The Dopod 838 Pro is pretty much the same as the HTC Hermes/TyTN, but repackaged with a 360-degree jog wheel for navigation inside the Windows Mobile 5.0 interface. Like the TyTN, the 838 Pro has 802.11g WiFi, EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0, quad-band GSM, EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA.
It's going to be available from Singapore (Dopod is primarily a company that services the Asian market) for $1,398 SGD ($884) or $1,248 SGD ($789) with a contract. $884 is actually fairly decent for a Hermes-based device, seeing as pre-order units for the TyTN are around $1000 USD online. – Jason Chen
Okay, now that you're done with lunch it's time to gross you out. A UK newspaper reminds us that cellphones are just downright disgusting, and are even dirtier than toilets. That's because they're exposed to much more bodily bacteria than any toilet seat. A combination of being near your mouth with all that spit and stuff, and those cellphone electronics keeping the bacteria warm all day turns that handset into a teeming metropolis of creepy-crawley microbes, including such delectables as Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria responsible for pimples, boils, pneumonia and meningitis.
Just keep in mind that there are literally billions of bacteria, virii, and other various insects and arachnids crawling all over your body right now. Reminds us of the Penn & Teller Bullshit episode where they took bacterial cultures from people's faces, hands and butts, and guess which was cleaner?
If you guessed butts, you're right, they were cleaner than faces and especially hands, the most bacteria-laden part of the body. Now forget all you just read and go on about your business. Have a nice day. – Charlie White
The MyKey 2300 RFID door lock gives you convenience as well as security, as long as the AA batteries don't run out. The lock responds to one of six key-cards that are included in the $300 unit, opening up when waved in front of the sensor. If you forget your card, there's a slide-out keypad for you to enter in your 3 to 20 digit passcode.
And if you forget your passcode, well, you're screwed. So implant that RFID chip in your skin like you've been planning to do. If the battery does run out, you can hold up a 9v battery to it to juice it up enough for you to get inside and replace the battery. Pretty nifty device, but at $300, it may be a little steep. – Jason Chen
They look good enough to eat (or listen to), but they're actually purses and shoulder bags created by Beverly Hills artist Timmy Woods, hand-carved from naturally-fallen branches of Acacia trees.
Each purse is unique, and it takes 30 days to complete its carving and finishing. Each is signed by the artist, and priced from $150-$2500. To give you an idea, the banana split purse above costs $363. Betcha no one else at the country club will have one. – Charlie White
At the Black Hat security conference one Jon Ellch and David Maynor have created quite a stir around the computing world. They used low level hacks to take advantage of a MacBook via the Wi-Fi card drivers. There is a lot of confusion bubbling around this situation because Ellch and Maynor performed the hack on a MacBook, but the hack itself isn't limited to the Apple laptop. Hell, they weren't even using the wireless adapter shipped with the MacBook. There are a handful of Wi-Fi adapters with this security flaw.
They did it on the MacBook because the "smugness on security" that most Mac users have and the fact that Maynor wants to "stab one of those users in the eye with a cigarette" regarding the actors in the latest Apple commercials. Regardless, everyone may want to consider turning off your Wi-Fi when it isn't in use until more info is divulged about this security flaw.
In case you wanted to know what the O-ROKR looks like on an actual human before going and ordering one from Amazon, check out this review. The features are nice, but aesthetically speaking, most people will still want to give this a pass. – Jason Chen
Polaroid—yes, that Polaroid—has announced their latest portable DVD player, the PDJ-0793. Most of the time I don't get a flying hoot about these portable players because a laptop can do the same job and is a bit more functional, but this one looks a little better than the average bear and has a reasonable price. The PDJ-0793 has a 7-inch screen mounted on a swivel base. It displays at a 16:9 aspect ratio and the battery life is average at about three hours. It also includes a headrest mount for the kiddos in the minivan. But the best feature of all, it doesn't require shaking to get the image to fade in—good job stepping it up in the technology world, Polaroid. Available for $175 or so. – Travis Hudson
It's too bad Woz is on his way to the South Pole with James Cameron—not filming Aquaman 2—or else Steve and his buddies would get in a rousing good game of Segway Polo on these new bad boys.
The FCC just cleared the Segway PT i2 and x2 for public consumption. The i2 is made for indoor and outdoor use—much like the original—whereas the x2 is made for outdoor use thanks to its wider wheelbase, wider tires and "knobby" treads. They both get up to around 12.5 miles per hour and the i2 has a 16-24 mile range compared to the x2's 9-12 mile range. – Jason Chen
Enter the exact time of your birth into the Fortune Ball, and it goes through its colorful permutations, using "computers" to tell your "fortune." This would be great for those occasions when a coin-flip just doesn't seem to be elaborate enough.
