Gadgets 2008

A New Zealand company known as Aceeca has produced an excellent mobile PC with a rugged handheld computer known as the Meazura MEZ1500.  It appears that the land Down Under (or at least the country next to it) has produced an excellent successor to the MEZ1000. 

The features of this yellow, seven-buttoned marvel include a Marvell PXA270 processor that has 64MB RAM, as well as 32MB of flash memory.  It also has a 2.8-inch screen with a resolution of 320 x 240. 

As far as ports are concerned, it has a Compact Flash memory slot, as well as a MZIO, or Meazura I/O slot.  It also has USB 1.1 connectivity, but I’m not certain if that is good for operation these days.  The operating system is variable, and ranges from Windows CE 5.0, Windows CE 6.0, or even Linux. 

As you may have guessed, the Meazura MEZ1500 is designed for outdoor usage, and will operate at temperatures ranging from 14 degrees Fahrenheit up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.  You should be able to purchase this little device soon for a price of about $549. 

Read [WindowsForDevices] Via [Ubergizmo]

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by Darren Murph, posted Aug 9th 2008 at 4:26PM
You don’t even need to dig into the machine translated read link to understand that the gaming mouse you see pictured above looks a lot like a Razer, but NZXT’s Avatar is a beast in its own right. Best known for lavish (and stylish) PC cases, the outfit has evidently seen fit to dip its toes into the wide, wide world of gamer-centric input peripherals. Boasting a 2,600DPI sensitivity rating and a rather unadventurous design, the Avatar should fare fine in heated deathmatches or WoW raids, though it’s probably overkill for the Excel maven. Nevertheless, the currently unpriced unit has been previewed quite thoroughly by the folks over at TweakPC, so give the link below a look if you could ever see yourself wanting this in your arsenal.

[Via I4U News]

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Filed under: Peripherals

We first began to see details of the upcoming BlackBerry Javelin coming out about a month ago, but since then most of the BlackBerry related coverage has focused heavily on either the Bold or Kickstart.

However, after seeing the latest information that has come available, it seems that the Javelin is going to be a welcomed edition to RIM’s current lineup. The new details are calling for the Javelin to feature a 480 x 360 high-res HVGA+ display, 512MHz processor, 256MB onboard flash memory, microSD card slot, 3.2-megapixel camera with auto-focus and a microUSB port for both charging and syncing.

The one big drawback that we can see with the Javelin is the lack of 3G coverage, but it does have both Wi-Fi and GPS which should take some of the sting away.

Via [CrackBerry]

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by Chris Ziegler, posted Aug 9th 2008 at 12:18PMStill committed to iDEN, eh? After another relatively brutal quarter of lost cash, lost subscribers, and lost opportunities, word on the street is that Sprint might be rethinking its approach to its legacy push-to-talk network — the obsolescence-bound spectrum it acquired via its purchase of Nextel a few years back for the questionable price of $35 billion. Given Sprint’s current financial state, a liquidity crunch means that the carrier is looking to offload any salable piece; Nextel’s not exactly the most attractive piece of that puzzle with a declining subscriber base, limited bandwidth, and a limited range of Moto hardware to back it up, but even at its current estimated value of $5 billion, analysts are suggesting that Sprint could be willing to bite at a deal. NII Holdings, which operates iDEN networks under the Nextel brand in Brazil, Mexico, and a handful of other Latin American countries, is being tossed around as a potential suitor, as are private equity firms looking to make a quick buck. How one goes about making a quick buck on a network as old and quirky as iDEN in the year 2008, though, remains to be seen.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Filed under: Cellphones

The Cloudbook, or also known as one of the Eee PC competitors that did not get such a warm welcome into the market, has just received a nice little update.

Everex has expanded on the Cloudbook line, and added the C1201V, which is essentially the same model as the original C1200V, except with a few key items improved.

The C1201V will of course be priced a little higher, now coming in at $449, but for that extra money you get Windows XP pre-installed along with a 60GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. While original Cloudbook owners could fairly easily install XP with an external CD drive or USB flash drive, the RAM was a pretty big upgrade, as it required taking most of the netbook apart.

