tech - hawg
Friday, April 29, 2005
  New menaing to expression, "Wall Of Sound"

Ever want a room of wall to wall speakers? How about a room where the walls are speakers? Or a bed with a speaker on top of your mattress but under your covers (oh yeah). Maybe even a scarf speaker? Or speaker boxers! To get back on point, Korean research firm announced that it has developed the technology that will enable to mass producing of these flat speakers that are as flexible as a piece of fabric. Apparently you only need to cut out your desired shape and connect to an amp. One word, two syallables...sockspeaker. I'm.A.Genius. You're welcome.
 
  Worldest smallest battery

This is a small battery. Developed by theYRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory, the 2 hour lasting cube sized battery is 15x15x15mm. Practical application? No clue but I'm sure someone can use it to crank out some kind of digital audio player. It's all the rage these days. More details here via i4u.
 
  For all you Macintosh havers
Here's and article from MacFixit on how to properly prepared you Mac for the system shock that is Tiger. That may be a little exaggeration, but hey, nobody likes to lose their data. Unless you're LexisNexis, Zing!
 
  Pocket camera for pocket lovers

Mini blurb for a mini device. Here's the pocket photo/video Xacti C5 Mini from Sanyo. Bam!
 
  iPod bags and purses

If you're a fashion conscience, hip woman or a man-purse loving man (i know you exist!), you might dig these iPod bags from BrightonNet. Available May 9, these iPod bags (shoulder and handbag styles) comes with an amplifier, 2 speakers and a pocket inbetween the speakers to put your ipod. That's hot. Dig it here.
 
  Lazy man home theatre

For all you lazy players out there here is the Pyramat Sound Lounger. Hook up basically anything audio to it and feel the boom. Pop in a nature cd and put yourself to sleep. This looks perfect for those late night new game exploits. I would probably have to bring in some extra pillows though, might be too awkward with just my head up against the back. Need one now? get it directly from Amazon here
 
  Kevin Smith likes Star Wars Revenge of the Sith, a little
K Smith geeks out over the last Star Wars flick, Revenge of the Sith. His review (seen/read here) is pretty spoiler heavy so if you're not going to read it, he loved the hell out of the movie. His whole review can be summed up with his ending sentence:
"Sith" doesn't happen; "Sith" rules.
I have my 12:02a ticket for the weds it'll be coming out, I'll be all over it and let you all know how it is from a male 18-24 yr old movie-goer perspective. I'm not an obessed Star Wars fan or anything so I won't be biased. I promise.
 
  The WEE man cometh...

The European Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive is set to become law in Summer 2005. The directive's aim is to reduce the amount of electric trash filling up the UK landfills. That and to bring nightmares to childern everywhere! The WEE man is a 23 foot high composition of the electronic trash generated by the average UK citizen. Quote from the website:
Its main aim is to reduce the amount of WEEE going to landfill
Check out their website for more pictures. via i4u.
 
  ALLTEL customer $1 million contest
ALLTELL customers have the chance to win $1 million to build thier dream home Extreme Home Makeover style. To enter the contest, text message, picture message, video message or instant message "home" to "123456". Multiple entries are encouraged so the more you vote, the better your chances are. Check out the messages sent in so far here. More info about the contest itself here.
 
 

Pimp your pc with the PlusDeck 2. With the PlusDeck2 you can now record onto cassette tapes or archive your music from your favorite 80s hairbands(you know you want to!). Just be prepared to be the envy of all your friends. If you think you can handle it, pick one up from ThinkGeek.
 
  DVD and MPEG4 video to go

This is nice. It's the DVD-LX95 portable dvd and mpeg4 player. It comes with a 9" TFT panel , an integrated tv tuner and an FM transmitter. Those specs are nice and all but what good is a portable DVD player if the battery only last 20 minutes. No worries, the DVD-LX95's battery will enable you to watch 6 hours of movies in DVD mode. Expected sales price is around 590 EUR. Mored details here.
 
  Geek your ride

Thought you all might dig the New book from ExtremeTech books. The amazon book description:
* Car hacker Auri Rahimzadeh revs up readers while guiding them through 21 cool projects complete with step-by-step instructions for adding electrical outlets, installing satellite radio and mobile Wi-Fi, and building in-car DVD systems
* Takes the automotive geek far beyond the factory options-readers will learn the "fine art" of fearlessly pulling out a dashboard, ripping up some carpet, and creating a crazy ride!
* Hacks include adding backseat video gaming systems, building an auto-tracking in-car satellite TV unit, installing a trunk-mounted server computer, and even installing a mobile plasma theater system
* Foreword by Steve "Woz" Wozniak, who shares tips from his own hacked Hummer


Buy the book here.
 
