Gadgets 2008

Alarm clocks are probably the most obnoxious of gadgets, even if it is one of the most important.  I typically just use my phone as an alarm clock, however, I’ve regretted that on several occasions.  Usually when my Mother decides because she’s awake everyone else should be too and decides to call me a good 2 hours before I actually need to wake up.  Which is why a smart person would probably turn off their cellphone and use an alarm clock to wake them up everyday.  Well this particular alarm clock has ways of making sure you get out of bed everyday.

The Room Tech Beingz Alarm Clock is able to open its mouth and shout out three different alarm sounds.  It chooses from the three at random, so you’ll never know which noise you’ll get.  It also is able to play music and dance, which should be enough to at least make you crack your eyes open.  It includes an FM radio and is able to connect to your MP3 player.  It is currently being sold for $49.99 on Entertainment Earth.

Source: Ubergizmo

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Arkon will be making available premium upgrade aftermarket car mount bundles for both the Mio Moov and Navman S-Series GPS, and each of these mount bundles comprise of a custom cradle adapter as well as a location specific pedestal that is meant for use in the vehicle itself only.

Users can choose from a variety of different mounts that attach to the windshield, dash, cup holder opening, lighter socket, sun visor, and air vent locations. Arkon offers the most extensive lineup of car mounting solutions for use with Mio, Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, and other leading GPS makers.

If you’ve grown extremely attached to your GPS navigation system and can’t live (drive) without one, then I would suggest investing a small sum of money (anywhere from $17.95 to $29.95) on one of these puppies.

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We have seen our fair share of LP conversion devices in the past, but the LP 2 CD this time round takes a different route by converting all your old records into CD format directly, all without the need for a PC.

Step up, the LP 2 CD: a one-stop-shop for popping your 33, 45 and 78 rpm records direct to compact disc, with zero bother. And because it doesn’t need to run through a computer, you can hook it up to a pair of speakers to use like a regular stereo for records and compact discs. The LP 2 CD cuts out the middleman by incorporating a flash memory and CD burner, so you never need to connect to a PC or Mac at all; it’s all right in one place with no cables for the mice to nibble through. Just whack your old vinyl platters on to the turntable, start playing the record and press the record button on the control panel. Your grooves will be automatically transformed into digital sound files as they play and stored on an inbuilt flash memory that can handle up to 80 minutes of music at once. A nifty track recognition mode senses the gaps between songs and splits the track listing up for you so you don’t end up with one long recording.

The entire LP 2 CD package will ship in a solid metal casing, featuring a high-quality belt-drive, premium tone arm and cartridge. It might retail for a rather pricey £299.95, but think of the benefits of transferring your LP collection (or your grandfather’s) over to the CD format. Time to move on with the times, man, never mind the warm tones that pro-LP folk always tout.

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Many have gotten frustrated with the battery life of their beloved iPhone, making it necessary to look into a device to keep it going all day long.  Most people turn to a battery pack to attach to their iPhone.  It’s convenient because it just snaps on and small enough to carry with you.  Well this iPower Portable Power Station has an extra perk besides a battery to keep your iPhone juiced.  It also has speakers built into it.  It will charge up your iPhone till the external battery is down to 5% then it will stop.

That 5% is meant to be used for the speaker itself and will keep the speakers going for about 7 hours.  The battery will fit both the iPhone 3G as well as the 2G version.  One nice extra is that the battery pack also comes in white, so it will look better with those sporting a white iPhone.  Likely the iPod Touch would also fit into the battery pack too, however, they don’t actually confirm that.  It is currently being sold for $44 on Brando.

Source: Gadget Lab

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Sony is in full swing at this years IFA and the new Sony KDL-40ZX1 takes the crown as the world’s thinnest LCD HDTV.  The Sony ZX1 will be available as the 40-inch KDL-40ZX1, which quality became one of the most exciting new HDTVs we have seen in a while.  Halving the previous “world’s thinnest” by almost half the Sony KDL-40ZX1 is stunning at just 9.9mm thick.

Sony has achieved this record thinness of the Sony KDL40ZX1 by using a new engineering technology which uses side-mounted LEDs to illuminate the screen rather than a usual backlight array.  This leads to the KDL-40ZX1 being just 9.9mm thick, which is the same as a CD case.

Feature wise the Sony KDL-40ZX1 features 100Hz / 120Hz (Europe / US) MotionFlow with IB reduction (image blur) for 100fps / 120fps high frame rates to keep the image judder and motion blur free with sharp images.  Sony’s latest Bravia Engine 2 image processing is featured to improve image quality frame by frame, boosting contrast, colors and reducing noise.

The Sony KDL-40ZX1 is also the first to feature Bravia 1080 Wireless technology to maintain the amazing simplistic look of the KDL-40ZX1 by eliminating ugly cables.  The two part wireless system uses a super fast connection to wirelessly deliver high quality HD signals from the Media Receiver, which has a MPEG4 AVC HD tuner.