In addition the same original features will still be included, which were a 7-inch display with an 800 x 480 resolution, 1.2 GHz VIA C7-M processor, VGA quality webcam, built-in card reader, Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and four USB ports.

The newly updated C1201V can be found at either CircuitCity or TigerDirect.

Via [Cloudbook UMPC]

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Perhaps not quite content with just slaughtering the Eee name with endless netbook models with almost identical features, Asus has just announced the latest addition to the Eee lineup, the in-the-cloud storage service appropriately named Eee Storage.

The newly launched service offers Eee users 20GB of online storage along with the Eee Download which currently features about 3,000 free software and game titles that users can download. Of course offering more items for download that need to be stored locally sounds a bit confusing for a cloud-based storage service, but I suppose now that all of your personal docs are in-the-cloud you may have a little room for more downloads. The Eee Storage service offers users a drag and drop interface, and can also be set up with a password and shared with friends or colleagues.

Initially the service will be available only to those in the Chinese market, however Asus has plans to eventually roll it out to the entire Eee user base. No mention yet on just how much the Eee Storage service will set you back each month.

Via [DigiTimes]

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by Ryan Block, posted Aug 9th 2008 at 7:32AM
What with all this electric car business going on down on terra firma, it was clearly about time we all got to work flying the negatively-charged skies as well. The ElectraFlyer C, built by the Electric Aircraft Corporation, recently got some extended hang time on its maiden flight, powered by a 5.6 kWh lithium battery capable of flying for between 1.5 to two hours at a cruising speed of about 70 mph (and topping out at 90). Presumably close to silently. Read link hits EAC’s site, more photos of the ElectraFlyer C here.

[Via Autopia, thanks Sam]

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Filed under: Transportation

People of my generation (the geeks anyway) would probably think about the Mortal Kombat character when “Sub-Zero” is mentioned. But we’re not talking about that cold-blooded masked fighter in a video game, we’re talking about a new fridge unlike that one you have in your home.

I really hate putting anything with a strong odour into the refrigerator knowing that everything else, even water in pitchers, would smell like it the next day. Sub-Zero promises to get rid of that problem. The kitchen fixture uses a filtration system developed by NASA which apparently helps get rid of those nasty smells. The system works by flushing out and replenishing the air inside the fridge once every 20 minutes removing not only the smell but also bacteria and other contaminants.

Check out the Sub-Zero fridge here.

via

People of my generation (the geeks anyway) would probably think about the Mortal Kombat character when “Sub-Zero” is mentioned. But we’re not talking about that cold-blooded masked fighter in a video game, we’re talking about a new fridge unlike that one you have in your home.

I really hate putting anything with a strong odour into the refrigerator knowing that everything else, even water in pitchers, would smell like it the next day. Sub-Zero promises to get rid of that problem. The kitchen fixture uses a filtration system developed by NASA which apparently helps get rid of those nasty smells. The system works by flushing out and replenishing the air inside the fridge once every 20 minutes removing not only the smell but also bacteria and other contaminants.

Check out the Sub-Zero fridge here.

via

Al managed to catch hold of Wrex the robot dog at CES earlier this year, and true to his word, we’re now in the third quarter of 2008 and Gizoo’s offering Wrex the robot dog for the masses.

Wrex the robot dog gives paw, sneezes, gets hungry and needs to pee, just like a living breathing version of man’s best friend. You can train him, play with him and even reprogramme him into a cat or the original Robosapien. And in keeping with Wrex the Dawg’s slap dash body, your robot dog malfunctions every now and again and you will have to save the day and repair him. Wrex the Dawg has three distinctive moods, including happy, angry and crazy, and if you’re in any doubt as to which one he’s in check the eyes. Wrex’s eyes go nuts, spinning like you’ve just won on a slot machine and stopping on a set that match his mood and desires. Pick a mood and control Wrex the Dawg using the remote control or set his moods to random and let him roam autonomously off the leash. Preorder yours today for heaps upon heaps of fun in one tiny package.

Sounds as though this will make for an extremely desirable Christmas present! Wrex the robot dog will ship at the end of this month, so make sure you plonk down £99.95 if you want one by then.

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