  Voice recording watch

The Thanko Corporation will be adding voice recorder functions to their analog MP3 watch that is set to be released on April 29th. The 128MB unit costs 12,800 yen, the 256MB model 15,800 yen, and the 512MB model 19,800 yen. The device also supports the playback of MP3 at bitrates up to 356kbps. You have to use a USB 1.1 connection to transfer music to the watch from your pc but who needs speed anyway? You can now freak out everyone in your near vicinity in your local airport. Talk into your watch like your some kind fo special agent about to take someone out and then shout, "i'm taking him out!" while you tackle some random person to the cheers to hoorahs of the unknowing onlookers who think they've just witness a agnet of some sort take down a threat. You'll be a hero, at least until your tacklee gets back up and chases you down for tackling him for no reason. Life of a hero is not easy work. More details on the watch here.
 
  Skype for your mobile device

I know this story is a little aged but anyhoo, Skype is planning to release an Embedded Linux, Symbian or Windows Mobile version sometime later this year. As freidnly as our government and large telecomm companies are, I wouldn't expect Sype Mobile editions to debut without any troubles. With Skype, who needs a long distance carrier? The ensuing fight could be cool to watch unfold though. More details here.
 
  The Samsung YH-J50 and Samsung YH-J70 get priced

More details on the Samsung YH-J50 and Samsung YH-J70. Seems like the smaller 5GB YH-J50 will run about 299 Korean Won (299 USD) with the bigger 30GB YH-J70 to run about 579 Won (579 USD). If these prices seems a little high it's because they are. No word yet on any kind of special functionality that will set these apart from the competition and justify the higher price tag. from dapreview.
 
  Liquid-filled fun int he palm of your hand

Check out these PS2/USB liquid-filled optical mice. It's like having an aquarium of fun in the palm of your hand! You can choose from a bevy of different colors, each having something different in it's water parts. Pick the one that tickles your fancy and be the envy of your fellow cubicle dwellers. Pick one up for £13.99 here...via gadgetry blog.
 
Thursday, April 28, 2005
  Vodoo Knife holder

This is cool. This Voodoo 5-knife holder is now available from ViceVersa for $40.00. You just have to let them know how many you want and pay $20.00 (via paypal) up front, which is a bit odd. From gizmodo.
 
  Musical balls ooze coolness

From Elecom in Japan comes some balls that rock. Not much inforation on them spec wise but they sure do look purty! Carry them around and swing at people with poor music tastes. Don't carry them in your pocket though. I'm thinking that wouldn't look right. More details here...via dapreview.
 
  Get lazy

Here's a TV tray equivalent for you laptop. Looks like this will make it easier to use your laptop on your couch or bed. Now if I can only get some kind of swivel laptop tray mounted to my toilet, I would have it made in the shade with lemonade. More details here...via akihabara.
 
  Unleash the beast

More and more Tiger reviews are coming out and to nobody's surprise, the reviewers are giving it massive amounts of praise. With all these new features they're intorducing, you have to wonder why is it taking Microsoft so long to come out with anything new? Google's turing out fast product these days, as are Yahoo and Apple. Why doesn't Microsoft seems exciting any more? Who knows. Hopfully they'll get a clue soon or they're going to be left choking on the dust of the company's that did things better and faster. Check out Apple Tiger reviews from Slashdot.
 
  Zombies galore in George Romero's latest

Here's a trailer for George Romero's latest visual opus. This totally looks like something you can bring Grandma and the kids to . I'm sure someone will bring their newborn to see it, someone always does. I'm all for Romero and I know he's MR. Zombie and all, but I thought the Dawn of the Dead remake that came last year was brain-popping good. It was intense, fun, gory....all that good stuff. I went back to the original and it was alright. I just dug the faster zombies and the action elements. I know Land of the Dead will have the slower zombies and that looks to be a good thing. This trailer looks pretty intense and gory. Both of which are pre-requisites for a good zombie movie. Am I an expert? No. I just no what I like, and I likes the zombies!!! Grab a leg to chew on and check out the trailer here.
 
  Two hand the Siemens SK65

Gizmag loves the new Siemens SK65 mobile phone. It looks cool and it's good to see something unique like it's flip out from underneath full qwerty(that's such an easy word to type on a qwerty-board) keyboard. It also comes with 64MB of memory, a 132x176 TFT screen, and bluetooth compatibility. It also has some Blackberry features like the push-down email. That in itself is pretty cool. It addition to email, it supposedly offers full Outlook calendar access as well. More details here
 
  Batman gonna rock joo!