The device was invented by Dr. Ming Fang, whom we suspect is the proud holder of a doctorate in economics. One thing's certain: whoever plunks down the $112.68 for this will be less wealthy as soon as they place the order. There's also a high probability that those fortune-telling gadget buyers and the rest of their money will be soon parted. You heard it here first. – Charlie White
This is one wild-looking PC case from Scythe Corp. in Japan, the XCLIO A380 ATX with an LED-lit 10-inch fan up front that looks like a jet engine. Don't be scared away by that fan's imposing size, though—at its lowest speed the thing and its side-mounted twin put out just under 28dBA of sound. Crank them up to 1000rpm and you can overclock to your heart's content, especially with the more-efficient and cooler-running Intel Core processors.
There's plenty of room inside for drives and such, with a standard complement of drive bays, with five 5-inch bays and a 3.5" bay, along with seven 3.5" shadow bays. Of course, there are external connections for a couple of USB 2.0 ports as well as a FireWire port, too. Shipping next week in Japan for £70, we're hoping this radical-looking case might find its way across the big pond sometime soon. – Charlie White
The $100 laptop project is making waves in lesser-developed countries, but what about Internet access? Come on, even the poorest folks enjoy sick fetish porn from time to time. Enter Green Wi-Fi. This is a non-profit organization that is seeking to provide wireless internet access to poorer countries. These access points are simply a solar panel, battery and a router that is linked up to a big wireless network. These nodes run for approximately £110, which is considerably cheap given all of the components involved. Green Wi-Fi is set to launch in India this summer. – Travis Hudson
This USB eye massager is designed for people who sit in front of a computer all day long (hmm...all of us here?) and whose peepers feel a little uncomfortable afterwards. Once plugged into a USB port, the massager automatically turns on, and begins the "[r]hythmic stroking of your skin." There's two different speeds, "high speed" and "low speed," ensuring that you don't over-stimulate your eyeballs with your delicate strokes.
The manufacturer claims that massage is pretty much the best thing ever invented and helps to "aid digestion...fight against infection" and that it "stimulates the lymphatic system." All that from two fingers being jammes into your eye socket.
Unfortunately, no price is given for this multi-coloured little miracle worker. – Nicholas Deleon
And now for the mother of all iPod speakers, and no, this isn't just a design concept. Japan's Gyanze Corporation announced its Kata Mali 01 Aluminium speaker set, more than just a pretty design with 15 watts per channel emanating from its built-in digital amplifier and auto-on when it detects input from an audio source. It's built like a truck, too, weighing in at a hefty 12.5 pounds.
Don't worry about it getting too scuffed up, either, because it has a special wax coating to keep it scratch-free. Why didn't Apple think of that with its iPods? Beautiful design. The only bad news is its price: £700. – Charlie White
Logitec says it'll be shipping its LBD-A2FU2/WM Blu-ray writer to Japan in the next couple of weeks, and it's calling the product the first Mac-friendly Blu-ray disc burner on the market.
The drive will be compatible with both Windows and Mac, and will include Roxo's Toast 7 Titanium Blu-ray burning software for Mac. The FireWire and USB 2.0 drive will also be able to read and write DVDs and CDs. As expected, this first out-of-the-gate McBurner won't be cheap, starting out at a £600 retail price. No word when it will be available stateside. – Charlie White
Hoax or not, it is kind of a buzzkill to see this banner that is supposedly for Apple's WWDC next week. Upon first glance at the banner there is no visible evidence of any kind of iPhone. But then again, Apple's arsehole puckers up tighter than a snare drum regarding new products and possible leaks.
There are only a couple things on this banner that may be worth a mention. First there is an iPod nano on the bottom left area of the banner. It doesn't exactly look white, so could this be the aluminum iPod nano that we have been speculating about in the past? Also, maybe my eyes are deceiving me but it seems like there are some panels on the far right side of the banner that are covered up, possibly hiding the fabulous iPhone? Oh well, enjoy the teaser pr0n. We'll all know the truth next week. – Travis Hudson
Feeling all smug, snug and secure because you have antivirus software running on that PC of yours? Think again. Graham Ingram, the general manager of Australia's Computer Emergency Response Team says the most popular antivirus applications are about as impregnable as a screen door in a submarine, letting 80% of the creepy crawlies through.
