Gadgety News

From The BBC
Singer Kylie Minogue has launched her own social networking website for her fans to communicate with each other. The KylieKonnect website enables fans to create personal profiles and upload images, as well as “keep up to date with all the very latest on Kylie”.The launch coincided with claims that the 39-year-old had shelved plans for a 2008 world tour to promote new album X.The reports have been denied by record company Parlophone, who said a tour had not been scheduled in the first place. “There never was a tour,” a spokesman told the BBC News website, echoing an earlier comment made by the singer’s Australian publicist.

I’ve been searching around the interweb for novelty USB memory sticks and hubs.  I’ve seen hamsters in wheels, humping dogs and others that I dare not even mention.  So far, the most useful I’ve come across was the 32gig stick that I’ve already posted.

But, now here’s a great design.  If you’re a smoker, a dying breed (pardon the pun) now that in England and more other places it’s banned by law in public places, but none-the-less pocket space is at a premium, and anything that can be 2 or more things at the same time is great.  I am ignoring the USB mouse/label printer still!!

What you see is a USB memory stick and cigarette lighter all in a ‘Zippo’ style case.

In lieu of lighter fluid and a flint, this lighter uses resistance coils to create heat. It’s the same technology found in car lighters. The small rechargeable battery cell powering the coil can be recharged via USB. On top of that, there’s some flash memory in there to store files. Damn, might as well give it a couple swiss blades and a nose hair trimmer to complete the package. And Kool? Does anyone still smoke that?

As for price and storage size; this is still a dream for the designer, Nathan Gabriele. I’d probably buy one, but then given my history of leaving Zippos in bars and clubs………………………

leave comments at the link below and lets get this into production!

Yanko Design

Looking to scratch that retro itch? If so, you’ll likely find oodles of satisfaction in the MIXA USB tape, which not only weds the modernness of a USB flash drive with the old school flavor of a cassette, but also bows down to your funky fresh customization skills. You heard right — those interested can select a black or white 1GB tape, add on any design they choose and cough up £19.99 ($41) to have it shipped anywhere in the world. Finally, the perfect complement to your shoulder-mounted USB boombox.

 

 

Article snatched from

Engadget and written by Darren Murph

Following on from their $200US Linux desk top puter; Taiwanese maker Everex are planning to release a $300US notebook in 2008.

You will be able to choose from 12 inch to 17 inch screen sizes and they’ll all run the same gOS (Google OS) based on the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

“The company said that this edition would also feature easy access to free web based services to lessen the reliance on software based products.”

Everex are already peddling their TC2502 Green gPC through Wal-Mart stores in the US market.

News gathered from Techwack.com

Pic and lead from Engadget

There’s a fair amount of head-scratching going on at Engadget and I can totally see why.

This is the unholy spawn of a randy label printer and a submissive mouse (or vice-versa).

You can have one of these freaks…..err….useful additions to any office for a mere $29US from Casio - just buy online so you don’t have to be seen collecting one!

Click the links to see what Engadget think about it.

Sorry, my pretties - I’ve been locked in a studio for most of the day…….. But I have news.

If you want a 2nd games console but ca$h isn’t flowing as it should - or if you want to buy a youngster their first gaming machine and make it one cheap enough so that you wont mind it being filled with jam or the hamster; how does £75 for a PS2, brand new, grab you? Apparently, “..the in-built power supply will allow the platform holder to reduce manufacturing costs and retail price, which could help drive sales of the seven-year-old console way past its current lifetime sales figure of 120 million units”

“PlayStation 2 sales have been impacted by the release of Microsoft’s and Nintendo’s next-gen consoles, but the ageing system still sold 215,000 units in the US during September, according to the NPD Group. In comparison, Xbox 360 and Wii sold more than 500,000 units apiece during the month, while PlayStation 3 sales lagged behind those of its next-gen rivals and its predecessor, the system selling just 119,400. units.”

News grabbed from CVG

I had to see what this was after seeing the Gadgets.co.uk headline of ‘Limpet Bath Drink Holder’.

Turns out that it does exactly what it says :0)

Bathe like a Hollywood star.  Just have to wait for the Limpet Ice Bucket Holder next.

Get a limpet at Gadgets.co.uk

November 1st, 2007 by Mark R

I remember watching the first Spy Kids film, where the kids’ secret spy parents push a button and the pictures on their desks retract and become tiny stereo speakers. Clearly, life is imitating art with this particular design from Miraeplasma. I have to admit that I never heard of Miraaplasma, but they use plasma to create these thin portable film speakers. Not only will you have quality sound for your PC, but you can put a picture of your loved ones within them. So even though the kids’ pictures in Spy Kids had to retract to get stereo sound, your pictures can stay right where they are.