There is a single HDMI input directly on the Sony KDL-40ZX1 and an additional 3x HDMI inputs on the media receiver. Thanks for the RF remote control, the media receiver can be placed anywhere in the room, and out of the way if desired, as the RF remote does not need to be in direct site.

The Sony KDL-40ZX1 aka world’s thinnest HDTV looks very impressive, attractive and feature full. From the Japanese prices, it should cost about $4,470 U.S

On many of the online shows that I am prone to watch on my typical work day, I have been seeing ads for the “Mojave Experiment”. At first I thought it was a reference to the Area 51/Roswell incident, but Roswell is actually nowhere near the Mojave desert.

The Mojave experiment is actually an ad campaign by Microsoft for Windows Vista that is more of a response to the negative criticism that Vista has been receiving.

The ad features some random people responding to some questions about Windows Vista. Microsoft asks them questions like “Why haven’t you upgraded yet?” They usually say that they have heard about all the problems. Oddly enough, they don’t show the responses where people say, “I couldn’t afford it”.

These people are then introduced to a new version of Windows called Windows Mojave. The people respond favorably, and then Microsoft tells them that Windows Mojave is actually Windows Vista. (Surprise!) The ad then shows the footage of the people wanting to get Windows Vista.

I usually don’t like ending an article with a question that isn’t rhetorical, but I want to open up the floor for comments. Is Microsoft manipulating this little experiment to purposely produce favorable results about Windows Vista? If so, then this isn’t an experiment, is it?

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Remember the Folderix flash drives from Art Lebedev that we were eagerly waiting for? The wait now ends - the drives are up for sale and look every bit as cute as they did during the concept phase.

Available in purple, blue and yellow, the charmers are priced rather steeply at $55 for 4GB. But don’t mind - that’s the price you pay for innovation.

Via DVICE.

When we first saw the Zeppelin iPod speaker system from Bowers & Wilkins at CES, we weren’t sure if it was a piece of art or functional technology. We were happy to report it sounds as good as it looks, as you’d expect from the British company which started out by making studio-quality speakers. (Abbey Road still features their 800 series speakers.)

There’s a sound reason (pun intended) for the shape - one of the reasons the tweeters are so small is that they disperse the tiny high-frequency waves over a wider area than larger drivers, so the size of the enclosure housing the tweeter also affects this dispersion, and that’s why Zeppelin’s body narrows as the drivers get smaller.

While still out of most people’s price range ($599), you can now buy the Zep at Apple stores worldwide.

When I received the Air Jacket from Power Support I swear I thought they had sent me an empty case. Inside, however, there’s an almost invisible hard backing that fits snugly to the back of the iPhone 3G and an anti-glare screen for the front.

Virtually thin as “Air,” the Air Jacket measures .7mm and is said to protect from scratches, dust and impacts. While it certainly compliments the iPhone’s aesthetics, I’m not so sure it would protect your baby from anything more than a dust bunny. $34.95 from Power Support.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the iFrogz Treadz, with it’s 100% silicone rugged tire tread design. As with all the iFrogz cases, it’s treated with a proprietary anti-dust technology to help it repel lint and dirt (that’s what gives it the smooth feel, even after months of wearing.) It certainly provides more protection than the “invisible” case, but I’m still not testing it by dropping my 3G. Sorry, there’s only so far I’ll go to test gadgets for our Popgadget readers.
$14.99 at iFrogz.

MSI has recently added two new laptops into its collection, this time its the EX300 and EX400. As of now, neither models have been given a price, nor a US release date, but judging from the specs, they should be something that we hope to see.

The EX300 features a 13.3-inch TFT WXGA ACV display with a 1280X800 resolution, an Intel Core2 Duo processor and a DVD Super-multi or Blu-Ray DVD optical drive. In addition the EX300 also Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, an Ethernet port, two USB ports, HDMI, headphone out, microphone in, a built-in card reader and has the option for Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. Other options also include anywhere from 160 up to 320GB of hard drive space and it can top out with 4GB of RAM. The EX300 will be running Windows Vista Home Premium and have the option for either a 4 or 8-cell battery.

The EX400, which is the larger of the two laptops comes with a 14.1-inch WXGA TFT-LCD display. Otherwise it offers similar specs that include an Intel Core2 Duo processor and a DVD Super-multi or Blu-Ray DVD optical drive. The EX400 will also top out at 4GB of RAM, however it has the option for a little more storage space, offering anywhere from 160GB up to 500GB. The ports and connectivity are the same as the EX300, however this model comes with either a 6-cell or 9-cell battery. And finally it will be running Windows Vista Home Premium.

As previously mentioned, nothing yet in terms of pricing or release, but judging from these specs, MSI certainly has more to offer than just the Wind netbook.

Read [MSI EX300] Read [MSI EX400]

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