Gadgety News

Most of the Mac users that I know like the clean lines and style of the Apple products.

If they are unsatisfied with their built-in webcam they would most likely prefer to replace it with something that will not clutter their workspace.

So, Ecamm Network has come to their rescue and have just announced what it’s claiming to be the world’s first Bluetooth webcam.

Word is that it will give you 640×480 H.264 video out with 48 kHz AAC stereo audio.

You also will get 4 hours chat time before you have to do that loathsome thing of whipping out that USB cable to recharge it.

I hope that Mac users are also flush with cash as the BT-1 Cam requires $150 of your hard-earned when it is released sometime in Spring.

If you’re a Windows user there may be a version out soon after.

As soon as I start to type the words “iPod speaker system” even I start to get heavy of the lids.  But the market is still rather short of ones designed by the ultra-fashionable types.

Designed by one of my favourite designers at the moment, Philippe Starck, the Parrot Zikmu speakers are possibly the the only way to go.

These speakers are not just for your ipod/iPhone by-the-way; oh no.

The Zikmu sound system is good for just about any gadget you possess, just as long as it has either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to stream the noise across the room.

Yup, even stream tunes from your networked puter!

Failing that though, you can of course just whack your iThingy in the slot on the top.

Each speaker stands around 75cm in height, offering a ‘360-degree immersive sound experience’ for room-filling audio and a stylish curved design that’s certain to impress any reader of glossy home magazines. Unfortunately all of that comes at a price - and with the current exchange rate, you’re looking at just over £1,000 when it launches in spring 2009.

Parrot via Born Rich

Well, winter is almost upon us so I thought it appropriate to list 12 gadgety things that are also pretty much in keeping with winter and travel for those of you that like to be active and not hibernate like the rest of us!

• If you can find enough snow, the Sno-Baller is the lazy person’s way to create perfect snowballs. It features long handles to prevent soggy gloves and frozen fingers and comes in red, blue, pink, and green, so you could even use them in snowy team games. A brrrrrrgain at £7.50 each.

Or you could go for the Snowball Blaster: This snowballing weapon sculpts upto 3 snowballs at a time and then, using the internal slingshot, fire them at your neighbours, friends, enemies or random cats from a safe distance of 50 feet.

• The hassle of having to take your gloves off to use your iPhone is a real pain. Solution: DOTS gloves. They have a couple of little balls on the fingertips which you can use to operate your gadgets without freezing your pinkies off - they’ll work nicely with your touchscreen lovelies. Only $15 - $20.

• Whilst you’re out on the road there’s no need to give your faithful mouse a hard-time. The traveler-friendly Roll-up Mouse Pad also features a 4-port USB hub and dual, side-firing speakers. It’s not the highest quality gadget but for $22 this could make that hotel suite a little bit more inviting for you.

• Why not take a folding mouse with you whilst you’re at it? Microsoft’s made a winner with the Arc Mouse.  It’s highly portable, well built and folds up to take up less space but once unfurled it sits nice in your palm.

• Bluetooth technology has been finding its way into ski gear for a while now.  Swany have shoved a Bluetooth module, speaker and microphone into one of the g.cell gloves. When it detects an incoming call, it gives your wrist a shake and enables you to quite literally talk to the hand. It’ll cost you $495 for the smug feeling of not having to unzip your toasty coat and fumble with your phone just to answer that call.

• Ardica have brought a heating system that will fit under your jacket that also charges your gadgets at the same time. Ardica’s ‘Moshi’ personal heating power system uses a Lithium Ion battery that can provide 25 watts and up to 100 degrees of toasty warmth while weighing less than 300g.

The cost of the personal power system separately for $145 (around £90) from Arcadia’s website.  You’ll just have to get used to plugging your coat into the wall.

• Another clever coat is Burton’s new Audex winter warmer. Described as a “communication-cum-entertainment jacket” it promises to keep you entertained from the piste to going out on the….. pub crawl. It’s powered by Motorola technology and this sleek piece of snowboard gear is Bluetooth-enabled, meaning wireless music and calls. All you have to do is slip it on, connect your Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone to the panel wirelessly, and hook up your iPod via hidden wires within the jacket - speakers and a microphone are located in the hood. Once you’re connected you can operate your gadgets via a control panel stitched into the sleeve. At the mo you can only get one by visiting Burton’s Stateside outlet online at www.burton.com . Prices start from $600 (around £340).

• If you stay in the UK it’ll get blooming cold but probably will be too wet to snow - so here is iSnow! It’s pushed as being a non-toxic polymer material which you add water to in order to create artificial snow. Indoor snowball fights a-go-go!

• If you’re gonna be all outdoorsy you might as well get some kit that wont go fizz bang when things get a little moist.  Overboard are doing a deal for £40.00.  You get a pair of waterproof earbuds as well as a waterproof iPod Case.  A steal if you’re gonna be boarding, skiing or just wondering around the North of England……

• I’m one of those people that can’t travel without half a dozen things that need recharging (generally at the same time) and if you’re anything like that you will have noticed the lack of power points in budget hotels and even some not so thrifty ones.  Their tendancy of putting the points away from the deks is also pretty darned frustrating! Thank you Belkin and your Travel powerstrip. It boasts three surge protected AC outlet plugs, and will also charge two USB devices - sorted.