Ingram didn't mention them by name, but the three leading antivirus applications are Symantec with 53.6% of the market, McAfee with 18.8%, and Trend Micro with 13.8%. On the other hand, one antivirus package he did mention by name was the Russian application Kaspersky, which he said blocks of 90% of viruses and Trojans.
There was also no mention of the performance hit antivirus software claims from your system. It's a shame that so many people are using useless applications such as Symantec antivirus software. The cure is worse than the disease. The funny thing is, viruses don't come to get you, you have to actively infect yourself with them. And, by the time any of these bullshit apps figure out how to deal with ever more masterfully-written viruses, the horse is already out of the barn. But just to be safe, don't use Internet Explorer and don't click on any attachments, and you'll be far more likely to be virus-free than if you're depending on any of these fraudulent applications. Or, you could just get a Mac. – Charlie White
No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, this watch from Tokyo Flash is actually called the Pimp Jive Turkey. The positive note is that Tokyo Flash seems to be making watches that actually look like watches. This watch uses refractive mirrors, green LEDs and a convex camera style lens to make pretty special effects that displays the time. £80 for all of the Pimping Jive Turkeying that you can handle. – Travis Hudson
Korean cellphone carrier SKY will see the introduction of the SKY IM-R100, a multimedia-friendly phone from Pantech & Curitel. Right now, only raw stats are known about the upcoming cellphone: it'll sport a 2-megapixel camera, microSD card slot and the usual [tacked on] portable media functionality. Of course, this means it'll probably play your MP3s but perhaps not as well as dedicated devices might. Little else is known about the IM-R100, but the lack of a DMB TV tuner did surprise some folks, given the transmission standard's popularity in Korea. There are, however, a few more pictures after the jump for your viewing pleasure.
Leave it to the Japanese in their never-ending and ever-expanding search for cuteness to call a mouse a fish, where Elecom's latest mouse has been named the Japanese word for a fish: Sakana. It's the O Sakana Mouse POI (that's its official name), and except for its unusual design, there's nothing fishy about it—it's a conventional optical mouse.
With its bleary eyes peering out at you from the left and right mouse buttons and its stylized tail, Sakana's trio of cheery primary colours give it a marketable palette in group shots, and its matching USB cable reel might make it popular with certain travelers who would rather be cute than cool. Not us. – Charlie White
There you have it: one of the first games developers to take a practical approach to the PS3. Atari’s CEO, Bruno Bonnell has confirmed it will have no PS3 content until next year. There may be some bemoaning the fact but then those die-hards probably think they’ll have a PS3 at launch too. Hahahahahaha.
Sorry, but Atari’s approach on this seems fiscally sound since the console will not hit big numbers until 2007 and Atari is having cash-problems of its own. Once you factor in shifting PS3 launch dates and lies about lots of units ‘ready-to-go’ at launch, it will be 2007 before you get to spend the single largest sum ever on a gaming rig. With Blu-Ray, of course. Bonnell said:
“We're supporting them [all platforms] fairly equally; it's just that we're lacking information about the PS3 at this stage, because we have basically a rough release date and a high retail price point. As far as the Wii and the Xbox 360 go, we'll be there for this season; for PS3, we'll probably have to wait a little later in the year before we release some new titles.
“I think that by deciding to put the PS3 at this [high] price, Sony has chosen to really differentiate itself from the other consoles, and the fact that you have Blu-ray, and the fact that it's HD compatible - all this is driving me to think that Sony is picking up the high-end of the market, the hardcore, passionate fans.” Via Game Industry
Next year you can do Glastonbury in style and leave behind a festival past littered with leaking tents, stolen tents and the world’s crappiest toilets.
Hotel-chain Travelodge is working on a mobile hotel room built from polycarbonate glass. Measuring 14.4 sq metres, the Travelpod has more than enough space for swinging cats and mini-orgies. No really. OK, this is what you really get and you have to picture this against your last tent-outing at a waterlogged festival: luxury double bed, bedside tables, lights, duvet, pillows, carpeted floor, dressing table with light, mirror, chair and your own toilet. I can hear those that have queued to use disease-ridden festival Porta-loos groan in ecstasy at that last bit.
The cost: just £26 a night. A crane will be lifting these into place at festivals and other locations all over the country next year in time for the outdoor music scene.
Worried about your child meeting some sicko on the Net? Then you’re not alone and now steps have been taken to introduce a card scheme to help kids properly identify whether their online buddy ‘Melanie’ is actually a 13-yr old girl from Swansea or a hairy, 45-yr old member of the trench-coat brigade. Jump now.
