Archive for March, 2009
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
For those of you who enjoyed last year’s Retro Style USB 2.0 Webcam, here’s a tiny LED projector in a similar cool looking old school design that should be right up your alley.
Tiny LED Projector with built-in rechargeable battery and a speaker. Simply connect your Digital devices, such as cellphones, laptops, netbooks, PC, digital cameras, VCD/DVD players, iPod, PMP players, via the RCA and USB cable – then project your film, music concert, PowerPoint presentation on the wall or ceiling.
Featuers:
- Cuboid Tiny Projector
- Plug-and-Play
- Standard Camera screw-hold
- Connected Interface: RCA cable
- Resolution: 640 x 480 pixel
- Light source: 3W LED
- Picture Size: 15 – 48 inch
- Contract Ratio: 200:1
- Video Source: Composite Video In (iPod Video Compatible (PAL/NTSC)
- Video Input: AV IN (iPod Video compatible)
- Speaker: Built-in Loudspeaker
- Size: 6 x 6 x 3.8 cm
The Retro Tiny LED Projector is available from the Gagdet Brando website for $219.
(more…)
Tags: Gadget, Geek, hp, interface, ipod, laptop, music, nec, netbook, players, retro style, solution, source, USB, video, Windows
Posted in Geek | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
This week, Samsung is releasing the first TVs with the hyped embedded Yahoo Widget Engine, and those who have taken a first look are saying the feature works quite well.
The Samsung LED Series 7 TVs include a widget ’strip’ stream of popular web apps that come up without interrupting video onscreen. Among the first apps to be included are some for Flickr, YouTube, and different news orgs, like ABC News.
Katherine Boehret from the Wall Street Journal says she found the widgets easy to use because they’re integrated to a color-coded shortcut on the TV remote. She also appreciated the ability of the screen user interface to re-size itself when the more detailed widget panel takes over the left-hand side of the screen.
One of the things people noted (including myself) about the limitation of this web widget system when it was announced was the lacking physical keyboard. Some apps, like business email or IM, can really only be used with a keyboard in order to be properly useful. The on-screen keyboard the new Samsung TVs come with, which must be used with the limiting remote, is likely not as fast or as comfortable to use.
In fact, I wonder if this limitation will force people to realize they can simply connect their HDTVs directly to their PC to pick up web video online. Believe it or not, millions out there still haven’t made that connection.
The Samsung LED TVs have a 120 Hz response time, are WiFi-ready (with the purchase of an additional adapter), and are also among the first TVs to have an edge-lit back light system, which allows it to be fairly thin and to produce greater luminance. LEDs are used as the primary light source for the LCD, as opposed to CCFLs, which helps them save energy and produce improved contrast ratios.
The 46-inch LED TVs are now available for sale for $3,000 and the 55-inch ones sell for $3,700. Some stores like Best Buy are already receiving orders.
Other companies, including LG and Vizio, will also come out with their own web widget-enabled TVs this year.
(more…)
Tags: amp, apps, blog, business, cat, embedded, Gadget, google, interface, keyboard, limit, nec, news, Service, solution, source, video, Windows, yahoo
Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Apple’s phenomenally successful iPhone application store surpassed 30,000 apps available for download Thursday afternoon, despite an increasing number of complaints from peeved developers in recent months.
148Apps, an iPhone app review site that has been keeping count of apps in the App Store, said Apple surpassed the 30,000-app milestone at 1 p.m. PDT.
This is rapid, remarkable growth, considering just in December, iPhone fans celebrated the App Store surpassing 10,000 apps. The App Store launched in July 2008 with just 500 apps available.
But of course, the more crowded the app store gets, the more difficult it is for Apple to keep iPhone developers satisfied. Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt lists a number of recent issues developers have been clamoring about regarding the App Store:
- Delays in getting applications approved in the App Store. And in extreme cases, Apple doesn’t tell developers anything at all.
- Delayed payments. At times, Apple has been late on paying developers, violating the App Store’s contract, promising payment within 45 days.
- A refund policy that could potentially make developers go bankrupt. That is, Apple requires developers to issue refunds if a customer demands it within 90 days of purchase. But when the developer returns the money, it must return 100-percent of the app’s cost. The developer loses the 30-percent commission fee that Apple takes with each sale.
- App Store piracy has been around since the App Store’s launch, and some peeved developers are complaining that Apple needs to help combat the problem.
Developer complaints are aplenty, but clearly they’re not enough to deter tremendous growth of the App Store. Would you put up with the above issues knowing you could make $600,000 in a single month with an app? I probably would.
Photo: superciliousness/Flickr
(more…)
Tags: apple, application, apps, blog, cat, Developers, Gadget, google, iPhone, milestone, news, Service, Windows
Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
If there was ever a doubt that Star Wars creators will sell anything related to the movies to make a buck, that ended when even R2-D2 aquariums and terribly inappropriate toy Sith babies became available in the last decade.
