Showing posts with label gadget guru. Show all posts
For whatever reason, Apple's iPod ends up in the middle of quite a few crimes. The latest story, however, is even more extreme than usual. Nicholas Arthur Woodhams, a 23 year old from Kalamazoo, Michigan, was recently slapped upside the gord with federal charges of fraud and money laundering after he managed to con Apple into shipping him around 9,000 iPod shuffles. As the story goes, he managed to somehow correctly guess thousands of valid shuffle serial numbers and have replacements shipped to him; once they arrived, he sold them for less than MSRP to excited buyers, all while giving Apple a prepaid VISA number that would reject the charges after he failed to send back the nonexistent "original" shuffle. It's rather amazing to us that he was able to pull this off for so long without being noticed, but even if it works for awhile, we've learned yet again that crime doesn't pay. In fact, the feds have already seized a half million bucks from one brokerage account, some real estate and a trio of vehicles. Tragic, yeah?
Get rid of the pesky cord that normally comes with headphones and go wireless by using Sony’s lightweight Bluetooth
The On Time Headset System is a bracelet that comes with a pop-out wireless headset. I suppose that is a better place to put your Bluetooth headset than your pocket.
The bracelet has a secondary display, so if your headset rings, you can just look down and see who is calling. I would imagine that the bracelet display can show the time, making it a very fancy wristwatch.
By the way, did I mention that the displays are both touchscreens? Well, they are, and they would hopefully not require tiny fingertips in order to use.
My source referred to the OnTime Headset System as the “future of bling”, and I can’t help but feel that it is about time that tech and bling combined to create something like this. Well, as I mentioned before, this is only a concept, but I already want it on my wrist.
How would you like a 22″ widescreen wireless digital photo frame that can display up to 150,000 images on its 1680 x 1050 LCD screen and hang on your wall? You can even choose from different frame styles made of wood, metal, and leather. Sounds pretty sweet right? But would you pay $999 for it? The folks at Photovu sure hope so.
EA has announced Dead Space Extraction, a prequel to its sci-fi/horror game Dead Space...and it's being built exclusively for the Wii.
Electronic Arts has announced it is developing a prequel to its scifi/horror game Dead Space called Dead Space Extraction—and where the original Dead Space is available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, Dead Space Extraction is being developed for the Nintendo Wii.
"We could not be more excited to extend Dead Space into an experience exclusive to the Wii," said EA Redwood Shores VP and general manager Glen Schofield, in a statement. "Nintendo has a wonderful history in the horror genre and we are thrilled to build on that tradition."
Promising all the blood, gore, and "intensity" Dead Space fans are used to, the prequel will tell the story of a group of space colonists who try to escape from a terrible infection spreading through a mining colony. The game will introduce new characters, weapons, enemies, and puzzles for players to solve, as well as enable cooperative multiplayer action. EA also promises Dead Space Extraction will leverage the Wii's unique motion-sensitive controller with frenzied first-person action.
The announcement falls in line with EA's new emphasis on developing games for the Nintendo Wiim, citing lower development costs to bring games to the platform—according to EA's John Riccitiello, developing standard-definition games for the Wii can cost as little as a third to a fourth of the cost of developing a title for high-definition consoles. EA's moves will also likely diversity the range of titles for the Wii, broadening the platform to include titles like Dead Space Extraction aimed at mature, hardcore gamers, rather than casual and non-traditional gamers, or children.
When Acer recently demoed their 10 inch Aspire One netbooks, many reviewers were pleasantly surprised to discover a netbook that could boast an uptime of nearly 8 hours while under moderate use. That was largely made possible by the battery capacity, which was a six-cell 5800mAh unit. Unfortunately for potential owners of the netbook, the units that reviewers (and some early bird customers) got were “mistakenly” shipped with the larger battery. Most of the units will actually be delivered with a 4400mAh battery which would in turn have a shorter runtime. Acer claims the smaller unit will still get around 6 hours of battery life, though one review site speculates it’d be lucky to get 5.5 hours, compared to other netbooks with similar sized batteries and specs.