Samsung's pumping out phones in Korea and Europe faster than Britney's popping out kids for Kevin. The latest is their near RAZR-thin SGH-Z560 HSDPA phone with 1.8Mbps data throughput. The phone has 30MB of internal memory plus a microSD slot for expanded memory.
In addition to HSDPA, the SGH-Z560 also supports edge, has a two megapixel camera, MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/Real playback, stereo speakers, Bluetooth, and a 2.3-inch QVGA display—pretty nice features for a slim phone. It's being released in France and Germany and will be heading to other countries soon. – Jason Chen
The Dream'eo Enza just had its prices slashed to £100, which makes it a very cheap option for Windows Media Center '05 owners to take their recorded shows on the go. The low, low price is £100 cheaper than a 30GB iPod Video, which requires re-encoding of files if you want to watch your shows on it because there's no support for Media Center's default dvr-ms recorded format.
The price cuts are probably here as a precursor to the upcoming Zune launch to get all the old PMC units out of the way. Either way, 20 gigs in a player that plays back ASF, JPEG, MP3, WMA, and WMV files for £100 is a good deal. – Jason Chen
First Review! LOL! It's a good day when you can beat CNET to a gadget groping. Here's a video clip of me manhandling the Pioneer AVIC-S1 handheld GPS. It's designed like a Garmin Nuvi, but I know Nuvi, and you, sir, are no Nuvi. The skinny: GPS with 3D maps, and really sexy voice cues (sexier by far than either TomTom or Garmin), no street name reading, really terrible point of interest database, painfully slow Windows-based interface, glare prone screen, and bluetooth connectivity to the phone (for speakerphoning while driving.)
Don't expect this clip to be as shiny as those from Charlie W. or John Biggs. This is UHF, at best, fellas. Also, I need a manicure.– Brian Lam
Normally when we show these cool robot things they're in the design phase, but this one is actually up for sale in Japan for £180,000
The Land Walker was made by Masaaki Nagumo, measures 11 feet tall, weighs one ton, and sprays bullets from air guns mounted outside the cockpit. Unfortunately they're only sponge bullets, but I bet it'll still hurt like a bitch when you spray your friends with them. We can imagine the doofuses on the show Entourage buying four and riding these around their huge mansion. – Jason Chen
These Altec Lansing M602 iPod speakers look like they're much better than the little tiny iPod speakers we got off Woot one drunken night. The M602 has a wireless remote, wall-mount kit, universal iPod dock that can hook up to your computer, and composite video out for 5G iPod TV hookup. There's even a headphone jack for private listening, when you need to hide your Milli Vanilli shame.
Best yet, fans of anything-but-iPod MP3 players can place their player in the "Universal MP3 cradle". The speakers will cost you £110 and is available now. – Jason Chen
The Dopod 838 Pro is pretty much the same as the HTC Hermes/TyTN, but repackaged with a 360-degree jog wheel for navigation inside the Windows Mobile 5.0 interface. Like the TyTN, the 838 Pro has 802.11g WiFi, EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0, quad-band GSM, EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA. 
Okay, now that you're done with lunch it's time to gross you out. A UK newspaper reminds us that cellphones are just downright disgusting, and are even dirtier than toilets. That's because they're exposed to much more bodily bacteria than any toilet seat. A combination of being near your mouth with all that spit and stuff, and those cellphone electronics keeping the bacteria warm all day turns that handset into a teeming metropolis of creepy-crawley microbes, including such delectables as 
The MyKey 2300 RFID door lock gives you convenience as well as security, as long as the AA batteries don't run out. The lock responds to one of six key-cards that are included in the $300 unit, opening up when waved in front of the sensor. If you forget your card, there's a slide-out keypad for you to enter in your 3 to 20 digit passcode. 
At the Black Hat security conference one Jon Ellch and David Maynor have created quite a stir around the computing world. They used low level hacks to 
Polaroid—yes, that Polaroid—has announced their latest portable DVD player, the PDJ-0793. Most of the time I don't get a flying hoot about these portable players because a laptop can do the same job and is a bit more functional, but this one looks a little better than the average bear and has a reasonable price. The PDJ-0793 has a 7-inch screen mounted on a swivel base. It displays at a 16:9 aspect ratio and the battery life is average at about three hours. It also includes a headrest mount for the kiddos in the minivan. But the best feature of all, it doesn't require shaking to get the image to fade in—good job stepping it up in the technology world, Polaroid. Available for $175 or so. 
It's too bad Woz is 
Enter the exact time of your birth into the Fortune Ball, and it goes through its colorful permutations, using "computers" to tell your "fortune." This would be great for those occasions when a coin-flip just doesn't seem to be elaborate enough.
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