For that insatiable niche audience of fanboys, here come a couple of gems: a new TIE Fighter webcam and a light saber LED lamp.
Both compare poorly spec-wise to other gadgets in their categories but it’s the allegiance to 30 year-old movies that counts, doesn’t it? The Darth Vader TIE fighter web cam has a video resolution of only 0.3 megapixels and a tiny built-in mic, but hey, it has two red LEDs that flicker when it’s being used. That might be worth the $90 price for someone. At least it’s better built than other Star Wars webcams previously available.
But the same amount could get you one of the best web cams in the market, the Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF, with Auto Focus, video effects, and a Carl Zeiss lens. Suddenly, the tie-in TIE fighter doesn’t look so good.
The $40 Laser Saber LED Light follows the same bad value, so you’re better off buying a nicer lamp from REI and just pretending it’s a light saber.
(more…)
Tags: amazon, amp, audience, blog, buck, car, cat, electronic, flicker, Gadget, Geek, google, limit, market, Service, solution, video, Windows
Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
The McGyver way to perform a tracheotomy is with a pen-knife and a Bic biro tube, but if you want to truly be ready for everything, you could drop considerably more cash on the $125 LifeStat Emergency Pocket Airway.
If we were to somehow succumb to an emergency requiring this kit, we’d surely be glad somebody was carrying it, but who, really, would wander around with a throat-drill on their keyring? I have been watching too many episodes of Criminal Minds these last weeks to think that anyone could carry this and have good intentions. Fortunately, there is an FDA warning to buyers, in all caps:
THE FDA AUTHORIZES THIS DEVICE FOR USE BY MEDICAL PERSONNEL, ONLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING AN EMERGENCY AIRWAY, AND IS NOT TO BE REUSED.
Shiver. We won’t cover the use of this here, as if you are qualified to own one you’ll know already. This reminds me of my time running a London cocktail bar. We were coming up with a new menu and brainstorming drink ideas. Mine contained rum, muddled with peanuts and the shells of shrimps. It would be served with a scalpel and a stiff drinking straw, and be called “The Throat Closer”. True story, although it didn’t make it onto the list.
Product page [Airstat via Cool Tools]
(more…)
Tags: car, google, hp, Service, Windows
Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Cordarounds are biking trousers which solve two problems at once, only to introduce a third. First, oily trouser-cuffs: To protect your pants from your dirty chain you’ll need either a chain guard or a bicycle clip, neither of which is particularly cool. Second — being seen. Of course, lights are essential at night, but reflecting tape always helps, and if it is on your ankle it also moves and catchers a driver’s eye.
The Cordarounds both of these by turning the turnups into reflectors and thereby adding stiffness which stops the cuff rolling down:
With 3M Scotchlite sewn along the inner cuff, a quick upward fold of the trouser leg will render you nearly indistinguishable from a heroic firefighter (from the ankles down).
They also have pull out reflectors in the rear pockets, called mudflaps, for some extra visibility. And the problem? They’re cords, the least stylish pants material out there (after Nylon). At least those ridges run horizontally, not up and down. The pictured pants may be even worse, made as they are for the office — think corporate dress-down Fridays.
If you can stand it, or if cords actually are the fashion and I am just horribly out of touch, head to the site and pick up a pair for $90. The Cordarounds are only available online and made in, where else, San Francisco.
Product page [Cordarounds via Noquedablogs]
(more…)
Tags: blog, cat, eye, flap, google, Office, Service, Windows
Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
That Blockbuster plans to bring its On Demand service to TiVo is news enough — the Netflix rival certainly needs to shift its streaming movie service onto more devices than the proprietary MediaPoint player you currently need in order to use it.
In fact, this news should tickle TiVo owners, whose box is fast becoming the best single way to watch movies instantly via the internet. But the news that is catching everybody’s attention is a small fact that Blockbuster senior VP Kevin Lewis let slip when talking to Reuters — Blockbuster will stream content to “Apple devices". Sadly, Reuters didn’t quote directly, so we don’t know which devices exactly, only that they will be “the normal places that consumers want to watch movies."
This could just mean a Mac client, something it took Netflix a while to get around to. Or it could mean iPhone or Apple TV. Or it could mean absolutely nothing. Remember Adobe’s increasingly desperate bleats that it is bringing Flash to the iPhone, and that “Apple and Adobe are collaborating"? This “collaboration" was in fact wishful thinking on the part of Adobe’s CEO Shantanu Narayan.
Could it be that this is merely a Freudian Slip on the part of Lewis? That his desire to be on the iWagon is so great that it bubbled up from Blockbuster’s collective unconscious and spilled out all over the TiVo announcement? We don’t know, but if company philosophy is any indicator, we’d put money on a Netflix/AppleTV double-team instead.