Features shared by nearly all of these cameras include: And you can thank Canon for having so much white space in their pictures. Come on! Their pair of Superzooms starts with the unbelievably expensive SX1. Then there is the SX200. More compact, smaller zoom. PowerShot D10 PowerShot SD970 IS, SD960 IS, SD780 IS and SD1200 The S960 and SD780 were leaked earlier today, their stats are there. As for the SD970: The SD 1200 is the entry level ELPH camera. Stay away from this one. PowerShot A2100 IS, A1100 IS and A480 The budget series for “the tentative first timer.” You’re probably better off going with last year’s SD series cameras on sale rather than buying budget new ones. Nevertheless, here are their vital statistics. A2100 A1100 A480
Just when I thought it was safe to relax and read a little bit, my inbox lights up with a damn tidal wave of point-and-shoots. If you’re in the market, you’ll be doing more in-depth research and of course the outliers of this batch will be tested and compared to others, so for the moment we’ll just take a quick look at their styling, specs, and standout features. Couldn’t have released this information at a decent hour, eh Canon?
The cameras look just fine, but the only one that’s at all exciting is the D10. Waterproof, freezeproof, and shockproof, more or less like we heard.
PowerShot SX1 IS and SX200 IS
Here’s an interesting one. The D10 is waterproof to 33ft, freeze-resistant down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and shockproof from anywhere below 4ft. Its more prosaic stats:
Sony Electronics has announced five new Cyber-shot digital cameras—the DSC-T900, DSC-T90, DSC-W290, DSC-W230, and DSC-H20—four of which feature an intelligent auto mode that "thinks" for photographers, adjusting setting automatically to capture skin tones, reduce blur, and make sure subjects have their eyes open—even in situations where lighting conditions make taking a perfect picture difficult. "This camera provides a seamless experience," said Sony senior product manager Karim Noblecilla, in a statement. "You can go from a walk in the park to taking pictures of a flower and then back to beautiful landscapes or indoor birthday parties, and the camera will know what to do to get the best shot." The technology combines intelligent scene recognition (that can detect and switch between five to eight basic scene types in as little as a 30th of a second) with face detection that can register up to eight faces in a single shot. Two of the models also feature selected-face memory, enabling photographers to assign priority to a selected subject's face. The cameras can also be configured to take two quick snapshots in low light situations using two alternative settings, so users are more likely to get a good shot even in bad light. The T900 features a 3.5-inch display, 12.1 megapixel resolution, stereo microphone, and a 4× optical zoom; the T90 is similar but with a 3-inch LCD display. The W230 also features a 12.1 megapixel resolution. 4× optical zoom, and 3-inch LCD display, while the W290 adds a 5× optical zoom. The H20 offers a 10.1 megapixel resolution, a 10× optical zoom, and a 3-inch LCD. All these cameras except the W230 can also capture full-screen 720p MPEG-4 video at 30 frames per second. All five cameras will be available for pre-order beginning in March, with availability coming in April. The T900 will carry a suggested price of $380 and be available in red, bronze, silver, and black; the T90 will be available in silver, black, pink, and brown for about $300. The W290 will go for about $250 in blue, bronze, silver, and black, while the W230 will be priced at about $200 in blue, red, silver, and black. Finally, the H20 will only come in black with a $280 estimated price tag
Skype strikes deal with Nokia
Posted in cellphone, gadget guru, nokia, skype, technology, technology news
The company, which is owned by eBay, announced a partnership with Nokia, the largest cell phone maker in the world, to put the Skype Internet calling software onto its phones. Nokia will initially offer Skype on its high-end smartphones, the N-series. The N97, Nokia's flagship device that goes on sale in June, will be the first to have Skype embedded. The Skype feature will start shipping on the device in the third quarter of 2009. Skype will be integrated into the N97 address book, enabling users to see when Skype contacts are online. It will also let people use Skype's instant-messaging client. Most importantly, N97 users will be able to make free and low-cost phone calls over the Internet whether they are on a 3G cellular network or a Wi-Fi network. The Skype-to-Skype voice calls are free. And the SkypeOut service, which allows calls from Skype to landlines and mobile devices, offers low rates. Nokia's not the only handset maker to announce a deal with Skype at Mobile World Congress. On Monday, Sony Ericsson announced it would be offering a Skype "panel" on the Windows Mobile Xperia1 device. Adding Skype to smartphones is a great benefit for consumers, especially people who travel internationally or have friends and family overseas. While pricing on domestic voice services has been dropping like a brick from a third-story window, international rates have remained high. As a consumer who likes to travel and who happens to be traveling internationally right now for this trade show, I am annoyed and almost angered at the outrageous prices mobile operators charge when customers roam in other countries or make international calls from the U.S. They all try to sell "international" plans to help defray the cost, but the plans themselves cost consumers an extra fee every month regardless of whether they're traveling that month or not. Skype and other VoIP services offer users a more cost-effective alternative. And Skype on a mobile phone, when accessed on a low-cost data network, could help people who travel frequently or make lots of international calls save tons of money. Of course, the two smartphone makers Skype has announced as partners here are manufacturers that are already struggling to get their high-end devices on American mobile networks. And my guess is that adding Skype won't do much to convince these operators to offer these phones and subsidize them so that American consumers will buy them. The reason is pretty simple. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA know that a wide-scale deployment of Skype on their phones could cannibalize their international voice services and potentially hurt their domestic voice service. So if by chance, Nokia or Sony Ericsson manages to win approval from a U.S. operator to get these phones on their networks, I wouldn't be surprised if the Skype feature is stripped from the device in the U.S. version.
