Gadgets Future

The bane of my existence is writing headlines for product reviews that appear on Wired.com. For an online audience, we need to throw out a lot of information — usually a product name and a description of what said product does. It’s an issue though, when the latest high definition LCD is called the BHX-1080PR2750 — that just reads like the beginning of a complicated calculus problem. And getting someone to read a review with that obtuse product name in the title? Well that’s harder than solving a complicated calculus problem.

(Photo by by jeanieforever/flickr. See, it could still be much, much worse.)

Names like iphone, RAZR, and Voloptuator Sexamajig are iconic, interesting, and stick in your mind. (Yes, I made that last one up.) And many companies are starting to wake up to this fact. At CTIA this year, we’ve noticed a good many manufacturers are dropping the awkward, ridiculous names that have weighted down perfectly good products in the past. Samsung, for instance, has the Alias, a handset which is a minor upgrade from a pretty good phone that was called the U740. The U740? Are you freaking kidding me? How is that supposed to get people excited about your product? Alias on the other hand? Makes me think of spies and Jennifer Garner. That’s not a bad thing.

Even Sony, notorious for naming products that sound like penal codes (VGN-TXN1&P/T? Isn’t that federal code for stealing farm equipment?) has come around. Hearkening back to the good old days when its brand recognition was unchallenged (The Walkman, hello?) Sony has decreed that its new line of multimedia brand devices will carry the name Xperia. The first product in that line, the X1, still carries the alpha-numeric tag, but it’s short and to the point. Baby steps, you know?

There are still some manufacturers that insist on giving their products weird names. Prime offender? At CTIA it would seem to be Nokia. The N810 WiMax tablet pc was the major announcement from the Finnish company at this conference. And while this device may just be better than just about any other product we’ve seen at the show so far, the coma inducing name is not exactly a selling point. I’m no saying that Nokia should start calling its products names like PimpPhone 5000, but a little creativity probably wouldn’t hurt. Although I do like the ring of PimpPhone 5000…

There is progress in product naming. My favorite device of the conference is probably the Samsung Soul. It’s a flip phone that sports a touchscreen that changes its icons depending on what application you’re in. (A music player prompts media controls, camera mode brings up buttons for snapping and editing pictures.) To me, it was the coolest melding of great tech with a memorable moniker. Hopefully this trend will ripple through the wireless industry and touch all brands of consumer electronics.

Or not. Maybe I need to kick things into gear myself. I’m off to file a patent for the Voloptuator Sexamajig. Don’t worry, it’s actually a special alarm used to prevent farm equipment theft. But with a name like that, I’m sure I’ll sell millions of them.

When the Jabra BT4040 popped up in my RSS reader, my first thought was “A headset with a screen? What next? A touchscreen and internet browser?” Anyone who has ever tried to work out what is going on inside their Bluetooth earpiece, though, will appreciate the minimal LCD display which gives some useful feedback.

The BT4040 doesn’t rely on just this one trick, either. It weighs 10 grams, incorporates digital signal processing (DSP) and has a claimed battery life of six hours. Price and launch date are to be announced.

Jabra BT4010 is handsfree with display [Phone Arena]

Flesh Eating Plant Selection - Venus Fly Trap, Body Snatcher And Scary Ghost Plant
It’s tempting, of course, to describe these chlorophyll-filled insect-haters as non-gadgets. Yet, in their sheer beauty, power and destructive cleverness they’re among nature’s most cunning. And supremely effective they are, too. For these plants are flesh-eaters. Carnivorous. Deadly. And coming to a window-sill near you.

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Google’s Android mobile phone OS is being talked about a lot this week.  Yesterday, AT&T wireless Chief, Ralph de la Vega, says that after careful review, Android is “something we are going to want in our portfolio”.  Hot diggity.

Joining the ranks of T-Mobile and Sprint, AT&T would be the biggest player so far to make a commitment to the open OS.  Perhaps an in house battle is waging for AT&T, pitting Yahoo!, the companies official partner for mobile web search vs Google.  Certainly this feud will grow as the mobile advertising space continues its unfettered growth.

The Android operating system for mobile phones is designed to be a simple platform that can serve ads and be easily tweaked by carriers to their liking.  Its open source base has tech consumers excited.

Web browsing advances is said to be one of Andriods biggest leap forward.  Indeed, web browsing is one of the major well-executed functions of the iphone and a function even Microsoft has spent some time on with their Windows Mobile 6.1 tweak announced earlier this week.

Read [Breitbart]

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Thirty-five years ago today, the first ever public cellular phone call was made by Martin Cooper. Cooper, who invented the portable cell phone, placed that call on April 3, 1973 while he was the general manager of Motorola’s Communications Systems Division. That first call, placed to Cooper’s rival at AT&T’s Bell Labs from the streets of New York City, was the beginning of a revolution that has changed the lives of three billion people worldwide. A cell phone call is a call to a person in contrast with wired phone calls that are to a place.

