Gadgety News

Ok fellow string botherers!

Anyone that has jammed, had a moment of brilliance and thought “I’ll remember that and get it down when I get home” only to find that the inspired riff eludes you will realise the importance of recording practically everything.

This little fella is called BackTrack and is the latest from those digital music maestro’s, Line 6.

Just plug your bass/guitar into BackTrack, plug BackTrack into your amp, and start playing.

The gadget starts recording when it detects a signal and it will keep doimg so until it runs flat (up to eight hours).

The basic package retails for $139.99, can capture up to 12 hours of audio and comes equipped with 1GB flash memory.

BackTrack + Mic comes equipped with 2GB flash memory and an internal microphone, records for up to 24 hours and retails for $209.99. Both models are rechargeable via USB and have the standard 1/4-inch in / out and headphone jacks.

I might have to upgrade from my MiniDisc………..

 
CNET

Twas only a matter of time.

Kodak have released a new picture frame based on CMEL’s new mass-produced, 7.6-inch OLED panels out into the wilds!

This ultra-thin wireless 800 x 480 pixel frame shall sport 2GB of internal storage, integrated audio, a 30,000:1 contrast, 180-degree viewing angle, and photo service compatibility with Flickr and such.

I just think the tiny matter of requiring to part with $999 may slow sales down a tad.

OLED-Display

If someone asked, “would you want your own supercomputer?” chances are you’d say “…err….yeah, why not?”

Well, that seems to be the thinking behind Cray’s ‘domestic’ offering as they appear to want One Supercomputer Per Home (kind of an upgrade to the OLPC).

The Cray CX1 Supercomputer comes loaded with Windows HPC Server 2008 and incorporates up to 8 nodes and 16 Intel Xeon CPUs (dual- or quad-core); additionally, it boasts up to 4TB of internal storage, 64GB of memory per node and interoperates nicely with Linux. The CX1 is said to be the most affordable supercomputer offered by Cray (not to mention the “world’s highest-performing computer that uses standard office power”).

Sounds fantastic until you see the price tag fluttering between $25,000 to well over $60,000.

NetworkWorld

I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve only had to share my house or flat once with someone other than my partner at the time - and then that was with another bassplayer in a West London penthouse.

I did say I was lucky

(Big shout out to Johnny Mac!)

Others I know have not been so blessed; forced to share a house or appartment with half-a-dozen other people whether at University or when they moved to the big city.

One source of contention, other than cleaning duties, is fridge space.

Thankfully the annual Electrolux Design Lab has birthed this modular fridge, designed to keep each student’s bread, beer and red bull completely separate.

With the Flatshare Fridge everyone gets there own very separate compartment that still has a tall section for bottles and a smaller side for veg (students eat veg?).

This design also negates having to share fridge space with Stinky Kev or with the person that just loves Toulouse sausages.

When you manage to get someone to live in the space under the stairs or if you decide to sublet the living room you can just add another unit on top for them as well.

I think this should be fitted as standard in any flat/house share!

Genius!

Electrolux Design Lab

Building your own furniture has become fun!

Nope - I’m not being sponsored by Ikea, B&Q or MFI!!

Regress (possibly) and remember the joys of Lego.  Now imagine larger blocks.

You now have Lunablocks.

They’re giant perspex Lego-esque bricks that can be used to build pretty much anything -  a TV stand/coffee table is a good starting point and probably the easiest to construct.

Keeping with the Lego theme the blocks come in the usual format; twos, fours and flaties.  Cool!

The blocks come in different flavours such as metallic, glossy colours or even with lamps inside that illuminate the clear Perspex blocks.

It’s the brainchild of French outfit, Lunatic Constrauction, and on show at the Maison et Object show in Paris.

More over at Lunatic Construction

As well as the new iPod Touch the Nano has had a revamp.

Finally after all the speculation and ’spy pics’ we can see the new design all offical like.

As well as the New Nano there’s an upgrade to the 80GB Classic.

“As of today we’re upgrading the 80GB iPod”, with 120GB of storage, but for the same price. “30,000 songs for your pocket”, 120GB is apparently.

Steve announced, “We shipped the first Nano in 2005, it’s only been three years” and then unveiled the new Nano - which is pretty much like the spy shots that cluttered the interblogwebsphere for the last 2 or 3 weeks.

“It’s the thinnest iPod we’ve ever made”, it has an oval shape, and comes in a chrome-look exterior. The screen is high-res says Jobsy with the new lanky body.

You can create Genius playslists on the iPod Nano, without it being connected to a PC, plus features an accelerometer, so when you turn it sideways, you can watch video and check out your photos in landscape mode.

I’m particularly diggin the “shake to shuffle” feature, which does exactly what it says on the tin.

There was also the small matter of  ”these iPods are the cleanest and least-toxic iPods we’ve ever created”.