LG is reportedly planning to come out with its first Android based handset later this year. The first amongst these might be the all-roundish KS 630 that is already in existence -sans the Android OS. The phone is likely to be re-launched with Android powering it, most probably, later this year. The KS 630 features a two-mega pixel camera and a QWERTY keyboard as well. The specification, at least the hardware part of it, will remain the same and it is only the OS that will change. A senior LG official has revealed at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) that LG would be releasing two other Android phones this year. No, there are no leaked images or details as of now. Although we'd love to have a sneak peek.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Apple is going to get flattered at a record pace in the coming months. Today’s bit of corporate flattery comes from Nokia who is launching an App/Media store for Nokia users called Ovi. From reports there doesn’t seem to be anything special about the Ovi store. Nokia isn’t the the only company planning to ape the App Store. Similar stores are in the works for Blackberry, LG Electronics, and France Telecom Orange. The allure of controlling the distribution channel is obvious, not only has Apple shown the model can be successful the market for such offerings is predicted to hit $67 billion in sales this year.
Despite my extra geekiness and my affinity for electronic gadgets and toys, I only very recently acquired a cell phone with bluetooth. I’d been using a Motorola V325 with Verizon for three years (try this - they’ll start begging you to upgrade to a new phone a few months after your “New every two” date), and it was bluetooth-free. Then I upgraded to an iPhone, which got me a little more interested in the world of bluetooth devices. iVoice is a small company that specializes in bluetooth voice devices for phones. I was sent both the R1 car kit and the Baby-Ai headset. We’ll cover the headset in another review. The R1 is an interesting concept - rather than rely solely on a headset while driving, this is a speakerphone that clips onto your car’s sun visor. It has buttons for making and receiving calls, and it’s designed to be easier to use while driving than a traditional headset. It also employs iVoice’s technology to cancel out background noise and provide “face-to-face quality conversation”. The iVoice R1 comes with a sun visor clip, USB cable, and two chargers - one for home and one for your car. This is a nice feature; I like when a product comes with a car charger - it’s one less thing I have to buy. Syncing it up to my iPhone was easy - I just followed the included directions, and I was ready to go. One nice thing about the R1 is that it can be synced up to two phones simultaneously. My boyfriend also has an iPhone, so we can both use it whenever we need to. The R1 also has dual microphones. When used in the car, the second mic acts as noise cancellation. You can also enable “conference mode”, where both mics receive normal speech, so that the R1 can be used as a makeshift speaker for on-the-go conference calls. In testing with the R1, I found that as the caller (using the R1), voice calls were very, very clear. The speaker is plenty loud and works great in the car. The end call and answer call buttons are easy to hit while I’m driving. The R1 also supports voice dialing and announcing who is calling, if your cell phone supports these features. Unfortunately, the iPhone doesn’t support voice dialing, so this feature doesn’t work. It does, however, announce the phone number of the person calling. I’m not sure if it would announce the name of the person calling, if your phone had such a feature. On the receiving end (someone else calling me with the R1), I could tell that the person was on a speakerphone, but the quality was good, and the audio wasn’t too muffled or distant. I called a few people with the R1, and got a few complaints that I sounded too quiet. Overall, however, the opinions I got from others were pretty positive. At $99.99 MSRP, the R1 is a little pricey. However, if you travel and frequently use your phone in the car, it’s one handy device to have around. I will definitely be adding it to my collection of travel gadgets.
The visor clip is removable and is very secure and tight. It easily slides on and off your car’s sun visor without feeling loose or cheap.
