Gadgets 2008

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 4th 2008 at 11:38AMMotorola announced today that it would be appointing Qualcomm’s former COO Sanjay Jha to head up its ailing handset division — much to the chagrin of our own Ryan Block. Jha will also take on co-executive duties for the parent company along with current CEO Greg Brown. The news comes hot on the heels of speculation that the electronics-maker will spin off its mobile phone wing as a separate, publicly traded entity, though chatter persists that an outright sale of the division may be more economically advisable at this stage. So here’s the question that begs asking: why has Moto gone the co-CEO route? Whether it’s a matter of the board’s confidence in Brown’s abilities, or a by-product of some unseen moves, it comes off as unusual at best.

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Filed under: Cellphones

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 4th 2008 at 12:22PMFinely riding that razored edge between tragedy and comedy, the New York Times reports that not only did the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket lose its three satellites and fail to reach orbit during a recent launch, but it also destroyed the remains of actor James Doohan, best known as the original Star Trek’s Chief Engineer “Scotty.” The actor’s ashes — as well as those of over 200 others — were being carried into orbit by the rocket when complications with the ship’s stage separation led to the (assumed) destruction of the craft. This recent mishap puts a sad period on the end of the sentence that already included an earlier loss and eventual recovery of the remains.

[Via Slashdot]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Transportation

Look, I know you love listening to the tunes in your iPod, love looking cool as you saunter down the road with earbuds plugged in, and love jogging or biking while grooving to your favorite beat. But I also know none of you would want to go deaf because of your love for digital music.

Purebuds Digital Earphones are a pair of earplugs which could help prevent your going deaf–hopefully. While the more “mature” might have enough sense to tune it down a little, some of the young ‘uns might have been listening to their music in full volume. Purebuds uses something called Reverse Sound Technology which channels the noise sound AWAY from your eadrums instead of towards, helping curb cases of deafness. It also comes with three different earbud tips which deliver three distinct audio experience.

Check out Purebuds Digital Earphones at Amazon.

We have just recently seen the Eee PC 900a show its face in some leaked images, and although it seemed to be just another model in the never ending Eee PC lineup, we were hoping for something special.

Sadly, the specs have been revealed and honestly we are not really sure why Asus even bothered, its just another Eee. It will feature the 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor but that is about where the excitement stops.

Other features include what seems to be the standard now; an 8.9-inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, 1GB of RAM, built-in card reader, 0.3-megapixel webcam, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, VGA out, and three USB ports.

The Eee PC 900a will also be available in a 8GB or 16GB SSD option, but sadly Bluetooth will not be included. The 900a will be available beginning August 21 and retail for 299 EUR (around $465 US).

With all the different models and options now available, it seems that Asus should just make a few standard case sizes and then offer them in a selection of colors and allow the user to configure them as desired.

Via [jkkmobile]

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Some time in the future, we will discover an ancient yet technological race of druids who will have their own version of Stonehenge. Instead of a series of stones gathered in a circle as a calendar, this strange futuristic race of druids will have a robotic arm that will rearrange a set of numbered cards to indicate the current time.

The future is now. A clever designer who my source does not name has built the robot arm and the numbered cards for it. It appears that the cards are made of some simple foam with some neodymium magnets to make certain they are put back in the same place every time.

If you want to see this Stonehenge in action for yourself, feel free to watch the attached YouTube video after the jump.

As the video shows, it takes less than a minute to change from 12:09 to 12:10. Granted, that is two numbers that the robotic arm has to shift around, but imagine if it were four, like changing from 11:59 to 12:00? I suppose the user has to account for the time it takes to change the time when viewing this clock.

I suppose this clock is good for getting a good idea of the time, rather than the exact time. However, can you imagine being almost late and you need to know the exact time, and the Stonehenge is locked in a time change? “Come on, hurry up! What time is it for crying out loud!”

Still, you got to admire the designer for rethinking the idea of a clock. I can totally see it in some doctor or business waiting room, for aesthetic purposes only. Hopefully it will come available to the general market in some sort of kit or something.

Source

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Lenovo has officially unveiled the IdeaPad S10, which is going to be available beginning in September. The IdeaPad S10 will be available in two options, one with an 80GB hard drive and 512MB of RAM for $399 and the second with a 160GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM for $449.

Other features of the IdeaPad S10 include are a 10.2-inch widescreen LED backlit display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 4-in-1 multi card reader, express card slot, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Ethernet, Bluetooth, stereo speakers, built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam, a multi-touch trackpad and a near full-size (85%) keyboard.

The S10 will be available in white, black or red and will be made with “advanced thermal engineering” which is reported to be designed to keep some of the heat away from the palm areas and the bottom of the notebook.