The Nano will blast out in eight new colours (just click the pic for the full range!) and the 8GB will be $149, 16GB will be $199, and both models will ship in next few days.

New Apple headphones are also launching, with a little control located on the headphone wires, so you can play/pause, rewind, forward and turn the music up as well.

New in-ear headphones are also launching, they have two drivers each in them, a woofer and a tweeter, they will sell for $79

Stevey J got stuck straight in with the new iTunes offerings by announcing HD TV show downloads, from $2.99.

As well as that he added, “NBC is coming back to iTunes, and they’re bringing all their great shows with them”.  Nice

The new iTunes 8 package will launch, with HD TV downloads, new browsing features and that “Genius” feature I’ve mentioned before.

Browsing will change, with the ability to look at albums just by their covers.

“Genius will automatically let you create playslists from songs in your iTunes library with just one click”.

All it will take is one click of the button in the bottom left-hand corner  to create a full playlist.

Information and algorithms about your iTunes library, like number of plays on one song, will be sent to Apple, basically so they can collect data on their users, to “combine your information with the knowledge of other iTunes users too”.

This will apparently allow Genius to “get smarter and smarter and smarter”, and Apple will send the results back to their users.

Before the freaking out begins, all this takes place anonymously of course.

Apple

USB memory sticks are all much of a muchness really.

Apart from the amount of GBs they can store it’s all down to how much they cost.

This one, however, has an extra GB and it’s a classic!

The GB in question is the fantastic flick Ghostbusters (also the theme tune was one of the 1st 7″ singles I bought with my own cash!).

This drive comes with the film preloaded for all that Mr Staypuffed magic

There’s no word on the pricing or what format the movie comes in, but if it’s priced similarly to other 2GB drives, those other drives are bound to get slimed!

Crave

O2’s just revealed the results of its first NFC trial.

This is the jobby that allows you to pay for things using the wireless power of your mobile blower.

The next phase is to whack this tech into the SIM cards themselves so that more phones can be used as a mobile wallet.

Declaring the trial a success, O2 said 90% of trialists were happy with the wireless payment tech, while 78% would use more contactless services if they were available.

At the moment, O2’s technology is capable of payment in shops using Barclaycard Visa payWave, as well as letting owners use London’s public transport network, thanks to Oyster card compatibility built in.

“There are two main pieces of infrastructure,” explained Claire Maslen head of NFC at O2, “the secure element on the SIM, and the antenna in the device. We still need a range of devices from handset vendors, but the intelligence will remain on the SIM. That also means we can send updates over the air.”

When will it be available? O2 says “Launching in six months would be hugely optimistic,” said Maslen. “Being able to deliver the best customer experience is important for us… It has to be mass market to make it successful.”

Would you trust this? Would you use this?

Let me know

TrekStor have actually come up with a novelty USB drive that is really useful!

Even more-so if you like to glug back a brewski whilst you’re waiting for your files to transfer as the cunning Germans have plonked a bottle opener on a USB stick.

Looking rather swish in brushed aluminium the 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16GB models will feature a bottle opener on its cap so you can crack open a bevvy - nice

The USB stick CO, as it will be called, will start at 6.99 euro for the 1GB model and 49.99 euro for the 16GB version.

It will be available in time for Oktoberfest.

It seems to be a day of reminders of the various stages of my youth.

This time dredging up my days of 80s/early 90s metal - tight jeans (slashed), fringed leather jacket, cowboy boots and a bullet belt were my ‘fashion’ staples.

So, this machine gun bullet USB flash drive would’ve been just the thing (if USBs had existed back then).

The bullet case holds 1GB of storage space but is not available yet but I do hope that it makes it onto the market.

Gearfuse

If, like me, you still think that the iPhone is a work of art and that the standard Apple dock is a tad perfunctionary then have I got news for you.

ASD have a real neat looking docking station that makes the 3Gesus phone look more like an art piece on a display stand - Click the pic for the full beauty

The device is cleverly called the iPhone 3G Dock Station and connects the phone via USB to your computer for dock and sync functions. The dock features video out, audio out, 110/240V, and an IR remote.

The dock will also work with the original iPhone by the way.

The audio and video out allow the iPhone to be connected to your gogglebox or home stereo.

I can’t seem to find any pricing info at the moment.

Design for iPhone

LG KC910 have now added an 8-meg camera phone to their stable.

The octo-meg camera is aided by a Xenon flash and your handiwork can be viewed upon its 3″ screen and the blower is a mere 14mm thick.

Memory is aided by a MicroSD slot that gobble up any size upto an 8 Gig card.

No pricing info but word on the street is that it will appear around OCTOber

Freecom has unleashed their latest portable memory solution.

The Mobile Drive XXS; said to be the smallest and lightest 2.5-inch USB drive on the market.

What Freecom have done is taken a Samsung 2.5-inch laptop hard drive, swapped the SATA connector for a mini USB connector, and placed it inside an injection-moulded rubber sleeve.

