Design-Minded Motorola Phone November 22, 2005
READ MORE Mobile phones
This Motorola MS550 has almost no chance of making it to our shores (Korea-only, my friends) but I dig the design. With a 3.2-megapixel camera that has a pop-out lens, it looks more like a camera than a phone from this angle. Of course, it’s also 3G compliant, supports CDMA EV-DO data connections and has a memory card slot for expansion, making for great-looking 3D gaming on its 2.2-inch TFT LCD screen. Includes an MP3 player that supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, and MIDI playback.
Motorola unveils MS550 [Ubergizmo]
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US Robotics Rolls Out MaxG Tech November 22, 2005
READ MORE PC
US Robotics isn’t fooling around. It’s Wireless Gateway USR019108 is a broadband networking solution that combines the company’s exclusive MaxG with ADSL2+ technology for a complete broadband networking solution that encompasses a router and a print server. Obviously great for home networks it’s also perfect for any small business needs. And if your broadband provider isn’t giving giving you ADSL+, the product does support existing ADSL connections. The Gateway comes with four Ethernet network ports and says that it can deliver up to 50 per cent improvement in signal range and 125Mbit/s wireless performance (compared to 54Mbit/s for standard 802.11g). Also includes one USB 2.0 port, one adjustable antenna, an SPI firewall, Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2)/802.11i and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), 802.1x authentication, 64/128-bit WEP encryption, SSID broadcast disable, VPN pass-through (PPTP, IPSec and L2TP), password protected configuration access, DMZ and virtual server support. One problem: It seems the MaxG technology isn’t really up to par because to get the real speed and range across your network, you’ll also need to purchase wireless adapters for all your computers and laptops. Uh oh.
U.S. Robotics Wireless MAXg ADSL2+ Gateway [Bios Magazine]
Preloaded Video iPod November 22, 2005
READ MORE Portable Media
Don’t feel like loading your own content on your Video iPod? Check out a company called TVMyPod, which will gladly sell you a brand new Video iPod with the DVD movies of your choice already preloaded. Not a bad deal if you don’t have the movies, or the time to deal with ripping, converting and loading all that content. To those who’ve already purchased their hardware, the company also plans to let you send your iPod in for preloading, and is thinking about adding a subscription service to give you new video content as well.
Buy your video iPod… preloaded [Lost Remote]
Bring Home The Party With The Laservibe November 22, 2005
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You remember back in the 1970s you could go to the Planetarium on Friday nights to check out the Pink Floyd laser light show? Yeahhhh, it was pretty rad man. Now you can have one in your living room with the Laservibe. Hook it up to your MP3 player, stereo, or whatever, turn it on and you’ll be displaying squiggles and light all over your ceiling. Dig out that old “Van Der Graaf Generator” album hit a bowl (of cheerios) and lay back and enjoy. It’ll run you $100 for psychedelic enjoyment.
The Laservibe [Oh Gizmo]
Product Website [LaserVibe]
Bang & Olufsen Media Contraption November 22, 2005
READ MORE Home Entertainment
This is the BeoMedia 1. It appears to be a media center of sorts. B&O has focused on simplicity with this media center by offering features that are most relevant to the user. It can do mostly the same features as any other media center, music playback, video playback, streaming radio, limited web browsing, etc. Nothing too spectacular, and if it is coming from B&O it will probably cost you your first born, but at least it looks kind of cool.
Product Page [B&O]
Retractable iPod Grappling Hook November 22, 2005
READ MORE Peripherals
For those times when you need to transform your iPod into a rudimentary grappling hook, Elecom’s new retractable iPod cables could be exactly the item you are looking for. Available in 31- and 59-inch varieties. Sure, we’ve seen products like this before, but this may be one of the first (of an impending onslaught of) black accessories to compliment the new generation of black ‘Pods.
Introducing the USB-IRL series of retractable iPod cables [Elecom Japan]
Similar retractable iPod USB cable (for white iPods) [Amazon]
No more spoons! November 22, 2005
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Spoons are very complicated things to use. You have to pick them up, dip them into whatever contents you need at the moment, (sugar, salt, marmite) eyeball the measurements, then wash them afterwards. It's really a hassle, so it is by a stroke of luck and good fortune we have now the coffee and sugar dispensers to sort us all out.