“People are mobile,” said Cooper. “Given the choice, people will demand the freedom to communicate wherever they are, unfettered by the infamous copper wire. We vividly demonstrated that freedom back in 1973. In a time when there were no cordless or cellular phones, normally blasé New Yorkers gaped at the sight of me making a phone call while strolling down Lexington Avenue. The first cell phone was mammoth by today’s standards – weighing two and a half pounds and was 10 inches long. The phone could be used for only 20 minutes before the battery died.”

Although cell phones and service have come a long way in the past 35 years, Cooper and his wife, Arlene Harris were disappointed that cell phones were becoming unnecessarily complicated for many people. They decided to re-create the cell phone into a device that embraced the same simplicity as the original cell phone; a cell phone without a camera, mp3 player, or Web browser; a cell phone that was optimum for talking and listening.

Harris, herself a wireless and telecom industry veteran who has been referred to as the “First Lady of Wireless” and Cooper created the Jitterbug, a radically different cell phone and cellular service. The Jitterbug is now used by tens of thousands of people throughout the U.S.

Ms. Harris was recently inducted into RCR’s Wireless Hall of Fame – the first female innovator to receive that distinction.

Tags: cell, phone, wife, Wireless

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Although the original announcement named T-Mobile, among others, as the first company to have a Microsoft Surface in their offices, today it seems that the deal was not to be. And word on the Interwebs is that AT&T will be the first to install Surface tables in four of their branches across the US. AT&T will purportedly be placing the Surface in the New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and San Antonio store branches, in which customers will then be able to perform certain actions using Microsoft’s high-tech piece of furniture, such as browsing the available handsets, and purchasing digital content like ringtones, wallpapers, and videos for their own phones. April 17 is the date to watch out for, so if you live near any of the previously mentioned branches, mark your calendars for a chance to see the surface in action.

Via [Tech Digest]

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3-D Anatomic Puzzle - Human Eyeball

We present a new fun way for learning anatomy - the 3d puzzle. Withthis new idea students can learn anatomic relations by assembling ageometric model themselves. To make it as exciting as possible the 3d model is enriched with docking positions which allow the different parts to be connected together to form the complete muscle man!This is a great way to help your children want to learn and it can also be used in schools to make the lessons of biology different and more exciting.Human eye anatomy puzzle, highly detailed finish, collectible quality. Don’t miss out on this fabulous new ideaSize of the 3-D model: 5 x 3 x 1.25″35 pieces in the puzzle

Technorati Tags: Tech Toys

Analysts think that Nokia’s emerging markets phones might leak into developed countries and that could help low-spending users upgrade their phones.

“This should be good news for helping operators in mature markets to encourage low-spending users to replace their phone and - hopefully - start using more advanced services.” Martin Garner, Ovum

Low-spending users have plenty of “free” phones to chose from right now, so it’s not clear why that would help. However, it would be naïve to think that these phones cannot leak outside of their intended markets. It the computer space, it has been demonstrated that low-cost computers aimed at emerging countries are generating an immense interest – because they are cheap and… “good enough”.

With phones, the difference is that carriers tightly control what gets sold or not.
[ Source ]

Toshiba has updated four of their Satellite laptops and made the machines into something more affordable and yet rich in powerful features while redesigning the overall look into a more stylish looking machine.

Toshiba has redesigned its 13.3-inch Satellite U400, 14.1-inch Satellite M300, 15.4-inch Satellite A300 and the 17-inch Satellite P300 with Tru-Brite LCD displays. These laptop models are now sporting Toshiba’s Fusion Finish in a horizon pattern making each of the laptops in the series look unique and modern. Completing the new design is a clear and glossy laptop casing.

In addition to the new display and look, the Toshiba laptops also feature the “Feather-Touch” multimedia command keys that lie beneath the Fushion Finish. With a cool glow of white LED light, these touch sensitive buttons allow users to better enjoy and control DVD and CD playback, and make volume adjustments quick and easy.

Toshiba made it a point that the functionality of the laptops would not suffer. Hence, each of the laptops still have all the features previously enjoyed by users. In addition to these features, Toshiba has also sprinkled the redesigned laptop models with new features such as the Sleep-and-Charge USB ports that enable mobile devices to be charged whether the laptops are off or on. Toshiba has also introduced a new webcam with facial recognition in each of the laptops.

And finally, each of the laptops redesigned by Toshiba have been equipped with a high-definition display which gives enhanced viewing pleasure, whether through Blu-ray or HD TV streaming and video podcasting. Perhaps, the only question now that remains to be answered by consumers is, which Toshiba laptop model to buy?

Read [Toshiba Direct]

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A few more images have popped up online showing off the newly announced Cloudbook Max from Everex. Overall it looks like it has a nice design, although it seems to be a little “puffy.” A few things to note based on the images (as compared to the current model):

• The empty space below the display has been filled-in by the larger screen.
• The speaker appears to be one long section, instead of the current two smaller sections.
• The trackpad has been switched to the more familiar style.
• The internal webcam has been centered, as opposed to being off to the right of the display.
• The addition of the external 2.0-megapixel webcam.
• The indicator lights (power, Wi-Fi, ect) are now on the outer edge of the notebook, as opposed to the current models which are under the lid and hard to see unless you open it up.

Keep reading to check out the rest of the images…

Read [BrownKnows!] Via [UMPC Portal]

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