tech - hawg
Thursday, June 30, 2005
  Post-it note masterpiece
Post-it notes are for artists. Want to be one to make one? Learn how here. [coolhunting]
 
  Tech gagdets for Gangstas

From Sync magazine comes a list of must haves for the G-G-G-Gunit in us all. From the Redman Redeye filter to the Ba-Donka-Donk Mouse to the Scarface router. [the whole list]
 
  The fuzz gets busy
The government announced they were going to be laying the warez-smackdown across 11 nations on Thrusday, going after Internet pirates responsible for releasing movies, games, music and others various copyrighted media works.
 
  Watch your TV from anywhere in the world
With you forward thinkg, latest technologies enthusiasts out there, surely you mish your TiVo when you're away from home. Fret no more. The Slingbox turns your laptop (or any PC for that matter) into a portable viewing station. It connects to your home TV enabling you to check out whatever your missing on cable or to catch up on the shows you have recorded to your DVR. The offcial description (unofficial - it's hella friggin kewl!!):
Slingbox is a compact and elegantly designed, state-of-the-art electronic device that connects to the back of your TV. It redirects, or “placeshifts,” the TV signal from your cable box, satellite receiver, or digital video recorder (DVR) to your computer or laptop of choice, no matter your location — so long as you have a high-speed Internet connection. This utterly unique device will transform the way you watch TV. Whether you want to watch your soaps in the laundry room, or catch the big game during a conference call, or watch your local news from China, the power is now in your hands.
 
  Opera on Windows Mobile
You asked for it (apparently you did) and now you got it, Opera has released a version of their popular internet browser for devices running Windows Mobile Edition. The browser comes with "Small Screen Rendering" which makes web pages longer if they are too wide, so you don't have to do the horizontal scrolling to read them.
 
  Google's video player gets hacked
A Norwegian (surprise!) hacker (same techie who opened up DVD encryption back in the day) has opened up Google's video player to play video from pretty much anywhere and not just on Google's video site. [yahoo]
 
  Akimbo to deliver Video blogs to TVs everywhere

IPTV pioneers, Akimbo, are letting Vloggers (cool IT word for video bloggers, which itself is a kewl word for web log...nice) upload their video blogs to the Akimbo service, making their videos avaiable to all Akimbo-ans (like that?). [ehomeupgrade]
 
  Get rid of the wires in your life

Corded devices making your PC life miserable? Clean things up with the $4.99 Cableyoyo. It would have been even better to plug more than one device into the 'yo at a time but for $4.99, this ain't too shabby either. [gizmag]
 
  Verizon ships the Samsung i730
Verizon has begun to ship the Samsung i730 smartphone to customers. The so-far-from-cheap mobile comes with Wi-Fi and EV-DO high speed connectivity, 64 MB RAM/128 MB Flash (and an SD I/O expansion slot also) and Windows Mobile Second Edition amongst other features. [mobiletracker]
 
  Google gives access to their mapping tech
With all of the Google Maps hacks you have probably seen lately, you probably didn't know they were almost all violationg Google's Terms and Conditions. Well, now they're not. Google is going to be opening up their mapping technology for free for developers who make tools that use that technology and distribute what they make free of charge.
 
  Your own little pot of plant horrors
Make your desk that much more menacing by picking yourself up the $22.99 carnivorous desktop plant set. Not sure if you can buy packs of bugs to throw in this thing or you just have to catch some yourself, either way it's still cool.
 
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
  Speaker plugs directly into the internet

From the the Japanese National Institute Of Information and Communication Technology (the NICT) comes the NET Speaker. The NET Speaker doesn't even need to be connected to a pc to run. You can connect it to a PC to configure it's settings, like volume and such, but once that's done, hook it right into the internet and you're off and running.
 
  Worst waste of LED lights ever

Maybe not the worst but I don't know many pets that would willingly eat or drink from this LED Pet Water Bowl that had green blinking lights. It would freak them out, I would think but apprently not. Somebody's pet has to like this or else they wouldn't have made it, or would they? At least the lights aren't red. Maybe this is a device hoping to capture the minds of pets everywhere to form a kind of pet army used to take over the world? [ia gadgetryblog]
 
  Motorola's new RAZR mobile

Some details of the latest Motorola RAZR mobile device (dubbed the RAZRberry unofficially due to it's Blueberry-esque look) have begun to leak, or at least that's what they're saying. The features list looks purty dern good:

Mode: Quadband GSM GPRS (Class 10) / EDGE (Class 6)
Chipset: Freescale Neptune LTE + Intel Bulverde
Size: ~78cc, 112 x 64 x 11.5mm Weight: ~115g (max)
Memory (FLASH/RAM): 128MB / 64MB
Removable Memory: Mini SD
Display: 2.4” 320x240 65K TFT
Battery Type: 1130 mAh (TBD)
Digital Usage: 4 Hours
Digital Standby: 8 days
Voice Activated Dialing: Speaker Independent Name and Digit Dialing
Camera: Integrated 1.3 Mega pixel (1280x960) CMOS Imager with flash
Connectivity: Bluetooth, IrDA
Personalization Capabilities: Digital Personalization (Ring Tones, Wall papers, etc)
Voice Recognition: Speaker Independent Shortcuts (i.e. Voice Mail, Recent Calls, etc)
Speakers: Dual Stereo Quality Speakers
Navigation: Thumbwheel, 5 way Nav Key,Left and Right soft keys, Dedicated Camera Key

[via mobiletracker]
 
  Google hits $300 a share
With Google releasing all this product < href="http://earth.google.com/">lately it should be no surprise that Google's stock price recently hit and passed the $300 level bringing their market cap to $84.5 billion. With it's stock moving the way it has been moving lately, I wouldn't be surprised if Google forms it's own country here soon.
 
  Google unleashes Google Earth
Google has released their Keyhole 3D driven satellite imagery Software Google Earth. Best of all it's free which means that what once cost some $$$ you now get for free. Google Earth also comes with the best features of Google Maps and Google Local. I can't to play around with this one. I heart Google.
 
  iTunes gets updated
Apple releases an iTunes update bumping the version up to 4.9. This new version comes with more podcasting related options like the ability to download podcasts and even the ability to:
select subscription options and download you favorite podcasts automatically.
 
Monday, June 27, 2005
  Gunning for Apple's iPod
Fast Company has an article up detailing how a number of digital audio makers are gunning for Apple's iconic iPod. Interesting to see what these other companies think about the iPod.
 
  Scientist bring dead dogs back to life
In great timing considering Land of the Dead opened last Friday, US Scientists working at Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research have brough back scientifically "dead" dogs by basically replacing their blood and giving them 100% oxygen. Talk about creepy. They get restored to their previous state without any signs of brain or tissue damage so I wouldn't be worried about witnessing Dawn of the Dead anytime soon. Still though, if you live in Pittsburg, I would consider moving.
Duing the procedure blood is replaced with saline solution at a few degrees above zero. The dogs' body temperature drops to only 7C, compared with the usual 37C, inducing a state of hypothermia before death.