Batman is looking to be pretty dope in the latest trailer. Christian Bale was freaking perfect for this role. He pulls off the whole "maybe-slightly-off-his-rocker" Batman vibe. This looks quite engrossing. I'm starting to get excited for this one. Large quicktime trailer here.
 
  Huge Touchscreen LCD

Here is the "Tactive" 40 inch LCD touch screen from ActiveLight. For only $7,999 you too can get in on this latest technology for the digital sinage industry. I'm guess the digital sinage industry is for digital signs and the like? I wonder if they have a digital billboard in the works. I could see a touchscreen billboard against the side of a huge building where muiltiple people can come up and maybe play some sort of game against each other. But it would probably end up like most pulic touch screens do, screen cracked or scratched up. Take a look at your local Best buy or WalMart Nintendo DS display. Every store I've been to, it always broken! Down with touchscreen violence! sorry, got carried away, more about this digital sign here.
 
  LG VX 9800 specs come out

Some specs of the LG VX 9800 have begun to surface. This CDMA phone features EV-DO data speed, a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash in addition to MPEG4 video streaming capabilities. It has an external numeric keypad with a 128x160 screen and flips open sideways to reveal stereo speakers, a full qwerty keyboard and a 320x256 screen. The speakers should be fun to play with.
 
  Nokia N70 the smallest multimedia computer

Amsterdam reports: Nokia showed off the Nokia N70 or what they like to call it, "the world's smallest multimedia computer". Interesting. It's pretty small, coming in at a weight of 126g and even comes with a hot swappable RS-MMC/SD card slot for more storage. The Nokia N70 also pack a VGA camera as well as a 2 megapixel camera. The phone will also come with some image editing capabilities and support for Adobe's photo album software. The Nokia N series phones are looking like they could be all the rage later this year. This model is due out Q3 2005. More info here.
 
  Nokia N91 Multimedia phone packs a 4 GB HD

Check out the Nokia N91 multimedia funk and groove phone (funk and groove my description). It has a 4 GB hard disk and a 3.5mm stero headset jack so you can get even more distracted on the go. It can play up to 12.5 hours of music and support MP3, M$a, AAC and WMA. You can transfer your music from your PC to the Nokia N91 multimedia phone via USB 2.0. You can also make use of WCDMA, WLAN and Bluetooth technology. What is cool about this offering, is that you can share your playlist with your friends by multimedia message, email or bluetooth. Nice. More details here
 
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
  Hacking Firefox
Lifehacker points out Brian Livingston's article on how to basically tweak Firefox to your liking. I would especially recommend the tweak to fix the memory leak. Leaks bad, tweaks good!
 
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
  Joss "Buffy" Whedon's Serenity Trailer

The trailer for Serenity is now up and I must say it looks pretty badass. "I aim to misbehave"...about time someone comes up with some unique quotable material. This looks like a pretty good flick. I never caught the show so I was never able to get wrapped up in these characters but I'm intrigued just by watching this trailer. I think the bigger budget was a boon to this universe. On TV it looked just alright. Now it looks pretty slick. The whole, "I don't murder children..", "well I do." is pretty, umm, not cool but, intense? Oh well check out the larger quicktime trailer here...I only linked to large since that the only way to go. Full screen is just a pain.
 
  The Whitaker Foundation: Robotic Therapy Device for Stroke Recovery
Bioengineers from Arizona State University and Kinetic Muscles Inc. have built a robotic exoskeleton arm to aid in the retraining of limbs for stroke survivors. Apparently this kind of rehabilitation is damn expensive, taking up to 4% of the national health budget (according to the National Institue of Health). The thought goes that stroke survivors would be able to use these exoskeletons (maybe in the comfort of their own homes?) instead of having a personl trainer work with them. This would be more cost effective and make therapy more widely available, or at least that's what I think. But hey, I'm no expert. More info here via BoingBoing
 
Monday, April 25, 2005
  Master all of your touch-screen devices with one pen

Soon you will only need one pen to use your PDA, your TabletPC and/or your touch-screen mobile phone. Wacom is set to start producing a stylus that works on all those devices (who would buy a pda and a mobile phone....me!) in May 2005. Be on the lookout. More info here via akihabara.
 
  DVD burning on the run

Japan-based company Logitech (different from Swiss Logitech) announced this external DVD burner. It can burn a regular DVD +/-R at 8x speeds and is USB 2 compatible. More details here.
 
