Jay Garrett’s Gadget News

They say that vengance is a dish best served cold - why wait for revenge when you can strike first?

I’m hoping for some more warm weather and when people start emerging smugly with their Super Soakers I’m gonna give them a little surprise…..

The AQUASHOCK ARCTIC BLAST blaster gives you more than one way to shock and surprise your opponents: soak ‘em in a stream or add ice to blast ‘em with an all-out burst of freezing cold water!

Oh yeah………..you can add ice to this bad boy……….MWAHAHAHAHAHAhhahahahah!

Oh - it costs $20 from Hasbro.

Music industry commentator, Bob Lefsetz, has recently posted his reasoning as to why he thinks that bands should figure out ways to give away their music with each concert ticket.

As you may know, musicians make most of our money through gig revenue and merchandise these days - so we have to find ways to increase the value of those tickets as much as possible.

Generally speaking, most people go to concerts to hear the music they already know and join in with the band. Bob reckons that it figures that the more the band can make sure people actually know their songs, the happier the fans are going to be at concerts (and they may be more willing to pay that little bit extra).

I agree with this up to a point - I liked the idea when I went to see Prince at the O2 we got a free CD (I liked the ticket price even more - £31.21!) but most people will have already bought the new album before going to the gig or even buying a ticket.

Perhaps a remix album that wouldn’t be available at the stores, a “Part 2″ to the current album or something that would bolster ticket sales and not be detrimental to album sales may be a better tact.

What do you think?

Techdirt

HP wants to get a better foot-hold in that lucrative youth market that they’ve actually gone and hired a “teen council” to help design a new line of products from scratch - most likely PC’s.

It has also been hinted that some of those very products might include gaming machines as Ameer Karim, director of HP’s future and innovations group for consumer PCs, referenced the company’s acquisition of computer game company Voodoo two years ago during his talk.

Let’s see if all goes to plan………….anyone remember the Hip-e?

CNet

As beautiful as it’s simplicity the GRAAF GM-50 integrated amplifier is all about the details.

They rely on the coupling of a substantial 15 mm aluminium panel with a transparent crystal that allows you to see its glowing soul of 4 valves. The LED indicators show the selected source through a side window for an added stylish nod to aesthetics.

The amp can accommodate up to six line sources: two of them with balanced outputs.

The overall design is based around those four KT88 valves working in push pull operation for a gripping and full-bodied 50W of power. These work in Class A-AB and each of the valves has its own automatic bias control system for the best performance whilst in operation.

The GM50 brings GRAAF’s renowned quality of valve sound and technology to a new breed of integrated amplifier. It has a full, impeccably detailed and powerful sound that will perform fantastically whether you listen to Lamb or Lamb of God.

It looks like the GM50 is already proving to be a highly desirable product amongst audio lovers and I can hear and see why!

Dip into your pocket to the tune of around a grand per valve and it can be yours.

If you want to check out how noisy an area is before you move there - or to see how powerful your stereo is you can now search DEFRA’s noise map by postcode to monitor noise levels.

The 23 areas include London, Manchester and Sheffield.

Defra said the maps would help to tackle “unreasonable noise pollution”.

The mapping process was carried out during 2006 and 2007 and incorporated the noise maps produced for the 18 English airports that were published in December last year.

The website also includes information on the number of people exposed to these levels of noise.

BBC

In what appears to be an odd move OLPC has let Microsoft join in.

The not-for-profit company that wants to see every underprivileged kid in the world with one of their $100 notebooks has decided to include Windows in on the meant-to-be Linux powered box.

This will undoubtably raise the price (already $188 anyway) but apparantly could lead to new hardware design efficiencies that will, in turn, lower the price.

Wired

Samsung SDI, the manufacturer’s display team (not in the acrobatic sense - as far as I know), has been showing off a 12.1-inch laptop with an AMOLED display!

It has 1280 x 768 resolution and what appears to be a ~shudder~ touchy-odd-flat keyboard.

The prototype is being tarted around at SID 2008.

As to what’s going on at the rear of the screen - could it be another display panel or just a stand?

Answers on a real thin postcard please.

OLED Display.net

I have just learned that The Samsung F400 will be launched in the UK and will be available through O2, Orange, Virgin, The Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U.

 :0)

If you ever felt the need to carry a USB drive in your ear BlueTrek have the answer!

The BlueTrek Bizz is a Bluetooth headset that works as expected and the added USB functionality is a bonus, I guess.

The Bizz also works as a microSD card reader, because it has a microSD slot that acts as the USB drive’s memory.

It’s a clever idea but is it convergence purly for convergence sake? 

USB cards can be quite tiny so it’s not as if you can’t have room for both things - even if you wear the tightest jeans!!

If you can see a reason for this, perhaps if you just wear Speedo’s or a bikini, you can pick one up for about £28 online

RKS, from Southern California, are loving Google’s Android so much that they’ve gone and built a phone around it and called it Mimique.

The colouful contraption concept is said to combine the design of the Treo with the iPhone’s touch surface.

Personally I’m not sure of it’s body-shape but like the look of the screen………could it be a case of nice face shame about………or is just me that remembers when mobiles lost their external ariels to much rejoycing?

Pocket Lint

If you want your iPhone to wear some retro chic or you’re just plain feeling nostalgic you need this third party application that goes by the name of Visua mobile.

The app will put up this way cool rotary dialer upon your iBlower in place of that run-of-the-mill digital thing.

It’s just a shame that it doesn’t come with a dock in the shape of a candlestick handset……

GearFuse

Now this has to be one of the largest iPod docking stations at the moment; Singapore Airlines are installing iPod docks and 15.4-inch widescreen LCDs in their all-Business Class Airbus A340-500 flights between NY/LA and Singapore.