Although the animals are clinically dead, their tissues and organs are perfectly preserved.

Damaged blood vessels and tissues can then be repaired via surgery. The dogs are brought back to life by returning the blood to their bodies,giving them 100 per cent oxygen and applying electric shocks to restart their hearts.
 
  Google's Video Player
The Google video player we posted about earlier is out now. Prepare for the tech-hawg video updates! (Maybe, if we find anything of interest or get access to anyone cool).
 
  Inflatable speakers bring the party to you

These Ellula Hot Air Speakers are some NON-waterproof inflatable speakers that even come with a little mini amplifier. You can connect them to any sound source that has a headphone jack for some 10 Watts RMS Audio Output.
 
  Grokster gets backhanded
The Supreme Court (in a 9-0 decision) has ruled that Grokster can be sued basically because they promoted the program's ability to infringe on publishers copyrights. Wrote Justice David H. Souter:
We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties
. Ouch. The case now heads back to the lower courts.
 
  Odeo is the future

This is way cooler than radio and a lot more fun. I was recently let in to Odeo and got a chance to poke around and check out the different content that's available. Couldn't upload or create anything since I don't have a friggin mic for my pc yet but all of the other shows were very cool. This would be great for the music business but they will prbably wait until it's too late and something else is on the verge of changing the whole marketplace. I wonder how ads are going to be worked into this. Man I need to get a mic so I can bring you all (all 2 of you who read this blog) the tech-hawg podcast show! I wonder if that will help my chances of getting into E3.
 
  Timing your swim laps gets easier

Training to become an Olympic-level swimmer but hate not having your stopwatch in the water with you when you're trying to time your laps? Too bad! j/k, Bring a stopwatch in the water with you next time with these. In a perfect example of filling a need, Brunel University student Katie Williams created a prototype of the goggles due to her experience of the hassle it was trying to time yourself when trying to time your laps. Have to keep checking your watch or the second hand on a wall mounted clock isn't really all the efficient, she knew it and create a product that she believed would make it easier. The glasses aren't supposedly all that different from wearing regular goggles but she's working on making it cost effective before bringing it out to the general public.
 
  Put up a projection screen anywhere

Screen goo is a special water-based acrylic paint that enables you to turn any hard paintable surface into a high-quality video projection screen. This is mostly made possible by the paint having a highly reflective acrylic coating. This is a pretty cool tool for the home theatre set.
 
  Ajax on Rails

Since I'm digging on the whole Ruby on Rails scene lately, this gave me a little chuckle.
 
  Tax-Free Online Sales to be a thing of the past...
...Maybe. Late last month, a California state appeals court found Borders.com liable for $167,000 in back taxes since they commingled the operations of it's online business with their brick and mortar business. Buy all the stuff you can while it's still tax free!
 
  Microsoft and Toshiba join forces
Microsoft and Toshiba team up to develop HD DVD players together and well as cross-license technology and help design new mobile pcs. Toshiba sees this as a big win since they gain another HD DVD supporter and a big one at that.
 
  Google To Launch Online Video player today
According to John Battelle, Google is set to launch an in-browser, ope- source video player tying it in with their Google Video service. The code is said to be completely open source with Google releasing the code as part of their Google Code project. We can probably expect to hear more about Google's online payment system soon too since that too will tie into their video service since users who have uploaded their videos didhave an option to be able to charge people to view their content but no way to actually charge people and collect money.
 
Sunday, June 26, 2005
  PayPal founder thoughts on Google's Wallet service
Nice read about what Paypal co-founder, Max Levchin, thinks of Google upcoming Wallet service. [link]
 
Saturday, June 25, 2005
  Longhorn to include RSS support

Looking to not be left behind (if Apple does it they gotta do it too!), Longhorn will include native RSS support in Internet Explorer 7.
Longhorn will store all data downloaded to a computer via RSS in a single place. It will maintain a central list of all of a computer user's RSS subscriptions, from Web log entries to photos pulled from an online family picture gallery.

It will include a feature called simple list extensions that will let Web sites use RSS to publish lists of content that users can subscribe to, like a weekly run-down of chart-topping songs or an online gift registry
 
Friday, June 24, 2005
  iRiver U10 gonna rock joo

Some info on the newest iRiver player, the iRiver U10.
 
  Lamp follows your heartbeat

This soft-flower looking Matty Salin designed lamp will pulsate in rythym with your heart if you place your hands on it for 6-10 seconds. Apparently, watching the lamp pulse with your heart beat, can visibly show you calming down.
 
  Apple's Intel-based Mac dev kits
Apple's Intel -based Mac development kits are beginning to surface.
The Intel systems run Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger identically on the surface as ordinary Macs, with the exception of a modified Processor System Preference (from Apple's CHUD tools) that allows the user to toggle Hyper-Threading on or off. Apple System Profiler includes a new line under Hardware listing CPU Features; for the 3.6GHz Pentium 4 this comprises a rather lengthy list of technical acronyms: FPU, VME, DE, PSE, TSC, MSR, PAE, MCE, CX8, APIC, SEP, MTRR, PGE, MCA, CMOV, PAT, PSE36, CLFSH, DS, SCPI, MMX, FXSR, SSE, SEE2, SS, HTT, TM, SSE3, MON, DSCPL, EST, TM2, CX16, and TPR.
 
  Sun kind of sort of open up Java
Sun Microsystems is launching a new project called GlassFish that 's users view and tinker with the source code but doesn't just falt-out let them have access to it. It seems like Sun is trying to be open source but doesn't feel comfortable with everyone being able to view the innards of their software. Do they not get it or are they really just playing with us?
 
  PVRs aren't mainstream yet, and won't be for a while
If you do own a personal video recorder, consider yourself cooler than 92% of other homes. PVR's won't hit the mainstream for a while, jumping to 40% home penetration by 2009.
 
 

Hoping that all of their sellers don't leave to start their own web stores, eBay launched a new service call ProStores. ProStores will let sellers set up their own e-commerce site (with their own domain name even) for $6.95 a month with a .5 - 1.5 percent transaction fee per...transaction. With revenue slowing down, they had to think of something.
 
Thursday, June 23, 2005
  Mannequin that can project anyone's image

"Ack!" was my first response to this picture. Apparently, some Japanese researchers have developed a mannequin that uses a built-in projector to project anyone's face on the mannequin face so you can "talk" to anyone you wish. Ishikawa Optics and Arts Corp. of Tokyo frontman Jun Ishikawa wanted to develope this to talk to historical figures like Cleopatra. Just wait until the pr0n industry gets a hold of this, it's only a matter of time.
 
  Sprint + Nextel = The Sprint Nextel Corporation

Details of how Sprint and Nextel will work after their proposed merger are beginning to come out. The company will be called, the Sprint Nextel Corporation and will use Nextel as a brand name for the services provided inder their iDEN network.
 