The Mobile Drive XXS is available in 160GB, 250GB and 320GB capacities, for £45, £60 and £80 respectively.

If you’re still unsure - put those prices in comparison with the going price of a 64GB USB flash drive being £150.

Freecom’s Web site via Crave

iPhone users and those that have an iPod Touch can now stream music from their puter officially thanks to a new app just launched on the Apple App Store!

Called Simplify Media, the new application allows you to navigate artists, ablums and genre and works over Wi-Fi, EDGE and 3G.

You’ll need to download a secondary application on your PC/Mac for the application to work but that aint a big deal now is it?

You’ll also be able to stream music from up to 30 friends as well as being able to view album art!

Apple has said recently “New versions iTunes and the iPhone Software could theoretically eliminate this problem by syncing only the metadata — or tiny files containing the barebones attributes of each media item or playlist but not the content itself — from a user’s iTunes library to their portable devices.”

It seems now you can but someone’s bet Apple to it :0P

Via - Appleinsider

This must rate as one of the oddest puter add-ons!

It’s only $29.99 (!!!) and you can get them from CrazyPC now!. 

It’s a toaster (no, really!) that fits in your spare drive bay.  Not sure about the crumbs rattling around your puter case but hey: Toasty-bready-goodness a-go-go!
THIS IS A MUST FOR GAMERS METHINKS!

• Fits in a standard 5.25 drive bay
• Toasts bread in just minutes (bread sold separately - or why not bake your own)
• Requires available USB port and 4 pin Molex power connector
• Attractive aluminum finish face plate…….yeah, whatever!
• Windows based software interface controls variables for time duration and heat intensity (Mac OS version coming soon!)
• Includes crumb tray for easy clean-up! (ahhhh)
• Easy to Install
• Warranty 2 years
• Air ducting ventilation exhausts hot air out of the back of case. Requires a free PCI slot.

I can’t wait for the chilled butter CD tray follow-up

Does anyone else think that this is a thing of beauty?

There has been a rumbling about the specs of the rumoured USB 3.0 controllers.

Some have said that Intel have been dragging their feet to give themselves more time to design for it.

Today they have set the record straight saying the specs are now available and would be released for free, as planned.

As Intel’s ‘Fall Developer Forum’ is around the corner I’m guessing that USB 3.0 will make its debut there.

600MB/s transfer speeds for the win people!!!!

Looking around at the new iPhone apps available this one certainly caught my eye and was only released today! 

It costs $6.99 and turns your iPhone into an easy-to-use wireless storage device that can be accessed by any other device on your wireless network.

A one way drop box can be added to a normal machine to sling files onto your Jesus blower -  or you can set up a two-way shared drive to move files between the iPhone and a puter.

Genius!

DataCase says that it can stream video from the iPhone to a computer - nice!

More info and the link is on the DataCase website. The app is available for both the iPhone and the iPod touch.

Freecom is launching the new Slimline Mobile DVD RW Recorder LS Pro.

As the name suggests it is pretty skinny and the banter says that it’s “the ideal companion for both PC and MAC notebook users on the move”.

The dimensions of the sleek aluminium case are 1.7 x 14.4 x 14 cm and weighs 600g including the battery.

It can hook up to your puter via USB 2.0 or Firewire and can burn up to 8.5GB of data, images or multimedia files.

It delivers read and write speeds of between 24x (for CD-R, CD-RW and CD-ROMs) down to 4x for DVD+R Double Layer and are 8x for DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-R.

The Freecom Mobile DVD RW Recorder LS Pro is available now and comes with a free five-pack of CD-Rs, LightScribe media, Roxio & Toast software.

There’s also two years worth of manufacturers warranty and unlimited (UK based) helpdesk support all for £79.99.

Ah, I remember back in the day.

Attempting to work out what Vai, Satriani, Sheehan, Lee, Entwistle, etc were doing invovled a-not-so-cheap bit of kit that reduced the speed of the tape to make the parts a little easier to follow.

After that, those that had the cash, could go and buy small sampling devices that allowed you to record about 30 seconds and again slow the part down and keep it in pitch.

TASCAM’s brilliant GT-R1 not only allows you to change the speed of tracks without changing their pitch it does so much more!

Whack in your guitar or bass and record using the built-in amp simulator and effects.

Better still, the stereo condenser microphones allows you to record ambient noise, vocals, off the cuff jam sessions or anything else for that matter.

Noise….err…music is converted into MP3 or WAV format (16- or 24-bit) and the unit includes an SD card slot (1GB bundled in) and a USB 2.0 port for offloading files and charging the battery.

Other handy bits worthy of mention are the integrated metronome and chromatic tuner as well as the Line In and Mic in ports extra to the Guitar In.

It sounds like it will be hitting the streets for around €200 so well worth sticking in your gig-bag.