Similar to using a pepper mill, just fill 'em up with coffee or sugar, then twist until your desired amount sprinkles out. A perfect cup of coffee everytime. Although you might still need a spoon later to stir everything together. So, fingers crossed the next gadget we talk about is the automatic hot beverage stirrer!
$38.60 or approximately £22.49 for the coffee dispenser, and $36.99 or around £21.56 for the sugar one. Being spoon free and fabulous is available for you here.
XBox 360 Round Up November 22, 2005
READ MORE Consoles , Games , Home Entertainment
Well, it’s finally here—the best thing in the world ever, until the PS3 comes out. Here’s the massive bolus of coverage from all around the the world. All I can say is that Project Gotham Racing rox.
In search of the Xbox 360 [Star Tribune]
Xbox 360’s Thrills Are Many but They Don’t Come Cheap [LA Times]
Q&A: The Xbox 360 [BBC]
The games to get for the Xbox 360 [Chicago Tribune]
The new Xbox 360 is the stuff of dreams, but most new games aren’t up to the challenge [San Fran Chronicle]
18 games for Xbox 360 [Detroit Free Press]
Initial Xbox 360 reviews good not great [TheRegister]
Gates: Xbox Live Will Become Windows Live [Spong]
Microsoft XBox 360 raises games stakes [TheBusiness]
The Xbox 360 rush is on [CNET]
PC and the New Power Generation: Xbox 360 [IGN]
Microsoft Xbox 360 Media Center Extender [PCMag]
Yanks get Hands On Xbox 360 [TrustedReviews]
Microsoft Xbox 360 Lands [The Inquirer]
Xbox 360 - Good, Not Great [Tech Digest]
First Look at the Xbox 360 [PCWorld]
Microsoft’s ‘Last Words’ Before 360 Launch [I4U]
TiVo Q&A November 22, 2005
READ MORE Home Entertainment , Portable Media
With TiVo’s big announcement yesterday, announcing the simple downloading of programs to your Video iPod and PSP, you may have some questions. So here are some quick answers. First of all, you may have already heard of the TiVoToGo service, which currently lets you transfer programming to computers and laptops, as well as portable products that use the Microsoft Portable Media Center format. You can actually use this service to download to the PSP and Video iPod right now with various software products, but the recently announced service is different because the shows will be encoded to be quickly transferred using an “auto-sync” feature. But watch out, the company is also saying that you “will need to purchase certain low-cost software.” So, it’s not really clear whether this will be free.
Encoding also looks like it will take a bit of time, so as well as needing about 200MB of memory space for 30 minutes of video, it will also take about 2 minutes for every minute of content to transfer.
As for who can use this feature, it looks like only those who actually subscribe to TiVo directly, which locks out all of you who subscribe through DirecTV.
And one more thing. This service doesn’t support Macs, so this could anger quite a few iPod owners. Look for links on TiVo’s website in the next few weeks if you’d like to sign up for the beta testing. You must have a broadband connection and testers will be chosen “based partly on how respondents phrase their responses to some questions.” So watch your words! The rest of us should look for this around April 2006.
FAQ: Behind TiVo’s play for iPod, PSP [Cnet]
XBox 360 - Sold, To the Boy in the Stained Shirt November 22, 2005
READ MORE Consoles
Investment advisors all agree—buy XBox 360s. I’ve transferred my entire portfolio—stocks, bonds, 401(k), bullion (vegetable and beef)—into XBox 360s. I currently have 5,000 of them in my basement and at the rate they’re going on Ebay, I can expect a tidy return on my money in the next few years. I mean look at this: a box that will sell for £150 next Christmas is going for £1,250. Buy low, sell high, I always say.
Auction [Ebay]
Hauppauge Live TV Tuner November 22, 2005
READ MORE Gadgets
Add live TV to your PC with the WinTV HVR-900 TV Tuner, a very small USB 2.0 stick that plugs right into your laptop or any computer to let you receive analog and digital terrestrial TV. Not a bad thing to have when you’re stuck at the airport and don’t feel like watching Fox News, the HVR-900 comes with a high-gain aerial, letting you receive up to 40 digital channels. It also lets you record live TV to your hard drive and burn DVDs at 1.68GB per hour. Of course, the bundled travel aerial, which is really what you probably bought the thing for, may not bring video up to your usual standards. Plug-and-play and easy to install, check for the HVR-900 by end of month.
