This Week in Geek: New Chips, More 3D, Wii Hacks, and Human Touchscreens

e the above photo, I'm sorry to report that there were no lolcats in the news this week. But that doesn't mean there wasn't anything to report. This past week saw various chip announcements, more news on 3D displays, and a novel prototype that can effectively turn your skin into a touchscreen. Let's take a look.

All That and a Bag of Chips

It's been a busy week in the land of components, with announcements regarding both AMD and Intel. On Monday, AMD announced its new 890GX motherboard chipset, the first to natively support the new SATA 6Gb/s standard. Not to be outdone, Nvidia announced the newest version of its Ion netbook chipset.

Tuesday brought news that AMD's first six-core desktop processor will arrive later this year. On Thursday, we caught a glimpse of a chip technology from IBM that would use light to transmit signals instead of copper. And on Friday, we learned that Intel's eight-core Nehalem-EX processors would come later this month.

Still More 3D

Whether or not you think that 3D is a just marketing gimmick, I think we can all agree that 2010 is shaping up to be the year of 3D. At this week's CeBIT conference in Germany, vendors demonstrated various 3D displays that won't require dorky glasses to create a 3D effect (a topic that we've covered at length in the past). Read on...

This week we also spotted a novel Nintendo DSi game that mimics a 3D effect by tracking your eye movement and adjusting the image accordingly. See it in action...

Meet the Wii Laptop (Sort of)

Nintendo doesn't sell a portable Wii, but one intrepid modder took the initiative and built a Wii "laptop." This Wii mod has a clamshell case made of PVC. Want to make your own Wii-to-go? you'll need a little spare cash and plenty of time; it cost the creator around $600, and took three months to build. Check it out...

Tap Your Arm to Play The Next Song

Microsoft and Carnegie Melon University teamed up to create Skinput, a prototype that effective turns your skin's surface into a touch input device. It uses the acoustics of tapping skin to detect the taps; projecting an interface (buttons, commands, etc...) onto your arm effectively turns you into your own touchscreen. Get the skinny on Skinput...

Theo pcworld.com