New Home Gadgets

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 6th 2008 at 9:54AM
Really, Clarion? You couldn’t find it in your heart to just settle on UMPC or MID? Instead, what we’ve got is yet another combination of letters that really means nothing at all — the MiND (Mobile internet and Navigation Device) is little more than a rather awkwardly-shaped UMPC with built-in GPS, which by our estimation, doesn’t deem it worthy of its own moniker. All angst aside, the Linux-based machine will reportedly roll out in America later this year (and Europe the next), and while the standard version will come equipped with Bluetooth and WiFi, a premium iteration should be available with WWAN. (Read the full post about ‘Clarion to introduce GPS-equipped MiND, acronym guidebook lands another’…)

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 6th 2008 at 5:55PM We already knew that Philips had plans to release the low-end touchscreen X800, but now we know just how low it was willing to go with this thing. Confirmed are the lack of 3G, EDGE (which still shocks us), and WiFi. Meanwhile, the 2.9-inch, 240×400 screen, only supports 256K colors, and the phone’s browser is your basic WAP 2.0/xHTML. It does support Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, though, so that’s a plus. Other bits: it will allow for expansion via microSD, support MP3 ringtones, and packs a USB port. In short, not a whole lot to see here. (Read the full post about ‘Philips X800 low-end touchscreen phone details revealed’…)

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Starting today, Gmail now has some experimental features that you can choose whether to enable or not. Just head over to the Settings page and then click on the Labs tab. New potential features include the ability to bookmark specific e-mails, select custom stars for starring messages, custom keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures. My favorite is the e-mail addict tool which lets you lock yourself out of your account for 15 minutes.

So far, I’m not seeing the new tab showing up, but I’m sure it will eventually.

via CNET.

Posted in Miscellaneous

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Likely from the picture you spotted exactly what these little guys are right off the bat and if you didn’t then you’ve been living under a rock.  These cute little lamps in disguise under the name of Space Intruderz are quite obviously the classic Space Invaders.  Wouldn’t want any pesky issues with copyrights though, it’s not like we’ve seen any official Space Invaders in a while anyway.  These cute little lamps will let everyone know without a shadow of doubt you’re either living in the past or a hardcore gamer.

We’ll go with hardcore gamer, that just sounds better.  You can’t have a gaming lair without a bit of appreciation for the classic games too.  The lamps were made by Yensen Paez and Chilean design shop called Unison Idea Studio.  Once again with it being one of those design studios, you can’t just glance at their site and see how much one will cost you.  No, as usual you have to contact for more information.  I’d love to see at least one design studio that just came out and said exactly how much their designs cost right on the site.  At any rate, there are rumors that it will cost you about $48 a piece.

Source: technabob

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Now here’s a safe game of darts that you can engage it - the OgoSport CopterDart Game. Perfect for those sunny summer days in your very own backyard or at the park, darts that are made up of foam and plastic will ensure there won’t be any serious injuries resulting from a wayward throw.

This target game—similar to horseshoes and lawn darts—uses soft foam darts whose “wings” have a propeller-like spinning motion and simulate a helicopter landing! Who can come closest to the target? Who has the keenest aim and the most accurate throw? Everyone will want a turn at CopterDart! This family-fun game is easy to play.

(Read the full post about ‘OgoSport CopterDart Game’…)

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Grand Theft Auto is one of the greatest, most controversial, and most notorious game brands to ever exist. Despite the amazing success of the newest addition to the series, Grand Theft Auto IV was not released for the Nintendo Wii console. Maybe they were waiting for the right time to release the game. Say, when they had an awesome new peripheral to make their version unique.

So maybe vandalism isn’t a huge selling point for a game that features the mass slaying of prostitutes and high-speed pursuits. On the whole scheme of things, graffiti is the least of the cops problems in the GTA series. But even so, the Wii is in need of a little risque edge.

(Read the full post about ‘Wii Spray: The Game of Vandalism That Doesn’t Exist Yet’…)

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Ok, this is pretty amazing and somewhat scary in how much Sci-Fi today’s scientists and engineers are turning into reality. RiSE is a robot that can literally climb walls. RiSe adjusts its shape to deal with the curvature of the surface it’s on, and has multiple sensors on each of its six feet as well body to sense and compensate for inertia and surface material.

Boston Dynamics is developing RiSe with funding from DARPA in conjunction with a number of universities. Take a look at the amazing video over at the Boston Dynamics website.

Posted in Miscellaneous

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I just love wireless technology - it frees us from the shackles of being limited by messy cables, and most of the time these wires and cables seem to have a life of their own, getting all messed and tangled up when left alone. Of course, wireless technology does have its limitations as well in terms of signal strength the further you are away from the source/base station, but at least it adds a much neater perspective on an overall level, and this is exactly what VUDU aims to achieve with their new VUDU Wireless Kit.

(Read the full post about ‘VUDU Wireless Kit’…)

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In order to get a new compact camera mentioned in a gadget blog, it needs to stand out. Benq has suckered us with its new T850, “the world’s slimmest 8-mega-pixel digital camera.”

The camera has a pedestrian 3x optical zoom (the lens is from Pentax), the aforementioned eight megapixels (the perfect amount for a compact camera), a rather ambitious maximum ISO of 1600 (can you see the noize?) and the obligatory movie mode.

What really stands out in the 0.6″ thick steel camera, though, is around the back. The 3″ LCD is a touch screen, and by the looks of it, Benq has actually added in some killer features: First, you can assign your most used functions to the fast-access “quick bar”, something a few DSLRs might like to copy (I’m looking at you, Nikon D60).

Next are the UI innovations.

(Read the full post about ‘Benq Packs Skinny Camera With Touch Screen Goodies’…)

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You know that free visual voicemail solution called YouMail? Well they have recently added a new service that will let users view voicemail messages from their mobile phones, in the same way that they could previously access them online through a PC. Although this YouMail offering is not the first of its kind service, their voice to mobile phone conversion service took it one notch higher by retaining the audio and organizational features of its regular service, meaning its not a stripped down mobile version. Users just need to point their mobile phone’s browser to http://youmail.com, login to their YouMail account and they can start viewing their messages as they normally would from a laptop or desktop computer. (Read the full post about ‘YouMail brings web voicemail access to mobile phones’…)

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