  BlackBerry users get downed 2nd time in the past week
Blackberry users experienced some dowtime today due to hardware problems. Most users were back up within the hour but the second time in a week? Bad luck or something sinister, bwa ha ha!
 
  iPod Shuffle Clip makes clipping easier

The DLO Flip Clip for your iPod Shuffle looks like it would makes it hella easier to clip it to anything that tickles your fancy. Nice and simple, I haven't tried one myself so I would wonder how sturdy it is but it looks pretty solid.
 
  Google's payment serivce plans confirmed
Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed that Google was infact developing an online payment service:
Schmidt said Google does not intend to offer a 'person-to-person stored-value payments system' like PayPal's, in which money briefly resides in PayPal's control during the transaction, but he did not give details of how the Google system would differ.
He went on to elaborate further:
The payment services we are working on are a natural evolution of Google's existing online products and advertising programs, which today connect millions of consumers and advertisers...
 
 

Some pics of a firefighting robot dubbed Gado Robo D1 from a Japanese company. I would totally dig being saved by one of these. I would even put myself in harms way just so that the Gado would save and I would be able to say, "Domo Arrigato Mr Roboto..". Score!
 
  AOL begins to open up
Since people are leaving the service in droves, probably after figuring out you can use AOL IM from basically anywhere, AOL is trying to transition to a different kind of internet company to compete with the likes of Yahoo, Google and MSN. AOL has now began to make their proprietary content freely available thru their AOL.com website (at http://beta.aol.com). Is this too little too late? The beta website doesn't "pop" or ooze coolness, yet.
 
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
  Potty art

Artist Clark Sorensen's "Nature's Call" art exhibit showcase his knack for pretty potties. The Jack-in-the-Pulpit (pictured) goes for the oh so low price of $3500 so you might as well get two. One for the living room and the other for the front yard. Perfect.
 
  Mankind gets a step closer to human clones
UK researches (isn't it always) have been able to get embryonic stem cells to develop into a early form of cells that will eventually form eggs or sperm. Woah.
The idea is that it might one day be to allow people who cannot produce eggs or sperm to have children, by taking cells from their body, deriving embryonic stem cells (ESCs) via therapeutic cloning and then deriving eggs or sperm.
 
  CommonTunes allows free sharing of music....blasphemy!

Music for the people by the people...kind of. CommonTunes let's user share their freely available music online. Looking for abscure hippie music or maybe your blossoming ice cream truck business needs some new tunes, all types of music can be found. The select is only going to grow and get better as more people use it so keep an eye on it!
 
  Great website for bored of summer school kids

It's like a flea market for jobs! Looking for a job or someone to do your job (more like chore really, something like paint the house or setup your blog), look to Jobazaar.com.
 
  Motorola is pushing the RAZR
Motorola is going to be launching an upgraded version of their RAZR cell phone to make it Bluetooth friendly and comaptible with BT's Fusion UMA service by the end of his year. They're also releasing Bluetooth headsets and putting more people behind their CDMA RAZR project for us lonely Americans. People are digging the RAZR and Motorola
s is taking notice, hoping to capitalize. The phone is cool and all but it's so tiny and thin. If you're rugged or wear-a-helmet-walking-down-the-street accident prone, you might want to go with something else. But if you're cool and you want people to know you're cool, defintely pick one up.
 
  Sprint PCS is about to...score...with the NFL

Sprint is this close to closing a deal with the NFL that will let Sprint show NFL game highlights as well as advertise all over and during games (talks confirmed by NFL, with whom still unconfirmed...but it's Sprint !!!). They won't be able to do any live broadcasting of the games though. That's reserved for ESPN since they have the rights to being broadcasting live on their phones in 2006.
 
  Microsoft launches Local-area searching web tool
Microsoft launches a new search website that will search local businesses and local services for you. To show that they too can build cool web tools (after someone else does it first of course), they are also going to integrate their Virtual Earth technology they've been working on.
 
Monday, June 20, 2005
  Take your mouse with you...everywhere!

From Japanese company Scythe comes the foldable mouse. It doesn't look to fold all that much, just the buttons. Which would be good if you plan on putting it in your pocket a lot. It would keep the buttons from getting clicked all the time.
 
  Verizon Wireless releases ringback tones nationally
Verzion Wireless was the first major carrier to introduce ringback tones in the US but they weren't they first to release them nationally. T-Mobile had that pleasure back in December of last year. Now, Verizon has caught up by releasing their ringback tone service nationally. The service is $.99 a month and songs are $1.99 a piece. For those who don't know (I didn't) ringback tones is the sound you hear when you're calling someone.
 
Sunday, June 19, 2005
  University of Kansas lets everyone know who failed
The University of Kansas' Office of Student Financial Aid (hope his/her resume is up to date and ready to be shopped around) sent out an e-mail to 119 students who were in jeopardy of having their financail aid revoked because of their failing grades. The snafu was that it was a bulk e-mail that showed who the e-mail was sent to for everyone. Ouch.
 
  Google aiming for Paypal
Google could be launching an electronic payment service that would compete with Ebay's own Paypal service. Looks like Google could be looking for ways to make themselves less dependant on selling ads for revenue.
 
Thursday, June 16, 2005
  Pay parking meters with your cell phones...
Drivers in Miami suburb of Coral Gables can know enroll in a service that lets them pay their parking meter (and a $0.25 usage fee) with their cell phones.
The automated system allows drivers who subscribe to simply dial in from their cell phone, punch in the number assigned to their parking spot, and the required costs — plus a 25-cent usage fee — will be billed to their credit card. When leaving, subscribers call back and end the billing cycle.
 
  Odeo gets reviewed

Podcasting site Odeo gets reviewed. Evan Williams (creator of Blogger) and Noah Glass have created Odeo to make podcasting to the masses by making it dead easy to do. The review is positive and the reviewer even thinks the site can be released right now. I wonder if there is a way to charge people to listen to your podcasts .
 
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
  Hold your cell phone on your thigh (for laides and secure men)

Get your Mr & Mrs (probably more for the Mrs) Smith on with this leather cell phone holder thigh strap thingy dubbed the Tsaya. It�s normally $79.99 but if you get a friend to buy one, you get $10.00 off. Not sure why they called this viral marketing setup menage-a-trois but whatever floats your boat I guess.
 
 

Bored with your iPod? Here are 50 things you can do with your iPod, when you�re not driving of course. [via geekblue]
 
  Yahoo! offering $5000 for most impressive use of Y!Q
Thursday night is the deadline to enter yourself in the Y!Q contest Yahoo is throwing to publicize their cool litte Y!Q widget which uses some AJAX (css/javascript/xmlhttp trickery) to let your users search without leaving the page. Asynchronus database calls basically.
 
  Use Skype from anywhere

IPdrum is coming out with a cable that bridges the gap between mobile telephones and Skype. It basically enables the user to plug into and use Skype whever they might be without the need for hotspots or special Skype phones.
 