• If your mobile hasn’t got A-GPS and you plan on exploring different counties you could come unstuck. Short of upgrading your current blower and signing up for an unbearably long contact you can kiss ad hoc wayfinding via your mobile goodbye.  That is until now. German company Sagem Orga has paired up with BlueSky Positioning and developed a SIM card with built in A-GPS. It will plot user positions using satellite data and triangulations from phone masts. With one of these SIMs on board, even cheap handset users could access proper navigation software.

“The SIM is entering a new era where it can now be considered as a real service platform and a valuable device; the A-GPS enabled SIM card will reshape the way SIM card are perceived by MNOs and end-users,” said Sagem Orga’s François Blanchard.

If there are other things out there that need mentioning why not let us all know

You’re looking for an iPod dock but you want one from a respected name in Hi-Fi and you also want it to be wireless.

Well, look no further.  Your search could, quite possibly, end here.

I’m talking bout the Marantz IS301 Wireless iPod Dock - and, as promised, it’s, well, an iPod dock and it’s wireless.

The cradle uses Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR A2DP and Bluetooth AVRCP for the wireless link with a receiver that links up to your hi-fi via normal audio leads.

It can stream all sorts of media from your iPod or iPhone and also converts the iThingy to a remote so that you can mess around with the hi-fi’s volume and lots of other settings that can be found on a Marantz receiver.

The grooviest things are that you can have several docks wirelessly hooked up to one receiver and the fact that the docking port is detachable.

So, your iPod doesn’t have to be sitting in the dock cradle to stream music to the receiver - you can pick it up and take it into another room, and as long as it’s within Bluetooth range (around 10 metres) it will still stream audio.

This is what happens when Marantz makes a dock

Marantz via Akihabara News

The Sony Rolly has always been an enigma to me.

Ok, it’s cute - It’s probably one of the cutest small speakers around.

But.

It’s a portable, trundling, dancing speaker - but the sound isn’t great for £250.

It’s a music player able to stream via A2DP Bluetooth or play from its internal flash but there’s no place to shove your 3.5mm lead.

 Sony are now updating it - and it will be controlled by YOU!! MWAHAHAHAHH!!!

Ahem.  Next month, Japanese Rolly buyers will be able to get the new SEP-50BT version complete with Bluetooth controls thus allowing them to make Rolly dance and spin like a performing monkey-bot all directed via their mobile phones.

I can imagine the high jinks and thoroughly wicked japes to be had through controlling the egg-shaped dancing speaker under somones chair and then unleashing a choice cut from ‘Cannibal Corpse’ as the little mp3 player starts its own circle pit :) 

The new system will actually give you control of up to seven of the little blighters at the same time using a mobile phone or laptop.

I reckon it’s time for some synchronised dancing……….

Gizmodo

These natty new Bluetooth headphones from Sony are pretty clever.

Not because they’re Bluetooth (c’mon people - how long has that been around?) but because they’ll sync up with your music player and your phone at the same time!

We heart convergence.

The three new cordless headphones for the sporty, or sporty at heart are the DR-BT160AS, DR-BT160IK, and DR-BT14Q Bluetooth.

They all have control features built in to the headset, which means that now instead of having to rummage in your pockets (Oooooer missus!) to change tracks on the treadmill, you only have to fiddle with your ear - much more acceptable in company methinks.

The ‘phones are released out into the populous next month, and they’ve even made them iPod compatible.

Gawd bless ya Sony!

Sony

Motorola is the kinda company that likes to try something a bit…….different.

They’re still being different with the  MOTOJEWEL.

Yup - another MOTO phone in capitals!

It’s a clamshell blower with an eye-catching angular shape (take that HTC Diamond!) and it has some decent stuff beneath that faceted exterior.

Available exclusively from The Carphone Warehouse and I’m betting pretty safely on it being aimed at the more feminine market (It comes packaged with a purse).

Inside the mirrored shell is a phone with touch sensitive keys, stereo bluetooth and an external display that stays hidden until needed where upon it glimmers through the phone’s surface.

If you’d like this little gem - fork out £99 and pop along to Carphone Warehouse

Here’s something new and exciting from Polaroid!

I’m pretty sure that hasn’t been a common phrase since the 60’s.

After announcing that they were ceasing production of their instant film stuff 5 months ago The Polaroid Pogo (Polaroid on the go) arrives.

Pogo is the first pocket-sized digital mobile photo printer to provide you with instant printed pictures.

The lightweight Pogo receives your pictures via Bluetooth or USB, and creates full-colour digital photos without the need for ink cartridges or ribbons, in just 60 seconds.

The pictures will come out dry so no need to ‘shake it like a Polaroid picture‘. Drat!

