Gadgets Future

Posted Mar 16th 2008 11:22AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: cellphones, Home Entertainment, Wireless
Yeah, all those sticky sweet stories about WiMAX actually happening this decade or possibly showing up in a device or two were really getting on our nerves. Now it seems the “little wireless standard that couldn’t” is back to form with a report from the Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group (SUIRG). Apparently those folks found “conclusive” results of “unacceptable” levels of interference from WiMAX of satellite signals in the C-band. Naturally, it sounds like this group’s primary purpose is to come up with data like this to protect that satellite spectrum turf, but it’s disconcerting nonetheless, and we’d love to hear from the WiMAX camp on the issue — if it comes down to a choice between mobile broadband and a new season of Meerkat Manor in HD, we don’t want to be the ones making the hard decisions.

[Via New Scientist]

Golden Greats Vol 4
Golden Greats Vol 4 for Karaoke

You can have this for ?13.99

Posted Mar 15th 2008 3:11PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Laptops
Sheesh — as if the Eee PC, ONE, Cloudbook, G10IL and countless others weren’t enough, now we’ve got one more low-cost laptop to keep track of. Aiming to arrive just a hair below that magical $300 price point, NorhTec is reportedly gearing up to introduce its Gecko laptop to the world, but the machine itself will be designed / built by Quanta. So far, we’re hearing that it’ll tout a 1GHz Via C7M ULV processor, an optional PATA hard drive, integrated graphics, a 7-inch display and the Linpus Linux Lite operating system. According to NorhTech’s president Michael Barnes, “Linpus Lite is very similar to gOS,” which we aren’t exactly sure is something you’d really want to trumpet. Nevertheless, said bigwig also implied that the formal announcement of this here lappie would be happening soon — let’s just hope it actually stays under three bills.

[Via Eee Site]

Posted Mar 15th 2008 1:40PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Household
This whole “turning waste into fuel” idea has certainly gained a lot of traction lately, and it seems that Whirlpool is next in line to show off a concept that could purportedly hack down your energy bill (and give Mother Earth some love, too). Simply hailed as the green kitchen, this futuristic area would reportedly enable “60-percent of the water and heat generated from [kitchen gizmos to be] diverted to fuel other appliances.” For instance, the heat created from the refrigerator compressor could be used to heat water for the dishwasher, and while it’s hard to say how accurate it is, word on the street pegs energy savings from using said concept at around 24-percent. The real question, however, is will it come equipped with an integrated LCD TV?

Filed in archive Tip by John Mello on October 23, 2007

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From time to time, I get the urge to experiment with artificial lighting, but then I take a gander at the cost of studio lights and retreat back into my world of natural illumination and built-in flash photography. "Clockdoc," though, over at the the Digital Photography School forum, has some engaging stills he shot with, of all things, a single LED penlight. "I posted this to encourage you to try out different 'everyday' light sources you find around the house and to show that you don't need a $300 strobe to do creative lighting," he writes. After looking at his lighting experiments, they certainly have me ruminating about creative ways to tinker with ordinary artificial lighting sources.

While Polaroid may have dropped their instant “film” production they have not left the instant “picture” business entirely. Polaroid has just announced their ZINK printer. This pocket sized printer will still offer instant gratification, just with some better image quality. The ZINK features both USB and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity that is said to be able to print your pics in as little as 60 seconds.

While some, myself included, may miss those instant camera’s the ZINK printer seems to fit with the current times just a little better. The Polaroid ZINK printer is expected to be available this May and retail for around $200.

Via [CrunchGear]

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Posted Mar 15th 2008 9:41PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Digital Cameras, TransportationThere’s just one, fairly ironic, flaw to the otherwise totally lovable red light cameras that adorn Dallas: they work too well. Turns out the cams have curtailed red light infractions by 50 percent, which in turn has put a budget crunch on City Hall. The city is now considering stopping its planned rollout of more cameras, or shutting down the cameras on a rotating basis — upkeep when off is next to nothing, but the city pays $3,799 per month per online camera to its service provider. That sounds like quite a spendy broadband bill, but we’re not the experts here. Just remember kids, your government wants what’s best for you, and what’s best for you is a well-funded government, alright?

[Via Fark]

I don’t know where manufacturers got the idea that gadgets and exercise buffs would go good together, so I’m genuinely surprised every time I see a new “sports trainer phone”, “diet tracking device” or other similar gadget. These things, of course, more often than not die faster than a flame inside a hurricane, of course that shouldn’t stop new concepts from coming out of the woods now, should it? Especially not one that uses back-to-back OLED multi-touch screens, a compact hydrogen battery and dual-core processors.

The FIT cellphone concept uses existing technology in order to track a user’s performance. A computerized personal trainer pre-programmed into the FIT phone will periodically provide fitness plans, track burned calories, and give a diet list based on a user’s exercise advancement level. It even has videos showcasing professionals with their exercise techniques pre-loaded to help you kick-start your own personal exercise program. And it’s no slouch on multimedia too, with a music player, camera, and a whopping 80GB of storage built into the device as well.

The last, and perhaps the most interesting, feature of the FIT cellphone lies in its power switch mechanism. To turn the device on, you simply have to grab it. I really couldn’t have said it better.

Via [Hard Geek]

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The MacBook Air has been touted as the world’s thinnest and one of the most portable laptops ever, as we have all seen just how it can fit inside an envelope. There aren’t too many competitors because any laptop that can match it in thinness, usually can’t match it in price, such as the X300 from Lenovo. However, this new laptop called the Frontier, or FRLN, comes with a 12-inch LED screen, and only weighs at 2.75 pounds. Now, the MacBook Air comes with a slightly bigger screen, measuring out at 13.3-inches, also the macbook air actually weighs a little bit more, 3-pounds in fact.

Another cool thing about the FRLN is that it is somehow able to last with 265 pounds of pressure on it and it can still work even being dropped from two and a half feet. The keyboard is even water-proof in case you like the occasional drink while working on your laptop. Onto technical specs, it runs on Intel’s 800MHZ A110 processor, has 1GB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive and Wi-Fi capabilities.

The FRLN is expected to be available later this month, but unfortunately it will released in Japan only, however it will retail for $1,291 as compared to the MacBook Air’s hefty price tag of $1800.

Via [ubergizmo]

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YouTube has launched a new feature that lets users select the quality of videos that they watch. Currently available and can be seen in some video streams, YouTube is aiming to make this feature available to more video content later on. High-quality video viewing here pertains to all video contents uploaded to YouTube and is not restricted video contents from YouTube partners.

To enjoy watching high quality videos, go to your YouTube account page. At the lower portion of the account settings you would find an additional link under the “Account” heading. Click on the ”Video Playback Quality” and just select how you want to watch YouTube videos. You actually have three options:

• Choosing video quality dynamically based on the current internet connection.
• Never play higher-quality video if you have a slow connection.
• Always play higher-quality video when it’s available - if you have a fast connection.

If you don’t want to bother yourself doing those steps, you can always click on the link that will appear right below the YouTube video player when you are watching a video uploaded in high quality.

Remember that opting to watch high quality videos will require longer loading time, so if you have a slow connection and don’t have the patience to wait for videos to load, better skip this one. Otherwise, now you can enjoy YouTube videos in all their detailed glory, although I am not always sure you would want to see that much detail.

Via [The YouTube Blog]

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