  Force yourself (and others) into action with PledgeBank
Maybe force is too strong. Maybe "inspire" sounds better.PledgeBank is the latest social site of sorts which you pledge to do something and people can sign up to pledge the same thing.
 
  More details on Creative's Zen Vision

Creative's Zen Vision is hot like fire. The 30GB digital media player notonly has a 3.7 inch 256k color VGA screen, it comes with an FM tuner and recorder (voice recorder too!) and has video-out and supports AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV 9 and MJPEG. All this and it's USB 2.0 compliant. No idea on price yet but word will probably get out soon. [via dapreview]
 
  Poker bots compete online
The best Poker bots are set to compete in Las Vegas (who knew?) next month for $100,000. Poker bots haven't been perfected yet but the entire online poker industry is watching. Part of the reason why the bots aren't ready for primetime yet is that card games are unpredictable becuase you play with incomplete information. You could have a pair of 2s and bluff your way to a victory.
 
  10GB microdrive Prototype, that sucker's tiny!

Tohoku University releases a prototype of a 10gb hard drive MicroDrive using perpendicular storage that allows for more storage in a smaller space. [via akihabara news]
 
  Napster and Ericsson to offer music service for cell phones
Their service will let users (existing Napster users or would even they have to pay an extra fee?) download music from the net to their cell phones or other mobile devices. Napster and Ericsson plan on rolling the service out in the next 12 months in Europe initially and additional markets later on.
 
  iTunes isn't main source of digital music for iPodders

About 60 million songs have been purchased for Apple's iTunes music store since they opened in April 2004. 3 million iPods have been sold. If you were to spread out the purchase music across all of the 3 million iPods, you would get 21 songs per iPod. Pretty much anyone who has an iPod has way more than 21. Where are the other songs coming from? Here's an interesting look at the music biz and how the digital music issue could be approached.
 
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
  Jobs talks about Apple going with Intel
Steve Jobs was recently on CNBC's Street Sign's show where he chatted about the Apple-Intel relationship and the future of Apple:
We have a good relationship with IBM, and they've got a product road map, and today, the products are really good," Jobs said when asked what IBM had failed to deliver, in his estimation. "But as we look out into the future, where we want to go is maybe a little bit different. We can envision some awesome products we want to build for our customers in the next few years, and as we look out a year or two in the future, Intel's processor roadmap really aligns with where we want to go much more than any other.
 
  New MP3 watches for those who like the sound of their own voice

Japanese company Evergreen has added 2 new models to their MP3 watch lineup. The EG-MPW256VR (256MB) and the EG-MPW512VR (512MB). These new models now play WMA fils and come with voice recording functionality. I like the fact the don't look like obvious techy type watches. You used to not be able to go anywhere with a calculator watch on if you liked keeping your health.
 
  Yahoo! scoops up DialPad
Yahoo! announced Tuesday that they bought VoIP provider DialPad for 50 bazillion-fahillion-jabillion dollars (aka, an undisclosed amount). DialPad has 14+ million customers and has been offering their services for just about two years. Maybe Yahoo! will be adding some DialPad VoIP features into their already VoIP testing Messenger.
 
  Give you tableware some spice

From London-based designer Wing Hang Yip comes The Gorgies. They're made of white glazed earthenware and can even be ordered in different colors or with a logo on them. They sure would add some character to your table set.
 
  Get better control of your (and your friends') golf game

If you totally blow at golf (don't we all?), make your own fun with this $24.23 remote controlable RC Incred-a-Ball.
The ball has a little spinning gyro in it, and when you activate it from the remote it spins off in random directions. The acceleration varies depending on the ground, and due to its small size it obviously works best on smoother surfaces such as green and tees. All you have to do is make sure you've completely charged the golf ball in its neat little charging cradle, switch on the transmitter, and select the frequency band shown on the ball. Push or pull back the control shaft on the transmitter to drive or vibrate your golf ball and wait for the inevitable laughs. Utterly daft, and it'll probably even improve your handicap.
[via gadetryblog]
 
  play your iRiver underwater (old, i know)

Being that my favorite thing to do in Colorado is snorkel, I'm going to be all over this.iRiver's underwater audio player, the H20 Audio SV i700 is a casing for iRiver iFP-700 players that will let you take it underwater. I know this is so old but it's kewl, so ha.
 
 

For earphones, this little guys ain't cheap. The Super.fi 5EB model runs US$199.99 and the Super.fi 5Pro model runs US$249.99. But they do make it sound like it's almost worth it.
Super.fi's professional-grade audio is produced by special engineering that places low- and high-frequency speakers in each ear for better fidelity, plus a unique earbud design that securely seals the ear against external noise. The earbuds' shape and snug fit -- based on Ultimate Ears' 10 years of experience in handcrafting earphones from silicone impressions of customers' ears -- yield maximum wearing comfort as well as maximum noise isolation essential for use in the gym and other noisy environments.
High Fidelity = High Fun. Oh yeah. Feel free to buy them from Ultimate Ears' website.
 
  320GB hard drive for only $150.00 today only
Hop on this fast since this deal expires today.
 
  cool retro robots for you and yours

Robots galore over at Gordon Bennett's site, Bennett Robot Works. He builds them from scrpas he finds in various places, like dumps and garage sales. [via coolhunting]
 
  QVGA screens are nifty

Samsung's SPH-V7800 5 megapixel digital camera phone comes with 3x optical and 4x digital zoom. By the looks of this picture, it's QVGA 16 million color capable screen looks purty dang nice!
 
  DirecTV Update breaks TiVo, on purpose?
In another case of The Man trying to keep the people down, the recent DirectTV update breaks Tivo players in what people are saying is a plot to get people to use their DirecTv DVRs that weren't rendered broken by the update.
Normally, the stand-alone TiVo will use the serial connection to change certain channels on the satellite receiver when a scheduled recording is about to begin. But because of a recent DirecTV upgrade to the D10 receivers, the satellite box no longer recognizes the TiVo's commands
 
Monday, June 13, 2005
  Get eBay on your cell phone
For all you eBay junkies who constantly need your eBay fix, fret no more. Moonlight Mobile will be launching a new service called Mobile Auctions that will let you hook into your eBay account from your cell phone. They even plan on it being able to provide real-time updates. It's Java-made so it should be available on all phones.
 
  Shawn Fanning's SnoCap set to open it's virtual doors
Napster founder, Shawn Fanning's lates venture SnoCap is set to open up it's digital registry of music today (Monday). If you don't know what SnoCap is, here's how it works:
Each song has its digital 'fingerprint' determined and entered into a database. Then when users share a song, Snocap checks the database for the associated copyright information and enforces whatever usage rules the owner has assigned. This will allow music retailers and P2P networks to offer a massive library of legal content without having to maintain relationships with each individual copyright holder, according to Fanning.
 
