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It’s about damn time to go exclusive with one of the 5000 limited edition Olympus Mju 1020 compact cameras. The retro look it’s like going back ‘60 but the specifications are like… nowadays. Choose from three diferently wicked looks mastered by a romanian designer - Matei Apostolescu. Unfortunately, the price remains disclosed. I can only tell you the major features of this retro yet very stylish digicam: 10.1 Megapixel CCD sensor 7x optical zoom Metallic, ultracompact body Underwater shooting ability (with PT-042 underwater case) Sharp lookin’ pictures thanks to Dual Image Stabilisation technology Face Detection Video recording (VGA res @ 30 fps) We’ll keep this up to date when we will find out the price of exclusiveness. (Read the full post about ‘Get retro and unique with Olympus Mju 1020′…)

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Posted Mar 11th 2008 3:43PM by Nilay PatelFiled under: Misc. gadgets See, the problem with bioengineering isn’t moral or ethical dilemmas, or even homicidal robo-droids enslaving humanity. It’s that if you let researchers go wild, eventually they’ll find a way to make LEDs out of salmon sperm, threatening the sanctity (and sperm-free-ness) of your entire gadget-based lifestyle. Yet that’s exactly what Professor Andrew Steckl of the University of Cincinnati has managed to do, using the DNA found in salmon sperm to enhance the brightness of LEDs. (Read the full post about ‘Salmon sperm used to intensify LEDs, grossify everyone’…)

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Posted Mar 11th 2008 9:52AM by Paul MillerFiled under: Peripherals Microsoft is at it again with its boring-as-can-be product names and its terrifically designed computer mice and keyboards. First off is the new Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 (pictured), which Microsoft calls the “little black dress” of peripherals — something we find to be at least a little disturbing. The keyboard and mouse combo include “smoked translucent border” design elements, conveniently-assignable My Favorites Keys, and some rather sleek / thin looks. The keyboard — which we saw pass the FCC in February — is of the Comfort Curve-ilk, the Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 has a horizontal charging station, and both use 2.4GHz wireless tech. (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft’s Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 and Digital Media Keyboard 3000′…)

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At CeBIT, one of the biggest Information Tech events in the world, a text-to-speech program named IVONA made quite a splash. IVONA is made by IVO Software, and the demonstration at CeBIT had four voices in three different languages. “Ewa” and “Jacek” spoke fluent Polish, and “Carmen” was Romanian. One of the most popular speakers was “Jennifer” who spoke fluent US English. This demonstration is still going online. If you go to www.ivona.com, you can have a chance to try IVONA in the aforementioned three languages. The best part is you can type in any text you want, and then have it spoken back to you. I tried typing a few select phrases on Jennifer, and I found that “she” was able to speak with some interesting tonal inflections. (Read the full post about ‘IVONA Text-to-speech Program Rocks CeBIT’…)

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This PC case mod will definitely appeal to just a minority, although that won’t stop a whole bunch of people from ogling who try to supress their hidden, innermost desires to own one. If you have the dough to splash and not the time to build one yourself from scratch, I’m happy to announce that this French Maid Skirt PC Case is up for sale for a ridiculous $499. But hey - whatever it takes to bring your fantasy home, right? (Read the full post about ‘French Maid Skirt PC Case Mod’…)

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Posted Mar 11th 2008 8:00AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment While we had every reason to believe that InFocus had another swank 1080p projector waiting to be unleashed last month, it’s always good to see a little reassurance from the outfit itself. As of today, the Play Big IN83 is really real, and it’s looking to deliver Full HD imagery to your screen later this month. Packed with TI’s DarkChip4 DLP chip, this unit sports a native 5,000:1 contrast ratio, 1,600 ANSI lumens, HDMI 1.3, Pixelworks DNX 10-bit video processing and 2.35:1 Cinemascope / widescreen aspect ratio support for good measure. The pain? $5,999 through “exclusive InFocus resellers and installers.” Check out the gallery over at (Read the full post about ‘InFocus 1080p DLP Play Big IN83 projector gets official’…)

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Wal-Mart’s decided not to restock stores with the $200 desktop computer from Everex, though it’ll keep plugging them at its online store. Linux simply isn’t ready for its customers, according to the mega-retailer. "This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien told the AP. Though it sold out fast, the gPC was not without its flaws, and nor was Everex’s $400 linux subnotebook, the CloudBook. My general opinion of these machines is that they’re great as cheap Linux machines for geeks to experiment with or use as home servers, but that the included Linux setup (and hence the desktop experience) isn’t much cop. (Read the full post about ‘Wal-Mart: Linux Not Ready For Our Shoppers’…)

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So we’ve seen a car that actually transforms into an underwater vehicle - now here’s a car that can bring its passengers up into the sky, courtesy of a diesel-powered engine that can cruise at speeds of up to 200mph 25,000 feet above the ground in air mode. Needless to say, you will need to land the Milner Air Car before you switch back to car mode from plane mode, unless you want the local forensics department to do a whole lot of cleaning up work while your family bickers over the remains of your estate. The Milner Air Car is roughly the size of a Honda Civic, and comes with a couple of flat-panel computer displays inside, showing the necessary information for both air and ground modes. (Read the full post about ‘Milner AirCar To Take Flight’…)

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The Optimus Mini has defied all odds by being released, and now Art Lebedev is already working on a next generation. While the original came with just three keys of OLED displays, the next version will comes with a sensor that is divided into three zones, doing away with a wired connection as it communicates with the computer via Bluetooth. Sounds pretty and all, but if you’re going to be using a device that takes advantage of Bluetooth all day long not to mention the OLED displays and sensor, won’t the battery die out pretty fast? (Read the full post about ‘Optimus Mini Gets Next Generation’…)

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Radio is becoming an increasingly competitive market. Not only do you have stations competing locally and online, but also you have competing radio services, which include the way you receive your programming. Of course, there is terrestrial radio, which is the most common radio people think of. This is what is offered on FM and AM stations. Then you have satellite radio. As the name implies, your radio signal is beamed from a satellite, giving you an incredible amount of programming, which is accessible wherever you are. There is also Internet radio, which is the best of both terrestrial and satellite radio.

(Read the full post about ‘CBS and AOL combine Internet radio networks’…)

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