Each business customer can dock their iPhone or iPod and watch their own movies on the included noise-canceling headphones - Nice touch.

Flights from Newark with this will start May 15th and August for the LA ones

If you hate it when kids insist on listening to their phat sounds via their less than phat phone speakers then this one is for them…but let’s not encourage the little darlings huh?

Samsung’s new F400 has speakers built in by none other than Bang and Olufsen!

The phone itself is a dual slider (like the N95 for instance) so slide it down to reveal the speakers, and up to get to the keypad for all that normal phone mullarkey.

As well as the B&O speakers it also has music recognition software that’ll tag a track when you hear it, the phone takes a standard 3.5mm headphone plug, and it also comes with an FM radio with RDS. and a 3 mp snapper.

This is an HSDPA capable 3.5G device with a maximum download speed of 3.6 Mbps. The F400 also supports GPRS and EDGE data, plus 2100 MHz UMTS and tri-band GSM.

Some rather interesting facts have just been released from Jabra research today.

On the plus side first; apparently 93% of UK drivers realise that you can end up in the slammer for 2 years if you’re caught using your mobile phone handset whilst driving and that 68% think that the penalty should be even stronger.

I know that many of you here (me included) could be classed as a nomophobe but there’s so many hands-free gadgets out there that we shouldn’t get caught out when behind the wheel.

Now the scary bit: 24% of people that still use their handsets in the car stated that they couldn’t miss that call and 25% reckon that it’s ok as they’re unlikely to get caught - so that’s alright then?

Personally I’d rather have the police be worrying about killers, rapists and the other freaks out there than have them watch stupid drivers attempting to dial a pizza on the way home from work………..and don’t get me started on the prats that text whilst driving!!

Let’s face it - with Bluetooth headsets looking as fine as the JX10 Cara above - there’s no reason not to go hands-free.

Jabra

I’ve just heard the shocking news that Rock has hit Rock bottom, as it were.

In a sudden announcement made today, Dominic Wong and David Langton of Deloitte & Touche LLP were appointed as Joint Administrators of Rock Group Plc.

Apparently the failure of Rock is “partly attributed to the cash flow difficulties faced as a result of stock misappropriation by a former employee,” though further details were omitted.

As it stands, the admins are currently negotiating with potential suitors in order to place the outfit in more capable hands, but there is still a possibility that no one will bite.

For more more news about how this affects you if you’ve bought one of their machines go to their news page here.

Engadget

I confess to getting a little bored with the multitude of iDocks knocking around.

Few have pricked my attention such as the B&W Zeppelin, the loveliness of Roth Audio’s line-up and of course the gorgeous Vita Audio R4 but the latest from Gear4 has it’s own trick.

The ‘Duo’ looks like another compact 2.1 speaker system for Apple’s tune-box but pull off the magnetically connected front panel and you’ve got yourself a portable, battery-powered speaker system similar to Gear4’s own StreetParty Size 0 complete with a fold-away kick stand.

When you want to re-dock just push it up against the sub and the magnets click it back into place, and your music continues without fuss.

Crave states that the “sound quality’s not too shabby. When connected to the sub, the overall tone is acceptable”.

Basically it’s ok for your study or bedroom with the benefit of the portable front-end so you don’t have to stop the vibe or podcast whilst making a cuppa or feeding the cat.

It’s out on 1 June for reasonable £150.

Personally, with the weather as it is here in London, this is the only time I’d ride a scooter in a faux Italian kinda way.

But i’d still miss the car-bound comforts such as hi-fi, video screen, etc.

Not so fast! How about a scooter that packs a PC with a 1.2 GHz Mini-ITX motherboard, 1GB of RAM, a 2GB SSD, Bluetooth, and wireless internet into the frame along with a TV and radio tuner, 8″ LCD touchscreen, GPS, web cam, system status monitor, a mobile PVR and even an electric guitar PC uplink?

The Lab will be putting instructions on how to build this media hub on 2 wheels on their site.

So if you feel like a ride out just check your GPS, hit the open road to write some killer riffs as well as surfing the net whilst chatting over Skype at the same time as broadcasting your own pirate radio station and watching the news (and taping your favourite shows) as well as sharing your love as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot - get ready to build!

I can’t see how the police would have anything against it.

Well, I don’t really feel like I need to add anything to the picture.

I think O2 are trying to tell us something……………..

The odd thing is that there hasn’t been any whisper of a release date for the next generation of the blower of the lord.

As you will have heard, Freesat will go up against Sky’s HD service and will be available across the UK - in fact - in 98% of homes.

Users will have to make a one-off payment for a dish, set-top box and installation, but will not pay a monthly subscription.

As you’ve got to track down your own dish you might as well get something a bit more groovy - enter the Sqish!

Suitable to receive Sky as well as Freesat broadcasts, Sqish dishes come with the bonus of “sqishoflage” stickers .

Squishes are from around £150, plus £25 for a sticker, available now.

Sony has confirmed that their Play TV service will be out in September and will hit your wallet to the tune of 99 euros (£78).

PlayTV is an add-on gadget for the PS3 and effectively turns the console into a personal video recorder (PVR), although you have to keep in mind the puny 40GB hard drive.

It brags dual TV tuners with full access to Freeview, so users can record one channel while watching another and take advantage of the usual Freeview features. A seven-day EPG is also featured for easy channel surfing.

The bestest feature for Sony fans is the PS3’s link up with the PSP, so owners of both consoles can record and watch TV remotely using Wi-Fi, effectively turning the combination into a personal global TV channel.  Bonus!