What we do know is the the whole TiVo lineup will be able to use the Blockbuster service in the second half of the year. There will be 10,000 titles to choose from. Prices are yet to be confirmed, but they are likely to be similar to today’s Blockbuster.com prices, at $2-$4 for rentals and $10+ for purchases. The biggest shock, though is this quote from Lewis: “You have to think about what the consumer wants." Yes, he really said that.
Blockbuster aims beyond stores with TiVo deal [Reuters]
Original photo: John Pastor/Flickr
(more…)
Tags: aim, apple, blog, cat, ceo, Gadget, Geek, google, iPhone, ipod, netflix, news, Service, tivo, Windows
Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Confession. When I was small, we used to play with Star Wars figures, and we used to swap them. There was a kid a few blocks away with rich parents that had bought him the entire set, brand new. Let’s call him Martin. Martin was a few years younger than us, and many years more gullible. Word quickly got around the kids on our estate about Martin’s new toys.
You can guess what happened next. Martin’s parents were out and we deccended like piranhas on the poor boy, stripping him of his shiny new figurines with terrifying efficiency. When we skedaddled, we left a sinking cloud of dust and a pile of loose-limbed, paint-chipped toys with tooth-marks on the heads.
Within a few moments of their arrival at home, Martins’ parents had decoded his sobs and hit the phones. My parents, for the record, thought Martin to be a wuss (my father, I think, used a rather stronger term), but we still had to play fair and give the figurines back.
Curiously, my brother didn’t take part in this. He was, presumably, at home playing with his own almost-complete set, featuring not one but two giant Gamorrean Guards (prized because, at the time, they cost the same as a Jawa but contained around five times the plastic). He’d saved pocket-money for months to buy these figurines (even today he has an unhealthy obsession with collecting things) but he was still just as sneaky us kids who had stripped poor Martin to the bone.
One day soon after Martingate I was called upon by my parents. Apparently I had, according to my evil little brother, broken one of his Gamorrean guards by “dropping it on the floor". He was trying to frame me, presumably jealous of my non-red hair. One look at the figurine debunked him — not only had the marks not come from dropping three feet onto deep-pile carpet, but they looked very much like they were made with teeth. My sneaky little brother’s teeth. I gave him a beating that night.
If you want to relive any of this nostalgia, you too can buy the entire set of Star Wars Figurines from the first three movies — all 79 of them, although they have already been freed from their blister-packs, just like Martin’s. The price? $3,500. If that’s too much you could try for swapsies.
Complete Set of 79 Vintage AFA 85 Loose Figures [Brian’s Toys via Uncrate]
(more…)
Tags: car, google, RAM, Service, toys, Windows
Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
A new firmware update from Apple is designed to fix the “possibility" of vertical lines and distorted graphics on the new, 17" unibody MacBook Pro. This will come as good news to the hundreds or thousands of owners who thought that Apple had simply shipped machines with defective graphics cards.
The problem can be seen in the photograph above, taken from an Apple Support Forum posting by Forcefedmedia. The lines appear when switching to the more powerful GeForce 9600 graphics card — sticking with the integrated graphics fixes the issue.
Hopefully, given that Apple has now released this firmware update, things will be fixed. The prevailing thought said that this was actually caused by fried graphics processors, and it’s easy to see why, especially if you lived through the iBook G4 (and some G3) issue of some years back, which actually was a hardware problem.
Still, the unibody MacBooks have generally been the best Mac launch in years, with much fewer teething troubles than usual. Any giant, 17" MacBook toting readers should let us know how things go.
About the MacBook Pro Graphics Firmware Update 1.0
[Apple]
Screenshot: Forcefedmedia
(more…)
Tags: apple, car, google, Hardware, MacBook, news, processor, Service, Windows
Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
It was, of course, inevitable. For it is written, in unibody iTablets carved from single blocks of aluminum and carried down from Mount Jobs, that Every iPod Shalt Have a Case.
And so mote it be, this time for the new button-free Shuffle. Oddly enough, we often use the term “condom" to describe these prophylactic, slip-on rubber protectors, but this time it’s pretty close to the truth. Accessory maker iLove is selling these rubbers in four-packs (presumably even an iPod add-on maker balks at selling one such tiny sheath for $13). The pack contains four delicious colors, with “easy access for your port and switches" for her pleasure.
There is also a twin-pack for those of us who feel less lucky, although these are in hard plastic, giving the shuffle the aspect of a disposable Bic lighter. These packs will also be $13. Both available from April.
Product page [iLuv. Thanks, Jennifer!]
(more…)
Tags: amp, car, cat, google, ipod, job, pleasure, Service, Windows
Posted in Gadgets | No Comments »
