New Home Gadgets

For a lot of people, the camera is more important than the photograph it takes. You’ve seen them, obsessively calibrating and posting endlessly on forums with questions about the bokeh of a Leica lens. For Wayne Martin Belger, though, the kit really is more important than the photo. He scratch-builds intricate and macabre pinhole cameras which feature parts you wont find on any DSLR: The skull of a dead 13 year old girl; HIV infected blood; a preserved baby’s heart. These artifacts are closely tied to the subjects of the photographs. For instance, Belger uses the HIV camera to make portraits of people suffering from the virus. PopPhoto has a gallery of Belger’s images, and also shots of the cameras themselves. (Read the full post about ‘Photographer Builds Cameras From Dead Babies And Dragonflies’…)

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Cellphone software developer Flick has created a neat add-on interface which mimics that of the iphone. The skin contains a lookalike front end which acts as a launcher for Windows Mobile applications. You can flick from screen to screen or press an icon to make it jiggle. The application – iSwish – even supports iPhone Summerboard themes.

Most interesting, and also most broken, is iZoom, an attempt to implement multi touch on a regular touch screen.

(Read the full post about ‘Flick Brings iPhone Multi Touch To Windows Mobile’…)

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Good to see companies aren’t all money-faced, as AT&T has shown that it still possesses some remnant of humanity by offering a text plan that caters to subscribers who are deaf or suffer from a hearing/speech disability. Today, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) announced a new Text Accessibility Plan (TAP) for iphone, designed to give iPhone customers with disabilities the choice of unlimited text messaging, Web browsing and easy access to e-mail for $40 a month. Both new and current eligible iPhone users with disabilities will be able to sign up for this plan. I wonder how much goodwill can be generated from this exercise, and when will AT&T’s rivals follow suit? (Read the full post about ‘AT&T Has a Heart for the Disabled’…)

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Samsung Korea is proud to lay claim to a couple of the smallest color laser printers built to date, comprising of the CLP-315K and the CLX-3175FNK. The former features a rather quiet 45dB noise level, 2,400 x 600 dpi resolution, 32MB of internal memory, 16 pages per minutes (Black) and 4 pages per minutes (Color). As for the CLX-3175FNK, this all-in-one laser color printer boasts an integrated color scanner and a much smaller body (up to 40% the size of its predecessor, the CLX-3160). You can scan documents directly onto a plugged-in USB flash drive without the need for a PC with this model. Pretty neat, huh? (Read the full post about ‘Samsung Introduces 2 Small Color Laser Printers’…)

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Unlocking phones can be a pretty tricky affair, but with SIMable, the entire complicated business is simplified. This extremely thin chip, when attached to any SIM card, will fool the majority of cell phones into thinking that they have been unlocked within a matter of seconds. No idea how it works though, but you must take note that in most cases it will invalidate the handset’s warranty so if you’re the rough and tumble type, chances are you’re better off not using the SIMable just in case your spanking new 3G handset gives up the ghost due to one too many abuse by you. SIMable is available for £16.99 a pop and each purchase will be accompanied by a customized cutting press that does away with the need for messy SIM cutting with scissors. (Read the full post about ‘SIMable Technology helps in Phone Unlocking’…)

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Just when I thought that watches do nothing but add to the stress in your life (ever tried racing against time?), along comes the Philip Stein Luxury Watch that uses frequency technology, also known as “Teslar Technology” which purportedly turns negative energy obtained via everyday stress and electronic pollution into a more calming presence as well as overall improved health. I’m a huge skeptic on this idea, but it doesn’t really make sense on how a watch is supposed to suck negative energy from you, convert it into positive vibes and feedback to you. I suppose looking at a handsome watch on your wrist is good enough to make you feel smug about yourself. Teslar technology who? (Read the full post about ‘Watches to ease Stress?’…)

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So, picture this. You and your friends have decided to reunite your old highschool punk band for a second coming. A second jab at the musical stardom that you and your buddies dreamed about in history class. Though this time around, you’ll be damned if you’re going to record on a 4-track cassette recorder. The $200 Alesis Multiport brings the power of recording into the new technological age of portable media. No more clumsy cassettes or memory cards, the Multiport records directly to your 5th generation iPod, 2nd or 3rd generation iPod Nano, or even your PC via USB, sending your tunes directly to your DAW of choice. (Read the full post about ‘Alesis Multiport: Recording directly to your iPod’…)

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With so many different wireless technologies around today, there is still one place that way too many cords are found, and that’s behind your TV. For some people, they have multiple gaming consoles, home theater receivers, cable TV and more running back there. Well Sharp has finally stepped up to the plate and created a device for their high-end TVs that will eliminate all but your power cord. The wireless standard that makes this possible is WHDI (Wireless High Definition Interface). This allows HDMI signals to be transmitted in full 1080p, so there is no loss of quality. All of your TV inputs are routed through the box you see above, and then transmitted to the TV without any extra work. (Read the full post about ‘Sharp eliminates the wires from your HDTV’…)

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Filed in archive Tip by jim on April 30, 2008 New models of anything, cars, cameras, appliances, and computers, e.g. are always appealing and hold the promise of better performance. Usually that is the case, but sometimes the new isn't any better than the old, and many times the old is still able to hold its head up among the newest competition. If you need or simply want a new digital camera and your budget is limited, or you simply don't want to spend more than X amount of dollars, and it's not enough to buy the latest gee-whiz digital camera, try this. Check out the previous models and research those that appeal to you. (Read the full post about ‘Get A Great Deal On A Slightly Old New Camera’…)

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by Joshua Topolsky, posted Apr 29th 2008 at 8:34AM It seemed like it would never happen, but the impossible has occurred: Apple’s iPhone is coming to Canada. (Read the full post about ‘iPhone finally coming to Canada’…)

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