Gadgets Future

Posted Feb 29th 2008 1:28PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Features, Wireless, Storage
Okay, so we’ve got our Time Capsule up and running here — we’ll be back with a full review once our full 516GB backup is completed, but here are some quick first impressions:

• You can definitely hear the disks spin up and access. It also sounds like there’s a fan in there, but there are no obvious vents for one and we can’t feel any air coming out, so the drives might just be that loud.
• The top is getting quite warm during the backup — we’ll see if it cools down once we stop hitting the drive this hard, but if there really isn’t a fan we’re a little concerned. Hope those server-grade hard drives like being cooked.
• You can’t transfer an existing Time Machine backup to Time Capsule. Sure, it’s easy enough to switch back and get at your old data, but it’s still a pain — and now we have a 1TB drive sitting here with months of backups on it that we can’t erase and reuse.
• Time Machine doesn’t prioritize network activity on your machine, so it’s slamming our network connection right now as it backs up. That’s not a huge problem since we’re backing up over Ethernet, but we’ll see what happens when we try this over WiFi later.
• We tried to back up a second machine while the first was in progress, and not much happened — it created the disk image and got to “Preparing…” and then did nothing. We’re assuming these can only happen one at a time.
• The wireless side of things is basically the same as the Airport Extreme, nothing shocking there, although the setup assistant has been substantially revised to make things easier.
• The setup assistant now asks if you already have a 2.4GHz network and offers to create a 5GHz secondary network, which is interesting.

That’s about it for now — there’s not much we can try out while this backup is in progress. Anything else you guys want to know?

Okay, so if you’ve been a Geek.com reader for a while now you know I am a fan of free services and products. Well, a new website will be launching on Monday which will help you get even more stuff free. Specifically, the website will allow you to search for free shipping deals on Amazon, eBay, and at over 500 other stores. The website is being launched by the same creators of DealLocker.com, the Secret Amazon Discount Tool, and TypoBuddy.com.

Freeshippingon.com will provide a search box to locate items on Amazon and eBay that offer free shipping. Another tab lists a number of other stores that allow you to take advantage of free shipping deals by clicking on the corresponding store logo.

Shipping is the one thing that sometimes make items online more expensive. You eliminate the shipping and you get a great deal. If the item is already cheaper online even with shipping, then why not make that good deal a great deal by eliminating shipping? This is yet another convenient website consumers can use to save a few more bucks when it comes to shopping online.

Be sure to check out the Freeshippingon.com website, beginning Monday, March 3.

Posted Feb 29th 2008 12:53PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Laptops
Uh, we figured this whole Penryn update thing was all taken care of by now, but for whatever reason, Dell has found it quite pleasing to roll out said chips to its machines on a one (or two) at a time basis. Just a day after the new processors landed in the Precision M2300 and M4300 — and merely two days since they crawled within the M6300 — the Round Rock powerhouse has seen fit to hook up the all-business Latitude D630 and D830. Effective immediately, interested consumers can snatch up one (or both, we ’spose) of the aforementioned machines with a 2.5GHz T9300 or 2.6GHz T9500, both of which include 6MB of L2 cache. Meanwhile, prospective M1530 buyers are becoming increasingly incensed at Dell’s apparent negligence of their favorite machine.

[Thanks, Juha]
Read - Latitude D630
Read - Latitude D830

DVICO of Korea has just rolled out its next generation multimedia player known as the TViX HD M-6500A. Features of this set top box includes :-

• Sigma SMP8635 processor
• HDMI 1.3a
• SATA hard drive
• Support for MP3, WMA, PCM, DTS, WMV9 and WMV-HD, DIVX, XVid, HDV and MKV files formats
• Support for Network Attached Storage(NAS)
• Gigabit Ethernet connectivity

This model will come equipped with a HDTV receiver, bringing high definition goodness smack into the middle of your living room. Better make sure you have a TV that’s up to par.

Clarion’s NAX973HD is one satellite navigation system that you can consider should you want to upgrade your car to cater for drivers who can’t seem to find their way around without help from an electronic apparatus of some sort. Features include the following :p

• 30GB hard drive
• 400MHz processor
• RDS-TMC tuner
• 12-channel GPS receiver
• On-board gyroscope
• Voice recognition and text-to-speech in 6 European languages

The Clarion NAX973HD won’t be easy on your pocket though as it retails for £795.

Okay, so being the winner of our “Pink Palm Centro Misery Giveaway” means you’ve been a big loser at love, at least once during Valentine’s Day, but now you’re getting the messaging phone extraordinaire and you can send hate messages to the one who wronged you. Only kidding….

The winner will be receiving the Pink Centro, valued at $399.99 (or $99 with a 2-year Sprint contract).

And the winning/losing story:
M & I had been dating for 7 years. Valentines Day was a huge day for us, as we had been set up on a blind date on V-day 2000. A mutual friend set us up & we hit it off immediately. We got close quickly, but were both happy with keeping our separate living arrangements as we were both professionals with busy work schedules. We had always talked of getting married at some point and having kids. We had similar ideas & ideals about marriage & families. Back to V-day. M always put a huge effort into making our V-day celebration special. I never knew from year to year what he would plan. One year, he whisked me away to NYC in a limo to an intimate dinner & then to a show that I had wanted to see. On the way, he took me to my favorite SoHo boutique to buy a new dress & beautiful shoes.

Don’t be too jealous, see the misery come in after the jump…

Microsoft has decided to cut the price of its Ultimate and Premium editions of Windows Vista so that they will be able to move more copies. This comes after Vista Service Pack 1 failed to see folks rush to computer stores for an upgrade, sticking to the good old Windows XP at this point in time. Microsoft hopes that such a price cut will be able to stimulate sluggish sales figures. The following will be the revised price.

• Windows Vista Ultimate - $319 (from $399)
• Windows Vista Upgrade - $219 (from $259)
• Windows Vista Premium Upgrade - $129 (from $159)

Will these price cuts make you rethink your decision?

Say you’ve always wanted a parrot but could not be bothered to take proper care of it - here’s a solution staring right at you in the face. Thanks to the wonders of a USB port, this USB Parrot is capable of speaking up a bunch of random phrases which are picked up in passing whenever a certain phrase is repeated often enough. Those wings aren’t just for show, they are mechanical in order to add to the reality. All you need to do is plug in the USB Parrot and you’re good to go. This nifty little gadget retails for approximately $39 and will probably get too irritating after a while that you might force it to walk the plank.

The Japanese are very particular about their loos, and thus it is no surprise to stumble upon the Lady Bird autonomous robot which is placed along Western Japan’s highway rest stops since November last year to help maintain overall restroom cleanliness. Heck, it is even programmed to engaged in a little human-robot interaction as well.

In addition to cleaning, Lady Bird can engage in simple conversation with restroom users, thanks to microphones in its “antennae,” speech recognition capabilities and a voice synthesizer. The robot has access to the latest information about traffic conditions on nearby roads, which it can relay to anyone comfortable enough to ask.

If you’ve been waiting for the Magellan Maestro 5340, your wait is almost over. It is now available for pre-order, although you will need to fork out a whopping $1,200 for it. That insane price tag makes it just about the most expensive GPS navigation system from Magellan, and here are the reasons why :-

• 5″ display
• Text-to-Speech
• Bluetooth connectivity
• Live Traffic Information
• Advanced voice command for menus and addresses
• 3D landmarks
• MP3 and video playback
• OneTouch interface

Shipping commences this April. Are you trying to find a reason to convince the missus to get one now?