  New bullet -looking DAP from Philips

Who the hell keeps buying these things? Are these companies even making money? Or are they all just hoping to be as cool as the iPod. I swear, new digital audio players come out everyday. Well, anyway, here's the latest DAP from Philips, the SA255/00. It looks like a bullet so from now on I shall dub it the Bullet of Sound! The Bullet of Sound is a flash memory user, coming with a mini-SD slot for memory expansion (need some mini-sdmemory? click mini-sd) and it plays MP3, WAV and WMA formats. Coming with USB 2 will let you get your tracks on the Bullett of Sound faster and the one AAA-battery it runs on will light up the 128x48 white backlit LCD screen. Other than that, there's not much else to it.
 
  Why Speech Recognition does (and doesn't) work
Interesting article up at ExtremeTech on the un-awsomeness of speech recognition software. I didn't know speech recognition was built into Office XP (I probably did but quickly forgot since it probably didn't work).
 
  Divx and Xvid capable portable media player

Get your portable DivX on with this portable player from Japanese company Evergreen. It offers DivX/Xvid playback and is PAL and NTSC compatible. It also supports DVD, SVCD, VCD, CD-DA, CD-G, CD+G, MP3, MPEG1-4, AVI, WMA, JPEG and HDCD. Did I already mention DivX?
 
  Systm
From ex-TechTv-ers comes free tech show Systm. The latest episode (downloadable via BitTorrent) shows you how to build your own MythTv box. Good stuff and being free doesn't hurt either.
 
  Macs almost got Cell porcessors?
From news.com:
Many people in the industry believe that Jobs is racing quietly toward a direct challenge to Microsoft and Sony in the market for digital entertainment gear for the living room. Indeed, Sony's top executives had tried to persuade Jobs to adopt a chip that IBM has been developing for the next-generation Sony PlayStation.
So Sony pitched Apple on the Cell, why didn't they bite and choose to go with Intel instead?
 
  Update 1: Nokia Unveils Seven New Mobile Handsets - Forbes.com
seven new cell phones (5 in the 6000 series and 2 in the 2000 series), all of which should be available the second half of this year.They range in price from $170-$460 and some are even high-speed 3G capable.
 
  The U.S. to get walkman phone

Sony Ericsson announces that they will be marketing the W600a (their second Walkman cell phone, the W800i was the first) in American markets late this year. The Sony Ericsson W600a will come with a 1.3 megapixel camer, a 262k TFT display, Bluetooth capability and 256MB of user memory (amongst other things). If this sells well, it could convince other companies that people do want to listen to and play music on the cell phones. Something I'm not convinced everyone wants to do yet.
 
  iRiver gets an update

Ogg Vorbis compatibile digital audio player, the iRiver, gets an update [japanese]. From 256mb to 1GB the iRivers are OGG, MP3 and WMA compatible and they also come with an FM tuner and USB 2.0 connectivity.
 
  Plextor's Portable HD review
Plextor's portable hard drive, the PX-PH04U, gets reviewed by uk site Bios. It's good that it's a USB 2.0 compatible 40 hard drive for on the go use that looks alright (for a hard drive at least). The reviewer didn't like the fact that it was only USB and the fact that it didn't come with shock, encryption or backup features. I'm not that picky. The fact that it's 40gig wins me over. Hooray for storage!
 
Friday, June 10, 2005
  Daily show bits
Check out various Daily Show clips (legal until someone says it's not, or stops them I guess :) on CommonBits
 
  Sony Vaio breaks the mold with daring new desktop pc (syke!)

New Sony Vaio desktop pc from...wait for it...Sony! Dubbed the VGC-RA72PL2, it doesn't come with anything all that new or different, it does come with a TV tuner and digital video recorder.
 
  HD-DVD...Blu Ray, allow us to introduce the underdog
Japanese company Optware throws caution to the wind and takes on Sony and Toshiba as they announce that they have successfully wrote to and played media from their 30 GB Holographic Versatile Card using their "collinear holographic technique". "But tech-hawg, HD-DVDs are 30 gig, why is this one better?". Cause we said so! But seriously folks (I crack myself up), despite being on a tiny, credit-card sized card, the cards sell less the $1.00 and the write speed is 3x faster than Blu Ray. The downside so far? The players are 7 different kinds of expensive, running around $2000. Surely this would come down as the format gets more popular which may or may not happen. No one has announced their support for this yet so we'll see.
 
  Intel and Nokia working to get WiMAX out asap
ASAP meaning by the end of the year. Both companies want the hi speed standard out soon since their Nokia and Intel are planning their future around it. Nokia is building next generation cell phones with high speeed in mind and Intel is looking to break into the cell phone business since making having their chips in 4 out of 5 pcs just isn't enough.
 
Thursday, June 09, 2005
  web hosts go green
Wired has an article up on hosting companies that are ran completly by solar energy gathered via solar panels. Analyst say larger data centers won't be "going green" anytime soon, but it's good for this smaller web hosts.
 
  Nokia launches Nokia Sensor
Nokia announced and I guess released their free Sensor mobile phone service which helps users share information with each other via Bluetooth (as long as the other users are within 10 meters of your phone). It's basically social software:
Nokia Sensor is a spontaneous, sociable application for spontaneous, sociable people. With Nokia Sensor you can create your own personal pages - called a folio - on your phone. Then you can check out the folios of other Sensor users nearby, exchange messages, and share files.
 
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
  New phone funk from Samsung, comes with a "full" web broswer

Coming from Samsung and ACCESS is the Samsung SGH-Z130 cell phone which is shipping (or will ship, comes out July 1st) with a "full" Internet browser. Not sure what "full" means, Internet Explorer isn't even a "full" internet browser..zing! You can even tilt the 176x220 LCD screen (as shown) to make it more browser like. I guess that adds to the "full"ness. And of course, it comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera and support for 64 ringtones (MP3, AAC, and AAC+) as well as Bluetooth.
 
  Google to give your city the 3D treatment

Looks like Google is going to be using that make-a-3d-map-of-a-city software we blogged about a while ago. Most likely to hook into their existing Mapping service. They apparently hope to do this for as many cities as possible, even overseas. I think how quick they get this out will be key. That would be freaking kewl though. I wonder if the people in the way at the time of the "scan" would show up somehow...would probably have to sign a "not gonna sue" disclaimer but that would be worth being a part of Google history!
 
  Even at work the fat just melts away!

Mayo Clinic Obesity researcher Dr. James Levine has desvised a way for people to burn calories while at work, working on their pcs. Basically, instead of standing still or sitting at your desk, you walk on a treadmill. You only keep a 1 mph pace so you don't break out a sweat but that's enough to burn and extra 100 calories an hour which can add up to 1,000 a day if you work 10 hour work days (madness!). Now if we can get something like this in elementary schools or high schools than maybe we could curb this obesity epidemic.
 
  MTV coming to a cell phone near you (if you live in Japan)

MTV Japan has launched a Japan-exclusive entertainment service, dubbed Flux, bringing origianl anime and video content to mobile consumers. It will run around 315 yen per month but won't launch until Autumn or so. I guess it could be pretty cool to view music vids and\or cartoons on my cell phone but am I willing to pay $3 a month for it when I'm already paying $5 a month for ringtones and another $5-10 to be able to take and send digital pictures and video? Hmm....
 