Hauppauge Digital ‘TV Stick’ [Bios Magazine]
Pricing and reviews for Hauppage TV tuners [CNET]
Antec Makes Fancy Limited Tower Case November 22, 2005
W-O-W. Antec went through a lot of trouble to give us the P180 SPCR Advanced Super Midi Tower Case (and to name it, too). With dual chambers that isolate power supply and CPU into separate cooling zones with up to five, count ‘em, FIVE, configurable fans and three-layer, sound-deadening panels that should make it whisper quiet, this is one high-end tower case. Throw in 11 drive bays, 7 expansion slots, 2 USB 2.0 ports, FireWire and audio connectors and it’s certainly worth your time.
Antec Limited Edition P180 Tower Case [Bios Magazine]
Specs and pricing for Antec P180 Tower Case [Amazon]
Samsung Music Phone November 22, 2005
READ MORE Mobile phones , Portable Media
Found on a Chinese website, the Samsung SCH F319 is an ode to the iPod. A shiny, white mobile phone, it’s got a jog dial to let you browse your music and playlists, a built-in stereo speaker and 200 MB of memory. A slide-out keypad makes a nice addition to the design, but other than that, folks, there’s not much more info I can cull.
Samsung rips off the i-Pod; Samsung SCH F319 [Phoneyworld]
‘32 Ford Hybrid Conversion November 22, 2005
Brett Singleton, a student at a Utah technology college is converting a ‘32 Ford from a not-so-enviro-friendly lead-fueled engine over to a primarily electric hybrid engine. The engine Singleton is designing is different from other hybrid engines because it is primarily going to run on the electric motor rather than a gas engine. Singleton is working on this project with other peers and plans to release his system into a kit that will allow any environmental savvy hot-rodder to do similar conversions.
Utah Student Building Hybrid ‘32 Ford [Treehugger]
US Tops Gaming Olympics November 22, 2005
READ MORE Games
The US has topped the medal charts at the World Cyber Games. Touted as the Olympics of the gaming world, this is where finger-eye coordination replaces actual physical exertion. The US managed two golds and a silver while the UK went home with the consolation of knowing that one of the overseas members of its Four Kings professional gaming outfit, managed a bronze. It will still be claimed a UK win though, bet on it. South Korea and Brazil came second and third overall in the medal stakes. Apart from the ore, there was $80,000 up for grabs in prize money. Peanuts when you consider that today's Cyberathlete Professional League World Tour in New York has a pot of $500,000. Who says sitting on your ass doesn't pay? More.
Keep Parents Out November 22, 2005
READ MORE Gadgets
Pesky parents still hunting for porn under your mattress? Scandalous. You'd think now that you're 40 they'd have just given it a rest. I say, ban them geris for good with the Keylock 6600. As you can see, this is the Alcatraz of locks. Fingerprint recognition, PIN code and a choice of wireless key or mechanical key. The password is six digits and can be programmed to accept up to 78 different profiles. The rejection rate of the fingerprint reader is 1 per cent so make sure you're not sweating on the way in, and there is even a musical jingle and light to let you know when it's locking and unlocking. Ahhh. Keep parents downstairs, where they belong. Via Red Ferret.
Pantech & Curitel PT-S170 November 22, 2005
READ MORE Mobile phones
Today we welcome yet another strange looking mobile phone. The only details available right now are that this is a camcorder phone that manages to slide, fold and even swivel. If the transformers ever needed to rock a cell phone, they would use this. It is debuting in South Korea and we can hope it never comes stateside.
Curitels curiously twisty new cellphone [Mobile Mentalism]
Panasonic Brings Lightest, Thinnest Phone to FOMA Service November 22, 2005
READ MORE Mobile phones
The Panasonic prosolid II is a mobile phone made expressly for NTT’s FOMA 3G service. Weighing just 99 grams and measuring 106×49×16. 7mm, it’s actually being touted as the thinnest and lightest out there (for this particular service, of course). Includes a 2.2-inch TFT screen on the inside of the clamshell phone and has another OLED display on the outside. If you were in Japan and could use 3G services, you could also pick this phone up in either black or silver.
Panasonic prosolid II - Thinnest and Lightest 3G FOMA Phone [i4u]
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
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