Want one? The Pogo was launched yesterday and is £99 from PC World

We are all aware of Bang & Olufsen.

The make top end phones, hi-fi and that groovy mp3 playing phone the Serenata (I wrote a review before moving this blog to its current home).

Now they bring us the plainly titled EarSet 2 and EarSet 3.

The EarSet 2 is the Bluetooth lug-grabber and has two omni-directional microphones that employ what’s called Digital Signal Processing (DSP) that helps clean up the sound by suppressing wind and other background noise for the best transmission possible.

EarSet 2  should be pretty comfy to wear as it has a fully adjustable clip to fit on your ear and a fold out mic.

Unfurling and folding up the mic functions as an on/off switch for the device. Calls and volume are operated by a single switcharoo!

The EarSet 3 isn’t wireless but will still inject clear tones down your aural cannals - yup, both lug-holes!

As well as being designed for chatting on your mobile blower you can listen to those mp3’s you’ve stored on it as well.  It will no doubt be great for those stand-alone MP3 players or hook it up to your new Apple iPhone 3G.

The EarSet 2 is around £200 and the EarSet 3 is about £150ish

B&O Webiste Page 1 and B&O Website Page 2 via Coolest Gadgets

It looks like the soon to be here SOCOM Confrontation game for the PS3 will come with a free Bluetooth headset - remember the deal with ‘Warhawk’ last year?

The difference is in the looks department.  Where the Warhawk one was, shall we say, a little ordinary this one looks pretty slick and very Playstation.

It looks so Sony PS branded that I could easily be convinced that this actually an “official” PlayStation 3 headset!

What do you reckon?

PS3Fanboy

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

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

You might want to sit down.

This is quite shocking.

There is finally a watch-phone-watch thingy that actually looks good!!

This is the Van der Led WM2.  It is a quad-band GSM watch with a 1.3-inch, 260k colour touchscreen display.

It also has stereo Bluetooth, can manage up to 240-hours of standby or 300-minutes talk as well as packing in 1GB of storage.

It can be yours for €300 (roughly £240) starting Monday!!!!

In my mind, if I was to get a BlueTooth headset I’d go for a Jawbone. They work fantastically and they look pretty swish. Or so I thought.

Now, Yves Behar has somehow managed to make it even more lustworthy with the creation of the ‘Love To Talk’ family.

This threesome, which will reportedly be made available “in a very limited quantity,” consists of a gold ‘Sweet Talk’ version, black ‘Dirty Talk’ edition and white ‘Trash Talk’ model.

As usual - no word on a price nor where to actually find one.

I just love the idea of someone going to a counter and paying for white-trash talk :0P

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is celebrating a full decade since its inception.

They have much to be happy about when you consider that the SIG started with just five members and has since grown to over 10,000!

During that time we have seen wireless headsets becoming de rigeur and that famous MOT symbol-like ‘B’ can be spotted on 1.5 billion-plus devices.

Congrats to you at Bluetooth and I bet King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormson I will be more than pleased to see what his namesake has acheived.

Sennheiser is to announce the launch a pair of wireless headphones at the CES which starts tomorrow.

These buds promise to avoid compressing the audio transmitted unlike the competiting Bluetooth technology.

There’s no news about pricing but the the new earphones called MX W1 will, according to Sennheiser, have

everything you need to be able to enjoy music without being tied down by it.

The system also includes a transport and charging case for when you’re out and about.

Using an alternative to Bluetooth called Kleer, the headphones promise CD quality sound even though the transmitter is only the size of a matchbox.

“With Kleer, the audio signal’s latency is very low and transmission extremely interference-free”

This means that battery life will be considerably longer than you would get with conventional transmission standards.

The MX W1 will be available from May 2008. Press release available at Sennheiser.

Want a bluetooth headset that makes you feel like you’re part of the Special Services?  Well, Nextlink is to launch its first INVISIO Bluetooth headsets, INVISIO G5 and INVISIO B3 for the consumer market.

As used by SWAT Teams and Special Forces across the globe “to meet needs in extreme conditions”.

The INVISIO G5 is a very discreet wireless headset weighing less than 6 grams. It is 3.3 cm long and 1.6 cm wide, which makes it the lightest and smallest Bluetooth-enabled headset in the world - as you’d expect from covert types.

Three buttons control the headset and it has a protective case but this not only protects the headset when stowed in a pocket or bag, but also charges the headset while on-the-go.

Without the on-the-go charging the headset provides up to 4 hours talk time and 150 hours of standby time but the case brings the talk time up to 20 hours and the standby time up to 30 days.

The INVISIO G5 is worn using the patented left- or right-eared “Soft Spring” that apparently adapts perfectly to the contours of the ear, also allowing easy use of eye wear with supreme comfort.

Nextlink also introduce an entry level headset, the INVISIO B3, a lightweight, Bluetooth headset that provides up to 6 hours talk time and up to 170 hours of stand-by.

The G5 is priced at £79.99, while the B3 is £29.99.

News pilfered from Pocket Lint

Get one for under £37 at Gadgets.co.uk