  Street navigation made easiy-er

Forbes has up a review of the new Garmin GPS reciever, the Streetpilot c330. Basically, it was a hit with this reviewer because it was pretty easy to use (about 3 minutes to setup) and had a basic, informative interface. See the review here and it you gotta have it, pick one up from amazon here
 
  Start your day with a struggle

Is your alarm clock too easy to turn off? Become your own worst enemy with this Sea Anemone Clock from aaron tang. What makes this alarm clock different than others is the fact that when the alarm goes off it bounces away from where it sat and rumbles intensely, causing it to jump all over your room, forcing you to track it down to turn it off. By the time you actually turn it off, you'll be pretty awake and probably slightly pissed. Sign me up. More pain-in-rump-clocks here.
 
  A watch that puts the watch in wristwatch...

Get all dick-tracy with this new tv wristwatch from firebox (via gadgetryblog) that sports a 1.5 inch TFT color screen and can give you an hour of viewing time with it's rechargeable (come with a docking station) 550mAh Lithium-polymer battery. Heck, bring the docking station into your cube (for unlimited viewing) and you'll be able to watch tv all day.
 
  Share stank with the world

PopGadget posted about a new device from Trisenx called the "Scent Dome". You plug it into your PC's serial port and install their software and viola, your sense of smell can now be assulted by all kinds of scent spam. You can even create your own sense and e-mail it to your soon to be ex-friend. product page here.
 
  Get your video onto your Sony PSP and Nintendo DS...at 15fps?

Here's a pretty slick video recorder that will record your videos in MPEG4 onto memory stick cards that will be compatible with your Sony PSP and/or Nintendo DS. The only gripe I have with this device is that the resulting video will be 15fps. This isn't all that great and could make the video a little choppy. What's up with that?
 
  New Olympus digital camera

Check out the new CAMEDIA X-600 5 megapixel digital camera from Olympus. It supports XD cards up to 1GB and comes with a 2 inch LCD screen. It also features a 3x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom. No prices yet but it's coming your way in May.
 
  iPod earphones for your...um...iPod

Here are some pretty cool earphones for you iPod. They're all white except for the dash of color on the ear piece. You know you want one you trendsetter you. More info here.
 
Friday, April 22, 2005
  Forced hibernation (suspended animation) could be beginnings of space travel
Mark Roth and his team at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, have successfully put some lab mice into a state of suspended animation by basically forcing hibernation by exposing them to the oh-so-smelly hydrogen sulphide. Essentially putting the oxygen needing functions in their cells on pause. After 20 minutes the mice were revived by freah air with no ill effects. While in this deep sleep, their metabolic rates dropped by 90% and their bobdy tempreatures dropped from 37 degress celcius to 15 degrees celcius. This is huge. It's a step of sorts toward long interstellar flights. Possibly enabling astronauts (and probably commerical space travellers) to sleep for long periods of time without worrying about needing oxygen. I can see the first time this is tested on humans, "Alright, who did it? Who let it rip? Seriously guys, that is the last thing I want to smell before we.....*thud*...*snore*". Awsome. More details here.
 
  Soon is apparently a couple of weeks
Looks like the Creative Zen Nano does exist (reported earlier here). It's going to be available in 10 colors and begin at 256MB (up to 1GB). Thanks to an anonymous tip and Generation MP3.
 
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
 

Just wanted to post the latest Batman Begins poster. It looks pretty cool if a little blurry. oh well, ohpefully it will be a good picture, I know I'll be seing it.
 
  Sony is all for the audio

Sony wants to give you a better audio experience with their new MDLP recorder. Sony's home MDLP recorder comes with DSP TYPE-S for ATRACT and ATRAC3 files which is meant to basically keep the audio in pristine condition despite being compressed when they're moved into a ATRAC or ATRAC3 format. more details here, via akihabaranews.
 
  The perfect watch for danger-loving fishermen

Into the whole shrimp-boat-captain thing? or maybe you're more of a Perfect Storm type of fisher. In any case, Casio has the watch for you. It's called the Casio GW-400J-1JF. It's vibrateable (yeah, i made that word up...so what), solar powered and has tide information for 100 locations. It's also water proof and if you ever get knocked overboard, it can give you the water temperature . It can also give you the air temperature when you're not gasping for air underwater. Cool. more details here via akihabaranews.
 
