Gadgety News

Asus, bouyed by the apparent success of their brown upmarket wunderkind, the S101, has decided to bring out a successor.

The S121 comes with the usual smattering of netbook specs such as the Intel Atom CPU, 1GB RAM and choice of OS……………

But the S121 also throws in WiFi-N connectivity and some upgrades compared to its S101 older sibling such as the 12.1” screen and it is expected to come with hybrid SSD/HDD storage and a full sized keyboard.

It’s still has the “exquisite” brown clothes which looks as though it might be a deeper hue than the S101’s.

I’m still on the look out for the price and availability (please comment if you happen to be privy to such details).  Til then I reckon you should keep around £500 to one side if you’re looking to purchase.

Asus via New Launches

Virtual world Habbo polled 5,450 UK 11-18 year olds and discovered that the majority of them have placed a games console at the top of their Christmas list this year, with the Xbox 360 coming tops.

They also found that 39% had asked for a console or computer from Santa. This is quite a significant lead over mobile phones, coming in second with 14% and clothes and accessories in third with 13%.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the most desired with 20% of the votes followed by Nintendo’s Wii and PlayStation 3 winning 19% and 15% of the vote respectively.

Considering the news that Nintendo DS broke the sales record for hardware in the UK last week, it is rather surprising to see handhelds not coming out as more popular with young people, with only 2% wanting a DS and 1% wanting a PSP.

But, if those teens have been less than perfect they’ll have to figure out how to get used to the AR interactiveness of a lump of coal and a satsuma!

This thing was found on a Russian luxury blog - but when you think of all those rich Russian business types it makes perfect sense.

The thing in question is the all new Vertu cellphone - you’re loving it aintcha?

The Vertu Boucheron 150, as it is called, looks just like that other Vertu blower but this one is said to have 3G connectivity!

WHOOhoOOOOoOoOoOO!!!!

So with that hyper-special addyon of 3G be prepared to sell various vital organs to cover the Premiership Footballer loose change price of $30,000.

Don’t hate the player - hate the game.

Hats off to Vertu for making something really expensive and being able to sell it

Unwired View

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

Well, the first lot of Asus Eee Top’s have hit the UK and even though I’m digging it at the mo I’m gonna hang on a while longer.

I’ve chatted about the 15.6-inch Eee Top before and, as far as I can tell, the touchscreen PC looks a decent bit of kit. 

You get a budget PC-based alternative to the iMac with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of memory, 160GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, 1.3MP webcam, stereo speakers, plenty of connectivity plus Windows XP for your OS.

Don’t forget you still get a keyboard and mouse so can navigate your way round even when your hands are covered in jam.

But if you think that the 15.6 inch screen is letting down the whole package there is good news on on its way.

According to Asus CEO Jerry Shen, the  Eee Top is being outsourced to Quanta Computer, which will be producing new 20-inch and 22-inch models for 2009.

And this aint no limited edition. Five million of the things will be produced in the next couple of years - so says Mr Shen.

If you’re cool with the 15.6 model Eee Top you can grab one from this month for around £399.

Good ol’ Auntie Beeb!

After bringing us the joy of the iPlayer the Beeb is going to be showing content from BBC One and BBC live online.

From the 27th November web visitors will be able to watch shows including Never Mind The Buzzcocks (fab!), EastEnders (never mind eh?) and Heroes (Yatta!) as they are broadcast.

BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC, CBeebies and BBC News are already broadcast on their channel websites.

Director of BBC vision Jana Bennett told BBC News that this move “completes our commitment” to make channels available online.

“From 27 November licence fee payers will be able to watch BBC programmes live wherever they are in the UK on their computers, mobile phones and other portable devices,” Bennett added.

Via - BBC News

Hello folks!

My Top 10 Halloween themed gadgets has been posted on the lovely Newslite.tv site.

Pop along there and witness bookmarks, pumpkin carving kits and little Devils and Angels that get shoved in your ears!

The quickest way to make anything look hi performance, modern and cutting edge is to construct it from carbon fibre.

This even works with a pair of studio grade cans!

These are Phiaton’s latest model weighing in at a mere 6.5oz.

To keep the weight down Phiaton have made the MS-400 from carbon graphite fibre encased in a double-shell high polymer enclosure.

They also say that they have worked on the airflow, optimizing it to deliver “concert hall sound quality”.

The MS 400 features flexible joints that fold in two steps making it perfect for mobile studio engineers (kinda like the PortaPro’s that rock with my iPhone).

Light doesn’t mean cheap at $249 but if they perform like top-level studio headphones then it’s not that expensive really when you compare them with other top end monitor cans on the market.

I’d love to test them in a studio environment so…….if I could try a pair……

Other specs include:

• Weight: 6.5oz
• Drivers: 40mm electrodynamic
• Sensitivity: 98dB
• Impedance: 32 Ohm
• Input power: 1000 mW

The press release, issued today says:

“…The carbon fiber housing helps deliver crystal clear sound and eliminates any sound leakage. To ensure better resonance values, deep rich bass, a full-bodied midrange, and sparkling high notes, the carbon is encased in a high polymer enclosure with a double-shell structure

Machines That Go Bing!

TheElectricPig have a very cool article and listed their favourite 5 iPhone applications for all you Londoners.

Some I’ve already mentioned before but there’s some other great gems.

They cover all from helping you select a restaurant, GPS tagging your ride so that you can find it again through to weather reports (how very British).

Nip over here to see their reviews and rundown :)

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

VoIP News has listed some well groovy things that I never knew that Skype could do!

These range from LastFM plug-ins to language translation and getting the caller to pop-up on your telebox.

If you’re a Skype user I reckon that these details could prove very useful indeedy!

Go here for the low-down my lovelies!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy back in March I mentioned the quite astounding gaming pc that is the ARES CG6150.

Yup, the gaming machine that should see Alienware and Voodoo puters hiding behind the couch and wetting themselves.

Well - they can have a 10 second start and run to mummy as Asus has just officially announced its release! Alriiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!!

You want tip-top stuff for shooty-shooty-kill-kill? Check this out:

For you delectation and delight we have an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (overclockable to 4.0GHz if one so desires) processor, NVIDIA’s nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 3-way SLI setup with GeForce GTX280s, up to 4TB of HDD space, a Blu-ray optical drive, twin gigabit Ethernet jacks, two power supplies and a custom liquid cooling arrangement.

Ok, so the date hasn’t been fixed yet or how much overtime you’re gonna have to do to afford this monster - but hey…….you’re interested right?