  Sith Lord on Wheel of Fortune
Darth Vader makes an appearence on Wheel of Fortune and has no problem winning.
 
  Superman doing something super
New video blog entry up on Bluetights showing Clark practicing his pitching.
 
  "Everything Bad is Good for You" Author on The Daily Show
Steven Johnson, author of "Everything Bad is Good for You" (about how video games and tv make us smarter) was interviewed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, here's a Torrent. -via boingboing-
 
  "How to" wiki for people who don't have a clue
Need to do something but you don't know how in the world you're going to do it? Say you can do something when you really can't? Check out all the how-to articles on the wikiHow website. -via wired-
 
  What's BBS Grandpa?
If you yern for the BBS days of old (i think that's were I got Castle Wolfenstein and maybe even Doom), filmaker Jason Scott feels you pain. He's made a documentary detailing the history of BBS and how that whole scene came about.
 
  Don't need a Job to get an iPod...
...not in Britain anyway. Funded by the Government's Learning and Schools Council, the Bournemouth and Pool College is offering free iPods to Students who "embark" on their "Step Up For Summer" course. If students didn't want to go before the free iPods, do you really want them doing something they probably don't want doing anyway? This is a bad idea in the same way paying for kids to get good grades is a good idea. But instead of being all preachy I saw, get in where you fit in and if you get more than one free iPod, hook me up! :)
 
  Toshiba attempting to one-up BluRay with recordable High-Def DVDs
Toshiba announced that they have developed some technology to mass produce recordable High Def DVDs. They're planning on having this recorable discs out by next spring when they plan on having HD-DVD recorders available. This is all well and good but Blu-ray discs are 50gigs while the HD-DVD discs are 30gigs. If I had to, I would go with more space.
 
  Web cam and cell phone all in one

The GSM able cell phone BenQ isn't really all that different from any of the other phones out there or coming out there, the reason I decide to post about it is that you can use it as a web cam for your pc. Kill two birds with one camera, do yu really even use your web cam when you're not home? -via akihabara news-
 
  Google to buy you and your mom

Goolge passes owner-of-all-things-old-media TimeWarner to gain the title of highest-valued company. What makes TimeWarner pretty bad is that they make $42 billion a year to Google's $3.2 billion in annual sales. Room for growth you think? If I were Google, the dot-commer in me would want to party and see how many things we could buy just to get ourselves back in the red. I'd feel nervous going in for a Job interview. How do you make them feel like they need you when they have enough purchase power to buy any employee they want.
 
  Alas poor Vog, I knew yee well (not really, just a formality)

The Vog smartphone is no more. Sierra Wireless is going to either sell it (I'll buy it for $50 :) or shut it down. The little smartphone that could just never really took off despite all the adverts they had for it. I think the keyboard flipping out is what didn't work too well. It looks like it would be flimsy and maybe akward. -via mobiletracker-
 
  30 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do on the Internet
PC World put up an article detailing (can you guess?) 30 things you probably didn't know you could do on the internet. I think one of the coolest is the Wayback Machine, enabling you to view old cached versions of popular websites. Ahh, the days of the dot-com boom. Good times, good times...
 
  Campbell's doing their part to curb obesity

Campbell is now selling seeds of vegtables that they're customer can take home and grow on their own. The cans are exactly the same except the "Soup" is now replaced by "Seeds". Even though they don't publcily admit it, I see this as an attack on the obesity epidemic. How do (most) people get big weight-wise? By eating lots of food fast. What's better than making people grow their food before than can eat it? Nothing, that's what. -via popgadget-
 
  Unhip looking (aren't they all?) tv wrist watch

Coming in with a 1.5in TFT color monitor, stereo ear phones and a PLL Synthesiser for quick channel changing is the $159 Wearable TV Wristwatch. The earphones act as an antennae to help pick up TV channels. You can even choose to have it run off 4 AAA batteries or a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. Will you wear it? No. Why? Because digital portable media player are just so much cooler. You do want to be cool don't you?
 
  TiVoToGo now on Windows Mobile devices
Tivo extends it's TiVoToGo portable video service to portable media devices and cell phones (video-enabled ones anyway) that are running Windows Mobile in an attempt to grow their user base.
 
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
  Get your extreme water sport fix with the Sumo Tube

For $119.95 you too can experience the extreme the madness that is the Sumo Tube (it makes you look big, like a sumo wrestler...get it!?!). Not only can you be towed but you could also float or even do a little Sumo surfing. I wonder how testing this thing went, "Don't dip your head too low or.....ouch...you wanna call his wife. I'm not going thru that again..." -via gizmag-
 
  WalMart won't print your professional-looking digital photos
Don't get too good at taking pictures. If your photog skills increase and WalMart believes your photos might have been taking professionally, they won't print them for fear of infringing on professional photographers' copyrights and having to pay.
"We can't release the pictures to you without a copyright release form signed by the photographer," the clerk replied, according to Helmick.

The clerk said the photos looked like a professional had taken them, Helmick said. And no matter how much Helmick protested that she, an amateur, had snapped the shots of her son, she said the clerk wouldn't budge.
 
  Google CEO gives some insight into Google's thinking and inner workings
Google CEO Eric Schmidt had an interview with Charlie Rose last Friday where the Google frontman explained how they plan on making the world a better place through perfecting the art of the web search. He also gave some insight into their recruiting process:
Mr Schmidt says Google recruits by appealing to people who want to make big changes in the world and convince them that they should do it with Google. Why? Because Google has the scale in computing and organization.

And because of its size, Google represents the largest opportunity they will ever have in their lifetimes.
 
  TiVo Tips and Tweaks
PCWorld has an article up detailing some nice TiVo tips and tweaks, from basic tweaks to hardcore hardware upgrades. If you have any other tips feel free to post them to the comments...
 
  Japan to get iTunes in August
Looks like Apple is planning on launching iTunes for Japan in August and will be charging 150 ($1.40) yen per song. Existing music servicers in the Japanese market are charging closer to 210 yen per song.
 
Monday, June 06, 2005
  Cingular launches iPaq(s)

Cingular shocks and awes as they launch the Windows Mobile 2003 powered smartphones, the HP iPaq h6320 and the iPaq h6325. The iPaq h6320 will cost you $579.00, while the iPaq h6325 runs a little bit more at $599.00 but comes with a VGA camera. They are WiFi enabled, Bluetooth enabled, and work on Quad-and GSM networks.
 
  Make ringtones with Xingtone
Instead of paying $80 a month for a ringtone, make your own ringtones with Xingtone. Xingtone will be sold in stores thanks to Roxio who is helping out with distribution. If you don't want to wait, you can purchase it online for $19.95. Small price to pay for ringtones awsomeness that your are bound to create.
 
  Get your disposable video cameras at a CVS near you

The first use-once disposable digital video cameras are headed to CVS drugstores in the Northeast. The digital cameras are made by San Fran based Pure Digital Technologies are able to capture up to 20 minutes of video to it's internal memory.
 