Product [Lenovo] Via [jkOnTheRun]

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With the Steampunk trend still going strong, many are still creating lots of fun things for us to drool over.  This new one has found it’s way onto eBay.  The watch was of course handmade and comes complete with brass hardware as well as little vintage clock parts and gears.  For the watch itself he used a vintage quartz Giani-Giorgio watch.

It will expand to fit wrists ranging in size from 5 ½” on up to 8” by utilizing the two brass buckles on the bands.  Although it appears as if it would be impossible to change the battery on a watch like this.  It’s actually not as bad as it looks, all you have to do is unscrew the two cup-screws.  The band itself is made of three different kinds of thick and soft red-brown leather.  As of now the watch is set at $150 but it has another 3 and ½ days to go as of now.  Which gives it plenty of time to climb to a much more appalling price.

Source: Gizmowatch

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As expected, T-Mobile has offered up the Sunset colored BlackBerry Curve 8320. The newly colored handset will feature Wi-Fi and be HotSpot @Home Unlimited HotSpot Calling ready.

Aside from the unlimited calling over the HotSpot the features are what we have come to love and expect on the BlackBerry and include a 2-megapixel camera, microSD card slot, stereo Bluetooth, HTML web browsing, music and video player, voice dialing and is myFaves enabled.

You will be able to pick up the Sunset Curve beginning today for $149.99, which comes along with your usual two-year agreement.

Product [T-Mobile]

• Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry for data and voice; supports T-Mobile Unlimited HotSpot Calling
• Full-QWERTY BlackBerry with a four-way trackball for easy and efficient navigation
• 2 megapixel camera
• Music and video multimedia player
• microSD slot supporting up to 4 GB of optional removable memory
• Instant-messaging clients: AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger
• Built-in spell check in e-mail and memos
• HTML Web browsing
• T-Mobile myFaves-enabled
• Stereo Bluetooth® capability
• Voice-activated dialing
• 3.5 mm headset jack
• Hands-free speaker
• Dimensions: 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches; 3.9 ounces
• 2.5” display, 320×240 pixels, QVGA display with more than 65,000 colors
• Quad-band world phone 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• GSM, GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi

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We’ve seen the Sony Ericsson K800i Cyber-shot phone in Casino Royale back in 2006. We’ve also seen both the P900 and the T68i featured in the Die Another Day sometime in 2002. Now in 2008, Sony Ericsson has once again sealed a deal with MGM, producer of the latest James Bond movie Quantum of Solace to have one of its latest mobile phone featured in the movie. This time, it will be Sony Ericsson’s recently announced C902 camera phone.

The limited edition C902 will also be available in titanium silver and will come with a memory card pre-loaded with James Bond 007 content such as the first level of an upcoming spy-style game, full trailer of the Quantum of Solace, behind-the-scenes interviews with the casts of the movie, and various extras such as James Bond inspired wallpapers and screensavers.

If you will recall, the Sony Ericsson C902 was launched back in July and its boasts of features such as a slide-out lens cover, a 5.0-megapixel camera with face detection and auto focus, illuminated camera touch keys, 160MB built-in memory, Memory Stick Micro car slot, photo flash and light solution for its BestPic feature.

The C902 which recently got the FCC approval, is a UMTS/HSDPA 2100 and EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 phone which will be available in Titanium Silver design for a limited period starting Q4 2008.

Read [Sony Ericsson]

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Whether it is just curiosity (we had DSL at the last place, let’s try cable broadband) or America is bandwidth hungry, cable ISPs are gobbling up customers much faster than DSL, according to Q2 records announced by Pew.  In fact, Comcast says 2/3rds of its new customers are coming from DSL.

So what is it?  Bigger bundling discounts from cable operators?  Are the DSL defectors finding faster speeds and more than happy to pay extra to get it?  Alley Insider suggests it is all about speed.  But is the layperson that hip to know how fast downloads should be?

From Barrons, Craig Moffett says cable is going to have won big in Q2:

In a research note, Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett notes that when the book is closed on Q2, cable is likely to have 85%-90% of the net broadband additions in the quarter. “Cable’s huge physical plant advantage - higher capacity and lower cost - is winning the day,” he writes. “In the wake of extremely weak telco results, one question looked above all others: is the broadband market dying, or is cable simply taking share?” he writes. “Now we know.”

My personal experience has shown years ago, new broadband users pick DSL then convert to cable after becoming more educated on the subject (or fast cable becomes available to their neck of the woods).  Today, we are barraged with ads saying how much better cable broadband is; so the market is just accepting that. 
What is your experience?
Read [Alley Insider] and [Barrons]

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