If you’ve always wanted an iPod speaker system / docking station that looks like a ghost, then this is your lucky day! Speakal has just released the iBoo. It’s available in White, Blue and Red. It has 3 speakers, a built-in subwoofer
Phew. For a moment year or so there we reckoned that amazing FeRAM discoveryhad been pushed aside and forgotten entirely. Thankfully, Toshiba has picked up the ball and refined the original chainFeRAM architecture by creating a new architecture that prevents cell signal degradation -- which, as you may or may not know, is the usual tradeoff from chip scaling. In essence, this has allowed the company to design the world's highest bandwidth, highest density (128-megabit) non-volatile RAM. Unfortunately, this amazing device -- which should realize read / write speeds of 1.6 gigabytes a second and combine the fast operating characteristics of DRAM with flash memory's ability to retain data while powered off -- is still in prototype form, which probably means we're months (if not years) away from actually seeing a tangible end product hit store shelves.
Explay has been one of the early proponents of pico projectors, and it looks like the company is not showing any signs of abandoning the form anytime soon, with it now set to officially introduce its new, even smaller Colibri model at Mobile World Congress next week. This one measures a mere 24 x 28.6 x 7mm, and can apparently pump out a 70-inch image at VGA, WVGA or SVGA resolution, all while drawing just 1.5W of power, which Explay says makes it the smallest, most efficient, and highest resolution pico projector on the market today. Unfortunately, the company doesn't seem have anything to say about the project actually finding its way into a phone or other device, though perhaps it's saving a little something for MWC.
A slew of iPhone apps and GPS add-ons that rely on user-created databases to alert drivers of speed-traps and traffic-enforcement cameras may become as useful as tax tips from Tom Daschle once a new breed of cameras begin appearing on UK roadways.
It's one of the paradoxes of driving in England: They can buy awesome cars that we don't have the chance to drive, but Big Brother ensures they don't get to enjoy them on most public roads without some hefty fines from unmanned cameras. In addition to GPS units with built-in lists of speed traps, iPhone Apps like Trapster, NMobile, and newcomer Speed Cameras have helped drivers avoid unexpected and unwanted mail from the police. The premise is simple: when a motorist approaches a known speed camera, their iPhone sounds a warning. The driver taps the brakes to avoid being caught and resumes extralegal travel after passing the camera.
Now, the London Times reports that the UK Association of Chief Police Officers has finally approved a plan to implement "average speed" cameras. The new cameras appear in series and can determine how long it's taken a car to travel between two points. If reaching Point B from Point A takes less time than speed limits dictate it should, the driver gets ticketed. Slowing down for the camera won't help the driver if they've already passed through an area too quickly.
Surprisingly, the plan is far more popular than its alternative: the dreaded speed bump.
It turns out the speed bump is about as popular in England as refrigerated beer. According to various reports, the "road hump" (their lovely traffic lumps) is responsible for increased emissions, vehicle damage, and lost emergency response time.
Green Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones told the Times that compared to speed bumps, average speed cameras "would smooth traffic flows, reduce emissions and encourage more people to switch to cycling." Compared to a road with a steady speed limit of 30 miles per hour, the constant braking and acceleration on roads with speed bumps increases carbon monoxide emissions 82 percent and nitrogen oxide by 37 percent according to the UK Transport Research Laboratory. The Automobile Association reports that speed bumps decrease fuel economy up to 53 percent.
If you’re feeling a bit high strung from all the pressures that life has to offer, you might want something to help you wind down. That is, wind down without alcohol or any other substances going into your system. This Mind Relaxer incorporates light and sound to help soothe you as well as help you block out the rest of the world. Which would be especially nice if you’ve been having issues shutting off your brain when you’re ready to go to bed at night. Of course I can’t help but notice that it might be easier to learn the art of meditation instead of forking out the dough for this. However, meditation can prove difficult for some. The glasses have a total of 12 LED lights that are embedded into the inside of the glasses. Those LEDs then surround your orbital lobes with some gentle light. There are a grand total of 18 sound and light programs and if you aren’t pleased with those, you can find more online. You can pick this up for 
Slacker G2 fans can do a happy dance today because we finally have a dock for our G2 personal radios. It connects via USB to your computer for charging and syncing. It also has a line out so that you can connect it to a pair of speakers. Price is $29.99.
USA computer supplier JR, have put the new 10″ Acer Aspire One on their website to pre-order for $349.99. The model listed is the Acer Aspire One AOD150, and comes in white, black red and blue. Atom N270 1.6Ghz processor, 1GB of ram, 160GB hard drive and a 6-cell battery.