This device, currently known as the MP-170, was designed for portability. That means that you can take your speakers to the office, and have great pictures on your desk. Of course, some people might mind if your pictures are turned up a little loud.

Speaking of loudness, Miraeplasma has said that the speakers can produce some of the best sound and volume out in the market today. So far, there really isn’t any news of when the MP-170 will be available, but I’m guessing that there will be quite a market for them when they finally debut.

After all, who wouldn’t want speakers that double as picture frames? I’m already trying to think of what pictures I would put in them. What I’m not looking forward to is the age when bosses everywhere will buy these picture frame speakers for their workers in order to put pictures of their supervisors in. Then workers everywhere will feel the terrifying presence of Big Brother even when the boss isn’t visiting their cubicle.

Source: AVing

A virtual stripper is helping to defeat anti-spam security checks.  Spammers have created a Windows game which shows a woman in a state of undress when people correctly type in text shown in an accompanying image.

The scrambled text images come from sites which use them to stop computers automatically signing up for accounts that can be put to illegal use.

By getting people to type in the text the spammers can take over the accounts and use them to send junk mail.

The free e-mail services, so far, have been extremely successful at using Captchas to recognise a human being or an automatic program,” said Raimund Genes, chief technology officer at Trend Micro.

The novel system for getting round Captchas uses images of a woman called “melissa” who invites victims to decipher the scrambled text. Entering the correct text produces another image and another chunk of scrambled text.

Mr Genes said the Captchas seen with the first versions of the malicious program are all taken from the sign-up system for Yahoo webmail.

In the past many viruses have tricked people into opening booby-trapped (ahem) attachments with the false promise of seeing explicit images, said Mr Genes, but this was one of the first to actually show people more images if people respond.

For more (not nudity though) check out The BBC News Site

The new OD service from Microsoft is the Mediaroom.  This will allow users to stream live TV shows, movies and all that other on-demand style stuff via broadband and their 360s.

Microsoft has teamed up with BT as their provider of choice and the service should be piped into your ‘Box next year!

Crealev is an Eindhoven based company that specialises in making things float for “creative use”, just like this lamp. Angela Jansen has designed a levitating lamp that was presented last week during Dutch Design Week. Sceptical? Watch the video demonstration at the Crealev website.

 Via TrendOffice.

Denon’s S-52DAB Networked Audio System features the ability to stream music wirelessly from Internet Radio, network attached storage and PC or Mac computers and is obviously a DAB radio. It utilises networking Software from Denon’s £2000+ AV receivers and sound quality from Denon’s serious Hi-fi  systems.

The full list of features are: DAB / FM Radio, a CD Player, a concealed iPod dock,  advanced Audyssey Bass-XT and Dynamic EQ software. It also has the ability to decode MP3 and WMA (naturally) but also AAC, WAV and FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). Wi-Fi and Ethernet networking for audio streaming from PCs and Macs, networked storage, USB Sticks and Drives. Internet Radio (so that’s 7000 + stations), DAB and FM Radio and not forgetting the full alarm clock function.

The huge sound is all done through the four high-quality sound tuned speakers that feature long throw drive units and passive bass radiators.  So a big sound from a small unit.

The  Denon S-52DAB will hurt your back pocket by £500 placing it right at the top end of this market, but it looks as though it may be worth it if you need to get the best sound when listening to the ‘Archers’

And if all that still isn’t enough they throw in a remote control, scroll wheel and an decent LCD display.

Contact: Denon

As rumored, Apple has quietly updated the MacBook tonight (last night) to the Santa Rosa architecture with mild speed bumps and the GMA X3100 integrated video.

White 13.3″
$1099.00 2.0GHz/1GB RAM/80GB/Combo/GMA X3100
$1299.00 2.2GHz/1GB RAM/120GB/SD-DL/GMA X3100

Black 13.3″
$1499.00 2.2GHz/1GB RAM/160GB/SD-DL/GMA X3100

Despite comparable clock speeds (2.0 -> 2.0GHz, 2.16 -> 2.2GHz) to the old models, the new MacBooks use the Santa Rosa chipset which boasts a faster 800MHz front side bus over the previous MacBook models. The introduction of the GMA X3100 video card also provides significant benefits over the previous models. The new specs can be seen at the Apple Store:

Apple’s product pages on the rest of the site had not yet been updated at the time of this writing. The new MacBooks appeared in Apple Retail stores on Wednesday, but the boxes were accompanied by instructions not to open them until further notice.Updatex2: Apple’s store pulled the new specs, and now is showing them again.Update 3: The MacBook Pro now has the option to upgrade to a 2.6GHz processor for $250, and also has the option for a 250GB drive.