  Liven up your bathroom with a Kisses! urinal

Woah. Making the bathroom more...interesting.. is Dutch designer Meike van Schijndel of bathroom mania. Check out their Kisses! unrinal. I wonder how much it would be to have this installed in my bathroom.
 
  Lollipop Multi tool makes kitchen life easier

Make some more space in your Kitchen since you won't need your bottle opener, corkscrew or wine stopper with the Lollipop Multi-Tool. And for only $12.00, it makes an awsome Father's day (you father out there do cook right?) Father's day present.
 
 

United recieved approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to basically give their passengers some WiFi connectivity in the air.
"Our research shows that connecting to the Internet is customers' most preferred form of communication to the ground, and this certification is a crucial step to bring this in-flight wireless access to our customers," said Dennis Cary, United's senior vice president in charge of marketing.
Now you can blog about your plane ride and the horrible food you just ate.
 
  iPods are about to get a lot cheaper...if you know who to ask
Someone made off with 12,000 iPods in Los Angeles by somehow tricking the delivery driver into giving them control of the shipment. Apparently it was caught on a surveillance camera so the LAPD is looking for help. They should just wait a couple of weeks and then start asking around, I'm sure some street vendors will have the inside tip. If you want an iPod, now's the perfect time to buy!
 
  Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships
Live in Finland...anywhere near Savolinna? If you do, don't forget to register for the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships taking place August 27th, 2005. If only there was a PC throwing chapionship, i'd want to participate everyday. -via textually-
 
  Potty train your kitty

While it's not teaching your cat how to flush (a la Meet the Parents) it's still just about as convienient. The CitiKitty teaches you cat how to use the toilet so you don't have to keep buying kitty litter.
 
  Apple wasn't joking about Intel

It's official, Apple ditches IBM for Intel.
 
  Kenwood lets rip a their first DAP, the HD20GA7

Here cometh Kenwood's first digital audio player, the 20GB HD20GA7. It comes with some basica features but not anything like FM radio or voice recording which is interesting since those options seem to be basic when look at everything else out there.
 
  New digital audio player from Evergreen

Japanese company Evergreen introduced a new digital audio player, the EG-HDMP620. It comes with MP3, WMA, OGG support as well as a 20GB hard drive, a line-in recording to MP3 and 13 hrs of playback amongst other things. This isn't an original design and if you know the original maker and model let DAPreview know and you could get a free battery extender module.
 
  Battery-free Remote control

Control up to 6 different A/V components with this battery free, wind-up generator controlled, remote control. Give the wind-upper 30 turns and you have a charge that'll last for 7 days. While it costs $22.99, that's more than worth it considering what you will save on batteries.
 
  BugMeNot Firefox extension
Do you hate having to create an account on some news website just to read an article or two? If you're like the other 98 percent of us other there who do (and you use firefox :) you now can use the power of www.bugmenot.com in your Firefox browser. Get the Bugmenot extension so you don't always have to go back to the bugmenot website.
 
  For the first time ever, Laptops sell more than desktops
Research firm Current Analysis has noted that notebooks have outsold dekstops for the first time, due mostly to the facts that notebooks are becoming more affordable and more stable. Notebook sales accounted for 53 percent of the PC market last month. They also think notebook sales will still continue to increase.
 
  Star Wars Episode 3 Pirated DVD Menu

Episode 3: Pirate DVD Menu
Hilariously bad pirated DVD menus for Revenge of the Sith. At least they included the theatrical railer (?). I can only image what the picture quality is like.
 
  Bluetooth gets hacked
Cryptographers from the Tel Aviv University in Israel have figured out a way to hack and take control of Bluetooth devices even when the extra security features are turned on. Bluetooth devices must "pair" in order to work together. They have basically found a way to force pairing and apparently it was pretty easy:
But pairing only occurs the first time two devices communicate. Wool and Shaked have managed to force pairing by pretending to be one of the two devices and sending a message to the other claiming to have forgotten the link key. This prompts the other device to discard the link key and the two then begin a new pairing session, which the hacker can then use.
 
  Keep your laptop cool

Keep your laptop from burning your lap with this Elecom aircon device. The comfort of a cool laptop can be yours for 36-44 EUR. -via akihabara news-
 
Sunday, June 05, 2005
  Apple wants you to recycle your iPod
Probably due to criticism that their iPods end up in landfills and don't decompose well, Apple has launched a recycling program for iPodders who want newer or better or just different iPods. Bring your iPod in to an Apple retail store and get a same-day 10% discount on the purchase of a new iPod.
 
  Hell has frozen over, Apple switching to Intel chips
Partly due to the fact that IBM didn't want to get into the low-volume business of making a larger variety of PowerPC processors and since Intel owns the PC market (now with an %80 market ownage), Apple is expected to announce that they're siding with Intel from now on.
 
  Sony Ericsson K750i review (2 megapixels!)

Sony Ericsson's 2 megapixel K750i gets reviewed and, as no surprise to me, it's a pretty good phone. Mobileburn thinks it's a great camera with pretty good battery life but they didn't like the crapmed keyboard or the call audio quality. The K750i has some nice surprises too:
. Not only does it have the forementioned 2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and a 262k color display, but there is also a very capable music player and an FM radio on board. The FM radio was a pleasant surprise for me, not simply because it was there, but because it worked so well when compared with prior FM equipped phones I have used.
. -via mobileburn-
 
  Def Jam jumps into ringtone business

Now that everyone knows ringtones is big business, everyone needs a piece. At least Russell Simmons seems to be trying something new. Simmons' Def Jam Enterprises is teaming up with greeting carders American Greetings (wha?) to roll out some new mobile device services. Some of which include, what they're calling, "sportz tonez" (notice the z, added for hipness). Sportz tonez will allow you to hear sounds of your favorite game. They also plan on licensing content from their and other labels to have some artists create new ringtone music.
 
  Chat with (and see) people in your area

I can see this getting popular (if it already isn't, I can be behind the curve at times...sorry!). It's proximity based chatting software. You get to see who you chat with and know they're not too far away. I wonder how accurate the pics are though. There's bound to be a few "surprises" so chatter beware.
 
Friday, June 03, 2005
  Get a leather case for your new palmOne LifeDrive

Leather pimps Vaja have a case for the palmOne LifeDrive available for $74.90. Looks purty and you can customize it.
 
  Sharp announces largest LCD tv ever
Sharp is going to release a 65 inch LCD tv in Japan in August for a price of $15,520, which is more than what a smiliar sized plasma screen would go for here stateside. The tv displays 1.366 by 768 pixels of resolution.
 
  Skype users can now get video calling
Users of the ever-expanding (150,000 new users a day!) VoIP phone service Skype can now download a plugin from Dialcom (Spotania's Video4Skype) that enables video conferecing if you have a webcam. This plugin apparently wasn't designed specifically for Skype but I would imagine it being pretty popular amoongst Skype users since Skype is free and almost widely used.
 