  Summer debut for Frontier Labs lucking fovely MP3 players

lucking fovely MP3 players from Frontier Labs. Their new line of MP3 players, the NEX 3 and NEX 3+, will come in 4 colors with an SD card slot and no internal memory. It will support MP3 and WMA and it's 128x64 LCD display will not be a color display. Sounds alright. I think people would buy this for the look since it's not too advanced tech wise.check them out on Frontier Lab's website, via i4u.
 
  Picture Voice Recorder from Sony

In Japan (of course), Sony introduced their new Visual Voice Recorder dubbed the ICD-CX50. It can hold 256MB worth of data and it comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera and a 1.2" LCD screen, whose maximum resolution is 1280x960. This would be great for people with really bad short-term memory. check out the press release, via i4u.
 
  Hitachi to safely upgrade it's PC line (nothing all that radical)

Hitachi looks to be updating laptop and desktop Pcs for the summer. Nothing mindblowing just more keeping up with the Joneses. Basically, just about every Hitachi Pc will now come with a multiformat burner, able to burn DVD R/RW/RAM and DL. more details here via akihabara news.
 
  GPS PDA from RoyalTek

Check out this RoyalTek PDA that runs Windows Mobile 2003 . It also comes with an integrated GPS system and a SD slot. Coulc be a good device for geocaching. Not sure since my Korean isn't too good. More details here.
 
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
  Instant message from your cell phone

Microsoft is set to extend it's Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 capabilitites to mobile devices, eventually making it's instant messaging client available on your cell phone. Now you can become even more attached to your handset. Check out the MS press release here.
 
  New Hi-Definition projector, the DLA7000

This HD projector is out to whup-ass and take names. and then beat up your best friend and make fun of your girlfriend. This is the 32,000 eur DLA7000 projector. It can deliver 480i/576i/480p/576p/720p/1035i/1080i in NTSC or PAL. If you need one and just happen to have the cash laying around somewhere, you might be out of luck, there are only 100 made each year.more details here.
 
  Verizon DSL not real naked...yet
Om Malik from gigaom got a hold of a Verizon PR erson who clarified that the "naked" DSL offering was only for exisitng broadband customers.
In 13 states if you are an existing customer of ours - you can port your voice number to non Verizon local voice provider, and do not have to drop the DSL,” she said. “That’s really what its all about. Its limited and first step. we should be rolling out soon enough. If customers don’t want a phone number but want to keep DSL, why wouldn’t we do that.”
. But with the infrastructure uprgades they are going through, expect Verzion DSL to be available in an area near you...somewhat soon.
 
 

MobileBurn.com has a review up for the 2-megapixel NEC N840. Basically the camer is a good camera. The MP3s you can play from off of it's internal memory or via mini-SD card, sounded well and the pictures it took were pretty good (a little yellow tint). One of the downsides is, the phone isn't bluetooth enabled. Bummer.
 
  Where do you use your wireless connection?
Silicon Valley Watcher noticed an interesting little tidbit from a study Yahoo and Mediaedge:cia released today. Apparently (and not so surprisingly) 21% of wireless users make use of their wireless connection on the can. From Silicon Valley Watcher

A surprising 21 percent use their wireless access in the bathroom. No matter the location, study participants agree that this freedom of choice is resulting in even more integrated experiences.

It doesn't say what exactly these people are in the bathroom for in the first place, ahem, but I would love to get a laptop to replace my usual toliet university reading.
 
 

Here's the Zling Photo-Wallet portable picture storage device. It comes in 1GB($69.00), 2GB($109.00) and 5GB($149) sizes for all(or most at least) your picture storing needs. It even has purty lights that light up for a number of reasons, like progress indicator for example. It has a USB 2 connection so the data transfering shouldn't be too bad. Gotta have it? get it here.
 
  Alienware set to come out with Star Wars branded pcs
The geek in me says these look pretty sweet and I need one now! The more rationale side tells me I could paint a picture on my existing pc and save $4-$5k. Where's the fun in that?

check'em out on Alienware's site, here.
 
  New Battery Tester from Trust

Make sure your gadgets keep working with Trust's new Battery Power Tester (£4.99). It takes NiMH, NiCd, alkaline and lithium batteries in sizes AA, AAA, C, D, N and 9V. Jam on it here via Gadgetryblog
 
  visto Pocket DiVX and ISO player r0x

i4u has a review up for the Linux-powered MacPower & Tytech Technology Mvisto Pocket DiVX and ISO player. They make the case for screenless video players by making a good point. They're an excellent, portable way to play HDTV quality and/or DTS/Bolby digital quality content on your TV. Dig the review here.
 
Cell phones, Gadgets, DVRs and DAPs. All around Tech-coolery....

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