From Mac Rumours.com

Exspect has launched the MiBag that they describe as a revolutionary new and ultra stylish way to carry your notebook computer, with your style.

Available in 13-inch and 17-inch formats, the MiBag is a black protective bag with a twist.

With a on/off zip mechanism, users can transform their classic black notebook case into a more individual and stylish look, simply by adding one of MiBag’s fascia designs to the front of the bag.

So, you could have several different “looks” for the same bag, maybe one for work and one for play.

A “classic” messenger bag for notebook computers, the removable laptop sleeve provides notebooks extra protection while there’s also storage capabilities for a mouse, cables and other notebook related items.

It can also be used as a stand alone carry case thanks to its retractable carry handles that can disappear out of sight into the bag or can be used with the shoulder strap attached to the messenger bag.

The MiBag costs from £39.99 with the MiBag interchangeable fascias starting at £9.99. 

Grab yourself one from Exspect now and be one ahead of the crowd!

From Pocket-Lint.co.uk

For the Homer Simpson in you - or perhaps you’re a beat cop that works to your rules and gets the job done your way.  Or, may be, you just love doughnuts.

Enter the Dough-nu-Matic.  $130US of pure ‘holey’ joy.  Slop some dough mix in one end and a dozen hot doughnuts appear at the other at a rate of 2 per minute (average doughnut dunkin into coffee ratio mehinks!).

Although I can feel my arteries hardeninig just writing about it, I can’t help but feel I need one of these…..and probably larger jeans.

LG’s latest MP3 player is the UP3. Its shiny all-metal casing houses a player that can play MP3, WMA, OGG (w00t!) and ASF video files. There are no plans to release colour-coded magnifying lenses at present to use with the tiny 65,000-colour OLED screen. 

The UP3 will come in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB capacities and costs ₩84,000 (about £45) in South Korea. Currently there’s no UK launch date, but such a release would compete with the iPod shuffle, Creative’s lovely Zen Stone Plus and even SanDisk’s Sansa Clip.

Source: Engadget

Posted Oct 31st 2007 2:43AM by Thomas Ricker

What great timing - I’ve just got my shiny new N95 and then those lovely people at Nokia decide to open an iTunes style store just for me - they just know how much I love music :0)

 79p per track or an album for £7.99 - whack em onto your Windows Media Player and synch it up with your blower; or, if like me you’ve got 3G and/or wi-fi, you can do all that on the move.  Smug? Not I.

An £8 per month subscription opens up their vault of musical goodies….MMmmmmm……..nice.

Come hither one and all to http://musicstore.nokia.com/

Possibly Whirlpools’ attempt to get men to spend more time in the kitchen, or perhaps just another step in the evolution of a totally digital home - you decide.

This is the ‘Whirlpool Centralpark Connection’ installed fridge.  Not only is it a damn nice looking fridge but it has a clever attachment in the door (the Centralpark thingy) that enables you to be able to connect and charge up a load of gadgets from Jabil and others.  These will include the likes of a web tablet, radio, interactive message board and calendar (no more amusing fridge magnets??!!!??), a digital picture frame, DVD and CD players and a charging station for your current MP3 player - chances are that there’ll be a load more entering the range. 

Model: GD5VVAXTY = $1999US and you can get one (if you live in the states) from Whirlpool.com

Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 10:23AM by Jay Garrett | Post a Comment

Google Phone - AGAIN!

I know that it’s been a lot of “will they?”, “wont they?” since last year with a bit of ‘leaked’ excitement usually closely followed by ‘official’ denial.  But The Wall Street Journal is reporting that “Google Inc. is close to unveiling its long-planned strategy to shake up the wireless market”.

“People familiar with the matter” are attributed to providing this insider knowledge that sees Google’s applications and services as accessible on mobiles are they are on the web on an “open” operating system.

The article says that Google wants to make it easier for “cellphone” customers to get a variety of extra services on their phones - from maps to social-networking features to video-sharing and says:

“Within the next two weeks, Google is expected to announce advanced software and services that would allow handset makers to bring Google-powered phones to market by the middle of next year”.

It’s known that Google has approached several handset manufacturers about the “gPhone” concept - strongly rumoured partners include HTC and LG.
I’m just waiting for the ‘official’ denial bit now - but who knows?  This time it might actually happen!