  USB Lamp with a lamp shade

If you hate having to type in the dark and can never seem to find a light source whenever you break out the laptop and if you really need to type that bad, check out the $59.95 D-light USB lamp from Boynq available on HSN. It even has a little lamp shade so the light isn't too harsh. The light is part of a package that also consists of a speaker hub and fan.
 
  Magnetic kitchen timer from PID

The Magnetic kitchen timer from PID is a simple stainless stell timer that you can stick on your fridge or other metallic surface and set all with one hand. Easy to use and easy to place, all for $27.30. -via gadgetry blog-
 
  Computex pics

Korean site BetaNews has some picutres up of cool and picture-worthy gadgets at Computex. I like this no-ti's-not-too-distracting-having-these-many-screen-in-my-car car.
 
Thursday, June 02, 2005
  SBC Comm gunning for low cost dialup pushers with new DSL plan
I wonder how Aol, Netzero and all the other dial-up pushers will respond to this. SBC Communications announced a $14.95 DSL plan for new customers. Looks like you will have to sign a 12-month contract (which wouldn't bother me) and it's kind of hard to find out what the upload speed is going to look like but that still doesn't blemish the deal enough to make it look bad. AOL is charging over $20 for dialing up and for almost half of that you can now get high speed. Nice.
 
  Everyone wants a piece of Skype
Taiwanese manufactures were playing up to Skype users at Computex 2005, showing off their SKype (or just general VOIP) handsets designed to make Skype easier to use and more cell-phone like. Some have built in WiFi that will automatically detect a WiFi zone and enable you to make calls. I think the device would need to be able to function as a regular cell phone and a VOIP phone interchangably so you don't need one phone for the WiFi and one to use when you're not near a WiFi connection.
 
  New smartphone from AnexTek

AnexTek was displaying their latest smartphone, the moboDA 3360, at Computertex in Taipei 2005. It comes with all the gotta-be-standard features
 
  iPod class action suit reaches a proposed settlement
For all your iPodders out there who have been plagued by the can-barely-hold-a-charge battery bug, there maybe finally be some good to come from your pain. The class action suit brought against Apple by customer who have claimed the iPod's battery capabilites did not live up to what Apple claimed have reached a proposed settlement.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, class members who purchased or obtained a new third-generation iPod would be eligible for a one-year limited warranty extension on that iPod to cover battery failures. If the iPod experiences or has experienced battery failure during the one-year extension period, consumers who submit a valid claim have the option of returning the iPod to Apple for a replacement or receiving a Apple Store credit in the amount of $50.00.
 
  Nextel unleashes the Motorola i836

Nextel has started selling the Motorola i836, which is basically an upgraded limited edition Pininfarina i833. The Nextel Motorola i836 is going for $199.99 with a two-year agreement.
 
  Microsoft's Korean MSN site gets hacked
Ouch. Microsoft has admitted that their Korean MSN site (www.msn.co.kr - now cleaned) was booby trapped with some code that attempted to steal passwords from visitors. If that wasn't embarassing enough, the hack happened because one of their servers were not fully patched. You would think that since they release the patches, they would be able to have everything patched up (even if the site was operated but another company it's the brand man!). Guess not.
 
  Play old skool nintendo games on your wrist

Get your NES on the go with these retro Nintendo watches that have the acutal games loaded on the watches.
 
  Inside a Nike iD Design Lab

Not so much techy as is it just pretty cool. Cool hunter Josh Rubin got to check out the Nike iD Design Lab at 255 Elizabeth St.
 
  New DRM'd MP4 player coming from MobiNote

MobiNote is going to be announcing their MobiNote DP7010-SP portable media player that comes with built-in stereo speakers, a 7-inch LTPS display and the customer-pleaser DRM solution. Nice to see a MP4 player coming down the pipe but I wonder how tight that DRM solution will be. Hopefully not too intrusive.
 
  New iPod Photo update may bring Tetris
What is expected to be called "iPod Photo Software 1.2", might bring new transition effects for use in slideshows on the iPod Photo. The update might also bring Tetris to the iPod, you could use the whell to move the pieces and click to rotate them. That would be fun. Give people something to do while they're inbetween showing off the latest pictures of the kids.
 
  Nokia launches 2 new low-end models
Nokia launched the 1110 and the 1600, aimed to provide cell phones for first-timers in growing markets like Africa. The 1110 will have an inverted black and white display and go for around 65 Euros and the 1600 has a color screen and is set to run around 85 Euros.
 
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
  Motorola vs Samsung
Motorola and Samsung both launched their similar looking ultra-thin cell phones, the RAZR (motorola) and the SCH-V740 (samsung) at the same time on Wednesday. The Samsung packs more memory, 120MB to the RAZR's 78MB and it's screen is a little bigger (240x320 to the RAZR's 176x220) but the RAZR brings the ruckus with it's wellness software, which includes a bio-rhythm checker, yoga treatment, finger-pressure treatment and even a diet diary. The SCH-V740 (no points for being more cubersome to say) comes packing the Bluetooth technology and a built-in MP3 player. Phone on my friends...phone on.
 
  Don't lose your "jiggy"-ness with the iAudio X5 VII

The iAudio X5 VII gets reviewed and despite the somewhat high cost, as a music and movie device it rocks pretty hard apprently. Looks good and the display has good quality. It's pretty small for what it's packing too (i know how it feels :).
 
  Camera system let's you see behind objects

Using dual-photography, researchers from Standford and Cornell have been able to setup a projector-camera system that is able to read the face of a playing card that if facing the opposite direction of the camera itself.
The system consists of a digital camera and digital projector. The projector beams a series of black and white pixels at a scene and the camera captures the way the light bounces off objects in the scene. The heart of the system is a computer algorithm that continually monitors the data and changes the patterns in order to gain the needed information.

What happens to the patterns from the time they leave the projector to the time they are picked up by the camera "tells us how the light... interacts with the scene," said Pradeep Sen, an electrical engineering researcher at Stanford University. Each pixel of light coming from the projector might bounce off a surface, refract or hit nothing. "Each of these interactions will modify the ray of light," said Sen.
 
  New Siemens video phone

Siemens has announced the C75 camera phone. While pricing is unknown, it is expected to be available in August 2005. The Siemens C75 has a video-recordable VGA camera with 5x digital zoom and a 132x176 pixel screen that can display 65k colors.
 
 

Introducing the $2,600 Roborior (combination of Robot and interior) from Japanese robo-wonders Tmsuk and electronics company Sanyo Electrice. The was designed with your home interior in mind. They wanted it to blend in or at least look pretty cool, sitting in your house. It can also be your watch robot. It has a digital camera, video-phone capabilities and infrared sensors. If someone breaks in to your house, this little guy can snap pictures, call you on your cell phone and show you some video of what's going down.
 
Cell phones, Gadgets, DVRs and DAPs. All around Tech-coolery....

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