-reskins-the-leica-m9/

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White iPhone 4 Delayed Again … or Forever?

Apple has delayed the white model of the iPhone 4 until spring of 2011, a release date that's difficult to believe.

The black iPhone 4 hit stores in June, 2010, but the release of the white model was mysteriously postponed — first for a month, then to the end of the year, and now until spring of next year.

"We're sorry to disappoint customers waiting for the white iPhone again," an Apple spokeswoman told Reuters, declining to explain the delay. In earlier press releases, Apple said it was facing manufacturing challenges with the white iPhone model.

The white iPhone's long delay is strange for a company that prides meeting most of its ship dates — Apple often releases products the day Steve Jobs announces them. Also, Apple has released an iPhone upgrade each summer, so a spring release for the iPhone 4 would be odd, since a fifth-generation iPhone would likely be due out three months later. Who would buy one then?

Apple may indeed be planning to cut its losses. Boy Genius Report, who has a solid track record with reporting scoops on cellphone news, claims receiving a tip that Apple is canceling the white iPhone altogether, and that another "delay" will be announced around March leading into the release of the iPhone 5 in June or July.

Though Apple has been mum about details explaining the delay, the departure of Mark Papermaster, Apple's executive in charge of iPhone hardware, was a telling incident. Apple hired Papermaster in 2008 — a move that his previous employer, IBM, attempted to block to prevent him from divulging secrets about its microchips. (Papermaster was a key player in developing the PowerPC chips used in previous-generation Macs.) Only two years later, in August 2010, Papermaster was gone.

Though Apple has not officially commented on whether Papermaster's exit was a firing or a resignation, multiple anonymous sources claim he was ousted because of issues with the iPhone 4, including the antenna flaw that led to a media flurry earlier this year and the white iPhone 4's delay.

What might the problem be with manufacturing? One lucky owner of a white iPhone 4 told blog Pocket Lint that Asian suppliers had shipped white iPhones with a white Home button that didn't match the color of the faceplate — one of those details that would drive Jobs crazy.

Long story short, if you're been holding off on buying an iPhone 4 because you want a white model, don't bother. Even if it does ship in the spring, it'd probably be a bad idea to buy one because the fifth-gen iPhone would come out soon after, and you'd inevitably have buyers' remorse. We're pretty sure it's delayed forever, though. For-e-ver. (See the video below for clarification.)

See Also:

• White iPhone Delay Explained by Lucky Owner
• Apple: White iPhone Delayed Until 'Later This Year'
• IPhone 4G, Also Available in White?
• Apple: No White iPhones for at Least Three Weeks

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/white-iphone-4-delayed-again-this-time-forever/

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Actroid-F，可以去演鬼片的人型機器人

說真的，這應該是最接近真人外型的機器人了，除了內在的技術面，外表的化妝造型也十分周全地顧及到了，皮膚髮型妝容無一不真，但就因為太真實，看起來反而多了份違和感，Kokoro 公司打算讓之前研發出的遠端遙控機器人 Actroid-F 披上護士服去實際出征，看醫院裡的病人對它的反應如何，Annti 是覺得這個實驗還是不要入夜去做，不然更容易出問題，跳轉後可以看一下影片。

%u7E7C%u7E8C%u95B1%u8B80%u5168%u6587 Actroid-F，可以去演鬼片的人型機器人

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/engadget/chinese/~3/Z-2pAP1GPJc/

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Nielsen Revises iPad App Stats

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Nielsen Revises iPad App Stats

A high-profile market research company radically revised its findings about how many iPad users download iPad apps.

Last week Nielsen published figures stating that 31 percent of iPad owners had never downloaded an app.

Now the company has revised its figures. The true number, Nielsen now says, is 9 percent.

In other words, the vast majority of iPad owners — more than 9 out of 10 — have downloaded an app. Games are the most popular category, followed by books and music, as shown in Nielsen's revised graphic, shown here.

We reported on Nielsen's claim and are now posting this update. We're also updating our original post on the topic.

The original number was eye-catching and, if true, would have had significant implications for the viability of Apple's app model, not only on the iPad and iPhone but on the soon-to-be-launched Mac App Store for OS X customers. The notion that one-third of tablet users were perfectly satisfied with the device's web browser, e-mail client and other utilities was surprising, if not totally unbelievable.

We were taken in by the survey, but treated it with a dose of healthy skepticism:

If these figures are actually meaningful (ie. if the self-selecting sample-group actually contains more than a few dozen iPad owners) then perhaps the app store isn't the competitive advantage that Apple believes it to be.

Turns out that the App Store may be a competitive advantage, after all.

In reporting the news, we're only as good as our sources. Nielsen is usually a credible provider of market research, and we made a mistake in reporting their numbers without examining them more closely.

For its part, Nielsen hasn't explained how it managed to overstate the number of non-app-downloading customers by a factor of three. At least they've corrected their original post.

via The Register

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